Inspiring Women in Hospitality

What changes are coming up?⛰️ 'Live' online broadcast of each episode⛰️ Multiple guests on different topics⛰️ Sharing more from my own journey and learnings⛰️ Strong and solid introduction coaching

On this special podcast episode recorded live at the THAIFEX conference in Bangkok in March, I had a chance to speak with Rachael. On her panel at the conference she sharedhow with technology she was able to save a client's stock take from 4 days to half a day. This is the power of technology and how we can use it to redesign our jobs. Ultimately it is a people business and we need to work with the teamsto change the mindset and not just rely on the technology. We talked about the advantages that women can bring to a leadership role. Her inspiration is her mom, who has always allowed her to be herself.

On this episode we hear from Reneé. Based in South Africa she offers hospitality and tourism academic solutions. She fell in love with hospitality and tourism at a young age when she was travelling with her parents. One of her earliest memories is the view of the Eiffel Tower from a hotel room in Paris. After her education and to pay off the student roles she took a role as a teacher's assistant, which then lead her down the path of learning & development within hospitality and tourism. She then continued working full time and studying part time for the next 15 years till she gained her PhD. This took commitment, resilience and was not always easy, but she wanted to prove to herself that she can take on this challenge and succeed. Throughout the rest of her career learning, education and training continues to be a theme and her curious nature means she will never stop studying.

On this episode we hear from Jeannette. She introduces herself as a woman in travel and media. Driven by a passion to show to others how beautiful this world is. As she grew into her professional career she noticed there was not enough women in these spaces and was looking for more representation in particular for the Latina women in the industry. She shares the story of the positive impact she felt when she saw Jennifer Lopez on the cover of Cosmo Girl at the age of 16. She went onto study broadcast journalism and while she put in her hours in television news, she did not give up her dreams of being in travel and would attend industry conference whenever she could. She has also had some great mentors in her career who have pushed her and made her believe in herself.

On this special podcast episode recorded live at the THAIFEX conference in Bangkok in March, I had a chance to speak with Olesia. On her panel session she had shared that she was afraid of the robots that were going to take over her jobs, until the day came she went to work for one of the robots. All joking aside we bonded on our shared experiences of manual data entry and how technology improves our working life. We agreed there is still work to be done for women representation in the industry, as at another industry conference, she was theonly female panellist on the topic of technology during AHICE in Singapore. Her inspiration is her 55 year old mother, who had to relocate and re-invent her life in Ukraine showing us anything is possible even under the most challenging circumstances.

On this episode we hear from Mara. She put her languages degree to good use with internships in hospitality and that is how she got started. It is how she ended up in London but was not ready for the culture shock when she arrived in the city to start her career. She has always been ambitious and worked hard for her promotions. It was during covid, when we all had to hit reset, that she had time to reflect about where her ambition was going to take her in her career? It was at this point that she found a role with the Hospitality People Group with recruitment and found it to be the right fit for her. Which was also fuelled by a need to contribute more and make an impact in this life.

On this special podcast episode recorded live at the THAIFEX conference in Bangkok in March, I had a chance to speak with Bou, just before she went on stage. We talked aboutdata, in particular how the F&B data shapes the operations of a hotel business. We talked about the evolving landscape of the role of women in F&B. Her inspiration is her inner child and a reminder to us all to enjoy every moment in our lives a way a child would.

On this episode we hear from Shannon. Inspired by her travels she puts together experiential dining experiences in Tulsa. Her first career was that of a custom seamstress, she came into hospitality later in her career after learning culinary. On her travels she will spend most of her time in the local markets, meeting people and learning their recipes. It is from these travels that she has now written a recipe book called The Hidden Table. She is curious, finds people who love to cook as much as she does, ask them questions and when they see her passion they are willing to share. Besides her own career, she has taken her skills to empower women in different part of the world to provide a source of living to their families.

On this episode we hear from Maya. She studied to be a lawyer before coming into hospitality, which started in Dubai in 2002. She studied law to please her family, but she chose hospitality for herself as she knew this is where she would excel in her career. Beauty of hospitality is that you can have a creative career. She started as a hostess at a Lebanese restaurant at the JW Marriott in Deira and now she is in a CDO role with Accor for the middle east region. She credits a mentor she had early on in her career and her own desire for learning that has guided her path. She has had a few "battle scars" along the way, but it was also what pushed her to get to where she is today. When asked about the evolution of women in leadership in hospitality of what she has seen over her 20 years career, she said there has been changes and there is still some work to be done. And for those women who want those roles in a male dominated environment is not to be deterred and go for it, it is possible. When it comes to men and women working together, instead of competition she invites us to look at it as complementing each other. Another invitation she has for us is to embrace vulnerability and be authentic to ourselves.

