Voice and Visibility with Raimonda Jankunaite

Raimonda Jankunaite is the founder of the Women in Business Club. She's a visibility expert, mentor, coach, and international speaker. In today’s show you can learn about:

• How Raimonda regained her voice after not being able to speak for 2 years
• How she’s inspiring collaboration and communities working together
• Having an innovative mind and being open to having those different conversations is key
• Why as a leader you’ll never conquer anything alone

Join our Tribe at https://leadership-hacker.com

Music: " Upbeat Party " by Scott Holmes courtesy of the Free Music Archive FMA

Transcript: Thanks to Jermaine Pinto at JRP Transcribing for being our Partner. Contact Jermaine via LinkedIn or via his site JRP Transcribing Services

Find out more about Raimonda below:

Raimonda on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raimondajan/

The Women in Business Club Website: https://womeninbusiness.club/raimonda-jankunaite/

Raimonda on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RaimondaJan

Raimonda on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raimondajankunaite/

 

Full Transcript Below

 

Steve Rush: Some call me Steve, dad, husband or friend. Others might call me boss, coach or mentor. Today you can call me The Leadership Hacker.

 

Thanks for listening in. I really appreciate it. My job as the leadership hacker is to hack into the minds, experiences, habits and learning of great leaders, C-Suite executives, authors and development experts so that I can assist you developing your understanding and awareness of leadership. I am Steve Rush and I am your host today. I am the author of Leadership Cake. I am a transformation consultant and leadership coach. I cannot wait to start sharing all things leadership with you

 

The special guest on today's show is Raimonda Jankunaite. She's a founder at Women in Business Club. She's a visibility expert, mentor and coach, as well as being an international speaker. but before we get a chance to speak with Raimonda, it's The Leadership Hacker News.

The Leadership Hacker News

Steve Rush: In the news today, we explore why women make the best bosses, according to science. Regard, of far we'd like to believe gender equality in the workplace has come. There's still a big gap between male and female leaders in the professional world. While it's not a huge shock that women are somewhat underrepresented in leadership positions. What is surprising though is the fact that females may be actually better suited to lead in almost every area. And that's according to findings from the BI Norwegian Business School. In their research, Professor Oyvind L. Martinsen and Professor Lars Glaso survey 2,900 managers with special focus on personality types.

And the results were clear. Women scored higher than men in four of the five major leadership centric categories. Business must always seek to attract customers and clients to increase productivity and profits. And our results show that women naturally rank higher in general than men on the ability to innovate and lead with clarity and impact explains Martinsen. While some people believe that men inherently make better leaders, probably because of the picture that they had imposed on them as a youngster. This research suggests that women are actually better and more methodical at management, gold setting, openness, sociability, and supportiveness, as well as being innovative. There was one area in which men scored higher than women though, and that was on emotional stability and ability to withstand job-related stress and pressure. The results suggest that women are more sensitive to the effects of high pressure and high emotional situations.

The survey suggests that female leaders may falter through their stronger tendency to worry or the lower emotional stability explains Glaso. He goes on to say, this does not negate the fact that they are decidedly more suited to management positions than their male counterparts. If decision makers ignore this truth, they could effectively being pairing less qualified leaders and impairing productivity he said. And my take on this is the fact that the very same qualities that make women sensitive to pressure, namely their sociability and supportiveness are some of the very qualities that make them effective leaders. Obviously, it's really important here to consider the individual and to consider the differences because their differences can make a difference. So, anyone regardless of gender or indeed age, sexuality, ethnicity, and any of the elements of diversity, equity and inclusion, they can all be competent bosses. So, the leadership lesson here is the next time you're hiring for a management position. You just might want to give their resumes a harder look and particularly harder from female candidates because as they say the science doesn't lie. That's been The Leadership Hacker News. If you have any news, insights or stories, please get in touch.

Start of Podcast

Steve Rush: Joining me on the show today is Raimonda Jankunaite. She is a serial entrepreneur, a mentor, business coach and international speaker. She is the founder of The Women in Business Club and international community and events club to help women become more visible go-to experts, Raimonda, welcome to The Leadership Hacker Podcast.

Raimonda Jankunaite: Thank you so much Steve, so great to be here today and meet your incredible audience.

