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Speaker 3: I think we're a lot of my need for doing
Speaker 3: Chronicon comes from is that this is actually a fixable problem.
Speaker 3: The fact that I went through so many decades of
Speaker 3: tremendous physical and emotional suffering because of my health and
Speaker 3: exacerbated because I felt so deeply alone. That doesn't have
Speaker 3: to be that way. It is actually a solvable problem.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to She Pivots, the podcast where we talk
Speaker 1: with women who have dared to pivot out of one
Speaker 1: career and into something new and explore how their personal
Speaker 1: lives impacted these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman.
Speaker 1: If you don't know Nitika Chopra, it's time. She's a
Speaker 1: true powerhouse and a source of light for so many.
Speaker 1: Her work as a chronic illness advocate was born out
Speaker 1: of her own experience seeing a gap in the chronic
Speaker 1: illness community. So after nearly a decade in the lifestyle
Speaker 1: and blogging space, she pivoted to create Chronicon, a conference
Speaker 1: and community that elevates the visibility of more than the
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty three million Americans living with chronic illnesses, because,
Speaker 1: let's be honest, this population deserves a lot more love
Speaker 1: and support. I've known Nitka since about twenty ten, and
Speaker 1: I've continued to be in awe of how much she gives.
Speaker 1: Living with three chronic illnesses is something I'll never truly understand,
Speaker 1: but I can see her work in motion. Her mission
Speaker 1: to quote inspire radical self Love has developed into a
Speaker 1: community of thousands. Every time I talk to Nitka, I
Speaker 1: feel inspired, I feel motivated, and I just feel her light,
Speaker 1: including in this conversation.
Speaker 2: So I hope you enjoy it too.
Speaker 3: I'm Nitka Choprah and I'm the founder of Chronicon. So
Speaker 3: what did little.
Speaker 2: Nitka think that she was going to be when she
Speaker 2: grew up?
Speaker 3: I really really really wanted to be a singer, especially
Speaker 3: like a musical theater singer. Little Nitteka was just like
Speaker 3: belting out at the top of her lungs as often
Speaker 3: as she possibly could. Yeah, I took a voice lessons
Speaker 3: for like fifteen years and really really went for it.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I always wanted to be a singer.
Speaker 1: How did that shape your experience growing up thinking you
Speaker 1: were going to be a singer?
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, Well that's a really beautiful question. I
Speaker 3: think because I loved like the act of singing so much,
Speaker 3: I would just be sort of loud about it and
Speaker 3: like you know what I mean, Like I wouldn't really
Speaker 3: think about, oh, what is someone going to think of me?
Speaker 3: Or like is this okay? Or whatever. I would just
Speaker 3: want to sing, So I would just do that all
Speaker 3: the time. And then I think over time, I got
Speaker 3: some feedback. I got some feedback, especially as like a
Speaker 3: brown girl, you know, living in a home that was
Speaker 3: filled with lots of love, but definitely also a lot
Speaker 3: of rules. It was not so encouraged or people were
Speaker 3: so enthusiastic about my wanting to have the I guess,
Speaker 3: the center of attention in those ways, you know. And
Speaker 3: so yeah, I didn't really think of it that way.
Speaker 3: I just loved singing, but there was this part of
Speaker 3: it where I would, yeah, go out and just kind
Speaker 3: of be myself. And then I found that, you know,
Speaker 3: life can kind of teach you to go in your
Speaker 3: shell a little bit. I think over time, and I
Speaker 3: think that's kind of what happened with me after a while.
Speaker 1: In fact, Nittika had to learn from a young age
Speaker 1: how to come out of her shell. She was just
Speaker 1: ten when she was first diagnosed with psoriasis.
Speaker 3: I remember the very moment I was wearing these like
Speaker 3: jean shorts. I was living in Ohio, and I was
Speaker 3: wearing this like blue and white, like checkered sleeveless shirt,
Speaker 3: and my mom and I were like in the bathroom
Speaker 3: and I was looking in the mirror and I saw
Speaker 3: this little spot on my left arm and I was like, Mom,
Speaker 3: what is that? And she had had eggzema before, and
Speaker 3: my dad had two, and it had always been pretty mild,
Speaker 3: like they put a little cream on it and it
Speaker 3: went away, and I think they both grew out of
Speaker 3: it eventually. So we kind of thought that that's what
Speaker 3: it would be and it wouldn't be a big deal,
Speaker 3: but gout to going to the doctor them thinking it
Speaker 3: might be something different, and then I ended up getting
Speaker 3: a biopsy to confirm it, and we found out that
Speaker 3: it was a skin condition called psoriasis, and soriasis is
Speaker 3: an autoimmune disease. And within probably about a year, I
Speaker 3: went from having like a dime sized spot on my
Speaker 3: left arm to basically being covered from the tip of
Speaker 3: my foot to the tip of my head. It was awful,
Speaker 3: to be honest with you. I think it's important to
Speaker 3: be honest about it because my story is not unique. Actually,
Speaker 3: it just doesn't get told very often. So what soriasis
Speaker 3: specifically is like, it's basically like having chicken pox all
Speaker 3: the time. And what my form, because there's a few
Speaker 3: different types of psoriasis, but what my form of psoriasis
Speaker 3: is like is I basically got like thick scales of
Speaker 3: skin on top of my regular skin, and they itch constantly,
Speaker 3: and then if I did itch them, they would bleed
Speaker 3: and they would flake like how dandriff flakes. But that
Speaker 3: was happening from the tip of my foot to the
Speaker 3: tip of my head. So I lived like that for
Speaker 3: the better part of seventeen years of my life. I
Speaker 3: ended up getting seriatic arthritis when I was nineteen as well,
Speaker 3: and yeah, I mean it was Yeah, we could have
Speaker 3: a whole episode of how painful it was. And I
Speaker 3: think that's why when we started talking, I was like,
Speaker 3: I feel so emotional because these conversations are so important
Speaker 3: to me because I know I'm not the only one,
Speaker 3: and there are hundreds of millions of people out there
Speaker 3: who are living with a chronic illness, who are living
Speaker 3: with multiple chronic illnesses, and there's so many people out
Speaker 3: there who don't even know that what they are experiencing
Speaker 3: is a chronic illness, which is something that I've just
Speaker 3: I never even thought about until I started my company
Speaker 3: because I had gotten my first condition so young. But
Speaker 3: it's something that I hear a lot where, you know,
Speaker 3: especially women will come to me and be like, oh,
Speaker 3: I have PCOS. Is that a chronic illness? And I'm like, yes,
Speaker 3: it is. The National Health Council says that anything with
Speaker 3: persistent symptoms for three months or longer is considered a
Speaker 3: chronic illness. And so that is that is so many things,
Speaker 3: so many people, And it's not about over identifying. That's
Speaker 3: not necessarily what I believe. But I think that there
Speaker 3: is an opportunity for celebration around the amount of strength
Speaker 3: and the amount of resourcefulness and the amount of emotional
Speaker 3: empathy and all of these things that you really have
Speaker 3: to develop when you are dealing with a chronic condition
Speaker 3: that I think needs to be talked about more.
