Jason Harris
Neeta Bhushan is a successful entrepreneur, emotional health educator, and executive performance coach to global leaders and CEOs, as well as to thousands of women from all walks of life. She has written two Amazon bestsellers; Emotional GRIT and The Book of Coaching, and she has appeared as a speaker at Women Economic Forum and Google HQ.
StarCentral Magazine recently caught up with Neeta to discuss her journey as an entrepreneur and here’s what went down:
Could you please tell our readers a brief background about yourself and how you started your business?
My life has been shaped by a combination of the grit I was born into and my life experiences. My parents were immigrants; I had a traditional desi Delhi-Punjabi father — and they just wanted a better life for us, the American Dream. I became a child caretaker to my two younger brothers at age 10 when my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She passed away when I was 16, after a six-year battle with the disease and so, I grew up in and out of hospitals. Exactly a year later I lost the older of my brothers and two years after that, my father’s X-rays revealed a big tumor in his lungs. It was lung cancer, stage four, and he had eight months to live.
By 19, I had this supercharged drive to prove my worth in society, to prove that my brother and I could get out of this dark tunnel. The next few years were achievement-oriented and all about climbing up the ladder. Throughout my teens and twenties, my focus had been on family and getting straight A’s and different opportunities work-wise. I was studying to become a dentist because all ‘good’ desi girls become doctors, dentists, lawyers…something with a professional tinge to it. The one thing I kept ignoring was focusing on myself, and this showed up in my relationships.” My abusive relationship with an ex-husband served as the wake-up call. And ending it became the turning point that would lead me to reassess my goals, start afresh, and ultimately retire from her dentistry practice and life as I knew it.
In my early thirties, I founded the Chicago-based Independent Awakening, a nonprofit dedicated to helping move the needle on self-confidence and self-love in women of color, primarily desi and Asians. Soon after, I was being asked to speak on behalf of myself [and not the nonprofit]. You have to have the strength and audacity as a person or leader to say no to the things you can’t fully commit to, and I put the nonprofit down to really focus on this next chapter. My first steps into these uncharted waters would lead me to the start-up world.
Fast forward to today and I’m now a successful entrepreneur, emotional health educator, and executive performance coach to global leaders and CEOs, as well as to thousands of women from all walks of life. I’ve also written two Amazon bestsellers; Emotional GRIT and The Book of Coaching, and I’ve appeared as a speaker at Women Economic Forum and Google HQ.
What are you currently doing to maintain/grow your business?
Paid advertising, book funnels, challenges, podcasts, summits, online monthly free training,
What social media platforms do you usually use to increase your brand’s awareness?
YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook private groups.
What is your experience with paid advertising, like PPC or sponsored content campaigns? Does it work?
Yes, we have book funnels that consistently drive 4K new leads monthly,
What is your main tactic when it comes to making more people aware of your brand and engaging your customers? How did your business stand out?
At global grit, we ensure that business is personal, the only way to grow is to also grow yourself. We have 4 main core values of the company: serve love which means to always add value, community, connection, and capacity building.
What form of marketing has worked well for your business throughout the years?
Paid Facebook advertising.
What is the toughest decision you had to make in the last few months?
Let go of live events.
What money mistakes have you made along the way that others can learn from (or something you’d do differently)?
Invest in an idea, not looking at the traction, and trusting that some component may work for my business because it worked for others not knowing that every business is unique and different and you need to seek out all factors to make sure it will actually work for you, it’s not always a one size fits all approach.
What new business would you love to start?
A supplements company, I love biohacking and wellness.
If you could go back in a time machine to the time when you were just getting started, what would you do differently?
Focus, focus, focus. Not get bothered or distracted by others. When you have a blank canvas it’s easy to have several windows open. Focus on the one thing that will bring you traction, and double down on it.
What is the best advice you have ever been given?
Embrace every single failure, note it as feedback and trials on what is working and what is not, after all, it’s all a test until you have a winning product/funnel.
What advice would you give to a newbie Entrepreneur setting up their first business?
Focus on getting your first 100 raving fans. Those will then tell 100 who will tell another 100, and that’s how you will grow exponentially. But keep your focus and minimize distractions.
Jason Harris
rhoda
