Welcome to the Innovation Conversation, a podcast
about innovators, both in business and real life.
Hosted by myself, Ricardo Rescual and Harry McCona.
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startup. from grants to investors to tips and
tricks and how to be successful when you start.
Today, with Babita Devi, a coach and a mentor.
Hi, and welcome to another episode of the Innovation
Conversation. Today, we are joined by Babita
Devi. Hi, Ricardo. Thank you for having me. It's
our pleasure. Babita, would you like to introduce
yourself to our audience? Because I know you
quite well by now, but would you please introduce
yourself to the audience? Yes, I would love to.
So my name is Babita Devi. I'm a growth coach.
I help organizations that want to grow both their
business and themselves, the founder of the company
at the same time. Awesome. But I know you actually
do a lot of work with a lot of startups, right?
So can you tell us a bit more about the type
of work you develop on that? Yeah, so I do work
through lots of different organizations who've
got various accelerators and programs set up.
So for example, here at the University of Cambridge,
I work on the Accelerate program. which has been
going for about 10 years now we've had about
350 companies go through that program but in
any term we normally have about 65 businesses
and so I work as a coach on that program and
that really there's founders there everything
from having a great idea all the way through
to people that want to do a series a round that's
that full spectrum. Apart from that I'm also
a mentor for Barclays Evil Labs across all of
their centres in the UK. And I mentor for an
organization called Raising Starts, which is
a science and technology hub out of Belgrade.
In addition to that, I sit on the board of Global
Entrepreneurs Network. That's a huge network
connecting entrepreneurs across 200 countries.
And I sit on the board of some early stage tech
companies as well. So a games company, a global
online school, and also a growth mindset for
children organization as well. And then I am
a mentor for the masters in entrepreneurship
students at the university here. So I do a lot
of different things and I have my own accelerator
that I run as well. But in essence, it's all
the same stuff, which is really coaching and
mentoring business owners to help them through
growth of their company and themselves. I still
cannot believe we managed to find you. extremely
busy. Thank you so much for that. Oh, you're
welcome. I wanted to ask, you know, all these
things you do and all these organizations you
work with, which one is the one that, let them
rephrase that, which one is your favorite? But
which one is the one that really gets you up
in the morning and say, you know, I love doing
this. This is a bit out of the question. Yeah,
I mean, that's a hard question to answer only
because all of those organizations that I just
mentioned. I'm doing the same thing with all
of them, whether it's the university, whether
it's through my own accelerator, whether it's
even doing the event that we did with you guys
last week. In essence, it's all the same stuff.
So I'm really lucky in that I get to do what
I love every single day and get paid to do that.
But it wasn't always like that. So I definitely
have had a business that was out of alignment
with who I am. and that really partly led to
the Alignment Accelerator because I am a huge
believer that actually there is something that
everybody loves doing and if there's, you know,
if you've got, I often talk about the golden
triangle, purpose, passion, and the third piece,
profit, and if you have something that you, you
know, you're driven by purpose and something
you're very passionate about, Without profit,
it's just a hobby. But if there's money to be
made there and that's sustainable, then there's
a huge, you know, generally that's where people
find their joy. So, yeah, I think it's one of
those questions that I think if I was to think
about it, all of the clients I work with give
me scope for that level of creativity and being
able to make a difference to the people I work
with. How did you get started in all this? Oh,
yes. My background is all in strategic marketing,
business development and commercialization. So
I started off in the tech space. Can you believe,
actually, I was involved in setting up the very
first computer superstore in the UK before it
got bought out by PC World and then Curry. So,
yeah, so I've got a background, started in tech,
went from desktops to ERP solutions. So I went
from selling computers to selling software services
around the mark of about a million pounds a deal
at that point. And then from there, I went into
optics and heading up a regional team, a marketing
team. And then in 2004, when I moved to Australia,
I decided to set up my own marketing consultancy.
