Mikaela Jackson is a personal performance coach and the founder of She Almighty.
She Almighty provides life, career and business coaching services and events for women.
Tell us a bit about yourself, background and your current role
I’m a born and bred Welsh girl, living in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. My professional background is in sales management and recruitment but I’m now a dedicated coach, female facilitator, empowerer and champion. My business is called She Almighty and we provide career, business, life coaching services and events for women.
The She Almighty mission is women self-empowering to be the best version of themselves and to create careers, businesses and lives they love with positive impact. My goal is to create a community of empowered, aspirational and inspirational women who are creating success on their terms and making their dream life happen.
She Almighty is also a freedom and lifestyle business for me, it’s how I’m taking control of my own professional identity and how I’m creating success on my terms – it’s my dream.
Did you ever sit down and plan your career?
I remember being in a careers advice session in school and they asked me what I was interested in doing – I said I had no idea but that I quite liked geography and the media maybe, they said you should be a weather girl then! And that was that. School and university don’t necessarily set you up for the world of work and life beyond…
For as long as I can remember I have always been super ambitious and driven but I never knew what I wanted to do and that caused me a lot of frustration throughout my twenties even though I had decent jobs along the way. That’s actually what led me into coaching and I now love facilitating other female bosses and femalepreneurs – women taking ownership of their careers and businesses so that they can thrive and achieve their professional and personal potential.
Whilst I recognise that a lot of my past career experiences and learnings have set me up for what I do now and have been part of my journey if you like; I know I would have benefitted from having more of a career plan and strategy along the way and a coach or mentor to guide me.
Because of my experience I’d like to help young women tap into their power and passions earlier on so that they can carve out careers they love and have real impact in the world sooner.
Have you faced any particular challenges along the way and if so, how did you deal with them?
My biggest challenge was lack of career direction and not knowing what I wanted to do, but I think I’ve been pretty lucky in my career experiences. I’ve actually worked since I was 14 – I had two jobs when I was in school and that really instilled a great work ethic in me and sense of appreciation. I became owner partner of a sales and marketing company in my early twenties and that hugely boosted my confidence and reinforced for me that I could achieve whatever I set my mind to.
But when it came to figuring out my purpose and when I’d hit a bit of a low point, coaching was my saviour. It enabled me to reconnect with me and gave me huge direction and ultimately fulfilment. Hence why I’m a huge believer in the process and why I decided to become a coach for other women that are yet to figure that out and want to excel in their careers, businesses and lives with passion and purpose.
If you could change one thing for women in the workplace, what would it be?
Equality. I’m really passionate about breaking gender stereotypes and roles and I think it’s so important to instil a real sense of aspiration in young people no matter what their background and for them to believe that they can be whoever they want to be.
In the workplace I would also address leadership. We need to nurture and elevate more female leaders and provide role models that both men and women can look up to. We also need male and female leaders who are willing to work together to address imbalances like the pay gap. If there was a real will and determination to do so I’m sure we would bridge the gap much quicker than we are set to do so. We need to facilitate, empower and provide solutions for women and men to overcome challenges around parenting etc. so that they can prosper professionally and also personally.
How do you feel about mentoring? Have you mentored anyone or are you someone’s mentee?
I think mentoring is important. I’ve mentored a number of women through The Aspire Foundation – they provide mentors for women that do good in the world through their jobs in not for profit organisations, charities and social enterprises – the idea is that by empowering them that has a multiplier effect through the people they help.
Naturally as a coach I think it’s important to have both. A mentor can help advise or connect you in an area that they have more or valuable experience in; a coach will enable to you develop a powerful sense of awareness and clarity, to help you understand what’s really important to you, to create a roadmap, strategy and action plan to fast track you in your success towards your goals and provide the support and accountability that will ensure you make your best life a reality.
I’m currently a member of Blooms a female-focused co-working space which allows me to access a number of mentors and coaches.
What has been your biggest achievement to date?
My business, setting it up by the age of 30, all the incredible women I’ve empowered through my one to one coaching and events – I also run a monthly Meetup group in London called She Almighty: Women’s Coaching & Empowerment; and everything I’ve achieved under it.
What is your next challenge and what are you hoping to achieve in the future?
There’s a few in the pipeline! I’m currently organising an event in partnership with the University of London and/to raise money for UNICEF. I’m incredibly excited as it’s on behalf of causes I’m really passionate about. The event will be a female empowerment series open for all and aimed at women starting out in their careers – to provide inspiration, to help them navigate the world of work and to set them up for their best, happiest and most fulfilled lives. I’ve also just started writing a book – watch this space!
In the future, I’d like to be doing more of what I’m doing now but on a bigger and more impactful scale. I’m passionate about empowering women at any age and any stage so I want to continue to facilitate women to tap into their power and have a positive impact in the world. I’d also love to positively influence culture from education through to the workplace, through to societal attitudes. I’m a proud feminist and to me that means equal rights, opportunity and treatment of girls and boys, women and men everywhere. There’s still plenty of work to do.
