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Penny is the founder of Company Studio based in Berlin. She’s worked with clients ranging from Twitter to Tetra Pak. Here’s her Germany expat entrepreneurship story.

SEASON 2 | EPISODE #11

Imagine taking a leap of faith, moving to a new Germany from Australia, and building a successful business with no university degree in hand.

This was the journey of Penny Blackmore, a sales and marketing consultant who transitioned to freelancing and ultimately building her own consultancy in Germany.

We explore Penny’s fascinating journey to Germany and how she established her successful sales and marketing consultancy, Company Studio. From working at a digital product studio to dealing with the intricacies of freelance work in Germany, Penny’s story is a testament to the power of resilience and determination.

Penny’s worked with clients ranging from Twitter to Tetra Pak in locations across Australia, Europe, and the US. She headed up business development at two globally recognised design agencies and has expertise in startups, innovation and design.

Penny now brings this unique expertise to her hyper-specific niche helping her clients to with their sales and marketing. Other things to know? Penny is working on a novel as well as writing an occasional newsletter, And Another Thing, with an accompanying podcast.

She loves writing and has been published in the Guardian and the Huffington Post. Penny competed at the Olympics as a gymnast in 2004, which has taught her infinite lessons about tenacity, motivation, and resilience.

Some of the things Penny and I talked about:

How she came to Germany on freelance visa without a university degree
After doing various odd jobs, what finally made her say ‘f*ck it’ and get a real job, and how she leveraged her existing skills to do so.
How she transitioned out of her job to go solo and how long it took her to develop her own proprietary process
How having a very specific niche made it easy to build a client base
How she helps agency owners and freelancers develop a fantastic sales process that helps them close deals quickly
Her view on selling B2B versus B2C
Penny explained her cupcake, birthday cake and wedding cake metaphor (analogy) for service offerings
Her strategy on positioning and brand awareness
What she recommends instead of attending conferences when it comes to building your pipeline
Generational differences when it comes to communication channels
We had a LinkedIn love fest
The very practical advice her present self would give her past self as she was starting her business

Where to find Penny:

https://company.studio/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pennyblackmore/
https://www.instagram.com/companystudio.berlin/
https://penelopeblackmore.substack.com/