Business is Personal

[00:00:03] Hi and welcome to Scotland's Women. Throughout the podcast we'll be listening to women from all over Scotland tell their stories. These amazing women will be sharing their life experiences, their perspectives, as well as providing us with advice and inspiration.

[00:00:21] Let's support each other as Scotland's Women and be the real influencers in our lives because each and every one of you, Scotland's Women out there has a story to tell.

[00:00:32] There's more to life. We all have a purpose or we can all strike for something. We all have things that we enjoy in life or that we're passionate about and we should be going for them and we should be doing them.

[00:00:45] Be the change that you wish to see. Be limitless in your thoughts. Be aggressive about your own growth. Your own growth is your prerogative. Only you can do it.

[00:00:57] Women stand in their own power. The self-worth, we don't need to look for that validation. I don't need you to tell me I've done a good job to feel good.

[00:01:05] Believing in ourselves. As women it doesn't matter your white, brown or black. We can do all these amazing group things. Land for other women, you need to encourage and support and inspire each other that we are worth so much more. You don't need to settle.

[00:01:22] Just more women to be more confident. Believing in themselves and to love themselves and accept themselves and know how amazing they are. Scotland's Women, our lives, our stories, now let us get on with the show.

[00:01:34] I'm Alison Chouara and I am the founder and corporate mental health consultant at Human Focus Limited. He's been one of my biggest and greatest pleasure to be able to create a company and find a company that I can truly put the whole of me into it.

[00:02:08] Welcome Alison to Scotland's Women. Thank you for coming on and chatting about being a woman in business and what it's like to create your own company right here in Scotland. Thank you so much for having me Kaston, honestly. I'm so delighted to be here.

[00:02:25] Thank you. What we're interested in and what I find fascinating about you is the journey that you've went on. How did you create your own company? I mean, how do you create a business? Where did it come from?

[00:02:41] I've always been an entrepreneur at heart. I've had some other businesses that have done great. Some that I've started as an idea.

[00:02:50] You register the company and then it goes nowhere. I can't complain. But with human focus, it came at a point, I think, when a lot of the world where in probably I might think the same position as I was, say, was just at the cost of the pandemic during lockdown.

[00:03:08] I had been working for an IT company. I have worked in IT, marketing and sales most of my life. But with COVID, I had a lot of time to reflect, to think.

[00:03:22] Like the rest of the world, it was probably for the first time in a very long time when I had so much time. It was during this period that I was thinking, okay, what am I doing with my life? What changed?

[00:03:35] I want to see the world. A lot of my friends went within the healthcare sector. And I was so touched like most people around the globe how stretched and stressed the healthcare sector was.

[00:03:48] But I think what dismayed me was, my goodness, gosh, there isn't enough support for those that we think are saving lives. They needed to be saved as well. So they're serving us, but nobody's saving them.

[00:04:04] And so it became a lifetime mission to say people are still working because there were people that were still working, continued to work while other people at home during lockdown.

[00:04:14] So we had a group at different sort of people going through different emotions. And I hope you'll be the last that I'm experiencing my lifetime such a time. It was very troublesome.

[00:04:25] And so hearing all of my friends just saying, I'm having a breakdown. I'm having a burnout. Surely they cannot be the people that are saving lives and not be saved themselves.

[00:04:39] And I watched a lot of my friends go through depression, get out of it, walk through depression going to work with depression coming out of it. We were anxious. I started nursing previously.

[00:04:51] So I had a bit of knowledge on mental health because it was part of my whole side modules that I done when I did nursing.

[00:04:58] And so I decided I'm going to quit myself and I'm going to create a model. And the time cost in when I started looking at corporate mental health, there was very little that I could see.

[00:05:10] There was certainly HR companies that were putting in policies and companies, but certainly nothing that fitted this model that I for saw.

[00:05:19] And so I went, I did a course in neuroscience called mental health. It was very challenging. But I'm such a driven person. I'm like a dog with a bone when I want something I just go for it.

[00:05:31] And so I did it in a record time trip that which I won't say it goes in my drop my cover.

[00:05:37] And so once I did that, I set up human focus and human focus limited was set up to really go into workplaces and create happier and healthier workforces.

