TIME - Travel Industry Mentor Experience
TIME - Travel Industry Mentor Experience
A TIME Menteeship Journey into the future and Marketing Wisdom
Embark on a journey of self-discovery and professional enlightenment as Kira Loh from Globus Family of Brands Asia Pacific opens up about her transformative experiences as a mentee. With the help of her mentor Vara in the TIME program, Kira navigated the intricacies of rekindling industry connections and reshaping her career path. What's more, we get a sneak peek into the personal styles that grace our episodes, like Arnaud's vibrant Mardi Gras getup. This discussion isn't just a peek behind the professional curtain; it's a celebration of the unexpected inspirations found in mentorship and the vibrant TIME community.
Pull up a chair and find your spark as Kelly Wacher's workshop left Kira with lessons that resonate and chuckles that linger. We weave through the challenges and triumphs of marketing to that discerning 45-60 demographic, unveiling the craft that turns a campaign into a conversation. And, as if that's not enough to whet your appetite for knowledge, we toss in a playful podcast game that challenges us to think outside the box - quite literally - by omitting certain words from our dialogue in future episodes. With gratitude, we wrap up another enriching session.
Hello and welcome back to the time podcast, season 4, episode 2. And as episode 1 we also have myself here and the one and only colorful, loud and proud French marathon runner, arnaud. Welcome back.
Speaker 2:Arnaud. Hi Timo, good to be here. How are you?
Speaker 1:Very good actually, thank you. And who do we have with us today, arnaud? Tell us all about it.
Speaker 2:So today we have Kira Lowe. She's the digital performance and content marketing manager, ANZ. Sorry, that was a bit of a mouthful At Globius. Family of brands, Asia Pacific. Welcome to the podcast, Kira. How are you?
Speaker 3:Good, thank you. Thank you for having me. It's great to be here, especially with a couple of athletes. I feel unfit compared to you guys.
Speaker 1:Oh well, before we get started, we always love to talk a bit about fashion on this podcast and I'd just like to know, kira, if you look at Arnaud and maybe just give us a quick digital description of his fashion today, because most people will only see audio, see audio, hear audio and tell us what you think about this creation.
Speaker 3:I think he's dressed ready for the weekend. It is Mardi Gras parade on Saturday and he's in a beautiful pink t-shirt that says the calls, which is a great friend too. So, yeah, you look amazing, thank you.
Speaker 2:Well done. I'm very happy for you. Every week I make an effort for you, timo. Every week I make an effort for the guests. I do make an effort.
Speaker 1:I hope it's in that order first me, then the guest, or anyhow. Enough about that, kira, let's talk about you. So when you think about your very first time moment, either you went to a network before you became a mentee or your first mentee session, as in the meeting with your mentor. First of all, what was the situation, how was it for you and what were you wearing?
Speaker 3:Oh, what did I wear? I think it was a dress, good choice. Don't remember which one, but probably a dress, and the first time I attended time was when I started the program with my mentor, so I'd never been to a time event before. I just heard about it through colleagues, and I think you've spoke to Sarah Hoskin before she's a colleague at Globus.
Speaker 3:So yeah, she told me about the program. So yeah, the first time was going to my induction and I was at the Radisson Blue Hotel and it was great. It was a little bit overwhelming at first, but I think it was a nice way to ease into the program.
Speaker 1:What was the overwhelming part?
Speaker 3:Just not knowing what to expect, I suppose. And Madison Blue was a big hotel room sort of walked in like, oh who are all these people? I didn't know anyone. So it was been nice to network and obviously meet these people now but yeah, a little bit daunting at first.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And how quickly. Well, what got you into the yeah, sorry, you got him.
Speaker 1:No, no, go for it. Go for it. Go for it, Please, Anu. Go for it.
Speaker 2:I did have one question, because Kiris said that Sarah is the one who recommended the program to her. But apart from Sarah, which we've interviewed last year for on the podcast, how did you come across the time program? Was it something that was discussed within your organization? What was your?
