She Freight Retreat Reflections

Ep #49 - She Freights Retreat Reflections (EDITED)

Wed, Mar 27, 2024 11: 19AM • 31:51

Wed, Mar 27, 2024 11: SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Wed, Mar 27, 2024 11: delhi, india, retreat, freights, love, christine, incredible, lovely, included, jaipur, women, palace, experience, suppliers, days, amazing, emma, australia, hosting, meet

Wed, Mar 27, 2024 11: SPEAKERS

Wed, Mar 27, 2024 11: Emma Lovell

Emma Lovell 00: 01

Emma Lovell 00: Do you want to live a life of freedom and adventure? Are you wanting more than the daily grind? Me too. Welcome to the Emma Lovell show, a place where we talk about living a life you love now, I'm your host, Emma Lovell, and my number one value is freedom. I've spent the last 14 years running a business and traveling the world. And now I take my husband and toddler along for the adventure to it's possible and I know you can create a life doing what you truly love as well. This podcast will inspire, motivate and encourage you to go after your dreams to create a life you love until you get now don't wait for a time and or someday in the future. I'll be sharing episodes weekly about how I harmonize business travel and self care. I'll also bring on incredible guests to share their journeys, wins the challenges and how they're creating a life they love. Let's jump in and get dreaming. This is a space for you to manifest a life you love. I would like to acknowledge and recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of this place now known as Australia. I am grateful for the continuing care of the land waterways and skies where I work live. Listen, learn and play. From here on you can bear country and from wherever you are listening. I pay my respects to the elders past and present. Hello, lovely and welcome to today's episode, I'm going to be sharing all about that shave freights retreat that I co hosted with the incredible Christine Cancun and from pivot freight solutions. In February of 2024. This was an amazing experience that came up so quickly. It actually came out of my India retreat at the end of 2023, which Christine attended. And it was just on the plane home that she sort of said, Oh, maybe I could run a retreat and ask me some questions. And I'm a retreat coach. So of course, I'll sharing everything I knew that okay, one day, she might want to do it. And then a few days after we got back, she said, there's this thing called the deli fare, which is a huge fare for suppliers and sourcing of goods, anything from furniture, to handicrafts and fabrics, and just huge, huge. And she said that's gonna be on in February. Could we do it then. And I was like, Sure. And so within a week, she freights retreat was launched. And she had someone sign up the day after. So we ended up taking just one lady over, which was fantastic. And I just think it was so incredible to run this retreat no matter what. And now Christine has launched her second retreat, which is going to be in October is the 14th, to the 21st of October. And that one will be going to Delhi and Agra and I'll share all of the details about that one. I will of course, again be going in CO hosting, which I'm thrilled to be doing through my retreat coaching, as well as my Indian travel partner Indus bound. So we put together the itinerary there. But I just wanted to share some reflections of that experience. First of all, of course, celebrating that it happened, and then it went off the ground. People sometimes talk about doing these things for years and years. So my main aim was to have some coffee. I know this is a podcast, but it's already been a long day. Have a coffee. Instead of people talk about this for a long time, and they don't actually do it. And so the fact that Christine took action and did it was incredible. I loved also that she could think abstractly about it, you know, because people kind of think about retreats, and they think overall, I don't know yoga teacher or I don't do wellness retreats, or how does it apply to my business? Where she made it apply to her business. And it's like, the free trade agreement between India and Australia was established in the past, or I'd say the past less than two years, but maybe even less. And which means that it can we're trying to increase trade, freight and goods moving between Australia and India. And so there's already a relationship there. But also, Christine already has clients through her business, which is a freight forwarder, or logistics company, they help you move your goods from A to B, how do I know so much about this one, she's my client and I talked to her about it, but to my dad was in the industry. My whole family was in the industry. I used to work in the industry. So freight forwarding is something I'm very connected to, and it's actually why I'm connected to India. So this was a beautiful full circle moment for me coming back and sharing this experience with Christine. Because freight really is I mean, it's how everything gets around the world. And it's been around for 1000s of years. You No trading shipping. We've obviously have air and rail and road transport now, but