Gurmeet Judge
Encompass solutions founder and CEO Gurmeet Judge interview successful business leaders as he dives deeps into the world of business to help people like you become successful business leaders!
Gurmeet Judge
Clarity, Goals & Teams: The Blueprint for Business Growth
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Clarity, goals, and vision are essential for leadership to grow and scale a business. They align teams, drive focused decisions, and inspire action. Clear vision provides direction, measurable goals track progress, and clarity eliminates confusion—fueling efficiency, innovation, and sustainable expansion.
In this episode, I had a discussion with Saurabh Seth is the Founder of Ethical Growth Partners and a Certified Focal Point Business & Executive Coach. With over 20 years of global transformation leadership at EXL Services, UnitedHealth Group, EY, JPMorgan Chase, and BDO Canada, he has led complex process improvements and large teams through change. He now coaches SMB leaders to build clarity, efficiency, strategic focus, and scalable systems for faster, ethical growth.
https://www.ethicalgrowthpartners.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethsaurabh/
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Business Coaching
06:27 Setting Goals for Success
12:30 Adapting to Change and Maintaining a Positive Mindset
17:37 Building a Cohesive Team Culture
24:05 Saurabh's Journey into Business Coaching
30:07 Understanding Human Behavior in Business
35:35 The Importance of Mindset in Business
41:30 Balancing Business Success and Personal Life
46:39 The Four Bank Accounts of Life
Introduction to Business Coaching
SPEAKER_02What I've realized working with small business owners is there's a lack of clarity on you know what who they really are, you know, what their business really achieves, you know, who their customers are. The first step of coaching or anything is know thyself. You know, you need to know yourself. So that clarity on what your own strengths and weaknesses are is very important. Uh, a lot of people overestimate themselves, a lot of people underestimate their potential. And you know, some are good at analysis, some are good at decisions. A diet probably works for one individual, the same diet might not work for somebody else. So, knowing yourself what works for you, it is very important. What keeps you happy? You know, you might have a flourishing business, but if it's not aligned to your purpose of life or your mission, it's not gonna keep you happy. The aspirations change with time. That clarity and focus, it's it's a continuous process. You need to keep reflecting uh within to get that clarity, and you should always have that clarity. That that's gonna keep you, you need to know what your value system is. At times, you know, taking decisions is much easier when you know what your value system is and what your mission or aspiration is. And does that decision align with your value system and your mission, vision, values? If yes, great. If no, it's easy to say no, then you know it is does not align with my value system.
SPEAKER_00Hi there, welcome to Business Leadership Podcast. In this episode, I had a discussion with Sarov State. Sorov is the founder of Ethical Growth Partner, he's a business and executive coach. After 20 plus years of experience at uh Ernest Young and of JP Morgan Chase, he now helps entrepreneurs and leaders build clarity structure for sustainable growth. This was a very interesting discussion. Sorov shared insights on how clarity, accountability, and mindset drive business success. He also shared practical strategies for setting long-term goals, building a strong team culture, balancing life and work, and overcoming execution challenges through disciplined leadership. You know, hope you enjoyed this discussion as much as I did. And if you do find a value in this discussion, don't forget to send us your feedback, uh, share with your friends, and subscribe to this channel. You know, we are working very hard by every episode to send you very meaningful discussions with the business owners, business leaders, um, um coaches, consultants, and trainers to help you grow and scale your business. Your feedback and support is very important to us, so don't forget to send us your feedback. So thank you again for your time. Until next time, please welcome Sorb State. You guys, welcome to Business Leadership Podcast. Today we're guest at Sorb State. Sorb uh in you know your idea area of expertise helping businesses from a coaching standpoint. There's a lot of help needed these days. So I'm looking forward to a discussion, looking forward to learning from you. Thank you so much for time today.
SPEAKER_02Say my Gurmi. I have enjoyed your podcast, I've enjoyed our introductory discussion. So it's been a pleasure uh to be on your show.
SPEAKER_00So let's talk about where you're spending a lot of time these days, or how you've been helping uh business leaders.
SPEAKER_02I think I've been working with a lot of business leaders. My my main focus is getting them clarity. You know, what I've realized uh working with small business owners is there's a lack of clarity on you know what who they really are, you know, what their business really achieves, you know, who their customers are. So, you know, my my major focus initially on a lot of business owners is getting that clarity first so that we can have the systems in place for whatever they want to achieve.
SPEAKER_00So is that so let's dissect a little bit of that. So is that clarity on what who they are as a person, or is that clarity on a business side what they try to achieve as a business?
SPEAKER_02You know, I say the first step of coaching or anything is know thyself. You know, you need to know yourself. So that clarity on what your own strengths and weaknesses are is very important. A lot of people overestimate themselves, a lot of people underestimate their potential. And you know, some are good at analysis, some are good at decisions. You know, not everybody has everything, but you need to understand your strengths, your weaknesses, and then leverage those. If there are weaknesses, you know, you probably need to delegate. You need some help. It starts with knowing yourself, but then you need to know your business. What's your goal? Where are you heading? What business are you really in? Who you then clarity about who your customers are. Yeah. So there's a clarity of every single aspect that you really need to go through is very essential. That that gives you a very clear view of who you are, where you're going, and then you can build on that to have an efficient business in place.
