Sasha Laghonh: Small Business Reality

Disclaimer: Transcripts were generated automatically and may contain inaccuracies and errors.

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Sasha Laghonh joins us today. She works as a management professional and strategists assisting clients with increasing their return on investment and not just with business, but with relationships and their overall life. Thanks for jumping on today, Sasha. Hi Damian. Thank you for having me. Now you are the one behind Sasha talks and it’s a business and lifestyle design platform that educates and consults in and the realm of management and leadership self-development and spirituality.  

So why don’t you tell us a little bit more about what it’s like to work with you and exactly what you help people with. Sure with how you described it. I will say the Sasha talks is a broader platform as it’s marketed, compared to what it started out. It started out strictly as the special counseling, but site best falls more under the entertainment and self-help categories.  

And. And the only thing that I did was offer a special counseling and sessions on you would say life coaching. And the fact that by audience, that time did not know even through the radio shows cause I would make live appearances and provide that type of counsel was I really came from a business background  

I have two degrees in business. I specialize in management at global management and also a lot of my. Keen interest lies and operation and marketing. So when I’ve walked into an organization, or if I walk into any environment where there are functions, that’s how my brain thinks. So long story short, I thought I focused within the realm of management consulting.  

It offers me a wide array of applying my skill set, but it’s from this is planning business fighting exposition. Coming up with strategies. I have experienced marketing with conceptualization of products and services and launching them in the market, alongside a team. And at times when I want to learn more about any industry, I have no problem going, as you say, a mentee and marking for executive and learning there, there’s the sacrament and understanding how they approach the dynamics of the world of globalization that’d be live in.  

So I. Wear different hats. But the one thing that I do to narrow it down would be the management consulting and the spiritual counseling. So it could be a individual that comes to me for self-development or flooring, their relationship with themselves. And they need to whether they want to improve that relationship or they want to actualize the goal, but they still have to do the work.  

I’m not doing this. And then the other aspect is the organization. Uh, this is this all about there’s so need and you provide a solution and there’s all this going to be needs. And it’s a good thing to have problems, but you want to have good problems where you want to do business that’s growing and you want us to do them evolving.  

And that’s where they’ve been different types of talent, similar to myself to go in and help them at that change in that transition. Now as you help people pull with, with their different, their varying circumstances, uh, you know, as we’re getting ready to jump on, you had mentioned that you enjoy engaging in these conversations on conversations that educate people on the realities of creating and running a business.  

You know, what are the realities of running a business that, that are the more common topics that you come up with as you help these people? Sure. So entrepreneurship. And I met one another halfway because in business school, I listened thinking some entrepreneurial mindset. Of course, when I look back, I could laugh about it, but I was still thinking, okay, I’m going to end up with a nice job in the finance sector, living in Manhattan and life dictate my path that way.  

Thank God. It did not work out that way. So, but entrepreneurship, when you’re working on your own in order to start off. People say I have this great idea, but should I do with it? I tell people there were many entrepreneurs that I’ve crossed paths with. And one thing that they had in common that they can out, but a long list of ideas, many, many, many, and some of them kept notebooks because once you start researching your ideas, we find that, okay, maybe.  

Taken or there’s some variation of it out there in the market, and then it puts more burden on you, but also forces the activity of how will you differentiate yourself out in the market and to the process of elimination. If you have 50 ideas, you’re going to be lucky. If you have that one, that sticks.  

That’s a good idea now. And the idea is as good as you bring it to life, you have to believe in it. You have to put action into. Believe in life and giving it identity out there in the market. And the thing about entrepreneurship is a lot of people think of it. As you get to be your own boss, you don’t have to go to work.  

There’s less structured. There’s a lot of freedom, but it comes at a price. I remember when Sasha talks started out, I was barking part time. For argument’s station and larking probably 15, three hours in just doing spiritual counseling and coming up with ways of acquiring the audience, having an awareness out there that I exist in.  

And I was fortunate because I took the risk of doing a radio show where it was only people calling in. That’s what I did for the entire Avar. So they got to sample some of my. Abilities. And then just start to go out and build a relationship. All of that takes time. It’s not going to be, you’re not guaranteed.  

Hey, checkup, week after you start running your business, you have to be really creative. You have to be able to go through the school of hard knocks. Doesn’t matter how many credentials you have. I have my fair share of credentials, but you have tap life experience. You have to be resilient. You have to be courageous.  

You have to be willing to get bruised up because people are going to tell you, Hey, it’s not a great idea, or you don’t belong here. Your belief in yourself has to be greater than the belief of other people combined. One thing of entrepreneurship that I tell people is be the analyst. Think about it. Don’t take out second mortgages.  

