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Local author and buisness owner Blaise Hunter was able to shift her buisness after landing in Medicine Hat in March.
mcranker@medicinehatnews.com@mocranker
Local author and entrepreneur Blaise Hunter is up for a 2020 Women of Inspiration Award after shifting her business during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hunter relocated from the United Kingdom in March. She planned on getting right to work when she landed, but the pandemic squashed plans to network and collaborate.
“I was in the U.K. expanding my business and speaking there,” she said. “My husband got a job here and I landed here with my daughter on March 5. A week later everything was shut down.
“I had big plans to expand my business, but that couldn’t happen as I had imagined it.”
Blaise the Trail is the name of Hunter’s consulting agency. With the pandemic wiping away her ability to speak at events and meet with people, Hunter decided to take a different approach to her brand.
“I came up with ways to help other people with their brands and how to brand themselves,” she said. “I also started teaching people how to write books and how to find their voice.
“It has been a fun challenge to work with my brand during all of this and to help people with theirs.”
Hunter created the Birth Your Brand, Birth Your Voice and Birth Your Story series, which took her back to her 15 years of experience in broadcast journalism, marketing, communications and public speaking.
Hunter is the founder of the Footprints Infertility and Pregnancy Loss Support Initiative, something she won a Women of Influence award for.
“With three miscarriages and near death experiences came depression, which is something I’ve battled,” she said. “I was dying and grief stricken and couldn’t find my way out of a really dark cloud.
“I wrote my book as a way to help me heal, and it has helped so many people out there heal.”
It is not known when the gala will be for the 2020 award, but Hunter is ready for it whenever it happens.
“It’s exciting to be nominated,” she said. “There’s a lot of uncertainty in the world right now, so I’m just looking forward to this happening whenever it can.
“I appreciate all of the support I’ve been getting since coming to Medicine Hat.”
