TFI - Carolyn Mandache
8 Jun 2018
What is your name?
Carolyn Mandache
What do you do for a living in 10 words?
Lead a great team and strategize our business development.
Where do you currently reside?
Cumbernauld, just outside Glasgow
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Tell us what your typical day at work looks like?
There’s not really a typical day for me! I prioritize and work through my to-do list, follow up on opportunities, build up my network and ensure the team have the support they need in a good working environment. Then it’s home to my other important role as “mum”.
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What has been the best piece of advice you have received so far in your career?
No one is born a leader and there are many different types of leaders.
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What would you want to tell your 20-year-old self-knowing what you know now?
To be more confident and realise how much you can achieve if you put your mind to it.
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What would you class as your biggest achievement so far?
On a personal level, becoming guardian to two amazing nieces and raising 4 happy, healthy children. In business, working with my husband to build a team and develop an amazing new concept for dining out.
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Have there been any people in your career that have influenced or inspired you?
I have worked with a business coach called Linda McBride who is excellent at keeping people motivated and seeing problems or challenges in a different light. I’ve also had fantastic support from Entrepreneurial Spark and now, the RBS accelerator program.
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Who did you idolise when growing up?
I was in the Kylie Minogue fan club, and hers was the first concert I ever went to. I loved her music but never copied the hotpants!
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What memories do you have of your first ever job?
At school I had a weekend job at a bakery where I was the youngest member of staff and referred to as “chookie hen”.
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If you could invite anyone (dead or alive) for dinner who would you invite?
Michael McIntyre as I find him very funny and his anecdotes about family life are so relatable. I would hope that he’d arrive with his original style of skipping.
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Tell us something about yourself that not many people would know?
I met my husband and co-founder of our business in Spain (at a foam party), this year we’ll be married 17 years; proof that holiday romances can last.