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Introduction 0:01
Welcome to the #PirateBroadcast™, where we interview #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings. Where you can expand your connections, your community, #kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree. Let’s get this party started.

Russ Johns 0:02
It's a beautiful day for the #piratebroadcast™. We're here having a fantastic morning. I hope you are, as well, whether you're listening to this live or later, just leave in the comments #later, if you're going to be watching this in the future. You can always find the replays at RussJohns.com. Thank you so much for being here in the pirate community. If you're not connected with us, get connected, reach out, all the guests become pirates. You're now a pirate.

Sukhdev Krishan 0:53
Awesome. I'm excited to be a pirate.

Russ Johns 0:56
So we have Sukhdev here. Is it Suhdev?

Sukhdev Krishan 1:03
SuhKdev.

Russ Johns 1:04
Sukhdev. I just want to thank you so much for being here. We're going to be talking a lot about things, we had a couple of conversations now. We're going to be talking about creativity, resilience, and some of the challenges of life and how we can overcome them. Just a little bit about being better than you can be from the person you were yesterday. Let's use the challenges to kind of bring us to the next level. So how are you doing today?

Sukhdev Krishan 1:40
Awesome. You know, it's six o'clock in the morning, here, I was up at four, just a little bit after four. So I get started early and I feel like I get more done when everybody else in the world is sleeping. I feel like I got that little bit of a head start. So it kind of gives me that little nudge to create.

Russ Johns 1:59
It's funny because Arizona doesn't do daylight savings. So half the year I'm in Pacific Standard Time and half the year, I'm in Mountain Standard Time. A lot of people have booked...I'm booking December now, for the #PirateBroadcast™ and the guests. We're coming up on 300 episodes. It's just been an amazing journey. So I thank you and applaud you for being a pirate this morning and getting up and moving around and getting your day started early. I appreciate that. So we had talked earlier about the idea of how we've both been through some tragic times and challenging moments in our life and walk people back into your story about kind of where you developed the things that you're doing right now and why it's important for us to understand about you and what you're doing today.

Sukhdev Krishan 3:03
Okay, so I'm gonna rewind like 20, maybe a little bit more than 20 years. I was working, I lost my job, I lost the place where I was staying. So essentially, I was kind of like, I guess homeless. I wasn't homeless, homeless, but I didn't have my own home anymore, because I couldn't afford anything. I lost my job. Luckily, I paid off my car when I was younger. I started working when I was 15-16 years old. Even that was breaking down, the transition was going on and stuff and so I ended up moving back in with my parents. After about six months of living back at my parents' house, I kept thinking to myself, you know what, I thought it was a good person. I was doing the right things. Now I went to this depression, anxiety, all the stuff started and I didn't feel normal. I'm like, this doesn't feel like me. These are weird feelings. I don't know why this stuff is happening to me. Then it just got worse and worse and worse.

Russ Johns 4:04
Was it the feeling of like, this is not where I'm supposed to be? Or was it feeling that is this is not who I am?

