the bossbabe podcast - 186. Blending Business In Partnership + Building A Brand That Serves A Purpose, with Jay Shetty & Radhi Devlukia-Shetty

Episode Date: October 5, 2021

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to start a business with your significant other? Well, we invited Jay Shetty and Radhi Devlukia-Shetty to The BossBabe Podcast for their first-ever joint interview to talk about just that.  From communication skills to setting boundaries and even finding little opportunities for joy and levity throughout the day - Jay and Radhi are unpacking it all.  Plus - they’re giving you a behind-the-scenes look at their new company – Sama Tea – and sharing why adding an adaptogenic tea into your morning routine could be exactly what you’ve been missing.  If you’re looking to build some rhythms into your day that keep you balanced + connected with those around you – this episode is exactly what you need. Listen now.    Links: TheBossBabePodcast.com Linkedin.com/bossbabe Soul CBD  Use code “BOSSBABE15” at checkout for 15% off Sama Tea Influencer School Our 12-week, guided coaching and certification program designed to help you gain full clarity on your personal brand, learn how to create easy, consistent content, build an audience of engaged followers and create a full-time income from social media. Influencer School Reviews Follow: BossBabe: @bossbabe.inc Natalie Ellis: @iamnatalie Danielle Canty: @daniellecanty Jay Shetty: @jayshetty Radhi Devlukia-Shetty: @radhidevlukia

I think for me and Radhi, it's always been like, well, what do we really care about creating for people? And what's the experience? How do we want people to feel? So for me, I'd say that I'm just so grateful that we live in a world where no one has to think about how am I going to get this person to say yes. Welcome to the Boss Babe podcast, the place where we share with you the real behind the scenes of building successful businesses, achieving peak performance, and learning how to bounce it all.

Today, I am so excited because we're actually interviewing our two friends, Jay and Reddy Chetty. And it's actually their first ever interview together. And we had so many questions for them specifically around having healthy relationships, especially when you're actually working together so closely too. We're also talking to them about launching a new product, their brand new Salmaty, and how they've been able to crack the code on building a collective audience of over 10 million. On top of this, this episode is pretty special because it marks the first video episode that we're uploading to YouTube as well. So if you want to re-listen and actually watch us at the same time,

head to thebossbabepodcast.com to see the episode on our new YouTube channel. A comment and subscribe wouldn't go amiss either. Yeah, we're really trying to up-level you guys. We're upping our game. But lastly, before we dive in, I want to make sure you've got your front row ticket to our brand new masterclass. This is especially for you if you're fed up with seeing everyone but you succeed on social. If it feels like everyone knows what their purpose or niche is, content creation seems so effortless and their follow account is increasing by the day, yet you're stuck with no idea how to tap into the same system. If this is resonating with you, you're in luck. I am teaching an influencer masterclass where I'll be giving you the ultimate social media roadmap.

Things I've never shared before. I'll be sharing the exact process behind going from zero followers and $30,000 in debt to over 4 million followers and $30 million in sales. And the best part is it's free. As usual, there's zero fluff or BS in this. And the best part is it's free. As usual, there's zero fluff or BS in this masterclass. We really get down to business. All you have to do is show up and commit to actioning what you learn to see results. You can register for one of three live spots at botto.com forward slash masterclass. That's botto.com forward slash masterclass to come

hang out with me live and get your social media dialed in with that let's dive in so we were just chatting before we came on to record that this is your guys's first podcast together being interviewed this is literally the first time exclusive we've never done this before no and we have to do it with you guys because we love you both

so we're really excited I feel like this is a new era for you guys I know we actually don't usually do a lot together in this way so it's been fun so far

hasn't it so when did you both then make the decision to work together and actually build a product together? Good question. Well, maybe a year ago.

You're better with dates. You take this one. It was 18 months ago. And we were just both thinking about how could we really be a part of people's lives and days and take mindfulness to people. I think so often when you're trying to build a new habit, you have to like discipline yourself and get organized and you have to learn a new skill. And we thought, how could you give people an experience sitting at home where they are already? And we wanted to take that stillness and mindfulness to them. And I really felt that doing something together, we'd started to make content together.

We made a few videos together and we were just enjoying working together. And I have to be honest about this. And I'm not just saying I really mean this. I said to Radia, I was like, I want to create a life where I could just be with you all day making stuff together. Because we have, well, I have so much fun. Like she's just an amazing ball of energy. I feel enthusiastic. I feel positive. I laugh more than I do if I'm working on my own. And so for me, it was just another excuse to just get to work with her. And this is my way of strong arming her into figuring out how to build this. But it was also because I realized that we both have different strengths. And that was something that you talk

about a lot. I do. Yeah. I love doing the creative bit, but I need people to be able to actually implement and he's so good at implementing. And I feel like we're both very, we both love the creative side, but you're so good at strategy and like actually making something that we've thought of happen, which is somewhere that's something that I really struggle with. I'm like, yeah, let's do this and this and this. And I'm like, oh, so who's doing it then? You guys are such a true partnership actually actually because even just like you describing those kind of roles within a business also the company that you're building is such a collaboration between the two things that you both do Jay with the mindfulness and what you talk and you teach and Rani with like your Ayurvedic

food principles and like your education around like food and what you put in your body so of course let's create a tea company together yeah absolutely yeah it was it was something that raleigh would literally make homemade teas all the time yeah so we rarely drank teas from anywhere else raleigh would get her herbs out and herbs we can say that yeah i love how you've adapted yeah i was like yeah i had to herbs uh on this podcast she would get her herbs out and then start mixing them and make us teas for how we felt so she'd be like oh i really want you to digest food better today or if you're having a stomach upset not feeling great and then she'd put these herbs and then she'd make another one if i wanted energy and i just started to notice that she had such a great skill set.