Speaker 1: How do you think that played into the wanting to
Speaker 1: be a singer? Did you want people to see you
Speaker 1: on stage just for your voice? Do you think that
Speaker 1: was part of it?
Speaker 3: Now, you know the thing is with wanting to be
Speaker 3: a singer, And I love that we're like talking about
Speaker 3: this because I never talk about that. I think the
Speaker 3: thing with that, you know, I'm very spiritual, and so
Speaker 3: I always felt like I was holding God's hand when
Speaker 3: I was singing, and it wasn't because I sound like
Speaker 3: an angel, Like that's not. It wasn't because it was
Speaker 3: like the most perfect performance or anything. It wasn't actually
Speaker 3: about that. It was about the fact that I felt
Speaker 3: like I didn't have to think about any of the
Speaker 3: other things that were going on in my life. I
Speaker 3: could just be a musician in that moment and I
Speaker 3: could just connect to this, Like really, I felt really
Speaker 3: divine part of me that was so much greater than me.
Speaker 3: So yeah, so I think that it was like always
Speaker 3: my respite. You know. It just felt like I could
Speaker 3: just tuck away and I mean I was belting show tunes,
Speaker 3: but still like, you know, my version of tucking away
Speaker 3: and feeling like, yeah, it was just like me and
Speaker 3: my voice.
Speaker 4: The world didn't give it to me, this joy. The
Speaker 4: world didn't give it to me. Don't know that this joy.
Speaker 4: The world didn't give it to me. Oh, the world
Speaker 4: didn't give it.
Speaker 3: The world can't take it over this.
Speaker 1: Although it wasn't exactly what she envisioned, Nitiga still sings
Speaker 1: to this day with the Resistance Revival Chorus. The group
Speaker 1: has performed at the Grammys, Saturday Night Live, and the
Speaker 1: forty six presidential inauguration, and has an album called This
Speaker 1: Joy Her Dreams becoming a singer in some ways have
Speaker 1: come true, but after high school it was clear that
Speaker 1: her parents expected her to find a different career path.
Speaker 1: The daughter of immigrants, Nitika recognized the expectations her parents
Speaker 1: had for her.
Speaker 3: So, you're supposed to be a doctor or a lawyer.
Speaker 3: And I know so many people say that, and you know,
Speaker 3: it's like such a cliche, but it's not even so
Speaker 3: much that my parents were like, you have to be
Speaker 3: a doctor or a lawyer, but an artist was definitely
Speaker 3: not on the table. And there's something about being an
Speaker 3: artist that felt almost like sacrilegious or something. It was
Speaker 3: like so wrong. And then to be an artist on
Speaker 3: a stage where people are looking at you almost felt
Speaker 3: like you were flaunting your body in some sort of
Speaker 3: really extreme way, which of course was not like anything
Speaker 3: about I wanted to sing like Disney princess songs, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. But yeah, that was a part
Speaker 3: of it. And so those shoulds were really about how
Speaker 3: it looks to others, like making sure that you look
Speaker 3: at way in society, and then obviously like a lot
Speaker 3: of intensity around making sure you have a certain amount
Speaker 3: of money and income coming in, and especially like being
Speaker 3: first generation you know, my parents immigrated from India, Like
Speaker 3: that is so understandable that they would have those concerns
Speaker 3: and have that be an important part of what they
Speaker 3: wanted me to focus on.
Speaker 1: You married so young. What prompted you to marry so young?
Speaker 1: I was genuinely, like madly in love. And you know,
Speaker 1: he was a.
Speaker 3: Little bit older than me, and so it wasn't like
Speaker 3: I was getting married and we would have like an
Speaker 3: unstable life or anything like that. You know, he was
Speaker 3: pretty well established and we had like the best relationship
Speaker 3: at first. You know, obviously it didn't last to be
Speaker 3: that way, but at first, that's what it was. And yeah,
Speaker 3: and I just was genuinely so in love, and I
Speaker 3: was like, this is my person. There was just something
Speaker 3: I really really knew he was meant to be my husband.
Speaker 3: And something I talk about a lot is I think
Speaker 3: that one of the hard parts of going through a divorce.
Speaker 3: We got divorced about four years later, is that people,
Speaker 3: I think often can feel really betrayed by their intuition
Speaker 3: and by their gut when they have feelings like that, Right,
Speaker 3: I knew with every fiber of my being he was
Speaker 3: meant to be my husband. So for us to not
Speaker 3: be married anymore was really devastating, obviously for so many
Speaker 3: obvious reasons, but then also that part that was like
Speaker 3: how could I be so wrong? Like that doesn't make
Speaker 3: any spiritual sense to me, And it took me a
Speaker 3: very long time to understand I was not wrong. He
Speaker 3: was meant to be my husband. The things I learned
Speaker 3: in our relationship and through that experience, both positive, negative, good, hard,
Speaker 3: all of that were exactly what I was meant to do.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: But it took me a very very long time. And
Speaker 3: I think, especially when we're talking about pivoting, like it
Speaker 3: can really feel like you're intuition betrayed you or something.
Speaker 3: That was probably the hardest part of the divorce was
Speaker 3: like really relearning that when I have that gut feeling,
Speaker 3: even if it doesn't lead me where I think it's
Speaker 3: going to lead me, it doesn't mean that I was wrong. Wow.
Speaker 1: I've really never thought about it that way, And I
Speaker 1: think that makes so much sense that because you do
Speaker 1: question yourself. I think we hear people talk about it
Speaker 1: all the time when they're going through the down part
Speaker 1: and they're going through the pivot, and in this in
Speaker 1: your case, this wasn't even really your pivoting moment.
Speaker 2: It was just part of the journey.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And the thing I want to point to what
Speaker 3: you just said too, is I think a lot of
Speaker 3: people talk about it as it relates to like toxic
Speaker 3: positivity a lot, you know, which is like everything happens
Speaker 3: for a reason, and you know, like whatever all the
Speaker 3: other things that people say that make you want to
Speaker 3: like throw something at them, and I just that's not
Speaker 3: what I mean, right, And so I want to be
Speaker 3: really clear, like there was tremendous pain and suffering and
Speaker 3: heartbreak and disappointment in what I went through. And that's
Speaker 3: happened many times in my life, you know, especially through
Speaker 3: my health and so many things that I've been through.
