0:06

Welcome to the rebel. Rebel. I'm your host, Michael Dargie.

0:08

The RebelRebel is a show dedicated to creative rebels and entrepreneurs all over the world.

0:13

It's a love letter to those people who think audaciously and act courageously

0:18

in service of making the world a better and more interesting place.

0:22

One of the biggest challenges a lot of people have is they just don't

0:24

have enough energy to do things because their dream.

0:26

Watching trees grow. It's not a fast thing.

0:29

It's not a overnight thing. It's not a hey, look, you know, it's not a quick fix or a hack.

0:35

That's what we're seeing a lot of in today's society, where we have men

0:38

who are belligerent, bad leaders and other men following them.

0:43

His approach to creating life balance is not what I expected.

0:46

It's not a one size fits all, but instead discovering and leaning into what works

0:50

for you. From mentorship, mindfulness and energy management, coupled with a deep connection to nature.

0:55

Welcome. Purdeep Sangha to The RebelRebel.

0:59

Across the world. We'll find out. Where is Pradeep the Sanga?

1:02

How are you? Hey, Michael. I'm great. How about yourself?

1:05

I'm good. I'm good. Thank you. Thanks so much for joining me today.

1:08

Yeah, Yeah, it's lovely. Thank you for having me.

1:11

My pleasure. So, just for the rest of the world, where are you on this planet?

1:15

So I am just outside of Toronto, Canada.

1:18

So I'm technically part of Hamilton, Ontario.

1:21

All right, so about 45 minutes away from Buffalo.

1:25

nice. Okay, cool. I grew up just outside of Toronto, so I know the area.

1:30

yeah, Yeah. Right on. Record. So if you could, why don't you bring all of us up

1:35

to speed on what you're up to right now, and then we'll, as

1:39

is tradition on this show, will travel back in time.

1:42

Sure. Yeah, I guess. Aside from being a dad.

1:45

And that's. That's a big thing. Yeah, it is a big thing.

1:48

I have an eight year old and a ten year old and they're keeping me busy

1:51

a lot of the times they're. They're good in terms of giving me energy.

1:54

Sometimes they're at that stage where they're,

1:57

you know, it can be somewhat draining. So my kids are big focus for me.

2:01

I'm married, been married for 13 years now, and I originally, you could say,

2:07

grew up on the west coast of Canada, but moved out to Ontario.

2:10

I, I, you can say you did my stint in the corporate world

2:15

and then I have my advisory firms and I am an entrepreneur by

2:19

you can say trade have businesses in different sectors.

2:22

But my primarily my biggest passion is helping other business owners,

2:27

professionals, people be successful so not only in their business life,

2:32

so growing, scaling their business or their career, but also in their personal life.

2:36

Because to be able to scale your business or your career and do it properly,

2:41

where you actually feel like you're being successful in life,

2:44

it takes a big effort on a personal side, and a lot of times I see a lot of people,

2:48

I'm going to say imbalanced. Yeah.

2:51

And challenged. And what I think a lot of people need to realize

2:55

is that, you know, if you do, if you structure personal life properly, you can enhance your business world

3:00

significantly rather than holding you back.

3:04

Interesting. Okay, So let's unpack that just really briefly.

3:08

I want to I want to dive deep into this stuff

3:12

in a bit, but I'm curious what is like what you say personal life is first.

3:16

What does that mean so well for your family, looking after yourself like.

3:21

Yeah, yeah, it's definitely there's three. What we typically break it down into life into three main buckets

3:26

and there's a little bit more than that. But there's yourself,

3:29

there's your relationships, and then there's your wealth.

3:32

And when I talk about personal life, I'm talking about who you are

3:34

as an individual and breaking your breaking it down to the core.

3:37

So not only your personality but also your soul

3:42

and getting in alignment with who you are, I'll give you an example.

3:46

We are we work with high performing professionals

3:48

all the time, and one of the biggest challenges they face is, well, who am I outside of my, my, my business role?

3:54

Sure. Yeah. So identifying who that is and what that person represents

4:00

is very important because once you get in alignment with that, you become far more powerful.

4:04

It's like, how do I say greasing the wheels, right?

4:08

So rather than feeling like you're in conflict or resistance

4:11

and constantly challenged, it feels more natural to you

4:14

and you're actually flowing rather than actually struggling and using sheer grit and resilience.

4:18

So there's a personal side in terms of self.

4:21

There's also health too, which a lot of people struggle with,

4:24

I would say from our research, and I can get into that

4:26

because we have worked significantly in the research realm.

4:30

I partnering with over 17 universities and research institutions in Canada, in the US

4:35

with high performance when it comes to business professionals and

4:40

over three quarters of of these individuals

4:42

struggle with their health in some way, shape or form.

4:45

So making sure that you are healthy is very important

4:48

because I think a lot of people don't even realize it.

4:51

They may feel like they're in good health, but it's not until they actually

4:55

get into better health, they realize, Wow,

4:57

like what I was feeling before is nothing compared to how I feel now.

5:01

So health is important and then obviously relationships,

5:05

which I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, are relationships.

5:09

Strong relationships can make you and some of those tough relationships can can break an individual.

5:14

And we see that happen all the time. Very successful people that are making a lot of money being

5:18

or growing their businesses significantly, who literally overnight

5:22

they're just broken or shattered because whether it's a divorce or a challenge

5:26

with their kids or parent or sibling, whatever it is

5:30

it has, it plays a huge toll on them.

5:32

Yeah. yeah, absolutely. So if you could let's go back in time a little because I'm curious.

5:38

I mean, this is really cool, first of all. So thank you for for sharing that because I love this idea

5:43

of the three buckets and I can identify already

5:47

with each one of those three

5:50

and I want to dive into it more in a bit, but I'd like to learn a little bit

5:53

more about you right now. Like, what is it?

5:55

What happened to Pradeep that made you this way?

6:00

You know, it was a series of events side of an event

6:03

while I do know where to start, but I would say all paths led to this point

6:08

and it was part of who I am.

