How To Turnaround Your Setbacks Into Success by Siddharth Rajsekar with Avi Arya

I'm a musician turned Internet geek. Never thought that I would be in this space. I dropped out of college when I was in my 12th grade. Maths never went into my head. Calculus never went into my head. When I would see the integration symbol, my brain would just switch off. Long story short, I went in the music industry. I was in the music industry for a few years. I used to make ringtones for mobile phones. I used to manage app stores for I used to manage app stores for Tata Tele services and so on. And later on, set up my own Digital Agency in 2011, 2012, ran that for a good seven years. And in 2018, I got into the game of what I'm doing right now, which is information marketing, creating online courses, helping people become digital coaches, and, you know, helping people take their knowledge and monetize that knowledge. My background is something that many people may not expect. So it's like many roads that I took. But as Steve Jobs says in one of his speeches, when you connect the dots backwards, it all makes a lot of sense.

Hey guys, it's Raya and Aviana. And welcome to another episode of one of the Internet moguls of the world episodes. Today we are so lucky to be joined with Siddharth Rajshekhar. He is an amazing and very successful digital marketer and creates amazing online courses for that one out of the thousand people. For the one person who doesn't know you, would you like to a quick introduction of yourself?

Yeah.

First of all, thank you for inviting me for this really amazing initiative that both of you are doing together. And you know, I think the dad and daughters combo is going to really create an impact in the world. So first of all, I want to thank you for bringing me onto this interview. Yeah. So my introduction is. You know, I'll tell you why I'm going to give you the introduction is because I can totally resonate with what you girls are doing. Because I come from a background where I'm a college dropout. I don't have any degree, I've not studied, I do not have any formal education background. But having said that, because of following my mentors, following people who've been successful and modeling whatever they are doing, I was able to achieve some milestones in my life. So I'm a musician turned Internet geek. Never thought that I would be in this space. I dropped out of college when I was in my 12th grade. Maths never went into my head. Calculus never went into my head. When I would see the integration symbol, my brain would just switch. Off. So, yeah, and I had a very tough time in college. And later on I realized that I loved maths because, you know, it was a teacher. I mean, it was. It was about the whole system. That was really not inspiring at that time. And I was an outstanding student in school. I used to stand outside class most of the time. I had 11 person attendance in my college. And long story short, went in the music industry, I was in the music industry for a few years. I used to make ringtones for mobile phones. I used to manage app stores for. I used to manage app stores for Tata Tele services and so on. And later on, set up my own Digital Agency in 2011, 2012, ran that for a good seven years. And in 2018, I got into the game of what I'm doing right now, which is information marketing, creating online courses, helping people become digital coaches, and, you know, helping people take their knowledge and monetize that knowledge. So it's been an Alice in Wonderland story for me personally. But I just want to once again, thank you and tell if you're watching this, my background is something that many people may not expect. So it's like many roads that I took. But as Steve Jobs says in one of his speeches, when you connect the dots backwards, it all makes a lot of sense. Yeah, so that's my background.

And we're so honored to have you. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, so the first question that we'll start with is that I know we were researching about you and that you got laid off one of your jobs, which you worked so hard for. Can you explain a little bit more of what that was like? What were some of the toughest parts of going through that? Because that must have been very impactful. Oh, sorry, we can't hear you.

Yeah, okay.

Can you hear me now? Yes. So I was saying it is one of those defining moments of my life when I lost my job in 2011, as you all know. I mean, I'm not a graduate, but I worked my way up the corporate ladder just purely through the right connections, the right whatever. I had the talent to really put things together. So I used to make ringtones for mobile phones, and later on I started to manage teams. And I worked in this company for a good eight years and everything was going well. And 2011, a particular vertical was going down, the vertical in which I was actually heading that project. And I still remember the day my boss calls me into his cabin and he says, sid, I know you've been a great employee in this company. But I'm so sorry, I gotta let you go. And that was a moment where I did not know how to take because my wife was three months pregnant with my first child. And that was the first I would say setback that I had. And I had two options. First option was either I get back to a job, I look for a new job. In fact, I went back to some family members and everybody were guiding me. Don't worry, you can get another job. Then at that point I realized that this whole job security thing is I put so many years into this company and there is no security. So rather than going back to the job, I thought, okay, let me start my own business. So I took a big risk. At that point of time I did not have any financial resources, nothing. I had to pawn my wife's gold jewelry to start this business. So I, you know, I, thanks to some support from the family, I pawned my wife's gold jewelry, got some money. I invested a good big portion of that into courses. I bought online courses. I started to get into this whole journey of relearning and re education. So did that for a good six months and thanks to God, thanks to mentors, by the end of six months I was able to set up the agency along with my business partner and cousin. And we set up a small boutique digital marketing agency which is three, four of us. And that ended up growing to a 3540 member agency over the next few years. So yes, it was a very tough moment, but it was that decision and taking a risk that really helped change things over time. And also having faith, you know, having faith and belief that yes, we are going to pull through this and somehow make it through this. Know many people may be going through such a situation right now in the current situation of the world where things are changing so fast and you just keep the faith. Yeah, that was the moment that changed my life.

Awesome. Awesome. Okay. And I know that you were a musician in your past and I'm actually somewhat working on music as well. So I. Some part of me with music doesn't feel that it's right for me. So for anyone watching any teenagers, because this is going to be a family digital marketing school, how did you decide to switch from hobby to have hobby. So how did you go from music to now I want to digital marketing. And how do you think someone can figure that out?

