This is a meaty discussion starting from the beginning of Leila’s career, from her last-minute decision to change her plans of becoming a teacher in favour of a Business and IT course. Wangling her way onto a graduate program in her first job after completing her HND Leila went on to carve out a niche for herself as the go-to person for liaising with staff when workplace culture required a change champion to shake things up.

Never content with ‘just sticking with call centres’ or a particular technology, Leila’s career journey has stopped off at various different industries, and has included management consultancy, interim management, project management, coaching and mentoring. She achieved her life coaching qualification before she was 30, and later discovered the freelance life really works for her as a way to ensure variety and freedom in her work.

In true Leila style, the coronavirus pandemic presented an opportunity to devote some time (and some of her seemingly endless curiosity) to more learning, cue: embarking on a Masters in Psychology during lockdown.

Leila and Jess cover:

-       Leila’s excitement at the prospect of conducting research that will be helpful to female entrepreneurs specifically

-       Imposter syndrome – who it affects and why (and why an intersectional approach to researching imposter syndrome is important)

-       Why it’s necessary to differentiate between the labels ‘entrepreneur’ and ‘female entrepreneur’

-       The bodily and neurological experience of ghosting and rejection, particularly from neuroscientific and evolutionary perspectives

-       How our perception of rejection can inform the impact it has on us

Leila references Ashanti Bentil-Dhue’s work on the topic of difficult conversations – search Ashanti Bentil-Dhue on Linkedin

Visit Leila’s website to find out how to work with her: www.aingeconsulting.co.uk and learn from her via the newsletter ‘The Debrief’ here: www.aingeconsulting.co.uk/subscribe  

Connect with Leila on Instagram @leilaainge and on Linkedin by searching Ainge Consulting Ltd

If you enjoyed this episode of Unprecedented Womxn please leave a rating and review, and make sure you've subscribed!

Connect with Jess online at rock-social.com and on Instagram at @rocksocial_

Unprecedented Womxn is a Decibelle Creative production: Find out more at decibellecreative.com and on Instagram @decibelle_creative

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Founder of Mags Creative, a podcast production and promotion agency, Hannah works with brands and individuals to tell their story in audio.

Hannah reflects on how starting a business seemed completely achievable due to her entrepreneurial family background and what makes her sister the best business partner. 

In this episode:

• Learning from business failures.
• Best business partner qualities.
• Podcasting – why it’s great and how to start.
• The curious business mindset and living outside your comfort zone.
• Business lessons – comparison is the thief of joy.

Jess and Hannah discuss the business mindset of being curious yet focussed, transferring business values to employees and the importance of trusting your gut.

We hear about Hannah’s passion for audio content and why it’s the medium that gets her out of bed in the morning. Hannah offers some great advice for those wanting to try their hand at storytelling including self-interrogation and guest appearances.

Hannah conjures up a vivid image of hard work featuring boulders, hills and shoes while Jess delves into Hannah’s scaling journey and unearths her favourite podcasts.  

You can discover more about Mags Creative at www.magscreative.co.uk

Hannah’s recommended tools for self-podcasting include remote recording studio Squadcast and Zencastr

If you enjoyed this episode of Unprecedented Womxn please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, and make sure you've subscribed!

Connect with Jess online at rock-social.com and on Instagram at @rocksocial_

Unprecedented Womxn is a Decibelle Creative production: Find out more at decibellecreative.com and on Instagram @decibelle_creative

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jess chats with VoiceHER co-founder Viktoria, who eloquently discusses the psychology mindset that guided her career and helped her to become a relatable leader that is unafraid of failure.

On a mission to discover who she was as a person and find real meaning in life she changed her career perspective. Recognising the privilege and opportunities afforded her, Viktoria felt her true purpose was to give something back; joining an incubator at VC firm, Antler, she found a complementary co-founder in Sanna Dahlin. Having both struggled to find relatable female role in non-toxic environments and sharing the same drive to impact change, the VoiceHER concept for a feel-good female community was born.

Viktoria reminds us:

·       Be daring, take risks and be fearless of failure.

·       The importance of relatable role models.

·       How competitors can provide an advantage.

·       Maintaining the ‘why’ and your focus.

·       The power of women and focussing on the opportunities.

Jess and Viktoria unpick some of the common issues women are facing such as self-esteem, taking risks and overcoming barriers.

Viktoria gives us a wonderfully thought-provoking account of her journey. Her self-reminding approach to finding true happiness and meaning in life in the small things is truly inspiring to listen to.

