"Are you Fanni?! I recognize your voice!"

🥹

My accent felt like a *huge* disadvantage in the first 3 years of my career.

I compensated for it with 10-12 hour work days - I could not sound like everyone else, but I could outwork them.

White men executives have openly made fun of how I spoke (trying to imitate my accent in meetings,) or told me we had language barriers for the slightest grammatical errors I made.

About 4 years into recruiting, being different started to be an advantage.

8 years in, it became a superpower.

I had a coaching consultation with Aimée Ogbonna during the pandemic.

I tried to recruit her for a media role later, but we have never met in person - until this Saturday SXSW when I came across the Little Words Project popup at The Female Quotient lounge and she recognized my voice...

It was a full circle moment, so I bought this bracelet from her. Time will always tell.

Thank you Aimée for the reminder.

🫶