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Brown Queen Diaries
Welcome to the Brown Queen Diaries, a podcast that celebrates the diverse experiences of women of color. Join us as we explore personal stories, cultural heritage, and the challenges and triumphs of navigating life as a brown queen. Each episode features insightful conversations with inspiring guests, touching on topics like identity, empowerment, wellness, and creativity. Whether you're seeking inspiration or connection, our community is here to uplift and empower you. Tune in and embrace your inner queen!
Brown Queen Diaries
Fashion, Shaadi’s & more
Guest: Prerna Karnani
What happens when workplace discrimination meets entrepreneurial spirit? For Prerna, founder of Shadis and More, being the only South Asian woman in decision-making roles throughout her decade-long fashion retail career sparked a remarkable transformation.
After a manager bluntly told her that her desire for advancement stemmed from being "an immigrant and a woman," Prerna began questioning whether corporate Australia had space for her talents. Taking stock of what truly fulfilled her—creativity, business strategy, cultural connection, and freedom—she realized no existing job could satisfy these diverse passions. This revelation, combined with her experience planning her own wedding from Melbourne for an event in India, illuminated a genuine market gap.
Shadis and More emerged as Australia's first comprehensive platform connecting people planning South Asian cultural events with vendors who understand specific cultural needs. Need a mehendi artist in Sydney who's available for multiple ceremonies? A florist who knows what a "vermala" is? A photographer comfortable with week-long celebrations? Prerna's platform now spans 13 categories across every Australian state, solving problems she personally encountered.
The journey wasn't straightforward. Navigating postpartum anxiety while launching a business required tremendous courage, especially when she discovered how workplace experiences of being made to feel "not enough" had affected her mental health. Yet these challenges only strengthened her resolve to create something meaningful.
Whether coordinating fashion shows, multi-vendor exhibitions, or helping brides find rickshaws for grand entrances, Prerna demonstrates how creating your own opportunities often proves more fulfilling than fighting to climb existing ladders. For anyone feeling stuck or undervalued, her advice resonates powerfully: "If you're not seeing the opportunities that you want, then it's time to create the opportunities."
Brown Queen Diaries by Priyanka Nomula
Directed by Sandeep Raj
Presented by Aussie Talkies
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All right, welcome to the show, prerna. How are you? Good thanks. Thanks for having me. No problem, pleasure is ours. So let's start with your introduction. So how do you describe yourself?
Speaker 2:So these days, the first word that I describe myself with is I'm a mum, which is true, and I want to say that because, you know, I don't want it to sound like I'm just a mum or you're not just a mum or you're not just a mom, you're more than a mom. But anyone who's a parent will understand that when you are a parent, you are lots of different things at once. So as soon as I say I'm a mom, I think most parents will relate and know that I it just means that I wear many hats at once.
Speaker 1:I'm a.
Speaker 2:I'm a driver, I'm an entertainer, I'm a doctor, teacher all of those things, yeah, so that's the first word that I describe myself with. The next thing that I like to tell people about myself is that I'm a founder and entrepreneur and creator of a platform called Shadis and More. And again, when you describe yourself as a founder, again, that's establishing to lots of people. Again, I'm someone that wears many hats at a time. Yes, so I'm the face of the business, I am the strategist of the business, I am the accountant of the business, I'm the admin of the business, everything. So, yes, a mom who is an entrepreneur, that's my title these days.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, good to know. And there are many women who actually do juggle between multiple roles yet they feel it's okay, it's a normal thing, but it's not. It's hard to juggle between multiple things and still succeed. So lovely, lovely introduction. So your career you started in fashion industry, that's right. Then you pivoted to the business, that's right yes. What was your driving factor to get into fashion industry and what were you doing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so well before I had my own business and my baby, both of which are very new, I worked for about 10 years in the fashion retail corporate space. So, as in, I was working in fashion retail head offices as a part of their sourcing teams and buying teams, and what led me to that journey was I was always interested in fashion, ever since I can remember beautiful clothes and putting clothes together and outfits together was always something that came naturally to me since I was three and then, you know, evolved as I grew and also I found that I was very interested in business and strategy, just through my upbringing and through people that I was around. And you know, in year 12, when everybody's sort of scrambling, thinking about what courses they want to take, I felt I was very clear. I felt I was better than everyone because I knew exactly what I was going to do. I was doing my bachelor's in commerce and then I wanted to do a master's in business.
