Top Entrepreneur Anjula Acharia: The #1 Skill That Makes People Say YES (Use THIS Strategy to Turn One Conversation Into Multiple Opportunities)

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This old rhetoric of you got to do one thing
and you got to have one goal and you got
to be focused on it. That's the biggest lie ever.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
What's a business skill everyone should master if they want
to be successful.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
You have to read the room. You have to see
what's going on around you. The biggest issue that I
see young people in business they think everything is one way.
It's not a one way conversation ever.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hey, everyone, welcome back to On Purpose, the place you
come to become the happier, healthier and more healed. Today's
guest on on Purpose is the one and only Angela Acharia,
trailblazing entrepreneur, investor, and cultural powerhouse who's helped shape global
careers and billion dollar brands. And Julia is the founder
of a series investments and early investoring companies like Bumble

(00:49):
and class Pass and the longtime manager of Priyanka Chopra Jonas.
And behind all of this, she is a dear friend
who I'm so grateful to welcome onto the show. Please
welcome on Purpose and Jula a chariot. And it is
so great to have you here.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Oh my god, it's so good to be here.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
We met for the first time around eight years ago
when I first moved to La actually, and one of
the people that you've mentored and your dear friend and
now my dear friend as well, Pyle Kadakia, we met
through her, and honestly, the amount you've done for founders,
for female founders, for artists, for our community, for the

(01:27):
South Asians all over the world and beyond that is amazing.
And we're so grateful to you. And I know so
many people who whenever your name comes up and it's like, oh, yeah,
she helped me with this, and oh she helped me
with this, And I'm always discovering new people you've helped
with stuff. And so I just want to say, you know,
from me and on behalf of all of our friends,
just how grateful we are to you, and you totally
deserve to be here. And I'm grateful and happy that

(01:49):
you're here.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Oh my god, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
I mean, I just want to tell this quick story
that when I first met you, I was super skeptical
and then you did something so in my life without
me even knowing it, which was my sister who rest
in peace, died a few years ago. Struggled through multiple
scrosses and then died of cancer. She never got to
talk to you, and I really wish she'd had and

(02:11):
that's my one regret that we never got to FaceTime
with you. But she literally told me that she wouldn't
have made it through those two years of her life
without you, and that was just so incredible, And it
seems so insane to me because I knew you, and
I was like, oh my god, this guy's had so
much impact on one of the people so dear to me,
and she was doing this so quietly, like she was

(02:33):
listening to you every single day just to get through life.
And yeah, anyway, so you have had such a big
impact in our family's life and I will always honor that.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Oh I wish I got to speak to her too,
I know, I really do, and I you know, I
feel so humbled by statements like that, because she was
fighting a much tougher fight than anything I've been in myself,
and so I always feel very humbled that she's the
one who did the real work. She is the one
who's doing the real fighting. And thank you for sharing
that with me always, And yeah, my love and prayers

(03:05):
and meditation for her and your family right now as well.
But I wanted to dive in because you have such
a fascinating story and one of the things I like
to do and on purpose, is to really understand how
people became who they became, because I think people hear
the resume, they see you, they see the success, and
you just assume that people just always had it and

(03:25):
knew what was going to happen, and then when you
peel behind the scenes, you realize it wasn't like that
at all. I wanted to start by asking you, what's
a childhood memory that stands out to you that you
would say defines who you are today?

Speaker 1 (03:37):
You know, I think defines my entire journey and everything.
And you're going to know this because you went to
school in England and around the same time as me.
I think I'm going to show my age a bit.
But you remember that TV show grain Chill. Of course,
right if you're British, everybody knew grain Chills, So there
was this TV show grain Chill, and I would always

(03:58):
get bullied at school for being the past. And me
and my brother and sister grew up in a completely
white environment. We didn't grow up in London or anywhere
like that. We're in Buckinghamshire. So I was always bullied
for being a PACKI I mean like literally spat on, kicked, punched,
like you name, it, went through it all. But what
I noticed was there was this TV show Grain Trail,

(04:19):
and everyone watched it. Everyone watched the same four channels, right,
So there was this one episode about this girl who
was Pakistani and basically it was so like stereotypical it was.
It was just bad. And the next day I got
bullied so much harder and everyone. I can't remember what
her name was, but everyone was calling me at that

(04:42):
name and going, is that what your mum and dad
are like? Is that what you're like? Is I remember
just coming home from school and being just you know,
wrecked and thinking I hate TV. It's ruining my life
and the way people are treating me are based on
what this box at home that has four channels is
telling everyone about me, these siloed, stereotypical stories about our people.

(05:06):
And that changed my life and I from that moment
was like one day I used to sit on my window,
still in England and look at the stars and one
day I'm going to and by the way, I used
to think that Michael Jackson was really poorly treated, and
I was like, one day, I'm going to be Michael
Jackson's manager, and I'm going to take care of him
and I'm going to protect him. And I think that

(05:26):
that was such a life changing moment for me that
knowing that media and I couldn't articulate it in that
way then, but knowing that media impacted the way I
was treated on a day to day basis, and the
responsibility in the impact of that.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, it's and it was such a real experience I
feel for us in our generation for sure, Like I
had that growing up. I went to a predominantly non
Indian school because of the area I grew up in,
and I think I was one of like three Indian
kids in my class growing up in primary school, and
I was bullied for my weight, I was bullied for
my color, I was bullied for or the way my

(06:01):
lunch smelled because sometimes my mum would make me Indian things.
And I remember that experience, and then I remember thinking
just how many slurs our parents went through as well,
having gone through even earlier than this. Yeah, and that
was the reason my parents gave me and my sister
names that no one could make fun of in England.
It was like Jay and Amy wo just to make us,
just to make us have an easier ride than they did,

(06:23):
because that's how worried and concern they were that we
would get bullied.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
But you know, the other crazy thing though, is I
was also bullied at home within our community because I
was mixed. I was half Hindu and half seek and
for the Sikhs, I wasn't Seek enough, and for the Hindus,
I wasn't Hindu enough. And I also grew up in
such a white environment that I didn't speak like a
lot of the Indian Londoners right And in any scenario,

(06:49):
I just did not fit in.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
You know.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
It was always that feeling of isolation.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah. I mean you've had such an untraditional career since then,
and I almost feel like you not fit in. It's
kind of like turned into your superpower. Yeah, definitely, because
now you don't fit in as well. And that's a superpower.
It's worked for you, It's helped you be multiple things.
When did you find that you started to realize you
were becoming more confident in your differences and when did

(07:17):
they start to feel like a tool and an approach
and a method that could lead to more.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
You know, only until I got to Solicon Valley and
I raised money wow for an original idea. So me
and my ex husband we founded this company called Dacey Hits,
which is kind of around the time you met me.
And it was a podcast that went viral. Actually we
were in podcasting wait for anyone was in podcasting, So
it was a podcast that went completely viral and all

(07:43):
these vcs started chasing me for money. And it was
basically a mashup of culture. So it was like we
were playing a lot of music. So there was a
lot of hip hop with bunger it was like Bollywood
with R and B. It was like you know, drum
and bass, and it was just like a mashup of
all the music that we loved that I felt growing
up represented me right, Like I remember this moment when

(08:04):
I first walked into a nightclub in London when I
was at university and turned out later that that was
my my husband. He was a DJ at university and
he was just playing this mashup of like bungerer and
hip hop, and I remember dancing to it, just going wow,
this is me, this is me, Like this is who
I am? Like it just felt really like a moment.

(08:26):
And it's so funny because much later on I explained
this to Jimmy Iveen. For those of you who don't
know who he is, he was a fand of Beats
By Dre and Interscope Records, which you know was behind
like some of the most yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
Like most legends, all the people I grew up on that, yeah, Doctor.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
Dre, like everyone, like Lana's Delray, like you name it,
Lady Gaga anyway, and I told him this other moment
that feels similar to that, where when Pejabi, EMC and
jay Z jumped on that track together, which was on
the underground forever like be Were the Boys was on
the underground forever in Bacy's circles, South Asian circles, but
when jay Z jumped on it and mashed that up

(09:05):
and created that new track and it became sort of
mainstream pop hit. I feel like I remember being in
London and everybody driving used to drive with their Indian
music and their their windows up, and there was this
just moment where all the windows came down really slowly
because everyone was like, even the white person in the
car next to me is playing the same song, And

(09:25):
I told Jimmy, I've been that moment. I was like,
it was just this like moment where everybody felt accepted
and everybody felt part of the same thing, you know,
And you feel it now when you go to a
concert or whatever, like everyone there is enjoying the same
thing and focused on the same thing, and you feel
this sense of community. Well, we never felt that we
belonged in that community until that moment. So music's always

(09:47):
been such like a significant thing to me in terms
of connecting people and putting people together. But to answer
your question, raising money and people going, I want to
back that idea of this element of fusion and every
think you are, which it doesn't fit into anything, Like,
it wasn't all Indian, it wasn't all British, it wasn't
all American, it wasn't all you know, any one thing, right,

(10:09):
it was just a mash up of everything. And then
to yeah, raise five million dollars against that was pretty amazing.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
That is. Yeah, if someone's listening right now and they're
thinking and like, you know, I'm at university or I'm
about to graduate, maybe I'm thirty years old and I've
been working for nine years I'm not really sure about
what I'm doing. What advice would you give to them
to find their unique voice? Because what you found was
something that represented you and you were able to monetize
it and create more from it. What advice would you

(10:37):
give to someone who's in that twenty to thirty range.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
Firstly, I just want to say, I call myself mapless, right,
I never had a map. And you know you still
listen to these types of podcasts, not yours, but well
or you know people go get your goal, figure out
your goal, get your you know, your map to your goal.
I'd be like, but I don't know what my goal is.
I don't know what my journey is because I don't
have a goal and I don't have a destination, so
I don't know had to get there. So I never

(11:02):
had a map. I never had a destination anything I've done.
So the thing that you have to do because I
didn't even know there was a business idea in this,
I'll tell you the fundraising story in this, we'll explain.
So I was in executive search, finding CEOs for startups
and I worked with a bunch of vcs. We founded
this podcast. It went viral in your daily life. You