Don’t sell off to the children’s trust funds, just because there was so much in love with the idea you pitched the idea to friends and family, most people who care about you or, and to be nice about it. Not everyone’s going to be as honest. We want to go to objective sources to gauge whether your idea will take off.  

And of course, people who will say not a good idea. And who still believe in it, and it will possibly become an overnight success, but the question for each person out there. Wants to be their own bosses. Are you willing to work weekends? Are you willing to make those sacrifices, to see the longterm results and to get the longterm results? 

 You have to build that really? You shouldn’t ship in that foundation right now and another, I couldn’t go off in many different directions is entrepreneurship is not a shortcut to living. A simpler life because hard work works, but there’s no guarantee of when you will see the payoff. So consistent foods, key reliability is key and it can be treated like a diet.  

One day, you wake up, you’re adhering to it. And another day you go, Oh, I don’t feel like it. I’m going to cheat. I’m not going to do anything. And we day counts at the hour. Count at me. Failure is valuable and it was obsessed with sweeter. But you also have to fail in order to learn. And if people are afraid of failing, just in generally through a lot of the work I do, when people come to me and they want to try something new or try out, go out and engage in dating, whether it’s a personal goal or go out and move to a new state at this, that fear factor, emerging humans, we want to claim to security, but entrepreneurship is a lot of blind spots that will come.  

And you have to learn how to refine your blind spots. A common question that I get asked as I’m sure you do too, is when, you know, when do you make the jump one? Should I make the jump? And I don’t think there’s necessarily a right answer across the board, but do you have a general rule of thumb that you tend to recommend for when to, to take the leap of faith into the world of entrepreneurism?  

That is a tricky question because I of my observations I’ve noticed that some people are, they just want to just jump head first and then deal with the consequences because they’re not happy, but their overall life. So they think that just running some, one aspect of their professional commitment into another, well, it loses all of it.  

And then there are those that have. Bark their entrepreneurial love part time. And for two, three years, and maybe there was consistent income coming in and then they gradually transitioned. There’s no right or wrong answer. I tell people, keep a parachute of resources and ideally it would be nice if you have more assets.  

And you’re not taking out money against your stuff. Don’t write checks. I get body and cash. Some people end up falling in love with the bank. I’m going to go and keep on taking out more loans, more loans, more loans, and then not being practical about how are you going to use the money and how will you pay it back?  

No, you haven’t. Oh, go on. Sorry. No, go ahead. I’m part of just that part of entrepreneurship is not only about coming up with money to start off. Applying your critical thinking ability and being realistic and using your vocally endeavors and your life experiences to bring you far because entrepreneurship, there’s no ideal book out there that will teach you how to be a business person and guarantee you a return on investment.  

For example, I’ve tried out many different endeavors, small projects, by the way, I did them anonymously on the side, just to see, am I able to get a return on investment? Before I try it out through Stasha Tufts platform and a lot of the stuff that I’ve done primarily, but the media, I don’t come from a media background.  

So I allowed myself to hold up, go out there, honorable learn before a live audience. And it puts pressure on me because I know people are expecting their I’m going to show up. And that’s the type of commitment you have to make to yourself. And to the market, it doesn’t matter educated. You are what type of upbringing you had, how much money has come from the market cares.  

Whether you have a solution to a need out there. That’s what they’re going to react to. No common story of success is you see that financial gains, but you hear about people that have materialistic wealth, but a lack of happiness. And you have an interesting perspective where you’re able to help people in consulting on the business side and the personal life side.  

So can you speak to any common denominator that you see with the people that are able to find a happy balance between materialistic success and personal happiness? Sure. So I should clarify that at times I’m talking about money as a tool. Money is not a bad thing because there are times when I cross paths with people and they view it as, Oh, I can’t picture off people.  

Who’ve worked in corporate because they’re all just money driven and really every type of profession or industry or. Lifestyle has the stereotype. But the reality is that the smart people, whether they’re working a job or they’re entrepreneurs, they know the difference between making a living and earning a living.  

And those that are blessed with the resources that wise, sir, they pay it forward and they invest in themselves or their passion that allows them to balance that they’re not. Just to sleep to a third party, just working, clocking in and getting a paycheck. They’re finding value in their overall life and nurturing their relationships.  

Now, for example, I work a lot, so most of my relationships are nurtured through the business. Everybody has to find that. Balance. And I am someone who is ongoing on learning of how to find that balance in my life, because I have a personal life, but I also have a professional life. And where do you find that value when you leave?  

Everybody has there. And also there’s settling point that they had happy point, but they could say, okay, I have enough resources. I don’t have to be working this hypothetical. Somebody’s average will be. I have kids at home waiting, so I’m going to cut back and derive more value in qualities by spending time that I’ll never get back with my children.  

