Dr.Caroline Verkaik is an International Speaker who’s start to fame came about from her being a former Mrs. Kenya world and a third runner up at the Mrs. world beauty pageant in 2007. The same year the President of Chechnya Kadyrov proposed marriage to her with a dowry and all but she turned him down.
She was also the title holder of Mrs. Pennsylvania United States 2018 with a platform of reducing the rate of suicide in teens. She’s also the Ambassador representing Africa for the International face magazine. A magazine that celebrates and acknowledges hard working individuals from all over the World. She worked at with Mrs. America and Mrs. World as a contestant coordinator, where she worked her way up to become one of their chief negotiators. Her position involved sitting down with presidents ,prime ministers and top government officials internationally to negotiate sites for the Mrs. World pageant.
She also worked for Warren Buffet as an inflight service representative on one of his private jets at Executive jet aviation. In 2000 she was recognized as the most outstanding flight attendant in the same company.
She has spoken in Russia, India, China, Vietnam, Mauritius, Malaysia, Kenya, Singapore and the United states.
She has received numerous awards for her many achievements in community and humanitarian services. In 2017 Caroline was recognized as one of the top 50 women business leaders in the world by the Women leaders International held in Vietnam. In August of 2016 she was recognized by British Airways for saving a sick passenger on a flight from Newark to London.
Caroline is also the CEO NVC Tours and travel taking taking groups of people to Kenya on mission trips and regular safaris. She’s also the founder of Voice of our child VOOC an organization that offers mentorship to kids from 6 years old to 17 years old and also takes teens fighting depression and grieving parents for humanitarian work around the world.
We Provide sight and sounds from our Safaris into the Wild in Kenya.
The unique competitive edge it brings, is that unlike other tour companies each of our clients gets an opportunity to create a Legacy. We believe you have not traveled until your memories are not just on your camera.
Our mission statement is “We create memories that last long after you’ve put your camera down”
We interact more with the locals and do unique things like:
-Tea picking for a day to experience the value of a dollar which is wage for a day of tea picking.
-We hold seminars and workshops that give our clients an opportunity to speak or network with the locals.
-We give our clients the choice of doing community and humanitarian services work during the trip and even after.
– We do luxury private safaris where the clients tell us what they need and we cost it for them. Vice versa clients tell us how much they want to spend and we tailor make them a safari.
– We join with other organizations offering cycling trips, and mountain climbing, historic sights trips, snorkeling to keep it unique and special all as a one stop shop.
– We Provide school supplies and clean drinking water to needy Children and schools.
– We have breakfast with the giraffes at the giraffe center and get to feed baby elephants at the elephant Sanctuary.
-We visit the local markets and get to promote the local artists.
– I accompany most of my mission trips which a lot of people have considered a rare treat.
The best of all is that we are affiliated to Voice Of Our Child -VOOC where I’m also the founder.
We are an organization fighting mental health by offering life skills lessons to kids as young as 6 years all the way to 17 years. My desire and hope is to have such a program in every country in the world since I believe Mental illness and depression is a global epidemic. In 2018 I was crowned Mrs. Pennsylvania with a platform of reducing the rate of teen suicide by understanding mental illness. For every trip we offer through NVC Tours and Travel safaris a child receives free mentorship through Voiceofourchild.org
According to the World Health Organization Suicide is the second leading cause of death in teens 9 to 17 years old. We can change that by offering mentorship to our children through VOOC.
Paulius Stankevicius: As you have been doing a lot of projects and have gained strong experience in business development as well as brand development, and have created a persuasive brand around yourself, can you share your insights on what it is like to build a business brand and a personal brand? What are the biggest challenges? What are the essentials of building a brand from scratch?
Caroline V: I feel like I’m nowhere near where I need to be. It’s not an overnight success and requires a lot of work and networking with the right people to get to the top. One thing that I believe helps is that we are just as good as our personal brand. A lot of discipline goes into building a personal brand before you can even build a business brand. People have to trust you and who you associate with says a lot about the brand you are building. A business brand is the fruit of the personal brand. You plant lemons and you get lemonade. If people trust you they will buy whatever you are selling. But you could have the best commodities but if your personal brand is questionable you will sink very fast. The commodity is only as good as the person who is producing it. I aim to grow my brand everyday by educating myself on issues that touch on my Brand. As an international Speaker, Entrepreneur, Coach and Counselor I know we can never be too educated.
Be careful then what kind of a (personal brand) you are. There are a lot of challenges especially if we are all planting the same brand as far as industry goes. For example if it’s the tour industry we are as tour operators like the oranges, the consumer has to find which is the sweetest and that means slicing through each of us to find the juiciest. You can price yourself the most reasonable but by the end of the day the service you provide says more about you than the price. Reviews, reviews, genuine reviews are what sells and sets us apart. We have to be generous with our services. Making sure the customers buck count.
Paulius Stankevicius: Thank you Caroline. Would there be something else you would like to share with the audience?
Caroline V: I believe the secret to success is showing up. I have created a deep friendship and respect from British airways because in 2016 while on a flight to London with my then 10 year old daughter. I volunteered to help a passenger on a BA flight after the crew kept paging for a Doctor and no one showed up. The passenger was very sick and we ended up rerouting back to Canada and our flight got delayed but British airways emailed me a couple of weeks after and sent me a beautiful “thank to our Hero letter” and a free return ticket to any destination of my choice. I didn’t expect anything from them, I didn’t consider myself a hero, but it was a lesson that showing up pays.
In 2007 While competing as Mrs. Kenya the President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov invited the Mrs. World contestants to his country for 2 days on a peacekeeping visit while we were in Moscow on Transit to Sochi for the Mrs. World Pageant. He sent his private jet and over 40 women from around the World and staff members boarded for Chechnya.
I was having a really bad head cold that day and had decided to stay in my room while all the other contestants went sightseeing. I forced myself out of bed and joined the rest. Little did I know that was the day we would all be having lunch with the President of Chechnya.
Long story short after saying hello to all of us he approached me and after lunch asked me to marry him. The President of Mrs. World jokingly told him he had to pay dowry in Kenya to get married and he asked how much. He was given a price of two goats, 4 chickens, 2 horses and a barrel of fish. Less than 10 minutes the dowry was presented but I told him I would need to get permission from my husband to revisit his offer. That was a really impactful trip in my life.
www.voiceofourchild.org