The Happily Imperfect Leader, Diversity and Inclusion Show: Recent Episodes
Self-Inclusion Talks and Interviews with Amina Chitembo
Are you in Leadership, Diversity and Inclusion or Are you an author. Would you like to be interviewed? Get in touch.
Amina is a UK based Leadership, Diversity and Inclusion Coach and Trainer, Author and International Speaker. She helps individuals leverage the concept of self-inclusion. She helps organisations to increase staff engagement, celebrate diversity and promote inclusion thus upturning productivity and profits. Amina is also a book writing coach and Publisher. She is the founder of Diverse Cultures Publishing, a UK based company that publishes business books and training manuals, autobiographies, memoirs, and personal development self-help books.
She has the knack for bringing fun and professionalism to any environment. Her fundamental values are to inspire, achieve and serve her clients. She helps people to improve their own lives by raising their profiles creating opportunities for credibility, collaboration, and leaving positive legacies.
Amina has over 20 years’ experience which she has gained at a strategic leadership level through employment, an MSc in Leadership and Management, and other related courses. She has worked with public, private and voluntary sector organisations giving her a rounded understanding of the different business environments and what makes staff tick. She has won multiple awards including Publisher of the Year and Promoter of the Year both in 2018.
“Every migrant is imperfectly perfect. The strength that drives leaving all you have to pursue the unknown gives you tremendous mental toughness” Amina Chitembo.
In preparation for the launch of The Perfect Migrant book on 25 May 2018, the first of co-authored books compiled by me and published by my company Diverse Cultures Publishing. I am featuring interviews with some of the co-authors of the book. You can pre-order a copy of the book at www.diverse-cultures.co.uk/p/books. The book features 10 authors from around the world. The authors of this book come from the following countries: Zambia, Botswana, United Kingdom, Kenya, United States of America, Gambia, Italy, Switzerland, Cameroon, and Zimbabwe.
Here is the first of the interviews:
You can also watch this interview on Youtube
What I have learned in my first year in a private (for profit) business.
International Woman’s Day 2018.
- People are willing to help you as a new business
- Just start doesn't mean it is going to be easy
- Customer or client-based business?
- Watch out for the vultures
- Read those contracts
- Some people will take you for a joke, stay focussed
- Love yourself first
"I immigrated to the United States when I was six. And I guess this is one of the things that I would mention. We didn't have much, my mom had to babysit so we had money to eat. We ended up wearing some second-hand clothes and drank powdered milk because that's all we could afford. From that, watching my mom, her hard work and being inspired by her, I ended up finding over two thousand houses that I rented out, multiple apartments, buildings and built up a network worth of over 50 million U.S. dollars" Rod Khleif.
This Interview blew my mind. Listen and learn.
Download Rod's books, free for a limited time only: https://rodkhleif.com/books/
Subscribe free to Rod’s podcast: https://rodkhleif.com/lifetime-cashflow-podcast/
Hi there! its Amina Chitembo here,
Are you always being told you're not good enough? Are you being told that your goals are too big, you can't achieve them? Or maybe people just dismiss you whenever you tell them you want to do something with your life?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you're in the right place. The Happily Imperfect Leader is any person who is willing to push through their fears, defy their stereotypes and imperfections, so that they achieve that great goal that they set for themselves.
Too many people are just sitting there in the name of waiting for the right time or the perfect moment to achieve something. That fear that they have of being Judged for their imperfections is so great, it stops them, it just stops them from moving forward or working alone.
I make a lot of mistakes; my vocabulary is not great, I can't even pronounce certain words... but you know what? I don't let that stop me and I don't want that to stop you either. Those imperfections are not weaknesses, that's the way we were made. So, if that's the Way You Are Made, and people want you to change just to please them. Think about how much time you are giving to them.
So, if you don't like where you are right now in your life. I hope The Happily Imperfect Leader will teach you and encourage you to start NOW and chase those goals.
Yes, some people will ridicule you, some people will make fun of you, but by you taking those steps one at a time. Just starting to do something, working towards that great goal. The fact that you are just taking those small steps, you are already far ahead of them because they are not even trying.
You are here, you're already listening to this and I honour you.
What are you waiting for? subscribe to my channel on YouTube. The Happily Imperfect Leader or you can follow me on social media. Every week, I will record some teachings for you, Interview thought leaders in the industry; millionaires, corporate leaders who I work with through my coaching businesses, and other entrepreneurs. To learn how they started, what issues they faced and what has made them so successful. They will share all that and I want you to be part of it, I want you to listen to them too. I teach and help you, you then help other people... imagine how good things will be in the world if we all learned, and we all shared.
So, see you on the other side. See you at my next interview or my next training.
It's Amina here, your fellow The Happily Imperfect Leader.
