Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Avadhi Dhruv

Episode Date: August 19, 2024

Avadhi Dhruv is an International Bestselling Author, YouTuber, and Business Guru. She helps leaders of family legacy businesses run their companies in a way that fosters healthy family relationships. Avadhi founded the brand, Avadhi.guru™ with the intention of bringing a holistic approach to businesses.She finds fulfillment in helping entrepreneurs gain clarity and confidence in achieving their business dreams. Through her books and programs, Avadhi helps her clients create and execute on strategic plans for their businesses, where they have unlimited potential for growth in income, freedom in lifestyle, and a deep understanding of their worth as business owners. Her first bestseller, Inner Genius Outer Guru: A Heart-Centered Entrepreneur’s Guide to Unlimited Potential for Growth in Income and Freedom in Lifestyle without Burnout, was a huge success amongst entrepreneurs ready to create real income-generating businesses they love.Today, Avadhi is a thought leader and world leader whose vision is to create a world of abundance and fulfillment by empowering heart-centered, conscious entrepreneurs to take their businesses to new heights. Her clients have included budding entrepreneurs to leaders of multi‐million dollar international businesses who have successfully made transformational changes in their businesses and lives.Avadhi is the Chief Transformation Officer at Prabhat, a global brand and family-owned business with more than fifty years of success. In a few short years, she helped the Prabhat group of companies achieve multi-levels of top-line and bottom-line growth along with the ability to thrive in any kind of economic climate. Avadhi uses her skills and experience coupled with powerful transformational tools to help her clients create long-lasting business results. Avadhi was born in India and attended a residential school, a Gurukulam, which provided an environment of holistic education interwoven with spiritual practices. Upon moving to the United States, she attended Georgia Institute of Technology for her undergrad in Industrial and Systems Engineering. After graduating with honors, she moved to sunny San Diego, California, where she currently resides.For more information about Avadhi, visit:https://www.avadhi.guru/about-avadhi.html.Subscribe to Avadhi’s YouTube channel here:https://www.youtube.com/@AvadhiGuruLearn more: http://www.avadhi.guru/Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-avadhi-dhruv

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of influential entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have with us, Abdi Drew, who's an international bestselling author, YouTuber, and business guru. Abdi, welcome to the program. Hello, Mike. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure. You are welcome. Yeah, I'm looking forward to talking with you because I understand that you have written several books for businesses and I always love, you know, business guru. I want to hear about the path you have taken to become that business guru because I'm certain that you've learned some hard lessons and it's not been an easy ride to the top. So get us started with a little bit of your background and your story. And then how did you get into the of advising businesses.

Yes, absolutely. So just to do a quick recap, my name is Offdi. The second A in the spelling is silent. So it's pronounced as Avdi, and I'm the author of two books. My first book, Inner Genius Outer Guru, is a heart-centered entrepreneur's guide to unlimited potential for growth in income and freedom and lifestyle without burnout. And that one is an international bestseller and is available on Amazon.

And this year I've released, my latest release, my second book, which is The Family Business Guru, which is a secret guide to alchemize conflict into harmony, lead with confidence, and generate profits. So all together, through my books, programs, and my YouTube channel, I help business leaders achieve unprecedented growth along with freedom in their lives so they can experience the ultimate bliss of inner fulfillment. And my clients range from budding entrepreneurs to owners of multimillion dollar companies.

So I actually, more of my personal background, I actually would. I was born in India and grew up in India until I was in high school when I moved to the U.S. And I come from a global business empire that my family has created, a strong family business background. That's inspired by my grandfather who started the empire and then my father and uncle who built on top of it. And then I'm the third generation with my cousin. And so growing up with a strong family business background from India, coming from India to the U.S., and then running multiple businesses here in the U.S. over the past years, it has been an enlightening experience in business leadership. And I've faced financial strain, cash flow issues, the pressure of upholding family traditions. while innovating through my own cutting edge ideas and technologies.

So it's been a balancing act of with the family business and personal ambitions and relationships. It's definitely been challenging and very, very rewarding on the other side of it. And so that journey has taught me that it's possible to respect others, speak my own truth, and achieve unimaginable levels of success. So I'm here to share all of that with the audience today. And also I share all of this and more through my YouTube channel, which I'll mention later. Neat. Yes, I really appreciate that.

And one thing that you keep mentioning is family business. And I remember there's a show on CNBC that I used to watch called The Prophet with Marcus Limonis. and he used to really be hesitant of investing or helping people that were had a family business because of all of those dynamics. What are some of the things you notice when you were working with family businesses and advising those businesses? Yes, I totally understand why actually there's a statistics that 60% of family businesses end up feeling.

