184 | Leveling Up During a Pandemic with Diji Shujahi
Our guest this week on the pod is Diji Shujahi. Diji is a business owner, author, presenter and a mother. She is the host of the critically acclaimed digital interview show Women of Arabia. Her new book is titled Leveling Up During a Pandemic.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
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DIJI SHUJAHI AWAREPRENEURS INTERVIEW
SPEAKERS
Diji Shujahi, Paul Zelizer
Paul Zelizer 00:02
Hi, this is Paul Zelizer, and welcome to another episode of The Awarepreneurs podcast. This podcast is all about the intersection of three things, conscious business, social impact, and awareness practices. Each episode, I do a deep dive interview with a thought leader in this intersection. Someone who has market tested experience and is already transforming many lives. Before I introduce today's guests and our topic, I have one request. If you could go over to iTunes or whatever app you're listening to the show on and do a rating and review. It helps tremendously. Thank you so much. Today, I'm thrilled to introduce you to dg shoe. Today, I'm thrilled to introduce you to Diji Shujahi. And our topic is leveling up during a pandemic. Di ji is a business owner, an author, presenter, and a mother. She's the host of the critically acclaimed digital interview show women of Arabia, and her new book is titled leveling up during a pandemic. Digi Welcome to the show.
Diji Shujahi 01:04
Thank you so much. Thank you. It's a pleasure being here. You're doing such great work. And I'm really thrilled to introduce our audience to what you're up to. Thank you.
Paul Zelizer 01:14
So we're called to wear printers, Digi. And one of the ways we like to get to know somebody is to ask you about a wellness or an awareness or resiliency practice that helps you bring your best self to this important work. But it's not always super easy. Oh, yes, that's right. It's not super easy. I've been practicing meditation for I think it's almost been, what, 1314 years now probably even more. So initially, I am someone who is always on the move. I cannot I'm someone who can sit down and watch a movie. Because I feel like oh my god, three hours, two and a half hours and Indian. So that's why I say three hours because our movies are mostly three hours long. But
Diji Shujahi 02:00
I realized that at the end of the day, because I used to be someone who used to work three jobs and had a corporate career at the same time. I used to do my hosting, and so many things that I get myself involved in. And I realized on top of everything, being a single mom and taking care of the children, I was stretched all the time. And I realized I needed practices of self. You know, in order to feel great about myself and started with five minutes of meditation now I can go up to their days, I can sit down and meditate for like 30 minutes, I I journal a lot, which I fake off Lately, I've been feeling that journaling is much better than even meditation because it's just taking your thoughts out. And really, you know, just it's almost like purging, just taking it out of your head. But in meditation at times, I feel like sometimes many people just don't, are not able to be completely let go of their thoughts. So I personally recommend journaling and meditation as something which has helped me tremendously and I hope that it will help others do
Paul Zelizer 03:20
it must really be working cuz you know, instead of having multiple jobs now you're only organizing women on whole continents and one continent wasn't enough. Now you added another right? So you really chill now, right? We're gonna share about what you're doing with the women of Arabia show and a new thing you're doing around women of Asia. But first, tell us a little bit dg, like, how did you get into this work, entrepreneurship and organizing women and you know, helping to do positive impact through the vehicle business.
