• 2 days ago
Emma Burdett, Founder of WILD (Women in Leadership Deliver) network, joins Maria Botros on the Tell Me Why podcast to talk about the importance of finding a community to get support and achieve a sense of belonging.

Emma: WILD is a platform for existing and future female leaders to come together and share knowledge

Women's networks are the answer to gender equality, says Emma

Emma: It has been evident that many women still struggle with confidence

My mental breakdown and personal experience in the corporate world inspired me to set-up WILD, says Emma

Emma: I want to ensure that younger generations don't encounter the challenges I've faced

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Transcript
00:00That's something that we all need is a sense of belonging, connection and
00:05belonging and that's what we find in community. And I think you know everyone
00:09in Dubai majority of us are expats, so it's important to find your
00:15actual tribe. So under Wild we do a variety of different things to
00:22support women. Generally we work with women to rise as leaders in the pursuit
00:29of gender equality. Okay. And having studied gender equality within SEAD,
00:33women's networks are the answer to gender equality. So in terms of
00:40challenges you know I still speak to many women that struggle with confidence.
00:51Welcome back this is Maria Botros' Tell Me Why, a Gulf News original podcast. For
00:56those of you who listen to us every single week you know that we love to
01:01address the matters that matter to you. And today I have Emma Burdett. Do you
01:06pronounce your name as Emma Burdett? Yes. Okay perfect. So Emma Burdett is with me
01:11in the studio today. She is the founder of Wild which is Women in Leadership
01:16Deliver. That's right. Yeah yeah that's pretty cool. So I know the name speaks
01:20for itself but tell us a bit more about Wild. What is it? What do you do? Yeah so
01:25thank you so much for having me. I'm grateful to be here. Lovely to meet you.
01:29Thank you. So Wild is a platform for existing and future female leaders to
01:35come together, share knowledge, expertise, have fun along the way. We generally work
01:43with quite senior females and also emerging leaders. So I'd love to tell you
01:50a little bit about the background of Wild. So I've been in the region 11 years
01:56and always had quite big leadership roles myself. Okay. And then in 2016 I got
02:03headhunted and as part of the role they asked me as a CSR initiative to build a
02:10women's network. Okay. So that started literally with four women and a sheet of
02:16paper. I grew it to 15 women. Wow. And saw firsthand the power of women coming
02:25together with a genuine sense of solidarity and support. We were all doing
02:31business amongst ourselves and I saw the importance of community. But
02:38unfortunately I lost my job which sent me on a huge trajectory of personal
02:45growth. Okay. And because of the workplace challenges I actually suffered from a
02:51mental breakdown. Oh. So yeah. I'm so sorry to hear that. Yeah that's okay. I mean I'm
02:56grateful actually now because that's how I originally you know created Wild was
03:00from a rock-bottom moment. Of course. And I turned into, so I turned to personal
03:06growth and I knew that I'd done something really amazing with the first
03:11Women's Network and potentially I could do it for myself. Mm-hmm. It is a long
03:16story Maria but after a spiritual epiphany I wrote Wild from scratch at
03:20the start of 2018 and launched it primarily as a events business and I had
03:29over a hundred women at the first event. Mm-hmm. I'd never done a keynote. I was
03:34absolutely completely nervous. Wow. Shaking knees. Yeah. Dry mouth. Quite
03:40fully reflecting back. Yeah. Five and a half years ago but that was the start of
03:44Wild. That's fantastic. You know like they always say out of the darkness comes
03:48opportunity. There's always something. There's that ray of light that just
03:52comes in and gives you that light bulb moment. Mm-hmm. You know to open up something
03:56that helps you as a person grow and overcome the challenges that you faced.
04:00Before we dive into Wild a bit more. Yeah. Do you mind telling us a bit more about
04:04your personal experience? Like about the what you went through. Yeah. I mean we'd
04:09love to hear it if you're open to share the story. You were saying you had a
04:13mental breakdown. What happened? Like what triggered that and and how did you
04:19reach that point? So as part of Wild I personally am a real big advocate for
04:25wellness and I'm probably a lot older than you but you know in my career no
04:31one spoke about flexible working or mental health or periods or menopause or
04:38any of those topics were really really taboo. So it's great to see more
04:43awareness and these initiatives now coming to the forefront. But you know
04:48when I reflect upon my career doing a long stint in corporate before Wild I've
04:54been bullied, I've been fired, I've been harassed. I was actually thrown out of a
05:01client's office in the UK in 2006 for being a girl, for being a woman. So I've
05:08encountered lots of toxicity in the workplace. I've encountered lots of bias
