audacious

Why using your voice is the key to unlocking your next level

Why using your voice is the key to unlocking your next level

How many times have you shrunk or downplayed your personality? And how many times did you think doing this would help you advance in the business world? One of my earliest memories of being told I was being “too much” was the feedback I’d get on my school report cards. They often read, “Nina is great, but she talks too much.” Well, all I can say is look at me now (lol). I literally get paid to speak and coach other women to use their voices to pitch the media and tell their stories. 

But I’m not the only woman who’s turned her “too much” into her superpower. I recently asked my IG community what they got in trouble for when they were younger and how they’ve turned that into their superpower as adults and businesswomen. Here are some of their responses:

How to have a Successful New Year

How to have a Successful New Year

Last week we talked about 3 disempowering life and business beliefs

Remember that, sis?

As we stand at the beginning of a new year, I think it’s important that we discuss how to make it a success

If you’re anything like me, you’ve entered this year with a set of goals and things that you would like to achieve

Here are 4 lessons that we can learn from the widow in 2nd Kings 4:1-7 about how we can do that:

Why nice girls finish last

Why nice girls finish last

Not only does girls’ socialisation impact their ability to promote themselves and be visible, it can have negative repercussions for them when they do

For example according to The Harvard Business Review article, "Nice Girls Don’t Ask”:

“Women who assertively pursue their own ambitions and promote their own interests may be labelled as bitchy or pushy”

This means that “They frequently see their work devalued and find themselves ostracised or excluded…”

“More typically [these responses] are a product of society’s ingrained expectations about how women should act”

Meaning that women can be impacted by societal expectations and gender norms:

The answer?

How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome

How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome

Through their video, “If Cinderella were a Guy,” Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo (of Rebelgirls.co) highlight the fact that women are impacted by misogyny as early as childhood

Which, to summarise a previous post, is because of:

This then gives way to confidence issues by the time most girls reach primary or elementary school

(More so than boys)

Which manifests into issues such as imposter syndrome by the time that these girls become women

According to Cate Luzio’s Forbes article, “A Missing Factor in Women’s Leadership: Confidence“:

“The constant second guessing and self-reflection on what we [as women] can or cannot do and our fear of self-promotion has a significant impact on our ability to advance our careers”

She also adds that “although there are various factors missing in women’s leadership, [she] would argue that confidence is one of the most pressing”

One of the things that I love about Mahlah and her 4 sisters (Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah), though, is their show of confidence

For example

Lessons from Mahlah and her sisters on How to overcome Limiting Beliefs caused by Gender Norms

Lessons from Mahlah and her sisters on How to overcome Limiting Beliefs caused by Gender Norms

Last week we discussed how legalistic religious beliefs within the church can stop women from walking in their purpose and fully showing up

Click here if you missed that, sis

This is important because it plays into culture

(which is the behaviours and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic or age group)

especially in terms of how girls are socialised which, in turn, has knock-on effects on our ability to show up, be visible and therefore make impact as women

For, as one of my favourite authors, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche said:

“We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller, we say to girls, ‘You can have ambition, but not too much.’ ‘You should aim to be successful, but not too successful…’”

which is why, according to research, women feel less at ease with promoting themselves than men- which in turn means that they're less likely to do it.

However…

Mahlah and her 4 sisters (Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah) teach us that the best way to overcome this is to:

Lessons from Mahlah and her sisters on the first step to self-advocacy

Lessons from Mahlah and her sisters on the first step to self-advocacy

In August 2017 I wrote an article called “Lessons from 5 Rebel Girls of the Bible”

Which you can access here, sis

Among those that got an honourable mention were Mahlah and her 4 sisters- Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah

To summarise Numbers 27:1-11, they were the daughters of Zelophehad and when he died they advocated for themselves regarding their inheritance

by standing

“before Moses, before Eleazar the priest, and before the leaders and all the congregation, by the doorway of the tabernacle of meeting, saying: 'Our father died in the wilderness...and he had no sons. Why should the name of our father be removed from among his family because he had no son? Give us a possession among our father’s brothers'"

Causing God to instruct Moses to give it to them

Like it literally says that, when Moses brought their case before the Lord, He spoke to him saying:

“The daughters of Zelophehad speak what is right; you shall surely give them a possession of inheritance among their father’s brothers, and cause the inheritance of their father to pass to them."

Which shows that God is an advocate of women's rights, equality and leadership- despite what we may have traditionally been taught

lessons from esther on why you shouldn’t feel bad about promoting yourself

lessons from esther on why you shouldn’t feel bad about promoting yourself

Within my Facebook group, Women of Influence, we have weekly expert interviews

We also discuss all things netowrking and PR here.

One of my favourite ways to end the interviews is by asking guests who their favourite woman of the Bible is and why

And whilst I’ve had a variety of facinating answers and testimonies…

Esther, without a doubt, takes the crown for the one that gets named the most

The scripute that’s most synonymous with her? “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

Found in Esther 4:14

A rallying cry that came from her uncle, Mordecai, to encourage Esther to use her power, privelage and position in service of her people

A word that not only confronted Esther with her significance and purpose but confronts us with our own because…

It also let’s us know that:

Lessons from Esther on why how you do one thing is how you do everything

Lessons from Esther on why how you do one thing is how you do everything

James 1:23-24 says that the word of God is like a mirror

Because “if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was…”

Walking in purpose, especially if it involves entrepeneurship, is something that also holds a mirror up and reveals what’s on the inside of us

This is something that we see in the life of Esther