Ashdin Doctor is better known as 'The Habit Coach'. Since last 3 years, he has been teaching people the importance of forming habits! Because when motivation runs out, habits help us to grow!
Ashdin believes in Foundation Fundamentals which are Sleep, Nutrition, Movement, De-stressing, Hydration and Breathing. He says that 180 days is all that takes to master these habits. With 'The Habit Coach Podacast', Ashdin has taken the movement to the people.
You can find more about him on his website http://awesome180.com/ and his Youtube Channel: Awesome180.
This is the text converted interview which Ashdin recorded in audio and sent to us, taking time out from his busy schedule. We are grateful for that, Ashdin! Original audio version is available in 'Something to listen' tab of our website.
Before COVID-19
Q: We would love to know you and your journey so far.
A: My name is Ashdin Doctor and I’m a Habit Coach. The habit coaching business is called ‘Awesome 180’. My podcast is called ‘The Habit Coach Podcast’. We’re in the process of putting out a lot of content both in the form of podcasts and videos. We’re doing a lot of online courses as well. We also have an application that will be coming out soon.
Our family business is that of market research and consumer understanding. I worked at that for 15 years before starting the habit coaching business. I’m still a part of both of them. I’m at a director level in the family business and actively running and doing everything for habit coaching business.
Q: What is your profession? What do you do for feeding your kitchen and your soul? These two may be different as well. You can give us how you spend your typical day if that’s more suitable to your profession.
A: So feeding the kitchen: The reason why I started the habit coaching business is that I’m blessed to not have to worry too much about feeding the kitchen because that is taken care through family business. Because my family learnt to save money and invest money.
So, I told my father that instead of continuously chasing money, let’s look at things that we can do that are done to feed the soul and the habit coaching business is completely about feeding the soul. Having said that, of course, in the beginning we had to create something to generate the income. So, one on one coaching is how we generate the income. In future, we’re going to look at online courses, applications, etc. to start generating income as well.
Q: We would love to know how you came to be who you are now. What were the most important turning points in your childhood that made you YOU?
A: For me it was getting out of a very abusive relationship, that I had begun to see myself in. Because of that, my self-esteem was completely ruined. My ability to understand what was healthy for me, what are the boundaries that I should be putting around people was took a beating. For me the biggest learning point came from there. That’s actually when I started my journey to become healthy. Realizing how easy it is to become healthy, I understood the reason why people fail is that they only rely upon false knowledge, because they don’t necessarily research too much and follow what people say. They also don’t create habits and rely on motivation and self-discipline. That would be the biggest change that happened recently.
Before that of course, school to college transition. I was a complete loner in school. In college I said that as it’s so easy to reinvent yourself, let me try being very social person! So, that was a dramatic change between school to college.
Q: Before COVID lockdown what was the first thing on your mind to do in your business/life? What move you wanted to make to grow? This includes short term goals.
A: I think pre-COVID19, it was expanding the one on one coaching business. We were already on the right path, we had already got many clients on board. But unfortunately, in the business that I am, without face to face conversation and sitting opposite each other, it becomes extremely hard to actually make progress. As you’re not only dealing with logic, but also emotions. I found it extremely hard to do it through video conference or calls. On the other hand, I think the beauty of it is which we’ll see later on is that it made me reassess my priorities. So I think that was a big benefit from COVID-19.
Q: What was your 3-5 year plan before COVID? We would like to know your long term goals before this unexpected phenomenon.
A: The goal was to grow the habit coaching business to a turnover of a million dollars by the end of next year. There is a chance that could still happen but we might have to push it a little bit. Also to have books coming out that would be bestselling books. That was on my vision board.
Q: Among the people you have worked with who do you admire and why? Past and present people included.
A: This is a tricky question and I’ve often thought about this. I don’t think I admire anybody because I don’t admire people as a whole. After you get to know someone very well, you see their shortcomings. You first see the person and you’re in complete admiration. But afterwards, you see their shortcomings. Unfortunately, that’s the truth! So, what I do and what I learnt doing many, many years ago is taking the best of everybody I meet and removing the worst of everybody I meet. I have lots of friends who are industrialists and who are millionaires, and I see how they work and how they are in their personal life and I would never ever would want to be like that, even though I admire them on what they’ve managed to create. So, taking up the best qualities from people is the best thing you can do as long as they’re in line with your goals as well. You might want to create a multimillion dollar industry but you might not want to be the kind of boss that everyone hates. So, it’s important to understand how the person thought up and created the structure and not necessarily the behavioral pattern that the person has taken on board. Having said that, there are many aspects to life that are important. It’s not only about the money, it’s also about the way people are; sharing selflessly especially in times like this, creating NGOs, working with them, there is so much to pick up from them. I think it’s unfair to box people up like that.
Q: Any experience with best and the worst bosses/employees? Any story? Don't worry! We'll change the names of those individuals! ;)
A: Tough to say because I’ve only worked in our family business. So, both best and worst bosses are my parents and couple of close employees. Actually, neither were best or worst. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. So I don’t have a good answer for this. Sorry about that!
