Nitin Bajaj

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the industry show. I’m your host, Nitin Bajaj, and joining me today is Anish Majumdar. Anish, welcome on the show.

Anish Majumdar

Thank you so much for having me. I’m I am excited, and I’m hopefully, we can, keep the laughs and the energy going in the same way that we have, before the cameras, got rolling on this today.

Nitin Bajaj

I’m sure we will. Welcome on the show, and let’s start with who is Anish?

Anish Majumdar

Well, Anish, today is a career coach. I’ve been one for over 12 years. I was an actor and a writer before that. I I I think that, and I’ve been thinking a lot about this, because I’m a dad nowadays to to to 3 young ones. You know, the commonality perhaps in all of this, the thing that that’s that drives me perhaps 10 times as much now as a career coach trying my best to and what we do is our focus is on working with people who, have strong career prospects, who know that they are deserving of more, but for whatever reason, they feel let down by the job market itself. In other words, what we found is that it doesn’t really matter. You could be right up into the c suite, as a as a as a candidate. If you’ve had a unique journey, if you’ve and I have as well. If if you’ve had weird twists and turns, the business of actually getting that that that job, if that doesn’t change, then you’re always gonna be stuck. And so that’s what I’ve been doing my best to try to solve over the last 12 years. But long before I got into that, you know, this this hunger to find, like, a piece of freedom, and I don’t know if it was maybe if you’ll resonate with this or not, but, you know, I come from kind of a a a conservative Indian family, and I’ve always had the thought in me that says, look. I don’t know how big it’s gonna be. I don’t know how small it’s gonna be, but I wanted to have a piece of my own. I wanted to have a a place in the sun that was entirely my own. And I didn’t like it when I felt pushed around, whether it was by students, by teachers, by companies, by gatekeepers. I don’t like that. You know? Like like that, there’s something in my core that really gets upset at that, and I don’t like it. I don’t like feeling like when I should be abundant, that’s when people are trying to make me feel scarce. You know? And so this journey of freedom and this journey of saying, look. Is it is it possible to do this stuff differently for myself? Answering that in a in an affirmative, started me on a path towards saying, okay. If I could do it, then anyone can. Anyone can can can shift this kind of matrix way of thinking and and and achieve the kinds of outcomes that they really are after in a way that actually makes them feel happy.

Nitin Bajaj

That’s awesome. And, you know, you answered a couple of my other questions. I was gonna ask you what’s your goal, what’s your mission, and what’s your vision. Yeah. But also, why do you do this? And Yes.

Nitin Bajaj

 You know, you could be doing many different things. You were an actor. You could continue doing that and and go down that path. But why do this?

Anish Majumdar

I I I will be honest with you when I am getting into it with a client and I’m like, oh come on I feel like I’m pulling out hairs. I will ask myself that question and I will sometimes, you know, wonder why. But, you know, I think when it comes down to, you know, I was working with a client, Bethany, just a couple of of of days ago. She’s celebrating a wonderful offer. The reason I do this is because when we started working together, if you could see this this woman’s background, top tier companies, Google, etcetera, the education pedigree better than I’ve ever had. I mean, I’m I I went to theater school. I don’t have anything noteworthy in my education. Brilliant. Right? But you hear her talk about her journey. You hear how she was like, yep. They told me to pitch. They told me to present. I came in. I thought I was doing the right thing. They said Nitin. Anish, what’s wrong with me? What’s going on here? When you see the amount of doubt and the amount of questioning and the amount of pain, quite frankly, that people are in day in and day out, the the thing that gave me the most pleasure was not helping her negotiate something better for herself. It was continuously being that voice in her ear that says, hey. You know what? You don’t have to pitch. You don’t have to present right there. You don’t have to say yes to this just because they’re telling you this. You have the leverage in your career. You have the leverage in your background to suggest to do this a different way. And to see those lights start to turn on and to realize, like, hey. Yeah. You know what? A part of success means doing this more of my way. A part of success is that more of your life in all aspects, not just professionally, that that when you look around, right, your energy, your spirit is manifesting out. You’re seeing that play out. You know? She hadn’t seen that. She’d seen everything but, you know, she’d been she had the title. She had the thing. All the things that they like to dangle in front of you. But that sense of being a strong, powerful, brilliant woman who could do anything and realize that there’s 50,000,000 tech companies out there, but there’s really only one person who can do exactly what she does, that was the that was the payoff to me. You know? Getting that email on a on a hard day of, like, Anish, it happened. Here are the stats because she’s like an analytics freak. Here’s what we did. Here’s what it is. To see that excitement, you know, like, that I’ve I feared at one point in my life, trying to raise a family, try trying to even embark on that journey. I truly wondered whether that would whether that was in the cards for us. You know? So it’s very personal to me when I when I can see that shift because I know that once you experience that once, dude, the amount of crap you’re gonna be taking immediately went down by 95%. You know? Like, so so, perhaps a long answer, but but it’s these it’s these human shifts, you know, and and these and these moments where, hopefully I can be like, dude, you are a rock star. Look at you know, like, one bad job does not make up for 15 years of risk taking and success, you know. That’s that’s what I that’s why I I find myself doing what I’m doing today.