05:15and really that's given me the passion to want to ensure that in particular the
05:22younger generation don't encounter the significant challenges that I've been
05:27through throughout my career. So that's where I cultivated the passion for Wild
05:33and you're absolutely right you know there's beauty in the bottom and rock
05:39bottom moments do lead often to something really really good. So you
05:45know I'd encountered like I say significant workplace challenges which
05:51had lasted several several months that had really broke me, really worn me down.
05:58And yeah just completely. You know I applaud you and and I just think that
06:04it's always great to see someone I mean I I know that I've been through you know
06:09several challenges in the workplace as well. Maybe not necessarily because I'm a
06:13woman but as a young you know fresh grad you know getting into the workplace it
06:18was always overwhelming was very nerve-wracking you always want to prove
06:21yourself. So I get that and it's always good to use your personal experience to
06:27do better for others and I applaud you for that and I thank you for that
06:30because it is a journey and and a lot of people think you know what I wish
06:35someone was there for me when I first started or as a woman in a place that is
06:40predominantly male you know. So I applaud you honestly and thank you for that. Okay
06:46so getting into WILD. Can you tell us you know you were saying that you meet
06:51all these women that are in leadership roles or going into leadership roles
06:56what are some of the challenges they face and and how do you help them? So
07:00WILD is predominantly a community and you know that's something that we all
07:05need is a sense of belonging. Connection and belonging and that's what we find in
07:11community and I think you know everyone in Dubai majority of us are expats. Right.
07:16So it's important to find your you know your actual tribe. So under WILD we do a
07:24variety of you know different things to support women. Generally we work with
07:30women to rise as leaders in the pursuit of gender equality. Okay. And having
07:36gender equality within SEAD, women's networks are the answer to gender
07:41equality. So in terms of challenges you know I still speak to many women that
07:49struggle with confidence and even you know women who have big leadership roles
07:57are still quite frightened of being visible, quite frightened of putting
08:04themselves out there, of establishing their own leadership brand and I think
08:09that's down to a few things. I think social conditioning has a huge part to
08:14play you know the gender biases and the gender stereotypes you know when we were
08:21young if you were forthright as a girl you were bossy and no one wants to be
08:26called bossy. Exactly. And the boys were leaders so we've been taught very much
08:31to see ourselves in such a quiet space that if we do speak about our accolades
08:37or achievements we feel like we're bragging or boasting and ultimately
08:42that's all men do you know. Yes exactly. So there are huge issues with with
08:47confidence and being visible and that's something I'm passionate about working
08:53with women to really break through that fear of judgment you know and what
09:00people will think. So we work with women in those capacities, we work with women
09:07I personally work with women from a business mentor perspective having built
09:14Wild. I forgot to mention I launched Wild originally with $300 as well. Oh wow okay
09:20yeah that's worth mentioning. Yeah exactly. I have invested a lot of money
09:27into Wild as we as we've generated money so you know and I've invested
09:32substantially in my own growth and development and that's really really
09:36important I've worked with four mentors. So we also work I work with women on
09:41social impact projects so you know women who want to build something which is
09:49going to impact community for the greater good. So one of my proteges is
09:56Joanna who is a Filipina woman who came up to me at the end of an event and
10:03said I really need your support and she was so anxious and so nervous and I
10:09said yeah you do and when we started working together I said you know what
10:14what do you care about and she said I really care about my fellow Filipinas
10:20because you know I'm an entrepreneur and I'm always getting biased that I'm the
10:29cleaner or the nanny and actually her and her husband have several businesses in Dubai. So I
10:35said to her at the time how do you feel about starting your very own women's
10:39network for Filipina women and she said oh my god yeah I'll never be able to do
10:44and I said don't compare my chapter 20 with wild with your chapter one
10:50subsequently Joanna has built the thriving Filipina circle she launched it
10:56in April last year and she's now got close on to 600 Filipina women in her
11:06own community and oh my god I'm so proud you know I see her now business groups
11:15leading, speaking, presenting and that's the power of having a mentor that is
11:23able to walk the walk with you on a path so that's an amazing amazing success
