Your Business Pilot - Karen Goldfinch

13/06/2026

Brilliant night on Thursday watching Gerry & Sewell at .

Wow what a show!! Emotional, funny, thought provoking, powerful story told by such a talented group of North East performers from .

With a mix of storytelling, music and puppetry, (yes you read right puppetry) it’s a show about the North East from the North East.

If you’ve not managed to see it yet today’s your last day! Get booked up, you’ll not regret it!

Fantastic night and great to spend it with some of my family Paul Irwin, . Great to see some of the Sammy cast on stage too and of course Gerry & Sewell too 😉

Huge thanks for the invite to the Gala show , loving the Greggs addition, so on brand, who doesn’t love a Greggs pasty for the interval or a donut for afters 😂 Loving the addition too, genius! And yes we were given permission to film that part but then phones away rightly so to enjoy the rest of the show!

So much talent in our region, let’s continue to support it. 🙌🏼

09/06/2026

I’m proud to share that last month I stepped into the role of Chair of the Marie Curie North East Development Board – a charity and a mission that mean a great deal to me.

Marie Curie is there for people and families at some of the hardest moments in life, offering care, comfort and compassion when it’s needed most. To play even a small part in strengthening that support across our region feels incredibly meaningful and something I’m so keen to support.

Our board covers a wide area, from Newcastle, Sunderland and Durham to North and South Tyneside, Northumberland, Cumbria, Gateshead, Teesside and Hartlepool. Every community has its own stories, challenges and strengths.

I’m looking forward to working with a wonderful group of volunteers and the Marie Curie fundraising team to help make a real difference for local families.

It’s a privilege to take on this role in the place I call home – the North East and I’m grateful for the chance to contribute to something so important.

04/06/2026

Volunteer week is here again and it’s made me think about how much of my business life has been shaped by the roles I’ve taken on outside of my actual business.

I’ve actively volunteered alongside my business for over 20 years, for the community, for charities, and many other causes and it’s something I continue to do, I feel it’s important for so many reasons.

Volunteering isn’t just ‘giving’, although obviously that’s the main reason so many of us do it, to help others with the many and varied skills we all have. It’s also where many of us including myself learn to lead, to hold space, to navigate challenges, to make decisions to support others, and to keep going when things get heavy.

This all shows up in how we run our businesses, how we treat each other, and how we show up in our communities. I genuinely believe we all should volunteer if we’re able to, and we should be encouraging our younger generation to do the same. We all have something to offer, it doesn’t have to be a huge amount of time or effort, but we all have skills. Both our communities and ourselves can mutually benefit, it’s a win win situation! As a family we all volunteer our time and skills, both together and as individuals, it's something I feel passionate about, and will continue to do so.

I’m curious though, what’s one thing volunteering has taught you that you now use in your business? I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

04/05/2026

Sharing this as it’s a year since I made some huge changes to my work life, and wow what a year it’s been!

So many changes, more to come that I can’t wait to share, but it’s certainly made me focus on what I want from both in business and personally too.

Workwise I’ve been able to mentor more amazing businesses, support social enterprises, meet some brilliant businesses whilst networking more online and in person and still give my time as a board member too. I’ve taken on a PT role to develop a wonderful charity I’ve supported for many years and enjoying supporting young people through this, a joy to be able to do.

Personally I’ve had more headspace to do more for me, with my family and friends and remember the importance of all of this, I was guilty of working far too much before, not now, there’s a much better balance!

Why am I sharing this? I suppose I wanted to remind anyone that it’s ok, in fact it’s vital, to stop, take a moment, regroup and remind yourself of what you’re doing in life.

Wherever you’re at, I hope you’ve had a great Bank Holiday weekend, you’re not working too hard, and you’re finding time for you too!

It's the 1st of May or is the first of I may?? Bizarre question I know, humour me...I'm hoping it may resonate with you too.

