Quietly powerful: How a small team made a global impact

This article is part of the Business Insights Series, where we speak with entrepreneurs, professionals, and decision-makers about what’s working, what’s not, and where things are headed in their world., where we speak with entrepreneurs, professionals, and decision-makers about what’s working, what’s not, and where things are headed in their world. 

In this conversation, we spoke with Serena Fordham, founder and CEO of ProspHER, an organisation supporting women in business and the workplace through events, learning platforms, and corporate partnerships. As part of their mission, ProspHER exists to support female empowerment and education by giving women access to the tools, community, and opportunities they need to thrive professionally and personally. 

From corporate workshops and festivals to a digital platform that enables skill development and self-directed learning, their focus is on turning intention into action and vision into achievement. This vision is reflected across their three core offerings: FEST, QUEST, and HUB, each tailored to provide practical, engaging, and inclusive paths to progress. 

What began as a local virtual agency  has grown into a group of three companies, a seven-person C-suite, and a community of over 125,000 people. Yet the team behind it remains lean, and the focus firmly people-first.

Serena’s leadership style was reshaped by a major shift in her personal life that required her to step back from the day-to-day running of the business. Rather than slow the business down, this challenge catalysed a new phase of growth, one rooted in trust, autonomy, and long-term thinking. In this article, we explore how Serena and her team have scaled without losing their soul, and how they’re building sustainable growth through focus, relationships, and time-tested strategy.

The structure behind staying small(ish)

When Serena took a step back from day-to-day operations in 2023 to focus on personal priorities, she expected disruption. What followed instead was a steady proof of trust. Her team filled in the gaps, and the business kept running.

“Even with me removed… they just all rallied around and filled the gaps.”

This moment was operationally impressive and culturally significant, highlighting the kind of deep-rooted trust that shapes resilient teams. It revealed a depth of confidence that many businesses aspire to but rarely design for. For small and growing teams, the real test of structure is not when things are going well, but when the founder steps away.

ProspHER operates as three distinct entities: a Community Interest Company for events, an Education arm for training, and a Technology business for its new digital platform, ProspHER Quest. Each of these has clear leadership, defined roles, and specific goals. The leadership team, a seven-person C-suite, is responsible for their own areas, from tech to finance to PR. Tasks are managed through shared Trello boards and structured processes that work remotely and flexibly.

However, this structure wasn’t built overnight. It reflects a deliberate shift from reactive management to proactive design. Serena described this focus as a turning point:

“It allowed me to step back and look at that bigger picture… actually work on the business rather than in it.”

And that’s a critical inflection point for founders: the moment you move from being the engine of everything to becoming the architect of what’s next. Serena didn’t outsource her vision, she structured it. Rather than scaling through layers of middle management, ProspHER doubled down on focus and values alignment. Each leader in the team brings not only functional expertise but a genuine investment in the mission.

Leadership approaches like this are often misunderstood. They prioritise avoiding burnout by creating spaciousness, giving competent people the autonomy and focus to lead in their lane without unnecessary complexity or hierarchy.

Working with time, not against it

Many founders learn the hard way that bigger business doesn’t mean better boundaries. Serena’s experience made her reconsider what growth actually costs, especially in personal terms.

“By slowing down personally, the results for ProspHER and the opportunities that have come our way… have been more than if I was working 60–70 hours.”

In the entrepreneurial world, overworking is often worn as a badge of honour. But what Serena proves is that long hours don’t necessarily translate into long-term success. Instead, she reframed her energy as a finite resource, and began allocating it with care. It’s a subtle but powerful shift: choosing sustainability over hustle, and systems over scrambling.

This rethinking of productivity and pace translated directly into how the team approaches projects. Deadlines are realistic. Wellbeing is built into scheduling. There’s no glorification of burnout. Serena now balances her work with recovery, journaling, and family time, and the culture of the business reflects that same rhythm.

The ripple effects of this are profound. By modelling a healthy balance, Serena gives her team permission to do the same. 

Founder well-being is only part of the picture. What Serena’s approach really challenges is the traditional image of a high-performing business, one that sacrifices people for pace. Instead, it offers a model where performance and values aren’t competing forces, but connected ones. And in many ways, it’s a challenge to all of us: what are we calling “growth” that’s actually just exhaustion?

Rather than pushing for constant speed, the team works with what time allows, not just in hours, but in life seasons. This kind of pace awareness is rare, and it’s more strategic than it looks on the surface. It builds resilience.

“I’m definitely not that founder and CEO that gets up at five in the morning… I like my sleep, I like my cuddles with my children.”

That boundary supports healthier ways of working and for many business owners, that’s exactly the recalibration needed.

The long shelf life of trust

If the team model is one way ProspHER has scaled without bloating, the other is how it approaches sales: slowly. Strategically. Built on relationships over transactions.

Their community includes 60,000+ social followers and over 125,000 email subscribers. But Serena sees each contact as a long-term connection, not a quick win.

“We’ve never disregarded any relationship we’ve had.”

This feel-good philosophy also functions as a practical, results-driven strategy. In many business circles, relationship-building is viewed as a ‘nice to have’, something you do around the more urgent work of closing deals. 

But for Serena, it’s the centre of gravity. ProspHER has structured its CRM system, communication cadence, and even event programming around the idea that every contact is a potential collaborator, not necessarily today, but eventually.