And I'm a huge believer that marketing is really
the heartbeat of every business. So I ended up
often working with the business owners because
of my approach to marketing. And what transpired
was that actually because marketing cuts across
every part of the business that work working
with the actual managers and the leaders resulted
in really me stepping into a coaching role and
mentoring role a little bit by accident. And
then from there, I ended up transitioning a lot
of the work that I was doing into coaching and
mentoring. It's quite an eclectic background,
I would say, right? Because you went from one
vertical to another vertical, but then they actually
gave you the resources to do what you do right
now. Yeah, I mean, to be honest, even more than
that. So my second company was the one that was
completely out of alignment with who I am. I
decided... I moved around a lot and after Australia
I came back to the Midlands then moved to Oxford
and now live in Cambridge and my poor daughter
who now is 24 ended up going to six different
schools and I decided that I was going to create
a better way for parents to be able to communicate
with each other and that's when often I say to
people I created WhatsApp before WhatsApp because
in essence that's what I created WhatsApp for
people to be able to connect and speak with each
other rather than trying to find out who's got
the class, you know, the Excel spreadsheet with
all the parents' details on or who the class
rep is. I thought wouldn't it be great to have
just an easy way to connect. And so, yeah, I
spent some time developing that product. I spent
time learning how to code, learning how to manage
developers, learning how to use Jira, learning
how to raise investment. And that was a tough
time because really I'd spotted an opportunity
that I was excited about because I needed the
product. And so it came from a very personal
need, but creating a tech company was completely
the wrong thing for me to do. And after going
on that journey, I decided that actually there
must be so many people who spot an opportunity
and decide they're going to do something. And
absolutely there was, I could have made that
work, but I needed guidance coaching along that
journey. I think just thinking let's just set
up a tech company without having proper support.
was a really difficult thing to do. So I decided
to close that business and focus on coaching
and medicine. But none of that was wasted, none
of that time or that effort or energy, because
what it allows me to do now is to really help
business owners by understanding some of the
challenges that they might be going through.
And you know, the entrepreneur's journey is tough.
It's one of the most difficult things to do.
And if you don't have the right support in place,
it can get really challenging. You often mention
being aligned with who you are and with the building.
So what advice would you give to a young entrepreneur
or someone who's just getting started? Yeah,
I think, you know, like I said, the journey's
tough. And if you're not loving what you're doing
every day, that's a waste of a day. So what I
would say is... You have an opportunity to really
create something that you're passionate about.
It can't just be passion. There has to be market
opportunity and all of that stuff. And aligning
what you have with what the market needs, product
market fit is a super important piece. In fact,
I shared a post on LinkedIn yesterday. trying
to get people to focus on one product, one market,
one route to market, and that's it. Just perfect
that in the early days, especially as you're
going from zero to that first million. And in
particular, focusing on what I often see with
founders and entrepreneurs is that you know,
they want to jump into that early majority way
too quickly. So just to focus on just the early
adopters, your early adopters will tell you everything
you need to know before you can get to that early
majority. And so creating a business that's,
you know, you're excited about it. You know,
you want to get out of bed and start working
on and something maybe that here's a question.
Would you work on that business if it didn't?
pay the bills. Is that something that you could
be equally passionate about? Now, don't ever
fall into the trap of thinking you need to, you
know, just follow your purpose and your passion
without making sure it's profitable. But that's
a really good indicator. And then what you do
is you find a way to make sure that you can actually
generate income from that idea and make sure
it's sustainable and has a potential for growth.
All these entrepreneurs in me, you often tell
who's going to be successful in that. Is there
something that it can just speed by? You know
what? That person's got to be super successful.
That one, I'm not so sure about. Yeah, it's very
easy. I want to say it's easy for me to start.
And I'll tell you why. The drive comes from a
different place. People who I've seen go on and
become successful. I mean, okay, let's face it.
Sometimes it's a lucky break. But these people
are unstoppable. And that's what I mean by you
have to be driven from the inside when it comes
to really, this journey is tough. And I think
if you're not driven by that, it's the fire in
your belly has to come from more than just pounds
on the revenue that you can generate. And I think
that is a big part of it. Sometimes I see founders
who are driven, who are opportunistic, let's
say that, and there's nothing wrong with that.
