1014: Unlocking TEAM potential & identity to foster ENGAGEMENT and innovation w/ Asha Sarode

WEBVTT

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Hey, what is up?

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Welcome to this episode of the Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

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As always, I'm your host, brian LoFermento, and there's a feeling out there that I'm sure we've all felt in any of the nine to five jobs that we've worked, and that feeling is gosh.

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I feel like there's so much more inside of me that this company will never realize.

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I have to go out on my own and if you relate to that story, then you are absolutely going to love today's guest, because that is a core part of her founding story and the way that she took action from there, I think, is super inspiring.

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It's super smart and strategic and we can all glean so many insights from it.

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So let me tell you all about today's guest.

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Her name is Asha Sarod.

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Asha is the founder of Uniquity Consulting, which helps managers maximize employee potential by understanding the unique qualities, needs and interests each employee brings to the table.

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In the past 20 years, asha has worked as an attorney, an administration, product management and as an entrepreneur.

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She's also a trained mediator.

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She has experience working in various industries, including healthcare, law and technology.

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She's had the opportunity to manage and build teams from scratch and has worked directly with the C-suite to develop strategy, culture and team processes.

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These are all big words that we throw around in the business world so frequently Engagement, culture, strategy, team processes but Asha is going to deliver on so much of the meat of that content to help us gain that clarity and start making more strategic decisions.

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As part of the development of Uniquity's program, she has spent two years conducting academic research and 30 personal interviews to ensure Uniquity's workshop is supported by valuable and up-to-date data and research, and we're all going to benefit from those insights here in today's episode.

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So I'm excited about this one.

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I'm not going to say anything else.

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Let's dive straight into my interview with Asha Sarod.

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All right, asha, I'm so excited to have you here with us today.

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First things first.

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Welcome to the show.

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Thank you.

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Glad to be here.

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Heck, yes, you do such cool work and everything seems so strategic and intentional, asha, so I'm pumped for you to take us beyond the bio.

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Let's start there.

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Who's Asha?

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How'd you start doing all these cool things?

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So my story with Uniquity actually started when I was working at a startup.

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It was my opportunity to kind of in my opinion, you know make it big.

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I was part of the executive management team.

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I had all this you know, wealth of knowledge.

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I thought right from law to working on my own company, and so I was so excited to bring that to the table at this company and I was able to do that a bit.

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But what I kind of realized is there were these two layers that I noticed while I was there.

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You know, I was a manager, building my own team and managing my own team, and then I had my own manager, right, I was being managed myself by the CEO himself.

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So it was interesting because I noticed there was this disconnect where I felt like I wasn't motivated in the way that I wanted to be.

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I felt like I wasn't being seen for all the qualities that I had to offer.

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And yet when I thought of myself as a manager, I thought, hey, I'm doing a great job, right, I really care about my people and I'm sure I'm doing fine.

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But I asked for upward feedback and, lo and behold, I found out there were lots of things that I could improve.

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So I noticed this disconnect really early on and then from there I kind of, you know, I put in what I could put in at that job, but it eventually got to a point where I just I felt like I couldn't offer what I wanted to offer and I decided, you know, I think it's time to let go, to leave.

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I moved on to another company and then I noticed that same disconnect right, employees are complaining about their managers.

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They're not that motivated.

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They're either, like I said, complaining or they're, or oftentimes just kind of quiet, quitting.

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Right, they're just doing what they're supposed to do and calling it a day.

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And so that kind of led me to take a step back and I was like you know what?

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There's something wrong here.

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This is something I really care about.

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And so I decided to leave that job and I started by exploring this disconnect because I knew no one was really trying to disadvantage anyone else.

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I wasn't trying to be a bad manager.

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My managers weren't trying to be bad managers towards me either, but there was a problem still, right.

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And so from there is where I decided to conduct these interviews and I talked to friends, co-workers, family and asked them about an adverse work experience, and then that actually turned into just asking about adverse experiences that they had.

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And that's where I learned why I came up with Uniquity is that from talking to people with these experiences, I learned how much these experiences that we all have they're pivotal in how we look at the world, interact with other people, how we see ourselves and how other people interact with us as well.

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So that's where that disconnect came from, where my boss maybe thought that I wasn't capable of doing certain things, and yet I saw myself as a lawyer, an entrepreneur, you know, someone who could do anything you put in front of me.

