Quietly Visible

We women often fail to put boundaries in place to protect ourselves from stress, anxiety, over work and other situations and people that drain the energy from us, eat up our time, or put too much pressure on us. Whether this be not saying no when deep down we know we should, or it be not setting personal boundaries around what we will and will not do for ourselves.

When we let situations continue, it makes it harder to put our foot down and say no and often at the rear of a lack of boundaries is a fear of rejection or a fear of hurting someone. But unless you put boundaries in place you will continue to feel frustrated about it.

In this episode I talk about boundaries. Why we need them, why we don't set them, and how to put them in place.

Dr Jummy Okoya, Leadership and Organisation Development Consultant, Positive Psychology Consultant and EDI expert is passionate about the topic of 'microaggression' (namely, comments and/or actions that negatively target and marginalise individuals or specific groups).  In this episode, microaggression is explored in depth and advice given as to how it can be challenged and dealt with.

About Dr Jummy Okoya FRSA, FCMI, SFHEA, ICF (PCC)

Jummy is a highly accomplished leadership and organisation development consultant with more than 2 decades’ experience. She is an experienced educator, trainer and researcher within the public and private sectors.

She is a multisector HR & positive psychology consultant focusing on wellbeing and human flourishing. She is a qualified positive psychologist who uniquely integrates positive psychology interventions with HR tools to support flourishing organisations and thriving employees. She has experience of working in Education, Health, Third sector, Aerospace and Professional bodies. Her expertise includes: Leadership & organisation development, Diversity & Inclusion, Workplace Resilience and Wellbeing, and Women in Leadership).

She was listed among top 50 inspirational black women in the UK in 2019.

It’s often not just what you know but who you know that gets you a look in when it comes to opportunities. And with a rumoured 70-80% of senior executive roles, and 75% of all jobs filled through the hidden job market, if you’re not making networking part of your repertoire, you could be missing out.

Many introverted women don't like networking and in this episode I talk about why introverts don't like networking, share tips on how to make networking work for you, and how you can make the most of virtual networking. With in-person networking events starting back up again after the pandemic, it's time to dust off your networking shoes and make networking work for you.

Alina Timofeeva is a multi-award winning woman in technology; a Senior manager in KPMG, moving to Oliver Wyman as an Associate Partner later this summer. Being introverted by nature, Alina has used dedication and power of actions to develop from an unconfident, non-talkative penniless girl in Russia into a successful multi-award winning  business woman in London.  Not only did she have to adapt to a new culture and strange country when she moved to the UK, she had to overcome her lack of confidence, learn to speak up more, be visible and raise her profile. Having had 497 out of 500 unsuccessful job applications when wanting to move to the UK, Alina has been promoted 4 times in less than 4 years. She shares her advice on what helped her achieve success, and how she is helping those who are coming up behind her.

In life we go through challenges and face adversities that we don't like. How we respond to what life throws at us will determine how we get through it. In this episode I talk about resilience and how we can develop resilience through the challenges that life and work throw at us.

Listening to stories of how others have overcome the challenges we are going through can inspire us, encourage us, and give us hope. In the episode I mention Resilient Voices: Stories of Positivity, Resilience and Hope from a Pandemic, a book in which myself and 44 other people from various walks of life, have given our time and written our stories of how we remained resilient through the pandemic, proceeds of which go to support the NHS. 

The book is published 5 July 2021 and is available on Amazon Kindle here.

Personal branding will help differentiate you from others in your professional sphere, something that an introverted leader may struggle with (putting themselves 'out there').  On this week's podcast I speak to Marielle Legair, who "helps women build their leadership presence to excel in their career".

About Marielle

Marielle Legair is a Publicity and Personal Brand Strategist, International Speaker and Author. As the founder of Women Who Influence, she helps entrepreneurial women increase their confidence and visibility to advance their business using LinkedIn.  As a trainer and workshop facilitator, she’s hired by global companies including Diageo, EY, Microsoft, Red Bull and Yale University to deliver visibility workshops.

Prior to founding her company, Marielle gained over a decade's international experience building brand reputation campaigns for CEOs and senior leaders at some of the world’s largest companies in London and New York including Deloitte, Grant Thornton and Experian. Marielle's work for her portfolio of clientele has captured global audiences' attention through top tier media channels including BBC, Bloomberg, Financial Times and Forbes.

Her book The Personal Brand Bible for Ambitious Women is available now on Amazon.

The over stimulation from back to back meetings, open plan offices, and other social activities and environments during the working day, can bring on what I call introvert drain. This can leave you feeling drained, low in energy, making you want to retreat and recharge.

But, your at work so unable to do this. So what can you do?

In this episode I speak to Áine Gallagher about how to utilise nutrition and how to keep yourself physically at your optimal to help overcome those energy dips.

About Áine

Áine Gallagher is the founder of Sana Vita Health where they help women find and fall in love with their natural weight and live a life free from dieting.

After spending her teenage years trying different diets and exercise programmes in an attempt to get her body to a certain weight (a weight that it didn't want to be), it was such a relief when she learned that our bodies have a natural, set point weight that it is always striving to achieve. This is the reason why she is so passionate about helping women find their natural set point weight and to learn that the next new diet isn't the answer to long term weight loss and maintenance.

At Sana Vita Health they take their clients through their 3month Innate Programme where they provide all of the support they need, including nutrition and mindset coaching, DNA testing and one to one exercise sessions, to finally let go of dieting, find their natural healthy weight and live a life free from restriction.

Facebook: sanavitahealth

Instagram: sanavitahealth

Website: www.sanavitahealth.co.uk

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aine-gallagher-11665883/ 

If more leaders talked openly about experiencing imposter syndrome or a lack of self-confidence, would it remove the stigma? And in doing so, would it then mean that people experiencing these wouldn't feel so bad within themselves about it? 

I explore these questions in this episode.

You can add your opinion to my LinkedIn article about this at https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/quietly-visible-6600753811223035905/

On this week's podcast I speak to Michala Liavaag, a black, introverted, woman leader in cybersecurity, which is a white male dominated profession. We talk everything from challenges she faced and how she overcame them to get ahead in her career, to her experience of burnout and the conditions that led to it, and the 'aggressive' black woman.

We discuss how cybersecurity can become more inclusive as a profession, and she shares advice and tips for anyone looking to start a career in it. 

Here are links to resources Michala referred to in our discussion:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rise-Cyber-Women-Inspirational-security/dp/B08XL7Z1X9

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Confident-Cyber-Security-Started-Futureproof/dp/1789663407

About Michala Liavaag

Michala is the managing director of Cybility Consulting Ltd working as a freelance Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) advisor and information governance and security consultant. With over 20 years of experience in IT (9 of which spent leading information governance and cybersecurity programs for complex medium and large organisations); Michala demystifies cybersecurity and helps organisations to build and maintain trust in the security of their services.

You can reach her on:

• LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/michalal/

• Twitter:

o Personal: @igimp https://twitter.com/IGimp

o Company:@cybilityconsult https://twitter.com/cybilityconsult

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cybilityconsulting

• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21373025.Michala_Liavaag