Music: http://www.purple-planet.com
Today's interview is with my dear friend Mwape Chibwe. She's based in Zambia. She is an Entrepreneur, she has built a business from ground up and she works in a predominantly male industry. So today, I just want to find out a bit about where she is at, what she has gone through and her achievements. Amina Chitembo.
The three words that I'm going for with letter B are Believe, Bravery and balance. I will start with believe, so whenever you are thinking of starting a business or whenever you’re thinking of doing anything new in life you have to start with belief, believing in what you are doing, believing in yourself. It may be a difficult road ahead, trust me it will be so much easier if you can believe that you can achieve whatever you want to do, no matter how ambitious. And yes by the way, make the goal ambitious and just start. So, believe in yourself believe in the capabilities that you have and where you don't know; as they say wing it until you know it. The most important thing is believing. The second word is bravery, it takes a lot of courage and bravery to do anything that is new. A lot of people get stuck where they are. They're not happy but they just get stuck there because they don’t feel brave enough to take that step. So just start, just begin, you have an idea? start working towards it. I'm not saying you start straightway, like you have an idea today and you start your business straight, you quit your job and get another one straight away. What I'm talking about is having the ability to plan for yourself. You start with saying ok; this is what I would like to do, set yourself a target. Set yourself a goal for maybe 12 months ahead and say to yourself on that day. I will have achieved A B and C, then start working towards whatever the goal is that you have set yourself. Be brave enough to meet any challenges that come because challenges will be there. Somebody that I trust so much Brendon Burchard always says when new opportunities come work beckon. So you have to be ready to do the work, you have to be ready to face all the difficulties and usually you will find that before you get to the end. There's A, B, C and D that's not working as you planned from the beginning. It's ok be flexible enough to change your plans but make sure that you're brave enough to go through it, because if you don’t, you will always wonder what it would have been if you had achieved. However, if you begin and you just get on with it because your plan didn’t materialize, at least you can say I tried. I gave it my best shot. This brings me to the third word and that's balance. You have to make sure that there's balance in your life, so that you don't end up burning yourself out and trust me I have been there when you burn out. You start wondering, you even forget where you left the pen that you're holding your hand. Make sure that you balance the goals. Make sure you balance the plans that you have with giving yourself enough time to rest. Take a good night sleep and enough rest, whatever that is to you, it's all different for many people, they’re people that need more sleep than others but just follow whatever works for you, in terms of balancing your plans and balancing time for those around you. If you just contrite on your goal leaving out time for others. You will find that you are on your own on the other side and all the friends all the family, you had have moved on. This may be because you didn't give them enough time, you're probably too busy with whatever you were planning. So… balance, balance, balance. That's important and you just must do it. Just remember: • You must believe, believe in yourself, believe in whatever it is that the plan. • You have to be brave because it takes bravery to go through and do anything in life. • You must Balance, remember to give yourself enough time to rest, because when you start a new project, it can be hard work and it might take up a lot of your hours, just remember to give yourself time to play have fun while you do it and that's the only way you're going to survive it because if you take life too seriously you will start getting frustrated if you don’t achieve your goal quickly, you will start to think it is not a good idea and give up.
I have been given a challenge today to say something positive from the alphabet, every day for the next 26 days as you know the alphabet has 26 letters so from A to Z, I don't know what I will say at letter x but I will give it my best shot. So my positive words have to do with authoring and have to do with setting up your business and being positive in life as you know “miss positive here ” we will try no matter how hard life is we’ll try and be positive. So my first letters today obviously A, so it's Affirmation. Affirmation is always important, you have to affirm yourself every day, life is too hard already as it is waiting for people to affirm you can be very difficult. So all I can say to you is give yourself a Affirmation every morning which means say something nice about yourself every morning. I look in the mirror and I say, thank God I'm awake today, thank God I'm breathing today and thank god I am who I am and thank God, I'm making a difference to the people around me. So say that to yourself every morning. And then I'll add another word in A because it's Accomplishment. So, accomplish something every day make it to a go every morning when you wake up to accomplish something good. So, whatever it is, it doesn't matter what it is, just do it, just go ahead as Nike says, “just do it”. So, go ahead start something new, that thing that you've been putting aside for years that you haven’t accomplished. Today is your day, 1st of June, we're going to the last month we’re on the 6 months now, so the last of the half of the year, start accomplishing those goals that you set up at the beginning of the Year. If you have forgotten about them, it's time to pick them up and start again. And you know what just write it, write them down it's much easier when you write something down to remember it. So, all I can say is going just do it. My third word because I want to because you know me I'm all about people encouraging people to write, write, write, write, write. I’ve never used to write, I was so afraid of writing reports, I was so afraid of putting myself out there but now hear am I on Facebook and so I became an author. Authoring is the way forward and how you can do that is just write either you record yourself the way I'm doing right now, saying something or teaching something that you, that you're good at and when you finish teaching that, just transcribe it and then collect it. That's how you author, that’s how you start authoring. it used to be difficult a long time ago that you had to write on the little notepad and it took a long time but now it's easy just record yourself, go to Google and just transcribe it using Google. So, if you have a MAC (computer), it's much it is easy, there's a YouTube video which is like 5 minutes, I'll post it for you which will tell you how you can use soundflower and you can use Google Docs to transcribe whatever you’re saying. So right now what I'm saying I can just transfer it in the next five minutes into text and then all you have to do because it doesn't put full Stops, it doesn't put well I don't have a lot of Full Stops, When I speak anyway. So, it doesn’t put Full Stop. So you have to go back check it and make sure that the words that you wanted to say, but there you go, you got something that you were saying to yourself, you don’t have to record it live like I do because trust me remember by October last year I couldn’t even hear the sound of my own voice but now here I am speaking to you, so guess what will happened if you’re always recording something, every day record something, Yeah? Thank you very much for my wishes yesterday and thank you very much for being there for me. I love you people, I love everybody who really likes my messages or here to listen to me even those that want to quit I love you too just go ahead and do it thank you bye, speak to you soon with letter b.
