IM38: Entrepreneurship, Creativity, and Redefining Education with Priyanka Lugani

Narrator: Foreign M,

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Host: The reasons why you chose to be an entrepreneur chose, you know, self expression and freedom.

Priyanka Lugani: M. Yeah, it's, it's.

Priyanka Lugani: I think that self expression is one of the, the core pillars of being an entrepreneur. To believe in the vision and to express it. To believe in your vision and to be able to express it. And freedom, the freedom of choice. We all have that freedom of choice. But as an entrepreneur, you're constantly choosing and you have to consciously. Today I'm waking up, what am I going to do? You have the option and the freedom of saying, I'm m just gonna lie in bed or I'm gonna go get

Priyanka Lugani: up and create this today, you know,

Priyanka Lugani: or transform this today. Then that choice is also expression of self.

Host: Do you see your expression of self having evolved as you've transitioned from jewelry fashion focus to uh, the focus on Alma harnessing the energy in nature to help heal our bodies?

Priyanka Lugani: My expression of self has become so much more clear. When I was doing the jewelry, I always had an intuition to do something beyond just myself. And I think also the freedom of following, uh, your intuition is key to an entrepreneur.

Priyanka Lugani: As a jewelry designer, my path was, okay, I'm going to Paris to Fashion Week four times a year. I'm going to Milan twice a year, you know, and I'm gonna sell this amount. But it was nothing beyond that. And I've always felt to create something beyond, uh, a group of people or for trends.

Host: You told me recently that you never graduated college. How did that come about? And how did that lead you to two successful businesses?

Priyanka Lugani: Yeah, so I was in uni and I was extremely bored. I changed universities twice. And um, I just didn't feel I was like inspired, um, or driven by anything I was hearing in university. So by chance I started like a little fashion line. Yeah, I started a little fashion line and I got a few orders and just followed like this little path that I was on. And then I just dropped out of uni because I didn't, I was very busy, uh, with Amaya, like going to meetings. And it was just very exciting because you're creating a brand, you're selling to shops and you know, otherwise you're sitting in this like, gray room staring at a, uh, blackboard. There was no inspiration, there was no light, there was no nature. Like, I don't want to sound like a dreamer, but just wasn't inspired. And I guess I was lucky enough to sudden support selling.

Priyanka Lugani: And also my parents, not super casual, but also not super strict about it. They were like, okay, it's your journey. And yeah, and I love self study. I do a lot of self studying, so I've studied philosophy, history of, um, art. I'm constantly studying something new. Right now I'm studying quantum and then I'm reading a book on the meridian points and then another one on, um, plants, like healing with plants. So there's a lot in self study and also in exchanging with people, uh, that are actually in that field, you learn so much more.

Host: Have you come up against any, uh, bias because of the fact that you didn't graduate from university at any point in time or, you know, has that worked to your advantage as you've kind of grown and developed your brands?

Priyanka Lugani: I don't think I've ever had like,

Priyanka Lugani: um, any type of negative feedback. I think actually personally, it's made me much more flexible compared to a lot of my friends and family who have graduated from university. I think you come out and you're very good at theory and you have an image of how life should work out and which path to follow. Whereas without this university degree, I was able to really explore and follow my inner compass and. And I've also made plenty of m mistakes. I've made them very happily.

Host: That made me smile. You've made mistakes happily. That's a really great outlook. Priyanka, you've been really fortunate to have the emotional and financial support of your family. In your words, how have they contributed to your success? And if you didn't have their support, would things have had looked differently?

Priyanka Lugani: Yeah, definitely. I think a support system is so important. Yeah. First of all, I wouldn't have been so relaxed about making mistakes.

Priyanka Lugani: Yeah.

Priyanka Lugani: And I wouldn't have had the freedom of taking risks. Um, I think I would have had to be much more careful and perhaps like, I would have had a lot more anxiety about the choices I'm making and where I'm going. It can be very scary. Yeah. This support has been essential because it's also supported my, um, confidence.

Priyanka Lugani: Right.

Priyanka Lugani: In my vision and in what I'm trying to create. So I'm Very, very thankful for that. And also, like, my mother is like, very, very supportive, but my father is very, very critical. So it creates a happy balance.

Host: Where do you draw on for your inspiration?

Priyanka Lugani: I think it's two things. One is like this, this deeper calling to really create something, to create a consciousness shift. This is something I've had for a long time. It's a deep conviction. And I'm reminded of it every day through my own health and through the health of people around me. So I think, yeah, health, my own health and the health of other people. That, uh, is a constant reminder and inspires me to, to work harder and harder every day on this. And the second one is, I think nature. Nature is everything. We come from nature. We are not separate from nature. We are nature. And when you're in it, like when I'm in a forest or I'm by the sea or standing on a mountaintop, I just feel like, wow. And I feel so much closer to my soul, to my natural state. And without it, life wouldn't be. Life wouldn't have this beauty. And the third one would be wisdom. Um, I have this deep fascination to learn, um, and discover and absorb all this beautiful, ancient wisdom that we have on this earth. And that just inspires me further.

Host: Kind of curious as I listen to a lot of things you've shared. I mean, what is your favorite quote?

Priyanka Lugani: My favorite quote, it was funny. When I was coming back to Peru, I was walking with a shaman, El Machu Picchu. He told me, don't quote others, quote yourself. And from that day onward, I stopped, like, quoting other people.

Host: Yeah.

Priyanka Lugani: And it goes back to self expression.