Most Recently, I was interviewed by Teresa Morrow about my eBook PINK and grow Rich. Just sharing it here on my blog….

Please share with us a little bit about yourself.

My name is Deepika Bajaj – Entrepreneur, Author, Speaker, Blogger. Most of all, I am a dreamer who likes to follow her dreams and enjoy every moment of the journey. My journey began the day I came to this earth. Growing up in India, I had the unique opportunity to grow up in a small town, close to New Delhi, where I met my first teacher, who gave me the confidence to believe in myself. I moved on to get my Engineering in Electronics and Communication from Bangalore, India. And worked with some premier Technology companies like AT&T, Alcatel, Bell Labs etc. In my journey, I even got an MBA in Marketing from New York. Working in corporate America, I got many skills.

And then my life took a sharp turn, I started on my entrepreneurial journey.

With my first company Invincibelle, I aim to bring content and share information with women to be able to empower and inspire them. In this journey, I have met some amazing people who share the similar passion. In Oct, 2009, I published my first book: DiversityTweet, Embracing the growing Diversity in our world. This started my author’s journey. I knew I had an author in me but to be able to get a book published was a dream come true. My second adventure is called, ActiveGarage. It is a resource for people to learn from experts who write on different business concerns. I myself write a column on Social Media on it. ActiveGarage is also the company behind 99tribes which is Twitter discovery engine for people to find and discover others who share similar interests.

I recently launched my first eBook “PINK and Grow RICH” . This e-book can make one promise that if you had one reason for NOT living your DREAM – you will find that with the UNREASONABLE Rule Book – 11 UNREASONABLE RULES of success that will help you OWN your dreams.

One of the most humbling moments was when I won the 2010 IWE Entrepreneurial Achievement Award. I was honored to receive this award. It motivated me to keep moving on my entrepreneurial path.
The little known fact about me is that I love dancing, DJing and mixing music, and traveling. Sometimes, I travel to really ancient spots since I am fascinated by history and by discoveries I make. I love to spend time with my friends and family. My favorite rock bands are Metallica, ACDC, Def Leppard. My favorite pop singers include Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Beyonce. I enjoy hiking, cardio kickboxing and swimming.

How long did it take you to write your book(s)?

The first book, DiversityTweet, Embracing the growing Diversity in our world, was written in two months between projects. The reason this book to be complete so quickly was that is has a very unique format. The book has 140 tweets of 140 words. the objective of this book was to write thought provoking tweets on Diversity, a subject that is very close to my heart. The tweets are based on my work in this field and my travels that constantly reinforce that though we all are diverse we are one and part of nature. This book intends to create a bridge between this medium of expression (Tweets) used by hyperactive Gen Y and the Baby boomers who prefer a quick read book on the topic of diversity. I believe there are certain advantages to adapt the communication channel that is growing exponentially within the Gen Y and to learn from experiences of the Baby boomers. This book helps companies managing the generational divide, employee retention and engagement.

The second eBook, PINK and Grow Rich, was a work in progress for three years. I was meeting some really exceptional women in my journey to build Invincibelle. And in talking to them I felt that something was shifting within me. I felt more empowered, inspired and built great relationships that I did not have before. I wanted to take this experience and insights to people who did not have access to these leaders. So, that they can feel the same energy and enthusiasm to live your dreams as I experienced being in their vicinity. This book is compilation of conversations with these women and was in making for a while.

Please share with us more about your latest book.

There are two main themes for my eBook
#1. UNREASONABLE Rule Book

This e-book can make one promise that if you had one reason for NOT living your DREAM – you will find that with the UNREASONABLE Rule Book – 11 UNREASONABLE RULES of success that will help you OWN your dreams. You will know how to live your life, use your own mind, go toward your dreams that you want to make REAL and SOLID.

#2. The 6C Framework

I went deeper with what I call “The 6C framework” – 6 common characteristics of leaders. I share these characteristics that give them the energy and vitality to get the work that needs to be done (to achieve their dreams). You will find excerpts of my conversations with these women and what they stood for.

Example:

Ann Winblad: Partner, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners

Why did you choose to write this book?

Continue Reading my interview on: Spotlight interview with Deepika Bajaj, Author of PINK and Grow RICH.

