Inspiring Women in Hospitality

Guest: Sucheta Rawal On this episode we hear from Sucheta. A multi-passionate in food and travel. She is a writer, founder of a non-profit to travel sustainably and a speaker. But she started her career more traditionally as an investment banker in the US,before she transitioned into what she loves doing today. It was a journey of discovery and identifying the values of her life and leaning fully...

Guest: Jamie Cooperstein   On this episode we hear from Jamie. Originally wanted to be a journalist, it was a conversation with her cousin who sold her on the joy of service when she pivoted to hospitality and made a career out of it. She started as a concierge thatallowed her to showcase the fabulousness of the city. Later she transitioned into luxury residentials, motivated by a desire to have b...

Guest: Andreea Bodea Title: Investment Director @ Pygmalion Capital Advisors   She shares her journey in hospitality that started in Romania working with her parents at their vegetable farm where she learnt the talent of customer service. Three phases of her career include operations, advisory and now investment. Turning points in her career are moving abroad to study, moving from operations to ad...

In this episode, Naureen reflects on the importance of setting boundaries, sharing personal and professional moments that taught her the necessity of caring for herself while pursuing the mission of gender balance. 🌟 She discusses how this theme will continue in upcoming Inspire Community sessions, inviting listeners to join the Q3 2025 cohort by July 10th. 🌸 Listen now: Apply to join the Inspir...

Episode Summary: In this reflective solo episode, Naureen shares her personal journey over the past five years—from starting the  Inspiring Women in Hospitality  podcast to building a thriving global community dedicated to gender balance. She explores: What it means to be a changemaker The role of community and mentorship in transforming ideas into movements Her experience building the Inspire Com...

Why I Created the Inspire Community – And Why Now Is the Time to Join 🎧 Listen Now 💬 Episode Summary: In this episode, Naureen, Founder of  Inspiring Women in Hospitality , shares the story behind the creation of the  Inspire Community —a global space built for connection, visibility, and growth. With Q3 2025 membership applications now open, Naureen reflects on the personal gaps she faced in he...

n this heartfelt solo episode, Naureen explores a deeply personal and universal theme— community . Sparked by conversations, interactions, and her own reflections while preparing to reopen her membership community for Q3, she takes us on a journey through isolation, belonging, and the healing power of human connection. Naureen shares: Her experience of fierce independence and the isolation it brou...

How to create an introduction? One that is memorable and impactful. Throughout your career you are going to need to prepare different introductions for difference scenarios. And the question comes up - "Tell me about yourself". This could be for a job interview, networking event, speaker on stage or being a guest on a podcast. As part of the upcoming changes I am introducing to the podca...

What changes are coming up? ⛰️ 'Live' online broadcast of each episode ⛰️ Multiple guests on different topics ⛰️ Sharing more from my own journey and learnings ⛰️ Strong and solid introduction coaching

On this special podcast episode recorded live at the THAIFEX conference in Bangkok in March, I had a chance to speak with Rachael. On her panel at the conference she sharedhow with technology she was able to save a client's stock take from 4 days to half a day. This is the power of technology and how we can use it to redesign our jobs. Ultimately it is a people business and we need to work wit...

On this episode we hear from Reneé. Based in South Africa she offers hospitality and tourism academic solutions. She fell in love with hospitality and tourism at a young age when she was travelling with her parents. One of her earliest memories is the view of the Eiffel Tower from a hotel room in Paris. After her education and to pay off the student roles she took a role as a teacher's assistant,...

On this episode we hear from Jeannette. She introduces herself as a woman in travel and media. Driven by a passion to show to others how beautiful this world is. As she grew into her professional career she noticed there was not enough women in these spaces and was looking for more representation in particular for the Latina women in the industry. She shares the story of the positive impact she fe...

On this special podcast episode recorded live at the THAIFEX conference in Bangkok in March, I had a chance to speak with Olesia. On her panel session she had shared that she was afraid of the robots that were going to take over her jobs, until the day came she went to work for one of the robots. All joking aside we bonded on our shared experiences of manual data entry and how technology improves...

On this episode we hear from Mara. She put her languages degree to good use with internships in hospitality and that is how she got started. It is how she ended up in London but was not ready for the culture shock when she arrived in the city to start her career. She has always been ambitious and worked hard for her promotions. It was during covid, when we all had to hit reset, that she had time t...

On this special podcast episode recorded live at the THAIFEX conference in Bangkok in March, I had a chance to speak with Bou, just before she went on stage. We talked aboutdata, in particular how the F&B data shapes the operations of a hotel business. We talked about the evolving landscape of the role of women in F&B. Her inspiration is her inner child and a reminder to us all to enjoy ev...

On this episode we hear from Shannon. Inspired by her travels she puts together experiential dining experiences in Tulsa. Her first career was that of a custom seamstress, she came into hospitality later in her career after learning culinary. On her travels she will spend most of her time in the local markets, meeting people and learning their recipes. It is from these travels that she has now wri...

On this episode we hear from Maya. She studied to be a lawyer before coming into hospitality, which started in Dubai in 2002. She studied law to please her family, but she chose hospitality for herself as she knew this is where she would excel in her career. Beauty of hospitality is that you can have a creative career. She started as a hostess at a Lebanese restaurant at the JW Marriott in Deira a...

On this episode we hear from Hala. We immediately start the conversation around 'who we are' and we agree that who we are does not drastically change after a certain point, but our perspective changes. She had to hide from her parents that she as working in hotel operations when she chose to follow hospitality instead of choosing to be a lawyer, but happy to share that they eventually came...

On this episode we hear from Samira. She helps places and brands with development, community engagement, strategy and marketing while travelling full time for the past 8 years. She started her career in tourism and hospitality at an early age, working in hotels to earn money that allowed her to travel. She realised early on in her career that she liked marketing, and after graduating she worked in...

Special episode with Jane Lees and Sigrid Stelling on the topic of Ageism   Here are some of the key takeaways: Ageism impacts us at all ages. Transition not retirement Have you considered micro-retirement? Speak up and claim your space at any age Create your own personality Adapt your language Cross generational mindset

On this episode we hear from Saloni. Founder of Paras Corporation which is a PR agency specialising in hospitality and travel sector. When she started, she identified a gap in the market and has continued to grow the business from there and now has two physical offices in India and in Dubai. She describes her work as promoting the soul of the property. We went onto having a great conversation abou...

On this episode we hear from Tely. Born and raised in Mexico, she moved to the US as single mother of two in 2001, where whilst learning the language educated herself to get her real estate licence. With her husband Jim, they bought the Drake Oak Brook hotel in 2013 and from there began her career in hospitality. As you will hear through her story, Tely was always meant to be an entrepreneur, whic...

On this episode we hear from Anne. She knew at the age of 11 she wanted to be a journalist, and it was when she something on TV, she found a way to make it a reality. At the height of her political journalism career, she had a realisation that something was missing in her life and sitting in the meditation room at the Phoenician she began her spiritual journey. She translated her career into that...

On this episode we hear from Sofia. It was a female alumnus from her hotel school that inspired her to get into hospitality, because she wanted to be just like her. Her education was impacted by covid and had an interesting time entering the workforce, but as we will hear in her story, it all worked out. What started as a LinkedIn reach out because she was curious about how you run a pop-up hotel...

On this episode we hear from Victoria, who is a hospitality wellness consultant based in Bangkok. Her love of hospitality came from a young age when she was playing the restaurant game with her childhood friends. Her love of wellness also started at a young age with her family and that grew as she was studying. After graduating, recognising she did not want a corporate career she started her own b...