Episode Notes

Creating Supportive Spaces for Women Entrepreneurs with Pinky Ghadiali

Matt chats with Pinky Ghadiali about why she started Netwomen.co, the purpose behind Netwomen.co, Pinky Ghadiali's story, and creating supportive spaces for women entrepreneurs.

• Pinky Ghadiali's Story / The Purpose Behind Netwomen.co [0:20:00]
• What Netwomen.co does [2:56:00]
• Discussion about the experience [4:12:00]

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Netwomen
• Netwomen Uncut Podcast

Episode transcript: Transcript of the episode’s audio.

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Episode Transcript:

starting out hey I'm here with Pinky Ghadiali and she is the creator of netwoman.co how are you doing today? I'm really good how about yourself I did very well really nice to be chatting with you thanks again for taking the time to chat with me can you tell us more about what net women is and why you got into that yeah, so thank you so much for asking me to come on here. I really appreciate it netwoman.co came about because I started my business as a life and business coach helping women who are struggling with perfection and with the fact that they are high achievers and very successful and struggling with imposter syndrome so that was my main reason for going to networking events at the time and when I used to go to networking events and that was five years ago here in Edinburgh I used to come across a sea of men in grey suits and that was very daunting and I felt quite intimidated by it all and i felt that I wasn't really in the room I didn't belong and I didn't feel like I was comfortable so there were many times where I'd turn up to these events and walk away so I decided to create my own and that started off as an in-person event in edinburgh and glasgow

And it was really fun we enjoyed the networking and lots of women were able to talk and come along and the whole point of starting that was because I'd started a business and i was working from home I was remote I felt alone I felt isolated and I felt stuck and I felt that there wasn't a supportive community that was out there for me so I started this and in the process i developed women in networking and then last year towards the end of last year.

I decided to globalize the business and really did not know you know no one knew that covered was going to happen didn't know that kobe was around the corner and it happened and actually covered made the world a smaller place in terms of people are now able to connect online people are more open to connect online and our community network.co has grown by 200 over the last five months and what we do is we help women who are struggling with the social isolation right now feeling alone and stuck and offer that supportive community for you where we offer networking events we offer coffee and chat we offer mastermind groups where you can come along and feel safe and talk about your challenges and it's about creating your killer mindset it's about the diversity and inclusion and belonging and also the fact that at this point in time I think there is a massive gap in the market when it comes to mental health support and supporting people through this really difficult time which has been quite challenging for many and we don't know what the figures are but I certainly know that there is a pandemic of mental health issues that has come out of covid and and so we're here to support you through that/

That's great so when you were originally building this did you meet a lot of other women who were kind of running to the same experience where they would go to these networking events and feel like okay i don't really fit in here or I'm not really comfortable speaking because i'm not taking maybe the way that you're being perceived by others or how has that been i certainly think that that is one of the factors that women struggle with specifically in certain industries where there is obviously still a very male dominant vibe such as in law or finance or in stem and there's you know that even more corporates are understanding this and building their own women's networks but what I’m hearing is that there is no consistency with these networks that people aren't getting the support that they need specifically in the areas that are most challenging which is socially connecting with people perhaps people that you're not necessarily in that bubble with all the time and being able to be open and honest and share experiences is what we are achieving within that women which I haven't seen anywhere else I haven't seen that ability to connect with people when you go to a networking event for instance where you don't feel comfortable and awkward not being able to go in and make that conversation obviously being online now has made it a little bit easier but even still i'm going to networking events where i'm seeing lots of pictures on the room of lots of men but very few women again that seems to be a bit of a challenge so netwomen.co has helped really build up confidence for women and for them to say you know what now I've come to your events I can go to these events where i feel more confident and i feel like I belong now because I've got the experience so it's it's really rewarding to see that happen

That's great yeah I mean I mean the fact that you're doing this mainly from a place where you want to really feel satisfaction in helping other women feel comfortable it's really fantastic have you have you ran into into any like pushback at all against what you're doing or do you get a lot of people who are kind of skeptical of of what you do no because we are partnering with other communities and other interesting companies who are diverse inclusive and really helping support and promote women's networks because I think that there is there's a definite difference in the way that women and men talk to each other and also the way that they network and certainly we are a non-salesy non-pitchy space where we are talking about building genuine relationships and making those connections so that you can then lead and succeed and be able to share and be open about your stories and things and not have to worry about what kind of judgment you're going to get back from it so not really i think I've been really lucky the people that I have reached out to have been really supportive and really wanting to collaborate and support us and push our our brand forward

That's really fantastic so when it comes to when it comes to all the breakthroughs with the stories that women are sharing when they come to your events have you experienced that that's been something that's more present during this transition to doing this more online or do you feel like it had worked or you had gotten more of those kind of experiences at the in-person events how do you how has that been going I think that there's been a really good uptake of online events i think that during the time when we were able to meet in person it's not it's a different event I certainly miss the social connection because I’m the social person and I think the conversations coming out of that a certain thing that the key is in the follow-up so anything that you do it's important to follow up after a conversation.

And not just leave it if you are interested in doing things with that person or collaborating or finding out more about them it is about that follow-up and building that relationship and exactly the same happens when we're on a zoom call we break out into smaller rooms we are able to have those interesting conversations that are open and certainly challenges that come up and I think we're much more likely to share when we're in a smaller group than we are if we're in a big zoom core of 50 people it makes it much easier when when we're splitting off into smaller groups so that seems to have worked really well I think that answers your question yeah I think that's a good answer regarding getting ready to share stories on your platform is there any kind of like preparation you do beforehand just to help people feel you know more comfortable with sharing their stories what what is that process kind of like usually I think certainly because we are so informal and so fun and so friendly and relaxed we're all about you know there is no agenda and I think that really makes it easy for people to feel like they're not being judged and that they can come into the space and just be themselves and just you know act as they would do and we've had many testimonials and some of them are you know it's almost like coming to a group of being with a group of friends which is really important and that for me is what I've always wanted to achieve with this is the fact that you feel like you love the space enough to call it your own home and for the it's a friendly enough space where you feel like you'r