Lisa: 00:01

Hey, besties. My name's Lisa.

Tamara: 00:03

And my name's Tamara, and we're BFFs.

Lisa: 00:06

Tamara and I met when we were about 12 years old growing up in good old Fairbanks, Alaska.

Tamara: 00:11

And we've been best friends forever since.

Lisa: 00:13

That's right. And that's why we've decided to have some fun, friendly conversations with the bestest of best friends.

Tamara: 00:18

We'll talk about how we became best friends, our experiences together, and have other best friends on the show to share how they met. Who knows? You never know

Lisa: 00:28

when you'll meet your next BFF.

Tamara: 00:30

Now let's get into it, how I met my BFF.

Lisa: 00:34

Welcome to another episode of how I met my BFF. Hi, Tamara.

Tamara: 00:39

Hey, Lisa. How's it going?

Lisa: 00:41

It's good. How are you? Are you hot over there in Montana finally?

Tamara: 00:46

Yes. We're having about, like, 95 to a 100 degree days, And unfortunately, the fires have started. We have a fire actually pretty close to Missoula. So it's been smoky. So it's been a bummer, but not surprising with we had a pretty light snow winter and we did have a lot of rain in spring, but anyways, it's fire time.

Lisa: 01:13

Oh, no. Hot land hot I was gonna say Hotlanta, but it's Hot Tana.

Tamara: 01:18

Hot Tana? Yeah. Yep. What about you?

Lisa: 01:21

Ariana is on her way to Montana, but just not Missoula today, so she'll be experiencing that. She's gonna go to Yellowstone and visit one of her friends.

Tamara: 01:30

Nice.

Lisa: 01:30

And I'm heading to Cabo for some time in the pool and relaxation. Nice. And I'm really excited about that. And we've had you know, eventually, I will I will share, but we have some exciting news in our household as well. No.

Lisa: 01:47

I'm not pregnant. That's so funny. I'm 51. That's not that's not the news, But, if you keep tuning in, you'll find out what it is in a couple of weeks. And then I've had it's weird.

Lisa: 02:00

I've had a lot of tech challenges these last few days. It feels like in the last 10 days and I think is like it Mercury retrograde or just it's really random. These weird things keep happening. So I'm hoping that we'll just clear all that out and it all is getting resolved and all the wires the correct wires are connected to each other, so that, all of us have communication and technology that works for the rest of us. So I'm sending that out to all our besties today.

Lisa: 02:33

So all your communications and technologies are gonna work the rest of the week. Alright. Yeah. Today, I'm excited because we have Divya Parak in our studio, and she's got a fun BFF story about her friend, Michelle. Michelle's not joining us today, but that's okay.

Lisa: 02:50

She's still she's still with us, just not in not live on the show. Welcome, Divya.

Divya Parekh: 02:58

Well, lovely connecting with you, Tamara and Lisa. Of course, we know each other. So it's great to see you, and thank you for having me.

Lisa: 03:08

Yeah. And Divya and I met through the International Speaker Network, and yes. She's a speaker, supports speakers, does all kinds of cool business things. I remember the first time I met you, Divya, I hung up or, you know, hung up metaphorically. We're on a Zoom call and I was like, wow, she is really smart.

Lisa: 03:28

Like, you're really, in my opinion, a very smart businesswoman. Do you wanna share a little bit about what kind of brilliance you put into the world?

Divya Parekh: 03:37

Oh, so, well, thank you for asking me. And here's what I share is that helping others is my passion, and I operate on a principle of, like so the first step is you go ahead and have intention of whatever you wanna do. The next piece comes is information. But information doesn't do you any good because the whole Internet and the whole web is filled with information. But now you gotta take the juice out of it and make the insights.

Divya Parekh: 04:10

Alright. So now you have the insights. What do you do with that? You gotta implement it, and you gotta implement it the right way. And once you have implemented it, then it's important to have impact on people.

