An Interview with Women in Leadership’s Campaign Manager Urmi Hossain

Urmi Hossain has built an incredible career in the financial sector, fueled by her passion for empowering others through knowledge and opportunity. Growing up in Italy as part of a Bengali Household, she witnessed how cultural and societal expectations dictate the future of a woman. Determined to pave the way for women in the community, she embraced learning and education as a way to overcome challenges and unlock possibilities. Her drive and motivation encouraged her to complete a degree in Finance as well as earn several acclaimed designations such as the CFA and CAIA. Today, she leverages her expertise to mentor, educate, and advocate for women’s empowerment and break barriers one step at a time.

“The power of sisterhood is huge. The more mentorship programs we have, the more the women in the community can feel inspired, motivated, and encouraged to pursue their dreams.” – Urmi Hossain

Takeaways:

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Can you start by introducing yourself and telling us in your words, about your inspiring story?

My name is Urmi Hossain, an ambitious and driven woman who works in the financial sector and pursues many interests. I am currently involved with two non-profit organizations called: Women in Leadership where I serve as the Social Media Lead and Femme Influence where I serve as the Campaign Manager.

My work in these two organizations involves educating and empowering the communities of the women we serve by instilling confidence, elevating their voices, and providing them with the tools and support necessary to succeed.

We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.

My success stems from this motto: Be comfortable with the uncomfortable.

I wouldn’t be where I am today if It wasn’t for this particular mantra. Before starting on my journey of personal and professional growth, my initial fear derived from the fear of judgment. But later on, upon speaking with several friends and connections who believed in me and my abilities, I decided, little by little, to pursue many of my passions.

The first one was with mentoring and educating women. I started blogging and used my writing to spread a message of education by recommending books and sharing my own experiences of overcoming challenges and achieving goals.

I later moved to enroll in public speaking clubs such as Toastmasters where the goal was to enhance both my leadership and public speaking skills and set an example of a Woman in Public Speaking. This later evolved to opening up my first YouTube channel and realizing how much I enjoyed being on camera and surprise surprise, it was at this moment when I first showed my face on camera that podcasters started to invite me as a guest on their podcast shows.

Step by step I built an online and social presence. People would reach out to me for advice and tips on how to be a better speaker, how to learn a new language, how to ask for a promotion, and more.

I saw how the power of a single action had a huge domino effect.

Can you tell us more about your work with Women In Leadership?

Women in Leadership is a non-profit organization based in Canada. It has 7 chapters across the country. I have been part of the Victoria chapter as the Social Media Lead for the past 2 years.

The purpose of the organization is to provide the tools and the expertise necessary to empower women to climb the corporate ladder and get those C-suite roles.

As the Social Media Lead, my role has been to promote the work we do. We provide leadership development programs, career fairs as well as seminars.

Our Instagram page has a lot of interesting and valuable resources such as LIVEs on topics related to confidence, public speaking, career, and more.

What are the three most important habits to be a successful entrepreneur?

Learn from different sources such as books, podcasts, YouTube content, documentaries, and seminars. It is through learning and gaining knowledge that one can step up the game and be invincible.

Be Adaptable – we live in a world that is constantly changing. Things that happened many years ago may not work nowadays anymore. Products, services, and people’s tastes change and it is our job to be adaptable to succeed. Think about the world of social media. Now people use social media platforms to form partnerships and promote their work. As Charles Darwin once said, to survive, you have to adapt.

Envision – I believe in the power of visualization. If you implant in your subconscious where you see yourself with your business or as an entrepreneur, you can transform your life. Vision boards have allowed me to get closer to my dreams and make the unachievable achievable. As an entrepreneur, one must create goals and use the power of vision boards to attain them.

If you had one piece of advice for someone just starting, what would it be?

Start even when you are not ready. Doubts or uncertainties will surface no matter what.

Thoughts such as not feeling good enough or imposter syndrome will arise but know that confidence will come along the way with a lot of trial and error.

Trust the process; It’s about getting started, learning along the way, and growing.

Every entrepreneur has a goal and problem they’re trying to solve. What was the inspiration that started your journey?

I come from a cultural background where women are segregated, marginalized, and often neglected by society. Their needs or concerns are never addressed. In many countries such as Bangladesh, girls, and women are seen as a financial burden, given away into marriages to alleviate the weight of feeding one extra mouth. Women are not given equal opportunities in terms of education and work. So I decided to change the narrative and use the tools in my hand to mentor and educate women. This is what got me started.

Besides doing the work I do now, I am, from time to time, engaged in short-term projects with various nonprofit organizations such as Mai Soli or Speak Up for the Poor which fight child marriages and where I spread the message of female education.

How do you prioritize self-care and well-being while managing the demands of your business?

Google Calendar and my agenda are my best friends. I religiously follow what I write down and stick to the plan. I make sure to work out regularly as well as do a lot self- self-care through journaling, walking in nature, or making a good meal.

Boundaries have helped me establish separation and allowed me to have a work-life balance.

You need to have a bit of both and a bit of balance. A lot of people speak of work-life integration, but I think it’s more about work-life separation.

What would you consider your biggest accomplishment and why?

I have many accomplishments that I feel very proud of.

I am the first generation of immigrants to achieve a Bachelor’s Degree. My parents moved from Bangladesh to Italy to have a better future and better opportunities. Later on my sister and I were born. We both completed our studies in Italy to later get our university degrees in the UK and Canada respectively.

Completing the CFA and CAIA designations. CFA stands for Chartered Financial Analyst. It is a finance designation, considered to be one of the highest and globally recognized distinctions that an individual can achieve. Completing the CFA program meant a lot of things to me, one of them being a Woman in Finance.

