The Trailblazers Experience Podcast

Takeaway Tips EP72 : Empowering Women in Leadership: Authentic Branding, Resilience, and Personal Growth : Guest Yvette

• Ntola • Season 4 • Episode 72

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In this Takeaway Tips episode, Yvette shares the journey of a balance coach and highlights the importance of authenticity in personal branding and leadership. It explores themes of active listening, the power of storytelling, and the necessity of integrating health into career success.

• Discusses the evolution of personal branding and authenticity in business 
• Emphasises the importance of active listening versus being overly communicative 
• Highlights the role of storytelling in empowering women in leadership 
• Encourages networking and outreach to find mentors 
• Explores future aspirations and the impact of coaching 
• Stresses the interconnection between health and career success 
• Shares lessons on resilience rooted in family values 
• Introduces practices like breathwork and visualization for leadership 
• Concludes with actionable takeaways for aspiring leaders

Chapters

00:00 Building a Personal Brand
09:10 Future Goals and Aspirations
14:33 Core Values and Resilience
20:01 Key Takeaways for Personal and Professional Growth
22:06 Outro : Follow and Subscribe 


Find Yvette
Linkedin :https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvettejansevanrensburg/ 
Instagram  @the_balancecoach 

Listen to Full episodes here :

Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/episode/5N7Qygpa8qrmwXWrysNHQA?si=f4jMERQyRTG3-MCMJG1hVQ

Apple : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep68-yvette-janse-van-rensburg-consultant-leadership/id1674539126?i=1000678114512

Watch the episodes on Youtube : https://youtu.be/A9wGXBUd7Ck



Listen : to the audio version Apple Spotify .Amazon Music Google Podcasts
Watch and subscribe to my YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@Thetrailblazersexperience
Follow Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazersexperience/

The trailblazers experience :

Welcome to the Trailblazer Takeaway Series, sharing the highlights of our guests in bite-sized episodes to inspire, to give you something to think about and to motivate you along the way. But for now, enjoy the launch of the Trailblazer Takeaway Series. Talk to me about your personal brand, because you're known as the balance coach on on instagram and, having gone through and went into doom scrolling, you did. Yeah. It feels like you are building a personal brand for yourself. Um, why is it important to you and what sort of led to you saying, right, I want to now create this, this persona that embodies you. Maybe, maybe you want to talk about it and shed more light.

Yvette:

Yeah, it's interesting. I think if you had met me probably five, six years ago, you would have met a very different version of me, and it's really only through investing so much time, effort and financial investment into my health and my fitness that I can now really confidently go into the business world and be who I actually am. My philosophy is always you know, people work with people, people buy from people. So I genuinely try and show up as the most authentic version of myself. You know, you probably know, South Africans aren't really known for fluffing things up with pretty direct, so I show up in that way. I always say to people don't ask me the question if you don't want the honest answer.

Yvette:

I love that I will always do it with respect and kindness and compassion. But don't ask me the question if you don't want the real answer. So my personal brand is hugely important to me and also because of the type of work I do. You know I work in the world of people and culture, right? So it's a people business that I'm in. So I have to really make sure that people understand who I am, what they can get from me, but also how I present that persona to the world. And it's very different, you know, whether I'm going into a big corporate organization or you know whether I'm dealing. Some of my clients work in the charitable sector, right. So I try and position the personal brand depending on the audience I have. Some require a lot more of a softer event and some, can you know, can really experience the full personal brand that I have. But it has been really important for me over the last three years to focus more on that and it's actually helped my career, quite frankly.

The trailblazers experience :

I've seen that in terms of my own personal growth is I have to assume the role is am I being an active listener in this conversation or interaction, or am I being a solution list, so someone providing the solution or advice, et cetera. And it's helped me be a better interactor, interacting much better with people, understanding what outcome I want to achieve from that conversation as well. But that's taken a lot of learning, because sometimes you feel and I don't know if it's mostly women from most of the conversations I've had on the podcast with women we feel that if we're in the room, we have to say something. We have to, yeah, engage, but it's actually knowing when, obviously, and if you're in a bored situation, having your voice heard, but at the right time, yeah, it's gravitas and making sure that you're not making yourself small in the room by not participating at all but when's the right time to interject? Contribute, yeah, um, agree, acknowledge there's a lot going on what does that audience need from you?