And I was just like, people need this in their lives. And I felt the same way. It was like, you know, we talk about all these amazing ideas and methods, but what if someone could actually touch something and taste something and smell something and inhale it and feel it actually bring warmth inside their body? That's what, you know, that's what we were excited about. Well, it's doing it actually bring warmth inside their body that's what you know that's what we were excited about well it's doing it for me right now i'm doing it vanilla chai i was just

saying chai after breath work for me is the thing that like grounds me so i'm i'm loving it okay so talking about being in business together i think it takes a certain kind of couple to be able to do it because i want to be honest i will probably kill Stephen if we were working together what I mean you tried that we did try it didn't work out so well what is it that you think that you both are able to bring to the partnership that makes it possible because it does take a special kind of couple to be able to do it I feel like we both had done a lot of work with our like our relationship before we got to the point of doing this. I'd say that if we were doing this probably three years, two years ago, it probably would have been a whole different story. But I think us, the way that we managed to, I don't know, we really worked on

trying to build a relationship where we both understand one another. We both accept each other's weaknesses or our weaknesses and encourage each other's weaknesses or like, yeah, weaknesses and encourage each other's strengths. And so I feel he knows where I'm going to lack and I know where he may lack and I know where he's going to be in the forefront and I'm not going to argue it. And same him with me.

And I think we really had separate roles in this business. Like he knew I was going to be the one that was wanting to create the blends and decide what goes in them. And I'm going to be really particular about that. Whereas he was I was going to be the one that was wanting to create the blends and decide what goes in them. And I'm going to be really particular about that. Whereas he was the one I'm like, when there's a call about strategy or figuring out how to best brand this, this tea, I knew it was going to be him. And I think that's what it was. We both had really taken time to understand each other. So then when it came to business, it was just kind of, it flew, it easily

trickled into this area and it didn't feel like a battle. Yeah. I think in any partnership, you always want the other person to be working as hard as you are. And what we confuse is what hard work looks like. So for Radhi, hard work looks like knowing what goes with what. Like she knows mint will go with blueberry and jasmine will go with peach. And I may look at that and go, that's basic. That's easy. That's common sense. But actually, if you asked me what would be a good tea blend, I'd be like, ask Radhi.

And it's really amazing how we make these assumptions around the people that we work with around what's hard work and what's easy work. Based on what work we do. Exactly. And then I realized that for me, certain things that I found easy, Riley finds difficult. And the thing she finds easy, I find difficult. So I think in any partnership, you have to be honest and open enough to recognize your partner's contributions. And I often say to people, even if it's in a relationship or any sort of partnership, if you look at the five areas of life that people provide, so physical, mental, emotional, financial, and spiritual. And when you're looking at a partnership,

you have to look across all of them. If you only look at who's at all the financial meetings, maybe I'm the only one at them and Radhi's not at them. And on that basis, I'll feel I'm working harder. but if I think about all the physical benefits meetings i.e. the herbs and the tastes and the flavors Radhi's at all of them and I'm not at them so I think we have to like have this broader perspective when you're in a partnership of not just looking at one area and the area that you do yeah and seeing the you know the whole spectrum and that's really important and almost allowing that to develop and evolve and for you to learn over time. Because how long have you guys been together now? Shall I do the date?

Yeah. We've already done the date. We've established. It's been eight years that we've been together. We've been married for five years. And so it's been a considerable amount of time, I feel. Eight years is a long time. And we've been through a lot. And this is one of the most amazing things I've realized about relationships

is that if you have accelerated learning together, you figure out a lot more a lot quicker. Yeah. So for us, the year we got married, we got married, we moved country, we moved home and changed job three times and two times. The year we got married. So short of having a child, I think we

did every major transition in life in one year. And for us, that strengthened our relationship and brought us together. But it could have broken us apart and taken us our separate ways. And I think both would have been fine. I don't think one's a success and one's a failure. But I do feel that when you have an accelerated stress, pressure, tension moment, you then realize where this is going. So I feel even though we've only been married for five years and together for eight, it feels like we've been through a lot more because we've lived across London, LA, New York. We've been at different companies, different stages of our life in our own life, entrepreneurs, struggling entrepreneurs, successful entrepreneurs, like the whole, you know,

the whole journey. And so I think we've both seen each other in all of those environments. And your influence and impact has changed significantly in that time as well. Yeah, it's been, it's been a really interesting journey because for me, I was like a dietitian working in a hospital in London. And I love that job. It was something that I always wanted to do, always wanted to be. I never even saw myself doing anything other than that. And so my trajectory really changed once we got married and then we moved to New York. I was never even wanting to leave. I was like, yeah, I want to live a mile away from my mom. We bought a house a mile away from my mom. And there was no like, I was really happy and content in what I was doing.

And so for me, it was a whole learning experience and it was a complete change into somewhere that I thought I didn't really want to be. Like, I didn't really want to be in New York and I didn't want to be changing what I was doing. I didn't want to be away from my family. And so I really had to change my mindset from being somewhere that I didn't want to be to, okay, this is a new opportunity. And it took me quite a while to get there and figure out what was I going to do? Like I couldn't work in New York. And so I spent a lot of time by myself and it was a lot of figuring out me, what I wanted to do, who I actually was. And it took, yeah, it took me by surprise. And with how social media has now gone, it was like, I first started sharing recipes just because my family and friends wanted to know what I was making because I would cook for them a lot.

And then it slowly became, I used to be Veggie Vegan Vader on my social media and I used to just share food. And that was so beautiful. And then slowly when people found out about Jay, they wanted to know who his wife was. And so I naturally became someone who people wanted to see. But then I realized that how that grew, it was either I was going to be able to share things that were going to help people in some way or just share things mindlessly. And I made a decision that I really wanted to, I was going through such a growth phase. And so I decided I really wanted to share things that I was going through. And that's basically what my page still is. It's like everything that I'm going through spiritually, whatever I'm learning, I'm constantly doing courses on Ayurveda and I'm like,

I'm literally on the journey and I'm just sharing whatever it is that I'm doing. And I still have no content calendar. I decide what I'm posting on the day good for you although it's very stressful but I enjoy it that way I'm like yeah whatever I'm feeling today I'm going to share and that's pretty much how it's been since the beginning yeah yeah and one of the interesting things about I especially entrepreneurs being in relationship together but ambitious people is I feel like there's at every level there's a you on you uncover a new part of yourself or a part of yourself that was already there that you're being able to see again and so when you're both ambitious in relationship and driving towards something you're uncovering new levels new levels new levels

and it almost feels like I know with me and Stephen it feels like I'm meeting a new person every six months how have you both navigated that because in eight years I can imagine you've met new versions of each other so many times yeah I definitely agree I feel like we change especially when you live in LA I don't know about how you guys feel but I feel like I change as a person every year like I'm a completely different person than I was last year and I think I mean especially for you I feel like you consistently have been a very similar person in mentality and in your in your drive and in your goals so for me I feel like obviously it's just gotten better but you've been a very consistent person I've been a whole different I'm like I'm like a 180 from the person that you knew when we

first started dating so for him it's like I genuinely think that it's like dating a new person it's like oh today I feel like I want to learn roller skating he's like oh cool you're roller skating now yeah tomorrow I'm like oh I want to learn how to I'm by the way my new workouts are like jumping on a trampoline and doing this and doing that I'm like I'm constantly learning about myself and so he's learning about me too because I'm doing that. I'm like, I'm constantly learning about myself. And so he's learning about me too, because I'm still figuring out what I like, what I don't like. And yeah, how's it for you? How are you experiencing it?

