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.

🎙 Today I share with you a special segment from the podcast where I share some of my own personal journey and share some tips from my learnings

🤩 In this episode I talk about 'How to get your next promotion' or effectively how to progress in your career.

🙋‍♀️ I talk about what did not work for me, what then later did work and lessons learnt that I applied as I grew in my own leadership journey.

Know what I know today, here are some things I would have done differently and share with you in the episode:

⛰️ Being intentional with your career

⛰️ Be proactive with asking for feedback

⛰️ Not do any of the office housework

⛰️ External networking to build my profile

⛰️ Online visibility

🚀 This conversation lines incredibly well with the launch of version 2.0 of the Inspire Community membership where I have introduced two additional levels that includes such topics to help progress your career, with the support of a community.

All details can be found on my website: https://www.inspiringwomeninhospitality.com/membership

⏳ Deadline to sign up is the 20th of October 2024.

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 Nina. She takes us on her career journey that started with event planning, before moving into hotels. In hotels she got into digital marketing where she worked closely with the sales team to support their goals. After completing business school, she joined Amex in Hong Kong and was exposed to so many different countries, cultures, and languages during her three years there. After Amex, she joined Wyndham where she stayed for a few more years before embarking on her own entrepreneurial journey. She shares how here time in business school and education in general has helped boost her confidence and build her network. For her business, she identified a real pain point and developed a solution to meet the needs in corporate housing on a different budget. She also started Female Founder in Hospitality to provide a supportive community to other female founders.

https://lanyardstays.com

https://www.linkedin.com/company/female-founders-in-hospitality/

On this episode we hear from Giada. She wanted to be a nuclear engineer, but she found herself in interior design and in hospitality and never looked back. She loves the diversity of space you can design in hospitality, whether it’s the room, restaurant, bar or wellness area. Each project is new and you adapt to the space, location, property, client or strategy. Her challenge is to make the space liked by 99% of the people visiting. She began her career in Toronto, when she hardly spoke any English, but that did not stop her from being creative or being able to communicate. She then went onto London for several years, before moving back to her home country, Italy where she has now opened her own interior design studio in Milan. We also discussed how things change when you become a team lead for the first time, you become a mentor. She talks about the mentors who have helped her, both female and male along the way and how they have inspired her. One of her learnings is to be authentic and be true to who you are.

On this episode we hear from Noelle. While she may have a masters in architecture and engineering, her true love was hospitality. To her hospitality is making people happy. She recognised that being in an environment where we are creating these happy experiences, was good for her mental health too. During her career she has used education every 3 to 4 years as an opportunity to learn, self reflect and progress at the same time. AFter her MBA she went after her desire to being in hospitality and after covid she took another chance on herself to becoming an entrepreneur. She started ENVI lodges with her co-founder Chris in Dubai. These eco-lodges are designed to connect people with nature, be part of the community and take care of the environment. She shares her views on negotiation and the outcome you want is that both parties win. The two learnings she shared is not to be afraid to learn and also be adaptable.

https://envilodges.com/

On this episode we hear from Judith. Early travel experience made her want to have a career that was international. She shares her journey across three different continents with a focus on revenue optimisation. We talked about the importance of mentors and how they have inspired her and helped guide her throughout her career. She has also played the role of mentor in her career and empowered the next generation of leaders within the industry. Two years ago she started her own business because she wanted more flexibility in her life and wanted to work for herself. She wanted to travel less and spend more time with her family, and her advise to women who want families is that there is never a right time. We also discussed flexibility at the workplace and how many women decide to start their own businesses, because they are not getting what they need at the corporate jobs.

https://www.blackcoralconsulting.com/

On this episode we hear from Sowon. Instilled by her family and culture, she has always been passionate about education. After a few years in private sector, she did her phD which then led her to her academic career. The topic of her thesis was around career strategy and networking. Some of her findings were that men understand faster the importance of networking at the start of their career compared to women. The art of networking is building your social capital and being visible. It takes time and effort and we need to take a 360 degree approach to network with people at all levels within the industry. When it comes to family life, there is no magic formula and is very honest about the fact that she is still figuring it out. She started to the 'Women in Leadership' initiative at EHL to provide students more female role models to be inspired by and provide faculty with a safe space for open and honest conversations. She has had many learnings in her life and the one thing she will say is that she would not change a thing.

