Ep#8- How Entrepreneurs can become a Part-Time CEO | ft. Dhiren Bhatia

𝗜𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗿𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱? 😵‍💫

In this episode of #Alphapreneurs, host Rayhan Aleem chats with 𝗗𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗻 𝗕𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗮, founder of 𝗖𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗱𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀 and creator of 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗘𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

Dhiren went from a high-paying IT career to launching his own business only to realize he had created 𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹-𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗷𝗼𝗯 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗵𝗶𝗺𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳. Sound familiar? Today, he shares how he broke free using 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁-𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗖𝗘𝗢 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸, a system that helps entrepreneurs 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝟮𝟰/𝟳.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗬𝗼𝘂’𝗹𝗹 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲:
✅ Why most founders get 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗰𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗱 and how to escape it
✅ The 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁-𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗖𝗘𝗢 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗺𝘂𝗹𝗮: grow your business without working more
✅ How to 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗲, 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 while scaling up
✅ Smart 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 & 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀 that free up your time
✅ The 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁 that separates successful entrepreneurs from struggling on

👉 Follow 𝗗𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗻 𝗕𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗮 on LinkedIn: https://shorturl.at/m1a0H
👉 Website: https://www.cloudscape.ae/
👉 Follow 𝗖𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗱𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗲 on: LinkedIn: https://shorturl.at/2sb7U
👉 Check out 𝗗𝗼𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗘 𝗕𝘂𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘁: https://shorturl.at/1UdPx
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𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗔𝗺 𝗜?

My name is  Rayhan Aleem, Founder and CEO of 𝗧𝗮𝘅 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿 and 𝗔𝗹𝗽𝗵𝗮 𝗣𝗿𝗼 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀. At  𝗔𝗹𝗽𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿𝘀 podcast I sit with top industry leaders for in-depth conversations that dive deep into their success stories, market dynamics, and firsthand tips on entrepreneurship and profitability. Whether you're just starting out or already running your own business, 𝗔𝗹𝗽𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿𝘀 offers something valuable for everyone.

👉 Follow 𝗥𝗮𝘆𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗹𝗲𝗲𝗺 on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3U2niHn
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𝗦𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘀:

𝟭-𝗔𝗹𝗽𝗵𝗮 𝗣𝗿𝗼 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀:
  -𝗪𝗲𝗯𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲:  https://www.alphapartners.co
  -𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻: https://bit.ly/3Yf4VRZ

𝟮-𝗧𝗮𝘅 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿:
  -𝗪𝗲𝗯𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲:  https://www.taxstar.app
  -𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻: https://bit.ly/3ZVjzPD

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𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗼𝗻:

🔗 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗯𝗲: https://bit.ly/47gaW3F
🔗 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆: https://bit.ly/3ZbtGiR
🔗 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁: https://bit.ly/4dOfS2f
🔗 𝗔𝗻𝗴𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗶: https://bit.ly/3Mutunk
🔗 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲!: https://bit.ly/3XfGYbD

𝗘𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲? 𝗦𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝗹𝗽𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝘂𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀!

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome & Intro
• 1:17 Transition from IT Leadership to Launching a Business
• 2:25 First-Year Challenges and Hard Lessons
• 17:48 The Part-Time CEO Approach and Why It Matters
• 30:33 Setting up The Coaching Practice: How He Transitioned
• 34:54 Advices for Entrepreneurs Setting Up a Second Business
• 35:31 Differences Between a Coach, a Consultant, and a Mentor
• 42:22 Tech Tools That Save Time & Boost Profits
• 54:37 Closing Remarks and How To Reach Dhiren

Transcript

Dhiren: 0:00

The first year was absolute hell for me, absolute hell. But I'm so glad that I stuck through it because there have been such amazing insights and learnings from being an entrepreneur after having been in a career.

Rayhan: 0:15

Welcome to the Alphapreneurs podcast. I'm your host, Rayhan Aleem, founder of Tax Star and Alpha pro Partners. Join me on each episode as we talk to inspiring Dubai based entrepreneurs. Who share their stories, challenges and secrets on building world class businesses. I'm pleased to welcome Dhiren Bhatia to the show today. After working for 11 years as an IT director at an international bank. He moved to Dubai to set up Cloudscape Technologies, a technology consulting company serving retail businesses. He then set up The Elevated Entrepreneur, a coaching movement which empowers business owners to break free from daily operations to become a part time CEO. Dhiren, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining me today. known you for eight odd years now. Eight, seven years. Long time. Long time. I want to know it's my pleasure. And it's one of the, you're one of the guests I really want to bring on onto the show. I want to dive into it. I want to, talk about your transition from an employee to an entrepreneur. So some of the themes that we talk about in this podcast is, we want to encourage people out there who. Are thinking about being an entrepreneur, but they don't really take that, make that move or push themselves to it. So someone like yourself, who's, jumped from an employee to an entrepreneur, I'm fascinated to know about, that journey and what was, what you were thinking about during that journey, And so you was actually an IT director of a large international bank in Canada, and you moved to Dubai to set up Cloudscape. You've had subsequent businesses afterwards. But what made you become an entrepreneur? What was going through your head when you was having to go from a stable income, paid job to a unstable job, potentially lucrative, but you just don't always know where the next, payment is coming from?

Dhiren: 2:18

We have had my fair share of sleepless nights, but thank you for having me. Pleasure to be here. Now I'm jumping straight into it. I think talking about wanting to move from a career to entrepreneurship is like taking this very big leap of faith. And when I moved here about eight years ago now, it wasn't intended. I wasn't intending to start a business. I came here, thinking that I would work, make some more money, and then head back home to Toronto. But life had a very different plan, and about eight months into my move here, I decided to start my own business because I was just not finding a job that would work for me. And I started, initially, I started that job, that business as a challenge. I figured I'd see where, how far I could take it. And I was sharing with you just before we started recording that the first year was absolute hell for me, absolute hell. But I'm so glad that I stuck through it because there have been such amazing insights and learnings from being an entrepreneur after having been in a career. And you're right, the salary bit, of course, doesn't cut it because the first few years you worry about your own salary. You worry about your staff salaries. You worry about making payments to vendors. So of course you don't see a very pretty penny coming your way for a long time. But look, I said, like I said, it's been a hell of a ride. It's been amazing. And what was going through my mind when I made that jump? It was a challenge. It was a challenge to myself. I promised myself that I would give it my best shot before I decided to go back. And, and how scape came to be was really a marriage of the two things that I knew really well. I knew it 'cause I started my career in it. I graduated from an IT degree and growing. I grew up in a retail family. I grew up in a family that ran a retail business. In fact, my parents had a business, a retail business that my mom started in the nineties. So I grew. into an entrepreneurial household. So business wasn't new, but I figured if I was to do something, I'd do something that excites me and that I know very well. So I did the, IT bit, and I figured bring the retail bit into it. so that's how CloudScape was born. And CloudScape is this idea that retailers need a helping hand when it comes to IT and how to make better decisions, because I saw my parents struggle with when they ran a retail business, it was very gut, it was very, top of the day kind of mood kind of business. It wasn't very data driven. It wasn't very, strategic. And so the idea behind CloudScape was to solve that problem for other retailers. So they didn't end up making the same mistakes.