Yeah, so the first thing is to be flexible. You know, I most even teenage when I was going to college, I was 18 years old, I did my diploma in sound engineering. When I was 18, and since I really was passionate about that subject, I did extremely well. Even though I flunked my 12th, I scored 92% in this course that I did. It was a diploma in sound engineering. And they recruited me back to start teaching there. So I've been teaching since the age of 19. That that's been my today. I have to say I'm blessed to have been in the right place at the right time. But having said that, I was very flexible on how the path is going to take me. And every time I felt that, you know, it's not really resonating with my soul or resonating with my inner core or my heart, then I would look for different things to do. So most people where they get stuck is they are very fixed on their methods, but they are very flexible on the vision. So let me explain this and I tell all my students, be fixed on your goal, but be flexible on how you get there. It's like Google Maps. You set the destination, but you'll end up coming through roads where there are roadblocks or obstacles. But Google Maps will actually read out and give you another way to get there. So the same thing, even if your teenagers are watching this, is be fixed on the goal. The goal should not be, you know, it's not just about how much money you want to make or anything like that, but it's what really fulfills you. Okay, what, how do you want to contribute to the world? And if you feel you're going, you're going on that path and you feel that something which is not really aligning with your values, then you can always course correct and get there. So how I moved from music industry to this industry was, you know, in the music industry, I was making ringtones, all that for a few years. In 2009, my wife and I, we launched an album online. 2009, on 999, September 9, 2009. It is a very unique date. So we had around 800 people who bought our album within a span of five months. And we did not make a single copy of a cd. And I was still in a job that point of time. And that was the first time I realized the power and potential of the Internet space. So, and during that phase, I was also learning a little bit about Internet marketing, how to build landing pages, how to set up email marketing systems, because I would give away a free song and I collected the email and I had a database of some 5,000 people even before I launched the album. So I was doing a little Bit of like pre marketing even then. And it was just like looking at some videos and learning. So after I saw the success, it was like the Internet marketing bug had bitten me. And I knew that, okay, I just love this topic and the previous industry of the music, the ringtone stuff, it was getting a little monotonous because in the ringtones were dying, everyone was moving into MP3s. And then, yeah, even the music for games and all of that that I was doing, my passion had shifted to this line. So it was just following my heart and picking something which I really would feel excited about and going deep into. And that's exactly the same pattern kept repeating at different phases of my life. Like when I. When I dropped college, I was really excited about making music sound engineering. So spent a good four to five years and then after that I got this job. I was making ringtones, making music for games. Really excited about that. Then agency, I was super excited about agency. And I built that for five, six years. So here to tell all of you that each one of you will go through different phases of evolution because you're evolving as a person yourself. And you don't have to be fixed on one thing. Master something and then you can move on to the next. And that's going to help you. What we have learned in those few years will help you. Like those skills that you acquire will help you in the next. For example, I'll give you an idea. I used to do a lot of video editing. I should do a lot of audio editing. But now in my business, I do all the videos and audio editing myself. And that's those skills that actually helped me right now. So every face of growth has added to the next level. So that's how it is.

Yeah.

Awesome. So you never have to have it all figured out.

You know, just. Just go with the flow. Just be fixed on the vision. The vision is what kind of contribution do you want to make to the world and what kind of life do you want? Like what? See things like, like for me, like it's music, it's spirituality, it is. I have some core values that I live by. As long as those core values are, it's all aligned and just keep going in that direction.

Yeah.

Awesome. Okay, perfect. Randy, what's your question?

Yeah, so my first question is, can you explain how you made the Freedom Business Model?

Sure. In fact, I'm going to be creating an exclusive course only for your school. Okay. Because the Freedom Business model, something that I created for everyone else, you know, And I'll tell this is very close to my heart because I'm a college dropout. I don't have any education, and I want to prove to the world that there's no one way to become successful. There are many ways to become successful. And that was how I started the Freedom Business Model. The Freedom Business model, it is. The idea sprouted after running my agency for a long time. So I've been running my agency for six years. And when I quit my job and when I lost my job and I started the agency, I thought, okay, let me be my own boss. And then I ended up having over 35 to 40 bosses, which are all my clients, and I had to report to all of them and managing the teams, managing people. I love that. That phase of evolution that I went through, I really loved that phase as I was building the company. But after a point of time, it started to get to me where I realized, okay, let me build something. Let me build a business where I have very few human components and I'm able to use and I'm able to sell more products than services, because when you're selling a service, you're literally selling your time and you're selling yourself. So the Freedom Business Model evolved at a point in my life where I wanted more freedom for myself. You know, otherwise I was just running that six to seven years. You know, every day was a new day. Initially, it was exciting, but after a point of time, it was getting to me. It was like, same client calls, same troubleshooting issues, dealing with people issues, cash flow issues, payment collection issues. And the same cycle was repeating year after year of one financial year to next financial year to next financial year. I was like, okay, this is. This is really not me. I need to now move into the next level. And that's when I got into this. I started to do affiliate marketing. I started to promote other people's products online. I had won a contest in 2018 where I had. I won a fully paid trip to Miami, Florida. I got to meet my mentor over there. We spent a whole day on a yacht, expanded, my vision came back, and I built the Freedom Business Model within two weeks. So it was all those years of pain combined with the success that I had in that 90 days of focused implementation based on what my mentor taught me, all those came together, and I created my own course. So I launched it in 2018, September. The Freedom Business Model.