[00:05:49] And I just hope and I want to believe that what we bring to the table to every person that we work with is of great value to them and that we make a real difference.

[00:06:01] That's amazing. You said the course was a challenge. Was that because maybe it was confronted challenges you were facing within your mental health? Absolutely. So I was going through this moment like most people wasn't certain. I didn't know whether this pandemic will go on forever.

[00:06:20] So actually creating it, I think most of the businesses of things that have chosen to do have come out of necessity because of gaps within the market or the gaps in society. We suddenly had a gap in the market. Nobody was providing hope.

[00:06:35] I find that strange. Did that not shock you? Why is nobody doing this before?

[00:06:42] Absolutely. And I think that is so me, that is probably been my one of life goals is to make sure that as we work with companies, it's not a T-Box exercise because the work actually needs to be done for it to be meaningful and for it to actually affect and affect people's lives.

[00:07:03] What main challenges do you think is faced in the workplace within Scotland, especially women in Scotland? Do you feel like there's still old fashioned values there or do you think we're keeping up more with times?

[00:07:16] You know, I have to applaud Scotland to some extent. So there has been a willingness I think from different governmental agencies, you know, the Scottish Enterprise and many other agencies trying to make wrongs right.

[00:07:32] It takes a long time to undo things that have happened over a long time. So we have to, so we're going through as a nation a period where we are having to unlearn a lot of bad habits that we've had over the years and change them with new habits that really promote and foster good mental,

[00:07:52] good mental, corporate mental health in workplaces. However, when I began this journey, some of the challenges that I had were that feeling and that affordable free imposter syndrome.

[00:08:05] Yes, I just like the elephant in the room. Yeah, quite daunting. You know, even as I speak about it, I often, you know, and I have been very open about it because I want other people to know that it's also okay to talk about these things, right?

[00:08:26] Because they are very real feelings you feel and often like I was going into an industry where there was big players, I won't mention in the end, we were really large cultures that were doing HR work.

[00:08:42] It's massive, massive, you know, you know, rich even. And what I was trying to do is to disrupt the status quo. And often I would come in from a lived experience, my experience as a mother of teenagers, my

[00:08:59] experience as a working mother, my experience as a woman of color, trying to create a position in an island country. And all of those things have weighed on my shoulders many times. And I feel that I have to work so much harder than making my

[00:09:16] counterpeers. And I have felt in some cases, I've had to prove myself when I'm working with men that they know more than I do. But then again, here's the thing. It's all in the mind.

[00:09:30] Yes. It's only in our minds sometimes and I know that these things are very real because some of these prejudices do happen. But I think it's all about and this is why I empower people is when we begin to change our mindset.

[00:09:45] And ignore the noise that is around us. And you put yourself in a bubble of self growth. So much can happen, you become or you create a balloon that can grow and grow and grow. But you are in control of your thoughts at any one given time.

[00:10:04] And I'm not in control of my mind. So it's picking what is it that I can control? There are many days when I've woken up and I thought I can't do this. I've written to this company, I know they are looking for corporate mental health wag.

[00:10:19] And then somebody else goes behind me, a male and they get the job. I'm like, why, why haven't I got it? And yet nine out of 10 times they're probably even adopting some of my models that I've shared with them.

[00:10:31] And so the challenges I think for women when you're doing credible work, you're constantly questioning your position. Am I good enough? Am I delivering?

[00:10:44] All of these things then create this imposter syndrome where you feel when you actually do it. Maybe I did it by luck. No, you've worked hard for it. And I still have to tell myself many times, when something amazing happens for me, I'm like, I say to myself and I come home and say,

[00:11:05] I can't believe I'm getting this. I can't believe somebody said this about me, about my work. And I constantly question myself. But I'm very fortunate maybe unlike other people and other women in society that I have the tools to be able to help me.

[00:11:25] And self care and self help are the tools that I say to every woman, you know, men have two boxes in your garages. We need to help self help self care tools in our handbags all the time, because the world out there is very fierce.

[00:11:44] Every day a woman walks into business, you're walking into lion's den. And you have to roll like they do. And that's hard. So every day you're churning in new energy in you. It's exhausting.

