Building Influence, Income, and a Legacy That Lasts with Minesh Baxi

Welcome to Milestone Moments, the show where we explore the journeys that lead to success. I'm Sheila Slick, your host and founder of Five Milestones. In every episode, we will bring you insights from the minds of entrepreneurs, leaders and experts who will share not just their expertise, but the milestone moments that have reshaped their journeys and led to significant achievements. So if you're looking for motivation, you're in the right place.

Subscribe now and discover the milestones that mark the path to success. Welcome to another episode of Milestone Moments in Business and Leadership. I'm your host, Sheila Slick. And today, my special guest is Minesh Bhakse.

Manesh is a TEDx speaker, an author, a business, and financial coach with over 25 years of experience. He's dedicated his career to helping business owners, professionals, and speakers achieve both influence and income. He is author of 12 books, including Network Your Way to 100 ,000 and Beyond, and he shares strategies that empower leaders to build strong networks. attract opportunities, and scale their success.

Welcome to the show, Manish. Sheila, what a pleasure. What a pleasure. Thank you so much.

Let's start with books, 12 different books. Yeah, so do you mind if I share the journey with you a little bit? The mic is yours. Well, thank you, Sheila.

So when I decided to move from being a computer programmer to being a speaker, author, and a coach, I went to a training program in California for two days of, you know, learning about how to become a speaker. And they said to me, Vinesh, you should write a book. To be a speaker, you have to be promoting something like a book. So we had a mantra going, the book, the book, the book, the book.

So then I said, okay. So I came back and then one of the books I started writing was Stop Stopping, Start Starting. And I really liked my title. The problem was, I stopped.

I was like, okay, I got this nice binder, the title, but I really don't know where to go next. And that's when I decided to hire a coach, invested $10 ,000 over a couple of years to learn about how to write and publish my book. And since then, as you know, I published over 12 books. Do you have an 11th one on the way?

No, I have 12 already. Oh, I'm sorry. Gosh, 13th on the way. I have a few already done, but haven't published them officially.

Of all your books, are those your favorite books? Network your way to 100 ,000 and beyond? That was the first one. And that was actually co -authored with another client of mine because I told him the same thing.

Hey, you need to have a book. And he's like, Manish, I agree. I should have a book. So we promote, we, you know, co -authored the book and we helped promote the book.

to a point where he had a networking organization. So we were able to increase his membership, I think double the membership in two years. So really had a great success with that. But again, the book is more like, in more ways than one, it's a place for people to hang their credibility.

And the two things which are easily available from a book, one obviously is credibility. The second is there is a structure system format that people can follow if they want to do it on their own. And if they want help, then obviously if the author is providing that help, it makes it easy. And that is the genre of the books that I have written quite often.

And one of the books recently that my daughter and I have co -authored is Seven Critical Career Skills They Don't Teach in School. I strongly believe every student should read the book because the challenge that we have, and as you know, you've met my family. My daughter is 22. My son is 18.

They're both TEDx speakers as well. And the key part, which I really want to mention here, is that most parents, most schools are not in touch with developing the child to a level that they can compete in today's world. Would you agree, Sheila, on that, especially when you're talking about podcasts? And you know my family's interest in podcasts.

What is your opinion on what I just said? Well, I will definitely agree, and I will vouch that I was very upfront when I met you and said, You've gone above and beyond. I am so impressed by you and your family and all the different pillars that together, I think, is what have formed not just your family, but all of the businesses. They're intertwined.

They complement each other. And we can dig more about that when we start talking about what you do today. Well, the main thing which I think I would emphasize to people, parents who are watching, because I have a podcasting program for positive parenting podcast is what I call it. And I want to help people feature, obviously, their story in it.

But more important to share the challenges, et cetera, they've had. Luckily enough for me, even before I had kids, I decided to homeschool my children. And I had seen what a terrible mess I had created about my own life. And what do I mean by that?

I had bachelor's and master's. And unfortunately, when I went to a career, computer programming, which obviously was a very popular career in the 80s and 90s, and I was doing the right thing, coming from India, got a job to US and all that kind of stuff. But I hated my job because I realized that this was not something which really helped me flourish. And I knew, and after meeting a lot of successful people as well, that there were so many people who had done very well in life.

who had not used their high school diplomas, college degrees, etc. And the reason is very simple. Schools and colleges are totally outdated and not relevant in today's world of equipping your children with the skills that they need. And Sheila, this is my philosophy.

Maybe you understand this philosophy from a very simple perspective. I look at growth in life very predictable. So for example, Around 11 months, my daughter started walking. Then she started talking.