Rayhan: 4:58

So for you, similar to me, I'm a qualified accountant. my business is accounting, AfroProPartners anyway, and I went into that. So I guess. in your situation, cause you knew it, cause that was your area of expertise and you as an it director, plus your family was in the retail business in, Dubai, we'll touch upon that. It made sense. You got your expertise together to the two, to two verticals, technology, retail to, to form a business that, that can help others. and I guess for a lot of entrepreneurs, sometimes it's. not thinking about setting up a restaurant or, doing an e commerce website, sometimes it's looking within yourself to see what you can offer and providing that value to other, to other people. so yeah,

Dhiren: 5:53

no, thank you for sharing that. Yeah, no. And as you were saying, I think a lot of businesses start from this notion that I, for example, I'm, an IT guy, so I figured, I would do something in IT. So I think they say that you want to do a business in what you know best. To your point, that's exactly what I did. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs do the same. And so for people that are looking to make the jump from start, from being a, bring in a career, a very high paying career, especially here, wanting to start a business, I feel the first thing that they would need to look into is what excites them, what gives them the motivation to get out of bed? What's their passion? Cause that's probably where they're going to succeed because the first few years are going to be rough. But it's that passion and that motivation to do something better in their field of interest is what's going to keep them going.

Rayhan: 6:38

So Dhiren, you come from a family of entrepreneurs who actually set up a business in Dubai. you obviously went to Canada. you studied out there. You had a very successful, career out there. And then you came back. And obviously you mentioned that you set up a business here, while you was looking for work, but you couldn't find the right role. But the opportunity of setting up a business was probably, in my view, the best decision that you made. There's many people who do come from a family of entrepreneurs and there's some, individuals who don't. So you coming from a background of entrepreneurs, how did that help you in your journey being an entrepreneur?

Dhiren: 7:20

honestly, I've, I wanted to not be an entrepreneur because when I grew up, when you grew up in a family of entrepreneurs, especially if Like my, in my case, my parents were, they were both partners in life, but also partners in business, I grew up seeing a very different side of entrepreneurship, the constant bickering and the constant fighting. So the reason why I actually wanted to move to Canada was to get away from that. I saw to myself that I would never do business and I would go do something different and I'd get into a career. And, but like I said earlier, like life had a very different plan for me. But I think after having started a business, I do look back upon, The experience that I garnered from that life within a family of entrepreneurs, like I remember from a very early age going to the store, being with my mom at the store after school, even doing homework at the store while my mom did her thing at the store. Because she was, really passionate about that idea. And, which was a, fashion jewelry business back in the 90s. So it was obvious that we would all help her out. So we'd go to school, we'd come back from school and we'd go straight to the store. This is an Abu Dhabi in the late nineties. And, I remember that I'd be doing homework and then helping her pack a, pack an item and going back to doing homework. And then went back to doing some stores, stuff around the store. I feel that experience definitely helped set me up to understand that entrepreneurship. isn't easy. And, I say in my coaching business that hustle culture will teach you. Otherwise, hustle culture will teach you, Oh, it's super easy to start your own business. It's the best thing. It's freedom everywhere. The truth of the matter is it's very different. It's very difficult to be an entrepreneur, coming from hustle culture, because this is a long game. This is a super long game. In fact, in many ways, there's a gentleman named Simon Sinek, who talks about this being an infinite game. Entrepreneurship is an infinite game. And, To round off and come back to your question about how did that help me? I think it prepared me for the fact that this is going to be a long game and that there's going to be a lot of blood, sweat and tears put into this thing to make it work. And so yeah, that's, I think how, I came about learning

Rayhan: 9:34

from that experience. But I think ultimately it's in your blood. you try to run away from it or you try to push yourself away from entrepreneurship, but you, it sucked you in, right?

Dhiren: 9:48

it's a good question. I see what you're, saying. And I think as I'm reflecting aloud, I think there was part of me that challenged myself to do it better than my parents did. I figured I'd. I thought I could do it better. And I thought to myself, maybe if I started it, I maybe prove a point to my parents that not all businesses have to be about constant bickering and constant stress. Cause I saw my parents, they were, they spent numerous nights sleepless. They would, stress about it all the time. In fact, even when they traveled for business, it was such a, it was such a rush thing. They never really got to enjoy that. And so I guess. Along the way, when I started my business, I figured I'd do it different. I figured I'd do it better. So I guess it's in my blood, but I also think that there was this part of me that was competitive and, wanted to challenge myself to do it different, to do it better. So

Rayhan: 10:38

Dhiren, you've worked with numerous F& B, concepts, retail as well. a lot of them are very household, well known brands. A lot of them are. mom and pop shops, based in Dubai internationally as well. You obviously provide technology for them to help them improve their businesses. Now for the entrepreneur who's got an F& B concept or who's in retail and they're looking to innovate and adapt and they need to keep up with the pace of change that's happening all the time, whether it's digital marketing, whether it's making sure they've got the right products, making sure they're Understanding what the latest trends are from your experience and your knowledge of working with some of these, concepts and, brands, what would you say is would help them to keep up pace with technology and the latest trends.

