🌟 Bonnie Lister Parsons is the founder and CEO of The School of SOS. Her mission is to empower a generation of Queens to believe in themselves, using dance as a source of strength, power and confidence which they can carry through to every aspect of their lives.

We recorded this episode LIVE at Mortimer house, and it was amazing to share this with the Vestpod community. Keep an eye for the next one!

💸 The exceptional energy and passion that Bonnie has for dance and empowering women is infectious. However, funding her 8-year strong business wasn’t always easy. After a long journey, Bonnie eventually raised an all-female investment round to take School of SOS to the next level.

💥 Today on The Wallet:

1️⃣ As a professional dancer, Bonnie knew how powerful dance could be in boosting self-confidence, and she talks about how she came about the idea of creating The School of SOS, as well as her initial fundraising journey.

2️⃣ Raising money is laden with obstacles, so Bonnie discusses the stumbling blocks she came across while trying to fundraise, from the assumptions that everyone has wealthy family and friends to the unique challenges that women entrepreneurs face.

3️⃣ Starting a business always involves a level of risk, and Bonnie shares how she feels about taking a leap of faith into being a founder, as well as why she’s never had a business partner.

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1. Dance your way to confidence

• The School of SOS mission statement says they’re there to empower a generation. Why does dance fulfil that? It’s about the connection between the music and your body, and there's something very special that happens when you connect to your body. Why does Beyonce dance on stage? Why doesn't she sing and stand still? It's because it's an expression of your power.

• As women, we are going through a revolution where we're reclaiming our power, and understanding what our power is — dance is simply a natural expression of that.

• Dance is also a safe space to experiment and play around with different parts of yourself that maybe you wouldn't have the confidence to show on a day-to-day basis. But for Bonnie — it’s her home. It's where she taps into her power, into who she am, so that she never has take no for an answer.

• For Bonnie, the ambition was always there, but she simply had to learn how to express her ambition through a business model.

• The mission of empowering a generation came from a very real place of people coming up to Bonnie, writing her emails and letters, saying - “SOS changed my life, I can’t thank you enough.”

• Bonnie was also inspired by her dad’s words who told her that she should ‘make money in her sleep’, and as a professional choreographer, she wasn’t sure how she’d make it happen — but those words certainly made her think ‘big goals’.

2. The issues that come with raising money

• Bonnie had struggled with undiagnosed dyslexia during her school years, which meant that she never thought of herself as someone ‘academic’ and good at numbers. So when it came to fundraising and having to mix with people in a world that wasn’t familiar to her, she often felt out of place.

• It was clear that when you’re going into this world that values academic achievements and status, but doesn’t really value what you do, it can be very difficult and triggering. Bonnie found herself that the first 18 months of raising money were not easy for her at all.

• However, she realised that the problem was with who she was pitching to. Feeling like she was ahead of her time and simply not heard by male investors, she decided to ban them entirely — and raise a female only round.

• Bonnie felt like the men were'n’t going to invest in her anyway, and thus were a waste of time. The minimum investment for that round was £1,000. While Bonnie got both big and small checks, she felt that the important thing was that she was able to bring those women together and give them an opportunity to invest for the first time.

3. On grit and risk

• Bonnie is clear that she feels what is being asked, particularly of female entrepreneurs in the investment community, is extremely wrong. One email in particular stood out to her, which said, “we're currently investing in a woman who's spent 80k of her own money to build the technology, and that's kind of where you need to be.” Investors wanted to see the technology from startups before they had even raised money — which felt very unfair.

• It wasn’t the first time Bonnie was left baffled by what a VC had said: she was also told that most startups manage to get 500k from ‘family and friends’ when they’re raising money, and if you don’t manage to do so, it’s almost a sign that your closest people don’t believe in you.

• The classism that these conversations exposed was shocking to Bonnie, who didn’t come from a background of friends and family that could easily raise 500k.

• It seems to be especially targeted at women of a childbearing age, who have to end up putting their own money in. And then you have to ask yourself, what are the mental health impacts of that?

• When it comes to finding a co-founder, Bonnie says you need to stay authentic to yourself. For her, that meant keeping her business solo — otherwise, you're just going to resent it all and you're not going to be happy. As female founders, how can we be happy and build a business at the same time? Bonnie believes that a big part of that is being true to yourself and having authenticity.

RESOURCES: 

You can follow and connect with Bonnie at:

• Instagram

• Twitter

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