Interview With Invisible Mentor Christina Ioannidis Part Two

Interview With Invisible Mentor Christina Ioannidis Part Two

Today, we present Part Two of Christina Ioannidis' interview (Read part one of the Interview with Christina Ioannidis). Once again there is lots of useful information for you. Get a pen and notebook and pay special attention to her five life lessons and the steps she took to succeed in her career.

I have conducted hundreds of interviews over the years, and one of the things that I have discovered, is that the advice that interviewees give often transcends a particular job function and industry. So even though Christina is an international speaker, consultant and seasoned entrepreneur, her advice is also good for someone in a staff or management role. You can read more about Christina, her bio is at the end of the interview, and a link to her website is in the Tell me about yourself section. I present Christina Ioannidis.

Interviewee Name: Christina Ioannidis: 
Company Name:  Aquitude
Website: www.aquitude.com
Christina Ioannidis – Your Invisible Mentor
Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Christina Ioannidis: I am a Greek-Venezuelan who lives in London. My passion in life is to support other people and inspire individuals to do what they are passionate about, and that’s what I do on a professional and daily basis. I am the founder and CEO of Aquitude.

Avil Beckford: How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

Christina Ioannidis: Studies are showing, and it is my experience that you have to link your personal and professional life. You have to find the intersection between what you are passionate about, the skills that you have, and the market or the role on a professional basis to deliver those skills and bring in that passion. The intersection of those three areas is key.

As an example, in my life, I went to school, to university. I won all the awards that you could possibly win. I was top, top, top and I was going to be the next CEO of Proctor and Gamble. That was my ambition when I was 24. This is not an exaggeration because I was very ambitious. However, what I didn’t realize is that even though I was on a good career path I was desperately unhappy for a very long time and I thought it was because I was single and I didn’t have a boyfriend for five years. And I’m being honest about this because that was the kind of messaging that I gave myself that there was something wrong with me because I didn’t have a partner. I had everything else besides a partner, so I thought if I was unhappy, it must be that.

My redundancies came along and I started aqua, and I realized that it wasn’t because I didn’t have a partner why I was unhappy. I’d gone through life following a path that was expected of me, that I thought was right for me. The day that I started aqua, which I told you about was the day I met my future husband to be, everything changed for me. I lost a lot of weight, I cut my hair, everything about me shifted and I was the happiest and still am the happiest I have ever been. Despite all the upheavals in my life, I’m doing something which is creative. I realize that’s one of my strengths. I’m a very creative person. I am able to use my skills as an inspirer, someone who inspires people.

I love talking in public, I love training, which was what I was doing in the shop as well because I was responsible for getting the customers to sit down and design so I was using those skills. And I’m also using my natural communications skills because I am very external facing in everything I do. These were things that I was not doing before. That’s where the intersection comes in.

Identify what you are best at, what you love doing, which for me is the same thing. If you love doing something, you’re probably best at it, and they are probably your best skills so find a way to bring it into your career, into your job, and if your job doesn’t bring it to you, then do something to change it.

Avil Beckford: What’s a major regret that you’ve had in life?

Christina Ioannidis: I don’t have regrets.

Avil Beckford: What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

1. Focus on what you love doing.
2. Build a network of people to help you through your challenges, whether it’s your Board of Directors, Power Minds Group. These are people who do not necessarily know you too well, but they know you enough to give you an objective view.
3. Use two ears and one mouth ratio, so listen.
4. Seize the day. Don’t wait for tomorrow to do what you can do today. Last year I had a really bad accident. I could have died last year. Luckily I was injured but not terminally, so that made me realize how finite our life is. That made me realize that I’ve got to do what I want to do now, and be happy because I don’t know whether in 60 year’s time I’ll be around. Who cares if I have savings or not, because I’ll be lucky to live until I’m 90 years old or 100 years old.
5. Love people around you, share the love, and don’t be embittered. A lot of people walk around in their lives feeling negative, unhappy in their jobs, feeling helpless, and at the same time spreading negative vibes and negative energy. Negative energy only gets people to spew negativity toward you, so it becomes a vicious cycle. Be very aware of the energy you give to other people, because it’s only positive energy that pulls people your way, negative energy pushes them away.

Avil Beckford: When you have some down time, how do you spend it?

