Hi, I’m Sonja, Managing Director of Love Mondays and my journey into business has not been a conventional one.

I ran away at 16. I was in and out of homeless hostels and council flats with my baby and trapped on benefits. I was not here to accept this as my life so over the years, I worked tirelessly on my career to climb the ladder. I worked 3 jobs in packing factories, bars, cleaning hotels and serving in chip shops, all whilst studying and parenting at the same time. I succeeded, becoming top sales person for a number of global corporations working in advertising, sales and marketing for my whole career. By my late 20’s I had a nice home, my son was doing well and I thought my past was behind me. I was wrong.

In 2012, my son got food poisoning and ended up blind and paralysed. It took 2 years to get him back to some form of normal. He was discharged from hospital after 6 months of them not knowing what was wrong with him. I had to do it alone. I cared for him and I couldn’t leave his side. I lost my job, lost my house and almost lost my son.

Once my son got better, I went back to work but in February 2014, I lost my full time job as a single mum. I also left an abusive relationship and was homeless once more. I had no savings, no plan and no home, just a laptop. I didn’t even get child maintenance or have any family support, so it really was up to me to make it work.

I had worked myself to death to build up my career for my employers, only to be dropped when I needed support. I think these huge life events made me realise I needed to be in control of my life. There was no such thing as security so if I was going to rebuild myself, again, I may as well work for myself. This formed my strong belief that employees should be supported to be the best they can be. I wrote Mental Wellness into my clients business strategies to ensure people are at the heart of your (and their) success.

I set up Love Mondays the day after I was made redundant and rented a flat, the only one I could find that didn’t want a deposit as I didn’t have one! It was in a terrible state, I had little to no furniture and no money in my business bank account. I started from zero, bootstrapping everything step by step.

In order to get through everything, I went on a profound healing and personal development journey, I studied everything I could find – psychology, sociology, coaching, DiSC Psychometrics, hypnotherapy, cellular healing, 5 Behaviours of a Cohesive Team, somatic healing practices and metaphysics to name a few. I added that to my experience in sales, advertising and talent management and then pulled all of it together into a business. I have grown and progressed, taking more courses in business and sales to ensure I can offer cutting edge, transformational solutions to my clients.

What a ride!! My life is unlike anything I could have imagined. I worked up through 4 social classes, from pregnancy and homeless hostels at 17 to running a business by 30. I wrote a number 1 best selling book and have been featured in an international magazines. This is why I’m passionate about social mobility, and businesses can play a key part in this area.

My work, my podcast and my book are all to help people and businesses be the best they can be. Everything that we do is focussed on people, from selling to them online to developing them offline, this is where I geek out!

My life is unrecognisable, and that’s all thanks to that one decision I made when I was in desperate crisis back in 2014. Never underestimate the power you have. Change can become the best thing that ever happens to you.

I believe business success in the 2020’s will come from aligning to a bigger purpose. Develop digital assets and invest in your people. We are driving success in this new decade.

Love Mondays.