Lindy is the CEO, Founder and Creative Director of a Health and Safety Communication Platform. The first subscription-based, health and safety platform, built for Africa, making a remarkable impact in the mining and large labour industry.
Let's start at the beginning. During her Fine Arts degree, Lindy found herself intrigued by the creative process, specifically the rationale behind an artist's work. She began working on the subject of collaboration and exploring creativity with so-called ‘non-creatives’. When she entered the real world of work post her Fine Arts degree, she landed a job in team building and the onset of her career in this domain ensued. She was in constant self-dialogue during her time as an employee, reassuring herself that she was not a ‘corporate sell-out’, but rather saw this time as furthering her exploration of the commodity of collaboration for her art practice.
“I was always connecting those dots, weaving the creative thread, conceptualising things and giving creative direction. I was exposed to the topic of ‘artful interventions’ and it all clicked for me, that I could build a business out of this creativity with my interest in people and their creative process.”
Having found her particular niche in internal communications, to bring her business ideas to life, Lindy turned to a connection she had made in her previous workplace. Kay was initially a soundboard, but this relationship would ultimately bring her ideas into reality through much needed investment and connections. From facilitating and graphic recording, to large-scale internal comms projects or creating various forms of experiential learning, everything is tied to Lindy’s initial passion around collaboration and creativity and how to bring it to others.
After being approached by businesses in the specific realm of health and safety communications, she realised that this was a big challenge requiring solving. Together with co-founders, Mathew and Kay, the idea for building a health and safety platform landed. The vision was to use creativity to save lives in the workplace and beyond. They wanted to enable safety professionals to have access to ready-to-run safety campaigns and creative training resources, improving communication and making the world of work safer. She reminds us that often unbeknown to us, the pieces in our entrepreneurial puzzle are formed long before we know it! Be cognizant of the people you meet, the relationships you build, and the thoughts and ideas that you muster up, they may just turn into something spectacular in the future.
“In a creative career you cannot feel embarrassed or shy, you have to believe in the value you bring because if you don't believe it and you doubt yourself, the rest of the market, your customers, your clients or your team, will all see that. It's not about shying away from being vulnerable, it's about knowing that creativity has a place in the world and that it is valued.”
Lindy is using creativity for good, applying creative skills to help save lives. How do you attach a price tag to that?! Pricing creative services continues to be a challenge for Founders and with the influx of platforms, tech and the like, standing out and showing unique value is crucial. Lindy advises Founders to not be scared of the numbers. She looks back to her business beginnings and chuckles at her first naive ask for funding in 2013, a time where she believed 20k would be all she needed to set up the business, she has come a long way and still reflects fondly on the journey.
By the nature of how her business is built to help the everyday person get home safely, Lindy has a constant flow of inspiration from the very people she serves. Importantly, she reminds us to look after ourselves as the person behind the business and to remember we are so much more than an entrepreneur to many of the close people in our lives. She believes that a supportive and involved team is fundamental. She also speaks to her co-founders and investors as crucial and instrumental in their business success. Furthermore, nurturing those relationships and keeping them honest is a non-negotiable, and her team echoes the health and safety phrase, ‘You cannot fix a secret’, for them, transparency is a given.
“Who would have thought from an art school grad to now working in the safety and technology sector, this was not part of my vision board, not part of my plan, but this was just down to following that curiosity that led me here. I want to continue being brave, staying curious and keep knocking on doors.”
It seems there is always that element of unknown and surprise along the entrepreneurial journey where sometimes your destiny surprises you. Thank you Lindy for reminding us to be excited by the unknown, you bring a lot of hope to the entrepreneurial quest!
“Solving niche challenges Founders face”.
Illustrator: Lisa Williams (Instagram: @artist_llw)