A mum of three teenage daughters from Cheshire, is excited to release her debut book, Woman Up – the 21st century women’s guide to being assertive on the 2nd September and launching a campaign to help 1000 UK women to become more assertive in the quest for greater equality as part of National Read A Book Day on the 6th September and aiming to raise vital funds to empower the next generation of young women for north-west based social enterprise, Girls Out Loud.

Jodie Salt is calling out for 1000 women to step up and commit to themselves to ‘Woman Up’ by taking one positive action towards female equality and making a stand for their own happiness, fulfilment and success. The book is brimming with tips, techniques and advice to help women make a small change that creates a big difference in their lives and will be available for just 99p on Kindle for 24 hours on launch day! For every woman who posts or messages on social media to share their action with the hashtag #womanupatwork, Jodes will make a £1 donation to Girls Out Loud.

Every day in the UK women face inequality at home, at work, in politics and in public life. That makes the UK a worse place to live for everybody.

• According to a report by the Government Equalities Office Men now earn 17.9% more than women on average per hour. This means that for every £1 the average man earns, the average woman earns 82p. At the current rate it will be 70 years before that gap closes

• According to The Women’s Equality Party, around 1.2 million women suffer domestic abuse a year and – every day – there are 250 rapes or attempted rapes. Conviction rates are low.

• Women are represented in adverts and the media as sex objects and victims, rather than individuals with ambitions and ideas.

• Our children are held back by the limits imposed on them by gender stereotypes.

Writing a book that she wishes had existed as she grew into a young woman, to play her part in making changes for the better and empowering the women at the raw end of these cultural norms, qualified Executive Coach, Jodie Salt, releases Woman Up, a book written to educate, empower, entertain, inspire and liberate women to reconnect with their true identity, step into their own space & own it, figure out what they want, shamelessly declare it to the world and go out and get it!

“A big problem in our society is that our women and girls are so consumed by what they look like – how ‘pretty’ they are, and this is holding us back.” As the #instagramlife takes hold of not only our teenage girls but also our 40 somethings, Jodes wants to help women to help themselves by encouraging them to turn the notion of being ‘pretty’ on its head. She’s on a quest to convince women to want to be acknowledged and respected for more than what they look like – their talents, contribution, and capability so they can be ‘pretty confident’, ‘pretty strong’, ‘pretty smart’, ‘pretty funny’, and of course, ‘pretty assertive’! Whatever their version of pretty may be. This comes from investing as much in your personal development as it does in your appearance.

Jodes experienced a lot of sexist behaviour throughout her career and was also on the receiving end of bullying behaviour which triggered her own personal journey with assertiveness. She has invested in excess of £20k in her own development and she is determined to not let it cost other women the same whilst achieving them the same results. She battled many (unknown at the time) gaslighting relationships, sexual advances, toxic friendships, a divorce, challenging stakeholders, nightmare clients, and underperforming staff that have given her a solid grounding to become an expert in her field to support others.

She says: “I want to leave a legacy that creates a better world for the women that follow me. I want my daughters and their daughters to have equal opportunities and the freedom, belief and desire to go after their wildest dreams. I grew up thinking the things I dreamt of “weren’t for people like me” and I’m here to empower others to know that it’s absolutely possible.”

Jodes is passionate about supporting women to smash glass ceilings, break the boy’s club mentality and grow their credibility when it comes to their career so they can bridge the gender pay gap and address more of the gender representation issues in senior leadership positions where there are only 29 per cent of MPs, 25 per cent of judges and 24 per cent of FTSE 100 directors. This means that in politics, the law and in business, women’s voices are not getting heard. She’s an expert in coaching women who want to accelerate their career and the book focuses on how to do this.

“In a world where women are told to stay home after dark to keep them safe from being murdered by men or when it’s suggested all men should be on a curfew to protect women, it’s time for a better approach. Where 700k women are stalked each year (Crime Survey in England & Wales) and 71% of women have experienced some form of sexual harassment. which rises to 86% of 18-24 year olds – (2021 APPG UN UK women YouGov survey), it’s vital we equip women with the skills to be able to potentially prevent and/or deal with these situations and at minimum, give them the confidence to report them (44% of respondents in the survey said that if they had more confidence that reporting it would prevent it from happening again it would encourage them to report).”

With a 15-year corporate background in leadership development, a whole host of personal experiences and mum to 3 teenage girls, she knows first-hand many of these challenges and has learned to navigate them the hard way. She became an expert in assertiveness for women 7 years ago after choosing to leave the corporate rat race and become an entrepreneur, building her methodology, The Woman Up Way – a 7 step framework to empower and liberate women to life the happy, fulfilling and successful life they all deserve.

“Woman Up isn’t just a book about being more assertive. There are plenty of ‘boring’ books out there to teach you how to do that. This one is different. It’s real. It’s about how you live life as a 21st century, modern woman. It sticks two fingers up to traditional expectation. It tells funny yet relatable stories of how this manifests itself. It covers all aspects of life from your confidence in terms of your identity, stepping into your power, how to communicate assertively in all kinds of scenarios (including how to say No without feeling guilty and how to cure a common female condition I call ‘waffleitis’!), your credibility, your relationships, emotions and finally how to become a luminary lady – how to guarantee to turn heads when you walk into a room and have people hanging off your every word!”

Here’s her Top 3 Tips to get you started on your Woman Up journey and becoming more assertive:

1. Figure out what you want (not what you don’t want) – so many women when asked what they want either say they don’t know, or they begin to describe everything they don’t want. It makes a big difference to flip this around

2. Prioritise you – Women are great at serving everyone else’s needs before their own. It means those you love to experience a better version of you when you put yourself first.

3. Stop justifying yourself. If you want to say No to something, you are under no obligation to justify why, give an excuse or a reason…. you can simply not want to and that is totally acceptable.