Dhiren: 11:35

Yeah, I'm going to tell you a story about how my wife and I started a retail brand in Toronto before I answer your question, because I think it's germane to this conversation. So my parents were visiting once in 2007 and they said to me, son, you both work, you both, our salary, why don't you try starting a business? And by default, it was obviously always going to be a retail business because they ran a retail business and they saw me doing that. I was all excited and I started a retail business and I was saying to you off camera that those four years that we ran that business was a very, hard time for my wife and I because we were newly married and we had just started this business and we had absolutely no clue what we were doing as entrepreneurs. The reason I share the story is as a retailer, it's easy to start a retail business. It's easy to start an F& B concept, especially in this market. There is such a big attraction. to starting the next big retail brand or the next best F& B brand. But there's a lot that goes behind the scenes, starting with knowing who you're opening this for and what pain problem you can offer to the market. What pain problem transformation you can offer to the market. In our case, when we started that retail brand in Toronto, we had absolutely no idea why we were starting a retail brand. And of all places, we decided to start that in a mall. It was never done before. And we never even wondered why that wasn't done before. And the simple reason was. It was extremely expensive. It wasn't that much demand. And that's why nobody else did it. But that's the lesson that I wanted to share is start with really knowing your needs. Your target market. It's easy to have a retail brand that does in our case It was doing jewelry and fashion because we figured the more things we offer the more customers We were going to attract but retail and even F& B to a certain degree doesn't work that way It needs to be very specific. It needs to be very niche And in fact, the niche of the better and something that I share a lot these days is you want to dig a hole That's a mile deep and an inch wide as opposed to digging a hole That's a mile wide and an inch deep and I don't mean this literally but this in the case of business The narrower the concept the better it is because a lot of business gurus will tell you That the narrower the deeper you get into that niche The more money you stand to make, if I was to go back and redo my own retail store that I started in Toronto, I probably would have not done it in a mall. I would have done it outside Strip mall or something at even out of my house Tested the idea wrote tested the idea make sure there was enough demand And I would have started with a very specific set of items as opposed to like 45 SKUs We I would have started with maybe two or three SKUs just to make sure You There was enough demand and there was enough desire in the market to buy. So I guess to summarize my thought process in this conversation is number one, be very clear on why you're starting that brand. Number two, be very clear on who you're starting this brand for. So if the answer to your question is, Oh, I'll do a retail brand for everybody who wants to buy clothing. You've lost the game before it started. We get a lot of entrepreneurs like that. Absolutely. And I think there's, a new crop of entrepreneurs that come every day thinking, Oh, I'm just going to offer this set of products for everybody. And therein is a fallacy. It doesn't work well. So you want to start that statement by saying, I'd like to offer X product for this kind of people who are tired of this problem. And then, you have something really cool in your hand at your hands. That'd be advice, that would be my advice and I think to round that off, I was saying to you earlier, it's about the long game. Mistakes are going to happen, you're going to fail, you're not going to see success. on day one, you're probably not going to see success on day 100. But if you stick with it long enough, you're going to see success. The mistake that my wife and I made, we gave up too soon. We had a lot of learnings in the first couple of years, but we didn't pull through with it. We should have pulled through with it. And I would ask anybody who's thinking of being an entrepreneur who's starting a retail business, starting an F& B concept, prepare for the long run. Have enough cash on hand to make sure that you can survive the first few years because those are the hardest. That's when you're figuring everything out. You're figuring out the sales, you're figuring out the delivery, you're figuring out the back office. And of course, it's going to cost you to figure that out. And that's part of the process. It's designed to be that way. It's a, it's like they say, two steps backward to take one step forward. So that's the sort of advice I'd give to someone who's thinking of starting a retail brand. And just to add to that, I'd say invest in good tech. I see a lot of retailers as clients of ours at Cloudscape that tend to think of tech as a cost, and they don't tend to understand how that would give them a return on investment. The ask of anybody who's thinking of doing a retail business or a restaurant business is to invest in good tech, starting with a good inventory management system, starting with a good accounting system, and you don't have to go break the bank when you're thinking of systems. Start with the one that you can afford today, but don't make the mistake of not starting with one. I see a lot of retailers thinking, Oh, we'll do this later. Or we think a lot of F& B guys thinking, yeah, we don't need a loyalty system right now. We don't need an accounting system right now, whatever that may be, invest in something that you can afford and understand that upgrading is part of the process. So you will make mistakes with that system. You will learn. It's like getting a driver's license and then buying a Ferrari out. out of the showroom, because it's never going to work, because you're going to total that car in very little time. But if you did buy a car, you'd learn how to handle it, you'd learn how to drive it. And then you could upgrade all along the way and make yourself up to a Ferrari. So investing tech is something that I would also add to that piece of advice.

Rayhan: 17:23

So Dhiren, you set up a successful technology consulting business, Cloudscape. And then you got the, entrepreneur, And so you set up another business, which was the elevated entrepreneur, which you send out newsletters. I, I read those newsletters are really, informative. They're great. One of the things you talk about in your newsletters and in your content is this concept of a part time CEO, And entrepreneurs, they start businesses in the first place to live the life. as you mentioned before, it's an infinite game. Their kind of intention to go into entrepreneurship is to, do it for one year and then relax. Someone else will, handle it. And I've never seen anyone come up with a concept of how to do that until you came up with a part time CEO. Cause that's where you really can. You set up a business, get all the processes in place, get the right people in place, and then you can manage it part time. Do you want to just, divulge and give us a bit more of a, tell us more about this part time CEO concept and how an entrepreneur can get there? we mentioned how difficult it is to set up a business, but how, would you, what kind of things would they need to do to get to that end point?

