Discover The Secret Habits That Could Propel Your Career To The Next Level

In this episode, Jamal Ahmed speaks with Gwen, a senior privacy consultant, about the transformative power of habits in career development.

Gwen shares her inspiring journey and provides invaluable advice on:

• The bold move that launched her privacy career: Learn why quitting her job was the catalyst for Gwen's success.
• Branding yourself for visibility: How to strategically use LinkedIn to stand out in the industry.
• Unlocking your potential with habits: Discover the habits that can accelerate your career.
• Battling imposter syndrome and building a network: Get strategies for overcoming imposter syndrome and building a network

Gwen is a seasoned compliance leader turned data privacy champion.

After spearheading compliance initiatives for over a decade, she pivoted her career into data privacy by leveraging LinkedIn and the science of habits. Today as a senior privacy consultant, Gwen helps businesses unleash the power of proactive privacy.

If you're ready to transform your career and become the go-to GDPR expert, get your copy of 'The Easy Peasy Guide to GDPR' here: https://www.bestgdprbook.com/

Follow Jamal on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmjahmed/

Follow Gwen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gwentakagawa/

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In order to land your dream job in privacy, you need to be the right person in the right place at the right time. We all know a certification by itself is just letters after your name. It's not going to put you at the top of the list. he number one thing that I took away from reading Atomic Habits by James Clear was that the most powerful form of intrinsic motivation is identity. What is the dream job that I want? That's who I need to be. And then thinking through what are the habits that person has? I am the person who posts on LinkedIn.There's two key pieces of advice around LinkedIn. First is to get over yourself and start posting and two

Are you ready to know what you don't know about Privacy Pros? Then you're in the right place. Welcome to the Privacy Pros Academy podcast by Casient Privacy Experts. The podcast to launch, progress and excel your career as a Privacy Pro. Hear about the latest news and developments. Discover fascinating insights from leading global privacy professionals. And hear real stories and top tips from the people who've been where you want to get to. We've trained people in over 137 countries and counting. So whether you're thinking about starting a career in data privacy. Or you're an experienced professional. This is the podcast for you.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Privacy Pros Podcast. Have you ever wondered how you can hack your career by building the right habits? Today we're joined by a senior privacy consultant, whose journey proves that it is actually possible. In this episode, you'll discover how you can leverage the power of habits to propel your career forward, regardless of your background.

We're also going to provide actionable tips on crafting a personal brand that attracts your ideal opportunities in privacy and how you can use habit formation to improve your organization's privacy practices. I'm your host, Jamal Ahmed, award winning global privacy expert and founder of the Privacy Pros Academy, where we're building a community of world class professionals who empower businesses to adopt honest privacy practices.

And this episode is brought to you by Kazient Privacy Experts. We provide pragmatic and easy to implement solutions for governments, SMEs, and multinational corporations. We're creating a future where every woman, every man, and every child enjoys freedom over their personal information.

And to learn more about my book, the international bestseller, the easy peasy guide to the GDPR, go to www. Kazientprivacy.com. BestGDPRBook. com.

Now today's guest is Gwen. Gwen is a seasoned compliance leader turned data privacy champion. After spearheading compliance initiatives for over a decade, she pivoted her career into data privacy by leveraging LinkedIn and the science of habits.Today, as a senior privacy consultant, Gwen helps businesses unleash the power of proactive privacy. Gwen, welcome to the Privacy Pros Podcast.

Thank you so much, Jamal, excited to be here.

I'm so excited to have you. And as we was getting set up, you mentioned that you had been listening to the Privacy Pros podcast before you even got into privacy. Tell us more about that journey.

Absolutely. I was pretty unhappy in my previous role and I was trying to find a new career that was going to fit my interests. data privacy really fits computing Artificial intelligence and the compliance and following regulations. So all of those things is really where my career has led to but I couldn't really figure that out while I was working full time.

I tried following podcasts like yours to get some ideas and advice. A lot of that advice I had a hard time putting into practice with that full time job and two small children at home. So I actually did probably the worst possible thing for most folks, which was to quit my job in order to pursue a new career full time. Okay.

Take my hats off to you for that because not a lot of people, as you say, they will be worried about the financial security, worried about having a gap on their CV, whether they can succeed or not, but you was like, you know what, I'm going to do this. And I know I'm going to have the right skills and habits. That's going to come along the way. That's going to allow me to be successful. So you transitioned from a compliance background to a successful career in data privacy. What advice would you give to other people with non traditional backgrounds who find themselves in a similar position that you once did, and I once did where we're like, the job is not fulfilling me.