Yvette:

right, like you said in that particular meeting boardroom, whatever? Do they want me to be the challenger? Is that the role that I'm going to play today, or actually do they need me to be the critical mind in that room? So there's so much that goes, I think, into leadership and, especially for women, we have to lean in, I think, a lot more into some of those masculine energies that we have so that we can show up in those boardrooms as our most confident but authentic selves. You know, I've definitely seen the opposite of that of where you try and take on this corporate persona. You know the persona that you think that that world wants you to be, and it never works right Because it's not authentically you, it's not how you would show up day to day, and doing that over time is probably what leads to things like burnout and anxiety and stress because you're having to show up in a way that just isn't you at all.

The trailblazers experience :

Yeah, it's being authentic, but with impact and gravitas, and then showing that you actually deserve to be in that room and why, leading with that.

Yvette:

Yeah, 100%.

The trailblazers experience :

In terms of being a female leader. How do we empower other people in the workplace in your industry? Are there scenarios where you've had to be more assertive, more upfront, bringing the South African out in you and saying come on, ladies, shake it up, stop doing that. How has your experience been, especially with women in the industry?

Yvette:

I think it's a really interesting one. I think we need to tell more stories of women in leadership, right? You don't? Yes, you see the numbers and you see companies advertising their percentage of women that are now in leadership positions or in the boardroom, but actually are we telling their stories of how they, like you said earlier, you know we don't often see the background journeys, maybe even how long it took them to get to that position, or what sort of support or sponsorship did they have, what type of networks did they go to go and build, you know? So we don't see those stories, and I think that's how we start to change the landscape of organizations, right, if we can see more of those stories, but also stories of people who look like me, who come from where I come from, who've been through similar journeys.

Yvette:

I think that's really important, because if you can't see those stories, if you can't see those people, you don't have anything to connect with, right? So I used to, when I worked quite a lot in succession planning in a previous organization, we always looked for those stories, because if you're at an entry level in an organization as a female thinking you know I really want to get to that management leadership position. But I'm looking upwards and I think, well, there's no one here that looks like me. There's no one that I can actually connect with in terms of their story, but actually they might be. It's just that we don't tell those stories very well in organizations.

The trailblazers experience :

Yeah, and to your point, I feel like now in 2024, going on to 2025, there is no excuse now for you not to be able to research, find, connect with so many women doing different things. One of the women who I'd really love if I could get her on the podcast she's the founder of Lagos Fashion Week and she is so amazing in terms of she was a lawyer before she was trying to create a fact it didn't exist in Nigeria and she took the plunge not two years ago, probably 10, 15 years ago to say let me launch this and and be a force for driving fashion and creativity. And now fast forward all these years where, with the unsurge of afrobeats and now music and culture having that big surgence, you can see it's all now culminating together. But, yeah, her story. I googled her founder online and I think I was at an albright event and she gave a talk there. I was just in awe because I was like we need to see more of these stories of just how people decided to just make a step change. They'd studied something else.

The trailblazers experience :

Yeah, and I believe she's a lawyer by profession, but I'll put it in the show notes so people can find her as well. Yeah, just doing something different and saying, okay, it's never been done before. I know there will be many hurdles along the way, but I see a vision. I've seen fashion week in other countries Okay, how do we make this work here? And I think it's similar with women's career journeys, where we can Google, see, contact, facetime, whatever it is, try and get in touch or just find out more and that'll sort of help us, breadcrumbing, get to the direction where we want to go in our own career.

Yvette:

Yeah, and that's the thing. Right, you're so right, people are. I think there's a bit of an assumption that most people aren't receptive to a LinkedIn message or an Instagram DM to find out about their journeys. Actually, people are pretty well, most women are dying to tell their career journeys and how they've transitioned and how they've gotten to where they are, and they're happy to. Well, certainly, I can only really speak from my experience, but I'm happy to talk to someone and give them advice and tell them how I did something and what approach I took, but all it takes again is that initial discomfort of well, I'm going to block. It's basically a cold outreach. Right, I'm going to reach out to this person on LinkedIn to potentially find out how they designed this amazing career and actually, if you just lean into that challenge a little bit longer, you might really find some of the answers that you're looking for or, at a very minimum, here's some incredibly inspiring stories.

The trailblazers experience :

Exactly. If anything, what I think the podcast should do is just getting people to think differently. And actually we're no different from anybody else out there. We all have our stories, our journeys, and sometimes it's just taking the plunge, isn't it Taking a risk to do something different to shape your own career? So, if we fast forward, it's almost the end of the year. What are your future goals? What's next? What are you planning? If I was to speak to you in five years, where would you be?

