Oct. 3, 2024

Leadership Transformation with Pramoda Vyasarao of Change Smith Coaching

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In this episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, host Curveball delves into the world of leadership development with Pramoda Vyasarao, the founder of Change Smith Coaching, LLC. Pramoda brings over 17 years of coaching experience and a rich background in computer science, having worked with tech giants like Oracle and Facebook. He shares his journey from a software engineer to a leadership coach, his passion for helping individuals transform their lives, and the inspiration behind his book, Beyond Your Limits.
Pramoda discusses the significance of goal setting in achieving personal and professional growth, the story behind the name Change Smith, and the impact of eliminating television from his life. He also touches on his experiences as a workshop facilitator and the profound influence of coaching in his life. Pramoda's insights offer valuable lessons on overcoming fears, setting expansive goals, and making consistent progress.
Want to be a guest on Living the Dream with Curveball? Send Curtis Jackson a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1628631536976x919760049303001600

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> Curtis Jackson>Welcome, to the Living the Dream podcast with curveball. if you believe you can achieve Chee Chee, welcome to the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, a ah show where I interview guests that teach, motivate and inspire. Today we're going to be talking about leadership development as I am joined by the founder of Change Smith Coaching, LLC, promoter vessel.

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> Curtis Jackson>And I know I, butchered that, but promoter has years of experience in computer science. He has a rich background.

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> Curtis Jackson>He's worked with the big tech giants, and then now he has 17 years of coaching experience and he works with leaders and helps develop them through one on one coaching and his courses. So we're going to be talking to him about everything that he's been up to and everything that he is up to. So, promoter, thank you for joining me.

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> Promod Sharma>Thank you, Curtis, for that wonderful introduction.

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> Promod Sharma>I'm so excited to be here.

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> Curtis Jackson>Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself?

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> Promod Sharma>Yeah, absolutely. I'm excited to share that, I worked in the software industry for about, 21 years, 13 years in India from the city Bengaluru, and then the last eight years in the United States and California. After, 21 years, I decided to do something on my own.

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> Promod Sharma>I really enjoyed helping people and coaching them to become better leaders. I have led large teams in the organizations at both Oracle as well as Facebook.

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> Promod Sharma>So I thought, why don't I take all these experiences of my career and help other people become leaders in their personal and professional lives.

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> Promod Sharma>And I also published a book recently called beyond your limits, which talks about how to leverage the power of goal setting to achieve your personal and professional goals.

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> Curtis Jackson>Okay, well, tell us, how did you come up with the name change Smith?

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> Promod Sharma>Yeah, I'm glad you asked. You know, I like the words, actually, I like the words such as goldsmith and blacksmith. They are specialized with some elements like gold and metal. I thought my life has always been changing. I'm really good in changing myself as a person from somebody who was scared to speak in public and to become a public speaker confidently and making money out of those profession.

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> Promod Sharma>So I thought a, skill that I've developed over the years is changing myself as a person and I want to give the hope to people that they can change themselves. So the company became change Smith.

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> Promod Sharma>Because all of us are skilled at changing, we have to unleash the person inside us who can change and improve.

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> Curtis Jackson>Okay, well, in addition to working at Oracle, you were a workshop facilitator. So tell us a little bit about that.

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> Promod Sharma>What happened was, back in the years in 2003, when I started my career as a software engineer, I was struggling to communicate in public, especially with people in the other countries.

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> Promod Sharma>People from, Germany, Singapore and the US were visiting India, and I was visiting the US.

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> Promod Sharma>I wasn't comfortable speaking to people in general because English is my third language, not first language. So I said, okay, let me work on myself and improve.

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> Promod Sharma>And what happened is, as I improved, I went to Toastmasters to give speeches every week. I improved. While I improved, I also started helping other people to improve. And before I know it, I really enjoyed helping other people through workshops, mini workshops of, 1 hour or 2 hours. What I did was I went to my manager and said, hey, I really enjoy doing this. Can I do something like this for my own team and the organization in addition to my work? My manager was very supportive back then, and the HR was very supportive at Oracle. They said, okay, if you want to train people on public speaking and communication leadership, you could do it once a month, but we cannot offer you any money for this.

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> Promod Sharma>I said, yes, absolutely, don't give me any money.

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> Promod Sharma>Salary is good enough. I'm happy to train people. So what happened is, in addition to my actual job as a manager at Oracle, managing software projects, I also started delivering workshops to help people in their communication, storytelling, presentation, as well as leadership skills. So I actually had two jobs at the same time. One was a full time job as a software engineering manager. The other job, which was unpaid, was a soft, skills slash leadership trainer.

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> Curtis Jackson>Okay, well, I noticed that coaching is very important, to you. So tell us how, you know, coaching has helped you along your career and your life and who are your coaches?

