Surviving the Storm: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Amid Personal Challenges

Speaker 1: 0:11

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Emotional man podcast Today. I am very thrilled to have with us Arnab. He's a serial entrepreneur, girl dad and the CEO and founder of Zomalfit. So welcome to the show, arnab.

Speaker 2: 0:24

Thanks for having me, Joseph.

Speaker 1: 0:26

Now, looking at your past projects, your past companies, you are quite the entrepreneur and perhaps you can start sharing some of the companies you've had and what your current project is.

Speaker 2: 0:37

Sure, thanks, matt. I'm not sure I'm quite the entrepreneur yet. I'm still learning and getting there. But I'll start with my history of what I've done and why I'm here right now. So I started my career as an engineer and I worked as an engineer in New York City designing ventilation systems for skyscrapers in the city. Got a little bit bored of that. I didn't see myself doing CAD work all day. So then I started working for then Senator Obama in Ohio. We obviously did pretty well and Ohio was instrumental in getting him to presidency as a swing state. And then after that I hustled myself to get a job from Obama at the Pentagon. So, having an engineering degree, they thought I was a good fit to oversee the Army Corps of Engineers.

Speaker 2: 1:17

I don't think I was very high up, maybe I mean too humble, but there was three of us that was overseeing a $12 billion per year budget and so I don't think I was qualified. I was in my early 20s and a lot of the Obama administration was, I think, really young. For example, I think Obama's speechwriter was, I think, 23 when he first started a reign for Obama. So we were really young administration and the previous person that used to work in my position was 40-something. We got pretty lucky. I had a pretty cool gig and I learned a lot working at the Pentagon for then President Obama, and so my story goes. It worked in the government, understood how the government worked. I think a lot of people don't understand how cool it is and how wasteful it is at the same time, but I got exposure to the White House on a weekly, daily basis. I'd be at the White House pretty often, and so we wrote some pretty cool executive orders for President. We also would liaison with the Hill to work on the next budget, do new initiatives for President, which is really cool for being an early 20s guy, and so that was really awesome to do. I did that for one term, which is four years. I left that.

Speaker 2: 2:28

Then I actually bought a house and I sold that house to start my first company because I really missed the engineering part of what I was doing, which was getting my hands dirty, building stuff, and really my inspirations were people like Richard Branson, steve Jobs, of course everyone's inspiration and so I sold my house, took the money I made for it was about 100K took that seed money, started my first company, which was a.

Speaker 2: 2:51

It was a hardware device and it was a total failure because I didn't know what the hell it was doing and hardware is very expensive and it takes a lot of capital and experience to do that. So we had pretty cool prototypes and we went to China to get things better a fairytruin scale but it just was a failure in terms of getting to market, getting the product market fit. What I extracted from that lesson was there are some parts of what I built that were really cool, which is a software. So I then transitioned the first company into a voice assistant company. So essentially we built like a Siri or Alexa for cars and we had customers like Jaguar, land Rover, hyundai, and so we had some pretty cool companies that they were backing us up and we had investors like Techstars so also Techstars alumni too.

Speaker 1: 3:37

Wow, that's the from skyscrapers, no ventilation systems, skyscrapers to government, to hardware, to software. That is a lot of different areas. Yeah, maybe I've ED.

Speaker 2: 3:52

I don't know what it is.

Speaker 1: 3:54

So what are you currently doing?

Speaker 2: 3:56

Yeah, so now what I'm currently doing is I'm a fitness buff, I love fitness, and so what I'm doing is I'm helping gyms move their businesses online. That means making money online and there's a huge push for fitness to be online. It's an $8 billion opportunity for online fitness. It's going to be a $60 billion opportunity in the next three to four years, so it's a rapid increase in demand for fitness online. That's on Peloton. It's going to be the small and grand, small and pop set out there and so, really, the digitalization platform for these gyms.

Speaker 1: 4:31

And that's a Zomal fit. Yep, zomal fit. And where is that at? So what's your market? Do you have customers? Where are you at in the journey so far?

Speaker 2: 4:39

Yeah, so we started about two years ago. We've raised half a million dollars to build the technology and validate that it's valuable for people. So we have customers, we have gyms that are using it and we're in talks with some larger corporations. So the big block shims. So we are making revenue, we are growing. So yeah.

Speaker 1: 5:00

So, with all these different projects, all these different companies, all these different ventures, what influences that had on your social life and your family life is your self-professed girl, dad, so talk to me a little bit about your family.