Divya Parekh: 04:24

Because even if you're implementing it and it does not impact anybody else, it doesn't do you any good. And when you combine all of these things together, it automatically results in income. And so what do I do is I help people create impact and income or increase in income and prosperity is a byproduct. I help them do that through writing authority building books because there are 2 aspects to it. 1 is the authority, which is the foundation that establishes your expertise, and then credibility is that how you're consistent and how do you keep on building upon that authority?

Divya Parekh: 05:06

So I help people with authority and credibility so that they can put the trust in People's Bank. And once you have the trust in People's Bank, there's nothing like it. So we do do that through authority building books, best selling books, media exposure, and through artificial intelligence.

Lisa: 05:27

Yeah. That's the part that's really cool. You've harnessed that piece that a lot of us are still learning and is just ever changing, so that's one of the things I thought, wow. She's really ahead of the curve because this was, you know, you've you've been using it for a really long time. So I know that's not what we're talking about today.

Lisa: 05:43

We're talking about friendship, but certainly these these components are affecting our daily lives. So I'm glad that you're there supporting people who want to get their message out there, make an impact, make an income. Now tell us a little bit about your friendship with Michelle. How did you first meet her?

Divya Parekh: 06:04

It goes back a long time back. So we were actually working together, and we would be sitting in the meeting rooms together. And we both are trailblazers in the sense is that we push the limits. And because we do that, as we started to getting to know each other, we definitely found, like, oh, yeah. You think like me.

Divya Parekh: 06:30

Oh, yeah. You think like me. And it's like, yeah. How does the other person doesn't see that? So we had that commonality.

Divya Parekh: 06:38

And another biggest thing that was common within us was the desire to do our best without any incentive. It again goes back to having that impact. So that intention was there, and then, you know, we hopped out, and then we found out we both love nature. We found out we have to support local farmers. And so there were a lot of different things, and that's how we got into friendship.

Lisa: 07:10

Well, tell us a little bit more about the local farmer thing. That's interesting. What do you mean by that?

Divya Parekh: 07:15

Well, here's the thing. So as you all know, you we can go to supermarkets, pick up the food and all that. And what we love about is, like, you know, when we talk about nature, it is ocean, planet Earth, How we can give back? And both of us are into just not like, okay. Oh, I gotta make my life great, and then I'm done.

Divya Parekh: 07:43

It's like, how are the next generations going to be impacted? What is happening in the local economy? What are we supporting? So as more and more supermarkets have been coming into play so some local farmers have connections with supermarkets, so that's one thing. And then no matter what, if you think the whole supply chain, you'll find that the food that's sitting in the supermarkets has traveled quite a bit.

Divya Parekh: 08:15

So it's not directly from farm to table. So we would just kinda go to the farmers local farmers market because we wanted to support the local farmers. Not only that, but have a fun outing. Yeah. Yeah.

Divya Parekh: 08:32

It's fun. I mean, of course, we went for coffee. You know, both of us love coffee, and we also love good food and all of that. But this was just something we would just go and enjoy. Like, go we would just, first of all, walk around, and so many times, they've got these different plants.

Divya Parekh: 08:51

So we would, like, soak in all the different aromas. You know, there's so many people bringing fresh baked goods, people with fresh produce. So and sit standing there, talking to the farmers, like, you know, where you're coming from. What's their story? And it became such a thing that there were, like, couple of stalls that we would just visit.

Divya Parekh: 09:21

We wouldn't go anywhere else. So forming those friendships. And it is just a different experience because when you go to a supermarket, it is so sterile. Whereas this is it touches your heart, and people are smiling. And it it's just a different environment.

Divya Parekh: 09:37

And what you soak in, it makes for such a wonderful experience.

Lisa: 09:42

Yeah. I think it brings back, like, that sense of village or community, back when, you know, we before we had all this separation, right,

Divya Parekh: 09:51

of

Lisa: 09:52

of space between us and all the people. So, I can really relate to that. So then so you guys met at work. You 2 met at work and then started to realize you had other things in common. How long have you been friends now?

