Storie: 0:15

Welcome back to Market it With Atmo, where we share the tips, tools and strategies to help your business be successful. Today we have on the show a very special guest, owner and founder of Catonate Corp, the umbrella company of Maya Maya, mr Samir, we are going to discuss a few things that are very interesting to me and on the cutting edge of what we do, what you do and, I think, where the world is going now. So let's please welcome Samir. Thank you for joining us.

Sameer: 0:47

Thank you so much for having me here. I'm excited to talk about what we are doing and where the world is progressing.

Storie: 0:53

Yes, so you are local in Texas, right, yep? And I'm so glad you reached out to me, because AI is everything right now.

Sameer: 1:01

That's true. That's true. I think AI was a sales word. I want to call it up till 2023. But since last couple of years it is much more than a sales word. Now it's a real thing.

Storie: 1:13

Absolutely, and I'm sure there's plenty of pros and cons we can hear. But can you tell me your story, how you began to develop Maya Maya and what led you here today?

Sameer: 1:24

Right. So Maya Maya was basically something that we morphed from Mira Mira. Mira Mira was the first product that we developed at Catanate. It was basically a tool to help students identify which colleges they should go to, which courses they should pursue, and we thought, if we add another element to it, which is the resume, which is the job skills of the people, we can make it a great tool to understand talent management. It's not just how do you hire people, but how do you upskill them, how do you retain them, how do you nurture them. It's much more important to nurture your employees by understanding them.

Sameer: 2:04

I can give incentive as much as I want to the people, but if they're not looking for the incentive, they might be looking for something very else and I don't know about it. Right, I will never be able to retain them.

Storie: 2:15

How could you know, as a business owner, other than what's on their resume, who they really are, if they'll fit in well, right, so can you take me back just a little bit more on? Why is this something that touched you and you decided to become an entrepreneur and just run with it?

Sameer: 2:33

Right, Okay, so become becoming an entrepreneur. The story goes. I think I want to call now 15 years ago. Right, I was right out of high school and I wanted to do something, because I saw most of the schools where I come from in India. They don't have a system by which they can exchange courses with each other, which is apparently even US doesn't have that kind of a system.

Storie: 2:58

Exchange or compare.

Sameer: 3:00

It's exchange. For example, there might be a school in Plano which teaches calculus to the best right and somebody in Carrollton wants to learn how they teach that calculus or algebra and they should have access to that educational information where they can go buy that education, buy that course or buy that recorded lectures and basically learn from it.

Storie: 3:24

Almost like you can do a certification, almost like you can do a certification Almost like you can do a certification. Okay. Yeah.

Sameer: 3:30

So I would like to call it loosely Coursera I was trying to build at that time. And I built that Coursera for Indian kids at that time and then there was nobody who understood that, okay, we might need Coursera also, because there was nothing like remote that okay, we might need. Coursera also because there was nothing like remote work existed at that time. There was no. We had internet, but nobody thought that you can learn something with an online course module.

Storie: 3:58

It wasn't utilized. Like it is today, people are kind of afraid of you know the cutting edge at first right.

Sameer: 4:04

And I'm talking about 2009 and 10, right, which is where we are just coming out of recession economy. Nobody wants to invest in online courses. So I had my first moment of sales there, which is, I understood, creating technology is the easiest thing to do in the world, but selling technology is the hardest thing.

Storie: 4:23

Absolutely, I would have to agree with you. Trying to get people to understand easiest thing to do in the world, but selling technology is the hardest thing. Absolutely I would have to agree with you. Trying to get people to understand everything that you put into something is is it, I agree, the most difficult thing you can do.

Sameer: 4:33

So that was the. That that was my first entrepreneurship moment, and then, from there on, I started creating community of people, community of students, and helping them out, and, and I think along the way, I learned like, okay, one thing that is never going to change in the world is how people upskill themselves, which is education. And second finding jobs or doing something for monetary gains.

Storie: 4:57

Right, absolutely so. In your growing up and learning all these things and really finding your passion, did you come from a family of entrepreneurs? Did you have mentors that kind of helped guide you, or were you just take the road and figure it out?