Nitin Bajaj

You know, it’s it’s amazing how that reinforcement that you provide to others also comes back to you

Anish Majumdar

Yes.

Nitin Bajaj

And makes it so much worthwhile for you to continue doing what you do, which is not easy.

Anish Majumdar

 No. No. It’s, it it it is, it’s con constantly this thing of I think that if you’re no matter what your job title is, you know, the mistake is there can never come a moment where you say, that’s it. I know it. I know what’s going on. Like, I’ll tell you now, 12 years into it, when I started coaching people, it was relatively bread and butter. Nowadays, when we coach with, our clients, we’re using, like, LinkedIn automation. We’re using all of these things. But at the end of the day, it all comes back to realizing, like, I’m a student. I’ve I’ve been a student at this for 12 years. I’ve coached, you know, over a few 1,000 people. The goal is to reach 10,000 people, but I’m a student. And and the more I keep myself in that zone of saying I don’t know, you know, and this situation specifically, if I’m working with Nitin, I don’t know. I don’t I just because I’ve worked with people who might have a similarity and background. There’s a uniqueness and a magic to what you bring and a magic to your process that you’ve been struggling to bring out in your career whether you realize or not. That if I could allow myself to go in there, the weird thing is the most effective moments I have as a coach are when we can discover the truth together. You know? It’s not me coming in from on high and telling you this is right, this is wrong, but saying, hey. Do you trust me enough, a, to let someone else into your career, which is a it’s a big ask. You know? I mean, most of the people I’ve I’ve worked with and many I I haven’t it’s a very sensitive topic. Right? So, a, can you trust someone else to open up the door and walk with you a little bit there? And then, b, in those moments where you might have all of this reinforcement. You know? Sometimes negative reinforcement. You know? Can you trust me enough to say, hey. Just this once. Okay? Because of these reasons, can I can I lead you to take one daring moment there to challenge? To just say, hey. You know what? That doesn’t sound right. Okay? Let’s just go back. Let’s actually pull out those numbers. Because if you can give me that one daring moment, which I remember, you know, as an actor. Right? As a shy introvert realizing that you can be shy. You can be whoever you want, but anyone can be courageous for one scene. Anyone can be courageous for one interview. You know, your life can be falling apart, but I can still get you very paid and very well well well set out because no one’s watching you 247. Right? So if we can control those moments and we can make sure that you’re being bold in the right way and you’re taking the risks to for the right reasons, that can shift that can start shifting this stuff and start and start moving into a different way. So above everything, you know, going back to this thing of keeping myself in a student mode keeps me from getting cynical, keeps me from, throwing the towel in when frustration hits, you know, And it keeps me into a place where, you know, my students will be the first one to tell you, like, I’ll apologize to them all the time. Like, I make mistakes all the time in in trying to coach them. You know? But I think that they know that at the end of the day, my heart truly is in the right place, and I I do I do very much care about the mission, perhaps. And I’ll say it. I care about the mission more than any one client, and they know that as well. Right? Like that we’re here to fight a a battle here for our freedom, our happiness, and corporate America or however your thing is, they’re not gonna give that to you. Like, that’s not that’s not part of the American dream as it’s written out. You have to fight especially for that. Right? And so, this this I find that my students give me the energy, the impetus, and the wherewithal to keep going in those critical moments. Right? When I felt the most broken down, the most challenged. You know? That’s when I’ll get that one email, that one call, that that 3 that 32nd message, you know, that just says, hey, dude. I just want you to know that changed. And and I think for an entrepreneur, you live off those things. You know? Because the second you do something different, you’re gonna get resistance from all sides. You know? So it’s that it’s that it’s that feedback loop, I think, with my clients that I think in in many ways has been the magic that me and my team have, have experienced that that, you know, that’s gotten us here.

