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Great Companies: Can you tell a little bit about your company Talent Academy? Sanja Jovanovic: Talent Academy is an award winning public speaking training business. We aim to facilitate presentation and communication skills for both individuals and organisations at a professional level. I deliver public speaking programs to equip our clients with the skills to present themselves more effectively and engage audiences. My workshops have assisted to improve the communication skills of teams and management within the defence force, higher education with researchers and educators, and recently with TEDxAdelaide and TEDxUniSA. Talent Academy has had the opportunity to work across various sectors in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and broadly in China. Public speaking made easy! Great Companies: What makes Talent Academy different from hundreds of other Public Speaking firm's ? Sanja Jovanovic: I started as a seasoned performer with a rich background in performing arts and musical theatre. Whereas most of our competitors stand from a corporate perspective, Talent Academy designs content from a theatre-based approach. We fully understand what it is like to stand in front of an audience and can assist our clients in nailing that interview or pitch presentation by first conquering their stage fright, thus improving on their communication skills. We deliver tailored workshops for our clients and are adaptable to working with those of diverse backgrounds, including women, migrants, the indigenous or disabled. Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by your company? Sanja Jovanovic: Talent Academy offers coaching services for professional development. We are involved with mentoring for business planning, pitching, networking, marketing and more, having worked with business executives, corporate teams, entrepreneurs, as well as students. With over 20 years of experience on-screen and on-stage, I assist speakers in structuring and delivering presentations and TEDx talks. We provide One-to-one Coaching Workshops to tailor to your needs, Team Training for larger groups, as well as Online Training Courses to give you a taste of our workshops. Whenever you are in need of Media or MC services, Talent Academy also has the contacts to assist you in finding experienced talent for voice overs and marketing actors to help you create flawless promo videos. Great Companies: Why is Public Speaking Important? What are the Benefits of Public Speaking? Sanja Jovanovic: Public speaking skills and effective communication are extremely useful in many aspects of work and life. They are vital for those in call-centres, face-to-face sales, interview scenarios, media relations and press releases, keynotes and managerial level training, yet also essential in daily networking interactions. Public speaking can be scary and confronting for anyone. Whether you're facing the stage, screen, interview or even a social setting that might be difficult, communicating and presenting yourself effectively can help you engage with your audience, build confidence and avoid those 'butterflies'! Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face? Sanja Jovanovic: A challenge I have faced when working one-to-one with individuals is that at times it may be difficult to help them fully overcome their stage fright without a physical stage or audience. Unlike my Team Training workshops collaborating amongst larger groups, One-to-one Coaching is limited to the client practising at our office and at home. I do, however, provide advice on various techniques to help them practise and build confidence as well as tips and tricks to relieve their anxiety during presentations and present themselves professionally. Remember: Practice makes better! Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Talent Academy? Sanja Jovanovic: As a first step in entering the global market, we have recently released an Online Training platform with pre-recorded courses, targeting remote learning or for those not yet ready for One-to-one Coaching. In five year's time, we are looking to expand our business by hiring more staff and participating in more mentorship programs. We look to establish even stronger networks within national and international markets. As I always say, Your network is your net worth! Webiste : https://www.talentacademy.com.au/

A woman entrepreneur committed to providing high quality education & training brings forward essential skills to shape up the learning minds of young generation preparing tomorrow’s leaders. Founded by Ridhi Gupta, quit her full-time job to become woman entrepreneur in Bangalore, Karnataka with the tagline – the spirit of learning; broadening from performing arts to online tuitions, skill development, journalism, entrepreneurship, and career counselling courses. Today’s ever-changing world is unpredictable, and while this may be the case only for the near future, but these times have affected certain drastic changes that will very likely be permanent, if not greatly encouraged. As a parent, all we want for our kids is an uninterrupted, comprehensive and burgeoning education. The gaps in our education system were evident even before the pandemic, and the need for a more expansive and holistic approach to our children’s education and development were made apparent to us as far back as 2016. Our experience of the lack of consistency, reliability, and the myopic approach to learning and all-round development fuelled our desire to create a platform that combined the techniques adopted by countries such as Japan, Sweden, Finland and the USA. This became our goal as well – to nurture and develop our future generations into responsible, compassionate, analytical, creative, bold and worldly-wise citizens of our country. Utsaah Learning private limited is an organization launched in 2017, focusing on implanting the quality of performing arts while recognizing the need for this in students. The company is associated with more than 26 schools, taught more than 5,000 students, and conducts training programs, theatre, cooking, different dance forms like Kalaripayattu, musical instruments, singing, and a lot more, making the schools treating the enlightenment of creativity within students a serious concern throughout development. The Beginning of UTSAAH It’s truly said, “Necessity is a need for invention” just as this woman founder and a Mom, Ridhi Gupta realizing how important it is for kids to get exposed to holistic development at the early age of their lives to be confident enough to accept their career paths. She was struggling to get her child this kind of exposure which stimulated the setup of this business. Utsaah was built to give a young mind to explore their interests and enrich the process of growth for the age between 5 to 15. Ridhi Gupta while talking on the learning loop mentioned how her child’s karate classes kept on getting cancelled due to the rain in Bangalore about 4 years back, that’s when she gave up her full-time job to found this venture. She also shared a journey of how she caught her big fish in the early stage, this was none other than one of the number one CBSE schools in Karnataka which was a great breakthrough. This school is a cultural hub and onboarded Utsaah to expose their students to these essential life skills, which are needed to develop worldly-wise responsible citizens. The company has a vision and a motto