Brought to you by the Professional Women’s Network of Barcelona.
Jessica Breitenfeld.
Jessica Breitenfeld specializes in getting women heard using Gestalt Psychotherapy. She is a therapist and coach at How2Beyou.com. She became the winner of Spain & Portugal´s 2022 National Public Speaking Contest at Toastmasters International. She is one of 100 certified Applied Improvisation Practitioners who trains teams and individuals on speaking with confidence. She is also one of the European award-winning Elevator Pitch speakers. Winner of Best Speaker, runner up 2021 in Professional Speakers Association London, Jessica is also a mentor and mentee in the Professional Women’s Network (PWN Barcelona) Mentoring Program.
Congratulations on winning the Toastmaster Contest! How did you get so good at public speaking?
When I was sixteen, living in a small town in cold Canada, with nothing to do in those long winters, I joined Toastmasters’ Youth Program. It took 22 years but I finally won the National Championship with an inspirational speech in Portugal last month.
You always need feedback to get better, that’s why mentoring works. So to prepare for the contest, I delivered this speech in fifteen different Toastmaster clubs around the world to get feedback. A good speaker understands what their audience likes and doesn’t like and adapts the message.
What did you learn from this recent achievement?
I was on stage with five men, I was so nervous and scared to be me. Yet, as I heard my name called as the winner, I knew this truth: you cannot stop a woman who speaks from her heart, her emotions, her passion and her vulnerability.
Women speaking with logic, and facts to play the man’s world game cannot win people’s hearts. Teaching women how to speak with emotions is going to change the world.
Was Barcelona in the plan?
Barcelona was the city where I thought I could be happy. I have suffered from chronic back pain since the age of fourteen. At age 26, I started a long journey to try to fix it because I was told that with my condition, having children would be difficult. Imagine carrying a baby when it hurts to pick up socks off the floor! I am very tall. The floor is very far away!
I would spend all my savings going to places like Cambodia, India, and Brazil to try to find somebody who could fix it. I have been to forty-six countries and have lived on five continents for twelve years. At the age of 33, an Indian man in the Himalayans fixed my back. Still, when I feel insecure or unheard, my back hurts more than when I am doing really well. Like many other women, the pain I feel is psychosomatic.
When I stopped searching to fix myself, I started creating a life that I was never able to live. That was here in Barcelona.
How did you hear about PWN Barcelona?
I have been teaching women how to deal with their emotions for the last six years in Barcelona and unfortunately, I had only heard about PWN Barcelona this year.
What motivated me to find it was that two years ago I took a risk and moved to Berlin. I thought in Berlin I could have a better career. I met so many amazing women there with awesome careers, studying what they loved at sixty, dating with passion. Several of them were childfree. Whatever they were doing, they owned their lives and didn't care what society thought. Going to Berlin helped me realize that I didn’t have to follow the traditional path of marriage, two children and chronic tiredness.
Unfortunately, the weather was so rainy, and the people were so unhappy that after seven weeks of being there, I realized what was most important to me: my relationships, my community and the beach! I came back to Barcelona for a three-day visit and never left. Berlin taught me what I needed to learn and I am grateful for the life lesson.
Then I was a woman on a mission to build a community of women entrepreneurs. On Fridays, I would organize a Walk and Talk. I would simply ask on Facebook: “Do any expat women want to go for a walk with me?” I met five women each week. If I had known about the PWN I could have saved all that exercise. A Professional Women’s Network! Why reinvent the wheel?
How did you become involved with the mentoring program?
I joined the PWN drinks as a member and when one of the co-VPs, Meryam Schneider, asked me if I could be a mentor and a mentee I was thrilled. I have helped many women get their ideas heard, but not as an official mentor. As I am a Gestalt therapist helping women figure out their boundaries with toxic people, I wasn’t scared to try being a mentor. You could not imagine my delight when I heard that Victor from Barcelona Metropolitan was my mentor.
Everything is possible in our network. Which role do you like more: mentor or mentee?
I have a mentee, who likes what I have done and I have a mentor who is where I want to be one day.
I have been running events here for six years, so I was sure that somebody could benefit from my experience. I don’t know how to take myself to the next level, but I know how to take someone to my level. I became a mentee, because I have a lot to learn about doing business in Barcelona. I want to grow my events business in Barcelona and I want to learn from someone who knows how to do it. I have experienced events when nobody showed up. I have felt the pain of trying to connect with the local culture and understand the market.
I really like the PWN Barcelona events, I go to all of them. It’s a great networking opportunity where we can learn what the other women are doing and how they can support the community. We can share our talents with the group.
The PWN Barcelona mentoring program is the most supported mentoring program in the industry. They check in, they ask me how I am doing with my mentor and my mentee. Having the drinks and the workshop shows that they really want us to feel supported. I am not just getting to know my mentor or mentee, I get to know many other professionals that are going to be in my network in the future.
You can learn more about the PWN Barcelona's mentorship program and events on the website at pwnbarcelona.net and follow the organization on Facebook @pwnbarcelona, Twitter @PWNBarcelona and LinkedIn.
Brought to you by the Professional Women’s Network of Barcelona.