It's off on the side. What's up? It's Gandhi and uh fun fact. You will hear the audio at some point. But Diamond and I started recording this and the topic got so disgusting that I actually had to stop it and pause it because we're going to have a lovely, very classy guest on today. Her name's on Jula Acharia. She is basically like a serial entrepreneur. She has multiple businesses, she invests in stuff. She has some cool stuff on
the way. But the conversation we were going to be having leading up to it was disturbing, And now Diamond feels sick. This is a tease. Now you have to stick around and wait to hear it another day. I will let it see the light of day at some point. But how you feel in Diamond.
Sick to my stomach? Sick to my stomach?
Okay, she said, I feel like Danielle.
Oh, I'm trying to catch my breath.
I really am, because that was wild, right, what a tease. This is the best tease ever. We might just have to release it on its own, like, not even put it with a guest, because I feel like I don't want any of the guests to go and listen to their interview and then be like, why why would you wrap my interview in such a conversation?
Oh yeah, like a mini a minisode. Yeah, Whe's just like, I don't know how many minutes of us making me feel like you're gonna throw up?
But it's okay, it's so gross. So anyway, how was your weekend, Diamond?
It was amazing?
Would you do that's a very great reaction. What was so amazing about your weekend? Honestly, I don't remember what I did on Saturday. Uh oh, I went to a pilates class, left early, blah blah blah.
Okay, but I found I fell down the rabbit hole of the stud buds and I love like I love them.
Talk about the stud buds. Who are the stud buds? Where do you find them? And what is the content that they're bringing? The Diamond actually said them. By the way, Diamond doesn't fangirl out about anybody, like maybe she showed up for like beany man to like wave from the corner, maybe like burna boy. It's like way from the corner. Some football players, and she's a huge Jets fan. Doesn't do anything but the stud studs she's obsessed.
Ever in this building, I probably will either do a cart will which I don't know how to do, or pass out. I love them.
Why don't you try to book them on the show?
Okay, okay, okay, her season is over? Oh no, what I already look, they'll be here next month. What's up? Uh? Yeah?
Okay.
So they are two w NBA players, Courtney Williams and Natitia Hydeman, and they are the funniest people on the planet.
What's a stud a lesbian who explained to people uses, I don't want to say, just dresses like it's the dudes, like the hardcore dude lesbians that you look at them and you're like, she can probably find a guy.
Yep, very strong, very male, male coded, I guess.
But they are but women, they are ten out of ten.
Diamond's obsessed. She was tackling this morning. When I was walking by the stude, I was like, what are you doing? Said the stud buds? Oh my god, I can't get enough of.
The stud bud. So this past weekend was the WNBA's All Star Weekend and they were in Indiana and they did a seven two hour live stream on their twitch.
First of all, insane.
It's insane, but it was worth it.
Did you watch seventy two hours of the time?
Now if we watched seventy two hours worth of content on TikTok of them, but not necessarily like they're but it was. I mean, I'm so happy because I spent my weekend just laughing, laughing. And then of course we have Rodney. He was mixed in there on my TikTok algorithm, Rodney Rodney, the real Frank Gallagher who is in Philly. Ten out of ten. He was drunk this weekend, of course, and so that.
Was Tenddy's kind always drunk, isn't he?
Yes, he is this weekend. He actually had the bottle in his hand, so it was like, oh okay, but yeah, stud buds, Stud buds. Ten out of ten content. They showed inside the parties, the all Star weekend parties, and everyone was drunk, grinding on each other. And I think that that's something that we don't think of when we see lesbians walking down the street.
I certainly do you do? Okay, well you ever been to lesbian bar?
No, ma'am, yeah, no, that take you on my encounter with a girl.
I'm sorry, what what do you mean your encounter with a girl.
I like, flirted with a girl in a club once and we exchanged numbers and then she just kept talking to me via like text message.
Were you interested?
No?
Okay?
I just was like, oh, you're cool whatever. I like the attention. And then I realized, like why men say that their wives talk too much? Because she just was talking way too much. I'm like, I don't even know you like that. You're texting me back to back to back, relaxed.
She was showing interest.
I didn't like it.
She was all the way there for you. Yeah, okay, good time. How long ago was that?
Probably ten years ago now? Oh wow? Yeah, okay.
I have a decent amount of lesbian friends and I've gone to decent amount of lesbian bars, and I will say the lesbians and lesbian bars are just as aggressive as straight men and straight people bars. It could get scary and intimidating. And I feel like there's actually a line that lesbians will cross with me that a straight guy will will not cross as much. But sometimes I'm like, hey, whoa, hey, whoa, what are we doing? Was I giving out the vibes?
I don't know, I don't know you might have been.