Yvette:

Big question I'm actually doing this exact exercise with my own coach at the moment. So you know, the future Yvette in five years time, you know I think, is living a life where she's impacting lots of leaders to become the absolute best that they can be. You know, my focus is really to try and help women get away from performing, people pleasing and that burnout culture that we have and really helping them to step into the most authentic, high-performing leader that they can absolutely be, and my own career, I think, will also be a testament to that. You know, remaining in the consulting space and really working with the top 1% of corporate leadership is kind of my well. That's what I want to create is that next generation of I call them corporate athletes. That's really where I want to create an impact.

The trailblazers experience :

I love that. Corporate athletes oh my God, that's an aspiration I want to get into there be that corporate athlete.

Yvette:

Imagine having an organization still of athletes. I mean, you might have some problems, but you're going to have a really high performing organization.

The trailblazers experience :

Exactly and, interesting enough, you said that you have a coach as well. What spurred you on to say actually, I am a coach, but I need one as well.

Yvette:

Do you know what it's? Because, as coaches as much as we are incredibly well trained and we can help other people unlock all sorts of weird and wonderful things, we're not very good at asking ourselves the difficult questions, that we need to grow and to be challenged. Well, you might be able to ask yourself the question, but quite often you shy away from answering the question. So I 100% believe in coaches needing coaches, because we also need to grow and develop and be challenged, right? So it was exactly that question. You know, what does Yvette in five years? What's she doing? It was that question that actually led me to getting a coach.

The trailblazers experience :

That's brilliant. I think that's what demonstrates a high level of self-awareness, isn't it being able to go within yourself and say I may need some support, some assistance here, and it's okay, it's admitting failure, it's actually admitting okay in order for me to get to the next stage or to unlock some potential. Someone else actually opening up and helping me see that for myself is really great. What do you think women need to? If there was like a checklist to say, okay, do I need a coach, do I need a mentor? What are sort of the checklists that are like a decision factor for going that next step?

Yvette:

Number one is definitely network. You know your network becomes your net worth. You've got to put yourself in those rooms with those people that you really either aspire to become or people who inspire you to do things a little bit differently and push yourself. So that would definitely be the first thing I would. If I was even very early career. Still, I would invest a lot of time at building my network and in different pockets, right, Not just with people that are in my profession, but actually with people who think differently, and I know you mentioned Albright earlier. That's a perfect example of going into a room of women where actually you've got people from all sorts of backgrounds and industries that have come together. So I would definitely invest in that.

Yvette:

My second one is to always be curious and stay adaptable. Yes, you might have a very particular plan or a shape of a plan that you've constructed for your career, but if you don't stay curious and adaptable, you could potentially be missing out on opportunities you've not even thought of. Right, Someone could come at you left field with this great idea, but because you're so focused on just this one path that you want to follow, you might dismiss something that could take you in a much better or different trajectory as well. And then I think the last one is this find that balance right. You know, make sure that if you're wanting to operate here, that your health meets you here as well. You can't, you know, career and health aren't exclusive. There's such a mutual relationship between those two things. You cannot expect to have a highly successful career in leadership working under pressure when you're not actually taking care of yourself. You could maybe for six months, but you'll most certainly burn out yeah, and it's um.

The trailblazers experience :

You know, your health is your wealth. At the end of the day, my um mom always used to say rest her soul. She's like just remember, you know, if you were to leave this company, etc. All you're going to get is a card and some flowers and you can pass away.

The trailblazers experience :

That'll be it. So yourself and your well-being, your family. It's so important to have those fundamentals, isn't it? Those values, those core ethics and values that are guiding you through. Have you seen that throughout your career I mean 15, 20 years in just reflecting back what are the core ethics and values that your family and your upbringing, your culture, have instilled with you that are still with you now?

Yvette:

Yeah, so probably the one thing that has always stuck with me is you know, rightly or wrongly, but always always be the top performer. Wherever you go, you know, always outwork everyone, always try and find or spend a little bit extra time being curious about something because you might just find that one little gold nugget that you're looking for. I was always growing up a really strong academic and I'm a bit of a lifelong learner. My friends always laugh at me like, oh, what are you learning this year? Because I just have to. I have to have that, that knowledge.

Yvette:

I have this real thirst and hunger for just exploring different topics, not necessarily even related to my field. Right, because I think it all, you can learn lots of little nuggets from different things that will ultimately help you, and so, yeah, I think that that has definitely stuck with me as I am, as I grew up I I lost both my parents, unfortunately when I was really really young, and I think that kind of really work hard type, resilient mentality that they had me build when I was really, really young, I definitely think that that's one thing that has helped me throughout that entire journey growing up without them, but also the thing that's helped me be so resilient. You know moving countries not knowing anyone and building a career over the last 15 or so years. I think that that's really helped in my journey.

