Most memorable journeys

I came across Robert Simic by coincidence because I was looking for a life coaching institute and he kept appearing on my google feed. Of course we all know that there is no coincidence, it was absolutely meant to be because in all this vast self development business, I have never met anyone like Robert. His method is incomparable to any other and his teachings have changed hundreds of lives including mine.

Robert is the Founder of RSCI Coaching Institute and the Creator of the most transformational method on the planet, the RS Method. He is a charismatic presenter who engages you with his heart as you grapple with the content.

His life story is an inspiration, starting with humble beginnings. Robert Simic was born in Belgrade, Serbia – a politically challenged country. At the age of 22, he left Serbia looking for greener pastures.

He worked in Europe – from washing cars in Greek islands to night shifts in Germany, until he decided to move to South Africa and explore his options there.

He worked as an office manager and became an integral part of a successful company. In this process though, he traded his entrepreneurial attitude for certainty and a secure salary. The hope of a secure future was short-lived when he was unexpectedly retrenched.

However, what seemed to be his worst nightmare became the wake-up call that began his quest for true empowerment. Robert confesses to having spent much of his life chasing security and significance until he discovered the gifts that come with being a truly empowered human being.

Robert is deeply inspired to continue helping people break through their perceived barriers and achieve their dreams with the knowledge he shares in his coaching, workshops, and training.

https://robertsimiccoachinginstitute.com/

Panos Almyrantis is an acclaimed professional in the tourism industry and has an outstanding academic background with several recognitions and a multi-year experience in the management of top hotels in Greece and abroad.

Committed to promoting authentic hospitality, Panos is also chairman of the organizing committee of the "Greek Hotel of the Year Awards", a position he has held since 2020.

Panos holds several distinctions in sales management, operations and hotel management in Greece and abroad. In 2014, he was named European Hotel Manager by EHMA. He is currently the President of the European Hotel Managers Association.

https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/greece/grand-hyatt-athens/athgh/maps-parking-transportation

Scott Gurian calls being a journalist a vocation rather than a career. Journalism is rarely a 9 to 5 profession but he tries to go even further by focussing primarily on stories that get him and his audience out in the field and into the middle of the action, from trailing the Zapatista Indians across Mexico to interviewing rioters while choking on tear gas in Quebec, waking up at 4am to speak with tourists making a sunrise pilgrimage to Cambodia's Buddhist temples, or sleeping on a couch in a shelter with storm victims in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.

He is the host and producer of “Far from home”, an immersive, first-person, documentary-style travel and culture podcast that aims to take listeners outside their comfort zones and bring them along on unexpected adventures and chance encounters with interesting people around the world. On past episodes, he has driven 18,000 miles from the UK to Mongolia and back, visited Iran as an American tourist, wandered through abandoned buildings in Chernobyl, and participated in a hallucinogenic healing ceremony in Peru.

Before launching his podcast, he worked for nearly two decades as an interviewer, reporter, editor, and producer, covering everything from breaking news to features, investigations and documentaries, on topics ranging from politics to arts and culture.

https://scottgurian.com/

I found Deborah Ives because of her huge Facebook group Solo In Style: Women Over 50 Travelling Solo & Loving It

She was married for almost 20 years and her ex and her took the most fabulous trips to far flung places. When she found herself unexpectedly divorced 9 years ago she decided that if she wanted to have the kinds of holidays that she enjoyed she would have to take a leap of faith and travel solo. As a women it can definitely be a bit tricky to get the best out of the experience, and certainly a little unnerving if you are at a ‘certain age’ when considering it for the first time. Everything from choosing where to go, where to stay, where to eat, how to best see the sights, through to avoiding being the single person that the boring couple takes pity on and insists on including in all their meals! She didn’t want to backpack or share a room and she didn’t want to be herded around in a group following a strict, inflexible itinerary, but she wants to be safe and have some fun.  She remembers how scary it felt and how nervous she was when she took her first solo trip, but it ended up being the most fabulous experience, etched in her memory for ever more (which is good because she dropped her camera overboard as she took a ferry to a remote dive island losing her camera and all her wonderful photos)  and from then on she was hooked!

https://deborahives.com/

Matt Fiddes is one of the most respected Fitness and Martial Arts Experts in the world.  Having been established for 20 years, Matt Fiddes has built a global Fitness Empire with over 700 schools in the UK and worldwide.

He is a 7th Degree Black Belt Master in Tae Kwon Do and holds Black Belts in Kickboxing and Kung Fu is now one of the most in-demand personal trainers thanks to front covers and interviews in newspapers and magazines worldwide. He has numerous celebrity clientele including actors, supermodels and singers. Undoubtedly Matt’s biggest client was superstar Michael Jackson. Introduced to Matt by his close friend Uri Geller, Matt was Michael’s personal UK bodyguard for over a decade before his tragic death in June 2009.

Matt Fiddes launched "MF Dance", which offers Street dance programmes for children and adults worldwide and MF Pilates,  a refreshing mind-body workout, which promotes strength, weight loss, muscle tone and flexibility.

In October 2016 Matt become headline news across the globe when he provided his expert advice, as a bodyguard and self-defence consultant on the Kim Kardashian robbery in Paris which made worldwide news. Matt was interviewed by Piers Morgan for Good Morning Great Britain, Sky News, Inside Edition, USA Today and Good Morning America, to name but a few. Renowned for his business acumen, Matt has also featured as the cover star for Start Your Business and Business Leader Magazines.

https://www.mattfiddes.com/

Melody is a social conscious leader, international key note speaker, author, multi media powerhouse and she is involved in many UNICEF projects.

She recently received a Presidential Service Achievement Award.

