Psychology and Mindfulness With Product Marketing With Samraj Matharu

00:00:08:08 – 00:00:27:17

Nick McGowan

Hello and welcome to The Mindset and Self-mastery Show. I’m your host, Nick McGowan. And on this show, my guests and I unpack the stories that shape us, the lives that we lead on our path to self-mastery. So let’s not wait any longer. Let the games begin.

00:00:30:17 – 00:00:32:12

Nick McGowan

Hey, Sam, welcome to the show. How are you doing, man?

00:00:32:21 – 00:00:33:17

Samraj Matharu

Yeah, good. Thanks. How are you?

00:00:34:07 – 00:00:53:11

Nick McGowan

I’m doing great. You know, I had your brother on a couple weeks ago, and I think you guys, your episodes will probably air right around the same time. But I think you had signed up for the podcast like a couple hours later. So I thought we had a great conversation, but I guess apparently we did because I guess your brother was like, Yo, dude, get on this.

00:00:53:11 – 00:00:54:05

Nick McGowan

Is that about right?

00:00:55:03 – 00:00:59:00

Samraj Matharu

Yeah, because he wanted me to do a podcast and he did. So that’s why I joined.

00:01:00:10 – 00:01:14:15

Nick McGowan

That’s good. What a good brother. I mean, he did a great job. We got into a lot of really good stuff. So, you know, I’m right there with him, though. I’m hoping this one’s better. I hope with every show it gets better. So, man, I appreciate you being on. Let’s kick things off. Give us a little bit of context.

00:01:14:19 – 00:01:20:04

Nick McGowan

What do you do for a living and one thing that most people don’t know about you, that’s maybe a little odd or bizarre.

00:01:21:12 – 00:01:42:17

Samraj Matharu

Okay, so what I do for a living, I work in marketing. I’ve been working in marketing for seven and a half years now. Eight years. I did a degree at Nottingham Trent University where I achieved first class degree and my current job is a farfetch working as marketing technology manager. So for those who don’t know, Farfetch is a luxury fashion marketplace which connects loads of boutiques around the world.

00:01:43:12 – 00:02:03:22

Samraj Matharu

Boutiques I wouldn’t be able to target people in this much, all with as much reach or as much of a platform as Farfetch can provide. So that’s why the business models and my job at FARFETCH is to figure out how we use our first party data in real time to enhance the way that we personalize advertising messages for customers.

00:02:04:06 – 00:02:33:15

Samraj Matharu

That’s ultimately my my job. So I use technologies, I use platforms. I figure out how we can use our first party data all together to enhance the way that we market on Facebook, Google, which I show on Twitter, on Snapchat, these sorts of platforms. And the reason why I got into boxing was because I’m a product person. And the reason I’m a product person is because I’d like to see a problem being solved with a physical entity.

00:02:34:11 – 00:02:54:09

Samraj Matharu

Now I do like service based businesses, but I think when you have a product is something you’ve created outside of yourself and you can set it to someone, you can package it up, you can tell a story about it and sell it to people. So that’s pretty much reason why it’s a marketing. And I’m always thinking about new ideas and I’m always thinking in a different way or trying to be innovative.

00:02:54:21 – 00:03:22:07

Samraj Matharu

And the way that I think is very laterally, I think about loads of different things at the same time, and that’s why I work in marketing technology, which is very much an innovative technology, useful role. So on the second question, what’s bizarre about me, I think most people don’t know what to do or did not know. I used to be very skinny when I was a kid and it’s quite bizarre for people who first get to know me because I’m quite big.

00:03:22:20 – 00:03:37:22

Samraj Matharu

So when I was a kid, extremely skinny, but now I go to the gym, I take care of myself, I have a good diet. So when people see me now who let’s say you just met me today, when you see a picture of me when I was 14, 15, I was really skinny. I was kind of under nourished.

00:03:38:10 – 00:04:05:02

Samraj Matharu

So that’s very bizarre for people to get to know me now. For people who already know me, just trying to think it was bizarre about me. I have seven interests. I think I’ve got seven interests I’ve got on the wall. I’ve got a Van Gogh on the wall, I’ve got loads of books by line, rub, agree and buy all this whatsoever by Paulo Coelho, by also sort of a variety of different topics.

00:04:05:02 – 00:04:24:21

Samraj Matharu

And what’s so bizarre about me is I’ve got so much of an interest in loads of areas and it could be you could never seem I’m a generalist, but I’m also a specialist in what I do, which is marketing. So I understand how things connect because I read so much stuff and I watch some of the podcasts that I can connect things together, and that’s where innovation comes from.

00:04:25:09 – 00:04:51:16

Samraj Matharu

And even when I was at university, I paid a lot of attention to my innovation part of the course. So what, what? What, what? Lecture said was basically that the Dyson juicer was taken from a dust extractor, which was obviously an industrial dust extractor. And Dyson took that model of how they extracted dust from the air and he placed it in a vacuum cleaner over and so I also look innovations from anything I can read.

00:04:51:16 – 00:05:17:16

Samraj Matharu

So I read about Tim Grover, who’s Michael Jordan’s who was Michael Jordan’s coach and Kobe Bryant’s coach. He basically said that, you know, midnight starts in the dark and the star of a new beginning or new days was in the dark. And he mentions about paying attention to detail. So, you know, before a game, Michael Jordan or Kobe probably plays with the basketball court, bounce the ball and see that spots spots where nobody else would understand that the borders and bounce.

