Former Financial Adviser To Share Hard-Won Business Lessons To Help Female Founders Grow

A Shrewsbury entrepreneur is preparing to take to the stage at one of the UK’s leading marketing and sales events for female entrepreneurs, sharing the lessons she has learned from building businesses, hosting major events, and using rooms, relationships and reputation to grow.

Nicola is supporting The Marketing & Sales Summit on 14th May in central Manchester, where she will speak to women in business about how events can be used as a powerful authority-building tool.

Nicola’s career began in financial services, where she worked as a financial and wealth adviser before moving into entrepreneurship. Since then, she has built multiple six-figure businesses, sold one, and created new ventures from the ground up.

She is now the founder of Peake Event Group and Peake Event Network, helping business owners, event hosts, speakers, sponsors and suppliers understand how events can do far more than fill a diary or sell tickets.

Nicola believes strategically created events can help people become more visible, more connected, more respected and more commercially powerful.

Her flagship event, PeakeFest, brought together hundreds of business owners and entrepreneurs, with Dragons’ Den star Sara Davies appearing as keynote speaker. The event became a major proof point for Nicola’s work, showing how building your own room can raise your profile, create powerful associations and position you as someone leading a bigger conversation.

Nicola said: “Events are not just about the day itself. They are about what happens before the room is full, who is connected to it, what people associate you with, and what opportunities come from it afterwards.

“I have seen first-hand how powerful it can be when you stop waiting to be invited into the room and start building the room yourself.

“That is what I want more business owners to understand. An event can build authority, relationships, visibility, content, confidence and revenue, but only when it is positioned and planned properly.”

Through Peake Event Group, Nicola now supports business owners and event professionals with event strategy, positioning, sponsorship, promotion and commercial planning. Through Peake Event Network, she is creating a year-round space for the people behind events to connect, collaborate and build the relationships that lead to better opportunities.

Nicola’s own business journey has not been without challenge. After years of high achievement, including a successful career in financial services, she experienced burnout, isolation, imposter syndrome and online criticism.

At 41, despite earning six figures in a career she loved, Nicola reached a point where life no longer felt enjoyable. That experience shaped the way she now builds businesses, choosing work centred around people, connection, events, luxury experiences and real relationships.

During lockdown, Nicola launched Chouxlicious, a nationwide afternoon tea business which quickly grew. But when the world reopened and she found herself working alone while everyone else reconnected, she realised the business no longer suited the life she wanted to create. She made the decision to sell and move into work that brought people together.

That through line has stayed with her.

From financial advice to afternoon teas, masterminds, communities, festivals and event consultancy, Nicola’s work has always been built around trust, connection and bringing the right people into the right rooms.

At The Marketing & Sales Summit, Nicola will be talking about making bold business decisions, building businesses people genuinely enjoy, and how entrepreneurs can use events as a way to increase authority, visibility, relationships and commercial growth.

She added: “I do not want business owners to see events as something that drains them, distracts them or becomes another thing on the to-do list. When they are done properly, events can become one of the strongest ways to build your reputation. They show people what you stand for, who trusts you, who wants to be associated with you, and what level of conversation you are capable of leading.

“That is powerful.”