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Welcome to "Visionary Voices" the podcast where we dive into the minds of business owners, founders, executives, and everyone in between.
Each episode brings you face-to-face with the leading lights of industry and innovation.
Join us as we uncover the stories behind the success and the lessons learned along the way.
Whether you're climbing the corporate ladder or just starting your business journey, these are the conversations you need to hear - packed with visionary voices and insights.
Let's begin.
Okay, so that's definitely recording.
Okay, perfect.
So welcome, should I get into it now?
that okay?
So welcome to the show.
Can you just give me a top level view of what it is that you do right now, your journey so
far, and then we can go from there.
Yeah, think the thing that, hi Akil, good morning.
I think the thing that keeps me busiest in my 43rd year of life, I'll be 44 in a couple of
months, is being a dad to two boys, six and eight years old, primary function of my life.
the greatest gift ever.
As a professional, I found her a Stride Leadership, which is a brand that is in the
learning and development space.
And my mission really is to support the growth and development of as many people as I
possibly can, which is an initiative drawn from my passion and my own personal experience,
which I'm sure we'll get into at some point.
But yeah, Stride Leadership is the brand and I spend most of my time
being creative and innovative around how it is that I can create value for people around
the world.
Definitely.
No, no, it sounds so interesting.
So how did you get into business?
I know the story for a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners, they all got very
different stories of how they got into it.
So what was the spark for you to transition into owning your own business and building
that up?
Yeah, it's a great question.
We did came to a point in my late 20s, so 15 or so years ago where what really felt right
for me at that time, I was considering doing an MBA or doing some type of upgrade in
education.
And I think the intrigue there was around, I had done some work in different spaces, a
couple of different industries.
The last one that I was in where I was employed by somebody was in retail.
So was in big box retail here in Canada.
And I stepped away from retail at a moment in my life where I knew I had some big
decisions to make.
I'd always been a creative.
know, ideas and sort of big picture thinking and long-term thinking was always very
exciting to me.
So like the innovation of things was very exciting.
And when I walked away from retail, had got, what I knew about myself was that I was
inspired by my desire to support people, right?
So it all kind of comes full circle.
But on the entrepreneurial side of things, it was my uncle, my dad's younger brother,
who's been a big mentor for me throughout my life, particularly after my dad had passed
away.
He, so I was actually working at his big box store.
instead of doing the MBA or going back to school, what he had proposed to me was, Hey, why
don't you come work with me and I'll teach you how to run sort of a, you know,
an eight figure business and you can leverage that in whichever way you want into future
chapters of your life.
And so when the time came for me to leave retail is just for a number of reasons.
But I knew within myself, I didn't want to pursue the path of being in a very controlled
and a very systemic sort of environment where things need to be in a certain way.
But the learning was fantastic.
But I realized within myself that wasn't for me.
And so it was, you know, there's this idea of painting by numbers, which is, you know, a
very sort of logical, practical guided way of going about an initiative that wasn't for
me.
I wanted to abstract art my way through life.
And so at the moment, my uncle was like, Hey, are you going to continue on to the next
store?
Or do you want to continue on sort of on this path and become a general manager and
possibly an owner one day?
It's like,
I want to go out and create.
And so I was able to leverage, felt like at that time in my life, like I had learned a lot
about what it took to, through his guidance and mentorship, make something out of nothing
or make something out of something, something greater out of something great.
And that just became addictive for me, you know?
And it was my time to sort of go out into the world and start to, I think, challenge
myself differently in ways where I was like,
All right, this is kind of unfamiliar territory, the idea of you eat what you kill was not
to be too drastic with the analogy, but was new for me.
And it was, yeah, it was challenging, but that was sort of like my breakthrough moment,
which is, hey, do you want to carry on in retail, or do you want to leverage what it is
that you've learned to this point about running a business and go and do something on your
own?
So, yeah, no, definitely.
And what I love about that story is you're finding that mentor early on.
And I think
everyone, if they look around them, they can find someone there who can guide them to some
degree and can show them new experiences and all these different things.
And, you you took those lessons that you had.
And when it came to that turning point, which I think all entrepreneurs have, right,
either it's that, you know, that job, they're not getting a promotion for and they're
like, screw this, I'm going to do something else.
Or in your case, you know, it was having that opportunity to go elsewhere, but actually
does this align with what I want to do?
And you can just take all those learnings, those findings that you had and those
experiences, and then apply it to the new thing that you're doing.
So
With Stride Leadership, mean, what are some of the things that you guys work on
specifically and the types of projects you do and the outcome and the benefits to other
businesses that you work with?
Yeah, so I think to simplify it, we work really in sort of two key realms.
One of them is we develop leaders.
So we help support people that are looking to develop or build leadership capacity.
primarily in a professional environment.
So people that are looking to build career trajectory or sort of get to the next place
within their career, we help support those individuals.
And then the next is within teams.
So we help teams effectively or more effectively collaborate.
we have a number of assessments and exercises and ways that we engage both individuals and
teams to give them insights and to give them sort of what we like to call sort of hacks or
tools that they can leverage.
as individuals and then also when we're working with others and we're collaborating with,
you know, various personalities and motivation styles, how do we take all of that and do
great things together while keeping the mission, the mission, you know, right?
Yeah, no, no, definitely, definitely.
mean, so I mean, what type of tools do you use internally to really help that I know, you
know, relationship intelligence tools, that type of thing.
So what do you guys work on in that realm as well?
Yeah, so any of the tools that we use and you're right, the relationship intelligence tool
is sort of the flagship or like the marquee offering that we've had for several years.
Any of the tools that we use are really to build, again, to give people some hacks, right?
