Intentional & Creative Affluence with Shailaja V

Danielle Gardner is a business mentor, tiny course creator, and author of Quiet Marketing. Her work with clients is centered around taking a calm, minimal approach to business and online visibility, that is especially suited to Highly Sensitive solopreneurs. I first came across Danielle's work about a year and a half ago. Ever since, I've been captivated by the powerful signature presence of hers that combines a heart-based, non-hustle approach to marketing with a quiet and dignified presence in the online space. 

In this episode, I speak with Danielle on the art of giving yourself breathing space as an entrepreneur and what that looks like, away from the noise and grind of mainstream marketing approaches.

1. Why is breathing space important for business owners? 

2. How do you make space for yourself in a fast-paced digital environment?

3. Is there a personal experience that led you to understand the need for this breathing space?

4. What about solopreneurs who don't have virtual assistants? How can they battle the feeling of overwhelm while giving themselves space to breathe?

5. Easy to implement, concise advice that helps you create new results in your business with less effort - Dani's principle behind a Tiny Course.

Dani's book: https://www.danigardner.com/quiet-marketing-book

What one year of podcasting has taught me

🌿🌿🌿For more about your host, Shailaja Vishwanath, check out my website: https://shailajav.com/

Gregory Vahanian is a Transformational Life Coach.  He helps men and women enjoy depth and success in their personal and business lives. Gregory's work fosters a life of authenticity which often includes healing work that leads to fulfillment and service. Gregory happily shares his life with his beloved spiritual partner and wife and their two daughters in Los Angeles, California.

Gregory and I met through the MasterHeart program in 2021, conducted by our mutual coach and mentor, George Kao. Right away, what resonated with me was the gentleness and kindness in Gregory's approach to connection and networking.

It is my great honour to share this episode with you all and it's also my privilege to share that Gregory is the first ever male guest on this podcast. For that, I am truly grateful.

In this episode, we talk about

🌿 His ideal clients and how he helps them

🌿 Understanding there's a deeper sense of fulfillment available in life

🌿 The legacy of Loving

🌿 How to tap into your innermost Being & Find Contentment

Follow Gregory at the links given below:

On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregoryvahanian/

Website: https://www.gregoryvahanian.com/

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gregoryvahaniancoaching

🌿🌿🌿For more about your host, Shailaja Vishwanath, check out my website: https://shailajav.com/

Susmitha Veganosaurus is a holistic business coach, vegan chef and culinary consultant, a joyful vegan transition coach, meditation guide, and as you can tell by now she's a multi-passionate entrepreneur.  She helps people make fulfillment, joy and self care their highest priority through her own podcast, The Feel Good factor, plus her blog posts, workshops, courses, talks and online coaching programs.

Things we talked about in this episode:

🌿 How she adopted veganism as a lifestyle two decades ago

🌿 How testing recipes led her to her own vegan restaurant

🌿 Busting myths about a vegan lifestyle

🌿 Her holistic approach to coaching

🌿 How women’s menstrual cycles affect their business planning

🌿 On being part of the Intentional Growth Community

Follow Susmitha below:

On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/veganosaurus/

Her website: https://www.veganosaurus.com/

Her Newsletter: https://www.veganosaurus.com/newsletter

Her Podcast: https://www.veganosaurus.com/category/the-feel-good-factor-podcast/

For more about your host, Shailaja Vishwanath, check out my website: https://shailajav.com/

Welcome back everyone to my interview series, Intentional and Creative Affluence. This is where I talk to creators and business owners about how they choose to work on what they love while infusing joy into their daily lives. These are my kind of people, the people who follow a heart-Based approach to creating content, marketing with purpose, and connecting with their audience.

My guest today is Asmita Bharadwaj Das. Asmita is a photographer based in Hong Kong where she lives with her husband and two boys. Her background in Pharmacy and HR helps bring a bit of both mind and heart to her passion-photography. A self-proclaimed intuitive ambivert she derives great joy in observing both, people and inanimate objects and bringing out their best using her camera.

In today's episode, we talk about a number of things including:

Why she chose the path of photography for her business- the reasoning behind it, how she learnt to connect with clients and how she's built her reputation in a country that's not native to her own.

🌿The challenges of monetizing a food blog, especially when you're from a different country and learning to pivot in this scenario

🌿The power of making your mistakes and learning from them; plus how she prefers not to call them mistakes

🌿The fact that she's a different person now than two years ago and the incident that triggered it all

🌿The power of the pause and how deeply it impacts her daily life

🌿Her kind tips for those starting their own venture

Here's the post from her blog that I love and read at least twice a month: https://onewholesomemeal.com/not-a-food-post-but-food-for-thought/

Find Asmita on Instagram, her website and on LinkedIn

https://www.instagram.com/onewholesomemeal/

https://www.instagram.com/asmitabd_photography/

https://onewholesomemeal.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/asmita-bharadwaj-das-84b37a13/

For more about your host, Shailaja Vishwanath, check out my website: http://shailajav.com/

Or follow my work on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shailajav/

Bingz Huang is a Gentleness Ambassador, Human Design Coach, Intuitive Healer, Writer, and Soul Dancer from Singapore. Through her Human Design chart readings and coaching, writing, dance videos, and podcasts, she inspires her clients and audience to be gentler with themselves. She also helps other sensitive solopreneurs feel safe and free to be their authentic selves while still honoring and managing their sensitivity effectively.

