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:
If you’ve been rocking with me for a while, you’ll know I have a background in Speech and Language Therapy, and that at the beginning of my career, I worked in Primary Schools (or Elementary Schools for my American peeps)
(I see you!)
During this time, there were periods and jobs where I’d invariably feel bored and, ultimately, like leaving. These feelings were due to bad managers, stressful work conditions, and unfair pay, which left me wishing for a new job
But complacency kept me at these unfulfilling jobs until the tide would turn, and they would do something that made me go, “Alright, enough is enough. I need to leave"
I found myself in a cycle of unpleasant and unfulfilling jobs, till I realised that the adage, "be careful what you wish for 'cause you just might get it", is true, but just not in the way we typically think…
Here’s how 👇🏾
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 👇🏾
Last month my dad turned 70
As he dropped me off to the station after his celebration dinner, I asked him 2 questions: "How does it feel to be 70?" and "what advice do you have for younger people?"
Listening to his answers, captured in this video, it was really apparent to me that he was answering this question with his younger self in mind.
This got me thinking about what I would tell my younger self about getting started with PR and I think it would be this:
We've been doing a lot of talking about purpose recently
Including why purpose is important to your PR strategy and how to do purpose-driven PR.
The reason for this is because when I reflect on the nativity story, particularly from Mary's point of view, that's the overarching theme that jumps out to me about this season
Here's why:
In giving her the gift of Jesus, God took an average little girl and gave her the opportunity to present herself in a new light by lifting the lid of her potential; endowing her with His power and giving her purpose.
But, most of all, God gave her something special to share with the rest of the world- an expression of His love.
To me, this shows us as modern women that we are also pregnant with purpose- meaning that we have something to give and contribute to the world too
However, as a person who sits at the intersection of many identities, I know how hard this can be to believe at times (if not all the time)
You are literally presented with messages built from systems that contradict and try to convince you otherwise every single day but...
Guess what?
Your ability to speak up, step out and shine as the woman that God created you to be is tied to coming out of agreement with society and accepting your divine status as "blessed among women" (Luke 1:28)
Yes you!
Simply put, you can't be a thought leader if you don't actually believe that you have ideas worth sharing...
You can't make impact if you don't believe that you have the power to...
You won't use your voice if you don't believe that it's significant...
You can't be visible if you don't feel that who and what you represent matters...
Because it's impossible to shatter glass ceilings that you continue to uphold
Ready to break them down?
Here's what you must do instead
What's your word or theme for 2021, sis?
Last year mine was "be fruitful and multiply" so-
This year, for me, it's "scale"
In other words, I'm taking all the things that worked in my life and business from last year and building upon them this year.
Business-wise, there were 2 areas where I really saw "fruit":
-Helping women in business to DIY PR through The Perfect Pitch Packet
-Providing done-for-you PR services through The Perfect Pitch Programme
so these are the areas that I want to scale this year.
The issue?