6:10

So I grew up in Corona, British Columbia, and I grew up on an orchard.

6:14

Yeah, a beautiful place. yeah. That undiscovered At that time, no one really knew where.

6:19

What corner was. And they would hear that like, okay, where's that?

6:22

It was a, it was a small, you can say, city

6:25

less than 100,000 people when I when I grew up there.

6:27

But it's predominantly valleys, valleys, orchards, vineyards,

6:31

lake ski hill, a beautiful place to grow up.

6:34

It was very, I'm going to say, small town before and I grew up on an orchard

6:38

so when my parents immigrated from India,

6:41

all they knew how to do was really they sheer work ethic, right?

6:44

And they they got manual labor jobs.

6:46

They were working on an orchard until they saved up and bought their own.

6:49

But I was literally born and raised on an orchard which had its pros at that time.

6:55

I thought it was a lot of cons because I would have to wake up

6:58

at sometimes 330 in the morning and get up to work and, you know,

7:02

all my friends would be traveling during the summer or during camps

7:05

and I'd be on the orchard. So it was it was kind of a con at that time.

7:09

But it was such a pro because I spent

7:13

the entire day in nature, right?

7:15

And some days I spent not even speaking to another human being

7:20

because I would be out there doing something in the orchard by myself,

7:24

some kind of a job where I was just interacting with nature

7:27

the birds, the trees, the blossoms.

7:29

And it was incredible because it was just such a phenomenal

7:32

upbringing because I would literally walk around

7:34

and just look at the trees for hours and just be like, this tree grew like this

7:38

and you know, the blossoms are out. So I noticed these little things that I don't think

7:43

well, I know a lot of people today take for granted.

7:46

So that was one aspect of it. I think that it had a huge impact.

7:49

The other aspect was my parents

7:53

just being growing up in the Indian culture.

7:57

So I also grew up in more of a traditional gender type of household where

8:01

men did the hard work and labor and women did more of the cooking and stuff

8:05

and taking care of the children. But my parents, it was a little bit different because they both had to take care of us.

8:10

They both had to work hard. So my mom was working just as hard as my dad.

8:13

But still the traditional the man is the head of the household.

8:17

And for for us, that actually worked out very well.

8:20

Like for our family, that was actually very conducive to how we worked.

8:24

And my dad, I'm unfortunately,

8:27

there are some challenges because my dad did everything for us.

8:30

He did everything for us as a family. He did everything for his business,

8:34

gave money back to his family in India to help them at that time.

8:38

And he felt a lot of pressure and there was a lot of fulfillment,

8:41

or you can say lack of satisfaction for him.

8:44

And he struggled with alcoholism as a result,

8:47

which is very common with a lot of particularly men

8:50

and even women now, where they do everything for everybody else

8:54

and leave themselves last and then they struggle

8:56

with some kind of an addiction or some other challenge to make up for it.

9:00

So I saw a dad who was very, how do I say it?

9:05

He was great when he was sober and he was a big guy too.

9:08

But when he was

9:11

a little bit too drunk, he was scary.

9:13

Right? And sometimes he and something happened in his childhood.

9:17

I don't know what he never spoke about it, but he would wake up with nightmares.

9:20

And if he was drunk in the middle of that, it was like a bomb went off in the house and I would just freak out. Right?

9:24

It was very scary being a young boy at that time and challenging for my

9:28

my mom as well. So they had a challenging dynamic there.

9:31

So I saw that. I grew up with that. And I was always wondering.

9:34

So I started to study. You can say human psychology

9:36

at a very young age, indirectly trying to figure out how my dad would react.

9:41

And I would I would know when my dad would drink

9:44

before or I think even my dad knew I would watch

9:46

his behaviors and his mannerisms and I would go to my mom.

9:49

He's going to drink today. My mom's like, No, he's not going to drink.

9:51

He promised he wouldn't drink tea and lo and behold, he would drink because I could just see the pattern.

9:57

And then layered on top of that was my grandfather.

10:00

So my dad's dad, who immigrated over from India, he saw my great

10:05

grandfather was a spiritual teacher in India, and

10:09

my grandfather was a very spiritual man, but he also was in the army.

10:12

So he was in the army in India for 35 plus years and taught me

10:17

all these principles of of values and principles and morals.

10:21

And your word is your bond. And and also the difference

10:24

between masculinity and femininity and meditation and mindfulness.

10:28

So all of these things kind of led me to my path today,

10:31

where I actually started to study neuroscience at a very young age,

10:34

psychology at a very young age, both academically and informally as well,

10:39

which gives me a unique insight because now when I work with business

10:42

professionals, I you can say I have gone

10:46

to six different business schools both in the Canada and the U.S.

10:49

I led businesses, was an executive in the corporate world for 14 years.

10:52

So did very well from a career perspective before I had my own firm.

10:56

So when we work with individuals,

10:59

what I found was we have a significant benefit

11:02

because now we understand the psychology and the science behind how the brain works and how individuals work.

11:08

And just I'm going to add on this last point.

11:10

There's one other thing that happened that just helped me.

11:13

You can say accelerate my skills was when I was 17.

11:16

I was a personal trainer and I was helping other people get fit.

11:19

I've always been into fitness and it was a passion of mine

11:22

and it's a passion of mine to help other people.

11:24

And I would put together these programs for them, workout

11:28

programs, diet programs, and 80% of them wouldn't do it.

11:33

They were they wanted to be healthy.

11:35

They wanted to

11:37

whether it was be better fit

11:39

or have more muscle, whatever it was, look better.

11:43

But 80% wouldn't do it. And I realized there's something behind this.

11:46

And that's really where I took a look at the psychology

11:49

of change and performance and understood

11:53

at that time and through the research and learning.

11:57

Is that just because we know how to do something

12:00

doesn't mean we're actually going to do it? There's all of these other things that can stop us, like

12:04

how much energy we have, our support network,

12:08

you know, do we truly believe that, that we deserve it?

