Shinjini Das Transcript

When you hear the term “go-getter” what do you think and feel?  Are you a “go-getter”? Do you visualize what you want and let nothing stop you till you realize your goals, whatever obstacles or challenges block your path?

MELINDA

I’m Melinda Wittstock and today on Wings of Inspired Business  we meet an inspiring entrepreneur and media executive who has made “go getting” her mission.

Shinjini Das is a global social media influencer and the CEO and founder of Das Media Group, an interactive marketing company creating space for some 7 million “go-getters” who follow and interact with her content on social media. Today we talk about the drive and mindset you need to succeed in business and what can stop women from getting what they want.

Shinjini Das is known as The Go-Getter Girl! ™ – and she’s building an internationally empowering media platform for her go-getter tribe – that is, people who live with integrity, ambition, morality, and character to impact the world. Only 28, she shares her go-getting journey with us in just a moment. And first…

Now back to the inspiring Shinjini Das.

Shinjini is the 28-year old Founder and CEO of The Das Media Group, a digital creative agency. She’s also an  engineer, keynote speaker, global influencer, as well as a Hollywood television personality and author with a 1.4MM+ monthly reach on ABC, FOX, FORBES, NBC, INC, C-Suite Radio, Business Insider, NPR, and at the United Nations Headquarters.

You can see why she’s known as The Go-Getter Girl! ™.

Shinjini is building an internationally empowering media platform for those who live with integrity, ambition, morality, and character to impact the world. She is a data-driven expert in building television, digital, social content with meaning to engage her global technology and lifestyle audiences. Shinjini is also one of 100 authors featured in Volume 2 of The Better Business Book where she shared her strategy to build businesses with empathy.

Got your wings on? Let’s fly with Shinjini Das.

Melinda Wittstock:         Shinjini, welcome to Wings.

Shinjini Das:                      Thank you so much for having me. I am honored to be here with you.

Melinda Wittstock:         I’m excited to talk to you too. I love this energy of go getting. We women in business, it’s just we’ve got to go take what’s ours. We’ve got to know our value. We’ve got to go for it. Have you always been a go getter yourself? Or was there something in your life that made you think, “Oh, man. Okay. Enough. I’m just going to go for it”?

Shinjini Das:                      Great question, Melinda, great question. And it is a question I do get a lot. I will preface by saying I was born in Guntakai, India, which is on the eastern tip of India. And this is really a country where baby girls and fetuses, female fetuses, are murdered every day. Right? And so the climate that I come from, it is a blessing to my parents, because they’ve always loved baby girls and women. And I was a very wanted child, so I’m very aware that my circumstances are unique, and many of my sisters in India, proverbial sisters, didn’t make it. Didn’t make it, didn’t survive. And that is a very real reality for us. Right? Every day.

Shinjini Das:                      And so the fact that I’m here, and then of course, we immigrated to America. Meanwhile, I was in Southeast Asia for a little bit. I was in Malaysia. All of that shaped my circumstances. And I realized that I’m actually one of the privileged ones to not only make it out of sort of that very patriarchal system, but also to have opportunities to, as you said, go get. Right? And so for me, I think I’ve always been very driven, very academic student, top student, middle school, high school. I think it was in college though at Georgia Tech as an industrial engineer that I was a little bit frustrated because I wasn’t really getting opportunities to speak on campus. And my background actually was a competitive public speaker in all of high school. I was a national top 10 finalist in America, Future Business Leaders of America at 17.

Shinjini Das:                      And so when I went into Georgia Tech, full ride merit scholarship, and again, ticking the boxes. Right? Immigrant child, Asian child, ticking the boxes, making your parents happy. That’s what we’re about. Right? So I felt thrilled. However, I really felt like I wanted to do this speaking thing. And by the way, where does it fit in into this engineering and science school? Right? And so when that fit wasn’t really clear, I think I decided in 2014 that I’ve got to be a go getter because this is not working for me, as in I’m not really getting opportunities to speak because this school … I mean, when you are in engineering, math and sciences, you typically don’t know about anything else. Right?