Speaker 2:Come to Australia and do a master's in business, which is what I did, and then from there it was just, you know, the path was laid out very clearly in my head you do your bachelor's, you do your master's, then you get a job in the industry. Fashion was my passion, so I was like, ok, I'll narrow down my business degree into fashion and retail. And yeah, so the path was set and I was following that path and I came to Australia, did my master. Masters from Monash Uni, got a job not instantly, not easily, not, as I'm saying it, as everyone who's an international student knows that. That also comes with its own challenges and journey of getting PR and blah blah blah. But yes, landed myself in the industry that I wanted, worked for quite a few different large fashion retail corporations in Australia that everyone knows and everyone has shopped at all of them.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that was my journey for 10 years until COVID hit and I started just re-evaluating life and what I want and how I was feeling in my career at the time and what I was feeling was missing, which led me to take a big jump and quit my job.
Speaker 1:Right, okay, we'll stay in the fashion side of things, right? So when, like to this date, in Australia, do you think there is enough representation for South Asian? So basically, in the fashion retail, leadership roles and the directive roles, do you see South Asian community women or men be in those positions leading up to decision making, or even founders or everything about fashion industry? Right, do you think there's enough representation?
Speaker 2:Short answer no, outward, outwardly, it's getting better, it's changing. We're seeing more representation in terms of models, in campaigns, in terms of who's the face of the brand, and there is a lot of. There's a lot of intentional thought being put into ensuring that there is diversity being represented to show the customer. That is in Australia. Even that is changing slowly but surely. However, on the inside, it's a very different story. In many of the rooms that I was in, I found myself to be one of the few, if the only, brown woman so to say, while there were still roles, obviously within fashion retail companies also, there are lots of different roles.
Speaker 2:There are roles in IT and accounting and HR, those sort of roles. Yes, there was still quite a lot of diversity, but specifically in the decision-making roles or in the more creative side, in marketing or in buying sourcing, where I was there was hardly any other people who looked at. Now it's hard to say. I mean, it was five years ago that I left the industry, so hopefully things have changed in five years a little bit more. Hopefully. You know, being one of the few has created a path for a few more hopefully to enter these positions. But definitely while I was there there was a sense of Fashion anyways is an industry where it's very superficial, so there is a lot of pressure on how you look, what you wear, how you present yourself. But when you are of a different skin color to everyone else, there's really not much you can do to change that. You have to own. You have to own that but it's not always accepted as part of the the fit.
Speaker 1:I mean, these days we're seeing models come up, yes, but still, if you, if you're talking about fashion, retail side of the things, you still don't see that representation, say, if there's a dress for sale, how many times do you see a saudation women modeling or pictured for that? You know, in their websites? Right, you barely see, right, absolutely, there is still a gap. Definitely, if there is gap there, there must be a huge gap in the back absolutely, and it's.
Speaker 2:It's very interesting because actually it's a very um, female oriented industry in itself. The customer is also female, the large number of workforce is female, but even forget South Asian. Even in the leadership roles, there are very few females. It's mostly men who are in the top leadership positions, even in fashion. Even in fashion, especially in fashion oh and um.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this question is consistent, right? I always ask if there is. You know enough, uh, gender balance in the leadership position. So you're saying that there is not even in fashion industry, where women actually are mostly the creative side?
Speaker 2:yes, yeah, um, there's a, there's a huge gap, definitely, oh gosh, it's changing, but very, very slowly did you find yourself leading up to that?
Speaker 1:you know, seeing yourself um going higher in fashion industry when you're working within that industry or like you don't like yeah.
