TIME - Travel Industry Mentor Experience
TIME - Travel Industry Mentor Experience
From Greek Roots to Mentorship Heights
Ever wondered how introverts can excel in the tourism industry and beyond? Join us as we chat with Demi Kavaratsis, the dynamic founder of DK Executive Business Consultancy and a mentor at TIME. Demi shares her incredible journey from her Greek-Australian roots to leading roles at Agencia and Expedia Group. She offers invaluable insights into helping foreign companies thrive in Australia and reflects on her path to becoming an influential mentor, inspired by her own experiences and the drive to uplift others.
Discover the surprising ways introverts can shine in travel and presenting roles, debunking the myth that these positions are only for extroverts. Demi provides practical tips on managing energy, building confidence, and setting achievable goals. Through personal stories and mentoring experiences, she highlights the importance of preparation, encouragement, and accountability in fostering personal and professional growth. These strategies not only help introverts but anyone looking to maximize their potential.
Finally, Demi opens up about her transformative mentorship journey. She candidly discusses her initial doubts and the realization of her impactful role as a mentor. From traveling across Australia to support her mentee Laura to the power of self-presentation, Demi's stories are both inspiring and relatable. The episode wraps up with a light-hearted yet insightful discussion on managing relationships with key stakeholders, making this a must-listen for anyone interested in professional development and personal growth.
Hello and welcome back to the Time Podcast, episode 7, season 4. Am I correct, arno? Yeah, I think so. Yes, lovely, awesome. Well, arno is also here back with me. Welcome back, arno, it's great to have you. You look fantastic today as always, Thank you.
Speaker 2:I've done my hair especially for you. I appreciate that it looks great.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to look pretty, so then you know when I'm next to you, I can live up to your standards, right? No matter what you do, you're not as pretty as our guest today. Please introduce our guest.
Speaker 2:So today, our guest is Demi Kavaratsis I hope that I pronounced your name properly, demi and she's the founder and principal consultant at DK Executive Business Consultancy and she's one of the time mentors. So welcome Demi. How are you?
Speaker 3:I'm very good, Arnold. Thank you for having me and I should add, you have pronounced my surname perfectly.
Speaker 2:So much practice.
Speaker 1:Excellent Now, Demi, so great to have you here. Really appreciate your time, obviously. Maybe let's start a little bit about you. Can you give us a quick overview about your time in the tourism industry? What formed you? What made you you from a professional point of view?
Speaker 3:Oh God, that's such a good question and I haven't even thought of it. But who I am? Of course I'm an independent consultant at the moment. My consultancy is about helping foreign companies establish their footprint within the Australian tourism industry, blessed enough to work with companies that are trying to come in and provide their goodness and the goodness, I should say, in the travel Australian industry and support them to build their footprint here.
Speaker 3:Prior to that, I specialized in corporate development with Agencia, which was, of course, a corporate brand which still operates here in Australia and across the world, here in Australia and across the world. And I worked on pre and post merger with the supply division across to American Express. Of course, the Gen C is now part of American Express family, which used to be part of the Expedia Group family. And thirdly, of course, I also led the flight division for Expedia Group for a little bit more than a decade and I've gone through various roles, but predominantly my role was to provide presence for Expedia Group again across the Australian New Zealand market. I'm going to take a pause there and I can give you a really good overview on why I decided to get into travel as opposed to anything else. Yeah, okay, good. So I, of course, I'm a Greek, I'm Greek-Australian, and my parents migrated here in Greece. Every year, from when I was you know little, my parents would go back to Greece to go see their friends and relatives.
Speaker 3:And through that connection in Greece and through seeing my parents connect meaningfully when they got to travel. That's how I decided to get into the travel industry. The other side I did a business degree and when I was even three years old I used to love playing with the cash register. So I combined the two. I loved understanding how to make money. I would run around at a very young age selling my mom um stuff around the house your mom stuff wow back to her.
Speaker 3:I should add back to her um so I will pick up things around the house. I'll be like, okay, if I sell this for two dollars and I'll have a cash register, which I still have today, and I'll ring up the, I'll have the $2 to ring up on that toy cash register.