Speaker 3:experience. I did see it advertised in travel daily a lot and, yeah, it was mostly based on Sarah's recommendation. So I sort of just asked internally and said, hey, can I go on the program? And they said yeah, so that was it. It was pretty straightforward, can I?
Speaker 1:ask why were you interested in it? Like, did you have a specific goal in mind, what you want to achieve out of it, or was it more a general, having someone on your side to guide you through, I don't know, a difficult career phase or challenging career phase, or whatever it was? What were your motivators?
Speaker 3:To be honest, I was mostly looking to network. I lived overseas in Europe for a while so when I came back then it was COVID and I felt a bit out of touch with the travel industry in Australia. So I thought it'd be a good way to meet new people and people in the industry. And then, secondly, I wanted to do everything all at once. So should I go and do an MBA? How can I progress my career? What if I want to start a side business? I just kind of had all these goals and I want to do everything, but it wasn't possible to do all at once. So my mentor, vara, kind of helped define the goals and we sort of assessed them in more detail and thought of a bit more realistic timeline. So, yeah, I definitely went in with sort of set goals and that's what I wrote in my expression of interest and they kind of evolved along the way as things popped up. But otherwise, yeah, it was pretty clear on what I wanted.
Speaker 1:I think it's pretty common that throughout the program what you just described goals get refined or completely changed. Even a lot of people start with A in mind that's what they want to learn and two, three, four sessions in, suddenly there's a whole new aspect to their thinking and their career approach. Did you have like a light bulb moment throughout the 10 sessions where you thought that's something completely new to me? I haven't noticed it like that before, but it's actually something very big and direction giving in my career.
Speaker 3:Not necessarily light bulb, but I think having Vara was really good because we were on a similar sort of wavelength with everything, I suppose, and she was really easy to chat to sort of just bounce ideas of each other. So I think every session was valuable for different reasons, but no sort of one light bulb moment which I suppose some other mentees have with their mentors.
Speaker 2:How was the relationship like with your mentor? Was it someone that you knew of before?
Speaker 3:No, I hadn't heard of her and I asked internally and no one knew of her either. I think they just maybe never had crossed paths before and I was a bit hesitant like, oh, what if I don't get along with her but don't gel with her so well? But as soon as I met her I was like, oh, this is great. She's sort of in sales, so she's chatty. She was fine, Like I definitely will see her after the other program's finished, but I will catch up again.
Speaker 1:Tell us a bit more about that first moment actually with your mentor, because I remember it's so daunting because most people don't know their mentor before. Obviously, you do your LinkedIn research, you Google a bit, you ask other people, but that very initial moment can be so exciting, nervous, whatever it is. How was it for you? How was that very first together?
Speaker 3:She was very welcoming and asked a lot of questions when we first met. This was at the induction session at the Radisson Blue, so it was kind of just sort of introductory to start with. But then the first session we had together. She lives in the northern beaches, so I went up to Montevail, which was nice to leave my little inner city bubble. But we just sort of got coffee by the beach and I initially did the Clifton Strengths Finder. It was on her recommendation and it was interesting because some of ours were quite similar as well, which was nice to know that we were quite similar in some ways. So it kind of just flowed quite smoothly after that, yeah, what was your?
Speaker 1:if I may ask, what was your top three strength on the Clifton?
Speaker 3:Oh, I think it was communication, maybe woo. When you want to woo people, what was that? Other ones, some sort of promoter or want to sort of hype people, I can't remember what it was called, but I think communication and woo were the ones that overlapped with far out my mentors. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nice.
Speaker 3:Interesting.
Speaker 1:I always love to ask that question because I've done that myself and I've put a lot of time and understanding the whole thing, and I think it tells you a lot about people if they know what their strength are, because it gives you a very good idea, professionally at least. Yeah, anno, do you have any strength that you would share with us? I don't have many strengths. As you know, I'm very, I'm very, I'm very average, because I'm German and you're French, you're very superior. So now, mine was Activator, motivator, and the third one was I can't recall, I need to look that up again here but Activator and Motivator was the first one. So what was your strength?