And then there are other people who have that have been interested in that one person will work 80 hours a week and the other one will run the show at home. And if the body has their own formula, so I cannot say, what is happiness? But for me, I I’ve learned that without health. You have nothing and you have to take care of yourself.  

It’s not only about taking care of that nice car that you got or that new home that you want to go out and buy. But what message is your body giving off to society is the communicating that you’re taking care of it, of how you’re surrounding your body, but the right people, the right environment. And what are you putting in your body?  

Because oftentimes there are people who drive themselves into the ground and there is no, no opportunity to rebound. Yeah. And happiness. This is very cliche. And I agree to it because I grew up hearing this, but as I’ve grown adults, it comes from within everything else, outside of us, from people to things, they could supplement our happiness that you have to be happy.  

Yeah, it’s almost like there’s this evolution that entrepreneurs, uh, almost like a Rite of passage where most people, when they’re young, understandably. So they look at the financial success of other people and the materialistic success and, and they, they want that. They want to pursue that. And it seems like the further you get along in life and it more so if you’re fortunate enough to acquire some of those things, um, You started to go the other way and you start to say, I don’t want a lot of things.  

I want a simpler life. And like you said, you want to give back. And it’s, it’s interesting to see that common pattern among nearly every successful person that we talk to. I would have to agree that these now that I think about it in the past five years, but the number of people that I’ve gotten to engage with, they would tell me how the career path started off.  

And then all of a sudden, one day they reached that point where they said, okay, I’m leaving this train track, and I’m going on my own path. And they’re significantly more happier. And it seems that they’re more aligned with who they’re meant to be. And they’re just better human beings. And when happy are we perform better, we’re better.  

We’re better partners, better business people that better friends. And it has a positive side effect. Because the way society is structured, there’s a description or a formula that is typically projected upon most of us at the type of education we need to get the type of job they should get and what we should do, but the resources via acquire in order to put unquote, have a successful life and success, and happiness can only be defined by those who really actively live life.  

And they know the good and the bad. Yeah. There’s a comparison. Yeah, I want to, I want to jump back just a little bit. I mean, you had mentioned your radio program and how you would put yourself out there for an hour and just take inbound calls. Uh, what type of calls would you typically get? Was there a common theme to the calls or were they all over the board?  

They have timed is the common theme to the cost because it was because it was on a third party platform and it fell under the entertainment realm. So people would call in, but the thing was, even though it falls under the entertainment realm, there were day to day, real life people faced in circumstances from a job loss or they have.  

Some bark conflict or some legal issue. I do not meet on legal issues just to make it clear out there. Even though I come from business law background for some, and some people just cling to that. There were people that were aspiring artists from active students sessions, and then there are. Men and women who are coming, but consents regarding their personal love lives, that marriage is falling apart.  

There are not, and then heartbreaking stories where the army by caution, because she hasn’t seen her husband in two years. And she’s really worried that, um, her marriage will just die off because this could. Distance doesn’t really heal in every situation or the mother wants to know, but should I tell my children because my husband and I would have separated they’re young, they don’t understand that they’re asking, will he come home for Christmas now?  

And then there would be tears on the phone that I would. Be listening to other times, there’s a lot of laughter because I think it takes courage and humility. All of us on a human level to laugh. That’s some of the things that we’ve done in life and learn from, and people are brave to share their stories.  

And then there are times where people just call in out of. Curiosity to understand what I do. Or have you heard about this or how would you go about this in this situation? And I always remind people all of the work that I do, it’s subject to the terms of service and disclaimers of Sasha talks, meaning that I am not a licensed medical professional, that I do not prescribe medication.  

I do counsel, but, and I’m not a lawyer, so I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty details of cases that may come my way. It doesn’t mean that I don’t hear it. People out. It’s just, I don’t engage in those activities, but that’s the thing about buddy, you’re doing a live, they just show, or somebody will invite to you.  

And they really, they have these steps point where they can take it anymore. And this one, their hands up in the air and they want guidance. Sometimes I can assist them because for example, I am not a drug addict counselor. That’s not my niche. So I would have to redirect them to another third party. There are times where people have confessed to me that they have engaged in domestic violence.  

And of course, in those confidential sessions, yes, you have to make them aware of what reality is and how they need to sort their matters out over it. They’re going to leave the place in trouble with law enforcement and authority. There are people who struggle with even inside is something that felt my very past I could relate to and I was able to overcome so I could help them transition.  

Certain types of anxieties. And then there are those who have to learn boundaries, believe it or not as adults, not everyone knows their boundaries when it comes to nurturing relationships, whether it’s with a stranger, a neighbor, a colleague, a friend, and not knowing boundaries, but that their physical, mental, and emotional, that bleeds into other aspects of their life that snowballs into  

Problems that grow over time. And how to conduct yourself in a work environment, how you conduct yourself in your love life, or even just children or ms. Society. But, uh, the type of work I do everyday can be different, but the themes would be relationships, professional transitions, and typically aspirational goals.  

