Raj Girn: Hi everyone! Welcome to another exciting episode of the ‘Transform Your Confidence’ podcast, a place where we bring you into our inner circle of recommended leaders, experts, and thought leaders to garner their insights of knowledge and techniques that are working today with the goal of levelling up your repertoire of expertise so that you’re always set up to win.
In today’s show, we will be focusing on Leadership & Advocacy with the theme of How To Build A Purpose-Driven Community For Women.
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In today’s show, we will be focusing on Leadership & Advocacy with the theme of How To Build A Purpose-Driven Community For Women.
My guest today is the fabulous Klaudia Zinaty, the founder of the Women Empowerment Awards and Foundation. How she did it, why she did it, why she was able to just scale it irrespective of what’s going on in the economic climate is the masterclass that we will be privy to learning today.
So, get comfortable guys and let’s officially welcome my girl Klaudia to the show. Klaudia, what a pleasure to have you on and girl just a short few months after us inviting you to grace and honour the cover of ‘Today’s Confident Women’ magazine in April, I believe it was. Thank you for agreeing to do that, and for also agreeing to be on this episode today.
Klaudia Zinaty: It’s such an honour, Raj. Thank you so much for having me.
What I want to do is I want to let everyone just catch up a little bit about learning about your professional journey before you embark on creating the awards and the foundation. Let’s set that scene first so people understand where you came from.
Yeah, my journey is such a bizarre one. It’s not really one that I would say would be traditional. So, I started out as a math teacher and I had this unique opportunity to work for the National Basketball Association in marketing, and I ended up staying there for several years.
And then from there, I went into broadcasting. From broadcasting, I went into publishing and worked for a fashion magazine. And then once I was there, I really just, I loved being in fashion. I knew that that was an area I wanted to kind of still keep myself into. And so I reached out to the community to see if there were opportunities in the fashion world and I had this really unique opportunity of leading Fashion Group International for a two-year term and that was a not-for-profit and seeing, you know, being able to be in a position where you can help others in the community and especially with the fashion, beauty, lifestyle community, it was something that was just really ingrained in me, and once my term was done I decided that I wanted to start my own and that’s how Women Empowerment and The Foundation became.
So, let’s talk about that a little bit. And I really – what I love about stories like this, Klaudia, is just how serendipitous the journey is, is that sometimes we feel like, why am I in this chapter of my life? Why is this going on? And we know this, right? It’s like a cliche statement. You can’t really put the pieces of your life together until you’re looking backwards, right, in order to see why you’ve gotten to where you have.
So let us talk a little about that. What did you see missing or perhaps not being done that the way that you felt it should be done when you decided to launch the Women Empowerment Awards in 2022, especially here in Toronto, where there are many other women’s awards and initiatives taking center stage for quite some time. Like, share that piece.
Yeah, absolutely. So, when the whole thing came about when I was leading the not-for-profit and I really saw firsthand the effect that it had on so many women entrepreneurs, and the other thing too, is that I really saw the way that we tend to have that imposter syndrome. We never think that we’re ready enough, right? We never think that we are good enough, we’re ready or that we deserve it. We never want to acknowledge our own successes. We’re okay if people congratulate us, but we never want to actually congratulate ourselves.
And so with that being said, I took a look to see at the organizations and they’re all wonderful. I mean, all of the different awards that we’ve got, it just helps elevate women on so many different levels. And there are ones on leadership, there’s ones on business, focused on business and the powerful women, but there wasn’t anything that had women empowering women.
And so that’s the one thing that I really wanted to do is I wanted women to be able to rise by lifting other people up, to be able to – anyone that has really impacted their life in any way, who’s mentored them, who has guided them, who’s just been their biggest cheerleader, I wanted them to be recognized because sometimes those are the silent heroes. And so, when I took a look and saw that there wasn’t anything like that out there, I decided that I wanted to start a movement of my own and that’s where it really came to be.
We never think that we’re ready enough, that we’re good enough, or that we deserve it. We’re okay if people congratulate us, but we never want to actually congratulate ourselves.
And there’s another layer to add to all of this, Klaudia, in your infinite wisdom or lack thereof as we look at ourselves as entrepreneurs, you launched it barely after COVID when a lot of companies were weary of sponsoring events or where should their money be going?
Where is society headed? Has COVID really changed the footprint of how we feel as humanity, right? What was the reason that you felt that this was the right time for you to launch The Awards and how did you get the sponsorship support that you needed to get it off the ground – because that’s also the most daunting part of the process when you don’t have proof of concept?
Yeah, absolutely. Well, it definitely was needed because I saw the effect that it had on so many women. And it was really a moment where we really needed to bring women back out into the spotlight. There were so many women-owned businesses that were devastated because they were non-essential. So, because of that, so many of them were struggling to keep their businesses alive. They were struggling to get their businesses back into the spotlight. They didn’t know how social media worked in terms of impact or, you know, they didn’t know how to convert from a brick and mortar onto an online platform.
So, I really wanted to be able to create an opportunity that brought these women-owned businesses into the spotlight to help them level up. And there were so many career women that were let go or laid off of their jobs, because again, non-essential businesses. So here they are during COVID, without a job to go back to. Well, how do we elevate those women back up? How are we able to put them back into the spotlight so that they are able to get those opportunities again? So that’s really what it was. It was to push women into the forefront. And also to be able to minimize the gender inequality gap.
Because when I started to do the research, it was so devastating to see how wide of a gap that it was. And then on top of that, when you have COVID, it’s even a larger gap. And then, on top of that, you have racialized and marginalized women, and the gap is even larger. So how do we start to minimize that? So, this was why I created this platform to, with the whole idea in mind, to minimize as much as possible. So, when the idea came to life, it was literally just in my kitchen, and I was like, I want to do this. I want to do this.
And you know what, Raj? It’s that saying, right? You’d rather just try and fail than not try it all. Yes. I had no idea. I’ll be honest with you. I’d no idea that it was going to do really, really well and be a success, or it was going to do really poorly because people weren’t ready to meet yet. And so I just put my faith out there and hoped that it was going to do very well. And I believed in myself. I believed that this was something really important to do and I think you have to have that belief in yourself to try because if you don’t believe in trying then you’ll never know if you succeeded or not.
So, with that in mind I reached out to people in my community and that’s the other thing too, that many people don’t realize is, you know, we talked about my history with the NBA and in broadcasting and in fashion you build all amazing contacts and relationships throughout those different career spots along your way. And so reaching out to that community of people that you’ve had relationships with and letting them know what you’re doing and being able to share the story as to why you’re doing it. And so that’s what I did.
So, at the time that I was with Fashion Group International, we had Suzanne Rogers and we had Mantella, Sylvia Mantella, Mantella Corporation. We had Holt Renfrew, we had NARS, we had those sponsors already on board with the not-for-profit. So, I reached out to them with my idea and concept And I said, this is not only what I want to do, but this is why I want to do it. This is the purpose of why I want to be able to do it. And, you know, they heard me and they were in full support. So we started out small with a few sponsors on board and we’ve grown so much since then.
