Inspire Someone Today

Srikanth
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Inspiration is all around us. You don’t have to be an epitome of success to be inspiring. This podcast focuses on bringing in stories, learnings, and experiences from a cross-section of people that is worthy and has messages to all. People who are like you and me - our heroes are someone in our neighborhood, in the family, the storekeeper, the aspiring student or the budding entrepreneur, and many more unsung individuals. Join me on this journey of learning together and growing together so that together we can, Inspire Someone Today!

  1. Oct 8

    E186 | Everyone is a Designer | Saurabh Gupta

    Send us Fan Mail Episode 186 — Everyone Is a DesignerGuest: Saurabh Gupta, Founder, Zeux Innovation We live in a world where answers are becoming easier to find. AI can generate ideas, analyze information, create options, and increasingly do things that once required years of expertise. So perhaps the advantage is no longer simply in having the answer — perhaps it's in noticing what others miss, asking a better question, understanding the problem before rushing to solve it, and having the judgment to know what actually matters. That's where design gets interesting — not as a profession, but as a way of thinking. Our guest, Saurabh Gupta, has spent more than two decades working at the intersection of design, business, and human behavior. As founder of Zeux Innovation, he's seen how better design shapes products and experience — but this conversation goes well beyond design itself. We talk about why everyone is already a designer whether they realize it or not, why most organizations are good at spotting a problem but bad at defining it, why the real skill behind insight is learning to stay quiet, and why — in a world where AI makes building cheap — belief, not product, is becoming the real moat. Saurabh also shares how a boarding-gate argument and a Subway sandwich order became two of his sharpest lessons in noticing, and closes with a six-word discipline anyone can use to cut through noise in their own life. Listener Action Before your next project — personal or professional — answer three questions in six words or less each: Who is the user? What is your offering? Why will people use it? Saurabh's challenge goes further: write the story of your own life in six words, with a real beginning, middle, and end. Have you purchased the copy of Inspire Someone Today, yet? - Give it a go geni.us/istbook Available on all podcast platforms, including, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify

    E186 | Everyone is a Designer | Saurabh Gupta

  2. Oct 1

    E185| World Through A Different Lens - P2 | Kavi Arasu

    Send us Fan Mail Guest: Kavi Arasu is the founder of Flyntrok, a change consultancy built around deep listening, reframing, and human-centered organizational change. He writes the weekly Friday Fable series on LinkedIn and has kept a personal blog since the early days of blogging.   Part 2 of our conversation with Flyntrok founder Kavi Arasu goes somewhere more personal. We get into the discipline of noticing — a practice his father drilled into him with a five-rupee bus fare and one repeated question — and follow it into his Friday Fable ritual, where two decades of collecting stories from science, sport, and everyday strangers turn into the one-line reframes thousands of people wait for every Friday. He tells one live. We close with his Power of Three, a story about a CFO's bathroom whiteboard, and a message about what "human first" actually requires. Quotable Quotes:  "You don't know how high you can fly unless the rope breaks."   "Hold lightly to your experience, and hold tightly to the situation in front of you."  This concludes our two-part conversation with Kavi Arasu. Part 1 — on change, listening, and AI — is available now.  Have you purchased the copy of Inspire Someone Today, yet? - Give it a go geni.us/istbook Available on all podcast platforms, including, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify

    E185| World Through A Different Lens - P2 | Kavi Arasu

  3. Sep 24

    E185| World Through A Different Lens - P1| Kavi Arasu

    Send us Fan Mail  Guest  Kavi Arasu founded Flyntrok, a change consultancy built on deep listening, reframing, and human-centered organizational change. He spent two decades in leadership, talent, and organizational development roles inside large companies before going independent.  Episode Notes  We talk about organizational change as if it's a project — define the future state, build the roadmap, execute. Kavi Arasu, founder of Flyntrok and a two-decade veteran of leading change from inside large organizations, argues that's exactly where we go wrong. In the first half of this two-part conversation, we explore why busyness gets mistaken for progress, why senior leaders are often the biggest roadblock to the change they're championing, why success teaches us worse lessons than failure does, and what deep listening actually requires in a world of dashboards and notifications.   Key Quotes  Success is a bad teacher, and you have to... I would always, always recommend that leaders sit with their successes  Senior leaders have to consider themselves as part of the problem. It's not something that they do to the rest of the organization.  Have you purchased the copy of Inspire Someone Today, yet? - Give it a go geni.us/istbook Available on all podcast platforms, including, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify

    E185| World Through A Different Lens - P1| Kavi Arasu

  4. Sep 10

    E184 | The Champion Builder | Sanjeeva Singh

    Send us Fan Mail  Episode 184 — The Champion Builder ft. Sanjeeva Singh  He learned archery by watching. As a schoolboy volunteering at the 1982 Asian Games, Sanjeeva Singh had never held a bow — he spent his days fetching targets and water for the Korean, Japanese, and Chinese archers training on the field he was assigned to. He watched. He applied his Class 11 physics to what he saw. Within two years he was a national junior champion. That same instinct — watch closely, apply what you know, teach yourself if nobody will teach you — took him to the 1988 Olympics as an archer, and later built the Tata Archery Academy from nothing in a Jharkhand tribal belt nobody expected to produce a world champion. It's the same instinct now building India's first rural integrated archery academy, from the ground up, in a village in Deoria, Uttar Pradesh. In this conversation: the myth that you can't be a serious athlete and a serious student at the same time (he was both, at once); the "ruthless" standard he holds his trainees to and where the line sits before it tips into harm; his own framework for what it takes to build a champion mindset — four Ps, four Ds, and willpower; and why, at nearly 60, he chose to build his most ambitious project yet in a place with no sporting infrastructure at all. Have you purchased the copy of Inspire Someone Today, yet? - Give it a go geni.us/istbook Available on all podcast platforms, including, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify

    E184 | The Champion Builder | Sanjeeva Singh

  5. Aug 27

    E183 | Certainty Is a Trap | Rhea D'Souza

    Send us Fan Mail Certainty Is a Trap  ft. Rhea D'Souza Sixth Anniversary Season · Inspire Someone Today Rhea D'Souza has spent nearly three decades inside the messy reality of organizations and leadership — and has spent most of that time looking for answers in places most consultants wouldn't think to look. She's looked at how forests regulate themselves without a CEO. How ant colonies solve coordination problems that would stop any org-design firm in its tracks. How a murmuration of starlings — thousands of birds — moves as one, with no central command, guided by just two principles. She is also the author of Conversations with Grief in Brief — an illustrated book she wrote and drew herself — and the co-creator of Notes to Them, a quiet corner of the internet where anyone can leave a note to someone or something they've lost. In this conversation, Rhea and Srikanth move across four kinds of terrain: the philosophy underneath her polymath path, the case she makes for tribe-building as the leadership capacity our organizations are missing, the role of biomimicry in designing workplaces that actually breathe, and grief — what it is, what we get wrong about it, and how to compost it rather than bury it. One line from the episode that stayed with us long after recording: 'The scale is artificial. The path is real.' What you'll take away Why Darwin never said 'survival of the fittest' — and why the misquote has quietly broken how we build teams and reward performanceThe difference between a group, a team, a tribe, and a community — and why you cannot build a community (you can only create the conditions for one to emerge)The two principles that govern a murmuration of starlings — and how Rhea used them to help 13 people change the minds of 2,000Why belonging is a feeling, not a thing anyone can give youWhat composting grief actually looks like — and why 'time will take care of it' is one of the most unhelpful things you can sayThe one question a Kenyan tribe asks anyone in their village who falls sick — in any form — that Rhea believes is the most powerful therapeutic question she has ever encounteredMentioned in this episode Conversations with Grief in Brief — Rhea D'Souza (illustrated reflective fiction, Amazon.in)Notes to Them — notestothem.live (a grief sanctuary, co-created with Suraja Kishore)asknature.org — the biomimicry reference database Rhea recommends (founded by Janine Benyus)Homer's Iliad and The Odyssey — Rhea's Power of 3 recommendation for business school curriculaKabila Consulting — kabilaconsulting.comListener Action Visit notestothem.live before you go back to your day. Leave one note — it doesn't have to be for someone who has died. It could be for a job you left, a friendship that faded, a version of yourself you've outgrown, or a dream that didn't become what you hoped. Just notice what it feels like to give it somewhere to go, outside your own head. Have you purchased the copy of Inspire Someone Today, yet? - Give it a go geni.us/istbook Available on all podcast platforms, including, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify

    E183 | Certainty Is a Trap | Rhea D'Souza

  6. Aug 20

    E182 | Blind Spots To Big Bets | Shrinath V

    Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Inspire Someone Today, Srikanth sits down with Shrinath V — product strategist, startup coach, Google Developer Expert, and the writer behind the Substack Blind Spots to Big Bets — for a conversation that refuses to let you off the hook. Shrinath has lived through two layoffs at companies “built to last”—Motorola and Nokia—and turned those career disruptions into a consulting practice, a writing practice, and a clear view of why most organizations keep making the same costly mistakes. He talks about why NPS is a dangerous proxy, why the AI-first rush is largely performative, why India’s real advantage in the AI age is its ability to thrive in chaos, and why the biggest blind spot most professionals carry is a competitive mindset they’ve never examined. More than anything, he leaves you with three questions worth sitting with today — not someday. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN Why two layoffs — at Motorola and Nokia — were the making of Shrinath’s consulting career, not the end of itWhat large corporations teach you that no MBA can — and why the lesson usually arrives as a shockThe difference between being unable to see a blind spot and being unwilling to see one — and why each needs a different kind of helpWhy NPS scores, AI-first strategies, and user personas can all become dangerous traps if you mistake the metric for the truthThe most common blind spot Shrinath sees across leaders regardless of industry, seniority, or company sizeWhy India’s real superpower in the AI age is adaptation, not invention — and what that means for your careerThree questions every professional should ask themselves once a year — and why we keep avoiding themThe Listener Action: a 15-minute exercise to surface your own blind spots, starting today Have you purchased the copy of Inspire Someone Today, yet? - Give it a go geni.us/istbook Available on all podcast platforms, including, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify

    E182 | Blind Spots To Big Bets | Shrinath V

  7. Aug 13

    E181 | The Inspired Leader | Anil Sachdev

    Send us Fan Mail Episode 181 — The Inspired Leader ft. Anil Sachdev Anil Sachdev wrote his life's mission statement at 19. He is the Founder and Chairman of the School of Inspired Leadership (SOIL), founded Eicher Consultancy Services and Grow Talent, and has spent five decades helping individuals and organisations discover what they are truly capable of. His new book — The Inspired Leader: Seven Practices to Unlock Your Leadership Potential — is the distillation of that lifetime of work. In this episode, Anil returns to Inspire Someone Today for a rare second appearance. The conversation moves through the origins of his mission, the profound lessons of his Eicher years, the architecture of The Inspired Leader, and the one thing he believes can change a life this week. What You'll Hear in This Episode The 1971 war, a youth forum, and how a 19-year-old found his mission by raising ₹5,000 for a martyr's familyWhy Vikram Lal — the man behind Eicher — visited a junior employee's home seven times during a 40-day illness, and what that taught Anil about leadershipThe Two Biggest Lies about leadership — and why Anil chose the word 'lie' over 'myth'Dr. James Doty: from a broken home at 12, to world-leading neurosurgeon and founder of Stanford's Center for Altruism — a story of what a single conversation can unlockSOAR vs SWOT — and the miracle of the SOIL campus that was built in six months by a contractor who had never built an office buildingJ. Krishnamurti's choiceless awareness — and what it means to become the witness of your own mindWhat breaks trust most in modern workplaces, and the three ingredients that rebuild it: competence, credibility, and fairnessWhy declining the Director's chair at both IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore was the right call — and what it costThe two AIs that matter more than artificial intelligence: Appreciative Inquiry and Aspiration to InspirationAnil's Listener Action: one small thing, starting today About Anil Sachdev Anil Sachdev is the Founder and Chairman of the School of Inspired Leadership (SOIL), one of India's most values-driven business schools, co-created with 32 companies. He began his career at Tata Motors in 1975, spent over two decades at Eicher Group — heading HR, Operations, and sitting on the Board — before founding Eicher Consultancy Services (1991) and Grow Talent (2001). He has been adjunct faculty at ISB, Indiana University's Kelly School of Business, and CEDEP/INSEAD. He is a Trustee of Chinmaya Mission. Anil wrote the Foreword for Sri's book, Inspire Someone Today. Have you purchased the copy of Inspire Someone Today, yet? - Give it a go geni.us/istbook Available on all podcast platforms, including, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify

    E181 | The Inspired Leader | Anil Sachdev

  8. Aug 6

    E180 | How Many People Are Better Because They Crossed Your Path ? | Priya Vishwanathan

    Send us Fan Mail What makes someone feel truly at home — in a hotel, a homestay, or their own life? For this 6th-anniversary episode, Srikanth sits down with Priya Vishwanathan, who gave 35 years to the Taj and IHCL, helped build the ama Stays & Trails homestay business, and then did the hardest thing of all: walked away at the top to find out who she was without the badge. This is a conversation about hospitality as a way of living — honesty, genuine care, and the thin line between service and servility. Priya shares the day-three moment at the Taj that nearly ended her career, why "complaint is a gift," how her team kept a 90+ NPS by cooking to each guest's taste, and what luxury means to her now (hint: it isn't marble). It closes on reinvention, burnout, and a definition of success that reframes the whole show. In this episode: Why her mother's "Atithi Devo Bhava" became the Taj's "Guest is God"The angry guest on day three — and the advice that saved a 35-year career"Complaint is a gift": turning hostility into learningService vs. servility: protecting your dignity while you serveBuilding homestays families trusted with their ancestral homesThe father's study table they refused to move — and turned into a storyGood to great: curated meals, the tea-coffee station, coffee in the gardenToday's traveller: the global Indian, entitled but willing to pay for experiencesLeaving at the top, burnout, and learning AI at 50+Luxury redefined as peace, quietude, and living on her own termsHave you purchased the copy of Inspire Someone Today, yet? - Give it a go geni.us/istbook Available on all podcast platforms, including, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify

    E180 | How Many People Are Better Because They Crossed Your Path ? | Priya Vishwanathan
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Inspiration is all around us. You don’t have to be an epitome of success to be inspiring. This podcast focuses on bringing in stories, learnings, and experiences from a cross-section of people that is worthy and has messages to all. People who are like you and me - our heroes are someone in our neighborhood, in the family, the storekeeper, the aspiring student or the budding entrepreneur, and many more unsung individuals. Join me on this journey of learning together and growing together so that together we can, Inspire Someone Today!

Information

  • Creator
    Srikanth
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    198
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Inspire Someone Today
  • Show Website
    Inspire Someone Today