MoneyTalk With Natasha, Psychologist & Founder of Elevare
Hello Natasha!
Could you please tell us a little bit about yourself…
I’m a psychologist and educationalist, and founder of Elevare London. I’m passionate about truly bespoke learning, raising the standard of education, and kids reaching the heights of their potential. I use psychology to help my clients achieve huge transformations quickly, and secure the goals that may have once seemed lofty, whatever they may be.
What inspired you to launch Elevare?
It was crystal clear that there was a need for what I do. I would work with clients, and they would quickly comment on how easy I had made it to get to the goal point, the transformation my methodology would achieve, express shock at the fast results, and they’d say that the process was unlike anything they’d seen before.
My process -now the Elevare Method- is rooted in psychology and based on considering that a student is a complex human before they are a holistic and unique learner, and their education should be seen from that perspective. I was increasingly attracting more and more high profile clients. When I started growing a team to work with me and support more clients, it was a very natural development.
Today, Elevare looks after private family clients across the globe, including several royal family and celebrity clients. We are headquartered in London, with a second office in New York.
We help our clients secure places in elite schools and universities (wth a 100% success rate); we accelerate learning by as much as 6 years of school learning in 6 months; we support at all stages of the special needs journey; and we handle special and crisis situations. Our clients experience mass transformation in their prospects and opportunities, and I’m hugely proud of the unrivalled results we achieve for clients.
I’m incredibly passionate about how education and female empowerment bring communities out of poverty; as such Elevare also supports disadvantaged girls in India to get an education.
What’s your relationship like with money and personal finance?
I take it very seriously. Healthy, thriving finances don’t happen by accident; you have to be smart and intentional.
How did you make the shift from teaching to business owner - financially?
The shift was natural; I’m more suited, in every way possible, to entrepreneurship, and bespoke work with clients, than I am being a classroom teacher. I became a business owner very, very young, and the merit of that is you have far fewer financial commitments. My business was profitable from the get go, and that combined with a natural and healthy naivete, I propelled myself to learn fast and capitalise on my own hunger to progress quickly.
What does financial independence mean to you?
Being free to live my best life on my own terms; being free to do work that is valuable, makes a positive impact on the world, and inspires me.
What’s the one thing you indulge in?
My spending habits are epicurean; I have zero guilt indulging myself. Travelling, amazing food, theatre, spas. I think spending on wellness is an imperative. Experiences over things, but I am partial to buying lots of candles, and many more books than I have time to read.
What is the best financial decision you have ever made?
The obvious one is deciding to become literate in financial matters. You need to know how the game works, if you want to be able to play at the highest level, so to speak.
Every spend and investment I have ever made in my own education and development has paid off in dividends. Learning and mastery is of paramount importance to me.
Have you ever experienced a financial epiphany? A sort of wake-up call, where you suddenly think - “I must start doing things differently”?
A few times. Primarily when I’ve started earning more, or when Elevare has been through aggressive growth, and it’s been fundamental to think differently.
What is Vestpod for you?
A place for women to get educated on financial matters; with no holds barred when it comes to talking about money. I love the mission of “tackling the last taboo”. Women can’t be professionally on par with men until we take money seriously and get comfortable talking about it.
Own up. Have you made any major financial faux-pas?
Yes! The most notable for me have been in my business life. Hiring mistakes, as any business owner will know, are costly in both money and energy. It’s likely there’s a list the length of my arm about bad spending decisions in business, but you take the lessons and just be sure to do better next time.
Favourite book & podcast?
This is easy. I read a lot, but my favourites are books that I can retreat to. A Thousand Splendid Suns is one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever known, I feel everyone should read it. Podcasts: Esther Perel’s “Where shall we begin” is avant-garde and completely brilliant. Anyone interested in the psyche or our inner lives should listen.
⚡⚡ Natasha Tiwari is an award winning psychologist and founder of Elevare London, an education advisory firm based in London and New York, with 120 teachers and psychologists across the globe. With a reputation for creating extraordinary transformations in student’s grades, opportunities, and unleashing unshakeable confidence in her students, she counts royal and celebrity families as her private clients. She has been featured in The Guardian, Schools Week and The Huffington Post for her Elevare Methodology: a unique framework which changes children’s lives and secures goal achievement. ⚡⚡
Where can we find you?
Elevare: http://www.elevarelondon.com/
Twitter: twitter.com/elevarelondon
Natasha’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/natashatiwari
Thanks a lot!
-- Emilie