In today's episode of The Art of Self Belief, Estella Edward is joined by Denise Morris, an accomplished entrepreneur, award-winning Networker, and CEO of TAG Network Midlands; an inclusive networking community and membership organisation that advocates the professional development of multi-sector Students, Graduates, Professionals, Entrepreneurs, and Leaders within the Midlands region.

Denise talks about finding yourself as a young person and how to handle self-doubt and self-criticism. And her advice to young women who are entering a male-dominated work environment and how young people should grow themselves.

Themes:

• Mindset
• Imposter Syndrome
• Self-doubt and self-criticism
• Networking
• Leadership

Quotes:

"... try and expand your horizons with the right people that will support you. And if that goes, well, you then catapult yourself in the understanding and the self-belief of different things that you pick up along the way, different people who help you and nurture you."

"You just go out there and you swim, and you find things that are going to be resourceful. And you take time to reflect on the types of things and goals that you now have to kind of align within your current situation." 

"You just sometimes have to push yourself and uncover the things within"

"...your sense of self, your sense of purpose, where you want to do what you want you've got in your toolkit is a fantastic thing for you to aim for, and to look at and say do I need to develop more, there are courses, there are people that you can learn from shadow. And also there are roles that you can actually move yourself into that incorporates all of your other skills, but just gives you a bit of an elevation. So you know, I always find that there are things and people's stories that can inspire you to make things feel better as well.”

"You can be ambitious with your thoughts. You can be ambitious with your plans. But ultimately, do you have the skills to match that? So if you find that you don't, this is where you really have to self analyse, and have a look at if I was to achieve X, Y, and Zed, what do I need to be able to get there? And what haven't I got that I need to now have to implement to maybe get to the next stage."

"Go in with an open mind and establish your way of doing it for yourself. Because you can't, and I would definitely implore someone not to try and change themselves to fit. 

If you are you, authentically and unapologetically, you should be in those spaces as you are, as a new form of representation, as the new standard. And there is nothing wrong with that."

"Making sure that you don't dim your light or soften your voice when you're in those spaces. Because that may be the one time you can actually inspire somebody who never thought somebody like you would change their perspective on something. And if there's an opportunity to do that, take it, but you should do it more for yourself, not for anybody else."

In this episode of The Art of Self Belief, I am joined by the brilliant Eudora Okoro-Andrew.  Eudora is a former employment Lawyer that provided advice on all areas of employment law and also provided advocacy at Employment Tribunals. And now famously known as DJ Lady E that has DJ at a variety of venues all across the country, including Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. 

Listen in to learn how she switched from a secure career in law to the arts, DJing. 

Quotes: 

“Don't let anyone derail your path to your target. “

“One of the most important things to me throughout my life is that to look after myself, I think I was lucky enough to recognize that if I didn't look after myself, physically, that affects me mentally. So whilst I was in an environment that felt hostile to me, I kept myself physically fit and eating healthily.”

“Recognize people you encounter whether they’re negative towards what you want to do, whether they try to put you down easily. People in our circle have the biggest influences. “

“... we all have the capability of recognizing the good for us and who's not good for us. Choose the path that you want to travel along.”

In this episode, our guest speaker is Janet Douglas, CEO of Feed My Creative CIC. Janet is a multiple award-winning social entrepreneur working with young people and adults of all ages, with a history of exemplary practice and social impact. In July 2020, she was listed as one of 55 inspiring entrepreneurs in the Social Entrepreneurs Index 2020.

Theme:

• Impostor syndrome
• Entrepreneurship
• Cancer Battle
• Isolation

Quotes:

"...everything that I have had a story."

"As you go through a plan, it's like biting a slice of cake. You're not going to put it all in your mouth at once. You can take little bite-sized pieces. And that is what I was doing; I was taking little bite-sized pieces, testing out things, seeing how it worked, doing some trial workshops and seeing how that worked. And it just escalated."

"Try not to do everything, all at the same time. You've got to pace yourself. And you know, it's okay not to have a solid plan. But it's good to have a plan because things can change." 

"...taking that time to reflect and think about what you've got to do or how you think about it. Who can you speak to before you go into a complete panic and a meltdown? It's okay to have a meltdown once in a while. But don't look at anything a step backwards. It steps sideways and pauses to reflect."

"Check everything. If it doesn't feel right or look right, go and get it checked. Don't sit on something because you never know what might happen. "

"...find things that you like to do, and go to an event. Even if you're sitting back, just observing."

