Today, on International Friendship Day, Laura Henshaw, co-founder of fitness and lifestyle program, Keep it Cleaner, shares her appreciation for her best friend and other half in business, Steph Claire Smith.
Dear Steph,
I don’t really know where to start when it comes to telling you how important your friendship is to me. When we met six years ago, we were so different from the people we are today. We were both still working out who we were and the path we wanted to follow in our lives.
From the start, we shared many things. We shared the same insecurities, the same dreams; we shared many of the same mistakes and, most importantly, we shared the same desire to address some of the challenges we saw in the world around body positivity and overall wellbeing.
I knew early on ours was a once-in-a-lifetime friendship. I feel like today, on International Friendship Day — a day that celebrates the qualities on which we have built a business together at Keep It Cleaner — I want to take a moment to say thank you.
Thank you for having my back, for seeing in me the qualities that I can’t see in myself. For reminding me of those qualities often and without expectation. Thank you for teaching me to trust myself, to be ok with the negative feedback, to feel comfortable in taking a leap and to know that the decisions I make only matter to me and those close to me.
Thank you for showing me that kindness is so contagious. If you implement it regularly and often, it spreads to those around you. With enough of it, you suddenly find you have a
community of like-minded people surrounding you.
Thank you for making me laugh. For showing me humour in often stressful and, at times, inappropriate moments. For seeing the light in any situation. Thank you for teaching me to wear my heart on my sleeve. For always being authentic and true to who I really am.
Thank you for partnering with me in Keep It Cleaner — a move that many of those close to us thought was crazy because we were such good friends. Working together on our shared dream has taught me drive, perseverance, resilience and the importance of community. It has taught me that kindness in business is possible, in fact, it is something that others believe in too.
2020 has been a year that many of us want to skip, a year so challenging that I have, at times, wanted to press a fast-forward button that takes me to 2021. But it has given me time to stop and think of what’s important.
Steph, you are so important to me and on International Friendship Day, I thank you… for everything.
Head on over to Keep It Cleaner to find out more about how Steph and Laura’s health, fitness or nutrition programs can improve your wellbeing.
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