So I'd say that when we first met, I clearly said to Radhi who I was, what I wanted to do in the world, and what that meant for a relationship. And so when we met, I said, you know, I want to serve the world. I don't know what that's going to look like, but I know that I'm going to choose that above a lot of other things that maybe the people we're around are going to choose over their purpose. And I said, I don't know what my purpose is yet, but I know that that's my commitment and that's what I want to work on. And I'd say I've pretty much stayed the same

in that I've always felt that way. And that's accelerated and escalated and elevated, but I'm pretty much the same. But I think the amazing thing is that when we first met, so many people would have ideas for Radhi. So they'd come to me and be like, you know, Radhi should start a restaurant or Radhi should do this or Radhi should do that because when we met I was the ambitious one and driven one and focused one and Radhi was the content one and satisfied one and I realized that I loved her for being the way she was and I wanted her to grow at her own pace in her own time if she wanted to. And then in the past couple of years, I've seen Radhi find herself and want to grow and put in the work and transform who she is. And that's wonderful to see too. And what I've realized in partnerships is that it's interesting. Often we want to be around people

that are like us, but I always say to people, I would never want to date someone who's like me in that I wouldn't want to find the female version of me and marry them. I want to find someone that is who they are and happy in their own skin. And Radhi's been happy with who she was then. And she's happy with who she is now. And that's what allows us to have that opportunity. And a lot of the credit to our relationship goes to her when we were in New York. And my biggest priority in New York was setting her up oh my gosh Jesus set me up on all these girl dates literally I would try and find the list of girls in New York that I think she'd get along with and then I'd DM them yeah I think you

and my wife really get along like you guys should hang out because I just felt so bad that she'd left her family because of me and that now we were in New York and I would be at work all day I was at half post at the time and so I'd be at work from a nine to six job and then come back in the evening but then we might have a networking event so so much of my pressure on top of building my purpose was is my wife happy and I've just I was just always conscious of that and I just thought if she's not happy none of this matters and so I was just always conscious of that. And I just thought if she's not happy, none of this matters. And so I was always trying to find ways of figuring that out. But you also, he was also just always like,

I feel I figured out who I am very much because of him, because he's so supportive in whatever it is. Even if I change what I want to do, like 10,000 times, I feel like you're just constantly like pushing me to do whatever makes me happy. And I think that that's what I,

I think that's so beautiful because you're not judging me for not having it figured out and you've never been the type of person to even say no I don't think you should be doing that it's like why don't you just try out or like take those steps that you need to to figure out whether it is what you want to do and I think that's really important because he's never ever he's always just encouraged and supported me in whatever it is I wanted to do. Whether it's studying, whether it's cooking, whether it's whatever. You're not letting me do any more degrees.

I know he's saying that. He's like, stop learning. Like no more learning. You've learned enough. It's time to give it away now. I have a bit of imposter syndrome where I'm like, no, I just don't know enough. I need to just keep learning. Just one more degree.

I need to do another course and another course and another course because I just don't know enough yet and I don't want to share something wrong so I just need to keep going and he's like I think we've done enough now do you feel like that was an evolution of your confidence though like you said that imposter syndrome that you were trying to kind of put barriers in your way to putting yourself out there um it was definitely that. And I think a lot of it, if I'm completely honest, was I constantly kept feeling like people were coming to my page because of him. And so it was such an interesting dynamic for me where I was like, oh, people are just like, oh, I've got this many followers, but really it's because of him. And I think I kept telling

myself that in my mind and his answer would always be like, yeah, they're coming because of me, but they're staying because of you. 100%. And even though like I heard that from him consistently, I guess in my mind, I always just had this feeling of like, oh, it's always going to be, it's a, that's why I think I really wanted to figure out exactly what I wanted to do. Because if I didn't feel like I was worthy of having people listening to what I'm saying, and that's where the imposter syndrome comes in, then I felt like, well, then they're just following me for no reason. I don't want them to follow me just because

as much as I love being his wife, I don't want them to follow me just because they're interested in what his wife is doing. And so for me, it was really being solid in what I was sharing and what I did learn and what I was putting out there before I did it mindlessly just because, oh my gosh, I want them to think I've got something to say because of this reason, like feeling that pressure. And so, um, yeah, I'm working through that imposter stuff, but I think I'm going a bit better. I was just, I was just reflecting on what you were saying. In any relationship and partnership, I find that if one person is grounded in their purpose, they can be patient for the other person. But if someone's dissatisfied in their own purpose,

they're really impatient with the other person too. And I realized that very early that if I was grounded in my purpose, that actually wasn't selfish because it allowed me to be patient and allowed me to make space for Radhi to experiment. Whereas if I was dissatisfied in my own purpose because I was trying to be selfless and supportive, then actually both of us would lose out because I wouldn't have anything to offer. So I became really determined that I was going to live my purpose to the full extent, but that would allow me to be a patient partner so that Radhi could have space and time to grow because I'd been able through the monastery and through my other

experiences to be just a bit ahead on that journey of finding my purpose. And so I just find that so often in a relationship, someone else's success feels like your failure and your success feels like someone else's failure. So we project and reflect both ways. And I think it's so important to realize that, no, your success allows for you to create more success for someone else. And Radhi's success, Radhi is someone that, she's the only person in the world that I've met

