1. The Hidden Shift That Made Me More Relatable and Tripled My Opportunities

Most successful leaders are the ones who master the art of being truly relatable, and Sophie reveals the simple, yet powerful framework to connect deeply with your audience.

In this episode, Sophie takes you behind her real-life story of transformation from feeling stagnant and unaligned in her coaching business and life to igniting her visibility by embracing her authenticity online. She shares how a candid moment in a bathtub sparked a pivotal shift, showing you how vulnerability and honesty can elevate your personal brand faster than you ever imagined.

You'll discover:

• How to craft stories that resonate by tapping into your human experience.
• The power of sharing raw, unpolished truths, even the ones that feel uncomfortable.
• Why deep scene-setting and emotional storytelling make your message unforgettable.
• How to bridge your story to your audience’s reality, building trust and loyalty.
• The crucial difference between embodying your highest self and pretending to be someone else.

If you're tired of feeling unseen online or stuck in polished, impersonal content, this episode is a must-listen. Perfect for emerging female leaders, entrepreneurs, and professionals ready to build a magnetic brand based on authenticity and connection.

Follow Sophie on Instagram: @iamsophiedimitra.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello guys, welcome to the Woman Who Speaks podcast. Wow, this is my first episode. Now I want to take you guys back to, I believe it was 2024. I used to have a podcast, and I published, I think, around maybe 20 episodes. And as the saying kind of goes, life got in the way. I had a lot of big life changes, leaving corporate, starting a business, moving country. And that's when I stepped away from the podcasting world. And I am so happy to be back and to be bringing forward this new mission that I have through my own podcast. And congrats for being along for the first episode. Now, before I get into today's topic, I wanted to just share really what my heart-centered mission with this podcast is because I've gone so deep into unpacking my own purpose in a way that I haven't before. And if you guys are new to my world, you're new to my social media or any of my platforms, let me introduce myself first of all. I am Sophie Fengaris. I was born and raised in the UK. I am a visibility coach to emerging female leaders who want to become more visible and want to reclaim their voice so that they can turn it into income and impact. And I am a keynote speaker, and this is my journey. This is my journey of reclaiming my own voice from being a child who loved performing, loved singing, loved acting, and completely shut her gifts off as she transitioned into her teenagers and into her 20s when she became a lawyer. And through that, it was my journey of discovering that law was not going to be my be-all end-all career, and it was my process of getting out of that career and really discovering who I was again, beneath all of that conditioning, beneath all of the all of the expectations that were placed on me as a child. And I am so passionate to help other women reclaim their voice, reclaim the feminine parts of them that are here to create in this world. The women who are change makers, very ambitious, just like me, have like a purpose and they're so driven. They want to wake up every day with that fire, that fire inside of them because they know they're here to impact. They're not here just to eat, sleep, and repeat. This is my mission, and I'm going to be bringing on some very special guests along the way. And for today's episode, we are going to be talking about relatability. This was a very off-the-cuff topic that I thought of today as I got into the office with my boyfriend. It's a Sunday that I'm recording this, and we we work on Sundays. Me and my boyfriend are both very hardworking, very driven individuals. And I said to myself very, very recently, Sophie, it's time to start your podcast again. And as I sat there, I was thinking about all the recent stories that I've been through, and relatability was the thing that came through me as I was making some notes on my notepad. Let me take you first of all to I believe it was February, February 2026. So a couple of months ago. We are um based in Canada, and it was his birthday, so I treated him to this hotel, and it was beautiful. I sat in the bathtub, and despite all the beauty and the beautiful snow outside, and the majestic windows in that bathroom, I just felt so sad, and a lack of presence in myself and in what was going on around me. And I just cried. I cried in the bathtub. The reason why I cried was because for me, business felt unaligned. My coaching business felt unaligned. I at the time was a high-ticket sales coach. It's still something that I do teach women how to sell high-ticket offers with confidence. But at that time, things just weren't working for me. I was stagnant, really. There was a lack of sales, a lack of new clients, things didn't seem to be just things didn't seem to be progressing in the way that I wanted them to progress. You know, when you feel this lack of alignment in your body, you can just feel it. And so that's what I felt. And I just sat there and cried, and my boyfriend came in and he said something to me. He said, Can I give you some honest advice? Or like, can I give you my honest take? And I said, Yes, of course. And he said, You are not being relatable. And I thought to myself, uh what do you mean? Of course I'm relatable. I've been through so many experiences in my life. I am putting myself out there, I'm posting twice a day, I'm following the rule