129 | Social Entrepreneurship in India with Umesh Ramalingachar
Our guest today on the pod is Umesh Ramalingachar. Umesh is a startup mentor, advisor and investor from Bangalore City, India. He has a deep & wide network with global reach and is a big fan of conscious living and conscious business.
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Umesh Ramalingachar Awarepreneurs interview
SPEAKERS
Paul Zelizer, Umesh Ramalingachar
Paul Zelizer 00:05
Hi, this is Paul Zelizer and welcome to another episode of the Awarepreneurs Podcast. This podcast is all about the intersection of three things, conscious business, social impact 10 awareness practices. Each episode, I do a deep dive interview with a thought leader in this intersection. Someone who has market tested experience and is already transforming many buyers. Before I introduce today's guests, and our topic today, I have a request, if you could go over to Apple podcasts or whatever app you're listening to the show on and show us some love, do rating, do review all that good stuff, it helps tremendously. Thank you so much. Today, I am thrilled to introduce you to Umesh Ramalingachar. And our topic today is social entrepreneurship in India, I am super excited about this one. Misha is a startup mentor and advisor and investor from India. He has a deep and wide global reach, and is a big fan of conscious living and conscious business mush, welcome to the show.
Umesh Ramalingachar 01:05
Thank you, Paul, thank you so much for having me on the podcast. And it's so great to be connected with you. And I've been seeing it you know, I've been listening to some of the podcasts and you know, your work, which you kind of put out there for the social media platforms, it's really amazing. And that's exactly what is needed from a community standpoint, or, or fellow entrepreneurs out there who are actually taking a lot of risks, and actually, you know, trying to network with like minded people like you. Fabulous to have here. So, so we're gonna talk about this, this is really ironic and poignant. We talked about this before we hit the record button, but you live in India, and so many of the practices that in the West, you know, whether we're talking in Europe, or in North America, I live in New Mexico in the United States. So many of the practices, whether it's a mindfulness meditation practice, or a yoga practice, that are being taught in the modern conscious living world, have their origins in India or in your region, right. So it's really interesting, and we're gonna talk about
Paul Zelizer 02:12
what that looks like on the ground there, and how people in India might feel about how these practices are coming from the west. But before we even go there, to that larger conversation, one of the ways we like to get to know somebody is a wellness or an awareness practice that you personally use to, you know, to be resilient to bring your best self to work in this very important, but not very easy time to do the work that you do.
Umesh Ramalingachar 02:38
Yeah, sure, thanks. So firstly, as I have been with startups for a while, you know, 12 plus years, having won multiple hats, from sales to having done a bit of marketing, and, you know, having don't have as a partnership, lead, and alliances, and so, you know, been in the corporate sector and with startups as well. So while I was in the corporate sector, you know, why the job is kind of very, you know, hectic and it can be, you know, very exhausting, I wouldn't have a proper, you know, like a rhythm in terms of balancing my work life and personal life. So, I used to kind of, you know, be exhausted towards the end of the day, but I think, who, the years when I kind of learned it the hard way that, you know, I had to kind of balance life, so I had to kind of, you know, get into a lot of physical activities could be, you know, jogging, running or playing the game, which kind of freed or really bent out that energy or the frustration, or basically pick it up, because that way, that could be some kind of a balance. So once I kind of got used to it, that's when I started realizing the entire, you know, point that having a game or playing the game, you know, in your life, you know, in your daily routine makes so much of difference. So, slowly, I kind of, you know, started, you know, reading more about, you know, yoga or could be some kind of an activity. So, just to kind of give you a little bit of a sense of my day, I've kind of gotten used to, you know, taken up into cycling regularly, I cycle as much as possible, at least for about an hour and a half every day. And, you know, I travel for about close to 15 to 20 kilometers, you know, in the residential areas on the roads of Bangalore city. That's where I live in, I think that's in itself is like a kind of a meditation because you're listening to some good music and you're like, second round. During the morning hours, you're trying to get some fresh air, but at the same time, it is a good physical burnout that is actually happening. This kind of keeps me sane in place. And I think I'm able to kind of balance because, you know, once you've done a solid workout, I think that kind of, you know, makes me like I think the energy levels are all kind of balanced, which kind of spreads out to the rest of my day is what I've seen
Paul Zelizer 04:58
Tony Lloyd, he's the host of the social entrepreneur podcast was recently on and he talked about it, it was running for him. But he talked about burning off the crazy as a saying in the running world, and I know that might not be totally politically correct, but maybe we could use like burning off the anxiety or burning off the nervousness or burning off the stress through physical activity. And I was thinking his words, you know, it sounds like you do that with cycling. It's beautiful.