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> Promod Sharma>My initial stint with coaches began in the year 2007. I was attempting to go to speech contest in toastmasters, where you go to various clubs and compete, in the speech contest.

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> Promod Sharma>I realized that I was not doing, well. I was a little scared. I was not comfortable standing in forums and speaking, especially in a competition. That's when I worked with the coach one on one. Until that time, I had no idea what coaching was. When I went there, I realized in a one to one setting, I can talk about all my fears, my beliefs, and the coach can challenge me and say, hey, you have a limiting belief. You have a limiting thought here, which is interfering with your performance. It was fascinating experience being coached by somebody who is noticing my beliefs that are, limiting me and challenging them. As a mirror in front of me, I really enjoyed the experience. Now, that was the beginning, of me as a client with a coach after that. I have worked with several coaches in the last 17 years. Even today I have got two coaches. One of them is a general coach who helps me achieve my business goals and my coaching goals. The other one is helping me in writing a book as well as marketing a book. The first coach I mentioned who is helping me with my business goal is doctor Eric Maisel in the US. And the other coach who is helping me build the marketing aspect of my book is Scott Allen. He's an author of 45 books. He lives in Japan. So they are my actual coaches right now working. But over the years I worked with several coaches because I really enjoyed working with coaches to improve myself and change permanently.

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> Curtis Jackson>You know, I've interviewed Scott Allen. I'm wondering, is that the same Scott Allen? Is he originally from Canada?

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> Promod Sharma>I don't know. Actually. I know he lived in the US and he's living in Japan for a long time as a business communications trainer. He's an author of several books, I believe 45 years.

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> Curtis Jackson>Procrastination.

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> Promod Sharma>Yeah, he wrote a book called, relaunch your life. That's one book.

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> Curtis Jackson>I think I've interviewed him.

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> Promod Sharma>Maybe he's active on a match. So you may have.

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> Curtis Jackson>Absolutely, yes, I have.

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> Promod Sharma>He's my coach. Yes.

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> Curtis Jackson>So speaking about that book, tell us about that book and talk about why you decided to write it.

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> Promod Sharma>What happened was, let me tell you the backstory behind the book. Up until 2003, I was overweight, I was not healthy. And during that year my father passed away and I had worked really hard to get a software engineering job at Oracle. I had master's degree. I did everything to achieve that success, but I was devastated because my father passed away the same year. I did not like the aspect of losing someone and I thought, what's the meaning to life? I did all this hard work and he's not alive to see my success. So for almost, twelve to 18 months, I was in a mode where I was not enjoying my life.

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> Promod Sharma>I happened to go to a seminar in 2003, back in India. In the seminar, the trainer talked about a man named John Goddard.

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> Promod Sharma>Now, John Goddard is a world famous adventurer who lived in America, in California. He had set about 127 goals when he was at 14 age. At age 14, he set about 127 goals. By the time he died, he achieved most of those goals. Those were not simple goals. They were like climbing the Mount Everest, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, crossing the Nile river, kayaking and so on. When I read about him and I was exposed to him, I was, like, super impressed and inspired, and I said, let me write my own goals and start working on my own goals. The night after the training, I went home. I wrote five goals that evening. Five simple goals. The first one was losing 33 pounds because I was overweight. I wanted to lose weight. I was 23.

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> Promod Sharma>Looked like 43 back then. The second one was, I was scared of water. I, wanted to face the fear of water and learn to swim. The third one was becoming a confident speaker. I was scared of public speaking. The fourth one was learning a martial art. It was my childhood dream, but never materialized. So I wanted to have no regrets in my life. So that goal showed up on my list, and the fifth one was donating blood 50 times. Before turning age 50, I wrote these five goals. And in the next two years, from 2003 to 2005, I made significant progress on all these five goals that changed my life completely.

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> Promod Sharma>Each year, I kept adding more goals, more goals to my life. And one of the goals I had in my life was to write my own nonfiction book. That was goal number 52. In the book, the book talks about 52 goals I have achieved from 2003 to 2024, including running a full marathon under 4 hours.

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> Promod Sharma>And the last goal in the book is writing a book.

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> Promod Sharma>All of these goals are beyond my limits. That is the reason I kept the name beyond your limits for the book. And the subtitle of the book is the proven path for achieving growth, happiness, and meaning with expansive goals, the goals that expand you as a person.

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> Curtis Jackson>So you also have a chapter in the book talking about say no to tv. Any. Expand on that and tell us about that chapter.

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> Promod Sharma>Yes. As I made progress on my personal goals starting 2003, by 2007, I had achieved a lot of these personal goals. I really enjoyed my life.

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> Promod Sharma>I felt like the hero of my own life. Prior to that, I used to watch a lot of action movies because my life was missing action. I used to vicariously enjoy the action in the movies, appreciating the lead and heroin heroines in the movie. But by the year 2005 and six, I lost interest in anything else.

