Many of us are told that confidence is innate. Not so fast, says Selena Rezvani, an award-winning journalist specializing in training people leadership skills and author of Quick Confidence: Be Authentic, Create Connections and Make Bold Bets on Yourself. Sure, many women face imposter syndrome, but they beat it one tiny step at a time. Action is the key.

Rezvani started in social work, but after realizing that maintaining work-life balance was impossible, she transitioned to a position where she could apply her skills from social work to multiple workplaces to reduce employee hardship. 

While pursuing her MBA, Rezvani designed a project to interview women in leadership positions in business. Her only female professor gave her this advice: Go after the giants. Learn how Rezvani engineered the perfect emails to politely and uniquely slide into the inboxes of C-level executives. 

These interviews became her first and second books. Take a risk and e-mail the CEOs of a company you love for an interview. You’d be surprised how many said yes. 

Follow Rezvani as she details workplace scenarios — such as asking for a raise — and gives tips on how to best approach them. 

To build confidence, Rezvani says, think like a dog: Don’t overthink too much — just do. Be the first to greet others. Extend a hand for a handshake. Be the first to welcome others into the workplace.

Tune in for a discussion about how gender bias affects children, the ups and downs of reducing gender disparity in the workplace, and battling imposter syndrome. Challenge harmful perceptions of what a leader in the workplace should look like and affirm a healthy work-life balance. Rezvani describes her moments of pride and regrets in exercising confidence in the workplace, on this episode of SheVentures.

Highlights

• Discover Selena Rezvani’s number-one female role model.
• After pivoting from social work to pursue an MBA, she focused her research on women in leadership positions. See what pushed Rezvani to score interviews with notable women despite her doubts.
• Rezvani on networking: Be short, direct, and specific. 
• How the workplace is primed to favor men and why this leads to women being underrepresented in leadership positions
• We internalize gender roles from a young age. How Rezvani instills female empowerment in her children and dismisses gender stereotypes. 
• Rezvani provides actionable tips on how to navigate common workplace scenarios women encounter.
• Imposter syndrome is debilitating and can be alleviated by reframing one’s mindset.
• Rezvani discusses how men are celebrated disproportionately over women in the workplace, while intersectionality is often glossed over.
• Workers are commonly discouraged from setting boundaries when balancing work and life.
• Are you inhibited in your workplace? Try initiating a conversation more often — watch your confidence soar! 
• Rezvani reflects on how to use courage to power through feelings of doubt and to take action against avoiding regret.
• Quick Confidence is a book that originated as bite-sized confidence tips Rezvani provided initially in a LinkedIn newsletter. She quickly amassed almost 100,000 subscribers and a book deal! Rezvani shares how it went down.