00:05:18:02 – 00:05:34:10

Samraj Matharu

So it gives them a competitive advantage over there over the competition and it allows them not to go into those areas or to push their opponents into those areas. So all of attention to detail, that’s that’s one of the main reasons why I love marketing, because every single thing that you fine tune can make a massive difference in the long term.

00:05:34:16 – 00:05:35:07

Nick McGowan

Got yeah.

00:05:35:12 – 00:05:37:07

Samraj Matharu

So yeah that’s that’s so.

00:05:37:23 – 00:06:15:08

Nick McGowan

I think we can probably spend a good chunk of this episode talking about marketing because when you really think of mindset and marketing couples along with that, because if you’re preaching things about a product or service, but let’s just run with product because you’ve got to think of the product. They can understand that if you’re pushing something that has to do with the product, but you’re not actually engaging with people at a core level and at their heart and connecting with them, then you’re just yelling about a product and they’re they’re some companies that do that, but there are also some companies that really get to the heart of the matter.

00:06:15:08 – 00:06:36:23

Nick McGowan

So with the generalist feel and being able to see lots of different things, how do you manage your mindset throughout the day in marketing, taking the data, taking all the information and not driving yourself crazy? Because I think you and I are probably similar in a sense where we can have lots of ideas and then you’re just like, Holy shit, I don’t know what to do next.

00:06:37:13 – 00:06:40:08

Nick McGowan

So how do you manage your day to day and how do you manage your mindset in that?

00:06:41:11 – 00:07:03:09

Samraj Matharu

Okay, so from a personal point of view, I go to the gym in the morning before I go to work generally, so it helps me start the day by focusing on myself first. And and psychologically, you’re telling yourself you’re more important than your job, whether you own your own business or do whatever it more is to be less Eurocentric, Preneur Entrepreneur, whatever maybe may be.

00:07:03:21 – 00:07:23:03

Samraj Matharu

If you focus on your health first, health is wealth. So if you go to a gym in the morning, you’re telling yourself that your health comes first. So subconsciously you’re already on a better footing than if you didn’t go to the gym. How I keep myself from exploring seven nowadays is looking at revenue for the company I work for.

00:07:23:03 – 00:07:40:18

Samraj Matharu

So farfetch which idea is going to make the most revenue for the company? And I’m a very commercially minded person, so I look at, okay, we’ve got this idea and this idea, which is the biggest idea. So here’s a really good example of Farfetch I was buying something on the app and I wanted to share that product with my family.

00:07:41:17 – 00:08:10:12

Samraj Matharu

So I tried to share with my family, but the products had a link which sent them to the App Store because they hadn’t downloaded the app, right? So I raised the issue internally with a few stakeholders and we did an analysis. Now the analysis showed it was quite a good goal to target to seven people to the website instead of the App Store to download the app to see this product and then tell me you should buy their products and I’ll buy it.

00:08:10:12 – 00:08:28:15

Samraj Matharu

But they will also in the sun that Farfetch can sell these products and they can see a product. We can target them with enough and maybe later on get them to subscribe, etc.. So I was comparing two journeys. The first training was occurring right in the second journey was the journey I proposed which is if you have the App Store, if you have the app, go to the app.

00:08:29:01 – 00:08:54:19

Samraj Matharu

If not, then it directly to the website to maybe download the app, but see the products as well and then let your friend know that they should buy the product. This idea, hypothetically, is going to generate a lot more revenue for the company and is being tested at the moment. And if I didn’t look at the idea and try and quantify it with new metrics, with revenue or with profit or with anything else, then the company wouldn’t listen to me anyway.

00:08:55:09 – 00:09:20:10

Samraj Matharu

So one thing I’ve learned from working on the client side, which is farfetch $1,000,000,000 company, a company which focuses on how to make more revenue with every single out there is. I have to persuade people. I have to be a marketer with my ideas internally to persuade people to take on board my day. And the reason some idea being great is obviously the bottom bottom line works, but also with the customer experience.

00:09:20:18 – 00:09:43:12

Samraj Matharu

And also I think it’s common sense to send people to the website to view the products. First is the App Store to download the app because that’s three or four stages away from buying anyway. And how many ups to use on day to day basis with very few, probably probably five per day. Facebook, WhatsApp, email, I’ll say maybe Twitter and and probably one of the other app on Instagram.

00:09:43:12 – 00:10:01:03

Samraj Matharu

So you don’t really use many apps. They use tons of websites. If you compare how many apps someone uses per day on the phone versus how many websites they go through per day, it’s probably like 20 times more websites per day than UPS at least. I’ve got like probably 50 tabs open at the moment. Right. So yeah, yeah.

00:10:01:03 – 00:10:26:06

Samraj Matharu

So so when you so when you’re looking ideas, you have to figure out and explore them first and then figure out with revenue or with profit or with, as said so, a number associated with the idea and then sell it to the right people in the company. That’s the way that I look at it now. But traditionally I would look at the idea is what my most interested in and pursue the idea, but also commercially what makes sense.

00:10:26:06 – 00:10:49:20

Samraj Matharu

And when I started in the industry outlook ideas which I liked, but now I’m underpinning every single day with commerciality anyway and I get really interested by the future of everything anyway. So the way to innovate means to to make something new. The word never comes from Latin being new. So innovate means to make something new. And the difference between an innovation and an idea is an idea is a concept.