Sameer: 5:13

Yeah, I'll say like in my growing up years, right in my family nobody has ever stepped a foot in business because they all come from public sector. They work in public sector, private sector, and they have been very happy, blessed that they get a salary at the end of the month.

Storie: 5:32

They don't have to secure jobs yeah.

Sameer: 5:36

And that was the mindset that I grew up with. But I think that helped me a lot because my parents never asked me to be in the same zone. They always told me that follow your dream, whatever you can do and you can achieve.

Sameer: 5:50

And they also told me that there is no right age or wrong age to be successful. Right, you can be successful at 50, you can be successful at 30. And success is a very different parameter for everyone. For my parents, it was just that my father and mother can enjoy both the meals with each other. That was the success to them.

Storie: 6:09

That's their content, that's where they're happy.

Sameer: 6:13

And that's where, like whole, I think that gave me strength to become an entrepreneur, because it's a very difficult journey I have seen, but when I came here, I met nice people in everywhere and anywhere. I have worked in every venture that I have seen and but when I came here, I met nice people in everywhere and anywhere. I have worked. In every venture that I have worked, I think I met some amazing people who basically pushed me up. I have.

Sameer: 6:35

I have seen people who, like this is very common right. People say that you need luck to be successful. I think you need to be lucky enough to find the good people so that you can be successful In everything.

Storie: 6:49

I would have to agree with you in everything I've learned in the different industries I've been in, what I've excelled in is when I have somebody that is more intelligent in that than I am and that is willing to teach me 100%. Right, I mean you lead by example, just like kids.

Sameer: 7:05

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Storie: 7:06

For sure. So, now that we've got some backstory on that which is what I was really striving to understand, because it's like for all the entrepreneurs out there that didn't think they can do it and are now trying how did they grow up? What do they want to teach their children? And that's important because you're making the next generation. Yep, they want to teach their children, and that's important because you're making the next generation and this next generation is going to be intense, it is Because of AI, almost.

Storie: 7:31

So tell me, how did you not monetize? How did you conform this AI in, particularly to help these businesses Walk?

Sameer: 7:45

me through the steps of how it works, right. So, uh, it's very simple, like it's any other SaaS tool, right, you buy the license to understand. Now there are different faucets of the business, right there might be someone who's trying to acquire talent, which is hiring right, or there might be people who might want to upskill the talent which is you already have employees you want to understand how you can upskill the talent, which is you already have employees.

Sameer: 8:04

You want to understand how you can upskill them for the jobs that are going to come in next 10 year, five year, two year right. You need to provide an upskilling plan, and not just upskilling plan, but a personalized upskilling plan, which means you have to do this course, you might have to do it in an auditory method, or you might need mentorship, you might need need teamwork but that's a lot of time to devote to each and every person, is it not?

Storie: 8:27

it is, it is, but again, you are as good as your employees are absolutely so, instead of doing that by themselves and reading through all their personalities and their you know, their references and things like that you've created've created a tool to help optimize that.

Sameer: 8:46

To do everything for them, which is basically my tool. You just need to give assessment for 10 minutes, and this is something we prescribe to do it every three months. So, I can chart out your personality, how your personality is changing, how your soft skills are changing. And based on that, we provide upskilling strategy. We provide different prescriptions on how you can upskill your employees.

Sameer: 9:07

And over a period of time, we are able to profile your employees, which means that now, let's say, you want to hire someone who is exactly like your personality, but you want to add a few more elements to it.

Sameer: 9:17

You can do it with our tool and then that creates a baseline. So anybody who applies to the job role, if they have similar or better personality, better aptitude, then you just have to interview them. You don't have to go through hundreds and thousands of resumes and then waste all that time and then the time to interview them.

Storie: 9:39

So can the business owner create based on that evaluation, like like someone like you, but with maybe softer speaking or networking skills, can you optimize questions, interview questions, so that they're answering the right questions to fill in those blanks?

