The Blueprint for Business Success: Growth and Leadership Tips | Rajiv Talreja | The Growth Genius

Rajiv Talreja:-  So I think the biggest quality of a successful business owner according to me is the willingness and the ability to not be a control freak but be a director or an orchestrator of turning the vision into reality the truth is business is a game of progress where version one is better than version none a lot of people are being practitioners where they’re doing stuff by themselves and are confusing themselves by calling themselves business owners and they’re actually building a trap of self-employment in the process and then you’ll feel this sense of regret and remorse saying the person to blame is the person who’s not marketing.

Kaushal Thakkar:- Welcome to the Growth Genius Podcast brought to you by infidigit an organization that helps Brands achieve organic growth by search engine optimization and conversion rate optimization I’m Kaushal Thakkar founder of Infidigit and your host for this show today we have a guest who needs no introduction he is the person who has been instrumental in creating the blueprint that helped my company infidigit grow from one CR of annual revenue to 18 crores of annual revenue not only me but thousands of other business owners have witnessed exponential growth after implementing the strategies and techniques suggested by him at infid digit the team lovs us win-win win concept and that has also helped us become a great place to work please join me in welcoming Rajiv Talreja who is a brand by himself and the founder of several organizations including QL1 he and his team at F1 Have Been instrumental in converting several msme business businesses into large profitable organizations infid digit and I are just one example of such success stories that this person and his team have created Rajiv welcome to the Growth Genius Podcast it’s a pleasure to have you here.

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Rajiv:- Pleasure is mine Kaushal I mean thank you for such a warm lovely and elaborate introduction I just believe that what we do is play the role of a catlist in the Journey of already amazing entrepreneurs like yourself but thank you for such a wonderful full introduction and I’m looking forward to having this conversation with you.

Kaushal:- Thanks Rajiv and the pleasure is all mine Rajiv you have helped several MSM businesses over the last many years the founder or the entrepreneur is the backbone of such Enterprises and I would like to understand your views about the qualities of a successful entrepreneur what makes a successful businessman?

Rajiv:- Like you rightly said in the question that the founder is supposed to be the backbone of any business but I think my job is to help Founders who instead of being the backbone are becoming bottlenecks to their own business so the key differentiator between what I would like to call as mediocre entrepreneurs and successful ones is that successful ones are the back they’re not at the Forefront of everything they are the ones who are orchestrating and kind of directing the show they are not the actors and that’s that’s something that is a Hallmark of any successful business owner because they have the ability to see a vision they have the ability to get the best people on the job who can help them execute that Vision they have the ability to provide the resources in terms of strategies systems and infrastructure to those people and just watch Amazing team members go out there and and turn that Vision into a reality so I think the biggest quality of a successful business owner according to me is the willingness and the ability to not be a control freak but be a director or an orchestrator of of turning the vision into a reality.

Kaushal:- Thanks Rajiv that really helps and Rajiv just I would love if you can go a little deeper because I see many businesses over here or the business owners who make their businesses itself into a hobby and are stuck or are stuck somewhere because they don’t know how to expand their business further in both the cases they become just busy and go with the flow of their day-to-day lives what would be your advice to become that particular person who instead of becoming a bottleneck to their business actually starts creating the blueprint for growth?

Rajiv:- Yeah so I I think the advice is pretty straightforward see one is uh one it takes a realization for someone to understand that them being good at what they do is sometimes the biggest barrier for them building a great organization see say for example I am a digital marketer and I set up a digital marketing agency and I’m good at digital marketing myself then High chances are that I will sit on every single project by myself execute it myself deliver the results to the client myself right or say I’m a architect or an interior designer and I have great aesthetic sense and great space sense and all of that and I then get handson and go into the details of every single design executing coordinating with labor material vendors all of those kind of things so I have always maintained this that you can either be a practitioner in an industry or you can be an entrepreneur in an industry a lot of people are being practitioners where they’re doing stuff by themselves and are confusing themselves by calling themselves business owners and they’re actually building a trap of self-employment in the process now it’s a nice thing to say that I love what I do but if your love for what you do is the biggest barrier for growth and scale then it’s just your love for yourself not the love for your organization or your mission and I genuinely say to such entrepreneurs that if you’re good at what you do it’s your responsibility to build something at scale so that you set the Benchmark of quality in your industry you add value to more and more customers and you create amazing workplaces and careers for people in that industry so for that you have to go beyond yourself learn how to let go learn how to build teams build systems and build strategies because these are skills most people are just having the skill of providing a good quality product or service they don’t have the skill of building an organization or business around that product or service so if one takes a step back introspects and asks themselves what do I want to leave behind for myself is it just me doing what I love doing and making money out of it on a month-to-month basis or is it about me building an organization or a business in my industry if the latter is your choice then get out of the way that’s the most important advice I can give to an entrepreneur.