that doesn't react and have horrific mood swings to stuff. Like I can have a bad day and come home and Radhi will be doing the silliest dance in the kitchen and we'll just completely break the ice. And she finds a way to laugh at anything. And I've learned that from her and I realized that that was a real skill. Like you can say that that's just good luck or someone who's happy-go-lucky. It's actually a skill to be joyful and find meaning and be able to diffuse the situation. And I realized sometimes I didn't have that skill because I was overworked or on the verge of burnout or tired or fatigued

or whatever it may be. That is one of the wisest reflections I've heard about relationships. And I think there's so much power in everything you just said. I completely agree. And I relate to it in a way I'd never thought about before, because I remember when me and Steven first got married, I wasn't allowed to work because of visa issues. And so, yeah, I was in San Francisco. I had no friends. I felt like I had no purpose. I was just at home. He was working crazy. He was traveling, but he had this level of support for me like he he helped fund boss babe he had this just unwavering support and I always wondered where that came from and now I see it because when we first met he was like I know what my purpose is and it's going to change form what I might be

doing it for a corporate company I might do it for myself but here's my purpose and I didn't have that and so it's what an interesting reflection to see that that's where it came from that's so interesting yeah I love hearing that and and uh yeah I just think that it doesn't matter who's doing that for each other and both people are being patient with each other in different ways so Riley was also being patient with me in so many ways. And I think that's the mistake. We always think we're being patient or we're the ones making the sacrifice. And I think you have to really stop and look and be like, okay, I'm making these sacrifices and this much space, but what are they doing?

Yeah. Let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all-in-one platform, Kajabi. You know, I've been singing their praises lately because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity, which I love. Not to mention, our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place. So it makes collecting data, creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at Boss Babe is simplify to amplify and Kajabi has really helped us do that this year. So of course I needed to share it here with you. It's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business, you know, get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and

making things as smooth as possible. I definitely recommend Kajabi to all of my clients and students. So if you're listening and haven't checked out Kajabi yet, now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering Boss Babe listeners a 30-day free trial. Go to kajabi.com slash boss babe to claim your 30-day free trial. That's kajabi.com slash boss babe. So what I want to pivot on to is talking about routines and rituals you guys have as a couple that help you drop in what's really interesting i don't know if you know this jay but i had a bit of a fangirl moment the other day because jennifer aniston she was writing about her morning routine for a really big publication and she mentioned that you're part

of her morning routine in the content that she watches and you know when you feel your friend's successes as your successes now it's like oh my god she said that so I was really really excited about that and so I thought it's genius that you also have a morning routine product this is incredible because so many people already fit your content into their morning but what routines and rituals do you both have that help you drop in and connect in relationship oh good question um definitely tea time because um when i wake up in the morning to um do my meditation the first thing i do before i sit down is boil the water and usually i'll make my own tea um but now so i'm a tea but um usually i'll make my ccf tea which is like a detox tea it helps with just cleansing the body

and so i'll sit down with my tea and when Jay comes up to start his meditation I come up late I wake up a little bit later so she's already like halfway through her meditation I wake up around five what I definitely wake up later than you yeah I just yeah my body has just been so used to waking up early about 10 or just before yeah that's a decent amount of sleep but when he comes upcent. When he comes up, he then also has tea. So even if we're not having the tea together, we generally are meditating and we always have our cup of tea next to us. And so I find that ritual together,

even sometimes we're having breakfast together, I think we try to capture, like, even if it's small moments, sometimes we don't have time in the day. And so we'll capture those, like if he's sitting to eat his lunch and even though I'm not on a break, I'll go and like catch up with him and have time together. But what we've learned to do is because our days can be so busy, we'll do our once a month rituals together. So we will go away together once a month. You could tell, you say like X amount of hours away. Yeah i made a rule this rule was

invented in 2019 okay and i think every couple should do it in whatever way they can so i believe that every couple should create a routine where every 30 days they take three days to be together and travel somewhere three hours away from where they live within three hours within three hours now if you want to do two days one day whatever, whatever it is. And if it's a staycation, it can be that. Yeah. And it was a staycation. We'd go somewhere within three hours because California is so beautiful. We'd drive somewhere. We'd find an Airbnb or a spot that we can stay at. We'd be there for two nights and three days. And we'd put our phones into the safe. So for the whole weekend. And then we'd go have meals together. We'd go cycle around. We'd get on a boat and canoe, whatever it was. And I found that no matter how busy and hectic my month was, those three days

would just bring us straight back to having really deep, intimate time together. One of the things that I think it's an old value, but for me as well, having dinner together is such a special routine for me. And I can't remember the last time we haven't had dinner together, apart from when she's having a girl's night and I'm having a guy's night. And that happens a couple of times a week. But apart from that, more often than not, we have dinner together. Yeah, we never have dinner alone. We rarely have dinner alone. And to me, that's been such a healthy routine because you can reflect on the day, you can check in with each other, you can connect. So for me, those habits have been

really powerful and really huge in creating that relationship routine but i wanted to add we also go to sleep at the same time i think that's the thing like even if we have a different evening routine like sometimes he'll be winding down playing playstation yeah and sometimes i'll be like watching something or i'll be finishing something off. And so we'll have a separate evening, like wind down time. But if I'm, he's always like, oh, tell me when you're going to sleep and I'll come down. And so I think for us, even if we are having, even if he's not tired, like he'll at least come into the bed and he'll like do his own thing, but we'll be together. We'll be having our like ritual at night together every night.

And I think, yeah, that's been really sweet. That's good. I never even thought of that. That's so true. We're always mindful of when the other person is going to be going to bed. Yeah. And I think Radhi really took me out of that because I could work until pretty late. And Radhi was always like, let's sleep earlier.

Let's sleep earlier. Let's sleep earlier. And it was great because it forced me into sleeping earlier, which has been great for my health. But getting to do that with Radhi is definitely a big relationship routine. I think going to sleep at the same time is such a connecting principle as much as you can. And the other thing we've started doing is just trying lots of new things together. Yes. Like that's something that we love doing. And I don't know whether I guess it is a ritual, but we love just exploring instead of like doing the same

things that we do every weekend or sitting at home watching tv we're like let's go do something and we'll try everything from pottery to art classes to um a different board game that we haven't tried before i mean that's a very true but what i mean is like the not like you know just day-to-day stuff we're going for walks in different places like instead of sitting in front of the tv and not connecting with one another we'll go on a hike together and we'll leave our phone at home and even though we want to stay in front of a tv in our mind when we're out there we're so glad that we actually just came out and we had a conversation and almost like putting ourselves into a situation where we're almost forced to have a conversation rather than just sitting with each other a bit mindlessly has been

really lovely and we've done that a lot since COVID started because we just, you know, to get out of the house. But yeah, lots and lots of different activities that we've tried. And it's so fun doing something that neither of us are good at together just for the fun of it. And I think sometimes we're so fixed on doing things for result. I realized everything this year, I made such a point of doing things which were not related to result. Like, oh, okay, I want to go roller skating. I'm not good at it, but I want to go.

