On Friday I had the absolute pleasure of attending a rather famous address: Number 10 Downing Street!
This International Women's Day I was absolutely honoured to be one of 14 women invited by The Girls Network and Akshata Murty, the Prime Minister's Wife, to inspire and mentor a group of amazing young girls aged 14-19 on the endless future career opportunities available to them.
When the invitation came through a few weeks back, I thought this surely must be a joke, or some kind of scam! I was looking for the link to add my card information, "click here to make a £500 donation to the Prime Minister and confirm your attendance". But there was no payment link and it was no joke, the invitation came directly from Downing Street and I was SO excited.
Then came the list of the 13 other women who had been invited. CEO of the NHS, CEO of Depop, COO of the British Fashion Council, MPs, OBEs, MBEs...and then there was little old me, with no letters before or after my name. I'm going to be entirely honest with you, because I think it's important to talk about these things, the Imposter Syndrome started imposter-ing HARD!
Why was I invited? What have I got to bring to the table? What if they realise they made a mistake and kick me out the famous black door in front of everyone?!
I took a deep breath and reminded myself of how much I've managed to achieve in the past 5 short years. I may not have 15 years of business under my belt, or an OBE after my name, but I have the freshest memory of what it's like to take a complete career pivot and start a business completely from scratch.
I realised that what I can "bring to the table" is advice on what it's like to realise you've chosen the wrong career path/degree and the courage it takes to act on that and pursue your dream. I can talk about what it's like to scale up a business from 1 person to 16. I can speak on how great it feels to get to work on what you love every day. And that, no matter how old you get, or how far into your career you go, you can still be hit with a good old dose of Imposter Syndrome at any moment.
So I pushed the self doubt aside, put on my most "Downing Street" appropriate outfit and headed to Number 10 (with Baked by Steph cookies in hand, of course).
Mid mentoring: having a great chat with one of the amazing mentees
And needless to say, there was no reason to be nervous. My fellow mentors were some of the most inspiring women I've ever had the pleasure of meeting and I was completely blown away by the young girls I sat down with. I think I learnt as much from them as they did from me!
I've come away feeling more positive than ever about the next generation of young women stepping into their power and taking up the space that they deserve. And I will continue to do the same.
Happy International Womens' Day!
Steph x
