A COACH who helps young people build their confidence has been saluted by two famous business gurus.

Jasmine Navarro owns Withnava, which aims to help teenagers and young adults find their voice and believe in themselves.

She works with children and teenagers and devised Creative Confidence, a series of 12 workshops to support wellbeing, which she delivers in schools, colleges and universities.

The Bournemouth-based coach has already caught the attention online of former Dragons’ Den star Theo Paphitis and former Ann Summers chief executive Jacqueline Gold.

Jasmine, who experienced traumatic grief as a teenager, worked as a teacher for 17 years before taking a coaching course mainly to work on her own issues.

“During the whole process, I realised the power of working on myself. It was really transformational,” she said.

“At that moment, I was like ‘This is what I want to do, I want to help others’. Because you don’t have to change everything outside your life, you can just work on inside.

“When I was a teenager, if I’d had these tools and techniques, my life would have been easier for sure.”

She launched her business in 2019 and spent a year creating the content of her workshops.

She also hosted The Foghorn Podcast, in which 18-24 year-olds shared their teenage challenges and what they wished their parents and teachers had known.

“The whole thing is self-confidence,” she said.

“Once you know that you can change those thoughts and that’s going to change how you feel and ultimately change your habits and change your life, that’s quite powerful."

She was selected by Jacqueline Gold from the entrants in the Women On Wednesday (WOW) contest, for businesswomen with strong brand values and the potential to grow.

Jacqueline Gold said: “Through her teachings, she helps to equip students and adults through life changes. Jasmine will be a great addition to the WOW community.”

Theo Paphitis picked Jasmine via his Small Business Sunday initiative on Twitter. She was one of six weekly winners to gain a retweet to the entrepreneur’s nearly 500,000 Twitter followers.

Jasmine said launching Withnava took her outside her own comfort zone.

“After 17 years of teaching, it was ‘It’s now or never’,” she said..

“I really feel with my whole body and mind that this is what I’m supposed to do. I think when you feel that strongly about something, you just find a way.

“I know life’s short. Anything could happen at any time and I always thought to myself – and my mum was so supportive as well – if it doesn’t work out, at least I tried.”

If there was one step young people could take to start improving their wellbeing, she said, it would be to write something positive about themselves and place it on a mirror where they would see it at least twice a day.

“My last teen wrote ‘You are swag’. I don’t know what swag means but she wrote that and saw it every morning and that was a kickstart to helping her, because she started realising that once she says nice things to herself, she feels better.

“Just that realisation is huge.”

  • Jasmine can be found on Instagram and LinkedIn and at withnava.com