What’s an important factor when growing from independent consultant to founder? Michael Zipursky welcomes Babita Devi, the Managing Director at bStrategic. Babita shares that building strong relationships is key. She never had to market her business because word of mouth was enough. But at the end of the day, it depends on your strength. The founder is the starting point of the business. If you’re best at creating content through social media platforms, go for it. Narrow your focus on your element, and give your best. Join the conversation to get more growth strategies.
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I am very excited to have Babita Devi joining us. Babita, welcome.
Thank you. I’m delighted to join you.
I enjoyed our conversation before the show. We get to dive into what everybody has been waiting for. I will do a quick little intro for those who aren’t familiar with you and your work. You are the Director of bStrategic where you provide business development coaching for founders looking to scale their business. You have lectured on Marketing at a couple of universities. Your clients include Judge Business School, Barclays, Eagle Labs, Oxford Innovation, and a whole bunch of others. You also serve on 3 boards of 3 different companies.
I want to get into all of that and certainly get into your experience of what makes the difference when people want to accelerate the growth of their company. Before we do that, I always like to get a little bit of the back story so people can learn where you came from and what did that look like. Before you started consulting, what were you doing? Take us back in time to your education and where you grew up. What was that like?
I’m from West Palm Beach. Please do not hold that against me for those of you who know the West Palm Beach football team. My parents both moved to the UK when they were quite young. At the tender age of twelve, my dad gave up his education and started working. He moved here to look after his grandfather at the time, who was quite poor. My parents married in the UK. They held onto a lot of their culture as well as they moved here. When I started at a nursery, I couldn’t even speak English. Punjabi was the language that we spoke at home. It was brought to me in a very traditional Indian culture.
That was pretty much all the way up into my twenties. I had an arranged marriage at the age of twenty. Although even I was brought up in the inner Western culture, I’m very much an Eastern upbringing. I wanted to go to art college and study Fine Arts but there was no career in that. My dad said, “You are not going to do to study for art.” We compromised on Graphic Design. I went to college and studied Graphic Design. Quickly, I fell into marketing. I started to work in the IT space. It was where I started my corporate career. I’m about to give my age away. I was involved in setting up the very first computer superstore in the UK before we got bought out by PC World and when they took Currys.
I started my career in IT. Early in my early twenties, I became a Manager. By the time I was 26, I was managing a budget of about 3/4 of a million dollars. I stayed in IT for quite a long time. I moved from desktop computers and software to ERP solutions. I went from marketing multimillion-pound software. After that, I worked in Optics for a while. In 2003, I moved to Australia. I lived there for three years. At that point, I decided to set up my own marketing company. I worked with some interesting and diverse clients. I then moved back to Birmingham in 2005. That’s the one in the UK. I moved around a lot.
I stayed in Birmingham for three years. I worked at the University of Birmingham, there managing all of their marketing outside of academia. They had these several commercial divisions. I was responsible for marketing loans, and then I moved to Oxford for three years and moved to Cambridge. With all of that moving around, I was fortunate that I could take my business with me. One thing I found quite early on with all of my roles as I would work quite often with the senior management team, which is why I fell into coaching a little bit and mentoring as opposed to making a conscious decision that that was going to be my career.
With all of that moving around, the other thing that I decided to do was to protect the business. I learned how to code, manage developers, and raise investment but most importantly, I learned about all of the pain that startups go through. That helped significantly when I started doing my coaching work in a more comprehensive manner. I started in a tech company. When I moved to Cambridge, I had the opportunity to go and lecture entrepreneurial marketing at one of the universities here in Cambridge.
Do what feels right for you because you’ll have fun doing it, and your audience will enjoy watching you in your element. Click To TweetIt was the very first time I stepped foot in a university. It was to go and deliver that to the Master’s students there at the business school. After that, I went on and lectured Marketing to business studies as a student as well. Finally, I ended up at the Judge Business School, which is part of Cambridge University. That’s where I work on their Accelerate Program. That’s a cohort of about 65 companies.