you don't get your stuff without freight forwarding, you don't get your stuff without the moving of goods. So it's pretty important. And people only get kind of focused on it when they don't get it when they don't get their stuff. But Christine has been an amazing business woman and her business that she runs with her husband Meeker pivot, they do a great job, and they have these wonderful clients. But what the idea was then, and Christine had chief rates registered for a few years, actually, but hadn't known what to do with it. And so when we were in India, we met with a freight forwarding partner. They then actually have a NGO that they found through their family, we were talking more with their daughter, who's also working the business and working with the NGO, which supports families and women to get work as well as children through school. And it was like, this could be she afraid she freights was about bringing women from the freight forwarding industry, as well as women who want to source goods, as well as send goods, bring them together? And so it was like, Oh, why don't we bring these women to India? Where they can source products directly meet suppliers? Because that's all really kind of confusing when you try to do it on the internet, you don't know. I mean, it's 1.4 billion people in India, there's so many companies to choose from and you're trying to choose online, it's very, could be very daunting. And then obviously, if you did want to go and meet with a supplier and source products, they're like, where do you start? You know, do you just traipse around Delhi or Jaipur or John poor and go to factories? Or how do you arrange all of that, and they are buying agents and things like that. But again, you're trying to establish a relationship. So Christine, yeah, I came up with this concept. I loved it. So I helped with the travel element, as well as the retreat element and how we will put that together, of course, then the marketing, the promotion, what's needed to be included. So we put together initially just a PDF, and then we ended up getting the go to website page up, which is fantastic. If you do want to know more, you can head to pivot freight.au forward slash Xi hyphen, freights, obviously, that will be in the show notes. But that's pivot freight.au forward slash xi, hyphen freights to see all about. But all of it got done so quickly. And I loved that. And so we went over to Delhi, and the Delhi fair was on for four days. So we ended up going for three or four days, and I've never seen anything like it. There's fairs here, there's gift fairs here. So we're a bunch of different businesses, a bunch of different wholesaling businesses, show you all their lovely things and handstands. And then you decide if you want to buy some, or if you want to work with them, or how you want to work with them. There's buyers from all over the world coming, but this was next level, like 16 holes, as well as there's a permanent hole there where there's permanent, you know, businesses who supply products, and I mean, anything from like, they might have like, one whole stand of cutlery, or like one to these paper decorations or, you know, obviously clothing. And then yeah, like furniture that was from recycled, I love that one. But furniture from jobs were like recycled furniture. So found old, old pieces, and then that sort of revamped them. And I love that that kind of thing. So it's just incredible to see. So interesting for us, because we didn't have a niche. So we're just going, there's just so much here. But it was nice to talk to people. And then to see Christine and her element of talking to the various companies and talking about minimum order quantities, minimum order, like pricing. What if the price was about the landed cost? All these sorts of things? These are all terms that you don't know. So you think you're just buying something for 40 bucks, you go, Oh, I got this thing in the shop for $40. And you go, Well, if I buy it wholesale, it's $5. But it's not $5. Because you got to get it from the country. And then be fair, like, yeah, you can have it for $5 bigger by 5000 of them, you're like well, then I'm going to sell 5000 at $5. So that initial order, and some of them are like one color of that one piece. And like how many soft like you know, if you're a small store, that's not really going to work out. So it was such an education and having Christine there who knew all of that was so incredibly helpful. And so the lovely woman who came with us, Becky, she actually already does do manufacturing of these incredible, they called slap boxes, so their display boxes, you would see them in places like tool shops and things like that, but people use them for all different things in their warehouses, so she actually wanted to go and see some factories. So I took her We're in Delhi, and arranged that she could meet, she found some suppliers talked with our local agents, and had a driver and we took her there. And so she got to go and see what these plants look like over there. So there's just so many opportunities. And so what we've done this time is we're going to be in Delhi for a