Shinjini Das:                      And so there’s no blame. I’m not blaming anyone. I love everyone from my past, present and future. But there just wasn’t a fit. And so in 2014, actually just a couple months before I graduated from my bachelor’s degree, right before I turned 22, was when I started go getting, as you said, so applying to these conferences to speak, applying to different events on campus to speak. And mind you, this was mostly all campus related activities. I think one or two were virtual talks or presentations. But really, I think that was the first time in my life that I actually made the first move because I just was so tired of waiting for people to ask me to speak. And that’s what, as I mentioned to you, turned into being the commencement speaker at Georgia Tech in front of 10,000 people. So the graduation speaker, again, one of the only women, really women of color, that too, in that time. So yeah, it pays off.

Melinda Wittstock:         The energy that you have: Do you think that’s very specific to immigrants? Because in a way, there’s no choice. I mean, either … Right? If you’re going to succeed, I mean, you can’t assume. Nothing’s there for you on a platter. You know?

Shinjini Das:                      Right. Right.

Melinda Wittstock:         So, I see a lot of immigrants being actually just amazing entrepreneurs, generally, because there’s an impetus for it. I don’t know. What’s your perspective on that?

Shinjini Das:                      Absolutely, Melinda. You actually hit the spot there. Absolutely. And it’s so fascinating because one of the main reasons that I even started tweeting in 2015, and that’s how I got discovered by the TV publicist, put on TV, and then I started my media platform, media company, in 2016, was that there is a lack of visible authentic immigrant voices in the media.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh, absolutely.

Shinjini Das:                      You know this better than anyone.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah.

Shinjini Das:                      And specifically, immigrant women of color. So, there’s this very specific demographic. So absolutely, and it’s been so heartening for me to see because as my platform has grown, and we’re now reaching seven million plus go getters a month across all my social media channels.

Melinda Wittstock:         That’s amazing, Shinjini. Can I just say congratulations on that? This is incredible.

Shinjini Das:                      Thank you.

Melinda Wittstock:         You’re a 28-year-old woman. You’ve done so much. You’re just rattling off all these amazing accomplishments. It’s such an inspiration.

Shinjini Das:                      Thank you. Thank you. Well, it helps to structure everything so that people know that this is working, and if you’ve never heard of me, so these are all qualifiers. These are all qualifiers. But just a lot of immigrants, Melinda, I’m reaching a lot of immigrants. And you’re absolutely right, that is why. That is why because for example, I’m reaching immigrant entrepreneurs in Africa. So maybe they’re from a different country, but now they’re in Africa. Or they’re in Africa, they’re trying to come to America, or whatever it is. There’s this global fabric that I’m tapping into, which I’m so proud of, Melinda, because that is the fabric that I saw was missing when I decided to make my foray in the media. So, in answer to your question, 100%, absolutely. Huge, huge desire. However, the one thing that I will comment on is that there is a fear of entrepreneurship still in the immigrant communities, which I think that we are all dealing with and we are slowly overcoming. I will say it’s slow because I still see some trepidation. I still see some fear. I still see some just anxiety in entrepreneurship.

Melinda Wittstock:         What is the root of the fear? What is the root of the fear?

Shinjini Das:                      Failure. Failure. It’s not going to work out. It’s not going to work out for you. You’re going to go broke. You’re not going to have stability. It’s too much stress. But what I try to tell them, and it’s so interesting because Forbes actually featured me as an immigrant entrepreneur because a magazine of their caliber also recognizes that immigrant entrepreneurs are not only the present, but the future. Right?

Melinda Wittstock:         And a primary driver of the economy. This is why I really honestly have struggled to understand this country’s current attitude towards immigration, at least in one side of the country. Right?

Shinjini Das:                      Yes.

Melinda Wittstock:         Because it is actually, and has always been, the impetus of growth and regeneration and new ideas. And I mean, it’s what the country is actually founded on. I mean, the United States itself is actually an entrepreneurial experiment. And so I just believe we really need that energy. And as entrepreneurs, it’s great to be hiring team members that are immigrants. It’s different culture, where you have to be a go getter. But I understand the fear of failure. I mean, a lot of people who were born here also have that fear of failure. In some cases, women actually have something a little bit different. It’s almost like a fear of success.