which is reflected in the name itself- UTSAAH stands for United Team Solely Associated for Arts and Happiness. Utsaah for Students, Parents, and Society Utsaah is a training and educational platform that understands how children are the most valuable resources and how crucial it is to familiarize them with the creative activities, fundamental blocks for development. While interacting with Great Companies, Ridhi Gupta quotes “We start our class with a pledge which instils Utsaah amongst the children and a feeling that YES, WE ARE HAPPY ARTISTS, WE ARE HEARTISTS. Also, identification of Talent in kids and grooming them further via a structured mechanism, nurturing the talent to create master’s all such initiatives keep the Utsaah of the children soaring high.” Parents of children who have taken up the courses of performing arts, Career Development (SWOT), STEM courses recently introduced are very positively recommending to other parents as well as they see the change and sense of confidence. Bring balance and establishing strong character has been a premise for the company as it joins hands with schools to share the load of personality fabrication of bairns. Some of the special value-adding events organized are Utsaah Connect – Having interactive workshops covering topics like financial prudence, Public speaking, media literacy, etc; Utsaah Limelight – Gives a platform to art lovers and learners to connect with some famous artists. The saga is an e-book published by the company every year to acknowledge all the activities and extraordinary achievements for parents. Aspirations Director and Co-founder, Ridhi Gupta also stated how she embraced the technology to reach out to as many as people and started online courses available on their website. The company now believes to come to other cities than Bangalore, Karnataka while making big moves and taking the learning to an up level. Organizing more competitive events where juveniles can showcase their talent while learning. Edited by Samridhi Sharma

The next best thing to family, powered by professionals with disability. Maya CARE Foundation, co-founded by Manjiri Gokhale Joshi, her husband Abhay Joshi and late mother Dr Vidya Gokhale in 2009, has conducted 10,200 free visits to senior citizens providing them medical assistance, emotional support, intellectual stimulation and convenience. Maya CARE services are available across 18 Indian cities and offer livelihood to over 100 persons with disability (PWD). Since April 2020, Maya CARE has been operational in four cities of the UK. The purpose is to enable the elderly to lead independent, happy and convenient lives in their own homes/care homes/assisted living while empowering persons with disabilities (PWDs) to become self-reliant professionals working from their own homes. So how does it work? Maya CARE has helplines operating in different Indian languages and in English. Senior citizens or their family members approach Maya CARE via these helplines, website or social media requesting help. All this work at the backend is performed by persons with disability. With the tagline “Next best thing to family”, Maya CARE representatives provide free assistance with activities like accompanying the elderly to the hospital/radiotherapy/sitting with them in hospital/outside ICU/bank/railway station/airport/social occasion/walk/picking up medical reports/sorting out paperwork/arranging for sanitization/reading to them/writing for them and more. Maya CARE is currently operational in Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur, Kolhapur, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Anand, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Jalandhar, Udaipur, Guwahati, Chennai, Trichy, Bangalore, Belgaum and Hyderabad. What is distinctive about Maya Care? Being the first and only free organization of its kind offering pan India service, Maya CARE is sometimes mistaken for being a concierge service or household help/nurses bureau, which are all paid services. Maya CARE work ranges from bringing a Ganpati idol home to arranging for sanitization of an isolating senior citizen. The core of Maya CARE service is attempting to make up for the absence of a family member. Therefore, over time, especially during the Covid situation, Maya CARE representatives have taken on varied responsibility including performing someone’s last rites and helping a daughter who could not be there due to the lockdown, to pay her respects to her father virtually for the last time. Explains Manjiri, “There are only three things we do not do – emergency service, medical carer/ayah/nursing and domestic work like cooking/cleaning/gardening. These are all paid services and whenever needed, our coordinators arrange for the elderly to be connected with the appropriate agencies offering these services. Payment is made to them directly and Maya CARE services continue to be free.” Maya Care services are delivered by a team of trustworthy representatives driven by the passion to serve society. Though each of them receives a minor compensation to cover their expenses, visiting the elderly through Maya CARE is a part-time activity that offers them fulfilment. Maya CARE representatives who visit could be working/retired professionals/homemakers or students. Why Maya CARE? Manjiri explains “Unlike the Western world where generations have known and thus accepted that children would grow up and move out of home, this is the first generation of Indians facing the prospect of living by themselves in their sunset years. Our infrastructure, social set-up and mental make-up are still grappling with this new reality.” Manjiri says, “Maya” means ‘mamta’ or affection in Sanskrit. It is a simple word that can be easily pronounced by people across cultures. The Maya CARE logo was designed by Manasi Gokhale Agharkar– whose inability to hear is more than compensated by her creativity. The Maya CARE brand uses violet for softness that is essential for care of the elderly. Yellow stands for bringing sunshine in their lives. The green maple leaf transforming into the colours of autumn denotes the sentiment of the young generation reaching out to the elderly. The entrepreneurial journey Over the last 11 years, Maya CARE was funded through the personal incomes of Abhay and Manjiri Joshi along with a few small donations from well-wishers. As both of them pursued their corporate careers, Manjiri’s late mother Dr Vidya Gokhale anchored Maya CARE activities from Pune ably supported by volunteers. A former IT professional, Abhay runs his own Maths and Science tutoring company Elephant Connect. Manjiri worked as a journalist for a decade with The Indian Express, In Mumbai Television and Dataquest magazine. She moved on to a corporate career with Zensar Technologies and then ICICI Lombard in Pune and Mumbai and Informa PLC in London. After a three-year stint as CEO of a company called Global Talent Track (GTT), Manjiri quit her corporate career in April 2020 to work with Maya CARE full time, make it self-sustainable and nurture a team of persons with disability to take Maya CARE forward. She says, “Over the last decade, Maya CARE has been held up by my husband Abhay Joshi and my late mother Dr Vidya Gokhale, even when I could not dedicate adequate time to Maya CARE due to my professional commitments. We are now moving forward with three audacious long term goals – There will be a Maya CARE helpline available in every language spoken across the world and every city of India. Over 90% of roles in Maya CARE, across all functions like HR, finance, fund-raising, administration and city coordination will be performed by persons with disability. Maya CARE will have the funds to pay proper, competitive compensation to the entire team that runs Maya CARE. Maya CARE continues to find appreciation from several quarters – corporates, communities and individuals who are now stepping forward to donate and contribute to continuing the effort beyond its founders, representatives across cities working as volunteers and the elderly themselves. Abhay Joshi and Manjiri Joshi were recently presented the Rotary Seacoast - Service Excellence Award for their contribution to society via Maya CARE. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Manjiri Gokhale Joshi was recently awarded as an Emerging Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2021 by Great Companies Edited by Rashmi Rekha Patra

