Everyday Entrepreneur - Ash Shukla - Financial CHAKRAS System - S2 E8

Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of The Everyday Entrepreneur. I'm your host, Paul H. Flowers Jr., and this is the Popery Place podcast show. We're bringing on a guest today who has changed the lives of millions, Mr. Ash Shukla, a business consultant, founder of Financial Chakras. And a host of more things that we're going to dive into conversation and uncover. Looking forward to this conversation. Ash, welcome to the show. How are you, my friend?

I'm doing good. Thank you so much, Paul. I appreciate you bringing me on here.

Absolutely. It's our fantastic pleasure again to bring guests such as yourself that have so much experience and really great stories. Of course, the purpose of this podcast is to help to inspire those who may be at a level of entrepreneurship and looking to level up, as well as those who might not have taken that first step to even form their LLC or find a mentor, right? And everything in between. So I'd love for you to share your story, Ash, as far as where you're at today, but more importantly, how you got there and some of that transition.

Yeah, so, uh, today, you know, I personally run a holistic business consulting, you know, practice. And I've been doing consulting for 17 years. I have helped over 5,000 entrepreneurs and I've taken several of them over $1 million in revenue. And my friend, my main mission is to really help entrepreneurs and business owners, you know, either accumulate a million-dollar wealth or build a million-dollar prospectus. Right. So I originally came here from India with $20 and no English. I grew up here in Maryland. I ran into— I was doing financial services for 27 years. When I started, I wasn't bad. I was pathetic, you know, and I, I had to blackmail my dad through my mom to get the first sale in the door. And, and eventually, Paul, you know, is eventually I got so good at it. I was managing over $300 million in assets and then I started my own company and I sold my financial practice about 5 years ago. I've been doing consulting training since 2008, like I mentioned. I've received— I've written a book called Sell Like Crazy in 2012. It's my first book, uh, and literally I received a congressional honor for the work I've done, right? So this is the congressional honor basically of the work I've done, okay? And yeah, so for me, uh, you know, it's, it's all about making a difference and, and what I can do to help other people.

Wow. And so, uh, so many things I want to touch on. First off, for the Audible audience, I'm going to urge you to go to YouTube and check this out so you can see the COVID of the book. It's beautifully designed, as well as the Congressional Honor Award. He actually held it up on screen. Now with that, there are tons of people here, and, and when I say here, I'm talking about the United States specifically, that have come from other countries and have had success as well. And I'm just gonna kind of harp in right now on some of my good old US-born folks where they have the opportunities that are there all the time, right? There, there have been opportunities since almost the day you were born. All, you know, and I'll just be really blunt about it because it's my show and I can, right? Uh, being a minority or a person of color, uh, in this space, in this country, can sometimes be difficult. So you're telling me that you came into this country as uh, effectively what they would consider a minority and a person of color, and you didn't speak the language. Okay. You had $20 to your name, and yet now you're a bestselling author, managed over $300 million in assets, had a successful exit from a company, and are still impacting thousands again, if not millions, through the work that you do on a day-to-day basis. How? How?

How? Okay. It's very simple. I believe that anyone, anyone who's listening to me, first of all, to your audience, I want to tell you guys, I love you guys very much. Okay. I want to make an impact in your life. And I want to let you know that you can do anything you want. The one thing that you're missing as an ingredient is conviction. And the question is, how do you build conviction, right? And so when we came here, so very first, I'm gonna give you a little story, okay? Is that okay?

Please.

Okay, so when we were, when we were coming here, right, so it was September 4th, 1989, okay? So imagine September 4th, 1989, and we are getting on a plane. It's the first time we are ever getting on a plane. We have never got on a plane before. And we don't speak English. My mom, my dad, me, and my brother, 4 of us, right? For us. So we are at the Bombay, Bombay International Airport, now Mumbai, Mumbai International Airport. And our entire family came with us. My, my grandparents, my aunts, my uncles, my cousins, everybody was at the airport, outside the airport, just waiting for us to get on the plane. So evening time, we finally say our goodbyes. We bow down to our elders' feet. We take the blessings. We go in the plane, and it's absolutely gorgeous. Plane is beautiful. The aura is amazing. We are, you know, we smell the perfumes and things like that. It was absolutely amazing. So we get in the plane. It's 100 degrees. It's Mumbai International Airport. It's hot and muggy. Okay, we get in the plane. It was supposed to take off at 9 o'clock. It's 10 o'clock. It's 11 o'clock. It's 12 o'clock. They announced that there is a technical difficulty. And it's 1 o'clock. And finally at 1:30, plane takes off. So by that point, we were hot. We were muggy. We were icky. My family outside is waiting. Like, you know, back in the day, we used to actually go to all the way to the back where the plane was actually taking off and things like that. So my family was waiting at the window.. And we are all like anxiously waiting because we knew we were not gonna see our family for a long time.

Mm-hmm.