The trailblazers experience :

Yeah, that's, that's interesting. I lost my mom 17 years ago and my dad is still with us. But I think when you've lost a family member, especially a parent, it's sort of you sort of think well, it's all guns blazing, now You've got nothing to lose. Yeah, you've got to go all out, because you never know when that day may come, and whether you're spiritual or not, or believe that someone is looking down on you, or if you would like them to be proud of you at some point, yeah, resilience, and that I got to make this work and keep going mentality, it stays with you.

Yvette:

Yeah, 100%. It's so true, right? You know, I always knew that they wanted a really great life for me. You know, my mom I remember growing up invested a lot of time with me, helping me study, getting me ready for exams, whatever it might have been. You know, my dad worked abroad for quite a lot of my childhood, so I was with my mom quite a lot and I just knew that they wanted this great life for me. So I'm creating that great life now, but not just for them, but also for myself, so that I can show myself I can do really hard things right and I can achieve all the great things that they wanted for me, but also all the great things that they wanted for me, but also all the great things that I want for for myself definitely, and you've talked about continuous learning and development.

The trailblazers experience :

What's some of the if there's anything that that you thought you've adapted this year, so an industry trend that you thought, oh my goodness, I'm so glad this exists. Now that you've sort of adopted that, that's helping you as a leadership coach. That's interesting.

Yvette:

Yeah, it's funny you ask me that I was talking about this the other day the one thing that I actually two things that I never thought I would get behind because, you know, for any particular reason, it just it wasn't me, but it actually completely shifted my, my performance. One of it is breath work, which sounds ridiculous, and the other one is visualization. So the breath work was a really interesting experience that I I had and I actually realized how my body was probably constantly in this fight or flight mode because I wasn't actually breathing properly. And incorporating that over the last year in my health journey has made all the difference, giving myself this space, those mindful moments just harming the nervous system a little bit.

Yvette:

And the visualization piece is an interesting one because I came across it by reading a little bit about the link between athletes and and their performance and and this is a key thing that they they do in their world is kind of visualizing that, that success. You know, you see them often, sometimes on pictures talking to themselves, and because that's the narrative, that's the visualization that they create. But you can break your brain doesn't know the difference, right, whether you're reality or whether it's fiction. So that for me was an interesting find, I think in the world of mental fitness was visualization, and it wasn't until I actually started doing it that I actually realized the power that that could really have in any area of your life, not just your career. But those two things probably wouldn't have been the things that I.

The trailblazers experience :

I thought I would would say yeah it's about finding the tools that you need to to help you. Now, uh, my dad always says technology is there for a reason. Yeah, new principles, new processes are there for a reason. So, so why wouldn't you embrace it? You know, why wouldn't you embrace new ways of thinking, new ways of learning? If the fundamentals are to get you to the next level, then why wouldn't you do that? So, breathwork, I'll be looking into that, um, next year actually to, yeah, to get it to how I can improve that for myself. Watch this space it was interesting.

Yvette:

It was an interesting experience. You'll have to tell me how it goes oh yeah, I'll be letting your little girl.

The trailblazers experience :

This was gonna gonna happen, yeah well, we always end the podcast with sharing three trailblazer takeaway tips. I mean, you've shared so many nuggets of wisdom If anyone has even listened to the podcast. I've been taking my own notes as well of things I need to reflect on and help me with building my own personal and professional brand. But if you had to summarize three key takeaways to help the audience as they go about their day, their life, their mission, their vision, what would it be?

Yvette:

I think the first one is stay curious. That gut instinct is there for a reason. If something's telling you to, you need to go and explore this. Lean into that just a little bit longer and see what you could find. The second one is always operate from a place of authenticity. Yes, I know the corporate world is tough and yes, it sometimes feels like you have to play a lot of politics and be very strategic about navigating that world. But the more you can operate from a place of just being you and connecting with people at that level, Trust me, that will pay you dividends long beyond whatever role you're in. And then I think that the last one for me is really just shifting the narrative of where we think that we could either have a great career or either great health. You can have both. You just have to be very purposeful around how you design those two so that they do work together and not against each other.

The trailblazers experience :

Summarized brilliantly, and thank you so much for engaging in this conversation. I think it's always great to see different perspective, different career journeys. You've been your authentic self. You've brought your A-game here, but also been sharing your story, and thank you so much for being on the podcast. I hope you've enjoyed it so far.

Yvette:

Absolutely, it's been brilliant. Thank you so much for having me.

The trailblazers experience :

Audience. This has been the Trailblazers Experience podcast. You know where to find us. Please remember to follow, subscribe and share. And do one thing for me tell another woman about the podcast. Until then, bye.