KnowThyBrand - Championing gender inclusion in business

In a world often filled with negativity, there are individuals and organizations working tirelessly to make a difference and create a better, more inclusive world. In our latest podcast episode, we had the honor of meeting Emanuele Santi, the visionary founder of "Riding the Rainbow," and Lena Shevchenko, a Ukrainian mother living in Luxembourg, who discussed their project's journey toward inclusivity and the power of donations to positively impact lives.

How You Can Get Involved?

Through Riding the Rainbow, people have the opportunity to form connections and better understand the struggles and triumphs of others, fostering a sense of gratitude and support.

Here are the steps you can take to get involved today: 

1. Download the Riding the Rainbow app from their official website to participate in this transformative project.
2. Encourage others to use the app and donate unused items, such as bicycles, toys, books, electronics, and more, to make a difference in the lives of refugees and vulnerable migrants.
3. Advocate for the integration of technology platforms like the Riding the Rainbow app to foster empathy and understanding among individuals from diverse backgrounds.
4. Support the mission of Riding the Rainbow by spreading awareness and exploring opportunities for collaboration or support from organizations interested in promoting inclusivity and creating a better world.
5. Involve children in acts of giving back by encouraging them to use the app and witness firsthand the impact their donations can have on someone else's life.

So, it's time to hop on this rainbow ride of spreading love, care, and support. Are you ready to make a difference? Download the app, spread the word, and let's change lives, one small act of kindness at a time. Together, we can truly make this world a better place!

In this podcast conversation, we had the pleasure of chatting with Hope, a remarkable woman who took a leap of faith and transformed her career from being a traditional yoga teacher to establishing her very own successful business called "Mother Trucker Yoga”. 
We dug deep into her journey, exploring the challenges she faced and the incredible decision-making process that led her to discover her true calling: providing truck drivers with unique yoga and wellness solutions.

-> Key takeaway: The Power of Focused Targeting and Niche Marketing
Hope emphasized the importance of unwavering focus and truly understanding the unique problem she aimed to solve for her target audience. Initially, she grappled with the fear of narrowing her marketing efforts exclusively to truck drivers, worried about alienating a potentially larger market. However, by staying true to her mission and wholeheartedly targeting truck drivers, she found her path to success.

Find out more about Mother Trucker Yoga here
www.facebook.com/MotherTruckerYoga

www.instagram.com/mothertruckeryoga

www.MotherTruckerYoga.com

In this episode, we talk with Maria Elo, an associate professor at the University of Southern Denmark and an immigration fellow at the Institute of Migration. Drawing from her academic expertise and personal experiences, Maria sheds light on the challenges encountered by spousal migrants and provides insights into this crucial topic. With a particular focus on women, Maria also highlights the alarming consequences of losing valuable talent due to inadequate support systems.

In this episode, we cover:

Different types of challenges faced by migrants, including institutional challenges related to formal identity and private business challenges related to social and work-life contexts

• The challenge of language barriers faced by migrants and the difficulties of investing in language learning while balancing other responsibilities
• The importance of long-term planning and strategic engagement with one's own talent and future development
• The need for multi-stakeholder engagement to discuss how to put different resources into use and create innovation and development
• The importance of doing a personal analysis of potential pathways before making decisions

Join us as we explore the barriers faced by women in particular, the impact on individuals, companies, and society at large, and potential solutions to address this issue.

FInd out more about Maria here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-elo-593579a2/

This episode is dedicated to Iran and the people who are protesting after the killing of Mahsa Amini. While most news outlets have long stopped covering what is happening in Iran after the initial wave of protests started in September, the reality is that people in Iran are still challenging the Government.

In this episode, we talk with Nahid Mohammadi and Shabnam Sabzehi, two brave women who left Iran but continue to support women in their home country from Luxembourg.

In this episode, we cover:

• A brief recap of Iran's history. How did we get here?
• What is it like to live in Iran as a young woman 
• What happened after the killing of Mahsa Amini and why is such a different type of protest from previous ones
• The role of men supporting women in this protest.
• What is happening at the moment, in Iran and outside in terms of fighting the regime 
• What we can all do

Tune in to learn more about the protests in Iran and what people from all over the world can do.