Speaker 3: But with my marriage, I think, for one, it really
Speaker 3: did teach me a lot about my value. To be honest,
Speaker 3: my ex husband was a wonderful is a wonderful man,
Speaker 3: and he really saw me in a way that was
Speaker 3: incredibly healing for me. I was very different than everyone
Speaker 3: in my family growing up, and so that was really hard,
Speaker 3: even though there was a lot of love in my
Speaker 3: household and my ex husband when we started dating, he
Speaker 3: was sort of the first person that saw like the
Speaker 3: woman that you see today. He saw her when I
Speaker 3: was like nineteen, and I had no idea that she existed.
Speaker 3: I didn't know where to look for her. I didn't
Speaker 3: have any clue about her. And so like seeing yourself
Speaker 3: through someone's eyes in that way is such a kind, loving,
Speaker 3: bet beautiful thing. It's it's incredibly healing, and I know
Speaker 3: that him being in my life in that moment allowed
Speaker 3: me to sort of keep moving forward. It also happened
Speaker 3: to be one of the most devastating times in my
Speaker 3: life for my health. It was when I was the
Speaker 3: sickest I had ever been while we were married, and
Speaker 3: so there was a big part of me that could
Speaker 3: have just sort of, I guess like left it there,
Speaker 3: just been like I'm sick, that's it. And he never
Speaker 3: saw me that way. He never ever did. And so
Speaker 3: to have that teacher in your life who loves you
Speaker 3: so purely and in like your truest essence and for
Speaker 3: the best parts of you, and of course also loves
Speaker 3: you through the hardest moments as well, that is so
Speaker 3: healing and so beautiful. And so I think now you know,
Speaker 3: in looking for another partner, I really know, like when
Speaker 3: I fall in love again, it will have to be
Speaker 3: someone who who honors me at that level, and we'll
Speaker 3: also have like a much healthier relationship and a lot
Speaker 3: of other ways. You know. It obviously didn't work for reasons,
Speaker 3: but that piece is so pure and so beautiful, and
Speaker 3: it did teach me a lot about my value, which
Speaker 3: I hadn't learned as a kid.
Speaker 1: Having just graduated college and newly divorced, Nitka saw an
Speaker 1: opportunity to dive into her calling.
Speaker 3: Once I got divorced and you know, found a treatment
Speaker 3: that worked in all these different things, I kind of
Speaker 3: felt like I wanted to take my experience with my
Speaker 3: health and figure out a way how to help people.
Speaker 3: That was always my thing, So I decided to start
Speaker 3: my own online magazine. I basically built my online magazine
Speaker 3: to be like someone one day we'll see all the
Speaker 3: elements of the website and like, want to make it
Speaker 3: a show, And that's essentially what happened. I ended up
Speaker 3: meeting the founder of the skincare company Fresh Love, Glasman,
Speaker 3: and we became good friends. And yeah, we were literally
Speaker 3: like out one night and he was talking about going
Speaker 3: to QBC and just like his hectic schedule, and I
Speaker 3: was like, you should just hire me to do it,
Speaker 3: and he was like, well, that's a great idea. It
Speaker 3: was really a beautiful marriage of talking about my skin
Speaker 3: journey and also like how skincare can be a really
Speaker 3: beautiful access point to self love. And I had always
Speaker 3: felt really left out of the skincare conversation because it
Speaker 3: was always just like a means to an end for me.
Speaker 3: It wasn't like a very nurturing experience while I was
Speaker 3: dealing with my skin. So yeah, I just felt like
Speaker 3: a really natural progression.
Speaker 2: I guess what we were.
Speaker 3: Talking before about.
Speaker 1: Right when twenty five thirty hit, we.
Speaker 3: Were like, where is dating that they can feel truly loved? Today?
Speaker 3: Love is in the air because this is our wedding show.
Speaker 3: From Flaala's hair and makeup tips to the perfect gown
Speaker 3: and di y decor that won't break the bank, We've
Speaker 3: got everything you need for the most beautiful wedding day,
Speaker 3: naturally beautiful. It all starts right now. I was on
Speaker 3: a South Asian television network called Sea Living. For those
Speaker 3: out there who are listening, were brown. It's like z
Speaker 3: TV is always on the background, in the background, It's
Speaker 3: just always on, Like in my grandparents' place, my parents' place.
Speaker 3: It was a show called Naturally Beautiful, and yeah it
Speaker 3: was great. The day that I auditioned for the show,
Speaker 3: I was going to a really bad flare, so my
Speaker 3: psoriasis was all over And this is a show called
Speaker 3: naturally Beautiful, okay, And I'm coming in there with like
Speaker 3: flaky as flaky skin, red spots everywhere, and I'm just like, Hi, guys, yeah,
Speaker 3: don't worry about it. It's gonna be fine, like just
Speaker 3: trying to not even trying, just really committed to like
Speaker 3: I was born for the show and you're going to
Speaker 3: hire me like that kind of energy. I ended up
Speaker 3: getting the job because I was right for the job,
Speaker 3: even though I had all this stuff happening with my skin,
Speaker 3: and I ended up trying a new treatment that helped
Speaker 3: me so that I could get clearer skin by the
Speaker 3: time we started filming. But it was actually I'm super
Speaker 3: proud of the fact that, like, even though I had
Speaker 3: all that going on with my health, that they still
Speaker 3: saw that I was the right person for it, you know.
Speaker 3: And I think it's just like good to remember that,
Speaker 3: like when you're meant for something, it'll happen.
Speaker 1: You were like an influencer before there were influencers.
Speaker 2: I guess, So how did you navigate this space?
Speaker 3: I mean, I kind of cringe at the word influencer
Speaker 3: because I just feel like it's it has a lot
Speaker 3: of you know, negative connotations now. But I would say
Speaker 3: when I first was starting, you know, my company and
Speaker 3: doing the KBC thing, and I would do a lot
Speaker 3: of events that was like always something that I did.
Speaker 3: I guess that was like my version of influencing because
Speaker 3: I would have a bunch of brands that would come
Speaker 3: on board. I would have a bunch of speakers who
Speaker 3: like are amazing people that I thought were awesome and
Speaker 3: I thought people needed to know. And I would do
Speaker 3: these events, you know in New York City, and oh
Speaker 3: my god, I would hustle, Okay, I would try to
Speaker 3: get as much stuff as I could for free. I
Speaker 3: would like barter partner, like doing so so many things
Speaker 3: brick by brick. This was never ever anything that's been
Speaker 3: like funded in some fancy way or like any of that.
Speaker 3: And yeah, I guess that was my version of influencing
Speaker 3: where I felt like, you know, you should come to
Speaker 3: this thing that I'm doing because I'm going to introduce
Speaker 3: you to all these really amazing people and brands, and
Speaker 3: that was like really pure. It wasn't about like some hierarchy.