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And so from there I realized that the core foundation of people is really this bucket of characteristics that we all bring to the table, and that's why a core focus of what I do is about identity.

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So this idea that our identity is a multiple set of characteristics that are really influencing how we interact with people, how we interact with the world, how we interact with you, know, perceive ourselves, and so that is the foundation that I realized was the disconnect right.

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That's why there is this disconnect between managers and employees, and if we can bridge that gap and we can start to understand what are the characteristics people bring to the table?

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What values does that lead to?

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What experiences did that person have?

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What perspectives are they bringing to the table?

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What skills are they bringing to the table as a result of that unique set of characteristics they have?

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That's what we're going to use to motivate people.

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That's what is going to get people to actually want to do more and care more about the work that they're doing.

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Yeah, asha, I so appreciate that overview and I really love the fact that when you talk about that disconnect, it's so cool that you've taken us here this early in the conversation today about all of those invisible characteristics.

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It's something I've felt ever since childhood is that?

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Growing up in the suburbs of Boston, you know it's easy to look at all of us central Massachusetts kids and be like, oh, it's just a bunch of white kids, but I'm the son of an immigrant mom and so that's why, for me, that played big time into the way that I see the world and you so succinctly.

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I've never heard anyone talk about it as invisible characteristics For me.

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I always appreciate when people see that in me and when they get to take the time to understand how that's reshaped, the way that I see the world and the way that I think and the way that I operate.

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That's how you start getting the best out of me and you and everybody is that deep understanding.

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So I guess the biggest and broadest question, knowing that we're talking to an audience of business owners, is how the heck do we even start to understand that about our people and the people that we're meaning to serve, whether it's our staff, our clients.

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How do we start seeing people for who they are and what they are and how they want to be seen?

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Yeah.

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So I mean, the first step is understanding what.

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What do I mean by identity?

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Right?

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I mentioned these characteristics A lot of times.

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When people say characteristics, they think of some of the obvious ones, like you know, gender, race, sexuality, and those are very impactful.

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Those are things we're often born with, but there are also characteristics that we are born into, like our socioeconomic status, and there are things that we choose right Our job or where we choose to live.

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All of those characteristics make up who we are, and so, as a business owner, as a manager, you really need to understand all of those nuances of a person and the experiences that come from them, and the best way to do that is something that I just call ask, listen and be curious.

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These are words that we've obviously all heard before.

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It's not novel.

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But when you look at those three words from the perspective of identity, it kind of changes, right.

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So what do you want to ask about?

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A lot of times, we go into meetings and we go straight to the what's the changes, right?

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So what do you want to ask about?

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A lot of times, we go into meetings and we go straight to the what's the task, right?

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What are you working on.

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What do you need my help with, Instead of taking a step back and hearing your, you know, asking your employees all those open-ended questions, right?

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Why are you telling me this?

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What is it that concerns you about this particular problem that you're having?

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Digging in and I use open-ended questions because that's really important the why, the how, the.

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Can you tell me more?

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Those are really important to really digging in and understanding what perspective is that person coming from when they're talking to you?

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Because if you really want to help them, you need to understand the nuances of the individual and what they're focusing on in order to help them.

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And then, another thing I always tell people is when you're asking questions, ask about feelings.

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Right, it's one of those things that we often overlook, but feelings are the one thing that we can all relate to.

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Look, but feelings are the one thing that we can all relate to.

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If you ask an employee what's going on with you know X, Y or Z project, they might say, oh, you know, well, I'll be done with it in a few days.

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You know, it's taken a little longer than expected, as opposed to hey, how are you feeling about this project?

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How are things going?

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I'm a little stressed.

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Okay, there's an opportunity to say why, why are you stressed?

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What's going on?

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Well, I have this.

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You know, I've been dealing with some things at home.

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I wasn't able to, you know, get things done as fast as I expected.

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Now you have an opportunity to dig into that person's identity.

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Something's going on at home.

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Why is that important to them?

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How can you then help them, you know, make the best of that particular situation?

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So that's kind of like the ask piece, right?

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And then there's this listen piece.

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You know we've all heard that phrase like are you listening to understand or are you listening to respond?

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And so listening comes with.

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If you're listening from the perspective of identity, are you listening to understand the person's needs, right?

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So one thing that I, you know, managers have heard sometimes is you know, I don't think that's my job.

