The emPOWER Breakfast at FOCUS 2025

Peace Down to Scale Up: Reframing Energy, Leadership and Wellbeing in the Creative Industry

The emPOWER Breakfast returned to FOCUS Meet the Makers, one of the most energetic gatherings in the screen industries calendar. With more than sixty free sessions on offer and over two hundred speakers across film, television, advertising, games and XR, FOCUS once again created a space where creativity, craft and community come together. We were delighted to be invited back to contribute to the programme and to share the emPOWER ethos with the FOCUS community once again.

Our session explored our theme for the final quarter: Peace Down to Scale Up. Over the past twelve months, emPOWER has been encouraging leaders to pause, reset and direct their energy towards what matters most. It is a conversation that resonates deeply within our community, especially at a time when the pressures of work, life and hormonal change affect so many women in mid-career.

For this event, we were joined by an extraordinary panel who spoke candidly and generously about their personal experiences. Lou Allen, Managing Director of Factory Studios, has undergone what she described as a complete recalibration of her life and leadership. She spoke openly about facing the fallout of burnout and peri-menopause head-on, stripping back distractions, cutting out alcohol and refusing to outsource her wellbeing. Her wellbeing became her most ambitious project to date, and the clarity and courage of that shift resonated deeply with the room.

Maxine Hose, Head of Production at Grey Advertising UK, brought her perspective as a leader who has championed menopause awareness and support within the workplace. She shared honest reflections on energy management, navigating fluctuating capacity, and the importance of embedding policies that protect and support teams who may be going through similar challenges. Both Lou and Maxine offered thoughtful insight into how vulnerability, when embraced, can permeate a culture and create environments where real conversation and real change become possible.

The discussion centred on the power of intentional slowing down. As we enter the winter months and the natural hibernation season, the session highlighted how nervous-system regulation, rest and honest self-inquiry are not luxuries but essential practices for sustaining creativity and leadership. When we allow ourselves to pause, space opens up, and creativity has room to breathe.

We opened the session with a short guided meditation led by Bella Clark, formerly Director of Red Management and now a certified Pranic Therapist. Bella introduced simple grounding techniques to help the room settle into the conversation. Fifteen delegates were then invited to sit at the back of the space to receive pranic energy from Bella, creating a gentle parallel experience of calm and restoration while the talk unfolded.

We owe a heartfelt thank you to our guest speakers Lou, Maxine and Bella, who brought honesty, wisdom and practical insight to a subject still too often discussed behind closed doors. Our gratitude also goes to Framestore and Company 3, who generously sponsored our room and post-session networking, allowing us to continue the conversation in a meaningful way.

To everyone who attended, thank you for bringing your curiosity, your openness and your care for one another. And to the FOCUS team, thank you for inviting us back and for recognising the importance of conversations that centre wellbeing within the creative industry. Your support helps us continue to model a new kind of business community, one that builds empathy, acknowledges life’s challenges and champions positive change on a micro level.