At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. As part of this endeavor, we invited Dr. Sandya Advani for an exclusive interview with us. Dr. Sandya is a Leader, Entrepreneur, POSH Consultant, Trainer, Speaker and Founder and Principal Consultant at POSH Systems.com. Let’s learn more about her incredible journey, background, and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Dr. Sandya:
Could you please talk us through your background and your journey?
I have been a doctor, an advocate, a travel agent, an Administration and Facility Management Professional and finally a POSH Consultant and Trainer. – Life has been a roller coaster ride!
My educational background is a degree in Ayurveda (B.A.M.S.) with an L.L.B and L.L.M, an Advanced Diploma in Industrial Safety, Executive Certification in POSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment) and a Diploma in Cyber Law. Learning is a passion and I enjoy learning new things each year. You may wonder why there are various roles in my professional life.
“I have been a single parent since 1998. I took up different roles to grow professionally and personally and to support my family.”
How did you discover your passion?
In 2017, an incident of inappropriate use of words by a security guard was brought to my notice. It wasn’t sexual, yet the employee concerned was uncomfortable about it. I wrote to the Security Agency asking them to transfer the said guard.
Instead of transferring, the agency terminated his services. It made me realize that corporates generally do POSH Training in English and not in Hindi.
I thought – had we done the POSH training in Hindi, the guard wouldn’t have lost his job. (POSH- stands for Prevention of Sexual Harassment). I volunteered to conduct POSH training in Hindi.
“The first session I held was attended by office boys, housekeeping staff, pantry boys, electricians, security guards. After the session, one of the female housekeeping staff told me, “Madam, we enjoyed the session. Please do training for us next month also.”
I started doing these sessions at all my office locations which led to the realization that I enjoyed the training. Knowing myself, I knew that post-retirement, I would keep doing something or the other. It is very unlike me to live a retired lifestyle!
I chose to pursue a career as a POSH Trainer and a Consultant. I had 2 years before retirement to plan and build up my skills- knowledge skills and speaking skills. I enrolled for a Certificate course in POSH and Gender Diversity which I completed in 2018.
During the two-year period, I got numerous opportunities to do pro bono sessions for various social organizations. I kept speaking before different audiences. By the time I retired in March 2019, I was ready with my content and experience to launch my own venture. This is how I accidentally discovered my passion.
How do you manage to keep going despite the challenges? What drives you?
I enjoy being independent. Post-retirement, when I started off, I had a business plan. I got all the statutory approvals and set up my firm. There were no guarantees how long it would take me to get my first client.
About finances – I ensured that in case it took time to get started, the basics were taken care of. I had enough funds to support me for at least 2 years. I worked from home. This kept operational costs to a bare minimum. I handled most of the things myself.
“Then came Covid 19. For businesses and entrepreneurs, it was a question of survival. Corporates stumbled, adapted to a digital culture overnight and survived. Everything else got pushed to the back burner.”
The training was put on hold. There were no training requests. This meant there was no income. The onset of Covid19 affected me, but I had already planned and prepared for a period with no income. I used the time to build up my knowledge and skills, create new content for my training.
In August 2020, after 6 months of zero income, I got my first virtual training and since then, there has been no looking back. It is very important to anticipate challenges and be prepared to face them.
What drives me?
“Well, the feeling of being valued, appreciation from my listeners, the financial freedom, the satisfaction of touching people’s lives and ensuring justice is done in complaints that have been filed.”
Who do you believe has been the biggest source of motivation in your daily life?
My mentors, my friends, my clients. Today I am happy to say that till date, organizations where I have conducted awareness sessions for employees, have not received any complaints of sexual harassment.
I strongly believe that proper sensitization is a must. Whether it is a paid session or a pro bono session, I give it my all. There is no compromise on the content. I customize my sessions as per client inputs. In the last 3.5 years, I have trained 25,600+ people.
“For me, each participant who attends my training session is my brand ambassador. I make the sessions interactive, bring in humor, make it audio visual so that the topic is understood and absorbed”.
Satisfied clients and participants, refer me to others. This helps me to grow further.
What are some of the strategies that you believe have helped you grow as a person?
“Planning, willingness to keep an open mind, knowing one’s limitations, the desire to excel and to keep upskilling. There are no shortcuts in the journey.”
What advice would you give to our readers?
> Age is just a number.
> Keep learning. Keep evolving. Change is the only constant.
> Be observant and alert and adapt technology wherever possible.
> Delegate
> Make excellence a habit.
> Be a master in your game. Knowledge has no boundaries.
> Anticipate future requirements and plan for it. When they come up, you are ready for it.
What about your journey makes it satisfying/exciting?
Being in charge of my own life, being financially independent, impacting people’s lives with my knowledge and experience, handling complaints and ensuring justice, getting recognition for my contribution- these are factors that make the journey exciting.
In the last 3 years, I have received the following recognition:
– One of the 99 Women Achievers of India (2021) by Indian Achievers Club
– Runner – Up in the Women Power in Social Entrepreneurship Award organized by Billennium Divas (2021)
– Mumbai Women Leaders Award organized by World Women Leadership Congress and Awards (2021)
– Inspirational Woman of the year 2021award conferred by Transformance Forum.
– Women Power Beyond 60+ Award at the 8th Annual Women Power Summit & Awards 2023 organized by Billennium Divas. (2023)
– The story of my journey as a speaker was published in the book “Me No Pause” available on Amazon.
Last but not least, what are the mantras of your life?
The 3 mantras of my life are:
“Faith, patience, and gratitude are the three mantras I swear by.”
Faith in the Almighty, Patience that one will be rewarded for what one has persevered and Gratitude for what one has in life today. What you have today may go off in a fraction of a second. So always remain grounded.
There are no coincidences in life. Everything happens for a reason. I am reminded of the words of Robert Frost.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
