Who is Gilda Joffe?
Gilda Joffe is an Executive Female Coach helping women to transform the debilitating fears that ….
hold them back from releasing their business and creative potential.
The holidays are here, how do you intend to celebrate?
We probably will not be doing much gathering this year due to Covid, since the cases in our area are still pretty high.
Do you normally celebrate this way?
Normally we see a lot of friends and huddle around bonfires in the wintertime!
You’re a former professional violinist and now a performance and mindset coach. What made you make the shift?
It really wasn’t too much of a shift, except as a lateral move since most of the same problems that I see in my executive clients are the same as any performer on stage. Questions of confidence, performance anxiety, imposter syndrome, difficult colleagues, divas, bosses. We are all performers in different ways, whether it is on stage or in the boardroom. That is why my website is called performermindset.com! I made the shift because I became fascinated in solving the problems for other women, which I myself had encountered and was able to overcome.
Did you have any fears before embarking on this journey?
If you mean changing my direction, of course there was doubt. But since my profession is transforming fear, it made sense to apply the same principles and mindset on myself, if I was going to have the transformative life’s journey that I wanted! I am really passionate about cutting the societal and self-imposed chains that women, in particular carry around without even realizing it.
What key skills and experiences are you able to transfer or share from performance on stage as professional violinist to performance coaching?
My experience as a soloist, orchestral player, chamber musician has put me right up there with the mentality of the C-Suite Executive and other positions. I have been the sole decision leader, team leader, visionary, negotiator, section leader, communications mediator. So in a sense I have filled the CEO’s position, VP, Manager, Team leader etc. All the skills that I have used over my career have been exactly those that are transferable to business. Even the hierarchies in the music world are similar: Conductors= CEOs, Section leaders= Managers, etc. Many articles and books have been written on the similarities. But what is really interesting is that the fears of both professions are exactly the same. Fear of judgement, lack of confidence, performance anxiety, issues of speaking up, communication problems, gender bias. It’s all there. And since I have been coaching for more than 25 years, I’ve seen and heard it all!
As a performance and mindset coach for high performing female executives, what do you see as the main challenge for female executives’ career growth?
Simply put, themselves! Because given the problems that female executives face in a world that denies them their due either monetarily or in terms of position, the only thing that they can really change at the moment is their own mind, and thus the actions that will stem from that.
The pandemic has hit everyone and many believe that women have been hit the hardest. What is your view about this?
I believe that is true, since women usually bear the brunt of the “second shift” of home responsibilities and child care. During shutdown, the overwhelming stress that women have experienced has affected them emotionally and physiologically to the point of severe mental turmoil. This has caused them to reassess what they can reasonably take on in the future in terms of their careers. And because there are not enough societal constructs to help them, this has caused them to leave the workplace in large numbers, much to their detriment and to the detriment of the organizations they have left behind.
How have you managed to grow your business in these challenging times?
In the same way that I have pre-pandemic, in terms of being a transformative source for professional women. Teaching them how their minds can become their allies, by changing the unproductive mindsets contributing to anxiety and other negative emotions. No matter what the circumstances, there are ways not to go down the rabbit hole, whether that is in business or personal life and my great satisfaction is in helping each individual women to find her path to success.
You have a new book coming out Dancing With Your Muse. Congratulations! What inspired you to write the book?
What inspired me were my own journeys as a creative, and the obstacles I faced, along with hearing the many clients/students over the years who voiced the same fears and doubts about their own creative possibilities. I realized it was time to help people express their own creative potential in business or other arenas, without succumbing to the voices and judgment of others. The blocks and fears involved in business potential and creativity, are my specialty.
Could you please share one line with the Stellar Woman readers that should inspire them to read the book?
Certainly. This is the last line from my Preface ( which you can download for free from my website performermindset.com) which is “To come into life and feel that that one can express what has been given to each of us…..not to intrinsically please others, but for the joy of delivering to the world, in humbleness and thanks, that which has been given to us in our dreams, in our visions and in our hearts by the great unknown which has created us.”
Have you always wanted to be an author?
Not necessarily an “author” but a “truthteller”. I have always felt that there was at least one book in me that had something very necessary for me to say to others. We’ll see if there is more in the future!
You have had such a dynamic successful career. Have you failed at something in your past? If so, how were you able to move forward?
Oh my, lots of failures- too many to count! I was able to move forward because the vision that I kept in front of me was as strong, if not stronger, than any of the setbacks along the way. And the failures were all actually part of my success, because they taught me how to become better and how to (eventually) reach exactly what I wanted to achieve. Nobody says it is “pleasant” but the struggle made the prize even more appreciated! And not only that, it gave me the strength and knowledge to know that struggle and failure are a natural part of success- and that one shouldn’t pay too much attention to them, in terms of whether you will or won’t reach your goal…just keep moving ahead no matter what…and you will get there. You might be in tatters – but you get there!
If you were to be given a magic wand to change one thing in the world today, what would it be?
With my magic wand I would cause the sudden disappearance of interest in power and money as a single desired result, and instead create a compassionate and passionate interest in people’s minds to help others.
If you were to meet your 15-year-old self today, what key message would you give her?
To continually nourish belief in herself and not internalize judgments from others, because judgments are filtered through the experiences of the people who make them, and may be utterly wrong and destructive.
What are the attributes of your ideal stellar woman?
My ideal Stellar Woman realizes that she does not need to be superwoman, and therefore does not need to conform to anyone else’s ideals but her own. She has strength and weakness because she is human, and she accepts both of those attributes without self-denigration realizing that by constantly trying to realize her potential, she helps not only herself, but the world.
Where do we see Gilda in the next 5-10 years?
I hope to be more involved with worldwide collaborative projects which focus on the release of women’s potential in business as well as their own personal creative visions. And to continue with my 1-1 and group coaching practice!
Please leave a celebration message for the Stellar Woman magazine readers.
I truly hope that this Holiday Season brings warmth and hope to everyone after these past difficult years and that the New Year heralds a resurgence of dreams and hopes to all our waiting spirits!