Julie Perkins

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Founder at Wyseminds

Whatever your business problems may be, Julie Perkins has lived them and learned how to look forward and survive. From picking herself up after sixth form to witnessing the ins and outs of a business founded in a spare room and launched onto the world stage; from surviving cancer to writing books (The Wyse Way) and hosting her own podcast, she is sought after for her advice and guidance, not only as a business leader but as a thought leader.

LET'S TALK ABOUT

Purpose-led growth
Female entrepreneurship and the high level of ROI
The importance of alignment in your organization
Driving factors that are key to achieving alignment
Aligning finances with values and goals
Overcoming mental blocks and limiting beliefs around money for women
Women's relationship with money and success

Wyseminds founder Julie Perkins is passionate about what she does. This might be skiing, wild-water swimming, keeping in touch with friends across the world, spending time with her godson or – in her role as a mentor – supporting female entrepreneurs to reach their full potential, find their purpose and take their all-important next steps on the road to business success.

Along with her passion, however, is life experience – both inside and outside the boardroom. Born in 1968 to opticians Doug and Mary Perkins, Julie spent her early life in Bristol with her older sister Cathy and younger brother John. She was by her own admission, an independent child, who loved horses, tortured her sister’s Pippa dolls, and harbored dreams of becoming a marine biologist or a vet. Combined with her devotion to animals was an inherent entrepreneurial spirit and, inevitably, numerous projects to raise money. By the 1980s the family had moved to Guernsey and, despite loving life on the island – synonymous with her maternal grandparents – Julie had flunked her A levels and found herself, after clearing, studying business at a college in Hull.

Not such an auspicious start to adult life, but five years later, with a college qualification in her back pocket along with two years’ work as a teacher for Camp America, Julie had bounced back with energy and ideas and joined the family business – the optometry leviathan Specsavers. Here she was to learn all there was to know about running a successful company on a national and international level, through good times and hard times, launching the brand in the Netherlands where she continues to live and work – and running it.

It was during a particularly challenging time for Specsavers Netherlands that the first kernel of an idea, the beginnings of Wyseminds, was planted. Standing under the stars at 3am unable to sleep, a hardened veteran of 70-hour weeks, Julie was facing some tough questions. So caught up in the daily running of the business, she had completely lost sight of
her purpose and growth just wasn’t happening. That night was a turning point and from then on Specsavers Netherlands went from strength to strength.

Fifteen years later and she feels that female entrepreneurs continue to face similar challenges – but crucially, these days, thanks to her experiences leading part of the family business, Julie knows how to solve them and as a business mentor can apply her learning and guide those who sign up to the Wyseminds journey onto greater clarity and success. One of her proudest moments was when her first mentee won funding for her venture and she continues to feel the same exhilaration and thrill every time one of her clients takes an important step forward.