Episode 128: Elizabeth Batalla Talks about Achievement and Success

Throughout that time. I, I kept getting the same questions, the same concerns, the same worries, the same fears. And I realized, and people said to me, they don't teach this in school.

Hello and welcome to in the rising podcast. My name is Betina, and this is the platform where I love to talk about what makes us tick, what makes us move forward and do great things. Moving past the shame blame game that, you know, really does nothing for us and accept accelerate our life in the direction that we are seeking. And so my guest today is Elizabeth Patala and she really does talk about what they don't teach in school, which quite frankly is quite a bit of stuff. She shares about mentorship. She shares her experience in the corporate world and her 32 years all bundled into. And I'm so excited for you to hear what she has to offer today. You know, it's really an honor that you will spend some time with me on, in the rising podcast. And I got to read your bio, but I would love for you to share to the audience in your own words, just a little blurb about who you are, your background and, um, what your, your, how you got to this place today.

Oh, no problem. Thanks. And thanks for having me on your podcast. Um, so my name is Elizabeth Patala and I live in the UK. I'm originally from the Caribbean, moved to the UK fors, and I have been in corporate education, uh, over 30 years now, uh, but in various, in various, uh, industries. So I started off in banking. Then I moved to oil and gas. Then I moved<laugh> into, um, education, corporate education. And from there things like accreditation and quality management, um, and it as well was a big part of my career. So many of the industries were, were male dominated industries. And during that time a part of my, my job description, always involved mentoring and facilitating and educating, especially women and helping them navigate the, the business world, the space of business in a male dominated environment. That was part of, of what I did. And I felt that it is something I enjoyed doing part-time in my role, but I wanted to do it full-time and hence during the pandemic, I think was a bit of a shift for, for many people in their priorities. I'm one of, of those statistics and I decided to, to embrace it fully. And here I am today as an entrepreneur doing what I love.

Wow. And I just wanna, I just wanna back up, because when you said corporate education, I didn't even know that was a thing. So if someone is interested in something like that, what does that really entail?

So corporate education, it's, it's, it's quite broad. Um, many people think it's, it's simply learning and development, but it's more than that. It's that that's one element of it, but there is also things like, uh, organizational development and mentorship programs and lots of research and dealing with different board members and coaching. So it's, it's quite a broad topic, even creating content and, and, uh, getting the word out there. So it's quite a, it's quite broad corporate education. Um, obviously their special, their specialist, uh, feels within corporate education. But as a whole, I, I dealt with the full spectrum of corporate education, special, uh, professional services.

Uh, that was a huge question for me because I didn't know this was mean, I know there's education, but I did not know that this was really a field, you know? Um<laugh> and so I was like, okay, well, you know, cuz other people may be interested in going that route. You know, when you don't know, you don't know. And so last year was huge. A lot of us shifted our priorities and uh, and many of us had to do some I'm shifting like you did. Did you have any doubt when you changed it from a part-time to full-time really going into your, your goal of educating?

Absolutely. Um,<laugh> I, I don't know anyone who jumps from in court, the safety net of, uh, a nine to five job and go into entrepreneurship without that little element of fear. There is excitement too, but there's always that little element of fear and doubt and like everyone else, I felt that, and there are times I still feel that, but I continue to push through it because I know that what I'm presenting and what I'm giving is of that. And it is something that I truly believe in fundamentally believe in passionately, believe in. And it's what keeps me fueled through the highs and lows of being an entrepreneur.<laugh>.

Yeah. And, and I'd like for you to discuss a little bit about highs and lows, because I, a lot of times we talk, oh, I wanna be an entre entrepreneur. And it sounds, it's like a hip word.<laugh>, mm-hmm,<affirmative>, it's a hip thing, but what are some of those highs and lows from like, again, security. That's where I know I was raised. You want a secure job, even though the, the corporations and businesses are not secure. Um, yes, they, they can go under, I've had to lose a job. Suddenly the company went bankrupt. How, how did you shift? Was it a mindset? Was it like, I'm just gonna go for it. What did you do to help prepare yourself?