(11:22):
never just talk about one thing. You never just talk
about business. So I'm talking to this VC and I'm
going He's like, what else is going on? And I'm like,
oh my god, me and ranch to this podcast and
it went completely viral, and like you know, we have
like two hundred and fifty thousand downloads on iTunes. And
I was just chatting about it, right, But I was
genuinely super passionate about it because that's my thing. So

(11:42):
the next day I get this exploding term sheet from him.
He asked me to send him the iTunes report, and
he's just I'm so curious, would you send it to me?
And like, yeah, I had nothing to hide, so I
sent it to him. And then the next day he
sent me an exploding timesheet for a million dollars for
quarter of the company. And I was just like us flabbergasted.
I didn't know what to do. I was like, this
is insane. But then he was like your husband, he

(12:06):
had a job at Intel. He was like, he has
to give up his job. This is the conditions of
this time sheet that you both have to do this again.
Because he was a tech guy and I was just
the ideas person, right, and I was like, So I
come home to my husband, I'm like, you have to
give up your job and he was like for what,
And I was like, for this, but we're gonna get
a million dollars and we're going to start this company
and blah blah blah blah. I had to convince him
to do it with me. But the point of that

(12:26):
is to say you should always feel comfortable to talk
about your ideas because you may not see something, but
somebody else might see something.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
Totally you know what I mean. So, and also the
collision of that idea because you're working a job doing
executive search. You have a job, correct, And it's not
that your job was useless and a waste of time
and exactly you didn't have value because I think a
lot of us sometimes you get into a job and
you go, I mean, this dead end job. I hate it.
It's the worst. But you never know how that job
could connect you to something that you didn't know when

(12:55):
you were going to mention this podcast, you both had
that actually someone you were connected to through your.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
And also, yeah, right, and I thought it was kind
of a silly hobby and the only reason I said
to up a company around. It was because my dad
was convinced we were gonna get sued for copyright, so
because we were playing all this music without licensing. So
my dad, being my dad, who's highly litigious, was like,
you need to get a company around that so they
can't see you and take your home. And that was

(13:21):
the only reason I did it because my dad was
freaking out about it because we were getting momentum and
he was like, Oh, those music companies are going to
come after you turned out all those music companies later
wanted to invest in the company, and it just sort
of like took off from there. But going back to
your question about advice, like I would say a couple
of things, like I want to teach people how to network,
Like that's something that I think is really critical. So

(13:43):
when I first I moved from London to Silicon Valley,
I was in my late twenties and I'd had a
career in executive search and advertising, and I went to
Silicon Valley and I knew absolutely no one, Like I
didn't even know my gardener. Like it was bad, and
I was like dropped into Silicon Valley and I was
just like, oh my god, I'm going to die here

(14:04):
because I don't know anyone. So someone mentioned, like literally
someone in my building who you know, I lived in
an apartment building, said oh, there's these South Asian meetups
for tech people. And I was like, well, not really
in tech, but you know, I could just go and
see if I can meet people. So I went and

(14:25):
after like probably a year, I was running those things
and it was all vcs and entrepreneurs and I like
just created my own. And the way I did that was,
so let's just add no no one in the room,
and I meet you. I go, oh, hey, j how
are you, what do you do? Blah blah blah, and
trust me. I know that takes confidence. But everyone, I

(14:46):
heard it in one of your podcasts. Everyone's feeling shitty.
Everyone's like doesn't know who to talk to. Everyone's got
that name tag on there, thinking, God, who am I
going to speak to? This is so awkward. So just
just have that bravery to go up to that first
person and talk to them. So I did that. I
go what are you in? And the guy was like,
I can't remember, but it was just to say he
was in like software for healthcare, right, So I was

(15:09):
chatting with him. I had nothing to offer, had nothing
to give. I was literally just like doing some headhunting
stuff in England. It was not good. So anyway, so
I just chatted with him and then you know, people
would come in and I would like, meet someone else
and they would be like, I was like, what do
you do and they'd be like, oh, I'm an investor
in tech healthcare right, So I'm like, oh my god,

(15:32):
you need to meet this person. And then I would
put them together and they would have a conversation. Now,
sometimes it would lead to absolutely nothing, but on the
old occasion, it led to something and a couple of
people got funded based off those introductions that I did,
and they were just like that. So by the end
of like the night, because and someone taught me how
to do this, I was just connecting all these people.

(15:53):
People just saw me as a connector, and people wanted
me in the room because I made their lives easier.
So I go back to one of your other podcasts.
I had to stay back to talk about being in service.
I didn't actually mean to be in service. I was
just insecure and didn't know what to say to anyone
and had nothing to offer to the conversation. So I
was like if this person talks to me about this
and this person needs this, I can just put them

(16:15):
together and pretend like I'm great.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
Right, No, But I loved that because it's such as
it's so important, Like whether it's service or value, the
point is you were adding value to other people's lives,
and the best way you could do that at that
point when you felt you didn't have anything to offer
personally was to connect them with people. And that's huge
because I think we often feel like if I introduced
that person that person, then they won't want to help

(16:37):
me and not realize right, and never even cost in
my mind, But a lot of people feel like a
lot of people are like I won't connect people, and
I think that's rubbed off from people that you love.
Like for example, when I came to la if I
didn't know Pile, I wouldn't have met so many of
my early friends here. Yeah, and like because she was
connecting me, so I met Jeremy, I met you, I
met so many other people because of her. And so
it's such a contagious thing as well, where the people

(16:59):
you're working with and your friends with also end up
having that quality, which which is such a beautiful quality.
That's amazing. I love that.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
You know, I never understood people that had guardrails up
about introducing people to people, Like I never understood that
because I was like, this makes you more valuable. Like
it's such a deep quality to be able to connect
people with people, and it's such a value and then
people want you around all the time. How many times
you've heard in conversation, oh you going to meet that person,
they're a connector yeah, you know what I mean? That

(17:27):
is like it's such a valuable thing to be a
connector so anyway, so just going back to your initial
question about you know, young people listening to this podcast,
I think it's really critical that you feel confident to
introduce people to other people and be curious and find
out what other people are doing and see how you
can add value along the way. You will get value,

(17:48):
Like I think about my career is now built in
bringing people value, and I get all the you know,
I get all the rewards for that, like whether it's
a return on investment in an investment two people put
together on investment that I made, or a connection that
I made, Like I just feel like it really pays
in dividends.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, I agree. Agree any other tips on good networking,
because I think you're spot on. I think a lot
of people who now think networking's either handing your card out,
which is like an old model of it, or people
think networking is like asking someone to just be your mentor. Yeah,
and that doesn't work either. Any other good advice for networking,
you know, just.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
On the mentor thing. So my mentor is Indra Nui
and I'm it's a funny story how I met Indra.
So I happen to be on some Forbes list with
her and an ex boyfriend who I was dating worked
for PepsiCo, and then he forwarded it to Indra and
just said, oh, my girlfriend's on this list with you.
And she was like, oh, I'd really love to meet her.

(18:46):
And he sort of called me and it was like
Injro wants to meet you, and I was like, oh,
that's amazing, Like I want to meet her. Of course
it's Indra Nui, who is the CEO of PepsiCo at
that time. So anyway, I met her and she was,
I mean, god, so incredibly lovely to me, and I
couldn't understand why. I honestly, I was like what value
do I bring to this woman And actually turn out
she really wanted me to meet her daughters. And she

(19:07):
was like, she said something really funny. She was like,
this woman broke a Bollywood start in America, and it's
hard enough to break a juice brand. That's what she said.
She was like, it's hard enough to break a juice brand,
but this girl broke a Bollywood start in America. And
I was like, oh, that's so funny. Anyway, So then
I you know, we stay in touch. She makes me dosas,

(19:27):
she's like amazing, she becomes like a mom. I would
call her more my godmom than a mentor now because
she really sort of like mothers me in the nicest
way and anyway, but then one day she said to me,
she goes, I want to mentor you, and I was like, okay,
that's amazing, and she was like, but my deal with
mentorship is that you have to do everything I tell you.

(19:48):
If I tell you to do something, you have to
do it. So she goes, you have to commit to
me that you would do what I told you to do,
and I was like, that's a really big undertaking, Like
she has probably only ever told me once to do
something not to do something or do something, and that's
been really valuable advice. But anyway, my point is to
mentorship is she always says mentors pick you, and I

(20:08):
agree with that. I picked Pile Kadaki at the founder
of class Past. Like I met Pile, she pitched to me,
and I decided I wanted to mentor her, and I
decided that she was someone I wanted to put a
lot of time into and then I mentored her. And
I think that you have to allow mentors to pick you.
And it's really hard because you know, we speak at

(20:29):
a lot of conferences and people come up to me
and lots of young girls come up to me and say,
well you mental me? Will you mental me? And I'm
just like, well, you know, actually no, you know. And
I just feel like you've got to build a relationship
with someone. I never asked Indra to mentor me, Like
did I want her to mentor me? How are? Yeah?
Who wouldn't? But you know, I don't know. I create

(20:49):
a pathway for that to happen. And I think that's
what you have to do, create pathways for that to
happen naturally and organically build a relationship with someone who
you value. And also I would say in men, like
when I first met Indra, she was launching her book
and she wanted like mothers to you know, write the

(21:10):
blurb for them. And I was like, oh, what about
Mindy Kaling? What about who else did I get? I
got Mindy and then someone else I can't remember who
asked now. But the point is like I brought value
to her too. It wasn't a one way street. And
I think that when you're looking for mentals, go and
show them how powerful you are too. It's a two
way thing. Make them want to mental you, make them

(21:32):
want you in their orbit, show your value. And I
think that's what I've done my entire life is like
really show value to people, actually not doing it purposefully,
just doing that because I guess I'm in service, you know.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
Yeah, I've never heard someone put it like that. I
love the idea that the mentor picks you and you're
so so right. Like there are people that I just
feel genuinely good about, whether it's their idea, whether it's energy,
whether it's just their spirit, and I'm like, yeah, I'm
going to spend more time talking to this person than
anyone else, even if someone was more eager or more whatever.
It wasn't that, it was You're so right. No one's

(22:07):
ever said it like that before. I've always heard other
things about mentorship, but you're absolutely right that you can't
convince someone to give you their time and invest in
you and focus on you in that way.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
Look, you can't convince someone to love you. Yeah right, yea,
in the same way. I think I got that out
of your eight wolves, Like you can't make somebody. You
can't love someone harder to make them love you, right
or whatever that is. And it's the same with mentorship.
But it's like, you can't force someone to do that.