Nitin Bajaj

So true. Tell us about the impact. Nitin We typically talk about revenues and team sizes, but I think what’s more critical in in the work you do with the 1 on one aspect of of your work. What is the impact that, you’ve created?

Anish Majumdar

Yeah. It it it it’s it’s very true because when it comes to what I found is that when we’re talking about, shall we say, top of funnel, in other words, like, the just when people are just becoming aware aware of you, that’s when we’re working over over the number of people we’ve served, how many 100 of millions in in offers they’ve generated, all of that. But you’re right that the truth is all of that, in some sense, is not the the the the the true payoff. The true payoff to me is being able to shift your thinking so that whatever your dream is of what the future is for you, that it is not reliant on some kind of a third party thing, whether it’s a company, a title, a compensation level, that your goal is determined by a universe of abundance that you yourself have control over and something that you yourself are creating. That it’s not a off the shelf dream that you’re putting in and trying to bend and twist yourself on, which, by the way, is is probably one of the biggest things that I’m seeing holding back amazing professionals. Right? They never they never took the time to ask themselves, okay, marketer. What do I wanna be? Okay. I wanna be a chief marketing officer. Why? Why do I wanna be that? What what what what kind of unique impact can I provide there, and how could I how could I make sure that happens? They get so caught up in chasing. And as long as you’re chasing, as long as you’re benchmarking some other third thing, happiness is not in in the cards for you long term. Right? And so the in some way, you know, this business of teaching people how to generate offers from themselves is kind of a cover, if you will, right, For the deeper goal of saying, okay. You know what? My grid my gradation of what success is is gonna be Nitin’s magic. However, we can spread that out in as in as meaningful a powerful a way as possible based on the relationships I’m building, the pain I’m solving, and where I’m going, that’s gonna be migration of success. And everything else is gonna be secondary to that. Right? That’s really what we’re what we’re in the business of doing, you know, is is extracting people away from feeling like they’re just another car on the freeway and getting them into a zone that says, well, who cares? Like, what the 50 other cars are doing there. Like, you have your own beautiful vehicle. You can literally drive across America wherever you want. And I promise you, what you’re gonna see off of the freeway is a 1000000 times more beautiful and unique than what you’re gonna find there. So who cares about the freeway? Do you see what I’m saying? Like, that’s my ultimate goal is to make people is I wanna I wanna see the rest of what we call the traditional job market, which accounts for less than 10% of roles, at the executive level. I wanna see it fall apart. I’m act I’m actively rooting for it to fall apart. I want to see people and companies enter into a place of absolute panic and chaos where they understand and, specifically, candidates understand that there is no solution there right now. And I think that that one of the things that are holding people back is they see Monster. They see Indeed. They see a couple of job postings on there, and they say, okay. I can convince myself this is what the market is, and this is what I need to play myself. If people if we could rip that away from them and really make it clear that says, no. No. No. Not really. Like, it’s it’s 85, 90% automatic rejection regardless of your qualifications. Right? And so if we could get you to a place where where you no longer had that weak sauce illusion in front of you, and we could get you to a place that says Nitin, understand what the future is here. It doesn’t matter whether you call yourself an entrepreneur or not. Right? I don’t care. I work with people most of the people I work with do not would consider themselves noncreative, nonentrepreneurial. Does not matter. It does not matter. The methodology of the future is going to be entrepreneurial. So it it and it doesn’t matter. Like, the safety is not in those 3rd parties because we’re not in the 19 forties fifties anymore. We’re in 2022, and and whoever succeeds is a pirate in and of themselves. That’s that’s that’s where we’re going. You know? It’s a hard message sometimes for people, even people who desperately need to make chat change. It’s a hard message to get because to truly understand that, as every entrepreneur knows, to truly understand that means that responsibility for everything comes down to you. Right? And it is. All of it. Like, what you earn, what college your kids go to. I’m I’m coaching someone right now, talking about the payoff. The only change that happened to him, he’s in a college fair with his son Christian right now. There’s all of these colleges, and the only difference between us working together and him changing and confronting every single one of these things because this guy has been a number 2 his whole life and he knew he could run a company, but but he also understood no one’s gonna give him that permission. Working through that. Right? And getting him here’s the change. Just 4, 5, 6 other colleges that can now be considered. That’s it. Mhmm. That’s the only difference is that you don’t have to have that humiliating conversation with your wife that says, hey. You know what? How are we gonna tell him that he can’t go there? That it doesn’t matter what level of scholarship or whatever. That’s not a part of his dream. Right? The only shift that happened is that that became a part of the conversation again. That became something now that me, my family, my son, that’s something that we can earn for ourselves. And if you don’t have a flavor for that, if you don’t have if there’s not a a part of you that’s hearing what I’m saying to you right now, and there’s not a part of you that understands in your soul that there’s a difference between that versus just locking into a job that I can I can rip that job out of you tomorrow? And if you can’t get another one, you know how free you are. Right? If you can’t tell that difference, you’re not out. You’re you’re so deeply in the matrix, you’re never getting out.

