FROM leaving school with little qualifications to running a fully-fledged business, a local woman is inviting you all to reflect on her journey. 

Robyn Drummond, who won last year's Dunfermline Press Community Champions' Entrepreneurial Award, started her business at 24-years-old when she set-up a Facebook fitness group to help those throughout the lockdown.

Now, four years later, she is looking to inspire others with her 'accidental entrepreneur' story at the Inspiring Women Leaders talk in Dunfermline. 

She told the Press: "With this talk, it’s probably the scariest one I’m about to do because I’m about to share a personal journey to me."

Pre-pandemic Robyn worked in a gym, which she enjoyed but she saw the lockdown as an opportunity and has gone on to help thousands of women across Fife with their health and fitness goals. 

"I was 24 when the pandemic kicked off," she said, “but that’s really when I took the leap to start the online business.

"I guess that, up until that point, I was very content working in the gym and I never would have thought otherwise and again there’s nothing wrong with that.

“I really enjoyed my job and it was really great, but I suppose from being 24 to now, what I’ve been able to achieve only re-highlighted the fact that you can achieve more or bigger things, do things that you are really hugely passionate about and you don’t need lots of formal qualifications to do it, there are other pathways to do these things."

(Image: Supplied)

One key point she wants to focus on is that you don't have to have it all figured out right away, she didn't build a successful business in the conventional ways but her journey taught her a lot of important lessons. 

She continued: "One of the reasons why I was asked to do this talk is because I went to school and I didn’t leave with many qualifications and I think that there is such a pressure on younger people to have that pathway almost sorted as if you know what you want to do.

"Whilst I had a keen interest in health and fitness or just being active anyway as a young person, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do.

"We’re under so much pressure to have that sorted, and what we want to do with our lives. That’s certainly how I felt, not from my family but just from society. You can make something of yourself and do something that you love and are passionate about that you don’t have to discover at a younger age.  

"If you leave school with not very much it doesn't mean that you can’t be successful or do something great for yourself. "

Despite not knowing what she wanted to do, Robyn has gone on to turn her passion into a hugely successful platform that she uses to inspire and uplift and she wants to help others realise that they can achieve their dreams, just like her. 

She added: "Never be scared to take the risk to do something that you’ve always wanted to do. I didn’t know that I wanted to do this, that’s the hardest thing.

"I did this very accidentally, that’s why it’s called the ‘accidental entrepreneur’ but I was hugely passionate about something and I knew what I loved to teach and it just came naturally to me. 

"If you are hugely passionate about something, make it something. Don’t be scared to take the risk and do something with it. Don’t ever feel that you aren’t good enough to take that risk.

"When I went to college someone once told me ‘fortune favours the brave’ and that statement changed my entire life.

"When I feel faced with some form of resistance, to change or make a choice, I have always taken the leap and every time I've done it, it’s never backfired."

Head along to Robyn's free talk at the Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum on Monday, July 29, with more information and ticket details found here.