People always wonder how I could have no fear and travel to different parts of the world and not know anyone there or who I am going with? For me I think, “How could you not?” The last five days were no different. I was going to Florence, Italy. My travels there took me through three countries and I knew no one there. Not even the retreat attendees.
Joya Dass, news anchor, founder of lady drinks – NY (
http://www.lady-drinks.com/) and public speaker (might I add an amazing one) whom I consider ‘woman extraordinare’ single handedly spearheaded, planned and executed this ‘big idea’.
The attendees all knew each other each other a lot more. Little did I know these strangers were about to become friends for a lifetime. (Marina, Joya, Piya, Geetha, Annu and Mani, I couldn’t have asked for a better group).
The concept was a simple one – how to execute the biggest idea of your life. I thought I had this down packed. I had switched careers after 11 years of being a physical therapist (which I loved doing btw), single handedly started a successful fashion line that was only in its second season and but one that had gotten so much media attention already! Wrong! In these 5 days, I learnt so much more than I even think existed out there to be learnt about the subject matter – making big ideas happen!
Marina Rominoshkev (
http://beanidealeader.com/) was the course instructor. Another woman who you should reach out to right away if you have any ideas you want to make happen or if you just need excellent, accountable and results oriented business coaching all the while maintaining a balance in your life.
Our days were intense and jam packed. We got to work right away.
Day 1 consisted a lot about sharing our back grounds, our lives, and also what was our ‘Big idea!’ I was amazed at the dichotomy. Some were established women with already very successful businesses looking to expand to other countries. Some were in the conception stages and included opening various women empowerment non-profit foundations. Others, like myself were in the infant stages and getting ready for a major take off. Either way, we had the whole spectrum covered.
Day 2 consisted of ‘fear’! Each of us took turns telling our biggest fear and one most challenging stories of our lives. Initially, I was not sure how this tied in with our concept at hand. Enter Marina, who not only beautifully tied it all in to our big ideal, but also made it such that we would be working on each of our fears as personal goal. Someone would go try improve classes for public speaking, someone would start saying NO, someone would take their health seriously, while others would try to be more ‘fun individuals by going to karaoke. Even If you knew me so well, you would not figure out which one I was, since that’s what it is supposed to be – thinking outside the box! Like most, I feel my personal life is perfect and needs no changing. But, it’s funny when trying to execute the biggest idea of your life, you have no choice but to make sure you maintain a ying yang relationship with your personal and family life and find ways to keep it that way, all the while spending countless hours on your idea! As the Italians would say “Bello” how she tied it all in and made total sense of it all!
Day 3 was execution. Executing and making it happen. We got ideas from Marina as well as the rest of the group. We made contacts and just beefed up our roldex by the sheer number and type of attendees present. More importantly we set sail achieving our goals but how to maintain our personal and social lives and roping all these factors in to form one balanced wheel with an equal center point.
But this was all the work part of things. We are in Florence after all, a city where wine was almost more readily available and cheaper than water! Each lunch day and each evening, we tried so many different restaurants and wine shops. Needless to say the food was phenomenal! The freshest bread and cheese I have ever had. The aged cheese and Balsalmic vinegar makes me salivate as I write this. We also had had some of the best local wines your palate had ever tasted and some of the freshest pasta you ever had made right there from scratch. The pasta literally melted in your mouth making one believe they use dissolvable flour! We pretty much ate pasta all five days and not only were we leaner and skinnier; we did not feel dense and heavy all the time after our meals! I know it was hard for us to understand since as a culture we shy away from ANY carbs let alone in these quantities.
The locals were so friendly I almost thought they wanted something in return. It is not a tipping culture so they treat you this way regardless of tips! I was surprised to see all the locals in heavy jackets and scarves even for temperatures the high 60’s. But above all, I cannot wait to return to a city where when you sit down at a restaurant, the waiter asks you “gas or no gas” – It means ‘still or sparkling’ water! 😛 What might you ask I am going to go back for? To go take a cooking class in Florence with my husband!