I'm not enjoying this. It's a struggle to wake up to go to work because it just doesn't energize me anymore. I remember being there and I used to be like monday to friday every day was like the same drill. Go and do the same kind of work, achieve the same kpis, do the same stuff day in day out And you realize hang on a minute Anybody could be doing this.

This is not the best use of my knowledge. This is not the best use of my skills and this isn't energizing or fulfilling me. And given that I'm going to spend most of my week doing a vocation, I'd rather be doing something where I can make an impact, where I am fulfilling something that is challenging and energizing.

And that's why I transitioned. So I can resonate with a lot of the stuff that you might've been going through. So for someone who is going through that right now what are your top tips for them?

Thank you, Jamal, that's a great question, and I resonate so much with everything you just said. I do not feel like that anymore. You can see if you're watching this on a video situation, you can see that I've got a huge smile on my face. I love being in data privacy. And anyone who's making the transition and choosing kind of the hard path of making a career transition, you really need to connect to that why and figure out what brings you that joy, because otherwise you're not going to put in the time and the energy.

You can't have the commitment that you need to do all of the hard steps and to convince somebody else to give you a chance. So the advice that I give is really a four part piece. In order to land your dream job in privacy, you need to be the right person in the right place at the right time. And so any advice that you give, I filter through those four things.

How does that help me have better clarity on the job that I want? How does it help me give someone else better clarity on the job that I want? How does it bridge the gap between who I am today and who I need to be for the hiring manager to say, yes. Who needs to have my name so that it's in the room when the hiring manager is thinking about that next hire? And is it on the right timeline for me? So when we come back to the quitting the job piece, I had a very clear path of this is how much runway I've got. I had my husband on board. We had planned checkpoints. We had a backup plan in the old career where there was an opportunity opening up that I had right of first refusal based on prior relationships. That was starting in October. I ended up landing my role in September. So I was right up against that backup plan. But that whole process is really around coming back to those four things. So if you think about advice that comes through, one of the first things that I heard was coming from compliance, add an IAPP certification. And we all know a certification by itself is just letters after your name. It's spelled out. It's going to help you not get your name crossed off the list, but it's not going to put you at the top of the list. 90 percent or more of the jobs that I'm looking at in privacy say you need to have, or you should have an IAPP certification. So that's part of that dream job. I know that it's recommended and it's required for a lot of them. The right person is. It's going to help that hiring manager know that I'm in privacy, but it's not going to take that next level of experience. So how can I leverage that certification in some other aspect as well? Looking at that right place, I started asking people who had the certification, how has the certification helped you before I even got it?

And that helped me get folks perspectives and advice on how to get the certification. And it also gave me people to check in with afterwards. If I were to do it again, I would go one step further and look at that dream job piece and say, where is my top five companies that I want to work in? Who are the people at that company who has that certification and ask them about how it's shaped their role in their company.

So using that certification, not in isolation, but using it as part of the process. And the same thing with any other piece of advice that I'm getting, I'm looking at how does it help me do those four things? Because I need it to have dream job, right person, right place, right time, all line up. In order to land a position and to really be strategic with where I was going.

That's amazing. What's fascinating me about all of that is it's very similar to the kind of questions we ask of our mentees at the Privacy Pros Academy, but I've never had someone who has actually broken it down to almost like an exact science that you are. And one of the things that I say is, The quality of your life is going to depend on the quality of the questions that you're asking.

And those questions that you was just demonstrated that you asked, you can see how powerful that has been to help you to have a very strategic and almost like a fail proof process driven to get to where you are. And if you take those kinds of goals to achieve, Any of the goals that you want to achieve in your life, there's no doubt that you will either achieve them very quickly, or at some point they will happen.

Yes, we all have challenges, but that is your compass. That's guiding your journey. You know where you need to get to, which rooms you need to have your names mentioned in. And you also said, who do I need to become? And that's one of the things that I get my mentees on the accelerator program to do in one of the earlier sessions.

You need to become the person who is going to achieve all of these goals. It can't be who you are right now. You've got yourself as far as you can. This is your best level of thinking. I've got to where you are now. Now we need to take on new skills. We need to form new skills. We need to form new habits and we need to really focus on excellence to become the next best version of yourself.

