SIREN Stories on La Sirena – showcasing the personal side of professional women and SIREN Women’s Cooperative members that live, work and play on Aquidneck Island located in alluring Newport County.
Get to know Sarah Nadimpalli the director of SWC through the signature SIREN questions…
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Read the Transcript
Welcome to Newport Living and Lifestyles.
I’m Christon and we are here with Sarah Nadimpalli from the SIREN Woman’s Coop
and she has put together and organized an entire series just for you
with all the co-op members on La Sirena.
Yes your beautiful boat Christon thank you so much for allowing our SIREN members
who have wonderful businesses, to come on and talk about, not only their businesses
their professional side but their personal side too. I think I’m
gonna get to know you today a little better as well.
I don’t know we’ll see…
You have organized signature questions for everybody today, so this will be really
fun to get to know the deeper side of some of the business owners.
Tell us a little bit about your business.
I opened siren women’s cooperative
along with about 14 founding members one year ago in September . We’ve almost
been in business for a full year and we’re a group of professional women who
come together for one two three monthly talks, that center around topics that
matter to them, such as, work/life manage, women’s health if you’re over 30, telling
your birth story, how to start a startup business. We focus on a range
of personal and professional topics that resonate with women. The talks are
really the beating heart of Siren. We have a lot of fun events, community
collaborations like the one we’re doing with you, many of you know our SIREN book
that’s out and benefiting our community service arm, which is called the “Ready to
Work Exchange” so that’s the the business of SIREN and it’s been a fabulous eye
opening, exciting and enriching year. I’m really thankful to have met you and
so many other women. You are a remember a SIREN.
You are so right,
there are so many great women involved in this program that you’ve started all by yourself.
Well, we have founders and they really contributed.
I kind of say I’m the catalyst, I’m the
lightning rod, but really, you know, at our meetings
members shape what happens, they shape the talks that we host, they shape the
events that happened, the the culture and the tone of the group, really comes out of
member meeting. I can’t, I really cannot take all the credit.
Well somebody with this ambition and this thought is pretty deep person so
let’s get to know a little bit about you. What are some of the things, hobbies
activities or interests that you may get lost in?
Oh so I lose time in painting.
I use acrylic paints and canvas, my favorite class in high school was always
art. My teacher would always have to tap me on the shoulder and get
me to pay attention to go to the next class. My little hobby is art. yeah.
That’s really unique, people have so many different interests.
There’s a lot of that on Aquidneck Island.
What is it that you like about it Aquidneck Island so much?
I was thinking about this actually the other day and I like
that there are so many secrets and hidden gems.
One of our friends Karen Chabot found a mermaid pool off the cliff walk and now
I’m gonna tell everyone about it. I am going to spoil the mermaid pool. I just love that there’s always something…
There’s a couple, I think.
There’s more than one, I’m willing to bet, but I like the secrets the hidden gems.
What has motivated you or pushed you past a struggle in your life.
I think just coming from the Midwest, we have kind of a Midwestern
sense of ethic, you know, when the tough gets going, you just, you know, you bear
down, and you push further and you just keep going. yeah.
Would you be able to name three women that have changed you whether locally or
abroad or internationally or celebrities that have made a difference in your life?
That’s a good one, that’s yeah, that’s a good one. so Ruth Bader Ginsburg has, you know, done so
much for women in shaping policy and law in our favor so she’s one woman.
I was just talking about Lizzo who is this kind of newer to the scene R & B rap artist.
She’s from Detroit Midwest like me and she’s all about being body-positive, and
embracing who you are, and showing up, being seen, so she’s someone I’ve really enjoyed.
Hey Lizzo do you think we can get her up on stage with you?
Come on Lizzo, hook a mid western girl up!
and then, you know, tomorrow we’re at CK Bradley, we were so honored to be
invited to present our book and talk about SIREN there and Suzanne Ramponi
who has done so much for our “Ready to Work Program” will also be there and so
she’s someone I really am thankful for.
Yeah, she’s really special.
Thank you so much for joining us today on La Sirena representing the SIREN Womens Coop.
Wait a minute, Wait a minute. You’re not getting out of this without knowing a little more about the woman…
People don’t need to know about me.
Yes we do and so I want to know
what’s your passion or hobby you lose time in?
Oh boy, um uh let me just say
since moving to Rhode Island I have expanded my interests and hobbies and I
have taken up so many things that I couldn’t just name one. Yeah, so I’m
surfing, I’m sailing, I’m boating, I’m painting, I’m running, I’ve done
triathlons. These are all new things since moving to Newport Rhode Island in
2005 that I never, never would have done before, I don’t think.
So you lose time in a lot of things.
I love it, I just stay busy, it’s wonderful.
Favorite part about the island?
I actually have to go back to that same concept.
Everybody here is very outdoorsy, very, I don’t use the word athletic, but
they have so many broad interests about being outside we get a very short season.
I mean in the winter people ski down my street, on Pelham Steet, I mean it’s the main thoroughfare downtown
and in the summer there’s, you know, paddleboarding and I love that about this place and
people will just say come and work out with us, come and come over here, let’s do this,
and most people have memberships too many different gyms.
that’s cool.
You can do yoga and tennis and it’s just so fun. Everybody’s very welcoming to the community.
Always keep busy. What is something that has motivated you during a time of challenge?
You know, I think that my daughter has inspired me in my entire life.
You know I’ve always wanted her to have somebody to look up to,
and know that no matter what decisions that you make, you can make a change.
You don’t have to you know succumb to either how you were raised or
whatever life that is and says she’s always pushed me to go forward and to
keep going, even in my times of melancholy, and we all have them, We are up, we are down.
So every day I wake up, I say my daughter probably would not like it if I stayed so sad.
It keeps me going every day.
She sounds like one of your three women that you admire.
I have learned a few things hanging out with you.
You know she actually is really special.
She is in a mindset that she makes happen whatever she wants.
She will dream it and it will come.
That is a really unique quality that I think a lot of people want and it’s so natural for her. Yeah.
What other women, that you know of, anywhere,
What other women inspire you?
I have to say all the women that I surround myself with
inspire me every day, just whether it’s, their motivation or
the way they communicate or the way they dress or
their sense of abilities to do certain things.
Everybody has a unique quality so I really find that very unique.
but I have to go back to Oprah
I knew you were going to say Oprah.
You know who doesn’t love Oprah?
She changed the forefront of the way we think, and the way we speak and Super Soul Sundays….
Totally!
This is almost like a Super Soul Sunday right here. We are getting to know each other.
Thanks for answering those questions, that was fun.
Thank you for forcing that out of me, unexpectedly, I appreciate that. It wasn’t
as traumatizing as I thought when you first asked it.
well thanks so much for setting this whole thing up for us.
Check out SIREN women’s Coop www.sirencooperative.com
Sign up, call Sarah, It’s a great program.
and we look forward to seeing you on Newport Living and Lifestyles.