(22:49):
The funny thing about Pyle when she came to me,
she wanted to raise money. I was probably one of
the few South Asian women at that time that had
raised venture capitals, so she was kind of came to
me because I'd raised capital when she wanted help. And
that's the journey that we sort of ended up going
on to. But what was interesting was I said to her,
I was like, where are you going to work with

(23:10):
this idea? And once I've committed to mentoring and helping out,
I was like, where are you going to work and
she was like in Starbucks and I was like, I
have two desks in my office. You can have them,
you know what I mean? And then she was with
me every single day and we were like, you know,
kind of going through Like it was just I was
sitting at my desk, she was sitting at her desk,
and she'd be like, hey, Ang, what do you think
about this idea? What do you think about that? So

(23:30):
but I loved every single minute of that experience. And
I would say, you know, with Pile and I Shewys
called me her mental, but I would say, we're like,
she's she mentors me. Now. She taught me how to pivot.
I never knew how to pivot before I met her.

Speaker 2 (23:44):
Wow, talk to me about I want to talk about
pivoting in a second. Talk to me about how you
pick people you mentor, because I think it's important for
people to hear that too, knowing that your mental picture.
But like, what was it about Pile? What was it
about other people that you've worked with that you and
I'm going to put my time and energy into this person.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
You know with Pile, I just she always says this,
she goes, you knew who I was before I knew
who I was. I just knew she was a star.
It's that Jeniqua, it's that magic, it's that essence. I
just knew she had all a combination. She was charismatic,
she was fun, she was smart, she could figure things out.

(24:24):
I could see her brain work like I could. It's
so funny. I was playing this game sequence with a
bunch of my friends once and Pile walks in and
she just like wins a game in one second. We
didn't even teach you how to play the game, like,
and I was saying, how did you do that? She goes,
I don't know. You told me I need to make
a sequence, and I did it. She's just so brilliant,
Like her brain is so brilliant. And I saw that.

(24:44):
It's like I could literally see the worlds turning in
her mind. So I think it's a combination of things.
And like I say, it's very hard. It's so instinctual.
Like so much my career has been about instinct, and
for me, it's just instinct.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
I wanted to talk about instinct because I love what
you said about the idea that you never had a map, Yeah,
and never I completely agree with that. For my life.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
I never had one either.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
You don't get you don't do what I'm doing if
there's no map for this because it didn't exist. Same
with you, like there's no map for this, and there's
not many case studies to be able to have a map.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
Right.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
A map is when someone scared a company from this
to this and that to that, and it's been done before.
But when you're doing things that you're kind of finding
your own way. I love that you said you followed
your instinct, and you definitely from the amount of time
I've spent with you, I feeled that with you and
you always follow it regardless of what's going on. Talk
to me about how you build up trust in your
instinct because I think everyone's looking for a map. And

(25:40):
what you said earlier, you said people need goals because
you need something out there to drive you instinct? Is
you driving yourself from here? It's almost like inside out
rather than outside in. Where did you learn to find
you instinct? Listen to your instinct, drive from that instinct.
Where did that come from?

Speaker 1 (25:56):
The whole map plus piece. I just didn't have a choice,
so then I had to make decisions through my life
and they I don't know they were just made through
instinct because I didn't know how else to make decisions.
But one thing I will tell you, which is a
brilliant piece of advice that I've lived my life on,
but it came later in life, So it doesn't answer

(26:16):
your question exactly because I start I started working with
my instinct way before this. But Jimmy Ivan always said
to me. I said to him, you know, you're so
brilliant at seeing around corners. How do you see around corners?
How do you know what's coming next? And he looked
at me and he said, it's the thing that you do.
And I go, what do I do? I don't know

(26:38):
what do? What do I do? And he said, you
use your ears in relation to your mouth, so you
have two ears and you have one mouth. And I
was like, okay, and he goes, I've watched you. You listen.
You listen a lot, he said, you say a lot
and you do a lot. He said, but do you
actually listen more than you do or say? And he
was like, you have to listen to the constant conversations

(26:58):
that are happening. One of the other reasons why invested
in class pass. Our dear friend Rohan Ozer, who we
both know. He walked into my apartment one day and
he was like, oh, I just went to soul Cycle.
It's like amazing. And I was like, soul Cycle. What
soul cycle? And he was like, you know what soul
cycle is? And everyone is quitting the gyms and going
to soul Cycle and I was like, oh okay. And

(27:20):
then it was at that time that people were literally
quitting gyms and going to Berry's boot Camp and going
to these like appointment you know, fitness classes. I was like, oh,
that's so interesting. And everyone was like I'm going to
Pop Physique, I'm going to Bury's boot Camp, I'm going
to this, and going to that. So when Pile came
to me with this open table for classes, that at
that time the way people were finding classes where they

(27:41):
were literally calling up the class provider. Really yeah, like
you were in a restaurant, like back in the day
before there was open table already, you would be calling
a restaurant right seeing what availability had. So when.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
Crazy how quick things do.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
So when Pile said to me, oh, yeah, you know
it's basically a plat, it's kind of like open table
for classes, that was exactly what she said to me.
And literally, like days before, Rohan had been in my
apartment going on about everyone's going to classes. And then
I just moved to New York and I was trying
to find a gym and I was like, should I
join Equinox? And everyone was like no, no, no, just
go to these classes, go to this, go to that.

(28:17):
Like so again, like that's just me listening, you know,
that's great. So when I made that decision to invest
in Pile, it was like me just doing a lot
of listening and my instinct going all the clues are
telling you yes. And there was another time that happened
when I first started working with Prianca. I signed her

(28:38):
to a record label with Jimmy Iveen, and we were
going to turn her into a pop star. And you know,
we did a bunch of records and you know, it
just wasn't hitting. It wasn't working. As he kept telling me,
we were like twenty years too early. That's what he said.
He was like the whole sort of South Asian music scene.
He was like, I get what you want to do,
but you're twenty years too early.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
He's probably right about that timeline is Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
This was like nearly two years ago. So with Prianca,
like so you know, people were like, oh, well that's done,
then that's not going to work. She should go back
to India and whatever. And I was like, no, this
woman is like one of our most celebrated actresses in India,
like you know, she was incredible. And at that time
I started listening to the conversations. What was everybody talking about?

(29:20):
And everybody at that time was talking about how to
get Away with Murder and Grey's Anatomy and all of
these like Scandal and all of these shows where you know,
they were they had these diverse female leads and it
was like the golden ajor television and television was coming
back and you had Academy Award winning actors acting in TV,

(29:41):
which was previous to that considered like down there, you
know what I mean. So it was this huge cultural
shift happening with television. So you know, I pitched Prex
about doing a TV show and at first she was
really like not into it. She was like, you know,
I'm a movie actress, like you know, we do move
and in her mind was TV in India was x

(30:03):
But you know, like I said, we were in this
like massive global shift where TV and was in this
different place. So anyway, convinced her to go and we
auditioned for Quantico and eventually she got it and that
became her show, and that was an ABC drama where
I'd convinced the casting director that this was her next
female diverse lead. So but again, if I hadn't been

(30:27):
listening to what everyone was talking about, I wouldn't have
had the instinct to go, We're not going to do
any more music. We're going to go and hit television.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
You explained that so well, that is a great piece
of advice because I always think about it is there's
three types of people. There's the people that consume patterns,
there's the people who see patterns, and then the people
who create patterns. And it's almost like most of us
are just watching. So we're watching the shows, we're going
to soul cycle, we're doing all the things, but we're
not noticing which the person above does where they're like, oh,

(30:57):
I can see everyone's getting solcych what you just said.
I was getting soul cycle, Like, there's patterns here, and
then you've got the people like yourself and Pile and
others who go and create patterns. Which is like, oh, okay,
we're gonna build the thing that everyone will actually do
this pattern through that we see, Yeah, and most of
it just stay on like level one where we're like, oh, yeah,
I want to go a soul cycle, I want to
drink much, I want to whatever it may be. But
there's two levels above where someone's looking down going oh,

(31:18):
this is what I'm gonna build. And and that's great advice.
From the time that we've spent together. You're just so
good at convincing people of stuff, like I feel like
you're just you're so convincing. You're but it's honest convincing,
Like I don't think it's a I don't just think
it's a fake technique. It's not like it's you're not
like that. It's like it's very you're passionate about the
stuff you do.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
By the way, I did fake it till I made
it okay.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
So so talk to me about what are the skills
that you need to persuade and convince people to see
what you see.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
Well, So the first thing I would say, anybody in
life in business should go to drama school, right, and
I don't mean drama school like that should be your degree.
I mean, like you should go to improv, Like, if
you have any form of anxiety at all, you need
to get your into an improv class, because improv, you
know what improvisation is, right, You lead to jump into
a scene, right, So you and I would be in

(32:08):
a scene and we'd just create a scene and we'd
just gone on the fly. And I wanted to be
an actress, Like That's what I wanted to be, but
it was really difficult for a brown girl in the
nineties to be an actress in England. So I decided
I didn't want to be poor. That was also a
big driver for me. I was like, I don't want
to be poor and be trying to go from an audition
to audition when it's very limited roles for me. So

(32:30):
I want to be a rich businesswoman. I never actually
decided at that point I wanted to be in in
the movies or in talent or anything like that. I
just wanted to be in business. But one thing I
will say to you is that whole like improv has
just been amazing, just allowing myself to be thrown into
any situation and be able to swim in it. And

(32:52):
if I didn't know what I was doing, I would
fake it. And I know there's a lot of controversy
around that, and I'm sure you guys have discussed it.
I'm sure you've had people on your show say that's
a terrible thing to do. But I did fake it.
And it started with my body language. It started with
my the way I speak. It started with all these
you know, small cues that you pick up from people,

(33:13):
like it's so funny, like even just this, like the
way I'm sitting right now, like this is my innate comfort.
I'm very comfortable with you. I'm sitting with all my
body language. O, my legs are crossed. However, but when
I was, you know, in early business situations where I
didn't feel confident, you know, how i'd want to be
was like this, Like I would want to be all
closed up, but I would force my shoulders back, I'd

(33:35):
force my arms out. I would, you know, sometimes do
this because that's just a sign of confidence, like you
you feel good in your own funny I mean, women,
it's such an easy thing to do. It's kind of like, yeah,
I can take it or leave it.