So, let’s talk a little bit about this incredible journey that you’ve been on, Klaudia. I feel like you’ve answered this question already, but I want to encapsulate it for everyone. What is the mission of the awards?
Yes, the mission is very simple – ‘We Rise By Lifting Others’ – and that’s really what it means. It’s women celebrating other women. And everyone in that room is celebrating themselves. We obviously celebrate all of our finalists and award recipients first and foremost, but we also celebrate all our own wins. And that’s what it is. It is an evening of empowerment, of inspiration and celebrating our own accomplishments while we’re in the room, all just cheering for each other, and it’s a beautiful feeling.
And I’ve been to all of them, and it truly is an uplifting and beautiful feeling. And you know me, Klaudia, and everybody who, you know, pops into this show, knows what I’m about. I’m truly ground zeroed from my spiritual practice. And that’s all about energy, right? It’s about what you feel in and around yourself regarding energy. And we know that like attracts like, but what happens in that room? With all those women, and the energy. It’s like going to church. It really, really is.
It really is, at the end of the night, you see everyone just walking away and they just feel this renewed sense of energy and positivity and just inspiration and just even the connections that people make throughout the night. The other beautiful thing is that it’s such a huge networking event. So, at night there’s so many people that have met other people that have gone on to do collaborations and doing partnerships and being able to work together on unique projects. It’s just a wonderful thing to be able to experience as well.
Absolutely. And that’s a huge core value system for you personally, and also, a part of what you’re doing here with the Women’s Awards and the Foundation as well. So, let’s talk a little bit about what these awards are, for those who are coming across your brand for the very first time, Women Empowerment Awards and Foundation.
Let’s start with the awards, Klaudia. How many awards do you offer and in what categories? Because I know you, you are so specific and intentional in everything that you do, that I know that when you came up with these awards, that they were specifically hinged in what you felt was the proper crossed section that covers off everything that we do as women. Have I spoken on behalf of you there?
Absolutely, and that’s the thing, we kept it tight. So, you know, when it was designed, we wanted to make it just like 10 awards. So it was, it was in 10 different categories so that it was tight, but it included a lot of things. So, we’ve got the ‘Rogers Entrepreneur of the Year Award’, that’s for a startup. We’ve got the ‘Mantella Corporation Entrepreneur BIPOC Award’ because we wanted to make sure that we represented the BIPOC community as well – and both of them have grants.
So, this year we’ve got the Rogers grant, which is $15,000 for a startup, which is huge for a start-up company. Massive. Mantello Corporation now for its fourth year doing $10,000 for its award as well, and then we’ve got ‘Innovation’, we’ve got ‘Rising Star’, we’ve got ‘Lifetime Achievement’, we’ve got ‘Global Impact’, ‘Businesswoman of the Year’. There are so many different awards. So, some of them are on the entrepreneur side, but some of them are also just on the professional side, there’s leadership and mentorship.
So those are our 10 main awards. And each award, what we did was in the first year, we had given out the awards. Second year, I wanted to do something a little bit different. So, we did an outreach to the community and we said, to the community, is there an opportunity for you to be able to give back to help uplift these women with things like workshops, with leadership, with consulting, with mentorship? And so many women stepped forward and said, I’d love to help, I would love to offer my services.
And so, what we did was every single award recipient for the last three years will walk away with something in addition to their award, either it will be a monetary rent, or they will receive some type of leadership, mentorship, workshop, conference of some sort to help them level up in their professional careers or their businesses.
The mission is very simple – We Rise By Lifting Others. It’s women celebrating other women, celebrating ourselves, and cheering for each other – an evening of empowerment, inspiration, and accomplishments.
This is what I find to be so unique about what you offer here. This is not just about acknowledging and spotlighting these successes and the stories of these women, which in and by itself is a huge thing. But it’s about resourcing them. It’s providing them with things that they can then help move their journey to the next level.
Can you share some of them? In the smaller categories. I’d love to know that because that’s the other thing that I want to also put out there to people. It’s not just about the monetary grants, but it’s about the other resources and the skill building and these other things that you’re doing. Now, this is your fourth year, fourth sold out year, four sold out awards shows, back-to-back, three months in advance.
I don’t know how you do it, sister, but clearly your model is working. And clearly, it’s valuable to people because you’ve now entered your fourth year of proving that this is something that the community needs. Let’s talk about some of the other resources and skill sets and things that you have set for these awards recipients, outside of the grants for this year. Let’s talk about that a little bit.
Yeah, so a lot of them are just what we try to do is we reach out to our community to see areas where we can help them level up depending on the category. So, for example, if it’s innovation, we have a relationship with the Elevate Festival, so they’ve given us tickets. To attend the Elevate Festival and being able to learn things from technology and innovation and being able to attend all the guest speaking arrangements and also to make connections through that. So, we try to really look at each of the categories.
If it’s a leadership category, we take a look in terms of confidence coaching and things like that. Or it might be being able to learn more about how to do presentations or TEDTalk speaking, such as what you’ve offered last year, you graciously offered that wonderful package to one of our award recipients. But it’s things like that and you’re absolutely right. Like what we want them to do is we want them to walk away, not only being acknowledged for what they’ve done so far, but as you know, with all of us, we’re continuously growing. We’re continuously learning and we always want to be able to level up in our businesses or in our professional career.
So providing them the resources, which is probably one of the biggest challenges that I find with a lot of women is that, first of all, like where do you begin to find these resources, but also to find someone that you can have as a mentor or who can help you in areas that maybe you would love to be able to learn more about or be a little more skilled in. And so by pairing them up with these professionals in those areas, we all win because they help us, but we’re also able to provide for them. So, it’s a win-win situation for both parties. And I think that’s really what the beauty is.
And the other thing too, Raj, is like you touched on it before, is what makes us unique with our awards, is that we don’t just celebrate all of people’s accomplishments. Like sometimes when I talk to women, they’ll say, well, I don’t have a ton of awards or I don’t have all of these published pieces or whatever it is. And those are all wonderful. And we obviously celebrate that because that’s huge for a lot of people. But we also talk about the journey. What did you go through to get to where you are today? What did you have to overcome? What is your story? And that to me is the key point as well.
So when it goes to our judging panel, it’s not just about the accolades of accomplishments, but it’s like, what was your story in your journey to get you to where you are today? Because that’s really an empowerment piece. It’s overcoming all of those barriers and obstacles. It’s coming as an immigrant. It’s starting with absolutely nothing and being able to build something. It’s being able to give back to your community in a meaningful way. It’s being able to give to others first and foremost before you give to yourself. And those are the things that we look for, because that really is all about what women empowerment is. It’s finding it within yourself and being able to give it to others.
