Meet David Aferiat

We recently connected with David Aferiat and have shared our conversation below.

Hi David, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

1. a curated routine of wellness with healthy doses of self-care
2. a cherished community of friends (with whom we’ve raised our children and in organizations I’ve been privileged to lead (e.g., FACC, EO Atlanta)
3. a strong sense of self, identity forged by extended family, friends, and mentors that raised me as well as the crest of family values we created and live by in my own nuclear family: wife and 2 beautiful daughters

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

Ever taken a Clifton Strengths assessment? My strengths are communication which I leverage with a Woo personality and an ability to form strategy from data and information. I like connecting people to new experiences whether its advanced trading software to active investors, or clean, small production champagnes I bring from France to American clients.

Throughout my leadership experiences as president of regional and local chapters of the French American Chamber of Commerce or Entrepreneurs Organizations, my goal is to motivate clients and other leaders to serve ideals larger than ourselves. My essence is about doing so with authenticity. The challenges, heartbreak, and growth in my life is where this authenticity was challenged and required meaningful change. I collaborate with a partner to present a workshop we call A Hero’s Journey to those who are faced with change and seek the resiliency to pivot towards such growth.

Combined, my contributions to my tech and sales consulting clients, my resiliency workshops, and Champagne import business bring a wealth of experiences from which I learn constantly.

I’m most excited at introducing a new, small production Champagne winemaker from a domaine now run by two sisters called Rafflin Lepitre. It’s never set foot in the US until now and it is the kind of owner-grower, clean Champagne that surprises and delights with no regrets afterwards. Stay up date on the journey beginning at avidvines.com

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

3 areas of knowledge most impactful on the journey:
1. Emotional intelligence: This means learning to identify and label what state of emotion you are in at key moments. Who’s driving the emotion bus? Just thinking this way will create a filter, a pause that can save you from rash reactions. It took me 6 months of yoga 2-3x a week to change the flexibility of my body, but twice as long as for it to enable me to cultivate this ‘slow things down’ mental skill. A mentor of mine, Dandepani, is a true Guide in this area for me.

2. Travel as an explorer; save the tourism for family vacations: I lived abroad in France as a student for a year and it changed my outlook on what is possible in life and the different ways to get there. When I didn’t have the means to go other places for extended periods of time (e.g., several months in Israel), I raised funds from veteran groups and came back with stories and experiences to share. One my personal mantras today is that if you go anywhere where English is not spoken, you will go far in endearing people if you can say Please, Thank You, and Where is the bathroom? in their language.

3. Commit to being a lifelong learner: Not consecutively, but at various stages of my life where I wanted to challenge myself and pivot to growth, I returned to school (e.g., for my MBA and largely paid for by my employer at the time, Kraft Foods) and returned to learning (e.g., joining a peer to peer association of owners called Entrepreneurs Organization (EO)). Not only did I learn the topics and tactics to develop strategy, but I continually get access to amazing Guides of all ages for my journey.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

If you are a fellow provider of exceptional experiences for your clients and always seek to improve the customer’s journey so they never leave, let’s discuss ways to add value.
I’m always looking for people willing to share their stories of perseverance and how they pivoted to new levels of growth.
Let’s start the conversation about a love of travel and where you’ve been that’s impacted you the most. Where it goes from there will be part of the experience knowing each other.
Please connect with me at [email protected] as a starting point.

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