[00:11:59] I mean, how do you cope with that? Because for me, I don't think I've ever coped with imposter syndrome. I think I just distract myself enough that I try not have those thoughts. You know, I put too much pressure on myself for too much pressure.

[00:12:15] The fear of failure is a big one for me. So what would be your advice to women listening right now? So KPMG did a recent study, I think it was a 2022 research where they said 75% of female executives experience or have experienced imposter syndrome. 75% is a large number.

[00:12:41] It's a huge priority to continue ignoring it. And let me tell you something about imposter syndrome. It's a real, real challenge on one's mental health.

[00:12:53] And so when we see businesses that I've seen my land sometimes not doing so great. This is only just one of the many reasons. Poor funding, whatever else, the list is endless.

[00:13:08] But I also know that we have the will power. I think women were emotionally, intellectually very evil creatures, if I can call us that because we have a capacity to adapt.

[00:13:25] We've done this for decades, if not centuries. And the women before us have did it. The women before them have done it. And we are constantly swimming against the tide.

[00:13:38] But here's the thing that I want to tell every woman out there that has found themselves in a point of doubt. You are enough. You are good enough.

[00:13:51] And having high expectation on one's sail isn't exactly what is going to make us swim. Every day that you move the dial forward, it's brilliant. It's good enough.

[00:14:07] And one day the dial will land exactly where you want it to be. It may take you 10 days, it may take you 10 years, it may take you another 10 years for you to get there. For me, the idea is every day that I wake up.

[00:14:26] I affirm to myself and I do it religiously. I am good enough. Whatever today brings me, I am ready to conquer today because tomorrow is a new day. So what if I fail today? So what if I feel that today I didn't do so great?

[00:14:46] I have another dome to wake up to and be great again. And I'll tell you, being a woman is a phenomenal superpower. It's phenomenal. We are superhumans in so many ways and it could be another conversation for another day because there is so much more power that resides inside every female.

[00:15:11] We bring life into this world. We teach, we're actually great teachers, we're great doctors, we are great cooks, we are great everything, we're even architects even though we don't know it. We are designers in our home even though we don't know it.

[00:15:25] So all of those skills that naturally come to us, those are the same skills that web places are looking for.

[00:15:32] So before you even walk into any workplace, you are over-qualified. Okay? You are more than qualified to do it and every day I tell myself that if I find myself in a moment of doubt, I will go and teach myself how to do it better.

[00:15:50] I will go to my mentors and ask those that have done it well that I did, show me the way. And people that genuinely want and will to see you do well are always willing to stop and give you time.

[00:16:08] And all the students are impossible to believe but that is exactly what people are willing to do only if you ask, but it has to be an inner acknowledgement that my thoughts are just merely thoughts and they're just momentarily there because you don't become a businesswoman by default.

[00:16:30] You don't go into business by being a silly woman. There is something extraordinary that is embedded within you that you just need to go and untap each time like I call it my tap button, my reset button, I go to it.

[00:16:46] Every time I doubt myself, I look back, I write a list every month and I reflect what isn't that I've done so well.

[00:16:56] Wow. Okay. And sometimes I like I amazed myself, I'm like, believe I did that. I wrote that workshop in a week. Did I? So all of those things we need to be our own cheerleaders actually. Be your cheerleader.

[00:17:10] I think that's kind of especially, you know, in Scotland the whole point of this podcast to show that there's amazing inspiring women right here on our doorstep. And how important is it to build a network?

[00:17:25] The power of networks cannot be undermined. There's a saying that says, you know, your network is your network. Equally, your network determines your mindset. Your mind is a magnet.

[00:17:43] If you surround yourself with negativity, you reap negative thoughts. If you surround yourself with an environment that is filled with positivity, you will walk away every day with a bucket full of wisdom, you know, nuggets of wisdom that you can always dip into when you are thirsty or you're feeling nibbly for something new to do.

[00:18:08] And so for me, I feel that Scotland is actually, as I said earlier, there's a lot of willingness, I think, from the Scotland ecosystem to see women really win. I have been incredibly lucky to know women, of course, like you now.

