Tell us about Ayushakti. How did it come into being?
Ayushakti was started by my late husband, Dr Pankaj Naram, and I in 1987, prior to that we were practicing Ayurveda for 12 years after which it struck us to share our knowledge and experience with the world and we wanted to make a difference in the society by curing people going through long lasting chronic health problems with the natural powers of Ayurveda.
In the beginning, it was just us, but within three years we started getting good results for our clients, our customer base started growing and medical doctors from Italy and Germany invited us to collaborate with them.
Within no time (in over five years) we had massive customer base due to good word of mouth across the globe and it became difficult for us to manage which lead us to grow our team. There were more than 12 medical doctors who published case studies, research papers proving efficacy of Ayushakti medicines which helped cure breathlessness, joint problems, depression, and allergies.
In my opinion, there is no women or men empowerment. There has to be 'human empowerment'. I think men and women are equal, it’s just the matter of perspective. As women we should never think any less of us and the same goes for men as well.
At Ayushakti, we never believed in only selling products but helping people in removing the root cause of the disease. By 1999, we realized it was time to give back to the society and we started training doctors, till date we have trained more than 500 doctors across the world.
And now we aim to expand Ayushakti as much as we can globally and create awareness about the India’s ancient health science, Ayurveda.
What drives/motivates you?
My late husband, Dr Pankaj Naram, and I always had a vision to help people who are suffering from chronic health problems through Ayurveda. To constantly do better and the urge to give back the society has motivated me to keep working and growing.
As an entrepreneur, what does woman empowerment mean to you?
In my opinion, there is no women or men empowerment. There has to be 'human empowerment'. I think men and women are equal, it’s just the matter of perspective. As women we should never think any less of us and the same goes for men as well.
As a women entrepreneur it is important to believe in yourself and decide a motivating factor, which would drive you to keep moving forward. No matter what business you do, it is important to focus and keep working towards your goal.
What are the challenges that you faced? How did you overcome those?
We started really early, with the help of my husband we were able to grow and expand at a faster rate but after his demise, my challenges had begun to handle a big team with our franchises all over the globe, it has been one long journey. In these dynamic times, where trends keep changing it has been my challenge to keep growing with these trends, to learn, create and evolve with time, wouldn’t have been possible without my excellent team. As far as challenges are concerned they are always going to be a part of any business journey but the spirit of not giving and working towards finding the solution with determination and hard work will help overcome any challenge.
As a women entrepreneur it is important to believe in yourself and decide a motivating factor, which would drive you to keep moving forward. No matter what business you do, it is important to focus and keep working towards your goal.
What message/tips would you give to aspiring women entrepreneurs?
As a business owner, I would like to advise aspiring women entrepreneurs to firstly believe in themselves, to have a strong vision or goal which you would like your organisation to accomplish, with some right amount of research on your targeted market and audience will help moving forward. Change is the only constant, hence making sure to always be updated and never stop learning and keep exploring new spaces through innovation. Confidence, determination, and passion will definitely help you reach your goal. And, I strongly believe in never giving up and to overcome all the challenges with courage.
How can Ayurveda be used in our daily lives in these trying times?
Ayurveda is known to be the oldest healing science and it can be used in every moment of life. According to Ayurveda there are three dharmas:
To prioritise health and family.
To earn huge amount of money by taking the positive root.
To donate certain percentile of your earning to the welfare of the society.
Ayurveda tells us to focus on our health on daily basis by following three principles:
Understanding your body and balancing it.
Eating the right food that can help you digest easily and go through a detox process if any access toxins are found.
Nourishing your tissues.
If you follow these steps of the process it will definitely help you to nourish the tissues and following this daily will lead to a healthy lifestyle.