“Entrepreneurship isn’t just a label - it is a lifestyle” Richard Branson There are currently 9.73 million active internet users in the UAE (98.98%) whereas the average daily time spent using the internet on mobile devices is 3h 55m. This shows that the digital space is integral for every business and thus cannot be ignored. A business without a digital presence is bound to get lost in today’s environment. “Whether you have a start-up idea or an existing business we work our magic for you. From websites to social media management, ads, campaigns, etc., we give your brand the voice and image that makes it shine. You show up often and you show up with information that is useful and easily accessible, you can reach more people and do more business!” Founder of Light Digital UAE, Varuna Mehta, a marketing professional with intensive experience in corporate and digital marketing, branding, graphics, and communication. A boutique digital marketing agency in UAE, Light Digital offers specialized services that spread across digital marketing, content curation, social media, branding, and product styling. The company aims to transform the digital personality of brands. Light Digital uses expertise to formulate the right blend of technology, creativity, and design thinking for digital marketing and branding solutions. Light Digital teams up with each individual to co-create online communication that engages the customers and rewards their brands. “I knew when I was starting my own business that it wasn’t going to be easy. Something in me constantly drove me to believe that I could do it on my own!” Varuna Mehta In the early days of Light Digital, she as a solopreneur found it difficult to sell the idea of “going digital” to everyone she met. People either thought that they could do it themself or were too doubtful of investing in it. Today, Light Digital has grown considerably. Turning Point for Light Digital In 2020, when COVID happened, the market took a U-turn. But, at the same time, something unbelievable happened which made 2020 a game-changer and blessing in disguise for her - ‘Digital’ became the solution for everything. ‘Businesses wanting to invest and go digital became a thing!’ This out of the blue change benefited her immensely. The business grew - clients, accounts, brand size, and even staff. “Where other businesses were trying to rationalize their workforce, I was hiring talent! We also landed fruitful collaborations, opening us up to even more opportunities. By the end of the year, I didn’t need to ‘sell digital’ anymore.” Varuna Mehta “Customers want positive, consistent experiences. Consistency creates confidence, which can lead to retention and loyalty.” ShepHyken Marketing Strategy and Branding in Light Digital Light Digital drafts elaborate, actionable, and measurable strategy for one's business based on an individual’s business objectives. A stimulating, innovative brand voice is carved out in one’s niche business area, making a difference between them and their competitors. As a digital marketing consultant, it is ensured that the brand is designed and promoted in an accurate way promoting sales of the brand. Analytics and Evaluation Data analytics is used to guide the development of and decisions related to the marketing strategy to ensure the most applicable segments of the market are targeted. The performance of the marketing activity is constantly assessed to evaluate the performance of the business. Social Media Marketing Social media makes it easy to reach a large number of people quickly, it moulds a brand image and widely regulates the company’s sales and revenue. At Light Digital, they handpick what is hot and trending and use them to leverage an individual’s social media and viral-worthy content. It helps to portray the brand image and earn more followers. They create social media content and graphics to help reach the targeted audience, engage right and grow faster be Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Great ads mean more business, and so great ads are what Light Digital does. Based on the budgets people provide, Light Digital creates promotional campaigns focused on wide exposure and lead generation. Product Styling “Great photos make a great sale” Light Digital intends to constantly re-invent and reinforce the digital identity of clients to help them get more clients. After successfully strengthening the online presence of a happy clientele, Light Digital now has another card up its sleeves. Creating and styling beautiful imagery for a product/brand/range, Light Digital is now offering product styling services as well. The ultimate goal is to convert a person from being a bystander to becoming a buyer. “Content is fire, social media is gasoline” Jay Baer To know more about Light Digital, visit www.lightdigital.ae . Connect with the Founder, Varuna Mehta on LinkedIn https://ae.linkedin.com/in/varunamehta Edited by Gitika Mandhana

Often our dreams don’t come true. It does hurt when something that you have thought about since your childhood can no longer be fulfilled. There are many reasons that make a person stop dreaming about his passion. As human beings, we all at certain points are ambitious and passionate about one thing or another. And when you are unable to do what you’re passionate about, that can make you break from inside. There are times when something tragic happens and we are forced to leave our dreams behind. We think that if we have a dream we can achieve it with whatever difficulties we face. However, some things cannot be fixed. Some things don’t have any solution. And at that point in time, we are forced to leave everything behind. What happens then? Should we lose hope? Should we try to fix the inevitable? It is not just about one person there are many people out there including me who have faced this kind of situation. Maybe you have faced that too! Some things are inevitable and we cannot go against them. That is why I am telling you about a person who faced a similar situation in his life and ended up a successful business owner. This story inspired me and will inspire you if you have faced something similar. Reading this will help you get motivated and learn how even the inevitable things should not stop you from reaching the heights. Bernard Nolan like any of us had dreams from his childhood and he wanted to do something great. He had dreamed of becoming an airline pilot. Since he was in school he started making decisions accordingly as he had it all figured out. He knew it would