Unmuted – Neha Awasthi

So Crisp Podcast

Neha Awasthi put her hand up, I thought to ask a question, towards the end of a presentation I was giving about brand voice and taking up space at the Artful Business Conference.

She beamed her billion-megawatt smile at me, looked me dead in the eye, and with a twinkle asked, “have you thought about hosting a podcast? You have such a voice for it”

And this was my introduction to life with Neha as a fast friend, confidante, business referral partner, and cackle buddy – she’s always straight down the line, says what she means and stands strongly behind it, and is so inherently charming, it can put you a little off balance.

Neha sees women.

As in, truly sees them.

So it’s not so much of a surprise to find out what she does.

Usually, I tell you about the word or label we’re unpacking today, but I’m going to let Neha be the first to say it aloud, as it’s 100% her word.

Take a listen.

The Crisp Takeaways

* Yum *

3:40 – “So I originally come from India, and we moved to Adelaide in South Australia. I literally came with two suitcases and a brown bag and a new husband about like a decade and a half ago. Since then we embraced Australia. It was my home from day one. I always knew I wanted to go somewhere out of India. My mom knew at the age of eight. I remember her saying that. Oh, you know, she’s not going to live here. She’s going. And I knew it as well because I was just such a rebellious and just such an unconventional girl in the Indian society, probably like, you know, a nightmare for my parents in many respects. But it was, it was homecoming for me when I came to Australia, you know, and since then, life has been just amazing. And, you know, on. It has been turbulent at times. But still, I would say it has been on an upward trajectory overall.​“

5:20 – “I’m always saying like soul has to meet the strategy. And they both have to like come together to make that really yummy concoction. So the story behind this was really, I was part of a Facebook group and a community, a business community. And just when the, you know, Black Lives Matter, unrest had started. I didn’t see anything come up from that community. And I kept waiting, and I kept waiting. And you know, nothing really came up. Because I think, you know, businesses can keep it all like really segregated that oh, this is a political issue. And this is not well, if it is a political issue, then we should be keeping medical issues like Coronavirus on the side as well. Yeah. Which doesn’t make sense to me, like, you know, I think business is personal. And in today’s world, business is personal, and especially the business model that is based on community, you know, so based on community, if you’re saying that I belong in this community, and you’re charging me and I’m entitled to be a member, then I need to know whether I really do belong, this and what your stance on this is, or not, so that I can make my own decision where we are aligned in terms of our values.”

10:14 – “I want people who are on this journey on this creation of business and life with me. And I have attracted the right kind of people, the people I want to work and I am able to help. And I think a big part of that is because of this messaging, because I’m saying, what is true about me, so they don’t see any. You know, there is no difference in what they see on screen and offline.”

16:22 – “Jay, you know what, like growing up for the longest time, actually, I would say until a couple of years ago, I didn’t even know what the word word even means. So I come from an Indian family where fairness or having white skin was the epitome of beauty. And it was, you know, I was an I am a brown woman with not a fair skin. And it made me question why fairness was so important. Like, you know, why was it so important? It seemed like a fact in that society. Because everybody just, you know, did the same thing. Everybody wrapped their skin with lemon juice or fairness creams. And it felt like this is what I’m supposed to do. But then underlying, there was always this constant anxiety about this skin I lived in, because, you know, the messaging messages are all around me, from my mother, to my relatives to my Aunties.”