[00:00:00] Aishwarya: So when you say fake it till you make it, you’re pretending. You don’t need to pretend because anything that you’re trying to do, you can do it. And I think as long as we embody that, we’re golden. You build a business authentically, it takes a life of its own. It really does. I get so much energy and so much joy from doing a lot of different things that maybe doesn’t look like a traditional Silicon Valley founder story, and that’s okay. I really want to debunk that myth that we have to build companies in a certain way to achieve success.

[00:00:36] Amardeep: Welcome to The Mindful and Driven podcast. Where it’s about how to not lose sight of what’s really important whilst chasing your dreams. Today’s guest is Aishwarya Balaji, who is a co-founder and CEO of A Fresh Sip. It’s a growing alcohol-free beverage platform. She’s a serial Silicon Valley Entrepreneur and has started multiple businesses and advise countless others on how to grow and scale in a sustainable way. She’s given talks globally, including at TEDx. I’m sure you’re going to love hearing a story today. Hope you enjoy.

[00:01:10] Welcome to Mindful and Driven podcast, Aishwarya. Pleasure to have you here.

[00:01:13] Aishwarya: Thank you so much. I’m like really excited to chat with you today.

[00:01:16] Amardeep: Yeah, so you’ve been doing some amazing things over the last few years and you’re obviously building A Fresh Sip now, but along that way you must have been through so many different periods where people were trying to advise you and give you advice about what you should do with your life. What are some common advice you’ve heard that you disagree with?

[00:01:31] Aishwarya: Oh my gosh. So many different pieces of advice that I probably disagree with at this point. But the one thing that I would say is I really cringe when people say fake it till you make it, that phrase drives me crazy, because it’s, to me, it’s telling people to be inauthentic, right? When you were faking it, you were being almost like disingenuous. I get why people say, they’re saying like, don’t worry, don’t stress, but if you can actually embody, oh, I am great, or I am this, or I am that, then you’re not, you’re embodying yourself. So when you say fake it till you make it, you’re pretending you don’t need to pretend because anything that you’re trying to do, you can do it. And I think as long as we embody that we’re golden.

[00:02:16] Amardeep: I think a lot of people as well, they say it because of imposter syndrome, right? But the thing of imposter syndrome, you don’t fix it by pretending to be somebody you’re not because then you are literally being an imposter and instead it’s about getting the confidence and working out what is it that’s making you not fully comfortable with what you’re doing, and then trying to attack that in terms of actual actions so that you then have the confidence to do what you want to do. And if it’s that, you don’t feel like you can advise people because you don’t feel like you have the experience, or you don’t have this, or you don’t have that, then don’t try to advise people what you think that’s important. Advise people you think you can help instead.

[00:02:54] Aishwarya: Yeah, it’s a whole trust thing at the end of the day, it’s trusting yourself. And one of the most important things is can you build credibility with yourself, right? It’s about, and you can build credibility slowly. You can say, okay, I’m going to do this. Maybe I’ll take my vitamins today. Maybe I’ll take my vitamins and go to the gym tomorrow. And you’re slowly adding things to build that credibility with yourself. But when you trust yourself, you don’t have to pretend, you don’t have to be fake. Like if you wake me up in the middle of the night and you ask me a question, I should be telling you the same answer that I would say in the middle of the day, to me, that’s being authentic, and to me, that’s not me being fake. And so I get imposter syndrome can be really hard, like hard and harmful, but that is literally you operating from fear and fear is not you. And so it’s literally saying be you, don’t be fake because the fakeness is what’s causing the imposter syndrome and the fear and everything. It’s like, be authentic, be you, be true, and then that’s why like, and then you’ll make it,

[00:03:54] Amardeep: have you ever suffered from imposter syndrome yourself?

[00:03:57] Aishwarya: Always. Constantly. I think every time we up level and we conquer one battle, we’re facing it again. And I just, now I feel fortunate because I have a bunch of different tools in my toolbox that I can tap into when I am faced with that, which I think an earlier version of myself would have really, really wished that I had.