cost him over €100,000 for flight training. He had some difficult choices to make at the beginning. He had to make a choice for the most important thing in his life- college or job, just for his dream. He knew he needed money so he decided to go for the job. He had planned to work for a while and then train for some time then again work to save some money to train again. He started to work at Dublin Airport for a company called OCS. He was a mobility handling agent and his job was to take care of disabled passengers at the airport. Wanting more experience in airlines and earning money made him choose this job. That was his first sales experience as well. He met many people, interacted with them, learned their stories and experiences, and that all felt really nice to him. He soon with consistent hard work was promoted to the supervisor position. His job was to look after many operations on a daily basis at Dublin Airport and also handle hundreds of passengers every day. He was doing great and his plans were all set. But it happens that some things we plan never go the same way. We have big plans but often they are destroyed. Bernard had his plan set. His training was going well. He was doing a job and working hard enough to save money. However, sometimes god has some other plans for you. And that’s what happened with him. It was the time when everything in his life changed. Whatever he did and dream for was now nothing. One day his career plans came crashing down. Bernard was with a friend when a vital organ in his body stopped working. He believes that if he is fine today it is just because of that person he was with or something worse could’ve happened. This incident changed everything, his dreams, his career, all at the same time. It was a massive setback. These incidents can be life-changing and facing and recovering from them is important. Recovering not just physically but also mentally. Bernard knew that no airline would hire him due to his health situation so decided to stop his training as it would not help him pursue his career ambition of working in the Airline Industry. Again he had to make another difficult decision. To leave the Airline Industry. This time around, he had no other option to weigh upon. That was a big lesson for him. His heart was all for flying but he had to make this choice because he would just be spending his money and it would end up nowhere. As I said you can recover from these incidents but you also need to recover from them mentally. It took a long time for Bernard even to accept the fact that his dream to become a pilot was no longer anything he could pursue. While he was undergoing his treatments, there was a point of time when he went into depression. But we should never lose hope and try to pull it all together. Bernard left everything behind and decided to begin a fresh start. It took him a lot of time but he did. The first thing he had to do for finding a career for himself so he went to the second thing he liked the most- technology. He had no college experience, just some job experience with the airport. Luckily, he got himself a job at a big US company Oracle which involved all kinds of different tech. That job helped him to start again. He was provided with a lot of opportunities and travel as well. While working at Oracle and his treatments at the hospital he got to realize that there are superheroes in real life making miracles happen by saving thousands of lives. It is true that if you have gone through something you start seeing that from a different angle. Well for Bernard it was his incident that inspired him to do something great. He was dealing a lot with hospitals and at that point, he realized that there is a lot that can be done to help people in various situations. When you are admitted to the hospital you are asked a lot of questions related to you. What if you are not in a condition to answer? That’s what hit Bernard. He started to research things that could be done to save patients from these formalities and help them in some kind. He thought about a device that can be used to store all the important medical information of the person and can be accessed with just one tap. So, they started working on the device and in 2017 he decided to use it himself to check its feasibility. Maybe he got lucky or was it in the stars that while he was using the device he got another attack. He was at his home when his kidney failed again and he couldn’t even talk. He was with his girlfriend who called the ambulance and when the paramedics arrived she just tapped the watch on his wrist and all his medical info was there within seconds. While going to the hospital one of the paramedics told his girlfriend that this could save many lives. The idea for this device was in Bernard’s mind since he was working at Oracle. But to pursue it completely he had to make the tough decision of leaving Oracle forever. Many entrepreneurs have to take this tough decision while taking risks for something new. It can be really difficult to leave all the perks of a stable job and even Bernard debated it. But he took that step and decided to leave and give his startup a shot. He was scared because it could either go really well or it could be a total fail. But he took the big step toward his project MediMee. This was what he was working for for months. He started meeting people and telling them about MediMee. It was quite shocking for him when people would understand the concept easily. They had everything developed and even tested. They just wanted to approach people to use this product. Bernard started out by pitching it to companies for their employees. It could be built up in their ID cards and even a chip that could sync in the cloud. With further developments in business, they also started out with some sticker kits. They also want to provide all the possible medical help they can to the people. ‘MediMee’ is a life-changing solution that helps people in tough times. It is a device that can be attached to anything like a watch or a mobile and can be accessed with just one click. With a click of a button, you can access all your vital medical information in seconds. You don’t need to keep folders and files for this now. It especially helps you during any emergency. As I already said when you face something you see the problem more clearly. The same happened with Bernard. He faced something terrible and that led him to make something so helpful for people around the world. His story is inspiring for all of us and many others. We can learn one thing from his life that even when we are our lowest we need to get up and think about the future. We should never stop and work hard to achieve our goals. If one door is shut the other will definitely open. We just need to find the right path towards it. Edited by Mallika Malvia