"...believe in yourself, that's what you're doing and give it a go. You've got to try it. If you don't try and you don't know, it's going to work."

Our guest in this episode is a multi-award-winning transformational leader, coach, author, mentor and sought-after inspirational speaker and the CEO of JacynthIvey.com, Jacynth Ivey. She helps business owners, entrepreneurs, managers and leaders who are struggling with their worth, affecting their performances in life or business. 

Her book “It’s Okay to be Different: Reignite Your Passion, Fulfil Your Dreams” provide readers with seven life changing habits to confidently step forward into successful living and acknowledge your brilliance

Join us and get inspiration to her story.

Themes:

• Mindset
• Racism
• Empowering black women
• Resilience

Quotes:

Join Estella Edwards on The Art of Self Belief podcast episode today as she is joined by Clair Graham.

Clair’s story includes joining a gang as a teenager, becoming pregnant at a young age, and living in residential care. On today’s episode Clair shares her tips, tricks and obstacles faced in her fascinating journey to become the Head of Service for Contextual Safeguarding at Birmingham Children Trust.

Themes:

• Mindset
• Redirection not rejection
• Racism

Quotes:

“…you can't be on your own in isolation, you need a team around you, you need your mentors, you need your coaches, you need people who are similar to you in terms of race, gender, values, that you can, you know, attract and build and connect with doesn't have to be in your organisation”

“…look outside and find those role models that can help you.”

“…find your team. Find your support that works. Reach out, find like-minded people like yourselves, and don't be isolated whatever challenges you're going through.”

“…there is hope, just believe in yourself and believe that things can change.”

Join us as Oyinkansola Adebayo, CEO and Founder of Niyo Group, a multi-award-winning group of companies that specialise in using technology to economically empower black women, shares her journey and struggles as a black youth, as well as how she overcame them and discovered her desire to help black women succeed in the tech industries.

Themes:

• Empowering Black Women
• Tech Industry
• Impostor Syndrome

Links:

Linkedin

Quotes:

“..in terms of my journey, I think that's one of the things that I don't feel like a lot of entrepreneurs speak about is the impact of society, your parents, and also your community about how actually how it shapes you.“

“...the fact that we live in a different system and a different community actually caused a lot of barriers. And what I found was there was a lot of racism.

“...my parents or just my dad, but my parents always instilled this kind of like, crazy self belief in me. They knew that I was this like, rare child who was booksmart. But they always used to say you need to be street smart.”

“...by the time I got to this country, being street spot made sense to me. As what does it mean? What it means to me is being able to understand how to navigate society, even if society does not accept you.”

“..I just knew that there was something that I was born to this earth for, that I needed to achieve. I needed to see a change in my world for some reason.

“..if someone continually abuses you, it adds an environment around you, and it adds an atmosphere around you, that you cannot just shift, it's difficult to shift.“

“..how I was able to shift out of that was through prayer, and also actually coming to terms that this actually happened. And it's actually how it affected me. That's also that's the kind of like, the first thing I think, also the change of environments, massive change of environments really helped me, I would just get in other terms with settling in, I had very change of environments.”

“...I'm black woman and also a woman of colour. I mean, we've had different we have different barriers, don't want to say that an Asian woman bar is the same as a black woman.”

“...I find super, super interesting is you can give these ladies all of the training, the tech training, the soft skills, but now let's face your future, let's face your dream now. And what hits us in the face is imposter syndrome and confidence issues.”

“...You want to change your career, or you want to become a founder in the tech space. We will help you to do that, like we would lit you wouldn't be able to coach you wouldn't be able to become a data analyst, you will be able to become a woman in VR and AR and lots of other tech stuff.”

“... 1%, of the tech industry is made of a black woman?”

“...We're in the game of transforming the lives of black women to become builders, the game that we're playing now, I think, just to answer your question about what other solutions, this is solution is investment. And what does that investment is not just money. Beyond that, investment in time, investment in pouring, pouring yourself, pouring your wisdom, your knowledge, and also, and also investment in pouring your beliefs as well.”

“..I never stop learning. And actually, that's the that's the secret to my success.“

“...I only got here because I was authentically me. And I followed my purpose. And I, and that comes that been offensively, you know, comes with actually knowing who you are, what you stand for? why you're here? Why don't Why on earth are you here? Right?”

