IAM509- Owner Helps People Find Legitimate Work From Home Jobs

Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Chhavi Agarwal of Mrs Daaku Studio. Chhavi, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Chhavi Agarwal 0:40

Hey, Gresh I'm really glad to be on the show. I'm looking forward to talk to your viewers and listeners.

Gresham Harkless 0:48

Absolutely super excited to have you on as well. Before we jump right into the questions and everything, I want to introduce you to Chhavi so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Chhavi and Amit are location independent entrepreneurs and owners of Mrs Daaku Studio – a place to find to legitimate work from home jobs and creative ways to make money online. This blog tells you exactly how to start working from home and what are your best options. Chhavi and Amit aims to encourage others who are not happy with their current 9-5 jobs to take a chance on themselves and follow their heart. They have been featured on leading publications like Readers Digest, Go Banking Rates, Yahoo Finance, MSN, and many more for their expertise on this front. We have Chhavi on the show today. Chhavi, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

Chhavi Agarwal 1:32

Yes, I'm very excited.

Gresham Harkless 1:34

Awesome. Let's do it. I wanted to kick everything off with what I call your CEO story to hear a little bit more about your background and what led you to get started with your business.

Chhavi Agarwal 1:42

Sure. I graduated from a law college in India, I got my master's degree and I started working as a contract attorney. I worked at that shop for almost two years. At the same time, I also met my now husband, Amit, who was then working from home with a company that was based in the UK, so he was working from home at that time. Until that time, until I met him I had no idea it was possible to work from home and that you have so many great options to build an online business. I thought it was a sham and never paid attention to it. I had absolutely no idea about a full time income with freelancing or the entire idea of blogging, I had no idea you could make money blogging. At my job as a contract attorney, I worked 12 hours every single day, Monday to Friday. I was so tired all the time, I used all the weekends to catch up on sleep, I had no time for a myth. I had no time for family friends, I could not travel or learn something new. I had no time for anything. When you're working for 12 hours, you just feel tired all the time. Amit and I also decided to get married at the same time, and we decided we will spend a year in Varanasi, that's his hometown, that's where his mother lived. When I put together all these factors in my life, the 12 hours of working and I am not able to spend a lot of time doing things that I love, I also had to spend a year in Varanasi after getting married. I realised that this is my opportunity to explore my options and to start something on my own, which I always wanted to do. I wanted something that was flexible for me that allowed me time for family, friends, travel, hobbies, and kids in the future. But I don't want to get stuck at a time where I'm doing 12 hours job and I don't have time for kids. Going forward, I would have had to leave my job and I didn't want that scenario to occur right now. I started exploring work from home and location independent life, I stumbled on many income reports from bloggers. All of that sound very fancy and interesting, income reports. So I started blogging in 2016 and it failed terribly. I decided to keep that aside.Bblogging has a steep learning curve. It takes a lot of time to make money blogging, and I wanted something quick. So I started working on a freelance writing business. I already loved writing law school taught me a lot on how to research and it all came handy. I did everything to make it work. It did work. I found gigs on job boards, I pitch clients directly. Now people come to me directly, so I don't have to do much on that front. It got to a reasonable level of income when Amit convinced me to revamp the blog and focus on how to make how to make money from home and live a location independent life. Before that it was a travel blog. When I started in 2016 it was focused on travelling in India. We revamped the blog. Thankfully, we did not give up the domain. Age domains make it much easier for you to rank on search engine. It's actually a good thing that your domain is aged. We went ahead redid the entire website, we relaunched the blog. We really wanted to help people wanting to work from home or people who cannot do a nine to five, because they have health reasons or because they have kids and can't afford care, or whatever the reason is, because maybe they don't like their boss, maybe they don't like their nine to five. In India, many women leave their job after marriage, because they need to take care of home and kids. We wanted to give them hope. We wanted to let them know, we know that you're educated, you got skills, and you can still earn a full time income working from home, you don't have to leave everything. That's how and why we started our blog.