Diji Shujahi 03:58
I have been on the event events and stage ever since I was 13. Like I've One fine day, I was just at one of the organizations, one of the Indian organizations, and I remember in Dubai I in UAE and born and raised in UAE. And I remember someone just helped me just just offered a mic to me and said Oh, just make this announcement. I was just 13 then, and normally when you are 13 I think it's just it's that sweet age where you're still not. The world has still not bogged you down like you are still still a bit of innocence. But at the same time you are not worrying too much about oh what would people think i think that comes a lot with when you are a teenager. That's what happens the world kind of crashes around you and you kind of have all this peer pressure and everything. I think 13 was an age where at least I was blissfully unaware of anything that would eat you know people saying no thing I wouldn't think about what would someone say I just went on stage and just said few words. And people really started commenting on the fact that I've got a good voice. And then I just started from there. So events was something which I loved, I would always be on stage, I would always be hosting shows, and it was always a passion, I never really thought that I would convert that passion into a full time business. However, you know, as life goes on, I completed my studies and like any normal, I don't want to sit normal person, but then what was expected of us was, you know, get a corporate job, because that would serve you and directories. So I also fell into the rat race. And then I had kids, and I became a single mom. So I'm like, okay, there is no way I can let go of my corporate career. But at the same time, I could see that events and was what was giving me a lot of passion. And I would love for those weekends, but I would be hosting shows or interviewing people or being on on the radio or television. And eventually, one fine day. Many years later, I just realized, what am I doing? I mean, if I don't, if I don't take that step now and give this a try. become you know, an entrepreneur or jump into what I really love, what am I really passing on to my children to just follow because I am not practicing what I'm preaching? Because I've been dating my kids, you can be whoever you want to be? And then what am I doing? So that's when I decided, probably I should give it a try. And I was speaking to my best friend at that time. And then I told her about my plan. And she said, Hey, come with me, let's go and meet this. This the partner of an events company that she knows very well. And we went there, we directly connected. And yeah, the rest, as they say, is amazing. For me, have partnered with this company, it's been three to four years now. And it's never been better. Nice.
Paul Zelizer 07:19
And we're gonna get into the specifics of what you do in just a moment at but you said something before we hit the record button that I thought was really poignant, it really touched my heart. And you talked about one of the things that motivated you, specifically for the women of Arabia show, but for a lot of what you do, you talked about some of the stereotypes about women in places like United Arab Emirates, and other Muslim countries, and you felt like, just the portrayal was just, I don't know, just wrong. Just like, no, this is not right. And we need to do something about that. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Diji Shujahi 07:59
Yes. So that's where women affair ABS stemmed from. So once I partnered with this company, we were always on the lookout for. So what we do in Pinnacle events, which is my company is that we did two things that we're very passionate about. One is we take any particular, any any kind of social message, like we're very, very particular about the fact that the kind of events, we do have some kind of impact on people. So for instance, we do the one diabetes day walk world cancer day walk, we always do something for the month of November, for men, you know, Movember. And so the events are always around some social causes, or some kind of awareness that we try to create. Keeping in mind with that, we were sitting down and discussing what are the kinds of events that we can all the kind of projects we can get into with me being on board. And this was the first thing, this was something I've always wanted, because I feel every woman actually everyone has a story to say, but women in particular, especially women from the Middle East, and that's why the whole thing started, women from the Middle East, are so empowered, but there is this wrong, wrong notion around the world that they are not, which I wanted to bring to the world that hey, what you see and what you think about is completely different. Because you don't know what's happening in in Middle East or you don't know what's happening in India for that matter. You just you just know it from a little bit of what you hear about. The truth is something completely different. There's so many amazing women and they are so empowered, especially in the Middle East, because here we will have more rights and they are I mean it's just It's just amazing when I hear some people say about it, and when they don't know how exactly the Middle East is. And I've been fortunate enough to be able to follow my dreams and do whatever I whatever I wanted with, with total security and confidence that my government would back me up. And that kind of confidence, I don't think comes from many, I don't think it happens in many other countries. So I thought, this is the time I want to share the story of these women from the Middle East. And that's how we win a very big game up.
Paul Zelizer 10:38
What would it be fair to say, we're just getting to know each other, but it seems like the desire for impact and to tell stories that are, you know, addressing bias and giving people more options for their health and well being and financial opportunities and their dreams. Like that's, uh, if one wanted to understand who is this woman? dg, that would be a good thing to understand about you. Is that fair to say?
11:03
Absolutely.
Paul Zelizer 11:05
So the women of Arabia is is you call it a digital interview show, like talk a little bit about like, what does that even mean? And what kind of guests Do you tend to have on the show?
