By Kathy Kyle, Co-Founder

Last week I was joined by the wonderful Ruchita Green — author, chef and inspirational founder of Masala Masters — for our My Royal Borough Breakfast Briefing.

In 2018, Masala Masters was named as one of Small Business Britain’s 100 top small businesses by Small Business Saturday which celebrates small businesses from across the country. In January 2021, she was named among 100 female entrepreneurs from across the UK in the f:entrepreneur #iAlso100 campaign. She is the author of the new cookbook Love, Comfort, Passion, Craving and in July 2021, represented Grimsby at the Yorkshire Dales Food and Drink Festival in July. Our attendees had this to say about her talk:

Ruchita is so incredibly charismatic and her passion just shines through! I loved all the positivity and glass-half-full approach this morning!

Kathy I really loved Ruchita! She really is so special!

My top 5 Take Aways from Ruchita’s Talk

1. Be Authentic

2. Focus on Creating Experiences

3. Be Creative and Adaptable

4. Go Digital

5. Commercialise what you’ve got!

Ruchita shared real examples that anyone can use, how she created a Masala Masters community, from offering workshops (spice experiences and cook alongs), to her products (prints on how to shape a proper samosa), and how she used digital (facebook groups) to create virtual communities.

According to Ruchita, successful entrepreneurs must have:

“a willingness to learn and a willingness to adapt.”

I also love her approach to storytelling and drawing parallels between British food and Indian food and shared experiences. Her talk also focused our minds on demystifying food and culture. Her authentic, genuine approach to her business was a message that has been echoed throughout our breakfast briefings and our training courses. Don’t orchestrate, just live your brand. Your audience will respond to your authenticity.

Watch her talk here and learn more about Masala Masters here.

What’s next

This week, I am looking forward to welcoming the Managing Director of Workplace Worksafe, Rhian Parry, to our briefings. Workplace Worksafe is a major supplier of workplace PPE, accessories, branded workwear and corporate wear. They are the UK’s biggest independent distributor of Mascot workwear and supplier of other workwear  brands including JSP, Centurion, 3M, Miller, Capital Safety, North  Face, Gore-Tex, Himalayan, Helly Hansen, Deb, Gojo, Pulsar, Polyco,  Globus, Caterpillar, Regatta, Skylotec, Granberg, Ansell, Dunlop, Dr  Marten, Dickies, Craghoppers, Sprayway, Jack Wolfskin, and many more.

Established in 2005, they now sell more than 60,000 different products  to a range of construction and engineering clients across the UK and  Europe, as well as individuals and public sector organisations.

Hear her story this Wednesday at 10am.