Trina Little - The Life Changing Journey from Cancer Recovery to Climbing Kilimanjaro to creating A Noble Gift

0:01Just being brave and just I think just in the face of adversity being positive. Don't be afraid to put yourself out there.

0:10Today's guest is Trina Little, a highly respected expert in financial remedy and private law and the co-founder and CEO of A Noble Gift. Now Trina is renowned for her expertise as a barrister, easing clients through challenging and stressful proceedings, which has earned her incredible high praise. But in 2020, Trina faced a personal health battle with cancer. And together with her sister Georgina Hammond, she then co-founded A Noble Gift, which is an innovative auction platform connecting brands and philanthropists to charities through exceptional donated experiences. and after her cancer experience Trina took on the challenge of actually climbing Kilimanjaro and that inspiring climb raised over£150 ,000 for cancer charity you know and it really illustrates Tina's commitment to turning adversity into impactful community action so today we'll explore Trina's legal expertise, her approach to how she deals with clients, but most importantly, the inspiring story behind A Noble Gift.

1:28This really is a powerful example of courage, leadership and giving back.

1:38So here we are. Trina Little is with me today on the podcast. Now Trina is the co-founder and CEO of A Noble Gift. Great to see you Trina. Oh thank you so much for having us or having me on behalf of A Noble Gift. We're thrilled to have been invited on. Amazing. Well listen you've had quite an interesting journey that you've been on which covers really a you know business but a very personal journey and a catalyst for starting A Noble Gift. So Trina we're going to jump straight in to first of all what is A Noble Gift and what was the catalyst for you starting a noble gift thank you yeah a noble gift is an online fundraising platform for charities um we went live in december last year but it's an all all year round platform so um it's not it's not linked to a specific event um or anything it's literally all year round so there's a constant movement of um gifts on the site and essentially it's an auction platform um so the our parameters are that 100 of items on the site are gifted so brands philanthropic individuals or charities themselves have items that they can put on the site um they are then auctioned and 100 of the winning bid goes to charity we are not a charity we're a business so we um we take a platform fee on top of the um winning bid and that helps the platform keep going um it's completely unique we've not found anyone else in the world that's doing the model we're doing which is um really super exciting slash terrifying because it's um it's it's whether it's going to work but so far I'm touching wood it's going brilliantly um and it was born from um an illness I was diagnosed with cancer um in lockdown and um during my throes of chemotherapy my sister rang me and said um I think when this is over we should climb a mountain and if I can say myself and my sister are the least likely people that would climb a mountain probably that you've ever met um hate the cold don't like hiking never camped you know just sort of three of the uh three of the things that you wouldn't associate us with um and so we decided to climb Kilimanjaro and um I came out of chemotherapy and all my treatment and everything and I'm in remission now thank goodness and it's five years this summer um but we decided to climb Kilimanjaro and we did that in summer 2023 and as part of the climb we did a big fundraise for a local um cancer charity small cancer charity uh where we live they needed a piece of equipment that they didn't have in the local hospital and um it was a hundred thousand pounds and we decided that we set out and we could raise hopefully ten thousand pounds um so that was our goal and actually as it gathered momentum we we ended up raising 154 thousand pounds so we were able to buy the piece of equipment and um and we went to see it quite recently which was so emotional to see it actually in place and hearing how it was sort of saving lives it's you know it's just mind-blowing but we raised the money through an auction so we literally begged borrow and stole from our contacts so please give us staff and we auctioned it all and it went to um directly to the charity but we did it through a gala dinner which is the sort of typical way and um we held the auction was online and at the gala dinner uh we had people bidding that weren't in the room and that sort of really made us sit up and think because the larger items that were selling we had an estate agent that had given us a commission free house sale and it was worth 20 000 pounds and um i was thinking before the event oh gosh i'm not sure who's going to bid on that because it's quite unique you need to be selling your house want to sell it with the agent involved um and you want to be selling it now essentially and um what we realized is that the agent had sent it to their database so we had lots of people bidding who weren't in the room against each other so the people who won it I think they bought it for 12 ,000 pounds so they were thrilled because they saved money the money went to charity it was just a bit of a win-win and then when we came back from our climb obviously we were delighted with the money we'd raised and then we went back to our usual day jobs and we were then still being offered things so people who had been involved with the auction sort of said oh I've got VIP tickets to this or I can't go to this event you know do you want them to auction and we were kind of oh no no it's finish now and then one of our co-founders sarah said but why does it have to be finished you know why can't we just carry on doing this and then we also did a bit more of a deep dive into it and sort of tried to look at other options um and that's how we sort of found where there isn't anyone actually doing this so um that's kind of how it was born so it was completely born out of charity um and so yeah we set up so we started um really started in earnest last january and then obviously developing the tech, developing a website.

