Last summer, when I was climbing the hills of the Portuguese village of marvel, in 100 degrees Fahrenheit, I met an old lady. She must have been in her 80s. In the sweltering heat, she’d found a little shade, and she sat there with small Portuguese dolls made out of cloth. Remind me of the cloth dolls my grandma made for me when I was little. Only this lady was making them for a living. The smile on her face was so charming. I couldn’t resist talking to her. I asked her if she made these, she nodded, and said yes, she said, with an even bigger smile.
This is a picture you would see on the social media feed such courage such will and such enterprise at this age, to make these God dolls and sell them to support her with something that can truly inspire anyone. I saw many majestic castles in Portugal. But you know what? Honestly, this is the one memory that is forever etched in my mind. This lady was one of a kind, amazing women like her surround us all. But we don’t always know them or their stories. I think we should fix this. What do you guys think? Let’s do this.
Hello, and welcome to the first episode of women are well and I am Yamini, your host and I am beyond excited, thrilled, and nervous all at the same time. I was not too sure if I needed to tell my story. I kind of wanted to be in the background. But the sheer honesty and vulnerability my guests have shared with me led me to think that it only makes sense for me to follow their lead and talk about this podcast and myself so that you all know the context can relate with it and know what to expect.
I became a part of Wayland in 2016 when my husband and I welcomed our baby in a cute cozy home by the pond. I just love my house. I didn’t know anyone and honestly, I knew it would take me some time to go out make friends or hang out with people. Weirdly, despite not knowing anyone, I still felt a warm vibe around me and needless to say, I instantly fell in love with all nature around me. I have deer bunnies and chipmunks visiting us in the backyard and once a big Swan came to say hello when I was reading. I also had a whole family of raccoons hanging on the tree once and it didn’t freak me out, well it did but I was so fascinated. Then all this and some mindfulness with yoga healed me of the postpartum anxiety I suffer after my son’s birth. A place that felt home a place that healed me and a place I had my baby in a place full of amazing women, Wayland.
Well, okay, onto the main event, the podcast, how did it come into being? This idea came to me completely out of the blue, I decided to sleep on it because I didn’t want to work on something that was fleeting, that just got me excited for a minute and, you know, then faded away. So I waited, I slept over it and I was very cautious about telling it to my husband, who is also the only adult I usually see around. He has a PhD in business strategy. So his opinion mattered this time, most of the time, it doesn’t. 🙂
So here is what I was thinking of at that time. Like literally, I simply wanted to bring together the women in our community through the power of storytelling. I wanted to share the incredible, amazing and unique stories of women who I was noticing were all around us.
Well, let me give you a glimpse of what they do. They run marathons isn’t it’s very important to mention since we come from a town near Boston, and we pride ourselves on our votes. Women around us have amazing things going on for them. Women around us have nonprofit organizations. They’re delivering meals for new mothers and those who have lost someone to those in need.
There are moms who have incredible work in arts, literature, and science to name their career women, realtors. Some were moms who have amazing kids with special needs. Some women who are single moms, women in general who are everywhere who have traveled about and they have a right over the unique journey and the lessons they have learned on the way. They are experts in so many different ways.
I’m so excited about the prospect of delivering these powerful stories to the world. Now, this may sound kind of crazy, but you know, you have to know it, that I have always felt a strong desire to connect with my community on a deeper level, no matter where I lived.
So when I had this idea, I was super excited and then I thought to myself,
how was I going to do this?
Do I know anything about starting a podcast?
No?
Do I have any communication journalism background?
No?
and there were these gazillion questions regarding what the podcast itself will look like and shape into? Despite the questions, the core belief that gave birth to this podcast was that every regular woman has a story to share. With the sustained belief in desire, I said, Why the heck not? I told myself, let’s begin this right here from our neighborhood of Wayland, Massachusetts, welcomes stories of women from all walks of life and see where this goes.
But most important of all, the fact that most women don’t see their stories as worth sharing, believing that they have no audience for it really kept me motivated. The thing is, even though we might feel we don’t have a significant story to tell, or that who would even listen to me someday, when we are old, we will tell our stories to our children and grandchildren and we would go like, Judge aisle when I was your age, I had $5 in my pocket. This is what I did. You know, fill in the blanks yourself?