Speaker 3: It was really about this is like from my heart
Speaker 3: and this is what I love. And if you like
Speaker 3: want to get connected to that, great, If you want
Speaker 3: to just come and like enjoy yourself, that's great too,
Speaker 3: you know. But now it's become this like competition. How
Speaker 3: many whatevers can you get? And you're not good enough
Speaker 3: if you don't get a certain amount and all these
Speaker 3: things that I'm sure people are aware of, and it
Speaker 3: just doesn't feel pure to me.
Speaker 1: For nearly ten years, Nittiga had been expanding her network
Speaker 1: and working in the lifestyle and blog space, but still
Speaker 1: it was a constant, uphill battle. When you started to
Speaker 1: think about pivoting and launching Chronicon, it was a combination
Speaker 1: of passion and need.
Speaker 3: Okay, so professionally I was not in a great place.
Speaker 3: I mean, we talked about, you know, oh god, I
Speaker 3: have this talk show. I was like, GBC, everything's going great. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 3: let me just tell you twenty sixteen and twenty seventeen,
Speaker 3: and even like the beginning of twenty eighteen was just
Speaker 3: not not It was just really hard. I think what
Speaker 3: had happened Now looking back, I can see this, but
Speaker 3: I didn't know this at the time. It was just
Speaker 3: like very dark. I had spent the first part of
Speaker 3: my career doing these conversations around beauty and lifestyle, and
Speaker 3: I really genuinely loved the conversations I was having, but
Speaker 3: I wasn't talking to the person that I was born
Speaker 3: to talk to, right And I didn't even know that
Speaker 3: I could talk to that person. There were so many
Speaker 3: things I didn't understand, and so I feel like the universe, God,
Speaker 3: whatever or things were just perfectly timed where stuff just
Speaker 3: really didn't work for those two plus years. And what
Speaker 3: I mean by that was I was doing like those
Speaker 3: events or those like partnerships or media things or whatever
Speaker 3: like that, We're coming very easily in some ways. Initially,
Speaker 3: they just stopped in a major, major way. And whenever
Speaker 3: I would go to a brand or a company that
Speaker 3: I had a great relationship with and I would say, Hey, like,
Speaker 3: I'm finding this is happening a lot. Do you have
Speaker 3: any advice for me? Is there something that I'm missing?
Speaker 3: I love getting that kind of feedback, especially when you
Speaker 3: know it's like someone who really wants you to win,
Speaker 3: and you know what I mean, Like, that's such a
Speaker 3: really wonderful gift you can give someone to let them know,
Speaker 3: like this is what I see that you might not
Speaker 3: be noticing. But everyone came back to me and was
Speaker 3: just like, the market is just what it is, or
Speaker 3: the political scene is so intense right now. People feel
Speaker 3: like there's so much unrest and so much uncertainty. We're
Speaker 3: cutting back on marketing budgets like things like that were
Speaker 3: coming up, and I'm sure a lot of people are
Speaker 3: probably hearing that right now because there's like another cycle
Speaker 3: of that right So it just kind of stopped, and
Speaker 3: it made me have to really reevaluate. It made me
Speaker 3: have to really ask, is this what you want to
Speaker 3: keep doing? And I think the best thing that I
Speaker 3: did was the year before I started chronic con, I
Speaker 3: did this exercise where, because I felt so lost, every
Speaker 3: time I would meet someone or do a talk or
Speaker 3: an interview, I would say that I did something different
Speaker 3: each time. And what I mean by that is I
Speaker 3: wouldn't lie, but I would I would sort of try
Speaker 3: on different parts of the things that I did. So
Speaker 3: like with you, i might say I'm a talk show
Speaker 3: host and then I'd go to an event and I'd say, oh,
Speaker 3: I'm a chronic illness advocate, and then with someone else
Speaker 3: I'd say, oh, I'm a blogger or whatever. Right, So
Speaker 3: it's all true, but it was just different aspects of
Speaker 3: what I was doing. And every time I said that
Speaker 3: I was a chronic illness advocate, I had the most meaningful, important,
Speaker 3: and just the most moving connections with people. And I
Speaker 3: had never experienced that in my entire career. It was
Speaker 3: something that was so so new, and it was like
Speaker 3: the thing I was looking for. It was why I
Speaker 3: wanted to do this in the first place. I never
Speaker 3: wanted to have a talk show because I just wanted
Speaker 3: to look cute and outfits all the time. I mean,
Speaker 3: that's fun, but I really wanted to like talk to
Speaker 3: the person on the other side of the screen and
Speaker 3: see if I could help them, right, So that's what
Speaker 3: I was having in my career was totally on the toilet.
Speaker 1: So during this time, during this time, as you were
Speaker 1: figuring it out, how were you floating it financially?
Speaker 3: Oh gosh, that was also a hot mess. Express let
Speaker 3: me tell you. I mean I was basically I started
Speaker 3: doing some consulting, so I do some marketing consulting. I
Speaker 3: ended up consulting for a real estate app that was
Speaker 3: coming out. But a lot of the time I was really, really,
Speaker 3: really struggling financially. And yeah, I didn't have some like
Speaker 3: fancy investor being like, we will give you three bajillion
Speaker 3: dollars to build the next we work or something for instance.
Speaker 3: I didn't have that. And then I would do I
Speaker 3: called them self love celebrations, those events I was mentioning.
Speaker 3: I would do those. Sometimes I could only do a
Speaker 3: couple of year to have them make sense, but that
Speaker 3: would also help with some like financial you know, support
Speaker 3: and stuff like that. I would make some good money
Speaker 3: doing those. But yeah, I really felt like, you know,
Speaker 3: I was hanging on. It's just hanging on.
Speaker 2: Where were you when you'd made the decision to start chronicon?
Speaker 3: Oh one of my favorite stories because it's the love
Speaker 3: of my life. But yeah, I was actually walking around
Speaker 3: Curvy Con and that was a conference that was for
Speaker 3: you know, mostly curvy women, and it was here in
Speaker 3: New York City, and I was walking around the event
Speaker 3: and I had this experience where I was like, oh
Speaker 3: my gosh, these brands and these people who are here,
Speaker 3: they are here to celebrate the curvy woman.
Speaker 1: Not there.
Speaker 3: There were no brands in sight that were like, here's
Speaker 3: how you not be curvy, or here's how you look smaller.
Speaker 3: It was like, come over here with your waist and
Speaker 3: thighs exactly how they are, and let me put something
Speaker 3: on you that is going to make you glow like
Speaker 3: the queen that you are. Right, And I was walking
Speaker 3: around and I was just like, oh my gosh, if I,
Speaker 3: as a psoriasis covered kid, had gone to an event
Speaker 3: that had said come over here with your flaky skin,
Speaker 3: I'm going to put the best makeup on you and
Speaker 3: you were going to glow like the queen you are,
Speaker 3: or I'm going to give you a peedicure. Even though
Speaker 3: it's like getting a petticure was always really as something
Speaker 3: I was really self conscious of as a kid because
Speaker 3: of my skin. These small things that people don't think
Speaker 3: about necessarily unless you've had to experience something like that.