I don't think I have vibes if I'm being honest what you're around me constantly? Do you ever think that I'm flirting with people?
No, but you do give domb vibes. Yeah, like you like to take control or something like that, And maybe maybe that's what people read.
You know, they're like I just we've talked about this so many times that if ever a person feels that I am flirting with them, I one hundred percent can promise you I am not, because if I am coming off as smooth or charming or in any way likable, I'm uninterested.
Yeah.
When I am interested, I am an absolute freakazoid weirdo. Don't really know how to make sentences embarrassing. We'll ask you about your favorite cheese, like just disgusting. I'm a horrible person. I don't know what else to say. I just look at them and I'm like, they know they know how I feel, which like, oh, my big age, why do I care if you know? Why would I
care if you know? But it takes me right back to like seventh grade me where they cannot know because I could be rejected and feel like a big loser. So I just know it's not happening. I will leave a room. That's how you know I'm interested, I'm not there.
And then what do you do? Just stalk?
No, just nothing ever happens. I just remove myself from the situation because I feel so weird about it. I can't believe I've ever had boyfriends. They've all had to approach me, like convince me and approach me to talk to them, because no, absolutely.
Not kind of the same but not really at least I stalk.
You stuck, like go like look at their Instagram and stuff.
Yeah, I watch everything. I'm like, oh, is that a nail in the background be on the table behind them? But and then I have guy friends who I'm like, hey, I think this girl might be with my crush. Can you watch her instant story? And they do it, but she's like for.
What, you know, a lot of the people who I've been around in some capacity, most of the guys I talk to somehow do not have a large online presence.
All Oh, I love that.
They're my favorite guys. Those are my favorite people who just don't really give a crap about Instagram and trying to impress people. I get picked out by guys who take like selfies and stuff? Uh yeah, why are we hypocrites about that? I'll take a selfie and I'll post it and I want you to like it. Why can I not let someone else do that? That is a man men used to go to war. Please, They're still going to war, babe.
And they're taking selfies? Please? Yeah, we my toxic trait or my toxic opinion. What men used to go to war and now we're taking selfies and like, please is it toxic?
Also? Did you want that guy that went to war? Because when those guys were going to war, they were doing a lot of other stuff too. There has to be a happy medium. I don't need one of the guys from three hundred like from the Roman Empire. Not interested in that. Also, not interested in the guy that takes a gym selfie every day and licks his lips while he's taking the video. I'm specifically talking about one of my best friends who does it, and I'm like,
I hate you. I told him he's a decent looking guy, works out all the time, he's fun. He I think you've talked to him before because he's like, ooh, Diamond, I love diamond anyway, I don't want to say his name, but he was talking about how he was just not having any luck on any of the dating apps, and he's like, what the fuck? Like, I linked my Instagram profile to it, and I just don't understand why nobody likes me. And I was like, well, that's why, because
your Instagram profile is atrocious. Every picture I'm gonna show you, every picture is him in the mirror. Oh, there's not a woman on the planet who wants something like that, at least I don't think. I don't know the women on the planet who wants something like that. But it was atrocious. So he finally unlinked them, and guess what, My dude, all of a sudden had match after match after match after match, and then he linked it again because.
You know what he said.
You know, he said, I kind of respect this. I got to be myself. I don't want to I don't want to lure someone in being somebody else and then all of a sudden they find out who I am. Are you ready for this?
Yep?
What are you doing?
If you see that running?
It's all the same thing.
Every single one, only there's a different rap lyric under each photo. Nope, Oh, Oh anyway, I love him and he is a really great person, but this does not represent who he is as a person. It's atrocious selfies, not cool. All these videos of like dudes who are blowing up right now like they get ready with me in the morning things. I'm disgusted.
We used to go to war, okay, and now you're setting up a tripod and doing the same thing four times in a row just to get up. Come on, man, if.
You think about the behind the scenes of really anything that people end up posting, it's awful. The behind the scenes the making of is awful, embarrassing. That's the stuff they need to post because that'll make people feel a lot better about their lives. Then, and we know people here who have amazing Instagram pages. But when you think about, wait, how long did it take you to make that? And what was the actual behind the scenes it please, we're gonna be those people who are like the old people
that they're like. Can you believe they didn't like guys who are obsessed with themselves? Can you believe it?
Can you believe it? I could believe it.
Men used to go to war, they did.
They used to chop down trees for wood and heat. They used to kill animals for us to be able to eat.
Okay, but we don't have to do that anyway, We don't, thank God do that.
But come on, they used to fix your tire. It like how you pulled over on the road. Now they just drive by recording themselves singing lyrics to a song. I'm sick of it.
