Speaker 1: 0:12

Welcome back to another episode of the Burn. I am Ben Newman and you know how we do this every single week we're bringing you a story of an athlete, an entertainer, a celebrity, somebody from the business world who has helped us understand that why and purpose is not enough. It's about that underlying burn that ignites your why and purpose and causes you to show up on the days you don't feel like it, and especially after you win. Now today's guest is probably a familiar face for many of you, who are always paying attention and watching the burn, and one of the things I love to do is bring guests back when it's relevant, based upon the decisions and choices they are making in their life, to continue to be an example for us of the power of what happens when you connect to your burn. So I'm going to wait to have my dear friend Ashwin Mohan join us as I give him some kudos, some flowers for some of the things that he's been doing. So you got to sit tight. Before I welcome you back to our burn audience, ashwin, let me mention a couple of things. You know our first episode together. We talked about Bakari, ashwin's dear friend, who lost his life far too soon. We talked about the influence of Ashwin's parents. We talked about his big thinking. We talked about his passion to do things very fast in a very dynamic and tough world of financial services. And since our initial episode, ashwin has stayed committed to doing what it takes to be successful. His financial practice has continued to grow, so much so to the fact that he now has formed Mohan Coaching, where he's now coaching some of the fastest growing and largest financial advisors as individuals, as well as their teams and their groups, to next level performance.

Speaker 1: 2:10

In addition, you may not recognize Ashwin because he has lost a lot of weight. He could be mad at me for saying this, but I'm going to say it. He's lost a lot of weight because he made a decision to say, hey, I need to stop using my busyness in business as an excuse to not be able to do other things. So now he's going to have a beautiful wedding in Paris with Kiana and then he has lost all of this weight. He's embraced his opportunity to be his best. He's lost over 30 pounds physically, getting in peak performance In his relationship with Kiana. Things are blossoming as far as his business, things are growing and he's attacking, and he continues to be an example of what it looks like for you to stay connected to your burn and to attack one day at a time. Now one more thing before I welcome him back, because I think this is important In a world where many people are waiting and we talked about this in our first episode people wait to be successful.

Speaker 1: 3:13

Some of the things that Ashwin made the decision to do before turning 30 years old in financial services is almost unheard of in the industry, and it's not necessarily that he's any smarter or better than anybody who's maybe listening. That's in financial services, but he made a conscious decision to lock in on his disciplines and to say I will not wait to be successful. So, whether you're in financial services or whether you're in another career where you're waiting for your time, you're waiting for an age, you're waiting for the moment. Stop waiting, go back and watch the first episode of the Burn with Ashwin after you watch this one, and then I want you to just lock in today on the importance of not waiting and getting after it in everything that you do. Ashwin, welcome back to the Burn.

Speaker 2: 4:06

Ben, it feels great to be back. You know, we actually just had a marketing meeting this morning and we're putting together a couple clips for your team for a couple things. And they pulled up that first Burn episode and I remember sitting in your office.

Speaker 1: 4:23

You were right here on the corner of the desk.

Speaker 2: 4:24

Yeah, right there on the corner and we were chatting about the entire story and they were playing some of the clips on there. I'm like my God, that seems like such a long time ago, but it wasn't that far back, I think it was only a couple of years back and the evolution of our relationship growing, how we've been able to grow our businesses and everything that we've been doing in the marketplace, has been, you know, a lot of work done based on the tactics that I've learned over our coaching relationship, but also over just you know all the different connections built out with. You know individuals that we run in common paths with and listening to a lot of these other burn episodes. I mean, you know we tune in on a weekly basis when we see a lot of these speakers that you bring on, and you know a couple of them. I've had the opportunity to meet and hearing their stories and things like that, and so it feels good to be back. Thanks again for having me and excited to be here.

Speaker 1: 5:29

So let's dive into. It's always great to spend time with you, and whether it be with coaching, or whether it be in an event or an event that we're attending together, it's just. It's always great and growing our relationship from. We should almost make you pull it up that frame picture over there.

Speaker 2: 5:40

Where am I?

Speaker 1: 5:42

Just a young, and I don't. I don't look the same, you don't look the same, you don't, uh, you don't look the same look at all that hair.

Speaker 2: 5:48

Look at all that hair. There we go hey.

Speaker 1: 5:51

I actually had hair, you actually had more hair. Um, but you know, I think about when we met, when, uh, you were an intern and just getting started, and your commitment to success. What was it for you? Because this is one piece that I want to revisit. Why was it always important for you this is one piece that I want to revisit why was it always important for you to make a decision, not to wait to be successful?