00:10:49:20 – 00:11:09:16

Samraj Matharu

And innovation is taking that concept to market. So taking it to the marketplace. So an idea would be it’s in my head a concept called, let’s say, Nick Dotcom, where it sells T-shirts with Nick on it. Commercialization and innovation would be I print Nick on the T-shirt and then sell it in the marketplace. That’s pretty much the idea of innovation, right?

00:11:10:07 – 00:11:31:16

Samraj Matharu

Innovation in itself doesn’t always have to be radical. It can be doing something some new. What it looks like either there always taxis around all of Uber does is it allows you to wait without pain. You’re still probably wasting the same amount of time for the taxi. But you can see on an app going towards your house and you can also time it so that you’re in the taxi the perfect time.

00:11:32:10 – 00:11:52:15

Samraj Matharu

Whereas when human beings wait without a countdown timer, they become quite agitated. That’s why tube stations have times which allows you to train will be here in 5 minutes. Now, you don’t care at an airport if you have to wait 2 hours as long as you know how many hours you have to wait. So airports should probably tell you, you know, I will say this long table, this on the board, they want to wait in the queue, etc..

00:11:53:01 – 00:12:15:21

Samraj Matharu

That’s why airports are very, very painful experiences because you don’t know how long it’s going to take you to get through that queue, to get through security, etc.. So human beings don’t like uncertainty when it comes to times. That’s what I found anyway. And I read all about about evolutionary psychology and around psychology as a whole and how people think and I think the way to the way.

00:12:15:21 – 00:12:41:05

Samraj Matharu

So I’m saying a good idea because every single business is about people is to understand how people think and how people think is probably the most important thing. And most of the new ideas and new business businesses that come out now are towards getting things faster and also reducing the pain of waiting by making it seem like you’re waiting less or seem like it’s coming towards it’s being delivered to you sooner.

00:12:42:03 – 00:13:06:20

Nick McGowan

Yeah, I think you hit on a key a key concept that marketing knows, but people outside of marketing sometimes don’t really know. It’s a subconscious thing where you’ve actually got to be able to connect with those people and be able to make some logical steps that make a ton of sense. Like right now I’m actually reading I’m reading The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, big Malcolm Gladwell fan and had never read The Tipping Point.

00:13:07:08 – 00:13:37:09

Nick McGowan

I don’t know why or how don’t don’t kill me. But now I’m reading through it and I was getting to a point where they were talking about Sesame Street and Blue’s Clues. You remember Blue’s Clues. I mean, we all remember what Sesame Street was like, but the difference between how they took what worked for those kids back in the sixties and then what was working for children in the nineties and how they tied everything together with some simple things, like looking at it going, Why are we sending people to download an app that gives it another couple steps when we could just send them direct to the site?

00:13:37:09 – 00:13:52:15

Nick McGowan

And if they want to get the app, go for it. But if they want to look at the product, let’s get them directly there. And it’s that understanding. I think sometimes we kind of need to put our asshole hat on and be like, I’m kind of the asshole buyer. What’s the quickest path? I want to get to this thing because I don’t want to deal with you.

00:13:52:15 – 00:14:06:08

Nick McGowan

I don’t want to deal with people. I don’t deal with apps, whatever. So it’s smart that you look at that sort of stuff. Do you think that came from how you grew up? Do you think that’s kind of innate? Where do you think that sort of thing comes from?

00:14:06:08 – 00:14:25:23

Samraj Matharu

Ask a question just, just before we continue. That idea wasn’t part of my remit. So I went outside of my remit in my role, and I started going through things I think were important for the business. So I didn’t see my role in the business as confined by the remit. I see my role as anything I want my role to be.

00:14:25:23 – 00:14:51:11

Samraj Matharu

So when I go into business, I’m an entrepreneur in the business. I feel like I’m a partner with business because I ultimately am, you know, you know, when people sometimes say it’s binary on my own, based on my own boss in a business way, when you’re not your customers, your boss, the government’s your boss, and you would always be pushed around by somebody, whether it’s a manager or a customer, the government, your chairman, whoever may be your investors, you’re never your own boss.

00:14:51:11 – 00:15:19:19

Samraj Matharu

You always you’re always a servant to customers or leader or investors, whoever might be. Right. So I think when you’re in a company, you need to figure out what customers want. So I have to pause. And a fourth actually want to make sure the customer service journey is personalized for our customers. And we’re making sure that we’re getting the most out of our customers, probably getting retention.

00:15:20:07 – 00:15:44:02

Samraj Matharu

The only way you can get retention of customers is to make one that experience good to the products nice and three that every good. I think those are the three key areas, the experience includes customer service. Well, by the way, so those three areas, if a customer buys a good product but your customer services, but if it’s easy for them to get their products and is quite, quite, quite a difficulty to buy the products and it’s not much, there’s not much thinking to do.

00:15:44:02 – 00:16:01:09

Samraj Matharu

Like Prime, for example, I hate to them very cheap products, but they don’t really care about service. That is fine. But if it’s a high quality product, let’s say something a fall fits like product and they get that product item in the post and it’s not in the right it’s not the right size with the right shape or the services and good around that products.

