Coffee with Warriors

In the second episode of our 'Career Compass Series,' we dive into navigating your career journey with our inspiring guest, Ritika Saraswat. As a business analyst at Deloitte, founder of Re-Defined, and a LinkedIn TopVoice, Ritika shares her incredible story and valuable insights on overcoming career challenges, building a strong professional network, and empowering yourself to succeed. Tune in to 'Coffee with Warriors' for an episode filled with practical advice and motivational stories to help you find your path and thrive in your career.

Have you ever felt like your dream job was just out of reach, hidden behind a maze of applications and interviews that seem designed to keep you out? If so, then you're not just a face in the crowd; you're part of a shared struggle that many of us face. Welcome back to 'Coffee with Warriors,' where we tackle real issues that affect mental health and well-being, including the stress and anxiety of launching and building a career.

That's exactly why we've launched the 'Career Compass Series.' In this series, we're not just navigating the stormy waters of job hunting and career planning; we're transforming anxiety into ambition. Today, for our first episode of this series, we're joined by Cole Evans, a seasoned business analyst at Deloitte, who has mastered these turbulent waters himself.

Cole Evans is known for his strategic insights and innovative problem-solving in organizational dynamics. Before Deloitte, Cole enhanced public relations for emerging artists at Pender PR and led the AMS of UBC Vancouver as President, guiding the organization through the COVID-19 pandemic with a strong focus on equity and major capital projects, all while managing a team of over 500.

In this episode, Cole shares his journey from the AMS at UBC to Deloitte, strategies for securing a role at a top consulting firm, crucial skills for organizational strategy and design, and advice for balancing demanding roles while managing stress. He also discusses trends shaping the future of organizational strategy and his approach to managing changes within a company to keep teams motivated and resilient.

This discussion ties directly back to what we do at Concept Corner. At Concept Corner, we empower students for real-world success by merging test prep with life skills training. We're here to help you manage the stresses of academic and career challenges. We're currently offering a free job search guide that's packed with actionable tips to help you succeed in your job search and beyond.

Reach out to us on Instagram at @concept_corner_edu or email us at [email protected] to get your copy.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Coffee with Warriors Podcast. If you are a college student who feels lonely, anxious, free, happy, and broke all at the same time, then this episode is for you. To talk about dealing with such a bag of mixed emotions, we have with us someone who needs no introduction.

She changed the perception of what it means to educate a creative by becoming the first person in the world to pursue dual degrees at Harvard University and Berklee College of Music. She has performed at TEDx conferences and the United Nations, fusing her love of performing with her passion for social impact. She has a large, active community that receives more than 200 million views across all verticals. She also puts the community first when creating her content and works to create opportunities for and with her audience. Her current goal is to write songs, stories, and conversations that question social conventions. She draws inspiration for her coming-of-age empowerment pop from her training in Indian classical music, Broadway, gospel and devotional music. As you may have already guessed, she is none other than Avanti Nagral.

As our pivotal goal has always been to bring people with mental grit, strength, and control, we have with us today, the epitome of these qualities. Having been a former Olympian hockey player, she has displayed her courage, determination, and passion for the game, like no other. However, her journey was not one that you could call- easy. She has slept by the washrooms in trains for hours on end to get to her matches, sewed her own shoes, performed exceptionally in academics and on the ground, and yet, never complained about anything. She has faced failures in the face of it and still never chose to give up and I am so honored to have Mrs. Hutoxi Bagli Jeyakrishnan with us for this special and informative episode.

#success #olympian #warrior #coffeewithwarriors

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Coffee with Warriors Podcast. If you are someone who feels as though you cannot openly talk about sex or are being judged for even saying that word,  then this episode is for those who judge you or in general create a sense of shame around it. To talk about dealing with such shame, making sex as a topic less awkward, to provide basic sex education and to address several emotions that come with it, we have with us Karishma Swarup.

Karishma uses pronouns (she/her) and is an internationally experienced sexuality educator and advocate. She holds an undergraduate degree in Geology-Biology from Brown University and runs a sex ed instagram page @talkyounevergot.

While studying in the U.S., Karishma volunteered with Planned Parenthood to teach sex-Ed to high-schoolers for 3 years. After graduating, Karishma worked as a middle school science teacher in Brooklyn before she began her work in sex Ed. In India, she conducts workshops & online webinars with top educational institutions, student groups and young adults across India. She also volunteers for Scarleteen, USA, one of the oldest sex ed websites for young people around the world.

On a day-to-day basis, Karishma works at a global consulting firm as an analyst. In her free time, she enjoys acting for theatre, trying to train her dog and writing poetry.

#sex #sex-ed #mentahealth #coffeewithwarriors #society 

To talk about dealing with anxiety and overcoming depression by empowering yourself we have with us Joshua Gershon.

Josh has been in the human development space for over 15 years as a personal development entrepreneur, men's coach, facilitator, guide, and youth leader.

In 2015, he co-founded Startup Island, an experiential learning platform that has curated retreats, workshops, conscious conversations and has been a source of support and empowerment for thousands of students and professionals globally — with the mission of helping every individual become the CEO of their life. Nowadays, he is a member of the school leadership team at The Academy of Thought and Industry in Austin, which is a unique and student-centric Montessori program for middle and high school teens.

