Elisa Gaudet
Founder of Women’s Golf Day. She brings more than 20 years of experience in the golf industry to Women’s Golf Day (WGD), which she founded in 2016. This annual global event, held on the first Tuesday in June each year across the globe, engages thousands of women through the game of golf. WGD has become a global movement in which over 1,000 locations in 80 countries have participated, thus engaging new and existing golfers and creating a global community based on empowering and supporting women. In a historically male-dominated sport, WGD transcends language, culture, geography, religion, politics, gender, and age.
How has the pandemic affected you?
Professionally, the pandemic caused us to pivot quickly and develop some online assets and content to keep our consumers, lady golfers, and sponsors involved and engaged while we waited to get back to live events. It was stressful but we are the better for it. As a company it caused us to evaluate our business and diversify our assets and offerings.
Personally, for myself and many others, I believe it brought the importance of mental health to the forefront. Self-care (not just a facial, but mental and physical care and wellbeing) is a really important aspect of every person’s life. As the old saying goes if you are not good to yourself it is difficult to be good to everyone else including family, friends, coworkers, and employees. I had to be compassionate in other people’s situations. We are all in a unique uncharted situation – working from home, homeschooling, partners working in the same space, or being alone. As a global company with ambassadors in 15 of the 68 participating countries, I learned that many had the same issues and were struggling to keep the balance and their sanity and find joy in new ways.
How have you contributed to Covid-19 management at the personal, professional, mental, emotional, or physical level?
Professionally, I practiced patience and understanding for those working for and with me and encouraged them to place importance on self-care. Women as caretakers many times put other things and people before themselves and now, with the pandemic and all the challenges it brought, physical and mental health is really important.
At a personal level, I had to find new ways to get out and exercise and make it a priority to be consistent. I needed to do something daily that would stimulate endorphins. I tried not to beat myself up about weight or work and just do what I was able to do. I got involved in riding and polo lessons, making trips to a farm a few days a week where I could ride a take a lesson. Being in nature among horses and learning a new skill was a lifesaver. I am blessed to live in Florida where there is good weather most of the year. Mentally I tried to limit my computer and mobile phone use and disconnect at the end of the day. I also began working with a neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) specialist. This has been fascinating and so helpful mentally
Message for International Women’s Day
I am so encouraged by this movement, recognition, and solidarity. “We have 68 countries that participate in Women’s Golf Day from all different races, nationalities, languages, religions and the power of that unity for one cause is amazing. Anything that brings women to the forefront of the conversation and inspires unity and development is worth 100% of your energy and interest. I’m happy to see more companies and individuals embracing women and equality. The future looks bright and with all that has gone on the past few years, we all need more light.” Gaudet adds.
Disclaimer
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