“...it's really important that it's just your DNA, it's actually what makes you tick. What makes you tick? What makes you angry? What do you want to see? What do you see? Right? You know, when you stand, what do you see? Right? Because Estella, you can see, you can see something completely different from what I see that is what makes us different. And actually, you express yourself in a different way than I express myself. And it's actually okay for us to have fat, right. So yeah, it comes from your DNA, what actually makes you tick. And that could evolve, because, heck, it's evolved for me.”

“... what made me tick three years ago was economic empowerment, or black woman. And I'm still on that economic empowerment for black women today. And why did it make make me tick? I think I just saw poverty and I hate I want to change something.”

“..We do a lot of work on growth mindsets on like those of mindset shifting.”

“...if you don't systemize anything, you're going to fall as quickly as you grew.”

“...My advice to young people is men, young woman is men. Just believe in yourself. Go on that journey. It looks messy, it is messy. Go on the journey.”

“

Join Estella Edwards and today's guest, Inez Brown, as she discusses her struggles and experiences with discrimination in the legal industry, how she built her clinical negligence team that now specializes in all types of claims, including birth and brain injuries, and how she won her case. And her story of becoming the first black president of the Birmingham Law Society and raising funds for charity during the pandemic year.

Themes:

• Diversity Inclusion Scheme
• conversation about flexible working
• Law and Technology

Links:

LinkedIn

Quotes:

“..We couldn't afford to buy books. So what she would do is give us the Bible to read. And we had to read it from cover to cover. So we learned English, and we learned about grammar.”

“..At no point did I ever think that we didn't have enough, we didn't have enough, but at no point was I made to feel that we didn't have enough. And as a result, from about the age of 12, I knew that I wanted to become a solicitor, maybe a barrister one day.”

“..Self belief is having a goal, something that you aspire to and believing that you can achieve it ,no matter what.”

“..to have self belief, you've got to have confidence. Confidence is something that you don't just get overnight. It's something that you learn.And it is a journey.”

“..I always wanted to be accepted by everyone that I met. And if you didn't accept me, I felt as though I'd failed. And  my confidence was very, very low. “

“..why do you need people to affirm you? Why don't you just believe in yourself, accept yourself, and those around you in your immediate circle, they will then be supportive of you. But until you believe in yourself, and accept yourself, you actually won't make it.“

“..whatever you do, it doesn't matter what job you are in, be the best in that job.”

“.. As a lawyer, I was a trainee solicitor, but I was the only black person in the firm, who was training to be a lawyer, and who was not in an admin or support role.And what you find when you're the only one, they will try to encourage you to go into areas of law that you don't necessarily want to do.”

“..They were directing me into the areas which, unfortunately, people of colour, tend to be directed into crime, family, immigration, housing, those are the areas that they tend to direct people of color, but that wasn't what I wanted to do.”

“.. I qualified into personal injury and medical negligence, and I've remained in medical negligence, and I absolutely love the combination of medicine and the law.”

“..We had a press conference with over 30 members of the press who were there, including Channel Four ,ITV.I went on this morning, I went on BBC News, I went on Sky News, talking about the changes in law.”

“..On our journey, people will say things that can be extremely discouraging and hurtful, and especially when you're trying to be noticed, because as a young lawyer, you want to be noticed by your supervisor, because that means there is scope for promotion.”

“.. one thing that journey has taught me as well, when I've been treated badly, or when I've been discouraged, is to learn not to do that to anyone else.

“..I think it's really, really important that we offer a helping hand, it can't be only Inez, it's got to be the legacy for me, is passing or imparting my knowledge and support to those who would not have the opportunity that others have.”

“..when I looked at the Law Society, there was no diversity at all, at that time, and rather than sit back and just complain,I believe that the solution is to get involved, to roll your sleeves up and get involved. And so that's why I started to volunteer with the Law Society, and I volunteered on the PR and media committee, and then I was a volunteer for the personal injury committee.”

“..I've never seen myself as just a solicitor, I think there's something bigger out there for me to do,and to help others on their journey. “

“..I wanted to set up a scholarship.It was called the diversity and inclusion scheme, where I was going to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds and underrepresented groups to access the profession.”

“.. not to give them a training contract, because they would have to work for that if you want something, and you believe in yourself, you've got to work towards it, you cannot be handed everything on a plate.”

“..It's about us believing in ourselves, aspiring, but what can we do”

“..For others, it's about giving back and making sure that there is a community behind us who see someone who looks like us, who comes from where we have come from, and can aspire as well.”

From being an ambitious little girl who beat cancer, to a BBC reporter for 19 years.