Some of their corporate partners came from connections made years earlier. Others from women they once supported as founders, who later joined corporate teams. And some from companies that said no the first time but came back when the timing was right.

There’s no pressure to close. Instead, they use HubSpot to track meaningful conversations and follow up months down the line. This structure enables what Serena calls a “holistic sales approach” that focuses on fit and values.

“That one relationship could give us a good few avenues into different companies… not just now, but five years down the line.”

If you’ve ever felt like you’re wasting time following up with people who didn’t convert immediately, this is your reminder: time is not wasted if trust is being built. Long game selling moves with intention, not urgency. And for businesses that care about reputation, alignment, and genuine community, this becomes a strategic edge, an approach that strengthens both connection and consistency over time.

Cost-effective doesn’t mean cutting corners

One of the more overlooked strengths in ProspHER’s growth story is how deliberately the team treats its tech stack. Tools like Trello and HubSpot are used intentionally, selected to align with how the team actually works, not just because they’re widely known. Nothing sits in the system unless it earns its place.

“It allowed me to step back and look at that bigger picture… actually work on the business rather than in it.”

This tells us something important: consistency is the outcome of intentional design. The use of Trello here – a popular project and task-management suite –  reflects a structured way of maintaining coordination and visibility, helping seven C-suite leads stay in sync without constant oversight. It’s a practical decision shaped by leadership priorities.

Across many of the business owners we advise at Serenichron, we see the same tension: growth creates friction, and friction leads to tool-chasing. It’s easy to confuse a new feature set with progress. But every tool you add has a cost, sometimes in money, always in attention. Serena’s team resists this by pausing to ask better questions: what are we solving, really? Are we streamlining, or are we just layering?

Operational awareness like this rarely draws attention. You won’t see it on a splashy About page. But it enables a business to stay light on its feet when others slow down under their own complexity.

There’s something else here too: the courage to choose simplicity in a landscape obsessed with scaling complexity. Fewer tools. Smaller systems. Better decisions. implicity reflects a level of maturity in how teams scale with intention.

Serena’s team doesn’t rush into adopting new tools or platforms. They’ve had moments where a shiny tech promise added more confusion than clarity. That’s why they now pause to ask a more strategic question: do we really need this, or are we solving the wrong problem?

Serena’s team shows us that how a business scales is just as important as how much it scales. And in an age of app fatigue, thoughtful tech restraint might just be your most underrated growth strategy.

Future focus: global reach, same grounded roots

While the structure and relationships have kept ProspHER lean and effective, their next stage of growth is anything but small. Serena and the team are preparing to take their learning platform global, with a focus on high-growth and values-aligned markets like the Gulf region, including Dubai and Saudi Arabia, where women’s professional education and empowerment are fast-developing sectors.

Going global changes not only the scale but the entire operating context. What works in the UK might not translate seamlessly elsewhere. That’s why the team has already begun cultivating partnerships that bridge local knowledge and international goals, including collaborations with university researchers and agencies with experience in regional expansion.

But growth at this level comes with pressure: to move quickly without losing sight of the core mission; to adapt without diluting. This is where ProspHER’s past choices, prioritising infrastructure, alignment, and values, create a strong foundation.

The strategy remains the same: build patiently, prioritise relationships, and keep the mission at the centre. In an era where globalisation often means rushing into new markets with cookie-cutter tactics, ProspHER is choosing to grow with cultural awareness, strong local partners, and strategic intent. For founders looking at international opportunities, this is a model worth watching.

Conclusion: trust builds the better business

One recent study published by Harvard Business Review suggests that founder-CEOs who remain too long in the same operational role may unintentionally hinder team autonomy and agility. It found that leadership transitions, where founders step into more strategic, architectural roles, can make companies more adaptable and resilient. ProspHER’s evolution supports this: their lean C-suite and clearly defined roles empower leaders to own their areas without bottlenecking through a single figurehead.

Serena’s shift away from daily operations marked a clear change in role clarity, one that enabled others in the team to step forward with confidence and ownership. Instead of scaling through control, ProspHER scaled by distributing responsibility. That choice created space for innovation, trust, and long-term coherence.

Their leadership model shows that sustainable growth stems from clarity, structure, and shared purpose, not from expanding layers of management. ProspHER is thriving, and that speaks volumes about the power of conscious leadership design.

This approach raises a bigger question for founders: What if the real measure of growth lies in how closely it aligns with your original intention, not just in how fast or how far you scale? ProspHER shows that focus-driven expansion is not only possible, but often more durable.

One of the overlooked truths in business is that sustainable growth requires rhythm, not rush. What stood out to me in Serena’s story is that they’ve architected their progress on principles we deeply value at Serenichron: clarity of vision, patience in execution, and the ability to filter signal from noise. Their tech is intentional. Their leadership is shared. And their sales cycle, while slow by some standards, is grounded in trust and long-term return.

For business owners weighed down by complexity or urgency, Serena’s approach offers a practical path: scale by sharpening, not stacking. At Serenichron, we often work with leaders ready to simplify their systems and reconnect to what really moves the needle. ProspHER shows what’s possible when every part of the business, from tools to team to timing, supports the same direction.

If you’re looking to rethink how your business scales, or even just how it breathes, let’s chat.