Speaker 2:So the the aim was always to obviously in a career you always want to grow. So you enter as an entry-level position and then you work hard and you know, get yourself onto the next position in the next position. But there did come a time where it felt like, no matter how hard I worked, no matter how well I worked, no matter how much I fit into the culture because a lot of the times there is a genuine culture gap for people who come overseas. But I always had a very cosmopolitan upbringing and I was very happy with the Friday after work, drinks, culture, and I was always part of social committees and planning committees for the in-house events and things like that. So I was doing everything and I was fitting in part of the culture. I was doing everything and you know, getting and hitting and over exceeding all my KPIs and yet there was this feeling that.
Speaker 2:But you can only go so far to the point that and I think it comes from that mindset of you. Know you are different. You are to be seen someone who is a workhorse, like you can do all the tasks, but you are not to be involved in the decision making or the strategy who says so?
Speaker 1:so your mindset or someone else's mindset?
Speaker 2:The industry's mindset to the point where I was actually in a performance review meeting with a manager who was fairly new and didn't know me very well and he started the meeting with I know you are desperate to get a promotion because you're an immigrant and you're a woman and you just want to make it in this country.
Speaker 1:Whoa, so many red flags. Right in that sentence.
Speaker 2:Right in that sentence but it's not something you expect in a performance review meeting with a manager where you've come in prepared with all the KPIs that you hit and exceeded in the last year or more that you have been planning this chat with, and this person comes in new to the business and basically makes a decision just on face value, literally on face value, that this is what I see in you and that's the hard part to accept. I didn't know in that moment what to say. I think of myself as someone who's very confident, who will always stand up, you know, for injustice and for something that's been said wrong, but when you're not expecting something like that, you don't expect it to happen to you.
Speaker 2:And you don't expect it to happen in this sort of setting yeah, in this sort of formal, structured setting, um, where someone can just make a brazen comment almost ignorant comment like that yeah, um, and the only thing I was able to say was I'm passionate about my work and no matter where I would be, I would be working hard and wanting a promotion on the merit of the things that I have done. But he had already made up his mind. So therefore, yes, then there were things that I had to do to prove and blah, blah, blah and and got half a promotion after that, not even the full that I was expecting or wanting or working for or skilled for, um, but yeah, that that incident at the time hit really hard and made me feel like I had nowhere to go. I had no one to, you know, get help and support from, because obviously, even you know, all the powers that be in the company don't want to accept that something like this is happening and so will will not really take it seriously.
Speaker 1:Are you saying that your background and your color of the skin actually determined if you get a promotion or not? Is that what you said it was?
Speaker 2:said to me pretty clearly in those terms. I mean, there were always, there were always unsaid things that made you feel like that and made you question is it that you know? Maybe are they thinking this, or am I thinking this or am I you know? Am I imagining this? But in that moment it was so clear, and then also so disheartening, that oh yes, this is what they see and this is what they believe and this is what is in their mindset. And you can change lots of things, but you can't change people's mindsets, not in the short span of time.
Speaker 1:It's probably going to take some time it's going to take time, years.
Speaker 2:It takes a shift. It's a system. It's probably going to take some time. It's going to take time, years. It takes a shift. It's it's a system. It's the systemic change that has to come through. It's not just you. One person cannot change the whole entire system. Yeah, you can take some steps, um, as I probably did in that moment, to just say that you know, I have my facts and figures over here, like anybody would. Yeah, and so he had to probably acknowledge that, and that's why he gave me half the promotion at least. Wow. So, yeah, hopefully for the next person that comes into that room, the discussion would be maybe a little bit easier to say okay, this is what I see, but okay, show me what you've got.
Speaker 1:No, I think it is a thing right. If you're not seeing that in general, that representation, it means that it's a systemic problem, like you said. Absolutely, it takes some time to create that room for development or opportunities for South Asian background women and men I believe in this case right yeah, yeah, there's two things at play here.
