Platform Dedicated to Startups || Founder of YOUR STORY || Shradha Sharma 😎 || IMOTW

Since I went to college, I've not had a sense of time. Like I have a sense of time, but I don't have a sense of time because when I do something I just get completely into it. Then I don't realize it's day night. I get very. I have an obsessive disorder if I may say so, because I just get so invested in it that I family becomes second and I'm guilty. So don't ever learn that or think about it because I'm so guilty. But also I'm shameless to say I don't even regret it because I've enjoyed the process. Like I enjoyed the process and I've enjoyed the journey. To be very honest with you. In 2008 I was such a product of print and TV. So if you met me, I was like, I believed that world is Times of India where I was working a world ACNBCID 2010 onwards. You know, I had a very tragic accident in my life with someone personal. And I think it changed the course of my life. And I used to fly every day, you know, took airplanes and fly for my work in CNBC every day. And then I developed flight phobia. So for two years I was taking medicine, I saw a psychiatrist and I was just not flying.

I'll quickly tell you about our journey and our venture. So I was 18 years old and born and brought up in Delhi. I wanted to. My dad used to go to sleep at night and I used to take out his car and go and race with other people. And I used to think I'm going to become a streetcar racer and I used to bet on races and all of that. But my dad had lost everything in his business. So one day he called me to his office and he said, son, I have two options for you. Join my business from tomorrow. Because we had to sell the house in the car. Chhota Sak Business Delhi May he had a small guest house or get out of the house. So I said I'm getting out of the house. You can't talk to me like that and all of that. But I spoke to my mom and better sense prevailed. Very next morning I joined my dad's business. This is when I was 18. Now I'm 43. And at that time there was a new phenomenon on the market called the Internet which allowed you to connect with people from different parts of the world. One day a foreign guest walked in and he paid us in Dutch guilders because there were no euros back then. He paid us in Dutch guilders and I saw we converted the Dutch gilders. It turned out to be multiple Indian rupees. There was a different tariff that time, foreign tariff and Indian tariff for hotels and travel companies. And I thought to myself, what if I'm able to fill up all these 27 groups with foreign guests I'd be able to double the income and become a star in my dad's eyes. So I was like let's do this. For that we needed the Internet. Internet was available only in two places in Delhi I think it was a British school library and Mahomes Sheridan hotel which was about 350 rupees for half an hour which was not affordable. Then there was an Internet Pragati Maidaan me Internet where for 550 rupees we got 50 hours of the Internet and we distributed amongst lots of friends and we realized this is what we need. But then again that Internet finished. We didn't know what to do. After six, seven, eight months of waiting I saw an ad in the paper which like Satyam Computers looking for cyber cafe partners, something like that. And we were one of the first people in Delhi to get a cyber cafe with the slowest Internet on the planet. Half website used to open for before lunch and half after lunch. But we got a website done, ajantahotel.com which was my dad's small guest house. We're one of the first ever Indian standalone non brand hotels to go on the Internet. Google was not in India. Facebook, TripAdvisor were not born. To cut the long story short, in the next few years, business, we have so much business coming in because I was ranking on every single keyword. Nobody else was doing it, it was nobody. And so maybe some foreign brands and us. And so we had so much business coming in that we in the next few years we bought one more hotel and then we bought one more hotel. So dad took 40 years to build his first hotel. After we discovered the Internet. Next few years journey completely changed. That was business number one. Then my mom joined the business and we started a travel company because now we knew how to rank websites and all of that started getting people. I used to put a map of Rajasthan at the back and explain to people how this works. That became my second business took off. I got a call from a company called make my Trip and Yatra, these were new companies. They said we want to do an affiliate model with you. I didn't want to sound like a fool on the phone that I don't know affiliates. So I said send me an email, I'm Busy. They sent me an email. They said, we'll give you 200 or 400 rupees for the conversion of every ticket. Just, you know, and do an affiliate with us. I did that and we started making anywhere from 40 to 50,000 rupees a day in the early 2000s. That was the second business. And then people started saying that, you know, you understand the Internet and all of that, why don't you come and speak on stage? And so I went to multiple stages and people liked the story and they said, why can't you do this for us? That's when in 2009, I started a company called Internet Moguls with a four member team. I started helping people with digital marketing and Today we have 200 plus people doing digital marketing during that journey. Shraddha, what happened was that I had two beautiful daughters and a lovely wife and all of that. And you know, we chose Vancouver as a second base. Nice place for the kids to grow up and all of that. So kids are there. I keep going back and forth and I realized that this is not working because I want to spend more time with the girls and all of that. So we started, we said, let's do something where we can do a venture together so that we can spend more time with each other and we don't feel that we're away from each other. So every time that we used to sit at home, I used to tell them stories and we used to talk about entrepreneurship and on. So they were getting, they used to get bored. So we said, let's make it about them. So Raya and Aviana, we put it together and we made a company called Raviana fictitious company in our heads and we made it around chocolates because they love chocolates. So Raviana Chocolates was a factory where every day they used to go and used to talk about, they hired a mentor, which was me. And every day they used to go and talk about how Raviana Chocolates is working and all of that. And so every day was about a new chapter, rituals, problem. So that story became so popular in our family circle, everybody said, you should talk about it more. So then we made a comic book series called Bedtime Stories for Tomorrow's Entrepreneurs, which was about kids becoming entrepreneurs. And we put it on Amazon and we made a huge profit of $500 so far in our first venture. And so that was our first venture. And now that was two years ago. And so we said now. I was like, I'm not going to run all over the world speaking all of this Drama that I'm doing. I. I want to now spend time with the girls. So we said, let's make a proper business happen for both of us. So then this next venture came up, which is called the Internet Moguls of the World, which is a proper, full fledged for profit venture where we are starting. We've interviewed people like, we went to Gary Vee's office. We met him three times with Grant Cardone. We met everybody. We made a list and we met everybody. And so what we're doing will be launching an online school, which is digital marketing for kids, for parents and grandparents. It's a family school. And Raya and Abhiana will be teaching, I'll be teaching. So we're creating a school and a business so that I can now stay at home and build a school with them so that. And all three of us are equal partners in that. And so that's our venture called the Internet Moguls of the World. And then it's going to become a coffee table book, like Tools of Titans, and we're going to release it itself.

