Payal Nanjiani, a world-renowned leadership expert and New York award winning author

Payal Nanjiani, CEO and founder of Success Within Leadership, USA

She has been recognized by the Times Group as the Most Influential Leadership Expert and Executive Coach and by the US media for redefining leadership.

She is the only woman of Indian descent to have been recognized in America for leadership speaking and book writing.

This is the interview of Payal Nanjiani, a world-renowned leadership expert and New York award winning author. She is the CEO and founder of Success Within Leadership, USA and known For Redefining Leadership.

At Sugermint Media, our aim is to bring to our entrepreneurs community some of the inspiring and motivational stories from the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

As part of this endeavour, we invited yet another passionate women entrepreneur Payal Nanjiani, CEO and founder of Success Within Leadership, USA interview with us.

Tell us a little about yourself

Payal Nanjiani: I come from a very loving family- my mother has her education in psychology and my father in engineering.

So, you can gauge that education was of the highest importance in my family. I am helping so many men and women and companies here to succeed. 

So, I did my undergrad, followed by business management. And it’s not because I had a great passion for management studies, but because I got kind of seduced by the hypnosis of society, which is if you become a doctor or do an MBA, you’ll be successful, and your life will work out. 

So, I took that familiar track, and I got myself a great job, to begin with, and I went with the flow of life. Things began to change for me when in the year 2000, I relocated to the US, and I still remember.

How did you get your idea or concept for the business?

Payal Nanjiani: It all started with a question, ‘why do we have so few exceptional leaders in any organization and the world?’

So, from the time I went to America, I observed that despite millions of dollars being spent on training and self-help books, despite being in a business era of readily available information, what causes the wide gap between the few ‘exceptional leaders’ and the many ‘average’ leaders? 

These are some million-dollar questions that businesses are facing a challenge answering. A need has risen to understand more about how we could be better leaders and make it possible to achieve results with both speed and serenity.

And with time, I stepped out of Corporate America. I began doing a lot of research around this one question which became the springboard for me founding The Payal Nanjiani Leadership Company.

What service(s) do you offer at “Success Within Leadership”?

Payal Nanjiani: We offer three very specific services like, Power Leadership Talks, Trainings and Workshops, and Executive Coaching.

I’ve been blessed to coach some of the world’s most successful West and East leaders. I see that both the East and the West have incredible leadership philosophies.

Most people want to follow Western leadership practices without knowing that the West has had tremendous downfalls in their industries due to their leadership style.

So, because of my 21 years of experience in coaching and being associated with some of the top leaders in the West and East, I created a ying-yang coaching and training model that helps leaders gain a global leadership experience and perspective. This equips them with the right tools to deal in today’s global market.

What is unique about your business?

Payal Nanjiani: I think we all have a unique business. There is so much space for all of us here that we don’t have to scramble for opportunities or compete with anyone.

Talking specifically about my company, as an avalanche of change comes to the workplace, because of the co-vid, the way people’s thinking has shifted, leaders must look—and behave—differently.

Work environments, organizational structures, and the motivations behind work have transformed. So, leaders must give more emphasis to creating a culture of excellence in their organization.

My company’s one of the few in the world focuses on helping leaders become successful at leading people and businesses by changing their core behavior and thinking.

Most of the leadership training and content out there in the world today is outdated. Today we have many skilled leaders with functional expertise who get promoted to leadership roles. 

My transformative leadership programs and coaching help leaders operate with a sense of excellence to get to the next level, maximize their leadership potential and be highly successful.

What made you choose this type of business?

Payal Nanjiani: It’s a fascinating backstory on this, and I have the Universe to thank for it. 

From the very early years of my career, I’ve been blessed to interact with some great influencers and CEOs in the world/ I have worked very closely with them and have been exposed to their rituals and practices. And I found that all of these were not openly available in any public domain.

That made my decision to get into this business. And add to it, I’ve always been a people person, helping others to rise to success.

Today, on The Payal Nanjiani Leadership Podcast, I am grateful to have some of the worlds top industry leaders share their pitfalls, their stories, and learnings to help millions of people become successful, which is possible only when you stand on the shoulders of these successful leaders to see ahead.

What was your mission at the outset?

Payal Nanjiani: My mission is simple- my team and I are dedicated to developing transformed leaders who influence, innovate, and implement with speed and serenity in any economy, so that people, organizations, and the country thrive.

How many employees are in your organization?

Payal Nanjiani: In a field like mine, people usually do not grow enough to keep employees. But for me, we are a good team of 8.

What are your company’s goals?

Payal Nanjiani: Goals are always involved. So as of now, I am focused on helping leaders grow successfully. My drive to help people learn how to be world-class leaders even got me started into book writing.

I’ve made it my mission to help people become successful by teaching them the importance of a leadership mindset. I feel my work is most rewarding.

How do you build a thriving customer base?

Payal Nanjiani: If your work and the services you are providing are helpful, you don’t need to work hard to get customers.

And so for me. Most of my customers come through references. And have my team, too, who reaches out to potential clients. 

What have been some of your failures, and what have you learned from them?

Payal Nanjiani: The biggest challenge for me was to get corporate America to believe in my leadership content.

You see, America is a place where people from India are seen as head-down, hardworking people with an MBA or IT degree under the belt.

So, when I first got started in this field of leadership speaking, coaching, and book writing, there weren’t women of Indian descent in America that I was aware of that were doing exactly what I wanted to be doing.

It’s typically a white male-dominated field. So there wasn’t any role model or guidance I could have then.

And eventually, I became known as the only woman of Indian descent to be a leadership speaker and author in the USA. And America is one place where you get known not by your gender or color but for the value you bring.

And so, my biggest learning that came from this is that any challenge that comes your way doesn’t come based on your gender.

Challenges are for anyone who dreams big, and your job is to stick to your higher purpose. When you make a decision keeping your higher goal in mind-there is no confusing. The Universe itself will show you your next step. 

Who has been your greatest inspiration?

Payal Nanjiani: It’s people like you and millions of others who inspire me to move forward. When I hear stories of people who have become successful using my “insider” techniques and how it has transformed them into world-class leaders, I feel inspired to give more and serve more. Nothing gives me greater joy than seeing people rise. 

What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve made?

Payal Nanjiani: One of the biggest mistakes I made was not trusting my abilities enough. You know it can be disastrous. 

If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting, what would it be?

Payal Nanjiani: It would have to be this – ‘work more on developing yourself than you work on your job.’ That’s how you will start breaking away from the pack.

You see, Biswadeep, most people work hard on their business, so they remain average because they soon hit a plateau. I coach hundreds of businessmen and women each year.

And what I always tell them is this- business never slows down; it’s you as a leader who slows down. So it only makes sense to work harder on yourself so that when you raise your leadership level- guess what?

Everything will rise with you. Your income, the number of clients, your business. Everything. But the deal is that you must invest in yourself.

You’ve got to understand the 85% rule here, which simply means that 85% of your results are because of the type of person you are.

Only 15% is because of your functional expertise. So if you want to build upon your dream, then focus on the 85% of you. Read the books, listen to the tapes, attend the seminars, have the conversations, invest in a coach. All of this takes you ahead of the others.

Does your company help the community or society?

Payal Nanjiani: Yes, I believe in philanthropy not just as a word but as a soul of business. And we plan to go big in this soon.

But for now, I tie up with nonprofit women organizations to provide mentoring to them to succeed in their business.

Website: www.payalnanjiani.com 

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