Transcript: Episode 172: Pandemic Survivor Couple
LISTEN TO THE EPISODE:
APPLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY | TOPFLOOR.COM
[00:00:00] Susan Barry: This is Top Floor episode 172. You can find the show notes at topfloorpodcast.com/episode/172.
[00:00:14] Narrator: Welcome to Top Floor with Susan Barry. This weekly podcast ride up to the top floor features tangible tips and excellent stories from the experts and characters who elevate hospitality. And now your host and elevator operator, Susan Barry.
[00:00:32] Susan Barry: Welcome to the show. Geetika Agarwal is an experienced designer whose career spans architecture, industrial design, digital products, and immersive cultural experiences with a background that includes Disney Imagineering and global brands like MasterCard.
Geetika has always been passionate about blending design, culture, and technology. A lifelong passion for cultural preservation inspired her company, Vacation with an Artist. Today we're going to talk about experiential travel and craftsmanship, but before we jump in we need to answer the call button.
Call button rings
[00:01:19] Susan Barry: The emergency call button is our hotline for hospitality professionals and anyone else with a burning question. If you would like to submit a question, you can call or text me at 850-404-9630.
Today's question was submitted by Pedro. Here's what Pedro has to say. I'm considering starting a travel business. Oh, this is an easy question. Not at all. What is the hardest part and how should I prepare? So, Geetika, just what's the hardest part about your business or what was the hardest part about getting started?
[00:01:56] Geetika Agrawal: Getting started, it's just taking the leap and kind of ignoring all the questions and the noise in your head the ifs, what's, buts, and it's literally just about taking the first step.
[00:02:08] Susan: That's exactly what I thought when I read that question. I'm like, I think it's quit trying to plan for every eventuality and just do something. Even if you're doing it on the side with a full time job in the, you know, corporate world or whatever the case may be. When you started, was it started as a side hustle or did you? You know, completely quit your old job and start your company.
[00:02:34] Geetika Agrawal: No, it started as a side hustle. I didn't quit my job, but I did take a year long sabbatical to just completely devote myself to working on it. But I was going to go back to my job. I just wanted to dedicate that time to it because I had been thinking about starting for so long and I was just not taking the step. And an opportunity came through where I could travel for a year to many countries. And I just thought this was the perfect way for me to start building our first set of artists on the platform. And so I took that opportunity and started building it.
[00:03:06] Susan: How did your architecture education lead to developing digital products for MasterCard and other companies?
[00:03:15] Geetika Agrawal: Well, my architecture education really gave me a really strong foundation and systems design and design thinking. And at the end of it, it's all about understanding human behavior. What people need and really solving them through design lens and helping improve their lives, whether it's designing a building or a digital experience.
So transitioning to digital products, I just brought this holistic understanding of humans to create these meaningful experiences. So, for example, when I was working for products for MasterCard my goal was to design a better card holder experience for people when they use it for shopping and travel. And so it was really about understanding what human needs are and that is really the skill that architecture taught me is how to think systematically and use design thinking to solve a problem.
[00:04:10] Susan: It's really interesting. And, you know, that underscores this thing that I think about a lot, which is that getting a degree that directly ties to the job that you're going to have in 20 years is maybe not the move. Maybe it's get the degree that like lights you up and makes you excited in the moment and let that inform what you do later. It sounds like maybe that's a little bit of how that worked for you.
[00:04:36] Geetika Agrawal: Yeah. And to be honest, it's not that I really planned that I wanted to go into architecture because this is what I was planning to do 10 years from now. I was just naturally drawn to architecture because yeah, it's just a creative field and I enjoyed the creative process. But I do think looking back, I think it's best to go for an education that teaches you how to think and how to come up with processes because the world is constantly changing and it's changing at a rapid pace now.
So, the fields, the industries, they're all going to be changing. But if you know how to think and come up with the process, you can adapt more easily. So I thought architecture really gave me that foundation to think and adapt and develop creative processes based on the problem I was looking at.
