How Jess overcame the loneliness of starting a business

Jess is a Spanish national who moved to London to study. She learned in a language foreign to her, went to job interviews and took on professional roles in sectors as diverse as FMCG, pharma, fashion, and renewable energies over ten years.

So, she knows a thing or two about being a non-native English speaker living in the U.K. When the pandemic hit and she lost her job in 2020, she decided to fulfil a dream to set up a company and help others gain confidence in their own lives.

The idea for the business came from her sister, who was struggling with presenting during webinars at work. So, Jess helped her prepare and build confidence in both her verbal and non-verbal presentation skills.

Public Persona was founded in January 2021. Jess is working through the big challenges of understanding her customers, setting up a website, and getting to grips with legal considerations and financing.

Her mission is to help other non-native English speakers gain confidence and improve their career value and self-worth. As a former actress, Jess has a bank of experience to draw on to help her clients prepare for presentations, job interviews, pitches – whatever they need.

One of the biggest issues Jess faced starting a business alone was the isolation. She found it lonely, and it was a struggle at times to find the motivation to keep going.

So she was pleased to discover Digital Boost, who provide unlimited one-hour mentor sessions as well as workshops and extensive digital training, in her search for business knowledge.

Her first priority was her website, so she selected experts in website development, one a female-founder like her. She was most impressed that they took time to research and came to the conversation with ideas and suggestions.

She found it incredibly valuable that people would give her honest feedback and recommendations which, for the best reasons, wasn’t always forthcoming from family and friends.

More sessions were been set up to explore user research, visual design, and branding. Jess is taking all the advice she can to get her business off to a strong start.

She said: “I’d definitely recommend Digital Boost. I think as women we tend to wait until we know something perfectly and are fully prepared, instead of just jumping in and figuring it out along the way. I would say to people if you had an idea you should just go for it. There are great resources out there like Digital Boost to help.”

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