Nitin Bajaj

True. So, you know, that brings me to my next question, which is, what’s the most difficult thing for you as a business? Right? What’s your biggest challenge?

Anish Majumdar

You know, the, I I to this to this day, I would say delegation, and I’ve got a a small team here. But fighting this this inclination to say especially when things get difficult, to say, okay. Let me just come in there. Let me just figure this out. Let me just do that. Understanding that there are actually times where, especially when you’re running a business that Mhmm. It’s better for you to delegate and have someone that you trust work it out even if that means that you have 30, 40, 50% of your day as unstructured and not knowing what to do. Sometimes as an entrepreneur, that’s the best place for you to be in because your ultimate job is not to solve the problems that you can easily solve. Your job is to solve problems no one has confronted yet. That’s the real I would say that is the ultimate goal or at least the job description that I would say I have after 12 years of and, you know, becoming a multimillionaire at this. What I do is I solve problems that I’ve no one has ever encountered before. I don’t I’ve never encountered before. That’s my job. And so what I’m always fighting is the psychological little thing here that says rather than look at that horrible emptiness of which there’s real progress on the other side of that, why don’t I just spend my time on this client issue that I’ve solved 50 times before, a 150 times before? Why don’t I solve this micromanaging or expanding leadership capital, trying to trying to work on this small thing that a team member of mine will naturally figure out 2 to 3 months from now. Right? It’s this balance of continuously putting yourself into a zone of courageous unknown, courageous question mark. Right? And really being ruthless about asking yourself, like, I’m not interested in spending 80% of my time solving things that I know how to solve. If that’s what you’re doing, you’re failing your job here as an entrepreneur. Right? Your job is to be feeling like, oh, crap. What the hell is this? I don’t know what’s going on. What’s happening? That’s a correct posture, I would say, for running a business. Right? So, the that’s probably on a day by day basis the number one thing that I that I find myself kind of grappling with, if that makes sense.

Nitin Bajaj

It does. On the flip side, what’s the most exciting opportunity that’s keeping you up at night, making you get up in the morning and run after?

Anish Majumdar

Probably, you know, it’s it’s the heart of of what we do in our business, but it’s also something that at 42, I keep having to learn and relearn, which is the most exciting thing about this whole journey for me and what continues to get me out is realizing that if the faith that you put is on other people, as naive as that sounds, and the bet that you make is that I’m going to trust in that I may not have the end destination, but I can trust that my compass will be the right people, that my my goal and my my outreach is there. The the second I started moving in that direction, and the second I and which I would I I as weird as it sounds, I almost call that an act of faith in some sense because every new person in some sense, there is that that that that thing. Once I started doing that, the amount of abundance and opportunities in my life very, very quickly reached a place that was beyond what I could control and manage. Right? And every time I find myself, like, moving away from that, getting into a zone of, like, alright, let’s just control this business, Get the marketing right. Get the do you know, get this dialed in. Right? Every time I lose that that that basic basic thing, which is at heart, the world is a relatively simple place, and it is relatively easy to talk with almost anyone on planet Earth. Like, that that thing. Right? And and understanding that solving and helping 1 by 1 by 1 by 1, weirdly enough, is the way to go macro the fastest. That’s the that’s the thing that that, you know, I’ve become the greatest, you know, proponent of because I’m an introvert and I I’ll I’ll be honest, you know, you know, my insecurities told me for a long time. I was like, if I could avoid picking up the phone and talking to someone, I would. Like if I could avoid, you know, having this wonderful conversation with you and and figuring it out, being challenged. If I could just like be out in a computer and just sort of take actions and get paid, For a while, I thought that’s what that’s what the dream was for me. You know? Because I didn’t have to interact with anyone or anything like that. You know? But it really is like we truly are meant for other people, and the magic is in this interaction. And I I give you my word. Nothing I’ve ever done in my life has done more for my own personal sense of confidence and self belief than, like, having enough conversations and relationships and understanding, like, once and for all. If I’m talking to a CEO, I don’t need to be like him or her. Like, that person is sick and tired of people who are just like them. Right? They need you. They need a full version of Nitin to show up. Like, that’s the magic. You know? That’s the thing that’s gonna give you and it’s that it’s it’s been getting to know individuals on a 1 on 1 level and having faith in them. That’s really, you know, cracked this thing wide open. And, again, it’s been a very powerful hedge against cynicism. You know? Cynicism is someone looking at the industry and saying, oh my god. Our industry is on the downturn. Ergo, I shouldn’t make a very necessary move this year. You know? Mhmm. Like, the macro doesn’t make any there’s zero correlation to that when we’re talking about one exceptional individual like you. Right? So I would rather I would rather see people do that. You know? Make more bets on the individuals and the people in their lives and start helping them because that’s been that’s been the bet that has been transformative for me and my clients.

