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Vaishali Gauba is the founder and director of Vaishali Gauba Media, a boutique PR firm based in Toronto that works with startups and emerging brands to secure media coverage. She is a former journalist, who has worked in newsrooms at CNBC, CBS News, and NBC. Vaishali is also an author and TEDx speaker, who has lived in the U.S, India, and Canada. She loves reading and hot yoga -- just not at the same time!
In her episode, Vaishali and I chat about:
What she'd say to a version of herself on day one in Canada
Why the act of immigrating is an achievement
The mental and emotional cost of running a business alone in a new country
Why the advice to give yourself more credit is hard to take when you need it most
How five years back in India changed her relationship with Indian culture
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Chapters
0:00 Give yourself more credit
0:48 Intro
1:24 Moving to Canada
4:21 When the new life finally hits you
6:34 The trailing partner feeling
11:26 Who moved to Canada?
19:23 What was easy, what was hard?
23:51 Why community and food go together
26:00 Choosing entrepreneurship for autonomy
32:26 Running a business alone
35:39 What she wishes she knew on day one
38:53 On belonging
43:14 Outro
Some takeaways
When couples immigrate, the partner who moves second often carries an invisible weight. They walk into a place where their partner already has friends, a job, a routine. Their identity has to get rebuilt while everyone around them is already living theirs. Navigating a new country as the second partner has its own asymmetry, and it can be jarring.
Belonging is often treated as a milestone in most immigrant stories. You arrive, you adapt, you belong. What probably matters more is creating a community where you are, and liking where you live, even if part of you is still dreaming of somewhere else. We need to accept that cultural adaptation is a daily condition.
Links
Where to find Vaishali:
The Newcomers resources
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Read about the newcomer archetypes
Want to work with us? Check out The Newcomers Media Kit.
Want more immigrant interviews? Listen to The Newcomers Podcast.
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