That’s everything from startup. I have got a brilliant idea right through to VC realms. That’s broad-spectrum. Some of the companies that you mentioned like the Eagle Labs with my own coaching business, Oxford Innovation, with the role I do there as Innovation Director, are all very similar roles in that. They are all coaching roles.
I have a whole bunch of questions because you took me through a lot there. Let’s go back in time. You mentioned that at a pretty young age, you moved up to the management level or a manager type of role. What do you feel contributed most to looking back on that time? What kind of characteristic, attitude or behavior did you bring forward that you feel contributed to you being able to move up the corporate ranks and get noticed for the work that you were doing?
One thing, in particular, was the thing that is still true for me, which is I find it relatively easy to join up the dots for people. I’m able to extract information and connect. I’m a huge connector and collaborator even now with all of my coaching roles. One thing that becomes quite clear to me early on, even with my first call that I will have with any coaching client, will be that almost a few paths that they can take, and then the next part of that becomes, “What is it? What are their aspirations? How do I coach them to step into what the business needs from them?” I find that early on, in my roles in those IT companies, it was being able to join up the dots for people. Sometimes people become insular and parochial in that view. There’s this one thing that they are trying to work on. Coaches typically tend to be more visionary in characteristics.
For someone, let’s say the consultant is working day in, day out in their business, maybe they are solo or have a team around them, and they are insulated. They are in their bubble because they are busy doing their thing. They are missing a bunch of dots that they could connect. What advice would you offer them? What can they do to start being able to see some of those dots and be able to make connections that otherwise they might not be able to make?
There is a lot to be said for personality profiling like Myers-Briggs or any of that stuff. If you look at the way people tend to operate, some individuals are all about the detail, the process, and following step by step and are very linear in their approach. If that is you and you want to take your business to the next level of growth, then hire a coach or build your team so that you have a good mixture of somebody who is more visionary and can complement in what you are doing so that you can move faster. I’m not saying that if you are all about the detail or process, you can’t have the vision but together, you could move so much faster by having that right mix of personality traits within the team.
That’s powerful advice. Especially for solo consultants, they find this initial thinking of, “I need to be conservative. Maybe the reason why I left employment or the corporate world is that I didn’t want to manage people anymore.” but if you are that very detailed person, if you tend to maybe overthink things or whatever your characteristics or traits are, sometimes it’s counterproductive to try and work against the tide in it or the wave. If you can find either, let’s say, a coach or hire people, or bring even contractors freelancers on that can help you to accelerate and support you in some of those areas that you might be weak, it’s a game-changer.
The other thing is that those people are worth their weight in gold. To find people who are about process, operational, and getting things done are equally important. There is a lady I am working with who is amazing. She’s brilliant in all the details. She works at Oxford Innovation. Without her, I can’t see everything being as efficient as it is. Everybody doesn’t have to be a visionary. It’s about getting the right mix as well in that team.
Let’s come back to the time when you decided, “I’m going to strike out and start on my own.” The marketing company was the first one that you launched. Why did you do that? What was the impetus for that?
I might have to take you back to my childhood a little bit for that. There is so much of the way we are as adults is pretty much set in concrete by the time of nine. It is where we have decided how our life is going to bond. I came from an environment where it was tough. I had a tough upbringing. It was a challenging time for my parents. They were young parents and had five of us. My dad very early on, decided that he was going to become an entrepreneur. He was a terrible businessman. He was a failing entrepreneur but he tried so many different things. He taught me the most valuable lesson of all, which is, “Failure is a thing that you can come out the other side. You pick yourself back up and keep going.”
It’s probably no surprise that my siblings and I, most of us, are very entrepreneurial. We saw our dad creating businesses, decide, and it’s fine if it doesn’t work. I’m built in a way that that whole risk-taking isn’t a big issue for me. I wanted to have my own company from quite a young age. However, I also realized the value of being in corporate, having that experience under my belt, making the connections, and understanding how the industry operates.
