WEBVTT - Hitha Palepu 0:00:03.360 --> 0:00:06.960 I'm Sam Edis and I'm Amy Nelson. Welcome to What's 0:00:06.960 --> 0:00:09.559 Her Story with Sam and Amy. This is a show 0:00:09.640 --> 0:00:15.400 about the world's most remarkable women, their professional and personal journeys. Together, 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:19.200 we'll hear from gold medalists, best selling authors, and leaders 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:22.840 of the world's most iconic brands. Listen every Thursday or 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:30.640 join the conversation anytime on Instagram at What's Her Story Podcast. 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:33.879 The Palapoo is the CEO of Roshan Pharmaceuticals and an 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:37.519 author of two books, including Worth Speaking The Life Lessons 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:43.559 of Kamala Harris. Use such a rich family history, and 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:46.320 I'd love for you to share it with our listeners. 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:49.960 I am a daughter of Indian immigrants, I am a 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:53.720 mother raising who I hope to be feminist sons, and 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:57.160 I am the wife of a true partner. And I said, 0:00:57.160 --> 0:01:00.800 in every sense of the word, and truly it starts 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:05.000 with not just my parents, but certainly more progressively minded 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:09.240 grandparents who raised each of my parents with a different 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:14.440 perspective than traditional Indian values were at that time. My 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:19.200 mom rejected several men before she said yes to my dad, 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:22.720 So even though it was an arranged marriage, it was 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:25.440 very much a marriage based on her terms and her 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:28.560 acceptance of it, and the reason she said yes to 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:31.840 my dad, I find to be so interesting because he 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:37.319 was not the wealthiest, He was not the most financially secure. 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:41.000 He was just working in the United States, finally gotten 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:43.759 a job in the pharma industry, someone who had lost 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:46.160 his hearing as a child and had to so he 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:48.560 struggled a lot to get to where he was at 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:50.800 that time, and told my mom the truth about what 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:53.280 life in the United States was. He said, it's very 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:56.800 lonely and it is hard. You do have these conveniences 0:01:56.840 --> 0:02:00.400 like dish washers and washing machines, but you're living in 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:02.960 a world where people will rename you because they can't 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:06.080 take the patients to understand your name. You're going to 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:10.080 have this culture imposed on you versus being in the 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:13.399 culture you yourself had been raised in for years. If 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:16.280 that sounds like a life you can handle, you know, 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:18.399 I would be delighted to build a life with you. 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:20.320 But I want to tell you what you're in for. 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:24.880 And it was that honesty that had my mom saying yes. 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:28.760 They had met on her birthday in nineteen seventy seven 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:31.640 and were married two and a half weeks later, his 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:36.840 older brother was one of only a hundred Indians in 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:39.600 one year that was allowed to immigrate to the United States. 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:41.640 Can you talk a little bit about that and the 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:45.400 impact it had on your family. Absolutely. So. My uncle 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:49.040 earned a Fulbright scholarship that allowed him to travel from 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:53.640 India to the States to continue studying chemistry. And that 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:55.800 was at the time that was in the late fifties, 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:59.880 before the National Immigration Act had been passed, where the 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:04.679 cap was a hundred visas issue to Indians to come 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:07.880 to the United States, and so he was one of 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:13.079 very few and there was no Indian community really at 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:17.520 that time. My aunt followed a few years later with 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:20.359 her husband and they in turn were able to sponsor 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:23.800 my father to come to the States as well. And 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:25.920 once he got here, that was the first time he 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:27.679 got a hearing gage, which meant that was the first 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:30.600 time he could hear. Your latest book is called Worth 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:33.960 Speaking in the Life Lessons of Kamala Harris, and Kamala 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:38.240 also has a very strong immigrant mother. What drew you 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:41.680 to Kamala's story and wanting to write about it? I 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:43.880 write in the book about how this is a book 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:46.520 that I had actually been writing for a very long 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:51.240 time since I knew who Kamala Harris was, and how 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:53.600 you know, she had been mentoring me from AFAR for 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:56.840 many years. So she first came on my radar, you know, 