Speaker 2:I know the one strength you've never shared with anyone before that no one has seen I can't remember because I did that years ago and the thing is that there's so many of these tests that I've done over the years like every organisation that I worked for had used one of theirs and sometimes it feels very confusing because it's pretty much the same, but it's kind of different and everyone comes up with a different approach. So after a while I'm not really interested in these things. I understand what my strengths are and what I need to work on, but I don't necessarily feel any more than I need to put a label on them. And these things they change all the time, like there's always a next best thing in professional development that comes up with a new label and a new way of categorising yourself and thinking about your strengths.
Speaker 1:Was there any strength you learned about yourself throughout a programme that you weren't as aware of before?
Speaker 3:I think it just made it more obvious what my areas of improvement were. And sort of raising things with Vara, she was very rational and kind of takes an outsider perspective, which is good. I'm like, oh yeah, I know that I shouldn't do this or say this, and she's just kind of the one to tell me that I'm not doing something right, or in a nice way, obviously. But yeah, I think it made it more obvious. It's areas of improvement.
Speaker 1:Have you met in person? Did you do online? Did you do a combination? How did you organise the schedule around the meetings for yourselves?
Speaker 3:Pretty much all in person. I was only a couple. We did virtually. We did a lot on the weekends, so I'd usually go to the Northern Beaches to see her. We met in Manley sort of halfway every weekend as well, which was nice, but I find it much more productive one more in person. So it was really good that we're both located in Sydney.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that helps a lot.
Speaker 2:I'm good balance. She's a hybrid, I find. I mean depending exactly what your goals are. But I think that we need to be also mindful. You were lucky because you were in the same city as your mentor, but as the programme is branching out, you know, like across New Zealand, but also like across the country, and we know that there's some states in Australia that are not necessarily either I have an industry which has been a little bit decimated, and so to find mentors, you know they're sometimes on the other side of the country, and so I think it's good that we have these options of being able to do the programme virtually when it's possible and do a little bit of both. I think that gives a lot of flexibility for those who have constraints of location and stuff like that. Yeah, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:You briefly mentioned the induction session before, obviously for the mentees, before the networking event, which was your main focus, which we talk about in a second. Usually before the networking events, there is a workshop happening about whatever topic is just scheduled. Did you attend any of the workshops and was there one that particularly stood out to you, or how did your experience with the workshops go? I think we never talk enough about the workshops. It's such a big part but no one talks about it as much, so let's do it now.
Speaker 3:I attended all of the workshops. I think the first one might have been about accounting. I guess, that would have been. Yeah, I think so. The last one was the most memorable. Was it Kelly? Is that her name?
Speaker 2:Yeah, kelly Wombley, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was so good. She was really motivating and inspiring and also you felt like a bit of an idiot dancing, but it was such a good workshop. I want her to come to our business and do a sort of a session with the whole team. She was great. I loved it.
Speaker 1:She's fantastic. She's a great mentor as well. She's so supportive of the time community as well since years. To be honest, it's really great to have her on board. It's good to hear that you enjoyed that workshop. I think I actually arrived on that day when you guys were just doing the dancing. I remember I had a little sneak peek into the room and thought, like, what are they doing? I thought, oh, that's Kelly in the front. Okay, yeah, now what's going on? Yeah, it must have been good fun. So that was your favorite.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'd say so. It was sort of about finding your purpose and passion in life. I suppose, and how you've kind of come to that at this stage in life. But I think just the way she approached it was quite funny and entertaining, it wasn't?
Speaker 1:like a live presentation at all. If you were in charge of presenting a workshop to the time communities for the current mentees, what would your theme slash topic be? What's the wisdom you want to spread into the time community?
Speaker 3:I mean, my job is in marketing so potentially I could try and impart some of my marketing wisdom on the time community. But nothing as entertaining as Kelly's I'd say Hers was yeah, she set the bar very high so I'd have to have a real think about what topic to cover. She takes a lot of boxes.
Speaker 2:She's a real entertainer, but the content of what she does is so inspiring. Yeah, I've seen a couple of other sessions and I've always.
