[00:00:00] Michael Pacheco: Hello everybody. Welcome to another episode of the remarkable coach podcast. As always, I’m your host, Michael Pacheco. And today with me, we have Divya Parekh. Divya helps people become known, visible and build currency, build the currency of influence and trust through authority positioning.
This is Divya’s second time on the podcast. She was here. On the podcast when the podcast first started, even before I was the host, actually, I believe Doug Holt was hosting the remarkable coach at that time. So Divya, welcome back to the podcast. Thanks for making time to chat with me on the remarkable coach.
[00:00:35] Divya Parekh: Thank you for having me on the show, Michael. Really? It’s an honor.
[00:00:40] Michael Pacheco: You bet. No, thank you. I always like to open up this podcast by inviting our guest to tell us a little bit more about yourself in your own words and why it is you do what you do.
[00:00:51] Divya Parekh: Absolutely. So when we talk about who are we, I just want to throw in a philosophical Approach over here is that what is our essence?
And so many times people are just associating themselves and identifying themselves with the titles with what they do. So what I believe is it’s important for all human beings to have an essence. And the way I see myself is. Or not exactly, I aspire to be like ocean where you can be playful, you can be fun.
And at the same time, you can have the depth where you can have a full ecosystem that nurtures so many creatures. And actually the ocean nurtures the whole planet. If you think about the water cycle and everything. So that’s where going back to you asked me why I do what I do is. It’s about building authority.
And for me, building influence is not about having those likes or those number of followers. It’s about being a rising tide that lifts all boats. And that’s the reason I do what I do is that imagine if all of us just did small acts of kindness. Our planet and our world and our human beings community would be so much more beautiful than what it is today.
I love that
[00:02:13] Michael Pacheco: Divya. Yeah, that’s, it’s important. The you’re really, you’re talking about the ability to affect change. Yeah, that’s great. Who are your clients? Who do you work with?
[00:02:23] Divya Parekh: Oh, great question. So I work, I’ve got, I do two, two arms to my business. It’s, I work with executives to create.
Executive presence, and I work with entrepreneurs to build their authority at two different sides of the same coin. And it’s about having that confident narrative. So who do I work with? I work with people who are hungry for success. And when I talk about success, it involves two pronged approach. One, living the lifestyle they want to live.
And at the same time, creating an impact as a result of the work. And when you are doing that, income and relationships and everything follows. I love it.
[00:03:12] Michael Pacheco: Nice. Very good. How do you get your clients these days? Where do you get your clients? How do you market yourself?
[00:03:18] Divya Parekh: There are multiple ways.
podcasts. So many times somebody has listened to me, they resonate, they’ll reach out, all of the primary sources through my books, because I’ve written several books, and I pour my heart and soul into it, because that’s one of the ways to reach more people, because when you’re Going and talking one on one marketing, not only it consumes so much time and let’s say if you’re meeting somebody for the first time, it takes time to build that trust.
Whereas if you’re writing a book or doing a podcast, the longevity and the source for building that trust is more because you have got more time to deposit money in their bank. And when I talk about money over here, it’s about the value. And similarly, somebody can try you out. Especially if you are like just get even getting a Kindle book.
It’s like less than that of a cup of coffee nowadays.
[00:04:13] Michael Pacheco: There’s so many of them that are just 99 cents now. Yeah, some
[00:04:16] Divya Parekh: of them are 99 cents and some of them are at five, some of them are at 9. 99 and a lot of them is also organic referral and social media, some of the old clients. So there are multiple mediums.
[00:04:31] Michael Pacheco: Yeah. I love it. What is a typical engagement with you look like when you’re working with a client? What is that? Do you do a three month period, a six month period? You just go month to month. What does it, what does that look like?
[00:04:42] Divya Parekh: So it all depends on the client because what are the needs of the client?
It’s not about me. It’s not about my coaching packages, because when you are in the service business, I want to go back to that. Service business or service provider, look at that word, we are providing a service. We are serving the clients. So I meet people that they’re at and depending on their needs.
Sometimes it may just be a couple of sessions together. Like a lot of people will just come and sign up for a VIP session where that’s all they need. We craft a strategy for them and then they walk away because they don’t need what I have. The goal is to see, what they need and based on that.
And some people just want to join the membership because they want to do it at their own pace. So it can look from anywhere, like taking our, some of our courses, which are designed, which have been taken from the experts around the world. Where the two things, we all have intention to achieve success.