And so we finally get in the, uh, we finally, plane takes off. It was absolutely beautiful and we were excited to get to our destination. So we get to London Heathrow Airport and we are like, oh my God, it is so gorgeous. Oh, it was beautiful. Okay. And, and so we are like, wow, we have never seen such a beautiful place like that. We have never seen a beautiful plane and now we have never seen a beautiful airport like that. Right. So we get into the airport, and my business first and foremost, I had to go to restroom. I didn't know how to ask for it. Okay, I'm passing by this door. Somebody's like— people are really happy when they come out of there. I thought it must be like a VIP room or something. So I asked somebody who was Indian, and they told me, and I did what I had to do. I came out and I saw my dad was struggling with the ticket counter person. She's saying something, he's not understanding. He's saying something. She's not understanding, right? Okay. And Indian lady walks up to us and helps us out. She— and she got— she— first thing she told us is we have missed our connecting flight. Right now we don't speak English. We have $20 each. We are stranded in the middle of the road. We don't know where to go, what to do. And finally she helps us out, get the connecting flight next morning. We got the vouchers to stay overnight. We got some food vouchers. All that. And we go into a hotel. Okay. It was beautiful. We had never been in that beautiful hotel before. It was gorgeous. So great. We enjoyed, but now we are hungry.

Right.

So we go downstairs to eat and we are— it's none. Imagine this, September 4th, 1989, London Heathrow Airport. And we are vegetarians. Oh.

Okay, okay.

So we don't eat any meat. So we go to the menu, we look at the restaurant, and we're looking at the menu. We don't know what we are reading. So the lady walks up and she helps us get a salad, a spaghetti, and a bread roll. So I'm like, okay. I'm like, I have never had grass before in my life. I'm gonna go for the grass, which is salad. Okay, okay, okay. In, in Indian culture, that wasn't prominent, at least back then. So I was, I started eating. It was horrible. It was bitter salad. Then I started eating spaghetti. I looked at the spaghetti. I'm like, what in the world is that? You had never had spaghetti before.

Okay.

Okay. So I'm going for the noodles and it's literally Kung Fu Panda dad's noodles.

Okay.

Boiled noodles. That was it. I'm eating that. I'm like, what in the world? I'm like, this is ridiculous. And then I'm finally going for the bread. I'm like, bread is universal, it has to be good. So I go for the bread, I bite the bread, and I couldn't bite the bread because it was a— I really know it was a soup roll. Oh, so you know, you can imagine, right? Like, we're in the middle of the air, we know the place, we don't know what you're doing, we're totally stuck, we're totally hungry, we don't know what to eat, we are finally getting— we cannot even eat the food we got. So we went to bed hungry that night. And the next morning, we made sure we got to the airport early. And we took the connecting flight. And me and my dad had an amazing conversation of what we're going to do when we land here and had an amazing dream. In one year of coming to the United States, we bought a house.

Wow.

In one year. Okay. Now, why I tell you that story is because the number one ingredient missing for most entrepreneurs and business owners is conviction. Conviction that the opportunity you have is already here.

Hmm.

Opportunity you have is absolutely worth pursuing. And for that, there are 3 ingredients needed in order for you to win.

Let's hear them.

Ingredient number 1 is magic. A lot of times we forget to We, we disbelieve in the magic that it can happen to us. Very first thing. The second ingredient that you need is logic, right? Our logic was very simple. We're gonna go there, we're gonna work, we're gonna make money, we're gonna save money, and we're gonna make it, right? That was the logic. Makes sense? Logic. Okay, it was our logic. It's got nothing to do with somebody else's logic. It was just our logic, okay? And third, you need is a science. Science that you create, not by created by somebody else. The misbelief that most people have is that you have to learn things from other people. You have to do things just like other people, but says who, right? So most important thing is, you know, when you have these three ingredients combined, Now you can make a, make a proper, you know, a proper way of saying, okay, now I'm aligned, right? Now you have conviction, all the ingredients you need for a, for a strong conviction that you are making it, you will make it for sure, it will work for you. And I, you know, in many ways, to answer your question, right? And the reason I shared that story is because many entrepreneurs, business owners, individuals who are looking to make it big Right? They're either stuck at the Mumbai International Airport and they're hot and muggy and they don't even know if their plane is— will— if their business or their life will ever take off. Others are at the middle of the road at the London Heathrow Airport and they're like, I don't even know how to ask for a restroom, right? I, I can't eat the food that I'm getting because sometimes The food in business works out to be— is dressed up as an overall. You have to work hard. You have to do what you gotta do. My formula of making it big, one of my formulas is my coined phrase that I have is 3 appointments a day keeps poverty away. 10 appointments a day brings wealth my way. And that is my formula, right? Simple formula, but it works. But it is dressed up as an overall. Just like the salad or just like the spaghetti. They were— that was food for us. And that's what actually gave us some hope that we can make it. And a lot of times we take it as granted. So you might be at the middle of the journey and you might be thinking, oh my God, I need to go over there and it's so far away, but it's not right. And it is my promise to the most of the coaching consulting. What I find is that they give you the ticket to get to your destination. One of my promises as a founder of Financial Chakras is that I want to take the ticket with you and go to your destination with you all the way together. So when you're looking to grow your business, grow your life, grow everything, right, you have to understand the stages that you are in, the stages that you are in, and start to create your own flow, start to create your own, your own destiny. Right? And make sure the conviction is there that you will make it, you are going to make it no matter what. And you have 3 ingredients— magic, logic, and science— put together so that nobody can convince you otherwise. And you stop looking left and stop looking right, and you look straight down and say, here's how I'm gonna do it, here's what I'm gonna do, and you go for it.

