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 – Simple Jaiswal for an exclusive interview with us. Simple is an Entrepreneur, Life Coach, HR Mentor, Inspirational leader, Speaker, Corporate trainer. Let’s learn more about her inspiring journey, background and advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Simple:
We are aware of your contributions to the ecosystem; talk us through your background and your journey, please;
First of all thank you for this opportunity to share my story and my thoughts on this platform. I’m a girl from a small town with big dreams. I am quite enthusiastic about life and what it has in store for me.
I am a problem solver and love to interact with people. After MBA from XISS, Ranchi, I started my career in HR with Larsen & Toubro, Mumbai, and thereafter my professional journey of 24 years with corporates has seen me rising the corporate ladder, learning and spearheading the Strategic HR initiatives.
Working with industries from Manufacturing, IT, IT enabled services, Edtech, NGO and training Organization has helped shape my understanding of Human behavior and engagement scenarios. I also enjoyed a short stint as MBA faculty, HR consultant and Corporate trainer and Advocate.
As an HR Consultant I help SME set up the entire HR ecosystem with focus on employee engagement and retention. I always had the urge to learn new things and challenge myself. Hence while I was in full time role as HR Director with an IT organization, I enrolled for university program for LLB and later joined the district court, pune as Advocate. It was quite a different experience for me.
However my need to connect with people and search for meaning in the work that I was doing, led me to explore Coaching as a next step in my CAREER.
Hence, here IAM as a Life & Career Returner’s Coach who helps women resume their professional identity. I enable women to work on their career through the 3 C model of Clarity, Courage and Consistency to gain their Identity, Income, and Independence. I help them fill the void created by the career break. Helping them to come back, to fulfill their dreams and above all gain happiness.
I feel blessed and fortunate to be in a position to help others find their passion and meaning in life.I am on a mission to ‘MAKE A DIFFERENCE’ in people’ lives, inspiring them and working with them to realize their dreams and goals.
Would you like to speak something more about your niche in coaching and why you chose this particular niche?
Every women wants to create her Professional Identity, initially she does so by studying hard and making her name and getting job, then series of natural events in her life like marriage, children, relocations, elderly care and family responsibilities sees her struggling to keep her professional identity intact and keep renewing it from time to time.
Life happens to everybody, those that bounce back are people with Grit. Initial years of my work life were good, however a series of changes like Marriage, childbirth, relocations because of my husband’s assignments saw me struggling to keep up with my Professional identity and meet my career aspirations.
After every break, I struggled however persevered. Nothing could cease the fire in me, hence kept working with gaps, resuming after every break, balancing work and home and child. It was not easy, however I never thought it was impossible.
This journey continued for 22 years, reaching the highest level in the HR role as Director. I worked in different industries – Manufacturing, IT, Education and IT enabled services, and a short stint as MBA faculty, HR consultant and Corporate trainer and Advocate. Currently I have started my venture as a Life Coach.
I want to help all the women who took a break for some reason but now are either scared to go back, or are being downsized because of their break. People treat career break as a penalty when one wants to resume career, I want to change the meaning given to break and the myth associated with it.
When a person starts after a break they do not start from zero. This time they start with experience and that needs to be respected. Honestly, I have experienced the anxiety, worry, low confidence, discrimination that women face post break and being alone in this journey makes it even harder to get by. That’s when I decided to become a coach to help others overcome challenges, find purpose, achieve goals, and create the life they want.
How did you discover your passion in ‘Coaching’?
As HR Head for the last 3 Organizations that I worked with, my role saw me constantly having deep conversations with employees at different levels to understand their perspective on initiatives undertaken by the organization as well as career aspirations aligning to it.
Lot of my time was spent coaching people after office hours as well. My stint with Management institutes as faculty for MBA students also gave me a chance to coach students. I loved these conversations and interactions which served as guidance for them. At that time I did not know this was Coaching. However I had office colleagues and friends suggesting that I could be a good counselor since I was good at listening and guiding them.
When my project as consultant got over and I was debating on whether to take up another project or pursue full time HR roles that time Coaching struck me and I decided to pursue this professionally.
I started studying to get certified and found good mentors who showed me the way in this new journey of life and I’m loving it. I’m passionate about helping people and Coaching became an obvious choice and natural transition from HR role to Life Coaching.
How do you manage to keep going despite the challenges? What drives you?
You see, becoming a Coach means undergoing a transformation yourself first and you need to work on yourself first, that makes you strong, it gives you the inner strength which radiates outside.
One who has been trained under the best mentors can relate to this. We learn tools and techniques and processes which help us to see perspectives in difficult situations and find out a way. Only when I am calm and can manage my challenges, only then can I show the way to my clients, right!
What drives me is seeing how this work is helping people bring change in their lives and their feedback telling me that. YES I could make a difference in their life, that’s the mission that I am living for and hence named my Organization – Making a Difference.
As said earlier – I am on a mission to MAKE A DIFFERENCE in people’ lives, inspiring them and working with them to realize their dreams and goals.
Who do you believe has been the biggest source of motivation in your daily life?
> Family
> Mentors
> A few friends
> Clients
What are some of the strategies that you believe have helped you grow as a person?
There are a few:
(1) Always being open to learn and experiment
(2) Taking ownership and responsibility for my actions for I believe taking responsibility gives you power.
(3) High energy and enthusiasm for life
(4) Being mindful
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 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.
This is my way of giving back to society by impacting lives in positive way.
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
These are few practices that keep me motivated, excited and energetic to keep going and giving my 100% every time.
(a) Strong Morning routine to nourish my Mind, Body and soul.
(b) Self care and me time to meditate
(c) learning continuously keeps me engaged
(d) Reading about great lives keeps me inspired
(e) Travel keeps me happy and positive
(f) Writing gratitude journal and praying everyday keeps me grounded
(g) Last but not least Feedback from my clients keeps me going. When I see my clients having a moment and I get the privilege of witnessing their breakthrough, it’s the most powerful stimulant I can imagine.
In your opinion, what are the keys to success?
I will say it straight that there are many factors but if you really have to have the key elements then to me these are the ones:
– Living in possibilities
– Taking charge of one’s life
– Accepting & Loving self.
– Never giving up
– Standing up for self
– Being a problem solver
– Taking massive action (execution) with consistency and belief
What advice would you give to young professionals and career returners, who want to have a successful career?
My advice to students – LIFE IS A MARATHON, NOT A sprint.
Life is a marathon, not a sprint.” a marathon takes longer, and a sprint is very short – meaning when applied to life, great things take time so don’t rush it. Just like in life or in your career, it’s easy to start a project or commit to finishing something on a deadline.
However, there’s a lot that happens in between the start and the finished product. Similarly, running a marathon puts you through a wave of emotions—from signing up for the race to crossing the finish line months later. The first step is creating a plan, training and actioning it to reach the goal.
Take the first step to START your career, ENJOY THE JOURNEY, KEEP LEARNING AND BUILDING MEMORIES TO CHERISH LATER.
My message for career returners –
Every woman deserves the right to create their own Identity, Income and Independence to live a fulfilled life.
“EVERYDAY IS A SECOND CHANCE hence NEVER GIVE UP!”
Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent – Marilyn-vos-savant
There is so much to be shared, but this conversation limits how much I can communicate on this platform. Working professionals, Students and career returners regularly reach out to me on LinkedIn with their specific queries.
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.
