When Women Win

Want detailed show notes? A list of book recommendations? To send us some love? To nominate a guest? Head to whenwomenwinpodcast.com

Let's get social! When Women Win is @whenwomenwinpodcast on Instagram, Twitter & LinkedIn.

Would you kindly take half a minute to support our work by subscribing to, rating & reviewing the podcast? It would help tremendously.

Thank you,

Rana

Want detailed show notes? A list of book recommendations? To send us some love? To nominate a guest? Head to whenwomenwinpodcast.com

Let's get social! When Women Win is @whenwomenwinpodcast on Instagram, Twitter & LinkedIn.

Would you kindly take half a minute to support our work by subscribing to, rating & reviewing the podcast? It would help tremendously.

Thank you,

Rana

Want detailed show notes? A list of book recommendations? To send us some love? To nominate a guest? Head to whenwomenwinpodcast.com

Let's get social! When Women Win is @whenwomenwinpodcast on Instagram, Twitter & LinkedIn.

Would you kindly take half a minute to support our work by subscribing to, rating & reviewing the podcast? It would help tremendously.

Thank you,

Rana

For detailed show notes and book recommendations, please head to whenwomenwinpodcast.com

Let's get social! When Women Win is @whenwomenwinpodcast on Instagram, Twitter & LinkedIn. Please send us feedback and guest recommendations!

Would you kindly take half a minute to support our work by subscribing to, rating & reviewing the podcast?

Thank you!

Rana

Welcome to episode 60, the final episode of Season 2.

Bozoma Saint John is the Chief Marketing Officer at Endeavor, a global leader in entertainment, sports and fashion with a portfolio of companies including WME, IMG, and UFC. Before joining Endeavor, Saint John served as Chief Brand Officer at Uber, Head of Global Consumer Marketing at Apple Music & iTunes and Head of Music and Entertainment Marketing at PepsiCo. While at PepsiCo, where she signed their first ever deal with Beyonce.

Boz was inducted into Billboard's Women in Music Hall of Fame in 2018, and the American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement in 2014. She was recognized on The Hollywood Reporter's Women in Entertainment Power 100 list in 2018 and as Billboard's Executive of the Year in 2016. Boz has also been featured on the cover of Adweek as "one of the most exciting personalities in advertising" and on many lists like Fortune's Most Influential CMOs.

During our chat, we discussed meta themes like confidence and how to develop it, the importance of cultivating your personal brand and how to do it, the reality of stereotype threat and how to handle it, and the value of practicing all sorts of different behaviors, from speaking up to switching off. I love how Boz is evolving her own personal brand to move from "success to significance". We talked about faith, stage fright, pop-culture and her big, crazy dream.

There were so many fantastic quotes I could share here, but I'll limit myself to two: "It's not self-promotion if you're adding to the conversation" and "I'm really brilliant, but I don't have to be brilliant in every meeting"!

Boz's book recommendation is Elaine Welteroth's More than Enough.

If you'd like to follow Badass Boz you can find her on Twitter and Instagram.

While you're here, please remember to subscribe, rate and review the show. Thank you!

Ghizlan Guenez is the Founder and CEO of The Modist, the world's first global e-commerce platform where luxury fashion brands are curated for women who dress modestly. The need to empower women through choice of attire stemmed from Ghizlan's own needs: working 14 years in private equity, she had to dress conservatively for years, but often struggled to find clothing that was also fashionable and contemporary. A market estimated at $260B. Enter The Modist.

Originally from Algeria, Ghizlan lived most of her life in Dubai and the Middle East and holds first-class degree from the London School of Economics. While in private equity, she cultivated expertise in emerging markets. In 2018, The Business of Fashion, the leading digital authority on the global fashion industry, named Guenez one of the 500 people who are "shaping the global fashion industry".

We talked about lessons from the corporate world, living your big crazy dream and how to switch off when overwhelmed. We discussed the true business case for modest fashion and how it fits into our daily lives. Hint: choice, purpose, empowerment.

If you're on Instagram, you can follow Ghizlan here, and The Modist too.

While you're here, grateful if you'd subscribe, rate and review the show. Thank you!

