S3E3: Feel the Difference with Anushka Joshi

Just back from an international business trip, Anushka Joshi shares the fascinating story behind her meditation wear brand Sovereign Studios. Her path toward innovation and self-trust might leave you wondering, What have *I* been uniquely designed to create?

Keep up with Sovereign Studios by following along here:

• https://www.instagram.com/sovereign__studios/
• https://www.tiktok.com/@sovereign__studios
• www.sovereignstudios.co

And if you're ready to bring your own vision into focus but aren't quite sure where to start, you can hop on a call with Cecilia.

Thanks for tuning in!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Welcome to the Modern Day Fair Podcast. We're chatting with hardly creators who are building the kind of future they want to live in with their choices, voices, and work. If you are also feeling the call towards something aligned and expansive, you're in the right place.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

For as long as humans have been alive, clothing has always told a story. Whether it was animal skins stitched together for survival or garments designed to signal status, fabric has never just been fabric. Fabric is a language. It's a language we use to communicate to others who we are, what we value, and how we move through the world. And what is particularly astounding is that today, when it feels like everything under the sun has already been created, people are still finding ways to innovate clothing, including today's guest. Anushka Joshi of Sovereign Studios is launching this meditation wear brand focused on presence, not performance. Her work lies at the intersection of comfort and intention and inner connection. Let's take a listen. Hi, Anushka. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Yeah, I'm so excited. You know, when I was reading up on some of your background, it is obvious that you're no stranger to accomplishment or business. You've been recognized as a Forbes 30 under 30. You have had several businesses under your belt now. But before we hop into all of that, I would love to learn about what little Anoushka thought she might be doing one day when she got older.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Oh my goodness. So funny. My phone background. Oh.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

She thought she would be an actress, a storyteller, a director, a writer. Um, when I was growing up, I loved performing. I loved dancing. I loved acting. I loved taking books and writing them into screenplays. In elementary school, I would like direct them into plays for my friends in middle school, like many people. Just would make YouTube music videos every week. Great skill that has come in handy for making content now. I'm serious. People are like, how are you a fast editor? And I'm like, because this is what I did when I was 12 every weekend. Oh gosh. Yeah. And so then I also thought I was going to be a fashion designer or creative director when I was in high school. And the last few years have taken me on a little bit of a different path, but I feel like I'm in total alignment right now from not just what we're creating, but how I get to show up and also the philosophies that I've kind of learned and explored along the way that have been a personal and private practice for me. So I think little Anushika would be proud right now, honestly. I think, you know, this is still a business, and maybe one day there will be just like pure creative practices that fuel my life. But I'm I'm happy with she's happy with me right now.

SPEAKER_02 3:39

Yeah, totally. In hearing you talk about everything she enjoyed doing, I what was coming up for me was expressing, right? Expressing and shaping conversations in different ways, which is something you've absolutely continued to do as you've gotten older. You know, I was uh sharing before we hopped on the recording here that I did a little bit of background research and I enjoyed reading about everything that you have created because your creations feel, whether it was your Substack essays or your businesses, they feel so honest, Anoushka. They feel honest and they feel very, very relevant. So to give the listeners some examples of that, could you talk a little bit about your two previous businesses and how those came to be?

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Yeah. So I mentioned how in high school I wanted to work in fashion and I was so impressionable to like creative direction campaigns, to marketing, to advertising, to all the media I was consuming, which led me to start my first business, Gen Zine, which was a publication and ended up turning into a media company for young people rewriting the future. And that whole thesis was designing media for social change. It was if the stories I create or if the stories I consume shape the world that I live in, then why not tell different ones? And there wasn't a lot happening in culturally relevant youth media. You know, we had like Teen Vogue, we had campus publications, we had the New York Times, but nothing else was really speaking to the authentic perspectives of youth. And like young people always drive culture.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