You said something there that’s so poignant. You said that giving to others before you give to yourself. And it’s really interesting because that, again, you know me coming from the spiritual realm, that really is what keeps you in Dharma as opposed to having these consistent karmic, you know interactions with people is, you’re always paying it forward. And when you pay something forward, it always comes back to you. We know this, right? We know this. We’ve experienced this in all the things that we’ve done, right, Klaudia?
Really always, when you give to others it does come back to you like sometimes people go, but I want to get paid. You will – you know eventually things come back to you – and that’s when you change your mindset to being able to help others rise, you rise along with them.
Absolutely. Absolutely, sweetheart, and it’s over now, in terms of being able to present yourself for an award this year, since the categories have all been closed off. But for those people who would like to maybe get a head start, and understand what the process is to be considered for an Award for perhaps next year, can you walk people through that process?
Absolutely. So, we launch every year on International Women’s Day, which is March the 8th. So, our nominations open at that point. The nominations go on until May 31st, at which point they close. You can nominate as many women as you’d like. We encourage you to nominate yourself as well because we want you to be able to take that step to empower yourself and acknowledge all of your own successes.
And there is no cost or fee so you can have as many women as you’d like. Once the nominations close May 31st, they have 30 days in order to be able to complete their submissions. So, what that means is that they fill out the form which tells us a little bit more about their story. That’s where you get to share your story. You get to show what brought you to where you are today and to be able provide letters of support. So, we ask for two letters of support that support the nomination in whichever category that you would like.
And then at that point it goes to the judges in July. They deliberate for about a month. And then we start to slowly announce them in August & September. So, in the next couple of weeks, we’ll start to roll out all of the finalists. Now the award recipients do not know that they have won the award until the evening of the event. So, they won’t find out if they have won that category until September 26th at the Park High.
That just makes things so much more exciting, Klaudia, because, all of us sitting there in the audience, you know we don’t know who is going to be winning, but also the nominees don’t if they are going to be winning and you get that true kind of, you know experience of how they feel when they get that award, when they get up on stage and you know having been to all of them, I just love hearing what they have to say. There’s a different feeling around not knowing.
And getting up there and sharing how you feel about this award, how important it is for you and to share that energy. That’s a part of what happens at these awards for anybody that hasn’t gone to them, which by the way, they’re sold out. So, you always have to make sure that you get your tickets way in advance when we open them. By the way Klaudia, can you just share? You know, 8th of March is when you open nominations. When do you open tickets? Is it the same date every year or is it different every year?
So we actually open up the tickets on June the 1st every year. And this year, we opened them on June 1st and on June 26th, we were completely sold out.
I love that. Oh my gosh.
And because we tell people all the time, we actually give them benchmarks. We’ll say we’re 76% sold out, and people just don’t seem to, either they don’t believe it, but when we’re sold out we’re telling you, honestly, we are sold out so we encourage everyone to get them early because it really isn’t – It’s a night of celebration, it’s the night of networking, it’s – you know – you have this wonderful meal, courtesy of the Park Hyatt Toronto, and you have an amazing gift bag, a great performer – we’ve got Keisha Shante performing this year. I mean, she is award-winning, and she’s just incredible. She’s been singing since she was 13. So, we have a beautiful performance, and then we have all these incredible activations. Again, women-owned businesses.
So it’s just beautiful to be able to also have all of these opportunities to experience, so you walk away with a really like full experience of the evening and that’s why it sells out every year, it’s a wonderful celebration but also it’s great night to be just able to engage with so many different brands and so many different people.
It’s not just about the accolades – it’s about the journey. What did you have to overcome to get to where you are today? That’s the real empowerment piece.
Absolutely, Klaudia. I mean, I can attest to that every time I go. I get a renewed reminder that what we’re doing as women today in society is worth it. You know, get that real sense. Because sometimes you go through, you go to your ups and downs. But that night, it’s just you come out of it. Okay, I’m good for another year. I gotta go, I gotta go get it.
Don’t you, like that’s what I feel, like I feel like everybody walks away and they feel so powerful because when you’re in a room of like 450 empowering women talk about like, and such an incredible room and like you mentioned energy. It’s like you can’t help but feel so powerful that you look at all of the accomplishments of all of these women in all different sectors from engineering, from research, from medicine, from architecture, from design, from like every single facet of the industry is represented there.
And it’s just so beautiful to be able to see that. And what incredible role models. Could you imagine, Raj, when we were younger, if we had that opportunity to be in a room with all of these incredible women from all different industries as role models to know that we could be anything that we wanted to be? It’s just, it’s such an incredible feeling. It really is.
Absolutely, because our journey has been wrought from all the limitations that we’ve gotten to where we have. So, can you imagine if that wasn’t a barrier? And it’s interesting, because you said something that I think it’s important that we also share with everyone here.
You also have young girls, you have a young girls initiative, where you bring them into the award show for them to experience what their future could look like. I experienced that last year when I met some of these girls that were sitting on the adjacent table to me. Tell me why you decided to do that and what kind of impact have you seen that it’s had from them sharing how it made them feel?
It’s been tremendous. So, I really wanted to start a charity. That was something that I’ve always wanted to do. So, the minute that we did the awards, I wanted to immediately apply to become a registered charity. And so, we were approved last year. And within months, we quickly turned around and did a scholarship grant program. And we were able within six weeks to offer four grants. To young girls in marginalized and racialized communities that wouldn’t have been able to go to post-secondary education by providing them a scholarship grant in both STEM and entrepreneurship, so that was kind of the first part.
And then the other part was we want to reach out to our own community and be able to bring these young girls from different organizations and youth groups to come to our awards and again give them an opportunity that they normally may not have been able to receive. And see around them, being surrounded by women and being able to see examples of really great role models.
Now we did make it a little bit more off, so we worked with this incredible woman named Karen Samuels and it’s quite the story. So, I’ll share the story with you. It was a Saturday morning, and I got a phone call out of the blue. It was like, I think it was like eight or nine o’clock in the morning. And I answered it and it’s this amazing woman by the name of Karen Samuel’s. And she said, you know, it was this random call, and she just said – you know, hear me out. This is what I want to do, I would love to be able to. She said, I come from Weston Collegiate, and she told me her backstory, and she says, I would love for these girls to get the opportunity that I never had, because I really feel it could be a huge turning point in their lives – if we could.
Now, I had already planned to do this, so it was just like you said, serendipity was such a great alignment. And so I said, interestingly enough, this is what I was planning to do. So, we worked together and she brought in the Toronto Police Services and we were able to bring, I think in total last year there were 12 girls from different organizations that were from Westin Collegiate, from the Peel District School Board, from the Toronto Police Human Trafficking, so they were saved from sex trafficking, and also with the Indigenous youth groups. And we were able to bring all of these young girls glammed up head to toe, hair, makeup, gowns.
