How did I get here?
There’s an ‘About Wendy’ section on our website but I thought I’d explain more about how I came to be working on this, with Eleanor, for Coulsdon.
Coulsdon has been my hometown since 2007, living in what I consider my ‘forever-home’. Since having my children here, I got immersed in that community, attending and then setting up a volunteers session at our local Children’s Centre, then moving on to Chipstead Valley PTA as they started school there. My eldest is now at Woodcote High School.
Whilst moving in, I found myself pregnant and got made redundant and this was the perfect opportunity to do my own thing. I started my coaching business, Get Better Coaching and, for me, this meant lots of small business and local networking. It was also the era when everything went digital, which I embraced and found myself supporting small businesses, and providing talks and workshops related to online marketing and social media. This is how I met Eleanor. I’ve met thousands of people through networking both in person and online and still occasionally pop my head back in to some of the original groups and I am still a massive fan of Twitter. I have a large, local following and Tweet business tips and share local information and events. I’m also now doing this for Coulsdon on: https://www.twitter.com/FineToad1 You don’t have to have an account or be ‘on’ Twitter to see, which is another reason to like Twitter, if you ask me!
Coulsdon Yulefest started after I had already immersed myself in Purley Festival in 2010, which resulted from me meeting people from Twitter for breakfasts in a cafe in Purley!
I did get involved from the start, when the name Yulefest was chosen, and have enjoyed supporting and attending Coulsdon’s Yulefest. However, because I was so immersed in Purley Festival I didn’t do a lot for Yulefest until 2016, when I had more time as we took at break from Purley Festival that year. There’s a small team of people behind the scenes taking a lot on, and a huge support network that filters out into the Coulsdon community, which I love. We saw this happen again, at the end of 2021 in Coulsdon, when the Yulefest committee announced that due to Yulefest not running and various other issues, that there would be no Christmas lights. What an amazing response we had in Coulsdon! As normal, a few people started the ball rolling and put some considerable effort in and the community rallied round and together, we made it happen. Thank you to all involved.
I’ve put my name forward to help and support Coulsdon Yulefest in 2022.
In the meantime, I’m working with Eleanor in her property business and on Fine Toad, and still scouting Coulsdon for landlords willing to sell their retail premises. Eleanor has made one offer for premises, which was declined and under offer and I’m still progressing on one that’s being put up for Auction and we have a couple more we’re hoping to find out about soon. If you know any landlords or owners of property in Coulsdon town centre, please let us know or put us in touch Wendy@FineToad.co.uk / 07900 806571
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