Kaushal:- And this would be that one fundamental step which will help the business owner even creating business which would work without him in future if the need arises?

Rajiv:- Absolutely I’m a big believer that the job of an owner is to create the future not to firefight in the present so if you’re firefighting in the present it means you’re the best on your team it means everything is depending on you is revolving around you it means you’ve not done the foundational element of getting out of the day-to-day firefighting so you can focus on growth and expansion think about it if a business owner is not focusing on growth and expansion then who will you can’t expect a team member to do that now some people justify this by saying but Rajiv at a certain stage initially at least you have to be involved I always say this you have to be involved till you’ve proven the Merit of your product or service the moment you’ve proven the Merit of your product or service ke my product works or my service solves a problem then you can’t continue playing that game you have to become Restless to step out of the day-to-day game and focus on building team system strategy so you can focus on growth.

Kaushal:- True and Raju while youve explained it this particular concept really well I would also like to understand what is the role of a coach a mentor in this entire gamut of things many times we see entrepreneurs struggling with their day-to-day lives and don’t know that hey how do I proceed further from here where does the coach come into the picture?

Rajiv:- I think for me um the role of a coach in the context of business is very similar to the context of sports right like we’ve heard of players having coaches why do why do the best of the best athletes the best of the best Sportsmen or Sports women across the world have coaches it’s not because they don’t know how to play the game it’s because they want those one degree shifts that will help them become a champion right I mean the best analogy of this is you have children playing Cricket on the streets and you have players playing Cricket in the stadium right now the players playing Cricket in the stadium have the coach not the child who’s playing Cricket on the street doesn’t mean the player does not know how to play it’s just that he’s playing a bigger game a game that matters so in the same way anyone who’s building a business one is you can build business from the point of view saying I’m a owner I it has to be built by me my intelligence my effort my capability but you need to understand nobody is saguna nobody has all the knowledge that they need so you need an Outsiders perspective to bring fresh ideas to help you get clarity of your own goals and priorities to help you stay on track by holding you accountable in your action to support you when you face new challenges through new execution and to handhold you to produce extraordinary results so anyone who wants to play a game which is Big which is extraordinary and wants to accelerate the pace at which they are playing that game I think a coach is a requirement over there I always say this a coach is not a medicine you give to a sick person it’s not a crutch you hold to walk on when you have broken your leg a coach is a is like a is like a protein shake or an energy booster to a person who wants to be super fit in any context in this case business.

Kaushal:- Wonderful and Raji one other thing which I’ve often seen entrepreneurs getting into a trap is uh usually that Perfection trap and I have spoken a lot many times about that particular thing myself uh about the strategy which you tell us always or the word which you have given us that hey Perfection is a myth progress is the key could you elaborate also a little about that particular thing because that’s a Master Blaster for me and I believe it would be a Master Blaster for many entrepreneurs and business owners too because they do get in this particular space?

