EP22 Rachel Daydou From Paris to China: Serial Entrepreneur ,Lecturer and Managing Director

Episode 22 Our next Guest is  Rachel Daydou Managing Director at FABERNOVEL a global innovation agency committed to empowering companies to create a lasting cultural shift and knowledge base to act upon.
What happens when a multicultural Parisian uproots herself and lands in China with a singular focus? Rachel Daydou, a serial entrepreneur, lecturer, and business consultant, embarks on a journey that is as enlightening as it is transformative. From her early years as a self-confessed geek to her current role as a conduit for European brands eager to make inroads into China, Rachel's story is a testament to resilience, ambition, and the power of adaptability. Her unique perspective on entrepreneurship and her tenacious push to make products people find valuable are lessons to be absorbed and admired.

Rachel delves into the importance of self-care and the creation of an inner circle that fosters growth, strength, support, and challenge. She shares her insights into why your circle matters  and is crucial for energy conservation and positive development. With a health coach in tow and a strong emphasis on mindfulness practices, Rachel’s approach to wellness complements her robust professional life.
 
The conversation takes a deeper turn as Rachel reflects on mentorship's profound role and her dedication to sustainable business practices.  Rachel's story is not just an inspiring narrative; it's a testament to the power of resilience, adaptability, and the profound impact a single person can make.  Tune in !
0:00  Introduction
0:12   who is Rachel Daydou
8:36   Entrepreneurship Journey in China
19:22  Teaching Entrepreneurship and Success in Business
31:19  Building Supportive Circle, Prioritizing Self-Care
35:23   Wellness and Mentoring in Leadership
41:52  Progression & Mentorship in Sustainable Business
55:53  Trailblazers Tips & Inspiring Women's Stories

Mentions 
co-founder VC-backed startup 礼好吗 Lihaoma 
Bootcamp The Concept Lab.
Startup acceleration: Chinaccelerator Batch 11.
Women who Run With the Wolves Book
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rdaydou/

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Transcript

The Trailblazers experience : 0:12

Welcome to another episode of the Trailblazers Experience podcast and I'm excited to have my next guest, rachel. Welcome and happy Friday, thank you. Thanks for having me, it's such a pleasure. I'm going to introduce you to our audience so they can know who you are and what you're all about, and looking really forward into delving into your story of how you started and where you are right now. So Rachel and I will pronounce your surname Daydou. They do. Yeah, that's pretty good. Rachel Deidou considers herself a serial entrepreneur. She is also a lecturer who is lectured at university in Shanghai, and currently she is a partner of a business could a favorite novel which is responsible for the China business including business growth of tech, consulting and marketing division, leading an amazing team of 70 plus talents and working with brands global and local. And you're currently based in Paris, am I right?

Rachel Daydou: 1:29

So exactly yeah, I'm now. I'm now, after this experience, I moved to Paris and I'm now supporting brands from Europe to connect and to accelerate their business in China and to reconnect with Chinese travelers, in collaboration with our China team.

The Trailblazers experience : 1:48

That's exciting so. Rachel let's go all the way back. You know like to really sort of understand your story of what you've studied. I know you speak many languages and sort of what your early years were as a young woman growing up.

Rachel Daydou: 2:04

Yeah, so my mother was Tunisian and my father is French, and so kind of growing up in Chinatown in Paris, which was obviously a very, very mixed place, very multicultural place, and that's where I made many of my friends that are, you know, from many different origins, and growing up I moved around, but always in Paris that's, paris is my hometown and moved around and I had the chance to go to China for the first time in 2007, 2008, where I studied Chinese and also worked at an events agency, and then I came back to finish my studies in France and then I moved back with, you know, pretty much just my backpack in 2011, my diploma and my backpack and started my working life in China. So I would say that, you know, across the first, I was a really geeky child, very, very nerdy around books. Books were really my, my, the place where I felt most studies. I think I was a bit I think maybe a little bit lonely as a child. I did geeky and lonely, and my mother was a film editor. So we, you know, cinema was took a very, very big part of my life and there was a lot of, you know, magic associated with it, and my father is a psychoanalyst. So you know, I would say you know family, where you know there's a lot of space to be who you are and to and to explore, and to and to be different, I think. So that was, that was quite, quite upbringing.

Rachel Daydou: 3:53

And then, and then, you know, during my teenage years I think that's really when I discovered so the beginning was really about discovering how to become excellent at something, and I really pushed to be excellent at school and also to be excellent in sports.