book, I'm working hard. What do you mean? And he spoke about a recent observation that he had with a family friend who was scrolling through my content, saw me on their feed, and completely scrolled past me. And he's a very inquisitive human being. He always unpacks the truth on such a deep level that I can't even do myself. And he said to me, You're just not being relatable enough. People aren't stopping and watching you. And as annoyed as I was by that, because sometimes we have to hear things that we don't want to hear for us to progress. I sat there and I was thinking, okay, there has to be some truth in this. Because every time we have emotions, we have them for a reason. Because they're trying to draw out something inside of us that needs to come to the surface level. And for me, in at that moment, it was that there was a lack of alignment, and there was something that I had to change in order to start experiencing life in the way that I wanted to, which was you know, having more job opportunities, having more business opportunities, being more relatable online, building my online community, etc. So I took on board what he said, and I just started posting. Posting sometimes random stuff about my life, about living in Canada because I used to live in Dubai, so like the transitions, more about like, you know, my inner honest truths, the more vulnerable sides of me. Whenever I would get a moment, just post. And it took about three weeks, maybe four weeks, when my life started changing in such a short amount of time. And when I say it changed, I just mean there were more opportunities that came my way. I had podcast invites, I had people coming into my DMs, connecting with me, and just that they they resonated with my content, and so they would connect with me on social media. I had job opportunities alongside growing and running my business, which have been fantastic. Business opportunity, a very exciting business opportunity, which I'll explain more in upcoming episodes. And suddenly things just started moving faster for me. And that is why I feel passionately now about this topic of relatability. Because if you want to be an emerging leader, if you want people to follow you, be inspired by you, come on the mission with you, you need to be relatable. We have to meet people where they are, and relatability is such an off-the-cuff word. So I started going down a bit of a rabbit hole with what does relatability mean? How do we become relatable as a leader in business or in corporate, whatever it journey is that you are on. So I put together a little framework for you guys, and I want this to spark some new ideas for you. Whatever journey you're on right now, I want it to spark some ideas for you that you can start implementing as soon as you stop listening to this recording. The first one is all about human experience. This is the world, ladies and gentlemen, of storytelling. I don't profess to be an expert at storytelling. I'm on this journey myself of learning more about what storytelling is and how to be even better at it. I would say if you want to become an expert at storytelling, you need to have a very active presence on LinkedIn because LinkedIn is the perfect place for storytelling in written format. Not saying that you can't do that on Instagram and TikTok and whatever else, but I find from my own journey that my storytelling skills started improving as soon as I got onto LinkedIn. And of course, if you want to be a speaker, you need to be good at storytelling. So, human experience, this is number one, this is how you become more relatable. You need to draw on all of those experiences that you've had in your life and use them in your content or in, you know, when you're talking to people in person as the way that you can relate to them. We all have experiences that we've been through that have been tough, that have been tricky, that have been the best. You know, the sunshine and rainbows. We all have those things, but we tend to forget what those experiences are. I know I do personally, but this is where the nuggets can be. Maybe you had an experience where you were really nervous before you went into a meeting, and you used to swear, you used to get uncomfortable, maybe you stumbled a few times as you were giving that presentation, and now you're this person who's really confident at it. And now you mentor other people in corporate to become more confident in meetings. So you may decide to use your own experiences in your life where you've maybe felt uncomfortable being in front of a crowd, or you know, going up to deliver a presentation, or maybe you were that kid at school that would almost pee themselves whenever they had to do some kind of drama class, whatever it is. We all have experiences that are relevant to the mission that we bring here in the now, in our businesses and in our careers. And the nugget of uh the golden nugget I want to give you guys is you need to start writing those experiences down. So I don't like to sit down and make um storytelling, contents, whatever I'm trying to do or create. I don't like to sit down and do it. For me, I get inspiration whenever I'm doing something else. So maybe it's the laundry, maybe it's doing my makeup in the morning, maybe I'm in the shower, and I just write certain experiences and memories down that I could then utilize as stories to really get across what my overall message is that I want people to take away. So this is how you become relatable, is number one. You need to share more about your human life experiences, and you need to make them as honest and raw as possible, but do it from a leadership perspective. So there's one thing to say, yeah, I, you know, the let