[00:04:18] Amardeep: Yeah. Because I think I find it myself and it’s like you said, how you deal with it is by being authentic. I don’t try to pretend to people. When I’m talking to people like you who’ve achieved so much and people I’ve talked to on other podcast episodes, I don’t try to pretend that I’ve done certain things that I haven’t. I’m quite honest about it. And we talk just for this podcast. I mentioned how my background is. I was surprised to get into what I’m doing now. And I think that makes me more relatable. It makes people want to be in touch with me more rather than me pretending or making up lies to try and impress them. And I think if you look at online business, if you look at anyone building a brand, that’s so much more important because people didn’t want this avatar of somebody who’s perfect. They want somebody who’s real. They want somebody they can relate to. And I know that within your own companies and the things you’ve done in the past, that’s been a big part of it, right? And you put yourself out there, you put yourself on camera and you build those relationships because of that.

[00:05:12] Aishwarya: Absolutely. I think when, like with A Fresh Sip, for example, which is in the sober, curious, alcohol free space, there is this huge, there was a whole huge need of people feeling seen and nobody talks or nobody before was talking about not drinking as anything outside of sobriety. But there’s a lot of reasons people might not drink alcohol, right? It might be like a late night, you might have an early morning, you might be pregnant, whatever the reason is. And so we wanted to be like, the best friends in that space, right? We want it to be the people that you could see yourself in. And as you were saying earlier, being authentic and sharing your journey and sharing what matters to you, that’s your unique story, and you’re tapping into your unique genius and that’s what’s connecting with other people.

[00:05:56] Amardeep: And I think there are so many young companies, people I’ve interviewed as well in the past, is that that’s how they get their first customers. By having people you believe in their mission too. And you get this really loyal fans and the really loyal customers, because they want to help you because they’re like you. They like the way you’re going about the product. And especially in those early days, when you’re still trying to boot up your brand and build up the credibility in terms of numbers, some of the other stuff that people might look into, what they’re investing in in many ways, and what they’re believing in is you as a founder.

[00:06:27] Aishwarya: Yeah, absolutely. I think you are the brand. And whether that’s you asking for investment money from investors, they’re not paying and they’re not investing in your idea. They’re investing in you as a person and your ability to adapt and to evolve because life and your business is going to constantly be seeing challenges, right? And your ability to be able to change with that is what they’re excited about. The same thing with a community, your community is excited about the way you’re approaching something. They see themselves in what you’re showing them, and that’s really exciting for them as well.

[00:07:03] Amardeep: What inspired you to start A Fresh Sip albeit curiosity?

[00:07:06] Aishwarya: It actually goes back to when I was running my last company. I actually ran a company in the blockchain space and I got really burnt out. It was the first startup I had ever built, and I was taking a lot of advice from other people. And during that process, I was very, I was getting really burnt out and I also got really sick because as you might know, when you’re emotionally and mentally not taking care of yourself, your physical body can also struggle quite a bit. And one of the things I had to do to heal myself was to cut out toxins and alcohol happened to be one of them. And so I cut out alcohol for a bit. But I’m a very social person. I love going out. I love celebrating. I love hosting events. And so learning how to navigate social situations was a whole process. Fast forward a couple of years, and since I have been in the startup space for like six, seven, about seven, eight years now, we noticed that there was a trend actually in Europe of non-alcoholic products and beverages starting to come to market. And you guys are a little ahead of us in The States when it comes to some of these consumer product trends and what we felt that this was going to be definitely coming here as well. And so we decided, Hey, I think this is something that’s not just going to be a trend, but it’s going to be here to stay. It’s like, kind of, that’d be like the next vegan vegetarian gluten-free kind of craze, and so we were kind of bullish on that, and we, being my co-founder Payal and I, and we decided that we were going to help be some structural support for the industry. And so we did that by building a community for people who were looking for alcohol free alternatives that were still sophisticated, that were still delicious and kind of normalizing not drinking. And that community currently just took a life of its own, and she started asking for a lot of recommendations. They wanted help with finding things that were very uniquely important for them. And so we ended up launching a platform where we now sell, I think over 250 non-alcoholic beverages nationwide. And it’s really exciting because it’s just, it’s all of these products that continuously come to market. Now we’re moving to the B2B side. You know, when you build a business authentically, it takes a life of its own. It really does. And I think that that’s all I can, that’s what I tell my clients. That’s what I tell anybody.

