Closing The Gender Pay Gap

Discover the lessons that ambitious lawyer Caroline Flanagan learned on how to beat overwhelm and conquer guilt to triumph as a working parent.

Caroline shares the successful skills and strategies that work for her and for her clients.

When you take a career break, often your confidence falters and you wonder whether you can still do the job or brush up the skills or get back on that career ladder without stumbling. These 6 simple steps show you the way, whether you work in technology, professional services or elsewhere in the City

Discover how Helen Bennett inspires our future generation of leaders by bringing together deserving teenagers and business leaders in Bennett's Business Bash.

Interviewed by Sherry Bevan, founder of The Confident Mother, an independent coaching practice

Top tips to boost your career confidence

Caroline Arnold reminds us that what scares you today won't scare you tomorrow. We discuss how expanding your comfort zone boosts your confidence so that you get the career that you really want. She also lets us in on the secret of why being a member of a band is such a clever career strategy.

Work is an inevitable part of life. However, you do have a choice: you can passively allow your career to consume you OR take responsibility for your own happiness by investing in a more meaningful, satisfying work life. When you express yourself more confidently, overcome those work-related fears and strive towards practical goals, you will gain lasting career fulfilment.

Caroline's top tips to boost your career:

• explore the power of networking
• use positive affirmations
• get a coach
• find a mentor
• be honest with HR and your boss about your ambitions

Mentioned on the show and other useful links

• The Hotel on the Roof of the World by Alec Le Sueur
• 5 Minute Journal app
• Visit Caroline's website here
• Buy Caroline's book Get Confident and Accelerate Your Career HERE
• And a shoutout to Digital Mums who are doing their bit to help mums get back their career confidence
• Twitter @carnoldcoaching
• Facebook: Caroline Arnold Coaching

GUEST: Caroline Arnold, Executive Coach and Author
HOST: Sherry Bevan, Founder of The Confident Mother

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the show notes
• Tweet me @SherryRB using #ConfidentConversations
• Get in touch with me directly here
• Subscribe, rate and review in iTunes <>

For more Confident Conversations connect with me

• On Twitter @SherryRB
• Like The Confident Mother Facebook page
• Sign up to The Confidence Guide produced weekly packed with tips and ideas on career, confidence and leadership

So many women that I work with find themselves in the situation where they take any job to cover the mortgage. Because so much of our self-worth and self-image comes from current work, it can be hard to recognise and identify your strengths.

Jesu Martin has a passion for talent and successful careers. She runs The Confident Job Hunter and she recommends that you:

• base your confidence on facts
• take an inclusive approach and look at the feedback from others
• identify the things that people come to you for

Jesu herself has changed industries four times in her career and shares the benefits of cross-pollinating experience and best practices from one career to another.

If you want to change industry, here's what to do:

• identify the problems you solve
• identify the skills you have
• engage with the people in the industry
• get familiar with the industry 'jargon'
• tailor your CV and LinkedIn profile accordingly

Mentioned on the show and other useful links

• Download your free copy of Five insider tips to avoid the most common mistakes in jobhunting 
• Connect with Jesu on Facebook here 
• Register for the next LinkedIn Challenge here

GUEST: Jesu Martin, The Confident Job Hunter 

HOST: Sherry Bevan, Founder of The Confident Mother

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the show notes
• Tweet me @SherryRB using #ConfidentConversations
• Get in touch with me directly here
• Subscribe, rate and review in iTunes <>

For more Confident Conversations connect with me

• On Twitter @SherryRB
• Like The Confident Mother Facebook page
• Sign up to The Confidence Guide produced weekly packed with tips and ideas on career, confidence and leadership

Discover the 3 key things you need to think about to attract the right people and the right opportunities to your LinkedIn profile. 

First you have to get the basics right in your profile. The show starts with a brief overview of the 7 essentials (explored in more detail in episode 013) i.e. your photo, your headline, your summary, your experience, recommendations, groups and connections.

Once you have created a powerful LinkedIn profile, you need to focus on 3 key things:

• Strategy
• Consistency
• Authenticity

Discover what you need to consider to create an effective strategy, what is important about consistency in terms of brand and showing up, and finally how authenticity doesn't give you licence to share everything. Authencity is raising your awareness and being more mindful that what you share says something about you. 

Mentioned on the show and other useful links

• Networking with confidence, episode 017 with Heather White
• Read about the 7 essentials for your LinkedIn profile in my blog post
• Listen to episode 13 on the essentials for your LinkedIn profile
• Find out more about Sherry's new LinkedIn Confidence online course

HOST: Sherry Bevan, Founder of The Confident Mother

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the show notes
• Tweet me @SherryRB using #ConfidentConversations
• Get in touch with me directly here
• Subscribe, rate and review in iTunes <>

For more Confident Conversations connect with me

• On Twitter @SherryRB
• Connect on LinkedIn remembering to include a personal note
• Join the discussions in The Confident Mother Facebook group
• Sign up to The Confidence Guide produced weekly packed with tips and ideas on career, confidence and leadership

In the UK, nearly half of those joining accountancy are women. However at accountancy firms, women make up 23% of all partners, according to Catalyst, although 49% of all accounting employees. As you might expect, there is a “falling off” among women aged between 30 and 40 (although that is only partly explained by motherhood according to Rhonda Martin, head of ICAEW’s Women in Leadership team).

