Asian Alliance India by Parul Yadav – My Story

Born and brought up in Gurugram, Haryana, I came from humble family background. However, the patriarchal mindsets prevailed throughout the household. Well, childhood is that you don’t control it; it is simply what surrounds you. In India, people often generalize career paths for women. Often gender stereotypes dictate that women are fit for domestic or creative work, while hard physical labor or intellectual prowess is reserved for men. 

These ideas are constantly reinforced by the media and society, making it easy for children to emulate and follow them. Well, I often found myself to be clutched within these norms. I was personally held back due to the perception of not fitting in the managerial roles because “I was not tough enough for corporate life or were too young, and emotional to take up the role.” My journey of catalyzing real change has been no less than a roller coaster ride. While choosing my undergraduate course, I had to go through so much family bias of not pursuing a liberal art course and going into law. 

Finally, I was able to pursue BA. (Hons) English Literature and Philosophy at Gargi College, University of Delhi. Fortunately, a safe community surrounded me to reminisce about my childhood and teenage upbringing and eventually unlearn years of problematic influences. It helped to shape my mind and continues to do so. I hope the process never stops. 

For me, living a whole life means being open to experience and persuasion, experimenting endlessly with new arguments and knowledge, risking ridicule by testing new ideas. During my years at university, I volunteered at the women empowerment cells and became a part of women-led organizations trying to impact their particular endeavors. I also interacted with women from nearby villages in Gurugram and Delhi. Eventually, I grew passionate about women empowerment and entrepreneurship to bring opportunities for young women. 

Society loves the idea to glorify and instill a sense of insecurity into you for the idea of being an entrepreneur. There are pros and cons to it, just like every other experience, and I found that that’s the key — realizing that it is an experience, whether you succeed or not.

Asian Alliance India Parul Yadav – We Believe India

The power of inspiring stories & motivational conversations

You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with. As an entrepreneur, one goes through extreme euphoria to despair, all in the same day. As often said, “you can’t find your passion thinking about it in your head.” I never had one specific source of inspiration but learned from multiple legacies of powerful and empowering women. The stories had a significant impact on my mindset!

I also love speaking to people across different age groups, professions and highly value the importance of networking and mentorship. My motivational sources have also been many people I shared my mind space and exchanged ideas with. 

I also believe that if you try new ideas, explore new avenues and try pushing the envelope. Failures may happen. The key is not to get bogged down by those. It also made me believe in the strength of the human spirit and understand that not only are we all capable of overcoming our most significant problems and crises. Difficult times can also bring out the best in us and help us emerge more robust than ever.

The good, bad, and the ugly

My happiest moment in life was when I learned to explore the differences from understanding and embracing diversity. My deep curiosity allowed me to connect with people meaningfully. As a leader, I valued that diversity of thought and learned to broaden my perspective in everything I did. I also believe that over time, virtue is its reward. People recognize how you are investing in them, and they reciprocate.  

On the proudest level, I have been exposed to many leadership styles. I have learned from both the good and the not-so-good – different leadership works for different people and personality types, but I have taken a little from each and developed the one I believe works for me now. Through these personal experiences, I learned to use my drive and motivation in unleashing the individual and collective capacities of young women in India. 

Hence, I founded a not-for-profit community organization called, We Believe India in May 2020. An initiative to create a mentorship program that strengthened women’s confidence, provided growth opportunities, and connected to a sustainable network. Members were trained on sustainable partnership building, community strengthening, trauma-informed responses, and classroom best practices. 

We impacted 70+ women from 6 state universities in India and shared 15+ professional coaching webinars, leadership training, and 100+ internship and scholarship opportunities. 

Lastly, my saddest moments in life have to be when I restrained myself feeling that I am not tough enough to speak up and battle the stereotypes. It has been mentally draining, but lastly, I have gathered the courage to seek inspiration and inspire others.

Asian Alliance India Parul Yadav

Challenges & overcoming them

I was overwhelmed with all the changes that were happening! The coronavirus pandemic has changed a lot of things about our lives in some pretty obvious ways, changes that you’ve probably heard all about—spending more time at home brought personal and social changes. I saw drastic changes in my productivity and behavior during the last year. 

It’s so easy to get caught up in insignificant things that have little value or think too far in advance. This idea got me thinking about how often I assume different perspectives on things that I shouldn’t even consider in the first place. I let out that toxicity from my life and focused more on manifesting my goals and dreams. Something that I am currently working on overcoming is Imposter Syndrome and the unreasonable doubt that it creates. I have found that speaking to others and reading how influential women have dealt with it helps move past it.

No regrets, Just experiences! 

I so far have no regrets, just experiences! Life by virtue is meant to be fully tapped and explored. You might make many mistakes, but the goal is to learn and emerge as a better person. Unlike a majority of people, for me, success is not fame and not money. I want to be remembered as inspirational and create a positive impact in people’s lives. 

