From Penguin to Flamingo: Wendy Gardner on Dropping the Suit, Finding Yourself and Learning to Love What Looks Back

From Penguin to Flamingo: Wendy Gardner on Dropping the Suit, Finding Yourself and Learning to Love What Looks Back

What does it cost to perform being fine for years? And what does it take to finally put that performance down? In this episode of In Her Own Name, I sit down with Wendy Gardner, founder of the Ohana Foundation, creator of the IAmMe coaching programme, and author of Diary of a Misfit Penguin and the journal Dear Daughter. Wendy came to London at 21 with a suitcase and a carrier bag. She built a career leading large-scale transformation at the highest levels of global business. From the outside, the picture was perfect. From the inside, she was driving 70 miles each way to work, pushing through pneumonia, and slowly disappearing inside a penguin suit of corporate conformity until her pink flamingo feathers kept escaping from underneath it. Then her daughter became severely ill. And the woman who had spent decades fixing, solutioning and performing discovered something that stopped her completely. She could not fix this. What came next was not a comeback. It was something much more honest. A parallel journey. Mother and daughter. Both learning. Both becoming. In this conversation, we explore: The real cost of wearing the penguin suit, not just professionally, but in every room of your life The moment her son, aged five, defaulted to Daddy for the birthday party and what that cracked open in her Why she has fallen out of love with the word resilience, and what she believes we are actually doing when we use it The name Ohana and the daughter named Hannah, who is woven into everything she builds Why she does not rehearse anymore, and what happens in the room when she trusts what lives inside her instead What it felt like to read the words I am Wendy Gardner on a train and realise the universe had just confirmed everything she had been working toward The morning mirror question that she asks herself every single day, without makeup, without performance, just as she is This is a warm, funny, deeply human conversation. Wendy does not perform in this room, and neither does the episode. It is one of those conversations you will carry with you. Books mentioned in the episode: Diary of a Misfit Penguin by Wendy Gardner. Available on Amazon and all good online bookstores, including her website www.ohanafoundation.com Dear Daughter, the journal is available on World of Books Connect with Wendy: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/wendygardner98 Instagram: @ohana_foundation Website: www.ohanafoundation.com

Shut Up, Gerald! Tash Rebuck on Sales, Self Worth and Silencing the Voice That Tells You Not to Bother

What if the reason sales feels so hard for women has nothing to do with skill? What if it is older than that. Deeper than that. A story we have been carrying since long before we ever tried to sell anything. In this episode of In Her Own Name, I sit down with Tash Rebuck, founder of The Good Sales Company, and we end up somewhere I did not expect. Yes, we talk about sales. We talk about the difference between marketing and actually selling. We talk about follow-ups, about pricing, about why 80% of deals get signed after the fifth email and most women stop after one. We talk about Gerald. The voice in your head that tells you to stop, you are being annoying, leave that poor woman alone. But underneath all of it is a much more personal story. Tash was badly bullied from childhood through university. She did not have many friends. Something about who she was made other people uncomfortable. And she carried that into her adult life as a belief so deep she barely noticed it was there. That people did not really want to be around her. Then six months into running her business, she got an email confirming a new client at a higher price point than she had ever charged. She was standing in a hotel shower celebrating her wedding anniversary. And something cracked open. People want to pay to spend time with me. That is the moment this episode is really about. In this conversation we explore: Why sales has become a dirty word and what Tash is pushing back against with every part of her work The generational weight women carry into every sales conversation before they have even opened their mouth Why most female founders are doing marketing and calling it sales, and what the difference actually costs them The Somerset House story and what eight follow-ups and a woman who changed jobs taught her about persistence Why your pricing is not just a number. It is a statement about what you believe you are worth What it took to silence Gerald and start trusting the other voice This is a warm, honest, and frequently very funny conversation. Tash brings her whole self, and so does this episode. 📚 Books mentioned in the episode: Babel by R.F. Kuang, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Mindset by Carol Dweck Connect with Tash: LinkedIn: Tash Rebuck Website: thegoodsalescompany.com Instagram: @tash_rebuck Podcast: The S Word: https://youtu.be/XPL0oeQ-eNI?si=CMcGJvKJAVy4yeTa