[00:09:23] Amardeep: Yeah. I really like to dig a bit more into the burnout phase you had there as well, that triggered A Fresh Sip in the first place. What happened there? So you said that you tried to cut toxins and things like that. How did you get to that state? And was it the first thing you did was try to cut out toxins? Or did you try other things, I imagine, in the meantime? And how quick were you about doing that? Because many people can stay in that burnout phase for way longer than is healthy.

[00:09:46] Aishwarya: So one thing I would want to say about me in particular is I’ve always been like a huge, self-growth, curious individual. I’m always down to try to figure out why something is happening and then I’ll want to fix like the root cause. So whether that’s my health or like my mindset, or some, like a project I’m working on. And so for me, I was getting really curious by that. So like, if my health was starting to suffer, like I wanted to know why that was happening. And it was like, it was hormonal imbalance. It was adrenal imbalance. It was like everything under the sun. But stress is a huge contributor of that. And so one thing I didn’t realize was I was drinking the Silicon Valley Kool-Aid of, I should be, you know, in my room, eating ramen, in a garage, eating ramen, building this business. And what I realized is I’m not that type of founder. I get so much energy by seeing my friends. I get so much energy and so much joy from doing a lot of different things that maybe doesn’t look like a traditional Silicon Valley founder story. And that’s okay. And, you know, even when it comes to like the capital that we raised and whatnot, like there are so many different ways to run businesses. And the other business that I now run is a consultancy and coaching business where I really want to debunk that myth, that we have to build companies in a certain way to achieve success. And I work very closely with people to do that.

[00:11:15] Amardeep: Are there any lessons that you teach your clients that are rooted in changes you made in your own life?

[00:11:20] Aishwarya: One of the things that I did after burning out was I did a vipassana and a vipassana is a 10 day silent retreat. And there are so many incredible nuggets that I learned from that, that I’ve included in my meditation practice, but I’ve also passed along to clients of mine. And one is this like incredible analogy that like, to me, struck gold. And so I’ll share that with you. And the analogy goes like this. If you take a stick and you go to water and you draw a line in water, that line disappears right away. You take a stick and you draw a line in the sand and that line stays for a little longer, but eventually it goes away. You take a stick and you draw a line in rock, and that line lasts a lot longer and it’s like pretty much there for awhile. And the analogy is kind of when somebody says something negative to you or something very critical and in that could be even yourself, because you say it once, or you hear it once, and it doesn’t really affect you, but when you internalize it and you say it again and again and again, that is where you’re holding yourself back. You’ve now accepted that as a part of your identity. Once it becomes like a line in rock. And so really releasing things that are not, that don’t feel good, much quicker is, was a huge, huge learning and something that I share with a lot of people, cause I think it’s very powerful. We don’t have control over anything in our surroundings, but we have control over how we let that affect us, and how much, how many times we say that to ourselves.

[00:12:51] Amardeep: Hi everyone. I hope you’re enjoying the episode so far. I want to take a quick break to ask you to check in with yourself. There’s many people struggling with balance and it’s nothing to be ashamed about. It’s tips that my guests might share can hopefully help you along the way, but if you already feel overwhelmed or burnt out, it’s probably best that you ask somebody for help too. For some, this might be a friend or family member, while others might feel like they have nobody they can talk to. If you’re one of these people, check out the link in the show notes, it’s for United for Global Mental Health. They’ve got health plans all across the world, with people willing to listen on the other side. It’s important to let somebody know how you’re feeling. Now, back to the show.

[00:13:27] What were some of the stories you told yourself that were negative and how did you break that cycle?

[00:13:32] Aishwarya: That’s a really good question. For me, a big story, and I think there’s a story that a lot of people tell themselves, is that I am not enough and that I need to achieve certain success metrics to be considered enough. With the last business that I built, I, it was my identity. The business, the success of the business, was the success of me. And my identity was very intertwined with that business. Every outcome that I achieved there was giving me a short term validation that I was good enough, but then it would go away and then it was okay. Now what? So like I did a TEDx and it was great, but literally I remember, the day after the TEDx was over, I was like, okay, well now what am I going to do? And it was, and so, you know when you surround your like identity with your business or your business outcomes and you constantly need that external validation, that is not a healthy place to be, so that definitely added to my burnout in that entire journey versus now, if I’m being completely honest, If my business fails, for whatever reason, I would be okay because I have not attached my worth to the success and the outcomes of my business. I love my business. But when people say, are you going to be running A Fresh Sip five years from now? It’s like, I’m not sure. And it was like, are you going to, do you want to do this forever? People always ask, do you want to do this forever? Why is that a question? Because forever is a long time and I’m a different person today than I’m than I was yesterday. So obviously at some point in my life, I’m going to want to do something different, and I’m okay with that.