me talk about the time that I wore my t-shirt backwards and I went on this date. And you might start unraveling the story and talk about it as this really nervous person who wasn't able to like impress their date, and maybe you know, it all went downhill from there. Or you could be the person that talks about that experience and say how you used it to be be an inspiration and be be a good human. You know, I laughed it off, we were on this date, we had a good chat, I didn't let it affect my confidence, and the other person found it so funny that we actually went on a second date. So the point is you have to use your experiences and talk about them as the wounded healer, not the wounded healer, like in the moment who is still going through the pain, if that makes any sense. That's number one. Number two is if you want to be relatable, you have to reveal truths that not many people are talking about. This leads on from number one. So there are things out there that we feel comfortable posting or talking about, sharing online, in person, and there are uncomfortable things that you know when before you press send, you're like, ah, that feels so uncomfortable. I don't want to post about that. Those are usually the golden nuggets of the things that we are meant to be talking about. And look, I'm a sucker for this. I sometimes don't like to push myself too far enough and post stuff that maybe feels a little bit raw for me too. Um, one experience that I can actually think of right now is when I uh I moved from Dubai to Canada and I moved to my parents', no, my boyfriend, sorry, that's a tongue twister, my boyfriend's parents' basement. Yep. I went from this beautiful apartment in Dubai. I can't remember how many square feet it was. I'm not good with square feet, but it was a huge apartment. I had my own wardrobe, I had everything I wanted in there, and I moved to Canada to be with my boyfriend, and I moved into his parents' home because that has been our starting point before we find our own place. And that would make a very good story on LinkedIn, Instagram, whatever. I've spoken about it here and there, but not to the fullest extent. Because for me, even that feels uncomfortable. Oh gosh, I'm sharing some very raw and you know, honest stuff here. And the thing is that we can be sometimes too concerned about what other people think of us and how we're perceived. But the point is, there is always a hidden truth that not enough people talk about online, but it's those nuggets of things that make you a leader because people look at you and think, oh, you know what? I'm totally the same as you. I totally understand. I've been there before, I'm going through that experience right now, and they're more inclined to follow you compared to the person who is quite surface level and speaks about things on a very surface level. So let's say, for example, you are a business coach and you always talk about, like, you know, this is the content that's gonna help you get clients, this is the content that's gonna, you know, this is how you can um start making content so you can get more leads or whatever. That stuff is obviously very, very valuable and useful for a specific audience. And then there's also the content that shows you maybe some maybe some experiences you've been through in your life where you've posted content um that was a bit embarrassing, or maybe you know, you you made a mistake in your business, you did something wrong, um, it was a real big setback for you. Maybe it was the time that you made no income in a month, and the lessons that you took from that, you know, there that there is one thing to post tips, advice, tricks, but I feel that the way we're moving now, especially in the age of AI, is people want to see more raw, honest stuff about your life, not all the polished versions of you, the 10k months, the um all the amazing opportunities that you've landed. They want to see, excuse my language, the shit. They want to see the crap that you have been through and how you got there. That is what makes a leader. It's not, oh, you know, I made this amount of money, I've done this amount of stuff, been on this amount of stages. Great, but what did you do to get there? How did you pull yourself out of the mud and the obstacles to get to that point? That's what people care about more because that is life. We do not live a life where we get everything we want straight away. It takes grit, it takes hard work, and that is how you become a leader. So when you can share those experiences and sometimes they will feel uncomfortable, that is when you connect with your tribe and more people start to connect with you. So that is number two. So again, from the first two points I've put in here, I want you guys to start journaling every day or keep a section in your notes tab on your phone where you write down all of these honest and raw experiences you've been through in your life that relate to whatever your you know business is or whatever mission you have, whatever you're trying to share, how you can start incorporating that into your writing, your speaking, your content, whatever it is that you're doing right now. That is all you need to do, and then you need to commit to actually implementing it and putting it out there into the world. Now, number three. Number three. I'm actually just checking my notes here, guys, so don't don't uh don't fault me for that because I just created this today. Okay, number three, and I'm kind of like, see, this all integrates together is storytelling, creating the scenes. Again, I'm gonna say it, very recent skill that I've been incorporating into everything I do is there is a difference between telling someone a story where