To give them insights into sort of, like what drives me, what motivates me?
We generally all have a sense as to what excites us about getting up and doing the thing
that we do.
But bringing the science into, what is it about me intrinsically that makes me want to
show up in my environment or go out and help lead a team or an organization?
so, yeah, at the risk of, know, the risk of rambling off a little bit on that, I think
that's sort of the essence of it.
So what we are most proud of and what we enjoy doing the most is providing people with the
insights and the data on themselves.
to be able to, and then we work very closely with them once we've delivered the data to
really support sort of, like what's intriguing here for you?
Like what's interesting about what it is that you've learned?
Maybe where do you think the opportunities lie, you know, to make shifts or to, you know,
yeah, to make shifts into future chapters of your life.
And then we sort of support the learning with more one-on-one work or small group work.
But yeah, it's the awareness piece.
It's the we ask you to get uncomfortable.
We make I say this in classrooms when I go in and I do my best to make it out to as many
sort of program launches as I can.
It's very important to me as founder that I go out and do that and get to meet our
participants.
But I always say like unapologetically, we are going to make you uncomfortable.
Sometimes it's deliberate.
It's usually not.
But I can promise you there's going to be corners where what I describe as being you might
feel like you're
tied to the corner of a boxing ring and you're just taking body shots nonstop.
But I promise you, it'll be temporary.
So the learning is deep.
The insights that we provide are, I'm biased of course, but I think they're fantastic.
And if people are open to engaging with new ideas and new perspectives and new information
about themselves, I think they'll go on to do amazing shit in their lives, independent of
what that looks like.
Yeah, no, no, for sure.
And I love what you're saying about, you have to go through that pain, right?
be told certain things and be awoken and have that awareness of things that are happening
in your life and things that you might need to change.
sometimes it's difficult, right?
It's difficult to get that critique and feel like, okay, this is where I need to develop
and all these different things.
mean, I guess talking with all these types of people, these leaders, founders,
entrepreneurs, whatever it is, you must have so much data, I guess, in terms of what's
driving people forward and what do they need to improve on.
I mean, what's some of the biggest lessons you've taken yourself from those conversations?
that maybe some other people could look to look within and try and apply it as well.
Yeah, it's such a cool question.
Akil, I have the good fortune of having had several thousand hours of one-on-one
conversations with some of like the most fascinating people in the world, in my opinion.
You know, they're high performers or people that live really cool lives very uniquely, you
know.
If there was a common thread or a common theme, support matters.
support is extremely valuable.
So there's a, you I think what I understand is, and this isn't through ego, but it's in
fact through feedback.
What I hear is that the place that I hold, I'm certified as a leadership coach.
I not only, you know, founder of Stride, I also work in project, because it's my raw
passion to support the individual.
So the feedback that I get is, you know, people tell me a lot.
I've never had this in my life, right?
I've never had the opportunity
to enter into a chat that is unbiased, you know, where there isn't judgment in my ideas,
it's in fact constructive.
holding a safe space for people to share what it is that they have happening in their life
or what their challenges are or what it is that they're currently working on and then
being able to get constructive with somebody like myself.
So, you know, what would be my conclusion after, you know, just over a decade of doing
what it is that I do as a practitioner?
So as a coach is...
The world is terrible at listening.
I think is my conclusion.
But I think there's a huge opportunity for people to, yeah, to in dialogue, in
relationships, to really work on, you know, listening intentionally rather than waiting to
speak, you know?
And so I get that feedback a ton.
Hey, thanks for being a great listener.
Hey, thanks for, you know, thanks for giving me that 30 minutes.
I really needed to dump that off and sort of hear myself think out loud.
And so.
Yeah, I would say that.
And then of course, when we start to pull data in, you know, I can tell you that people,
everybody is motivated by, you know, one of three things or sorry, a swirl of three
things, people, performance and process.
So those three markers, the three P's, we all live in a blend of those three, what we call
motivational values Akil.
And so being able to give insight and sort of be able to sort of show people
what that looks like for them and are they disproportionately process-driven?
Are they disproportionately performance-driven or people-driven?
Brings, mean, I've been in classrooms and I've been in debriefs on our relationship
intelligence program where there's people in the classroom that come to tears.
Like it's emotionally overwhelming for them to learn in their 30s, 40s and 50s.
Wow, this makes sense.
What it is that drives me, I've never been able to put my finger on, but
this makes sense and I think I can do something with this.
In lot of cases, there's like a vindication of like, okay, great.
I get how it is that I show up now.
And then a lot of people get excited about, well, hey, this presents all sorts of
opportunities.
And then there's another group that is, I guess, aware.
They have a good sense of sort of how they meet the world.
And anyhow, we love supporting and I love supporting people from all those different
areas.
yeah, this is where I get super excited and I lose the original question.
I hope I the mark there a little bit.
No, no, no, for sure.
I think it's, I think it's so good.
And then, you know, again, bringing it back to that awareness.
And for me as well, you know, recently I've been doing a lot of that, you know,
reflecting, trying to figure out, okay, what's my limiting beliefs and, you know, what
things that are really holding me back because I feel like I just did a podcast yesterday
and we're talking about just this and we're talking about how
People go in patterns and they repeat these cycles, right?
It's like, for example, an entrepreneur, might get a burst of motivation, create this
strong plan that they're do this, this, this, this, this.
Six months later, a couple of those things have been taken out of the daily habit of the
things that they should be doing, then I'll do it later.
And then that snowballs and they reach this level of, wait, how did I get here when I had
this great plan?
And, why didn't I follow this plan?
And sometimes it's the awareness of oneself, right?
