The Biggest Lie About Focus (Why You Shouldn’t Do Just One Thing)

Jay sits down with trailblazing entrepreneur and investor Anjula Acharia to explore what it really takes to turn pain into purpose. Anjula opens up about her early experiences with bullying and feeling like she never quite fit in, and how those moments ended up shaping her rather than breaking her. Growing up between different worlds, Anjula unknowingly developed the superpower that would define her career: the ability to see what others miss and connect things that seem completely separate. What once felt like isolation became intuition, and what once felt like rejection became a powerful redirection toward a life of impact and influence. Together, Jay and Anjula explore the side of success we rarely see. Beyond the headlines of billion-dollar brands and global icons is a journey shaped by failure, self-doubt, and constant reinvention. Anjula opens up about a time when she lost everything at once, her business, her marriage, and her sense of identity, and how hitting rock bottom became a turning point rather than an ending. She shares that success is not about having a clear plan, but about trusting your instincts, listening closely, and having the courage to grow. Anjula’s story is a powerful reminder that the moments that feel like everything is falling apart are often the ones quietly setting us up for something greater. In this episode you'll learn: How to Turn Rejection Into Your Greatest Advantage How to Build Confidence When You Don’t Fit In How to Network Even When You Have Nothing to Offer How to Become a Connector People Value How to Pitch Ideas That Actually Get Attention How to Attract Mentors Without Asking Directly How to Trust Your Instincts in Uncertain Moments How to Reinvent Yourself After Hitting Rock Bottom You don’t need to have everything figured out to move forward, you just need the willingness to keep going, especially when things don’t make sense yet. With Love and Gratitude, Jay Shetty JAY’S DAILY WISDOM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX Join 900,000+ readers discovering how small daily shifts create big life change with my free newsletter. Subscribe https://news.jayshetty.me/subscribe Check out our Apple subscription to unlock bonus content of On Purpose! https://lnk.to/JayShettyPodcast What We Discuss: 00:00 Intro 03:30 Overcoming Childhood Bullying 07:24 Turning Difference Into Your Superpower 10:52 The Unexpected Rise in Podcasting 14:17 Is Networking Actually Important? 17:00 The Power of Connecting People 18:50 How to Network With Confidence 18:50 The Networking Shift That Changes Everything 22:27 What Great Mentorship Actually Looks Like 24:12 Who Deserves Your Time and Guidance 26:00 The Skill of Trusting Your Own Instincts 32:06 How to Make Anyone Say Yes 37:54 The Bet That Brought a Global Star to Hollywood 41:27 The Moment You Stop Trying to Belong 43:55 Turning Culture Into Global Influence 46:05 Saying What You Mean So People Actually Listen 48:40 What’s Really Changing in Film Right Now 51:01 Why Bumble Was More Than Just a Bet 52:12 The Unexpected Rise of AI Influencers 55:39 Using AI to Multiply Your Impact 56:45 The Hidden Reason Most Businesses Collapse 58:13 Starting Over Without Fear 01:00:18 Staying Steady When Everyone Doubts You 01:03:58 The Comeback Mindset After Failure 01:22:15 Anjula on Final Five Episode Resources: Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/anjula_acharia/ LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/anjula-acharia-206735 X | https://x.com/anjulaacharia https://www.instagram.com/jayshetty https://www.facebook.com/jayshetty/ https://x.com/jayshetty https://www.linkedin.com/in/shettyjay/ https://www.youtube.com/@JayShettyPodcast http://jayshetty.me

Anjula AchariaguestJay Shettyhost

May 6, 20261h 24mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

95 min read · 18,940 words

0:00 – 3:30
Intro
1. AAAnjula Acharia
  This old rhetoric of, "You gotta do one thing, and you gotta have one goal, and you gotta be focused on it," that's the biggest lie ever.
2. JSJay Shetty
  What's a business skill everyone should master if they wanna be successful?
3. AAAnjula Acharia
  You have to read the room. You have to see what's going on around you. The biggest issue that I see young people in business, they think everything is one way. It's not a one-way conversation, ever.
4. JSJay Shetty
  [upbeat music] Hey, everyone. Welcome back to On Purpose, the place you come to become happier, healthier, and more healed. Today's guest on On Purpose is the one and only Anjula Acharia, trailblazing entrepreneur, investor, and cultural powerhouse who's helped shape global careers and billion-dollar brands. Anjula is the founder of A Series Investments, an early investor in companies like Bumble and ClassPass, and a longtime manager of Priyanka Chopra Jonas. And behind all of this, she is a dear, dear friend who I'm so grateful to welcome onto the show. Please welcome to On Purpose Anjula Acharia. Anj, it is so great to have you here.
5. AAAnjula Acharia
  Oh, my God, it's so good to be here.
6. JSJay Shetty
  We met for the first time around eight years ago, when I first moved to LA, actually, and one of the people that you've mentored and your dear friend, and now my dear friend as well, Payal Kadakia, we met through her. And honestly, the amount you've done for founders, for female founders, for artists, for our community, for th- South Asians all over the world and beyond that is amazing, and we're so grateful to you. And I know so many people who whenever your name comes up, and it's like, "Oh, yeah, she helped me with this," and, "Oh, she helped me with this." And I'm always discovering new people you've helped with stuff. And so I just wanna say, you know, from me and on behalf of all of our friends, just how grateful we are to you, and you totally deserve to be here, and I'm grateful and happy that you're here.
7. AAAnjula Acharia
  Oh, my God. Thank you. Well, I mean, I just wanna tell this quick story that when I first met you [laughs] I was super skeptical.
8. JSJay Shetty
  [laughs]
9. AAAnjula Acharia
  And then you did something so dramatic in my life without me even knowing it, which was my sister, who rest in peace, died a few years ago, struggled through multiple sclerosis and then died of cancer. She never got to talk to you, and I really wish she'd had, and that's my one regret, that we never got to FaceTime with you. But she literally told me that she wouldn't have made it through those two years of her life without you.
10. JSJay Shetty
  Mm.
11. AAAnjula Acharia
  And that was just so incredible. And it seemed so insane to me because I knew you, and I was like, "Oh, my God, this guy's had so much impact on one of the people so dear to me." And she was doing this so quietly. Like, she was listening to you every single day just to get through life. And yeah, anyway, so you have had such a big impact in our family's life, and I will always honor that.
12. JSJay Shetty
  Oh, I wish I got to speak to her too.
13. AAAnjula Acharia
  I know.
14. JSJay Shetty
  I, I really do, and I, you know, I feel so humbled by statements like that because she was fighting a much tougher fight than anything I've been in myself. And so I always feel very humbled that she's the one who did the real work. Like, she was the one who was doing the real fighting. And, um, thank you for sharing that with me, always.
15. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah.
16. JSJay Shetty
  And yeah, my, my love and prayers and meditation for her and your family right now as well. But I wanted to dive in because you have such a fascinating story, and one of the things I like to do on On Purpose is to really understand how people became who they became because I think people hear the resume.
17. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah.
18. JSJay Shetty
  They see you. They see the success. And you just assume that people just always had it and knew what was gonna happen. And then when you peel behind the scenes, you realize it wasn't like
3:30 – 7:24
Overcoming Childhood Bullying
1. JSJay Shetty
  that at all. I wanted to start by asking you, what's a childhood memory that stands out to you that you would say defines who you are today?
2. AAAnjula Acharia
  You know, I think defines my entire journey and everything, and you're gonna know this 'cause you went, you went to school in England and around the same time as me. I think I'm gonna show my age a bit.
3. JSJay Shetty
  [laughs]
4. AAAnjula Acharia
  But you remember that TV show Grange Hill?
5. JSJay Shetty
  Of course.
6. AAAnjula Acharia
  Right?
7. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah, of course.
8. AAAnjula Acharia
  [laughs] Every, every British, everybody knew Grange Hill.
9. JSJay Shetty
  Yes.
10. AAAnjula Acharia
  So there was this TV show, Grange Hill, and I would always get bullied at school for being the Paki, and me and my brother and sister grew up in a completely white environment. We didn't grow up in London or anywhere like that. We were in Buckinghamshire. Um, so I was always bullied for being a Paki. I mean, like, literally spat on, kicked, punched, like, you name it, went through it all. And but what I noticed was there was this TV show, Grange Hill, and, like, everyone watched it. Everyone watched the same four channels, right? So there was this one episode about this girl who was Pakistani, and basically it was so, like, stereotypical. It was, it was just bad, and the next day, I got bullied so much harder. And everyone, I can't remember what her name was, but everyone was calling me at that name and going, "Is that what your mum and dad are like? Is that what you're like?" 'Cause I remember just coming home from school and being just, you know, wrecked and thinking, "I hate TV. It's ruining my life." And the way people are treating me are based on what this box at home that has four channels is telling everyone about me, these siloed, stereotypical stories about our people, and that changed my life. And I from that moment was like, "One day," I used to sit on my windowsill in England and look at the stars, and, "One day I'm gonna..." And by the way, I used to think that, um, Michael Jackson was really poorly treated, and I was like, "One day I'm gonna be Michael Jackson's manager."
11. JSJay Shetty
  [laughs]
12. AAAnjula Acharia
  "And I'm gonna take care of him, and I'm gonna protect him." And I think that that was such a life-changing moment for me, that knowing that media, and I couldn't articulate it in that way then, but knowing that media impacted the way I was treated on a day-to-day basis and the responsibility and the impact of that.
13. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah, it's... And, and it was such a real experience, I feel, for us in our generation for sure. Like, I had that growing up. I went to a predominantly non-Indian school because of the area I grew up in, and I think I was one of, like, three Indian kids in my class growing up in primary school, and I was bullied for my weight. I was bullied for my color. I was bullied for the way my lunch smelled because sometimes my mom would make me Indian things.And I remember that experience, and then I remember thinking just how many slurs our parents went through as well-
14. AAAnjula Acharia
  Oh my God
15. JSJay Shetty
  ... having gone through even earlier than us.
16. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah.
17. JSJay Shetty
  And that was the reason my parents gave me and my sister names that no one could make fun of in England. It was like Jay and Amy.
18. AAAnjula Acharia
  Wow.
19. JSJay Shetty
  Just to make our, just to make us have an easier ride than they did.
20. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah.
21. JSJay Shetty
  Because that's how worried and concerned they were-
22. AAAnjula Acharia
  Bless them
23. JSJay Shetty
  ... that we would get bullied.
24. AAAnjula Acharia
  But you know the other crazy thing, though, is I was also bullied at home within our community because I was mixed. I was half Hindu and half Sikh, and for the Sikhs, I wasn't Sikh enough, and for the Hindus, I wasn't Hindu enough. And I also grew up in such a white environment that I didn't speak like a lot of the Indian Londoners, right? And in any scenario, I, like, just did not fit in.
25. JSJay Shetty
  Mm.
26. AAAnjula Acharia
  You know?
27. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
28. AAAnjula Acharia
  It was always that feeling of isolation.
29. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah, I mean, you're s- you've had such an untraditional career since then, and I almost feel like you not fitting in has kind of, like, turned into your superpower.
30. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah, definitely.
7:24 – 10:52
Turning Difference Into Your Superpower
1. AAAnjula Acharia
  I raised money-
2. JSJay Shetty
  Wow
3. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... for an original idea. So me and my ex-husband, we f- we founded this company called Desi Hits, which is kind of around the time you met me, and it was a podcast that went viral. Actually, we were in podcasting way before anyone was in podcasting.
4. JSJay Shetty
  [laughs]
5. AAAnjula Acharia
  Um, so it was a podcast that went completely viral, and all these VCs started chasing me for money, and it was basically a mashup of culture. So it was like we were playing a lot of music, so it was a lot of hip hop with Bhangra. It was, like, Bollywood with R&B. It was, like, you know, drum and bass, and it was just, like, a mashup of all the music that we loved that I felt growing up represented me, right? Like, I remember this moment when I first walked into a nightclub in London when I was at university, and, um, turned out later that that was my, my husband. Um, he was a DJ, um, at, at university, and he was just playing this mashup of, like, Bhangra and hip-hop, and I remember dancing to it just going, "Wow, this is me."
6. JSJay Shetty
  [laughs]
7. AAAnjula Acharia
  Like, this is me. Like, this is who I am.
8. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
9. AAAnjula Acharia
  Like, it just felt really like a moment. And it's so funny 'cause much later on, I explained this to Jimmy Iovine. For those of you don't know who he is, he was a founder of Beats by Dre and Interscope Records, which, you know, was behind, like, some of the most-
10. JSJay Shetty
  Eminem-
11. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah
12. JSJay Shetty
  ... 50 Cent, like, yeah.
13. AAAnjula Acharia
  Most legendary people.
14. JSJay Shetty
  All the people I grew up on that I'm, like, massive fan of, yeah.
15. AAAnjula Acharia
  Correct. Yeah, Dr. Dre, like-
16. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah
17. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... everyone, like L- Lana Del Rey, like-
18. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah
19. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... you name it, Lady Gaga. Anyway, and I told him this other moment that feels similar to that where when Punjabi MC and Jay-Z jumped on that track together-
20. JSJay Shetty
  Yes
21. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... which was on the underground forever. Like, Beware of the Boys was on the underground forever in Desi circles, South Asian circles.
22. JSJay Shetty
  Yes.
23. AAAnjula Acharia
  But when Jay-Z jumped on it and mashed that up and created that new track, and it became sort of mainstream pop hit, I feel like I remember being in London and everybody driving used to drive with their Indian music and their, their windows up, and there was this just moment where all the windows came down really slowly 'cause everyone was like, "Even the white person in the car next to me is playing the same song." And I told Jimmy Iovine that moment. I was like, "It was just this, like, moment where everybody felt accepted, and everybody felt part of the same thing." You know, and you feel it now when you go to a, a concert or whatever, like, everyone there is enjoying the same thing and focused on the same thing, and you feel this sense of community. Well, we never felt that we belonged in that community until that moment. So music's always been such, like, a significant thing to me in terms of connecting people and putting people together. But to answer your question, raising money and people going, "I'm gonna back that idea-
24. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah
25. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... of this element of fusion and everything you are," which it doesn't fit into anything. Like, it wasn't all Indian. It wasn't all British. It wasn't all American. It wasn't all, you know, any one thing, right? It was just a mashup of everything, and then to, yeah, raise $5 million against that was pretty amazing.
26. JSJay Shetty
  That is, yeah. If someone, if someone's listening right now and they're thinking, "Anj," like, you know, "I'm at university," or, "I'm about to graduate. Maybe I'm 30 years old and I've been working for nine years. I'm not really sure about what I'm doing," what advice would you give to them to find their unique voice? Because what you found was something that represented you, and you were able to monetize it and create more from it. What advice would you give to someone who's in that 20 to 30 range?
27. AAAnjula Acharia
  Firstly, I just wanna say I call myself mapless, right? I never had a map, and, you know, I used to listen to these types of podcasts, not yours, but, well, or, or, you know, people go, "Get your goal. Figure out your goal. Get your,
10:52 – 14:17
The Unexpected Rise in Podcasting
1. AAAnjula Acharia
  you know, your map to your goal." And I'd be like, "Well, I don't know what my goal is."
2. JSJay Shetty
  [laughs]
3. AAAnjula Acharia
  "I don't know what my journey is because I don't have a goal, and I don't have a destination, so I don't know how to get there." Um, so I never had a map. I never had a destination, anything I've done. So the thing that you have to do, 'cause I didn't even know there was a business idea in this. The, I'll tell you the fundraising story, and this will explain. So I was in executive search finding CEOs for, um, startups, and I worked with a bunch of VCs. We founded this podcast. It went viral. In your daily life, you never just talk about one thing. You never just talk about business. So I'm talking to this VC, and I'm going... He's like, "What else is going on?" And I'm like, "Oh my God, me and Raj did this podcast, and it went completely viral, and, like, you know, we have, like, 250,000 downloads on iTunes," and I was just chatting about it, right? But I was genuinely super passionate about it because that's my thing. So the next day, I get this exploding timesheet from him. He asked me to send him the iTunes report, and he's just, "I'm so curious. Would you send it to me?" And I go, "Yeah, I have nothing to hide," so I sent it to him. And then the next day, he sent me an exploding timesheet for a million dollars for a quarter, quarter of the company.And I was just like, I was flabbergasted. I didn't know what to do. I was like, "This is insane," like. But then he was like, "Your husband, he had a job at Intel." He was like, "He has to give up his job. This is the conditions of this term sheet that you both have to do this together."
4. JSJay Shetty
  [laughs]
5. AAAnjula Acharia
  Because he was a tech guy, and I was just the ideas person, right?
6. JSJay Shetty
  Wow.
7. AAAnjula Acharia
  And I was like... So I come home to my husband, I'm like, "You have to give up your job."
8. JSJay Shetty
  [laughs]
9. AAAnjula Acharia
  And he was like, "For what?" And I was like, "For this, but we're gonna get a million dollars, and we're gonna start this company," and blah, blah, blah, blah. And I had to convince him to do it with me.
10. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
11. AAAnjula Acharia
  But the point of that is to say you should always feel comfortable to talk about your ideas.
12. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
13. AAAnjula Acharia
  Because you may not see something, but somebody else might see something.
14. JSJay Shetty
  Totally.
15. AAAnjula Acharia
  You know what I mean? So-
16. JSJay Shetty
  And also the collision of that idea, because you're working a job doing executive search.
17. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah.
18. JSJay Shetty
  Like, you have a job.
19. AAAnjula Acharia
  Correct.
20. JSJay Shetty
  And it's not that your job was useless and a waste of time, and-
21. AAAnjula Acharia
  Exactly
22. JSJay Shetty
  ... you didn't have value. 'Cause I think a lot of us sometimes, you get into a job and you go, "I'm in this dead-end job. I hate it. It's the worst." But you never know how that job could connect you to something. Like you didn't know when you were gonna mention this podcast you both had, that actually someone you were connected to through your job.
23. AAAnjula Acharia
  And also, yeah, right, and I thought it was kind of a silly hobby. And the only reason I set up a company around it was because my dad was convinced we were gonna get sued for copyright. So because we were playing all this music without licensing.
24. JSJay Shetty
  [laughs]
25. AAAnjula Acharia
  [laughs] So my dad, being my dad, who's highly litigious, was like, "You need to get a company around that so they can't sue you and take your home." And that was the only reason I did it, because my dad was freaking out about it. 'Cause we were getting momentum, and he was like, "Oh, all those music companies are gonna come after you." Turned out all those music companies later wanted to invest in the company, and it just sort of like took off from there. But going back to your question about advice, like I would say a couple of things. Like, I wanna teach people how to network. Like, that's something that I think is really critical. So when I first... I moved from, uh, London to Silicon Valley, um, I was in my late 20s. And I'd ha- I'd had a career in executive search and advertising, and I went to Silicon Valley and I knew absolutely no one. [laughs] Like, I didn't even know my gardener. Like, it was bad. And I was, like, dropped into Silicon Valley, and I was just like, "Oh, my God. I'm gonna die here 'cause I don't know anyone." So someone mentioned, like literally someone in my building who, you know, I lived in a, in a, in a, an apartment building, said, "Oh, there's these South Asian meetups for tech people."
14:17 – 17:00
Is Networking Actually Important?