There is definitely it appears to be that there's been this shift where so many men do you want to be treated like the princess, and so many men are of this, Like I am the prize. For sure, you could be a prize. Maybe both of you are prizes and you are equally prized worthy of one another. However the hell you would say that, I don't even know. Maybe that can be both. But the guys who come in there are like, I need somebody to worship me. I am a prize. I am a high value man.
What did we learn the other day? A top tier man is just.
The average woman, the average woman.
When you go through the definition of what a top tier man is, it was like, has a job, lives in his own apartment, has a headboard, has conditioner in the shower, likes his family, like are you kidding me? That is literally every woman I know sick and they take care of themselves and everybody around them, and they don't call themselves top tier in high value. It's crazy.
But there's a whole video right now and TikTok of and it's gone very viral and there are lots of responses to it that a top tier man is in fact just an average woman Clocket. I say this all the time. I'll say it again. That is how you know sexuality is not a choice. If I could not be attracted to straight men, I would not be There's like nothing worse. Straight men are like what why? Why do I like this?
What you?
First of all, our boy Andrew. You know what I learned about him over the weekend. I love him. He is colorblind. He was sitting there trying to tell me colors things and he was completely off and every single one, but he doesn't accept or acknowledge that he doesn't know colors. He just kept barreling down the path that I was wrong, and I was like, hey, man, let's ask somebody else. And then the person at the story we were with she was like, yeah, guys can't really tell colors, So
they don't match. They just do weird things. Straight men not really my cup of tea. However, I'm very attracted to straight men. If I could be attracted to women, I would love to be. I want to be.
Well, that's why I tried to text the girl one.
That's so funny. Who's outside pissing you off? Right now?
Everybody? Why everyone?
Are they staring in here and trying to get your attention talk about things?
Yeah? And texting me even though I've responded about things, and I just don't understand it. But I'm gonna try to breathe through this.
Do you want to name names? Who's out there?
Danielle Delolo?
Oh no?
And now Celia just walk by. I'm almost positive is because they're walking back and forth about this.
So on that note, because we have to go grab this interview, we're going to get into Angula Acharia. I explained who she was. I think you'll be interested in her life story and you will enjoy this. Okay, I am here with Angela Acharia? Did I pronounce it correctly?
Perfectly?
Perfectly? How do people slaughter it?
Well?
Most people try and call me Angela. Even my fiance's mother, who is dacy, Indian South Asian calls me Angela. It's hilarious. Actually, I've noticed that more Indians have a problem I saw it. I should say South Asians to be inclusive, but I find that more South Asians have a problem with my name than like white people these days.
That is very surprising to me. That is weird, all right. And when she says dacy, I asked, we were talking before the actual recording started, and you use the word dacy a lot. I asked, Diamond, do you know what the word dacy means, just in case because it will probably be dropped a lot right now. And she said no, which that makes me assume most people listening are probably also going to say no. So will you explain what they s means?
I will. So the word actually derives from the word dish, which means the land, and someone who's dacy is of the land, So it's basically replies to anyone who's South Asian, and eventually at some point came from the land of South Asia, so India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka. And yeah, so we've been using the word really for the diaspora and non resident Indians and our rise for a long time to describe who we.
Are there you go. So when you hear that word, we are talking about our country folk.
Yes, people from South Asia essentially.
So you may not recognize the name Aula Alcharia, but that is what we are here to change, because you will recognize a lot of the projects that she has been part of. And one of the things that I like to do with this podcast is either leave people with something to think about, hopefully, teach them something, or give them an actionable item. And I think you're gonna be able to help us with all three of those things.
I will definitely try.
Okay, So when I say that you are the name behind a lot of really massive projects and people, your bio here, this is quite quite a lot. Oh, I'm gonna read what it says here, okay, okay. Anjula Acharia is a trailblazing entrepreneur, talent strategist, investor, and cultural catalyst known for building global platforms and cross cultural careers. Her unique work sets at the intersection of celebrity, technology and culture, shaping who and what we pay attention to on a
global stage. In regular words, what does that mean to you? That's quite a mouthful. Yeah.