SPEAKER_00So, this is the area I see not only business owner owners struggle, but a lot of young people struggle as well. I'll start. You know, there's so many text messages, so many apps, so many, you know, so much information. It's not that we are struggling because of lack of information, but you see people get distracted, you know, they lose focus on that. You know, that it's it's not easy to stay focused and and and gain that clarity that, you know, especially what we've gone through with the COVID. People have a lot of time on their hand. You know, whether they read two different authors of the book, you know, they'll read a one book, we'll tell them to do 20 different ways this way, they read another book, the guy has a different uh uh approach. Uh it's not easy to maintain that clarity. So, would you recommend how do business owners go about it when they want to get a little bit more clarity with all the clutter of messages and all the apps?
Setting Goals for Success
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you know, as I say, if awareness was the key, we would all be millionaires and we'll all have six abs, right? Six megabs. That's not true. So a diet probably works for one individual, the same diet might not work for somebody else. So knowing yourself, what works for you, it is very important. What keeps you happy? You know, you might have a flourishing business, but if it's not aligned to your purpose of life or your mission, it's not gonna keep you happy. You might you might earn a half a million dollars in your job, but if it does not align with your purpose, what you really want to do, you'll see people being unhappy. So I think the very first step in anything is you know, reflect within, see what suits you, what works for you. And there are tools available. We have assessments wherein you know, people go through those assessments. There is a lot of research done on human psychology. You know, we we just need to leverage that. And in today's time, where there's a lot of notifications, beep, it's more important to slow down, sit alone, relax, reflect. What do I really want in life? What do I really want in business? And once you have that clarity, I think then you have all the tools available in this world to achieve it. But somehow seems like that very stuff, first step, you need somebody asking you right questions, probing you systematically to get you that clarity.
SPEAKER_00I you know, my experience has been that clarity works both ways. One is first of all, so figuring out what you really want. Definitely you need a clarity. Other part of that is when you start winning on some things, you know, you have a couple of wings, you lose that clarity very, very quickly as well. Yes. So there's also a risk of that, you know, definitely you you're clear on what you started with, but the moment you got a little momentum, you have a couple of wins on your on your uh on your in your backpack, you start losing clarity at cage. So it's it's not only gaining clarity at one point, you gotta stay clear and stay focused. I think that's where the challenge comes in.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yes, it's it's a continuous process. And humans, you know, we we all love growth. You know, where I am today was an aspiration. Now that aspiration has changed, we all want to grow. Life situations change, right? You you get married, you've got kids, you know. Do you really want to now keep traveling like a novad? No. The aspirations change with time. That clarity and focus, it's it's a continuous process. You need to keep reflecting within to get that clarity. And you should always have that clarity. That that's gonna keep you, you need to know what your value system is. At times, you know, taking decisions is much easier when you know what your value system is and what your mission or aspiration is. And does that decision align with your value system and your mission, vision, values? If yes, great. If no, it's easy to say no. Then you know it is does not align with my value system. And a lot of people we, you know, a lot of times we've not reflected on that value system or the aspiration as well. And you rightly said, Gourmeen, it has to be a continuous process. You reflect, you know, every night. You keep reflecting, it's every day evolves.
SPEAKER_00Uh so let's talk about some of those items makes the you know helps people to focus on a clarity side. Um, are goals one of those items that you know, or what else you saw that, you know, definitely goals, you need some sort of uh, you know, goals what are you trying to achieve? Do they add to clarity? And or what else in your in your experience that adds to the clarity?
SPEAKER_02I think goals add to, you know, goal is a tool. You sit back, you relax, you think what you really want to be five years, seven years from now. And it's never the goals should not be a short-term or a short-sighted one. You know, the people who work on long-term goals are always more successful because they've thought through it, right? So once you define those long-term goals, and it could be anything, it could be your business. You know, a lot of businesses would say a five-year goal, seven-year goal, ten-year goal, or we want to be a$50 billion organization in five years. But you need to set those goals. But again, before the setting of goals, it's important to understand your purpose. You know, my my goal cannot be just, you know, I want to be a$10 million organization and I don't know what my values are. You know, the the foundation is your values, vision, mission, purpose. And then you build on it and say, you know, keeping those foundations in mind, what my goals are, articulate them very clearly. I want to be a successful coach is not enough. You have to be very specific on what you know. I want to be a coach to this kind of an industry, this kind of a person. I see myself earning X amount of money and keeping my values in line, whatever it is. It the goals need to be very specific. Yeah, you just can't say I want to be a doctor. What kind of a doctor do you want to be? Right. So goals, goals are an important tool. And you know, once you've reflected on those, you can dissect it into smaller chunks and say, okay, five years from now, I this is where I want to be. This is wherein I need to start today.
SPEAKER_00So you need a short-term goal and the long-term goal, both which what I'm hearing that you need short-term goal, what I need to do in a short term to hit my goal a long-term. Is is that is that what you're including?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So you need a long-term vision and a long-term goal. And that long-term goal will give you a short-term goal. You don't start with a short-term goal. You start with what my long-term goal is, where I need to be five years, ten years from now, and then you know, bring it to your what my this year's goal is. And just defining the goal is not enough. You know, if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. Right? And if you can't describe it, you will never hit it. So you need to describe your goal. This is where I am, and then define that path towards that goal. And things change, life happens. You keep monitoring that path. Are you on on the right track? Or do you need like a, you know, Google Maps would give you a detour if you've taken the wrong turn?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02It'll take you to that right goal. It's very clear where you're going.