[00:15:07] Amardeep: I think one of the things related to that as well, is that a lot of people might think about this idea of a life purpose or your life’s work, but you don’t need to decide that now and your life’s work can change. Like it could be that A Fresh Sip is what drives you really strongly right now, but in 10 years time, you might have a different mission. So you don’t need to choose what you’re going to do now for the rest of your life. I think it is, I think you don’t have to do this in The States, but in the UK you have to pick a university subject when you’re still 18. So people decide to become doctors when they’re 18 years old, and then once they’ve decided that they’ve now got six years of university to study for that. And people my age, there are a lot of people who’ve been doing, practicing for several years now, and it doesn’t make them happy. And they’re just stuck now because they made that decision when they’re 18 years old and they feel that they have to stick to it today, even though it’s over a decade later. And I think the better we can get at, like you said, it’s in a way to do with the drawing the line of the stick is you don’t need to stick to what your beliefs were several years ago, you can change, and there’s no point trying to hold yourself to a previous standard where a few years ago, well, recently you might decide A Fresh Sip is the most important thing to you, but in year’s time, it could be something completely different. And that’s not you betraying yourself, that actually you being honest with who you are at that point in time.

[00:16:33] Aishwarya: Totally. And actually change is the only constant in life. You know, we talked about that briefly before we jumped on this podcast is, that is the only thing that is consistent. So if we are in, you know, we have a routine or we’re doing something well, right now, something in life is going to happen. And the only thing that we can do is embrace that whatever is coming our way, that we can handle with grace. And like, if we get comfortable being uncomfortable, life is just easier. And I think, I say this a lot and my parents make fun of me, I say, you know, trust the universe. And I just trust the universe. Like what? Like, and I say that because it takes a pressure off of me. And I think we, as individuals, as humans, we think we’re really special. And one of the best things that I’ve done for myself is realize how insignificant I am. And I know that sounds really funny, but when we realize that we are insignificant, we give ourselves permission to do whatever the hell we want. And that ends up being so much better than if we thought we were special.

[00:17:40] Amardeep: It’s the spotlight effect, right? Where we think that our story that is in our heads is what everybody else is seeing as well, whereas most people in our lives might think of us for maybe 10 seconds a day for that. If you see somebody and that they see you on Instagram, whatever like that, or in social media, they’re not consumed by you the entire day. They might just click on your photo and press like or whatever and go on with their day. They’re not still thinking about your photo or whatever you did, or your reel. And there’s a lot of people who put so much pressure on themselves when they’re out in public, because they think that people are going to remember that. And I can’t remember what I was wearing yesterday, let alone what somebody else was. Like where you are at the moment, obviously you’ve got your two different businesses that you run and you’re trying to have better balance and not have that burnout that they had before. How is your balance right now? Do you feel like you’re in a good place?

[00:18:33] Aishwarya: Yes. And I will say yes because I give myself permission to not be perfect. And so there are days where I get nothing done on both businesses and I don’t feel guilty for that. I think, you know, we tend to get so, we get in our own ways and we are like, our bodies will tell us when we need something and we can choose to ignore it, or we choose to accept it. So there are days where I feel so much energy. Like today, I feel so energized. I know I’m going to get so much done. And last week, there was a couple of days where I got like, I was like so tired. And so what I did was I just needed to like, relax. I read a book, you know, like I took a few hours and yeah, I feel like fortunate that I have the luxury to be able to kind of manage my schedule, but that was also really intentional. One of the questions I get a lot is why are you running two businesses? Don’t you want to just commit to one, and it’s not about me being commitment-phobic towards one or the other. It’s truly about both sides, giving me such different joys and allowing myself to show up completely. When I work one-on-one with people in the coaching and consulting side, I’m able to unlock pieces of their genius that they have been not able to necessarily see for years. And that gives me so much fuel that I’m able to take towards A Fresh Sip and saying, you know, what I’m showing here, what I am explaining here, and teaching here, I am, I’m executing on this side. You are seeing the success of my business as a direct correlation with what I’m also presenting. And so, you know, they say like, do one, teach one, what’s the other one? Do one, teach one, right? That’s the phrase. And like this way I’m able to teach and also do at the same time. And I think that’s a really, that’s a beautiful combination.