But we don't say, Oh, I'm going to become that person when I get that job. No, you need to become that person now or start acting like that person now. So all of the things that person has and does, it's Can become a reality. To hear that from you is actually fascinating and amazing. Thank you very much for sharing that.

Now, one of the things about who I need to become is a lot to do with not who I just need to become internally, but my reputation and who I need to brand myself as externally. So personal branding is one of the things that are crucial in the job market. Can you share some actionable strategies that you used on LinkedIn to build your brand and establish yourself as a thought leader in privacy?

Thank you, Jamal. That's a good question. And I love what you said about how you introduced this to mentees, because that's exactly what I brought into the LinkedIn strategy. One of the most popular posts or articles that I've shared has been around how I earned my CIPPUS and in the process became a privacy professional.

So I did not have a job at that time, but I was taking on the mantle of I am a data privacy professional. Now what do I need to think about? How do I need to act in that capacity? And that's exactly how I worked on that LinkedIn persona. There's two key pieces of advice that I'd have around LinkedIn.

First is to get over yourself and start posting which is really challenging. Most of the people that I talk to, who send me a message after I post something about getting into data privacy, they ask me, how did you get started on LinkedIn? How did you get started? It's so intimidating to post on LinkedIn. And two things to get over that hurdle. First is to start by commenting. You don't necessarily need to be the one initiating that to start having some activity on LinkedIn, getting part of that conversation. And the second is to think who are you talking to right now? I'm not the person that's at the top of the food chain. I'm the person that's the next step ahead of you. So when you start posting on LinkedIn, start looking at what would be helpful to you two years ago? How can you help someone who's just that one step behind you? And where I started when I was posting was really around here's some takeaways from somebody else.

I listened to a podcast.

I might've listened to some of Jamal's podcasts and then posted, here's some takeaways from that. Yeah. That's not me necessarily being a thought leader in that capacity in that moment, but that's starting to build the muscle of I'm that privacy professional. Therefore, I'm listening to this podcast. I'm a privacy professional. Therefore, I'm sharing some insights because when I'm in that capacity in a job, I'm going to need to share takeaways and insights with the people in my workplace. So how can I start building that muscle and build that in public? So all of that is getting over that hurdle, making it easier.

You don't have to be the person that's at the very tippy top of everything. You need to just start with where you're at and with the people who might be able to learn that little piece. The other aspect is when you're trying to do that career transition, it's not necessarily about teaching someone else.

It's about showing who you are. So my profile previous to this was really around compliance driven and I didn't want to just be compliance. I wanted to be privacy. So having that activity, this is what I'm thinking about. This is what I'm thinking about. If some hiring manager or someone who is going to potentially refer me to somebody else looks at my profile, your activity shows up before your background. So if someone sees that activity, they're going to see, Oh, this person's thinking about privacy right now. So really focusing on that. And then the second piece of it is to come back to who you're showing up as. And how you can iteratively build on that. So right now, I've actually recently accepted a new position that came to me because of my profile on LinkedIn, where I didn't just have that initial, here's my privacy thing, and I'm not changing it, or I'm dropping it as soon as I get hired. It's having a long term strategy where you continue to build that muscle in public. So I've done a lot of work in terms of sharing not just the takeaways from things. I continue to do takeaways because I continue to watch fantastic content, but I also am looking at what's the next level if I want to reach the next level in my career. I can't just be sharing other people's thoughts. I need to start putting together the pieces.

For example, there's a recent executive order from the Biden administration. That ties into some things that I've been thinking about from six months ago that aren't necessarily coming up in the conversation where people are just looking at the executive order in isolation. One of the posts that I plan to make is around that kind of historical transition or trend. So when you're getting into LinkedIn, starting to think not just where you are today, but how can I build this muscle towards the next piece of where I want to be and not trying to get to that level initially, but thinking through how you can keep that going once you're in that new role.

Amazing strategies and some great tips you've given there. It's almost identical to the spirit of the advice and the process that we take our mentees through on the Accelerator program. Have you been on the Accelerator program, Gwen? Alright, maybe you can come and teach it next time.

One of the things that we talk about is, look, there's 900 million people on LinkedIn. Only 10 percent Of that 900 million actually show up and by show up I mean they will either like or comment or engage in some way shape or form and of those 10 percent So 1 percent of the audience on LinkedIn will actually create some original content So that means you have a great opportunity to get really visible very quickly because there isn't that many people Creating a lot of great content on LinkedIn.

