Miki Agrawal and the Three Key Questions She Asks Before Starting a Business

Agrawal was recently featured on the Mindset Series of the Capitalism.com podcast with Ryan Danial Moran. During the podcast episode, Agrawal spoke about the three essential questions that should be the prerequisite to creating a nine-figure business. As the founder and CEO of successful enterprises like TUSHY, Thinx, and Wild, Miki Agrawal is considered an expert on capitalism, building a brand, and running international businesses. This interview with Ryan Daniel Moran shines a light on how Agrawal conceives her most successful business ideas.

A Way of Approaching Business Unlike Any Other

Ryan Danial Moran indicated that he invited Miki Agrawal to speak because she has several very successful companies, including a few brick-and-mortar businesses as well as e-commerce companies. One thing that Moran really wanted to get into is that he noticed that Agrawal has a very unique way of thinking about business, rather than just the business itself. That’s a large part of the reason why Moran thought that Agrawal would be perfect as an interviewee for this Mindset Series.

Business as an Exchange of Energy

Agrawal certainly does have a very unusual way of viewing business. She sees it as an exchange of energy. In her own words, Agrawal says, “Money is energy, and it’s an energy exchange. I give you this energy, and if you give me this energy, if you give me your physical energy, I give you this other type of energy, which can get you other types of energy like food or a place to live.” Agrawal says that it’s all energy-based. She believes that everyone should approach life from that lens and approach business from the lens of energy exchanges. It forces the questions: what makes it a value exchange for the customer, for the employee, for the investor, for the supplier, for the planet, and for everyone in the room; how is it the best energy exchange possible? In that way, everyone is a stakeholder, everyone gets value in the exchange. “ Agrawal adds, “that is the definition of conscious capitalism, conscious business. That type of energy exchange business can sometimes outperform major businesses by up to 14 times. That’s conscious capitalism.”

How Miki Agrawal Approaches Business

Social entrepreneur Miki Agrawal is not naive when it comes to money. She is fully aware that money is important, not only to her own family, but to everyone. The difference is that she views it as an energy exchange. Her approach to business is more based on innate feelings, she says. “I have three questions that I ask myself,” says Agrawal. “The first is, what sucks in my world?” This is basically figuring out what needs to be different, what’s not working well, and what could be better.

The second question that Agrawal asks is, “Does it suck for a lot of people?” In a humorous moment, Agrawal laughs, “If it only sucks for me, then I’m a diva!” Jokes aside, if the idea passes the test of the first two questions, then Agrawal moves on to the third.

“The third question is the most important question,” Agrawal explains. “Can I be passionate about this issue, cause, or community for a really long time?”

The Realities of Doing Business

That last question resonates with other things that Miki Agrawal has stated before, both in her book, “Do Cool Sh*t,” in her various speaking engagements throughout the country and in person. It’s something that she firmly believes all budding entrepreneurs need to be aware of. That is, the reality of doing business is that there are long periods of tediousness. It’s not all excitement and good news. It’s long hours, working on some fine detail that has to be ironed out before you can move forward.

If an entrepreneur can’t move past the slow, boring parts of being in business, their chances of success are worse, says Agrawal. “Starting a business is a marathon, not a sprint,” she says. There are definitely times during that marathon when the finish line is hidden to a degree where it might be hard to remember why you’re doing it in the first place.

That’s where that last question comes into play, and why it’s so important, in Agrawal’s opinion. “You have to be sure that you have passion about a new business, because otherwise, you’re going to lose steam halfway through and not be able to finish.”

From a Big Fat Donut to $500K

Of course, even the best business ideas need capital, and that’s an area where, surprisingly, Miki Agrawal struggled when she was first starting out. Her first attempts at raising capital were unsuccessful. In Miki’s words, “I spent six months raising a big fat donut.” The problem was that Agrawal was trying to fit into someone else’s idea of who she was. Literally, she says, “I was so uncomfortable in my skin.” Her investment banking suit and coffee meetings with investors were not allowing Agrawal to shine in the way that she shone while playing professional soccer, for instance.

She asked herself questions like, “What am I doing that’s not bringing me out?” and “Where am I most me?” The answer was on the soccer field. As a college student, when she was interested in a boy, she’d invite him to watch her play soccer, where she knew she looked good. Of course, that wouldn’t work for investors, but Agrawal knew of another arena where she shines, and that is at dinner parties.

She decided to start throwing fundraiser dinner parties for investors and to turn on her hosting charms. That approach garnered Agrawal her first $500K.

This taught Agrawal that letting her best side shine was a way forward, and it showed her how to leverage her resources. In this example, Agrawal’s resources included her past experience throwing dinner parties and playing host. This provided a way for her to get what she needed to launch her first business, which was the catapult for everything else that came after.

The 3-Pronged Thesis

Agrawal says there is a three-pronged thesis that works across every single one of her companies. The first is that it has to be best in class. It has to be the best, whatever it is. “That’s the baseline,” she says.

“The second prong,” Agrawal says, “is artful design across every touchpoint of the brand.” Agrawal tries to get inspiration from actual art. She visits museums, reviews art books, and just immerses herself in the process of being inspired by art. “Most of my inspiration doesn’t come from other companies and other brands, but it comes from the world of art,” Agrawal states.

The third prong, in Agrawal’s words, is, “accessible, relatable language. Like you’re texting your best friend.” Sometimes, Agrawal says, companies try to be too technical. “It’s got this technicality and that thing and this technology and blah, blah, blah. You’re like, What? It’s like over my head, does it work? I don’t get it. Delete next, you know, swipe. And so I’ve learned that all of those things being too heady, being too clinical, being too technical, medical, it does not work.”

Authenticity is What Matters

In her view, authenticity is what connects a product to a consumer. When a potential customer comes across something new and it’s imperfect, and maybe it shines through because of the down-to-earth language and it feels like your best friend is texting you, that’s when a product really shines with authenticity, says Agrawal.

Agrawal hopes that what people feel when they engage with her brands. “When you engage with our brands, there’s this affinity, there’s a kinship, there’s a feeling of like, well, you’re talking to me.”

Finances Aren’t the Whole Story

A lot of new businesses fail because they don’t approach it from the perspective of those three key questions that Miki Agrawal always asks in the beginning. Money can’t be the whole reason to start a business. There has to be a passion, there has to be a function and it has to be something that a lot of people can benefit from.

From someone who has already proven how to create a nine-figure business, this advice from Miki Agrawal is worth paying attention to. This is just one reason why Agrawal is such a sought-after speaker everywhere she goes.

About Miki Agrawal

Miki Agrawal is an award-winning entrepreneur who has launched a series of successful businesses from the ground up. She is an industry disruptor, as well as a highly sought-after speaker on topics ranging from business to motivation. As a best-selling author, Miki Agrawal has penned “Do Cool Sh*t” and “Disrupt-Her”, with another book slated for an upcoming release.

About Ryan Daniel Moran

Ryan Daniel Moran is a speaker, author, and entrepreneur. He broadcasts a podcast called Capitalism, where he interviews and discusses the top echelon of business leaders such as Miki Agrawal, Mark Cuban, Bill Gates, and similar. Moran is also the founder of Capitalism.com, where he mentors entrepreneurs on how to build seven-figure businesses that they can sell.