Speaker 2 (33:52):
Like that face is very unsane.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
But the way to convince people. There's a couple of
things like, so you know, I've raised a lot of
money through my career for other people, for myself, for
different projects. I'm honestly, I'm sort of a bit of
an ultimate fundraiser. And someone gave me this piece of
advice very early on, and they said, if you want
to raise money, ask for advice, and if you want advice,

(34:14):
ask for money. And I use that through my whole life, so.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
I know that's so good.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
Yeah, if you want money, ask for advice, and if
you want advice, ask for money, because basically you'll get
the opposite. So now, now, now people are going to
watch this and go, oh, she was selling to me
that time. Okay, there are times when I sold to
people using that technique. But the truth is, like, now
I'm at this point where I can't help raising money,

(34:39):
Like literally, like I just talked to people and they're
like offering me money all the time. It's so insane
for any venture, any idea. I'll go, I had this
idea and I'm like, do you want to raise money
for that? And I'm like, no, I don't raise money
for that. But the point is is like you've really
just got to be so passionate and curious about what
that person's interesting. So I'm so I'm trying to get

(35:00):
back to a question of how how are you convincing?
How am I committing? So first off, I'll figure out
what you're interested in, Like, I will never talk to
someone about something that I don't think they're interested. And
I will also test things. Right, So again, I'm a
really good like body what's that called body reader?

Speaker 2 (35:18):
No body language?

Speaker 1 (35:19):
Body language reader? Yeah, so like I can see immediately
if I bring something up and you're not interested, your
body language will tell me in a second. Right, So
first off, I will know I know my audience, I
read the room, I know my audience, and I will
only talk about things that are relevant to that person.
So once I know my audience and I know that
person's interested, I just look for all the cues about

(35:41):
what lights them up, what's interesting to them, and I
only keep going on the things that I think they're
interested in. So it's just a constant like checking in
with your audience. I watch people sell and they will
just be like, Okay, so I put this idea and
I want to do this, and we'll do this, and
this is this and there's so much money it's gonna
make and this is why it's so good blah blah blah.
And they've zero checked in with me. They're not even

(36:02):
looking at me. I could be looking at my phone,
I could be looking away, but they just keep going
because they think that's they're two minutes to get to me,
and like they just keep going, keep going, and like
I wish they'd just stop and check in with me,
say does it even interest you? Or what do you
think about that? Or whatever? So I think part of
it is that. So I think it's just constantly checking in.
And then I think it's just like being so curious.

(36:24):
It's not a one way conversation ever, and if it's
a one way conversation, you're in trouble. Like selling is
not a one way conversation. Like I remember when I
first went for my first sales job. The woman interviewed
me and she said, okay, want you to sell me
a movie? And I go okay. She was, like I said,
she goes, think of a movie that you've seen in

(36:45):
the last month and sell it to me, And I
go okay, And I go what kind of movies are
you into? And she goes, I like thrillers. I like
blah blah blah. I go, okay, what kind of thrillas
do you like? Like what was the last movie you watched?
It you loved? And she is, how did you know
how to do that? And like, what do you mean?
She goes, well, you asked me questions. Well, then's I
saw this movie on Saturday and it was X Y

(37:07):
Z and it was so good and you should go
and watch it. I was like, I don't know. I
don't want to sell you something that's not interesting to you.
Like I've watched quite a few movies in last month.
Any one of those could be good for you. So
I think it's just being really curious about your audience too,
and then approaching it with passion and seeing what lights
their eyes up and seeing seeing what they're passionate about.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
Yeah, I mean, the best case study of it is
probably how did you connect with Prianka because that was
that was a vision you had for her to like
because you know, like you said, Branca is an amazing,
huge bodywood actress at the time, and it's not easy
to convince stars to come over and even want to
attempt having a career here. Let alone having a great

(37:46):
career here. Yeah, talk to me about that.

Speaker 1 (37:49):
Well, that's like such a funny story because that is
nothing like what I just told you, because so what
happened with Preancher, it's a funny story. I saw her
on TV and my mum and dad years and years
before I was even in the business, and I looked
at her and something spoke to.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
Me, miss world or no, no, no.

Speaker 1 (38:07):
She was in this movie called bluff Master and she's
doing this hip hop spooch and I just saw on
TV at my mom's house in England, and I don't
know this thing clearly was my destiny because I just
go to my mom, Oh, who's that? And my mom
goes out to Prianca Drobra and she's like this huge
star in India, blah blah. And I just filed it
away because I was in tech, I was doing a

(38:28):
bunch of other things. I hadn't even founded Dessie Hits
at that point, like it was way before, and I
just filed it away. Anyway, years later, I'm sitting in
an office with Jimmy Iveen and we'd just done all
the music for Slumdog Millionaire and it was top ten
in ten countries and it was like this big global
here and he was so happy and he was like,
I listened to you and it worked and he was

(38:49):
like he's It was just he's that guy. He's like
full of like life and ambition. It was like, what
are we doing next? And I just go, Jimmy, you know,
there's this woman Ankachropra that I saw on TV ages
go and she's this huge star and blah blah blah.
We start youtubing videos of her and he goes, can
she sing? And randomly, at that time, I was launching
Lady Gaga in India and I was working with these

(39:12):
two producers, Salim and Suliman and they had just recorded
a demo with Prianca. Randomly, again, it was all destiny.
I feel like this is all destiny. I said to them, oh,
do you know Pianka and they will of course, And
I said do you think she can sing? And they
were like, actually, we just recorded this demo, So I go,
do you mind sending it to me? And they were
like no, we can't really do that, blah blah blah.

(39:33):
And I don't know. I convinced them because I'm convincing
to send it to me and I promised them it
would only be me that would listen to it and
maybe one other person. So I send it to Jimmy
and he goes, what she can sing? And he goes,
let's just do it, And I go, what do you
mean let's just do it? He goes, well, let's sign
it to record deal and I go, I don't even
know her, And through like different people, actually I think

(39:56):
it was through Salim, I got to her and yeah,
I remember doing this phone call with her and it
was the worst phone call ever. She was in this
jungle recording this movie and she was in that very
actor state of mind where she didn't want this young
girl from America with this English accent trying to convince
it to be a pop star, Like she wasn't that

(40:19):
the So anyway, I was trying to convince it to
be a pop star, and I was like, hey, look,
I'd love to sign you, I'd love me to bring
you to America. Blah blah blah. She barely said anything
on that call. So I put the phone down. I
called jim and he goes, how did it go? I
go terrible, Like I just talked and talked and talked,
and you know, I think she had very little to
say to me, and anyway, I don't know. I get

(40:40):
a call later from her manager at that time, and
Natasha Pale and she was like, yeah, Prianka's in And
I was like what she was like? Practice in And
that was the one time that I feel like myselves
was terrible. I didn't ask her any questions. I was
so nervous to talk to her and I just talked
to her. But I don't know, something worked, It.

Speaker 2 (40:59):
Worked, It worked all these years later. How does it feel?
You know, when we think back to that little girl
who was bullied for her culture, for her background, for
how she looked, and then to go on to work
on helping that culture be so prominently displayed in so
many different art forms, whether that's music through slum Dog

(41:19):
Millionaire or businesses like class bars or you know, Preanco
Chopra and movies and TV in America? Like, how does
that feel now?

Speaker 1 (41:28):
You know? It's so funny. Someone said something to me
the other day about this, and they were like, oh,
you were never trying to fit in. You want to
be able to fit into your culture. Like I remember
Lady Gaga. We put her in a sari. She came
to India and she loved this saray was made by
Tom Dalani and she loved it so much that she
turned it into four different costumes. So she performed that

(41:52):
age she wore in the day, then she had a
stylist chop it up and turn it into something else.
Then they chopped it up again, turned it into something else,
and at the end, it was a bodysuit that she
performed in. And I remember she was coming off stage
and she held my hands and she goes, how did
I do? And I was just like, my god, like,
how did you do? Yeah? Amazing? But I remember just

(42:13):
being like, she's here in India with me wearing a
sari that's now turned into.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
A body suit.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
But it was just this evolution of this outfit was
just kind of the evolution of my journey of bringing
this culture to everyone. And I always believed that if celebrities,
I do believe in celebrity endorsement, it works if celebrities
endorsed our culture, and it's I know a lot of
people criticize me for this and say you shouldn't need

(42:41):
that endorsement from other people and you shouldn't need this,
But when you've been bullied your entire life and called
a packing, beaten up and spat on and all sorts
of things. Yeah, you do. I'm sorry. I needed that,
and I just like in that moment, just felt like
I don't need it anymore. Now I'm good. Now I've
got all of you guys to be in my culture
versus me spending my whole life being in your culture,

(43:03):
you know what I mean. And it's funny, Like I
was talking to a friend of mine. He was just
saying to me, like, it's just amazing how you've spent
your life really bringing people into your culture versus trying
to figure out how to be in theirs.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
Yeah, and I love that because I think that is
the only way of doing it, and that you want
to be on the same page where your culture and
someone else's culture is more evident, like it's more present,
Whereas You're absolutely right, And I feel like for people
in America, it was even harder when I meet when
I met and you probably felt when I met South
Asians in America, I realized that they'd had no representation,

(43:39):
Whereas in England we started to see things because of
people like yourself and others we had things like BBC
Asian Network, We had artists that were rising. We had
all of that at that time, at least correct and
in America they didn't have that. And they're only four
percent of the population, so it was such a small
group of people that any room you walked into, people

(44:00):
didn't know whether you were what background you were from. Yeah, right,
like England was still known, but being Indian here wasn't
like people didn't really know what that was.