Oh man, Ash, you can't see it right now because it's kind of weird to even say it out loud, but I'm I'm getting goosebumps just hearing this in, in terms of how it's so impactful, uh, not just for the person that's sitting on the other side of the camera, meaning myself, but the audience. Like, I can imagine people that are hearing this, or that will hear this, I'll say right now, uh, when they're, when they're replaying it, and that, that they're going to know that there's something that they can do right now, that they have everything that they need right now. And I really like the way that you broke this up.

Excuse me.

In so much that you're saying that the magic effectively is there, the logic we create, and the science we create. So it's not something that we have to go and get per se from someone else or have it bestowed upon us so that we're now eligible and worthy to do it. You said you and your father sat on that plane and had a long conversation about what you were going to do when you got here. So effectively, where two or more were gathered, here comes this ability to create. And within a year, you're off to the races, right? And this is back in the '80s. So just want to take a sec here for the listeners to really get this. Didn't speak the language that's primarily spoken in the country. Only had roughly $20 per person, we'll say $100, uh, for the family. Now granted that $100 in 1989 bought a lot more than it does today, uh, for anybody with more than, I'll say, $500 to their name or $1,000 that they can access within a small amount of time, we'll call that the equivalent just for conversation's sake. But there's that conviction that I'm certain, Ash, you can help individuals to grow, right? And to create, kind of have within themselves. So now you mentioned the 3 ingredients to conviction. How would a person go about understanding magic in the first place? So if we can, if you don't mind diving further into those steps, how would a person even start to realize that, A, magic's not somebody pulling a rabbit out of a hat. And, and that they have it.

So number one, you know, like to have the magic, right? So first thing is I believe that what I find with people is, you know, how many times you have had, I'm sure those of you are listening as well and Paul H. Flowers Jr. as well, you know, you said, you know what, I'm going to do this. I think that's my right move. Intuitively, you just said that, right? Like it's the right move. Okay. And you don't make the move because you stop yourself, right?

Right.

And then you figure out later, there you go. Oh, shoot. That was the right move. My question is, how many times you're going to keep telling yourself that?

That one hit me.

How many times you're going to keep telling yourself that and say, oh my God, that's the right— that was the right move. And man, I was right, right? So when it comes to magic, first and foremost, just believe in who you are. Those of you who are listening, I want you to know that with lots of love, that you can do this. You got this. You know exactly what to do. You don't need anybody's permission. You don't need any course or any 3-day event or none of that, right? Even though I will invite you to one. But that being said, you don't need anything, right? You just need you. You need to believe in yourself, dig deep inside, and just literally ask yourself. You know, I have a client of mine who was going through something similar, okay? And when I started doing speaking engagement, Paul, what happened was, I'm talking 2008, okay? And for the first time, I'm going to speak and stuff like that. And I was actually going to market my financial services practice. But, you know, I was a— I became a keynote speaker for all small business development centers in Maryland. And so essentially, like, I was a keynote speaker and I had a great time with several congressmen. And one time I was speaking, and the first time, and I was like, I was nervous. I didn't, you know, really didn't know what that was all about. It was my first time getting on a big stage and stuff like that. So hundreds of people there and what have you. And one lady walks up to me and she's like, Ash, I really need help. I really need help. And I just knew it was the right thing to do. I didn't know why. I had no rhyme or reason. It was 2008, you know, market was crashing, stuff like that. I just needed new ways to market as well, right? So I was kind of like exploring different avenues. And she walks up to me and she's like, I need help, right? So she's like, I was not going to come here, but I came because something told me I should. Out of pure instinct, okay? She talks to me like, my business is going to go under. I'm my— it's my dad's business. I'm a minority business owner and I need to make it, right? And how do I do it? I have 4 days to win this contract. And that's it. It was a government contract. I said, okay, let's, let's talk it through. And I'm like, I've never done this before, totally honest, right? Because I, I'm here for financial planning, not for this. But I'm happy to help you because I do understand business. So I dive into her, her life, and I looked at the aspects of what was going on. We put together a simple strategy, right, on how to contact one of the contractors. I said, you need to first and foremost go meet these people. And she's like, but Ash, you know, so, you know, a lot of times we keep throwing hurdles in our journey, right? So she's through a whole bunch of hurdles in her journey. And she's like, I don't know. I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if they will answer my phone. I don't know if they will I said, do you know them? She's like, yes. So I said, check, you know, have you met them before? Yes, check. Okay, great. Uh, do they trust you? Uh, so-so, right? Like, you know, they, they know me from the industry but not really. I said, okay, give it a shot. So we gave it a shot and 3 of them booked the appointment with her right away. One of them took some time and he wasn't booking, he wasn't budging. I said, tell him next time you call him back and let him know that you would go see him at 3 in the morning if you have to, but you have to see him. Because we knew that out of those 4, one of them was going to win because it's always been the case. History showed that, and that's why I suggested that to her. And surely enough, it was the one that was giving her the hardest time. And because of that, she got a subcontracting work, she made $50,000, and we went on to building a $10 million company.

