At Brilliant Read Media, we always strive to bring meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. This week we invited yet another passionate Womenpreneur Usha Yanamandra for an interview with us. Usha is a Leader, Entrepreneur, Mentor and Image Consultant. She is the Founder of UR Consulting and Training. Let’s read more about her incredible journey so far and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Usha:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as a women entrepreneur/trainer, please;
Apart from being an Internationally Certified Image Consultant, a Career Mentor and Life Skills Trainer, I am also an Author, an NLP Practitioner, a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Professional and the Founder of URCT (UR Consulting and Training).
Based out of Hyderabad, pursuing my PhD in Management, with a specialization in Psychology from Xavier’s Institute of Business Management Studies. I love to travel and I’m passionate about training individuals and Making them Future Ready.
Some of my Achievements and Recognitions in this beautiful journey so far are as follows:
~ UR Consulting and Training has been nominated as the Top 10 Most Promising Start-ups of 2020 in India.
~ UR Consulting and Training has been awarded a Grand Prize by MSME for Women Achievers Award in Image Consulting and Career Mentoring Category in association with Time2Leap Awards
~ Authored & Self-Published “Style Lab for Men – A woman’s perspective on Men’s Fashion in 11 Steps” – ebook available on Amazon
~ In process of writing my 2nd Book – Launching soon
What attracts you towards entrepreneurship instead of a corporate career?
Three important aspects that attracted me to choose entrepreneurship over a corporate career is my
LOVE – To make a positive difference in people’s lives. To live my passion, and to ‘give back’ to humanity in a way that is empowering.
LIFESTYLE – To enjoy financial freedom and the flexibility in how I spend my time and able to work from any location.
LEGACY – To be a leader and an innovator. To be an author, consultant and trainer. To make a positive and meaningful global impact
‘UR Consulting and Training’ 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?
UR Consulting and Training: Guiding People on the Road to Success by Making them Future Ready
Started in 2018, this Hyderabad-based company has built a strong foundation within a short span of 30 months offering services to school & college students, business owners, self-employed professionals, corporate houses, banks and many more.
The crux of the success rate is pinned on its unique approach to image building, where Usha blends Consulting-Training-Mentoring as a single tool.
URCT today stands apart as one of the fast-growing start-ups in offering training, image consulting and career mentoring services.
Comprehensive Offerings
Following the A-B-C concept of Appearance–Behaviour–Communication, URCT provides a dizzying array of Personalized Image Consulting Services to individuals aspiring to enhance their image.
Determined to give its best and to make its image consulting services class apart from the rest, the company helps its clients understand their personal style and personal colours, the art of socializing while offering meticulous wardrobe management/optimization and personal shopping services.
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
My answer here would come across as a surprise for many…During the pandemic when most of the Businesses were competing against each other in the digital world promoting on social media I was busy attending to my clients who were more than keen on getting their transformation done and all this without having a consistent or robust presence in the digital platform.
However, in 2021 I am looking forward to creating an active digital presence while exploring social media marketing.
How do you manage yourself and keep on going despite the challenges? What drives you?
My Story is filled with broken pieces, bad decisions, and some ugly truths but it is also filled with a major comeback, peace, and grace that saved my life.
“Life is all about being able to bounce back! It doesn’t matter how many setbacks you have, all that matters is that you come back harder, better & stronger,” — I live by this quote.
“I am a dreamer, a survivor and an achiever. Without dreams, I would have never made it this far and my dreams became my goals. Through the roller coaster ride called “Life”, I pursued my dreams and ended up being resilient with refined tastes – who loves and welcomes life with a bright and enigmatic smile, no matter what it brings.
With over 20 years of diverse experience, my passion is to “Make YOU Future Ready”
Please share with us – what has worked well for you so far?
I would say the Impact of services and overall client experience has worked tremendously well for us. Here are some of the Client Testimonials, Feedbacks and Results they achieved post image consulting. Tremendous credit to numerous such client referrals and positive feedbacks
> “Got their dream job”
> “Met their life partner”
> “Received more respect”
> “Networked with positive results”
> “Transformed a team in conflict to a team in harmony”
> “Increased levels of customer service”
> “Delivered a presentation with confidence”
> “Felt empowered”
> “Felt more charismatic”
> “Looked younger, healthier, and more vital”
> “Saved more money”
> “Spent less time thinking about what to wear”
> “I don’t wish to go back and be who I used to be.”
> “I can’t begin to tell you how my life has changed because of our session. My income started tripling. My staff is treating me with more respect and are more productive. I have more confidence and joy.”
> “I used to think I was fat. Now for the first time in my life, I love myself. I have changed how I am with my family. I used to yell, and now I say things like ‘let us go outside and have fun!’. And I got the courage to go for my dream career.”
> “After shopping with you, I actually spent less, and had clothes that I really love. When I shopped for myself I used to spend more, and still had nothing to wear.” I’m not going to make that mistake again!”
> Every adult should have the basic knowledge of IMAGE which generally is left for self-learning. It was a pleasure to learn about the science behind image building. Also appreciate your genuine humble personality – so much to learn from you!
Besides conducting awareness workshops in South India, the company also specializes in delivering a broad spectrum of Behavior and Life Skills Training programs to Individuals, Corporate Houses, Educational Sectors, Banks and various types of Businesses as well.
“As compared to the rest of the country where people are aware of the term Image Consulting/Image Consultant, Southern India is yet to understand the importance of Image Management. There is immense potential in South India and being a South Indian myself, I wish to create awareness on this subject at the same time help people discover their true identity by projecting the right Image for a successful personal and professional life,”
Operating with the mission of making its client’s image work for them and “Make them future-ready”, – URCT envisions to impact as many people as it can in their road to success by guiding them on the way they think, feel, look and behave.
What are the three most important lessons you have learned building your startup?
1 – Nurture your Professional Network
2 – Perseverance is prime, also get ready to be alone not everyone can be YOU
3 – It’s all about creating Opportunities and finding Solutions
Finally, Celebrate Little Wins and Enjoy the Ride
Given the rapid pace at which the world is changing, what are the leadership traits that are necessary for success?
Plan – Inspire – Lead – Conquer
In your opinion, what is more necessary: An idea or a good team for a successful startup?
My Opinion in one word – “It’s the DRIVE that is most important”
I have seen well-established Organizations and excellent startups fail due to a lack of driving spirit in spite of having the best ideas and great teams.
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
When you enjoy what you do, you don’t need any motivation. Your passion for your work is the driving force that wakes you up every morning and pushes you to be a better person than you were yesterday.
Positivity follows when you stop talking about people and start thinking & discussing ideas—that’s when the BIG things start happening!
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring women entrepreneur?
My only advice for my fellow women entrepreneurs is to keep the passion alive, collaborate, co-operate and complement each other rather than compete or compare. Success in Rat Races is short-lived.
Comparison and Competition should be against Self to be better than what you were.
Collaborate and complement one another to remain successful!
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.
