Speaking and Communicating Podcast

He's a military style, here are your numbers, I don't know why you can't reach them.

We're gonna have a conversation kind of later.

He texted me on a Sunday, and he said, hey, I was thinking of calling a Sunday night phone call to plan out the week, but something told me Bindu thinks I shouldn't do that.

Welcome back to the Speaking and Communicating Podcast.

I am your host, Roberta Ndlela.

If you are looking to improve your communication skills, both professionally and personally, this is the podcast you should be tuning into.

Communication and soft skills are crucial for your career growth and leadership development.

And speaking of leadership, this exciting month of April, we have a special leadership series where every single guest will be a leadership coach, a leader in their own organization, and they will be helping us become better leaders ourselves.

And to top it off, we have three episodes per week instead of the usual two.

We will be publishing three episodes per week, Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, instead of the usual two episodes a week in this special leadership series in April.

So stay tuned, become a better leader, and log on to Apple and Spotify to give us a rating and a review.

And let's get communicating.

Now let's get communicating with Bindu Chowritmootoo all the way from Dallas, Texas.

She's here to talk to us about how to flip the leadership switch.

And before I go any further, please help me welcome her to the show.

Hi Bindu.

Hi Roberta.

It's such an honor to be here.

Thank you for having me.

It's my pleasure.

Welcome.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself.

Well, I'm originally from India and I was raised in the Northeast.

I'm from Philadelphia actually and started my college and my leadership journey in Boston, Massachusetts.

Now I am living in Dallas, Texas and I am a ICF certified professional coach and a business consultant for the last, I want to say a total of over 25 years.

So I've been in the leadership space for a very, very long time and I have served in many, many different roles from administrator to C-level positions to being an entrepreneur.

I did start my own functional medicine practice in Dallas, Texas and sold it to a surgical hospital in 2019.

And now I am full-time leadership coach and business consultant.

So I am always looking for ways to have everyone improve their current skill sets, both on a personal and professional level.

Which is why I think you're a perfect fit for the show.

So how did you get started on your professional career before becoming an entrepreneur?

I always wanted to be a nurse.

And when I got into undergrad, I quickly learned that nursing wasn't for me.

And the reason is, I get very, very emotionally attached to patients.

My mom is a 47-year retired nurse in the system.

And I realized at some point that instead of caring for patients, I wanted to care for employees.

Because in the healthcare space, we go through a lot of heartache when we're dealing with sick patients.

Because we have to deal with the patients and their primary caregivers and their family members.

And so I decided to do my degree in healthcare administration.

And when I started that role, immediately I was given the opportunity to be in leadership and management roles.

I have a very, very diverse background in leadership because everywhere from healthcare to insurance companies, to hospitals, to hospice, to home health, to physician health calls, I did the full spectrum in the healthcare industry, which I love, by the way.

I just love seeing patients heal from the inside out.

And because of that, I started to train folks in leadership roles myself because I wanted everyone to give the best possible care to patients through nurses, through doctors.

And so because of that, my passion for organizing a leader's mind, along with their daily and weekly and monthly task and how are they the most efficient in their role running an entire administration, a entire department or even a company.

So that's where my fuel for leadership came in.

And the more positions I took and kicking and screaming sometimes, I don't want to take it, but my mentors were like, no, Bindu, you have to try this.

And I did.

And every time I pushed myself to learn a new skill set, I had no idea that I was literally ending up being a subject matter expert in that skill set and then have the opportunity to train others in it as well.

So that's been my journey in management and leadership.

So is my understanding that you believe that if you take care of the nurses, the employees, then automatically they take care of the patients, the customers?

Yes, correct.

The secret recipe to any successful organization is investing in your people and in your clients.

And some people say products, but in this case for health care, it's your patients.

So if your clinical staff is feeling supported and trained and mentored, then they will have a higher satisfaction rate.

So in return, they are able to give the best of themselves to patients.

And then the last part, when you were talking about how sometimes your mentors would say, take the position, sometimes especially us women, we feel like if I'm not a technical subject matter expert in this, oh, I'm not going to be a leader.