Diji Shujahi 11:17
Yes, it is a digital interviews show, we are on all social media platforms. So basically, YouTube, Facebook, we do snippets on Instagram, not just on my page, but also on our company page. And we never really wanted to be with mainstream television at that time, because we wanted to have complete control of, you know, the content that we put out, because we are talking stories of women. And I always wanted to make sure that the stories cannot be restrictive, because we're talking about a woman all the all the phases in life, that she's gone through everything that she's gone through in life to make her who she is. And another thing that we were very particular about is that I wanted a good mix. And being in UAE, that has really helped me because UAE is a melting pot of lots of cultures and lots of nationalities. So I think the latest calendars that we have more than 180 nationalities living there. So the fact that everyone, it's a place where people come in and all cultures melt, I wanted, we wanted to be very, very sure that we will bring in women from all fields of life, from all nationalities, especially focused on those who build
12:51
a career
Diji Shujahi 12:52
around the Middle East. And also, I believe, I strongly believe that every person has a story to say, every b2b, an entrepreneur, or a business woman, or someone who's working in an office, but in very high positions. And this is something my aunt had told me when I was growing up that you don't have time to make all the mistakes, and learn from them. And you don't have time to have all the experiences and learn from them. So it's much better that you learn from others do. Life is short. So every woman, every story that she had, has taught me something, whether it is resilience, whether it is faith, whether it is hard work, it doesn't matter. Everyone has a story. And I believe it's very important to bring their stories, irrespective of who they are. You don't have to have an X number of social media following are an X number of, you know, bank statement of financial statement at the end of the year to prove your worth to be part of my show. And if I can touch one person, and I have I've had many people who've reached out to me saying that your show has helped me to start something of my own, or go after my dream. So if I have done that, I think we have achieved what we set out to do.
Paul Zelizer 14:21
Beautiful. And that's a digital part of what you do. The pinnacle events, part of what you do up until COVID, which we're going to talk about in a second. You wrote a whole book about it, we're going to get to that. But Pinnacle events very much in person and you gave some examples of that world diabetes day doing an event for men during Movember. Like give us an example like what kind of events would you do? Like is it two hours with 20 people or like a week with 20,000? They give it just what's the scale like how does it work? What is Pinnacle events known for? Alright, so
Diji Shujahi 14:54
Pinnacle events, we've based out of UAE we've got offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Last year 2019, we decided to expand. So we've got an office, we've started two branches in India and one in Philippines. That's because we've got partners. One, one is a Filipino and an Indian. So we decided to make sure our presence is there in different countries around the world. And what we normally do is we focus, of course, we do the usual team training team building events for our clients, whatever their their needs and requirements are. But what we really focus on is the fact that we create and conceptualize our own events. So we, the whole idea of the event would be ours, the complete production conceptualization, the trademark, as we talked about some time back would be ours. So and we would end up probably franchising the event itself to different countries around the world. So the reason why we came to Philippines was to do a huge event called myride Expo, which happened on February end here in Philippines. myride Expo is a three day Expo for a competition for modified cars and bikes. So we have, we have something like that which goes on for three days, we have another event called the world truck pool championship, which we do in different parts of the world, the latest one we did was at Jordan, where we bring the strong men of the world. So we are associated with the strong men Federation, Europe, USA, and Africa. And we bring in the top 10 strong men and they pull a truck basically. So when Trump won championships, so we do a lot of weight events. But at the end of the day, these events are our own. And we have the right to franchise it to any other countries. And very soon. The reason I'm still staying here in Philippines is I'm in discussions with the leading television network here. Actually, I signed contracts already to bring two of our new projects. One is called y x or Manila. So why so is an infotainment, TV game show, which pits a youngsters versus older generation. So that's what why it's so it's so it's two teams of one team of the youngsters versus another team or older generation where they just have a fun three session game show with different segments added into it. And this is something which we start in Manila at the same time, my UAE office is doing work. So Dubai, and we want to we are in discussions with Malaysia, India, and Vietnam and one more country and more to you know, sell the franchisee rep rights to the national television. So yeah. So when we say events, we're also into production and events.
18:09
So yeah, that's what we do.
Paul Zelizer 18:11
So for women of Arabia, two strong men pulling trucks in Manila.
Diji Shujahi 18:20
Actually, the strong man was pulling trucks in Jordan. Jordan. See, I
Paul Zelizer 18:25
can't keep up with you. All right. Oh, my gosh, you are a woman with multiple things going on? You are? We would the young people would say you're spinning a lot of plates, right? Oh, my gosh.
18:40
That's right. I
Diji Shujahi 18:41
have an amazing team, that we come up with these great ideas. Our partners are amazing who comes up with these concepts. And then we just, you know, executed to perfection.