Divya Parekh: 10:08

Probably over 10 to 12 years, maybe more. I don't remember exactly what

Lisa: 10:14

anymore. Right? You you don't work at the same company?

Lisa: 10:22

So No. How did you how did the how did you decide, like, oh, I think we're best friends now?

Divya Parekh: 10:23

Oh, gosh. We didn't put a time on it that we are best friends. We just found that we enjoy doing things together. And at at one point in time, we both didn't find that fulfillment in the corporate world. So we decided that let's step into the entrepreneurship, and let's build a company together.

Divya Parekh: 10:48

So we actually did that

Lisa: 10:51

for

Lisa: 10:51

For the company?

Divya Parekh: 10:53

The company was around leadership, executive coaching. We did that for couple of years, and then it what had happened was the way the whole system and setup was there. So it was not that we couldn't work together, but just the setup, the legalities didn't work out. So we separated out, but still, we would work together on our businesses together. We would be sitting down and doing Lean 6 Sigma together.

Divya Parekh: 11:21

As part of Lean 6 Sigma, you know, you're running the value streams and where the redundancy is, where's the obstacle, and how can we streamline the processes, how can we make efficiency the second name of the business, and we would do that together. We would work side by side and continued working till she went back to the corporate world.

Lisa: 11:46

Wow. Do you still get to hang out on a regular basis? Like, are you nearby each other?

Divya Parekh: 11:52

So we are nearby each other, but that said, because now she has different schedules, I have different schedules. We do make an effort to connect with each other. We'll go to farmer's market for a walk or for that lovely coffee, you know, where you're just sitting there. And she loves experience. I love experience.

Divya Parekh: 12:16

We used to go to the beach beach together. So we make an effort to kinda redo the things that we enjoy doing it together.

Tamara: 12:27

So I'm wondering for our listeners, why is she not with you today on the podcast?

Divya Parekh: 12:34

Well, here's the thing. It's, she's still working.

Lisa: 12:39

Yeah.

Divya Parekh: 12:41

And and that happens with the time constraint is that the friendship is see, for us, the we have a friendship of that time. Like, let's say even if 5 years were to pass by. It doesn't happen, but I'm just kinda saying I am very fortunate to have those type of friendships where even if I were to pick the threads back up even after 10 years, it would just be like we had met yesterday. So the distance is not the key. It is how you understand each other, how you align with each other, and how there is that trust, and how is that understanding that you can pick right back up?

Divya Parekh: 13:21

You wish the best for them. You're there for them. Like, let's say if I were to pick up the phone, she'd be right here. So that's the type of What would you say

Lisa: 13:32

are oh, sorry. What would you say are the, like, top three qualities that you absolutely love about Michelle?

Divya Parekh: 13:40

Oh, what I love about her is that she'll tell you as she sees. And it's so important to have people like that in your corner because so many people want the best for you. They love you, but they will not tell you what you're doing wrong. And she will not hesitate telling me that. And the second thing is that when she tells me that, it's coming from a place of love without her just kinda ripping me apart.

Divya Parekh: 14:11

She doesn't do that. She'll tell me. She'll tell me as she sees, and yet she has this beautiful way of sharing that. And third thing is that how she's a trailblazer. She will push the limits.

Divya Parekh: 14:26

She will not just kinda let's say somebody's talking mainstream. Like, oh, this is how it is. So she's not just going to blindly follow. She's someone who will take the information herself, think about it, and has her own independent thinking. But she'll be like, you know what?

Divya Parekh: 14:45

Yeah. Even if it goes against the whole mainstream idea, I'm okay with that and that confidence in herself. She's a

Lisa: 14:55

leader. Love that. What do you think she would say or three things she loves about you?

