The Vishipedia Show: Recent Episodes
Vishal Kataria
A show where I interview artists, experts, and entrepreneurs, to deconstruct their rituals and habits, and collect their wisdom in ways you find useful to manage yourself better.
Each time you learn a new skill or you skill up, you will suck. The key is to embrace this suck, to find tiny moments of joy in it so that the uncomfortable feeling becomes bearable. That way, you can show up consistently, apply yourself mindfully to the task, and reap the rewards of compounding.
Ria Shroff Desai is the Head of Human Capital at Blume VC. She shares how she broke the glass ceilings repeatedly in her career, how she overcame self-doubt, how she identified what she truly enjoys and built the skills needed to do it, how she used a single question to build an intelligent network and a meaningful career, why she can't do without 4 large cups of black coffee a day, and more.
7 books that will give your brain the exercise it needs to stay active. These include books by Tony Buzan, Michael J. Gelb, Edward de Bono, and others. They won’t just flex your brain muscles; they’ll also add variety to your routine.
This balancing and centering procedure is from George Leonard's book Mastery [Chapter 14: Packing for the Journey]. It walks you through steps to shift the focus of attention in your body from your shoulders to your abdomen. Such an exercise doesn't just improve your body's overall balance. Since your body is a metaphor for everything, it also cascades into your relationships, work, and chores. You feel calmer, relaxed, less anxious, and are more open to face challenges rather than avoiding them. [The exercise starts at 05:23 and ends at 14:32.]
Entrepreneur and author Scott Burnham explains how the pandemic has made us more resilient and creative, how simple solutions have solved seemingly impossible problems, how to simplify and communicate ideas in ways that get people excited, and much more.
In the last five years, I’ve gifted and recommended a few books to friends and colleagues over and over again. These books offer practical advice to improve our mindset, work ethic, and add value to the world. The principles in them are simple enough to read, absorb, and apply to anyone regardless of how much they love reading or the stage of life they’re in.
In this episode, Fred Dust and I discuss what design really means, the significance conversations play in our lives, and the importance of designing them in order to get the most out of them and make an impact the world.
Fred Dust is the founder of Making Conversation. He’s a designer, author, educator, consultant, trustee, and advisor to social and business leaders. He works with The Rockefeller Foundation to explore the future of pressing global needs; and with other foundations to rebuild human connection in a climate of widespread polarization, cynicism, and disruption.
Fred is the former Global Managing Partner at the monster design firm IDEO, and was a founder and trustee for IDEO.org. Fred currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Sundance Institute, and the Board of Directors for NPR and The New School.
He writes frequently for publications such as Fast Company, Metropolis, and Rotman Magazine. He’s an author of various books, like Extra Spatial, Eyes Open: New York, Eyes Open: London, and his latest book Making Conversation.
Akshay Ballal is the Chief Product Officer at Fabheads Automation, a startup that automates manufacturing by building 3D printers for fabricating composite products, and is developing automation equipment for manufacturing high-end carbon fiber parts.
Fabheads Automation is currently valued at close to $10 million, and the company's primary focus areas presently are the Aerospace, Automobile, and Biomedical sectors. Akshay’s journey is inspiring because he started off as an intern at Fabheads Automation as an intern in 2017, and within 2 years, he became the Chief Product Officer. He’s also passionate about automobiles and robotics. In this episode, I’ll try to discover more about the person.
The '2 Beers and a Puppy' Test is a simple method to determine much you like someone - a colleague, friend, or cousin. But if you flip it, the method is also useful to determine how likeable you are to others. When people you admire like you, they help you become better. And life becomes more enjoyable when you’re in the company of such people. In this episode, I discuss four straightforward steps you can take to become more likeable. (The best part is that “fake it till you make it” is not one of them.)
Jordan is a trailblazer, a son, grandson, writer, speaker, guide, editor, and soon-to-be therapist. He is a Northwestern and Kellogg School of Management graduate where he studied absolutely nothing to do with writing. He’s a former startup founder, restaurant manager, and soccer goalie. A solopreneur, podcast host, and 2 Times TEDx speaker, he is also the #1 bestselling author of Getting COMFY: Your Morning Guide to Daily Happiness, and The Journey to Cloud Nine. His third book, What Happens in Tomorrow World, is scheduled to launch on April 6th. Jordan is also an editor of the widely popular Medium publication, Mind Cafe.
Michael Thompson is a career coach and communications consultant, a mentor at Startupbootcamp - a global network of industry focused accelerators - a prolific writer whose articles on leadership, relationship building, communication, and career advice have featured in renowned publications like Fast Company, The Ladders, Business Insider, Forbes, INC, MSN, and Apple News. He has close to 45,0000 followers on the popular blogging platform Medium and is the top writer in six categories. In this episode, Michael deep-dives into the simple yet crucial aspects of life, like making time for family, investing in relationships, improving the quality of your communication to improve the quality of your life, productivity, deep-learning, and more.
TN Hari is an author, Angel Investor, Advisor to VCs, Mentor at Start-up Accelerators, Sounding board to Founders and Startups, and a Columnist.
He’s the Head of HR at BigBasket, and an advisor at multiple firms like Arkam Ventures, Rocketium, and KRISIN. He’s also involved in the education sector with institutions like Harappa Education and Avantika University.
Hari has co-authored 6 books and writes columns in the Mint and other renowned publications.
Hari has helped shape four successful exits in different industries including an IPO on The NASDAQ. He’s extremely passionate about solving problems and building organizations for scale through clear & uncluttered thinking, and relentless execution.
In this episode, Hari sheds light on how to manage a crisis, how to structure your thinking and make better decisions, the art of reinventing yourself, reasons why all men should be feminists, and much more.
Rohit Kaul shares his insights on the importance of trust in leadership, of learning by application, and his perspective on what motivates people to achieve their goals.
Rohit is the General Manager of Marketing at the Shiv Nadar Foundation, HCL Music, and HCL Concerts. He’s also a behavior science practitioner with over a decade of experience in diverse sectors such as Consumer Packaged Goods, consulting, education, not-for-profit, and entertainment. He is passionate about using Behavioral Science to build human-centric products that simplify the lives of his customers and create long-term behavior change for good. His weekly newsletter on Applied Behavior Science, behaviorXproduct, is read by over 1500 readers from diverse institutions such as Harvard, Google, LinkedIn, Airtel, Princeton, Standard Chartered, and many more.
Rohit has been identified among the top 100 digital marketers in India by Adobe and Paul Writer, nominated as a top content creator on LinkedIn at the Habit Weekly Awards (the only person from Asia to be nominated for it), and has delivered successful podcast masterclasses on Behavioral Economics.
When he is not working, Rohit is busy rummaging through research on Behavioral Science and observing people in physical/digital setups.
Shreya Dalela is the founder of The Creatives Hour, a platform to help people build the habits and skills needed to tap into their creativity. She had earlier co-founded The Speaking Walls, a startup that won the Global Student Entrepreneur Award in 2016. She's also a content marketing strategist and a writer. Her articles have appeared in renowned publications like Thrive Global, Thought Catalog, The Matador, Good-Men Project, and more.
In this episode, Shreya talks about the significance of art journaling and dance in her life, discusses her writing process and daily rituals, shares how she maintained her sanity during the lockdown, the Joy of Missing Out, and much more.