And then obviously she's out of diapers. And then later on, she started to learn like ABC and everything else. They're curious. They want to learn.

They want to play, et cetera. And then at some stage, they're going to have a career. At some stage, they're going to pick a spouse. At some stage, they're going to have children.

Obviously, they'll do other things like buy a house or live their own life. And eventually, they'll reach a point where the children will be grown. So they'll be a parent as well. And on top of it, at some point, they have to look at their life and say, OK, hey, what else am I going to do?

I've done all of these things. So they have to financially retire or be free of the responsibilities that they have with enough cash and whatever else. Sheila, would you agree that those are very predictable stages in most people's lives? Yes.

And with my computer programming, it's almost like you're doing your if and then statements, right? You're predicting. Yeah. So my point is that the stages of development are very predictable.

You know, the sun rises, sun sets, right? So when we are aware the sun rises and we know the sun sets, to not plan for it is not very smart. It's like I say, oh, I want to just go out at 9 p .m.

and have it be all bright. Well, that's just not preparing yourself for the reality of the world. So when I look at any child's growth and I look at my own growth as well, and I say, OK, we must give children the skills they need for every stage of life. So we know walking is a natural skill that people will develop, right, over a time period.

Talking, learning a language will be something they'll develop. So as parents, as an entrepreneur on my side, trying to think as well of the different opportunities is I want to make sure that the skills are present to create for children the most level of success. And what I find the school system and, you know, parents depend a lot on school system and the school system has no courses designed to. pick a career that is reasonably in my opinion just not the right you know there's no real guidance i've met so many children frustrated with schools because they don't have an options number one number two there is no training on how to have the skills that will will remain relevant for the rest of the lives which is the reason the book seven critical career skills and you know they don't teach in school there is no program on how to pick a spouse There is no program on how to be a parent.

There is no program on how to buy a house. There is no program on accumulating wealth, which are being taught in any of the schools. Do you see where I'm coming from, Sheila? Yes.

I would just come back because life also teaches us through experience, right? And I do believe the education doesn't end in the school system. I think it begins at home and it needs to end at home. Because you need to support their journey, whether they're getting educated online, at home.

That's just my perception. I love hearing different ones, but that's kind of what my life has taught me to see is that there's not one way to do something right. True. At the same time, what I would come back to is that there are certain things that everybody needs to know.

For example, walking, talking. having skills which can be converted into income and career, learning how to be parents, learning how to accumulate wealth, and be able to have flexibility and freedom in your life. I mean, those are skills which I think everybody needs to learn, and I like that. And as part of my book, Seven Critical Career Skills, there are more on career side, but in my opinion, there are so many other skills that parents have to teach children, and the schools don't have any structure to teach them.

And my goal isn't to just bash schools here. I mean, I really think schools have a role, but not in my life, in my opinion, okay? Not in my children's life as much because I really don't see the structure of the schools helping them. But I think the most important part is the world is changing at a fast pace.

I think what you've done is above and beyond homeschooling. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate that tremendously. I think the part, and I really commend you for...

You know, being able to see these things, because as you know, these are not accidental, right? These skills are not developed just like you wake up one day and you start learning to swim. You know, it doesn't happen. You just don't wake up and start being a speaker.

You just don't wake up and become an entrepreneur. All of these require thoughts. And needless to say, there has been an effort, a design behind it to make that happen. And again.

None of us have finished products. I have a lot to learn myself, my daughter as well, my son as well. And we are learning and growing in the process. But the part that I think everybody who's watching, listening should be is like, OK, what can I do to create that awareness at a young age for children, as an example, that they are starting to see, hey, you know what?

Here is where the world is. Here are the things which are going on in the world so that I can at least feel that I'm strong enough. I have the skills, I have the belief, I have the right value system to make the right decisions. And hence, I can achieve those dreams and goals compared to maybe not feeling good enough to achieve those goals.

Because at the base, all of us have the same problem. Whether it's Sheila, whether it's Minesh, or my daughter, Macy, or my son, Sahil, my wife, Kim, we all have the same problem. It's called, I don't deserve it. At some level, we all suffer from it.

And that's why where our success is stopping us is because we have that ingrained desire to achieve, but the curtailing desire, curtailing fear is already there. It's like, I'm not good enough, and I don't deserve it. And when we feel that, our actions are more consistent with it, and hence we don't do the things that could get us the results we want. So the sooner we can help children go beyond.

just a few things to learn in life and become more and more open to opportunities which are available. The way I look at it is very simple. If I can teach my children the right value system, the skills they need in life, and the connections, then they can figure the rest out. You know what I'm talking about, right?

