“Throwing you in the deep end”
That was the title of the email from my dear friend Joanna inviting me to be a guest speaker at Pandora’s Women in Business Leadership Series. The monthly series invites inspiring and engaging women speakers to share their leadership philosophies, wisdom gathered along the way in their career, and insights into the always-hot topic of work-life balance.
When Joanna feels strongly about something, I wouldn’t say she’s subtle about it. As your friend, this can actually be a good thing. I remember the year before she sent me this email we had a dinner party for a small group of women who all used to work together to catch up on life. After I shared what I had been up to, Joanna blurted out, “You need to come speak to the women I work with! And, you need to be out there speaking and sharing your story with others!” The bee was in her bonnet, and now, here she was a year later, “throwing me in the deep end”.
Good friends will throw you in the deep end when they can see you’re ready, even if you don’t realize you are. And, they’ll be on the sidelines cheering you on and offering support all along the way. The lesson for me out of this experience? I realized I actually enjoy the deep end. And, the audience seemed to enjoy me in the deep end too.
I LOVED the Women in Business session today with Christy Foley. It was very inspirational. What I took away from it was not about dropping my life and moving away for 2 years, but, was more about how to stop and breathe, and that it does not need to be a grand gesture, but, can be something simple that makes you happy or calm (hence, I went to the gym today)!
Taly Yaniv
Director, Client Services-East
Pandora