Rajiv:- Absolutely so if you look at it most people in the Journey of building their business develop this crazy fear psychosis of what if I hire a person and that person doesn’t do the job what if the salary is a waste what if I build a system and nobody in the team follows the system what if I explore some strategies for growth and those strategies fail then I’ll lose money I’ll lose time I’ll lose reputation so most people have this what if it doesn’t work now where does this this fear of what if it doesn’t work come from it comes from the desire of perfection okay so what people want is when I do X I should get a perfect result or an output out of it now if you understand the desire is there okay but the desire doesn’t translate into action because you want perfectionism so say for example I have a thought I need a team everything is dependent on me I need to hire people I need to build teams but if this what if I hire that person doesn’t perform what if I hire that person learns and leaves if all these doubts come in it’s coming because I have this desire saying I need to hire and I need to bring in that perfect person who will solve all my problems now none of us have a time machine to know whether that person we’re going to hire is going to be the right bet or not not none of us have a time machine to know that system we going to implement is going to simplify things or not none of us have a time machine to know whether the strategy we going to explore say in marketing or in sales or in scaleup is going to work out or not no one has a time machine the only way to figure out if something works or not is by doing it now in the process of doing it will you win some will you lose some yes you will but even what you perceive as a loss is actually a lesson and unless you don’t learn those lessons you’re not going to get smarter you’re not going to get wiser so the only way to learn is to take action there’s no manual for Success saying step one step two step three life is sorted everyone has to figure things out you figure things out by doing what is the biggest barrier of doing the biggest barrier of doing is the desire for Perfection because the moment this thought comes what if it doesn’t work you’re not going to take action so you’re are where you were already you have not moved even an inch so I’m a big believer that instead of aspiring for perfection in every situation and in return in practicality actually procrastinating your decisions and actions if you just shift the Paradigm and understand that perfectionism is a lie it’s a myth it’s a notion it doesn’t exist the truth is business is a game of progress where version one is better than version one version one team is better than no team version one system is better than no system version one strategy is better than no strategy when you embrace the Paradigm of progress rather than the Paradigm of perfectionism you you release pressure from your yourself and you bring in this sense of agility to take decisions and actions and that agility to take decisions and actions is what makes you wiser stronger smarter and eventually helps you achieve the goals and results that you desire to achieve so I always say this that in business the person who has the maximum appetite to handle shabbiness is the person who will create the maximum progress if you can’t handle shabbiness you can’t handle some unhappy customers some money lost some time lost uh some reputation lost if you can’t handle that you’ll build a bubble for yourself where you’ll be a control freak and you’ll believe you’re the only one who is the best in the world at what you do and nobody else can do it like you and you live in that bubble forever and after years of being in that bubble suddenly this regret will seep in saying why haven’t I grown look at people in my industry look at that team member of mine who learned from me where has he gone I always say this and this is my observation in reality after working with more than 25,000 business owners talented people rarely build scalable businesses because there’s so much ego attached to their talent that they want everything to be perfect that they’re not playing bigger Bolder they get stuck in their own mediocrity of doing everything by themselves so that’s my little rant on why perfectionism is actually a disease.

Kaushal:- Perfect thanks and Rajiv the reason why I term this as a Master Blaster for myself is that  I was a person who was trapped in this particular Perfection myth and after attending your session it really helped me kind of break those things but yes uh after growing from let’s say that one CR to 18 CR while I holded that particular thing again at this particular level after even going that 1820x I again feel that uh now the business is getting stagnated is this a continuous process or are there levels of perfection or progresses which are there in business or is it just a?

Rajiv:- So I’ll tell you something Kaushal say you from 0-1CR was a journey where you were trying to prove your own skill to yourself true at one CR you realize that skill but this constant desire to prove my own skill to myself and sitting and doing everything by myself is actually my biggest enemy so you dropped some behaviors and you said let me build team let me build system let me go there Market myself you saw Spike from say 1-18 MH now you are at 18c now at 18c you probably have a very seamless team that manages projects of clients you have enough of a track record of client success stories which helps you attract newer customers so you’ve kind of hit what I call as a plateau stage mhm 18 say year on year 10% 15% 20% by default organically will grow yeah now from here what you need is what I call Shiva mode you know they say Brahma Vishnu and Shiva right and Brahma is a creator for us to get into the creation Zone first there has to be destruction okay so what’s the destruction I’m not asking you to mess with what’s working I’m asking you to destroy the thought processes about what’s possible with this business and look at newer thought processes and possibilities right so now is the time where you have to start questioning saying if someone had to build let’s say you are in the space of uh helping people optimize organic marketing if someone had to go and build a 200CR company in this space you have to reimagine what would their business model look like what would their Target customer who would their Target customer be what would their services delivery model be um and automatically you’ll have ideas that will pop one idea may be geographical expansion one idea may be turning service into product and commoditization of your services one idea may be to franchise your agency model and help other people in your industry build a successful business using your brand name one idea can be I already said geographical expansion so exploring overseas markets where the ticket value can be high one idea can be to build your own personal brand like someone like a Neil Patel where you become the personal brand and then you drive traffic and you offer services so you see you have to reimagine I believe this podcast you’re doing with me is also a part of that reimagination process right so I think we all in life will see what I believe is a curve of Spike Plateau little bit of a fall with new experiments but then you master those new experiment and another Spike most people get discouraged with the fall of new experiments and I’m unnecessarily getting enthusiastic and Adventure is here let’s stick to what’s working but what starts happening is this though the business grows 10-20% organic the passion reduces 10-20% organically as well because we are all at the end of the day Souls that thrive on Evolution and when we don’t evolve we feel we are kind of diminishing in our own eyes so yeah so you’re at a plateau explore some new experiments which will take probably from 18 crores to 16 and you’ll be like your profitability we eroded because of this new experiment but when you master that you’ll see the next sprik.