And that's really alarming to me. but I'm not surprised. There are a lot of strengths that a family business brings because family members, if everything is done right, can turn out to be the most loyal, trustworthy, and dependable team members in a business. And when their strengths are leveraged appropriately, they can turn the business into a huge like my family has created a global business empire, a multi-seven figure success. And at the same time,

what I've noticed is there are a lot of pitfalls that come with family members being involved and all those dynamics within the business where personal relationships and any strains, that might be happening within those relationships can affect the business tremendously. And so I do understand the hesitation that you mentioned from that show. And at the same time, that is exactly why I have decided and written and published my second book, which is my latest release, The Family Business Guru, because the book talks about all of the

pitfalls that can come and how to overcome them so that you can leverage the family dynamics to create success beyond any measure in a business and create a really like a long-lasting legacy for the family and in the world through the value that the business create. So the dynamics and relationships and how to really manage them in a way that creates harmony in the business is very, very critical. And that's what I've seen working with my client as well. Yeah, that's a huge piece legacy. I love that. And just like with anything, you may have 10 employees that are not related and have issues and you might have 10 family members and have issues.

So talk a little bit about legacy. What is the first place that you are advising your clients on in approaching legacy? Yes, the first place is fostering healthy family relationships and not just family relationships, any relationships in a business, in the team. That it's important for a team and the team members to relate with each other so that they can, can feel like they're a part of a family, even if they aren't blood relatives. But when a team in a business feels like it's a family and everyone feels safe and there are healthy dynamics and healthy boundaries even in the relationships. And especially when there are actual family members

involved, having those healthy relationships that are created through clarity in their roles and healthy boundaries in the business and what the business needs. Those are the foundational pieces that I first work with a client to create that overall harmony in the business. And one thing I notice a lot when there are actual family members involved, because of the spirituality aspect that I bring, That is why my title is a business guru and the books that I've published are part of the business guru's theories. Because I bring a unique approach to my work with my clients and what I do is I bring spirituality together with business where we look at the business and the relationships within the business.

through the spirituality angle, which is not normal in the industry, but I've found it to be very effective. And when we look at the family dynamics that are playing out in the business and put the spirituality angle and look at it from that lens, we're able to notice a lot of different karmic bonds, as I call it, from my Indian Eastern philosophy background, that are are at play often. And what we're able to do is look at those very carefully and unravel those knots that can then now create this whole new level of harmony in the family relationships. That's what ultimately creates this strong foundation for a family business legacy.

So do you get into, in the book, like passing the business on, because I work with a lot of financial professionals that work with exit planning. Is that something that you are teaching your clients to do in your book is planning for the exit? Yes, succession planning. And that's definitely a big part of the legacy, especially me being the third generation in my family's business where my grandfather passed on to my father. And then so interesting dynamic that I face that I tell the whole story of this in the book, is that I'm the only child to my parents and the only daughter.

And being the only child and the only daughter, I never actually planned on taking over the family business. I, in fact, went to engineering school and graduated and got a job in the corporate world and I was going to just build my career separately where a family business and succession was not really my plan but my father's it was the biggest concern my father had is that what's going to happen with this business I've built after all of these years um who's going to take it over and so I always help him find out a successor in terms of maybe setting up the business for a sale.

And so we did that. And ultimately, while I was helping him with all that, I realized that I would actually probably be the best to take it over. And so then we decided that I would be the successor and now I am. And I'm happy for it. But I was resisting that for a long time. So any, you know, listeners who are maybe in that position with where their parents or family has a business that they're hesitant from taking over because of any kind of concerns they have about being able to take over a family business and how that would show up in their career or any listeners that are the father, like in my father's position. that are worried about what happens if their children don't take over the business and how is

the succession going to happen. I answer, there's answers to all of those questions in my book. And I work with my clients to create that succession plan, whether they are the person who is looking for a successor or if they are in a position where their family wants to pass it on to them like I was in that position and they're not sure how they could handle it. I had a lot of fear about taking over this massive business because I wasn't sure if I would be able to handle it. And now I know I am, but there are a lot of concerns that come up that need to be tackled there. So yes, the book definitely touches on all of that. And actually the book is designed to, to,

be a step-by-step process to create what I call a strategic harmonization plan for across generations and succession and creating that legacy for the family. Yeah. Well, that's really important because I think that having, you know, like the author Stephen Covey said, begin with the end in mind. You potentially should have a succession plan early on, right? I mean, not just when you've been in business 20 or 30 years, you should be thinking about the succession plan, you know, in the early years. How soon ahead of exiting do you recommend that to be thought of?

Yes, I definitely recommend. I love Simon Sinex start with Y and Stephen Covey, where he says start with the end in mind. So this book is basically a combination of both of those. And like we need to have a strong why, which is this, which is really important for the foundation. And taking over anything, including a family business enterprise, with the right, like, clear why in mind. And also start with why. I start with the end in mind. I mean, is critical.

