Interview with Suzanne Doyle-Morris

Exuding confidence from her stance to her speaking skills, valuable attributes any woman, or man would be proud of, Suzanne Doyle-Morris projects ambition and determination. An academic, entrepreneur, international speaker and certified executive coach specialising in strategic career development and leadership coaching for high-potential executive women, Suzanne is also a successful author of ‘Beyond the Boys Club’ and ‘Female Breadwinners’.

Women in the workplace are becoming increasingly prominent, and companies are now realising that women in senior positions bring increased profitability and corporate governance. It seems that women are being recognised as a serious professional entity, and this is set to continue, as more women are graduating from university than men. For MSL, this is an intriguing and exciting notion. We spoke to Suzanne who has made a successful career helping motivate and inspire women through her deep interest in the role women play in the professional field.

On her newest book, Female Breadwinners Suzanne explained her interest in women who earn the lion’s share of the household income. “I’m fascinated not just on how they make relationships work, but how the workplace needs to change to adapt to this really growing number of women, and this isn’t just a UK phenomenon, because we’re graduating out of University at such a faster pace now than men, this is going to be the future.”

Suzanne also has an interest in MSL’s work and the way fashion has an effect on our professional lives. “What I’m interested in about Maggie is the way she is able to connect to women through fashion, and look at ‘how does that make a difference to their confidence levels?’ How they project themselves … I think she’s the first person I’ve seen who really looks at that and says ‘how does that affect success?’, ‘How does that change women and the way we look at ourselves’? And I think that’s really, really interesting.”

We asked Suzanne if she had a treasured item of clothing, and interestingly she had worn it to our meeting. She smoothed down her lapels as she began to tell us the story behind her bespoke dark grey pinstripe tailored suit, complete with hot pink lining and the title of her first book ‘Beyond the Boys Club’ embroidered inside. “It was made for me by a good friend Kate Starkey at Kate Starkey Couture, and it was my celebration after the first book was published, ‘Beyond the Boys Club’, because on the book cover is a pinstripe design.”

Suzanne told us that it is not only the image which she projects to people around her when she wears the suit, but also her own self image and how it makes her feel, which makes it so special to her. “ So many women I work with know that when they are out in the City making deals, brokering negotiations, whatever it is, often putting on a suit is how they project themselves and you know, credibility…When I’m wearing it I feel very confident, I feel like I have a place at the table.”

Suzanne has a very intriguing way of thinking about the way women use fashion within the workplace, “…They literally put on a suit…metaphorical, a suit of armour, a suit of protection.”

Suzanne believes, as do we at Maggie Semple Limited, that networking is an important part of any form of success. Thinking about her own successful career, we asked Suzanne what advice she would give her younger self if she had the chance, “Begin to delegate and trust others with pieces of my business earlier” she tells us.

We also asked, as a professional woman herself, for a fun tip. She told us she likes to listen to podcasts and audio books while exercising. “At the end of the day, who doesn’t want to be slimmer and more knowledgeable, all at the same time?”

Suzanne’s books, ‘Beyond the Boys Club’ and ‘Female Breadwinners’ are out now and available to buy now.

Ali Roff