Speaker 1:They were always my favorite and I'm For me as a non-marketing person without any strength and talents, as Arnold just confirmed three and a half minutes ago, what's the one marketing golden rule tip that you can give to me?
Speaker 3:Oh, that's tough. I mean, it depends on what you're marketing into who. I think that's the main thing to make sure that the creative is tailored to your audience and to the product you're selling. So, for example, at Globus, where a family of brands and we have two touring brands and one River Cruise Line and the River Cruise Line, the Avalon Waterways our target market is sort of 45, 50, 60 year olds, so tailoring the content to them is quite important and being in the channels that they're on, so if they're on TV we should have TV ads, for example. So I think, just making sure it fits your audience.
Speaker 1:So, arnold, that's actually our age group already, you know I mean a bank owner and your target audience.
Speaker 2:that's for sure, according to Timo. So yeah, definitely, but do you think that, especially talking about marketing and you know, like applied to travel are there some sort of like new marketing tools that you think that we can prepare people to see in the future? Is there some new trends or new developments in that area?
Speaker 3:I guess there's a lot and it depends on the channel. You've probably heard a lot about AI and sort of machine learning. So in Google Ads, for example, it will just automatically create combinations of text and they'll just create that based on past performance. So then no one needs to manually go in and create these ads. So there's so many different sort of areas. Even chat GPT, which you know can help with your copywriting, really saves a lot of time. But, yeah, it depends on the channel. A lot in the digital space, what's the sort of optimization tools and automation which is great to save time?
Speaker 1:I think what obviously can't be optimized is networking, which was your main purpose in the beginning. To start a time journey, tell someone who is currently thinking about the time program, or potentially being a mentee, who doesn't know the community is similar to what you've been before. How would you describe the time community in regards to, first of all, atmosphere, energy, but also level of expertise and industry?
Speaker 3:I think it was in my induction. Actually, one of the graduate speeches was saying, joking, that people refer to the time community is kind of a cult. I was like whatever, whatever, that black eye don't know what that is. And now I kind of see it, just because everyone is so nice to each other and being at the graduations, like everyone just wants the best for everyone, so sort of the mentees are there and they're so nervous, but the mentors and all the others in the room are just really there to support you. So it's such a nice sort of community and even people saying oh, if you want to meet anyone, let me know. Everyone's just really open and willing to help each other, which is really nice. So I think for any sort of newbie coming in, I don't think it's anything you need to be worried about. You just go up to anyone and be like hi, I'm Kira, who are you? So yeah, it's quite easy just to network, I suppose.
Speaker 1:And what kind of people do you meet?
Speaker 3:All sorts of people from all different roles as well, which I think is interesting, because I suppose, as a marketer, it's not like I'm necessarily working with a small business owner. I mostly work on B2C as well, the consumer space, so it's not like I necessarily work with travel agents or trade at the moment. So, yeah, just meeting sort of small business owners or a small travel agent, others from bigger organizations like Travel Corporation, so it's really been a real big mix and of junior and sort of more senior people too. So it's quite nice that the senior people are there to give back, I suppose, to the industry. Yeah, it's really great. It's unlike anything else that I know of.
Speaker 2:I think it's really good also for a role like yours in marketing, because these roles tend not to necessarily be very I had to say I don't know if it's a word I was going to say from-facing but people working in sales are exposed to a much wider audience all the time because they're on the road, they meet other people, they go to networking events I'd say a lot more frequently. But then when you work in departments that are more there in support, sometimes that networking part is kind of not missing, but it's not as frequent or you're not necessarily exposed to the broader industry as often. I think that these events with time when you're part of the community allow you to have a face in the industry and be in presence of other professionals that you wouldn't in other kind of environments.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely yeah, on a day-to-day basis. I suppose I'm mostly working with a team internally or a media agency or a digital marketing agency or creatives. It's not like I'm going to events day-to-day, so it has been a really great experience for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what's the next step? You graduated, obviously quickly, before we go into the actual next step after time Graduation day. Obviously a big day. Were you nervous? How was your speech going? What did you talk about? Did you have any concerns in regards to your? Because a lot of people are afraid of sharing those two or three minutes, whatever it is in the end. Any tips for upcoming graduates how to approach it? What's your one-on-one and graduation speech at the time?
