Five Questions with Sheetal Revis
We’ve got a brand new series for you, we’re chatting to some of our favourite speakers about their businesses, the challenges they’ve faced and how they overcame them. All in five questions (sometimes more if we get over excited)
This time we sat down with Sheetal Revis, a woman with two lives, one as the European Sales Learning Manager for Hilton Hotels and one running a successful street food business — the Pakora Explorer. She is truly what the kids are calling a ‘multi-hyphenate’ woman, and she’s sharing some of her hard one wisdom below:
What advice would you give young women starting out in the business world?
#youvegotthis!
If everyone is telling you to believe in yourself, then listen to them. If people tell you you’ve got what it takes, hear what they are saying and If your friends & family tell you you can do it, trust in them because they know you best!
You’ve earned your place at the table, the boardroom, in the kitchen, wherever it may be. Someone gave you a job because they thought you were the right person for it, show them they were right!
What’s the best piece of advice you have been given?
“Sometimes it’s best to slow down to speed up” I hated this, because I’m a person who goes 100mph and my brain works even faster! However, I’ve seen the benefit of putting this into practice and how much smarter some of my decisions have been, how much calmer my reactions are and ultimately, how it’s benefited me both personally & professionally.
What was the biggest challenge you faced when you were starting out? And how did you overcome it?
Telling my family that I wanted to quit my (successful) corporate career and ‘take a step back’ to start my own business. My parents are of a generation where it was all about security, a good job, a house, pay off the mortgage etc. However, my parents were also the people who told me I could do anything I wanted to!
I’m fortunate because my Dad in particular has been in business and so I learnt a lot of my work ethic & management style from him, and he understood the level I was performing at and how hard I worked, so he knew that I had the skills & determination to take this idea forward and as both of my parents said, ‘If you don’t do it, you’ll always wonder what if, and you shouldn’t get to the end of life having had regrets that you didn’t try something’
How do you stay motivated to keep pushing forward in your career?
I really believe in what I am doing and more importantly, I love what I do — both of my jobs! Staying motivated is easy when you have these two things, I believe it’s called passion! I’ve always said to myself, “the day I wake up on Monday morning and don’t look forward to going to work, is the day I need to change” and I held myself accountable for that when I did feel like that, so I moved into a part time role with my existing employer so that I could start my own business.
How do you balance corporate life with the pressures of running your own business?
I’m very good at multitasking, I have lots of lists and always have a notebook with me in case something comes to mind. I know there are apps that can do this, but something about pen & paper that still resonates with me. I’m also very lucky because my current employer is so supportive of what I’m trying to do and both aspects of my career benefit from the transferable skills I’ve picked up or I learn along the way — so it’s a win win.
If you’d like to find out more about Sheetal, you can find her on Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. She’s also speaking at our first Edinburgh event (!!) Kickass Women Slay Together make sure to get your tickets.
