Bitch loves missions. November was a very active month for the soon-to-be-launched online magazine Bitch. We thought we’d leave growing sexy moustaches to men last month and instead set out to explore events for businesswomen in London.
We duly discovered that women are certainly proactive in building their connections, promoting themselves and their businesses, sharing and celebrating their achievements and spreading the ‘female confidence’ germ around.
I, Sandra Donskyte, the founder of Bitch, attended the Aspire Leadership for the Future Conference ‘Life, Work, World’ organised by Aspire Network. I can certainly say it exceeded all my expectations.
I felt like I was afloat in a sea of ambition, inspiration, motivation, empowerment, love, laughter, tears and hugs. There was no room for empty glamour, female competition, cynicism or negativity. Just real women, with their raw emotions, proudly sharing the scars they’d got from the sometimes bumpy roads to success and career highs.
Aspiring leadership stories were told by a variety of women from corporate city firms such as Freshfields Magic Law Firm, leading advisory companies KPMG and Centrica. As well as stories from the business owners of companies such as WeightWatchers, Business in Red Shoes, Erotic Book Publisher Accent Press, Retail Profile Europe, a number of Social Enterprises and even in from those in government.
Many powerful and inspiring messages have been safely stored in my mental cloud for a rainy day, largely messages like ‘You are important to this country!’ by Baroness Verma, Government Spokesperson on Equalities and Women Issues. That one sentence is worth a thousand words, especially for a woman like me who comes from abroad. For every single pioneering entrepreneur, business leader and ambitious woman, we all sometimes fall off on that bumpy road, underestimate our mission, self-doubt and self-pity. But remember that what you do is important, to you, to the country and to Bitch.
A big thank you to Dr Samantha Collins and her team for organising the best, most touching and most insightful event into today’s world of female leaders. It is not just women’s quotas, the businesses they run, the departments and teams they manage in the city that matter. The speakers also reminded me of the importance of personal development, sharing their pearls of personal wisdom and lessons they have learnt.
Here are a few I share with you:
- Determine How big your ‘NO’ is (Rebecca Maguire, CEO, Maguire Media Group)
- Be a victor, not a victim (Lindy Wafula, CEO and Founder, Project Africa)
- Crying is highly underrated (Dr Samantha Collins, CEO and founder of ASPIRE)
- Be like a giant sponge – soak it all in (Vivien Matthews, Head of Human Resources, Henmans LLP)
- Schedule yourself in your diary (Sharon Gladish, Senior Manager, Advisory KPMG LLP)
- There is nothing wrong with asking for help (Julia Langkraehr, CEO and Founder, Retail Profile Ltd)
If you think or feel you are an outsider or better than everyone else, go to any event for women – observing women, talking to them and hearing what they say will balance your views. There is no reason why you should not be confident in yourself and what you do.
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