Shinjini Das:                      Right.

Melinda Wittstock:         It’s a fear of shining our light in the world. And now you have no such fear because here you are. You’re on all these media platforms. You’re out there. What is it, do you think, that, I don’t know, that stops women from stepping up, being on video, being on social media, doing all these things, writing books, all of that, just stepping into the light? What is that?

Shinjini Das:                      Yeah. And it’s interesting because we’re both coming from slightly different age demographics, Melinda. But what I’m going to tell you is that-

Melinda Wittstock:         No, not slightly different, very different. Sorry, I’m ancient. Come on.

Shinjini Das:                      You’re amazing. You’re amazing. You have so much wisdom. I love learning. I just love learning from all women. But for me, I’m seeing teenagers. Right? I’m seeing five-year-olds. I’m seeing girls of all ages. Right? And what I’m going to tell us is that I’m seeing the same struggles. And that is honestly sad to me because my point is, well, this five-year-old girl should have more confidence than her mother. Right?

Melinda Wittstock:         Right.

Shinjini Das:                      That’s just how it should be. But it’s not. But it’s not, and I’m not even kidding with you, Melinda. Just the other day at a restaurant, this little girl, could not have been more than five, I heard her say to her mom, she said, “A lot of people tell me that I’m cute. Oh, I’m dressed so well. But I don’t really believe them.” And so in this case, it’s this compliment. Right? But my concern, I was eating, I just overheard, I said my concern is she’s going to grow up. And she’s going to say, “My boss tells me I’m good at my job, but I don’t really believe her.” My supervisor tells me that I should go for this promotion, but I don’t really believe him.

Melinda Wittstock:         Well, yeah. The battle’s lost right there. If you can’t believe that you can do something, you can’t. I mean, you have to be able to visualize yourself being able to do it. You have to believe 100% because there’s so many naysayers around you already and so many things to overcome. And if you’re an entrepreneur or whatever, there’s all kinds of people who are going to tell you what you can’t do more than what you can. So yeah, that comes from inside. It’s curious to me though in women. Is that something that’s just in our DNA? Or is it learned? Or what is it? Why would a five-year-old have that sort of imprinted in her already?

Shinjini Das:                      Right. And it’s something that I think about very deeply, Melinda, as I’m obviously trying to reach women and girls of all ages across the world and really encourage them to be their own go getters, is I believe there’s a couple of things. So number one, I think like you said, self-belief is the root cause, as in a lack of self-belief. But the second, and this has been pointed out to me by my go getters from India and all these different countries, women, is that they actually tell me that they have never been positively validated in their societies. So for example, her dad, I’ll just give you an example, doesn’t believe that she’s really meant for much, other than perhaps marriage, and especially in a country like India where that is still very, very prevalent.

Shinjini Das:                      So it’s like, oh, you have your undergraduate, great. You have your master’s, awesome. You are doing your PhD, great. Where’s your man? Which to me is very offensive because here you are working so hard, so hard, PhD in industrial engineering, PhD in chemical engineering. These are some of my friends, and all your parents care about is: When are you going to get married? I think that’s very offensive. And so I think with her, for example, she just messaged me the other day from India. And she said that one of the problems is that I just am not really validated by my family, by my society. And so I thought that was a really clear indicator as to why she feels the way she does.

Shinjini Das:                      And then I would say another reason is that the media, and here I will go out and do all in blame, the media does nothing to uplift women’s intellectual abilities. And I think that’s the other thing. So they’re looking around them for inspiration, for motivation, and really they’re seeing models. They’re seeing actresses. They’re seeing singers. And they’re saying, “Wow. That’s great.” And they get more attention and more money that I do as a chemical engineer. So why bother? Because that forms their perception of what the world values, so the world is telling them that we value booty and boobs, [inaudible 00:30:53]. Right?

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah.

Shinjini Das:                      I think that’s a real problem. I mean, I just do.