This is not a criticism of those people. And
many people do well, right? I mean, the pandemic's
a perfect example of many companies that were
able to take advantage of opportunities left,
right, and center. But a lot of those companies
are not around today. And so if you have something
that you are very passionate about, that you
believe in, and that makes a difference to other
people, product, service, the smallest things.
The niche the more niche the better I always
say and so if you have that type of idea Then
and and you you believe in it even when everybody
else around you doesn't believe in it and you
believe in it then that's the making of Successful
companies and I've seen that happen time and
again So okay, but but if I'm if I'm the founder
and I have that idea that no one else surrounds
me believes in it How can I tell I'm not going
crazy in the next year? Persevering my idea.
What validation can I get from the outside world
if no one else around believes in that? How do
I get that? So you get validation from the market
So don't be under the illusion that people around
you your circle will understand necessarily Your
product or idea what you need to do is understand
from the market Whether there's validation in
your idea and there's another level of complexity
to that in that you might have a great idea that
the market needs, but if you have an inability
to communicate that effectively and the market
doesn't understand, then that's also going to
hold you back. So it's about more than just,
you know, you can have the best idea in the world,
but unless you're able to clearly articulate
it to your market at the right time. So if you
think about the events that you're running, you
know, for example, with getting founders together
and giving them an opportunity to pitch their
ideas, that really is attracting a certain type
of entrepreneur who's very early in their journey,
always preparing to do a raise. If you pitch
that same event to somebody who's doing a Series
A, it would it would fall flat they wouldn't
be interested so this is really about understanding
okay what does the market need what sort of environment
do they need in order that they can actually
share their message with the world for the last
part if you think about what you're doing is
you're giving people the confidence to stand
up and do their elevator pitch and there aren't
many forums that create that type of environment
which is why What you've seen is this whole snowball
effect where people are wanting to be on stage
and have the opportunity to do that in a relatively
safe space. That's the other thing. So it's about
really understanding, you know, what is it the
market needs and how do we correct the right
environment in order to be able to support that?
What's the one piece of advice you always give
to all entrepreneurs? What's the one thing you
keep on saying time and time again? It feels
like they never listen. What's the one thing
you keep on saying? Yeah, so I'm a huge believer
that Your business is a vehicle for your personal
growth Everybody creates their companies and
I've seen this many times because they're looking
for something they're looking for they're on
their own journey of growth and and that is great
and The whole time the business serves you in
that way You're excited the day that that stops
happening is generally when that statistic of
50 % of companies don't survive beyond the first
five years That's generally what's happening.
People get bored, not lose interest, shiny new
objects syndrome, there's something better to
go after. It's too hard. There's many reasons,
but ultimately it's because the business isn't
really serving you that way. But the flip side
is also true. Your business is an entity that
needs something from you. So understand what
you're looking for from your company, but also
understand what does it need from you in order
to survive. And the two, separate. You are not
your business and in the beginning whilst founders
can become at one with their business, the moment
they create that separation is where they are
able to start to make strategic decisions on
how they need to show up and what the business
needs from them as well. You think it's hard
to raise money right now? Yeah, and I think it's
hard and there's definitely certain sectors that
are getting more investment than others. And
it's regional as well. That's the other thing,
right? So nowhere to go to get the money is a
really big part of it. So for example, Cambridge
East of England, we're investing a lot here in,
actually historically there was a lot of investment
going into pharma, med tech, there's a lot going
into AI here, deep tech. So you have to think
strategically around where to go to get that
investment and look carefully at the type of
organizations that that investor might be interested
in as well. Otherwise, you can spend a lot of
time knocking on the wrong doors. But yeah, it's
I mean, look, it's always tough to raise investment.
You know, one of the big things that investors
look for when it comes to investment is The team,
right? They want to, because ultimately, somebody
could have the best idea in the world, but unless
they've got the right team to execute that, then
that's always going to be high risk. You could
have an exceptional team with an average idea,
and they'll do well. So people is a really big
part. And if you are looking for investment,
based on how much you're looking for, always
be mindful that it needs to be more than just
you. The team needs to be bigger than just one
sole founder. because once I'll find that equals
high risk. Is there any, you know, magical one
or magic wand that you can go and then magically
fix this? Is there like a super easy solution
for raising investment or not? It's all about,
you know, getting the numbers and making those
connections. I think the deck is important and
people don't always fully understand the objective
of what the deck is for. The deck, that initial
deck has one single purpose. And that is to get
you a meeting. So you don't have to disclose
every single piece of information in a deck.