I’m on to come out with a music video. And typically I noticed more men come to me with those aspirational goals and women do. When women come to me, it’s usually that guarding relationship. But one thing I could share is that when I used to do that type of radio show, women were more willing to just air everything out to, to hear my response  

Men are more discreet and they think through it more when they want religion. Okay. Relationship guidance, that there were more men come to me in private sessions. And when I started out, I noticed that it was more of a female following and then it kind of balanced out. But as my business presence has Brown, I noticed that there are more men.  

Who take interest in Sasha talks. So it’s always interesting with the type of twists and turns. I take men, men and women follow me, but their interests, besides that in different parts of Sasha talk, no, with all those examples, I’d like to hear more about how you got into this profession. You know, you briefly mentioned that you have a business management background, right?  

Um, and then offline, you had also talked about how having been laid off, played a part in your transition into this profession. So why don’t I give you the opportunity to talk about just exactly how you got to where you’re at today? Yes. So almost a decade ago I was working. Even tired to a decade ago, I was still doing my own part time consulting contract work, but it was in the realm of business when the economy started getting really bad.  

I remember that I got a heads up from corporate thing that we’ll have to put do parties time for Susan and battle could do bandwidth to entertain other opportunities than I had that blessing. Not that I needed it. So I came home. It was a Monday or Tuesday afternoon, and I remember I starting to feel the pressure and I said, okay, I need to come up with a complimentary or supplemental income to put food on the table for the next food is then how am I going to do it?  

What’s what Highlands. What skill skillset do I have that I have not applied and we capitalized upon and I realized it had to do with special counseling. I come from a spacial background, but it’s not something that. Because or share with people other than maybe two or three friends, because they don’t see nearly as someone who is just able to have access to the special realm and be able to hear and see things from childhood that most people are not open to it.  

And you have to be open to it in order to tap into that. So I started doing that on third party platforms. And one of them asked if I had a website. So I said, okay, great. Maybe I’ll just come up with a domain and a one page, just a headshot, which was very mediocre. And one blurb about me of, hi, my name was Sasha and I, this is the type of official counseling I focus on.  

And then it’s. Started gaining traction and it took off significantly faster than I ever anticipated. I looked at it as I need to come up with funds to put food on the table. I didn’t look at it as okay. 10 years from now. I’m going to be talking to Damon about, okay. What happened was a friend of mine.  

Mentioned that Hey, because of to do spiritual readings and stuff on this platform, they have shows you should give it a try. And I was thinking, okay, well, nobody knows me. So I have nothing to lose. And I did, and I was left speechless that, uh, I started off doing two or three shows a week. And then I did one show a week and I was speechless because Rangers who did not know me, I don’t care.  

I don’t think they care. So much about me by this more bad, this lady is going to take my phone call and tell me about my love life. She’s been telling me about whether I’m going to move, but I get married. I don’t beat on life and death. I always tell people I’m human first. I’m not God. I don’t enter that thumb.  

That’s between you and your creator and what, and whatever, and whomever you believe in. And then there would be situations where people would call in and there were jobs scenarios that. Human resources would be working on and they just wanted to gauge what the likelihood of a certain outcome would be.  

And the amazing part is it could be somebody from a newspaper reporter calling me and I have a rule. You have to be 18 and a half. And then there are those that call from college, or there are grown adults. I’m just amazed that a lot of the audience members were usually from their mid twenties going into their early sixties and.  

And demographics to a degree that not matter at that time to me, because I focus on the human condition. I don’t care like culture. You are what religion like your politics are. But I do have, I do have one rule. It’s the golden rule treat people as you would like to be treated. Yeah. I mean, once in a blue moon, maybe when I started out, I had a rule in private session that if you don’t know how to conduct yourself or because not everyone can handle the truth and the message, they might get a little bit emotional or vulgar.  

And I cut the session short, you set the boundaries very early on and it has served me well. Now you said at one point, things started to notice Sibley take off. What do you think contributed to that? Was there an underlying factor or just organically grew? And that growth just happened to be fast. I would say if it’s possibly, it’s just me, the timing, my availability, because I put in a lot of work.  

I would, uh, I would track online foot traffic, but I’m just working on different platforms. So our being a United Kingdom, United States, Canada, uh, Africa, the middle East and Australia. And I would know that during certain, and you have to track it for a few weeks. I did it for about two, three months. So I would look like, okay, did you not go to bed last night?  

But I was talking to clients that were coming to the Sasha talks portal. At that time, I would take a walk in and I would know on which days traffic is Tai. Like Mondays should be okay. Mondays back to work. So a lot of times people are focused on just getting back into the field of things. And then it was started building up from Wednesday into the weekend.  