Christina Ioannidis: My husband would say that I don’t have down time. But when I have down time, I enjoy going to the gym. I have a lot of energy so it helps me to exercise, do yoga and pilates. I like sitting on the sofa with my husband watching TV and not thinking about anything.

Avil Beckford: What process do you use to generate great ideas?

Christina Ioannidis:

I am a highly visual person so I use mind maps. I start drawing the issue I am thinking about and let my mind run wild. I write words that come into my head, and there is one technique that I use which is called “What if” so I would ask myself “what if you tried X or what if you tried Y” and let the mind map take over the sheet. I also spend a lot of time mulling over things, and it’s just relaxing thinking time, people watching, not so much to getting too involved, but making my brain simmer on what I’m trying to think about.

Avil Beckford: What’s your favourite quotation and why?

Christina Ioannidis: “Failure is the only opportunity to begin again more intelligently,” by Henry Ford.

Avil Beckford: How do you define success?

Christina Ioannidis: That’s a $10 billion question. I define success by knowing that I have achieved what I want to achieve. Success for me is about the creation of something. I have never associated it with money, that’s why with the failed business I remortgaged my flat. It’s about being happy with what I have achieved what I set out to do, and it has worked the way that I wanted it to.

Avil Beckford: In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

If I had the formula for success I would be selling it in potions.

Avil Beckford: What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?

Christina Ioannidis: 

I think when I was in my corporate life I was very successful financially. When I left my corporate life I wasn’t as financially successful because I had a serious setback. However, I think overall I was more successful in my entrepreneurial life because I was able to create something, make it grow to a certain point. Now the steps would be:

• Always keep learning and be open to taking in information even if it’s about an industry, or a way of doing things, or purely about business. Have your radar screen open to what’s going on around you because things can shift from one day to the next. In September 2008 the world changed with the credit crunch and that was in 24 hours. There were warning signs but not many people picked them up.
• Be willing to adapt, as people we are set in our ways, and we do things the way we want to do them, but as entrepreneurial people know, you have to sometimes switch your strategy and positioning because the market may have shifted, or something may have happened externally to the business that will influence you. And this also comes down to the personal level to be flexible because nothing is set in stone.
• Be very clear with your communications with others, so that you don’t get disappointed if a relationship does not work. You have to safeguard yourself against that, and set expectations, agree how you are going to work together.
• Work with people who are different from you, bring in people who complement your skills set. A good example is myself and my co-author. She is a financier so she is highly organized person. I’m very creative and I’m very passionate. Put us together and we complement each other perfectly. It makes for a good collaborative working relationship, but had I not been aware of how different she is to me, we probably would have had so many arguments. But because I know what strengths she brings, she appreciates the strengths I bring, we work very well together, because we both come to it from a place of mutual respect.  When we set out to write the book together, to work together, we said this is the reason we are working together because we know we are complementary, and we say that every time we speak to anybody.

Avil Beckford: What advice do you have for someone just starting out?

Christina Ioannidis:

1. Get yourself a mentor, someone who is respected in the field who could help guide you along the way. And, not just one, try and find as many people as possible that could offer advice. And it doesn’t have to be too formal; it can be on an informal basis.
2. Work really hard but be intelligent about it, so spend your time and energy on things that you want to work on and enjoy doing. But at the same time make sure that all the right people who need to know about your work know it. So that’s about promoting yourself a little bit while you are also performing.
3. Follow your passions and make sure you are always doing something that you really enjoy rather than getting caught up in the whole materialistic “I’m going to have a bigger salary,” because ultimately it comes to the point where it’s not about the salary, it what’s make your heart or gut rise up in flames of passion.

If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

Christina Ioannidis: 

1. Katharine Hepburn because she brings in femininity with a kind of androgynous look so I find her inspiring because she is a beautiful woman and at the same time emancipated for her time, and I like that.
2. I would bring my grandmother back to speak to her one last time.
3. Oprah Winfrey, I find her a very interesting woman.
4. Mahatma Gandhi
5. Indira Gandhi because she was also an interesting woman

I would ask a few questions and simply listen to them.

Avil Beckford: Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?

