Navigating Career Transitions and Building Lasting Success with Rohit Nanda

In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets, our guest is Rohit Nanda, a career expert and leadership coach with a wealth of experience in helping professionals unlock their true potential. Rohit shares valuable insights on how to successfully navigate career transitions, develop leadership skills, and build a sustainable career that aligns with your goals and values. If you’re looking for actionable advice to accelerate your career growth and make meaningful strides in your professional journey, this episode is packed with wisdom.

You can find him on:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohitnanda1/
https://www.instagram.com/rohitnanda/
https://www.facebook.com/rohitnanda72/
https://www.threads.com/@rohitnanda

Transcript

Rohit Nanda 0:00

Nobody gives them that objectivity. Nobody gives them permission to rethink what their day-to-day looks like. I do because I say, look, blank sheet of paper time, guys, if we're redesigning your role today, what would it look like?

Davis Nguyen 0:17

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets, the podcast where we talk with successful career coaches on how they built their success and the hard lessons they learned along the way. My name is Davis Wynne, and I'm the founder of Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, and even $100,000 weeks. Before Purple Circle, I've grown several seven and eight figure career coaching businesses myself and have been a consultant at two career coaching businesses that are doing over $100 million each. Whether you're an established coach or building your practice for the first time, you'll discover the secrets to elevating your coaching business.

Pedro Stein 0:49

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm Pedro and I'm joined by Rohit Nanda, a strategic advisor and fractional COO who understands that scaling changes businesses in ways most leaders don't expect. With 25 years plus across investment banking, fintech, and consulting, he works with founders and leadership teams when complexity increases faster than clarity and decision making starts to slow. Roehead's work focuses on helping leaders clarify strategy and priorities, build operating structures that support growth and improve visibility over financial and operational performance. His background includes scaling a fintech platform and leading complex change and integration projects. And today he works selectively with founder-led businesses, fintech companies, and professional services firms where the stakes are high. Welcome to the show, Rohead. Thank you very much, Pedro. Lovely to see you again. Lovely to see you too. And it's great to have you, you know. And I always like to backtrack a little bit, you know, rewind a bit, because every coach has a moment where they look at their life and say, Yeah, I guess this is what I'm doing now, right? So when was that for you, Rohe?

Rohit Nanda 2:18

Well, it's funny. I mean, when I when I was thinking about what to do, I didn't actually set out to become a coach. Um, as you mentioned, right? My background is banking, financial services, building businesses, running manufacturing teams, et cetera, et cetera. And I've always been doing the execution. But one of the things I noticed over a while was that a lot of the business people that I was talking to were struggling with certain things. They were, they weren't dealing with clarity, they weren't having structure, they were, they were all over the place. And so by I guess by default, I was the guy who who understood that somehow and was always seeing the bigger picture. And and so I was, I think I just fell into naturally helping people simplify things, helping them get better decisions. And I think uh after that, basically it it became a natural extension, kind of moving into that consulting coaching space. Um, but again, you know, as we've spoken about before, it's about commercial experience and not purely theory. So so yeah, I mean, I don't know. There was no one the morning I woke up and went, hey, hey, hey, today I'm a coach. It didn't happen quite like that. I don't know what exactly it was, but yes, that's that's kind of I guess the background.

Pedro Stein 3:29

Oh, that's the classic consultant dilemma, right? The big boss people, they're like implementing systems, and then everything seems to be working out, and sometimes they get into that main obstacle and how to get the clarity, the real intention behind it. Okay. Now I want to understand one thing, Rohe. When did it shift from I'm a consultant, I'm doing more like this systems and helping in the financial side, the COO, you know, and all of that. And I'm helping them to, you know what? I'm actually building a real business around this, and its tendency is going towards coaching, you know. When did you see that shift happening? And I understand it doesn't have to be an overnight thing.

