#17 – Chhavi Sachdev (Founder of Sonologue and Independent podcast consultant) – Telling stories through Audio and bringing podcasting to life in India

Chhavi Sachdev
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In this episode, I’m talking to Chhavi Sachdev. She’s an independent podcast producer, consultant, and coach. Basically one-stop-shop for podcast production. She is also the most experienced podcaster in India; she has been making podcasts since 2008.

She is also a multimedia journalist and has worked with names like BBC, PRI and NPR. When she moved back to India from the US almost 10 years back, she saw almost nobody in India was working with the new intelligent medium of storytelling which was podcasts. So she embarked on this long journey of making the Podcast medium relevant in India. Like smart and intellectual radio stations.

Meanwhile, Chhavi worked on interesting projects and co-founded IVM which is a big podcast production company now, but she left after a short stint and eventually founded Sonologue which is her own podcast production company. She has worked on a wide array of projects in Audio and it reflects in her production value.

Chhavi has also been conducting regular workshops for individuals, colleges, corporates, as well as NGO’s. Her 4-hour crash course in podcasting is fairly popular.

In this conversation, we cover many of the things about podcasting, the state of radio industry in India. Her productive routine, tools and tips about podcasting.

I had a blast having this conversation with Chhavi.

So without further adieu, please enjoy this conversation with Chhavi Sachdev.

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Goals with Intention (GWI) – 2020

Notebook with pen along with laptop open with screen on and coffee mug on the left.
Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash

Making new year resolutions is clichéd. It’s known that 12th Jan is the fateful day[mfn]Reference[/mfn] when the majority of people drop on their new year resolutions and fall back into the normal (for them).

So last few years I’ve made a new year resolution list and some of them worked where I had the intention but some of them didn’t, they dropped out in the first half of the Jan month itself.

So this year, I didn’t make new year resolutions, because now I understand that this whole method is flawed. You’ll work only on those things where you actually have a real interest.

This year I’m working on Goals with intention (GWI)[mfn]Forbes Reference[/mfn]

Let me explain a little bit. Goals alone don’t work. Resolutions and Goals are similar, they fail, if your intention is flawed. You need to consciously define your intentions what do you really love to do and want to achieve. So if we put Intentions with Goals. Then they seem to work.

For example, If you are putting waking up at 5 am every day as your new year resolution but your work time doesn’t let you sleep till 10. Then the goal is flawed. You should think – why you want to wake up at that time? Maybe, to exercise? or to get some quiet time? Then you should probably not put this into the goal list and fail. Instead, you can just modify your current calendar to shift your exercise time in the middle of the day (at work maybe)? Your quiet time can be moved to right before your nighttime routine.

An example of a goal with intention is where you need to make a new window of time for something new entirely. Like Swimming or painting or journaling or writing and list goes on. However, the most important thing is to know what you really really love. You can discover but doing a little discovery on paper. Introspect yourself. Then to followup on your intention put it into a weekly review. Share your progress on a blog or maybe to a friend or a close group (maybe other people who also are working on similar lines). This way you actually can track what’s going on.

So for me, the formula is –

Goals with Intentions = Start with Intention + Set precise Goal + Measure + Improvise

Coming back to my list. Even though I’m improvising my system of resolution goal tracking in 2020. But first, let’s start with what I did with resolutions in 2019.

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Top 5 most loved podcast episodes of 2019

Photo by Marvin Ronsdorf on Unsplash (Edited)

The Lifestyle Architecture Lab podcast kicked off at the end of 2018. But 2019 was the year of establishment with many milestone interview episodes.

So I thought it would be awesome to compile a list of my top 5 most loved podcast episodes of 2019 and this can be a good starting point for someone starting to discover the podcast medium and especially my podcast.

Hope you enjoy this recap and find the conversations with these amazing people inspiring. If you like the episodes, please share your honest review on Apple Podcasts, if you can spare just 2 mins, it means a great deal to me.

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Looking back (An annual review – 2019)

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From the past six years, I’m doing an annual review of my life. December month is usually the time of every year when I tend to slow down a bit and take a pause. It’s the time when I reflect back on the year. What I’ve done, where I’ve been, where I’m at right now and what I’m looking forward to. To promote writing online and to keep myself publicly committed to my new year’s goals, I publish the annual review here.

A rear view mirror showing Himanshu behind the camera near a waterbody showing looking back 2019 annual review text as well

This is my 7th annual review, you can access all my previous reviews at the end of this post.

This year also I’ll answer three questions, the same as the past 6 years.

  1. What went well this year?
  2. What didn’t go so well this year?
  3. What’s am I working toward?

Hope it will be insightful and interesting for some of you. Lets cut to the chase.

Looking back (An annual review – 2019)

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#16 – Ashish Bedekar (Chief Product Officer of picoNets and a Startup Mentor) – Predicting the future by the patterns of the past.

Ashish Bedekar Portrait

Ashish Bedekar

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In this episode I’m talking to Ashish Bedekar who is the Chief Product Officer of Piconets (a company which is working on revolutionising Content Delivery Network system by working acceleration the last mile performance. To simply say he is making the Internet sites you see daily, load on lighting speeds and meanwhile decrease the cost.