In this episode, we talk with Cornelia Lucey, a Leadership psychologist and business owner.
Cornelia shares with us what ‘Positive Leadership’ is and how it integrates what we know from the leadership field in what creates the most effective leaders, with what we know from the science of positive psychology to offer us an integrated model of leadership that brings the best in wellbeing and performance from leaders and others.

Over 2020 and 2022 Cornelia Lucey and Jolanta Burke developed a memorable framework called the ALIGHT model to help the world to understand how we can develop more effective leadership approaches from this combination of research fields.

The ‘ALIGHT’ model talks about six specific resources that when applied and developed make the biggest difference in how leaders and their teams feel and perform.
 
These six resources are:
Abundance -> a leader’s inclination towards seeing, developing, and using their own, other people’s and organisational strengths.
Limberness -> a leader’s ability to adapt, be emotionally agile and become resilient in changing contexts.
Inspiration -> is a resource that helps leaders inspire others to become the best versions of themselves. t differs from leaders being perceived as inspirational, which implies they are superhuman. Inspiration is not a superhuman quality but a resource that helps leaders move themselves and their teams to resolute action.
Grand Design -> is a leader’s ability to transcend day-to-day activities into meaningful contributions and vice versa.
Health -> consists of three elements: promotion, which relates to leaders taking action to promote healthy behaviours; orientation, referring to leaders taking action to ensure a healthy environment; and full integration, which refers to healthy exchanges between leaders and their tribe and consideration of wider stakeholders.
Tribe -> the leaders’ ability to assess, initiate, foster, develop and redevelop relationships to meet our relational needs as an individual, team, organisation or within a system.

To find out more about the ALIGHT model visit https://www.cornelialucey.com/the-book

In this episode, we have a very special guest: Neve Swart, an 8 years old girl who, despite her young age, is already raising money for children in Africa.

Neve is from South Africa and has been living in Luxembourg since January 2021. 

Recently, she realised that she had a skill and a passion for doing nails and other beauty treatments and started treating her much delighted mother. Others started noticing her mom's nails, and were extremely surprised when they were told that Neve did them. Soon the ‘’bookings’’ started flying in. However, when her ‘’clients’’ started to give her money she did not feel comfortable receiving the money for herself. She thought about this for a while, and approached her mother - saying ‘’Mom I love doing nails for others, however I think there are others that need the money more than me’’, she then asked if she could start a fund and raise money for children back in South Africa.

Growing up in South Africa she was exposed to many families and children who are in need of a home, food, clothing, love and care. While living in South Africa she would donate her clothes, toys and make sandwiches for others - she thus felt she needed to do more for the children back home now that she is living away from home.

And that's how her adventure started.

Today she has already made a donation to the ’Eastern Province Child and Youth Care centre’ and she is planning to reach an even more ambitious goal: raising Eur 500 for a new donation to the centre.

Help Neve reach her goal either by contacting [email protected] to book a manicure if you are in Luxembourg (we will put you in contact with her parents) or by donating directly at her fundraising page: https://urlzs.com/uV9qh

In this very special and moving episode, we speak with 3 women from Ukraine: Iryna Volnytska, Nataly Veremeeva, and Valeriia Kotsur.

Iryna and Nataly live and work in a country at war and share with us how this has changed their life but also how this war is affecting men and women differently and how Ukraine is, despite it all, still pushing its Tech agenda with the women taking center stage. Valeriia shares her experience of support from abroad to help build a bright future for Ukraine after the war.