Umesh Ramalingachar 05:56
Yeah, so in the corporate world, you know, I don't know how much or you are aware, but you know, just to share my experience in the corporate world, I think it's more of a, it's a very, in the larger scheme of things. It's like a big ocean, and you're like, you treat it as a small fish. But at the same time, it also depends on your mindset as to how would you treat this? Or how would you take it up. So for me, it was all about, you know, since I was wearing the sales hat, it is all about numbers. And you know, it was very target driven. So I ended up only trying to be very aggressively trying to focus on sales for fit. But whereas learning bit of it, while there were opportunities for me to kind of learn on various topics related to sales itself, but somehow it did not kind of interest me, because I had more kind of go up the ladder of trying to, you know, progression and transition into greater heights in the sales part. So that's why I had to kind of, you know, say, Hey, you know, what, I kind of reached the point that I think I'm done with the corporate sector, I want to kind of learn something new or much more fascinating, and, you know, which would actually add value, I thought, you know, I should actually add, you know, wear more hats. And that's when I kind of took a plunge into startups, just to kind of, you know, test the waters understand, you know, how good or how risky is going to be. So once I took a plunge into it, obviously, when I initially started off, it was kind of very risky, because I'm a newbie there in the startup world. And it's a big world out there, because it's kind of a very unorganized sector when I started off, and I had to kind of learn it the hard way, made a lot of mistakes, learn from my mistakes, but at the same time, the more mistakes I've made, I think that's kind of gotten me to a point where I'm today, which is kind of, you know, gotten me to a slightly or a much better position. But I am, I think startups have kind of taught me so much, which I don't think, you know, I don't ever does, I don't mean to offend anybody, but I'm just, if you're from a B school degree holder, and if you're from a B school, what's the B school teaches you, I think you kind of get to learn it practically, by being associated with startups with small or big, and irrespective of the team members and the team size that you're associated with, you get to learn a lot. So it's a, you know, it's a nonstop learning that I've kind of had have gone through. And that's what I would take.
Paul Zelizer 08:18
Nice. I like to joke sometimes that starting a business is the best personal development course you never knew you signed up for. So you learn, you learn about the outside stuff, or you learn about you know, different technologies, and you learn about who's your ideal client, and you learn about minimum viable product, or I like to call it minimum lovable product. And then you learn all the places inside yourself that are crunchy, or you're afraid to like, you know, be visible, and it's just like, inner and outer talk about a crash course and learning, right?
Umesh Ramalingachar 08:48
Yep. Beautiful.
Paul Zelizer 08:51
So give us a little sense, if some of our listeners might not, you know, we tend to have a audience that's really strong in North America and Europe, big shout out to our European listeners, we haven't had a lot of listenership or presence in India and in your region, as I was thrilled to have you on the show. And we're going to talk a little later about some of the possible collaborations that we've been talking about. But just to stay with it, like on the ground, if I don't have a sense of Banglore city, and like, what does it look like there? Tell us a little bit about social entrepreneurship in India and in your city, like what kind of things are people trying? They're in the realm of social enterprise and what was happening before COVID-19. And I imagine that might have changed some of the conversation about what social oriented startups are working on now that COVID-19 has been such an impact.
Umesh Ramalingachar 09:48
Yeah, so I think Paul, as you remember, I've actually, you know, highlighted and appreciated the fact that you are so organized and you have some kind of a Have a method to the entire madness.
Paul Zelizer 10:04
You should see behind the scenes some of its duct tape together, let's be fully transparent. I have not figured everything out. But
Umesh Ramalingachar 10:10
I think that's not that's not seen to the world. So let's not go there.
Paul Zelizer 10:15
You don't want to see my duct tape? Come on.
Umesh Ramalingachar 10:19
I have a different kind of Indian. I think we all have enough and most stackable.
Umesh Ramalingachar 10:28
So, I would as we have podcasts, startups and people who are slowly getting into podcasts, but I think they have their own theme or topic or they have their own style can do it. But I think what is different, what stands out is I think you're trying to basically go after entrepreneurs who are basically aware or who are very conscious, who are trying to put in a lot of efforts, and you're trying to, you know, again, align the entire process, because while you have the I'm not trying to say it's not there it is there. But I think you are trying to touch upon various other topics, which not that I have come across of any, but I think you're trying to touch upon those topics, which is not seen or which is not witnessed by the Indian entrepreneur. So I think it's a, it's a great platform. And I think it's an amazing opportunity. And if you're looking at considering India, as a market for talking to a lot more entrepreneurs like me, and there are a lot of entrepreneurs who are into social entrepreneurship and all that, I think there's a huge market and a need, where you get to kind of interview a lot more people. So to kind of give you a little bit of more sense. There are startups, you know, in every industry and vertical could be from artificial intelligence to machine learning to IoT to, you know, it could be big data analytics, robotics, strong technology is kind of picking up in a big way. Robot robotics is also there. So having said that, I think you will actually get to interact with a lot of these, you know, young entrepreneurs, interesting entrepreneurs with various backgrounds. And I think the mix is going to be really amazing, which can actually reach out to a lot of people in different parts of the world could be from Europe, or America, simply The reason being there will be interacting with clients who are actually based from there. And they'll be working on really world class technologies, or, you know, could be, which is into robotics, or AI based and all of that stuff.
Paul Zelizer 12:31
Nice. So if you're going to tell us about like one of your favorite, or just one that comes to mind, a social enterprise that you think is doing a really good job and doing something innovative about making the place where you they're making the region where you live in India a better place and is doing well as a business. This is an example come to mind?