you're saying, Yeah, so I went to this cafe and we did this thing, I ordered this um steak, it made my gut feel a bit uncomfortable. I went home, uh, started getting cramps, and yeah, and that's when I realized that gut is really important for you and it's your second brain. Okay, there's a difference between that story and the story that me and my boyfriend we went to this restaurant, it was beautiful, I could smell all the aroma and the scents of the steak. We sat down, we were greeted by this amazing, amazing, um, this amazing waiter, and he presented us with this menu. I decided to go for this steak. I felt so excited, and as I devoured that steak, something shifted in my body, and my face dropped, and my boyfriend could see it, and that's when I started feeling really uncomfortable, I didn't know what was going on, and we didn't even get to dessert. That is how fast I had to leave that table. So, like you can see, there's a big difference, and I just made that story completely up by the way, but you can see the difference in number two. I went deeper into the storytelling, setting the scene, creating the image in your head of me in that moment. Now, there are parts of storytelling that are relevant and parts that aren't, but when you can create that scene for someone and really set it for them, they they really listen because they feel like they're in that experience with you. So it's one thing to talk about something and try and get the message across, it's another thing to actually bring someone on that journey with you. That's how you become more relatable. So let's talk about if you're doing content, for example, if there is a specific thing that you've been through and there was a moment where you had this inner breakthrough, let's say it was when you were driving your car. Instead of just saying, Yeah, I was in my car and I had this realization that being a mum is actually a great thing in business because blah blah blah blah blah. Instead of that, go deep into the feelings and emotions that you had in that moment. I sat in my car, I slumped and sighed out some relief as I dropped my kids off at nursery. Contemplating out of all the things I've got on my list, what do I need to do first? Where does the money need to come from to grow my business as I support my children? And as I started driving, I saw this glimmer of the Sun beaming down my face, and something told me to stop my car at the side of the road. So I did, right? So, like, that is so much more inviting, and already you're you're with me. So, I invite you to get into that habit of creating that scene like a story. And as when you do that, you become a better speaker, not just content creator or writer. It feeds into everything that you do in how you can relate to someone and how they stay connected with you and they stay along for the journey and don't just scroll past you. Okay. Now, point four is you need to bridge to the audience. So, whatever you're doing, you have to relate it back to the audience. And again, this is something I'm always working on more and more and more is whatever I'm writing, whatever I'm doing, how is this person gonna connect it to their life? Because we can talk about our own experiences and what we've been through, but we need to help someone see it through their lens. So, for example, when I'm talking about, you know, as a child, I was so expressive, I loved performing, I loved acting, and as I grew up, I hid all those sides of myself to become a lawyer because I thought that was my only path. And as a result of that, I felt a lack of confidence, I was so I was like a hidden shell of my own self. I was numb every day, I had no purpose, um, etc. etc. How I'm gonna relate this to someone in front of me, and that depends on who is in front of me, is you know, I might say something like, if you've ever been in that space where you've been in a job that you don't love, and you've forgotten who you were, you've forgotten what else to do with your life, or maybe it's like, you know, if you were that person that was so expressive as a kid, and now you you're just so shy and so confident when you talk in front of people, you know, like you can play around with it, but the point is you need to bridge that gap and relate, bring it back to people, you know. If you've been through this, if you're someone that's going through X, Y, Z, maybe you've had a time where you struggled with blah blah blah blah blah blah. Those kinds of bridges then help that person see how they can relate to you in the story, okay? That's how you bring relatability in to whatever it is that you're doing. So get into the habit of using those kind of rhetorical statements to draw people in. You know, maybe you, if in front of people you might say, Who in this room has ever experienced burnout in corporate? Raise your hand, something like that. Or give me a hell yeah, if you're someone that wants to impact more people through your social media, and people in the audience are like, hell yeah, you know, like you've got that audience interaction too. That's how you become more relatable. So that's the bridge. Now, number five, and I've saved this for last because it is so so important, and it's something that it was probably the biggest takeaway for me as I was sat in that bathtub, and you know, my boyfriend gave me that kind of statement, you know, you're not relatable enough. And I thought, what what do you mean? I'm working so hard, and I sobbed in that bathtub even more. Is you need to be you, and I wasn't being myself. I was showing up in my business as someone else. Now there is a difference between you being someone else and you being your highest self, okay? When you are