And so we created this publication. It started as a print magazine. It ended up growing to being on 20 plus campuses in the form of campus chapters. It's been around for eight years, it's published hundreds and hundreds of stories, and um there was something so authentic about community and raw storytelling as a part of that. And even then, we got to partner with companies like Instagram, like Converse. We made documentaries in South Africa, in Atlanta, and so it took me on this beautiful whirlwind journey. Um, and I mean, like any I'll say artist or creative person, you outgrow projects that like you you have um like seasons. Like seasons, and I wanted to try some other things. I was living in New York, I was in a pretty largely like tech startup scene and whatnot. And this was the intention I had, which was a flawed one, which was, and this is why sovereign is important to me now, but I started a dating app because the prompt I had given myself was if I'm to be a successful entrepreneur today, then I should probably learn how to build a technical product and a scalable business model because media and storytelling isn't that. And I, you know, had many spiritual philosophical reasons why I thought starting a dating app was a good idea. I had plenty of experiences too. But I would say the driver for that was almost out of lack, right? Of I should fill this gap that I don't know how to do. And I don't mean that in a self-deprecating way. Now I know how to do it, it's awesome, and it's not for me. And there came a point where it was time to launch it. We had built a great wait list, we had gotten some early buzz around it. People still ask me when it's coming out, and I just realized this wasn't what I wanted to commit myself to. It wasn't the truest version of me, and it wasn't something I knew I could sustain. Um, but that dating app was so Gen Zine was all about rewriting the future. Friend of a Friend was all about turning the world from infinite connection to intimate connection and helping connect people through mutuals, bringing old school back. Um, and then a very weird winding road over the last year brought me to Sovereign, and now I'm making meditation wear.

SPEAKER_02 7:48

Oh my god. Okay, so before we hop into that, what you are really bringing up for me is this wave of heart-led entrepreneurship. Like the desire to create something from a place of service rather than chasing a dollar, right? So it's really it makes total sense. And the reason I say that is because it makes total sense to me that our creations would change and move, right? And look differently, or maybe end like as our own personal seasons and understanding of life and what we want would change and sometimes come to an end, you know? So I just think that's so beautiful. Um, and now I want to get into Sovereign Studios. So I came across a TikTok that you had created about this meditation wear brand. And for folks that maybe had never even considered something like that could exist, can you help them understand what a meditation wear brand is and how it's different from athletic wear or athleisure?

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Yeah. So the brand really started. Um, and you'll have to bear with me on this journey, but it started because I realized there was no Patagonia of meditation. And what I mean by that is today, brands and clothing companies represent communities and identity more and the practice, but that's like Patagonia is known for just being a champion of the outdoors, right? Like Nike is about the champions of the athletes and the grades and like never giving up, just doing it, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

And the way that I describe meditation where before we get into the actual product is people climbed before Patagonia made Gore-Tex or whatever they made, right? They were climbing in denim jeans and white-collared shirts, and it wasn't about the function of it. And now we associate, you know, Patagonia and these like material innovations with that. And so my goal is not to tell people that they need to wear something specific to meditate. It's more of how do we bring this practice through clothing? How do we bring this practice to people through the message of the brand and the company? And like I love Patagonia not because of its clothes, but because of what it represents. It's like a reminder, it's like almost a cute to care about certain things and they use the company to really serve forward and give to the environment and whatnot. And then on a cultural note, so that was kind of the intention where I was like, this is a really growing practice, and it's inevitable in many ways that this is just how culture shapes and grows and whatnot. And for many reasons, I think I'm the right person to do it. Um and the second part is there's a really large growing fatigue with synthetic fibers, with athleisure and whatnot. And I see this a lot, even just from reading Gen Zene articles too, and from my own personal experience. And exhaustion with performance culture and optimization at large, right? And again, when we talk about like how brands or clothing cues us in certain ways, when I'm wearing my leggings or when I'm wearing my athleisure wear at home, like that's still a reminder. It's not like rest, right? It's still performance. Um, it's still subtly cueing optimization and whatnot. And so there's that on a cultural note, and then simply on a fabric note, people are tired of these fabrics. And so, how can you make something um made with natural fibers and whatnot? And I've been seeing a lot of people create good-for-you workout brands, but that's still cotton in leggings. And so what we're doing is we're also creating silhouettes that are comfortable, they're well tailored, and they're made from natural fibers, where especially post-pandemic and with the rise of fast fashion, the way that we dress is just so different now. Yeah. And I wear a ton of my mom's clothes that are like 20 plus years old and are better quality than what I buy today. Yeah. And because of the pandemic, we live in leggings, we live in sweats, we live in loungewear and whatnot, but we do want to feel like put together in the world, you know. So especially for those who work from home. Um, so that's long answer.

SPEAKER_02 12:29

You know, I'll say that from my personal lens, like a little bit of bias I have here. When I saw your video, the clothes immediately stood out as gorgeous, like beautifully tailored, yes. And as someone who exists in a fat body, I am hyper-aware of all of the clothes that have been made that don't move with me, right? That don't feel good against my skin. So when I so that was immediately appealing to me. And I think it makes sense that kind of as body size aside, as our general like consciousness kind of increases, people are more aware of how things feel, right? Do they support their lifestyle and like the intentions that they set, not even just for their day, but like for a specific moment, you know, and meditation is is all about that presence, right? Can you say a little bit about, I think it's so neat. Like you just came back from a trip, international trip. Can you talk a little bit about that trip and what you were doing there?