Rohit Nanda 4:13

No, no, no. I think it's it's really interesting because when you start working with people, you go in for a particular, you're trying to achieve something, right? They've got a problem, they've got something, they've got, you know, they want to achieve some goal, and you're sitting there with them on that journey, transforming it. And then you realize that actually they're struggling internally with a dialogue and and things that are happening within them, and that's where the coaching piece comes out to get them out of their own way. And I think, you know, I think it was, you know, had you and I, you know, even when I was in banking and finance, if someone had said to me, hey, you're a coach, I'd have said, no, I'm not, because it it wasn't something that I ever kind of sat there and said, yeah, yeah, that's what's going to happen. I think it's happened as a result of getting people to change. You need to be able to coach people and you need to be able to get the best out of them. You need to get them to believe in themselves. I was with somebody earlier today who's overwhelmed, founder, you know, he's classic, he's got a thousand and one ideas, he's trying to do everything all at the some all at the same time. And the advisor in me is going, please just stop. Right. But the coach in me has to go, actually, let's unpick this. Let's really figure out what why are we why are we doing all of these things and what what's that backstory? Because actually, that's really important. We need to understand what's driving that behavior, and I think that's where the coaching piece comes in. So it does kind of, I think, you know, one of the things I know is a classical trained coach is never supposed to give solutions, right? Classically trained coach is meant to encourage you to find the solution by working with you, by prompting, by probing, by questioning. And I think for me, that's always been a challenge because I'm very much about, hey, if I see that there's a challenge here or there's a problem here, I'm gonna tell you my solution and my advice on how we fix that. So I can so I don't actually call myself a coach because I don't want to get in trouble with those guys who don't give solutions, but obviously we have to be coaching in order for people to come on the journey with you. And I think that's where the coaching side of it comes. And then we move into advisory and direction and the stuff that I that I really, really enjoy, which is you know, getting people out of their own way and helping them move forward.

Pedro Stein 6:37

You know, I can well, first of all, I'm a coach too, but I can resonate with that in my household, right? It's like sometimes my wife, she's like, she just wants a vent, and I'm trying to give her solutions, right? And I get myself in trouble. Like she's like, no, I just want to talk about it. You don't have to solve it, you know, that type of deal. So yeah, and it's hard to hold yourself back when you have that mentality to solve stuff, right? You're like, oh my god, yeah, I can see it, but I understand where you're coming from because at the end of the day, a lot of people out there, even people that are pretty successful, they like they have this, I would say call it superficial idea of what a goal is. It's like they're following sometimes someone else's playbook, like, oh, I need to grow because X, Y, and Z. I need to get a new car because of X, but do you see that happen more often than not? Like then you start peeling off the onion, you're like, Do you really want to do this?

Rohit Nanda 7:36

Well, here's the thing, right? You've got two types of people. You've got those that have goals, but you don't actually know where they've been founded from and where they've appeared from, right? So, why, why, what is driving that ambition to be that, to get that, to do that, and that part of that unpeeling is something, you know, and then you've got the others who are so in the weeds that they can't even see the goal, right? Wherever it was, or whatever that intention was, you know, and I and I un often I challenge them, and I'll say, you know, when you set the business up, however many years ago it was, what what was the dream here? What because we lose the dream over time. I think it gets it gets worn out of you, and you end up just being an operator, right? And a lot of these owner-led businesses become operators by by the very nature of the business when it first starts, and they don't ever lift themselves back out. They're always dealing with the next problem and the next problem and firefighting and all of that kind of stuff. And so sit when they sit with me and I'm challenging and questioning in the nicest possible way, of course, right? Then they get to open up a little bit about what they were looking to do and how they were looking to do it. And that, and then it's okay. Well, and for me, I'm I'm pragmatic. I don't believe in, okay, let's have this amazing, huge goal, and then we're just gonna sit around and hope that we get there. It's more okay, by the end of you know, three years, that's the goal. Okay, great. Now, what are we gonna do at the end of this year? And what are we gonna do at the end of this quarter? And how are we gonna do that this week and this month? Knowing that when you finish conversing with me, the business stuff is gonna reappear on your head and on your plate. And how do we keep in line with that end goal whilst dealing with all of that? And you know, some of my clients they know that I turn up whenever it is every couple of weeks, every month. They know that they have to reset before they sit down with me because otherwise nothing will have changed.

Pedro Stein 9:43

You know what? You got me into a rabbit hole. I can blame you, and the reason you can blame me, of course you can blame me. Yes, and the reason you got me into it's like I'm picturing this, right? I'm imagining this. Like this business owner who's got a lot lost his drive, his 10 years in, but at the same time, I'm not sure if you already encounter someone like this. It's like he's feeling trapped because all these people rely on him, right? He's like, I don't even want to do this anymore. But Rebecca from HR or that lady, you know, my assistant, they're working for with me for the past 10 years, and and I'm you know, they have a family. So, do you see people like that? Like they're they feel trapped in their own business they created.