On this episode we hear from Erika. She was determined to come into hospitality, driven by a desire to travel, no matter what obstacles the universe threw at her. Her early career years in London were most in events and sales and then she made a move towards hospitality technology and did not look back. She feels that still today there is a disconnect between hotels and technology companies and more needs to be done to bridge the gap. Two important learnings she shared with us. First be ready to speak up and ask for what you want. Just working hard and delivering good results will not get you noticed or get you that promotion you want. You have to express what you want from your career. Second is not to judge others by your own standards. Everyone has their own life experiences that makes them unique and bring their own perspectives with them.

On this episode we hear from Domenica. She shares her career journey that has taken her in hospitality, real estate, retail, commercial, concept and lifestyle brands and now her own coffee business. She says it herself she 'never says no to an opportunity' and that is part of her experience. She has faced challenges along the way, each time proving herself successfully and with finding the right ally, partnership, support and team. She shared what it is like to work across the different Swiss cultures that is influenced by the various languages. It is important to keep an open mind, ask questions and provide context. Some of her learnings from her career journey has been to learn to be more patient, stay calm, be consistent, trust yourself, learn to say no and also know when you need to say yes.

https://www.cosmo-coffee.ch/en

On this episode we hear from Huilin. She shares her experiences of working in a family business for the past 17 years, where she is now Group CEO. The business was started by her mother 35 years ago with very humble beginnings to becoming an internationally recognised brand, from whom Huilin draws a lot of inspiration. Her and her brother were handed the keys to the business just before COVID, which turned out to be blessing in disguise as they were able to push through a lot of changes faster than planned. Working for your family certainly has its ups and downs and she was very candid about her experiences. Some of her learnings has been around being kinder to yourself, asking for help, valuing truly genuine and honest relationships, and finally getting better at 'stop, think and then do'.

On this episode we hear from Shell. Her family, of Italian heritage has always been in hospitality, working for the royal families, and now she is the chosen one of her generation to carry on the tradition. She has worked at some incredible hosptialtiy businesses in the UK and shares with us her learnings. She shares with us what the industry can do to encourage more to come into the industry and stay, which is mostly around taking care of your employees and what managers can do to support their team. Losing team members is a high cost to any business, the constant change with changing team members takes an incredible amount of time and energy from everyone. When you take care of your team you take care of your industry. Through her career she felt she had to emulate a more masculine energy, its only later she learnt the benefits of being true to herself. We had an honest conversation about the impact of alcohol and drugs in our industry and her own challenges with addiction. She has recently started her own podcast to have more meaningful conversations around mental health in our industry.

Link to her podcast, 'We recover loudly': https://open.spotify.com/show/24OFDBpIuItcOScVuGUDqg?si=229a9201baf848e2

On this episode we hear from Nathalie. She has worked across five continents and shared that she found it easier to manage a multi-cultural team as its the differences that help gel people together. While many of us may work part of pre-opening teams, she worked at the Savoy as part of the closing team ahead of its multi-millions pound refurbishment. When I asked her how to inspire people to come into she reminded us how hospitality is a great career to develop your personal growth, travel and broad management and leadership skills. In terms of female leadership, one of the things that she has seen change is the view of softer feminine traits that are now desired in leaders. It is also important to identify and nurture the female talent in your company. One of her learnings that she shared was when something bad happens, ask yourself if you are going to remember this in five years or not. Don't sweat it.

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 Caroline Zwierz. She shared her career journey that started in auditing and then took her to revenue management, both underpinned by her capabilities in numbers. She shared her experiences of managing a team in India and Hong Kong, at separate points of her career and her role of giving guidance, direction and offering a different perspective. Whilst she worked in many different parts of the world, in a mostly an english environment, albeit being French, she struggled to adjust to the French working culture when she returned home. We also discussed how to incorporate networking in your life and its not just for when you want something, but something to keep active throughout your career in an authentic manner. The one learning she shared was that anyone can have more than one professional life in their lives, its about asking yourself what makes you happy and going after that.