How am I going to lead people who know more than me?

And then we pass up on the opportunity and not realizing that the subject matter expertise is necessary, but leadership also requires a different skill, as you said.

Correct.

I have a favorite story I must have said a hundred million times, but I worked for a managed care company and my vice president called me in on a Friday and said, he, listen, I need you to transition over to a call center role.

And I looked at her like she was crazy.

I said, call center?

Why would I want to do something like that?

No one ever aspires to grow up to be a call center manager.

And she said, no, Bindu, these representatives are calling hospitals, calling physician offices and explaining why their claims are not being paid.

And no physician wants to hear that they're taking insurance and they submit it to the insurance company and they're not getting paid.

So she said, I need a non-traditional call center manager to take on this role, because there's something I'm missing.

I'm hiring the most seasoned call center managers, and I can't keep them happy.

They're not making change.

She said this to me on a Friday at 3 o'clock.

And she said, Monday, I'm going to announce it.

Just trust me on this.

You're going to kill it.

You're going to do great.

No, I kept saying over and over again, I don't want the position.

Please let me stay where I'm at.

She's like, no, you don't have an option.

I want you to grow, and I want you to do this.

This is when I was in Boston.

So it was snowing really hard that day.

And I'm driving home at 4, 4.30, stuck in all of this traffic, and I have an hour commute home even without the traffic.

And so I'm driving home, and I thought, well, she didn't give me an option.

She sees something in me that she thinks I can handle this.

So I literally pulled over to the next exit, to the mall, and I went to Barnes and Noble.

And I bought a book called How to Manage Call Centers for a Dummy.

I don't know if you know from the back of the days.

Everything was, yeah, programming for dummies.

My process was for dummies.

Yes.

The yellow and black colors.

Yes, yellow and black.

Correct.

So I grabbed that book, went home, and that was a Friday night.

From Friday till Sunday, I read it cover to cover.

I highlighted everything that I had no idea what was, I didn't even know what the terminologies were.

And I started on Monday.

She made the announcement as promised.

All of a sudden, overnight, or I should say over the weekend, I ended up inheriting 350 employees.

And, you know, I went from 20 to 350.

And thank goodness for this book, because each chapter that I read, I knew just enough to ask certain questions of each division and my quality metrics and like my leaders and my supervisors.

Like I knew what, hey, I need these five things.

I need these eight things before we meet.

Like here are some KPIs that we need to talk about, or, you know, whatever the case may be.

And that's my favorite story because I took it.

Every Friday, I had an all staff meeting where all 350 pairs of eyes were staring at me, Miss Non Call Center.

I had to convince them they loved their job.

And I did, you know, within a year and a half of me taking over the department, we had a waiting process for people to transition to call center.

And it's only because I try to make it fun, you know.

I had the beach balls jumping up and all over the place on all staff meetings.

I would tape gift cards under people's chairs because people, nobody wanted to sit in the front.

So I would just start this like craze of what is Bindu going to do next?

And I would just try to find different ways to get people to enjoy to come in to work.

I would have heavy bonuses for all the team leads and the supervisors.

I just asked for the moon and my VP gave me whatever I asked of her.

And we had a wait list for people to come in.

So that's one of my favorite stories about being asked to do something that's outside of your comfort zone.

Absolutely amazing.

And the thing is, first of all, you created this beautiful work culture.

But also listening to your story, I noticed that if you're a leader, you have a different mindset and way of looking at things, not just the actual job.

Correct.

And as a leader, it's utilizing resources, it's utilizing other leaders, it's utilizing any type of plan, a proposal to say, hey, if you want me to be successful, this is what I need.

And sometimes it's just a matter of asking.

Some people just don't make the effort to put together a wish list of how you can be successful as a leader.

And I ask for the moon.

I may not get the moon, I might get just the stars or two or three, but at least I'm asking if they know where my mind is.

And I rarely get upper management saying no to me.

They'll say, Bindu, right now we don't have it in the budget, but I'll give you this.

And the next quarter, I'll give you that.