Paul Zelizer 18:53
So any, being a multi passionate entrepreneur, that's one language I've heard, you know, sometimes people call me crazy. People call me a multi passionate entrepreneur. I prefer the latter. Any, a lot of our listeners have more than one thing they're excited about. And when I hear somebody who has as many diverse interests and is getting traction in so many different ways, the question I always want to ask is how, what when is having multiple interests like having you know, different dogs in a dog sled or horses and horse team pulling a cart? And when is it like diffusing your energy and getting in the way of having positive impact? Any words of advice on that?
Diji Shujahi 19:37
I think at the end of the day, if you really do something you feel really passionate about and you feel like you are making a difference in the world. And it can be anything. If, like, you know, 2020 told us and taught us that the way in which you can make an impact is sitting at home and doing nothing. Also a way of making impact, I guess But at the end of the day, if you do something that you absolutely love, and you, you are you feel you're making an impact in, even if it is by changing one person's life, and it is giving you enough motivation to keep going, I think. I think especially for me, I just feel like, I don't have enough time in the day to do all that I don't want to do. So I might not be the right person to answer this. But I've never felt that I need to slow down. I haven't yet felt that need my kids. I'm a full time mom too, right? So I'm a single mom, I take care of my kids by myself. Of course, my my family has a lot, especially now during COVID. But they are aware of what my passion is as well and so much that my kids helped me at times, they helped me to manage sometimes social media, because I'm not that. I mean, they're better at it. I wouldn't say I'm not that great at it. But they know how involved I am with everything that I do. And they're very proud of what I'm doing what what what I'm doing. So I guess I wouldn't know. Because I just feel like I don't have enough time I need to do all that I can.
Paul Zelizer 21:16
So you mentioned 2020. So you're doing all these things from Digital productions and in person events for corporate and truck polls and game shows, and a good portion of that, including a good portion of your revenue, if I'm kind of reading the landscape, right? You know, 2020 comes along and disrupts so many things, including your world. What, what was that? Like? Yeah, kind of just give our listeners a sense of like, when did you start to realize like, Oh, this year's gonna be really different. And what was some of the impact on you personally, and as a businessman,
Diji Shujahi 21:55
um, personally, I think this year cost the biggest thing but but I'm sure that everyone would be would be saying that. But for me, I, I arrived in Philippines November. So it's almost been a year since I arrived here. And I was just supposed to be here for two weeks. And after two weeks, I was supposed to go back to UAE, and keep doing this every two weeks. But every time I would book a ticket to go back home, there would be some meeting something or some. You know, they would be changing my visas and visa regulations would happen and they would be trying to apply for my we were trying to apply for a permanent visa here the business or investors visa. So that takes the time and you come to a new country to apply for it. So something or the other always kept me here. It couldn't go back home till it was time for the event. And the event was supposed to happen, Jen and and at that time, just about two weeks before, actually one week before the event that the volcano here the tall volcano erupted. And I think it was a dormant volcano for like 47 years or something. And it decided to erupt this year. So for
Paul Zelizer 23:10
them, it wasn't enough. We needed an active volcano.
Diji Shujahi 23:13
Yeah. Okay. It started with a volcano. That was funny. Hey,
Paul Zelizer 23:19
Oh, hi, Tony. Tony, nice to meet you.
