In Conversation with Hicky Kingsbury and Julie Leach

Ilona and Robyn of the Kingston Chamber of Commerce team were joined by Hicky Kingsbury, Kingston Charitable Foundation, and Julie Leach, Julie Leach Associates and current president of Kingston Chamber of Commerce, to discuss their exciting developing collaboration, plans for the future and how Kingston Chamber of Commerce has supported their business journeys.

Can you both share with us how you met and how you became involved with Kingston Chamber of Commerce?

Julie: Julie Leach Associates is my business; I offer outsourced HR support and management development workshops to small and medium-sized businesses. I was introduced to Hicky and the charity by a mutual friend of ours, Amanda Cullen, who I knew through the Chamber, she is also a Trustee of Kingston Charitable Foundation. The charity was looking for some help and support with HR, so I provided them with that. I set my business up about six years ago and wanted to meet new people and network. I tried several networking organisations, and then attended one via the Chamber, and it was just amazing – it wasn’t salesy or pushy, I met genuine, talented lovely people, many who became good friends.

Hicky: Absolutely, Amanda had known Julie for such a long time, and she really wanted us to work together, so we met online, and Julie did some incredible work with us. We used to be ‘Love Kingston’, and during those eight-years we awarded 53 grants to local community organisations. Then, at the height of the pandemic, we launched Love Kingston as an independent charity, which later became Kingston Charitable Foundation.

As soon as we launched independently in January 2021, we continued with our Kingston Chamber of Commerce membership, as there are special rates for charities and it’s just a great way to meet local people in the community and go to events. We love being members and it’s always our first port of call! Especially when we’re looking for any services, we’ll always look at the directory, which I think is excellent!

Looking at this year so far, have there been any events you both had the opportunity to take part in?

Julie: We should start with the River Thames and the boats! Okay, it’s got to be one of the first things I did to show my support for the charity, which was to take part in the Dragon boating event which was fantastic – and we were blessed with dry weather, so we didn’t have to have to paddle in the rain!

It’s a big event if, if people aren’t aware, that’s actually organized by the Rotary Club, but lots of Chamber members take part in that – the Charity had two teams, and at the last minute, I volunteered to be a drummer.

So for those people that don’t know, I again, was very, very lucky to spend just over two years living and working in Hong Kong earlier in my career before we had our family. Dragon boating originates in Asia, but there is also a huge festival every year held in Stanley, which, I don’t know if it still happens, actually, but going back several years, I was a drum of the team there.
So I have previous experience with drumming, which actually suits me quite well, as all I have to do is sit precariously at the end of a boat, clinging on for dear life, with my legs around this drum, and shouting very loudly along the lines of “one, two, one, two” and everybody paddles in time – or that’s what’s supposed to happen!

Hicky: And we did surprisingly well! We had two teams that were under the captaincy of Peter Greenwood, who actually is a former Navy captain, and takes it very seriously, and he was leading the less fancy dress team, and my son and I were at the front of the boat, so we were sat opposite Julie, who was clinging on for dear life to this drum.

We’re all wearing Daisy and Donald Duck hats – I’d made the caps!

So we were the fun team, and I do hate to say this, but we actually beat the slightly more serious team in every time heat!

We had a great time, it was brilliant, and we raised £11,000 for charity, with 90p out of every £1 raised, as with all our fundraising, going directly to our grants fund.

So we did have a hoot, but we did also raise quite a lot of money, and it was a good day out for all!

This was our first event, but we’d also seen each other at the Future of Work Summit, hadn’t we?

Julie: Yes, we had – I was on a panel talking about culture and values on behalf of the Chamber, and I don’t think we weren’t in the same discussion, but we definitely saw each other there.

Again, the Future of Work Summit was a great event, and it’s the first time that we’d done something like this, and coming into the presidency, Forbes, our Chief Executive, had a conversation with myself and Chris Hirsch about what we might do – would we make the Kingston Expo slightly different? And we just took a deep breath and said, yes, let’s go for it!
Let’s have a go see if we can do something different, and we got some amazing feedback. It had worked really well – and I heard people saying it was one of the best events that Chamber ever delivered, it was of real value, and will we do it again?

Hicky: It was nice because it kept everyone moving, we love expos – our space is always sponsored by Holland Hahn & Wills – but the Summit kept everyone moving with different activities that were really interactive, and I thought, I really hope they do that again.

Do you think it will be held again?

Julie: I’m hoping I’m not speaking out of turn here! But I think the model we’ll move to in the foreseeable future is the Chessington Expo in October time and a themed Summit earlier in the year, possibly Q1 and Q2, and having those two big events either end of the calendar.

Hicky: That sounds great, I think the Chessington Expo is on the 26th October this year?

Julie: Yes, that’s definitely on the calendar for this year!

What are the rest of your plans for the next year? How do you see our partnership evolving?

Julie: For me, it’s about continuing to raise the profile of, and raising money for Kingston Charitable Foundation. I think there’s a lovely connection between my business, Hicky, the Charity, and the Chamber, so my plan is that we grow and develop that. As President, I get to choose some events that we will run together. Hicky, can you talk about that in more detail?

Hicky: I mean, some of its secret squirrel, but we can definitely talk about some! We’re looking, firstly, at the Christmas Giving Fundraising Quiz, which is going to be part of ‘Giving Tuesday’ evening 28th November at The Boaters Inn by the River, because who doesn’t love a pub quiz? We’ll also be doing it to launch our Christmas Giving Week, which is a match funding event where the Rowan Bentall Charitable Trust give us a donation, and we will be requesting donations to match it. Next, will be the Kingston Borough Business Awards, and finally the presidential year end event in May, which we’re really excited about. We’ve talked about a few ideas between us – we’ve got some plans!

