Episode 116 – Raj Jana: How To Stay Grounded In Life And In Business

[strong]Casanova Brooks:[/strong] What’s up Dream Nation. We are back again with another episode. And I’m excited about this when you guys know I’m excited about a lot of episodes, but this one in particular, because it’s not often that you get to create vibes in less than 10 minutes before you hit the record button. And for anyone who has a podcast, they can truly understand that.

But that’s what we just did. And so I’m excited to bring to you this episode with my brother, mr. Raj Jana. Did I say that, right?

[strong]Raj Jana:[/strong] You said that’s so well, bro, I don’t even need to say my name unless you say it, man. You’re more

[strong]Casanova Brooks:[/strong] all good. My man. Well, Hey, we appreciate you coming on. Do you want to go ahead and do me a favor and say what’s up the DreamNation?

[strong]Raj Jana:[/strong] What up DreamNation, how y’all doing.

[strong]Casanova Brooks:[/strong] Man, it’s a pleasure to have you on here. And I’ve been a fan of your story. Like I said, for quite a, quite a while now, a couple of weeks now I looked at it, your story, I’ve seen the movement that you had, and I’ve seen the impact that you’ve made over the years. And you’ve been featured in major publications like Success, Entrepreneur.

Ink, Forbes, everywhere that really, you can put your story to impact the most people, but I always like to make sure that we can give the proper introduction. And so before you got featured in all these major public, before you became the superhero, and when I think of superheroes, I really think of entrepreneurs.

The reason why is because we’re constantly putting on a Cape. And we’re flying around the world, trying to solve problems to make it a better place. So before you became the superhero, if we can take it back to when you were just a young boy, tell me who is Raj Jana.

[strong]Raj Jana:[/strong] Uh, well, that’s a loaded question, but I love that you use super heroes cause I’ve always described entrepreneurs as modern day Avengers, right?

Like, and it’s just, it’s, it’s a really powerful avatar to really call yourself into, because we all have an Avenger inside of us and we all have that thing that we’re willing to put on the line and the thing that we’re willing to fight for and the values that we embody as a core. And a lot of that did start when I was younger.

Um, you know, I grew up. I’m Indian-American born in Boston or in the Boston area. You know, two loving parents. My grandma’s spent a lot of time with me when I was growing up. Um, and, uh, you know, grew up just playing every sport parents pushing me to do well in school and have a great time.

And then my dad had an expat assignment moved to India, lived in India for about four years, which was a life changing experience. You know, it’s one thing to be born into a country that has so many different cultures, but then. At that pivotal age, go to a country where literally everybody looks the same. And, you know, it was just such a life changing experience for me to experience so much support and love.

And there was never me needing to be anyone other than myself. And so I just built this really powerful base of self-love of confidence of, of, of just trust in my own abilities to, to navigate anything. Uh, so I think that I got really lucky just being born into a beautiful family and having. And given the opportunities that I had to grow up in an environment where I didn’t have to prove myself.

Um, and then when I came back to the U S we moved back to Houston back when I was 11, and I’ve been living in Texas my whole life for the most part, I live in Austin now, um, moved back to Houston. I was a relentless tennis player. Uh, you know, just. Picked up sports and I was just trying to be my best at everything.

And I think it really came back from that foundation of self love and that foundation of support that I had growing up, um, graduated, went to the university of Texas, um, you know, started out petroleum engineering, uh, did that because I wanted to make my parents happy and apparently petroleum engineers made a ton of money.

And so I was like, well, if I don’t know what the hell I want to do, at least I’ll make a lot of money and that’ll make it a lot easier for me to figure out what I want to do. And so I just got into it. Uh, graduated four years later during my college years, I, you know, founded a fraternity at the school, which taught me so much about.

Just guerrilla marketing and rushing kids and learning how to host parties and talk to women. And, you know, the whole thing, I just picked up a very well rounded set of skills that then ended up serving very much, uh, profoundly when I became an entrepreneur. Graduated college. And then, um, yeah, just started working for Chevron.

So I got a really high paying job in new Orleans. Right out of school. Parents were proud by the books, man. I was crushing it. 22 years old, making six figures living in new Orleans, like just having all of it at my fingertips, but I was just not happy. Um, I don’t know why the corporate life just wasn’t for me.

Um, I didn’t feel connected to my work. I felt like somebody else was pulling the strings and telling me when I could do something. And when I couldn’t do something and what I was allowed to do and how many years I had to wait before my turn. And it was the first time in my life that I just was being told that hard work didn’t actually equal success.

And that there were factors outside of me that were dictating it. And that just didn’t vibe with me for some reason. I just didn’t believe in that idea. Like if you are willing to put. All of yourself into something, then you should dictate the timeline. It shouldn’t be dictated by the world around you.