Come on.

So the, the question then becomes as to her magic. She believed in her spark. She believed in her magic. She was desperate. Her bank account was negative, right? Her, her aunt, who I know very well, right, she was, you know, was also in the room, and we ended up becoming very good friends. But that being said, she didn't believe in her. She was like, I don't know what to do, Ash. I just, I know I can make it. My problem is I don't know what I'm doing. Logic, right? And she said, I came, I wasn't going to come today because if this was a paid event, I couldn't even afford it. It was, it was that bad. But because it's free from Small Business Development Center, I came. Right. And, and because I came, I met you and everything shifted. So her magic was the belief that she can make a big business, big business, right? She was, doing all the work. She was working 24/7. She was doing everything she needed to do as a minority business owner woman. And she was a Miss— she was a pageant winner in Maryland, right? So she's from Greece, her family and so forth. So if you take a look at that as a story, you know, her plot was she was— she believed in her magic. Her logic was very simple: maybe something will come out of this. And sometimes You just have to trust yourself, right? In this case, she trusted herself and the logic and the science we built out together. It was very simple. Logic was very simple. You win this contract, you have money. You have money, we can go forward. You don't win this contract, you don't have money. You don't have money, you can't go forward. She wasn't gonna— she was in the worst part anyways. We believed in the magic. I believed in her magic. I believed in her spark. I believed in her ability. Right. I went, I went with her on that appointment to help her close. Right. So you never know until you give it a shot. And what I find with most people is that you are so afraid that you're not even willing to take a shot. And you know, crazy part is, Paul, people believe there's no more money left. Let me tell you something. It doesn't matter what the government says or what the other friends of yours, you know, I call them cronies, right? Whatever they say, whatever they say. Okay. It doesn't matter because when we came here, it was a, it was actually recession. 1980, 1987, '88 was a crash and '89 was actually just coming out of the recession, but it was still in recession. But you know what? I didn't know any better. Right, right. And within one year, September 4th, 1989, we came here. August of 1990, we bought a house.

That's amazing, right?

So the, the— it's like this, you have to stop your subconscious thinking, literally stop it, right? And learn to touch the tree. Do you know about that, Paul? Touching the tree?

Uh, so I've only been familiar with, um, Steven Pressfield, I think, was a gentleman that said trust the soup. Is the phrase that I'm most used to, but by all means, I like to learn new things. So we want to hear it. You said trusting the tree?

No, touching the tree.

Touching the tree. Okay. Okay. I'm not familiar with that one.

I'm going to ask you, and those of you are listening to me, I want you to do this with me. Okay. Take one finger, right? Any finger or your hand. And I'm going to ask you a question, Paul. If you're touching a tree, what are you really touching?

I'll say the, the bark.

The bark. Okay, I'm gonna ask you again. If you're touching a tree, what are you really touching?

Oh, you're taking us deeper. The— so everything is energy. I'm a firm believer that we're all one and come from the same stuff.

Absolutely.

So it's not necessarily even tree bark that we're touching. Um, but almost a reflection of ourselves manifested in tree form, right? The energy of, of us, you know, again, without going down the religious tunnel per se, that's, that's there manifested in the form of a tree.

Okay, if you're touching a tree, what are you really touching?

Um, ourselves.

Ourselves. If you're touching a tree, what are you really touching?

Uh, God.

Okay, if you're touching it, what are you really touching?

That's as deep as I can go on that one.

But do you see how we distort information? I'm asking you a simple question. Answer to, so the closer to the truth you get, the faster you become liberated. Right? If you're touching a tree, you're really touching just a tree. Simple. Is just the tree. So my question to those who are listening to this and to you, Paul H. Flowers Jr., right? When you're looking at this and let's say you're going through some life crisis, okay? And I want you to ask yourself, right? Is this happening right now? Is what you're talking with what somebody else is telling you, all the stuff that they've told you, you're not good enough. You can't do multitasking. You can't do this, you can't do that, you won't make it, you won't blah, you won't that, you won't this, like all that garbage, okay? That's been subconsciously fed into your mind.