[00:05:24] Susan: The program that you were in sounds so cool to me. I know while you were in school, you spent summers studying traditional Indian crafts in different places. Can you talk about that a little bit and how it impacted you?
[00:05:38] Geetika Agrawal: Yes, absolutely. So my architecture program was very well rounded. It was not just about building the technical skills, but really understanding the society, the humans that we designed for. So, during my summers I would travel to different places, parts of the country, and really spend a month or two learning from various master artisans.
And just observing them practice these centuries old techniques taught me the value of tradition, their resilience, and the storytelling and craft. And it just instilled in me a deep respect for cultural heritage and just sparked a realization that a lot of these skills that are passed down are our two generations are a living legacy. And it also gave me a deeper insight into the place, its materials, its weather the belief systems, the people and the community and how they think.
And artists continue to reflect these ideas into their works. So it really, helped me develop an appreciation for the vast depths of knowledge and skills that exist within these craftmasters around the world that most of us don't get access to in our lifetimes. And then over time, of course, I learned that there are 30 million plus Master artists all around the world, and they possess all these invaluable skills and knowledge that are truly important in today's time, especially as we move more and more towards the AI world. Yet, these artists and their knowledge remains completely inaccessible. So that kind of, that's where the seed of the Baba was planted to make their knowledge more accessible.
[00:07:28] Susan: I think you just already answered this question, but just in case, after working for all of these big brands that are household names, what was the, I don't know, draw or final straw that brought you into entrepreneurship?
[00:07:45] Geetika Agrawal: Yeah. I loved working for all these global brands. But I think there's something deeply fulfilling about creating something that aligns with your personal values and vision. And for me, it was about taking everything I had learned. through my education and my entire professional career and applying it to solve a problem that I deeply cared for, which was how could I truly bring access to this education to the world and that will help us thrive in the rapidly changing world. So I believe entrepreneurship just lets you create impact at a deeper level. And with VAVA, I felt that could truly make a difference.
[00:08:23] Susan: So you're saying VAVA, which is Vacation with an Artist. Can you describe that? What is the vacation? What is a traveler experience?
[00:08:33] Geetika Agrawal: Right. Well, before I go into that, I just want to define what we mean by an artist. So in the context of VAVA, we define an artist more expansively and, that includes master practitioners across diverse disciplines like painters, potters, textile weavers, woodworkers, bamboo bicycle makers, chefs, writers, tattoo artists, beekeepers. Basically, anyone who has a deep connection to tradition or innovation and someone who's dedicating their life to creating something with their hands and whether it's like functional, decorative, or conceptual.
So what we do at VAVA is, we're creating this one of a kind platform that connects these artists with learners around the world to share their craft in person. So as a traveler, you can go and spend a week or longer, if you like, kind of like a mini apprenticeship experience and truly learn the skills from them, but also immerse into their daily rhythms of their life connect with their local community, their culture, and truly see the through their eyes. And so you could be learning from a calligraphy master in Kyoto, to a shoemaker in London, to a natural dyeing and textile artist in Mexico.
[00:09:53] Susan: It's almost like an adult exchange student program, except for there's no exchange. It's just one way.
[00:10:01] Geetika Agrawal: Well, actually, no, there is absolutely an exchange. And also it's not just for adults. It's also, it's for anyone. Like we have a lot of children who go on this with their families, obviously. We have young families sometimes even just, you know, about if they're above, 13, like kind of teenagers they can also do the, do this on their own.
But yeah I believe like any experience like this is always a two way exchange because as much as the artist teaches you things there's an exchange of ideas because depending on where you're coming from, what your background is, you're also sharing your ideas and that's really a lot of inspiration for the artists. It's almost for them traveling to your part of the world and immersing into your life and then bringing it into their work. So yeah, that's what we always see is that it's a two way exchange.
[00:10:49] Susan: Interesting. How do you select and vet those master artists and crafts people? Like The Bamboo Bicycle Maker. I need to know more about that. So how do you choose those people? And what makes somebody a really ideal fit?