Rachel Daydou: 4:09

That's where I started practicing Kung Fu and I, during my early years, I became a French champion multiple times, eight times, as a matter of fact, I had a wonderful teacher master, and so really, those first years were about you know, learning how to you know manage yourself and become excellent. And during the teenage years, I think those were really the very social years where you know learning to, you know create connections and be you know, be someone that you know can relate to others. And then, after that, I think it was really about during my 20s, it was really about discovering the impact that you can have on a business, on you know, on developing an activity that's you know, beyond yourself. And that brought me to some of the years that I'm living right now, which, for me, are much more about better aligning my capacity for impact and my convictions and the purpose for which I feel strongest about. So that's a bit so far.

The Trailblazers experience : 5:27

It's a bit the journey I mean an amazing journey and you know you have a strong, obviously, culture heritage, but the fact that you made the decision, or decided that going to China was something interesting for you, you know you land in a foreign country where the language is completely different. You can't even relate it to French at all. You know there is no connection to be made. So while you're there, obviously you studied there and then you also went on to become a lecturer there. At what point did you fall in love with a foreign country and say I think I can make this my home and make something out of it?

Rachel Daydou: 6:06

That's such a good question. I think there are a lot of things that brought me to China. There was the opportunity of going there with, you know, with a family. There was the excitement and there was all the preconceptions that I had about the country, and there are things that kept me there, which were really the never-ending opportunities, the growth, the you know, consumption, upgrade, the constant discovery and excitement that this country, you know, has lived through the past 15 years, but I think even beyond that, even not just the 13 years that I spent, but it was already the case, I think, before and it's such a huge and important part of the world history.

Rachel Daydou: 6:48

It's a very prominent country. It has such lovely also, you know cultural habits and it's very foreign in the sense that as soon as you start to actually learn the language, you effectively start rewiring your brain, because the way that the language works is a reflection of the way that reality is conceived in that language. And so if you go through all the hurdles of learning how to speak, understand, read and write Chinese, then you're effectively rewiring your read and that is an experience that's absolutely fascinating, I think, and so I loved, even though it's so hard and it's so easy to forget, and I have a still up until today. I have a HSK5, but I still have a very big difference in my speaking and oral language compared to my reading and writing abilities. There's still a big gap actually. It's a fascinating journey that would encourage anyone to go through, just for feeling like you have the ability to really think absolutely differently in another language. So that's something that's pretty cool and very rewarding.

The Trailblazers experience : 8:04

Yeah, you touched on a really important point that the fact, when you start to learn a language so I'm fluent in German, I learned French in high school and you're so right when you're learning a language, you are forced to dissect not just the language, the culture, the history behind it, the history behind certain words and meaning, and immerse yourself in a completely different way, and Mandarin is on a completely different level as well. Talk to me about your career journey. So you studied, obviously in China. Was lecturing your first job or talking about how that came about?

Rachel Daydou: 8:48

Yeah, no, actually no. So many things happened before that. My first job was working for the important distributor of Apeen Bev, and so I was actually effectively going around the country and discussing with distributors around the country to actually sell beer, and that was obviously a lot of fun. Of course, if you were a 20-something and you have the chance to handle all the key accounts in Beijing, shanghai and go to bars all night long and also to handle the expansion of premium products, that was very exciting. So, first job, I really really loved it. And then I moved to Shanghai and I got into Beaumanois, which was a fashion company, and I was in charge of developing a new generation of stores, and so I was going again all around the country to help develop those new generations of stores and understand how they can function best and how Headquarter can support those new generations of stores. It was really exciting Going around the country, so traveling a lot, and then after that, actually in parallel, I heard a very stunted with my first startup, which ended up being called Li Haoma, which was a pun on word on Ni Haoma, which means hello, how are you, and Li Haoma means how is your gift?

Rachel Daydou: 10:14

Li Wu-de-Li, and this changed you. This project took so many forms and changed a lot, but basically how it ended up looking like is a mobile app where you can play mini games and get rewards from brands, so it was kind of gamifying, advertising and making it fun. You could play riddle games, you could play geolocalized games like Pokemon Go type of games in order to get and fetch gifts that could be free, discounts, could be free products, free experiences from brands. That was really not a way to explore new brands and products, and so that was a fantastic journey. We raised venture capital money. We went through one of the largest accelerator in China called China Acciderator those guys are still such close friends and I was also awarded 430 into 30 for that work, so it was just like a lot of really exciting things happening.