Passion and Future Vision

I volunteered a lot! Like I would miss classes in college just because I was volunteering or working. Those were my first ‘initiations’ into the world of community development, storytelling and leadership. I was a volunteer who also taught me how to treat people. I attended international meetings and conferences where I spoke to, talked with, and got acquainted with many older people, ranging from ministers to top executives of multinationals.

But the vision grew as I became more involved in the development sphere and international networking. I realized storytelling and writing, and the media are powerful tools for amplifying voices and raising awareness. That’s how Asian Alliance India, as my latest startup emerged.

The problem we are trying to solve:

Public Relations and Communications is a part of the global corporate system influencing various Asian states and countries. The problem is that public relations (PR) remain a majority – White profession. A 2018 Harvard Business Review analysis found the industry is 87.9 percent White, 8.3 percent African American, 2.6 percent Asian American, and 5.7 percent Hispanic or Latinx.

ASIAN ALLIANCE INDIA

Going with the above analysis and other biases, many people often encounter limited knowledge confusing the profession with advertising, marketing, or event management. The industry has a weak reputation but a plethora of potential waiting to be tapped into the Asia-Pacific region. Often lack of knowledge and misconceptions around this booming industry creates a lack of opportunities for Asian ethnic minorities, women and men alike, in leadership roles. 

Hence, to bridge the gap and evaluate the political, economic, and cultural context in which the industry operates, Asian Alliance India aims to educate the Asian community. It aims to educate about the management function of framing the public relations profession as social science and intersecting social values to carry sustainable responsibility and partnerships.

We have built this community to build an Asian professional network in PR, build a strong support group among other public relations students, practitioners, and professionals alike.

Role of Asian Alliance India in solving this problem:

The ever-increasing technological world represents opportunities for diverse people to consume. However, content is not always accessible to everyone. As an online networking community, our goal is to be as inclusive as possible. Human society without ethics and personalization seems hollow. Asian Alliance India is working to create today’s public relations knowledge as a far more accessible asset, and its value is understood and utilized by far more demographic spectrum. Our purpose-driven values are adopted and demonstrated with the true purpose of educating and guiding students, graduates, and emerging practitioners to exhibit authenticity. We manifest and help articulate our mission with many norm-shattering and deep divisions in politics, media, and culture.

My message to the future generations:

As young students, we’re told that we need to work hard to get where we want to be. It is true but also reminds yourself that work doesn’t define you, don’t neglect the rest of your personality, the part that your friends and family love you for. It wasn’t too long ago that I realized this aspect of my life was taking over, and yes, I can’t fix it by clicking my fingers, but the first step is realization. 

Parul Yadav

Education and skills can help you to live like a pro if you use both. Moreover, it’s alright if you haven’t figured out life yet. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do or my passions, so I started early and tested different things. Remind yourself that no one has it all together. People who are business owners or out at big, fancy excellent jobs are not perfect. Social media makes it look like people are doing everything and more, but it’s not true. It can be distracting and put pressure on yourself that you aren’t doing enough. Don’t let it get you down. There’s no timeline to find your Ikigai.

A piece of advice to my younger self?

We always feel like we need to be more before we can become the best version of ourselves. If you can accept that you already have enough, then you’ll have what you need. To my younger version, I believe in your choices. So keep on blooming, learning, growing, and leading together with the life, ambitions you constantly desired.

How did social work start?

When I started, I wasn’t motivated by research. My drive to undertake these projects was derived from personal experiences, and the experiences of women we knew were hardworking but had faced similar challenges while in university. I wanted to create a mentorship program to strengthen women’s confidence, provide opportunities, and connect them to a sustainable network. While, of course, there is a ton of research led by consulting groups and other organizations that support the importance of developing our university women before entering the workforce, I want to share that We Believe India is more concerned with personal experiences than with numbers.

We Believe India

Ensuring that more female leaders emerge is a byproduct of our mentorship program. Still, our focus is helping young women feel confident and allowing them to explore any path they wish to take in life. We are hoping to grow this community and provide more robust connections between women globally.

The influence of family, community & relatives:

Initially, I had to overcome my self-doubts if I was good enough. I knew enough that if people listened to me, things would grow. The ability to balance my studies and say NO to certain people who wanted me to do stuff for them when I couldn’t do them was something I struggled with. So, I always felt drained, doing so many things simultaneously and feeling dissatisfied with myself and my plans. Also, it may not be fair that people make judgments so quickly, usually within a few seconds of observation, but it’s unrealistic to expect that they won’t. 

Hence, I did face backlash from certain people and my relatives as well. At the very end, take in all the feedback; filter out the noise and the naysayers; learn from your mistakes and try not to make them again. But whatever you do, do not give up. The race of subjugating the weaker and underestimating women is no longer in some other person’s hands. You are your inspiration.

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