Unveiling the Realities of Female Entrepreneurs with Zandra Moore

Are you ready to unlock the secrets behind successful female entrepreneurship? In this week's episode, we explore the inspiring world of Zandra Moore, an award-winning entrepreneur.  Zandra reveals the highs and lows of her entrepreneurial journey, the strength she draws from her supportive networks, and how she champions diversity in the tech industry. She lays bare the unique difficulties faced by women entrepreneurs, sharing how her mother's influence lit the spark of tech entrepreneurship within her.

As we delve deeper into Zandra's journey, she reveals how her experiences with motherhood and dyslexia have fine-tuned her business approach.  She shares stories of her supportive female power tribe, their collective resilience during lockdown, and her motive behind establishing Lean in Leads. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for anyone eager to understand the entrepreneurial spirit from a unique perspective.

Listen to learn:
🎙️The experiences of women in entrepreneurship
🎙️Zandra's personal career journey
🎙️The power of having a strong support system
🎙️Why we need to embrace and advocate for diversity 

Listen here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1981646

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:38

The Northern Power Women podcast for your career and your life, no matter what business you're in. Hello and welcome to the Northern Power Women podcast, where we spotlight the remarkable, amazing, inspiring individuals who use their power for good every day in the aim of reaching the more equal, diverse and inclusive world. This week I am going to chat to the wonderful, literally wonderful, wonderful, wonderful Zandra Moore, double award winner actually, or Dibble award commended at the Northern Power Women Awards. One of our real ones, who was commended this year for our outstanding entrepreneur. Zandra is a Queen tech, entrepreneur in data, passionate about enabling more women into the tech industry.

Speaker 1: 1:23

Randall applause right there and cheerleading, and like Mexican wave, zandra is the co-founder and CEO of Pan Intelligence, the no code lab, and lean in leads. Zandra is obviously involved in juggling lots of other things, involved in a number of UK organisations focusing on increasing female rep in tech as well, and it's also a member of the UK government's task force for diversity in fast growing companies. Thank you, Zandra. Thank you for taking the time. You always are so amazing, you're so busy, but you will always make time to jump in a chat or jump in to support what we're doing at MPW. Thank you, pleasure as always, and you were commended this year for outstanding entrepreneur in the MPW awards. What did that mean to you? Because you are someone who's very accoladed, even that as a word.

Speaker 2: 2:07

It always feels amazing when someone says your name and always a massive surprise. So, honestly, didn't expect to get the highly commenced at all. I don't know. It's just lovely, isn't it, that people sort of give you that pat on the back.

Speaker 2: 2:22

As an entrepreneur, You're quite lonely at the top and you always have a positive syndrome. Eyeball For the rest of my life always have a positive syndrome. I always go. I haven't got here Really. So it's a lovely feeling when somebody just acknowledges that and you get that kind of recognition. But it's always the same old and people do say I see it every time. It really isn't just about me. An entrepreneur is about his team and the people that enable you to be successful. It's all about the people around you and when that's your friends, your family or the people that you work with. So it can be lonely at the top, but you don't make it to the top without an awful lot of support and a lot of help. So I tend to like bringing it back to the team, because the team makes the teams really excited that they're still being sort of recognized. So yeah, it's always brilliant.

Speaker 1: 3:06

And you've talked about that loneliness at the top, because as an entrepreneur, you're the accountant, you're the personnel director, you're the cleaner, you're all of those kind of things. You've talked about your family and friends and there are any other sort of sort of tactics or that you've adopted over the years to ensure you you're not in isolation.

Speaker 2: 3:26

Well, just before you start the podcast recording, we had a quick chat in this week, chat about some of the wonderful, wonderful female power tribe that I lean into every opportunity, especially when things are going hard right and we celebrate success together. But actually we do talk about stuff. So, yeah, I think there is a very special community of women that I'm surrounded by that are on the journey with me and you know entrepreneurs, senior business leaders that really kind of get the things that you get. I would say that they're my kind of engine room of energy and motivation when things are hard. It's why you know what you do is so important. It's why I said needed needs, it's why I really want to advocate for having more peers and I think as women and entrepreneurs, especially female tech entrepreneurs, we're still a real scarcity, so finding each other can be quite hard. But when you do, god you click and we do. I mean go ahead and bring lockdown and we would have all weekly, kind of always, with a glass of gin or wine.

