A MUM-OF-THREE who fell pregnant aged 15 has revealed how she went from incomes £2.50 an hour in a shoe store to now working a six-figure PR company.
Brenda Gabriel, 41, who lives in London, was a teenage single mum, who grew up on a council property to unemployed dad and mom.
She flunked her A Ranges in school and ended up working in a shoe store for simply £2.60 an hour - earlier than a near-death expertise in 2013 modified her life perpetually.
Now, Brenda is the proud proprietor of a PR company and enterprise progress consultancy agency and turned over a whopping £205,000 - all whereas getting to hang around with a bunch of celebs.
Talking completely to Fabulous, Brenda explains: "I grew up in Huddersfield, on a big council property.
"Cash was all the time tight.
"Each my dad and mom struggled to get work.
"Regardless of my dad being a certified electrician who labored for the BBC when he lived in London, he couldn’t get a job in Huddersfield.
"My mum additionally struggled to safe work."
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The mum-of-three continues: "I used to be wearing second hand garments earlier than it turned modern.
"I had free college meals and acquired clothes vouchers for my uniform.
"Again then, even my college sneakers had been purchased with vouchers. Generally we might run out of meals in the home."
Brenda recollects how when she turned 10, her mum moved her and her sister to a council property in London which she says was "one of many worst estates within the space."
Then aged 15, she fell pregnant.
"I found I used to be pregnant in the course of the summer time holidays earlier than coming into 12 months 11 in school," Brenda explains.
"I went to the medical doctors as I would missed my interval and thought I ought to go to test.
"She did the check and advised me it was constructive.
"I used to be conscious that my life had modified perpetually in that second.
"I used to be advised of my choices and left the surgical procedure in a daze.
"The long run I had deliberate, going to school to review enterprise and travelling the world appeared like a misplaced alternative, however I knew I needed to maintain my child."
Regardless of deciding it might be "foolish" to surrender the chance to develop into a mum simply because it wasn’t deliberate, Brenda was frightened concerning the attainable backlash she may obtain.
"I used to be was frightened about being judged by everybody I knew," she admits.
"I hated the concept of being a stereotype - a council property teen mum.
"There have been a number of teen mums on my property who had been judged and I knew it was precisely what my dad and mom had been attempting to guard me from by being strict."
However simply two weeks after giving beginning to her first son in 1998, aged 16, Brenda did her GCSEs and secured a powerful one A*, seven Bs and one C.
I used to be was frightened about being judged by everybody I knew. I hated the concept of being a stereotype - a council property teen mum
Brenda Gabriel
After taking a 12 months out to take care of her son, she began faculty, the place she studied enterprise, French and IT.
However regardless of hoping to be a bilingual worldwide enterprise lady, Brenda broke up with the daddy of her little one in 2000 and went on to flunk her A-Ranges, getting only one E in French.
Throughout this time Brenda labored a number of jobs - together with a store assistant position for a shoe retailer the place she was paid simply £2.60 an hour, and a Saturday job at TK Maxx.
However the first position she had after faculty was for a safety firm in December 2001, the place she labored for seven months earlier than swapping to an identical agency.
In 2003, she began working as a civil servant within the Crown Prosecution Service, the place she remained for the subsequent 11 years.
Nonetheless in 2013, a life-changing accident modified all the things and impressed Brenda to start out one other profession.
"I used to be biking to a circuit coaching class in summer time 2012 and acquired run over by a van," she recollects.
"My first thought was 'I’m going to be late for boot camp'.
"My subsequent thought was, 'I might've died a civil servant.'
"That was after I realised I wanted to go away my job."
"One month later I found I used to be pregnant with my second little one and at 8 months pregnant I took voluntary redundancy and left with no clue what I used to be going to do."
Brenda went on to promote hair extensions and labored in property and social media administration, earlier than occurring to find PR.
She began off working for an company earlier than deciding to arrange her personal Brenda Gabriel PR, in 2015.
"The principle intention of my enterprise to start out, was to assist small companies who had been nice at what they did, develop into higher identified by extra folks," explains Brenda.
Nonetheless, it wasn't all plain crusing....
"I suffered a great deal of setbacks," she says.
"It hasn’t been a straight ahead journey for me in any respect.
My daughter was born simply two years after my second son which meant I needed to take break day to be mum to 2 little ones while guiding my eldest via faculty...
"I needed to borrow cash from the youngsters’s financial savings to rent a gross sales coach in 2017 as my revenue wasn’t growing regardless of doing all the things I used to be advised to do to get purchasers to purchase my excessive worth provide.
I am dwelling a life I assumed I might by no means have at 16 - after I moved into my flat alone and couldn’t even afford to embellish or purchase furnishings!
Brenda Gabriel
"I’ve made some ill-advised enterprise investments over time, together with teaching and packages.
"Success isn’t a straight line and issues do not all the time go the way you anticipate them to."
Regardless of the hurdles, the decided mum, who works with a small workforce of freelancers on an ongoing foundation, went from turning over £24,000 in 2017 to turning over £150,000 in 2018.
And final 12 months, her enterprise turned over a very spectacular £205,000.
Amongst her prime achievements embrace being chargeable for the PR for inaugural Damilola Taylor Belief memorial lectures and the twentieth anniversary Yr of Hope marketing campaign that secured the curiosity of Rio Ferdinand, and Christine Ohuruogu.
She's additionally mingled with the likes of Heather Small, Gemma Collins, Vanessa Feltz, Lizzie Cundy, Ashley Walters, Alex Murphy from Dancing on ice and most not too long ago, Khadija Kalifa from The Apprentice.
Her work for a world relationship coach additionally resulted in a number of main options and TV alternatives together with invitations onto GMB, The Wright Stuff and even a proposal for her personal actuality TV present.
The profitable businesswoman concludes: "I’m now a 6-figure enterprise proprietor.
"I am dwelling a life I assumed I might by no means have at 16 - after I moved into my flat alone and couldn’t even afford to embellish or purchase furnishings!"
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