Issue 23 | Bloom with Ruth Penfold-Brown

Hello beautiful human

Welcome to my monthly newsletter.

My?heart is with you and all of humanity right now.?

It aches for peace and for all humans to be safe.?There is little that many of us have the power to do right now, but we can always choose to love.?

?It was hard to decide what to share with you all this month on that basis, so I decided to share hope in the form of a story of the gift of love.?

When I landed my role at Shazam, I couldn’t believe my luck. At that time, I didn’t believe in myself at all, so to me, I just felt immense gratitude for the opportunity.?

I can’t tell you in any scientific way what was driving me before that, I can only say it was instinct or intuition. It was like a divine intelligence telling me that the life and career that I’d chosen wasn’t enough.?

It wasn’t conscious, it was from deep within.?

Within my personal world, that voice told me to leave my ex-husband. I had no idea what to do really or how to get there, I just started.?

As the dust started to settle and I found myself in new spaces, I didn't really have a sense of what I wanted to do professionally. I just kept showing up for my job at the time.?

In recruitment, as many of you will know, you get pretty used to making connections. At this time, I wasn't actively recruiting, but something just told me to keep reaching out to people and to keep putting myself out there. I reached out to folks without any agenda beyond making a new connection.

It was someone that I had met during that burst networking that tapped me up for the role at Shazam. A chap called Ryan Broad . Ryan was a huge part of me changing my life.??

Ryan landed at Shazam and straight away called me for a role in his team. It was just for 6 weeks, but something told me to go for it.?

I left a 12 month fixed term contract that was about to offer me a permanent role to grab it.?This was an opportunity I couldn’t miss.?

In the first week at Shazam, Ryan and I were in a meeting with other members of the Shazam team. They asked for our opinions on something, I gave mine and Ryan just agreed with me.??

Then something magical happened.?

At the end of the meeting Ryan and I hung back, he had a lot to show me to get me up to speed in the job.?

Ryan turned to me and said:?‘I’m not sure you really see how amazing you are. You have the potential to become an incredible leader, much better than I am. You are brilliant.’?

My jaw hit the floor.

Neither of us realised what a pivotal moment this might be for me.

But it was. Hearing those words from someone I truly respected was like a seed of self belief being planted. It was literally the beginning of me believing in me.?

When Ryan left for a new role 6 weeks later, based on this new fledgling belief I had in myself, I threw my hat in the ring. My new potential boss didn’t say yes right away but she didn’t say no either. I worked my ass off and I got it.?

And wow, the power of words. 'I think you are brilliant' was the sentence that put my career on a new course. I felt a new sense of propose, a new sense of pride.?

It was at Shazam that I gave myself to be who I really was at work.?

I’ve never forgotten the power of words. We all have the power to sprinkle magic dust over one another’s lives. I heard this described recently as 'speaking life over someone' and I just think that is the most beautiful concept.?My goodness right now do we need it.

I do it as often as I am able.??

So to you, beautiful reader, I will simply say… ‘I’m not sure you really see how amazing you are. You have the potential to become an incredible leader, much better than I am. You are brilliant.’?

And I mean every single word. With so much love from my heart to yours.?

I see you.?

Big love, RPB

?? The first season of Bloom the podcast wrapped this month ??

The goal of this podcast is to inspire and support you to build the tools to do that in a way that feels truly authentic to you and one where you truly thrive.

This month we have had:

1. Leslie Greenwood talking about the power of community and of building community
2. Elaine Lin Hering talking about unlearning silence, and giving us some incredible real world examples of how we silence ourselves

I would be so grateful if anyone who listens might follow, rate and support this little pod of mine! Find it on Apple: https://lnkd.in/gMND_Sw4 and Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gkWPy_yX and let me know what you think ??

This month I will be releasing a series of incredible videos with amazing women in HR called, Women Who Lead. I was thrilled that Lalita Sharma , Liz Afolabi , Natalie Harmon-Tatton , Chez Rueda (Murphy) , JooBee Yeow, PhD , Nicole Hall , Joanne Atkins , Delia Bogues , Merita Ramadani , Hannah Atack and Imani Carroll said yes!

Why am I doing this series? Because it is high time that women in HR (People, Talent, Learning, Culture, Reward, Recruitment) were highlighted and spotlighted.?

My goal is to create a platform for that, and for learning and sharing and realness. And that realness is landing this November. Watch this space ??

Self leadership and leading organisations, a recent podcast with Matt Partovi

I was thrilled to be asked to be a part of the Culturevist podcast with the wonderful Matt Partovi recently. I have long been a fan of Matt, who honestly has been stoking up the conversations on culture, long before it was cool. Please check him out, follow him and take a look at everything he does.

?? I have three big updates on Bloom ??

#1 Bloom is officially one year old!

It was this time last year when I was busy working away in the background, building out the course that I launched in January this year.?

#2 I landed the first corporate client for Bloom in the US

I am working with an amazing team within a giant pharmaceutical business on things like; banishing burnout and working sustainably, building influential and powerful relationships, team culture and ways of working and building confidence.

#3 Bloom the leadership accelerator and community for women relaunches in January 2024

I am launching a founding group of women in HR (people, talent, reward, culture, all of you!), and I’d love some of you to be a part of it. My goal is for 20 brilliant women to kick start the course and community who want to:

a. Go from unseen and undervalued to visible and valued in your organisation.

b. Overcome imposter syndrome to?confidently name and?claim the career you really want.?

c. Banish burnout by having brilliant boundaries and a sustainable operating model for work and life.?

In December I will host a masterclass where I lift the lid on the Bloom method, and reveal how I used the Bloom method to double my salary and manifest my dream career (which really is a true story).?You can sign up for the waitlist to be first to hear about it all here .

Sending love to you all ??