Join the conversation on VoiceHER by downloading the ViceHER app, larn more on their website: www.voiceher.com and follow them on Instagram @voicehercommunity.

If you enjoyed this episode of Unprecedented Womxn please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, and make sure you've subscribed!

Connect with Jess online at rock-social.com and on Instagram at @rocksocial_

Unprecedented Womxn is a Decibelle Creative production: Find out more at decibellecreative.com and on Instagram @decibelle_creative

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Prepare to be inspired by the self-truths of another fantastic unprecedented female pioneer as this week, Jess talks us through her own career.

From the early years in marketing and PR jobs, to a career break in interior design and finally the toxic workplace and long-standing mistreatment which propelled her into finding fulfilment as an entrepreneur and champion for women in business.

Jess shares her wisdom and insight with Rachael Vaughan-Jones, host of podcast 'Building Liquid' which takes a deep dive into the creation of and inspiration behind start-ups in the drinks industry. Rachael is also the Founder of small batch whisky brand, Jackson Jones. Jess and Rachael discuss:

• The power of mindset - how we are defined by what we think and working hard to create real change in our unequal society.
• Thinking big and having strong convictions.
• Finding and understanding your work values.
• Gender inequality - how and why we need to change the narrative.
• Ruler techniques and gaslighting – why we need new leadership role models.
• Calling it out – the importance of empowering yourself.
• Reframing failure and the power of gratitude.

This emotionally honest account from the founder of the Unprecedented Womxn podcast and boutique social media consultancy Rock Social, presents a deeper understanding of Jess’s passion for serving, strengthening and empowering fellow female founders.

Click here to check out Rachael’s podcast or search ‘Building Liquid’ wherever you listen to yours.  

Discover Rachael on Instagram at @rvjdrinks and @shitidointhebath or search ‘Rachael Vaughan-Jones on LinkedIn

You can also find out more about Rachael’s whisky ‘Jackson Jones’ at www.jacksonjoneswhisky.com

If you enjoyed this episode of Unprecedented Womxn please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, and make sure you've subscribed!

Connect with Jess online at rock-social.com and on Instagram at @rocksocial_

Unprecedented Womxn is a Decibelle Creative production: Find out more at decibellecreative.com and on Instagram @decibelle_creative

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Before launching Business & Dreams, Vendela Lilliestråle and Camilla Lundin started boutique investment firm Qalora Capital with Camilla straight out of university to help start-ups with venture capital and both were recently named in Forbes’ 30 under 30 in Europe.

Through the Business & Dreams network, Vendela sees the common struggles women in business experience. She and Jess discuss tools and techniques to address and overcome these hindrances, the importance of self-celebration, accepting feedback, and why waiting until later in life doesn’t mean you won’t be successful.

Jess and Vendela also discuss:

·       Best qualities to have as an entrepreneur

·       Building a network

·       Unconscious bias against female entrepreneurs

·       The importance of mindsets

·       Overcoming fears

Vendela shares the surprising wisdom that you don’t need to know anything about running a company to start one, a fear that holds many people back. She attributes the best qualities, (drive, ambition and passion) along with finding the best people to succeed in business.

Jess and Vendela discuss gender bias when seeking investment, what this looks like and why we need to think about how we treat and raise girls in order to create the cultural shift for change. Vendela talks about a variety of different mindsets and why being aware of these is a useful tool for any entrepreneur.

Read Vendela’s referenced books; Angela Duckworth’s Grit, Adam Grant’s Give and Take, David Epstein’s Range.

Discover the Business & Dreams network on Instagram @businessanddreams and visit their website www.businessanddreams.com

If you enjoyed this episode of Unprecedented Womxn please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, and make sure you've subscribed!

Connect with Jess online at rock-social.com and on Instagram at @rocksocial_

Unprecedented Womxn is a Decibelle Creative production: Find out more at decibellecreative.com and on Instagram @decibelle_creative

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Khaleelah Jones is the founder and owner of award-winning boutique marketing agency for start-ups and small business’, Careful Feet Digital. She is also the co-CEO of Ada's List - an email community for those who broadly identify as women in tech.

Originally from the US and now based in the UK, Khaleelah shares her entrepreneurial journey with Jess, explaining how being goal-focussed and going freelance allowed her to escape from the 9-5 working model. She travelled and freelanced whilst studying for a PhD. Oh, and she’s also writing a book on the history of working women.