The Happily Imperfect Leader is a high-achiever who is willing to go for their goal, despite imperfections. Too many people sit in the back and procrastinate in the name of waiting to be perfect or fear of judgement for their imperfections.
I make a lot of mistakes, my vocabulary is not great, I can’t pronounce certain words etc. but, I have not let my imperfections stop me, they are not weaknesses, that’s the way I was made. And I am not lazy either. I go for what I want and achieve great things.
I hope my channel will encourage you to try something new today. Don't wait for perfection. it's not real. Some people will ridicule you or make fun of you but always know you are better than the person who don't even want to try.
Here are are my 3 top tips for being the best candidate for the JOB.
Are you tired of your current job and want to change it but the idea of being in front of the interview panel freaks you out and maybe scares the monkeys out of you? Or perhaps you are in a situation where you have been in the same job for a long time, and you just fear that it will all go wrong? You feel vulnerable.
Well, that was me in 2014, when I had a total life shift and wanted to move back into the Corporate world after running my own business for nearly 10 years at the time and being the boss.
I had to use a coach to help me with my anxiety. In just one session, I learned the one thing that I utilised in the interview and got the job. I have moved up into better jobs since. I have since used two more tricks, and they have worked even better. In in this video, I would like to share the 3 tips with you. I also want to share my secret weapon, the cover letter I use with slight tweaking and have got me more jobs than I thought I would ever get.
Part of the time in the year I take on some Interim Leadership roles to keep my skills up and understand my clients better. It means I have to attend regular interviews as part of my business, so far I have managed to get all the jobs I have gone for.
If you want to see this cover letter which I am excited to show you. hop on over to www.aminachtembo.com and download it one the free downloads tab.
Thanks again for watching this video, please feel free to share, it might just help someone get their next job!
Sharing how you motivate yourself, to achieve your goals and aim higher. Watching the London Marathon made me wonder how all the 40k plus people managed to keep their motivation going till the final day and how they didn’t give up half way through. They were certainly were inspired by other people, but motivation… that is internal. So I ask, how do you keep yourself motivated? Leave me a comment, send me a message and share with others. Let ’s share some tips!
The Happily Imperfect Leader is a high-achiever who is willing to go for their goal, despite imperfections. Too many people sit in the back and procrastinate in the name of waiting to be perfect or fear of judgement for their imperfections.
I make a lot of mistakes, my vocabulary is not great, I can’t pronounce certain words etc. but, I have not let my imperfections stop me, they are not weaknesses, that’s the way I was made. And I am not lazy either. I go for what I want and achieve great things.
I hope my channel will encourage you to try something new today. Don't wait for perfection. it's not real. Some people will ridicule you or make fun of you but always know you are better than the person who don't even want to try.
The Happily Imperfect Leader is a high-achiever who is willing to go for their goal, despite imperfections. Too many people sit in the back and procrastinate in the name of waiting to be perfect or fear of judgement for their imperfections.
I make a lot of mistakes, my vocabulary is not great, I can’t pronounce certain words etc. but, I have not let my imperfections stop me, they are not weaknesses, that’s the way I was made. And I am not lazy either. I go for what I want and achieve great things.
Pushing through the fear, we all get fearful when something big is coming up, new job, wedding, exams etc. There is nothing wrong with fear, hard as it may be, try and push through it, don't let fear of being judged, fear of failing stop you from achieving your goals. Let us inspire each other to greatness and happiness. Demonstrate your creativity. Demonstrate your leadership. Celebrate your achievements. Enjoy being the Happily Imperfect Leader because no one is perfect. Always remember #Inspire #Achieve #Goals #Balance
Come and join me as I give a talk on High-Performance and pushing through obstacles such as Stereotypes, Imperfections and Fear to reach your goals and overall success. on 4th March, 2017 at the Best You Expo at Excel London.