Kaushal:- Is Rajiv Talreja always an idea Factory like this or is is it because Rajiv tala has that particular experience or has faced this kind of situations in life that’s the reason Rajiv can give solution to any such business problem?

Rajiv:- I think I have a very beautiful Advantage which is the exposure I carry to the number of businesses we work with so um because of the diversity of Industries we are working with in terms of coaching say at this point of time we have clients from 192 different types of businesses you have all types of business there manufacturing trading Retail Services Professional Services it FNB startups uh agriculture businesses so what happens is that that exposure automatically makes you smarter cuz then your ability to process businesses connect the dots is beautiful it’s like this right like say if you break the news to your friend saying I’m getting married and your friend is a lawyer he look at marriage from a legal point of view saying preup agreement so tomorrow if things go south you are protected if your friend is is a gynecologist then they’ll say check up are both of you conducive for reproduction or not so it becomes a lens that you wear now as a business coach the lens that I wear is dissecting businesses dissecting strategies so what happens is naturally in a business conversation I’m the man with the ideas in the room now you put me in a social environment and you ask me to uh to say chers with champagne glasses and just randomly engage in small talker or casual chatter then I I go into a shell I’m an introvert over there right so this is my zone this is my game so I’m good at playing this because this is all that I do every single day.

Kaushal:- Thanks Rajiv that really is helpful Rajiv my next question would be around uh those business owners and leaders who have mastered the operational aspect of product and service but do not know how to sell it or they’re limited to just the word of mouth publicity I was one such entrepreneur when I joined the pce program in 2018 definitely the one solution for all these people would be the pce program but if you had to give them one piece of free advice what would that be?

Rajiv:- See for a business owner who’s an operational expert and has not um considered what else can they do to kind of scale up their business the one single advise I would say is prioritize marketing and it starts with prioritizing Marketing in your head it’s not just to say do marketing it’s first make it a priority here and I’ll break this down from what I would say are two types of entrepreneurs who are operationally very good okay so there is one set of entrepreneurs who I would call struggling entrepreneurs because they’re in the first three five years of their Journey they still haven’t built that kind of a track record of their own product or service which gives them enough Goodwill to start generating leads consistently so even though they generate word of mouth it’s very fragmented there’s no consistency over there so these I’ll call a struggling entrepreneurs because they’re struggling because they’re playing the game of month-to month survival they’re always worried saying where will I get the next month’s money from who is my next project going to be with so they’re already stuck in that battle and they may have a good quality product or service they have great operational expertise then you have another category of people who’ve been around in any business for 5-10, 15-20 years and because they’ve been around for 10-20 years they have enough of a track record enough of a Goodwill in the market because of which they getting enough business from their existing customers or are generating consistent B of mouth referrals because of which they are not prioritizing marketing now the reason I would say prioritize marketing to both these types of entrepreneurs are different the first set which is a struggling survival entrepreneurs would be you need to do marketing so that you’re grabbing your Target customers attention you’re showcasing your capability you’re establishing credibility in their minds and you are creating curiosity for your product or service so you generate leads consistently so for the struggling entrepreneurs marketing becomes a necessity for consistent lead generation therefore consistent income generation but for the stable successful entrepreneurs who’ve been around for 10-20 years they may argue saying when I’m getting enough business from my existing clients why should I bother marketing the reason you should prioritize marketing at that stage is for two things number one when you’re only depending on your existing clients you have a very low bargaining power and that existing client over a period of time controls the relationship they control the price point they control the payment terms and you can’t even be tough with them when they’re dealing payments because they are expecting you to understand and support so when you start marketing if you’re a stable successful business and you always have a healthy pipeline of leads and inquiries that will give you enough confidence and conviction to charge the price and to earn the profit that you deserve and to demand the payments on the terms that you desire but if you’re only depending on existing clients you’re always worried saying if I’m a little tough with this guy what if he gets offended goes to a competitor so you’re always playing the game to keep that customer with you not necessarily optimize the returns from that customer for your business but when you Market you have a pipeline of leads then you are working with the best because you are the best right the other reason for a stable successful entrepreneur to focus on marketing would be that marketing gives you enough evidence about how much demand you can create and that that evidence of the demand that you can create for a product or service then gives you datadriven conviction to reinvest in the business for further expansion so that’s why I say marketing is like a medicine for anyone and if you’re operationally good and you’re just waiting for the world to recognize how great you are well times are changing today newer age businesses are smarter at marketing even though they might not have the operational capability that you have and they will out Market you and outbeat you and then you’ll feel this sense of regret and remorse saying the person to blame is the person who’s not marketing so I feel marketing is that one key advice for any operational expert if you’re good at what you do it’s your responsibility to Market yourself perfect.