Dhiren: 18:55

I get that. So it's funny about the part time CEO. Because when I started CloudScape in 2017, after having started the retail brand in 2010, I figured I'd be chained to this business for life. I thought this was going to be it. And along the way, I realized there's a way out of this. And that's when I started working with my business coach. Her name's Varsha. She happens to be someone that we both know very well. And she still today is one of my biggest supporters and helps me through a lot of my own limiting belief systems. But she was We're going to bring Varsha one day, so Oh, brilliant. Brilliant. Varsha is one of those women that I have a lot of respect for and she taught me a lot about business and it's when I started speaking with her and coaching with her that I realized that there is a way out of this. And I call that this, the infinite sort of loop. I call it the consultant's dilemma. And what I mean by that is there's this idea that a lot of us start a business with, but then we don't even realize that we've caught in that we've been caught in that loop. And that loop is this, you're going to, you're starting a business and you're going to go look for your first customer. And as soon as you find your first customer, you're going to find a team member that can deliver that service. And now that you've delivered that service and you've got this team member waiting, empty handed, he's on the bench and you want him to be busy, you're going to find your next customer. And as soon as you find more customers, you're starting to going to hire more people. And without you even knowing it, you've now been caught into this vicious loop where you're going to have to bring in more customers just to make sure that you can pay the salaries of all the staff members that you've hired. And that is a really interesting place to be because once you're in it, you don't know that you're in it. And when I was working with Varsha, I realized that I myself was in that loop because at CloudScape, at one point, we were nine people. And I thought to myself, there must be a better way of doing this. And as I was working with her, we talked a lot about this idea of scaling up and true scale is not addition by addition, true scale is addition by subtraction, which means you need to be able to remove things from the equation to grow and to scale. So scale is not more volume and more people, more offices. Scale is when you can deliver that same product and service in the leanest possible way. form possible with the smallest team and still keep your revenue up. And so that took me many few years to figure out my own self at Cloudscape. And as I was coaching with Varsha, I realized that this is something that I would love to teach others. So I came up with this idea called the Elevated Entrepreneur Blueprint and the Elevated Entrepreneur Blueprint is that very same system packaged into a format that a lot of entrepreneurs will find it easy to understand. Which then gave birth to this idea of a part time CEO. So I shared with you earlier that I grew up in a family where mom and dad were always talking shop. They were always talking work because it was their life. When I started my business with my wife, it was the same thing. When I started Cloudscape, it was the same thing. And I said to myself that most, which is ironic because most people start a business to get away from a job. But we end up giving ourselves a second job. In fact, we end up becoming even worse at giving ourselves a job because now this is even more strenuous, more harder, more longer hours, and we forget the dream. And the dream is to have the time to do the things you want to do with the people you want to do, when you want to do. And so a part time CEO is a founder of a business that has got the understanding that they're caught in this consultant's dilemma. And they're now making their way out of that loop so that they can do the things they want with the people they want, when they want, while the business continues to run itself. And there's a format to that, which I'm happy to get into, but that's the impetus and the origin story of how this part time CEO. concept came to be.

Rayhan: 22:53

And your concept of part time CEO, it still means that the business runs, right? It still means that you're still part of the business, but I guess there's certain things that you would do, that's important. And, then is there certain things that you'd step out of? Is that, correct? A hundred percent. That's

Dhiren: 23:11

absolutely. And that's how Cloudscape works today. I spent about two days of my time. In a week on Cloudscape and the idea being that it runs by itself, it feeds itself. Of course, as a founder, as an entrepreneur, I still have to make some key decisions. But for the most part, the machine runs itself. And that's what we need to see our businesses as, a machine that can operate in itself. And there's a very famous quote from a very famous author named Michael Gerber, who wrote the book E Myth. And he talks about making your business Systems dependent instead of people dependent. And once you've got your business to be systems dependent, you're on your way to becoming a part time CEO because that business can run itself. And I, have to underline this conversation. Running itself doesn't mean that you're not going to be part of the conversation or you're not going to be. taking decisions because that's something that a lot of us think that's what an automated business is. Oh, I'm just going to walk away and it's going to sustain. It's like a plane flying by itself. It can for a certain up until a certain point, but certain times manual overrides are needed. And so that's the journey of being a part time CEO, where you start to build that, system, those systems, the team, the process that allows this business to run by itself.

Rayhan: 24:18

So I want to, I'm just going to ask you a few more questions about part time CEO because it's quite interesting for me as well. I meet entrepreneurs all the time and, I advise them, in different capacities. So as a part time CEO, one of the questions I have anyway is, When you set up a business, you're like the face of the business and to a certain extent you are doing, you're the primary person to do the BD, doesn't matter if you're Elon Musk or if you're, someone just running a mom and pop store, you're still the face of the business. How does that relationship change as a part time CEO? Do they, are they still the face of the business or, how does that work? I love that

Dhiren: 25:01

question. And there are some really good examples to, to get into, but just before we get into the examples, I want to talk about this idea that a very famous guy by the name of Dan Martell talks about. He has a book that says the book's title is, book's title is buy back your time. And he has this concept called the replacement ladder. As an entrepreneur, most of us want to hire a salesperson first. On the contrary, what you want to do is you want to hire an admin person first. Your first and foremost hire should be an admin person because the amount of time that you and I and other entrepreneurs spend in calendar management and email management and phone management and scheduling and logistics is insane. So taking that off your plate is item number one. Dan then talks about hiring a delivery person. Again, contrary to belief, a lot of entrepreneurs will still want to hire a salesperson. But like you said, nobody sells like us, nobody sells like the founder. So it's about making sure that we continue to wear that hat while offloading all of the other pieces so that you can actually have time to sell. And I'll talk about that in, in a few more steps. But once you've hired the delivery process, the delivery person, when I say delivery, I'm not talking about logistics, but I'm talking about. Delivering the actual service. That not guy,

Rayhan: 26:16

not the

Dhiren: 26:17

Uber guy who's gonna yeah, absolutely. No, not your, not that, but the, person that's responsible, the team or the person that is responsible for the, for delivering the service that the customer is paying for. If you're a creative agency, that's the actual branding or the videographer, the videography service or the, consulting service. Hiring someone to do that allows the founder. become free of everything else and they can focus on sales because sales is the one of the hardest things and the last things that you want to hand over because by the time that the business has grown to a point where you're ready to offload sales, you would have also developed a process of sales. A lot of founders make this mistake of hiring a salesperson right out of the gate and the salesperson has absolutely no clue what to do and how to do. So they just end up making the same mistakes that they did. Learn from their old business or the other business they were working for. So hire the admin person first, then bring in a delivery person. Now focus on sales. Start developing a sales process. Now bring in a sales guy and now you're free of sales. And the final replacement On that replacement ladder is your GM, your creative director, your right hand. And so as you make your way up from founder to CEO, and then to part time CEO, these are the people you need along the way to make that happen. and now coming back to your question about being the face of the company, if you look at some of the biggest brands in the world, the founders still happen to be the face at Tesla. You've got Elon Musk, for the longest time, Apple. Apple's face was Steve Jobs. And I don't think that's by chance. I think that's by design.