That's why thinking about the exit. Now, people sometimes get triggered when we mention exit because, like my father always said, he never, when he entered the family business when he hit my grandfather, I asked my father to join the family business. There wasn't any exit in mind. It's almost like there is an entry in a family business, but there's never, there's no exit. Once you enter, it's like a one-way street. and that's just how by default it was understood to be. And that's what also was my hesitation. It's like once I enter, what if there's no exit?

But in the modern dynamics, it's very important to start with the end in mind as in have an exit plan. The exit plan can be a sale of the business. business. It can be some kind of a murder. It can be a succession plan to the next generation or a team that we create. There are a lot of different creative options that I work with my clients on for the succession and exit plan. But starting with a clear why and a clear strategy for what what that exit may even look like or could look like a couple different options even is really important because then the rest of the growth strategy for the business can be tailored to that

exit plan and then the harmonization plan can be created accordingly so all these pieces are really important and I definitely recommend that we look at that and strategize based on the end in mind from the beginning. Yeah. So do you feel like many financial planners that say we need to have a quarterly review or an annual review when you've set in place an exit plan or legacy planning, how often do you recommend that should be reviewed? Maybe quarterly is too much, but should that exit plan be reviewed annually or every other

year? What do you think? The way that I have the strategic system set up, and this is how I work with all my clients, is that we start with a three to five year or 10 year long-term vision first. So we create a long-term vision, which includes that exit plan or start with the end in mind that in the vision. and then once we have a clear long-term vision, then we break it down into annual goals. So in order to be at this point in three to five years from now or ten years from now, what are the critical goals that we need to focus on this year in the current annual goals?

So then once we clarify the goals for the current year, then we break them down into quarterly rocks, as I call it. So we have three rocks. The rocks are just top three priorities to focus on in the current quarter that contribute towards the annual goals achievement. And so then we have quarterly planning events where we do all day events where we do review on a quarterly basis, how we're doing as far as focusing on the rocks we've identified, which automatically contribute towards the annual goals. and that automatically contributes to the long-term vision.

So everything is connected. And then we also have monthly review where we, every month, we evaluate how we're doing on the quarterly rocks, how much progress we've made on those, which all of those connect to the long-term vision, right? So that's how we make sure that everything we do. And then we have weekly metrics that we track. So with the weekly metrics tracking, monthly reviews, quarterly planning, annual goals, and long-term mission, that entire process is aligned and creates a consistent growth and harmonious relationships and management throughout the journey.

Yep. So begin with the end of the mind and then verify, verify, verify, and stay on track. and make adjustments we're needed. And that's just so valuable. And I think that that really helps that exit plan get executed and then also leave that legacy that you intended because if you put it off too long, then you're rushing around trying to get things done and you don't have enough time and then you make a poor decision. Yes.

The biggest tragedy I've seen and I have seen, and this just makes my heart sink because I've seen family businesses that. the father, let's say the father started the business and gave it all his, like, blood, sweat and tears for years and years. And then at the end, but they didn't plan with the end in mind and didn't have a succession strategy. And then they, you know, got to a point in their life, well, they can't, where they can't, this one person I have in mind couldn't really, you know, do. do all the day-to-day management anymore and didn't have a succession. And they ended up having to sell the business for peanuts versus the value that the business

could have really, like, had for nothing. Almost give it all away, give like all of their hard work through all of their life because they couldn't handle it anymore. And now their competitor just got their entire life's work for free. almost for free. And they just, like, now they're not even comfortable enough to where they can retire freely, but they're just, they had no other choice. And it's, it's just, to me, that person deserved a bigger reward than what they settled for. And I just don't, yeah, as, as long as I can help. I would like to help family businesses so they can actually pass on and retain the

wealth they created through their business within their family and create a massive value in the world and keep it growing instead of giving it away for nothing, next to nothing almost. 100%. Well, Abdi, it's been really great chatting with you and your passion for business owners and family business and your books and all of that. If someone is interested in learning more and then reaching out and connecting with you to pick up copies of your books, what's the best way that they can do that? Absolutely. They can reach out to me via my website.

If they Google me, I'm everywhere. They search by my name of D. But it should show up my website, which is obdi.guru. and I'm on socials, I'm on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and prominently on YouTube. Definitely follow me or subscribe to my YouTube channel. The handle is at Obdi Guru, which is where I have tons of valuable content through videos, healing meditations, to help effectively run your business and prioritize family, especially for family-owned businesses. So I'll see you.

I'll see the listeners over on my YouTube channel where they can interact with me through the comments, but they can find my books through my website, www.offdi.guru, and of course the books are also on Amazon. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for coming on. It's been a real pleasure talking with you. Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure of speaking with you as well, Mike. You've been listening to Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders.

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