Owning Your Authenticity and Making Fearless Decisions
Kezia Israel, a transformative verbal identity strategist and a celebrated LinkedIn Top Voice in copywriting, shares her unique insights and experiences in owning your authenticity and making fearless decisions with clarity to reach your goals.
Listen to the episode or scroll down to read the blog post ↓
As the founder of the Verbal Identity Studio, Kizkopop, Kezia specializes in solving brand messaging and communication challenges for FinTech companies that are passionate about their mission. Her expertise has empowered over 100 brands to craft authentic stories through structured narratives, helping them outshine their competitors.
In this blog post, we’re covering the following:
Click here to listen on Apple Podcasts. While you're there, subscribe and leave us a rating and review if you enjoy the episodes.
1) Embracing a Growth Mindset
As the CMO of a Jamaican company, Kezia often feels like an imposter. She shares how she overcomes this imposter syndrome.
“I've never been a CMO of anything. [...] What am I supposed to do? What does the CMO do? How do they create impact on all these things? [...] I'm just learning as I go every day.” - Kezia Israel
An added challenge in this role is that the audience is Jamaican. Kezia left Jamaica when she was 16 and going back to do business in Jamaica was a completely different experience.
“How people respond to things is different. How they think about brands is different. Navigating that, to relearn the culture the way it is today, has been interesting. To help the Caribbean shine, especially Jamaica, I do whatever is necessary to learn, engage with the people there, and develop my skills and knowledge.” - Kezia Israel
Kezia is operating from a growth mindset.
“Having a growth mindset means there are no barriers. There's only unlimited potential.” - Kezia Israel
Kezia explains that going into a situation or a job where she doesn't fully know everything or understand everything isn't a barrier for her, because she will figure it out. She will do whatever needs to be done.
“A growth mindset is void of limits.” - Kezia Israel
2) Overcoming Fear
Most people's natural entry point into something unknown is flight, fight, or freeze. However, at a certain point in our careers, we have to walk the path ourselves. No one is going to push you.
Kezia shares how she acts in the face of fear.
“That resilience comes from growing up in Jamaica. A lot of times we're not presented with opportunities like others are, and you basically have to figure it out. It's like that sink or swim mentality.” - Kezia Israel
Kezia explains that fear is just an emotion.
“You’ve just got to know how to channel it.” - Kezia Israel
Olivia emphasizes that the biggest killer of fear is to identify what it is that you want and then be relentless in the pursuit of it.
3) Making Your Voice Heard on Social Media
So many people have something to say but avoid posting on social media because they are afraid of what people will think.
“That's the game. Social media nowadays is very mean. People are just going to be mean for no reason. So are you going to be paralyzed by this fear and not create content that can help people? Are you going to crawl into a shell and not do anything about it because you bear the opinions of people who are probably not brave enough to do what you're doing?” - Kezia Israel
Kezia shares some tips for making your voice heard.
“To start out, just create content for yourself. Create content that you love, create content you enjoy making. Because if you focus on what people like, what people want, [...] you’re just going to bury yourself into a hole deeper and deeper.” - Kezia Israel
4) Navigating Corporate Life as an “Only”
In the corporate world, it’s easy to show up in a way that is not truly authentic to feel like you fit in more.
“I was always cognizant of my accent. [...] I don't know if it was shame, but I always wanted to sound like everyone else. And going through my journey, I realized, that's to the detriment of who I am as a person because your uniqueness is what makes you stand out.” - Kezia Israel
Kezia explains that she felt she had to shrink herself.
“Over the years, I've gotten more comfortable with who I am, my uniqueness, embracing my personality more and not buying into other people's opinions or expectations of what I should be, what I should be doing, how I should sound, and all of that.” - Kezia Israel
Olivia emphasizes that when you betray your authenticity, your people can't find you. The people who are supposed to help you on your journey will find you if you choose to be brave enough to live authentically.
“Social media is hard because it seems like it's 500 people looking at you [...] and they're telling you, you suck, you're not good. And after a while, you question yourself. [...] But you have to have faith and belief in yourself that, no, you're not delusional. You are who you are, and you're just going to put that out there and forge forward.” - Kezia Israel
5) Navigating Transitions
Kezia has made so many different transitions and pivots in her life.
“I'm not afraid to try new things. I'm not afraid of people's opinions of me trying new things.” - Kezia Israel
As you navigate into new areas of life, you may feel afraid that you will lose parts of yourself. Kezia shares that this is not something she is worried about.
“There are parts of myself that can be adapted to what I'm going to be doing. [...] That's a part of the former brand strategist in me, is knowing how to reposition and make it work for this new thing.” - Kezia Israel
6) Clarifying Your Goals
Kezia has such confidence and belief in herself and in what she wants out of life. The reason why is because she knows what she wants.
If you don’t know what you want, you are going to be aimless and easily swayed by other people’s agendas and opinions.
“Going through art school, I wasn't sure of what I wanted. I did float around and bounced around. It was a four year degree and it took me five years. Why? Because I wasn't sure. Should I try this? Should I do that? What if I miss out on this?” - Kezia Israel
“Develop a habit of making a decision and going after it. After those consistent habits, you'll become more confident in your decision-making, in making the right decision for you. And eventually, you'll just know this is what I want to do, and this is how I'm going to do it.” - Kezia Israel
One of the ways Kezia makes decisions with clarity is with a pros and cons list.
“It's figuring out what are the positives and negatives of not following through with this and how would it affect me. I don't like to have regrets, just lessons that I learned. So how would it affect me? What would the lesson be? And how can I either minimize that or go full force and make it a reality?” - Kezia Israel
Once you have made your decision with clarity, this doesn’t mean things are going to be straightforward. There most likely will be some pivots along the way.
“Our biggest obstacle is ourselves, and we need to give ourselves more grace, forgive ourselves for mistakes, and use those lessons to make better decisions going forward” - Kezia Israel
We also need to change our relationship with feedback.
“Feedback is essential if you want to grow and taking feedback from the right people is also important. Feedback you don't want to hear may bite, but sometimes it's necessary and it gives you that extra perspective that you didn't have before.” - Kezia Israel
To hear the full conversation, scroll all the way up and tune into episode 73.
About The Hosts: Archita And Olivia
ARCHITA
Archita Sivakumar Fritz is the Host and Producer of the Embracing Only Podcast. Archita is a MedTech and Life Science Strategist. She is a LinkedIn Top Voice for her insights into product strategy and nonprofit management, and the creation of inclusive cultures that champion a 'speak up' philosophy.
Following a successful 19+ year corporate career she now helps C Suite across organizations as a Fractional Product Marketing Leader through her company Ready Set Bold.
She works with individuals with 10+ years of corporate experience to find new paths away from toxic or underappreciative environments, enabling both personal fulfillment and broader organizational impact.
→ Grab your FREE resource to build your career transition here: https://embracingonly.com/cubicle-escape-blueprint
→ If you want to work with Archita you can reach out to her here: www.readysetb.
→ Book her as a speaker, moderator, or coach for your next company event or workshop.
OLIVIA
Olivia Grant Cream is the host and producer of the Embracing Only podcast. Nothing makes her happier than providing a platform to women who are changing the world.
Olivia is a proud US Veteran and HR Leader who is passionate about changing the face of corporate America by helping underrepresented people reclaim their power and live the life of their dreams.
She is an advocate for transitioning military members seeking second careers in the corporate landscape.
Olivia is a proud Jamaican and enjoys mentoring, coaching, classic cars, and nature. The way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
→ You can work with Olivia here: www.oliviacre
→ Book her as a keynote speaker or moderator for your next ERG or company event.