Manifesting New Realities

I started my Monday on the sofa with a coffee and a book I had been putting off for weeks: The Magic of Manifesting. I have always believed in the quiet power of choosing what you pay attention to, and I have read plenty on the subject, but this one caught me off guard. It does not wrap manifesting in mysticism. It leans into physics. The line I keep turning over in my head is the idea that time, as science treats it, is actually its weakness. We have agreed to imagine our lives as a straight line that only runs forward, with the present sitting on it as a tiny dot we barely notice. But if you actually pay attention, the present is the only thing that is real. Everything else is the ego, building a timeline so it has something to compare us against.

I am thinking about this on a Monday because I want to talk directly to a specific group of women today. Not the AI founders raising billions. Not the deeptech spin-outs with press teams. I want to talk to the hairdresser who opened her salon two years ago, the coach building her practice from her kitchen table, the educator running small workshops, the nutritionist who just rented her first clinic room, the photographer juggling weddings and newborn shoots, the yoga teacher renting studio space by the hour. You are the quiet majority of what makes a European high street, a village, a neighbourhood actually alive. You are also the ones the big headlines forget. So today's blog is for you.

The Grant That Is Actually For You

There is a grant closing in six days that is built for small businesses in food and food-adjacent work, and almost nobody I speak to has heard of it. It is called the EIT Food EWA Programme, short for "Empowering Women in Agrifood", and it offers up to €20,000 to women running food-related businesses across Europe. The deadline is Sunday, 26 April 2026.

When I say "agrifood", do not let the word scare you off. The programme's definition is broader than it sounds on paper. If you run a small bakery, a catering business, a cafe with a local sourcing story, a nutrition practice, a home-grown food brand, a cooking school, a farm-shop project, or anything that puts food onto other people's plates, you could be in scope. This is exactly the kind of funding that gets missed because the name sounds like it is for "someone else". It is not. It is for you, if food is any part of your work.

Here is what I always tell women about grants like this one. Even the act of applying is worth it. You will be forced to write down, in plain language, who your customer is, what you sell, why now, and why you. That is a document you will use long after the grant decision is made, regardless of the outcome. Treat the application as free business coaching that happens to come with a chance of €20,000 attached.

The details are here → eitfood.eu. Six days is enough. Open the tab today.

How A Small Business Actually Gets Seen

I get this question more than any other. How do I get noticed? How does my coaching practice, my salon, my clinic, my little course platform ever end up in a magazine? The answer is not what most people think. And since almost everything written about PR is written for startups with budgets, I want to explain this the way I would to a friend who is completely new to it.

Picture a staircase. At the bottom of the staircase is the first piece of press you ever get. That might be your local free newspaper, a parish magazine, a chamber of commerce newsletter, a community Facebook page with an editor, or a tiny podcast run out of someone's spare bedroom. At the top of the staircase is Forbes. In between are a lot of steps. And here is the secret almost nobody tells you: nobody jumps from the bottom to the top. Forbes looks at the step below it. That step looks at the step below it. Credibility climbs upward one stair at a time, and each step makes the next one easier to reach.

Here is why this matters for a small, service-based business. You do not need to pitch Forbes. You need to pitch the step that is one level above where you are today. If you have no coverage at all yet, your first target is hyper-local: your town's free paper, a community page, a neighbourhood podcast, the smallest trade newsletter in your sector. When you have one cutting, your next target is regional: your county magazine, a lifestyle supplement in a mid-size paper, a women-in-business feature in a regional publication. When you have two or three regional pieces, national starts becoming realistic. This is the actual path.

The ladder has names on it, and it helps to know some of them. For coaches and therapists, publications like Psychology Today run directories and editorial features that are genuinely accessible, not gatekept. For women in business, there is a whole world of publications most people never think about: Stylist, Red, Marie Claire Business, Courier, and the growing shelf of women's entrepreneurship titles in every European country, many of them actively looking for real, working women to feature and not just the already-famous. For podcasts, start with shows that have under ten thousand listeners and a clear focus on your sector or your region. A host of a small podcast reads her own emails. A host of a huge one does not.

One practical rule, because otherwise six months disappear into "planning": write a one-paragraph pitch that says who you are, what you do, and why now. Send it to three publications or podcasts a week. Do not attach anything. Just the paragraph and a link to your website. Keep going. The staircase starts climbing on its own the moment you stop standing at the bottom looking up.

The List That Costs You Nothing To Nominate Someone For

Forbes and Know Your Value have just reopened nominations for their 2026 "50 Over 50" list. It is exactly the kind of list I love, because it stubbornly refuses the story that women's interesting work peaks in our thirties and then quietly fades. The women on this list each year include coaches, clinicians, educators, small-business owners, and founders of modest, durable companies, alongside the bigger names.

If you know a woman over fifty who is doing work that deserves to be seen, and she will never put herself forward, nominate her. It takes about ten minutes. The single act of being named on a list like this can change the conversations she gets invited into. And if you are her, let someone nominate you. Send this paragraph to one person who will do it on your behalf. This is another step on the staircase, and a free one.

→ Nominate someone at ms.now/know-your-value

Coming Up

📅 Sunday, 26 April 2026, EIT Food EWA Programme deadline. Up to €20,000 for women running food-related businesses. → eitfood.eu

🌟 Open now, Forbes & Know Your Value "50 Over 50" nominations. For the women doing their most interesting work in the second half. → ms.now/know-your-value

🌍 Rolling, Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs. EU-funded exchange programme, open to any sector and service-based business, up to six months with an experienced entrepreneur in another European country. → erasmus-entrepreneurs.eu

Sources: EIT Food, Empowering Women in Agrifood (EWA) Programme 2026 · Forbes & Know Your Value, 50 Over 50 Nominations 2026 · Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs, European Commission