Raj Subrameyer With ChaiLatte Consulting

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Coach the Coach radio brought to you by the Business RadioX Ambassador Program, the no cost business development strategy for coaches who want to spend more time serving local business clients and less time selling them. Go to B.R. Ambassador to learn more. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:33] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Coach the Coach Radio, and this is going to be a fun one today on the show, we have Raj SubraMeyer with ChaiLatte Consulting. Welcome Raj.

Raj Subrameyer: [00:00:44] Hey, how’s it going?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] It is going well. I am so excited to hear from you. Tell us about Chai Latte Consulting. How are you serving, folks?

Raj Subrameyer: [00:00:53] So I’m a tech career strategist, so what that means is I’m I help people in the tech space to find the dream job and become successful leaders. And I’ve been in the tech space for over 15 years now and I help other people to get unstuck in their career. So that’s the main part of what I do. As part of trial, I did consulting. But two other things which I also do is I speak at a lot of conferences and private events for companies. In fact, as we attack and I’m actually going to give my second TED stack this week on Saturday, and finally, I do a lot of writing. I love writing and sharing my knowledge and various topics, which includes motivation, entrepreneurship, leadership, career advancement. And I write for a lot of large publications and tech companies as well. So that’s how I serve people.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:48] So what’s your back story? How did you get to where you are today?

Raj Subrameyer: [00:01:54] So I grew up in the southern part of India, living in a really conservative family and from a young age, I had this inferiority complex believing that I wasn’t good enough. That is partly because my dad, he studied in scholarships throughout his life and then there I have my brother who is a genius who has three masters and a Ph.D.. And then there was the average kid who didn’t do well in anything, you name it academic sports stating I was average and everything. And when I grew up from academics was pushed quite a bit, and since I couldn’t excel like other people when it comes to academics. My initial childhood was very depressing and had anxiety, stress, and I was an introverted, shy kid. But later on, during my second year of undergrad, I got this awakening that all this well, I’ve been living a life based on other people’s opinions. I was letting other people’s opinions be my reality, right? And in the process of not disappointing other people. I was disappointing myself, so once I came to that realization, I decided that, you know what? I’m going to transform my life. I’m really tired of living this kind of life, and I know I have my skill set. I know I. I’m here for a reason. I’m going to figure it out. And that’s when the real transformation happened. And fast forwarding 16 years down the line, I followed various strategies. Learn so many different things. Gone to so many different experiences to transform my life from a shy, introverted kid earning a minimum salary into running a six figure business and becoming an international keynote speaker and author as well. So that’s kind of my high level story in a nutshell and why I do what I do right now.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:47] So now I’m sure you’ve worked with lots of different folks coming from lots of different backgrounds. Is there a thread among them all when it comes to this kind of self-belief? That may be that they’re not aiming high enough or they’re they’re kind of sabotaging their own success or their, you know, kind of living a life for someone else. Are you seeing kind of some similarities among folks from different backgrounds?

Raj Subrameyer: [00:04:13] Definitely. So irrespective of the back, irrespective of the backgrounds, the cultural differences and where they grew up at this mental block. Happens really young for a lot of people, and once they become adults, it continues to chain them from possibilities, right? It’s a big obstacle for them and change starts from shifting your mindset from a place of scarcity to abundance in the sense you need to believe that, OK, you’re here for a reason and you have a skill set and you just have to figure what that is, right? So only when you come to the realization, then the real change starts because there’s the saying, right? And then in English, where we say you can take a horse to the pond but not make a drink. So I see a lot of a majority of the people I actually I meet. They have a mental block and they’re afraid of the unknown what the future holds for them, and so they’re afraid to take the next step. And what I tell them is just start small, and if doesn’t work, then try another thing. If it doesn’t work, try another thing. Experiment with things, and that’s when you find your true passion and purpose as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:33] So now how do you help, folks? Kind of. Align their journey with kind of their superpowers, because if you ask some folks, they’ll go, Look, my ideal day is just playing video games and partying. That’s my purpose. I want a job that lets me do that. And how do you move people from kind of these maybe superficial desires and wants to like this? Like you said, this kind of more mission driven and more aligned with values driven journey.