Rohit Nanda 10:27

Yeah, I mean, there was a word that somebody used that really depressed me. And when someone said to me, I resent my business, and I go, Whoa, okay, why do you resent your business? Because at the end of the day, a business is something that we create, right? We manifested it, we made it to be whatever it is. And if we're the owner, we are largely responsible for how that manifests and how that operates. So when you get to that point of I resent my business and you have a team around you, we've got to snap you out of that because you've got a responsibility to them and that they feel that pressure. But also what's happening is I think that because they're trying to do everything, they're not letting go of things that they could be letting go of. And as a result, they feel that they have to be involved in everything. Because when they set the business up 10 years ago, the chances are they were the only person in the business, right? And so they did everything because they had to. But what has happened is as they've grown and they've got more people involved, yeah, those people have taken some of those tasks off the list. But the the owner, the founder, the CEO is still doing things that they shouldn't be doing, that they don't love doing, that they're not very good at doing, that are below their pay grade, right? And so that's the point at which and nobody nobody gives them that objectivity, and nobody gives them permission to rethink what their day-to-day looks like. I do because I say, look, blank sheet of paper time, guys. If we're redesigning your role today, what would it look like? What part of this business do you really enjoy? What part of what made you do this business? Let's fall back in love with the business. And it sounds a bit woo-woo, but actually, we've got to get you back to that place, and then we've got to say, well, okay, now you've got a list of 20 things and activities that you take care of, of which three may be in your wheelhouse and you're amazing at. So what do we do with the remaining 17? Yeah, who do where do they go? Right? I can't take them for you. Somebody else, who, where do we pass it on to? And I think that's the thing. And I think nowadays with technology, we can do so much with outsourcing, we can do so much with people in different parts of the world to help you clear down some stuff. The guy this morning who I was talking to, he doesn't have a VA, he's doing admin tasks, and then he's telling me I'm exhausted and I'm tired, and I'm sitting there going, Well, why are you doing all of these things? Right? Okay, that's the point, and there's no coaching there. That's direct. What are you? Why do you think that this is a good way to run a business? And that's the part, okay. That and when I, you know, I do it with love, I do it with with grace. The people who work with me know that I'm quite direct, but I'm doing it with their own best interests at heart, right? It's got to we all have the same amount of time every day. Yeah, you have 24 hours, I have 24 hours. So the question is, how do we spend our 24 hours? So when people say to me, I don't have time, I don't agree that it's not about the time, it's about prioritization. It's about what are you picking to do or choosing to do? And if you're doing things that actually aren't moving the dial, then why you know you need to really be focusing in on things that do move the dial, especially when you're in a leadership role, because that's gonna move the business, that's gonna drive everything, especially if that's your role within the business, to be the leader, to to take the team with you on a journey. But the problem is if you are exhausted, resentful, tired, checked out, how on earth can you possibly do that? Because your energy will drag everybody else down at the same time, and suddenly you have a dysfunctional team around you. And people don't see that, they just assume that it's the people's fault, right? It's my team's fault because the problem is never here, the problem is always there. But actually, I say you look at yourself in the mirror and talk openly to yourself and in your heart, you will know where the problem is. And that's my role, is is to help them. Now, it might be that they've identified somebody within their team that has that kind of challenge as well. That's okay. I can go and work with that person in the same capacity as to what's draining you, why are you not performing? What's going on? Because the other side of it is as our businesses grow and scale, and that's what we're ambitions, what we're hoping to do, let's say, if there are things that are not working within the business, then actually it becomes a bigger problem as you get more traffic through, as you get more clients in. And that causes more problems. The firefighting only goes up, right? When you've got things that are not fit for purpose, and when you know I liken it to a you know a pipe with a hole in it. Okay, we can put our finger on the hole to stop the water, but as you increase the pressure going through that, the water will continue to come out, and that's the problem, right? It's it's how do we control what we're dealing with, and how do we put processes and systems in to support you so that you can be the leader that you're meant to be, and you can run that business that you wanted.

Pedro Stein 16:06

Yeah, more often than not, um I feel like business owners sometimes they feel like they're gonna solve the problem with more clients when in reality they need more structure, right? And that's about the pressure you mentioned, right? It's like, oh, I'm gonna I I need to reach XYZ revenue, and then they don't have a VA, and they're still not having a VA, right? But they're always bullshitting themselves in the future that this is gonna happen when XYZ happens, and in reality, he's just pushing, you know. Now, usually at this time I ask, like after the gun rolling, who are the people that kept showing up? Okay, that the your own tribe, but for you, I'm gonna ask a little bit differently because you had uh an already an already established business, more of like a consultancy style, and then you realize you needed coaching, right? Something like that happened more organically, more naturally. Okay. So my question to you is did you see a difference in your clientele when you inserted coaching into your business? If you if you realize, okay, maybe I need to shift a little bit, or and who are those people, right, that you serve right now?