Speaker 2: 6:10

I think you know we brought this up on our last call. I think it still stands, but it's evolved a little bit. So, like Ben mentioned, highly encourage you guys to check out the previous episode that we shot. But one of the things I do mention very open about is how I did, how I lost my good friend Bakari, and the whole concept of going through that stage in my life at a really young age was understanding that as individuals, we don't know how much time we have on this planet and I don't know if tomorrow God forbid I get hit by a bus and I'm done, that's my ticket, or I don't know if it's, hey, 97 years old, I pass away in my sleep, whatever it's going to be.

Speaker 2: 6:53

And so we always have this concept about making every day, you know, as if it was your last and living it to its fullest. And you know every day has its own challenges and own headaches and you know some things get done, some things don't, and I'm by far no means perfect at any of this, but if I take a look at all the things I want to do in my life and if I could go ahead and every day just chip away at something to make progression towards that, then if my ticket does come. Well, you know, I moved in a forward direction to achieve those goals and help myself but help my family, and so I think that's really important. A lot of people come in and go, oh my God, I got this big goal, I want to go out and hit it and get after it and do it. And you know, if it doesn't happen in a week it's like, oh my God, you know, isn't uh, isn't meant to be.

Speaker 2: 7:43

But I think if you take a look at it from a macro line to go, hey, how could I just chip away a little bit every tiny day and get after it? And maybe it's as simple as Andy Fursell's 75 hard reading, 10 pages of a business professional book. Or if it's maybe just walking on the treadmill 30 minutes at least, doing something to get forward progression, treadmill 30 minutes, at least doing something to get forward progression. In my mind, as long as we're consistently moving forward, then we're basically following that path towards success in some capacity. So I don't really have a concrete answer on why we chose so early, other than the you know, the lack of understanding how much time we have on this planet. But I think it's really important to make sure that you're putting your best effort every single day to go out there and live life to its fullest.

Speaker 1: 8:31

Well, and you certainly have done that since I met you, you continue to do that, which is such a powerful example, which has now positioned you to have the opportunity to be running a very successful coaching practice Mohan Coaching, knowing that you had a choice right Because we all have great capacity. Newlyweds with Kiana, things are busy. You've got friends and family and people and time and working out and nutrition is important. Running your business is important, as if you needed something else to do.

Speaker 1: 9:04

Why was Mohan coaching? And really, I would say, the next evolution of it? Because very early on in years ago, people started coming to you wanting to know what's the difference, how are you doing things, whether it be from the very specific LinkedIn strategies, which things that I taught you, that you evolved to a whole nother level, which has made them very unique in your own right. Why was it so important for you to lean in and say, okay, I don't just want to be an advisor, I want to coach others to be their best, which has now evolved to not just coaching advisors but really coaching and consulting people in the world of business. Why was that so important to you to also branch out outside of just being an advisor? Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 9:45

So, being an advisor for 10 years, you know you tend to understand what challenges come with that and you know the challenges get a little bit easier or they become different kinds of challenges, but it gets a little easier to handle them. Year eight in the business, we spent some time really discussing okay, what does a legacy really mean? And for me it's always been how do we go out and impact as many people? And the great thing about being a financial advisor is you get to help an individual or help their family, you know, grow their plan and then from there I always vision it as the family tree, right. But you forward, think and go okay, I'm helping out the parents, which the kids are going to benefit, which if we have a legacy plan with our firm or succession plan, then their kids are going to benefit and basically we're helping this family long-term. I thought that was pretty great and that, you know, helped drive me for a really long time. And then I started to think about okay, well, what's next?

Speaker 2: 10:48

There's a huge gap out there in the financial planning and business and entrepreneurship space with helping individuals understand the game of business and, like I said from the get-go, I'm no expert in this. I have such a long way to go to become somebody that's extremely knowledgeable and a professional in this field. But one of the things I have noticed is specific to the financial advising space. A lot of advisors go out there and they just start running and they'll start trying to help as many people as they can and you know, they'll either get to the point where, hey, it worked out really well or, you know, maybe I just feel like I'm, you know, burning my tires here in a bunch of sand and I'm not really moving.

Speaker 2: 11:33

And so one of the things we realized about both financial advisors and business owners is the need for structure and systems and operations.

Speaker 2: 11:42

And we found that a lot of entrepreneurs go out there where the visionaries we get really excited and we typically don't like to follow structure, being told what to do. The visionaries we get really excited and we typically don't like to follow structure, being told what to do. That's why we get into entrepreneurship, and I think there's a double edged sword to that, Because if we don't have structure in place, we can't help our businesses grow, and on the other end of it, if we have too much structure in place, well then it. And on the other end of it, if we have too much structure in place, well then it depletes the creative ability right there, and so I think the biggest thing with mohan coaching was how do we get individuals to think outside the box, build the systems and ops, create scalability, but do it in the most efficient manner possible so that when they are ready to scale their business, they aren't looking back and having to go back and redo everything that they put in place at the beginning.