0:03:56.920 --> 0:04:00.800 during the mortgage foreclosure crisis and the follow up and 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:05.320 the legal follow up of settlements for homeowners all over 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:08.720 the country. So I had a very nerdy obsession with 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:11.600 the recession and was like, how did this happen? Why 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:13.680 did this happen? What are we going to do to 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:17.000 make sure something like this hasn't happened again and citizens 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:21.000 are protected? And so this one name kept popping up 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:23.680 in the news about it, Kamala Harris, Kamala Harris, and 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:26.440 I I never took the time to google her at 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:28.960 the time, which I find really funny because I'm the 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:31.279 type of person who google's everything when it comes to 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:34.960 my mind. But it wasn't until you know, she had 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:40.880 negotiated the settlement for California homeowners that exceeded what was 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:44.240 already what was on the table for the full federal 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:47.400 and state responses. She had walked away from the negotiate, 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:51.480 the joint negotiating table, and brought together allies to fight 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:53.800 for a better settlement and I was. I was on 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:57.000 some business trip, had CNNA on the background and saw 0:04:57.000 --> 0:04:59.120 this woman and I'm like, she could be related to me. 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:03.200 Drug to the podium with such confidence, and then the 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:06.200 chiron said Attorney General Kamala Harris, and I was like, 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:09.560 that's Kamala Harris, because in my mind I was picturing 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:14.080 someone much older, like with the quote unquote experience that 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:17.760 had always been attributed to impactful politicians, and I had 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:21.680 no idea she was this relatively young attorney general of 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:26.279 the largest state in the Union who made a major, 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:30.880 major thing happened on behalf of California homeowners, so that 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:34.640 the obsession with the recession focused onto his obsession with 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:39.120 Kamala Harris. And really it wasn't studying how she spoke, 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:42.560 what she wore, the way she carried herself, because at 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:45.159 the time, and I was working with my dad on 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:47.719 in a separate company, I was in a lot of 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:50.480 rooms where I was the only woman. I certainly was 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:52.720 always the youngest, and I was one of the few 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:58.280 people of color, and being mothered was something that happened 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:02.159 to me quite often. And not having the ability to 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:05.360 speak up or contribute the way I wanted to and 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:08.400 there weren't a whole a lot of women in leadership 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:10.400 and life sciences at the time that I could look 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:15.360 to for mentorship or guidance. She became that mentor from afar. 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:18.080 So it's not as if I started donning pants suits 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:21.479 and had like a perfectly curled blowout, but she gave 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:23.880 me kind of the confidence to where what I felt 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:26.479 good in and own that. In reading your book, I 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:28.920 felt like you must have felt like you had discovered her, 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:31.560 and then suddenly the whole world had discovered her. With 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:33.880 it a little bit like that, where you like, she's 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:36.080 been my obsession well before any of you knew her. 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:39.320 It definitely was. It's like when you know the first 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:42.640 know of a band or a certain author. Felt very 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:45.680 much like that. But I also is I take it 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:50.920 personally when I see like just bullshit reporting with like 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:55.400 the inflammatory headline making mountains out of mole hills, because 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:59.400 it's part of a really troubling trend I observed when 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:02.240 the press were parts on powerful women. There is like 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:06.640 the build up of hyping her up, the flattering profiles 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:10.640 and features. They're sort of the anointment with the cover cover. 