Coaching, Creative Integration, and Making it as a Solopreneur with Radhika Bhatt

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick! 

On today’s episode, we talk with Radhika Bhatt, climate career coach, recruiter, and Founder of Saathe Studio about Coaching, Creative Integration, and Making it as a Solopreneur.  Read her full bio below.

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Showtimes: 
2:38 - Who & how we are hiring 
10:49 - Interview with Bhatt Starts
18:47 - Shifts in Administrations affecting the hiring process?
31:57 - Hiring Advice from Bhatt
36:47 - Connections through DJing

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This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.

Connect with Radhika Bhatt at https://www.linkedin.com/in/radhika-bhatt/

Guest Bio: 
Radhika Bhatt is a climate career coach, recruiter, and founder of Saathe Studio, a climate career agency helping people find soul-aligned, impactful work. She has helped 500+ professionals—from recent grads to senior leaders—find their way to purpose-driven careers in climate and social impact. Her holistic approach emphasizes defining your north star, refining resumes and LinkedIn profiles, and also tapping into authentic career stories, cultivating regenerative networks, and strategically uncovering the hidden job market. She’s currently a careers advisor with Terra.do and a part-time recruiter with Fourier, and also runs events with leading climate organizations like The Bloom and MCJ, and has spoken at NY Climate Week, DC Climate Week, Climate Careers Week, the White House, and the UN Global People's Summit. Before running her own business, she worked in various U.S. government agencies for 8 years at the intersection of technology, design, and community building.

Music Credits
Intro: Givin Me Eyes by Grace Mesa
Outro: Never Ending Soul Groove by Mattijs Muller

Transcript

Hello and welcome to EPR with your favorite environmental nerds, Nic and Laura. On today's episode, Nick and I talk about being a good interviewer. We interview Radhika Bhatt about coaching, creative integration, and making it as a soloerie, a solopreneur. And finally, in honor of Nic finally diving with manta rays, here are some fun facts. 

There are now, yes, we can celebrate. There are now 3 recognized species with the largest having a wingspan of up to 26 ft. That's humongous. I know that's 26 ft. That is so big. That's like literally almost a school bus. Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. They have the biggest brain to body ratio of any fish and are capable of recognizing themselves in a mirror. Crazy. And I would love to hear more about the study where they figured that out. Well, they, you know, they, they know English. While they do look like the mentors from Harry Potter, they are harmless to humans, feeding only on plankton. How about that? They really do. If you've ever seen Harry Potter where they open their mouths, like when mantas open their mouth, that's what it looks like to me. Yeah, it was kind of wild. I was like, I know they're not dangerous, but they look dangerous. I just love the eye contact they make when they go by you, and you know they're going like, they're probably making like scary noises when they go by, yeah. But they do like that whole like, you know, that sea lion like meme where it like floats by and looks at that kid. Yeah, yeah, that's yeah, the side, that's exactly what they do to you. It is wild. So amazing. I'm glad you finally got to experience that. It was super cool. 

Hit that music. 

NAEP just completed another round of essential and advanced NEPA workshops. Our next event is scheduled in person for November 13, 14th in Denver, Colorado. These training workshops are designed for emerging and experienced environmental professionals engaged in the preparation of environmental assessments and environmental impact statements to fulfill the federal lead agency responsibilities pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act. These courses are designed to help you understand the requirements and how to fulfill the spirit and legislative intent of NEPA. It's absolutely essential in a time like this where agency policies are being updated rapidly. Please check that out at www.NEAP.org. 

Let's get to our segment. 

OK, right. So we both have been on both sides of the hiring table. So, I mean, for me, when I am giving people their resume advice, I'm thinking about all the times that I sat in a group of people hiring and listen to them make their claims for why someone should or shouldn't be chosen, and the, the amount of bias and assumptions and jumping to conclusions that people have, and then you're like, am I looking at the same resume? And you know, I think it's a really funny point because like we've talked a lot about the resume process. We haven't talked a lot about the interview process and like tips for how to do that well, because you can do that very poorly and it starts, like you said, with looking at resumes and whether or not you'd have them go through. And sometimes we have, you need to have a, if you're gonna have a use a recruiter, right? If you're going to do that, if you have a company that has that resource, that recruiter has to know what your job is. Right, cause you, what you don't want is to get a resume and they're like, is this person good for your cultural resource job? And you look at it and the title is, you know, someone who lives in Uzbekistan and, uh, I'm not making that up. It actually happened to me and I'm like, no, this person would not be a good fit. um Right. Willing to travel. Yeah, yeah, no kidding. So that's hard too. I mean, like, so it starts, like you were saying, it starts like way before you even get to the interview phase where it's like how to review resumes. 