1. AAAnjula Acharia
  And I was like, "Well, not really in tech, but, you know, I could just go and see if I can meet people." So I went, and after like probably a year, I was running those things. And it was all VCs and entrepreneurs, and I, like, just created my own. And the w- way I did that was, so let's just say I know no one in the room, and I meet you. And I go, "Oh, hey, Jay. H- how are you? What do you do? Blah, blah, blah." And trust me, I know that takes confidence, but everyone, I heard it on one of your podcasts, everyone's feeling shitty.
2. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah. [laughs]
3. AAAnjula Acharia
  Everyone, like, doesn't know who to talk to.
4. JSJay Shetty
  Totally.
5. AAAnjula Acharia
  Everyone's got their name tag on, they're thinking, "God, who am I gonna speak to? This is so awkward." So just, just have that bravery to go up to that first person and talk to them. So I did that. I go, "What, what are you in?" And the guy was like... I can't remember. But he was, let's just say he was in, like, software for healthcare, right? So I was chatting with him. I had nothing to offer. I had nothing to give. I was literally just, like, doing some headhunting stuff in England. It was, it was, it was not good. So anyway, so I just chatted with him, and then, you know, people would come in, and I would, like, meet someone else, and I, they would be like... I was like, "What do you do?" And they'd be like, "Oh, I'm an investor in tech healthcare," right? So I'd be like, "Oh, my God, you need to meet this person." And then I would put them together, and they would have a conversation. Now, sometimes it would lead to absolutely nothing.
6. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
7. AAAnjula Acharia
  But on the odd occasion, it led to something. And a couple of people got funded based off those introductions that I did.
8. JSJay Shetty
  Wow. Wow.
9. AAAnjula Acharia
  And they were just like that. So by the end of, like, the night, because... And someone taught me how to do this. I was just connecting all these people. People just saw me as a connector, and people wanted me in the room because I made their lives easier.
10. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
11. AAAnjula Acharia
  So going back to one of your other podcasts I heard today about, talking about being in service, I didn't actually mean to be in service. I was just insecure and didn't know what to say to anyone-
12. JSJay Shetty
  [laughs]
13. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... and had nothing to offer to the conversation. So I was like, if this person talks to me about this, and this person needs this, I can just put them together and pretend like I'm great, right?
14. JSJay Shetty
  [laughs] No, but I love that because it's such a, it's, it's so important. Like, whether it's service or value, the point is you were adding value to other people's lives, and the best way you could do that at that point, when you felt you didn't have anything to offer personally, was to connect them with people. And that's huge because I think we often feel like, "Oh, if I introduce that person to that person, then they won't wanna help me," and not realize, right?
15. AAAnjula Acharia
  [laughs] It, it never even crossed my mind.
16. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah, but a lot of people feel like that.
17. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
18. JSJay Shetty
  A lot of people are like, "I won't connect people." And I think that's rubbed off on people that you love. Like for example, when I came to LA, if I didn't know Payal, I wouldn't have met so many of my early friends here.
19. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah.
20. JSJay Shetty
  And like, because she was connecting me. So I met Jeremy, I met you, I met so many other people because of her. And so it's such a contagious thing as well, where the people you're
17:00 – 18:50
The Power of Connecting People
1. JSJay Shetty
  working with and you're friends with also end up having that quality, which, which is such a beautiful quality. That's amazing. I love that.
2. AAAnjula Acharia
  You know, I never understood people that had guardrails up about introducing people to people. Like, I never understood that because I was like, this makes you more valuable.
3. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
4. AAAnjula Acharia
  Like, it's such a deep quality to be able to connect people with people, and it's such a value, and then people want you around all the time. How many times you've heard in conversation, "Oh, you gotta meet that person. They're a connector"?
5. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
6. AAAnjula Acharia
  You know what I mean?
7. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
8. AAAnjula Acharia
  Like, that is, like, it's, it's, it's such a valuable thing to be a connector. So anyway, so just going back to your initial question about, you know, young people listening to this podcast, I think it's really critical that you feel confident to introduce people to other people and be curious and find out what other people are doing and see how you can add value. Along the way, you will get value. Like, I think about my career is now built in bringing people value, and I get all the, you know, I get all the rewards for that. Like, whether it's a return on investment in an investment of two people I put together or an investment that I made or a connection that I made, like I just feel like it's, it really pays in dividends.
9. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah. I agree, agree. Any other tips on good networking? Because I think you're spot on. I think a lot of people now think networking's either handing your card out, which is like an old model of it, or people think networking is like asking someone to just be your mentor.
10. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah.
11. JSJay Shetty
  And that doesn't work either. Any other good advice for networking?
12. AAAnjula Acharia
  You know, just on the mentor thing, um, so my mentor is Indra Nooyi, and-I'm ... It's a funny story how I met Indra. So I happened to be on some Forbes list with her, um, and an ex-boyfriend who I was dating worked for PepsiCo, and then he forwarded it to Indra and just said, "Oh, my girlfriend's on this list with you." And she was like, "Oh, I'd really love to meet her." And he sort of called me and he was like, "Indra wants to meet you." And I was like, "Oh, that's amazing." Like,
18:50 – 22:27
The Networking Shift That Changes Everything
1. AAAnjula Acharia
  "I wanna meet her."
2. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
3. AAAnjula Acharia
  Of course, it's Indra Nooyi, who was the CEO of PepsiCo at that time. So anyway, I met her, and she was, oh my God, so incredibly lovely to me. Um, uh, and I couldn't understand why, honestly. I was like, "What value do I bring to this woman?" And it actually turned out she really wanted me to meet her daughters, and she was like ... She said something really funny. She was like, "This woman broke a Bollywood star in America, and it's hard enough to break a juice brand." [laughs] That's what she said. She was like, "It's hard enough to break a juice brand, but this girl broke a Bollywood star in America." And I was like, "Oh, that's so funny." Anyway, so then I, you know, we stay in touch. She makes me dosas. She's, like, amazing. She becomes like a mom. I would call her more my godmom than a mentor now, because she really sort of, like, mothers me in the nicest way. And anyway, but then one day she said to me, she goes, "I want to mentor you." And I was like, "Okay. Uh, that's amazing." And she was like, "But my deal with mentorship is that you have to do everything I tell you. If I tell you to do something, you have to do it." So she goes, "You have to commit to me that you will do what I tell you to do." And I was like, "That's a really big undertaking." Like, she has probably only ever told me once to do some- not to do something or do something, and that's been really valuable advice. But anyway, my point is to mentorship is she always says mentors pick you, and I agree with that. I, uh, I picked Payal Kadakia, the founder of ClassPass. Like, I met Payal, she pitched to me, and I decided I wanted to mentor her, and I decided that she was someone I wanted to put a lot of time into, and then I mentored her. And I think that you have to allow mentors to pick you. And I ... It's really hard because, you know, we speak at a lot of conferences, and people come up to me, and lots of young girls come up to me and say, "Will you mentor me? Will you mentor me?" And I'm just like, "Well, you know, uh, actually, no." You know? [laughs]
4. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
5. AAAnjula Acharia
  And it's ... And I just feel like you've got to build a relationship with someone to ... I, I never asked Indra to mentor me. Like, did I want her to mentor me? Hell yeah. Who wouldn't? But, you know, I, I don't know, I create a pathway for that to happen, and I think that's what you have to do, create pathways for that to happen naturally and organically. Build a relationship with someone who you value. And also, I would say in mentoring, like, when, um, I first met Indra, she was, uh, launching her book, and she w- she wanted, like, mothers to, you know, write the blurb for them. And I was like, "Oh, what about Mindy Kaling? What about," um ... Who else did I get? I got Mindy and then someone else. I can't remember who else now. But the point is, like, I brought value to her, too. It wasn't a one-way street. And I think that when you're looking for mentors, go and show them how powerful you are, too.
6. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
7. AAAnjula Acharia
  It's a two-way thing. Make them want to mentor you. Make them want you in their orbit. Show your value. And I think that's what I've done my entire life, is, like, really show value to people. Actually not doing it purposefully, just doing that because I guess I'm in service, you know?
8. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah. I've, I've never heard someone put it like that. I love the idea that the mentor picks you. And you're so, so right. Like, there are people that I just feel genuinely good about, whether it's their idea-
9. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah
10. JSJay Shetty
  ... whether it's their energy, whether it's just their spirit. And I'm like, "Yeah, I'm gonna spend more time talking to this person than anyone else." Even if someone was more eager or more whatever, it wasn't that. It was ... You're so right. No one's ever said it like that before. I've always heard other things about mentorship. But you're absolutely right that you can't convince someone to give you their time and invest in you and focus on you in that way.
11. AAAnjula Acharia
  Like, you can't convince someone to love you.
12. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
13. AAAnjula Acharia
  Right?
14. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
15. AAAnjula Acharia
  In the same way, I think I got that out of your eight rules.
16. JSJay Shetty
  [laughs]
17. AAAnjula Acharia
  Like, you can't make some- you can't love someone harder to make them
22:27 – 24:12
What Great Mentorship Actually Looks Like
1. AAAnjula Acharia
  love you, right?
2. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah, yeah. Yes, yes, yes.
3. AAAnjula Acharia
  Or whatever that is. Like ...
4. JSJay Shetty
  Yes.
5. AAAnjula Acharia
  And it's the same with mentorship. It's like you can't force someone to do that. The funny thing about Payal, when she came to me, she wanted to raise money. I was probably one of the few South Asian women at that time that had raised venture capital. So she was ... kind of came to me because I'd raised capital, and she wanted help, and that's the journey that we sort of ended up going onto. But i- what was interesting was I said to her, I was like, um, "Where are you gonna work with this idea?" And once I'd committed to mentoring and helping her, I was like, "Where are you gonna work?" And she was like, "In Starbucks." And I was like, "I have two desks in my office. You can have them." You know what I mean? And then she was with me every single day, and we were like, you know, kind of going through ... Like, it was just I was sitting at my desk, she was sitting at her desk, and she'd be like, "Hey, Anj, what do you think about this idea? What do you think about that?" So, but I, I loved every single minute of that experience. And I would say, you know, with Payal and I, she always called me her mentor, but I would say we're like ... She's m- she mentors me now.
