Engineer and Business Strategist Sairan Aqrawi

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Stone Payton: Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast Sairan Aqrawi. How are you?

Sairan Aqrawi : I’m doing great. Thank you for having me.

Stone Payton: Oh, I have really been looking forward to this conversation. A lot of topics I’d like to cover, but let’s start with just general mission. Purpose. What are you really out there trying to do for your clients?

Sairan Aqrawi : Yes. Thank you for the question. I feel that this time of midlife, for men and women, it’s very crucial to rediscover and reinvent themselves. My mission and actually my task. What I do in my coaching business is to encourage and guide those midlife men and women to discover what is their hidden talent and monetize it and get to their best version of themselves.

Stone Payton: So how did you get into coaching? What compelled you to get into this profession?

Sairan Aqrawi : Yeah. Um, it’s it’s kind of like, uh, you don’t plan for it, but it looked like it was my hidden gem a long time ago when I was younger. Uh, since I was a teenage, I always thought the universe problems are my problem to solve. Like I always wanted to solve people problem. Uh, you know, guiding people, teaching. I feel like I taught all my life I’ve taught swimming, engineering, coaching, leadership, business, communication. So teaching is something that I really enjoy. And when I went to engineering school, even though that I finished my degree and I earned my master’s master degree. It seems like my hidden gem was buried under this routine, and all the expectation and the daily things that I was doing in my life. Then it’s pop up and speaking gigs that I did at the university that the younger engineers thought, I’m a coach. And back then my life was all engineering, design, engineering, you know, um, titles make sure that you get the next training, the next certification. But then I knew that I have something else inside me that I can offer and leave an impact. That’s what I, uh, got introduced to be a mentor at the school and start coaching. And the rest is history.

Stone Payton: So I get the sense that you genuinely feel like midlife is a good, uh, time for a turning point for for changing things up. Yeah.

Sairan Aqrawi : It is, it is, it’s it’s the best job that chapter. Actually, when we are younger we are not fully understanding the term of lives. We expect everything go right and life is good. Everything is a straight line and we give so much value to other people’s opinion, we seek validation. The peer pressure. Even after college, we want to get a good job. We want the fanciest title in LinkedIn. We want a $2 million house. We want a student kids. We want a beautiful wife. We want a handsome man. Everything is external. Look to us very vivid and fancy, and we live in that until we really reach a point. I would say midlife. Some people say 35, others say 45. Let’s say just assume it’s the 50, it’s the halfway. And you turn around and you see that your kids already halfway in Halfway school. They are ready to go to college. And you look in the mirror and said, now what? This is my time. I mean, I’ve been working hard. I’ve been a parent. I’ve been a brother. I’ve been a sister. I’ve been taking care of their elderly parents or in-laws. Now is my time. I should take care of myself. I should seek the best version of myself. I should look what is inside me, what I can create, uh, as an impact when I leave this world. What else I can change in this world? And midlife. Uh, it’s. It’s a time that you really rediscover the stuff that you already have it. It’s all buried, uh, stone. We all have it. It’s just something inside us. We just need to sit down and ask a lot of questions to ourselves and discover that hidden talent and and just share it with the universe.

Stone Payton: Well, I wanted to ask you about that. How do you uncover hidden talents? And it sounds like part of it is asking yourself questions, or maybe having someone with professional experience and expertise like yourself, prompting us with the right kinds of questions. Is that part of it?

Sairan Aqrawi : Yes, yes. Totally. Stone. You got that right. Because this is not a formula. There is no manual and book that I can give you and said, hey, you’re going to discover your hidden gem in 48 hours. This is not a painkiller thing. This is a process that I call it 28 Days Discovery. And actually, even Robert Greene talked about it in the mastery book, and he called the hidden gem the Life Purpose. What is your life task or what is the task that you need to do? I call it the core genius because this is something that I cannot give it to you in one hour coaching session, you can’t just come to me and say, I don’t know what is my hidden gem? And I’d say, oh, let me ask you a couple of questions. Here it is. Go ahead and monetize it. It doesn’t work this way because as coaches, we always encourage our clients to make the discovery themselves. We don’t put words in their mouth. We don’t tell them this is the right path to do it. Rather, we guide them because for someone like me, I’m in my 50s, so I know what’s midlife, you know, for women is because I’m in it. I’m living it every day. Right. So it’s not like me talking about how is teenage feel.

