At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. As part of this endeavour, we invited Madiha Shah Rasool for an exclusive interview with us. She is a Leader, Entrepreneur, Image Consultant, Coach, Influencer and Mentor. Let’s learn more about her incredible journey, her background, and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Madiha:
We are aware of your contributions to the ecosystem; take us through your background and your journey, please;
My professional journey has been long and productive. It has helped me pollinate ideas across the age groups of 4 to 20 years of students in the Industry of Education.
Have been fortunate to choose teaching as a profession and be with the young minds that kept me young and energetic, while imparting education.”
After my graduation from The CCSU Meerut, U.P. I got the opportunity to work for my alma mater as a teacher in the kindergarten and primary section, where I worked for a decade, giving my best strokes and was highly popular. The second inning was with middle school students, where I served as the coordinator.
Then came the time for a sabbatical, after which I was offered an opportunity to serve as the HOD for their Soft Skills department by a prestigious engineering college.
Currently, I am working for my own organization as a professional Image Consultant and Soft Skills Trainer. I am a Life Coach professionally certified by Image Consulting Business Institute, New Delhi.
These opportunities helped me gain a lot of knowledge as I never ceased from studying and learning.
How did you discover your passion in ‘Coaching’?
Through iterative planning intertwined with continuous shifts in execution. Over the last 24 years, I have taken up jobs in numerous institutions in my areas of interest. Among those, I simply gave up working on the activities I didn’t feel like pursuing in the long term.
In due course of time, these initiatives helped me identify the areas of my core passion – Consulting and Training on Grooming & Behavior. It was essential for me to arrive and explore what really resonated with my personality and life choices.”
How do you manage to keep going despite the challenges? What drives you?
Empowering and challenging the myths, stereotypes about the wellness journey to have self-awareness, courage and deep knowledge of my area of interest is the therapy to live a life of respect, dignity and treat others with the same ethical principles is my drive to work in this field.
I believe in empathy, being compassionate and open-minded. I know that all people are capable of change and so I try my best to influence and inspire them with my positive and bright ways and the never say die attitude. It is important to understand people are shaped by their experiences and circumstances.
At Madiha Image Consulting we envision a world in which all people have access to inside-out transformation, that can help them improve their physical, mental and emotional health and achieve harmony.”
Upscaling through their Appearance, Behavior, Communication first and then projecting an Image that is successful, happy and popular helps our clients to stand out.
Who do you believe has been the biggest source of motivation in your daily life?
My life has been a blessing with my pillars of strength and great support – my siblings, my husband and my sons, who are constantly feeding me back and encouraging me.
My own die-hard attitude and inspirational aura keeps me going.
What are some of the strategies that you believe have helped you grow as a person?
There are a few:
> Being mindful
> Always being resourceful
> Taking extreme ownership and responsibility for my actions Courage
> Being grounded and humble
> Being dedicated and passionate
Please share with us, how do you motivate your clients?
The focus is to help individuals heal, energize and become aware of their inner strengths, through our strong positive vibes. We at Madiha Image Consulting achieve this by providing a neutral safe space, listening to our clients patiently and instilling the trick of Affirmations. From our first meeting itself, we encourage our clients to Self-Evaluate. Communication to me is a very important scenario to improve motivation.
Listening to the needs of your client is very important, otherwise, thoughts cannot find their solutions. Also, fun is the most vital aspect of taking part in anything, and yet one of the hardest to achieve.
My work is to empower clients to take on responsibilities for their own self-development and show confidence in their abilities to achieve their goals.
What are the business mantras you have embraced as you sought to establish your success story?
Getting the right opportunity and performing to the best of your capability when you get that opportunity.
To get that opportunity, I present myself as a brand. I prepare myself to give in my best shot at each and every opportunity that comes my way.
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
My motivation comes from the feeling and power of being grateful and content at all times.
My passion and routine for physical fitness keeps me going and I indulge in a lot of self-care.
I am always well dressed and well turned out, which makes me look, feel and behave elegantly.
What about your journey makes it satisfying/exciting?
Getting great feedback from those who have been inspired through my social media content, through my coaching sessions/programs amps up my energy to deliver more value to them. Seeing shifts in them and in their journey makes it satisfying because I see their success as my success and their breakthroughs as mine. I am training and coaching at a global level and have clients from PAN India and all over the world.
More recently, I received the Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Award from MENTORx as a recognition of my contribution towards the nation’s development through the work I do in the education industry.
Getting conferred recognition for the work I do makes my work satisfying. It is less about the recognition and more because it serves as a reminder from the Universe that I am on the right path.
In your opinion, what are the keys to success?
I will say it straight that there are many factors but if you really have to have the key elements then to me these are the ones:
(a) Accepting & loving myself, High Self Esteem & Pride in myself.
(b) The 3 C’s – Confidence, Character and Communication
(c) Responsibility for my actions
(d) Standing up for myself
(e) Resourcefulness
(f) Curiosity
(g) Positive Attitude
(h) Setting powerful goals to give your brain a place to aim
(i) Taking massive action (execution) with consistency and belief
What advice would you give students and young professionals who want to have a successful career?
The most important thing is to be honest and hardworking. To establish productive daily habits. To keep a fitness regime and never being in a comfort zone.
Look at your profession not just as a job function, but as a collective domain comprising several job roles. You should be able to identify the key skills and personality traits required to succeed in the field you work for. You should have a passion and dedication, a hunger for growth.
Most early starters get impatient and need shortcuts, but they must realize that there are no shortcuts to success and they need to be consistent. Career decisions require a long view of what comes after and a good understanding of personal skills and ambitions. Make informed choices and build a professional life that empowers your lifestyle.
There is so much to be shared, but this conversation limits how much I can communicate on this platform. Students and young professionals regularly reach out to me on LinkedIn and various platforms with their specific queries.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