Rachel Daydou: 11:12

For the first one and a half years, I was doing double job with Bo Manoar, and then for the next two years, I was focused on the startup, but at the same time, even though we were raising money, et cetera, we were revesting everything in user acquisition and tech development. So that's the moment where I started also working at university as a teacher, as a lecturer for innovation, entrepreneurship, leadership, and I worked for several universities and I also handled the whole master degree program, which was really fun because it was around entrepreneurship, and there was this really magic triangle moment in my life where I was learning, I was practicing being a founder of a company, learning from the accelerator and teaching and organizing for others to discover what it is through the university program. So it was really like looking at the same object with so many different dimensions. It was very exciting. And at the end of that I went on to another journey where I decided to have a project that was around education for entrepreneurs and helping entrepreneurs make their company profitable, which is something that we hadn't managed to do with a previous business and with that. So I created that learning program and we were cash flow positive, we were generating revenue, and I handled that for a couple of months, but then I really, even though we were generating revenue, it was very small and I was totally running out of money and the savings, and so I'm like, ok, I need to find a job now. And this is the moment where Fabernovo approached me. They had just been acquired and they were setting up a whole new range of services and so with those services, my competencies could be useful, and so I started as head of consulting innovation consulting and then we grew up the business and then I became general manager and then we acquired a tech company and then I took over as managing director for the overall business.

Rachel Daydou: 13:23

So that was my five years at Fabernovo in China, and just this year I moved to France to follow two main reasons. I think you can't get bored of China, but you can get tired, and I think it had been several years, also very trying years with COVID, et cetera, and I had committed to stay for the overall time of my tenure and I had promised myself this is the last job in China, otherwise you will never leave. So I was like, ok, you need to make a decision. And so, ok, that was my decision. And so I came back to France and actually last year Fabernovo got acquired by Ernst Young and so I came back within EY France, ey Fabernovo teams, now in Paris, still working on China topics, but also more and more on sustainability topics, which is really, really close to my heart. So that's where I hope my future will bring me.

The Trailblazers experience : 14:26

Right, there is a lot to unpack there. So you've got like full circle, 360 degrees, started in France and I've gone whirlwind accelerator journey and landed back in France as well. I've got a few questions. So, obviously, having been to China as well, china is very fast paced and it really speaks as a testament through you talking about your journey, that all these things have happened, because it's a country where, when opportunity strikes, it's either you take it or you don't. And the first part of your journey was nurturing relationships, expanding a beer in different tiers, et cetera, which is also very quick because of the size of the country. Businesses grow so swiftly. But how? So you talk to me a bit in depth about the serial entrepreneur, because that's really interesting. So you met a few people and just decided to start a gamification business. But talk to me through that conversation, because is that something that happens in a bar, in a pub? Or you're thinking, oh, there's an opportunity here. I love playing games. How did that even come about?

Rachel Daydou: 15:42

Yeah, so I think serial entrepreneur are only set of two businesses, so I think from two you can say it's a series, but just to be humble about it is just two. Still, though and I think the first one really I connected with this guy who was about to found that company, and he was organizing really cool and edgy parties in Beijing that were really impressive to me. I was very impressed, and I thought that he had something very special. He had a very strong and charismatic personality, and he also had ideas that were making really a difference on the market, and so when we started talking on that level and then he introduced me his idea for the business, I was really looking for something exciting to do. I had more and more friends around me that were entrepreneurs. I aspired to be one, and so this person plus my aspiration it kind of came came together and it worked out on. He was happy to have someone like me on board, and so that's how it started the conversation in itself. I don't think I can remember it very clearly, but yes, indeed, it was very casual. The first one that was very casual was really about him sharing his vision and showing me the work that he had done and the team that he was putting together. So I think it was very casual and then, of course, we went into a little bit more details and discussions and contracts and stuff, but that's accessory.

Rachel Daydou: 17:33

I think it was a meeting with someone that really kind of created that and I think that all of them all businesses, all startups are like that. If you look at the way that Y Combinator chooses their startups, they actually do founders interviews and they ask them super personal questions about how long they've known each other and what's the biggest flaw of the other person and what's the hardest situation they've been at. So it's really particularly about entrepreneurship. It's so important the people that you go into business with. So yeah, I think that was the first and the second business that I was the main driver behind that and I had learned a lot of things from my previous business and I decided to do everything totally differently, to be super lean, to choose people that I knew very well and that I had worked with before, that had complementary competencies in mind, to be very focused, to be very to use a business model that was proven, and so that's why the second company that was that I was so different.

The Trailblazers experience : 18:47

Yeah, and Rachel, thank you so much for sharing that and being vulnerable, because I think we need to demystify or take away the myths around what entrepreneurship is. And, like you said, it was a coming together of people with ideas and a common ground and a drive to say I think we can make this work. And, interestingly enough, you said the first business had a lot of investment but wasn't profitable. Great ideas. And then on the second attempt, you said right, I think this is what I can do and make it better as well. Yeah, and I also noticed that a lot of universities now are offering courses or modules that focus on entrepreneurship, which before it was all about the theory but the fact. Now they're practical, the ability potentially to meet startups or to talk to people who've started their own businesses. It becomes more real world and real life than just talking about someone who founded the business 80 years ago and it's not really it's not really like to talk to people you know.