12:11

And these are all underlying beliefs that we all have as

12:14

human beings that slow us down or stop us from getting the things that we want.

12:17

So fast forward, I've been studying neuroscience in neuropsychology and high performance

12:22

psychology for 30 plus years now, which has led me to where we are today.

12:28

And that's awesome. What a story.

12:30

I'm just going to throw this out here because if you're listening to this,

12:33

you won't know. But if you're watching this on YouTube,

12:36

you'll be like, What do you mean, 30 years? You look like you're 25.

12:40

Like, come on.

12:43

So. So you must be doing something, right?

12:45

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And it's my wife

12:47

because she helps with the, well, the longevity and and looking good.

12:51

She's kind of in the biohacking functional medicine space, so.

12:55

nice. Yeah, that's very good.

12:57

So you touched on a little bit, and I guess I'm curious,

13:01

you know, from the from the perspective of personal training

13:05

to corporate training or like, you know, helping executives today and,

13:11

you know, you've got these three buckets, which I guess is part of this process.

13:14

But what is it that stops people from doing things?

13:17

Because I see this regularly all the time in the work that I do, too.

13:19

Is it like, yeah, I really wanted to do this and I've got all the tools to do it, and then it just never happened.

13:24

So it and it's a, it's a weird phenomenon.

13:27

I wonder if you could unpack that for. Break it down.

13:29

Yeah, break down the change. Actually, it's funny you say that.

13:32

I'm actually doing a talk next week, a speaking event for professional women in leadership executive roles.

13:38

And it's around this concept of change and why people don't change.

13:41

And one of the key reasons well, there's a it's there's two aspects to it.

13:45

One is it is a series of beliefs that we have internally that we have to uncover

13:51

and bring to the surface and see if those beliefs are actually valid.

13:54

For example, if we don't

13:58

want it bad enough and if we don't believe

14:01

we are worthy of it, we're not going to do what we need to do to get it.

14:05

And on the surface of all, it seems like a lot of people feel that way, but they don't.

14:09

Internally, we have a belief system where perhaps our parents have said or

14:12

one of their parents has said, Hey, look, if you have too much money, you're going to be stuck up or you're

14:16

or you know, you're going to be different in a difference.

14:19

And that happens for a lot of people, Right?

14:22

That was one of the beliefs in our family, too. Right?

14:24

You can't have too much money because, you know, people change at that time.

14:28

Right. So you have to uncover those beliefs that are in there.

14:31

So beliefs could stem from could be you don't deserve it.

14:35

I don't believe in my skills. I don't know how is a is a big one too.

14:40

And even if I don't if I even if I do know how and I believe that I can do it

14:44

in my own abilities, sometimes people just don't believe is truly possible.

14:49

But the other two big factors are also the energy levels that an individual has,

14:53

because our biggest resource, most important resource is energy.

14:57

It's not necessarily time. And that is very important.

15:01

And most people don't understand that because that in itself is a huge learning.

15:06

And when individuals understand that they need to monetize

15:11

and they need to appreciate their energy and use it wisely, and there's

15:14

an opera opportunity cost for energy and how to actually

15:18

increase your energy, That's what is the big component to change.

15:22

And here's why we all come across obstacles.

15:26

What the difference is, is that if I have low, let's just say

15:29

you and I are both trying to do something and it's the same thing

15:32

and we come across the same obstacle, well, if you have more energy than I do

15:37

because I'm drained in some other aspect of my life or whatever

15:39

it is, you're more likely to achieve it because you're going to get through that obstacle, right?

15:44

So energy management is very important and the other one is a support system.

15:48

And so the support system is critical because we as human beings need support.

15:53

We are social beings. And if we don't have the right people in our lives to support us

15:58

and guide us along the way, that can be somewhat of a detriment.

16:02

This whole concept of Lone Ranger doesn't work.

16:05

There's no one that's achieved anything great by themselves.

16:07

It's a it's just a fallacy. It's not real.

16:10

It's not true. So you have to have the right people on your team

16:13

out of all of those things. One of the things that I would say

16:15

is the most important thing is the energy part,

16:19

because so people if you take a look at one of the biggest challenges a lot of people have

16:23

is they just don't have enough energy to do things

16:25

because they're drained either cognitively, emotionally or physically.

16:28

Right. What are the things that you do day to day to you?

16:33

I mean, you talked about your wife helping with, you know, some I don't want to say

16:36

biohacking, but certainly, you know, there's there's stuff in there.

16:40

But what do you what do you do to, you know, you're not out in the orchard anymore?

16:44

No. No. Yeah. And I wish I was actually so

16:47

that's one of the things I'm trying to get my convince my wife to go back to.

16:51

It's on the other side of the country. But meditation and mindfulness practices, they're not necessarily the same,

16:57

but those are two practices that I do daily walks,

17:00

if that's very, very important and exercise,

17:05

those are things that I absolutely do. And I spend time with my kids and my family and my wife, because

17:10

having those relationships in my life are very, very important.

17:14

So I have identified for myself what brings me energy.

17:18

And I think everybody is a little bit different.

17:20

And so for me, what brings me energy might not be the same thing as someone else like you.

17:26

You you might have activities or hobbies that bring you energy

17:29

that might not bring me energy. So everybody's a little bit different.

17:32

Are you an extrovert or an introvert or an I and I?

17:36

Yeah, I'm kind of both ends of the spectrum, so I'm both.

17:40

I don't mind being in in.

17:44

You can say events or social settings where there's a lot of people.

17:49

I can actually thrive in that as well.

17:51

And then I don't mind being by myself.

17:53

So it's kind of a give and take for me.

17:55

I would say I'm kind of right in the middle there. Right on.

17:59

Do you make time to read?

18:03

absolutely. I would say that's probably one of the one of the most important things that I do.

18:09

People ask me all the time because I work with CEOs, I work with board chairs

18:14

and and people high performing, highly successful individuals.