I want to do pottery. I don't know how to do it, but I want to do it because it's fun. And I think doing things for joy and doing things with one another that's not linked to a result has been really lovely. Yeah. And doing an activity where neither of you is the expert is a great way of learning about each other. You have to do activities where neither of you is teaching each other but you're both learning and that allows you to see a completely different side of your partner that you haven't seen before and that's what helps you fall in love again and helps you discover something or maybe uncover something that you find uncomfortable but now you have something to work on so I remember the first time we went to an escape room we argued and it was terrible because

I realized what a result time-oriented determined person I am where I was like we have got 58.37 seconds left and you're sitting around on that seat what is going on and she would do the most loopy thing and it would unlock the door and I'd be like great here we go and that's when I realised Radhi's lateral thinking is far advanced than my logical thinking and when it comes to an escape room

do what Radhi would do even though sometimes she's literally twiddling her fingers in the middle of the room but it somehow solves something and so I think

you also learn to and we did argue the first time we went to an escape room probably the first two three times we went to an escape room I said I'm not doing it anymore

that and toning down games night when we have games night this guy is like you think he's like peaceful and just like zen and ex-monk and then he's like you have him in a games night and he is full force we did one with his team I was like your team are gonna all quit after this games night

because you and Steven are gonna get along well that competitive edge i do appreciate it though yeah thanks i think that's so interesting just a few points to what you're saying though because you know we're all entrepreneurs here and achievers and like you say often we do things that are driving results and i think there's so much joy and creativity that can actually come from taking the result away and just being present in the moment like learning those new skill sets you don't know where that's going to take you what joy that's going to bring or where that's even going to have that next impact exactly you know and you're not worrying about the next step and you're not

worrying about like oh I have to achieve this and then this and then this there is no there is no path you're just flowing and I really enjoy flowing well I definitely now I'm gonna put on my list doing more fun things because I feel like that's something in my relationship that we don't prioritize but I love what you said about eating dinner together and going to bed at the same time it's something we've always done since we met because the same steven could stay up all night gaming so i'm like okay we're gonna go to bed and we'll eat dinner across from each other even if we're in a fight and it's so uncomfortable but we know like i and i think having sometimes like boundaries that you don't cross like for me i could be so annoyed but one of my boundaries is i wouldn't cook for myself and not cook for him yeah i think i just got brought up that way that like even if I'm in a fight with my family my mom would still

make me dinner so I do the same and I feel like if I ever didn't that's like a boundary like oh something's going wrong yeah so I love that I was just gonna say I wanted to also add that for anyone who's wondering Jennifer Aniston is the most wonderful sweet human being that you'd want her to be and she's just so kind. And I remember the first time we met her and we were on our way home and she was like, oh, just text me when you get home. Like that's... How do you not fangirl all the time?

Yeah, she's a dream. She's wonderful. She is. Everything that you'd want her to be and more. Like your expectations of her just don't compare to how sweet she actually is. Yeah, I want everyone to know that. I think it's important. I think so many people are scared of meeting their heroes or icons or people they look up to.

And, you know, she's, yeah, everything. She outdoes Rachel. Yes. Wow. As soon as I seen an article saying her morning routine, I'm like, I want to know everything that she does. And it was so cool. I think she's phenomenal. She is.

So creating a product is really hard. Creating a product during COVID. I know. It's. She is. So creating a product is really hard. Creating a product during COVID. I know, it's our COVID baby. It's a whole new set of challenges. Oh my God, yeah. Everyone has had COVID babies. This is us. There's literally a summer we named her.

What were some of the challenges that you faced during that? I think one of the biggest things we're still facing right now is our team is still not in one place. So we have people in New York and Colorado and LA and a few people in Miami and everyone's all over the place. And it's like when you're building a company, you want to set the culture and the energy and the vision and the mission. And it's been really tough. This is the first time I'm building. Actually, no, that's not true. I've built other stuff that's been remote. But I think when you're building a product, it was slightly different. And so I think that's been a really big challenge. I think the other big challenge is that we were constantly looking at everything digitally, and you're trying to build a physical product. So we did have to get people in a room to try

the teas, which we managed to do in a safe way. But I think the teams being split up and then also just, I feel so many people have gone through so much personally this year. And I don't even think we're aware of how it slower people have got, how much brain fog people have, how many mental health challenges are increasing. And as a conscious leader, as you're aspiring to be one of those, you want to check in with people and you want to see how they are. But this is a new team with people you don't know. So you're still building that trust. And to me, building trust is the hardest thing. And to build trust from afar is even harder with a new team. And so you're trying to help people feel they can be vulnerable with you and open with you. But that takes a lot of time and you have amazing people around us but everyone's really brought that energy of collaboration where there have been lots of opportunities for it to go wrong i have a little hat oh please that i just found someone on our team found actually instead of zoom because i think i love zoom but i feel like we're all getting a bit of zoom yeah. And we have been building a product together at Boss Babe.

It was our new membership and we did every, like it's been a whole process. And one of our team members just introduced us to this software called Around. So it's instead of Zoom and they're basically trying to fix a lot of the issues we have with Zoom. So apparently when you're on Zoom, you're like spending so much time focusing on yourself and how you look that it also fatigues your eyes. So it puts you in certain boxes and puts these color filters over you so you don't get the eye fatigue and it sits in a certain place on your laptop and the way you collaborate on it's completely different and this part is mind-blowing so say the two of you are together and you're on different laptops and you're trying to be on zoom there's an echo yeah you can actually both unmute with no echo

it hasn't yeah it has an anti-echo function. That was a game changer for us. Natalie and I have to do it all the time. Yeah, we always go in separate rooms. Oh, it's so annoying. Or we'll sit next to each other and one of us will be on mute. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And have everything muted.