Speaker 1:So through those two experiences I got into travel and, of course, on the business side of travel, that's such a good business model because investment costs are very low and I would assume running costs are very low, um, and I would assume I would assume running costs are also pretty overseable, um, and solid revenue comes in, because people always want their stuff back. So we can highly recommend this kind of business to everyone, um. So then, yeah, at what point in time did you think, okay, you're ready now to pass on your, your wisdom and knowledge, your experience, to help someone else. How did that come?
Speaker 3:across I have had. I've been blessed enough to have had some really good mentors across my development and, for a very long time, a specific person in the industry which she's known um very, very well. She kept on coming back to me every time we'd meet for a coffee, be business or be from friendship. She's like oh, demi, I think you need to become a mentor, um. And I was like oh, I don't know, can I? What can I offer somebody like? It's like oh, um, you know the development that you've had, some of the life experiences that you've had and how you were able to um, how you were able to pivot and be resilient with them. I think people will be really interested to be guided by you, or you be supportive of them and being able to work through some of the challenges that they might be going through professionally and, of course, through your professional development. There's also your personality and how do you navigate um.
Speaker 3:I didn't take it seriously enough until I started um, looking into it a bit more, um, joining some of the time functions and really being curious about you know, what is it that they do? What is mentoring? Does that mean I have to, you know, be able to do a course before. Am I good enough? There was a whole lot to you know. Be able to do a course before. Am I good enough? There was a whole lot of that. You know. What can I give back? I ended up at a time function, seeing the environment and seeing how supportive everybody was, I put up my hand and I said, yep, let's see what I can do, because I'm such a structured leader leader I ended up reading a few things on what makes up a good mentor. May I say that helped. But being in that experience and you know, being paired up and being paired up so well, helped me actually give more back to what my mentee actually needed at that time.
Speaker 1:So we talk a lot about in the show. When you know the mentees meet their mentor for the first time, how they felt, how that was for them. Would love to hear the other side around. So you as a mentor, when you meet your mentee the first time, you know what goes through your head, what are your initial observations and how do you feel about you know, six month project ahead of you I was so nervous and I know we're amongst friends now to actually admit out loud I was so nervous to see if I can live up to the brief that I actually received.
Speaker 3:At the same time, I was very excited because it was for me.
Speaker 3:I saw it as my opportunity to be able to meaningfully make a mark on somebody's professional life and that is such a huge you know, that's a, that's a huge tick for me that you know my, my, my, the way I'm, I'm, I can support this person, can potentially make a positive mark for the remaining of the career, or even now. So two things excitement, nervous. But then another side is oh, I need to make sure that I don't just follow that brief, make sure I listen enough to understand exactly from their perspective to be able to then craft on. Okay, how do we go about the next six months?
Speaker 1:And Sorry, I know I was interrupting you girl no, no, it's okay.
Speaker 2:I thought it was really interesting. I didn't have like a very smart question to ask, but I thought did you come in with this because you said, okay, you were nervous you needed to deliver, blah, blah, blah? Did you have some sort of a pre-plan as to where you wanted to take that mentee based on that original plan, or did you think that you know, like it was going to be a little bit more organic? I just wanted to think. I wanted to see about what was your thought process coming into it, like as to how you were going to deliver?
Speaker 3:I think a little bit of both. Okay, having received the brief, I made some key assumptions, okay, and sometimes those assumptions without actually you know. I remember with Laura, when I first had the session, I had a few assumptions of what the potential roadmap would look like, speaking to her and spending quite a bit of time I remember we had a first session was two hours and my assumption was, you know, I've got the brief, I know what I think will be great for her. That meeting ended up being a lot longer because some of those assumptions were positively disrupted, from what I've seen, to kind of what she wanted to develop.
Speaker 3:And some of the things she wanted to develop is how can I be seen without being seen like a peacock in a meeting? How can I be more engaging when I don't have, you know, I'm not an extrovert, I'm an introvert. So how do I manage that and be seen in the right tone and in the right way that I want the organization to be seen? After having kind of listening to that, I went okay, now let's break this down. So we came up with a plan in that way let's break this down.