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There's a bunch of reasons why someone might say I don't think that's my job, and it's going to depend on that individual.

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Some people might say that because they're coming from a perspective of fairness.

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Some people might say that because, you know, maybe the job is to lift a bunch of heavy boxes and they literally can't do it for their health.

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So their need, the underlying need of that person is actually their health.

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In some cases it might be that they have other obligations and that's actually what's keeping them from doing this extra work.

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And so, digging in to the person's identity, what characteristics are playing into that as a family obligation or something that's preventing them from doing the work?

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Understanding them on a deeper level is going to build that relationship with the person and also allow that person to do their best work.

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And then, finally, being curious, which is like the core of everything, is not making those assumptions right.

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You talked about those individual characteristics or, sorry, invisible characteristics.

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We tend to make a lot of assumptions just on the few characteristics we see about a person, and we all do it, we're all guilty of it.

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But leaving room to leaving room to make sure that we don't affirm those assumptions or just go solely off of those assumptions and that we leave room to let the individual kind of expand beyond those, those assumptions.

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And also, when you're just talking about, you know, uh, regular everyday tasks, um, being curious when someone says, hey, you know, can we do x, y or z?

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If your immediate response is I don't think we have time for that, I don't think we can do that.

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Take a step back, be curious, be open.

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That's part of the curiosity is.

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Don't assume you can't.

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Maybe this person has experience, Maybe this person has perspective that they can bring to the table where you can do both.

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You might not have the budget, you might not have the time, but maybe they bring in a perspective or an opportunity where you can do both.

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So ask, listen, be curious is the foundation for understanding identity and getting people motivated yeah, ash, I'll tell you what I love hearing you talk about these things, because one of the words that I use to tease today's episode and that really come to mind the deeper I look into your work is intentionality, and it just seems to me like you're intentional in all of these ways especially.

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The thing I want to call out right now is with your words and with the words that you choose, and I'm going to extrapolate that because I do want to talk about that very popular word in your industry of engagement.

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All too often in the business world, we just point to your employee churn rate.

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Are people engaged?

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Well, are they staying?

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Yes, okay, they're engaged, but so much of your messaging seems to point to hey, the actual innovation of your team that's going to be dictated by your level of engagement.

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It's not just about do people show up to work and do they stay at work.

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It's a question of are they lighting up, are they coming up with new ideas?

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Are they actually helping to drive our business and our impact forward?

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Talk to me about your view of engagement and how it trickles down into all these meaningful business things beyond just employee churn rate and productivity rates.

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I'd love to hear your deep perspective on that.

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Right?

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So you know, when we talk about employee engagement, it's a buzzword.

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So engagement is really just how emotionally invested an employee is in their work and their company, and it's measured by discretionary effort, which is just how much do they volunteer additional effort that they don't have to put in right, and I think it is important.

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Like you said, there are very real impacts of poor engagement.

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There is high turnover, like you mentioned, there's higher absenteeism, there's a more product and quality defects and lower productivity, obviously, and also lower profitability for the companies that have low or low engagement amongst their employees.

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Really important is $1.9 trillion is lost in productivity due to employees not being engaged.

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So the impacts are real, but you know you mentioned that you know it goes kind of beyond.

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You know what are you losing potentially, but also what can you gain right Innovations about gaining more than you currently have, and if you are looking for new ideas from people, you're looking for them to from people.

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You're looking for them to speak up and say, hey, we have a problem here that I think we need to fix.

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All of that comes with people who are engaged, because it's very easy for people to just say, hey, I'm going to do the bare minimum, and that means being silent, and silence is deadly right.

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You aren't getting people to speak up, they aren't going to tell you their new ideas.

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They aren't going to tell you.

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And a lot of innovation really, it's not these gigantic iPhone-like ideas.

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They're incremental changes, right, little changes to your existing processes.

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Maybe implementing a customer survey or automating a spreadsheet.

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All those types of things are innovation and they're adding to your bottom line.

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But if you have people who are just trying to get by and do the bare minimum, they're not gonna take the opportunity to mention hey, I think we can do this little thing a bit better.

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So there's a lot of opportunity there to innovate within a company and, like I said, not just these gigantic innovations that we think of, but everyday innovations that are happening all the time.

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That your employees who are on the ground have the experience.