Speaker 1: 4:29

That was ATM right.

Speaker 2: 4:31

Oh my God, we, literally we got each other through the lockdown. It was always shocking. It was actually shocking the kind of we just needed each other, so bad things, who weren't around each other. But they got me through some really tough periods when, when you're in a room all day, every day, looking at a screen, try to keep your team motivated, getting teams through what's hard for them to, they're locked in homes where maybe they don't have any control over certain situations they're in, whether maybe homeschooling, where they've got vulnerable adults around them. It was very scared so you could put your brave face and being sort of at the top and supporting people. But you actually do need those groups where you can be a bit kind of vulnerable and have a good cry. I had some really good cries and look down into that camera. I really did so. Yeah, I think my, my female power tribe, the wonderful women that know who they are. Yeah, they're my foundation, my foundation, definitely.

Speaker 1: 5:20

Just talking. The first time I really came across you was was not around entrepreneurship, it was around leaning and around the work that you're doing about leaning leads, and leaning obviously sort of was very much alongside the book that Cheryl Sandberg released all those years ago. I mean, we're talking we're talking two decades now or a decade and a half since that book came out. But just talk to me about why you set that. You know you've talked about what it does for you now and what you know that real, that tribe that you have around your book. Where was that motivation for you to sort of step out and go right?

Speaker 2: 5:52

you know I'm going to crack on and set this up, yeah so it's a male co-founder actually who'd read the book and you know so do. You need to read this, you're really going to love it. And it says a lot about my co-founder, right. And I read it and at the back of the book it said you know, you can set up a circle. Of course she's the CLA on Facebook. So they set up a social community and I looked for one of the ones that wasn't on in Leeds and I thought, well, I'll just go and see the sort of other women like me that I've read the book and we'll get together and have a coffee. That's really what I thought was going to happen.

Speaker 2: 6:21

And at the time, you know, I'd only recently become the CEO and I was really really quite nervous about calling myself a CEO. I hadn't even put it on my email signature. I just kind of I can't call myself a CEO. You know, really struggled with it. I just wanted to meet other senior women and see if they felt like that and when the first meetup we had had 20 other people in it. It's got a community. Now we're sort of I mean eight years in something like that, maybe nine years 1,500 women, 1,500,. You know I didn't run anymore. I mean, yes, I ran it for many years but it's got a board now, it's got a chair that runs it and lots of other kind of subgroups and somebody goes across to America every year and joins the Leeds kind of meetups. It's like this whole big thing now.

Speaker 2: 7:09

But honestly, I set it up selfishly just because I wanted to see if other people felt like I felt in the, in the shoes that I was in, and they did, and we had really good quality conversations about how to come in and how other people had kind of had conversations with other people or dealt with situations and I just thought, god, this is so powerful to have a safe space, to just be vulnerable and talk about those feelings that you have when you suddenly find yourself with a lot of responsibility and know people maybe that you know like you. So that was great and it's grown and grown and grown, mostly through the magic of Claire Ackers now, whose chair, and the team of people she's built around it. We run mentoring programs, we run an annual awards. There's no one near as impressive as what you think. I mean you are like the godmother of all things women empowerment in the north of England, but it's our small microcosm of contribution to the, to the ecosystem.

Speaker 2: 8:00

You know, I think it's. It's. It shows you, doesn't it, that 1000, 500 women still want to be part of something, that there's a problem still and people still feel that they need to actually communicate that community. So, no, the momentum hasn't gone away from it, but I'm a long way off and sort of in it. You know, I used to be. I've got my tribe now and I lean into my tribe, but I needed to find it.

Speaker 1: 8:20

That's good and that's lovely to say that. But to be honest, Northern Power Women, I always think is a, is a hub and almost a celebration of other things going on. I always think it's a collective, if you like.

