How I discovered my zone of genius and am using it to in help other women unleash their zone of genius.
My story of stepping out of my comfort zone started when I boarded a plane in Bangalore, India to study film in New York City.
I had worked in the corporate world in the biotech and food industry before this and despite the many perks and the opportunity to travel, I never found my work exciting or fulfilling.
Film making brought out the creativity and entrepreneur in me, skills that I didn’t know I possessed.
I learned the power of marketing, networking and building a community of supporters and advocates when I directed and produced my first feature-length documentary film.
I made several short films and an award winning feature length documentary film about gender discrimination and violence in India and the Indian expat community in the US and Canada.
Because of the film and the awareness campaigns I spearheaded I was awarded ‘Woman of the Year’ by the California Legislature Assembly District 14 and the ‘Global Influencer 2019’ award by Women Empowerment Awards North America
After making several short films and this documentary film I bit the entrepreneur bullet, I founded The Expat Woman focused on helping expatriate women build connections and learn from thought leaders, industry experts and influencers through events, conferences and workshops.
When I moved to the US, I had a hard time navigating the country both personally and professionally and wanted to provide women who were new to the country with the support they needed to deal with all the challenges.
Since 2014 I’ve hosted over 350 very successful in-person and online events. I brought in talented guest speakers for these events to speak on a range of topics to meet the needs of my diverse network.
Through my events, I was able to build and grow my network and mailing list from 0 to 13K.
However, besides briefly introducing the event and the speakers. I rarely spoke at length or shared my expertise at my events.
Maybe it was Impostor Syndrome, maybe I felt I had nothing valuable to share. Despite being the
Fast forward 7 years and after the pandemic hit and life slowed down, I was able to take a step back to chalk out how I wanted to move forward professionally.
I had hidden in the shadows for the longest time not realizing how important it is to add a face to a buiness. People buy from people.
Be the Successful Woman you Wish to See in the World
Ever since we went into lockdown I’ve been building my presence online and also helping women in my network amplify their voices and create visibility for themselves.
I truly believe we are all unique but unless we shine the spotlight on ourselves, no one will benefit from our skills and we won’t be able to create impact.
We all have experiences and lessons to share.
The more we put ourselves out there and share our knowledge, not only do we get more comfortable every time we do so, we also inspire and create impact with our content and expertise.
We need to step out to be visible and stand out from the crowd.
You can follow me on LinkedIn