On this episode we hear from Hala. We immediately start the conversation around 'who we are' and we agree that who we are does not drastically change after a certain point, but our perspective changes. She had to hide from her parents that she as working in hotel operations when she chose to follow hospitality instead of choosing to be a lawyer, but happy to share that they eventually came around. After completing an MBA where could focus more on strategy and finance, she went into consulting, advisory and now has had a 21-year career with HVS which start in London and now past 15 years based in Dubai. We shared our experiences of being the only woman in the room or having no female role models to look up to. How it is encouraging that things have certainly changed during our careers, but still a lot more to be done. More than being a woman in the workforce, what Hala has found working in hospitality and in a global environment is embracing the cultural diversity and being sensitive to it. When it comes to attracting talent, it is the employers that have to do more to communicate their values that align with the applicants they want to employ.

On this episode we hear from Samira. She helps places and brands with development, community engagement, strategy and marketing while travelling full time for the past 8 years. She started her career in tourism and hospitality at an early age, working in hotels to earn money that allowed her to travel. She realised early on in her career that she liked marketing, and after graduating she worked in agencies in both Singapore and Stockholm, before starting her own business. Which came about when she had this sense that something was missing in her life, even though she had everything. She decided to choose a life of freedom, become location independent by starting her own business and helping her clients with their marketing and strategy. She calls it living a life where you feel that you are aligned with who you are. And you do this by spending time on understanding what matters to you.

Special episode with Jane Lees and Sigrid Stelling on the topic of Ageism Here are some of the key takeaways:Ageism impacts us at all ages.Transition not retirementHave you considered micro-retirement?Speak up and claim your space at any ageCreate your own personalityAdapt your languageCross generational mindset

On this episode we hear from Saloni. Founder of Paras Corporation which is a PR agency specialising in hospitality and travel sector. When she started, she identified a gap in the market and has continued to grow the business from there and now has two physical offices in India and in Dubai. She describes her work as promoting the soul of the property. We went onto having a great conversation about women in leadership and as entrepreneurs in India. The topic of balance came up, but not in the way we normally speak about. It is actually the balance of culture and tradition, and how women are born to wear multiple hats. We also discussed the evolving Indian traveller who are now looking for the non-conventional travel destinations, one that is worth taking note of.

On this episode we hear from Tely. Born and raised in Mexico, she moved to the US as single mother of two in 2001, where whilst learning the language educated herself to get her real estate licence. With her husband Jim, they bought the Drake Oak Brook hotel in 2013 and from there began her career in hospitality. As you will hear through her story, Tely was always meant to be an entrepreneur, which takes courage and a lot of self-motivation and something she inherited from her family. She has always had the support of her children throughout her journey as she followed her entrepreneurial pursuits and put in the long hours to be successful. She shares one of her core leadership principals is that service is love. Showing their team appreciation, recognition and love and this in turns mean they are showing their customer the best service, anchored in love and appreciation. And if you are ever fortunate enough to have Tely as your mentor, be prepared to answer this question: What do you really love to do in this life?

On this episode we hear from Anne. She knew at the age of 11 she wanted to be a journalist, and it was when she something on TV, she found a way to make it a reality. At the height of her political journalism career, she had a realisation that something was missing in her life and sitting in the meditation room at the Phoenician she began her spiritual journey. She translated her career into that of an advisor in tourism for governments. in 2006 she then went on to found Healing Hotels of the World, a brand for people who are looking for something deeper. It was not an easy journey, but she was determined to change the world. She wanted to show that hospitality, luxury and healing can be one. Took her guts, trust and standing up to the naysayers. And to anyone else who is thinking of changing the world, do not give up. You may just need to make a few tweaks along the way.

On this episode we hear from Sofia. It was a female alumnus from her hotel school that inspired her to get into hospitality, because she wanted to be just like her. Her education was impacted by covid and had an interesting time entering the workforce, but as we will hear in her story, it all worked out. What started as a LinkedIn reach out because she was curious about how you run a pop-up hotel ended up her becoming co-founder of this business. And as a young co-founder she has recognised that she will need help and so she has created her own advisory board, which now also includes that same alumnus who inspired her to get into hospitality int he first place. While it has been a steep learning curve, what she has learnt is to embrace the unknow and be proud of what you are already capable of.