By Zankhna Parekh,
If you like what you read, you can follow Zankhna’s blog by liking her page
www.zankhna.com/DesignerZankhna or sign up to receive updates of new posts on her website at
www.zankhna.com/my-account
Joya Dass, news anchor, founder of lady drinks – NY (http://www.lady-drinks.com/) and public speaker (might I add an amazing one) whom I consider ‘woman extraordinare’ single handedly spearheaded, planned and executed this ‘big idea’.
The attendees all knew each other each other a lot more. Little did I know these strangers were about to become friends for a lifetime. (Marina, Joya, Piya, Geetha, Annu and Mani, I couldn’t have asked for a better group).
The concept was a simple one – how to execute the biggest idea of your life. I thought I had this down packed. I had switched careers after 11 years of being a physical therapist (which I loved doing btw), single handedly started a successful fashion line that was only in its second season and but one that had gotten so much media attention already! Wrong! In these 5 days, I learnt so much more than I even think existed out there to be learnt about the subject matter – making big ideas happen!
Marina Rominoshkev (http://beanidealeader.com/) was the course instructor. Another woman who you should reach out to right away if you have any ideas you want to make happen or if you just need excellent, accountable and results oriented business coaching all the while maintaining a balance in your life.
Our days were intense and jam packed. We got to work right away.
Day 1 consisted a lot about sharing our back grounds, our lives, and also what was our ‘Big idea!’ I was amazed at the dichotomy. Some were established women with already very successful businesses looking to expand to other countries. Some were in the conception stages and included opening various women empowerment non-profit foundations. Others, like myself were in the infant stages and getting ready for a major take off. Either way, we had the whole spectrum covered.
Day 2 consisted of ‘fear’! Each of us took turns telling our biggest fear and one most challenging stories of our lives. Initially, I was not sure how this tied in with our concept at hand. Enter Marina, who not only beautifully tied it all in to our big ideal, but also made it such that we would be working on each of our fears as personal goal. Someone would go try improve classes for public speaking, someone would start saying NO, someone would take their health seriously, while others would try to be more ‘fun individuals by going to karaoke. Even If you knew me so well, you would not figure out which one I was, since that’s what it is supposed to be – thinking outside the box! Like most, I feel my personal life is perfect and needs no changing. But, it’s funny when trying to execute the biggest idea of your life, you have no choice but to make sure you maintain a ying yang relationship with your personal and family life and find ways to keep it that way, all the while spending countless hours on your idea! As the Italians would say “Bello” how she tied it all in and made total sense of it all!
Day 3 was execution. Executing and making it happen. We got ideas from Marina as well as the rest of the group. We made contacts and just beefed up our roldex by the sheer number and type of attendees present. More importantly we set sail achieving our goals but how to maintain our personal and social lives and roping all these factors in to form one balanced wheel with an equal center point.
But this was all the work part of things. We are in Florence after all, a city where wine was almost more readily available and cheaper than water! Each lunch day and each evening, we tried so many different restaurants and wine shops. Needless to say the food was phenomenal! The freshest bread and cheese I have ever had. The aged cheese and Balsalmic vinegar makes me salivate as I write this. We also had had some of the best local wines your palate had ever tasted and some of the freshest pasta you ever had made right there from scratch. The pasta literally melted in your mouth making one believe they use dissolvable flour! We pretty much ate pasta all five days and not only were we leaner and skinnier; we did not feel dense and heavy all the time after our meals! I know it was hard for us to understand since as a culture we shy away from ANY carbs let alone in these quantities.
The locals were so friendly I almost thought they wanted something in return. It is not a tipping culture so they treat you this way regardless of tips! I was surprised to see all the locals in heavy jackets and scarves even for temperatures the high 60’s. But above all, I cannot wait to return to a city where when you sit down at a restaurant, the waiter asks you “gas or no gas” – It means ‘still or sparkling’ water! 😛 What might you ask I am going to go back for? To go take a cooking class in Florence with my husband!
By Zankhna Parekh,
If you like what you read, you can follow Zankhna’s blog by liking her page www.zankhna.com/DesignerZankhna or sign up to receive updates of new posts on her website at www.zankhna.com/my-account