Sameer: 9:55

yeah, so the assessment is it has a recommendation engine which basically understands the personality as you answer. So the system is automatically trying to map out your personality and if you try to game, the system system games you. So it tries to give you more different types of questions.

Storie: 10:14

Oh see, and that is the cutting edge of AI People who have figured out how to utilize it as a cheating tool, and now you're telling me you've made it to where they can't.

Sameer: 10:23

Where they can't, because they can, because they don't, nobody will understand. Like what I'm trying to assess. I'll ask very simple question and that question will basically I might be assessing 84 different parameters and we we assess soft skills also. So it basically means that you need to be smart enough to understand how soft skills interact with each other. For example, there might be someone who is very adaptable and that person might be very insecure also. So adaptability is a very good thing to have. Right.

Sameer: 10:56

But if you have very high adaptability, you might be a very high insecure person also. Right which people don't show which people don't show right, so I will be able to understand every facet of personality and I can basically show a mirror Right. And that's what Maya basically means. It's an illusion. Interesting. You basically create your illusion and I'm able to find who you are in your illusion.

Storie: 11:20

Okay, and is this by them answering a set of questions, or is it by video or voice?

Sameer: 11:26

It is just simple, like assessment questions are there. It's a behavioral economics based assessment. Right. So you just answer the question and we are able to identify your personality profile.

Storie: 11:37

And you really can't know what questions they're going to ask, because you make it optimized to each business and what they're looking for right. Or what they could optimize.

Sameer: 11:46

Yeah. So businesses don't have that option to optimize the questions, so we have. So questions are very workplace setting or general life setting. For example, let's say I had a huge loan of. Let's say I had a $10,000 loan on my head and I won a lottery of $100 and I'm in front of a casino and will I go in casino and play that $100 to win another $100? Right. Or I'll just go and pay that $100 off my debt Right.

Storie: 12:16

Now both are the right options.

Sameer: 12:18

There is nothing wrong.

Storie: 12:19

Right, absolutely.

Sameer: 12:20

And then there will be a question which will come sometime in the trailing thing, which is if you have $100 and you went to casino and you won $100, now you have $200. Do you still place the bet or you go and pay off your $10,000 debt with that $200 that you have won?

Storie: 12:37

And that decision is a personality trait.

Sameer: 12:39

And it depends on the day that you are giving that assessment also, because in real life you might have got just a bonus, right you? Might be feeling that you are on top of the world. You'll give a very different answer than your car got total somewhere.

Storie: 12:54

That was where I was going to ask my next question, because I mean, you have those Briggs Myers test right and I've taken a few and they're different, different levels of it. But one day so I tried to, I tried to see how I could beat this system right. So one day I was feeling really down and I took it, and then I took the same set of questions when I was feeling really up, said I was a completely different person. So how is what you do different from that?

Sameer: 13:19

Yeah, so there are two things right. Myers-briggs usually gives you a situation and it asks you whether you highly agree with it or highly disagree with it which is trying to put you into a box, right. There won't be any situation in life where you will either highly agree or highly disagree. Every situation of the life, there will be options, actions that you need to take Variables, yeah, and we basically give you actions in our assessment.

Sameer: 13:44

So I don't ask whether you highly agree with it or highly disagree with it. I'll give you a situation and I'll give you four options that are very right to that situation that you can go and take action on.

Sameer: 13:55

And now you have to order it. What was the first thing? Second thing, third thing, fourth thing now, as you said, yes, personality changes, but we map that personality change. I want to see, over a period of time, how much your personality is changing. Or is it not changing at all, or is it going? For example, we do something around the term ikigai which basically means finding the core of your life, finding the purpose of your life it has purpose, passion, reward and spirit right right?

Sameer: 14:24

uh, let's say I'm single. I'm not chasing that much about reward, I just want to work, I want to follow my passion and everything. Right now, suddenly, I'm married, I have one person to take care of and I want to be more responsible. So I want to earn more money, everything that I was doing as a passionate person. Now my outlook will be on the reward side. Now, let's say I have a kid.