Divya Parekh: 15:02

Well, she has told me that quite often. So one is she always tells me that, like, I would not be able to strike up a conversation with just a stranger. So I'll just kinda share a story. I'm going to put out a blog on that pretty soon. So there is one of the trails that we walk on, and there's this phenomenal lady, Jennifer, where she is on a bike, and as she's traveling, she will just go good morning, you know, with so much energy and enthusiasm that when you look at her, when she looks at you and wishes you good morning, you feel like you're the only person in that moment.

Divya Parekh: 15:45

So today, what I did was, like, you know, this has been we've been wishing and greeting each other for almost, like, I think, so year, year and a half. I just waved at her and said, like, do you have couple of minutes to chat? And she stopped by, and I said, like, you know, I would really love to give you a shout out. Would you be okay if I took a picture with you? And she goes, sure.

Divya Parekh: 16:05

So we got to talking, and now we are going to be going for a walk. So, walk together. So that's one of the things she just loves about me that I don't have any inhibitions. Like, if people will make faces at me, if I smile at them, I'm like, fine. What I wanna do is that I wanna make an impact, and sometimes people are not ready for it.

Divya Parekh: 16:30

It's alright. I understand that. So that's one of the things. And second thing is, again, we are very much similar in that. Like, I just don't like, somebody is going to fill my ears.

Divya Parekh: 16:42

That, oh, that person is like that. That person is like that. I'm not just going to take them at face value. I'm going to sit back, understand the person, and then make my own decision. And then third thing is, again, the trailblazer, which we both admire in each other.

Lisa: 16:58

Love that. Wow. If you guys were together, what would you be doing?

Divya Parekh: 17:07

Most likely, we would either be going to farmer's market

Tamara: 17:11

I was gonna say that.

Divya Parekh: 17:14

Or going for a nice coffee or to the beach or walking in one of our favorite nature trails.

Lisa: 17:24

Oh, fun. Love that. Alright. I can't wait to meet her someday.

Tamara: 17:34

I know. You might get to meet her. Yay. Yeah.

Lisa: 17:37

Maybe well, we'll see. Well, I think, Divya, you're across the country. I'm in California. You're in is it North Carolina?

Lisa: 17:45

Yes.

Divya Parekh: 17:45

I'm in North Carolina.

Lisa: 17:46

Yeah. Tamara's in Montana, so we're all

Lisa: 17:48

Oh, wow. In the field.

Lisa: 17:49

Yeah. I

Divya Parekh: 17:50

hear that about the fires. Well, I hope y'all have fire free. Summer because I used to be in California long, long time back in 9 nineties, and I remember, like, you know, just that smoke and just the fires, they can be so brutal.

Lisa: 18:07

Yeah. They can. Well, I I have to say, I mean, you never know when you're gonna meet your your next best friend. It could be someone at your work. It could be someone on a bike ride or, like, on a walking trail.

Lisa: 18:22

Sounds like, Divvy, you might have a new a new friend in your future, which is kind of exciting. And we're just so glad that you were able to be on our show today.

Divya Parekh: 18:32

Oh, thank you. And if I may share, like, you know, Lisa has become a really good friend. And as a matter of fact, Lisa and I are doing a project together where we are helping speakers.

Lisa: 18:45

Yeah. We're gonna do a book, an anthology for speakers to share. It's called Speaking Your Brilliance and they are going to be able to share some of their brilliance in that book and it's pretty powerful. We're very excited. It's it's kind of like a like one of those things that I could wish about, and then Divya's like, let's make it happen.

Lisa: 19:09

And she has all the tools to do that, so it was really exciting to to put that out there for people who want to be an author and make it easy and make an impact and make income. Right? It's a it's a great way to do that, and we'll put the link in the show notes too so that if anybody wants to apply, depending on when you're listening to the show, we might still have open applications.

Divya Parekh: 19:36

Absolutely. And if I may take the liberty, I would like to share a couple of things that I love about you, Lisa.