Speaker 1 (44:25):
Yeah. When we first came to America, one of the
things that we noticed was you either had Indian kids
that were mad into Bollywood and were really deacy, right,
and that they were called fobs, like people called them
bobs fresh off the boat, and they were really like,
you know, really Indian. And I wouldn't say that I
really related to them because I was very British and

(44:47):
also very Indian, but blah blah blah. Anyway, and then
you had these kids that completely shun the culture and
just completely embraced American culture. And I was somewhere in between,
and I wanted to find a pathway for those for
them to meet in the middle and they see, his
was very much about that. I was like all these
kids that like, you know, and if I'm mashing up

(45:07):
like hip hop with Bollywood or I'm mashing up Bungra
with you know, I don't know whatever type of music,
that's where that meeting happens. So that was really sort
of an observation that I had very early on, and
I wanted to bring those worlds together, even for Indian kids.

Speaker 2 (45:24):
Yeah, but knowing you, I know you don't feel the
job is done.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
No, not at all. I mean, do you no, definitely
do you? Yeah, No, I definitely don't think that our
job is done. I mean I won't until everything just
feels completely normal. And I think we still see things
at a South Asian go, oh my god, look at that,
Look at that. You know what I mean, we still

(45:48):
like surprised when we see things. We shouldn't be surprised.
We should feel completely integrated.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
And there's one Yeah, what's a business skill that you
think everyone listening should master if they want to be
successful in business?

Speaker 1 (46:02):
I think really like learning to communicate ideas, you know,
throughout my entire career and having people pitch to me,
and you know, you have to become masterful at pitching
your ideas in a way that is not boring, is
not all consuming, which is not all about you. But
again going back to that thing I said to you
about finding out what someone's interested in, Like, you've just

(46:24):
got to be really good at a two way path,
you know. I think the biggest issue that I see
young entrepreneurs or young people in business, they think everything
is one way and it has to be a two
way highway. And then the other thing that I think
people really need to juggle. So you're you're interesting because
I think you're part of this new group of what

(46:45):
we call multipreneurs where these so there used to be
this whole thing that you do one thing, you have
one goal, you pursue that one goal, and you do
that one thing. I think times have really changed. I
think the industry. I think industries have changed where you
can now be doing multiple things. So you're the CEO
of JUNI, right, you're a podcast host, you could tomorrow

(47:06):
be an actor, you could be tomorrow I do a
million things, right, But that doesn't mean you give up
each thing to do that other thing. Yes, And I
think that's the world we're in now, where you don't
have to give up what you were doing to become
this new thing. You can do it all. I have
a music label, I have an investment company. I you know,
do so I'm mental people. I actually am a founder

(47:29):
for two businesses. Like I do so many things, and
I think that you also in this new world, have
to be used to being like a five lane highway.
And I think people that are a five lane highway
and have cars in different lanes going at different speeds
and maybe one hasn't even started yet, be okay with that. Like,
don't like this old rhetoric of you got to do

(47:51):
one thing, and you got to do that one thing,
and you've got to have one goal and you've got
to be focused on it. You know. One of the
failures I think I had, which again Pile taught me
out of the whole pivot thing, was like when I
first started one of my companies, I was so adamant
that I had to reach this one goal and if
I you know, I couldn't pivot. I had to stay
focused and if I just stayed on that one thing,

(48:12):
eventually it would work. Well, that's the biggest lie ever,
that's not true at all. You have to read the room,
you have to see what's going on around you, and
you have to pivot. You can't be focused on one
thing all the time. So I think like being successful
in today's world is really learning that. I always say,
be the be the five lane highway.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I feel like
it's almost like you start with one thing that allows
you to become somewhat and that's the point. It's not
becoming at the end of it, but it's like you
build one thing somewhat substantiating who you are and what
you're doing, and then you get this ability to spread
yourself across these multiple things and become that multi hyphenet.

(48:50):
And I think you're right that that idea of just
stay to one thing or just start with everything is
also confusing because if you were to do seven things
in the beginning, it's like, well, what do you communicating?
What do you actually believe? Yeah? Yeah, and what's working?
So you're right somewhere in the middle of like like
I feel like that, like I start my world has
been built in content and podcasting, in social media, and

(49:10):
now I have the ability to do lots of different
things because of that. Or when you have an actor
who becomes a very successful actor, now they have the
ability to go and build a business or you know,
do something else. And so I think you're right.

Speaker 1 (49:22):
And by the way, to that point of a talent manager.
Now before you know, you're to talent managers that just
managed an actor and getting that person jobs. Now, as
a talent manager, you've got to be building businesses, You've
got to be figuring out brand deals, You've got to
be like doing so many things. Because you know, I
can't remember who just went out and said this. I
think it was Sidney Sweeney recently. She was like, you know,

(49:43):
the films don't pay the bills. You know, the films
just don't pay the bills anymore. Like the whole industry,
the movie industry was streaming and everything has changed, like
residuals and waaltis and all of those are wiped out now,
Like the way the business is is so different. So
that means you have to do like all these other things,
you know, And what we've seen is like, you know,

(50:03):
huge stars making more money off like the beauty business
than anything else. Right, Like so look at correct yeah, wow,
well what's her name, Selina Go? I mean, like at singer, entrepreneur,
rare beauty I mean like it's incredible. And I think
as a talent manager now, like I mean, I'm lucky

(50:24):
because I came from that world. My background was venture
and bench capital and like and founders and you know,
helping people build businesses and all of that. And then
prior to that, my experience was an advertising and prior
to that, I was in sales. So for me, like
as a talent manager, I'm not strongly at all. I'm
actually really lucky and happy that I get to use
all my school bases with talent. But I think now,

(50:46):
like everybody has to be on this, as I say,
five Lane Highway.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
How early did you get involved in bumble?

Speaker 1 (50:54):
Oh my god. You know it's so funny. You know
everyone's posting those things right now about what were you
doing in twenty six Well, it's a crazy story because
in twenty sixteen, both Whitney Wolf and I were on
the l magazine's Women in Tech, And I remember again
that whole thing about listening and watching and observing. I
remember looking at her and reading about Bumble because we

(51:14):
were both in that magazine and going, oh, that's like brilliant,
Like she's brilliant. And actually, much later on in the
journey when she wanted to expand to India. Wash was
when I got involved and pre was the face of that, Prianka,
and it was amazing. Like, what was interesting it was
that all the other dating apps had been really unsuccessful

(51:36):
in launching in India in getting the female demographic on
the apps. And actually that's been the case for India
in general, where whether it's Facebook, Instagram, whatever, all of
these platforms have really struggled to get women onto the apps.
So what she was already coming with was this very
strong female story which allowed that to happen. And you
want to hear the funniest thing, Prianka's brother met his

(51:57):
wife on Bumble No Way.

Speaker 2 (51:59):
Y oh cool? I love that. Yeah, that's awesome. What
do you see? You gave this brilliant principle earlier of
the question you asked Jimmy Ivian, I want to ask
you what do you see around the corner now? Like,
what are the patterns? What are the sequences you're noticing
now that young entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs of all ages who are
listening right now could be like, Oh, she's just giving
me an insight into what's happening.

Speaker 1 (52:21):
I mean, the thing is now it's all AI, right,
that's the future. And I think what's super interesting and
challenging and scary for a lot of people is that
I think a lot of these the influencers going to
go away. And I was working with this company that
was telling me that they had tens of thousands of
AI influencers that they spread across basically social media channels

(52:45):
to sell products. So I feel like the future is
really going to be in AI and how we consume
based on AI influencers. And the thing is a lot
of what you see. I don't know how much time
you spend on Instagram or TikTok, but a lot of
what you see is actually AI and you don't.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
Know it, you know. I mean, so I've seen some
of those AI influences. Yeah, it's scary how many followers
they have already, how many comments they get, how real
some of them look, and at the same time, you
know they're not human, but people are still following them,
and I find that fascinating.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
Well, the reason that people still follow them is because
they've had the algorithm and data and they know exactly
what people are interested.

Speaker 2 (53:22):
Totally.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
Again, it goes back to like my whole thing and
like figuring out what someone's interested in before you try
and album something. Right, These these AI influencers have all
the data to know what people are interested in, so
they'll serve you exactly what you're interested in.

Speaker 2 (53:38):
Scary, what does that mean for the error of talent
celebrity talent management? Like, do you plan on having an
AI talent management company where you only manage AI people like?

Speaker 1 (53:48):
You know what I would like to see. I would
like to see a time when talent owns their data
and talent that creates all of these AIM bluences, but
also talent can create their own AI influencers based on them,
you know, whether it's their alter ego or whether it's

(54:09):
actually them. I would just like to see models of
ownership be created. This is coming whether we like it
or not. This is happening, right, So how do you
get ahead of it? And how do you build for
a future you know where that's going to happen. I mean, look, talent,
if you think about it, is like in a really
interesting place anyway, because you've got all these like A
list actors who you know, didn't know that all these

(54:34):
influencers were going to come along and destabilize their business
right Like before it was like you were one of
a number of actors who would get all of the
endorsement deals. Now I have companies that tell me that
they don't even want people to endorse their companies beause
rather work with micro influencers because that's how they actually
see products move, you know, with very specific niche audiences

(54:56):
that want those certain things. So I think the whole
industry has kind of kind of really been shifted from
that perspective. So this is just another shift that's going
to come along. But I think that you know, smart
actors are really going to figure out how to have
ownership and maybe they'll have a suite of their own actors.
Maybe they'll create their own agencies of AI individuals based

(55:18):
on a lot of their own data, you know.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
Absolutely, And so yeah, all the founders out there or
companies need to be thinking about the incorporation of AI
in their talent strategy and their media strategy.

