In Conversation with Ashwin In Conversation with Ashwin

My guests on the show are Ashna Lulla, writer of the book 'With Love Madras', and Vignesh Sivakumar, the photographer, and visual storyteller.

One of them is my wife and I was a proud beaming husband after recording the episode :) She absolutely crushed it with this book and so did Vignesh. 

With Love, Madras is a book that takes you on a stunning visual journey through homes across the city that embody the Madras way of life. Their Instagram bio reads - 'Explore Madras, One Home at a time.'

The episode talks about the book - how the idea came into existence; the multiple ups and downs in the journey; their favorite part of the journey; lessons learned, and pitfalls to avoid while publishing a book. They also, on being forced, tell us which home is their favorite and share some golden nuggets for first-time authors ;)

Ashna is an architect by the badge and designer by the heart. You can see a blend of both in her writing. She also is now a contributing writer to the design magazine, Architectural Digest, India. Here are some of her exquisite posts for the magazine. Prior to this, she worked at architecture and design studios, Collective Project, Mancini Design and Khosla Associates among others. 

Vignesh is also an architect and happens to be a genius behind the lens. Humble and clinical with his pictures, Vignesh has an old soul and brings a unique perspective through his camera and the way he views the world.. He has his own website (Chasing Pixels) where you can see his work - Architecture Photographer | Chasing Pixels | Chennai

You can contact Vignesh and Ashna on With Love Madras' Instagram (and go follow for some visually breathtaking content) -https://www.instagram.com/withlovemadras

Most importantly, you can order the book (anywhere in India) on With Love Madras (www.withlovemadras.com). 

Timestamps are below if you want to skip to any specific question.

I had a blast recording this. 

Please enjoy. :) 

Timestamps: 



00.01 - Intro - Music + Intro (Ashwin)
2.10 - Tell me about your early childhood and how that has influenced you and the person you have become 
2.15 - Vignesh 

6.15 - Origin of the idea
6.18 - Ashna 

9.00 - What do you mean by giving Chennai a seat on the table
9.04 - Vignesh 

9.50 - How long did it take you to write the entire book?
9.53 - Ashna 
13.00 - Vignesh 
 
15.15 - Hardest part of the book?
15.30 - Vignesh 
16.04 - Ashna 
19.21- Vignesh  
 
20.50 - Favourite part of the book journey
20.02 - Ashna
23.30- Vignesh 
 
24.27 - Process of interviewing and shooting a home
27.40 - Vignesh  
27.30 - Ashna 
30.47 - Vignesh 
 
31.37 - Favorite home
31.44 - Ashna 
35.50 - Vignesh 
 
36.00 - Advice to someone who for a first-time book writer
36.17 - Ashna
 37.17  - Vignesh 

___________________________________

Show notes:




Madras 

Architectural Digest  

Elle Décor 
People mentioned: Renuka Vasan (Editor); Indira Reddy (Ashna's friend)

Nimmi Roche is the founder of Blue Flag Project - an all-purpose sustainable men's shoewear that I cannot wait to buy. Each pair of Blue Flags is made of ~8 upcycled plastic water bottles.

On the episode, we discuss Nimmi's early childhood and how that has influenced her choices. We chat about her MBA at Harvard (and why Harvard MBA students shy away from revealing the name of their institution). We discuss Nimmi's corporate experience, her plunge into entrepreneurship and lots of detail about Blue Flag Project - the 4Ps, the 3Cs and everything marketing related. We end the show with some authentic and mildly philosophical advice from Nimmi about hard work and results. 

Nimmi worked at Goldman Sachs as an Associate in Hedge Fund Consulting. She graduated with an MBA from Harvard post which she worked in Amex and Adpatly before she finally decided to go all-in with Blue Flag Project- a product that replaces fast fashion and forces customers to change the environment- one step at a time.

Show notes-
Blue Flag shoes explained in 2 minutes-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzvd3_Qhpz0&t=8s
Blue Flag website-https://blueflagproject.com/
Nimmi's LinkedIn-https://www.linkedin.com/in/nimmi-roche-035b7513/
Washington Post Article-https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/climate-solutions/israeli-startup-ubq-turning-trash-into-plastic-products/

YouTube Link to audiovisual - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMe_oUUfIkg&t=1544s

FYI- I would say it's better to watch and listen via the Youtube link. However, if you are on the move, this recording should do a good job as well! The visual helps drive the point home but the audio, independently, does not do a bad job either. Best to listen in with headphones :)

About the episode-

A recording of The Reading Workshop I hosted with author, Krishna Trilok on 3rd Feb, 2019. We had a good turnout and a very good discussion.

