Gurpreet Mann

Gurpreet Kaur Mann is a Talent Attraction & Retention Expert, LinkedIn Personal Brand Builder, HR Professional, and a Career strategist Coach. She has been working in HR for 14+ years with all sizes of Organizations from Large to Small. Gurpreet also leveraged her HR Expertise and Entrepreneur experience to help clients land their dream job in 30 Days.

Her approach to managing people goes much deeper than just policies and procedures. She brings a strategic and holistic focus that aims to bring out the best in your people and align them with your business goals.

Gurpreet is a Forward-thinker, a doer and an innovator, and a results-driven HR Superhero who gets Results!

Click To Read The Transcript

Gurpreet Mann and Her Unstoppable Journey to Success

Pamela Bardhi
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of underdog today. I have an amazing guest here with me. Gurpreet. How are you?

Gurpreet Mann
I’m good. Thank you Pamela. How are you?

Pamela Bardhi
I’m doing lovely. Life is good, Life is beautiful. I cannot complain. How are you?

Gurpreet Mann
I’m pretty good as well.

Pamela Bardhi
Gurpreet, it is so amazing to have you here today. Such an honor to have you and I’m just pumped to hear your story. And like the opening question for you will be. What led you on your amazing journey? To where you are today cuz you’ve got quite a journey and a lot of different experiences that have shaped who you are, especially in the HR field. So I need it right now with COVID. And I know we’ll jump into it. But what really led you to your path to where you are today.

Gurpreet Mann
Well, the funny story is that it’s actually not funny. But I always knew since I was 16. That I was going to be an entrepreneur owning and had my own business. What that business looked like. I do come from an entrepreneurial family. My dad was a serial entrepreneur. So growing up, I had pretty much, like I was four years old when my dad started his first business. I always knew that I’m gonna be in a business like I knew that, but I didn’t know what it was gonna be. And long story short, I ended up in HR, I don’t have a background in HR.

My degree is actually an IT management, but I had a plan B. When I was graduating, I didn’t want to be one of those new grads. That couldn’t land a job and then get to go back to school. So I was like, we don’t want to do that, so I did Plan B while I was in uni with an HR certificate. It worked out great in my program, so it’s not like I have to do extra work. Long story short, got a jersey to forget the line in a new draw. Loved it for a while went really well with my personality. My first boss always said you’re an entrepreneur, you’re wasting your time. I was like, No, no, no, I’m not wasting my time, I just want to learn about the corporations in different organizations, how they operate, and all that stuff.

So I really wanted to learn the business. And I think because I had that business mind, any HR job, any company I worked for. I really got involved in the business and I think that really made me a better HR person. Because I understood the business in every unit. How it integrates into the bigger picture of the business. And then, how I can assist my underlining motivation was, because I want to learn the business. Because I want to one day have my own business. So the best way to learn is to work at all these different companies. I took on a lot of contracts, I didn’t have any opportunity come my way, I took a permanent contract that didn’t matter to me.

So 2013 is when I finished my last contract role. And I was like, I’m going to take a break from a jar. My dad ended up buying like couple of new businesses and one I had an interest in. I’ll help you set it up while I’m kind of in-between jobs, so you bought a Trello franchise Mosaic, okay, travel is fun, I get to travel, right? So I’m like, I’m gonna help you with this. I don’t care what the other few, so I got into the travel business, like a lot of work like learning travel destinations. How travel works is a whole different, very interesting, very challenging to learn.

So I loved it because I was kind of bored of HR at that moment. But that’s when I realize I love business. And I want to do this, I don’t want to go back to the corporate world. I worked so many long hours in so many standalone roles. I’ve worked so many long hours and I was like, you know. Why for salary? I can do the same amount of hours and have the potential to make. Whatever income by working for myself. So that was my driving motivation. And I started my entrepreneurial journey from a travel franchise to. Actually launching my own travel planning company in the niche market of honeymoon planning.