00:16:01:14 – 00:16:16:04

Samraj Matharu

Well, the packaging is all good. People feel that integrates away, right? So it depends on the business. But I think customers service the way that the good is delivered and the speed of delivery is probably one of the most cool things nowadays. And the experience on the website of the app.

00:16:17:15 – 00:16:45:05

Nick McGowan

No. Yeah, well technology allows for all of that. If we think back 30, 40 years, we didn’t have access to be able to do this. And you brought up data, we didn’t have access to data or even know what data points to be able to try to get access to years and years ago. But at this point, I would imagine you could probably open up a couple of reports and just dove right in like Scrooge style and just dove into all the data, all the data that you want.

00:16:45:05 – 00:16:57:20

Nick McGowan

So how do you actually go through that from a tech standpoint? But understanding that you’re still human and the people that you’re selling to and helping to sell more to are also humans. So how do you tie the data and the humanity together?

00:16:57:20 – 00:17:21:12

Samraj Matharu

That’s a really interesting question. So I’ll take it. I’ll take a tangible example of the App Store situation where we’re sending people who share links on WhatsApp to the App Store. The first thing I did was go through reports and have a look at the data to justify the size of the prize of this idea of changing the journey.

00:17:21:12 – 00:17:52:17

Samraj Matharu

I looked at how many people click on the link, how many people visited the website from clicking on the link, and then the app often click on the link. I think it was it was a while ago and then I spoke to the product manager who manages the app experience and I said, look, I think this is really, really bad if I want to buy something social proof and my friends opinions, my friend’s understanding of fashion and how cool this cup is or these glasses are is going to impact my decision massively.

00:17:53:05 – 00:18:17:19

Samraj Matharu

If I can’t get the phone to open the link and go to the website to view the product, I then have to screenshot it which is uncrackable anyway because I can’t forfeitures and we can’t see the person going to the website. They’ve seen the screenshots, so we’re losing data. Secondly, it’s bad for the customer having to screenshot it anyway because it makes them think and it makes their journey more arduous.

00:18:18:00 – 00:18:34:10

Samraj Matharu

And imagine if they’re seeing 6 to 7 different products and comparing them all to make it very difficult for the customer to keep screenshots and everything. And it makes it very, very annoying for the customer. So yeah, the first thing I do is have the idea, then I quantify by looking reports. So I was like an app player.

00:18:34:19 – 00:18:57:00

Samraj Matharu

So app flier is say an app platform that looks at the analytics in the in the app and we can understand like where they’re coming from, what they’re buying, how long do they spend on the site, etc.. Then we have a big query which is our database, our customer database, which I sometimes look at to understand, okay, how many overall sessions on the website am I getting from the website?

00:18:57:00 – 00:19:26:08

Samraj Matharu

Because we’ve got Omni tracking, which is an internal tracking system and we’ve got up slower but judicially for our business. LBJ So Google Analytics, so platforms like Jah or UPS Flier or you’ve got Facebook platforms, Twitter, Instagram, obviously Instagram or Facebook, but you look at the data depending on what the problem is or what the idea is. Use that to quantify the revenue you can gain from this idea and then present that internally.

00:19:26:08 – 00:19:38:21

Samraj Matharu

Or you can just take that if you’re your own business owner and then figure out, okay, how much money going to make and then just go through with the idea. And once you implement that idea, then report it afterwards and compare what you thought it makes us think.

00:19:40:07 – 00:20:10:23

Nick McGowan

Let’s take that example and translate that into out of business and into normal daily life. So people walking through life and kind of ingesting different data and having data points, they drive or they go get coffee or they go to work or they come home and they have their wife and kids or whatever and all that data. How would you translate what you do on that side into how somebody could be able to use that sort of process for themselves?

00:20:12:14 – 00:20:36:09

Samraj Matharu

Interesting. I’ll say I was actually looking at buying a boring one sleep two track to track how long I sleep, so a mix of my heart rate to understand if I’m becoming healthy and I have a lot of doctor friends. So a lot of my friends who are doctors have all rings. And so it tells me that all things are really good for tracking good data and on something for your body, right?

00:20:37:04 – 00:21:06:05

Samraj Matharu

Yeah. Social proof. And I’ve also got a tracker away and I get a small scale that tells me my BMI tells me why by visual, visceral, fat. It tells me my muscle mass. It’s also my metabolic age. All these data points I use to give me a general understanding of where I’m going with my body. So if I’m walking, for example, and I take creatine, I can see, okay, my water retention is going up or my water it’s going up, but my muscle mass is increasing loads.

00:21:06:17 – 00:21:31:16

Samraj Matharu

And since I’ve been having a lot of porridge in the morning, a massive ball of porridge with peanut butter, cinnamon chocolate. Honey, I’ve put on probably four kilos within a few months because porridge is quite a slow burning car. Right. And peanut butter is a very good sign. It’s got a lot of calories in and protein and then you’ve got honey, which is very, very calorific as well, and milk, which is very, very dense.

00:21:31:22 – 00:21:48:21

Samraj Matharu

So all of that combined is helping people a lot more weight and a lot more mass. And because I think people get confused as well, that is the diet that just helps you create that extra mass when you eat more food, you have more energy to lift more and then you lift even heavier and then internally even more.