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Yeah. So I just got back from a five-week trip to India, and it was I I went on the premise of a one-way ticket, and I was like, I'm not coming back until I figure out this manufacturing. And I feel really lucky. I had gotten connected to an amazing designer and um like product consultant before I went there. So we had made all the designs already. Um, we had found some manufacturers we wanted to work with, and I went to India because for many reasons. One, I'm Indian origin. Two, meditation was born in India 2,500 years ago. And it just made so much sense to kind of grow the company from that place and like really go and dare I say, like plant seeds, pay homage to um the techniques on the ground. And we're working with really sustainable and artisanal partners there, uh, to the point where we may have a bit of a product delay because they are using traditional hand lube methods to make our fabric uh and and those techniques are like thousands of years old. Like time has is just so vast.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

So I went to India, I um got to see this, I got to touch the fabrics for the first time, I got to pick them, I got to go through the sampling process. I don't have a fashion background at this point. And so, even, you know, the learning curve of that and learning so much along the way um to, you know, driving around town and finding different suppliers for packaging and whatnot. It was this whole adventure being with a bunch of family, family friends and people who I don't get to spend a lot of time with, and finally going home when that product order was placed.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness, it's so exciting. Um I want to ask a little bit about the mindfulness piece because I think it makes sense, you know, what you've shared kind of about Sovereign Studios' ethos and intention. It makes sense that it would stem from somebody who has also kind of braced an increased level of presence and awareness. Um, can you share more about kind of any transformation or aha or reflections you've had that have kind of brought you to this point? Because I want to I just want to say very plainly, Anouska, that you know, you're speaking of a first it was publishing and then it was tech, and now, you know, admittedly, no fashion background. And yet you feel like you you recognize how uniquely equipped you are to bring this to life. And I think that is amazing. And so I kind of want to give the listeners some insight into you know what has made that possible.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

Yeah. Um so sorry, I'm shifting around here. Do you mean this in like a personal view way or like my personal practice in the mindful way?

SPEAKER_02 16:36

Well, may you feel called to share.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

All right. Fair enough. I'll give you a little bit of background on my personal practice and journey with meditation, and then share a little bit about how that has shaped me as a person. Okay. Um I grew up with an aunt who is a devoted Vipassana meditator. And she is like an angel in our family. And when I remember the first time I meditated, I was like eight years old, 10 years old, sitting in her house, and she was trying to get me and my brother and my cousins to meditate. And I was like not that into it. Fast forward to both my parents had also completed these vipassana retreats. And after college, I suppose I was a bit anxious.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

Well, can we pause here and share for those that don't know aren't familiar with Vipassana?

SPEAKER_00 17:26

What oh, yes. Okay, so vipassana is the is a style, is a technique of meditation. It is what the Buddha used uh 2,500 years ago, and it's super sensation-oriented. There's a bunch of different types of meditation. Some are more like the Tibetan style is more visual-oriented, kind of like manipulating reality. This one is just pure observation and awareness.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

And um, there are these 10-day retreats, which I love. They're free by donation, they follow a traditional schedule. It's almost like living in a monastery for 10 days. And so my parents really suggested that I go. And I had started like a very small meditation practice when I was in college, like five minutes in the morning, five minutes at night, not big at all. And I moved to New York, and the first month I was there, I went on this 10-day retreat. And I was shedding so much in my personal life, having graduated college, having to figure out who am I when people aren't telling me what to be. And I would say this retreat was the first time where I was able to fully confront and observe everything in my mind, like the random thoughts and realizing like I'm actually responsible for them. Like, and when I I say this as a way of being like, like truly, when the Kardashians would pop up in my mind, like on day three or four of the retreat, I was like, wow, there's so much in there that I'm like not responsible for, but like your mind is just producing random thoughts, you know. So we give them so much weight, but when you get crazy thoughts like that, you're like it's just a thought. And I would say I came out of that retreat feeling like the analogy I give is when you're putting on a wetsuit and it's really tight and it's that final zip that is so satisfying and that makes you feel snug and tight. And so I felt a responsibility and confidence in my life that I think was really helpful for a young grad. Coincidentally, on my street, in the first place I found in New York was a Tibetan Buddhist yoga and meditation studio. It was a nonprofit that's been there from the 90s. It's a beautiful cafe yoga studio, meditation studio, and that became my third space in New York. It is what I think also kept me sane and was also like a cue and a reminder where I would walk either, I would either walk in or walk past it, and I would always have a reminder of like what actually mattered or what actually made me feel good, you know?