Pamela Bardhi
Oh,

Gurpreet Mann
Yeah. And then I went really niche and went into the South Asian market. Because South Asians obviously were drawn to me because I’m South Asians. We have something in common and I found my space in a really niche market in travel with South Asians. And being the only one in and I started going to wedding shows. So I was the only one doing this, so it gave me a competitive advantage and I launched my first company. Escape destination planning, branded and all that stuff, so that’s where actually I started my entrepreneurial journey. But then I met and stayed dry. So I went back to HR and started my HR consulting business. Actually, I lost my HR consulting business back in 2009.

And my first business, I always forget that actually. My first business was my side hustle In 2008. I started an artificial jewelry business selling Indian artificial jewelry and I had two partners. One was my twin sister and then, one was my friend. I started it but then, I got them involved. It was great it took off, it was only Facebook. We started with Facebook advertisement free groups and posting it there. And then, my friend and we did like an open house to come see the jewelry. So it started to really take off being young relatable to the brides and stuff. Because we were at that age as well, so we’re targeting my age group at the time and our business took off and it was just posting on Facebook.

Pamela Bardhi
That’s amazing.

Gurpreet Mann
And then we grew it. To have like other accessories and then, we went into custom coloring jewelry. So I learned how to custom color jewelry, Indian jewelry. I went to India and I got someone to show me how to do it, so we can custom color. Also get custom-designed for custom colour, bridesmaids jewelry in Indian market. So yeah, like started to do that. Started to sell other accessories, purses, shoes, so it kind of just grew from there. And then yeah, so that was my first business, I always forget that actually. My first business was the artificial jewellery side hustle, while I was working full time in HR.

Pamela Bardhi
Wow, that’s incredible. Oh, my God. So I have to ask you throughout all your serial entrepreneurship, I always ask this, like. What did you want to be when you grew up?

Gurpreet Mann
Entrepreneur. My earliest memory of me is 16. Because I was really good in chemistry to the point where I was tutoring people. My chemistry teacher told me that you know, you’re so good at it. You should go to university and pursue something in chemistry. I was like, No, I’m in business. I’m going into business and so I knew like at that age 16-17, I think I was when, I was in chemistry cut, I knew that I’m going into business. And my dad around the same time or year before two years. Prior to that, he started a new business car rental business. Because he used to sell new used cars and he’s like. What is not making me money standing here. I’m going to start a rental business. I stayed up all night.

And at that time, there was no Google. Okay, we didn’t have Google. I stayed up all night, with all four kids, I was the youngest of all the kids. It was only me, stayed up all night, pulled out a dictionary. Went through all the words and meanings and everything and then came up with the name. Called ideal car rental and my dad said, great and unlike ideal means, like. This is what ideal means I think it’s perfect and he kept it until this day. That’s the name of my dad’s car and truck rental.

Pamela Bardhi
Oh, absolutely. So it sounds like your dad was a big influence in your life. Was that your number, one person who motivated you into your world?

Gurpreet Mann
Not really, because I wasn’t allowed to work in the family business. Because it was a car business, auto body shop, and stuff like that. So I can’t say that my dad guided me in any way. But I would say just maybe indirectly seeing him. I think it was just something in me that wanted it, because out of the four kids. It’s only me. So I think it was just something I wanted to do, but I can’t say that my dad ever guided us. But yeah, he always said that. Business is the way to go.

And I remember when I graduated, he actually wanted to buy a recruitment agency franchise and he goes out our buyer, you run it. I’m like, I just graduated, I’m not running any business. I want to go work and I think my decision to work actually did come from him. Because he did work but heating work in business corporations. He was in New, he was an immigrant to Canada in the 70s. So he didn’t work in corporations and the desk job and office job. Like factory work and then drove a taxi and stuff like that.

And before he launched his business, I wanted to go learn the ins and outs of the businesses on a larger scale than my dad’s business. So I was like, No, I don’t want you to buy recommend agency franchise. I’m not running it, I want to go to work. I think for me that was the best decision I made, to work in corporations in the corporate world. To learn the ins and outs of the different ways the businesses can run in different ways and I worked in so many different industries. That’s why I took on contract jobs.

Pamela Bardhi
That’s amazing, that’s amazing. So who was your biggest or who? Or What was your biggest source of inspiration? To want to be an entrepreneur? I guess that’s a better question.