Rohit Nanda 17:14

Okay. I mean, I think I think the coaching part falls naturally into my advisory anyway, right? Because actually it it's the same, it sits within it as I have to be able to coach them to get them out of their own way in order to do the advisory work. So that those two are coupled. I think what's interesting is as a result of what I put out there and who I'm talking to, I'm getting people who are coming to me in corporate world saying, Can you help me as a leader with leadership and executive coaching? And so that, and I think that comes from the conversations that we have with people. And my, you know, my client base comes typically through referrals, through networking, or people finding me on socials and hearing something that I'm saying that resonates with them. And so, yeah, I have got a coaching piece to that where I'm looking with executives on their leadership, on their skills, on obviously having been in a corporate environment for however many years it was, 12 or 13 years, you know, in big investment banks. You know what it's like in those kind of environments. You know the politics, you know the games that people play. And so if I can help people navigate that and help them on that route, and you know, I've had someone who wanted to change their role and get a small senior role, but they weren't confident and comfortable in their own ability to do that. And so you've got to then that's where you're coaching, right? That's not the advisory part, is less important. That's more about okay, why are we thinking like that? What are we doing? What can we, where's our belief gone? Why is that what you know? So, so there is that service added amongst the services. You know, my main target is obviously helping businesses scale and grow. But because I have to work with people, and people are the business, the coaching side of it does come out. And I was with somebody last night who who was asking that very question about do you help, how do you help the leader beyond helping them grow their business and clearing down their day-to-day? And there's all sorts of tools that you can use with the leader, right, to make them more aware. You know, you can do your profiling, you can kind of understand where they're coming from and what their motivations are and what their values are, and then how that aligns with everything else and what's important. And here's the thing, Pedro, right? Over time we change, we evolve as people, and so what we started out maybe accepting or believing that that was our truth actually changes over time, right? And it's important to recognize that that does change and that does happen, and that's why you know, when I was sitting in banking, I think for the first 10 years or eight years, it was all great, it was fine, but something shifted within me, and suddenly it was like, why am I doing this? And why am I putting up with that kind of behavior? And why am I dealing with those kind of people? And what are my choices then? Now I get to pick and choose. Back then, I chose to kind of move out and and do the fintech business that I was involved in and things like that. Other people don't have that choice, or they don't feel they have that choice. And I say, Well, it's okay to have you are allowed to pick what happens, right? Digressing slightly, uh in society, traditional the traditional route is you go to school, you go to university, you get a job, you maybe get another job, then you retire, and that's that, and you have a family in between that, right? I'm seeing more and more people who come to me for coaching, advisory stuff who are saying, I don't want to go and get a job, right? I don't want to go to university. I'm gonna go to school and I want to start a business, and that's great, but they need to be given permission, and it's almost like nobody is giving them permission because the standard way of people operating is to go through that hierarchy and that follow that cycle. And I think you know, I was talking to somebody a few days ago about going back to work, having been self-employed to then go and work for you, go and work for somebody else, and how difficult that can be. Because in the mind, we go, the grass is always greener, right? And we look back with rose-tinted spectacles about how wonderful it was when we had a corporate paycheck, but you forget what you gave up or what you had to give up in order to get that paycheck, what you had to put up with. Whereas when you run your own business, you don't have to put up with it. I can choose who I want to work with, who I don't want to work with, if I don't like somebody with the greatest respect to that person. I'm not going to work with you because I don't need to. Right? And that's liberating in its own right.

Pedro Stein 22:07

Yeah, you remind me of my school days. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. Like, you know what? When you're you're I had this teacher and I was kept asking him about the same stuff just so he could validate my my you know my work. Like, hey, is this right? Hey, is this right? And well, to a point, then he told me, okay, you know what? You're doing everything right, take it easy. You don't have to validate through me, just go for it. Sometimes it's just about that, right? It's that feeling the the validation and being powered, so you can actually take that route, take that path. And and sometimes that's a lot of that's a lot about leadership, right? You you have employees that they rely on you too much, it's because you're not empowering them enough. Sometimes it feels like that. Now, I want you to picture I'm one of those leaders, right? I am your ICP, your deal client profile, and I looked at your social media, I gonna refer to you. You know, they told me, hey, Rohe is a great guy. And I'm like, okay, I want to work with that guy. And we got into a call, whatever, makes sense. We ended up closing, and I want to sign up, you know. So walk me through the experience of like onboarding Pedro for as a client, okay? Just trying to understand how do you structure your business.

