What’s the bravest thing you’ve ever done?

Abseiled off a cliff?

Climbed a mountain?

Taken up ocean swimming?

Jumped off a building (like I did)?

Thrown yourself out of a perfectly good plane?

Entered a race you weren’t sure you could finish?

Learned to ‘bunny hop’ a mountain bike for the first time as an adult?

Yes, it requires some degree of ‘bravery’ to make the leap (literally or figuratively).

But it’s a mistake to think these (Facebook / Instagram worthy events) have required the most bravery from you.

As I discuss with my guest this week on Sparta Chicks Radio, you practice bravery in small ways every day.

And those acts of bravery (or Sisu) need to be celebrated because they ultimately shape your self-confidence and self-esteem as well as your perception of who you are and what you can tackle or handle in life.

Chloe Chick is the Founder of Sisu Girls, an organisation I love and support that is dedicated to the empowerment of girls through sport and outdoor adventure in order to foster bravery, resilience, determination and self-confidence.

Chloe founded Sisu Girls in 2014 after seeing her daughter Olive start to show a lack of self-confidence in certain situations (including being intimidated by boys in the playground or not wanting to play “boys” sports).

Chloe has a diverse background.

She grew up in regional New South Wales, spent 6 months driving around Africa in a second-hand 4WD, lived in 5 countries and has spent much of her career working in the non-profit space, including for organisations connected with the United Nations.

Based in Singapore (where Chloe currently lives) and Hong Kong, Sisu Girls offers programs that introduce girls to adventurous sports like rock climbing, skate boarding and trail running and creates and distributes content in the form of articles, online stories and print books that share fiction and non-fiction stories based on real women who are brave, confident, strong, resilient and determined.

If you’ve listened to a few episodes of the podcast, you’ll know one common theme throughout many of our conversations is that you “can’t be what you can’t see” and why having role models is so critical.

In this conversation, we discuss:

* Chloe’s experience attending an all-boys school - as the only girl at a school of 600 boys - and what that taught her,

* her fascination with Africa and how it led to working in a school in Tanzania,

* her experience working in the non-profit sector and why it’s so important for grassroots organisations to receive unrestricted funding (i.e., funding that has no restrictions on how it is to be used),

* the self-confidence gap she noticed between her daughter Olive and her classmates in Chamonix (after Olive had spent 18 months living in Singapore and her classmates continued being exposed to outdoor adventures),

* her experience in writing 3 children’s books (and how it forced her way outside her comfort zone),

* the Imposter Complex and her experience with it, especially during her corporate days in London,

* the importance of role models and mentors, and

* why it’s important to recognise your everyday acts of Sisu.

Chloe and I have been connecting online for the last 18 months to 2 years so it was an absolute pleasure to finally chat with her for the first time.

And I’m looking forward to the day I walk into a pub, with Sisu, to meet her for a drink (listen to the end of the episode and you’ll understand what I mean).

Click here to listen on iTunes.

Notes and resources:

iTunes | Stitcher

To find out more about Sisu Girls, you can check out the website or find it on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

You can also order copies of the books here.