Empowered Leaders in Tech

Hey there!

Welcome to this episode where I was thrilled to have Amelia Sordell as my guest on the podcast for you.

Amelia is the founder of the personal branding agency Klowt. An incredible woman who built her own brand and following of over 70K followers during the pandemic. Amelia has a background in PR and marketing making her one of the most knowledgeable voices on linked in for this topic.

In this episode, we talk about:

• What is personal branding
• How you can overcome imposter syndrome to start building your personal brand
• The value of personal over company page branding.
• Some tactical tips to help you get going
• The mistakes some people make when building a personal brand.

You can connect and follow Amelia on Linked in, Instagram and Tik tok searching Amelia Sordell : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ameliasordell/

If you want to learn more about personal branding you can subscribe to my newsletter as we talk all about influencer marketing, being the go-to expert and social content marketing on the journey to building a successful lifestyle business.

I’d also recommend following Amelia on Linked in who often shares tips to build yours.

Let me know in the comments what you found most useful from the show and what questions you still have.
Watch the interview at
https://sueparker.io/personal-branding-with-amelia-sordell

You can read more about Ronke and comment on my personal blog, Sue Parker.io

I absolutely love sharing this interview with you, I know Ronke Babajide personally and from our work on diversity in tech. Ronke is launching a mission-led business platform called the Queen beehive.  With a 25-year long successful tech career, Ronke is a great role model for us all and we talk all about her work and mindset in this episode.

My favourite quotes from this episode: 

In this episode we talk all about: 

• Ronke's Tech Career [02:00- 8:54]
• The Podcast - Women in Tech Spot light series
• Launching the Platform as a Female Founder 

The book Ronke mentions is the The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams and you can also check out her channel The Women in Tech Spotlight series. 
And the platform https://thequeenbeehive.net/en/

I can't wait to hear what you have taken away from this episode. I'm hoping this inspires you to take some action today on your own idea. 

Ronke Babajide

Drop me your comments on the blog https://sueparker.io/?p=3118 

Hello!

Welcome back to season 2 of the empowered leaders in tech podcast, where we are talking about writing your own story. Starting from a blank canvas. 

Because when we can see it we can be it! 

And introducing The Freedom Project podcast for people who want to create more freedom flexibility in life, to love more and still have meaningful work & impact. 

Whether you are full of ideas, a side-hustler, start-up or mid through launch as an online freelancer or entrepreneur who wants support on the mindset, personal development and then strategy go check out the new podcast. 

https://open.spotify.com/show/1YsNMsatvjkIQcX16ur7pc

Sue :-)

Reflection, I bet it's the one thing you rarely get time to do. ....

In this episode:

• I give you a summary of some of the inspirational interviews of this series for you to check out
• I talk about my reflections, my personal career and how over the last 12 months this too has changed.
• And get deep, challenging you (like a good coach should!) to think about what this is really about, 
• The exciting details of our expert series for season 2

Often we think it's about promotion but the reality is that this rarely leads to happiness. 

We believe that following the traditional old carer path is still the only way, and I wanted to challenge you to think bigger. 

Most of all I would love for you to spend quality family time this summer. 
Enjoying one of life's most important gifts, love. 

And I will see you again in September for more...

Don't forget to get in touch on Linked in or [email protected] with your quetsions. 

In this series, I've welcomed guests to the Empowered Leaders in Tech podcast to inspire you to take control of your career and build a life YOU love.

We're all facing the fear of the next move, the feeling that we can't keep up and that we will never be enough. 

The all too familiar imposter syndrome, and every time you think, I am the only person to have this. We hear another story of someone who feels just the same. Yet in our professional lives, we rarely let it show. 

Today I'm sharing with you an Interview with the inspirational Karen Jean-Francois.  An analytics manager, Karen is passionate about how data science and analytics can support businesses and help them better understand their customers. While she finds digging into data fun, she believes that it comes with responsibility, and her uncompromising focus on data integrity enables her to build trust and strong relationships with stakeholders. 

Most of all, she strives to help others craft their own path to personal and professional fulfillment. She believes that focusing on personal development and having access to role models is key to having a successful career – no matter what your definition of success is. This is why she created the Women in Data Podcast in partnership with Women in Data UK. This resulted in an industry recognition as a Twenty in Data and Technology 2020, which awards visible and accessible female role models for the next generations of data professionals. 