Satnam Rana-Grinley is our guest today who talks about her career progression through struggles and finding the courage to stand for herself through the art of self belief.

Join us and hear her story. 

Themes:

• Education and Growing up in a Punjabi family
• Traditional Upbringing VS Progressive Thinking
• Career progression struggles

Links:

Transcript

Linkedin

Quotes

“I think my tip would be find somebody in your family circle, or your friendship circle to encourage you.”

...it's not my monkey, with your monkey.

 if you have a problem, think what could be the solution to this problem?

“...great if you're a company that's got a brown woman in leadership, brilliant, but you can also have a number two and number three, and number four, and number five, but they don't have to be just one. It shouldn't be just one will absolutely”

“So for one person that can support ambition for me actually just fueled it.”

“Why do you want to come here? Come to Gbs lap. And it wasn't just a really simple answer personal growth.”

“Culture in an organisation drives me I need to feel as if I can contribute my whole self to the workplace, not just the professional self bash. To the whole self, and the whole self also comes with this need to serve humanity. And that probably ties back into a core pillar of Sikhism, which is service to humanity.”

“...what a privilege to work with such a talented set of it happens to be women who are in different stages of their life and professional careers, and to see them grow and flourish. And to be able to encourage that empowerment. “

“ it doesn't matter what you want to be. But if you want to be that something, believe in it, and believe in yourself, there will be times where you doubt yourself. But don't stay in that period of doubt for too long. Try and find a way out of it”

“Navigating the professional world is not you don't reach a point. It is a continuous journey

Having an open mindset is absolutely paramount

“..be authentic, be true to yourself be is bring bring to bring your whole self to life and into the workplace is about authenticity.”

“...being authentic is really really important because the more authentic you are, the more reflective we are of diversity. And the more open we are to the most important bit which is inclusion.”

In this episode, our guest is Justice Williams MBE, founder of dream plan launch, a community and platform for female entrepreneurs to build a business model they learn with their passions, skills and expertise. We discuss the importance of providing support for women to allow them to succeed in life and business and how your mindset is a powerful tool that can change your life's direction.

Despite starting her journey with a criminal record at 21, seven years later, she became the youngest woman of Afro-Caribbean heritage to be honoured with an MBE by the Queen for services to young people in Birmingham. Having supported over 3000 individuals, Justice gives a first-hand account of how she turned her passion into profit and supports other women to do the same.

Themes:

• Entrepreneurship
• Art of self belief
• Resilience

Quotes:

• So having a plan is one thing, but having a strategy is the next thing. It's looking at the bigger picture."

• "...always be willing to invest in yourself. And ultimately, if you invest in yourself, it will naturally tell you, subconsciously, I'm deserving."

• "...be willing to invest in yourself if you're expecting others to invest in you."
• "...never make a decision based on emotions."

• "... I always say the magic happens outside the comfort zone. So if I feel that little tingle of fear, this opportunity will allow me to grow and do bigger and better things."

• one of the things that hold women back from truly succeeding and stepping into their true potential and business isn't about the product idea. They've got great ideas that have great potential, but it's actually the self belief that actually I can do this I can be successful, I deserve to charge this amount for my products and service.

• when you are socially isolated, sometimes it can lack your confidence and  your self belief.

• the art of self belief, that's got to be a podcast title, because ultimately, it's a massive, underserved audience. We already know that approximately 12% of podcasts are hosted by women.

• imposter syndrome is that fear of being found out, it's kind of like you're you're faking it, or you're, you're not deserving of those opportunities, and that somebody's gonna all of a sudden say that she's an imposter. And so it naturally, you know, knocks people's confidence, people feel like they're not deserving of opportunities, that actually they should be for somebody else other than me.

On the show today, Estella talks about mentoring, resilience and the power of finding authenticity with Yetunde Dania, senior solicitor and partner at Trowers and Hamlins and an independent chair of the race equalities Task Force.

THEMES:

• Resilience
• Mentorship
• Socialisation

QUOTES:

• we're not islands; we're not on our own. And so it's about mentorship
• my tools for success are really - authenticity, be kind to people, and self-belief; those are the tools in my armoury that I feel have helped me get to where I am today.
• You don't have to stay there; you have choices. There are plenty of places and people willing to help.
• Nobody's beyond mentoring
• You can't lie to yourself. When it's quiet, Who are you? What is important to you?
• hurdles are made to be navigated
•  the ability to be authentic is actually quite powerful

Learn more at www.estellaedwards.com

Connect with me on LinkedIn