And so that’s really started a journey of me, sort of like looking for answers. You know, I read “The Four Hour Workweek” back in 2014, changed my life, made me realize how little I knew about business and life and what was possible and how all of my rules and my ideas of the world were formed by my parents and what they thought was safe and what they believe to be true and good for me.

But for the first time I was like, wow, what is good for me? And it’s funny, we were just talking about, um, You know, Pat Flynn, I heard an episode on Pat Flynn’s podcast around this course that taught people how to start a software company from scratch and how to make some extra money on the side. And I went ahead and bought that course as my first ever investment in internet marketing and online education.

And that started a- and incredible journey of me trying to have a side hustle. Right? 2014. I really started going down on the side hustle route, trying to make money online, buying every course I could reading every book I could. And I was just spending all my time after work, doing that. Uh, that course didn’t work out.

And then I was just like, alright, I’m just gonna go to the next one. But I learned a ton. I learned about how to find markets and how did I chose the wrong market. So I knew what not to do. And I took all that knowledge and I just went and bought the next course for me, which was at the time, how do you launch physical products online?

And so I bought this course on Amazon. How do you sell on Amazon? I went and learned how to source products in China, how to, you know, I was taking money 401k to put it into like, Business expenses. Cause I realized you could get the same write off as like, I was like, wow, this is amazing. So instead of getting a 7% return on my 401k, right, you get to potentially have a 7000% return by investing in myself.

And that was one of the most important decisions I made because those investments that I made in courses and everything led to me launching JavaPress. Uh, so I bought my course on Amazon, how to sell them products on Amazon in September or June of 2015, September of 2015. I ended up launching our first product, which was a manual coffee grinder, nothing special about it at the time, it was just this coffee grinder.

I was sourcing from China, putting a label on it, creating a brand out of it and selling it. Yeah. And that’s what, that’s how it started. And you know, that product ended up selling a little bit. Got me so excited. Um, but I was still kind of like just dabbling on the side. And then I had a January of 2016. I had a mentor who worked 37 years at the same company.

Um, and also working full time. Uh, while I was building the side hustle, I had a mentor who was my cubicle mate, by the name of Jerry Markowitz. He was a geologist. I was a petroleum engineer and we worked on the same part of the fields and at Chevron and, you know, he was three months away from retirement before he had a heart attack and died.

And, um, I just remember that experience being the catalyst that made me realize. I was living a lie. Like we’re all living a lie. We’re all waiting for the weekend to be happy. We’re all waiting for the next vacation to start having fun. We’re all looking forward to retirement, which was in 40 years for me, like, I mean, it was just like, it was a sobering reminder that like, wow, this guy did everything, right.

This guy literally played every card. Right. And he still didn’t make it to the promised land. So why the hell do I think that I’m going to be any different and. It was the catalyst for me to make. And that’s when I really made the decision, I’m going to be an entrepreneur. Like I don’t care what I’m selling.

Like I was just selling coffee grinders online. Like we didn’t have, and you didn’t have a mission. We didn’t have a company. We didn’t have a culture. I didn’t have a passion for the product. I didn’t. I was just like, what am I going to sell to get myself out of this job? And I got that relentless drive.

And I think the passion then came from me just knowing what I didn’t want. Like, I knew that I knew what I didn’t want so bad that I was so ready to do everything I need to do to get what I really wanted. And, uh, that changed my life, man. So the next seven years, months I woke up at 5:00 AM to 7:00 AM, studied copywriting, marketing, like you name it.

I was studying it, buying the courses. And then from 5:00 PM, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. I get off work at five, five 30. 6:00 PM to eight, 9:00 PM. I would just work on my business and I did that for seven months straight. And then we ended up breaking like our first million in sales. Seven months later after I made that decision.

[strong]Casanova Brooks:[/strong] Still with the coffee grinders?

[strong]Raj Jana:[/strong] Just coffee grinders. I was selling over a million. Actually. We were selling like by that December, we were selling about $280,000 a month worth of coffee grinders online. I somehow found a way to just make it work. And I, I learned the system and I started doing it.

[strong]Casanova Brooks:[/strong] The product evolve. Did you add a piece in there or something?

[strong]Raj Jana:[/strong] Along the way? Yeah, so like, I was just selling in the beginning. I was just selling whatever. It was just like, I was selling a generic product that were are, but along the way we made, I hired an industrial designer to go back in and reverse engineer a way to make a patent on the product. And like, but I made all those investments later on.

Like I didn’t have a patent on anything when we first started. We had our own unique product, but then we added spins to it along the way. I was just moving so damn fast. Like I just knew what I didn’t want. I was like, I need to get out of this job. So I built it to, we did 250 grand a month. That December I was still working my full time job.

So I had this like petroleum engineering salary coming in and I have this now massive influx of cash coming in. Right. Um, and, uh, I remember in that point that I was just not. Happy. I still wasn’t happy. I was just working so much and I made all this money and I was proud of myself and I was paying off all my debt and I was helping my parents.

