030: Ajit Nawalkha – Founder of Evercoach and Former CEO of Mindvalley

How to Live Big

Ajit Nawalkha is the former CEO of online university Mindvalley and Founder of Evercoach, dedicated to helping educators and trainers. He’s the author of The Book of Coaching.

Having found his way from a middle-class family in India to the top stages of personal development and business growth conferences, he learned it is possible to create the abundant reality we want.

Today, he is getting ready to share the strategies that helped him build numerous multiple-million-dollar businesses in his new book Live Big: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Passion, Practicality, and Purpose.

What We Discuss with Ajit Nawalkha:

Ajit’s story growing up in India, living with a huge extended family
About the educational platform of Mindvalley and the creation of Evercoach
Using knowledge to help you connect the dots though informing your intuition
The conscious vs subconscious mind
Why you have to feed your subconscious mind with lots of data
Writing as an ancient art of sharing your story that can impact somebody
Think of writing books as you, discovering yourself in the process
Ajit’s book writing process – making an outline, generating ideas, research, editing
The intention of the Book of Coaching and why it was self-published
Traditional vs self-publishing: Find out which one he recommends!
Three methodologies of creating a successful coaching business
Why entrepreneurs are trapped in their cage of chasing money

[01:10] Ajit’s Family Background that Prompted His Passion for Coaching

Ajit grew up in a large family in India, specifically in a household of 23 people. This inspired him to do something greater for his family. His grandpa was his greatest positive influence who coached a lot of people, being a great leader in their community.

Several decades later, he worked various jobs until realizing the internet was going to be the future, leading to his company, Mindvalley.

[04:00] What is Mindvalley?

Mindvalley started as a company with only about 20 companies working out of a house. For him, this was another tier of helping people in different ways. At 30, he was already the CEO of this company.

Its purpose is to be able to create an alternative university, inspiring a billion lives over the course of the next couple of decades. They seek to inspire positive change in the world by bringing some of the best ideas out there in the world in the areas of personal development, business, professional training, health, wellness, etc.

While an online university, Mindvalley is also now creating campuses around the world. On the other hand, Evercoach is a platform that caters to educators and trainors.

[07:10] Beyond Understanding Success

In his journey to create success, he discounted everything else life had to offer. He lost connection with his family, wife, as well as his own mind, body, and health. He knew something had to be fixed.

At this point, he knew it was more of knowing rather than just intuition. He knew there was more to him and more to his life and what he can do. There has to be knowledge of things so you can inform your intuition in a certain way so it leads to the outcome you want.

[12:40] The Conscious vs. Subconscious Mind

Our mind has evolved over thousands of years. The conscious mind allows you to react to things. The subconscious mind is gathering a lot of information, translated into the back of your mind. It captures 1000x more information in any given second than your conscious mind does. Hence, your subconscious mind is way more powerful than your conscious mind.

Your conscious mind is the part of the memory that we use to be able to interact with your subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is the back memory still running to make sure you make sense of everything you consciously think you’re making sense of.

Your subconscious mind connects the dots to create a new insight for you so you can think of that wonderful idea. So it’s processing a lot more information. Have you ever wondered where your great ideas come from? That’s the subconscious mind at play.

You have to feed your subconscious lots of data and give it the permission and space to be able to process all the data.

[16:10] Ajit’s Process of Writing a Book

Ajit would consume a lot of information about two months before he gets into writing. But when he’s writing he’s not consuming anything because he’s literally downloading from his subconscious.

What he knows is what he wants to write about. He would consume lots of data and information (eg. videos, audios, books, white papers, etc.), insights, and information. These are dumped into his subconscious.

Then when he actually has to write, he would sit down, stare at a blank paper for some time, until 20-40 minutes struggling to write the first word, it just starts to flow and you can’t stop writing. This is when your subconscious gets triggered to distill everything you’ve put together and you make new sense of it.

**[19:20] How the Book of Coaching Came Out**

This book was co-written with his wife in the aim to make their coaching message and insights accessible to everyone.

If you have any passion for writing, go ahead and write – email, memos, etc. You don’t have to write the whole book — just write. Share your story without worrying about whether people will read it.

Think of writing a book, not just as one masterpiece, but as you trying to discover yourself.

Is the book taking 10 years? It’s not the book that’s taking 10 years, but it’s you.

[28:35] A More Detailed Look into Ajit’s Book Writing/Editing Process

Ajit writes on the computer and in different locations. First, he makes an outline through a simple process.

Next, he spends 2-3 months researching ideas around it to be able to get the general flow of things. Then he does the “deep work.”

He doesn’t edit until he finishes the book. Once done, he gives the book to an editor. Lastly, he goes back to the book to see what else is missing. Then he’d add that element to the book.

When you edit your own work, it will never be good enough because you could get attached and you lose the context of the larger meaning you’re trying to get to.

[34:25] Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing

Ajit self-published his first book with the intention of serving his community of coaches and experts.

Live Big was done through a traditional publishing route. He also used the book to get media attention, get on the podcast, and write articles around it.

If you’re starting out, try self-publishing your book because it gives you more flexibility and creative flow. Plus, you can talk to a really dedicated small market.

[38:20] The 3 Elements of a Successful Coaching Business

The first element is you, yourself. Second is methodology. Third, understand your business principles and focus on one way of growing and creating a business.

The writer can be distracted because of all the noise out there in the world.

[41:14] Your Intentions of Writing a Book

This book gives an idea to the entrepreneur that there’s more to life. Ajit’s intention to write the book had no business proposition.

There are many reasons writers are concerned about money. If you write a book, don’t do it from a place of competition or comparison. Do it from a place of passion.