You know, I've had this super varied career and I believe in just like finding the opportunity. And I believe that every single day there is like a million opportunities, but because they don't fit in with our plan, we don't pursue them. So I decided to live my life not like that. I decided to live my life with just looking at opportunities every single day and seeing what feels good in that moment. That is not the Dacy way,
by the way, It's definitely not the Dacy way. But I've never been a true day see from that perspective. So you know, because of that, amazing opportunities have come to me and my career has just like literally catapulted into different areas. So I've been an investor for many, many years. I've invested in companies like Bumble, Bulletproof, class Pass. I was actually the first investor in class Past, which
is a fitness platform. Now I think everybody knows what class Okay people don't still, but yeah, it's sold for over a billion. Obviously people know the dating app. And then I've done a lot of work in CpG, which is consumer packaged goods. I worked for a venture fund for many, many years, and then you know, I also became an entrepreneur because I knew the investor community and
was able to raise money quite easily. So I raised money for a startup called dacy Hits, and through that it was a platform for cross cultural content from Hollywood to Bollywood. I did everything like take Lady Gaga to India, launched Britney Spears in India, took emy kand Glaziers, worked with Rihanna and really sort of gave them a global gateway to the South Asian diaspora, which you know is one fifth of the world's population, so it's a really
staggering number. There's one point two billion people in India. Touring is really like blowing up there. But I was really at the start of the journey kind of. I would say, fifteen years.
Ago, you founded a company called a series. It's investment in management, right, But where does one even begin with something like that, to say I would like to be an investor. Where do I get the money and how do I figure out what I want to invest in?
That's such a brilliant question because it's brilliant because I founded a company called Dacy Hits, which I fell into founding. So basically, me and my ex husband built a podcast back in the day when really no one was podcasting way before you yeah you were in your diapers not oh, I think you probably were. And we put this podcast out of like they see music mashed up with hip hop and bunger and Bollywood with R and B and it just went vi.
So that was at the time. To Beware of the Boys was like everywhere you go and you're Indian, you walk in, people are like, I have a song for you.
Oh my god, seriously. So it was just after that, and it's so interesting you brought that up because when I founded Dacy Hits, I got an investment from a guy called Jimmy Iveen who was the founder of Beats by Dre and Interscope Records, and he introduced me to Jay Z and was like, Jay, do you know what the impact of your song had on on the South Asian community, on the DACY community. And Jay was like,
I just love the beat. I was like, Jay, do you understand like this was a cultural movement, a moment. And I was like, this guy's too cool man, but how do.
You even get your foot in the door to meet Jimmy Iovine and to start investing in these companies.
Yeah. So it was such a crazy story. So I was working in venture capital more on the recooning side, working for Vcason.
So that's a good start, Yeah, working venture capital.
But I wasn't in venture capital. I was basically a headhunter for venture capitalists to find like CEOs for early stage. And this podcast that me and my ex husband Ranch Bath went viral on its own. It was called dacy Heads Okay, and it just went super viral. Anyway, I called my dad and I was like, oh, this went really viral. My dad goes, you're abusing the rights of the rights holders for this music. You better build a
company because otherwise they're going to take your house. And he was freaking out.
That's such a daisy dad, all the way that is going to get taked, right.
And like I just was like my second house, right. He was like, don't let anyone take that house. So I panicked and I said to my ex, I was like, hey, we we need to build a company an LLC around this. Our house doesn't get taken. So we did it, and I was with these vcs and I'd mentioned that this podcast has gone viral, and the next day I received a twenty four hour exploding term sheet for one million dollars to fund the company. Now I didn't really have a company, but I did because I had an LLC
because I didn't want them to take my house. But I didn't really see it as a company. So when they were like, oh, we want in in your company, I was like, this is insane. Anyway, So we ended up taking that million dollars and building it into a platform which is called dacy Hits. And then a year later, we're now raising five million dollars to build the platform out more. And everybody's on this whole India trip, like all the vcs are like India's like crushing it, one
fifth world's population, like digital you know, proliferation. So we were kind of on that wave. So I'm now raising five million dollars. And one of the VCS, his name is Drew Lipsha. He said to me, I want you to do some due diligence with Jimmy IVY and I used to work for him, and if anyone knows pop culture, it's him. Anyway, my first meeting with Jimmy's hilarious, because he counsels on me. I fly to La, I get land, and he counsels a meeting because Gwen Stefani has some
emergency that he has to deal with. So I was like, screw that. I fly back to Silicon Valley. I end up not taking that term sheet and I went to d SHAW, which was a hedge fund, and they founded my Series B at five million dollars. So I moved to New York and randomly I'm having lunch with that VC that great craft Drew and he says, you never met Jimmy, did you? And I go no, he canceled it on me, and I was like so full of
attitude and like, but I don't need him anyway. I raised five million without him, and he was like, no, you should just really like you should. You should meet him, like he's going to change your life. So then randomly I'm in LA and Jimmy has fifteen minutes to meet me, and he's like, take the fifteen minutes because if he
likes you, you'll be in there for four hours. He likes me, and he gave me like the fourth pair of Beats headphones, and we like just riffed about everything about brands, about marketing, about global strategy, and next thing I know, he's shoving like millions of dollars in my pocket.