Umesh Ramalingachar 12:53
Well, yes, I mean, it's not just an example, a few examples actually comes to my mind. One is about a few years back, you know, the women were in the tire two or three cities, the rural women did not have access to mobile phones, or like Android phones, smartphones, with, you know, mobile apps and all that. So they basically made it much more simpler with just the basic forwards they had where they could receive SMS text messages of, you know, trying to find out by sending a short code, they could actually have access to the account balance, and so that they can actually operate in the banking transaction benefit the banking transactions, using with their mobile phones, this is for the territory, three cities that that comes into the microfinance market. Apart from that, you know, there were call centers only which could converse with customers or probably, you know, would be handling the consumers complaints only in English. Then there were call centers customer support, which came up in the vernacular languages, again, supporting and going after the type two, type three cities. And there are a couple of other apps I can go on talking with giving you more examples. The content consumption pattern trend took off in a big way. Like while, I'm sure we should have heard of Tick Tock. Again, there was nothing in the vernacular languages. I'm talking about one acula languages like Butch curry, which is big Intel, these, again, online content platforms, the consumptions patterns were like really took a huge spike, because the world like languages, so not just one about these are all the examples that I could think of.
Paul Zelizer 14:36
That's beautiful, micro finance, I love micro finance, and it's great that you're sharing an example there and cultural preservation. You know, it's really hard to engage young people in continuing a language tradition. If it feels like a dead language like everybody's on Tick Tock mom and you want me to learn this language but right so just it may not seem like that, but I just want to point out to our listeners as somebody who's in my former career in community mental health, I did a lot of work on the tribal reservations the Native American or indigenous populations as a social worker. And in those communities, it was similar, like, how do you help somebody feel like the tribal language as a young person is alive and relevant, and they want to learn it and feel inspired, if the things that they and their friends are connecting on literally won't let them use that language, because it doesn't have the characters or the interest, the grammar that is appropriate for that language. So I as somebody, I just want to point that out to listen to her, how does that fit into social entrepreneurial language or outcomes, because if you give people a way to communicate in a language, it makes it relevant to the young people, and it continues the engagement in that language. And that can be the death of a culture of young people don't get inspired to learn it. So I just wanted to point that out. Good, good examples. Thank
Umesh Ramalingachar 15:59
Just to that, if I could probably add two more instances. One is, I also on my own personal capacity, since I'm very active in the social media network. So the social media platforms like LinkedIn, and Facebook, so what I did was, somebody approached me and as he is the visa, this is a family of four and one of the like, husband, wife and two kids. So one of the LS boys, he's very crazy about being a footballer, like he wants to grow up and become like a football, take it up as like, his full time, not just a hobby full time profession. And his dad approached me and said, Hey, you know what he is, like, dreaming all day about football, and he wants to kind of get into football. So I kind of put out us post on LinkedIn, trying to ask for help. And I managed to kind of crowdfunded and collect some funds, where I could buy them, you know, football, gears and accessories. And the kid was absolutely thrilled and surprised that this is the kind of power of a professional network, the social media is caught. So I try to kind of do that in my personal capacity. And the other thing is, there's a, my housemates domestic help daughter is kind of because of the cold situation. She's taking up a lot of these online classes, and she did not have a laptop. So again, I put out a post and somebody offered came forward, volunteer to kind of help her out. So I think she's getting a new laptop, it's all your tract. And you're gonna be having it all, probably in a day or two, when we meet up beautiful small things like these.
Paul Zelizer 17:36
Yeah. And we actually met through LinkedIn. So listeners, if you're like, do real humans who care about values based business exists on LinkedIn, there's a lot of them. And it's just one example. And you're a rock star and LinkedIn. So let's since I wasn't gonna go there, right away. But yeah, let's talk about this thing about LinkedIn, you, you're just a encrypt, one of our former guest, Jim mavros, would call you a super connector, you network and have this deep and wide global network. In such a way, I mean, we connected on LinkedIn, and I got the warmest voice message on LinkedIn I've ever gotten on any social media platform. But I've never gotten a voice message on LinkedIn. And I have many thousands of people that I'm connected with, right? It was the I was like, This guy, there's something different about how you approach connecting in a very human way how to scale like, you know, there's a lot of numbers, if somebody goes finds you on social media, talk to us a little bit about how do you think about network? And how do you tie that in? That was one example. Right? You You saw a need. And here's a young woman who wanted to get involved in education or continue her education, but there was a technology gap. And she needed a computer and you crowdsourced it by this really big network? How do you think about your network? And how do you just day to day structure it? Where you've like, 10s of thousands of people you're connected with without it feeling overwhelming? Yeah, so
Umesh Ramalingachar 19:11
The thing about networking is just to kind of, you know, you know, to kind of take a couple of steps back, back in the days, I used to be a very shiny object person. Not like the people's guy, I would hardly interact. Now it's exactly the opposite. I think I've started loving it so much, that I'm more the people's guy. And I also, you know, have this profile, you know, as a hustler, you network, you kind of meet some interesting people. And it's not necessarily that you always meet interesting people, right? You meet every kind of people, every kind of persons people. So it's, it's about having the network but at the same time, trying to basically, you know, profile them as to what they could add, you know, it could be the good and bad of it. That also certainly does come into play when the situation is needed. So you would want to kind of It'll be a theory as to how and when and where would you use them. And so I have a huge network, which is kind of spread across. And I would have met them at Saudis events, conferences, we would have exchange cards, and I have a huge collection of business cards, but I've stopped using them for them. I'm talking about this is at least like a few years back. Now,
Paul Zelizer 20:21
Did you have like a room in your house just for the cards? I mean, we're talking like a major network listeners. The thing is robust.