Yeah.

Awesome. Wow, that's amazing. Okay, so my next question is how hard? So, you know, you obviously got here where you're. You're very successful. Today. But for those people who feel, you know, oh, Sid has it all, it was very easy for him. How hard was it and what were some of the toughest times it took you to become successful today? Open up a little bit about maybe failures or whatever you're comfortable with.

Yeah, sure. And like, success is not easy. It is simple. Sometimes if you follow a simple system, if you follow a mentor and, you know, do whatever they say, you can achieve success. But having said that, if success was easy, everyone would be successful. And there is a principle called the 8020 rule. It's called the Pareto's principle, where 80% of the people will get results. 80%, sorry, 20% will get results. The bottom 80% will actually be grinding it. And if you look at any industry, any phase of life, like even in your own, let's say, in your own schools, you would see that only the top five or top 20% will actually be, you know, getting the results and the rest of them are just hanging around. And the same applies everywhere. So this concept went into my head very deep in 2018 when I was learning from my mentor. And that's when I realized that I need to be in the top 5% of my game. I cannot afford to just be in the bottom 80%, which means that I had to shift a few patterns. Prior to this, I had all the knowledge, I had all the skills. I've been doing big campaigns for big names. Everything was looking great on the outside, but only I knew inside on how much money I was taking out of my company and how I was struggling to make ends meet. It was not reflecting my bank account. So I've been through a lot of struggles at a point where I had to, I mean, wife and I. My wife and I used to plan and when we go shopping in the grocery store, we would decide on which groceries to buy so that we would have more money at the end of the month than there is month. Okay, so you would make those kind of decisions. And I'll tell you today, I'm truly blessed. But I know that feeling of not having money, or I know that feeling of not having enough. Like, even if, when my son was young, one or two years old, I would think twice before I couldn't buy any toys for him. Because if, probably if I make that person purchase decision that month, then I wouldn't be having much money at the end of the month. But externally, everything was looking good. I was a co founder of a company running campaigns for Tony Robbins and all these big names. Yes, everything was Looking very nice from the outside world, but I knew that pain inside. So it was tough decisions on finances. There were tough conversations that I used to have with my wife because a woman needs security. And when a woman does not feel secure, it affects all aspects of life. And I've seen that Manita has. She's been my pillar of strength. But having said that, husband and wife, we've had some very tough conversations during those moments when there was tight cash flow. And it was a lot of resistance. I mean, a lot of friction, I would say a lot of friction. And that was impacting all areas of life. It also impacted my health in 2015 because I was so stressed. I was overworking. I went through a panic attack. I could not sleep for two weeks because I was overworked and I was not taking care of myself. I was focusing so much on, you know, somehow making it happen. So what I learned later on is, you know, some of the big lessons that helped me breakthrough in those 90 days where. Well, like three important lessons. The first lesson was my mentor told me, he said, time is not your most valuable asset. He said, your focus is your most valuable asset. I started to focus all my energies on things that mattered the most. Like, I unsubscribed from all email lists. I deleted all apps on my phone. In fact, on my phone right now, if I have to show you I only have four applications on my phone. That's it. I don't have any social media apps. Nothing. If I have to do anything on social media, I just go on my. On my browser and check it out, because Instagram I have, but I've removed the notifications. And I started to focus all my energy on building systems, on building products, on mastering the art. And that's what helped me, you know, grow. So three things that he helped, that he helped me with was he told me, focus is your most valuable asset. He said, don't be cheap on your journey to greatness. If you want to be great, you got to make those investments. Invest in yourself, invest in your learnings, invest in tools, whatever it takes. And the third thing he said is systems work. People fail. If people are let on their own, they are bound to fail. And that's how I was for. For a good three to five years before I got into this journey over here. And the day that I surrendered to my mentor, did exactly what he said. I'll tell you, surrender is. There's a deeper principle to this. I had a big ego before because I've done campaigns for all these Big names. And then I used to think, okay, I already know this, I know this, I know this. But I was not implementing it. And the day that I looked into my, you know, when I went through my mentor's program and I said, okay, Vic, whatever you tell me, I'm just going to do that blindly. I'm not going to question whatever you say because you're. Because he was getting results. So when that surrender came in, when I dropped that ego, a new world started to open up. Like when my income grew by 5x10x within a very short span of time, the impact was much more and I was really not focusing much on the result. Also, I was just focusing on the activity and focusing on what has to be done. So, yeah, I hope that has answered your question. Is there has been a lot of struggles on this path, but each and each struggle has actually helped me become stronger for the next challenge. And the point where the results started to come was when I got a good mentor.

Yeah.

Awesome. Wow. Wow. That was a story. I love it. Okay, Vienna, what's your next question?

So my next question is, how did you meet our dad, Avi Arya? And what was the power of setting up a mastermind together?