Julie: We’re doing some more talking about that, but if at the end of my presidential year, more people in the borough know about Kingston Charitable Foundation, then I will feel that I’ve served my purpose and we’ll have raised some money along the way.

Kingston Chamber of Commerce is about to launch Kingston Borough Business Awards 2024 Are you both attending? And why would you recommend people participated in the Awards?

Hicky: I’m looking forward to attending, I’m very excited, it’s the highlight of our year! We saw some really great friends last year who also won, such as 7Dots and Sam Page, who is one of our trustees, and who won the Responsible Workplace Award. It’s a wonderful event to come and meet people, especially those we’ve supported with a grant such as Janine Martin from the environmental charity, Sunray Recycle, who attended in this incredible outfit that she made from recycled banners. It‘s just one of those events that you go to where everyone really comes as themselves, and it’s always interesting.

Julie: I will definitely be attending and would recommend that people enter. It’s a really good opportunity to focus on and articulate everything that you’ve achieved. It can also help you identify what you might want to achieve in the future as well.

For our last question, we are constantly inspired by the personal and business journeys of our members, so were wondering if you both would be willing to share a key moment or a lesson that has shaped your success?

Hicky: From my perspective, it is quite personal, as I think everyone’s career choices are shaped by things that have happened to you personally, and so for me, it all goes back to the pandemic.

I started my third sector career in 2004, then, had my son in 2008, and became a single mother in 2013.

So for the next ten years, my career very much was around being able to stay at home with him, and support him in his learning, and always being there at the school gates, because that worked for us in our little family. He went off to secondary school in 2019 and started year 7, and then obvious the pandemic hit in March 2020, and I think the lockdown changed everything for me, because it gave me the opportunity to spend more time at home.

And of course, the pandemic was horrific in so many ways, but it became an opportunity for me for career growth and development, as I took online courses while I supported my son and his learning at home, alongside being a key worker at Age UK where I was helping older people in crisis and running a food bank, and was a support worker on the phone for families that were concerned about their older residents, or social workers that were concerned about individuals.

I also worked on some contracts for Love Kingston in the lead up to the launch of Kingston Charitable Foundation around branding, marketing, you know, focus groups about how we were going grow the charity, and then I was asked to lead in January 2021.

And for me, it was an astonishing time of something awful becoming a massive opportunity where I literally just worked all the time – of course, I did a bit of decorating – didn’t everyone! – and did a lot of gardening – but it was a real time of consolidation, career wise, where, actually, I’ve not really had that as my focus before.

So for me, it was quite personal, and it did come out of something quite challenging, but I think it was a pivotal moment in my career.

Julie: So my career was always global financial services – I worked in the city in HR and learning development – and as I’ve mentioned previously, I worked in Hong Kong, again in HR and learning development, but there was a point where I had our children, who are 13 and 15 now, and I’d had a career break.

I wanted to go back to work, and I was lucky enough to find a flexible part-time job doing learning development around personal effectiveness, soft skills and management development, but I still felt like I was missing out on my children growing up.

I wanted a better work-life balance, and – even though my employer was fantastic and my boss was amazing – I just took a deep breath one day and though, “do you know what? The one thing I want to do is see if I can be run my own business and offer my services”, and so I did.

I think one thing to take from that is you just have to try and have a go, because I didn’t want to still be in that corporate job in five and ten or 15 years-time, and then look back and think, “well, I never tried it. What would have happened if I didn’t want the regret of not trying?”

And I’ve been very fortunate that it has worked for me, so I think I would always say to people, without taking ridiculous risks, if there is something in life that you want to do, do some research, take a deep breath and go for it, as with energy, drive and commitment, as everybody says, you know, “if you can dream it, you can achieve it”.

Also the other thing I want to share is more related to the Chamber, because, as I said earlier, the Chamber was fundamental to me building and growing my business.

When I first started going to various networking events, I’d take the opportunity to do your 60 second pitch and talk about who you are, what you do, and would talk endlessly about everything HR, expecting there to be a queue of people wanting to talk to me, because everybody needs HR and management in my view.

But of course, that’s my view, not everyone’s! So, I became a little bit disillusioned when nobody wanted to talk to me, and I thought, “this isn’t working”. 
 
Then after a few months, I just thought, “you know what? Let’s just change and tackle this. Let’s just go along, meet people and make friends”, and that’s what I did. 
 
And I made friends with a handful of people, who happened be very like-minded women, very similar to me, and what we were trying to achieve. Then slowly, slowly, through those friendships, the recommendations came. The work came from someone who knows someone who knows someone, so no hard selling – just be who you are, and you’ll build those relationships. 

But of course, that’s my view, not everyone’s! So, I became a little bit disillusioned when nobody wanted to talk to me, and I thought, “this isn’t working”.

Then after a few months, I just thought, “you know what? Let’s just change and tackle this. Let’s just go along, meet people and make friends”, and that’s what I did.

And I made friends with a handful of people, who happened be very like-minded women, very similar to me, and what we were trying to achieve. Then slowly, slowly, through those friendships, the recommendations came. The work came from someone who knows someone who knows someone, so no hard selling – just be who you are, and you’ll build those relationships.