Christina Ioannidis:

I mentioned earlier the role my mother and grandmother played in my life, and there was one book Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang, and it’s a story about three generations of Chinese women. It’s a very thick book, but it’s extremely gripping. It talks about the power that each one of these women had to overcome the challenges of their generation. So that had a very big impact on my life because I completely reflect the story in the story of my grandmother, my mother and myself. I think it’s a book that you would enjoy.

Avil Beckford: If you were stranded on a deserted island, what are five books that you would like to have with you and why? Summarize the book in two sentences.

Christina Ioannidis:

You could go one of two ways, you can say I would like to have all my favourite books with me, or if I’m on a deserted island then I have the time to spare to learn something new. So I would take books that I haven’t had the opportunity to read because of life.

• I would take a photo album with pictures of all my family and loved ones. I’m highly visual so I need those pictures.
• I would take Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China because it’s important to keep reminding myself of the story.
• I would take three books that I haven’t read that I’d like to read: The Odyssey and The Iliad by Homer; and I would also take a compendium of works by ancient Greek Philosophers to increase my knowledge on the basic fundamentals of philosophy, but also the ethos by which the ancient Greeks established that magnificent spirit of learning. And that by the way is not just male philosophers, there were also female Greek philosophers that I’d love to learn more about.

Avil Beckford: What one music CD and movie would you like to have with you (on the deserted island) and why?

Christina Ioannidis:

Let’s start with film because that’s an easy one for me. I always loved and shared the same passion with my mother for the film Gone with the Wind (Two-Disc 70th Anniversary Edition). And I guess the reason why it’s important is it’s a woman’s story of survival against all odds. I just find it an absolutely beautiful film considering it was made in 1936. It has a lot of interesting parallels to modern day women. I’m challenged with the CD because I would be torn between two. I would take a CD with Chopin’s Nocturne (constitute 21 short pieces for solo piano) and I would also take Requiem in Full Score (Latin Edition). Both those works move me in very different ways.

Gone with the wind (trailer)

If you cannot view the YouTube video, click here.

Chopin Nocturne Op.9 No.2 (Arthur Rubinstein)

If you cannot view the YouTube video, click here.

Mozart – Requiem

If you cannot view the YouTube video, click here.

 Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Christina Ioannidis: Someone used a phrase called the beautiful texture of life. It’s the tapestry of life which excites me.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Christina Ioannidis: Taking everything in, being open, being accepting, noticing details of what people are saying, being aware of now instead of thinking about tomorrow all the time.

Avil Beckford: If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for? Or, if I gave you a magic wand, what would you use it for?

Christina Ioannidis: Good health!

Avil Beckford: Complete the following, I am happy when…..

The sun is shining.

Get Started Here – I want to help you get started on your learning journey. Read The Invisible Mentor 2015 Reading Challenge, then Join the Facebook Group for the Reading Challenge today, connecting the ideas from the books you read!

In the meantime, THANK YOU for your time… Thank you for sharing this post, and thank you for connecting with me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest! What was your biggest takeaway from today?

Brought to you by Avil Beckford – dedicated to helping you grow and blossom professionally. You’re never alone!

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About Christina Ioannidis:

Christina Ioannidis (www.christinaioannidis.com) is an international speaker, consultant and seasoned entrepreneur.

A Venezuelan – Greek, she is the founder and CEO of Aquitude (www.aquitude.com) , a leading Organizational, People and Market Development consultancy. Aquitude’s client list include FTSE 100 companies such as Shell, Barclays, Accenture, Mercer, Detica, PA Consulting, among others.

Christina is also sought-after speaker and she delivers interactive and engaging keynotes at conferences worldwide. She is a thought leader on the subjects of gender-savvy leadership and talent management, employee and customer engagement, effective product development and marketing, as well as innovation and intrapreneurship. She has been invited to comment on Sky News, The Sunday Times, The Observer, The Evening Standard, The Guardian, among others.

Christina is the author of “Your Loss: How to Win Back Your Female Talent” (www.yourlossbook.com).

Book links are affiliate links.

Video Credit: Gone With The Wind Movie Trailer Uploaded by beatricecorti on Mar 8, 2008, Chopin's Nocturne in EbM Op.9 No.2 Uploaded by rmannion on Aug 27, 2007, Mozart Requiem Uploaded by madhammu on Mar 5, 2009.

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