Sairan Aqrawi : I’m not a teenager. I’m a woman in my midlife. So I know what we go through. Not just the hormones and other things, even like the way how we value ourselves at the workplace, the way how we look at ourselves. We keep labeling. We are old, we are old. I can do I cannot do this. It’s it’s time is up. I should play it safe. Let me stay on the lane. Those narratives should stop because 50. It’s your gold year. This is the year that you really want to thrive. This is the year that you really want to rediscover yourself and know exactly what is your what is your task? Going back to your question, the 28 days I used to have in my old niche, I used to have three months and six months, and I felt like the client really get drained with that long terms of process. So I shorten it to 28 days. And basically what I do, I ask a lot of question, but not only I, I don’t motivate motivate my client, I rather make make them take action. And I’ll give you an example to make it clear to the audience. For example, let’s say you come as a client and you tell me, um, I’m an IT guy and I’m making very good money in it, and I don’t want to quit my job.

Sairan Aqrawi : But since I was a child, since I was a teenager, I was always the speaker of the group. They always call me to be on the stage. I feel like I have a speaking skills and what I do, I don’t just give you books and video and encouraging you and say, great job, go ahead and be a speaker. I will make you do speaking gigs. I will throw you on stages and purpose. I will have you schedule with podcasts. I will arrange podcasts between you and people that I know that have podcasts, and I will have you speak at association. I will have you speak at event because without hands on, I am not making you doing any progress because your your dream will be just stay a dream. Its unless I make you do action. Whatever you are dreaming about, whatever you think is your core genius is still going to stay as a dream unless you take action. So that’s an example. Being an IT guy and want to be a speaker, I will never tell you to quit your job. I’m just going to have you to have that speaking skills in a site, monetize it, thrive in it, and have fun with it. Because side business, if there is no fun, don’t even do it.

Sairan Aqrawi : Same thing when I teach swimming when I was in my 20s. Um, you never saw me teaching. When I start teaching teenagers, then I start teaching after that adult, you know, in their 20s and above. You never see me telling the client who wants to learn swimming, look how I. I move my arm, look how I move my my my legs. No, I threw them on the swimming pool. I literally threw them and jumped after them. And because they feel I’m drawing, I’m drawing. I said, don’t worry, you’re not gonna drown. I’m the coach. I’m right behind you. Right? I’m jumping right behind you on the swimming pool. But without me putting them on the swimming pool, making them do the the action and the move that I teach them, they will never learn swimming. That’s the same thing with business. If you don’t put your client on the stage for what they really want to do. There is no progress and that’s apply to every hidden talent painting, speaking, writing. If you love to write and you are not writing any blogs, why are you even telling me you love to write? I don’t see your your writing anywhere, so you have to really take action in your in your passion. Without action, passion is just a dream.

Stone Payton: And do you find that while someone may have a career, or they may feel very confident and be very accomplished in another area, it’s not like they have to throw all that away to go into this. To do. They can they can maybe, uh, leverage the best of both worlds. Right.

