ELLE Female Factor

A few weeks ago I was chosen as the lucky ELLE reader to be part of Durban's leg of Female Factor Discussion.
I was over the moon, scared, nervous, anxious and proud to have be chosen.
Questions fluttered through my head like what should I wear? What if I cannot contribute to the conversation? What if I am out of my league?
But after the discussion I realised that those questions are exactly why 30% of women do not follow their dreams or pursue their thoughts. The "what if/" question.

Female Factor is all about women and everything women related. ELLE has some great articles and you should go and have a look here to read more.

The discussion for the Durban leg of FF was the last leg as Cape Town and JHB had already had their conversations. At first the conversation started off slowly with born leaders starting the discussion and it was slightly daunting with a videographer shooting the entire discussion.
Discussion topics ranged from owning or starting your own business and entrepreneurship, the "work - life" balance, mentor-ship and women as we are today and how we were back then.

Ladies present in the discussion were Tarryn Gill ( Perfect Score - and thank you Tarryn for a wonderful opportunity and smoothly organised event), Jackie Burger ( editor of ELLE magazine), Jenna McArthur ( ELLE magazie), Annelize Visser ( ELLE magazine), Unilever and Beirsdorf marketing managers, a women of the year and McCarthy CSI manager, a performer, young entrepreneurs, owner of Ice Model Management and an attorney amongst many more. These ladies may have been "labelled" by their titles or job descriptions or what they do for a living but in the end they are all women, mothers, wives or partners, care givers nurturers and dream followers.

I was blown away and in awe of ALL of these women and they made me realise that I too have the "fight" in me to dream and follow my goals and one day achieve EXACTLY what I want.
With 85% of brand decisions being made by females in the work place, we have a very important role within society and the economy but we are not using it to our full potential.

Statements that stood out for me on the day were:
" How do you define success?"
" Why is it only a dream and not a reality?"
" Put the fish on the table"
" Let us be visible!"

I could keep on writing on this topic for ages but if I do that I will end up eating the entire Lindt mousse chocolate slab from the ELLE gift bag. Thank you for spoiling me ELLE with the opportunity to take part in this discussion and for the gorgeous gift bag.

So as a women with a DREAM...what are you waiting for?

LaurenLeigh cc

P.S. I stumbled across a picture of myself on the ELLE website today ( mixed emotion moment) and that picture was taken at the ELLE Female Factor Discussions morning. So my outfit choice was a good one. Always trust your gut and go with it!