Building INFLUENCE through role models: seeking them & being them. Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, founder Inspiring Girls International #ThisLittleGirlIsMe (Episode 162)

THIS WEEK’S TOPIC: We are digging into the importance of role models and mentors — seeking them, being them, and WHY taking a BROADER VIEW of the concept “ROLE MODEL” can help us BUILD GREATER INFLUENCE!  Wherever we sit, we have an opportunity to impact others — positively or negatively. Social media — for better or worse — offers endless opportunities for both.  Sharing our stories, our successes, our failures, and our advice and perspective, is a powerful tool for inspiring others and for building our own influence in ways that can have lasting impact.  This week I’ll introduce you to someone who’s doing an amazing job of that! She’s hoping you’ll join her!     THIS WEEK’S GUEST:  Miriam Gonzalez Durantez is the incredibly accomplished visionary behind #ThisLittleGirlIsMe social media campaign, and the founder of Inspiring Girls International, a global organization working to inspire young women to dream bigger by connecting them with role models and mentors. With a goal of using social media for good, Miriam believes leading by example is the best way to show girls (and frankly boys too) that anything is possible. It’s a strategy that’s simple, powerful, and effective! But that’s only one part of Miriam’s story. She’s had an amazing journey —from growing up in a small town in Spain where it was difficult to find female role models who were pursuing professions that challenged her and sparked her interests, to bucking conventional wisdom and expectations by pursuing a career in internal trade law and negotiation. Miriam’s accomplished career has included senior positions in the EU government and in law, and when her husband was elected UK’s Deputy Prime Minister, she faced down the British tabloids’ obsession with what she was wearing, stayed true to herself, and maintained her own professional career and identity as a working mom of three. But, she also quickly realized that the increased visibility enabled her to create a bigger platform from which to inspire others, and from that Inspiring Girls