Maximize Life with Mindset Pivots

In this episode Arvind, the founder of Athletesbnb shares about his non linear journey of starting with startups and moving to corporates, stints in the Not for Profit space and starting up again. We talk about Simplifying the complex by taking just one step to bring clarity, learning from mistakes, Positive thinking in the goodness of world and high agency that lets us believe we can always find a solution.

About Arvind in his words -

I have over 20 years of experience in starting and managing businesses, as well as selling SaaS and B2B solutions. As a sales leader and entrepreneur, I am passionate about growth and innovation in the Internet and services industry. I have a proven track record of building and executing GTM strategies, managing customer success and account management, and leading sales teams in North America and India.I use my expertise in SaaS and B2B to support other startups and enterprises in the same domain. I am always on the lookout for new opportunities and challenges to create value and make an impact in the market.

You can reach him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvindeshwarlal/

In this episode of #MaximizeLife, I speak with Rajesh Ivaturi about what entrepreneurship and life really looks like when we stop playing by the book.

His Success Mantra - Trust your instincts, unlearn fast, and build from who you are, not who you think you should be.

What stood out:

• Corporate credentials matter less than personal conviction

• The real work isn’t strategy - it’s managing fear, doubt, and inner noise

• Authenticity beats templates every time

• Your strengths, not your weaknesses - are your growth engine. So shore up your strengths and just get good enough on your growth areas.

Rajesh in his own words - Someone who has taken a lot of risks in life, some of which paid off very well and the rest are WIP

Best way to reach him is through connecting with him on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajeshivaturi/

In Episode 14 I spoke with Nandini Rao, someone I knew from 20 years ago, having done a 7 weeks long playback theatre workshop with her. We chatted about the place of art and creativity in our lives, not just as a way to unwind but also as a place to reflect, build objectivity and create resilience. How we are thankful that our lives are unscripted.

We also talked about:

• Running two careers for 11 years before going all in

• Rebuilding identity after personal and professional loss

• Using creativity to process emotions and lead better

• Why “adulting” less can actually make you stronger

Nandini Rao is a Global Communication Professional , Theatre Director & Trainer , Corporate facilitator, and changemaker working between the Netherlands & India.

With over 20 plus years of professional experience, she uses her true passion of theatre and storytelling to spark learning, leadership, and social connection.

She is the Co-Founder of Yours Truly Theatre and the voice behind Life Unscripted.

Nandini has worked with international companies, organisations, educators, and communities across Europe and India. Her work is rooted in creativity, dialogue, and using the arts to shape more inclusive spaces.

The best way for listeners to reach her is

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nandini-rao-34184513/

Ramayan is one of the most important and widely read ancient Hindu scriptures and epic poems. In this episode with Anil, we chat about the executive communication framework, how ethics play a big role in leadership, The Shad-Guna or 6 strategies framework for any situation and lastly about how the definition of success and purpose evolves in life.

More about Anil -

A corporate leader over the last 25 years who has led multi-market digital businesses and digital transformations. From strategy to execution. From launching ecom businesses in 10 markets to running large >125M businesses. In roles such as Chief Digital Officer in L'Oreal, Head of Asia-Pacific Ecommerce in Levi's and Dell.

He is now an author and teacher decoding timeless wisdom from Ramayana and Mahabharata. He helps simplify these complex texts and share practical lessons that leaders can apply in daily work and life.

With the help of his books, teaching and speaking his vision is to:

1. Bridge Ancient Indian Knowledge with Modern Leadership. To help rediscover Ramayana and Mahabharata as a practical guide for aspiring leaders.

2. Democratize IKS based leadership education in schools, colleges and Universities.

Best way to reach him is LinkedIn: //linkedin.com/in/anilsrinivas, Instagram: @iks.for.modern.leaders

In this episode I chat with Rich Hua, the erstwhile Worldwide Head & Founder of EPIC @ Amazon (Empathy, Purpose, Inspiration and Connection). We discuss how Rich has implemented the concept of IKIGAI in his life, his 3 pronged approach to making most of his life and his success mantra.