You are a story. All three of you are a story. I don't know why you're talking to me. I should be talking to three of you.

You've done such amazing work. So, I mean, I've been telling the girls about you for the last so many months that you know that you've done such amazing work. Before you started doing this kind of work, India did not have a voice. People didn't have a voice, you know, whatever people are doing. So thank you so much for doing whatever you've done. And so that was a little bit of a story, you know, backstory on why, you know, why we doing this. So thank you very much for your patience.

Honored to be talking to all of you and to you for doing everything so early. And to both these girls, pretty, pretty girls, I see them, they like such an adorable babies and they're all entrepreneurs. So. Yeah, amazing. Yeah. Very excited. You know, it's so good. Like, I don't think so. Emails do justice because somehow you just miss it. I just wish we could just see each other then I'm. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, no. So thank you for giving us your time. We really appreciate it. Right, you want to start with your first question.

So what give you the confidence or the urge to want to leave your job at cnbc? Were you an assistant vice president? So how did you know it was your time? Or when did you want to make your side hustle your real job?

So you Know, there was no particular time, but it started eating me since like. So I started in 2008, September. But from 2007 onwards, you know, I was just thinking because being in media, I was like seeing that the stories which were coming were stories of people who had rich fathers or people who were very old and senior. And I was just thinking, young people who are doing something interesting, why are we not talking? And there was a very dismissive attitude towards them, like, oh, but these guys are not cool. And that got me thinking, what is cool? You know, I still think about what is cool, what is and what. And why does the story become cool and why is the story not cool? Why are you cool? Why I'm not cool? And I just thought that we need, you know, someone needs to tell stories of people who are not considered cool. And so 2007, I used to think, and then, you know, I thought the idea is always there in all our minds. But if that idea, the word is gonorzew, G, N, a W S, I don't know how you pronounce it is that if it just starts living and sleeping with you at night and you're going mad with it over a consistent period of time, then you know that, okay, you have to jump and you have to do it. And that's how in 2008, September, I started the site Your Story. And July 2009, I quit CNBC. Yeah, I can't give you like a exact date because I was just living with. You know, you'll get obsessed about something and you're just thinking about it and about it. And then it just happened. It just happened one day that you just say, okay, now this is what I want to live with.

Awesome. Abhiana.

Yeah. So my first question is kind of like Raya, what was your inspiration to start your.

Your story?