Speaker 2:So there's representation for women in leadership roles and representation for people of different backgrounds, and diversity in leadership roles. So you're fighting against two systemic changes that need to happen okay, so we spoke about fashion and retail experience that you had yeah, and then you had a mind shift to go into business, yeah, right.
Speaker 1:How did that happen?
Speaker 2:yeah. So it seems like when I'm recounting the story, it just seems like I went from A to B, I went from having a corporate job and then jumping into business, and it feels like in this real world that we live in. It's that clean transition of you have a messy house and you clap your hands and everything is clean in a second. But it wasn't like that and, as a lot of content creators would know that it's even that transition takes more than two hours to do. So that was real life in real time happening to me. It took me over two years to go from that journey of I had a job, I had my challenges. I came to the realization that I can only go so far in my job, but I want to do bigger and better things. So I had to quit my job, which quitting sounds like oh you know, you're taking the easy road, so you're just quitting. But actually, at times, quitting can be the hardest thing you have to do, even from the incident that I just described before in the performance review. From there, it took me over a year to decide that I definitely want to quit this industry and this career path, because for the previous 10 years, all I was doing was building this career, yeah, and working so hard and learning everything that I needed to learn, and building connections and building my network and to send, then suddenly give up all of that and to start fresh on a clean slate, start from zero. It's very daunting and you need a lot of support around you, which luckily I had from my husband, from my family. They all said know, don't worry, we're here to back you whatever you want to do. So you need that, and you also need people like them and people who are close to you to show you that you know what you're thinking is not wrong, that you have come to a dead end, and to realize that and accept that. Only then can you move on to the next thing. So it was a long process to discover that, yes, we are at a dead end and we can't go any forward. Okay, then, let's get out of this space.
Speaker 2:Then I took a bit of a break, a mental break, a physical break, tried to go inward a bit, start doing meditation, be more spiritual, try to connect with my inner self, and all of these things might sound airy-fairy, but actually these are the things that that help you in any journey that you're going through. In any transition that you're going through, first you need to clear your mind and go in inwards and realize who you are, what you really want, and I literally took a pen and paper one day and I wrote down things that I really wanted in my career, and they were random words, but they were words like creativity, freedom, business because I do like business and strategy even though I am creative minded Bollywood, and travel, and coffee, and there were all these random terms that I came up with, but these were all things that were very important to me and I put it down on this piece of paper. Then, whilst I was doing this, I was also in the process of still applying for jobs, because now I'm sitting at home doing nothing. It's been months. I need to earn money, I need to feel like I'm contributing, I need to do something for myself, and I was getting rejections from all the jobs that I was applying for, even with my experience. And then I threw away that piece of paper because I thought you know all this manifesting and all it just happens in books and movies and it's not happening for me. This piece of paper is not working out. But what I didn't realize is what was written on that piece of paper. There was no job that had that criteria that I was looking for. So slowly, slowly, I had to come to the realization that I had to create that for myself. Right, there's no job that's going to give me creativity and business and strategy and Bollywood yes, and coffee and travel all all at once, and it certainly can't be found on seekcomau. So that was a realization. Again. That came probably almost two years after I'd written on that piece of paper.
Speaker 2:Within that time I had a baby and went through that whole journey of transition into motherhood. And you know, having a baby is a gift but it also comes with its own challenges. I went through postpartum anxiety, which I haven't talked about a lot because it's something again in our culture that we don't really discuss. You know, it's just. It comes with part of being a mother. Yeah, of course you will going to worry and of course you're gonna have sleepless nights when you have a baby. But it took a lot of work and questioning yourself of yes, I'm worried about my baby, but this is, this feels more than that when it's debilitating and when you can't do anything and you can't think straight. You realize that I need help and I need professional help. Accessing that professional help is not very easy, so we had the whole in the season one one.
Speaker 1:We had the whole episode about all of this. Right, there is education about it. I think it's hard, like with knowing when this happens, you know like we were talking about it just before, like it can have a build-up, and then you do not know whether it is because of your sleepless sleeplessness or it is because there's actual postpartum, right. So that's also a big thing that women go through and that's a whole topic, right. How did you deal with it?