Diji Shujahi 23:21
Exactly. That that was the whole thing like, and we never knew this was going to be the beginning of something awful. But yeah. So on. Most of the events were being postponed because people had lost lives. And our team members had suffered a lot from that region. So we pushed our event one more month, and which meant great for the show itself. But me, I wasn't in a good place. I wasn't feeling great about it. I because I haven't seen my kids my family in like three months or four months by then. And I think I it was starting to take an effect on me. And I thought Yes, I can power through for one more month, which I did. And the moment our show finished, it was an amazing success. It ended up on our high. It was amazing. And what what happened for us was the partners decided to stay back for another two weeks to close accounts and close the show off. And my partner she's she's Filipino. So my business partner, she left both of us booked our tickets. She left on the 13th of March, I believe, and I might get booked for the 17th of March and I think on the 14th or 15th all international borders were closed and I couldn't travel back to my country, which meant the lockdown and the country better a lockdown from 16th of March and it was awful. Like the lockdown here was so severe, you were not even allowed to step out from your building. unless absolutely necessary. And that was a big shock for me because being alone in a country, like completely alone, in a country where I did not know anybody, the only people I knew were not with me and not not being with my kids. It just cost me to an am someone who's always been positive. I've always, you know, like I said, I've been doing meditation and mindfulness practice for almost 13 to 15 years now. But when something really comes and hits you is when you realize, oh, what has all these practices helping you? Has it really caused an impact in your life? Or will you go back to your same old patterns? And that's what happened to me, I went into, I think I can, I can safely say that I went into depression, that at least the first two weeks because I wouldn't eat healthy food and sleep regularly, I would just sit down and cry and think about why me and all the decisions I've made, then you need to start questioning your decisions. And for me, personally, it was a really hard time. But one fine day I just woke up, and I'm like, can't keep doing this. I mean, what's the point? And just yeah, you are depressed? I mean, I don't want to take it lightly. But what I'm saying is, I had to pull myself out of it. That's from a personal point of view, from a business point of view. I think events were one of the big event companies were hit the most clearly, because there are no events happening at all, like everything has been locked, right. But we decided to pivot, because we have lots of productions, lots of ideas in our belt. Anyway, that's how the whole television discussions came about these projects we already had. But we were always so passionate about doing real life events, that TV production was always kept on the back burner. We decided to dust it down, take it out, and I contact with television companies. And yeah, it just it just went great. So we've pivoted,
Paul Zelizer 27:15
we're going to hear you, you wrote a book about this process. And we're going to hear about how do you uplevel during a pandemic. And just a second, before we do that, I just want to pause and hear a word from our sponsors. Do you have a business that's about making the world a better place, and you want to figure out how to help more people and to increase your income? If you do, one of the best things I can recommend is podcasting. And let me share why. Whether you want to be a guest like DJs in the guests seat today, or you want to be host them in the host seat today, podcasting is an opportunity to connect with a certain kind of audience. People who listen to podcasts are more open to new ideas, the natural leaders, people in their circles, turn to them for like, what's new, what's cool, whether it's music, or a personal development approach, or something in meditation, or in business or whatever field they're in podcast listeners, like new ideas, and they turn to podcasts to find out to kind of feed their network new, relevant, exciting, helpful ideas, and they make more money. You also have the opportunity to go into the nuances of what you're doing. The average podcast episode is 43 minutes long. It's not anything else out there in the whole opportunity of what you can do to market a business that fits our kind of listener more than this, and believe me, I've looked a lot. So if you could use a little help and thinking about podcasting and learning how to be a great guests, finding great shows, start a podcast, go check out the aware printers podcast success team. And we'll walk you through the process. We do master classes and have fabulous guests and do q&a calls every month. It's really affordable. And it's with top notch people who really no this space for your kind of business. You can find out more at aware printers.com forward slash pod cash, das success. And thank you to everybody in the podcast success team who sponsors this podcast. So DJ Wow, you had your entire world up, just turned over and I just have so much compassion for you. I know many of us have had some impact, but that's like very significant. So just like an out check a sympathetic out and I'm sorry, you've had to go through that this year.
Diji Shujahi 29:50
Yeah, like you said so many people did. Yeah, it's been affected. training to me has not been very easy on many people.
Paul Zelizer 29:58
Most people I was To get on a plane and go see my family, you are already gone. I was supposed to get on a plane on March 15. I was supposed to go I have my parents live in Florida, I live in New Mexico, that's a 2000 mile flight or 1800 miles. And my brother and sister in law, my sister in law is Colombian and they live in Medici in Colombia. And so I was going to go to Florida and then go to Medi. And if I had, I probably still be in Colombia. So I could easily like so much compassion, it was only just by, I don't know, whatever locked or whatever that I, you know, didn't have a similar experience. But the the piece for me just feeling your kids like being separated from them. And you're, I haven't seen my family all year, and I probably won't see him in person in 2020. Like so just some, it just pulls on my heartstrings. And I just wanted to say, I'm sorry that you've had your personal journey. Somewhere along the way, you decided, Well, okay, this sucks. But I'm kind of tired of eating ice cream and cookies on the couch. And I'm going to figure out how to level up. And then you wrote a book about it, like, tell us what would help you when you're in that really tough spot, you're grieving and you're missing your kids and your total lockdown or country where like you don't know anybody, and you're really in a depression for Super understand. I used to be in mental health, we would call that situational depression, right? It's not just it fell out of the sky, like, there were really good reasons to be depressed. Right. And somehow, you kind of found your way into a place of like, Alright, it's time to go help people. And it's time to be in the world again, and be of service like anything, you can point to strategies, or things that were going through your mind that help you move from, like, flat out on the couch with cookies and ice cream to like, I want to be of service again.
