So, Who Is Trudy?

Now, I'm not sure I'd go quite that far, but I've been told that I have this strange ability to make people feel young again.

Young, happy, relaxed and able to just be themselves.

Maybe it's because I'm usually smiling.

Maybe it's because I'll talk to anyone.

Or maybe it's because there's still a slightly daft big kid hiding inside me who refuses to completely grow up.

Whatever it is, I'll take it.

A smile is infectious. Laughter is infectious. Good energy is infectious.

And if people walk away from spending time with me feeling a little happier than they did before, that makes me pretty happy too.

I have two young adult children, so after years of being Mum first, I'm finally at that lovely stage where I get to be Trudy again.

And I'm making the most of it!

Evening networking event? Yep.

Industry dinner? Absolutely.

Few nights away with work? Where are we going?

I genuinely love it. Getting out, meeting people, catching up with familiar faces and making new connections doesn't really feel like work to me.

In fact, if I'm completely honest, networking events pretty much are my social life these days.

Which is handy considering I seem to go to quite a lot of them!

And then there's the banter.

Oh, I do love the banter in this industry.

Unfortunately, my brain doesn't always cooperate with the timing.

Someone will say something, everyone will laugh and I'll stand there thinking… I KNOW there's a comeback in here somewhere.

Then three hours later I'll be driving home and suddenly… THAT'S WHAT I SHOULD HAVE SAID!

Absolutely useless to me by then, obviously.

But every now and again my brain and mouth manage to work at the same speed and I get a good one in.

Those moments make me very proud.

There is a very good chance I'm having my own private concert.

Coffee in hand.

Stereo cranked up.

Music FAR louder than necessary.

And me singing my little heart out like I'm headlining Wembley.

That is genuinely one of my happy places.

Just me, my coffee, my music and the road ahead.

I'll then pull into the car park, turn the stereo down, grab my things and get out looking like the sensible businesswoman I clearly am.

Nobody needs to know what was happening five minutes earlier.

Although if you ever pull up next to me at a set of traffic lights… No you didn't.

For all my running around, networking, site visits, events and general inability to sit still, it's actually the really small things that make me happiest.

I love watching the seasons change.

I love noticing the first little signs of spring appearing.

I love those long summer evenings.

I love the colours when autumn arrives.

And I'm equally happy when it's absolutely miserable outside and I'm snuggled underneath a big fluffy blanket with a takeaway thinking, yep, this is the life.

It doesn't have to be fancy.

Give me good people, good music, something to laugh about and preferably something nice to eat and I'm pretty content.

I used to be painfully shy.

Honestly.

People who know me now usually look at me like I'm making it up when I tell them.

“YOU? Shy?!”

Yep. Me. For the majority of my life.

The woman who now happily walks into rooms full of strangers, starts conversations, goes to events on her own, represents businesses, travels around the country and seems to know someone wherever she goes once found all of that absolutely terrifying.

So when I look back at where I've come from, I'm actually really proud of myself.

Because becoming this version of me hasn't always been easy.

I've had to push myself. A LOT.

I've had to walk into rooms when every part of me wanted to turn around and walk straight back out.

I've had to learn to believe in myself.

I've had to find my confidence.

And I've had to fight that little voice in my head that spent years telling me, “You can't do that.”

Well… Turns out I bloody could.

And quite frankly, I think I deserve a medal for the amount of fighting it took to get here.

Maybe that's also why I am the way I am with other people.

I know what it feels like to be the quiet one.

I know what it feels like to stand on the edge of a conversation wondering how on earth you're supposed to join in.

And I know what a difference it makes when someone smiles at you, brings you in and makes you feel like you belong.

So I try to be that person.

I'm not a corporate robot.

I'm not interested in pretending to be someone I'm not.

I'm just Trudy.

An ordinary gal next door who loves people, loves this industry and somehow managed to turn something she genuinely enjoys into her job.

I smile a lot. I laugh a lot. I sing VERY badly and VERY loudly in the car.

I love coffee, fluffy blankets, takeaways, watching the seasons change and a good bit of industry banter.

My comebacks occasionally arrive three hours late.

I'm ridiculously proud of how far I've come from that painfully shy girl.

And underneath all the laughing and joking, I care. A lot.

I care about people.

I care about doing a good job.

I care about the businesses I work with.

And if I say I'm going to do something, I'll put everything I've got into doing it properly.

I spent far too many years being too shy to really be me.

So now? I'm making up for lost time.

And I'm having a bloody good time doing it.