Today May 1st marks many firsts for me since leaving my pt contract at the BIC yesterday -

👉 the first time in about 5 years I'm working in my businesses solely and not working for other organisations too
👉 the first time in probably 20 years or so I'm not volunteering at least a few days a week for other organisations. (apart from one board I still sit on)
👉 the first time in about 5 years I've not needed to check which laptop or phone I needed to pick up - just my own. At one point I had three to carry round for each different place I worked for!
👉 the first time I don't need to work out which bag to pick up - I have different ones for each other contract/organisation I've worked for
👉 the first time I don't have to check multiple diaries to make sure everything/everyone is booked in & where I need to be

Wow it's refreshing, but daunting too!!

But what about the I may bit... well I've realised that I may

👉 be able to focus my time on the two businesses I've grown over the last 24 years to ensure they're doing what they need to be doing
👉 be able to support more organisations and businesses by doing just this
👉 find time for me...a strange but exciting concept for me
👉 be seeing this as an exciting new opportunity
👉 be able to seek out new opportunities for trustee, non exec roles that I'm interested in
👉 be able to understand more of why my ADHD brain has had me multi tasking and doing more than one job at a time for the last 35 years
👉 have a few wobble moments, yes I'm human, I'm allowed and that's ok!

I know some of these 'I may' thoughts should be 'I will' but for the purposes of fitting in with today I'm hoping you'll cut me some slack on it, pretty please.

So what about you, what's your firsts for the first of the month, and what 'may' you be doing moving ahead. What's your plans for May? I'd love to hear and follow you as you progress with them too. Anyone care to share?

25/04/2026

Love this, what a great bit of content, you’ve got to love a great colab especially when it’s done so well like this 👌🏼💥

23/04/2026

Call out for North Shields creatives, what a great idea! There’s so many in the town and a great way to find and support them.

Get in touch with the team if you’d like to get involved, and share the news with any you know.

17/04/2026

Brilliant work, worthy of a watch and vote for Scott

14/04/2026

The view from today’s office, this amazing piece of engineering just entering the Tyne.

I wonder what it’s up to, where it’s going, what it does? Anyone know?

I always love seeing the activity on the river, imaging how busy it was years ago and all the industry around the region because of the river.

Still so much going on, both on and off the river, what an amazing place to be…the North East has so much to offer!

20/03/2026

Talking to Newcastle businesses isn’t unusual for me but today I met some from Newcastle, County Down, amongst many others from Ireland too. What a great way to start a Friday!

It might have been a 7 hour drive, lots of planning, fuel and expenses, but some journeys are worth making especially when you get to spend time with a room full of likeminded businesses, connecting with each other and building lasting supportive business relationships.

I used the word ‘might’ when I mentioned travelling to Ireland, there’s other ways to reach businesses there. 😉 I didn’t leave my desk, no rushing round, no traffic and no time wasted thinking I could be doing something else instead of travelling. I hopped on a ONLE Networking group monthly group call, and loved it!

So that’s two places I’ve visited this week without leaving my desk, Crawley on Tuesday, Ireland today, plus in the middle hosted my own group in Newcastle on Wednesday.

Connections don’t have to be on your doorstep do they?

06/03/2026

Yesterday was quite something…seeing the eager young students taking in everything Trevor and Lol had to say, you could feel the energy in the room!

What a privilege to work on projects like this, to be a part of inspiring the next generation! 💜

Inspiring the next generation is what Sunday for Sammy is all about and yesterday we did just that!

Legendary artist and music producer Trevor Horn, a good friend of Sunday for Sammy for many years, and Lol Creme, musician and music video director came to Gateshead College to share their journeys to a room full of eager young students.

Talking about their huge back catalogue of music spanning from the 70’s up to now, both in their own bands and collaborations with others they shared their experiences, their ground breaking techniques and so much more.

Music legends in their own right alongside their work with others there was so much to talk about we could have stayed all day!

More to come on this fantastic day soon, and a big thank you to our longstanding Sunday for Sammy friend Ed Waugh for hosting the talk, and to Gateshead College for hosting the event.

Thanks to the students for making Ray, Paul and Karen from SfS feel welcome again to the college, another fantastic example of working together to support our young North East talent.