Rohit Nanda 23:30

Yeah, yeah. Okay. So we prior to our call, you would have done a form, an initial form, which is like the triage form almost, that allows me to get an understanding of what are you trying to do, what's your ambitions, what are your numbers, things like that. It gives me an insight into how organized you are as a person, right? In terms of do I have those numbers? Do I understand my numbers? Have I not I haven't abdicated it to my accountant? All of those kind of things, right? We do that. Then when we actually sit down and you onboarded with me, we will go into the first session, will be probably an hour and a half to two hours where we will deep dive into those particular areas to actually almost rip them apart and make sure that they are valid for what you're trying to, what you said that you wanted to achieve. So, you know, in a triage call, you can't really go into too much depth. But what I want to do is I want to understand the human. I want to understand Pedro, the human, before Pedro, the leader, because the human actually is probably more important than the leader. And we forget about the human sometimes. So we got to understand what's going on, what else is happening. We've got to create that space where people trust you enough to be open, right? So in the first call, you're unlikely to be completely open because you don't know who I am. Right now you're working with me, you still don't know necessarily who I am. So there's the probing and there's the unpicking, and there's, and I have tools and I have diagnostics that I can do. And I may well, depending on what you're looking to do and what you talk to me about your challenges, I may say, well, actually, yeah, let's go and do a disc profile. Let's do a let's do some profiling on you to make you more aware of yourself, of what you are. And then it depends. Then it very much is okay. Is it Pedro the leader who's struggling with his business growth? And what are we trying to do? And then it would be, okay, understand those kind of targets. What are we how realistic are they? Often we set ourselves huge challenges, and we've got to kind of make them achievable. It's like those guys who, you know, at the end of the at the beginning of the new year, I'm going to the gym every day and I'm gonna go and do this and I'm gonna be committed, right? And after you know, week two, typically, maybe 10 days in the routine is gone, they've fallen out of love with the gym again.

Pedro Stein 25:58

Wait a minute, was that a personal attack?

Rohit Nanda 26:00

No, no, that was possibly I might have been talking from I might have been talking from my own experience, so now I don't even bother. There's no point in joining the gym for 10 days, right? Uh, but that's the thing, isn't it? It's we've got to look at it like that, and then and then we figure out what what happens now. And it's very, I think the the key point here, Pedro, is that it's very bespoke, right? There is no, I of course I have my onboarding process to get you in and on, but then when each when I sit down with every individual, it is individual. It is what do you need, right? What what are you trying? Because at the end of the day, you've got to trust me, you've got to see results by working with me, and I have to get those results to you as soon as I can. Yeah. Because otherwise you're gonna go, hey, I've been with Reddit for six months and I don't feel any different. Right? So what happens then? I don't force people to sign up long-term agreements with me, right? I suggest we start with a three-month commitment so we're aware of what we're trying to do, but actually they can decide to leave after the first month. They can, they don't typically, thankfully, thankfully, touching a lot of wood here, right? It's you know, it's so that's the point. You're trying to you've you're building relationships, and how do you build relationships effectively so that you get them to be completely open and transparent? The person who I had a meeting with this morning, I've been speaking to for the last two years, and only today we got to the point of yes, I think I now need to work with you. Because my role isn't, I'm not a I don't push, right? It's about understanding where you are, you understand what I'm about. And if you if we fall together and we meet and I'm referred and we have conversations, I have I have to say though, Pedro, sometimes I get surprised myself. I go in for a meeting with somebody and I come out and they've signed straight away. It happens, right? It's not predictable, it depends on where they are on their journey and what what was that one thing that I said that that triggered something within them that went, This is the guy that can help me.

Pedro Stein 28:15

Okay, got it. Now, I mean, your work seems pretty hands-on, right? And I I gotta go back to the coaching space too, right? It's like there are a lot of coaches out there wearing all the hats. Sometimes they don't even have the VAs you mentioned, you know, or the or they're trying to do everything from business development to marketing to coaching itself, you know. So, how do you think about capacity? So don't stretch yourself too thin, you know, you don't you don't end up burning out yourself. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rohit Nanda 28:46