On this episode we hear from Andrea Belfanti. She took an intro to hospitality course in university and she was hooked. She went onto work in events in clubs, art museum and hotel companies before joining ISHC, where she is now CEO. We discussed how we were both attached to our jobs and associated it with our identity, while its still a learning journey she has learnt to incorporate more boundaries into her life. She talked about the mentors who have supported her along her career and how to look at networking to build genuine relationships. How diversity has evolved in hospitality both across the industry and at ISHC. One of the learnings she shared was how she views leadership from being having to know all the answers to being transparent. And most important, we all need to get better as women to celebrate the wins.

On this episode we hear from Philippa. We bonded on our shared experiences of being a third culture kid, the highs and the lows. In some ways you do not belong anywhere, but then you are lucky to have many homes. Her first experiences in hospitality was when her parents bought a B&B in the english countryside and that became her home. She loved interacting with the guests and meeting new people. She went onto to study languages and her first job was in recruitment. But then she did find her way back into hospitality with a boutique consulting firm. Her advise was to find someone who you want to learn from and that is how she got her role. A common thread throughout her studies and career has been communication. Languages, communicating with clients and across different cultures. She shares how she has had to learn and adapt her communication style both personally and professionally.

On this episode we hear from Cristhian. She chose a career in hospitality because she likes to travel and being exposed to different cultures. Her career journey took her to ten different countries and she has made herself a career in operational excellence. She shared with us some early experiences on being on the executive committee and using data to support her insights, to come across confident. In her career in operational excellence you put the client in the centre to find areas of improvement. We also discussed that keeping your employees happy are the key to achieving your goals. Listening has been an important part of her role to ensure that she hears the point of view of all the departments , being that neutral person to bring the team together.

On this episode we hear from Bousserind. Because of her father's job their family moved every few years and it was one of those roles that brought her to Switzerland, which she loved so much that she decided that she wanted to go back someday. The way she saw of going back was to study hospitality management. Whilst she did not manage to get back to Switzerland, she stuck with her choice of hospitality and studied in Paris. She took on a sales role in the Intercontinental in Paris, which she was apprehensive about, but with the support of a great mentor she was able to learn and settle well into the role and went onto having a career in sales. Her career then took her to Dubai for eight years and now she is back in her home country of Thailand. We discussed how its sometimes hard to make the decisions, especially when we are in our comfort zone, but when we get out of it is when the growth happens. It takes courage to make the decision, but there are good things on the other side.

On this episode we hear from Melissa. Her love of event planning took her to a career in hospitality. After graduating from EHL she went to work from Quintessentially in Singapore. It was here she identified a gap in the market, to connect brides with vendors from the wedding industry via a market place. So together with her co-founder at the age of 25, she started her own business - Delegate. Upon reflection she believes she had more courage to try out her entrepreneurship journey vs when one is older with more responsibilities and higher opportunity costs. Which I likened to my fear of driving as an adult. She shares her journey into the tech space, her learnings and observation of gender balance in this space. Three learnings she shared: start fast, fail fast ; do not forget about your life outside your career ; having an optimistic view on life.

On this episode we hear from Daphne. Being the eldest of four from an African family there was a lot of expectations from her, like going to medical school. Which she did not do, but she has successful career in hospitality which started with Disney and most of her working career in the US. She then moved back home to Ghana to start a new chapter in consulting, educating, training, advocating for tourism and hospitality. She also co founded AAWTH with a goal to up-skill 2500 African women by 2023 for leadership roles. She shares with us the various challenges she faced when she became a mother and combine it with work, which went away once she moved to a more female led executive team. She is inspired by those who have overcome challenges and she hopes to be as courageous.

On this episode we hear from Patrizia. With one parent being in hospitality, she did not think this was the route she was going to take, but eventually it became inevitable. You can have a variety of careers with a hospitality education both within and outside of the industry, our quality of putting people first is highly valued. She shared how it was graduating in the midst of covid. Whilst it was challenging to find any kind of role, it also took the pressure off to find that perfect job, that is often placed on student upon graduation. We talked the importance of your values lining with the values of the company you aspire to work with and how interview cultures are changing with each generation. She got her current role in development, because she was vocal about her aspirations and one day her mentor shared with her a job opening in the area that she wanted to go into.

