190: Having No Limits With Prema Srinivasan

Prema Srinivasan is a business and marketing coach with over 15 years of experience in marketing and business strategy. She helps women business owners really understand the value they provide through their services and products and help them reach their ideal clients by better defining their niche and the benefits their clients can experience. She works on messaging, marketing, and mindset. All of these contribute to helping her clients make breakthroughs in their business.

Prema was a huge people pleaser as you can relate to that and how it can affect your confidence. When she started living her life with no limits, that is when she realized that she was able to live life on her terms instead of what other people expected her to do. Tune in to the episode as Prema shares her story.

Bio

Prema Srinivasan is a business and marketing coach.

Cultural Background

Prema is of Indian descent born and raised in the USA.

Favorite Self Confidence Quote

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Definition of Self Confidence

Self-confidence is finding a way to thrive despite criticism or conflicting viewpoints from others and developing an inner strength that supersedes whatever is going on outside. Because when you take away judgment, then you are able to make mistakes and learn from them and move on. But if you’re not allowed to make mistakes or do something different than what others in your group may be doing, you can never try anything new or follow your own journey.

Her Life Before the Discovery of Self Confidence

Basically, if you’re a people-pleaser or someone who has come from a culture of conformity and you don’t fit in or have the same values or priorities as the majority of the group, then others may knowingly or unknowingly tear you down and you won’t really end up developing into a unique individual.

For Prema, there was this dichotomy. Shew was on some level truly a representation of cultural success (at least outwardly) while at the same time, there was another part of her that absolutely didn’t fit into that mold and really made her feel like she didn’t belong in that community. Prema made a conscious decision in her early 30s to really step into her own power and ended up building a community around her of people who were supportive of not only who she was at that time but who she would grow to be over time.

The “AHA” Moment

For Prema, it wasn’t one AHA moment so much as a lifelong progression to where she is today. And it’s because she was still tied to her cultural upbringing and community for a very long time and until after grad school, she didn’t really do anything that would have been at odds with the culture she grew up in. Prema chose to study Computer Science of her own volition. She did her MBA after that. She actually embraced a lot of what she grew up with: She has been a lifelong vegetarian, she didn’t drink alcohol, she still cooks a lot of Indian food, she grew up learning Indian classical music, she celebrates some Indian holidays sometimes. She got a lot of great things from that but the reasons she chose to hold on to that were different than merely conformity. Most of the food and drink aspects for her really to center around being healthy and pursuing fitness goals such as running and climbing mountains so she feels like she chose to use what she learned growing up but for different reasons maybe than what the religion or culture expects.

What really excluded her from the culture was her sense of adventure and on another level, being a woman who didn’t see limits by gender. She never saw anything as off-limits to her in the world. If that made her a feminist, then that’s a label that she accepted. But the reality is that she just didn’t view every single thing through the lens of gender.

Her Life After the Discovery of Self Confidence

Throughout her life, Prema found a way to tap into a deep reservoir of self-confidence in different areas of her life. First, it was mostly bolstered through academic accomplishments and then professional qualifications. It took her a much longer time to tap into the more feminine qualities of self-confidence. To really trust her intuition, to bring her creative skills into the world. She has been a writer for decades and it was only in her late 20s that she started publishing her creative writing (fiction and poetry) and sharing it at writers’ conferences.

Prema’s latest adventure has been her business venture and it’s been amazing so far. It really is an adventure every day. She learns so many new things, connect with incredible people, and it has a lot of ups and downs. It is one of the hardest and most rewarding things she has ever done. But once she stepped into her own power in all areas of my life, she truly feels unstoppable. Prema also realized that when she is confident on the inside, the energy of that self-confidence attracts the right people and situations to her and repels anyone that doesn’t jive with that new energy.

The One Self Confidence Tip For the Listener

The key to developing self-confidence is to consciously create a safe space and community, even if that is 1-2 close friends who are your confidants in your journey. And then, proceeding forward with your authentic mission in life aware of the consequences and being ok with it.