Khaleelah explains how she found her leadership style, how she embarked on growing her business, leading to the creation of Dime, and how she was able to develop and financially support this new business structure. She shares her experiences of seeking funding as a female-run business and the multi-layered conversation and approach needed to face the ‘white boys club’ who dominate equity funding.

Jess and Khaleelah discuss ways to fix the issue of female businesses struggling to get investment, as well as:

• VC funding challenges for women-led businesses
• The self-employed gender pay-gap
• Understanding your value
• Supporting your fellow females
• Collaborative vs. competitive mental models

Jess and Khaleelah discuss how women can support each other to make business easier for everyone, and how having the right mental model to collaborate, instead of the ‘scarcity model’, will go on to encourage and empower more women in business.

Check out Careful Feet Digital online at www.carefulfeet.me and on Instagram: @careful_feet_digital

Ada's List: Online at www.adaslist.co and on Instagram: @adas_list

Follow Khaleelah on Instagram: @khaleelahjones

If you enjoyed this episode of Unprecedented Womxn please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, and make sure you've subscribed!

Connect with Jess online at rock-social.com and on Instagram at @rocksocial_

Unprecedented Womxn is a Decibelle Creative production: Find out more at decibellecreative.com and on Instagram @decibelle_creative

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As well as specialising in work culture consultancy and leadership coaching, Christina Clark is also a certified civil, commercial and workplace mediator. She discusses how whether you are an employee or a leader, work culture is something everyone needs to be aware of. In particular, the post-pandemic landscape has meant companies now more than ever are looking at employee versus business needs and preferences around how people want to work and what individuals in a team respond to.

Of mixed background and growing up in multiple countries, Christina developed an understanding in her early years about what people respond to from different cultures. With a background in commercial communications and now living in the hyper-international community of Luxembourg, Christina understands the importance of having good human connections in life, and just as importantly, in the workplace.

Jess and Christina's conversation covers:

• Understanding the impact of culture
• What impacts work culture
• Leadership and empathy
• Assessing a company’s culture before joining
• Dealing with and identifying a toxic work culture
• How the pandemic has and will change work cultures
• Women leadership
• Future culture and leadership

Looking at post pandemic work environments, Christina discusses the importance of offering flexible working and being clear about the rules in communications, linking it back again to having a human-centric approach. She also shares her thoughts on women as leaders, how their ability to self-evaluate and be fully-human makes them more powerful and accessible.

Visit the Workculturati website: www.workculturati.com

Find Christina on Instagram: @workculturati and search ‘Christina-Clark-Leyzer’.on Linkedin.

Christina recommends Amy Edmondson’s book The Fearless Organisation

If you enjoyed this episode of Unprecedented Womxn please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, and make sure you've subscribed!

Connect with Jess online at rock-social.com and on Instagram at @rocksocial_

Unprecedented Womxn is a Decibelle Creative production: Find out more at decibellecreative.com and on Instagram @decibelle_creative

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Business coach Lucy Cox has helped hundreds of start-ups gain the confidence and skills to move forward with their businesses. Lucy and her sister Lerryn run Equinox Business together, both being huge advocates for women’s enterprise, female empowerment and the body positivity movement.

Lucy talks Jess through her journey, discovering a love for business as a mature student, fighting gender bias in her first marketing role, working at a female enterprise and as a business coach. Lucy teamed up with her sister to launch Halto (you may have seen the singing duo on Dragons Den) so knows how it feels to be a woman starting a business and discovered first-hand the unique challenges that women have; Imposter syndrome, gender pay gap, glass ceilings and discrimination to name a few.

Now as a female business coach, Lucy’s personal experiences means she understands those challenges. She and Jess unpick the roadblocks women face when starting a business, like:

• Pre-historic brain- the difference between males and females
• How to keep your mind monkey in check
• Learning from failure
• Starting a business as an older woman
• Hormonal cycles and business performance

Lucy references the pre-historic brain and why women’s natural traits may not be considered conducive to being an entrepreneur. She and Jess talk about the inner critic and what we can do to prevent limiting beliefs and crippling dialogue – or as Jess refers to it, your mind monkey. Lucy explains the neuroscience behind your inner voice’s power and why the language used is so important.

Jess and Lucy discuss failure and dissect the reasons we are so afraid of failing. Lucy talks about changing the failing experience and dialogue to make it a positive learning tool and growth opportunity rather than a negative and fearful emotion.

Lucy to shares her thoughts on starting a business in your 40s and the difference in skills and attitude compared to those starting out in their 20s and why women in business later in life should be valued.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.