Melinda Wittstock:         It is. I think one of the most critical aspects of success, and I have a pattern recognition brain, and so I think of all the almost 500 women that I’ve interviewed for this podcast now. And we have to create our own communities, our own supportive communities. If we’re not getting that from our parents, our friends, our society, the media, whatever, it behooves us to go and find those people that are going to help reinforce our value. This is one of the reasons why I have retreats for female entrepreneurs, and do so many masterminds and things like that, which is not my core business. But this is why I do this podcast as well, because I believe that women really need each other from a place of abundance, where we’re literally … Our hashtag is #LiftAsWeClimb because we need to help each other. We need to open doors for each other, promote each other, mentor each other, buy from each other, invest in each other, that kind of thing.

Melinda Wittstock:         The first step is with the individual in seeking out that community and surrounding themselves with the right people. And often, that’s the hardest step. So when you’re talking to women in your age group who are interested in entrepreneurship or whatever, what is it that maybe prevents them from taking that first step? Are they just not aware that that’s what they need to do? Or is it more like, oh, I’ll never be accepted? Or what is it? What is it that stops them from surrounding themselves with the right community if they don’t have the right community around them now?

Shinjini Das:                      Yeah. Super great question. And I get it. Thank you for asking that because I am dealing with a lot of my friends who are generally unsatisfied, I would say, with their careers, or again, sort of clogging the hamster wheel. [crosstalk 00:32:54] exciting. It’s really so exciting. And so they absolutely are not satisfied. And I am getting messages from them. And this is my personal community, so friends, Georgia Tech, women, again, really, really, really sharp women. Intellect or ability is not the concern.

Shinjini Das:                      I’ll tell you, these are actual facts. So number one is I don’t know what I would start a business in. So this is exciting to me. Obviously, the liberation is fascinating, but I just don’t know what I would build something in, as in whether you want to say, “I don’t really have an area of passion yet. I’m not really sure what I stand for yet,” so I’m hearing a lot of that, that I like it, it’s cool, but I just don’t know what I would do, which I think is a very valid reason. [crosstalk 00:33:43].

Melinda Wittstock:         I’ve been in so many mastermind groups where we do all kinds of exercises about: What did we love to do when we were four or five? Because there’s lots of clues. What do we like to do when time is … You know when you’re doing something you really love to do, and time disappears?

Shinjini Das:                      Yes.

Melinda Wittstock:         Right? That’s a clue. There are different things to really kind of figure out who you are. Why are you here right now in 2020 in an earthsuit? What’s your purpose? And it starts there for sure. Sometimes being around people who have that sort of purpose inspire you, so that’s why what you’re doing is so important.

Shinjini Das:                      Yes. And I think also what I didn’t realize, or I would say what I underestimated, fully, fully, and I can totally say that, is the power of social media because when I first started I thought, “Oh, my God. Do I have to do this? I just want to go the media platform. That’s what I want to do.” And I think that’s been my goal from day one. I want my own app. I want my own TV channel. I want my own digital platform. I want my own world. I want my own go getter world. Why do I have to do social media? This is ridiculous.

Shinjini Das:                      But when I literally just, last year when I was in Honduras with the US Department of State, I’m in their US speaker program, which is basically US citizen experts who are educating US embassy countries and their audiences on key US embassy issues. And so one of, obviously, as you have said, US embassy issues is entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship in developing countries, digital entrepreneurship. And so I was there with these girls, these kids, young people, 16, 15, 14. And one girl, I will never forget this, Melinda, she came up to me. She said, “I’m in medical school,” in Spanish because I speak Spanish fluently too.

Shinjini Das:                      So she said, “I’m in medical school, and I just don’t have any role models around me of professional women. My mother, everyone is a factory worker. And so there’s no one in my family who’s a professional woman, who has a job,” sort of as you would say, white collar job. And I said, “Wow. Absolutely. You can be the first. You’re a go getter.” I did my spiel. And she looked at me. She said, “I follow you now on Instagram, and I’m not going to give up on medical school because of you.” And so I saw that, I heard that, and that’s when I realized that in a community like in Honduras, or some of these other very difficult countries for women, but really for everyone, they don’t have an outlet. So there’s not really a place where they can go to find like minded women, like minded females. And so Instagram and social media becomes this relatively inexpensive lens to a greater future.