[00:11:06] Geetika Agrawal: Yeah. Well, the world is truly rich with a lot of crafts. So while, you know, the popular ones are obviously the fine arts and some of the other visual arts we know, but traditionally craft was just ways of making things that we use in our day to day life. So whether it was baskets, to bamboo bicycle making, to rattan weaving, to calligraphy, like every culture has craft as a way to build things. So when we start looking at artists, we look at the world of crafts and see how that craft intersects with the place.
And then we look for artists from that region who represent that craft in the best way. So we carefully curate artists who are masters of that craft often with decades of experience. And their work is rooted in the cultural heritage of the place. And beyond skill, we look for the personality. Are they willing to share their knowledge and create that wonderful, immersive, welcoming experience. So we went through interviews, studio visits and also just discussions to ensure they align with our values and and quality.
[00:12:14] Susan: Do people ever think it's weird when you reach out to them, like, why are you calling me? I'm just here making shoes.
[00:12:22] Geetika Agrawal: Surprisingly, no, because, and that was the insight, is that there are all these incredible artists from all around the world and they realize how special their knowledge is and how wonderful it would be to share that knowledge because teaching is somehow a way to take stock of what you know.
And as an artist, after a while of practicing something for so many years, so many decades, teaching really provides an outlet for you to understand your own work. And additionally, most artists are very, actually to be an artist, you have to be really open minded and curious. And so for them, this is a way for them to have the world in their studio and they look forward to that.
[00:13:06] Susan: It's probably inspiring in some ways to have these new inputs into your day to day life.
[00:13:14] Geetika Agrawal: Absolutely. Absolutely.
[00:13:16] Susan: How do you see your company contributing to the preservation of craftsmanship and these cultural traditions that you started observing when you were in architecture school?
[00:13:30] Geetika Agrawal: Yeah, I think, like I said a little bit earlier too, like by connecting these master artists with learners, we're creating this global exchange of knowledge and culture and every VAVA experience then supports the artist financially, but it also gives them an opportunity to teach and pass on their knowledge, which eventually helps in the promotion and preservation of that craft. And for travelers, it's not just about learning. It's also about developing a personal connection to those traditions which fosters appreciation and again leads to the preservation of the craft.
[00:14:12] Susan: Have you ever had someone go and learn like beekeeping and then go home and become a beekeeper?
[00:14:17] Geetika Agrawal: Oh, absolutely. We have so many of those stories specifically for beekeeping. We had a couple and they were interested in learning beekeeping because they just wanted to, they have a house and they wanted to do beekeeping in their backyard, but didn't really have all the skills to really start doing that. Because bees are really important for our ecosystem and so they were interested in that.
So they went, learned how to do beekeeping from Rob, who's one of the VAVA artists in Napa Valley in California. And then they went back and they built their own, beekeeping processes and make honey and all the other byproducts.
[00:14:55] Susan: Oh, wow. That's so cool. We like to make sure that our listeners come away from every episode of Top Four with some specific practical either tips or ideas that they can try in their businesses and their personal lives and in their travels.
For someone who is embarking on a creative journey, like someone who's listening to this right now and is like, oh my God, this sounds perfect for me. What should they consider before selecting an apprenticeship?
[00:15:29] Geetika Agrawal: I would just start by reflecting, what draws you to a specific art form or a place? Is it the process? Is it the tradition on the culture behind it? Is it the skill itself? Or maybe you've always wanted to go to that place and really get to know more about that place, but through its art. So I would start reflecting on that.
Then if you're deciding to do a vacation with an artist, then you can look at each individual artist's story and approach and see if that aligns with your world view and see if you want to learn from them. Because, I think one of the more important thing is you're not just going to learn skills, but you're engaging with the artist's perspective and cultural context. And that's really what makes the experience more meaningful because when you come back, you may not necessarily have a career in bamboo bicycle making, but you could, you totally could.