Q: How long were you running the business before you started paying yourself? How did you live through those first few months/years? (applies to entrepreneurs)
A: Once I started ‘Awesome 180’ which was 3 years ago, having read rich dad poor dad or richest man in Babylon, the first habit to create is to always pay yourself first. All the businesses are set up in such a way that a certain percentage is removed from whatever of the money that comes in and goes into a separate account that is either used to pay the owner or it used as a way to create a safety fund. That’s how we typically work. The second way I started ‘Awesome 180’ is by focusing on a lean model. So almost no overheads! I was blessed that we had an office that I could use. Everything else is outsourced. Our social media team is outsourced, the person who designed our website is outsourced, podcasting is outsourced, and videos are outsourced, so I don’t have to pay a fixed salary. It’s a variable salary. That’s how I created this company because I never wanted to get into the hassle of massive overheads I wanted to create a company that didn’t not have this kind of a structure. For example when you get into manufacturing, you will have to have crazy overheads. That is the main cost. When you’re doing something like ‘Awesome 180’ which is a consulting/information based company, you have the opportunity of being extremely low operational cost company. The way I designed the business is I could do the business from anywhere in the world if I felt like. I could stay in Karjat, Delhi or Singapore. Wherever I felt like staying, the business could move with me. Mostly what we are doing now is moving towards that.
Q: You must be having a list of fun things/soul feeding things you wanted to do before this pandemic changed the world. Your top 5 things on bucketlist? (before COVID-19)
A: This year was about traveling, a lot of travel! We had about 8 to 9 workshops that we were going to conduct around the world. Singapore, UK, Russia, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, America, Germany and Dubai. I had incorporated fun trips along with those workshops. Those fun trips are not happening.
But being the kind of a person I am, and I’m not bragging here, but I’m not too much interested in travel and external things, so my bucket list is fairly short. The way I see it is at this particular moment in time, there isn’t much I want ticked off from my bucket list. The stuff that really excited me and I wake up for in the morning, picking up information and knowledge, sharing it with the world, and seeing how it changes the world. So, I’m technically doing the stuff that I put on my bucket list. As a result, not much has changed from the fun stuff.
Answering this question is fun! Can you imagine, 3 years ago, no one would’ve asked me these questions. But it’s so nice that this is happening because I’ve been sharing this information.
After COVID-19
Q: How are you holding up the fort of your home and your profession in these trying times? How are you entertaining yourself if you have more free time on your hand now?
A: I’m learning new skills like Archery. My ukulele practice has fallen to the wayside so I’m not doing it that much anymore. Watching a few shows on Netflix for sure! I’m watching Masterclasses by various authors on how to write because I’m currently writing a book. Also a lot of online workshops and webinars. There’s a webinar we did on no-fiction writing which was very cool.
Q: What changes are you experiencing in your job? What changes you had to make in your working style?
A: Job change is only that one on one coaching has gone out the window. In the family business, we’re evaluating how work from home can function and probably WFH can be a permanent style for our business. The beauty of this COVID19 situation is that it has given us an opportunity to make very difficult choices which we were shying away from earlier. For example, by moving away from our office, we don’t have to pay rent, making it a virtual office. So that’s one definite thing. Also the way we work, the focus on what kind of quality is important, all these factors are going to change now in this no touch economy post-COVID19. I think that focusing on digital platforms is going to be the next big thing, so everyone better get into that. Also it’s important that we’re moving from an industry based economy to an information based economy. So, all businesses that are in the business of sharing information, creating information, are going to be the ones that will survive far faster and thrive more than a manufacturing kind of industry. This is according to the stuff that I’m reading BTW, not that I’m an economist.
Q: Everyone is talking about how this virus is going to permanently change the way we live now. What do you think will be the biggest change after this Pandemic situation is over?
A: I think it’s a fantastic change. I’m actually very happy staying at home because, it has given everyone a chance to reassess and reprioritize their life. I realize that there were so many things in my life that weren’t priority but I was giving them so much attention. It’s nice that I’ve made this realization. I know a lot of my friends have done the same. But I think WFH will be fantastic change if it happens because we’ll realize that we don’t need offices anymore. Can you imagine the amount of congestion that will decrease? Can you imagine the amount of pollution control that will happen? Just from WFH or working from the hubs nearby your home instead of traveling for one and half hour daily. Imagine the amount of free time you’ll get and the time you’ll get to spend with your family. Right now, everybody is frustrated because they don’t have access to the things that they want, they don’t have help at home to keep the house clean. Once those frustrations go away, I think everyone will realize this is a far better way to live.
Q: Do you think this will affect area/industry you are working in? If yes, why and on what scale? If no, why not?