SPEAKER_02 19:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Um and I volunteered there, I did my meditation teacher training there. And while I did my meditation teacher training, like I would go to my do yoga there multiple times a week. I would sit there and I would work when I would work from home and such a special place. And when I did my meditation teacher training, I was posting a lot about it on social media, almost like cosplaying being a teacher. And that was when I had the most people come to me being like, please teach me how to meditate. Please share this practice with me. I'm so curious. And it was almost something that I had one taken for granted for just having access to in my life. And two, I did not want to step into that teacher role. I selfishly did the teacher training because I wanted to go deeper into my practice. I wanted a container to shake things up in my life in New York and to just maybe find reprieve in my own life, right? And you know, I taught a couple times after people were really curious about it and were grateful, you know, when you share. And I just still didn't feel like something I wanted to or could sustain. Um fast forward a crazy year and a half of life, and I found myself leaving New York, deciding to stop working and figure out like what I needed to get back on my own path. I feel like I had seen the end of the road of the version I thought I wanted to be. And I needed some like serious recalibration. And so I spent a summer painting, reading, writing, tapping back into the creativity. And that's when the idea of sovereignty really started coming to me. Cause I'm like, I'm actually a much better person for myself and for everyone around me when I am true to myself or when I'm like living in alignment. And yeah. Um and then I ended up going on retreat again in September, October. And I came out and I was like, I have to live a life of service. I have to share this practice that I have benefited for so much. And The universe gave me the wonderful gift that of the thought of this Patagonia for meditation thing. And I was like, all right, I'll explore it when I get out. And I started exploring it. And four months later, here we are.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

Four months. Busy. Wow. That is one thing after another after another. Oh. Okay. And I want to ask on a personal note how did it feel? How did it feel to do that shedding and then come to these realizations?

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Hard. Yeah. I will not underestimate. Like, I feel now, especially coming after India, that I keep telling my friends, I'm like, I feel like someone updated the software on me. I feel like because I was very inwardly. I was super inward the last year. Yeah. And not really engaging in the outside world that that much. And um I'm like, I feel like I just got plopped back onto the earth at age 27 with so much more information about myself and like I know things more. Like I don't, and I'll speak to this confidence piece also, because I've seen a crazy shift in me, but um the last 12 to 18 months were so much, I don't know what's going on in my life, you know? And it was so much like I know this isn't for me, but I don't know what is for me, and I just have to be patient for it to come. And there are two things. One, you can have conviction that something better is out there for you, or you can also have complete conviction that this is such a strong no of how I'm living my life right now, that like I don't know where the yes is, but I just have to like take this leap. Um, so yeah, I would say it was beautiful, it was a beautiful rediscovery. And I will always say this that like you know who you are in your core and you know what is for you, but you just have to like swim through the layers to like parse it out. And it's like a melting of all this noise outside of you while simultaneously building the muscle to stand up and being like, actually, this is for me, you know.

SPEAKER_02 24:18

Yeah. Yeah. It's making me think about all of the ways that I'll use this term broadly because it's not meant to, you know, speak specifically to 20-somethings or adolescents, but I will just say young people, because I think this can be true from wherever you stand in life, people younger than you, like all of the ways that we put these ideas upon them that they don't know who they are. They don't know what they're doing, right? They don't like all these things they don't know when in actuality, if those voices didn't exist, how much sooner could they stumble upon the realization that they actually do know a lot?

SPEAKER_00 25:01

Totally. Um and on that note, I'm tired of pretending that I don't know things.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

Amen, Avuska.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

I don't know all the answers in the world. Yeah, and I will be open to the advice of other people. But I also like Oh, I'll get so much trouble in trouble. I know things too. Like, not if I get like slapped by the universe by that and like they're like, haha, let's humble you, then fine, sure. But it is one of those things where I know I'll figure it out. Like I know I have my own life experience to draw from. You know, I know I have seen and learned quickly from many people. And um I think there's one of the it's just like stopping outsourcing information from other people, right? Of no one knows what you should do with your one, no one knows what you should do with your life more than you do. Two, no one knows what you should do with your business more than you do, also. And it kind of translates into these other areas of life, but I remember going to the confidence piece when I was um 22 or 23. I was doing Gen Zene full-time in New York. And I remember every single day of doing that. I only lasted like six months. I was like crying and in free fall all the time. And I it was the first time I had taken such a big risk, right? Not a big financial safety net, not having income, trying to do all these things at a young age because I thought that's what my peers were doing. That's what and I had those aspirations and ambitions for myself too. But I was again, when you're like comparing yourself to anything outside, at least for me, it's like was a very drawing experience. Yeah. Um, and now, you know, I'm faced with similar discomfort, like taking a big risk to do this business, like not just creating constraints for myself to live in right now. But I feel so present every day because I've like accepted the reality. I've accepted the reality of what this is also, and so I don't have to like fight against it so much. And there's um, you know, maybe lessons and learnings from younger me of what risk and free fall feels like, and then there's the wiser version of me, which is like it'll pass.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