I mean, like, I don't know what your guidance would be, but I'm curious because like for me it's like there's certain things we've talked about where like I look for things that match, if they don't match, I kind of push it away, right? But like I had to learn how to do that. So like I don't know what your advice is to people who are actually doing the reviewing, what would you say they should do? I mean that's, this is the problem. No one's trained. I tell people this when they're like, oh, but I was so qualified. I'm like, these people are not trained. They are allowed to have bias. They're allowed, they might be told like watch out for DEI, watch out for, you know, our equal opportunity, watch out for this, but that even what does that mean? You know, and then they have these like systems or processes in place that their HR came up with that, you know, no one's trained on. I may have mentioned before a story about how my co-worker would like smack the table with his finger while he was interviewing. It was, he was the nicest guy in the world, but was so intimidating, and I had to tell him like, you probably should stop doing that. I think you're scaring people. And he had no idea, like he was like, oh, I didn't even know I was doing that, but again it's because there's no training, there's no let people speak, talk to them, even a process for hiring which I did actually help some groups work with was, you know, you have to have more than one person. You can have no witnesses in in this situation, but it happens all the time, and you should be asking everyone the same questions. You know, and that happens where one person get, you know, they let someone go off the cuff, and then you're asking Casey different questions and you're asking Sam, and they don't get a fair shake. So stuff like that is equally as important as to like how you review the resume. 

You shouldn't be looking at, or jumping to conclusions, someone has a gap, oh, it means this, you know, like you have no idea if they had to take care of their mother who was dying for a year, they're not obligated to tell you that. Right, yeah, oh gosh, yeah. There's so many bad questions. I mean, I think one of my favorite bad questions that interviewers will ask people is like, like, what are you bad at? I mean, like, what are your weaknesses, right? Oh, love that question to ask. But what's the point of it? Yeah, but there is no point because like, what are we gonna get? My weakness is that I try too hard, you know, like that's not an answer to anything. And if you want to know, it's like. You could try to put it situational. I try to, like, you know, give me a time where you had to deal with something difficult and how did you manage it? And that's open ended and allows them to fill in the gaps themselves without having to be like, well, you know, and but I'm telling you, it works because sometimes I've had an employee say, well, the only reason I'm living here is because I'm divorced, and I'm like, that's a very strong thing to bring up in an interview. And, uh, and then that person that we were interviewing went on for like 5 minutes about that and we're like, OK, I guess that's a no from us but thank you. Um, and I actually, it made me think of something else because we kept that interview going for a little bit longer and then there was another question and we're like, ah, this is not the person for us, right? Someone who didn't want to work outside for a natural resource job. Ending an interview early if it's not a good fit. That's hard. It's hard, but I'm telling you, we wasted 20 minutes of our time just listening to that guy talk. Yeah, I have this too where the person, you know, when I'm getting feedback from people who have an interview and they come back and they go, and I'm like, OK, how did it go? Good, well, whatever. And they're like, Well, I think it went well, but it wasn't very long. It's really hard to tell if that means it's a good thing or a bad thing, because sometimes they're just like, cool, you answer everything. I like you. Talk to you later. And other times they're like in your situation where they're like, yeah, that's all the questions we have today. I to go. You know what, you know what's funny, I bet you that if you and I interviewed. You would be the first one and I would be the 2nd.

 So if you had a quick interview, you'd be like, I like that person, they're hired. I'm good. I don't need to ask any more questions. And I would be like, oh my gosh, they're having fun, we're having fun, we're having a great conversation. I'm enjoying it. How has it been an hour already? And I, you know, that's also important like that we all have our own quirks. Exactly, everyone has their own styles and again, no one's trained that it should go this way or shouldn't go that way or what to do when you're, you've already decided you're not picking that person. Oh yeah. So there's, there's so much to it. Oh, I have a question for you. I have a real question, it's like, one of the things I like to do is make the interview conversational, right? What I like to do is ask people questions about themselves, kind of like how we do this podcast, and then a lot of the reason why is because people lower their guard and then they answer more honestly. You get a sense of who they are as a person. I don't know if that's always the best approach, because I think somebody who's very work life separate, who might be great, I might be missing that person. So I don't know if it's a good thing. It's just the thing that I like to do because I know how to do that. When you hear me say that, what is that? Am I doing, is that just good for me? Do I need to change, maybe adjust the way that I actually do that? I don't know. 