Speaker 3: And I was like, if I had had a place
Speaker 3: to go where they celebrated me, oh my god, I
Speaker 3: would have changed my whole life. It would have changed
Speaker 3: everything about the way that I felt about myself, the
Speaker 3: way I interacted with people. So many different things, and
Speaker 3: I started walking around the event and I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: what would that be called. I literally was just like
Speaker 3: having this spiritual experience while I was walking around the event,
Speaker 3: and I thought I kept saying different names, and then
Speaker 3: I was like, chronic con. I have to be honest.
Speaker 3: I was terrified. For like the first six months that
Speaker 3: I thought of the idea, I barely told anyone. I
Speaker 3: told like one person who worked at a company that
Speaker 3: ended up being like my main partner for the event
Speaker 3: that year. The first year, I told one person, and
Speaker 3: like some close friends I started to kind of talk
Speaker 3: about it with. But I was really afraid because it
Speaker 3: kind of like why I was so emotional when I
Speaker 3: got here, Like it felt like such a big responsibility,
Speaker 3: and not that I need to take it all on
Speaker 3: myself or anything like that, or even that I would
Speaker 3: be so arrogant to think that I am, but even
Speaker 3: just to try, you know, and to try to unite
Speaker 3: this population who's so often just like completely forgotten. And
Speaker 3: learning that there are one hundred and thirty three million
Speaker 3: Americans living with a chronic illness that we know of,
Speaker 3: I was like, what, I'm sorry, how is this population
Speaker 3: so huge? And how come every time I talk to
Speaker 3: someone else who's chronically ill, we all feel like we
Speaker 3: are the only people. So there was just all of
Speaker 3: this emotion coming up for me around it, and I
Speaker 3: was like, I don't know, I bootstrapping everything. I am
Speaker 3: like doing this one crusty brick at a time.
Speaker 1: Did you get investors for Chronicon or was it profitable?
Speaker 3: So we did not. I did a small friends and
Speaker 3: family round after the first year. We basically like kind
Speaker 3: of broke even the first year, which like I wasn't
Speaker 3: happy with, to be honest with you, And then we
Speaker 3: did a small friends and family round and then the
Speaker 3: pandemic happened.
Speaker 1: Had you found community before this before Chronicon.
Speaker 3: Well, I had tried. And this is part of why
Speaker 3: I do things the way I do with Chronicicon, because
Speaker 3: there are lots of support groups out there for those
Speaker 3: who are living with chronic conditions, and I'm sure that
Speaker 3: there are some that are wonderful, but the ones that
Speaker 3: I had tried, specifically for my conditions, they were kind
Speaker 3: of awful. And I've heard that from a lot of people.
Speaker 3: You know, it tends to be a place where, first
Speaker 3: of all, the chronic ellmless club is not a club
Speaker 3: that any of us want to be a part of.
Speaker 3: So it's like, okay, we're all here, Okay, now what
Speaker 3: And you know, it kind of was this experience of
Speaker 3: like going to Facebook group or whatever and just having
Speaker 3: a lot of trauma, dumping a lot of anxiety. People
Speaker 3: would just talk about like their worst experiences or their
Speaker 3: biggest fears, and I get it, like I have those
Speaker 3: fears too, right, So it's not that that's wrong, It's
Speaker 3: just that I'm already sick. I don't really need you
Speaker 3: to remind me of that, right. And so there's this
Speaker 3: nuance and this kind of fine line that I've been
Speaker 3: working on, even with what I'm building with chronicon of
Speaker 3: like how do we talk to this population very specifically
Speaker 3: because they are the ones that we want to shine
Speaker 3: a light on without over identifying and over focusing on
Speaker 3: our conditions and our illnesses all the time. It's like,
Speaker 3: it's a very very fine line, and it's something I'm
Speaker 3: working on honestly every day, and I think we do
Speaker 3: a pretty good job of it. But yeah, and other communities,
Speaker 3: I really hadn't ever found another community that I could
Speaker 3: go to that I felt like resonated with my health.
Speaker 1: In the midst of building chronicon and struggling financially, Nittika
Speaker 1: still found ways to give to others. It was twenty
Speaker 1: eighteen and I was at the beginning of my pivot,
Speaker 1: the realization that my former self and career couldn't be
Speaker 1: what I wanted it to be. And even though she
Speaker 1: was in one of the hardest times of her life,
Speaker 1: she did what she was called to do and she
Speaker 1: reached out and offered support. So we're part of this
Speaker 1: same group that we've been a part of for more
Speaker 1: than ten years now, which is wild to people in
Speaker 1: a variety of industries across the board. And I was
Speaker 1: going through at that time the hardest thing I'd ever
Speaker 1: been through, and I just felt so alone, and I
Speaker 1: felt like nobody who knew me really knew me, nobody
Speaker 1: could help, nobody could support me.
Speaker 2: Basically, in that moment, I'm going to cry.
Speaker 1: No, I'm going to cry because you send a note
Speaker 1: out to the group and you said, for anybody who
Speaker 1: needs love and support right now, I'm here for you.
Speaker 1: And I'd never texted you before, I'd never called you before,
Speaker 1: and I texted you and I said Nittka, I don't
Speaker 1: really know you that well, but we're in this group.
Speaker 2: I need love and support now.
Speaker 1: And you wrote back to me and you said, I
Speaker 1: know that you're a good person, and I know that
Speaker 1: you have light and we'll make it through.
Speaker 2: And that meant so much to me. I remember the moment,
Speaker 2: like I remember feeling.
Speaker 1: Like I barely knew you, but you were the only
Speaker 1: person who saw that there was good and light in me.
Speaker 1: So for me to hear you say that that was
Speaker 1: a dark time for you is shocking to me, and
Speaker 1: it makes me admire you so much. That it was
Speaker 1: a hard time for you and that your response was
Speaker 1: to go out to this group of people, some who
Speaker 1: you knew, some who didn't know that well, and just
Speaker 1: say I'm here to be your light.
Speaker 2: And that just meant so much to me.