On this episode we hear from Victoria, who is a hospitality wellness consultant based in Bangkok. Her love of hospitality came from a young age when she was playing the restaurant game with her childhood friends. Her love of wellness also started at a young age with her family and that grew as she was studying. After graduating, recognising she did not want a corporate career she started her own business that combined her two loves. She has pivoted her business twice, once during covid and second when she moved to Thailand. She adapts according to what is happening in her life and finds new opportunities. She is also a believer of personal development leads to business success. We also talked about wellness when it was not trendy and now to where we have too much information.

On this episode we hear from Khun Natty. She studied engineering for university and was inspired by her family's textile business to pursue this education. It was when her family started building their second hotel in Thailand, she joined the hospitality business and was able to put her engineering skills to use during the construction. She then turned to sales, marketing and revenue management to understand the financials of the hotel. She is continuously learning because now she is now involved in solar roof projects. She shares the balancing act she faces when both operating and owning the hotel, especially when you are reporting up to your Dad. She add that when it comes to working with your family you have to do a lot of communicating and trust. When it comes to her own leadership style, she believes in listening to her team and encouraging them to speak up.

On this episode we hear from Ankita, one of the co-founders of StayVista. A short-term rentals brands in India that she has been a part of the past 9 years. She started her career in human resources and always had a passion for travel, till she found a way to make it her profession too. And Ankita was always meant to be an entrepreneur, as this is now her second business she started, first one being in recruitment. She believes that when you have passion you can succeed in what you pursue. When starting StayVista, along with her co-founders, they identified a gap in the short-term rental market and travel trends of India. Traveling in groups and wanting the luxury experience with an Airbnb flavour. What led to their success was they were not afraid to try, experiment and learn from those experiences. Her advice for other future co-founders is to be aligned and agile at the same time. And she had some very positive insights to share of women in the leadership in the start-up, travel and hospitality space in India.

Here is what we discussed on this special episode: Frustrations we face when we are physically limited as women How do we want to be communicated to How we can be more vocal about our needs and career ambitions. Lets change the language. Time to speak about parental responsibilities. Let us challenge ourselves to not become invisible when we take time out of work This podcast episode came about when both my guests had to pull out last minute from the EquipHotel panel on gender balance due to pregnancy related health issues. We decided to take this opportunity to create this special episode to explore what this meant and how we can challenge ourselves not to make assumptions about a woman's career choices.

On this episode we hear from Aditi. She calls herself a food entrepreneur who is building a legacy of brands. Inspired by her mom, she likes to cook intuitively and find the process of cooking therapeutic when the dishes come together. But her first "real" career was in finance and even became a CFA spending several years in banking. It was after marrying into a foodie family and wanting to have a healthy diet for her family, that she turned her attention back to cooking. With her mom she started a catering business, a supper club to experiential dining. She recognised a gap in the market and went for it, and she says it takes some luck and risk-taking to take action. She also shares the importance of big ideas, visioning, writing, journaling to manifest your ideas and how being an athlete helps her to have a winning attitude.

On this episode we hear from Caroline. During he studies she met someone working at the Ibis Hotel near the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the rest as they say is history. She has made a now nearly 20 years career with Accor and in this podcast, we hear her journey. She spent a decade in operations across properties of Ibis and Novotel, in the UK and France. She held general manager roles and loved the diversity of her days in hospitality. After she transitioned in marketing at the Accor headquarters in Paris. One thing she noticed of female leaders in her career is that we behave kindly and do not dare to ask. Behaving well is rewarded in an academic setting, but this is not the case in a corporate environment. For her own career growth, she says it was about relationship and knowing the right people, and she did this through internal networking which was outside of her comfort zone. This eventually got her role on the shadow executive committee of Accor. As a mother now, combining her executive and personal life, she compares it to a military operation. Especially on days when she must leave the office at 5pm, to be with her family. She leaves with confidence and is setting an example for other parents in the office to not feel guilty or any shame for leaving on time.