To analyze, okay, what are the things happening in my life or has happened in my life that
I need to
try and figure out and work through and then I can move forward with it.
But you know, lot of people, well, one of the best quotes I think I've heard in business
is you don't have businesses, business problems, you have personal problems showing in
your business.
And so when you tackle that for yourself, then naturally you're gonna find those blockages
and be able to move past them.
I love that Akil, it's such a big thought and.
such wisdom, you know, that's fantastic.
You're absolutely right.
had somebody tell me prior to my entrepreneurial year, she's a naturopath doctor, just a
very close family friend.
And I had lived at one point downtown Vancouver, very close to where her practice was.
And occasionally we'd meet for lunch or go for a walk.
And I remember her telling me once, says, you know, everything about you as a person shows
up in your business.
So she had just opened her own practice and I was like, huh?
didn't really make sense to me in my mid twenties, right?
And again, I'd never, never owned a business, never had been a founder before.
And she said, yep.
She's like, it just all kind of shows up.
So if you're struggling within sort of clarity within sort of, you know, maybe where you
are or who you are as a person and what you represent, well, guess what?
It shows up within your brand.
and that didn't really resonate until several years later, but you're bang on, you know, I
think what keeps me in the saddle, so to speak, and sort of very focused on, you know,
looking inward, which has been a big part of sort of my lived experience and the value of
going inward to take personal inventory and get a sense as to, like, where am I at?
Cause it's not the initiative.
It's not the program that you want to deliver.
It's not the, it's not the academy you want to build.
that's getting in the way.
mean, it could, you might have a shitty process, who knows, right?
But most of the time as entrepreneurs, I think we are, because it's a requirement.
pushing ourselves to do things that we're not inherently passionate about is not
enjoyable.
And God damn it, it's just not a part of my skillset.
mean, drop spreadsheets in front of me and force me to, and I've been there, right?
There's still times where I have to look at one or sort of add data to, you know,
sometimes, it's not me though, you know?
And I think an awareness around that.
So your skillsets and sort of where it is that you are within yourself.
Yeah, you're right.
They show up and they...
They show up in our brands.
Yeah, no, no.
And I love what you just said about, you know, if you're feeling a little bit lost in your
own life, that that can show up in your business.
Because for me, a couple of years ago, when I started really getting into the
entrepreneurship game and things like that, you know, as a young entrepreneur, it's let me
make some money, right?
Let me let me try and build something and just make some money.
And that's fine.
Which is which is fine if you have that goal.
But for me, you know, I had that goal and I was trying to build this business and I just
didn't really care about the work that I was actually doing.
And I was like trying to aim at all these different things.
Just
you know, wandering around and just not really understanding what, what am I doing and why
am I doing it?
And there was no intention behind the work I was actually doing.
It was all just because I wanted to try and make some money.
then for me this year, especially through the podcast, I found that my skillset or what
I'm trying to really develop and what I just enjoy as a person is just connecting with
more people and having really interesting conversations and trying to improve myself, you
know, asking the best questions and everything like that.
And that's where for me, I've just have
I have unlimited motivation around building like a business in this, in this space,
because I've seen the power having these types of conversations can have.
And so I think, you know, for anyone, guess, listening or maybe feeling a little bit lost
is that eventually, as you know, as an entrepreneur, when you try enough things, you'll
find something that resonates a little bit more with you.
And once you do find that's that inkling that, you know, this is pretty cool.
Let me, let me learn a little bit more about it.
And you can dive a little bit more into that topic that you might actually find that thing
that you're really passionate about.
that motivation then comes up.
And then you can, you know, you can move forward with the business.
You said it, the important, you know, the most important keyword passion, right?
I think again, at 43 years old and just over a decade into the, you know, the space that I
operate in, which, you know, without sort of any hesitation is driven by passion, you
know, and when you're able to go out and create something because you love it or because
you believe in it and it make, and it fills you like it fills your bucket.
you know, and it's, and it's work of high purpose, the revenue and the results, you know,
they show up at a later stage, but I can tell you that, and I know that you know this now
and it's so cool to hear, you know, cause you are almost significantly younger than me.
Is that yes, for you to have that sort of dialed in at this early stage of your life,
which is, Hey, it's the work on me is to find out what makes me want to run the machine or
keep the thing going.
You can parlay that into future decades of your life.
And that's a promise, right?
Like I have been very fortunate to have, you know, number of really cool conversations
with aspiring entrepreneurs or young entrepreneurs.
And I'm like, you have to love it.
know, I as well, like at one point I was like dollars first.
I had sort of kicked around in the furniture industry of all things as one of my first
entrepreneurial ventures.
importing furniture out of Southeast Asia.
into North America and working in the hospitality sector, so bars, restaurants, hotels.
And there were elements of that that was cool.
We'd bring a shipment in and you have to organize a shipment and sort of make sure
inventory is on.
And I had great partners at the time.
But then it was taking samples off to these locations.
And I got to be honest, man, I didn't love any of that.
I didn't even love furniture, to be frank.
And lo and behold, in
you know, the very fortunately the short years ahead, I recognize that I'm like, this
isn't going to materialize.
And it wasn't, this isn't getting out in a way that I would hope I at one point had hoped,
you know, I had the dreams of I'm to buy a boat at some point, this car, and it's all
going to come from this industry that I have no interest in.
Didn't work for me.
I'm sure there's, you know, I'm sure there's, I know there is, there's people out there
that don't love what they do, but they just, yeah.
managed to find a way to create enough value that they get a return and that satisfies
their needs.
I'm a high purpose guy.
I'm about, know, legacy is very important to me.