Sairan Aqrawi : Exactly, exactly. And, and, uh, I remember who better than Malcolm Forbes said said something about this. He said the biggest mistake people make in life is not trying to make a living at doing what they most enjoy. That’s a mistake. If you really enjoy doing podcasts and you are not doing it for whatever reason, that’s, that’s that’s a mistake because you are good at it. So go ahead and do it. And people tend to brush off and ignore what’s really inside them because they think, oh, this is just a passion or I’m only good at that. Not a big deal. It is a big deal. If you really are an artist and you draw very nice and you keep those paint in the basement thinking that people will make fun of it, that’s that’s not fair. You need to bring that painting. You need to share it with the universe. At least start an Instagram page, put those paintings to the public, let people enjoy those color and talent because perfectionism will never come this way. You need the progress. You need the momentum. And by us, uh, as an entrepreneur, I think Jack Canfield also mentioned it. If you be an entrepreneur and you are not spending in what’s what exactly is he mentioned? Actually, he said, most entrepreneurs spend less than 30% of their time focusing on their core genius and unique ability, which is me. When I become an entrepreneur and I forget that I’m a speaker because I’m doing all the finance marketing, I’m doing the meeting and I forgot that my core genius is speaking. I’m not going to thrive as a speaker. So as an entrepreneur and for all the audience who’s listening to us, if you are good in something, focus in that one things and leave and dedicate all those admin and all the other stuff that relate to your core genius to other people, because you want to focus on what you really thrive on without focusing, you are not going anywhere.

Stone Payton: So I can hear it in your voice and I know our listeners can too. You obviously find the work incredibly fulfilling. What what are you enjoying the most at this point in your practice? What’s the the most fun about it for you?

Sairan Aqrawi : Yes. Um, so although I’m still a full time engineer because I’m still in love with engineering, I don’t hate my job, I love engineering, I think I want to be an engineer, but at the same time, I. I feel like me just solving equation and being and being good in math, that’s not enough, because I have other skills that I can utilize and leverage in order to make an impact. I feel like the the most enjoy that I have in my side business. It’s the feedback when I pick up a client who has no confidence about what they really have, and I walk them through and I walk with them in the journey, and we go through the process. And when I meet them after a couple of months and I see the, the, the different the jump they made in their personal and professional life just because they work with me one month. And I’m not saying that one month is, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a magic or I’m a magician or I’m doing like things and overnight it’s matter of fact in coaching Waldstein, we said the real coaching happened between session, which is true.

Sairan Aqrawi : I might talk to you today and you go to vacation and we have a gap between the two sessions. Three weeks while you are on vacation, you’re gonna remember everything I taught you the first session. So the real coaching really happened between the line between the session, not at the session, because he’s going to start thinking, oh, well, she said that. I think she’s challenging me. I’d better to do that. She’s right. I need to build that confidence. It’s the inner voice talk. You keep telling yourself that you have the ability you just need to take action on. So when I see those clients and we come back to me and said, wow, you don’t believe what we did, you told us to write a book. We did. You told us to be in podcast. We did. You told us to apply for that job, which always scared us. We did. Now we are in a better place because we have confidence that whatever really scaring us the most is the best. Things happen in our life if we just touch on it.

Stone Payton: Do you find sometimes, at least early in the relationship with a new client, that some people at that midlife especially are feel like it’s just too late to to start something new? Do they ever come to you feeling that way?

Sairan Aqrawi : Of course. And it’s it’s normal. I mean, you can say that’s not happening. Most of them, 90% of those midlife. When I talk to them, they said, oh, no, 50. That’s old. I’m too late. This is late in the process. Even men, I mean, uh, they have this stage. They think, oh, I’m not doing the new business. I’m not changing my job. I’m not writing a book. I’m 55. Well, my answer to all those, including my client, if it’s it’s it’s better late than never. I mean, if you just push it and say it’s late, and when you are in, you know, deathbed and leaving this world, if you keep telling yourself, I hope if I did that, I hope if I hope, if do you want to bring all those I hope ifs to the bed with you or you want to act upon them now just do it. Because when you do it, you have either you’re going to succeed right away, first time good luck, or you’re going to learn the lessons and you pick up another foot in front of the another and try another path. If you are not doing now, then when it’s time, midlife is your time. This is the wisdom that you earn for the past. You know, 20 years raising kids, being a team team, team player at work, uh, do coaching. Even when you coach high school student, you learn from every event in your life when you are about thinking about your retirement? Why are you even thinking this is the end? This is not the end. You might retire from your job, but this is not retirement from life. It’s the beginning of your real life. It’s right now.

Stone Payton: You must be particularly adept. You must be really good at at helping people build their. Build their confidence.

