Introduction to: Dare to be Different

I thought I would write about something a little different today, you’ll know how big a motorsports fan I am! I am always chatting about it on my social media platforms and I always seem to be at a race circuit. Which is a great thing as this is what I would love to do in the future! Recently I became a member of Dare to be Different, now if you’re not interested in motorsports, you might not have heard about this initiative.

Today I thought I would introduce you to Dare to be Different after attending one of their Community Connect Events over the weekend. In January 2016, Susie Wolff launched Dare to be Different a community for women who work in, or want to work in, any aspect of motorsports. The community was launched in partnership with the Motor Sport Association and their main aim, to drive female talent.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always loved motorsports, I was also watching it with my Dad and as you know, the past four years I have been a Racemaker at Silverstone. Which for me, was a dream come true as I’ve always wanted to attend a Grand Prix on this iconic British circuit. With a community like this being created by a former Formula 1 driver, you know it is going to be inspiring.

Susie announced her retirement from all forms of motor racing in late 2015, meaning her full focus is now on inspiring women both currently in the industry and those hoping to join. It’s definitely a harder path for us women to get into the motorsports industry with it being so heavily male-dominated. What Susie is doing is making sure not only women but girls understand that they can go into the motorsports industry and they should.

I was always a bit unsure if I should join Dare to be Different, there’s a membership fee of £25 so what would I receive. As I was at University when the initiative was launched I didn’t feel like I needed it at that point. Now I’ve left and in the big wide world, I thought maybe I should join and see if they can help me to get where I want to. I have noticed a lot of the motorsports schemes only really focus on Engineering.

I’m looking to join the Media & Marketing side of Motorsports, which is featured a lot with Dare to be Different. Once I joined I did feel very much a part of the community, everyone is really friendly and always there to answer any questions. I joined towards the end of September, meaning I’ve had my membership for just over a month now. They also host different events in the month to get women together.

I was lucky to be able to attend the Community Connect Event, my first event as a member. I won’t lie, I was definitely a little unsure about this because I don’t know that many people in the community, of course, I’ve spoken to a few online so it was definitely nice to put names to faces! For these Community Connect Events, they try to get speakers who inspire us about the industry.

The speakers for this event were Susie herself and Annastiina Hintsa, the daughter of the late Aki Hintsa. The speech was definitely very inspirational and made me think about a lot, which is something I like about good speeches. She spoke about her father’s work, what he did for the motorsports community and this got my mind thinking a lot. Aki Hintsa was a doctor of sorts, he helped the drivers get through different things that they encountered.

It’s all about how we are in control of our life, it’s not the system or the people around us. We can change only if we want to, which is actually very true! Don’t blame the system for your choices that you make in your lifetime, also looking at the Hintsa Model, Annastiina related this to a wheel. If one component breaks down, the wheel stops spinning. For the wheel to spin smoothly, all parts need to be in place and in balance.

This model, representing the holistic nature of wellbeing, is the foundation of all their services, they call it the Circle of Better Life.

After the lovely speech from Annastiina, we were able to mingle and chat with the other members and some of the Ambassadors of Dare to be Different. Here we were kindly gifted from the Hintsa family The Core, a book written by Aki before his passing. I’ve heard very good things about this book, from Susie especially saying how strong the book is so I can not wait to start reading that!

With this being my first event, I wanted to meet Susie and just thank her for setting up this community. I know it’s been over a year since the launch, but for only being a member since September I wanted to give her some special thanks! I was able to speak to her for a little bit, just introduce myself and explain my current path, how I would love to enter the motorsports industry and with the help of Dare to be Different, I might just do that.

Here’s a small collection of photos I took while at the event, they are all a little bad quality, one because of the lighting and two because they were all taken on my phone. It wasn’t until I was at the event that I thought I could take photos for a blog post! So they aren’t my normal quality, but I still wanted to share with you my thoughts and feelings on the event.

I hope you have enjoyed this post! I know it’s a little different from my normal things, I don’t just like beauty and lifestyle, I also like to talk about motorsports. I would love to know your thoughts about Dare to be Different in the comments!

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