Speaker 2:What to wear.
Speaker 1:Very good question what to wear? Well done Arno, Back to fashion. What do?
Speaker 3:you think this should be the time fashion podcast? In terms of the speech, I did write it in advance, but I know some people just sort of go up there and wing it. But I didn't think I had, I didn't have the confidence in myself to do that and I was quite brief. But I think the thing that worried me the most was seeing past mentee's speeches and some of them were amazing. I think her name's Christine and she had fought cancer and she was just so inspiring and like really funny and some of them were just super memorable. So I was just thinking I can't live up to those expectations and I think that's kind of what scared me the most. Once you kind of get there and get on stage, how to wind in advance like it's all fine, nothing to be scared of.
Speaker 1:And what did you talk about?
Speaker 3:I actually applied one of my daily rituals that I have with my partner. So every night at dinner we sort of say three things we're grateful for for the day, and sometimes it's a bit of a joke or you're kind of clutching at straws, like, oh, it was so nice and sunny today, but I mean it is something to be grateful for. So I just used that and listed the three things I was grateful for as a graduating mentee that evening.
Speaker 2:So yeah, sort of covered.
Speaker 3:Networking and meeting my mentor and defining my goals were kind of the main things I pointed out.
Speaker 1:I love that. I know what are three things you are grateful for in regards to the time community.
Speaker 2:I was going to ask you the same question. So three things I'm very grateful for. The first one was the reason why I did time was because I just wanted to know where I Interesting Tell us more about that All right For those who don't know.
Speaker 1:I know it's just gotten frozen. Funny enough. Every time someone freezes the picture is never just like. You never have the perfect look. You always look funny, right? It's very interesting. I'm still waiting for the day someone freezes and it actually looks like you know a portrait or something like that Out that he's gone. You can tell us the time after time. What is your aspiration within the community? Do you want to involve yourself? Do you take a bit of a break or what's what's to go?
Speaker 3:I would like to continue to attend the networking events and the workshops. I found them quite useful, obviously for learning and meeting new people, and I did reach out to Mari, who is our main organizer at time, just to say if she wanted any sort of assistance in terms of marketing. Just to let me know Like I'd be happy to help to support the program. I realize it is a lot of sort of volunteer and donation based and I don't need to be super involved, but I'm happy to help where needed. I assume most people in the program too will have a sales background, so not necessarily marketing. So I thought it might be something of interest that I could try and help with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. You're right, it's all volunteer based. So there's a committee I'm not sure exactly how many people are on there at the moment that is all volunteers who look after different aspects of the time community. There's a board, obviously, which is all volunteers, actually quite a few people in the background making all this work, and since more than 15, or now 15 years pretty impressive. Time flies, yeah. So that's pretty good and thank you for involving yourself in the future. I think it's better. When it comes to marketing, you know, it is something that a lot of people do not feel oh look, it's back. A lot of people do not feel comfortable.
Speaker 1:No, that's OK. I know we were just talking about the volunteer aspect of time. The committee you know and Kira has mentioned she has offered Mari to assist with marketing for time if necessary. You know that stuff. So we just talk about the time after time and I know, for example, the podcast another example of things you can do within time after time I know is also part of the committee and involves himself there. He still tries to figure out his fashion, but that is not time related. So if you think about again time after time in the future, would you do the program again, potentially in I don't know two years, three years, or do you think it's that one time thing for you? What are your thoughts?