And you provided that, right? Like you got that all sponsored. That’s the part I want to make sure people understand.
So that’s what we do, like all of the proceeds that come from the ticket sales, all the proceeds that come from our hoodies and sweatshirts and our merchandise, every single dollar that goes into our awards and our foundation goes right back into programming. So, it helps by bringing these girls to the awards, it helps with scholarship grants, it helps our 28 finalists, and all their tickets are complimentary thanks to the donations of our sponsors and donors.
So, we always give back, we do programs and initiatives throughout the years. That’s what we do so we’re always giving back in some form so these girls got all glammed up head to toe, all covered by us, now their task though they didn’t get off easily we made sure that their task that night was to network with women and be able to talk a little bit about themselves what their dreams were and be able to network with other women and they actually produced business cards that they handed out and were to exchange business cards.
So we had them do a little bit of work, but we wanted to teach them those skills early on, and how to be able to, first of all, have the confidence and being able to introduce themselves and speak in terms of communication skills but also to be about to lead by handing out their business cards and asking for business cards in return for a potential mentorship opportunity and that’s what they did all of them that was their job for that evening and they were all so good at it.
Now moving forward, you should see some of these girls. Oh my gosh, Raj, you’d be so proud of them. The confidence that they have built in them. Some of them actually walked the runway at a recent kid’s fashion show and they actually walked the runway of it and just the amount of confidence that is built inside them. And some of them, as soon as they saw the role models, they wanted to be architects, they wanted to be nurses, they wanted it to be, you know, they wanted to go into one of them and wanted to start her own bakery because one of our nominees was a baker. And so she was like, I want to be able to do this.
There were so many amazing examples of role models that they could see themselves in. And the other thing, too, is when you hear people’s stories, you realize you’re not alone. You were saying when people win the awards, one of my favourite moments is that and the reason being is because it’s so raw and authentic because they don’t know, like you said, they don’t know that they’re going whether they’re going to win.
So, when their name is called – tears – right here, and if they knew in advance, they may not have these authentic emotions. The tears, you hear their stories of how they came to Canada as immigrants, and they would sit on the floor while their mother worked in factories, and they were told that they wouldn’t be able to have the roles that they were going to because they were a girl.
Or you would hear the stories of them coming to Jamaica with barely little in their pockets and not knowing what their future was going to be and being able to now win the ‘Mantella Entrepreneur BIPOC Grant Award’. And it’s just to hear all of these incredible stories. It’s so inspiring. And I think a lot about these young girls, I’m sure like all of us see a little bit of us in each of these stories as well. So, it’s been wonderful to see and we’re doing it again this year. So, we’ve got another 12 girls coming this year at our awards. So, we’re really excited about that, and if anyone has any young girls as well we’ve got our scholarship program. The scholarship program ends on August the 30th and we’ve got four scholarship grants as well.
Okay, so there’s a few things here that you’ve said that I’d like people to be able to get a little bit more information on, Klaudia. First of all, you mentioned that there are hoodies that are available to purchase online. Where do people go to grab them?
Yes, so there’s two places you can go on to our website. We’ve got a shop page. And you can also go on to Shine The Light On and look up the ‘Women Empowerment Collection’. So it’s a non-profit where you can put your merchandise there and the proceeds go to the charity, and it’s called the Women Empowerment Collections.
Every dollar from our awards goes right back into programming – from bringing young girls to the event, to funding scholarship grants, to building their confidence and connecting them with mentors.
Perfect. And the second thing is, anybody that wants to submit for these grants, where are we sending those people?
Yes, so there’s Scholar Tree, which is a generic website that actually has our grant on there. So if you look up the Women Empowerment Foundation grant, it’s on there, as well as if you go again on our website, so woea.ca, go under Scholarship Grant and the application is on our web site as well.
Perfect, and then there’s also the opportunity for people to donate to the foundation online. Where are we sending them to do that?
Yes. So, you can go on to our website as well. If you go under the foundation, there is a donate page and it’ll bring you right into Canada Helps, which you can donate right to our foundation. And again, you can look it up as well with the Women Empowerment Foundation and they will send you a tax receipt immediately after your donation. Any donation, $10 and up big or small, it doesn’t matter. Every single dollar helps towards helping our girls and helping also our women entrepreneurs. In terms of helping them level up with their businesses and careers as well.
That’s incredible, Klaudia, and for anybody that is looking to see how these funds have been utilized in the past, how they are going to be utilized in the future, is there somewhere on the website where they can garner that information, because that’s always very helpful for people who want to see if this is where they want to put their donation dollars for the year.
Yes, absolutely. So, if you go on to our foundation page, we have three pillars. We have the elevate, educate, and empower, and that’s what our foundation is all about.
That’s your mission, right? Elevate, Educate & Empower.
So, all of the dollars that go in there, you’ll see that with the education and the empowerment, the funds will go towards either bringing these young girls to our awards, being able to do different types of workshops and initiatives for them, and being able to provide the scholarship grants to them.
For women, we are going to start doing things for this year and next year, things like we did a pop-up shop for women entrepreneurs. We did it last year in November, where we brought in all these amazing women entrepreneurs to be able to showcase their products and brands. We’re going to be doing it again this year.
We will be doing a Women’s Summit as well. We did a financial workshop last year as well in October where we really helped women with financial literacy because there were so many things that . . . Women didn’t know about financial literacy, things like insurance that you never think about, things like arts and being able to have tax benefits that maybe you wouldn’t think of. So, things like financial literacy.
So, every year we’ll think of different types of topics that are really relevant. Could be how to market your brand, how to be able to do better public relations, how to be a PR pro in terms of getting your brand out and in the hands of influencers or journalists or media outlets. Being able to help with your website and developing that, being able to help with the social media content and how to be able to create reels for TikTok’s or making things go viral.
So, we have a lot of different areas of expertise and the beautiful thing Raj is that when you take a look at our community, we have so much knowledge and expertise within our community that can be tapped into and they’re such incredible resources that being able to share those resources with everyone is really the . . . It’s an incredible opportunity for all of us to continue to learn and to grow.
Because even myself, going through financial literacy, there were so many new things that I didn’t know, and that’s what it is. So, every single donation that we get goes towards our awards, it goes towards all of our programs for our young girls, but also to help women level up with guest speaking panels and different types of programs and initiatives.
Incredible, Klaudia. I want to ask you a future centric question now. If you look into the future, maybe five years from now, and five years is a long way away when you consider how rapidly change is happening in our world, right? But if you were to kind of forecast in five years’ time, where would you like to see the awards? And where would you like to see the Foundation?
I would love to see it on an international scale because I’ve seen so many women that submit their applications every year from different countries. And when you hear their stories and the things that they are doing, it’s just profoundly inspiring and I want to be able to recognize them as well. So, I would be able to take this on a global scale, whether we go internationally, meaning through the U.S. And go North American and then go global.