No, it's a great point. And I think I think for me, I have a number of pathways to work with me, or another route, a number of routes to work with me. So, of course, there's the one-to-one, which is I guess what we've spoken about predominantly. Yeah, I do do group work with some people. So actually, I bring in five or six business leaders together. We meet weekly, typically online, might be in person, depending on their location. And we can scale in that sense so we can actually help. My role is oh, I set my business up to make a greater impact, to help more people. And so for me, I recognize that if I become the bottleneck to doing that, then I'm failing in my objective, right? Which is helping more people. So the group stuff helps with that, and it could be the first stage for people to get to know me on a lighter touch basis before they commit to working with me more full-time. The other thing I do is I look at my stuff in the same way as I get my clients too, to say, well, actually, yeah, Rohit, business development can be done by somebody else now. Yeah, I don't typically enjoy doing the whole outreach piece, the whole da-da-da-da-da. So if I don't have to do it, then I'll get other people to do it. And I've got, you know, people who who are helping me on LinkedIn, and there are people who are helping me with, you know, kind of I've looked at people who can do the triage calls for me. I'm also building a group of coaches to work under me. That's the other part of it, which is as we get to capacity and as I personally get to capacity, it's then looking at okay, who else have I got around me who I can pass work to so that we continue to serve, right? And also, there may be stuff, as surprising as it may be, Pedro, that I can't help somebody with, right? And so if I've got people in my network or in my group that I can pass stuff to that that's what they specialize in, then I want to do that because my job, my role is almost to signpost as well. And so I spend a lot of time with other coaches, other advisors, you know, who specialize in different things. So I'm trying to, I think, you know, it's if it's we had a conversation with somebody this morning where we talked about growth and we talked about the challenge of if you doubled your business, what would happen? Because I often do that with my clients. What would break? Right? Would it be you, would it be your team, would it be your systems, would it be everything, etc., etc. And this person said, Well, I'm not sure right now, but it probably would be me initially, and you know, and I went, okay. I said, he goes, but what do we do? And I said, Well, we start the work around fixing that. However, we're not, we haven't doubled your business yet, right? So it's a quality problem to have, it's something that we need to be aware of, but we need to be looking at that. And I think that's the permission piece that I mentioned earlier. You have permission to think differently about how you deliver what you deliver. So, in the same way for me, I have permission to deliver this in a different way. If I find if Pedro, you come to me and I say, Pedro, I'm really sorry, but I'm up to capacity with my one-to-one clients, right? But you really want to work with me, I would say, okay, well, how do I get you into my group? Or how do I, you know, or can I help you in another way to help you? Because I want to help people. That's why I do what I do, right? But equally, I don't want to kill myself doing it, right? But and that's the thing. I think the interesting thing with the way I structure my client relationships, it depends what they want. Some of them meet me monthly, some of them meet me weekly, some of them get me for a few days in a month, some get me a day a week. It changes and it changes depending on the nature of the business, what they're going through. If it's a particular project, you know, you mentioned my fractional COO work. I can go in and help people through a transition. I can help people, and then they get me for a day or two days or three days or five days, whatever, whatever's right. But the great thing is you can scale it up and you can bring it down without having to worry too much. And that's important as well.

Pedro Stein 32:57

Interesting take. Okay. Now, Rohe, I'm curious where you're taking all this. Okay. Future. Looking at where do you see the business going? Are you thinking about scaling, hiring, or is there an except you're excited about, you know?

Rohit Nanda 33:11

I think I think one of the things that I've, as I said before, it's more programs, building more peer-to-peer stuff, bringing more people in, doing more group work, having greater impact with leaders on a group by in a group format, shall we say, is one of my focuses. Um, the fractional COO stuff is a fairly new service that I've added. And it's interesting because I was talking to somebody again, another person today, had a lot of meetings, um, who said fractional COO is different to being a business advisor and is different to being a business coach. And I went, yes, quite deliberately, because there are a lot of business advisors and there are a lot of business coaches. And actually, how do you differentiate yourself in a very crowded marketplace? Right. So for me, it's it's looking at how do we expand our reach, how do we expand our impact? The other side of it is I did have some time out in the Middle East and working with international clients as a result of COVID. So that's the other side. I haven't really tapped back into those markets. So for me, I would probably be looking at if we start to see some traction over there, it's hiring people over there to kind of work as associates within my own within my organization to take on what I do over there and help more people. That's the that's the let's say two to three years kind of roadmap at the moment. But as with all things, Pedro, it changes, right? I could have a conversation tomorrow that leads me in a completely different direction. But for me, the focus is scaling impact in a way that feels personal to me and is quality and still delivers value to those people who are coming to me because at the end of the day, that's key, right? It's got to be about them, it's not about me, right? My role is to help them get out of their own way and get going. So, how do we do that in the best possible way?

Pedro Stein 35:07

Yeah, I think keyword is serving, right? It's the the word you've been using for a while now, and I think that that resonates a lot with at least my background. Like, I worked in sales also, high ticket, and I'm like, yeah, I always hated the ABC, the always be closing vibe, you know, the pushy tactic, salesy vibe. It's more like, how can I support you? How can I help you? If I if it's not me, maybe there and you don't have the money, maybe it's a free resource, maybe it's uh, you know, refer to someone, something like that. Now, let's get into some advice time here, okay? Because you've been in the game long enough, right? Um, and I'm gonna tap your experience for a second because it could help some listeners out there. And uh considering business advice, there's so much noise out there. Some are good, some are terrible, you know. So, what's one piece of business advice you hear all the time that you think, you know what, that's overrated, or maybe misunderstood, you know?