18:17

And they're like, well, what do you think is a one thing that can change

18:20

a person's level of performance or success or whatever it might be?

18:23

And there is no one thing. But one of the most important things is the ability to learn.

18:28

And that desire to learn and reading is obviously a core aspect of that.

18:32

Reading is something that I see. So one of the things that I did when I was younger at a very young age,

18:38

so I'm talking about around 12 years old, was I actually started to study the brain

18:44

and at that time neuroscience wasn't a huge thing, but brain training was.

18:49

It was starting to become a little bit more popular

18:51

in Europe, not necessarily North America.

18:54

And I started to speed reading. So I learned how to speed reading and how to have a photographic memory.

18:59

And I would say probably that's one of the most important things that I ever did was speed reading,

19:03

because it allowed me to read a lot faster and consume more information.

19:07

So I'm an avid reader for sure.

19:09

Yeah. What is what's on your top?

19:12

I don't know. Let's say three books.

19:15

What do you recommend? Yeah, my just.

19:19

Off of the business books too. It could just be like I really like Fox and Sox or whatever,

19:24

you know? Like, yeah, I would say that they're probably kind of non

19:28

not in the business realm, but obviously there is a classical thinking girl.

19:32

Rich Right? And by no point that one I, you know that for me just always stands out

19:37

the most there is the war of art.

19:42

yeah, yeah. That one. Steven Press Press field or press.

19:45

I can't remember. That's another one that stands out for me the most

19:50

because it talks about resistance and we all come across resistance.

19:54

Yeah. And then I'm a big fan of,

19:59

you know, the power of now for example, and I think being present

20:04

is very, very important and it's something that we miss out on completely.

20:09

Those are those are important. Those are good books for me.

20:12

One of the other books I would recommend everybody read

20:14

because I think it's going to be a very important skill going forward for every single human being,

20:20

especially if you want to have a competitive advantage is Peak Mind

20:24

by Ameesha Jha. And it's basically around the topic of focus and attention.

20:30

That's an area that we actually did a lot of research in,

20:33

and it is so important because the ability for people

20:37

to focus and keep their attention these days is dwindling.

20:41

Yeah. And that is such, it is as a human being is aside from energy,

20:47

it is another key resource and we have to think about it

20:52

as a resource because we can only focus on so many things during the day.

20:57

Right. And let's just say we have 100 units of focus throughout the day.

21:01

Well, if our focus is being diverted or pulled

21:05

in, which it is intentionally through to social media

21:08

or these other channels or whatever it might be, well, guess what?

21:10

We have we're we're taking that let's just say 20 units has gone to social media,

21:15

20 units has gone to emails. Now we have 60 units left to focus on

21:20

the things that we want to focus on, the things that are most important to us.

21:24

And so I do believe that that is going to be a competitive

21:27

advantage for individuals going forward, for those who can focus better. Wow.

21:32

That's a really clarifying

21:37

and I forget who has talked to you recently, but they

21:39

they said that long form content is dead

21:42

and I rallied against it because I don't think it is.

21:45

I think that long form content still has a place.

21:47

I think that books still have a place on the shelf.

21:50

I think that podcasts that are not one minute long

21:53

that are, you know, 30 to 45 minutes, shameless plug.

21:58

It is. You get in, you get more depth, you get more,

22:03

you get more from it than just this surface

22:05

topical stuff that we see so much today.

22:09

So I like hearing you say that that attention is important.

22:14

Yeah. And I think the long form content will stay and is still going to be there.

22:17

It'll be interesting to see what happens with the air,

22:19

but I think it's for a very specific group now,

22:23

and I do see that group dwindling

22:25

because people like even for myself and

22:29

in this area, because I do a lot of mindfulness

22:31

practices, which is the one thing, it's the one practice

22:34

and one of the only practices, if not the only practice that has been shown to help improve attention and focus.

22:41

But I find myself, and especially last year, I felt myself, my attention really dropping

22:47

and to the point where I couldn't really focus

22:49

and I was just like, What's going on? And it's because my attention was being pulled in so many different ways

22:54

and in directions. And and I went back and I had to remove some apps from my phone.

23:00

They weren't necessarily even social media, some certain things

23:02

that was drawing my attention and I had to retrain my brain again.

23:07

And so I think and I'm seeing this more and more of a trend,

23:11

but I think the people that appreciate focus and attention are going to be

23:15

the ones that are kind of it's I'm going to say, kind of like the, you know, not the dying breed, but they're going to

23:20

they're still going to be around, but there's going to be less and less of us.

23:24

Yeah. And I, I don't know.

23:26

This makes me wonder if it's an evolutionary trait

23:30

is losing our attention. And will shorter attention be a benefit?

23:36

Do we need to consume these little snippets and, you know, get rid of them?

23:41

Or is it just a dopamine hit every time we get, you know, check out the email.

23:45

I got an email. I got to check it out right now. it's not what I wanted.

23:48

it's what I want. Like, is that really Are we just chum of the waters?

23:52

Yeah. And I would say because we are the main thing that we do,

23:56

so we do business growth and scaling and profits.

23:58

The other one is performance and performance

24:00

for business, but performance for individuals. So we have a lot of research, we have a lot of studies.

24:04

So I can, I can talk about this fairly confidently.

24:07

The answer is no. Short form content being, you know, people that are constantly on

24:12

their phones are switching just because they have easy access.

24:14

Does it mean that they're performing better and they have better productivity?

24:17

They actually have the reverse. So people who are

24:21

able to focus longer and spend longer blocks of their time

24:25

doing an activity are the ones that are actually more productive.

24:29

So things like the shorter videos are not helping people

24:33

because if we think about how we learn, right, how we learn is very important.

24:38

And no one really taught us how to learn about school

24:41

and it teaches us how to learn. Like you literally have to be outside of school to learn how to learn.

24:46

Yeah, and one of the key aspects is to learn.

24:50

We have to integrate the stuff that we learn into our lives.