Done, let's do it.

You got the spirit of negotiation, it's real.

It's very powerful.

And that's why no is never an answer for me as a leader.

So I always find a way to get what I need for the people that I'm leading.

Otherwise, why am I a leader?

You had moments when you asked them questions because you didn't come with this mindset that leaders are supposed to know everything.

Correct.

Oh my goodness, yes.

Every time I mentor a new client, I'm like, what if I fail?

What if I don't know enough?

What if, you know, what if, okay, what if you do, what if you're successful?

What if you bring something that's new and refreshing to the table that no one ever thought of and all of a sudden you're wildly successful because you were thinking outside the box?

The whole term of thinking outside the box is so real.

So anybody who makes fun of it, it's because they never tried it.

You don't have to follow the norm.

You can always bring something out of, you know, left field and say, you know what?

Everything else in the traditional sense has been followed and it didn't yield the results that we're looking for.

So why don't we try this, this, and this?

And people tend to love leaders who have that mindset because they know we're constantly thinking of new ways to reinvent ourselves.

And I think that's one of the secret formulas that I always make sure I execute when I'm working with a leader.

And then, when you do business consultancy, what does that entail?

So when I made the leap from being a corporate employee to being an entrepreneur, it was such a great learning experience, I must say.

And of that five and a half, six years of being an entrepreneur, and I'm still an entrepreneur, but owning brick and mortar, a practice, it's next level.

And what I did was I began to put together almost like a pathway formula, like a guideline of, hey, if you're deciding to be an entrepreneur, or you're deciding to start a business, or even just a side hustle, whatever that case may be, where do we start?

Like, what does that pathway look like?

What is step A, B, C, and D?

And how do you get there?

So a lot of my clients that I coach right now will tell me, you know what, I'm an empty nester, all my children have left, and now I want to discover myself.

I'm thinking of starting a sign shop, or I'm thinking of starting my own coaching business.

How do I do this?

So as a consultant, I'll come by and assess what type of goals this particular leader is looking for.

So for example, if someone says, I want to start my own company or my own side hustle within the next three months, then I will put together a three month plan for them.

And I'll reverse engineer back to what all we need to get done from now to those three months.

Even to the point where I'll do a launch party for them to celebrate their milestone of opening up their business.

So I will assess what a particular leader or potential leader is looking to grow in their space or offer as an entrepreneur.

That's one phase.

Second phase is if I have folks who are in a corporate position as an individual contributor and now want to move up to a leadership role or wants to interview for a leadership role, most companies will look in-house versus going out externally.

So if you're doing that, what are the five things you need to do even before you get to asking for that position?

You know, how do you volunteer for things?

How do you ask for mentors within the company?

Or how do you go above and beyond from what you're already doing to prove that you can add on more as a leader?

So I'll put together an 8 to 12 week program to walk them through that as well.

So it's different variations and different phases of business or entrepreneurship or leadership.

Those are the three categories that I focus on.

So I started my job in the 90s and if you were starting a business, the only thing we knew was have a business plan so you can get a loan from the bank, start your brick and mortar.

You know, we didn't have internet and online businesses.

So what do you have in this plan?

If I say I want to start in three months?

Yes.

Believe it or not, a business plan is very, very important.

If you're not able to articulate what your business consists of and what your goals are and your financial projections and your marketing and branding, I mean, all of that, it forces you to think about what you want your business to be.

Sometimes, to be very honest, I do a personality assessment with every business individual because I want to know where their head space is at.

Because everyone's different.

You have your extroverts and introverts, and the extroverts might be like all over the place, bouncing off the walls with all these ideas and you can't execute because they have too many ideas.

And then the introverts are like, I'm so scared.

I want to do one thing at a time.

So I'll do the business plan and sit on it for 90 days and then maybe go ask for a loan or maybe go figure out.

You know, so it kind of depends on where everyone's personality is.

But I do talk about the financial security of any person going into a business because are they borrowing?

Are they getting a loan?

What is it that you are selling?

What's your niche?

Who does it apply to?