SPEAKER_00So yeah. Got it. So, what else do business owners do who are looking for that kind of clarity, that kind of uh, you know, the people who are high performers, definitely goals are important, clarity is important. What else you you find that they they they practice or they they you know, some of the items that they get them through, or some of the obstacles, what they struggle with.
Adapting to Change and Maintaining a Positive Mindset
SPEAKER_02I think I think the biggest struggle right now is taking actions. Execution. And you said execution, but again, the awareness as well. You know, there's one book that says something else. So we did touch upon the clarity, but once you have the clarity, all that awareness will feed into what works for you, which book works for you. But I see a lot of people reading books. You know, I I met somebody who had a goal of reading 30 books this year. I have people driving to work, listening to podcasts, so which is a very good change. You know, people want to be more aware on different things. But I've started telling those business owners you've picked up a book, you loved it, right? It aligned with what you wanted to do. Write down two action items from that book and follow it through. Just picking up another book is not going to help. So there's an awareness part of it, and with AI coming in, the knowledge is democratized. You know, there's no, you can find the knowledge, what you're looking for. It's not a challenge. You don't need to go to a Harvard or a Stanford anymore. Yeah, you know, you'll find all that knowledge uh in today's world. But taking an action on it is wherein a lot of people struggle. There's so much of an information, one, what works for me, and then I like two things. Good. Take an action, write down those two things. And I think the biggest challenge again is even if you've written it down, a lot of business owners, you know, entrepreneurship is a lonely journey.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02A lot of entrepreneurs would say, Hey, I want a better website. And I've been wanting a better website for the last three years. The accountability is a challenge in itself because you get so busy in your life, in your work, there's nobody holding those business owners accountable to those actions that are really good for their business. So we've covered the awareness and clarity part of it. The actions and accountability is equally important.
SPEAKER_00So, yeah, I think uh that's a great point you mentioned, Sorb, that you know, if you look at 15 years ago or 20 years back, there was lack of information, lack of knowledge. You know, we all wanted right you know the right information, people struggle to get the right information. But the AI, where we are right now, that gaining information, gaining knowledge is not an issue. You know, we have we have more than enough knowledge, you know, it's a flood of information. So it definitely execution and accountability where where you know the human behavior comes in. You know, can you stay focused? Can you stay disciplined? Can you stay structure? So, is that an area you see a lot of struggle? And how do you help out business leaders when they're struggling with these two areas with accountability and execution?
SPEAKER_02So, yes, you know, as I said, you know, for me, the the foremost is clarity and you touch that awareness, pick what works for you. Once you've picked up what works for you, so for me, I work with a lot of business owners to bring that clarity, then we look at their processes and see if they are effective enough to reach the goal that they've defined. They want to be X million dollars with X branches across the country in 10 years. Okay, but what systems would we need 10 years from now to reach there? And once we've defined it, is when we start creating action items. We break it down. You know, if you really want to be a doctor, you you can be a doctor in 10 years, but you write down what you really want to be. And once you've defined it, what you know, you need you need people, process, technology, contracting, these are the four aspects of business. And write down what each of it needs to be. And once you've clearly defined, is wherein I work with business owners to say, okay, this is where this is your two-year goal, one-year goal. What are the actions we need to reach? That goal. Once you've defined those specific actions and the timelines, like any other project manager would do, we'll break it down. And yeah, you know about it, Gurmeat. You know, you're you're into project management yourself. You've defined those action items, you've defined those deadlines, assign those responsibilities is what your action piece is. And accountability is, you know, you have a coach coming in next week, you got a homework to do. You know, have you thought about what you need to do? Have you taken those actions or not? Or you work with that coach to ensure those actions are completed. So awareness is not enough alone. Defining actions is not enough alone. Completing them, it could be very small actions, but completing them regularly is gonna give you a profound, compounding impact on the business.
SPEAKER_00And and uh to your point, uh sorrow, the those challenges change as you make a progress. Every step in every time you make a little bit of progress, the challenge completely comes in a different shape or form, right? So, you know, challenge you have with a million dollars when business is different challenges. You get to two, three million different challenges. As you keep adding a little bit of progress, they're gonna come in a different shape and form, and you're gonna change your approach to tackle new challenges uh along the way.
