Inspirational Woman: Pooja Trehan Dhamecha

With over 12 years of experience in the field of communications, presently I run my own venture – PRestaurants.

Having worked with a great portfolio of companies such as Colgate Palmolive, Castrol India, Bennett & Coleman Group, Genesis Burson Marsteller for Lakme Fashion Week, Vodafone – equips me to understand what works best for a brand when speaking to their audiences.

The desire to bring-alive new brand stories fuelled the need to take up the journey of an independent consultant. Now working with the food & hospitality sector, gives me an opportunity to visualize, design and share the essence of real food stories!

Tell us about any current projects or initiatives you wish to promote

In India, food is special and distinctive to each household. Every few kms the cuisine you taste has a history to share. This is what intrigued my attention to launch PRestaurants. Opening a restaurant and running it successfully is one part of the puzzle piece, but constantly communicating about it could be a tall task and often a lost affair. My husband, Tarun Dhamecha’s love for food & foresight has been a helpful tool to give that last little nudge to create PRestaurants.

With my venture Prestaurants, have been privileged to work with close to 30 brilliant brands across the category of restaurants, b2b food brands, food festivals, profiling Chefs and lots more. Having launched second outlets for 3 Wise Monkeys, The Desi Deli and The Koffee Works, presently am busy introducing a new food app called Nouns to the food fraternity. Also have my hands full with Vanakkam foods, an idea of a spirited woman, all of 56years! What’s fulfilling is that through PRestaurants, have got an opportunity to often associate with ‘Robin Hood Army’, where all my clients have donated meals for the less privileged.

What has been your biggest challenge in achieving your success?

It’s an ongoing journey because you are as good as your last assignment. Every challenge brings with it an opportunity and thus nothing but being the best is what drives one constantly. Accepting the fact that there is a lot of hardwork going into running a successful business or restaurant and might not be as glamorous as it looks from the outside. Working around this challenge and bringing to table something that might be important for everyone, has been an amazing challenge to win over. Hence, the need to grow everyday and pick from the lessons learnt. Am a long way from achieving success and guess that keeps me going!

What has been your greatest achievement personally?

Being a working mother can be a challenge in itself. But as a mother being able to carve a niche for myself has only been possible with the support of my husband Tarun Dhamecha and my family! Managing different worlds when it comes to work and family can often leave you without any inclination to do something. Having now managed multiple worlds and continuing to enjoy every moment – definitely is my achievement.

What’s overwhelming is how all the brands and clients I worked with, gave me an opportunity even when I had just started. The battle was always to bring unique ideas to the table, never to convince anybody on why they should extend an opportunity to PRestaurants to share their brand story. And that to me is my achievement.

If you weren’t doing what you do now, what would you be doing?

Communications has always been among the ‘first-loves’. Moving on from a full-time work commitment and still being able to pursue my love – is exactly what I always wanted to do! Starting on your own can be a daunting journey in a big city like Mumbai. But PRestaurants has been enjoyable and I am grateful to the faith and trust of each and every individual I met in the food fraternity, because that’s what makes this journey so special.

I still continue to fill my life with a lot of travel, and being a traveller for life is what comes to me naturally – now and for the future as well.

Who has been your biggest inspiration?

All my leaders aka bosses since I kickstarted my career. It’s very rare that one meets some great seniors, who later become great friends and then mentors. They have always inspired me to never give up and continue pursuing what one enjoys the most.