And how do you position yourself with banks?

Because I have a lot of relationships with banks that focus on small business loans and female-based loans.

So I make that connection so that when you're basically presenting your proposal or your pitch deck or your business plan to the bank, they're like, oh, we want to be behind this.

Or yeah, you need to think this through.

Your projections aren't strong.

Or it's a product or service that is either overly saturated or hey, it's one of a kind.

We love this.

So it's almost like a shark tank kind of an opportunity, right?

So I get them prepared for that.

And then after all of the beginning stages, how do you grow the business from a development standpoint?

So from that development, which is branding, marketing strategy, how do you get that particular service or product sold?

That's where people get stuck.

They know they have this great idea, but they're not sure how to build it.

And that's why I'm always like, let's talk about projections, three to five year projections.

Where do you want to be?

You may not be profitable until year two or year three.

You don't know.

And how does that make you feel?

Do you have the funds to go ahead and do that?

So we have some real life conversations to talk about.

And then I will also say, do you really need to leave your full-time job?

Maybe you build this on the side while it has its own feet and it's not a baby anymore.

Now it's crawling and it's walking.

So you don't have to leave your full-time job.

I mean, that's a lot of people do that.

But a lot of people think they have to lead their job to do 100% commitment to that, which is not true.

And so I walk them through that mental space because it all depends on where they are and where they want to be and how much of that is going to be a support system.

So that is something that I like to get their mind right.

Absolutely.

Don't quit the job until the business you're working on after hours starts to have a steady income almost similar to what you're earning right now on your job.

Because a lot of people quit the business because they've quit the job but the business is not making money yet.

And then they go back to the job and think that maybe the business is not a good idea.

Yes, and I've had a mentor in the past.

Unfortunately, he passed away really, really young in his mid-40s.

But he used to tell me all the time, please make sure you have multiple streams of income.

He's like, never, ever depend on one employer or one project.

Because what if, you know, you have three or four balls in the air?

If one falls down, you still have two or three left.

You know what I mean?

So then, you know, emotionally too, you don't feel like you're a failure or I'm gonna crawl into my little space and go, oh, I can't do this entrepreneurial thing.

Even folks who are in a corporate position, I strongly suggest that they connect with networking groups and always constantly meet people.

I have this goal of meeting eight to ten new people, new individuals in the leadership space a month.

And I'm very, very intentional when I do it because somehow one way or another, I'll get a phone call later saying, hey, we talked about this in January or April and I was thinking, Bindu, would you like to come and be on the board of blah, blah, blah?

Or would you like to be a part of this new woman's conference we're doing?

Or a couple months ago, I wrote in my journal that I wanted to be in the non-profit space and I want to give back.

And then all of a sudden, I got an opportunity to be a development officer for a non-profit that builds schools in India.

So, it's like, thank you, thank you.

Like, I tell people, you can't sit back and wait for things to come your way.

You always have to figure out constantly how to improve your networking and how to improve your skill sets and how you can share it with others.

Which brings us to now the professionals who want to be in leadership spaces.

You were talking earlier about how you help coach them to prepare.

So, what are some of the things that go into that?

You know, in the leadership, well, especially in the corporate space, in the corporate space, there are a lot of people who are just stuck in a rut, Roberta.

And they're like, how do I get past?

I've been in the same position for five years, six years, seven years, and I just don't know how to make that next leap.

I always say, invest in a leadership coach, because there are so many things that I can evaluate on your end, on where you are, what you're doing, and again, it goes back to mindset.

That's why I make everybody take a personality test, because I can't speak to some people who don't have a certain way of thinking.

Then I know I have to spend a little bit more time kind of opening their mindset.

For me, it's like, okay, you want to be at this.

Well, if we're going to be at this, I almost whiteboarded out to say, in order to be in this position, you need these five skill sets.

Have you done it?

Have you talked about or thought about doing certification courses?

Have you thought about doing pro bono work with outside companies or outside organizations or nonprofits to kind of build your skill set?