Raj Subrameyer: [00:06:07] So first of all, yeah, I wish I had that job where I just play video games and party all night, but I’m just kidding. But the point is to to really find what your strengths are and align your focus based on that. I recommend everyone, even your listeners, to do a simple exercise. It’s called the mind dump exercise. The way you do it is, it’s really simple. You just take a notepad and a pen and put a vertical line through the middle of the paper and on the left column of the paper. Write down all the things you love to do and like to do or want to do. And then on the right side of the column, write down all the things you hate to do or you don’t want to do and do that in an uninterrupted manner, say, for 30 minutes to an hour. No Facebook and text messaging because this is thing, folks. All the things you want to do in life is actually in your brain. You just have to unlock it and make it visual. And this exercise helps to do that. And when you finish doing this exercise, what are you going to see is based on your strengths and things you want to do? You can start seeing patterns in terms of what you really want to do in life. So, for example, say it noted down, You love communicating, you love collaborating. You love creativity. You hate being micromanaged. You. You want to make an impact. Yeah. Then maybe you probably want to join a mission driven company where these trends can be utilized, right? So you could start figuring out different patterns. And based on that, you could figure out, OK, why do you want to focus on and then proceed accordingly?

Lee Kantor: [00:07:50] Now are you finding that in today’s world, you know this. Hopefully we’re post-pandemic at this point, but the mentality has shifted from people. Maybe when they were younger, saying I have to get a job, I have to work for someone else. My life is going to be working for someone else to more and more folks saying, You know what, I am going to control my own destiny. I want to be in charge of my career in terms of what my kind of work life is going to be, and I’m going to be an entrepreneur.

Raj Subrameyer: [00:08:21] Definitely, so in the past six or seven years, we are seeing a trend where there have been a lot of new programs, a lot of new companies, not of New Start, which are encouraging people who have the entrepreneurial mindset to give them a channel to do things right, to experiment and figure out things. And I see that trend, which has been progressing for the past five or six years. And right now, if you see in the age of social media where you have YouTube online courses, like a lot of free online courses, you do not necessarily need to have a degree to actually do the job. You could just learn stuff from YouTube videos and online courses and still do a job, say, for example, of a software developer. Right. So I think we live in an amazing era where you have a freedom to do a lot of things. So once you explore your strengths and figure out what do you want to do? I think the opportunities are endless. And yes, the future is really bright for entrepreneurs, and I believe everyone has an entrepreneurial mindset. It’s just about taking action on it. That’s what it boils down to.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:33] So now how do you help people who who might kind of aspire to be entrepreneurs but maybe lack that self-confidence or or have some fear when it comes to the structure and the framework of what an entrepreneur’s life is like because an entrepreneur is kind of an eat what you kill world, you have to, you know, kind of find the business, you have to serve the business, you have to get paid for the business and you’re ultimately responsible. You’re wearing multiple hats. Whereas if you get a job, I’m a cog in the machine. I can just hang out here, you know, I can, you know, slowly kind of manage my career up that infamous ladder and then live a life that way without having to worry about maybe some of the things that an entrepreneur has to worry about.

Raj Subrameyer: [00:10:25] That’s a great question, and I think a lot of people need to hear this. So first things first, we all need to understand that in life, especially when it comes to jobs, there’s no security. There’s only opportunity. So what do I mean by that? So people say who work for the big companies like LinkedIn, Salesforce, Microsoft data their jobs were secure, but when COVID hit, even they laid off thousands of people. So people who worked at the company for four months got laid off with people who work for the company for 20 years. It didn’t matter. So if you think they’re secure in your job and your full time job, then you just kidding yourself. So that having that context now coming to entrepreneurship, people have this wrong notion that OK, to be an entrepreneur, OK, you just have to take risk and then blindly go into something. No, that is not the case at all. For example, the way I started my own business was, I had a full time job, but then started experimenting with different things as a side hustle, right? So I started doing workshops and training programs for I.T. professionals. And then soon I realized that, OK, I’ve been doing this for six months, and it’s not giving me the passion that the joy I wanted to get from work.

Raj Subrameyer: [00:11:47] And then I started pivoting to various things. And then for the past three and a half years have been coaching people so you can have a side hustle experiment with different things. And once you find that niche, the thing which gives you joy, which you get, which has the possibility for a sustainable business, then you slowly start taking the leap in making a side hustle, your full time hustle. Right. So there is a method and madness, and when you talk about risks, you have risk everywhere in your full time job, working for someone or running your own business. It all boils down to what you’re doing, whether you have a plan. What is your backup plan if things go bad, like when COVID hit? And are you ready to pivot and try to figure out, OK, in the current situation, what best can I do? If you have those four kind of mindset in the way of thinking, then anyone can survive. No matter whether you work for someone or whether you run your own business

Lee Kantor: [00:12:47] Now are the principles the same when it comes to money? Like, is it the same strategy if I’m negotiating a salary with a prospective boss as it is as an entrepreneur from negotiating being paid for a service?