Gresham Harkless 5:42

Nice, well, I definitely appreciate that and kind of like what you spoke to about when you met Amit and he was working from home a lot of times, we don't realise that there are other opportunities or ways we can even work or you create income. That's why I appreciate your course telling that story, but also everything that you guys have it at your platform as well, too, just because a lot of times people don't realise that that's an option but you providing those different ways that people can do that allows people to kind of have that same kind of epiphany that you had, as well. I know you kind of touched on it a little bit, is there anything more that we can find on your website and on your platform, and then also what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique and is your what I call a secret sauce.

Chhavi Agarwal 6:24

I think our secret sauce is a personal experience with working from home. Amit has over five years experience with remote jobs, a full time remote job with the company and I have experienced with freelance writing and blogging. We know what we are talking about we have been there, we have done it. We understand the challenges that our readers face. That is also why you can find all the relevant information about work from home job on our blog. We avoid surface level post, it doesn't help anybody. I if I go ahead and tell you that you can become a proofreader, or you can become a freelance writer, it's not going to help you. What we do is to avoid surface level posts. If you want to become a freelance writer, for example, you will get to know what it is, how it is, how to get started, what are the free resources, if you do not want to invest in a course or a resource right now, if you're ready to invest, what are the recommended paid resources, or you can read interviews with other freelance writers basically everything that you need to make a decision for yourself. Then Amit and I are always here to help our readers through their challenges, we get a lot of emails from our readers, we have a Facebook group, where a lot of people talk about their challenges. We make sure we respond to them and help them out in any way that we can. I think if I want to wrap it up, I would say that the passion from working from home and the emotional connect, that we have with this entire idea of working remotely, is what makes everything different.

Gresham Harkless 7:59

Yeah, that makes so much sense. I definitely appreciate even on your site, because there's so many different ways that people can learn. I know, we all learn in different ways, but you guys have courses, you have resources, as you mentioned, interview. A lot of times, I myself sometimes might learn a different way than another person that's listening to this podcast. But the fact that you have so many different ways that people can kind of learn how to, I don't want to say escape, but maybe find a different way to generate revenue, sometimes it is escape. That's what I appreciate about your site.

Chhavi Agarwal 8:30

We also started a YouTube channel recently, you know, to cater to the needs of the audience who do not want to read. Some people just refer videos.

Gresham Harkless 8:39

Yeah, I always think those and definitely correct me if I'm wrong if you find the same thing, but it always provides that different level of connection as you can actually see a person sometimes if you're busy reading or podcasts are great ways. But if you're able to actually see and view those videos, to me that creates a even stronger connection than a lot of times. Awesome. I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be an app or book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Chhavi Agarwal 9:09

I don't read that many books. So I'll stick to habits. I have two which have helped me a lot. The first one, I think what helped me the most was the ability to move ahead without being affected by my failures too much. I failed terribly at my travel blog. I fail terrible yet my first attempt of launching a digital product on my blog. I also fail terribly when I decided that I will design the website myself. Okay, and there are so many more in the past two years, but I never let any of it get in my way or discourage me to work harder, or making me forget why I started it in the first place. I see it this way. If I spend too much time thinking about what did not work or spend time thinking about my failures? When will I do the things that grow my business? It sounds very weird. It sounds like the fear of missing out FOMO. That's exactly what goes in my head beating up, beating yourself up on something that has already happened isn't going to help anybody. You always have to see past your failures. They are the stepping stones to success. Somebody said that, right? I think one is that I think I am not too hung up on being a perfectionist, and that has helped me. When I started out, I started with a free theme, which is not recommended. I told myself, it is okay to not have the best looking website out there right away, I will invest in it, but not now. Because I don't have the budget and it is completely okay. It may sound crazy. But if you are trying to be perfect all the time, you will not move forward, some people don't even start. I think I am not too hung up on being a perfectionist has always helped me out. Sometimes a lot of things take a lot of time to learn they have a steep learning curve. The best way to go with it is to just start so don't wait everything to be perfect.