Sairan Aqrawi : Uh, yes. And I think my engineering background helped me in a way, because everything is strategic. Everything is a plan. Everything is structure. There is a there is a blue map, right? There is a blueprint. There is a map in front of you. I’m not just going to motivate you and say, oh, look at yourself. In five years you’re going to be rich. You’re going to have two businesses. This vision is beautiful. But if I don’t be strategic with you, if I don’t give you a map and guide you and be accountable, partner with you saying, this is first step, this is where you’re going. And I have passion in it because I did it myself. I mean, I cannot encourage people to do something that I didn’t succeed at. I still have a job and I have a side business. And and I never tell my client, hey, quit. That’s not my call. If they did so much, you know, profit and their book make Million Dollar, they’re going to quit without coming back to me. Right. If they write the first book and and make a lot of money, why? They need me to tell them to quit. They just need to start believing in their hidden talent, and they don’t need to brush it and bury it under the routine and daily activity that we all do. We just need to discover it, cherish it, celebrate it, and share it with the universe.

Stone Payton: No doubt that every client situation is different, unique. Uh, the challenges are unique, the opportunities are distinct. But do you run into some patterns. Like do you see some types of challenges on a on a regular basis like, or is there like a common group of challenges that you run into?

Sairan Aqrawi : Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course the pushback, the midlife, uh, client, they push back because they are very comfortable where they are. They have a paycheck, they have a routine job. They go to the to their office, they come back, pay the bills. Life is good. And when I tell them life is not good, they laugh. They said, what do you mean? I said, that’s not a life, that’s a routine. What you describing to me? You’re going to work, come back and have dinner with your husband and take two vacations in a year and take pictures. And you call that a life? They said, yeah, I said, that’s not a life. That’s a routine. Life is challenge. Life is doing things that scare you. Life is to do everything that you, you, you dream and hope for. When you are a teenager and you never had the chance to do it, that’s the life which should happen in the 50. You have no excuse. But the pushback come from they. They are scared from the failing. Now I’m going to fail. I’m 55. What do you mean? I need to write a book now.

Sairan Aqrawi : Yes. Write a book now. Why not? If it’s not now, then when? Well, how about if my book doesn’t make any money? Well, that’s not the the question here. It’s not about the money. Your your dream since you were 25 years old to have your own book, then if you are not doing in your 50, then when y you have to wait until you are 70 and 80 and feel sorry for yourself. Why you don’t start in your midlife and just enjoy everything. Come your way and challenge yourself. Don’t don’t don’t, uh, don’t agree with this routine life that you have right now. Challenge yourself. Do scary stuff. Jump, jump if you don’t jump. I mean, life is it’s worth jumping and take risk. And I always remember what Joe Rogan said. He said, just be the hero of your own movie. And that’s true. Try to be the hero of your own movie. Who better than Joe Rogan saying that, right? Right. Just do the scary things and just do it.

Stone Payton: And then I know the answer to this is yes, but I’d like to I’d like you to speak to it to some degree anyway. I can envision that some clients, maybe a lot of clients, uh, achieve some some progress, you know, following this 28 day action plan, having that accountability, having your direction, having that confidence building. And then maybe, uh, what’s the right word? The snap back a little bit or, or regress a little bit is it’s probably not all just forward momentum. Right. It’s like how do you keep it sustainable and keep it going.

Sairan Aqrawi : Yeah. I think um, I always tell my client, although it’s a 28 days, that doesn’t mean after that you are done. It’s it’s a you have to, you know, continue doing what you have done with me in the process. It’s an endless journey. A stone. This is not something you’re going to learn in 28 days and celebrate and done. For example, we talked about the speaking or the writing or the singing or the knitting or any other business that you think this is your core genius. You’re not going to practice it right after I’m done with you and the coaching. It’s a continuous it’s a continuous action, right? It’s an endless thing. And I always tell my clients, don’t come back after three months. And you said that, um, the the spark is gone. Like you don’t feel that, um, what you call the passion anymore because you haven’t took many action on what we talked about through the process. It’s all on you. Don’t blame the universe. Don’t blame the environment. Don’t blame your boss. Don’t blame your partner or the coach that you are still not fulfilling your dream. It’s all on you. It’s all on the client shoulder. It’s inside job. Coaches, mentors or consultants. We are just accountability partner. We are just guiding you through the map. We’re holding the flashlight. If there is a dark spot, we are just holding the flashlight for you. But we are not the problem solving you are. I’m not here to to to solve your problem. This is your own problem. You have to solve it. I’m just guiding you. What is work for some client might not work for other client, right? So for example, when I certify an ICF and I become an ACC and now I’m a mentor coach so I can actually certify new ACC through ICF.