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:14.840 Some magazines awards all of that and then comes to 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:18.520 tear down what was your entry into pharmaceuticals like and 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:21.800 what that trajectory been like for you. Well, it's started 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:27.680 with nepotism and let's just um call out the elephant 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:29.920 in the room. I have my job because my father 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:33.960 was co founder of our last company side us. That said, 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:36.800 we did have a pretty clear division of church and 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:39.960 state in terms of I reported to his business partner 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:43.760 who was the CEO. Joe took me under his wing, 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:47.720 taught me everything I needed to know when it came 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:54.679 to negotiation and managing partnerships, financial accounting. Our general counsel 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:58.000 Paul Feyerman walk me through kind of the mechanics of 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:02.720 term sheets and licensing agreement and getting comfortable enough with 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:06.360 the legalise to know what I can tackle on my 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:09.480 own and confident enough to know when to call excellent 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:13.360 outside council and how to hire great lawyers as well, 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:17.080 which very grateful for Paul for that. Our CEO CFO 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:20.400 Mike Boolio taught me like how to build a model 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:23.480 and the mechanics of this I have and I want 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:25.600 to just say this, I have had wonderful men who 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:29.440 have championed me in industry and given me what I 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:32.360 needed to succeed. That said, I was one of the 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:36.680 only and I had to say, why can't our head 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:38.600 of manufacturing be a woman? Like there have to be 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:41.560 women candidates out there? Why can't our head of regulatory 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:43.920 be a woman? There have to be women candidates out there, 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:47.480 At which point they realize, oh, yeah, we absolutely can 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:50.559 and we should. So I am grateful that they were, 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:53.200 and once we had those team members join us, they 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:56.080 helped show me the ropes of how to navigate the 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.200 gender politics of being in some of these rooms. It 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:01.600 would be awful if you get explained to us what 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:04.400 happens when you're running pharmaceutical company. I think for so 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:06.880 for most of us who are not in science, it's like, 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:09.160 what does that even mean? And what are you doing 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:12.120 every day? And what are you building and bringing to market. 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:16.240 So we're working currently at Rissian Pharmaceuticals and injectable aspirin 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:18.920 which will be administered by your e M T or 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:22.320 by a nurse in the emergency room. The significance of 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:26.760 delivering aspirin in this way is for suspected heart attack 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:30.640 or stroke, where getting preventing the clot from getting bigger 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:34.120 within the first hour of claw onset, it could be 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:37.320 life or death. They call this the golden hour. So 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:42.040 two safe ours works and under a minute versus oral 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:46.040 erectal aspirin taking a minimum of about twenty minutes to 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:51.319 hit the bloodstream. Additionally, with ours, acent of drug enter 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:55.040 us a bloodstream versus thet because of the gastric effect. 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:59.359 So when you think about the urgency of these conditions 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:04.760 and then to deliver this extremely safe therapeutic as effectively 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:08.960 as possible and consistently as possible, the need is there. 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:14.160 The pricing you can't price aspirint exorbitantly high, which is 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:18.280 why we really struggle to raise venture or get large 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:22.800 biopharmas excited about this, but it was a long slog, 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:25.160 so to talk a little bit about the history of 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:28.120 the company. This is actually something that has been my 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:31.160 dad has been thinking about and working on since the 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:35.559 late seventies. When he was getting his PhD. His adviser 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:39.960 said the GESH who ever develops injectable aspirint, deserves a 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:45.599 Nobel prize because from a chemistry perspective, it is exorbitantly difficult, 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:51.559 but all but impossible to have a scalable manufacturing process 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:55.040 and for a formulation to stay in a crystal inform 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:57.319 He also then said, also it would save a lot 0:10:57.360 --> 0:10:59.640 of lives. So my dad had been thinking about this 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:02.200 for years. This was a product that we did. He 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:06.400 did start working on at SIDOS, and then once we 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:10.040 had out licensed the active portfolio from Sidos, he spun 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:12.480 this product out and said, I'm going to keep tinkering 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:15.160 with it. We're not where we need to be, but 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:17.959 I wanna this might be my final one, so let 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:19.920 me keep thinking about it and working on it on 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:22.680 my own without the pressure of working on it with 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:27.960 a partner. He successfully got to the lead formulation by 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:35.280 the end of I want to say sixteen, worked with 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:38.280 our i P lawyers to file the patents so we 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:42.080 confirmed we had freedom to operate. His patents were novel, 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:45.720 non obvious, and not infringing any other of the aspert 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:47.240 i P that was on the market at the time, 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:51.599 and filed those patents that have now since been granted. 