The workshop was for people who care about reading but are struggling to incorporate it in their daily routine.
At the workshop, we discussed why we read, busted some myths about reading, committed to build it as a habit and shared actionable advice to make reading convenient. We discussed audio books, how we should pick our next books, answered common questions and spoke about varying genres.

My previous podcast with author, Krishna Trilok- Episode 9

On the show we discuss Rahul’s early childhood and his motivation behind starting Storiyoh. How he moved from being an employee in London’s financial district to a full-time entrepreneur. From the 15th minute on, we talk about podcasting- Rahul’s love for BBC world services and how it inspired him to start Storiyoh. We talk about the business model of podcasting by breaking it into 3 topics- distribution, consumption and monetization. We talk about the typical going rates of ads on podcasts, the disparities in listenership across different geographies. I was surprised to learn that  China is the biggest podcasting market in the world with it generating revenues of 7B$ in 2016. Chinese who have a reputation for being frugal are more than willing to pay for good content. We discuss advantages of free v/s paid content and how podcasters shouldn’t shy away from pricing their episodes. We talk podcasting for the mass v/s niche. We discuss the ad model versus paid model and pros and cons of each of these. We answer the question – Is good content good enough for a podcast’s success? Rahul compares podcasting and its marketing to a book/movie launch and draws relevant parallels. Finally, we get Rahul’s 2 cents on being a perpetual learner and doing deep work. With that, I leave you to listen to my wide ranging conversation with Rahul Nair, founder and CEO of Storiyoh. Please enjoy. 


Show notes-
Storiyoh- https://www.storiyoh.com/

You can reach Rahul on- 
Email- rahul@storiyoh.com
Facebook-https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100021699556849

About Rahul-
Rahul has over 13 years of experience across domains including financial services, entrepreneurship, consulting, and has experience working in the education sector in India. He started his career as a private-client and institutional stockbroker in London, selling IPOs to London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM), subsequently co-founding a business in the niche real-estate asset class of student and staff housing. He then founded and managed his own coffee retail and hospitality business for two years before advancing his professional experience with EY, Dubai and Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Dubai in accounting and IPO advisory services respectively, working across sectors including healthcare, hospitality, real-estate, construction and trading.
Rahul did his schooling in Mumbai, Shanghai, Coimbatore and Dubai before moving to the University of Liverpool from where he graduated with a BA (Hons) in Economics and International Development. He also holds an MSc in Organisational Behaviour from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). During his stockbroking days, he was an Associate of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments (CISI), and, most recently, was also an education sector chair at the Learning Innovations Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

The theme of our conversation was social conditioning on gender roles, women in sports and the corporate world.
Our guest Rashi Kakkar holds an undergraduate degree from The Shri Ram College of Commerce, New Delhi, a young India Fellowship from The Ashoka University in New Delhi and an MBA from The University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management with the prestige of having secured the Forte Fellowship (a prestigious educational scholarship awarded to about 100 women in the world owing to their past performance and future potential ).
She currently works in Toronto at McKinsey and Company as a management consultant. A junior level national tennis player, Rashi is a complete sports buff who enjoys playing, reading, writing and watching any and every sport.

In my chat with Amrita, we talk about her early childhood, how she was always doing 10 things -writing, dancing, theatre and lots more, how the skills of business acumen, people handling and approachability that she built up as an HR professional have helped her in MommyshotsbyAmrita, how she transitioned from a cushy corporate job to converting her passion into a profession, how and when she FINALLY decided to take the plunge, how a professional shoots get done – the homework, on shoot day and post production, how she used photography as a medium to raise awareness about her breastmilk donation, Amrita’s strong message about saying no to baby fairness creams, how Amrita deals with creative block, Amrita’s 2 months of self-doubt where she almost shut down Mommyshots but with a hailmary got back to hustling and growing it to what it is today. To close, she shares her 2 cents for budding entrepreneurs and how anyone can and must keep a passion alive and not let it die.