CAIA stands for Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst. This is the second designation I got in the financial industry. It is similar in structure to the CFA program, but it is mainly focused on alternative investments.

I am a big learner and very studious so for me completing designations is something I am proud of.

Self-Publishing My Book. I wrote my first book in 2022. It was self-published and in this book, I write about my life as a third-culture kid from the perspective of a South Asian woman. The book makes a comparison of the differences and similarities among my two cultures: Bengali and Italian.

Opening my YouTube Channel I first created my YouTube channel in 2021. I was very hesitant before deciding to make my debut with it. Many thoughts, doubts, and fears went through my mind, but in the end, I decided to trust the process. Unbelievably, my debut video had 10k views and it is still among the most popular and watched videos. Since then, I learned how to edit, how to find guests, how to research guests, and let me tell you it’s very fun to create content.

We all face challenges. Looking back, what have been some of the biggest challenges and obstacles you’ve had to navigate?

One of the biggest struggles has been learning everything on my own. Writing books, and e-books, creating YouTube content, editing, and building a website, are very tough when you don’t have a team behind to help you. When you first start, you are new in this game, you have to spend hours and days understanding how for instance SEO optimization works or what a catchy title is for a blog article.

Patience was something I had to learn along the way, but most importantly I learned about progress. In the end, it is never about achieving perfection, but advancing with the work we do.

What challenges have you faced in the workplace, especially your experience in male-dominated environments?

I learned two things:

Stand up for yourself
Be your best advocate.

A lot of the time, as individuals we are good at cheering and supporting other people often neglecting that we need to support ourselves as well.

Coming from a place of self-compassion and self-love, I learned that I am in control of my own path. If I want to achieve something, it is up to me to speak up and take action.

After all, who knows you better than yourself? Always choose yourself first.

It is all about risk-taking and trial & error.

If you don’t try, you will never know. That’s my way of doing things in life. It is about experimenting, exploring, and discovering what works and what doesn’t work.

You will fail many times, but your job is to build resilience by getting up and moving on when obstacles are on the way.

Being an entrepreneur or running a business is just about that. Be a risk taker, be open to making mistakes, and by failing healthily, you will find your answers.

What initiatives or actions do you believe are crucial for fostering a more supportive and inclusive business environment for women?

Providing resources – if we want to support and encourage women, we need to provide them with the necessary tools to help them excel. This could be with seminars, webinars, workshops, or trainings.
Female mentorship – the power of sisterhood is huge. The more mentorship programs we have, the more the women in the community can feel inspired, motivated, and encouraged to pursue their dreams.
Educating the people you work with is a powerful tool for fostering collaboration, building trust, and driving collective success.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

When I was much younger, I believed in the power of perfection and striving for excellence in everything I did. I thought being perfect was more important than making progress or advancing. Over time, I realized that chasing perfection often led to wasted time and exhaustion.

I learned at the end that it is far more important to improve little by little than to obsess over perfection and achieve nothing.

What are the three most important habits to be a successful high performer or leader?

Discipline – consistency and little actions will bring you far ahead in the game
Be Proactive – don’t wait for someone to tell you what to do when you can take action yourself.
Excel in Time Management – use your time wisely and smartly. When you put boundaries, and create agendas, a lot can be accomplished in a day.

I think it depends on the audience one wants to serve and the aging population of this audience. Depending on who you are targeting, certain platforms perform better than others.

For instance, LinkedIn and IG are great for promoting your services and growing your business. LinkedIn contains more of a professional network whereas Instagram is more for younger individuals. Indeed, I believe IG is incredibly powerful in getting people’s attention with effective reels that contain testimonials of clients or reviews. The beauty of IG is that it allows business owners to show their real selves through stories, posts, and IG lives.

LinkedIn is also another great platform. However, it does come with its drawbacks.

Since it is a professional social media platform, one cannot make posts on a weekend as it is a medium mainly used during the weekdays.

What are three websites or podcasts you can’t imagine your day without? Why those three?

My favorite podcasts are the following:

Think Fast, Talk Smart: The Podcast – this is a great listen for anyone who wants to sharpen their leadership, public speaking, and communication skills. Each week, the host – Matt Abrahams brings experts in the field to discuss and give real-life examples and practical tips around the topic of communication skills.
Hurdle – it is a health and fitness podcast where Emily Abbate, the host, each week invites inspirational leaders and individuals to share their journey to becoming their best selves. My favorite segment of this podcast is the 5-minute Friday where each Friday Emily shares her reflections and provides great tips to lead a more present and satisfied life
The Business Bloomberg Podcast – If you are interested in the economy, politics, finance, and business, then this podcast has it all. Most of its topics and interviews are around the economy and finance, but from time to time, the show invites business owners from small to medium sizes to share their inspirational stories.

Which female leader do you admire, and why?

I love Meghan Markle. She is inspiring, a true feminist, and an advocate of gender equality. She believes in the power of female mentoring and women’s empowerment. A lot of the women’s empowerment work I do right now is because of her. She is a very elegant, eloquent, and bold woman.

Do you have a favorite quote or motto that inspires you?

I love the following quotation:

The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.

It is the wallpaper of my phone and I use it as a reminder to not let fear hold me back. Everything I truly want is on the other side of fear.

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All of these and more are part of our interview series spotlighting successful women in business.

Melissa Stewart is the founder of SheOwnsIt.com. She is a Purveyor of Possibility, Entrepreneur Advocate and Coffee Addict. She believes that behind every successful woman is her story. What’s your story?