Sairan Aqrawi : I have my own coach. Still, I pay money to a guy to coach me because I have to upscale my game. If you met me five, ten years ago, I was not sounding that confidence because I just started a journey. I had so far I had three coaches until now. Each one teach me something else. So I have to build. I have to scale up my game as well. Not because I am coaching you. That’s mean. I don’t need coach. Everyone needs a coach and a mentor. Everyone. Because you don’t want to sound and act and do the same action you did five years ago. You have to to, to to upgrade your game. You have to be in a different scale. And that’s what I define success. Stone I said success, I always define it. I never change the definition of success. Success to me is the relentless energy to keep progressing. That’s success because you keep progressing. If your podcast now it’s better version and quality than two years ago. That’s a success. You are not here doing this because you are competing with Joe Rogan. That’s not your game. That’s not your goal. You want to be a better version of yourself two years ago. So that’s success. And people see oh my God, he’s doing way better two years ago. That’s success right? So it’s your it’s your version. You competing with your old version. That’s the success.

Stone Payton: Were you obviously have a tremendous amount of passion for this work. And as you mentioned earlier, you still thoroughly enjoy your career as an engineer. Uh, hobbies, interests, pursuits outside the scope of those things. Anything else that you like to do that we might not guess?

Sairan Aqrawi : Uh. Oh, God. When I was younger, in my teenage, I loved dancing. So now I’m. I’m away from that. But I still love swimming. Uh, but the hobby that I always loved and I still love doing it is reading and writing. I love to write. You can leave me in a room with a cup of green tea, and I will be in that room for 3 or 4 hours just writing nonstop. I love to write. Yeah, that’s one of my most loving passions.

Stone Payton: Well, what a great segue, because I, I wanted to ask you what’s next for you? And maybe the answer is is a book.

Sairan Aqrawi : It is. Yeah it is. I’m working on it. Yes.

Sairan Aqrawi : And it’s about the midlife.

Stone Payton: Well, I’ll hope you’ll let us continue to, to follow your story. And you don’t have to wait till you write the book. But we definitely want when when the book, when you get ready to release that book, we want to, uh, check back in with you and see how that’s going.

Sairan Aqrawi : Yes, definitely. I would love to. Yes, definitely. Yeah.

Stone Payton: All right. What’s the best way for our listeners to tap into your work? Stay connected, learn more. Whatever you feel like is appropriate. But let’s give them a way to connect.

Sairan Aqrawi : Yes. So I have only two platforms. The LinkedIn is my professional work at my day job as an engineer. Uh, a lot of clients reach me through LinkedIn because they are younger engineer who are seeking, you know, to advance their degree in engineering or Stem. They want to build a better LinkedIn page, or they just seeking promotion or be a team lead. They can reach me in LinkedIn. But if you are an entrepreneur, if you want to start a small business and you know and you are clear that you have a hidden talent, that you would love to monetize and make money out of it, you can reach me at Sharon Cline with one word in Instagram and I will be more than happy if they mention your channel and they mention your name, I will give them a complimentary 30 minutes consultation session.

Stone Payton: Fantastic!

Stone Payton: What a delight to visit with you this afternoon. This has been a very informative conversation. You’ve built my confidence and inspired me and I know you have for our listeners as well. You’re doing good work and we sure appreciate you.

Sairan Aqrawi : You so much, Stone. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Stone Payton: My pleasure. All right. Until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.