Gurpreet Mann
Maybe, my dad, I guess, when I became an entrepreneur who motivated to me keep going would be my mom. But it was her sharing stories of my dad. So like, I can’t say that one particular person was the one, why I want it to be it. It just honestly speaking was just something in me that wanted it. Not because my dad was doing it, not because somebody in the family. Because we had other family members as well, that are business owners. It had nothing to do with that, It was just something that I wanted. But my motivation to keep going on when I became an entrepreneur. Yes, it was my dad. Because one thing I did admire about my dad, was he never gave up on his businesses.

Even when bad times came out In the 90s recession. We were going to be on the streets like we lost everything. And we’re like this close to being on the streets because of the recession. But my dad still kept going and going and somehow something worked out. Someone came and gave him money to rebuild his business. And he learned from that. So I would say the motivation came from the fact that my dad never gave up. No matter how many obstacles came his way. He didn’t give up on his business. Even to the point where he lost everything, he still didn’t give up on his business and something worked out.

So remembering all these things that I kept going in my business, because yes. When you start a business especially when I started it, like full time, like that was my only income now. Yeah, like my mom used to motivate me by sharing his story so that I keep going. And then any time I was a little bit down, I was like, No. My dad didn’t give up and that’s why he’s successful. So I’m going to keep going and I’m going to figure it out. Because he kept going, something he indirectly instilled in me was that there was always a way.

And I bought that into my jobs, too. That there was always a way and more of it came out, when I became an entrepreneur. There’s always a way you gotta figure it out. Keep going back to the drawing board and that’s what I used to do. Fighting to land a client, I went back to the drawing board to analyze what I did. What was the outcome and Okay, analyze and be like, Okay, well, this strategy, I actually didn’t work. So I need to drop this.

And I need to figure out a new strategy and so on. So I kept going back to the drawing board. Every time I didn’t land a client and when you start off in a consulting world, with no, like, nobody knows you. And I did it totally away that I don’t recommend people doing it. I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur, but then I didn’t make the time to network. Before I started my business, I wish I did that and set the stage.

So I had those smooth transitions but that’s probably why that was my journey. And I was destined to do it that way so that I learned what I know today. If I maybe had a smooth transition, maybe I wouldn’t know all the things I know today. So everything happens for a reason. But the motivation factor, I would say, would be my dad. Yeah. Seeing him like every single day, as a kid working hard and never giving up on the one thing that he really wanted.

Pamela Bardhi
That’s amazing. And you mentioned like there was a point where he almost lost it all.

Gurpreet Mann
He did lose it. We had to do a power of sale. Yeah, he did lose it. But another guy actually came in because we’re losing everything. And then he actually was an independent mortgage companies. He actually told me what to do, he’s the one who my dad, you know. Over like putting on parasail, start a corporation, get the corporation to buy your business. So that guy actually guided my dad on and that’s when my dad learned about corporations.

How you can actually open a corporation, then buy the building and put it in there business, all that stuff. Because the guy’s like right now, banks can come after you, because it’s under your name. But if you put in a corporation, they can come after you right. So we went and he had to declare bankruptcy. But this guy, my brother told me about him. He still remembers his name. His name was Eddie. I forgot what the company was called, but he actually told my dad what to do overnight. Plus he had that commercial building or his body shot that he’s running the business. Oh, my dad bought the building as well.

So overnight, put it on power sale, my dad bought it and put open a corporation get money from one of his friends. Learned that my dad was losing everything is like no, you’re not losing anything. I’m going to get the money. He collected the money from. Whoever got the money, bought it overpower of sale into a corporation. And then the same thing with our house. We lost our house, we had to do parasail and transfer it into I don’t remember whose name so my dad had to start from zero again. But he learned and never made that mistake again. Like we never were in opposition again, so he did learn.

So everything, you know. When I look at his journey and look at mine, everything is a learning curve. Where everything happens to teach you something, so you can either look at it as a learning opportunity. It’s here to teach you something so you can truly get better and be more aligned with your destiny. Or you can look like you put your hands up and just cry, right? Like you have a choice. I think every single day, we have a choice and how we react to the situation, we can either look at it. It’s here to teach me something and change your mindset. Or we can just sit in that negative energy and then nothing’s gonna work. Being in the negative mind. Right?