Sameer: 14:47

Now I want to do something better so that world is a better place for my kid. Now, from passion to reward everything will convert to a purpose. And I want to do everything that is purposeful. I want to a purpose and I want to do everything that is purposeful. I want to eat healthy. I want to make them eat healthy. So, that's how our personality basically revolves around these four quadrants. And now that's what we try to track. If your employee is basically all of a sudden he's going towards a purpose-driven aptitude, it means that something has changed in their life.

Sameer: 15:17

They might have a more responsible outlook towards life, and if that is the outlook, you need to reward them in that similar manner that helps them their purpose.

Storie: 15:29

Wow.

Sameer: 15:30

So it helps that the synergy between your manager and your employee and it helps them understand it helps them understand at the granular level rather than just very nominal on the resume level right right you might have seen people get promoted to become manager, but they are never a good manager because they never had a training to become manager right or they don't even have the aptitude or the soft skill to become a manager right, and then the most of the people under them either start hating them or they leave the company.

Storie: 16:03

Right, absolutely, at the end of the day, and that's bad for the business right. Turnover for any business is not good. You want that longevity, so can you tell me what type of businesses are you working with right now and how are they utilizing this technology?

Sameer: 16:19

right. So we, we are working with few of the IT clients, which is more or less they are trying to find out their employees and how they can upskill them. Everybody tried to do a layoff in 2023 huge layoff in the IT industry, but that didn't help anyone, because market is now overpopulated with talented people, right, but the technology has changed for what they were very talented of, right.

Sameer: 16:49

So now new things are required, so how you can upskill your talent so that they are ready for the jobs, rather than you just cutting them off and then figuring out how to go and find the next person Starting all over?

Storie: 17:01

Yeah.

Sameer: 17:02

So that's what a few of the IT clients are doing. Same thing is being used by universities also, because they are the people who are creating those talent for the industry, and universities need to know exactly what they need to prepare the talent for, otherwise there will be a huge shortage of supply chain. Same thing we have seen in the nursing industry. Right as of today, we have, if numbers are correct, around 250,000 jobs opening for nurses in this country alone, and that's a staggering huge number. We don't have enough nurses to fill that job because some eight, nine years ago nobody was going into the nursing degrees. Either people wanted to become accountant, store manager, managers, right Inventory manager, because retail was booming.

Storie: 17:53

Right and the interest rates on mortgages were lower.

Sameer: 17:57

Yeah, so nobody wanted to do that thing right. It created a massive shortage in the industry. Wow, so that's what we are trying to prevent. If people say AI will take the job, I always say not knowing AI will take the job, absolutely not.

Storie: 18:12

Just like the internet when it first came to be right, I mean now everyone that truly was innovative in that time and took hold of it and grasped it. Yeah, they're the ones that are ahead today. They really are. At the end of the day, whether you understand or not, the world is still shifting. My kids know don't even know what a magazine looks like sometimes you know, and that's okay, because that's where we're going yeah, 100.

Sameer: 18:37

Most of the people might never know the VCR tapes.

Storie: 18:39

I know.

Sameer: 18:41

Or the records.

Storie: 18:42

I intentionally bought a house phone just so they would understand what that was. You know, I mean some things you have to learn, like cursives so you can read history books, but you have to have an innovative mentality. In the way we're moving right now, it's just necessary. So how does this differ from any other AI?

Sameer: 19:04

Yeah, so AI is. I usually call it an umbrella term. Ai is basically any system that can take action on your behalf. That is AI. Everything under it is.

Sameer: 19:16

There might be data analysis, there might be data science, which is prediction, right. There might be process automation, which is basically automating different processes. There might be data extraction, there might be data reading. So a lot of different things comes under AI. Now how this is different is we try to do three things, which is different than any other tool. One is clustering of people, which is we try to figure out who are the similar people focus groups focus groups and can they make up uh? Do they have any similar personality trait?

Storie: 19:48

if they have similar personality trait.

