At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring some of the meaningful and powerful stories from around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. This week, we invited Rachna Chhachhi to know more about her interesting entrepreneurial journey and the way forward. She is a Social Enterprise Entrepreneur, Speaker, WHO certified Holistic Health Coach, Certified Cancer coach, Community Builder, Founder of RachnaRestores and Author of ‘You Can Beat Cancer & Restore’ Let’s learn more about her journey and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with her;
Talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;
I was heading business development for a large multinational financial services Fortune 50 company when I was struck with an incurable condition called rheumatoid arthritis. From a globe-trotting, highly successful corporate professional with a bright future, I was bedridden, in unimaginable pain, with deformities. And all that my rheumatologist told me as reassurance was that I would need to continue the toxic medications and would have deformities and a short span of life. I decided not to take his prognosis as my fate, and the first thing I did was flush down the medicines. The medicines consisted of chemotherapy drugs, steroids, and immunosuppressants. I then decided to use my analytical and intelligent mind for myself and make the connection between immunity, inflammation, and my disease activity. I was lucky that I could find inroads pretty quickly, I changed the way I ate, exercised, responded to stress, and eight months later, I was clinically free of what is still known as an incurable disease. My reports were normal, my pain was gone and my quality of life started improving. That was 12 years.
At that stage, I realized that if I could do it for myself, I could do it for others. But I need certification. So I signed up for my nutritional therapy certification, finished it, got certified as WHO task force in Malnutrition for infants and children, got certified as a cancer coach, and as a yoga teacher and here I am.”
However, I knew I could not do it alone, with my practice there were only so many people in a day that I could see and the exhaustion of continuous cases could bring my disease back. So I decided to create a holistic certification course based on my education in nutrition, yoga, amalgamated that with my experience in treating patients across 27 countries, and created a course that anybody who has a passion for healing can not only do it but can also start their own practice.
Today, we are 100 healers across 27 countries and the purpose with which I set out in 2008 is seeming to be fulfilled: there are healers certified by my community RachnaRestores everywhere.”
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
I don’t think I was given a choice. If you see my journey, my driver was my pain. However, looking back at the last 12 years and the way we all work, I think at some level I was a natural entrepreneur.
I already had a stint with entrepreneurship in 2000 when I had created a gender practices company online which was funded by Chrysalis Capital.”
Hence, I was not new to working for myself and creating a practice that could help others. I don’t think a job can make such a huge difference to the lives of people, which is why we don’t have any employees at RachnaRestores, everybody is a partner and is passionate about what they do. This is why I call it a community and not an organization.
How do you find the industry/niche that you’re in?
I did go through the journey of struggling to find my niche because people used to get confused. I was not a dietician, I was not a nutritionist, I was not a doctor. And the community that we have created has nutritionists, dietitians, and doctors who are certified by me but we don’t do what conventional parameters of nutritionists and doctors do. To break this clutter and help people understand, I had to strive a lot to create my niche of being the holistic healer and creating my own community. Today when I look back, it seemed to evolve organically because of the patients I treated, because most of them were likely me: give up my medical science.
(Her online sessions – Work from Home)
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
Every day is an opportunity to help somebody. That’s my biggest driver
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
Since I systematically separated myself from conventional healers, the only obstacle I faced and continues to face is reach. Our reach needs to be wider and more spread out so that we can help more people. But getting people to understand what we do takes up a lot of time. Having said that, I wouldn’t have it any other way!
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
You know, in the corporate world I had learned that we have to be professional and not get our emotions in. But as a certified healer, I do know that if we do not have positive emotions, we will not be successful at anything, including making money.
For me, everything is personal: my work, my healing, my coaches, my patients.”
I am involved with each one of them and this is the way I want to be. Because this is what being a human being means, caring for others, and helping others.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
I don’t. If somebody puts pressure on me, I walk away. My response to stress is very calm because on a daily basis I have certain calming techniques I use which help me think with a calm mind about everything. I think I have a bit of an escapist attitude: if people are not good human beings, they don’t click with me. So I walk away. It’s a good way to handle stress and negativity. It’s worked for me.
What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person/startup?
Patience and compassion. We can have the best strategy in the world but if you do not have the patience to implement it consistently every day, day after day, we are not going to reach our goals. And if we don’t have compassion for the people we work with, what is the point of being a human being who can feel, cry, laugh, help others? Hence, both are required and both have helped not only me but will help every single person who has a startup.
(Her Work From Home set-up)
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Be thorough in what your knowledge base is, and use it with compassion. Just because you know more than the person next to you does not give your right to ridicule them. If you are thorough at your craft, your competition will never be able to catch up. If you keep relearning, which is extremely important, you will be ahead of the game. If you treat people well, your goodwill will expand. Ultimately, success is as much about expanding your business as expanding your goodwill and reputation. I was not always like this, when I was younger, I rubbed people off the wrong way, so I am talking from experience. It doesn’t work.
What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring women entrepreneur?
Women are born with a very high emotional intelligence. We are also quick learners and have a very good common sense. Just using these three qualities makes women much more successful at being entrepreneurs. Most of my health coaches are women and we are women helping women, women supporting women, women empowering women. I keep telling them: don’t shortchange yourself, don’t limit your own horizons by saying that I will only do this much or I can only do this much. Think of the grandest scenario and reach for the stars, your worst case will be that you will be holding a little stardust in your palm. It’s a philosophy I follow every single day.
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.