Umesh Ramalingachar 20:29
That would be exaggeration. But yeah, at least a portion of my room is taken up, I think at least a few of the walls could be completely stuck, you know, with double sided tape, and I can actually make them like the theme.
Paul Zelizer 20:42
Decorate your house with them all all right. But like, so how do you do that and enjoy it, because a lot of our listeners are like, I'm supposed to network, but I feel scared or like, it feels like a chore or like, I go on LinkedIn. And I get these horrible pitch messages. And what I really want to do is connect with people like good measure, really passionate about using business as a force for good, but I don't know where to find them. And I get spammed in this person, like, says, Hi, but all they really want to do is pitch me and like, somehow, that has to be happening to you, too. But how do you navigate all that make it fun and enjoyable? at the scale? You're doing it?
Umesh Ramalingachar 21:22
So I had mentioned to you about I was a sales guy. So being a sales guy is not an easy job, you know, for every call you make, you will actually get an answer is no, you know, when am I gonna get my check? You know, if you're you because you got to collect your money, right? Because you were a pitched product and your services. Don't say yeah, they keep pushing it. So you got to be shameless, you got to keep following up. And especially since we Indians, we got to be a little bit more shameless, of trying to follow up. And you know, you should not take it personally, they would say no, they will basically, you know, basically, snap at you never take anything, personally to your heart, there's a saying also, like, never take anything to your heart, take it to the kidney and just pass it off. So that we have
Paul Zelizer 22:04
Oh, that's why I've never heard that before. I'm gonna quote you on that one. That's hilarious.
Umesh Ramalingachar 22:09
Yeah, a whole bunch of definitely. But this is one of them.
Paul Zelizer 22:14
I love that.
Umesh Ramalingachar 22:17
So, um, you know, as a sales guy is obviously your hashtag. Never be shaken, you got to be shameless, and kind of, you know, never take anything personally to your heart. So once that is there, you kind of become, you know, much more stronger, bolder. So then you're actually put in a situation, because my reporting manager would say, I don't know how you're going to do it, but you got to do, again, got to go out, meet the clients, at least make sure that you know, you, you're doing sales. So that kind of converted into hanaa. What, as a sales guy started attending a lot of these networking events and all that, again, I used to be, like, you know, somewhere in the corner, just all by myself, but I realized, you know, that, you know, only unless I don't open up, make mistakes, talk to them, I will not understand as to what he or she has to share, or probably he or she comes from a background, which might actually kind of resonate, and you know, once you talk to start talking to people, the wavelength and frequency matching, and connecting with people is what I started enjoying and analyzing the most. So that's when, you know, ice network, network, network network, and I kind of built with so many people. So somebody who's like my mentor and grow, I'm gonna see is pretty big. He's actually an investor. He's on the board of a lot of companies, startups, he for fun kind of say, Hey, you know what to make? Sure. Like, Mr. Human magnet. I don't know if I can actually take such a big ID, but I say, I was I would probably want to get there someday, of trying to having like, the biggest network of people that, you know, I would have even surrounded by me have some really great people that we could actually work together and join that. I don't know if I probably completed the question which you actually know.
Paul Zelizer 24:01
Yeah, no, there's a way in which there's, there's a resiliency practice of, yeah, not letting the nose or not yet, in terms of doing business or partnering or collaborating or getting pitched it's there's, there's some way in which you're, you built those resilient you put your resiliency tools to work there and stayed with it. That's what I think I hear you say.
Umesh Ramalingachar 24:23
Also, I think, you know, I believed in selling based on relationships I met as you got to have relationship as you would not kind of be able to kind of pitch and close the sale in the first go. But at least if you have some kind of a rapport relationship, the person would actually recall at least for having, you know, remember, you know, this is something really nice about me She keeps falling up of he's very patient and you know, his perseverance and they kind of get back to you. I don't know if I'll be successful in you know, closing the sale, but at least some kind of relationship has actually been open. So that has worked with me that is another key takeaway.
Paul Zelizer 25:02
So we're going to talk about, I'm going to ask you about your work now. And what it looks like mostly is working with young people and teaching entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship in India. And I'm going to ask you about that. But before we do that, I just want to take a pause, and thank our sponsors for this podcast. We're printers a little different than most podcasts. And we're not selling a website service or box meals or anything like that. We don't have a sponsor to like that we have hundreds of sponsors. And the way to think about it is this. Science has done a number of studies throughout the years, like dozens and dozens and dozens, and when you're trying to make a change or be successful in a goal as a human being. And it doesn't really matter what the goal is, is what the research tells us. It doesn't matter whether you want to get more fit or change your eating habits, or, you know, you're drinking too much, or you want to be more accountable in your business, the single biggest predictor of whether you're going to be successful in that goal or not, it's what scientists call social support. In other words, are there people who are paying attention to similar issues, and that are cheering you on and can be there on a hard day. So if you've got a business that you want to have positive social impact, and earn a good livelihood with being in a supportive community of people who have those similar goals and know the ups and downs, and some of the nuance about that particular journey is the single biggest predictor about are you going to have positive impact? And are you gonna meet your income goals. The aware printers community is all about that. We do things like help each other book, podcasts I'm gonna podcast toward, people have been helping me find connections there. And I've been helping people, we have a LinkedIn pod, which is part of why I've been on LinkedIn more. And this interview didn't happen because we have a fabulous group of people supporting each other to learn how to use LinkedIn and make it more fun and enjoyable. Lots of different nuances and things we do, I don't have time for them all. But the bottom line is it's social support for social entrepreneurs with the conscious approach to life. Go check it out at aware printers.com forward slash community and thank you so much aware printers, I'm so grateful for your support. So much. Let's talk a little bit about your work now helping young people learn social entrepreneur skills, like what a beautiful thing to dedicate your life to, like how did how did you get to that?
Umesh Ramalingachar 27:27
So again, um, I have been very active on like the power networker network a lot with a lot of people. And I kind of realize the power of the social media platforms like especially LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and then prominently in most of these social media platforms, what I realized was, while there are crowdfunding platforms, and you know, there are a whole bunch of platforms for putting out campaigns and you know, Facebook, in its Facebook itself has got these ad campaigns you can to sell a product to run a campaign asked him for help or anything else. I thought, you know, if I could crowdsource crowdfund for some of the people who are in need for any kind of help, as I mentioned, you know, the telecom family, his kids wanted football accessories, guess I helped him. And there was another family whose kids do not have, you know, fees to pay their education. You know, like that, I think I have learned it my own style, my own way. So I thought, if I could probably stand as an example, or, you know, to kind of be as an entrepreneur, I think when I teach school kids and college kids, as a startup advisor and mentor, as a coach, I kind of touch upon these examples. And some of them actually, would have stumbled upon these, you know, LinkedIn posts or these campaigns of mine, I don't kind of marketed or promoted heavily have tried to say, Hey, no one wants to volunteer who wants to come forward kind of help helped me with this in whatever capacity shape or form, I would appreciate it. And I will also make sure that, you know, it kind of reaches the family or who was meeting him at the right time. As I mentioned, with this girl who wanted college golf wanted help with the laptop, it is done. So I thought, if I could do it, I would probably kind of have more of people build like a team and kind of spread the positivity and the awareness as to how it can be easy.
Paul Zelizer 29:36
Nice. So there are these real concrete examples of like, for instance, the young woman who needed a laptop and your network, crowdsourced it and you're able to provide her a laptop, it's just a very simple but concrete demonstration or example that you could then use to say, hey, young people, we can use these modern tools to help make life better for real life people in our community that? Yeah. And then you also do some work with it with young people in school settings, if I understand correctly, right?
Umesh Ramalingachar 30:12
Yeah, you're right. Talk to
Paul Zelizer 30:13
us about that. What does that look like?
Umesh Ramalingachar 30:15
So I'm part of the young entrepreneurs Academy, which was actually started off in the US. And we also have anger chapter which is spread across these metropolitan cities across India, like the city with China that is Bangalore, like that we have in Delhi, Bombay, funi, Hyderabad, and in Chennai, as well. So what we do is we talk about, we teach them about, what does it take to be a young entrepreneur, as an entrepreneur, you got to have a certain skill sets in terms of, you know, how do you basically do we touch upon topics like market research unit economics, you know, how do you basically prepare your investor pitch deck, but as you know, you kind of do a little bit of market research, go to market. And these are young kids who are in their fifth grade, sixth grade, all the way till 12th grade, and notice you got to handhold them and kind of work with them, teaching them the basic fundamentals so that they lay their foundation in such a way that it's kind of strong, and then be able to kind of build on that foundation and kind of go at whatever they want, it could be all the, you know, building elements. So we kind of handhold and this is actually, like a year long process, which has about close to 27 classes, each class is for about close to three hours. And we kind of touch upon all the topics that I just mentioned. And they're kind of good to go at the end of the 23rd 24th class, because they're going to be pitching to investors. And it's more like a mini Shark Tank series. Everything
Paul Zelizer 31:49
Nice. That's like micro financing for investing in the startup, it wouldn't be a 2 million US startup, it might be what like, what kind of numbers are the kids pitching?
Umesh Ramalingachar 32:01
Yeah, it could be close to a half a million seed round, which they'll be pitching for. And we would want to kind of start off in a small way, because, you know, they're still at their very early stage of their career. But at the same time, if they have a solid product and grow, which is kind of past the MVP stage, or you know, whatever startup idea that they're working on, it is good to go into the market. There is a limit where it's, it's not necessary, that has to be half a million, it could be much bigger than that. But we will actually break it down into trenches and release the desk, first trench, second trench, based on the entire financial break up that depth.
Paul Zelizer 32:40
And what's it like, like on the ground in terms of in young in schools, if I'm a middle schooler in Bangalore, city, is entrepreneurship like, in some places, it's really sexy. Like, that's the thing that all the young people social entrepreneurship is one of the fastest growing majors in the United States and throughout North America, in colleges across the country, right across the continent. Is it? Is it something that young people have on their radar? They're like, entrepreneurship is cool. And do they even know like this idea of social entrepreneurship? Is that something that they're exposed to often? Or is that a new concept when you all come in and talk about the possibility of using entrepreneurship to make life better for people in real life communities? Like, how familiar is that idea to them?
