Body Image Confidence Coach |Award Winning LinkedIn Creator | I help women rebuild body confidence, resilience, & well-being for career success | Speaker | CEO E&E Consulting Group | ForbesBLK | Ex-Finance Ops Leader
Ruhi Ladwa #GirlPowerUnleashed in Conversation with Nma Eleazu Emeh
Ruhi Ladwa
Hi everyone! Welcome to the Girl Power Unleashed podcast! Today I'm here with a special guest, Miss Nma Emeh and to start, tell us about yourself and your journey so far!
Nma Emeh
Hi everyone. I am so happy to be on this podcast. I love what Ruhi is doing! Girl empowerment is near and dear to my heart. My name is Nma, I am a body image confidence coach. I work with women and girls, but before that, I worked in corporate, specifically in pharma, finance, and operations. I did that for almost 20 years, and it was great, however, it wasn't my passion. During the pandemic, I decided that, after seeing many people who lost their lives, I took some time to reflect on mine, and decided, what impact I have made on this world. And if I were to go today, what would people say about me?
That was the changing point for me. That was the moment when I decided I wanted to do something that would impact people's lives, specifically women and girls. In several countries around the world, women's and girl's voices are still silenced, and that, to me, is not right. The work I do is to rebuild our confidence so that we can amplify our voices and necessitate change in our different communities around the world.
Ruhi Ladwa
What are some of the most interesting things you're working on, and how will that impact women?
Nma Emeh
Interestingly, I am working with moms. I recently started a cohort- working with moms of teenage girls, specifically teenage girls of the age of 14, I have seen over the last, I would say, month, a lot of moms reaching out to me with girls, teenage girls who are 14 and are struggling with body image and the way they perceive themselves. So I am taking the avenue of empowering moms so that they can empower their girls.
Why is that important? Why is that better than working directly with the girls? Because most of these girls sometimes are also seeing some other form of a clinician, whether it's a therapist or a psychologist, I think adding an additional person to their wellness journey could impact their self-perception even more. The last thing I want is for any girl to feel like they're broken. Studies have shown, usually girls who struggle with image insecurities or body image, have poor positive perceptions of their body image usually because of some modeled behavior, and typically their mothers.
My approach is to empower the moms, and in doing so, help them unpack whatever image insecurities they may have that they may be subconsciously passing on to their daughters, in
the hopes that because they spend the most time with their girls, they will start to model a better positive perception of themselves, which their daughters can adopt, and, continue the positive cycle, hopefully, breaking the negative cycle of low body confidence. It will be an eight-week program specifically for moms. First- the cohort is going to be moms of 14-year-old girls. I picked 14 because I looked back and asked myself, why is it 14? Why is it that age that these girls are struggling?
If you look back during the pandemic, those girls were in fifth grade, or just going into fifth and that's about the time that our bodies are changing. Puberty sets in, and they are stuck in the house, they look a certain way in fourth grade, and then they come back after the pandemic going into sixth grade. They were home for about a year, and everybody looks different. And of course, the shock sets in. People are teasing each other, what happened to you? You got bigger, you got thinner.
Now, I don't know if my thoughts are validated yet. I haven't done the research. But I have a feeling it's that one year they were home during the pandemic where they lacked, social interaction while their body was changing, and as a result, they never got the opportunity to process the changes that their body made and how people would perceive them regularly, if they were in school without any interruption.
Ruhi Ladwa
It's really interesting. I like that so much you're helping little girls, feel more confident in their bodies. I know that's something many of my friends struggled with when they were in middle school, but now they've come over it, thankfully, but this is so great.
Nma Emeh
Yes. Middle School is a tough time for everybody, and again, it's mainly because everybody's body is changing, especially the girls, and they're just now realizing about their body shape prior to that, you know, life was easy. They were young and naive, but at 10 to 12, they realise, I am a woman. What are these boobs and everything? So it's a lot to take in, and it's a good time to start the conversations and empower the moms to empower their girls. This cohort will be for moms of 14-year-old girls, but I'm also targeting the moms of 10 to 12-year-olds, middle schooler moms, that will help change the way young girls perceive themselves, and what we're seeing in the statistics today,
Ruhi Ladwa
I really like that. What were the obstacles you had to overcome? Any specific learnings from them?
