An entrepreneur who started her now £30 million business at the age of 50 has delivered an empowering message to women in Staffordshire – you have all got something to offer and a purpose.
Maxine Laceby, founder of supplement company Absolute Collagen, spoke at a sold-out event organised by Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce on Friday to mark International Women’s Day.
A crowd of 380 people attended the morning celebration – one of the largest International Women’s Day events in the history of Staffordshire – and heard how Maxine’s “crazy, crazy” journey started as a stay-at-home mum of 25 years who had recently split from her husband and began creating homemade beauty supplements in her kitchen by cooking up bone broth.
With no experience in the beauty industry, or of running her own company, she persevered because she knew her product worked. Now she sells anti-aging daily liquid collagen supplements and a range of 10 other products all over Europe and has a number of awards under her belt.
She now sees her role as one of inspiring and encouraging other women to become successful in business.
Maxine said: “I am really passionate about being you, being the person you are because we are all different for a reason.
“You have all got a purpose. I work with a lot of young businesses and a lot of young brands, and I always find their story and their purpose.
“You have all got it. It is not enough being a product; you need to stand for more because that will see you through.”
Maxine, who has ADHD and dyslexia, admitted her journey has not been easy but she kept knocking on doors at the start and learnt to bring in people with the skills she lacked when they were needed.
She said: “What I have done, and what has made Absolute Collagen so successful is knowing what I am not good at. That is lots and I’m ok with that. What I do is I bring great people in to strengthen my weaknesses.
“I have also got intuition on my side. My intuition came from a very dodgy childhood. My mother was an alcoholic, we had 28 foster children. I was left on my own a lot as a child so I had to learn intuition.
“We have all got something that we think of as a negative in our life that can be our saving grace and that is what I have always done. I have built a great team and put people in around me who are brilliant. My intuition is fantastic and I have never been let down.”
When asked what she would say to women who feel they are past it and that life has passed them by, Maxine added: “We are never past it. We have a wealth of experience. I could not do what I am doing now in 20s and 30s.
“When you get to a certain age you know yourself. We need diversity. We have all got something to offer.”
The event held at DoubleTree by Hilton on Festival Park, in Stoke-on-Trent, was hosted by entrepreneur and motivational speaker Kirsty Hulse from Roar Training, who told those gathered that they should celebrate achievements like you would celebrate a child’s milestones because “what gets celebrated, gets repeated.”
It also featured a speech from Penny Weston, Director of Moddershall Oaks and Founder of MADE wellness centre near Stone.
Penny, who has featured in Vogue magazine and on GB News as a wellness expert, spoke about women in leadership, challenges and barriers for women in that position and what can be done to help.
After sharing her own story of dealing with asthma, suffering from a collapsed lung at the age of 27 and juggling life as both a successful businesswoman and single mum to a five-year-old boy shared the most valuable lessons she has learnt are the power of a positive mind, taking responsibility, setting boundaries and never giving up.
Penny, who admitted it has been hard to build her own confidence, said she has previously used judgement passed about her as fuel.
She told the audience: “This is what motivates me. If you guys ever want to give me a bit of a kick, just tell me I can’t do something or make some sort of catty comment and then I’ll show you for sure.”
Penny later added: “Be relentless and just keep going. Don’t ever give up.”