So the people that do create that content LinkedIn amplifies their reach and you start getting visible. What you identify there, Gwen, is a lot of people have this either imposter syndrome or something to do with protecting themselves, which is why they don't want to put themselves out there. And when we look at this, all it is it's a subconscious fear.

Your subconscious is like a little child. It's like a four year old. It just wants to protect you. And it might have a memory of something that you said in the classroom or somewhere, and you, people laughed at you or you got embarrassed or you got told off. And so it's decided that we're never going to put ourselves in a situation where something like that could ever happen again.

And that decision that you made when you was a four year old child might have been good for you in the playground or in school, but it's no longer serving you as a professional and it's definitely not serving you if you aspire to be a world class privacy professional. So what we have to do is identify, Hey, I might have some self limiting beliefs, or I might have some limiting decisions I've made in the past.

They're no longer serving me. And I need to shed those because the new identity I've created for myself Doesn't believe in any limitations. It believes I can do whatever I want to do. And all I need to do instead of asking, Oh, what if this happens? Oh, what if someone catches me out? Say, wouldn't it be great if, and what you just said there is, wouldn't it be great if my future hiring manager sees this post and comes to me on LinkedIn, approach me with a job, which is exactly what happened for you.

And so we say, change those questions, those negative questions or the ones that are going to leave a negative outcome and stop you from taking action and replace them with positive ones. And it's all about showing up because like you said, whether you actively work on your LinkedIn profile or not. It's going to say something about you.

So why don't you take responsibility and have it say what you want to say about you rather than Allowing people to form an opinion based on just your work experience in the past. That's what you've done in the past That's not who you are now. That's not what you want to get into. That's not what you're about So just be brave be bold and go and share some useful tips The other challenge I get With my mentees is okay. They buy into all of that and I said great But then I just see them posting or reposting other people's content Or just copying and pasting something that they've read and I was like, okay It's good that you're posting but there is no benefit and no value. It doesn't say anything about you, what your insights are, where you're adding the value, unless you share some insights.

So one of the things that we asked them to do is exactly what you said you was doing, Gwen, is listen to the podcast. We speak to some amazing guests. The only reason I do the podcast is because it gives me an opportunity to go and learn from them and add some value back to the industry, right? I could have go and buy them a coffee, have a conversation with them, and I could keep all that knowledge to myself, but there's no benefit to anyone in that. Okay. I might learn a few things. I might make a few friends. But that's not what this is about. It's about saying, Hey, I have a great conversation and this is the things I've learned from that. And if you just help someone who is one step, two step or three steps behind me, then that's valuable. And this is the thing most people underestimate is they look up at the thought leaders in the industry. They look up at people like you, people like Debbie Reynolds, Saima Fancy, and they're like, Oh, they've have so much experience. They do all of this stuff. I could never do that. But no one's asking you to do that. Just look. And see how many people are not even where you are right now. They can benefit from the advice that you've given them and those are going to be the people that continue pushing you up. And also if you're going through material like your CIPP US or preparing for another certification or learning something new, the best way to learn and really comprehend that is by going and talking about it.

Go and teach somebody else. And when you share your takeaways or when you actually articulate what you've taken away from it, It gives you a much more solid grasp of the material and also allows you to then see if there's something that you've missed. If there's a different way of looking at it, because other people will come and chime in and say, Hey, I thought about this from this point of view, or have you considered that now there are some nasty people on LinkedIn that will.

Okay.

right? That's all you need to do.

You don't think about it. You don't need to sleep over it. You just go. I don't like the energy block. And you go and live the rest of your life in peaceful harmony, right? You don't have to engage with them. You don't have to be the better person. If someone's interfering with you, if someone's affecting your self esteem and they're living rent free in your head, just go and block them, right?

It's not about you when someone does that. It's more about themselves and how they feel because they see you taking action towards your goals and they're not actually doing anything about it. It just highlights that. And instead of them taking responsibility and saying, you know what, why do I feel like this?

They find it easier to go and attack somebody, but in every industry, you're going to get people like Gwen and myself who love to support, who love to share ideas, who love to uplift and empower other people. And on the opposite end of the spectrum, you're going to find the nasty people. All you have to do is pick your crowd and they say birds of a feather flock together.