Diji Shujahi 32:05
Yeah, so I, when I was going through this, and like I said, the first couple of weeks, I wouldn't even I wouldn't even talk to my kids much. Because every time I would talk to my family, I would just start crying the moment, the moment, you know, the phone was off. And I did not like what I was becoming those couple of weeks. And I think the biggest lesson for me this year, and what that taught me was that I'm not too strong to not ask for help. I've always thought I was strong enough, I can take care of everything. I don't need people to tell me what what was best for me because I thought I knew what was best for me. And, and also our fleet, which I think with the whole impact of Google and search engine and everything. That's a you know, you think all information is there in your fingertips, right? Like you don't need people. But 2020 has really taught us that we are social animals, we really do need people around us like what good is the money going to do? What good is a great car going to do? Or a great, wonderful bag are going to do? I mean, I'm not against all those things, if people who who buy them will find materialistic pleasures, great for them. But at the end of the day, what's the whole point if you're just going to sit at home, and you know, not feel like you are part of the social environment that you actually are? Be it be your family be close friends, be your neighbors, whatever impact whatever way that is. So I finally realized, and I think this is a problem that women have. Because most of the women that I have interviewed also did point out this particular one, one point that they have come out with is that they're really worried about asking for help, like they just feel women in general feel like oh, what would that particular person think? Like? Are we putting ourselves feeling down if we ask for help, because we are, believe it or not, believe it or not, we are trying to make it in a man's world, which is the truth. And so we don't want to look like we're not strong enough. I think that's where it all stems up from. So this year, I finally realized I'm not that strong. I need to ask for help. It started with my family. It started with my partners and then extended to strangers that I had seen, I thought had their life together, at least on the on the onset on social media, wherever it was, and I just reached out To them, and ask them for help ask them for practical advices on what do you think I should do? And surprisingly, I think 90% of the people responded positively, no one felt the need to just, I mean, it's just there, you just have to ask. And help is given. So it started with that. And all the information that I got every advice, every piece of advice that I got, made me actually started pinning them down. And it made me to discuss with my partners, I'm like, you know what, I think I want to come out with a book. And that's how the whole idea of the book came out. And I'm glad that it did, because it's got practical advices from people who are successful in their own fields of life, and how they have overcome many things. And it's all practical advice, which is what I wanted, because I was looking online to many things to help me I would watch YouTube videos, I would watch, I would, I would read a lot, but there wasn't practical advices on Okay, this is what you have to do next. Okay. What do you think? Like something very simple as one of the influences telling me in my book, it's in the book, where she says, Can we change the way you are? Because I told her, I feel stuck. And she said, Can we change the way use you word, your sentences? Instead of saying, I'm stuck, can we say I'm in a place where I can grow out of, so you know, those simple changes that you can make in your life. And that would cause a large impact on the long run. So that's the number one takeaway from 2020 for me, asked for help. And 90% of the time, you will receive the hell back.
