Dalia Feldheim is an executive coach, a keynote speaker, a yoga instructor, a corporate trainer a mom of three and soon to be a published author. With over 20 years of international corporate experience under her belt, she has lived in Israel, Switzerland, Russia and Singapore.

In 2018 Dalia spoke at EVE Asia. She shared with us the role passion has played in her career and what has helped strike a balance between her private life and work. How she courageously made passion her edge and strives to bring her purpose into work every day with her commitment to women empowerment and proud director of the award winning women-empowerment campaigns- AlwaysLikeAGirl global.

We caught up with Dalia to ask her a few questions and to share some of the main points of her talk.

Question 1: Dalia, we loved having you at EVE. Now that a few months have gone by since you spoke at the seminar, we wanted to ask you: what was the main impact of the program for you?

As Serendipity goes, Eve was quite an important turning point in my life. I had just left the corporate life after 20 years. I realized I was lucky to have been able to work my passion and purpose into my every day- developing women empowerment campaigns as well as coaching and training teams. But I felt it was time for something new- with the inspiration of EVE I decided to take a break from corporate life and dedicate more of my time to my purpose- helping individuals and organizations finding purpose in their lives.

Last Eve I set a stretch goal for myself that one day I will come back not only with a plenary session but also with a workshop and a book. I thought this will take me 2-3years! But I am so delighted to be back to this new session of EVE Asia and share my ‘Find Your Why’ workshop that I have been running here in Asia, and that I spent the last 9 months writing my book!

I am so grateful to the ‘EVE effect’ that I have decided to offer 3 chapters of my about-to-launch book ‘Brave to Lead like a Girl’ not only to EVE Asia participants but to ALL EVE alumni. Just log in to www.daliafeldheim.com during the conference days July 17-19 (limited time offer) to down load your free e-chapters (including a ‘find your why’ workshop summary;-). This was written with all the beautiful women of EVE in mind and as it is an early sneak-peak I would love to connect with you on LinkedIn or my website and get any thoughts and builds for the book due in Oct. Because I believe, with Purpose, Perseverance, People focus and Positivity, who says doing anything like a girl can’t mean ‘winning the race’.

Question 2: During the EVE Program, you met a lot of different women and men, how has this sorority helped you to transform your professional life?

I have always believed in the power of women networks (and hence was founder of the P&G women network for Russia and Singapore back in the day) and I would advise every woman to not only get herself a woman mentor but also surround herself with a group of like-minded Sistas. Invest in this two-way relationship! I also am a big believer in the thought that people come into your life for a reason and when I look back at EVE 2018 I am amazed how lucky I was to have met so many amazing women (and men) and how important they have become in my new career transition.

• Let me start with Marie-Liesse Calmejane – I still remember her chasing me when I was still crazy at work as CMO, to speak at EVE as a corporate case study. We finally met in May, and I found what I now call my ‘luck charm’ supporting cheerleader-fellow-coach-friend. She was first to help me when I set up my women empowerment Yacht retreats and launch my new ‘Find your why’ workshop and I hope I am also helping her in her coaching/ speaking career. Since this meeting, I make it a habit not to ignore people who approach me on LinkedIn and try to meet a totally new person for coffee every week!
• Through Marie-Liesse, I met the other amazing organizers of EVE – Anne, Christine and Valerie who were so smart to link up their passion with their job. I cannot mention all the 150 amazing women I met but will share a few. First, my dearest speaking coach Margie Warrell – I just loved her ‘Down-to-earth-dazzle’ and she has become my speaking inspiration and mentor and a close friend. I was running women Yacht retreats at the time and was grateful to join her inspirational ‘Live brave’ weekends and give back helping out with yoga and mindfulness practice for the ladies.
• Jane Horan is another great speaker turned writing mentor friend.
• I have to mention the beautiful soul Nilu (Nilushika Silva Jayaweera)- a brave ex domestic worker who has decided to escape poverty and help other Sri Lanka women do the same. I was so touched with Nilu and her mission that I am grateful to have helped her in her mission to support 200 women to open micro businesses and hope to continue as I have decided to dedicate a percentage of my book proceeds to her ‘Emerging Hope Lanka’ NGO. Because I believe we all should ‘Lift as you Rise’.
• Last but not least I will share the amazing story of my encounter with Tal Ben Shahar- I was so excited to have the opportunity to spend 3 quality days with him- as a fellow Israeli and a happiness expert (I was going to say guru but he hates when I call him that;-) I found my intellectual soul-Mate. I have been living with positive psychology mindset all my life (my bully ex-boss even said I was too positive ‘Miss Kumbaya’), but with Tal my ‘intuition’ got scientific proof. Tal surprised me and sat in the back of the room to listen to my plenary session at EVE and was the first who said- “you need to write all these stories in a book!”. Tal and I became friends, and he has become my book coach and much more. He invited me to join his amazing online course (Happiness Studies Academy https://www.happinessstudies.academy I was super busy with my INSEAD studies, but I decided to take a leap of faith and ever so grateful I did- can’t recommend it enough!). What happened next is pure Serendipity – as part of a big volunteering project I was doing, I met the president of SMU and got to learn they plan to run a course on Happiness and suffering and looking for corporate adjunct professors. With Tal’s blessing (as his generous course is set to spread this mission of happiness), I applied and got accepted and I start as an Adjunct professor in SMU in Aug!.

So, a year ago I spoke at EVE as a corporate CMO, but with the amazing inspiration and encouragement of so many people I met at EVE, I have created my dream portfolio career and am coming back to EVE 12 months later as a Speaker, coach, corporate trainer, author and adjunct professor!
I share this with you as I would like to encourage everyone participating to do the same (and I work it with you in my purpose workshop)- when you are clear on your WHY, the universe has incredible ways to present the WHAT and HOW to you. Invest in strong two-way relationships with like-minded people and you will be amazed how they end up connecting the dots on your future journey.

Question 3: What is the best piece of advice you have received in your career and that you would love to share with our readers?

I actually would like to share two:

• My first boss always told me- take care of your people, and the business takes care of itself’. Your people includes yourself and the relationships you form with everyone around you.
• And my women network mantra was ‘Lift as you Rise’. I recently led a major volunteering 3 days makeathon called TOM (tikkun Olam Makers) bringing together people with disabilities with the local makers community. It was an amazing experience creating life changing solutions. When on stage I chose to share some inspiration I got from Tal at EVE with the Hebrew word NATAN- it’s the root of the word ‘to give’ and is actually a palindrome which can be read same from left to right and from right to left- because giving is a two way journey- when you give, you get!So I am so excited to come back to EVE 2019 and meet some of you (so much so, that I am breaking a family vacation and coming back from Israel for this amazing event) -I am also delighted to share some of my insights on FINDING YOUR purpose with all EVEsians (time limited to July 17-19 so don’t miss out;-) and encourage you all to make the best of this network and lift as you rise! Namaste