Welcome to episode 15 of the Seven Eighths. For this episode, I sat down with Sonia Gupta for a conversation. A few of us know Sonia Gupta for her bold takes and stands.

Few of us know that Sonia works with individuals suffering from mental illness and substance use disorders to compassionately provide them with care and assistance in achieving their recovery goals. Sonia believes in human resilience and redemption, and understands that social change happens most powerfully in the connections between individuals. In previous incarnations, Sonia proudly served as a public defender, prosecutor, and assistant attorney general for the State of Louisiana. She also took a brief detour into tech as a software developer and developer advocate, which taught her that our social ills are best handled in the muck and mess of the analog world, without technology as a sterilizing mediator. Sonia has spoken about digital ethics at numerous conferences, and is an outspoken advocate against oppressive systems. When she's not actively working to improve her little corner of the planet, Sonia likes to hang out with her pup, cruise around on her bicycle, and enjoy all the perks of living in the beautiful city of New Orleans. My conversation with Sonia took fascinating turns and detours. We talked about the challenges of growing up as an immigrant child, how embracing or not embracing tech can be, the struggle to fit in and much more. Grab a space and just listen in.

You can find me: @femmenectar

Sonia: @soniagupta504

Introduction:

Welcome to Episode 14 of the Seven Eighths. I had the luck of sitting down with The Corey Quinn for a conversation. For the few of us that don’t know him, Corey is the Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group, where he specializes in helping companies improve their AWS bills by making them smaller and less horrifying. He also hosts the "Screaming in the Cloud" and "AWS Morning Brief" podcasts; and curates "Last Week in AWS," a weekly newsletter summarizing the latest in AWS news, blogs, and tools, sprinkled with snark and thoughtful analysis in roughly equal measure. Recently, the New York Times feature on Corey called him a part tech analyst, part internet troll and part watchdog. The article highlighted Corey’s success in helping his clients manage cloud infrastructure and how Corey got the attention of executives at AWS and Google themselves. But this podcast isn’t about what the media writes. This episode is about Corey’s journey, the string of failures that he went through, his struggles and how he retells his own story to himself. You will hear a Corey that you don’t get to on Twitter/LinkedIn or any other social media. Let’s sit down and listen in.

Conclusion

And that’s how the cookie crumbles. There are so many nuggets that I heard on this episode that felt like finding treasure! Corey reframed a resume as a sales doc. Now use the sales doc to tell the story you want to tell with it instead of a collection of plain experiences. Turns out, everyone including Corey has a fear of failure. But rather than it stopping you, turn this fear of failure into an expectation of failure and take it as an opportunity to reinvent yourself.

And lastly, reminding me that the failures that we are talking about are still failures from a place of privilege. So, a regular reality check and remembering to be humble and grateful is the antidote.

Thank you for listening to this episode. Do leave me your thoughts. I”m on twitter @femmenectar. Until the next conversation, cheers guys!

Intro: Welcome to Episode 13 of the Seven Eighths. In this episode, I had the pleasure of hosting Mona Sampath Khan for a conversation.

Mona Khan's name is synonymous with Bollywood in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is founder of Mona Khan Company - a Bollywood Dance and Fitness company. Her company runs over 100 dance and fitness programs. Mona is highly trained in both Indian Classical dance form, the Bharathnatyam, as well as a variety of Bollywood dance forms. Being highly talented, she was frequently handpicked to work with leading Bollywood choreographers like Farah Khan, Bosco Ceasar, and Ganesh Hegde. She has also collaborated on high profile events with such as Shaan, Alisha Chinai, Sunidhi Chauhan, Kunal Ganjawala, and the maestro himself – A.R.Rahman. After moving to the US, her quest to spread the universal language of dance led her to create the first structured Bollywood Dance program for the India Community Center in the San Francisco Bay Area. She designed and choreographed spectacular dance sequences for several high profile shows including the hit TV show America’s Got Talent, NBA halftime shows, President Obama’s Indiaspora Inaugural Ball, and Oprah’s The Life You Want Weekend.

To see her in action is to witness something spectacular and unforgettable. From Bombay to the Bay Area, her journey is nothing less than awe-inspiring. But her story is much more than what the media writes about. In our episode together, she talked about her struggles trying to fit in, giving up a highly successful career in dancing to escape a toxic work environment, rebuilding her brand and much more.

More on Mona Khan: https://www.monakhancompany.com/

Conclusion: And that’s how the cookie crumbles. Mona reminded me that behind all the glitz and glamor, there is incredible amount of pain, hardwork and struggles. She taught me the mantra to let it go but remember why you are letting it go, but believe in yourself and let it go. Mona talked about how she was incredibly hard on herself on a perceived failure at America’s Got Talent. But by taking a step back, she was able to pause, look around and realize how much she has accomplished even through that perceived failure. Taking that perspective would be helpful in difficult times. I’d also like to thank Mona for sharing that she has been seeking and taking help in the form of therapy and more. She disarmed me by pointing out that all of us need help and there is no shame in admitting it and reaching out for help.

Thank you for listening to this episode. Do share your thoughts. I’m on twitter @Femmenectar

Episode Intro: Welcome to Episode 12 of the Seven Eighths. I sat down with Kaushik Mukherjee, COO of Sugar Cosmetics for a chat. Along with his partner, Vineeta, Kaushik is building the wildly successful first direct to consumer brand.  Kaushik and I went to undergrad school together. I’ve seen him rise through success from nailing the highest paying job in undergrad, through a stint at Goldman Sachs to starting Sugar Cosmetics. But behind all the glamor and the rah rah, Kaushik has struggled with his share of failures, struggles and setbacks. Kaushik gets real, raw and bares his struggles. Let’s listen in.