Rohit Nanda 36:13

I think this hustle culture thing is still a thing, unfortunately. Um, I think I was reading something earlier and someone commented on exactly that. It's you don't have to be working 24-7 to grow your business because actually that leads to the problems that we've just talked about, right? It leads to burnout, it leads to stress, it leads to resentment, it leads to all of those things. So why are you doing it? But I think we've we've we're going back to a place, unfortunately, which was there prior to the COVID pandemic. I think the pandemic caused a lot of people to reflect and sit back a little bit and refocus on themselves. And I think that sadly is disappearing, and people are going back to well, the only way you're really going to get there is to work 20 hours a day. And I think that's rubbish. Okay, it's it's not necessary. You should be working smarter, not harder. You need to be figuring out what moves the dial. And the coaching me, the coach in me goes, but you've also got to be thinking, why do you think that you have to be doing all of these things all at the same time? Right? Why is it yeah? And so for me, that's that is something I stand against. Yeah. I also there are a lot, you've already said it, there are a lot of coaches out there, but I personally think that you've got to find the coaches, you've got to find people to work with that have walked your path and that you resonate with, and don't just take the first person you come across. But from a from an advice to another coach, it's very much about be yourself, yeah. Take you are the business, right? Stop trying to be somebody else, stop being faking it, right? Fake it till you make it. That was this that was the old expression. It seems to be coming back in, yeah. It's not necessary, be authentic, be true, be real, and people will naturally what is the word? They'll come to you. Yeah, it might take longer than you planned, right? But that's because that's the way it is sometimes. But you've but you know, as with all things, you've got to be persistent and consistent, but don't kill yourself in the process. You've got to look out for that and look out for the signals that you are, you know, our minds work 24-7. Mine certainly does. And I have to remember that I've got to turn it down and I've got to slow it down, and I've got to get out, and I've got to do other things. And my wife will tell, you know, if she was here, she'd say, He doesn't listen, he doesn't go out for his walks, he doesn't go out and get fresh air, he doesn't do any of that stuff. And I'm saying, okay, yeah, all right. I'm guilty, but I know that I need to do it, and I have to go out and do it. And so again, it's that part of it, right?

Pedro Stein 39:07

Rohead, I think we're married to the same person. I mean, I mean the two of them in the world, and oh my god, yes. I mean, we're right there with you, okay.

Rohit Nanda 39:19

But I think they're doing it obviously because they care, right? And we're obviously not seeing it for whatever reason. Yeah, of course.

Pedro Stein 39:27

Now that's yeah, yeah, and and on the other side, you know, what's a a piece of advice you wish more people actually took seriously, you know?

Rohit Nanda 39:38

I think there's three things that I think I see a lot of, right? It's people trying to be all things to all people. Okay, so you've got to get clear on who you help and the problem you solve. The next piece is on results and what it just how do you actually move the conversation on to something else? How do you deliver that value? Whether you're being paid or not, my objective is to help that person who's in front of me, right? And you know, and the last piece, I guess, is build the relationships because the relationships will actually help you in the future. It's not, it may not be immediate, uh but having conversations with people over time and remembering and being organized about that, actually that really works because opportunities come from trust and trust is developed over time. So actually, we should be focusing on what are those, how do you create trust in an environment where it's social media, it's all online. How do you how do you present yourself in the light that gives you your true authenticity? And I think that for me is the is the key piece. Those for me that succeed will be those that are speaking their truth, that are talking from their own lived experience rather than you know. I think you know, we haven't talked about AI in this conversation, but AI has meant that people can get solutions to everything, right? So but they can't implement those solutions because they don't know how to. So the theory part is probably covered, right? Whichever one you choose, it's gonna give you the practicalities of how you do that and what the theory is behind it. But theory doesn't make a difference, does it, if you don't do anything with it, right? And I think that's the other thing, and you know, my other bugbear is there are coaches and leaders, or coaches out there and advisors out there who've never done it. And so they are preaching theory without execution. And I don't believe that's fair to the people who are buying it, unless you're buying theory, but you're gonna be wiped out by AI anyway, because the AI agent can do it much quicker than you can. So it's for me, it's those how do you serve your community, whoever that is, whoever you've decided your ICP is, right? So that you help them with that problem in a way that they can go away and implement straight away. When I do my workshops and I do um, you know, in front of groups of people, what's the one thing? What is the one thing that you will take away from today's one-hour session, two-hour session, half a day session? I don't want you to take everything, because you will, but you've got to do one thing with it. You can't just sit there as a sponge and absorb it all because it will overwhelm you and you will do nothing, right? How many of us go to events and we make notes after notes after notes? We've got it in a nice little workbook, we come back home, we stick it on a pile, and the pile is getting bigger and it never gets looked at. There's what's the point, right? One thing, focus on the one thing, and that's what I tell my clients. When they've got their to-do list, what's that one thing that has to be done today? Right? Then when we've done one thing, you can do number two and you can do number three, and maybe you'll get up to number five. But don't, if you're looking at a list of 20 things or a hundred things, guess what? That's gonna stop you from doing anything. So be it's that prioritization piece. It's what it's going right back to where we started with the business owners, it's prioritizing what they should be focusing on. And when you're a coach, equally focus in on that one, focus in on one thing every day, one more thing, one more thing, right? And and then rinse and repeat the things that are working. How many people give up? Yeah, you've been in sales, I've been in sales, I know as well as you do that you make a call to somebody, guess what? The chances are they're not gonna buy from you on the first call. But what do most people do? They give.