And of course it was situational. This I’m talking about. Almost a decade ago. And depending on the day of the week is what this holiday Susan is as food still, our children go back to school because those adults and parents are going to be busy with their children. I’m not going to move, sitting, waiting for walk-ins to come during a long weekend when you know, the last week in the floor, back to school.  

And of course I don’t turn my life around that one client anymore. But when you start out, you want to get as many clients with DuPont. Do you want to help us many people, but of course, the time and experience newly fine. Your client, who is your client and the ones that I’ve worked, but now are the ones that are ready to throw their hands up in the air.  

They’re ready to at least hear me out and decide are they going to take it’s now or nothing? I don’t really work with people who are thinking about it because that’s a, it’s a time for me. W I could take their money, but it’s so base of time and I let them know that. And I walked them through the pre screening, which is a few questions and maybe a preliminary phone calls before I even invoice them, because it is important to me that they know what they’re committing to. 

 Even if it’s one session or part of a food session. The thing about entrepreneurship or bringing any goals to life is that the individual has to do the work. Um, believing in it to action. And even if the outcome is not ideal, you keep refining it until you get the outcome that you want. But you also have to know, I think this comes with time and experience when to walk away from something that might be a bad idea for you. 

 Yeah. That’s, uh, something that I like to emphasize, especially for newer entrepreneurs. Cause as you said, when you first start, you kind of want to take on as much business as you can, but you reach a point where you realize that, um, You know, the way that I like to phrase it is I like to sleep at night and I don’t want to just, I don’t want to just cash everybody’s checks, um, because you realize that there’s a certain fit where you can perform better and provide a better value for that client and maximize, you know, the financial component that they’re investing in you and I.  

I don’t think that, uh, you know, it’s probably a Rite of passage as well in the, in the business world where you have to realize that, because it seems like everybody has to go through the money, grab a first, put food on the table. Um, but yeah, I think it’s important to emphasize that at some point you got to really dial in who you’re helping.  

Right. It’s a good self-check because we want to conduct your work with integrity and dignity intact. And yes, there have been times where I, I do turn down people and they’re not happy about it, but I, I know what I can do for them. And I know what I’m not going to do for them because that’s not what I specialized in and it’s put up.  

Of course I could laugh. As I shared this specimen, I started out, I’ve given up a lot of my Saturdays at different Starbucks and you are hearing people out, but their ambitions and goals, and I would catch myself saying you care more about their outcome than they care about their own outcome. And that’s fine. 

 I started going through the process, the screenings and putting in more filters too. Attracted by clients. And of course, the time as you interact with other people. And I also learned from my peers out there in the industry that picks my interests. I look at it as I wonder how they go about the onboarding process, for example, a few years ago. 

 And I was inspired to start implementing a few things that work for other professionals and they came onto it through their own experience. Where you save time, resources. And once you go to the school of hard knocks, you realize, okay, that other person isn’t that crazy. They’re not harsh to their clients. 

 They set the boundaries upfront, and it’s a good way of setting a foundation for communication and working together. And I think. I view myself to be a little bit polarized in the binary that I don’t need too much. I don’t need much from as the gray area, but I will do for a person or organization. I let them know this is what I can do really well. 

 It’s just something that we could work on together. And this is flat out. No, and then you have to be honest about it and because 24 hours in a day, I reached a point where I get a lot done because I know so much. And I’ve been doing that for a few years now. And that’s how I even made it this far. Yeah.  

The more successful IP, more successful people. I see, um, tend to say no more often in the business world and even in the, even in the personal world, the more happy. Uh, many people are the people that learn to gracefully say no. Yes. Because people think that they might have good intentions to say yes, we want to help everybody.  

But the reality is, if you don’t take care of yourself, you’re going to run dry. And there’s no reward for it. And then you can’t complain that no one takes care of you or has asked you how you are doing it has to be a reciprocal relationship as I have talks now. And then with people, it’s just me. I mentioned even good people have people engage those that are engaging, but if they keep on knocking on the door and it doesn’t open mothers in the realm of communication or working together, A small portion. 

 That’s going to move on just like that. You need to have a healthy relationship with your spouse, that people will be knocking on your door, but you don’t have to answer every time you hear that knock. Yeah. Now you’ve, you’ve taken a lot of this experience and authored several books. What topics do these books cover?  

So in cashing karma, it just was, I would say more of a starter book that came along because is that the culmination of a lot of questions that I would get beyond once people came to learn that I come from a business background and I should talk about the kinds of layoffs that I’ve endured and the type of work I’ve. 

 Entertained. And it’s all respectable work, whether you are a consultant on your own right or contract on your own, right. Or you’re working through your own company through a third party, whether you’re at temporary, a temporary, how do you go about finding it opportunities? So I touch upon a few strategies of how to market yourself out there, how to find opportunities that are more aligned with who you are. 

