Episode 10: Shradha Balakrishnan
“If we live in the present and are grateful for what we have in our lives today, we will be much more ready to take on the next challenge in our personal and professional lives - if we are looking too far out, we will end up stumbling.”
"I smell adventure and that's where I need to go."
Shradha Balakrishnan, Product Ninja, Go Daddy, on Studying in Japan and Traveling To
ver 50 Countries
Shradha Balakrishnan is a product ninja who gets things done. Except, Shradha is a multilingual ninja, who is fluent in the Hindi, Oriya, and Japanese languages, who has traveled to over 50 countries and who also happens to be an Indian Classical dancer and teacher. And to top it off, she has her own Hindi radio program on travel.
Shradha is a seeker for adventure with many incredible stories to share. She not only traveled to many countries around the world, but she also impacted the lives of thousands of women in the Middle East and North Africa in a positive way. Shradha has proved that you can make a big social impact without a large monetary investment.
Podcast Details
Find out from the podcast how Shradha:
- Was the first to go abroad in her family and found herself in Japan as an 18 year old from New Delhi, India
- Stayed on to work in a Japanese company and learned to communicate in the traditional “kaisha” culture
- Was at sea for six months on a "Peace Boat", discovered the country Eritrea and sailed around the word to 25 countries
- Got into global social impact programming, where for the first time, women from the Middle East and North Africa became a theme in her life
- Introduced technology tools to rural women and as a result empowered over 10,000 women
- Navigated careers in the for-profit and non-profit sectors
- Realized that the only thing constant about life is change and that sorrow/joy are simultaneous
- Discovered her own passions during the year she took off
- Pursued a MBA/MPA a coast away from home
- Believes that “the biggest professional decision you’ll make is the person you marry”
Shradha has an amazing story with many twists and turns. Her confessions for success is to get to the goal you've set for yourself while enjoying the journey getting to the goal, listening to yourself and trusting your gut.
About Shradha
Shradha Balakrishnan is a recent dual degree graduate from Kellogg (MBA) and Harvard (MPA) who is passionate about driving social impact through technology, policy and human connections.
Originally from New Delhi, India, she spent 6+ years studying and working in Japan before moving to the US over eight years ago. Prior to graduate school, Shradha managed technology-driven social impact programs sponsored by the US State Department in the Middle East and Africa at the Institute of International Education (IIE). Over the last couple years, she has spent over six months interning at Dropbox, where she put her communication and relationship-building skills to use in the product marketing and business development teams. She is currently building on her experience in international markets, marketing and product management at GoDaddy's Hosting org.
Fluent in Japanese, Hindi and Oriya, Shradha has traveled to more than 50 countries and is also a classical Indian dancer, who continues to learn, teach and perform Odissi.
She is an ENFJ (MBTI), an off-the-charts Type 7 Enthusiast (Enneagram) with Communication, Empathy, Maximizer, Connectedness and Woo as her top strengths (StrengthsFinder).