24:54

And how often does a person who reads a quick snippet,

24:58

whatever it is, integrate that into their life? They don't, right?

25:02

So they're just they're they're skimming the surface of the material,

25:06

but it's not actually having an impact on their brain and changing their behavior

25:10

and learning properly.

25:12

So they're not actually learning to the degree that they should be.

25:15

Yeah, far out. I saw I just saw a thing with Neil deGrasse Tyson talking about something

25:20

very similar because they were talking about testing and about

25:24

how, you know, will I get rid of, you know, people are using A.I.

25:28

to write reports and stuff like that. And he's just like, Well, yeah, of course.

25:31

They're like, Why wouldn't you? Of course.

25:34

But the way that you circumvent it or you get around it is have oral

25:37

presentations of the material instead of a written report

25:40

that you're handing in stand up and do an oral presentation which shows that you actually know

25:44

the information that you're talking about, that you've integrated

25:47

it somehow into your worldview that you're now able to.

25:50

And I just thought that was the most brilliant thing.

25:54

We just put so much emphasis on, people will use it for this.

25:57

Well, sure, go ahead, do that. You know, get it, get as much knowledge as you can,

26:01

but now figure out how to use it, how to, you know, share it with somebody.

26:05

Yeah, That's so important. And I like that idea.

26:07

So I think schools will probably have to adapt to that.

26:10

Yeah, well, I mean, so teachers need to get paid more.

26:14

There needs to be more of them. I mean, there's there's a whole

26:18

that's a whole thing, you know, instead of the assembly line,

26:21

we now need to actually look at how we're cultivating minds.

26:25

Absolutely.

26:27

So let's just say for the sake of argument

26:30

that you're you're traveling down.

26:34

I mean, I love Ontario. So beautiful.

26:37

You're. I can't think of a place that's close to you,

26:40

but we'll just say that you're you're by a lake somewhere

26:43

and there's a bunch of trees and rocks because that's Ontario in a nutshell.

26:48

And you're thinking to yourself,

26:51

you know, I just wish the world knew this one thing.

26:54

Like if I could just share this one thing

26:57

with the world, what would that one thing be?

27:00

Well,

27:03

you know what? I it would probably be this if we actually got to the core of who we are.

27:09

I do believe that the vast majority of people would be a lot happier, that we would have far less crime.

27:17

We wouldn't have these wars.

27:19

And when I say who we are as individuals, I'm talking about at the soul level,

27:23

like deep down inside of us, because if we if we take a look

27:27

at how we are born babies, they're born innocent.

27:30

All right? And everybody loves babies.

27:33

And whenever there's a baby in the household, there's, like complete love.

27:37

Right. Right. And then people forget the worries. People forget.

27:40

And why? It's because that baby immanence emanates basically pure love.

27:45

Right? That's what it is. There's no the baby is not tainted.

27:49

It doesn't care. You know, then they've shown this, the research,

27:52

the color of your skin and stuff like that. The baby is just

27:55

there to be loved and kind of give out love.

27:59

And so I think if we have

28:02

that approach to life and get back to who we are

28:05

because everyone wants to be loved at the core,

28:08

and when we feel like we're loved and we're feel like we're special

28:11

to somebody else, we're okay saying, hey, maybe we can have a little bit less.

28:15

Right. I don't I don't need to steal your stuff because I feel loved or whatever that is.

28:20

Obviously, there's basic necessities, right?

28:22

But even with basic necessities, if we were who we truly are,

28:26

we would give more of those basic necessities out to other people.

28:30

There's no shortage of food in the world. There's no shortage of shelter.

28:33

It's a shortage of sharing. Right. That's essentially what it is.

28:37

And we could get to that point if we actually went to the core of who we are.

28:41

And I'm saying at the individual level as well.

28:44

And there's two reasons for that. One is a,

28:46

because I think we would be better society, B, because I believe that people would be happier themselves.

28:51

And I'll give you an example. My wife,

28:55

she is she has this innate ability

28:58

and I'm going to say this God given talent

29:02

to play the piano and listen to music and pick up on the the the tones

29:07

like she is one of those individuals that she can listen to a song

29:10

and play it on the piano after a couple of times. Wow. That's her given talent, right?

29:15

That she I tell her all the time she should be just playing the piano

29:19

all the time because it's not only beautiful for her, it's beautiful for me and the kids, too, you know, It's just amazing.

29:24

But then she has all those other things, right? She's got to have art.

29:26

She has a profession and expectations from her parents and maybe

29:30

even expectations for me and the kids and all these things that kind of

29:34

put these layers on top of her that sometimes I think she feels like

29:38

she's not able to do that. Are you familiar with Icky Guy? Yes.

29:44

And is that kind of what we're talking about, the, you know,

29:46

life's purpose or the where your passion and purpose meet?

29:50

Yes. Yeah. Because we do have and it's what I call it's it's basically a formula for energy.

29:56

And those are two peas. And there's other I call peas as well, like progress.

30:01

For example, primary values are power and that's that creates energy.

30:08

So when your passion and your purpose align,

30:10

that is probably the most powerful force that you have.

30:13

And the reason why I share this is not only we're talking

30:15

we're not talking about just spiritual principles, we're talking about scientific principles, because studies actually show

30:21

now that when people are passionate about doing something,

30:24

you can see that there's certain neurotransmitters in their brain

30:27

that actually there's there's a higher level of them,

30:30

which means there's more brain activity and cell activity.

30:34

So people are engaged more. There's just more energy when they're passionate.

30:37

But the highest level of you can say energy and neurotransmitters.

30:43

And we're talking about the ones that help with performance, connection.

30:47

Feeling good about life comes from purpose.

30:51

So there's a biological element behind passion and purpose.

30:55

So it's not just, hey, look, we're going to follow it because it's a philosophical thing.

30:59

It's a biological and scientific thing too.

31:02

Right? Yeah. And it I was talking about this recently in a talk that I was giving about branding

31:08

and about finding that the basis of any brand is purpose.