Paul Zelizer 36:55
The sinner is you know, I like to joke about my spiritual highlighter, do you do that's the thing when, when somebody like yourself says, I'm really smart, and really wise, I pull out my spiritual highlighter and circle it. So, yeah, I'm not too strong to ask for help. And I'll tell an example. You know, like many other people, my life has disrupted. I'm healthy, and my immediate family is healthy. And we have enough and I'm super grateful. But it became pretty clear, like I didn't know when I'm going to see my family, it turns out I will not see my family in person in 2020. And, you know, business clients were, you know, getting disrupted and they were printers community has over 300 members and people's, you know, revenue bunch went down to zero like it was intense. And so, I have a mastermind buddy Jason Stein, some of you I'll put a link we did an episode Jason and I, about together is better one of Jason's favorite, saying, we've been masterminding now for almost six years. And when the pandemic hit, we went from twice a month to every week, right? To very experienced I've been in business 13 years, Jason's been in business for more than a decade, two very experienced entrepreneurs. Like we were both feeling disruption in various ways. And I won't get into all the details, but our version of 2020 just minnow knocking things over and breaking things. And we started meeting, we leaned in, and we said to each other more often and it's it hasn't been an easier, but we've both found ways to uplevel to use your word Digi and 2020 has turned out to be one of our but for both of us one of the best years in business ever. Even though it's been such a disruptive year, so just circle that listeners that if you're feeling like still haven't quite found your ground and what you're doing in this incredibly disruptive, disruptive environment. Maybe there's a way you could ask for a little more help take take t G's word for it. She's giving you good advice. Yeah, did did you give us another example like Like, if there's so much in the book and, you know, highly encourage our listeners to go get it. But if you were going to give two or three other examples, besides pay attention to the framing the language you're using matters. I've heard it in the coaching world describe how we frame an issue really matters has a big impact. So I heard one of the suggestions you got when you're in that really tough place is pay attention to how you're framing things and see if there's a way you can frame it that, you know, helps you find some path forward even if it's just a couple small steps as opposed to just feel like you're in a box stuff room with no way forward whatsoever. So that that's one suggestion. What are some of your other favorite ones that you would share with somebody who's wanting to uplevel during a pandemic.
Diji Shujahi 39:58
Another thing is to just let go, like we try to control our life so much. This is another big, big lesson that has hit me this year. Like, I'll take an example from my from my daughter's life, my elder daughter, she was, she was in her grade, 10 years 11 grade 10. And she is very, very particular about her studies. So for the past four years, from from grade six onwards, she has been she and her and it goes batch that they would say they were very famous in their whole school to being the most smartest students that entire class, I'm not just talking about one student, because they all these kids, they grew up together from grade four. And they all were together. So there's the most strongest bunch of friends, anyone could see, because they grew up together, no one really left the school, no one else came into the school in between, they were like this huge, close knit bunch. So and also very ambitious bunch of guys. So they were very well known in the whole school. In fact, in the whole area, like our whole community do that bunch of girls who from grade six, all they worked on towards was their grade 10, your lab in grade 10 GCSEs, they would work so hard. And it reached a stage where they didn't even have an exam. And my daughter was devastated. She's like, all these years that I've put in four years of my life, because we were all working so hard towards it. This is just one example. But the same way, all of us, especially me, I, I've been trying to control all my life, I've been trying to see that my life should go x way. Because everything is planned, like all of us did, right? we sit down and we plan on life and everything that we're supposed to do and goals and everything. But we forget that sometimes we have to just let go of control because what has to happen happens. And it's how we adapt and work around it. not give up but work around it because things will always happen. Yes, this year, it's a pandemic. But it doesn't mean that 2019 unit can have problems, your plants will not go 100% your way, and you have to be okay with it. You shouldn't feel awful about it, just be okay with it, sit down excepted and see what else you can do. So that's something which and be grateful for the fact that because always try to look at the positive of things. And I was telling my daughter, like, did you even think for a second? You didn't have an exam? You were not that worried. I mean, imagine the four years of worrying. And this year, you really didn't have to worry at all, like I don't know what would have happened to all of you if you guys had to sit, sit for those exams, you would have worried yourself so bad, and it might have impacted your health might have impacted your well being look at it. Probably this was for the best. And I would like to think that I have reached a stage where I want to believe that everything happens for the best. Because it happens whether we believe it, whether we wanted to or not. It's how we adapt and we accept it. The faster we accept it and move move on, the better it is for us.
Paul Zelizer 43:48
Any other so there's framing there's letting go was is that one of the tips? Being positive or being grateful? It sounds like that being grateful being Yes. Oh
Diji Shujahi 43:59
yes. Being grateful and letting go because you just can't control. Yeah, everything.
Paul Zelizer 44:06
So when you look ahead, in your own journey, there's, as we record this, we're in the middle of November, it'll go live sometime in December. We're, you know, 2020 goodbye. It'll be right. This goes live. What do you What are you looking at for 2021 in your own life and with the company?