Rachel Daydou: 19:55

Totally, I think, what we try.

Rachel Daydou: 19:59

So it's pretty much impossible to teach entrepreneurship, because entrepreneurship has a lot to do with character actually determination and resourcefulness, and it has a lot to do with character, has a lot to do with market condition and what's possible to emerge within a certain market, and there is an element of luck and timing, and all of these are also coming together. That being said, the way that we set up the entrepreneurship program was the main objective was let's try to put the students in a situation that looks most like what it's going to be like if they were entrepreneur, and so we didn't have classes, we had workshops. We didn't have teachers, it was only entrepreneurs actually sharing in a very structured way, but it was only entrepreneurs coming on stage. We were hosting another university, but in an incubator, and there were no exams. They were a pitch, and they were pitching at three different times in their semester. They were pitching to real entrepreneurs and investors, and part of the grade was about how much money they've made. So we actually were encouraging them to push as much all the way till your product is useful enough that people are ready to pay for it, and that's kind of the ultimate market test, right?

Rachel Daydou: 21:28

So that was it was, first of all, it was really fun to imagine that and it was really yeah, it was really exciting to see that the way that we had, the best way we had to understand whether the program was successful or not, is asking the same question before and after the program. That question is do you want to be an entrepreneur? And before the program, people were like yeah. Majority of them were like yeah, I'm thinking about it, yeah, it could be cool. And at the end of the program, 95% of them were like hell, no, and 5% of them were like this is me, I am it, we're doing this.

The Trailblazers experience : 22:08

And I mean amazing. I love that I've I'm venturing now into the space of advisory and non-executive work and I find I've attended a few pitch sessions and it's so interesting to see how different people are structuring their pitches depending on what stage of the startup they're in, and it's amazing. I feel like you learn so much and the questions that investors are asking, the kind of advice that they're looking for, it's and it's an exciting time. You know, we want, we know business enterprise is good for all economies and it's important for the longevity of countries, et cetera. But it's really interesting to see, and great to see, that you have such a. I think you're part of something where you know, even years after you've given them skill sets that they will use whatever their journey is.

Rachel Daydou: 23:05

Probably. I hope so, and at least you know, because it's the last year of their study. I also saw it as a way to help them determine themselves. You know, if you're, you know if you're not cut for entrepreneurship, that's totally fine. It's better that you know that maybe this is not the time for you or it's not. It's not for you at all because it's a pretty rough journey. So it's good to have first hand experience. You know kind of secured environment, and that's what we try to, you know, to set up for them. So that was really fun.

The Trailblazers experience : 23:42

Exciting. I mean your current role now. So talk to me about, if you were just to talk about the last few years, et cetera. Obviously you've talked about the challenges of what you've experienced. What would you say have been some highlights or successes that you're proud of as a woman in such a, you know, prestigious role? I would say you know there are not very many women at the top, so we're happy for everyone that breaks through that glass ceiling.

Rachel Daydou: 24:12

Yes. So I think my personal journey on that topic has been that I grew up with three brothers and practicing martial arts and my kind of the first stage of, you know, relation to being a female in the world was there is no difference between men and females. That was my first you know kind of stand and I'm as strong and as smart and as loud and as whatever else as a guy, and there is zero difference. And then I really evolved from that and some people might think, of course there's so many differences, right, I think I evolved from that because I was, I think, at the first stage I was really feeling, if I accept that there are differences, that there's gonna be hierarchy, and so that was my first kind of rejection of hierarchy with the way to compete at the same level. Pretty much so, compete at the same level.

Rachel Daydou: 25:15

And I think that across the years, as I was maturing, I really tried to. I mean, I realized that there were major differences that there were. Maybe there was a way that those differences could be assets, cards that could be played, that by increasing your flexibility across the board of behaviors and feelings that you could feel and display, then that was a very, very useful and big asset for yourself and also for potentially finding a place in the environment that you choose to operate in, and so that has been. It was kind of a game changer for us to accept many things for myself and also to consider that the real strength is to have the ability to have the full scope, the full range of emotions, the full range of behaviors. That's the biggest strength that you can develop and, depending on the situation, that you'd go in, pick and choose and kind of display the behavior that serves you best at that specific moment and in that case, if I feel like if I and people managed to do that, they are much stronger and they're in a much better position for I don't wanna say succeeding, because success is very I mean, it doesn't.

