Jay Shetty & Anjula Acharia ON The #1 Skill That Makes People Say Yes

What if the key to building a billion-dollar brand wasn’t only a meticulous ten-year plan, but rather the ability to navigate life entirely mapless?

In this On Purpose episode, Jay Shetty invited Anjula Acharia, an entrepreneur, investor, and founder of A Series Investments, an early investor in companies like Bumble and ClassPass, and the longtime manager of Priyanka Chopra Jonas. Acharia’s career has always followed her instinct and the power of cultural connection.

How Media Influences Our Daily Lives

Acharia’s journey began in Buckinghamshire, England, where she grew up in a predominantly white environment and faced severe racial bullying. She shared with Jay Shetty that her childhood was marked by racial slurs and physical assault as a South Asian in England. One day, after the British TV show Grange Hill aired an episode featuring a stereotypical and poorly portrayed Pakistani character, the bullying intensified as her peers used the character’s name as a slur and questioned if her parents were like the caricatures on screen.

Acharia understood early on the power of media and how siloed, stereotypical stories can directly affect the safety and treatment of regular people in their everyday lives. Watching how figures such as Michael Jackson were treated by the media fueled her desire to protect and manage talent. Acharia told Jay Shetty that she used to sit on her windowsill, look at the stars, and vow to protect stars like him.

For Acharia, being socially rejected as an outsider became the foundation of her future success. She learned that she could turn not fitting in into a superpower, and use her experiences to create a world where diverse cultures were celebrated, not mocked.

A Multicultural Background Is a Strength

Growing up, Acharia felt isolated, not only in school, but also within her community. Having parents with diverse religious backgrounds only amplified her imposter syndrome, often feeling not Hindu enough for one side of the family and not Sikh enough for the other. Additionally, growing up in a predominantly white area, she didn’t speak English like other Indian Londoners, further alienating her from the community.

Acharia admitted to Jay Shetty that she felt like she didn’t fit in anywhere. Yet her multicultural background taught her adaptability from an early age, a skill that came in handy when she moved to Silicon Valley and entered the global entertainment industry. Instead of seeing her mixed background as a deficit, she embraced and later championed it in music and business.

Validating Cultural Mash-ups

Acharia’s first major breakthrough in realizing the power of her unique voice came when she co-founded Desi Hits, which started as a podcast featuring a blend of hip-hop, Bhangra, Bollywood, and R&B. She told Jay Shetty that she was at a university nightclub in London when a DJ played a mash-up between British and Indian music and Acharia finally felt like she belonged.

Later, when Jay-Z released a collab with Punjabi MC, it became clear that the cultural landscape had already shifted; people no longer hid behind rolled-up car windows to play Indian music, but could now proudly play it for everyone to hear. This moment of collective acceptance through music deeply influenced Acharia, and she realized that it can bring people from diverse backgrounds together to enjoy the same rhythm and melody.

When Acharia pitched her ideas to major industry figures, she often used anecdotes to convince them of the untapped potential of cultural fusion. Raising $5 million for her mash-up idea was the validation she needed that it was a viable business model.

Mapless Road to Success

When it comes to her business approach, Anjula Acharia confessed that her career is mapless. She never had a fixed destination in mind for any of her ventures. She often didn’t even know there was a business idea in her passions until someone else pointed it out to her.

Acharia is driven by passion rather than a predetermined path. She told Jay Shetty that, for everyone wanting to become an entrepreneur, it’s essential to talk about their ideas openly, because others may give you insights and perspectives you may have never considered before. She encourages young people to become comfortable with uncertainty and trust that their unique interests can lead to unexpected opportunities. Leading with instinct allows a level of flexibility and innovation that a traditional roadmap may otherwise stifle.

Value-Adding Networking

When Acharia first moved to Silicon Valley, she knew no one and felt deeply insecure. She began attending South Asian tech meetups, and eventually started running them. Because she felt like she had nothing to bring to the conversation, she resorted to connecting people with similar interests. By making other people’s lives easier and adding value through introductions, Acharia made herself indispensable in any room she entered.

According to Anjula Acharia, being a connector makes people even more valuable because it builds a reputation for bringing others along rather than gatekeeping. She advised Jay Shetty’s audience to be curious about what others are doing and find ways to add value along the way. In her view, networking isn’t about handling business cards or asking for mentorship; it’s about building an ecosystem of mutual support.

The Mentor Picks You

Acharia told Jay Shetty that she doesn’t believe in mentees choosing their mentors, but the other way around. She shared her own story, highlighting how her success in bringing Priyanka Chopra to the US impressed the former CEO of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi, who offered to mentor her. The condition for Nooyi’s mentorship was that Acharia would always follow her advice.

