#IWD2018 Who Inspires: Bethan Jepson?

Name: Bethan Jepson
Job title: Founder
Company: High Flying Women & The Vibrancy Hub

Bethan helps career driven, ambitious women to achieve their own version of a successful career and an empowered life. She does this by providing career and personal development tool kits as well as a supportive network of women to accelerate growth.

Bethan also helps corporates improve their productivity and evolve their culture through implementing employee wellbeing incentives.

Which woman has inspired you most?

Amanda Brown and Laura Bamber are my real-models i.e the women who inspire me on a daily basis with the way that they have defined their own versions of success and are absolutely living the lives that make them super fulfilled. They made me feel like I could do the same, like it was a safe choice to quit my job and follow my passion of helping other women like they help me.

Which famous/historical woman inspires you most?

My big dream role-models are Oprah and Cat Hoke. Both for proving that through helping others and through helping the world become a better place, you can live your dream life too. This has really enabled me to let go of my fear of being financially insecure because I now know that if I go after the thing that lights me up, everything else will follow including financial freedom, relationships, family and friends, my confidence, resilience and self esteem – by doing what lights me up will ultimately shine a light and benefit every other area of my life.

What does feminism mean to you?

Equality, respect, justice, freedom, empowerment, opportunity, evolution, hope for a brighter future for our children.

Have you found your industry to be particularly tougher for women? If so, how did you overcome this?

I am a self employed consultant in the health and wellbeing industry so it’s not so much of an industry question for me, but I don’t think society and the education system did women any favours in terms of setting us up to be entrepreneurs. For example we aren’t brought up to take risks like boys are, instead we are raised to be perfectionists. We are therefore more likely to spend too long on things and put stuff off because things never feel ready. It also means we are a lot more self-conscious and we take failure and rejection to heart. Obviously these are very dangerous characteristics when starting a business because you need to able to be flexible, fluid and act fast in response to opportunities in the market, you need to be able to persevere through a lot of rejection and you have to make sure that every failure becomes a learning opportunity to accelerate your growth. I had to overcome all of this and I did this by investing in my personal development through a success coach and business coach. The result of these investments is that I’ve been able to completely shift my mindset, but it takes work every single day to nurture and maintain this mindset that will allow me to be a successful business owner.

This year’s #IWD2018 theme is #PressForProgress how do you feel, as women we can push for equality faster?

Collaborate more. Reach out to your network and ask how you can serve them and how they can serve you in return. Find a mentor and mentor others. Find a structured peer group who can support you, share their experiences with you and hold you accountable to your goals. Don’t suffer in silence, communicate more openly with your colleagues and bosses. Invest in a coach or personal development programme (I can help you with this!) and learn to start operating outside of your comfort zone. Claw your way up that ladder and if someone puts a glass ceiling in your way then move jobs or start a new business. Educate your children, do your best not to pass on gender bias to the next generation. Be relentless, persistent, brave, confident, resilient, inspiring. Always always put the ladder down behind you and do your best to help those who are in your shadow. Evolution is based on survival of the fittest at the end of the day so if society is to evolve, we have to be fit to drive this forward.