Rachel Daydou: 27:00

Success is how you feel when you do well what you think is important. Success is not having a big salary and having a big title and being deeply unhappy and burnt out, and that's the contrary of success. So I think there's been so many evolutions for me, and part of the catalyst that allowed my evolution on this topic was IPWS International Professional Women Society. It's a non-for-profit that's been operating in Shanghai for 28 years and I was part of it as a member and then as various positions on the board until president, and that was just a space where you could explore those topics and I think that the conversation has been much more open in recent years to kind of explore those topics and reinvent a bit. You know the definition of success and reinvent a bit. You know our possibilities as humans, of different shapes and forms in society.

The Trailblazers experience : 28:13

That is so interesting. I mean, what you've just highlighted is even just about reading the room, isn't it? Whatever situation you're in in a business, understanding reading the room, the non-verbal cues that are going on, approaching each meeting, each relationship in a different way to get the result that you want, and embracing the fact that you know I'm a woman, I'm okay with it, I'm brilliant, I'm amazing, but also accepting that you will encounter some challenges, and it's just about how you deal with that. So you've talked about the non-profit organization that you were affiliated with. How important is your circle? That's? You know, segue into that your circle. How important is that for you?

Rachel Daydou: 28:59

Oh, that's so my biggest. I think what I always tell people is that I truly believe you are the average of the five people closest to you. So it works both ways, meaning if one day you turn around and you're like whether those people suck, then maybe you've lost yourself. And that has happened to me. You know, at some point in my life you're in transition between geographies, between things, and you just find yourself, you know, looking around, say nobody that's close to me, cares for me, or nobody you know really has, you know is bringing me anything positive. That's, you need to tell something about where you are at a personal level on that at that time. It doesn't define you, but it tells you about where you are from personal level at that time. And the other way. The country is also true. I think.

Rachel Daydou: 29:56

When I started and I use very specific example when I started, you know, working on Lea Alma in my spare time, when I had my full time job but I was working on the side, in the evening and things I was, I was. I couldn't feel like I was an entrepreneur because nobody from my family was one and I didn't have the reflexes that didn't have the vocabulary, etc. And so I thought I need to surround myself with entrepreneurs so that I can I can, you know soak that in and really learn from them. And so that's when I started hanging out and being a member of Startup Grind, which is, you know, another nonprofit that I was part of and part of the board for a long time after that, and that's really by creating those you know five people closest to me and surrounding myself with entrepreneurs at that time where it was so critical for me to become that and, to you know, have the reflexes and have the network and have the knowledge and have the you know, get into the movement of what that means to be an entrepreneur. And that helped me a lot at the time that I decided to switch, to really go full time on my startup. I already had, you know, the support system of people that were doing that every day and for whom it was totally normal and challenging, of course, but it was normal for them.

Rachel Daydou: 31:19

So, through those, whatever, I think it was about six months of transition and, you know re, you know, recreating that inner circle of people that were doing what I really wanted to do.

Rachel Daydou: 31:36

That allowed me to project myself as one and just recently, on the first of July, I had, you know, a wedding celebration and I had, you know, 130 people around me. And when I was looking around, I was so amazed, because all of these people admire so much for the different things that they have done in their life, and I was, I felt, so, so grateful to have those people around. So I think, how to say they will never do things in your place, but they will give you strength, they will inspire you, they will support you, they will challenge you, they will mock you sometimes maybe, but they're supporting for you to shape yourself. And so you know, even I mean, if people close to you are toxic, even if they're for your family members, sometimes it's better to keep them a little bit at base so that you can, you know, keep your vital energy for positive things and for continuing on growing for yourself.

The Trailblazers experience : 32:46

Yeah, I mean that's that's really such a very big takeaway there that look at the five people, or four people around you and that will tell you where you are in your life. And you want people who are not just praising you, like you said. You want them to hold you accountable, hold you to account Literally, to challenge you to say well, I don't think what you're doing is right and this is why.

The Trailblazers experience : 33:08

Or to mock you as well and say, oh man, that was you know, or to push you as well and say, look, we got this, we can push through it's, it's really important. And if you're unable to reflect, or if you don't have a circle, then get one. It's, that's a really important guiding, guiding compass. Talk to me about self care, Rachel. I know martial arts I mean, damn girl, very badass but talk to me about how you look after you, what, what drives you outside of your professional career.

Rachel Daydou: 33:45

Yeah, so that's something very new to me. I wasn't something that was that I was even conscious about or taking care of, I mean. So that's something that's new and that I had to do in order to to continue actually operating. And I've worked actually with a health coach holistic health coach for a while. Her name is Elizabeth Shiflin. She's wonderful, she's a healer, she really is a witch in the best possible meaning and and so at that time that I felt like I really needed some support to because I felt like my body was paving me and I was realizing that continuing to push, push, push, push, push wasn't helping me any better.