I'm curious what you think. Yeah, yeah. Well, personally, I think, again, there's no training manual and everyone does it different, but On both sides of the coin, it's, it's about a match for you, for the company, you know, the company has the call on what the culture is like and who you want to work with and whatever. So if you want to hire people who have a good conversation or whatever, now HR wise, that's. Probably, you know, that's not your goal in that though. Your goal is just, so you might be biasing yourself to those types of people, but in the long run, that might actually get you better fits. But at the same time, if you just jump into it, you're, so I think you have a good intention, and there's nothing wrong with that, and it doesn't violate any policies or anything. To do that unless you're asking them like, are you married? Do you have kids, cause then it goes into the like, you know, cause if you ask, then we have to go into like people, right? If you ask a woman, are you married? Do you have kids, you're gonna have a different outcome than if you ask a man because a woman might actually more nervous because now she's like, oh my God, they know I have kids or I'm tending out a family and what does that mean? So, uh, but keeping it as like, do you like to read or ride bikes or hiking like what do you do for fun? It's always one of my questions. It's always. That to me seems like just an icebreaker and I think too if you just tell them we got a couple of icebreakers and let them know, let them know this is not part of the process, I think that is probably the best thing to do. I like that, see. Laura knows best. That's the segment we just did. Well, this is, this is kind of like one of my strengths is business process and systems aligning what you're trying to do with how you do the work. And so you have a good intention there. I think you should do it, but how to do it best within the confines of like business structure and that is more what I would see. So yeah, I'd say that's probably good. Yeah, for sure. I mean, don't worry, I can keep going because I tell you like there's so many things, but um yeah, we can save it for the next time. Sounds great. Let's get to our interview.

Welcome back to EPR. Today we have Radhika Bhatt with us. Radhika is a climate career coach, recruiter and founder of Tate Studio. Welcome, Radhika. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. Excited to be here. Yeah, we're excited to have you. I don't, we have spoken to one other career coach in the past, uh, Kevin Doyle, who's with Yale currently, so we're excited to chat with you today for our career seeking folks. And so can you like give us a little background on your career path and what led you to becoming a climate career coach? Yeah, absolutely. So I always like to say that I am a serial career changer. So for anyone listening that is a generalist, you know, maybe you've had lots of different roles, I'm right there with you. Um, so, yeah, I actually started my career more on the tech side. I started out doing front end development. moved into user experience design and was really in the human centered design world doing facilitation design, program design, facilitating, designing things and kind of working in that space. And from there I moved into program design and I was leading up, I ended up leading a program called the Opportunity Project. Which is based in the US Census Bureau, brings together lots of different types of people that are using open data to kind of solve different societal and social impact challenges. And most of my career from, you know, going from front end dev to leading the Opportunity project, all of my time was in the social impact space, specifically in government. So I worked with a variety of different government agencies. And I'll be honest, kind of started out in that space unexpectedly, and I started in government towards the tail end of the Obama administration. And around that time, you know, late 2016, there was still a really big call of, you know, technologists to join the government to kind of fix things from the inside. So that's kind of where I got my start in my career in technology. And I worked in Government for about 8 years, I worked in a lot of different roles, as you heard, you know, front end D all the way to like program design. 

And through that time, you know, I worked in different government agencies. I also had a short stint with Accenture, but also working with government agencies. And towards the end of it, I did have the opportunity and the experience of working at the tail end of the Obama administration, the first Trump admin, and then saw the transition into the Biden administration. And It was an interesting time, to say the least. That's crazy. Yeah, it was an interesting time. And I had the opportunity to work with EPA, DOE, and a few other environmental agencies during my time. And I'll be completely honest, you know, working through those three administrations, I experienced burnout at the end of it. So when I left government in 2021, I really left kind of With a, you know, a little bit of a loss of sense of self, you know, wanted to really figure out what I wanted to do. I still wanted to make an impact. And in this period of exploration, I found a lot of healing in nature. I was, you know, romping through the woods, on hikes and just spending time in my mom's garden with her as well. And I found a lot of healing in nature, which is kind of what led me towards the path of, you know, I've done some environmental work. What if I, you know, really lean into this and go this path? So I enrolled in the Terra. Do Learning for Climate Action program, and while I was taking that, I also had landed a part-time job as a career coach with General Assembly, which is a large tech education company. And it was a natural transition for me since I'd worked in tech, so I started coaching technologists. And as my path continued, you know, I'm learning. Everything I need to know about climate change, where I fit in through Terra. 