Sukhdev Krishan 4:14
A both a little bit of both. I felt this anxiety because I felt like I didn't have control in my life anymore. The depression kicked in because I was like, hat am I doing today? There's nothing. I'm not going to a job. I wasn't even looking for a job. The way I looked then, I probably looked more like a pirate because I let my beard grow out. Then I remember I was in the bathtub and I was like crying. Or in the shower, just crying and I thought this like really sucks and I thought I had two choices: I can either end my life, or I could do something. I didn't feel like I was gonna get any lower. So I thought I have two choices, either to end it, or I have to set some goal and not think about other people. Set a goal for myself and when I share this goal, people are gonna think that I'm crazy for wanting these sort of goals. So, I decided to become a millionaire and I went for money because I was broke and poor and all this stuff, at the time, I didn't have any money, you know, borrowing coffee money if I did go out, which I hardly ever did. So, I decided to become a millionaire. I got out of the shower, and I put myself in that zone. I wanted to use real estate as my vehicle to get there. So I started looking at real estate. Long story short, I gave myself 10 years to become a millionaire. I thought, well, I have to give myself some time. But every time I share that story with my friends, or family, people would be like, oh, yeah, good luck. Like, it's not gonna happen for you. Long story short, I ended up doing it in five years. So my 10 year goal I reached in five years, then everybody wanted to know, well, how did you do that? Then they got interested. Even a few years before, because I bought my first house, I think six months after I decided to set my goals. The second one, I bought six months after that. The third one, it was a year after that. Then it was one every year. So now, fast forwarding, up to five years ago, I was working at the number one bank in Canada. I was winning awards and doing really well. I was mentoring and coaching people the other stuff. Then on my way to work one day, I was involved in a car accident. I hit my head and all this stuff, because I was like, I called work and I was calling my boss. Her name is Teresa. I was calling her my name. You know? Hey, Sukh, I'm gonna be late. This is what happened. And she's like, laughing at me. She's like, you're Sukhdev. I'm not Sukh. Definitely. And I'm like, Oh, yeah, sorry, Sukhdev.

Russ Johns 7:30
You were just getting her a little confused.

Sukhdev Krishan 7:31
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I had a concussion and stuff. I must have been knocked out for I don't know how long because when I was stepping out of the car, there's already a firetruck pulling up behind me. And I'm like, was this guy just driving by? How did he just show up so quick? So anyhow, I was going to physio and all this stuff from the accident and trying to get over these things. When your routine gets thrown off, anxiety and all that stuff kicks in again. Because I was going to the gym five days a week, I'd show up at the gym, right when they're opening the door and get my workout in. I felt really good about it. Yeah. About five, six months after that, I started a gradual return to work. And on my way home from work this time, all this traffic was lined up, and then this lady came flying behind me, and boom hits me. I'm still going to treatment for my first accident and then this just messes me right up. I got out of the car and I was like, why is this stuff happening to me? I was talking out loud. I'm asking somebody or something out there, like the universe can hear me. Why is this stuff happening to me? Why me? It was almost like a victim mentality. So I started feeling all these negative feelings again. I thought, you know what, this really sucks. Life isn't going my way. I was such a good person. I was doing so well. And you think about the things that you lost. When you're in that situation, you're thrown into it. You think about the losses instead of what else it can mean because you don't know any different, right?

Russ Johns 9:22
Well, because you work so hard to achieve something, acquire that, that you don't know what you're doing next, because it's it's like, okay, now I'm in another car wreck. I'm already healing from the first one. It's just ridiculous to think, okay, well, what's gonna happen next?

Sukhdev Krishan 9:46
I started feeling all these similar feelings that I felt 20 years earlier and they were so clear to me and I almost went back to that day in the tub showering and crying. So I thought, what did I do last time I felt this way? That's how familiar that feeling was that it put me back to that time. So I asked myself that question, what did I do last time? Oh, yeah, I set a goal to become a millionaire. Because I ended up losing, this is five years, I lost all my real estate, I ended up keeping one. So you have all these losses.

Russ Johns 10:38
You have something, you lose something, you have something, you lose something.

Sukhdev Krishan 10:43
Yeah. All my houses...all the investment properties that I had, they're all gone. Lost. Because I couldn't keep up with anything. So I asked myself, what did I do last time? I set a goal to become a millionaire. Okay, I have to set a goal to become a millionaire, and I'll feel better. Because at this point, I'm not a millionaire now. So I'm like, okay, I'm gonna become a millionaire and then I'm like, hold on, I'm not gonna do that. I've already done that. So that's not a challenge anymore. I'm gonna do 10 million. Then I'm like, no, I'm gonna do 100 million. Then I stopped and thought about it. Money isn't gonna do it for me. That's not fulfilling for me anymore. Because I set my goal before when I was broke, and I know how to make money. I've already done it in the past. So I made a goal to impact a million people, a million plus people, because I want to impact more than a million people. So I thought, okay, well, how am I going to do that? When you start asking yourself positive questions, you look for positive answers.