How do you get some experience so that when you go to upper management, say, hey, I think I'm ready for this, and these are the three reasons why I'm ready.

A lot of people don't want to do the work or they're just worried about doing the work or just nervous about doing the work.

And they don't know which way to go.

And a good example of that is I have a national medical device company that brought me on as a coach, and the VP has over 20, I want to say, territory managers under him.

And he was like, they just lack confidence, Bindu.

Can you just talk to them and see what else I can do better as their VP?

I said, sure.

And it turns out it's just that their goals are so high.

I mean, they need to bring in individually $1.2 million in sales a month.

So when you have that kind of pie in the sky kind of goals and he's wondering why his team doesn't want to be a director or something at a higher level, because they're worried.

They're worried about their success and they're worried about their numbers and they're worried about what if they let him down.

And that was a huge awakening for me talking to his team.

And when I shared that with him, he was like, oh, Bindu, okay, I had no idea they felt that way.

Okay, I need to bring it down a little bit.

Okay, I need to talk about stepping stones for them to move up in their roles.

I said, absolutely.

And now his team is happier.

They have more tenure.

No one is thinking about leaving.

So a lot of them kind of gave the impression that they were gonna start looking because the stress was too high.

But when he was able to open up doors for them and say, hey, you wanna do this, it's not just about sales.

It's also about creating new programs or whatever the case may be.

That is something that I'm able to walk folks through based on what their goals are and their resources.

I'm intrigued by this story and here's why.

You're telling me that he wasn't aware how his team felt.

Did they feel like they couldn't bring up the subject and say, boss, this 1.2 million a month target is way out of reach or he doesn't create a space where they can?

Yes, and interesting that you asked that question.

I am also the VP's coach.

He asked me after I started coaching him, he goes to me, it dawned on me, I need a coach.

And I said, you sure do.

And I didn't want to insult him, but I said, yeah, you sure do.

You need to lessen the blow.

You need to communicate more efficiently.

You need to practice empathy.

You need to really understand each person's social situation.

There are some that have brand new babies.

There are some who went through a divorce.

There are some people who have been let go of other companies based on the same sales targets.

And now they're paranoid that if they don't hit it, what's gonna happen.

And so I told him, you really have to get to know each and every one of your individual team members at a personal level where he's not a personal leader.

He's a military style, here are your numbers.

I don't know why you can't reach them.

We're gonna have a conversation kind of a later.

He had a long way of growing up and he texted me on a Sunday.

And he said, hey, I was thinking of calling a Sunday night phone call to plan out the week, but something told me Bindu thinks I shouldn't do that.

And he wrote LOL on the text and I said to him, I said, why would you ruin their weekend?

They work Monday through Friday until eight, nine o'clock at night.

Give them the weekend.

So yes, you had a Bindu moment and I'm glad you did.

I need you to back off and wait till Monday morning.

So he goes, absolutely got it.

And so that's one of the benefits of coaching is people begin to open up their eyes and realize what else they need to do that's not from their boss.

Now think about that.

He's a VP.

So if he had a C level position, tell him that.

Most likely they're not.

They're gonna just say, your teams aren't performing.

Get them to perform and that's it.

And they don't take the time to peel the onion back and find out what else needs to be done.

Yes, because not to judge your client, but it sounds to me from the information you've shared, that all he sees in his team is just work machines.

You know, talk to them about the new babies and the divorce.

Once in a while, it doesn't mean that work shouldn't be done.

Correct.

And most leaders, they are not taught how to be that type of a leader.

And that's why I talk about emotional intelligence as a leader.

I talk about that a lot, because your emotional intelligence has a direct connection to how you lead your team.

Because if you don't take the time to understand the emotional side of your employees, and you don't have a desire or an interest, they will pick up on it immediately.

And if they don't feel supported, and if they don't feel like you are taking the time to understand where they're coming from, they will leave you in a heartbeat.

And they will find a leader who will care about them.

Because more leaders are getting coaches, so more leaders are starting to care.

Yes.

Bindu, you have a 60-40 rule on leadership?

I do, I do.