When the opportunity to move to Adelaide and a new business came about, I grabbed it with both hands. Once you start down that route, it’s very difficult then to turn back. Creating my marketing company, which is not a coaching business, and then creating a textile top, if I had a brilliant idea, I wouldn’t hesitate. I would just give it a go because what’s the worst that happens? It doesn’t work but you learn a lot. You learn so much through going through that process.
When you decided to launch that company, what was the first thing that you did to get your first few clients? The marketing business.
Interestingly, I have never had to market my business. I always have growth through word of mouth. I ended up working for actually one of the world’s biggest party companies. You will be familiar with Amscan. He owns Party City. I went in there to a mentor marketing team. I joined them for a period of six months and then very quickly, I transitioned into managing the Disney license for them across the NBA. Seven years later, I decided to exit and carry on working with other clients.
With all of my work, it’s always been word of mouth. The thing is good cultures, word gets out and about. I have been fortunate that I have been well connected. I am, and that works. I have strong connections. The most challenging part is moving to Cambridge because it is a tight-knit circle. Breaking into that inner circle in Cambridge was probably the thing that took me the longest time. Most of my work has been through word of mouth.
I would love for you to break down the process of how you’ve got into the network of Cambridge. It is quite hard to penetrate but once you do like most networks, there is immense value inside of it. One of the things that contributed to your success in many different roles was, your ability to connect with senior-level management, decision-makers or people that have influence.
What do you feel is the key to doing that? It’s an area that a lot of consultants do struggle with. You want to build a relationship with a CEO, the CFO or somebody in the C-Suite because you know that they are the ultimate decision-maker, yet it’s hard to penetrate through that and access them. Any advice that you would offer for somebody who wants to reach higher levels inside of an organization and how they can start to build those relationships?
A lot of that comes down to what your strength is when it comes to marketing. Some people build their whole ground on the back of LinkedIn. They are thought leaders. They will push out regular content. As with the work that you are doing through your podcast, which is all about educating and helping people further their businesses, grow their businesses, and accelerate, there’s no point in trying to put around a square peg into a round hole. What works for you, the individual? That is always a starting point. If you are the person that loves to network, go out and network but equally, if you are much better at creating content, you are about the detail and process, share knowledge around that.
Surround yourself with the best people possible in your discipline. Click To TweetYour platform isn’t necessarily to go out to networking events if you are much better to do a podcast or share content through social media platforms. I see it so much at the moment that people think that they need to do everything. I always steer businesses away from that. I always say, “Do the thing that feels right for you because you are going to have fun doing it. Your audience is going to enjoy it because that’s you in your element.” A lot of it comes down to what’s the right thing for the individual that’s trying to grow their business. It’s tough. The thing with coaching is there are so many coaches. In the same way that when I coach businesses and I always say to them, “Don’t cast your net wide, and try and catch everything. Focus on your niche.”
I’m sure the same is true for coaches, many businesses are afraid to focus on a niche because it’s almost like, “If I focus on the niche, what am I turning away?” I always encourage people to think about, “What brings you joy? Why not coach in that space? I much rather be a specialist in a certain sector and have customers who think you are brilliant at what you do rather than just being swabs and spreading yourself too thinly.” In the same way, that encouraged the companies I would coach to go and get business for themselves. The same is true for coaches, which is to focus on the areas.
For me, I love all things IT. I’m doing a lot in the life science space and I’m loving that. Find the sectors that are interesting for you because when you turn up and you are coaching in that space, it’s a different energy. You come across differently. You come across with passion and you are excited, and there is a success. You show up differently when you focus on sectors that you are genuinely interested in.
We have seen this time and time again with so many of the consultants in our coaching programs that they have the same challenge. You feel like you want to cast a wide net because it equals more opportunity but the way to scale and grow is not through addition. It’s usually through subtraction and getting focused.
Going back to your example of getting into the community within Cambridge. If we use that as an example to work through, is there anything that you did that you feel was maybe different, aside from that most people would not have thought of but yet was effective? When you are working with your own clients and they want to get into networks or reach decision-makers is like a tried and true proven approach or method. Anything that comes to mind for you?