Kaushal:- Really wonderfully said Rajiv and this is not only true for msme and small businesses but even large Brands absolutely are falling into this particular trap that okay we’ll just do the conventional few things in terms of marketing and then at least let it grow but yes of those businesses are as you rightly said are going at that 10-15% then that they’re not breaking it yeah one such thing at least to break this particular Zone you had shared with us is called magnetic Market we were blessed that we were blessed with this kind of Knowledge from your side but at least for the people who are not aware about this could you at least help them demystify this term magnetic marketing?

Rajiv:- So I look at marketing as there are two approaches to marketing one is a hygienic approach to marketing and the other is the magnetic approach and I can’t Define magnetic without defining hygienic so I’ll give both perspectives hygienic marketing strategies are those strategies which are standard which are basic which everybody uses um these are push strategies okay where so teley marketing is a push strategy field marketing is a push strategy email marketing is a push strategy joining a business referal networking organization is a push strategy uh or participating in an exhibition or an expo is a push strategy right where you’re pushing okay today I would consider social media is also a push strategy because it’s become a basic Norm for people to use social media to kind of Market their businesses right magnetic on the other hand as the name suggests magnetic which means it’s a pull strategy Where You Are creat creating a differentiating position in the mind of the target audience in a manner where the Target customer wants to associate with you okay so I’ll give you an example today you see the number of businesses doing podcast shows podcasting is a pull strategy because if I as a business owner I’m doing podcast and I’m hosting experts on that podcast I’m building a brand positioning of a thought leader and I am opening doors with decision makers and influencers who would be Prospect customers for my business in a B2B environment in a b2c environment it’s a great uh thought leadership kind of a category building for yourself so podcasting is a pull strategy uh if if someone follows your podcast and they watch your podcast show tomorrow you land up in a situation where you have to sell to them you don’t have to prove your credibility because the perception is already established right so that is what I would call as a magnetic strategy.

Kaushal:- Thanks Rajiv for sharing that and as I told you earlier the growth genius is a part of this particular baby which you had suggested long time back that hey go for some magnetic marketing strategy and thanks to you and your team to help us with this kind of strategy so thanks a lot for the great work which you and your team are doing Rajiv one other question which I would like to ask you today is so and this is coming from your team only I was filling up the form last week for the next profcon which you’re hosting in the month of December and one of the questions which your team asked us to fill was what have been some of your biggest failures as an entrepreneur I was quite intrigued to understand if Rajiv Talreja had made any mistakes in his life and if yes what?

Rajiv:- Well quite a few like like they say right that every master was once a disaster so I kind of break down my 17 years of Entrepreneurship into into two parts the first 10 years where I made disastrous amount of mistakes like it was like the most stupidest things I would have done but I’m very grateful to those first 10 years because that kind of built the depth the foundation uh and the understanding that makes me very relatable to the work that I do today for the last seven years right so if I had to break down my mistakes I think the first big mistake I made very early in my journey was for a long time I undersold myself I undercharged for the services my businesses would provide purely out of this insecurity and fear saying what if the client finds it expensive what if they reject what if they go to a competitor and um I carried this fear because I think there was something broken in my money psychology I didn’t learn how to Value myself or the value the value we were adding to our clients so uh that was my first big mistake the second big mistake if I look back at the last 17 years as an entrepreneur was uh to not Market myself for the first 10 years uh it was a very expensive mistake and it was a big realization for me because I came from this Traditional School of thought key if your work is good if your product is good if your service is good people will automatically buy but I realized there’s so much noise in the market people don’t even have the time and patience to search for which is the best product or service they are just going directly to the which is the best marketed product or service so I said if I’m good at what I do then I need to Market myself that was a a big lesson for me that was a big change in my journey as an entrepreneur and the third big mistake that I probably have made in these last 17 years is while I am a person who’s naturally very trusting and giving in a relationship and I’m very forthcoming to to give to trust to care one important lesson I’ve learned is that you shouldn’t change who you are you should be forthcoming to give to care to trust to love to provide but you should also evaluate whether the person whom you are providing to in a business context is reciprocating that or not because if that person is not reciprocating then you’re being used and you are then giving not out of your own desire to give but because it’s somewhere becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy that and all of that in a business context I think you have to play the role of a mirror you have to hold people accountable and you have to draw the line and sometimes say hey boss this is not working out and I think I made that mistake that I’ve been overtly forthcoming in giving caring but not being assertive to to demand a reciprocation sometimes from people who are close to me it’s something I’m learning it’s something that I’ve become wiser by making these mistakes so no complaints.