Rayhan: 27:54

Yeah.

Dhiren: 27:54

Because people want a hero to, to align with. It doesn't mean that Elon Musk is still selling Teslas and he's still doing BD, but he is the face of the company. And I think that all founders should continue to be the face of the company because your customer wants to align with you, your values, your, ethos. And if you take the founder away from that, do you stop the founder from being the face of the company, the customers don't have anything to align to. It's no longer a business, it's a brand which is becoming faceless. So you always want to be the face of the brand. Having, at the same time, an understanding that you don't have to be the BD person, just because you're the face of the company. You can have a sales team. A lot of the entrepreneurs that I coach these days will talk about Hey, you know what, my customer wants to talk to me and they don't want to do business with anybody else on my team. That's common, very common. And it is true to a certain degree, but that doesn't mean that you're going to be the face of that conversation for the whole process. You want to be able to bring in your Delivery person. You want to be able to bring in your sales person and hand this customer to the right person on your team and let the customer know why you're handing this over. So if you were to role play this out, if I've gotten a call, I'm a, say, for example, I'm a financial advisor or a real estate. I've got a call from a customer saying, Hey, look, I really want to talk to you. I've got your referral from somebody and I want to be able to talk about my finances. And now a financial advisor, who's a new entrepreneur would say, Oh my God, this is a customer he's wanting to talk to me. And he's going to, he or she's going to invest the entire energy into dealing with this customer. What happens to everybody else? Every other customer is going to be left to the wayside. A good way to handle that is, sure, I'm so glad you called. Let me put you in touch with so and so on my team. They're really good in your kind of portfolio management. I'm going to connect you, set up a WhatsApp group. I'll be part of the group. I'll keep an eye out, but he's the right person to help me gather all the information I need to have our next conversation with you. If you do this in steps, what's happening is that your customer is developing the trust that you're giving them that somebody else on your team can handle that conversation. And so by doing it in this manner, the person, the founder gets out of the sales conversation, gets out of the delivery conversation, and you rinse and repeat this with all your customers. You find your way, making your way to your part time CEO status.

Rayhan: 30:23

Yeah, no, that's a really good example. And I think, I think that's really for someone who is setting up a business and has so much going on. I think that breaks it down really well. So Diren, you've, you've been quite impressive in your entrepreneur career. initially you had a technology consulting business and that was quite successful as well. and then you've. you've walked the walk, became a part time CEO. and then you set up your coaching practice, two different, very different businesses. In the beginning, we was talking about how you set up your consulting business. And that was, a merger of your background and your, what you studied in your, your career. But now coaching is completely different, In terms of a tech. consulting business. So how have you transitioned from a technology on entrepreneur to a coach, a coaching business that teaches other entrepreneurs, that gives guidance to other entrepreneurs to help them in their journey. I know that it's quite rewarding. Yes, it's a business, but you can't give back as well. But if someone wants to set up. a second business, what kind of advice would you give? How did you go from a tech business to a, a consulting business? That's quite interesting for me anyway, to learn about. The

Dhiren: 31:51

two word answer is very slowly. And it's funny that you said I transitioned to being a coach. Can I be, can I share a story with you? Of course. I remember telling my wife, Shweta about my desire to be a coach. This is, I discovered this passion In 2018, 2019, when I was working with Varsha and I said to myself, one day I'm going to be a coach, one day. And I remember sharing the story with Shweta, one day I'm going to be a coach. She said, why not now? I said, I don't think I'm fit enough to be a coach. I don't think I'm equipped enough to be a coach. And the reason I share this story is we all have such immense Possibilities in ourselves. We had such immense passions in ourself and very few of us actually get to live out those passions. The first thing is if you are thinking of starting a second business, or even if it's your first business, really be true to yourself and as you and I are talking, there's this really beautiful quote behind you that says, stay simple, stay true, hustle culture will make you believe that you don't need to be true to yourself when you start a business. You should forego all passion and really focus on the business. And that dream inside you dies along the way. That's not, absolutely true. Yes, you start a business. Yes, you make it grow, but you want to give your passion the sunlight that it needs to grow. And that's what I did with the coaching business. I remember going to Shweta and at one point I said to her, I think I'm ready. She's are you ready? Are you sure? I said, yeah, but I'm not unsure. I'm not very sure, but I think I'm sure. And she was the Reason why I decided to take that leap of faith, which is something that we talked about earlier. So I think starting your second business is taking that leap of faith all over again. And the advice I would give someone is if you are thinking of starting a second business, whatever that may be, the same rules apply, which is start from a place of passion, know why you're doing it, and look at the big picture. I feel that for me, starting a elevated entrepreneur. Was a redo at some of the things I didn't get to do the first time around. I didn't really get to enjoy the first few years of being a founder at Cloudscape. I was so stressed. I was so worried all the time. I had very little time for my family and I didn't get to enjoy that time. So I figured that if I started a second business, I'd get a chance to redo those things and enjoy my second time around and really enjoy the journey because it is a journey. the point of life isn't to come out unscathed on the other end. It is to come out full of battle scars and marks and stories to tell. I think I've missed that the first time around. And now with being a coach, I get to live out that dream, that passion. And I also get to tell the stories of how I missed those moments. So now when I coach entrepreneurs, I tell them to remember to enjoy this, moment. Coming back to point, if you are starting a second business, make sure that you're doing it for the right reason. Money should never be the driving force. It needs to be passion. It's the passion that will see you through. Make sure your first business, just like your first child, is able to sustain itself. Have the right people in place, have the right systems in place, and don't delegate but don't abdicate. This is something that Varsha is saying. My coach taught me really well, make sure that you can always go back to people, measure their performance and give them candid feedback about how they're not performing and stay on point. I'd say those would be my big pieces of advice around starting a second business.