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They know what all the problems are, they know what needs to be fixed, and if you give them a voice and you are able to inspire them, then you have an opportunity to hear all of those new and innovative ideas.

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Yeah, asha, I'll tell you what.

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Then you have an opportunity to hear all of those new and innovative ideas.

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Yeah, asha, I'll tell you what.

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I'm sure that you've inspired our audience to commit to increased and improved engagement across their teams.

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But it leads me to the big, broad question of where the heck does engagement happen?

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I feel like, as a consumer, we all feel this.

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Like Verizon, for example, every time there's a new phone, you know they'll treat you great for new customers and everyone is obsessed about new employee onboarding sequences and all of these things are really easy to get excited about with new beginnings, but all too often as a consumer, as team members, we see this drop off once we are an existing customer or an existing team member.

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How do we keep that engagement going?

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Does this look like weekly, monthly, quarterly check-ins?

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And I'd love to hear your perspective on where engagement happens?

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Of course it happens every day, so give us some real life insights.

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So it starts with a manager.

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Managers account for 70% of the variance in employee engagement.

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So that's the reason I'm so intentional about understanding people's identity and that ask, listen and be curious, because it starts with the relationship that managers have with their employees.

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The better your relationship, the more you're going to have an open dialogue and then you're going to get, like we said, a lot of those ideas coming out, um, coming out.

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So certainly one-on-ones are a huge opportunity and I know, you know, I I talked about, you know, learning about people's identity and all of that.

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We're having one-on-ones anyway.

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So that's the best opportunity where you know your, your employees are coming to you likely with problems, right, give them an opportunity to tell you what their solutions are.

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So one-on-ones are crucial.

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You what their solutions are, so one-on-ones are crucial.

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There's a lot of statistics out there about how effective and deep one-on-ones can really actually change an employee's motivation.

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And the next piece I would say is what I call this is actually part of the agile movement.

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The agile movement, it's called retrospectives.

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So if you have a team of employees, take the time to every you know two weeks every month, bring them together and have a conversation where you know you're kind of use a jam board or something and say, hey, what's going really well, what's working, what should we keep doing?

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What's not working?

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So what should we stop doing right, and what should we start doing?

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What's brand new?

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What new things have we discovered from you know these past two weeks or this past month that we should start doing?

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That's an opportunity for them to use their knowledge, use their experience, use their perspective and actually put it on the table and you're gonna see.

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Um, so those those are the two that I would say are are really critical and they happen on an ongoing basis.

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Yeah, I really appreciate those real life insights.

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It sets that high barrier for us to make it a priority.

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I think none of this stuff happens in our businesses by mistake.

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It's something that we have to say.

00:19:40.759 --> 00:19:43.842
This is important to me, and then your actions have to align with that.

00:19:43.842 --> 00:19:47.362
So hearing the fact that you emphasize that is super important for us.

00:19:47.682 --> 00:20:10.047
When I think about your training program, I've been so excited to ask you about this, asha, because I trust you, not only as a fellow entrepreneur, but knowing that you are an accomplished attorney as well, I imagine that your research mind is quite strong, and so, with that in mind, your training program goes into not just the interviews that you did, not just your own personal experiences, but the existing research that you did as well.

00:20:10.047 --> 00:20:12.230
So talk to us about some of those findings.

00:20:12.230 --> 00:20:14.887
I love the fact that you've been so intentional with that.

00:20:14.887 --> 00:20:18.522
I would actually argue I'm just going to interject this to throw a little bit of shade for listeners.

00:20:18.522 --> 00:20:29.644
In all different industries, too many people launch programs just based on gut, just based on intuition, and they whip things together or, even worse, they just ask AI to create some sort of outline of what they want to teach others.

00:20:29.644 --> 00:20:38.698
So, asha, I'd love to hear the behind the scenes of what went into putting your program together in order to train people on the stuff that actually is relevant in real life.

00:20:39.880 --> 00:20:42.284
Yeah, so I did a lot of work.

00:20:42.284 --> 00:20:59.164
You know I studied up on the DEI space, so the diversity, equity, inclusion space, just to make sure that I was up to date on our identities are fluctuating every day and that space really understands how identities fluctuate a lot.

00:20:59.164 --> 00:21:14.006
So I did some research into Kimberly Crenshaw, who talks about intersectional identity and how we may have two characteristics, but they don't impact us independently, right, they come together to create a combined experience.