And you just say this so casually like that happens to everybody. It does not, you know, I feel like it now three times you got the first million, then you got five million, then you got millions from him.
Yes, but I don't like it can happen to anyone if you're not selling, if you're inspiring, this is this is like Okay, I didn't realize I was doing this at the time. I didn't realize that I was inspiring Jimmy to go on this journey with me. I was just talking about my journey so passionately and he wanted
to come on it with me. But now I realized, and I can dissect that and say to people, don't sell, talk about what you're really passionate about, and the right people will find their way on your journey with you.
And that's kind of what happened. Like Jimmy was, you know, he'd done everything built, he was building beats by dre, He'd already had all these global successes with fifty cent eminem like you know jay Z, like you name it, he'd done it all, and you know, most of these people are looking for something different and unique that they've not done before. So I also was very open to everything that was going on around me. So when I saw he was interested in something, I doubled down on that.
That actually brings me to a question. You are probably pretty well versed in pr and building brands and all that kind of stuff, and what we see now everywhere you look is somebody trying to sell you something. The rise of the influencer has really taken over. I actually get very when people try to call me an influencer because I'm not trying to sell you anything. I promise you that's not my goal. I want people to do
what they want to do. But to these baby influencers or people who are trying to build their brand, if you're telling them don't try to sell, how do they build their brand? What are they trying to do instead? Where can you point them?
You know, look, I'm going to tell you what worked for me, and what worked for me was to be truly authentically passionate about what I'm doing and talk about that from that place of sincerity. People that align with that will come along with you.
So it's what we like to say all the time. Authenticity is actually what's winning at the moment when you truly care about something, follow that thing you truly care about, don't try to follow the crowd much to your own own beat, of your own drummer.
Right, I mean, I just think you have to be super truthful. Like you know, I always cite Pyle Kadakia like she had no fitness.
She's from class past.
Correct, Okay, she had no fitness background at all. She didn't know anything about Finnis. She was a very passionate dancer who had a problem trying to find a dance space to have a class. But she just came at the problem in a completely different way to how everybody else was trying to solve it because she was just
really passionate and truthful in her journey. Right. So that's the thing I think, Like I say, I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs are just trying to find this problem to solve because they think they want to make a billion dollars, right, and that just doesn't generally work.
Authentically, I would like to make a billion dollars.
Yeah, authentically I would too.
That would be great. So you when you say people are trying to pitch you. So most people know, hey, she is an investor. Let me go to her with something. Because I'm saying this for a reason, I should say asking this for a reason. I have a billion dollar idea in my head. Yeah, and I don't know where to start.
Let's go.
I'm not going to tell you right now in the air because I don't want people to steal it until it's completed and I've done the first thing with it that I want to do. But I'm very excited. I do think it's going to be something awesome. I keep telling Diamond my five year plan is that that is what I want to do. So fingers crossed it.
So you seem very authentically passionate about it. I had my company, I'd raised money. So pyle Kadakia found me and ca to me with this idea and I kicked the tires on it with her, and I thought she was brilliant from the moment I met her, and I knew she was going to be someone. I said to her, I will help you try and raise money. And I was introducing her to people and saying, oh, you should fund this company. It's really good, and they were like, have you invested And I was like no, because I'm
not an investor and I don't invest in stuff. And people just didn't really go along with it. So then I go back to part and I go, I think I need to invest something into your company, but I'm an entrepreneur myself and her very much, but I can give you your first ten K. So she was like amazing, thank you. And I was like, and I can also incubate you into my company and I can give you
free office space. And people started coming along on the journey, and then Pyle just went out telling everyone what an amazing investor I was because I've given her space, i was helping her out, i was mentoring her, and suddenly all these women were coming at me to invest in them. And that's how I fell into it. So I say all the time to people, I was like, you don't
actually have to invest money. Sometimes you can just invest in your time is where equity and your knowledge could really help someone, and if they give you small piece of equity for that, you can really start building from there. Okay.
So one of the things that we like to talk about on the Big Show all the time that's the Elvis Ram Morning Show is that the path to success is not a straight line that just continues to climb up. The way you're talking right now, it seems like your path to success has in fact been a straight line climbing up. So tell me about some things that were not necessarily as clean and easy. Yeah, what's a failure that you've had? Make people feel good about themselves?
Yeah, I will, Well, they sy Hits was my biggest failure. Okay, it sounds like a great success, and in many ways it was. I always compare it to Napster, and I say Napster was a big failure, but Napster built the way for Spotify, and they see Hits failed like it failed, like I didn't make any money out of it. I didn't return the money to my investors. And by the way, Jimmy, I been on my second meeting with him after him giving me millions of dollars, told me it was going
to fail. And I was like, by the way, at lunch with jay Z, like said, don't be offended.