So just find your flock. And you'll fit right in and we are here to support you And help you through the steps that we've gone through So that you can do it faster than us because we had to prove it and figure it out .We can tell you exactly what works and what doesn't and Gwen. I'm so grateful to you for sharing all of your hard Earned proven secrets and strategies with all of our listeners on the podcast here.

Thank you, Jamal. I really love what you said about taking responsibility and I want to just add to that. How you respond to those trolls, which I've been very lucky not to encounter too many of is really about taking responsibility for what you want in your space and coming back again to that. Is this going to get me to my dream job? Is this going to my dream job? Is this going to be, help me be the right person? Is this going to help me put in the right place? Is this the right time? All of those answers for trolls is no. So blocking them is exactly the right energy, right? It's not taking you towards where you want to be.

It's actually just blocking you from continuing to advance that system.

Now you mentioned you used the science of habits to propel your career shift. And anyone LinkedIn profile they can see on your featured section, you actually have an article on this. And the other thing you mentioned earlier was that there was this picture that I came across that says. Hi, my name is CIPP US certified. So I didn't want to interrupt you earlier, but I just wanted to point out that I love that so much because you're taking on the identity.

Hey, I'm a certified information privacy professional over the United States. That's my identity. And that's, what's going to help you move forward in your career when you take on that identity. So I could see why you was doing that. Other people might not get it straight away, but I love it.

Now, coming back to the habits, what are the habits that proved most effective for you?

Jamal. Great question. And I love that you're tying that back to that article, because that is exactly what I want to talk about. First, the number one thing that I took away from reading Atomic Habits by James Clear was that the most powerful form of intrinsic motivation is identity. And so when you take on that identity, exactly like we talked about earlier, talking with your mentees. That identity propels you to continue doing the actions that you need to become that person. So if you start a habit, it's really easy to, do it for 30 days and then never do it again. I've done that for many different things. But when it becomes part of your identity, This is who I am.

I am the person who posts on LinkedIn some analysis of this new compliance enforcement initiative that's taken place. That means I immediately am thinking about those takeaways when I see a message from the FTC or a message from the California AG's office talking about compliance and privacy.

All of those things trigger, I need to share some insights about this. This is the kind of thing my clients will need. This is the kind of thing my colleagues need. This is the kind of thing that maybe somebody on LinkedIn needs. And if someone's looking to hire me, they're going to see that I'm thinking in that level of strategic identity.

Like I'm no longer this person that's at this baseline. I'm now thinking at this higher level. So that's the very first thing is to really come up with the identity that you want. And that comes back again. What is the dream job that I want? That's who I need to be. And then thinking through what are the habits that person has? What are they going to need to do in that position and what are the habits behind the scenes that they need to do in order to push that forward? Reading the IAPP daily dashboard was really something that's helped me a lot in order to just keep on top of trends, staying on LinkedIn and communicating and posting on other people's thoughts. Not just things like, wow, great podcast, or this is a really great thought. It's taking that and adding some value. So you need to be thinking about those and responding with an opinion. My identity as a privacy professional is that I always have an opinion that is based in reality, based on evidence. And I can share that based on something that's coming through.

Now, do I always need to share my opinion? No. But I need to be thinking in my head, how does this relate to the fundamental principles of privacy? How does this something that could translate to my clients? How is this something that I can take an action on?

If I see something that's about a data breach, I'm thinking, what's the privacy implication here? Where can I come back to an action that a business could have taken to prevent this, or to mitigate the risk?

Something like if there's a data breach that includes sensitive personal information that didn't need to be there in the first place, that's an opportunity to pitch that better to a client and say, look, we need to look at data minimization. This is something that you are gathering and you don't need to gather it. And it could have this downstream impact.

My family's information was implicated in a data breach last summer. And it was from a vendor that I've never heard of before this. My dentist used this vendor in order to provide information to the insurance provider. That's not something I as a consumer have no control over. So starting to talk to my clients around look, this is something that had personal impact on me. Let's talk about whether there's sensitive data that you're using through a vendor. And so starting through that, the habit of here's this thing that's gonna cue the next piece. And so that next piece around the science of habits is really the process of how a habit forms. And there's four components that that James Clear talks about in Atomic Habits. Cue, craving, response, reward. And the cue one is one that I've just talked quite a bit about. Something happens, it triggers me to take an action. The second piece of that is the craving. I want to take an action. This is part of my identity to take an action. The third part is the response. Is it easy to do? Posting on LinkedIn for me now is easy at the very beginning, much harder.