Building a Cohesive Team Culture
SPEAKER_02Oh, yes. And you need to have an a very positive mindset. You know, there are sanctions now, you know, the tariffs went up. I see a lot of people getting into a zone wherein we'll blame uh the government, we'll blame Trump for something for putting in tariffs, we'll blame a war. Those are facts. That's life that's happening right now. That's beyond our area of control. And, you know, if we keep blaming something, it's not gonna improve my business, right? There could be reasons why it is not doing fine, but I can't keep blaming them. So it's important to have a very positive mindset at the same time and say, okay, there are tariffs on my industry now. You know, this is what the impact is going to be. We need to change our path. The goal is the same. We've defined the goal. I need to reach there. Can we change the path? How can we do it? And you know, I I say, you know, it's a very strong affirmation I ask my clients to, you know, use and say, whenever you see yourself blaming or making an excuse or being negative, you know, you say I am responsible. And the moment you say I'm responsible is now you take that leader role and say, okay, well, there's a problem, there's a tariff, what can I do about it? I am responsible. Right? That small tweak really helps. So that you will face challenges. It I wish business was easy, right? Yeah, you will face challenges, and it just, you know, how you react at that moment, the successful entrepreneurs will say, I'm responsible. You know, I'll do something about it, I'll make a change. Whereas, you know, you'll see somebody just blaming, making an excuse, wasting those vital six, eight months wherein they could have taken an action.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Okay, let's talk about that. The teams, you know, business owners definitely they they they have this challenge, is what we just talked about. But the other challenges is not only they need to uh you know gain a clarity or focus, but they also gotta help the teams as well. You know, if you have about 20, 15 people in your team, unless a larger team, over 100 employees, you gotta transfer the same kind of mindset to these people as well. Where you see some of the struggles are, you know, definitely every everybody's gonna bring their own challenges. You know, you gotta figure out first you gain clarity, then you're gonna pass it on to everybody so they can they can follow you as well on the same. Otherwise, if you're trying to get somewhere and and you don't have people following you, then then you have a different struggles, right? So where you see that that challenges, how do people deal with some of those challenges to bring that same clarity, same commitment to your teams as well?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. You know, once you again, I would say, you know, I and I know I'm repeating that, Vurme, but your own clarity on what here you want your organization to be, what your vision, mission, purpose is, is very important. And once you've defined it, the law of attraction comes in. Once it's very clearly defined and you'll attract similar people. When you when you go for hiring, you'll hire people, you'll ask for similar commitments. When you are yourself vague about what my purpose is and where really I want to do, or what my KPIs or targets for my employees should be, those interviews would not go really well. So once you've defined what your expectation is clearly, not those job descriptions for job portals, which don't match with what people really do in their work, but really, you know, what the expectation is. Once you've defined it clearly, you bring in people, the culture is very important. Once they know my my values are very clear. We look at respect, we look at integrity, we look at commitment. These three are non-negotiable. You know, if I can't have a team which is respectful for each other, there is no integrity, or there is no commitment to grow, or competence themselves, uh not my place. Right? Once you've defined that expectation very clearly, you'll see people, it's these are not the bad values, right? People would align themselves to these values and work with you. But that constant reiteration of your values, the constant reiteration of your purpose, is very important. And you'll see large organizations will have their values written on the wall, they'll have emails going out, reiterating what their code of conduct and values and ethics are. It's for a purpose. You're reiterating it to your employees. This is what the expectations are. And if somebody does not align with those, and a lot of time we don't. Give them those expectations. So a communication is a challenge.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, when you're building a team, when you're trying to grow a business, uh sort of that's where the challenge comes in. You're trying to hire a lot of people, you're trying to grow a team. Definitely, you know, you you're gonna you wanna make sure that people align you with your values and you're hiring, but not everybody's gonna align, you know, or they will say they align, it's gonna change over the time, right? So I think that's where that practice comes in. You know, you gotta make sure that you know they were aligned yesterday, are they aligned today? You gotta keep constantly keep going through that, you know, you know, practice and and figuring out who's aligned, who's not. Not everybody's gonna align, you know, when you when you hire, especially when you're growing fast, fast, fast companies, right? That that those are the struggles gonna be.
SPEAKER_02The the key to growing fast and big is to grow slow. So you work on these foundations, you work with your people. When and when you're hiring, define those values. And as you rightly said, keep reiterating, keep talking about those, keep training your team about it, keep tell telling them you know why it is important, and how does it align to the larger purpose of the firm? A lot of organizations, companies, employees don't even know what the business owner is working towards. So if they don't know what your purpose or where you're going towards, how can they help you? Yeah, right. And that's where the communication challenge comes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, a lot of business owners, we start businesses as a as owners, you know, this this uh, you know, area of this area of where we're building teams culture, this is not our expertise. You know, we came from technical background, whether somebody came from an engineering background, some some uh medical background, we came from this technical background, and we're trying to build the companies, and there's it's building company itself, there's so many different responsibilities. You gotta grow revenue, you gotta take care of peril, you gotta do there's so many different areas you gotta tackle, and you lose focus on these areas. You know, that's where the struggle is. I think there's a 20 different items we we are split into on a daily basis, and we lose focus on these things. I think that's where the challenge comes in.