On this episode we hear from Katrin. At her essence she is a hotelier and it was an industry she knew she belonged to right away. One of her earliest career guidance was to take opportunities when it comes, being open to explore things that perhaps you didn't plan, yet nevertheless pursuing your goals. She was following a career in rooms, when she was approached by HR for training, which then took her along the HR career path and later DE&I. She looks at her career journey in phases and shares with us the key moments of shifts in that journey. She is dedicated to having balance in leadership and what motivated to work in the space she is now in to make a difference. She also shares with us some of her best practices for diversity and inclusion in a corporate environment, which includes knowing yourself and respecting every individual.

A few weeks ago I shared Seema's story on the podcast on Inspiring women in hospitality  

On this episode we hear from Caroline and she introduces herself as a communications consultant. She has worked across several industries, but it was through her work with Hyatt that exposed her to the hospitality world and she realised that it was the first consumer sector she had worked in that focused on how you make people feel. And it was not just about selling the product. While growing up in a household with two brothers she was not exposed to the gender differences, but she had a different experience when she came into her professional career. For career development she shares that its about knowing yourself, understanding what motivates you, are you learning, developing and perhaps even challenge yourself in a gentle way. And always leave on good terms, watch out for red flags and know when to let go. She now has her own consultancy/agency and said being an entrepreneur was always in the genes, it is just very scary to begin with and we all need to work through those fears. Whether working in a corporate environment or as a consultant, her one advice is to protect your downtime. Taking the dog for the walk is as important as that big presentation at work.

*Authenticity in the workplace* What does this mean to you?

On this episode we hear from Seema. She knew that she was always going to be very liberal about her career choices and she wanted to be in the commercial realm of different industries. She started in FMCG, then banking before coming into her forever home of hospitality. She has several mentors who have inspired her hospitality career journey and helped shape the course of her life. She has an interesting take in her our leadership and has identified individuals she calls 'silent achievers'. People who are doing exceptional work and perhaps not getting the recognition that they need. For herself at a very young age, even as an introvert, she recognised that you had to take action, or you will be left behind. One of her learnings that really resonated with me was 'I will always live in this state of displacement.' At the end she turned the mic on me and asked me questions, where we spoke about #womensupportingwomen, safe space and including men in the conversation. I thought she did a great job with her questions, and I know she will be great when she released her own podcast - 'Anatomy of a Friendship'. You heard it here first!

On this episode we hear from Michelle. This recording was done 25 years to the day she started in hospitality. She originally wanted to be on stage and following an advert she found herself at a pre-opening in Mayfair and loved it. To her it was like a performance every night. Her career then took her around the world opening restaurants. Whilst she did move around across several roles, reflecting on her career path she felt sometimes she stayed too long in a role and would now tell her younger self to be more curious of what was out there or create more opportunities through networking. Life circumstances created an opportunity to set up on her own as a leadership coach for women in hospitality to tackle recruitment and retention issues in the industry. From her 25-year career her main lesson to us all is to: Listen.

On this episode we hear from Ashleigh. She is the co-founder of Halo Business Consulting, and they work with the hospitality industry to drive guest loyalty and guest retention. She started in hospitality at a young age and found it to be character building for her, developing social skills and dealing with conflict. It was during her management trainee program that she found her passion in marketing, especially at a time when marketing was going digital. Over her career Ashleigh has moved roles, companies and countries before starting her own business. When asked what inspired her moves she says that when she was younger she was more of a risk-taker. Now she applies visualisation when thinkings about her business and how they want to take it forward. One of which includes to committing to donating 1% of profits to charity every year. One of her key learnings that she shared was to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. https://www.gohalo.co.uk/

On this episode we hear from Emily. She calls herself a connector. Love of languages and travel eventually got her a role in travel. She started her career with Travco and whilst initially based in London, she did eventually start travelling with her job. She credits learning to 'speak up' from her mum, who taught that you have to 'squeeze all the juice out of life'. She moved across several wholesaler companies as she progressed in her career and what she also wanted to share was the failed interviews that she also had along the way. She spent a few years in Singapore where she also had her first experiences of managing a team and explains what went well and what didn't, and what she learnt along the way. Upon returning to the UK she started the next phase of her career, where she is working with people in commercial roles in hotels who feel stuck at work.