We’ve got intention to achieve goals. We’ve got intention to achieve our vision and manifest our dreams and desires. And then what happens is where it falls short is the execution. So we have designed courses, which where we take playbooks from the experts around the world, and it’s only three minutes a week, and you are able to apply those courses three minutes.
If you’re not able to invest your three minutes in yourself every week, then it’s
[00:06:21] Michael Pacheco: not. Then there’s another problem that needs to be looked at.
[00:06:24] Divya Parekh: Exactly. So it’s basically it’s the implementation. Some people are so busy, they don’t have time. It can look like. That where we are having growth huddles, where what happens is people do it.
People set the goals, people, we provide them with the playbook. It’s step by step instructions on, okay, you do this. For example, let’s say if you are thinking of negotiating in your sales or you’re negotiating a contract with 4, 5, 6, very easy to go and implement, and then, so it looks in multiple facets.
[00:06:54] Michael Pacheco: Nice. Tell me so clearly you’ve got a couple of books behind you. You mentioned that you’re an author. Tell me about your books. So
[00:07:03] Divya Parekh: the two books, the two of my most recent books that I’ll talk about is one is the entrepreneur’s garden and another one is expert to influencer. So the entrepreneur’s garden is for anyone because there are relationships that I’ve found that are super important.
So one relationship, I will. Talk about his relationship with money, because what happens is so many times people are like, Oh gosh, money’s the root of all evil. And that’s not true. It’s how you connect and how you see money. Money’s just energy. That just money is a means to give you the freedom of time or money is the energy like, money is the currency that gives you the freedom of what you want to do.
It’s just a form of energy. That’s how I see it. A lot of people like, oh, gosh, if I become rich, then, I’m going to lose my character. I’m going to become somebody bad. So that’s one of the things that, I would like to break that myth around it. Oh, for example one of my book from all of our books, like we take partial profits and donate it to Kiva.
org and we help entrepreneurs all across the globe. So here’s, I always say that if you have a solution and if you’re not. Helping people just because you think, gosh, how can I charge money for that? Then you’re doing them a disservice and now same thing. If you use that money to give yourself and your family, the lifestyle you deserve and help others as well.
And that same money becomes. The tool to enrich your life. And then photo influencer is something that shows people how to become an influencer, not with the numbers and not with the likes and the engagement, an influencer who becomes a rising tide that lifts all boats.
[00:08:58] Michael Pacheco: Awesome. I want to, yeah, I want to talk a little bit about the people’s relationships with money, and then we’ll talk about the experts influencer.
But I think you make a really important point there that money is neither really, it’s not a good nor evil. It’s just a tool. And your relationship with money is what kind of defines, how you react to that. I used money I went yesterday evening to buy my one year old daughter some new clothes because she’s growing very quickly and she needed new clothes.
[00:09:30] Divya Parekh: They grow up very fast. Look
[00:09:32] Michael Pacheco: me in the eyes and tell me that’s evil. It’s not. No. No. So yeah, I think that having a healthy relationship with money number one, it can be very difficult for a lot of people because of reasons because of cultural reasons because of childhood trauma because of the way that You know, the way that I guess cultural reasons, right?
The way that, that, especially in North America and the United States, certainly the way that we oftentimes think about rich people and for some, for whatever reason, it’s been painted in this negative light when really what they’re. As you get more money is money is you receive money in exchange for the value that you’re able to deliver.
So if you’re, if you were talking before too about, being a service provider, if you have faith in your services and you believe that you are, helping someone by providing that service, you are doing them a disservice by not selling them your services because you’re not able to help them.
If you don’t sell them with what you’re doing, you’re not able to help them. It’s an interesting way to frame the sales process because I think a lot of, money issues too, a lot of that is, is. It goes along with this fear of selling and sales. It’s
[00:10:54] Divya Parekh: very true. And it goes back to the used car salesman, yeah. And
[00:10:58] Michael Pacheco: Everybody says that’s the classic thing. I don’t like sales. I feel like a used car salesman. And I tell him, I said, do you believe that you can help someone that you can help that person? And naturally, they say yeah, I’m like, then you have, you’re helping them.
by helping them. You’re helping them by selling you, by selling them your services. Like you have to think about it that way. You got to change that frame. If you don’t sell your services to them, you’re not able to help them get to the next level or achieve whatever it is you’re able to help them achieve.
It’s an interesting, it’s an interesting and complex topic, right?
[00:11:38] Divya Parekh: Let’s look at it from another perspective. Yeah. Since we’re talking on the topic of money, everybody loves wedding. And think about it. How much money spent on the wedding centerpieces and those. Favors and just, so now you could say it’s not it’s the declaration of the commitment of two people who are in love and involving the friends and family celebrating that occasion.