In five years, I would love to be able to do this globally, because I think women all over the world deserve to be recognized. And I think in certain countries as well, there’s a lot of limitations, but there’s also a lot of women who are setting examples for other women.
And so important to be to do because when you lead by example, then you’re able to be inspired by that. And that becomes your role model of what you can achieve. And I think that is so important to be able to do that, because when one woman has a breakthrough. Then it’s a breakthrough for all of us. It’s a win for all of us, and to be able to recognize what people are doing around the world, I think would be absolutely instrumental for all of our growth.
Absolutely. And it’s really interesting, you said something there that really kind of, you know, piqued a thought in my mind that I want to share with you. And that is, you know, oftentimes when you think of a role model, you think of someone that is maybe further ahead in the game, maybe has more accolades or has accomplished more things.
But I found, especially, in the last few years, it’s people that haven’t quite gotten there, people who are trying to figure it out. And how they feel and what they do inspires me as the woman that you would normally look at and think, well, I want to be like her. And so that’s something I want to share with you.
I feel that you have that similar feeling as well. Like, we look at those who have progressed further than us, but don’t you also find that sometimes there’s something magical in what you learn from someone that hasn’t quite gotten there? And it kind of peaks this memory for you that when you were her, that you actually weren’t as far along as she is than when you are at that age. Like share your, like give me a comment regarding that.
Absolutely. I completely agree with you. I think there’s a benefit to being able to look at someone else’s accomplishments and be able to aspire to be that way. I think it’s great to be able to look at all the women and go, wow, I love what she’s doing and that’s where I would like to be. And I think that’s motivational and that is inspirational.
And, you know, I just actually just did an article recently about the tall poppy syndrome. Yeah. And you’re talking about – well, your success doesn’t take away from my success and my success doesn’t take away from your success. So, I think when someone sees someone successful, instead of us looking at it in terms of competition or that they’re taking away something from you, it’s actually, they’re paving the way. They’re making breakthroughs. They’re leading by example. And I think if anything, it should be inspiring and not seen as competition.
I think, if we start changing our mindset and being there for one another and being able to support one another in that way. We are all, we all catch up at some point. I mean, I think that’s what it is. It’s like, you know, when you have children, right? And your child doesn’t start speaking yet and everybody else’s kids are speaking. You’re like, you feel like, well, what’s wrong with mine? Or why isn’t mine speaking like the rest? But everybody catches up at something. So, this isn’t just a race. It’s being able to just go with your own flow and being able to be inspired by the people around you and surround yourself with amazing women that you look up to, they are great mentors to you.
And I think there’s, I think what I love seeing is when people reach out to other people and say, I admire you for your leadership. Would you have time to sit with me for 30 minutes? And it’s such an easy ask. Like if you don’t ask, the answer is always no. Things that I’ve really learned to do, especially since COVID, I would encourage everyone to just ask. Because I say, if you don’t ask, the answer’s no. So, ask them for that time, ask them to help you introduce someone.
And you know, you talked about sponsorships and things that are the number of connections that I made just by asking Raj; by saying do you know someone who could introduce me here? Absolutely. And they do the introduction. That one small little gesture and that one ‘ask’ created such a ripple fact. It’s tremendous. And that’s all it was. It just took that one ‘ask’ and it created a really great result. So, it doesn’t hurt to ask, but I think that’s what it is.
I think we’ve all been there. We’ve all had our moments, and I look back at so many people and I see myself in them. And that, I think, that’s where we step in and we want to be able to be that mentor for them and be able to help them guide them through that.
When one woman has a breakthrough, it’s a breakthrough for all of us. It’s a win for all of us.
Absolutely. And it’s interesting because I find in certain aspects of my life that I’m the mentor and in other aspects of life, I’m a mentee. And so consistently, we’re elevating our journey. And I think that that’s very beautifully encapsulated in kind of the business model behind your Award show and as well as your Foundation.
And I wanted to tap into the mind behind the genius and ask you the question that if you were teaching this in marketing what would you share to be the three most important aspects people should consider when launching an awards model and then when launching a foundation model through your experience?
So, I think for both of them, they have a lot of similarities. So, I always tell my students, whenever I teach my marketing class, no matter what you do in life, no matter what, it’s always the purpose before the product. Know what your purpose is, because that’s your driving factor. That’s what it is that you want to be able to achieve. So, with the Awards and even with the Foundation, being able to identify what your purpose is for the Awards and what the purpose is for the Foundation. And I think that’s the key to being able to start.
And then I think the second part is being able to provide a really good group of people around you. So with the Awards, it was the sponsors. We had a lot of outreach. I get a lot of brands that want to be a part of it, but I don’t agree with every single brand only because I want them to align with our values and beliefs. Yes, that’s the thing. You don’t just take it for the sake of taking it. Do they believe in the values and the mission of what we’re trying to accomplish? Are their goals and values and beliefs the same? Because you want a long-term relationship with these people that align with your brand.
So, if you have the right group of sponsors, partners, that’s the second kind of portion. On the Foundation side, it’s having a really good board of directors that’s going to be able to help you and keep you on your goal and on your mission. And then the last part is building a team that is so good, you don’t know who the leader is. And I think that’s what it is when you find your team. When I first started, it was just myself. And now, four years later, I have a phenomenal team. I have a team who does everything from the social media to the marketing, to handling all the logistics on site, to doing all the AV, it’s just incredible. I’ve got the videographer that we’ve been using since day one.
And once you get a really good team together, you can step away because they all know. They all know what their roles and responsibilities are and they know the quality and what the expectations are. So, when you have that, they’re all leaders in their own right. And so, I think that’s really important. And again, on the foundation side, once you have that and you’ve got a great group of leaders, it’s being able to then find the right resources.
So, who are the mentors? Who are the guest speakers that you’re going to have that’s going to help elevate these women? What kind of organizations are you going to align yourself with that are going to help that foundation grow? And what kind of government resources are you going to be able to reach out to that will help provide more grants for women entrepreneurs and professionals, or how to be to give them those leadership courses in classes, how to help the young girls be able to build their confidence, how to be able give back to struggling young moms that are in shelters right now that are trying to get a fresh start. So, I think that’s how they’re both very much the same. But with slightly just different adjustments based on the fact that one’s a charity and one isn’t.
Absolutely. And they both beautifully just fit together and complete the whole circle of this entire beautiful seamless initiative that just really came from you knowing that this was something that needed to happen because it just wasn’t happening in the way that you envisioned that it should be happening. And that’s where the differentiator is.
Klaudia, off the top, I mentioned to you that there’s so many other female initiative organizations award shows, foundations, et cetera, et cetera. And I feel that you just kind of hit the nail on the head right there. What is your differentiator? And I feel that yours is my experience and, please correct me if I’m wrong, add to this if you agree with me. I feel that yours isn’t just celebrating the journey of the person to where they have gotten to, but you help people learn how to get there who haven’t. I feel, that’s what I feel. Share your thoughts there.