00:21:49:05 – 00:22:07:06

Samraj Matharu

And so it’s like a vicious cycle. You have more food, you have more energy, you pass away, then you lift more heavy weights then, or you do more value then. You pack more muscle by recovering in the jungle bigger. Then you have more food and it works in that sort of cycle. So I use data in my everyday life to kind of measure where I’m going.

00:22:07:19 – 00:22:27:04

Samraj Matharu

Regarding regard to my phone, for example, I will look at how much time I spend my phone, for example, but I’m trying to cut down on maybe Instagram or social media because I think we can become quite addicted to things. And Tok, for example, is something I try not to go on at all, because I think that 10/2 video is going to be quite addictive, something in everyday life.

00:22:27:04 – 00:22:59:07

Samraj Matharu

It depends on the person. I think anybody who wants to achieve a goal, you should use data for it. So if you’re doing runs for a marathon, track your progress every single day, understand everything towards which and which train is really wearing. What clothes you wear was the impact on your muscles of wearing compression was impacts of your muscles of having because during your during the run, talk to physios, talk to osteopath, talk to podiatrists around all the different data points, as you said, to improve the way that you run.

00:22:59:15 – 00:23:18:01

Samraj Matharu

So podiatrists might be doctors told me I’ve got fluffy. So he gave me custom insoles that will stop my foot pronouncing inwards, which will mess my knees up. I’ve got damaged ACL, which is probably one of the biggest issues I’ve ever had in my life. So I use these data points to improve the way that I use in my daily life because I’ve got an ACL tear.

00:23:18:08 – 00:23:53:03

Samraj Matharu

Great too. And if I don’t manage myself properly, my knees flare up because I’ve got biomechanical issues so completely. I’ve got torn ACL, which is a great two ways for anyone listening who doesn’t understand what great to me is. It means it’s not sprained and it’s not complete at all. It’s in between. So it’s torn. But not not to the degree to which I need surgery, but is still to the degree if I don’t do exercises, it will just lapse back into making my knees hurt because it then makes my right leg take on board the pain or sorry the mess.

00:23:53:03 – 00:24:23:04

Samraj Matharu

It then makes it more painful. But this that it’s taken all of the all of the weight of my body. So therefore both the money and even at the moment have been hurting for the last month. So when I use data to understand how to manage money pain and I used to keep a it of like probably two years or so in the said like pain scale out of ten every single day for like two years, what exercise studied, what the pain scale was if I stretched or not, if I saw not my the sorts of food that I might have had that may have aggravated my knee pain.

00:24:23:10 – 00:24:45:02

Samraj Matharu

So for example, I spoke to an osteopath recently and they were saying that having Lemon in water can inflame the body. And I never knew that apparently lemon of water, the reaction when you drink it makes your body more inflamed. So foods can exacerbate your body. And even foods that you think or drinks that you think are very good for the body are not as good as we think now.

00:24:45:02 – 00:24:50:09

Samraj Matharu

Just because it’s natural and just because it’s from a plant or from a tree, it doesn’t mean.

00:24:50:14 – 00:24:51:13

Nick McGowan

Or somebody says.

00:24:53:06 – 00:25:08:22

Samraj Matharu

You know, yeah, just because, you know, lemons good for you doesn’t mean you should put on your skin either. You know what? Everything natural is good for you. It has to be in the right and the right. You have to take in the right doses and you have to take it in the right in my vehicle, so to speak.

00:25:08:22 – 00:25:32:00

Nick McGowan

Hmm. That’s a it’s interesting to take a bit of a step back with all the data points to kind of step back thinking that we’re going to jump to your knees, in a sense, all that data that you learned to then be able to figure out, well, how do I better heal myself? Is way different. Then think of that person that just completely negative, that just bitches about everything.

00:25:32:00 – 00:25:54:00

Nick McGowan

They go, my fucking knees keep fucking hurt me. I don’t know why. And they just bitch and complain instead of figuring out how to do what you had done. Now I’m going to call it out because I think that’s part of the reason why people listen the show. That’s a lot of work, a whole lot of work to go through and log all of that and track all that stuff and look at those things.

00:25:54:18 – 00:26:19:12

Nick McGowan

But I could assume and I know the answer I’m going to get, but I can assume that when you started to do that, it just became part of habit. And not only did you build that routine, but then you started to see what you could do with that data. So just similar to the question I asked before, how would you suggest that somebody get started with that without having to fucking log everything in their life and track every single thing?

00:26:19:18 – 00:26:25:06

Nick McGowan

What sort of suggestion would you give them to be able to start looking for those data points to then use those to better themselves.

00:26:26:20 – 00:26:51:00

Samraj Matharu

They like on your mobile phone, for example, you’ve got a health app on Apple phones and it tells you how many steps to use per day, how many steps you walk per day. So just monitor that and then say, okay, I’ll make less outside 100 steps a day. I want to say 200 per day for the next four weeks and just log every single day and look at on your phone and see if there’s an upward trajectory of it’s a downward trajectory of it’s neutral if it’s on moving.

00:26:51:00 – 00:27:09:03

Samraj Matharu

So on your mobile phone, there’s plenty of apps you can use anywhere that do things for you. MyFitnessPal tracks, your calories, your phone track to steps. You’ve got Fitbit, Fitbit, contract go steps. You can track a ton of other things as well. But in terms of data points, I would say your mobile phone is probably the biggest staple you’ve got in your life.

