We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kim Arazi a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kim, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
After many years working at the forefront of tech and innovation, curating and producing large international conferences that featured the most innovative disruptors, I began to notice that technology was, for the most part, being designed to disconnect us – from ourselves and each other. I saw an inverse correlation between the advancement of technology and the demise of human connection. In other words, the more connected we become technologically- speaking, the less connected we are to ourselves and each other (and nature!)
It was the observation of this disconnection – collective numbness – brought on by society’s addiction to new technologies and the fact that the advancement of AI was encouraging us to outsource more and more of our decision-making, effectively turning us into robots that inspired me to find a way to help people reconnect back to themselves. And so innosensi was born, Innosensi is a ‘sensory innovation’ studio that fuels creativity and sustainable innovation through multisensory experiences designed to help us ‘wake up’ and reconnect to ourselves, each other and nature, using principles from neuro- and behavioral sciences, spirituality and the arts as a way to remember what it means to be human. These multisensory experiences mainly revolve around a dinner as food is the greatest connector (i.e. it’s the most time we spend with nature). In many ways, ‘commensality’ or the practice of eating together, is a lost art and a ritual I wanted to bring back as people feel more open and relaxed – and human – when breaking bread together. So essentially, I use the food to tell a story/convey a message and help people experience it through all their senses.
Kim, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’ve never strived for a linear, ‘climb-the-ladder’ sort of career. I think I’m too much of an artist-entrepreneur type for that – I am super curious, have tons of ideas and always want to meet new people and try new things. Throughout my working life thus far, I have created and worked in a wide variety of creative roles within different industries and countries, always following my heart…and staying true to my passions, even as they changed. From fashion marketing, to television & film development, to co-founding and running a social impact education company to innovation consulting, leadership/communications coaching and event production (in the tech industry) … as a people-person who is fascinated by human behavior and relationships, I find all of it so interesting and even exciting!
I founded innosensi because 1) I wanted to help people wake up to the fact that if we’re not careful, we will end up becoming the robots we’re creating – so wanted to create experiences that reminds us of what it means to be human; 2) I am a storyteller, creative futurist and event producer (and a foodie) who loves hosting dinners and connecting people and ideas so wanted to find a way to bring all these passions together; and 3) I believe the simplest way to help people go ‘in’ and connect to their hearts is through the senses – by engaging all our senses, we are able to really experience life fully.
My multisensory dining experiences (combined with my experience coaching startup founders and executives in communication) have led me into the leadership space where I now, in collaboration with a colleague, also run workshops, online programs and multi-day retreats to help leaders tap into their true essence and create the space for new possibilities, using multisensory and somatic practices…helping leaders learn to tap into their body’s intelligence.
Two things I’m extremely proud of since starting innosensi in 2019 are 1) being invited to host one of my multisensory dining experiences (around the benefits of plant-based cuisine) at the UN for their Climate Change conference and 2) bringing my multisensory dining experiences to the virtual world during the pandemic where I invited hundreds of people around the globe to eat, listen to live musical performances and engage in meaningful conversation, bringing the idea of ‘commensality’ online and demonstrating that we can create strong emotional connections even during times of social isolation.
But due to my passion to change the education system, probably the thing I’m most proud of was curating and producing (and raising the money for) my ‘Women in Tech’ full-day event when I was running WOW Talks (the social impact education company) where I invited 800 girls (15+) from 22 schools to learn about tech – what it actually means to work in tech – through curated talks (by women who were working in different areas of tech), workshops, demos and mentoring. I managed to fund the entire event through sponsorship from some major players and was backed by the Mayor of London. The Head of UN Women opened the event and at the end of the day, we had the girls fill out a survey and 65% of them said they would now consider pursuing studies and a career in tech – after just one day! To see their excitement and watch them get inspired was truly a gift!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I think one of the best examples that I like to remind myself of when I doubt my power and resilience, is how I landed my dream job after graduating from business school. I was living in Vancouver, Canada and had decided that I wanted to move to Tel Aviv to work in fashion. As I knew I wanted an international career, I looked for a company that was recognized globally – and the one that stood out at the time was Gottex (a high-end swimwear brand). So I decided that I was going to work for Gottex as a Marketing Executive. I wrote to them, emailed them, sent them faxes, trying to see if I could possibly get a meeting/call with them, but no one replied. So I decided to move to Tel Aviv in any case, and see what happens.
As I wasn’t fluent in Hebrew, I enrolled in daily Hebrew immersion classes and sent out my resume to Gottex and other fashion companies in the evenings. No one replied. At some point, about six months later (just as I was on my last few dollars), a family contact got me an interview for a job at one of Israel’s top banks, for a role in their foreign exchange department. As I was now getting to the point where I desperately needed a job, I went to the interview and was then brought in for further interviews and tests. I passed all of them with flying colors and in the end, was offered the job – with a very good salary and benefits. My father, my uncles and basically all my relatives in Tel Aviv were so excited for me – this was a prestigious role for someone just out of university. So it wasn’t easy for me to make the decision not to take the job. I really needed the money and had a lot of pressure from my family. However, I had moved to Israel to work in Marketing at Gottex and I wasn’t about to give up on that dream for a boring job in a bank. My intuition told me that this was a test from the universe and that I needed to stay true to my heart.
A few weeks later, I was at a party where I met a woman who told me she was fed up with her job and was leaving it to go travelling. It turned out she worked at Gottex. Through her, I got an interview in the International Sales division of the company and ended up getting hired as Marketing Executive. I remember my first day on the job being invited to meet the founder and designer of the brand in her private studio where the (secret) new collection was kept. I was pinching myself thinking, just eight months ago, I was dreaming about this moment and now I’m here!
To this day, whenever I think I can’t do something, that I’m not capable, not powerful or strong enough, I remember this young woman and how she held out until she got exactly what she wanted.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I think the biggest lesson I’ve had to unlearn is that one needs to hustle in order to get ahead. Coming from a business background where it’s all about bigger, more, faster, harder, and about crushing the competition, I thought I had to be that way in order to be successful. So, like most people, I acted that way, always pushing, forcing, grinding and competing with my peers. But over the past seven years or so, as I’ve become more interested in personal development and spirituality (as well as quantum physics), I’ve come to learn that this behaviour stems from a lack mindset – as if there’s not enough money or success to go around so we need to fight for it – and in the end, only leads to stress, anxiety and dis-ease.
Once I unlearned this behaviour and replaced it with the idea that we can attract whatever we want, rather than fight for it, and that we live in a world of abundance – there is enough for everyone – it changed everything. Suddenly I didn’t feel guilty about ensuring I got eight hours sleep, about not working crazy hours, about saying no to jobs I didn’t want to do, about taking time for myself to exercise, cook healthy meals, be in nature and socialize with friends. I realized that if I continuously do the inner work and take care of both my physical and mental health, that I will be in the right state to attract whatever I need and desire and that this will then have a ‘butterfly effect’ on the planet.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.innosensi.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-arazi-1665763/
- Other: My TEDx talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqQY-1n0GOo&t=7s