On this episode we hear from Sophie. She grew up and started her career in Argentina before moving to Europe. After a few years in operations she did an MBA to change the direction of her career and that is when she started her professional life at HVS. First in the Madrid based office before moving to London where she has been for the past 16 years. We both agreed that we appreciated the diversity of hospitality in terms of the careers you can have and the people you get to work with, from all over the world. Over the years she has learnt resilience, perspective and to be kind to yourself. Having a supportive partner is also incredible to the success of your professional and personal life, its all about team work and not necessarily that the woman has to take on the bulk of the responsibilities at home. The real estate finance space is still male dominated, but she is starting to see the changes and hope more women will continue to be attracted to this space.

On this episode we hear from Victoria. She had guidance early on her life to direct her towards a career in hospitality. She greatly values her experience to study abroad as it opened her world view and pushed her outside of her comfort zone. She was inspired to go into consulting as she wanted to work in hospitality real estate. Real estate being a very valued commodity to every Singaporean. She shared some stories of travelling as a woman to various locations, which also further enhanced her cultural view. One of her important learnings is not to be afraid to speak up and share your opinion, it matters and you bring value to the conversation. Yes, we both agreed, that being Asian sometimes finding this confidence is hard, but it is worth pushing yourself. She also shared the value of learning from not only your seniors, but your peers and those junior to you. There is something to be taken out from every interaction.

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 Jane. The root of her career is in real estate and valuation. At that start of her career she spent some time in Hong Kong, where she grew up, before coming back to the UK, where she spent the remainder of her profession. She has worked across different sectors in real estate, but its the operational business such as healthcare and eventually hospitality that she stuck too. She reflect on her time from when she first joined the working world and some of the changes, such as more diversity in entry, more conversations on gender, opportunities for feedback and appraisals. She has had to ask for promotions, which taught her to speak up and ask for what she wants. Not always easy to learn, but takes constant practise to build. We discussed flexibility and how it can play a positive role for both employer and employees such as the four day work week. Working together to identify what works, its more valuable to keep an existing employee than try to find a new resource.

On this episode we hear from Shinn. Her love of hospitality comes from her years of travel with family, where there were moments of magical experiences in hotels. Her first work experience was at the Four Seasons Seychelles, where she learnt the difference between island life and city life. One more fast paced and the other slower. She pushed herself out of her comfort zone by taking her higher education in Switzerland, her first time in Europe ever and learning to adapt accordingly. After graduating her path lead her towards learning and development within hospitality. We discussed the concept of service culture and whether that can be taught or something you have innately within you. Shinn relies on reflection throughout her life, to help her navigate various situations or coming up with ideas, etc. She promotes life long learning to everyone and advocates for us all to invest in ourselves. One of the areas that she has worked on over the past year is her assertiveness.

Please note since this recording in November 2022, Shinn has left EHL Singapore team.

On this episode we hear from Gosia. She started her career in banking, but then quickly realised that she is more of a customer centric service orientated person and would prefer to be in hospitality. This took her from your five star hotels, to coworking and now coliving. She has worked in organisations with an established structure in place, high growth company and also start ups. She shares her different experiences with each organisation and also her personal preference. She has moved country several times, and when you go somewhere where it's completely new, be prepared that it might take you at least two years to really settle in. We also talked about choice and how choice has changed over the generations. We are currently in a generation where we have a lot more choice than our mothers and grandmothers, depending on where you live of course. It can be overwhelming, so we must be mindful of whom we go to for advise and what decisions we make. And own any decisions we make.

On this episode we hear from Sara. She came into hospitality because of love, whilst the romance fizzled out, her relationship with hospitality stayed. She has worked in sales in the middle east and now in Denmark with CitizenM. We talked about the culture differences of working in the middle east vs Denmark, what had to be learnt and unlearnt each time she moved. ME is very fast paced, whereas in Denmark is more relaxed. Working long hours is not seen as a badge of honour and there is a greater respect for your personal life. We shared how we have both worn 'fake' wedding rings in different circumstances. How women make great leaders and we should celebrate that empathy makes us powerful. When it comes to confidence she emulates the abundance of confidence her male colleagues demonstrate and the way they promote themselves. Women need to get better at advocating for themselves. Outside of her work life she does theatre and she gets to bring that in with her into her work life too. Being authentic is key to being one with ourselves.

