Neha Tripathi, the Founder and Host of ‘Neha Tripathi Talk Show’ interacted with Suba Lakshminarasimhan, Founder Director of SLN Brand Studio. The talk show focuses on sharing knowledge to the world by interacting with the Experts and SMEs across domains through an online platform.
Neha is an Employability Mentor and has specialized to Coach Women on a Career Break. She is a Professional Speaker, loves to travel and explore the unsaid stories of Entrepreneurs.
Suba: Thanks for your time, Neha. Tell our audience all about how you started the talk show and triggering moments of your life.
Neha: Thank you, Suba, for having me as a part of ‘Word of Wisdom’ series. The journey has been exciting. After a decade of corporate experience, I felt the need to do more to the community. Amidst shining well and growing amidst challenges, there was a ‘feeling of missing something’ that triggered me to think more towards starting something on my own.
I had a pool of questions, and I was literally lost in the start-up city with my idea of how to start. I networked massively and searched for answers, but it took me a lot of time and costed me beyond my expectations. Moreover, I didn’t have any business background, struggled a lot to learn the intricacies of building a business. Such struggles, learning from experiences made me decide that I could do a lot to the Entrepreneurs and launched ‘Neha Tripathi Talk Show.’ Our Vision here is to share all kinds of experience and expertise with the audience.
Initially, we launched the platform for women, but eventually we felt the need for men since a lot of interest was coming on our way from them as well. Hence we opened up the forum for everyone.
“Neha Tripathi Talk Show – A platform to learn, share and speak your heart out!!”
A smile from Neha indeed triggered a happy moment here. A sense of satisfaction.
Suba: That is quite a journey Neha. Conceptualisation is one thing, but Execution is where more challenges pop up, right? How did you push the boundaries and build this empire?
Neha: Rightly said, Suba. Taking that first step is a challenge. When we know how to proceed, rest becomes a part of it and can definitely be figured out. Few personal traits I must share here. I had always been a consistent and hard worker; all I needed was the right guidance which I received gradually. I understood that I needed to have a Mentor who can guide me to define my vision and then, the execution. It took me 6-8 months to find my first mentor. It all happened accidentally but thanks to social media where we can connect and nurture the network for ourselves.
Next big challenge to me was the location. I had recently relocated to Bangalore, the start-up city and I hardly knew anyone. For the initial 6 months, I entirely focused on networking massively. Initially, I used to attend all the networking events, gradually, learnt how to choose the right event and build network consciously.
Suba: Hah….I can very well understand Neha. Getting such clarity and defining strategies for each trait is indeed the beauty of Entrepreneurship. Now, tell me, when it comes to your personality, any trait of yours, you had to change for survival?
Neha: Haha, not one, many Indeed….Let me list them out.
- I used to feel that my networking skills were exceptional, gradually identified a lot of areas that needed fine-tuning.
- I have always been a vivid reader all through my life, would pick any book/blog/article that anyone suggested. I realised that I was killing a lot of my productive time by doing so. I started to consciously pick the materials that I needed to learn at said moments.
- Emotional Management, still working on building a thick skin. I am sure you can understand what I mean.
- Invested huge in my learning process which I never did in my decade of corporate experience.
Neha and Suba had a good laugh as both could relate to many things from the list.
Suba: That’s quite an impressive list Neha. I can relate a lot here. What I observe is that not only you identified the weaknesses, rather areas of improvement, but also worked on them in the right way. And, yes, investing right for the continuous growth where I see a lot women hesitate to do. Happy to know that you have been investing right and reaping fruits as well.
I have an important question here. How did you build a support system to manage your personal & professional life?
Neha: Let me be honest here, Suba. I did not have to work on that at all. I am blessed to have a supportive family. My father always pushes me to aspire more in life, my in-laws love and care for me like their daughter.
The most important part of my life is my life partner. He has never ever questioned once during my entrepreneurial journey. Most of my weekends, I would be in meetings, attending events/ conference, reaching home late, skip cooking (mostly due to work and at times my lack of interest into it) but never ever I had to worry about it. When I enter home, my partner would be ready with the meal and a glass of water for me.
My family has supported in many others ways here Suba. Books especially gifted by my Father, younger sister, life partner make a great difference in my thought processes as well.
Again, I must mention my mentors like Jogesh Jain and Neeraja Ganesh and my virtual mentors like Vishen Lakhiani, YourStory Shradha Sharma who make a great difference in my way of working. I plan well to balance life and business. Suba, even though I have mentioned few names, when it comes to mentors, I have a long list, can’t cover everyone here.
Neha continued after a deep thought…..
Suba, I have learned a lot from many others too. Not only about what I should do, also what I should not do. I also observe and ensure not doing certain mistakes others do in the process of building a business.
Eventually, I became more of a silent observer which is truly contradictory to what I do on my Neha Tripathi Talk Show.
Neha gave a beautiful smile here which felt so satisfactory.
Suba: That’s great to know Neha. Family support is critical for both men and women to succeed in whatever they want to choose. What would be your suggestion for women who lack family support? One thing that you want to share with the Women Aspirants out there?
Neha: Ladies, please stop playing the victim cards. If you aspire to do something in life, it is your responsibility to make it happen. If you do not do it, understand that the purpose is not strong enough that could push you to convert that dream into reality. You need to thrive right to build a support system.
When you see no support from your eco-system, it is time to change your communication. No one ever saw your vision, and that is the sole reason they do not understand it – Neha Tripathi
That’s one impressive finish to the conversation Suba, our Founder had with Neha Tripathi.
About the Interview: ‘Words of Wisdom’ Interview with Ms Neha Tripathi is an initiative for ‘Women Contentment Program,’ a Mentoring program for women.
Ms. Suba Lakshminarasimhan, Founder director, SLN Brand Studio conducted the interview. Women Contentment Program (WCP) focuses on elevating the lives of Women by helping them create a new career, get back to the career after a break, develop Emotional & Social intelligence and build a Personal Brand.
I also would like to get featured on your platform.
Hi Suba,
I love the interview. I agree with Neha, when people blame their environment or their ecosystem, I always ask them if they have shared their dreams and goals with their family … and the answer is always no… so how do you expect encouragement and support if the spouse, in-laws etc don’t know what you want? It is important for women to build and communicate their needs to the first Network in their lives – Family. All else will fall in place.
And Neha, I agree with the “Thick Skin” part … 🙂
Thanks Suba for the article.
Thank you so much Kavitha for sharing your views.
Yes, this is a major concern among women that I consult day in and out. Creating an internal support system through appropriate communication is utmost important.
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