6:43It was completely out of our comfort zones. But we managed to go live in November. We started closing auctions in December. So sort of six months in and we're into the hundreds of thousands of pounds now, which is amazing that we've raised. So, yeah, it's. But, yeah, mind blowing. Oh, well, listen, what a way to kick us off, Trina. Fantastic. and I want to I want to go back a little bit because there's so much in this I mean you know there's women in business angle they're starting a business there's the charity there's the kind of very personal journey that you've been on as well you know there's so much to talk about but but take us back Trina to to the cancer diagnosis because before that you were you know a barrister are you still doing barrister work I am Trina yeah still my day job yeah obviously the life of a startup there's no um we did do a raise um we did do our first round raise but we've we're not taking any money out of business at the moment we're just sort of putting everything in so i'm sort of still doing my day job yeah yeah yeah i mean investing for growth right i mean you know very well as you and i do you know that when you start a business you know really year three if you're lucky getting some profit out start getting some profit so yeah it does uh take a lot of cash and you're kind of bootstrapping it with a combination of a bit of a bit of angel angel money in there but um yeah Going back to, well, maybe we'll come back to that, actually, you know, the actual asking for money to invest in a business because there's a whole mindset around that as well.

8:10So going back to the cancer diagnosis, Trina, I mean, obviously COVID was a difficult time for everyone, but you're there, you're full-time barrister and working mum. You've got four sons, haven't you? Four sons, yeah. They keep me busy. So you're surrounded by testosterone and men in your life, but maybe they're not testosterone yet those those boys but it's all it's probably all coming isn't yeah yeah yeah um but yeah talk us through i know i talk us through that that sort of lead up to the cancer diagnosis really what what was going on for you personally at that time you know was it out of the blue was it a surprise was it something that you can't thought oh something's not quite right how did it play out at the beginning for you um well that's a really interesting question because I think it's I sensed there was something wrong with me I just I it's interesting I was listening to your um the podcast you've done about you when you're when you were ill yourself and so much of that resonated with me because it's just go go go and at the time I was working I was building a house I loved doing a self-build and um but I felt the stress was different it was on a different level and I started feeling unwell um but actually none of that I went for lots of tests and none of it was related to my eventual diagnosis um and I took out in lockdown we sort of got around to do the things that we never got around to doing which was sort of taking out some uh health care and things like that and um I was sent they said well as part of the introduction you get a well woman assessment and um you know would you like to take that and I was like yeah why not you know I'll go for it and part of that was a mammogram and um they rang and a few days later and just said we found something that looks suspicious um which was um I mean it was just you know it was how can I describe it it was hideous is there a way to describe it um but I kind of sense as I had sense there was something wrong with me I kind of it wasn't massively surprising although I was surprised to have got that you know I don't drink I don't smoke I've had four kids I've breastfed them all that I'm vegetarian all that sort of stuff so I try to do everything as well as I can but then you know it's someone sort of said you know do you feel why me and I sort of feel well no I feel why not me why why wouldn't it be me you know um and so then that sort of starts the roller coaster of the whole you know treatment and everything but um it I'm just I feel very lucky weirdly that you know it was caught early um I'm fine thank god five years out um but it has taught me so much and so as I say when you were talking about your illness it just so resonated because I feel I was just looking down rushing rushing rushing and I wasn't enjoying my life as in I wasn't taking time to enjoy my life um and what this has shown me is that you've got to sort of look up and you've got to enjoy these moments and try and live in the present rather than strive strive strive and um and just just makes you appreciate life and it sounds twee but like once you face your mortality in that way particularly I had my son was my youngest was four it's like you know this is you know this is hard you know and um you know the the whatever you know the thought of him being without a mum and all that sort of stuff you know but I'm here to tell the tale and that's why you sort of think life is for living and like do something do something with your life don't waste it don't just let it waste because you know we only get one chance at this so in that way like I'm fitter than I've ever been I'm healthier than I've ever been you know I go running and before that everyone knew my motto was I only run if someone chases me and now like I go to this beautiful we live near a stunning Pinetum and like I can go there and in the trees and just really appreciating life and it's just been such a having come through it now I can reflect on it and just sort of think gosh you know it was like it was it was okay that it happened like you know it's that's all right like that's my story but I'm here to tell the tale and to sort of from the darkness comes the light and so with a noble gift it's like seeing the difference we're making is it's just so enriching it's just yeah it's been a journey and never you know you never want to be part of that club but I am and you know let's let's do some good with it yeah yeah it's I mean there's so much in this you know someone might be listening to this tree you know that's maybe has just had a similar diagnosis or slightly different diagnosis and be thinking oh my gosh you know all that fear and all the unknowns and and awful i'd imagine it's it's it's it's pretty um yeah pretty pretty pretty hard to well it's very extremely hard and you know you had like you say your son was only four you know you you're busy working mum and it is very it is it's it's kind of ironic though isn't it you come you're in almost your darkest moments and times can often be the where the biggest lessons are where oh massively you know I'm not sure you would go as far as saying I'm glad it happened but I mean I actually when I got ill it was nowhere near sort of you know to the extent or seriousness that you had recently but I was actually really glad that I'd got sick which sounds really weird um because it taught me so many lessons and it was a chance a forced stop which I don't think I've ever had in my in my life before but I wasn't facing you know as a diagnosis like you were so it's probably easy for me to say that but you know yeah it is I think just in terms of that it's like I hadn't ever obviously people I knew had had cancer and things like that and you think oh once the operation is done once the treatment's done then you're okay like we're just going to go back to normal but actually the men and if anyone is listening to this the hardest part is the mental stuff like you know that after the diagnosis after the treatment it's then that am I going to be okay is it going to come back like you know it's that terrible worry um but actually time is a great healer so you know every day that goes by every month that goes by and now please god every year that goes by these are my sort of bonus years it's like this is amazing like you know I've had five amazing years you know I've seen my son's now nine you know he's he's doing brilliantly and my older one's gone off to university and things like that so and when he went off to university a lot of my friends were so upset but I was like it's brilliant I've got one you know one's gone off he's flown the nest you know and I've seen that and I've been here to experience that and I think I can't remember exactly what the saying is but it's something like you only start living your first life or you only start living your life when you realize you've only got one it's something like that and basically when you when you are faced with your own mortality you know you then sort of go actually now I'm going to live my life so yeah yeah it's interesting that's it's so it's so um meaningful and like you say what what what got you through it do you think I know it probably wasn't one thing but what what were some of the key things that that kind of helped you get through you know that the treatment processing it in your own head still being able to be there for your family etc you know what are some of the some of the elements that that kind of helped you find the strength to get through it Trina?