Why you got to embarrass me in front of him?
Right he did. He goes, don't be upset, it's going to fail. Why because I was wait early and he told me I was fifteen years too early. He goes, I know pop culture, you are so way ahead of the curb, and you know basically it's going to fail now, but it will be ready in about fifteen years. And I said, but Jimmy, you just gave me all this money. Why did you give me this money? And I was like, I thought he was joking with me, actually, and he said, because you're an album, not a single, and I want
to go on this journey with you. And it's crazy because we signed Piankatropra Jonas together and she popped and we had a success with her and we.
Had more her manager at the correct yea yeah, and I.
Have been for the last fifteen years. And I went to India to go and seek her out and convince her to come back here with me because I knew that I could, you know, make the star that she is today. And by the way, I was so depressed for like six months to a year, where she knows because she was hit I need a chalatengy over there, she knows I was. I was really depressed for about a year and I thought I was so embarrassed at
my failure. And then I remember having lunch with Jimmy on his veranda at his old house and he was like, I told you this was gonna happen.
He was kind of like, it never helps. The idea so never helps, Like why you upset?
Like I told she was gonna happen, But you're could have go on to do great things. But that moment you couldn't see it. I couldn't see it. Like he asked me to come and work for beats with him, I had too much ego. You know, definitely had way too much ego. I should go and work for beats and made billions of dollars. Yeah. So, and I've had so many failures, Like I mean.
It's all part of getting to your success. But you learn from it. That's that's okay. So that's the thing that I would like people to chew on for a little bit. Failure is part of success. Absolutely happens all the time to learn exactly right, And we see so many people you get knocked down once and you're like, that's it. I failed. I'm not gonna get back up. No, you have to get back up and you have to try again with better knowledge because you've learned from that
last experience. So if you are listening and you're working on something you failed, it's okay. All of us have and we probably will again at some point because.
I mean, my other thing is like, if you're disrupting, you have to fail, like because you're disrupting something and no one's disrupted before. Like, actually, I will say, the best lesson I ever got was, you know, if something's not working, that's okay. Like I had this view with Dacy Hits where if you just keep going and you keep going, and you keep going, you don't give up me, you don't give up a venturely you'll succeed. That's not true. Like you have to pivot, you have to change your course.
You have to be flexible.
And coming from the Dacy family that you come from, was it expected that you were going to be a doctor, an engineer or something like that, or did your parents know this one's gone off the rails and going to do something completely different from the jump.
Can I tell you something, I just I just wasn't very good at school. I had dyslexia. I went to school with dyslexia when no one really knew what it was, and my parents didn't think I was very clever at all, so they really didn't have much hope for me. And you know, the only person that did really believe me was my sister. She passed breast cancer a couple of years, but thank you. But yeah, I don't think my parents really had much much belief thought I was going to really be anything.
So that makes me feel good in some ways because the only person who I think ever had faith in me from the very very beginning was my sister, and she's my favorite person in the world. When I first started working in radio, there was zero money. They used to pay me in gift certificates, so I lived with her for free. She paid my rent, she paid for everything. She's older, so she's.
To shout out.
She's the greatest. She is the theacy child who went on to get the white coat in the stethoscope.
Good for her.
But she always said, I just know that you're going to do something different, and she always supported me and my parents when I first got this job, and sometimes to this day they will ask me what I'm going to get a real job? Really still now it's it's lessened now, but it still happens every now and then. Like, Okay, you know what's the plan. B. I'm like, yeah, I don't have a plan B.
This is it.
So this is either sink or swim. Hopefully we're swimming. So far we've been all right.
But they being great without armbands without it.
It's an interesting thing and I think, especially coming from the culture that we come from, to try and branch out, step out and do something different. But I love to see so many people doing it. And I ask you, when you say you've introduced so many people from this part of the world to South Asia and the culture there, what do you think it is that makes a successful crossover.
Yeah?
You know, I learned this amazing story from Lady Gaga. So when I took Lady Gaga to India, everyone was like, you're gonna change her. You're gonna change her. And everyone in India was telling me like, do not bring Lady Gaga here. She is a vegetarian country and she wears meat dresses. This is true. Like they were like, this is not going to resonate. And I believe that anything
can resonate. I really do. And you know, I sat with Gaga and I said, tell me what's really important to you and The two things that came up were like, she said a bunch of things, but was food and God. And I said, when you come to India, just talk about food and God. Oh and she loves to tea as well, So I was like talking about God and tea and she came and that's what she talked about.