Started by three Irish friends who have a passion for watersports, Rash’R has become the most colorful and fun recycled clothing brand. Shifting to sustainability is never easy at first but these three water enthusiasts are all in to provide 100% recycled clothes for watersports. Sometimes in life when we are in a place where we think about the various things that could be different or could exist, but we never think that we can be the ones doing it. We are stuck with what we have and we don’t want to change that. However, there are many people in life who want to be the leaders of something, who want to bring change, and who want to what they dream of. Tom, John, and Alex are three friends from Ireland who are one of those people who want to do something if they dream of it. They are the owners of a famous watersport clothing brand from Ireland named Rash’R. Their story is inspiring and the will to fulfill their dreams touched my heart and that is why I want all of the world to know about them. Sometimes dreams are easily achieved and sometimes it takes a lot to fulfill them. But, I am sure after reading this story you will definitely get motivated towards your dreams. Let me tell you their backstory about how they got the idea and what all they did to set their brand to what it is now. Tom Cotter, John Downey, and Alex Musgrave were really good friends who loved watersports. It was July 2015 and they all were out for lunch on the water. They were having pizza and discussing that how all the watersports clothes were grey, black, and blue. Even the biggest of brands lacked colorful clothes while other sports had colorful clothing. It was just another random conversation they were having but that gave Tom an idea to make such clothing for watersports as well. Sometimes I wonder that how some stupid conversations or random ideas can become so big. That is what happened with these friends. A simple lunch led to something so big. After that, they started researching and prepping for opening their business. They struggled to find fabric, manufacturers, printing companies, and lots of other stuff. While researching and learning through this time all that kept coming back to them was sustainability. They wanted to make something eco-friendly benefiting nature. They thought that they would be able to create their first prototype in 3 months but it took around 18 months to get it all together. As we say good things take time. They had their product but they cannot just go live with one product. There are many things that need to be taken care of before opening a business. It was October 2017, over two years since they had the initial chat for their business idea when they launched their website named Rash’R. They have created six versions of long sleeve men’s vest. On one hand, the good thing was they sold out 99% of their stock within two months. A fun fact, they used to deliver these vests in pizza boxes. On the other hand, they kept missing peak season as all the money that they could invest for the brand was utilized in launching their first stock and that was sold out real quick. Other than that, the money they had was used up in marketing and now they had no sources to bring in new stuff. The thing about startups is that it requires money and a lot of it. When you go out of it, the door kind of starts closing. All you need to do is find proper resources and then go for it. All three of them had their own works and they were busy with that. Tom was in the business of outdoor and recreation, Alex was the founder of the digital media company ‘Dog Day Media’, and John was the founder of the Irish restaurant chain ‘Ramen’. They all had their own things to do and when they had no money for the business it started drifting apart. There was a point when they started to think that it will just shut for good. But we as humans don’t tend to stop. We want to try everything we can to save what we love. Their business was their dream and they could not afford to lose it. As a last hope, Tom decided to go for an interview with some investors where he explained the ideas and pitched their business. As I said all good things take time. Now it was time for their business. It was waiting for the right thing to come. The investor meeting went well and they had funds to restart their business. In August 2018, they relaunched Rash’R. But this time they had a full range of vests for men, women, and children, and even toddlers. They had an all-new website and their products were also available in retail stores. They were now shipping to 24 different countries. As they started growing, they had interested many world’s top water sport athletes. The factors that attract people are their sustainability, customized clothing options, and their 100% eco-friendly products. Some of you must be thinking, we have seen many startup stories what’s so special about this. Well, every startup story is special because every story has its own struggle and history. But not every startup wants to do something for nature. Not every person cares for others. Rash’R is a brand with 100% recycled products. Their motto is sustainability. They want to create something with the waste recycled from the sea. Yes, that’s right! Their brand uses Ocean Balance Fabric which is a sustainable fabric made from fishing nets, carpets, and post-consumer goods. The fabric is fast drying, stretchable and comfortable as compared to others. These are also eco-friendly, cost-effective, and safe. And most importantly this clothing is fun and colorful. How can you say no to a brand that is providing everything best? Sometimes it’s not the story or the struggle that matters, it is just the idea behind it. It just takes a few daring steps for the small idea to become big. Even small joking conversations can lead to something worth creating a change. You just need to believe in yourself and dream big. Everything good will come in time for you. Edited by Mallika Malvia

Blowing our minds by ending plastic, one drink at a time, Teresa Aylott and Manon Beauchamp-Tardieu have given us 100% compostable, soggy-free, reusable, and 100% biodegradable product to enjoy our drinks guilt-free. With the developing world, mindsets of people have also developed and they are aware of what this world wants. People are getting to know the necessity for sustainability. In the past few days, I came across so many stories about sustainable products and people who are motivated to work for them. I have found so much inspiration from these people and I hope that you all also see what is so special about it. Recently, I came across a business started by two women Teresa Aylott and Manon Beauchamp-Tardieu from Australia who built a new brand Little Green Panda with a motive of ending plastic, one drink at a time. These proud owners have established a product that I have never heard of. We all are trying to reduce the use of plastic from our side. That is why maximum restaurants and cafes have stopped providing plastic straws and replaced them with paper straws. This has been a great step. However, after some time the straw becomes soggy and isn’t reusable. So, people don’t like using them a lot. To avoid all these problems, Teresa and Manon launched their product back in 2018. These are reusable, sustainable, and biodegradable drinking wheat straws. Yes, you heard it right, wheat straws. But what is it made of? Is it safe? When and why did they start? What is so special about it? There might be millions of questions in your minds right now and you will get an answer to every one of them. Teresa and Manon met at a networking event and they bonded over their similar thoughts about removing plastic products. They both had the same mission. While they researched plastic-free products they came across the idea of wheat straws and started producing them. The straws they produce are reusable and customizable Bamboo straws as well as single-use straws made from Wheat and Cane. The products they use are mostly by-products, or organic waste so they promote recycling. The Bamboo products are sourced from Vietnam and Wheat from