 Knowing how to market yourself and having the right mindset. Because many people that would at times call into the show and say, Sasha, there were no job fair. I’m doing everything in my ability. And I can’t get hired. Of course there are times when people call into the show and they don’t dispose that they were fired for stealing money. 

 They don’t get themselves away. So have to handle your Southern sensitive situations and how to avoid. Falling trap to those types of behaviors. So what are you doing? I thought that accountability back onto them, the original out there in all of my books. So the second one how to do, but departures, the pressures focuses on a few life essentials that we need to make the effort in order to move forward in life, having a better relationship in ourselves.  

So I cannot recall all of the variables off the top of my mind, but the one thing that I do stress about is, uh, Building a healthier foundation with yourself taking care of your body and your environment, being mindful of the company that you keep being able to clear out the energies and the toxins. In your day to day life relationships.  

Why are relationships very important? And it’s not about me, me, me, but how you play an integral part of society and how on a local level, it all comes back to you that the law of karma. And then I also focus on communication, influential communication, the challenges that organizations face, the challenges that is just among speculative in management and how to.  

Build a bridge among people as individuals and within the organization, if you happen to be a manager or executive or leader, because there are times where there is great talent out there and management in executive leadership, but they lack the soft skills or the flexibility. The mindset and understanding, Hey, I have to make more of an effort, even though it might be a bit of an introvert or on breath around my edges.  

I think eight people have called me out on my questionable behaviors. Not all could we move on? So when I come across those types of challenges, how do you trudge through them? And it goes back to accountability. There are. I would say I have a full of talented people that I know out there, but if they could run the world, but their eyes closed, the only thing that will keep them from running the world.  

But the, the fact that they are not in to growing as people, when it comes through communication and making that effort with people, because it’s all about them. And I tell them, I don’t care about type up the needs you had, what type of trauma or anything you dealt with those setbacks supposed to serve as his story to where you’re supposed to be going.  

That that’s are in the past. And it’s a set up to get you to where you should be going so you can fight victim and then demand that universe to give you all of these nice things in life and attendance. I hear that from growing adults.  

Now, in addition to writing these books, which having just finished writing my first book, I would consider authoring several, quite an achievement, uh, beyond that. What other great achievements, you know, w what experiences or achievements do you feel have been your greatest? I would say most of them are tangible.  

It has to do with self development and giving myself a chance. And I just work in food. I would say probably should I had some childhood because I joke about it. I I’m in the people that I do, spiritual readings, I do, uh, consulting counseling for people. And the thing is I crossed paths with people from all different walks of life.  

And then the funny part, I guess, would be that. Since childhood people all creeped me out. The whole thought of other human beings was I don’t get, why am I here on our, and of course until my teen years, I was still more of an introvert. My side was around those that I was close to. And I think through my professional career, I have.  

Evolved into where I feel, okay. Now I fit in to who I’m supposed to be. And it’s not because society expects me to do, to do what I do. Like for example, everything that I’ve done, Sasha talks, I didn’t do it because somebody counseled me or told me to do it. I did it on my own terms. There are times where I’m very out there and even I get sick of my presence.  

And then there are times where I could go six to nine months off the circuit, but I’m working on projects. That have to do with fighting and learning myself and teaching other people. So for me, would be giving myself a chance. And that’s one thing I tell people when they come to me with a relationship fears, I said, it’s not all just about giving the other person a chance or giving that other opportunity that comes in your later attempts.  

It’s about giving yourself a chance. Are you willing to take that leap, take an educated leap. And are you going to make that effort and you don’t know where the path will take you? No pun intended given what I do for a living, but that is what I encourage people to do. I do not alone. A lot of people don’t take the first step because they’re afraid of fear.  

I happen to be the black sheep of my family. I’m a, I’m a risk taker. Everybody else in my family has taken the safer path of having that. It’s a more of a cookie cutter life. And I’m the one you might not know where I’m going to be calling you from next month or what new project I’m taking on. And of course you take calculated, educated.  

You don’t just jump out plain. As speaking of jumping out of a plane, I have done the dive diving. I would encourage it. Uh, I’m on the fence on that one. I think, I think I’m, I’m 51 49 where I’ll do it someday, but I always joke that I want my kids to be old enough to remember who I was.  

I challenged myself every year. I’ve, uh, I, I give myself a challenge of go out, try new things, speeding up. To like one week prior to my birthday. And I think it was a year ago to where I said, I’m gonna, I’m going to go sky diving. I been, I thought about it maybe one week leading up to it and I booked it because instead of you don’t book it, you’re not going to show up.  

