In this dynamic episode, Anish Majumdar, Owner of Anish Majumdar Coaching, shares how professionals can take control of their careers and achieve contentment. He shares self-assessment tools to decide whether or not to engage in entrepreneurship.
You’ll discover:
– Whether or not you should take the entrepreneurial leap
– How to leverage your personal brand to achieve your definition of success
– The value of transparency and authenticity in every endeavor
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello and welcome welcome once again to the secrets of the high demand coach podcast and I am here with yet another high demand coach and that is Anish Majumdar. He’s a career coach and an expert in the hidden job market. Over the past 12 years, he’s helped 1000s of professionals around the world to take the reins of their professional destiny and break free of the necessity of job searching permanently. In his webinars, videos and articles have appeared in Fast Company Business Insider Glassdoor, and the Ivy executive. He’s recognized by each of these as a disruptive career coach to fiercely ambitious professionals and niche I’m so excited to have you on the show today, we’re exploring a world that I’m not very well versed in. So I know I’m gonna learn at least a thing or two and probably a whole lot more. But before we jump into that in the work that you’re doing with your clients, I’d love to just start with your story. How’d you get into coaching? What were you doing beforehand?
Anish Majumdar
Oh, man, thank you, thank you for the opportunity. And thank you for the vibe and the energy i I wonder if this resonates with many of the people listening but I’m kind of dumbfounded I’m in my 13th year as a career coach. And in terms of how I got here, it was never part of the plan. I grew up in Montreal, Quebec, I live in Rochester, New York with my family, my wife and three kids today. But I grew up there, Indian family, you know, pretty conservative, and, you know, non communicative. And, you know, we grew up and, and honestly, the first thing that really rocked us was my mom, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and it sort of, you know, ripped our world apart. And the thing that gave me a sort of release at the time was acting so, so being able to take some of what was churning inside, but that what I couldn’t express, right, being able to use that towards something positive. You know, it obsessed me it became exactly what I wanted to do. So I was following the acting path. As I was doing that, you know, my mom, before she took sick, she was an English teacher. And I still remember, you know, she, she gave me a wonderful foundation beyond school, and a love of reading and writing from a very early age. So along with the the acting, game writing, and honestly, working with job seekers, was a sideline, I’m like, alright, you know, I need some money here. And, you know, on the way to, you know, the book, I’m trying to publish on the way to, you know, the next acting gig. It was a reputation that was beginning that says, hey, you know, if you work with him, he has a way of like, framing your story, changing the way you’re coming across changing the signals you’re putting out there, you got a result. But you know, what changed it for me was, I just got to a point where I’d worked with so many of these people I was on the phone with, with this guy who was like 52 years old, and architect, and apparently he needed help for a job. But the reality is, the guy was basically in tears, feeling like, he’d spent 20 years giving it up for a company that gave him all of these promises in terms of equity, and all these other stuff, things change. He’s left out on the street, and now he’s like, Yeah, is it really a job? Or is it? Is it something deeper than that, and it forced, for the first time in my adult life, the inspiration didn’t come from inside of me, it came from an awareness that said, Yeah, you know, Arthur, or Sarah, for, you know, the 1000s of people now I’ve been lucky enough to work with, it’s unfair for all of them. And if there’s a better way that where you can actually feel like the abundance for the work that you do, and you can actually feel safe and secure, and you don’t always have to feel like you have to watch your back on some, you know, X that falls and you don’t know what’s going to do. That’s, that’s, that’s, that’s what started all of that. And, you know, in a way, I kind of feel like I’m kind of in the, in the bushes, you know, having done a bit of a guerrilla war for these years, and I’m still scoping out looking for new people to say, hey, it’s cool that come on up here. You know, we got if the water’s fine.
Scott Ritzheimer
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. So fast forward, you’ve been doing this for 12-13 years now. You’ve seen a lot of stories. You’ve been through a lot of triumphs. What would you say today, some of the most important work that you’re doing with your clients?