[00:18:23] And many other women, there's so many organizations which I will name for the sake of leaving others out. But there's so many amazing organizations that champion women in business, you know, champion women in particular, you know, business sectors.

[00:18:40] There's so much, but you just need to be, you know, we talk about networks. This is why it's so, so clear, you know, you need to be connected to maybe one person that will connect you to the next and so on and so forth.

[00:18:54] And the more that you create this amazing network around you, I like to call it my safety net because I have friends and work peers, even mentors that on my very bad day, I can pick up the phone and say, guess what?

[00:19:13] I've just had the worst day ever. And they'll say, right, okay, let me put the camera on. So this is on the other side of the phone, right? Let me put the camera on. Let's talk about it. What were your challenges today?

[00:19:26] And I go into what places to help other people challenges. But the first thing that one needs to acknowledge is that we actually learn from our failure more than we learn from our successes.

[00:19:39] And if we try to, we need to be striving to be of value and not of success. Okay. And those are the two things. So I think it was the amazing Albert Einstein and actually I said it the other way around.

[00:19:54] He says that strive to be straight not to be of success, to be a success I think, but to be of value. And it was by Albert Einstein. Now he was one of the most, arguably the most cleverest man in the whole world to evaluate.

[00:20:12] Okay. And he says when you create value around you, you know, everybody can tap into that value that we should provide. Sometimes value isn't about money. It's about the contribution that make to your friends, your peers. Likewise, you can also tap into their values to create this.

[00:20:34] So networks are really key. This is where you unlock all of these little doors, magical dolls that show you, oh, there's a door for funding. There's a door for counseling. Oh, there's actually leadership courses happening.

[00:20:48] And I have been throughout my journey, incredibly lucky that I have thought I'm going to be a busy bee and I go to networking events. I try and attend at least one or two online webinars, learn something new is through these networkings that you actually tap into new and fresh mindsets.

[00:21:09] Are you not scared though when you were first starting because I'm just thinking, you know, of a woman she may have family, maybe a single parent, she might not be from a thriving community. She want to do something different. What would be your advice?

[00:21:25] I mean, starting a business is a very scary journey for some firm is and business is not a straight line. No matter how planned your business plan is, trust me, there's a zigzag along the way. And you almost almost certainly end up on the other side of the road that you didn't tend to be driving on the wrong side of the road.

[00:21:48] I think that for me, it's in those moments, you know, where I have thought, oh my God, am I doing the right thing? If I take it on the right path, you know, can I afford to keep making these mistakes? Can I sustain them? You know, because there's so many costs that are sometimes involved with a business.

[00:22:10] And often people say, oh, just go for it. Just do it. We go in and just do it. And then this costs become the burden of our lives. But what I do know and I can tell every woman that is part of going into business or already in business is that don't give up.

[00:22:34] You know, there was a time when I went to give up. And every day now that I read pick up newspapers and I see that there's a real like you know this whole thing about corporate mental health is caught on. I just think gosh, my goodness me, had I given up then, I would have probably missed up on this opportunity.

[00:22:56] But also there has to be you have to be a risk taker. Yeah, and be willing to be volatile. You know, the people that will tell you that you're not doing great because you haven't made money in the first year.

[00:23:11] In the second year, I struggled to get the point where I was like, okay, I'm making money. I can sustain it, you know.

[00:23:18] And often family friends stood behind me. So that network again, your support system has to be strong. Make sure that you have a support system that believe in you.

[00:23:31] Because even for me when those imposter syndrome moments when I've gotten something like I've been nominated and I'm like, but I'm still learning. How did I get this? I'm still learning.

[00:23:41] And I have heard amazing people say reinforce it into me. You deserve that you got it. Okay. And often I'll say I was lucky to be in this place at that time. And I don't play my own achievements.

[00:23:58] Why do women do that? Why do women do that is frustratingly we do. I do it all the time. Yeah, I think for me, for me, it being scared.

[00:24:13] Yeah. I'm scared of it all being taken away from me. What advice could you give a woman that is looking to make this change in their life right now? There's two scared and people are just being so negative towards them. What would you say?