Josh also builds courses, facilitates group coaching programs, and works with private clients. His passion project, Sacred Monday, is a small publishing house born from a desire to create heart-driven works of literature, poetry, and media, and to help others do the same. One of their projects, The Warrior Poets Collective, is a collection of poetry aimed at shifting the cultural narrative around what it means to "be a man" today.

#mentalhealth #anxiety #depression #men #humandevelopment #coffeewithwarriors

If you are someone who feels as though you are not motivated enough or don't have enough grit in life; then this episode is for you. To talk about building mental grit we have with us Ashwin Jeyakrishnan. He comes from an extremely diverse background where his mother was a former olympian in hockey and his father was a national level basketball player. He has been fortunate to have lived and traversed the majority of the Indian subcontinent before moving to North America to study Engineering.

He has acquainted himself with failures and successes in his personal and professional life from a fairly young age. And today i feel so grateful to have this extraordinary and remarkable person.

Stay tuned till then end of this episode, to gain multiple perspectives while formulating my own. 

#grit #mentalhealth #motivation #podcast 

Karan Bagri is a Kolkata-based fitness trainer and martial arts expert.

His journey in martial arts started when he was just eight years old. He started off by practicing Taekwondo and competed in his first nationals when he was in the third grade. He progressed quickly to get his black belt when he was in the sixth grade. By the time he was 19 years old, he was a fourth-degree black belt and the youngest international Taekwondo instructor in India.

After 16 years of dedicated practice to Taekwondo, Karan’s interest in overall fitness led him to practice animal flows, bodyweight training, calisthenics and even gymnastics.

He’d always been fascinated with kung fu and the legends of the Shaolin temples which he had watched in movies. But a chance encounter with an old student helped him realize that he could actually apply to train at the Shaolin temples in China.

The next thing he knew, he was on a plane to China where he trained for six months in 2018, learning the arts of kung fu, weapons training, tai chi, sanda (Chinese boxing), drunken fist, and more.

Once back in India, he used his recently-learned martial arts expertise to teach flexibility and movement. As a fitness trainer, he has used his knowledge in martial arts to cultivate special fitness programmes that help people who are looking to achieve a certain fitness goal.

In this episode he talks about the direct relationship between martial arts and a sound mental health. 

#mentalhealth #martialarts #taekwondo #podcast 

Pragati Sureka is a seasoned BPS licensed Clinical Psychologist, with more than 15 years’ experience in this field. She has authored two books on mental health, one of which is for children, published by Scholastic India. She has to her credit various diplomas like Diploma in Counselling and Psychotherapy (Kornash, The Lifestyle Management School); Occupational Health Psychology (University of Nottingham); Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Depression and Anxiety (Beck Institute, Philadelphia) and Performance Coaching (London). She has professional credentials from Harvard Medical School (Boston) and University of Cambridge. Apart from her private practise, she is presently working as a part time Faculty, Corporate Trainer and Psychological Counsellor at Kornash, The Lifestyle Management School, Kolkata. She is the visiting pain psychologist at a leading government hospital in the city. She has conducted many workshops on Personality Development, Self-Awareness, CBT for Anxiety, Positive Body Image, Self-Esteem and Whole Person Potential at various platforms. In keeping with the tradition of her ongoing quest for knowledge, she is now pursuing a Programme in Women Leadership from IIM, Kolkata. Her ongoing PhD. doctoral thesis on Emotional Well-Being is emerging as a unique multidisciplinary research piece. 

In this episode she talks about developing emotional wellbeing and intelligence in kids. Stay tuned to listen to her and learn so much from this podcast. 

#emotionalintelligence #emotionalwellbeing #mentalhealth #parenting #children #coffeewithwarriors

Karan Kishorepuria is a recent graduate from Northeastern University where he studied Finance and Nutrition. He has been educated in three continents: Asia, Europe and America studying at La Martiniere for boys (high school), London School of Economics (summer abroad) and Northeastern University (college).

At La Martniere he founded The Dalal Street, the 1st Business Conclave at the high school level in Eastern India. At Northeastern, he has been on the founding team of multiple startups, lead many organisations including NUImpact, the 1st Impact Investing Fund at the undergraduate level in America with an AUM of $500K. Karan also led venture operations at IDEA, the largest student run venture accelerator in the world where he oversaw the deployment of $500K in educational grants.

He has previously worked at a global asset manager Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo, at a boutique investment firm Ratnabali Capital and at Goldman Sachs in their Investment Management Team based out of NYC.

He is an avid squash player who has represented his school, university, state and Eastern India. He enjoys living holistically, travelling, reading and mentoring young students in his free time.

Among his notable achievements include winning the 1st ever D’Amico Family Prize, Forbes Under 30 Scholarship, Huntington 100 award, being named in BostonInno’s ‘25 under 25’ list and being recognised as the 100 ‘Best and Brightest’ business students in America by Poets and Quants.

Listen to this episode to hear Karan himself talk about how to not get overwhelmed in life and the pain and hardships that come along with it. 

#mentalhealth #overwhelmed #anxiety #motivation #life