6. JSJay Shetty
  [laughs]
7. AAAnjula Acharia
  She taught me how to pivot. I never knew how to pivot before I met her.
8. JSJay Shetty
  Wow. Talk to me about ... I wanna talk about pivoting in a second. Talk to me about how you pick people you mentor, because I think it's important for people to hear that, too. Knowing that your mentor picks you, but, like, what was it about Payal? What was it about other people that you've worked with that you went, "I'm gonna put my time and energy into this person"?
9. AAAnjula Acharia
  You know, um, with Payal, I just ... And she always says this. She goes, "You knew who I was before I knew who I was."
10. JSJay Shetty
  Mm.
11. AAAnjula Acharia
  I just knew she was a star. I ju- I ... It's that je ne sais quoi. It's, it's that, it's that magic. It's that essence. I just knew she had all the combination. She was charismatic. She was fun. She was smart. She could figure things out. I could see her brain work. Like, I could ... It's so funny. I was playing this game Sequence
24:12 – 26:00
Who Deserves Your Time and Guidance
1. AAAnjula Acharia
  with a bunch of my friends once, and Payal walks in, andShe just, like, wins a game in one second.
2. JSJay Shetty
  [laughs]
3. AAAnjula Acharia
  We didn't even teach her how to play the game.
4. JSJay Shetty
  [laughs]
5. AAAnjula Acharia
  Like, and I was just like, "How did you do that?" She goes, "I don't know. You told me I need to make a sequence, and I did it." She's just so brilliant. Like, her brain is so brilliant, and I saw that. It's like I could literally see the wheels turning in her mind.
6. JSJay Shetty
  [laughs]
7. AAAnjula Acharia
  So I think it's a combination of things. And like I say, it's very hard. It's, it's so instinctual. Like, so much my career has been about instinct. Like, and for, for me, it's just instinct.
8. JSJay Shetty
  I wanted to talk about instinct because I love what you said about the idea that you never had a map.
9. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah.
10. JSJay Shetty
  And-
11. AAAnjula Acharia
  Never
12. JSJay Shetty
  ... I completely agree with that for my life.
13. AAAnjula Acharia
  You probably never had one either, mate.
14. JSJay Shetty
  I, I don't, you don't get... You don't do what I'm doing if there's no map-
15. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah
16. JSJay Shetty
  ... for this because it didn't even exist.
17. AAAnjula Acharia
  Correct.
18. JSJay Shetty
  Same with you. Like, there's no map for this, and there's not many case studies to be able to have a map, right? A map is when someone's scaled a company from this to this and that to that, and it's been done before. But when you're doing things that you're kind of finding your own way, I love that you said you followed your instinct. And you definitely, from the amount of time I've spent with you, I feel that with you, and you always follow it regardless of what's going on. Talk to me about how you built up trust in your instinct, because I think everyone's looking for a map. And what you said earlier, you said people need goals because you need something out there to drive you. Instinct is you driving yourself from here. It's almost like inside out rather than outside in. Where did you learn to find your instinct, listen to your instinct, drive from that instinct? Where did that come from?
19. AAAnjula Acharia
  The whole mapless piece, I just didn't have a choice. So then I had to make decisions through my life. And they w- I don't know, they were just made through instinct because I didn't know how else to make decisions. But one thing I will tell you, which is a brilliant piece of advice that I've lived my life on, um, but it came later in life, so it doesn't answer your question
26:00 – 32:06
The Skill of Trusting Your Own Instincts
1. AAAnjula Acharia
  exactly because I sta- I started working with my instinct way before this. But Jimmy Iovine always said to me, I said to him, "You know, you're so brilliant at seeing around corners. How do you see around corners? How do you know what's coming next?" And he looked at me and he said, "It's the thing that you do." And I go, "What do I do? I don't know what I do. [laughs] What do I do?" And he said, "You use your ears in relation to your mouth. So you have two ears, and you have one mouth." And I was like, "Okay." And he goes, "I've watched you. You listen. You listen a lot." He said, "You say a lot, and you do a lot," he said, "but you actually listen more than you do or say." And he was like, "You have to listen to the constant conversations that are happening." So one of the other reasons why I invested in ClassPass, our dear friend Rohan Oza, who we both know, um, he walked into my apartment one day, and he was like, "Oh, I just went to SoulCycle. It's, like, amazing." And I was like, "SoulCycle? What's SoulCycle?" And he was like, "You know what SoulCycle is? Anj, everyone's quitting the gyms and going to SoulCycle." And I was like, "Oh, okay." And then it was at that time that people were literally quitting gyms and going to Barry's Bootcamp and going to these, like, appointment-
2. JSJay Shetty
  Yes
3. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... you know, fitness classes. I was like, "Oh, that's so interesting." And everyone was like, "I'm going to POPFIZIK. I'm going to Barry's Bootcamp. I'm going to this, I'm going to that." So when Payal came to me with this OpenTable for classes, that ti- at that time, the way people were finding classes were they were literally calling up the class provider.
4. JSJay Shetty
  Wow. Really?
5. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah. Like you would-
6. JSJay Shetty
  Wow
7. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... a restaurant.
8. JSJay Shetty
  Wow.
9. AAAnjula Acharia
  Like back in the day before there was OpenTable or Resy, you would be calling up-
10. JSJay Shetty
  Calling the restaurant
11. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... a restaurant.
12. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah, yeah.
13. AAAnjula Acharia
  Right. Seeing what availability they had. So when Payal-
14. JSJay Shetty
  God, I forgot about... I'm gonna completely-
15. AAAnjula Acharia
  Right
16. JSJay Shetty
  ... it's crazy how quick things change.
17. AAAnjula Acharia
  So when Payal said to me, "Oh yeah, you know, it's basically a platform. It's kind of like OpenTable for classes," that was exactly what she said to me. And, and literally, like, days before, Rohan, Rohan had been in my apartment going on about everyone's going to classes. And then I'd just moved to New York, and I was trying to find a gym, and I was like, "Should I join Equinox?" And everyone was like, "No, no, no. Just go to these classes. Go to this, go to that." Like, so again, like, that's just me listening.
18. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
19. AAAnjula Acharia
  You know? So-
20. JSJay Shetty
  That's great
21. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... so when I made that decision to invest in Payal, it was, like, me just doing a lot of listening and my instinct going, "All the clues are telling you yes." And there was another time that happened. When I first started working with Priyanka, I signed her, uh, to a record label with Jimmy Iovine, and we were gonna turn her into a pop star. And, you know, we did a bunch of records, and, you know, it just wasn't hitting. It wasn't working. As he kept telling me, we were, like, 22... 20 years too early. That's what he said. He was like, the whole sort of South Asian music scene, he was like, "I get what you wanna do, but you're 20 years too early."
22. JSJay Shetty
  He's probably right about that timeline, isn't he?
23. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah. It, it, this was, like, nearly 20 years ago. So with Priyanka, like... So, you know, people were like, "Oh, well, that's done then. That's not gonna work. She should go back to India and whatever." And I was like, "No, this woman is, like, a- one of our most celebrated actresses in India." Like, you know, she was incredible. And at that time, I started listening to conversations. What was everybody talking about? And everybody at that time was talking about How to Get Away with Murder and Grey's Anatomy and all of these, like, um, uh, Scandal, and all of these m- shows where, you know, they were, they had these diverse female leads. And it was, like, the golden age of television, and television was coming back. And you had Academy Award-winning actors acting in TV, which was previous to that considered, like-
24. JSJay Shetty
  Totally
25. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... down there.
26. JSJay Shetty
  Absolutely.
27. AAAnjula Acharia
  You know what I mean? So it was this huge cultural shift happening with television. So, you know, I pitched Pri about doing a TV show, and at first she was really, like, not into it. She was like, [laughs] "You know, I'm, I'm a movie actress."
28. JSJay Shetty
  [laughs]
29. AAAnjula Acharia
  Like, "You know, we do movies." And in her mind was TV in India was X. But, you know, like I said, we were in this, like, massive global shift where TV and, it b- was, was in this different place. So anyway, I convinced her to, uh, to, to go, and we auditioned for Quantico, and eventually she got it, and that became her show. And that was an ABC drama where I'd convinced the casting director that, um, this was her next female, uh, diverse lead. So but again, if I hadn't been listening to what everyone was talking about, I wouldn't have had the instinct to go, "We're not gonna do any more music. We're gonna go and hit television."
30. JSJay Shetty
  You explained that so well. That, that is a great piece of advice because I always think about it as there's three types of people. There's the people that consume patterns, there's the people who see patterns, and then the people who create patterns. And it's almost like most of us are just watching. So we're watching the shows. We're going to SoulCycle.
32:06 – 37:54
How to Make Anyone Say Yes
1. AAAnjula Acharia
  I didn't wanna be poor. That was also a big driver for me. I was like, "I don't wanna be poor and be trying to go from audition to audition when there's very limited roles for me, so I wanna be a rich businesswoman." I never actually decided at that point I wanted to be in, in, in the movies or in talent or anything like that. I just wanted to be in business. But one thing I will say to you is that whole, like, improv has just been amazing at just allowing myself to be thrown into any situation and be able to swim in it. Like, and if I didn't, like, know what I was doing, I would fake it. And I know there's a lot of controversy around that, and I'm sure you guys have discussed it, and I'm sure you've had people on your show say that is a terrible thing to do. But I did fake it, and it started with my body language. It started with my, the way I speak. It started with all these, you know, small cues that you pick up from people. Like, n- it's so funny, like, even just this, like, the way I'm sitting right now, like, this is my innate comfort. I'm, I'm very comfortable with you. I'm sitting with all my body language is open. My legs are crossed, however. But when I was, you know, in early business situations where I didn't feel confident, you know, how I'd wanna be was like this. Like, I would wanna be all closed up. But I would force my shoulders back. I'd force my arms out. I would, you know, sometimes do this 'cause that's just a sign of confidence, like, you f- you, you feel good in your own skin.
2. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah, I felt it immediately when you did that.
3. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah, yeah.
4. JSJay Shetty
  I was like, "Wow, that, that's crazy."
5. AAAnjula Acharia
  It's so funny. I mean, I've also-
6. JSJay Shetty
  It's so silly and it's so crazy.
7. AAAnjula Acharia
  It's ridiculous, isn't it?
8. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah. It, it doesn't-
9. AAAnjula Acharia
  And for women, it's such an easy thing to do.
10. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah, yeah.
11. AAAnjula Acharia
  It's kinda like, yeah-
12. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah
13. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... I could take it or leave it.
14. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
15. AAAnjula Acharia
  Like, that's basically what I'm saying.
16. JSJay Shetty
  Feels very confident, yeah.
17. AAAnjula Acharia
  But the way to convince people, well, it's a couple of things. Like, so, you know, I've raised a lot of money through my career for other people, for myself, for different projects. I'm, I- honestly, I'm sort of a bit of a ultimate fundraiser. And someone gave me this piece of advice very early on, and they said, "If you wanna raise money, ask for advice, and if you want advice, ask for money." And I used that through my whole life. So I never-
18. JSJay Shetty
  Say that again. That's so good.
19. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah. If you want money, ask for advice, and if you want advice, ask for money because basically you'll get the opposite.
20. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
21. AAAnjula Acharia
  So now, now, now people are gonna watch this and go, "Oh, she was selling to me that time."
22. JSJay Shetty
  [laughs]
23. AAAnjula Acharia
  Okay, there are times when I sold to people using that technique.
24. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
25. AAAnjula Acharia
  But the truth is, like, now I'm at this point where I can't help raising money. Like, literally, like, I just talk to people, and they're, like, offering me money all the time. It's so insane. For any venture, any idea, I'll go, "I had this idea," and they're like, "Do you wanna raise money for that?" And I'm like, "No, I don't [laughs] wanna raise money for that."
26. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah. Yeah.
27. AAAnjula Acharia
  But the point is, is, like, you've really just got to be so passionate and curious about what that person's interested in. So I'm ... Sorry, I'm trying to go back to the question of how, how are you convincing. How am I convincing? So first off, I'll figure out what you're interested in. Like, I will never talk to some- someone about something that I don't think they're interested in.
28. JSJay Shetty
  Such an important point, yeah.
29. AAAnjula Acharia
  And I will also test things, right? So again, I'm a really good, like, body, uh ... What's that called? Body reader? No, uh-
30. JSJay Shetty
  Body language
37:54 – 41:27
The Bet That Brought a Global Star to Hollywood
1. AAAnjula Acharia
  just saw her on TV at my mom's house in England, and I j- I don't know, this thing, it clearly it was my destiny because I just go to my mom, "Oh, who's that?" And my mom goes, "That's Priyanka Chopra, and she's, like, this huge star in India," blah, blah, blah. And I just filed it away 'cause I was in tech, I was doing a bunch of other things. I hadn't even founded Desi Hits at that point. Like, it was way before.
2. JSJay Shetty
  Wow.
3. AAAnjula Acharia
  And I just filed it away. Anyway, years later, I'm sitting in an office with Jimmy Iovine, and we'd just done all the music for Slumdog Millionaire, and it was top 10 in 10 countries, and it was, like, this big global hit, and he was so happy, and he was like, "I," he was like, "I listened to you and it worked." And he was like, he's ... It was just, he's, he's that guy. He's, like, full of, like, life and, uh, ambition. He was like, "What are we doing next?" And I just go, "Jimmy, you know there's this woman, Priyanka Chopra, that I saw on TV ages ago, and she's this huge star and blah, blah, blah." And we start YouTubing videos of her. And he goes, "Can she sing?" And randomly at that time, I was launching Lady Gaga in India.
4. JSJay Shetty
  Wow.
5. AAAnjula Acharia
  And I was working with these two, um, uh, producers, Suleiman Suleiman, and they had just recorded a demo with Priyanka randomly. Again, it was all destiny. I feel like this is all destiny. I said to them, "Oh, do you know Priyanka?" And they were like, "Of course." And I was like, "Do you think she can sing?" And they were like, "Actually, we just recorded this demo." So I go, "Do you mind sending it to me?" And they were like, "No, we can't really do that," blah, blah, blah. And I, and I, I don't know, I convinced them-
6. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah
7. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... 'cause I'm convincing, to send it to me, and I promised them it would only be me that would listen to it, and maybe one other person. So I send it to Jimmy, and he goes, "Well, she can sing." And he goes, "Let's just do it." And I go, "What do you mean let's just do it?" He goes, "Well, let's sign her to a record deal." And I go, "I don't even know her." [laughs]
8. JSJay Shetty
  [laughs]
9. AAAnjula Acharia
  And through, like, different people, actually I think it was through Suleim, I got to her. And I, yeah, I remember doing this phone call with her, and it was the worst phone call ever. She was in this jungle recording this movie, and she was in that very actor state of mind where she didn't want this young girl from America with this English accent trying to convince her to be a pop star. Like-
10. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah
11. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... she wasn't that, she wasn't the frame of mind she was in.
12. JSJay Shetty
  Totally, totally. Yeah.
13. AAAnjula Acharia
  So anyway, I was trying to convince her to be a pop star, and I was like, "Hey, look, I'd love to sign you. I'd love you to bring you to America," blah, blah, blah. She barely said anything on that call. So I put the phone down, I call Jimmy, and he goes, "How did it go?" I go, "Terrible. Like, I just talked and talked and talked, and I, you know, I think she had very little to say to me." And anyway, I don't know, I get a call later from her manager at that time, uh, Natasha Pal, and she was like, "Yeah, Priyanka's in." And I was like, "What?" She was like, "Priyanka's in." And that was the one time that I feel like my sales was terrible. I didn't ask her any questions. I was so nervous to talk to her, and I just talked at her. But I don't know, something worked.
14. JSJay Shetty
  [laughs] It worked.
15. AAAnjula Acharia
  It worked.
16. JSJay Shetty
  It worked all these years later. How does it feel, you know, when we think back to that little girl who was bullied for her culture, for her background, for how she looked, and then to go on to work on helping that culture be so prominently displayed in so many different art forms, whether that's music through Slumdog Millionaire or businesses like ClassPass or, you know, Priyanka Chopra in movies and TV in America? Like, how does that feel now?
17. AAAnjula Acharia
  You know, it's so funny. Someone said something to me the other day about this, and they were like, "Oh, you were never trying to fit in. You wanted people to fit into your culture." Like, I remember Lady Gaga, we put her in a sari. She came to India, and she loved this sari. It was made
41:27 – 43:55
The Moment You Stop Trying to Belong
1. AAAnjula Acharia
  by Tarun Tahiliani, and she loved it so much that she turned it into four different costumes. So she performed that eve- she wore it in the day, then she had a stylist chop it up and turn it into something else. Then they chopped it up again, turned it into something else, and at the end it was a bodysuit that she performed in. And I remember she was coming off stage and she held my hands and she goes, "How did I do?" And I was just like, "My God." Like, "How did you do? You're amazing." But I remember just being like, she's here in India with me wearing a sari that has now turned into a bodysuit. But it was just this evolution of this outfit was just kind of the evolution of my journey of, of bringing this culture to everyone. And I always believed that if celebrities, I do believe in celebrity endorsement, it works. If celebrities endorsed our culture, and it's ... I know a lot of people criticize me for this and say, "You shouldn't need that endorsement from other people, and you shouldn't need this." But when you've been bullied your entire life and called a Paki and beaten up and spat on and all sorts of things, yeah, you do. I'm sorry. I needed that. And I just, like, in that moment just felt like, I don't need it anymore. Now I'm good. Now I've got all of you guys to be in my culture versus me spending my whole life being in your culture.
2. JSJay Shetty
  Mm.
3. AAAnjula Acharia
  You know what I mean? And-
4. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah
5. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... it's funny, like, I was talking to a friend of mine. He was just saying to me, like, "It's just amazing how you've spent your life really bringing people into your culture versus trying to figure out how to be in theirs."
6. JSJay Shetty
  Mm. Yeah.
7. AAAnjula Acharia
  You know?
8. JSJay Shetty
  And, and, and, and I love that because I think that is the only way of doing it, and, uh, you wanna be on the same page where your culture and someone else's culture's more evident. Like, it's, it's more present, whereas you're absolutely right. And I feel like for, for people in America it was even harder. For s- when I meet, when I met-
9. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah
10. JSJay Shetty
  ... and you probably felt that, when I met South Asians in America, I realized that they'd had no representation, whereas in England we started to see things, because of people like yourself and others, we had p- things like BBC Asia Network. We had, uh-Artists that were rising. We had all of that, at that time at least.
11. AAAnjula Acharia
  Correct.
12. JSJay Shetty
  And in America, they didn't have that, and they're only 4% of the population. So it was such a small group of people that any room you walked into, people didn't know whether you were, what background you were from.
13. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah.
14. JSJay Shetty
  Right? Like, being-
15. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah, yeah
16. JSJay Shetty
  ... Indian in England was still known, but being Indian here wasn't... Like, people didn't really know what that was.
17. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah. When we first came to America, um,
43:55 – 46:05
Turning Culture Into Global Influence
1. AAAnjula Acharia
  one of the things that we noticed was you either had Indian kids that were mad into Bollywood and were really Desi, right? And the, they were called FOBS, like people called them FOBS, fresh off the boat. And they were really like, you know, really Indian. And I wouldn't say that I really related to them because I was very British and also very Indian, but blah, blah, blah. Anyway, and then you had these kids that completely shunned the culture-
2. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah
3. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... and just completely embraced American culture, and I was somewhere in between. And I wanted to find a pathway for tho- for them to meet in the middle, and Desi Hits was very much about that. I was like, all these kids that like, you know... And if I'm mashing up, like, hip hop with Bollywood, or I'm mashing up Bhangra with, you know, I don't know, whatever type of music, that's where that meeting happens. So that was really sort of a, an observation that I had very early on, and I wanted to bring those worlds together for, even for Indian kids.
4. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah. But knowing you, I know you don't feel the job is done.
5. AAAnjula Acharia
  No, not at all.
6. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
7. AAAnjula Acharia
  I mean, do you? [laughs]
8. JSJay Shetty
  No, definitely. [laughs]
9. AAAnjula Acharia
  Do you feel our job is done?
10. JSJay Shetty
  Of course, no. Of course not. Of course not.
11. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah, no, I definitely don't think that our job is done. Um, I mean, I won't until everything just feels completely normal, and I think we still thi- see things that are South Asian and go, "Oh my God, look at that. Look at that." You know what I mean? We're still, like, surprised when we see things.
12. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
13. AAAnjula Acharia
  We shouldn't be surprised. We should feel completely integrated-
14. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah, absolutely
15. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... and as one.
16. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah. What's a business skill that you think everyone listening should master if they wanna be successful in business?
17. AAAnjula Acharia
  I think really, like, learning to communicate ideas.
18. JSJay Shetty
  Mm.
19. AAAnjula Acharia
  You know, throughout my entire career and having people pitch to me and, you know, you have to become masterful at, at pitching your ideas in a way that is not boring, is not all-consuming, which is not all about you. But again, going back to that thing I said to you about finding out what someone's interested in, like, you've just got to be really good at a two-way path, you know? I think the biggest issue that I see young entrepreneurs or young people in business, they think everything is one way, and it has to be a two-way highway. And then the other thing that I think
46:05 – 48:40
Saying What You Mean So People Actually Listen
1. AAAnjula Acharia
  people really need to juggle... So you're, you're interesting because I think you're part of this new group of what we call mu- multipreneurs, where these... So there used to be this whole thing that you do one thing, you have one goal, you pursue that one goal, and you do that one thing. I think times have really changed. I think the indus- the industries have changed, where you can now be doing multiple things. So you're the CEO of Junie, right? You're a podcast host. You could tomorrow be an actor. You could be tomorrow do a million things, right? But that doesn't mean you give up each thing to do that other thing.
2. JSJay Shetty
  Yes.
3. AAAnjula Acharia
  And I think that's the world we're in now, where you don't have to give up what you were doing to become this new thing. You can do it all. I have a music label. I have an investment company. I, you know, do so... I, I mentor people. I, I actually am a founder for two businesses. Like, I do so many things, and I think that you also, in this new world, have to be used to being, like, a five la- lane highway.
4. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
5. AAAnjula Acharia
  And I think people that are a five-lane highway and have cars in different lanes going at different speeds, and maybe one hasn't even started yet, be okay with that. Like, don't... Like, this old rhetoric of, "You gotta do one thing, and you gotta do that one thing, and you gotta have one goal, and you gotta be focused on it." You know, one of the failures I think I had, which, again, Payal taught me out of the whole pivot thing, was, like, when I first started one of my companies, I was so adamant that I had to reach this one goal, and if I, you know, I couldn't pivot. I had to stay focused, and if I just stayed on that one thing, eventually it would work. Well, that's the biggest lie ever. That's not true at all. You have to read the room. You have to see what's going on around you, and you have to pivot. You can't be focused on one thing all the time. So I think, like, being successful in today's world is really l- learning that. I always say be the, be the five-lane highway.
6. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. I, I feel like it's almost like you start with one thing that allows you to become somewhat... And it, and it's, that's the point. It's not becoming at the end of it, but it's like you build one thing somewhat substantiating who you are and what you're doing, and then you get this ability to spread yourself across these multiple things and become that multi-hyphenate. And, and I think you're right that that idea of just stay to one thing or just start with everything is also confusing because-
7. AAAnjula Acharia
  Correct
8. JSJay Shetty
  ... if people just do seven things in the beginning, it's like, well-
9. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah
10. JSJay Shetty
  ... what are, what are you communicating? What do you actually believe in?
11. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
12. JSJay Shetty
  And what's working? So you're right. It's somewhere in the middle of... Like, like, I feel like that. Like, I start, my world has been built in content and podcasting and social media, and now I have the ability to do lots of different things because
48:40 – 51:01
What’s Really Changing in Film Right Now
1. JSJay Shetty
  of that. Or when you have an actor who becomes a very successful actor, now they have the ability to go and build a business or, you know, do something else. And so I, I think you're right.
2. AAAnjula Acharia
  And by the way, to that point of a talent manager now. Before, you know, you took talent managers that just managed an actor and getting that person jobs. Now, as a talent manager, you gotta be building businesses.
3. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
4. AAAnjula Acharia
  You've gotta be figuring out brand deals. You've gotta be, like, doing so many things because, you know, I can't remember who just went out and said this. I think it was Sydney Sweeney recently. She was like, "You know, the films don't pay the bills." You know? The films just don't pay the bills anymore. Like, the whole industry, the movie industry with streaming and everything has changed. Like, residuals and royalties and all of those are wiped out now. Like, the way the business is is so different. So that means you have to do, like, all these other things, you know?And what we've seen is, like, um, you know, huge stars making more money off, like, their beauty business-
5. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah
6. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... than anything else, right?
7. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
8. AAAnjula Acharia
  Like-
9. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah
10. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... so, um, like-
11. JSJay Shetty
  You look at someone like Rihanna.
12. AAAnjula Acharia
  Correct, yeah.
13. JSJay Shetty
  And you're like, you're like, "Wow."
14. AAAnjula Acharia
  Or, or what's her name? Um, Selena Gomez.
15. JSJay Shetty
  Selena Gomez, yeah.
16. AAAnjula Acharia
  I mean, like, actor, singer, entrepreneur, Rare Beauty. I mean, like, it's in- incredible. And I think as a talent manager now, like, I mean, I'm lucky because I came from that world. My background was venture and venture capital, and, like, um, and, and founders and, you know, helping people build businesses and all of that. And then prior to that, my experience was in advertising, and prior to that, I was in sales. So for me, like, as a talent manager, I'm not struggling at all. I'm actually really lucky and happy that I get to use all my skill bases with talent. But I think now, like, everybody has to be on this, as I say, fa- five la- lane highway.
17. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah. How early did you get involved in Bumble?
18. AAAnjula Acharia
  Oh my God. You know, it's so funny. You know, everyone's posting those things right now about what were you doing in 2016.
19. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
20. AAAnjula Acharia
  Well, it's the craziest story 'cause in 2016, both Whitney Wolfe and I were on the Elle Magazine's Women in Tech. And I remember, again, that whole thing about listening and watching and observing. I remember looking at her and reading about Bumble because we were both in that magazine and going, "Oh, that's, like, brilliant." Like, she's brilliant. Like, I... And actually much later on in the journey when she wanted to expand to India was when, was when I got involved, and Pri was the, the face of that.
21. JSJay Shetty
  Wow.
22. AAAnjula Acharia
  Priyanka-
23. JSJay Shetty
  That's very cool
24. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... was the face of that. And it, yeah, it was amazing. Like, what was interesting it was all the other dating
51:01 – 52:12
Why Bumble Was More Than Just a Bet
1. AAAnjula Acharia
  apps had been really unsuccessful in launching in India in getting the female demographic on, on the apps. And actually, that's been the case for India in general where, whether it's Facebook, Instagram, whatever, all of these platforms have really struggled to get women onto the apps. So what she w- was already coming with was this very strong female story, which allowed that to happen. And you wanna hear the funniest thing? Priyanka's brother met his wife on Bumble.
2. JSJay Shetty
  No way.
3. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah. [laughs] Yeah, yeah.
4. JSJay Shetty
  That's so cool. I love that.
5. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah, yeah.
6. JSJay Shetty
  That's awesome. What are you seeing... You, you gave this brilliant principle earlier of the question you asked Jimmy Iovine. I wanna ask you, what, what do you see around the corner now? Like, what are the patterns, what are the sequences you're noticing now that young entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs of all ages who are listening right now could be like, "Oh, she's just given me an insight into what's happening"?
7. AAAnjula Acharia
  I mean, the thing is now it's all AI, right? That's the future, and I think what's super interesting and challenging and, and scary for a lot of people is that I think a lot of these, the influence is gonna go away. And I was working with this company that was telling me that they had tens of thousands of AI influencers that they spread across basically social media channels
52:12 – 55:39
The Unexpected Rise of AI Influencers
1. AAAnjula Acharia
  to sell products. So I feel like the future is really gonna be in AI and how we consume based on AI influencers. And the thing is, a lot of what you see, I don't know how much time you spend on Instagram or, or TikTok, but a lot of what you see is actually AI-
2. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah, yeah
3. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... and you don't even know it.
4. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
5. AAAnjula Acharia
  You know? So-
6. JSJay Shetty
  I mean, there's so... I, I've seen some of those AI influencers.
7. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah.
8. JSJay Shetty
  It's scary how many followers they have-
9. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah
10. JSJay Shetty
  ... already, how many comments they get, how real some of them look, and at the same time, you know they're not human, but people are still following them, and I find-
11. AAAnjula Acharia
  Well-
12. JSJay Shetty
  ... that fascinating.
13. AAAnjula Acharia
  Well, the reason that people still follow them is because they've hacked the algorithm and data, and they know exactly what people are interested in.