Speaker 2: 5:12

Yeah, I think taking the entrepreneur road is it's frowned upon, especially if you're a kind of brown Indian, first generation Indian, and my parents were like what the heck are you doing? You're leaving a coffee job in the government and you're starting your own thing, and so there's some kind of like people look at you strange, like why would you do this Kind of leave your six figure plus job and using this a little different? But it changes you as a person. I think when you start your own company, you do your own hustle. It changes your mentality. It changes. You start trying to make yourself better in every aspect of what you do, whether it's fitness, whether it's like how your relationships are with your friends or family. That all changes with that.

Speaker 2: 5:54

So I did have a, I did get married and I actually am going through divorce, which totally sucks. I wouldn't recommend the divorce part of it. That totally is not fun. But I was lucky enough to have a daughter and she's going to be two in September. So that's that, I think, makes me realize that we're all human in terms of where we have a limited time on this earth and when I'm with my daughter I try to be present, my phone's off. I am very much present with her, but you realize that when you're doing something, the task at hand, whether it's working, whether it's being with people you love you really need to focus on what you're doing instead of being on your phone.

Speaker 1: 6:32

And so, yeah, that's where you're at, so there's a lot of business owners out there. All of us are trying to find what that balance, what that looks like between our work life, our personal life, our family life. You mentioned you're going through a divorce. What have you learned from this whole experience and how do you balance the emotion, the stress that comes from that, while also during the work day?

Speaker 2: 6:58

Yeah, I think balance is really difficult. I think we've seen historically that some of the best entrepreneurs, like Elon Musk or Steve Jobs, steve Jobs has been historically a shitty father. He's a great entrepreneur, he's a great. I'm sure he's a great guy. I don't know, obviously didn't know him, but in his books and his biographies he wasn't a great father. So I don't think he had to balance that. Maybe he regretted that then his life.

Speaker 2: 7:21

But I'm not sure what the right choice is, what the right balance is. But what I will say is I started this almost fit when I was just having my daughter. She was just born, so I didn't sleep very much at all. I was probably sleeping maybe one or two hours a night. I was working quite a bit. I was thinking of my daughter through the night because, as newborns do, they don't sleep very well at night.

Speaker 2: 7:41

So balance, I think it's not about. I think it's about balance is about what makes you happy and what makes people around you happy, because if you're not doing a great job, being a good husband or a great dad, you'll be able to tell your relationships will crumble. With his friends, family, whatever, they'll fall apart. I don't recommend not sleeping because it does take a toll on you, but I think there's no magic kind of number for anybody in terms of the right balance and there's a lot of consultants or people that I know that work really hard nine to five or nine to nine jobs that don't have a great balance.

Speaker 2: 8:17

So it's not just being an entrepreneur, I think it's in general. It's up to you to how to balance and being present in whatever you're doing, and the balance is really a tough one. I think after my divorce I've learned to be more work on self-care a little more Think about myself and realize that burnout is a real thing, especially when you get the stressor of being a divorce, not being able to see your daughter as much. You can't just work through the day and night constantly because it's not healthy. And I think in my 30s, notice learned in my 30s, late 30s now is that having self-care and realizing that you're human and taking a break and getting out of the house and or getting out of the office and really spending time with friends and family sleeping that's really important to recharge you to work even harder again the next day.

Speaker 1: 9:05

One of the things I've found in my own business and talking with other business owners and business leaders there's always a contract that's coming up, there's always a deadline, there's always something to do. Yeah, so when we all talk about taking, we really need to care of ourselves. How do we transition? How do we? What was the mindset transition for you, or what are some strategies that you employ to say no or to say I'll take care of that tomorrow so that you can take care of your personal health?

Speaker 2: 9:41

I'm not too good at that. Actually, having a good team and delegating or having being very organized helps quite a bit. So having putting on fires all the time is not a good way to work every day. It's very stressful. Instead, what I usually do is plan on my week on a Sunday. So on Sunday afternoon or Sunday night I spend the time just figuring out what I'm going to do, what I'm going to achieve that week. Really, this doubt my achievements, and so my days are more predictable and I put in time to work out every day, let's say an hour a day, and so I schedule my time ahead and make sure that I'm not working myself to death.

Speaker 1: 10:14

Essentially, how do you go about that schedule? And how do you, how do you schedule in the time with your daughter?

Speaker 2: 10:22

Yeah, right now it's. I have a set time with her, so I just I have that every other day, so I just make that happen whenever I can, I just make the time work. And because work can pause, the best customers are not the ones that are going to be running away because you took a day to respond or a couple of hours to respond. The best customers are understanding. They're actually probably the easiest to work with because they have the highest need and they have the most money to put into something. So you can take a break, you can spend time with your daughter or your family. That's definitely possible. I don't recommend to Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley culture is to work constantly and maybe even take Adderall and just keep working through the night and day. It's very prone to burnout and it's not healthy. You age a lot faster doing that kind of thing. It's about taking breaks and taking the time to structure your day in terms of work and play.