Oh, I love. You know, this is the first time somebody so young has asked me a question. And this is so cool. Thank you so much. My first inspiration to start your story and why I started your story is, you know, I am. And then I always talk about it because it has been such a core part of my upbringing. When I was young girl like you both, I stayed in a very, I stayed in a very conservative family and background. So I grew up in Bihar. And when I was growing up, it was very unsafe place, especially for girl childs. And the whole narrative was that time that you had to grow up, become 18 years of age and get married. And that was somehow a written destiny for me. Like the caste community place, family Where I came from, it was decided, oh, you have to get married and you know you don't have a voice and you know you can't have your own story. And somewhere I always started living in fantasy land. And that's why I love your bedtime stories for entrepreneurs. Because I didn't have a book but I always lived in dream world. So I started living in my mind that I, you know, life will be amazing and magical. And I started thinking how and what and that's how I studied, went to a very good college in Delhi, St. Stephen's. Your father will know about that college. And I always knew that you could accomplish anything if you put your mind to it. And more importantly, the world recognizes the way the world recognizes your success depends on how well you tell your story. Because all of us have something inside and amazing and nice and good. How well do you tell your story? So I was just thinking my background where there was no story. Second, I was surrounded by people who could not communicate properly. They didn't know how to speak English and they were always, you know, considered as the second rate citizens and ridiculed and made fun of. So when you go to Delhi and again your father will verify that you know, there I come from people you make fun of. You know, Biharis are like very poor, very useless, speak in a very ridiculous manner. So somehow all those things started shaping me where I was very from very young age. I thought that we need to value everyone, we need to figure out interesting stories of everyone and we need to tell it and tell it very beautifully. Because not all of us can speak amazingly, not all of us can tell our stories, write our stories. So who will tell stories of such people? And that's how those were the things that inspired me to tell stories. And of course I joined media. I was in Times of India, cnbc. I was in senior roles. I saw how media works. And somewhere media does not celebrate people who are not already successful. So I was just thinking that who will celebrate people who are not already successful? And that's how in 2008 I started your story.

Wow, that is brilliant. A lot of people don't know how to tell their story. We have a thing called the hero introduction where we say that you get a short small opportunity to introduce yourself to people. So that's how I say my name is Avi Arya, father of two girls, six dogs, husband to a superwoman, a streetcar racer turned hotelier, now social media marketer and founder of Internet Moguls. Two seconds to introduce yourself. And that's what we teach everybody as well. Back to you, Beta.

I think in India, we need, all of us as entrepreneurs and startups need to learn this pitch because if you tell us to tell our story, we'll go on forever.

I know we taught this hero introduction. We have a, we have a online community. We've taught this to 15,000 people in the last one and a half years. Got it. The hero introduction. And it's becoming quite a. I think.

You have so many stories. I would love to, in fact, tell your stories. All of you.

Yeah, these girls have a beautiful story. I just make sure that I'm able to get their story exposed to as many people because that's, you know, I just feel that because, you know, 18, they go to college or whatever happens. Now they're 14 and 11. So the next five to six years, this is my time to educate them. And I told them, I said, we're always going to have this business together so that we will be running it from wherever you're doing, wherever you're doing, studying, whatever. We'll be running the business, we'll be growing it. Whenever you want to come back to the business full time is fine, but that will be a chord. It's all for selfish motive so that I stay connected to my kids.

But that's a story which all the fathers. All the fathers need to hear that. Yeah, that's beautiful.

Priya, back to you.

So my next question was, when you initially started business, a lot of people struggle with actually making money out of it, getting customers out of it. So how did you find your competitive advantage, which is your own, and no one can copy it? And how do you sell that in a way that people actually buy from you?

I wish at your age I could ask that question, you know, so I. To answer your question, the advantage which you have over others, sometimes I just, I don't believe it's based on. The world says it's based on patent. Maybe you're in pharmaceutical companies. It could be, but I just think the advantage you have is very inner intrinsic. And I think the advantage I had from day one, and that's why I knew that I'm going to do well. And I've always believed that I will do well. Is that two things. One, my intent, my intent has been super, super, very pure. It didn't come from a reasoning of here, I want to make money, I want to become popular, I want to have a great, easy life. It just, the intent was that I want to tell every story the most beautifully, give everyone A voice which they didn't have. And that has been something that has been driving me for last 12 years. So my intent, I feel, because nobody can match me on my. The purity of my intent. And second thing, the advantage I had is I'm a workaholic. I am very proud of working hard. And I think when you work hard in a very focused way, nothing, nothing on this planet, and I am ready to be challenged. Like, everyone, of course, works hard, but if you work hard with great, pure intent every day, then no one can beat you. And I have had lot of competition from the biggest media to people telling me, oh, we can create something like your story in one day to like, I don't want to go on record, but, like, some of the biggest, biggest names in the country have been just challenging that we could do something better. But we are 12 years old, standing, growing taller, becoming better, and people loving us much more. And I think that only comes with these two things. Purity of intent and extremely focused hard work. And that's been my competitive advantage, if I may say so.