Raj Subrameyer: [00:13:03] Mm hmm. So I think that. A couple of the basic concepts is the same, which is you have to have the conversation based on data and facts, right? So for example, say you’re negotiating your salary with the company, you want to go online to Glassdoor and other websites and do research on what you need to get paid for the experience you have. And based on the knowledge you’re going to say, Hey, based on my research, based on my seven plus years experience and based on the cost of living, this is what I think will make me happy. And this is what matches my skill set, right? So you’re making a case based on data and facts, and the same holds true even if you’re running your own business. So say, for example, you’re talking to a potential client, you are going to tell them that, Hey, I’ve helped over 50 plus clients and you can see the results on my website, but the testimonials and what I could bring to the table. So based on my experience and based on things you know, I could offer, this is what I’m worth. So what do you think about it? Right. So it’s kind of a similar conversation and it’s kind of a similar concept. But I would say that, yeah, with clients, when talking to clients, you need to be a better salesperson and better communicator than just in to a company during a salary negotiation, right? Because I think that’s where the differences, but the basic concepts are the same where you approach the conversation with data and facts and let your emotions aside, because when you get emotions in a conversation, then people focus on the emotion, but not on the actual data and what topic are talking about, right? So that is something to think about.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:53] Now, I’m sure you would agree that in today’s world, being a lifelong learner is a must have that quality. You must have that. This isn’t you can’t kind of rest on your laurels in today’s world if you want to stay relevant for any period of time. Are there some things that you would recommend folks do to invest in themselves?

Raj Subrameyer: [00:15:12] Oh, 100 percent. Especially in the post-COVID era, we are seeing the nature of job exchange where people have figured out that you can be productive doing remote work, and since a lot of jobs were lost during the COVID period, now people are looking for jobs. So the odds are at least a thousand thousands of people are applying for the same job you are applying for or if you’re already. If you already have a job at a company, the odds are there are six people up for promotion, but there’s only one slot left right. So why should they choose you compared to other people? That’s where this extra learning you do is going to come in the picture. So the way you could actually add extra skill sets is you could go to different online websites, which offers courses like Coursera, Udemy, Khan Academy, LinkedIn Learning and add extra skills to add extra courses to your already existing skill set. And when they when it comes to decision making and they see that you have taken those extra courses and show proactive ness to constantly learn, then you are going to be preferred compared to other people.

Raj Subrameyer: [00:16:27] And also, it makes you more marketable because the name of the game right now is being jack of all trades and master of none, which means that you need to know the basics of a lot of things because you tend to wear multiple hats when you join a company. And taking these extra courses is going to give you insights into various different topics and you are going to stand out from other people. So those are some ways you could, you know, learn and also you can hire coaches or mentors who could help you out because this is a thing, folks. If a person has already gone through that journey, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Just have a coach or a mentor who could support you, who has already gone through the journey and just get the golden nuggets to get you on the faster track instead of, you know, spending 10 years to get to the gate to the same level. So those are some things you want to consider when it comes to learning.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:22] Now, if someone’s out there that is looking for a job, what would be your strategy that you would share with them? Like, it’s hard for me to believe that jobs can be had, like putting your name in a job board or applying like in a mass way or an anonymous way. I would think that if I was looking for a job today, I would spend a lot of time looking at my network, looking at who knows who aiming at certain companies and then be more strategic and targeted through people I already know that can refer me in, rather than just hope that my resume gets found in a in a kind of a mass way that seems to be like trying to win the lottery.

