At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring to our community some of the finest stories from the entrepreneurship world. As part of this endeavour, we invited a passionate women entrepreneur – Mona Babla for an exclusive interview with us. She is an NLP Practioner, Coach, and Entrepreneur. She is the Founder of The Mind Edit. Let’s learn more about her inspiring journey, her background and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Mona:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as a women entrepreneur/coach, please;
‘You are who you believe you are’ – This quote has become my Life Mantra.
Growing up in a Gujarati family alongside a male sibling, I learnt that woman will be always looked upon differently than their male counterparts. Girls are brought up to excel as a homemaker while the men make money.
This discrepancy started creating an underlying rebel in me to redefine the rules. Though I was academically very bright and was expected to be the first doctor in the family, I was inclined towards the corporate world and chose a different path. In hindsight, it was a way to challenge the rules of society.
I graduated as a Company Secretary at a very young age of 21 years. But 24 days into the job as an intern, I knew I was not cut out for a 9 to 6 corporate job. I lost confidence in my choices and accepted a more settled way of life. I got married at a young age and had two beautiful daughters. All through this journey, I was trying to identify where I could be a perfect fit in the world and yet not be submissive to society norms.
While constantly adapting to new roles and yet keeping myself motivated to do something more meaningful that aligns with my choices, drained me emotionally. I was at a happy place in my life but the void inside me was consuming my mind space. The entrepreneur in me wanted to go into business which involved healing and helping people.
The drive to do something and not wait for it to happen was fuelled by the death of my dear childhood friend. I made my first vision board and thus started channelizing my life in a direction of my passion. It was high time I took control of my life and started believing in myself again.
“When you want something from your heart, the entire universe conspires to help you to achieve it.”
My belief in this statement got stronger when one day, I came across a certification course on Life Coaching which taught exactly what I wanted to devote my life to. All this while I knew I wanted to do something with Human Psychology and help people deal with their emotions better, but I didn’t know how? This course was the first step towards my dreams.
As a Life Coach, I am able to empower people to become the best version of them and lead an inspired life. It was as if the Universe was waiting for me to take the first step and the rest fell in place. Since then I have invested myself in learning various other modalities like Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP), Applied Positive Psychology (APP), Mindfulness, Emotional Behaviour Therapy and Authentic Happiness and use these tools and techniques to empower people to live a more inspired and meaningful life.
I have committed myself to help people maximise their strengths and minimise their limiting beliefs by overcoming all kinds of fears, anger or anxiety that are stopping them from living their best life. I help them rewrite and author their ‘Life Book’ by increasing their self-belief and self-confidence.
What attracts you towards entrepreneurship instead of a corporate career?
“I am the CEO of my own Life”
I chose entrepreneurship because I always wanted to make an impact and feel successful as a person. When you build your own business, it gives you an opportunity to create a life that you desire.
When I started my job as an intern in a corporate world, I felt like a puppet attached to the strings of the corporate culture where everything is set with pre-defined rules. I am a person who wanted to define my life with the rules defined by me. Being an entrepreneur, gave me the freedom to explore various possibilities, give flight to my aspirations and reach out to my clients at a more personal level.
No business comes without a challenge. The biggest challenge that I faced was technology. With social media dominating the marketing world, I had to first learn and understand various platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn to name a few.
There were days when I felt lost and was working long hours to cover up the number of years lost in building my professional life. With hard work and dedication, I was soon conducting workshops, speaking at events and empowering the lives of many all over the globe. Thanks to technology, I was able to work with clients from various countries like the USA, Europe, Australia, UAE and the Far East.
‘The Mind Edit’ is such a unique name; talk us through more about it, please. Our audience would also love to know what kind of problem you are solving with the help of your startup?
All the problems and blocks are first created in the human mind. With the help of ‘The Mind Edit’, I wanted my clients to know that you can edit the way you think and create a life you want to live. All of us are work in progress, some accept and amend while others choose to ignore.
The objective of ‘The Mind Edit’ is to focus on helping their clients find a new solution to old problems by bringing a new and fresh perspective to the problem. Through self-awareness, we change your belief system to generate productive thoughts which lead you to your dream life.
‘The Mind Edit’ helps people to create and visualize their best life and then through individual coaching sessions channelize and direct them towards their ideal life both professional and personal. With the help of various tools and techniques and clarity in mind, the road towards success gets smoother and faster.
At ‘The Mind Edit’ we also help you overcome your limiting beliefs which are in the form of fears like fear of speaking in public, fear of closed places, fear of being alone to name a few, We also help you deal with lack of self-confidence, anger or anxiety.
To help achieve business goals, ‘The Mind Edit’ also conducts group coaching to lead the team towards a common goal as defined by the company. Through webinars and workshops, we cater to a broader audience on a more generalized topic such as Law of Manifestation, Vision Boarding, Unleash Your Inner Power or Self-love to name a few. ‘The Mind Edit’ also helps you create a customized workshop or webinar to cover the topic that is most relevant to you.
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
With the pandemic situation came the biggest need for the mental health professional. Every measure is taken to ensure that all the models align with the challenges of the pandemic.
The physical individual sessions moved to video calls or zoom sessions so that the coaching sessions could continue as normal.
The Speaker events were tech-enabled and moved to various social media platforms like going live on Facebook and Instagram. The workshops were also tech-based and conducted over the zoom platform.
Thus business never stopped.
How do you manage yourself and keep on going despite the challenges? What drives you?
‘Every challenge is an opportunity to learn’
When your eyes are set on the target, no journey seems difficult. Every challenge that came my way, I met with confidence and the mantra ‘I can and I will’ gave me the morale boost that I needed to overcome all obstacles.
Being a solo entrepreneur requires a lot of planning, determination, dedication, hard work and motivation. You need to set your goals and targets for every year and stay inspired to meet them. This requires nothing but focus and the rest of you will start collaborating with the end result.
The need to establish myself as a Certified Life Coach and to fulfil my dream to be an entrepreneur kept me highly motivated.
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
Mindset is very important. Your thoughts determine your actions; your actions lead you towards your goals and dreams.
My work is empowering people and that has been my dream, so when your work is your passion, staying motivated and committed towards the work comes very easily.
A positive mindset is possible when you believe in yourself. I completely believe that I can achieve my goals. To keep myself motivated, I also chalk out smaller targets that are challenging and help me overcome my barriers.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring women entrepreneur?
‘Don’t let others lay down boundaries for you’
When you start out as a women entrepreneur, everybody hops on to the team as advisors. Be confident and take your own decisions. As women, management skills come naturally to you. You will have to learn to compartmentalize your life and time to be more effective.
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, take it as an opportunity to learn. Most important, set goals and take actions towards it.
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.