How Gurpreet Stay Motivated To Keep Going

Pamela Bardhi
Right. What’s amazing to me is that he was able to rise up and figure it out. Because in moments where things are just like, you lose everything, like, How do you stay motivated to keep going?

Gurpreet Mann
I don’t know how he did it, I was a kid. But yeah, he did it, I remember the time was so bad that my mom, my sister, and the three of us, took a contract. I was in grade eight. So I was what 13, maybe 12-13 year old, we took a contract to distribute those flyers door to door. And in Toronto, we have so much snow during wintertime and now it is like one of the coldest winters ever. Coldest winter ever, so much snow. But me, my mom, and my sister went door to door to distribute flyers because we had no money. We didn’t have money to buy groceries. That’s how bad the time was. When the recession came it really hit us really bad as a family. To why and what my dad was the sole income provider.

Pamela Bardhi
Well, I’m sure for him his motivation was with the family for everybody to keep moving forward. And my dad, a similar story. I mean, when he was building everything up, I didn’t know this until years later. He probably told me this when I was like 21. But he’s like, Pam, when you were little, I used to come home and cry. And know, how I was going to pay for all these different things and how he’s going to feed like you. Your brother, your mom, like we just, you know, it was hard times. But you know, you kept me motivated and sounds like and I have a sense that it was probably maybe.

Gurpreet Mann
with him. My dad, when he started his business he worked in like when he started the auto body shop. Let’s say it’s eight to five or whatever, so he did that obviously, no customers. So at night, he drove a taxi because he had four kids. Interesting thing is he started the business when he had four kids. Me being the youngest, me and my sister being twins, so we’re the youngest, plus a wife. And I think my grandparents at the time lived with us too. So imagine starting a business with a lot of pressure. That you have a family to support, so that was my motivation in 2013 like. I’m not going back to corporate, I’m gonna do business. It’s something I always wanted to do.

Now is a perfect time, I don’t have a family, I’m single. Why not mortgage to pay? I don’t have that extra stress. So right now is the time to take that chance. Take the risk, what’s the worst? Will I not be successful? What’s the big deal? Go back to working in the corporate world, right? Like now merde work in the corporate world. So that was my decision factor was, like. My dad did it with four kids, so that’s so much pressure.

Right now. I’m only responsible for myself like I pay rent. And that’s it. Right? Groceries rent. That’s it. Right? No mortgage, no kids, no husband. So I was like, it’s actually the perfect time, so I was like, I’m doing it. And when I finally did it, my first boss, I still talked to him. He’s like, about time. I’ve been telling you since you were my HR assistant. You are an entrepreneur, you’re wasting your time.

Pamela Bardhi
Oh my god.

Gurpreet Mann
I’m not wasting my time, I’m learning.

Pamela Bardhi
Well, it’s amazing to me. That will be my question for you, like. How did you transition? Because so many people are like, I want to be an entrepreneur, I want to be an entrepreneur. And they’re still working corporate, like all the years later, like. What really motivated that jump and it sound like for you. You were like, Hey, what do I have to lose? Right?

Gurpreet Mann
It was also my last job that I finished, I was working legitly, almost 12 hours a day. I was in a standalone HR role, so I was the only HR back then companies to cheap out on HR. So I was the only person in my location for HR and I was working long hours. And if I called in sick or went on vacation, there’s nobody covering my role. So when I came back to all this work, even on vacation. It was like, oh my god. I better check an email, because if when I come back, I’m gonna have millions of emails, right, so then when I finished that job, contract position. Then they wanted me to come back for another few months, I was like. Nah.

And then when I started working, helping my dad and that’s when I was like. I rather work 12 hours a day for myself and build something on my own. Then to go back to the corporate world and do work for someone else and make them money. So that was kind of like the decision-maker for me. Because I always knew I was going to be an entrepreneur, so it was kind of like, let’s do it now, let’s just do it. And the other reason why I took the jump, big jump like I had my HR consulting belt and set up like all the fine-tuning since 2009.

