Gritty Serendipity

Episode 1 - A former engineer turned certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, Neha Shah. 

She is an IIN certified science-backed nutrition counselor & a compassionate health coach. She is the founder of The Balance Chaos, she believes in ditching the drama and advocates a thoughtful approach to nutrition and lifestyle. Helping others achieve a better and balanced version of themselves is an honor & privilege she gets to indulge in daily.

Enjoy listening to her traditional approach to livelihood and how to connect back to our roots to stay healthy!

Are you ready to make your health habitual? Then sign-up for a free consultation to check if it's for you.

https://thebalancechaos.com

Episode 5 - A reminiscing conversation with Mamtha Banerjee

About Mamtha Banerjee:

She is a Tech entrepreneur and is currently the Vice President, of Technology at Expedia Group, where she leads the AI platform architecture and acceleration for travel. An accomplished technology entrepreneur with a track record of providing technology and product leadership at both startups and larger companies. She has developed and launched 10+ innovative game-changing products on the mobile, web, and other channels for millions of users. Extensive experience in large-scale distributed systems, lean methodologies, architecture, saas platforms, and cloud services. Building and leading high-performing teams.

Episode 4 - A candid and heartfelt conversation with Bosky, who is a mother, wife, and founder of PMDojo!

About Bosky Mukherjee:

She is the Founder of PMDojo a diverse learning community for people in Product, Design, Entrepreneurship, and Technology.

She has been in tech, specifically in the product, for over 20 years and is deeply passionate about making tech more inclusive and accessible.

She has been fortunate to have been part of startups and Fortune 500 companies both in Vancouver and Silicon Valley. She is an entrepreneur, a builder, an innovator, a product strategist, and a people coach.

Her superpower is cutting through all the noise and facilitation with empathetic storytelling. 

☘ You can learn more about her work and request more information at:
PMDojo: https://www.pmdojo.me/
Spark To Substancehttps://www.sparktosubstance.com/

Episode 2 - Part 2: Dona spends her days living her purpose as Principal Advocate for Microsoft's Power Platform--a product specifically designed for tech upskilling.

Previously, she leads the global community of 17M people as the Chief #NinjaCat of the Insider Program at Microsoft.

She spends her nights:

- writing fiction and non-fiction books to help young professionals have the careers of their dreams

- running an ethically made fashion line called #PrimaDonaStyle tailored in Nigeria, Kenya, and Seattle

- coaching entrepreneurs in emerging markets on how to turn an idea into a profit

- sharing these stories on stages all over the world

- coming up with more exciting schemes

She was recently named one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Productive People in Business and Cosmopolitan Magazine's Businessperson of the Year.

Episode 2 - Part 1: Dona spends her days living her purpose as Principal Advocate for Microsoft's Power Platform--a product specifically designed for tech upskilling.

Previously, she leads the global community of 17M people as the Chief #NinjaCat of the Insider Program at Microsoft.

She spends her nights:

- writing fiction and non-fiction books to help young professionals have the careers of their dreams

- running an ethically made fashion line called #PrimaDonaStyle tailored in Nigeria, Kenya, and Seattle

- coaching entrepreneurs in emerging markets on how to turn an idea into a profit

- sharing these stories on stages all over the world

- coming up with more exciting schemes

She was recently named one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Productive People in Business and Cosmopolitan Magazine's Businessperson of the Year.

Episode 1: Nabanita De is currently a Security Engineer at Uber and currently crowned Miss India Emerald City Washington 2020. She is passionate about solving world challenges through tech and entrepreneurship. My work has been recognized on Business Insider, Washington Post, Mashable, Huffington Post, BBC News, NDTV, Fortune, Wired Magazine, and over 90% of news publications worldwide and she was invited to Forbes Under 30 by the Forbes Team.  She has won several awards from big tech companies and institutes like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Uber, Harvard, MIT, and Qualcomm. Currently, I work on defending hackers as a Software Engineer at Uber. She has a Masters in Computer Science from UMass Amherst with a full-tuition rider scholarship. 

Here is some media coverage about my work: 

1.https://www.businessinsider.com/students-solve-facebooks-fake-news-problem-in-36-hours-2016-11 

2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2016/11/18/fake-news-on-facebook-is-a-real-problem-these-college-students-came-up-with-a-fix/ She has also been published on Hacker News, Huffington Post, BBC, CNN, Wired Magazine, Fortune, and over 90% of news publications worldwide. 