My 60-40% leadership is 60% of the time, you have to focus on what is on your job description, right?

What is expected of you.

It really is about, hey, I have deliverables, I have reportings, I have just end results of my position.

So 60% of that is you checking off your job description.

40% of that is you being a servant leader.

And that is so important, because that 40%, you're basically saying, I know what my targets are, I know what my budget is, I know what I need to bring to the table, but now I'm going to let my team know I'm gonna be there as their servant.

I'm gonna make sure I understand what their needs are.

I'm gonna ask them several times a week, even a day, depending on the employee, and I'm gonna give them everything they need behind the scenes, even along with projects, along with programs, along with goals.

The messaging is clear that I will give you whatever you need, and when you hear a leader saying, I got your back, don't worry, I got you.

What is it that you need?

Okay, let me put that together and take it up to upper management.

Those are the ones, those servant leaders are the ones that employees tend to latch themselves to because they don't want to leave a servant leader.

I've had a lot of servant leaders as bosses, and I don't think I would be where I am right now if somebody didn't truly believe in me.

Meanwhile, knowing there's a business, of course there's a business need, and I have to hit the numbers.

There's no way around it.

I can't be a low performer and still be on the team.

I know that.

But at least she would take the time to say, okay, do you want to stay a little bit late on Friday and go over this?

Yes, please, because I'm paranoid.

I don't know why I'm not getting this.

You know, like those kinds of conversations to be in a safe space with a servant leader, that 60-40 rule is so huge.

That's been my secret formula for every time I have advanced in a company and been in C-level positions for so long like I have.

It's because I had that servant leadership mindset at 40% of my time during my day, every day.

That is absolutely fantastic.

You just remind me of my first boss back home.

He was my mentor.

You know, when you're a junior, you just graduated and you knew, you think I'm right at the bottom of this corporate ladder.

But he would take me to meetings where we have ministers in government.

He believed in me that much.

There's nothing more precious than realizing that, hey, I may be new, but my boss thinks I'm capable of sitting on the table with these high profile people.

He must think I'm capable.

So I probably am.

Yeah.

And then it changes your mindset.

And you also start to be more innovative in your ideas.

Yeah.

When somebody believes in you, it just takes one person.

And that's why as a leader, you have to be that one person to many.

What I truly, truly love where I am in my leadership journey right now is, and then we're gonna talk about my book later, but when I posted on social media that I wrote this book, I had people reach out to me from 15, 20 years ago when I used to lead them and they would say, oh my goodness, you finally wrote a book.

I'm so in.

Some people say, I want my Bindu fix.

Like I can't wait to read your book.

And my book is full of stories.

So a lot of those stories, some of them I already, I shared on this call with you, they're so memorable to me that I want to repeat it because I want to inspire other leaders to have stories.

I had that one mentor who kept pushing me that made me go to Barnes and Noble and buy a book.

And that story is from 2001.

And I still talk about it.

And the reason why I still talk about it is because it's made me stronger as a person, as an individual, and nothing can stop me now.

Like even if it's not work related, even if it's something else family related, just problem solving, just dealing with life.

You have to pivot.

You have to think outside the box.

You have to be able to be calm and say, I can handle this.

And this is how I'm going to handle it because my mindset is I'm a half glass full kind of girl.

I've always been.

And that has saved me in so many different situations in my life.

And I think it all became true because one person believed in me.

So now I want to give back to other people and believe in them and hopefully it's infectious.

And look at the power of story.

You remember things from 2001 and anyone who's going to listen to this, everything whenever we hear a story, we can relate.

Absolutely, absolutely.

Now, speaking of the book, Flip the Switch, let's talk about it.

So Flip the Switch has been my project for many years, over two years, actually.

I am a writer, so I do write for a lot of magazines on self-help and motivation and inspiration.

I started doing that when COVID hit in 2020.

And then while I was doing that, I said, you know what?

I really need to write a book because I have way too many stories.

And I really wanted, I was in the coaching space at that time.

And every time I would do an employee retreat or a leadership retreat, I would makeshift worksheets and booklets and pieces.