Russ Johns 12:06
Say that, again. If you look positive.

Sukhdev Krishan 12:10
When you start asking yourself postive questions, then you look for the positive answers that are going to help you get to where you want to get to. I made it about people and serving people and impacting people in a positive way. I thought, how am I going to do this? I'm only one guy. So I created cCreative Discovery Group. Even though, I was just the one guy, I had it in my mind that this is going to be a community of people who want to do good and want to impact the world in a positive way. So the one guy was a group at that time. There was only myself, but I had the vision of creating, right?

Russ Johns 12:51
You're an army of one.

Sukhdev Krishan 12:53
Yeah, yeah, yes. I ended up creating Creative Discovery Group. I took life coaching courses and whatnot. It ended up becoming this huge thing and now we're spread throughout 12 different countries, we have close to 40 coaches. Some of the work we're doing is we're providing solar panels and batteries for...there's a war going on in Yemen for the past five years. So we're providing the village with power, or also another company reached out to us. We're doing coaching and consulting for teachers and students in Ghana, Africa, because of COVID and the way people are feeling out there. So, we made it about people. I figured, if you want to make it about people, money is gonna come. If you know how to do stuff, it's gonna come to you. It's a byproduct of what you're doing. If you're chasing money, that's only going to get you so far. But when you make it about people and community and doing good work, then all the other stuff, it sort of lines up for you.

Russ Johns 14:10
Yeah, when you add value, when you're adding value to the world, it just seems to show up in a different way. I think that energy is completely different. It's really important for people to understand that and it seems to some people that haven't experienced it, kind of counterintuitive, because you think, well why wouldn't I go after money? Well, just continue to add value and different conversations take place. Different people show up. And all of a sudden you're known for something other than just wanting to make money. We've got several people in the in the room, right now. I just want to give a shout out to Randal and Calvin are in the room in New Orleans. He's done some amazing growth in the food industry. If you're not connected with Calvin and Randal get connected there. Kavuma is here. Hello, how are you? And then Nick over at Pipe Dream Solution. Dude...been there, brother. He's talking about your story earlier. And then Ozeal from Houston. Thank you so much for being here. Sheri Lally, the universe was trying to give you a sign to slow down and find something you needed. I love that. I had a very similar situation. The same kind of journey. My home was my car. I went camping for a while there for a minute. So Nick says, when you are one dimensional and out of alignment, life will take you out! It's trying to teach you a lesson. Yeah, pretty much. And then JD, hi, pirates from Spain. Thank you so much. Then Howard Kaufman here in Phoenix. It is the difference between the "means to an end" versus "an end to the means. I like that. I like that. Thanks for sharing that. Donnie Ray says, greetings from Germany. I want to talk a little bit about and go a little deeper into this creative discovery group and what it entails. What are your requirements and how do people get involved and engaged and contributing and helping out? What does that look like? What does that mean? Because I know that you're working with another pirate, Gina Gardner, she was on the show, and she's doing a lot of great work outreach. They're just having conversations with people that are interested in giving back and contributing to society. How does that fit into what you're doing right now?

Sukhdev Krishan 17:15
So, people hear about what we're doing, and they get interested. We're so creative, we don't set any real rules, as long as people are good people and they want to impact the world in a positive way. We welcome people to join. We have a create your adventure program. It's like an internship program. So we have a leader who takes care of that end, and then we have a marketing and sales team and they're like, hey, we love what you're doing and they want to be a part of it. So all these people who come in there, we're all doing this together. I can only do so much by myself, but when you create the team of people who want to impact the world in a positive way, I'd say reach out to any one of our members. There's a CDG world on our website, so you can see some of the things that we're doing. Some of the events that we were going to put on, we had to stop because of this, for sure. But yeah, and then also with with Gina, we connected on LinkedIn. That's just weird how all this stuff works, because, you know, it all sort of goes in the same circle.

Russ Johns 18:49
I know, I know. It's kind of crazy.