Right.

Is that all 100% true?

Not at all.

Is it 100%? It has to be 100% true. Is it 100% true? Are you touching the tree?

Hmm.

Or are you busy touching the bark or the universe or the frequency or the energy and all that blah blah blah stuff, right?

Yeah.

Fact: is there money in the world? Yes or no? I'm going to prove it to you right now. There's plenty of money in the world.

Absolutely.

The world economy has approximately $50 trillion, roughly in the range, circulating. US economy— US has about $15 trillion as of today. The market just jumped so much today, right? So when you, when you take a look at that, one, is there enough money in the world to, to help you make $10,000 a month? You just need $10,000 or $20,000 or $100,000 a month or million dollars. Is there enough money to do that? Yes or no? Absolutely. Answer to that is yes. You just— congratulations, you touched the tree. The money is there. Problem number one is solved. The money— the fact is the money is there. Second, logic. Ah, how are you gonna get to that money, right? How are you gonna take your plane off the ground stop, get sweating at the, at the Mumbai International Airport. The, the good news is you are the pilot of your plane. You don't even need somebody else to fly your plane. You just need to get on the cockpit and start flying. Mhm. And you can fly that plane to London Heathrow Airport and rest a little bit, and you don't have to be stranded. I mean, unless you run out of gas, that's a different story, but You know, but that being said, right, you don't have to be stranded. So you could be stranded at the London Heathrow Airport and you're like, I was doing this and now I'm plateaued and I can't make it any further and I don't know what to do. And, and all those things are going in your mind because all the past beliefs are coming up. Right. There's a way to create a breakthrough on this. There's a way to create a breakthrough, but most people never stop and listen. To what they are talking about is all bunch of garbage. Few weeks ago, whether you like political climates or not, it doesn't matter. This is not about politics, okay?

Right, right.

But if you understand, January of this year, right, announcement of tariffs, market tanks. Oh my God, the world is ending. No, the world didn't end. Because think about it, if the whole world, if the entire market— touch a tree— is the market only relied on tariff? Not at all, not at all. Market is relying on people, on processes, on, on all the industries combined, the resilience, right? So did the market— did actually market went down? Yes. But did it actually create a chaos in your life. Most people don't even have investments to feel the impact of. I didn't have any investments when I came here. I had $20, that was it. So my question to my— to you is that, are you touching the tree? The market went down. Yes. Somebody asked me, you know, on one of my, uh, online things that I do, what should we do? I said, you should I can't tell you what to do because I'm no longer an advisor, but what I can— I am doing, and what I know some of my friends are doing, is they're going all in. Makes sense? Absolutely. Yo, you're crazy, man. Like, and then he's listening to all this, you know, stuff, a political garbage, right? Throw everything out the window. I said, my wife and I, you know, we are both in the financial— have been in the financial industry for a long time. And so we were talking, and I told my wife, and, you know, we were looking at our 401k and stuff like that, and she's like, I don't know, you know, it's down. I said, don't worry, give it some time. It's simple math, simple logic. Logic was, okay, tariff announced, it went down. Tariff basically is a, is a negotiation tactic. Negotiations happen, it goes back up. It's really simple, right? Guess what happened today?

Went up.

It crushed through the market. And you know what? It's like this. You might be down in your life right now, and it's like a dolphin. Every time you're down in your life, okay, at the bottom, dolphin always goes to the bottom of the pool to jump double height.

Absolutely.

Markets go bottom of the pool to go double height. So guess what's about to happen, right?

Double height.

Double height. The, the smart people in terms of like, you know, magic, logic, science, right? You can create your own science in that whole world. You can get in at any point in time. You, you don't need to wait at the Mumbai International Airport or be stuck at a London Heathrow Airport. You can get on the plane right now and fly your plane. You don't need to be your own pilot. Energize, uplift yourself, find out what's going on and just run with it. Forget about everything. Forget about everybody. Forget about all the strategy. Just take it and run with it. Like, as long as you run with it, you're okay. The problem is you're, you're sitting there and you're, you're energetically in your chakras, in your energies, right? You might be going, oh my God, I should go for that. And then you're going straight into your root chakra and saying, Oh shoot, man, I've been, I've been told I should, I should not do this. I'm not good enough. I'm not, I'm not, I can't make it. Everything I've tried, it turned into garbage, right? Everything, everything I've turned, right? And what's happening there is that you've created rules for yourself. Hard rules for success, easy rules for failure. Hard rules for success, easy rules for failure.

Got it.

So the rule for success is If only this happens, then I'm successful. If only this happens, then I'm successful. Because why? My aunt told me, my uncle told me, mom and dad told me, brother told me, my cousin told me, my, my grandfather, grandparents told me, ancestry told me, like all of this is genetics. Mm-hmm. Garbage.

