The Stepping Stone:

Considering her family background, she is the first entrepreneur in the family, be it maternal side or the paternal side. That itself had been a challenge to her, to start her career again. It took time to convince both the sides of family and slowly and gradually, things took shape and there she was- standing bold to start with her career as an entrepreneur.

Life Has Kept Throwing Surprises At Her:

The first one was back in the time when she had started her career and her family asked her to get married. Thinking that the process would take some time, she agreed to it and drew her focus on her career again. But little did she know about god’s plan! All happened so quick that she had to take a break from her career to focus on her marital life. When she thought of getting back onto the track, she had to shift to Bangalore, from Vadodara, in 2011 because of her husband’s job. As she planned of starting her career there, she had a set back as it was a compulsion to learn the local language, which was Kannada. She didn’t back out and went on to learn a new language from her landlord and in a brief span of 2-3 months, she had a grip on the language. Things changed again as they had to shift again to Mysore in a very short while. Being the fierce woman that she is, she started with her counselling practice in Mysore and gained 2-3 clients very shortly. As they had settled in, they had to shift to Ahmedabad in 2012. It took her almost five months to join her job at Riverside Ahmedabad. The trend of getting surprises continued as within a week of joining work, she was gifted with journey of Motherhood. She lost all hopes of being able to work in future, winded up her career and focused on being a parent.

Wake Up Call:

As time passed and Ms Joshi’s son started his schooling, she started wondering if she could get back on track again. It was then when she tried her hand on blogging as she wrote 2-3 articles on various topics and published them on her social media handle. Luck was in her favour! Reading her articles, one of her friends suggested her to start her own social media page and taught everything about Digital Media, in and out! This is when she started her page named Kiddush in 2015.

The Birth Of “Deval The Coach”:

There were times when the family opposed her decision to start her profession; she gives credits to her husband, who has always supported her and helped her succeed. After struggling for almost 1.5 years, Ms. Joshi started counselling again. Luck kept favouring her as one of her initial clients, impressed with her counselling, invited her to his office to conduct a counselling session with the employees on Stress Management. She hesitated initially, but she couldn’t turn down anyone and thought of giving this a try. Overwhelmed by the response, she continued to be with the firm and trained and counselled each the employees individually. She stood up to their expectations and got offered to be the all-time counsellor for the firm. She was so dedicated that she travelled miles, to the outskirts of the city of Ahmedabad, to carry on with her profession. Her creative ideas and strategies worked like magic and the firm showed a 20% growth! Her journey in the firm started at the Bottom Level Management and ended up at the Top Level. After a successful trial, she was then suggested to other corporates, and she continued to follow the same technique. Ahmedabad didn’t want her to leave, but as her life is filled with surprises, yet again, her husband was transferred back to her hometown, Vadodara, in 2018. Thus, it was time to take the next step and take “Deval the Coach” to the next level!

Deval The Coach- Back On Phase 1?

Though Vadodara was her hometown, coming back wasn’t that simple! Setting up the whole firm again was a difficult task to manage. Even after an experience of 15 years, the city demanded more and more. Ms Joshi was considered as a fresher in the corporate field because the city had seen her as Deval, and not as ‘Deval the Coach’. She was pretty confident that she will be able to manage firm in Vadodara. But the Vadodara’s corporate sector took time to accept her back. Even though she had been working in the profession for years, people still thought of her as a fresher. But she did not stop herself from working.

She started as an Expert Faculty for Life Skills at various institutions like Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and Master of Social Work (MSW) – M. S. University to name a few. She is proud to serve as an expert faculty of her own university and feels like she is delivering back to the institute that once helped her grow. And now, she also acts as a consulting partner in various companies.

Overcoming The Negativities And Overpowering The Positive:

Following the path of success requires the mind and soul to remain positive. “Managing oneself in midst of the negative aura around is a big task in itself”, says Deval. She says that initially the lockdown period had been a bit depressing for her as she had to maintain a balance between her personal and professional life. But when she looked around, she noticed that she wasn’t the only person to deal with this. There were a bunch of people who were in the same situation as she was. And things healed with time and she managed the two. She also said that “Since day 1, I promised myself that, in case, if I don’t get paid, I won’t spend on myself.” Words of wisdom in true sense! “I have managed myself like this and I always take a calculative risk because one wrong decision, and everything is at stake”, adds Deval. This step has helped her be on the safe side as she has been able to manage all her 5 employees, financially.

The Lockdown period has also been very beneficial as she continues to give lectures almost every day. Another great achievement for Deval The Coach has been the digital calendar training, in advance, for ONGC, GSFC and Sun Pharma. Not just these, but she has aso got international opportunities amid this period!

All’s Well That Ends Well:

Fighting all odds, Ms. Joshi achieved her goals. Till date, she has conducted more than 135 training sessions; she has 30 plus clients, 10,000 plus individuals and more than 40 workshops. She has been in the media several times and has been awarded the Women Achievement Award by Nari NGO, Women Start-up Award by Parul University and Instant Start-up Face Award by Feelings Magazine. She says “I’m still not satisfied. I feel that I have many more to achieve. I’ll keep going, no matter what.”

A Special Message For All The Women Out There:

The role model to many has her own role model! Ms. Joshi considers Ms. Geeta, the headmistress of Navrachna School (during her tenure) as her idol. “She has been a second mother to me, and been there during all the ups and downs of my life. She is someone I consider to be the reason behind who I am today.” says Deval. She quotes “There is no limit to cross your border. You have overcome all obstacles. Do not worry about the social restrictions. Believe in yourself and take the step forward. Things will definitely favour you!”