Speaker 1: 12:31

Love it. Love the directness and the focus and the attention to detail. I think it's one of the things we talk so much about is finding your edge in the details, having that awareness, intentional focus to the little things that make a difference. It's not just a matter of working hard. It's finding your edge in the little things that provide more energy, provide more focus, provide the opportunity to help people level up and grow. One of the areas and I said that I was just going to say it and give you the credit for it because you deserve it and I want you to touch on it was, physically, you choosing to become more disciplined, and I've watched your financial services practice grow. I've watched your coaching and I've watched your financial services practice grow. I've watched your coaching grow. I've watched you grow personally because of it. But there's something to be said when we stop making excuses and we lean in to being our very best in all areas of life. And I remember being in Mexico.

Speaker 1: 13:25

Ashwin is part of our Standard Elite Mastermind group and we were in Mexico for our annual retreat last year and, as I mentioned, he was about 30 pounds heavier than he is right now and actually, when you talk about the difference of muscle that's now on his body. There's probably, you know, even more weight that was lost, but now it's on his body in terms of muscle, right. So there's been a transformation of who he is and you just see it in his face. But you made a decision that you didn't like how the unrequired workout felt in Mexico and you were going to do something about it. And now fast forward to today. You've lost the weight, you're feeling better. You're a young guy. So the pain that you were having in your back you didn't need that pain in your back. That pain is now gone. You're feeling better. Why was that so important to you, right? So that's another area where you say, hey, I'm not going to make excuses, I'm going for it. Why was that important to you to not wait any longer and to do something about that?

Speaker 2: 14:20

So I don't know. I don't know if I ever told you this, but when we were down in Mexico and I think I noticed this in, I think it was in Vegas, at the Vegas bootcamp too and when we were doing the unrequired workout as a group, specifically in Mexico, you know we had the filming crew out there, you know, taking photos of us and whatnot to recapture the moment, and I can't remember who it was it might have been our good friend Sam had the video camera going around and I didn't realize it until after I saw some of the clips. And it was during the plank and I was like full on, look like my God, mount Everest, trying to do a plank with my hands up and everything. I just remember looking at myself and I was like I can't be in that shape. That's, you know, that's kind of embarrassing, you know, 29, 29 years old and you know being in that state, and I said there's got to be change, there's got to be progression. We got to figure this out. And the other thing I was thinking about is if you're going to lead by example, you know, if you're going to go out and you're going to coach and you're going to mentor, you got to also be in the right shape physically and mentally, because it's hard for somebody else to take advice from somebody that's not in the best shape in either one of those components.

Speaker 2: 15:35

And so, coming off of Mexico, you know there's a lot of stuff going on in our business life and I just said you know what. I'm going to simplify it I'm going to get in shape, I'm going to take care of my mental health, I'm going to take care of my physical health, I'm going to get things right to where I can go ahead and, you know, grow and scale in both my personal and my professional life. And so I think watching that clip over and over kind of just mentally put that in my brain of okay, you know, I do want to go ahead and get my health in check and I got a long way to go of some of my goals. And you know I'm not perfect, I'm not up there working out every day. I think, ben, you're at 2,500 plus days on the under fire, getting close, getting close, yeah, and I was like I got it. That's an absolute freak with how many days.

Speaker 2: 16:22

But you know it's making the progression of, like we said, from the get-go, just taking it one day at a time.

Speaker 2: 16:28

And, you know, even if it's not getting a full workout in, you know, sometimes I'll try and at least do some type of exercise where there might be going outside and do a little bit more of a walk or, you know, taking some of my calls, you know, while I'm out there walking, getting some type of exercise, so my body just doesn't feel sluggish right there.

Speaker 2: 16:50

We got a long way to go, but I think when you take a look at kind of what I was saying earlier and it ties back to that previous burn episode if you could chip away at a little bit in some capacity every single day, that's what's going to make the difference. And I think, seeing that video in Mexico and you know the big hunchback I had and you know being afraid to take my shirt off when we were out by the pool and everything it kind of changes a little bit because you know, maybe I should get my life in check if I'm having these insecurities about these things and making sure that I'm in the right state of mind and physical state to, you know, feel present and be proud of who I am, right there.