Karen's story reminds us of the importance of being open to new ideas, exploring alternatives, and asking those difficult questions.

Starting her career as a Mathematician, it's no surprise she came to work in data analytics. 
But like many, this was a squiggly career. In fact, starting life in Guadeloupe with her family as an aspiring maths teacher without even a computer at home, we can now see how unlikely this was. 

She became an athlete training in Paris, where her sport became a way to step out as a natural introvert. 

As Karen juggled the demands of her athletics career and a master's in France, far from home, she heard some advice that helped her to see she wasn't alone. 

Later she took the brave decision to drop her track career and focus on studies to become a data analyst.

She took a master's in Engineering & statistics and loved it.  

We talked about the importance of knowing your own skills and passions, and how role models and mentors can help a lot. 

Then onto career progression and the unspoken rules surrounding promotions and recognition that see many high-performing professionals leave organizations. They feel unrecognized, unfulfilled and disengaged. 

Karen shares with us openly how she too questioned her career, when on the track you know what time you have to run to be at that level

In business you can't compare, it creates conflict and the career ladder can be ambiguous at best.

We talked about diversity and Karen admitted to once thinking, 'I'm different and that means maybe I shouldn't be here.'

Role models and mentors help a lot.

With Karen acclaiming one book that really transformed her thinking by Valerie Young, Secret thoughts of successful women.

Not to mention that the Women in Data podcast also helped Karen to become more visible in the community.

Inspired? Are fellow women in data? You can always check out the Women in Data Podcast and find Karen Jean-Francois on linked in. 

I would love to hear what you think of this episode and the first season. 
What would you like to see more of? Let me know over on Linked in or mail [email protected]

It’s taking time but many of us are starting to recognize that high performers don’t necessarily have a textbook-perfect career. 

Some of the biggest thought leaders in the Tech and Data industry started out in very different fields altogether. So pivoting, being courageous and taking uncomfortable steps is part of the journey. 

In this inspiring interview, we learn from Amardeep Sirha co-founder of Amati software consulting. A strong woman in tech showing us all how you can build the life you want.

We talked about how she found the courage to pivot from a safe and successful career in teaching. 

How we all need to take her approach always learning, asking questions, and doing the research to grow with our roles. 

We discussed the highs and lows, with a boost of encouragement, Amardeep shows us how to cheerlead for ourselves. Reminding us that there is always tomorrow to try again and it is never ever too late! 

For all you new generation leaders there is a discussion around what creates a supportive place at work, with psychological safety and getting the most potential from your team to be high performing as Ama.

Listen and let me know what resonates with you most..  

How many times have you had a setback and told yourself one of these things?

Successful people are just lucky

I’m not good enough, I tried but I can’t do it.

Whenever we fail to do the self-care and mindset work every day, a failure or rejection can feel like the reason to admit defeat.

So I wanted to share 5 strategies for your toolkit, practise these regularly and I know you will make the progress you really desire, listen or watch the full episode to learn more:

1. Your Identity holds the key

2. Take the stoic assessment

What’s the worst that can happen? And if it did what would you do?

What’s the best possible outcome if I do anyway?

3. What would you say to your best friend

Be empathetic, shake it off, ask yourself ‘What next?’

Get super solution focussed

That didn’t work, what do I try next?

4. Learn to celebrate the struggle, the trying, the small wins and marginal gains.

5. Be in it for the long game

I hope that you use these to follow your path to wherever, no matter what gets in your way.

Sue

Do you find that after the working week is done there is a void? Like a whole part of who you truly are is missing.

In this episode, I'm joined by Ketaki Vaidya Senior Software Engineer at Oracle and Host of the "Personal Branding for Professionals" Podcast. 

We talk about having a personal purpose, something which expresses who you are, along with practical tips and advice for building a brand at work. Watch or listen below:

In this episode we talk about:

• What is personal branding - your reputation, what you do others know of you
• How trying to be someone else is not the answer.
• The courage and vulnerability with being authentically you
• The two types of people at work and how keeping your head down and working hard won't cut it
• Why you should treat your manager as a partner 
• Start nominating yourself
• Ketaki recommends having biweekly check-ins with your manager 

I hope you got a lot from this episode, remember if you have anything you'd like me to cover on the podcast, drop me an email [email protected] or message me Sue Parker on Linked in. 

Head over to Linked in and tag me a post - what did you take away today?

Learn more about Ketaki's podcast here. "Personal Branding for Professionals"