Speaker 3:No, I think I'd do it again once I sort of progress my career or sort of change directions and potentially there's an opportunity to meet a different mentor and get their perspective on a new challenge, I suppose, or new goals. For now I don't feel like I need to do it right away again, but definitely in the future I think it'd be quite useful. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I was actually asking because I know that we will have a modified program coming out for previous graduates who do it a second time. So that will be launched soon and I just break the news here. Who cares? Right, I didn't sign anything that I can't talk about it. Yeah, that's coming. I'm excited because I know a lot of people actually say hey, yes, two, three years after I've done it, I would actually like to do it again, just to get new direction, get new insights. Obviously you progress as a person, in your career, as a leader, whatever you do, you progress quite a bit in that time. So it's really nice to to get that additional new add-on. But knowing what's what to expect probably makes it a bit more official, even especially for the first two, three sessions. I'd say I know, would you agree?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I totally agree. Yeah, I've said it before, I would definitely do it again because, like you say, like we evolve so much, like professional careers are not linear, and you know, like you get something out of the program, you put a lot of stuff in place and then you find yourself at a different spot, that where you started right, and so sometimes you need to, you need to reassess or realign and and, and these programs are very good to to be able to do that. So I think that there's probably some people that probably would think, well, why would I do it again? Because I've done it once, like, what's the point? Like it's not, you're not doing it again because, because you didn't get anything out of the first, the first time, you're doing it again because because you yeah, you saw one to progress even further, that you need that kind of push, you know to, to get to the next step. Right, agreed.
Speaker 1:That's the last word here. Yeah, I totally agree, kira. We introduced this question in season four only one of the very few things that came out of the German side of the podcast after we move over to the French questions and so that the the German part of the podcast introduced a question. If you have to describe your time at time in one word, what's the word going to be?
Speaker 3:fun.
Speaker 1:Fun.
Speaker 3:I know that, yeah, I know it's a bit of a not exciting word, but it has been fun and interesting. Vara is lots of fun, so yeah, we've had some good times. It was kind of just like meeting a friend, sometimes for a wine and a little advice session. So yeah, I think it was fun.
Speaker 2:I think we'll probably need to put it down on the word fun, because last week the person that we interviewed said exactly the same thing. Oh, no, so we probably need to add to your question, tim he said he said.
Speaker 1:He said I know you weren't listening. I'm very disappointed at you. He said mind blowing.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, mind blowing. Yeah, that's true Anyhow. So now that we all know that we have to make a list and then yeah, okay, we need to make a list. And then cross off and say you can't use this word, you can't use this word, you can't use this word.
Speaker 1:This is what we want to know. We add a little bingo thing and we all just, you know, put the words on that we think are actually coming, and then every time someone mentions it, we actually cross it off on our lists. This is a great podcast game.
Speaker 2:I love it. So basically, can't say cool today. Today you can't say cool.
Speaker 1:Exactly, you may ask your friend question now, the one that's so inappropriate that I would never ask it.
Speaker 2:Oh, my god, like you've been asking this question more than me because you you're more interested in finding that. Look, kira, what we've been asking previous guests was we wanted to know a little bit more like what's behind the surface, and then Timo labels that as we want to know, have some of your dark secrets. We want to know something about you that people in the industry don't know about you. It could be you know something a little quirky that you do that makes you unique.
Speaker 3:I think I have dark secrets, but I suppose, on a sort of similar note, I do like dark tourism and traveling to places you know that are a little bit unique but scary, you know, like Chernobyl, even that weird museum in St Petersburg, you know, like somewhere where it's a bit, yeah, a bit creepy, a bit off the beaten track. Yeah, not that it's a secret, but it is kind of dark, I suppose.
Speaker 2:That's good, you know.
Speaker 1:Did you have any dark travel place in France?
Speaker 3:No, I don't think I have. There's the catacombs, isn't there?
Speaker 2:Yes in Paris.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I have not been there. I've been to Paris, but not there.
Speaker 2:It's an interesting place, would you say that it is. It is indeed.
Speaker 1:Awesome. What can we come already to the end of this podcast? Thank you so much for being our guests first of all and taking the time aside, especially on a Friday afternoon, and thank you for sharing your personal experience. I really appreciate that and I hope I see you at the next event, which is in the 30th of March. Anyhow, kira, thank you so much for being here and we see you around very, very soon. Thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank you for your time. Nice to see you guys.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 3:Have a good weekend.