Anish Majumdar
Probably the most. The most of our clients come in believing that what ails them professionally is logistical, right? I need a better thing better brand, I need a better interview strategy, etc. Almost inevitably, those are symptomatic of a mindset shift that has to happen, you know, and the mindset shift is an A and this is something that I don’t know of a way to be successful professionally, no matter what you do, whether you’re an entrepreneur or whatever you are, okay, without the shift right now, and that is the criteria of what your of what successes, what you’re going for. It cannot be some third party thing. It cannot be some job. It cannot be some company. It cannot be some thing. It’s never going to work and you are always going to be more unique to ever fit into something like that. The goal with the career the goal with anything Write is to stand for something, whether it’s a process away a mission that you believe and that ideally, honestly, is big enough to contain whatever your professional aspirations are now, but are not limited by this, you know, and this is something that I think a lot of people get wrong. You know, I know I get that that right, like as a job seeker, I think we all did this where, oh, there’s like a job posting, let me change everything about what I’m putting out there to pretend like the beyond the end, all I wanted is to be a barista, and like Starbucks, right? Like, like it you know, but it doesn’t work, you know, is that that approach really doesn’t work. Maybe it’ll work. Maybe it works at the barista level, I don’t know. But but but but this, this change has to happen because you have to start trusting yourself. And you have to start trusting that you actually know better than a third party. And if you don’t have that, it’s almost like you don’t have a crucial filtration system that you need. And now any Tom, Dick and Harry, any recruiter, any person will give you some feedback. Now you have no critical eye, right? That’s, that’s probably the most important thing that I’m always silently working with our clients on.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah. So here’s where this is bumping into my world and the thought that keeps hitting as you’re talking, so many of our founders are actually good at that, right? Where they they recognize, hey, I’m gonna go start to something, I don’t have to get it from someone else. But it’s more so that they’re good at it in practice and mechanics than they are in belief systems, right? They’ve built they believe that, hey, the only way I can be me and do my thing is to go start a business, which is actually you know, it’s it’s the story. It’s a quintessential entrepreneur story. But it’s also the story for a lot of people who never should have been entrepreneurs in the first place. Right?
Anish Majumdar
Yeah, I think for a lot of them, it’s just as tempting to take yourself, I’ve heard this Take yourself, I took myself out of the market for six months a year to start a business look, do what I did. And I would say this to any any entrepreneur, forget about a business plan, forget about all that crap. Okay, go after client number one, and build the business based on client number one, then two, then three, then four, then five, that’s exactly what I did. The system that we have, I didn’t have the system when I began, I put the commitment on myself to create it. And that’s the way that you want to do it. You want to create your system, your flow your business, in the trenches, right. And over and over again, what I found is that the person who was willing to take one or two steps today to help this person is going to get that opportunity, not the person who’s like, ah, it’ll be perfect tomorrow, dude, the circus has already gone. You know what I mean? Like no one, like no one’s caring, all you’re really doing is you don’t have the courage to actually let the acid test your ideas. Right. Yeah. So you want to do that. But that’s, that’s not appropriate. That’s not appropriate for a human being. And certainly, if you have a family that is dead wrong to do.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I could not agree more, there’s there’s just not enough can be said about going out and actually doing it. Right, we get caught up in though, you know, it depends on what kind of world you come from. It’s like we’re gonna set up all my funnels, or I’ve got to set up you know, all my logo and art and assets, or I’ve got to go get your location, or there’s all these things that we have to do that have nothing to do with serving a client that have nothing to do with font. Well, the language we use, super boring, but really important, is finding a profitable, sustainable market. And you can’t do that if you’re not actually selling to somebody. So I couldn’t agree more that just it’s the way to start an entrepreneur entrepreneurial endeavor, hands down.
Anish Majumdar
It’s also the by the way, the the exact same advice that works the best for if you don’t, if you say I don’t have an entrepreneurial bone in my body, right? I just want a job. I just want to find find find what the thing is, you can’t actually like, you can’t go out there as an employee and get the stuff because you’re negotiating, right? So the whole answer becomes, stop looking for someone to give you permission to start helping and just start helping, like just start helping, like on every call on every relationship, make sure it’s someone who is relevant enough resonant enough for you to actually start going into the weeds with that person and start helping them and take the idea that you’re giving anything away out of there because what I found is that people who are going to work with you, they’ll insist on nothing less than working with Scott and only Scott one on one to do it. And if you help the other people and they weren’t in the right place for you to work in that in that depth, hey, you need them to you need them spreading the word you need them owing you favors, you know? It’s trusting these individuals in and and saying like, Okay, let me go full, full heartedly in terms of as much as I want this thing in my life. I said I’m gonna have 30 minutes with this person. 3045 minutes. Let me make Scott the one focus. Okay, let me take all that out. Okay. And let me see what I can really do to connect, engage with you help you, you know, and we can, you know, like it, it opens up the whole thing you know, and I know, you know this because you’re so sophisticated in sales in relationship building, you know, that I was I realized there really is a hunger out there for people to do business with each other, to help each other, you know, it’s like, we just need a little extra help, you know, and I keep coming back to that, you know, in our work.
Scott Ritzheimer
That’s so good. So another place that kind of our worlds intersect, and again, is, you know, it’s kind of similar to what I said, but it’s the person who makes the leap, they’re discontented in their role, right. And they, they start to think, you know, because of some Instagram posts that the best way out is to be an entrepreneur. But you know, quite honestly, you know, my best advice to someone thinking about starting a business is don’t, if you can do anything else, you do that, because starting a business is not sipping, you know, margaritas on the beach, you’ve been down this road, it’s, it’s a painful process. It’s a lot like waking up every day finding a sharp corner and just banging your head against it. That’s what starting a business is all about. And so what how how do you help folks, because this is something that happens when when economic times get hard, and we actually see this this skyrocket, right? So there’s lots of stats around how many new businesses fail, your pick your start for us, we see at around 80%. The scary part of it is, though, when when economic times get tough. That goes up to about 90 95%. Because a lot of people who, who just who are not entrepreneurs, not by judgment, but just by wiring, right? Go out and start a business, you know, because they don’t believe that they can get what they want or need out of the career market. So for that person who’s who’s disgruntled, right, how do you help walk them through? Is this something that you know, they just need to find a role? That’s the right fit or start the entrepreneurial journey?
Anish Majumdar
Yeah, great question. Actually, I’m working with a client right now, who I think embodies this. So Eric, had risen to some pretty high creative director roles. And he’s like, What the heck am I going to do? I’m getting marginalized. Okay, so this. So I think that it’s an arbitrary distinction, whether it’s full time, part time consulting, or business, but what I would say is this, in our day and age, Eric just closed last year generating seven figures. And he’s saying, like, oh, I need a business website. And I did this. I’m like, Dude, why do you need that? LinkedIn? And you are the business, right? Yeah, I’m the business in mind. Okay, no one, no one is going to work with us. Unless I’ve come in, because I’ve spent 13 years building brand equity around myself as an individual. Why would I like if I don’t have the resources? If I don’t have the time? Why would I then, like create something a baby in terms of awareness from scratch, when I already have decades of experience that I can leverage right now? Yeah. So what I would say is your business is you as the individual, I don’t care how you structure your money like that. I don’t care. Like it doesn’t matter whether it’s a contract, or or if the wire and why are you who’s wondering about a business? Why are you getting hung up on that right now? What I would say is this, leverage your equity on LinkedIn, leverage, and scale up your relationship building there and ask yourself, here’s the thing, people get hung up on not seeing the true impact of what they’re getting paid for a marketing director is not getting paid to market, right? You’re getting paid to grow, you’re getting paid to grow that business. So again, it all comes down to if it’s Scott, it’s not Scott, who started a podcast who has some sales expertise, right? That’s not a high enough brand for you. What do you do as a partner to a business an organization that only you can do? And how does Scott’s process deliver an outcome that no one else can have? That has to be there no matter what. So these questions can be answered at the individual level, you don’t need a dime, to spend a couple of hours right now on LinkedIn, studying your top competitors studying the top 1%, or 3%, of the most visible people figuring that stuff out. Right. And again, I just think the number one thing I’ve seen in these 13 years, those boundaries are really breaking down. And if you need money, if you need abundance, the number one thing you need is you need to know what’s actually going on, you need to speak the language of your clients not speak the language of your ego and what you would like to communicate. And you’re not going to know that unless you’re willing to be naked in some sense, and be and discover it, discover it, you know, what we do through everything. And by the way, through our training, we use LinkedIn automation to handle the scale, but it’s all comes down to it all comes down to taking someone by the hand and saying guess what Scott? Did you know, you actually have a normal human right to get to know people, like people like you, people, you don’t need to pitch to them. You don’t, you don’t need to present to them. And we don’t advise that because I think it’s it’s the second you pitch unless you’re way down into the funnel of the relationship. All you’re doing is you’re giving someone that sense that I can hold you at arm’s length and oh, I can propose none of them. No, I want to know what keeps you up at two, three in the morning when you can’t sleep. And you feel like a fraud. That’s what I don’t know. And I’m not forget about a PowerPoint until I know that. And if you’re not willing to go there, we move on to the next right. Yeah, everything, everything has to be about jumping into the water, I would say as quickly as possible. And also trusting your intuition. You know?
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. And so over the last couple of years, there have been some very, very big surprises for managers, and CEOs and founders, where they’ve had, you know, folks who are arguably great producers, you know, the, the sure, like, I can always count on them are, are up and leaving, right. And again, not in a bad way. But it’s a surprise nonetheless. So coming from your world of helping folks find, achieve this mindset where they can really define their own criteria of success and go out and create it, what would what would you wish that more employers knew understood? Or were doing to help employees on that process?
Anish Majumdar
I, I think it’s a it’s a lovely question. And I and what I found is that, it’s really funny when employers try to solve this problem, in the large extent, in other words, to give it to their HR to give it to their their internal recruiters to solve. That’s where a lot of really bad problems come in, you know, job postings filled with false information. So what are you going to do by aligning to that, you know, so all of these things come in. But I think what employers have to realize, like, they get so hung up on thinking, Oh, first of all, let me do everything aside from putting it out there into the market. Let me let me tap every internal person because God, what a risk, right? And then once I do, I’m just putting everyone here, I’m just trying to control and I’m, and I’m doing it literally, the problem with that is, they never get to the truth, they never figure out exactly who’s going to actually sell the things because they were never honest about about the real pain that was there. And you never got to the truth. So you’re always going to be micromanaged. And you’re always going to be exercised without that. And that by the way that happens, regardless of what the role is. So my advice would be the best insurance policy you have is how you generate it. And it’s okay, you can get it from a job posting. But understand what your goal is, the very first interaction you have, as one goal is to identify those aspects of pain that are truly driving either the hire or the problems for this guy. Right? That’s what you want to know, if you don’t identify that, right? There’s no way for you to leverage right, there’s no way for you to follow up even right, what are you going to follow up on? Hey, it’s Scott, I just wanted to follow up because you said you’d get back to me in a week right, then? No, no, the only thing you want to be following up for is a niche. Here’s my concern. In our, in our conversation, you told me that 30% of your team has had to leave that’s the turn right now, you’ve told me that marketing, you guys have not been able to to recover since that pandemic, and you have no no idea to do it. And now you’re telling me that when we have this small of a leeway, you guys are taking two weeks to do what my concern is, is that whoever you decide to partner with to solve this, you’re making it that much harder for them, you know, and I’m seriously concerned about any company that would that would handle it with that kind of a priority. So I want to know, I want to hear from you. What do you think about this? Right? Yeah, be a champion for the pain beyond them. Right? Same thing for a client, you want to lock that client down, see what they see. But they can’t see the vision, they can’t see where it can go up, they can see where it goes down. You will be the embodiment of that right? Through the questions you ask not by what you pitch to that person, right? Anyone can do this. Use questions, prepare questions, direct conversations through the questions that you ask, you silences if you need to. If you’re if you’re I can’t tell you how many offers and businesses and business. I’ve closed by using the mute button on my phone. Because I want to, we all do, you know this part of you that makes you good at what you do, you want to help. But sometimes you’ve got to know that until they’re real, until they acknowledge the hell that they are in, it’s not my business to go in there and start helping because all its gonna do, it’s gonna SAP their hunger to do it. So hit that mute, and let them talk, let them talk then get them right in there. You know, these are human dynamics, you know, and I think that every good business is ultimately based on human dynamics. But that’s hopeful because that means that if you have it, you figure it out personally. Not man built the business, dude. I mean, you’ve got it, you’ve got the you’ve got the thing. And it’s and that’s something that we individuals can do. We don’t have to find it, you know, from an outside entity, you know, and, and I would encourage that for anyone you know, what I mean? Is is, is consider taking these types of steps consider behaving in a different way when you’re building these relationships because you’re gonna get a different outcome.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah it’s so true. It’s so true. All right. So this is a question I like to ask every guest who comes on the show. And it’s even where we got the name of the show promise. And so it’s this what is the biggest secret that you wish wasn’t a secret at all? What’s that one thing that you just wish everybody listening today knew.
Anish Majumdar
It’s something I have on my on my desktop here. It’s remember that everyone is an absolute mess, just like you are. So you really don’t have to fear anything. Like, everyone’s an absolute monster in here. And here. We’re all naked. We don’t know what we’re doing. So so please hear me. We need you. Beyond even your self interest and all this everyone hearing this, we need the best of you now we need you. We need your help. We need your brilliance. We need your talent. We need all of that maybe more than I’ve ever seen in my life. So please know you’re helping all of us, you know, by taking these bread brave steps.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah. Wow. Yeah, it’s, there’s so much power behind that. And, and it is there’s a lot of things that are really scary. This doesn’t have to be one of them. Yeah. And it’s just so easy to look out and think everyone else has got it together. And we don’t and it’s just, it’s just patently false. So just kind of is a good segue into this. I’d love for you to take off your your career coach hat, your advisor had a fight? Yeah. And jump into the ring with the rest of us and tell us what that you being you looks like, what’s the next stage of growth for you and your business? And what challenges do you think you’ll have to overcome to get there?
