Welcome to SpeakUP! With Rita Burke and Elton Brown!
Rita Burke:Mariama it is such a delight. It is such a treat. It is so wonderful to have you as guest today. on SpeakUP!, let me our audience a little bit about this young woman whom I've known for a bit now. She says she's a native to Toronto. And she currently lives in Vancouver with her husband and two boys. She is a marketing professional would have vast intrepreneurial background. She also loves to support community development projects and aspiring young entrepreneurs. So during her free time, you can find Mariama with her children enjoying the outdoors. And we asked Mariama to provide us with a quotation and I was truly fascinated with the quotation to give to us. It says for, we walk by faith and not by sight. Tell us a little bit more about your quotation Mariama.
Mariama Barrie:Of course. And I just want to say thank you both for having me on your show. I follow what you guys are doing and it's honestly amazing just to highlight people and their stories. The quote I chose really speaks to how I move through life. Which is just trusting the process. A lot of times we plan and we plan, I myself, I'm a huge planner and God always reminds me that we can plan and we can plan, but I'm the one in control. So I just have to, relinquish control sometimes and just trust the process and, lead by faith and not by sight, really.
Rita Burke:Fascinating. I like that. You have to sometimes relinquish the plan and follow the directions, so to speak. Could you give us an example? You don't necessarily have to be personal when you have to relinquish that plan.
Mariama Barrie:Yeah, I think I had a planned outlook on my life. After I had my first born, that I would jump back into the workforce and work in the marketing field for about three to five years and really develop a lot more experience to then take that to the next level. And hopefully be a director in a pretty reputable company. And by surprise, I had my second. And even before that, I noticed that I was extending my maternity leave. I initially planned to be on mat leave for a year. And that turned into two years because I was just enjoying being a mom. Sometimes we were fighting with ourselves and having this perfect. You know plan on, you know, what I'm going to do in year one, year two, sometimes some of us do it by season, as January 1st for all, trying to stick to this long list of new year resolutions and sometimes you just let go yourself and you find that, hey, I'm really enjoying where I am right now. My life. And you just let it carry you through. And that's what I did with my first born. I really enjoyed him for a lot longer than the time that I originally allotted for him and I have no regrets.
Elton Brown:I noticed that you said that, you elongated the time that you were on maternity leave. During that time period, did you find yourself trying to figure out how you were going to juggle work and home life?.
Mariama Barrie:Yes. And I think that's a constant juggle for me. I love mothering and family life and this new chapter of my life but to balance that with my love for work and professionalism and me just exploring different career paths has sometimes been a pull and tug. But I think when I take my time with it and as I said, I float through this gradual process of first getting one thing done path, which is my home because I can't do anything outside of my home if I don't have my home in order. If my child is pulling, crazy and he doesn't have some sort of routine and schedule, then everything. I think that I try to do professionally or personally, it just won't work. So just making sure that I take care of one moving on to the next and then moving onto the next.
Rita Burke:So it sounds to me as if your parenting is intentional, have you ever given some thought to that? Talk to us about.
Mariama Barrie:Yeah, I think intentionality is a core of me. I think being successful so far as a parent, I really tried to, think through how I plan to raise my child. In terms of environment in terms of the bond that we share and the activities that we do together. Because I have, of course, like every parent does, sometimes by accident I have, I envisioned him to be a certain person have a certain personality. We all want our kids to grow up with respect, humility, patience. So I try to instill those in him now, by how we interact and how I intentionally build up this, this routine is in the schedule for him. Right? Making sure that I infuse those core elements of character into what I do with him and how I kind of plan out his day-to-day because for right now I do have a bit of control of what that looks like.
Elton Brown:Do you find that parenting you gain a lot of skills. Do you see how those skills would be used in the work force?
Mariama Barrie:Absolutely. I would say the number one skill that I developed more so than I have in the past is patients. And right now, as I mentioned, I'm on mat leave, but when I go back to work, I'm managing a team of four as the marketing manager at our firm. And it's in the event or events industry. Sorry. So it's just boom, one thing after the next one thing after the next. And sometimes, I'm not able to really sit down and look at the system, the systems that we have in place to see if they're actually working on and reflect. So I think going back, I may have a different outlook on how I take time to reflect and see how we can optimize certain systems and be a little bit more efficient in how we do things operationally, because of this experience I'm having with now two kids and how they're pushing me to be more patient.
