At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring some of the unique and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community of entrepreneurs, coaches, investors, management students and aspiring entrepreneurs. This week we invited Rashi Khanna for an interview with us to know more about her inspiring journey. Rashi is a seasoned business professional with over 18yr years of experience both in a corporate setup and as an Entrepreneur. She is a passionate entrepreneur, women leader, changer enabler, coach and growth strategist. Let’s learn more about her entrepreneurial journey, way forward and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with her:
Tell us about the uniqueness of your Foundation, please;
Ra by Rashi Foundation’s Mission: Empathize, Energize and Empower.
Our initiatives provide the momentum that enables changing lives and not merely touching lives.
We are committed to reinvigorating social & economic well being to anyone in need.”
Our success stories so far include:
1 – We are presently running an initiative “Be the Help” for our members and people seeking help in business, also providing emotional strength in tiles of COVID. This initiative is running on our different social handles where we are doing talk/discussion shows for entrepreneurs who have started a new business or are facing difficulty in reaching out for sales.
6 – Flagship initiative: Helping women fight a mid-life crisis.
Our Flagship initiative is; Women facing a mid-life crisis.
Middle-aged women experience a severing relationship with a long-term partner. In addition to being emotionally wounded, women may experience a substantially reduced household income. Women in midlife tend to experience higher rates of loneliness (distress post-divorce or death of loved one or kids go away for studies). These midlife women also reported frustrated goal attainment; health is a common issue at this age.
We named it; Ra by Rashi Foundation; as our members should know their Empath. A true Empath knows how to deal with the imperfections.
Where did the idea to start something like this come from? Please also talk us through your background and your journey as a women entrepreneur;
Maybe I was born to be an empath, Except I realised it later. My failures are my strength.
Born in a business family settled in Lucknow, managing business was in my genes. My parents gave me enough freedom as a child to incubate my own personality.
As a trained Bharatnatyam dancer, I finished my 4 levels in classical vocals with many certified art and pottery courses to my forte. As a child, I was always strong-headed and was involved in charity and fundraising initiatives at school & college level. My initial schooling was at La Martiniere girls college, Lucknow and finished my later years at Army Public school which gave me a vast culture exposure.
As I finished my PGDPR from Lucknow University with my thesis in Terracotta industry, I immediately set up my unit in the village Chinhat, Lucknow. That was the turning point when I realized that I could sell anything due to my humble marketing skills. Being in the b2c selling and manufacturing business was my forte. With Pottery, art as my talents I was able to strategize sales. Exhibited with Lalit Kala Academy regularly to get more exposure.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a corporate career?
The entrepreneur in me didn’t let me settle for less. Once an entrepreneur; Always an entrepreneur. Hence I decided to quit a corporate job in 2015 and started my own business in 2015.
Back in Lucknow, our family welfare trust would help women learn embroidery and stitching. I started selling those precious handmade chikankari apparels and accessories.
Time was just right when I started exporting Chikankari apparels all over the world. My focus has always been on doing good work and little did I realize that in this world people will always question your turnovers. That is when I wanted to turn the tables. For me as the Founder-TRUSTEE-CHAIR of RA BY RASHI FOUNDATION, my dream project of helping Women facing mid-life crisis came into being.
I believe in hyper empathy and always feel deeply about issues. No one ever heard me except my husband, so I would always question what would happen to women who have insensitive husbands and families. What do they do? That reconfirmed my mission all the more.
Along with my store, I got into charity work with different NGOs in Lucknow, Bengaluru & Delhi NCR. I partnered with many NGOs to learn and see how they would operate. One thing I observed is that donations come in but empathy is missing. Very few are willing to go out of their comfort zone to make a life worth living for the needy. Few don’t need money, all they need is to be heard and felt.
Please share with us some of the challenges you faced in your journey;
My biggest challenge has been; Women playing the victim. This one mistake that a woman can make is wasting years of her life waiting for someone else to give her growth she deserves. I faced questions from families who never let the woman in need to grow her skills, business and emotions. They never helped them financially to enhance their social network rather mocked and pushed them. This was painful in the initial years. One more challenge that I faced was raising funds. That restricted me many times from doing good to needy as we had limited resources.
What is your Business Mantra: Money or Emotions?
Being a realist I believe in order to empower emotions one needs to have a base of money. A person cannot value emotions unless they have the basic resources to carry on with their lives regardless. I follow psychology and according to Maslow; first comes to the human physiological needs and then slowly graduate towards self-actualisation needs.
I believe that a person should be able to provide for themselves and then move towards providing for the ones in needs who don’t have access to opportunities like we do.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
My everyday morning statement ”I feel to heal – I have to turn my Mess into a Message. My daily regime of meditation(spiritual class), yoga and “talking to my plants are my stress busters. The more real I am the less pressurised I am. I remind myself each moment that I need not fit in the rules to help people.
What has worked well for you so far?
One strategy as a brand and marketing expert that I use for myself, I share my story to sell more.
People connect with stories and that too real empathy stories. No one wants to buy bookish Gyan. Each character has a long story of experience in this difficult world. If one can connect they will stay forever.
So I brand my story and trust me it works. I am a midlife woman facing many crises and yes, I have messed up many times. I just share the real story. This is hyper empathy for me. This makes me the larger person than this life, also helps me add value to the cause I am working on.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
My success mantras:
1 – Real women are never perfect and perfect women are never real.
2 – Never leave your childhood friends, they know you the best.
3 – Integrity and consciousness goes to the grave, keep it clean.
4 – Sufferings are real so always be kind.
5 – Know the real you as that will get you success: I am born as a giver, less as a taker, so that is my success story!
6 – Listen to your heart always as brains are selfish. It kills the hyper empathy so best to avoid.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring women entrepreneur?
Education is a must for all aspects. One should be well equipped with all kinds of skills and qualifications to do successful business in 2020. Times have changed and just hiring people to do your job doesn’t work. One needs to be well versed with technology, financial planning PR, strategizing as a package.
We at Ra by Rashi Foundation help people develop entrepreneurial skills, mentorship and also help sustain a sustainable ecosystem. We have special packages for women (mid-life) who want to start their own.
We provide Internships to college students who want to learn and experience the role of empaths.
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.