Do we not hear these anecdotes from people all the time? So what is stopping us from telling these stories now? And if we believe our kids and grandkids will listen, then why do we believe that it’s not relevant for a broader audience? The fact is, the ladies we will be listening to our Wonder Women, everyone with such amazing talents and skills. I just don’t mean the professional skills, of course, that is sort of a given. But the journeys and experiences that these women have had that changed their lives, and are so powerful that each of us can also learn and elevate our lives by listening to them.
Now something about me. Like I said, I don’t have a background in podcasting. Isn’t this like a new thing podcasting? Well, actually not. podcasting has been around since ages and has been gaining in popularity as a medium of communication steadily and one might even say rapidly in the recent times. Since there is no screen time listening to a podcast does not take away your solitude or focus when you’re in a deep state of therapeutic flux.
Like you know, when you’re cleaning the house or doing the dishes or commuting. Well, I found the joys in listening to these podcasts when I wanted to be alone but yet have someone speak to me or have a deep conversation. What an oxymoron, right?
Coming back to my background. So if it’s not in podcasting, what is it in, well, a raring child with amazing abilities, cleaning the house like Marie Kondo, or her cooking like Dave Ramsey with outrage. I think I do it all. But in all seriousness, I am a biotech engineer, trained in international marketing MBA from India and Germany, with a working background of hospitality, b2b, and startup.
If my journey never made sense to me, how will it to you right? Trust me, I don’t expect it to. The only thing I knew after this idea was that I had to do my homework on a research mission, and tribe meeting people who are jumping into podcasting with no clue just like me. I was so obsessed with it, obsessed with the homework. Yes, and even though I had no clue how I was going to do it, I knew I could do it, and that it would take all that I have. Also, I’m very grateful to the people at the PR export garage in Cambridge and art gallery Wayland for their tremendous support. I would not have done without, and my husband and toddler for helping me out and letting me work.
Now as we get to the end of the episode, I’m going to get real vulnerable and honest with you. Despite all the wonderful times and travels I had across India, Europe, Canada, and the US, something was a miss in my life. I mean, veiling my home just before my son was born in 2016, and was very happy personally where things were, but is in life, a trade-off, professionally, all the moving around did not help me at all. If things had worked out for me, I probably would not be doing the podcast, I thought, which I would be very sad. You know, everything happens for a reason they say, right. It did not though. But to be honest, wasn’t that I wasn’t getting the job of my dreams that bothered me as much as how people, even my best friends started to view me. Like, you know, because I was not working. I got questions like, what do you do all day? Why don’t you just get any job?
Of course, you had no idea what being a full-time mom and homemaker entails. So I don’t blame them and then something remarkable happened. I discovered that I wasn’t alone in this. I met many women who were brilliant in their own unique ways. But were struggling as full time homemakers to get the acknowledgement they deserve from others and respect in their own eyes.
Even when they were working and had amazing outside working agents, there was still a lack of acknowledgment and fulfillment in their lives or so I felt at least, but to me, these women were amazing. As I mentioned before, they were confident scientists, social workers, volunteers, corporate career women, moms’ wives excelling at life. I loved listening to them, the life they had left the journeys they had completed, I became so convinced that everyone should listen to these stories of adventure and triumph. You know, why not?
If it makes me feel so good, the chances are many other women might also find them amazing. So in reality, all of my traveling in life experiences disappointment and despair, of having my own worth, and that of women around me tied solely to professional success and sometimes even that falling short, contributed to how I conceived the idea to now you get it. How awesome is that? Now all I can say is the first season of Women of Wayland the podcast has simply been a blast. I’ve learned so much, grown so much, and simply loved every moment that I’ve been doing it and you know what, guys? That’s the only thing that matters, loving what you do.
Oh my god, I’m gonna make so many mistakes while talking in I have given up on repeating or doing retakes of audios. I will be unabashedly me for now. Also, very important detail, do I have only been talking to my toddler past three years, so you know.
We will bring you amazing local stories every episode. So do not forget to visit our website at womenofwayland.com.
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I really do want to listen to you. Last, but not least, I’m a one-man, oh, I’m a one-woman team at this point, and building these episodes, editing them, and getting ready for your listen takes a serious amount of effort. As a ballpark, a half an hour episode takes about 10 times that much time to get ready.
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Thank you so much for listening.