And then like, oh, speaking over here, it's like make sure that we can be heard. So yeah, we're also on the subject of business. I just really want to talk about you know lots of people i think natalie and i've been chatting about this for a little while like the currency of influence and the traditional route in building businesses was okay i want to build a let's say a tea company and i want to build this tea company because x y and z and i'm gonna it's, it costs a lot.

So I'm going to have to raise. And I don't know how many I'm going to be able to sell and all these pieces. What difference do you think it makes coming from this? Because you basically created a product for your audience because your audience love you guys, your purpose. And this is very aligned with your purpose. How do you think that is giving you the kind of launchpad that you need to build a product-based business? Yeah, that's such a great question. I feel so grateful to get to do what we all get to do. And I love that the traditional barriers are completely removed. Because now the fact that

you can create something, go direct to consumer, which is exactly what we're doing. We're saying, we know that people really want this. We know people want more mindful mornings. We know people love tea. And we know that people want something where it's not about a product. It's a community. It's a vision. It's a purpose. There's so much more to it. And we can bring it directly to you. And I think that's what helps me because I think about all the traditional barriers for all of us getting into radio, getting into TV, getting into streaming, getting into supermarkets and superstores and whatever it may be. you. But the fact that you have a community that is so kind enough to follow you and connect with you, and now you can create stuff that's just for them. And then they're going to tell their friends and introduce it to lots of people that don't know you. To me, that's the currency of influence. And it's a responsibility too. I look at it as, I was literally speaking to one of my business partners this morning, and we were discussing the idea of how everything that we've created in our

ecosystem has been highly intentional. So if I look at everything that I've been focusing on over the last few years, you can see exactly where it fits in the journey of helping someone on this path. And to me, that's the responsibility that comes with that influence is, are you truly using it to uplift and extend and enhance people's lives? Or is it just another thing? And I think for me and Radhi, it's always been like, well, what do we really care about creating for people? And what's the experience? How do we want people to feel? So for me, I'd say that I'm just so grateful that we live in a world where no one has to think about how am I going to get this person to say yes. And I was speaking to a friend yesterday who's a creator, and he was saying that he can't wait till this establishment

validates him. And I was saying to him, that's putting the power in the hands of the establishment. You're already winning in my eyes. You're already successful. You're crushing it by, to be honest. But the more we wait for validation from a traditional establishment, the more we're saying is they're still more important. And I think we all live in this amazing time where the most important thing is community, is people, is the people that are listening to this podcast and are going to drink this tea and support us and the people that we support. Like you both are so kind in supporting us today and we want to support you. And I think that community to me

is the real currency of influence more than anything. I hope that answers your question. No, beautifully. I think that's really true, you know? And I love what you said there. I think gone is the era where we build a product. I think a product is so much more than that now. It's a story.

It's a value system it's a community and i think over the next 20 years i mean we're starting to see even less than that we're gonna see that shift consumers demanding more of their products yeah particularly around sustainability definitely definitely around sustainability and you're right once you end up actually feeling like you connect to your community why would you want to give them something that you wouldn't drink why would you want to give them something that you wouldn't use and so even when we were creating this I kept saying this to you I was like if I don't want to drink this tea every single day I don't want to give it to anybody like if I don't want to look at this product and I don't

want to see this tea box on my on my table every day I don't want to see this tea box on my table every day. I don't want to give out to other people. And I think, like you said, the responsibility feels so, it's actually really empowering because you're like, no, I want to, I like the feeling of wanting to give someone something that's actually worthwhile to spend their money on. It's like, I always think about this, the amount of money that people actually have, like some people have a lot and some people don't have very much. But either way, the community that I've seen that has been built, they're willing to

put their money that they've hard earned onto your products. And when you think about that, like I've had messages when I created this bag with another company, I had messages saying, I've saved up for this for three months to buy it. And I was like, oh my goodness, like that is, and I felt so much confidence in the product because I knew I'd gone through so much to make sure that it was worth that. But if we're not doing that, then that's actually just, yeah, it just feels so sad to live in it. It would be so sad to live that way without really giving them what they deserve. So yeah, it's a beautiful thing to have a community and to continuously stay mindful of of that yeah I love

this conversation because not only that but it feels so good to support creators and influencers and people that we love because and just speaking for myself I follow so many people that especially during COVID have provided so much value to me and like such a like i love social media i think it's an amazing place and and when they are providing this content all the time whenever they launch something and i get to actually like put my money towards it and say thank you so much for what you're doing in the world it feels so good and i think that's how things that's what's changing and the establishment is realizing that now and realizing that that's where the power is yeah because when when like you say you think so hard about the product you put out

there that it's really hard for other products to rival it because of what goes into it and when you're doing it for like uh when you're doing it to go into a store for example and you don't really know who it's being sold to if you don't't have a community, yeah, you kind of feel detached from it. Whereas, whereas when you've had a connection with people for so long, you wouldn't, yeah, you wouldn't even think about doing it any other way. And I think as well with like the big establishments, and we're obviously talking about food as well right now. And it's like, you know, people can hide behind their decisions. There's so many people making decisions and they can kind of, like you say, detach from them.

And, you know, I don't ever take when I'm watching people, and this might be just an angle because I am one, but when you watch creators, sometimes I think we all need to remember what it takes to put yourself out there, what you're putting on the line, what you are putting yourself up for, you know,

criticism and all those pieces. And I think because of that, when it comes to creating products, there is this piece of your heart that goes into it. Big establishments, they can roll out the next kind of version of that and they can put the aspartame in, the donuts of sugar, they can hide it behind the branding because who gives a shit?