And I'm like, imagine if I had a book that I can teach from and that I can say, hey, let's go to chapter six and let's talk about X or let's talk about the 60-40 rule.

I have a whole workshop around it.

I really wanted to be powerful when I met with companies and with different organizations and talk to their leaders.

My father-in-law is actually a published author.

As I talked to him about writing a book, and he said, Bindu, write 10 minutes a day.

10 minutes a day, don't force yourself.

Just let it come naturally.

And then when you're done, you're done.

You'll know when you're done.

So a year and a half ago, I started writing.

Just kept writing and writing.

I didn't really think much about it.

They tell you not to self-edit or anything.

Just don't worry about that.

Just write.

So I did.

And then this past summer in July, my husband and I went to Italy.

One day I said, you know what?

I'm gonna continue writing my book.

Give me a couple hours.

He said, sure.

And as I was writing, I realized the book was wrong.

I realized I had to start all over again because Flip the Switch kept coming into my head.

And because I was coaching that medical sales team I was just talking to you about, and I kept using the term, you just have to flip your switch, you guys.

Like flip it.

Like I don't understand why you can't flip it.

And you have to be able to change your mindset.

You have to stop saying in the past, it was like this Bindu, I can't do this again.

No, you can.

I said, but you can't do it unless you flip that switch.

So I would say it over and over again.

And one time we were at a social gathering with this team and they bought me a T-shirt that said Flip the Switch.

Oh, wait.

This is like resonating with me.

So when I was in Italy, I literally started a brand new Word document and I wrote Flip the Switch and I couldn't stop writing.

I just started writing.

I wrote the framework of 16 chapters of how I wanted to really talk about it.

And then I started just writing in each chapter.

It just kept pouring.

I just could not stop writing.

Got back to the US a week later and called my publisher and I said, okay, we're changing plans.

This is what I'm thinking.

And she goes, Bindu, I love it.

How soon can you get it done?

And I said, well, my birthday is coming up and I want to launch it on my birthday.

So she said, well, I need it in a few weeks then.

You need to give me the full manuscript in a couple of weeks.

And I did.

Every day I came home from work, two to three hours, I just wrote and I finally got it to her.

We successfully launched it on my birthday on December 3rd.

Congratulations.

Thank you very much.

Yes.

So what are some of the main ideas that we haven't covered yet that you discuss in your book?

Well, I would say you did already cover the 60-40 rule, but I did also talk about your circle of influence.

Everybody talks about this.

I don't know if people realize how important your circle of influence is on your everyday life, personal and professional.

You are some of the five people you surround yourself with.

And whether it's personal or professional, so let's just say you're working in a corporate job or whatever and you come home and your circle of friends are people who just don't have any aspirations.

They're just like paycheck to paycheck, or they're just like, you know what?

I don't know, under the bare minimum.

I really don't want to do anything outside of the norm or do anything to better myself.

I'm not saying you don't have that one or two people in your circle.

You may, and maybe you were meant to be there to inspire those folks.

However, you do need to find people that are smarter than you, that are more established than you, that are in spaces that you've never been before, that they can introduce you to.

This is like the secret of nonstop growth, is to have your circle of influence.

Be people that you look up to, that you're like, man, I wish I was doing that.

Or how do I get to that space?

Or how do I get to that level?

Or can you share some of your experiences with me?

And how can I do that?

Because when you start asking questions like that, doors start to open.

Doors will not open with people who are in a funk, or who just barely getting up on time to go to work, or calls in sick a lot, or looks for constant vacations because they're tired of working.

I might be describing a lot of those people already that are in your circle, which is okay, but how do you inspire other people to be where you're at?

Well, if you're not in that space, that's because you don't have anyone to constantly look up to and say, that's where I wanna be.

And because of that, that growth piece is infectious.

When you're surrounding yourself with people who are go-getters, it's almost like magically comes into you as a manifestation.

You're like, wait, if she can do it, he can do it, I can do it.

So if I can do it, what do I need?

Oh, he's going to networking events.