Kaushal:- Okay Rajiv the third one would be applicable for many people while definitely marketing and other stuff is definitely you’ve answered it to some extent y but this particular third word mistake is something which many people don’t know where to draw the line?

Rajiv:- Yeah and I’d like to draw a disclaimer there you know what happens is when you are a person who naturally gives and cares and provides um and say you don’t get the reciprocation you can easily turn bitter as well and oscillate to The Other Extreme say people are not worth trusting you shouldn’t trust everybody and that makes you who you are not which is again what you don’t enjoy and I’ve seen a lot of people oscillate from this to that I think for me what I found peace in is to say I will still not change who I am I will still give I will still trust I will still care I will still support all I would look for is early indicators of reciprocation AC commment to work on themselves and contribute back in that relationship because if they don’t then you are breeding a freeloader M so I will still give but I will draw boundary early by being more aware about evaluating the person opposite okay do they deserve this giving or not perfectly fair particular see it’s it’s a a lot of things right like say for example if I have a team member on my team and I’m giving providing and all of that and in reciprocation that person saying yeah Rajiv I feel guilty okay keep I you are providing so much but I’m not able to contribute back to the business the only time I give them permission to feel guilty is once 3 months later they again say I’m still feeling guilty then they’ve not worked on themselves right uh so there has to be progress okay you can’t have the person singing the same song saying I’m guilty I’m guilty I’m guilty I’m guilty I’m guilty but guilt right so you have to see is there change first time guilt admission second time probably Improvement and progress third time commitment and desire say nothing’s working to to have the humility to take a step back and say I probably don’t deserve to be at this position I want to go one level lower and I want to learn and come back up right so you will see that in the right kind of person to whom you should continue giving.

Kaushal:- Perfect that’s that really helps Rajiv thank you for that Rajiv one other interesting thing that is going in the Indian economy these days is the Indian startups and the VC funding I was just going through this news that Indian startups raised only 7 billion US dollar of funds in the last uh nine months that is January to September of 2023 Vis in the first nine months of 2022 they had raised 22 billion right so 7 billion versus 22 billion and even 2021 was at 27 billion for the same months now with VC money that was fueling the startups reducing since the last few years and the startups are in need to help understand how to sustain their business which they have increased over the last many years with the help of VC funding what would be your advice to these kind of startup Founders?

Rajiv:- Firstly I’m happy for them last year when this was at its peak I was probably one of the few people in this country was raising a voice saying that look this is a bubble and it’s going to burst and it did burst and I’m glad not because I am anti- startups but because I feel this kind of a correction is in required in any environment where there is unrealistic fantasies that are being sold see what has happened is I think 2020-2021 were rare years where money was flowing easily now you see the interest rates in the US are higher and naturally that’s like the gangotri of the startup ecosystem so when interest rates are high Capital gets expensive and capital dries up for people plus what happened is what with a lot of Partners they had given funds to all these VCS for a 7-year period and the encashing was supposed to happen let’s just say 22 23 and the encashing didn’t happen so there was a conservatism that came in there also key boss is my Capital even safe with a VC right with the real source of fund people who were really providing those funds so I believe that even if your desire is to build a startup you got to build it like a business like a micro business you got to build for the customer not build for the VC why do you need money why do you need to be in a hurry to capture the market you don’t it’s a notion it’s a myth it’s a perception that has been created okay you build with the fundamentals once you build with the fundamentals and get your get your business profitable at the level of every unit then automatically the money will follow right what I think the perception has changed for a lot of Founders and the culture shift that is not healthy is ke only if I raise money will I be able to build businesses yeah I’m like business is not a new activity right business at least from an Indian context we were the creators of trade-based businesses before even currencies were created right so businesses have always worked on value exchange they haven’t worked on valuation today what’s happened is unfortunately with so much overg glamorization of fundraising that people think that’s the Benchmark of success no that’s that’s a sign of a liability when you have borrowed someone’s money it may not be a financial liability on your head because everything gets burned down nobody can come and sees your personal assets and demand money from you but it’s definitely an emotional and a mental liability at a certain valuation how are you going to justify it maintain it sustain it and grow it beyond that that’s a million dollar question to ask so I would say that the real fabric of Entrepreneurship is about people learning how to navigate their way of building a business through limited resources that is entrepreneurship so the real game is to navigate through the limitation of resources so that’s when you’ll see real entrepreneurs emerging.