Speaker 3: Made me crying, and like again, because I've already cried once.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, Emily. You know that's a practice, though,
Speaker 3: when we are going through that darkness, it is a
Speaker 3: practice to focus on others. We all have that light
Speaker 3: within us. And let me tell you, there are times
Speaker 3: when you're going through the darkness that you need to
Speaker 3: just triage and take care of yourself. So I'm not
Speaker 3: saying that, right, But there is also this moment I
Speaker 3: find for myself where I could really wallow and it's fair,
Speaker 3: it's honestly, it's justified a lot of the time, and
Speaker 3: people probably would look at me wallowing and be like, yeah,
Speaker 3: well that was a crabhand. So like, I totally get
Speaker 3: it right, but I don't feel good when I do it,
Speaker 3: you know, and my health suffers as a result. My
Speaker 3: mental health really suffers as a result. So I've made
Speaker 3: it a practice to focus on others. I mean, mother
Speaker 3: Teresa talks about that, you know. I mean, she has
Speaker 3: like a famous quote. I'm forgetting it in this moment,
Speaker 3: but like when you feel helpless, help someone, that's what
Speaker 3: it is. And so I make that a practice because
Speaker 3: I honestly I see God and people the most I
Speaker 3: see and that's light, right, like whatever you want to
Speaker 3: call it. It's not a religious thing.
Speaker 2: For me.
Speaker 3: I had felt really, really really clear, very young, when
Speaker 3: I was probably about fifteen, that I had gotten like
Speaker 3: a very very clear message that like this everything that
Speaker 3: was happening to me was not happening because I was
Speaker 3: meant to suffer and I didn't understand that message. At
Speaker 3: the time, I knew it was true, but it's not
Speaker 3: like I knew what that would look like in life.
Speaker 3: But it was an anchor for me. Every time I
Speaker 3: wanted to give up, I would remember hearing that message
Speaker 3: and being like, Okay, I'm not going to give up.
Speaker 3: This is going to be worth it for some reason
Speaker 3: to be able to help people Sunday. But I've had
Speaker 3: to focus on the light and something greater than my
Speaker 3: own suffering in order to get out of my suffering.
Speaker 4: So it's a.
Speaker 3: Privilege to do that in that moment. Yeah, and thank
Speaker 3: you for sharing that with me.
Speaker 2: Do you think that's part of what grove you into Chronicon?
Speaker 1: Like, was it in that moment that you were like,
Speaker 1: I just need to find the people to help.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think in that moment. I think where a
Speaker 3: lot of my need for doing Chronicon comes from is
Speaker 3: that this is actually a fixable problem. The fact that
Speaker 3: I went through so many decades of tremendous physical and
Speaker 3: emotional suffering because of my health and exacerbated because I
Speaker 3: felt so deeply alone. That doesn't have to be that way.
Speaker 3: It is actually a solvable problem. So I think that's
Speaker 3: a lot of where my drive comes from, of like
Speaker 3: if I can help even one person, or hopefully lots
Speaker 3: of people, to know that they are not alone in
Speaker 3: their struggles, that those moments when they're like having an
Speaker 3: endometriosis flare and they are in severe pain and they
Speaker 3: feel like they can't even get one email out that
Speaker 3: they have to do for work, or they're going to
Speaker 3: a doctor and they're getting another MRI or another biopsy
Speaker 3: and they are like, why am I the only one?
Speaker 3: Even what you were saying, even though it wasn't a
Speaker 3: physical challenge, Like that feeling of no one really gets
Speaker 3: what I'm going through, like that compounds so much. It's
Speaker 3: already hard to go to the doctor and get a
Speaker 3: biopsy or get an MRI, or get a blood test
Speaker 3: or whatever right, or have to have a hysterectomy because
Speaker 3: you have edinemiosis or whatever it might be. That's already
Speaker 3: really brutal. I'm not going to say that I can
Speaker 3: take any of that away, because I can't. I'm not
Speaker 3: a doctor. But this issue where we then also have
Speaker 3: to do it in silence alone in our homes, even
Speaker 3: sometimes with our partner right next to us, who doesn't
Speaker 3: have the same condition who tries to be there for
Speaker 3: us but just couldn't possibly get what we're going through
Speaker 3: because they just don't know that is a fixable problem.
Speaker 3: That does not have to be the case. And I
Speaker 3: do think that if we start to really shine a
Speaker 3: light again on celebrating how much we are able to
Speaker 3: do and how much we are just freaking warriors in
Speaker 3: the things that we do every single day. If people
Speaker 3: only knew the stuff that chronically old folks have to
Speaker 3: do on a second to second basis, it is just wild.
Speaker 3: I think the more that we can celebrate that and
Speaker 3: shine a light on it, I really do think that
Speaker 3: inherently that is healing, and maybe not in the end
Speaker 3: result way that people typically talk about healing, like I'm
Speaker 3: going to fix your soriasis or something, but in a deeper, cellular,
Speaker 3: spiritual emotional way that I think is really importantra I'm
Speaker 3: the founder of Chronicicon, and what I hope that we
Speaker 3: do with chronic con is help people feel less alone.
Speaker 3: And today is for you. It's just it's a dream
Speaker 3: come true to be here with.
Speaker 2: All of you. Actually very honored to be here.
Speaker 1: In Nitaka has done a wonderful job at bringing this
Speaker 1: together and also we're actually.
Speaker 2: Thrilled to be here.
Speaker 5: Guys, we just need to take a second and talk
Speaker 5: about the fact that my friend Nitica has spent a
Speaker 5: year at least putting this amazing event together and I
Speaker 5: have not stopped hearing about it for three hundred and.
Speaker 2: Sixty five days.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but I'm so proud of you. It's the most
Speaker 5: amazing thing.
Speaker 1: Through Chronicon, Nittka has created a space that allows people
Speaker 1: to do what's best for them. She uses Chronicon's core
Speaker 1: values to advance this message integrity, inclusion, and inspiration.
Speaker 3: So what we do and what I'm really passionate about
Speaker 3: is really that specific thing, right, And I see this
Speaker 3: in people who are members of our community and who
Speaker 3: I interact with every day. They now know, through content
Speaker 3: and conversations and events and all these things, that they
Speaker 3: get to go out and have dates. They get to
Speaker 3: go out and you know, quit their job that has
Speaker 3: toxic hours and actually follow their dreams so that they
Speaker 3: can have the hours that suit their needs. They get
Speaker 3: to go out and maybe start a workout routine that
Speaker 3: makes them feel empowered. Isn't about something oppressive, but actually
Speaker 3: it's something that they can do while they're still living
Speaker 3: with MS. You know, whatever it is, it's not about
Speaker 3: we're going to fix it all. It's about empowering the
Speaker 3: person to know they have dignity and they are worth
Speaker 3: so much, even though there's so many systems, countless systems
Speaker 3: trying to tell them that they're not. And the thing
Speaker 3: that I've noticed in my work is that it's a
Speaker 3: lot of what happens because of the cycle that I
Speaker 3: just explained, right of real deep loneliness and separation and isolation,
Speaker 3: we start to really believe that we aren't allowed the
Speaker 3: things that we really want because we are sort of
Speaker 3: taken out of the equation in a lot of ways.