Speaker 1:So we came up with a plan in that way. We hear quite often, actually, that, funnily enough, lots of people in travel, in presenting positions and roles, are actually introverts, which I always find fascinating, and obviously everyone then has the same questions around oh, how do I actually do this? You know, to appear in the right way, to not come across, as you say, a peacock yeah, which is very interesting. Anu and I also work very hard on that, because he's an introvert. I'm very much an introvert as well. It's very hard, it's very hard. So how do you instill confidence into your mentee then to become a non-peacock present person?
Speaker 3:Look, I've tried a couple of things. One of the things was encouraged to participate was the first thing I tried to do and, by the way, I'm an introvert as well and I think everybody in the industry will be very surprised to hear that that I'm also an introvert and it requires a lot of energy for me to even do something like this and where I think other people might think oh, you're in travel, you've obviously had kind of a forward role.
Speaker 3:But circling back to how do you actually manage that if you are an introvert? One is the encouragement and encouraging in a way of you know the. The formula that I've always used with myself this way is um, you got to be in it to win it, and whatever preparation you need to make, um, give yourself space to make that preparation. And the other kind of trick that I've worked with my mentor was you know, let's just try, let's see what happens, let's just try, and if we are both going to fail on that, let's just try and let's see what happens if we do fail.
Speaker 3:So I've done a few, you know, tiny little engagements where we were together and for me it was, you know, it was her time to shine, so I will take the back foot and be guided by her, and that for me, invested confidence in me and also invested confidence in her to kind of went okay, let's just try, and then you've got to be in it to win it. Let's just try, you've got to be in it to win it. Let's see what happens. What like to, I think, dilute some of the fear that most introverts will have is I don't want to be seen in the wrong light, or you know, all those fears that go through, which is very much self-inflicted.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can totally relate to that. I feel like, you know, sometimes some of my professional choices have been to try to hide and, you know, try to take that role that is going to give me that you know, behind the scene kind of you know role. So then I don't have to be in front of people and I don't have to have the spotlight on me and I can clearly see, like with my current role, like sometimes I'm just reflecting on it and I'm like this is you know, even though I really do like pushing myself and being out of my comfort zone, I feel like, you know, this is probably where I'm the most comfortable and that's probably the reason why I made that decision to be in that kind of role. So then you know, like there's not too much exposure on myself. Totally relate to that.
Speaker 2:What I wanted to know, on the back of what you just said, is, in terms of the expectations that you had obviously at the beginning, and that was only based on a brief right Because you didn't know your mentee and so the things will have, you know, developed through that relationship. Were you expecting where you landed after the program or did you have an idea that this was going to go in that direction in a way, or were you? Were you happily surprised that it went in a different direction?
Speaker 3:so, uh, because this is a developing relationship, um, you know, the first two hours, as I mentioned, to really understand, if you know, if, if the brief is as close to reality and it was fairly close, but there were some things that we needed to align. The first sessions were, you know, for me, as a leader, I like to have a level of structure around. Okay, we need to get you to these three goals that we've identified. How do we get you to those goals and how do we work within that timeframe, which is six months? Um, we, it took us a few goes to kind of go okay, we've got to goal one, but we're really focusing on goal one. Are we too focused on goal one and then we're not really touching on goal two and three? Um, navigating through that to make sure that you, you know, goal one, goal two and goal three needs to be attempted, we, and plus adjusting to each other's personality, sometimes, like everybody's got different personalities and for me, you know, sometimes I might speak too much and not allow my mentee to actually express what it is that we're trying to address, and I put up my hand that sometimes I could, you know, do that, but at the same time. I'm also a very good listener, so I need to balance that.
Speaker 3:So, to answer your questions, is it it was a development? It was a development collaboration between to enable us to get to the end. Was you know what we envisioned right and what we got at the end? Was it you know just as good, or did we achieve what we wanted to achieve? I could confidently say yes, we did, and we clearly, and because of the program and the way it's structured, where mentees have to check in with the time administrator, bin Mari, he enabled them to actually continue that journey and to reach that goal.
Speaker 3:So I have to give some credit on the way the program is structured, where you continuously, as a mentee, have to check in. It holds you accountable as a mentee have to check in. It holds you accountable. At the same time, it also holds the mentor accountable too, to make sure that we're delivering on the plan that we've committed. To begin with, there was adjustments because you know, maybe goal two we needed to tweak and do we really mean that? Is that what you really want to take out of it? But I could confidently say by the end um, and I we've even have the spreadsheet that we put together prove it, which was submitted just before graduation. We ticked every box, cool yeah.
