AUDIO Epi 7: Why Most People Feel Stuck At Work! First, Innovate From Within!

This IPZO facto, Innovation: No Way But Forward Podcast FULL Episode 7 (First, Innovate From Within) explores why most people feel stuck and how to find your passion and live a purpose driven life. I sat down with my coach, Vamsi Polimetla, and we went deep on certain areas, e.g. that by developing self awareness, going fast to go slow,  you can shift your mindset and find greater fulfillment in career growth and overall towards living a full life. Learn why alignment with your values charges your daily actions and helps you to Unless YOUR Inner potential!

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InnoPathwayZ (IPZ) https://www.linkedin.com/company/innopathwayz-llc/
Zina Manji, Founder & Principal, Regulatory Strategist, InnoPathwayZ https://www.linkedin.com/in/zina-manji/

Contact Vamsi Polimetla at https://www.linkedin.com/in/vamsipolimetla/ 
Vamsi Polimetla, CEO & Founder Make More Leaders, CEO & Co-Founder Personal Leadership Academy, 

Because with healthcare Innovation, there is No Way But Forward!

Transcript

passionate about and like the things that I'm doing, understanding who am I and I'm also passionate about helping everyone around me to understand who they are. Very first question I asked myself in this journey was I'm not giving my best to the work because my passion is here and that moment I realized that you know I think I want to just like say no to this, this is done. 


I think our life like a beautiful, beautiful car and every car got four wheels you know and 90% of the world they're focusing on one wheel even though the wheel is running at 100 miles an hour speed. 


Other three wheels are completely out of alignment not like maybe writing down what are you grateful for for just five minutes a day and if you do that 10 days in a row you are getting into the abundance mindset and see wow I'm good for so many things and don't overthink it don't force it and the most important thing with the journaling is you know be honest with yourself. 


All we can do is hit the small domino and the moment you hit the small domino that is going to be creating many, many ripples into many levels and you will look back and say wow that small thing changed everything for me absolutely. 


Yes yes and that ripple effect gains energy and more momentum. People are addicted to information you already have enough all you need to do is start something. Hard work is the only way that I'm going to be achieving success and I was completely wrong. 


Hard work is not the one that is going to be helping you to be successful it's all about alignment you know money is not the only thing most importantly you need to be in the game you need to be playing the game until you're last. 


Dan Sullivan's famous quote your eyes can only see your ears can only hear what we are looking for. What about how many people in front of you that is important it's about about who you are being in front of one person in front of you. 


And if you are treating that person the most important person and you're giving your best to that person. First, you got to innovate within. Well, welcome to the IPZO facto podcast today. I am so excited to have my guests because my guest is also my coach. 


I think there'll be a lot of insights here in our conversation, but also we're talking about innovation and that's the purpose of my channel and my podcast. But first you got to innovate within. So this will be part of our conversation, but also how you innovate within you also can innovate in business. 


So with that, I'd like to welcome here Vamsi Polimetla. So happy to have you on the stage with me today. Thank you. Absolutely, Zina. Great to be here. And also I'm super grateful for you because it's been last, I think close to three months since I've been on the podcast. 


And the moment I saw your message, Vamsi, can you be my guest on my podcast? I said like, yes, I want to get back on track. I don't know why I stopped it. Now I'm back. I'm super grateful for you. Fantastic. 


So let's get right into it, Vamsee. And we met, as I mentioned to the audience, you are my coach and we met a few years ago, I think in 2022, if I'm counting back correctly. But, and you've gone through many transformations between then and now, as I've seen, and so have I. 


And as we say, we're going on this journey together and with many people that we also associate with in our discussions. So Vamsi, maybe introduce yourself to the audience, kind of say, what is it that you do and what inspires you the most? 


Absolutely, absolutely. I'm passionate about so many things. I'm passionate about innovation. There are so many changes that are happening in this world. I'm passionate about longevity. Nowadays, I think if you are 70, you're just getting started. 


I'm passionate about AI and all these other new things coming. Those are the things at a surface level, Zina. What I really, really passionate about and the things that I'm doing, understanding who am I. 


And I'm also passionate about helping. everyone around me to understand who they are. So I'm helping myself at the same time. I'm helping everyone around me to see why they are here, what they are capable of doing in this lifetime. 


And that's something that I do. That's something that I excite every morning to activate the superpower they already have it. And I'll give a simple example. Let's say like maybe you've got the best diamond in the world. 


Let's say maybe you paid like a hundred thousand, maybe a million dollars to get that diamond and you put that diamond in a big pile of mud. You don't see anything, the value of the diamond, right? That is exactly what is happening in the real world. 


We all have a million dollar diamond sitting around a big pool of mud. And the moment you realize that, hey, a lot of layers on top of this diamond is unnecessary for me, and that is where the value of the diamond is going to be coming out. 


And that's exactly what I do. I see people to identify their gifts that they are born with, and their gifts they're supposed to share with the world while they are alive. And also, one of the taglines that I always say to myself and say to all of my clients, you heard it from me many times, live fully while you're alive. 


Yeah. Yeah. And so I think what your story brings up is there are so many layers. But we're often not aware ourselves of the layers because we're just stuck in the day-to-day. We're showing up for work. 


We're trying to accomplish objectives. And we don't think, what are our objectives, right? I think, well, we might have some personal objectives, but they're probably kind of big ones, like I'm going to get married, I'm going to have a child, I'm going to do these things. 


But how much we align what we do as a living with our identity and who we are and understanding what those gems are that are inside and that are deep inside under so many layers and then the polishing and the refining that would occur. 


But it starts with some awareness, right? Yeah, absolutely. This is a beautiful point that you're bringing it. Just imagine you're going to IKEA furniture store and you're bringing like maybe two different items of furniture to your home. 


And how do you feel if there is no user manual in that furniture set? I feel like I don't know how to assemble this. but that furniture somehow, you know, standing up, but it's not in an optimal way, right? 