Rachel Daydou: 34:37

And so she really helped me on and it took. It started by taking the shape of insomnia. So that was really you know the big, you know difficulty that I'm still today more or less depends on the periods but still struggling with today and that fucked you up completely because you're not thinking clearly, you are tired, you are irritable, you're not patient. And for me, because I have a lot of energy, if I'm in, if I'm rested, I have a lot of good, positive, optimistic energy. If I'm not well rested, I have a lot of negative, angry, patient energy. It's the same level, it's just not the same nature and that's really bad for me and for everyone around. So I, the way that she really helped me to turn this around is, she said, even if you think your work is the most important thing, you have to realize you can't do it properly if you don't solve and take care of your body and your mind. And so she really helped me on you know, sleep rituals, on food, nutrition, on exercise, like yoga, on meditation and all of these, and that was really such a space, like she helped me to find a space in my life and in my head that I that didn't exist before. So, as of today, I still I think it's very cliche, but never mind. I still do yoga and meditation but most importantly, like all the work that I had done on mindfulness, I think just the biggest learning is because I'm very active and very active.

Rachel Daydou: 36:21

The biggest learning is if something challenging is coming your way, just pause for a minute because between you know whatever is coming to you and your reaction, there is a space and that space is your choice is what do you want to make out of this? It's challenging, it's frustrating, it's coming at you. Are you going to blow up and make things work potentially? Are you going to accept it? Are you going to become? Are you going to be smiling? Or you know art and that you know that moment is a space for choice and that was you know. The moment that you're experiencing for the first time, you're like, wow, I'm not a victim of my own, you know character in a certain way, and that's very liberating.

The Trailblazers experience : 37:12

And that's also a very valuable lesson as well. I was reading the stats. So, for example, here in the UK, one in seven people in the UK survive on five less than five hours of sleep, you know. And then 71% of UK adults sleep less than seven hours, you know, a day.

Rachel Daydou: 37:33

And it's a privilege.

The Trailblazers experience : 37:34

It is a thing because we are conditioned to be overachievers and, you know, work at 100 miles an hour and you've touched on a very valuable point about the only thing we are all in control of is how we react to a situation.

Rachel Daydou: 37:51

That's a choice, isn't it?

The Trailblazers experience : 37:53

It's a choice that we have, and learning that for me has taken lots of time as well, because I was always not leaving that space to be able to say, like, how do I want to react? I'm only in control of that and that will help me deal with whatever is coming my way. It's liberating. Do you think that's come more now, as you are obviously a managing director and responsible for a large team? That means responsible, means delegating, trusting that they know what they're doing, because you can't do their jobs for them. Has that come from that as well?

Rachel Daydou: 38:30

The being in I don't like to say in control, because it shouldn't be like that, but at least having a say in the way that you react is critical when managing people and things, because I used to just directly dump my stress onto my team and let's just say it's not very productive. If you just look at productivity, it's not very productive. It doesn't make you very, very likable and it just doesn't make you credible. Actually, people don't want a very stressed leader. It doesn't bring confidence. So that was something that I had to exercise a lot in that context. I don't know if that answers your question.

The Trailblazers experience : 39:26

No, it does, because with leadership obviously comes great responsibility. But a good leader also knows themselves, also knows when they can see themselves in their team and recognize okay, that's a strength, that's a weakness. Active listening is a very big part. It's not just spewing out the first thing you hear. You have to listen, you have to absorb and read the room. So you've touched on so many things which I feel, like Rachel, over the years you've just had like a metamorphosis into a leader. You didn't know it was happening, but it's happened over time through all the experiences that you've gone through as well, and it just shows that it's a process, everything is a journey. We don't know it. 15 or 20 years ago, if somebody told us, yeah, you're gonna have to delegate and manage your sleep, and then you're like, yeah, what? No, fuck, no.

Rachel Daydou: 40:20

I don't wanna do everything now, and here we are here.

The Trailblazers experience : 40:26

We are trying to be all Zen as it is. So you've talked about your career journey, which is amazing, embracing opportunity, embracing cultures, surrounding yourself with a great circle of people. Talk to me about mentoring, because you've said you've been part of nonprofits, you've been part of organizations where you're motivating startups or entrepreneurs. How important is that? And startups or entrepreneurs how important do you think is for someone to seek a mentor in their life?

Rachel Daydou: 41:03

It's critical yeah, critical. You can have very informal mentors. I consider that my brothers are. At times they are acting as mentors. Maybe they were my first mentors. Yeah, I work with a coach now a professional coach and I also have a mentor, and across my life I've mentored many people and I'm now a mentor for startups with an orbit accelerator which is under SOS Venture, and so I think there's the experience as a mentee and the experience as a mentor. They are feeding each other.