15:49Attitude. Having a positive attitude. I remember just before I started chemo because initially they said I didn't need chemo and so I was thinking I'll just keep it under the radar. They just do tiny it's almost like keyhole surgery they take it out and that's it and I was thinking great and then they said actually we think you should have chemo and I remember I was sitting in the kitchen and I just was like really head in the hands because I thought right now I have because I hadn't told the children I was like now I've got to tell the children all of the rest of it and obviously they were different ages so telling them in different ways um was difficult um and then I sort of sat at the kitchen table then I just had a revelation and I stood up but I just said no one else is me I'm just gonna do this I'm gonna absolutely smash it and my husband bought me a mug saying no one else is me I don't know what came over me and I just thought I've got to just put my big girl pants on dig deep and just get on with it and um that's what I did I just really tried to keep positive as much as I could and I know everyone is on very different journeys and um nobody and that's another thing I found sort of like that I hadn't known before is that everybody's journey is completely different and everyone has different prognosis and all of the rest of it but I was lucky in terms of my prognosis because it was caught early um but I thought I'm just gonna go smash this I'm not gonna feel sorry for myself I've just got to get on with it get it out of the way and then I can get on with my life um which was tight you know difficult times I had to go through everything on my own so whereas normally you'd be able to bring someone to chemo with you or when I had the operations it was like I'd be able to have someone to meet me afterwards but it was you were completely on your own but my god the doctors and nurses and everybody was were just amazing like you know they really got me through it just an amazing amazing team of people so um yes I think just being really positive is how I had to get through it which was hard at times um but you know just keep going get it done it was almost like a project it was like right how many have I got I've got eight sessions of chemo and my dad my dad always used to drop me off at chemo and we'd say right how many have we got now we're nearly at the top of the mountain and then we're coming down the mountain and yeah just you know that and you know just sort of amazing family and friends you know yeah incredibly supportive well I love the logic you know this is the barrister in you it's a project how many have we got you know very logical logical mind and and I guess um I guess you know how what well one of the questions I have um Trina is what did you learn about yourself through that that entire period what are some of the things that you either surprised you or just reaffirmed um about yourself um I've always been a very positive person and I think that comes from my like my parents um always just sort of like you can just do it like if that's something you want to do I'm fairly sure if I'd have said when I was a teenager I want to be an astronaut they would have gone great how do you do that like we'll help you and that's just been instilled in me so I think um just reaffirm that positivity and just my love for my family like they just are my friends it's just you know just feel so blessed really um and actually with the kids it was like I couldn't sit around feeling unwell it was like because we're in lockdown it wasn't like they were even going to school they were here all the time so I had to think I feel really unwell but it's like okay just gonna get on let's get on as best as I can and if I needed to rest I would but you know just you know just makes you feel so lucky you know to have family and friends because I know not everybody does um but just having that support um was amazing but yeah just just sort of makes you go I'm kind of it makes you feel like obviously doing my in my profession you know it can be quite intimidating at times you know you're in front of judges all the time and you know and you're in different situations and sometimes before this I would think oh I feel worried about certain hearing or whatever but now nothing scares me like nothing frightens me because I'm thinking what's the worst that can happen my son's just been doing his a-levels and he's been worrying about them and I just said nobody's dying like nobody's ill this is just exams like it's okay and actually that has been so freeing because you sort of think well you know as long as like my health is okay that's the most important thing and everything else will work out