The deck is about wetting somebody's appetite
so that they want to have a meeting with you.
And I think sometimes people get all caught up
in trying to have everything in a deck. So that
generally puts people off. The other piece as
well is don't understand the addressable market
for sure. but make sure there's a direct link
between the market you're trying to address and
how much money you're asking for. So if you're
saying you know the market's worth millions and
I need a hundred thousand pounds well there's
clearly a disconnect between what you're trying
to do the addressable market and the investment
you're putting into your business of that size
in order to make sure that you can address that
market so Go after reasonable and realistic targets
and make sure that the the ask that you have
in your deck Reflects how much of them but what
percentage of the market you can address? And
if there's a disconnect there that sometimes
comes across as a you know that the founder maybe
isn't Knowledgeable enough about what's needed
to to capture that that term that market place
What advice would you see often errors do? rejection,
because what often happens is you talk to a lot
of investors, some will say no, well most of
them will say no. So how do you deal with that?
Is there any advice you can give them? Yeah,
look, it's a numbers game, right? So you've got
to get the rejections to get, you know, one person
to say yes. The most important piece is understand
a couple of things. First of all, any time you
pitch, anyone that listens to you can potentially
become a salesperson for you. That requires you
to be able to clearly articulate exactly what
your value proposition is. But if you can, even
with a potential investor sat across the desk
from you, who then says to you, actually, this
isn't the sort of thing that we normally invest
in, then the question is, well, do you know any
other investor that might be interested in investing
in this? Because investors know investors, right?
But so there's a couple of things. It's always
asked. So whoever you speak to, If they can't
help you ask them, can they introduce you to
someone who can? And then secondly is make sure
that any opportunity you have is always recruit
yourselves to communicate your value proposition
in a way that somebody else can then go on and
talk about what you do. Do you find that, for
example, I'm going to talk about the events because
we met due to the events, how important is actually
going out to events and networking? It's very
relevant, and I'll tell you why for a number
of reasons. First of all, the same thing as what
I just said, right? So you have the opportunity
to pitch what you're doing to other people, and
then they can go on and talk about it. The number
of times that I've come away from an event and
I'm like, oh, I know this company that's doing
this and this and this, and LinkedIn makes it
pretty easy to connect with people as well. So
for sure, that's a big part of it. The second
part, I think, is an interesting one in that
the second point is interesting in that. The
more you articulate what you're doing, you also
are reinforcing it to yourself. And you need
to hear that, especially in the early days. It's
not just about sharing, sitting within your own
four walls and thinking, okay, how do I make
this work? You need to be out in the marketplace
and sharing your ideas with people. And almost
like you're looking for that validation back
from people that they understand what you're
talking about. And so that piece I think is super
important and can only really be achieved through
going out and networking. And then the third
piece is that the more you're out there, the
more you're able to spread the message, spread
the news, you know, connect with people. And
sometimes, you know, it's not always about making
sure that you meet with investors. You might
meet with a strategic partner. You might meet
with somebody who's faced a similar challenge
to what you're facing and they've addressed it
in a certain way. For founders, I would say networking
is super important. The course you run, it's
already run. What type of companies do you run?