number of days. And then there's the option. If people want to come and spend four days at the fair, that's fine. But if you want to come and spend two half days at the fair, and then do some time in jetlag spending time in Delhi, you can do that too. But the priority was obviously the fare. And we just learned so much so quickly. It's amazing. And then while we're in Delhi, we also did a cooking class with the incredible Nihar, which we're going to do, again, now, runs saffron palette. And like the day before we were there, she had two of the chefs from the original master chef to the original judges, from the master chef, Australia series came to see her to learn how to make butter chicken. So that was pretty cool for her, I've now had cooked with her three times. And I can now call her a friend. But she's, if we have people coming to Delhi, they have to go and see near how they have to do this cooking class. It's so fun. It's such a learning experience, even if you don't like cooking, just to learn a bit more about the spices send in a really informal, lovely environment in her home. So you get to see an Indian home. And it's just such a highlight of the trip. We also spend some time with some of my colleagues, which is a bonus. So we went out and had some amazing dosa doses. One of my favorite things at this was called kinetic Cafe, which was fantastic. And that's part of the whole experience, we just, we leave a little time so you can see what happens. So you know whether we go on a tuk tuk ride or like when we went to the factory, we saw this truck that we were taking photos with it. Then we went to Old Delhi and went through a walking tour through the market. So we include that which is just a world of its own the Old Delhi markets and then had food in some of these. This sort of type of food, I'd say. It's that second the Mughal time had explained anyway, like kebabs and things like that. So but it's a different. It's more of a Muslim popular Muslim population in that area. There's also the Muslim mosque Jumma masjid, which is incredible to go in, and you have to wear sort of like a gown and things to go in. But yeah, that that sort of that flavor around there. That type of food. Very, very delicious, incredible. So we had that. I didn't rickshaw rides through there. And there's all these little delicacies you can try. So Old Delhi was something that we can always or will always do. In Delhi, you can also go and see some other sites, we didn't have a lot of time. So this time, we didn't see as much. But that's the thing is people don't want to go to the fair, they have the option to go and see places I could have been now, which is an incredible monument, the Red Fort, which is a huge bought, we're going to Agra, so there's actually there's one there as well. So we decided to spend our time but everything's up like open for experience. We also went to then there's the humaines tomb. So we didn't go to that one. But we did go to a new place that I insisted this time, which is the Lotus temple. And it is a lotus and some people said it looked a bit like the Opera House, but it's part of the behind religion. And we went out there one afternoon and it was so beautiful to see. And to get to be a tourist myself, because I'm often there is hosting guests. And it was really nice to share that experience on the retreat. So we do make sure that we open up the experience that everybody gets some time the meals were included, which was delicious and fabulous. And we had that add our we extended our homestay this time, but next time we'll be at a hotel. So we have all that organized. So you don't have to think about anything like Becky got there. Everything was arranged drivers there. Everything's organized. For this one, our next stop was Jaipur. So once we had finished with Delhi, of course, sorry, I must say we also in Delhi, one of the highlights and it's something that we'll be including on all sheet freights retreats in the future. And that is that we went to visit the NA NA heel belts Committee, which is the NGO and they had a school and so we went to the school. We did another day we did yoga, because one of the lovely general manager there teaches yoga so we can include that too. And that was really cool to do that in the school and other day in the morning. But we yeah, we got to go and see the school. Learn about how this family founded. You know, he was a freedom fighter. The grandfather was a freedom fighter. He's met incredible people, prime ministers and presidents over the years and and just founded this organization to support people to give women skills. So they do do sewing or they have like a hairdressing school and things like that. And then there's a place for the children. And the children is like workers, children, so people who are like, maybe they're drivers or maids or things like that, and then children can go to school. And I got quite emotional there. I think I was missing my baby boy. But I, the reason I get emotional is not because like the children were amazing. They were learning, great facilities. But I think my mind goes to what happens if this isn't here.