Speaker 1: 17:28

I'm very proud of who you are, how you're showing up, and I want to tie this all together with a concept that I've taught for darn near coming up on 20 years now, called a prize fighter day, and most people listening will know what a prize fighter day is. But essentially, a prize fighter day embraces our opportunity to make the choice to do the things we know we need to do to win personally, professionally and in our service to others. And you've touched on I'm going to say it a different way, but you've touched on a couple of things that I believe. Number one we can only lead somebody to the level of discipline in which we live, and you mentioned that. So, as a coach like you, choosing to be more disciplined is only going to allow you to have real accountability and real conversations with people, for them to become more disciplined.

Speaker 1: 18:17

And then the second thing and then I want to turn it over to you to why a Prizefighter Day has been so helpful for you in a corporate space, because a lot of times I think people hear that title and they see all the work that I do in sports and they don't realize only 30% of my work is in sports. Still, 70% is corporate, but I always like to say long obedience in the same direction with aggressive patients and you now, for a long period of time, not a couple of days here and there, you've made a choice to really embrace personally, professionally and of service, doing the things that most are unwilling to do, built into the framework of a Prizefighter Day. Why is that structure, why is that tool, why is that way of life, that discipline, been so important to you for success?

Speaker 2: 19:01

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 19:05

So I'm trying to think back. I think it was 2017. When we first started working together is when you first taught me the prize fighter diet, and when I first put it together, you know I was I think I was 22 years old in college or just wrapping up college, 21 years old there and building out my prize fighter day. It was really just a couple of simple things, and I remember what you taught me was starting off first with three things and these were kind of my three non-negotiables that I need to get done every single day, no matter what, and these are some of the same concepts that we teach in Mohan coaching. But the first one was something similar to just working out and getting exercise. The second one was something to do within our business. That was pretty pivotal. And then the third one was something in self-development. And you know we built out those three and did that pretty consistently, and then, over the years, we started adding a few more things and I think we capped it at five non-negotiables at all times. But the really cool thing about us coaching together is I've seen the Price Rider Day even your Price Rider Day evolve right With your burn journal and everything else that you've shared with me and that you put together. Seeing how yours has evolved has gotten me to think about, okay, how should mine evolve right there? And so I break down the price writer to kind of really three different parts, with a kind of preface over here on the left.

Speaker 2: 20:30

And so typically every Sunday, what I'll go ahead and do and it usually only takes about 20 or 30 minutes I'll just sit down, I'll grab my notebook and you know I've found ways to speed up this process even more. But in my notebook there, you know, I've I found ways to speed up this process even more. But in my notebook there I pull out the blank pages, I write the data up at the top and then I write down my five non-negotiables. And you know I teach a little bit more about the other things I have on my notebook there. But you know those five non-negotiables are there every single day. And if I do that on Sunday and I put it there for Monday through Friday and I go, hey, these are the five things that I need to get done and I focus on crossing those things off, psychologically for me it means, hey, that was a win right there.

Speaker 2: 21:10

And you know you're Andy Frisella, you know a good friend of yours, somebody I look up to a lot, mentions that I think it was in the podcast. You and him actually did. I, you know. I'm gonna throw him a quick plug here. I think it was the msceo 107 or something. Win the day. Yeah, win the day. And the only reason I know that is because in our coaching academy, when I teach this concept, I still send it to everybody. And why are you sending me this podcast from like 2016?

Speaker 2: 21:39

I go because this podcast right here was the turning point of me taking the price writer day from three things to five things, to then making myself psychologically feel okay on when the price writer day went well and when it didn't. And I think this is the really important thing, because on my five things, I don't get all five of those done every single day sometimes. And you know I try my hardest and everything, but you know life's crazy. You get pulled in so many directions and Kiana and I we don't even have kids yet and so you know, with a lot of my clients that are parents or aren't parents, you know the way I look at it is like, okay, five is what I really want to make sure I get done. They're my non-negotiables. But if I get to, you know the point where it's like 1am in the morning and I haven't done you know a couple of things and it's just like, hey, I can't do it. It's like, okay, well, you know, I know I have the self-discipline where I can make up for it a little bit tomorrow, but it's very few that those days happen. And Andy Frisella talks about this end of the week.

Speaker 2: 22:51

Did you get five W's or did you get three W's and two L's right there? And for me, I used to be pretty hard on myself about it and go, oh my God, I got to get W's every time. And I slowly started to realize, well, as long as I could do my best to my ability, then that's all that really matters. And so we went from three things on there to five things on there, getting the planning done on Sunday. And then we started to think even more outside the box, and what I mean by that is we took the prizefighter day that you taught us and I started having members on my team. Everyone there has their own prizefighter day, so it's given them the ability to come into the office or wherever they're at working remote and go okay, non-negotiable, ashwin in the firm need me to do these five things today and that's what I need to do, and it's usually a bunch of random admin stuff that are key differences to us.

