audacity

3 common misconceptions about planning

3 common misconceptions about planning

As I sat across from my good sis, Eunice, I felt defeated, like a failure, and that all the plans I had put in place had come to nothing

The other thing I felt was embarrassed (lol) because all these feelings were causing me to cry in public

Eunice and I had met up (as we normally do every month) at a restaurant and, what was supposed to be a fabulous girls' night out, had dissolved into this cry-fest that I was trying to hide by at least not crying loudly and attempting to wipe away all evidence of

But of course, the tears just kept coming and at a certain point, I just gave up and let them flow

You might be wondering why I was feeling this way. Well…

This moment was back in early 2023 when I first attempted to launch Media Magic

My retreat for business women, experts, coaches and authors who want to uncover a quick and systemised process to pitch the media so that they can get onto more top platforms, be seen as industry experts, and start raking in larger paydays

I first had the idea in 2022, but as you can guess from the scene I painted for you in the middle of that African restaurant, the first launch didn’t go well

Looking back now, and hindsight being 20/20, I can see that I hadn’t done everything correctly during that first attempt. But at the time, sitting across from Eunice in that African restaurant, I believed that I had done all that I could- making my poor results all the more painful

Flash forward to now and, not only did I successfully get Media Magic off the ground (in Tulum, Mexico last July), I’m currently planning my second one

(which will take place in Mykonos, Greece in October)

But the Nina of 2023, didn’t know this would happen. She wanted to throw in the towel, crawl into bed and not get out, to be honest

And, truthfully, I did do that for a while…

But then I eventually got myself back up

You may be wondering why I’m sharing this with you, sis

I’m sharing this story and the lessons learned because I know there will be people who will come across this post who have goals but are too afraid to say their goals out loud let alone commit to them

Why?

Because they're scared of ending up like the Nina of 2023 instead of asking, like Steve Mackey, “What if I become my wildest dreams?” (like the Nina of 2024 did)

Perhaps you’re one of them?

Why you should follow your dreams

Why you should follow your dreams

I'm so totally honoured to share that I spoke at The Rise to Millions Conference in Paris and received a Legendary Woman of Impact Award there recently 🥳🥳🥳

It was the last weekend of October to be exact

As I stood in front of the crowd, trying to find the words to express how honoured I was, I ended my speech by saying something like: “Well, this wasn’t on my bingo card, but it’s real, and it’s happening because I chose to follow my dreams...literally"

Here's what I meant by that 👇🏾

Why you need BHAGs

Why you need BHAGs

Have you ever heard of a BHAG?

(pronounced bee-hag)

According to Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, who coined the phrase, it stands for "Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal"

It can be defined as follows:

"It’s a goal that has a clear finish line so you know when you have achieved the goal. And it’s one that you have a 50 percent to 70 percent chance of achieving. It’s not something so outlandish that it’s highly unlikely that you will ever achieve it, but it’s definitely something you’ll have to stretch yourself to make happen" (Rachel Rodgers).

Although BHAGs have many benefits

Such as:

Why faith is important for achieving success

Why faith is important for achieving success

If you follow me on social media then you’ll know that I love to do monthly recaps

In these reels I, not only share what I got up to (visually) during a particular month, I also share what I learned (through a voice over)

When I think about July, it just feels like there were so many lessons learned

Which is unusual because I can usually distil it down to one thing/theme

The reason being because I achieved a major goal. I put on a retreat for women in business who want to go from stumped to savvy about how to get PR for their businesses (Media Magic)

See 👇🏾

How to have a Successful New Year

How to have a Successful New Year

Last week we talked about 3 disempowering life and business beliefs

Remember that, sis?

As we stand at the beginning of a new year, I think it’s important that we discuss how to make it a success

If you’re anything like me, you’ve entered this year with a set of goals and things that you would like to achieve

Here are 4 lessons that we can learn from the widow in 2nd Kings 4:1-7 about how we can do that:

Why nice girls finish last

Why nice girls finish last

Not only does girls’ socialisation impact their ability to promote themselves and be visible, it can have negative repercussions for them when they do

For example according to The Harvard Business Review article, "Nice Girls Don’t Ask”:

“Women who assertively pursue their own ambitions and promote their own interests may be labelled as bitchy or pushy”

This means that “They frequently see their work devalued and find themselves ostracised or excluded…”

“More typically [these responses] are a product of society’s ingrained expectations about how women should act”

Meaning that women can be impacted by societal expectations and gender norms:

The answer?

Lessons from Mahlah and her sisters on How to overcome Limiting Beliefs caused by Gender Norms

Lessons from Mahlah and her sisters on How to overcome Limiting Beliefs caused by Gender Norms

Last week we discussed how legalistic religious beliefs within the church can stop women from walking in their purpose and fully showing up

Click here if you missed that, sis

This is important because it plays into culture

(which is the behaviours and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic or age group)

especially in terms of how girls are socialised which, in turn, has knock-on effects on our ability to show up, be visible and therefore make impact as women

For, as one of my favourite authors, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche said:

“We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller, we say to girls, ‘You can have ambition, but not too much.’ ‘You should aim to be successful, but not too successful…’”

which is why, according to research, women feel less at ease with promoting themselves than men- which in turn means that they're less likely to do it.

However…

Mahlah and her 4 sisters (Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah) teach us that the best way to overcome this is to:

Lessons from Mahlah and her sisters on the first step to self-advocacy

Lessons from Mahlah and her sisters on the first step to self-advocacy

In August 2017 I wrote an article called “Lessons from 5 Rebel Girls of the Bible”

Which you can access here, sis

Among those that got an honourable mention were Mahlah and her 4 sisters- Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah

To summarise Numbers 27:1-11, they were the daughters of Zelophehad and when he died they advocated for themselves regarding their inheritance

by standing

“before Moses, before Eleazar the priest, and before the leaders and all the congregation, by the doorway of the tabernacle of meeting, saying: 'Our father died in the wilderness...and he had no sons. Why should the name of our father be removed from among his family because he had no son? Give us a possession among our father’s brothers'"

Causing God to instruct Moses to give it to them

Like it literally says that, when Moses brought their case before the Lord, He spoke to him saying:

“The daughters of Zelophehad speak what is right; you shall surely give them a possession of inheritance among their father’s brothers, and cause the inheritance of their father to pass to them."

Which shows that God is an advocate of women's rights, equality and leadership- despite what we may have traditionally been taught