He is also a productivity expert and a start-up mentor. He works with many start-up incubators to nurture and support start-up companies who are focusing on clean-tech, energy, Internet of Things (or IoT).

There are a lot of small tools and apps you’ll learn in this episode about and can implement to improve your productivity.

So without further adieu, please enjoy this conversation with Ashish Bedekar.

Links and references from the episode –

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#15 – Venkatraman Pichumani (Founder of YouTooCanRun) – Cultivating uncorrupt behaviour, Providing world-class user experience and Coaching Cardiac patients!

Venkatraman Pichumani

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In this episode I’m talking to Venkatraman Pichumani who is founder of YouTooCanRun, a company through which he provides a 360 degree platform to organise sports events starting from the registration process till the event wrap up. YouTooCanRun is leading the charts in the end to end user experience it provides. He is also the Founder of the Zippers Club, which is a very unique club where he coaches people who have or had cardiac conditions, he trains them to run long distances and even Marathons. Venkat himself is a long distance runner despite having a cardiac surgery years back.

In this conversation we talk about his life journey, things and experiences from the 80s and 90s. How he surrendered his CA title after achieving financial freedom and started various ventures and found success in many of his entrepreneurial acts. All of this and much more in this episode.

So without further adieu, please enjoy this conversation with Venkatraman Pichumani.

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#14 – Aditya Shroff (Author of the book “The Best Life Ever”) – Taking the road less travelled, being a writer and living the best life ever!

Aditya Shroff
[Image Courtesy – Aditya Shroff]

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In this episode I’m talking to Aditya Shroff popularly known through his blog as “The 5AM Guy” who is also an author of the book “The Best Life Ever”. He is also a competitive runner and frequently gets podium positions in various running races. He leads quite a simple but interesting life at a farm in a Village of Gujarat. After doing his engineering from Mumbai, he got a high paying job in Germany but eventually dropped that job and came back to India to work on his passion which is writing.

In this conversation we cover a wide variety of topics – how he took the brave decision to drop the job and work on his passion and live on a farm, his creative process while writing the book. How he got the book published and even got a forward from a celebrity whom he didn’t directly know. How someone, who has a passion can convert it into a profession. All of this and much much more is in the episode.

So without further adieu, please enjoy this conversation with Aditya Shroff.

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#13 – Kuntal Joisher (First vegan to climb Mt. Everest from both the sides) – Living a life of compassion and Summiting the highest mountains!

Kuntal Joisher
[Image Courtesy – Kuntal Joisher (Instagram) ]

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In this episode I’m talking to Kuntal Joisher who became the World’s first Vegan to scale Everest in 2016 and now in 2019 he has summited Everest again from the North Side becoming the only vegan on earth climb Mt. Everest from both the sides. Kuntal’s expeditions are driven by compassion as a Vegan and he also spreads awareness on Dementia. He has also been on the cover of multiple international Vegan magazines. Apart from his mountain expeditions he works as a technology professional and also speaks at various events through out the globe as a public speaker.

In this conversation we talk about his story, how the early exposure to the idea that it’s ok do crazy things seeded his life with the sense of adventure. How his journey as a mountaineer started and the moments when he was first awestruck with the magnificence of Mt. Everest. His training regime and advise for people who are aspiring to summit Mt. Everest. It’s all in this episode.

So without further adieu, please enjoy this conversation with Kuntal Joisher.

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#12 – Gopi Vadsak (Aawaari) – Breathing emotions into visual art and making it come alive!

Gopi Vadsak (Aawaari)
[Image Courtesy – Gopi Vadsak (Instagram) ]

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In this episode I’m talking to Gopi Vadsak popularly known on Instagram as Aawaari. She is a visual designer, stylist, photographer and a creative director. Her creative photos and videos go viral every now on then on the Interwebs. Her work has been recognised by the likes of Adobe. We touch base on a variety of things in this conversation like – Her story, her struggle with anxiety and her way out of it, her creative process. How creatives like her make money in this profession and on what scale they should charge. How to work with whatever tools you have in hand to make something awesome! All of this and much more.

So without further adieu, please enjoy this conversation with Gopi Vadsak.

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#11 – Monica Chopra (The Eco Trunk) – Living an ethical Lifestyle, contributing towards a sustainable planet and bootstrapping an online store!

Monica Chopra (The Eco Trunk)
[Image Courtesy – Monica Chopra]

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In this episode I’m talking to Monica Chopra, who is an entrepreneur and has built up a company named The Eco Trunk which curates eco friendly products on their online store, to help people live a conscious lifestyle of Veganism. She herself is a Vegan and cares a lot about the environment and the carbon footprint.

In this conversation we talk a wide variety of things starting from her own story. Leaving a high paying career to finally go forward to her calling and building up The Eco Trunk from scratch. How our environment is getting worse and what measures we can take as individuals to reduce our carbon foot prints. We also talk about challenges she faced as a young entrepreneur and go In detail about the issues like pain points of the modern online stores like package delivery system and sustaining the company.

So without further adieu, please enjoy this conversation with Monica Chopra.

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