Rachel Daydou: 41:52

I always want to be progressing. I don't mean I want to climb the career ladder, that's not what I mean. What I mean is I want to be progressing myself personally, professionally, in the sense that of best utilizing my strength for something that has meaning, in a way that's sustainable for me. And having a mentor is just having that kind of that person that has experienced some of the things that you've experienced and that can give you not advice typically, they don't give too much advice but at least a sounding board for whatever it is that your experience is or that you are trying to do, and give you hints or inspiration or reference points, or challenging you or asking questions to deepen. It's very different to having a coach. I think the coach is really first of all, coaches paid engagements. So you kind of have a roadmap that you want to go through and it's more structured and it's about you finding the answers.

Rachel Daydou: 43:06

I think with a mentor, it's more about finding someone that you admire and that you wish you were on some level would become like one day, and having their personal experience, feedback to feed you in order to grow into a similar direction. So I think those are very complimentary. For me they're complimentary. And being a mentor is also complimentary because I think that's what I want to do. And being a mentor is also complimentary because you, whatever you receive I mean I've received so much I want others that I admire to be able to receive too. So being an advisor, being a mentor, is just that you use the expression giving back, but when you say giving back, it looks like you will be missing something, taking from yourself and you giving it to someone else, meaning you don't have it anymore. That's not true. You still have it. It's more like making it flourish in someone else. So it's you're not. You're not going to be giving away anything or lacking of anything if you do that. It's.

The Trailblazers experience : 44:27

Yeah, when you give without, it's never the value exchange is not the same. So if I give something to you today, what I will get back will not be in the same way. It'll be in a different way, somewhere else. You know this is how the world of the universe works. You know, and I think it's knowing that there are moments where in my life I've known something that I did before, whether it was helping someone or someone else, and I've seen it come in a different way and I'm very spiritual. So I then say thank you, I recognize when it's coming back and the value exchange is not the same and the joy that you feel from you know, even just helping someone with a task, or it was a simple question, or the fact that they even asked you in the first place.

The Trailblazers experience : 45:21

I mean, that's already the the payback in itself that someone trusted you know to be able to be vulnerable and share something with you and thought you might be able to support them in whatever way you can perform. But yeah, I've learned that the value exchange is not the same and it's okay and that's good. That's good that way. Circling back, rachel, so you're back now in France 360, you know, when we not if when we have our chat in a few years time, where do you see yourself? What's on the cards? What's still to do?

Rachel Daydou: 46:00

So much. I think where I see myself is is working most of my time on sustainability, because I just get this you know very this big feeling of urgency that we really need to get working on changing our you know business models for more sustainable or regenerative business models, that we need to reduce our overall corporate footprint, that we need to change drastically our lifestyles, and that that is the most pressing issue of our times and we're running out of time. So that is the thing that I feel is most meaningful for me to be doing so. In a couple of years, I hope this will be 100% of my time, whether it's working with companies to support them in that transition, whether it's working at a company that's in that process, whether it's working, I don't know. Whatever wherever in the ecosystem. That's what I hope I'll be doing.

Rachel Daydou: 47:06

I think, from a practical standpoint, we'll all have to be working for that, for our own survival, and the earlier we get to it and more chances we have to limit the, just to limit the catastrophe.

Rachel Daydou: 47:24

And every day that I'm not doing that I feel is is is getting us closer to the catastrophe. So, and at the same time, I'm extremely optimistic, by choice, that we can make it happen, because we have human behavior that put us in that situation. That just tells us about the power of collective action. So that's a proof that collective action is very powerful in a negative way, but then it can also be extremely powerful in a positive way. I mean, it's just about the direction that we're bringing it in. And I also realized that I need to be optimistic, and maybe not optimistic, but hopeful. I need to be hopeful because this is what will get me into action. If I'm you know, if I'm not hopeful and I think all is lost, then then just have to wait and there is no way to change and there is no action coming out of it. So I also feel like it's a necessity that we must be hopeful in order to have the energy to make it a reality.

The Trailblazers experience : 48:40

And it's a great thing to aspire to, and I think it speaks to your core values and your ethics and things that you believe in. Is this core values and ethics that you have come about due to your maturity and your growth and your experiences, or is this always something you had as a foundation?

Rachel Daydou: 49:04

It's super interesting. I am very admiring of the very young people nowadays, like 10 years old, 15, 20 years old, that have that as a foundation. I don't think. I do Like to be frank, I think it grew over time. My father was a farmer, very, very. My father and mother are older and so they were born in the aftermath Sorry, let's hope the I can hear you so they were born in the aftermath of the Second World War, so a moment where it was really difficult times and actually my father's family were farmers and so there is this connection with with nature that he grew up in a city.