While learning to do content marketing for her intuitive healing business, Bingz Huang discovered her latent passion in writing to share her thoughts and beliefs on energy healing. Her message soon became a published book titled - "Empower Your Life with Gentleness: A Simple Guide to Feeling Safe and Free to be You". She went on to publish an illustrated poetry book titled: "From The Womb of Gentleness."  

Her message on practicing gentleness gained popularity when the pandemic started in 2020, and this increased resonance moved her to keep writing and sharing about gentleness through Medium, an online publishing platform. Currently, Bingz is the founder and editor of a publication on Medium- Gentleness Ambassadors- that welcomes other writers to contribute. She enjoys guiding and supporting other sensitive solopreneurs to do their content marketing through Medium in a way that aligns with their unique energetic blueprint.   

When she's not writing and coaching, Bingz loves dancing with her silk fan veils and playing with her 3 young boys.

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Where you can connect with Bingz Huang

Kerry Lee is the alchemical artist and founder of the Self Discovery Wisdom School. She says she's a creative catalyst. After a 35 year case of what she calls creative Constipation, an unfulfilling career and a series of challenging life events, she decided it was time for her own transformation. She rediscovered and reclaimed her artist self and the work she was born to do in the world.  During the pandemic she launched the Self Discovery Wisdom School. She guides those who are feeling dissatisfied, stuck or uninspired to reconnect with their own inner wisdom to find clarity and confidence to spark imagination and bring a dash of creative magic into their lives.

In this conversation we touch upon:

🎧 Breaking through creative blocks

🎧 A beautiful story that speaks about her own artistic transformation

🎧 Symbolism in Art and the Red Thread story

🎧 How to tap into your innate wisdom and creativity

🎧 The Self Discovery Wisdom School

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Links we refer to in the conversation: 

An Interview with Natasha Berta who runs Connected Marketing.

Natasha is a marketing coach and mentor and the owner of connected marketing. She supports smart women to grow their passion business. She loves the tech side of things and also believes that the whole business journey is best used as a personal growth opportunity.

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In this episode, she speaks with me and talks about:

✔️ How marketing is not about manipulation; but genuine psychology

✔️Why she chose to focus on the technology side of marketing

✔️One of her favourite books  (& mine) - Big Magic

✔️How to stop being reactive and be more intentional

✔️Keeping a gentle hold on her calendar

✔️Her advice for other business owners

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You can connect with Natasha Berta on her:

Website: https://connectedmarketing.com.au/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/connectedmarketingau

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ConnectedMarketingAu/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/connectedmarketing

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Welcome to my podcast. My name is Shailaja Vishwanath and I'm a content and productivity coach.

For more about my Intentional Instagram course, head over here:  https://shailajav.com/intentional-instagram/

Soumya Karkera is a life coach for children, young adults and parents with children. She supports them with all their growing up challenges in life, getting comfortable with who they are and finding their own inner strength and bravery. In her sessions with them, they work together to find solutions to problems that are keeping them stuck from moving forward. When she works with parents, she is gently supporting them on their parenting journey, helping them find balance and connection with themselves and their family.

In this 30-minute chat we dive deep into so many things including:

✔️ Her Motivation to choose this line of work

✔️ Tips for Parents on Handling Anxiety and uncertainty during the COVID pandemic

✔️ The Growth Mindset

✔️ How her approach to social media changed after taking the Intentional Instagram course

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Get in touch with Soumya below:

✔️Her Linkedin Page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soumya-karkera-95418949/  

✔️Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beingme.lovingit

✔️Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beingme.lovingit/

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Welcome to my podcast. My name is Shailaja Vishwanath and I'm a blog, social media, content and productivity coach.

For more about my Intentional Instagram course, head over here:  https://shailajav.com/intentional-instagram/

I've been asked this question so often by my audience. Why do I actually give away so much content for free? How will people hire me or pay for services if they can get so much for free?

I have three reasons for this and I've answered it in today's episode.

Read the written version of this episode here: https://shailajav.medium.com/learning-to-share-content-for-free-b20b58dc689d

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Welcome to my podcast. My name is Shailaja Vishwanath and I'm a blog, social media, content and productivity coach.

This week I want to talk about the idea of offering something as a service instead of charging a fee for it.

Read the transcript of this episode here: https://shailajav.com/free-consult-calls/

* When should you do this?

* Also what is the tapering strategy that my coach George Kao talks about so beautifully?

When I was a guest on a podcast recently, talking about my 60-day social media sabbatical, the host asked me how I was willing to take such a long break without worrying about loss of followers or a drop in engagement.