Mongolia. When they began searching for reusable straw options they found out that before plastic straws were invented back in the 1800s people used wheat straws, which proved that we had good options before but now we have made ourselves dependent on plastic more than ever. After the production, they started selling on Amazon in the beginning and later they moved on to social media and their own website. Many local restaurants, bars, and hotels approached them for single-use products, and that’s when they knew they were successful. They were growing. They started around 28 months ago and now they have achieved heights. Little Green Panda has sold more than 3 million straws and has a 200% month-on-month revenue growth. Now the company’s 80% stock goes to hospitality clients and they have also stocked at large French supermarket chains. When they started they were a low-budget startup and they never paid attention to the marketing. They started to put it out there through Instagram and have been growing since then. It was more of awareness when they started. They wanted more people to know about this. Moreover, it was not just selling straws it was selling a movement that they wanted to start so that they could eliminate plastic. Their motive was clear and they knew their path. They wanted to make money but with scratch. They wanted to create a change. Manon also states that they don’t want credit for this as they have only brought back what was forgotten. Motivation comes from a point and these women have motivated us to bring changes in our lives. Edited by Mallika Malvia

Do you think the construction sector is a notoriously tough one for women? Meet Zeenat Ghoor, founder of Aspire Consulting Engineers in South Africa, a woman who is changing these mindsets by her example. She proved that everything worthwhile in life is won through surmounting the associated negative experience. She achieved through hard work, and grit and determination in the face of challenges. However, the will of an entrepreneur to succeed makes her hustle and grind, till she makes it. Zeenat started almost seven years ago in one of the harshest, coldest, meanest industries where she was treated a certain way because she is a female. The journey was not easy. Being a woman, she faced many challenges in her career, she often gets an eyebrow raised when she says “I am an engineer” and used to get surprised responses when she answers the phone and the caller expected a man. E-mails are addressed to Mr Ghoor, not Ms Ghoor. Scenarios like this remind you that we are in a frame of mind especially to think that engineers are males. Trying to persuade contractors, architects, clients and other engineers that being a female engineer does not make her inferior has been the biggest challenge. Zeenat was bullied and she often felt not good enough for this industry. “One success at a time and many many failures made me realize this is where I am meant to be and I have to be strong and persevere, which I am trying to do daily.” said by Zeenat Goor When Zeenat was about to have her first child, she started looking for a job 4 hour job with flexibility. But she couldn’t find one in her industry so she created one. Did you know, she doesn’t come from an entrepreneurial background? In fact, she comes from a very conservative family and starting a business was something very strange. Nevertheless, she got the support in her journey to make it successful from the loved ones. “What I realize is that you are born to be an entrepreneur and it is a calling, and once you are in it you know this is where you belong.” said by Zeenat Goor. She pushed her own boundaries each and every day to do the things she loves, no matter how tough the industry sector might be. Aspire Consulting Engineers was founded back in 2015 by Zeenat Ghoor which provides structural and civil engineering services and Project Management to the public and private sector. This proudly South African company has provided collaborative solutions in the Residential, Commercial and Industrial space. Delivery, attention to detail, relevant compliances set the company apart from competitors. She is building a successful civil and structural engineering business that is people centric, transforming spaces that are accessible and safe for everyone to use. Zeenat has a small loyal team. The team believes and lives with motto every day - WE ARE OUR PEOPLE. All the people come from different backgrounds and have different strengths. They learn together and grow together, which makes their team much stronger. She employs people that embody the same passions she does and bring care and compassion to the Construction sector. Teamwork makes the dream work and they are enjoying their journey. Ghoor believes in: commitment to excellence self-development; she notes that in engineering, you learn something new every day employing “SWANs” – people who are smart, hard-working, ambitious and nice Zeenat Ghoor is one of those women, who is building a business on her terms in the tough construction sector. She is breaking the traditional mould. Zeenat is a role-model for so many other women to follow, particularly those who are looking to break the glass ceilings in their own chosen industry sectors. If you want be successful in life, surround yourself with like-minded people and be prepared to fail. Everyone wants to be successful until they realize what it takes. This is not about willpower or grit. This is not another admonishment of “no pain, no gain”. This is the most simple and basic component of life; our struggles determine our success. It’s a never ending upward spiral. And if you think at any point you’re allowed to stop climbing, I’m afraid you’re missing the point. Because the joy is in the climb itself. So, realize what it takes and just do it. Edited by Anjali Rawat

After reading the title you all might be wondering, can it be true? We all have seen or heard or read about many sustainable items including food, clothing, shoes, etc. But have you ever heard about sustainable coffee? Honestly, I haven’t. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not true. Well, it is a thing now and many people dig it quite much. I know what you might be thinking, at first I even had the same questions. So, get ready because all your questions are going to be answered and you are going to know about this infamous sustainable coffee. Community Bean Coffee is a business built by Nathan Stone. Nathan Stone is a passionate entrepreneur from Sydney, Australia who has a background in media and marketing. He came up with the idea of building a brand named Community Bean Coffee during the pandemic. It has the vision to provide people with the best tasting coffee without compromising with the environment. But that is not all. Nathan dreams big with his small start. He wants the people of Australia to care about sustainability and support such businesses. He wants people to change their behavior and try to do better for the environment and the local communities as well. He started this sustainable coffee because he wants people to have every product produced through sustainability. He believes it’s good coffee and good causes. Well, isn’t that a great thought! But where did this idea come from or what’s the story behind it? We’re here to discover that. Nathan had this thought of producing something or starting his own business for two years now but, he never ended doing it. However, in this pandemic, he