Award-winning Archna Tharani took a different route back into accountancy after a career break and now runs her own practice.

Archna has partnered with Lucy Whittington to bring the Your Own Practice programme to market and it's launching in September 2017. They are running discovery sessions to find out more on 4 and 8 July in London, and you can find all the details on the link below. Please do get in touch with Archna if you are interested.

In episode 026, Archna shares:

• the challenges she faced when returned to work
• what gave her the confidence
• how she combats the loneliness of running your own business
• the benefits of technology to provide a flexible career for women in accountancy
• how accountancy is changing from 'just' number-crunching

Archna's top tips to other women going back into the workforce after a career break:

• build the right support around you
• identify the skills you need to develop to continue your career, both technical and leadership
• reach out to people and network

Mentioned on the show and other useful links

• Networking with confidence, episode 017 with Heather White.
• Connect with Archna by email or on LinkedIn.
• Oculus Accountancy website.
• Your Own Practice founded by Archna Tharani and Lucy Whittington.
• Get in touch if you are interested in the discovery days.

GUEST: Archna Tharani, Oculus Accountancy
HOST: Sherry Bevan, Founder of The Confident Mother

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the show notes
• Tweet me @SherryRB using #ConfidentConversations
• Get in touch with me directly here
• Subscribe, rate and review in iTunes <>

For more Confident Conversations connect with me

• On Twitter @SherryRB
• Like The Confident Mother Facebook page
• Sign up to The Confidence Guide produced weekly packed with tips and ideas on career, confidence and leadership

So often the women I talk to feel overwhelmed and that they have too much to do. Maybe there's a better way to manage your time. Project management consultant Serena Nalty-Coombs shares her experience to help you get more productive and use your time more effectively at work and at home.

In episode 025, we discuss:

• How to pace yourself evenly
• How to manage expectations
• Project management tools to help you be more effective

Mentioned on the show and other useful links

• Serena on Twitter @SNMCons
• On Facebook SN Management
• Serena Nalty-Coombs on LinkedIn
• Project management tools Asana, Evernote and Trello
• Also check out my free download on 7 ideas to get more done in your day

GUEST: Serena Nalty-Coombs, Project Management Consultant
HOST: Sherry Bevan, Founder of The Confident Mother

Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the show notes
• Tweet me @SherryRB using #ConfidentConversations
• Get in touch with me directly here
• Subscribe, rate and review in iTunes <>

For more Confident Conversations connect with me

• On Twitter @SherryRB
• Like The Confident Mother Facebook page
• Sign up to The Confidence Guide produced weekly packed with tips and ideas on career, confidence and leadership

Last year 56% of employers were unable to fill full-time vacancies and attrition was estimated to cost UK businesses a massive £206 billion. ​With retirement planning, returnships and portfolio careers part of the new world of work, companies need to get creative to attract and retain talent. And the demand for a different work-life balance is greater than ever resulting in 30% of departures. It's time for employers to be more jobshare friendly.

Despite 15 years in commercial management and an MBA, Sara Horsfall struggled to find part-time roles at senior level. While understandable that roles can't always be scaled to part-time, we need another mainstream flexible working solution, given that the cost of replacing a senior employee (£30k according to CIPD).

Sara was inspired to create Ginibee, a jobshare platform for organisations who want a diverse workforce by attracting new talent, and retaining and advancing senior level employees who need to reduce their hours.

In episode 24, Sara shares her experience on how employers can be jobshare friendly as part of their flexible working strategy:

• the benefits of jobshare for both employers and employees
• why a jobshare partnership is SO much more productive
• the pitfalls of treating jobshare partners as individuals
• how to make full-time roles 'jobshare friendly'
• the value of the Ginibee jobshare kitemark

Mentioned on the show and other useful links

• Ginibee on Twitter @Ginibee123
• Ginibee jobshare platform
• Sara Horsfall on LinkedIn

GUEST: Sara Horsfall, Ginibee Jobshare platform
HOST: Sherry Bevan, Founder of The Confident Mother Ask your questions or share your feedback

• Comment on the show notes
• Tweet me @SherryRB using #ConfidentConversations
• Get in touch with me directly here
• Subscribe, rate and review in iTunes <>

For more Confident Conversations connect with me

• On Twitter @SherryRB
• Like The Confident Mother Facebook page
• Sign up to The Confidence Guide produced weekly packed with tips and ideas on career, confidence and leadership