Lisa: 19:42

Oh, well, okay. Mhmm.

Lisa: 19:44

So welcome

Lisa: 19:44

back to you.

Divya Parekh: 19:45

So, Tamara, I don't know a whole lot about you, but you seem like a very friendly person. So for Lisa, I think so now I've known her a few times, and here's what I'll share that. Somebody had recommended me to connect with Lisa, and the first time when I met her, she puts you at ease. It's such a powerful thing that she has. And and she knows how to build that community, how to get those people moving.

Divya Parekh: 20:17

So just wanted to share that.

Lisa: 20:19

Aw. Thank you. I appreciate that. I wasn't expecting that. Yeah.

Lisa: 20:28

I I will accept that compliment.

Divya Parekh: 20:31

Awesome. Because so many women tend to shy away from receiving the compliments, and it's important to do that.

Tamara: 20:40

Yeah. Lisa well, I I mean, I probably learned it a lot. I'd say I learned a lot of my social skills. You've helped me. And so, yeah, Lisa and I do very well.

Tamara: 20:54

We have no problem meeting people. When we're together, it's fun.

Lisa: 21:02

So Yeah. We have a good night.

Tamara: 21:04

Many people, you know, in a nice, lovely way, and it's always she's very good at, having people, like you said, respond and open up and, you know, we just know how to ask people the right questions, I think, sometimes. Mhmm.

Lisa: 21:18

Yeah. Most of the time. Yeah. I think one thing Tamara and I have in common is a deep like, a true authentic curiosity about other people. And I say that because for a long time I really took that for granted.

Lisa: 21:30

I didn't think of it as a special thing. But there's quite a few people who are absolutely not curious about a spoonful.

Divya Parekh: 21:41

Yeah.

Lisa: 21:41

And that's okay. That's okay.

Divya Parekh: 21:43

I'll say that. I just wanna share one thing about that. If you're not curious, you can miss out on so much. The way I see it is, like, you know, people are like a treasure trove. The more curious you are, you can learn more.

Divya Parekh: 21:56

And it's just listening to other people's perspectives is so enriching.

Lisa: 22:02

I agree. I just was listening to another podcast, and they had the guest, and I can't remember his whole name, but he was the gentleman. His name first name is Key. He was the gentleman in, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and he was in Goonies and Indiana Jones. Oh my gosh.

Lisa: 22:18

What an uplifting interview. He is, like, my new, like, shining star, north star, per like, just like the nicest man who's had the most interesting, fascinating life. So, again, always open to different perspectives of, like, how how we've gotten to where we are today. It was really cool, and that was on Armchair Expert, podcast with Dax Shepard. Yeah.

Lisa: 22:43

A little shout out to my buddy, Dax. One day. Well, I've actually seen him in person. He just didn't see me. That's okay.

Lisa: 22:52

That's okay. Well, besties, thanks for tuning in to another awesome episode of How I Met My BFF, and we will see you soon when I get back from vacation. And, thank you Divya for being on our show. Thank you Tamara for being my best friend for so many, many years.

Tamara: 23:13

No problem. My pleasure.

Divya Parekh: 23:15

Thank you, ladies, for having me. Appreciate it. Bye.

Tamara: 23:19

Aloha.

Divya Parekh: 23:20

Bye.

Lisa: 23:23

Hey, Bestie. Thanks for listening. If you like this episode, be sure to hit that subscribe button to get notified of new episodes and check out cool bestie gift ideas at how I met my bff.com.

Tamara: 23:33

That's right. And also, leave us a review. Those reviews help us out a lot and are one of the best ways to support us.

Lisa: 23:40

Yes. And if you have a fun story about how you met your BFF, send us an email at info at how I met my bff.com. We would love to hear about it.

Tamara: 23:49

Definitely. And, hey, maybe we'll have you on our next episode.

Lisa: 23:53

That would be awesome. Until next time.

Tamara: 23:55

Love you, BFFs.