And she also, you know, India was going through kind of this kind of LGBT crisis where you know, it was illegal to be gay and all this kind of stuff, and she really reached out to that community in a really meaningful way. And yeah, I mean, I think it's just a case of thinking about what's truly important to you and what resonates with that new market that you're
you're trying to expand to. So you know, I learned that from her because she kept saying like, oh, you're going to try and change me, and I was like, no, I'm really not. Everyone was like, don't talk about this, don't talk about that. She's too you know whatever, like she's too groundbreaking for Indians, and I was like, don't underestimate our people.
I've noticed quite an interesting divide when it comes to Indians and the way that they respond to me. It is because because Dandhi is my great great grandfather.
Oh no way, oh yeah, oh wow, yeah wow so world, No, not at all.
I was just born into a family. I'm just as impressed by it as other people are. But because of that, he was.
Your great great Graham Vosa.
The pictures of my uncle with him in the ashrooms and all kinds of obviously the last name stuck.
By the way, just so you know, there's a memorial of Gandhi in Union Square. You know that I do. Yeah, so everyone want.
Everyone go look. But because of that, there are certain expectations of what they would expect me to be like, and I am not meeting those expectations. So a lot of people have a lot of shit to say, none of which is nice. But then they expect me to be walking in his footsteps, which is a crazy thing to expect.
Can I just stop me for one second, because you are walking into footsteps? Can I tell you why? Because he was a disruptor and he didn't do things the way everybody thought he should do it. He went to law school I think it was in Oxford and decided one day that he wasn't gonna wear those clothes, you know, what I mean, Like, he was a disruptor. He decided for a non violent demonstration when everybody was. You know,
he was a disruptor, and you are a disruptor. So I think you are absolutely following in his foot.
Well, well thanks. I like to think the same thing. But I always say I am a descendant. I'm not a disciple. There are people out there who will call themselves disciples, and you can hold them to that standard, but that is not me, and I think you would very much support it. So we have this one group of people who like to say you are an embarrassment to your family, shameful, this is awful, how dare you
change your last name? Get out of here? And then there is another demographic of people, and it is often split among age groups who are incredibly supportive and say I love to see this. I love to see something new, something that's not in the vein of what everybody else is doing. And it's just a fascinating dance with the two sides of India, and I like to see it. That's why I'm asking, like, what actually works over there at the moment.
I say, India is one point two or three billion people. Everyone's different one size does not fit all.
It's tough to explain India to a lot of people who have not been there, because I say all the time, it's not like the United States, where you could go from Florida to Tennessee and you can have a general idea of what the culture is going to be.
Like I mean, think about the foods. Yeah, foods are like completely different.
Like the Lessard did a different the people, which is different. Correct, different states were colonized by different countries of Goa, which is very heavily Portuguese. People look different and it's a totally different thing. It was a bunch of kingdoms that all came together as one. So it is tough as diamond and I will always talk about to look at them as a monolith because everyone is so different, and India's the biggest population in the world, so why would
you think we're all the same? Correct, it's odd. But I'm glad to see what you're doing and how you're merging the two cultures because that's important to me as somebody who straddles the line on both. Are you feeling good about it?
I'm feeling great about it.
Yeah, So what's up next for you?
So right now, my thing is I just launched this label with Warner Music Group, with Warner Records. Just give a shout out to my guys there, Aaron and Tom. I started this journey, like you know, fifteen years ago with Jimmy Iveen. We did everything from like Jehu to launching Priyanka, but still the platform itself, the label was failed. And here I am back here fifteen years later with
a different group of people starting this journey again. So I'm like at the beginning, and then I was realized, Yeah, accomplished all these failures. They were pretty good.
It seems like some pretty big wins within the last Yeah.
No, no, there were some winds along the way. Now you got me focused on failures.
Excellent, the lay way.
Exactly focus on your failures.
And just quickly you mentioned the project that you're working on now, which is new, but you didn't mention the name of it.
Yes, it's five Junction Records. It's in partnership with Warner Music Group and Warner Records, and you can find us on Instagram.
Five Junction. Is it the number five?
Yes?
Okay, easy enough.
But yeah, so now I'm on this journey again to really sort of you know, lift the voices of South Asian people everywhere here in America. And I really believe that America is I know people hate me saying this, but I do believe that American pop culture influences the wor.
I think it's our biggest export. Correct If you ever think about what is America exporting, we are exporting pop culture. And you see that when you travel the world and you see the sneakers that they're wearing, the hoodies, whatever it is. So I understand people having a problem with it, but it is a fact.
Yes, So people say eighty million America is not the center of the world, like blah blah blah, and I was like, it's not the center of the world. Actually, But if I'm in the pop culture game, and I'm in the culture game, then it does start here.
So what are you excited about pop culture wise that you see coming up?
