Amanda Kerin is the founder of Creative Women’s Mastermind, an online membership community for self-employed women, including freelancers, solopreneurs, coaches and consultants. The community brings together women who create content, market their services, serve clients and produce products, and it is built around a simple idea: regular human connection can be as important to a business as a good marketing plan.

Amanda launched the community in July 2019 after spending eight months validating the idea. Her motivation came from a difficult personal experience: a move from her hometown of Bristol, where she had a large business network, to a small ski resort in the French Alps. She had expected romance and adventure; instead, she found loneliness.

From a busy network to a mountain home

“It felt like I was living in my own rom-com,” Amanda recalls. “But it was definitely not quite like the movies.” Working from home in the mountains, without the casual conversations of an office or a local network, affected her confidence, creativity and income. Her mental and emotional health suffered, and her coaching business stalled.

Her experience is increasingly common. Since 2020, remote and hybrid working has become routine for millions of UK workers, and the number of women starting businesses from home has risen. Yet isolation remains one of the least discussed challenges of self-employment. Research by organisations such as Enterprise Nation and the Federation of Small Businesses consistently ranks loneliness, poor work-life balance and a lack of peer support among the top wellbeing issues for female founders. For women who work alone, the absence of colleagues can blur boundaries, drain motivation and make setbacks feel larger than they are.

Amanda’s response was to step away from the online space for a while and spend time with creative people in real life. That break confirmed she still wanted to run her own business, but it also showed her what had been missing: regular contact with like-minded women.

Building a community to overcome isolation

“I only knew women through a keyboard,” Amanda says. “I thought I couldn’t be the only one having these thoughts.” She began to design a community that would recreate the structure and camaraderie of a shared workplace online.

Creative Women’s Mastermind was built around regular virtual coworking sessions and a weekly mastermind meeting where members brainstorm ideas, share challenges and hold one another accountable. The format is deliberately informal: members get work done, but they also have time to chat. For some, it is the only professional conversation they have with a like-minded woman that day.

The scheduled sessions also help members avoid the procrastination that often creeps in when no one is watching. Tools such as a Pomodoro timer and a clear weekly routine can make the working day feel more defined, which is especially valuable for anyone struggling to boost confidence and overcome self-doubt.

From side project to sustainable business

Amanda started the membership while still working a part-time job in Geneva. She saved six months of living costs, took a three-month sabbatical and launched in the summer of 2019. Growth was slower than she had hoped, and a skiing accident early in 2020 forced her to step back temporarily. She also took on freelance work for a former employer to reinvest in the business.

Over time she refined the service, adjusting session times to serve members across the UK, Europe, the US, Australia and New Zealand. She hired a virtual assistant to handle admin and worked with a website specialist to keep the technology manageable. “I’m definitely not the most technically savvy individual,” she says, “so I’ve intentionally kept things really simple.”

Her marketing has evolved too. A free Facebook group did not convert well, so she shifted her focus to helpful content, social media visibility and a low-barrier paid trial. The lesson, she says, is that patience and iteration matter more than a perfect launch.

Creativity, values and support

Before coaching, Amanda spent her career in creative industries as a radio producer and event manager, winning Sony radio and event awards along the way. She also ran an events company before retraining as a coach in 2013.

She believes creativity is not limited to traditional crafts. “Creativity is about ideas,” she says. “I genuinely believe we are all creative. Some people just may not have tapped into it as much as others yet.”

Her values for the community are simple: connection, support, collaboration, accountability and action. They reflect what she needed during her loneliest months. “If I had more help and support whilst working from home on my coaching business, my mental and emotional health wouldn’t have been so affected,” she says. “It’s a very self-destructive and slippery slope not living out your best creative life.”

Amanda’s own support network includes her own mastermind group, a business coach and her fiancé, who offers a fresh perspective even though he does not work in the online business world. She also draws inspiration from her mother, who ran her own businesses and encouraged Amanda to follow her dreams.

Three lessons from Amanda’s journey

You’re more capable than you think. Fear and uncertainty can stop women from starting a business, but Amanda believes most people figure things out as they go. “You don’t have to know everything to get started,” she says.

Everything is temporary. In moments of despair, Amanda advises doing what you need right now rather than forcing a business to work at the wrong time. “No matter how bad things are, things will change as time passes, and the time will pass anyway.”

You are not meant to work alone. Humans are designed for connection, and most people want to help if they are asked. Journalling, reaching out and accepting support are not signs of weakness; they are practical business skills.

Turning isolation into connection

Amanda Kerin’s story is a reminder that isolation can become the starting point for something valuable. By building the community she wished she had, she created a space where women in business can work alongside one another, share ideas and protect their wellbeing.

If you are working from home and feeling isolated, the answer is rarely to work harder in isolation. Small steps, a regular routine, a peer group and the courage to ask for help can make a significant difference to both your mental health and your bottom line.