That's a great question. And I want to mention that the Indian moguls of the world, this school is going to be a game changer. You know, for all of you watching this interview, I highly recommend this initiative, what the girls are doing with their dad. And I'll tell you how I met Avi. For me, meeting Avi was. It is a special moment. You know, it's like I always say that Avi is like a brother from a different mother. And we were able to resonate a lot in terms of values. I used to see his posts on social media many years ago. And I had an opportunity to interview Avi on my podcast many years ago. It was, I think at least four to five years back. So, you know, streetcar racer turned hotelier turn social media marketer. The hook that he uses. I had a great conversation with him in that interview. I think it was a 45 minute interview. Then I came to Delhi in 2017 to speak at a conference then that's the first time that I popped into the Internet mogul's office and we had a live session. I still remember that session that we had. It was really nice to meet Avi in person. I met Avi in person. It never felt like it was the first time we are meeting each other. It felt like we have known each other for years. That is something which I think many of you can relate to. Like, if you're able to connect with someone on a deep level, it's. You'll never know that. You. Let me put it this way, you feel that you've known them for years, and there are some people in your life where you know them for years, but still you still don't know what they're all about. Okay, so you have both sides of them. Aviz is someone that I was able to connect to on a much deeper level. And how we created the mastermind was also quite interesting. We've been in touch on and off, and Avi has been telling me about all the stuff that's been happening in the Western world, what's happening in Canada, what's happening in the US of these different masterminds, these different Internet marketers. And I was just out with my son in a mall. We were just, you know, spending time with him, and Avi just called me, said. He said, hey, Sid, we have to create some kind of a mastermind. You know, a lot of people in the west are doing a mastermind. Let's do something like that for India. And I said, okay, let's do it. Let's set up a WhatsApp group. It was Abhi and I were the first two people who created this WhatsApp group called Digital Heroes of India. Then I added Deepak in, then I added Sourav Jain in, and one by one, everyone started to come in. And before we knew it, we were like nine of us were inside there. And then we started to meet every week, started to help each other. BNI format. Like, we would give it. We would give ideas to others, we would get ideas from others on what we could, how we could improve our business. And before we knew it, we had our first meeting in Chennai, second meeting in Goa. And now it's been amazing. We did our. It's going to be a year now that we did our first mega conference in Mumbai with over a thousand people, the Digital Masters Alliance. And I think we've inspired more than 10,000 people, I would say, in the last one year, with all the collaborations and stuff that we have done together. We had our first Digital Masters conference online with 3,000 people a few months ago. We're gonna be doing the next one soon. So, I mean, it's. Avi and I, when we came together, that whole synergy of all the others coming in, it was just magical, you know, it was not a. Though technically all of us are competitors, but we are now in a World of collaboration and there's so much that we're able to learn from each other and we're able to understand our unique positioning in the market. So, yeah, your dad is a super daddy. That. Yes.

No, that's awesome. I personally loved that day. That DMC conference is amazing.

Yeah.

Okay, so my next question is, how do you. So you, how do you have someone to complete your course? You have a course, you bought it, but most people don't actually complete it. They 20%, they finish it and then they're done. How do you get people to fully complete the course and learn from it?

Yeah, See, the sad truth about the elearning industry is only 5% complete courses. That means anyone buys a course, only 5 out of 100 will actually finish the course. But thankfully, in my community, in my course, I have a 45% completion rate, which is like close to 9 to 10 times the average. And how do I do that is through engagement. So when I say engagement, besides them buying my course, I'm there to serve them and support them every single week. So I do like an inner circle mastermind only for my paid members and I answer questions. So just like how we charge our phone on a daily basis, people need to be recharged every week, otherwise they will fizzle out. So that is the best way to get people to move through the course. And also it's very important on how you set the context even before they start the course. So my first video of my first course, it is a very powerful video. In fact, I tell them in that video is, I'm very concerned about you because I'm very concerned that you're not going to finish this course. I use reverse psychology there. So they're already thinking, okay, no, I'm going to finish this course. It is how you actually plant the seed of, you know, of inspiration in them at the first video itself and when you said the context. So I'll tell them very clearly, okay, this is going to be. You need to dedicate 90 minutes per day for the next 90 days. If you're somebody who's giving excuses, you're not going to get any results. So I try to be as blatant and as straightforward as possible. And that is actually helping me much more. Students are completing the course. They are taking it even more seriously. I have more than 50,000 comments and all my courses put together, which is crazy. And these are not just some normal comments, are like huge, huge comments. Because below my videos I asked them to share detailed notes of whatever they've learned in that one video. And so I'm able to see the engagement is deep. And when somebody is actually taking notes and going deep in every video, even their learning is. I mean they actually end up finishing it. But having said that, I'm doing my best. It's at 45%. I think 100% is a long way to go, but that's the best way to get people to complete courses. So use reverse psychology.

Yeah, reverse psychology and engagement. And really showing them that you care.

Yes.

Awesome. Okay, Aviana, what is your next question?

So my next question is, how did you know it was the right decision to drop out of college even when you were like excelling in school? And how did you know the right decision to drop out of college, start music, which was your passion?

I didn't. At that point of time I did not know it was the right decision. That was the only option I had because. Because I flunked my 12th, I could not get into the mainstream education. You know, many of my friends entered to the be miss and sorry, Bachelor, Engineering or Bachelor's of Science, BSc. Everyone were getting to those streams. I did a. I'm a science background. I did my physics, chemistry, maths, biology, you know, PCMB in 12th. So I did not have an option. I was looking at a newspaper one day and there was this course, sound engineering. The only qualification to get into that is 10th. I was like, cool, okay, I've not finished my 12th so I can get in. I have my 10th certificate, I can join this course. So I took the next train with my mom, went to Chennai, spent two days over there. I still remember the day that they walked me into the studios and they showed me where the theory was happening, where the practicals were happening. There was an analog studio, there was a digital studio. And then I knew at that moment, okay, this is going to be my thing. I'm not going to think twice about this. This is my thing. And my mom was very, you know, she was very, very nervous because I've never left home before and I was 18 years old at that point of time. And I still remember that trip and we were coming back from Chennai, back to Bangalore. My mom was asking me, are you sure about this? I don't know if I can leave you and you're going to be staying in Chennai on your own, all that stuff. But I'll tell you, that was one of the best decisions I had. My would say the, the biggest growth that I had as an individual was when I was on my own and when I left home at 18. So yes, I never planned. It was not a decision that, that I knew that will. Will work or not work. Just had to. I had to make it happen.