You know, I think we're in this really fascinating time like today that Journey's evolved so much that Pharrell is using Indian music and Indian culture and Indian clothes at the Elvie Men's fashion fashion show in Paris, and I just feel like we've really come a long way.
So you're happy to see it. You don't feel like it's appropriation that pisses a lot of people off.
You know, it's funny. No, we love that people are embracing our culture. We love that it's proliferating. And no, I'm cool with it. I don't have these hang ups about what's.
It called appropriation?
Appropriation in general, I'm all about sharing culture. I'm all about people embracing everybody else's culture and doing it without fear. Like I have this the Valley Party every year that I throw and like people say to me, like I have like what you know, non Indian celebrities that come, and they'll be like, I would love to wear a lenger, which is like the shoe, you know what that is, But it's like a big skirt and a little top. Sometimes it's a bigger top. Or I'd love to wear
a sari, or I'd love to wear this. But I don't want to be you know, appropriate, Like I don't want to culturally appropriate. And I'm like, no, just go for it, like you know, I mean, it's like I'm sitting here in a dress in a jacket. I don't feel like I'm appropriating Western culture because like I'm from India, right, you know what I mean? And I'll make my own version of anything I want. So yeah, I'm all for it.
So there's something to think about, is failure as part of success. There's something to learn how to invest and ways to invest outside of just money. Now, if you want to leave us with actionable items. If you are somebody who's trying to build a business or trying to build your brand, what do you think are the most important steps to doing that?
Well, one thing I would say is like you've always just got to think really big. And I always say if you dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough. I'm always in a constant state of fear.
I'm always doing things that I'm like, right now, you're scared, right, I'm Petria.
Okay, Yeah, I'm always making the phone call that nobody wants to make. I'm always just like kind of in a state of fear. Like I'm always doing things that scare me. And that's okay, Like I've kind of got used to that now, that adrenaline. Maybe it's funny. My fiance is a firefighter in New York City. Shout out to him, and I feel like, you know, we both thrill seekers in totally different ways. Like he goes into burning buildings and he doesn't know if he's coming out alive.
I go into phone calls or meetings and I don't know if I'm coming out alive. Not in an obviously physical way, but in an I mean, I might come up with some crazy idea that people think of is absolutely stupid, and counsel me, like you know who knows. Don't be afraid to feel scared. Like there's this quote that I live by, which is minds are like parachutes.
They only operate when they're open. Your mind has to be open all the time, you know, and it might change your journey, and maybe that's exactly what you need.
I think that is a great note on which to end. If people want to find you online, they want to get you to invest, or maybe they just want to follow you, how can they get ahold of you? Or do you even want them to get a hold of you?
Well, honestly, I take most find someone that knows me, and I take most.
Like, well, now they're all going to come find me, Yeah they will.
I take most things by referral, Like at this point, there's so many people like approaching. So if find someone that knows me that can vouch for you and tell me that your idea is worth listening to. Otherwise I'd be literally every day just listening to ideas.
Please do not approach me. I don't know a lot of people and I'm not vouching for them. Okay, find someone else.
I find someone that can vouch for you. And I think that's right for anyone. Right if you're trying to contact anyone, find someone that is a common link between you and that person and get that person to vouch for you, because then they'll take you seriously. But otherwise, you can find me on Instagram and ju La Charia. I think it's Aeula Underscore Charia. Yeah, I think that's the way to find me.
Okay, well, I'm sure you're going to be getting a lot of people coming to find you at this point. Those dms are going to be blown up with lots of ideas and requests.
But the best thing is that you're going to come to me with your idea. I will that's going to make you a billion dollars.
I'm so close, as you said, I am hoping by the end of next year when I get fired. This is going to be the way that I still survive.
Yeah, but you know what, if an opportunity comes before, then take it.
Oh no, I will every day of my life. I am one step closer to being fired, and I'm ready for it. They say no, it's never going to happen. I know it will, so I'm counting down.
We'll see.
Thank you so much for coming by. I appreciate fun. All right. Diamond found a lot out about somebody today. I had no idea.
Loved it, loved her.
She's very nice. I like the accent and I need one.
And she met jay Z, which means that she kind of met Beyonce. You know what I mean?
Oh, I bet we should have asked her, do you have access to Beyonce like you do with jay Z. Also, every time she said Jimmy Iveen, I thought about Eminem because those two are buddies, like hello, sun it up. I love them either way, I love it. I love to see Indian people doing big things with Western culture. And now we have to scoop because people are waving at us. And look at that Diamond is yelling at somebody. All right, if you want to catch Diamond online. It's
at Diamond sincere. If you want me, I am at Baby Hot Sauce Like, follow, subscribe, We love you and we will see you next time.