At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. As part of this endeavour, we invited Srishti Gupta for an exclusive interview with us. She is an Entrepreneur, Leader, Mental Health Promotor, Blogger, Coach, Mentor and Change Enabler. Srishti is the Founder of Trendtofit.com. Let’s learn more about her incredible journey, background, and advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Srishti:
Talk to us through your background and your journey as a woman entrepreneur, please.
My journey of becoming a professional blogger, an affiliate marketer, and the founder of TrendToFit has been quite different. And it happened because of my heart disease.
You can say, the most horrific incident of my life has turned out to be a blessing now for me. Yes, I am a proud heart surgery survivor and mental health promoter today.”
I did my schooling in a very small town of Uttar Pradesh and further went to Dehradun to pursue an MBA from Uttaranchal Institute of Management. I was happy, ambitious and passionate to achieve great things.
I had a clear vision of entering the corporate world, gaining experience from there, starting something of my own in the next 5 years. But life had something else in store for me.
In the middle of the course, my health started deteriorating and one day during a class presentation, I felt dizzy, fell down on the ground, and later was diagnosed with two heart diseases. For their treatment, I had to undergo two heart surgeries. However, I continued my course and got an MBA degree.”
And all this took 3 important years of my career. I was devastated and everyone was doing something and settling in their lives. Being a woman I faced a lot of societal pressure, trauma, and depression. Though I was in anxious mode, I never lost hope. I prepared for bank exams but never got satisfied due to my health and lack of interest.
Then I started looking for ways to start something of my own because I always had a business mindset. I came up with a lot of ideas but it wasn’t possible due to being stuck in a small town.
How did you discover your passion for blogging and fitness enthusiasm?
I thank myself today that I didn’t give up in the darkest years of my life. One day I learned about blogging and began doing more research about it. While figuring out how I can help people, the very real problem which I was facing at that time drove my attention, i.e. how to stay fit naturally.
I started writing about the experiences of my own journey regarding physical and mental fitness. The most important thing in mind was being honest and genuine towards my readers.”
To add to my skills and knowledge, I also participated in webinars and joined courses of renowned successful bloggers. It’s now very necessary to know more about SEO, writing, and managing the blog. I also hired a team of qualified fitness writers, to make TrendToFit a professional blog.
I did a lot of research in this space and executed the things. Within 6 months, I started getting positive feedback from genuine organic readers. People were appreciating my work which motivated me to continue with what I was doing. I also made my first $1000 from affiliate marketing within that period.
Being then stuck in a small place in India, it was never possible for me to begin my career after a gap. I thank everyone today who has supported me in this journey. Presently, I have invested in other affiliate marketing projects too and earn well from them. We are now a virtual team of passionate people who love their work.
‘TrendToFit’ is such a unique name; talk us through more about your blog, please. Our audience would also love to know what kind of problem you are solving?
TrendToFit is all about making people mindful of their daily lifestyle so they can choose the right healthy habits. You see, in the modern hectic lifestyle, people don’t easily find time for themselves and so they are adopting artificial ways to live healthily.
For example, spending money on non-seasonal fruits from the supermarket rather than buying cheap seasonal veggies from the local market, taking pills even for small diseases rather than boosting their immunity and curing them through natural remedies, eating packaged foods and then going to the gym to burn that extra fat.”
After my surgery, I also gained a lot of weight and realized there were so many unhealthy habits I had fallen victim to. I literally knew nothing about mindful eating, the importance of yoga, having dinner before sunset, eating natural homemade food, and avoiding so-called packaged food that is sold in the market as healthy options.
The only thing I knew about fitness is that it’s all about following a boring strict diet and going to the gym. However, the reality is something else! And that’s what we do at TrendToFit. Our primary goal at ‘TrendToFit’ is to make people aware to adopt a healthier lifestyle by following combined practices of Ayurveda and modern science.
Yes, you heard it right! We can take the good from both sciences. Ayurveda not only promotes adopting good lifestyle habits to get you fit naturally but also discovers the root causes of poor health and teaches the best practices to fight it by increasing immunity.”
On the other hand, modern science has brought innovation in the fitness industry by introducing helpful devices and equipment that help people, especially new moms and busy people, to follow a fitness routine at their homes. I and my team create content and do surveys on how one can eat normally, follow best lifestyle practices, and live a happy life.
Is motivating people about physical fitness the only mantra at TrendToFit or is your team helping people achieve mental fitness also?
Because people nowadays are growing their interest in the topic. A healthier lifestyle does not just mean being physically healthy only. Mental health is equally important.
I have always been a spiritual person thanks to my lovely mother. Ayurveda also focuses on yoga and meditation to gain good mental health. These practices have helped me a lot to face challenges during my dark days and become what I am today.
It was not an easy journey to cover from living with depression to turning into a mental health advocate now.”
Therefore, I love to share my personal experiences that are based both on spiritualism and ayurvedic practices to combat anxiety and depression.
I feel a sense of immense joy when my readers comment and mail me a thank you letter saying how they have managed to find peace after reading my content. I am happy to say, with some of them I share a good friendship now.”
How do you manage to keep going despite the challenges? What drives you?
Yes, there are many challenges from maintaining the SEO to finding a good team who can do honest work. The very simple answer to this question is the passion for work and bringing a positive change in people’s lives.
When a reader texts me how I helped him/her heal emotionally or how our deep research of work helped them find something they were looking for, it drives me and my team to keep working.
Our vision is that people learn how they can improve their mental and emotional health in a natural manner. Maintaining health should be easy which they can do by incorporating some best practices in their daily life.
Who do you believe has been the biggest source of support in your daily life?
First of all, I am really grateful to God for always showing me the direction. And My parents, my younger sister Tripti and my friend Vibhor.
My mother is a very selfless and spiritual lady. If I could face those challenges without hurting my mental health, it was only her who could drive me from that darkness.
My father helped me learn the importance of perseverance. He has also been an ardent follower of Ayurveda. So this way his advice worked like a miracle to me. My grandfather too had a keen interest in this ancient practice and used to read a lot of Ayurvedic books. I would also like to give him the credit.
Tripti is someone who is always there, however bad the situation may be. I can’t think of my life without her. She is a very good friend and a software engineer by profession.
Vibhor never lets me feel down, he always reminds me of how I managed to get here and how I will manage in future too. He is a Chartered Accountant and my financial advisor as well.
What are the three most important lessons you have learned building your startup?
(a) Don’t follow anyone blindly, not even your mentors. Learn from them and build your own empire.
(b) If your strategy doesn’t work, try another and keep trying. Remember only a few of them are meant to be successful.
(c) If you feel like failing, find out why you’re failing, rather than doubting your own capabilities.
What are some of the strategies that you believe have helped you grow as a person?
There are a few:
(1) Facing failures and learning from them
(2) Realising that making mistakes is not a sign of failure.
(3) Taking responsibility for my actions
(4) Getting out of comfort zone
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:
> Embrace your flaws and turn them into your strength
> The attitude towards Life
> Fighting up for your rights
> Giving up is ok, but standing up again is also important.
> I believe in Karma, if you work hard, you will get results too.
> Don’t compare with anyone, grow at your own pace.
What advice would you give women entrepreneurs and young professionals who want to start something of their own?
Market knowledge is very important especially when you’re thinking about doing something online. If you know who your audience is and where it spends most of its time, half of the job is done.
Also, analyze what is the future of your business. How scalable it is. What are your long term plans? You should also keep yourself updated about your industry and brush up on your skills.
There is so much to be shared, but this conversation limits how much I can communicate on this platform.
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.