Umesh Ramalingachar 33:30
So I think startup and entrepreneurship was kind of new, at least a few years down the lane, but it was worth at least about seven years back now. I think it's they've kind of gotten used to it, because there's been a lot of buzz, and there's been a lot of articles and a lot of, you know, Buzz that's been created about around startups and entrepreneurs, young entrepreneurs, simply The reason being the government, the Government of India has also kind of gotten involved. Like, now they have a little innovation mission, where they have mentor of change, so you can actually sign up for the comment, you know, initiative and kind of you can, I can enroll myself as a mentor, and kind of select to work with the rural kids. And these are the, you know, could be the dominant schools, where you kind of talk about entrepreneurship, and you know, all of that is kind of coming into light. And there is a good exposure, which is kind of coming. And that's where a lot of these schools and colleges universities have in house incubators and accelerators, which work with these school kids, once they're done with their education, the graduation. What are the next plans do they want to take up a job or kind of, you know, be an entrepreneur, if they have if they want to be the entrepreneur hat, they have everything in house or just within the campus, they can probably sign up for the incubator program. They can be a part of the launchpad be a part of any of those cohorts and then they kind of gradually go through the entire process. So it's, it's it's it, use Not alien anymore. It's not like a new topic, a lot of kids actually have that. The burning fire or the zeal to kind of learn it. And, you know, the kind of getting used to it, and they growing up that lab
Paul Zelizer 35:13
uniform. and talk to us a little bit. There's this. There's this irony. For me anyway, like I said earlier, you know, I did yoga this morning, I'm a Jew from the suburbs of New York City, right? And I meditated this morning. And again, that's not exactly from my lineage, right. And a lot of that has, it comes from Southeast Asia, in, in the forums that it showed up that, you know, when if you read Search Inside Yourself, the book about how mindfulness and emotional intelligence came into Google's culture, and they've now taught it to them, that thousands of employees, which is one of the books that kind of sparked an awareness of mindfulness in a business setting, right, a lot of those practices that are that book is based on come from your neck of the word world image, not from my neck of the world, right? What's it like? I mean, there's this many thousands of years old tradition in India about these practices. And then you have a corporate culture, which, you know, like you said, your experience may be not that uncommon, which sometimes doesn't always support wellness and self care and reflection and some sort of spiritual approach to the world. How has that conscious approach to life that's so embedded into India, but sometimes doesn't show up in modern business? Like how does the entrepreneur startup social entrepreneur world interface with the conscious living traditions of meditation and awareness about eating and yoga, and all of these incredibly rich practices that are so alive in that particular place that you're from?
Umesh Ramalingachar 37:03
Yeah, as you rightly mentioned, Paul, I think, you know, the spirituality or anything related to spiritual mindfulness, and especially yoga, I think it originated from India, I think a lot of people for many years, they've been practicing it, I think now, it's kind of gotten into the, the corporate culture, that becomes a part of their routine of trying to do yoga and knowledges, that the startup founders and the entrepreneurs, saw them for successful or who are very mindful of it. They practice yoga on a regular basis, simply The reason being, I think, as you just mentioned, that you did yoga, and you've been doing it for so many years, I think that makes a huge difference. It's not that I haven't attempted or tried doing it yourself. But I did, I think I took a break. Because when we take up something, you got to be like 200%, religiously committed to it. And I think, while I took a break, I'm not able to kind of get back into it. But I think I have some kind of a meditation that I would do in physical exercises, that I'm into cycling, it makes a huge difference. But that is something as a physical practice, or exercise, which you believe in is kind of barely giving you that kind of mindfulness of meditation. So saw the entrepreneurs are doing yoga to a great extent actually has a significant positive effects. And people are doing it are able to kind of see that kind of a huge change in their overall development. We physical, our personal and professional. And that's what I've seen that actually as a trend.
Paul Zelizer 38:37
When you think about where the social conscious or social entrepreneurship in India, whatever language is most resonant for you, when you think about this, you know, more values more, trying to pay attention to more than just making money, although certain making money's nice. And where that conversation is in India. Is there anything a you want somebody who doesn't? Who isn't as familiar with it, to know and be? How would you like to see, let's say, where you live and where I live, right, India and the US the conscious business world in the US has been growing very quickly, and has been getting more attention, right. And I'm part of that movement. And you know, it's complex. And there's things I like about and things I don't like about it, right. But part of the things I don't like about it is we haven't been very good about noticing that there are other countries that are have something to say about this. We've been kind of self focused and self centered, despite all our talk about how the ego can get us in trouble as a movement in the US. The conscious business movement has been very self referential and you don't live in Silicon Valley, you know, you don't live in California or you know, New York or whatever you can feel out of the loop. And especially if you live in another country, it's like it almost doesn't exist until recently, you know, so that's one thing I've been trying to do. Do more of is like, how do I get informed and help our community get informed? And also like, how do we collaborate? So what? What does India startup culture with awareness have to teach the US and me and our community? And what would help in terms of the where that culture is now on the ground where you are and in your region, and what somebody who like me is, like, I haven't been not aware of it, but I am somebody wants to help, what can I do to help?
