Anisha Gopal is a multifaceted woman entrepreneur. Anisha’s journey began as a silent performer as an IT Professional climbing the corporate ladder at a steady pace. However, the higher she went, the less fulfilled and less in control of her life she felt. Eventually, she reached a point where she no longer felt inspired to climb further. Around 2018, three pivotal incidents converged to shift her life’s trajectory:

 1. Anisha played a pivotal role in helping few of her friend’s pursue their entrepreneurial dreams and witnessing them achieve significant success both financially and in terms of personal freedom, made her realise that she had the ability to inspire others to make life-changing decisions, pursue & achieve their dreams with newfound confidence, filling her with happiness and purpose.

 2. Around the same time, she attended a six-day sales training program and by the end of the training, she was inspired to swap places with the Sales Coaches and desired to coach and mentor professionals.

3. Fuelled by curiosity and after some research, she decided to attend a free event on how to become a highly successful coach, and a breakthrough experience, she felt she truly belonged. Within a week of completing the course, and after a year of coaching individuals pro bono, she left her high-flying corporate career to fully embrace coaching.

Since then, Anisha has conducted over 500 hours of one-on-one coaching, facilitated over 20+ group coaching workshops and masterclasses,  and specialises in helping corporate professionals and entrepreneurs break these self-sabotaging patterns and overcome these internal resistances.

She believes that every individual has the power to choose and an immense potential and capability to create the life they truly desire. As a coach, being the catalyst and enabling individuals to discover and tap into this energy, so they can accelerate the achievement of the goals and results is highly rewarding, inspiring and fulfilling for her. 

While manifesting her ikigai through her coaching company, Mindset Masterworks, she is also one of the co-founders at Sierra Cloud, a cloud platform service company based in Australia. What inspires her the most is connecting with her employees and empowering them to become confident, high performers at work.

When you were young, you aspired to be an astronomer, forensic scientist, a doctor and a psychologist. How did those aspirations as a child influence you as a grown-up?

As a child, my dreams were fueled by an insatiable thirst to explore the unknown, uncover answers in the complex, and connect seemingly unrelated dots. This underlying curiosity nurtured my ability to observe keenly, identify recurring patterns, and develop a profound intuition for human behaviour and understanding the underlying science. 

Being an introvert, I found solace in observing people, their behaviours, and the emotions that lay beneath the surface. This habit carried into my college days and workplace, where I continued to watch, learn, and connect the dots. Balancing a deep interest in both science and spirituality allowed me to bridge gaps between seemingly opposing ideologies, uncovering commonalities and understanding the “how” and “why” of life and how to apply them in a result-oriented, solution-driven approach.

So, when I eventually transitioned into coaching, I realised that my early interests had uniquely prepared me for this path. My ability to read people, understand their behaviours, and connect with them on a profound level, felt intuitive and smooth.

What would you say is the one thing that has encouraged you to explore opportunities outside the norm growing up in an Indian family?

For most of my adult life, I have followed the common conventional path. Like most young people from middle class Indian families at the time, success in life was about – academic excellence, earning an engineering degree, an MBA, climbing the corporate ladder, getting married, owning a house and running the rat race until you retire!

Growing up, I always harboured a deep desire to stand out, to be different. I never relished comparisons or conformity. Whenever someone suggested I should be more like someone else, it ignited a rebellious spark within me. So it was always there, but can you imagine not being able to find that courage to step outside that comfort zone, and constantly putting a lid on that spark! 

And of course, the more successful I began at complying to the norms, the more I started to feel mediocre, just like everyone else. And there came a point where the dissonance between my true self and the life I was living became too loud to ignore and that’s when I started to rebel (in my own ways).

My journey into stepping outside the norm began with my training in oriental (belly) dance, which might have raised a few eyebrows in my conservative family. This followed a series of life-changing decisions, moving to Australia, ending a marriage that was hindering my personal growth. And you know what I discovered during this time? That I am going to be OK and I will survive. This rebellious phase marked the beginning of my journey towards self-discovery and personal fulfilment.

My biggest inspiration to pursue coaching was my sister, who had left her full-time corporate job to pursue her love for food & art, and I was first-hand witnessing her growth and success doing something she loved. And I thought to myself, “If she can do it, why can’t I? If I can achieve all this success doing something I didn’t wholeheartedly enjoy, imagine the possibilities if I pursued something I was truly passionate about, and believed in!”

Empowered by this new belief, I gave myself the freedom to explore and experiment. I gave myself permission to fail. And I will forever be grateful for my tight support system of family and friends that make this journey a little easier to tread unchartered waters.

Most of us are seeking our true purpose in life, some of us find it whilst others don’t, how would you define ‘true purpose’?

To me, “true purpose” is fluid and an ever-expanding concept closely intertwined with our own personal development. It encompasses every impact and outcome we create in our lives, through our actions, particularly those that bring us the highest levels of joy and fulfilment – our values.

“True Purpose” represents the cumulative result of all our life experiences, a tapestry woven with every values-driven action we take until our last breath.

Today, my sense of purpose extends to mentoring teenagers at school, helping my sister grow her business, helping women in tech and women in business master their mindsets, promoting a friend who is passionate about transforming the foster carer and adoption space, coaching and mentoring my employees at Sierra Cloud. These experiences, both small and large, contribute to the mosaic of my life’s purpose.