Speaker 2: 8:29

you know so my sisterhood right, my sisterhood of female and carbon networks, and we love each other to death, and that's right. That's the way it should be Right. I think women are brilliant at that as well. Women are so good at backing each other and lifting each other up and leaning into each other in a way that there was just isn't that kind of competition. They start with collaboration, they start start with support, they start with community, and even the female community. There's just people saying, oh, you know, would we have a problem because we're doing similar things? Come in slightly. I'm just here. I deeply admire you, love you to death, and if we support each other in a race misagenda, then that makes us all win. So I think women are really good at collaborating and working together, which is why networks and communities of women, I think, work so effortlessly and, you know, really do. You might experience this. Just put people together and bad shit happens, it seems.

Speaker 1: 9:17

Absolutely, and I also think it's not about being monogamous, about one set community. You can play out in different communities depending on who you want to be on that given day. But you talked about women a lot, but actually at the start of the conversation about leaning, you talked about your co-founder being a male. Good heavens, I believe they're half the sky too. But talk to you about that advocacy, the fact that he sort of sent you the book and went this is for you. Advocacy is so key and that male ally ship.

Speaker 2: 9:45

I'll let you know I've got some incredible male allies now that in fact, every time I go to events where I'm at dinners and men increasingly show a huge amount of interest in this agenda, and I hear more often than not, if there's anything I can do to help, if there's any way I can support, what I often hear is I'm going, I want to, but I don't know how. They almost need to be given permission to become advocates and they're like if we people often feel that they have a right if they are not in the shoes of that person. So if you've got a minority group that you want to support and you're not part of that minority group in any context, you can often feel like I've got a right to be in there supporting and I think a lot of people feel that way. It's very natural response and I think a lot of men want to be in this agenda. We've got to help them to find their place in that, we've got to invite them and we've got to give them a purpose in that and tell them that absolutely maybe we want you at the table.

Speaker 2: 10:45

I don't want to be on panels that are or women. I want to be on 50, 50 panels. I want to be on diverse panels and I think women events need to make sure the men are in the room. Actually, we lose something by them not being in the room. So now, I'm a big fan of making sure that we find a better way to bring them into the conversation so they know that they have place there, that they feel that they understand their role, because unless you give people a role, they'll feel a bit uncomfortable. Right, that's part of the problem, right? I don't want to walk into a room of just one group of people. Why?

Speaker 1: 11:20

would they? And we've created this year as part of the awards and male advocacy list. So we've had powerless future list and we created intentionally this year. I've never seen the need to have like a I don't want woman of the year because we've got hundreds and hundreds of them and I want to keep growing that, if you like, and I didn't want a man of the year. Actually, we've created this advocacy list and the whole premise of that is it's about exactly as you just talk. How can we start that community of you know, supporting to? Because it is that I get sometimes, Simone, I don't know what to say exactly if you just said I don't want to say the wrong things, so therefore I don't. So we want this to be. Do I have a right to?

Speaker 2: 11:58

have an opinion. Yeah, do I have a right to actually be here, like God? Yes, yes, yes, yes, we need you in the room. How do we give you a role that makes you feel comfortable? How do we give you the narrative and the conversation and the language to use that you feel comfortable? That is our job. Hopefully is our job. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 12:15

It is. It's a kind of interpreter sometimes. Let's take you back to the whole passion around entrepreneurship and we have seen a growth over the last three years, but we still haven't got that equality or parity between female and male entrepreneurs. Why not?

Speaker 2: 12:33

Oh, I sit on the Pivot Task Force that you mentioned at the start and it's been a massive eye opener. You sort of think you know why and then you spend a lot of time in an organization or, in this case, task Force where there's a new flow of research and you get exposed to a lot more of the data and the wider challenges that are the friction on creating more diversity, in this case in high growth enterprises, and it's complicated these things always are. It's everything from the caring gap where it comes to women still caring. The majority of the caring are responsibilities, whether that's for children or elderly parents, whatever that might be, and the lack of financial support for that. That's a real challenge that doesn't go away. The lack of diversity in the investment community. So therefore, people tend to invest more in the things that they understand and know. So that flows down to where the money goes. So, unfortunately, if you don't know lots of people with money and a lot of women don't tend to know entrepreneurs or high net worth in the way that they do they can be harder to access that capital or get that first funding off the ground. Family and friends funding is after that first round of investment. So it's everything from access to capital, networks, the caring disparity and role models.