Umesh Ramalingachar 40:36
So, I think, I don't know how to put it across. But actually, if I have to kind of start off the COVID-19 situation has taught the entire world a big lesson, especially when it comes to health and taking care of yourself, you got to be very sustainably strong, physically strong, mentally strong, because most of the people are going through some very bad phases, you know, because of the health issues, which is kind of the world has taken a beating of it. And we at India, I think you would have had heard of stories, some positive cases, why? Because as because I think we are the region, or the temperature, or the weather, all these factors taken into consideration, I think, you know, people are a lot more stronger, and health wise, and because of being spiritually strong on those grounds as well, people are able to kind of really, you know, like, kind of get a complete control of the health situation. It is similar in the US as well. But what I'm thinking what I'm saying is right now, I think this is kind of put us into a situation where people have to kind of start giving more importance to health. And you know, there are startups were actually in the medtech, and the health sciences space, which is actually picking up some very good traction, not just in India, in the US as well. I think that is where, you know, all of this actually coming to place and the combined effect of it is actually trying to give more importance only related to health sciences and metrics kind of, you know, verticals, then, you know, it could be there is a combination, which all goes hand in hand. It could be, you know, IoT, robotics, and all of that. But, you know, I think there is a complete change in the entire overall trend in the global phenomena, because of COVID-19.
Paul Zelizer 42:31
Yeah, and there are some historical practices from India that, you know, let's just say alternative health is not a new conversation India, right. Natural approaches. 5000 years, I already how many thousand years? Are we talking? Right?
Umesh Ramalingachar 42:54
Yeah, absolutely.
Paul Zelizer 42:56
A lot. Right. So, so in that, in that conversation to, for our members, or people are listening to this podcast? Is it bear? Can I volunteer, you managed to say, your point person, and if somebody like is, is wanting to better understand and do it in an authentic way of how the traditions that come from India, are thinking about wellness in this time, where it's literally never been more important in our lives, that you have some great connections and could potentially whether it's a med tech startup, or somebody trying to like, is this really an authentic practice? Is this Is this what you know, I mean, told yoga teaches this, or I'm being told something about iron Vedic and I don't really know if it if I don't yet have a contact? Can you be somebody that might be able to help somebody navigate some of those questions?
Umesh Ramalingachar 43:52
I think, absolutely, I'll be more than happy and there's, what am I doing little knowledge that I know, I'd be more than happy to kind of share, but at least I think somebody in my network will be able to kind of really add value or probably help them give a solution to the problem or probably put them across to the right person. You know, in whatever way they would, they can have that.
Paul Zelizer 44:12
Beautiful, that's a really generous offer your mission listeners, you know, I like to joke about my spiritual highlighter, I'm going to spiritually highlight, you know, sometimes people, you know, are are studying or teaching in a practice that isn't originally from the place that they were born or the family, the lineage that they're coming from. And sometimes people say, but Paul, I don't know how to get ahold of somebody. And that's part of the reason. I'm so grateful you're on the show, Miss, you're an incredible networker and really generous and can help people who are like, I want to be in integrity, but I need some help. Here's somebody on the ground listener. So spiritual highlighter, go connect with this guy on LinkedIn or wherever you want to connect because you want him in your network and he's also in the enterpreneurs community. So No more excuses. Go find somebody on the ground. Who knows the tradition? If you have any questions so much when you look ahead, yeah, obviously COVID-19 has radically disrupted. Everything that's gonna say business. Like, no, pretty much, almost everything. Okay, so COVID-19 is radically disrupted everything. And you've been doing this work for a long time trying to think about business and helping young people and training the next generation, like, how, how are you talking to young people now about social entrepreneurship and what's happening regionally and what's happening globally? Like, I imagine there's some reevaluation and some, you know, pivoting happening, what's happened like for you and your team.
Umesh Ramalingachar 46:01
So I think, because of the COVID situation, there have been a lot of situations which has kind of come forward, there are a lot of been a lot of business opportunities, which has kind of come forward. But I think more than all of that, you know, you wouldn't want to kind of think of only making money because of the COVID-19 situation, right? I think it's more volunteering and trying to give help over there. With with no strings attached, and not trying to, you know, make money off this kind of institution, it's absolutely no wrong thing to do, if you ask me, if you ask me personally and professionally. So more than that, I think you should kind of you know, and having understood the situation, I think you should think of how you can basically kind of come up with solutions, which can actually offer a lot of help, because there are a lot of people that were left their homes, and they're trying to kind of get back. So from a communication standpoint, or from a transportation trance standpoint, whatever that could be done to help these poor needy is kind of very important. I think there are a couple of startups, entrepreneurs who actually come forward, and kind of, you know, overnight, they've kind of become celebrities of trying to help these families who are needy. And, you know, I think the situation has actually taught us, you know, more, so that we have to kind of keep ourselves prepared, that, you know, you don't know what's going to be the next disastrous thing, you know, that could probably happen to this world, if COVID-19 has kind of given us this learning. And we're still learning day by day, which are still trying to kind of going after and helping a lot of these people. But I think, you know, it's an ongoing process, we have to keep ourselves ready for, you know, just We hope that this loving is going to be the last but we don't want to see anything much more worse than this is what I would only wish and hope for.