Speaker 1 (55:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
Yeah, and you're right, it's already here. I always think
about the people always ask me about it, and I'm like,
you know, it's kind of like the social media conversation
we had ten years ago. Correct, it was already there.
And it's going in that direction. So all we've got
to do is learn how to use it more ethically,
more safely, more securely models of what ownership. If you
rightly said, that's how we have to think about it,
rather than this fear mongering of like, oh my.

Speaker 1 (55:51):
God, it's and also how you can scale yourself. Yeah, right,
Like if like let's just say, for example, you know,
I'm a I'm an actress and people love me for
my fashion, I could build a whole damn business on
my fashion through AI and not even have to massively
participate in that. Like, you know, I could you know,

(56:13):
whatever my interest is, whatever I want to do, I
can build a business off of that with very little
resource of myself using AI like and monetize that. So, like,
I think, you know, the most critical thing is just
having the talent, is to have really smart people around
them that can help them figure out how they use
what they have and use AI to scale it.

Speaker 2 (56:36):
Yeah, of all the businesses you've scaled, Bill invested in,
what has been the critical reasons for successful failure?

Speaker 1 (56:44):
It's always down to the founder, really, Yeah, It's always
down to that individual. Always the founder is everything, Like,
you know, their instinct, their decision making, their desire to
shift or not shift or move, their ability to raise money,
their ability to influence people. Yeah, it's always the founder.

(57:07):
And that's the thing. Like often I've invested in founders
where I've said I don't even think this is the
right thing, and actually Jimmy taught me this. They I've
said to founders, I don't think what you're building is
the right thing, but I believe in you and you're
going to be brilliant and you're going to do something amazing.
And I just see that in that founder. When I
first founded bac Hits, this is such a crazy story,

(57:29):
Jimmy gave me millions of dollars and two weeks later.
I've told this story a few times. I'm sitting at
lunch with him and jay Z and he tells me
the business is going to fail, and I said, oh,
I was so embarrassed. You can imagine like you're sitting
with jay Z and Jimmy iren and he tells your
business is going to found and I was like so
embarrassed and flustered and surprised, and I didn't know what

(57:49):
to say, and I just said, so, why did you
give me money then and he goes, because you're an album,
not a single, And he goes, this is your first single.
It's not going to work. But that's okay. I want
to be in business with you.

Speaker 2 (57:59):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (57:59):
It's so it comes down to the founder. It comes
down to the talent. It's all about talent.

Speaker 2 (58:04):
Yeah. I mean, you've built these amazing relationships where it
feels like so much incredible wisdom and also great mentorship.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:11):
People have taught you so much obviously.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
You way, I'm in the market for a new mentor.
I know, I really does anyone else. Yeah, I feel
like I'm at a different stage of my life and
I want a mentor.

Speaker 2 (58:21):
Really. Yeah, the mentor has to pick use exactly.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
That's why I'm putting it out there out there on
the podcast.

Speaker 2 (58:26):
There we go, we're going to.

Speaker 1 (58:27):
Manage if we want a platform to Yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
I love but that's such a great I mean, even
you saying that, it's so beautiful because it just shows
just that coachability, that humility that's starting from the bottom,
that you know that that needs to be there constantly.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
Always.

Speaker 2 (58:42):
Yeah, yeah, always.

Speaker 1 (58:43):
I mean that's the other thing when you think about
the five Line Highway, which is my new thing right now.
It is like, you know, all of those cars are
going at different speeds, but not all of those cars
have a mentor, you know, have an instructor. Like, I'm
doing new things all the time, and I'm not afraid
of that. That's you know, I know I see that
in you, Like you're doing new things all the time,
and I watch you and I'm like, I love that,

(59:05):
Like you're starting to drink brand. You know, you're doing
like this, You're doing that, and that's the thing. I
want to be surrounded by people that do that. But
then that means I'm always doing something new and I
need mentorship, Like I don't think we'll ever be done there.

Speaker 2 (59:18):
Yeah, absolutely, And that's actually what creates so much joy
in life because you're meeting new people, you're in a
completely different room, you're in a completely different environment, and
it's I constantly like one thing I sign off a
lot of my stuff with is this is just the beginning.
And I love repeating that to myself so many times
because it's it's such a fresh There's something about the
beginning that is so exciting. Yeah, And so if you

(59:40):
always stay connected to that feeling, life just continues to
not you don't get jaded, you don't get bitter, you
don't get slowed. You just constantly feel this zest for life.
And I feel that with you, like as someone who's
had so many successful business and I even sitting with
you today, whenever we talk, you're always just so passionate
and excited about stuff, and I'm like, that's amazing to
have had so much success but still be that way.
What do you think is the key to you not

(01:00:01):
having become jaded or bitter with the business or sometimes
people be like investors are like this and stakeholders are
like like what allowed you to rise above that negativity?

Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
That's such a good question. I mean, don't get me wrong.
I want to be really clear because I don't want
pooter listeners and be like she's always happy and blah
blah blah, not always happy like you know, I have
my I've had moments of mass depression, and I have
had moments of having to pick myself up, like off
the ground, having complete like feeling like I have nothing,
And I'm happy to talk about those moments. In the

(01:00:33):
joyous moments, I think it's just the excitement to do
something new. All the time, like, by the way, you're
such deep questions, like, yeah, I think it's just the
desire to be doing new things and challenging myself, even
though that is really scary. Like I have moments where
you said something in a podcast about like, whenever you're
doing something new, you feel like an aposta. Yes, I

(01:00:54):
feel like an imposter most of the time because I'm
always doing something new. So I always feel like, what
right do I have to be in this room? What
right do I have to be, you know, doing this?
But then when I look at all the entrepreneurs, like, ah,
this is it. I've got the answer to your question.
What really really inspires me is that you can topple
massive industries and businesses with a new lens. So I

(01:01:16):
always use Parlors this example, right, because she didn't listen
to this and be like, oh my god, they're just
talking about it. But yeah, seriously, she disrupted a whole industry,
not because she knew the industry, not because she had
any experience in it, but she had a different lens
on it. And that, to me, I've got goosebumps so
exciting that you can topple a whole industry just because

(01:01:40):
you have a different perspective on it that nobody else had,
and you're willing to go out and a limon say
it and do something about it. Like how exciting is that?
Like think about all these like drinks that have come
into the market, like you know and of just like
my our dear friend Rohan like who founded vitamin water
right well, he was one of the founding team. So
he I saw this opportunity to basically, you know, disrupt

(01:02:04):
Coke and that all their energy drinks and everything they
were doing, and he did it, and he sold it
to them for like four billion dollars, Like you know
Jimmy like disrupted sound with Beats headphones. Like it's just
like to me, it's like, I think that's where all
my energy comes from. Entrepreneurs that just have a completely
different lens on life and and goal with it. And

(01:02:24):
then you see them disrupt an entire industry, Like how
can that not excite you? By the way, last thing
with no experience.

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
They do it with no experience.

Speaker 1 (01:02:33):
The amount of times I hear people say my nephew
said this to me, I just want to say, this
job for two more years so I get some experience,
So I can then go and do this, I said,
do it now. Yes, I said, you don't need any
more experience, Like you need a different lens, you need
a different perspective. That's what's going to make you stand out.
You don't need more experience.

Speaker 2 (01:02:50):
Yes. I remember reading a Salemishmael wrote this book called
Exponential Organizations, and it was in the early days of
the rise of Uber the right of Airbnb, and he
was talking about how Airbnb in its first five years
or ten years had access to more real estate than
hotel brands that had been around for fifty years to

(01:03:10):
your point, or Uber had access to more taxis and
drivers than taxi companies had for decades.

Speaker 1 (01:03:17):
And it was like instantly, you know, we used to
say this thing in sort of like tax circles. We
used to say this thing where you know, Airbnb is
the biggest hotel company with like no hotel yes, yeah.
And Uber's the biggest like transport company with no cars exactly.
And class pass is the biggest fitness company with no gyms.
Like we used to say this. Actually that came about

(01:03:37):
when we started working on class parts. We were like,
what is this going? What iteration of the world is
this going to be, Oh, this is going to be
the biggest fitness company with no gems.

Speaker 2 (01:04:03):
You have this get up and go attitude. What's been
able to knock you down?

Speaker 1 (01:04:07):
Failure? You know, I failed multiple times my first business,
they Sehitsie. I raised all that money for and Jimmy
I even got behind and told me it was going
to fail. But I didn't believe him when he told
me that it did fail. And I remember, like, you know,
I was living here in LA at that time, and
I just, you know, i'd raised money from that was
my first time raising real money, and I'd raised so

(01:04:28):
much money from people. I was just really embarrassed to
tell them it failed. And I was scared, and I
just saw myself as a complete failure, and I thought
no one would ever believe in me again. Like I
thought I was done. I thought it was over, my
career was over, and I was going to go and
have to get a job in I don't know, McDonald's
or something like. I just didn't know what the future
held after that. And I was also going through a

(01:04:51):
breakdown in my marriage. I was also gone through a
journey of infertility, and in every way, whether it was
my business whether it was my marriage, whether it was
my body. I felt and my sister got diagnosed with
multiple scrosses at that time and then later breast cancer.
In every part of my life, I just felt nothing
was working and I was a failure. And I mean

(01:05:15):
brings back so much emotion, but like, yeah, I just
felt like a total failure. And then but I also
was quite high in my profile, Like I was in magazines,
people were talking about me, you know, I was doing podcasts.
So I also felt like a massive impost at that
time because I was like, I don't deserve any of
these accolades. You know, I was Billboard, women in music,

(01:05:36):
I was this, I was that, and I just help
women in tech. And I was just like I'd gotten
really good at selling to a point where I didn't
believe it myself. I hit rock bottom. I remember sitting
in my closet in La. I just crumbled to the
floor and I prayed. I'd started going to this amazing