Speaker 2:Um, I guess again the short answer was to get help. And the good thing is, in the Australian medical system, when you are a new mum, if you show certain signs, you can get 10 free sessions included in your medical journey. So it was about you know, talking to a GP and showing that, yes, I have these signs, and then the GP refers you to a therapist who can work with you. That was also then you'd find the right therapist that understands you. So actually I went through a process of you know working with a therapist for a few months, realizing that this is actually not helping. I need someone else and then trying to find someone else and then restarting that whole journey, re-sharing from the beginning what's happening, what I'm feeling, how I'm feeling and how I want to get out of it. And, weirdly and wonderfully, what came out of that was unpacking that. All of this anxiety and trauma actually came from my past experiences, also in work, where I was just constantly made to feel like I'm not enough.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a build up. It is a build up and it stays with you and obviously, as a mother, you constantly feel like you're not doing enough. That is any mother's journey. But then you add to that experiences that that in your brain have proven that you know. You've been told in the past that you're not enough, you're not enough. So that voice doesn't switch off. Yeah, and you try to do everything, and in three different ways, so that one thing works, but then all that leads to is burnout that's, yeah, it's a journey, but I'm glad you got out of it, yes, yes.
Speaker 1:So any business right, there's always this highlights and lowlights, but the most important thing is the challenges that you have when you're establishing that, not just in terms of, like, the business and professional side of things, but also the personal side of things, right. So what were your challenges in your transition period from you know, to having a full-time job, having a standard, you know, every monthly income that you get as a salary to shifting to business where you're? Basically, you need a lot of time before you see the return on investment right.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:So how was your transition period? What were your main challenges during that time?
Speaker 2:yeah, so, uh, again, the transition period is is highs, lows, going back, going forward, it's, it's all of those things. It's not just you were at a and two years later you landed at b. Uh, so, firstly was the you know this, the self-search and the and the coming up with what it is I enjoy doing, finding your passion and your purpose, then what it is that I can do that fits my passion and purpose. And even that idea took almost, like I said, almost two years. It was marinating inside my head and I didn't even know that it was a clear idea, but basically what I was trying to do was just every day, get through, do the things that I like.
Speaker 2:I spent a lot of time on social media, as you know, a new mom who's who only had short periods of time to, to de-stress and do things that I enjoy. Social media was my go to enjoyment entertainment and people call it doom scrolling. Social media was my go-to enjoyment entertainment and people call it doom scrolling. But now that I look back, I don't think I was doom scrolling. I was actually scrolling and enjoying the content that I was consuming, learning from the content that I was consuming, of what's working. What are people enjoying watching what are people sharing. People are sharing so many more personal stories now, their journeys, creating communities through that, creating connections through that, creating platforms through that that we never knew existed before, creating representation where they can't see it. So I would say I was actually consuming social media in a positive way.
Speaker 2:Where I was, I would say I was actually consuming social media in a in a positive way where I was getting help from it, even as a new mom, getting tips and tricks and getting entertainment out of it and also challenging my creative side and, through that, learning that I, oh I actually enjoy creating content and I enjoy the creative process of it. That was one part of it. The second part, of course, the finances. You know we had, knowing that we wanted to have a baby anyways, set aside, you know, one year's worth of salary that we were going to sacrifice by me not being at work. So it did allow me that period of one year of just being with my baby and focusing on that and also focusing on building my inner self through that. Yeah. But when that one year period hit, I did start feeling restless and feeling like, okay, if I was in a normal job, my maternity leave would have ended right now and I would have to go back to work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, and it was at that one year mark where I was really pushing myself of now I need to come up with something that I want to do and, you know, really work towards it. And luckily it so happened that I was doing all these things subconsciously where that piece of paper that I threw away came back to my mind. Yeah, came back to my mind. Yeah, the social media that I was scrolling through struck me and realized that, oh, actually, maybe I could do something that's around social media. Maybe I could do something that involves business and strategy and creativity, because social media does allow you to do that attracted towards that.