Sukhdev Krishan 18:52
Yeah. I never thought I'd be talking on camera. I was kind of shy from the camera. I'm not a speaker. I'm not a go out there and give a big talk kind of guy. So anyhow, we connected, and we ended up starting this podcast. And because again, it's all about doing good and impacting. Just the people we've been able to get the attention of, like we had Mary Buffett on, who is a nine times bestselling author, daughter in law of Warren Buffett and creator of Buffett online school. She was on our show a week ago.

Russ Johns 19:33
That's amazing.

Sukhdev Krishan 19:34
Having these conversations and the people like yourself, there's so many people doing good. That's huge. What you're doing is 300 shows in a time when most people are shutting down businesses and people are living in fear. The time the leaders really stand out is when when times are rough. What are those people doing? Who are the people that are making that impact and making positive change? I think when things are good, a lot of people can lead, because what do they have to lose? Right? I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. But when things are crumbling down, who are the people that are standing out? That's a huge thing.

Russ Johns 20:21
I think, and we were talking about this before the show, that the idea that challenges also develop opportunities. There's a lot of things that...the most challenging moments in my life, much like yourself, are when you're down deep, and you're thinking, well, how did I get here? Why me? You're thinking a little bit like a victim and you're thinking to yourself, oh, what did I do to deserve this? Maybe turn it around and say, what is the lesson I'm supposed to learn from this? What am I going to take away from this that's positive and then you start grabbing a hold of the lessons in life. You say, I can get out of this, I can get past this, I'm better than this. I'm going to grow beyond this. When you change your direction, and start asking different questions, when you start asking, how can I help? How can I achieve success with more people? All of a sudden, different people show up in your life, different conversations take place. I really want to emphasize the idea that right now, you and I are individuals that have been beat down, we've had things happens, we've achieved results. Then we've done it more than once. So we're gonna continue to do it. We're going to continue to add value. So hats off to you. Thank you for being there.

Sukhdev Krishan 22:00
Yeah, thank you.

Russ Johns 22:03
So with Gina in the podcast. Tell us a little bit more about that, expand on that? What's the direction you're going to take that next?

Sukhdev Krishan 22:15
Yeah, so we had our first series, and the first series was about coaching. So people would come on the show and we wouldn't know what they're like. They weren't allowed to tell us what their challenge is because we didn't want to be prepared for it. We wanted to make it interesting, sort of fun and help the guest on our show, through whatever they're facing. So whether it's business, personal, anything, and we had so many different stories come from that. It was up to us, within that hour to take somebody from hearing their challenge, to helping them work through it and giving them some sort of new insight, and we'd have an hour to do it. So, we completed the first series, everybody loved it. Everybod gave us a positive video, like their testimony, I guess. So for the second series, we shifted it a little bit. Instead of us coaching, we started getting leaders. This is the business and leadership podcast. We had leaders tell their story about their challenges, what they faced, and what they went through to achieve the goals that they have now. The guests that we have, or like, I don't even know how we ended up with these people. We were talking about Mary Buffett, we have an Olympian, Travis Cross. He's coming on the show next week. Steve Sims, you know, Steve, he's gonna be on the show. We have Rocky from R&D Entertainment agency. He works with Paris Hilton and Jamie Foxx, and all these big names. But it's people who are willing to share their story that's going to help other people. So many of us, human beings, face some of the same things. We don't know what to do with it. So by having guests like that on the show, who can share their story, and maybe somebody can take like a gold nugget out of there and be like, hey, you know what? I love that story, that's inspiring to me. Maybe I could do the same, or help them make that little bit of a shift.

Russ Johns 24:46
Well, that's what I love to hopefully bring to the table on the #PirateBroadcast™. We all are challenged, we all have our moments. We all have our things that we're going to throw in. Hopefully, somebody can look at this conversation and say, wow, I can relate to this, and that I could be that person. It's great to see them get past it. It's great to see them get through this process and this journey, and whatever challenges exist. The next thing you know, you're back making connections like you are and making a difference, making it matter. It's really one of those things that is relatable. I think everybody wants to hear a story where they can imagine they can fit in. We all have something to contribute. We all have a gift in this life. As long as we're contributing back into the world, and we're doing something positive, I think the outcomes cannot be anything but positive.

