Danielle Sims

Client Success Director at Spiceworks Ziff Davis

I was always confident as a child. But as I got older I think I lost that confidence – as you grow up there will always be things that try to hold you back. So I always knew there was a confident person somewhere inside of me, it was just about getting back to that point again where I could really believe in myself.

I joined Women on a Mission because I wanted to learn a little bit more about myself. I definitely suffer from impostor syndrome and other internal narratives that don’t really serve me. I was getting to that point where I realised that if I want to progress in my career and fulfil my dreams and ambitions, these are things that I’m going to have to really try and tackle head on.

I wasn’t sure whether I quite was ready for the commitment of one-on-one coaching, but I knew I wanted to learn more about myself and to increase my skills both personally and professionally. What I liked about the programme was that it focused on those areas but it also gave me the opportunity to meet likeminded women from different backgrounds and different industries.

I wanted to come out of Women on a Mission feeling like a new woman.

What I quickly realised is that its not about finding one perfect end goal. You’re never going to get to a place in the future where you think, ‘This is all perfect, I’m exactly where I should be.’ I think, if anything, what the course teaches you is that you’re not perfect, but that’s okay.

Having completed Women on a Mission, I have so much more belief in myself. I used to doubt myself a lot or worry about what people were thinking. It’s made me a more resilient person and I feel totally energised. It’s definitely been a journey, in the sense that I just kept learning more about myself, and I loved that.

Having completed Women on a Mission, I have so much more belief in myself.

I also loved being able to connect with other women and realise that you’re all going through very similar journeys. I know for me personally, I really appreciated having the advice of the other women when things were getting a bit rough for me. I’m very much in the earlier stages of my career, and a lot of the women were very well-established, quite high up in their career, and having their advice was really invaluable for me. I think it’s great to be around people who, at that point, don’t quite realise their full potential. When you spend a lot of time together, you start to see that potential in other people and you start to see potential in yourself as well. There’s something very powerful about that.

Every session focuses on a different subject and topic. So it’s not a linear journey with a beginning, a middle and an end. I particularly liked the visualisation techniques we learnt on the programme. It really focused me. I think that having a really clear-set vision of where I want to go has really helped with my confidence.

I think something that I learned from Women on a Mission is that self-growth and self-awareness and self-development is very much an intentional thing. It’s not something that just happens to you. It’s something that you have to put time and effort into. Little things are important, for example, journaling and writing down what I’m grateful for every day. I’m listening to podcasts every day on topics that I know resonate really well with me. I think it’s definitely just made me very self-aware about what I need every day.

The first word that comes to mind if I were to describe Women on a Mission is ‘energising.’ There were so many occasions where I came to the workshop after a very stressful day and I thought, ‘I’m feeling tired and lethargic and I’m not going to be able to put my best into it.’

But the truth is that as soon as you get into the session and start talking to everyone, it’s such a transparent and safe environment that you can be honest about how you feel. No one is expecting you to be on top form. It’s really energising just being in that safe environment, because you don’t have to be anybody else. You can just be your authentic self. I found that after every session, I just felt really refreshed, like I could tackle anything.

I would absolutely recommend this programme to anyone feeling a bit stuck.
I knew there was more inside of me that I wanted to explore and I wanted to develop, but I really wasn’t sure what it is. I wasn’t really sure what my goals were, I wasn’t sure of anything really. For anyone who feels like there is more of them to give but aren’t quite sure how to get there, this programme is a great place to start.

Its a great mixture of learning and having some actionable steps to take away. And it’s a long term journey, it doesn’t finish at the end of the course. Learning something like this is going to always have a positive impact on your life because once it’s there, you can’t unlearn it. It changes how you think and react.