Women Entrepreneurs Travelling

Once a year, go somewhere you have never been –

Dalai Lama

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page –

Saint Augustine

Living begins on the outside of what’s comfortable and that is absorbing a different culture –

Di Downie

Travel at times gave me a sense of bewilderment, times of questioning myself, my values and who I am.

The past 5 years I have spoken in 12 countries, spoken with hundreds of women speaking with them about what it is that they want, need and value.

Let me introduce you to Tosen who attended one of my presentations in Bahrain.

I met the beautiful Sisca in Bali last year,  Sisca is one of my role models with her business acumen displayed in Jakarta and Bali. Along with her compassion, her experience and her self-belief Sisca has built a family that extends to her global customers.

An excerpt from my best selling book “A High Heels Paradox” gives a snippet of why people are the same the world over. Especially women and women in business and women doing business globally. I simply had to include Sisca and her story in my book.

Now I’m confirming the message I have heard for the past five years. Women want and need to live from what matters to them and spread that message through how they go about their life and work. Women want to have their voice heard from who they, how they feel, what they think, what they see.  Not from the generic male perceptive of black and white, right and left, numbers and percentages, north and south, up and down.

Here is my excerpt of chapter 2 from  A High Heels Paradox:

Why Are People The Same The World Over?

One of the wonderful things about traveling is the people you meet, and the more I meet, the more I see that we are all the same. It seems to me that we all want and need very similar things and we all want the world to be a better, safer and equal place. We seem to all want the same – we all want to do more, be more and want the best for our family.

Sisca walks by and introduces herself with a great big smile on her face. I get that she knows what is going on in the new resort we are staying in. She has this air about her, humble, yet a knowingness of why she is greeting  her  guests.  I  didn’t  know  at  that  time  Sisca  was the owner of the Theanna Eco Resort and Spa in Canggu, Bali,  Indonesia.  I asked  if  I  could interview her, to see why I felt so  comfortable  at  her  resort.  I’m  always investigating the question of why people are the same the world over and what makes a woman a she’preneur.

“What matters to you Sisca”? I ask her in the interview on the typical balmy Bali morning. “What matters most is that I’m a good Mum.” Sisca goes on to explain how she spreads her “mom” skills through their businesses. I use my heart to organize and encourage our children, our staff, our team. Sisca goes on to tell us how she deals with mistakes and what she does when her staff feel like they have failed or have a problem.

You can see the full blog post here.

Sisca works closely with her husband and her children to build their family lifestyle through business, and the belief that there is  always  something  better,  which  she  receives through her daily rituals.

It makes no difference where we live, what  our  religion  is,  what  color  our  skin  is,  what languages we speak we all want to do a good job, and we all want to be loved.

BE a She’preneur: Don’t let  language  get  in  the  way.  Look  people  in  the  left  eye for personal contact. Give a smile to everyone, anytime, anywhere.  Read this blog with women from varying countries

BE a She’preneur: Talk to someone you don’t know every week of your life.

BE a She’preneur: Did you laugh today?

BE a She’preneur: Once a week: Go somewhere you have never been before or drive a different way to work. That might be going right to work rather than going left to get to work.

BE a She’preneur: Learn  a  language  it’s  the  only  thing  that  separates  us  all  on  the planet.

BE a She’preneur: Be interested in many subjects, be a life long learner!

A High Heels Paradox: Be interested in other people, it makes us more  interesting and the world more interesting.

Now two years after A High Heels Paradox was written I have much more understanding of what travelling has given me from the people I met who operate a global business.

Here are some of the things I have learnt:

I have had to learn to disconnect from technology at times with no internet available and other times learn a new platform to communicate with, dealing with the Parodoxes at times is challenging.

My creativity thrives and grows like I never imagined with different cultures, different food, air, routines and my own growth.

Travelling with my business has given me a edge not only for the mentoring program, and mentoring sessions I conduct but an edge to problem solving.

Travelling, whilst creating gives us insights into global and cultural nuances  that can be incorporated into not only the culture of business relationships, also business processes.

Personally for me I have to eat well with fresh food and regular mind and body exercises to enable myself to be consistently clear and confident in my direction to build my global business with my smile and inner happiness.

I must surround myself with people who I know can and more importantly WILL support me.  We all know there are people who have opinions. There are only a few who have been there before us who can give us the support from their experience rather than from watching a You Tube Video. This matter of support and the concept of Tall Poppy is global and a concept to be seen and worked with.

Align yourself with a mentor who has been where you want to go.

Tell us what it is that makes you smile every day and spread your message from who you are?

Hugs from Di