became jobless and decided to build his dream. He wanted to collaborate on his three passions- coffee, sustainability, and charity. On one hand, he knew he wanted to do the coffee business but on the other hand, he knew that nobody would care that much about coffee during the economic crisis. Moreover, he needed adequate funds to get himself started. So, he decided to do something out of the box. Nathan decided to grind the coffee himself and live-stream all of it. But, not just grind. He did it all by walking on a human hamster wheel for straight 22 days. Yes, you read it right 22 days!! He was on the wheel walking for at least 12 hours a day, sleeping on the wheel itself. He decided he wouldn’t give up until he raised $30,000.But after 22 days he had to get out of it as his arms and feet were swollen and it started to pain a lot so he had to seek medical assistance. Thus, he could only raise a little more than $10,000. Still, he was happy with the money he raised as it was enough to get him started. And this is how Community Bean Coffee came into this world. Nathan Stone is just another ordinary human being like us but did something so worth getting inspired from. Community Bean Coffee is not just any coffee or just sustainable coffee. It is much more than that. Nathan decided to do something for society from what he does. For every kilo of coffee purchased, they send $2 to the charity for helping children and the poor. Isn’t that great? Not just that, the coffee they sell is never 7 days old. It’s freshly brewed beans from the Godfather of the Australian coffee industry roasting. All the coffee beans come from Only Fair Trade or Rainforest Alliance beans plus they come with zero- compostable packaging. So everything is sustainable coffee as well as its packaging. Sometimes, even a small effort becomes an inspiration for others. It proves that you need not be some big millionaire or a superstar to do something great for the community. It just shows that you must have the willingness to do something for others apart from yourself. There are a lot of rich and successful businessmen who can give it back to society. But do they? It comes from within. Even a person who has nothing can do a good deed and even a billionaire can ignore the social causes. So it’s our choice what we wanna be, rich from heart or rich from the pocket. Make the right choice and do something good for the community because, in the end, it’s all about the world. Edited by Mallika Malvia

Do you love food? Who am I kidding, everybody does. The main question is have you ever thought about opening a restaurant or starting a café or maybe a catering business? I think a lot of you must have. But have you seen girls owning a restaurant? We can see that most of the restaurants or cafés or catering businesses are owned by men. Even all the chefs in the restaurant are men. It is kind of a male-dominated business where you see mostly no women. But a family from Africa has proved this wrong. Three strong women run a food business all by themselves without any men and are successful in their journey. They have inspired a lot of other women to work as per their needs and wants without any fear. It all began when Jane started this journey with her mom, Didee in 2013 in their family kitchen in Umhlanga Rocks, Africa. They both started cooking homestyle meals for their cousins and family who were too busy to cook due to work or studies. They saw the need for homestyle frozen food and decided to take a risk. We all know how it is difficult to cook if you are working or studying. Jane saw this opportunity to provide good quality food to people and even build something for themselves. In the beginning, they had a limited customer base but as time passed Didee learned to use GPS and they grew to 45 customers. They filled their garage with freezers for their business. After this, they decided to move to a small industrial space in Durban North. After this their business flourished, they moved to a 200sqm space and they started producing 500 meals a day. In 2016, Jane’s sister Amy, returned from Australia and became a full-time business partner, and started looking after the logistics, administration, and sales of the company. They have the same kitchen in Durban but now they have a 500sqm area with 30 team members, producing 1000 meals a day all by hand. This female-strong business that they built with love and passion is ‘We Are Food’. You might think what’s so special about them that makes them inspiring? There are many reasons that ‘We Are Food’ inspires us and teaches us to do something good: This business is run by just three females and they have broken the patriarchy of the food business being male-dominated. Their motive is to reduce consumption of wastage and power and search for more sustainable practices. They also want to increase nutritional offerings. They want to support small and local suppliers and businesses, and uplift those who are in need within the community. These few things make them different from others. They have set their business on basic ‘3 P’ principles- People, Planet, Profit. Not just this they have supplied over 5000 meals to people who were in need without any expectations, just for help. The ‘We Are Food’ team provides freshly frozen home-style meals produced by hands with cleanliness and love. They have a freezing process through which they preserve the natural quality, flavor, and longevity of food. They don’t have any chemical or artificial preservatives. They have proper nutritional information for most of their dishes. ‘We Are Food’ promotes a flexitarian lifestyle that encourages plant-based eating but still allows animal products. They also provide food with a range of low carbs, less salt, and less sugar. All of their vegetables, fruits, and meat are locally sourced supporting small suppliers. They have developed many different kinds of food options with a variety of meal sizes, main courses, special diets, offers, and gift options. They provide delivery options to limited areas around KZN, Greater Joburg, and Pretoria in Gauteng, Greater Cape Town, and the Winelands in Western Cape. Jane, Didee, and Amy are continuously working to increase their business and continue their good work towards the community. They are doing whatever they can on their part. Being a food supplier, it is difficult to sell a particular type of food as well as include sustainability. However, they are trying their best to be good to people as well as nature which makes us be proud of them more. Edited by Mallika Malvia