On this episode we hear from Sumi. Her skill sets are in marketing and business management, which are highly transferable and she has taken it with her to every industry she has worked in. Such as publishing, telecommunication, international education and now tourism and hospitality. Needless to say she has a favourite and said she has met the best people in tourism and hospitality, and had the most fun. She took time off when she had kids, and when she came back to the workforce she returned part time, which gave her that cushioned return. Another key to her success was having a supportive and understanding boss, who understood her needs and gave her the flexibility, provided she met her KPIs. Having this flexibility meant that she was determined to do well and be successful in her career. We discussed how events have evolved, both during and after covid and how our public speaking journey was like. She believes that if you put your mind to it, you can do anything.

On this episode we hear from Virginie. Throughout this conversation she shared her learnings from each stage of her career and there is a lot we can be inspired from this conversation. A chance prize win for a holiday at club med, introduced her to the world of hospitality and she never looked back. Throughout her education she worked part time, like an apprenticeship, which meant she had a good amount of work experience to get her first jobs. The relationships you build this way are different to those on internship. Learning and getting support from your peers was the key to her success in one of her sales roles. She joined CitizenM just when they entered into France, she was the first person to apply for the sales role when it opened up and she instrumental to the success of the launch in France, which is not an easy market to enter into as a new brand. She learnt that once you become a manager and start leading a team, your role becomes more internal focused than externally. She also learnt to build her confidence, which came with time and maturity, learning to say no, which protects your priorities and the service you give.

On this episode we hear from Leah. She is one person who has truly done every role possible in hospitality. Like me she thought she would have a career for life in F&B, like me also discovered revenue management and never went back. After her masters she got into consulting and was with HVS for 14 years. Now she has started her own business as hotel owner. We talked about the lack of female owners in hospitality. There are some family business with Asian American female owners, however outside of this its very sparse. In all her years as a consultant she interacted with maybe one female owner. This needs to change and Leah wants to be that change maker. One of the key learnings she shared was the power of relationships and networking and she wished someone had told her about this at the start of her career. No matter how much it may make you cringe sometimes, it is extremely valuable when you can create those meaningful connections. She also said don't be so hard on your self :'You can only do your best, and your best is different everyday".

On this episode we hear from Valerie. She defines herself as an entrepreneur. She started her first business in import export, after selling it, she went into politics. She left politics to start her own business, start up and think tanks at the age of 59. Never let age be a barrier to what you are capable of. She was inspired to be an entrepreneur because if she saw something was wrong, she knew she had to be the one to fix it rather than wait for someone else to do it. She is the founder of the 'She Travel Club' which is a label that certifies hotels that tailor to the needs of the female traveller. The criteria set by the label are based on regular survey from their 5000 strong member base and as women make up 64% of the global travellers, it's time to take notice and make changes. The hospitality industry has been very receptive to this initiative and are grateful for the information. Valerie noticed, as a newcomer to the hospitality industry that we are still lacking several women in c-suite positions and other industries are starting to catch up. All the research shows that when you have diversity of thought at your senior team, the business is more successful.

https://www.shetravelclub.com/

I love their brand statement: "We make hospitality better for women."

On this episode we hear from Sima. She married into hospitality and never looked back. The most heart warming theme throughout this episode is the support she had from her husband and his family, especially her father-in-law, to have a career, grow, learn, develop herself and most importantly believe in herself. They were the ones who encouraged her to take the board positions, when she first said no. Once her and her husband starting building hotels, she became the driving force to construct and operate more hotels. She would take care of the operations and her husband the development. Now with their son on board, her role has shifted to being more advisory and strategic capacity and that has allowed her to spend time giving back to the hospitality industry that gave her a career. She serves on boards, she is the role model for Indian women businesses leaders across America and still taking an active role in the family business. Her lessons are say 'yes' and speak up.

On this episode we hear from Ike. Like myself, it was her Dad who encouraged her to follow a hospitality career. She chose to go down the F&B path and that eventually got her a role as project manager for 15 F&B outlets for the hotel that she was working for. At the time she knew nothing about F&B concepts and she was really thrown into the deep end. She was open and honest about her experiences, she took one day at a time, she asked the silly questions, cause she would rather look like an idiot for a day, rather than a lifetime and with strong work ethics she was successful. She eventually took on a bigger project of an entire hotel construction. One of her disciplines was when she was working, she was working and didn't mess around, however when she was 'off the clock' she was not contactable. Whilst her colleagues may have been frustrated with her at times, she took her personal time very seriously. She recognised that she needed the rest to perform at her best. During covid she pivoted and now set up her own business in 3D printing to enable local manufactures in Indonesia, where she is from, meet their supply chain requirements more efficiently.