Kaushal:- Perfect and and for this entrepreneurs now we have gone into that valuation game and now struggling to get and create a business is there some specific recommendation that you would have in terms of at least let’s say enrolling uh to the PACE program or the MBA program what would you suggest for them?

Rajiv:- I would be happy to help such entrepreneurs so I’m not going to use this podcast as a marketing pitch but if anybody needs that kind of support they can always reach out to me on any social media platform but I would also say that I have been learning from some of these funded entrepreneurs about how they’re navigating through this interesting situation and it’s it’s kind of sad to see because I know entrepreneurs who’ve been backed by some of the biggest VCS in the world who have gone into a mode which we call quiet quitting today so the concept of quiet quitting people talk about it in the context of employees where employees are mentally emotionally Switched Off saying I’ll do my 9-5 and get out of here I don’t care about growth I don’t care about anything strangely I’m saying funded entrepreneurs going to quiet quitting saying and they kind of quietly quit in their head about their own business which was at one point of time their passion and they’re looking at second Focus ony that’s a very dangerous signal for me true okay of quiet quitting and that is something that a lot of funded Founders who will not admit it publicly but that’s their current emotional and mental reality.

Kaushal:- Rajiv one last question from my side at least what would be that one last message which you would like to share with our audience today or the learning which you would say that they should all take away from you?

Rajiv:- Now you are going to make me sound like a preacher but okay at the risk of sounding like a preacher all I’m going to say is this that you know what money has value when you don’t have it when you make money uh a lot of people who make money still don’t find inner peace and joy uh so I would say that keep money and joy as two separate tracks in your life money is important it is critical but don’t attach your happiness to money because trust me no matter how much money you make you try to find happiness there you’re finished uh you’ll have deep emotional crashes so no matter what stage of the journey you are in building your business business stick to the fundamentals take care of your health spend quality time in your relationships and get better at building your business and know what gives you happiness that Clarity is very important if you think a few zeros in your bank account is going to give you happiness I promise you and can give it to you in writing it will not so I would say prioritize money and earn that money by becoming a better version of your own skills and knowledge in your business because money is a reflection of the scale of business you build and the scale of business is a reflection of the capabilities you hold and learning that is in your control through mentors through coaches through courses through books learning is in an individual’s control so make that money by becoming a better version of your own capabilities and knowledge and on the other hand know your priorities what matters to you okay a good health the people you love and a time of your life where you experience this planet to the fullest if you keep the fundamentals in focus on a daily basis you don’t need anyone like me to tell you what you should focus on.

Kaushal:- Perfect Rajiv that was wonderful uh thanks a lot for being on this particular show it was really a pleasure to have you here uh just one last thing while I understand you are always a search away from any specific uh place where you would prefer the audience gets in touch with you or your team?

Rajiv:- If people want to explore just learning from me then I would say would be my YouTube channel uh because there I do a lot of long format content just to teach and give back to entrepreneurs if people like to connect and have a conversation and explore how they can take our support then I would say a message on Instagram and in both these places I go by the name Rajiv Talreja so yeah I’m a click away.

Kaushal:- Perfect that was really wonderful Rajiv thanks once again for being a part of this show and I really appreciate you getting on this particular show and sharing such deep insight with our audience today thank you.

Rajiv:- Thank you so much Kel and I love the line of questioning so more power to you and this podcast.

Kaushal:- Thank you for joining us on this episode of The Growth Genius I hope you learned how to build more profitable and larger businesses from Rajiv Talreja today if you have any questions for Rajiv Talreja or for us please include them in the comment section and we’ll get back to you thank you now go out there and create growth for yourself and your organization I’ll see you in the next episode thanks