Garbage. Yeah.

All of this garbage, right? You created a rule and the rule is hard rule for success, easy rule for failure. And what if you were to flip that script? You can flip the script, and the flipping the script— like for me, my rule for failure is when Earth turns square and everybody is floating in the air is the only time I fail. Hmm. As long as when— okay, when Earth is square, yeah, and everybody is floating in the air is the only time I fail.

I like that. Okay, I like that.

Okay, as long as the Earth is round and everybody is on the ground, I'm successful.

Come on, that's all the time. That we're not losing gravity, this Earth isn't going to get hit by a pancake smasher, any of that.

Exactly. So the point here is that What's your easy rule for success? What's your hard rule for failure? Our easy rule for success when we came here was very simple. We have an opportunity, we are here, right? And here's, here's the whole game plan. You want to, you want to hear my, our entire game plan between me and my dad? Sure. Work. Put our head down and work. It was a one-liner success work, right? It's very simple. And today in business, I teach many people your favorite— my favorite marketing line is, can we meet? This is my entire marketing line.

Can we meet?

Can we meet? It's either yes or it's a no. If it's a no, no problem. If it's a yes, fantastic.

I'm taking a couple of notes here, man. You just don't understand. Look, this is good stuff, and thank you for not gatekeeping. Sometimes, audience, the, the simplest way to success is to create it yourself. And much like you mentioned, Ash, having that simple success and the hard rule for success— I believe I wouldn't phrase it exactly like you did. I want to say it exactly like you said it. For success, easy rule for success.

Hard rule for failure. So I'll help you like create this, right? So I'm going to ask you a question, right? What's your favorite thing in the world to do?

Okay. I don't think anyone's ever asked me that on a show. And I'm compelled to tell the truth that, Ash, I admit it, I do have a slight addiction. I like to play chess.

You love playing chess? Okay.

I do. I do. I play minute chess. And I probably play at least, at least 10 games a day.

Wow, really?

Yep.

Okay, well, chess happens to be my favorite as well, so I love this conversation. Okay, so now what is it that you don't like doing? You, you get disgusted by doing something?

Again, transparency is key. I'll sum it up by saying minutia or busy work. So things where I have to physically touch and move like pieces of paper and write stuff down, that type of thing. It's a draw on me.

It's a draw on you. Okay, fine. All right, great. So I'm going to give you an example of how you can build this, right? So you can build it the way you like it, but I'm going to give you a framework. So a lady that I was talking to, she loves water. Her favorite thing to do is water. Okay. She loves going by the beach, going by the pool, things like that. Right. And so we made rule, and the rule has been as long as there is one drop of water on Earth, one drop in the universe, she's successful. When all the water in the world turns polluted and it smells like sewage and she dips in the water She dips in the water. She takes a dip. She swims in the water. And then she smells herself. And she tastes the water. Right? And it's sewage water. Is the only time she fails. Hmm. So I want you to think about from a chess point of view, since you love chess. Right? What could you do? Right? Okay. So in chess, there are moves. Absolutely logical, but it's very strategical and it's very exciting. Correct?

Absolutely.

Okay. So, and you said you don't like mess. You don't like mess at all. Right?

Right.

When the chess, the rule of chess, when the rule of chess, when the chess game itself, right, has no more rules. Meaning horses cannot go one, two, half, right? Elephants cannot go straight, right, anymore. Kings can go wherever they want, right? Or the little, uh, what do you call this, um, the, the cadets, the pawns can run around wherever they like, right? The, the, the, the, uh, what do you call this, camels, right? Cannot, cannot go sideways. They can go any direction they want. They can go straight up and down. They can go sideways. They can go backwards. They can go forwards, whatever they want. And everything, the entire, entire gang in a chess can do whatever they want, whenever they want, however they want to do it. And they can create a total mess. And when all the chess games in the world, all the chess players in the world change the game to do whatever you want, and it changes into a total utter mess. And you are sitting at the chess game, at the championship chess game, and you don't know what's going on. And all the players around you are doing— making nothing but a mess. And there's no more winners in chess games because everybody's a winner, and everything is a mess, and nothing is really working, and nothing is sorting out, and everybody's fighting, and everybody's throwing, you, garbage at each other and they're smelling like garbage and they are dipping in the garbage, that's the only time you fail.

Yeah, that sounds like I'm jotting this down. I got my little notepad on screen, so forgive me if you see me looking away, but I'm—

no, no, that's okay. And as long as there's rules in chess game, as long as there's chess in the world, You're always successful.

I like that. I can— I mean, practical to take right into the day.

Right? Practical, take right into the day. So these are the kind of rules that I believe that people need to start creating and stop thinking about everybody else, right? Now you can be— you clear the way to clear the— open up the magic. Open up that, that window and say, wow, I got this.

