12: Meet Frances: A secondary school CDT teacher, A-list wedding videographer and shop owner.

Updated: Jan 16

'Hey... don't suppose you'd let me interview you for my new podcast?'

'Sure... I'm guessing you mean remotely, given I live in South Devon?'

'Nope, I'm gonna come and see you - it's been too long!'

And it had. Frances and her family had relocated from my local (midlands) area down to South Devon 7-years ago (although when we realised that during our chat, we were both flabbergasted... where had the time gone?!). And at the time, she was a VERY successful wedding videographer. And when I say successful (and as you'll hear in the chat), I mean the kind of successful that gets you flown all around the world to A-list weddings. She was that good.

However, when I'd first met Frances, she wasn't doing that at all; she was a secondary school CDT teacher (Craft, Design & Technology), which (a) for a woman was rare, and (b) always sounded so damn cool - because what kid didn't enjoy CDT at school?!

And since I'd last seen Frances, and even though I knew she'd (what I though of as) 'dabbled' in a online homewares 'thing' during covid; I had no idea that this, too, was really successful. So successful that she'd opened an actual shop in Kingsbridge.

But that's Frances. She has an idea, she researches it extensively and then she executes it to the very best of her ability (and her abilities are vast and totally bad-ass). In the chat she graciously talks us through her thought process for each career, which I think will help a lot of people who are considering something knew. The key take-outs, however, are: You've got to be brave. You've got to believe in yourself. You've got to do your homework. You've got to be prepared to graft.

As Winston Churchill once said: “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”

Frances's social channels are: @reellovefilms, @rhool_com and @unearthedstudios

And her websites are: https://www.reellovefilms.co.uk, https://www.rhool.com and https://unearthedstudios.com