Yeah, no, absolutely. And so, when we started it out, it was full, so the awards are also under the foundation. So, everything is under the Foundation. The whole thing runs as a non-for-profit and as a charity. So, with that, the two are very much hand in hand and they work in partnership with one another. And what sets us apart is that everything that happens at the awards feeds into the Foundation, so all of the mentorship, the people that attend the awards. They’re the ones that after the awards say how can I help? How can I volunteer? Can I be a guest speaker? Can I be a mentor? They all come out because they’re so inspired that they want to be involved.
So that’s how they are part of the awards and all like the proceeds that come from the event also go into the Foundation which helps with the scholarship grants, which helps for the young girls, which else with all these workshops and initiatives. So I think that’s what it is with our business model that makes us unique because the two of them work side by side in terms of really helping women not just be acknowledged for their amazing accomplishments, but also being able to create initiatives and programs that are put in place specifically to help them level up because you can’t just stay stagnant once you’re there.
To be able to keep going and growing and especially with the way our society is like with new things that are constantly evolving with the ways our society’s constantly evolving we have to evolve with it so in order to do so we have to be able to find the opportunities, the resources, the individuals that can help us get there. And so that’s what it does. It allows us that opportunity and that platform to be able to hear others’ stories, to find that mentor that’s gonna help guide us, to be able to take that program or initiative that’s going to help us level up in our own business or even personally in our personal lives. But that’s really what sets us apart in terms of the other organizations and other awards.
You know, Klaudia, we’ve talked a lot about the success of the journey for the awards and for the foundation. And I truly do, I sincerely wish you a future of abundance in accomplishing what you set out to accomplish, my love. But what I do want to focus on, because no success journey comes without challenges, can you share over the years what you’ve encountered as being the big challenges or the big challenge. And have you overcome it? And if so, how? And if you haven’t, share that too.
Well, the biggest challenge always when it comes to anything like an awards is always being able to bring in sponsorship, right? Because you need to fund the awards with something. And especially in the early stages where you’re the first-year, people don’t know who you are you haven’t established yourself quite yet. You’re brand new, you’ve got other organizations who have been around for 30 plus years and here you are coming as a brand-new person.
So, I remember the first year, nobody knew what really the Women Empowerment was, we just came out of nowhere. And so being able to get that sponsorship was always the key. And even now with what’s happening in the US with the tariff situation, so many businesses that we’ve had in the past, sponsors that we found in the past have really had to step back because it’s impacted their own internal businesses that they’re unable to make any type of judgments in terms of monetary contributions this year, because they don’t know what’s happening in the US and it’s impacting their businesses and their bottom line. So, things like that are always a challenge.
Whenever we see anything that’s happening, whether it’s internationally, whether through the US, all those things make an impact. Sometimes it’s timing. Sometimes a lot of companies get bombarded with so many opportunities and you know, they’ll get 30, 40 different submissions from different organizations. What sets you apart from all the other ones?
I’ve been very fortunate in the sense that I’ve been in sponsorships for many, many years. And I’ve also built a lot of great relationships through that. And I think that’s really part of the reason why it’s really contributed to the success of the awards and because it’s a very unique product. So, you know the fact that what we’re providing is a very unique platform and mission. And also, the fact that a lot of these individuals are a part of our organization.
When you have Suzanne Rogers and Sylvia Mantella, I mean, they’re to me, when I started when I was working with Fashion Group International, I looked up to them so much, not just because they’re powerhouse women and what they do and what they stand behind, but also in terms of their philanthropy and giving back. Like everything that they’ve done and accomplished, and they sit on so many boards and contribute to so many organizations, they give back so much to the community. And that’s one of the things that I always admired about them because they’re such powerful women on their own, but they always found opportunities to give back in so many different ways to so many different organizations.
So, I looked up to them as role models and being able to start my own organization with the Women Empowerment Awards and with the Foundation. Is I really took their lead to being able to have them on board but also to be able to learn by example and seeing what they do with all the organizations that they’re involved in and seeing you know the success that they’ve had and you learn a lot so when we talk about having someone that you can admire or just want to be to be at that same level.
We don’t compare but we admire them for what they bring to the table. We admire them, paths that they pave for others to move forward. And I think that’s what it is. I admire so many different women and even yourself, Raj. I mean, listen, you and I have been together for so many years and you’ve been with us, supporting us since day one. And you are such an iconic leader in your own right with the things that you do, with the confidence that you build, with the leadership, with the TED Talks. There are so many things that you do.
And you’ve given back to us every single year. And it’s just been phenomenal because every single woman that you’ve helped impact is paying it forward to the next and to the next because whatever you help them learn, they’re helping others learn. It’s a domino effect, and I think it’s such a beautiful thing. Imagine if every woman could make an impact, another woman who then continues that going, the amount of women that we would be able to impact in this lifetime would be tremendous.
Absolutely, absolutely sweetheart. Thank you so much for your kind words, but I will tell you it’s very easy to support someone that has authenticity and sincerity and is doing the work. So really, that’s all I ever look for. And that has been who you are since the moment I met you. And I love everything about what you’re doing with the Awards and the Foundation and just how seamlessly there is a purpose driven agenda and strategy for the future.
It’s just sensational and for anyone out there I want to share this because you know oftentimes, we listen to these types of stories and they just feel larger than life. They feel out of reach for a lot of people, right? What would you say to those women, those girls that feel I’m here and what you guys are talking about is like way up here. I don’t know how to reach for that within my own mindset. What would you say to that girl, that woman?
Just start, just start. Doesn’t matter when, doesn’t matter how old you are, doesn’t what age you are. Doesn’t matter anything. Just start. And I think once you just start, then you figure it out along the way. And when you find yourself someone that is a mentor to you, reach out to them. Reach out to them and tell them your story and ask. And it literally, like I said, takes 15 or 20 minutes, just having a coffee chat with someone and it can change someone’s life or do an introduction for someone.
When people ask me to do introductions, I do it in a heartbeat because it absolutely takes no time at all out of my day, literally two minutes out of my day and could change someone’s path completely. But I would just say, just start. Get nervous, it’s that fear that holds them back. But if you just start, then you just, from that point, you keep going.
It doesn’t matter your age, your stage, or how nervous you feel, just start. Fear holds you back, but once you start, you figure it out along the way.
Absolutely. And it’s interesting you share that because the ‘just start’ concept, it really is the only way to do anything in life. If you look at all of the heroes that we look up to throughout history, what is it that we’re looking up to? We’re looking up to the fact that they started and they kept going. And that’s really what it’s about. And if you need help in that, there are coaches, there are consultants, there are grants, there are mentors, there is so much help out there, you just got to go out there and find it, because it is there today.
