As part of our ongoing quest to get you meaningful and powerful stories from the startup ecosystem, we invited yet another passionate and purpose-driven entrepreneur – Rajat Soni for an exclusive interview with BrilliantRead Media. He is a proven leader, coach and founder of Rajat Soni Academy. Let’s read more about his inspiring journey so far and his advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with him:
Talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur/coach, please
By Qualification I am an Engineer and a Management Graduate with an experience of more than 10 years in the corporate world. I quit the corporate world to be an executive coach. I am a Certified Coach from the International Coach Federation, an NLP & EFT Practitioner.
Life had a different plan for me. During one of the coaching sessions with a senior corporate leader, I noticed him being very disturbed. On probing he shared about the deteriorating self-esteem of his 15-year-old son who was diagnosed with Aspergers(lies in the Autism spectrum), where his brain was not wired to make social interactions, and he had no expressions on his face. He shared his son was suffering but does not respond to any professional help and he exhibited suicidal tendencies.
For the first time, I saw the emotional father beneath the poised and professional corporate leader. At the end of the conversation he asked me “Rajat, can you help?”.
The teenager would freeze in front of a stranger and he did in front of me too when we met. It was 15 minutes into the conversation that he started responding to me. We just connected and interacted for 90 minutes. That’s the moment my journey with a teenager started. After 6 months of our coaching engagement, the boy who would freeze in front of strangers and who would work on scripts and geometric taught expressions met me with a natural smile and with the will and joy to live like any other teenager.
That was a breakthrough moment for me and I decided to work with teenagers and parents.”
Today after 5 years, he is studying in an Ivy league college experimenting with life and enjoying it.
With a strong social-emotional learning foundation that he developed during our coaching journey, he was able to structure his thoughts and make all his decisions even the career ones. His essays were appreciated which he wrote on his own without any external help.
From then till now, I’ve worked with more than 500 families and 20,000 teenagers enabling and empowering them to be speakers, entrepreneurs and to think and act like leaders in day to day life, dealing with concerns at school, home and their own thoughts.
Teenagers are opening up to a new world, new situations, hormonal changes and so much more. For them, it starts with “Who likes me” and then it is “Who am I”. If we can accept them as they are and help them structure their thought process, they can develop their own thinking and take decisions in positive ways.
I have a two-fold mission in life:
1 – To enable teenagers to gain clarity in thought and action with SSS (Signature Strategic Success Toolbox)
2 – To bridge the communication gap between parents and teenagers.
Congratulations on your book “Un-Judge Your Teenager”. Please share more about it.
I’ve written this book with the intent to bridge the communication gap between the parent and the teenager.
In this book, I share concepts, tools, and strategies that will help you create more connectedness between your teenager and yourself.
The book is divided into three parts:
Awareness – Here, as parents, we become more aware of ourselves. We reflect on our present. We also gain awareness of what really goes on in the teenage mind.
Acceptance – Here, we learn about the Six Communication Mindsets, and the most interesting part is how we Communicate with Ourselves to accept us as we are, and to accept our teenagers as they are without judgment. We take ownership of our behaviour first so that we can help our teenagers take ownership of their life. We model the behaviour we want to see in our children. Because “Teenagers show what they see”.
Action – Here, we get on to the part that we parents find most difficult: Managing Common Teen Issues. Now we are on the war front equipped with a mindset to future proof our child. We learn how to deal with difficult and awkward conversations, the damaging effects of technology, school and education challenges, and anything that stops them from finding their personal power.
Please share with us some of the challenges you faced in your journey;
Honestly, it was about parents understanding the need to reflect upon themselves. Also about the changing parenting paradigm. I have an entire chapter about this in the book. Parenting is no longer the same as it used to be. As kids, we were not born on a bed of mobile phones. Traditional parenting may not work today.
There are structured methods in which both parents can communicate with their children and strategies by which teenagers can create goals for themselves across each area of their life and with each goal they achieve they are more motivated to work on the next one. Coaching is an action-oriented approach and that’s what teens love about it. It is about Reflection and Action. So the challenge was to help parents understand that there is a professional way in which parenting teenagers can be approached. I’ve curated the Signature Strategic Success Toolbox for parents and teens that empowers them across all areas of a parent and teen’s life.”
Please share about Rajat Soni Academy
Rajat Soni Academy provides online Personal & Group Life Skill Courses in areas of Strategic Communication, Leadership, Relationship Intelligence, Entrepreneurship & Managing Emotions for Teenagers & Youth.
Paint Your Own Future is a signature program we offer that has helped teenagers to be more confident, get better grades(if it is their goal), attain a career direction, increased focus and better interaction with their parents and friends.
The Academy has Empowered Young Leaders to achieve 10X Success in every area of their life to become youth leaders, entrepreneurs, and young champions with clarity in thought & action.
What has worked well for you so far?
The joy of each student when he speaks on a global platform in front of hundreds of people by breaking his barriers, when a teenager takes ownership of important things in their life and is no longer pushed by parents to constantly do it, when parents congratulate their child for the efforts they have made rather than the results, when the student achieves the goals they set for themselves and when the communication between parents and teens is friendly and they work together to resolve any issues that arise between them. It is not that there would not be mistakes, it is about how you respond to them.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
I believe the Keys to Success are Self-Awareness, Self-Acceptance, Action and above all Authenticity.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
Just follow your passion. It may take time for you to achieve success, but never give up. Keep your purpose as a focus and not the money. The money will follow anyways.
Given the rapid pace at which the world is changing, what are the leadership traits that are necessary for success?
I coach teens on leadership skills and I feel the 6 Leadership skills are Empathy, Decision Making, Social Intelligence, Gratitude, Goal Setting & Time Management and Resilience.
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
I work with teens and parents across the globe, so I have been working online for the longest time. The only difference is now even with my local clients, I am working online. Coaching requires empathy and action which can happen online beautifully.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