Is it mostly early stage companies? It's been
a real mixture. It's designed for early stage
companies. It's not designed for... Although
I work with founders who have done series A runs,
but that's more one -to -one. The program is
based on seven -step process, which is... As
I said earlier, that very first step is about
separating the founder from the business. But
then I take them through different elements of
growth for themselves and their company. So to
give you an example, if you think about pricing,
so one of the steps is all around pricing. And
when people think about pricing strategies, the
traditional way to look at that is bottom up
and top down. So let's take our cost and let's
put a margin on that, and that's the price that
we can use. Or we could look at it top down,
what's the real value we're providing to the
market place and therefore what does that price
look like? However, all of that then, that's
the external part when I talk about the business
side. If I then look at the internal, what's
going on internally for a founder, and this is
why I talk about Parallel Glass, the founder
and the business. What's going on internally
for the founder is that they are determining
the pricing strategy which is based on their
relationship with money. So quite often, a founder
will look at pricing from a very internal perspective
based on how they feel about money. And so with
every single one of these steps, what I do is
I take people through these elements of how to
separate yourself from the company, but then
how do you look at branding? What's the company
brand? What's the personal brand is another great
one because people quite often have imposter
syndrome around that and don't want to be the
base of the company. I've got some ways of helping
people to step out of that, and then we go on
and look at how to promote effectively, because
in essence, I've said to people that nobody wants
what you're selling. You really have to get your
head around that. They don't want what you're
selling. What they want is the outcome. They
want the outcome, and therefore, how do you communicate
that effectively? So the seven steps is really
designed around everything from organization
structure to an extension of the four P's and
we go on. But the final step is all about growth
because that comes back to this principle of
actually the reason you created your company
in the first place was for growth. So the real
question that matters in all of this is that
did you grow? what decisions are you making in
your business for your personal growth and actually
then if you look at the external strategy within
that the business strategy is about the ripple
effect because when you're growing you're able
to have a much bigger ripple effect and so yeah
that's that program is really what I've been
working on since in fact it came from I was asked
to put together a presentation for International
Women's Day for the University of Suffolk this
last year, but the year before that. And it was
the first time I sat down and I went through
my diary and I thought, wouldn't it be great
to share a data point around how many companies
I've worked with over just 12 months. And so
I went through my diary and I counted how many
coaching and mentoring, how many companies I'd
worked with on coaching and mentoring just in
those 12 months. And it was 109 companies. And
I knew it was a lot for 109 over 12 months. So
then I spent the summer going through that data
and working out why is it that some companies
progress really quickly and some companies take
a bit longer. And Barclays, you know, Barclays,
for example, they do, they get feedback on every
single one of my sessions from who I've been
mentoring. And, you know, they often give me
feedback saying, you know, you're one of our
top mentors and, you know, but I was thinking,
why isn't every company progressing at the same
rate? And what I found was that sometimes the
business owner can get all caught up in personal
development and stuck in the loop of perfection
to the point that they... They're kind of hiding
behind that when it comes to doing something
in the business or the opposite can also be true.
So they're really clear on how to grow the company.
They know exactly what strategies to go out with,
but they are getting in the way of that. So unless
you have the two in parallel, it's very hard
for a company to get to that next level of success.
So really understanding, okay, where am I at
and where's the business at as two separate entities.
is a big part. So that summer is when I decided
to build the program, the Alignment Accelerator.
And then since then, I've also written the first
draft of my book, which is called Alignment When
You Grow Your Business Growth, which again is
based on the program as well. And by the end
of when people go through that book, I've been
really mindful to make sure that people actually
have something tangible that they can use after
going through the books. I've created a business
blueprint, which people can, when they go through
each chapter, they can do the exercises. And
then by the end of it, they can actually have
something tangible to use and see how much they've
grown. Because even growth happens in cycles.
So as you're going from zero to one million,
you'll go through a level of growth. But as you
go from one to 10, you'll also go through a level
of growth. So that whole journey is fascinating
as Fand has gone through that. So how do you
get out of your own way? So getting out of your
own way can be a lot to do with programming,
a lot to do with the environment in which you
grew up. It can also be a lot to do with, when
I say environment, I'm talking really about,
you know, were your parents entrepreneurs? And
sometimes I see that founders who had successful
entrepreneurial parents can get stuck in this
loop of fear as well because they're afraid to
make decisions because they might get it wrong.
And so they have to be right every day, every
time. So for example, with my own background,
my dad was a serial entrepreneur, so he tried
many businesses. failed at many businesses. And
what that taught me was resilience. So I have
no problem at all trying something because what's
the worst that happens? You fail, you get back
up and you carry on. But many people are afraid
to do that because they haven't seen what failure
even looks like. So when you're operating your
company and making decisions for the business
from that place and not making a decision because
you might fail. or not making a decision because
you don't have enough data to prove that it's
the right decision because it has to be right.