CORPORATE LEADERSHIP

Melody has over 20 yrs in working for Fortune 100 companies in building winning teams, Proffit & Happy Employees. Her leadership led to a string of personal successes. Melody has solid results in sales, business retention, scalability, authentic connectivity & service. Melody paired her own personal growth, self-development with professional knowledge. She is certified in Leadershift, Six Sigma (green belt) & more.

MEDIA

Melody Garcia became a “triple threat” in media space with a podcast on iHeart radio , iTunes, Spotify & Spreaker titled “ Life Unscripted”, a contributing Writer in a global magazine with Press Credentials & a TV show co-host. Her message in all media forms has access to millions of listeners, viewers. She is a multiple award winner & has interviewed iconic global influencers like Dr. Steve Maraboli, Trent Shelton, Kelly Wright, etc.

AUTHOR

Melody is a #1 International best

Selling Author, with her co-authored book titled " Women Who Influence" which has also been accepted in the Library of Congress

SPEAKER

Melody Garcia has shared platforms and stages as a keynote speaker or panel contributor with some of the world’s most influential change makers and motivational figures Mr. Les Brown, former First Lady Michelle Obama, Alex Cunningham of Cardiff Lexington, and more. Beyond inspiration, Melody’s powerful messages helps drive a transformational change.

HUMANITARIAN

UNICEF: Melody founded & leads the 14th Congressional Action team in the United States for Unicef, representing 190 countries for children advocacy, leading a strong team of volunteers.

One of Melody's biggest milestone was single-handedly creating a humanitarian focused benefit event titled "One Night, One Voice" that aided over 20,000 people.

LEGACY

Melody is about creating legacies & is a true modern day multi-talented “Renaissance Woman".

I met this amazing young lady at the Global Woman Summit in London last year and was impressed by how grounded and inclusive she was. She is a trailblazer of women’s sport and has been part of the first all female team to officiate a Men’s European Final; she is paving the way for women who follow her and showing them that anything is possible.

She spends time with young women at schools and fuels their confidence with her wonderful positivity and shows them the way to becoming unstoppable. She has decided to become an entrepreneur in order to inspire women young girls, helping them in empowering themselves so that they can build up their own success.

She has spent more than 10 amazing years on Football pitches around the World as a Referee, achieving the Big Dreams of :

- Refereeing the Final of the Women’s World Cup in 2019

- Being selected for 2 Olympics (Rio and Tokyo) and 2 Women’s World Cup (France and Canada)

- Being part of the first ever female trio to referee a Men's European Final, the 2019 SuperCup in Istanbul

At the same time, she has dedicated more than 15 years in helping big companies CEOs and CFOs in improving their Cash Flow and in implementing tools allowing them to have a concrete control on their performance.

I met Mary Ann for the first time here in Cyprus and was impressed by her charisma and confidence on stage but even more by her kindness and approachability off the stage. When I met her again recently at a Global Woman Conference in London, my impression of her was once more confirmed, she is an amazing human.

Mary Ann is the recipient of the 2018 Civic Pioneer Award, considered one of the highest recognitions given by Congress to a USA female citizen. She is a co-founder of The Memnosyne Institute with her husband, Joshua Raymond Frenk, which includes programs, FoodSourceDFW one of the leading initiatives fighting food waste in the nation (led by Rev. Dr. Todd Collier) feeding 5,000 families a day in Dallas alone and $55,077,154.00 of food saved to date.

She is also a published writer, internationally award-winning sculptor, human rights/environmental activist, social-responsible investor/conscious-capitalist and international speaker, including at the UN, White House, House of Lords, Parliament of World Religions to 3,000 people and for the 2020 Dallas Women’s March to 5,000. She led The Memnosyne Institute team in negotiating the first treaty/alliance in 300 years between Hopi and Navajo nations.

She is so much more than anything written above, find out and tune in to this episode.

When I got locked up in a two week’s quarantine coming back from Argentina in March 2020 at the Aldiana Hotel in Cyprus and wasn’t allowed to leave my hotel room, I used to hear someone go outside in the morning and come back after a while. I found out that my room neighbour was Yuliya Oleksandrivna Yelistratova, a Ukrainian professional triathlete, European U23 champion of the year 2009, Number 1 in the ITU ranking (women's standing) of the year 2009 with by far the highest “total number of races” (6), several times national champion in various categories and member of the Ukrainian national team. She competed at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics.

At this point the Tokyo summer Olympics were not cancelled yet and Yulyia was allowed to go running and swimming in the morning and she had her bicycle on the balcony of the hotel. We started talking and she actually came to me for a hypnotherapy session after we were released.

I decided to get back in touch with Yuliya and find out how she and her family are doing and coping with this sad war situation. Tune in and find out.

https://olympics.com/en/athletes/yuliya-yelistratova https://www.instagram.com/yuliyayelistratova/?hl=en

Heather grew up as an only child in New York City. When she was 16, she was encouraged by her stepmother to live with a host family in another country.  Heather chose France, and ended up living with a farm family in Normandy.  She was a shy teenager, but with the help of her French host mother and a family cow named Amazonie, she was pushed out of her comfort zone and into her self-confidence.  That experience eventually led to studying abroad during college, where she spent a year in Italy, France and England, and worked in Switzerland during the summer.  Throughout this time, Heather learned the value of immersing herself in different cultures and languages as opposed to being a passing tourist.

After high school, Heather earned her BA in International Relations at The George Washington University. She then spent more than 25 years working in the corporate world. In 2017 she decided to take a 3 to 6 months break and 6 years later she is still on the road. She realised that travelling the world is more fun than sitting at a desk and became a full time nomad.

https://heatherbegins.com/