A: So two businesses. 1) Market research: Yes, it will affect dramatically. Because if you can’t meet people, how can you do research with people? So we’re evaluating different digital technologies and we’ve already found fantastic ways of using digital technologies in market research. Things that we had never ever thought of using before. So many creative solutions are coming up. 2) Habit Coaching: It will make a dramatic difference. As I said, one on one coaching are not as much fun to do over the phone. I know I’m not giving as much of an impact as I could in the person. But the opportunity is that it is exposing me to the world and I don’t necessarily have to have clients in Mumbai. So, while I’ve had about 7 client from around the world, most of them were from Mumbai. This will change that style of functioning. So, Yes, for sure it’ll change.
Q: Some of us are optimistic that this is just a small bump in our progress story and won't majorly affect how we lived. Do you agree? Do you think we can get back to where we left before this pandemic?
A: I hope we don’t get back where we left before this pandemic. I think if we understand this pandemic in nice, clear fashion, rationally, not emotionally, I think we’ll realize the world were entering could be far better. Obviously, I’m talking about it at a very macro level. I’m not talking about individual lives that are right now in complete trauma, with regards to not knowing if I’m going to have a job, money in the bank account, what’ll happen with the loans, the migrant population, etc. So obviously, there’s going to be a lot of turmoil and trauma for next year or year and a half or more. But in the history of mankind, every time something new has happened that we felt was going to shake the way business happened, well, the shake happened and the business needed tweaking. The best example is the ATM machines. People thought all the bank employees will lose their jobs. Not a single job was lost. In fact, they were able to do more important tasks while the machines did the menial job. So, I think a similar situation will happen here and the industries will change and adapt. I don’t think it’ll be as dramatically bad as we’re making out to be. Hindsight is obviously 20-20 and that’s the year were living in!
Q: If a kid walked up to asking for your advice for starting his/her venture and you only had a few minutes to give them your best tip, what would it be? Considering the pandemic.
A: Don’t start one venture, start 3 ventures! Don’t think about it too much and just start because you’re going to fail and fail and fail and fail, and you’re going to learn and learn and learn and learn. So you might as well start now, start failing as fast as possible because then the success comes faster instead of waiting for 10 years. So just start and make lots of mistakes baba!
Q: If this situation is going to change the way you work, what change you want to see in your work now? What will be the best way to make that change?
A: As I said, working from home will be the best change. For me, we’ve been on our farm in Karjat for last month and a half. We moved here since 7 days before the lockdown and hence we’ve not been able to get back. But I suddenly realized that it’s much nicer living on this farm than living in the city. Once everything opens up and commute becomes easy, I can pop into Mumbai for a bit and probably we might just end up living on our farm. I think that’ll be the biggest change in our life.
Q: Which direction you think that we all - as a world - responsibly need to act and think? You can say in whichever sense you feel is most important.
A: The way I see it we as a world need to come out of this with lots of learnings. We clearly learnt that WHO can’t be the sole savior of us all. We’ve learnt so much about the way our properties were inflating in value, we learnt how much vulnerable we are and if we come out of this not learning anything, it’d be a shame. It’d be a disaster bigger than all the financial loss. We’re so much worried about the recession and the recession will happen. Worrying about the recession will not make it go away. You’ve got to move from the thought of recession to the thought of realization. If you realize right things from this recession it’ll help you make you even more money in the future, why not?
Q: Do you think you need to re-modify the bucketlist? Why and how?
A: I’ve honestly not thought about my bucket list, so I’d have to give it a thought. Maybe re-modifying will have to happen because we won’t be able to travel. Maybe gardening and growing my own vegetables will be on my bucketlist.
Q: We should not ignore the silver linings that you noticed in this scare. After all, hope is what makes the world go round. What positive thing you experienced during this pandemic?
A: The small things I can live without and the things I cant. It’s helped me reassess my priorities. Those are the big silver linings for me. Also I’ve realized that I don’t need to be in Mumbai to conduct my work. The kind of office which I had imagined, like working from the beach in the Bahamas is very doable now. Because we’re almost there. I’m not in Mumbai and work has been going fairly smoothly. I’m doing my podcast, my videos, everything is happening so that’s the biggest learning/silver lining for me. Also, I also uploaded a video on my YouTube channel last week on future-proofing your life and if you actually follow the principles of understanding your deficiencies and vulnerabilities, you suddenly realize that you can plan for your unforeseen future far better than had you not thought of future proofing your life. Using those techniques of understanding your deficiencies and vulnerabilities, you can finely make a big change in your life. So, practically I had future proofed most of the things I was working with. There are some aspects that were not future proof, which are now hurting me.
Q: Do you think you and the world need to set new milestones? Will sustainability and earth-friendly business practices be an important factor now? How will you ensure you fit in this new picture in your respective profession?
A: I really hope that world realizes that we don’t need to be causing that much pollution. Possibly that will change. Everybody is going to be empowered by the fact that nature came back! The best thing is so much of dramatic change happened in nature with just one month of human beings not moving around. If we as humans ever go extinct, we know that the world is going to recover far faster than we expected. So that realization is a big positive.
Thank you for your questions guys! I think they were very interesting. Best of luck to what you’re doing!
Commenti