Rayhan: 35:31

You obviously coach a lot of entrepreneurs. coaching is very different to mentoring. in a sense that you don't really give advice. You're more looking at blind spots, guiding that person to the right, to the right direction that they need to be guided to. What are the common themes that you're finding with entrepreneurs when you're coaching them?

Dhiren: 35:58

That's a great segue to talking about this difference, the difference between a coach, a mentor, and a consultant. I think an entrepreneur needs all three and if not more. Of course, an entrepreneur needs support systems and there can be more than one support system. A coach is someone who's going to walk the path with you. They're not necessarily going to give you the answer because the answers lie within the entrepreneur. The coach's role is to help you find that answer, ask you some really tough questions, ask you to think and spend some time reflecting because then the answer becomes apparent. A consultant on the other hand can come in and help you solve a very specific problem, a very pointed problem. Whether it's a revenue generation problem, whether it's a hiring problem. So you want to be able to bring in the right consultant at the right time. And a mentor, as you talked about, is someone who can give you advice from your industry. Someone who can, who's been there, done that. A coach may not have the same set of experiences, but a mentor typically will have the same set of experiences and give you real battle tested, road tested advice in your specific industry. And I think finally, the other support system a lot of entrepreneurs need is a peer group. I know that you're part of EO, a lot of, founders become parts of masterminds. These are great support. This is a great support system to figure out all of these four systems in your entrepreneurial journey and surround yourself with the right people. And I think your question was what.

Rayhan: 37:22

What are the common themes that, you obviously coach a lot of entrepreneurs, right? And understanding what's the common things that themes that they come to you with and what are you, what are the, issues you're trying to tackle with them?

Dhiren: 37:39

Got it. I'd say the biggest theme is around mindset. A lot of us entrepreneurs get lost in our own minds. We get into our own heads a lot. We end up thinking way too much about something. And along the way we lose sight of the big picture. So we get lost in our own thoughts. And a big reason for that is limiting beliefs. For someone who hasn't heard this word before, there are these beliefs that we hold near and dear that seem like absolute reality, but they're absolutely not reality, but they just seem to be. One of the ones that I've had and I've struggled with is I don't deserve to be successful. I don't deserve to have many followers on Instagram or LinkedIn. And this has probably got a lot to do with me growing up and the experiences that I've had as a child, as becoming an adult, and we all have our own. So it's about understanding what those limiting beliefs are and addressing them and working with them. The other big theme I find with entrepreneurs is not having clarity on what they're actually building. If there's a vision, or if there's a plan, you want to keep that front and center and not get lost. Because a lot of us entrepreneurs forget what we're actually building. Either we don't know what we're building or we don't have clarity on what we're building. So I encourage entrepreneurs to think about at least a two year roadmap, if not a five year roadmap. Have an idea of what we're building, of what you're building. And a lot of common questions with that typically will be, I can't see out five years. I can't see that far. And I keep saying, find a reference model. You don't have to innovate. You don't have to figure this out from scratch. You can find a reference model, find someone who you aspire to be like, and use theirs for a bit up until you find yours. For example, I'm building a coaching business and 2024 and coaching has come a long, coaching has come a long way in 20, here as we are in 24. I have a few people that I look up to that I want to emulate, even though I'm not a hundred percent sure on what I'm actually building in the long run. I know how passionate I am about coaching. I know how passionate I am about this idea of a I know there's a phenomenal movement here, but up until then, I figured out all the moving parts. I have some people that I look out to look up to Jay Klaus and Pat Flynn. And these guys have built successful coaching brands and communities that I. You get a lot of inspiration from. So that's team number two. Team number three is not to be shy of asking for money. A lot of us founders have very big limiting beliefs around money. And we don't tend to be very clear with our clients, our partners, our vendors around money. So figure that out ASAP, figure out how you can get really good at asking for money because cash at the end of the day, it's going to control how successful your business is. You may be making really good money, really good revenue, but if you don't have cash in the bank, you're going to have to make a very hard decision very soon. So get over your limiting beliefs around money. Theme number four is that our people, a lot of us creative entrepreneurs will figure out, especially ones in creative and consulting businesses will feel nobody can do it like I can. And that's a myth. There are lots of great people that can do exactly what you can, even better. In some cases, it's about owning that truth and then going in, hiring the right kind of person. Especially in the creative spaces, like interior designers or branding or marketing. A lot of the founders will feel nobody can design like me. Nobody can come up with campaigns like me. But that's not true. All you need to do is you need to figure out a system on how you can delegate that ability to a really good person. So I would say that make sure that you have the right person for the job and give them pointers on what you feel is creative. I think this is where a lot of creative entrepreneurs miss the boat. I'll give you an example just to make it real. If I'm running an interior design business and I'm designing houses or restaurants or spaces, of course, I do a very good job at it, which is why I'm getting a lot of the business. Now, it is up to me to handle this, delegate this task to somebody else on my team. And the way I would do that is I would give them feedback on every design they came back to me with. So if every time I gave my team a design to do, they'd come back to me. I'd say, look, this is what I feel is aesthetic, make changes accordingly. So what I'm doing now by that pointed feedback is I'm training them to think like me. I'm training them to design like me. So over time, they're going to give me designs that I like. And so now I have delegated as well as transposed my creative design process onto them by giving them pointed feedback over and over again, as opposed to not giving it to them in the first place. So that would be myth number four or theme number four.

Rayhan: 42:20

I like that. So in your newsletters, which I receive in my inbox and I read every time they come, you're always giving some insights on tools and apps entrepreneurs can use in their businesses. To get to that part time CEO type vision, or just to improve productivity. Do you want to go through some of the, tools and softwares that you would recommend, that can help? that entrepreneur get to that kind of part time status to make their operations more streamlined. Yeah, I love this question.

Dhiren: 43:01

And as you can tell, I spent a lot of time testing new apps. I'm just You're a techie as well. I'm a very big techie and I'm usually glued to my phone, not because I'm scrolling Instagram. I do that, but I'm really interested in figuring out what the next, what's the next best app that I can try out. So I'll usually download a lot of apps and try. So thanks for asking that question. the app that I have absolutely fallen in love with over the last four years, just outside of COVID, is Notion. Notion for me is one of those systems that control my entire life today. We can get into the specifics of each app, but I use Notion as a catch all. It's a productivity slash note taking slash brainstorming, and I even use it now. As a website building tool, I'll actually very quickly spin up a web pages in Notion if I wanted to test on an idea. So that's app number one.