Steve Rush: I think they'll be looking forward to listening to your story as well. And for those that haven't had the chance to find out about your work, maybe you can give us a little bit of a backstory as to how you've ended up here?

Raimonda Jankunaite: Yeah, absolutely. Well, great to be here on today's show, as Steve just mentioned, I am motivational speaker, serial entrepreneur and visibility experts. I support women in business, and this is where my journey really began as entrepreneur more than 10 years ago. I had a dream and a vision of becoming a serial entrepreneur at a time, I was just 20 years old, completing my business degree in London in the UK, and really looking for that next opportunity in my life. And whilst my peers were going off to find work placements and jobs and experience, for me it was about realizing my own dream and my potential. And I remember starting to travel the world and read magazines like success magazine, listening to podcasts and inspirational people. And I had this vision of having my own business. So that started, that seed was planted 10 years ago.

And ever since I've been not only going through my own entrepreneurial journey and learning the lessons along the way, but also helping others and learning a lot about visibility, social media, personal branding, how to actually become your own personal brand. And since five years ago, I have built a platform for other women to come on board and do it together rather than unintentionally. I think as I was going through my own entrepreneurial journey, I found out through networking and events. I wasn't necessarily able to find a community for me. So, I started at five years ago as a way to share those experiences with other female entrepreneurs and people who go through seeing, you know, personal development. Because I see your own business as, your biggest personal development journey. So yeah, now I support other people, entrepreneurs in becoming entrepreneurs and business owners.

Steve Rush: Awesome, so where was it that you found that passion for helping other women in business?

Raimonda Jankunaite: I think having been through that journey myself of 10 years of personal development. That passion really came through connecting with other people, especially women and seeing the incredible things that they do, the stories that they have. So, the way Women in Business started was through one event where I was helping and supporting five other businesses to start up, which in more of a crowdfunding sense. So, we hosted our first event and the incredible women that came to this event, more than a hundred and just hearing their stories and how they are impacted by other stories into either starting your own business or doing things differently or just believing that you can. And after this first event, women just naturally started to gravitate and find us and ask for more events to have that platform where we can share incredible conversations and stories and be inspired.

Steve Rush: What do you think the reason is that women have migrated to the club, The Women in Business Club, is that the community, the sense of kind of supporting each other and what does it you think they get from that sense of community?

Raimonda Jankunaite: There are many women based immense groups, and I think there is a general movement as women realizing that empowerment, we can empower ourselves, but when we empower each other and we come together to support each other in business and have that safe space where we can share our stories or struggles and learn from others, it becomes a really powerful catalyst for your projection of life, your achievements and your goals, because now you see other people doing it. So, for at Women in Business, I think people are attracted to me to the energy that we have and the values and the platform that we've built. A lot of people when they come to Women in Business, they see it’s a diverse group, they see its global group. So, it doesn't matter where in the world you are, you might be working in your bedroom, but you feel like I can relate with these women, even if they're online and making these friends virtually, it's so powerful because one day you get to meet them. And that's the exciting part that we The Women in Business Club, also hosts in-person events. And that's, I guess, a differentiating point.

Steve Rush: And you've also over the last few years created the women thrive summit. Tell us a little bit about that?

Raimonda Jankunaite: Over the years, I think events generally has been such a passion for me, just seeing people in person, it's been amazing. So last year we were setting out for a global expansion because our community has grown from London to our second biggest city being New York and LA. Now we have a big community of entrepreneurs in IB and through the in-person events. There has been number of speakers who invited us to be part of or creative events in the same parish or internationally. And one of the speakers flew to London from Atlanta. So, we usually have people flying in from the States and Europe and this lady, Michelle and Jolie. She suggested that we do an event in Atlanta. I said, fantastic, let's do it. At that stage, honestly, hands to my heart. I knew one person which was Michelle, well previous speaker in Atlanta, professionally. And year later, I said, okay, we need to do our first event.