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> Promod Sharma>Because my life was so great, I was making progress on my intrinsic goals that I really enjoyed. I stopped watching television completely. Now, that was fine because I was single, I was all alone, and I could manage that.

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> Promod Sharma>But when we got married in 2008, I asked my wife, look, I have never watched tv the last six years. Would it be okay if you don't watch it for the first 90 days and see how our life would be without a television? I'm so glad my wife Anusha accepted the invitation and said, she said, let's try for 90 days and see what happens. I am so glad she was a software engineer as well. our lives was really busy, but she agreed to try this. And we loved that lifestyle without having television every evening. We had a lot of time together, personal bonding time, going to restaurants, going to movies, theater shows and performances and so on. After 90 days, she said, I like this lifestyle. We don't need a television at home. Even today, we live in the US, in California, we have a six, we have a, twelve year old son. We don't have a television at home.

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> Promod Sharma>I have not watched television for more than 23 years.

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> Curtis Jackson>That's great. That is amazing.

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> Curtis Jackson>So, you know, to tell us about, are there any goals that you didn't put in the book that you have said and, ah, are trying to achieve?

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> Promod Sharma>In fact, yes, there are some goals I did not put for a couple of reasons. One is for brevity. I didn't want the book to be too long. The other one, I felt the effort was not much. I did not feel that effort was great. In these two worlds, there are many, but I'll mention a couple just to give you examples. One was, until 2019, I was a vegetarian, which means I used to eat, plant based food and dairy products, milk, cheese, and so on. And in 2019, while I was training for a full marathon, I said, let me try being a vegan, because there are a lot of benefits of being a vegan. Not eating any dairy product, no meat, no egg. So I decided to become a fully plant based runner. So, for four years, from 2019, to 2023, I was a vegan only on plant based diet for four years, while I ran several half marathons and two full marathons. That's one goal which is not in the book. I mentioned it briefly in one line, but it doesn't talk about the challenges I went through and the reason behind it and the benefits I gathered from this school. That's one example. The second example is, because English is my third language, I had to bridge the gap. I took several courses in English at Stanford, evening courses, they have online courses. I have taken several on language, including glamour of grammar and a few other courses. Amazing courses. I invested a lot of time, effort, and money on this development. I call it as, self development or self education. That does not show up in the book because of brevity.

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> Promod Sharma>Definitely a goal that I really enjoyed pursuing. But I did not add it in the book because of brevity.

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> Curtis Jackson>So you make a bold promise in the book talking about, everybody can achieve growth, happiness and meaningfulness with goals. Is that achievable for everyone?

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> Promod Sharma>The answer is yes, for two reasons. I have experienced a personal loss and the way I came back to life. The meaning of life and the joy of life only through goals. The second reason is since 2007, I have helped several hundred people in India and the US and a few other countries to look at their intrinsic goals.

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> Promod Sharma>The goals that really bring meaning to them, joy in their lives as they made progress. I, will remind the word again, progress, not really achieving the goal. The moment people make progress on their goals, their life becomes blissful because they are walking on a path that they want to walk on.

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> Promod Sharma>The journey itself is the destination.

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> Promod Sharma>I've seen this hundreds of cases in my coaching career. People love making process. Whether it is losing one pound or ten pound, doesn't matter.

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> Promod Sharma>Or writing a book, or writing a blog article.

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> Promod Sharma>Progress brings joy to people. Progress principle is extremely important. And that is the reason I confidently say that the moment somebody is on, a, path of progress, their life changes. Because now they are no longer looking at outside motivation. They are intrinsically motivated. They have a compass, they have a north star. They are constantly walking on that path with their guiding star as this north star. This is across countries, by the way. I have worked with people in eleven countries. It is the same story in all countries, regardless of gender, background and nationality. Schools are powerful as long as they're intrinsically driven. You choose for yourself not to please other people.

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> Curtis Jackson>So what do you want the, readers to do after reading your book? What's your call to action?

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> Promod Sharma>Yeah, in the initial chapter of the book, I make a, promise.

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> Promod Sharma>That promise as well as a challenge.

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> Promod Sharma>If you can write five goals of your own by the end of this book, if you can write five goals of your own and start making progress toward those five goals again, I will remind you, I'm not saying achieve. Achievement will happen at the end. It's the destination. The journey is equally important. It's like enjoying the process of climbing the mountain is more important. So if people can simply read the book and by the end they will be inspired to write their own goals, reflect about their own career, what regrets they would have, what they really enjoy doing, what they value, or what is the missing piece in their life that brings joy. As they reflect, they will easily identify their top goals. It will take time. It may not happen immediately. In one day. To write your goals, you may take maybe two weeks or three weeks, a couple of readings of the book, but you will identify your own goals. I also have done this exercise with many people in one on one coaching. What comes up as a reason for not writing goals is the belief people don't believe that they can achieve their goals if they believe they could write lofty goals for themselves. They don't because they don't believe that they can achieve these goals.

