Creating new opportunities with Charlotte Balderstone-Hughes
This weeks guest Charlotte has lived such an interesting and exciting adult life. Being married to Darren Hughes who Co founded Cream, CreamFields, Homelands and We Love Space on Sunday’s IBIZA, saw her using her textile design degree to build up a phenomenal range of branded merchandise which on the back of the iconic Cream brand gave her and Darren a super successful business which took them to festivals all over the world and most notably had them spending 6 months every year in Ibiza. Charlotte admits that they didn't really realise at the time how successful they were which just goes to show how down to earth Charlotte is and this really comes across in this episode. But when kids came along Charlotte decided to move her family back to her hometown of Huddersfield to be near her mum and they bought the house that then became their business. The Scarlet Hen at Norfolk House is Yorkshire’s Finest Boutique Retreat. It is a luxury holiday home (Charlotte's ACTUAL home when there are no guests) in a Georgian Mansion House in Huddersfield for sophisticated hen parties, girls getaway weekends, family celebrations, team building away-days and spa retreats. It sleeps 10-20 guests in 4 floors of luxury accommodation including 3 beautiful reception rooms, an indoor hot tub and in-house spa treatment rooms. Check it out on the links below, it really is amazing and one of the reasons that it is such a beautiful house with thoughtful touches throughout is Charlotte's interior design skills and impeccable taste obviously. I mean just look at Jayne and Michelle''s boring looking Zoom backgrounds in comparison to Charlotte's! Zzzzzzz!! It isn't just about the house though because Charlotte ensures her guests have the best time and even helps them create their own bespoke itinerary during their stay by adding such things as a private chef, life drawing classes, afternoon tea, murder mystery, cocktail master class, karaoke, flower crown making, chocolate workshops, bath bomb sessions and Decleor spa treatments. Lush!! They also have really close links with some of the other amazing local businesses such as Erics restaurant, Holmfirth Vineyard and The Scullery. The life drawing classes are really popular with the Hen parties (can't think why!?) and Charlotte actually teaches these classes herself. Having gone back to university when returning to the UK and successfully achieving a teaching degree followed by a stint teaching art and design at a few local colleges she is more than qualified to do so and of course her passion for design comes across - even in a non visual recording such as a podcast for instance! As we recorded this episode amid the Coronavirus crisis we discuss the impact this has had on Charlotte and the business and what she has been doing in the background to ensure success when it is over. Rest assured Charlotte's entrepreneurial spirit will win out and she WILL find a way to make it succeed as she has done so many times in the past by coming up with amazing ideas and bringing wonderful experiences to her guests. We have every confidence that this will be the case and we can't wait to attend an event at Norfolk House ourselves confident in the knowledge that we will get an amazing experience and that a percentage of ours and every guests booking goes to the local charity Pennine Domestic Violence Group which provides support to victims of domestic violence and abuse. Hope you enjoy! Millions of links here for you to find out more about everything we discussed. https://www.facebook.com/Thescarletpen/ https://www.facebook.com/scarlethenatnorfolkhouse/ https://instagram.com/norfolk_house_scarlet_hen?r=nametag http://www.thescarletpen.co.uk/ http://www.scarlet-hen.co.uk/ https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-ZzwrLhGmi/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link