unknown 44:00

Up.

Rohit Nanda 44:00

Right, Pedro's not interested. Cross a line through and move on to the next, right? Or you know, there's bizarre things. People do, you know, you've worked with me in the past. Why haven't you contacted me again? I don't know. Why wouldn't you? It's the low-hanging fruit piece, right? We want to find new clients, but we're forgetting about the ones that we served previously, and we're not even checking in on how they're getting.

Pedro Stein 44:26

I love that. I love those reminders. And uh, rowhead, if someone listening wants to connect with you or follow your work, you know, where can people find you and connect with you?

Rohit Nanda 44:38

So I am on all the socials, as you can imagine. LinkedIn is probably the place that most people will find me. Uh, but I am on Instagram, I am on Facebook, yeah, and what am I on? Threads and all sorts of other pieces. But I've got to be in there, right? Um, but also you've got a YouTube channel, you know, there's other places. But if you if you want to have a chat with me, get in touch with me via LinkedIn. I'm very happy to have a conversation with anyone because again, it's serving people. That's what I'm trying to.

Pedro Stein 45:05

You know, certain things I feel the need to highlight in our conversation today. I would say the first one is like you're telling me about the origin story, right? And you're seeing the bigger picture. It's like, oh, before I execute the plan, I need to clarify some stuff here, get them out of their own way, right? I think that's I love how that organic and how natural that is. It's just like part of something you felt like when you were trying to serve these people, you were like, you know what? It defeats the purpose if there's no clear intention behind it. You know, I would emphasize that. I think that's very important. Uh, the other piece that you mentioned about that business owner that told you he resented his own business, you know, he was feeling trapped, and sometimes he needs a wake-up call, or maybe you know, you never know if they need a proper plan to exit the business. Maybe that's the the thing. We never know, right? We don't know what's best for people, it's really up to them. I think that's very interesting, you know, and very important also. And uh last but not least, uh, that advice about hustle culture. You know what? When I was a landscape uh high-ticket land for a landscape business coach, oh my god, I talked to a lot of landscapers, right? So they I could see the future, you know. Like I'm talking to this guy who hit the ceiling, he's like doing 500k, 600k a year, but he's doing everything by himself because he doesn't trust anyone. Uh he's working 60 to 70 hours a week, and you can see the divorce coming, right? You can see it, you can feel it. Unless he gets out of his own way, unfortunately, this is not gonna end well. That's basically happened more often than not, which is a sad thing because people like, oh, nobody wants to work, and then the victim mentality, right? External reasons, yeah. No, you're the only one who wants to work, buddy. Nobody else wants to work. Uh, and oh, they don't love the business as much as I do. Of course, you're the owner, right? You don't you cannot expect someone to love the business as much as you, so it's about you know letting go a little bit, you know, that perfectionism, and and you cannot you cannot solve that with hustle, you cannot solve with grinding. It's just something that's not gonna work out because you only have 25 24 hours in the day. Uh a third of that is slipping, the other third, well, at least in my case, is following orders as an non-paid employee at my household, you know, wife, of course, big boss, the big bus and uh the big boss, and then we have the business, right? Which is the other third. So, man, there's only so much we can do a day, you know. So, Rohe, this is my long way of saying that I appreciate what you do. I appreciate you being here and sharing so openly today, okay? It was great having you on. Thank you so much.

Davis Nguyen 47:55

That's it for this episode of Career Coaching Secrets. If you enjoyed this conversation, you can subscribe to YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening to this episode to catch future episodes. This conversation was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to seven and eight figures without burning out. To learn more about Purple Circle, our community, and how we can help you grow your business, visit joinpurplecircle.com.