00:27:10:10 – 00:27:28:10

Samraj Matharu

It’s called Everything You Do on there. You spend pretty much less than 95% of communication is done through a phone outside of work because it would use laptops outside of work to do emails. Unless you’re an entrepreneur or you’re doing the side hustle. So I would say mobile phones got everything on there and it depends on what you call it inspired.

00:27:28:10 – 00:27:48:07

Samraj Matharu

Say if you call is health, then use a Fitbit or an Apple Watch or your mobile phone to look at your health app. If it’s not to do with health, then look at things like your Monzo, for example, finances your Monzo, tracks everything if you want, improve your finances of your Monzo account and look at where you can improve your spending, not your starling account, where you can improve your spending.

00:27:48:13 – 00:28:06:13

Samraj Matharu

If you don’t have a bank account with Monzo and switch from a bank account that doesn’t tell you your financial spending and go to bank account, my Monzo. So for example. So there’s plenty of ways of doing it, but I think technology is the only way or the best way. But if you can’t just talk it out every day, how you’re feeling every day and analyze it after the end of the month.

00:28:08:10 – 00:28:24:13

Nick McGowan

That’s a great point. Yeah, we we all have phones at this point and we have the technology that’s within our hands. But I think you bring up a good point of just writing it down. You know, there’s often a lot of guests that are on here that we talk about journaling, doing things in the morning or doing things at night.

00:28:24:22 – 00:28:45:19

Nick McGowan

And I, I know that I’ve hated, hated journaling. I didn’t want to do it for the longest time because I was afraid of actually what it would do for me. And then when I got into it, it’s a whole different story. So even that little take away of doing some journaling or just sitting down and tracking a little bit of something like this morning I woke up at 645.

00:28:45:20 – 00:28:51:22

Nick McGowan

Maybe your goal was to wake up at 630, but then you can kind of figure out what you can do from there. So that’s good stuff, man.

00:28:52:14 – 00:29:18:02

Samraj Matharu

That’s a really good point. Actually. I used to wake up at 5:00 for the gym and people always used to say, How do you wake up to 5 a.m. for the gym? This is before COVID, obviously, because I had to go to gym before work and I was in London and I had to commute in. But I think I wrote on the alarm something like a really good quote, like dedication and hard work or something, something around Floyd Mayweather.

00:29:18:13 – 00:29:36:07

Samraj Matharu

But every single morning it’s helped me wake up. And one thing I did, which is really, really cool, I’m going to say, is I use my Google home or my Alexa to wake me up. Because when you say stop to Alexa or Google Home, you’ve woken up. When you have a mobile phone, you can just tap it and you can fall back asleep.

00:29:36:14 – 00:29:55:01

Samraj Matharu

But when you say to something, Stop my Google home so that when you say Stop to it, you’ve woken up. And I don’t ever wait in bed for more than 10 seconds. I wake up and then I get out of bed and then myself at the edge of the bed do some deep breathing in the make up. But even those will stay points.

00:29:55:01 – 00:30:23:12

Samraj Matharu

So Google Home where Alexa is your friend, you can tell it to be your assistant and those those things can change your life for the benefit of your body or whatever it may be. I didn’t I didn’t really like turning it from what is because one, it takes some of writing in my handwriting so bad and it takes a long time for me to write also out there like my mind, be interactive before bed and in the morning I like to go straight to the gym and I think journaling is just a means to understand yourself.

00:30:23:12 – 00:30:39:07

Samraj Matharu

And I’m always thinking about how I think every every day anyway, I’m I’m thinking about it seems like an app. It’s like, okay, I want to be successful. It’s just part of my mind. And I think you ask me anyhow, and I’m like this. I’ve just always been competitive and not competitive with other people, but competitive with myself.

00:30:39:19 – 00:31:01:19

Samraj Matharu

I want to be the best version of me. And you know, I think when you’re doing that, you can’t be insecure. I don’t really have any insecurities about myself because I’m so competitive with myself that I haven’t got a chance to think what my better I’m thinking. What can I prove then? You know, I don’t think you should ever be pessimistic towards yourself because people will be pessimistic towards yourself.

00:31:01:19 – 00:31:27:02

Samraj Matharu

The world is pessimistic and it’s just trying to have a positive environment. But at the same time, if you want to be negative, be negative quickly and then get out of the system and then start moving forward. Tim Grover The same guy I’ve talked about before on like 20 minister who coach Michael Jordan, Rick Bryant. He said you can’t manage what you don’t measure, which I thought, which I thought was quite, quite cool.

00:31:27:02 – 00:31:48:00

Samraj Matharu

Right. Because it’s very true. You can’t manage what you call it, what you do measure. So if it comes to this at this point in your life, you can’t manage your finances without measuring. You can’t manage your business without measuring it. You can’t manage your weight without measuring it because how you could manage your weight without understanding how much you weigh now versus how much you weigh in five weeks up to you in your diet, you need to measure it.

00:31:48:00 – 00:32:13:22

Samraj Matharu

So that’s what I would say. It takes people to watch podcasts around, understand very successful people like Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan, how they manage their lives and to learn from them. That’s what I do every single day. I learn from someone. I’m reading a book I remember called The High Performance Book Stories from Very Successful People, and Jake Humphreys, who’s from the UK, he’s a sports sport presenter on Sky Sports.