My main platform is I don’t use a lot of social media but I use LinkedIn. It has been a key for me. Even with LinkedIn, there are some basic things that you do, which I don’t know if it’s always obvious to people but if you change your one-liner on LinkedIn, it talks directly to the people you want to sell to. Every time you are making a comment on something, everybody sees that. They hit you with that one thing. There are some basic marketing one-on-one-type things that you can do for sure. I had my heart set on working at the Judge Business School. It is part of Cambridge University. It is one of the most preeminent business schools in the whole world not just in the UK.
Not having been to university to try and get to be a coach on the Accelerate Program at the Judge was going to be challenging. My strategy was, “If that’s the endpoint, if that’s what I desire, what are the steps I need to take to go towards that?” I’ve got involved with universities. I did some lecturing at various different universities. I immersed myself in that space. I also attended a weekend program at Cambridge University. I’ve got to know some of the people who were working in that space, who was running some of the programs. I built a relationship with the people so that those people knew me, the person.
To clarify and to go a little bit deeper so that everybody can grasp what you did because I think it’s brilliant. My understanding is that you did not say, “I’m going to put an application to become a coach at this business school. I did not get a positive response. This didn’t work and move on.” You said, “I’m going to first work on building relationships with those that have influence over the decision-making process around who becomes a coach at this business program.”
You went out and paid money to go and attend some weekend training. You did things that would help you to build relationships with the right people before you try to get something. You were giving value or creating a presence before you tried to extract value. Is that correct? Am I missing anything there?
That’s correct. Even to the point that I didn’t apply, I contacted them and said, “I would love to be a coach in the program.” There was no application process. It wasn’t like there was a vacancy. This comes back to me being clear on what it is I want. I wanted to be a coach in that program. I worked backward in terms of what do I need to do to get to that point. People deal with people.
That’s the black and white of it, whichever way you translate it. Even when you go to an interview, somebody is going to decide pretty much straight away, whether they are going to hire you or not. Don’t underestimate the value of you, the person. Make sure that you are stepping into that at every opportunity. That’s why if you do have the chance to go rather than follow a conventional process of going to work in some way, it is building relationships with people.
You have a pretty interesting vantage point over many different companies and organizations that you coach or that you sit on their board. When you look at 2022, with everything that has been going on in the world, what are you seeing? Is there anything that stands out to you as a marketing approach, as a way to generate leads and acquire clients, or to create more conversations that you feel is a big opportunity that maybe most people aren’t taking advantage of or just more people shouldn’t do it?
It’s an interesting time that we are going through. In the UK in 2020, there was something like 50,000 new businesses being created every month. We are seeing more new businesses created now than ever before. The one thing that I find more often than not with startup and scale-up companies is commercializing. People have got great ideas but the minute you say to them, “Let’s put that in front of the customer,” there’s always a level of nervousness. You typically tend to have people sit in 1 or 2 countries, either they have got a great idea but struggled to take it to the next level because there’s a fear around too much or you have people who hit the ground running and selling something.
They have got a different set of challenges because now they need to look at organization structure and all of that stuff. You definitely have more in that 1st camp than you do in the 2nd. A large part of the work that I do like my sweet spot is helping companies to understand where their growth can come from, and then what growth does the individual need to go through.
For example, some of the companies on the Accelerate Program in the Judge will go through and do a raise. Let’s say they raised $10 million. That individual needs to show up and run a company that raised $10 million. That’s a big step up. That’s the space I’m working on. Growth for the business but also more importantly, what does growth for the individual look like?
I would love to go a little bit deeper into that because it reminds me of a conversation I had with one of our higher-level clients in one of our coaching programs who fairly made the shift from being a successful solo consultant and viewing themselves as a consultant to now looking at themselves as a CEO and building a team around her. I’m seeing great things happening. There’s a lot of progress being made. It’s an interesting shift from having the mindset of, “I’m a consultant,” to, “I’m a leader. I’m a CEO. I have to operate like that.”