Yeah.

Wow. Wow, that must have been scary.

It was more than me. It was for mum. Yeah, mom and dad, that was okay. But letting me go. And then she used to call me every day and find out, are you okay? Are you having your food, all that stuff. But, but for me it was like I was let loose. So I was, I was enjoying my life at that, that phase.

Awesome. Okay, so my next question is so going off of how do you get people to complete the course? How do you. When you're first starting to create a course, how do you get people to trust you? How do you get people to want to buy this course? Because first courses, it's always people start, just start. But how do you actually start and get people to actually come and buy this product of yours?

That's a very, very good question, Vienna. It's. See, when you're designing a course, most people think that it's about how much knowledge they have, but that's not the focus. Like many people, they come into my curriculum, then my coaching system and they say I have like 25 years experience in this field and my only answer to them is no one cares about that. People only want to know what problem can you solve? So when you are engineering a course or you're designing a course, it has to be done from a point of what problem are you solving in the market? And inside my course I cover, there are six problems that are there. Business growth, people want to grow their business, people want to grow in their carriers. Career growth. People want to live a healthier life. So health and wellness number four is we have make money, people want to make extra money, people want to improve their relationships and people want to enhance their creativity. So there's arts and arts and crafts also would come under that. So you can take any one of these six topics or niches and go deeper into those niches and create something that of real value. And there's a process to it. I've developed a new methodology and process now where I make people do an exercise called a scrapbook exercise. So they create a digital scrapbook. For the first 30 days they have to go and do some insane research and keep filling up this scrapbook with all possible ideas around that particular topic. So for example, if why don't you tell me Abhiyana or tell me what do you really love? Tell me any one area that you're passionate about.

I'm personally passionate about horses.

Okay. Courses. Give me a, Give me some. A different.

She means horses, like.

Right, okay, horses. Horses. Okay, got it, got it. So if it's going to be about horses, what you can do is go and do your scrapbook should have all the different ideas around horses. So for example, if horses is going to be your main theme, I want you to imagine that to be like a tree trunk and the branches that come out are the different subtopics. So can you give me some sub topics on the horses?

Maybe I can do like I can do a.

Riding a horse.

Yeah, how to ride a horse or riding a horse is one of the subtopics. Maybe we could look at how do you take care of a horse is one of the topics. Give me a few, few other examples. Gear.

Yeah, gear of the horse. How the first, like conquer your nerves and get on the horse.

Okay. How do you conquer yourself to get on the horse? Anything else?

How to. What to feed your horse?

What to feed your horse.

Yeah.

So we've got around four to five branches under the main topic. Okay. So these are the branches. So if you just take gear, for example, like what, what kind of gear would be best for the horse? If you take that branch. Under the branch you can have many leaves. Those leaves are the different kinds of content. So you can spend a whole day doing research only on horse year and fill up your scrapbook. So imagine if you're able to have your main topic, the branches and all the leaves, over a span of a month, you're able to have in one scrapbook all the possible ideas. Do you think you can create a good course on horses?

Yes, I think I can.

Yeah.

And the important thing here is the leaves are the content, the fruits are your courses. Because it's going to be the essence of that knowledge. But keep this in mind. The quality of the fruit is going to be based on the quality of the roots. Most people forget that. And when I, when I talk about roots here, it is whether you're really passionate about it. So for example, in your case, if you really love horses and if you love the topic, you'll be so much more grounded and your roots will be so strong so that you can do research on the topic. Most people, when they're doing courses, they just pick a course. They pick a topic because it's the hottest thing. But you know, I'd give the example, Tell them if you're, if you're just going to pick a topic based on what Is hot. Where you don't have your heart there. It's like trying to grow a tree on concrete. Like putting a tree on concrete. There won't be any roots, and you're not going to get the fruits also. And the other thing is a uniqueness, because when you're able to do that scrapbook exercise, when you're able to generate a bunch of ideas and then create something unique coming out of you without being like, without copying any other course or copying anybody else, that will create a magic that. That's unimaginable. So that this is how I visualize or, you know, I tell you, my students, to visualize on how to create a course, it has to be based on the tree trunk, branches, le and the roots.

Yeah.

Wow. Okay. I definitely know how to schedule my content planning now. Sounds very helpful. Okay, so what. How did you. Okay, so when you were creating a course, your first, you obviously went through lots of mistakes. So what is the most common mistake you would advise people watching this to avoid when they were. They're making their first course?