Diji Shujahi 44:31
First of all, I'm looking forward to seeing my kids. Personally, that's the big my
Paul Zelizer 44:37
listeners if you hadn't picked us up, he has been in the Philippines right not you know lives. Now for the almost entire past year. She's been in the Philippines if you missed that disruption, right.
Diji Shujahi 44:54
So yeah, I'm really looking forward to seeing my kids that's that's number one. I hope it happens as soon as We're trying everything that we can to see them. And in terms of business, because we have pivoted into the television industry now, and we've been getting a lot of responses there, I think that's something I want to focus in a bit more. And also, woman of Asia is something which I have been very passionate about, because, like I was saying, every woman has a story, irrespective of where she's from, and who she is. So now that woman of Arabia, and I'm not in in UAE, right now, I would want to I mean, moving over, it will always go on, on, it's our project. And if it's not me, I would really love for someone draped to take it over from me. But Wherever I am, they will be a woman of that region for sure. Which is Asia for now. And I am in discussions with some great women in a country, I can't wait to bring their stories
45:59
to the world.
Paul Zelizer 46:02
So you found a way to grow and thrive, even in myths, some pretty significant disruption and just just about you and the seller, I'm sorry, it's been so hard, but also celebrate your ability to find new ways to express your care and wanting to have positive impact and not sounds like aggrieved. Is my story DD aggrieved. You needed to be on the couch and have a really tough time. But then you found a way of saying, okay, there's still humans here who are suffering, and I want to help in the ways I know, how do Is that fair to say?
46:41
Yes, absolutely. That is fair to say,
Paul Zelizer 46:45
Did you, I could hang on, talk to you all day. But I won't do that to you. And I won't do that to our listeners, if there was something you were hoping we were going to get to you about our topic of up leveling, during a pandemic, that we haven't gotten to yet. Or there's something you want to leave our listeners with an action step or something to take with them as a thought that might help them going forward. And we end this incredible year and step into a new one. What would that be?
Diji Shujahi 47:15
I just want everyone to know that it always gets better. Whatever your situation is, right now, I probably feels like and I know it's really bad. It's really sad. To hear it, you might not be able to accept it when when someone just tells you Oh, it's going to get better. Yes, but are you going through what I'm going through is gonna be the first thought process that comes. But believe me that everyone has their own story. Everyone in this world has something that they're battling, it might not be as bad as yours. This is a famous Arabic saying, which I'll translate in English that if God asks all of us to put our our worries and our biggest fears and biggest worries right now, throw it out, out in the in the middle ground, and ask us to pick up anyone else's worries, you will only choose your own worry because sometimes the others, others might be even even worse than what you're going through. So this is to say that everyone has something that they're battling, be kind to each other. Be nice to people because you never know what they're going through. And at the end of the day, please remember that it always gets better. If you wanted to, you can always swim your way out of anything. It's just that you need to understand you're going through this, sit down, ask for help. If you if you can if you if help is available, and sit down and just regroup and formulate an idea. And just slowly get out of it. You can. There is nothing in this world that is so severe that you can't get out of I know it might sound like it might not sound like the right thing. Sometimes when people are going through really bad times like I had, but it always gets better it does.
Paul Zelizer 49:19
Eg thank you so much for being on the show today.
Diji Shujahi 49:22
Thank you so much for and I would really I would really love it if people can just get onto Amazon and check my book out. It's called leveling up during a pandemic. It's my story and also it's got nine amazing influences from different walks of life, who gave me their advice and helped me to overcome this really dark phase of my life and I'm I'm sure it would offer practical advices to anyone who wants some help to get out of whatever
49:58
they are Absolutely, we'll
Paul Zelizer 50:00
put a link in the show notes so people can find it as well as the women of Arabia show the events you're doing every all the links that I can find to the many, many, many, many, many, many things you share. It's been nice to have you on but that's all the time we have for today's show listeners. Thank you so much for listening. Before we go, quick reminder, we do episodes now we drop them every Tuesday and Thursday, early in the morning. We'd love listener supported topics and guests. If you have an idea, think there's something we should be talking about. Go to the aware of printers website, go to our contact page, and you'll see our guidelines, what we're looking for. If you've got something you think it's a fit, please please send it in. So for now, I just want to say thank you so much for listening. Please take really good care in these points in time. And thank you for all the positive impact that you're working for in our world.