11:29story of someone who had zero confidence who lacked a lot of self
11:36esteem and self-worth who with you know the guidance and support of me and the
11:41wild community has gone on to build her own community and that's the thing with
11:47you know when you trailblaze is that you light the path for others to follow
11:54because you know I said to Joanna the world's your oyster yeah if you want to
11:59go and launch in Saudi now you know we've opened that gateway for you yeah
12:03and you lead by example exactly what you were saying it's it's funny that you
12:09mentioned confidence because I think that's you were saying that's one of the
12:11main challenges I think that is something that a girl or a woman
12:15struggles with from day one yeah I think from body image to the way the community
12:21thinks or the society thinks a woman should act or speak or behave you know I
12:29think it there's always that issue with confidence with women because of
12:34external factors and if you give a woman that opportunity you will see that she
12:39has it in her to lead hundreds and and she will actually be a trailblazer as
12:47you said okay so you spoke about Joanna and you spoke about the success story on
12:54the flip side we were talking about like stress management and how the work
12:59environment can actually affect you can you tell us a bit more about that because
13:03we did speak about this briefly before the show and we were saying that more
13:08often than not people realize at their breaking point and you did too and you
13:14said that that's what happened to you you had reached like a mental breakdown
13:17and and it's difficult to realize it before that point and it takes a lot of
13:22like self-awareness to be able to pinpoint that out and to actually stop
13:27yourself so how can people do that like how can they like how does it affect
13:31first so the first part of the question is how does stress in the work
13:34environment affect your mental health and how can people realize it before
13:38it's too late or before that giving up point I mean it's never too late but
13:42like before that point of giving up so burnout is real and what I see with a
13:50lot of the corporate women is that they just run run run run run and there's a
13:56very very fine ledge and when you're off it it's very very difficult to get back
14:02on and when so last year last March it was the new year and I had so many
14:11opportunities with wild and I was running around flying to one thing going
14:17to another doing keynotes doing a myriad of different things and I didn't realize
14:24but I was burnt out and I actually fell off a stage in tears due to burnout okay
14:32and a male mentor of mine was at this particular event and he sort of you know
14:38picked me up and sat me down and said are you all right hmm and you know I was
14:42like yeah I'm fine I'm fine and he just looked at me and he said I've known you
14:46a long time getting emotional I've known you a long time you're not okay and I
14:51was it was too late like you say it was too late for going off the ledge and it
14:57took me three months to get myself back and the way that I describe it is apathy
15:05you've got no motivation you've got no interest in things you're completely
15:13disconnected completely depersonalized from things just completely out of
15:19alignment and it's it's it's depressive it's like depression and it took me a
15:24very very long time to to get myself back together so when we work with women
15:32we this year launched a membership an official membership Wild Women
15:36Collective and when I wrote the strategy I based it on four pillars leadership
15:42self-leadership wellness and power skills and what I see which is really
15:51embedded in this region is the strive for more and more academia but there
15:59isn't that self-leadership wellness component and that's the bedrock to
16:04success right it's that inner hustle it's that unpacking of trauma it's the
16:12daily habits and rituals that you implement in your life mm-hmm will lead
16:17to success and you know I get interviewed all the time now about wild
16:22and everyone wants to know how I've done this and the answer is really simple is
16:28that I have invested in my growth and development right and to be able to have
16:38that balance to not be burnt out to not be stressed you know we all hail work
16:44life balance which has become so cliche right but you know I can tell you three
16:51or four things life hacks how you spend your morning and how you you know
16:59navigate your first hour is going to determine your whole day and little
17:05things really really compound and it's about being consistent and that's a
17:11combination of inspiring podcasts like yours thanks meditation is a complete
17:17life-changing practice gratitude complete life changing practice you
17:23listening to affirmation work and knowing that you have to fill you up yes
17:30you know absolutely I work with women personally that are on the edge mm-hmm
17:37on the ledge and I'm like we need to get you implementing daily habits and
17:44rituals yes and they say I haven't got time and my retort is have you got time
