We invited Abhijeet Kulkarni, Founder, and CEO at Exuberant Coaching International, for an interview with Most Popular Stories. Let’s get to know about his entrepreneurial journey.
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey as an entrepreneur
I am the Founder & CEO of Exuberant Coaching International, providing my services from Sydney, Australia.
I am a Coach, helping people (especially corporate and senior sales professionals, but not limited to them) overcome challenges in their professional and personal life. The challenges could be Stress, Anxiety, Insecurities (financial/career/personal), fears, negativity, and lack of motivation, lack of purpose in life, lacking clarity & direction, and guiding them to live a happy impactful and abundant life.
I had a well-established career spanning more than two decades at various hierarchical levels, multiple countries and multi-cultural environments. I worked in Sales & Marketing, Finance, Banking, Mortgage, Credit & Operations, and IT Product and Consulting. Despite working in Fortune 5 and Start-Up companies and trying out hard with long working hours for years, the stress, anxious thoughts, insecurity, boredom, lack of clarity & direction towards my career and life used to trouble me frequently!
My mind had already started four years ago, contemplating the idea of starting something of my own, which would offer people-oriented services, as I strongly felt I used to find satisfaction in Giving. Helping, mentoring was innate to me. When a specific situation in my life put me into an emotional shock, I decided to utilize the opportunity to discover and completely redesign my life.
After undergoing multiple transformation programs and consistent efforts, I set myself up the path of a pivotal mindset shift like never before.
The idea of quitting my corporate career and becoming a full-time Stress& Anxiety Coach was born there. After completing numerous training, certifications, and rigorous practice, I started with my own world-class coaching business, offering my services to people.
2. Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
I wanted to reach out to the maximum number of people without any boundaries in place. A Corporate job meant interacting with a limited number of people and helping a limited set of professionals. Entrepreneurship would’ve enabled me to expand my reach.
Helping out people in need is what excites me! Coaching people dedicatedly would’ve been possible through entrepreneurship rather than being in a corporate job.
When you become the reason for the tremendous changes in someone’s life, the sheer joy and satisfaction of witnessing that are beyond words! Coaching someone needs dedication, constant engagement and connect. That is easier to do as an entrepreneur rather than as an employee in Corporate.
3. What was the vision behind it?
There were 2 aspects to this. Social and personal.
Social:-
To reach out to people who have been suffering from challenges in their life and do not know a way out and who to approach to resolve them. That was my problem too !
I knew I had it in me to do something that would help others immensely. But it was dormant or passive, until I underwent coaching myself !
So I wanted to make use of the Technology to connect with people in every country and to educate and make them aware that there is help available out there and I can help them find a solution! To help them realise their life could change !
Personal:-
I realised I cannot spend my entire life just working for paying bills. My idea of freedom was different from others working in Corporate. For the kind of work I wanted to do, that creative, time and financial freedom was only possible through dedicated client engagement. Entrepreneurship would’ve allowed me that.
4. Describe the services that you offer to your customers and in what way they are unique?
I offer multiple programs depending upon the issues a person faces and the kind of customized solutions and duration required to resolve them.
I mainly focus on helping Corporate & Senior Sales professionals (others are welcome too) having challenges in their professional or personal life to overcome them & live a happy, impactful and successful life. The challenges could be Stress, Fear, Anxiety, Negativity, Career/Finance/Personal life, Insecurity, depression, lack of motivation & purpose, loss of identity, etc.
I am 100% dedicated to my clients with my 1-on-1 service. I do this full time and not as a side hustle.
I believe in helping people find a solution by themselves rather than providing them one. This ensures the solution is long-lasting and does not remain dependent on me when a similar issue is encountered in that person’s life later.
My programs offer practical, simple, yet very effective techniques understandable by a layperson. I also offer very powerful yet easy meditation as well as Mindfulness techniques.
My services ensure a person’s challenge is resolved by fusing various proven techniques and customized solutions.
I feel fortunate that people find me genuine, easily approachable, empathetic and trustworthy.
5. What difficulties which you have faced or you are facing?
Difficulties are a part of the business. Foreseeing them and taking steps to manage them is the key.
But there are social angles to it as well. My concern was about adjusting to the Coach life instead of the corporate employee life concerning social interactions. As a working professional, you get to interact with your colleagues without taking any efforts.
But when I compared being in a business against being a working professional, the benefits of owning a business far outweighed the employee life. Besides, I wasn’t now restricted to interacting with just the team I was working with.
6. How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
I specialize in powerful and practical stress defeating techniques. Each time I encounter a stressful, pressure-filled situation, I know where I can draw my ammunition from within myself.
Besides my passion, my vision keeps me determined, focused and on track. Witnessing my clients’ incredible changes in their lives provides me with fuel. My contest is with myself. I have set myself inspiring goals.
There is no time for stress 🙂
7. How do you market your business?
Each one of us has unique qualities. I project my uniqueness in front of people using technology. Since my clients are spread across the world, social media platforms are useful.
Word of mouth, family and friends also contribute. My ex-colleagues of more than two decades find it comfortable to approach me as well.
8. How many hours a day do you work on average & can you describe/outline your typical day?
My priorities decide my schedule, and I decide on my priorities! Sometimes a client needs urgent attention. I keep my other work aside and give my total attention to the client’s urgent needs in such cases. A typical day involves client programme sessions and coaching activities apart from customized plan preparations for clients and other research activities.
9. In your opinion, what are the keys to success?
Know where you are going; set an eagle eye focus. Keep it consistent!
10. What advice would you give to someone starting as an aspiring entrepreneur?
Develop a Go-Getter attitude! Don’t just sit and wait for things to happen. When you want something, you have to work towards it, invest in yourself & learn from those who know it well! Take action!
Connect Here,
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abhijeet.kulkarni.90834
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhijeetkulkarni1/
Email: [email protected]