And I was just doing all the things that a dutiful son/guy would do. And, um, I just, wasn’t happy though. Like I was just selling whatever the hell I could sell online. And, uh, in that moment I met a mentor, a guy named Yanik Silver, who, uh, wrote a book called Evolved Enterprise. And I saw him speak on stage.

It was my first ever conference that I’d really gone to. And the whole idea was like, you don’t have to separate work from your life. Like you can build a life that has all of it connected and you can do work that makes your soul happy and it nourishes your spirit. And you can give back through your work and it doesn’t have to be this thing where you make all your money and then you come back.

Like you can live that interconnected life. And that was the first time anybody had ever taught me that. And then, uh, I remember that month, it was end of 2016. I spent the whole month just learning from him. Meditating journaling grad. I went down, I started practicing gratitude, like all these things. I just never even knew about all these practices.

And, uh, in that journey, I came up with stay grounded, which is now my podcast, my, our movement or community all over the world. Uh, this message and this idea of living in the moment and making the most of the things that matter. And initially it started as a tagline at our coffee company, and that’s how I made my coffee company have meaning.

It was like stay grounded in the moments that mattered through your cup of coffee, turn it into a ritual that you can look forward to everyday, grind your coffee by hand, make it a practice. And that’s how it started. And that then changed the, the, the, the energy of my company like this. It’s just, it turned into this, this thing that we wanted to help people experience.

We want to help you use coffee to live a happier life and use our products as a vehicle to do that. And that created content. And we started sending out newsletters and. Then our sales grew like 800% that year. We just kept growing, growing, growing, growing, growing. Um, and, uh, now I, I do a lot of things, things that don’t just do that that’s, I don’t even actually operate my company anymore.

Like I have a whole team of people that manage that, and I’ve got six or seven different investments now that I’m a fractional CEO for, and I just come in and. I create content on my podcasts. And I love talking to incredible human beings. Like you like just soul brothers from another mother. Like just absolutely.

So like, I, I, this is now I’m living my dream life and I am, and I’m here now creating, investing, giving back and doing everything I can. But man, I started as just a scrappy kid who did it, who didn’t know what he wanted, but knew sure has hell what he didn’t want. And that was enough to start the party.

[strong]Casanova Brooks:[/strong] There’s so much to unpack there. The first thing and how old are you now?

[strong]Raj Jana:[/strong] 29

[strong]Casanova Brooks:[/strong] Wow. I love it, man. Cause you’re still so young and you could hear the energy, anybody that’s listening or watching right now, there’s no denying your energy and it’s infectious. And I love it because I always feel like I bring a lot of energy to the table.

So when I find somebody that matches yeah,

[strong]Raj Jana:[/strong] yeah, baby.

[strong]Casanova Brooks:[/strong] Oh yeah. This is about to be good. This is be super dope. Now the first thing that I want to jump back to, which really struck a chord with me, and I’ve heard this before and

I say this a lot too, is “fulfillment and achievement do not equate to being the same thing”.

And that’s what you said. , even before you started that company, when you were working at that W2 job and you first started making six figures and you said you were at Chevron, right.

How old were you?

[strong]Raj Jana:[/strong] I think the reason why I didn’t feel fulfillment in my achievement is because they weren’t my goals getting the six figure job was not, I wasn’t doing it for me.

I was doing it because my parents or society taught me that having money made you happy. So go do the thing that makes you the money so that you can be happy. But that wasn’t my dream. And I don’t think we’re really ever taught to dream. Like we’re not taught to have our own. It seems like a lot of times people confuse their goals.

Like I want a million dollars. Okay. Why do I want to be a millionaire? Oh, I want to be a millionaire because I want to buy this thing. Okay. Well, why do you want to buy that thing? Oh, because I was told that having that thing is cool. I’ve actually been in that thing though. I just saw pictures of that car.

I saw this house. I don’t know if I’m actually going to like that. I’ve just been told that having that is like the life it’s the dream. Right? So if you, I think all of us and we all are guilty of this, I was guilty of this. You’re probably guilty of this. We all have these dreams and these goals that we start out with.

Right. And we moved so fast in that direction, but yeah. Once you actually go down that journey of uncovering the goal and uncovering the dream, you start to unlayer like, it’s, it’s like your feelings start to come in, right? Like you start to feel either resentment or joy and like the more you pay attention to those feelings.

I think that’s when you start moving away from achievement to fulfillment, because being fulfilled as a feeling, it’s not an end destination. When you feel fulfilled, like you don’t feel achieved. You don’t feel like, right? Like, you don’t feel like you feeling achievement can be a part of fulfillment, but fulfillment is actually the feeling of achievement.

