Hafsah Adham
Hafsah Adham is a certified confidence coach (ICF accredited), speaker, nature enthusiast, dedicated mother of three and the founder of The Awakened Hearts Academy and The Confident Muslimah, a spiritually-centered coaching service which is rooted in Islamic principles, aiming to assist individuals in enhancing their self-awareness and deepening their connection with their faith.
Her mission is to empower individuals to find their spiritual courage and take meaningful action towards both their professional and personal goals.
What were your initial years of growing up like? Tell us about your life before starting your corporate journey/venture/initiative.
I come from an entrepreneurial background. Both my parents were keen entrepreneurs who pursued a variety of business ventures, so I say business was in my blood. I was an active child with a passion for sports. I played on my school basketball team and still play the sport today. After my degree, I travelled and settled in the Far East for 8 years before returning to the UK, where I was born and raised. My time in the Far East was busy raising a young family but I was still keen to network and use my time creatively. I was involved in a variety of charity projects, networking events and other community initiatives.
Every industry that is now a large-scale, top-notch business once started as a small idea in the minds of entrepreneurs. What was that idea or motivation that made you start your business /initiative? What motivated you within to say YES, go for it!”
As mentioned, I feel entrepreneurism was always in my genes, that coupled with my love for all things creative I knew I wanted to provide a meaningful service to society. I chose to wait until all 3 of my kids were in full time school before I explored launching a business. I was initially at a loss as to what I should do, until a very close friend advised me to just start somewhere so that’s what I did. I started with selling branded items on eBay, then went on to create an artisan organic cake business where I was creating big structural cakes such as motorbikes and castles. For me it was more about the creativity and expression of art than the cakes itself. I then decided to move on and started an Event Consultancy service, which grew very quickly in the space of a year. The business was doing great but my family values were being compromised due to the work hours and demands, so for this reason I closed all business dealings, closed the door and walked away. It was a very hard decision but it was essential that my family were not left behind in whatever business venture I pursued. I then tried employment as a recruitment consultant for a while, but it was only a matter of time before my entrepreneurial cravings overpowered and I started searching for a business again. I stumbled across coaching. I found deep meaning and purpose in being a coach and have been a coach for the past 8 years now and have not looked back. In answer to your question, I wouldn’t say it was one thing that made me say yes, but it was more a case of starting and exploring until I found something that I connected with deeply and something that worked in balance with all other aspects of my life.
Tell us something about your initiative or current role. What is it about, and what impact are you trying to make?
I’ve been a faith based confidence coach for 8 years now. I primarily help women find spiritually centered confidence to take action towards their highest goals. We do this by raising self awareness and deepening their connection and trust in God. My life took a massive turn when I suddenly lost my husband early last year. I felt all my years of coaching and being coached were in preparation for this extremely difficult test. During the months that followed, I took time out to reflect deeply over past events. I found myself gravitating towards understanding and holding tight to the faith based prescribed attitude for life as demonstrated in our prophetic tradition. This enabled me to rise above the daily struggles and appreciate my faith at a much deeper level. I felt it offered such a powerful code for life that I wanted to share these insights and tools with other people who might be struggling and so I launched the Awakened Hearts Academy. Our flagship programme offers training on how to live according to our spiritual teachings to build strength and resiliency.
Your journey and your vision are very inspiring, but are there any achievements or accomplishments you would like to mention?
There are a number of professional achievements I’ve been blessed with along the way, such as running the first halal food exhibition in South West London, winning best supportive company of the year with a well established charity organisation and collaborating with one of the largest faith based coaching companies as an instructor and co-running a retreat to name a few. However, my greatest satisfaction comes from seeing my clients raise their self belief, see their greater potential and take action on it, seeing their confidence levels improve, seeing their perspectives change, I consider this my greatest honour and privilege.
Would you like to share with our young budding women entrepreneurs the change you would like to see in the world if given an opportunity?
I think the strength of a society comes down to the individuals. A large part of my work is around character refinement, who we are as people impacts every aspect of society and the world at large. I would like to see people taking more personal accountability for their character and behaviour and being more mindful of how they treat each other.
Women are a growing force in the workplaces worldwide, standing shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts. There are cracks in glass ceilings everywhere, with many women breaking through to carve out a space right at the top of the pyramid. What are your thoughts about women leadership today?
I think women hold immense value and are great leaders. To me it’s not necessarily about being equal to men as it is more about women utilising their God given talents and power to be impactful leaders in the world
What would you want to say to our young women leaders/audience reading this?
You have incredible potential, just start somewhere and trust that you hold value within that the world needs.