The Story Behind The ANOKHI Prestige Experience And Why You Need To Know!

The ANOKHI PRESTIGE Experience brings to the forefront a much-needed supportive environment where women can mix, mingle and share their own personal messages of betterment for everyone to be inspired and celebrate. Check out the story behind T.A.P.E. 

It’s true. Sometimes creating a judgement-free environment where women can encourage and support each can be a gargantuan task. It shouldn’t be. But somehow as women we are hardwired to immediately find faults, poke away at perspectives, and reserve the right to withhold our admiration for others until we feel they are worthy to receive such sentiment.

For us women, this isn’t a newsflash, however as we continue to witness the rise of the “bromance,” we still feel an indescribable prickle of threat when we see women such as ourselves breaking their own barriers towards success.

It’s what is coined as the “Tall Poppy Syndrome” where people (women in this case), instead of celebrating those who have achieved success we immediately look to ways to discredit and bring them down a notch or two.

Which is why I was thrilled when ANOKHI MEDIA launched a unique initiative solely focused on breaking that detrimental cycle of holding each other back. It’s called The ANOKHI PRESTIGE Experience (T.A.P.E) launched by ANOKHI MEDIA’s founder and C.E.O, Raj Girn.

 

T.A.P.E is a members-only boutique series which takes place in an incubator type setting, where women from all walks can mix, mingle and learn from various professionals on ways to live their best life. All the while encouraging and (very loudly) cheering each other on as we hear stories of personal triumphs, while shedding the stigma of cat fights and basically bringing together like-minded women who indeed share a similar goal: to learn, grown and support one another.

With the first successful T.A.P.E event entitled “This Is My Beauty” that took place earlier this spring to a sold-out audience of approximately 200 women, Girn is now looking forward to putting the final touches together for this summer’s “This Is My Style” event set to take place in Toronto in July 2017.

I delved deeper with Girn to get an idea on the genesis of this much-needed platform, what it took for it to come to fruition and how this could mark the beginning of a beautiful (and timely) new encouraging space by women for women.

Hina P. Ansari: What is the mission statement for The ANOKHI PRESTIGE Experience?

Raj Girn: The ANOKHI PRESTIGE Experience (T.A.P.E.) has been formed to bring together like-minded people to IDENTIFY, EXPLORE, LEARN, SHARE lifestyle-based themes, with the aim of curating an incubator type of environment to assist our members in creating their greatest and most rewarding life.

HPA: Where did the title come from?

RG: The definition of “prestige” is the foundation upon which this boutique event series was created: “widespread respect and admiration felt for someone or something based on a perception of their achievements or quality.” I had an idea that centered around this notion that an all-encompassing, 360-degree perspective on any theme based discussion is the most valuable and honest way of elevating oneself from a normal to a prestigious life. The goal with The ANOKHI PRESTIGE Experience, therefore, is to experience it from a multi-dimensional perspective.

 

HPA: Why do you feel that this is the right time to launch this type of initiative?

Raj Girn: With the global climate that exists today, I felt the timing was perfect to encourage an environment of uplifting camaraderie, as well as create a product that would allow for a more intimate exchange between our clients, our community and our ANOKHI brand.

HPA: How did you come up with the two themes that are set for this year?

RG: Fashion and beauty are our sweet spots here at ANOKHI, so it made sense to start a new product with an area where we had vast experience, resources and knowledge.

HPA: What makes this event series different from others that are out there?

RG: There isn’t an event series in Canada that provides what we do with T.A.P.E., that targets the South Asian community. We offer a space where dialogue is exchanged, discussed, and brought to the forefront, that effects our lives on many levels — personal, professional, emotional, spiritual, economical, and so on. We offer what we believe our community wants — the perfect balance between the “feel good” and the “do good”, since we mesh glamour and image with meaningful and purposeful discourse.

HPA: Where you nervous leading up to the “This Is My Beauty” event being that is the first T.A.P.E event?

RG: Great question! You would think, based on the amount of products ANOKHI has launched that I’ve spear-headed over our 14 years since inception that have caused disruption along the way and changed the trajectory of thought process, perception, and cultural image of the South Asian community, (from an external translation by people outside of our community, to an internal sounding board by people from the community who live and breathe the lifestyle), that I would be used to the pressure of launching something new.

If truth be told, no matter how much research, process, due-diligence is performed to ensure success, the reality that you cannot ensure success, does make me nervous before a launch, but it’s a good, exciting nervousness that I welcome because it keeps me in touch, connected, and mindful of what the community, our sponsors/partners, the program participants, and the attending media have to say, and more importantly, to gauge if we have been successful in our goal to provide value to them.

We take all critique on all levels very seriously and dissect it all during a post-mortem think-tank process to better the next time we do the event and the next time we launch a new product.