Speaker 2:I was yeah, yeah okay, and I found that that resonated with me and that's how, slowly, slowly, the idea of being in a business that has something to do with social media came to mind. Okay cool.
Speaker 1:So, basically, why weddings and events? What is your thought process behind it? So there's obviously, there's market research, but for someone to actually say this is my business, there has to be a personal story towards it. Right, what's your story?
Speaker 2:yeah, absolutely so.
Speaker 2:Again, in this self-discovery journey, in the process of finding my passion, my purpose, the question I kept having to ask myself is what am I the most happiest doing, or what have been some of my most happiest times in my life where I have felt completely blissful and feeling like I'm in my element?
Speaker 2:And the one thought that keep kept coming into my mind was planning my own wedding was a really fun journey because I was based in Melbourne at the time, but we were planning our wedding in India because all our friends, family and relatives were there. But I had full control over planning my wedding from my family and from my in-laws, which was lovely. But because I was away from where the wedding was actually taking place, I didn't know where to start. I didn't know where to look for florists and decorators and mehendi artists and makeup artists and who was good and who would fit my budget and who would fit my style, and at the time there were new resources coming up. This was more than 10 years ago. Shows my age, which allowed me to go online and find these people sitting in Melbourne, australia. Finding these people back home in India.
Speaker 2:And I found that really helpful, and really useful even in terms of inspiration. What's going on? What's the latest fashions in India? Sometimes we lose track of that because we are so far away from it.
Speaker 2:So I was like that really helped me. And then also I thought about every time I was getting ready for a friend's wedding or a cousin's wedding. You know, just planning the outfits that I'm going to wear, listening to those shadi songs while I'm getting ready, would just put me in a good mood, and my mom was here with me taking care of my little baby at the time, and we would just sit and watch on Netflix you Indian matchmaking, big fat Indian wedding, all the old Bollywood movies that are that have all these extravagant weddings. And that was my joy, that was my. This is your calling and yes, one day, just literally like that, like they say the, the switch just clicked and I'm sitting and watching a big fat Indian wedding with my mom and thinking, yeah, like you know, these people are all overseas in USA, canada, whatever and planning all these beautiful weddings. Surely that's happening in Australia. How are brides able to find the decorator that they want? How are they finding finding the clothing that they want?
Speaker 2:I had to go to a friend's wedding and I just was finding it so hard to even find Indian clothing here in Australia. But I knew that there were lots of businesses and when I searched on Facebook and Instagram, a few businesses came up. After a few weeks of search, more businesses started popping up because I had shown interest in these particular businesses. But then that made me think but if I'm a bride planning a wedding, I can't wait for Instagram's algorithm to tell me two months later who I should be planning my wedding with. I need those answers right now. Yeah, and where do I begin? And that's how, through all of this non-linear process, it was a very up and down journey. Uh, did I, yes, one day, just sitting in my living room watching tv, come up with the idea of maybe I need to create a platform that is that has all these things fun journey let's just say yeah, fun now looking back, but uh, yeah, challenging at the time shadi's and more tell us a little bit about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, challenging at the time. Shadis and More tell us a little bit about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so as the name suggests, it's Shadis and More, so it's not just for weddings, but for anyone who's planning any South Asian event with a bit of traditional flair and culture in it and are looking for people to help them out with decor, catering, makeup, clothing, anything that you need to create your successful event. You can come to the Shadis and More website or our social media pages for inspiration and reach out to these vendors directly from our website.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So that'll be an amazing place to land into as a bride who's planning a wedding or somebody who's planning an event. But tell us a little bit about the benefits of going to Shadis and more to get all of this information. You know what do they get out of it. Why can't they just go and do their own research and do it? Why should they come to Shadis and more?
Speaker 2:yeah, sure, as we were discussing before, planning an event can be very overwhelming, especially when it's your wedding and you're the bride and you know you only want to do it once and you want to do it right. But you don't know where to begin, because never before have you needed a mehendi artist in Sydney or in Melbourne. You don't know where to look for them. They're there, lots of them are there, but they don't have shop fronts. You can't just walk into a mall and find a mehendi artist. Or even for businesses that do have a shop front, you can't just go to any florist and say give me the flowers for my wedding. They don't know what a vermala is.