On this episode we hear from Frauke. Her opening included 'living out my passion in hospitality' and she shares with us how. Educated in Germany she worked in Switzerland and then London, where she met someone working in Bahrain. And that conversation initiated her career in the Middle East, which included Bahrain, Qatar and now in the UAE. She shares with us the culture shock she experiences when she first arrived from shared accommodation, where she can walk, how to dress and the transientness of the destination. She has spent most of her career in operations, spent some time in learning and development, owner relations, even EXPO 2020 but her heart is in operations. She took on her first GM role when she moved to Dubai. Throughout her career she has been motivated by how she can learn more and develop further, and saying yes to the opportunities that came her way. She talks about finding her tribe, support network for your career and especially for women struggling with imposter syndrome.

Time and time again as I do my podcasts interview, the advise women share for career progression is work on your visibility. Yet it appears to be an area that we struggle with. It is what motivated me to start this podcast, the events and the Inspire Community. To provide a platform to increase our visibility. In this podcast episode I talk about my own journey of transforming my visibility. Three key moments in my life: Arriving at hotel school Starting at STR Building the brand 'Inspiring Women in Hospitality' I myself have not always been visible and I have learnt the hard way what happens when I was not and learnt the benefits of what happens when I am. I have created this amazing community in less than a year because I was visible and put myself out there. I share insights from this journey and lessons learnt in this podcast. With the hope to inspire you to start your own visibility journey. #inspiration #inspiringwomen #empowerment #hospitality #passion #stories #sharing #inspiringwomeninhospitality #learnings #experience #courage #group #podcast #global #diverse #genderbalance #learning #life #career #fulfilment #visibility #transformation #guide #mission #uplevel #coaching #leadership #feedback #share #giveback

On this episode we hear from Michaela. She believes that the school of life is travelling and as soon as she could, that is exactly what she did. She worked to travel and eventually she made travel her career as well. She stared this career with the Flight Centre and found something that was aligned with what she was passionate about and help people explore the world. This then transitioned to helping people in her team to succeed when she moved into learning and development. In 2018 she moved to Asia and is now based in Phuket with Discova as People and Culture Leader. She shared her journey to becoming a leader and how she progressed in her career, learning new skills along the way such as adapting your communication style in different cultures. She shares a beautiful and vulnerable story of finding herself outside of her roles of leader, mother, wife during what she calls her midlife crisis. It was in Laos that helped her find herself, find her feet and find her passion again.

On this episode we hear from Marta. She calls herself a career expat and a digerati. The original digital nomad from the late 90s. She has made her career in corporate communications and brand strategist. While she has worked across 15 industry, travel and hospitality was a theme throughout her career, along with luxury and tech. She talks about how she was managing teams in the late 90s remotely and learnt early on the skills of remote working. Her career expat life has moved her 16 different times, either for love or career. She is unique in the sense that she has transitioned both between corporate and entrepreneurial roles, taking up the opportunities that presented themselves to her or she created for herself. From her lessons she shares not to limit yourself

Time for Naureen to put herself in the spotlight. This new segment from the podcast Naureen will be sharing from her life experiences and learning, to inspire you to take action, as your 'Inspiring Activator' Today she is talking about feeling unfulfilled. Something she keenly felt several years ago. She talks about what was happening for her then and what she did next. How she carved her own path to find her fulfillment. It was not always easy and the journey will be different for all, but she hopes that you will be inspired by her story and be inspired to take action. Link to TedTalk on the power of visualisation: https://www.ted.com/talks/ashanti_johnson_the_power_of_visualization?subtitle=en&geo=fr Link to Naureen's website: https://www.inspiringwomeninhospitality.com/ To book your 1-2-1 free session with Naureen, contact her on hello@inspiringwomeninhospitality.com

On this episode we hear from Selin. She credits studying in an international school while she was growing up as a path to hospitality, due to the multi-cultural environment. She shares how coming 'home' to Thailand was a reverse culture shock after having lived and worked abroad. Her career in hospitality, started in Chicago and then spent six years in the Middle East, where she held roles in sales and business development. And of all her experiences in hospitality it was in sales that she found her energy, also influenced by her mother's career in sales. She found several role models who inspired her, and she took action to identify key people that she admired and asked them for mentorship, so she could learn and grow. She trusts her intuition to guide her when making decisions for her career. And when it comes to making choices for her career, she chooses the boss over the job. Who is the person who is going to help her grow and she can learn from.