Speaker 2: 23:37

So for me, still today and people don't believe me when I say this, ben, but I kid you not I still send my 40 LinkedIn messages out every single day. I still do my points of contact every single day and you know it's kind of fun. I'm a big movie guy and so I'll turn on a movie when I get home and you know, kiana is an entrepreneur too, so she'll be sitting next to me. She's working and I'm working, laptops up and I'm sitting there and you know, sometimes I'll forget to turn off my volume on my laptop and we're watching a movie and you know I'll send my linkedin messages and linkedin does this whole ding every time and she just knows, and if I'm in the front office of the house and the ding's too loud, she's like oh my god, could you turn down your damn linkedin messages? Like I know you're sending them right now and so you know it's doing those simple things.

Speaker 2: 24:25

But you get to the point where your team's got their lists and then with your team, you're working with them to figure out, okay, what on your prizefighter day can now be delegated and taken off, especially in the corporate setting. You know, if it's me doing my POCs or whatever you know, can I have somebody else take that on? Or my case prep for my meetings or what I call my pre-flight, post-flight, could that be passed on right there? And so the evolution of the Prizefighter Day grows over time and it's really cool to see that as you go from you know three to five to delegation. And you know I'll throw in a little plug here. I don't want to talk too much about it, but I'm really excited this October in Dallas for your bootcamp and we're going to talk a little bit more about the evolution and delegation of the price fighter day, because I think where a lot of entrepreneurs get kind of hung up on is once they get to that fifth.

Speaker 2: 25:14

You know five things on your list. They start attacking that, but they don't know how to move on to the next stage. How do we delegate some of those items and how do we continuously grow? And then, when we do take stuff off the prizefighter day and pass it on to others to delegate. What do we add back to the list? Because I think a lot of professionals, whether it be in sports, whether it be in business or whoever it might be they go okay, I got my five, I've delegated it. Now I'm back to three. Okay, I'm going to hang out with three. It's like that's not how it works. You now went back to three. You got to find two more to put right there. What are those two going to be for you?

Speaker 1: 25:51

And I think that's really important there and I can't wait for that opportunity to share the stage with you. And that concept of really leveraging and delegating is so important because that's how you leverage up, that's how you drive continual peak performance, that's how you find your next level is not being seduced by success. What's common is somebody says, oh, this is great, I'm now making more money, I'm going to hire somebody to do the things I no longer want to do, and then they don't replace them. So I think that's going to be an element to the planning that we do. It's a very strategic, methodical, proprietary way that we plan every year and we always do it at bootcamp. And to do this with an emphasis on that leverage and on that delegation piece, I think is going to be something that people are going to be blown away by to really continue to evolve and elevate. So I'll make sure, in the show notes, not only all the ways for you all to stay connected with Ashwin, but to learn a little bit more about the big as Texas bootcamp that we're going to have. We've been doing bootcamps since 2009. We've never done one this big. So I'm glad that you mentioned that, because it is going to be exciting to share the stage with you, ashwin.

Speaker 1: 27:04

I appreciate you coming back on the burn. So we don't always bring people back, but I wanted to bring you back because I'm proud of the continued example that you set to win one day at a time, to show people that age doesn't matter. There's no more waiting around, and you and I both know it. We have a lot of just great conversations just in our relationship together, of just feeling almost regret for people who don't choose to live this way, people who are using the economy as an excuse or they're using challenge and adversity as an excuse rather than recognizing its strength. And you're burned from what you've endured with Bakari, and how you show up for family and friends and loved ones and in your business is a great example, and so it's an honor to bring you back. I look forward to sharing that stage in Texas and thank you for coming back on the burn.

Speaker 2: 28:02

Absolutely. Thanks for having me, and I'm looking forward to, you know, seeing everybody in Texas and being able to share a little bit more in depth about the Price Rider Day and how it's helped us right there.

Speaker 1: 28:12

For each and every single one of you tuned in for this episode of the Burn. We are going to make sure, even though we've done it before, we're going to link the first episode with Ashwin, because it's a very powerful episode. We're going to link all the ways for you to stay connected with Ashwin and all the great things that he's doing, as well as Texas Boot Camp, and for each and every single one of you continue to fight, one day at a time. You are not alone. We are all attacking that burn and the opportunity to ignite that why and purpose every day, not just on the days that we are winning, but also on those days that we don't want to Continue to lock in. Let's keep stacking these days. This has been the Burn and we'll see you next week. Outro Music.