Right? And so like if you’re not having the right achievements or if you’re going after the wrong things, you’re going to fill yourself up with the wrong emotions. And ultimately all we’re really trying to create in our life is joy and happiness. Right. Like at the end of the, at the end of the yellow brick road, like, what is it that we all want?

We want to live happy lives. We want to have peace, right? We want to have fulfilled. We want to know that we made a difference. And that to me can only happen when you can pay attention and you’re paying attention constantly because it does change over time. Like your, your passions, the things that bring you joy change over time.

So it’s so important as you’re building your life to really pay attention to why you’re doing what you’re doing and what matters most to you.

[strong]Casanova Brooks:[/strong] I love it. Yeah. Yeah, man, I’m glad that you tapped into that. And my, my, my next question, you kind of already transitioned and segwayed into this. Is, does this have to come over time or is anyone because it brought me back as you’re explaining this.

I thought when I was younger and I was first growing up, I want it to be a lawyer. Right. And a lot of people they want to. Maybe go to medical school, they want to be a doctor and maybe they think that that’s their dream. And so they get into it and they figure out how much schooling that it takes, how much required.

And then they say, okay, I don’t want to do this. So do you think that there’s a way that people can know this upfront or do you have to go through the trenches and just, like you said, just be present and cognizant of what your energy is telling

[strong]Raj Jana:[/strong] you. So I think it’s important. Uh, one inaction doesn’t help anything.

So waiting to have all the answers before you take action is never going to actually get you the answers you’re seeking because in the process of creation and the process of you expending energy and the process of you moving towards something that you may want. That’s what on layers? All of you, right?

Like, so to me, I think it’s important to be 60% sure you want what you want and just run in that direction. Hmm, run in that direction, creating that direction and pay attention as you move, moving in that direction, because you can always change the flow of the river. You can always change the North Star you’re heading to, but staying still waiting for that to happen is I think the biggest problem.

So I do think that you can be somewhat clear beginning on like, by asking yourself why, right? Like, why is one of the most powerful questions that I think most people just don’t ask? Like, what do I want? Most people are so fixated on what they want. I want to become a doctor. I want this thing. I want this money.

I want this house. I want this end result without really tapping into the energy behind why. Hmm. Right. Cause why is where the alchemy of the magic happens? Why is that super delicious place of feeling and purpose and passion. And it’s like, you’re actually tapping back into yourself. Right? Like my first, why was because I just didn’t.

I didn’t like my first one was when Jerry passed, I didn’t want that life. And I was looking at my dad. My dad came to the U S $60 in his pocket, classic immigrant story and worked his entire life. Never did anything for himself. And the idea of something like what happened to Jerry happening to my dad, freaked me out, scared me.

And I was just like, I don’t want that for him because I love him. So I tapped into the energy of love. And I was doing it for someone else, but that made me then move in a direction because I was like, you know what? I don’t know what the hell I want to do, but I know that this is the right move. Right.

And I was 60% sure. Like I just didn’t know, but I knew that I didn’t want my parents to explain it. I knew what I knew, what I didn’t want. I was very, very, very sure of what I didn’t want to happen. Like I was guaranteed. Like, I don’t want that to happen to my dad. So who the hell is going to tell him? And how do I need to show him not to live that way?

Well, I needed to be successful. Right. Like I needed to be the one that broke through the chains and broke this idea that you have to be in this corporate nine to five job for the rest of your life in order to be successful. Uh, this chain that you had to go get an MBA, to be an entrepreneur or to bring I had to, I took it on myself and that’s a lot of my own confidence in my own sort of faith in my ability.

Right? Like that goes back to that foundation of self love that I was really raised on. Right. Like it gave me the confidence to actually it’s like, I can, I can do this. I’m going to do this. I’m going to make it happen. But ultimately the “why?” which was created by Jerry created by my dad created by these, these reasons they may be externally sort of motivated, but they created a sense of internal fire.

Hmm. Right. And I think we all have those things. Like you got kids, right? I bet your kids are a huge part of your “why?”. The reason why you get up and do everything and you do every day. And I’m sure anyone listening is going to have similar instances, whether it’s parents, whether it’s causes, whether it’s social injustices, whatever the thing it is in the climate that we’re in right now, or wherever you are, whatever sparks something in you that feeling, pay attention.

Pay attention to those feelings because those feelings are truly what we’re actually optimizing our life for. We are not optimizing our life for results. We are optimizing our life for things that help us come alive because in that aliveness is where true freedom exists.

[strong]Casanova Brooks:[/strong] I love that you you gave so much value in there.

I hope that people really listened to that and took notes of that, especially the last part about, you know, how we optimize our lives. And I truly believe that as well, our lives are really built up off of the energy and where we get our energy from that positive energy is out of the feelings and the memories that we create.

And so I think that nothing has ever been more true, especially in the time that we’re living in right now.