On this episode we hear from Candice. She calls herself a true-blue hotelier and someone that is very rooted in luxury brands. She started in product and moved into service, which started her career in hospitality, and she grew to have a deep appreciation for what is takes to deliver a truly luxury hotel experience, which is truly extraordinary. She started her career in PR, then marketing and branding and talks to us about her journey in luxury brands. She shares that her career progression happened because she had her hand raised. Coming into luxury as a brown woman she had to break a lot of cliches. She also reminds us to pause, appreciate, recognise and acknowledge ourselves for the work we do. Sometimes we take ourselves for granted, yet we sometimes forget to recognise how far we have come.

On this episode we hear from Alexandra. She is the founder of Velvenoir, an international art consultancy which she started 10 years ago specialising in private and hospitality collections. She started her career in hospitality in London and worked across several properties. It was during this time she realised that she was always inspired by art. She pursued further studies in Sydney while working at the same time, she noticed as I did, that women are more empowered there. When she returned to Austria, she decided to follow her dream of starting her own business as an art consultant, she started with getting to know the artists, networking with different business until she started landing projects with hotels. Latest project she has worked on was the Mandarin Oriental, which has 90% female artists works on display now. From her career learnings she says that do not let the business/company become your identity. Link to her website: https://velvenoir.com/

On this episode we hear from Eve. Founder of Brand Journey working with SMEs to build their brand and customer experience in service businesses. She is also educating young marketers to develop their knowledge and skillset in branding through Meraki Marketing Learning Studio. When she was 10 years old, her parents took the family on around the world tour for three months and that instilled in her a passion for travel. And she carried this on into her career travelling and living in multiple countries around the world, which became more important as she came into marketing and needed to understand the customers in the different markets she was working in. She took a career break to pursue a doctorate and it was during that time she decided that she wanted to start her own business. And the people who inspire her the most are the young professionals who have the courage to start their own business right out of uni or even on the side while they are studying.

On this episode we hear from Cindy. She always knew that she wanted to work in the aviation industry and one of her dream roles was to be a flight attendant. Shortly after starting her career, she also began training and this is where her love of learning and development started. 10 years into her career she moved back to Belgium for her kid's education. That only lasted a year and then they came back with the family to Hong Kong, which is the place that has her heart. She has worked for some very big commercial airlines throughout her career and now she is in the private jet industry. Besides her day job on the weekends, she conducts butler and etiquette trainings at universities and for young people. This has also expanded to business etiquette training from meet and greets to public speaking. Two learnings that she shares is that of resilience and to take every opportunity with both hands.

On this episode we hear from Charline. She is the founder of Cote, inspired by her time living along the coast and which means coast in French. She helps SME hotel owners to do good or better for people and planet. She helps them look beyond the walls of their hotel to the surrounding communities, what their needs are and ensure the hospitality business serves their wellbeing. After her studies she worked in hospitality across various departments but found that none really resonated with her. She took a detour and studied fashion management in London. After spending a few years in London, she was still searching for her purpose. Missing travel and doing social work, she decided to set up her own business and eventually found her own path working in communications for a small artisan hotel in Sri Lanka. It took her a few years and one pivotal experience, that helped her to creating her own path and being comfortable with it, and not following the path that often is laid out for you.

On this episode we hear from Charlotte. She is the Hotel Manager at the Grand Hotel in Birmingham, and she shares with us her journey in hospitality. She loves the industry and is a great advocate for Birmingham as a destination. Her career in hospitality started organically, with both parents working in the industry and that she recognised in herself that she enjoyed the work. She says if anyone i struggling to find their feet, hospitality is a great place to explore to find out what you are meant to be doing. Added bonus is that you made some great friendships. In her 20s she applied for the Acorn Scholarship and in her application, she said she was going to be a strong female general manager and through some ups and downs, 12 years later she is a strong female leader. And now she is paving the way for future female leaders. One of her learnings she shared is that when you look after your people, the profit will look after itself.

On this episode we hear from Irene. The founder of a leadership development called Light Path Leadership based in Saigon, after a career in leadership development across four continents. And she has become known for women in leadership and even wrote a book about the stories of Vietnamese women in 2016. Going back to her origin story she is Austrian and because she loves the unknown, she decided to study sinology at university. Which then took her to China in the early 2000s and made her career in adult education, at a time when executive coaching was unknown in China. When she came to Vietnam and started working with women, she was approached to design a leadership program for women in hospitality, which they called HER TURN. In this program one important thing that she introduced was including sponsors, both male and female, for the program participants, because they will be the ones who have the power to advance your career.