The most common mistake that I see is niche selection itself. That means they pick a topic purely based on whatever was a hot thing in the market. Just what is the most profitable niche? Let me do that. So the first big mistake is people. They're not able to pick a topic which is congruent with who they are. Like, for me, right now, I'm in this. My niche is to create digital coaches. Okay. And I want to create the next breed of digital teachers. Now, I'll tell you why it is congruent with me. Because I'm somebody who dropped out of college. I do not have any degree, but I found a way on how to, you know, make money and, you know, support my family and be successful without going to the conventional path of the education system. So I have all the right. Or in other words, I'm congruent with this topic because my story is connected with what I'm doing now. Yeah. So most people, they have to find that link. Their story or their experiences in their life should be congruent with the topic that they choose. So that's the first mistake. Second mistake that people do is they, you know, they don't go deep into developing their own unique formula. They watch YouTube videos, they buy three, four other courses, they cut, copy, and paste information exactly as it is from there, and they put it up as though it is their own. That's also a big mistake. Now, no one is going to check, but there's something called moral Authority. Okay. There's a. There's a principle on moral authority that I got from my mentor. So he says that when you are able to develop something unique of your own, it is not that the ideas are unique, ideas are always there, but the unique positioning and unique packaging of your information that will give you, like, give an edge over others in the marketplace. And also most people, the mistake that they do is they only learn and they teach and they miss a very important component, which is the do part. You have to learn, do and teach. A lot of people are just, they aren't implementers. And when you are able to create a course where you're learning something, you're implementing that knowledge and then you're teaching, it comes from a deeper sense of awareness and understanding, which can actually help your students. Otherwise you're just being a parrot. You know, it's like you're learning something on YouTube and then you teach the same thing. But when you're not implementing, you won't have that. That deeper connection. So these are the mistakes that I. That I've seen many people do.

Wow. Okay. Awesome. Okay. So for any teenagers who don't have a lot of experience or say, like myself or Aviana, we don't have a lot of experience in life, you know, what type of course can we make or do we wait until we're older and we find a particular niche? Do we wait a little, or can we start now?

Yeah.

On this topic, I'm going to be creating that exclusive course only for the school over here for kids. The answer is this age is not a. It's nothing here. Okay. There are some people, like the average, from what I know, I think the average age of a millionaire in the US is now some 13 years or something. Like they have the YouTube millionaires. Right. So I don't think age is. Is a factor here. And it is not that. Just only when you become old, you have all the experience. I'm sure you, both of you have some experience in some topic.

Yeah.

So like in Raya's case, it is. Sorry, Raya or Aviana? Rayana. Raya. Okay, so Raya, in your case, okay, in Aviana's case, it is horses, right? And in Raya's case, what is it that really you have spent a lot.

Of time on Making videos.

Making videos. Okay. Now in video making, can you tell me, do you have any superpower or did you. Were you able to find something which you are doing, like, better than others?

I would say. I would say staying true to who I am. And not trying to be someone else.

Okay, so let's get into the techniques of videos. Like do you, do you like to do short videos or long videos?

So maybe the. I like to do like short videos, but that tell a story that you get to know who the.

Fantastic. So you, you're good at the short storytelling video format. Okay. Now if I, if I have to ask you, what is your formula? Like how long should this video be?

Like an average video? Yeah, like eight to ten, actually. Five to ten minutes.

Five to ten minutes. Okay, let's, let's keep it five minutes. So if it's going to be five minutes, is that a good enough time to convey a powerful story? Yes, in five minutes. And what kind of stories have you conveyed to others? I just want to ask you this question, like, is it more to do with your personal life or is it more to do with, I don't know, with what you're learning or what are the topics that, that you are able to get into?

Yeah, so like personal if it's a story of mine, like I've been through bullying, so if I want to talk about that personal story or if it's like I recently created a video on my YouTube where I wanted the audience to get to know me better. So I challenge kind of videos that tell the story, but it's an entertaining way to watch as well.

Yeah, awesome. So if you are able to position yourself, Raya, as like the five minute storyteller, like a video storyteller, that can become your niche and you develop that and I'm sure you have a, you have a template for that. Like what should, what should happen in the first 30 seconds? How do you really grab the attention? Then how do you develop that story? Like the storyboarding principle and then how do you know, end that video in such a way that people, they walk away with, you know, with a lot of value and they're able to really feel a difference in their life, you know, so if you can even make that as your topic, that, that will release it. So like, like I'm saying you didn't have to wait for years to come up with this idea. It is through your experience. Like for example, my 8 year old son, like he's been doing a lot of gaming on PS4 and we both have finished like the Batman, Arkham Knight and all these games. I can actually ask him to create a course on that. Okay. So I mean, which levels to conquer, which are the, which are the shortcuts to get there. So it's age. No Bar it is. Anyone can create a course at any point of time. You just need to understand like, what is it? What, what are you passionate about? And find out whether this passion of yours, like in your case, is that five minute storytelling note template or the formula that you have, what problem can you solve with that? Okay, so who, who do you want to serve and how you can solve the problem? So for example, if you want to use this, this talent that you have or that you have and the skills that you've gained to really inspire the teenage, your age group, to really make them live a more purposeful life or maybe help them in what were challenges that they are going through now, that can become a mission. And your mission can be something like to inspire 100,000 young minds or young leaders or to create 100,000 young leaders, how they can start leading without waiting to go to 20. Okay. How you can become a leader even before you. Yeah, even before you get out of school or something like that. So if you knew you're able to make that into a mission and then you have the formula and you're solving that problem, you can create a huge fan following and a community around that topic. So does not matter.

Yeah.

So age really doesn't matter. It's not just a saying.

Yeah.

Okay, so my next question is, does social media help with building a platform or building a course? So you know, like they say Kylie Jenner, she really sold all her products because she used social media. So with a course, does social media and building your platform, should people be focusing on that?

