12 Questions With: Emilie Holmes, Founder of Good & Proper Tea

5th March 2018 | 3 min read

Screen-Shot-2018-03-05-at-12.04.45-e15283673495031-12 Questions With: Emilie Holmes, Founder of Good & Proper Tea

International Women’s Day (March 8th) gives us a chance to celebrate the female powerhouses within the LABS community. Their hard work and passion for what they do have brought them to this point in their careers – female founders who continue to push the boundaries and inspire others to do the same.

Emilie Holmes is the Founder of Good & Proper Tea. Ahead of our International Women’s Day event, Spoon Meets: A Female Founder Panel, coming to LABS this Thursday, featuring Emilie – we chat about her success, her influences, and the best thing about being a female founder in 12 quick fire questions.

 

  1. Please describe your business in one sentence. London-based premium tea specialists, on a mission, to show you how good tea can be when it’s done properly.   

 

  1. What was your first job? First ever job was probably licking envelopes for the invitations to an event my mum was hosting, but first, real job was as Coordination Assistant at Elle Magazine in Paris – I could not have been less suited to the world of fashion, so an unexpected place to start! 

 

  1. What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received? Whatever you’re doing, make sure you know why you’re getting out of bed to do it every morning.  

 

  1. What does ‘success’ mean to you? It’s complicated – it’s certainly not what people seem to think it is. I think it’s a personal thing, a satisfaction, a sense of pride of what you’ve done or created – but it often gets confused with what other people’s view of success is. Sadly it’s a moving target too, so it’s easy to forget to reflect on successes so far and much easier to focus on the success you feel you’re working towards.   

 

  1. What inspires you to get out of bed every morning? Breakfast! But, also a renewed optimism for what can be done in this new, blank slate of a day.   

 

  1. How do you manage stress? Not very well – I should do meditation and yoga regularly to help me better balance the unstoppable feed of to do’s running through my mind as when I do, it works. But more often it’s my husband, friends and doing things I love on weekends that keeps me balanced.  

 

labs-food-on-stress-eating

 

  1. What do you look for in employees? A combination of kindness, humility, and ambition – all while not taking themselves too seriously. There are days when we all have to be able to laugh!

 

  1. Give us your number one tip for how to be successful in an interview. Smile and be yourself. If that doesn’t work, it wasn’t right in the first place.  

 

  1. In your opinion, who’s a girl boss that’s killing it right now? Pip from Pip & Nut.

 

  1. What’s the best thing about being a female founder? The support of other female founders. 

 

  1. What advice would you give to aspiring female founders? Don’t let imposter syndrome get you down!  

 

  1. As women, how can we support each other to achieve our goals? By encouraging each other, being proud of each other, sharing and celebrating in each other’s success. It’s the scariest, most exhilarating ride of your life running a business, so adding comparing yourself to others around you all the time and it’s nigh on impossible. So surround yourself with people who believe in you, then just get your head down and give it your best.   

 

Emilie will be one of the Female Founder panelists at a one of a kind event at LABS Holborn for International Women’s Day, Spoon Meets: A Panel of Female Founders. This Thursday, 9-10:30am, 136 High Holborn. We’d love for you to join us! Interested? Save your spot.

Image credits: Appear Here, Instagram