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 Arlett. It was an elective that she took in university in Germany that brought her into hospitality and tourism. After a few work experiences she realised she did not want to be a GM, but did find herself in London and was exposed to another side of the industry in development and investment. Which is where she started her 16 year career with HVS. This role took her to many countries around the world, where you need to visit the sties of the projects you are working on. During her time here she learnt a lot of the technical side of the business, personally she learnt that she cannot control everything, there is no right answer and to learn to ease up as you mature in your career. She has now moved to Switzerland with her family, to start the next chapter of her career.

On this episode we hear from MariaPia. From a small town in Italy, it was her early age of summer camps in England that gave her a taste for travel and how she choose tourism and hospitality as her career. She started her career in an architectural firm in London where she discovered her passion lies in hotels specifically. Through her networking she wanted to be a developer for hotels and then realised that it was the investment side that she was most interested in. Went to do a masters in Cornell, which then brought her back to London with roles in Colliers and DTZ to do advisory, feasibility and valuations. She then had an opportunity with CitizenM in investment, which she could not pass on, even though she had just signed the paperwork for her own flat in London. The lesson here is that be prepared for life throwing you curveballs and have faith that you know how to adapt. MariaPia being curious in nature is a master networker and we discussed the importance of it. Her family have always played an important supportive role in her life.

On this episode we hear from Ishwariya. She is the founder of 'Love letters to chefs' a platform to educate and to create social change in hospitality. She started her career as an architect, then her love of baking drew her to a second career as a pastry chef in London and now she is working on education and changing our mindsets of work life balance in the industry. She is also working as a coach with female leaders, as she believes women just need that extra help to become the leaders they are meant to be. We also discussed how appearance and dressing up as an impact on our working life. As long as humans have the need to impress people, it will take a while before we can change the guests expectations in hospitality with the high levels of services that is demanded.

Instagram @loveletterstochef

On this episode we hear from Maria Navarro. Born and raised in Mexico, she decided to go to Montreal at 18 to study french, when she didn't know what she wanted to do next. It was during her time there she discovered she wanted to be in hospitality and went back home to start her programme at a local hotel school. From a young age, she always knew she was meant for more than just studies and exams and grades was not the answer to everything. She has a great level of self-awareness and listens to the voice inside of her, that tells her she is capable of so much. When she wanted to go to the luxury hotel in Rhode Island for her internship, everyone told her to have a plan b, but she resisted and got in. She is the eldest of five children and had to figures out a lot on her own, each time she left home for a new country. In the midst of the pandemic, she found a role back in the US, despite all the challenges and went onto have further experiences in F&B. The voice in her head kept telling her that she is great at writing, has amazing ideas and time to do something about it. So she started her own copywriting business and sharing articles that speak to us all in hospitality.

https://www.mariawriting.com/

On this episode we hear from Rowena. Shared love of data and understanding the reason why people make decisions inspired me to join me on the podcast. The choices people make are abundant with emotional experiences. She studied astrophysics in university and its her passion for people and psychology that helped co-found her business Starcount. We discussed the important of using data at scale to understand the customer and make strategic business decisions from them. One of the greatest skills you can have in the world of data is to be able to communicate and tell the story behind the data, a skill she learnt that she had. Hospitality business is a people business and a lot of emotions are involved when making decisions. Through Starcount hospitality businesses can understand the reasons why people choose to spend time with them, time being a precious commodity.

https://www.starcount.com/

On this episode we hear from Emily from Herterlier. She quickly changed her biology degree to hospitality after she started at Cornell. She then found her way into the PR side of things in hospitality, where her self proclaimed news junkie came into good use. She would watch the consumer trends and come up with ideas for hotel campaigns such as the pet programe, metrosexual program etc. Originially from New York, she shared that she moved to London with her family and we went off on a bit of a tangent of our shared love of London. We discussed her inspiration to start Herterlier, with a common purpose of wanting to amplifly the female voice. Trends she was noticing was women taken on bigger roles in the industry, more female GMs, invisible workload, a diverse workforce means a more profitable business, etc all playing towards the message of gender balance.