[00:24:29] Well, here's the thing I have this saying be the change that you wish to see. We need to start thinking differently. Be limitless in your thoughts. Be aggressive about your own growth. Your own growth is your prerogative. Only you can do it.

[00:24:49] Be the person that changes the narration in your generation. Be the person that changes the narration in your community. My mother told me this if you are doing something and it doesn't scare you, it's not big enough.

[00:25:07] The moment that you start to do something and it's going to pump out of your chest and jump, then you know you are onto something because extraordinary things require you to do something extra.

[00:25:24] They require you to step out of your comfort zone. Success and comfort zone do not work on the same lane.

[00:25:33] When you are finding yourself comfortable about business, when you are starting off, there is likely somebody else that is going to push that margin of your thoughts and do it even better. The moment that you know you are doing something different is it almost feels painful.

[00:25:51] That is where passion comes from. These moments when we have to push ourselves beyond what is comfortable, I will continue doing this business, pushing this business forward regardless of there not being an income, regardless of there not being sponsors, regardless of there not being anybody backing me up right now.

[00:26:14] I don't have clients, I don't have this but that's okay. When you keep pushing against that grade, what you are building yourself is ownership of this new baby.

[00:26:26] This is why I called him and focused my baby because I had to be pregnant with it. It took me many months when I actually said to the world this is what I am doing.

[00:26:34] I had been working in the background for so many months and I somehow conserved my pregnancy because nobody knew.

[00:26:43] Then when you get this baby out, people are like oh she just only thought of her. This is what business and mission of a business person is so personal to them such that you have to be emotionally available to go into someone's business.

[00:27:04] I actually talked to them about what to change or transform in their business because that is such a sensitive space and for me, maybe that is probably the most unique thing about me is I say I'm not here to change your vision.

[00:27:21] I'm not here to change your mission because I'm only here to help you make sure that your vision and your missions are understood by the people that work for you so that they know where you've been.

[00:27:38] I mean because when you tell your journey about how you started off, where you are now and where you're headed in business, it builds almost a journey that you're all walking together in the same direction.

[00:27:50] And it's the same when you have a business idea and you know it's pushing against the status quo. It doesn't matter because extraordinary things always come out of very unusual circumstances.

[00:28:08] So keep pushing against the grain to whoever is thinking I cannot do this because my generational course limits me. Whatever's happened in my past limits me. Your past is your past.

[00:28:23] And every day like I say, raise a new opportunity to dream on you and dream bigger. I urge every woman out there that is doing a business to have society at heart, to have the community at heart because when you do things for people truly,

[00:28:40] because remember people are the people that we want to consume and you want them to consume our products, right? We want them to buy our products. But when you do things that are meaningful and their purpose lead and they really hold value to people, once that value and that purpose has been understood,

[00:28:59] the money, ironically, follows naturally. It's very am I look at you know we don't even need to look further, you know, we are very own Richard Brahms, you know he paints a story of it took me many years, non believers, it's this, you know, lack of role models even in our societies that limits

[00:29:27] our children and now you see imagination. I wish that when I was young, I had other women.

[00:29:35] That look like me that spoke like me that had my manner reasons that we're in the space. Of course, we were lucky with the amazing Oprah Winfrey, but that was one of very, you know, looking on, you know, I have been always, always moved when I see women doing really, really amazing things because these things that one now was to inspire.

[00:30:05] Alison, do you know one of my. I'll call this a sad moment for me probably one of my biggest regrets is that most of the things that I get to do now.

[00:30:17] My mother cannot share in my delights. So I lost my mom in 2014, but my mom has inspired the woman that I've become. She had this ability to make people feel the what worthy of being wherever she invited them.

[00:30:37] My mom went with the Red Cross on many amazing projects in Zimbabwe right in the valleys. And the many people have role models that are celebrities. My mom continues to be the sounding voice in my life, even from her graves.

[00:30:58] Because she taught me fundamental things that have stayed with me is that when you want to do something, it must be felt. It should be measured and it should be seen.

[00:31:10] And I have always said in every work job that I go into. If you can see what I'm doing. If you can measure what I'm doing. If you can feel what I'm doing. It's not my wife.