The Best You Expo is one of the largest personal development expos in the UK. Held in London, this 2-day expo boasts 160+ exhibitors and over 120 talks on various subjects. At the expo you’ll find information on training, coaching, NLP, marketing, book publishing, business building, personal coaching, social media, and more.
The Best You Expo is a great event if you are interested in the Personal Development world, and is so broad and diverse it allows you to absorb brilliant new ideas, attend a number of free workshops including mine! You will learn and gain fuller understanding on how to build the life you deserve and improve other people’s lives too.
Do you have a big goal to get a better job, start that business, improve your financial stability?
What is stopping you?
Watch this video and follow the instructions
Visit me at www.aminachitembo.com to learn more. Like and share this video please,
See you on the other side.
Are you a High- Achiever who wants to achieve even more in 2017. I am offering a limited number of Free 60 Minutes Coaching Strategy Sessions as a New Year Deal. Applications are open now. If you would like to be considered. Complete an application via this link below:
https://goo.gl/forms/2h7y2hzVCWr2KEBe2
Only Apply if you are serious about High Performance and achieving your goals and improving all areas of your life. See you on the other side High Achiever!
Hi everyone, it’s Amina here.
Nice to talk to you again, I hope you're having a lovely time wherever you are. I had a lovely weekend and I'm sorry I've been quiet for a couple of weeks. That's because I have been training a new team member. We've been quite busy in the office trying to get everything sorted out for her to be ready for work. So now the induction is over and I'm back to recording.
Today I want to tackle an issue that I seem to get a lot of questions about. This issue is;
How do you deal with negative voices, and how do you deal with fear?
So, negative voices first, whenever you start something new there will always be people that would tell you you're crazy, there will always be people that do not believe in what you believe in and that's just a fact. Most of the times people like that, are the people that are closest to you … Those that you expect to support you and to understand what you're doing.
So, for instance, a close friend, maybe a family member you know… Somebody that you really want to get approval from.
But the question is….
Do you really need approval from anyone when you know what you believe in, and you know what you want to do for yourself?
My answer to that is; Not really… People have asked me:
How do you managed to deal with negative people around you?
Yes, I'm a human being… I've had a lot of negative input in my life and sometimes. I've been told I'm crazy, and I've been told I could never do what I want to do. But you know what? I believe in what I'm doing and I believe in myself and that's the most important thing.
Secondly, it's not that I don't have the fear or the negative thoughts myself sometimes, but it's how you fight through them. I use that energy that I get to push me forward. To say ok today, I don't feel great, I am doubting myself.
I turn that around, that same energy and think what if it works what do I do?
So there you go….
We all get those negative voices in our heads. I do get those negative voices from other people but you know what? I always try and turn that around. Also, I have a number of people in my life that through my interaction with them, I have worked out that actually they do believe in what I say no matter how crazy ideas may be. They do think it's a great idea but that's so those are the people I run to when I get stuck.
What I want to encourage you to do today is; Look at your friends list look at your family members made it look at people that are in your life.
Choose just one or two people you don't even need many who you can confirm with whom you can ask when you're in doubt just share your idea and see what they say whether they think it's a good idea. However, even with that situation if you're still really believe in what you're doing just go for it. Don't worry because
“it's better to have tried something and failed than to wish you had tried and trust me there a lot of people out there that wished they had tried and they leave in rich l and all the time and they never progress so hopefully that's been helpful to you and hopefully going to send you somewhere so as you goal.
I will speak to you again soon believe in yourself the final decision lies in you and not is everybody else just you. You are great trust me you can do this you can do whatever you're thinking about right now, whether it is a business idea or that job that you want to get, you can get it.
just go out there and get it ok? If you have any issues are you worry about and you don't have anyone in your life to talk to it comes up to me come and find me I'm always open to talk to people because you know.
Have a nice evening and speak to you soon bye.
Today, I am talking to you about the importance of leaving a Legacy. So we know that we are time limited on this earth, and I know that this may sound grim, but it's a fact, we are time limited. We still have to share there's a lot of life but we still have to enjoy it. I have learnt a lot from other people and I believe you have a lot to each too. You have something to share with other people so why not actually think of leaving a legacy for your loved ones. Here is why you may want to consider it. enjoy!
Thank you very much for joining me. Today I'm talking about Diverse Cultures Publishing, I want to explain a bit more about the concept of co-authoring what that means, what it entails, what's in it for you and why you should consider it.
The aim of our organisation is to encourage people that wouldn't otherwise be able to for whatever reason write 300 pages of a book on their own. And those wanting to leverage the camaraderie of having to write with other people so that they can increase their reach.
Feel free to leave me a comment, speak soon.