Speaker 3: And that has been probably the most transformative thing for
Speaker 3: me to know that even when I was mostly bedridden,
Speaker 3: I could barely walk for the first half of my
Speaker 3: twenties because of my seriatic arthritis, and I was told
Speaker 3: that I would be completely immobile by the time I
Speaker 3: was thirty if I hadn't started a medication that I needed,
Speaker 3: And basically I had to fight for my right to
Speaker 3: dream during that time, right because it would have been
Speaker 3: so easy for me to lay in bed in pain
Speaker 3: and assume that I didn't have any other value, but
Speaker 3: the pain that I was feeling in that moment, it
Speaker 3: would have been totally understandable.
Speaker 1: As a mom myself, I sometimes feel siloed into this
Speaker 1: label of having kids, But at the same time, I
Speaker 1: love being a mom. Just like I couldn't imagine my
Speaker 1: life with kids now, I can't imagine it without them.
Speaker 1: So when I was talking to Nittika, I wanted to
Speaker 1: understand her perspective as one of the growing number of
Speaker 1: women who have made the decision not to have kids.
Speaker 3: I actually love talking about not having children. I think
Speaker 3: it's really important and I think, you know, especially as
Speaker 3: a woman of color, as a Brown woman, we are
Speaker 3: definitely told, you know, the shoulds from a very, very
Speaker 3: very young age, and I think that there aren't a
Speaker 3: lot of women, especially South Asian women, that I've seen
Speaker 3: talk about not having kids. I honestly went through like
Speaker 3: a nine year journey of trying to figure out if
Speaker 3: I was going to have kids or not, if I
Speaker 3: even wanted to, And to be honest with you, I
Speaker 3: think I probably knew deep down all along that I
Speaker 3: didn't want to have kids, but I really questioned, what
Speaker 3: does that mean about me as a woman, What does
Speaker 3: that mean about my worth and like, also how do
Speaker 3: I fit into society? What do my relationships look like
Speaker 3: even with other women and friends if I am not
Speaker 3: a mom, And that's something I'm still like always kind
Speaker 3: of unraveling and you know, figuring out. But yeah, I
Speaker 3: decided not to have kids, and I've been really vocal
Speaker 3: about it because I think it's really important.
Speaker 1: You've been very open as well about the fact that
Speaker 1: you are still living with now not two, but three
Speaker 1: chronic illnesses, and so that affects your physicality. You are
Speaker 1: now a founder, a CEO. What tools have you figured
Speaker 1: out to implement to help you get through to navigate
Speaker 1: all of this work with the physicalities that you're dealing with.
Speaker 3: So last year I was diagnosed with the third chronic illness,
Speaker 3: a rare neuromuscular disease. Yeah, I mean, I think the
Speaker 3: biggest thing is I am very communicative about my needs
Speaker 3: and my boundaries. So when I have to meet someone,
Speaker 3: like coming to the studio today, it was like such
Speaker 3: a joy. And I also like told my team, like
Speaker 3: I will not be available because I will be getting
Speaker 3: zen and like making sure I have had enough protein
Speaker 3: and like things like that in order to you know,
Speaker 3: show up as my best self when I go places.
Speaker 3: And then yeah, I think the biggest thing also was
Speaker 3: like I started my entrepreneurial journey because I had tried
Speaker 3: to do things that were in like the typical workforce,
Speaker 3: and just notice that, like my energy levels really varied
Speaker 3: depending on how I feel in a certain day. I
Speaker 3: work really really hard, but that might mean that I
Speaker 3: work all day Sunday, but Tuesday I was having a
Speaker 3: flair and I couldn't. So I think that's kind of
Speaker 3: something that I've learned to just be okay with and
Speaker 3: also untrust myself and those rhythms. And then yeah, I'm
Speaker 3: a big like here's my calendly link. This is the
Speaker 3: time that I'm available and I don't really have any
Speaker 3: other time because I know that I'm probably going to
Speaker 3: have to be like dealing with health stuff or just
Speaker 3: like need a lot of introverted me time too.
Speaker 1: I'm really struggling with this, by the way, I'm like
Speaker 1: really going to Yeah, I'm really struggling with Well, I
Speaker 1: don't have chronic illness.
Speaker 2: But the physical toll that having three.
Speaker 1: Young kids who are very attached to me is taking
Speaker 1: on me is I just couldn't have anticipated it. But
Speaker 1: I'm really struggling with the energy right now, like the
Speaker 1: time commitment and the energy. Like I'm back to work,
Speaker 1: you know, like I'm back to doing it, but it's
Speaker 1: really burning me out, and then when I go home,
Speaker 1: I'm like ten times worse for my kids. I'm really
Speaker 1: struggling with this and fit and trying to figure out,
Speaker 1: like I know, the only way that I can create
Speaker 1: opportunities is to like throw myself at things, So I'm
Speaker 1: hesitant to say no to opportunities. So that's all of
Speaker 1: the background of where this question is coming from, Like,
Speaker 1: if these are the only times you have, if this
Speaker 1: is the only bandwidth that you have, do you feel
Speaker 1: like you're missing opportunities?
Speaker 3: Yes and no. For the most part, I love saying
Speaker 3: no because you know what, Emily, and maybe there's your
Speaker 3: version of this, But I know if I said yes
Speaker 3: to a brand instead of saying no when I needed to,
Speaker 3: that means I'm going to say no to myself. Okay,
Speaker 3: let me say that one more time. So if I
Speaker 3: say yes to you insert whatever here, and I don't
Speaker 3: actually want to say yes, and I don't actually have
Speaker 3: the bandwidth to say yes, I am inherently saying no
Speaker 3: to myself. It is hard for especially for women. We're
Speaker 3: trying to do so many things, and like we we
Speaker 3: want so much and you know, and it's all really
Speaker 3: beautiful and it's like for good reason and all of that.
Speaker 3: But I think we have to kind of be our
Speaker 3: own our own keeper in that way.
Speaker 1: What is something in your life that at the time
Speaker 1: you felt like was such a low and now in retrospect,
Speaker 1: really launched you to the place you are now.
Speaker 3: There's been so many, so many lows, so many lows.
Speaker 3: The first thing that comes up for me that I've
Speaker 3: been thinking about a lot actually was when I was younger,
Speaker 3: especially in my like nineteen twenty year old time, I
Speaker 3: would be judged for how I looked a lot because
Speaker 3: I was covered with these scales. But yeah, when I
Speaker 3: was in middle school, I mean I was called every name,
Speaker 3: I was teased, and it was also because I was brown.