That's exactly what is happening with all of us as well, Zina, we all like a unique furniture items in this world. And we all have unique operating manuals, user manuals. And we are thinking we can build this, you know, whatever that we wanted to build without the user manual. 


The moment you start doing it, it's going to be something, but not the desired one. So part of like, you know, the approach that I take it, or maybe I help everyone, or maybe I ask everyone to do that, slow down a little bit. 


Understand what is your user manual? What are some things that really, really, you know, separates you from rest of the world? Because you are a unique, human being and there is no someone like exactly with the same characteristics and same strands and the moment they identify their user manual that's going to be the magical thing and I think we all we all need to our goal we need to if you said like hey I want to get something before you get anything identify your user manual and then the work that you're going to be doing is going to be very smooth it's going to be you know helping you to grow there faster but you know I think this concept of go slow to go fast is so counterintuitive right that I don't think it comes natural for people to think I'm gonna I need to slow down so I can go fast and for my understanding a key driver of that is is what you emphasize a lot alignment you you want when you have alignment I think every everything kind of powers up right you kind of bring that spine together to to have a strong foundation upon which you can build the muscle and you can have movement and the the more precision muscles that are built the more different ways and intricate ways you can move and be agile and leap higher and all these different things so that even when you are challenged with external forces you can combat it or you can you can flow into that current and actually make challenges opportunities right and so I think this this let's talk about going slow to go fast and and what alignment means there. 


And can you start with saying how you got there in your own personal journey? So let's talk a little bit about your own journey because you started in corporate, also an immigrant like me and you've gone through your own transformation and many steps we talk about and we'll get into that during the conversation about 10Xing each stage. 


But let's talk about your own personal journey and then get into how did you get the insights about building alignment and where along the way you said, okay, I've got to go slow here. Absolutely, absolutely. 


As you know, slowing down to going fast is the, I think one of the best. advise, I got it from so many mentors at so many different levels that I was in. And the reason that is important, if you are going fast, you don't notice the most important things. 


Just like you're driving a car and let's say you're cruising through at 70 miles an hour speed, you don't see exactly what is passing by. Whereas if you're going at like 10 miles an hour speed, especially in the school district, the reason they put, why you need to drive slow? 


Because we can see everything what is happening. And our brain and our society conditioned us to see that I think you need to go fast, you need to go fast. It's okay to go fast, but if you know where you are going, and 90% of the people in this world, I'm not like exaggerating the number, the 90% of the people in the world, they don't know exactly where they are going. 


They're busy being busy doing some things, they're living the life that designed for somebody else. And they're wearing that hat, I think I'm going to be an engineer, I'm going to be the manager, I'm going to be doing this business because somebody asked me to do that. 


Or somebody said, I'm going to be successful if I get into this role. And later they are realizing that this is not the path that I really, really want. You know, the biggest regret, if you study like maybe, I think there is a book, I don't remember exactly the title, but the book says that if you study the people who are almost like the last few weeks of their life, and if they ask the question, 


what are the regrets that you have? 95% of the people said, I did not live the life that I'm meant to be living in this lifetime. I was trying to impress my mom, I was trying to impress my parents, I was trying to impress my manager, please my wife or husband. 


and kids, but you meant to be doing certain things. And that's, I think, like one of the biggest realizations that I got it in my corporate journey. I was doing pretty good. I was climbing up the ladder. 


I was putting all the check marks and I was getting all the, you know, bells and whistles, awards and a pat on the back from every manager that I was working for. But I realized that is this it? And at the time, same time I realized that there is something more than what I was doing. 


At that point, I slowed down a little bit. I started asking myself, how can I understand what that is? And I started going to events. I started meeting so many mentors. I started investing my lot of resources into my future self. 


And the more and more I understand about like, this is the path, I think, maybe I was, I was in a wrong, going in the wrong direction, instead of going in this. And Robin Sharma says this so well, don't become busy, being busy climbing the mountain, or climbing the ladder, if that ladder is leaning towards the wrong wall. 


Because you have to come down and take the other side. And this is where the biggest switch like light bulb on movement. And it did not happen overnight. I think I've gone through like so many personal reflections and asked myself. 


And yeah, it's a big journey. I'm super grateful. I understand like why I'm here in this lifetime, and also the decisions that I made. And those are not easy decisions. Those are really like hard. But when I look back, everything happened, I think, supposed to happen and made those decisions. 


And I'm super grateful. That's wonderful. I'm super grateful because you're being on your journey, you know, it intersected with my journey as well. And you know, what you've learned has fed into what I'm learning. 


And then we have we have that dialogue where, you know, we can also grow together and grow in different ways because learning is a two way street, which is why coaches also have coaches. Right. Absolutely. 


So, as you said, this is this is a journey. And you did take some pivots along the way. But let's go back just a little bit because, you know, in, in our culture, and maybe in other cultures, you know, we are come from the Indian subcontinent. 


And that kind of typical stereotypical thing is being an engineer, a doctor, be a lawyer, you know, solid profession, security, you know, these are the things you do and everything's predictable and you go on your way, right? 


But when we make a dramatic shift, like leaving a corporate job, especially if you have a young family, and you are following a passion, however, you know, it's not completely predictable because you're charting the path along the same way, but you've got some sense of destination as you mentioned, and you've got maybe in the beginning, the start of a passion, kind of going into discovery, right? 


Because along the way, you discover more and you discover more and I guess that passion and that personal purpose it's never fixed because you're always going back and refining and growing and refining and growing. 


So how can you talk a little bit about in the situation of where you started to go away from the typical journey in from a professional point of view and you're charting your own independent journey. 


You're not following what other people are dictating for you to do as in a corporate job and here's your career ladder to move up in the organization. You are the organization. Absolutely. And you're figuring that out. 


So how did you overcome that kind of because the hardest thing to do is start I think. So how did you how did you take that first step and along the way how do you keep yourself grounded in keep keep going forward especially when you're challenged with some maybe not necessarily difficulties but maybe slowdowns or things that you have to pause to reflect on okay where do I need to pivot to to tune to tweak and improve. 


Can you talk a little bit about about that personal journey that I think many of us go on and how you overcome the maybe doubts or maybe not it might not even be self doubts although those could be there but could be doubts from people that are all around us who actually mean well. 


Absolutely. This is I think you know the very first question I asked myself in this journey was how am I going to be when I'm at 60 if I'm going in the same path. And that did not give me good, you know, the feelings inside of me. 


And immediately I spent some time and say, I'm definitely not going to be seeing myself becoming a CEO of a multibillion dollar company and just taking orders from investors or maybe doing something which is not really like I wanted to do at that time. 


At the same time, you know, I was reflecting very, very deep on what am I really, really gifted with? And the answer was I was always like, you know, I was like an artist telling stories and I was the one who was simplifying the complex problems through my communication. 


and through just helping them to see the possibilities that they are not seeing. And at the same time, I went back and looked at my, almost like a 10 years of performance review reports. At the time, no chart GPT, this is like a manual. 


I was logging into the HR system and pulling up my files and I could not find like a couple of files. I need to make a call to HR and they printed out and gave it to me. And I looked at every single report, almost like I spent like maybe a week or two and I circled, I still remember like I using the red pen. 


There is somewhere they mentioned that either manager or a director or maybe a vice president that I was reporting to, you are a great coach. You're a great mentor. We heard so many things from the team members about you when you are not in the room. 


And those things helped me to connect the dots. The reason I'm sharing this, everything is a story that is running in our mind. And I used my past as a fuel and many people they use their past too, just like say, I'm not good enough, nobody in my family did that, I failed 10 times. 


I just like use a filter to let go of all the failures. I use some of the really golden things that I created in my past to start as a vehicle, like say put into my vehicle and go from there. That's the first step. 


And the step number two, I created myself an opportunity to get exposure to the people who are doing extremely great things in their life. People with no hands, doing something really, really magical. 


And people with so many, so many, disabilities in terms of like financial created a billion dollar empires and people who created their personal records. That exposure helped me to... see, I think I can do that too. 


I have two hands, two legs, maybe you know a little bit money in my bank account to support my dream and those things started and the moment I started seeing other people, I started even investing more into people where I want to go and the moment I start surrounding with them, everything started changing for me because if that person can do that and I think I have more experience and I have more you know opportunity here to create some possibility and that's the second step, 


creating that exposure to the people. This is where like many people make a mistake, even though they have the talents, they don't create themselves that opportunity to surround with the people outside of you know their current circuit and the moment you make it, I think our brain is a super computer. 


you know, you and I at a core level, we have exactly the same spiritual DNA, whoever that we believe in, it doesn't matter exactly the same light we have inside of us. The reason that light is not shining because we are not giving opportunity that light to come out. 


So the moment you step out of your zone and start surrounding with the people, they are doing maybe a million times better than you, you automatically feel that I think I can do that too. And number three, environment. 


And this is I'm talking about who you spend the most of your time with. And I'm super grateful for my wife and she protected me during those tough times protected me means I completely disconnected from the noisy world. 


Not even single phone call, not even single phone conversation or even in person conversations I avoided everything. I was laser like focused on my mission. And at the time, there is nothing is impossible for me. 


Even my parents could not reach out to me directly, because I know they can this they love me so much if they drop just one drop of doubt, or maybe you know, are you okay, kind of like a sympathy, and I'm going to get that ripple effects right we all have that. 


So step number three, you need to be very careful about who you are surrounded with, especially this starts with your home and also make sure your environment in your room is going to be reflecting on your future self, not the current current self. 


Start with maybe your office room and make sure you create a vision board you create like maybe the thing that you wanted to be 10 years from now. And even this microphone, it's so funny, it's I got this microphone almost 80 years ago, I asked one mentor and He said, Mom, see, you wanted to be the world class or you wanted to be just like any other any other guy. 


I said, like, I want to be the world class. And he said, I recommend you to get a world class microphone. And I said, like, OK, how much is going to cost? He said, like, old class people, they don't ask for the cost. 


And seven, eight years ago, I had no idea that I'll be doing podcast interviews. I got this thousand dollar microphone with the setup and I felt like this is like a crazy microphone should not cost more than fifty dollars. 


Why did I spend thousand dollars? That's where the environment I'm talking about. And I had no idea in twenty twenty five Zina and I are talking through this microphone back when I bought it in twenty eighteen. 


So that's I think you need to start preparing your future self. So the step number three is. you have to have that environment. And the final step, once you go, go all in. You know, 90% in is 100% chances that you're going to be failing in that path. 


So you commit fully towards whatever that you want to be, you want to be a world class leader, you want to be a best artist, you want to be the carpenter, or you wanted to start your, you know, landscaping business tomorrow. 


Again, we can create something world class the moment you go all in. You don't have to be 20, you don't have to be having 20 million dollars in your bank account. Even if somebody is listening to this right now, you want to start something, pick one thing and go all in and make sure every cell in your body is aligned with that. 


Don't just look success as your financial success. For me is, the biggest thing is success in my definition is not at all, maybe it's not a good thing, not at all the bank balance. For me, success is all about learning new things. 


The reason I quit my job to answer your question, not because I want to make more money, I want to spend more time with all the books that I have and all the mentors that I'm learning from. I wanted to spend more and more time with that, you know, environment. 


That's the only reason, and I achieved that instantly because I have all the time in the world, 24 hours, and there's no boss, there's no pressure from anyone, and money became the byproduct of it. So if you are going to do something for money, I would highly, highly recommend reconsider that. 


You may not achieve the greatness if you are looking for money. A lot of really profound advice there, and thank you for going through those steps. steps and those phases, I think, be really helpful for people to understand conceptually on how they can unpack and untangle where they are in their lives. 


And that's part of the step there is, first of all, I think I love how you describe, you look through your personal development records and you're like, okay, well, how am I showing up? What are people seeing? 


How do they see me? And how is what I'm doing align with how people are seeing me towards, is that aligned with what I'm even doing day to day? Right. Absolutely. One point is, you know, is when I was making the decision of quitting the corporate job, I had No reason to quit the job because I built the empire when I was in the corporate, whether I'm working 10 hours a week or maybe two hours a week, 


I'm still able to, you know, continue that momentum because I created I created that team I created that organization. And only reason that I asked myself if God is watching me, how would God will treat me because I'm not giving my best to the work because my passion is here and that moment I realized that, you know, I think I want to just like say no to this. 


This is done. And even my boss and bosses boss, everyone said you can you can be as flexible as possible. You can be not going to be putting pressure if you want. You can downgrade yourself, but please don't quit. 


I said, like, no, when I go, I go all in and I can't go all in with my corporate. I went all in until that point. But the moment I realized I said, like, this is not it. I think that's a really deep thought there because we also have to think about, you know, how we're spending our time. 


So if we are in a corporate job, and we're not putting all into it. Well, maybe I'm not doing myself justice and I'm also maybe not doing the company justice. Right. But how how do I then go towards that alignment of where who I am, who I think I am aligns with what I'm doing, which is, it's a continuous process. 


But am I in an environment where I can continue to create and continue to grow? I think it comes down to you that you mentioned. you know, how am I how am I spending my life? And when we talk about resources, can we just pause for a moment? 


I think one of the stories you said to us in our masterclass was that sense of that that vehicle and the four wheels. Could you just describe that for the audience? Because I think that will also bring together a lot of points you just said. 


Absolutely, absolutely. Just treat our life like a beautiful, beautiful car. And every car got four wheels, you know, and 90% of the world, they're focusing on one wheel, even though the wheel is running at 100 miles an hour speed. 


And that wheel, most of the cases, their career. And that is like really good. And they think it's only running at 100 miles an hour speed. I want to... make this wheel run at 150 or 200. And there is nothing wrong with that. 


But most of the cases when we study people, the other three wheels are completely out of alignment. So one wheel being health and fitness, and one will be the relationship, relationship with themselves, relationship with their family members, relation with their teams, and relation with the superpower. 


And the final wheel is being the contributions, like how they are giving their gifts to the world. It doesn't have to be the money, it doesn't have to be clothes or food. We all have gifts. How we are giving that back to the world. 


You observe all the four wheels, and let's imagine the first wheel is your career wheel, your finance wheel, it's spinning at 100 miles an hour speed. That health and fitness wheel, it's like a square. 


It's not even in the right way. And the relation wheel being a triangle, they are like a very, very upset about so many things that are going on with themselves, with the kids, with other people in their life. 


And finally, the gifts wheel, it's being a small circle. It doesn't matter what the car is, how good the engine is. If you have those four wheels like that, it's not going to be going smooth. The person who is driving, and also people who are sitting in the car, their family members, or maybe their team members, or maybe their clients are going to have a bumpy ride. 


And before we go fast on the wheel that you want to go, slow down a little bit and do a self-inquiry. And this is where the magic is. And if you look at the picture from me, Raman Maharshi, he always talks about a self-inquiry. 


It's I think one of the beautiful thing that we all can do, just slow down a little bit and ask yourself, like what is something? You know, not going well, what can I something like really like good looks like. 


And if there is a gap between what is the current state and what is the good looks like, there is always opportunity, bring your awareness towards that. And we have all the resources all the time in this world to bridge the gap between a point A to point B. 


And if you keep doing it on a quarterly basis, on a monthly basis, on a yearly basis, I think 10 years from now, your car is going to be, you know, going, going really good. And it's a, it's not going to be perfect for all. 


But it's a journey. We all need to go through that. And if somebody says that I'm perfect, I'm aligned on all four wheels, maybe they are not completely honest, or they don't know what they're talking about. 


Because we are what we all are work in progress. We all just like a balancing it out. And that's what life is all about. So I think that's such a powerful visual concept because, you know, when you're in your car, you're in a car and you may have a destination. 


But if your wheels are not all powering up and moving together, you're going nowhere or you're spinning in place, right? Or you're just not moving and only your wheel, one wheel is moving, but the car is actually not moving. 


So I think we can often trick ourselves to think we are moving, right? Because we're busy. We keep ourselves busy. So we think we are moving because look, look how busy I am. And I think with the COVID situation, what I think brought forward to many people is well, the vulnerability of our human lives, right? 


And am I making the most of each moment? So for me, what became important to me was, well, the human condition, what does that even mean? And to the point that you made earlier, am I living life to the fullest, each and every moment? 


And that doesn't mean, oh, I'm going to multitask and I'm going to be all intense and I'm going to be busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. And that's living fully in each moment. No, that's not what it is. But am I aligned in each moment? 


Are all of my wheels of different aspects of my life aligned and moving in the same direction? Because we might have one destination, but we don't get to, let's say, a professional destination, if everything else is not moving because everything feeds together. 


If we're want to grow personally and have time and to reflect spiritually. Well, if we're too busy in our corporate lives because we're just clocking in hours. Then that's not feeding those areas. If we keep ourselves too busy, then we're not focusing on our health. 


If we're healthy, we can do more, but maybe do it in a more focused way because our minds are aligned. So I really love that, you know, vehicle and car model because that just brings it visually all together. 


It's alignment. It's moving together. It's powering up. And first of all, you build the car, you slow down, but ultimately you can go fast. Absolutely. Absolutely. So when we talk about that human condition, I mean, I think for me, that's what it all comes down to, right? 


And if we're think at the end of our lives, what would we what would give us most pleasure or most sense of did I achieve what I'm here to achieve? I think it goes into very deep questions. So you have some methods that you use on in tactics on how you prompt yourself to go through these reflections. 


And then you also mentioned mentors that you also associate with and learn from. So can you talk about your your own kind of methods and tactics to allow yourself to go deep and how you create moments of focus and freedom to create and allow yourself to to organically go where it makes sense? 


Yeah, yeah. So just like electric cars, we all have charging ports and charging stations. And we need to identify what are what are the things that are going to be charging us? And we need to give time for those charging moments in our life. 


For me, since you asked me, like, what are the things that, you know, I always do this. Workout is one of my charging point. And I don't get burned out if I work maybe no long times, but I feel burned out if I don't go for work out like three days in a row. 


That's first thing immediately. I think when I feel like out of alignment, my wheels are not. not balanced. I slowed on and asked like, I have certain routines that I always like, look, these are my antennas. 


And am I really like getting enough signal to those antennas? The first one being the workout and second one being reflecting on generally. And some days I spent like almost four or five hours on generally, just with no distractions. 


That's where my entire body and her mind and her soul feel like I'm full full now. And from that moment onwards, I can I can pretty much do anything. And one other thing that I really love is about traveling. 


And if you know me, like I've been traveling almost like almost every month, every couple of months. And also every year, I have a ritual, I've been doing it for the last five years, completely give myself one month off from the noise. 


And I go somewhere where not many people go, like I go to Himalayas, I go to ashrams, I go to places and completely disconnect from the Western world and recharge myself, spend time with monks, spend some time with people who are really seeing the world differently. 


And I see the world with a different lens from that moment and I come back. I know if you're in a corporate world, this may be impossible for you. So you don't have to go for a month, a month long sabbatical, maybe you can go for a weekend. 


Don't go to, you know, with your family, with your kids, or maybe with all the problems going on. Check out everything at your home. Maybe decide yourself Friday to Monday. I'm taking this the next three, four days away from my day to day life. 


Take your best book. Your best book could be your empty notebook and go and start writing it. What is something that you can create in this lifetime? And go to places like typically you don't go, maybe rent a hotel that's the best hotel available in your hometown, maybe Rich Carlton or something like that. 


I'm pretty sure the money that you're going to be spending on that hotel is going to be 10Xing you back because you are creating environment for you to see things differently and also creating the possibilities that many people are not even like maybe thinking that you can do. 


And those are the things that I used to do. And now also like some of that sometimes like I'm an artist. I wanted to create stories. I want to see there is a complex problem and I put my lens and see how my lens is going to be creating the problem into a solution. 


And I can do it at home. That's reason like I always like to travel and do that. And everything what you are doing is it's a reputation as you know. Nobody, nobody's in this world is lucky. They created their luck. 


If you look, no, the Seth Curry, the basketball player, recently I was studying his performance. Every day he practices 500 shots. Wow. He's already best in the world. And he's practices exactly the same 500 shots. 


Just imagine seven days times 500, 30 days times 500, 365 days times 500. He practiced millions of same shots. That's the reason the world is rewarding him in the ground, right? So I think like the question, you're a corporate leader. 


Maybe you are into entrepreneurship or you wanted to introduce a new version to yourself. Are you ready to practice 500 times? Forget about 500. 50 times a week. And the moment you say yes, I think that's where your start, your goal starts. 


Even this preparation, I know, Zina, I'm pretty sure you practiced in your mind multiple times this conversation that is happening right now. Right. And I practiced it multiple times. As today, I went to my, I took my son to first university tour. 


So this is the first time, even for me, you know, that's I felt like, wow, this is this is a great opportunity. But it's about three hour drive from my home. And he was sleeping in the in the car. And I was just like practicing, how can I add more value to every single person who is listening? 


Right. So whatever this I'm seeing right now, it is this is not the first time I saw this in my mind already two times while I was driving. And after that, I message you, hey, I'm excited for this conversation. 


So the same thing, I think, like, we all have opportunity to create, create the results before the results even happens in our life. Same thing with your corporate presentation, or maybe, you know, keynote speech, or maybe, you know, the interview that you're going for. 


It's all in your mind, the moment you start seeing it. And Bruce Lee Scott, I never worried about somebody who practiced 100 kicks, but I'm worried about one person who practiced one kick 100 times because that person is going to knock out me. 


Yeah, that's I think like the answer is like, we all have those charging stations, we need to identify what are those things that really, really brings you back when somebody says that I'm very, very, you know, busy right now, and not doing certain things. 


No, we all have same 24 hours, you can't skip 24 hours, it's all about your, your most important things. So I think. some some key themes coming through here also is kind of having an abundance mindset versus a scarcity mindset right so oftentimes I think many people uh and and maybe myself as well when we started was yeah but I'm too busy I I don't have time to journal uh I'm gonna have to get up at five in the morning rather than seven in the morning right to to kind of journal and have that free space and uh you start thinking thinking of it as a chore as opposed to an abundance mindset where actually this is an opportunity for you to create and I think the the hardest thing is just to get started so starting to journal I've seen is a major blocker to many people. 


So they'll sit with their journal and they're like, well, I don't know what to write. I don't know what to think. So that's where a scarcity mindset versus an abundance mindset, I think. And what helps, at least what helped me, is prompts. 


Because many of the things that I think hold us back is overthinking. And what you want to do is set yourself up to be in action. Okay, so I'm not going to overthink this and think, okay, I have to structure my journal this way. 


And this is the format of my journal. And I'm going to write all these lines and columns. And I'm going to get a ruler and do that. Or I'm going to get, oh, should I use an electronic journal? Or, you know, should I just write or what am I going to do? 


Just whatever it is, think about this. Here's a question. And I think that really helps to kind of get yourself into that skill, but into that going through the layers of self-reflection as you answer these prompts. 


And there are common prompts, but there's also prompts you can generate yourself. But I found that that's a good way to start. And what surprised me, which was unexpected, but what surprised me is how when I actually started answering those questions, what I wrote down was very different than what I thought it would be. 


So I think we all have these preconceived notions of, you know, well, I'm just going to say this, this, and that because this is what I'm doing. surface level, right? It's just kind of that way where if you're existing on a surface level, and you're not going deep, you know, beneath the iceberg, the gems that the value is below the water. 


So you got to allow yourself to kind of dive deep. And I think one way there is prompting yourself, but then just allowing it to unfold. Like, don't overthink it. Like you were saying, even overall, don't be so focused on, am I going to, you know, the financial numbers? 


Obviously, that's important. We all need a livelihood, right, to do the things that we want to do. But if you're going to go all in, then you need to kind of just go all in. And that way, you can know, okay, is this is this? 


something that's aligned with my purpose and what I can build from this, but it all starts with going deep and kind of reflecting and giving yourself that space to go deep. So I think that's a major, I would say, share with your experience, but from my own personal experience and what I've seen from others is, because I've been telling friends, just start with these questions, because everyone seems to say, 


well, I don't know how to journal, and then they look up bullet journaling and get all focused on formats and everything, and not that they're not useful, but I think we end up creating ourselves barriers rather than just kind of doing it. 


Absolutely, absolutely. Start small. Again, you don't have to journal 50 pages a day. Start like maybe writing down, what are you grateful for? For just five minutes a day. And if you do that 10 days in a row, you are getting into the abundance mindset and see, wow, I'm grateful for so many things. 


And don't overthink it, don't force it. And the most important thing with the journaling zina, be honest with yourself. This is the place that you need to be completely open because all progress happens when you are really, really honest with yourself. 


And that is where journaling is like such a powerful tool. You are almost like having a conversation with your best friend. And that best friend is already inside of you and you are writing it down. There are so many magical things that are going to be opening up. 


If you're open about yourself, understand who you are and going deep on that. And let's put this like a one year challenge. I want to write every day for five minutes. for next 365 days. When you look back, I think that could be the best personal development that happened to you. 


You don't have to go to Tony Robbins. You don't have to pay thousands of dollars to anyone. Just empty notebook and just open your heart and start writing it down. That's amazing. And that goes back to your point about resources. 


We all have these resources, but we actually might not be aware that that's there because we're just going day to day into this busyness thing. You introduced me to Robin Sherma's book and concept about the 5am club. 


And that was very amazing learning for me. And even as you put your own thoughts to that and was sharing it. So something I'll put in the show notes, people could check out the 5am club. I think it's a lot of profound learning and actually will give some insights on going slow to go fast and the importance of kind of those aspects of reflection and also different areas of real life and building that alignment. 


But that actually helps you to grow much more quickly but fully. Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, 5am club is, you know, just a metaphor. It doesn't have to be 5am. It could be 6am, it could be 7am. But you define what is that schedule for you and you go, you know, so I want to surrender. 


The word you surrender, the moment you surrender, keep the word. Whatever that you are telling it to yourself that you want to do, that is where the magic is. The moment you start doing it for 10 days in a row, what is happening Zina is we are depositing into a trust account. 


The reaction that you are doing, say I want to get up at 5am today, I want to go for like maybe 30 minute walk and you do 10 days in a row, you are telling yourself that you are committed for something that is going to be increase your, you know, the trust factor inside of you. 


And the moment you understand, I think I can do something else. Maybe I can start a podcast, I can start writing a book, I can start writing a book, I can start applying for the promotion that I've been thinking about for so many. 


So that's like a ripple effect. It's going to be just you're hitting a small domino, what that book or maybe what like maybe the entire concept around is, all we can do is hit the small domino. And the moment you hit the small domino, that is going to be creating many, many ripples. 


into many levels and you will look back and say, wow, that small thing changed everything for me. Yes, yes. And that ripple effect, it gains energy and momentum as it keeps moving. So yeah, just one action can create so many different opportunities. 


So just have an open and abundance mindset to kind of take those actions and allow yourself to grow with it and to lead with it. So Bamsi, could you share some thoughts on your own reflections? And as you have met so many people and gone to so many places in your own journey, what's been the thing that surprised you the most that was the most unexpected? 


Absolutely. Absolutely. This is something that I've been noticing over and over Zena. People are addicted to information. I saw people that are paying tens of thousands of dollars going for seminars, attending masterminds, only collecting the information. 


But the thing is, you know, it's not the information that is going to be helping them. It's about application of that information. That is the missing piece. And the moment you realize this, you don't need more information. 


You already have enough. All you need to do is start something. And once you start going and you are going to be gaining more and more and up at that time, you may need more information, but you don't need more right now. 


And yeah, that's one of the things that I see that many people, they wait for the perfect moment. They wait for the perfect opportunity, perfect weather conditions to start anything and go. And there is no perfect moment. 


This is the right moment. And you need to start before you are ready. And, you know, there's something also going on. I don't have time. I don't have money. I don't have experience. What if if I fail? 


All these things that are coming to our mind is pretty much stories inside of our mind. Right. So we need to change those stories because those stories are not going to be serving you to achieve what you want to achieve in your life. 


Right. You need to look back in the rear view mirror and start looking at the stories because we all had quantum jumps. I know you came from very humble beginnings being a refugee background and you created this empire that you are sitting in right now. 


Right. So I know there might be some things that are not right right now, but when you look back, you pretty much you quantum leap so many times in your life, whether in your childhood or maybe in your early days of your career or stepping out from your career and starting this entrepreneurship journey, right? 


So those are the stories that we need to replace with because we'll never have a time that say, I'm a hundred percent right, I want to do it. No, you always have that self-doubt. You always have that, you know, the little voice. 


You need to replace that voice with a bigger sound. That sound is like, hey, I created that. And you know, my dream is so big, I'm not going to be listening to that. So this is going to be battle every day between these two years. 


And the only thing that we can control is what's going on between this. And don't worry about what is happening outside the world. Always focus on what is happening inside and how you can tweak it, adjust it, and play a different thing. 


So we all have different blueprints inside of our mind our goal in this journey lifetime is to understand the blueprint and you know Change it the way that we want to change it and the final point on this is Create the future not from the past create your future from the future Going to the future where is zina going to be? 


in 2040 and You go there you saw it and what you really see what you really like and the question that you can be asking is What is that? I need to do in 2025 for me to have that in 2040 Whether it's a health whether it's a wealth whether it's relationship. 


It's all going from creating the future from the future Because if you are operating from the present you always see I don't have this I don't have that and you're operating from future you see the possibilities because you already created in your mind And it's those those small actions that you can start every day to bring that future forward And if you go all in on on these things then You you can 10x Sooner you can make those leap sooner. 


It's possible, right and I think taking action you have that information turn that information into action and Take your learning from your future self and when you do those deep reflections and think about you know What what is it that gives me purpose? 


You know, what where do I see myself? Where do I want to be? where I think we went through one exercise where is this really where you want to be or is it what? Society or people around you are expecting you to be because sometimes we become trained to think something, but it actually might not be our own thoughts. 


It might be actually someone else's expectation. When you have those openness and as you say, be honest with yourself and create that trust, create that commitment, then wherever you end up on your journey, it's your journey. 


It's your movie that you're playing and you're the director of that movie, as you've described in the past. You can then know what actions you can take and tune it, and go deeper, go all in, add other actions. 


But if you don't start, you don't know where you need to be. I love how you mentioned even people who we see in society that we would consider are extremely successful, because they are. masters in performance, whatever they may be doing, they have mastered their performance. 


But actually, if you really study what they do, they don't stay stagnant and say, Okay, I've achieved this goal professionally. And now, you know, I'm done, I'm just gonna let let you know, keep keep doing the same thing over and over again, in terms of I don't have to move forward anymore, because I've I've arrived. 


So now I can just sit back and let thing be on autopilot. No, you got to keep engaging, keep mastering that performance each and every day, because you keep refining that muscle, keep refining that muscles, iterate, keep iterating, keep iterating. 


And as we talk about longevity, and even our own health, that becomes more and more important, because we have to be activating our minds and activating all of these muscles within our body. And on a cellular level, everything comes into alignment when we're focused on what we're trying to do. 


And that focus on mastering performance, where whatever that might mean to you, on a daily basis, can take you places that you didn't expect. So on that point, Vamsi, I'd like you to share. When you started your journey, did you did you have any expectations of what it might be? 


And then where where you are now and where you might see yourself? Let's say 20 years from now, 30 years from now? Well, what was something that completely debunked everything you thought it would be? 


And the world is completely different than what you thought. So what I'm trying to get into is that insight disruption that even you on your journey you said oh wow this is totally not what I thought it would be it's actually more or it's actually very different do you have would you be able to share that sort of absolutely no there are a lot of things that when I started I was thinking hard work is the only way that I'm going to be achieving success and I was completely wrong hard work is not the one that is going to be helping you to be successful it's all about alignment and the moment you aligned with your values the moment you aligned with your superpower you know you don't have to work 24 hours a day or maybe even not even 10 hours a day. 


it we almost become like a magnet that we start attracting people into our life so many people they think like i think society also feeding you have to hustle hustle hustle you need to put all these things there is nothing wrong with that if you put those hours and like you know that time with the alignment you will be you will be getting maybe million times better results than just busy being busy and putting putting the stuff and the second thing is you know i i saw i saw it clearly what i'm going to be getting it and i thought like i'm going to be getting it in the next two years when i started and it took me almost six years right now this year he's my eight eighth year in my coaching journey and very first year we are breaking a seven-figure coaching business right it did not happen overnight when i first visualized it oh i'm going to be having a seven-figure business in the first two to three years and i was like i was wrong sometimes it takes some time you need to be persistent at the same time it's not just about the numbers it's about who you are becoming in the process and i would have completely collapsed my business or maybe collapse my life if i had seven-figure business in my first two years because the last six years helped me to become the person who can easily even like my while i'm working maybe three four hours a week can maintain my business because i became the person the same thing for everyone maybe you are looking for a senior executive position or you want to start something don't expect the things overnight it is going to take some time and the only thing that you can do is you need to be persistent and you need to be keeping that passion alive and the best way to do that use surrounding yourself with the people who are already doing that and you giving yourself exposure to, 


you know, people who are always pushing those boundaries. So because our mind is a is a big meaning making mission and it is going to be making meaning based on the people and the incidents and the stories that we are surrounded with. 


So those are the things. Yeah, it's going to take some time. And you know, money is not the only thing. And yeah, most importantly, you need to be in the game, you need to get playing the game until your last day. 


So keep being in the game, keep being on the journey, keep being in action, go all in on on what drives you have some thoughts of your destination, lean into your future self and create your present based on your future self and and who do you need to be? 


to bring forward that future. And each domino effect has an amazing power, but we don't always realize that. So it's those small actions to take. And I think what I've found and learned as well is that being in action and taking those small steps, creating a vision board, for example, just a simple task of creating a vision board. 


For me, what that unlocked was, OK, I'm looking at my vision board. I have it up on my wall here. And it's images that speak to my future self or an advancement of my present self, something I'm already doing, but there's an image of it being more advanced. 


Right? And all areas of my life are on this vision board. So one might think, well, OK, it's just kind of a vision board, so what? That's a small action. And when I'm looking at it every day, because it's there, it's that proximity, it's there for me to see. 


What really surprised me is that there are opportunities. It becomes opportunistic because by serendipity or maybe by creation, kind of subliminal creation, things came to me. The universe brings you things. 


And the universe was starting to bring me things that because I thought of it, because I visualized it, I was able to recognize when it arrived. And if I hadn't thought about it, if I hadn't slowed down to think about what's important to me, I would have been blinded to that. 


that opportunity that the universe was bringing me, right? Absolutely, I think this is Dan Silva's famous quote, your eyes can only see, your ears can only hear what we are looking for. What you're saying, Zina, is a perfect example of that. 


And until we see that, whether it's a physical vision board or a mental vision board, you can't achieve those things. Everything in our life happens twice. First in our subconscious mind, then happens in the reality, beautiful. 


Yeah, it's amazing. It really is quite amazing. Once you just kind of allow yourself to go into it, into these tactics and into these actions, and even in a corporate role, you can imagine things and how you perform and what you're able to contribute to the growth of a company in ways that you may not even imagine. 


Maybe actually, you should be in a different department. all together to get to how you want to transform what is being offered to customers and to the company growth or to people that you're mentoring as a leader. 


So it's all aspects of life or how you're raising your children or all of these things. It all starts with these small actions and having that alignment. So I wanted to also have you share the Buddha story of the sculpture. 


You can just tell that story. Absolutely, absolutely. This is going back to the first example that I shared, Zina, like a diamond, right? If your diamond stuck in a big mud, like a pool of mud, you don't see the value of it. 


The same for Buddha. Back maybe several, several decades ago, the Buddha got covered with so much of mud and nobody noticed that there is a Buddha there, but one day there are a group of kids who are playing there and who noticed that there is a shining thing on the ground and they call all the the adults in that village and they notice that it's a big tons of gold under that mud. 


And the moment they eliminated everything, they started seeing the beautiful, beautiful Buddha there. The reason that is important because those layers are the ones stopping us. Those layers are the ones, I think, your only responsibility, no matter where you are in your life or in your career in this journey, is to eliminate those layers. 


And the moment you eliminate all, you're going to be identifying who you are. And let's remember this. You are a child of God. God. And the moment you connect that, everything is going to be, you can connect until you let go of those layers. 


The layers may be, you know, judgments that you have, or maybe, you know, some of the things that you are thinking that happened in the past and you are still thinking, operating from that, the same belief system. 


So our goal is to eliminate and just like a shed, shed all the layers to connect to the golden Buddha inside of us, our golden Jesus, our golden Muhammad. We all have that inside of us. And yeah. This is really revealing that inner gem that we have and uncovering that, unleashing that power within. 


If we use a version of Tony Robbins Masterminds. So I want to bring uh to the audience a bit a business example here right and how uh taking some actions and kind of going all in having an idea in mind and having that unfold and what that's actually then enabled for creation so if you wouldn't mind uh Vamsi we can talk about the personal leadership academy sure sure absolutely absolutely and and it all it all started with a conversation right yeah it all started with the mastermind and two minds sitting together and uh looking at a problem and see this is not the problem with one person this is the problem with a million people and the moment we put light into that problem and we saw wow this is this is a bigger opportunity and also this is the responsibility for us to start giving what we have into this world and this this organization personal leadership academy is is born and now we have hundreds of leaders who are getting uh inside out transformations they all want to go somewhere but uh after joining the program the understanding like hey i think i have more uh strengths that i have than i was thinking before and uh with that they're they're creating magical magical things in their journey and i'm super grateful i'm a part of this uh journey of creating personal leadership academy along with that i'm also learning every single day you know this is not just about uh you know helping people they're helping me to identify some of the biggest blind spots that i have i think that's where i'm getting more uh ahas and i'm working progress uh just like everyone else right so So we are not done yet, 


we are always evolving and increasing what we're supposed to be doing in this lifetime, not simply it is. And so what I loved about even observing, I was able to observe this growth and this transformation with PLA. 


But one thing that really resonated is that when this journey was starting, there was a sense of, well, I don't know where this is going to go, however, I know what the achievement is. You have a sense of what success would look like. 


But in the beginning, it's a few people. But you think, OK, you weren't focused. And I think this is a really key point. you didn't quit because it was just a few people. You went, go back to another concept you mentioned earlier, go all in. 


Yeah. And that it wasn't about the volume, it was about the impact. So can you talk a little bit about that? Absolutely. It's not about how many people in front of you that is important. It's about who you are being in front of one person in front of you. 


And if you are treating that person, the most important person, and you are giving your best to that person, no matter what you are doing, whether you are a leader leading a bigger organization or you are just an individual contributor, if you're treating the person in front of you, I think you are going to be creating magic. 


And it all starts with just one person. And that's how I started my coaching business. When I started my coaching journey, I started with the one person that's being vancored. And that's all I need to start showcasing what I'm really passionate about. 


And now look back, thousands of people, almost like 7,000, 8,000 people gone through the conversations in this journey. And I'm still feeling I'm just getting started. And it's the same for you. Same for the person who's listening to this. 


You don't need a bigger audience. You don't need bigger resources. All you need is just one person. If you don't have any other person, just go and talk to somebody that may be your parent or maybe your partner, maybe your kid, and just start building that muscle, being that person who you really want to be. 


And play that role. Let's say you want to be a millionaire. Start playing like a millionaire for a minute in your mind and you will start seeing so many things. Yeah, so the amazing way to wrap it all together is be the person that you need to be, to achieve that alignment and that future that you've that you've imagined, you can be that future self today, and go all in in any situation that you are in. 


It's really change your experience and how you build and grow and learn. And as you said, it's an everyday process. So every day you can learn and every day you can show up and show up differently, be that person that you need to be in every moment to reach that future. 


And that So it's a wonderful way to live life, actually. Absolutely. Absolutely. Be like a goldfish. The good thing about goldfish is that goldfish got a five second memory. That means goldfish is not going to be remembering what happened five seconds ago. 


I'm saying this in a good way. Don't worry about what happened 50 years ago, or five years ago, or 15 months ago. Think about it. I'm starting today as my first day, day one. And I want to show up like I show up on day one to my work. 


If you keep doing it, I think you will be unstoppable. Whether you want to go in the corporate side or you want to go in the business side, that mentality is going to be helping you. Fantastic. Thank you so much, Vamsee, for joining me today. 


I think these are really incredible concepts that can bring value to people and you can change your mindsets and really reflect on what's important to you yourself. And I hope if this resonates, do comment. 


So thank you, Vamsee, for joining me today. I really appreciated this conversation. I've also gone on a tremendous journey. And as you say, it's a learning every day. And how energizing it is to think in each moment where we can be creating new each and every day. 


So thank you, Vamsee. It was a great conversation. And I really enjoyed that. And I'll see you in the next mastermind. Absolutely, Zeena. Thank you so much for hosting this.