SHOW / EPISODE

Exceptional Gemma

Season 1 | Episode 29

1h 39m | Jan 14, 2022

On the twenty-ninth episode of the P.O.T.N👑. Podcast Takura was joined by the exceptional Gemma Perkins who is creative, organised and is a problem solver. In her episode, she shares her passions for coaching, education, cooking, working with young people, and participating in arts & crafts. She takes us on her journey of wanting to become a teacher at first and then changing directions to pursue youth work and coaching after attending a leadership program when she was a teenager. Gemma now runs her very own business called the Self Leadership Initiative which serves to help people understand themselves better, help them develop crucial soft skills like teamwork & communication, as well as improve their health and wellbeing. She is extremely grateful for the impact Krish Raval has had on her own life and the inspiration he has given her. Attending his leadership camp inspired her to learn more about coaching and mentoring. From her time as a coach and mentor, Gemma believes we should walk alongside those who wish to develop and overcome challenges. She shares that we must encourage the growth of our problem-solving skills so we can innovatively produce solutions to overcome the challenges we face. Upon reflection, some of the most positive experiences Gemma has witnessed have come from attending conferences and networking events that work to encourage self-development and leadership. She tells us how attending groups like School for Changemakers helped her learn more about other cultures and inspired her to become more multicultural where she prepares customary dishes from different countries and cultures. She also shares inspirational stories of refugees she’s worked with and their ambition to succeed regardless of their circumstances. Hearing such a story shows the power that taking initiative can do for changing our circumstances. When faced with challenges, Gemma prioritises self-care, which means she looks at managing her time accordingly, she works on tasks in priority order, and she engages in exercise to keep herself fit and relax her brain. Another technique she uses to help her overcome challenges she may face is by gaining support through her social support network. She feels being able to speak to friends who use non-traditional techniques such as active listening help her analyse her challenges from a holistic point of view and the support space created helps her identify solutions that can help her overcome the challenges she is facing. Gemma has a different view on failure which has changed from the times when she was a teacher. She believes failure has a lot of grey areas that tend to go unnoticed because all of us tend to focus on not attaining what we were working towards. She states that we tend to forget the effort and time we’ve put in to get that point. We are people who have attained growth and wisdom even though we did not achieve the outcome we wanted. Gemma believes we should use this as motivation to push on to achieve our goals even after encountering failures.

To help her stay productive Gemma uses a Vision board where she puts her goals, passions, people she cares for and more. This vision board is used to remind her of her objectives and the motivations for why she completes those tasks. She also utilises Eisenhower’s box which helps her plan and organise the tasks she wants to achieve. Going forward Gemma is excited about improving her knowledge and capability to strategize effectively and she is also excited about enrolling in the Transformational Coaching Diploma. She is also excited about how people are now starting to do things differently from traditional norms and how technology can open us up to new possibilities. For instance, we can now pursue our dreams if technology takes over our occupations. She believes we can take the time to identify what makes us happy and truly invest in that. As Jimmy Carr would say it is better to lean into our strengths and passions than waste our time on things that don’t bring us happiness. In her closing remarks, she leaves us with a quote by Mahatma Gandhi which says “You must be the change you wish to see in the world” so all of us must take the opportunity to identify how we can make the world a better place and proactively work toward making that a reality. A sensational testimony from an extraordinary individual that encompasses all the values of P.O.T.N👑.

Connect with Gemma & The Self Leadership Initative:

ɪɴstaɢʀᴀᴍ: https://www.instagram.com/selfleadership1/

ꜰᴀᴄᴇʙoᴏᴋ: https://www.facebook.com/The.Self.Leadership.Initiative/

LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thesli/

LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bespoketraining/

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKRtMHTJOsJH073FXhRibPQ

Website - https://thesli.co.uk/

Intro Music Basement by Zeek

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/artist/4AoglKp4WAMhlS5mqcmJqc?si=cTIIuVVhQAWTPdEqSmXdnw

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/zeek_143/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/zeek_143

Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/zeek_143