They're not held accountable. They can tell their mom in the background not to drink it exactly but when you're a creator putting your name to something damn you better make sure your mom's gonna be able to drink it we went through so many whether it was to do with the branding we went through three major rebrands because every time we saw it we were like this doesn't feel like a mix of you and me where's the fun where's the where's the wisdom and where is we always say like he brings the wisdom and i i want to bring the fun and so we're like we want that we want the product but every time we did it we were like this doesn't feel like that it doesn't feel like a mix of us it feels to you or it feels to me and And then with the ingredients, we kept saying, every time I got it,

I was like, look, I don't want to call it an adaptogenic tea. I don't want to call it an adaptogenic tea unless it's going to do what it says it does. Explain what adaptogens are. Adaptogens, for anybody who doesn't know, are basically herbs or extracted ingredients from plants that have the ability to react to the stresses in our body, whether it's physical, mental, or even spiritual. And so whatever our body is going through, they can, depending on what adaptogen is, it will enhance or relieve that stress. So it can be inflammation. It could be mental stress, whatever it is that they are made to do that. And so when, when I did that, for example, for sleep,

I was like, I don't want to say that it's got a sleep adaptogen if the quantity isn't going to be the right amount, if the quality of the ingredients isn't going to be such that they actually feel it. And who was it recently in the toilet? One of our friends drank the sleep tea and she was just like, I had the best sleep that night. And when I heard that, I was like, oh my goodness, like that feels phenomenal because I when I heard that, I was like, oh my goodness, like that feels phenomenal. Because I genuinely was saying that. I was like, I don't want to just put adaptogen to make it different from rest of the teas. I want it to actually have that effect, especially because I feel I'm representing Ayurveda in

some way. And to be a representative of something that's so sacred and something that is so valuable to then water it down to just have a name of it on there felt completely wrong and so yeah i love that you said that because it's so true we really did try to do that in every way possible i was gonna say it's funny you mentioned mom too because yeah so for me and radhi and i realized that tea was something we loved individually before we were together and it became something we loved collectively. So even before I was in the monastery and monks drink herbal teas, that's the only drink apart from water that you drink. But even back to when I was a kid, when I was born and raised in London,

of course, and I would go to daycare and both my parents worked, they were both immigrants. My mom moved to London when she was 16 years old. And my mom would come and pick me up from daycare every day. And it'd be like, I don't know, like p.m and she'd come to take me home and i remember before dinner or after dinner we'd always sit down and have tea together and then on sundays she'd make this special indian chai kind of like the vanilla chai that we have and i'd be allowed to have that only on sundays and i'd get to have these like puffy biscuits with it. Oh my God, biscuits and tea. Yeah, biscuits and tea on Sunday. And so for me, tea became equal to presence and love and connection with my mom because my mom and dad were always busy working hard, but I always felt loved

and I always felt they were present with me. So to me, tea is actually presence. It isn't tea. And when I thought about that, I was like, well, that's what I want people to experience. I want people to experience presence. And I want people to have a moment where they can actually breathe something in, inhale it, smell it, taste it, feel it, and slow down. And the actual process of drinking tea is a slow process it totally stills you down so for me i had such a affinity to tea through my mom so when you said get your mom to drink yeah so i can't wait for my mom to try this because she was such a big part yeah yeah of introducing me to tea so talk us through the flavors that we've got i've got jasmine peach right jasmine which smells phenomenal and then we've got mint and blueberry which is um they will have different functions so why are you talking to it we have

mint and blueberry which is our focus and clarity and that's got ashwagandha and gotu kalu which is the adaptogens in there they are phenomenal for brain health for focus for attention um then we have this is our detoxing cleanse which is our lemongrass and ginger that's usually your go-to isn't it that's my morning go-to yeah it is perk you up a little my throat as well i feel like we all talk so much like with podcasts and interviews i wake up with a bit of a you know feeling a bit groggy yeah yeah exactly groggy yeah so is that really a british word groggy we just i mean i don't know we've got two americans here let's ask them. Okay. We won't take ownership of it. But this actually has the CCFT that I was telling you guys about, the coriander, cumin, and fennel.

And actually, even spices can be considered adaptogens depending on which ones you use. So that's got those three ingredients, and it's amazing to just cleanse your body, purify your blood, so many good things. We have the vanilla chaiai which is what you're drinking and that's our warm and nourish so we have four which are herbal and two which are caffeinated so this is one of our caffeinated ones and that has clove cardamom and all the ingredients in chai

really traditionally is to warm your body like it's to warm your body it's to um and everything warm feels comforting and that's exactly what the spices do so this one is that and then i was excited about the ingredients in this one too because these are these are ingredients that i actually have been trying to put in like my diet which would be really helpful especially raspberry leaf yes i go ahead i'm saying for those who are just listening to the audio, we've got the visual right now. Because they're part audio, part visual. There's Jasmine Petras are protect and support.

And yeah, this one has shatavari, raspberry leaf, and obviously green tea. But the shatavari and raspberry leaf, although it's actually most beneficial for women, but also has benefit for men. But it's great for fertility womb health but also just oh it's also good to nourish your tissues that's actually what it's great for for men and for women it deeply nourishes the tissue and helps to like rebuild tissues that are broken in the body so

shatabri protect and support that's exactly what it does i love that and i'm i'm the same i grew up literally like there was nothing a cup of tea couldn't fix right that's I think that's a very British thing but it's something that not like it's still a thing if I have a hard day same Steven's like I'm gonna get the kettle on yeah and you just know and it and it really does change the energy of how you're feeling do you know what though I agree with that because I was brought up with tea but i was brought up with tetley tea there's a big difference and i think though the edge what i'm seeing though is like the end for those who don't know it's like breakfast tea and you add milk to it because that's what as british people do tips were you tetley okay you know and but the thing is like

now there's an education process i when i was, was not mindful about what I put in my body. And I kind of was in the sense that my mum brought me up. I knew what junk food was and I knew what healthy food was, but not to the point that I knew the power of herbs. And I think that's been something that I've learned as I've got older and I feel there's more of a conversation now. And maybe you guys were different. I don't know.

Did you kind of know at that point? as more of a conversation now and maybe you guys were different I don't know did you know I mean I always I always got given herbal remedies with spices in them growing up like from an Indian family that's usual like whenever I've got cough or cold turmeric or adjuvant or like whatever it is the spices my mom would give them to me naturally but when I started studying Ayurveda it actually made me want to share so much more because the power of like cumin, the power of coriander, the power of like all these different spices that people aren't aware of, but they're so inexpensive. They literally live in your kitchen. Most people have a lot of these ingredients that are in here in their kitchen.

And honestly, this part of the dream of this was to help people understand how easy it is to replenish your body through things which are so simple that things that you will be able to add into your daily life without even realizing one for flavor but also to almost be like under armor for your body without like putting in so much effort you don't have to go to a like I don't know you don't have to go get your face done or like go get things like put into your body like your body. There's not crazy amount of things that you have to do to actually just protect yourself against things. And you and I did a podcast on this. We did.