I mentioned off the hop, I got two boys, six and eight.
And so now when I create and I sit down and do what it is that I do, I'm not even doing it
for me anymore.
I'm doing it for a future generation.
It's got nothing to do with me.
It's my responsibility now, but yeah, they, my kids.
boats, cars, all that stuff, if they decide that's the direction they want to go,
fantastic.
But can I create an offering or can I create something in this lifetime, you know, that is
a value that leaves a legacy of good work, you know, and supporting mankind.
So, yeah, I love, love that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, I was going to say, I love how you have that big mission, right?
Where you do have that big, you know, big, big mission, which for some people is, you
know, it's sometimes unattainable in their minds, but
It's amazing the impact you can have because, you know, if you impact just one business
and that then trickles down the organization, you know, going back to the business, that
could have a huge impact overall.
mean, I've seen it with some of my clients where, by one in particular, very recently,
they're basically struggling, right?
They're in this stage of trying to refine their product, but the product just wasn't good
enough and they weren't getting enough calls to actually try and grow the business.
they're essentially ready to call it quits and close it down.
And then when.
your work can impact them.
And now, you know, they've got clients coming through and that they're revenue generating
and they're like, this is what we need to do for the product.
it's really resonating.
It's working.
And you can see that progress just, you know, for me, one to one, seeing them light up and
start actually enjoying their work and being like, finally, we figured this problem out
and gone through this brick wall.
Now they're going to go on and impact all their clients, right.
And people that they start to hire and as they grow.
And so I think the important thing is don't underestimate the impact that you could have
on humanity, on the world, because amazingly, you know, a small change, a small action can
just exponentially change people's lives for good forever, which is just an incredible
thought when you have that frame and very, powerful.
Yep.
I reference that often.
say, well, fortunately at one point in my life, and still I'm crazy enough to believe that
I can go out and have an impact on the world.
Yeah.
And thank God for that insanity.
And I, you know, I encourage all entrepreneurs to, you know, to be extremely expansive in
what they believe their capacity is or what they're capable of, because that, I mean,
those types of intrinsic motivators are going to be big, big, big catalysts, right?
As you go on throughout your journey as an entrepreneur or otherwise.
Yeah.
yeah, I love that.
Definitely, definitely.
So I know when we first spoke on our, on our call, we were talking about like self, being
selfless.
Right, so I wanted to ask you, what's been the impact of trying to be selfless for you and
how's that shown up in your own life and your own business and your own relationships as
well?
Yeah, I was, and this may be relatable for you as well, and I think we touched on this a
little bit, but culturally where it is that you and I come from in the Eastern world,
India, there are, I was born in Canada, but had immigrant parents that came to this
country in the 60s.
and settled themselves and got married and of course started a family and you know the
rest is history as they say.
I was raised with a value set.
I didn't understand at that time but what I understood in early years was that we are a
people of service.
So to be able to provide or support a neighbor or to be able to provide and support for a
cousin or a sibling or a parent
was a big part of the cultural value set that I was born into.
And I saw it a lot, and I felt it, Yeah.
Aunt's, uncle's, people I didn't know, know?
Yeah.
really trying to be of service.
And there are big parts of that which I really appreciate.
And there is parts of that which, for me, I think were challenging, because at times I
didn't know.
And I'm talking about a young age here, right?
kind of teenage years, like how do I show up?
you know, and sort of what I understand is I'm supposed to just give, give, give.
And then as I developed and as I sort of matured in, you know, into my twenties, I went,
well, wait a second, this sort of selfless giving is fantastic.
And I, and I really enjoy aspects of what we call culturally Seva, which is a selfless
give back to the world around us.
Great.
In theory,
just a fantastic ideology and very proud to be a part of a community that extends that as
much as they can.
But then there's the what about me part.
Yeah, you know, because I come to points from like, well, shit, I'm not I'm not taking
care of myself.
Like, I'm not considering my own needs.
I've just been sort of outwardly extending myself as much as possible.
And the midst of all that, not really gaining a true sense of what matters to me and
How dare I?
Because that, culturally, in some ways, as I understood it, is like, we don't talk about
selfishness, right?
We don't talk about our own needs.
We are to serve, right?
I agree.
And so, yeah, I think taking that idea of seva and the concept of seva and applying it
into, still, again, several decades later, it shows up differently.
I now subscribe to and really be sort of
encourage the world and everybody that I come in touch with around this concept of self
leadership.
So, you know, what is it?
How is it that you lead yourself?
How is it that you fill your own bucket?
Because only then when I've led myself effectively, can I then go out and pour out from
that bucket to others around me.
Right.
So you I mean, there's what is it you can't pull water from an empty well or from a dry
well?
know, if you want to serve the village or, you know, serve the community, great, but
ensure that you have an inventory of water for yourself first before you go out.
And so yes, in business terms now, man, I just, I seek to serve.
Like I really do.
Like I, again, and my, my, my stubbornness and my rigidness, it shows up in many places,
just ask my wife.
But one of the places it certainly shows up is on being able to create an impact and
support people.
But I'm now wise enough to know Akil.
And this only came like in more recent stages of life, like right around like, you know,
when I founded Stride, like into my early thirties, I went, wait, I, and I'm preparing to
be a dad at this point.
I just got married.
I'm like, man, I got to take care of me before I go out and, you know, overextend myself
into family or business initiatives.
And I can tell you in summary that it's, that it's netted out really well for me.
It feels very right for me at this stage in my life.
It keeps me extremely centered, knowing that there's going to have to be moments where I
prioritize me.
I got to do that last night.
Like I had mentioned earlier, the kids stayed at grandma's last night and my wife was out
for dinner with some family and friends.