Lovely. No, no, of course, of course. It's. It's a brand that everybody, every, like you say, I didn't know that. This is one of the motivating factors that everybody in smaller towns also needed a voice. That's what you want started off with. But today, everybody knows that, you know, this is where this is a platform to share your story.

And I also want to answer her question. And one of the things, maybe from a business standpoint, if you think, if I had to look back then, I think the one thing that we hinged ourselves on was to tell only positive stories. So in media, if you say people tell all kinds of stories, right. But every day consistently for 12 years, if you. Your focus doesn't get diverted to other things and you do the same thing, however boring normal it might be, then it just clearly makes you win.

Yeah. So my second question is we use the term Internet moguls a lot.

Which.

Our definition of an Internet mogul is someone who spends quality time with their family, but also works hard to improve their business. So what would your definition of an Internet mogul feel?

Internet moguls.

Yeah. So that's the topic. That's a name of our brand, Internet Moguls of the World. So people who use the Internet to become whatever. So how do you define some Internet mobile.

I would say two, three things which are very, very important. People who chase for clarity in their own lives, and I think life as total, complete, holistically, people who Constantly look for clarity, which is like all the questions that keeps coming, you know, and every day we have so many questions, but just for pushing yourself to get the answers and constantly striving to be much clearer in what you want in your life, personally, professionally, and then just focusing and enjoying the flow somehow. I'm a huge fan of enjoying the process because I wouldn't be doing your story for so many years if I didn't enjoy the process. So I have to enjoy the day. I have to enjoy that moment. So people who just look for enjoying that day, the moment, having fun while doing it, doing whatever they are doing, you know, being like, have, you know, watching a Netflix movie, but being at that moment watching that movie or by being like. I love spending time with my dogs. I have two dogs. So, you know, every morning I have to spend time. So my one hour is with them. So that. So you're there. Or when I tell stories, being completely mindfully present and, you know, just enjoying the process. So those people who just enjoy very madly. It's like, you know, when you create music or when you create or when you do a dance or when you make a painting draw, you know, you enjoy, of course, you like what you've done in the end, but you just enjoy putting the colors. And I think that those to me are Internet moodles.

Lovely, Lovely. We would love to. Can you tell us the names of your dogs, please?

I didn't give them the names. So Addie and Phoebe.

Addie and pb. You know, because the girls run a rescue. We run a rescue and in Vancouver and here in Delhi as well. So dogs, you know, we rescue dogs from the streets and all of that. So, Rai, would you like to name you all your dogs?

Okay, so we have currently we have Rufus, Benji, Romeo, Paris, Joey, Dora and Sandy.

Wow, I wish I can hug you. I love people who take care and love dogs and then, you know, just rescuing. It's such a. It's such a. Such a powerful thing to do. Great. Very good.

Like I said, our story is like that. Father of two girls, six dogs. So everything in our life revolves around, you know, revolves around dogs. I didn't know this part that every day you get up.

My life also to a large extent revolves around my dogs now. Yeah, yeah.

It's. It's a. It's like, you know, if you're a dog person, you're a dog person. And then there's everybody else in the world.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, many people tell me, I. So I don't have kids and many people, you know, so there's this family bantering and you know, among your relatives and everyone banters and, and one of the things which I've been consistently telling everyone for the last five, six years is, oh, I don't want to have kids. But you know, they are my kids, right? Like they are not just kids. They're your soulmates, they are your everything. And they're like magic.

I totally understand. When I say father of two girls, six dogs, people are like, how can you talk like that? I'm like, why can't it.

Get that?

You know, I was telling the girls a couple of days back that every youngster who starts a business in the country, one of their biggest aims is, or wish list is to meet you, get a picture with you, get a selfie with you. And so it's obviously you've come a long way because you know, everybody looks up to saying that if, if I can meet Shraddha, then you know it because they see your story, they see all of that. Who is that? Who are these? And you met everybody, you met everybody on the planet who, who is it that you still are aspiring to meet that. That's a one person or two people or you still meet and say, you know what? Like who are you still a fan of? And say, you know what, I want to get them on my show or whatever.