Speaker 2: 13:53

If you actually ask entrepreneurs to name other female entrepreneurs, they struggle. Female entrepreneurs struggle to name other female entrepreneurs, especially if they're not networked into an ecosystem. So we do have lots of point issues. So we're trying to lean into that at the moment to understand where we can pull some levers. One of the biggest levers that I'm passionate about is the regional disparity. So when you look at investment into female founded businesses, it's shocking that it's 2% of all capital goes to female founded businesses. That's bad enough. You get out to the regions, it's like 0.1%. It's really really bad, like really really bad. And so we've got the levelling up or whatever language people are used to, just that kind of regional disparity. So we have a gender and a regional kind of gap to settle and I'm really passionate about how we get more of the women in the regions on the radar of investors access to capital, access to networks, access to each other so that they can get the confidence and the connections they need to take those first brave steps into entrepreneurship. Actually, that's probably 90% of what's needed right now.

Speaker 2: 15:02

The caring gap I can't do a lot about. You know, investors and support, but there's people like A-Daventures. They're amazing. They just they want to have the world's first A-Daventures. They back female founded tech startups and they put a funding in place for any parent, male or female, and that take parental leave at that startup stage to support their childcare arrangements. That's a BC committing to childcare funding in their portfolio of companies. That's groundbreaking and those are sort of created things that we need to be thinking of doing to make sure those early entrepreneurs, if they've got young families and have a career break for any reason, also starting their businesses actually can afford to continue. And so, yeah, I could talk about this for days, so I might shut up.

Speaker 1: 15:46

No, no, and I think this is something we need to keep the conversation going around this. So I think we need to pick back up on this at a later point. I can feel a webinar coming on, sandra. Thank you so much. I think it's important. This is how we have to make the raise the awareness of this 0.1%. I wasn't aware of that statistic. I didn't think it was as low as that from a regional disparity. That's absolutely appalling, isn't it?

Speaker 2: 16:07

Yeah, high growth In caps to going to high growth businesses. Just the further up the funding cycle you go, actually the proportion of female founded businesses is tiny, tiny, because actually the bigger the round, the bigger investment terms. Actually there is just more and more women, but don't make it through. So, yeah, it's interesting, there's lots of stats. Actually, I'm publishing a regional data project next year as part of the task force which actually mapped the entire investment ecosystem of female led founded businesses across the UK, city by city, so you could actually see what those investment gaps are, into what sector, and the female boundaries as well in it. But you have to watch this stuff as much.

Speaker 1: 16:49

Brilliant, and it'd be great to like support on that in whatever way we can as well. Sandra, I think that'd be amazing. So you talked about almost that role model of entrepreneurs female entrepreneurs but what was your inspiration to becoming an entrepreneur?

Speaker 2: 17:01

So my inspiration to get into tech was my mom. I've talked a lot about my mom. Gotta listen to anything I've ever talked about. I talked about my mom. She was a real role model. I was the benefit out of role model. At home I had somebody that was a real fact guard, got into tech sector, knew nothing, single, you know. She had a. She was a. She was an eldest of seven children in a single parent family. That just basically grafted and muscled her way into tech and did it really well and she was amazing and so I wanted to be in tech entrepreneurship.

Speaker 2: 17:27

I always I made a lot of other people very successful and and I watched their success and I got to having my, my children and and I realized that I wanted to do that for them. I wanted to do it for myself and and I could because I sort of I could see how, how it worked, because I'd been helping entrepreneurs to get successful in their own tech businesses. So I think I was. I just I just believed when I had children that that was, that was when I needed to do it and it created me the flexibility at the same time with small children. So it was bit of a having kids and realizing I could probably use the flexibility of entrepreneurship to give me the time I needed to be able to be there for my children but also start selling myself, and and that was the kick I needed. I was a good person, but certainly being around other entrepreneurs for the first 10, 12 years of my career, watching their success, was definitely that's the main belief I could do with myself, and and your daughter.

Speaker 1: 18:25

Did you bring your daughter to the awards this year?