The System Inside and Out: Creanna Dodson on Justice, Care and Power

What does it look like to understand a system from every angle, from the inside of a probation office, to the floor of a care home, to the floor of a courtroom? In this episode of In Her Own Name, I sit down with Creanna Dodson. Mother. Barrister. Business Owner. Founder of Soaring Heights Care. Creanna did not plan to become a barrister. She will tell you that herself. What she did was spend nearly two decades working inside some of the most demanding spaces in the justice and care systems, and when the lightbulb moment finally came, she had something that most newly called barristers simply do not have. She already knew what the system felt like from the other side. This is a conversation about protection. About building care for children who arrived in this country alone, without family, without language, without certainty. About what it takes to earn the trust of someone who has every reason not to trust you. About running a team so loyal that some of them have stayed for seven and eight years in one of the hardest industries there is. It is also a conversation about what it means to finally stop brushing off your own achievements and own them. In this episode, we explore: How Creanna stumbled into law organically, through a family crisis, her social work experience and her work with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children at Soaring Heights Care What nearly a hundred children over ten years of care has taught her about resilience, deferred gratification and believing that young people are worthy Why her client care skills are described by other advocates at court as second to none, and where that really comes from What standing on both sides of the courtroom has taught her about truth, perspective and doing right by people, even when the system is slow The moment she stopped waiting for others to validate her achievements and started championing herself What she would shout to her 18-year-old self about believing in your own source This is not a story about a straight line. It is a story about trusting the process, building something with your hands and your heart, and showing up fully in every role you carry. Connect with Creanna LinkedIn: Creanna Dodson Instagram: @creanna.dodson Soaring Heights Care: @creanna_shc   y9hOCtcVOEUsoCGSj25m

The African Parent: Anne-Rose Obidi on Advocacy, Culture and Systems That Weren’t Built for Us

In this episode of In Her Own Name, I sit down with Anne-Rose Obidi, founder of The African Parent, for a deeply honest conversation about parenting, power, culture, and the courage to speak up in systems that often feel confusing or intimidating. This is not just a conversation about raising children. It is about learning how institutions work. It is about understanding how culture shapes our responses. It is about moving from silence to strategy. Anne-Rose shares how her own journey as a mother led her to build a platform that equips African parents with the tools, language and confidence to advocate effectively for their children. Together, we explore what happens when respectability meets resistance. What happens when cultural values collide with institutional expectations. And what becomes possible when parents stop shrinking and start engaging with clarity and intention. In this episode, we talk about: • Why many African parents walk into school systems already feeling disempowered • The importance of systems literacy when advocating for children • How behaviour, culture and neurodivergence are often misunderstood • The hidden cost of raising “good children” who are afraid to challenge • Stepping into your own name after an ADHD diagnosis • Emotional regulation as a leadership skill • Teaching children to question respectfully and lead confidently Anne-Rose also shares books that have shaped her thinking around leadership and parenting: 📚 Let’s Go Leadership by Obi James: a practical guide exploring different leadership styles and the importance of learning when to let go. 📚 The Conscious Parent: a reflective read focused on intentional parenting and raising self-aware children. If you are navigating school systems, safeguarding concerns, or simply trying to raise confident children in environments that were not designed with your reality in mind, this conversation will resonate.

Build Your Table: Beverly Vanterpool on Power, Community and Playing the Game Intentionally

Have you ever been told it’s imposter syndrome…When deep down, you knew something else was going on? In this conversation, I sit down with Beverly Vanterpool, founder of Career Sistas and author of Build Your Table, and we talk honestly about what it means to navigate professional life when the system was never designed with you in mind. This is not a loud conversation. It’s a clear one. We speak about those moments when you realise you’re not struggling because you lack confidence, but because you were never invited into the room. We talk about sponsorship. About visibility. About being over-mentored and under-advocated for. We talk about redundancy not just as loss, but as an inflexion point. The kind that forces you to ask yourself: What gives me money? What gives me joy? What do I actually want? Beverly brings both strategy and steadiness to this conversation. She doesn’t pretend the system is fair. She asks a better question: How intentionally are you choosing to move within it? If you’re building your own table right now, or questioning whether you still belong at someone else’s, sit with this episode. You are not behind. You are not imagining it. And you are not alone. — Learn more about Build Your Table: https://beverlyvanterpool.com/build-your-table-find-career-clarity-make-bold-pivots-and-thrive-even-when-the-system-isnt-built-for-you [https://beverlyvanterpool.com/build-your-table-find-career-clarity-make-bold-pivots-and-thrive-even-when-the-system-isnt-built-for-you] Connect with Beverly: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beverlyvanterpool/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/beverlyvanterpool/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vanterpoolb [https://www.instagram.com/vanterpoolb] Career Sistas: https://www.careersistas.com — If this conversation met you where you are, share it with someone else who might need to hear it too.