Saurabh's Journey into Business Coaching
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and but you know, once you know thyself, you've defined your strengths and weaknesses very clearly. If I know I'm not a people person, I just can't manage people, you know, you create a plan around it and say, okay, I clearly know this is not my forte, right? I'm a very technical person. I'm gonna build the product, I'm gonna work with the product team to build something. But hiring, retaining, or building culture is not my forte. It's so important to acknowledge that for business owners and say, okay, this is not my faute. Or I can manage a team, I can have large teams. The technical IT aspect of it is not my forte. So anyway, I have a plan in place. You outsource it to somebody, you trust it to somebody else, you hire somebody who complements your skill set. You know, and a lot of time business owners would like to hire people who are like them.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's right. You really learned that hard way. That is not the way to go.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And there's a reason why it's, you know, we we talk about diversity a lot. There's a diversity of thoughts that's very important as well. And that's why you see a lot of big organizations doing restructuring every five, seven years of a particular unit or a department, because now the leader has hired the team like they are. They're all technical. Nobody's able to take a business decision or nobody's people-oriented. And now you have a lot of distrust. So, one, you know, if you know what your weakness is, that's somebody else. You need to know your strengths, just focus on those strengths, you know, work on those, take it forward. But understanding those weaknesses and then having a plan in place, give it to somebody else to do it. You know, trust somebody else to take care of your people is the key.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there's a lot of blank spots when you're trying to build a business. I think that's where we need people like you to you know help uh out to you know, um, pin down those blank spots. And and uh, you know, business owner can make, you know, people are listening, they they you know, uh they they know that we can we can solve each kind of problems to to get there, but how long is it gonna take? How many mistakes are you gonna make about you know while you're solving the problem? But if you have people like you helping them see in the blank spot, you can get there much faster compared to you know, trying to add our kind of stuff, you know, the own approach. Let's talk about your journey. Uh sort of how did you get uh get in the model to helping business leaders on a on um on a coaching side? You know, talk about your journeys, you know, we were gonna walk our audience through.
SPEAKER_02So, Ghameet, I I started my career way back with a company which is EXL Service. I'm very proud of being associated with them, but they are into business process outsourcing. And and the whole job was offshoring businesses to India, Philippines, and other countries. It was a very interesting job wherein I get to define processes. And I learned you need to, you know, there used to be time wherein one person would work on an insurance file end-to-end. Everything.
SPEAKER_00You control the whole process.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they'll they'll know how to do the renewal, they'll know how to do you know, endorsing a policy, they'll respond to people. And the key to outsourcing and uh offshoring and improving the work was to break it down into smaller chunks. Once you broke, you know, break it down to smaller chunks. Now you can have expertise in one area. Now, I I so if I do end-to-end, this I can only be expert in in one.
SPEAKER_00And you can measure that if you do end-to-end, it's hard to measure the whole result. But if you divide it in small pieces, you can probably measure every unit. Exactly.
SPEAKER_02So you you you've defined one process to a 10-step process, and you have expert 10 experts doing, you know, it will be much faster, it'll be much more efficient. You can define how it needs to be done. Now you can get prescriptive on do this, this, this. You can measure. And you can see where the roadblocks is amount 10, the fifth one is wherein it takes the maximum amount of time. Let me make it more efficient. So you when you when you divide it, is where the magic happens. And you know, that was the time of the Six Sigma black belts, uh, process improvements, efficiencies. I enjoyed it. I moved to a company called United Health Group. You know, you might have heard of UIG, worked with them again, offshoring their processes. Then, you know, an interesting point, a pivotal point in my career was I moved to EY, Ernst and Young at that time.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02And we had to globalize and standardize their risk and compliance processes. And that was a big challenge because each country will have their own rules. Each country will have their own regulations.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And again, you know, that was an amazing journey for me. I worked with some of the smartest people around. In that I worked with JP Morgan, I worked with BDO, I was BDO Canada's director of compliance. But last year is when I thought, you know, I need to start something on my own. What the tools that we have used in these large corporations can have a profound impact on small business owners. Right. So if I would have suggested something to one of these large companies and said, you know, let's do this analysis, it takes it's a bigger ship to steer. Yeah. It takes time to take decisions and then to see the results. And what you realize is the moment you start using the same tools for smaller organizations, you're working with a business owner and you suggest something and say, Oh, this is very agile.
SPEAKER_00They can they can change on a fly.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, let's implement it tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
Understanding Human Behavior in Business
SPEAKER_02And when you implement it tomorrow, is that means you're gonna see the results in three weeks. Yeah. And if the results are not as expected, change, improve, tweak. So the same tools that you use for these big corporates can have such a profound impact. A multiplier effect on the small businesses is amazing. And you know, that's when you know I started business coaching. I did realize, you know, I would not have all the knowledge, right? I I had the experience of my 21 years working with these big big corporations, but I need frameworks. And that's when I worked with uh Focal Point Business Coaching, it was co-founded by Brian Tracy. So we now use Brian Tracy's frameworks.
SPEAKER_00Does he have a framework on a sales or just in a in a in a general and a coaching as well?
SPEAKER_02Uh no, it's an entire business coaching, it's every aspect of a business. And it's what we've done is we've those curriculums or those coaching modules have actionables out of it. So it's not as if somebody's giving you a motivational fluff and saying, Oh, listen to me speaking good things. So, okay, now you you've had that, you've read three pages of what a Pareto is. Let's see how it applies to your business and let's do it. So every session is very insightful and actionable. People come out of a very clear 90-day action plan or a very clear next step from each of those sessions. So, working 21 years in the corporate world with big firms, improving their processes, and I've realized it's not just one process improvement. You need to always start with a strategy and say, in five years, I'm gonna globalize this entire unit, 140 countries, we're gonna bring it together. Right? You start with a strategy, you start with a mission, and then it becomes so easy. And there are tools, there are frameworks. You know, what applied in business 40 years back, Gurmeet, is still true today. AI and others are tools to achieve it. So you can achieve it much faster, but the fundamentals remain the same. You need a marketing plan, you need to generate leads, you need to convert those leads to get a customer. Yeah. And then the whole process, it's the same.