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:56.600 And then in March seventeen, we met with the FDA 0:11:56.760 --> 0:11:59.800 for the first time to talk about the development plan 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:05.400 and specifically the clinical study required for approval. F d 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:09.560 A agreed with our approach and gave us a very 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:14.480 reasonable clinical study design that allowed us to you know, 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:17.960 get approval in a pretty modest study, which that study 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:21.400 is is just wrapping up. And then we brought on 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:24.319 a head of manufacturing at that time who has been 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:27.680 wonderful and a wonderful partner to me, and I will 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:31.600 say we are still given all this time, and even 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:33.880 though we got to skip a lot of steps and 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:37.720 that we were formulating something that already existed in terms 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:41.080 of the active drug, we still won't file with f 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:43.240 d A for a couple of year and a half. 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:46.120 What did the day in the life of a pharmaceutical 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:49.560 CEO look like? It looks different every day, much like 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:52.640 any CEO, and it really depends on what we have 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:56.000 going on at any specific time. But also, as I've 0:12:56.000 --> 0:13:00.320 been able to hire a bigger team, what I do 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:03.280 is significantly less than what I used to do. So 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:06.960 for instance, right now, we're wrapping up a clinical study, 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:10.160 so it's about scheduling calls with our partners to get 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:14.240 them the full update on how the final dosing and 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:19.280 the final subjects have gone. For manufacturing, it's making sure 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:23.240 my head of manufacturing and our technical team of what 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:26.760 they need to work with the new partners and then 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:30.960 for me right now, it's managing the licensing, the partnership 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:34.640 with the team that licensed our products. So I speak 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:38.560 with their senior team members every single week. We have 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:44.280 overall catch up joint steering meeting, committee meeting every few weeks, 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:47.400 and it's making sure the partner is informed of everything 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:50.960 that's happening and it's happy with everything is happening. So 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:55.040 relationship management is my job. But before that, it was 0:13:55.559 --> 0:14:00.320 securing funding, so a lot of investor pitches, a lot 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:04.760 of nose and a lot of retooling the pitch, refining 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:08.480 my list and getting back out there with When we 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:10.880 were negotiating the licensing deal, it was a lot of 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:15.559 time with my lawyers to understand the redlines and want 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:19.800 to get that legalise education and to think really thoughtfully 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:22.720 what is non negotiable for us and what can we 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:27.520 accept with maybe some caveats or edits, you know. So 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:32.880 right now I am thrilled that my team is really 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:37.240 taking the lead on development and on building relationships with 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:40.640 their technical team, and my job is really too. It's 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:46.560 much more focused and the stress of managing cash flow 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:50.000 or understanding like when is our next tronch of capital 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:51.920 coming in, how am I going to afford to pay 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:56.240 my team is significantly decreased today than it was a 0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:59.400 year ago. What's it like working with your father? It 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:03.160 is the best. However, I will say that I think 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:07.360 family businesses it's like very binary. It's either phenomenal and 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:10.080 a perfect fit or it is the worst idea ever, 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:12.720 and I don't see there being much of an in between. 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:16.320 It is truly an honor and a privilege to work 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:18.800 with someone who I view as one of the most 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:23.600 brilliant scientific minds of our time, and especially in life sciences. 