See, yeah, both are important. Social media is for you to build your awareness and to build your influence and you'll get a lot of feedback from that, from your community. So for example, when your dad has a huge community, your Facebook group, I've got a big Facebook group. Many times you just post questions there and ask like feedback like what? What do people really want? In fact, I'd asked a question yesterday, like I asked them, what do you think is your number one obstacle for growing your income? Be honest. I asked them. I got more than 70 to 80 responses. Now by looking at those responses, I can start to see patterns and based on that, I can create new content so that I can serve them and to address those specific issues. So social media can be great for you to grow your influence, to build a connection with your audience, to also get feedback from them. But ultimately you need to bring them into your own platform. Like I have my own teachable system that has got his own thinkific platform and that's where the most serious learners are inside that platform. So it is a combination of both. You need to have both of these. Yes.

Okay. Okay, got it. Aviana, do you have a question?

Yeah.

So my last question is we use the term Internet moguls a lot. And for us in Internet moguls means someone who spends quality time with their family, but also works hard on growing their business and proving their business. So what would your definition of an Internet mogul be?

So for me, an Internet mogul would be someone like your dad, a super dad, who can spend time with his family, who can really spend time with his wife, spend time with family, spend time with, you know, and also building a successful business. I mean, that's exactly what even I'm doing here is I'm working hundred percent from home. I have two kiddos. First one is eight years old and the second one is two years old. And it's, you know, it's quite a noisy house, you know, now he's in the other room. But otherwise there's always something going on. So for me it's about building a business and living a life. Most people, they build a business and they don't have a life. You know, they're always working only towards the numbers and the growth and next and the next thing. And they neglect the most important thing in the world, which is their own family. And for me, family values and spirituality is so, it's very, very core to my state of being. So it's like there's business, family and spirituality. All three are important factors of my life. So for me, an Internet mogul is someone like Arjuna, you know, and Arjuna is, you know, going back to our Indian, you know, scripture and things like that. He was like an enlightened warrior. He never quit from this world. He wanted to quit the war and wanted to run away. But then Krishna told him that, you know, you fight, you do your duty, you do whatever you have to do, but do it for me. Do it with love. So the same way I look at nintend mogul as someone who is able to build a successful business online to the external world. Yes, it seems like they're very, very busy doing multiple things. But actually, yes, they are spending a lot of time in their business, but they're giving equal importance to, you know, people that matter the most, which is family and other core, deeper values.

Yeah, awesome. Okay, perfect. So on that, on that note, what, what are some of the rituals that you have implemented over the years to help, which have helped you with your Success, because, you know, we wrote bedtime stories for tomorrow's entrepreneurs a while ago, and we really believe in rituals and family values. And so what are some of the rituals maybe you do every morning or every day that have helped you, which have helped you to reach success today?

Thank you for asking that. It's a great question. And rituals and habits is what creates results for me. It starts off with meditation in the mornings. I love to do japa meditation. There are different forms of meditation, but I chant the names of God. And as I chant the names, I listen to the sound vibration. And that really creates a sense of connection. And it's a very purification, purifying experience, like if you do it continuously. So I do that in the mornings. I've been doing it for more than 15 years now for at least one hour to 90 minutes in a day. Sometimes when I miss out in the morning, I do it in other parts of the day. So it's. It's not like, fixed. As much as possible, I'd like to do it in the mornings. So that's the first ritual. Now, when it comes to business, I like to write my goals on a daily basis. So I have a goal book, and I actually write two pages of goals on a daily basis. And I don't refer to the previous day. I just write it fresh from my mind and I make it very specific. That really helps me get more focused on what do I really want to, you know, achieve. Number three is I listen to the strangest secret in the world. I think that's something which many of you in my community members are doing. It's a 30 minutes audio by Earl Nightingale. I listen to that daily to reprogram my mind to really make it move forward. And recently what I've done is I made a list of some very powerful affirmations and goals that I wanted to incorporate into my life. I recorded that as a. As an audio. It's a 15 minutes audio, and I listen to that every day. I listen to my own voice with the affirmations that I say. So all of these rituals actually help me, you know, reprogram my mind to be more focused towards going where I want to go.

Yeah.

Wow. Awesome. Okay. Yeah, I strongly believe in affirmations too, so nice. Okay, so my next question is walk us through, step by step, of creating a valuable. A valuable course. Maybe a brief description even.

How do you create a valuable course step by step?

Yeah.

So step number one is identify your niche. Step number two is do that 30 days scrapbook exercise. Step number three is then you got to design your curriculum based on a two layer approach, like a conceptual layer and implementation layer. And then, you know, just record videos. I mean, record your courses following a framework which can really guide your students to move to the next level. Again, courses, it's not about how much knowledge you give, it is how crisp you can make it for them to get the results. So those are the steps.

Okay, awesome. Okay, so my next question would be, say I wanted to start making online courses. Right. So this kind of goes back to what Aviana asked. How, how would I do that? Like me personally? And what would your advice be to say, even if it's a grandma, you know, a grandmother's watching this or dad is watching this, you know, maybe they want to quit their job and they want to start living a life like you. What would your, I mean, how would you really do that?