Anish Majumdar
Three or four months ago, I probably would have given you a very different answer, I have a, you know, a team of three. And for a while it’s been financial targets. You know, I basically had essentially a, you know, a nervous breakdown or something close to it, that forced me to reevaluate everything, unfortunately, to realize that, you know, none of what I consider to be success is a success if my kids walk on eggshells around me if I don’t have that closeness. So nowadays, and you know, I’m being honest with you, my, my number one goal for this year is to make sure that my team members, my clients feel whole, and make sure that they know that I’m a human being as well, to make sure that I can take time, in the midst of this rush of, you know, money coming in, and clients and all of that, that I remember that I’m also just like a person and that sometimes, like I can break down, I can make mistakes, I can get angry, I can forgive myself, and staying human and making sure that we don’t lose that humanity right now, especially now seems to me like like, the thing that fosters 10 times more growth. And when I was Mr. obsessed with getting that next target, and that next thing, you know, it’s like, it’s like, if you’re the head of a company, and you’re starting something, make huge, make sure your heart is filled with abundance, because you have to serve, you know, that’s the best way that you can serve. And that’s what I’m trying to. I’m trying to remember, you know, for this for this coming year, you know, is that is I want to fill up that human side for everyone that I’m working with.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. Oh, that just Yeah, it’s so good. It’s holding it all with open hands, you know, exactly. Yeah. And that’s, I can I can resonate with that journey. So much. The tighter you you grab it, the more it squeezes between your fingers and egg time.
Anish Majumdar
Oh, god, yes. This is, this is a weird truth of life. You know, it’s like, it’s like, you know, you look at an athlete, it’s like, they’re, there’s a looseness to it, right? There’s, there’s a sense that you can play the game without being so invested in the game that you can’t see anymore. You can’t change, right, you can’t pivot, and there is something there for me, you know, staying connected on the human side helps me to not get lost, you know, not not let the business run you in some sense, you know?
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. The sports analogy, I’m a fan of hockey. And one of the things that you’ll see with teams that are that are behind or just struggling, you’re in a rut, they’ll always say they’re holding the stick too tight. You know, there’s, there’s a rigidity about the way that we do it. And, and it’s a cue for me, you know, just as I’m going through my day, like, how tight Am I holding the stick? You know, am I am I and you know, it’s, it’s to an extent, it’s harder in life in business than it is in sports, because there’s no physical stick, you know. And so it takes a little bit more awareness to really recognize but cues like that, I found it very, very helpful, a niche, just been such a fantastic conversation. And I know, you mentioned this a second ago, I know that this was for somebody, and so those who are out there, and you know that they’re recognizing, Hey, I’ve used someone else’s definition of success, or, you know, yes, I’ve been trying to do the job thing. And I know there’s more, there has to be more and they’re just resonating with you in this conversation. What is the best way for them to connect with you to find out more about the work that you do?
Anish Majumdar
helloanish.com would probably be the first place that’s kind of our headquarters on the web. If you want to go deeper into trainings, you know, we’re trying to share things from the trenches that are actually working there. And just get you into that more abundance space. If you’re on LinkedIn, put in the word Ainish. Ainish and career I will be there probably the the first brown face that you see there. But Scott, I really, I gotta also just say thank you to you for what you’ve created and what you put forth there because I really consider you to be a bit of a light, you know, in a path that is beautiful, but really dark, especially at the beginning, you know, and so I really want to want to thank you for that as well. And I’m so honored to have taken part in this.
Scott Ritzheimer
Absolutely well, Anish it was just an absolute pleasure having you on the show. I so enjoyed this conversation. And yeah, I just thank you so much for being on and to those of you who are listening your time and attention means the absolute world to us. I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did, and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
Contact Anish Majumdar
Anish Majumdar is a Career Coach and expert in the Hidden Job Market. Over the past 12 years, Anish has helped thousands of professionals around the world take the reins of their professional destiny and break free of the necessity of “job searching”- permanently. His webinars, videos and articles have appeared in Fast Company, Business Insider, Glassdoor, and Ivy Exec. Recognized by Glassdoor, Fast Company, and Ivy Exec as a disruptive career coach to fiercely ambitious professionals.
Want to learn more about Anish’s work at Anish Majumdar Coaching? Check out his website at http://helloanish.com
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