So why don't we choose Atlanta as a main city? Because after doing a lot of researching, you know, where is the good place to start geographically? And what's going on in Atlanta in terms of a lot of women, entrepreneurial groups and events happening already. So, we decided to host our first 2020 international events in Atlanta. And I booked a venue for 250 people and we were three weeks away from the event. People already booked their flights, their tickets to be there. And of course, the pandemic hit and we got the news. So, we actually won't be able to fly and we had to do something. And this was end of February, just beginning of March and our event was two, three weeks away. So, we had to do a really quick pivot and announced to everybody that this wasn't going forward. And everybody had the same feeling of, oh no, we were hoping this was going to happen.

So, what now? And as a leader, as someone who initiated this event, I had to really face that situation and make a decision. What are we going to do? Because we have nearly 200 people booked in person and virtually as well. We we're planning on stream it, so we decided to pivot that into women thrive summit because during the beginning of the pandemic, people felt lost. People felt like we need leadership and this moment in time could really crumble us. So, we need to hold onto something. We need to have vision and inspiration and knowing this is going to work out. So that is when we launched our women thrive summit. And we reached, I think 3000 people. We had 34 speakers, five days fully live event. And I've spoken to many event organizers and they said Raimonda, you are the craziest person to do that. So, we did it.

Steve Rush: And you've had a really successful women thrive summit as well too, haven't you?

Raimonda Jankunaite: This year? Yes. So, since the events are not back on, all of our in-person events had to close and cancel for last year and this year we did again, because we just simply don't have an option. And March was really special one. It's International Women Day and also, you know, a global event to celebrate, women's month. So, we tend to do events around March and this year we couldn't. So, we decided to do again, women thrive summit, which become its own platform because one of my passions is to actually give women who have never shared their voice or their story on stage to give them the platform. And this is where it was really exciting that through every single event, almost 50% of our speakers are first time speakers, and this year we hosted 42. So, last year was 34 this, year 42 speakers. And this year we've done 10 days event because it was just too big, we expanded so much.

Steve Rush: That's an amazing story, isn't it? When you think about where you were at the start of the pandemic and now having a global platform where 42 women can really express themselves to a global audience, that's just amazing.

Raimonda Jankunaite: Yeah, I think this is one of the most fulfilling aspects of what I do.

Steve Rush: Giving women their voice is kind of ironic because I remember the last time that we met, you told me a story that was really quite empowering in so much as, as a professional speaker now, not so long ago, you had a period in your personal life where you lost your voice and couldn't speak. Tell us a little bit about that experience and how you managed to recover from that?

Raimonda Jankunaite: Well, this is part of my life or a moment in my life, which I haven't really, truly explored yet. And suddenly when in the last two or three months, I've joined a community called Hungry to Speak by Les Brown. And he is, if you don't know who Les Brown is, he's you know, world renowned, motivational speaker, he's been speaking on stage for more than 40 years and transforming lives, changing lives and saving lives through his events and speaking. And when I joined his group, he asked me a question of why do you want to be a speaker? And having been naturally, not necessarily naturally a speaker my whole life. I've simply created a platform and I was drawn to do the work that I do almost unintentionally. So, I had to learn to use my voice over the last five years. I remember doing lives and being completely scared or delaying an event by half an hour to get up on that stage because I knew I would have to share my story.

And it was difficult, when every time you share a story for the first time, it's really, really personal. So, when I joined Les Brown group, he asked me, why do you want to speak? And yes, I know the work that I do truly inspires me. Truly makes an impact and it makes me happy, and it's a work that I feel it's worthwhile pursuing. But when I was asked that question of why I realized the moment in my life, when I was 23, 24 years old and going through a personal relationship and trauma through that relationship, that led me to losing my confidence, myself, my self-identity, my self-worth. And with that also my voice for two years, I couldn't speak, I couldn't use my voice. I would look in a mirror and say to myself, you need to speak, I don't know who this person is in front of me. So having lost that identity and gone through self-healing and coming out on the other side to start to build a platform for other people. And I always say, I'm your biggest cheerleader. I want to spotlight every woman doing incredible things and their stories, but a lot of that time is building a platform to spotlight others was a distraction for me to look into why am I wanting to speak and going through that journey, so yeah.

Steve Rush: And was that a psychological reaction to you losing your voice or was that a medical reaction?

Raimonda Jankunaite: It was more psychological going through the trauma.

Steve Rush: Right.