Rayhan: 43:51

App. We use Notion as well. Yeah. not at alpha pro we use it at tech star. and the reason why I like it is because. A lot of our email infrastructure is based on Google. And so then you you use Google Sheets and Google Docs. and being an accountant, you use Excel and Word, right? You got to save the file somewhere or you got to get the link or whatever. But what I like about Notion is everything's in one place and it integrates seamlessly in, in, on your phone as well. and You just literally put everything on there.

Dhiren: 44:30

Oh, man. I've pretty much built an entire operating system. It's called a life operating system. I've even given it a name. It's called DBOS. That's what they did in batch operating system. It basically runs my entire life from my coaching business to all the content I produce. down to my weekly review with my EA, down to even my, we have something in my family that we call a team meeting that I, my wife and I do every week. So even run that family team meeting in Notion. And recently I did something really fun. I created a repository of all of the presentations that I've done in my life ever. And I put that in Notion. So now when someone comes and says, listen, Diren, could you help us do a presentation or could you talk about this? I'm like, okay. The first thing I go back and as I open that presentation repository, I have all the presentations stored with the covers. So it immediately gives me a place to start from as opposed to start from a blank page. and the other thing that we did in Notion that was really cool that I thought I think a lot of families should do is put all your insurance documents and your personal documents in Notion. Yeah, you should do that as well. Yeah. So I did that recently. So all my Car insurance, home insurance, life insurance, all of those policy documents are in Notion. So if ever, God forbid, something were to happen to me, I know Shweta, my wife, can get into Notion. She knows where exactly the documents are, who the point of contact is, what the policy covers. Bit of a life hack. Notion's just not for productivity, but Notion can also be simple things like this. There's a private section, right? there is a private section. And like you said, it works really well offline, on your phone, not offline, but it works on your phone. Yeah. the one downside to Notion, it doesn't work offline, but it's not a big issue for me. I am usually always connected to the internet, but yeah, I think Notion is one really good system that I'd love and I run my entire life on. And if anybody's ever interested in checking out the life operating system, there's this phenomenal guy named August Bradley. I would love for them to check out. He has a phenomenal YouTube channel on setting up Notion for the life operating system. Really smart guy. I learned a lot from him and massive, credit. So please go check him out. So that's app number one. I'd say app number two is a calendar app. You mentioned Google Docs earlier, Google Calendar. I particularly love. One called Fantastical, which is a phenomenal, beautiful Mac app for calendars. Gorgeous looking, very nice, very easy, very slick. and there's some really good hacks in there. Like for example, if I was setting up a Zoom meeting, I can integrate it with my Zoom account, so it'll automatically spin up a Zoom link inside the event and everything in one step. So that's app number two.

Rayhan: 47:07

Does that also, integrate with, Like the Google and the Microsoft type, infrastructures. it does.

Dhiren: 47:14

It'll pull your calendars from all

Rayhan: 47:16

those

Dhiren: 47:16

places and display them in your Mac or your, in your Mac or your iPad or your iPhone. It's sadly Mac iOS only. So it's not for Android. I'm happy with that. Yeah, I am too. app number three would be a really good to do manager. I think a lot of us tend to keep books and, pens and notes, which works for some. It doesn't work for me. I really want something that's centralized, even to the fact that my EA Ruth has access to my to do list manager. So she can go in and plug things for me that I need to get done. So I will literally start my day with my calendar and then jump into my to do list. Look at things that I need to do. I use one called things, three. Gorgeous Mac iOS only again, but it's a beautiful app, and really, I hope we don't lose a Microsoft, or Android, but no, it's a great app. I love it. App number four would be some sort of CRM system. Yeah. As a business that's growing and I run multiple businesses, I have a CRM for both. CRM is I'd say ground zero for a lot of entrepreneurs in 24 and beyond, because you want to be able to capture your, your customer information. You want to store them somewhere for, elevated entrepreneur. I just use one in Notion. It's easy enough. It doesn't have all the fancy features of a full on CRM system, but it does the job for me. So I'd recommend a CRM system. And there's many. There's PipeDrive. I know you use PipeDrive. We use PipeDrive, yeah. It's a gorgeous app. We used it for many years. Zoho CRM. I'd say Zoho CRM is a bit complex to get started with. So if someone was thinking of starting with the CRM, I'd recommend something like Notion or PipeDrive. Yeah, I think Notion works, yeah.

Rayhan: 48:53

Yeah, both very, nice. I think one of the things that I would say about CRM is Don't just use it for your business. Use it for personal as well. Oh, it's so true. Because as a entrepreneur, you're meeting people all the time. you need to catch up with people you haven't met for, a year or so, six months. You want to have those dinners, those lunches, those breakfasts, those coffees, sometimes shishas, whatever it is you want to have. and It's important to keep in touch with your, network. And I think a CRM for as a personal person is, as an individual is very important. Oh, a

Dhiren: 49:28

hundred percent. I'm so glad that you touched upon that. Can I tell you a secret? I actually store my family information in my CRM as well. So I like to have my uncles and my aunts. I'll note it down there and I'll remember to, tag myself to say, call this person or call this uncle, call this aunt. Not because I don't want to call them, but it's just life gets so busy. So I love what you shared. Serum is great even for personal relationships and scheduling some friendships, time for friendships, time for family into your serum. I know some people may not like the idea. But that's, as a good CRM can do that for you. Yeah. A hundred percent. I'd say the app after that would be an email marketing system. So you talked about my newsletters earlier. I use ConvertKit, which is now called Kit. Phenomenal app, really easy to use. I think a lot of entrepreneurs think about marketing and they get lost in the hub spots and the drips of the world. But I feel there are some really good. Apps that can do one job and they do it really well. It is a good example. ConvertKit is now good. now kit is a good example. active campaign and all of these are great email marketing tools. I have a email marketing tool, MailChimp, another good example of an email marketing tool. And completely off business. There's one app that recently has been a game changer for me. It's called TimeShifter. It's an app that allows you to travel across the world without any jet lag. So what they do is they will ask you for your flight information and literally you can plug in the flight number and it'll understand your routing and it'll give you recommendations on how you should sleep. 48 hours prior to your flight, so that when you get to your destination, you're not jet lagged. So how much coffee should you have? How much should you sleep? How much should you eat? What should you drink on the plane? Phenomenal. I've had great success and come out on the other end with zero jet lag. So if you're someone who travels a lot.

