At BrilliantRead Media, it is our constant endeavour to bring meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. As part of this, we invited Nandini Rao for an exclusive interview with us. She is a Leader, Coach, Mentor, Author and Founder at Business Grapevine Leaders. Let’s learn more about her incredible journey, background, and valuable advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Nandini:
We are aware of your contributions to the ecosystem; talk us through your background and your journey, please;
My journey as a Personal Excellence Coach is an offshoot of my journey of life and of my journey of 27 years as a corporate professional across various manufacturing and service-providing industries and working in various business functions.
How did you discover your passion in ‘Coaching’?
I was at career crossroads, at the age of 52, not wanting to change my job and aligning myself to a new job environment, boss, organization culture, new set of peers; I was left with 2 alternatives. One was continuing in the same job, in the same role and perhaps a very marginal salary increase or starting out to do something on my own.
The latter enticed me but I was addicted to the salary slip that came into my mailbox at the end of every month bringing in the salary into my bank account. The thought of not getting that anymore was terrifying! To get more clarity on which direction to take my professional life, I sought coaching.
When I embarked on my journey of self-transformation, which I basically only wanted for my professional clarity, I realized that my entire life transformed. My health, my attitude towards life, my relationships, my confidence and my self-awareness leap-frogged ahead.
Inspired by my own transformation, I entered into the world of coaching, tentatively first, gaining more and more confidence as I successfully coached more people free of cost. I upgraded my knowledge, upskilled myself with modern techniques and have been a one–to–one coach for the last 7 years.
How do you manage to keep going despite the challenges? What drives you?
Empowering people and challenging my limitations, busting the myths surrounding coaching in India, emerging triumphant every time adds a zing to my life.
I believe that it is extremely important to be self-aware and live a life of courage in face of adversity is essential for thriving in life.
I am grateful that I had the opportunity to turn around my entire life to thriving from surviving and the dream of having every person do that for his/her life drives me every day.
Who do you believe has been the biggest source of motivation in your daily life?
The day I chose to live a life of freedom and have that being accessible for every trapped soul I meet, every day waking up to the opportunity of meeting new people and impacting their lives provides me all the motivation that I need in my daily life.
What are some of the strategies that you believe has helped you grow as a person?
As far as strategies to live life is concerned, I have no clear-cut strategies. I live in the flow of life surrendering to the Universe, taking each moment in my stride.
What helps me grow as a person is being committed to what I want to achieve, being mindful, connecting people to other people and resources, being empathetic and not letting myself move away from my personal core values is what keeps me ticking.
I also take calculated risks, walk into the Unknown with faith and courage. All of this and more help me grow every day.
What are the business mantras you have embraced as you sought to establish your success story?
Grabbing the right opportunity, being unafraid of failure, taking learnings from them and playing my ‘A’ Game.
To get that opportunity, I present myself as a brand. I prepare myself to give in my best shot at each and every opportunity that comes my way.
Please share with us, how do you motivate your clients?
I focus my energies on what the client has come to me for. I help individuals heal from within, sharing real-life success stories similar to theirs, help them tap into their innermost resources and become aware of their strengths.
I have the ability to connect to people fast and make them feel comfortable with me. Very often with me they find a non-judgemental and safe space and feel confident to reveal their concerns. Listening to your concerns and helping them customize their solutions is very crucial to me. Communication to me is a very important.
My work is to empower clients to take on responsibilities for their own development and show confidence in their abilities to achieve their goals.
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
My motivation comes from reading and writing. I enjoy being with books, fictional and non-fictional. The motivation to persevere at work comes from the desire to master my skill, to keep upgrading and upskilling myself in the journey of fulfilling the purpose of my life.
I schedule self-care time in my routine. The activity around self-care varies from day to day, giving my free spirit the freedom to experiment. I write a gratefulness journal, I meditate and help others set the tone of their day every morning.
Last but not least, I allow my clients to see that even their coach has vulnerable moments and is not afraid to expose that side. I believe that there is a certain strength in vulnerability when you just expose a little of yourself and let the client see your victory. That makes me humane and the client sees how my process works.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Success, I think is a very relative term and it is personal to each person. What I define as success may not be seen as successful and what others define as success may not be seen as a success by me.
While there are many factors that contribute to each person’s success, a couple of qualities, I think everyone must develop within oneself are as follows:
(a) Complete acceptance of Self
(b) Taking full responsibility for my actions
(c) Being open to being held accountable by relevant stakeholders
(d) Taking a stand on what I truly believe in
(e) Being a life-long learner
(f) Give more value than what is expected
(g) Consistent in thought
(h) Persistent in action
(i) Committed to results, yet being detached from them
What advice would you give students and young professionals who want to have a successful career?
To attain success in anything you want, what is most important is to know yourself as a whole and complete person, accept yourself the way you are and make consistent efforts to reach your goals, without judging yourself or others.
Last but not least, what about your journey makes it satisfying/exciting?
Getting great feedback from those who have been inspired through my social media content, through my coaching sessions/programs amps up my energy quotient.
I feel charged up to deliver more value to them. Seeing shifts in them and in their journey makes it satisfying because I see their success as my success and their breakthroughs as mine.
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.