But maybe that's not your goal. But at least you'll come back with new perspectives and you can apply that into your life. So I think it might help expand how you think about it. And if you really can't decide, I would say, just get out of your comfort zone and surprise yourself. Those are usually the best experiences and it's usually just a week. So, yeah, it's going to be a great experience.
[00:16:56] Susan: I so appreciate you saying that you're not necessarily going to leave with a new career because the whole time we've been talking about this, I'm like, I would love to do every single thing that's on your website. And I would be so bad at 9 out of 10 of the items. So it's good news that you don't have to anticipate becoming like an expert at X, Y, Z thing to still get a lot out of it and enjoy it.
[00:17:21] Geetika Agrawal: Yes. No. And that's, I'm so glad you said that because you could be a beginner. You could be someone who just want, who's just a hobbyist and enthusiast, just intrigued by it and still go on a VAWA, or you could be an advanced, like creative and an artist or designer, and you could go for that.
So all these apprenticeships are one on one. So the entire experience is tailored to your skill level. So it's going to be you and the artist and the artists will work at wherever you are. And in that week, you will, you'll progress to whatever your level is and that's all you need. That's like a great immersion. And then you come back, you practice that, you take it wherever you want it to. And maybe next time you either go decide to go deeper, if it really pulls you in or you try something else.
[00:18:10] Susan: Makes sense. How do you see technology shaping or disrupting or both the more traditional crafts and the experiential learning industry overall? Like I'm thinking about things that people are crafts people in that we may not need anymore. How does that, what does that look like within the context of your business?
[00:18:40] Geetika Agrawal: Sure. Well, at the highest level, I would say I see technology as just like a tool to extend our human intelligence and creativity, whether it's computer aided technology or if it's handmade hand based technology. So I don't necessarily see that digital technology will disrupt some of these crafts, but it is going to widen the gap between the two different types of technologies.
I see that as the world becomes more AI driven, and we all have access to the same tools to come up to generate new ideas. I think the need to develop skills that will help us generate more differentiated ideas will become even more important. And I believe that the value of working with our hands and gathering primary info and learning directly in the real world will become even more critical.
[00:19:40] Susan: That's what I thought you were gonna say or that's what I was thinking about when I was thinking about this question that it almost becomes like this rare gem that only one person at a time can access and it can't be sped up and it can't be commodified. If that makes sense.
[00:20:01] Geetika Agrawal: Yeah, I think we'll just need a new source. for our creativity, a new source of inspiration. And I think that's what it's going to become. And it's almost going to become essential for our, for human progress and also self preservation.
[00:20:15] Susan: Interesting. Well, we have reached the fortune telling portion of our show.
So now is the time to predict the future so we can come back later and see if you got it right. What is a prediction that you have about the future of traditional crafts? I put brass lamp making as an example here, but we could also talk about bamboo bicycles or beekeeping or anything else that you want to refer to.
[00:20:45] Geetika Agrawal: Yeah, I mean, I truly believe we'll see a revival of these traditional crafts. To the point I was making earlier, as we live in an increasingly digital world crafts will continue to evolve to blend tradition with our contemporary needs. But the core, the human ingenuity, and the cultural stories will remain intact. So some of the crafts might die because they're not solving our needs, but a lot of them will just evolve. But they are here to stay. They're not going anywhere.
[00:21:20] Susan: If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about the way that people engage with art or with craft, what would that be?
[00:21:30] Geetika Agrawal: You know, I actually say this a lot is it's my dream to have a day when I hear no one say, I'm not an artist.
[00:21:40] Susan: Interesting.
[00:21:41] Geetika Agrawal: I truly believe the act of creating is deeply human. We are, we're born to create. And even when you make a sandwich, you are making countless creative decisions as to what you're going to put in it and what's the taste you're trying to achieve and everything. So I believe all of us are always, on a daily basis, involved in the creative process, and it's very fulfilling and joyful.