SPEAKER_00Got it. Did you discover something going through this process, sort of, that you didn't know that when you were taking on a coaching side of things? Did you learn something that, hey, listen, you know, I thought it was more of a process challenge, it's more of a clarity challenge, but I just learned this is probably another item that business owners are struggling with.
SPEAKER_02I I think one of the most valuable lessons, and I do say that you know, I've changed as a person. I used to be very, very data-oriented guy. And you know, I used to have I still remember a big poster on my in my cabin saying uh in God we trust, others bring data. Right? I used to look at everything with a lens of data. What changed is you know, when I when you go through the know thyself and you understand and you help others know themselves, you realize how each individual is very different. My motivation for doing something, the same thing, could be very different. And for the other person doing the same thing, the motivation could be very different. I think my appreciation for how complex humans are is much more. The perspectives now I have, you know, do I get angry? No. Well, probably still, but do I get as angry as I used to be, wherein things won't align with how I wanted them to be? No. Because I now understand the other person as a different human behavioral model, is looking at things with a very different perspective, and they could be right. Yeah, ask a question. And I think you know, when I've I've done those assessments with dozens of people, and once you you get a sneak peek into everybody's strengths, weaknesses, I'll give you an example. I'm somebody who's a very analytical guy. I want to comply, I'll read rules step one, step two, step three, step four. And then I figured out there are people who would not do that, and that used to make me upset. But then I realized no, they are the ones who will probably create those rules. Yeah, right? They're not gonna follow what somebody else has written. Similarly, I'll do a lot of analysis. I probably might get stuck with taking decisions. And here is this guy taking all the decisions without being analytical. Yeah, he thinks I'm a fool because I'm taking forever to take a decision, and I think he's a fool because he's not even analyzing before taking a decision. He's just jumping in. But but the fact is, you just can't keep analyzing and not take decisions, and you just can't take keep deciding without analyzing or looking at the data. It's a blend of so many things that makes things right. Yeah, I think my learning journey has been amazing with this, knowing people, talking to them, and sharing one's insight with another, you know, connecting them and saying, Hey, you know, this is what the other guy did. And I'm I'm backed by like more than 300 coaches in focal point. So when I speak to them and say, Hey, this is one business owner's challenge, what are your perspectives on this? It's so beautiful. You see a very different view that you you didn't had.
The Importance of Mindset in Business
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but that's a great point. You you talk about data analytics. You know, that's been one of my struggles actually when I started the business. Came from software background, right? So when you're developing software, you put something in a compiler, you hit this enter. But if you said two plus two, moment you hit enter, you get the answer right away. It's an instant answer. So no matter what you're building as a software, moment you hit enter, you get the you know, compiling software. So so used to getting that instant result for something you're doing, you get the result right away. But as you know, in a business, whether you're marketing or whether you're sales, sometimes it's a six months by the time you get the result, sometimes it's a year, but by the time you get the result, right? Not used to that stuff, you know, I'm used to those cost, you know, instant results. Took me a long time to learn that, and look, took me a long time to get comfortable with that. You know, some of the work you're gonna do in a business, the result may not be there in six months or sometime years, sometimes two years, three years, but so used to instant results. So it took me, it took me a while to make that adjustment and understand that. So I think back to what you're saying there, and uh analytics side, it it's uh sometimes you just have to get over that stuff.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yes. And there's so many aspects of a business. You are a marketeer, you are the finance guy, you are the IT person. For a small business, it is overwhelming, right? And it's just that if I know that I'm not good at five things and I acknowledge, I write it down, I'll probably spend more time doing those five things, even if I don't outsource. I know I'm not great at it, I'll I'll be more cautious. So yeah, no, it's it's been an amazing journey meeting people, knowing them, instead of sitting on your desk looking at a process flowcharts, you know, telling people what to do. You know, I've I've handled some large teams, 100, 120 people, but I have always looked at those as matrix, right? As you know, manage those, but you know, we all had one clear goal, one KPI, one vision. And when I work with other business owners, it's it's a I get completely different perspectives on the same thing can be done hundreds of ways. Yeah. And we just need to connect those dots and say, you know, we have seen this work so well for the other guy, we want to do it, try it, and it might not work for him because that's not how that person wants to work. Yeah, there's so many solutions to the same problem.
SPEAKER_00Let's talk about mindset. One of the, you know, I think um we we were doing a pre-podcast discussion, and the mindset is, you know, we were talking about it, but that is the area a lot of people struggle. Not only mindset of a business owner, but you know, the people around you as well, whether it's your team, whether it's your either management team, your C-level employees, or your employees that are helping on a daily basis and operationally. I mean, you could have a certain mindset, but if the people have a negative mindset, that's gonna impact you. You know, eventually you're gonna have to struggle, but you have to deal with it. How important do you think the mindset is for business owners and the teams and the people around you?