So now if you think about it, let’s say, some people could say, Oh yeah, having a huge wedding is like, why are you spending so much money? You could invest that in the house. And now think about it. How many people are associated with the wedding business?
Wedding planner, the florist, the caterer, people who have the venue people, the DJ, we could, then the decorator, we could go on and on. So now what you’re talking is that, okay, let’s shut it down because it is frivolous. The key is that. To look at it from different lenses, just not your lens and making that judgment.
See, that’s where I say is the depth of humanity, because when you become so caught up, this is it the way I think is right, that’s where you are dehumanizing other people who may have other ideas or perspectives, think from that perspective and they could be wrong. You could be right, then again, here’s the question that if you go in the nature, if you take a look at different trees, there’s all these different trees there’s this tiny little sapling that’s trying to make its way amongst the giant.
Trees and yet they survived and on going at each other and not fighting and they’ve learned to live in harmony. So it’s okay. Think about it. If everybody thought the same way, life would be so boring.
[00:13:38] Michael Pacheco: Yeah, no, absolutely. Absolutely. I think, yeah, Entitlement almost comes with this precondition, this required precondition of lack of empathy, right? I feel like people with high levels of empathy don’t have that entitlement, that their worldview is the only worldview. If you’ve got empathy, you’re able to understand more about, different worldviews from people who are very different from you.
And it’s not always easy to do that.
[00:14:07] Divya Parekh: Absolutely. Yeah. And now let’s take it even for the deeper now, Kayla, let’s say you have a good relationship with money. Let’s say you’ve got millions of dollars and now you consider yourself better than anybody else. Because you made money, now that’s wrong. It’s
[00:14:24] Michael Pacheco: just as bad.
[00:14:25] Divya Parekh: It’s just as bad. So having money money in itself is not bad. It’s what it does to you or how you look at it. So if somebody who’s rich and is treating somebody as if they’re beneath them, then that’s not right because fine, you earned it. But then what’s to say that if the other person were given the same chances that they would not be able to make it so that judgment is wrong.
It’s not the money. That’s wrong.
[00:14:54] Michael Pacheco: Yeah, I’ve read and experienced in my personal life that money tends to be an amplifier of who you really are. It’s not, money’s not going to change you. It’s just going to amplify who you truly are and what you truly believe. Of course, beliefs can be changed, right?
You can do some personal development. You can get a coach and do some personal development and and change your relationship to money. But if all things being equal, money tends to be just amplify who you are in my experience anyway. Oh,
[00:15:25] Divya Parekh: that’s a great way to look at it.
[00:15:27] Michael Pacheco: Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. So tell me about, more about the experts to influencer. What sort of, is this, is expert to influencer, is this a tactical guide? Is it a strategic guide? Are you talking about specific things that people can do to build their authority?
[00:15:45] Divya Parekh: It’s both. It’s strategic as well as tactical. So it opens up, I’m not going to give the full story, just going to hint upon what had happened. I probably a few years back, I was a leadership coach for a robotics team. And these young kids, high school kids decided to open up a nonprofit because usually what happens is in robotics teams, they’re very expensive because parts and all of that.
So usually they charge students around like thousand bucks or 1500 or 800. It runs from 500 to Different pricing for different teams so that they can have more elaborate robots and then they go for competition. And these competitions are so much fun. That literally in any sports, people get so intense and all that.
And our team brought on students. Who are underrepresented and didn’t charge anything. And they, the young high school students went for grants and there’s hard to get the grants because there are a lot of good causes out there looking for grants and they got some grants and like their robot was one of the tiniest ones, it met all of the regulations and all that, but it wasn’t fancy at all.
And that’s where the story begins. And. You can find out for yourself as to what happens in that competition. Do they lose? Do they win? What, what goes on? So basically, the story is the whole book is broken down into three phases. So one is like, how do you create that mindset? Then second is designing what does that influence look like to you?
How do you want to do it? And there are a lot of technical things in there from, for the mindset to the professional side, to the entrepreneurial side, and then how do you live it, because when you start living it. Then you don’t have to think twice about it. It comes to you authentically. It comes to you from a place of integrity.
Because think about it there’s so much information out there on Google. We go through so much data. I don’t know about you, Michael. I don’t remember maybe one hundredth of it. So now when you… Sit and digest it, and you’re thinking through it, you reflect upon it, and then that information becomes knowledge.
