When I first moved to London, I had no idea that my commute would make me re-think how long a minute is. A minute on the stuffy underground is not the same minute you experience peacefully sitting at your desk in your office. Some would go so far as to say it feels (almost) longer than that last minute of a 5 mile treadmill run.
Having a full time job really makes you realise how valuable your time is. It is, after all, the most valuable currency, the most finite resource you could ever acquire. Taking all of this to heart, I made the conscious effort to cram as much proactive learning as I could into the course of my day.
As much as I like listening to Lil’ Baby’s recent features as I mentally prepare for the working day, I thought to myself “Where else am I actually wasting more valuable time than on my daily commute listening to the same old playlist on repeat?”
I decided to swap out the latest album tracks with audial learning, whether it be listening to audiobooks, taking 5 minute coding lessons or, my favourite, finding the next best podcast to listen to.
Ever since I started applying to internships at university, I understood just what it meant to be a female (and an ethnic minority) in what we call “the corporate world”. I naïvely thought that meritocracies are the only system that we are being judged in and that hard work, alongside with being a ‘nice’ person, is enough to land you that job/ promotion you worked so hard for. The reality is, people buy people. It has a lot more to do with the energy you give off, which is innately determined by the way you feel about yourself, your previous life experiences and the people you hold close to you.
When I stumbled across Veronica Dagher’s podcast, Secrets of Wealthy Women, I truly began to walk, talk and think in a different way. In each of her episodes, she interviews female business giants and entrepreneurs, asking them of their past experiences and how they navigated the game excellently enough to be viewed not solely as The Best Female “X” but simply The Best. She interviews the likes of tennis champion Maria Sharapova, all the way to Birchbox founder, Katia Beauchamp. Arguably, this is the best collection of incredibly successful entrepreneurship stories out there and I have thoroughly enjoyed hearing how each founder overcame the obstacles they encountered on their journeys. More specifically, how they smashed through any gender bias or racial stereotypes that tried to hinder their success.
With each episode averaging around 25 minutes long, this definitely ranks as my go to series for downloading (thanks Spotify Premium) and listening to on the tube, as I don’t find my mind wandering as much as it would with longer episodes. Overall, I rate this podcast series a solid 4 out of 5 stars as each interviewee gave their different approaches to battling hardships in the business world. I can’t wait to hear of Dagher’s next moves!