Speaker 2: 18:27

I did. Yeah, she's 17 and she I was. I loved bringing her to the awards. She absolutely loved it and because it's such a table of kick ass women, I mean, good, what, what? What better environment for a 17 year old to be in? So to to you know your journey, to be what you can see and actually just get your daughters surrounded by that and it it's brilliant. So that was wonderful. I mean, you don't? Your children are never like impressed with you, are they? But I still won't press. So, yeah, no, it was wonderful, she loved it. It was such a so inspiring really inspiring for her, and she loved getting it all from us Hell yes, and she's inspired you, hasn't she, to create opportunities around football.

Speaker 2: 19:07

Yeah, no. So I know my sins. I, I foolishly became a football coach eight years ago, having never kicked a football in my life and not knowing how to play the game, because my daughter just had blind faith in me that I could do anything. I'm like come on, mom, I'm sick of playing the boys, let's set the football team. So we did Set the first girls football team in the area that we live and it's really successful. Now, I mean there must be seven age groups. Hundreds and hundreds of girls play football every single weekend.

Speaker 2: 19:36

But you know it was me and my daughter flaring schools about seven, eight years ago, trying to convince, I think, our first training session we had three others and then I did my FA coaching badge and I convinced a few, quite a few of them, typical coaches, you know, viking coach football without any football experience. Why can't you? So we've definitely created a pipeline of moms that believe they can coach, but it's like anything, you know it's got to start somewhere with somebody. And why wouldn't it be me and my daughter? You know why not? And yeah, but it was her that I mean. Honestly, if it had asked me 10, 12 years ago, if I was stretchable, I'd have laughed in your face. It's never, but it's been great. Well, the best thing's ever done. It's so rewarding, coaching, wrestling, sport and it isn't about skills, it is about how you build a team. It's so much about what I do in my day job, at work. It's just about people and supporting them in the right way, and then just you know, they teach each other really.

Speaker 1: 20:36

And final question, because I could talk to you forever, but, to be honest, this seems to be a real repetition across your career. You come across a problem. There isn't a solution, so you just set one up.

Speaker 2: 20:48

And I often look at them and go well, it's simple, you just do this, this and this. I can go from problem to solution in my head rapidly. I'm dyslexic and I do think when you've got a certain type of brain, you just see patterns that other people don't see, or you see a path to solving a problem sometimes faster and rule, and I just often looks really simple to me. Well, let's just do it. And I got a bit JFDI as well my COO, charlie, who's incredible. She's a ex-flight pilot, the RAS, and she's just incredible. But she makes sure that the chaos that I create has some structure behind it, because I love to take action and I love to get things done, and actually I think most of problems are solved by just having a go and don't worry too much about having an app absolutely planned out. Just get on with it and see what happens and work out as you go, and I'm sure some of that's how you started yours 100% driven.

Speaker 1: 21:44

Driven 100% by impatience and the ability that I can just JFDI to.

Speaker 2: 21:50

And I just have good people around you to put behind you and make sure that it's. And that's the key. Really, I think you can't be a starter and a setter and a JFDIer with that great people around you to make sure that they continue to deliver. And that is finding your tribe. I always keep going back to it Surrounding yourself with amazing people. I'm not so long to have an incredible team behind me that makes sure that I continue to do these things. Without them, I probably wouldn't. So finding your tribe is one thing I'd say. To just find your tribe.

Speaker 1: 22:21

When you've got them, then you can achieve them and issue them all with a set of trainers to keep up. Yeah, no big. Oh, sandra, amazing, amazing. I love every conversation that we have. Thank you so much for carving in some time for us today. Please keep being you Superpower. Your ability just to problem solve and crack on is your super power. Thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you, and thank all of you for listening.

Speaker 1: 22:48

Please head over to we arepowernet where you can find out about everything that we've got going on in we Are Power, northern Power Women, power Collective World. Whether you want to mentor, whether you want to get involved in our webinars, whether you just want to sort of go and look at some of the amazing role models that we've got on the platform, please do, and we'd love to hear from you. Get in touch in our socials at North Power Women on Twitter or X or whatever, and Northern Power Women on all the others. Thank you so much for listening. We look forward to have my next conversation next week, where I'll be speaking to yet another kick ass, probably impatient trainer wearing Northern Power Women and my name is Simone. This is the Northern Power Women podcast at what Goes on Media Productions.