[00:20:25] Amardeep: Yeah. And I think what you said there about taking, some days we take slow and some days you’ve got the energy and you can get more done. I don’t have to keep a backlog of different things where they need to be done sometime, but they’re not particularly important. I’m going to be having a day where I can’t focus and get the high quality work done. I’ll just sit there and do the menial tasks sometimes, and I’m getting stuff done, but it’s quite therapeutic in a way. And so some of the stuff I do, for example, design work and like designing some of my cover art and things like that. It’s quite therapeutic. I quite enjoy it. Especially if I haven’t got much energy, it doesn’t really feel like work. And then on other days I’ve got tons of energy and I can really pump out content or I can coach people. I can do different things, and that’s okay. And listening to that two different side of things is really important too, of having that backup of like, okay, if it’s a bad day today, is there anything I can get done that won’t make me feel worse?

[00:21:21] Aishwarya: Yeah. And I think we all are such different people. Like I know how, I’ve taken a lot of time to understand how I operate best and I need a variety of different things that spark joy, otherwise I will just, that will burn me out. So as ironic as it is, me spending less time doing something, even if it’s by 10% or 20% will actually increase the output. And so that’s where having multiple things that I’m working on really does give me that like happy, happy, kind of medium. But that being said, I still can’t do, I can go back and forth all day. Like I need to chunk my time, so my head is there and I’m not getting this, like, you know, starting inertia that I need to like put towards something. But yeah, like I genuinely love what I’m doing and I genuinely love my life. And I could have never said that like four years ago, which is so wild.

[00:22:15] Amardeep: So before we started recording, you mentioned how, when people ask you what you’re excited about during the week, you sometimes mention something that’s work related, when they might’ve been asking something that was more personal. What other things that you do outside of work that also bring that joy to you where they’re not necessarily for income or for your business, but you try to keep them there anyway?

[00:22:34] Aishwarya: Yeah, so a couple things. So I’m kind of a part digital nomad. I like to change my environment in terms of where I live a couple of times, like probably at least once or twice a year. And I do this because I think, being around different people, different energy, and a different culture, is super important and meaningful for me. And it just, there’s nothing like that. It gives me so much joy. And so that is something that I do quite a bit. And then I will say, I love anything artistic expression, so I’m really big into dance. I love, I actually used to sing when I was little and I just restarted that like a couple of weeks ago. And so that’s super, super exciting. And even like coloring, painting, like artistic expression to me grounds me. And so that is very, very important. I actually moved to a new city, like back in the fall and I chose this, I moved to Austin, Texas, and I chose the city because it was a mix of nature and like tech and startup stuff. And so that was really exciting. And one beautiful thing about where I live right now is I can see sunrise and sunset from my unit. And the joy that I get from seeing sunrise and sunset every day, it literally makes me feel so connected with everything around me. And I know this sounds so sappy, but like, it’s so true. And I couldn’t have asked for anything better than that.

[00:23:57] Amardeep: The people listening who might want to do a digital nomad life themselves in the future, how do you go about that in terms of, so you picked Austin, you said because of the nature and the different environment you had around you, I imagine that it’s also quite intimidating to move away from your friends and your family, and especially when you’ve just built up a new group of people who you get along with, so then up sticks and put yourself somewhere else. What advice would you have for somebody who wants to try that lifestyle but hasn’t yet built up the courage to do so?

[00:24:24] Aishwarya: Try it in a smaller dose. So, one thing that I did was I lived in Bali for four months, a few years ago. And, I wasn’t planning on living there. That’s the funny part, but I had gone there for three weeks, two of those three weeks, I had gone with a friend. So when you’re going somewhere with a friend, you kind of do it like, I like, you kind of do a little bit more of the touristy thing and digital nomad a little bit, but you have somebody else there. And then she left, but I had already gotten comfortable with being in a new place when this person had left that I at least didn’t have to deal with understanding a new environment plus meeting people. So the comfort of me knowing where I was was enough to be able to just kind of start to interact with other folks. The thing is also with digital nomad, if you go to any places that are really known for digital nomading, there are so many people that are also new. There are so many groups, it’s actually really, really easy to meet people. And so it’s honestly, it’s like our own blocks that we get in our way. Like, just start with a few weeks, see how you like it. And then kind of go from there. One thing that I started to trust myself on, is that I can make friends wherever I go. And so I actually never even questioned, oh, should I move here? Or should I move there? Because I know more people here versus I know less people there. I just said, where will I feel grounded? Where can I show up as the best version of myself? If that feels like that location, if I’m showing up as the best version of myself, I’m sure I can attract people into my community. And that’s kind of how it’s worked out.