Raimonda Jankunaite: Right, so I think that was the biggest impact. I could speak, but I chose not to, and I couldn't,

Steve Rush: And when was that moment for you when you realized that there were some options for you to be able to speak, but more importantly in you speaking that was a bigger audience for you to leverage?

Raimonda Jankunaite: I had no idea of what parables was. I was just desperately trying to rebuild myself after that and do what it is that I love to do. And entrepreneurship was one non-negotiable. I wasn't going to settle for a job or wasn't going to settle for a career because I knew my career was entrepreneurship. And with building our business and being an entrepreneur, it comes with certain demands of you to show up you, to have that leadership quality, for you to have your voice. It's necessary, and when it's necessary, you have to do what it takes to get through it because as crazy as it sounds

Steve Rush: Okay, and what's the core focus of the work that you and The Women in Business Club have right now?

Raimonda Jankunaite: I think for us is about making an impact. If it really comes down to making a positive social impact and empowering women, because through that, through the power of community collaborations, coming together, sharing information and having a place where we can celebrate each other is truly the goal to impact lives and change minds with what we do.

Steve Rush: That brilliant, and it's fair to say that diversity, equity and inclusion has got a much bigger audience, and certainly it's much more receptive around most boards and organizations today. But from your perspective, what do you think the reason is that there's still so much work to do in this space?

Raimonda Jankunaite: I think world is changing, generally. World is definitely changing and I have younger generation, which is my niece and my stepdaughter. And we have these conversations, a lot about diversity inclusion by the world events that's happening. So, we starting this conversation at home and my stepdaughter talks a lot about LGBTQ Community. And I think world is divided, world at large is still very much divided. We find things to fight and how war is about whether it's from religion perspective to color, to you know, your rights as a human. And there is a huge uprise going on right now in Lithuania about political aspect of LGBTQ Community and changing the laws. So ultimately the older perspectives are still around and they're still there and they're still impact that negative impact. That's still happening on individual basis on individual, in individual lives and the community at large in terms of how people see things.

So, I think there's a lot of work to be done. And only by actually taking the steps and showing unity, talking about positives things, there are a lot of people I meet that say, I don't even want to go on social media because amount of conversations is happening around politics, about negativity, about things that I don't want to hear. And I don't have that because I filter my community, people that I surround myself with and all we talk is about positivity. And recently we hosted the Women Thrive Summit, and a lot of that was focused on diversity inclusion, LGBTQ, and just generally celebrating those aspects of life. And since I started connecting with so many more people on my LinkedIn, LinkedIn, all of a sudden become the place that I want to go, because I know every time, I go on there, I see positive things. So, as much as it is on the grand scale, it's still an issue and a lot of work to be done. It's also possible on a personal level, to change your perspective and surround yourself with new sources of information.

Steve Rush: It's ever evolving too, isn't it?

Raimonda Jankunaite: Yeah.

Steve Rush:  So, the fact is that it's easy to have a perception that organizations are changing and the business world is responding to diversity. And again, whether that be from gender inclusion, race, background, ethnicity, sexuality, et cetera, that's kind of irrelevant. But actually, when you then drill in, there are still pockets of communities and emerging countries. And when you think of the world that we work and live in today, it's a global landscape. It's still very accessible, so when you get into those smaller communities, I suspect is where it becomes even more relevant for the work you do, right?

Raimonda Jankunaite: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, the few things that I don't tolerate, or it doesn't really even happen within my own community where anyone has been mean to each other or discriminate in any way. And there has been a few comments recently came about from the summit or someone told me that I feel like I don't fit in, or I'd feel like there was a clique. And this is one thing that I try to always avoid having these clique. Because if everyone only shares one perspective and one way of doing things and you don't embrace the voice of the community and people around you, then truly you're not creating open environment for everyone to grow and learn and be different and actually be celebrated for their differences.

Steve Rush: And that's the key thing, isn't it? Celebrating those differences. Because for me, the more you do celebrate difference, the more difference creates innovation, energy, growth.

Raimonda Jankunaite: Yeah, absolutely. There's a little secret I actually haven't shared with anybody.

Steve Rush: You're going to share it with us now?

Raimonda Jankunaite: Yes.

Steve Rush: Go for it.