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> Promod Sharma>So my promise, as well as challenge to people in the book, is you can achieve your goals, make progress consistently over a period of time only if you know what your true goals are, and the book will allow you to identify those true goals through reflective exercises at the end of each chapter.

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> Curtis Jackson>So tell us about any upcoming projects that you're working on that listeners need to be aware of.

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> Promod Sharma>Right now, I know there is a lot of inquiries I'm getting based on the book, and you already know that there is a limit to how many people I can coach one on one. What's happening right now is I am working, on a course which is an eight week course which, is based on the book. The book has a seven step framework for goal setting. We have eight week program. Each week we look at one of those principles of the seven step framework. We talk about in depth on what that principle means. How did I apply that to my own life in the last 21 years and my clients? Each week we take one principle for 45 minutes and then followed by 45 minutes, reflection and group activity, as well as sharing together like that. We go seven weeks, and the 8th week is graduation ceremony. So it's an eight week course. Each week is about 90 minutes. I'm in the process of creating content for that. That is the most important project right now. After the book has been published, the course will come out in, September this year. The course also is called beyond your limits. It's exactly based on the book. It's just deeper engagement and more immersive experience for readers of the book to come and join a community of learners who want to set goals, discover their goals, set those goals, and make progress in the eight weeks so that they can develop these tactics and habits which can be applicable to their life after they finish the course.

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> Curtis Jackson>So throw out your contact info so people can keep up with everything that you're up to.

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> Promod Sharma>They can go to my website. The website is, changesmith. Just like blacksmith and Goldsmith. It's a single word. Changesmith. Me, me. If they go to my website, Changesmith Mehdenhe, they have everything they need. The book link my digital courses and details about the upcoming course in September. They can reach out to me for any questions.

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> Promod Sharma>I also do one to one coaching. They can identify more details on the website so everything they want is in the website.

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> Curtis Jackson>Close us out with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something, I forgot to touch on, or just any final thoughts you have for the listeners.

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> Promod Sharma>In my experience, I've seen that every time I ask people to write their goals, I don't use the word dreams because some people don't like the word dream. But whenever I ask people to write their goals, people go blank. They don't know what to write.

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> Promod Sharma>This has been a common challenge I have seen in my coaching career with my clients and my message to the audience is that all of us have the same challenge for various reasons. We have that challenge. We don't know what intrinsic goals are. We don't know what goals we need to be looking at for growth, happiness and meaning.

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> Promod Sharma>But it's not impossible. Invest time to identify your truly cherished goals, the goals you really enjoy pursuing because they are worthy of you. Your goals are worthy.

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> Promod Sharma>They're extremely important for your life.

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> Promod Sharma>Find out what really motivates you. Look at the peak experiences of your life and see what brought you joy in the last ten or 20 years. There are always some peak experiences. If you look at these pre peak experiences, there is a common thread that goes across these experiences.

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> Promod Sharma>Whether you work with a coach or you reflect on yourself, doesn't matter. Find out your true goals.

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> Promod Sharma>You will really enjoy pursuing them, making progress and through that you will expand as a person. You will slightly challenge yourself to go beyond your limits. And once you cross your limit, you realize that limit is all made up. It is a circle of belief you have put together which is imaginary, which does not exist. Once you cross the threshold, there is no limit. You can do more. You can stretch more.

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> Promod Sharma>It can be your personal goal or ah, professional goal or business goal.

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> Promod Sharma>Goals are extremely important. Find out what you really enjoy doing. It is a process.

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> Promod Sharma>You may be busy doing other things, but you have to come back to this. We create meaning in our lives.

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> Promod Sharma>We are meaning makers and the meaning is made by how we live, what goals we pursue, what do we achieve. That is my message to the audience. I would love if they go back and reflect on their personal goals after they listen to this interview.

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> Curtis Jackson>All right ladies and gentlemen, changesmith me. Please go check out the website, pick up the book. Check out the course follow rate review share this episode to as many people as possible, especially those goal minded, goal oriented people, jump on your favorite podcast app. Give us a follow rate reviewers. If you have any guests or suggestion topics, see Jackson or sorry, that's the only mail address. It has now changed to Curtis Jackson 1978 att.net dot Curtis Jackson 1978 at att.net dot thank you for listening and supporting the show and promoter. Thank you for joining us and thank you for all that you're doing.

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> Promod Sharma>Thank you, Curtis, for inviting me. I really enjoyed the experience.

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> Curtis Jackson>For more information on the living the Dream podcast, visit www.djcurvefball.com.

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> Curtis Jackson>until next time, stay focused on living the dream. Dream.