When Gifty Enright connected with me on LinkedIn I was immediately intrigued!
The unusual first name combined with the Irish surname was the first thing that grabbed my attention and then it was her short description of herself:
Keynote Speaker | Women’s Leadership & Workplace Wellbeing Expert | Author of Octopus on a Treadmill | Coach | NED | TEDx | Mother
Octopus on a Treadmill I thought!!
Assuming this woman had a lot of interesting things to say of course I invited her onto my podcast.
I really didn’t know what and who to expect and when she appeared on the Zoom call, as well as the formidable woman I was expecting I discovered a very warm, funny person.
We had a really great chat about her life and career and how she came about writing her book, ‘Octopus on a Treadmill’.
She told me that as a young woman growing up in Ghana she dreamt of having lots of shoes, big cupboards, and the trappings of success, so she moved to London to fulfil her dream. The Ghana she described to me sounds like a fantastic fun place and I did wonder why she never returned to live there permanently.
She quickly discovered that she missed that strong sense of community that she enjoyed in Ghana, but she dug deep and carved out a very successful career and life for herself in London complete with a family.
After a number of years with lots of hard work and career success this career mum hit a “Burnout” wall that she knew could not be solved with the medication that was being prescribed to her. While she was talking specifically about mums I think this happens to so many of us, and between a mix of the enticing corporate ladder and too much ambition, it can end up squeezing the life out of you.
As an avid reader who was determined to get better, she did lots of deep research to try to find a sustainable solution to her life situation and she found this through a mix of Western Science, Indian Philosophy and African Wisdom. She started to apply what she learnt and after just three months she was on the road to recovery and hasn’t looked back since.
She wrote the book to share what she learned so that other busy career mums (I think we should all read it) who are constantly juggling don’t hit the same burnout wall that she did.
As well as being an author, she became a public speaker and a coach and she doesn’t care so much about those shoes anymore!
I also learnt that her husband is from Kiskeam in County Cork and she loves to holiday in Ballyheigue in Kerry.
We also had a big chat about working from home and the huge difference that this flexibility can make in people’s lives.
You can listen to my chat with Gifty on the WinHappy podcast here (or on any of the podcast platforms).
Greg
Greg Canty is the Managing Partner of Fuzion, a Brand Communications Agency in Ireland with offices in Dublin and Cork.
Greg Canty Fuzion Blog 