Raimonda Jankunaite: So back in 2006, I started a company called Innovation & Simple Ideas. This was my personal passion of creating innovative ideas, solutions to solve the world problems. One of my first businesses was in sustainability and changing the way we consume plastic and drinking water. And this was an innovating machine that I created, but that didn't work how the way I wanted to. So, I started a business called Innovation Simple Ideas for the intention of developing new ideas, technology, innovations, and talents. This was my business, which now evolved into becoming The Woman in Business. I changed the original name to that becoming a Woman in Business. And although I had an idea to develop innovations. Now we develop people, to have innovative ideas and be empowered.

Steve Rush: And more scale and more powerful as a result, I suspect.

Raimonda Jankunaite: Yes, certainly. I think we learned a lot.

Steve Rush: Yeah, so looking ahead to, let's say the next few years, what do you see as being the biggest challenge for women that are in the business community today?

Raimonda Jankunaite: I think the biggest challenge is conquering ourselves. That is always the biggest challenge for ourselves as individuals wanting to achieve great things. Of course, I don't underestimate challenges personal and otherwise that surrounds us in the world right now. But if you truly want to achieve something, I think having that innovative mind and being open to having those different conversations and exploring your mind. So, a lot of the times, the reason why we don't actually achieve something in life, or we don't fulfill our potential because we have a fear within ourselves, what would happen if I truly reach for my dreams? What would happen if I truly aimed for that big goal that I have? But when we conquer ourselves and this is what I said earlier about running your own business, it's the biggest personal development journey you ever take. And the most conquering that you will have to do. Everything else is just strategy, techniques, tools, information, and putting it all together.

Steve Rush: Yeah.

Raimonda Jankunaite: It's to you that always stops you from going where you want to be.

Steve Rush: Some of those unconscious biases that are holding people back, right?

Raimonda Jankunaite: Yeah, in many aspects of our lives.

Steve Rush: So not only are you an entrepreneur, businesswoman, you've also turned your hand to writing and your first book is out shortly. Tell us a little bit about how that came about and what was the driver behind it?

Raimonda Jankunaite: Yeah, it's still surreal being an author, but this has happened again through the very same journey of discovering my reason of why, why I wanted to share my voice. And for the first time coming out with this personal story of losing my voice and just the overwhelming response from so many, of course women, because this is my main audience that I speak to and deliver my messages to. So, women came forward and said, I have experienced that myself. And since sharing that story and other women coming out and me having those conversations and empowering them and just seeing how quickly they can change when they feel like I am not alone on this, you know, this personal journey. So since sharing that story two weeks later, or actually the very next week, one of my past Women Thrive Summit speakers. Who's also a published author and she has a publishing house and she created collaborative books. And this is one of the collaborative books that just happened right there. She reached out to me, she said, I still have two more spots if you know, anyone who would like to share their story. And this was me on a story that I have never shared before. So, I thought that was a great occasion for me to actually tell my story of what truly happened. So, I'm very excited and the name of it is Younger Self Letters. So, the publisher, Adriana Monique Alvarez, I'm very excited about this.

Steve Rush: Brilliant.

Raimonda Jankunaite: Thank you.

Steve Rush: So, you should be too, it's a great credit to you as well. So, what's next for you in terms of focus of work.

Raimonda Jankunaite: I love to travel the world if the world opens.

Steve Rush: Yeah, wouldn't that be nice?

Raimonda Jankunaite: I would love to, we have made so many friends globally that honestly, that's the one thing that I cannot wait to go and meet all of my friends across the pond in the states, in Europe and just have some fantastic events.

Steve Rush: And with that connection, my experience tells me also that sometimes the events follow the conversations for the motivation, you know, those natural occurring opportunities to collaborate this pop-up, don’t they?

Raimonda Jankunaite: Absolutely, we just don't know where, you know, what we do could really take us in life.

Steve Rush: Hmm, I agree. Being open to opportunity and coincidence is the big key, isn't it?

Raimonda Jankunaite: Life happens. Life evolves. It's not always just coincidence. I believe you have a path.

Steve Rush: So, who are the women in your life that have inspired you?

