Marwari Women Can't Do Business - How Sapana Proved Them Wrong & Made ₹1.75 Crore!

Marwari women are born to manage homes and not businesses. I grew up hearing this, but today as I stand on this stage is the proof that your future is in your hand and the decisions which you take can change your destiny. That's actually planted a seed inside me. During that time, a pivotal moment, turning point came in my life. Universe led me to a webinar of Siddharth Rajsekar, our mentor. When I joined Quantum, I was earning ₹5 lakhs a month, and after joining Quantum, within few months, it went up to ₹10 lakhs per month, and it's still growing. Today, I've crossed over ₹1.75 crores.

So our next star in the galaxy of stars is a career niche and a, you know, a coach who helps mid-career professionals get into Scrum Master roles in the IT industry. And this she does so that they grow in their career, they prosper, they thrive. She's been with ILH for just about 3 years. She's impacted over 1,700 professionals to grow massively. Yes, that deserves a round of applause.

Come on.

And she has earned over ₹1.7 crores in total revenue while still working in the IT industry. Come on, ladies and gentlemen, give it up nice and loud. You know what makes our speaker super, super amazing is she comes from a typical Marwadi family. And obviously, you understand there are certain restrictions when you come from that kind of a family background. She loves to read books. She loves to dance her heart out. Let's probably see her do a little bit of that up here with us on stage. Please, with a standing ovation and the loudest round of applause, help me welcome Coach Sapna Kejriwal.

Namaskaram.

Let's hear it nice and loud for Sapna.

Marwari women are born to manage homes and not businesses. I grew up hearing this, but today, as I stand on this stage, is the proof that your future is in your hand, and the decisions which you take can change your destiny. And this is not just my story. This is the story of hundreds and thousands of women out there who feel undervalued, unseen and unheard. Women, ones who believed that they were meant for something bigger, but they did not know how to break free, and they got lost into the expectations of society. So let's go back in time to know my journey. I was born in the typical lower-class, middle-class family, Marwadi family background, where love is measured in terms of responsibilities and not words. But there's a lot of partiality happens between men and women. Men are supposed to do something, women are supposed to do something. And my father really worked hard to serve us and to just serve our daily needs. And my mother— Thank you. Sacrificed her dreams to manage homes. And my fate was predefined: study enough to get married, to serve your in-laws, and to manage your kitchen. There's a saying in Hindi which I grew up hearing, "Kya karna hai age jake? Kya karna hai itna poor ki age jake chulaa chokaa toh samwala hai." But my parents had a dream. They wanted to see me independent. And against all odds, they just collected the money to fund my engineering education, and I've completed my engineering in 2006. But unfortunately, I did not get selected in the campus interview. I came to Pune in the hope of getting into IT field, My parents clearly told me, "You just have 6 months in your hand. If you don't get the job in the 6 months, you have to come back and get married." So I came to Pune, and initially, just to manage my monthly expenses, I even worked in the small mobile SIM card distributing company where I used to distribute the SIM cards in industrial areas. And after working for 2 to 3 months there, I did not get my salary. I came to know that that was a scam, it was a fake company. And then, by that time, 5 months were already over. I just had 1 month in my hand. I put my heart and soul, and somehow, luckily, I got into IT. In 2006. As a manual tester with monthly salary of ₹12,000 a month with Cognizant. I spent years there, but I always felt that I'm undervalued. Despite putting, you know, lot of dedication and hard work, my skills were always undervalued. And it was year 2016 when there was an appraisal cycle. Yeah. I got 0% salary hike. I thought, "Enough is enough. Now I want to get rid of it. I want to get into a leadership position where I will empower my team," because I saw a lot of office politics. So I thought, "Let me get into leadership position and let's empower my team, and I'll not do this kind of partiality which was happening with me." Okay. And I was just reflecting back. That's where I've discovered the role of Scrum Master. It's a perfect blend of agility and leadership. So for people who don't know what is Scrum Master, it's like a project manager role in IT. So I just transitioned from quality analyst to a Scrum Master role. But again, the road was not easy. No. Because I lacked the practical experience, right, I struggled a lot into this particular role. But with the help of my mentors in agility space and I did a lot of research and that's where my journey started from senior Scrum Master, Scrum Master to senior Scrum Master to an agile coach. And there was no looking back. I was earning good. I was working, but somewhere deep inside, I was not satisfied because I had no purpose. And during that time, I was actually taking a lot of Scrum Master interviews, and I came to know that, you know, a lot of people come to this role with just 2-day certification, and they really lack practical experience.

And—

They don't have a clarity on a bigger vision, right, where they want to see themselves. And that's where— that's actually planted a seed inside me. And during that time, a pivotal moment, turning point came in my life. Universe led me to a webinar of Siddharth Rajsekar.

Siddharth Rajsekar.

