By Sandra B Zaca
I used to think influence was about being seen. That if I wasn’t in every room, posting every day, or building something loud enough, then I wasn’t doing enough. But life has taught me that true influence is not about noise, it's about presence. Not presence in the sense of popularity, but in the depth of your convictions, the clarity of your vision, and the courage to keep building quietly when no one is clapping.
For African women, especially those balancing motherhood, marriage, business, and faith, influence isn’t always glamorous, but it is powerful. It looks like the mother waking up early to pray over her household while running a business from her dining table. It’s the woman who chooses integrity in the boardroom, even when it costs her something. It’s the founder who doesn’t chase trends, but builds with vision and legacy in mind. We are not just creating businesses. We are building nations, starting with our families, our faith, and our own mindset.
I believe resilience is the backbone of that kind of influence. And not just the bounce-back kind, but the “stand firm, keep walking, stay rooted” kind. The world that glorifies overnight success, we need more women who understand the value of lasting success, the kind built on truth, stewardship, and calling.
One of the greatest lessons I have learned is this: You don’t need to be everywhere to make impact, you just need to be aligned. Aligned with God. Aligned with your assignment. Aligned with your own voice. As a mindset strategist, my role is to help women step into their identity with boldness and biblical clarity, because when a woman knows who she is and Whose she is, she becomes unshakable.
So whether you are in a season of visibility or one of refinement, I want to remind you that your presence carries power. Your story is influence. Your faith is strategy. And your resilience is not just for you, it’s for the women watching you, the children learning from you, and the future you are building brick by brick. Let us be women who don’t just inspire for a moment, but influence for generations.
Sandra B Zaca is a Mindset Strategist, speaker, and author with a passion for helping women and families build resilience through values-driven and practical strategies. Her organisation, Brave Spaces, provides intensive 1-on-1 Mindset Strategy coaching to explore together the beliefs, assumptions, hurts, triggers, and worldviews that are shaping a client’s current reality. Whether this is coaching for personal reasons or for business/ professional reasons, the ability to overcome challenges, to be resilient, to remain hopeful and to achieve high performance results both personally and professionally, depends on a few fundamental things. Mindset is one of the most critical. Through her Brave Circles, Sandra provides group-based support for victims of gender-based violence and xenophobia, leveraging the power of community and collective wisdom to encourage and empower women and children so that they can find healing, find their own voices and rediscover their true essence.