My Popular & Upcoming Books
Life's Checkmark
Life’s Checkmark: Inspiring Journeys Beyond Life’s Expected Path
Your Relationship Roadmap
Building lasting commitments while navigating marriage and entrepreneurship
About Penny Hopkinson
Penny Hopkinson’s career looks like a straight line only in hindsight—from being the lone woman in technical journalism in the late 60s to becoming a leading specialist in systems and operations manuals. In this conversation, Penny shares the reinventions, the opportunities she chose to take, and why great operations manuals need to be useful for every age, learning style and ability.
​
🗸 Stick to your dreams—don’t inherit someone else’s
🗸 Reinvention is a lifetime of ‘next right steps’
🗸 Stereotypes around older people and technology are infuriating
🗸 Why SOPs and manuals take so long (and how to speed it up)
🗸 Testing prototypes enables efficiency
🗸 Why video is becoming a single source of truth for training
Media & Resources
A curated set of articles, interviews and podcast episodes on manuals, SOPs, franchising and the practical use of AI. This page is intentionally selective—quality over volume.
The Phoenix Conversations with Lucy McCarraher MBE
I loved this conversation with Penny Hopkinson. She has one of those careers that looks like a straight line only in hindsight. From being the lone woman in technical journalism in the late 60s to becoming the Queen of Operations Manuals, her story is full of grit, curiosity, and a brilliant refusal to be boxed in.
Brilliance TV with Mark Stephen Pooler
With 40 years of expertise and a BFA Companion distinction, Penny has standardized delivery for everyone from solopreneurs to iconic brands like Costa Coffee and Premier Inn. Learn how she helps businesses capture know-how and protect brand consistency at scale.
Life's Checkmark with Jon Emery
In this episode of Life’s Checkmark, I connect with Penny Hopkinson, a longtime journalist and the mind behind Manual Magic AI. Penny shares how her career, her passion for structure, and her expertise in franchising led her to create an AI-powered platform that’s changing the game for business owners everywhere.
Rising from the Rubble with Maria Newman
In this episode, I’m talking to Penny Hopkinson about what happens when life doesn’t go to plan and why that doesn’t have to be the end of the story. We talk about resilience, building trust, and why your life experience can matter just as much as the letters after your name. If you’ve ever felt like you’ve hit a brick wall, or questioned whether you should keep going, this episode is a powerful reminder that sometimes the rubble is exactly where you rebuild from. Now, grab a cuppa, relax and press play.