Shinjini Das:                      And so in front of me, she pulled up my stories. And she’s like, “Look. I love how pretty you are. And you love fashion and you’re an engineer. You inspire me.” And so just in that moment, I realized that, oh my God, because for me, I’m like, “Oh, my God. I’ve got to post again on Instagram.” It is. Right? It’s a little bit of a struggle sometimes. But I still remember that day, Melinda. And I said, “You know what, that’s probably what I’m doing it for.” I’m not doing it for, wow, I’ve got to post this [inaudible 00:37:10] post in stories today.

Shinjini Das:                      I’m really doing it for her, that she can see me, and being just an independent woman. That’s why I post so many stories. Here I am, eating alone. Here I am, shopping alone, because I just want them to know that they’re enough. And they’ve always been enough as a go getter. And so social media sort of becomes this lens to a brighter future. And that’s not something that I realized coming onto social media because it seems a little vain at times. I mean, I’m not going to lie. Right? Especially if it’s all your own brand, it’s kind of about you. But I’m really energized by this because I now realize that it’s not about me.

Melinda Wittstock:         Right. Exactly. Yeah. I think this is so true. And so I’m intrigued by your background, industrial engineering to media. What was it that made that leap? And how do you bring in the industrial? I mean, do you bring in the industrial engineering background into the sensibility of the media company that you’re building?

Shinjini Das:                      Yes. Absolutely. Every day. I’m so happy you asked this question because absolutely every day. And it’s interesting because going back to your point of what you do in your masterminds, Melinda, this whole: What did you do when you were four? What did you do when you were five? And I’m not even going to lie to you, Melinda. I have spent my whole life on stage, so lead dancer, lead actress, lead whatever, anything you can think of I was sort of the center. And speaking happened. I discovered media because in middle school I was just elected to give the eighth-grade graduation speech. I said, “Okay. I’ll do it.” At the time, I think I was valedictorian. I think I was the first GPA. But I didn’t realize that, oh, you have to give a speech, or anything like that. So the PTA president said, “You have to give a speech,” parent teachers association.

Shinjini Das:                      And I said, “Okay, cool.” Obedient child, because that was before my go-getting days. Basically I said, “Oh, adult told me to do this. I’ve got to do this.” Right? That was my mentality. And so I did it, and I couldn’t leave the room because everyone said, “This is what you have to do.” Literally, moms, dads, kids, everyone. They said, “This is what you have to do.” And my mom and I looked at each other and we said, “Do what?” Because at this time, I’m 14. And we don’t know about public speaking. I mean, Indians, not to be overly … Well, whatever. But we don’t do this typically. Right? And I didn’t have any examples. And so when all of these people told me, “You should do this,” I said, “What is this?” And they said, “Public speaking.”

Shinjini Das:                      And I said, “What?” Like we literally just fell from the sky, both my mom and I. And so long story short, this has been the path of my life. And so media is actually the only place where I feel welcome. It’s the only place where I feel like I belong. It’s the only place where I can show all of me, so being a dancer, being an engineer, being an actress. None of these are “inappropriate,” whereas I feel like in corporate America, I did get a little bit of that pushback of: What is this? Why are you on TV? You’re supposed to be doing your job. Right? And so there’s this idea that, no, but being on TV is my job. Right? And so, but that’s TV. That’s not your job.

Shinjini Das:                      And so I think for me, I was looking for that creative expanse where I could be all of myself. And by the way, even when I won all these public speaking competitions, I told my parents. I said, “There is no way I am majoring in communications in college. There’s no way I’m majoring in marketing,” because I already knew. And I think I was precocious [inaudible 00:40:54] that I’m already good at that stuff, like winning all these speeches. I wrote everything myself, no feedback from anyone because, I mean, not to be rude, but no one had the skills to help me. My parents, I mean, they were not really coming from a speech background. So what are they going to help me write my speech? That’s not really what I think would say that their strengths are.