20:22so if you're inspired by Trina's story and you want to hear more from leaders who are transforming their fields and communities don't forget to subscribe to us on Brave Bold Brilliant leave us a review or share this episode with someone who believes in turning challenges into positive change you know your support helps amplify stories like Trina's and it really does keep these important conversations alive yeah and then the kilomancharo climb so this is not a a mean feat you know at all this is not an easy thing to do how many of you of you were on the climb obviously it was yourself and your sister did it was there a group of you that did yeah there was seven seven of the most it was obviously not including myself but like the women were just so amazing and um we had dame tracy crouch who i met through but we shared an oncologist and um we he'd introduced me over email to uh tracy and on the email was kilimanjaro she was like what's kilimanjaro and i said we're thinking of climbing kilimanjaro she went i'm in let's do it and i've never we'd never met before and um we had um one of the breast cancer surgeons um did it with us as well and just some amazing friends so uh one of my barrister friends and some sort of mum friends and um it was just like literally bonded for life you know when you've done something like that uh you like just the most incredible people and again like out of this you know that would never in a million years have happened if it hadn't been for my illness and so you just feel so blessed we see each other all the time we're planning our trip for next year like just the most amazing group of women and there's no way we would have got through it if it wasn't for each other we all had sort of various points where some of us were down and others were physically down or mentally down and we just all pulled together and just was so supportive of each other and I just said you know women at their very very best like just couldn't have got better than that just yeah it was it was really tough but um yeah incredible incredible the perfect example of kind of sisterhood really and it's broader oh amazing isn't it yeah yeah yeah yeah that's that's cool how long did it take then trina um the climb was eight days so we did a slightly longer route so we could get acclimatized for um longer and um the i think it was 18 hours on summit night so you start at midnight and um our amazing um uh leader said um you know don't look up because if you look up you think you're looking at stars but you're looking at other people's head torches and it was you know you're looking up and thinking is that the top but it's like where are we you know is that the sky because it's quite disorientating um but yeah 18 hours so from so when you start at midnight to when you get down the other side yeah because once you're up you've got to get down quite quickly because of the altitude so um it was hideous and incredible at the same time