And so was like, a chance for me to rejuvenate, you know, did a good foot soak and a
massage, had a fantastic workout and just like, played some video games cause I'll never
stop doing that.
But those type of things allow me to then on a Sunday morning, a Monday morning, on a
Tuesday afternoon, then I can go out and I can be of service.
Yeah.
When I'm not mindful of me and when I'm not taking that inventory around sort of what it
is that I need, save us impossible man.
Yeah.
Yeah.
For me.
Do you know what?
I completely agree and I resonate with that a lot.
So a couple of years ago, was, you know, living away from home, trying to my business work
right.
And honestly,
The whole day that I spent was, I basically just one room.
So I'd wake up, go to my desk, sit there for like 10 hours, trying to make this business
work, right?
Go to the gym, go home, like go to sleep.
That was like my day.
And what I found was that I wasn't taking care of myself properly, right?
So I was depleted in really all areas and I was just blind, like trying to, basically
trying to pay rent with making this business work and just blindly going at it, trying to
do it.
And it was getting to a point where I was so depleted in just all areas, know, stop
working out, stop eating right, you know, stop really eating much at all.
so even those little things and just not taking those time for myself, that impacted how I
can then show up for other people in my life that I should have.
And I remember during that time, because I felt so depleted and I love helping people out
and everything, but I would go like,
days without really speaking to other people, even some of my closest friends, because I
was just like, I need to do this and I need to work like this.
And so I start to lose that concept of being selfless, right?
I start to really lose that part because I was just so depleted.
sometimes it's difficult to explain this to some people if they haven't gone through that
before, where they've just felt absolutely depleted.
wanna do all these things, but they just have no drive, no energy anymore because it's at
zero.
But when you do go through it and then you come out the other side, you look back and
you're like, damn, like this is why this happened.
And now I'm doing this, this, this.
feel, I feel full again.
I'm doing that.
We're moving on in life.
We're helping loads of people.
That's great.
But that only comes in when you start taking care of yourself first.
And that's, I think that's, that's the key thing.
And especially for entrepreneurs and especially young entrepreneurs, I feel like now,
because we see it on social media, right?
There's
people that start a business that are young and it looks like they're doing really, really
well.
And it's really hard to get your head around.
It's like, you don't wanna be left behind.
There's high expectations.
You wanna really hit these things.
But in that process, you can start to lose yourself a lot more.
And you go down a road of, this isn't me.
And you get to the end of it.
You're like, how did I get to this point?
And then it takes time to reassess that situation, figure out what you need to do and then
start building it up.
But I think it's such an important thing that people need to really start thinking about a
lot more, but especially business owners as well.
That's such a great thought Akils.
There's so much wisdom there.
I can't even tell you, but yeah, I think you're bang on.
If our businesses are a reflection of us, right?
We kind of agreed on that a few minutes ago.
Yeah, will you prioritize you?
Will you give yourself permission or will you tell yourself that I speak from personal
experience?
on the Friday afternoon, my friend calls and says, hey, man, we're going to go to the
football match.
Like I got, we got a ticket.
When I tell myself, when I say no, like when the reflex is like, Hey, no, man, I don't
think I'm to make it.
because I have a dialogue with myself, like, you idiot, why would you go spend a Friday
night, you know, with friends?
And then this version of it goes, why would it die?
Like, so I think most people, that's, you know, last night I, 43 years old, I got a
PlayStation five controller and I played games, I don't know, 45 minutes or so to end my
night.
Hell yeah, I did.
Like it's, it kills me.
It's fantastic.
You know, and I think most people, so one of the things that I have learned in the work
that I do is,
A lot of people that get disproportionate, I don't think it's 80-20, but it's a big
number.
And that is that I think people exist within burnout cycles, either consciously or
unbeknownst to them, but they really just go, go, go, go, go, push, push, push, push, push
up into a point where they're just like, my God, I'm sick, or I'm gonna take a few days
off.
I need to go on vacation, right?
Escapism becomes a thing I need to break out of the walls of what it is that I'm doing.
thing is, no, no, incorporate that into your life.
So first off, identify what it is that matters to you, identify what it is that keeps you
centered.
So we're talking about values, you know, get clear on those and then start to pull them
into your life very intentionally.
Like it is, it is a mandate, especially for entrepreneurs, get clear on what matters to
you, because I promise you, if you take 60 minutes, 45 minutes, even 20 minutes in the
middle of a Wednesday to unplug.
from what it is that you're trying to build to go and do something great, I promise you
that when you return back to that body of work, it...
You're more expensive, you're more available, you're more centered and the outcomes of the
work when you are in that state are just so much more impactful.
First hand, right?
Not just an, not just an anecdotal, but it's like, no, no, no, no, I've lived through
this.
then dozens of other entrepreneurs in there, you know, that I have around me thirties,
forties, fifties, even in their sixties, you're like, you never, had that conversation
about unplugging and sort of giving myself permission to go and grab a lunch with a friend
on a Tuesday afternoon.
When God damn it, I got to finish that program.
I did it and man, was it ever nice.
Hey, I went for a swim, you know, like I went to the community pool and I went and swim
some laps, whatever the thing is that lights you up.
The thing that is important to connection, physicality.
Those are not, those are non-negotiables, right?
We can't, you can't cheat your values and expect that your business is going to spit out
excellence on repeat.
won't.
100%.
And as you said, burnout, right?
I think that's the thing.
just relating back to my own experiences of just information that I've been told by other
people that are really trying to push more the hustle culture overall is, you just need to
work 10 hours a day, don't go out, don't see friends, don't do this, don't do that.