Over the past few years, I’ve come to realise that trying to encapsulate, limit, or restrict my definition of true purpose is counterintuitive and counterproductive. 

Example, every year when I revisit my purpose, identity, my mission and vision statements, I have observed that they change and expand. And so, I no longer obsess over the quest to find a single phrase that answers “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?” My focus has shifted towards living each moment with the intent to create a positive impact and foster positive mindset shifts.

I’m inspired by the wisdom -“Life is not about having or being, it is about doing”, from my Teacher, Coach, and Mentor, Benjamin J. Harvey, 

My purpose manifests through the actions I take, the outcomes I create, and the footprints I leave behind. I’m convinced that the true purpose isn’t static; it’s an ever-evolving journey of creating joy, fulfilment, and positive impacts.

What advice would you give to those of us who are still searching for our true purpose in life?

My advice is simple: Pause the relentless search and let yourself feel in the present moment. In the clamour of societal expectations, role models, influential voices, and the overwhelming world of social media, your authentic purpose can get lost. To discover it, you have got to disconnect from the noise and journey within. I recommend the following 3-step approach,

Step 1: Discover your Values. In a world where nothing else mattered – money, people’s judgement / perception of you – and you had all the resources you needed, what would you do? What topics would you love to read, explore and learn more about? What activities or actions would you immerse yourself in? What experiences would you want to create, both for yourself and others? What subjects or discussions would you love to engage in with people?

Step 2: Align your Values. Once you identify your values, find ways to incorporate them incrementally and increasingly into your life. Align your work and actions with these passions, allowing them to unfold naturally.

Step 3: Commit to your Values. Commit and learn to enjoy the process and celebrate the outcomes, and before you know it, YOU WILL KNOW IT.

My coaching program takes individuals on this very journey, helping them identify their core values, and align their actions to bring them fulfilment, joy, and freedom. From there, their true calling and purpose naturally emerge. It’s all about taking intentional action – Karma! 

The pursuits that fill you with utmost fulfilment and freedom will uncover your life’s purpose. Discover more ways to immerse yourself in what you love, and the impact and outcomes will shape it all.

Can you please share with us some of your life’s most remarkable breakthroughs?

Breakthroughs for me are moments that inspire you to make a decision and commit to it with consistent actions!

“I am Allowed” Attitude: One of the most significant breakthroughs in my life was when I made the life-altering decision to dedicate the rest of my days to coaching. This was born from a transformative process, that I now teach others where I discovered the wisdom that the heavy burden I had carried my entire life was a weight of my own choosing. It didn’t matter what others thought; I had the power and freedom to set it down. The instant I made that choice, an overwhelming sense of relief washed over me. For the first time, I allowed myself to prioritize my own aspirations, and it was a liberating, soul-stirring moment that set me on this extraordinary coaching journey. This breakthrough, both personal and professional, drives my mission to inspire others to discover their true purpose and embrace their unique journey.

The “Why not?” Mindset: A subtle yet profound breakthrough in my life occurred while reading Michelle Obama’s “Becoming.” Her recurring question, “Why Not?” at the end of chapters ignited a powerful shift in my mindset. Instead of hesitating when faced with opportunities or challenges, I started asking myself, “Why not?” This simple shift pushed me out of my comfort zone countless times, especially in my entrepreneurial journey. Whether it was facilitating formal soft skills training for the first time, coaching a senior executive person, networking at events, I embraced the “Why not?” attitude. This change helped me silence the voices of self-doubt and imposter syndrome that might have otherwise held me back. And this has helped me embrace my personal motto in making decisions that I will share with you: Given a choice, always choose failure, over fear of failure.

Owning my Worth: a significant breakthrough centred around my relationships. Prompted by a series of painful, recurring patterns of unsuccessful relationships that compelled me to delve deep into self-reflection. As someone that perpetually sought external validation with an anxious attachment style, the journey as an entrepreneur can be quite challenging. Especially when you are not hitting your goals, it can create a crippling sense of unworthiness and self-doubt. Self-love, though sounds simple, in my personal experience is the most challenging pursuit in life. This transformation of breaking through my anxious attachment style not only reshaped my approach to personal connections but also significantly impacted my attitude towards work and business relationships. I came to realise, and truly believe, that I am inherently extraordinary just as I am. I no longer seek external validation or acknowledgement or recognition. If it comes, I receive it gracefully and gratefully. But I no longer allow the lack of it, dictate how I live my life. I transcended the notion of being merely ‘good enough’ and embraced my greatness in every role I played, prompting a remarkable shift in my relationships in all areas of my life.

I believe that without a committed decision & action, there is no breakthrough, only hype. And in the world of personal development, it is very easy to be swayed by hype, I’ve been there too! It takes strong intentions, with consistent actions, to truly experience breakthroughs in life.

If tomorrow was our last day on Earth, how would you spend it?

On the beach, celebrating life’s beautiful journey in the company of the people I love most, savouring my favourite foods, sharing stories and dancing away into the night! It would be a day of pure gratitude for everything I’ve experienced, a fitting farewell to this wonderful journey on earth and looking forward to the journey in the world beyond!

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