Yes. I love it. I love it. Ash, you don't understand how excited I am right now. I'm, I'm amazingly thankful for, uh, Alex, again, the creator of PodMatch, your assistant that works through PodMatch that has connected us together on today. I know that the last time we needed to reschedule, so being able to go through and reschedule this, like, all of it comes at the right time, right? We're sitting on the other side of a full moon now, and my energy is just like peaking and peaking and peaking the further we have this conversation. So there's a couple things that I like to do again as we're approaching the top of the hour, and I definitely want to respect your time. There, there's something that I realized, and I've— you've said it several times, but it's just now clicking to me, and I want to put things together for a truly global audience. So There are a few languages that I know are spoken in India. Um, the ones that I'm familiar with right off the bat, a friend of mine spoke Gujarati very well, as well as Hindi. Um, if you wouldn't mind me asking, what was your primary language?

Uh, Gujarati.

Gujarati.

Okay. Yeah. But Hindi is our national language, right? So Hindi is our national, Gujarati is our state language. I don't know if you know this or not, but in India there are 128 languages. There are actually. Languages, right? So these are not dialogues or dialects, is actual languages, right? So, um, you know, India is the only country— like, we went from, uh, where we are from, West, Midwest India to South India, and we couldn't speak back then. I'm talking, uh, back then, right? So back then, you know, we couldn't speak English. They don't speak Hindi. They— we only spoke Gujarati. They don't speak Gujarati. It was a— it's the only country in the world where You could get lost with your own country, in your own country, and you're like, what in the world? But that can happen, right? Well, nowadays it's Hindi and English, but primarily English, right? But back then it wasn't there. So the questioning was, is how do you, how do you make this work? And I tell you, like, I'm just thankful to, to be here.

I mean, excellent. You know what, and, and I've not done this before, so this would actually be the first time that I'll do this. And if you're open to it, please, if not, by all means, you tell me to bugger off. But I would, I would like for you to speak to the audience in Gujarati. So I may ask a question or two. And if you would, to provide that answer in Gujarati, as well as English, if possible, a loose translation. So my question is, it's gonna be fun.

I love that.

Yeah, yeah, this is the first. So I'm getting this download. And it's saying to do this again, because it's not just for me, it's for people all over the world. So I want to make sure that Now we can contribute in a global way. If you were to say to a person who is, uh, we'll say maybe only has $20 in their pocket today, how they could get started on their path to success, what would be the first thing that you would suggest that they do?

So, um, the first thing what I would suggest them to do is very, very simple, right? Um, Sit down, stop running around, stop running around and center yourself and think about what is that magic that you have, the spark that you have inside of you, the special thing about you, whatever that is. Find your epicenter in your 7 chakras and start operating from there. Maybe outspoken so maybe deal what also? Maybe grounded or so? Maybe intellectually sound also? So maybe creative also? Jpona so? Run any— run success find. Imari, number of inanti shatamna. So those who are listening to me, I want you to know, find your 7 energetic centers, your chakras, right? Look at, find who you are. Maybe you are go-getter, right? You like to jump into things. Okay, great. Jump into things faster, learn faster, fail forward and keep moving. Maybe you are creative person. No problem. It's time to create and change the world. You go create whatever you like. Maybe you're a grounded person who like to sit still at first before you move forward. No problem. Go do some meditation, sit down, sit still, get over your fears, get over anxieties. Maybe you're a heart-centric person who just wants to make a difference. No problem. Go make a difference. There's, there's abundance for everybody. Maybe you are very talkative and you are great communicator. Go at it, go communicate your message, whatever you want to share. And maybe you are just a giver and you want to be a servant, and you are intelligent person and you know you can use your, your intelligence to make a difference. Go do that. Start there, center yourself and start there and forget about everything else. Believe in that magic. That you have, that you have to offer. Forget about the flow, forget about how it's going to work out, forget about all of that. Just simple. Our, our strategy when we came here, work. That was beginning and end of strategy, right? My strategy of building business, can we meet? Beginning and end of strategy. Very simple. Because why it works for me, I like simplicity. I don't like complex funnels and and, you know, upsells and downsells. Even I don't even teach that in my, in my stuff, right? I like simplicity because I believe simplicity— simple is profitable, complex is cumbersome— and I don't like complex. So I believe in that for me, for me, right? Maybe you like complex things and maybe it works out for you all the time. My, my, my prayers to you. Go for it. For me, it's simplicity. Okay, so find your Zen zone and then work from there. That will be my suggestion.

Amazing, amazing. Thank you so much, Ash. Again, as we're landing the plane here, my pointed question that I love to ask all of the guests that come on to the Pope Replace podcast show is really simple, really straightforward. Ash Shukla, what's your middle name?

My middle name is Hemendra.

Hemendra.

Yes, that's my dad's name.

Okay. And that was my next question is what's the story? Where does that originate?

