What a way to end January than on a high from the BCI Women in Resilience First event for 2020! Woop woop!!
The committee have been tirelessly working hard (for free by the way- we are all volunteers) for months in setting this up.
Shout out firstly to Bettina Gerlich and Emma Read who scoped out the awesome venue at MARSH in London and just basically organised everything to make it happen.
Thanks to Marsh for hosting us because without then it wouldn't be possible.
The 4 amazing women who spoke during the session deserve a big applause because
1. Public speaking is tough
2 They got personal which i loved, and
3. They totally slayed it!!
MY key personal takeaways
- 🔑 Challenges in your career are inevitable
- 🔑 Have faith in yourself (be your biggest supporter)
- 🔑 People will always criticize you , that is THEIR insecurity not YOURs!
- 🔑 Get out of your comfort zone and say YES to new things
- 🔑 Be innovative
- 🔑 Be an everyday entrepreneur
- 🔑 Bring your whole /true self to work
touching on the bring your own true self to work aspect. Eugina , one of our speakers mentioned this and the discrimination against hair. It felt so relatable. Bring a British Indian , I always looked different to my peers and stood out as a child/younger woman as I had crazy frizzy curly hair (which to be honest guys, I straighten because to this day, the stigma and acceptance even in Indian culture is that long sleek straight hair is more desirable) -it really hit home to me and gave me a chance to reflect on that.
I have so many times (all my life) hid my curls with the thought that going into work it may be seen as disruptive, not professional, tidy etc made me so eager to change my hair. I have made a promise to myself that going forward I will not be putting chemicals in my hair to get it sleek and straight hair but embracing ME to that little detail and only straightening the hair for ME! -THANK YOU! Truly EMPOWERING!!
Catch the promo I made of the event below to see them in action. You will be gutted you missed it because it was pretty ace.
At the end I ran a speed networking session which was an interesting experience.
With about 65-70 people it was a challenge to do this STANDING UP! lesson learnt on bringing a buzzer next time and spreading around but I have to say the noise levels and energy was so amazing that we can forgive small nuances ;)
Feedback was awesome because it gave everyone a chance to feel a little less nervous. It's hard to network when you are new (hell , even I sometimes find it hard) so having a chance to talk to as many people gives you a boost) -stay tuned for another post on this!
So ladies and gents, thank you for attending , your patience and acceptance and thank you everyone who came for SHOWING UP! YOU deserve a shout out for consciously taking the first step in enhancing your own resilience. If you know me then you know I am all about that!
Until next time, keep INVESTING in Your Resilience.
-Rina
p.s. #selfieswithrina is now a thing so tag me in any photos you have of us and post it over on instagram @resiliencepod.
Until next time, stay safe and
Keep Investing in YOUR Resilience | Rina
********************
Instagram: @resiliencepod
Twitter @rinabhakta
Linkedin: rinabhaktasingh