We talked about imposter syndrome. Yeah. In the spades. I had that, every day, every time that I posted. And then the fourth part here is the reward. You post something on LinkedIn, you get some feedback, you get some comments. Maybe you send that link over to Jamal if he's your mentor. Say, Hey Jamal, I posted this thing. Would you mind giving me some thoughts? I'd love to hear what you think. You can start getting some feedback. And that can give you a really good feeling. I love when people talk to me about my LinkedIn posts.

I'm sure you're the same Jamal. You're creating this content, you're putting it out there. And I will take on to that as well. That can also help reduce that threshold again for getting engaged on LinkedIn. When you comment on someone else's post and you have some thought behind it, that's helping them. That's giving them endorphins because they're seeing that you're engaging with their content. They're not putting their content out there so that it can just sit there and nobody looks at it in six months. They want people to see it and learn from it. That's why they're doing this. It's not just a vanity piece. It's to take action and to have action show up in the world. So that kind of helps me at least comment on other people's posts.

So all of those things, the cue, the craving, the response, and the reward are all the components that come into it. And when you are trying to put in a new habit, like very deliberately, I think job hunting is very hard. So when you're thinking about I really have a challenge, getting started in the morning. So my cue here is I take my child out to day-care. I leave the house physically. I come back into the house. I'm full time job hunting. Nobody's, checking to see if I clock in. But that cue is my, I'm working now. I can't sit down and read a book for fun. My work time is on. My work hat is on. So having something like that, where it's very intentional. You think through what are you doing and what habits are you setting up? All of the habits that you have together are going to form a machine that does exactly what you set it up to do. If you never get started in the morning, if you get started working on your job at two in the afternoon and the whole day you have done nothing else, you're not going to make as much progress as if you spend the whole day. Focused time working on what we talked about earlier. Dream job, right person, right place, right time. If you're making progress on all of those in the day, you're going to get some place much faster than if you don't focus on those.

Wow. Powerful tips. And again, all I'm hearing is the questions that you're asking yourself. I can't overvalue or undersell this enough is the quality of your life, the quality of the outcomes always comes down to the questions that you're asking yourself. And all I hear when you're speaking and your thought process is you are asking yourself some very powerful questions.

And so I would love to be able to ask such powerful questions to myself all the time as much as you do, but I make a conscious effort to do those, but for you, it's just like muscle memory now. So it's automatic. It's like boom. And I find that so inspiring.

I'm probably going to reach out to you on LinkedIn for some more collaborations on that. One of the things that you mentioned Gwen was about this imposter syndrome.

We all feel this imposter syndrome. Before we get to overcoming it, how did you still do the things that you did, even though you felt the imposter syndrome? That's what I want to know. How did you beat it?

That's awesome. Okay. I love this question. Two things. And the first one is the most powerful. Reframe it Reframe it. Reframe it Reframe it So somebody once told me, and I wish I could remember who this was because it has impacted me every day. They told me imposter syndrome is a sign that you care. It's a sign that you are at the top of your field. It's a sign that you were doing the right things. If you're feeling imposter syndrome, you care what the other person who's hearing this or who's seeing you. Is feeling or is thinking. So when you're feeling that imposter syndrome, it's a sign that you are doing the best that you possibly can. You're worried that you're not doing the best, but again, if you think back to lowering the threshold here, you're doing better than you were maybe 6 months ago. You're doing the next step that you can on your journey to 6 months from now. And that's enough right now. And you care about it. You wouldn't feel imposter syndrome if you didn't care.

There's times in my old career where I was not feeling fulfilled, where it was okay, I can phone this one in. I don't have to do the best job. And I never felt imposter syndrome in those moments, but now in the career that I'm in, where I'm passionate about it, where I feel like I'm making an impact where I know that it's valued. Suddenly I'm feeling imposter syndrome. That's a sign that I'm in the right place. So that's the number one, most powerful piece for me. And the second piece is, I quit my job in order to, to job hunt full time. So I have a family, I have obligations, I have an accountability partner in my spouse. If I tell him, I did absolutely nothing today because I felt paralyzed by imposter syndrome, he's going to say, no Gwen, you got to go back to that backup plan. There's no way he's going to have my back if I'm not doing anything. He would have my back, but he would be pushing me towards, getting over the imposter syndrome.

