We were lucky to catch up with Hetal Nagaraj recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hetal, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
The business process of business ideas and execution, policy making production to manufacturing, education and professional paths runs in the family itself. I have several role models of my own father, mother, aunts, uncles or ancestors such as grandparents as well that have followed all the 3 paths of success at a time in their life. Education which is by schooling/universities, business often by consistent delivery of products or services or as in investor and professional such as certifications which we often take for local laws or permits. Depends on field. Most of my family or literally all of them are in multiple fields. Each of them are known personalities in their country of residence and in their respective own fields of multi specialities. All or each generation has been successful & extremely educated and knowledgeable as well. My family have seen people growing in their fields either by mastery or by delivery of consistent results or by skills and the struggles too. i have seen my parents take important decisions in life and how beautifully they taught me to maneuver through it. That exposure made me think and outline my missions in life at very early age. I had a planner for atleast 5 years in my teen years because of my first marketing job at AMWAY & at a Medicare store in India. The environment in my family itself is of that high quality life and vibration that it allowed me to enjoy freedom and sustain life, peace of mind and what matters at the end of day. Do more, think more. I have had my parents ask me if I was sick the moment they would see me do “nothing’. obviously this does not mean that i did not have my fair share of peace of mind but my parents believed that you should do something that drives you to do more. Field does not matter if you are in the right path. Since then I made plans on paper. Life was anyway early to me and so it never made sense for me to be stalled. i knew i was ahead of everybody in my teen years itself. These experiences, exposure, environment, expertise of my parents or relatives in their fields within my family itself laid the foundation of all my goals. It inspired me.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
It runs in family itself so it is inevitable for me to not enter business. Each family in my lineage is a like a world of its own & this is by field. I am absolutely proud and honored to be in family, strategically born in fact with such valuable environment and people around me. I had my first awakening at the age of 15. At 14, I completed my first paid project in performing arts which changed me and introduced me to possibilities of what i can do with existing skills. The realizations of what I am had me thinking. As a trained dancer as well it woke me which by the age of 15, i had completed or stepped in my advance trainings. That year changed my outlook at every single aspect. It made me wonder several approaches to every field i entered. I was introduced to new fields to explore and enjoy as every parent would do and i enjoyed as well. I mastered every field i was put in since my environment and my teachers were that good! I did what others could not. My consistency in delivery of projects in every field without forsaking quality or without any damage were niche! I started to attract everything and everybody. It would just come to me. Creating a path was just as easy then because the exposure and environment in my family encourages that positivity to be level headed. People could not imagine the possibilities within a given piece of information which I could. Since then, I never looked back. As of 2024, I have 20 years of education, experience, expertise and my niche in training services in 10+ fields with indepth knowledge of client servicing, sales, engineering-software(s), construction and remodeling, human resource, information technology staffing & development, CRM, SAAS, ERP, B2B, B2C, Microsoft Products, Project Management, Backend Sales & Marketing, Training-Development Businesses, Mergers & Acquisition, Immigration & Travel Documentation, Commerce & Industry, Business Processes & Infrastructure, Corporate Leadership, Organizational Leadership, Personnel Management & Proficiency in handling all softwares as well as applications because of my education. More information is readily available about me on hetaln.com. I am very proud of everything as a matter of fact. I have known that education is just as important as being knowledgeable. getting skills is just as important as being talented! Everything else just follows through.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
Not one in particular but many peers or examples. My own family is one and then my teachers, gurus and their life stories. All of them are extremely successful or have their business empires or businesses or education line of profession which is on Elite highest level one can think of. Some are my 2nd generation bosses and it is indeed inspiring for me to look at their life to set as an example.