[00:31:24] It's not my mother's voice. It's not my mother's voice. It's not my mother's voice. It's not my mother's voice. It's not my mother's voice.

[00:31:36] Because that's what I was told by my mother. And so I have adopted all of that into my businesses throughout and it is that energy. My mother's voice.

[00:31:47] I have been able to date my work. Am I making you talk? And if the answer every day that I wake up is yes, then I will continue to do that which I started.

[00:31:58] You know the universe chose my mom for me because as I get older I've literally become the vision of my mom. I think I'm getting to look like her as well. She was driven. She was passionate. Everything that she touched dead.

[00:32:12] My father just tell you a quick story if you don't mind one of the ins and res.

[00:32:17] We lost our father in 2006. My mom was pretty much a kept woman to an extent she did all of this amazing kind of charity work in the background making amazing in her own little way.

[00:32:31] But business wise my dad literally did everything you ran the businesses where they're you know bed and breakfast and we had like whole each companies. Now talking about changing the status quo, my father passed away within a month.

[00:32:48] My mom stepped into those shoes like she knew that business. She just woke up like she was meant to do that job.

[00:32:55] And my mom would challenge men who are driving all these massive trunks you know truckers and I watched as I stayed at home in Zem for about eight weeks to be with my mom or you know after she lost my dad just to make sure she was okay.

[00:33:09] And that moment in my mom's life in my life never leaves me the moment that I can't do anything. And I always tell myself it because I'm sitting my comfort zone.

[00:33:24] When you come out of your comfort zone, you can do anything and everything and I watched my mom do it. In fact, it's a shame that you know then back then, you know, social media wasn't so huge.

[00:33:37] My mom arguably was one of the first women in Zimbabwe to run a whole each company arguably.

[00:33:44] There may be some but I don't know. But she was running this college company knowing I mean she had to learn like what's required for this that she literally had to learn on the job. Self-belief is a mindset that is that surpasses any barriers in life.

[00:34:02] When you fear something, it stops you from moving forward into that junction that leads you to success. So in terms of inspirational women, my mom is definitely up there on my ranks.

[00:34:16] Thank you so much for sharing that Alison. Your mom was an amazing woman. Thank you. Very inspiring and so are you. I'm asking every woman who comes on the show, do you have a quote?

[00:34:30] You know that one quote that you've probably found at some point in your life that has served you and you keep looking back on it. Would you mind sharing that with us?

[00:34:39] Well, I have a very strange one. I don't know if it resonates with everybody and it's I actually don't even know. I think it's an unknown person that actually did this course and he says a boss has the title and leader has the people.

[00:34:59] So try to have people behind you in everything that she do because you could be a boss that barks down at people and you just have a title. And that does not then, you know, or rather doesn't really evaluate into you being the best leader possible.

[00:35:21] And I want to be a leader that has people behind her and leader that has impact and with impact comes a lot of accountability, I guess. And so for me, it's always been that everything that I want to do has to be led from the heart.

[00:35:38] So yes, I'm a firm believer and boss has a title and a true leader has people behind them. Love it. And the best leaders are women. I'm just saying. Thank you so much, Alison, for being with us today. So inspiring. Sharing your experience with us and your knowledge.

[00:35:59] Thank you so much, Kirsten, for having me and I've just absolutely enjoyed this and I just hope that my little nuggets of wisdom will help at least if not one a few other women out there.

[00:36:10] And it's always about taking accountability for our own actions at the end of the day. We have a responsibility to be great. Thank you so much, Alison. I'll see you later. Bye. Take care. Thank you, Kirsten. Thank you. Bye.

[00:36:23] My name is Alison Chwara. I am the founder of Humafocus Limited based in Scotland. Humafocus is dedicated to creating happier and more productive workplaces all over the nation and beyond.

[00:36:38] If you'd like to get in touch with us and help us create thriving environments for your businesses, please contact us through our website which is www.human-focus.com.

[00:36:52] You can also email us on info at human-focused.com and I look forward to having you always part of our huge family and making workplaces happier, healthier and happier. Scotland's Women, Our Lives, Our Stories.