With the life motto of “Impossible is an opinion, feel free to disagree, and carve out your own pathway to success.” Patience Ogunbona doesn’t allow herself to get held by fear and is championing for other women to step in the same direction. The Visionary Introverted Woman is an aligned business strategist, transformational coach, inspirational speaker, and many more roles. She believes her life as an introvert gave her purpose and motivation to encourage introverted women to stand out.
Patience has managed to build a corporate career before coaching women to transform their lives. She is relaunching her live show and Podcast called – The Visionary Introverted Woman Show, which targets strengthening self-acceptance and self-care in women.
“When I found out I was introverted and embraced my truth, this truth gave me purpose and permission to be me, do me, and impact the world through me.”
How was your career before coaching?
I was a Chartered Internal Auditor for over 15 years working across various organisations from SMEs to Large Corporations in both the Public and Private Sector Space. My last employment was within Financial Services Lloyd’s Market. I am a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Internal Auditor.
What led you to transition to this path?
The main catalyst for transitioning was realising I had other interests and was underutilising my potential. In addition, after my mum died I re-evaluated my life and asked myself whether I was truly living and fulfilling my purpose? I had set aside a three-year plan to transition. I was able to achieve what I desired within 18 months and make the decision to become an entrepreneur.
What inspired your motto “Impossible is an opinion, feel free to disagree, and carve out your own pathway to success”?
I grew up in a very controlled environment that was governed by fear of failure and danger. This shaped how I saw the world, although, in reality, I am adventurous and spontaneous. I became very cautious and calculating with life.
I like to say “my I can’t muscle got strengthened by fear, opinion of others and limiting beliefs.” As a result of personal awareness and growth, I began to live more and take chances. I was also able to unapologetically define what success means to me and decide to go for it.
To continue to facilitate my curiosity, creativity and risk-taking abilities I coined the phrase “Impossible is an opinion, feel free to disagree, and carve out your own pathway to success”.
How can transforming our life help us succeed in different aspects? Business? Love?
Life transformation is a component of self-leadership. If you have a goal you aim to reach, it means you need to become the person that will achieve that goal. It is not just a series of processes to follow, but a change and shift in how you do things that will lead to goal achievement. This is because your current reality shows what you can accomplish with who you are and what you have right now. But your goals are a representation of what you are yet to achieve, so you need to discover how you will achieve them. This is where the transformation takes place.
Transformation increases your capacity to be, do and have more. The more you seek to transform the more you achieve self-actualisation.
You have given speeches in Orlando, Las Vegas, the UK, Nigeria, and Costa Rica and have won numerous awards. Have you always had this confidence, and where did your speaking journey begin?
I didn’t have speaking confidence. I didn’t discover my potential for speaking until my mum died and I had to give a speech to the crowd to honour her. In my grief I found the strength to speak.
I also carried out a personality and strength-based assessment. This showed my innate communication abilities as above the average. After I signed up to the Maxwell Leadership Team, which trains you to become a coach, speaker and trainer, I began to build up my confidence to speak and train others. The feedback I got from people as they listened to me speak, motivated me to carry on developing my speaking capabilities.
What advice would you give to women who are working on their confidence?
Start by acknowledging and accepting that you lack confidence, don’t try to “fake it until you make it”.
Seek out an understanding of why you lack confidence and what you need to build confidence for. Go ahead and then find out what it will take i.e training, practice, accountability, stepping out and “doing things afraid”. Make sure to align with people and be in an environment that will help to nurture you and build your confidence. Most importantly play to your strengths and keep growing, when you do this, confidence is developed. Fight to find and use your voice for a purpose.
Why the passion and focus on helping introverted female entrepreneurs? How does it connect with your story?
My passion stems from the desire to be a catalyst for change and transformation in the lives of women, by helping them leverage their innate strengths and personality to thrive and leave a legacy of wealth. As an introvert myself, I have had to face and overcome challenges because I am introverted.
As a child, I felt odd and misunderstood. I went through life apologising for being me and hated myself for it. Questions like, why can’t I be more outgoing, why can’t I speak out more or often, and why can’t I be the life and soul of the party etc, these questions plagued me. But when I found out I was introverted and embraced my truth, this truth gave me purpose and permission to be me, do me, and impact the world through me.
This freedom is what I want for other female introverts like myself. The start of the pandemic gave me a chance to reflect and focus on making a difference.
In addition, I carried the dream and desire for entrepreneurship for over 15 years and was held back by fear and lack of mentorship. Now I want to help other women accelerate the accomplishment and building of their dreams.
What do you hope to achieve with your podcast for introverted women?
My passion is to speak to women and get them to arise and realise themselves to fly. Provide insights that will help them understand themselves better. To find the courage to lead themselves first and then others. I talk about self-awareness, self-acceptance, self-care, self-leadership, strategies, strengths and superpowers and all of these will be translated to creating an impactful presence both on and offline, positioning in the market and building a sustainable and profitable business and life.
How can coaching change your mindset?
Coaching is a change enabler. When a person holds some deep-rooted core beliefs, this can be hidden in their subconscious. On their own, they might not be able to go deep enough to uncover it fully, however with help from a coach and the right questioning techniques and frameworks, a person is not only able to gain awareness of what is holding them back or sabotaging their success, but they are also able to come up with ways of developing the right mindset. The coach can suggest tools, techniques, practices and routines to aid this process.
When I work with my clients I help them develop self-awareness, understand their identity and core beliefs that are holding them back from success, and give them tools and strategies to create a success pathway by developing a healthy self-image and mindset for success.
What is the most effective way for someone to change their mindset and outlook for the better?
Change is a process, but every change starts with a decision and then the process you put in place helps you manage that decision daily. For example, If you decide to quit smoking, the day you make that decision, you have set a change in motion. However, if you don’t have a strategy in place to make sure that each time you get an urge to smoke, or are around any smoking triggers, you can deploy your strategy, then you are in for a quick relapse to what feels comfortable.
It is the same for any change or habit, there has to be a decision, success strategy, and accountability/support for the difficult times. This will help you achieve successful and sustainable change.