Oh, a lot of people. A lot of people. And for different things just to understand, you know, because somewhere it's so interesting to just go deep with a person. And I would say so many, one person if I had. And I can't rewind the time, but if I could rewind. And it has been like a personal many, many years. Young girl fantasy was to meet Princess Diana. Somehow I just loved everything about her, you know, because the pain she had and the way she did, you know, and the way she presented herself to the world that no one knew what happened in her in her life. You know, there were so many layers to her. If I could, I would have loved to meet her and interview her and yeah, I can go on. Currently I would say I would love to meet Jeff Bezos because somehow I just think that there is two sides to his personality. One is building something which is so large scale but process driven company like Amazon. But there is something in him which also goes for all these wild adventures where he's planning to go to Mars or you know, buying a Washington Post or you know, the way he, the tracks or the thinks he goes to clean Antarctica with his Mother. So, you know, there is. So I like people with very, you know, with dichotomy. And I don't like people who are very simple but perfect and amazing and cool because that to me is very boring. So people with those kind of things.

Shraddha, tell us. You know, you got into the business, you, you knew a little bit about media. I love this what you said. I didn't know about this. You were like, I love what you said. You said that you wanted simple people and not cool people to feel cool because they are cool, because they're simple. And you brought their stories ahead. But you had to adopt. You have now one of the strongest Internet mediums in the country. Tell us a little bit about digital marketing and Internet. That allowed you to say, what did you learn about the Internet that allowed you to take your message? Because when you started, maybe the Internet was just about getting started.

Oh yeah, it was very, very nascent. Honest, to be very honest with you. In 2008, I was such a product of print and TV. So if you met me, I was like, I believed that world is Times of India where I was working or world is CNBC and digital. I didn't even understand. So then you know, so but one very interesting thing and especially for the girls that you should know always now there are books coming like Hooked and all that to create your hook. But whatever business you are doing, always ask the question, what's going to be the hook? What's going to be. What's hooking about it? What's going to get people to constantly come to it or be excited and make it viral on its own? So what I didn't realize, because I told you that my intent was purely to tell great stories and to tell stories of people who were not good. But what I didn't realize and that I can't take credit for planning or whatever is that, you know, when you tell a story. No, when I told the story of a young person on Internet, then they used to put their stories out. They used to share it on emails, they used to put it on Facebook. So every story of which I did became a hook. Right? Because that story started, you know, and if some, you know, like I remember still doing a story in 2009, eight or nine of this guy called Kashyap Dheera. Now he has written a book and he's a big celebrity in the startup world. But that time he was a young boy and he ran a startup called Chowparty.in which got acquired to Future Bazaar. And that was very, very early days. And then, you know, he was in IIT Bombay. So I told his story and suddenly everyone from IIT Bombay, because he circulated it to everyone and then everyone was like, oh, I need to get covered. So till date, I think a lot of virality that comes for your story comes because when you tell the story then you share. Right. And that became a very strong network effect, if I may say so, for the model. And yeah, and that created. And then of course you intersperse it with like last year we did Prime Minister Modi's interview and I spent some time with him and I think I saw a huge jump in our reach and traffic and perception after that. So you do stories of people whose story nobody wants to do and you make it cool. Then you do stories of people whose story everyone wants to hear in a different way. So you mix it and all those things you keep on, you know, you learn all these things while you're doing it because you have to do it to learn it. Otherwise nobody can tell you what to do. So I think these were some of the things which created virality in the model. To answer your question on digital marketing, so making.

So your focus has always been in what the girls. What I think what Shraddha is suggesting is make your customers shine, make them the cool, the superstars.

Oh absolutely. Your story. You can't be, you know, one of the things and especially to both of you because you are interviewing me and you are talking to me. One of my secrets I will share with you and you remember and you are very young but Raya, but I'm going to tell you also this. Remember somewhere because you'll find this boring. But remember this. You know, when you are in this business of talking to other people, meeting interesting people, cool people and being cool, we start thinking we are the coolest. Always remember, you are not the story. The story is the person whose story you are talking to, listening to. So make the other person the story. Make the other person the star. My journey, if I can sum up in one line I have genuinely, very affectionately, without any mean bone in my body, try to make everyone a star. And in the process, as your father is saying, I have become a little bit of star. Remember that. Always celebrate the other person, the customer. It could be the customer, it could be the reader, it could be, you know, just anyone you're engaging with. Just keep that. Just let, let, let nothing in the world detract you from that focus.

