Fifteen years ago, on August 2, 2010 I proudly announced to the world I was starting my own business ‘Awaken’. I choose the name after some deliberation and it fitted as I felt I had indeed woken up from the debilitating episode of burnout I had gone through. I set about setting up the company which for fifteen years has indeed been successful and given me more opportunities than I could have imagined.

When I started my dad asked me possibly one of the most important questions any one ever has, ‘how will people know who you are?’ I told him, ‘I don’t know but I will work it out’ and work it out I did and have.

Through initial networking I met loads of lovely people who guided me on my way and who indeed are still part of my business journey today fifteen years on.

I have made the most of every opportunity that presented itself, here are a just a few:

Wrote and had my first book published; volunteered for many organisations including Time to Change and the Raise the Roof (Raglan) campaign; hosted my own radio show on NH Sound (Abergavenny); did my video camera training at Pinewood Studios (when they were filming James Bond); helped many audiences and clients turn their life / business around through my work as a coach and mentor; appeared in a lot of national press; carried out on newspaper reviews on Radio Wales; met and mentored by Apprentice Winner (2014) Mark Wright and of course been offered the opportunity to write here for this newspaper every fortnight.

It is quite a list and I could go on however I think it is suffice to say that I did work it out and that many now know who I am for which I am grateful.

I have been asked over the years why I used the name Awaken and not my own name as a company brand, my answer was because Beverley Jones is a speaker and an author so when the time is right I will step out and do more of that, things may well then change.

Well, that time has come, as of August 2 2025 I will be retiring the company name Awaken (apart from Awaken Events) and stepping out as me. This of course will probably make no difference to you dear readers as indeed my name is what I have always written under here so why am sharing this with you?

It is for this reason, when I started Awaken, I was hiding, not many people know that, in fact I probably didn’t at the time, however I was. Having gone through burnout and been bullied out of a thirty-year senior corporate career I didn’t want previous managers or colleagues to know what I was doing so I created a brand which unless they researched, they wouldn’t know who was behind it. Awaken has served me well and while it is scary, as change always it, the time feels right to let it go, retire it and step out as ‘me’

I urge you to do the same, be you, be kind to yourself, be the person you were born to be, don’t hide when you have so much to offer and give the world the true real you.

In stepping away from Awaken I am again thinking about my dad’s question although now I think I am working from an already strong platform for which I am grateful.