HPA: How would those who aren’t in the city benefit from T.A.P.E.?

RG: By tuning into our Facebook Live streaming that happens throughout the event at ANOKHI MEDIA and our sister page, OPEN CHEST WITH RAJ GIRN, that provides snippets of the real-time happenings, and gives a real sense of the vibe of the event.

HPA: What do you hope guests will take away from this series?

RG: That this is a safe and encouraging environment where they can participate and lend their voice and experience to a collective that is there to listen and implement knowledge to better their lives — and ultimately, to create their greatest life by their own design.

 

HPA: What was the initial reaction of guests/sponsors/friends when you decided that it’s time to launch this specific type of series?

RG: Overall feedback I received was that everyone was intrigued with us launching a product that was so intimate, interactive, and comparatively small in scope to what we have done in the past, therefore, allowing for a more microscopic look at aspects of the South Asian community than what is currently being offered.

HPA: Usually when it comes to events such as these, there is a very serious women’s-only angle, however for “This Is My Beauty” you also had an interesting male panel discussing, “Beauty & The Male Perspective. Tell me how that came about and what you hoped to accomplish by turning the tables in this case?

RG: The goal here was to bring to light, the ‘behind closed doors’ opinions and perspectives of the male gender so as to uncover whether there truly is a difference between men and women when it comes to beauty, grooming, body image, and self-worth. The goal was not to turn the tables but to provide a platform for men to voice their experiences and beauty I.Q.

HPA: So now that “This Is My Beauty” has premiered to an astounding success, tell me about your plans for the second T.A.P.E event, “This Is My Style”.

RG: To take what we established with the first event, “This Is My Beauty”, and expand on it to incorporate beauty and fashion education, knowledge, understanding. Our amalgamation of “beauty” and “fashion” is what we equate to the term “style”, therefore our summer event is aptly called “This Is My Style”.

HPA: Can you give us a sneak peek on what “The Is My Style” event entails?

RG: Expect a similar fireside chat-keynote-panel-demo template as the beauty event, but with more gusto and amped up discussions.  We are also looking to add a fashion instillation from noted designers. We are opening the vendor’s lounge to more diversity of products and services being showcased and offered to express a larger, overarching definition of “live by style”.

HPA: When will you be scheduling your speaker/sponsor announcements?

RG: We will start announcing them by the first week of June.

HPA: What are your future plans for T.A.P.E. (i.e.: increasing the number of events per year? Any type of expansion in terms of size/topics etc.?) or is it too early to tell at this point?

RG: We are looking to expand the frequency and themes in 2018, and will be announcing this in the fourth quarter of 2017, so stay tuned!

HPA: What advice would you give to those who are interested in being a part of this unique collective?

RG: Go to www.AnokhiPrestige.com, study what the event series is about, and fill out the form that is specific to you: whether you want to become a member, participate as a speaker, performer, sponsor, or cover it for your media outlet, we have specially designed packages for each of these types of participation.

HPA: Women are notoriously hard on other women when it comes to support and encouragement. What do you hope T.A.P.E can accomplish when it comes to women helping women?

RG: I’m a firm believer, through experience and study, that women are in fact far more supportive of each other than popular opinion leads us to believe. I want to showcase that relationship of lifting each other up and putting our foot down when someone needs tough love. Also, I want to ensure that the male quotient is showcased, because there isn’t as much of a difference between men and women in today’s world, when compared to past, stratified societies and cultures.

 

 

HPA: Give me 3 reasons why women should support women?

RG:

1. What goes around comes around.
2. What effects one, affects us all.
3. If you can, why not?

 

HPA: Give me 3 reasons why you think women are very hard on other women?

RG:

1. They are insecure in their own self-worth, therefore, project it upon others.
2. They follow historical taught norms that women cannot because of this that, and the other myth.
3. They actually believe that they are inferior to men.

 

HPA: What advice do you give to the next generation when it comes to creating a circle of support of women by women?

RG: Everything we believe and action, or not, affects us all on a micro and macro level, because the ecosystem of culture, society, and infrastructure is based on belief that is actioned. Raise your voice if you want to be heard, because only those who do, do! Nothing is more powerful, potent, or popular, than that which can be seen and heard. If you want change for the state of women, as Mahatma Gandhi said, “be the change you want to see in the world” – or not; it’s ultimately up to you what our ecosystem is going to be, through your active or passive participation.

The next T.A.P.E event “This Is My Style”, is set to take place in Toronto in July 2017 and the first set of announcements will begin at the beginning of June so bookmark this link: www.AnokhiPrestige.com to stay in the loop for what exciting things the “This Is My Style” event has in store for members, speakers, sponsors, and media.

Main Image Photo Credit:Brooke Cooper/ANOKHI MEDIA