And I tried that for a period of time, as I mentioned before, and it just doesn't work.
In short term, the first week or so, you'll be like, I'm on it, I'm working, I'm seeing
progress, whatever, but you can't sustain it.
And I think that's the big thing.
And something that I'm still trying to work through as well is how do I work in a
sustainable way where, as you said, I'm still living up to the values that I have and the
things that are important to me, but also obviously factoring in everything else that I
need to do, but balancing it out and being able to do it for the longterm.
As you go through those cycles, right, where you're super motivated, you're working all
the time, great, you're spiraling up as you feel like, but then eventually, as I said at
the beginning, you start crashing down slowly, slowly, and then you get to this point at
the bottom and you're just like,
burn out, right?
You're not working and you have to take that time out, escapism as you said, you know,
whether it's holidays or drugs, alcohol, whatever that looks like for other people.
And so as you said, it's what are your values?
know, figure that out, sit down with a piece of paper for half an hour and try work those
things out.
What's important to you?
What makes you tick all these different things?
And then you can reverse engineer, you know, your life around those values, you know, and
try start prioritizing those things.
Hang on.
That is, those are my values personally.
And then I extend that out into what it is that we do as a brand.
if you, know, somebody that is engaged in a stride leadership program, they come out of
that with laser for clarity around what matters to them.
Like we have, you know, work that's designed around identifying values.
And then, you know, we have an exercise called our values blueprint, which is we've
defined them, but now let's put them into play.
What does that look like for you?
And I think this is,
That's the point, Akhil, where people feel challenged.
And this is the part where I unapologetically am like, sorry, this is going to be tough,
but I promise there'll be a positive net outcome.
It's that lifting.
It's like going into a gym or going into an experience that you haven't had before.
like, so in a gym, it's like picking up a weight or somebody suggesting that you try this
physical exercise.
Like pick that up and bend your knees and hinge at the waist or whatever.
Yeah.
What?
I can't do that.
So it's like, it's new, you know, for most people and values, you know, investing in
understanding your values and investing in understanding, course, yourself holistically.
I believe like my bias and what drives me is that that can be such a powerful and solid
foundation for one to extend and build anything from.
I know that what it is that I will do this upcoming week over the five day
business week as an entrepreneur, yeah right, seven day business week.
I know that whatever it is that I put out into the world and how it is that I apply myself
and use my capacity, because that's limited as well, we have to be very choosy around
where it is that we spend our bandwidth.
Mine will be 90 plus percent rooted in my own personal values, but that's a part of my
stubbornness and a part of like my principle of like, I will live well only if I'm putting
myself in situations and engaging in work and
connections and conversations in areas that are directly correlated to what I've
identified as being the most important shit at the stage of my life.
And that is free.
And it's, it's, it's a hack.
Like it's something that I've learned that is just really, really helpful for me.
Very powerful.
most others.
Yeah.
For sure.
So, I mean, switching gears a little bit, and really this question is, is more for me
because I'm in a stage of my life where in terms of
like marriage and all these different things are starting to come into play, you know, for
myself.
So I wanted to ask you for yourself, how did marriage and kids and all these different
things maybe change you as an entrepreneur and how did that change your direction that you
might've been going in as well?
These big question.
Great question.
I'll summarize in one word, purpose.
It gave me purpose.
It grounded me in something.
So I think as a
I'll just call it a wandering entrepreneur.
not labeling you as that, but I get it, man.
I get the 10 hour, 14 hour, 16 hour, I'll sleep tomorrow days.
Have I eaten?
No, doesn't matter.
Finish the thing.
Those stages are fun, man.
Like you learn if you're willing to, and I hear your reflection on, like those, I don't
know if those times are sustainable or if I could do that at a young age.
So.
There's like this, for me, there was very much like this go, go, go, go, go, build, build,
build, build, right?
And I, at the time where I started to build, I was like threatened by my thirties.
I'm like, shit, like I'm getting out of my twenties here.
Man, I got to make sure that I'm really doing it for other people's purposes.
I got to make sure that I can show as an entrepreneur, other people that I'm really doing
it, that I'm making it right.
So I poured so much of that.
into the work that I was doing or what it is that I was building.
Like that was the foundation for me, which is earn money, be able to, you know, buy your
lease or have a nice car, you know, clothes, be the guy at the club, make sure I have, you
know, enough money in my pocket.
And even on the times where I didn't, but I still wanted to make sure as a people pleaser
that I could go out and show people that I could buy the round of drinks and not worry
about it.
So I was very focused on that.
What happened when I met my wife on a flight?
of all places.
And I was not at a place.
I wasn't in a place in my life.
Like I was really enjoying the year that I met my wife.
I was really enjoying the relationship with myself for the first time, maybe ever.
And I was really fixated on like, man, like, you know, looking at myself in the mirror and
going, Hey man, like, I like you.
This is, you know, you're, you're good.
You know, you're gonna go.
make some amazing shit happen.
So I was like overcoming some limiting beliefs within myself and sort of just, you know,
forever on this, you know, pursuit of further understanding.
And it was in a really healthy place.
And all of a sudden I, you know, end up getting introduced to somebody who I shared a
flight with and, know, yeah, we ended up getting married two years later.
I knew she was my wife like 45 minutes into my first conversation with her.
Separate episode for that, but yes, my partner had definitely arrived.
And then all of a sudden, you know, get engaged to Keele.
Like, you know, it's the right girl for me, it was the right girl.
You know, the proposal's there.
And then, you know, I'm like 32 at this point.
And then if you know anything about a, you know, 30 year old woman at that time for Sahar,
she's like, we starting a family or what?