Speaker 2:So you need someone that understands all these cultural elements and can bring that to you at the date that you want, at the time that you want, in the budget that you want, in the style that you want. There are so many different styles to choose from. Yes, you may have friends who may recommend people that they know, but what if your style doesn't match your friend's style? Or what if it perfectly matches your friend's style, but that particular person is not available for your wedding? Then where do you go? And it's so many people that you need lined up for your wedding, from caterer to dj to mc, and you need them for multiple days, not just one day. That's that's the other beauty of south asian weddings and events. It's not just one day.
Speaker 2:One ceremony and reception and done it's usually a week-long celebration, so you need several events before and after, you need a photographer who's available for four days, you need a makeup artist who can come to four different venues, you need a caterer that can give you four different varieties of cuisine, and you want that all within your budget usually. So the more choice that we have and the more options that we have, the better outcomes we can get, and that was the whole idea behind creating a one-stop shop one place, one umbrella, a website that covers all of these vendors all of the needs.
Speaker 2:We have 13 different categories that you can choose from. Lovely, and it is across Australia. So whether you're in Sydney, melbourne, adelaide, anywhere- oh, that's nice.
Speaker 1:All the cities, prime cities.
Speaker 2:Yes, all the cities are growing and we're trying to get to as many cities and build the network within all of those cities. But, yes, I'm happy to say that there are vendors from every city and state in Australia.
Speaker 1:So tell me about a time when you received the craziest request from a bride or somebody who's planning an event.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, there have been quite a few unusual requests, but you said unusual.
Speaker 2:Unusual I'm trying to not use the word crazy. There have been quite a few unusual requests, but one that springs to mind because I did a lot of work and research on that is there was a bride who wanted to enter her sangeet in a rickshaw, to make a grand entrance, and in doing my research I found that you can get a rickshaw in Australia, which in itself is a big thing, but you can't get a working rickshaw oh, you can get, just yeah, you can just get a rickshaw model or a or the outer part of a rickshaw, because for it to be a working rickshaw it has to be a registered vehicle what did they do?
Speaker 1:finally, they dragged her in the car and lifted the rickshaw.
Speaker 2:They scrapped the rickshaw idea, thankfully, but they still. She still had an amazing entrance and it was an amazing wedding and at the end of the day, that's what matters.
Speaker 2:You had fun, your friends had fun day that's what matters. You had fun, your friends had fun, and that's what people remember. That's awesome. I like the idea, though I did. I did. I actually did like her creativity, so I did actually go and do a lot of research in trying to find one, but then when I realized the practicality behind all of that yes, there are some things that are right now we are limited to, but as the market is growing and as the demands are growing, who knows, soon we might have a working rickshaw and weddings.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you might see some in the road.
Speaker 2:Part time Uber.
Speaker 1:Tell me one thing. I've seen you. The first time I've actually known you is by that Kalki Karagar event. I think the campaign, or whatever it was really beautifully put together and some of my friends were there in that as well, so it is amazing. So what's your memorable event or a wedding that you have planned? Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you for mentioning the Kalki Karagar event. That was actually one of my favorite events that I've been a part of, and Karagar is a wonderful brand in Australia. It was one of the first multi-designer stores to open up in Australia for Indian ethnic wear and, yeah, it was something that came about in a really short period of time, in two weeks. We, you know we wanted to do this launch and launch it in a different way to the Melbourne market and to the Australia market, where we had a live fashion show in the store displaying all the new outfits that had been brought in by Karagir from Kalki. So, yeah, it was. It was an exciting event to plan but also, again, challenging because we did it in such a short space of time, but that's good to know that it was still memorable and it resonated with people.