31:13

That's the sort of the nucleus before you grow anything else is what's

31:17

the purpose behind what you're doing, Why are you doing what you're doing?

31:21

And I find that fascinating because I think that,

31:23

you know, a brand is really a person in a way.

31:27

You know, we're talking about a company that, you know, not a legal entity,

31:32

but I mean, it's a it's a reflection of the people that build it.

31:36

And if you don't have purpose behind it, then why why build it

31:39

and how will you continue to build it in the best possible way

31:42

if you don't have that passion and purpose behind it?

31:45

Yeah, I completely agree with you because that purpose, ultimately

31:48

it's a series of questions that's about purposes and asking.

31:53

One of the questions is why? Like why does this brand exist?

31:56

Why does why are we doing what we're doing?

31:58

And that is very, very important because and studies

32:03

show this all the time, the more emotions that we tie

32:05

to something, in particular an action or behavior,

32:09

the more likely we are to actually be persistent, consistent

32:12

and resilient when it comes to that behavior.

32:17

Right. What if you could go back in time again for me, and I,

32:23

I love this idea of you on the orchard and noticing trees

32:28

and I guess, you know, you seemed like a really together guy.

32:32

We've we haven't spent a lot of time together,

32:35

but you certainly have given a lot of thought to this stuff.

32:38

And would that be part of the,

32:42

you know, a recommendation or practice, I guess, that you would go back to

32:46

to be out in nature and, you know, notice things again?

32:50

absolutely. I think it's so fundamental.

32:52

If you take a look at

32:54

a, you know, Asian tradition of cherry blossoms, there's a reason for it.

33:00

Right. It's such a beautiful, beautiful thing to watch.

33:03

And not just cherries, apples to any fruits that's out there.

33:06

Just an amazing sight when you go through.

33:08

And it just gives an appreciation for life and nature.

33:12

Nature. There is a natural energy and a frequency for me.

33:16

I just feel completely different when I'm in nature.

33:18

And for the vast majority of people, they they do too.

33:22

And so and they've shown this through studies because there's there is a vibration,

33:26

there's a frequency, there's energy that comes from nature.

33:28

And when people are grounded in that, they actually feel different.

33:32

They change their by their biology changes.

33:35

So I'm hopefully I'm answering your question,

33:38

but my wish is for my kids to spend more time in the orchard.

33:42

Absolutely. Because I want them to experience that and just have an appreciation for.

33:47

Here's the funny thing watching trees grow, it's not a fast thing.

33:53

It's not a overnight thing. It's not a, hey, look, you know, it's not a quick fix or a hack.

33:59

Right? It requires it's patience.

34:02

It's noticing, it's focusing, it's being attentive,

34:06

and it's also being within yourself as a human being.

34:10

So, you know, I just

34:12

I can still remember these moments where we just planted trees.

34:17

And once you plant them and then you give them water

34:20

a few days later, you can see, you know, they change a little bit.

34:24

Yeah. And you walk around and you say, Wow, I planted that tree.

34:28

And then ten years later, you see that tree

34:32

and what it's turned into 20 years later, 30 years later,

34:34

there's a natural progression of life that I think is so beautiful, especially now.

34:39

And this is why and not I'm not going to stereotype

34:42

and say older people, but it older people have more time to do this.

34:46

Things like gardening. All right.

34:48

And why? Why so many people in that category in that age group love to garden

34:52

because it brings a sense of peace and there's energy behind it.

34:56

Yeah, well, I mean, it kind of makes me

35:00

I decided that I'm going to learn how to grow an avocado today.

35:03

And I would say, Wow, Interesting. Well, if you figure it out, let me know.

35:08

Yeah, I don't know. I it was like one of those things where I'm just I'm really on an avocado cake

35:13

and I'm I just really don't like the idea of getting rid of the seed.

35:18

I'm just like, well, you know, like, it's this huge thing right now.

35:21

I'm just like, Can I just grow an avocado? That's apparently you can.

35:24

So that's that's going to be the next thing.

35:27

So maybe I'm now in that older bracket

35:29

where I'm just like, I want to see things grow.

35:31

That's right. That's your next venture, actually. That's cool. You gave me an idea

35:34

because our family loves avocados, too, so that would be a neat experiment.

35:39

It's a thing that. Yes, poke them with toothpicks and put them in water

35:43

and then the roots come out and then it's it's a whole thing.

35:46

I'm really. Interested. So yeah, that's cool.

35:49

A friend of mine grew a pineapple and he's got it in his office

35:54

and he's been growing it for five years or so.

35:56

And there's. There's no fruit yet.

35:59

It's just something. It's.

36:02

that's hilarious, man.

36:06

What's your guilty pleasure? What's the thing that you do just for Purdeep Guilty pleasure.

36:12

Okay, So that goes that's a that's a tricky one.

36:15

My guilty pleasure is

36:18

I'd like to have a drink every so often.

36:21

Yeah. I don't drink nearly as much as I used to back in my twenties.

36:26

I would say definitely, you know, partied hard, but that would be one.

36:30

And then I also like chocolate and ice cream.

36:34

So I do have a sweet tooth and and if there's a chocolate bar that's open

36:38

around me and it's one of my favorites, it's like it's gone.

36:42

Okay, So I got to dig into this. First of all, what's what's the drink of choice for pretty kids?

36:47

Or is it a dank scotch? Is it a nice cold beer on a hot day? Like what does that look like?

36:51

Well, in the summer, cold beers are awesome.

36:54

I definitely like a cold beer in the summer. I don't drink that much beer, though,

36:57

but I will definitely drink a scotch, maybe a single malt and trying new things.

37:01

I'm not a scotch snob by any means, but

37:04

I do like to try scotch and then other kinds of whiskey.

37:08

And then ever since Yellowstone, I've been on,

37:11

you know, trying a little bit of bourbon or something.

37:14

A little bit different as well, just to try things.

37:16

Something new. And how about yourself?