One thing that I want to know. From you is how important was community, um, for everything that you did, because you talked about your parents, but as you start to embark on this uncertain journey, right, that you now you’re getting into entrepreneurship.

When the life that you knew up until you were 26, from what the sounds of it, everybody was more in a stable environment, a stable role. Right. And now all of a sudden you’re going to go off and you’re going to do this. And yes, there’s one thing to be said for knowing that it’s in your heart, your soul, but there’s another thing to be said for acting on it.

And I feel like a lot of people don’t act on it because they don’t have the community. Maybe they’re afraid of what their parents or their friends or whoever else may say. What was that like for you? Did you have the community or if you didn’t, how did you persevere through it?

[strong]Raj Jana:[/strong] That’s a great question, man. And I’m really glad you asked that because I will never say that I did this on my own. Like, I don’t know. There’s a, there’s not been if there’s, there’s absolutely no way. I mean, because here’s the thing. I think most people confuse community and mentorship and the idea of having like minded people around them with physical proximity, right?

Like you are not the average of the five people you spend your time with. You are the average of the five people you learn from, and it is not all. Cause like, if you think about who do you spend the most time with, you spend time with your wife, with your kids. Like you spend time maybe with like your, your it’s, like there’s physical proximity to people that make you happy, bring you joy, but the people you learn from you can learn from afar.

I remember my first mentors were Eric Thomas. Right. I used to have Eric Thomas in my ears every day, just screaming in my ears that like, you know, let’s get after it, let’s go. Gary V was in my ear every single day. Tony Robbins was in my ear every single day. I had, you know, I found these tracks on YouTube with like motivational music.

And Sylvester Stallone and throw in the Rocky stuff. And Steve, I was literally like, I had this. The spiritual gang around me, man, like these voices of their energies because of the internet and the access we have to, all of this technology flowing through my ears, just feeding me with the things I needed to hear every single day.

You know, I bought courses that had communities with other people that were also trying to change their lives, right? Like there were all these people that were literally trying to change their lives. And I just leaned in there. They were all online. I had no physical community. Yeah. I only had online community and I would meet up with my online masterminds.

Every week. And I would help them be keeping me accountable. I would, if there were Facebook groups or if there were things, I would be the one that put it on me to go post in there every week on what I learned and how much action I took. And I would use that as fuel to cause like, and I think that’s really where it comes down to like, there’s so many resources at our disposal, but you have to put yourself out there.

Right. And if you’re having trouble taking action, one of the fastest ways to start taking action, it’s telling other people you’re going to do something, power of account ability, man. I had an accountability buddy, every single week that I would check in on that was same values.

We’re like, we were both really hungry and I would, and we had a goal like, dude, like, like I’m not letting you slip. You’re not letting me slip. Right. And we would just keep each other going. And he’s one of my best friends. Now we’re both massively successful. We have several companies. We both started from that place of nothing.

And now like, he’s one of my best friends and he’s doing crazy stuff in the world. But it all started with that. Like, it was, it was just a commitment to taking consistent action and finding just even one person that is of like, of the likeminded interests. Like I promise you guys, like, just because you’re not physically surrounded by people that don’t believe in the life you want for yourself.

There’s millions of people out there that are literally saying the same thing. Like, God, I wish I had somebody

[strong]Casanova Brooks:[/strong] Right, facts!

[strong]Raj Jana:[/strong] And you have to go and like put yourself in the shoes of somebody who’s looking for this type of help, right? Like where did those people go for this type of help? Right? Where would they look?

Who are they going to ask help for? How do they show up? And when you can start to recognize that the person you want to be exists in your mind already. You just need to figure out who that person is like, the person you are want to be, if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, but what are the traits of a successful entrepreneur?

Right? It takes lots of action. Maybe he’s bold, or he, or she is bold. Maybe they have these qualities and these values, you can channel that now. Right. And, and before, and this is why I’m a huge believer in the power of visualization. And it’s not about visualizing what you want. It’s about knowing what you want and then visualizing the person you need to be to go get that thing.

Right? Yeah. And so when you visualize who that person is, it becomes very clear where the gaps are like, where are you not measuring up this person? And who can you put yourself on? Who can you learn from what practices can you implement in your day? What habits can you build? Where can you operate from so that you can then set yourself up in a way that can empower change within yourself.

And when you show up as that person, you end up having the things that that person has like it’s, it’s, it’s showing up as the person first, consistently, which then creates the reality. Always catch. The reality is always a few steps behind mindset. Like it’s always, the mindset mindset always happens first and then reality slowly catches up.

And sometimes it’s not so slow when you make that jump, you make that commitment change can happen overnight, but. It takes time and you have to show up as that person in order for that to be there.

[strong]Casanova Brooks:[/strong] Man I love it. You’re speaking so much. That’s a whole bar in itself. Let me ask for it. There’s a lot of people out there that’s like, yeah, it sounds good.