Our mentor, our guru. He spoke about launching a business from home, a coaching business from home. It was sounding too good to be true, but something inside me said, "Try this." I absorbed each and every word of Siddharth Rajsekar in the webinar, and when it was time to take action to join Silver, I entered my credit card details 4 times and I just cancelled it because I was not sure. Fifth time, I took a leap of faith and joined ILH in Jan 2022 as a Silver member. I had no clarity, absolutely no clarity what I'm going to teach, to whom I'm going to teach. I was just reflecting back again and I thought, let me start helping these people who want to get into a Scrum Master role because even I have gone through that journey. I spent hours researching on Quora.com and other websites just to see what I need to include in my courses and everything. My husband said— [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] rather focus on your IT job. It hurt, but I kept going. Initial few days were really awesome, watching Siddharth Rajsekar's courses, sitting and just watching Siddharth Rajsekar's courses. But then when it came to that— when it came the action, taking action, that's where overwhelm hit me. Video creation, website creation, PPT, and that was sounding like too much to me. And then I came, I came to, I actually got an email from Sid to upgrade to Diamond. And this time I did not hesitate because I have already tested the value of Silver. And that was the best decision of my life. September 2022 is where I've launched my L1. I have created my own website. By myself and seeing my own photo on the website was giving me first taste of entrepreneurship.

Thank you.

So just started with organic, organic content and that's where I've crossed 3 lakhs in revenue in December 2020, 2022, sorry. Jan 2023 is where I started— I started 2 webinars in the week and started running Facebook ads. Again, I just started running by my own. And I still remember my first webinar. I was nervous. I fumbled. But then magic happened. 4 sales in first webinar.

Woo!

And that moment made me believe that system works, people fail, as our Siddharth says. As our mentor says. April 2023 is where I got an incredible opportunity to come on Horsed during one of our LCC call where Siddharth Rajsekar just gave me complete clarity on my funnel and I have implemented whatever he said and crossed ₹10 lakhs in total revenue. For the first time, I stepped out of my home and I flew to Chennai alone to get and to receive that HOF Award. And as I was standing on the same stage 2 years back, April 2023, I still remember, When I was taking that award from Siddharth Rajsekar, tears welled up in my eyes, not just because of joy, but because of deep sense of overwhelming happiness. A girl—

A girl!

A girl once who told that women should manage home was standing in front of hundreds of people being celebrated for her success. When I started this journey, even earning 50,000 in total revenue was like a big dream. And when I shared this with my husband that let's target first 50,000, he was like, have you gone mad? Why don't you focus on your IT job? And this 10 lakhs in total revenue, this kind of transformation was like beyond my imagination. And more than the money, it's the student result that gave more fulfillment and satisfaction. When my husband started seeing money in the bank, his perspective changed. He started supporting me with encouragement, sometimes with tough words. Because I was not really able to manage my family completely. But then I have realized that sometimes the one who doubt us pushes to the hardest. [APPLAUSE] March 2024, I came to know that SIDS opened his Quantum membership. So I just filled the Quantum membership form without any intention of joining Quantum, to be very frank. But the kind of value I got in that 1-month incubation process led me to join Quantum with an investment of ₹10 lakhs a year. And believe me, that was the best decision of my life. Wow. When I joined Quantum, I was earning 5 lakhs a month, and after joining Quantum, within few months, it went up to 10 lakhs per month, and it's still growing. Today, I've crossed over 1.75 crores. In total revenue impacted over 1,700+ professionals. I'm still working in IT. I never left my IT job.

Wow!

And I ran my Facebook ad by my own. I never gave it to agency, by the way. So till date, I never gave it to agency. And I'm still managing my home, both kids and my husband. Do you want to know how? Yes. Thank you. First, consistency beats perfection. When I started, I was not the best coach. I was not the technical person, but I showed up. I showed up every single day. I took action even when I was scared, even when my website looked horrible, even when my webinar conversions were less. People think of perfect time, perfect moment, perfect PPT, perfect webinar. But the truth is, perfection never comes. Start scared, start messy, but just start. Number 2: Critics become your motivators. Initially, my husband did not believe in my coaching business. His words hurt. But instead of proving him wrong, I kept going, took action towards my bigger goal. People will doubt you, people will question you. Let their doubt fuel your fire. Because The moment you succeed, those same people will become your biggest motivators. And I'm proud to say that today my husband is my biggest supporter. Number 3, investing in yourself pays off. When I joined ILH as a silver, I hesitate. When I joined Diamond, I was little scared, and when I joined Quantum, I doubted myself. But every time I took the leap of faith, that transformed my life. Women don't invest on themselves. They put their family first, their kids first, their work first. But let me ask you, if you don't invest on yourself, who will? Today, as I stand on this stage, and I think of the words which I grew up hearing, "Marwari women are there to manage homes and not businesses," I had—

I I am sorry.

had two choices. Number one, either accept that belief or break it. And I chose latter. I want to ask you, which one will you choose?

Break it!

Break it!

Break it! Either you can choose to stay wherever you are currently, or you choose to rise, to recreate, and to rebound. [APPLAUSE] Remember, you are not just the supporting character in someone else's story. You are the author of your own. [APPLAUSE] And you can choose to be the main character of your story. Thank you.

Standing ovation for Sapna!

Thank you.

Receive the love. Was that inspiring? Yeah! Sapna, when I had that one-to-one with you, when we started the journey and when you shared with me your background, your backstory, what you went through, how you persisted, that itself was so inspiring for me. And today, this moment here, all of you women over here in the room especially, are you inspired?

Yes.

All the men in the room here, are you inspired?

Yes.

It's time to break the patterns for a much better world. Let's get up once again for Sapna. Thank you so much for sharing. Let's take a picture. All the best, Afnan.