15: 36

15: And this innate ability to lift others, her unwavering authenticity, her dedication to following her passions, are only qualities that radiate from every single part of all her endeavors. Whatever she touches and creates is just magical. In a world where everything is trying to mold us. And we're really stem strong, showing us that staying true to ourselves is the ultimate path to success. She is just this amazing Trailblazer has become a dear friend and an amazing mentor

Emma Lovell 16: 21

Emma Lovell 16: in India is really working on the education, some states are doing amazingly, and education has definitely been increased. I do know this from my work with World Vision Australia, I used to contract welders in Australia. But yeah, just the thought of the children who don't get to access this, or the families who don't get to access this. And that's where my mind goes, and I get a bit upset. But also that the opportunity that's there and how aligned the partnership was and how connected we are with with Chandra Mark oval, who's going to be heading out he's heading up the NGO through her family. So it was wonderful experience. And yeah, we made a contribution. And we will now have that available to anyone who goes through Indus bound to Delhi, and also through retreats that come with me. So if that's if you're going there, and you would like to learn more, please do contact me and merit Emma lovell.au. Because we can help arrange that. So that was beautiful. We think there's going to be short, and then I get talking to you guys. And I just want to tell you everything. I wanted to have Christine on too. But we will get her back another time to talk about it. She was on another episode so you can listen to that about about what it's going to be like. So we'll do a reflection episode together too. I'm drinking my coffee again. All right, so then we went to jive. Now we've decided not to include I put on this next retreat we're doing the next retreat is going to be seven nights. Make sure I'm saying that right? It is seven nights. And that is in Delhi, and Agra only. So we decided that was better. So we wouldn't pack it in so much, we get a bit more time in Jaipur. And the priority is to be in Delhi and Delhi is fantastic, but like to be there for the fair. So it's your first time to India, that's an incredible experience. What we've then created is three extensions. So we have three different extensions available we have the Rajastan experience, which is Jaipur, Jodhpur, poor and auto poor, they all have palaces, Rajasthan is like the most regal state, it's where a lot of palaces and have been well maintained. And all that typical stuff you think of India, like the bright colors and the amazing structures, that is Rajastan. So we have that extension available, because we understand obviously going away for six, seven nights is not a lot. But then for some people, if that's all you can have the time for. Great, go away, come on this experience, meet amazing women, open up the business opportunities, learn more about freight and how you can import or export goods. And then you know, come back or make your own extension. And we can make anybody's we can help people travel anywhere they would like the second extension. So we've got Rajastan, the second extension at the foothills of the Himalayas. So we'll be going to Amritsar which is is the Golden Temple there as well as their famous changing of the guard between Pakistan and India. I'm very excited because it's my first time and then we'll be going to a place called Palampur to stay there. But we'll be visiting Dharamsala, which is where the Tibetan people fled from Tibet, and the Dalai Lama lives there. So that's his residence. And then we'll be going to Shimla, which, by all accounts is breathtaking. And so that is the foothills of the Himalayas. So it's like the lead up to the epic mountains, which is Everest is part of the Himalayas. So we won't see Everest from there. But yeah, we will see these epic epic mountains which look like clouds but they're actually mountains. And then our final extension is the Kerala extension. So if you have been following you might have seen that I did a retreat last year in India in beautiful Kerala, which is completely different part of the world. So we've kind of got Rajastan, which is the desert and the kings and the palaces. We've got the foothills of the Himalayas. So if you're into mountains and hiking, and I don't know, beautiful landscapes, that's probably for you. But if you want some tropical getaway and chill out time, and I love it, I love the palm tree and some lovely fish for dinner carolers for you. So we'll have a six night extension, we have three six night extensions to choose from. And that will be going to the hotel that we stayed at as well as doing the houseboat experience, which was fabulous. So all of that is possible to add on as well as your chef rates retreat, which is beautiful. So yeah, on this one, we went to Jaipur home, which is fabulous. Tried on like $94,000 necklaces, visited the Amir forte, which is spectacular up on the hill