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 👇🏾
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:
When I was a toddler, my mum says that I was mesmerised by the fireplace
So much so that I wouldn't heed her warnings not to go near it
One day, exasperated with this constant song and dance, she allowed me to touch the rail that guarded it
According to her, not only did I immediately pull my hand back from the heat, I never tried to get close to the fireplace again
In other words, this (newfound) fear protected me and kept me safe
Here’s my point 👇🏾
Before Sarah achieved her dream of conceiving Isaac, she disqualified herself- believing she was too old to do so
Hence the whole Hagar debacle
Yet Hebrews 11:11 makes it clear that she went on to receive "strength to conceive seed, and...bore a child when she was past the age..."
Which means that none of her "undesirable" circumstances changed in order for her to achieve her dream, so what did?
Sarah was able to do this "by faith" because "she judged Him faithful who had promised" (Hebrews 11:11)
In other words, she took her eyes off her perceived inadequacies and placed them on God
That was the game changer that helped her to get what she wanted and is the thing that has helped me in every iteration of my entrepreneurial journey, including my most recent one with Media Magic
My retreat for business women 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
Want to get out of the chokehold that imposter syndrome has on you too?
There are some seats at the table that you have to be invited to rather than create yourself
This is known as vertical networking. For example, Esther would not have been able to get her audience with the king and save her people if she hadn’t first gotten on his radar as described in Esther 5:1-2:
“Now it happened on the third day [of her fast] that Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace, across from the king’s house, while the king sat on his royal throne... So it was, when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, that she found favour in his sight, and… Esther went near [to speak to him]”
But how do we get close enough to the influencers within our industries to get on their radars in this new digital age?
How do we get to their inner courts, so to speak?
By being an asset to them and/or they’re community through:
Do you watch Insecure, sis? If so, then you'll know that one of the overarching themes this season has been feeling a lack of support from the people you most expect it from when you're trying to birth your vision
(e.g. your best friend)
This theme of lack of support is something that we see through Miriam in Numbers 12 too…unfortunately, though, she’s not the hero in this story
One of my favourite experts on the topic of leadership is John Maxwell
Never heard of him, sis? You can access a lot of his teachings for free on YouTube, by just searching his name, as a starting as point.
Although one of his guiding principles is “leadership begins with self-leadership,” he also makes it clear that “If you think you’re leading, but no one is following…you are only taking a long walk”
In other words, sis, you need a platform to succeed as a (thought) leader and influencer, which is something that we see very clearly demonstrated through Miriam. For example…
In my previous blog post, I gave 4 steps to networking vertically (with the gatekeepers of your industry)
These were:
Start from where you stand
Network across
Network up
Pitch
All of which are demonstrated clearly through the life of Ruth
For example, Ruth could not have gone from working in Boaz’ fields to owning them with him as his wife without him accepting her proposal. Click here if you missed that, sis!
As such we, as modern women, will have to take a leaf out of Ruth’s book if we want to achieve our goals- especially if they include increasing the visibility of your brand and business by pitching the media
A great place to start is mastering guest posting by becoming a guest author, blogger or contributor on another person’s platform.
Having now been featured in over 40 platforms, including Thrive Global, HuffPost, Bustle and the TEDx blog, you can read my tips for getting started with guest posting based on my experience via my most recent article in The Creative Penn