Speaker 1: 11:13

Some of the especially early on, in kind of an entrepreneurial endeavor. It's very easy to tell yourself as a business owner I get it. I'm working 100 hours right now, 100 plus hours. I know I'm tired, I'm not seeing my family, but just a little bit longer, and then I'll reach that milestone and my family will have this lifestyle.

Speaker 2: 11:36

Yeah, I think ambitious people it's a never ending game, just like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk. There's no such thing as how much more you can do. I think Elon Musk he's a world's richest man. He has many successful companies, but he works really hard. It works for some people. It doesn't work for other people, but I think, like I was saying before, recharging and actually spending the time and being in deep focus for four hours a day is better than working 12 hours a day. That is not deep focus, because a lot of time is wasting time looking at Facebook, whatever it is.

Speaker 1: 12:08

If it's better to have deep focus and not be distracted, how do you combat that thought of I'm almost there, I just need to push a little bit harder? That's very prevalent, especially in ambitious business owners. That prize is always just a little few steps ahead of you. What advice would you give yourself, let's say, a few years ago, to help combat that thought, to give yourself that time to feel, to rest, yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:37

I was like that when I first started my first company just to work and burn out. I think, like I was saying before, you really need to organize your week and organize your KPIs and be realistic about your KPIs. For example, if you have a KPI that you want to make $10,000 more new revenue from new customers this month, then you have to work backwards in terms of how much time you're spending doing that. Really, it's not the amount of work you're putting into the day, it's more about. I saw some wise entrepreneurs say that it's 20% of the work that you're doing that's going to give you 80% of results. Really about planning out what you're going to do that week. Plan out which doesn't have the highest ROI in your day instead of running around with pretty much far as everywhere. It's not very effective. Planning is very instrumental for new business folks. I wish I planned a lot better before planning time being organized. Write out my notes every week. Spend planning. All that stuff helps quite a bit.

Speaker 1: 13:36

In companies it's really easy, especially with KPIs, to recognize whether or not you're succeeding in the market, winning at the game. How do you do that in a family setting? How do you define what KPIs? Would you If you were to get married again or just moving forward with your daughter? What are some family KPIs you think business owners could start looking at or that you would consider?

Speaker 2: 14:04

Yeah, that's a good question. I'm not sure. I'm still learning.

Speaker 2: 14:06

We are all learning I definitely don't have the answer there. I think I can tell my daughter's so young, I can tell what she's enjoying her time with me when I'm there and when I'm present. I don't think you can put a KPI to love or emotions. I think things that are play or love relationships. I think it's about the emotional return you get on investment, and so I don't think people should be putting KPIs to that because they'll be too machine, too robotic. I think it's the emotional return you get that you can feel.

Speaker 1: 14:39

In talking with some of the business owners previously. It's really easy, especially when your kids are asking why can't you spend time with us or why don't I see you? There's that parent guilt that can come through. How do you handle have you ever experienced anything like that? Or how do you handle those emotions that come from the need to Build this business so you can provide for your family, and also the emotional one for needs for your children?

Speaker 2: 15:11

Yeah, I think kids have a reasonable schedule. They have certain, whether they're going to school, whether they have play dates or whatever it is. I think just having a certain time that you have with your kid every single day, whether it's two hours, three hours, whatever it is, and having a consistent schedule with them, that's I think they learn that this is the time with dad, this is the time that, whether it's your shower time, whatever it is, or playtime, storybook time, I kind of schedule those times in and I block those times off from work. So that kind of does help quite a bit. Other times they can't just have to hang out with me.

Speaker 2: 15:45

I get it, they want to, but just like other, like my parents, for example, my dad didn't get to spend a lot of time with him because he worked two jobs just to spend a family. Being a first-generation immigrant, we had a full-time, nine-to-five engineering job, but then he also would be a professor at a school. So he'd spend maybe an hour or two with us a night, maybe exhausted. So time boxing your time with your kids I think is important and making sure it's blocked off from work in your phone away. I think those are good things, that, and I think guilt subsides after you set a schedule. Kids understand.

Speaker 1: 16:19

Yeah, that way you know what you can do and you do it. Yeah, let's talk about the divorce, rocky. Whenever we have struggles in our relationship, especially to those who are closest with us, what effect has that had on your capacity as a business leader, business owner?

Speaker 2: 16:38

Yeah, the divorce was really tough. I felt like I've essentially froze my business for the last six months. I was totally screwed up in my business, totally screwed up growth. I was stressed out. The biggest part of the divorce that was impactful to me was my how much time I had to spend with my daughter. That's the stress of that Totally messed up my time with it. What I'd recommend for people going through divorces or people that are going through stress or every relationship goes through ups and downs, is have a therapist going to see a daily, a workout daily. Those things definitely do help. On the days that don't meditate, I feel a difference. I'm not as productive, I'm not as happy in my work. Those things definitely do help.

