Episode 36 - Embracing Purpose, Passion & Resilience: Grishma Shah on Values-Driven Storytelling
By Jessica Garrison
Our second podcast episode of the week features Grishma Shah, a gritty, resilient, compassionate, independent, and loyal woman. She has been on our radio show episode, “Coming Back to Your WHY and Your VALUES,” our YouTube Panel episode, “The Power of the Written Word,” and we’ve also hosted her on our Substack live for her award-winning book, Anagram Destiny. Now Grishma is with us to discuss embracing her layers and the tools she used to get there.
Grishma is very centered in her why and her values, which made her perfect for the radio show episode. From a young age, Grishma was able to travel, study abroad, and see the world. She credits this to her desire to make a positive impact in the world. Exposing young people to a variety of cultures and different ways of living not only builds an educational foundation for them but it also leads to more understanding, empathy, and compassion.
With this came her book, Anagram Destiny. Although Grishma is in academia and the book has parallels to her life, this book is a work of fiction. She knew that writing an academic or research paper would only reach a limited number of people, and it’s people who are already interested in studying the topic. Fiction is a way to reach a broader audience and create emotions in people they never thought possible. It gives them a new perspective and allows them to explore a world they never even dreamed of.
When her book came out, Grishma was a marketing maniac and it led to her becoming burnt out. She was constantly checking Amazon numbers and its ranking to see how “good” the book was doing. I can attest that when our book came out for the Embracing Layers Network, I couldn’t help but check the numbers. But good things take time, and Grishma reminded herself of why she wrote the book in the first place. She didn’t write it to make a lot of money, but she made it to create the impact she’s always wanted. With Grishma’s values she’s able to ground herself, make decisions, and understand things more clearly. Even if just one person’s life is positively impacted by her book or story, then she is accomplishing her goal.
Grishma also tells us how her local library had seven copies of her book on their shelf and when she checked recently, they had all been borrowed. It was a great reminder that what she is doing is reaching other people, and it validates her why even further. Grishma is such a delight to listen to and she has so much knowledge to share—she has definitely made an impact on me and the way I view the world.
Ways to Engage: Next time you’re making a difficult decision or find yourself between two choices, think of your why. Connect your decisions back to your why and your values, remembering who you want to be and what is most important to you.