Shinjini Das:                      And then my coach was more of a guiding force. I think she also said that. Why don’t you make this your own? And so I was a solo writer. So I was writing these speeches myself on how to not stereotype, how to be more involved in American politics, as a 15 year old, and I won everything as a national finalist, state champion.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah. [crosstalk 00:41:41]. That’s all amazing. But how, again, just getting back to the question, how does industrial engineering inform how you build your media company?

Shinjini Das:                      Yeah. So that’s what I’m saying. So because I was good at all of that, I decided I would major in industrial engineering. That’s the point. So because of that, I’m going go the other way.

Melinda Wittstock:         I see. But what do you take from industrial engineering? Because I’m fascinated by cross discipline stuff. I have a theory that in business when we kind of cross fertilize and take things from different disciplines, it’s really the seed of innovation. So I’m just curious how that applies to how you run your business now.

Shinjini Das:                      Totally, totally. So I think, Melinda, I have a training and processes. I have a training in optimization. I have a training in efficiency.

Melinda Wittstock:         Got it. Yeah.

Shinjini Das:                      I have a training in modeling. And so when you think about just the lifecycle of content, and I ended up … I talk like this, but I realize that most media professionals do not talk like this.

Melinda Wittstock:         Well, but you see, why I’m so curious about it is that this is how all my businesses have been media businesses that are data driven, technology driven. I’ve innovated algorithms around content, all this sort of stuff. Right? So I have a very similar sensibility to you, and that’s why I’m so intrigued by it.

Shinjini Das:                      Yes, beautiful. That is everything that we want to do. So right now, I’ll just tell you on a day to day basis how I’m sort of using my analyzation, I would say, skillsets are I’m really creating a flow for my audience. So they follow me on Twitter. What next? Okay, great. So do I send them a DM? Why do I send them a DM? So in my mind, I’m like, “Okay. If I send them a DM and they reply, that means they’re all in.” If they’re all in, we move them to the next funnel. So there is a sense of organization and structure underlining my processes, whereas I feel like if you look at most social media influencers, it’s sort of all random and all over the place. Right? And who gets a DM? We don’t know.

Shinjini Das:                      So I think for me, there’s a real structure around everything that I’m doing. And of course, as we’re looking at my media platform, I’m already segmenting my audience to say, “Okay, great.” Here are my awesome go getters, who maybe can’t afford my consultation, can’t afford my memoir at 26. But at the same time, who are great social media evangelists, so they play a different role because in our studies, we were taught that there’s one variable, and not everyone is a player.

Shinjini Das:                      And so in my situation, instead of me trying to force my products on everyone, which is not really feasible in my demographic because they can’t pay, et cetera, et cetera, I’m having sort of two separate classifications of people, so it’s two separate groups. So in my mind, it’s [inaudible 00:44:26], so it’s an equation. All of them have to equal one. I mean, that’s really how I think. So I think that is a very powerful deconstruction tool when you’re dealing with so many data points.

Melinda Wittstock:         think when you’re thinking about media and the way media is really moving, it is actually a data driven business. I mean, the technology allows us the ability to really understand audiences in a way that broadcasting and newspapers and all the old media cannot. And I think still, we’re still kind of at the infancy of that, which is why … So I launch a podcast network very soon, within months. And in that podcasting network, it’s really an audience engagement platform that’s gamified. So for podcast hosts like me and many others that I know, the ability to actually own our own audiences, like really know and engage down to the individual is a secret to monetization. And it’s the secret to really making content really relevant. I just think content is best when it’s conversation.

Shinjini Das:                      Yes.

Melinda Wittstock:         Like truly interactive. You know?

Shinjini Das:                      And personalized, which is everything you’re saying.

Melinda Wittstock:         Absolutely. Every business that I’ve done has some element of that, including the fifth. And what’s nice is where I was way, way, way out on a limb doing the beginnings of AI in 2010, 2011, around content and crowd sourcing and all these different things. The difference now is it’s much easier to build a business when you’re not trying to educate an entire market like I was. I was trying to educate. User generated content was new. Mobile was new. The cloud was new. Unsupervised machine learning was new, all these different things.