I entrepreneur being an entrepreneur is something that I I've always wanted to do, but I saw it as parttime experience. I saw it in supplement to my role. It's only through my priority, shifting across when the, the pandemic happened. I decided to do it full time. And for me, I, I'm not a, I'm not a big spender. I, I don't need the luxury things to, to feel and be happy. Now I do have nice things. I'm not saying that nice things. Aren't great to have. I do have nice things, but it's not, my priority never has been. So I do have, I did have quite a bit of savings. Still do have quite a bit of savings to, to get me through, to, to give me a bit of breathing space in all that, to really focus on creating something of value, because I always say to people it's fine wanting to be an entrepreneur, but always be prepared for it. Um, because it, it is a bit of a rollercoaster of a ride. And the worst thing someone can do is to try to go into business with a sense of desperation. And that's not where I want to be. I wanted to be a, a bit more aligned to what it is I wanted to create. And I saved, I had my experience with people throughout those 30 years. What I'm doing now is, is, is purely an extension of that. So I, I had the experience in, in what I am creating now. Um, so all of those things helped me made the decision and made it a bit more seamless in that transition from being in the corporate world to now being fully an entrepreneur. Right.

Right. And so you now have an education program. Um<affirmative> would you please describe

That? Oh, wow. So that is, that is built. Um, as I keep saying on my 30 years of experience, um, mentoring people as well as being mentored myself, because I started like everyone else from, from the beginning in my career. Um, and throughout, at that time, I, I kept getting the same questions, the same concerns, the same worries, the same fears. And I realized, and many people said to me, they don't teach this stuff in school. I, I, you know, where do I go to find this stuff out? And I felt, I, I saw a pattern. I saw a trend and I thought, no, that I, I need to, I need to make this information available, but not just make it available, make it available in an easy way to digest. And for someone who wants to level up as I would say, or have, or find success in their personal and profess transformation that have something at their fingertips where it can be simple, it can be fast. I'm not claiming it's easy<laugh> but simple and fast. And there is a holistic approach. So during that time, uh, I, I developed something called the three courses of achieving excellence. Now let me explain that excellence is not perfection. I do not condo perfection because for me, perfection is unattainable. Excellence is all about being the best you can be with the resources that you<affirmative> and looking to improve on that. So if someone believes that they are in quotes a B in my books, they are an a, if they are giving their best. So that's what excellence is about. There are three areas where excellence works. If you want to level one is the self, which is your identity. The other is your connections to yourself and to others. And then the third one is your status or your standard of life. So I realized that the questions I was being asked and the concerns that I, I, I had to deal with covered nine areas and what I call live areas. And each of those three forces of excellence contain three live areas. So for instance, the identity, it dealts, it deals with your personal brand, your personal style, and how to have an impactful demeanor. That's yourself, your connections, and look at the health, the mental health and your emotional health. Those are the other three. And then with status, I look at your professional progress, your financial health and your future vision. So together, if, as a person you are looking to level up, it's important to look at your life as in a holistic way, sort of like a di switch. The more you turn back up, it's the brighter you shine.

Yeah. Yeah. And what is interesting is that you come from a corporate background and you are still saying there is an emotional component. There is a mental component, there's a personal vision component that sometimes we, we just think corporate money, professional achievement certifications on the wall. Um, but you really look at an entire human being

From your yes, I do. I do. It's not just about the professional money now. It's important. Money is important. I'm not going to have this conversation with you and pretend it's not, it's the way we exchange things in life. It's, it, it, you know, it formed the foundation of what we can and can't afford. It's one aspect though. Just one aspect. There are many other aspects where if a person or someone doesn't do the work, it's very, very difficult to, uh, be successful. Um, so yeah, it's, it's a holistic approach.

And you also mentioned mentor that. I think that's something that, um, I know in school we had, you know, our buddy from a class ahead or what have not, but then I, I, for me, I think I kinda lose it or lost it when I went out into my professional world that we, um, at least here in the us and my part, that mentorship is something that is an afterthought. What have you experienced

From being a mentor or from looking for a mentor myself? Yes. Which, which aspect,

Which aspect from being in the corporate world, is that just an automatic thing from your experience or is that people are needing a mentor, but don't know they need one.

Oh, uh, a bit of both. So first of all, it's not an automatic thing, many people going to corporate and are fighting their way through it, to be honest, um, they're not aware that mentorships are available or that they need a mentor, the ones who re require or they, they recognize that they need a mentor. And it it's very difficult sometimes to align themselves with the appropriate person. Um, so it's not always easy. There is a certain level of curiosity and hunger for learning that you need to have, um, in order to find the appropriate mentor because not everyone, uh, is I would say product in looking for a mentor, um, and organizations, there are many organizations that do not have mentorship programs. So thees on you as the individual to look and find that mentor for yourself. Um, so I, I would, I would say, you know, to, to people, um, to, to remain curious, keep that curiosity alive and understand that learning never ends as long as you are alive, the investment in yourself and learning never ends

Well, congratulations on all of the achievements you've made so far and oh, thank you. And that's, that's huge, um, to make that shift, it takes courage and it takes dedicat and, and, um, we don't see a lot of that, but is it all the work behind the scenes suddenlys televised and like, they're so lucky. It was so easy.<laugh>, I'm like, uh, no,<laugh>,

It's not

Always, it's a lot of hours. And you also, in your story to me told me that you had a lot of obstacles from what, and being as a woman, how would you like to expand on that please?

Sure. Uh, in, in my, my career, I've worked in, in many male dominated industries, as I said, I started off in banking, went into oil and gas then into it, and then finally into, um, conglomerates where there's a larger with education space. Um, so I'll give you one example when I was in it, in, in my it days, I, I, the woman at that time, they taught mainly programs like your desktop applications, uh, Microsoft wood, PowerPoint, Excel, et cetera. Now, there is nothing wrong with that. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. I chose, uh, to teach things like Cisco rooters and how to configure massive servers, um, in, in multinational corporations, that that's a part I very, very few women were, were, were in that, along that path. And I remember one of my training courses because I also lectured at the universities. A gentleman walked in, saw that I was a trainer walked out and demanded a refund on his, his payment for the course. Um, even though he was told that I was one of the best trainers there is, um, he still insisted. And that is, that has been the reality. That is just one of many examples I've had to, to face and people ask me, well, you know, how, how do you deal with that? How, how do you remain positive? And what I would say to, to people out there to women out there, anyone who is in a maybe slightly disadvantaged space, keep focus on the ones who value you because in life, it doesn't matter what you do or who you are. There will be people who will appreciate what you have to offer and your value. And there will, will be people who will not appreciate what you have to, to offer and your value. And there may be one person who don't value you, but there are 50, 20, a hundred, 500 others who appreciate what you have to offer, focus on those, keep the focus on those, because that's where giving strength. And that's what I did.

And I like how you talk about where to focus, because it is only that one person that can really break someone. If you stay attentive to that. And I've had experiences where one person's like, you're, you're this you're, you're fake. You're blah, blah. And I was like, what? But I thought about all the other pods and, you know, and, and I, there always will be one. And if everyone likes you and values you, then maybe you aren't being you. Right. And exactly you can. And that's okay. That's okay. You also talked about cuz you had an, another one. I relate to this as well as being an ethnic minority in a certain workplace as well. Mm-hmm<affirmative> could you feel ever a difference when it was while it's your, your feminine energy was the problem or it was a minority thing or sometimes it was just all of it together that was, um, ki that you felt the shift or a discrimination from that point of view.

Sometimes it felt stronger, uh, based on me being female, sometimes it felt stronger. Me being of an ethnic minority. Sometimes it's both. Um, the way I, I look at things is that I am there to do the best that I can and everyone has their own prejudices. Perhaps I have my own prejudices as well, that I I'm just not aware of, or, or I am aware of and, and choose not to, to display it, or I have more control over it for whatever reason. The thing for me is that I try to, and the other person like that, that gentleman, for instance, he came from a background where the men are the ones who would be in that space. Uh, a lot of the, the woman in his family did not even attend school. So for him to be taught from a woman would have been very, very difficult for him. I tried to understand the other person's perspective and try to respect that perspective because I have not walked in their shoes. I don't know their history. I haven't lived their life. So it's not up to me to be judgemental. However, it's important to set boundaries. And it depends on how seed bear it is. Life will always have battles to fight. I cannot, and I choose not to fight every single battle that presents itself to me. So there are times yes, I will stand up for myself. And then there are times I let it go because the effort to do so just is not worth it. So yes, I have felt on on many occasions, one or both. And depending on the situation, depending on the circumstances, depending on the fallout, depending on the impact, I may or may not stand up against it and say something mm-hmm<affirmative>. Um, but I always acknowledge that I am not going to let someone else's judgment, define who I am and define the value that I can bring to the table. Uh, because on we cannot, we cannot control every single circumstance, but we can control how we show up in those circumstances. Mm-hmm<affirmative> and therefore I choose to keep the control over me. I cannot change someone else's opinion, but I can control how I responded. Therefore, I, I choose when I will stand up and make that presence, my presence know, or when I would just walk away from it, because it's, it's better to do that, to do that.

Yeah. And, and there is a lot of power in your choice and, and you said it yourself, which battles you choose to partake in. Mm. And which ones? No, there's always a war, but not every battle requires every person. Right. You know, and in knowing how you respond with elegance and grace that is winning right there. And, um, not everyone wants to see you in, but you, that that's okay. That's not, again, mm-hmm,<affirmative> your issue, your problem. You, you have gone through a lot since 2020 with this shift. What do you see in your future? What, what are other goals or, um, what is your vision for your program?

My vision is simply to have as many women as possible go through the program. And this is not to be salesy in any way. This is me understanding through the years, what, where the gap, where the gap is mm-hmm<affirmative> and it's putting together comprehensively.<affirmative> a, a program that answers not only answers a lot of questions, but help in terms of exercises, in terms of challenges, in terms of the information, in terms of the support, to give that foundation, to help women level up or to help women progress in their personal and professional development. As I said, in a simple and quick way. So for me, it's to get that message out there, that there is a system, the system is proven, it works. There are people going through it at the moment. Many people have come to me and said they can't believe the, the quality and the amount of information they're getting in one place. Um, it's just to really have as many women as possible, um, go through this so that at least they have a strong starting point. And if they want continue on and do something more advance after it's up to them, but at least the starting point the found is, and it's a,

How would listeners be able to I'll have my, I'll have your website below, but how can they learn more from you connect with you, et cetera.

I am on LinkedIn. I am on, uh, Facebook. I have, uh, presence there. The easiest way though, is, uh, via contact on my website. So that's the easiest way. I mean, I, I'm just an, an email away or you, we can contact via LinkedIn. I, um, I, I don't have anything to hide.<laugh>

Well, you have gone through quite a bit and, and I'm excited that you're, you're looking to change the world old one woman at a time, but from all of the questions that you've heard, that you actually took those questions and you didn't just go to sleep at night and say, well, they'll be the same questions in 30 years, but you provide now these answers mm-hmm<affirmative>, um, for women in a, in a nice, compact, easy to digest way, different ways of looking at it. And mentorship mentorship is through this program. So kudos to you, congratulations to you on that. And it was really a pleasure speaking with you today.

It was a pleasure Betina. Thank you for having me

Having this conversation with Elizabeth was just enlightening and uplifting. And I really encourage you to look at her program, the Institute for achievement and excellence. Follow it, take the free assessment, learn more about yourself because ultimately to become the best person to rise up to who, you know, you are, you have to know who you are and having a mentor, help guide. You can do such incredible things into your life. I've really been blessed with the mentors in mind. And so I encourage you to learn more about her her program. If you feel this podcast was a benefit to you, I encourage you to leave a five star review on whatever platform you're listening a podcast. And if you are listening to this on YouTube, go ahead, like share it. It's so important to put this art of information into the hands and ears of those that can make a huge difference for, and until next time let's keep building one another up.