#186 Caroline Benard: "le poisson pourrit toujours par la tête"

🎙 Yesterday I streamed my first live podcast episode of @inspiring women in hospitality. This was a new experience for me and I enjoyed it! Gave me some new ideas for content in 2025! :)   🤩 The purpose of this live stream was to offer 3 ways to transform your 2025. To offer inspiration on how to engage with the Inspire Community next year.   On this special episode I shared what you will gain across the three membership levels that I have introduced for 2025: 🏔 Grow your professional network and learn about the topics that impact women in the workplace 🏔 Develop your professional brand (I am rebranding personal brand) 🏔 Take the next step in your leadership journey by identifying what habits are holding you back And as I am also looking to constantly develop myself, here is what I learnt about myself from this new experience: 🍁 Stop saying 'you know' 🍁 Prepare a stronger closing   🙋‍♀️ Apply today to be part of the Q12025 cohort of the Inspire Community: subscribepage.io/myqu3v   🙏 As this will be my last podcast episode for 2024 I would like to end with gratitude to say thank you to everyone who has been part of my journey this year.

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   🎙 What I did not share was at the end of our conversation, she turned the mic on me to ask me a few questions. Practise for the launch of her own podcast.   This is what she asked me: 🏔 Any misconception you would like to debunk for women's careers in hospitality 🏔 Memorable feedback someone has given you after being on the podcast 🏔 Brother podcast called 'Inspiring Men 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 podcast episode from @Inspiring women in hospitality I share my experiences of when I was NOT being authentic and what impact that had on me, both professionally and personally. So many myths and untruths that I had to learn or shall I say unlearn.   And why do we need to be authentic? 🏔 It builds trust and more meaningful relationship 🏔 Diversity of thought in leadership impacts the bottom line 🏔 Bringing your unique ideas to the table 🏔 Enhances your confidence

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.