Company Name: Sparkling Mindz Global School Founder Name: Sreeja Iyer Category and Sub-Category: Educational City: Bangalore Year of Founding: 2015 Can you provide us with a description about your Brand / Company: Sparkling Mindz is based on a vision to create confident learners and changemakers today through innovative learning experiences and making education relevant in the 21st century. Sparkling Mindz Global School follows a whole-stack, balanced philosophy of learning with children to make learning more purposeful, joyous and relevant in the 21st century for every child. Children find purpose, make connections and learn critical learning and thinking skills through innovative learning games across several learning areas that have been exclusively designed to create a space for each child to learn and grow at their pace. These are immersive learning experiences that empower children to use the knowledge and skills they acquire to go on a learning journey across lands to solve problems, design solutions, express themselves, communicate with each other, develop a scientific temper, take perspectives and become changemakers. USP / Competitive Advantage: At Sparkling Mindz, learn through purpose-driven, meaningful experiences connected to the contexts of their day to day lives. For example, Languages are learned as Language Arts and Communication (ELAC as English, HLAC as Hindi, KLAC as Kannada etc.), Math as Math Problem Solving and Design (MPD) etc. Each of these learning area games is further combined under changemaker missions and offered as connected learning experiences and outputs connected to real-life. In this model children get empowered to become aware of their values, beliefs, identities, emotions, skills as well as knowledge. These components are worked on throughout the serious learning games as well as through the their changemaker missions. Your accomplishments, milestones achieved so far: We at Sparkling Mindz are proud of the way we are impacting our community of children and parents. We value and celebrate the process and the outcomes equally. Various forms of documentation and different publications have captured our journey at different points in time. Sharing a few of those with you for your consideration. One of the pillars of our organization is 'Children as change-makers' and when we see our children confidently raising the bar on what student achievements can look like we feel very proud. The below list may look very unconventional but it represents the spirit of our children's wide, deep and connected approach to life and their change maker thinking. a. TED-Ed Weekend Speaker - One of our afterschool program students, Esha Karthi Raj, 13 years, was selected to speak at the TED-Ed Weekend Live stage in NYC! She was among the 20 students selected from around the world amongst 1000s of TED-Ed talks and one of 2 from India, for the first time in the history of TED-Ed. Here's her talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiWlBEj9uvw) b. The Better India (a positive news portal with over 30 Million viewers) featured our children on children's day and asked them a few questions that they answered with confidence as a tribute to children all over the world. (https://www.facebook.com/thebetterindia/videos/10155894505704594/) c. Marathon Runners - We challenge our children both mentally and physically. Our 6-14 year olds embarked on a mission of running a cross-country of 6.6Kms in 2018 and challenged themselves to run a 12K in 2019 as part of Gandhi Jayanti. This was their tribute to the father of our nation and their changemaker mission of raising awareness for children's mental and physical health. A short video depicting their run in 2019 is here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGYMTYcYIk8) d. As our children were practicing for the cross-country run outdoors they faced rude and unruly behaviour from strangers and they converted their problem into a project. It led to them participating in a Change Maker Project by an NGO called Janagrahaa and using a design thinking approach they created ideas for games to educate children about a few of the issues affecting urban children like Cyberbullying, e. Case Study of transformative learning from our afterschool program on how a child who developed Emotional Intelligence transferred her learning to the home environment (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkKKUQf2oCc) f. Case Study of an ideation process that shows children to convert problems into opportunities for innovation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4c48y6TKok) g. We have been able to work towards inspiring Current and Future Educators to think differently about learning through thought leadership. You can listen to our CEO talk about unconventional career choices here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9V-Zp5eXU0) Target Customers: Parents with children in school going age Website: https://www.sparklingmindz.in/

One of the challenges of modern living is that how can we stop rotting our fruit and veggies that we threw out every day from our fridge. In Australia, entrepreneur Peita Pini, founder of “The Swag” find a sustainable, natural solution. After years of research, testing (occasional failure!) and product development, The Swag (named after the iconic Australian bushman’s swag) was launched in 2016. Peita grew up on an acreage north of Sydney, Australia, surrounded by nature. Her family and Peita largely lived off the land, so sustainability and reducing food waste became a core value of mine from an early age. She believes in eating as much natural unprocessed food as possible. When she moved out of home and became the primary grocery buyer, she sealed her fruit and veggies in plastic bags or containers thinking this would keep it much fresher, however this was not the case. Peita noticed the condensation building up in her produce plastic bags and realised those were nutrients 'sweating' out of the fresh food. They were suffocating and rotting faster than they should be. She had a deep belief that most humans equally upset with the waste and over use of plastic and deep down we all want to do what's right for our family, our community and the environment we live in. However, the problem seems so overwhelming that we don't know where to start and The Swag journey began. On 24th August 2016, Peita launched The Swag via her personal Facebook page using a basic educational video and to my surprise, the video went somewhat viral. Within the first couple of hours, she had over sixty orders, mostly from complete strangers who had viewed and shared the video. These people had clearly identified with the problem of food waste and fully take up the solution. The Swag keeps your fruit and veggies fresher for longer, two weeks on average in fact! The Swag is a patented, three-layered breathable bag, that allows fruit and veggies to breath and hydrate, helping them to stay fresh, crisp and nutrient rich for much longer – naturally. The Swag is 100% natural, non-toxic, 100% Sustainable, Machine-washable, Compostable, plus ethically and Fair Trade Produced. . The Swag system is passionate about no plastic and it fills the gap perfectly from the store to your fridge so that no plastic is involved. Do you know why is it called a "Swag"? It’s named The Swag because the bags are rolled in the form of the iconic Australian bushman’s swag. A bushman’s Swag is a bundle of belongings rolled in a bedroll to be carried on foot over long distances, whilst looking for work in the Australian bush. The Swag represents a natural product, no waste and making the most of what you have. This translates into the fresh produce that last longer and stays fresher in The Swag whilst reducing the use of plastic. How long would you last sealed in a plastic bag or container without air or water? Not long, right! Well, it’s the same for all living things, therefore if you want your fruit & veggies to stay fresher for much longer, then you need to give them an environment they can thrive in. Say ‘goodbye’ to plastic and ‘hello’ to natural freshness. The Swag is a simple yet effective solution helping people around the world to reduce food waste, save $$$, ditch plastic, and help our environment & wildlife. Let’s join in on this waste-free, plastic-free movement. Happy Swagging! Edited by Anjali Rawat