For somebody to step up to that higher level, when I say high, I don’t necessarily mean better but a different level because you have to see, think or focus on different things. Your role is different. You need to develop as a person or as a leader. What do you typically suggest that people do? What are some of the best practices for personal development?
There are many. One of the things, first and foremost, and this is always a big a-ha moment for people is to recognize that they are not the company. That person is not the company. That separation is a big step for many people, as their businesses start to grow. Within that then is, “How do you surround yourself with the best people possible in their discipline? Your team should be better than you at that thing that they are doing. Otherwise, you haven’t got the right team.” Sometimes, when it’s your business, you can want to have complete control over everything. That letting go of control and recognizing that the business is now an entity and it’s not you is a big step change for a lot of entrepreneurs.
Make a difference to everyone you’re working with. Click To TweetIt’s stepping into that. On the back of that depends on what stage your business is at. We touched on the 2Y3X Programme. Joining an accelerator is always brilliant. We have the sound of the Accelerate Program at the Judge Business School. You have access to ten coaches who all have different areas of expertise and can all help you based on, “Do you need to get advice on intellectual property? Do you need to get advice on the company formation?”It’s based on where you are at and then right through to program the accelerator, which is, “We want to double or triple our revenue. We have big ambitious goals. How do we achieve that? How do we create something that is not so big, that it’s overwhelming and we can’t do anything with it?”
One year to the next, we always have these big ambitions but we never managed to get there because we haven’t put any plans in place. In terms of if businesses are looking for growth, first and foremost, get clear on what that growth looks like but be clear, “Is that our revenue target? Do we want to expand internationally? What’s the ambition?” To get to the 2Y3X Programme at that time, what does that look like in years 1, 2 or 3? What does that look like quarter by quarter? How do you implement that?
I put on a LinkedIn post which is, “If you’ve got a diary, go to the last page and write on that page what the last twelve months were like. Take yourself forward to that point and document what just happened in the last twelve months.” Even that as an exercise gives you a level of clarity, which is okay, “What is it I want to have to happen? How do I take control of that?”
Cameron Herold has a book called Vivid Vision, which I think is similar. It goes to a deep dive into that concept around getting clear as, “What does the future look like,” and then paint the picture, not just in terms of, “We want to be generating $5 million,” or whatever the number is, but, “How many team members do you want? What’s your culture like? Where are you working?” You are getting detailed around what you want things to look like because once you get clear on that thing, you can start to plan and figure out what needs to be done. That’s great advice.
As you look at the journey to this point of your own business and experience, is there anything that you have changed a lot? Has your pricing model changed a lot over the years? Is the way that you work with clients or promote your business change? Any big shifts that have happened over the years that might be a big lesson that you could share with others that they could also benefit from?
Let’s talk about pricing because that’s the one that most people are interested in. I have never done a coaching qualification. I’m not a qualified coach. All of those coaching roles are based on the experience side that I have managed to get off.
You might not be certified but you are qualified.
I didn’t even truly step into that. It took one of my clients to tell me that I am their top-rated coach for me to think, “I don’t need to be certified. I’m doing this better than most. I’m making a difference.” When a client turns up and they are giving me an hour of their time to coach them, the most valuable asset is our time, for me, that’s important that they get a good return on that investment of their time. It took a client of mine to say to me that, “You are a top for me to even think about charging good money for my time.”
The thing with charging for your time is that there’s definitely a relationship between value and price. When you are operating at the lower end of the spectrum, people don’t think they are going to get very good coaching. I have seen this with so many people. When you are operating at the top end, you are showing up and doing a great job, that’s much to the value that they get in as well. I am surrounded by a lot of coaches that are at the lower end of the spectrum. They are struggling.
I truly believe that part of the reason is that people’s time is so valuable that they don’t even want to operate in that space. They need to be getting good value and are prepared to pay good money for it. Those people are coachable. When you are working at the value end of the spectrum, people that aren’t coachable are not really in it. They are not serious about it.