Paul Zelizer 47:47
When you think about your work, and where you'd like it to be two years from now, or five years from now, sketch that out for us.
Umesh Ramalingachar 47:59
So I think I would want to probably, you know, have a bunch of startups, you know, which I'm going to be advising and mentoring. Only, I would not say that they would have to look for investments. And the reason being now after this COVID-19 situation, we are in a much more tighter situation where we not able to kind of raise funds. Of course, there are funds out there, which are meant for certain startups. But my practice or what I've seen is if you can bootstrap it, and kind of grow it up the organic way, and grow your startup to be organic, profitable way, I think that's like the best successful mantra which you would have cracked it or not at all by yourself. That's what I would strongly recommend. So coming back to the question, Where would I see two years ago, two years or five years down the line, I would see, you know, having at least one or two startups in the social entrepreneurship, having a bunch of these school kids and college kids are having to be a part of my team and working with them so that they in turn, can actually reach out and spread the message about how important is social entrepreneurship in these kind of situations. You know, the the beauty and the magical thing that we can actually do by using our network and all the positive energy that we have, we put it to use so that we can help a lot more people or need.
Paul Zelizer 49:21
One of the biggest joys for me, like in my entire life is I have a daughter, who turns 20 next week, and when she was 13 years old, we were blessed to have a social entrepreneur program here in New Mexico for teens. It was a social entrepreneur for teens boot camp, and she did it at 13. And it it landed and it's become an important frame for her and she's interested in international affairs and affairs and it may be through being an intrapreneur that she uses those skills Or maybe through explicit social enterprise. You know, she's still working on that. But she knows that her future relies on being able to be innovative to be lean to be not dependent on somebody else's funding priorities. And that workshop changed her life. And I'm so so grateful. So yeah, like you're you're doing in India with some people here in New Mexico worked really hard to make available to our young people. And it changed the trajectory of how she thinks about her life and what she's doing. Even if it doesn't formally go in the direction of a startup, she will think like a social entrepreneur for the rest of her life. And our family, you know, my brother and sister in law have a social enterprise, I want to introduce you to them. And I have won, like, you know, now my daughter and other family, it's very much become a part of our family, story and lineage and how we think about things and what we think solutions look like and what we share with each other by email, or text or whatever. And so I'm just telling that story to say, when I say thank you to what you're doing and how sacred it is. I'm not just saying that, theoretically, I'm saying from an embodied place that that, that boot camp changed our family's life, and my daughter's entire trajectory of how she's thinking about her work in the world. And you're doing that in the ground. So from a parent to somebody who's caring about the young people in this way, I just want to say, My deepest gratitude, and it's such sacred work that you're doing.
Umesh Ramalingachar 51:43
Thank you, thank you so much for I think, you know, as you mentioned, about the boot camp, I think the more of such boot camps as actually required not just in India, but across the world. And, you know, advance birdie wishes to your daughter. I think if you have a story feature on your podcast, I think it's going to be amazing. I have you already done that. If you haven't, I would strongly recommend and I would be so looking forward to your to her podcast interview.
Paul Zelizer 52:07
Oh, that's a really I have not thought about that. Okay, Rachel, I'm coming for you. Oh, that's so funny.
Paul Zelizer 52:25
Wish I could hang out and talk to you all day. And I wouldn't do that to you. And I wouldn't do that to our audience. And besides, we're going to continue in conversations that we've already started. So they're just getting started. If there was something you were hoping we were going to get to today, and we haven't gotten to it yet, what would that be?
Umesh Ramalingachar 52:43
I'm not that I can think of amateurs I just hope and pray that I get to kind of meet you in person. And you know, we could probably have a community meetup. And I think that's going to be the most wonderful thing that could probably actually happen. I was, this is just a phase that we just going through this show us. Once this is done, I think we all hope to kind of, you know, coordinate and meet in a place where we can discuss all these stories in person face to face, I think that's going to be the most amazing moment that I could probably think of probably look forward to.
Paul Zelizer 53:16
I will gladly cosign that opton Umesh. Thank you so much for saying that. And I look forward to that day. So we will put links, go find this man on LinkedIn or wherever social channels but he's particularly a black belt in LinkedIn, go watch how he does it. And let's see how we can lift up and celebrate what they're doing. They're in India, folks. And if you've got a connection you want to make, or you got some help, right doesn't cost a whole lot on a bunch of people chip in to buy a laptop. And, you know, in a different economy, a laptop can mean a lifetime of change in terms of what somebody's trajectory look like. So, go take a look and go say hi to this man and see how you can connect and lift up and amplify. For now, that's all the time we have. I want to thank you so much for listening. And just a quick reminder, if you could use a little help being in a supportive community to lift up and just help you connect on a professional level and a personal level. Go check out the aware printers community. For now. Thank you so much for what you're doing act you're having in the world.
What is Awarepreneurs?
Awarepreneurs is a popular conscious business and social entrepreneur podcast. You can find out more at www.awarepreneurs.com.