Some of the platforms that She has built using her tech skills include - 

1. www.returnships.info (helping women get back to work after a long haul in career) 

2. Project FiB  (detecting Fake News on Facebook) - https://projectfib.azurewebsites.net/ - Featured on over 90% of news articles worldwide 

3. Help Her - Providing platform for acid attack and domestic violence victims find out laws pertaining to their cases. 

4. As a 6-year-old, collected funds for Redcross India and Helpage India. 

5. Got the NCWIT grant and raised 2000 dollars for helping stem education. 

6. Built an app Pedestrian Go to aid distracted pedestrians while they are crossing the street. 

7. Volunteered and organized the biggest Women in tech conference in the world, Grace Hopper Conference. 

8. Was the first female to win the BITSAA Mantra Entrepreneur of the Year award in BITS Pilani. 

9. Won Rockstar Leadership award at Uber for saving 9 million dollars at work. 

10. Got a full scholarship for a Master's at UMass Amherst. 

11. Built an app that got over 50,000 downloads on the app store. 

12. Won 17+ Hackathons and 7 Gold Medals in Chess.

Episode 7: Unlike some of us, Jayanthi has worked at a single company, Microsoft for 20+ years to grow from fresh graduate engineer to technology leader, managing 100+ employees. She recently made the decision to move and work for Google Cloud! She shared a ton of insights from her career.

About our guest Jayanthi Sampathkumar:

She is at present working on Data Analytics in Google Cloud. Her team works on various products of GCP including Dataproc and Data Fusion! Previously at Microsoft, she held various roles and worked on many products namely SQL Server, Bing, and Azure. She made Guinness world record in 2017 for being the first fastest women marathon runner wearing Sari - a traditional Indian attire. Her passion for solving technological problems sets her apart!

Episode 6: Vasu shared her career blockers/challenges at each stage with finesse and addressed them beautifully! Listen to this unplugged episode.

About our guest Vasumathi Lakshmanan:

Vasumathi is a Principal Software Engineer and a leader who is leading an engineering team to build an Expedia Group Recommendations platform for all Expedia Brands. She design, implement and deliver software products as a full-stack engineer. Her interests include visualization of analytical and scientific data.

Special Episode 5: In this episode, I spoke to Julie Schaller and you do not want to miss the immense wisdom that she shared in the show!

Julie and I met serendipitously but grit is what got us together which culminated in making this episode!

Julie helps her clients find work they love and has a natural talent for inspiring them to new levels in their careers. It’s like she has x-ray vision for seeing their greatest potential. The most common results her clients have received include next-level promotions, increased confidence and credibility, and landing new jobs that are fulfilling, lucrative and challenging.  When coaching with Julie, clients refine their unique strengths, overcome blockers to advancement, and develop a powerful personal brand. 

Julie understands the challenges busy professionals face. Throughout her twenty-five year career, she’s worked at mid-size, entrepreneurial, consulting, and Fortune 100 businesses.  Her specialty is partnering with up-and-coming leaders and executives who are seeking career growth and higher levels of impact. Her client list includes Microsoft, Nordstrom, Facebook, CenturyLink, T-Mobile, Starbucks, Boeing, and many others. Julie is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) through the International Coach Federation and holds certifications in Myers-Briggs Personality Typing and Personal Branding

Episode 4: This week I spoke to Neelu Jain, who works at ISSQUARED as head of products. I found her humble, soft-spoken, and down to earth personality intriguing. 

A little bit about her in Neelu's own words:

Highly energetic, motivated, and a very social person. I have a passion to learn new tools and technologies and want to be challenged each day with a new challenge. I bring a wealth of experience from working at large organizations to small and have held various roles!

ISSQUARED, Inc is hiring, and here is a link to know more: https://www.issquaredinc.com/current-openings

Episode 3: I was excited to catch up with Sree Talluri, who I worked with previously at Expedia. She shared some of the gems in navigating your career.

Sree is from South India. Sree came to Chicago 20yrs ago to pursue her Master's in Computer Science. Sree served in several engineering and leadership roles in consulting, travel, and now fintech startup. Sree is a huge believer in empowering women, champions inclusion and diversity, and often known by her colleagues as someone who is authentic, confident, and is cautiously optimistic.

Episode 2: I sat down to speak with Anita Balaraman and you do not want to miss the immense wisdom that she shared in the show!