Nma Emeh
Oh, my goodness. yes, along this journey, I've received a lot of rejection. I'm constantly pitching myself to different schools and, girls' organizations, even the library, to run programs and different things and I think the biggest challenge with this, and entrepreneurship as a whole, is how you process rejection. It took me a couple of times, to learn how to process it in a healthy manner. So I documented how I would process rejection going forward.
For me, the first thing I do is gain clarity and understanding.
Why was I rejected? It's a question that I ask them, why is my program not good enough for you? Or why would you not move forward? You want to gain clarity, because in gaining clarity, you may realize that it had nothing to do with you. It could be that it was not a good fit, not a good time, budget-wise, it didn't work for them, etc. So it's important that you gain clarity. The other thing that I like to do is to remind myself that I truly believe that in every situation we have in life, there is a gift and an opportunity that we can learn from. Even if it's a negative thing, there's something that you can take away if nothing else. It's okay to create boundaries if nothing else. But I like to look for the gift and opportunity in every experience, including rejection.
Then lastly, I seek gratitude. I want to make sure that even in the midst of the rejection, I end the relationship with gratitude. Why is that important? So that the person will have a more favorable perception of me and, you never want to burn bridges, even if people don't want you don't need your services. Because you never know where, somewhere down the line they may need you. If they don't need you now, they may need you somewhere down the line later on. So you always want to end on a good note, and a good way to do that is to express your gratitude, at least, for the opportunity for them to give you the time and day to speak, or whatever the case may be. That's how I handle my objections and obstacles.
Ruhi Ladwa
That's great. What is your key to success? Are there a few key qualities that helped you attain success?
Nma Emeh
That's a good question. One of the keys to success, for me, is I am a woman of God. I'm very grounded in my faith, and I would say that that's the number one key to success, because, on those tough days, I have a place to run back to. I go back to God's word. I am not dependent on what the world says about me. And dependent on what God says about me and what his word says or who I am. My identity is anchored in him, and that's been my way of overcoming, challenges, rejection, and staying humble, even in the midst of success. I would say being rooted and grounded in my faith has helped me be successful, but at the same time, be humble, also just surrounding myself with a good support system, find people who believe in what I do, and encourage me along the way. I think sometimes we as women and girls, are constantly seeking validation from anyone and everyone, and that doesn't always work out. So it's important that you find a small community of people who believe in you, who will empower you and support you along your journey towards success. So those are my two key secrets.
Ruhi Ladwa
Lastly, what would you tell the girls who want to become the next generation of leaders?
Nma Emeh
Oh, wow, you have a lot of great questions. I would say, gain knowledge. Knowledge is power, knowledge is wealth. You've heard the term, knowledge is an asset. In other words, you want to gain assets. I'm sure by now you've learned about assets and liabilities. Assets help to, generate wealth.
And in the world of finance, we always tell people to accumulate assets. So I would say, accumulate knowledge. Be curious, and keep learning. No one can ever take your knowledge away from you. It goes with you wherever you want, wherever you can do whatever you want with it. No one can ever take your knowledge away. They can take a lot of things away, your self-esteem, and your self-confidence, but when you have knowledge, it will empower you to do great things. So I would say, be curious, read, study, gain knowledge, talk, go to workshops, anything that will give you new insights into what is going on in your world, that will definitely open up new doors and opportunities and even help you discover new things about yourself that you didn't know and that could lead to again, new opportunities to excel.
Ruhi Ladwa
Thank you so much for being on the Girl Power Unleashed Podcast. I'm sure our listeners learned very valuable, lessons and learnings from you!
Nma Emeh
Awesome. Thank you so much. I enjoyed being here, and if I can just close with one last thing to my girls, and this is what I tell both. I tell girls old and young, I want each and every girl to remember to own your expertise. In other words, that means you have earned your seats at the table, and you need to remember that your hard work, your dedication, and your wealth of knowledge have gotten you to where you are, and you need to let that shine. That is what brings out your unique self, and your voice deserves to be heard, so please do not ever let anyone diminish it.
Ruhi Ladwa
Thank you so much. Once again, that was a really powerful message for our listeners.
Nma Emeh
Thank you.
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