Speaker 2:We enjoyed doing it. In the end it was. It was a really fun event to be a part of, so that was definitely one of my most memorable. The other was, um, the shadi pop-up that we did in sydney, which was an event where we um had multiple vendors coming into one location and creating like a mini wedding expo okay for, uh, south asians and being based in melbourne and planning an event in sydney was a big task because I hadn't even seen the venue physically that I was planning the event at.
Speaker 2:But just, you know, trusting and knowing that my designs on paper would work, and I had never actually met these vendors who I was, who I was representing on that day. I'd only spoken to them over the phone. So, again, them putting their trust in me and, you know, coming and showing up and doing all this work and spending their Sunday afternoon with someone who they'd never met before. But they did that and they did that with such great energy. And then, obviously, after all of that, you want a good turnout, which we did end up having, which was amazing.
Speaker 2:The Sydney market was really, really responded well to it and came in numbers and enjoyed the event and met with all the vendors, really happily, and it's like a winning moment it felt, it felt satisfying, it did and, yeah, just just felt like I am on the right path and I'm doing the right thing and connecting with the right people.
Speaker 1:So the next is I have a this or that based on Australian South Asian wedding trends at the moment.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So we have these other questions. Basically, you have to pick one. I give you two options. You have to pick one.
Speaker 2:Oh, only one.
Speaker 1:Yes, okay, this is based on the trends of weddings in Australia within South Asian communities. What's the current trend? If it doesn't fit in, you can say none, we'll start Big fat wedding or secret elopement. Big fat wedding. Matching bridesmaids' dresses or let them wear whatever they want.
Speaker 2:Matching bridesmaids' dresses are trending more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dj dropping bangers or live band.
Speaker 2:DJ dropping bangers is the larger trend, but I am seeing more live band music coming in, which I'm liking.
Speaker 1:So I hope that continues. Wedding cake or donut roll Wedding cake the bigger the better yeah, emotional vows or funny vows emotional vows yeah, especially South Asian. Yeah, we like to tug at the heartstrings.
Speaker 2:Kids at the wedding or adults, only kids at the wedding.
Speaker 1:It's all about the community and family yeah, bouquet tossing tradition or skip it, nobody wants to fight over flowers skip it.
Speaker 2:Um, not so much of a bouquet tossing tradition, but in north indian weddings there is the tradition of the kalira over the bride's bed head, and whichever it falls on, yeah, it seems to be the next person to get married oh yes, I like that.
Speaker 1:Okay, yes, right it's more of a western wedding, that's true, yeah, yeah, then photo booth fun or candid shots only.
Speaker 2:Photo booth fun, so everyone can get involved.
Speaker 1:Okay, the last one is rain on the wedding day or dress malfunction, which is likely to happen, something that goes down.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, given the place we live in, rain on the wedding day is more likely to happen, but the good news behind that is that at least all venues and wedding planners know that they need to expect that, so there's always a plan B for that. There might not be a plan B for the dress malfunction, but I hope that doesn't happen. You have your bridesmaids to quickly fix it. You do, but maybe just do as many trials as you can beforehand to make sure that everything stays in place yes, thank you for that.
Speaker 1:So before we end it, let's get an advice for women who are struggling in their jobs, not feeling it want to jump out and take a big leap into business. What's your advice for them?
Speaker 2:just do it. Just do it if you're feeling unfulfilled, if you're feeling unhappy, if you're feeling like you're not in the right place. Listen to your gut. Um, you know it, it's hard sometimes with all the noise that is around us that, you know, tells us keep going, don't quit. But you know, I feel like I took the not quitting thing a little too hard and and took a long time to actually realize that that's what my heart was always telling me and I was just not listening to it. And a lot of the times, you know, people outside also might tell you don't do it. It's not the right thing, but you know then then they're not the right people to listen to. If your gut is telling you otherwise and if people around you are supporting you, then then you have no reason to doubt it. Then definitely go for it. If and it's easy to say, but if you are not seeing the opportunities that you want, then it's time to create the opportunities it was a lovely chat and I really enjoyed it thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2:It was a real pleasure. Thank you, cool.