Anita Balaraman is a scientist and technologist passionate about teaching, and curious about the intersection of the future of work, learning, education, and AI/ML technology. Committed to enabling education to serve as a tool for social and economic mobility for all by democratizing occupational identity. Growing up as a girl in a traditional, modest household in South India, being an entrepreneur was not an occupational identity she knew: “I didn’t believe that because I didn’t see it.” Education, she believes should not be a privilege that promotes and perpetuates inequality, but rather a way to expand opportunity for all. She believes in the power of exposing students to role models so they see what is truly possible- an occupational identity that aligns with their interests and skills, and social capital that extends beyond their zip codes. Technology product leader with a demonstrated achievement record in building and marketing products aimed at delighting the customer. Accumulated a series of successes in risk modeling as a scientist that caused policy changes at USEPA, DFG, and USFW.

Bonus Holiday Series: Episode 5

Before I start to share, a quick disclaimer: Please consult your doctor before making any dietary or physical, or life-altering changes. These are purely based on my personal journey/experience which has worked for me. We all have unprecedented access to information more than ever. There are plenty of such models out there and in fact, my model draws inspiration from several of them which I modified to suit my lifestyle

Alright let me share what are the 5 pillars:

1. Balanced Nutritious Meals

2. Hydration

3. Quality Sleep

4. Adequate Exercise

5. Emotional Wellness

Bonus Holiday Series: Episode 4

Once I got my head straight with handling the COVID situation both at work and home, I was yearning to learn some of the inspiring stories of new-age entrepreneurs. That’s when I picked How I built this by Guy Raz.

Just like classical mythology, which is filled with superheroes who do things differently, face a near-death experience, doubles down on their beliefs, and finally achieves fame & wealth. All of the above holds good for new age super entrepreneurs too.

Guy Raz beautifully walks us through the journey of some of the incredible startup founders from the spark of their initial idea through poverty, discrimination, and despair to ultimately when they reach a version of success!

Bonus Holiday Series: Episode 3

Ah huh, this is my favorite topic which I shied away from discussing but now can dare to talk openly, the feelings of shame, embarrassment, pain, and a sense of isolation.

The key takeaways from this book are, what can trigger shame, how empathy can be a powerful antidote to shame, and why we should all give up on the pursuit of perfection.

Bonus Holiday Series: Episode 2

This book helped answer two of my main questions, understanding the fundamentals of stoicism with a problem description and how to use some of its guiding principles to lead our best life.

You must be curious how am I applying stoics philosophy? I shared my mantra at the end!

Bonus Holiday Series: Episode 1

This book helped answer two of my main questions, how does emotional intelligence develop in individuals and why is it key for society as a whole to evolve and thrive. I shared a few of my habits influenced by this book at the end.

I highly recommend reading it, if not for you but for future generations whom we nurture and touch their lives on a regular basis. Here are some of my insights and high points from the book.

This bonus holiday series was requested by you, my dear listeners, who were curious to know more about the books I read and my fitness regime. It consists of 7 episodes, where 6 episodes focus on my takeaways from the top 6 books and the 7th episode is all about my 5 pillar model to fit and happy life.

Hello everyone, you are listening to the introductory episode of the new podcast called "Gritty Serendipity". I'm your host, Chetana Desai. Before I share my motivation to starting this podcast, let me introduce myself, once again my name is Chetana Desai, I passionately describe myself as creative by heart, pragmatic by the brain, and a Technology and Business leader with 15 years of experience. 

Now that you know a bit about me, let me share 3 key reasons behind starting this podcast!

Reason Number 1, my own lived experiences

Reason number 2, the opportunity

Reason number 3, creative satisfaction

My aim is to foster a community for women who are at all different stages in their career and in their life to come together, join hands, and support each other!

My Call to Action for you is: Please do share your questions & topics that are of value to you, recommend either a colleague, friend, or even yourself, who would make a great guest on this podcast, and finally don't forget to share your feedback & subscribe for this podcast to get future episodes!

My 3 step mantra:

1. Trust & work on your superpower
2. Iterate on risk to reward ratio 
3. Share your success

What next:

Stay tuned to my upcoming new series dedicated to demystifying incredible women from our very own technology companies and startups around us!

I want to leave you with this:

Hardship can hit anyone at any time so always be kind when you meet someone!

This episode is dedicated to Jason Young, host of the "MSDevShow" podcast & Mario Gerard, the host of "The TPM Podcast" who nudged me in the right direction. And also to my inspirations, the authors Shellye Archambeau and Laura Huang.