37:19

I stopped drinking a year and a half ago

37:22

just because I went on this wicked fitness journey.

37:26

So. But I love scotch like I love, love,

37:29

love, and, you know, like a dank, peaty, right.

37:33

From the Highlands of Scotch.

37:35

The Highlands. So. Yeah, with. With a nice cigar.

37:39

right on. Yeah, I that's, that's my.

37:41

My guilty pleasure. And when I get my body to where I want it to be, then I'll go back

37:46

to, you know, sitting on the patio and enjoying that.

37:49

But right now it's all focused on, you know, at the gym every day, every Yeah.

37:54

Get getting it done. Well, it's funny you say that and yeah, when, when,

37:59

when I go on a fitness kind of a streak too. My body just doesn't want to drink. Yeah, right. You just.

38:04

You just don't have that desire. Yeah.

38:06

It's like it's just not even a thing. It's.

38:09

Yeah, I've got, I've got other stuff I'm focused on.

38:11

I was trying to get ready for a big run with my parents, like my dad.

38:16

we did a, we did a couple of half marathon

38:20

relays were with my kids and my dad out on Vancouver Island, which was awesome.

38:25

So I was going, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah.

38:27

So, yeah, that's it's changed. It's funny how things change and how you're tired.

38:32

You know, you don't think about it, but I also love chocolate.

38:35

Like dark 90, 95% cacao chocolate.

38:38

Really dark. That dark. Wow. yeah. Yeah.

38:42

That's against. That. It's healthy for you. Yeah. Yeah, apparently so.

38:45

Yeah, I could eat that all day long. Yeah, that's great. And how old is your dad?

38:50

He just. He's turning 80 this year. Wow.

38:52

That's pretty good. Good for him. Yeah, well, yeah, both my parents are kick ass.

38:56

They're very, very fit.

38:59

they're always doing stuff. My mom plays badminton.

39:02

She recently took up pickleball.

39:05

Yeah, my dad. My dad still runs.

39:08

And if you listen to this, he'll be all embarrassed. But I think he's set another world record.

39:12

Like a year and a half ago on a four by 400 relay with.

39:15

Really? Wow. Guys. Yeah. For his age group.

39:17

Not like a world record for, you know, the time time

39:21

but yeah, no, they kick ass.

39:24

that's all. So yeah, they're inspiring for sure.

39:27

I bet. Yeah. That's incredible.

39:29

Yeah, it's wild. Okay, so let's go back to you for a second.

39:34

What is your.

39:37

Let's, let's, let's frame it this way. So there's people out in the world, and I because this is sort of your, your world,

39:44

your SEO or SEO SEO type people, your executives that you're helping.

39:48

But there's executives that maybe don't know how to ask for help

39:53

also. And or they don't they're about to and they just don't know what to do next.

39:59

And I'm not using this as a as a pitch.

40:01

So much for your services, but what advice would you give for them

40:05

to, you know, take that next step or to,

40:09

you know, maybe find that passion again for that purpose?

40:13

Yeah, that's really it's a really interesting question.

40:16

And it's just so happens that majority of the people that we work with 85% of them are actually men.

40:21

And I can tell you, men are the most stubborn of all

40:26

because we don't like to admit that we need to do something different,

40:29

even though inside we do. So it is a group of people we are very familiar with

40:35

and this applies a certain amount to women as well.

40:37

But women are way more open to actually getting advice

40:39

and doing things differently, searching out

40:42

things and talking to their friends and social network than men are.

40:46

It's a different world for sure.

40:48

So for men, I always think and I think

40:51

one of the biggest things that has helped me throughout my life

40:55

and I'm so lucky to have this and that, I think we are losing sight of

41:00

more and more of these days is mentorship and finding a mentor.

41:06

And it doesn't have to be a person. The best mentors in my life were not super successful people.

41:11

They weren't rich. They were just everyday people.

41:13

My grandfather, for example,

41:16

you know, even my dad, outside of his challenges, friends.

41:19

And so they I was lucky enough to have great mentors in my life.

41:23

And I think that has a huge impact for being a starting point for men.

41:28

If we can find someone that we are comfortable

41:31

just having a conversation with and saying, Hey, look,

41:33

in this type of a situation, what would you do

41:36

that could open up the doors completely?

41:38

Yeah, because for for men in particular, one of the things that we need to

41:44

acknowledge is that

41:47

we're not the only ones through this.

41:49

There are hundreds,

41:52

thousands, tens of thousands, even millions of men going through.

41:55

Pretty much almost I'm not going to say the same thing, but very similar.

42:00

So whether you have a family relationship that the sons of guys out there like that, you got poor health, tons of guys

42:05

out there like that, you're losing money. Tens, tens of guys out there,

42:08

you got tons of money, but you're still not happy.

42:11

Lots of guys out there, like you could name it.

42:13

There's there's other men, and I'm going to say women as well

42:16

that are experiencing something very similar.

42:18

So you're not the only one. And I think the moment that we realize we're not the only ones,

42:22

we can give ourselves some grace and say, Well, I'm not a failure.

42:25

This is happening to other people. So that is one thing I always encourage people go on YouTube, check out YouTube.

42:31

It's fascinating what you can find on YouTube.

42:34

You know, if you're feeling unfulfilled, type it in and see if there's something

42:37

that pops up. And the moment that, you know,

42:41

I think for the vast majority of people, what I come across

42:47

and even from my own experience, how they've changed

42:51

or when they've changed,

42:53

it just happens. They've come across some kind of information, whether it was on YouTube,

42:57

a book or someone said something where something has clicked for them

43:01

and that moment has gotten them to think different

43:06

and as a result of that, they are able to do things

43:09

slightly different or they're curious about that.

43:13

And so I always encourage people just to just to be open

43:16

to the idea of learning new things and checking out information out there.

43:21

I think that would be a starting point. I love that. That's awesome. Thank you.

43:25

Now you just you inspired a question

43:30

and that is what is the what is the one thing that you have always

43:35

wanted to do that you haven't done yet that you're going to do next?