Rachel Daydou: 49:54

I wasn't, you know, aware or concerned, you know, of those issues. And then I went to China and I think the I think really the hyper growth of the country. At some point I think I decided to stop eating meat, maybe 10 years ago, and that was for environmental reasons. But it was kind of in, kind of you're getting some information and going on a path of reflection and say, hey, I can't be part of that, but it didn't for the longest time. It was just like incubating and I was just receiving information on the topic.

Rachel Daydou: 50:34

It was just incubating and maturing and I was spending most of my energy elsewhere and and one of the reasons why I came back to France is also because France is a very much more mature on those topics of environment and new carbon footprint than China is to be very frank, you know, in China it's not part of conversations. People feel the effect of climate change, but they is not part of the discussion. It's not. There are no, you know, very big actions happening. In France is debated, there are laws, there are a lot of companies that are really about that circle, isn't it?

The Trailblazers experience : 51:13

Yeah, needed to get back to the space where they are like minded people who are also thinking about as well.

Rachel Daydou: 51:20

Yeah, exactly, exactly, you got it exactly right. So you got it exactly right. So that's been my, you know my, my process and that's you know. I wanted to be in the place where things were most mature, because this is where I felt like I could develop. You know the right skills to make it happen. So, yeah, that's you got it exactly right.

The Trailblazers experience : 51:49

It's amazing. I mean, look, you are at a favorite novel where it's not only just about technology but also thinking about. You know how to make companies better and you've come full circle in terms of your journey, combining all your experiences, and I think it's an interesting journey you have ahead of you. If we were to give three or four trailblazer takeaway tips is what I call them the trailblazer takeaways to a young lady, young woman out there, you know, just honing in on everything that we've talked about, things that you wish your younger self or your, you know, 20s self I know you're only 25 now, rachel.

Rachel Daydou: 52:33

Yeah, no, 10 years older yeah.

The Trailblazers experience : 52:35

Yeah, what are some takeaways? You'd give some tips.

Rachel Daydou: 52:41

Yeah, I think it's it's, it's. It's always. It's a bit challenging to give tips like generic ones, but I think what has paid out for me were okay. Yeah, like, surround yourself with people you admire, that has really, really paid out for me. What's paid out for me was I had no idea how hard it would be moving to China and I had no idea how hard it would be to become an entrepreneur, and I think that's good.

Rachel Daydou: 53:22

If you feel it very deep in you, go for it. It doesn't matter that you don't know how hard it's going to be, because you know. A year or two, a year, three years later you look back and you'll be like, damn, I've walked all that way. That's fantastic, and in the process I became someone much more resilient and much stronger and I'm now closer to the ideal that I set for myself. So don't wait until you have the perfect plan and everything set out to do something that you really care about, because it's going to unfold and every step you take towards that will be progress.

Rachel Daydou: 54:10

So I would say those two things have paid out for me, and in this very, very moment in my life I need to remind myself of that. So that's very good, we have that conversation today and yeah, and I think the other one is take. You are your biggest asset, so learn to take care of yourself. Taking care of yourself doesn't necessarily mean protecting yourself. It means repairing yourself, it means nourishing yourself and if, particularly, I think, whether you're a man or woman, you should all be reading Women who Run With the Wolves, because this book is just fantastic. It gives you a lot of strength and tools on how to do that, how to nourish yourself and how to repair yourself.

The Trailblazers experience : 55:09

Yeah, All right, who wrote that book then?

Rachel Daydou: 55:17

Dr Let me find it Google. Let me Google that for you. Yes, so it's Clary. Larissa Pincolla, is this Right?

The Trailblazers experience : 55:36

I will put that in the notes. I always love a good book recommendation oh this one is game changing for me.

Rachel Daydou: 55:43

I think yeah, yeah.

The Trailblazers experience : 55:45

Rachel, thank you for this reflective conversation. It's been amazing. Your experience, you know, I met you at the CBBC function and you were a panelist there. You resonated with me because you were sharp, you were engaged, you had experienced my vacious and I said I really needed to speak to this woman and get to know her better and have her share her story on a platform which I hope will inspire some young lady out there to go out and live their life to the fullest, but also live one with purpose, with impact. But it's okay to fall, it's okay to make mistakes, it's okay to engage, it's okay to travel and, just you know, hopefully evolve into the next generation of women who we hope to inspire. So thank you so much for your time, rachel.

Rachel Daydou: 56:41

I learned from yeah. Thank you, indola, thank you so much for having me today.

The Trailblazers experience : 56:47

Wonderful. So this has been the Trailblazers Experience podcast. As you know, we are on all streaming platforms. Please remember to follow, share and, if anything, share with another woman. Talk about engaging the conversations, because these women are taking their time to share their stories, but also inspire. Thank you so much.