23:38when you got to the top what's the feeling what's going what was going through your mind at that point um I can't breathe literally we're all sort of some had some was some of the girls were feeling unwell some had a headache like some felt sick others felt amazing I was struggling to breathe um so you could literally walk from here like two meters and then you'd have to stop and sort catch your breath and um Tracy had sort of said when you get to the top you get to there's it's it's quite frustrating because you get to the top and you think I've made it and then they say now you need to walk it's an old volcano dormant volcano so then you walk around the crater rim and then you get to like nearly the top you get to another stop and then you go a bit further around and then you are at the top and when we got to the second stop I think Tracy said I feel really unwell like you know should we go down and I I used some rather choice language to say I just can't six days and I have walked on this way and it was 45 minutes to the last bit I said I'm not not doing this last 45 minutes literally if you have to drag me off this goddamn mountain I'm doing it and um we all did it and you know that made it really special because not everybody does you know it's not it's not everybody that's successful so um yeah yeah it was it was incredible oh well listen and I mean what great what you won one a huge achievement for you personally but as a group you know our shared experience yeah you'll never you'll never ever forget and it's made you really close and then all the money you raised and then of course it was the catalyst for everything that you're doing now so it's yeah there's a beautiful symmetry to this Trina isn't there but um let's go back to the to a noble gift um yeah so the business is it's still in quite early stages you know in stock not quite startup but probably you know more or less still in startup mode really um what's the what's the sort of the next stage for you in terms of where you're going to take it you know we know that you're sort of still bootstrapping it and you're still working etc but what's the next sort of phase in the journey for a noble gift in terms of your kind of project plan if you like and pipeline yeah so we are we were so lucky that when we went live we had incredible partners um we had chelsea um the chelsea foundation we had the spurs foundation the nfl foundation they're all the charity arms of those you know the like the nfl chelsea and spurs obviously they all have their own charities um and so we were sort of going to these brands with literally like a bit of a powerpoint going look this is our idea like will you support us and like amazingly they took the leap of faith and we are so grateful for that because then that that then acts obviously then other people think oh well you know you've got them on board we'll come on board so um we're in advanced talks with sort of a significant number of the premier league teams um and they're the perfect sort of ecosystem because they've got they can provide the gifts um and then those gifts can obviously be auctioned and they market it to their database and then the money goes to their foundation um and that's worked so brilliantly so now we're in the um throes of planning uh the next sort of season my children my sons are so amazed at my football knowledge how that that has grown like exponentially um how much i know about football and how interested I am now in the different games and you know if we've got a child mascot appearing at one of the you know one of the games and things so um but what is amazing is like when you have clients who ring up like this one chap rang up and his son had gone to meet the um first team of one of the premier league clubs and he literally rang afterwards and he was so thrilled he was like literally you have made my son's life and we were like you know that's the sort of byproduct of it because you don't really think of that you think oh great the money's gone to charity the money's gone to charity that's brilliant but you don't think about the people who are having these experiences a lot of them that you can't actually access um and that they that is making someone's life you know you just think that is it's like a double dopamine hit you know you get to buy a gift for somebody but that money goes to charity but they also get to enjoy the gift so um that way you know there's so many amazing byproducts of this um so what we're doing now is we're focusing on um just keep building the pipeline essentially so we've got the gifts we always say it's like a sometimes you sort of go where the gifts where the gifts and then you get the gifts it's like where are the people to buy it so um but we're sort of getting a bit more of an even keel now and I think when we started it was anything we got was straight on whereas now actually it's brilliant to be able to plan a bit you know further forward we're doing a massive Christmas campaign we want it to be the biggest Christmas auction ever and um so yeah so we're really planning for that um and then we're so we're just looking to expand sort of into the other football clubs um and then we're also looking at sort of other um lots of other brands and actually we're finding people are now um now they understand how it works because it is such a unique concept it's taken a while for people to really grasp it but now people are um you know we've got loads of loyal customers that are buying things from us and you know for a startup to have that loyalty we've had people say you know we're spending all of our sort of experience money that we put to one side or whatever we're going to spend it all with you and um people have been on experiences and said i'm going to introduce you to other brands that i know would love this so like the loyalty we've got from our client base and how quickly that's growing is is so incredible um and then yeah just keep doing and just expanding and sort of get more gifts on the site and grow the database so we're looking a lot more into marketing um hopefully some more pr that sort of stuff things like this we're really um blessed to be on things like this um so just sort of keep growing really and getting the word out there because essentially we're a consumer brand which obviously it's difficult to grow a consumer brand from scratch it costs a lot of money but um you know we're hoping because of the loyalty we're seeing we just need to expand that so just keep going and scaling try and sort of look at maybe overseas market we think the middle east market could be i know there's obviously a lot of geopolitical um things going on at the moment but sort of expanding into the middle east market you know that could be a good market for us because a lot of the things we have literally money can't buy so oh well they can buy it on a noble gift so um it's that sort of thing that we want to access like the concierge services you know say look if your client wants this we can provide it um so yeah so just sort of expanding really keep going as we are so um but we're learning so much like I've never been I've never developed a website and that sort of stuff so I'm also being slightly older like the tech stuff I'm learning so much we've got an incredible he started as an intern and now he's just come on as a full-time employee now he's finished his degree but um he's fantastic we always laugh saying he'll be running the company one day but like he's bringing so much of this sort of tech knowledge to it so we're just learning all the time it's you know it's like every day is a school day but it's an area that I've never been involved in I I know about CRMs and, you know, loop and all that sort of stuff.

30:52Yeah. So it's good. It's good to challenge yourself in that way. 100 percent, 100 percent. And, you know, what skills are you finding from your kind of professional background as a barrister? What skills have sort of been useful for you, transferable? Because I often think that when people are thinking about, you know, starting a business or maybe a side hustle, you know, to kind of get going with something, maybe doing what you're doing is still working and they're kind of building something on the side that you might think, oh my god I don't have any transferable skills but we always have transferable skills don't we just massively underplay it I think but for you yeah there's lots of new stuff you'll learn but what are the things that you've been able to bring to the new business that comes from years and years being you know in the world of being a barrister that you've been in for so long yeah that's a really good question I like in terms of I deal with very I deal with such a broad section of clients in my barrister work so I'm used to and I would like to think it is a skill of mine to be able to deal with different people like you're meeting literally you're meeting different people every day you've got a different story and you know you need to listen to that and take that on board and be empathetic and things like that so that's been really helpful because you're dealing with clients you're dealing with charities you're dealing with brands that sort of thing but I suppose the contract side of it as well that like the legal side we were it was Christmas Eve and the NFL were desperately trying to, we were trying to sign a contract because we wanted to launch a gift.

32:14And I was at the pantomime with the children and the NFL lawyers who were amazing were trying to get it over the line. It was like the afternoon of Christmas Eve and I was under the chair trying to be on my phone, trying to sign off the contracts and things. So obviously that side of it has been helpful. And dealing with anything, you know, that needs a bit more of a robust approach, all the girls sort of shove it my way and I can deal with it that way. So and actually, I think, you know, being a barrister, there's so this sort of what we looked at is this charity auction world is pretty murky or some of it is.

32:46And, you know, we've had charities or we've seen charities that have paid for gifts, which we say shouldn't happen, but they've paid for gifts. And that company has gone bust. So like we went to see this incredible children's hospice and they were saying to us they'd lost£30 ,000. so they'd spent 30 ,000 pounds on gifts and those gifts that company had gone bust they lost all that money not only did they lose the money they then had to pay more money to provide gifts for the people who bought them at auctions whereas our manifesto is we don't think that should be happening we don't think people charities should have to buy gifts there's enough unused inventory so a lot of our gifts are things like corporate hospitality that's not being used and just it's empty so we're working with some amazing partners who are saying well well, look, that box is going to be empty or that suite is going to be empty or we've got some tickets for this.

33:38And we're just using that. Otherwise, they would literally sit empty. And we've had people even quite last minute say, oh, look, we've got tickets for this. Our clients can't go. You know, do you want to have them? And I think a lot of corporate struggle because of the Bribery Act. They can't take people, particularly the financial services, they can't take people for these lovely experiences anymore. But they still might get tickets as part of sponsorship package. so that's what we're sort of scooping up and reusing and repurposing but we want to sort of eliminate charities having to buy items because brands should be giving them stuff you know they're such a great they're like influencers really you know you can get them to promote it on their social media and their newsletters so that you know and the brand gets to be seen it helps their CSR it shows them that they're being benevolent and it's a call to action so a brand can say we've given this experience to this charity um jump aboard you know you can buy this you can join in the auction you know sort of it's real call to action for them so it's rather than just going oh we've given written a check to this charity it's like this is what we're doing you know we're repurposing it we're recycling this stuff so there's so much opportunity for brands to get involved with this even you know physical items you know out of date stock or you know stuff like that it's like there's that this is potentially limitless and it's sort of it's got all that great sustainability but sorry the the point of your question was being a barrister bringing it back to that it does it adds credibility because there is so much murkiness in that um that all potentially murkiness in that charity world auction world um that actually saying to people i'm a barrister like we we really want we really want credibility like we're trying to sort of solve this problem um and i think that does help because people sort of have some more trust because like we we completely come from a standing start so you know it's important for people to have trust in us and i think now we're sort of six months in and people can see it we don't handle charities money ever the money comes straight to the charity um we didn't want to you know it's very very transparent when you put a bid in you put your bid in and it'll tell you how much it's going to cost you there's no hidden costs so we're trying to sort of it's it's a hard task but we're trying to sort of clean up this whole area yeah and and the commercial i mean the commercial model for you because you should say you're you're you're not a not-for-profit you are a business yeah yeah but obviously doing a lot of goods so i mean this is a brilliant example of where you know profit purpose planet you know comes comes into into play doesn't it so you know profit is not a dirty word profit allows you to fund the developments on the platform profit allows you to to grow hire great people you know without profit it doesn't work you know so as i think probably the psychology behind it people might think well hang on a minute why are you making money from this because this is supposed to be for charity um and has that come across at all trina in terms of the model or not um not so much i think we sell so with um we've got an amazing uh travel partnerships director and she's sourcing holidays and things and um those holidays are going to be more affordable than they would be if you went directly and so um people are okay about playing a percentage on top because it's cheaper than they it would cost them and the other items we sell are you can't access them so um if someone wants something that they can't access they're happy to pay whatever and it's kind of that you know that money's going to charity so as you say we we're putting everything back into the business you know we're funding developments we're just rolling out prize draws so obviously some of the items on the site are expensive not all of them but you know we've got a really good range but some of them are expensive but we want people to be able to have a chance to access um some of those experiences that they wouldn't be able to so um we're rolling out prize draws so it's going to be sort of you know five pounds a ticket but that gives you an opportunity to be in to win you know one of these experiences and that just makes it a lot more accessible to people um to everybody um which is what our aim is um but no we haven't really we haven't i can't think of it no we've not had any pushback on that at all because it is so transparent um and obviously we do we do have to like we have to keep this going and we've raised hundreds of thousands of pounds already for charity so it's like that money would never have gone to charity if we hadn't done this but obviously we we're not in a position to fund this ourselves so as in we can't just keep this going we are funding ourselves at the moment but we can't we just can't keep this it's not sustainable um but the benefits to charity you know are huge so um we did a rate we did a first uh raise which was extraordinary and um we raised we raised half a million in three weeks so um which was amazing and that was obviously some friends and family but a lot of external investors who just loved it and just loved the concept of it and um are brilliant um supporters as well um but i think ultimately there will need to be another raise probably into next year sometime but yeah so so so Trino if if people want to get involved either they might want to you know kind of throw a put a gift or an experience in or they might want to you know be a client and and you know buy something from you or invest actually you know yeah where's where's where's the best way to to kind of connect with you what's the best way to track you down anyway you can go to the the website which I think hopefully you're going to put in the links um but um it's enoblegift.com uh i'm trina t-r-i-n-a at enoblegift.com um but yeah absolutely if there's any brands listening or anyone but it could be people who say i've got a second house in somewhere that i don't use all the time you know someone who's philanthropic individuals that's willing to put it on the site you know to give someone a holiday for a week or it could be a brand that says we've got some surplus stock or it could be um a charity that says we've got an item that you know we haven't got an event coming up can we put it on because talking to a lot of charities they'll say we've talked to a charity yesterday and they said we had the most incredible taylor swift tickets last year that were given to us but we didn't have anywhere we didn't have anything to do with them they did use them ultimately but that they could have monetized that so you know you don't have to wait for your gala dinner and we're not saying that we're going to replace that type of event because they're lovely and it's lovely to connect with people but it's just that year round like someone might say you know one of their patrons might say well we've got you know i'll do a meet and greet or whatever it is um but we can just put that on straight away literally it can be on the site within an hour so even if it's last minute that's fine um or any corporate hospitality um you know anything or indeed any investors anyone who's looking sort of to invest and say we'll be we'll be doing another round so um you know we'd love to or anyone just you know with any ideas or feedback you know we're really open to it so So, yeah, please get in touch.

40:37We'd love to hear from you. Amazing. Yeah, there's so many different angles to this. And what I love about it, it's almost the power of three. You know, if you think about it, there's, you know, there's the charity. There's then the brand that's donating a gift or an individual that's donating a gift that then allows that to then go to their charity. And then there's the client that's getting a great experience, great deal, a good value offering from the consumer point of view. So I think that power of three is really interesting, Trina. And you mentioned the lovely Emma Taylor earlier. We can give her a shout out by name.

41:13Well done, Emma. Well done, Emma. So I was fortunate enough to have Emma as part of my team when I was at two years MD of the Emerging Market. So Emma, bless her. She went all over the world, China, India, nowhere fazed Emma. And I'm delighted that she's working with you, Trina, because she really is an incredible human being, very well connected. Amazing. yeah she leaves your heart and I'm glad she's bringing those travel kind of opportunities to you as well yeah big shout out to Emma well done yeah and being female I was just gonna say being yeah she's incredible and being female founded so there's four co-founders and we're all female which is you know when we've looked into that again like it's it's extraordinary how little sort of venture capital money goes to female founded businesses and I was at the SME Expo the other day and I raised this with Theo Paphitis and he was sort of saying well look I think it's because women are ultimately they won't you know they're a bit more you know risk averse which is probably right you know they won't bet the farm but actually that really has to change because we are so like women entrepreneurs or women generally I'm a real supporter but we're just so amazing like what we can do and how we can multitask and you know what we bring to it you That's something that's a real mission of ours.

42:30We've been really lucky to have Holly Tucker be one of our mentors. And, you know, she's really banging the drum for it. And I just think we all need to do that. So, you know, it's really support each other and really sort of change that because that's just appalling. That statistic is just, you know, that's really poor, like really poor. So hopefully that is changing. yeah no i agree 100 100 i mean i see i do a lot of work in private equity and vcs you know and advise on deals and stuff in fact i'm speaking at an event later this year festival of entrepreneurs and you know we were talking that the the uh the guy that's organizing alex chisnell you know so i'm going to be speaking on stage etc but you know we we were saying or maybe one of the angles is actually it's all about scaling up but you know m &a exit planning for your exit you know all that kind of stuff and he said it would be great if you would do it because there's so few bloody women that know about deals yeah have done like deals and raise finance etc so no i'm 100 with you trina you know we are we are um and i think it's quite unique but yeah it has to change because it's something ridiculous isn't like 95 of angel finance and vcs goes to to male founders not female founders yeah yeah let's bang that drum and get it changed absolutely so trina i'm going to come to a last few questions if you don't mind yeah um okay so you'll have had loads of great advice and it could be in your personal life or you know professional life so far or even you know starting a noble gift any standout advice that's kind of really stayed with you or helped you at a particular moment for you do you know um i think just going back to what i said earlier actually about sort of my parents and they've always sort of just been so encouraging and it's just always that sort of I suppose they've always just said just go for it like you know just go for it and see what happens and you know you might not work but at least you've tried and so that's why I feel so proud to have got you know a noble gift off the kitchen table because a lot of brilliant ideas stay at the kitchen table and it's like just let's just go for it and see what happens and we'll learn along the way you know that time kills a deal time kills a deal sort of mentality like let's just do it and we'll see we're going to make mistakes but go for it I think that's the best sort of advice I would give I like to think I instill that in my son it's like there's no if it doesn't work it doesn't matter try the next thing you know just go for it um I think that would be the best advice and sort of learn as you go but fake it till you make it well we're all figuring it out along the way aren't we you know none of us have a perfect life or a perfect solution so no I love that great advice from your parents and passing it on you know passing it forward so anyone that's just just thinking oh i really got a great idea or i want to start a business but i'm a bit scared of xyz yeah just give it a give it a go you know if it doesn't work out you'll still have learned something and it could you could be actually doing a massive disservice of keeping that idea to yourself you know selling is serving um whatever that is but you make a difference in the world by if you're the best kept secret then how can you help people or make the world a better place right so yeah I agree with you absolutely so and Trina it's been obviously a busy year let's say so that's one word that we could use to describe the year for you but if you were to pick one word to describe this year what would it be and why