Yes, and that’s why, like, I use the term, like that we are a sisterhood, because we really are. We’re a whole family of sisters, and sisters help each other out. So, if you need a photographer, we’ve got someone who’s a photographer. If you need an accountant, if you need someone with lifestyle nutrition, if need someone with coaching, with someone with leadership, whatever it is, if you want someone with interior design, we have a whole sisterhood of sisters that are so educated, that are so enlightened, that have all of this knowledge and experience, and they’re all going to help each other out.
And that’s what it is. It’s a movement of a sisterhood of everyone stepping up to help others out, and I think it’s such an important cause, and I just think it makes such a tremendous impact. But yes, you have to start, because If you don’t, then you’re always going to stay where you are. It’s, I read something the other day and it was, someone had said, and I don’t know who’s the original author of the poem, but it said, if you knew you could never fail, how big would you dream?
I’ve heard that.
And I think about that because sometimes I think when I think about growing globally, and it’s like, can I do it? Like even myself, I can do it, like do I have the capacity to do it. Well, if I don’t try, I’ll never know. You just have to start, you just have to try. And that’s the most important thing. And don’t be afraid to reach out and don’t reach out to a whole bunch of people. Don’t just reach out to one person, reach out to a whole bunch of people that you look up to, that you admire. Keep trying to get a hold of them. And I think it’s really important because eventually you will get that call back, you will that email back, and that could be the trajectory that you needed in order to help you get to the next level.
Absolutely. You know, it’s really interesting. You said something here, Klaudia, that I think is really fundamental and important. Along with the get started, be strategic, like, think to yourself, you know I need to join the right kind of groups, the right kinds of associations, the ones where you’ll get all the things that you need so that your strategy can actually work. Right? So, I find that people come. I’ve learned this from clients of mine in my coaching side of my business, Klaudia, where they’ll be like, you know, I’ve tried this, I’ve done this, I’ve done this, I’ve been this, but yet none of it’s working.
Then I’m like, okay, but what is it you’re trying to accomplish? Okay. Where you went had nothing to do with what you’re trying to accomplish, right? So of course you’re setting yourself up to fail. So, the strategy piece, understanding how to put the jigsaw puzzle pieces together. Is just as important as the start and who you surround yourself with, who you go to ask for mentorship with. I feel like you’re going to say something, Klaudia.
No, 100%. Absolutely. If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room, right? You’re in a room of women that you look up to, that you admire, that can help you walk away learning something new. And I think that’s what it is. If you surround yourself with positive women who are just powerhouses, who are confident, who are leaders in their own right in different areas, and it doesn’t have to be specifically in the area of your expertise,
The other thing too is people think, oh, I have to be with women who are in medicine or I have to be with women who are in engineering. That’s not necessarily the case. You have to be women who are our leaders. You have to be women who are entrepreneurs or a successful multi-millionaire, if that’s what your goal is. So really being able to align yourselves with what it is that you want to be able to grow in? What areas do you want to be able to grow in? Because you can find those in any different type of industry.
It’s just finding those key women and when you find those women like one of my favorite things is to is to have like dinner parties with women from all different industries because the things that you walk away learning from in different facets of of industries it’s mind-blowing feel like you learn so much that you would never have had the opportunity to learn had you just stuck in one type of genre of an industry.
So, I think just being able to diversify yourself in different areas because you can learn so much from that but yes, absolutely surround yourself with powerhouse women of people that you look up to or admire or that you want to learn from and you will. And also listen, be in the room and just listen to what people say because you could learn so much of wealth, of knowledge, just by tuning in and just being silent and hearing what people have to say you can really learn a lot.
Absolutely. Everything she said, guys, everything she said. So sorry, I can’t believe that we are full on coming to the end of this. And I feel like there’s just a thousand other questions I can ask you. And you know, your abundant sharing of everything that you’ve learned and everything that you’ve done without censoring is one thing that I find to be a true huge superpower of yours. And, I wanted to share that with you. And the reason why is that another thing I want people to look at is the reality of our lives.
You know, when people look at us, they look at the five minutes of fame, but then underneath that, there’s a real woman with real life journeys. Yourself, just like mine, we are single moms. You, in your case, you teach full-time outside of the work that you’re doing with the Awards and the Foundation and there are many initiatives that you are involved with as well. How do you make all that work? Let’s share that with the women that feel like, well, I can’t do it because of all these other layers of commitment that I have in my life.
It’s really just finding the balance. And I know it sounds easy and it’s not. It’s not, and I still, some days I struggle. Some days I have no idea where the day went and I didn’t get anything that I wanted to accomplish. And other days I get a lot done. I think it’s just being able to just not be hard on yourself when you aren’t able to accomplish everything that you can, but put together a list and as many things that you can check off, be proud of the things that check off.
A lot of times our mindset goes to the things that we don’t complete. Oh my God, I did four out of the 10, but you did four. Yes. Celebrate the four that you did while you’re a mom of three, while you’ve got a full-time job, while you are managing a household, while you are trying to run a foundation and you know, trying to run an award. Be proud of four that did accomplish and I think that’s what it is, is focusing on the positive and being able to just be realistic in terms of your expectations but trying to find that moment as well to take a break to try that moment.
So, I know for you meditation is if I do the same. So yeah, whatever that moment of just peacefulness, it could be just taking a cup of coffee, shutting down your laptop for 10 minutes and just enjoying your cup of Coffee in silence. It could be going out for a It could be meditating in the morning. It could be going to the gym after work, whatever it is, I think just finding that balance is really important. Taking that time to also allow your body to rejuvenate is also important, but that’s what it is. It’s just making sure that you do that.
When I first started, you could even ask my kids, I was working till one o’clock, two o’ clock in the morning, like nonstop 12, 14-hour days, it didn’t matter, I just kept going. And now I’ve learned to shut down, learn to have the time with my kids, learn to take breaks and do road trips and do fun things with them so that there is that work life balance and it just changes it really changes things completely. But it helps you appreciate what women go through because we all are going through it. And like you said, you see what you see on the forefront, but all of us have our own challenges and struggles and we all do it, but it’s acknowledging ourselves. And acknowledging our worth and acknowledging what we do instead of focusing on what we don’t do, I think is the key.
Amen to that. I completely agree with that. And that’s the energy that you choose, right? Like the cup being half full or half empty, right. It’s the energy that you choose to align yourself with is the destiny that you will create for yourself, right, Klaudia?
100%. It’s always the, I will, I believe, I know. It’s when you change your mindset to that, it changes the whole perception of the path of where you’re going.
Would you change anything, Klaudia?
I would have started this way sooner.
I love that answer.
You know what, it’s funny, the first year that I did the awards, someone came up to me in 2022 and we did the award and she’s like, we should have done this 10 years ago. And I’m like, I know, right? It should have been done really like this is something that really should have been done 10 years ago. I wish I’d started sooner because I feel like you know this was something that really this movement should have done way earlier and was necessary but you know better late than never but it is when I see the fact that every year it sells out it really reinforces the fact not only is this incredibly important to do for our society and for us as women, as females, as a whole, but I think it’s necessary.