Raimonda Jankunaite: I actually have been asked this question recently by a few people. And there's one person that always comes to the top of my list, which is definitely my mother. And I have come from a woman, I wouldn't say dominated, but a lot of women in our family. So definitely have a lot of that feminine energy and also seeing how strong my family roots, the women in my community, in my family have been really strong and determined and you know, willing to do whatever it takes. So, I think having that drive is certainly from my family, but in many other, you know, we quite often write about other women. And to be honest, you don't have be a celebrity or someone known in a public eye to inspire people. I am inspired by the women's stores that are here every day by the people that I have and share a stage for Hungry to Speak family with the Les Brown, you know, and we plan on doing some events and I just feel so privileged when we create events and we collaborate with people to have that opportunity like yourself before you get people onto podcasts to hear their real and raw stories before they actually get up on stage.

Steve Rush: Yeah.

Raimonda Jankunaite: That’s what really inspiring.

Steve Rush: Yeah, awesome stuff. So, I'm going to flip the conversation a little bit now, and this is my chance to hack into your mind and ask some really deep and challenging questions around your leadership experience. So, if you think about your career to date, and we distilled that down to your top three tips, tools, or ideas, what would be your top three leadership hacks?

Raimonda Jankunaite: As, if you haven't grilled me enough, Steve [Laughing], and that was always fun to have these conversations. And I truly appreciate, and honor your incredible questions today. I think first of all, is the confidence to have within yourself. Because without confidence, of course, you can kind of borrow confidence when you surround yourself with incredible people, but that mindset has to start within you. And there's a lot of mindset shift that needs to happen within ourselves. Two, I think having a clear vision and a goal and idea of what you want to have in this life, because a lot of the times we can follow a path that are going to that direction for far too long and not changing the gear can lead us blind to all the other opportunities and possibilities that we can have.

Right, so having some kind of sense of direction of what you truly want and not following the herd or how it's been done, so going against the grain. And three, I think surrounding yourself with people because no leader, no man on a mission, no person who ever wants to conquer anything have done it solely by themselves, right? We always have that support network, whether it's family, whether it's friends, whether it's your mentors, coaches, communities, groups, where do you belong? What is your community? And if you don't feel like you belong anywhere, have the courage to create your own. Because this is where you're going to make impact.

Steve Rush: I love that last bit, by the way. So, we often have this perception that we have to find communities, whereas in your case, what you've done is create communities. And that's actually really quite empowering and alluring as well, isn't it?

Raimonda Jankunaite: Any leader can do that, any entrepreneur and you know, whether they're big or small. This is you; this is yours.

Steve Rush: Yeah, going against the grain. There's something else heard you say. And of course, the one thing that I observe in having interviewed dozens and dozens of entrepreneurs is that restlessness to go against the norms is where they find themselves.

Raimonda Jankunaite: Yeah, and do whatever it takes. And it takes you personally on very interesting destinations.

Steve Rush: Exactly, so next thing we want to talk about is what we call Hack to Attack. So, this is typically where you've had an experience in the past that might not work out very well at all. In fact, it could have been quite a steep learning experience, but as a result of it, you now use it as a positive in your life and your work. So, Raimonda, what would be your Hack to Attack?

Raimonda Jankunaite: Suh a rich question and so many different stories, and you see in life, things doesn't always work out. And this is my general, I guess, insight into having tried many, the business that I have today, it happened by chance. I didn't plan for it, but there has been many intentional businesses and ventures and ideas that I have tried to pursue over the last more than 10 years. And there was a reason why they didn't work out like having my first business. And I face the adversity of being a 21-year-old girl building a business, which was more technical than you can imagine, building vending machines and systems and purification systems and brand and huge projects. And that business not working out, led me to another path in my career when I was working in crowdfunding. And that didn't work out, just as we were about to launch and having invested maybe 10, 15, 20,000 and 30,000 thousand of my own personal time. That not working out and then Women in Business happening. So, I remember when we were launching the crowdfunding platform that I've spent two and a half years building, actually the launch part of the launch event was called The Women in Business, which was our first official event. And that becoming and the crowdfunding platform becoming basically obsolete. So, every part of your journey, when things don't work out, there are doors that will open. And for me, that was Women in Business, which wasn't completely unplanned. It was just following my passion. So, I'm just so blessed to be here and have this community.