But if I let that paralyze me it's letting down my family. So making sure that I take on that responsibility and that authenticity that I'm going to be the right person for my family, in addition to the right person for the job, that's how I get past imposter syndrome.

Two really powerful focuses there. Number one is it's because you care, like that's why it matters to you. That's why it's so paralyzing. That's why it's having so many voices in your head. It's because you care. So lean into it. Like it's exactly where you need to be. And the second thing is having that accountability partner or having someone hold you accountable. And I think that's another area that most people either completely overlook or don't have the support that they need and I think that's why we help people get the results They get in the academy is because there is accountability every day every week. You got to check in. Someone's making sure you're on the right track and then offering that support And giving you that little bit of a boost when you need it too, which is I’m sure Exactly, what your partner's been doing for you this whole time. So it's very important to have a supportive network and supportive environment around us .Now one of the things that I find people miss You Understand or don't capitalize on is the difference between successful people and unsuccessful people.

So unsuccessful people always wait for the right time to make a decision. Successful people make a decision and then create the environment for success. And based on everything you've been telling me, Gwen, I can see that you made a decision. I am going to become a privacy professional. And then you committed to that decision.

[You quit your job. And then you went around creating the environment for success, creating the identity of the person you need to become to achieve that success, identifying the habits, the things that you need to do on a daily, weekly, fortnightly basis, and then identifying all of the triggers, cues, actions, and rewards that you need to be able to fulfil and support that.

That's why there is no doubt you've probably exceeded the goals you set out to achieve because you had the right strategy. You created the conditions for success. You didn't say, you know what? I'm going to start applying for jobs in my spare time. And when I get a job, then I'm going to start posting on LinkedIn.

Then I'm going to start sharing my takeaways. No, you decided I'm going to do those things. And that helped you to create the conditions for success.

Absolutely. I love that framing of it. I would like to continue to create that environment for success. And I do want to just make one note again to lower the threshold for folks. I definitely was not 100 percent every day, I created that environment for success, but there were absolutely days when I made the decision that instead of focusing on my job hunt, I was going to take a hike, literally walk up a hill in the woods. And I'd say that's a really important part as well of making sure that you've got that balance and that environment in your head for success. If you're 100 percent on all the time, if you have no balance, if you don't give yourself that mental wellness space, that's not healthy in the long run and that's not going to get you there either.

So making sure that you're not just 100 percent go, but also giving yourself the space and the grace to take that time that you need to be in the right mindset the rest of the time.

It's really important what you've just mentioned there, because one of the things that I also find the mentees struggle with is usually they've been trying and focusing on one area of their life too much. And what I say, what I get them to draw out in one of the earlier sessions is we draw like a circle and then split that into different pies and I said, these are the different areas of your life. So you've got financial, you've got your vocation, you've got your familial, you've got your social, you've got your health, you've got your spiritual. And what I want you to do is identify where you are at each of those right now and how much time and energy you're putting into each of those different areas.

And then they draw something and it's got all of these sharp edges. And I say, look, this is the wheel of your life. Think about the car that you drive or the bike that you ride. If there is an area that's deflated, how likely are you to make traction and get somewhere really fast? No, it's stuck, or it's going to take a lot of effort, and it's going to be a lot of hard work.

I'm like, exactly. That's exactly how you should look at this, is every area of your life should be balanced. And the more balanced and the more round it is, the easier that wheel is going to flow. So if you take all of that energy, all of your focus, and just focus on making one area really empowered at the cost of the other areas with so much of a difference, then guess what is going to happen when you come down and that hits the floor?

It's going to get stuck and then it's probably going to have to break if you want to keep switching things around. So make sure you pay attention to all the things and have balance. And the best way to create balance is to plan your time. Okay. So I'm not saying, go out and have a party every night, but what I am saying is make sure there is a time in your diary, either every week or every two weeks that you spend on socializing with the people that matter to you.

Make sure you schedule in time where you're going to spend quality time with your family. Make sure there's time where you're focusing on your spirituality, block all of those things in and schedule them and communicate them with the people that you love, because they would want that for you to, and actually it might be something that they can also adopt.

So now all of you are doing all of the things that you need to do to enrich your lives, to fulfill your lives, to hit your goals, but without feeling guilty, without feeling like you're not paying attention to certain things and without letting some of those things actually crash, and it's when you get that balance, people just.