On this episode we hear from Debbie. She has been in the travel industry since she was 16 years old and that was with British Airways. In 1995 she started her own PR agency in hospitality and travel, which she then sold to FINN Partners six years ago. She now heads up the travel team for FINN Partners globally. Reflecting on her first business she started as a promotion's agency, she recalls that she really had no fear, one of the benefits of being young. She talks about how when she started her PR agency, it was all about the relationships you had with the media and now with great content and the right channels there is so much more you can do. What I also particularly admired from her story is her transition from entrepreneur back to employee, when she sold her business and her reasoning behind it as she went into this next phase of her life. One of her biggest learnings she shared was protecting your network and being kind to people.

On this episode we hear from Rosina. An intercultural trainer and DEI consultant with a focus on the hospitality industry. She started in hospitality at a young age and all throughout her uni years. She says that it taught her so much about problem solving, thinking on your feet and social skills which she then used later in her PR career. During this time, she worked at an agency where the CEO was of Indian heritage and it was the first time she had a person of colour as her boss, which she was extremely proud of. She then went onto spend a few years in the charity sector working in the UK. She then moved to Berlin, where she spent the next 12 years, where she has had her two kids, career with Design Hotels and then starter her own business. During her time at Design Hotels the one thing she is very proud of is creating cross-departmental campaigns for newly opened hotels. When it comes to intercultural communication, she says it's a combination of intention and being aware of it, that helps you to understand other people and then how to communicate in that environment.

On this episode we hear from Tabatha. Grown up in Adelaide Australia, it was studying tourism that took her to work in seven different countries, across a wide range of companies and roles. A career in hotels that started in the UK, took her to Japan, Australia and then a long stint in Asia. She has worked in big organisations like Starwood to smaller independently owned hotel companies like Vihn Group in Vietnam, which then tapped into her tourism experiences. A wide range of experience in commercial roles in a wide range of types of businesses in our industry. She had different learnings across these companies, like Starwood was great for people, skills and branding and her time at IHG taught her about revenue and technology. Tabatha says that it was her curiosity and desire to experience new things and new cultures that took her on this career journey.

On this episode we hear from Jeannette. She started her career as an economist for the government and then turned to the travel industry, where she spent 30 years of her career, which lead up to a CEO role with Saga. She now has her own portfolio of business advising travel leisure hospitality businesses and a podcast 'Brave, Bold, Brilliant'. She shares her experience and advise on growing your career and that you must be proactive about it. Speak up, put your hand up, volunteer for projects, work hard, network internally and externally and do not let your career progression up to chance or anyone else. In her mid 40s, she decided it was time for a change in her life and started her own entrepreneurial journey in search of more freedom, choice and flexibility. Her podcast which started in July 2020 has become her personal brand with her work with leadership and executive strategy. She also credits the support of her partner, another 'hospitality husband' with the success that she has experienced in her career and someone to believe in her, when she would not. Some of the key learnings she had to share were around not being afraid to fail, do not let fear hold you back and self-belief.

On this episode we hear from Stephanie. It was french toast in New York city and Home Alone 2 that got her hooked into hospitality. From a young age she loved to travel and so she started working to be able to make the money to travel. This theme carried on in her career, she chose destinations based on where she could learn a language, learn culture or work for organisations she admired. She ended up moving across to seven countries during her 20 year career thus far. Even though she is not a risk taker, she shares with us two experiences when she took the risk to leave jobs without having a new one lined up. She did this knowing two things, in hospitality you will always find a job and second, she believed in herself.

On this episode we hear from Kseniia. She has made marketing her profession in hospitality and has worked across Fiji, Samoa and Australia. She studied law for her degree, but then got into hospitality as a student when they were recruiting for the big stadiums in Ukraine around the time of the Euro Cup. She saw this as an opportunity to practise her English and meet people from different countries. She then found herself in Fiji, pursuing a hospitality career fulltime and it was the people that she admired. They were so warm and welcoming, gave her a sense of belonging. She came into marketing by volunteering her time at the hotels she was working at and then eventually made it her career, where she found her passion. Her time in Fiji gave her a great admiration and respect for the Fijian people and their sense of hospitality. She spoke of them with the highest regard. Four years ago she moved to Australia, still with hotels and then recently with a desire to grow she joined a dmc to promote Brisbane