It’s necessary for us to do it in order to be able to help uplift all of us, to help us be able to be more of a unified front, and to also help with gender inequality. And also for the generation that’s to come, the future generation of young girls that are so heavily influenced by everything that’s going on in society and with social media to be able to show them that their dreams matter, that they are possible, anything that they put their mind to is possible. And I think that is so important to do. But yes, I wish I would have done it sooner if I could have.
We are a sisterhood, a whole family of women with the knowledge, experience, and heart to lift each other up.
I think that’s a great answer because then you know you’re doing exactly what you should be doing, what your life’s purpose is, which is incredible. I want to close off by asking you a couple additional questions, Klaudia, just so that we can just, get people at least to spark the possibility of possible, like for those who are really not feeling like they’ve gotten to where they need to get to, and perhaps it’s because they are holding themselves back. The first thing I want to ask you is . . . What is your greatest success and why?
My children, my children, they’re my world. Yeah, honestly, they are my world and just to be able to have them every year at the awards and seeing just the impact of what this movement has done for so many women. They can experience it firsthand because I think it’s important for them as young men to see the role of women in society, to be able to see the contributions of women in society, the level of respect, the level of expertise and knowledge to be able to see these incredible, powerful women.
And when you start to show them that at a young age, then I think it helps them become really great supportive men as they get older as well, because one of the things that we always say is we’re not competing against men. We’re not here to bash men, we’re not here to compete against men. We just want to be on the same equal playing field. We want the same opportunity that men get. And that’s all we’re asking. And this is not just a women feminist thing.
This is men also saying, hey, you know what? Being able to recognize and vouch and support women as well. We love when men come out to support our women initiative. And we love to see men in the crowd. And I think that’s also important. But we also have to educate them at a young age as well, so that’s really my biggest accomplishment from a personal point.
From a professional point, it’s being able to see all these amazing women move on and do some wonderful things. Like we’ve been following the stories of so many of these incredible women. And to see, you know, since the awards, the impact that it’s made in their personal and professional life has been huge. It’s just been tremendous. And I think, being a witness to that, is a beautiful thing to be able to see it firsthand from the moment that they went up on the stage to where they are now, tremendous growth.
Yes! Oh my gosh, Klaudia. Anything we haven’t shared that you feel people need to know any final words of wisdom, anything to leave people with, but maybe we’ll just push them, claiming their destiny.
I think the most important thing, honestly, is just to believe in yourself and empower yourself first and foremost. I think one of the things that I see so many with so many women is that they don’t empower themselves. Whenever I ask a woman, like, have you nominated yourself, and they’ll say me? Like, no. Me? Why? And I think you need to first empower yourself first, and foremost, and be able to see that and recognize that within yourself. And then to be able to empower others.
Being able to take that time for yourself, for that self-growth and being able to recognize it within yourself, that you are good enough, you are worthy enough, you are valuable enough, you do contribute enough, all of those things. I think when we start to believe in ourselves, then I think then it just becomes a magnet of energy to be able to surround ourselves with people who have that same belief.
So that’s what I would say is to empower yourself first and foremost. And don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. It’s so important to be able to network with amazing women. Surround yourself with women who uplift, inspire you, who are your biggest cheerleaders, who will empower you. And I can tell you right now, because I’ve done it myself, when you surround yourself with these amazing women around you, you truly are unstoppable. You truly are.
Amen to that.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
If they want to learn more about our organization, if they want to be able to donate, if you want to be a mentor, if they would love to be guest speaker, because we’re always looking for guest speakers as well, they can just go on to our website at https://www.woea.ca/ and be able to sign up and just send us a form. And we’d love to have them a part of our community.
And where do we send everyone to hang out with you, girlfriend? Because after listening to your story, your words of wisdom, just kind of the, you know, authentic realism of what your journey has been. I know that there’s going to be a ton of people that are going to want to know what you’re doing and the best place to send them online would be.
So, if they’d like to follow me personally, it would be Klaudia’s Fashion Fix. So, it’s Klaudia with a K, Klaudia’s Fashion Fix. You’ll also see my collection of shoes, which I know you’ve seen Raj, my collection of shoes. But they can follow my journey and my shoe collection on my personal. Professionally, they can follow us on our Instagram account, which is Women Empowerment Awards, and our Foundation, which is The Women Empowerment Foundation.
Sweetheart, you are a woman to admire for all the right reasons. Thank you so much for coming and sharing your story here with everyone, giving everyone a mini mastermind on some of the things that you have felt have really helped you to be able to kind of go from ground zero to where you are, just the bar just keeps moving higher and higher year after year, and to hear where you want to take this in the next five years it is just astounding.
And I know from my perspective and I know for all the people out there who have had an opportunity to maybe know you outside of my world, maybe are learning about you for the first time here are absolutely gonna be rooting for you. Thank you so much for coming on and for being fabulously you.
Well, thank you for all of your support the last four years. And you’ve been a tremendous role model for me as well. And I’ve learned such a great deal from you. And thank you, for all of your contributions. Honestly, Raj, like I say, takes a village. When you see our awards and you’ve been there, you see that it really takes a village of so many people. And amazing people like yourself. It’s our partners, it’s our sponsors, it’s all of our vendors. We couldn’t do it without amazing women like you. So, thank you all that you do as well.
I adore you, my dear, I cannot wait for September to come around and, just make sure, guys, that you really do go and take a look at everything that’s happening in Klaudia’s world around the Awards and the Foundation, because, you know this really is something that is important. It’s real. It’s honest. It’s genuine. It’s authentic. And it truly is a place that you want to be if you are looking for your tribe. This is the place that you need to be.
And for wanting to learn more about Klaudia, just go hang out with her. Go say ‘hello’ to her on her socials. That’s all it takes. Just do the action as Klaudia has been talking about. And again, thank you so much, Klaudia.
And from my perspective, folks, I will see everyone next time with another insightful episode, just like this one. Transform Your Confidence, the podcast folks, you can go hangout with us on YouTube at The Open Chest Confidence Academy. You can also go to The OpenChestConfidenceAcademy.com to sign up for our freebies, our free newsletter. Be a part of our community.
And please stay connected with us on our socials at @The Open Chest Confidence Academy and theopenchestconfidenceacademy.com website where you can find out different ways that you can work with me and our team. See you next time.
The podcast truly, it’s a masterclass in and by itself. If you go and check out over a hundred episodes with incredible thought leaders, just like Klaudia, I’m telling you that you’re gonna get to be able to elevate your life and empower it just as Klaudia has done and just as she is doing in her world for just so many tremendous girls and women.
And as always, I’ll see you next time. Take care of yourself.