00:21:14.006 --> 00:21:26.001
So, you know, a white male may have a very different experience than a black male, just given the fact that you have this combined experience of being male, but also the race factor.

00:21:26.001 --> 00:21:33.819
So that piece is also really a big part of the program in that identity is really complex.

00:21:33.819 --> 00:21:39.601
It's not a simple thing and the more we realize how complex it is, the less likely we are to make those assumptions right.

00:21:40.563 --> 00:21:44.862
I also did a lot of research into just understanding psychological safety.

00:21:44.862 --> 00:21:47.188
So that's a big piece of creating engagement.

00:21:47.188 --> 00:22:00.295
Something I actually probably should talk about is, you know, engagement, like I said, is voluntary and if you really want people to engage one, you have to remove the fear of engagement.

00:22:00.295 --> 00:22:03.844
That's step one and then you have to inspire them to engage right.

00:22:03.844 --> 00:22:09.970
So removing the fear is kind of like unlocking the door, but just because you unlock it doesn't mean they're going to want to go through right.

00:22:09.970 --> 00:22:14.339
So you need to inspire the desire to engage and that's kind of the next step.

00:22:14.339 --> 00:22:18.469
So there's a lot of research on psychological safety.

00:22:19.234 --> 00:22:26.959
Gallup has done a ton of work also in employee engagement and kind of what are all the factors that really play into employee engagement?

00:22:26.959 --> 00:22:33.569
And that's really just kind of like the how, what, where, when and why of the work that people are doing.

00:22:33.569 --> 00:22:49.040
So how do you create an environment that's really going to get someone to be inspired to engage, that's going to meet their particular needs, their unique needs, given their background, their identity versus someone else, needs, given their background, their identity versus someone else.

00:22:49.040 --> 00:22:54.608
So, and then, of course, you know there's Harvard Business Review and a lot of research has come out.

00:22:54.608 --> 00:23:05.654
Just you know, about how to manage teams effectively, and so I could go on and on about resources, but those are just a few of the resources I've consulted.

00:23:06.315 --> 00:23:37.016
I love that and I really appreciate the depth at which you've gone, but I will say it doesn't surprise me, as an attorney, the fact that you have committed to that much research and embedding it in all the things that you do, which leads me to also ask you I love part of your background is as a trained mediator, and I would imagine that people who are tuning into today's conversation are probably thinking well, Asha, you have such a grounded and rooted approach of it sounds like you can consider all of these different perspectives, which I imagine is very important within the world of mediation, so I'd love some insights from you.

00:23:37.016 --> 00:23:46.587
What are some of those principles or skills that you picked up through mediation that really apply either or I guess I'll say either or and to the world of engagement that we're talking about today, or also entrepreneurship?

00:23:46.587 --> 00:23:49.820
I'm sure that it and to the world of engagement that we're talking about today, or also entrepreneurship?

00:23:49.820 --> 00:23:54.438
I'm sure that it's affected the way that you work in a positive way as an entrepreneur as well.

00:23:56.121 --> 00:24:07.324
Yeah, I would say the biggest thing I think that you learn from mediation is that what someone is saying is not often what they mean.

00:24:07.324 --> 00:24:12.171
So I talked earlier about listening effectively.

00:24:12.171 --> 00:24:20.806
Listening is more about understanding someone's underlying needs and interests than it is about the literal words that are coming out of their mouth.

00:24:20.806 --> 00:24:31.917
For example, there was a mediation where an individual was angry that his neighbor had built a fence and he said it ruined their garden.

00:24:31.917 --> 00:24:33.441
He was angry about it.

00:24:33.480 --> 00:24:40.645
He was suing them and we were wondering he says he just wants money for his damaged garden.

00:24:40.645 --> 00:24:47.026
If you take him verbatim, then you're like okay, how much money do you want and how do we get you the money you're looking for?

00:24:47.026 --> 00:25:09.898
If you dig into why he was really upset about this fence, you start to understand that he used to be friends with the person who built the fence and he was actually upset that the fence was built because now he couldn't just walk into his friend's backyard and chat up and have a conversation with them and he felt like that ruined his relationship with that individual, with them, and he felt like that ruined his relationship with that individual.

00:25:09.898 --> 00:25:17.847
Now you would never have known that if you just hear him say, hey, I'm angry, they ruined my garden with the fence and I think that fence is ridiculous and I want my money right.