Oh, he's posting on LinkedIn about top five, blah, blah, blah, or he's writing in a magazine, or he's volunteering here.

That's how I started.

I remember my husband saying, why are you writing for free?

Like, you have so much to say, you should be charging.

I'm like, because I'm a nobody writer.

Nobody knows me.

I have to establish myself.

I have to build credibility.

So I would write, if you Google my name, you'll see tons of articles I've written.

And I did that on purpose because I wanted to learn in the process.

I wanted to build my own self-confidence.

And I also wanted to prove that I'm a go-getter.

I'm almost a gold digger.

And I say that because I'm constantly digging.

I'm constantly digging to find new places, new opportunities, and new situations that I can put myself in, to the point that it may make other people uncomfortable, especially the type A folks who just wanna do one thing at a time and do really well at it.

And I'm like, no, I want the three to four balls.

Remember, I mentioned that earlier, because I think they're all gonna feed each other.

And then if one drops and it doesn't work, I don't feel discouraged.

I'll just keep going.

And that's what the preface of this book was about understanding the 60-40 rule, understanding your circle of influence, understanding the importance of emotional intelligence, which I talked about earlier too, understanding how you need to be a strong servant leader, understanding that you have to push yourself out of your comfort zone at all times.

And then I also mention in the book about the crossover between an employee to entrepreneurship.

I even have an assessment tool in there to assess yourself.

Are you ready to take the entrepreneurship leap?

And if you are, what does that mean?

What does it take?

What do you need to do to prep yourself to go into entrepreneurship?

So there was just a few of the topics that I cover.

We say, don't be the smartest person in the room.

You're not gonna grow.

And when we talk about networking, we always say, it's not about handing your business card out.

Like I said, ask questions.

Correct, correct.

I always tell clients, if you want change to happen, change needs to happen.

So if you're writing down your goals and you're like, I don't know why nothing's changing.

Did you really change anything?

I don't think so.

Because if you take this ball and move it, it's gonna move if you move the ball.

But if you leave the ball where it's at and look at it and say how pretty it is and even color it or whatever, it's not moving.

So if it's not moving, then there's no change happening.

So I think that's true in anything that you do.

And especially when you're trying to grow yourself and your skill sets and where you are, where you wanna be, where you wanna go and what's your end result.

People always say, what's your five-year plan?

People say that.

They ask that question, what's your three to five-year plan?

Because they wanna know, are you a go-getter?

Are you results driven?

Are you constantly looking for ways to improve yourself?

If you say, I don't know, I'm just gonna stay in my position where I'm at.

I'm kind of comfortable.

There's nothing wrong with that.

But then don't ask later why things are not given to you, opportunities are not given to you.

It's because you said you're fine with what you have.

And like I said, there's nothing wrong with that.

There's a lot of individual contributors behind the scenes, data-driven, whatever.

They wanna get out of the spotlight and they just wanna clock in and clock out.

And that's all they wanna do.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

But in leadership, it's a whole different game.

You're a catalyst for change.

You're celebrating wins.

You are creating new projects and visions and breathing life into them.

And you're executing a lot of things that people say, I don't know how to do this, Bindu.

Can you do it for me?

I heard you can get things done.

Yeah, I can get things done, but are you ready for me to ask questions and push you to get it done and tell you what I need to get it done?

So it's a different mindset.

Certainly, that is a different mindset by Bindu Chowritmootoo, the author of Flip the Switch, the leadership coach and business consultant.

Thank you so much for being on our show today.

I've really enjoyed having this chat with you.

Thank you so much.

I really enjoyed having this conversation with you as well.

My pleasure.

And before you go, where can we find you after this?

Sure, my website is manifestwithbindu.com, which will list all of my coaching opportunities and my book information as well.

My book, Flip the Switch, Unleash Your Leadership Potential, is available on Amazon under Bindu, B-I-N-D-U.

And of course, my social media handles.

I'm Manifest with Bindu on Instagram and Bindu Chowritmootoo on LinkedIn as well.

manifestwithbindu.com.

Thank you very much.

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