Sameer: 19:50

Do they gel together well or they don't gel with each other? And based on figure out okay, this is how your company looks like, right? Which is a very different form of AI, because system can take action on behalf of you. It can basically tell you who are the people who will work together, who are the people who won't work together Longevity, longevity. And it gives you succession planning also, which is who are the people who show trade to become better leader or manager in your firm.

Storie: 20:19

Or who is great at what they do and needs to stay Correct.

Sameer: 20:24

I don't want to ever use this product to recycle people, but again, I can create a tool. People can use it to even use it as a screwdriver or a murder weapon. It's up to them.

Storie: 20:36

I mean, that's with everything right. At the end of the day, we're all trying to be successful, especially entrepreneurs and business owners. So, at the end of the day, yes, you want to be there for your people, but if you had something on the front end to tell you what people are going to help you grow, I mean, how is that? You're right, though, if you utilize it in the way that you've made it.

Sameer: 20:59

Yeah, yeah.

Storie: 21:00

So that's what's important. So tell me, we work off of the Build Launch Grow scale methodology at Advent Trinity and it sounds like you've really done a lot of investing in the build phase and even the launch phase. I took a look at your website. So where are you going now? What stage are you in of that Build Launch Grow scale?

Sameer: 21:19

I think we are in the growth scale this year. In the last three months we have basically got like seven clients, seven new clients. Out of that, four are universities, with every university having more than 60,000 students in it.

Storie: 21:37

Is it helping them optimize what students they allow to come in?

Sameer: 21:42

One of the use cases yes, they are using it for. And another use case they're using it to prepare their students for the job that is there in the market.

Storie: 21:49

Wow.

Sameer: 21:50

Third is how they are going to align their curriculum, or what they need to add into their curriculum so that they can make it better. Right, and then who are the people who should be moved from one degree to another, which is, if they are in the undergrad, who are the people who show propensity to join the graduate programs so they are using it for?

Storie: 22:10

That's wonderful, to make them more successful right At the end of the day and give them an opportunity to not fail and then learn Correct. That's wonderful. So what do you project, or what are your goals in the next three, five years for this company?

Sameer: 22:24

Yeah, I think again I'll be speaking out of turn, but our personal goal is like in 2027, texas is going to have, dallas is going to have its stock exchange and we want to be one of the first company to go and ring the bell there. Wow.

Storie: 22:44

And I think we are on the way. So, hey, one step every day, right? Yeah, that's all you can do. So tell me and we've talked a lot about the good what are some of the challenges that you have had to overcome in this process?

Sameer: 22:51

yeah, I think we created a product of future.

Sameer: 22:55

A couple of years ago, nobody understood the importance of soft skill, because nobody was aware that AI will come and will replace the talent, like anything Everybody was focused on. We want to hire people for job skills, which is they should be good at X, y, z thing and that's about it, because that will get the job done. So it was very hard for us to convince people that job skills are not the only thing that is important for hiring process, but there are other skills also, and the same goes for how do you manage talent? But all of a sudden, thanks to AI in advent of AI, I will call it which is people have changed how they look business at all, because website development used to take like months, now I can do it in like a couple of seconds. Right.

Sameer: 23:45

I was just doing a prototyping, basically showing how to build a new company to around 100 founders last week and we basically built, I think, their software prototypes in like half an hour for 100 different prototypes. We built it, which is unimaginable because I remember three years ago that would have taken at least two or three years because I was building 100 product at a time.

Sameer: 24:13

I just got it done in 30 minutes, and if I can get it done in 30 minutes, you just need one coder, one developer, to do all those work. What rest of them will do? And you still need them to implement it. But you need to be smart enough to understand how to use your talent again.

Storie: 24:29

Absolutely.

Sameer: 24:30

And that shortage of understanding has created a huge demand for our product right now, even without any marketing Right, With just a word of mouth. We are getting huge traction.

Storie: 24:40

and then I'm not just talking about basis yeah, and I'm not just talking USA.

Sameer: 24:45

I'm talking USA, I'm talking UAE, I'm talking India, I'm talking. Australia all over the world yeah, because everybody now needs the solution.