Rayhan: 51:21

You go to Canada, right?

Dhiren: 51:23

I travel a lot. I, and I use that app, religiously fantastic app, Time Shifter, highly recommend

Rayhan: 51:29

it. What about chat GPT? How does that rank?

Dhiren: 51:32

Oh, I'd say it's become such an important part of my life that I don't even think about it. It's not even

Rayhan: 51:38

an app anymore. It's no, it's second nature, right? Yeah. It's second nature.

Dhiren: 51:41

Yeah. And I think we're just beginning to see the power of chat GPT unfold itself. I feel a lot of us have already played with it, but if someone is looking at chat GPT, ask them to take a bit of courses, do some learning around prompting. Cause that's really the new. The new sort of frontier, you really need to get good at prompting. And there's some amazing resources on prompting and also explore building a custom GPT. We in fact did, an event in my community, in the part time CEO community on AI, and we talked about this idea of custom GPT. So a custom GPT is nothing but your own very own chat GPT. That does things for you on a preset level of things that you've already asked you to do. And all of this can be done without any coding. So you go into chat GPT, you go into my GPT, you give it some instructions, all text based, and it'll then start to. Perform the same action again and again. And so it makes it very easy for you to do whatever you want with chat GPT, because this is now very specific in what it's designed to do. So you don't have to repeat the same instructions again. Nice, cheap, easy, and well worth the money if you're looking to invest into learning a little bit about chat GPT, but so too, it's become so, so quickly it's become so, ubiquitous that. You don't even think about it anymore.

Rayhan: 52:57

Nice. It's just like a, it's basically a tab on your internet browser. So like Google, Google's not an app. You just Google stuff and chat GPD

Dhiren: 53:06

is the same now. I use another one called cloud. really nice. it's by Anthropic. So it's the same LLM, same large language model like chat GPT, the same idea, but it's a different model. And so it's more personable. It's more nicer to talk to. So I'd also encourage people to check out cloud wasn't available here for a long time, but it is now

Rayhan: 53:26

nice.

Dhiren: 53:29

actually, while we're talking about AI, can I make one more recommendation? Yeah, of course. I recently went to Virgin and I picked up this device called cloud. Very easy. rhymes with very much rhymes with cloud. P L A U D. Cloud. ai is the website. It's a hardware based voice recorder that you can put in a conversation just like this. It records the entire conversation and then will transcribe it and summarize using chatgpt all within 10 minutes or less.

Rayhan: 53:57

Nice.

Dhiren: 53:57

So it's really good for people that do face to face meetings. Physical meetings. Physical meetings. It even can record phone calls. So if you're having a really important discussion with your client and you don't want to take notes, just flip the switch, record the call, and within 10 minutes, you'll have a record, a transcription and a summary through ChatGPT. Fantastic, tool.

Rayhan: 54:16

I guess you have to get permission when you call someone.

Dhiren: 54:18

Yeah, I usually will, preface the conversation by saying, Hey, is it okay if I record this conversation? I'd love to make notes and this will allow me to. So that makes it easy. Of course, if it's in an in person conversation, same. Rules apply. Yeah,

Rayhan: 54:29

they know it's gonna, you can. Yeah, I

Dhiren: 54:31

usually put it in the middle and I say, hey, look, is it okay if we record this conversation? But please do always get permission and consent. So

Rayhan: 54:38

Dhiren, before we wrap up, are there any exciting projects that you're working on? what are you, working on right now? I know you, you've got Cloudscape, you've got the Elevated Entrepreneur, part time CEO, and how can people reach you?

Dhiren: 54:53

Thank you for asking, Rehan. I'm so excited. There's always new things that I'm working on. One of the things that I'm doing right now is. Building the community behind the part time CEO movement. So this community is called part time CEO circle. It's a community designed specifically for creative entrepreneurs. who are looking for a support system where they can learn, they can ask questions, they can grow together with other creative entrepreneurs and they can find information on elevatedentrepreneur. co or just send me a message, happy to share more information. And that's been something that's consuming a lot of my time because I'm so passionate about creating the support system. I wish I had the support system when I started my business and I'm so happy that this exists today. And, yeah, it's been, a game changer for me and I love it. And it's also now about building this concept into an actual product. So I'm figuring out this system called Circle, which is where the community is hosted. So it's a really exciting time. We do a lot of events within the part time CEO Circle. We do breakfast events, we do coffee meetups. putting the whole thing together, bringing people together, networking, and, And actually learning from each other. It's been something that I'm really enjoying to do. And you can find me on LinkedIn, under the ID, under the handle of Diren. Do we use handles on LinkedIn? Is that still a thing or is it just, on LinkedIn, I'm at Diren Bhatia and on Instagram, I'm Diren BH. And I write a newsletter called the Double E Bullet. If anybody runs a creative business and is looking for strategies on becoming a part time CEO, I would love for them to visit bullet. elevatedentrepreneur. co and my best strategies. We'll add it

Rayhan: 56:38

on the show notes. So then, our viewers can find it as well. Just want to say, thank you very much for joining me today. It's been an amazing session. with you so many nuggets, so much information out there that you've given us. So just want to say thank you and keep doing the great things that you're doing. Thank you. And it's been an absolute pleasure

Dhiren: 56:57

being here. You're a wonderful, host. So thank you for having me and for allowing me to share all of this knowledge and wisdom. And I hope it helps your listeners.

Rayhan: 57:06

It's helping me. Cool. Thank you. Thank you for joining us on the Alphapreneurs podcast. I hope you enjoyed the show. Please subscribe and give us a five star rating and a review.

Transcribed by https: 57:17

otter. ai Your feedback is appreciated. For show notes and more, check out the link in the description and connect to me directly on LinkedIn and search for Rayhan Aleem. See you in the next episode.