(01:05:58):
church here. It was called One Church, La It's now
called Potter's House. And there was the pastor, their pastor, Terrey,
who you met, yeah, and amazing and I always say
like he like saved my life, like I say at
that time, like He's saved my life. And I remember
just praying. And this is going to sound crazy, but

(01:06:19):
I'd never heard God's voice before ever, and I didn't
think it was possible. And I heard these words which
were like, nothing's going to change unless you change. And
I genuinely and I see this in a lot of
young people. They expect the whole world to change around them.
But I'm this and I'm that, and they validate to

(01:06:40):
themselves who they are and what they are and the
reason why they shouldn't change. But the whole world should
change around them. Everyone's attitude should change, like for them
to be successful. And I was one of those people.
I believe that I had this big profile. Yes my
business has failed, Yes my marriage had failed, Yes my
body had failed. All these things in my life had failed.
But I had this profile, so people should come to

(01:07:01):
me and offer me jobs or whatever. And no one
was coming. No one was coming to offer me job.
And then with my towel between my legs, I went
back to Silicon Valley and started asking people for jobs.
And by the way, at that point, I was also
managing Kranka, but she hadn't taken off I spent like
seven years, you know, working and working, working, and nothing

(01:07:22):
had taken off. Everyone with any celebrity, everybody always thinks
the moment they took off was the moment it started.
But that's, you know, really not the case. Like, you know,
you've got managers and talent working for years, and she was,
you know, had this very successful career in India, so
she was going back and forth. But I was sitting here, like,
you know, banging away, trying to make something happen. So anyway,

(01:07:44):
it was a really, really tough time. I went back
to Silicon Valley with my towel between my legs, and
I just put my ego away and I asked for jobs,
and eventually I got an entrepreneur residence at vunder called
Trinity Ventures, and within a couple of months they offered
me a partner role there, which was amazing. But in
the meantime, by the way, everyone was offering me money,

(01:08:05):
which I had no idea. People like watch your next business,
watch your next idea, and I'd be like, why would
anyone trust me with money again? And everyone kept telling
me that my failure was going to make me like
everyone in Silicon Valley was like, what are you talking about?
Like I was so, I was so honest about my vulnerabilities.
I was like, why would you give me money when
I just had a felt business? They were did you
not learn something from that? Your next one will be better?

(01:08:28):
And you know it's so funny. Only years later, yeah,
only years later when oh, and then when Prianca popped.
I remember Jimmy called me and he goes, I told
you you were an album. Like, So, the hardest thing
is when it all comes at once, like for me,
like I was going through infertility, I was going through
a broken marriage, trying to pull it together didn't work.

(01:08:50):
Who as someone I'd been with for like nineteen years,
you know, it wasn't like a short term thing. I'd
moved from continence with that person and now we're amazing
friends and we you know, we still have an incredible relationship.
And then to have a business which was so publicly celebrated.
I think that's the hardest thing, right when something's publicly
celebrated and it's failing, and you know it's failing before

(01:09:11):
anyone else does, and you're going out to all these
events and everyone's treating you like there's the really successful
person and you're like, I feel like a complete failure
right now. And yeah, it was just it all came
at once. And then I remember reading this beautiful quote
and it said, sometimes you feel like you're buried, but
actually you've been planted. And I definitely was planted. I

(01:09:33):
remember Pastor Torrey talking about that, saying that you feel buried,
but actually you're planted. And yeah, I reshifted everything. I
let go of my ego. I ask people for things,
I asked for help. I told people I was vulnerable,
like I put everything out there very honestly, which like
three months before, I was a different person. But I

(01:09:55):
decided to change because I've got that message to change. Wow,
so I changed it everything.

Speaker 2 (01:10:00):
Where did you start?

Speaker 1 (01:10:02):
I started by asking people for jobs. And then, sadly,
you know, I separated from my husband. That was the
first that was separation. I changed everything. I uprooted everything.
I lived in my friend's basement for three months. Everything changed,
my surroundings, me, everything. I stripped myself down to nothing.

Speaker 2 (01:10:23):
I mean that sounds like the most difficult and at
the same time, as you said planted moment or like
you're literally going through this moment where you're stripping away
changing everything, which is so unsettling to the identity because
you're like, wait, my self worth was I was married,
my self worth was I was a successful entrepreneur. My
self worth was maybe I'd be a mom one day
or you know whatever. Yeah, then all of a sudden,

(01:10:44):
all of that's changed because you've got a shift, and
so you're like, well, who am I now?

Speaker 1 (01:10:49):
I was so brave, Like I can't even believe I
did it. I literally changed everything. But I got those words,
and honestly, those words were not me, Like, that wasn't
me talking to myself that And there was only one
other time that I feel like I've actually spoken to
God's spoken to me. You know, it hasn't happened again.
I keep waiting for it to happened. Hasn't happened again.
But yeah, it was a very clear message.

Speaker 2 (01:11:12):
Yeah, well, you kept mentioning destiny earlier as well, and
I was thinking that. You know, when you think about
depression and destiny, it's it's interesting that you've had those
points in your life where you've also been able to trace, Oh,
that was destiny or that was destiny. I connected that,
And it's it's interesting that sometimes the unlocked to those
are in your lowest moments, like the unlock of that destiny,

(01:11:33):
the unlock of that growth. I used to have a
mentor would it always tell me. He'd be like, Jay,
you'll realize your potential when you're in pain.

Speaker 1 (01:11:40):
Oh gosh, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:11:41):
And I'd be like, oh no, man, I'm like proactive.
I'm like, I was like, come on, man, Like I'm
like organized. I don't need pain to be organized. I
don't need pain to find my potential. I'm already winning.
And then when I went through pain, I was like, oh,
got it. Like he was so right that it was.
It was pain that was the doorway to my potential.
I didn't even know that I had a gear seven

(01:12:01):
that I could lock into and I was in pain,
and it's and it's amazing because you think about it
and you go, yeah, I thought I was going to
break in that moment, and that break was my breakthrough.
Like that moment that I thought everything was going to
fall apart, that was the moment where everything start after
change after shift, not in a magical transcendental way, but
in a way of like turning it around. Did you
ever feel underestimated as a woman in business? And how

(01:12:24):
did the infertility play into that world as well, because
I know there's so much judgment and shame and guilt
around that, both in our culture, both just in society
in general.

Speaker 1 (01:12:34):
I've always felt underestimated, not in America. It's really weird.
I felt underestimated my entire life growing up in England
and all of that by family. I think my family
really underestimated me because also I didn't do the whole
you know, very traditional for South Asians is I didn't
do medicine. I didn't you know, I didn't do you know, engineering.

(01:12:57):
I just didn't do all the traditional things that lead
to success. So when I said I want to do
a theater studies degree, everyone in my family like looked like,
oh god, she's going to really amount to nothing. You know,
that was definitely something that was put on me. The
only person that ever told me a counter story that
was my sister. My sister always believed in me and
told me that I was going to be someone. Yeah.

(01:13:21):
So yeah, I always felt underestimated. I think I didn't
feel that way moving to America. It's funny, you know,
America's like I love America, not right now with Trump,
but in general. I love America, but I felt like
this has really given me a place to you know,
I really believe in the American dream, Like I think
anyone could come here and succeed. And we've talked about this,

(01:13:43):
like what we've done here, we don't think we could
have done in England from the infertility side. You know,
it's been a really long journey, like just being myself
up and you know, it's so funny. I was listening
to Nick Jonas's song Gut Punch and there's a line
in it it says, where how could I be so

(01:14:03):
mean to myself or something? I've been so mean to
myself about it. I've felt like my body has completely
fouled me. And people will say to me all the
time like, oh, you don't want to have children or
and I don't want to get into why I didn't
have children or you know whatever, but yeah, it's it's
it's been a tough journey.

Speaker 2 (01:14:23):
I think you just hit the nail on the head
that we're all going through things. But it's how we
talk to ourselves when we're.

Speaker 1 (01:14:28):
Getting through things that makes all the difference everything.

Speaker 2 (01:14:31):
Yeah, because everyone we know in the world is going
through something and it's how they talk to themselves about
it that has makes all the impact, makes all the difference,
And I absolutely agree it's the skill. To me, it's
one of the most important skills is being able to
talk to yourself in a way that pushes you forward
and keeps you grounded without overhyping yourself but hurting yourself.

(01:14:52):
And I think we kind of only know how to
do both, like I can't know that hype myself up
before this meeting, or I need to hurt myself when
I'm doing something wrong, and we how to help ourselves
and actually have this healthy inner dialogue which is healing
conversation and compassionate and empathetic and connected.

Speaker 1 (01:15:08):
But I have a question for you, actually, can I
do this? Of course, I don't know how you were
raised exactly. I've heard some of your stories, but we
generally we were raised quite tough. Right, Like all the
races am I dealt with, I didn't come home and
talk to my parents about it because they were dealing
with it themselves, right, and they didn't have the tools
to deal with it themselves. So then you know, I
spent my whole life all my relatives saying, oh, you're

(01:15:29):
gonna you know, you're going to be the trash man,
You're going to be this, you're going to be that,
You're going to amount to nothing because I wasn't good
at school and I was terrible at school. So we've
grown up with all of this like negative talk at us,
telling us that we're not going to mount to anything,
and here we are amounted to quite a lot and
done pretty well for ourselves, right, And and so now

(01:15:49):
I'm like so confused about I get where you're going
with this, Yeah, because I see all of these parents,
all my friends, egging their kids, aren't only giving their
kids positive like all this good stuff, And I'm like,
you know, are they going to have any grit viving
the real world? Like I know, I'm so curious.

Speaker 2 (01:16:08):
That's a great question.

Speaker 1 (01:16:09):
And then I think of myself and I'm really good
at talking to myself terribly, Like I'm really good at
beating myself up. I'm the best at it, right, And
if I don't do something the way my expectation of
myself is, ill like, really have a go at myself.
But then I'm sometimes I wonder, is that what makes
me successful? Is that what makes me driven?