Way back. I think it was about a year old. But you were sharing the properties of different herbs and spices and foods. And I was basically just grilling you on everything. I evaded because I had no idea. I have one last question. Yes. How did you come up with the name Samit?

I feel like coming up with the name Samit? I feel like coming up with a product name is like the hardest thing in the world. It is so difficult. Well, first of all, we decided on what we wanted people to feel from the name. I think that's where we started, like how we want people to, what we want the brand to represent. And then we both feel very, I mean, we come from an Indian background and we really wanted the fact that tea is, you know, majority of the tea comes from India but also our connection to yeah Indian heritage we wanted it to be a Sanskrit word and so we started thinking about words that really represent it and so Sama actually has different

has quite a few different meanings one of them is togetherness and oneness but you have a different there's also another meaning so Sanskrit is an ancient Indian language and it's such a beautiful and poetic language and every word has so many different definitions and meanings and can be moved in different ways but Sama first of all felt like it's karma it's soothing it has all those feelings that Radhi was talking about but Sama means uh equal the same unchanged and it refers to a state of sama which means a state of equanimity a space that you can create a place you can practice and go to yeah it means it means everyone and togetherness too so for us it was that mix between equanimity and then togetherness and also also mixed between like having moments alone where they can also be beautiful,

but also having togetherness with other people, like having a moment to yourself. So the word felt like it was perfect because it was like, you could have a tea moment to yourself or you could have it shared with someone else and both are so beautiful. And I think as soon as we heard that,

we were like, this is it. Yeah, but we went through a lot of names. I fully agree with you that naming something is and you sit on unique sanskrit words.com looking at meetings and like you know it's just i get that it's like multi-layered you find a name and then you're like the domain's taken the instagram is taken the trademark my day i know you said final question but i know i mean we've been saying that all day so one thing that we do that is just so fun for us is like whenever we're launching something new

or we're visioning the business we think about like wouldn't it be so fun or so exciting if this thing happened and we kind of think about it it's a big vision but we shelf it and then it inevitably happens and we're like oh my god it happened do you have like a moment or a vision in your mind for summer that would just be like oh this happened oh i love that that's cool we're probably gonna have different ones do you feel vulnerable sharing it right now because like sometimes when you like have these dreams and then you're putting them out i feel like i haven't even thought about it which is wild i haven't even had like a moment to think of that yeah i would say my one is

genuinely i would just love to see so many people in their own relationships, whether it's mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, you know, children, parents, whatever it may be, just sitting and having really open and vulnerable and empathetic conversations with each other over a cup of tea. And if it can hold space for that and create the stillness and the compassion and understanding to have that moment and to extend that into that wider dream as Natalie was saying I would love to see the biggest tea party in the world everyone in every city was in this big circle of love drinking tea meditating and connecting with each other I think that would be amazing to see like in times square and in piccadilly circus and in you know all these amazing big city centers seeing

people of all different backgrounds all different walks of life all different cultures coming together and you know taking the moment to be present with each other and so it is yeah i feel like you were just living in your mind yeah just like watching you then for those again who are just an audio you just shut your eyes and went somewhere that was really beautiful you were speaking from the heart like your mom's gonna be proud i love visualization as a technique yeah it's powerful and i just love seeing things and when you're talking and seeing it we always say that right like everything that exists in front of us today once existed in someone's mind yeah we know that

that's so true but it's so funny we always visualize the worst yeah or we always visualize what might go wrong it's so much easier to visualize the worst yeah it is but it's so fun and playful when you can vision it from a place of like it would be amazing if that happened and if it didn't it's okay but it's like let's like, it would be amazing if that happened. And if it didn't, it's okay. But it's like, let's play. And it always happens. Because you can create so much from that space. I love that.

Radhi, what's yours? What's mine? I think mine is definitely to do with the educational part of this or allowing people to feel like they're able to heal their body in some way through understanding, like through understanding the basics of what nature is providing us. And that's something I have always wanted to share and always wanted to bring people back to the basics. And I think Sama has the opportunity to do that, to be in everyone's home where they're

looking at all these ingredients and being like, wow, I had no idea that this could do this to my body. So instead of taking an Advil, maybe I'll just use peppermint oil. Maybe I'll just use this. And so I think it's, for me, it's a portal to into people's homes, into people's bodies, into people's minds to hopefully think about what they're putting into their body and how it actually deeply affects them. And so, yeah, to see on every single person's kitchen counter. So where can everyone buy Sama? Samatea.com.

You've got the domain. Yeah, no, we want to welcome everyone to be a part of our community and you know become a part of that movement we want to create a space where t is just an excuse to sit down together be present with yourself be present with someone else and and share a moment together and that's what we want to do give people moments back in their life i think all of us have experiences we have to-do lists we have tasks but we've lost moments in all of that and if this offering of hours can help you get back your moments then uh just a little moment in your hectic day yeah that would be a win for us so yeah samati.com and uh yeah we welcome everyone i love it thank you both thank you you guys are so sweet honestly like thank you since we met we met i think it's been a year

and a half ago now when we first met we did an interview together yes and you guys have done yeah like you said you're the first interview we're doing together yes and we just you know we just want to thank you both because I've never felt anything but the most loving abundant energy from you both and I think that's so difficult in a space where it's so easy to get into competition and like boundaries and like you know territorialism all that kind of stuff and like with you two from the moment we met to now all I've ever felt is this abundant energy you know energy and so we just want to thank you both we love the love and support you guys and we want to spend a lot more time together so we just need to figure that out

but yeah thank you honestly I really mean that like thank you so much we feel so loved and I feel loved by Nala as well so I'm looking forward to this I know Nala how cute she is a sleeper now

she's adorable she's like the honorary member of Boss Babe I love it thanks guys thank you if you enjoyed this episode we would love it if you subscribed and left us a review let us know what you enjoyed what your main takeaways were and who you'd like to see appear on the show as a special thanks we'll send you a copy of our Boss Babe 25. Now, this is an awesome resource. It's the 25 essential things that you need for personal and professional growth.

We've included everything from must-have products to books to rituals. This guide literally covers it all, and I know you're going to love it. So if you want your copy, simply leave us a review and then send a screenshot of your review to podcast at bossbabe.com.