00:25:17.847 --> 00:25:27.962
So it's really about reading between the lines and understanding what is important to that individual, because what they're saying is often not what they need.

00:25:34.555 --> 00:25:35.378
Yeah, that is a powerful perspective.

00:25:35.378 --> 00:25:37.227
It reminds me one of the earliest quotes that affected my approach towards business is.

00:25:37.227 --> 00:25:42.001
It's a quote from Henry Ford, where he said if I asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.

00:25:42.001 --> 00:25:53.528
And so much of that goes to the point that you just made, which is words are one thing, but really understanding our innate desires, wants, fears, dreams, goals that's the important stuff.

00:25:53.528 --> 00:25:57.082
So you just took it beyond that and that tangible example of the fence.

00:25:57.082 --> 00:26:08.566
It is really cool because immediately I could feel that that that fence was probably for the neighbor who missed that part of their friendship, also emotional, which you talked about feelings earlier in today's conversation.

00:26:08.566 --> 00:26:11.070
So I really appreciate those real life insights.

00:26:11.451 --> 00:26:17.917
Asha, in these conversations I also love to switch gears and talk to you not only as a subject matter expert but as a fellow entrepreneur.

00:26:17.917 --> 00:26:25.662
You are one of us You've been at this for a few years now which I'm so excited about all the work that you've done and all the growth that you're on that path for.

00:26:25.662 --> 00:26:28.487
So talk to us about the life of an entrepreneur.

00:26:28.487 --> 00:26:29.670
How has it been different?

00:26:29.670 --> 00:26:31.501
What are some of your favorite components of it?

00:26:31.501 --> 00:26:33.883
Give us the entrepreneurial side of the equation.

00:26:35.134 --> 00:26:48.844
Yeah, so this is my second foray into entrepreneurship and I have learned a few lessons from my previous attempt and I'm continuing to learn lessons.

00:26:48.844 --> 00:26:52.876
So obviously I love the freedom of being an entrepreneur.

00:26:52.876 --> 00:26:59.503
I can do work when I'm motivated to do it and I feel like it's it's much more quality work because of that.

00:26:59.503 --> 00:27:24.876
At the same time, you know there are those days where you're just really struggling and you need someone to tell you you're doing a good job, and that requires you to figure out how to motivate yourself and to look at the upside and to see all the things that you have done to make sure that you're not only looking at the to-do list of what needs to be done, but really giving yourself credit for what you've already accomplished.

00:27:24.876 --> 00:27:29.346
And so that, I think, is is a huge.

00:27:29.346 --> 00:27:30.236
It's always a struggle.

00:27:30.236 --> 00:27:38.644
I think it was a struggle with my previous company, it's a struggle with this one as well, but I think that's that's so core to being an entrepreneur.

00:27:38.644 --> 00:27:43.978
I could go on and on, but you asked me more.

00:27:44.378 --> 00:27:45.561
No, I love that insight.

00:27:45.561 --> 00:27:50.539
Honestly, I don't think we openly publicly talk about what you just shared with us often enough.

00:27:50.539 --> 00:27:52.183
And that's the real stuff.

00:27:52.183 --> 00:27:54.999
As entrepreneurs, we acknowledge the freedom.

00:27:54.999 --> 00:27:56.703
Everyone sees the glorious side of it.

00:27:56.703 --> 00:27:59.622
But what you said, that's why I learned a lot along the years.

00:27:59.702 --> 00:28:02.232
I'm in year 16 of my entrepreneurial journey.

00:28:02.232 --> 00:28:08.186
I started when I was a teenager and so for me, I realized I need a hype file on those down moments.

00:28:08.186 --> 00:28:23.217
I need to be able to open a folder on my computer and I do have a physical file as well of cards and notes that people have given to me along the way, and that's the stuff that gets me back on track, because we don't necessarily have the proverbial water cooler to just go talk to our fellow coworkers.

00:28:23.217 --> 00:28:24.742
So I love that real stuff from you.

00:28:24.742 --> 00:28:41.403
Asha, I want to ask you about your executive thinking, because you are doing so many cool things and you're really positively impacting managers and organizations at all different scales when you sit down for your executive time, or do you sit down for your executive time and what's that time horizon?