Melinda Wittstock:         Now it feels, oh, God, what a relief that these things are kind of a little bit more established so you can innovate with a little bit better timing. But I think what you’re doing is super cool. So let’s kind of wrap up by, I’d just like to know where you’re going, what your ultimate vision is. We’ve got this amazing decade of tremendous energy, I think, and an opportunity as women to really step into our full feminine power and remake business in a way that suits us better, more plays to our natural strengths. So where are you going to be this time in 2030?

Shinjini Das:                      Oh, my goodness.

Melinda Wittstock:         Do you have a clear view of that? Where do you want to be?

Shinjini Das:                      Yeah. I think so. I think so. So everything that you said, Melinda, is totally up my alley. I’m actually specializing in data science. And I want to get my master’s with a specialization in engineering and data science. So everything that you’re saying in terms of [inaudible 00:47:24], algorithms, personalization, content delivered to you, for you, conversational, I believe in all of that. I hope that we’re able to innovate in all of that with my media platform and everything that we build to again create this more sort of suitable media experience for my audience, because I’m sort of targeting very specific niche of people who need motivation, et cetera, et cetera.

Shinjini Das:                      But really, I think where I personally want to go and want to be is, and I think you hit that, which is I really want to step into my own power as a woman in business because I feel like I no longer have to play by men’s rules anymore. And I feel like I have left that party a long time ago at this point. And so I don’t need to go back. And I think you’ll see from me a lot of personal brand initiatives. I want my own talk show. I want my own suite of shows and et cetera, et cetera on the various streaming platforms, and my own talk show.

Shinjini Das:                      But from my media company, I think you’ll see just a whole suite of go getter central products. You’ll see the tours. You’ll see the media platform. Every day, I want go getters to look at me and my products and my media platform as a source of motivation and inspiration for them to go get their goals. And I think in terms of ROI and impact, girls in Ghana finishing law school, becoming lawyers, doctors, engineers. And then they start working, and then their salaries are contributing to their country’s GDPs. And somewhere, I influenced that, or we influenced that, the Das Media Group in the future. So I think you’re going to see scale. You’re going to see large operation. But you’re also going to see a really tight structure because I think that’s just what I believe in. I’m a very tight person, so I think you’re going to see just not a whole lot of wishy-washiness. Right?

Shinjini Das:                      So everything’s going to be targeted, everything’s going to be for you, simple, but at the same time, with scale. And happy, I’m really looking to also have fun in this next decade. The last decade was a lot for me. 18 to 28 has been a lot from just milestone, after milestone, after milestone, just a lot of work. So honestly, as simple as it sounds, the next decade I’m really looking to have fun. I’m looking to be in balance. I’m looking to have a lot of personal time. And I think that’s possible if you hire well. I think it’s possible if you build the right team, if you have the right energy, because I’ve faced some health situations recently, et cetera, et cetera. And I thought, “You know what, it’s good that I’m getting this out of the way in my 20s because I don’t want this in my 30s.”

Shinjini Das:                      I really don’t. I’m trying to be this full life woman. And I think part of that is not just business. And it’s not just work. Right? I want to do a whole lot of philanthropy initiatives. I want to help people. I want to just be a source of joy for them. And that’s not always working every day. So I think you’re going to see a lot of diversity from me and us, and it’s going to be really beautiful because it’s going to be the full picture.

Melinda Wittstock:         Okay. That’s awesome. Wow. I’m excited for you and all the women that you’re inspiring and helping. And Shinjini, I just want to first of all just thank you, but also say: How can people best find you and work with you?

Shinjini Das:                      Yes. So social media’s the greatest tool, Melinda, if they want to follow me at Speaker Shinjini. That’s S-P-E-A-K-E-R-S-H-I-N-J-I-N-I. Again, like we mentioned, we are building our digital media platforms, but for right now, social media is the greatest tool to get motivated to be a go getter and go get your goals in 2020.

Melinda Wittstock:         Fantastic. Well, thank you for putting on your wings and flying with us.

Shinjini Das:                      Thank you for having me. You’re amazing.