That holds people back. So on a level, I'm really
talking about an inner child that can get in
the way of a business person, but so many founders
operate in that way. In fact, I'll give you an
example. There was a lady who I started working
with 18 months ago. I'm actually on her board
now, but when I first started working with her
18 months ago, That very first mentoring session
I had with her, her name's Carol. The very first
session, she won't mind me talking about this,
by the way, because I've talked about her and
I've got her permission and I've spoken about
her in the past. So she, in that first session,
she turned up and she had honestly recorded the
biggest asset list of any company I've ever worked
with. So she, you know, she was sharing, I've
got, you know, this is the company that's got
the product Growth Mindset for children. So she'd
created published books, she had online games,
she had board games, everything that you would
think of. And really well done and all based
around this concept of a yeti that couldn't rule.
And she was teaching children about Growth Mindset.
She herself had been a teacher and a counselor,
and then she was an entrepreneur, or is an entrepreneur.
And she shared with me, she said, you know, I
have like so many great tools and the feedback
is always amazing and the schools love it and
everybody loves it. And I said to her, you know,
so what's the problem? And she said, well, the
problem is, is that I can't, I can't get revenue
to the next level. I'm struggling with growth.
And this is quite often a big challenge that
many founders face anyway. And when we dug deeper
into, okay, so what's holding you back from growing
the company and the team? And in that conversation,
she said, oh, I know what I need to do. I need
to hire more people, but I need to be in control
of what's happening. And so straight away, it
was clear that there was a huge element of control.
And that's not unusual as well. So what we then
needed to do was unpack where is that coming
from? So what transpired was that when she was
14 years old, She was a primary carer for her
mom who was ill, her dad had, her mom had MS,
her dad had a heart condition and she had two
younger siblings. So she was a primary carer.
And so, but the only way that she could manage
all of that was through this level of control.
And so what was happening in the business was
that she was trying to grow the business. She
was getting overwhelmed with everything that
needed to go on, but she needed to have complete
control. And the minute that she realized that,
And she recognized that, oh, OK, that's where
I'm making that decision around control from.
She was able to let go of it. And then since
then, she's gone and done great things. And she's
got a product at the V &A in Dundee. And she's
in conversations with the BBC. And she's developing
a digital character for the Yeti. And the schools
have been super excited and have taken it up.
She's just announced. who's working with the
charity a few weeks ago, and hugely taken off.
And really, so that's a great example of where
without even realizing it sometimes, we can have,
I'll call it the inner child, but it's really
a subconscious behavior that can take over and
start making business decisions for us. Is there
a way for us to fight that before it's too late?
As an entrepreneur, is there a way for us to
just ask a couple questions and say, you know
what? I keep on finding the same issues time
and time again and it's probably because it is
and I need to get some more help to get to the
next stage. Is there like a way of finding that
for everyone or is it really a process? It might
happen, some people might not have it. So do
you mean in terms of like recognizing that there's
something holding you back? Recognizing that
there's something holding you back, like for
example you're talking about this lady and Because
of the conversation you had with her, she was
able to recognize, actually it comes from my
background, it comes from the experience I had
as a teenager with my parents and my family.
That's why she needed all this control. But is
there a way for people to recognize that all
by themselves or do you think they always have
to start all over? Working with a, I mean, no,
working with a culture, a mentor is going to
get you to that place faster. If it's something
that you want to do on your own, there are ways
that you can do that. So for example, I encourage
journaling for people. And when I say journaling,
I'm talking about very specifically writing down
questions and answers. So you can definitely
start to ask yourself a question around, okay,
what's holding me back from growing my company?
And you've got the answer to that. And then you
ask the next question and write the next answer.
And if you go through a journaling exercise and
write out journaling and do it for at least 20
minutes, and then you go back and you read what
you've written, What you'll notice is that at
some point, and it's normally kind of halfway
or two -thirds of the way through what you've
written, that you drop out of your head. and
into your heart state. What you're really looking
for is not the logical reason why you're making
decisions. You're looking for some of these patterns
and behaviors as to why there might be an underlying
belief system around why you're making certain
choices and certain decisions. So definitely
when you're making decisions, you can always
ask yourself, okay, is this the right decision
and where's the thought process coming from?