Storie: 24:54

So I think wonderful. So how do you approach? Unlike some of the universities, are they buying a technology? Are they buying two years worth of technology? What are they purchasing?

Sameer: 25:05

from you. So they are purchasing more or less a services solution I'll call it which is getting the report of their students, getting the report what they need to do.

Sameer: 25:14

So, more or less, we are like a report to them yeah but on a skill and upskilling and prescribe personalized upskilling for their students. So we become very different than any other reporting tool, because this is not. We are not just coming with external data. We are looking at your people. Your people are doing something on my platform and then I'm giving you who you already have.

Storie: 25:38

So let me ask you on the consumer side, or the students that are coming out of high school on? My 13 year old daughter already knows what she wants to do with her life. Can they take this? Could it help them decide where they really need to go, based on their personality?

Sameer: 25:54

yeah, the the initial product that we had. It can give them indication on what their personality is aligned to, on what they need to do. But again I'll say 13 year old is it is, it's still too young, they're not decided right. Yeah, they have not decided. I think any personality assessment in the world works better after a certain age, which usually I say after 19 or 20 years of age, because up till 13 or 14, you have just learned everything from your parents.

Storie: 26:22

Absolutely. Or your relatives, right. It's like the phases in life, right, because I mean I just had one recently. It's like I've enjoyed what I've done, but now I have a different purpose. Where do I go from here? And that's kind of hard to figure out, but this technology you've created is really helping to optimize that.

Sameer: 26:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was the idea.

Storie: 26:43

And you're doing a great job, it seems like. So what other I guess cohorts are you dabbling in right now? Tell us a little bit more about that.

Sameer: 26:55

Yeah, so more or less we are trying to. One of our client is, or two of our clients are using it to acquire the talent, which is, basically they use it as an initial assessment whenever they want to hire someone. So they send the assessment to a massive pool of people and then they do the assessment and they just get like, let's say, 100 people apply for a job or 200 people applied for a job. System recommend only these are the top 10 whom you should interview. Wow.

Sameer: 27:22

So, you don't even have to look at like 190, 200 resumes. Now, most of the people come with this notion that AI is rejecting my resume, but actually it doesn't, because your resume might look exactly same like the other person's resume and every single person who uses ChatGPT. Their resume looks almost similar because now all the keywords are there, all the metrics are there, so nothing changes there. But the one thing that changes is how you have answered the assessment. Right.

Sameer: 27:53

And now let's say, two people are sitting next to each other and giving the assessment. That's the only chance which is possible that you might get similar result, but again.

Storie: 28:03

Why? Why even do that?

Storie: 28:05

though, if you really want to know where you should be right, yeah you know through that process that you mentioned being, um, not fit for this job, not fit for that job, based on the assessments. It honestly made me take a deeper dive not too long I think it was over a year ago now and I was curious what my personality was saying, right, and so it helped me. Going through the different programs which now there's a lot more out there um realized that my personality is and the way I conduct business is only made for seven percent of the jobs in the world. So, yeah, it's going to be a little difficult, but, man, when, when I found this position, it's a perfect fit personality too, and that's what makes me happy at the end of the day.

Sameer: 28:48

Yeah, I think like that's how we anyhow live in the life also, right, I don't know why we don't do it for the career. We work on elimination method. We never work on selection method in life. That's a good point. Yeah, like we want to buy a house, we'll first decide okay, we cannot buy a million dollar house, we cannot buy a $300,000 house, we can only buy 300 to 400.

Storie: 29:09

Right, you put yourself in a lane.

Sameer: 29:16

Yeah, we didn't select it. We eliminated the other options. That's very true when you go on Zillow or any of the housing platform you don't go and look at everything. You go and put filters, which is again an elimination method. You are eliminating out of all the two million options, everything that basically goes and fits into you.

Storie: 29:29

That's a good point.

Sameer: 29:31

So I have written a book basically on psychology of interviews, right? So what's the name of the book? Psychology of Interview.

Storie: 29:38

Oh, it really is. Yeah, ok, I'm going to have to look that up?