That one line just sums up so many things. Raya, you understand Abhiana. Okay.

Okay.

So my last question is like I was saying, it does get hard to initially start to learn customers. So what was a huge strategy, marketing strategy you used to get customers quickly and make a reasonable profit off it.

So you know, so honestly I would love to say strategy but at that time it was just figuring out there was no strategy per se. The only thing was that because I was telling stories. So one of the entrepreneurs whom I met said, hey, why don't you meet this guy? I still remember in 2008 and you know, two, three months after I had started this guy called Bakshish Dutta from Sun Microsystems which it was a large, large company like Microsoft but got acquired by Oracle. So I met this guy in a coffee shop in Mumbai and he said, oh, can you do this for me? Which is like get some kind of businesses enrolled in his program. I said absolutely. And he said, have you done this in the past? I said absolutely not. Then he said, how do you think you're going to do it? I said, you have to trust me, I will do it. And then I think maybe he, I just said I, nobody else can do it, only I can do it. And I just ate his head. And he was like, he started laughing and he said I have to give you a try. Like let's give it a try. And he said, I'm gonna give you a certain amount of money, but if you get all these people then I'll give you X plus. You know, like for example if I'm giving you 1 lakh rupees and if you get more people then I'll give you 2 lakh rupees. I said done, done deal, done. And then the only thing I still remember, and that's where your answer comes is I told him if I do a very good job, why you'll give me one plus one. Like you know, you'll give me the bonus amount and all that money. But if I do a kick ass job then you have to refer me to three more people who are going to work with me. And then he said okay, done. Because he thought anyways, whom will he have to refer? Because she will anyways not be able to do but not did I get him the number of people I got him not only the number which he said was if you complete you'll get bonus. I got him like three times more than what he expected. And then he only connected me to his partners in US for more business. And then he only connected me to his friend in Microsoft. And then you know, so from there, the magic began. Because every success and my only rule of thumb was, if I do a good job, you connect me to three more people, four more people, and give me references online. So if you go to my LinkedIn profile, like in 2008 or 9 only or sometime he's given me a reference now that doesn't even matter by the. Just such a memory and history for me that that guy went ahead and did that. And you know when people start. So you just ask for. Always ask for references so that you can. And genuine references, not, hey, they were very good, but something really specific. And second thing is get them to endorse you. So get your people who give you money to endorse you. And then it just starts flowing in. Right?

Perfect. Perfect. Aviana.

Yeah. So my last question is. So it does get hard to balance out your business time with your family. Quality time. So how do you do that?

How do I do spend time with my family?

How do you spend time with your family but also balance out your business time?

So honestly, I just don't think so. This answer, both of you as girls should listen to me because I'm very bad at that. I don't think so. I have managed my time since I went to college. I've not had a sense of time. Like, I have a sense of time, but I don't have a sense of time because when I do something, I just get completely into it. Then I don't realize it's day night, I get very up. So I have an obsessive disorder, if I may say so, because I just get so invested in it that family becomes second. And I'm guilty. So don't ever learn that or think about it, because I'm so guilty. But also, I'm shameless to say I don't even regret it because I've enjoyed the process. Like, I enjoyed the process and I've enjoyed the journey. Yeah. So the only person whom I wanted to spend a lot of time and who came first for me was my mother. So I could leave everything if my mother demanded. And I used to fight with her because you know how mothers are. Like, they can be so nagging. Eat this. Like, you grow up also. And you guys, you girls are so young. And I'm sitting in my office as a senior person in cnbc. And then she. The phone will come. Did you eat this? Your hair is. Did you comb your hair properly? And I'm like, dude, I'm like, grown up. And then she used to say about my dress, everything My mother was obsessed about that I should do properly. And every day she used to call. So for that for her I could take out time. But I just don't think so today. Yeah, today I'm not spending balanced time with family. And this, I think work defines most of who I am. But I would say I don't see work as work. What I do is very therapeutic. It heals me. I enjoy it and that's why I do it. Wow.

Awesome.

Don't say wow. I just. Your father must be hating me or she's spoiling my girls. Don't lead a life like this.