It's a relatively hard thing. to do unless you
do something like a journaling exercise or if
you're able to speak to somebody and get them
to ask you the right questions and asking the
right questions is really about unpacking where
decision making is actually coming from. I often
when I did my coaching and mentoring sessions
anyone who's ever worked with me in that very
first session I spend half of that session understanding
someone's childhood because Just by understanding
that, I can really unpack quickly what might
be holding somebody back in their company. And
also, it gives me a lot of insights into why
they're creating the business that they're creating.
And founders don't always necessarily make those
two connections. So, in fact, I had this last
week with somebody where you explained, and he
was very left -brained. So when I say left -brained,
very, you know, he'd come to the session very
prepared. thought process around why he was creating
the business he was creating, went through and
presented the argument as to why this was a much
needed service that he was developing. And then
when we went back to his childhood, what we realized,
what he realized was that this is the product
that he wanted as a child. This is something
that he wanted as a child and something that
he thinks would have made a big difference to
him growing up. There's so much of how we show
up and what we want to do which is driven From
the inside that we don't always Recognize until
we do that piece of work It's a it's a bit like
so I quite often Give people a values exercise
to do. Have you ever done a values exercise to
understand your own values? No, okay. Okay. So
Values is is super important because they play
out in how you show up in your business all the
time So a really simple one to do is if you imagine
you've got, if you draw a chart on the horizontal
axis, you plot your age. So you go from age zero
up to about the age of 17 or 18. And on the vertical
you plot emotion. So at the bottom you have sadness
and at the top you have your memories. All your
childhood memories up to about the age of 17
or 18. So you're plotting. the lows and the highs
and anything of significance that you can remember.
And when you look back at that and when you look
at the low points what you'll recognise is that
actually those low points form part of your value
system. Sometimes the highs but mostly the lows.
And so if you go through those what you'll start
to see is any significant life events form part
of what becomes a non -negotiable for you. without
you even realizing it. So I'll give you an example
of how this plays out in business. So for me,
because of a childhood incident, people often
say, you know, one of my core values is honesty.
But for me, it really is because I had a childhood
incident where that was compromised. And so the
example I wanted to share about how that plays
out in business is I was working with a copywriter
who was working for me and another business at
the same time. And I asked if she would be able
to just do some copy for me one of the afternoons.
And she said, oh, yeah, no problem. I can do
that for you because I've got time this afternoon.
And I said, well, I thought you were working
for the other businesses this afternoon. And
she said, oh, I'll just tell her I'm sick. And
so, and now some people might look at that and
think, oh, she values my company more than the
other company. And isn't that lovely? But actually,
after that, I couldn't actually work with her.
she was probably doing something that she thought
was, oh, it's okay because, you know, for whatever
reason, she made the decision to, you know, that
was her choice. But for me, it became a point
where actually there was just a hit of a wall
with working with her. And so for that, having
that level of awareness about yourself and where
decisions might be coming from in your business
is super important for founders and entrepreneurs.
And so that values exercise, it's so, so simple
to do. And it's hugely powerful, but it really
does help you to unpack a lot about how you're
showing up in your company. So becoming an entrepreneur
is not so much about being a successful business
owner. It's more about the journey, isn't it?
It's more about the realization that you do certain
things because of your past, your values. it's
because you want to implement some change in
the world because of everything that happened
to you and you want to make it a better place.
So it really comes after that, doesn't it? It
does. And here's the thing, is that any entrepreneur
who thinks that they're going to be happy when
they hit their first million, their first five
million, that point in time is so small because
the minute you hit that, The minute you hit a
million, you'll be thinking, how do I make five?
The minute you hit five, you'll be thinking,
how do I make 10? So that chase is ongoing. So
that's like never fulfilling, right? But the
most important part of that is, how did you get
there? What was that journey like that you took
to get to a certain place? You know, people often,
when they are successful, if you talk to any
successful business person and you say, watch
your recollection of good times in your business.