But, because I was working so many long hours at the end of the day, I didn’t have time to go get a client It was just NHL live. People don’t understand how a draining HR job can be. Dealing with employee relations issues and investigations can be draining. So I was like, what, I’ve started this business last night, I haven’t really done anything. Because I don’t have time. And the only way I’m going to make the time is when I have no other source of income. So that was the other kind of like, no. I had to go all-in, otherwise, it was not gonna happen, so I was like. I’m going all in, I had 20k in savings. That’s it.

Pamela Bardhi
And then like transitioning into it. Like what would be your best advice based on what you learned in the first, you know. Years of business? Because those are the toughest, right? If say the first three to five years is like. What are some things that you learned? Throughout that process and what your advice would be throughout that?

Gurpreet Mann
I would say we have it easy nowadays. Because of social media and technology compared to my dad’s time. So the best advice I can give, it’s something I teach actually, so as a coach, I do coaching on the side, too. It’s something I teach is build your brand. You as an individual build your brand, don’t have to be an entrepreneur or have a business to build you as an individual as a brand. So my best advice to anybody out there, listening to those is that you need to start today at this very moment. Start building and investing your time and building your brand as an individual. Because that will open so many doors for you be it in your career, be a as a business person.

When you start to build a brand and people start recognizing you for who you are, what you can do. Like for example I and you today came to be over because of LinkedIn. And because I’ve built a brand like I would you wouldn’t have reached out to me, I would even know who you are. So a lot of my opportunities now actually come in just buying my brand building on LinkedIn. I have not spent any money in marketing, two or three years and it’s all coming to me. Through me actually investing so much time in building my brand.

So I think the best advice I can give anybody, you don’t have to be an entrepreneur to build your brand. Invest the time to build your brand. You will thank me later because you can also make so much money. Even as a career professional, you can make so much more money. If you invest the time to build a brand because people buy people. So brand building.

Pamela Bardhi
I love that. And I love that you mentioned that. Because a lot of people feel brand building is only associated with entrepreneurs. Yeah, and you’re talking about no, no in a regular corporate job that you need, yeah brand yourself, because what stands you apart from anybody else,

Gurpreet Mann
Right. And honestly, if you want to land a six-figure job or you want to make more money than you’re making right now. I teach this as a coach, now past two years. I’ve been teaching brand building to career professionals. My clients through work with me like I help someone lined 130k job from edk went into getting 130k. Just recently, just two days ago, my client messaged me that she landed a job that’s paying her 60% more than what her current position is. Because the brand right like positioning marketing yourself and brand building also teaches you how to sell yourself. So brand building, personal brand building has nothing to do with entrepreneurs or business.

But as a career professional, I teach people like look at Google. See, look at any of the CEOs you think are looking for a job. Now people come to me like I want you to come work for my company. And what did they do? I go they build their brand that everybody knows about them. What results they can do and so can you in today’s day and age, we can do that. And LinkedIn is your choice on how you use a platform. You can sit and see LinkedIn as a job board only or you can see it as you know I can do this with it. Even though my social media now has two years, I just especially the last year. I’ve totally building my brand on Instagram.

But I’m building in a different way on LinkedIn. I build differently but I’m hitting two different platforms two different ways. But brand building is one of the best ways people can make so much money, even as a career professional. You can be making so much more money. If you invest the time in building a brand so that when someone comes to you, you can ask for X amount of money and they won’t hesitate. Because you know if they see it, they’re showing your value every single day by building your brand. So I’m totally passionate about brand building. I can do it in my sleep in a sense, I can come up with ideas in my sleep like I am. So into it, the best advice I wish I knew was brand building.

When I started in 2013, I wished I built my brand before I became an entrepreneur. I wish I didn’t spend money on what 20 $500 to build my first website, five $600 on a logo. You don’t even need all that, If you just build your brand. If you want to become an entrepreneur, forget having a website, you don’t need none of this stuff. To test the waters, you should build your brand and see what people are reaching out to you. On what type of help or they’re reaching out to you and what you can do for them in return. I learned that from Daymond John.