14. JSJay Shetty
  Totally.
15. AAAnjula Acharia
  Again, it goes back to, like, my whole thing of, like, figuring out what someone's interested in before you try and sell them something, right? The, these, these AI, um, influencers have all the data to know what people are interested in, so they'll serve you exactly what you're interested in. Scary world.
16. JSJay Shetty
  What, what does that mean for the era of talent, celebrity, talent management? Like, do you plan on having an AI talent management company where you only manage AI people? Like-
17. AAAnjula Acharia
  Oh. You know what I would like to see? I would like to see a time when talent owns their data and talent, uh, that, that creates all of these AI influencers, but also talent can create their own AI influencers based on them. You know, whether it's their alter ego or whether it's actually them, I would just like to see models of ownership be created. This is coming whether we like it or not.
18. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
19. AAAnjula Acharia
  This is happening.
20. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah, yeah, for sure.
21. AAAnjula Acharia
  Right? So how do you get ahead of it, and how do you build for a future, you know, where that's gonna happen? I mean, look, talent, if you think about it, is, like, in a really interesting place anyway because you've got all these, like, A-list actors who, um, you know, didn't know that all these influencers were gonna come along and destabilize their business.
22. JSJay Shetty
  Totally.
23. AAAnjula Acharia
  Right?
24. JSJay Shetty
  Totally, yeah.
25. AAAnjula Acharia
  Like, before, it was like you were one of a number of actors who would get all of the endorsement deals.
26. JSJay Shetty
  Absolutely.
27. AAAnjula Acharia
  Now, I have companies that tell me that they don't even want people to endorse their company because they'd rather work with micro-influencers-
28. JSJay Shetty
  Yes, yes
29. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... because that's how they actually see product move.
30. JSJay Shetty
  Yes.
55:39 – 56:45
Using AI to Multiply Your Impact
1. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... you know, I could, you know, whatever my interest is or what I, whatever I want to do, I can build a business off of that with very little resource of myself using AI, like, and monetize that. So, like, I think, you know, the most critical thing is just having, for talent, is to have really smart people around them that can help them figure out how they use what they haveAnd use AI to scale it
2. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah. Out of all the businesses you've scaled, built, invested in, what has been the critical reasons for success or failure?
3. AAAnjula Acharia
  It's always down to the founder.
4. JSJay Shetty
  Really?
5. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah. It's always down to that individual. Always. The founder is everything. Like, you know, their instinct, their, um, decision-making, their desire to shift or not shift or move, their ability to raise money, their ability to influence people. Yeah, it's always the founder. And that's the thing, like often I've invested in founders where I've said, "I don't even think this is the right thing." And actually, Jimmy taught me this. They... I've said to founders, "I don't think what you're building
56:45 – 58:13
The Hidden Reason Most Businesses Collapse
1. AAAnjula Acharia
  is the right thing, but I believe in you, and you're gonna be brilliant, and you're gonna do something amazing." And I just see that in that founder. When I first founded Desi Hits, this is such a crazy story. Jimmy gave me millions of dollars, and two weeks later, I've told this story a few times, I'm sitting at lunch with him and Jay-Z, and he tells me the business is gonna fail. And I said, "Oh." I was so embarrassed. You can imagine, [laughs] like you're sitting with Jay-Z and Jimmy Iovine, and he tells you your business is gonna fail, and I was, like so embarrassed and, and flustered and surprised, and I didn't know what to say. And I just said, "So why did you give me money, then?" And he goes, "'Cause you're an album, not a single." And he goes, "This is your first single. It's not gonna work. But that's okay, I wanna be in business with you."
2. JSJay Shetty
  Wow.
3. AAAnjula Acharia
  It's... So it comes down to the founder. It comes down to the talent.
4. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
5. AAAnjula Acharia
  It's all about talent.
6. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah. You've, you, I mean, you've built these amazing relationships where it feels like so much incredible wisdom and, and also great mentorship-
7. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah
8. JSJay Shetty
  ... that people have taught you so much. Obviously, you're, you're sharing-
9. AAAnjula Acharia
  But by the way, I'm in the market for a new mentor.
10. JSJay Shetty
  [laughs]
11. AAAnjula Acharia
  I know. I really am, so if there's anyone out there-
12. JSJay Shetty
  Really? [laughs]
13. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... that wants to mentor me... Yeah. I feel like I'm at a different stage of my life, and I want a mentor.
14. JSJay Shetty
  Really?
15. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah.
16. JSJay Shetty
  The mentor has to pick you, so, you know.
17. AAAnjula Acharia
  Exactly.
18. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
19. AAAnjula Acharia
  That's why I'm putting it out there. [laughs]
20. JSJay Shetty
  You're putting it out there on the podcast.
21. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah.
22. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah, here we go. We're gonna manifest.
23. AAAnjula Acharia
  I mean, what a platform to put it out on.
24. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah, yeah, we're gonna manifest.
25. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah.
26. JSJay Shetty
  I love... But that's such a great... I mean, even you saying that is so beautiful because it just shows just that coachability, that humility, that starting from the bottom, that, you know, that, that needs to be there constantly.
27. AAAnjula Acharia
  Always.
28. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
29. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah.
30. JSJay Shetty
  Always.
58:13 – 1:00:18
Starting Over Without Fear
1. AAAnjula Acharia
  h- highway, which is my new thing right now-
2. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah, I like it
3. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... is, is like, you know, all of those cars are going at different speeds, but not all of those cars have a mentor-
4. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah
5. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... you know?
6. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
7. AAAnjula Acharia
  Have an instructor.
8. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
9. AAAnjula Acharia
  Like, they're... I'm doing new things all the time, and I'm not afraid of that. That's my-
10. JSJay Shetty
  Same
11. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... you know, I know. I see that in you.
12. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
13. AAAnjula Acharia
  Like, you're doing new things all the time, and I, I watch you, and I'm like, "I love that." Like, you're starting a drink brand. You know, you're doing, like this, you're doing that, and that's the thing. I wanna be surrounded by people that do that, but then that means I'm always doing something new, and I need mentorship. Like, I don't think we're, we'll ever be done there.
14. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah, absolutely. And that's actually what creates so much joy in life because you're meeting new people, you're in a completely different room, you're in a completely different environment, and it's... I, I constantly, like, one thing I sign off a lot of my stuff with is, "This is just the beginning." And I love repeating that to myself so many times because it's, it's such a fresh... There's something about the beginning that is so exciting.
15. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah.
16. JSJay Shetty
  And it's like if you always stay connected to that feeling, life just continues to not... You don't get jaded. You don't get bitter. You don't get slowed. You just constantly feel this zest for life, and I feel that with you. Like, as someone who's had so many successful business, like even sitting with you today, whenever we talk, you're always just so passionate and excited about stuff. And I'm like, "That's amazing to have had so much success but still be that way." What do you think is the key to you not having become jaded or bitter with the business, or sometimes people will be like, "Investors are like this, and stakeholders are like," like, like what allowed you to rise above that negativity?
17. AAAnjula Acharia
  That's such a good question. I mean, don't get me wrong. I wanna be really clear 'cause I don't want people to listen to this and be like, "She's always happy," and blah, blah, blah. Not always happy. Like, you know, I have my de- I, I've had moments of mass depression, and I have had moments of having to pick myself up, like, o- off the ground, having complete, like, feeling like I have nothing, and I'm happy to talk about those moments. In the joyous moments, I think it's just the excitement to do something new all the time. Like, by the way, you ask such deep questions. Um, like, yeah, I th- I think it's just the desire to be doing new things and, and challenging myself even though that is really scary. Like, I have moments where, you, you said something in a podcast
1:00:18 – 1:03:58
Staying Steady When Everyone Doubts You
1. AAAnjula Acharia
  about, like whenever you're doing something new, you feel like an imposter.
2. JSJay Shetty
  Yes.
3. AAAnjula Acharia
  I feel like an imposter most of the time.
4. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
5. AAAnjula Acharia
  Because I'm always doing something new.
6. JSJay Shetty
  Same.
7. AAAnjula Acharia
  So I always feel like what right do I have to be in this room? What right do I have to be, you know, doing this? But then when I look at all the entrepreneurs, like, ah, this is it. I've got the answer to your question. What really, really inspires me is that you can topple massive industries and businesses with a new lens. So I always use Palas, this example, right? Because she's gonna listen to this and be like, "Oh my God, they're just talking about me."
8. JSJay Shetty
  [laughs]
9. AAAnjula Acharia
  Um, but-
10. JSJay Shetty
  We love you, Pal.
11. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah. [laughs] Seriously.
12. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
13. AAAnjula Acharia
  She disrupted a whole industry, not because she knew the industry, not because she had any experience in it, but she had a different lens on it, and that to me... Wait, wait, I m- I've got goosebumps. So exciting-
14. JSJay Shetty
  Yes. Yeah
15. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... that you can topple a whole industry just 'cause you have a different perspective on it that nobody else had, and you're willing to go out on a limb and say it and do something about it.
16. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah. Absolutely.
17. AAAnjula Acharia
  Like, how exciting is that?
18. JSJay Shetty
  Absolutely.
19. AAAnjula Acharia
  Like, think about all these, like, drinks that have come into the market, like, you know, and have just... Like my, our dear friend Rohan, like who founded Vitaminwater, right? Uh, well, he was one of the founding team. So he, like, saw this opportunity to, to basically, you know, disrupt Coke and the, all the energy drinks and everything they were doing, and he did it, and he sold it to them for like $4 billion. Like, you know, Jimmy, like, disrupted sound with Beats headphones. Like, it's just like, to me, it's like I think that's where all my energy comes from, entrepreneurs that just have a completely different lens on life and, and go with it. And, and then you see them disrupt an entire industry. Like, how can that not excite you? By the way, last thing.
20. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
21. AAAnjula Acharia
  With no experience.
22. JSJay Shetty
  Yes.
23. AAAnjula Acharia
  They do it with no experience.
24. JSJay Shetty
  Yes.
25. AAAnjula Acharia
  The amount of times I hear people say, my nephew said this to me a day ago, "I just wanna stay in this job for two more years, so I get some experience, so that I can then go and do this." I said, "Do it now."
26. JSJay Shetty
  Yes. Yeah.
27. AAAnjula Acharia
  I said, "You don't need any more experience." Like, you need a different lens. You need a different perspective. That's what's gonna make you stand out. You don't need more experience.
28. JSJay Shetty
  Yes. I remember reading a, uh, Saleem Ismail wrote this book called... exponential organizations, and it was in the early days of the rise of Uber, the rise of Airbnb, and he was talking about how Airbnb, in its first five years or 10 years, had access to more real estate than hotel brands that had been around for 50 years, to your point. Or Uber had access to more taxis and drivers than taxi companies had for decades, and it was, like, instantly
29. AAAnjula Acharia
  You know, we used to say this thing in, in sort of, like, tech circles. We used to say this thing where, you know, Airbnb is the biggest hotel company with, like, no hotels.
30. JSJay Shetty
  Yes, yes.
1:03:58 – 1:22:15
The Comeback Mindset After Failure
1. AAAnjula Acharia
  I don't know, McDonald's or something. Like, I just didn't know what the future held after that. And, um, I was also going through a breakdown in my marriage. I was also gone through a journey of infertility. And in every way, whether it was my business, whether it was my marriage, whether it was my body, I felt... And my sister got diagnosed with, uh, multiple sclerosis at that time, and then later breast cancer. In every part of my life, I just felt nothing was working and I was a failure. And I mean, [laughs] just brings back so much emotion, but, like, yeah, I just felt like a total failure. And then, but I also was quite high in my profile. Like, I was in magazines. People were talking about me, and I was doing podcasts. [laughs] So, so I also felt like a massive imposter at that time 'cause I was like, "I don't deserve any of these accolades." You know? I was Billboard Woman in Music, I was this, I was that, and I just helped women in tech. And I was just like, I'd gotten really good at selling to a point where I, I, I didn't believe it myself. I hit rock bottom. I remember sitting in my closet in LA. I'd just crumbled to the floor, and I prayed. Um, I'd started going to this amazing church here.
2. JSJay Shetty
  Mm.
3. AAAnjula Acharia
  It was called One Church LA. It's now called Potter's House, and there was a pastor there, Pastor Touré, who you met briefly.
4. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah, you introduced me to him, yeah.
5. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah. And, um-
6. JSJay Shetty
  Wonderful man
7. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... amazing. And I always say, like, he, like, saved my life. Like, I say at that time, like, he saved my life. And I remember just praying, and this is gonna sound crazy, but I'd never heard God's voice before, um, ever, and I, I didn't think it was possible. And I heard these words which were like, "Nothing's going to change unless you change." And I genuinely, and I see this in a lot of young people, they expect the whole world to change around them, but I'm this and I'm that, and they validate to themselves who they are and what they are and the reason why they shouldn't change, but the whole world should change around them. Everyone's attitude should change, like, for them to be successful, and I was one of those people. I believed that I had this big profile. Yes, my business had failed. Yes, my marriage had failed. Yes, my body had failed. All these things in my life had failed, but I had this profile, so people should come to me and offer me jobs or whatever, and no one was coming. No one was coming to offer me a job. And then with my tail between my legs, I went back to Silicon Valley and started asking people for jobs. And by the way, at that point, I was also managing Priyanka, but she hadn't taken off. I'd spent, like, seven years, you know, working, working, working, and nothing had taken off. Everyone, with any celebrity, everybody always thinks the moment they took off was the moment it started.
8. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
9. AAAnjula Acharia
  But that's, you know, really not the case. Like, you know, you've got managers and talent working for years, and she was... You know, had this very successful career in India, so she was going back and forth, but I was sitting here, like, j- you know, banging away, trying to make something happen. So anyway, it was a really, really tough time. I went back to Silicon Valley with my tail between my legs, and I just, I put my ego away, and I asked for jobs. And eventually, I got an entrepreneur in residence at a fund called Trinity Venture- Ventures, and within a couple of months, they offered me a partner role there, um, which was amazing. But in the meantime, by the way, everyone was offering me money, which I had no idea. People were like, "Well, what's your next business? What's your next idea?" And I'd be like, "Why would anyone trust me with money again?"
10. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
11. AAAnjula Acharia
  And everyone kept telling me that my failure was gonna make me. Like ev- like everyone in Silicon Valley was like, "What are you talking about?" Like, I was so, I was so honest about my vulnerabilities.
12. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
13. AAAnjula Acharia
  I was like, "Why would you give me money when I just had a failed business?" They were like, "Did you not learn something from that?"
14. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
15. AAAnjula Acharia
  "Your next one will be better." And you know, it's so funny, only years later-
16. JSJay Shetty
  That's amazing
17. AAAnjula Acharia
  ... yeah, only years later when... Oh, and then when Priyanka popped, I remember Jimmy called me, and he goes, "I told you you were an album."
18. JSJay Shetty
  [laughs]
19. AAAnjula Acharia
  [laughs] Like, so the hardest thing is when it all comes at once. Like, for me, like, I was going through infertility. I was going through a broken marriage, trying to pull it together. Didn't work. Who, someone I'd been with for, like, 19 years, you know? It wasn't, like, a short-term thing. I'd moved from continents with that person, and now we're amazing friends, and we, you know, we still have an incredible relationship. And then to have a business which was so publicly celebrated, I think that's the hardest thing, right? When something's publicly celebrated and it's failing, and you know it's failing before anyone else does, and you're going out to all these events, and everyone's treating you like this really successful person, and you're like, "I feel like a complete failure right now."
20. JSJay Shetty
  Totally.
21. AAAnjula Acharia
  And yeah, it was just, it all came at once. And then I remember reading this beautiful quote, and it said, "Sometimes you feel like you're buried, but actually you've been planted."
22. JSJay Shetty
  Mm.
23. AAAnjula Acharia
  I definitely was planted. And I remember Pastor Torrey talking about that, saying that you feel buried, but actually you're planted. And yeah, I, I reshifted everything. I let go of my ego. I asked people for things. I asked for help. I told people I was vulnerable. Like, I put everything out there very honestly, which, like, s- three months before, I was a different person.
24. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah.
25. AAAnjula Acharia
  But I decided to change because I'd got that message to change.
26. JSJay Shetty
  Wow.
27. AAAnjula Acharia
  So I changed everything.
28. JSJay Shetty
  Where did you start?
29. AAAnjula Acharia
  I started by asking people for jobs, and then sadly, you know, I separated from my husband. That was the first... That was separation. I changed everything. I uprooted everything. Um, I lived in my friend's basement for three months. Everything changed, my surroundings, me, everything. I stripped myself down to nothing.
30. JSJay Shetty
  I mean, that sounds like the most difficult, and at the same time, as you said, planted moment. Where, like, you're literally going through this moment where you're stripping away, changing everything, which is so unsettling to the identity because you're like, "Wait, my self-worth was I was married. My self-worth was I was a successful entrepreneur. My self-worth was maybe I'd be a mum one day," or, you know, whatever.
1:22:15 – 1:24:52
Anjula on Final Five
1. AAAnjula Acharia
  used... Yeah, I used to really value what people would say about me, and now I don't so much.
2. JSJay Shetty
  Question number four, what's something that you didn't value before that you deeply value now?
3. AAAnjula Acharia
  My alone time.
4. JSJay Shetty
  Interesting.
5. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah, my alone time used to scare me so much. I used to hate being alone, and I think that's a lot of childhood trauma and a lot of things. Sorry to use one sentence.
6. JSJay Shetty
  Oh, please.
7. AAAnjula Acharia
  But, um, yeah, now I, I, I really love it. Now it's something I crave.
8. JSJay Shetty
  That's a beautiful thing to get comfortable with, isn't it? That time on your own.
9. AAAnjula Acharia
  It's taken me forever. [laughs]
10. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah. Well, you're doing good. [laughs]
11. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah, finally.
12. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah. Uh, fifth and final question we ask this to every guest who's ever been on the show, if you could create one law that everyone in the world had to follow, what would it be?
13. AAAnjula Acharia
  To approach everything with love and kindness.
14. JSJay Shetty
  Yeah, the golden rule, mate.
15. AAAnjula Acharia
  I bet everyone says that, right?
16. JSJay Shetty
  No.
17. AAAnjula Acharia
  Oh. [laughs]
18. JSJay Shetty
  No, no, no, no, no.
19. AAAnjula Acharia
  Okay, good.
20. JSJay Shetty
  No.
21. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah. Imagine the world, how it would be if everyone approached everything with love and kindness.
22. JSJay Shetty
  Totally. Totally. And, and I think that's actually goes back to what we talked about. The reason why we struggle to approach other people with love and kindness is because we don't know how to be with ourselves with love and kindness.
23. AAAnjula Acharia
  Totally, yeah.
24. JSJay Shetty
  And because we're harsh on ourselves, we're harsh on everyone outside of ourselves. So all of that pain is coming from within. It's not coming from, we hate everyone and we love ourselves. It's actually coming from we don't-
25. AAAnjula Acharia
  We hate ourselves
26. JSJay Shetty
  ... Exactly. And then we're putting it out there.
27. AAAnjula Acharia
  Yeah.
28. JSJay Shetty
  And so that love and kindness requires... That's why that inner dialogue is so important and so... Anjula Acharia, you are, uh, amazing.
29. AAAnjula Acharia
  Thank you so much. So are you.
30. JSJay Shetty
  Uh, you're one of my heroes.

Episode duration: 1:24:52

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