Totally, totally. It it begs the question, is it really scary, or is just the idea we learned about being in this position really scary? You know?

SPEAKER_00 27:43

Ah, that's really fascinating. And I think both, but also even people who have like staple jobs, there's no such thing as security these days.

SPEAKER_02 27:56

So true. It's so true.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

So I think, yeah, just being able to like tolerate whatever discomfort no matter what's eat in life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:06

Yeah, we kind of hinted around this. I did wanted to give you a chance to speak to it directly, but the name Sovereign Studios.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

So it okay. I was on this personal quest over the last year of personal sovereignty. And it started with this really distinct moment where something on the outside wasn't working for me, and I chose myself for the first time in a long time. Like, I mean, I can be like super transparent now. It's over, I don't care. I kept waiting for a relationship to choose me on the outside to like be the next step for my life to move forward. And when I realized that wasn't happening, I chose myself and it changed the way my world felt. Like I had just been outsourcing my power to a relationship, to a city, to a job, to all of these things that I was like, I'll be happy when I'm this, you know, or this will happen when this happens, instead of feeling like I was actually like I had autonomy and agency in my life, right?

SPEAKER_01 29:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

So there was that huge aha moment. And from there, like everything changed. I realized I was like, oh, I actually need to stop working to take care of myself. And like I come from a city that tells you to always work, you know, that tells you like your worth comes from this. I just started allowing, I started like really taking care of myself in a way that I had never and I hadn't in a long time. And um, that whole concept was sovereignty, right? Like to be, I mean, to be sovereign, and like you we look at this in like a geopolitical way, it's like um ownership of a country, it's like autonomy, like a sovereign nation. And I was like, okay, well, I can be that for myself. And I felt my world change a lot, and it gave me a great amount of like personal power. And then as time, and I knew that this was the founding premise of like the next business I was gonna start, and it ended up being a little different first. It was gonna be like a almost like a global marketplace. This is neither here nor there, but before the meditation brand, I love like everything I'm wearing is like from a random flea market around the world, and I think art fairs are so fascinating, but they're not digitally friendly or democratized in that way. And part of it is the hunt, but part of it is like how do we platform these like small artisans from around the world? And I was like, okay, well, to be sovereign is to be your most uninhibited self, and art is such a big part of that. Then long answer. Um love long answers, and this is the important part is in our 21st century, our attention is the most extracted resource in modern life. It's what all the companies that kind of uphold our economy right now, like in the example I give is okay, it used to be land for real estate, it used to be oil, it used to be, and now it's attention. That's like the modern, that's like our natural resource that is getting mined. And um in the world we live in today, to be sovereign is to have autonomy over one's mind. And it goes back to what meditation is for. It's about being in control, not even like controlling your thoughts, but just being the observer in your mind, being able to have ownership there. And then it goes back to my personal journey also of uh what happens when you do that, right? And and you become a more sovereign version of yourself too. And in turn, I've been able to live from a place of more generosity and more service, and I hope I can continue doing that. Um and then the studio's part was one trademark, two, I want this to be a really expansive container, right? Like we'll be launching some meditations alongside our products, um, the physical products. I think there's like a big world that we can create. And so um a studio is just encompassing us that.

SPEAKER_02 32:38

Oh, so exciting! I'm so excited to follow Sovereign Studios and you, Anishka, on this journey for our listeners. Where can they find out more about it?

SPEAKER_00 32:50

You can follow us on socials. Both Instagram and TikTok are sovereign underscore underscore studios. And then our website is sovereignstudios.co. Um, and then you can send me an email someone say hello at anushka at sovereignstudios.co. Um but join the wait list. We will be launching in the next couple of months, and I'm so excited to share this journey and this continued space with you all.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

Thanks for joining today's conversation. As always, contact info for our guests is available in the show notes. And if something stayed with you today, I'd love for you to share it with a friend or comment and leave us a review. Helps more thoughtful humans find their way here.