Dad is the key. And most of us don't have that structure to say, hey, what value should I be teaching? What skills are going to be important for them? And who are the connections?

So, for example, my son, we gave him an exercise. It's now six months ago now that you should have 500 LinkedIn connections. He has over 500 LinkedIn connections today because that was a desire on my part to teach him how to stay connected with more people like that. So he's growing his Facebook, his LinkedIn.

And again, it's not just about social media. It's about learning to connect because without enough connections and the right connections, especially. you cannot achieve the goals you want because in every case, if you want to accomplish something, the first question you should be asking is, who should I connect with that can help me achieve the goal faster? So you have a podcast.

Your podcast is about positive parenting. So within positive parenting, are these topics that you're covering? So my point is to simply give all the tools, ideas to young parents. or parents who have young children or going to have children doesn't matter the first thing is i believe in faith so i follow christianity and i a lot of my value system comes from being a christian and i wanted to make sure that people are aware that guiding your children through the faith journey is very important because we all need a bedrock of principles and morals and values that are not going to change over time period.

Like love God and love thy neighbor doesn't seem to be very complicated in my opinion. If you practice that everywhere on the planet, it's good for the people, right? So that's like the first thing. The second thing I like to talk about is relationships building within the family, communication, etc.

Because that is critical for all of us to understand that in my case, for example, I love being around my family. My family's home, we are, you know, we live together and have a great time. We spend time together. And one quick point here is maybe how accurate this is, I don't really know.

But all of us have heard of Steve Jobs, the successful pioneer behind iPhone and Apple, right? Now, one of the things I've heard is that on his deathbed, he was pretty lonely. He was somebody who had denied the existence of his own daughter. And later on, I assumed that they had had some men's made up men's and, you know, he was divorced and all that kind of stuff.

So here is a man who was regarded very highly by so many people on the planet who would want his wealth. But I can tell you, I have no desire to have his life because to me, if. God obviously being first, if that is number one, but then number two, your family isn't the one who appreciates you and you don't have a close relationship with people in your own family, I think you have totally failed the relationship test in your life. And then the third thing I like to talk about is entrepreneurship and the fourth is money.

And all for young parents. Yeah, or people who are going to be parents because they can learn now, right? They can learn in advance. What is that one key takeaway that you want the people that tuned in to walk away with?

Well, thank you. The one thing which I would say just easily enough is we always can learn from somebody who has done or achieved more than us. And the growth mindset is the most important thing you and I can develop. Unfortunately, the culture, the school system, and everywhere else forces us to develop what is called a fixed mindset.

What does that really mean? A growth mindset, and if you have read the book by Carol Dweck called Mindset, is all about learning while doing, which means failing is learning. And the moment we program our brain that when I fail, I learn. We know that is learning.

Instead of what happens is most people believe learning is reading, watching, listening, researching, but not doing. So we have developed people who are not very successful in different areas of life because they don't understand that learning is coming from failing. And maybe you can see the book in the back called Failing Forward by Maxwell. That's what it is.

But everybody will say, let me think about it. Let me research it. Let me analyze it. That's not how you learn.

You learn by doing and failing, doing and failing. And that is the only way to learn in life. Thank you so much for joining me today. Sheila, what a pleasure.

In a short time, you become a good friend. Yes, and I'm even part of your mastermind group that you have on Fridays. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that? Certainly, Sheila.

Most of us want to network with good people. That's really what we are looking for. So we have started a very inexpensive paid group for networking on Fridays at 10 a .m.

Eastern. We are collecting speakers, podcasters, authors, coaches, and the group is called Speaker Supporting Speakers because that's really where I started all of this with TEDxSpeak and so on and so forth. But you could be somebody who is looking to develop speaking directly or indirectly, but it is helpful to you to connect with other people. who have opportunities for you, who have connections for you, who have certain resources and skills for you.

And then you can provide the same for that. You can promote your business and you can help other people simultaneously. So you go to FridayNetworking .com at 10 a .

m. Eastern. You're welcome to join us. You can come two times for totally free.

And we have a very special bonus going on for people who want to join us as a paid member. I joined it and I encourage anyone looking to connect with other authors and the podcasters or if you're aspiring because you also share a lot of tips and you learn from some of the people that are also presenting. So it's a lot more than just networking. Thank you for pointing that out.

Yes. So by being a member, like you said, you will also, Sheila, get a spot to speak for 10 minutes and spotlight your business so that others can know more about you. And that's what we are building this community for. So everybody can interact with each other, learn about each other and support each other.

Well, thank you again. And thank you all for tuning in to another episode of Milestone Moment in Business and Leadership. Until next time.