Zoe Bennett is the CEO and founder of Training Personified and Multicultural Business and Community Champion (MBCC) Awards. She has been running her businesses for 11 years.
In one sentence, what does your role involve? Helping people recognise their value, build confidence and move forward in life with purpose.
Please give a summary of your professional career to date. I am the founder and CEO of Training Personified, a personal development mindset upskilling organisation and also the founder and CEO of MBCC Awards where we recognise and honour unsung inspirational community champions.
My work has always been centred around helping people improve their lives through confidence building, employability, personal development and encouragement. I genuinely believe everybody deserves the opportunity to live a happy, fulfilling and purposeful life, regardless of their starting point or circumstances.
Over the last 11 years I have built a national independent training provider delivering Government-funded and private contracts across the United Kingdom. Through Training Personified we support people not only into employment, but also into healthier mindsets and greater self-belief. A huge part of our work focuses on helping individuals understand the importance of communication, professionalism, emotional awareness, accountability, and responsibility for their own lives and choices.
I am passionate about helping people self-coach themselves so they can navigate setbacks, challenges, and negative thinking in a healthier and more productive way. Many people simply need someone to help them recognise their strengths and realise they are capable of far more than they believe.
Everything I do is rooted in lived experience. I have faced significant trauma in my personal life, including surviving a brutal attack that left me for dead and the devastating loss of my father who was tortured to death.
Those experiences gave me a deep understanding of resilience, compassion, and the importance of helping others find hope even in difficult moments.
Did further/higher education set you up well for your particular vocation? Education gave me useful knowledge, but life experience taught me the importance of empathy, resilience, communication and understanding people from all walks of life.
How is your job impacted by uncertainties in the economy? When times are difficult financially, confidence can also take a huge knock. Many people begin doubting themselves and their future, so my work becomes even more important because people often need encouragement as much as opportunity.
What’s your view of artificial intelligence – an opportunity, threat, or bit of both? A bit of both. Technology can support growth and innovation, but human connection, emotional intelligence and genuine care will always matter.
Social media platform of choice, and why? LinkedIn because it allows me to connect with people professionally while still sharing authentic and motivational content.
How do you hope your colleagues would describe you? Positive, approachable, resilient, and someone who tries to make people smile even during difficult moments.
Highlights of your career so far? Building two successful businesses over the last 11 years has been a huge achievement for me. Delivering my TEDx talk ‘Get Out of Your Own Way’ was another proud moment because it allowed me to openly discuss overcoming adversity and negative mindsets.
Creating the MBCC Awards has also been incredibly rewarding because it gives recognition to people who quietly make a difference in their communities and businesses.
Any particular faux pas or embarrassing moments in your career you would prefer to forget? I once started singing to myself on stage thinking my microphone was switched off. It definitely was not. Thankfully everyone laughed and I just carried on.
Pet hates? Rudeness, arrogance, and people who intentionally make others feel small.
If you could go back and give your younger self some wise advice, what would it be? Do not let other people’s behaviour define your worth. The difficult chapters of your life will one day help somebody else survive theirs.
How do you relax away from work? I enjoy travelling, music, laughter, spending time with loved ones, and being around positive people with good energy.
Tell us something about you that most people probably wouldn’t know. People often see me smiling and motivating others, but there was a period in my life where trauma impacted my mental health so deeply that I attempted suicide. I now speak openly about it because I want others to know that healing and rebuilding your life is possible.
You can take one book, one film and one CD onto a desert island – what would they be? Book: The Art of War by Tsun Tsu; film: The Fugitive; CD: anything by Mariah Carey.
Your five dream dinner party guests, dead or alive? Joan Collins, Oprah Winfrey, Nelson Mandela, Princess Diana and Jesus.
What would you choose to eat for your last supper? Roly poly and custard.