[00:25:53] Amardeep: Yeah. And is this something you want to continue in the future? Like ongoing where you keep moving around or have you got other ideas of where this is something you’re doing for the moment and then later on you want to do something else and we talked about it’s how it’s really hard to know what will make you happy in the future, but is there any kind of lifestyle you’re working towards that you think that will be when I’ve made or that will be a successful lifestyle?

[00:26:16] Aishwarya: We just talked about how, like I’m not planning for my entire future of my life, right? I’m just kidding. I actually think that, for me, I do want more of a base, and so having a little bit more of a, like a permanent base for the most part is something that I am starting to do more, but I think going somewhere for two to three months of the year, like living in a different country or live in a different city, at least until I have a family, I think would be something that I would definitely heavily entertain. And so I’m like maybe eight, nine months based one place, two, three, four months based somewhere else. And, you know, go on short trips in between, and I think that’s something that will like give me that groundedness, that routine that I sometimes do crave, but also give me the opportunity to live in other places, connect with my digital nomad community, now that I’ve built over the last several years as well.

[00:27:08] Amardeep: As you talked towards that future, you said, if you’re not doing A Fresh Sip in a few years time, that will be okay with you, if the business fails. Have you got any ideas or like dreams in a way where you wonder, that’s something you want to try in the future, which you haven’t done yet?

[00:27:21] Aishwarya: I think there are a couple things that I would love to do at some point. Like, I really want to write a book at some point. It doesn’t feel like it’s time yet. I know someday it’ll be time. It’s not time yet. Small things like that. But for the most part, I’m just, I’m trusting the process. Like I’m letting things happen, and I, when I get excited about something like I’ll know that there’s something about this that’s exciting enough that I want to pursue it.

[00:27:45] Amardeep: So going with the flow is what works for you. What do you think that other people listening today could hear from you, and you could give them a positive mindset shift that they could make that would help them?

[00:27:55] Aishwarya: Ooh. Okay. I will tell you the single quote, and I’ve said this so many times, so if anybody listening has heard me talk, they probably have heard this quote. You have overcome 100% of the obstacles in your life, thus far. And this one single quote, literally changed my life because that means it’s a 100% success rate, 0% failure rate. There is no other aspect of your life where it is 100% success rate, 0% failure rate. Every single thing that you were worried about, you have overcome. So you will know that whatever you’re worried about now, you’re also going to overcome. That was literally game changer for me.

[00:28:37] Amardeep: So it’s been a pleasure talking to you today. Where can the people listening hear more about you and what you’re up to?

[00:28:42] Aishwarya: Thank you so much for having me. This has been so fun. If people want to hear more from me, you can follow me on Instagram @theaish. Also, if you go to theaish.com, you can learn about my coaching and consulting services. If you want to hear more about A Fresh Sip, you can go to Take A Fresh Sip on any social media channel or go to afreshsip.com

[00:29:01] Amardeep: And the final thing I ask all my guests is, what’s one small thing that’s brought you joy recently?

[00:29:05] Aishwarya: So the thing that’s been giving me so much joy, it’s so random, but it is the walk back from my gym, and it is crossing this beautiful bridge where there’s water and I can see buildings and city line at the same time. And the combination of being able to see the city and water like that to me, is the best walk. And so that has given me such small joy and I usually stop by and get a matcha on the way, which is also great.

[00:29:37] Amardeep: If you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, I’d love it If you could leave me a five star review, it really helps get the message out further. Wherever you’re listening, it would be awesome If you could subscribe and share in your social media channels. If you want to see more of my work and advice, you can find all of the links in the show notes.

Thank you again for listening and I hope you have a lovely day.