Blaire Palmer - The Recipe for Success: What Really Successful People Do and how You Can Do it Too

Blaire Palmer is one of the UKs leading creative thinking partners and executive coaches.

Formerly a BBC journalist, Blaire now specialises in coaching leaders and teams to upgrade their performance and solve problems more creatively. Her clients are major corporations, entrepreneurs and individuals who, like her, strive to be their best and achieve success in whatever area of work or life is most meaningful to them.

Blaires first book, The Hyper-Creative Personality, was published in 2007. She is also a columnist, public speaker and regular guest on BBC Radio 2s Jeremy Vine show.

For more information about Blaires work, visit her website at www.blairepalmer.com and read her blog at www.letsbesuccessfulagain.com.

OLI BARRETT KEY HOLDER

Social entrepreneur Oli Barrett runs the innovation company Connected Capital and is the founder of Make Your Mark with a Tenner, a national competition in which 10,000 school pupils are given 10 and one month to see what they can achieve.

Oli founded his first company, Amazingyou, at university, growing the team to 150 people in nine cities and hosting events to connect students to young professionals for inspiration and opportunities. After dropping out of university he became a Butlins Redcoat (entertainer and compere) and worked with Hit Entertainment on the launch of the interactive show Bob the Builder, before going on to work with the BBC, Disney and Sony Wonder in New York.

Oli brought the concept of Speed Networking to the UK and continues to host events regularly. Other companies he has helped to launch, and in which he remains a shareholder, include SockRush.com (the sock subscription service), Soflow (the business networking site which merged into wis.dm) and FriendsAbroad.com (the worlds largest language learning exchange).

CAROLE BLAKE STAR MAKER

Carole Blake is one of the UKs leading literary agents. She worked in publishing, combining rights selling and contracts, for 14 years before establishing the Carole Blake Literary Agency in 1977 which merged with Julian Friedmanns agency in 1982 to become the Blake Friedmann Literary Agency.

Carole has been President of the Association of Authors Agents, Chairman of the Society of Bookmen (then only the second woman to hold this position since it was founded in 1921), and Chairman of the book trade charity, the Book Trade Benevolent Society. She is a member of the advisory board for City Universitys postgraduate publishing course, and the advisory board of the UCL Centre for Publishing, was a judge for the BBC television short story series End of Story in 2004 and has been in Whos Who since 1998. In 2005, she recorded her life story as part of the British Librarys oral history project, Book Trade Lives, the only agent to have been invited to do so.

Carole is the author of From Pitch to Publication: Everything YouNeed to Know to Get Your Novel Published (Macmillan, 1999), now in its tenth printing, and is under contract to write a revised and updated edition. Her clients include Jane Asher, Sheila OFlanagan, Peter James, Craig Russell, Anne de Courcy and Barbara Erskine.

SHARON CONNOLLY ENABLER

Sharon Connolly trained as a consultant with Colour Me Beautiful, but quickly developed her own unique style of consultations and is now one of the UKs most successful and sought-after image consultants. She has helped thousands of people to discover how fabulous they can look once they know their rules and gain the confidence to be creative.

Sharon is truly talented at transforming dull, boring wardrobes into combinations of stunning outfits. Her clients are amazed to find they often dont have to buy many new items; they just need a little guidance on how to bring it all to life. A busy mum of two young children, Sharon runs three successful businesses and knows that deciding what to wear might not be at the top of everyones list each morning, which is why having a wardrobe full of clothes that work and combine well is so important.

As well as doing individual consultations, Sharon works with companies to ensure that their employees are portraying the right image. Clients include Microsoft, Unilever, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, BBC, Channel 4, British Chambers of Commerce, British Heart Foundation, Devere Hotels and UKInbound.

VICKI DAY ENABLER

Vicki Day specialises in PR and runs Pure Sauce, a consultancy providing advice to the retail industry. She started her retail life on the shop floor after studying manufacturing and retail fashion, then trained as a manager with Jaeger and later became store manager at Lewiss in Manchester. Vicki describes the job as being like running a mini city, full of characters and stories (like when Santa died in his Grotto he was 75 years old and was buried in his suit. None of the children found out). From there, Vicki went on to work with Ikea, helping the company to plan and build its flagship Croydon store, before moving on to the Leslie Fay company, putting concessions for five American labels in department stores. Later, she worked for a former Lewiss supplier, turning their Zygo label around.

On discovering she had cancer, Vicki took a year off for treatment and relaxation before returning to work for a retail headhunter, only to then retrain as a journalist with Londons City University and complete an internship at