On this episode we hear from Jennifer. She has what she calls a meandering path to hospitality. First with stops in banking and technology, before opening her own restaurant. And now she has a tech company that connects trusted talent with flexible work opportunities in the hospitality industry. Each role she went into, across the different sectors involved her convincing someone to give her a chance and she tells us how she did that. For her career she had a plan, but as she says herself life kind of laughed at her and she realised she had to let go. One exercise that she has gone back to over the years is 'perfect on paper', which is ask yourself what you want in life, go for it and do not apologise for it. The two businesses that she started was born from something she saw was missing in the space. First was the restaurant serving healthy food. Second was the tech company to provide work to top talent, especially woman who needed flexible hours and providing businesses with staff to help run their businesses.

On this episode we hear from Meredith. Founder and CEO of Vegan Hospitality that helps hotels, restaurants and food service business caters to vegan guests. Lives on the island of Aruba with her family and is originally from New York. While she did not start in hospitality, after her masters in social work she worked in public health with a focus on food justice. It was when she went vegan herself is when she ran into issues when dining out, especially in Aruba. What started out as conversations with chefs and restaurants owners to try and get a decent meal, then eventually turned into a business where she was consulting with these establishments to cater to wider dietary needs. Which in reality often helped flex the creativity muscles of the chefs. She has continued to grow her business and now she trains other vegans on how to start their own consultancy business to have a global reach and impact. She sees the work that she is doing now as blending her experiences from social work and hospitality into her business.

On this episode we hear from Isabell. Based in Munich, she is leading Ruby's expansion efforts. As you will hear from her story, she was destined to work in hospitality. She gravitated towards hospitality real estate because she wanted to be part of the space that is creating memories and moments for the guests. Her first role in hospitality after graduating was within development in Accor where she stayed for one and half year. When she started looking for a new role, she connected with the Founder of Ruby, at the start of its journey and believed in its vision to come on board as employee number four. Where she has now been for 10 years, so clearly it was a good match. She shares how it was all new at the beginning to where her role has evolved now to be more strategic, leading the team, being there for the team, troubleshooting and getting involved in the new products lines for the brand and asset management.

On this episode we hear from Chef Ahu. Originally from Turkey, but now runs a restaurant in Hawaii. She shares with us her journey to becoming a restaurant owner. She first came to the US for her education and unfortunately, she faced several immigration challenges, which led her down a path of depression. It was her mother and her home cooking that revived her, and then inspire her to open a restaurant. I love how she describes food as being the connection to her heritage. I have always believed the best way to know a culture is through the food. After testing the market with at a farmer's market, together with her family and a bank loan, they put all their investments into opening a restaurant. Now when she looks back on her period of suffering, she looks at it with gratitude, as it got her to where she is today. When it comes to confidence and belief in herself, which she believes to be the secret recipe of her success, she says the most valuable ingredient is time.

On this episode we hear from Federica. Her passion for hospitality started quite young being exposed to the various B&B's of her home country of Italy. What she experienced was feeling of home, belonging and warmth and she knew she wanted to re-create this for all her future guests. After graduating from EHL, she started an Airbnb business with her mother in Italy. It was right during the pandemic and not a lot of jobs were going around, however the family identified this opportunity and Federica was able to put her creative interests to work. During her education she was always drawn towards marketing, so upon her return to Switzerland she took on a social media role. She continued to upskill herself in graphic design, brandings etc and now she has set herself up as freelancer running the Creative Identity Studio. We also talked about how the Airbnb business has taken off in Italy. To discussing the importance of branding and how its evolved, from an economy of mass production to mass customisation. She defines her purpose as helping hospitality businesses support them in creating impact.

On this episode we hear from Mona. The first Emirati woman I have interviewed whom, as you will hear through the episode, chose to work in hospitality, which is very rare in the UAE as a woman. One of her first roles was at the Burj Al Arab in training, where she worked with one of my previous podcast hosts, Caroline Stevens. With the desire to help people and make maximum impact, she went onto having a career in HR across various hotels in Dubai. She talks about her ambition and how she wanted to be the best. She took the time to educate herself, work on her self-development and something she invests in always is lifelong learning. One of her professional learnings is, if you want to create real impact, you have to do things out of the normal. She also real about her experiences of speaking up, you may come across people who will not appreciate it. Moments like this, turn to your internal compass and believe in what you did. She shares more of her journey in her book 'Beat the odds'.

On this episode we hear from Jane Mack. A holiday-let coach and consultant, where she is sharing her knowledge of 10 years of her own experience of running a holiday let business. She always worked in hospitality throughout her school and uni years. She went onto study hospitality management with the vision to run and manager a big five-star hotels, but after her placement year in a boutique hotel she shifted her focus. Then while trying out different experiences and roles, she discovered HR, which is where she went onto develop her career. She was made redundant during her maternity and when an opportunity arose for her and her husband to buy a holiday-let business, they went for it. Being unfamiliar with the holiday let industry, I asked her to share her experiences and what changes she has seen during her time. Another point she raised was a motivation behind running her own business was to be a mother who was present for her kids’ school activities, whilst it was not an easy juggling act, she found a way to make it work.

On this episode we hear from Megan. She has a tour company for women with a sustainable and ethical lens on tourism and tells us the story of how she got started. When it comes to hospitality, she feels that this is all she has known, having started working in it from the age of 15. Throughout her hospitality career, she tried lots of different things, moved roles, moved to various parts of the industry, but nothing ever seemed to stick because she felt she was not contributing in a purposeful or impactful way. Having started her business 3 years ago, it is now the longest career that she has had. One of the takeaways she wants women to hear is that you are not failing by trying many things. She started her business around travel as its one of the things that she loves most and supporting women through travels. She also believes that we can all learn about ourselves through women of all ages. One of the skills she learnt from her time in hospitality is saying no in a nice way.

On this episode we hear from Komal. She first became a tour guide at the age of 19, in India, where it was very uncommon for women to be tour guides. So, in many ways she was a trail blazer in her field. From the beginning of her career, she was determined to have greater diversity in her teams and at one point she had a 60% female team. In 2020, covid was the catalyst to take her drive and purpose to start her own business. She shares with us the challenges she faced in the past ten years, especially when it came to breaking stereotypes and safety. She is happy to see the progress that’s been made in the past years and that is primarily all the work she has done in talking about the industry. And when it comes to hiring, not only do you talk to the candidates you also have the convince the family in India. It’s a family affair. Even when it comes to travelling, women are expected to travel either with their family or their husbands. She shares with us how she came up with the name of her company, sitting on the banks of the Ganges. Women for world, owned by women but open to everyone.

On this episode we hear from Eliane. She has been in the industry for 20 years and loves this industry because of the different people she gets to meet. After education in Switzerland, she started her hospitality career in the US and then love brought her to France. Where in many ways she had to start her career over while she was learning the language. She speaks four languages and shares with us her experiences of learning. Being exposed to so many cultures, she says to be yourself, take the best of each culture, blend them, and create your own culture. And then how we use it to better understand others and their cultures. Communication is key. She shares the mentors who have helped develop her career and gave her the opportunities to grow. When it comes to team development, she believes in surrounding yourself with talented people and giving them the space to learn. Her advice to women to take a chance on yourself, give yourself the opportunity, you will be surprised by your own capacity and have confidence in yourself. Don’t wait to be 100% ready, because that is not possible.