45:53um it would be roller coaster because there are the highs are so high and the lows are pretty low um and it's just like it's just been amazing you know there's that are we going to get it up and running you know is the tech going to be okay then it is and someone buys something and then it's are we going to get the gifts on and are they going to sign the deal and then they do sign the deal and it's like you know there's lots of sort of jumping around the office hugging each other and screaming and lots of like oh my god oh my god why are we doing this or moments um and actually the the lows are getting you know less low and the highs are getting higher so i kind of feel we're on the right path but um roller coaster i think excellent we love a roller coaster absolutely get on the big one at blackpool or whatever yeah exactly exactly fantastic and trina we at brave old brilliant we have a playlist for all our wonderful guests that come on because i i think music brings an energy you know to everything that we do what would be your standout song artist

47:03well my artist would have to be Madonna um just incredible like you know so throughout my formative years just that sort of like yeah go for it you know that sort of we can do it women can do it too um but I think my song would be I love Avicii the nights which is not my sort of music taste at all but I just love the sentiment of it and I was asked to at the weekend we were at a party and you all got to put three songs on and that was one of them because the sentiment of it and I wrote it down here it's one day you'll leave this world behind so live a life you will remember and it's it's that sentiment of like life is short and I know it sounds really twee but it is so just do it like go for it do stuff don't wait around you've just got to grab it and enjoy it and you know just live in the moment and you know just appreciate everything don't sweat the small stuff um and I just love the sentiment of that song and it's like my father told me it's that sort of passing it down to the generations you know I say that to my children like you know don't worry about it don't worry about it it's all fine um so I just yeah slightly strange choice for me it's not really my music genre but I love I love that it's really energetic and positive and you know go for it amazing well it summarizes kind of so much of what we've been talking about today yeah yeah it does business journey and your mindset attitude influence of your parents all summed up in that one yeah brilliant song so amazing and trina brave or brilliant what does that mean to you um i think brave it comes back to that go for it because it takes bravery you know as I say when um Sarah our amazing co-founder she sort of came to me and she said um I've got a bit of an idea but she was really she sort of felt a bit embarrassed but she was sort of worried about saying it I was like what is it she was like why does this have to have ended why you know we finished the auction but why can't we carry it on and actually just having that idea and then trying you know us going well we're gonna have a go at this you know that's that takes bravery it comes back to what you're saying you know if you're at home listening to this thinking oh I've got this idea it's been niggling away for ages but I've not quite got it off the kitchen table that takes real bravery because you're putting your head above the parapet you know you're putting yourself out there and then you know if it doesn't work it's embarrassing and all the rest of it but actually you've got to try because it might work um so just being brave and just I think just in the face of adversity being positive you know just sort of keep going and you know that ties in with being bold you know just go for as I say you know just gonna smash this when I was thinking about chemotherapy um again just don't don't be afraid to put yourself out there and then you will be brilliant exactly what a perfect way to end well Trina thank you so much honestly I've loved our conversation oh thank you I'm super excited for you the best is yet to come Trina you've only just oh thank you yes it's exciting like you know where we are now even compared to where we were um we went to the expo last year and we went again the other day and i just couldn't believe how far we'd come in that year and so you think you know that's incredible and hopefully you know next year we'll be even further along so and we're just really grateful for everybody's support amazing advisory board you know our investors and shareholders yeah we're just very very lucky yeah wonderful well congratulations Trina and good luck with everything that's uh the exciting journey ahead as well and um yeah I'll be watching with great interest and supporting you on the sidelines and uh and obviously happy to get involved as you need any any any extra support from me well that's my I'm wishing you continued success wow you know this is incredible so yeah thank you so much for having us

51:00little exemplifies empathy and strategic brilliance as well as her strength now whether it's navigating complex financial law or scaling mountains for a cause you know and then setting up her business a noble gift her journey is a testament to the power of purpose-driven leadership and the difference that one person can make when combining professional excellence with heartfelt philanthropy. So if Trina's story resonates with you, you know, we encourage you to take that next bold step, you know, whether you're in your career or your community or for personal growth. And just remember, stay brave, stay bold and stay brilliant.

51:46I really hope you've enjoyed this episode of Brave Bold Brilliant. Remember, check out our new website, www.brave-bold-brilliant.com. You're going to find loads of resources on there that's to help you with your leadership journey and with the businesses that you're trying to scale up and grow so take care everyone and remember there are no limits to your growth but it is by being brave and bold that you're going to unlock your brilliance