You’ve made it already right now, but they love to see like, People relate to them where they are. So my question to you would be, as you were preparing your mind, as you were always on your journey and yeah, you are still on your journey, What was the biggest struggle that you think you had to overcome and looking back at it now, if you could have, you know, did this even faster, it would have helped to scaled your success or at least where you are today.

[strong]Raj Jana:[/strong] Man, I wouldn’t change a damn thing about my journey, um, because, and there’s lessons. Sure. Could I have done it faster, but I’ve learned to respect the fact and the idea that there are no skipping steps. Like no matter how fast you want to get to the pendulum or to the, to the promised land, like you can’t skip steps in life.

You can skip lessons that you’ll have to come back and learn later. But each level is sequentially preparing you to do exactly what you need to do and learn the lessons you exactly need to learn so that you can be the human being that you need to be in this lifetime. And I’m pretty spiritual by nature.

I believe that everything is unfolding exactly as it should. I believe in destiny, I believe that we all have this calling inside of us, that our hearts are pulling us towards. And it’s our job as human beings to listen. And creating that direction and the life that we live through that is going to have its own magical journey.

But for me to go back and say that I would have done something different, I was doing a massive disservice to the journey that I had. Like I made the mistakes. I did, I made lots of mistakes. I made mistakes of trusting people that I probably shouldn’t have trusted. I made mistakes of not doing due diligence when I made my first orders.

Um, I made the mistake of. Being afraid of asking for help. I made, I made so many mistakes, but those mistakes had to be made in order for me to sit here with the vantage point now, and for me to be who I am today, because if I would have made any different choices, I wouldn’t be who I am today. And I love who I am today.

And if you love who you are today, and if you’re proud of the person you are today, there’s nothing you could’ve done differently. Sure. Could you have done things in a way that maybe hurt less people? This is, this goes beyond just business though. This is like relationships, business a little bit, right?

Like, could you have done things differently that may have led to less pain in other people’s lives? Sure. But we’re not optimizing our life for joy. We are optimizing our life for life, right? Nobody goes through life unscathed. Right? If there’s anything that COVID and all of this really this year has taught all of us it’s that we actually had no control.

Right. It’s a hard, it’s a hard thing. Mother nature really slapped everyone with, but like, even like the goals I had in January, these really amazing resolutions that I made, went out the window and everything changed overnight. Right. For a lot of people. And I think that’s just the best reminder that.

Could we have done things better. Could we have prepared better? Could we have made different choices that would have led to different outcomes? You know, in hindsight, of course, but, uh, your current experience is the only thing that’s real. And this experience today is dictated and influenced by so many choices that were good and bad, that created pain and love.

And in the concoction of all of that chaos, You’re now living in a moment of truth and a moment of, of, of expansion. And when we stay present to that experience, I think life just gets really, really, really colorful.

[strong]Casanova Brooks:[/strong] Man that’s I love it. Talk, one thing that has sparked me with you is first thing is I understand exactly how you can build relationships, you know, because you could see the author, you can hear and see the authenticity every time that you speak.

But one other thing that. Sparks me is you’ve been able now you said you have about seven or eight different businesses and for a lot of people the struggle has always been, should I specialize in this one thing or should I go out there and try to do multiple things? Talk to me about what is your opinion on being a specialist versus a generalist?

[strong]Raj Jana:[/strong] Well, it depends on your life goals. Uh, I tend to think of myself as a Renaissance man. I mean, I do stand up comedy. I speak like I love, like, I just love doing a lot of things. I’m just,

I say to the people that say that, you know, you can never be dominant at that one thing, because you’re only giving, you know, one 10th of yourself to all of these different things.

Let me ask you, brother, are you only a dad? Like, do you define yourself as a dad? Yeah, absolutely. Some areas of your life. What else do you define yourself as.

[strong]Casanova Brooks:[/strong] I defined myself as a businessman. I define myself as a husband. I defined myself as a relationship builder. I define myself as a real estate agent, a real estate investor.

I actually, yeah. I mean, I define myself as a lot of different things, so

[strong]Raj Jana:[/strong] I just want to, so, and I want to say that the first four of those were personal. Right, right. And so whether somebody says they’re a specialist or not, you’re actually many things. Hmm. You’re already many things, the same things that work in business don’t work in relationships the same way, relentless ambition and drive that may have led to you.

Making lots of money would actually probably destroy a healthy relationship. Right. Right. And so it’s different skill sets. And so for me, what I tend to recognize that I’ve realized in my life is that I am the common denominator in everything. Hmm. So whether I am specializing in one aspect of life, I’m still the common denominator in all these different aspects of life.

And so if that’s true, then the, really, the only thing I should be specializing in is me. Wow. Being the best version of myself, right. And showing up fully in everything that I do and building the skill set that’s necessary for me to excel at whatever I put my mind towards or wherever I put my focus towards or wherever I focus my energy on.

