Lynne Franks OBE

An interview with Lynne Franks OBE

Having positioned the UK as a world fashion leader by initiating London Fashion Week and the British Fashion Awards, highly successful PR expert Lynne Franks OBE became a champion of women’s empowerment, sustainable business practices and social justice issues. Gill Donnell chats to Lynne about the 20th anniversary of the SEED Network and her plans for the future

Gill: Lynne, the SEED Network has now reached its 20th anniversary. What are your plans to mark this event?

Lynne: We have a whole series of live events going on across the country, launching on 11th March at Covent Garden’s hClub, when I am being interviewed by BBC journalist Brenda Emmanus. I am also planning workshops and panel talks with John Lewis and the Daily Telegraph across the country, and most excitingly of all I am putting on SEED Live! This is a major empowerment and wellbeing festival for women entrepreneurs at Wincanton Racecourse. There will also be a complete reset of the SEED Network, online forums, opportunities for collaboration, workshops and skills exchange, and the launch of my online Power of 7 programmes. There are lots of exciting new projects pollinating in the SEED Garden and SEED 20.20 is just the beginning.

#SWIBTRIBE | ISSUE 3 Gill: You have now settled in Somerset. Can you tell us about the creation of the SEED Hub? Lynne: The SEED Hub in Wincanton came about almost instinctively when I moved there about three years ago. I bought two beautiful old buildings in the middle of town and have converted one, previously an old pub, into a beautiful wellbeing hub, with bedrooms, a healthy vegan café, treatment rooms and a welcoming large workshop studio. We have been holding all kinds of events, such as live music, talks, workshops and healing sessions, with guests coming from all over the country “There are lots of exciting projects pollinating in the SEED Garden and SEED 20.20 is just the beginning”

to be nurtured and inspired. It is the bricks and mortar to the SEED dream and I love it. I live next door, with a lovely shared garden that we use for summer events, and the SEED Store with our eclectic mix of sustainable natural beauty, fashion and lifestyle produces at the front.

Gill: What are your plans for the next five years?

Lynne: I wish I knew. As the original SEEDSower archetype from my Power of 7 programme, I am full of ideas that are focused on women collaborating and leading society from the grassroots to create a whole new world from communities outwards, based on love and not fear. We women have a lot to do together and I am staying open to how this next big push will evolve. Now 71, it is important for me to stay healthy with all my energy full pelt for as long as I can – and I am so excited with all that is going on. I have seven grandchildren and want the world to be a safe and healthy place for them, and all children, to grow up in.

“I am full of ideas that are focused on women collaborating and leading society from the grassroots”

Lynne’s Vision and Values Statement My vision is for a world based on cooperation between male and female. As women, we know that the best and most effi cient way to get things done is to work together, and that means living and working with men in harmonious coexistence, valuing the perspectives and strengths of both sexes and creating a higher quality of life for all. It must also be a world of cooperation between business and community, human beings and the planet, national governments and non-governmental organisations, young and old, spirituality and science, and our inner and outer selves.

The opportunity to create this world does exist now. It is possible to create a society where we can bring people together and heal our families, our communities and our world. To do so would take a new breed of leaders, ones who aren’t tied to the old way of doing things. Rather than money or power, these leaders must have spiritual values to guide them. And since spiritual values are at our core, it is vitally important for women to step up and take the lead in this transformation of society.

A cooperative society is an organic, evolutionary step away from the world we presently live in. When the power of national governments diminish, that power will naturally transfer into specifi c small and large networks that transcend national boundaries and link with one another. Consequently, a new economic order could be created that truly rewards effort, including the caring of others.

Distribution of land and natural resources would be fairly shared among the people who live on it, and the need to conquer and repress others in the name of power would not be a consideration.

Lynne Franks OBE, The GROW Handbook, 2004

“As women, we know that the best and most effi cient way to get things done is to work together”

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