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:26.960 You know, you could have a brilliant formulator who none 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:29.960 of his formulations or her formulations could get scaled up 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:33.320 to be a commercial product. You can have someone who 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:37.200 is so smart about scaling up manufacturing, but then you're 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:39.800 giving up some of the elements of the formulation that 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:44.640 made it you know, soluble, stabilizeable, or you know, diminishing 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:47.320 the quality of the product. And then on top of it, 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:49.960 you need to be able to develop a formulation that 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:52.880 can get a patent granted on it. And right now 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:56.160 my father is adding a thousand when it comes to 0:15:56.240 --> 0:16:01.000 defending his patents against infringement or in validation ass so 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:04.120 he really is a triple threat in drug development. But 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:07.600 he's also just one of the best people I know. 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:11.040 We've had a remote culture since the beginning of Side Us. 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:13.560 We've never been the type of company to require people 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:16.400 to be in an office, but we did prioritize getting 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:19.360 together on a regular basis to not let things go 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:24.960 too far without gathering live and building relationships with with people. 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:30.440 He is someone who has such humility about what he 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:33.720 is doing, like he understands that I'm doing this to 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:38.520 help save lives, and it has been just one of 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:41.440 the great honors of my life to get to work 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:45.440 and build companies with him that have hopefully impacted humanity 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:48.520 for the better. And now a quick break. Are you 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:51.480 a woman owned business looking for a new sales channel. 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:54.280 I'm so excited to tell you about our newest partner 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:57.440 in the W Marketplace. Founded by two women, it's a 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:00.600 nationwide e commerce site for women entreprene yours and the 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:04.200 shoppers who support them. It offers favorable terms and is 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:08.160 a supportive community for female founded companies. With over five 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:12.280 women owned businesses selling thousands of products and services, The 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:16.320 W Marketplace might be your favorite news sales channel. Intrigued 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:20.840 learn more at join the w marketplace dot com. You've 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:23.280 let your hair go gray and it looks so youthful 0:17:23.400 --> 0:17:27.040 and beautiful. I bet you've influenced so many women to 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:30.280 do the same. Can you talk about that decision and 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:35.440 what that's like. I decided to go gray right around 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:38.520 the time I had I delivered Rocky, and so my 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:41.560 groots were already starting to grow out. And that was 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:43.879 the first time I was like, uh, I kind of 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:47.960 like these little sparkles of silver versus the dread of 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:49.719 oh my god, I need to get back in this salad. 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:53.400 I went back to my roots, literally did a lot 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:57.720 of like Indian oil scalp massage to recondition the grays 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:00.800 that were coming in, to soften them from that wiry 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:05.320 texture they usually are to like a really softer like 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:09.000 my my usual hair texture. Was very diligent about that, 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:12.040 was very diligent about getting glosses so that the hair 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:16.680 the gray didn't become overly brassy, and have just maintained 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:20.880 it too. Now three about three years later, like there 0:18:20.960 --> 0:18:23.320 is no more highlight left of that. It is just 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:28.600 my hair and it feels so me. It feels so good. 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:31.040 And it's the first time in my life I actually 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:35.600 really like my hair, and I like that part of 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:41.160 me versus, you know, having more frizzy, thick, unruly Indian 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:44.680 hair that I would beat into submission with straightening irons 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:48.680 and like straightening treatments and all of that. I've kind 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:51.639 of learned to really like this part about myself, and 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:54.399 I think it helps helped me like other parts of 0:18:54.440 --> 0:19:01.960 myself more from embracing my very distinguished nose and liking 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:04.000 just all the parts of me that normally I would 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:06.679 beat myself up about. What was your relationship with your 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:09.200 name growing up and that part of you. I mean, 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:11.359 when you're growing up a brown kid and one of 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:15.280 the only brown kids in your class in school and 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:19.560 your name ends with Pooh, You're gonna get some really 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:23.800 creative insults hurled your way. I think someone called me 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:26.160 hit the pile of Pooh, and I came home wanting 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:30.600 to change my name, and again my mother, in her 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:36.040 infinite wisdom and confidence, said, this is why we chose 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:39.560 your name. And your name is beautiful, your name is strong. 