And then I'm getting trained as a career coach at General Assembly. And very soon, the two paths kind of started to come together, and I realized there was a lot of connection between the two. So I'll be honest, I did the whole, you know, climate career search myself. I interviewed probably 15 times in 2 weeks with 7 organizations, like it was, it was a crazy time. And ultimately, I realized that none of those opportunities were right for me. And there was kind of this like, there was like this inner. It almost of like, OK, you're, you're going the interview route, but like, do you actually want this? Is this the right path? And once I realized that, and I realized none of those opportunities were right, I listened to that inner voice, and I was like, OK, you've been wanting to start your business for a while. You've been sitting on this idea for probably 2 years. What if you try it? What if that time is now? And so July 2022, I registered my LLC called my business Sate Studio. And, you know, made an announcement on LinkedIn that I was going to start climate career coaching and, you know, when I started, I wasn't entirely sure what exactly my services would be and all that, but pretty quickly, you know, I was able to land clients. I started working with Tara to build out their careers program. And fast forward to 3 years later. Here we are now, and I've worked with around 500 people through Tara, through one on one coaching, through workshops that I do. And I help people navigate climate career transitions from different industries, you know, going from college into climate. I work with, you know, early, mid and senior career professionals all over the world, you know, doing this work. So I'm I'm very lucky to be doing this work, and it's been quite a journey to get here as well. Yeah, that's awesome. So what have been some of the most rewarding moments for you? Yeah, I think it's interesting the reasons why people come into climate work. 

I think that's something I always enjoy learning about. People have so many individual experiences, you know, personal experiences that make them motivated to work on climate. And the interesting thing is, it's one of those things where I'm like, if people come to me and they're like, I want to work on climate and I want to make a lot of money. I'm kind of like, I'm not sure that I'm the person for you. Right, right, right. Because a lot of this work, it's almost spiritual in nature of, hey, we're working to build better systems, we're working to build a better world. And we're a lot of people, a lot of people that come to me are parents. They're saying, hey, I want to build a better world for my, my kids and my future generations that are to come. And money doesn't have anything to do with most of that. Um, and, you know, while we're working in the space of, we can recognize the harms of capitalism and look at other alternative systems like regenerative economics, donor economics, you know, there's, there's all these. Alternative systems out there, but we have to build them. So a lot of, you know, I'd say the most rewarding experience of this is working with the people that want to build better systems. And that can look like any shape or form. Sometimes I work with artists that are You know, working with recyclable materials and want to expand that and want to do more of that in their space. Sometimes I work with finance experts that are saying, Hey, you know, I spent my whole career in finance, but I want to do something else that's meaningful. So I help them kind of find a difference there. So the most rewarding part of my job is to help people kind Connect to that inner compass that they may be denied for their career or, you know, haven't had the opportunity to listen to. And I get to help people find that inner voice, cultivate it, and then chart the path accordingly that's in alignment with their values, their mission and their goals for wherever they are in their career. Yeah, it's interesting like that kind of reminds me like you're talking about transitions and you're going from Obama, Trump, Biden, Trump, and you know, like the EPA today or not today, this past week has said, you know, oh, you know, climate, uh, is it a thing? Um, so there's a, and that's, that's coming from the EPA. 

Does that impact, are those shifts and changes impacting the reason why people are talking to you, how they're hiring? Are you seeing? Patterns come out since uh the administration shift this time. That's any different than it has been before. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, well, I've got to say it, we're all feeling it, right? It's scary. This is a scary time. There's no denying that. And I think what it makes me think about is, you know, my experience in the first Trump admin. It wasn't this bad. Like, yes, and I remember, we were not allowed to say climate change when I was working with the EPA the first time. We were not allowed to use specific words, kind of same thing that they're doing now, but it wasn't as severe. And the interesting thing that I'll say is, when I worked with the EPA during the first Trump administration, We were kind of able to work around some of those challenges, you know, if we couldn't say climate change, we could talk about air quality, you know, we, I was able to work on a challenge where the EPA had a program promoting electric school buses to reduce air pollution specifically around schools for children's health. And, you know, yes, that's a climate challenge, but if we're not allowed to say climate change for that, then let's talk about health, let's talk about air quality, let's talk about The benefits of electric vehicles, things like that, like we were able to use kind of different language there. And I think that that is definitely still happening right now, but we're almost, I think a lot of people are looking for the right words. And I will also say to, like, with what's going on right now with EPA DOE. It's hard to say what's going to come, like, I, I could never forecast, you know, what does that mean for the next 4 years, what does it mean for the next 8 years? I don't know, but what I will say is that, you know, there are changes that happen in each administration and there are ways to also, I'd say maybe change back after this administration and there's also the federal government is not the only organization or massive organization doing this work, right? And it's also, it's kind of interesting too, like, You know, I saw some news recently that the Nature Conservancy, this massive, you know, very old leading nonprofit in the environmental space, they had to change some of their language online. 

