TIME - Travel Industry Mentor Experience
TIME - Travel Industry Mentor Experience
Barry Laaksonen's Journey of Mentorship and Personal Growth
Get ready for a fabulous episode as we welcome Barry Laaksonen, Sales Manager for Silversea, who shares his transformative journey through the TIME mentorship program. Ever wondered how top professionals build the confidence to voice their opinions in executive meetings or develop strategic thinking skills? Barry reveals the secrets, all thanks to the expert guidance from mentors like Ankur Wadha. Plus, we have a fun fashion update: polka dots are back, and they're hotter than ever with French top model Arnaud Michelin leading the trend!
But that's not all—this episode also takes a heartfelt turn as we discuss the art of delivering impactful graduation speeches and the profound personal growth that comes from living abroad. From honing listening skills in Chile to embracing Finnish heritage, you'll hear stories that underscore the importance of adaptability and self-awareness. We wrap up by celebrating the mentoring process in the post-COVID fashion industry, sharing touching anecdotes of pride and joy as mentees succeed. Remember, it's not just about guidance but forming meaningful, supportive connections. Happy Friday and stay fabulous!
Hello and welcome back to the TIME Podcast. Breaking news to start with. Polka dots are back into fashion, and who could represent polka dots better than our French top model, the one and only Arnaud Michelin? Welcome back on the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you, timo. Thank you, I didn't know I was a top model, but I really appreciate the title.
Speaker 1:Well, I didn't say what you're actually advertising for, so let's qualify the product a bit later and match it with your look. However, before we do that, let's talk about our amazing guest. Who do you have today for me?
Speaker 2:So today we have Barry Luxenand he works for Silvacy. He is the sales manager for Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. Welcome, Barry, how are you?
Speaker 3:I'm very good. Thank you so much and great to have this opportunity to join you on Travel's number one podcast.
Speaker 1:As we always said, don't press the day before the evening, but we are very excited to have you here. That's awesome, barry. Tell us about your very first touch point with time, like how did you hear about the community, why were you interested and what were your initial thoughts about the whole concept?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. I'm very fortunate because I heard from time from colleagues actually for the first time, and one of my colleagues, the amazing Christine Gardner, was actually a mentee to Timo as well. So I heard from Christine and also Joe Bingham in our team at Silversea on the time experience. Until that moment I hadn't actually heard of the program before, but hearing their overwhelming feedback it just made me think oh, this is an amazing opportunity. I want to be a part of something like this, where you can be surrounded by positive people and develop your own career as well, personally and professionally, with Silversea, and then with everyone in the industry too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember the day that you came for your induction. I remember you were with Steve, that we were in North Sydney and you were already like very, very passionate about the program. So you know that was quite refreshing to see someone for their first time. You know, at time, so to speak, you know very enthusiastic about the program when you okay, so you've heard of it, right, and what were your expectations? You know, at the beginning, before you started, what did you expect?
Speaker 3:Well, I think for me it was great because I came in eyes wide open having heard of the program from Christine and Joe, but I think Mari as well that initial touch point with the time program where you put in your information, learn a bit about myself as a person, my characteristics and, I think, the matching process. I expected it to be done really well and it exceeded those expectations. I mean the way that, however, it's done, the magic that Mari sprinkles on and Penny when they match everyone together with their mentors and mentees. Yeah, it was. It was incredible. I was lucky I had anchor Wadha from K2K Inbound, so based in Melbourne as well, which was great. We did a lot of face-to-face catch-ups as well as virtual, and I think it was just incredible to have those conversations with someone independent. You got that positive and constructive feedback. You could bounce ideas off someone as well outside of your organisation and really get that independent viewpoint.
Speaker 1:And can I ask what were the bullet points on your expression of interest in regards to what you want to achieve out of the program?
Speaker 3:For me. I still remember them because I'm still working on developing them as well at the moment, which is great. It was enhancing my strategic thinking and also having conversations with executive leaders in the industry, which I think. Time was perfect, because it's not often in our industry we go to a lot of networking events in a professional capacity, but time I found gave me the opportunity to attend a networking event with all levels of the industry and you could actually speak to people in that supportive atmosphere on a personal level as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I also noticed. I know it's not as aggressive as he looks like. So once you talk to him it's actually quite fine. Your first meeting with your mentor, tell us about that. So you saw each other, I would assume, at the introduction in person, or was that a virtual intro?