Before we get into what it means “being unreasonable in business“. I want to throw some light into what it means to be REASONABLE. From the time, we are kids we are requested to be reasonable in our requests, demands and actions. In our world, there is big PUSH for usto compromise and tolerate. Even though, we understand that it is important for us to co-exist with others, the dilemma that we have is why we need to be Reason-ABLE.

So, what does it mean to be REASONABLE?

“Reason-ABLE is not taking responsibility of who you could become – with a perfectly good justification”. For all the possibilities of who
we could be in this world, when we have a perfectly ONE valid reason of why we can’t be that person – it makes us Reason-ABLE.

As you can see, if we are REASONABLE then chances are that we are not taking responsibility to live to our maximum potential.

Now, lets talk about being UNREASONABLE in business….

As we all know that business professionals are always faced with challenging situations and sometimes it is easy to give up. So, in
business being UNREASONABLE with yourself is important…it is important to demand more out of yourself, not to give up, believe in
yourself and to be fearless.

In the ebook PINK and Grow RICH, I shared 11 UNREASONABLE rules of success and my favorite rule is Unreasonable Rule # 2: Be Fearless.

Continue Reading my article at WE magazine: Being unreasonable in Business...

Yes, the fact that Valentine’s Day was a week ago is not lost on me! In retrospect, its actually a good thing I waited to write this post till now as I had the time to notice very interesting shifts in behavior, thanks to the Social Media & Valentine Tribes! Alright, lets get going…

Some of us probably remember the days when you had to write a letter while you were dating or wooing someone special. This was not a long ago, although it might seem so. At that time, if you were in a long-distance relationship, you had no choice other than to write a letter or spend a ton of money making a long distance phone. In both cases, you were not sure if the person concerned will receive your message. Your best intentions to connect might be futile.

It is almost hard to believe but I have personally gone through that era. When I got my Valentine Card in the mail from my then boyfriend, now my husband; I did not receive it till the next day in my college hostel room. And when I did, I was already upset with him for being late (for apparently no fault of his since it was the nature of the postal system that caused the delay in the delivery).

Well! if you are late in today’s time only Heavens can save you. Since with emails, instant messengers, cell phones, text message, twitter, FB and smart phones you better have a good excuse. There is no way you can be late even if you were in a different time zone in a different country!

Continue Reading my post on Active Garage under my column: Social Media and Tribes: Virtual Valentine

Recently, I am working on a building a new venture. This is a phase I equate to the early romance period between two lovers. The two lovers being the entrepreneur and the business. Yes! I know what you are thinking – how can a business be equated to a living being. Good question…

From the point of view of an entrepreneur, she is totally in love with this idea she has conceived for her business. She is day and night dreaming of what it would take to bring it to reality. She is fascinated by what’s possible…more or less she is totally infatuated. She is in LOVE.

From the point of view of the biz, is waiting to be revived, executed on or brought to reality so that it can serve its purpose. And for that, it needs the perfect team or mate who will turn every corner to make it work.

And when these two entities meet, there is an instant connection…And many a times it starts a long lasting relationship.

But like any pair of lovers, the biz and the entrepreneur differ in their characteristics and the entrepreneurs learns a lot about herself. She understands the essence of commitment is to stick it out through ups and downs. The moods of the biz, the tough conversations of negotiations, the financing needed it make it yours and excitement of the chase is there…since it is still not hers.

She has to constantly chase the idea to make it her own. Sometimes, the biz slips away and sometimes it doesn’t…either way the entrepreneur chases it and brings in a lot of people to help her in her chase…She needs to show consistency in her pursuit.

It is like getting all your friends and family involved when you are in Love with someone. And when you get a pushback, you don’t get upset or sad about the situation – you find more energy to deal with it.

I find myself in her shoes. I am getting some push back and it is hard to keep up. But I am dreaming of the possibilities of the biz and how it will make a difference in people’s lives and I start feeling energized…inspite of the rude phone calls, constant NOs and words like “This has never been done before, this is not the normal procedure”. I listen to it, smile and say to myself, “It is fascinating people still talk like this”.

And once the entrepreneur makes the BIZ her own; starts to work on building the biz…it becomes her BABY.