Gresham Harkless 11:15

Yeah, I definitely would agree with that a lot of times, we're waiting for that perfect time or that perfect opportunity that never comes. A lot of times you just kind of have to be action oriented and start to create. I appreciate you for sharing that with us. I think too, as you talked about with failure, I think that once something is done of course you want to take the lesson from it, and learn that, okay, this is what I should have done or shouldn't have done. But I think a lot of times we will kind of stew over those things that happen and never move forward. We'll keep thinking about it and thinking about it and thinking about it. But just as you said, that doesn't help out as far as you taking the next step to getting to where you want to be. The next question I wanted to ask you is for a CEO nugget. This is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you can happen to a time machine, what would you tell your younger business?

Chhavi Agarwal 12:00

The first is that to see the positive side of whatever happens and learn from your mistakes. There is a reason why something happens. So don't just leave it at that, try to understand why something works, if it works, or why it did not work.

Gresham Harkless 12:16

Awesome. Now when it asks you my absolute favourite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO, and we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on this show. So Chhavi, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Chhavi Agarwal 12:27

In my opinion, CEO would be any person who knows how to make the best with the cards that are dealt to them. Okay, so basically someone who knows how to use the resources available to them at any moment to the best of their advantage. It could be in business, at home in life, anywhere. I see you as someone who has the motivation to make something work in any scenario, and they make it happen somehow. They're not the ones cribbing that I don't have this or I don't have that I didn't I probably do not have the budget right now. They find out a way to make it happen.

Gresham Harkless 13:06

I love that definition in that perspective. Because a lot of times we're always looking outward to find out why we don't have this or we don't have that, but it's kind of like the the true CEO, entrepreneur, business owner, whatever titles we have. It's all about kind of like that alchemy, being able to kind of create some things from from nothing, being able to make lemonade from lemons, and be able to create those things that sometimes other people can't see. I love that definition, that perspective.

Chhavi Agarwal 13:34

Yes, you need a lot of motivation to become an entrepreneur to keep up with it. I think it this definition suits, if you are someone who's motivated enough to make something work at any point in your life, with or without resources, you can be a CEO.

Gresham Harkless 13:52

Absolutely. I definitely would echo that as well. Chhavi, I appreciate that definition. I appreciate your time even more. What I want to do is pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and listeners know. Then of course, how best they can get a hold of you find out about your website and everything awesome you guys are working on.

Chhavi Agarwal 14:10

Sure. I think I just have a couple of things that I would like to share with your listeners. The first thing is that stop waiting for the perfect time to start out. We are always looking for excuses. But don't let that stop you, don't wait for the perfect time or perfect anything. If you want to be an online business owner, if you want to start out with something if you're sitting on an idea, just do it, just start with it. It will drive you crazy one day when you look back to see that you never even started or never even given yourself a chance to try it out or realise that it would have been easier if you just started earlier. It's going to make you crazy. So just start out. Second thing is don't just sit on the internet comparing yourself with anybody else's journey. All you're going to read about other entrepreneurs is how successful they are or what they have achieved because not a lot of articles or not a lot of platforms talk about the struggles. Be your own competition and out, do your own work. If you focus on doing the right things, you will get success. Comparison is the thief of joy. So just don't do it. Get past it. Trust me, just get past that. I would like to love I would love to connect with you all. You can write me at Chhavi@mrsdaakustudio.com. Or join me on my Facebook group that is Be your own boss and quit nine to five.

Gresham Harkless 15:38

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, thank you so much again, Chhavi. What we will do is we'll have your information and links in the show notes so that everybody can follow up with you. I appreciate you for reminding us of that as well to comparison definitely is the thief of joy. If we focus on being better than ourselves yesterday or a minute ago, and we continue to get better and better and better, then it's going to be hard to kind of stop anybody who's listening to this or reading this or is subscribed to wanting to be able to be you know their best selves. I appreciate that again, and I hope you have a phenomenal day.

Outro 16:08

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai