HowSheDoesIt | Sonal Holland | India's only master of wine

0:00 To moms who think working moms are not good enough look at me Hello and welcome to KSP TV today we're sharing with you a special episode on our series how she does it we're talking to a woman who's extremely enterprising and has achieved it all in spite of motherhood A woman who seems to juggle through all of it work, life, career, kids, ambition Not leaving herself behind pursuing her dream ambition, her hobbies and of course

0:31 her unwinding time A woman who really makes us wonder how does she do it We're going to be sharing with you her tips, tricks, challenges, shears, fears and everything in her journey of how she does it Our guest today is Sonal Holland the only master of wines India has yet seen a really dear friend, a mum and ofcourse a really really witty woman Welcome Sonal Thank you Mansi its such a pleasure to be finally on Kidsstoppress

1:01 I'm very excited yes and I'm really excited to know what is this master of wines title so the master of wine is a qualification under title which is awarded by the Institute of Masters of Wine in London UK and it is widely regarded as the most respected title in the world of wines and what is very interesting is that there are currently only 369 masters of wine in the world across 29 countries Right does rihanna see Rihanna's her daughter does she see all of this as

1:29 like wow my mom is the only master of wine that India has yet seen so you know funny enough Mansi, when Rihanna was little well when she was very little she obviously had no idea what what this meant and she was completely unfamiliar with wine as a beverage and as she started to grow up a little bit in around the time when she was about five five or six years old I know that there was a phase where she was actually embarrassed about this fact

1:54 so every time I say to her have you told your teacher Mama's a wine professional is a wine expert which is to just stick out her tongue in a funny way and almost like I could see she was embarrassed and that this was she she felt this was something she couldn't tell very many people and I didn't try to fight that there okay let's go with the flow today I think she's really proud now she's extremely at comfort with this thought and telling people this all the time

2:20 Every time there is a little write up about me in the newspaper or anywhere in the media she will proudly take that article to school and show it to the teachers and flaunt that So, Sonal was there any insecurities at any point in time while you were pursuing your title that I will lose Rihanna at some point so is mom guilt real it totally is it never goes away really all the time through the growing years I used to always worry about

2:42 whether you know especially when I was doing my master wine studies and I was right in the throes of it traveling all around the world going absolutely nuts I used to always worry whether Rihanna will grow up to be bitter more distanced not value me and my motherhood but you know what really helps Mansi is that every time I sort of tried to discuss this with my husband who's not I I would say is much more than just a supporter of my career he's not as supporter he's committed is

3:09 that well yes creator but he's so committed and he's so invested in terms of himself into it into me and my life and everything I'm doing which is so lovely but every time I should discuss it with him each to say you know what stop making excuses she's fine she's lovely she's touchwood healthy she's turning out to be a lovely lovely child and stop making excuses just get on with it I mean everything is great right so we've seen the Sonal that's so

3:36 glamorous at vineyards and tasting multiple wines and being you know impressed clips and all of that but what is Sonal at home yeah and behind the scenes that's what we want to know crazy woman yeah no crazy woman going all around the place no days can be pretty hectic I mean works really really busy at the moment it's a lot going on and I'm trying to sort of make the most of every opportunity that exists it's an exciting

4:04 life very little to complain about but a typical days you know you get up I try and get up at 6:30 in the morning on days when I'm being really good about myself I can actually end up going for a walk I start work at nine o'clock so by nine o'clock I'm right in front of my computer but mornings are with my daughter first yeah the first hour or so I'm with my daughter before she takes off and gets on that bus to school

4:28 and then I'm like ha like do a happy dance yeah do a little dance and then then I go for my walk then I come back and then I'm at my work desk and then it's pretty much a day of either a whole lot of meetings or doing things or you know making videos myself or whatever it is or travelling taking a flight off to somewhere else evenings I try and wind down but you will know this Mansi it's difficult to

4:54 switch off right yeah especially when you have your own enterprise and especially when you have a setup where you're your own entrepreneur you're working for yourself and for me it's like my I have a great office set up but it's from home yeah so for me it's very difficult to compartmentalize work and home give attention to what's important to us and why it's my career is important there is no doubt about that well I'm also a very house-proud lady

5:16 and I generally like to have all departments in my life you know parenting house and how that works career everything even me as a daughter for that matter I like to sort of have a lead a very life of abundance and I like to make time for everything oh and I also try not micromanage I'll be very honest Mansi because I could get into you know what is the cost of potatoes and why we paying 40 rupees versus 30 rupees I tried not get into

5:44 that because I learned a long time ago that you have to choose your battles you can't micromanage everything and nobody ever became rich and successful out of saving money you become rich and successful out of concentrating on how to make money so if you just concentrate on the top line rather than you know that bit and just sort of let go some of those things then then I think you you sort of learned to decide what what is

6:08 really important what matters and what really needs your your attention so yeah yeah in the in the attempt to juggle it all prioritize compartmentalize have you ever thought shit I just like why am i doing it is it all worth it so no I mean you know do I feel like just saying you know I'm gonna kick in my boots and just run off to the hills the only kind of hills I wanna run off to is the

6:35 vineyards so and honestly every time that gets to me like living in the city gets to me okay after a point so I sort of look forward to my travels because you know I'm not ashamed to say this again and I'm no longer guilty as a mother to say this I love my travels you used to earlier so before you started Soho wine club you always seems to travel in you you like you said a monotony or you know everyday work commute one hour and you're just you

7:01 know traveling back and forth to work getting stuck in traffic and all of that how is how does all of that changed and how do you think you've managed your time really efficiently so you know before I was a wine professional I used to have a great corporate career you know before I sort of reinvented myself into this wine professional and now a master of wine and so on and I so I've done my bit you know in terms of traveling to work and having an absolute

7:26 routine in terms of the typical work job you know having that that that sheer routine and monotony to your life and I felt a strong urge to reinvent myself and that could not have been a better decision to have been made because what I'd really did by sort of reinventing myself in this role is I took total control of my life and I really learned to at that moment or that phase of my life give importance to what was important you know so we're becoming a parent was

7:53 important I get I put that ahead of other things the world was not able to see any of this because there was also a little bit of work happening on the side so there's a moment the world doesn't really you know as long as you're doing justice to all sort of part now I feel it's totally it's more career because you know I met this juncture in my in my career it's wonderful you know as a master wine it opens doors and it's you know you you're exposed to

8:18 a world of opportunities but also just saving the time when the hassle of having to go to work yeah I'm sure a lot of people are stuck in a nine-to-five but just the proximity to work or the ability to walk to work would be so fantastic yes because you're not you know there's just so much I feel like you can like I have an office set up it's like literally five minutes away and I feel I've saved on those two hours and it makes such a difference in a city

8:42 like Mumbai I mean the thought of you know if someone would come and offer me a job today honestly if I was sitting in an interview the first thing I'd be sitting there and thinking is just how long am I gonna have to travel to work and can I actually do this anymore because I'm so out of that zone now if you've ever been to Sonal's house you know that everything is just proper how does the proper state proper when you're traveling three weeks

9:05 in a month I have oh gosh I wish there was an easier answer of that I have to know that that's my how she does it for her think I'm just a control freak I just whip people when things don't get done I don't know what it is but yeah I'm very finicky like that I mean I'm very I'm a big stickler for things all being in their place and things to be working and and yeah I can get quite pushy quite dominating and I get things done I just

9:32 I'm very house proud so for example I I could just you know if something is not right I would attend to it I would I it would disturb me to such an extent that I would even take time off work and just say today I'm gonna fix this first because I find it very disturbing when something's not in order at home and it really really bothers me so I then just get down to fixing it okay whatever it is you know even if it's needing a plumber I don't

10:02 know so you do that but I attend to it tell me how is Sonal the master wines different from Sonal the mum Oh quite different I think um so as a master wine well as a wine professional I think I don't know but this is what I've been told by people in the industry that I can be perceived to be quite quite reserved I think I don't know I don't know I'm just I think all wrong guys all wrong

10:31 but many no-reserve but a bit more I think I'm more authoritative I come across as you know I'm in command and I'm in control of the situation and I know my stuff that you do don't mess with me unless you know unless you know what you're talking about I think I sort of emanate that that sort of air about myself but as a mom oh gosh I'm a complete softy I'm just she's a chiller my daughter has

10:59 me wrapped around her little finger and I'm extremely emotional as a mom okay so I once read Randi Zuckerberg saying this but out of these five things you can prioritize only any three that's out of work family friends sleep and health what would you prioritize what three would you prioritize family actually its work I'm lying sorry it's work family

11:29 and health now you need to answer all of these questions in a word for me I know that's gonna be hard for you but you gotta do it A sentence no a word okay your response women can't have it all not true you can have the cake and eat it too if you had more time you would watch a Shah Rukh Khan movie okay I wish people would not pretend to be teetotalers then to moms who think working moms are not good enough

11:59 look at me okay what gives you sleepless nights piled up work activities in school that involve parents don't please don't your mom inspiration my mom the one thing you would wish you could do better anything to do with technology if a genie gave a mom one wish to make her life easier what would it be for you now I don't need a genie I need a secretary right now i'll ask the genie to give me a secretary okay

12:31 what is the one thing you don't miss about your former workplace the travel and the politics your reaction when your daughter says that that mom her mom always comes in you never okay I'll come at all you're a given okay now we're playing a fun game again which is on a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate the following to enable more women to work ok and 10 being the highest okay have a right boss 9

13:03 use of Technology in today's time 9 discipline 10 11 ok proximity to work it helps 8 work home family career what in your life are you satisfied enough to give a 10 on 10 to none because if I was a general turn on any of those have a way to complacent and only the paranoid survive so no I'm an average or everything Oh awesome

13:34 thank you so much you have fared really well in the KSP little rapid-fire and in I will give you that KSP hamper but not a coffee hamper she doesn't she doesn't clearly need a coffee you can give me a wine hamper that you're going to give me so congratulations for winning thank you Mansi it's been so much fun and before we end I need to ask you for everybody who's young Restless watching what is what is the secret sauce to to all the success that you've achieved I there's a

14:09 lot of success to be achieved there's a lot of work to be done still but in terms of message what I'd like to say is it's one is good to be young and restless because I think the ones who are not restless are more in trouble but you know we often wait for the right set of circumstances we always say I'll get to a certain age and I'll start I'll wait for my children to get to a certain age and I'll start or I'll move to this city and I'll do this

14:30 or I would have done this if if I didn't have this in my life and so I think these are all excuses I used to fall into this trap myself in the early days and I would I would urge everyone out there to just start doing and start small if need be but just start somewhere divert the deep end of the ocean because you will learn to swim and it's really probably the only way to learn how to swim and you know it's just about taking challenges head-on

14:56 and and they're just finding a way as you go along don't just wait for the perfect opportunity because there is no such thing it's an illusion it's more important to be in motion and be moving towards something even if it's the wrong direction but to be in motion I think is more important to just be static and not be doing anything at all or just you know waiting for the Apple to fall which it inevitably never will so awesome thank you so much and thank you so much

15:23 for joining us thank you Mansi I've had a blast and thank you for having me on Kidsstoppress