In this Business Blast podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Rana Kordahi, founder of Limitless Minds, a sales and sales‑leadership training firm. Rana shares a formative teenage story about a teacher who gave her autonomy, illustrating how belief and freedom can unlock potential. She argues that sales skills are essential for everyone, not just salespeople, because we constantly sell ourselves and our ideas. Her core business advice emphasizes persistence, planting seeds early, and accepting that results take time—she recounts her own early missteps of hiring a phone‑answerer without understanding marketing. When asked about happiness, Rana says there is no single key; instead she outlines a resilience framework of acceptance, gratitude, and goal‑setting. She recommends Dale Carnegie’s classic How to Win Friends and Influence People, highlighting the power of asking questions and making others feel important. Her favorite quote distinguishes three types of people—those who make things happen, watch, or wonder—and she uses it to motivate action. Finally, she directs listeners to her LinkedIn and Instagram for more content.
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Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Rana Kordahi with us. She's the founder of Limitless Minds, which specializes in sales and sales leadership training for corporations. So welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me, Tyler.
Of course, grateful to have you here, Rana. Um, we'll dive into the first question. The first one I have for you is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
So one of the stories from my life is when I was a teen, I was pretty rebellious and I was kicked out and suspended from many high schools. And I was told by teachers, oh, you're not smart enough or you're not going to get anywhere. So I eventually dropped out of school when I was, I think about 16. And I then I reluctantly went back to an adult TAFE. So this college helps you finish your school, which is HSC. And there was this one teacher, his name is Ken, and he changed my life. He just treated me with autonomy as an adult. And he told me I was smart, I was bright. I went on to excel. And one day he met my mom randomly, like a year later, and he said to my mom, 'Your daughter is one of the smartest students I've ever had.' And my mom went and told this story to everyone for several years. But when she told me this story, it kind of boosted my confidence because I don't think I was very confident intellectually. But I think the message is when you give people autonomy, whether they're children or they're in high school or they're at work, give them autonomy and that sense of purpose and believing in them. They can get anywhere.
Yes. I love that. Thanks for sharing that with us. The next one I have for you is what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
So I think whether you're a salesperson or you're not, I think everybody needs to learn sales because we're always selling ourselves, we're selling our services. I've sold myself into jobs so many times and Some of the top performing organizations train everyone in sales, whether it's the secretary or the CEO. So, yeah, so just believing that because there are people in their jobs, they are tech, like, for example, they're technically brilliant and they get put into positions of, they become directors or partners and they have to go out there and network and they could just talk someone's head off and not understand that selling is just listening, asking questions, building rapport. So Yeah, just everybody needs to learn sales. That's just what I believe.
I agree. And what's your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.
So business advice. So I, in regards to business, I think if you are, for example, someone starting, they're an entrepreneur and they don't do well the first year, second year, not to give up, like even if it's their side job, just to keep going. To change things up. Because, for example, I had a full-time job in this business for maybe 4 years before I went full-time and I was able to sustain myself. So a lot of people, what they do, they're like, oh, it's not working, the phone's not ringing. Things take time. You have to start planting seeds right now to see them prospering in 5 years' time or 10 years' time.
I agree, you gotta have patience.
Um, definitely.
Definitely. And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
I think it would be the same thing. Things take time. So when I first started my business, I hired someone to answer my phone, but the phone never rang because I foolishly didn't understand. I understood about sales, but I didn't know about marketing and things take time. And I foolishly thought, oh, I just have a website, things are going to, things are going to just happen. But no, that's not how it is. So my younger self is I would have said just start planting trees right now and watch them grow. But I didn't think that, like, I was an actor at one point. I mean, I started off as an actor filmmaker, and I think I gave up on that because things didn't happen fast enough for me. So yeah, my advice to my younger self.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Well, to be honest, I don't think there is a key to happiness. But there are different keys to coping through adversity and resilience. So, for example, like, I could have a key to happiness, but my mom dies tomorrow. I'm not going to be happy about that. I'm going to grieve. I'm going to be devastated. I might not want to get out of bed for a week or so. But the difference between somebody that has the keys to understand happiness and someone that doesn't is they know how to then get out of bed, how to move forward, how to look forward. And I think there are 3 aspects of it. First, you have to accept that life's not easy and accept that. Number 2 is you have— it's important to have a sense of gratitude. So be grateful for what you have. So if some dilemma does happen, look at all the things that are great in your life. And I think number 3 is having goals, having goals and just setting those goals and every day being busy and smashing those goals. So yeah, just keeping your mind busy as well.
Yeah, I agree. Goals are very important. Growth, I think, like consistent growth is very important to happiness.
Oh yeah, definitely.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
It's a very old book. I don't know if it's like over 50 years old or 100 years old, but it's How to Win Friends and Influence People. And it's basically a sales, it's a business book, it's a leadership book all in one. And something I learned was encourage others to talk about themselves. Ourselves and make them feel important. For example, the author in the book went to a dinner party once. I remember that story, and he spoke to a botanist, and that botanist, he asked him questions, and for 3 hours this botanist was just talking about himself. After the dinner party, the botanist went and said to the host, "Well, you know this guy Carnegie? Well, he's the most interesting person I've ever met." But Carnegie didn't even say speak about himself. He was just asking questions and being curious.
I love that. And what is your favorite quote and why?
My favorite quote, um, I use this in my training as well. So I, uh, it's that there's 3 types of people: people who make things happen, people who watch things happen, and people who wonder what happened. And why that's important, because I don't I always ask people, which person do you want to be? And obviously, you know, I want to be that person that makes things happen. I don't want to wonder what happens.
Yes, I agree. And thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where is the best place for people to find you online?
So on my LinkedIn, you just Google my name, you'll find my LinkedIn, or you can find me on Instagram, which is Rana. As well. That's my personal Instagram as well. And my— it's personal and business as well. So you can find out more about me through Instagram than anything else as well.
Perfect. Thanks again for coming on.
Thank you so much, Tyler.
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