And I think that then dictate that’s dictated by the vision for your life. Like, what is your vision for your life? Do you like, it’s not about what you do. It’s about what you want to live. Like what do you want experience in your life? Right. Like, I want to experience a lot of things in my life. I want to experience true love.

I want to experience fatherhood massive monetary success. I want to, I want to experience art. I want to experience culture. I wanna experience travel. I wanna experience food. I wanna experience music and creation and partnership and collaboration and dance. And like in order for me to that’s my vision for my life, I know what I want to experience.

How the hell am I going to experience that by being a specialist at any one thing? Right. So I think having a clear vision for your life will then backtrack. And if you don’t feel like you can accomplish that vision, that’s a confidence piece. Hmm. That’s then the piece that you need to build and you need to grow and whatever helps you build confidence, whether it’s success or getting really good at something like, I think specialization works for like, for people, because it, it allows them to get good at something.

And when you get good at something, you feel good about yourself. Right? Right. So like, if that’s a journey you need to take in order for you to feel like you can do anything, but you feeling good about yourself and you feeling like you can do anything. That’s actually the ultimate thing to build. Yeah, because when you can build that, like why would you pick one life?

Right? Like, and any sane person, like, unless you just totally love this one thing and you want to dedicate your entire life to it. Great. You don’t have to, if you don’t want to, you can dedicate a season of your life to this one thing. But again, you are the common denominator, right? Like most people attach themselves to the work that they do.

You are not the work that you do. The work that you do. And the value you create in the world is one thing. You on the other hand are just so inherently valuable for being alive, just as a human life. And when you truly embody that and understand that, then all of the things you do are just spokes off of this actual power source of identity and authenticity.

That is you, and that’s your essence and that’s your soul. And that’s what, that’s what speaks volumes. And that’s what shows up. That’s what people feel through your work,

[strong]Casanova Brooks:[/strong] Right

[strong]Raj Jana:[/strong] Right. You can have a real estate company. If I start a real estate company, it would be a very different energy.

[strong]Casanova Brooks:[/strong] Right.

[strong]Raj Jana:[/strong] Right. If you started a coffee company and I started a coffee company, it’d be a very different energy, for sure.

So I think it’s just important for anybody listening to understand and recognize that just because you choose one path for a season of your life does not mean it’s permanent. And that goes back to the 60% thing. If you’re 60% sure that this is something you want to get really good at. And get really good at it.

Are there things you can get good at that can then be translated across multiple things if you choose to change your mind? Sure. I think entrepreneurship, I think business, I think like marketing. I think things like, like different facets of financial, like just knowing finances and understanding money.

Like there are certain things that I think are great overarching things to learn and get specialized in. But to me, it’s, it really is about following your curiosity and following that 60% as long as you’re 60% sure. Why the hell not? You need to be, I mean, if you need to be higher than that, I just use 60 for me.

Like you feel like 60 is failing. That’s an F on a test, then go to an 80. Or go to a 90, like a 90, still an a right. If you’ve got a 90 on a test in college,

[strong]Casanova Brooks:[/strong] would you be happy?

[strong]Raj Jana:[/strong] Like, right. Like, you didn’t care about getting a hundred, you just wanted a 90 to get the four point. Oh, so like for sure, you know, like it’s not about perfection.

It’s about understanding and listening and knowing that we’re all human beings on this beautiful game of life, unfolding things as we go and we get to change our minds as we choose. And, and if it’s long as you have a clear vision, not even a goal or a destination, just a vision for how you want to live.

Then that can and will dictate everything else you do.

[strong]Casanova Brooks:[/strong] You talked about in the beginning, um, you were listening to a lot of Tony Robbins. I’m sure you heard Jim Rohn and you’ve mentioned so many other great people. E.T.. Was there ever one on book or podcast or even YouTube video that you came across that you always would recommend to someone one who’s trying to live a life by their design.

[strong]Raj Jana:[/strong] Oof, so I can tell you my most, the most impactful books I had early on in my journey. Cause I think that’s most helpful. I have different books that have shown up for me at different parts of my life.

You only got one. If I’m trying to blaze my path like Raj, what’s that book that you got to recommend to me

Four Hour Work Week or, I mean that, that book really.

I mean, I remember in the book, um, he talks about like the first chapter or the first few chapters he was talking about how he retires every three months. That one idea rocked my world. Cause I was like, what do you mean you’re retiree three months. So yeah, I worked really hard and then I’ve tried for three months and I go do something special, like learn horseback, archery, or go compete in the world tango competition.

