Today we’d like to introduce you to Anvika Jain.
Hi Anvika, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, you could tell our readers some of your backstories.
I was born in Montréal, Canada. One of my first observations was how languages were the basis of human interaction. I was exposed to three simultaneously. Learning French as my first, followed by English and then Hindi, I normalized diversity as core to humanity. As I grew up, the grays started seeping into some of the colors of my world. I painfully realized that how people taught was the core of our humanity, not diversity. It dawned on me as a teenager how we process emotions as the prerequisite to everything. I began studying emotional intelligence for fun, genuinely. Apart from being an athlete, an honor student, a dancer, a sister, a daughter, and a friend, I didn’t know then that I was developing into becoming a Certified Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Practitioner.
However, I could not pinpoint a career in EQ at the time, so I hugged it in with science and pursued medicine. The accelerated medical program brought me to a school that changed my life—the State University of New York at New Paltz, aka New Paltz. New Paltz was tucked in the mountains, garnished with ponds inhabiting families of ducks, turtles, birds, and foliage. In autumn, the multicolored trees embedded on the side of the mountains would bring color back into everyone’s hearts. Although fortunate to attend school, I had to work to stay in school. By sophomore year, I worked three jobs; as a TA in Chemistry, at the school gym, and as a tutor. While you would think I was the one helping students, in reality, it was quite the opposite. Through them, I discovered a career encompassing more than science and math. Through them, I learned that creativity could be fused so eloquently into a need for any company. Through them, I learned about a career in Public Relations.
A year later, I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Public Relations with a double minor in Journalism and Biology. I remember taking 24 credits last semester and having the best time of my life. Can you believe that? Oh, that feeling, that feeling of doing something you love. That bar of potential graciously waltzes upwards. At 21, I began commuting to work through the streets of Austin and the growing high rises to this beautiful building on the lakefront. This building I would take the elevator to the 26th floor every day was Google. For the next five years, I got the opportunity to be in the belly of arguably the top tech company in the world, doing amazing work. I started in the recruiting space and took on projects that enabled me to travel coast to coast, leading me to Europe, where I solo backpacked. I left Google two years later, leading a global promotions program of 40,000 Google employees. In the heart of COVID-19, I landed a career shift into program management.
Leaving Google was a challenging feat. Disassociating my identity as a Googler, challenging myself to leave the warmth and comfort of the Google blanket, and using what seemed like a butter knife to break off the golden handcuffs, I finally voluntarily resigned in June 2022; to start a brand from the ground up, Nourish with Anvika, as an emotional intelligence powerhouse. The seed was planted when I realized our community needed help when I was just a kid; that seed sprouted when I learned how to help using emotional intelligence and started to flourish when I began studying Public Relations, which emphasized how you tell the story matters. By summer 2022, it was time for me to harvest this imposing and nutritional, mental plant. It was time for me to strike out on my own and build a community humanizing humans through the power of emotional intelligence. In less than a year, Nourish with Anvika has garnered over 200K viewership across @nourishwithanvika social media with close to 300 videos on Emotional Intelligence, accessible to all. With a forward community series coined, the UndeRRated Series amplifies the stories of our peers, and the Wise Words Series brings light to brilliant minds. And this is just the beginning.
You wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been smooth?
Conditioning was both a challenge and a blessing. Growing up, I was conditioned to think that success meant money and could only be accomplished through a couple of avenues. This conditioning closed my eyes to all the success I blatantly saw. Creative success. The movies I would watch, the books I would read, the art I would admire, I shut out any curiosity about the brains behind the work. This stunted my creative growth, slowed the pursuit of my calling, and challenged me to be someone else. That someone else looked exactly like me but was working on a different calling, not mine. While encouraging the pursuit of one’s calling is the goal, I am thankful I got to experience that other person. Looking back, this someone else taught me how to not only work but exceed expectations at an intensely credible company and to be uncomfortable and remain uncomfortable. Those experiences gave me the strength to be resilient and further the resistance to comprise my calling. Today, being an entrepreneur is a vibe. We have grown into a community that empowers people to strike out on their own, and we collectively, like Voyage Austin, celebrate that. This style of conditioning has been a blessing. I can’t even express my appreciation for this support as I independently navigate this ambiguous forest of business ownership. This overall conditioning has boosted my hope and self-confidence that my calling doesn’t need to remain imprisoned as a dream; that I can authentically actualize my mission to help the world.
Thanks for sharing that. Can you tell us more about your work next?
I am the Founder and Executive Brand Designer for Nourish with Anvika, LLC. As a Certified Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Practitioner, Nourish with Anvika is a place that exuberates emotional intelligence, with nearly 300 EQ videos and series that amplify one another, completely free. Nourish with Anvika is a platform that humanizes humans through emotional intelligence and together harmonizes the world.
Emotional Intelligence is critical to every human, yet it needs to be taught systematically. When we are born into this world, emotions are a packaged deal. Learning how to process these emotions falls entirely on us. More support, guardrails, and understanding must be in place to allow anyone to reach their truest potential and become the best version of themselves. One cannot get there genuinely, purposefully, and happily without tending to their emotions. Emotional Intelligence is the foundation for creating strong, powerful, and graceful mindsets that springboard you upwards rather than bury you down.
Emotional Intelligence, now more than ever, is endangered and needs to be embodied so we can collectively rise as a community. No matter who you are, what upbringing and conditioning you come from, what success or failures you’ve yielded, Nourish with Anvika is a safe space for you to take back control over your mind, water your emotional grass, authentically thrive as the blessing that you are and organically take that forward.
Who else deserves credit for your story?
It truly takes a village to create Nourish with Anvika. My emotional board of directors spans back to my childhood. From my mom, Kalpna Jain, who single-handedly raised my brother and me while learning and assimilating to a new country, my brother Madhur Jain who pushed me in ways I didn’t think I could, my sister-in-law Prachi Gadiya that showed me what a woman in business looks like, my mentor at New Paltz Linda Eaton who was my guardian angel when transitioning out of medicine, my peers and leaders at Google, my chosen family: Jessica Weeks, Trisha Chabria, Kyle Toussaint, Pamela Voloshin, Cassandra Swanson, Aseer Amin, Yesenia Sanchez, Arely Silva, Lindsay Smith, TaRea Betts (and so many more), my best friend for the past 14 years, Ashley Noble, my cat Eli and dog Phoebe whom on paper I’ve rescued but in reality rescued me, to the man who I call my inspiration, confidant and biggest advocate as I transitioned out of corporate, my boyfriend, Jeremiah Blackburn.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: nourishwithanvika
- Youtube: nourishwithanvika
Image Credits
Allye Brillante