00:32:13:22 – 00:32:33:12

Samraj Matharu

I think Paul Beat is forecasting and they him and his colleague, of course, his name, he’s a professor. He they interview a lot of famous people like Rio Ferdinand, Gary Neville, a lot of sports people in particular. And sports is really interesting because if you mess up, you know about it. A lot of people come out in a big company and mess up.

00:32:33:13 – 00:32:56:19

Samraj Matharu

And because it’s such a big company, never knows about the football team. When there’s 11 people on the pitch and you’ve got thousands of people watching you just on TV, if you mess up, you know about it in the press. It’s like you people attacking a team manager will attack you. But in in business, you can fail and nobody can really, you know, hear about it or you not be in the spotlight, so to speak.

00:32:57:05 – 00:33:14:11

Samraj Matharu

So learning, learning from sport and things of a very quick like split second success or failure is quite important to me because then I extrapolate those learnings into my job, which is a lot more, less fast, you know, than big sports fan or like UFC for example.

00:33:14:11 – 00:33:38:23

Nick McGowan

Yeah, yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. You have to be literally on your toes at that point or you’re on your ass. So then that makes sense. They are the data points that are in life. Like if we really look at that sort of stuff, it’s almost like looking under the microscope because if you really look at the table you’re at, it’s not really made of one thick piece of wood or whatever.

00:33:39:06 – 00:34:04:18

Nick McGowan

It’s all these little pieces and these little molecules that are put together that we could really kind of see those under the right circumstances, but it takes actually being in the right circumstances to do it. Yeah, I appreciate you being honest about the journaling. I too have terrible handwriting, like atrocious handwriting. But I’ve realized that as I journal, there are certain things that I just feel like I need to get it out and I just get it out and I look back at it.

00:34:04:18 – 00:34:20:19

Nick McGowan

I’m like, I have no idea what the fuck I was just talking about there because I can’t really read it. And then there are other times where I write something out and I’m like, Oh, I can almost tell that my body was trying to eloquently get it out. So it’s an interesting thing, but I like where you get up and you want to be able to get straight into things.

00:34:20:19 – 00:34:45:00

Nick McGowan

And if we think of Kobe and Michael and think of all of the work that they put in, and somebody said to me recently about coaching, they’re like, you, Michael Jordan had a coach. Do you think you’re better than Michael Jordan? No, no, no, don’t. Not really. So it’s interesting to think of that stuff because those people, Michael and Kobe, had done incredible things.

00:34:45:00 – 00:35:11:05

Nick McGowan

But if you really dig into their data points and what they looked at, there’s an immense amount there. So I appreciate you bringing that up and circling back to that man to kind of step away from the data points a little bit. Are there any major episodes that have happened throughout life that really stand out to you that were kind of crux moments that you can look at and go, man, that moment right there was a moment that changed me.

00:35:12:04 – 00:35:35:15

Samraj Matharu

Yeah, I think I think when I told Michael’s probably one of my biggest ones in my personal life because when I told myself I used to be lifting extremely heavy in the gym and it was, it was sort of my identity and the city’s identity. People know me for knowing all about the body and I’m extremely strong and I take care of myself.

00:35:35:15 – 00:36:00:01

Samraj Matharu

And I was doing muscles. What I thought was my knee, you know, is for three years. And they still had to this day here and there for three years, I was having pain walking every day. And that was mentally disturbing. You know, it was very, very difficult. And luckily, I’m an extremely strong person. I’ve done boxing karate, judo, Brazilian jiu jitsu, and I’ve lifted very heavy weights.

00:36:00:12 – 00:36:33:12

Samraj Matharu

So I’m extremely mentally tough. And I don’t think anybody or anything can break me. Um, there was another situation when I was 19, when I was in a placement here, and this placement job was meant to be for period, but it was cut to three months. Now, I could have chosen to be scared that I’ve not got full placement for the year, or I could have chosen to be excited that okay, maybe, maybe it’s only three months now instead of the whole I think is going to be 12 months, but it was cut three months.

00:36:33:15 – 00:37:05:18

Samraj Matharu

So I’ve got an opportunity now to get a better job. And during that period I got a job which paid almost double what I was on in that first job. Right. And I wasn’t with I’ll see got cut from the four year to three months. But if it wasn’t for that I wouldn’t have got my first proper job in marketing, which I was only 20 years old at the time and I was managing emails, affiliate agency, the PPC agency, so pay per click advertising agency and I was rebranded Lord Schemes.

00:37:06:01 – 00:37:30:17

Samraj Matharu

I was changing the call design with the artists. ET cetera. And if it wasn’t for that, a really big, scary moment where I didn’t have a full 12 month job for my year, I had a three month job. I wouldn’t have had that look of finding that new job. And why that’s them at that company was I said, Look, I’ll work for you on the part time basis.

00:37:30:17 – 00:37:46:13

Samraj Matharu

No, so I’ll work for you on the full time basis with the part time salary. And then they actually said, look, we want to hire you for the full time job with full time salary. So that kind of changed as well. I think because I’ve been in situations where I’ve I’ve had no choice but to fight or have no choice but to adapt.

00:37:46:15 – 00:38:10:00

Samraj Matharu

It’s made me to resilient person, you know, physically with money, with a job issue. Well, you know, I’ve been of work to workplaces which, you know, they run you into the ground. And so I’ve had to learn to be resilient and to stick up for myself, but in a very, very non aggressive sort of way. So that’s probably one of the reasons why I changed.

00:38:10:05 – 00:38:22:08

Samraj Matharu

I, I started reading about from the mastery of myself and how human beings think and how our society works as well. So that I could navigate is nice.

00:38:22:08 – 00:38:27:05

Nick McGowan

So on that note, what’s that one piece of advice you’d give to somebody that’s on their path towards self-mastery?

00:38:28:13 – 00:38:29:03

Samraj Matharu

Be yourself.

00:38:30:03 – 00:38:32:06

Nick McGowan

Well, that’s the podcast, folks.

00:38:32:13 – 00:38:33:02

Samraj Matharu

Exactly.

00:38:33:15 – 00:38:34:21

Nick McGowan

I mean as simple as that.

00:38:35:00 – 00:38:51:23

Samraj Matharu

Is, because if you’re not yourself, how are you going to mess things up? You can’t. You can’t just yourself if you’re trying to be someone else. And a lot of people nowadays probably see someone else. They should meet on social media and they want to try and be well. That person is presenting themselves to be that person presenting a facade.

00:38:51:23 – 00:39:20:16

Samraj Matharu

Right? It’s not doing so. People will be tempted more than ever to be like somebody else, but that somebody else isn’t who they are on social media. They’re very different social media platforms. So just be yourself, be authentic. And if you’re if you’re always conforming, are you really being yourself because you can’t conform for everything? And I think and what you know, the work for the working form, I’m not sure what the last word is, but if somebody just means to copy or something like that, they ought to give in.

00:39:21:18 – 00:39:40:18

Samraj Matharu

And I think conforming means, unless you truly believe in what you’re conforming to, then you’re just doing it because you’re scared of going against the grain. And as a person, as and in particular with our days in a company or in general in life, you know, Amazon, it came out of nowhere and started selling books online. Netflix came out of nowhere.

00:39:40:23 – 00:40:02:03

Samraj Matharu

Blockbuster didn’t choose to go into the Internet. Why? Because of most of our sales are coming from in-store. I on the internet of this small 5% is going to become 100% of the marketplace the next ten years, which is not right. So I will say to people, look, what we’re doing now works, but don’t forget what what was the you know, what they they didn’t go on the Internet.

00:40:02:03 – 00:40:30:08

Samraj Matharu

They didn’t become Netflix. Netflix became the blockbuster of the Internet and blockbuster became the nothing more of the Internet. So that’s why even when you’re succeeding in life, always look at the 5% thing that will change you forever as well. And that’s why I would say like I live by Kaizen. So 1% change every single day, a 1% improvement, whether it’s, you know, reading a book or learning one sentence from that book.

00:40:30:08 – 00:40:42:05

Samraj Matharu

If you if you read 500 books, that’s 500 pieces of wisdom you’ve gained from that from them books. You don’t have to know everything, but you have to know something is everything that you’ve ever encountered right?

00:40:42:05 – 00:41:01:10

Nick McGowan

What a great way to end this man again. Sam, I really appreciate you being on the show. You’ve talked about a lot. We’ve gotten to do a lot specifically on data, which is great because their data points that are technology data points and then they’re human data points. So again, Sam, I appreciate you being on the show. Where can people find and connect with you?

00:41:01:10 – 00:41:18:02

Samraj Matharu

They can find your LinkedIn something where they can find me. An Instagram is finally missing. They can find me on. And I think those are the two main ones actually. Yeah, this is the thing. Only once they can find me on here, obviously on YouTube, I see so far, hopefully in the future and I’ll open up a load more chance.

00:41:18:22 – 00:41:22:05

Nick McGowan

To perfect them. Well, again, thank you for being on the show. We appreciate you having you.

00:41:22:09 – 00:41:32:05

Samraj Matharu

No worries. Thank you for having me, Nick.

00:41:32:05 – 00:41:54:21

Nick McGowan

Another great conversation on today’s episode of The Mindset and Self-mastery show. So what did you think of the show today? Love to hear your thoughts. Check out the Instagram or Facebook page to join the conversation. If you enjoyed the episode, please jump over to iTunes and subscribe rate and a five star review. It helps us be found and helps others be healed.

00:41:55:10 – 00:42:16:02

Nick McGowan

If this episode Open Your Eyes made you think or smile at all, then I’m sure it’ll do the same for your friends. Check out the show notes for more info from today’s episode and check out other episodes on the Mindset and Self-mastery showcase team as well as our YouTube channel. Just go to YouTube and look up the mindset and self-mastery show.

00:42:16:17 – 00:42:41:07

Nick McGowan

Thanks again to our incredible guests for being real, honest and vulnerable with us today. I’d like to thank our sponsors, The Manly Club and the Powerhouse Men Brotherhood. When you consider yourself to be a powerhouse man, the criteria for becoming one is simple live with virtue and do good work. You see, a powerhouse man builds his life. He doesn’t settle for it.

00:42:41:15 – 00:43:09:11

Nick McGowan

He attacks mediocrity at the root. And that’s exactly what we do in the powerhouse Men Brotherhood visit powerhouse men’s soccer. That’s P.O.W. brh0use men dot com. And most importantly, I’d like to thank you thank you for hanging out with us today. Your support means the world to us. And with that, remember, your mindset matters and so do you.