Speaker 1:I really like that. You kind of described that relationship as a collaboration in regards to you know how you achieved the outcome. Based on that, what were your learnings, for you personally, out of that whole six-month experience?
Speaker 3:For me it was believing in the process and believing in myself. The learning was at the start. I've been told many times so, demi, I think you'd be great as a mentor. And for me there was that gap on what can I actually, how can I add value? Going through the process and understanding, you know where I landed really, really well with an individual. That was my biggest learning that I have, not only from a professional perspective but from a personal perspective how much value I can add to somebody's career development or even purse or even personality within a professional environment.
Speaker 3:Um, I think it was midway through where I realised those conversations that I made an investment in. I remember needing to fly from different parts of Australia to be able to be there present, because I wanted to make sure that I understood what it is. You know we were doing and how we were actually making that progress. And so did Laura, like for me, seeing that development and seeing from session one to session three or to session seven, those pennies drop, because you know session four was like, oh, I didn't quite land. You know I didn't see the penny drop for her what else? And reflecting on that. And then session, you know the next session or even the session after that, seeing that language come out on how she implemented some of the um, you know, thoughts that I was trying to provoke, not telling her what to do, but think about this um, you know, let's just try it and think about, let's just try, just think about it. And what does that look like? And can we have an example of that? What you do next week? And that could be just, you know, going into a drink session with your work people and saying hi to three different people. You've never said hi, just try it, see what you know.
Speaker 3:And that circles back to you know how do I not become that peacock? I'm not. I don't want to be, you know, an Instagram influencer. I don't want to do that. That's not who I am. So my to be, you know, an Instagram influencer I don't want to do that, that's not who I am. So my learnings was, you know, believe in the process and also believe in yourself, because I was like, oh, I didn't get there. By the seventh session. I had an individual, I influenced an individual in such a positive way that she saw and how she could, you know, build her confidence a bit more and, you know, move away from the idea of being a peacock. What is that anyway?
Speaker 3:We want you to be you. So what does that look like? And if you need that preparation time to be able to, you know, stand in front of 10 people or 100 people, what does that preparation time look like? And how can we do that preparation to get you to, you know, be seen, because that's what, essentially, that was the call, and you're a developing leader as well. That was the call.
Speaker 1:I love that. I know I will be interested to understand what is something that you have recently tried to be more you.
Speaker 2:Me. Well, maybe I should try to do something like demi does, to wear like a red scarf.
Speaker 1:That would look good on me I think um I'm not sure if that is your color. To be honest, I see you more like in in the blue tones to you know, to cool down your very um passionate and explosive personality yeah, red is really not my color.
Speaker 2:Funny story back when I worked in television and I was a producer, I was wearing this beautiful orange jumper that I loved and one of the guests on one of the shows that I was working for came to me and she said honey, warm colors is really not something for you. You've got a different skin tone, so you need to go with cold colors. And so, ever since you know, I've taken basically feedback on board and so I don't wear anything which is too warm.
Speaker 3:So yeah, is there skin tones that are attached to colours on what you're wearing? Oh my God, I've learned something new today, really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and she was absolutely right. So I do wear a lot of blue because this is a colour that goes really well with my skin tone, with my hair colour and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1:yeah, Absolutely amazing in blue, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:It's great that you also learned something, demi, but what I really loved to hear just recently is that you also volunteered to do a workshop for the mentee program, for the mentees to attend workshops before the network meetings and the graduation ceremonies. Can you give us a quick rundown on, first of all, what the workshop is about, why you believe this is important for mentees to, or for all time members that attend the workshop to hear about? And yeah, let's start with that.
Speaker 3:Well, the workshop that I'm I'm volunteer to time and I want to thank time for actually giving me the time to be able to cascade a message or amplify a message for me across my entire career. We have to deal with a lot of stakeholders, including your boss, and one of the toughest stakeholder that you you need to learn how to work with is your boss, because they're aligned to so much of your goals, your achievements and how to actually get you through those goals and those achievements. So the workshop will be about you know how do you manage your boss and what are some of the key things that you need to remember from a day-to-day perspective on how to actually manage your boss. I should add, managing your boss can sound really political or really calculated, and I've also thought that in my, in my younger days, in my, in my profession, is like what do you mean manage my boss? You know, do I need to play a political game?