Kaushik Mukherjee is the Cofounder & COO of SUGAR Cosmetics - one of the fastest-growing beauty startups that is a cult favorite amongst millennials and backed by marquee venture funds. An IIM Ahmedabad/BITS Pilani alumnus, his career that included working in the world's best investment banking (Goldman Sachs) and consulting (McKinsey & Co.) firms before he gave it all up to start something of his own. Apart from work, he is an amateur endurance athlete and is one of the few Indians to complete the IRONMAN triathlon - a 4km swim + 180 km cycle + 42.2 km run event that is largely regarded as the toughest single-day endurance sporting event in the world.

Episode Conclusion: And that’s how the cookie crumbles! Kaushik recognized that the world wants to measure you with a certain yardstick, but that needn’t be the only yardstick you have to use to measure yourself. Have an internal yardstick for yourself and that will help you balance out insecurities. He also shared about how you can never be at the right place at the right time by design. Keep ploughing through and you’ll be at a place that’ll become the right place. And lastly, he shared a gem: Learn to decouple happiness from success. Until you do that, you are a slave to outcomes. Thank you for listening to this episode. Do share your thoughts! I’m on twitter @femmenectar. Until the next conversation, cheers guys!

Episode Intro: Welcome to Episode 11 of the Seven Eighths. This episode is a conversation with Punit Soni, Co-founder and CEO of Suki.ai. After successful stints at Google and Flipkart, Punit is building an AI powered healthcare digital assistant. His startup is one of the Top AI/Healthcare startups by Forbes and CB Insights. Punit is also well known for his frequent posts on LinkedIn where he shares his struggles on the journey of building a company, he expresses his passion for improving healthcare and engages us in his aha moments. I sat down with Punit to hear his story of the transition from being in the limelight at Google/Flipkart to being a lonely founder at Suki.ai, his struggles and fears. Just listen in.

More on Suki: https://www.suki.ai/

Welcome to Episode 10 of the Seven Eighths. For this episode I invited Rohit Jayakaran, a Dubai based Digital Strategy and Marketing leader. Rohit and I were high school mates that followed very different journeys. Over the last 15 years, Rohit has gone from being a prime time radio jockey to leading the digital business for the Middle East's largest multi-platform radio network. Not to forget he has also delivered TEDx talks and several keynotes. Most recently, Rohit launched "Stories at Work." a training framework to help teammates tell better stories that evoke empathy. As I watched Rohit’s journey, it was clear to me that trying your hand at a variety of opportunities came at a cost. So, we sat down and talked. I would love for you to listen in.

To learn more about Rohit, visit : rohitjayakaran.com

Welcome to Episode 9 of the Seven Eighths with the founder and CEO of Mylapore Cloud Kitchen - Jay Jayaraman. This was a different kind of conversation. We talked at length about Jay’s restaurant: Mylapore and his cloud kitchen initiative: Mylapore Express. Many of us might know Jay through his social media persona: his pictures of sumptuous breakfast at the restaurant, shots of his mom’s handwritten recipes in tamil, screenshots of customer appreciation messages,  mesmerizing videos of the peeling of 50 lbs of potatoes or steaming hot biriyani..His enthusiasm for food and relentless drive to be the best in his business is evident and infectious. But in conversation, you’ll hear the story behind the scenes. He shares his journey, the setbacks and how he carries on. Let’s listen in.

You can find and order Jay's delicious food here: mylaporeexpress.com

You can watch Jay in action on his facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/tambrahmcooking

Welcome to Episode 8 of the Seven Eighths with our first male guest: Ibrahim Bashir! Ibrahim is a product leader who has been building and shipping software for 20 years. In this episode, we discussed lost job opportunities and the dual power of rejection. We dove into imposter syndrome, male privilege, dodging bullets, and...pop culture! Ibrahim acknowledges that his stellar resume doesn’t show the failures he has seen. His take on his journey is sincere, eye opening and simply different. This conversation isn’t what I expected it to be. You’ll see what I mean. Just listen in.

I sit down and talk to Megha Chawla about processing emotions. Megha has been in the tech industry for 23 years and seen her shares of ups and downs. She has launched products in enterprises and startups as a co-founder and CTO.  She is a mom, a triathlete, an entrepreneur, a tutor, and a human being who believes in lifelong learning. Megha is passionate about mentoring young women, and she has worked with many nonprofits to mentor at-risk girls. Through this episode, Megha shares her difficult journey not just at work, but deeper trauma in life.

Trigger Warning: In this episode, Megha describes the trauma of being sexually abused during childhood. It is possible that her description might trigger a distressing emotional response in some of our listeners.

Megha's Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghachawla/

Welcome to Episode 6 of the Seven Eighths. For this episode, I invited Gayatri Kamath Kini to a conversation. Gayathri is an accessibility champion and a passionate diversity and inclusion leader. In a career spanning over 20 years, she has launched world class products and implemented global programs to promote inclusion and equity in the workplace. But success visible to the naked eye didn’t come easy or cheap. Gayatri talks about her work struggles and her most painful personal setback. She is raw, vulnerable and unapologetic. The conversation was heavy and eye opening. 

Gayathri's work: https://www.accidentalally.com/