In particular we discussed:
- What it is to actually live in a country at war. Let's remember that the war is not just in the news but in real people's life.
- The role of women in the war, particularly as, while some women have joined the army, still conscription only applies to men or people working in key sectors like hospitals. 
- This means that women are free to leave the country, and that's why they were able to move to other countries with the kids. But women abroad work tirelessly to support their country from abroad as ambassadors to raise awareness, raise funds, collect donations and much more
- In the meantime, with all the traditional heavy industries being destroyed, Ukraine is investing in its Tech capabilities, with the tech industry still thriving despite the war. 
- Interestingly women are also changing jobs to respond to the destruction of some of the more traditional industries and they move to tech. In fact today in Ukraine, there are more women enrolling in STEM courses the men, a unique case in the world.
- Iryina, Nataly, and Valeriia also share their positive outlook for a bright future for Ukraine and their hope for more support from Europe to help build together a future of peace for all.


 

In this episode, we talk with Kate Monserrate, co-founder and director of Simplify Consulting.

Kate, together with her business partner Carl and their team decided to invest substantial resources, in terms of financial, personnel, and time resources, to create a seriously impressive whitepaper on a  topic that could make us wonder: gender equality. What does gender equality have to do with financial consulting? It turns up, a lot.

Listen to Kate as she runs us through the 3 areas of their whitepaper:
- Education and fighting stereotypes about gender roles from a very young age
- Women's life stages (particularly the effects of motherhood and menopause on career)
- Internal barriers like impostor syndrome.

Kate shares very useful insights on how to address these matters, never expecting "women to fix themselves" but advocating for change inside companies like hers to foster a more inclusive future.

Download read the whitepaper here: https://www.simplifyconsulting.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Gender-Gap-White-Paper.pdf
Discover Kate here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katemonserrate/

In this episode we talk with Mari Vasan,  CEO, Entrepreneur, Professional Hypnotist, Women´s Transformational Life Coach, and Founder of MindGift.org.

But that's not all! Mary is a former Wall Street senior executive and Managing Director of US Equity Research who by her full will decided to walk away from a career that, in her own words, defined her exclusively by her job title and salary, to start a new career dedicated to helping others.

Today, Mari is an over 10 years experienced coach, and her life mission is to help middle-aged women start living the best half of their lives.

Her top tips to find our own magic are:

-> Reconnect with your own body
-> Believe in yourself. We have plenty of programs that almost automatically drive our lives. Stop. Reflect. Decide.
-> Decide to add value, you will be noticed.
-> Decide to believe you can, as supposed to can't.
-> Decide to surround yourself with positive people.
-> Decide to continue caring for others, but do not forget yourself 

Find out more about Mari and her work here:
Linkedin: MariVasan

Youtube: @marivasan

Facebook: Mari Vasan

Website: Mari Vasan and MindGift.org

"You too are a brand. Whether you know it or not. Whether you like it or not".
Mark eckō, founder and chief creative officer of marc eckō enterprises

In this episode, we discover what personal branding is, and what it is not. Why you should care about it and how you can develop a strong personal brand to support your career.

The main takeaways are:
- Personal branding is about optimising associations, feelings, and impressions. It is about building trust.
- Personal branding is NOT about creating a fictional character that we bring to work.
- Working on your personal brand can help you:
-->Unlock your superpower
--> Boost your confidence
--> Differentiate you from the competition
-->Develop effective communication
--> Develop thought leadership

There are 3 main steps in developing your personal brand:
1. Define your brand
2. Define your audience
3 Communicate your brand.

1. Define your brand:
WHO you are in the context of work: clearly define what you do and what benefits you bring to whom. WHY you do what you do, WHAT you want to achieve career-wise, and HOW you are going to get there. Your VALUES and how they align with the values of the company you work for or planning to work for.
REASONS to believe: list them, not to share them but for YOU to acknowledge and remember.

2. Define your audience:
->WHO do you want to target?
->WHAT are their needs?
->HOW you can fulfill these needs?

3. COMMUNICATE YOUR BRAND
Communicating your personal brand is about finding venues, online and not, where to demonstrate your thought leadership. In a way that works for YOU.

Find out more about these 3 steps and how to build a strong personal brand by listening to this episode and contact us if you need any help with your personal branding or how to communciate it ([email protected], www.knowthybrand.com)