Hi, I’m Tatiana Kuznetsova, the creator of the Poggio del Moro winery. There are some things that change your life. For good. Speaking at the ESEC was one of those things. Starting, I felt totally disconnected: the community I never met, the setting still unfamiliar, the hardly relatable experiences – all to frustrate me, make me want to get inside my bubble and “keep distance”. And as I went on, a shift in views, a change of perspective occurred. Not only have I started feeling as empathetic and reciprocal as never before, but I realized, how empathizing and reciprocative was my audience. And it overshadowed all: the anxiety, the discomfort, the novelty of speaking for someone so different. Yet the factual differences between our genders, ages, nationality and professional experience have suddenly become irrelevant, as I realised that we share the same emotional, human nature.

At ESEC, Olga reminded me that we are not the success we make, but what we make of it. During the event, I, a winemaker from Tuscany, Italy, became a writer and a film maker from the States on my way to conquer the Arabic world as a foreigner, a woman and an artist. Through the role reversal, I have found my inner Voice and came to using it in the most powerful and impactful of ways. Speaking publicly has never been better.