Speaker 1: 17:19

What does the meditation do for you? There can be in some companies, organizations, ethos of stoicism, of real men don't have to feel emotions, or real men don't let their emotions bother them. What would be your response to that?

Speaker 2: 17:35

Meditation is not going to work for everybody. Obviously. I really have to give it a chance. I think every generation I think we're evolving as humans. We're not being as stoic in terms of men hide their emotions. I think the next generation is a lot better with their emotions and talking about it, talking through things. That's super important. What meditation does for me is every morning it helps me focus and stay grounded. Otherwise, my brain is constantly thinking about the worst case scenario, stressing about this, that it's going everywhere. The meditation helps me just breathe, focus and calm myself before start the day. I also journal too, so I try to get all my emotions out on paper, top to it on his paper journal. That helps quite a bit too.

Speaker 2: 18:18

I think everyone's got emotions. The most stoic people are the most warm and gooey inside. I think, see, with my dad, my dad's generation was very tough. They didn't have any issues. Was he to have any emotions Like my dad? I don't think he's ever told me he's loved me. That's the thing. But he loves me deeply. I don't definitely know that, but he just doesn't express himself very well. It's because the way he was brought up in India, it just wasn't the way to do things. Everyone's got emotions. You need to somehow have an outlet and by having an outlet you also are able to love a lot deeper in your relationships. What's friends with family, with spouses, whatever it is, with your kids? That's super important, I think.

Speaker 1: 18:59

I love that. I think emotional intelligence I think it's what the term is being coined these days it is rising in the public awareness, especially just for personal mental health and especially for relationships. One of the things that I like to ask, especially in the close of this interview, is if our knob 10 years from now could come back and give you advice today. What are the other some of the things you think you would tell you in regards to balancing work and family?

Speaker 2: 19:30

Yeah, I think balancing work and family I think that's not what I struggle with so much. I think it's more about the stress and the stress taking away from my time with my loved ones. Sometimes I'm so stressed out that I could have panic attacks, or I'm just not there in the moment. I think what I would say to myself in 10 years from now is like it's all going to be okay, be easy on yourself. It's okay to be ambitious and want to do great things, but it takes time, it takes focus. When you put too much on your shoulders, you end up just drowning yourself and not moving anywhere. You're just drowning in quicksand.

Speaker 1: 20:05

There's a lot of other people who are dealing a lot with that stress. What does that look like for you in your day to day? Sometimes it's some people don't realize how much stress is affecting them. What does it look like when you see that stress is affecting you?

Speaker 2: 20:21

Yeah, actually, I had a panic attack last week and I've never had one of those before that. I didn't know what it was. I thought I was dying. Yeah, it's very impactful to you. Like I was saying before, the last six months during the divorce, I was not doing very well in my business. I was stalled out. Yeah, it has a huge impact on folks. I think taking care of yourselves and going to therapy, doing all these different things are definitely helpful.

Speaker 1: 20:48

I think, arnav, thank you so much for your time today. There's a lot of business owners who are in the same seat as you. We're all trying to figure it out. I love the idea of sometimes you just have to time block and allow yourself to be okay with the time that you've allotted and just being honest with yourself with the time that you've allotted. It's also just the ability to recognize your personal health does directly impact your ability at work. Yeah, there's a lot of business owners right now who are still trying to learn that. I appreciate you being willing to share your experience with us.

Speaker 2: 21:23

Sure, Absolutely. I hope that my pain that I've gone through is helping other folks. It's a lesson. If anyone wants to reach out talk, I'm happy to do that as long as I can help. I wish I had more mentors that talked about their emotions versus just talk about work. I'm here for you if you need help. Reach out whenever you need.

Speaker 1: 21:42

Talking about reaching out Zomo Fit, who's your ideal customer right now.

Speaker 2: 21:47

Our ideal customers are gym owners small to medium size gym owners. They have 200 to five customers and they have a brick and mortar location. What they're trying to do is scale their business. For a lot of these folks, what they're learning as scaling the business doesn't mean opening another location. It means making more money online.

Speaker 1: 22:10

How could they reach out to you? Where could they learn more about doing this?

Speaker 2: 22:14

Yeah, they can go to our website, which is ZomoFitcom, z-o-m-o-f-i-tcom. You can Google it. You can also go to websites or on there.

Speaker 1: 22:25

Great Again, everyone. This is our knob. We are so grateful to have you on the show, for sharing your experience, and we will hopefully be able to talk to you again a year from now, seeing how Zomo has grown.

Speaker 2: 22:36

Awesome. Thank you for the time.