Speaker 2 (01:16:30):
You know?

Speaker 1 (01:16:30):
So I'm curious, how does one do with all of that?

Speaker 2 (01:16:33):
So I think a lot of successful people in the
world today are successful because of their trauma. And what
happens then is you can't even be happy in your
success because you're doing it to prove someone else wrong,
or you're doing it to prove yourself right, or you're
doing it to show people what you could do. And
I'm not saying you, I'm just saying in general.

Speaker 1 (01:16:50):
No, no, I'm definitely that.

Speaker 3 (01:16:52):
No, no, no, no.

Speaker 2 (01:16:53):
And then what happens with that is you can't even
be happy with your success because you know this as
well as I do, just because you now successful. No,
not everyone turns around who hated on you and goes
well done? You know you, really, no one's going to
do that because everyone's busy living their own lives, like
no one really was anyway. So I think at one
point that trauma has to transform into purpose into mission,
which which is what yours is. You're being harsh on

(01:17:15):
yourself like yours always yours was always a mission. It
was purpose driven. You wanted to you wanted to make
a shift and a change for people that look like
you and felt like you, and came from where you were,
But I agree with you, and that's what I'm saying.
The opposite of what we're seeing now is molly coddling hyping,
and that doesn't do anything for you because now there's
no challenge. And so what we really need is challenge love.

(01:17:37):
Challenge love. It's like when Jimmy saw you fail and
you were already embarrassed and upset that you failed, and
he said, no, you're an album, not a single. That
was love when you failed. So when we fail, you
need to be held but you still hold yourself to
high standards. And so the way I look at it
is we've got to help young people and everyone, but

(01:17:57):
we have to help young people and ourselves hold ourselves
to high standards and then have high grace when it
goes wrong, because if you don't have the high grace
when it goes wrong. The best example of this was
Roger Federer talked about this at Dartmouth at his commencement
speech at the university, and he said that when I'm
playing a point, it's the most important point in the world.

(01:18:19):
He goes, as soon as I win or lose the point,
it is the least important point in the world. Like
I have to play the point like my life depends
on it. And as soon as that point is over,
I'm going to move on to the next point because
if I'm thinking about that last point, I'm not going
to be able to play this point, and then I'm
going to lose the next point again. And he was
just like, that's the only way. And I think it's
more about rather than hype and encouragement, it's more about

(01:18:40):
teaching people to be present and teaching people to have
high standards, and then teaching people that, hey, if you
failed once, like in Silicon Valley, just what's your next idea,
Let's go. So I don't think it's like, oh, you're amazing,
don't worry like you know, Jimmy was like, you're amazing,
You're so special. And this was just a tough moment
in the It wasn't like it was no, you failed,

(01:19:00):
but let's go again, you know. And I think that's
the mindset that we need, is not molly coddling and
fake loving and over fake compassion, which only makes people weaker. Yeah,
you know, and it would have done that to you.
So anyway, I don't know if that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (01:19:13):
But no, it does. I mean, it's the thing I
you know, I battle with also, like you know my
therapist's voices me Andela, could you be more compassionate to yourself?
And I'm like, but then when I have no ambition,
if I was more compassionate to myself, like I got
to beat myself up when I fail so that I
do better next time, Like, I don't know, it's just
like I get it.

Speaker 2 (01:19:33):
I get it, and I think that's what I'm saying.
You have to have high standards. If you don't have
high standards, you'll never achieve anything great. Yeah, but then
you have to have high grace because that actually what
it does, What high grace does is your rebound times quicker.
So if you have high standards, but then you have
high hatred for yourself, you actually can beat yourself up
for longer and kind of stay in that dark place.
Whereas if you have a high grace period, then you're like,

(01:19:55):
all right, let's rebound. Like so you but I get
what you're saying too, Like I have high standards. I'm
harsh on myself. I'm not I'm not easy on myself.
I've just learned to talk to myself as a coach
and a mentor would talk to me, not as a
hateful person would talk to me. Yeah, And I think
there's a difference in there. Yeah, it's like if my
coach saw me perform bad. I played a lot of
sport growing up, had had a lot of coaches in

(01:20:17):
other areas in my life. Like, my coaches would never
just be like, you suck, you're the worst. Like they
would never say that. Yeah, they'd be like, Jay, did
you notice that you were one inch away from where
it would have been great? Yeah, they would point to
the detail of improvement. They wouldn't point to like, oh,
you suck, you're the worst, that was the worst performance ever.
They would never say stuff like that. So I think
it's being your own mentor, just as you would never

(01:20:39):
have said that to Payle or never have said that
to Prianca or you know, you'd have just pivoted. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:20:44):
I mean it's funny now though. So now I'm with
my fianceef aunt Ahmed, who was running Assembly in District
sixty six New York City.

Speaker 2 (01:20:52):
By the way, Oh wow, amazing. Yeah, that's incredible.

Speaker 1 (01:20:54):
But he's been a firefighter, as you know, for like
twenty twenty years and was so interesting see now whenever. Like,
he's really shifted my perspective on life, right, because before
I would be like really in the moment of like,
oh my god, I failed, all this happened, all that happened,
And now like that saying of like, well you're not
we're not saving lives, you know. Now that's really yeah,

(01:21:17):
Now that's really meaningful, Like that whole phrase. I mean,
he just retired to run in politics. But like prior
to that, like you know, I spent we've been together
like four years, and you know, four nights of every week,
I would just don't know if he's coming home the
next day, you know, And every night before i'd go
to bed, I'd make him text me and tell me

(01:21:37):
that he's safe so far, but I didn't know waking
up in the morning if he'd still be there. Yeah. Yeah,
a lot of anxiety. So that's actually sort of shifted
a lot of my perspective on my anxiety about my
failures or whatever. Like it's it's this has been really
meaningful journey.

Speaker 2 (01:21:56):
Yeah, that's beautiful. I love your relationship and I'm so
happy to hear how he's having all this beautiful impact
on you. It's nice. Yeah, it's amazing to hear. And
you've been amazing, I mean talking to you about the wins,
the successes. You've given great business advice. We've learned how
to network from you. We've learned how to be more convincing, persuasive,
We've learned how to never give up, and at the

(01:22:17):
same time learned about the human behind all of it.
We end every episode of On Purpose with a final five.
These questions have to be answered in one sentence maximum.
So Angela Chari, these are your final five.

Speaker 3 (01:22:29):
Oh go.

Speaker 2 (01:22:30):
The first question is what is the best advice you've
ever heard or received?

Speaker 1 (01:22:35):
Yes, if you want to raise money, ask for advice,
and if you want advice, ask some money. I like that.

Speaker 2 (01:22:41):
That's really I'm going to use that now. Question number two,
what is the worst advice you've ever heard or received?

Speaker 1 (01:22:46):
To stay on one track, one path, and never pivot
and you'll get to your goal eventually.

Speaker 2 (01:22:52):
Great answer. Question number three, what's something that you used
to value that you don't value anymore?

Speaker 1 (01:22:58):
People's opinions?

Speaker 2 (01:23:00):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:23:01):
I used Yeah, I used to really value what people
would say about me, and now I don't so much.

Speaker 2 (01:23:07):
Question number four, what's something that you didn't value before
that you deeply value. Now my alone time interesting. Now
my alone time used to scare me so much. I
used to hate being alone. And I think that's a
lot of childhood trauma and a lot of things. So
he's one sentence, but yeah, now I really love it
Now it's something I crave. That's a beautiful thing to

(01:23:30):
get comfortable with. Isn't it that we've ever were You're
doing good? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:23:34):
Finally Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:23:35):
A fifth and final question. We asked this to every
guest who's ever been on the show. If you could
create one law that everyone in the world had to follow,
what would it be.

Speaker 1 (01:23:43):
To approach everything with love and kindness?

Speaker 2 (01:23:46):
Yeah? The Golden rule, mate.

Speaker 1 (01:23:48):
I bet everyone says that, right. No, Yeah, imagine in
the world how it would be if everyone approached everything
with love and kindness totally.

Speaker 2 (01:23:58):
And I think that's actually goes back to what we
talked about. The reason why we struggle to approach other
people with loving kindness is because we don't know how
to be with ourselves with love and kindness. Yeah, because
we're harsh on ourselves. We're harsh on everyone outside of ourselves,
So all of that pain is coming from within. It's
not coming from we hate everyone and we love ourselves.
It's actually coming from we got ourselves exactly, and then

(01:24:20):
we're putting it out there. Yeah, and so that loving
kindness requires That's why that inner dialogue is so important
and so a Julio Chara, you're amazing. Thank you so much,
someone of our heroes, so grateful for you. Can't wait
to see what you go off and do next. Can't
wait for you to find your mentor through this. I
know usually come people come on here trying to find
a partner. You already have that something like. Usually that's

(01:24:41):
what people announce applications welcome.

Speaker 1 (01:24:43):
If you can mental met please reachat to it on purpose.

Speaker 2 (01:24:47):
I love it. I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:24:48):
The email.

Speaker 2 (01:24:49):
Yeah, everyone has been listening and watching. Make sure you
go and follow and on Instagram where she does share
parts of our journey. And if you don't already, go
and check out her business is. We will put the
websites and the links in the comment section. Should you
wish to apply, should you wish to ask her to
be your mentor should you wish to do whatever you
want to do, we will put them there so you
can check them out. And again, thank you so much,

(01:25:10):
for being set a dear friend and inspiration and being
here with so much love and kindness as well, and
being so open love you, love you too.

Speaker 1 (01:25:18):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:25:19):
If you're ready to take control of your finances create
freedom on your own terms, you want to hear my
conversation with Cody Sanchez.

Speaker 3 (01:25:26):
If you want to be successful today, is that there's
really there's two types of people. One type of person
will be really successful and one type of person will
never be successful until they change their mentality. And we
call these fixers verse freeloaders

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Jay Shetty

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Dateline NBC

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Top Entrepreneur Anjula Acharia: The #1 Skill That Makes People Say YES (Use THIS Strategy to Turn One Conversation Into Multiple Opportunities)