Nazlee Mayhew is the director and founder of Global Mindset Solutions. She is a seasonal Business and Money Mindset Coach, a Social Entrepreneur, NLP Master Practitioner, and an emerging author.
Global Mindset Solutions’ vision is to empower, educate and equip women to enhance their leadership and business skills and help strengthen the communities they serve. This will enable them to reach their full potential faster, help boost economic growth and create financial freedom.
Before you read, read part one of this interview with Nazlee Mayhew, founder of Global Mindset Solutions.
What’s the African country that you would love to visit this year and why?
I’m going home to Zimbabwe for Christmas. That’s my home country. But a country I’d like to visit, that’s interesting. I think between Kenya and Tanzania, for some reason, I’m drawn to those countries. So it’d be one of them. I’d say Kenya is probably the top at the moment. And Africa is amazing. It’s beautiful.
It’s a pity that we are where we are with so many of us living in the diaspora. But there are also a lot of us who want to come back and build Africa with the experience and skills that we have together with those who have been living there for so long. It’s just the beauty and the nature and think of the sunsets and the animals and the people.
We’ve lived abroad for over 24 years now. We’ve traveled around Europe, but we like to go and travel around Africa. That, I would say, is our family goal, is to be able to travel around Africa and see its beauty.
And we always feel that the grass is green on the other side. And yes, we have gone there, and we have, in one way or the other, achieved those types of goals, but home is home, and Africa is home. We talk about Mama Africa, and those are your roots.
What’s the most underrated Zimbabwean food?
That’s an interesting one. What do I say is underrated? My mind is going to dishes I know that my family likes, but I don’t eat myself. That’s why I’m thinking if I think of the dried fish or if I think of the punny worms, you know, they can make good meals as well.
But I’d say the pup, we call it Sadza. People eat that almost every day instead of rice or pasta and things like that. The Italians love pasta and we love pups. So having pup and the green vegetables. I eat a lot more plant-based meals. So I can’t think of anything that’s underrated. I’m thinking more of the things that we enjoy eating.
How do you look after yourself in your free time?
I like to swim. I may go down to the beach or I may go out. My birthday is coming up. And I know my husband and my son, normally get me a voucher for a spa day. I might listen to podcasts more than reading. I don’t read as much because I fall asleep.
So I do tend to, you know, listen to podcasts or I like sewing. I like baking. So those are things and spending time with my friends. I’d say that’s how I spend my downtime.
What has been the most humbling moment in your journey as an entrepreneur?
This may be going to be two years ago. It was a TV show and they were looking for people who would make an impact in the community. So I applied as a business coach and my vision was to have 20 women, 10 of whom were Maltese, and 10 who would have been foreigners.
So they could be from Europe, they could be from Africa, they could be from the UK, it doesn’t matter. Malta is a small island. So you can understand with the influx of foreigners coming in, there’s been a lot of angst and things like that.
My idea was to bring these two groups of people together in business and they would partner with each other. And learn more about each other’s culture and how they could make a difference in their community.
So I was shortlisted. I was interviewed but they couldn’t see how my business would make that impact. And standing there presenting yourself, showing them what you can do because you believe in your goal.
When I left, the host said, I need to interview you. There had been months and months of work behind the scenes. They would ask you for information, you had to present it in different ways. It was just a lot of administrative work with the company. So going on that day and having them doubt what I believed in.
It made me realize that this is not the platform for me. And one of the judges did say that if it was a business TV show, it would have been different than where I was at that point.
So it was very humbling in the sense that you’re standing before five people who can decide whether your dream is going to take place or not. As much as I believed in myself and I answered their questions they didn’t believe that women would have low self-confidence.
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I like to have a conversation with them. It made me feel that this wasn’t for me, but I was also realizing that this was not the right place for me. So when I walked off, the host came and I was a bit emotional and I said, can I have two minutes to myself? And he said, no, we like drama for TV, come on. And the camera was put on me to give feedback on what happened.
I was choking back tears, not from the fact that I didn’t go through, but from the fact that I want to make a difference in women’s lives. I want to bring people together. Yes, we’re from different cultures, but at the end of the day, we humans, everybody has gone through a journey.
Instead of looking at what the government is doing where things are going wrong in your own life or what’s happening in the world. We then take it out on each other, and the first thing is people who are different from you. So that was quite humbling in the sense that it made me realize that as humans, there’s more work to be done.
And some people are working on it, don’t get me wrong. I have friends who are in anti-racism groups and working to strengthen ties between foreigners and Maltese. And Maltese people are very much like African people. They’re very giving, they’re very loving. I’ve met amazing people as well. But my idea was just how can I, you know, push this forward even more so.
So I’d say that it’s quite a humbling experience, but also quite an eye-opener that it wasn’t my time. My success may have been delayed, but it’s not denied. And that the right time will come when we’ll be able to make that journey.
What’s one thing that you would love people to know about you?
That anything is possible. If you set your mind to achieving your goals, it can take a year, it can take five years, that you can achieve it. If you’re looking for role models I am that role model for you, and I’m very supportive. I will hold you accountable. I will ask you difficult questions, but I respect your answers. It’s held in a safe and confidential space. In a nutshell, very transparent, open, and honest.
Find out more about founder of Global Mindset Solutions
Watch the interview here.
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