SPEAKER_02I think mindset for any human, you know, is is the key to unlock their full potential. If you don't have the right mindset, you know, you'll not even utilize the the two or three percent of the brain that you know you're using right now, right? You the negativity sucks you in. You know, it's it's a black hole. If you start finding a blame for everything, if you start finding an excuse for everything, hey, my system didn't work. Right? It's uh it's not moving you forward. So a mindset is the key. A lot of organizations nowadays spend time on training people on skill set. Hey, there's an AI coming in, we all need to learn AI. Right? It's a tool. We learn it. Right? Is that the most important thing? No. The attitude is if I don't have an attitude to learn that tool, if I don't have an attitude to use that tool, I'll not use it. Irrespective, all those trainings would fail. Yeah, and the majority of what we do is, you know, if you've read Dale Carnegie's books, is it's all about attitude. When you're looking for a staff and you're hiring a staff, if I say, Gulmeeth, if you have to hire an assistant, what do you look at them?
SPEAKER_00Mindset and hunger. I'll take mindset and hunger over anything. If there's a hunger to learn something and there's a mindset, technical skills are easy to teach about. You know, we all learn from jobs. You know, you can easily teach them hard skills. But these two areas, you know, we we hire a lot of young people. And the first two skills we look for is uh mindset and the hunger to learn, right? You know, is that drive? They want to learn more, they want to grow more. If you can combine those two, everything else is easily figured out both.
Balancing Business Success and Personal Life
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah. So if I'm hiring a person, what am I gonna look at? I'm gonna look at, you know, uh, do they have integrity? Right? It's not as if they're the best AI developers in the world. No, do they have the integrity? And if they are the best AI developers in the world and they don't have an integrity, there's a challenge. Those skills are of no use to me. So what do you really look for is that attitude and mindset first and the skills later. Skills can they're trainable. But once you've hired people, a lot of companies don't invest on the skill building, the attitude building. They spend on skill building, right? And I see a lot of gap there and say, you know, I understand budget constraints at times, but attitude is the most the person with the right attitude will go and learn that skill himself, will figure out a way to read a book and learn that skill himself. But a person with does not have the right attitude, you can spend millions of dollars on training them on skill set. It is not gonna help on your business. So that positive mindset and the growth mindset is is the key here for every business. And I think businesses should start investing on their teams and their people, on the attitude more mindset training.
SPEAKER_00I think you know that that investment goes a long way, as you mentioned. You know, we we train people daily, but that that you know, people would say, you know, we don't have a budget for it, or we don't have a time for it. I biggest excuse I hear is a time for it. If you don't have a time to train your people, what else are you spending time on? I mean, if you simply train your people, right, they will go out, do all the work for you. So, you know, that investment in the time that's so critical. But I hear a lot of colleagues, business owners listening, or or C-level people. So the biggest complaint I hear is there's so much work, we just don't have time to train people.
SPEAKER_02Which I think, you know, as I said, entrepreneurship is a lonely job, and they're alone, and you expect them to do all of it. That's wherein you need somebody else sounding board saying, This is important, this is important as well. Let's create a plan. You that right balance in business is very important. You just can't keep looking at saying, Oh, my profits are going up, revenues are going great, and you're not looking at people, they'll come down. Yeah, if if the people are not right, they probably you'll have great revenues and profits for the first one or two years. But if you don't develop your people, or the people leave, they don't have the right attitude, you're gonna lose all of it. It's gonna balance out. The nature is gonna create that equilibrium for everyone. That balance of everything is so important for a long-term growth, sustainable growth. Yeah, you can I can be a coach who can say, I'm gonna increase your profit, I'm gonna double your profit in six months, you know. Yeah, but you know, will that be sustainable? I know, probably yes. So if in six months, if we look at all the aspects of your business and improve on all of them together, probably that's sustainable. Right? You can lose the weight in two months. But is that sustainable? Yeah, is a challenge. So anyone who keeps a very long-term vision and focus and then work towards it and ensure the balance in every other aspect of the business is the key. You know, you the fastest way, I'll repeat this again the fastest way to grow big is to go slow.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. You mentioned the balance. Uh, it's it's interesting, reminding me, you know, you know, I did the same journey a while ago with the corporate world too, to starting a business. I'm sure you know you're going through that as well. You done that. A lot of business owners I see they struggle with this as well. You know, when you make in a changes or you're trying to grow, your family suffers. And finding that taking care of family while in you know while you're growing a business, I think that's a key for a lot of uh people. But that's where the struggle comes in. You don't want to do expense of your families. You know, if you want to talk about your journey or what you see, people you're working with, how do they find uh the right approach to deal with it? You know, because that that's you know, we make a lot of sacrifices of family, and and that's you know, the struggle comes in. You know, when when some something you have to do, something in a business, and you simply say, Listen, I can't do that, I gotta take care of family. But finding that, and by the time you find it, it takes time to figure that out. So if you want to talk about your journey or what do you see as a as a as a client, yeah.
SPEAKER_02You know, years ago in one of the trainings, I again I don't remember where it was, but in one of the trainings, I learned a concept of emotional bank account. Okay, and it was in a corporate setting wherein you said, you know, you have a boss, you know, manager you report to, you keep doing good things, you know, you're adding a dollar into that account every time you do something good. You commit one error, you take out ten dollars. You withdraw from it. You know, you withdraw ten dollars, you withdraw 10x of it. So you have to do 10 good things to do one thing that's wrong. I think that stayed with me, that applies to everything. Corporate life, you know, I've spent time with my family, they'll be willing to support you in a journey wherein you would say, you know, I'm gonna be unavailable for some time. But once you're doing good enough, you've withdrawn enough, you need to put it back in there as well.