I think they changed Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America, right? And I remember kind of people seeing that being like, oh my God, like, how can the Nature Conservancy, such an age old, like leading, you know, environmental nonprofit do this? And ultimately, you know, I kind of saw that as, look, Nature Conservancy probably had to do that to keep their, you know, maintain funding and do what they needed to do as an organization, but I also saw that Nature Conservancy Mexico, like all their other websites, still said Gulf of Mexico. So I think what I'm witnessing is kind of this, we're in this in between of like, OK. Maybe words are changing and, you know, budgets are changing, there's obviously budgets being canceled, a lot of nonprofits are kind of scrambling for alternative funding and things like that. We're in this position right now where there's a lot of change, there's a lot of upheaval systems, you know, money, all this stuff is changing, but we're actively figuring out right now. I think a lot of the people at these organizations, even people within government that still are They're fighting the good fight, like, we're all trying to figure it out. And I think it's, you know, this area of uncertainty, it's scary for everyone, for those in it, for those outside of it, just reading the news. There's a lot of uncertainty right now, but I hold all my faith in that we can continue to build better systems while we're watching the existing one be dismantled. I think it's almost this like the Phoenix. Right? Like, the Phoenix rises from the ashes, like, that's kind of how I look at a lot of what's going on right now, where maybe things weren't working before. I certainly could never have expected things to go the way they are right now, but it gives us an opportunity to build better and to rebuild, recreate. And, you know, we talk about building systems with equity, with equality, with regeneration, with sustainability at the core. 

We can do that right now. And I think, I mean, I'm like, if there was ever a time to do it. Yeah. Oh, I mean, I think what you're making me think of, right, it's like, you can change a policy that doesn't change the way people think, it doesn't change the way businesses work. Saying you can only use these words or you can only do this thing doesn't mean people don't care about the thing. That's kind of like what I'm hearing, which I know is true. It's like, you can say like I, we're not gonna take a look at, you know, Air quality, for example, but it's like it, but people will be like, hey, is the air OK to breathe? That's the way we want clean air, we want clean water, we want all these, uh, we don't want our beaches to wash away into nothing, right? Those are the, that's just truisms. So that's the kind of how I'm hearing what you're saying too, and I think it's kind of cool to see that you're representing that in this space as well. Yeah, absolutely, and I, I give a few workshops, actually, I just spoke with USC students yesterday, and I think the key thing is whenever I speak with like early career folks that are entering into this space, right, that are like, OK, like, are there jobs? Um, I think the reality is, and it's, it's a little hard to see, so you kind of have to do some digging, maybe, you know, a little bit more research, grow your connections in the space, but absolutely, the work is being done, and I always like to say, the work doesn't stop based on who's in power, the work stops if we stop doing the work. And I really like emphasize that, especially to early career folks that are You know, it's difficult, you know, it's a difficult job market, there's a lot of challenges that recent grads or early career folks might be experiencing, but there's also, I really firmly believe, like, you can also start something if you see a gap or if you're looking for work that you're not finding, what if you started it? What if you started a project and it could be something small, volunteer, or it could grow into a company, you know, you never know. 