Okay. Somebody is knowledgeable about it, and they can talk about it intelligently. And when you live it, when it becomes part of you, that’s when it gets transformed into wisdom. So that’s how the book has been designed, that it is not something that’s gone, that’s there today and gone tomorrow. It is something that will outlast.
The time, in the sense that you’ll be able to create legacy.
[00:18:37] Michael Pacheco: I see. Very cool. Very nice. Gosh,
Tell me about what sorts of things, when you first became a coach, when you first started coaching what sort of things did you struggle with at first?
[00:18:53] Divya Parekh: I
don’t know about anybody else, but the way I see it as life is a journey of a lifelong learning. So when I first became a coach and when I got my clients, I was super stressed out Oh gosh, I got to do my best by then. And then sometimes like my clients. Would not get the results and I held myself responsible for it.
So fortunately in one of my first class, when I was taking a year and a half certification for the coaching, the instructor had said, just because you get the certification of being a coach, doesn’t mean your learning is down. Usually it’s important for a coach to have a coach. So I had a coach and I would go and talk and they said, all you have to do.
It’s create a safe space for them to be themselves and allow them, I’m not allowing, but allowing them in that space to travel at their own pace because when they are seeking the answer from within, it’s almost like they’re the star on the stage and we are the guide on the side. And when that happens, they will shine and the transformation will happen and she talked about a lot of different examples and that just sunk in me that I was not there to push the change on them.
I wasn’t there. It was. And from that’s where. Creating that safe space, building the trust, that’s where my definition of influence came. . So to me, influence is just by being there. Them. Knowing that I’m vested in them regardless whether they move forward and fail.
Whether they take one step or they forget to take that one step, or whether they take the giant leap regardless of whether they’re there without judgment. I’m there for them. And so that was 1 of the things. And, of course, also sales and marketing like any other. So 1 of the stories I remember is we had set up a.
Women’s leadership workshop and. We had created this beautiful program and we talked to a lot of people and so many people said yes. And based on that, go back to 2010, we didn’t have CRM systems and all that back then took people at their face value Oh, okay, they’re going to come and we were just planning to charge them right when they were going to come.
So we go ahead and my partner had. Develop this event. We got a big room, a lot of nice tables, tablecloths, some like nice little centerpieces. We had the food booked and really like nice big screen. And we were planning to give them the experience. Four people showed up. We were expecting almost 70 people.
And I realized just because people say yes, doesn’t mean that they will show up. So the marketing is the numbers game and learning from the mistakes okay, you have that sign up and people sign up and then you know how many people have signed up. And after that, You go ahead and do the booking and all that.
So and also for sales, because I was under that impression initially oh, gosh, as a coach, how can I sell my services? I’m here to create an impact. And if I am I Creating an impact. Then how can I charge for my services? And then, as of course, as I started learning that coaches, just like anybody else, got to put food in their table.
And just like anybody else, they deserve the best. So it’s again going for it’s a value exchange. It’s an energy exchange. It’s about giving yourself a little piece of yourself to people like being there for them. And one of the examples, as I was going through this turmoil, I was at the doctor’s office, and doctors take an oath to help people and all that.
And the first thing the front receptionist or the front office person asked me, Alright, this is your copay. Do you have an insurance? If not, out. I had a light bulb moment. During that time, I’m like doctors are way ahead on the service ladder, if you were to think about in the level of service they provide.
And I’m not by any means. Comparing are putting down what I’m saying is there’s this okay, it’s people, and they have their student loans. So as I started looking life and that money through different lenses and understanding it, I realized it was just my attitude. So those were some of my struggles.
I could keep on going and I could share about all the. Humble pies and the dirt pies I’ve had.
[00:23:44] Michael Pacheco: No, that’s great. I think that’s, I think that’s one, honestly, I think every entrepreneur maybe not every entrepreneur that I’ve met has gone through that phase where it’s just difficult.
Like you, you look in the mirror. And you have to ask yourself, what am I worth? And that is a hard question to answer for the first time. A lot of coaches, especially, a lot of coaches don’t, go to leave high school and they go off to coaching college and they become coaches.
It’s usually to become a coach. It’s usually a winding twisty path and you end up as a coach, maybe in your. late twenties or thirties or forties or fifties. And when you get there, having to put a price on yourself almost, it can be a very intimidating thing to do. And I definitely sympathize with your story there or empathize with it, even Cause I think I know for sure that I definitely went through that where it was difficult to it was just difficult to ask someone for, for that money.