On this episode we hear from Jinal. She started her career in commercial real estate and a chance project on a hotel brought her into hospitality. She then put her learning skills to good used and soaked up as much knowledge as she could about hotel operations. She calls hotels 'living real estate'. She considers herself a conversationalist, which has helped in her career journey and also to surround herself with good people. Often, still today, she is the only women or one of two women at the table or on the team, she hopes that will continue to change, but when she was starting out it was hard. Which is why finding those good people was so important - build up your support network. She would like to see more balance and opportunities for women, there is change happening but more needs to be done.

On this episode we hear from Nosipho. For her it was fate that brought her to hospitality. She got her start in her career at Disney where she learnt the magic of customer service Upon returning to South Africa, she became assistant GM at a local hotel, but her path was set on going into learning development. It was her earlier experiences that prepared her for this career and a way for her to give back to the industry. We discussed how hospitality is an industry where you can have a career through your work experience or by going into hospitality education. She is there to develop anyone at any stage of their career. Working closely with teams, heads of departments and individuals to identify future talent and put together development plans. What hospitality has taught her is that she can handle any high pressure situation and survive it. Last year she was nominated for the Pyne Rising Star Award and its great to see this recognition for her.

On this episode we hear from Cristina. She was attracted to languages from a young age and she thought the best place she could put her language skills to good use was in hospitality. Which took her to Boston, London and back in Florence, where she has now been for the past 15 years.We discussed what the Italian job market is like and the impact of its history and politics. She was very open about her own professional and presonal experiences. As a woman, mother, daughter she recognises that there is no such thing as superwoman and that we are all different and at some point in our lives we need to become the adult. Professionally she has learnt to ask for help, work on her confidence and have faith in her experience.  She wants to be a mentor someday and hearing her story I know she will inspire many others.

On this episode we hear from Lucie. She knew from the age of 15 that she wanted to be in hospitality and tourism. An Erasmus in Barcelona meant that she never wanted to return to the Czech Republic and has been on the move ever since across three continents. Lucie knows herself well and describes herself as someone who never likes to stay still. With the help of a very supportive partner, she has been able to change jobs and move countries every few years when she knew it was time for her next challenge. She is very creative, likes asking questions, coming up with new ideas and solutions. She also shared with us her journey and learnings to becoming a leader, being a team players and letting your team shine.

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 Ambika. She wanted to be a chef, but then realised she did not want to work those hours in the kitchen and transitioned into a career in broader hospitality through education, which was always important in her family. After a few years in operations, she then went into development and then consulting. She is now running her own business in Canada as hotel real estate consultant. She helps her clients to look at hotels as a real estate business, not only from an investment perspective but also operationally. Every holiday for her is like a site visit, where she drags her husband with her to check out the construction. She has had some great male mentors who taught her differnet aspects of the job along the way from hotels, real estate and finance. We discussed how there is still a lack of women in the real estate sector, which is especially visible when she goes to conferences and there is ver low representation from women in the sector.

On this episode we hear from April. She opened her first restaurant after being a participant on the show The Apprentice, with zero restaurant experience. But it was her time on the show and media that ensured thta her restaurant was full when she opened. Prior to having her own restaurant she ran events in Jamaica. Covid gave her and her partner the time to rethink their concept, so they rebranded and opened as Wood and Water, modern english cuisine with Jamaican soul. April is using her voice and her position to elevate the perception of Jamaican food, cause its not all just jerk chicken. Some of the things she has learned is that she doesn't have to be a perfectionist, 70% will do just fine too and just giving yourself some downtime does not mean you are not being productive.

https://woodandwater.uk/

On this episode we hear from Viviana. She started her education as bio-chemist, but realised that she did not want a career in it as much as she loved science. She found hospitality at a career fair and she found her place. After taking a year out to go backpacking across Europe, she came back to the US to work on front desk and then had several roles in HR. She went on to do a masters degree, because she was looking for a career change and after what she thought was her dream job with Four Seasons covid hit. During her masters she also participated in SheHasADeal competition, that exposed her to Tracy and eventually a role with that organisation. She has ambition of owning her own hotel someday and inspiring other women to do the same. Throughout her life she has had her support systems in place, that she took time to build, but have proved invaluable throughout her life.