So, It's like really hard and I also see a lot of beauty and opportunity in these aspects of what if we be the change, what if we lead the charge on this if we don't have support from the federal level or if we, if there isn't funding, like, what are other funding sources that we can pull from? So, um, I feel a lot of energy in that space, and that's what I'm dedicated to working on right now. It's kind of like the art of the hustle, right? I think one of the biggest things in entertainment that you can take as a lesson, right? People who are famous, who are doing well, sometimes they have the how they get there, some of that is related to who they know. A lot of it is also related to the hustle, trying to get your idea to people, to have them believe in you or your idea. And I think sometimes that can be really daunting for people. It doesn't seem like it was for you. I mean, that's basically what you did. You were like, you know what, I'm gonna do this, and I'm gonna get out there and bring this to people. So how did you actually do that part of it? Because I know that's not easy to be like, hey, I just started a thing, come hang out with me, you know, like that's not easy. So how did you actually do that? And like, where did that snowball turn into, you know, that giant boulder rolling downhill? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and I'll be honest here too, like, I think I, I sat with that uncertainty or like self-doubt for a really long time. I think I had been sitting on this idea of starting my own business or going the consulting route, you know, however you want to call it, going out on my own. I have thought about it for probably 2 years, and it took me so long to actually launch or even, you know, get started. Because I just wasn't sure, I was like, OK, I, I don't know how to do this, right? How do you run a business? I don't know. What do I call my business? I don't know. Like all these, all these questions of like, OK, what's the right path? Do I do this? Do I not? So I kind of I let all of those, like, I would call them almost like logistical questions, right? Like, I let a lot of those hold me back for a while, while kind of, it's almost maybe A good way to describe it is like your past self and your future self, right? Like, I had left full time work. I was really burnt out. And yet I kept trying to find my way like back into it. And there was this tug. I knew I was like, this doesn't feel right. But I didn't know what other realities existed for myself. 

So I was trying to leave my past self, but still exist in the same system or the same world. And It took me 2 years to figure out, oh my gosh, there is another reality that is an alternative path. And I think for me too, like the biggest thing is, I'll just be honest, like, I didn't know what that path looked like. I just knew I had to take the first step. And I feel like that's a big part of that's been a big part of my journey as a small business owner, like running an LLC. It's funny, the first few years, I, I called myself an entrepreneur, because that's what you're supposed to call yourself when you run a business, right? And I was like, OK, like, yeah, I'm an entrepreneur, but like, I'm not trying to scale and sell my company. I'm not trying to make a million dollars, like, that would be nice, but like, you know, like, and also I was like, I don't have a product, like, what is this if I call myself an entrepreneur, and it took me 2 years into my business to find the word solo printer. And once I found that, I was like, OK, this actually makes more sense because, and, you know, each year of my business, I had kind of experimented with, you know, the first year, I got hired as a contractor with Tara. Do, I was building out their careers program. So anyone that went through their 12 week program, I taught an additional 4 week program around how do you find your place in climate careers, how do you job search, networking strategy, all that good stuff. And then from there I was like, OK, some of those folks who reach out to me for one on one coaching, so I did, you know, I had a group coaching module, and then I did one on one coaching. And the one on one coaching could look so different. Sometimes people would say, I just need help telling my story, how do I do that? Some people would say, I just really need a resume fixed up. Can you help me with that? Some folks would say, I really need intense, like long term support figuring out a whole bunch of stuff. So there were all these different ways of doing this work, and so I'd say, like, the biggest thing as a solo opener is kind of going with the ebbs and flows of your business. And It's a little bit of like, yes, you can respond to your clients' needs, you can respond to the market, but also looking at, well, does this work for me, right? Like, is, you know, taking on 10 clients a month, is that sustainable for me? Like, can I even handle the amount of work that that is? 

So it's been a lot of changes, probably every 6 months, I'm reevaluating, OK, what are my services and does this make sense? And, you know, once I found that word solo printer, it really helped me see myself as, you know, yes, I'm entrepreneurial in spirit and in thought, but I'm running this business by myself. And I really, you know, even from the get go. I haven't really had that many plans of, OK, I'm going to hire 10 people and I'm gonna like, offload my work to them or I'm going to train other people. I haven't really had that as a thought. I am building this business to fit my life, and to fit the values and mission that I See fit for myself and building a products, and Xing it and selling it like just doesn't make sense for me. So whenever, and you know, for me, the differentiation between entrepreneur and solopreneur, whenever you look up like how to succeed as an entrepreneur or how to do this as an entrepreneur, like, you get all those books of like, OK, you're gonna like do this to sell your company and exit successfully this and that. And it almost was like a one directional path that I was like, it just doesn't fit. And so when I found the word solo for nerve, I found communities of people that are running their own businesses. Some of them are consultants, some of them are fractional CEOs and, you know, C-suite folks. Some of them are other coaches, and the world of coaching is also really big too. You can coach on pretty much anything. Um, so it's, yeah, I'd say this, this journey has been. It's been a roller coaster, but in the best ways of, I get to choose, you know, what I want to focus my time on, which sorts of clients I want to take on, what sorts of problems I want to be solving in the vast world of, you know, job-seeking or, you know, career transitions. 