Raj Subrameyer: [00:18:06] Oh, that’s really well said. And that’s the current problem we are facing because people think your jobs are strategies ad hoc where you have a single resume and then just keep applying for jobs and then you it to the universe saying, OK, some job is going to, you know, magically come to you. Now that’s not the way it should work. So here’s a quick look three to four step strategy for anyone who is looking for new jobs, right? We already talked about the mind dump exercise. That’s the first thing you need to do based on that. Figure out four to five career options which align with your strengths and from then from from that list. Choose the top three career options. Ok, first focus on the top three and for those top three career options have three different types of resumes with the right keywords related to the job because the number one mistake people make is using the same resume for whatever kind of jobs. And that’s not going to work, folks, so make sure you have the right information related to the job you want. That means you’ll have three different types of resumes in the use case and just going through right now. And then I’m going to LinkedIn profile to reflect different keywords in all those three resumes that you have so that you set it up in such a way that it reflects the ideal job you want, right? The reason you have an updated LinkedIn profile with the right keywords is everything you put on LinkedIn is rich SEO information with just search engine optimization information. And what recruiters do is they use recruiting softwares and then say they’re looking for a software developer. They would put keywords such as programing, collaboration, teamwork, Java and those keywords.

Raj Subrameyer: [00:19:53] And if you have those listed on your LinkedIn, you are going to show up in the results, right? So we cover LinkedIn and then the next final thing you want to do is start applying for jobs and track your job application process in an Excel sheet. Because this one is going to happen, folks, you’re going to be 100 jobs in the year in your job application process. Then all of a sudden you’re going to get a call when you’re at a grocery store saying, I’m company, I’m calling from company ABC about the software developer Jeff. Do we have a minute? Do you have a minute to talk about it? You have no clue about what the job description was because you applied for a hundred companies and out of nowhere you’re getting a call right? During these cases, what are you going to do is if you’re tracking your jobs, you could say, Oh, just give me a minute, let me get into a quiet place. And in one minute, what are you going to do is you’re going to go into this Excel sheet where you’ve been tracking your jobs and then look at the job description. And now you have some context when you talk, you see what I’m saying. So doing all of these steps is going to help you strategically apply for jobs instead of, you know, randomly going through the motions of life. And also for more information, you can definitely check out my website and also you have templates there. You can download about the different things I mentioned. And of course, you could always get my book as well. But at least these strategies is going to really set you up for success to start with.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:25] Well, let’s talk a bit about your book, skyrocket your career. Tell us about that and what someone will find if they get the book.

Raj Subrameyer: [00:21:35] So this is a thing. Currently, people feel anxious about their job security. They have this fear of the unknowns, and a lot of people want to mention their career, but they don’t know how to do so because they don’t know what strategies to follow. I wasn’t the exact same situation in 2008, where I applied for four thousand two hundred and ninety three jobs, one two nine three jobs and I got one job out of it and that was not an internship, but it was a full time. It was not a full time job, but it was an internship. And that whole experience going through this application process of over a thousand plus, Jeffs taught me a lot about how to apply for jobs and how to strategically market yourself and fast forwarding 15 years down the line. I’ve gone through so many different roles. I’ve attended 100 100 plus interviews and I’ve conducted even more right? And I wanted a book which gives all the strategies which could help people get unstuck, help them find jobs, be successful at a job and also set themselves miles apart from the competition. So that’s where the book is about. So for anyone reading the book you’re going to the book is going to take you through the entire job lifecycle process, which is from starting from searching for a job, then how to attend interviews, how to negotiate salary. Once you get a job, how to be successful in it. And then once you’re successful, how to set yourself apart from the competition. So that’s where the book is about. It’s only ninety nine pages, and I’ve been very grateful and lucky that my book hit number five on the Amazon bestseller list, and it just got the best nonfiction book award from Reader’s Favorite, which is a pretty big organization. So the point is, if you are stuck in your career looking for ideas to move forward and you really want some motivation, then probably this is the book for you.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:39] Well, congratulations on all of the success, Raj. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you. If somebody wants to learn more or maybe have a substantive, more substantive conversation with you or somebody on your team, or get a hold of the book or any of your other resources, what’s the website?

Raj Subrameyer: [00:23:54] So I’m my life’s work can be found on my main website, which is Raj Subra dot com, which is, ah, a sub genre. And if you want to know more about the book and download a free chapter so that you can make a judgment, whether the book is for you, go to skyrocket your career books. Just those two websites will have all the information about me and let you know how to connect with me. And of course, I live on LinkedIn, so make sure you connect with me on LinkedIn and follow me because if you found this content valuable, I post same similar kind of content on a daily basis on LinkedIn as well. So if you follow me, you’re going to get that on your news feeds as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:41] Well, thank you again for sharing your story today, Raj.

Raj Subrameyer: [00:24:44] Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:46] All right, this is Lee Kantor will sail next time on Coach the Coach radio.