Pamela Bardhi
Wow, I think Shark Tank. Yeah.

Gurpreet Mann
I used to watch a lot of Shark Tank. When I became an entrepreneur.

Pamela Bardhi
Oh my god, I could sit there and watch it all day. It’s scary.

Gurpreet Mann
When you learn, right, like learning can happen from anywhere. So I learned a lot from Shark Tank. But then I started falling for Daymond John on Instagram and he puts out a lot of great content. So I learned a lot in the last two years, I would credit him and my sales coach for my girls. But daymond john says something very interesting was pay attention, to what people are talking on social media. Because people will list their problems, so pay attention. And then he said pay attention to what people are reaching out to you and what problems are telling you. He goes pay attention to the problems that people are telling you about. And then come up with a solution to the problem.

A lot of times what people do is, we think there’s a problem. So let me come up with a solution and then we go test the water to see if there’s a problem out there. That you have a solution to, so he says do it the other way around. Forget coming up with solutions or thinking there’s a problem, forget that, pay attention. Open your eyes. Listen, pay attention to what people are talking on social media, LinkedIn, and what people are reaching out to you. That’s where you’ll know what service or product you can do. Because people are coming to you with the problem. So the research can be done if you just pay attention. And I would say that’s where my biggest shift happened.

Hence, I started doing career coaching was like people are reaching out to me all the time. For this advice unlike, there’s a neat also. Because he’s like when people are reaching out to you constantly for something. There was a neat, I will give credit to me kind of entering into career coaching. Was that so many people were reaching out to me. I’m like if so many people are reaching out to me and I’m always doing this for free. There is a need, I need to capitalize on this now, I’m not gonna be giving people free advice all the time. So I was like, yo, no, no, no, no. People are reaching out to me, so there’s clearly a need.

And then I started doing these workshops on paid and then, that led me to create this program called, Lana drop in 30 days. So that’s like a coaching kind of, I was already doing coaching, being an HR. I’ve always been doing coaching and people always came to me for resume help all the time. Because I’m in a job but I was doing it for free. And then 2019 I was like, No, I’m not doing it for free. There’s a need, I’m going to capitalize on it and it did come from Daymond john.

Gurpreet’s Biggest Aha Moment

Pamela Bardhi
That’s amazing. Oh my, I was gonna ask you. What your biggest aha moment was? And it sounds like it came to through that.

Gurpreet Mann
Your career coaching? Yes, yes. For HR, I wouldn’t say I have aha moment. I’m still trying to figure out my height and age at HR. But actually no aha moment. Actually, no, I take that back. No, I had an aha moment. Because I come from a family that’s an entrepreneur, like my aunt and entrepreneur. They have franchises and so on. So they’re always because I was in a dry, they were reaching out to me, hey, how do I deal with this problem? How do I deal with this problem?

So I come from small business owners, entrepreneurs in my family then as like and giving them guidance, and then they’re able to fix their problems. But then the income there, the revenues are growing, they’re doing better in business. That’s when I had an aha moment and why I work with smaller businesses and organisations before. I was working with anybody as a consultant when I launched my business. But then the aha moment happened, when I was helping smaller businesses in my family or friends. So girls, like you know, no, small businesses, if they can, they like HR support. If they actually got us very strong HR support, they can actually double triple their revenues, their profits. Because it’s all about attracting the right talent to come work for you.

But then onboarding them, building those processes and procedures. Because without people working for you, you don’t have a business either. How are you going to deliver to your customers? If you do have the right people delivering that solution to your customers. So identifying the right talent to work for your organisation can, really help small businesses, boom. And in Canada, I don’t know what the numbers look like for us, but I’m patient might be the same. But I’m going to just talk about Canvas that’s in Canada. 90% of jobs are created from small businesses. Wow, only 10% jobs are created from the larger billion dollar industries, but smaller organisations are creating 90% on the job market and the economy. And now we got the big dose of it during this pandemic, where. Oh my God, everything is stemming from the small businesses.