So that originated in terms of when we are born, when we are born, that's how we are, our naming goes, right? So we always get dad's first name as a middle name. That's pretty much how it goes, right? My daughter's name is, you know, Aanchal Ashish Shukla.. So in my, uh, you know, Ashoklal in this case, right? So, uh, and, and same thing with my, my dad and same thing with, you know, it's basically a generational thing, right? So essentially that's how that works. And I will tell you, like, you know, if my dad hadn't taken a chance, just to let you know, my dad sold everything. He was a government worker making $50 a month in 1989.

Wow.

And he had saved about 80,000 rupees. And we— it took us 11 years to get our official visas, okay? 11 years. And he had a choice of either buying a government plot— the government was offering ₹80,000 home, you know, a built home with a plot on it. Today will be worth probably around ₹10 million, okay? And, you know, um, and, uh, he had a choice to either buy that or buy the tickets for the— to come here. And my dad chose to come here. So that's the opportunity. You, anyone who is listening to this, right? In today's world, world is very small. We are all over the globe. We are listening to everybody from all over the world, and you can really connect with anyone in the world. And I can tell you firsthand is that when you can connect with people all over the world Right, it's no longer a local economy, it's a global economy, and you can make it, right? You can access capital from anywhere in the world. That's my take on that. So my suggestion would be go for it. What are you waiting for?

Love it. I love it. Ash, thank you so much for being a guest on the show. Last but not least, if you would share with the listeners the best way for them to reach out to connect with and contact you to learn more about your Financial Chakras, your books, you as a person, how can they get in touch?

Okay, so I'm going to give you a couple of different things. One, my website, financialchakras.com, or if you type in my name, ashshukla.com, you should be able to find me. You can find me on LinkedIn, you can find me on YouTube, you can find me on Instagram, you can find me on On, on TikTok, you can find me pretty much on Facebook, you can find me anywhere, okay? Number 1. Number 2, if you really want to get to know me more, join my community, okay? So first, financialchakras.com. So financial, just like F-I-N-A-N-C-I-A-L. Chakras is plural, C-H-A-K-R-A-S dot com. If you go to my website. You can find out everything and anything about me, who I am, what I do, or askshukla.com. But most importantly, I really want to get to know you. So there's my calendar. If you want to book a call with me, please do so. Okay. But more important than that is I would love to have you join my community. I have a community called— so you can go to Financial Chakras. Mn.co. If you go to that website, financialchakras.mn.co, it's my community. It's free community. You can join anytime, and I'm happy to make a difference, you know, in your life. I do 2 networking events a month. I do webinars in there. I have a lot of fun with my community, and I would love for you to join me, and I would love for you to be there with me, okay? So if you ever need anything from me, you can also send me an email, financialchakras@gmail.com, and you can send me an email and I'm happy to answer any questions you have. And I would love to have the opportunity to make a difference in your life because I love you.

The way we begin is the way we end. You started with love and Ash will end this with love. Thank you so much, brother, for coming on the show today. Thank you so much for blessing us. With these steps. Again, magic, logic, and science are going to live within me and throughout this audience now. And again, I will make sure that all of the contact information is absolutely in the show notes because again, you're a person of impact. And I'd love for, as the waves of this sound recording reaches the people to and through the United States, um, wherever else they are, India, you know, Africa, everywhere they are, that it can continue to make that impact and that ripple effect. So Thank you for being that, that change, that catalyst today.

I absolutely appreciate you, Paul, for having me here. I really appreciate, love the show, absolutely love the questions, love the conversation, love the time you have spent with me. And most importantly, I love your audience. I want to let them know that they, from me, from, from this person to you, from this energy to your energy, I'm here to tell you that your frequency is ready. Just go for it. Forget about everything. Think of getting to your center yourself one time. Forget about all the issues you're having, all the problems, problems you are having. Don't worry about all that. Just go touch the tree and ask yourself, is there enough money in the world for me to, to, to survive, or for me to thrive, or for me to be a billionaire or millionaire, multi-trillionaire, right? Or quadrillionaire, right? Is there enough money And the answer is yes, because of— here's the fact— $1 trillion. $1 trillion. If they had the audacity to spend $1 trillion for, for 2,000— if you heard the audacity to spend $750,000 a year for 2,000 years, you'll be halfway through $1 trillion. That's $50 trillion available. That means there's enough wealth for more than 20,000 years as we stand today. Question to you is, is that enough of a proof? If you take $100 bills and stack them on top of each other, you can go to moon and come halfway back with $1 trillion. If you take $1 trillion and stack them across United States, you can go to across the country and come halfway back. My question to you is, have you touched the tree yet? Go touch the tree. There's enough for everyone. Enough for everyone. Okay, so that's all I have to say. Thank you for being here. I love you guys very much.

Thank you so much, Ash. Listeners, thank you for listening in. This has been another episode of The Everyday Entrepreneur on the Popa Replays podcast show. I'm your host, Paul H. Flowers Jr. And we are signing off for now. Until next time, thank you all.

Thank you, guys.