side. We went to the city palace, which is one is my favorite in Jaipur. It's absolutely beautiful. They've got these beautiful Painted doorways that are painted by the season sexually often my you've probably if you follow me on socials, you probably would have seen were the peacock door photos. And then they had this amazing restaurant, which is right now escaping me but they had built this restaurant is quite bougie and lovely inside the city palace and it's maintained by the family. So the family, the royal family, the King still owns the palace. And so you just have lunch in this fabulous restaurant inside the palace. And it was really like not crazy. It was kind of like normal price food and drink. And we just had these lovely break in our day. It was beautiful. We stayed in a little homestay, sort of or not homestay. They're called heritage hotels. So it's a charming heritage hotel with the most beautiful rooftop. And it was just Yeah, it was a really lovely experience. The other highlight of Jaipur was that we did the pink rickshaws. So these, this is the rickshaw company, the drivers are all women, and they take you around for a city tour. And they were absolutely gorgeous. And I hadn't done it. I'd seen it before. So even though I go to India, I've been 14 times. There's still things that I haven't done. And so I loved just we had a chai and we chatted with them, they drove us around took us through the markets took us to our next location and it was just such a nice experience. So highly recommend that in Jaipur. But then it was time to go to Agra and on the way we stopped at a place called Fatehpur Sikri, which is one of my other favorites. I have a lot of favorites. But it's, it was like an abandoned city. So the king Yeah, he had, I'm not gonna go into history, but like he had a Muslim wife, a Hindu wife and a Christian wife, city and he was building it up. And then he decided that something had gone arrived there, I think there was me felt like the water was contaminated or something, I don't know what to do Lulu. And so he just made everybody leave and abandoned the city. So it's actually an incredible, credible condition. They do maintain it both incredible condition. And that's on the way between Jaipur and Agra. So that was a lovely stop. And then of course, we had to go to Agra. And so Agra is included on this next itinerary. Agra is the home to Taj Mahal, which you must if you're going to India, you must go to the Taj Mahal. I have been five times I believe I got it. I'm starting to lose count. But every time is wonderful. It's magnificent. So we did sunrise there. But my other highlight and Barbara is going to the sheer rose cafe and she rose is a cafe run by survivors of acid attacks. So these women, for God knows whatever reason, somebody decided to destroy their lives could be their mother in law, their parents in law, their husband, a passerby, an angry customer. Yeah, all various stories, absolutely inhumane. during protests, people have said guns are better than acid. Literally, they just throw acid at someone. And these women are left horribly scarred with permanent, sometimes permanent injuries having multiple multiple surgeries throughout their life, but they are survivors. And I've become dear friends with some of them. I wrote a wonderful one, I wrote an article and if you can decide if it's wonderful for publication, but it was wonderful because it was a dream for me to get a international publication took out my story on Earth women, but the fact that they took this year as a story and share that story, and I was in Kerala when I found that out on five years ago, sitting at a desk and then I went back and hosted my retreat at the same hotel, and just having that moment that they had accepted the story. And then I got to share those women's stories. And then I've now got to go to that can take my clients back and get to meet them. So you go to the cafe, you pay whatever you feel you want to pay, it's the donation, they did our mehandi. So they did the hand on our hands. You can buy things from the shop, but you're really did to meet them and to hear their story and then to spread the word about stopping acid attacks. And it was incredibly moving. And it was, it was pretty intense. But it's, it's a must. And it's always included on your itineraries for Algra as well. And so yeah, over the course of a week, we had a wonderful time together to start us over aware we hadn't actually nine days. So we've cut this one a little bit shorter for the future, just to make it more possible. We know we understand that people have children and families and businesses. And, you know, also, what we found is that going to the fair people were meeting a release, just like building in a couple of days, because you'd meet these people. And it'd be might be that you want to go to John poor and go and see them or go to Jaipur and see them. So having a time in your itinerary that you could actually get to make those arrangements. We could totally do that. But yeah, I'll tell you a little bit more. It was incredible. Um, so just couldn't stop being