Speaker 3:oh, we had a virtual intro, um only because of travel requirements. So I moved. I was in sydney for um the face-to-face introduction, uh, and then anchor was there virtually because he was traveling in india at the time. But then our first meeting happened two weeks later in melbourne, um. So we arranged to meet every two weeks on a Friday at a cafe in Doncaster. So we'd meet there and have our two-hour meeting scheduled. We'd go through our agenda items on what we'd like to focus on for that week and then moving ahead, and I found having that structure as well worked really well for both of us.
Speaker 2:It's really interesting to see that people from Victoria obviously have their meetings in a cafe right. It's on brand yeah great coffee.
Speaker 1:Christine and I also met at the cafe every fortnightly Friday, so there seems to be a popular spot.
Speaker 3:It does. I do like to catch up with Christine for coffees as well, whenever I'm in Sydney or when she's in Melbourne.
Speaker 1:So tell us a bit about your learnings throughout the six months. What were the key takeaways for you?
Speaker 3:I think for me one of them was building confidence to have conversations and not be afraid to voice an opinion or an idea at executive level meetings, so not being sort of too shy and backing yourself to have those have those conversations. And then the other was from a strategic point. When I'm looking at a portfolio, I'm managing whether it's with Silversea or any company that I'm representing being able to identify opportunities there and really sort of pave waves to support our trade partners moving forward as well.
Speaker 1:What I love to hear there is, you know, getting the confidence to speak to executives and speaking up your mind. So I just want to put you on a little test experiment here, just you know, to see how that goes. If you look at Arnaud's polka dots, what is your honest opinion on this beautiful jumper?
Speaker 3:Well, I'm disappointed. I missed the memo, so I'm in just a plain black, and then Arno's sort of staging me up here wearing the polka dots, the white and the black.
Speaker 1:And what's your assessment? Out of 10 points, how many points do you give his fashionable look today and why?
Speaker 3:I'd give him a 9 out of 10. Thank you.
Speaker 2:I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:What can you do better to be 10 out of 10?.
Speaker 3:You are what? Well, you can always do better. I think it's so hard to give a 10 out of 10. So a nine out of 10. I mean I'm probably like at a five or a six today, just in the plain black. So I knew rocking the nine out of 10 is a great result um, it's not very um tv um friendly.
Speaker 2:Uh, the polka dots obviously um, but you know um, that is true indeed um, it's true, our first time listeners.
Speaker 1:Um, I know, has a big history in tv business that's where he originates from.
Speaker 2:But then, but then, um, he was too french so he had to go back to travel and design a chance to uh to write your outfit as well I do not do that because you know, I've learned how not to judge people on their fashion or very diplomatic, which is very unfrench, because obviously you know, like this is the first thing that we judge when we see people, um, but I tend not to say anything unless I do appreciate the outfit. I usually tend not to say anything because, you know, everyone's different and everyone has different taste levels and I don't particularly like upsetting people. That doesn't mean that I'm not saying anything behind the back, but anyway, that's a different conversation, timo, I got you there.
Speaker 1:This is outrageous. Outrageous, at least say it to their face. But anyhow, back to Barry. So, barry, unfortunately time has not offered a be confident in your fashion workshop yet, but were you able to attend any of the other workshops?
Speaker 3:I was. I was lucky, I attended two in Sydney, so I had the opportunity to fly up to Sydney to attend those workshops and I found that they were really beneficial as well. And I loved how, with the time community, they'll pair a workshop with a graduation and an induction as well, so you get to sort of have all three experiences in one, and it brings a lot of the industry together in that respect.
Speaker 2:Did you also attend the meetings that you have with the other mentees before the workshops?
Speaker 3:I did once so my induction meeting in Sydney as well, because I found a lot of the meetings were happening in Sydney at that stage. I know Melbourne's now started to have a lot more time meetings as well, which I'm looking forward to attending as well now as a member of the community, but for me, a lot of them during my six months period happened in Sydney.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So if you would have to run a workshop, what would the title be? What can you give back to the next generation of travel monsters?
Speaker 3:Well, for me. I'm a very positive person, so you can probably tell if you're listening to the podcast, you probably can't hear the smile, but if you're watching it you can see it. Um, I'd probably do a podcast, a workshop on maintaining positivity, because our industry it's always changing. We're always in that constant period of change and so many external factors can affect us in the industry. So a workshop on maintaining positivity would be one for me.
