Elite Personal Branding with Genevieve

I was inspired to become a lecturer because my then research professor, a woman, sparked the possibility in me that if she did it, I could do it too.

I will always remember that day, I was in class and I was just in awe of her intelligence, femininity, her impeccable style and overall presence. She didn't look like the stereotypical academic, maybe that's what inspired me so much.

When I started working as a lecturer, I reached out and told her she was the inspiration behind my career change.

She was my 'if she can do it' moment.

Today, I'm determined to pay it forward. I'm curious, do you have a woman or women who inspired you to go for it?

Tag her/them below!

G

It's all in the small things.

G

I have very few memories of Congo. This is the ⁷ that shaped a big part of me.

I was born in Congo (DRC). I left when I was nine, and I have very few memories.

But this is one of my fondest and most vivid.
A neighbourhood beauty pageant, now in the Kinshasa of the late 80's it looks something like this:

♡ Barefooted not because we did not have shoes but because when we were outside playing as kids it was always barefooted (best feeling ever).
♡No fancy clothes but traditional clothes
♡No make-up but hair beautifully braided
♡Oh and our catwalk was lines drawn in the sand.
♡The aunties dressed us in liputa (traditional wax print) and taught us how to walk the catwalk.

As a prize, the winners would share a meal, but I remember all of us eating together after the event.
We used to line up and walk one after the other, I remember a bit of nervousness before the walk but at the end, while everybody would cheer for you, an enormous sense of pride for my eight-year-old little self.

That was the first time I understood what it felt like to be celebrated before I had proved anything. I do not remember any sense of competition or wanting to be better than anybody but doing my best so I can eat with everyone lol. Maybe that's why I love food so much?
Then I left. France at 9 years old…a long way from the world that had carried and shaped me.

But when I look back, those women gave me so much without even realising it. They gave me courage, confidence to carry myself with pride and I've carried it into every unfamiliar place since
Of everything I could have kept from Congo, the thing that survived is the way those women taught me to carry myself.

It was not about being the prettiest or cutest girl. They were preparing me. For a life none of them would ever see even if they did not know it then.
So, wherever I walk, be it in a lecture hall, across
cities, a stage, it's not just me walking.

It's every single one of those aunties who poured a seed of courage and greatness into a little girl on a sandy catwalk.

They say it takes a village to raise a child; well I carry mine with me every step I take and wherever I go!

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I was doing my usual brain dump this morning and something weird happened.

I noticed my pronouns were changing as I was writting.

I. Me. You. Shifting back and forth, mid-sentence, as though there were two of us in the writing.

There were actually. Haha

One of them had had enough. She told me she was tired of me standing in the way of her greatness.

I was sick and tire of me!

And here is the part I need you to hear. There was no cruelty in it. None. I was mad at me but not mean at all. Most of us only know the inner voice that shames us, the one that tears us down and calls it honesty. This was not the case. She confronted me completely without contempt and ended the ass whooping session with I love you!

That is how you know which one is speaking.

Then she (I) explained something I knew but never articulated this way:

1/ I stands above me. And me is here to serve I. Not as a servant. As a tandem. A team.
2/ Me does not need to know why. When the impulse comes, she trusts that I has the best interest of both of them at heart, and she moves.

That's the relationship. One knows. One trusts. There's no enemy.

And then she (I) told me to pick up my phone, record this, and share it.

I did not know why and did not even dare ask why at that point.

So here we are!

G

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Identity built on achievements alone is like a sandcastle, as soon as a wave comes, it's gone!

Follow for more identity shifts

G
The Reinvention Queen

It's not necessary for you to break through.
But when it happens, just know that something big is about to happen!

G
The Reinvention Queen

Rejection is redirection!

G
The Reinvention Queen

Keep looking for glimpses of her. In the way you speak, the standards you keep, the choices you make and in the moments you surprise yourself.

Every glimpse is evidence that's not just a vision, she's becoming familiar.

And one day, you'll stop looking for signs of the woman you're becoming...because you'll realise that you've become Her!!!!

And it will fell AmAzInG!

G
The Reinvention Queen

Your brain is always looking for you.

G
The Reinvention Queen