43:38

yeah. So that's that's a safari in in Kenya.

43:43

That's, that's how much that was. That was like right there.

43:46

Yeah. Yeah. It's been, it's, it's been there, it's on the list.

43:51

But I want, I want to take my kids to it.

43:54

My wife possibly my mom.

43:56

We'll see if she's, she's up for it.

43:58

But that's on my list. I love animals. I've always wanted to go on a safari.

44:02

I wanted my kids to go. So they're eight and ten years old.

44:05

So they're at an age where they can they can actually go.

44:10

So that is next on my list. I'm so excited for you.

44:14

I'm excited to come out here. So I just spoke to someone last week who just went on a safari

44:19

and I was just like, what was it like? So it's it's exciting.

44:22

I'm looking forward to to doing that.

44:25

that's wild. A friend of mine, I don't know where they were exactly, but I just saw their posts on Instagram.

44:30

They were doing a tour through India and yeah, was like elephants.

44:35

And there's like all sorts of animals and it was beautiful.

44:38

Wow, that's so cool. That's. That's another one on my list.

44:42

Take my kids back to where my parents are from and show them, you know, show it.

44:46

Give them a little bit of history. Yeah.

44:49

that'd be huge, wouldn't it? Yeah, definitely.

44:53

Well, this has been time well spent.

44:55

Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you.

44:57

This is a great conversation. I appreciate it.

45:00

I appreciate you. And I can't wait to learn more about what you're up to.

45:05

Yeah, well, what?

45:07

Whenever I can help with that, I'm out there. We got.

45:09

We got our podcast, too. Not that I'm trying to make a pitch, but.

45:12

No, I'll do a pitch it because we'll put it in the show notes and all that stuff.

45:16

Yeah. So we we have the complete man, which I focus on, you know, everything

45:20

to do with men kind of challenges, issues, topics.

45:25

I've been doing that for a number of years and that seems to be popular for guys.

45:28

It's 5 minutes and, you know, we just we just talk about everyday life of being a guy.

45:33

So it's it's something I'm passionate about.

45:36

I Love that actually, if you don't mind, I wouldn't mind asking you

45:39

another question about that. Is it do you do you have

45:44

your backlashes or wrong? Where do you do you run into a challenge where people are just like,

45:50

like why just about guys?

45:52

Yeah, typically. So when I started a we create a niche specifically for men about six

45:59

or seven years ago, and at the podcast is probably five or six years old by now.

46:04

I can't remember, but yeah, absolutely.

46:08

We, we used to get

46:10

so both men and women, we used to get a lot of

46:13

weird looks from women or some comments from women.

46:16

But here's the interesting thing. When women understand what we do.

46:20

Now that. It's really about a holistic approach, helping men be better

46:24

husbands and fathers too, There their biggest advocates.

46:27

Sure. They are like they love it and they love what we're about.

46:31

What we do, and especially a lot of women these days are kind of tired

46:36

of the whole, you know, not necessarily excluding men, but making men feel like,

46:41

you know, we're less than now because society has changed significantly.

46:46

And in some in some areas it's almost like a detriment

46:48

to be a male, and especially in maybe even the corporate world,

46:52

a lot of males get discriminated against and and that's a different story.

46:56

That's a different thing. But it was it was, yeah, definitely.

47:00

And the interesting thing for me was

47:04

when men would say that,

47:07

when men would say, hey, look, isn't that sexist, that you're just helping men?

47:11

And that was a very interesting, you can say, time for us,

47:14

because we we knew we were on to something.

47:18

Because there's tons of

47:21

women focused female focus groups like

47:24

entrepreneurial groups, self-help groups, mother groups, or whatever it is.

47:29

But there's not that many for men.

47:31

There are more now. There's like dad groups, for example, and

47:35

but there's not as many for men when you when you actually take a look at it.

47:38

And so

47:40

it was an interesting take and it told us a lot when it comes to masculinity

47:46

because people have a misconception about masculinity.

47:49

And when people truly understand what that is and when we do work with men,

47:52

that's a core aspect that we take a look at is masculinity

47:55

and the importance of that and how it balances with femininity

47:59

and how to work together.

48:01

It becomes very, very powerful. So sorry for the long winded answer, but.

48:05

That's great, man. I love it. It was a big challenge and I do believe it is something that

48:10

the next generation in particular needs to be educated about

48:14

because I very openly and firmly say they don't make men like they used to.

48:20

And it's and men are not being taught how to be.

48:25

I'm going to say what we call mindful alpha males.

48:29

And there's two aspects of that. A every man should be an alpha male because we are the creators of our lives.

48:36

If we don't take control of our own lives and we become followers,

48:40

and being a follower isn't that great, Especially if you're following

48:43

someone that doesn't have great ethics or morals or whatever that looks like.

48:46

In fact, that's what we're seeing a lot of in today's society, where we have men

48:50

who are belligerent, bad leaders and other men following them.

48:55

Right. And not stepping up.

48:58

Yeah, I wonder who we're talking about. Yeah. And, you know.

49:02

You're clearly doing things that are not appropriate

49:06

and lying and causing

49:09

violence and all these other things and men are not standing up to them.

49:12

So that is one aspect. But the other aspect is the mindful approach.

49:16

And this is something that I learned from my grandfather because he was both in the spiritual realm but also in war.

49:23

And so it was a balance between the two.

49:25

And so it's very important for us as men to also be mindful of our actions

49:29

and what the impact is on our words and our behavior.

49:34

Purdeep. I love it that that's a great place to end.

49:38

Thank you so much for your time today.

49:40

This has been outstanding.

49:42

thank you, Michael. I appreciate it. And thank you so much. Again.

49:46

I've been your host, Michael Darby, and this has been The RebelRebel

49:49

podcast as podcast for creative rebels and entrepreneurs all over the world.

49:52

And hey, if you're a rebel or you know, a rebel, why don't you head on over

49:56

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50:00

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50:03

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