Like nothing can stop them again. And I think that's also so important. So I'm very grateful to you for highlighting that.

And I love that metaphor. I think that's a really effective one. One coming back to the idea of habits and the cue craving response reward. When you've got the folks in your life that are on the same page as you, that know what you want to do, they help you with that cue piece and they help you with that reward piece. All of those things tie in. If someone else is planning this is a group event, we're going to do this thing. That becomes part of someone else helping you stay accountable to your habits. If you need to shore up part of that piece and you tell someone else, look, I've been really going hard on this and I know I need to focus a little bit more on the spiritual Maybe we can do something together that becomes part of that reward where you're nurturing those other pieces that the community around you as part of building that habit to get that back in your life.

I really love that metaphor and I absolutely 100%. That's how you accelerate with no limits.

On from what you were saying a little bit earlier you were saying, am I going to stop posting on LinkedIn and stop doing all of the things because my family are depending on me and I think.

When you have a powerful enough why, the how’s come for themselves. And I think a lot of people forget about the why or they're not clear on the why which is why it feels like so much effort to take all of the actions and they find it's easier to give up on their goals or to procrastinate for a long time.

We need to get very clear on your why's. The more clear you get on your why's, the easier the how's become and then it just becomes such a powerful pull towards your goal. That almost anything that comes along, you find a way to navigate around it, go over it blow it up, whatever you need to do, because the pull towards your why is so powerful.

And if you're struggling to think about what your why is right now, what I get my mentees to do is to write down. 10 ways or 10 things or 10 benefits to achieving the goal. So what would happen if I want to become a privacy pro? What would happen if I get that promotion? How are 10 ways it's going to benefit me?

Okay, great. Got them. Now, how are 10 ways it's going to benefit the people that I love and care about? How are 10 ways it's going to benefit your extended community and your network? How are 10 ways it's going to impact for people for generations to come and just keep going on and on until it becomes so compelling and powerful that you would like.

But there is no way I'm going to give up on that. It doesn't matter if somebody comes and says I'm wrong, or even if I get something wrong, it's an opportunity to learn everything that comes along. You just reframe it and have it conspire towards your success of the way you actually want to go. Now, it's not all going to be plain sailing.

Like we accept that, but as long as you have more good days than bad days, then you're still working towards where you need to get to. And that's the most important thing is that we take one step daily, consistently towards the goals. And we just stack one habit at a time, one skill at a time.

And just like Gwen has done, just like you see all of the people in the Accelerator program do, anything is possible. You just need to have the right mindset, ask yourself the right questions and create the environment for success. And adopt the identity of the person you need to become who has already achieved these goals. Gwen, at the end of the podcast we let guests ask me a question. I'm all yours.

Thank you for that fantastic recap. My question for you, Jamal, is what brings you joy every day? What keeps you coming back? What keeps you happy?

That's an excellent question. There's so many things that bring me joy. The first thing that came into my head when you asked me that question was my daughter. I have a two year old daughter. She's my fourth child. We lost the other three. So every time I see her, every time she says daddy, or she comes and gives me a hug, it gives me so much joy.

So I look forward to actually going and spending time with her. And even during work, I'll go and sneak up to her and we have a little bit of fun and come back. So spending time with my daughter definitely gives me joy. Being able to do things that my parents couldn't do for me. Definitely brings me joy.

But what also brings me joy is helping people like seeing the results, seeing the transformation, seeing how people are becoming uplifted, empowered, or having that aha moment and actually start working towards their goals. And then they go and share their learnings with their family and with their friends and they come back and they say, Oh yeah, that thing that we tried, I went and did it.

It's amazing. And I've been telling my family and my friends and. You just see the whole energy change and just being the catalyst to help them do what they was eventually going to figure out doing, but just doing it much faster, much more powerfully. That really energizes me. That really brings me joy.

And just seeing other people do well and having a positive impact on their life. That brings me so much joy and that's what gives me the energy to keep going for another 12 hours.

Thank you so much for sharing, Jamal.

My absolute pleasure. Thank you for the great question. So guys, we've had an amazing podcast. We could, myself and Gwen could probably talk about these topics all day long. And the reason for that is because we've seen how powerful it is for us and how powerful these topics are. Strategies can be for the people around us.

Outro 40:55

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