That was one of the things I’ve tried. But the thing is be open, be mentally open. There are people who you say they’re flexible, they’re flexible in their physical reality. Uh, I’m giving you all these things. You should have. You have enough to work with those things are great, but they have no value. If the person giving them to me, lacks the flexibility in there.  

Mentality that mindset of being open to giving people the benefit of a doubt, knowing how to work with people, being more accommodating person and communication, and everybody accommodated to some degree. And by accommodating, I’m not saying you have to like what I say or you agree to what I say, but you have to know that people come from many different walks of life. 

 There’s a lot of information that you don’t know because. It will be disclosed. And there’s a lot of information that people don’t disclose because it’s not appropriate. It’s not needed for that audience. That’s why I wake up every day and I tell myself, go out, just be a good person. If I could make someone stay better.  

Why not? Within my loosened moldings and not to be that straw that breaks the camel’s back back. Cause you don’t know what people are going through. Right. On on the opposite side of achievements, I think our listeners often have a lot to gain from what our guests have learned from rougher points in their career.  

Do you have any hard lessons that you’ve learned along the way that you’d be willing to share? Well, and this, I think it’s always, there are twists and turns. You have to know when to cut your losses short, whether it comes to the type of opportunities to engage, whether you’re working for yourself or a third party.  

You have to be honest with yourself, are you there for the right reasons when you take opportunities? Sometimes early on, I noticed that a lot of people just chase the money. They choose the money and I tell them, and this is something that I was also told midway through my career path thus far, that become so good at what you do, that the money will choose to view.  

And once I shifted my mindset, And started focusing on me and refining what I do well and what I want to learn. The money started, the direction of money started following me. And then you have to also be, you don’t have to sell your soul to the devil in order to consider yourself successful. I like to have a balanced life.  

I like to live a very lean yeah. Life on a lean budget. So I have more flexibility. Walking away from opportunities that may, that I may have taken up and I go, okay, it’s not everything that’s cracked up to be how it was marketed and what it is. It’s not aligned with who I am in the present reality.  

Therefore, I ha I can walk away from it. And the reality is we all have obligations and we’re all anchored down in some capacity, but give yourself the freedom to say no. No, it’s not a bad thing. No is a powerful choice, but you also have to make decisions and maybe life in a way where you have options.  

All of the options that I have in my life, I would say in the recent reality, I have worked my butt off to even create those options. I may not exercise them. But it’s good to know that you’re not, you’re not being bound to one situation. And that is one of the lessons that you learn with time of knowing when to cut your losses, short, being mindful of the company.  

You keep, as you continue developing yourself, developing and perhaps professionally developing the type of company that you surround yourself will shift. You might notice that some people grow apart, some people go together and then they’re out of the blue. There was going to be people who come into your, and if they’re very smart and they’re very generous with their time, take advantage of it, pick their brain because it could be your mentor.  

And also as good things happen. They might not happen back to back. It’s like you have to go through the bumps and failures, they make you more humble. And they also remind you on a good day to show your gratitude that pay it forward. If there’s an week really about it, eventually that. Energy of inbound blessings, spill phrase. 

You want to keep the energy flowing around you and through you. So whatever you do, and this is something that my mom has taught since, since I was the kid was keep a soft heart. Now that’s. Great. And I have been able to maintain that sometimes a bit too much because when I do that, of course, I am vulnerable behind closed doors that I get the short and the sticks.  

So regardless of how many times you fall or UCL, somebody was unfair, but you key part because without a heart you’re not human. And yes, sometimes we get beat up more than we need to. But when you feel the pain, you also have that depth of welcoming the joy. Fair enough. Now, as we get closer to wrapping up here, I want to touch on one more thing.  

I’d asked you offline. What would you tell your younger self? And you mentioned two things. You mentioned focus and don’t panic. Can you elaborate on those?  

Okay to tell Todd has fast. The one thing. Was I always Pat that list or being focused of one day, I’m going to be known for the type of work I do. I didn’t know what it would be. And I still believe that kid in me looks at it as maybe it’s 20 years out, who knows, but I’m on that staircase just climbing upwards.  

All I knew was, would take a lot of hard work and it would be. I would be doing it alone. I will not say lonely because at times I do a lot at work I’m alone, but I don’t feel lonely. The hardware doesn’t intimidate me because in my blood just can’t fake hard work either. You have to have work ethic and you can refine it.  

Some people learn it, but they don’t feed into it. For me, it funds my blood cause work is what I, I know. And knowing that do not get that. I have the support system that you will need to get to where you are because it’s like running a marathon. Not everybody runs at your pace. Some people will pass you by and many will look at you as not running a marathon.  