Or, and I was just like, Dude, that’s a, that’s a life, right? That’s a cool life. And like, I think that was the first thing that just broke me open. It was like, wow, like there’s people out there that actually live like this. And it just, it opened my eyes so much. And. After that I had lots of other books, you know, Napoleon Hill and, you know, lots of guys that came in and gave me lots of,

You know, one of the things I really recommend everybody when they first start out is make your money first. Like, don’t worry about following your passion yet. Like I find your purpose. Your why get really clear on that? Why like, why you want to make money, go make your money. No, whatever the hell you have to sell, obviously don’t be like unethical and don’t hurt people.

Right? That goes with that being said, but you know, go build your chops as an entrepreneur, create some freedom and choice for yourself. Once you have money flowing in, then you can do whatever the hell you want. Right. Like, you can literally live anywhere you want, especially in the world of internet marketing.

Right. And being an online entrepreneur, like I’ve lived out of a laptop for the last three years. Like I worked from beaches. I worked from, I have team members all over the globe. In like five different continents that just work wherever they want. And like, I, I mean, I was just in the mountains for, for, for a month.

I felt like I’d wanted to get an Austin and go up to nature. So I flew up to the mountains, got myself a cabin, did some meditation, some journaling, some visioning, you know, some creative writing and I felt refreshed and I came back and now I’m back in Austin and I’m probably going to go to San Diego next week and spend a month there, like, because I can, and that’s, that’s, that’s my life.

That’s what I’ve chosen and you all have that choice. All of you have the choice once you create the opportunity for yourself. So just get relentlessly passionate about the journey of freeing yourself from yourself and the world around you and let the world just, and then let everything else fall into place, because I promise you when you start operating from integrity and freedom doors, just open up.

And your passions find you, you don’t even go have to look. You don’t have to go looking for, for anything. You start living from your heart, everything is a magnet and you just become this incredible sort of receiver for just all the, the opportunities that you get to say yes or no to. And that’s just a beautiful way to live.

And I think Tim Ferriss has really inspired or a way of living for our generation really over the last 10 to 15 years of people really leaning into that truth. Yeah,

[strong]Casanova Brooks:[/strong] I’ve always been a big fan of The Four Hour Work Week and it definitely had a huge impact on me changing my mindset along with Rich Dad, Poor Dad and many other books.

Well, um, the last thing that I have is there’s somebody out there right now, that’s super inspired by you. They love your journey. They want to to blaze their path of being that Renaissance man, that digital nomad, but they are.

They have that little voice in their head. And that little voice says that they’re not strong enough.

They’re not smart enough. Or maybe they just don’t have enough resources. What’s the one thing that you say to that person to get them to just take action.

[strong]Raj Jana:[/strong] Here’s a really interesting thing because the voice in your head. Never actually matches the voice in your heart. You don’t need to be a hundred percent capable of being successful. You just need to be at least 51% sure that you can do this over not. So stop shooting to not have the voice in your head because that voice in your head is always going to be there.

I have that voice in my head every single day. So lower the bar. You don’t need that voice in the head to be gone. You just need to be at least 51% sure that the voice in your head isn’t actually representing what you truly are capable of. And if you’re not to that point yet, pick up some quick wins.

Right. Like there’s ways to build up confidence in yourself and your abilities, whether it’s by just micro taking micro actions, like committing to something or going and getting in shape or making a promise to yourself and keeping it. I mean, there’s so many small ways to just get the party started, but you don’t need to be a hundred percent sure about anything.

One in life just need to be a little more sure than you’re not. And I think that’s, as long as anybody listening can really lean into that. You’re going to live a deliciously magical life, and you’re always going to play in the realm of possibility. And are you going to fail? Absolutely. Are you going to look like a fool?

Probably, but feeling the emotions that come from that are all part of life too, because nobody goes through life unscathed. And to me, it’s not about living and unscathed life because that’s living a safe life. To me, it’s about having the courage to live a life where you’re not afraid to feel anything at all.

There’s absolutely no emotion, no fear, nothing that you’re not afraid to at least feel and do something about anyways.

[strong]Casanova Brooks:[/strong] Love it, man. There you have it. Dream nation. I hope that you’ve gotten so much value as I have out of this. Rewind this, take down more notes for anybody who wants to stay connected with you, where can they find you at?

[strong]Raj Jana:[/strong] I’m on social media uh, obviously I’ve got my own podcast. “Stay Grounded” on iTunes, Spotify all over the world. Um, you can go to my website, rajjana.com. I have a newsletter that I send stuff out to I’m on social media and Instagram. I go on LinkedIn. I mean. Just an anyway, just come say hi, like I’m always, I’m just around I’m living and if you’re ever in Austin, uh, let me know.

I mean, at the end of the day, like, you know, just keep living and, uh, and keep in touch.

[strong]Casanova Brooks:[/strong] Absolutely. Well, there you have a DreamNation. Remember, In the dream we trust, but we must take action. Otherwise, it’ll only merely be a fantasy. We’ll catch you on the next one.