Sameer: 29:42

Yeah, so I talk about that thing there, which is you need to understand yourself enough so that you can eliminate all the noises around you, which is, if you are able to eliminate everything that is not aligning with you, you'll be able to find out. Even like you said, you know that 7% of the job only fits you right Now. You should be very much relieved that.

Sameer: 30:04

I just have to focus on 7%. Yes. If it would have came 93% of the jobs aligned with you, I'll be heck lot confused because 93% is everything in the world.

Storie: 30:14

That is so much. Yes, it's nice to know where your niche is to focus on, but that is so. That's very forward thinking and it kind of helps you reframe your mindset, to take you out of that negative mindset and method into a more positive, productive mindset method, which is wonderful. So, at the end of the day, how, if someone wanted to reach you or a business wanted to reach you to talk more about this, how can these companies or businesses reach you?

Sameer: 30:44

wanted to reach you to talk more about this. How can these companies or businesses reach you? The easiest method is linkedin. I guess I'm not very proud of it but I'm too active on linkedin but but it helps me a lot. So absolutely.

Storie: 30:53

I think that's how I reached out to you, right? Yeah, I mean, it's a great networking tool and, honestly, we are a digital marketing company, so I've always got you in my pocket if you ever need me. 100%. So LinkedIn. And is it the business name or is it your name?

Sameer: 31:09

So it's my name. So if you just reach out to me, we can talk a lot about what is happening in the hiring side, or how do you upskill your talent or how do you manage your talent, because I think these are the three big black boxes for most of the major companies today also, and it will be the same thing tomorrow, because nobody invest enough to understand their people, but everybody invest enough to give them whatever they think is right which is the wrong method, which isn't helping their business at the end of the day right well, it seems like you really want to help people at the end of the day.

Storie: 31:44

so on Well, it seems like you really want to help people at the end of the day. So, on the last question I'm going to ask you I ask it to all of my guests what is one thing you wish you knew before you started this whole adventure?

Sameer: 31:53

Oh.

Storie: 31:54

Or someone would have told you.

Sameer: 32:00

Oh, very interestingly, this was something which was asked yesterday. I was doing just an interview with some magazine and they asked me this question If you are mentoring someone and you need to tell them like they should be precautious of X, y, z thing, what would be that? And I said, like, even if I'll give you in writing and I'll tell you the method that exactly this is what you need to follow whenever those things will happen to you, you won't be able to follow it because life will give you curveball. And entrepreneurship, I think, is a one of the most hardest thing because, first of all, nobody understands what you're doing right. Second, if they understand they, they then now try to perceive whether you are making money or not, because that is what the success criteria becomes.

Sameer: 32:43

Now, let's say you're making money also, and people understand your business, now you have to protect yourself from new things, which is investor shock, it might be stakeholder shock. Right Now, let's say you are able to do that. Now you have to protect your social image right, and nobody gives you training for any of that, because nobody can. Every single person has a different situation, different outlook, different way to handle it. I don't want to go political, but if you'll just look at what is happening in the US, Absolutely.

Sameer: 33:13

Yeah, all the entrepreneurs. They are right on a target side, because one guy who created the best thing in the world is trying to do something, whether right or wrong. I won't comment on it, but he's enemy number one right now right so and and that that's what the entrepreneurship is right at that scale, or even at a smaller scale yeah, right.

Storie: 33:36

So so be agile. Have a plan, but be agile with that plan, and be ready to laugh at at yourself.

Sameer: 33:44

I think people take themselves very seriously. Yeah. And I think that's what killed entrepreneurship in them.

Storie: 33:52

Absolutely. You've got to not get bogged down with it all Well. Thank you so much for sharing more about your business, and I'm so excited to see where you go from here.

Sameer: 34:02

Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you, Sameer.

Storie: 34:05

And to all of our listeners out there. The contact information for Samir and his companies will be in the description below. Please feel free to share this podcast with any entrepreneur or business owner who really wants to build, launch, grow and scale. We'll see you again next time.