00:28:41.403 --> 00:28:42.846
How far into the future are you saying?

00:28:42.846 --> 00:28:43.214
You know what?

00:28:43.214 --> 00:28:48.782
This is what we're building today, but this is the direction that I want to make sure we're moving in for the longer term as well.

00:28:50.826 --> 00:28:56.545
I will probably be controversial in saying this, but I try not to have too long of a time horizon.

00:28:56.545 --> 00:29:12.364
You know, I have worked in product management and the one thing I have realized is, you know, everybody has this idea of you know how your product is going to turn into this amazing thing that everybody's going to love, and you know all the bells and whistles that are going to be on it.

00:29:12.364 --> 00:29:16.154
And the truth is that you start building it and you start to learn lessons.

00:29:16.154 --> 00:29:44.961
So I don't think more than like a month or two in advance in terms of what I want to accomplish, because as I do things, I learn more information and I, you know, pull that back in and I make adjustments and frankly, I've learned from product development that that's the best way to go is to get feedback and make adjustments, rather than to kind of do the whole shebang and then, you know, put it out there and then find out oh, I got to tweak a lot of things.

00:29:44.961 --> 00:29:47.685
So yeah, I'm very much.

00:29:48.067 --> 00:30:11.559
I think I've taken a different tack, because the first time I started a company I had all of my ducks in a row, everything was organized, I had the LLC put together and I had my financials and I had all of the things that you're supposed to have for a business plan, but, frankly, reality played out differently, where the roadblocks I came up against were not things that I could have predicted in the business plan.

00:30:11.559 --> 00:30:26.682
They were just normal problems that you come up um, that you confront when you're building a business, and they're going to be unique to your business, so you can't always anticipate them, and that's what you spend a lot of time on, so I I don't have a really long time horizon.

00:30:27.423 --> 00:30:28.826
Yes, asha, I'll tell you what.

00:30:28.826 --> 00:30:34.865
Bring in the real stuff here today for our listeners, and I'm so appreciative of that because I hope that this catches on like wildfire.

00:30:34.865 --> 00:30:40.055
Honestly, the more entrepreneurs that I talk to, I feel like this is starting to become the way you call it controversial.

00:30:40.055 --> 00:30:43.805
But six months from now, a year from now, I hope that it's not controversial.

00:30:43.805 --> 00:30:44.446
I'm a big fan.

00:30:44.446 --> 00:30:54.016
I'm similar to you that 30, 60, 90 days, that's a time horizon that I can act on, that I can take a lot of action intentionally towards the strategy that I want to roll out.

00:30:54.016 --> 00:30:55.400
So huge kudos to you.

00:30:55.440 --> 00:31:00.180
I appreciate that real life glimpse into your business and in your mind as an entrepreneur.

00:31:00.180 --> 00:31:03.536
And that leads me to my final question that I ask at the end of every episode.

00:31:03.536 --> 00:31:04.417
It's super broad.

00:31:04.417 --> 00:31:18.223
You can take it in any direction you want, and that is the one takeaway knowing that we're being listened to by entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs at all different stages of their growth journeys, their mindset journeys, their engagement journeys with their customers, their clients, their teams.

00:31:18.223 --> 00:31:22.778
What's that one thing that you want to impart on them and have them walk away from today's episode with?

00:31:24.942 --> 00:31:25.722
So'll.

00:31:25.722 --> 00:31:51.039
If I'm talking to entrepreneurs, I will say um, I think it's most important that and maybe I'll go back to what I said before you have to have faith in yourself, because if you're not, if you don't really believe what you're doing, if you're not fully invested in it and and the reason I say fully invested, I mean obviously everybody you started a company you're like, of course I believe in it.

00:31:51.039 --> 00:32:04.226
But the investment when I talk about fully invested, I mean are you willing to overcome hurdle after hurdle after hurdle, maybe not have money in the bank and not know when it's coming in next?

00:32:04.226 --> 00:32:16.656
That sort of commitment only comes when you're truly, truly in it, and it's not just about making some cash or, you know, making a name for yourself, but you are invested in your idea through and through.

00:32:16.656 --> 00:32:34.420
I think the lesson that I've learned that I really think is important is you really have to believe in what you're doing from a heart and soul perspective, in addition to the practicalities, because otherwise you're not going to have that wherewithal to overcome the next hurdle.