Speaker 2:That's an interesting one. I do really like that topic. It's an interesting one because I listened to another podcast which is more on the fitness side, and the guy here used to be like a CrossFit trainer. He used to train a lot of CrossFit athletes at the CrossFit Games and then he talks about being positive at something negative, just like that positive mindset. But I disagree with him. But I disagree with him and I would really like to get other people's opinions on, yeah, having a positive mindset and how to stay positive and you know, yeah, I think actually it's a valid point because everyone always tells you, especially at work and travel and hotels, it's the same because it's a very busy, dynamic environment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, travel and our hotel is the same because it's a very busy, dynamic environment, yeah, um, and I think a base perception of being positive is very important. However, being too positive, everything all the time, with everything, is probably also not leading into the right direction. I think you know, back to crossfit or to sports or whatever high performance level you want to achieve in whatever environment, you need a certain portion of being critical with yourself and also a healthy portion of not being satisfied with the status quo, right? So I think, where probably at some time they became so fashionable to be positive, there was a bit of a misunderstanding in society, from my point of view at least. Yeah, back to positivity and managing nerves. Graduation day obviously always a big opportunity, because you obviously do a graduation speech and the whole room is listening. But the whole room will mean a lot of industry leaders who will never, ever forget you, if you do it great or if you don't do it great. Tell us about your experience, barry. How was your graduation?
Speaker 3:I really enjoyed it For me, though, in my role role because I do so many presentations, uh, sales related, uh in my role already speaking in public um, it's not. It's not something that I get too many nerves around now. I mean, when I first started, it was probably one of my biggest fears was public speaking, uh, but now I actually really enjoy it and that opportunity to be to be on stage presenting. One of the things I found at my graduation was no two speeches were the same and the way that everyone did it. Everyone was excellent. But whether you had visual support with a presentation, or whether you were looking at your notes or memorising a speech and then sort of conducting it on the spot, or whether you're ad-libbing as you're going along, I think everyone who spoke at my graduation did it really well and that way, everyone in the audience as well got to hear different perspectives too.
Speaker 2:It was a really good one. I felt like on that that day this was probably the first time we've had people that were really off script or are not reading something. Um, I think that you were one of the first, if I remember well, and you did really really well, like you didn't feel, like you were very nervous, but I was very impressed with the quality of the speeches, something that really came very naturally. Someone also said like I don't want to be next to the lectern because I find that boring, and then, you know, she started to like kind of work the room and I was like, wow, this is very impressive to see, like how these people feel really confident, you know, like speaking in front of a lot of people and there was quite a lot of also like very senior people in the industry there and I was pretty impressed with the quality of the speeches and yours was like you know, it was really really good.
Speaker 3:Oh, thank you and I think everyone who spoke it was so important. Everyone gets in their comfort zone when they do get up on stage, so, whether it is standing behind a lectern or walking around or doing a lot of hand movements, like I generally do when I talk yeah, that was an important aspect as well you make yourself comfortable in that environment and then you sort of you go for gold.
Speaker 1:I think, as the French would say, c'est très formidable, très formidable, formidable, formidable.
Speaker 2:There we go. Fantastique.
Speaker 1:Fantastique. Yeah right, here we go.
Speaker 2:See, I still have a bit of french left in me we need to speak finnish now because barry's, you know, cultural background is finnish we heard that barry is not even able to speak finnish so um you know which is very disappointing.
Speaker 1:Barry, which languages do you speak besides english, obviously? And positivity.
Speaker 3:Well, yes, english positivity and making sure it's balanced, like you say. I know one word from Finnish, which is kitos, and then a little bit of I dabble in Spanish Nice.
Speaker 1:I see. All right, so we learned about your professional journey a little bit and your mentoring journey a little bit. There is this section where our French top model, arnaud, has introduced to this podcast. It's always about sharing a very personal, detailed information about yourself that probably a lot of people would not know. For example, you only get your hair cut while you have a strawberry face mask on or something like that.
Speaker 3:How did you know?
Speaker 1:Because I'm always dead like that all the time, you know.