embodying your highest self, you're being the version of you that you already are in the 4D world and you're bringing it into this reality. There's a difference between that and then being someone you're not. So maybe you're, you know, in my case, I was pretending to be like this polished business coach that had everything put together and knew exactly what she was doing when I didn't at certain points. I didn't know what I was doing, and I was, you know, putting my content out in a certain way, just like other coaches, because I thought that's what I had to do. And for me that didn't work. Okay, so there's a difference, okay? There's a there's a big difference here, and so you need to be you as ambiguous as that sounds. What does that mean? It means you need to do the deep inner work to understand like what is my brand? Who am I? Who am I when I'm on that stage? Who am I when I'm talking to my best friend? And you may have different versions of yourself. So, like, for example, this the the stage version of me is someone that's very extroverted, very bold, very energetic. But the friend version of me is more calm, more inquisitive, um, goes deeper into asking questions. You know, I'm more relaxed, there's a difference. But you need to express yourself honestly and openly, and don't compare yourself to what other people are doing online or in person. It's so easy to look at someone successful and think, okay, let me just copy them. And don't get me wrong, I like to take nuggets of inspiration and I like to save posts and ideas and think about how I can incorporate this into my own business and whatever I'm doing with my personal brand. But the end at the end of the day, you need to come back to your own inner truth. So if you're someone that's very extroverted and you love to make jokes, you love to perform or whatever, if you're pretending to be introverted, um, to be serious, to be polished on social media, for example, that's not you, and that's not gonna work. You will not land clients, you will not land opportunities, and you won't be able to enjoy the process because that's the most important thing. So the being you aspect is really going deep into understanding your brand, understanding what is what is my highest self on social media, how can I get myself out there in a way that feels authentic to me, even if it feels cringy, even if it feels like you're different, even if it feels okay, well, no one else is doing this, great. Because that is you. When I started posting more honest stuff about my life, more opinions that I had on certain things in the coaching industry, in life in general, in the corporate space, that's when I started getting more traction because people could relate to that on some level, and even the very irrelevant things, or the things that I thought were irrelevant, like, yeah, I'm reading this book right now, or you know, oh, this trip that I went on, people can relate to stuff like that, and so they want to follow you on their journey, and that's why I'm actually quite a big believer in just share whatever is going on in your life, even if it does feel irrelevant, share it. Now, there will be business coaches out there that will say, you know, you've got to link it back to your business, you've got to link it back to your products or your offer, whatever it is that you're doing. I say scrap that. Because your personal brand is not just your business anymore, it is your life, and there is a boundary between what you want to share and what you don't want to share, but your business and you as your brand are interlinked, there is no separability and there is nothing irrelevant. Okay, now it's it is one thing to maybe post about, I don't know, childcare products, and one day you decide to post about your dog. Now that's great if you want to post it as a one-off or whatever. But if you start posting all this random stuff, then of course your audience is gonna get confused about what it is that you actually do. Okay, so there is a distinction there, but like bring people on your journey of being you. You have certain experiences, certain challenges, certain things that you will go through in your life for a reason, and it's for you to bring those sides of you out. So there's a lot of experimentation that happens because you will constantly keep reinventing yourself, keep thinking of new ideas, keep thinking, okay, what else do I want to share? But that's the point. So those are the five steps, and if there's anything you can take away from this, it's that you can have an endless amount of content, things you want to share, things you want to write, things you want to speak about or create when you write stuff down at very, very random points, and then you express it, then you use it, just like I have today, with my story in that bathtub, thinking, oh my god, my business and my life, like what the hell am I doing? To then changing everything in the space of four weeks. Because I just made that shift, and that shift for me was becoming more relatable to my audience, to the people following me on social media, and to the people that see me in person too. So, guys, I trust that you've found a lot of value from this episode today. I'm so excited to bring on guests, bring on so many more people along the ride. Stay tuned, there'll be so much more stuff coming out, and this is only the start. And I want you guys to get more comfortable with being visible, with being seen, with being you and being relatable through your social media, through your brand, through your speaking. Because that is how you become a leader, and that is how you find your tribe. Alright, guys, thanks guys for listening, and I will see you again soon.