Rita Burke:There's no question that they teach you how to be a parent don't they, if you have an open heart and an open mind, they teach you how to best practices of parenting. I quite agree with you. So now in your bio Mariama, you did not tell us that you used to be a Toastmaster. I'm not sure if that's by default or by design, but I know you're a little secret that you used to be a Toastmaster. So tell us about that and how perhaps it has impacted influenced your life. Tell us a little bit about that.
Mariama Barrie:Absolutely. I was a Toastmaster for about seven years and how I started on my Toastmaster journey. And I'm still calling it a journey because I do look forward to going back, hopefully in the near future, it started because I was moving up in my career and more opportunities were brought to me that required me to do some public speaking. And although I used to do it casually, it wasn't something that I would do for work. I would do it in terms of, chairing events, local stuff, but nothing where it required it to be part of my employment. So I told my boss, I said, listen, I don't know if I'll be able to make presentations. And pitch ideas to a group of people outside of our organization. I actually don't have the courage to do this. And he said to me, he said you got to figure it out because if you want to, move up in this company, this is something that you need to become familiar with and comfortable with, and, I went back home sweating. I don't think I could sleep at night even. Then I was like, oh my God, like, how am I going to put this off? I may be unemployed. So I was, really pushed on improving the skill of mine. So I was, frantically online trying to do some research and find out what do people who are in my position do to improve. Your public speaking skills more gain confidence with making presentations. So I came across an organization called Toastmasters online. And then I seen that it's a international organizations and there's clubs, literally all over the world. So of course I tried to find some of my local community and I was surprised to find several. And it was amazing to find one that I thought spoke to me the most, which was Ebony Toastmasters. And I went for. A visit. I was a guest and I was welcomed with open arms and I watched them, run through a meeting from start to finish and I wasn't blown away. There were people, professionals like me sharing a space. Encouraging one, another giving feedback, constructive feedback. And I can see in front of my eyes improving. And I was just, really blown away by that whole experience. And from there, I asked to be signed up and that's where my journey started.
Elton Brown:When do you think your boss could see the transformation don't know where she's going I can't find her way to this very confident woman who could stand and talk to anyone.
Mariama Barrie:Yeah, I think they saw it when I had to make a presentation to a few city councils started city councilors at a donation breakfast lunch, and I stood up.
Elton Brown:How long had you been a Toastmaster by then?
Mariama Barrie:So for seven years, seven years. Yeah. So by that time, I think it was maybe six months or so six months. Seven or eight months. Yeah. So it was a quick a quick jump into showcasing that, Hey, I'm putting what I've learned in my Toastmaster meetings actually. So yeah, it was that a donation breakfast lunch, and I had to open up the presentation and introduce our guest speaker, which was a city what the city counselor. And yeah I was able to pull it off and I remember my boss pulling me aside and saying, I see that you're still a little bit nervous and that's okay. Nervousness is a sign that you actually care about what you're talking about. And I took that and it made me look at. Fear of public speaking in a different light. And furthermore, to that point, I recall one of the founders of Ebony Toastmasters who happens to be Rita's husband Sam Burke, Mr. Sam Burke, he mentioned once in a meeting, he said, all the butterflies that you're feeling will eventually learn how to fly in formation. And that's really what developing confidence as a public speaker is learning how to do. Those butterflies will always be there, but in time they'll learn to fly in formation. When I do get nervous before speaking, even today, those are the two things that I always keep at the top of my mind. And it helps me relax and go out there and actually delivered.
Rita Burke:Well, Mariama you've been so eloquently articulate. In talking about yourself and your job and your mothering and your Toastmasters experience, I would love for us to continue, but given the restrictions we've got in terms of time, I want to say a huge thank you to you for honoring us with your presence. And you never know. There may be another opportunity for you to speak. Elton. Is there anything you want to say before we bring this to a close?
Elton Brown:I have to say right off the bat, when you first started talking, I could see that you had been through had, that you are a Toastmaster. I'm hoping that you will continue your Toastmaster journey. I can, I could only imagine where you would be in another six months of. educational support. And with that, I'm going to stay. Thank you. I want to say thank you to to Rita as well for her presence without her. I don't know. where we be anyway at any rate, I'm going to say good night to everyone. Thanks to you, our listeners. And we'll be back soon with the. Another individual, you bring us a conversation at SpeakUP!. Thank you for listening to SpeakUP! To discover upcoming podcast, please go to www dot Toastmasters 60 six, zero.com under news and events. Look for the District 60 newsletter to locate the schedule.