The PD Women In Business Series is an interview-style blog series on the Pangea Dreams blog that highlights female entrepreneurs who have joined us on Retreats over the past several years. In this series, we will get to know these Alumni better and learn about the incredible businesses that they are running.
SOPHIE PRIOR
- Current Position: Founder & CEO, Lustic Media and Founder & Creative Director of Lustic Life
- Currently Living: Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
- Hometown: Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
Hey Sophie! We are so excited to have you featured on this series! Can you tell our community a little background about you and how you got into the digital marketing industry?
I was born and raised in the Cayman Islands, by English parents who ventured to a tiny island in the Caribbean in the early 70s.
As the youngest of three girls, I had an amazing childhood spent in Cayman and the UK, travelling alone to and from the UK for boarding school from the age of 11!
Since then I have always travelled a lot, exploring South America on my gap year and then going on to study Law with Spanish in the UK and Spain before moving back home to Cayman to begin my career as a lawyer.
After working as a hedge funds lawyer for 4 years, I decided I wanted to pursue something much more creative and my lifestyle blog happened to steer me into digital marketing.
I’ve now been lucky enough to help an array of fantastic clients (ranging from local hotels to financial advisors to global advisors) for over 3 years now and it’s been an incredible ride!
At what point did you decide to start Lustic Media?
Lustic Media was formally launched in April 2019 but I guess it started with my lifestyle blog, Lustic Life which I used as my creative outlet during my time as a lawyer. In January of 2017 I decided to leave my life as a lawyer and started providing marketing and brand consulting services to the world!
Have you always been entrepreneurial? What led you to take that first step and setting up your own business?
Looking back I can see I was entrepreneurial without really realizing it. Throughout my life I always loved creating things to make some extra pocket money {juice stands, art sales, pop-up shops etc} and as an adult, this translated as Lustic Life, my lifestyle blog.
My career as a corporate lawyer was pretty full-on so my new career started out of my hobby of blogging. As Lustic Life started to evolve into a lifestyle brand, I started to gain traction from companies wanting help with their website, social media and blog, and so I realised there was momentum here that I needed to follow and I knew that law was something I could always come back to.
The first step was saving up enough money to act as a cushion for a new and daunting career in marketing. Before resigning from my well-paid job, I managed to line up a couple of solid clients which allowed me to take a leap of faith.
I actually wrote a blog about how to quit your job and live the life you love as that’s something I get asked a lot and it’s actually the hardest step!
If any, what challenges have you experienced as a woman in business during your overall career?
One of the hardest things I’ve had to work through (and still continue to work through) has been to really believe in myself; regardless of what anyone says. Setting up your own business and creating something totally new and from scratch can leave you feeling quite vulnerable and insecure at times. Putting yourself out there and taking risks can often trigger surprising reactions from those around you and that’s something I’ve had to learn to cope with.
At first, I was a bit shocked by the comments I got from others {sadly, often women} once I decided to embark on a new business of my own. But once you realize that’s more of a reflection of their insecurities than your own, you learn to accept that not everyone will encourage you and your mission, and that’s totally ok! It also helps when you have girl gangs like Pangea Dreams.
Where would you say your business was at before the Pangea Dreams Tulum 2017 and where would you say your business was after?
It’s funny because my business was actually doing fine before the Tulum Retreat, but my mental health and self-confidence were definitely needing some love and attention! Ironically I had just hosted my own wellness retreat here in Cayman and my energy had taken a big hit. I distinctly remember going on the trip to Mexico expecting to “get all the answers” and feeling quite impatient to find out what the latest hacks were. Of course, I learned a great deal from everyone on the fantastic PD program, but the biggest thing I came away with was learning to love and accept myself as I am and letting my light shine; something I remember Tracy Komlos and Lisa Homsy reflecting back to me in our conversations.
Since Tulum and the January 2019 Alumni retreat in Costa Rica, I have made incredible progress in my business and in my self-work, and it’s no coincidence that my team and businesses are growing abundantly. I’m forever grateful for the growth and friendship that Pangea Dreams has helped me achieve on all levels.
What is one piece of advice you would give to female entrepreneurs just starting out in their journey?
It’s too hard to pick just one, so I guess the first one needs to be: don’t follow the rules!
I think the biggest one has to be to regularly make space to listen to your heart. When you’re trying to build a business it can be really overwhelming, as time and energy are in short supply. If you make the time and space to be relaxed in your thoughts {be that doing things like meditating, journaling, yoga or walking in nature} you’ll realize you already know what to do.
Secondly, and something that goes hand in hand with this, is learning to trust yourself enough to have confidence in your decisions. If you’re feeling frazzled or doubting yourself, it’s really hard to take any action; and sometimes action is all that you need.
Finally, and very much connected to these, it is so important to learn to trust the process. When you’re an entrepreneur {especially a solo-preneur} it can feel like you need to have all the answers and I’m only just accepting this will never happen. Learning to trust the process and relax in your decisions can be really challenging but when you’ve worked on number one and number two above, it really helps set you up for abundance in attracting everything you want and deserve.
How can someone get in touch with you?
Email: Sophie@lusticmedia.com
Personal IG: @sophprior
Business IG: @lusticmedia, @lusticlife
Website: www.lusticmedia.com, www.lusticlife.com
Thank you, Sophie!
Sophie is a Tulum 2017 Retreat Alumna and also joined us in Costa Rica on the first-annual Alumni Retreat in 2018!