Like, are we doing this?
And then I had my same uncle, my mentor was like, hey kid, there's never a right time.
Like you're not going to get some type of a signal from anywhere saying it's the right
time to get married.
It's the right time to have kids.
He's like, so you just do the thing.
So, not to marginalize the importance of, know, of that stage of life.
but yeah, then we became a family and all of a sudden, so the boys are two years apart.
Our first one was born in 2016, Keon.
And, it just brought on a whole new.
sense of purpose for me.
All of a sudden I wasn't creating for me.
wasn't creating to be at the right restaurant or buying drinks for people or pulling up in
the car.
Fortunately, I still got to experience a lot of those things, which was an outcome of just
working hard and staying dedicated and focused.
So back to purpose, it just, my ambition and sort of my...
you know, the legacy that I want to leave is of, you know, doing great work and being able
to support humanity in ways that they are able to live better lives, all filtered through
my duty and role and responsibility that I'm so grateful for, of being a husband and being
a dad.
Remove those from my life, even right now, God forbid.
I'm spinning, man.
Because I lack that sort of, and this is just me, it's just the way that I'm wired.
And so for me, it was extremely supportive of all the things that I wanted to create.
But now I go, shit, I want to not just scale up strides so I can get into a bigger house
or I can take a bigger vacation.
No, so I can show my kids and I can provide for them and I can have resources available,
you know, to be able to do great things with them and show them the world, you know,
rather than taking a weekend in Paris with my wife so we can go shopping.
that stuff's still okay.
But it's not the primary motivator.
My primary motivator becomes do great in the world, be rewarded for that, and then take
those rewards and then show your family the world.
Show your kids culture.
Let your kids experience things that, you know, through, and through privilege, that's not
lost on me at all.
But the privilege comes through me having clarity on my ambitions and what it is that I
want to create in this lifetime.
So, sorry to...
answer your question.
no, I love that.
No, no, I love that.
And what I also really loved was it's never the right time, right?
Because I think for anything in life that you have, right, whether it's in business sense,
right, starting your first business or changing jobs or, you know, getting married or
having kids, it's never going to be the right time.
And I think for a lot of people and for myself as well, the way I'm, I'm wired and it's
something that, you know, it's good and also bad is it's very easy to overanalyze
situations and you get into this paralysis of
I'm not going to do it.
And then would be the right time.
When I, when I have this much money in the bank, then I'm going to do this and take the
leap and do X, Y, Z or whatever that looks like.
But the issue is that that will always change what you think you're to need in order to do
it.
But, a lot of people that I speak to who are your fathers and, and, you know, got married
and everything, they always said, you know, when you have your first child, you never
think you're going to be ready, right?
You're never ready for it, but then it happens and you make it work.
You figure it out whether you have money or not or whatever it is.
Either way, you still manage to make it work.
And so it says never right time for anything, which means the right time should be now
really if everything else aligns along with that situation.
Take the shot, right?
And it's scary.
Like it's a big shot to take.
There's times now where it's like, I no idea what I'm doing.
I'm eight years into it, but that's okay.
Yeah, timing.
There's, I get the...
What you share makes perfect sense to me, right?
There's occasionally I'll get, you know, 20 something year olds and they pick the brain.
Hey, can I pick your brain about something?
Yeah, of course.
Well, I'm dating this girl and I think the plan is like, I want to propose.
This is actually a real story.
I want to propose.
And this young man was a pilot and he was like, I want to propose, but like, I want to
make sure that this thing and that thing are in place before I do that.
And I kind of like, you know, silently sort of chuckled to myself and I was just like,
it's a moving target, right?
Like life, if we allow it and we allow ourselves to just kind of live it, times change,
right?
Like I've in parenthood, in marriage, I've had, know, and through my lens, I've had
nothing, I've had lots and I'm talking about material, right?
So like net worth type stuff.
And then I've been sort of everywhere in between.
And none of that really has an impact on how much I love my wife, you know, or, or, you
know, hopefully how much she loves me.
And if anything, we have found, if we were to do a study and actually mark this in the
times that we have less, or that we feel that, right, there's, have less resources
available.
The, the, the closer we are in the more effective we are as a unit, we, we pull together
differently.
So anyhow, yeah.
The idea and my coach holds me very accountable to this as well.
Cav, the idea of once I have, then I will.
Yeah.
We don't play that game.
Some initiatives and some ambitions require financial markers or, you know, otherwise, and
that's fine.
Right.
But as it relates to, think I'll venture out and go try this at the time when I have, when
this is in place, bro, I'll get to it.
Shoot or shoot, right.
As we say, yeah.
Shoot the ball.
You know, they tell my kids this all the time, like guys, LeBron James goes up, I'm a big
basketball guy.
So LeBron James goes up and he puts up 38 points in a night and everyone's like, whoa, 38,
38 points, 14 assists and nine rebounds, right?
Or 10 rebounds, triple double, amazing.
You know what gets talked about less is he shot less than 40%.
He made less than 40 % of his shots.
We focus on the results.
And I believe that's what it should be, but hey, hang on a second.
Here's a guy that went to go shoot a ball a hundred times and he made it like 38 times.
Right.
And when you allow that to sink in, go, okay.
So this idea of it, yeah, yeah, I guess shooter shoot.
have a belief in themselves that enough balls will go in that they'll be successful and
their team will win and they'll reach the triple double or they'll get to where they want
to get to.
But 40%, you know, 40 % shooting, 50 % shooting in the NBA is a very good stat.
Team shooting at 50%, it doesn't happen very often.
The team was successful, they still won.
They still won, Because they took the shots, right?
They took the shots.
