Inside Higher Voltage: The new conference championing super small businesses
What are you building? Christine Gritmon’s Higher Voltage conference, held in the cinema at Battersea Power Station, brings together one-person business owners for a day of learning and socialising.
Christine wanted to create a space for super small businesses. She said: “The spaces for the one-person business are eroding.”
Higher Voltage isn’t about lack of ambition (if you want to build a 6 or 7-figure business then you’re welcome), it’s about building a business on your own terms, that works for you.
Christine said: “In the effort to destigmatise wanting more, we’ve overcorrected.”
She created an event with talks that built up in a particular order: personal brand, using your voice (whether you’re speaking on stages or not), storytelling, becoming more visible, being on social media, creating offers that sell, and then how to build a successful business in 2026.
The event, on January 22nd, was engaging, actionable, and friendly, with a hilarious bit of post-lunch karaoke.
This article contains affiliate links.
Here are my highlights from the first Higher Voltage
Christine shared her inside out personal branding framework
I love a rainbow framework, which I wasn’t quick enough to photograph, but Christine walked through how to show up as yourself in any space without overthinking. What makes you feel good? What’s your passion? How do you make people feel?
You can find out more on Christine’s website where she shares questions to help you think through your personal brand.
“You don’t need a lot of money to open your gob”
Dani Wallace, Queen Bee and host of The Big Festoon event, is a brilliant speaker but her message was you don’t need to be standing on a stage to use your voice. We can overlook the impact of simply chatting to people about what we do.
Dani said: “When you’re sharing your magic with the world by talking to anybody about what you do, what do you want them to feel or do?”
“Ideas without stories rarely move people towards action”
Sophie Lee, whose book Beyond Palatable (affiliate link) comes out in March, spoke about one of my favourite subjects: storytelling.
She told us how when she set up her own agency and could do whatever she wanted, she fell back into doing what she had done before. It wasn’t what she wanted and so she started over and focused on her mission: working with purpose-driven brands.
Sophie spoke about how storytelling is an “inside out job” and that you need stories to make your ideas a reality.
By exploring what your work means to others, and finding out what their stories are, you can bring others with you much more effectively.
Do you want some prompts for stories you can tell about yourself?
There are so many stories you could be sharing.
This downloadable ebook walks you through:
- 9 different stories
- Why your stories matter
- How to tell your stories for the benefit of others
- 15 places where you can use your stories
“Personal brand is not about your ego, it’s about your impact”
I really liked this framing from Sapna Pieroux, author of Let’s Get Visible. We’ve all been told from an early age not to show off. Building a personal brand can get hampered by us feeling we shouldn’t be drawing attention to ourselves.
Sapna told her personal story about not wanting to stand out. She didn’t have a photo on her website, and when she wrote her book, she even debated putting a white man’s name on the cover.
But she decided to go ahead with publication under her own name and the book became a bestseller. She started getting speaking gigs as a result.
“Being different, standing out, being unique, it’s not so bad,” Sapna said.
She added: “We’re all a bit nosy. People are more interested in people than what we’ve got to sell.”
Hannah Spence’s DM strategy
I don’t know about you but I find DMs really difficult. I don’t like getting pitch-slapped when I connect with someone. I don’t want to do that to people I’m connecting with. I’m also terrible at small talk (please, if you see me at an event, talk to me about something that’s come up during the event, an issue, or your latest non-work obsession).
Hannah spoke about her S.E.E.N framework (social media, engage, elevate, nurture) and it was a good talk to follow on from Sapna’s session on being visible.
As part of this, she shared an initial DM message, which is similar to something I have on my first pinned Instagram post, but I hadn’t thought of automating a version of it.
The message goes like this: “Hi, thanks for following. Did you follow for x, y, or z?”
So on Instagram I ask if people want to talk about music, travel, geek TV/book recs, business and writing, or something else. Hannah has ‘something else’ as her ‘z’ option; so you put two work-related things and then an open option. Non-spammy, friendly, and encourages people to talk instead of lurking.
Get out of the friend zone
Janine Coombes spoke about Offers That Sell. She walked us through how we all think we’re oh so rational, but actually we make our decisions based on emotion, and then try to retrofit logic.
But as business owners, we can get stuck. We meet people who could use our services but they’re not necessarily ready to buy yet. We keep in touch. Maybe we meet up at events. And then, despite them knowing what we do, they go and work with someone else!
That is falling into the friend zone and Janine has three ways to get out of it:
- Clarity: your offers need to be one solution for one type of person, with a clear before and after
- You need to know what ready looks like. Ask current/past clients what was going on with them when they decided to work with you.
- Lay paths for your client: is your content speaking to where they are? Are you putting in links and calls to actions for how you can help them? Share client stories.
What’s out, what’s in, and what actually works in 2026
I’ve heard Teresa Heath-Wareing speak at several events over the years and her talks are always packed with value. This one was no different.
Teresa is a launch nerd. She follows them through step by step to see what’s working and what isn’t. For example:
I’m not going to share everything Teresa said about what’s in and what’s out because that’s not fair on people who bought a ticket (everything in this article is a snapshot of the talks, I have pages of notes from the day). But here are three highlights:
What’s out: content for content’s sake. I’m not sure this was ever in, but if you’re creating content which doesn’t align with your business goals, or that doesn’t give you personal joy, then this is your permission to stop. There’s enough content in the world. Make things that are wanted and/or needed.
What’s in: audience building. Yes, it feels hard but it’s very difficult to build a business without people around you who like your personal brand and want what you offer.
What’s in #2: community over content. We all want connection. This is why events like Higher Voltage are so good. We want to be with other people. How can you bring people together? What can you give people that goes beyond them quietly consuming content on their sofa? How can you get people having conversations, and give them experiences?
My personal actions from the day
Show up more, use my voice, and make better use of some of the sessions in Rachel’s Writing Club. I’m going to be running regular blog write-alongs, Q&A surgeries and email marketing sessions as well as Monday Marketing Mojo so we have more opportunities to come together and write.
Want to see what Rachel’s Writing Club is all about? Grab your free pass to a Monday Marketing Mojo session.
See you at Higher Voltage next year
Higher Voltage will be running in New York (date to be announced) and in London on January 28, 2027. I’ve got my ticket for London. You can get yours at higher-voltage.uk.
Great summary, seems like an awesome event! 🙌