If somebody is investing a smaller amount of money and it’s not significant to them, then when they start to face and feel resistance as they should, if they are being coached properly, they should be challenged. It’s very easy for them to say, “I’m not going to do this. I put it off or put it aside, and then not make the progress that they want.” If they have invested a significant amount that challenges them and would make them feel pretty bad about themselves and disappointed if they didn’t take that action, if they didn’t at least try, they are much more likely to try.
We have seen so many times that when you follow a process that works, you are going to get results. It doesn’t mean you are going to get results overnight. It doesn’t mean it’s going to happen maybe as quickly as you want it to but if you are doing the right things, you are going to see and make progress. That’s why making that larger investment at times, even though it might feel a little bit scarier, is the fastest way to get the end result that you want and to make more meaningful progress. That’s a great way to look at it.
The commitment and conviction are totally different when you are investing in yourself because that’s what coaching is. It is personal development. I had a company I was coaching and we were talking about trying to get market penetration by making their product free. For me, if something is free, it’s got no value. Are people going to go and do something that’s free? It’s an interesting one price. I always say to people when it comes to pricing strategy is to think about charging for your time in a way that makes you not too uncomfortable but very slightly uncomfortable.
The price that you should be charging for your time is to have that feeling inside you. In the end, we have to put a value on our own time as well. A good way for your own growth is to be operating like that. People’s time is precious. My time is precious. Your time is precious. Your client’s time is precious. It’s about making sure that there’s alignment when you are working with somebody on what the perceived value is.
Did you make any big changes or shifts if you are going from doing work where it was more a consulting model, more marketing done for you or done with you with clients to now much more strictly advisory, which is more of the coaching side? Are there any big changes in the model that you used for pricing?
Pricing-wise, yes, for sure. All of my work now is done with business owners. It’s important for me that when somebody is making that investment in me and what I charge people that they are getting tenfold back. The thing is that, “How do I make a difference to everyone I’m working with?” Every single call to me is as important as the next. When I was working in marketing, it was totally different when I was doing the doing because you are much in an operational role. When you are coaching, it is different. You are taking lots of imports.
You are coaching the individual. It’s intense. We are turning up and do marketing work very operational. As a coach, you are turning up and giving 110% of yourself to that individual that wants to go through. I always think to myself that every session needs to be a transformation on a level. They need to come through that call and come out the other side with some improvement, insight or level of growth. That’s my ambition with every call that I have with every client.
I have a few more questions I want to get to. The first is that when you look at your own habits and what you feel leads to your higher levels of performance productivity is getting valuable things done, what are 1 or 2 things that you do every day that you feel contribute to that success?
Be truly grateful for every experience you have, whether good or bad, because you learn. Click To TweetI’m meditating. Most of your coaches probably say these. I take time to sit, think, reflect and give myself some headspace.
When do you do that? In the morning, evening or during the day?
It’s the very first thing in the morning. I know a lot of people say, “I struggle because I have so much stuff going on in my head.” The best time to meditate, if you can, do it as soon as you wake up. Sit up even in your bed and spend some time meditating because that’s when you have access to part of you that on a subconscious level, you have all this stuff going on in the background.
What you want to do is be able to bring that to the forefront. Sometimes, I coach people who wake up at night and are stressed about certain things. The reason that they are stressed about them at night and not during the day is that that’s the only time they are not thinking about all the other stuff on a conscious level.
Allowing yourself time to meditate and connect. For the stuff that comes up, do something with it. Make it your priority to action that first before you get stuck into your day. That is important. Secondly, any creative thinking, anything that is going to be taking more headspace, do it first before you get stuck into your day. Don’t even go and read your emails until you have done the thing that’s important. The third piece for me is to be kind to myself because often we are working with many people and dealing with many challenges that they bring into a call. It’s to take a step back and allow myself time for me. It’s taking a long time to learn that.
Tell me more about that when you said, “Be kind to yourself.” Give me an example of what that looks like.
I have been working since the age of fourteen. I started to work in a sewing factory. It took me until I was in my 40s to realize what my work defined me. Without my work, I was nothing. I didn’t know anything different. That was when I started my journey of, “Who am I outside of work?” When I say, “Be kind to myself,” it’s like going out. I have joined the gym. I will go and spend time in the gym. It’s not just any gym. I have turned it nice. When I’m there, I enjoy the experience.