SPEAKER_00So interesting.
The Four Bank Accounts of Life
SPEAKER_02You just can't let the the balance go zero. Right? So it you need to keep putting in, and and if you now look at four bank accounts, one is your business success, which is defined by everyone very differently. I have a client who says, I'm earning half a million dollars, I'm happy. I just want to spend more time with my family. So let's make our processes efficient so that I can watch my son's soccer games. Right? So for him, that's a business success. Half a million dollars, I'm happy. I have another client who says, Okay, so we are operating in the US and Canada. I really want to start operations in Australia and New Zealand as well. The definition of his business success is very different. But that what does that success look like? That's one bank account for you. Think of it. And then the other is the financial freedom. You're earning money, you're putting it all back in the business. What if something goes wrong? Do you have your six-month, one-year emergency funds? Is your retirement taken care of? Is your education funds up and running? The third account I tell everyone is health and wellness. You could be a billionaire, but that billion is of no use if you don't have the health and wellness. Right? Life will bring in the equilibrium. You know, your business success is gonna come down if you don't maintain your health. And the fourth bank account is your family and relationships. You can withdraw till the time you have enough deposits in there. Keep depositing, keep that bank account growing, keep all of it grow.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you don't want to win in one area, you want to win on all of those bank accounts you just mentioned, right?
SPEAKER_02Oh, yes. You you really don't want to be a millionaire driving a lombogony to an empty mansion with no kids or kids who don't want to talk to you, or wife who doesn't like you anymore. Right? You you just need to maintain that balance in all the four areas. Otherwise, yeah, there would be a challenge. You know, if you don't have the financial freedom, all that business success is of no use if you can't enjoy it. Yeah. Right? Or if you don't have a family to enjoy with. So business success, and that's one thing I loved about you know how Brian Tracy trains or teaches in his philosophy, you know, there's a balance in all four. You know, you I am not a coach who would say, let's just focus on the business, ignore rest aspects of your life. I don't care about it because I'm a business coach. No. You know, that that growth is of no use, is not sustainable. Yeah. Unless all those four bank accounts, and once you've achieved a great equilibrium and thanks to it, the fifth bank account is spirituality. You know, then you start depositing in there as well.
SPEAKER_00You can start early if you want to, which is yeah, you wanna start earlier, right? You don't want to wait till you achieve something, so do that at that point, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. But Maslow's pyramid hierarchy does come in place wherein you know you look for your survival first before you reach there. But good point. As long as early as you start building that bank account, it's amazing. You know, I I've realized a lot of what our religious textures, any religion teaches, aligns with what Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins, and everyone's saying as well. You know, they're asking you to pray to the God, be very specific on what you want in life. They're asking you to be very specific with your goals with your business. So it all aligns so beautifully. But all those bank accounts, don't let them be in negative or zero. Keep putting it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, definitely you want to work on all of them at the same time instead of just working one. Wow. Yeah. Hey, there's so much to learn from you. I'm you know, definitely I learned so much from business owners who are watching us, business leaders who are listening to us. I'm sorry, Urbee. Just give me one second. Sure. Can we pause it?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I'm very sorry. I put in on DNA and nobody's okay.
SPEAKER_00Sorry for that. You good? No worries. People understand these days. We all got that, you know, multiple other things running at the same time. So, yeah, I know there's so much to learn from you. Uh, you know, definitely business owner listening to us or watching us on a podcast. You know, I learned so much. I'm sure they're gonna learn so much, they're gonna draw a lot of value from our discussion. Where can they find you? How can they connect with you, Sarv?
SPEAKER_02Okay, so they can visit my website, ethicalgrowthpartners.com.
SPEAKER_00They'll put the link below the video.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and it's a it's a it's an interesting story there as well, Gurmeet. It it tells my purpose and why it has to be an ethical growth, is what I work with clients for. And you know, all the details are available on the website. I'm based out of Langley, BC, just outside Vancouver. But you know, I I work with business owners across the world.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, these days you can work, uh, especially what we're doing on a look at the Zoom calls, right? You can work uh with the people no matter what part of the world they are they are in, right? So you can you can uh connect and you can have a discussion. Oh yeah. Very interesting. Hey, listen, uh it was a great discussion. I learned so much from you. I'm sure business owners who are watching who try building in their businesses, they're growing their companies. There's so many blind spots, so many areas we don't pay attention to simply because that's not where we're good at. We need people like you to you know show us those blind spots and then help us um to get to those objectives much faster and stay focused. Um, many areas you can help out. So learn so much. I'm sure business were watching. Uh you know, there's a link to your website below this video. Click a button, uh, reach out to you, have a conversation. I'm sure they're gonna gain uh totally different perspective, you know, chatting with you. So um, great discussion. Thank you so much for time.
SPEAKER_02Uh sort of thank you so much, Gurbeet. And you know, I really appreciate what you're doing for business owners. Bringing that awareness is so critical in today's world. You're doing an amazing job.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. Take care.