Rana Nawas, the Founder of When Women Win Podcast, on the Importance of Female Role Models

Rana Nawas joins the a&e team for Morning Coffee to chat through the creation of her podcast series and why the medium is bigger than ever.

The Founder of When Women Win Podcast, Rana Nawas, talks through the people that inspire her over Morning Coffee

After 17 years working in a corporate setting, Rana Nawas noticed something about the working world that struck her as odd; that the pin for women had barely shifted across two decades, and furthermore that there were still so few visible role models for women to look up to.

Which is why in 2017, after reading one book that left her compelled to chat to the woman behind it, the former Oxford University and Harvard Business School student turned to podcasting.

When creating her When Women Win podcast, the Dubai-based speaker and writer thought her biggest struggle would be finding the inspirational women to chat with for the show. Instead, Rana found she had the exact opposite problem. Inspiring women with extraordinary stories were everywhere.

Talking to the a&e team over Morning Coffee, Rana explains why she thinks the medium of podcasting is so attainable, and who are the women that really inspire her the most.

Watch the full interview with Rana above, and see what we discovered while talking with her below.

Five Things We Learned Talking to Rana Nawas Over Morning Coffee

Rana Nawas, Founder of When Women Win podcast, talks through her podcasting journey to date

On what inspired the podcast

As well as the book that finally set things into motion, Rana explains it was more that than that kick-started the series. She said: “This was on my mind for a long time – the lack of female role models. So when women look up and they don’t see someone who looks like them, sounds like them, or has achieved what they want to achieve in life. It gives you that feeling you can’t make it. And that’s something I wanted to change.”

Strong women are everywhere

The When Women Win host told us: “When I started the podcast, I was like: ‘Where am I going to find all these female role models?’ But actually what I found is that there are so many incredible women out there. So many ordinary women doing extraordinary things. So many powerful stories. So the major content challenge has been which of these women to put on the show?”

Power of podcasting

Still haven’t fallen in love with podcasts? On their appeal, Rana explains: “Podcasting is growing globally at a massive rate and the reason in its a great secondary activity. 77 per cent of the people who listen to podcasts do so on the commute… It’s basically radio, but radio on demand and content that you have chosen.”

Working mums inspire her the most

After speaking to women from all walks of life, Rana told a&e: “It really is the everyday working mum who is keeping it together on a daily basis [that inspires me the most.] Who gets her kids to school, who works a corporate job, who’s an entrepreneur… And they still have energy and time at the end of the day for other relationships… These are my heroes.”

Her personal motto is…

“Look Good. Work Hard. Be Kind. Have Fun.”