When it comes to mentoring herself, Acharia applies the same philosophy; she also chooses her mentees based on the potential she sees in them. She told Jay Shetty that mentorship shouldn’t be forced but should develop naturally through personal connections that eventually evolve into a mentor-mentee relationship. Acharia and Jay agree that you can’t force someone to invest their time and focus in you; it can only happen organically. Moreover, a mentorship is a two-way street; the mentor can learn from the mentee, too.

Listening to Others and Her Instinct

Acharia told Jay Shetty that her ability to trust her instinct drove most of her success, which she described as an inside-out force. She quickly learned that listening more than speaking would allow her to identify patterns and get exceptional foresight before others. So she decided to invest in ClassPass after hearing multiple people talk about quitting traditional gyms in favor of specialized classes, as her instinct immediately told her the signs pointed to success.

Acharia also trusted her instincts when it came to Priyanka Chopra Jonas’s career; when creating a pop star didn’t yield the desired results, she quickly pivoted. Acharia had already observed a cultural shift toward on-screen inclusivity and a growing trend toward more diverse female leads. So, she convinced Chopra Jonas to audition for Quantico, which turned her into a global superstar.

In addition to being an astute trend observer, Anjula Acharia also created new patterns. Jay Shetty noted that her ability to observe what others were doing around her allowed her to build the infrastructure for these emerging behaviors, even disrupting established industries.

Mainstream Endorsement of the South Asian Culture

Acharia is deeply passionate about bringing South Asian culture into the global mainstream, especially after the bullying she suffered as a child. She shared a story about putting Lady Gaga in a sari during a visit to India; Gaga loved it so much that she had it redesigned into multiple performance costumes.

For Acharia, seeing a global icon welcome her culture was a direct mirror of her efforts: to bring the Indian culture to the world rather than trying to fit into someone else’s. After a lifetime of being marginalized, she admitted to Jay Shetty that seeing her culture celebrated was a much-needed form of healing and validation.

Compared with other Western countries, South Asians have historically been underrepresented in the United States, Jay Shetty observed. Acharia’s goal was to find a middle path for those who didn’t feel like they belonged in either culture: Indian or American. To Anjula Acharia, true integration means seeing South Asian culture represented and accepted in mainstream entertainment.

Failure Isn’t the End

Despite her many successes, Acharia’s life wasn’t always glamorous. She opened up to Jay Shetty about her struggle with depression amidst Desi Hits’ collapse, the breakdown of her marriage, infertility struggles, and her sister’s health issues. When she arrived in Los Angeles, she had already reached rock bottom, praying for a way forward.

While asking for a sign, Acharia understood that her circumstances wouldn’t improve until she changed. So, she moved back to Silicon Valley and started proactively asking for jobs instead of waiting for an opportunity to come her way. Anjula Acharia’s failures didn’t make her a pariah, as she had feared, but, instead, they taught her important lessons.

Jay Shetty shared that pain is often the doorway to realizing your true potential, and, while you hold yourself to high standards, you must also give yourself grace when things go wrong. Similarly, Acharia believes that failure didn’t bury her; instead, it made room for a new, more authentic stage of growth. So, she encourages the audience to approach life with love and kindness, starting with the way they talk to themselves.

Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

Looking ahead, Acharia encourages entrepreneurs to embrace the possibility of a multipreneur who manages multiple projects at different speeds. She told Jay Shetty that the old rhetoric of focusing on only one thing is outdated; in today’s world, you can be a CEO, a podcast host, an investor, and a mentor all at once.

Building a foundation in one area, such as content or acting, provides a platform to expand into brand deals and new business ventures. Acharia explained to Jay Shetty that, in a fast-moving world, you need multiple streams of income, so you stay covered in the eventuality of one failing. For example, modern talent management now requires building an entire business ecosystem, as streaming rises and film residuals disappear.

Moreover, Anjula Acharia observed that AI will be the next major disruptor in the talent industry. In her view, a successful model involves artists owning their data while using AI to scale their personal brands with minimal personal resources. She shared with Jay Shetty that the key to success is having smart people around the artists who can help them navigate the ethical and secure use of new technologies.

More From Jay Shetty

Listen to the entire On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast episode “Top Entrepreneur Anjula Acharia: The #1 Skill That Makes People Say YES (Use THIS Strategy to Turn One Conversation Into Multiple Opportunities)” now in the iTunes store or on Spotify. For more inspirational stories and messages like this, check out Jay’s website at jayshetty.me.

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