Like I just want to, I just want to help people. And then eventually, you you come to the realization that if I’m gonna help more people, this has to be sustainable. Not only
[00:24:55] Divya Parekh: that, you brought up a really good point here, Michael, about self worth. So I’ve been through that exercise with my coach.
And my coach literally had me write down as an exercise and anybody can use this exercise. How many years did you put in your studies? Because I’ve got a neuroscience background and a biochemistry background. All the research time I’d put in, I’d put in the time in the corporate world, learning different things, running multimillion dollar projects.
Not only that, how much time, money, and effort I’ve put into my business. Like I have learned from world class coaches, like even like sometimes paying 25 grand for a mastermind to hang out with the top 5 percent of people in the world. So when you do that and we did the math. It came around half a million and of course the time and investment and the energy, that’s completely different.
So when you put all of that and you are distilling it down and you’re providing that juice to your client, I started looking at it differently. Isn’t it worth it? So it’s almost don’t you go and buy the Nutribullet? Why? Because they want to eat 20 servings of food, of the vegetables and fruits. What would you rather have?
Would you rather have a… Glass of juice that has got all the nutrients investing one time and reaping the benefits long term. So when I started seeing that my idea of my value that I was providing and the self worth just shifted.
[00:26:32] Michael Pacheco: I love that exercise. That’s great. I’m taking notes here.
I’m going to I’m going to, I’m going to suggest that people do that. That’s a great exercise. And just sitting down and. And thinking about and writing down how much have you invested in yourself? Since day one, and how much did you like your, for you, Divya, how much did you pay?
How much did you pay for your neuroscience degree? That gets calculated in there too.
[00:26:57] Divya Parekh: Yeah. Then everything gets calculated and hundreds and thousands of hours that I put in to build the person that I am and that’s the value that I’m bringing. So it’s again if somebody were to travel the road themselves.
It would probably take them two years versus working with me would be three months. So what’s the value? Are you trading your life for money? What do you value your life for? Yeah. And I started looking at it. I’m like, I value my life. for quite a bit. And a lot of people would come in and say that, Oh, you are like this.
And this is what you’re charging and this and that. And it’s like this, that you got to know your word, then it’s okay to charge for what you’re offering. Because this again, goes back to, you’re going back to okay, if you go to a surgeon. You’re not going to tell them like, Hey, I’m going to give you 5.
Same thing. If you make that cup of coffee. Now you go to Starbucks, you’re willing to pay that whatever 8, 9, because you’re getting that experience because you’re getting that brand because you’re getting that value. There’s something about that coffee. Consistently the same and it’s providing you that value every time you go there.
So going back to it, when we talk about the money, it’s about, it’s an exchange of value. Beat somebody provides you value and you get value out of it. You get that transformation. You get that change in your life. Yeah. What it
[00:28:30] Michael Pacheco: is. Yeah. And that’s like you were saying before, that’s the exchange of energy.
Very good. Awesome. Divya, I want to be respectful of your time here. Is there anything else that you would like to talk about that we have not yet had an opportunity to touch upon?
[00:28:44] Divya Parekh: I would just like to tell your audience, believe in yourself because I believe in you. And here’s what I’ll say that talent can be developed.
Anybody can develop the talent. The key is to unleash your genius because when you unleash your genius, that’s when magic happens. And everybody’s got that. Nobody can say that they don’t have it because I sincerely believe after working with thousands of people, if you let that genius just come out, if you get out of its way, if you get out of your own way, it will show up and you’ll be amazed.
And how awesome you are. So take that step, even if it’s a tiny step, take that one step to becoming who you want to become.
[00:29:32] Michael Pacheco: I love it. Divya, thank you so much. Where can our viewers and listeners connect with you online?
[00:29:38] Divya Parekh: They can either go to my website, entrepreneur. divyaparik. com, or they can go to LinkedIn, which is just my first and last name, or you can find me on Instagram.
It is make your message a movement. And I’m on Twitter, Coach Divya, and also on Facebook.
[00:29:57] Michael Pacheco: Awesome. Awesome. We’ll have all of those links on the show notes for this podcast as well. Divya, thank you so much for making time with me. This has been wonderful.
[00:30:07] Divya Parekh: Thank you, Michael. Really appreciate it.
It was a pleasure being with you. Awesome. Thank
[00:30:12] Michael Pacheco: you so much. And thank you to our listeners and viewers. Of course, you guys mean the world to us. Thank you so much for for being there without you guys. This podcast is nothing. You’re the best. Thank you so much. We’ll see you guys next time.
Take care.