Nitin Bajaj

Makes a lot of sense. Now let’s switch and and come to this section or part of the show, which is my favorite.

Anish Majumdar

Yes.

Nitin Bajaj

It takes all of your experiences and brings them into life lessons. Right? And we call them one line life lessons. We’d love to hear a few of your life lessons.

Anish Majumdar

Better to ask for forgiveness than permission, has continues to be a, one that I I I continue to do. Love over fear, continues to be, especially in the moments where I know this sounds weird, but in the moments where I’m blowing off the handle or I’m I’m in fear of blowing off the handle Mhmm. Almost always the root cause of that anger is a kind of fear, I found, usually, in terms of of that. And so arcing into that love and and just remembering that assuming positive intent really, really help has helped me. Everyone is a complete mess. This is something that I have literally on my on my on my hosted here has been so powerful for my confidence. You know? Like Mhmm. It’s this old thing where where we see all the flaws in ourselves, but when we are are talking to others, we we see we buy the illusion. You know? And just remembering, hey, you’re a mess, complete mess. No way you could have gotten here without it. I’m a total mess. We’re all a mess has changed everything. Okay? There there there’s 2 others here. 1 is, don’t create enemies, but defend if attacked 100% of the time, which is something that that Nice. I don’t wanna get to l Ron Hubbard y, but that is something that I I do I do I do think about. And the last one, perhaps the most important one, trust your gut. You know? Trust your intuition as as, as age old of that of that saying as there is, I I try to tell everyone that I work with, you know, anything that I’m teaching you, okay, it’s secondary to that feeling that you have because that is your whole life distilled. All of the sensory input, all of that knowledge and that insight. So no matter how good of a role or opportunity, for example. Right? If your gut is telling you, it’s not gonna work. Right? I was about to to to to accept a role a few years ago, and my wife woke me up in the middle of the night and she goes, you know, she’s like, I can’t sleep. I’m like, what’s the problem? She’s like, I’ve got, like, my stomach feels upset. I feel I feel sick about this. I’m like, I think that’s a pretty good sign that we probably shouldn’t take this role. You think? Right? Like like, there’s nothing wrong with that. Like, that’s good. Like, that’s okay. You know? And and and it’s my hope that, you know, in in all of this, especially for the people listening to your amazing podcast, you know, You know so much more than you think you do. You are so much more capable than you do, and this mind here can can trick you a little bit into that. You know? So I find that allowing this guy to to trust sometimes and to say, hey. On the overall, listen. He knows. He knows. Okay? This guy over here, he knows. Either you’re hungry or he knows, but it’s it’s one of those.

Nitin Bajaj

That is so true. Anish, thank you again for sharing your journey and your story, and, of course, your life lessons with us. We really appreciate it. Thank you for all you do to help each individual find the best version of themselves, and, would love to bring you back on, talk about more of your successes and some of your failures too. it’s been a pleasure to have you here. Thank you once again for making the time, and, we really wish you more success in the future.

Anish Majumdar

Thank you, my friend, and much love to you and, to everyone listening.