I am a proud owner of more than 2000 books in my inhome book collection. Books such as 7 habits of highly effective people, Wings of Fire by Abdul Kalam Azaad, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Who moved my cheese and several others i often read just to remind myself of “myself”. My kids enjoy reading them without me telling them. Lot of my books are infact educational materials of my degrees or notes of my own colleges/classes or universities that are provided by teachers or universities for study and i used those for my exams. My exam list is just as huge from IQ, EQ certifications to several courses since I was in commerce field. To be at par in market, I had to take lot of courses otherwise just being a commerce student does not help much. It is very much like you have to gain knowledge and expertise of several subjects that can get you a self sustaining infrastructure or a high paying job! Since i am fully trained in each of my speciality, my several books are all materials which takes up 25% of my entire collection. My kids are noticing those books which is strategically placed in my gym room and it is helping them focus to their work. It creates a drive as they pass their teen years full of emotional melodrama. My notes in my college days were known to simplify subject matter. Fundamentals do not change. It is 2024 & my notes are roaming around in Ahmedabad from student to student till date. I have a playful trained security professional mindset and so I left my email address in my notes just to see where it goes. till date i receive emails from every student that uses it. In fact, lot of my service providers are my own juniors from those notes as well :). I also own several encyclopedias in various topics. Other collection is of business stories, biographies, icon books, life stories of several successful people. Some books are gifts and signed by celebrities, various professors or my teachers as by 2000, I was member of one of most influential youth groups that took independent leadership in handling fundraisers. I often take courses to leverage my existing talents and to keep up to trends of every product or service under my specialities. At times, it is just to satisfy my own hunger for knowledge. There is no reason why I take courses. I just love to enter new fields without disturbing my existing ones. These couple years, I read business stories of empires and their journeys. It is fascinating for me to see how they got there. I feel lucky that my story or path does not align with anybody and i wish it never does. I love my own path and i absolutely love how i could overcome that.
Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses.
I never had to buy. Most often it just came to me. Either through my seniors or through people i knew. I didn’t have to commercial approach that which i could if i wanted to and I did have my sources through which that can be done. By the time it was available for sale or some dispute, i was automatically eligible as I participated for more than 99.99% with full results, very happy clients. i never brought issues to business that costed money or shame. my actions brought honor and pride to every company i ever worked or collab with. It brought them possibilities that never existed before. I automatically made myself eligible to be their only one who could it independently because of my multi-speciality on paper and not just mere talents or calibre. My capacity to handle pressures and deliver work was considered flawless or something that was never done before according to my peers. Only I could do those because of my multi speciality. Technically speaking, my performing art fields was part time weekend or by dates or appointment only until 2019 consistently without any cancelations. It brought me all the way to surface for awards which boosted my other fields and specialities too.
From bringing the funds, encouraging environment for positivity and development of each individual under me, and participation of each individual including myself or everything within me was my own 99.99% involvement or was because of me. This was on paper and happy clients, some of which were 2nd generation or 3rd generation of my clients. 4 brands walked to me from my own seniors or previous collaborations. These are Reachh Mediaa, Kalasri Institute of Classical Dances, Mirchi Cinema/bollywood dance academy, and Nruthyakala Folk Dance and all of these are my 2nd generation of service providers or collabs. This does not mean that I did not teach those specialities prior to these businesses. I did and I have a successful streak of graduates in each just under my name or grace and grooves name. But this classification altogether, made it easy for awards speciality submissions where audiences look for one speciality. It did not matter anywhere on paper or during awards if one candidate had multi speciality. This also became very easy to identify candidates and paperwork was simpler. Previously problems we faced were grace and grooves and then what ? bollywood ? folk ? bharatanatyam and then we had to prepare more paperwork to identify each candidate that would take combination classes. This classification made me realize that may be i should have diff brands altogether for each line of speciality because it was simple as it could be to identify the markets and submissions. It worked! I could give a few brand to one to designated manager or intern and it would solve the problem. So now we have 38 brands internationally, on paper.
Acquisition was easy but lengthy. most often coz we are digitally advance. From flow of emails to subscriptions, service providers, and clients along with several admin console that are integrated to create an infrastructure that can be run by 1 person in case a need arises. This worked too. This is something we cannot hurry to because it relies on formalities of each platform. A simple update usually takes about 24 hours on any normal day to show the other results in these platforms. These are extremely sensitive too. And then all the other legal formalities, paperwork, govt process in case it was registered business or multi brand business. After that, we have media rights by each country such as permits or licenses, if any. It took whole 1 year for full control on all the transfers. Since my own self and my peers were extremely well established, we had a other process to follow through. In this business, several candidates often change their contracts too with the change in leadership and so that other additional work.
Since most often these were legacies and so we do not sell them. We just bring down the speed of its operation. simple.
Contact Info:
- Website: hetaln.com, graceandgrooves.com
- Instagram: https://www.hetaln.com/hetalsocialmedialinks
- Facebook: https://www.hetaln.com/hetalsocialmedialinks
- Linkedin: https://www.hetaln.com/hetalsocialmedialinks
- Twitter: https://www.hetaln.com/hetalsocialmedialinks
- Youtube: https://www.hetaln.com/hetalsocialmedialinks
- Yelp: we do not have yelp.
- Soundcloud: we do not have soundcloud
- Other: https://www.hetaln.com/hetalsocialmedialinks are my all official links.
Image Credits
Pic Credits – The Grace Effects by Hetal Nagaraj.