Read the blog post version of this episode here: https://shailajav.com/create-content-space-of-love/

Here's the full link to the podcast where I was a guest, if you'd like to listen in: https://kristabauer.com/blog/ep11/

Other links I mention in this episode:

Caroline Leon's Medium page: https://soulfulstrategist.medium.com/

My Interview with Caroline Leon: https://anchor.fm/shailajav/episodes/How-to-Grow-an-Online-Business-using-Ethical-Strategies-with-guest-Caroline-Leon-e13hf4f

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Welcome to my podcast. My name is Shailaja Vishwanath and I'm a blog, social media, content and productivity coach.

Ranjitha is a Certified Trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication. She lives in Bangalore, India, where she shares NVC with individuals and organizations. Ranjitha began her career as a communications professional, and for the last six years worked in the non-profit sector, in the space of mental health awareness. She brings her skills from both of these spaces to the work she does now.

For the last couple of years, she has been exploring ways in which she can make cooking extremely simple: how do you break down complicated-sounding recipes to clear instructions anyone can follow and apply? Her approach to sharing Nonviolent Communication is similar; it's about how we can begin exploring and living these principles in our daily lives, starting from where we are now.

"On Facebook, I had some 300 or 400 or so-called friends. But the people who I was actually in touch with on a regular basis, I've been in touch with them over the years from the time when there was no Facebook; just the good old telephone, and I still continue to do that. I think that for people who truly matter, you find ways to keep in touch. You don't need Facebook. You don't need social media."

- Mamatha Ramesh

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In this 30-minute chat, we dive deep into so many things including:

✔️ Why she chose this particular role in her career

✔️ The very personal reason she left social media more than 8 years ago.

✔️ Why she never felt like going back

✔️ The role of parents in the age of social media

✔️ How to use social media - if you choose to continue down that path

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You can read a written version of this podcast (with some extra notes) here on my website:

https://shailajav.com/thriving-without-social-media/

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Welcome to my podcast. My name is Shailaja Vishwanath and I'm a blog, social media, content and productivity coach.

I'm forever in pursuit and I don't even know what it is I'm chasing

-- Harold Abrahams

100-metre Olympic gold medalist, 1924

This quote was made famous by the person who played Abrahams in the OScar winning movie ‘Chariots of Fire’.

In 2009, I took up a part time teaching position. The work was fun and challenging but the money? It was great!

Similarly, in 2019 I got a writing assignment and it was for a fixed amount money. Let’s just say it was a lot- a lot more than what I was used to getting for my writing.

Midway through both that teaching assignment and writing assignment, I began to sense a feeling of .. ‘Wait, is this all there is to life and business? Money?’

Suffice to say that I left both that job and the writing assignment within a year of taking them up.

If you decide to start a business, don't do it for the money. Listen to how I learnt to find balance and harmony in my work.

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Welcome to my podcast. My name is Shailaja Vishwanath and I'm a blog, social media, content and productivity coach.

Do you struggle with motivation to create content or your blog? Then this episode will help.

If you'd like to check out a written version of this post, click below to read it on the blog:

 https://shailajav.com/how-to-stay-motivated-as-a-blogger/

Welcome to my podcast. My name is Shailaja Vishwanath and I'm a blog, social media, content and productivity coach.

How to connect with your audience

One of my readers sent me this query: I am writing every day but my audience isn't finding my work. What could be the reason?

Ask yourself these 5 questions and do it honestly:

1. How much of your writing is navel gazing? Are you writing a personal journal or are you writing something that will touch people's lives?

2. Are you being educational, inspirational or motivational in your writing?

3. Are you talking with your audience or are you talking at them?

4. Are you sharing your work on the right platforms?

5. Are you ready for some honest criticism of your work?

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 Welcome to my podcast. My name is Shailaja Vishwanath and I'm a blog, social media, content and productivity coach.

How do you stay in the space of creating content/doing the work you do when nobody seems to acknowledge its existence?

How do you stay motivated?

In this 5-minute episode (uploaded originally to Instagram), I explain two things that I keep reminding myself every time this happens (and yes, it happens to me too).

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Welcome to my podcast. My name is Shailaja Vishwanath and I'm a blog, social media, content and productivity coach. 

This is why follower numbers are not important on social media  Follower numbers are an artificial construct created by a culture of excess that ties your worth to a numeric value. 

It is that culture which promotes the idea that the MORE you have- of followers, subscribers, readers- the more you are special.  Instead,it's time to move into what I call the Minimalist mindset or the 'Enough' Mindset.  Here are two tips that will help you, as both a consumer and creator of content.  As a consumer, think of one person whom you follow on social media and think of the immense value that they provide to you and your world view. How they improve your life and your outlook.  

As a creator, start making content that will appeal to one specific person in your circle.  When you do these two things, consistently, not only will you stop worrying about follower numbers and other metrics that are out of your control, you will start moving into the culture of caring for your genuine audience.