17:51to feel rubbish and go on to be burnt out where you're no use to anyone
17:57because you can't literally think straight it's just gonna say I mean if
18:00you're not resting if you're not eating well if you're not taking care of your
18:04physical and mental health how are you supposed to give your business or your
18:08work anything absolutely I mean how are you gonna be productive you can't you
18:13absolutely can't and I was telling my friend I have a friend who recently
18:17started a business and they work night and day right even on their days off and
18:23I remember sitting down with them and I was like well I'm sorry but like if
18:27something happens to you health-wise what good is that gonna do to your
18:31business how are you gonna be able to give anything to your business if
18:34something happens to you you won't give yourself a break and the task that you
18:38would normally finish in 30 minutes you'd actually finish in two hours
18:42because you're not thinking straight you're running on lack of sleep exactly
18:47so I agree with you 100% and it's yeah it's so so vital and you know that's why
18:54I believe in investing in a coach or mentor is for that accountability right
18:59you know and I set people on not only a fast track to success but also you know
19:08getting people to implement these daily daily habits and when you look at any
19:13amazing leader or thought leader or business owner you know Simon Sanak
19:19Brendon Burchard Steve Bartlett all of them will talk Gary Gary whatever his
19:27name is Gary Vee Gary Vee you know they all talk incessantly about having daily
19:36habits and rituals and having you know boundaries and learning to say no is
19:41also really really important absolutely yes people women are people-pleasers oh
19:47yes and you know we've got to a stage with our business where so many people
19:54would contact us about coffees and zooms wanting to collab and you know
20:02collaboration is quid pro quo it's mutually beneficial it's not can I
20:08leverage wild and sell my products and services right and it's you know I
20:15personally now don't have time for pointless coffees and I have had them
20:22and people just want to brain pick yeah I'm getting information from you they
20:26just want to take they don't actually want to give anything 100% so don't get
20:31me wrong at wild we absolutely promote collaboration and we love collaboration
20:35when it's mutual the right reasons exactly so saying no and knowing that
20:41you can't do everything something that I always do is is talks at schools and
20:48universities because that's a matter close to my heart personally but you
20:52know so many companies who also want you to go and do presentations for their
21:00women free yeah and you're like okay you know you want me to empower your women
21:07what about empowering me to do it as a self-funded business owner yeah and
21:12these dialogues need to be spoken about and really change and it is educational
21:17I mean just as you would pay for a child's education you would pay for them
21:21to learn leadership skills and you know self-management skills and these things
21:27so why why is it any different absolutely when you think about it it's
21:31funny that you mentioned as well people being women being people pleasers
21:36because when you were saying you know women just run run run and they do all
21:41these things I was actually gonna ask you is it because as women we always
21:46feel like we have something to prove to society I heard someone say that once
21:51and it really resonated I felt like you know what yes we're constantly trying to
21:56prove that yes we can be leaders too we are trying to fight for our equality in
22:01in a workspace or even in just in society I mean is it because of that
22:06that social pressure that's like that underlying social it's not obvious but
22:11is it because we always feel like we need to prove something yeah and I
22:16believe that we have to work twice as hard right you know and that causes
22:20burnout in particularly in the workplace because you know then we're looking at
22:26situations which are tokenism where there's one woman out of a you know a
22:31group of men and she'll be given all of the tasks to go and show that there's a
22:39woman in the business so she's got all of this extra responsibility which leads
22:44which doesn't contribute to KPIs and targets right so yeah I definitely think
22:49that women have to work harder I definitely think that there's a tendency
22:53to want to have to prove more and actually you know Saudi is an amazing
22:58example of that where fortunately I'm so grateful to be immersed in the
23:05leadership scene with females in Saudi and I am blown away by the level of
23:13talent ambition academia like PhDs you know MBAs like nearly every Saudi leader
23:23I mean it's got a PhD and you're like wow it's so impressive yes but you know
23:29I've often wondered is it because they have wanted to do that to prove you know
23:34so yeah I definitely think there's a tendency for women to feel and it all
23:41boils down to self-worth right the end of the day right you know
23:53you

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