Speaker 2:We know people, barry, we know people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so something that not everyone would know about me I guess it's not a haircut related aspect like that but in 2012, I spent six months living in Chile, in South America and in the capital city of Santiago. So I spent six months there as part of my internship studying hotel management. I had that opportunity, so I got to explore all of Chile, from the Atacama Desert all the way down to Puerto Natales and the Patagonias. So that was an incredible experience and sort of immersed me in needing to learn Spanish at that time as well. So it's been 10 years since then, or 12 years now, but I've still got a little bit of a grasp on Spanish. But love Chilean food and if we're ever out for an afternoon beverage or cocktail, a pisco sour wouldn't hurt.
Speaker 1:Yeah sounds good. Love that. So from my experience, when you live overseas and I'm sure I know you had the same when you came to Australia you always learn a lot about yourself. Like to further your way from your comfort zone or your home. You learn something about yourself. What did you learn in Chile about yourself?
Speaker 3:I learned a lot about listening and the art of listening because at that time I went over there not speaking a word of Spanish as well, and then I was learning while I was there. So I learned a lot about sitting there, listening, because that was the first part of the grasp of the language that I took was listening, understanding and then translating it into my head and responding. So I sort of went through that process and I found that that stuck with me as well. So even if I'm sitting in meetings at the moment or just in conversation with anyone, I concentrate a lot more on the listening aspect.
Speaker 2:It's such a good quality actually, because I find that listening and also like active listening, it's probably well. Maybe we should add that to the list of workshops that we could do on. It's a quality which is really difficult to to have and I find that, you know, people are good managers or good leaders, um did you say something?
Speaker 1:I know I'm kidding here we go always the same with me. So what's going to?
Speaker 2:happen with you after time. Like. What is your vision of your time after time, Barry? Like you graduated not that long ago. What's the future looking like for you?
Speaker 3:Oh, for me, I'm looking forward to still being part of the time community now that I've graduated, and attending, like the workshop events that you've mentioned, when they're hosted, be it in Melbourne or Sydney, and engaging with the community in that way as well, and opportunities like this to be a part of the podcast post my time experience. These things wouldn't happen for me without having graduated from time and being a part of that network, so I think it's sort of a gift that keeps on giving and then you repay the faith as well and being part of the community and that transfer of knowledge just keeps going.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very important, especially since COVID, as we noticed, the transfer of knowledge, as you call it, it's the gold for the industry and no matter what company or you know what your position is, we all need to soak that up and pass it on, especially once you're our age. I mean, I know it's a little bit older than me, but you know no reply to that. Oh wow, here we go.
Speaker 2:I really embrace my age, you know, like I feel like I still have a lot to prove um, and so I don't necessarily feel that old.
Speaker 1:No, you're not old. Look, you're young at heart and you still look fantastic. That's all that matters. Yeah, it's just a number. That's the number indeed. Well, uh, looking at numbers and time, we're actually at the end of this lovely podcast. So, barry, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciated chatting with you. I was good fun. I loved the positive attitude.
Speaker 2:Yeah, as you know, I know was deeply impressed with your graduation speech, as he's committed today confessed I was I was, and and the thing is that for me because the thing is that the first time I met you was on the first day when you started the program it's also really good when you meet people, you have a little chat with them and it's their first, you know, basically day at time, and then to see them graduate, it's like, yeah, that's, this is it's, it's um, it's kind of rewarding, right, um, in a way, even though I didn't do anything, but I felt like I was kind of in that journey with you you know because yeah I can.
Speaker 1:I can actually kudos that, and I do remember when christine graduated, because before that I always thought, like you know, when I listened to the graduation speeches and I looked at the mentors and they were just like, oh, and you know, like a parent whenever their child finished the school, um, and I thought, oh gosh, they're also emotional. And then, obviously, when christine, when christine graduated, I was exactly the same, because it's just such a special relationship you form over those six months and you get to know each other. So, yeah, not personally, but professional, personally, if that makes sense. Um, yeah, it's just really special and the same, like when you see people starting their career and then, obviously, for us the six months fly like nothing, and then suddenly say oh my gosh they're graduating again, and it's always very inspirational, for sure.
Speaker 1:Anyhow, we're over time, so thank you everyone. Happy friday. Don't talk to strangers and make sure your fashion is ironed yes, thanks, barry.
Speaker 2:thanks, happy Friday, don't make sure your fashion is orange.
Speaker 3:Yes, thanks, barry.