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:44.080 These people are deeply unkind, and obviously something is bothering 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:46.040 them that they feel the need to take this out 0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:48.280 on you, and really, my mom needs to write a 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:52.480 book because she really is a genius. But also that 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:55.000 has also influenced kind of thinking about where do I 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:57.879 want to raise my family, what do I name my kids? 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:01.560 And you know, it was one of those sort of 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:06.800 it builds character experiences that while I endured it and 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:10.560 I grew from it, it was something that I wouldn't 0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:14.480 choose for my own children. So, you know, living in 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:19.240 New York City, where of my older son's class is 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:23.040 South Asian, which is something a critical mass I certainly 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:26.439 never had, is something that I find it is so 0:20:26.520 --> 0:20:28.760 different from what I grew up with. But it's also 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:31.199 exactly how what I what i'd like to give my 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:35.480 kids that I didn't have. And you know that they 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:40.800 had their Indian full names, but these westernized nicknames that 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:44.200 one makes it easy to pronounce, but to have their 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:47.560 own meaning for our own family is special to us. 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:50.840 And you know, your names are a gift from your family, 0:20:50.920 --> 0:20:53.479 from your parents. It's the first gift any of us 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:58.600 ever received. So we are very reverent about names and 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:01.160 with the kids too, it's teaching them to always ask 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:03.720 what someone's name is and take the time to learn 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:06.440 how to pronounce it properly, because that is the first 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:09.479 form of respect you ever show anyone. So tell us 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:12.639 how you met your incredible husband. We met at an 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:17.359 Indian networking conference in Canada, and even though it was 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:19.919 in Canada, neither of us are Canadian. We're living in 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:22.679 Canada at the time. Just we were both members of 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:27.720 this organization, him from the national chapter leadership perspective, me 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:31.040 as the chapter liaison from Philadelphia. I was late to 0:21:31.080 --> 0:21:34.640 the board meeting. He um came up to me after 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:36.960 the board meeting and said, I haven't met you yet, 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:39.280 and I said, no, you haven't. I'm hit the We 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:43.040 talked for a bit, go our separate ways. The next 0:21:43.080 --> 0:21:45.320 day he comes back around, comes up to me and 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:48.680 I'm very excited because I'm like, keep away from yesterday. Yes, 0:21:49.400 --> 0:21:51.800 And He's like, Hi, I haven't met you yet And 0:21:51.840 --> 0:21:55.000 I was like, excuse me three and arism and I 0:21:55.119 --> 0:21:57.840 met you yesterday. Did you go through all four hundred 0:21:57.880 --> 0:21:59.720 women at this conference in a single night that you're 0:21:59.760 --> 0:22:04.399 now recycling lines? Well done you and stormed off And 0:22:04.440 --> 0:22:06.560 so for the rest of the conference, he just like 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:10.320 was kind of chasing me down to apologize. But when 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:12.800 any time we got into a really great conversation, like 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:14.640 a woman would come up to him and be like 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:18.600 three and I was like, what is going on here? 0:22:18.640 --> 0:22:21.800 Like is he into me? But all these women are 0:22:21.920 --> 0:22:26.200 chasing him? Apparently he was like the bachelor to get 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:32.200 at this conference. But anyway, it was one of those 0:22:32.680 --> 0:22:35.960 There was this moment. It was the Saturday night of 0:22:35.960 --> 0:22:40.480 the conference. We were talking. It was at a club Silarium. 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:42.320 If it's still there in Toronto, I feel like I 0:22:42.359 --> 0:22:45.160 need to go back and pay my respects to this, 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:49.720 to this very important venue in our relationship. And there 0:22:49.800 --> 0:22:52.679 was something about how I mentioned like my vision is 0:22:52.720 --> 0:22:55.480 so bad. It's like too bad. If we lived in Gattica, 0:22:55.760 --> 0:22:58.880 like this would be resolved, or I mentioned something it's 0:22:58.880 --> 0:23:00.560 like you know my way, poor kids are going to 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:02.879 be totally blind. He's like, well not if we live 0:23:02.920 --> 0:23:05.040 in Gattica. And I was just like, oh my god, 0:23:05.119 --> 0:23:07.359 you're my soul mate. You were a nerd who was 0:23:07.440 --> 0:23:14.879 also partially blind and gets me and didn't shy away 0:23:14.880 --> 0:23:17.880 when I like dropped kids in the conversation very early on. 0:23:18.040 --> 0:23:22.480 Instead made this really funny. It's completely spot on reference. 0:23:22.800 --> 0:23:26.359 So you know, we were engaged five months after we met. 0:23:26.560 --> 0:23:29.640 We got married ten months after that, and it's been 0:23:29.840 --> 0:23:35.040 eleven years in marriage. And now a quick break. All right, 0:23:35.080 --> 0:23:36.879 we're gonna have to go to our speed around now, 0:23:36.960 --> 0:23:38.760 and do you want to kick us off? What book 0:23:38.760 --> 0:23:41.800 are you reading? A couple, because I'm a promiscuous reader 0:23:41.840 --> 0:23:44.240