proud of Christine. We finished our tour in Mumbai. So Becky just went and had a few days holiday, we organized that through Indus bound. And then we went to a freight conference. So it's called Air Cargo India. I actually worked at that conference 12 years ago, I visited in 2010, and helped out and then in 2012, I was the emcee, I was on a stage emceeing, which was an incredible opportunity. And I got told about a few days before because my family or my friend is the founder and his father, worked on the world worked on it at the time, too, and just said, you're going to be the emcee. And just saw that in me and gave me the opportunity. So it was really amazing to be there. My first trip to India was in 2005, with my dad for a conference in freight forwarding in air cargo. And so to see colleagues again, to get to introduce them to my client. I mean, this is nearly 20 years later, I was a kid I was 17 just loving on this country. And now I'm running a business. I have a travel partner. So business in India, but I also have my own business, which is helping people to run amazing retreats all over the world, especially in India, to my client was right there with me. And I've also been on the journey with Christine, I've helped her as a coach with her own personal brand and building her confidence. So to see her in that moment, to have been on that journey for two to three years was just such a full circle. And I love we were in Mumbai, I love Mumbai, it feels like home for me, both Mumbai and Delhi have spent a lot of time and I spend time in people's homes. So that really does feel quite like home. And it's just so beautiful to share that. So you know, I love India, I talk about it all the time till I'm blue in the face. So just come just come. And if you you know, if you just have like an interest in you, like maybe might want to start a side business and I might want to import goods or I want to learn more about importing and exporting, or I want to go to Delhi and Agra with Emma and Christine and be open to these new opportunities. Just come like, you know, it could be for many people. So if you're hearing this and you thinking it's for you go for it. So it's India, she freights India is from the 14th to the 21st of October 2024, you're going to join us to visit the fabulous AI HGF Faire in India, where you can connect to 2500 manufacturers and suppliers. There's like 2000 Plus product lines. It's just incredible. And then you'll also get to experience the incredible hospitality of this, you know of India. And of course visit Agra and experience the Taj Mahal. So we'll visit sheroes we will go to the Taj Mahal they will visit some world heritage sites in Delhi, we will go through the markets of Old Delhi so you get to see that as well. You'll have Me and Christine there the whole time supporting you. Christine is a freight forwarding expert through her amazing business pivot freight. And you'll have me as a business mentor in India specialist. That's kind of my thing. So maximum 12 women you get. inclusions aren't transport. So it's airport transfers, that all train travel while we're there and train tickets will have four to five star accommodation which is lovely breakfasts and dinners included. We'll just kind of get lunch as we go. All entrance fees and scheduled monuments are included. And you'll also get a handbook and guide on what to ask your suppliers from Christine. So got a bunch of information on the website. There's private rooms and there's shared rooms so two options to go for the Yeah. And yeah, we would just really, really love to have you come. So yes, I'm so happy that we got to have that experience. And I'm so excited for the next one. So that's the sheet rates retreat. That's my reflections. And if you are interested in hosting your own retreat, I am a coach, I can work privately or I have my retreat days. So I have some coming up in Sydney and Melbourne. You can at the moment, there's my events page for that Emma lovell.au forward slash events to see where they are, you can always message me and asked me they're wonderful in person days, Christine came to the January one as my client Emma, who's currently in India hosting her own sold out retreat, which is phenomenal. But I can help you to launch and host and run an incredible retreat and to attract amazing clients to attend. So I'd love to hear what you think, to hear from you. Hope you've enjoyed this episode, and I'll see you next time. Thank you for listening lovely one. I hope this has inspired you to dream big and start creating a life you'd love today. If you love what you're hearing, don't forget to follow and rate on Spotify and rate review and subscribe on iTunes. It helps other awesome people to find this podcast and get motivated and inspired as well. Want to stay connected. Come and join the live a life you love group on Facebook, or connect with me on Instagram. Emma lovell.au, the same as my website. But all the details are in the show notes lovely. I'll see you next episode for more inspiration, motivation and freedom seeking Now go out there and live a life you love