00:32:35.321 --> 00:32:39.900
Boom, that right there, the real stuff, asha, from start to finish, from you.

00:32:39.900 --> 00:32:41.364
It reminds me so much.

00:32:41.364 --> 00:32:50.319
My favorite book in the world is the Magic of Thinking Big by Dr David J Schwartz, and he talks about the fact that you have to believe it, which is so aligned with what you just shared with us.

00:32:50.319 --> 00:32:55.240
You can't say it, you can't just think it, you need to, at your core, actually believe it.

00:32:55.240 --> 00:32:58.708
And you've been such a living proof of that here today.

00:32:58.708 --> 00:33:16.978
And I want to add on, before I kick it back to you to drop some links on us, is that part of what I really admire about your work and the way that you show up in the world is that you genuinely believe not only in yourself and the work that you're doing, but you genuinely believe in empowering people through engagement, through all of the things that we talked about here today, and listeners are going to see that.

00:33:17.259 --> 00:33:17.660
Listeners.

00:33:17.660 --> 00:33:19.263
I always say success leaves clues.

00:33:19.263 --> 00:33:20.126
Take a moment.

00:33:20.126 --> 00:33:22.538
Asha is going to show us her link in just a second.

00:33:22.538 --> 00:33:33.337
You already know you can find those down below, but when you go to her website, you're going to see how important engagement is to her, the strong emphasis that she has on the things that actually matter when it comes to engagement.

00:33:33.337 --> 00:33:42.217
So, asha, that's a little bit of a tease I don't normally do that in these episodes but drop those links on us for listeners who want to go deeper into all this great and meaningful and important work that you're doing.

00:33:42.217 --> 00:33:43.678
Where should they go from here?

00:33:44.818 --> 00:33:58.971
You can find my website at uniquityonsultingco, so not com dot co, and you can also find us on Instagram, so at Uniquity Consulting, and you can contact me directly.

00:33:58.971 --> 00:34:05.728
I'll put that email address out there as well ashasaroad at UniquityConsultingco.

00:34:05.748 --> 00:34:07.740
Yes, and listeners, you already know the drill.

00:34:07.740 --> 00:34:14.101
We're making it as easy as possible for you to find all those links down below in the show notes, no matter where it is that you're tuning into today's episode.

00:34:14.101 --> 00:34:17.521
You'll find Asha's business website at uniquityconsultingco.

00:34:17.521 --> 00:34:19.777
You'll be able to click right on through.

00:34:19.777 --> 00:34:20.777
You don't have to memorize that.

00:34:20.777 --> 00:34:25.902
If you're on the go, if you're are listening to us, just click right on through from the show notes.

00:34:25.902 --> 00:34:31.710
Otherwise, asha, on behalf of myself and all the listeners worldwide, thanks so much for coming on the show today.

00:34:31.710 --> 00:34:33.090
Thank you, brian.

00:34:33.090 --> 00:34:40.925
Hey, it's Brian here and thanks for tuning in to yet another episode of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

00:34:40.925 --> 00:34:43.474
If you haven't checked us out online, there's so much good stuff there.

00:34:43.474 --> 00:34:49.947
Check out the show's website and all the show notes that we talked about in today's episode at thewantrepreneurshowcom.

00:34:50.355 --> 00:34:52.724
And I just want to give a shout out to our amazing guests.

00:34:52.724 --> 00:35:01.503
There's a reason why we are ad free and have produced so many incredible episodes five days a week for you, and it's because our guests step up to the plate.

00:35:01.503 --> 00:35:03.563
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00:35:03.563 --> 00:35:05.161
These are not infomercials.

00:35:05.161 --> 00:35:08.646
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00:35:08.646 --> 00:35:19.608
They so deeply believe in the power of getting their message out in front of you awesome WANTrepreneurs and entrepreneurs that they contribute to help us make these productions possible.

00:35:19.608 --> 00:35:28.094
So thank you to not only today's guests, but all of our guests in general, and I just want to invite you check out our website because you can send us a voicemail there.

00:35:28.094 --> 00:35:29.458
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00:35:29.458 --> 00:35:33.286
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00:35:33.286 --> 00:35:35.478
Initiate a live chat.

00:35:35.478 --> 00:35:44.889
It's for real me and I'm excited because I'll see you, as always every Monday, wednesday, friday, saturday and Sunday here on the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.