Nutripreneur Of Month - Akansha Jhalani Sinha

Name: Akansha Jhalani Sinha

Company Name: Beyond the Weighing Scale

Work Profile: Akansha is a registered dietitians and plays various roles like that of an author, diet consultant, columnist, spokesperson, contributor to national publications, public speaker and clinical nutritionist.

Years of Experience: About 7 years

Mission: Empowering masses to look beyond the digits on their weighing scale when it comes to health and wellness. To educate people about food and to validate a nourishing relationship with what they eat. To unshackle myths around food and wellness, one bite at a time. 

Education: Akansha graduated with a degree in Food Science and Quality Control and post-graduation in Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics from SNDT University, Pune. She got certified as a Registered Dietitian in 2012. She has completed a teacher training certification in Ashtanga Yoga for Disease Management from The Yoga Institute, Mumbai. She also holds a certification in Cake Arts and Decoration and is chasing to become an Art Illustrator and doodler. 

Family Background: Despite coming from a big fat mawari family, Akansha's family made sure she developed as an individual and provided unvarying support no matter what she chose for herself. She met her husband in the year 2014 and decided to marry an equally driven and passionate individual. She is married in a family where business models make it to breakfast table conversations. Her in- laws appreciate and encourages her every passing day. 

Work Experience: Before starting her own venture, Akansha has worked with Breach Candy Hospital Trust, Healing Hands Clinic, Care24, Bon happetee 

Journey: After completing her post-graduation, Akansha landed her dream job at Breach Candy Hospital Trust and was associated with the organization for about 2 years. During this period, Akansha started writing for publications and nutrition columns as she found it interesting and it helped her stay updated with trends. This was when "Beyond the Weighing Scale" sculptured. After 2 years, she found herself being agitated as her learning curve at the full time job had come to a standstill and that is something she couldn’t live with. She woke up one day and took the plunge! She quit her dream job knowing there is so much to explore and learn out there. 

Akansha at the peak of her career took a gap year to travel, read, live in an ashram for her teacher training in yoga, think, eat good food and see her friends and family. She kept taking freelance projects to keep in touch with the subject and made sure she kept trying new things and reaching out to people. She remembers doing all of it for free as either favors for friends or just because it appealed to her. She learnt and picked up so much about marketing, design, sales and business models by just talking to people and putting herself out there. She is a ferocious reader. Akansha is now collaborating with start-ups to help develop products and segments and loves the intensity that comes along with it. 

Current:

• Akansha and her company provide an ecosystem for budding start-ups to establish their nutrition and health segments
• She has a team of 10 members who work with her remotely from Mumbai as she is based in Pune and her team in Mumbai 
• She takes pride in being associated with 6 promising start-ups currently and provides a start to end solution by developing the segment, managing back end operations, strategizing online and offline marketing, managing community with social media pages and public relations
• In the past 2 years, she has worked with 12 start-ups, developed 2 food tech applications, authored a book, turned into an influencer, curated over 3000 health content pieces and is on her way to launch with 2 other ventures this year
• Akansha is looking forward to the coming year as she has other promising entrepreneurial opportunities coming her way 

Lessons Learnt:

• Knowledge is Power. As individuals and professionals,  she feels that learning is a process that never stops. She want to be that person in the room that knows everything about everything. 
• She learnt through her journey that "if your ship doesn’t get to you in time, you need to swim out to it"
• She cannot emphasize enough on the importance of putting yourself out there and making things happen

Message for Budding Nutritionists

• As nutritionists and dietitians, she sometimes see that we restrict ourselves only to our subject. In this time and age, it is very crucial to study the changing landscape of food and nutrition and to evolve with it 
• Research about what is out there, reach out to influencers and organizations to tell them about yourself and your food philosophy, collaborate with fitness companies and plunge into something that you have never tried before
• The key is doing and making things happen relentlessly
• Your dream job is not just going to walk through that door, roll your sleeves up and unveil what you truly deserve

We wish Akansha All The Very Best For Future

- Team NII