As part of our ongoing quest to get you meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world, we invited – Shilpa Kulshrestha for an exclusive interview with BrilliantRead Media. She is a Coach, Entrepreneur, Speaker, Author and Founder of Scintillate Coaching and Consulting. Let’s read more about her inspiring journey and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Shilpa:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as a women entrepreneur/coach, please;
I come from a small town called Dehradun. My dad and mum were both from the education background. As part of our growing up years, the emphasis was solely on education. My siblings and I were privileged enough to go to the best schools and I took education as the safest way to become successful. I did fairly well to start with.
But it was only after completing multiple degrees- CA, CPA, MBA, LLB, I realised that education was the safest way to be successful, but not the best one.
I realised that what got me here will not get me there. “There”- where my dreams belonged!
Even after 16 years of successful corporate career, they were still blurry. In 2019, when my position became redundant- I took it as a sign to quit my average life and as an opportunity to rise and shine.
I created it the biggest pivot in my life and took my career through a 180-degree turn.
I started my journey as a coach, to move away from the world of IT systems and processes to real-life situations. I took the road less travelled to make this world a place, where each life is a masterpiece.
Thus started my journey of meaning, fulfilment and joy.
Till date, I haven’t looked back. I thoroughly enjoy taking people through breakthroughs, where they step up to their life of purpose and impact.
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
Positivity is a choice that we make to look at the imperfections around as the perfect opportunity to change. I consider myself a relentless optimist.
What keeps me motivated is the fulfilment that I get out of enabling others to step into their best life and careers.
I cannot describe the feeling in words.
Let me put it this way. When I get results, I love it but when my clients get their results, I love it even more ☺
What attracts you towards entrepreneurship instead of a corporate career?
After 16 years of successful corporate life, I realised that I was “successful” only from the definition of this world. In my eyes, I was still not my best self. I didn’t feel powerful when I stepped into that 32-floor office building.
I felt small. I felt not leveraged enough. I felt that I could do so much more.
With all these thoughts showing up their face often, I realised that I had fallen into the trap of a mediocre life. The feeling became more intense in the last 5 years of my corporate career, as I continued to fight it, “this is not me” and “I do not belong here.”
The day my position became redundant, I felt a new power in my knees as I walked out of that building. Surprisingly I had never felt it before.
It seemed that suddenly I had baby wings, which kept growing bigger with each thought and as I put each thought into action.
I didn’t exactly know “what next?”. But I knew was that I hated mediocrity and loved growth. I took it as the mission of my life to help people eradicate their mediocrity, enabling them to meet their best self.
As I saw them step into their power zone, thus creating outstanding success in their life, my smile widened and my fulfilment increased multi-fold.
My clients were shining and I was shining in their light.
And in the process, I created great relationships, found my best expression and created some wealth too. This time, it felt like I truly deserved it.
‘Scintillate Coaching & Consulting’ 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?
The dictionary meaning of Scintillate is “sparkle”. We want our clients to shimmer, to sparkle as we become a catalyst to their success in their chosen field.
We want people to know that it is never too late to start a life of choice and if aided by a good coach, you can create a parachute to rapidly transition to it.
We help professionals murder their mediocrity, step into their excellence and create that life of choice, wealth and happiness.
What are the key ingredients of your coaching business?
There are two key areas that we focus on:
1 – Helping mid-career professionals, who have at least 15-yrs of experience and who are not very happy with their job. This is because either the work is mundane, too easy or too high pressure, where the remuneration is not worth the hours and efforts spent.
We work with such professionals to help them murder the average game that they have unconsciously become part of, get clarity about their life, create options and step into their power zone to actually implement their best life.
2 – Help aspiring coaches transition successfully from corporate to the world of coaching, by helping them create a heart-centric successful coaching business.
No, we are not creating competition for us. We are enabling more and more people to create a life of impact, make wealth the right way and through that snowball effect, we are enabling a better world, where each of us is standing tall with pride.
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
You would be surprised but our coaching business has grown 5 times since covid started in March.
There is no magic formula. All that we concentrate on is to create some really good results for our clients and nothing speaks louder than results.
Our clients are highly driven individuals, who have created some amazing results like 53% salary increase, 100% salary jump while transitioning careers to completely unrelated fields, new coaches making US$16k in flat 2 weeks, families coming together post-long-held disputes and property matters, etc, etc, etc- all in the middle of covid.
What else do you need to continue?
How do you manage yourself and keep on going despite the challenges? What drives you?
Behind the reel life, an entrepreneur’s life does bring up new challenges each day. And that’s where our mindset plays a pivotal role.
Having a strong mindset keeps you going because you are always looking for opportunities. You have the certainty that even if things are uncertain, you will ultimately make it work.
A winning habit that I have learnt is that any time I have a challenge, not to panic. I stand there with my wallet open, looking out for, on whom can I invest in and learn from.
My focus has shifted from panic saving to wise investing in myself so that I can acquire that capability. This works like magic, as I keep taking my game up, step by step.
Please share with us – what has worked well for you so far?
Two things:
1 – Quick decision making- Initially this used to be a forever struggle. But I have realised that no decision is right or wrong, it is what you do to stand by those decisions, that make them right or wrong.
So instead of wasting time to figure out the best decisions, take one and then, do everything to make it right.
2 – Resourcefulness- Resources will always be a challenge. You will never have enough time, money, knowledge.
If you too are stuck in the lack of resources, you are fighting the wrong battle.
It is never the resources but the lack of resourcefulness, which is a problem. I have gone to the extent of building a wall in the middle of my living room, to give a portion of it on Airbnb, when I did not have the resources to invest in myself and in a few months, I didn’t need it any longer.
Be resourceful, be creative, think long term and you will see magic unfolding.
In your opinion – what is more necessary: Idea or a good team for a successful startup?
Here is what I have seen, 99% of the time, there is no killer idea. It is always the people you leverage, that takes you far.
I have my life partner as my business partner. Nothing can be better than that. It has taken our marriage to next level.
I am blessed to have the best team, who work as if it is their own company and I care for them from the core of my heart.
I push myself to be in the best proximity because that is where I learn to question my own fundamentals. Every time I change something at the ground level, it takes my own game up.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring women entrepreneur?
Evaluate where you stand, be completely aware of it and accept the situation
Figure out where do you want to go. Put measurements in place so that you are crystal clear about your destination and do not get swayed into the sidelines.
And then fill in all the gaps, go ahead with all your might, to go and grab 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.