Rich is a proven leader with extensive experience in leading large, complex and globally distributed organizations. Developed and implemented innovative expansion strategies and groundbreaking programs across five continents. Globally respected speaker who has lectured at UC Berkeley, Stanford, and Wharton and delivered keynotes to audiences as large as 10,000. Rich has created training programs in emotional intelligence and interpersonal dynamics at multiple companies that have reached over 1.3M people globally and augmented their professional and personal success. Founded the EQ@Amazon community, which numbers over 70,000 members and composes the largest employee-based community at Amazon. Launched the SF Bay Area chapter of Amazon's Culture of Innovation program and built a team that has delivered innovation briefings to 4,000+ senior executives from around the world.

He can be reached at [email protected]

In this episode of Maximize Your Life, I speak with James Garrett on the neuroscience behind Procrastination, why our brain does what it does and how can we address it in our everyday life. A simple mantra would be to tell ourselves, let's just do this boring, mundane activity for 2minutes and that's it. No forcing ourselves to get the whole pantry cleaned or garage sorted. Just start and you'll see the magic.

We also chat about motivation and neuroplasticity related to addressing procrastination.

About James:

James Garrett is a brain coach and founder of Brain by Design. He’s spoken on stages ranging from Harvard to TEDx and his work has been featured by The New York Times, FastCompany, and Harvard Business Review. He spent years doing research with some of the best psychologists in the world at Columbia, Tufts, and Yale.

He’s a content creator and course builder and his course called, “Brain Science for Coaches” has been rated as one of the best courses for coaches and is currently certified by ICF for 30 continuing coach education credits. He’s a certified coach through the Whole Fit coaching program. He also built one of the only brain-based positive psychology curricula in the Middle East and trained thousands of Arab youth in partnership with Queen Rania of Jordan.

A rare combination of scientist, trainer, and entrepreneur, in 2019 James launched the Deep Change Project, a personal journey to discover what’s possible at the outer edges of neuroplasticity and to overcome fear.

In the first episode of this Podcast, I speak with an unofficial mentor and a wise person with great humor - Manish Agarwal.

We speak about how perspective seeking is a great way of conserving energy, how we define success and happiness, some interesting views about Systems thinking and lastly about being a lifelong learner

About Manish:

Manish Agarwal is currently a Visiting Faculty at IIMC, IIMK, IIMI, IIMSh and BITSoM. His teaching areas include Project Finance, Economics of Sustainability and Systems Thinking. For corporates, Manish provides Improv Theatre based training on Design Thinking and Systems Thinking. As co-founder of AskHowIndia.org, he writes blogs to simplify complex public policy issues. Manish mentors young MBA students and LAMP Fellows. Manish used to lead the Capital Projects & Infrastructure practise at PwC for over ten years, and also worked at KPMG and Crisil in his 25 years’ career in consulting. Manish is alumnus of BITS Pilani and IIM Calcutta.

In this episode, I chat with Stephanie, a finance director at Amazon, about the core mindset shift of eliminating the non essentials to get better at addressing leadership questions be it in meetings or over emails or documents. We also discuss how to apply these techniques more broadly to enhance leadership effectiveness.

About Stephanie Washington

Stephanie is a Finance Director at Amazon and can be reached at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-washington-5559779/

A lovely reminder for self empathy - Its important to accept that you can't be at your best every single day. Its alright to be vulnerable; You don't build equity in a day; it builds over time from what you deliver every single day;

About Jaya:

VP, Global Marketing (Cars) at Castrol

Top 40 Under 40 CMO| Guest Faculty at IIM-A, IIM-L, India’s top business school.

In this episode Khushi and I chat about happiness and energy and what kind of micro-practices has Khushi cultivated in her life to live upto her name. Khushi means Happiness in Hindi.

About Khushi

Khushi is a Partner at McKinsey and Company and leads McKinsey’s AI and Technology Transformation practice. Sheserves CEOs, CXOs and Boards on technology strategy, AI execution and business value creation topics, across industries and primarily in Financial Services.She has published several thought pieces on AI, digital, operating models, and new ways of working trends in the financial services industry

She actively supports mission driven organizations and women empowerment. She was on the Board of Per Scholas for 4 years, scaled impact by upskilling underprivileged segments and connecting with job opportunities. She is veryactive in the community for women in technology leadership roles and actively prioritizes mentorship of several junior women both at and outside of her Firm. 

She has an MBA from Wharton School of Business. Masters in Computer Science from North Carolina State University, and Bachelors in Computer Science from Indira Gandhi University. 

Khushi loves being active and outdoors – has completed 7 NYC marathons, summitted Mt. Kilimanjaro and recently completed her first Triathlon.