So, I mean, moving forward a little bit, looking to the future, and guess more in the
business sense, where do you see the landscape of leadership development on that side
start to maybe shift and change?
And what trends are you seeing yourself?
know AI and all these different things are coming up, hot topics, right?
But what are you seeing in the marketplace and what are you thinking about when it comes
to the future of leadership development?
Yeah, that's a big question.
AI, think, is sort of the thing.
that's such a huge world.
But I can tell you that there may be, I hope it's not your generation, Akhil, I hope your
generation still has a value around connecting.
with humans and being face to face in a classroom or shaking a hand.
But I'm not naive to the reality that there's going to be in future generations, big
chunks of those populations that are willing to engage.
Virtual is one way, because we're still connected here as humans, but connecting with,
I'll just simplify it and call it a bot, right?
That'll freak a lot of people out that are hearing this.
So I had somebody approach me.
somebody that is very close to our business, but he proposed something to me earlier this
year.
And he said, hey, what if we were to create, if I was to help, you know, kind of build a
bot that was a model of you and so your ideologies and sort of your values.
And then we plug that into, or whatever it would get plugged into.
Believe me when I say, feel I'm pretty good with some of it.
some type of a widget, I know that, where people can subscribe to a virtual leadership
coach or they can subscribe to a virtual program that would be delivered exclusively
through automation.
So I don't consider it to be a threat.
I think it's fascinating.
I am fortunately, and it took me a bit of time, took me a bit of time to be open to or
expansive enough to consider.
sort of implementing some of what is out there into how it is that we do business.
And I believe I'd be foolish to not.
So I'm very, very proud of myself, big victory this year that we are implementing AI
widgets in supporting how it is that we do business, but not yet the application or the
delivery, because I'm still old school enough that I just, and our clients very much
appreciate having a personal connection.
So that's as it relates to the industry.
There are...
organizations now that are popping up and I'm seeing them on the likes of LinkedIn where
they are offering automated services, which is great.
Like I think it's fantastic because again, there's obviously a market for it.
I don't take those as a, you know, as a threat per se.
We subscribe to something or I subscribe to something called the blue ocean strategy.
Are you familiar?
Yes, I have heard it.
Yeah.
So to simplify it, like I'm most
I am almost exclusively interested in competing with my own ability to be innovative.
So Stride leadership, our focus is not on sort of, hey, what's everybody else doing and
how are they doing it?
It's important occasionally, I think, to kind of, you know, hey, what's happening over
there?
But I'm spending minimal time being interested in sort of what are other people doing in
the space?
And more so knowing that we have a solid product, service and team.
So that sort of combination
How do we deliver what it is that we deliver more effectively and more engaging and sort
of, know, where people are like, man, this is a no brainer.
So that's really what, you know, keeps me inspired is our own sort of initiatives.
and you'll, you know, it'll be interesting once you and I hop on a call, maybe again in a
year from now, you ask me that same question where things will be at, but I'm excited.
I'm very optimistic.
Yeah.
No, no, I agree.
think AI and automation are going to be huge overall, but I think with
You know, where it is now, it should be, as you said, complimentary to your core service.
I don't think it should be just the core service, because as you said, a lot of core
services, it does need that human interaction for it to be really effective overall.
For example, know, podcasting.
Now, if you wanted to take it further and just want to do a podcast by yourself, you could
essentially get AI to write an episode, get AI to speak it, and it sounds really good.
and then upload it overall, right?
could have a, know, probably a really good podcast and, you know, work like that.
But at the same time, it's like, you do need that human connection because the human, like
human beings are so complicated in nature, right?
When you do sit down and have actual conversations with people, so much can come up, which
maybe both people didn't even expect were gonna come up just because of the way the
conversation is going.
And those are things that would be lost if AI is like the sole reason.
So yeah, no, I agree.
think...
start implementing certain things and start thinking about what could we implement.
But at same time, if your core service is that human touch, right, human contact, is keep
it like that for as long as you really can, because that is where the value is gonna be,
especially in a world of automation and AI.
If you still have the human contact element, that will become eventually your USP in a
way.
And then you're back in that blue ocean, right?
So yeah, no, I love that.
Now, the final question I always ask to people on this show is,
If you can go back to your 18 year old self and you can only take three things with you.
So whether it's business, philosophy, mindset or anything like that.
And, know, for you, could be also lessons you want to tell your children, you know, when
they're 18 as well, you know, what would those three things be and why would it be those
things?
three things that I knew of my 18 year old self that I would continue to leverage
throughout my life.
Yeah.
Yeah.
As in what things have you learned right now or over your lifetime that you would love to
sit down with the 18 year old self and be like, you know,
These are the things I've learned.
These are things you should look into as well.
I love that.
Great question.
I've never been asked that question.
It's a great one.
I would start out first with prioritize yourself.
Take care of you.
Be mindful of you.
I would also say.
Be a gentleman.
Be good to the world, right?
Be wholesome in nature.
Treat people well, look them in the eye.
Be honest with yourself.
Be honest with the world around you.
And lastly, dream big.
Yeah.
And allow it in.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Be expensive.
Be expensive in what you think is possible and, and go out and try and hold yourself
short.
Right.
Yeah.
Definitely.
No, I love that.
I love that.
So thank you so much for joining me on today's episode.
I've loved this conversation.
And I'm sure in the future we'll have another one in a year's time, as you said, and we
can assess where we're at and what's changed.
And that'll be an amazing conversation.
yeah, thank you for joining us.
Yeah, thank you.
Thanks for making the time, and it was great to see you.
And I'll look forward to connecting again soon.
Amazing.
Thank you.