See I had the opportunity to conduct a workshop on ‘breaking biases and owning spaces unapologetically’ at the ‘What Women Want Summit’ and before I had my workshop, I had days to just think about how I was going to conduct this workshop and what exactly I would say to all these ladies who were excitingly looking forward to the workshop day.
You see most times I usually speak off my head because I speak about things I practice on a day-to-day base. But this one was different, I felt like I needed to prepare and why not? This was a summit where I saw my photo together with so many other phenominal ladies’ on a billboard
A girl like me, a young African millennial hmm… I felt like this was different, this needed me to pull out my professional hat and really show up with pointers on how to break those biases and own one’s space unapologetically.
Now two days to the workshop I felt gitterns, imposter syndrome decided to pay me a courtesy call to just see how I was fairing off. See I had two choices; serve my imposter syndrome tea and sit comfortably by the fire place narrating to her about how unworthy and unqualified I am or the other choice would be covering my imposter syndrome with a warm blanket and have her cool down her cold vibe that would have me frozen as soon as I stood Infront of the women at the workshop.
Fast forward the day had arrived and it was a Sunday! Now let me tell you abit about my Sunday relationship with myself. I usually tell people even if you would have offered me 1 million, as long as it was a Sunday it would have to take a miracle for me to be out of the house or even give a talk. But guess what this Sunday was different for this young lady, I was actually very excited that I was going to run a workshop.
Now remember the complicated situation I was in with my imposter syndrome and I had two choices to pick from? Well, I chose to cover her with a warm blanket and she cooled down. So I went on with my exciting and happy mood, picked one of my favorite outfits that had my favorite color and fit perfectly with the mood which was ‘Ramadan’ and I headed out ready to share my nuggets.
Got there ahead of time, a perfectly good strategy if you want to take it all in and just get yourself well versed with your environment and audience. Walked into the workshop room and boom, ‘I’m back again!’ my imposter syndrome whispered in my ears and went straight into my mind. Shook it off and walked further into the room and boom, ‘what if no one comes for your session? ’shook it off again and walked a little further down.
Looked around, took a deep breath, cleared my mind and I said to myself, ‘My dear friend, I control you and not vice versa!’ and it was in that moment I was calm, the room felt free and my mind was ready.
The time came and the room kept filling up and in a split second I had a full house, filled with curious minds and hopeful eyes. And it was in that moment that I owned my space unapologetically and breaking the location bias which was, ‘They show up, women show up no matter where or for who, women always show up!’
At the end of it all a session that was set to run for 1 hour ran for 2 hours straight with the women glued to their seats, interacting, participating and breaking their own bias which is, ‘showing up and owning their space.’ Furthermore, I may have run a session on, ‘breaking biases and owning your space’ but in reality, I broke my own doubtful bias, owned the space which had all the women and showed up unapologetically.
Moral of it all; those of us who are seen to be empowering, encouraging and motivating the community it is in reality that the community empowers us each time we step into our power and show up for them all.
So, the next time someone questions what bias you are breaking and what space you are owning, look them straight in the eye and tell them, ‘The mere fact that I am a young African woman, I am a walking bias itself and each step I take I break a bias or two unapologetically.’
Always remember, own that space and don’t really ask permission to do so because in reality spaces are so unfamiliar it takes courage and persistence to mold it into your own as you own it unapologetically.
#SheBreaksBiasAfrica #AfricanWomen #BreakingBiases