That’s not my thing. And the other thing was don’t panic death. Oh my God. Then I looked back at my late teens and my early twenties. I used to deal, but in society and my five eight peaked during my early to mid twenties that it led to burnout and there’s nothing. It’s hard to say that in you’re 24 years old, you dealt with burnout that don’t panic.  

And part of that inside, it would be because I need to get all of these things done. And I was living my life as I’m only going to live till 40, and I need to check it off the list. And I looked back and I thought, my God, how did he, even in that mindset who talked you into it? I don’t regret all of my achievements, but pace yourself.  

If you asked me if as a destination, I would say check, I did it. But if you told me how it was, if you asked me how to journey was my mind, but go blank. And it was about, you need to learn to enjoy life. Now, the journey matters more than the destination because you’re enjoying the journey. You have the power to shift and change the destination.  

So outcomes are not set, but it is important that you have a vision and you feed that vision by believing in it and putting action behind it, because the difference between a vision and the dream would be a dream, a stream. So you could fantasize about it, but the vision. Do bring it to reality. So yes, I would say focus and focus means it might mean you need to remove people from your path.  

You need to bring certain types of people in your path to line to grow. It’s not a one man show, like they’re all part of society. And I know it’s taken by the Leo village to push me forward here. And I was my biggest resistor. Of, I don’t know when the time is. Right. And then you realize that when you have no options and you have to come up with food on the table, you really start challenging yourself and thinking outside the box.  

And when I look back, I don’t feel bad for all of the layoffs I’ve had. They’ve made me a better person in the process. The emotional need to be a better business professional and helped me refine my skill sets so I could help other people out. But when you go through a bad day, right failure, you don’t think that way, but as, as long as you keep get up and keep on walking full bird.  

It is therapeutic, but it’s also self healing. You have to heal yourself. Cause people say time fields, maybe to a degree, time may heal. But from like counseling clients, I have learned when I met them initially that they haven’t healed from events that happened to them 10 years ago, 17 years ago, because they’re still stuck in that moment in time.  

Thinking that they’re owed an apology or they’re victim. And if you feed that story, it will just continue. So you think we all have to learn how to get out of that victim mentality and become a Victorian easier said than done. But again, accountability, I would want great changes for all of us. Like you need to wanted more than I do.  

Cause you have to put in the work, you have to live at the side effects of it. Good and bad. And you have the power to change it. That’s why I tell people being grateful. So I do have, I know how it is to be on both sides of the fence. You can have everything, then you need to have nothing. And I liked the feeling of it being the middle because it’s more humbling and it allows me to.  

Feel more at peace, find out what is a good spot and can you live with it? Yeah. And everyone’s different. So it’s important that you don’t compare yourself to other people because you don’t know where they’ve been and where they’re necessarily going. And, and in some ways, really the only person you’re competing against should just be yourself, you know, improving the person you are versus the person who you have been.  

Now Sasha, go ahead. Go ahead. Now I’ll give you an opportunity to reply. No, I shouldn’t say that. Don’t compete with others. For example, I’ve been asked the question of who did it, who’s your competition. And I often go, and I know it sounds, I love that hokey pokey through people, but it’s fine past performance because if I’m bringing myself out there, unless there’s another Sasha of in my DNA, but the good and the bad you have to like sports, you have to practice every day.  

So you’re ready for that competition day. I like it. Sasha Laghonh, Sashatalks.com. Uh, any other contact information you want to put out there for our listeners? I am good for now. People should go to Sashatalks.com. Click on the contact page and drop a hello. Well, Sasha, I appreciate your time. Uh, last thing before we go is I surprise our guests with a random question generator and you have the privilege we’ve made this very formal.  

Now we’ve made a jingle and you’re the first person to hear the jingle out of it. So here we go.  

Wait, I had to come over with this jingle No, I’m fine. The, you might not be able to hear it on your end. Could you, could you not hear that? Come through? I did not hear it. Oh, it was so great. It’s so easy to robotic voice. I hope our listeners can hear it. Kind of like, wait, I can, I can sing. I can dance jingle on the spot.  

No, no. So your question is, what do you think your life will look like in 10 years? 

 I will see. Okay. Well, I’ve had two experiences that I am open to what life has in store for me 10 years from now. As long as I continue growing, I have my health. I will be working and going out there and speaking to more people. And as I continue acquiring resources, I would like to do with more awareness for social causes out there.  

And any specific types of causes you like to focus on or, or just the concept in general, and historically I’ve focused on, uh, I would say, uh, poverty, children and education, and I’m expanding into the realm of education, technology and teaching. 

 I like it. Good answer. And that will, I hope that I hope it goes where you hope it. I hope it goes where you hope it should go. Yeah. Time will tell that I look at it as whatever you and I are doing over a span of the next decade. It should be forward and onward. I agree. I’m right there with you, Sasha Laghonh, everybody.  

Thanks for joining today. Thank you.