And I want to encourage people to see art, not just as a thing to consume, but more as a lifestyle and a mindset. It's a way to think and connect with life, with others, with history and with most importantly yourself. So it's not a luxury or something that your artist friend does. It's deeply human and a form of expanding ourselves. So I really hope that people start seeing art as a means to their own growth versus as humans versus something that they consume or someone else does.
[00:22:46] Susan: Do you have any artistic hobbies or practices?
[00:22:51] Geetika Agrawal: Yeah, I'm involved in creative practices all the time. But specifically if we have to go into specific crafts, I would say, there's a lot of dance, and ceramics, and textiles. Like these are three of my areas that I truly enjoy.
[00:23:06] Susan: I think I need to get more hobbies. What is next for you and what is next for Vacation with an Artist?
[00:23:15] Geetika Agrawal: Yeah, well next for me is really scaling VAVA globally because we have, like I said, we have 30 million master artists worldwide. So it's about bringing more diverse artists onto our platform. A lot of these artists are really hard to reach because they are most, there are a lot of them are not online. They're busy making work in their studios. So we're trying to figure out how to reach out to them, how to get them to onboard onto the platform so they can continue to teach.
And on the other side, we're also building and learning how to scale our customer service, so that we can continue to provide a very deep level of personalized experience to each person. So, yeah we treat each guest who books through the platform with a lot of care. You know, providing them recommendations for travel and like everything that they would need for their planning. So we want to continue doing that for each customer as we grow.
[00:24:14] Susan: Excellent. Okay, folks, before we tell Geetika goodbye, we are going to head down to the loading dock where all of the best stories get told.
Elevator voice announces, “Going down.”
[00:24:28] Susan: Geetika, what is a story you would only tell on the loading dock?
[00:24:33] Geetika Agrawal: I was thinking about this, and I don't know if it's a story, but a pattern that I noticed. So before the pandemic, we had a lot of women who were traveling to do these apprenticeships. They would mostly travel solo, or maybe they would travel with a friend, or mother, or daughter. But after the pandemic, we started seeing a lot of couples going on these experiences. And I joke, I think it's those couples who survived the pandemic learned how to be together.
[00:25:11] Susan: It's true, it's so true. And I will tell you that my husband, who is an artist, a painter, and I spent the pandemic doing the weirdest stuff. Like we, would make up these parties to hold or like create scavenger hunts for each other and stuff like that. And we sort of miss it. I mean, that's a very privileged thing for me to be able to say because nothing went terribly awry for us, but like having all of that time to hang out together, it was really fun. We had a good time.
[00:25:45] Geetika Agrawal: Yeah, no it's truly, it's really impressive because before the pandemic, the things we used to hear were, well, it's really hard for me to do something because my partner will not enjoy doing the same thing. So, we want to spend time together five days, but we don't know how we'll spend five days doing that.
But after the pandemic, we're seeing more couples doing the same thing together. And even if they are not, the partners are traveling with them. They might just hang out and explore the city on their own while the other person is in the studio learning. So at least they're doing this together. And that's just like such a wonderful thing to see.
[00:26:23] Susan: Yeah, that's really interesting. Geetika Agarwal, thank you so much for being here. I know that our listeners are all now going to comb through all of the options on your website and book trips. And I really hope they do. And I hope I do too. Thank you for riding with us to the top floor.
[00:26:43] Geetika Agrawal: Thanks for having me.
[00:31:29] Susan: Thank you for listening. You can find the show notes at topfloorpodcast.com/episode/172.
[00:28:57] Susan Barry: Jonathan Albano is our editor, producer and all around genius. He even wrote and performed our theme song with vocals by Cameron Albano. You can subscribe to Top Floor on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen, and your rating or review will go a long way in helping us give you more of what you like.
[00:29:23] Narrator: Thanks for listening to the Top Floor Podcast at www.topfloorpodcast.com. Have a hospitality marketing question? Reach us at 850-404-9630 to be featured in a future episode.