I've got a very simple aim that the girls should learn from everybody and choose what they want. I don't want to take them in any direction. I tell them to do is, you know, have a good heart which they already take care of dogs and all of that. Today, you know, they're already building that their mother teaches them that they do the Gayatri Mantra every day. Also. We got 200 plus people 11 years back. We started the first day we did Gayatri mantra at 2pm and today we work with any big brand. You know, I don't want to name the brand but by the grace of God, some big brands, we make them. We say conference room, you can wait or join us. 11 years. Every single day, seven days a week, the entire staff does Gayatri Mantra every day.

Wow. That's amazing. You know, Gayatri Mantra in itself has such a power. It's just. Yeah. You know, I every morning by the way listen to it. So I do. So I. Since childhood, mom, we used to pray. So my mother used to make us pray. And I used to hate it at that time because I wanted to watch TV that time there used to be Chitra or something and sometimes. But we had to pray every morning and every evening. And it just used to be so irritating sometimes. But it now has become a habit. And I just have to do something in the morning. Yeah. Lovely. Wow. Very impressed.

So that's what we're trying to do. You know, we have a small hotel business as well. We have a small resort in Goa and a hotel over here. And the check in also stops at 2 o'. Clock. Happens and then. So my aim for the girls is only one that you do your prayers, you take care of your dogs. Because the empathy will come from taking care of dogs and prayers. After that listen to everybody. The prayers have a way. My father also says it. If we do Vaitri Mantra at least there will be A inner meter.

Yeah. Inner meter. That's a powerful word that you're saying. Yeah, yeah. Develop your own inner meter. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So these girls, I mean they're way ahead of what I was at that age in any aspect. And Shata, I want to ask you what scares you?

What scares me because I talk to.

So many kids, you know, like we have, we have a program which me and the girls are doing. We know, we all three of us, we teach Internet marketing, we teach how to make videos for brands small and big. So we have a decent following. And like I said, 15,000 students have learned from us how to make videos, YouTube channel, how to go live. And almost everybody in our community is a huge fan of yours.

No, no, no. Come on now you're pulling my leg. Come on. No, no, not at all.

I'll put it on community and I'll show you what the response. So with that, with that I'm coming from there that when so many people look up to you.

2010 onwards, you know, I had a very tragic accident in my life with someone personal. And I think it changed the course of my life. And I used to fly every day, you know, take took airplanes and fly for my work in CNBC every day. And then I developed flight phobia. So for two years I was taking medicine, I saw a psychiatrist and I was just not flying. So you know, if I had to go to Delhi from Bangalore then I would take trains and it's been like three days and suddenly you used to fly. But I just couldn't, you know that there was this constant thing in my head that something will blast and it was just such a mind thing that something is just going to. Everything is smooth but something is going to go berserk and something will blast and it will be crazy and it will burn. And then I saw a psychiatrist. And honestly I saw a lot of psychiatrists at that time that really helped me. Took me time. I'm still not completely out of it, but actually I am okay now. So it took me 10 years. I'm very scared As a kid I used to be very scared of ghosts and dark. So I can't stay alone at night. I have this fear and lot of people, I can deal with any people but I have this invisible ghost fear. But. And it's so funny that if you, you know, if I go to for a ghost movie then I'm. I'll be younger than all the young girls. Then I'll be like, you know, sitting in the lap of someone next to Me because I'd be like, oh my God. And so, so I don't watch any ghost movies at all. And nobody is near me is allowed at least when I'm there to watch, you know, because the noise and the sounds of those horror movies create a lot of horror. And moreover I'm scared of as a person. I'm scared, not scared. But I do reflect that today as I grow old. I don't want to be cynical. I don't want to be. I don't want to be stuck up. I don't want to be caught up in my own views. I want to be like. I think one thing I've cherished about myself is I've been very open to everything. Every point of view, every things I might not like, disagree. And I think that openness about me, I just don't think so with time because you see so much of world, so much of hardship. I just don't want to lose that because I think that's to me that's death. When you just become so caught up and have one sided view. I don't like old people. I don't think you become old by age. I think you become old because you stop seeing the fun. You know, you won't believe last night I think it was a full moon day or something and I just for half an eye looked at the moon. I was looking at the moon because the moon was shining so brightly. Because we are all under lockdown, there is no pollution. And I was just thinking, oh my God, have I seen the moon shine so brightly. And I want to retain that tomorrow. If I don't find that joy in openness, in small things, in being just who I am and just becoming old and khadoose and stuck up. I want to be that. I get scared of that.

Thank you for being so honest about all of this. One thing that you can for fear of flying, you can do it. Maybe you don't get your own private plane. Maybe that helps.