Noor Sweid started her professional life as a strategy consultant in biotech and pharma; she then moved back to Dubai where she joined her family business, Depa, an interior contracting company. She helped grow it from $60M in revenue to $600M over 8 years. When it became the biggest such company in the world, Noor led its IPO on the London Stock Exchange.

In parallel, Noor founded ZenYoga, the first yoga and pilates studio in the MENA region. It grew to become the largest chain of wellness studios in the Middle East and was sold to a private equity firm. Noor currently owns and runs Global Ventures, a Dubai-based, growth-stage VC firm that invests in emerging markets.

I was curious to know, given these very different life & work experiences: what were the big lessons learned? It kept coming back to just one: you need a good story. Whether you're building a yoga business or selling a contracting firm, people need to understand and believe in your vision. I also asked Noor why and how she does what she does. My favorite quote of the episode is "Good enough should be the bar" - am delighted that Noor shares my distaste for perfection. You'll have to listen for more context – and loads of book recommendations.

In 2018, Noor was named by Forbes as one of the World's Top 50 Women in Tech, and she received the Arab Woman Award for Finance. She has been named in the Arabian Business 100 Most Powerful Arab Women list three times. Noor is Chairperson of the Middle East Venture Capital Association, was on the Founding Board of Endeavor UAE, and serves as a Director for MIT Sloan, TechWadi, and The Grooming Company.

By the way, some funky stuff happened with the studio's recording system this time, so today we are literally going to get right into it!

If you'd like to reach Noor, you can find her on Twitter and LinkedIn.

While you're here, please remember to subscribe, rate and review the podcast. Thank you!

As a lover of history, I was delighted to catch up with Nicola at this year's Emirates Literature Festival. We talked about the Tudor period in general, and then dived deeper into various pivotal characters of the era... Did you know that Lady Jane Grey was Queen of England for 13 days and then executed at the age of 17? Shocking stuff.

Nicola's first book, Crown of Blood: The Deadly Inheritance of Lady Jane Grey, was published in 2016 after five years of research.

Her more recent book, Elizabeth's Rival: The Tumultuous Tale of Lettice Knollys, Countess of Leicester, is the first biography of the extraordinary and scandalous Tudor lady. Lettice Knollys was Queen Elizabeth's cousin and she went on to marry the love of Elizabeth's life, Robert Dudley. In secret. What happened next surprised me...

You can find Dr. Nicola Tallis on Twitter and at https://nicolatallis.com/

While you're here please remember to subscribe to the podcast, rate and review it. Thank you!

Manale focuses on the large transformation of Middle East governmental institutions, in particular the defence and education sectors. She also drives A.T. Kearney's diversity and inclusion initiative for the Middle East, and heads the firm's sustainability (social, economic and environmental) efforts in the region.

Manale is an engineer by training and had a full professional career as a fintech entrepreneur before moving into the consulting industry.

We talked about the workforce of the future – what are those skills we have to develop in ourselves and our children to be "future-proofed". We discussed the impact this is having on education, and what the upcoming educational trends are from Finland to the UK to Singapore. I asked Manale about what A.T. Kearney is doing to retain women and she talked about their innovative, all-encompassing DIAL program (DIAL for diversity, inclusion, apprenticeship, leadership) and how they are holding leadership accountable for its implementation. Finally, we talked about what Governments can do to help move the needle.

When you hear the letters "KSA" - that's short for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as it is known in business speak!

Manale's book recommendation was "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera.

If you'd like to reach Manale, you can find her on LinkedIn.

While you're here, please remember to subscribe, rate and review the podcast – thank you!

Sally Helgesen is a best-selling author, speaker and women leadership expert.

Over the last 30 years she has worked with women leaders to recognize and act on their greatest strengths. Her most recent book, How Women Rise, became the top-selling title in its field within only a week of publication.

In this episode Sally shared a lot of valuable insights on the impediments preventing women from moving up and the behaviours and steps women need to take. We talked about several of the key habits from her book as well as dealing with different expectations, self-promotion, and how the businesses of today and tomorrow can greatly benefit from including women in leadership.

We recorded this episode live on stage as part of the Emirates Literature Festival.

If you'd like to get in touch with Sally, you can find her on LinkedIn and her book is available on Amazon or any bookstore who know what's good for them.

As always, remember to subscribe to the podcast, tap a rating or write a review. Thanks!