Hello, everyone. My name is Joanne Lockwood and I'm your host for the Inclusion Bites podcast. In this series, I have interviewed a number of amazing people and simply had a conversation around the subject of inclusion, belonging and generally making the world a better place for everyone to thrive. If you'd like to join me in the future, then please do drop me a line to jo.lockwood@seechangehappen.co.uk that's S-E-E Change Happen dot co dot uk. You can catch up with all of the previous shows on iTunes, Spotify and the usual places. So plug in your headphones, grab a decaf and let's get going. Today is Episode 80 with the title Beyond The Barriers, and I have the absolute honour and privilege to welcome Belinda Riley. Belinda describes herself as a diversity and inclusion consultant and also clinical hypnotherapist. When I asked Belinda to describe her superpower, she said that she truly cares and wants to get it right, not just feel like she's right, whilst also recognising her own privileges and using those to help others. Hello, Belinda, welcome to the show.

Hello, Joanne. Thank you very much for having me. It's lovely to see you again.

Yes, it's great to catch up. Belinda, tell me we're speaking in the green room, just full, went live, and we talk about beyond the barriers. What does that mean to you?

So, beyond the barriers for me, means a number of different things. And in my work, I also do a number of different things. But in essence, it's about going beyond the barriers of either limiting beliefs that people have that hold them back from really achieving their potential or thriving in all areas of their life. But it's also, in my consultancy work, it's around going beyond the barriers of inequality to make workplaces work for everyone.

So, limiting beliefs? Yeah. I think when we first met, probably about four or five years ago, I was probably going through a stage of my life where this sense of imposter syndrome, these limiting beliefs, these things hold you back, this little voice in your ear that says you can't, you can't, you can't. Many people suffer from that, don't they?

Oh, absolutely. And I'm fascinated, actually, about how impostor syndrome shows up for people. And I've done a lot of work in this area and there's lots of research in this space, and I think the research says that kind of 70% of women experience impostor syndrome, 40% of men. In my work, what I've kind of come across is realising that most people experience some form of impostor syndrome or have some kind of impostor feelings. That does hold them back. And often impostor syndrome can show up in loads of different ways of that idea of not feeling good enough, not feeling worthy enough, feeling like that you don't belong or that you're a fraud and someone's going to find out that you don't really know as much as what you say that aligns with what you're doing. But for me, more importantly, when I've looked closely into impostor syndrome, is seeing how much is being left on the table, how many great ideas, how much innovation, how many opportunities, how many ideas are people not following through because of those impostor feelings and those limiting beliefs and those words that they tell themselves? And it's inspired me to really think more broadly around that and how do I build awareness and kind of empower people to overcome those impostor feelings so that they can go on and achieve and thrive and realise and fulfil their potential?

So you said just now that proportionally more women experienced it than men. I also believe that it's kind of people from marginalised, minority or unheard voices backgrounds tend to be more is that down to socialisation more than anything or is that just is it nurturing, basically?