Steve Rush: And I wonder if that's just down to your entrepreneurial spirit of not looking at the adversity, but looking for the opportunity.

Raimonda Jankunaite: Yeah, I guess. You got to know how to turn any bad situation into a positive.

Steve Rush: Right.

Raimonda Jankunaite: And when you have that perspective, you'll find a way and that's generally, you've got to find a way, in a life of business.

Steve Rush: The very last question I'm going to ask you today is if you could go back and meet Raimonda when she was 21, and you could give her some words of wisdoms and counseling and coaching, mentoring, what would your advice to her be then?

Raimonda Jankunaite: Actually, when I was 21, one of my mottoes was to believe, achieve and inspire. And as far as I can remember, I have been a creator of motivational and inspirational content. I just didn't know where it was leading, but all those skills that you, as a 20-year-old accumulate, as a result of pursuing something will become so worthwhile. And this is something that you're going to lean on a lot. So, every part of something not working out, the mistakes, the lessons, the bad decisions, the bad investments that you have made, it's just a stepping stones to you knowing better. So, make those mistakes, don't be afraid. Go out there and conquer your dreams and believe, one in yourself, achieve what you set out to achieve, to show the world and then inspire others, right? Because once you have achieved your goals and dreams, which I have done over 10 years, when I was 21 or 25 years old, my mom would say, when are you going to get a job? Are you still doing this thing? It's been five years, get yourself a real job. And I was like, no mama, I'm unemployable. So, I have had to achieve my goals and dreams to show, not only my friends and family, but the world to say it was worthwhile. It's 10 years in the making, but it was worthwhile.

Steve Rush: It's funny how people's perceptions of what other people do, where it doesn't have, you know, routine and you go to a location and a desk and you clock in and clock out. People still have a perception that you don't have a job. Yeah, I have a job, it's just a little bit different from others.

Raimonda Jankunaite: Yeah, I always laugh when people ask me, oh, what do you do?

Steve Rush: Depends.

Raimonda Jankunaite: I always laugh, because I know, you know, it could be a long conversation to explain how it works. So, I just say I host events and motivational speaking, things like that

Steve Rush: So, for folks listening to us talk today, Raimonda, and for them to want to learn a little bit more about The Women in Business Club and indeed the work you do, where's the best place for us to send them?

Raimonda Jankunaite: I think a website journey has a lot of most up-to-date information about our events, things that we do and the work that we carry out. So, womeninbusiness.club would probably be the best place to go check it out. We've got lots of blogs and some amazing resources, so definitely go and help yourself out.

Steve Rush: Yourself out, quite active on social media as well, aren't you? Through Instagram I know, and LinkedIn and Twitter. So, we'll make sure that we scoop your social media handles and put them in our show notes as well.

Raimonda Jankunaite: Thank you, Women in Business, you usually find me one of the social media platforms hanging out.

Steve Rush: Awesome. So, thank you ever so much for joining us today. I love speaking to you. You got a real calming, yet energetic approach to life. And I know that for the women who work with you, they get huge amounts of value and working with you and in growing their visibility. So, thank you for sharing that in our podcasts today and thank you for being part of The Leadership Hacker Community.

Raimonda Jankunaite: Thank you so much. I celebrate you Steve of what you have achieved with your podcast is the phenomenal. When I have heard about your community, I was just so honored to wait more than six months to do this Steve with you, so this is special moment.

Steve Rush: I know, thank you Raimonda and thanks for joining.

Raimonda Jankunaite: I appreciate you. Look forward to hearing from everybody. Thank you so much.

 

Closing

 

Steve Rush: I genuinely want to say heartfelt thanks for taking time out of your day to listen in too. We do this in the service of helping others, and spreading the word of leadership. Without you listening in, there would be no show. So please subscribe now if you have not done so already. Share this podcast with your communities, network, and help us develop a community and a tribe of leadership hackers.

 

Finally, if you would like me to work with your senior team, your leadership community, keynote an event, or you would like to sponsor an episode. Please connect with us, by our social media. And you can do that by following and liking our pages on Twitter and Facebook our handler there @leadershiphacker. Instagram you can find us there @the_leadership_hacker and at YouTube, we are just Leadership Hacker, so that is me signing off. I am Steve Rush and I have been the leadership hacker.