Sukhdev Krishan 26:00
Yeah, I agree. 100% Yeah.

Russ Johns 26:03
So, how do we reach out and get a hold of you? What's the best way for people to connect with you?

Sukhdev Krishan 26:12
Well, we have creativediscoverygroup.com, that's our website. So you can connect with me on there.

Russ Johns 26:22
Okay, we'll put that in the show notes and everything can be found later.

Sukhdev Krishan 26:28
Okay and if anybody wants to get more information and become part of the team, we even have a coaching program, there's a lot of people who are looking to become coaches. So we have a certification program. They can email me s.krishan@creativediscoverygroup.com. Then we have Instagram creative_discovery_group. There's also LinkedIIn. I'm mostly active on LinkedIn.

Russ Johns 26:58
LinkedIn is my jam.

Sukhdev Krishan 27:01
I love LinkedIn.

Russ Johns 27:04
I do as well. I used to be more active on Twitter and Instagram. I've been on LinkedIn since 2005, so I've been there for a while. Social is always evolving. I really encourage people not to get too hung up on what platform. I've taught every platform there is it seems like, and there's always going to be something coming around the corner and changes in the algorithm and everything that goes along with that. So just be yourself, create video. I love video. Put stuff out in the world that's going to help someone out. That's the rule.

Sukhdev Krishan 27:49
Yeah. When you make it about other people, and you just want to do good, I think your whole life, it just shifts, because your focus is more positive.

Russ Johns 27:59
It is positive.

Sukhdev Krishan 28:00
Yeah.

Russ Johns 28:01
It's fantastic. It's fantastic. Well, I really want to stress the fact that you're doing some great work now. You're back on track, helping other people, impacting in a positive way over 100 million people. That's a pretty big goal. How far along are you on the spectrum? As far as what you you feel you are?

Sukhdev Krishan 28:29
That's a tough question. I just feel like if I'm focused, to set that goa...I don't have a counter that I can click. I just...

Russ Johns 28:42
You don't know where the ripples are going, right?

Sukhdev Krishan 28:45
Yeah. So if I'm being focused, I know being spread out through so many countries that it's...I feel like I'm just getting started. To me, it's still brand new.

Russ Johns 28:59
You're young.

Sukhdev Krishan 29:00
There's big places that we want to go and again, I don't make it about me. I can share my story.

Russ Johns 29:08
It's not about the numbers.

Sukhdev Krishan 29:08
Yeah, with 40 whatever coaches that we have, I know that they're all reaching out. So it's like that ripple effect we were talking about. If I help somebody else succeed, they're gonna be able to go and do their job, and they're gonna help some other people. Then those people are gonna change their lives and they're gonna go ahead and help somebody else. So it's that sort of thing that we're doing.

Russ Johns 29:40
I love that. I love that. Well, Sukhdev, I really appreciate the fact that you're here and we had this conversation and tell Gina, hello. Tell her I said hi and I'll have to send her a message and let her know that you were on the podcast and when the episode launches. I could bring both of you together and the creative discovery group, toshare it again and put something out there special.

Sukhdev Krishan 30:08
Yeah, thank you so much for having me and keep doing what you're doing. This is awesome. 300 shows you're doing so much Awesome work out there. It's impacting people in a good way. Keep it up.

Russ Johns 30:22
Oh, thank you. All the gratitude in the world.

Sukhdev Krishan 30:25
Thank you.

Russ Johns 30:25
Thank you so much. I just want to give a shout out to Russ, Leah Hedge, Donnie Ray, Howard Kaufman, all of the individuals that came here to the show today. Sukhdev, thank you so much for all the work that you do. Keep doing great work and we'll have you come back in the future when you get a couple of more achievements under your belt. Stay in touch and let's make sure we go out and do good work and have fun, because #kindnessiscool, #smilesarefree, and you #enjoytheday Don't go away.

Exit 31:09
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