Oh no, no. I've been offered by a lot of rich people whom we work with, let's do, to travel in their jets, private jets. I think that's even more scary because that's going to be even more turbulent. The big planes are okay, not the small.

Okay, we're coming to the end. Last five, last five minutes. Wanted to ask you see. So Shraddha, we are on a mission and I never used to. It took me a long time start up vision or mission, I don't know. But to find the right vision. I told you how the hotel journey. I wanted to become a streetcar racer. And then life changed. I know my mom and dad thankfully steered me in the right direction. And then different things happened. Jobi naan, kaam, Choti bhat, Shorat Vagh. Everything happens. I believe in my parents more than I believe in God. But only after I had my two daughters I started finding real vision in life. I found my identity as the father of these two girls. And equally guilt be Ayaka so meritsat under jo mere business. I want to drop them to school, pick them up because that's. I keep telling the girl that you know Internet moguls better. This is my third child. This is your brother as well. I mean it's the same company. So with this we said, okay, we put a vision together and we start working together and let's make a company like that with one mission and vision in life. Just go up without marketing, language mission that to be able to say that because you understand digital, you understand social media, you understand the power of videos. And in our online school that we are building that four members of every house should join our school. The mother, father, the two kids and maybe the grandparents who are also living in the same house. Affiliate marketing, blogging, video making or. Or dinner. I want the father to be home and the mother to be home for dinner with the kids and still run their business and they have that vacation time together if they want so that I'm traveling all over the world, I'm taking 200 flights or fit time Nikolai. And at 50 there will always be a regret I can spend time with them. So this is, you know, this has come out to be our vision. This is. And we sat down and we made a vision multiple times with the girls. We did a vision chart, vision board and we said, unless if I'm forcing my vision on you, I told both of them and I said if your vision then it's not really the vision. So let's make a family vision. And you know, family vision's common theme was this, that we will build a business together which would be an online school and we'll be teaching people and all of that. So that became our mission. So from your advice, you met so many people, you've run such a successful thing. More amazingly, you're such an amazing person. I've heard from all my friends and everybody who knows you. What would be your advice for our venture? How should we. I don't want to make it the Dasaal Peh I wanted to make it make every company the biggest company in the world I've done. I want to make it the best and the most boutique, most compact, most passionate. What should we do to take this business to the right people?

To right people? If you already have the business, there are so many ways to reach the right people. We would love to tell your story. We can promote it and take it to a lot of people. And I would just say, like I said, right, like if you're saying that you want to have the two parents, like the parents and the two kids and a grandparent, I would love to see some of those stories. You know how it is, right? Like if I can see some real stories where the impact has been created, that in itself becomes. But the idea is so powerful, just bringing everyone together to learn. And rather than just wasting time watching TV or if someone on TikTok, someone on this, like you're just getting everyone to learn and just be together. That's okay. You can be for one hour on TikTok, but one hour you can be in your school. So is that. How do you just bring everyone to get together? If you can tell those stories, show us those stories, I think that in itself will become very viral because that needs to be told. It's the first thing. Family, digital school, right? Like one second thing is I just, I think today it's rather than ads and everything, of course, you know, all those Facebook ads and blah, blah might work. But more than that, people really want to talk. And your vision, getting three, the three of you together, talking to people constantly using social media. For me, one of the biggest channels that has worked because I never got any press coverage because people, media thought we were media, right. So the thing is that we use very effectively social media ourselves. And that's why I'm just saying that if you have one or two family stories, your own stories, and if you can keep on sharing it in a very real way on social media, which is, I think primarily Instagram, now Facebook and yeah, these two channels, at least for this, it would be very. You'll see, you'll see. It will do so well. I need the. Again, going back to the hooks, right? Like, what are the hooks to the model and why are people going to come to it? So I would always say, what are the hooks you're creating to get me? And the hook to get me would be, I should see as a grandparent. Oh, this other grandparent was there and he felt very good and the people were excited and he could add value by getting all the family members to this digital school. So that hook, how do you do that? How do you do a hook where I'm a young girl, kid, and I say, I got my parents and grandparents. So for all of them different hooks to come. And then second thing is, once they have come, then what's the authentic, genuine, very real, unfabricated stories that you can push, push, push. And then if you do that, like, consistently, you know that it's going to do very well.

Perfect. Perfect. Thank you. You know, it's such a simple thing, but the way you explained it. Again, coming back to your story.

Sam.