Speaker 3:The answer to that is no, but they are a stakeholder, they're a key stakeholder and learning how to be in that relationship, like a personal relationship with your partner, your husband, your wife, you need to learn how to actually work together. It's the same sort of concept how do you work together with your boss to get the most out of not only your relationship with your boss, what you want from a development perspective and, of course, last but not least, how can the company get most out of you know, your relationship or your collaboration together? So that's what I'm going to talk about, and I've got some fun tips that are easily integrated into your day to day, like, first and foremost, understanding yourself. You know, are there certain things that you know you could be doing and don't show up in red, because that doesn't really reflect, you know, your tone. So do you really want to show like that in front of a key person that you know cares about you and you care about them?
Speaker 2:I hope that you have a section on bribery with food, because that works every time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you know how do you understand them. Like any other relationship, you are in control of yourself, but you also need to understand the other, and there might be some certain things that you might have not thought about, that they've got a certain style, that they like to hear things, or the way you're delivering your update. Maybe you can tweak that in order for you to communicate better and get your message across to them so they could support with what you're doing on a day to day basis.
Speaker 1:I love that and I'm sure Arno and I will be there, because Arno needs to learn how to manage me and I need to learn how to manage him. So it will be a very interesting experience for us. Arno, can you imagine? Oh my God, yes.
Speaker 3:I should also add I'm sorry, I'm interrupted, I'm Greek, we talk on top of each other and it's allowed and it's okay, that's fine. I'm French, so you know, I get it. Yes, um I should add um with any relationship. How do you negotiate and how well you negotiate diplomatically. Um goes a long way. So that's another thing to kind of keep at the back of your mind, which is what I'm going to be talking about in the workshop on how do you diplomatically negotiate on an idea that you want to push through to your boss or even to your company, in order to be a win-sum, win-sum across the three parties involved, being yourself, being your boss and, of course, the company.
Speaker 1:Last part on this demi, I'm the favorite section of the french person on this podcast and german is always slightly embarrassed about having having to push through with it. But, um, that's right, it's very popular, so keep it. Um, so there's always the big question mark around one thing about you that no one knows. Tell us one of your dark secrets, as I know always says you know it can be. I don't want to set your mind what comes up. Tell us something that only a very few people know about you.
Speaker 3:Another great question which I didn't think about coming into this podcast. That's why yes we do it on purpose.
Speaker 3:So I should say I'm a foodie, of course, with my great background. We love food. I love fruit and I think because the way I've been brought up with family and always having and my mom was a huge advocate on keeping healthy, so you know, when they say two fruit a day, she emphasized that to six fruit a day, so I ended up developing this like I eat fruit all the time. In Australia we always get a lot of mangoes in the mango season and they're quite cheap, they're everywhere. So I eat mangoes in the mango season and they're quite cheap, they're everywhere. So I eat mangoes with the skin on. You know you need to peel it. I don't peel it, I actually eat the whole thing. And don't ask me why I love it. I've always eaten mangoes that way and, yeah, that's probably one of my deepest, darkest secrets, which I hope nobody finds out, but you two can you know, be between us.
Speaker 2:Too late now. The secret is out there. Someone is going to come and judge you because we have like millions of listeners and now they will know. But I mean, look, I get it. I've seen some people like eating oranges with the skin. I don't really understand how they managed to do it, but yeah, I've seen it.
Speaker 1:Wow, that was actually a very interesting fun fact. I like that. One day when we do a time trivia, that's definitely a question on it. Yes, with your skin Loving it, awesome. Well, damien, thank you so much for your time. You're already at the end of this year. Always goes super quick, it's super easy, it's totally relaxed. We try to control the French person as much as possible. I think today we've done a fantastic job. Yeah, in his behavior. True, you've done very well. I'm very proud of you. Well done.
Speaker 3:It's because you're with a Greek, a Greek-Australian. So you know, we keep things kind of going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Awesome. Well, I'll see you soon, at one of the next events, probably and you do very well until then, and, once again, thank you so much for your time. Thanks, demi.
Speaker 3:This has been an absolute pleasure to have a chat today. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Thanks a lot.