Speaker 3: I was like the body hair was like next level,
Speaker 3: you know, and like my parents, I mean my mom,
Speaker 3: you know, she went to like an all girls school
Speaker 3: in like the middle of India. She was like, you
Speaker 3: can't shave and like all these things that like American
Speaker 3: kids do you know, when I was like ten and so, yeah,
Speaker 3: there was just a lot of things that I had
Speaker 3: to really understand and go through. You know, as a kid,
Speaker 3: I didn't understand them. Actually, it taught me so much
Speaker 3: during that time because after I got better, I also
Speaker 3: was judged for how I looked, but in a very
Speaker 3: different way. Right people found me to be quote unquote acceptable.
Speaker 3: And that was one of the greatest spiritual lessons I
Speaker 3: have ever learned in my life, seeing the difference of
Speaker 3: how people treated me and knowing that I was the
Speaker 3: exact same person on the inside the entire time. And
Speaker 3: I think what that has done for me today is
Speaker 3: I think in shaping the way that I want my
Speaker 3: career to go to. I think it's just made me
Speaker 3: less and less and less interested about things that have
Speaker 3: to do with like the visual aspect of who I
Speaker 3: am as a person. Being able to be in front
Speaker 3: of people and talk to people is great, but I
Speaker 3: don't really want to have a career that's focused on
Speaker 3: you have to look a certain way in order to
Speaker 3: actually make a difference. And honestly, like, that's why I
Speaker 3: love chronicons so much, because even when I was going
Speaker 3: through like really really hard stuff with my diagnosed this
Speaker 3: last year, and I didn't know what was going on
Speaker 3: and all these different things. I could show up being
Speaker 3: exactly who I am in one of the worst situations
Speaker 3: of you know, my life. And yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3: So I don't know if that answers your question, but
Speaker 3: that's what came up for me, is like just this
Speaker 3: shedding and like remembering that it's just not it can't
Speaker 3: be about that. I literally look different every single day. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and I think as women we do, especially like when
Speaker 3: women are pregnant or I've been on a lot of medication,
Speaker 3: So now I look different than I did last year,
Speaker 3: and it just can't be about that totally.
Speaker 1: I mean I went through something very similar that I
Speaker 1: gained eighty pounds with my first pregnancy, then more weight
Speaker 1: with the second one, and I was on TV the
Speaker 1: entire time, and I felt like the way that I
Speaker 1: that I moved through the world, people treated me differently.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I totally get that. But I think the thing
Speaker 3: that's been interesting for me around, you know, my body
Speaker 3: changing like in a way that other people can see,
Speaker 3: because like, Okay, I gained like thirty pounds last year
Speaker 3: because I had to take all this medication, you know,
Speaker 3: and it's been like this really big understanding around like
Speaker 3: a lack of control, you know. And it's also like
Speaker 3: had me deep in that practice of like, yeah, that's right,
Speaker 3: you can control like really anything, and so okay, focus
Speaker 3: on the things that you can and I can. I
Speaker 3: can show up. I can like create this content or
Speaker 3: this conference or whatever it might be. I can put
Speaker 3: my heart into things, right, but yeah, I can't change
Speaker 3: if like I lose my hair or like I you know,
Speaker 3: like gain weight or gets the rise of scales or whatever.
Speaker 3: And I just think it's like really been a toxic
Speaker 3: kind of pattern that a lot of people have been
Speaker 3: kind of thrust into in our society. I'm just like
Speaker 3: very tired of it. So what do people need to
Speaker 3: know about chronicon in person?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: So it's happening May nineteenth in Williams Burke, Brooklyn, and
Speaker 3: it is going to be so beautiful because that's like
Speaker 3: such an important aspect of chronicon that like so many
Speaker 3: conversations around health are sterile and just like not personal.
Speaker 3: This is warm and colorful and kind and try to
Speaker 3: be very very thoughtful about everything that I possibly can be. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's a day long conference, and basically we have live
Speaker 3: stream tickets available, so that's really great. If you, you know,
Speaker 3: can't get out of bed, if you like can't travel
Speaker 3: because of you know, your immune system or even whatever
Speaker 3: it might be, we have live streaming available. We also
Speaker 3: have scholarships available, which is like one of the things
Speaker 3: I'm super super passionate about just making sure that it's
Speaker 3: as accessible as possible. And I give a scholarship to
Speaker 3: anyone basically who fills out the scholarship form. So it's
Speaker 3: really really really important to me that if you want
Speaker 3: to be a part of what we're doing, that you
Speaker 3: find a place with us. And then yeah, we also
Speaker 3: have our community app so it kind of all goes together.
Speaker 3: And yeah, I just I can't I can't wait, and
Speaker 3: I'm so honored. And we have some amazing speakers that
Speaker 3: are coming for the in person concon like doctor Darien
Speaker 3: Sutton who started a TikTok med school who was amazing,
Speaker 3: and also Mira Mariah who like is a disability advocate,
Speaker 3: and also Ariana Grande's tattoo artist. You know, like Stacy London,
Speaker 3: our dear friend. She's been one of my biggest supporters
Speaker 3: since I started Chronicon since before I even started it.
Speaker 3: She was actually the last person I told because her
Speaker 3: opinion meant so much to me, and I was so
Speaker 3: afraid that she was going to be like, this is
Speaker 3: a horrible idea. So I waited until the end and
Speaker 3: she has been so supportive. And yeah, the whole list
Speaker 3: is on our website. It's going to be really great.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. I feel like we've covered so much. Yeah,
Speaker 2: can I give you a hug?
Speaker 3: Okay, thank you everyone, Love you all.
Speaker 1: Nitica still lives in New York City and its continuing
Speaker 1: to work as a chronic illness advocate. She's a fellow
Speaker 1: podcaster and hosts the amazing podcast Together, and is working
Speaker 1: hard on this year's Chronicon convention. It's happening May nineteenth
Speaker 1: in New York, so if you are someone you know
Speaker 1: would like to attend, you can find tickets and more
Speaker 1: information about the event at www dot Chronicon dot co
Speaker 1: dot com. You can also find Nittka on Instagram at
Speaker 1: Nitika Chopra and find all things Chronicon at Chronicon Official
Speaker 1: she Pivots is an amazing community of women who understand
Speaker 1: that personal is the professional.
Speaker 3: Join the community on Instagram at.
Speaker 2: She pivots the podcast.
Speaker 1: A special thank you to our partner Marie Clair and
Speaker 1: the team that made this episode possible.
Speaker 3: Talk to you next week.
Speaker 1: She Pivots is hosted by me Emily Tish Sussman, produced
Speaker 1: by Emily eda Veloshik, with sound editing and mixing from
Speaker 1: Nina Pollok and research and planning from Christine Dickson and
Speaker 1: Hannah Cousins.
Speaker 3: I endorse Cheap Pivots.