There's a lot of challenges that people have, that people experience. So, I even kind of get to choose which areas of those do I want to focus on and how do I want to help people. And so right now I'm doing mostly workshops, I do a lot of free workshops open to the public, facilitate events, and then I also do one on one coaching, where people can work with me for 3 months or just do like a one and done resume and LinkedIn refresh with me as well. And as we speak right now, I'm currently reevaluating my programs as well. So it's just constant, constant practice and constant learning in this journey. Mm, yeah, very, very fair. John, I know it's I knew that I knew was gonna say that. That's perfect. But it's so rewarding when you, when you unlock something that works, it's so rewarding. So what is uh one piece of advice that you find yourself giving over and over again to the people that you work with? There's a lot. I'm like, which one do I say? Of course. I think I would say. Utilize your network, and I'm starting with that because I work with a lot of people that are like, I can't find this opportunity. I am not seeing this opportunity. And there are, I think also people forget about the existing networks that they have, and utilize your network to me means both build new networks, build new connections, and utilize, you know, reconnect with the people you already know. For anyone listening, if you're a recent grad, if you're mid-career, senior career, you know, no matter your educational path, no matter the jobs that you've had before, you know people. And I think that's always, I would even say like, what about your family? What about your brother-in-law? What about your mother-in-law? Like, even like family, friends, and then, of course, professional connections, like, there's such a really beautiful world of people that want to help you and want to see you succeed. And so there's no shortage of like that network that you can tap into. 

And so I always say, utilize your network, of course, existing network, like do some digging, is it alumni that you're connected with, someone that you went to school with 10 years ago, like, what are they doing, kind of. I would say almost like research the people that are already in your circle, and if you're not seeing people that are working in climate or that are working in the areas that you're interested in, then I'd say it's perfect time to reach out and go, you know, join online communities in the climate space. Attend events. And the beautiful part of this network piece here is, I think a lot of people post COVID, forget about their local communities and forget about what's happening in their backyard. And I live in Richmond, Virginia. It's a smaller city and yeah, um, yeah, shout out Virginia. And yeah, I live in Richmond, Virginia, you know, it's a smaller city. It's not anywhere near the size of DC or like, any of these other bigger cities, but we have incredible work going on. It's just happening at a smaller scale. And I think that's something that a lot of people also forget about is like, OK, do I have to be in New York, do have to be anywhere in California, because there's so much climate work happening out there. It's kind of this default of like, oh, well, you know, maybe I'm not in the right place to do this work, but the reality is. Environmental work has been going on for decades, for centuries, right? Like, environmental work is not new. Maybe climate, you know, climate technology, those are the new words these days. But this work has been going on for centuries that no matter where you are in the world, no matter small city, rural area, I guarantee you can find people stewarding the land, protecting nature, doing some semblance of work that you're interested in that, you know, you can look locally, you can look in your backyard. 

Go to the farmers' market, you'll probably meet someone working on a climate challenge right there, that all of these opportunities are chances to connect with people. And I think when I say network, I'm saying connect with people. So really utilize those connections that you already have and don't be afraid to make new connections. And go from there and really lead with, speak from the heart, speak from a genuine place of him looking to connect with more people on this topic area or this, you know, challenge in climate and go from there. And I think the beauty that that can lead to is meaningful relationships, not surface level, meaningful relationships with people that can help you in your career. That's very fun. That's very cool. I love it. It's such a good answer. And right now all I can think about is how cool Richmond is and how much I'm missing, but I mean, no, I told her before you jumped on you were from there. I knew that was gonna come up at some point. It's a big deal for me, so I love it and it's like I lived there for 2 years, uh, very influential 2 years, I would say. So it was a lot of fun time. And I love going back. So sorry, I know I'm, I'm rambling a bit, but like, I love the answer. I think it's very thoughtful. You talk about connection and I think one of the things we love to do on this show is connect with people and talk about their interests maybe outside of their specific job, and we do that because we want people to find connection points. That's the whole point. And so outside of coaching, you're also a DJ, right, which is super cool too, and it's like Richmond has this really fun little art system in it. I love like their first Friday film thing they do, but what got you into being a DJ and like is that like Do you do that for events that you host or like climate related things too or like is it just kind of like I go to the club and I'm spinning whatever is coming out, whatever the latest thing is, you know, is not a DJ. I am not. 