Yeah, I have a blueprint which I normally share in my webinar. It's called the Digital Coach blueprint. So there are three parts to this blueprint. Okay. The first part is you got to build your knowledge business. You need to understand what is your knowledge business stack. Okay. Need to understand what are the offerings that you have courses, coaching, consulting and so on. The next step is you need to build your knowledge business system. Knowledge business system is it has to have your learning management system, your branded website and your private network. I have my own private social network for my students. So that's all the technology piece. So the first is the, is the information piece, the second is the technology piece, and the third one is your knowledge business skills. And there are five important skills that one needs to acquire over a period of time. So because money, you can only make money once you are, one is delivering value in the marketplace and two is you're upgrading your own skills. So the five skills are content creation skills, traffic generation skills, lead generation skills, selling skills, and community building skills. When all these five come together, you can see it on the skill side. Yeah, here, here are the skills. You can see the one skills.

Yes.

So when all those skills come together, then you will start to see results. And most people, they, they neglect the skills element. You know, they, they just want to outsource everything. They don't want to do anything. They don't want to do the hard work. So it'll, it'll take some time. When I say when it takes time, you can do it in 90 days. If you put your focus in 90 days, even if you're somebody who's never done this before, in 90 days you can start to make money provided you're able, you're open your coachable and able to follow the system.

Yeah.

So it's knowledge you need to have the stack stack system and skills.

And where do you, where would you say to learn these skills? How would you say you self educate webinars, live streams or.

See one is definitely I'm going to be covering some part of this inside the course that I'm going to create for all of you. But the skills, it's an ongoing thing like for example, content creation. Like you are good at doing five minute story videos. Now that is a skill that you'd have acquired over a period of time and it you never master that, you're always improving it. So the best way to start off is maybe start up with a few courses. But the best way to improve your skills is by by doing it. You know, it's by running your own campaigns and traffic generation is by managing your own lists and generating leads is by selling through webinars. I do a lot of webinar sales that have done more than 500 to 600 webinars. And now you wake me up at 3am in the morning and say sid, start a webinar and sell products. I can do it because it's like I've subconsciously, now I've exercised that muscle for a long period of time. It's, there's a beautiful concept, it's, it's called unconscious competence. Okay. You need to develop unconscious competence in your field. If you look at most of these Michael Phelps, who's a Olympian right now, when he hears that, the gunshot to dive into the pool, now he knows exactly what he has to do because he's practiced so many times and he's like I think the biggest Olympian gold winner of all time. And he's in that state of mastery which is unconscious, it's like unconscious mastery, unconscious competence in his skills. So when you are doing a particular thing for a long period of time, let's say you do 500 stories, okay? Right. Let's say you do find it stories of the five minute stories. It'll come to a point where you just know what, what you have to do next without thinking. It's like when you're driving, if you have driven for 10 years, if you're driven a car for 10 years, you're not going to think about when you're going to shift the gear, when you're going to be pressing the clutch. It's happening at a subconscious level now that's how skills also should become. When you're able to take those core skills and master it to such an extent, it will become. You'll be able to operate at a unconscious level. And that's what is mastery level. It's like true. And you'll be in Zen mode. You can do whatever you want and it's just happening in a seamless way.

Yeah.

Awesome. Okay, so my last question is to anybody, message anybody who is watching this and they're like, I want to create a course, but I. And they have a great voice that their knowledge and everything, but they don't have the confidence in themselves. They aren't sure how, how to start. You know what, what would you say to them.

If they want to start a course and if they don't have confidence, see that the best way is to just do the thing. I mean, don't get into analysis paralysis.

Yeah.

So that's how people get stuck. They're thinking too much about what's going to come. So I would say is to get started, do the research, start to do your scrapbook and start to put together those pieces together. And then once you start putting your content out there, you'll get feedback from the market. So the thing is, don't be too stressed out about perfectionism because perfectionism can be a big. It can be a big obstacle in this business. It's always a state of evolution and improvement. So don't think too much. Just get started and drop the tags. Okay? That's something that I tell my students. Drop all the tags. The tags are, I am too young. I'm too old. I'm, I'm not. I'm non technical. I'm, I'm just a student, okay? I'm a senior citizen. I'm a grandma, I'm this, I'm that. All these tags that we put on ourselves, just drop the tags and just get started.

Yeah.

Yes. Whatever age you are, even if you're, you know, you have to side hustle this, you can still do it.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Awesome. Thank you so much, Sid, for taking the time out really quickly.

So the thing is, don't be too stressed out about perfectionism because perfectionism can be a big. It can be a big obstacle in this business. You. It's always a state of evolution and improvement. So don't think too much. Just get started and drop the tags. Okay? That's something that I tell my students. Drop all the tags. The tags are, I am too young, I'm too old. I'm, I'm not, I'M non technical. I'm. I'm just a student. Okay. I'm a senior citizen. I'm a grandma, I'm this, I'm that. All these tags that we put on ourselves, just drop the tags and get started.

Yeah.

Yes. Whatever age you are, even if you're, you know, you have to side hustle this, you can still do it.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Awesome. Thank you so much, Sid for taking the time out really quickly. So you know, will put this at the beginning of the interview when it's like, or even at the beginning if you put a quick montage together why people should get involved in this school and why they should watch.

Yeah, sure. Okay. So I'll just give a message for this and then you can use this. The current education and employment systems are broken. And if you really want to save the next generation, it is about time that they get into a school like this where they learn the new age skills, the new age mindset, and the new age strategies to succeed in this game. And one of my favorite quotes is by Jim Rohn. Jim Rohn says formal education will make you a living, but self education will make you a fortune. And this is that place where you can come and learn that. And if you want to have more than you got right now in your life, you have to become more than you are. And that's why this is a school for you to be in. And I would highly recommend this for everyone.

Yeah.

Thank you so much.