They'll always talk about the good old times
when they had the struggle because everything
is about the journey. It's about, okay, what
did I have to do to get here? And that's really
what brings fulfillment is that level of growth
brings fulfillment. Yes, work hard and get to
a place where your business is successful, but
don't think that when you get to a specific point
in time, that you're going to feel any differently
to how you feel in the need to that point in
time. So be mindful of how you're showing up
every day rather than thinking I'm going to feel
differently at a specific point in time. So it
really is all about the journey, is it? It's
all about connections and making people, well,
connections to the people you meet, obviously,
but also the transformation you go through inside,
right? Because if you're just seeing currency,
it's not going to make a difference, is it? I
mean, you might not. Yeah and you know look there's
all sorts of data around you know when you hit
a certain income level then the other big one
I guess with this is that being able to yeah
hitting certain income levels requires you to
be able to deal with a certain level of problems
because everything comes every size of business
comes with a different set of challenges and
so The journey is really about building you as
an individual, building resilience and getting
you to a point where you're able to go through
that next level of growth as well. So that whole
process of there's a level when people go through
growth, there's a level of detachment that needs
to take place as well. You know, there's a whole
level of separation that we talked about earlier.
So there's many layers to this. And recognizing
why you've created your business in the first
place is the big, big part of what will ultimately
then help you shape how you want that to unfold
going into the future. I think there's many people
who think that actually I just want a successful
business. But what's your definition of success?
Does success mean freedom of time for you? Does
it mean freedom of money? And if it is money,
what does that actually look like? Would it make
a difference to you if you had 10 million or
50 million in the bank? you know, what does that
look like? And by the way, you can also have
a level of resistance to money as well, right?
This is one of the things to talk about in the
Alignment Accelerator, which is, you know, what
was your experience of growing up with money?
Like, did money cause problems in your household?
And therefore, actually, you think you want money,
but actually, you don't really want money because
it's like, you know, there's all sorts of, you
know, who am I? If I'm the person with the money,
am I, you know, You might have had somebody who
was disliked in your family circle growing up
who had a lot of money and everybody didn't like
that person and therefore are you subconsciously
deciding that actually I don't really want money?
I'm saying I want it but actually I don't really
want it. And all of that unpacking takes place
on this journey of entrepreneurship. The real
question is how much do you want to grow? So
before you look that up and until your book comes
out, which I'm very much looking forward to reading,
which books would you recommend to someone? Just
listening to your entire conversation right now,
which ones would you say, you know, pick up this
book? It's amazing. Yeah, one of my all -time
favourites is Never Split the Difference, I think
which many people have read now. I mean, the
classic is obviously Simon Sinek's book, but
I'm trying to think what else I could recommend
that maybe most people wouldn't have heard of.
I actually haven't read it. Never Split the Difference.
So I'm gonna add it to my list right now. Oh,
you're gonna love that. It's full of really,
yeah, it's all about negotiation. It's a fantastic
book. So there you go. Okay, so I would say Never
Split the Difference. That's my all -time favourite.
Which one are you reading right now? So at the
moment, I'm actually hooked to Stephen Bartlett's
podcasts. Okay. Yes, I'm all about the podcast
at the moment to kind of go through a bit of
a phase. I definitely spend a lot of time in
personal development and especially there's a
lot in the space of personal development which
is starting to unfold as we start to understand
a lot more about the behavior, understand a lot
more about how the brain functions. and all of
that stuff is fascinating. But yes, I would say
Dari, the CEO, is the thing that... So not the
innovation conversation, it's just... Oh, absolutely,
and that, and that, for sure, for sure. Well,
it has been going on for two years, so it has
like a leg up on us. We're picking it up slowly.
They're absolutely lovely. If people want to
reach out to you and contact you, how can you
do so? So the easiest way is on LinkedIn. So
if you look for my name Bobita Devi on LinkedIn
and also I have a website which again is mynamebobitadevi
.com so definitely can reach out through that
as well. Thank you so much for your time. Thank
you Ricardo. This podcast is also sponsored by
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