Can you tell me how I'm asking, but like, you know what I mean? Like how did you get into it? How did that become part of who you are? Yeah, absolutely. Well, I have been a performer most of my life. My first dance performance on the stage was when I was 2 years old. And dance and music is very, I'm Indian, but specifically I'm Gujarati. And music and dance is such a big part of my culture and I grew up with it from when I was before I was born, like it's just always been there. And so no matter where I've lived, you know, during college, afterwards, like I've music has always been. Part of my life. I grew up playing trumpet and playing piano, and then I started singing. I was in a cappella in college. Like, there's all these different elements there of music being a big part of my life. And interestingly enough, you know, those 1st 8 years of my career, I kind of like let it go. I just was like, OK, I'm working now, and I almost lost that side of myself. So it's kind of similar to this whole, you know, journey from recovery from burnout, you know, finding healing in nature. I realized that. Activating that creative life was just as important to me as building a business and kind of figuring all this other stuff out. So I did this thing called the Artist's Way. I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's like this incredible book of, I'll just say, I feel like it's gotten some traction now because Dochi did the artist's way. 

And it, you know, it's responsible for her kind of helping her reach the level of fame that she has now. But the artist's Way is this really amazing book by Julia Cameron. And it helped me kind of reevaluate like, where does creativity fit in my life? Like, how do I want to be an artist, so I want to, how do I want to cultivate that? And that I think is, it helped me like reimagine my relationship to art. And when I moved to Richmond, I pretty much just got there and was like, I need to do something creative. And I had a bunch of friends that were DJs and I was like, I just woke up one day and I was like, what if I DJ? Like, what does this look like? And I woke up one day with that thought because I had hundreds of playlists, like I'm the playlist person. If you need a playlist for a music, like, you just meet me, and we get along, I'm like, I'll make you a playlist, you know, like, that's the kind of person I am. So I was like, I have all these playlists, like, what if I like, mix them, you know, like, what if I start kind of using this music differently? So woke up, asked a friend to teach me how to DJ. He gave me two DJ lessons, and I was hooked. I was like, this is the coolest thing ever. So yeah, I've actually I've been DJing for close to 3 years, which is also the amount of time that I've been running my business, and the two of them, you know, again, it's like, it's funny, maybe this is a theme in my life of like, I start doing things separately and then they all just like converge eventually. 

Um, but yeah, right now I'm I'm very much involved in Richmond's like DIY art scene where, you know, they're, it's great. You know, there are parties at like warehouses and like under, under bridges and stuff like that. And we bring our own sound system, we bring a generator, and we just get it going. But I've also been playing at like other music venues in town and have been DJing in DC more often since it's kind of nearby. And I think the beautiful part about DIY culture in general is, it's the best example. of world building to me, like, in a DIY event, like everybody's got to bring something, somebody's bringing the generator, somebody's bringing the sound system, we have to load it all up together. Then somebody's playing music, somebody's making sure everybody's OK. Somebody brings the lights, like, it's such a collective contribution from everyone there and DIY events are oftentimes fundraisers for different causes as well. So I feel like, you know, participating as a DJ in DIY culture has also Given me insights into like, how I run a business and how I build connections in the professional space as well. And that being said, I, I'm hoping and I'm looking for ways that I can combine DJing with climate stuff. And this last April, I had the one of the first chances to do that with this event called DJs for Climate Action. And I got looped in and I was like, well, if there was ever a Venn diagram of my life, like that's it. Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. Yeah. And we like, we put on an event at a local regenerative community garden. We brought speakers, we had music and DJs all day, and then we had climate action workshops happening, and some like seed swap and different things like that. So looking forward to doing more of that in the future. Very cool. 

Sounds super fun. Well, this has been an awesome chat, and we are running out of time. Is there anything else you'd like to mention before we jump off? I'll just say, you know, if anything here resonates with you, come talk to me, come reach out. I'd love to connect with anyone that's listening and learn more about your journey. And I'd say LinkedIn is the best place. To connect with me, um, but I also have a website, satestudio.com, you know, you can find out more about me there, but I'd say, if anything here resonated, just come talk to me. I'd love to meet you. I'd love to hear your story and connect further since that's what this is all about. So, yeah, thanks so much for having me. Awesome. Thank you for joining us. That's our show. Thank you, Radhika for joining us today. Please be sure to check us out each and every Friday. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review. Bye. See you, everybody!