Will write about Phase2 in my next post.
Wish me luck.
Best,
Deepika

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview with Rajesh Setty about my new eBook “Pink and Grow Rich”. I have great respect for him and he had seen me work on this for years.

He asked me a few questions about the book. Here is the quick interview:

RS: What inspired you to write this eBook?

DB: Rajesh, there is a lot of emphasis is our culture to fit in. Even as a kid, if you try to do something which is out of ordinary or lets say EXTRA ordinary, chances are you will be told “This is not how it works” OR “You can never do this” OR “Let someone else figure this out”. Also, for most of us, rich means material wealth. Our society has evolved to measure success as a function of our financial status. I am not saying making money is bad. Don’t get me wrong – being rich is definitely helpful. Money gives you freedom to work on what you want and with whom you want. It is really good if you don’t have to think about money.

But what I found is that the RICH means different things to different people. Most successful people did not start with the motive to get rich. They were more interested in helping others.

Increasingly, I believe that the cultural barriers are coming down, and a new generation of leaders who feel themselves to be citizens of the world, rather than simply Americans, Asians, Hispanics, African Americans are looking for a way to be part of a larger community and find their unique leadership styles.

So, I interviewed 30 exceptional multicultural leaders who are women. Their self-belief and confidence apart, they were UNREASONABLE. They took full responsibility of who they could become.

PINK and grow RICH touches on what REAL wealth is. In it, you will read some memoirs from the ‘Rich and Famous’, who dared to be RICH – like they wanted.

RS: What is the BIG idea of this ebook?

Continue Reading my interview on his blog: Pink and Grow Rich; Interview with Deepika Bajaj

During my recent visit to India, I was invited to write for Indian women entrepreneurs…This was great opportunity and I was thrilled. Here is the copy of the article attached for those who don’t have access to this magazine. You might find something that might be of interest. The idea is to empower women to become Business Owners and NOT get caught in their limitations. Retail is a segment that is booming in India and has a lot of potential for entrepreneurs who are looking to exploit this opportunity. There has been no better times.

A small segment of Total US population BUT a force to reckon with. I am honored and humbled to represent this population at the North Carolina Governor’s conference for women.

Sharing my presentation below:

My message was simple: This section is NOT spoken to like they need TO – They are ready for PRIME TIME.

An important point: Their BUYING power is expected to rise to $700B by 2014. Are you ready for them?

I am in Raleigh, North Carolina speaking at the North Carolina Governer’s conference for women. My role is to represent the Asian American women who are 5% of the Total US population.

As I started to think about how to represent this segment, I realized that the American Media has clubbed a large diverse community into one and coined the term – Asian American. There are many sub-groups like Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Cambodians, Koreans, Thai and Pakistanis who are part of this community.

And then I started to think of this Tribe as they have come to be known Asian American women Tribe. I started to wonder about their engagement on social media. I did a bit of research and found interesting that there are a lot of channels and organizations that support this Tribe. And most of them have presence on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.

But here are some cool facts that about Asian American women tribe:

Continue Reading my column at ActiveGarage: Asian American women – A tribe ready for PRIME TIME

Every now and then, there is an event that brings forth an open dialogue and an opportunity to meet thought leaders. And I believe North Carolina’s Governer’s Women’s conference is one such event. I have been invited to speak at the conference Explore the Chasm—Change the World: Building Trust Across Race and Culture.

This topic is very close to my heart and as I thought about it – I am convinced that we have reached a point where “We have crossed the chasm – and the change is already there within us and in the world around us“. There is a growing SELF Trust among women ( given that American women have surpassed men in the workforce and they are more comfortable with the cultural conflict accepting both parts of their identity). This is the reason they TRUST the world to be a friendly place and in sum means that we have embarked on a new era for multicultural women to have freedom of self-expression and cultural identity.

At the panel, I am representing the American Asian women. This is 2% of the total labor population and YET is the second highest for meeting ethnic group in buying power…I am excited about this opportunity.

Being one of the many Asian American women in the US, I am excited to share my story of coming to America, facing some challenges, dealing with cultural stereotypes and then making these challenges an opportunity for self-growth to live a fulfilling life.