I spend time with my family. When I’m with my family, is to be totally present to them, not to be checking my emails and all of that stuff. It’s amazing. If you struggle, sometimes people said to me, “I don’t have time,” Even things like if you do back-to-back calls, organize a call that you can take on a walk but be outside, stretch, get air and all of that stuff that people talk about all the time but very few of us actually do. Being kind to yourself is to look after your health, eat well, take regular breaks and do things that bring you joy. When you are with your family, be totally with your family.
Don’t do one for the team, one per task, because it doesn’t serve anyone. One of the things that I’m truly grateful for is every experience I have, whether that’s good or bad. The challenging stuff I learned a lot is from the good stuff. It’s great fun. To be present for every experience that comes up. The challenging stuff is there for a reason. You need to learn from that experience. When you operate like that, you come out of this victim mentality and you become more present. You begin to see the joy in the things that otherwise can be quite challenging.
Two more questions and then we are going to wrap up. The next one is your favorite book that you have read or listened to. It could be fiction or nonfiction. Anything that you enjoyed.
There are many.
I’m a reader as well. It’s a hard question but take the first one that comes to mind that you feel this was an enjoyable book.
I’m going to say two. Never Split The Difference. It’s a brilliant book. Have you read it?
No. I have heard it from enough people. I feel like I knew it. Chris Voss writes the negotiation.
He’s put some stuck in that book that I have tried and it works. The next is The Buddha and the Badass which is written by the Founder of Mindvalley, Vishen Lakhiani. That’s quite a spiritual book but that, for me, resonated. There are many good books. They are probably the two at the top of the list for me.
I don’t know if others have recommended those specifically before on the show. Those are great additions. In addition to that, where people can go to learn more about you, your work, what you do, and everything that you have going on? Where is the one place that we should direct people to?
BabitaDevi.com is my website. There you can find everything and LinkedIn. Reach out. I’m always more than happy to have a conversation with somebody and help in any way that I can. Even if I’m not the right coach for someone, I can quite often recommend somebody who might be.
Thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate you sharing some of your journey with us.
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About Babita Devi
Nearly 30 years’ experience in business development and commercialisation. Worked with a diverse range of companies in a variety of industries. Created 2 businesses and lectured Entrepreneurial Marketing at 2 Universities. Currently coaching at the Judge Business School, Barclays Eagle Labs and Oxford Innovation, as well as on the Board of 3 companies.
I now coach founders who want to create a clear roadmap for scaling their business. Whether you are in start-up or ready for next level growth, I can help you get clear on how to move your business forward, helping you to join the dots internally, whilst also facilitating connections externally.
My own journey of breakdown and breakthroughs has shaped the coaching that I now offers to other founders and executives, who want to discover their untapped potential whilst striving for balance and fulfilment.
Here’s what my coaching clients say:
“Babita is an extremely thoughtful and obliging coach. She was my lead coach during the CJBS Accelerate 10-week program and though our weekly meetings she was able to help me navigate through a mine field of business and strategic obstacles to help me focus on my objectives to yield very rewarding results. It was through her guidance that I, as a business leader, was able to sprint rather than walk toward my targets.”
Xann Schwinn, CEO, ChoralHub
“Babita is wonderfully inspiring coach that the Charco team has been coached through CJBS. Her sessions helped us to look at the bigger picture and future of the business which helped us to identify key activities we should focus on. She helped to see things from a different perspective which Charco founders are very grateful for.”
Lucy Jung, CEO, Charco
“I have recently been coached by Babita on defining purpose and direction for my business. Babita is highly intuitive and has a gift for aligning a person’s passion with their purpose and creating tangible next steps to help them move forward. Her ability to recognise the in-between stages and help people in a non-judgemental yet intentional way, is credit to her capability as a highly effective coach.”
Becky Balzano, Becky Balzano Coaching
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