So now people are becoming even more aware, because of the pandemic. How important small businesses are to the economy. Because 90% of the economy runs on small businesses. So my aha moment happened during that, like, I think 2016=17 was like, wait. I’m helping all these family and friends who run businesses and I’m seeing. How much value is being added to them and how they’re able to grow their businesses. That’s when I was like, No, I’m gonna work with smaller businesses. Because these guys are the backbone of our company.

And if we can give them proper age or I can give them a job, proper support that business is going to grow. That business grows. It helps everybody involved in the country, the economy is going to grow. Because if not, they’re going to create more jobs and people get hired, who wins everybody. So that’s when I had an aha moment and I’ve been working with smaller, medium sized organisations. And that’s where my passion lies. I don’t go after large organisations, there’s tonnes of people going after them. But I want to help the smaller organisations, because they truly are the backbone of our company.

Pamela Bardhi
That’s amazing. I love that so much, I love that so much. And now another question that I have for you and it’s my last question, which I love so much. What would your older self tell your younger self? Based on what you know now, in life, business, whatever speaks

Gurpreet Mann
If I have to go back and tell my younger self, a fearless, be fearless. I was not a fearless person growing up, I grew up in a very sheltered traditional Indian family. Where girls are very sheltered sort of shy, nervous, wasn’t. If you met me 10 to 20 years ago, like are you the same person. So I would say, if I can go back, one advice I will give my younger self is to have the guts to go pursue what you want. And don’t let anyone stop you, so being fearless and owning your power. The last, I think, six months, I’ve really grown into my power to recognise. I have the ability and empowered to create my life the way I want it.

And thanks to doing meditation, I’ve always been into meditation. But September of last year, I really got into Reiki healing, affirmations and all that stuff. So I would, so the advice I would give my younger self is that you have the power to be. Whoever you want it to be as long as you believe in it and own your power and then ask for guidance from the universe. God, I believe in God, If you believe in God, just ask for guidance. And it will make you able to attract whatever you want. If you have that if you’re wiping on that frequency. So my younger self, the best advice I can give my younger self is to be fearless and face your fears. Which I have to learn the hard way.

Pamela Bardhi
Right. I love that, I love that so much. That’s one of my biggest things is like, you know. Regret is far worse than fear.

Gurpreet Mann
Yeah. fight over anything in my life. But I was a shy person. So that’s why I said like my younger self, I would say to be fearless. In some aspects I was, but I really became less free. Because of going through a divorce and all that stuff. Like a lot of the stuff that happened to me did lead me to where I am today. So I have no regrets.

Or look at any of my situations and have any negativity towards it. Because each situation that happened from me. Entering into an abusive marriage, getting out of an abusive marriage, to all the stuff that happened afterwards. It was meant for me, because I needed to get to where I am today. And if that didn’t happen, I’d 100% say this in confidence. That if I didn’t go through what I did, I wouldn’t be where I am. I wouldn’t be here talking to you.

Pamela Bardhi
Why, right? And touching on that would be the biggest tip for somebody who might be going through that. Because we have a tonne of different listeners and who knows what their situation is right now. But like you just mentioned, because I know that there’s people going through divorces. Maybe an abusive relationship or anything like that, like what would be your best tip. Since you just mentioned it. I feel like we got to touch on it because.

Gurpreet Mann
If you are abused in a relationship, get out like it’s not going to get better. I think people staying, I think y’all will get better and maybe the abuse will stop the mental abuse it took me. And I think it’s been 12 years, it took me last year to get into a better mental space. Like I still had things that will trigger me, because of what I went through in the abusive, mentally abusive, physical. But mental abuse is something that takes a very long time, to mentally heal from when you’ve been abused mentally, every single day. And mine was a short marriage.

So luckily, because I saw abuse growing up to know like, no, this stuff is just gonna get worse. I have the power to say what I don’t deserve this CEA. Like, that’s exactly what I was like, I’m out, like. It’s not easy to walk out on a marriage. No one gets married to get divorced. But the longer you stay, the longer you’re prolonging your happiness In the end of the day. What matters is are you happy? If you’re not happy? Do you need to leave? I know, it’s a hard decision I know. I’ve been through it. It’s not easy.

The aftermath. It’s not easy, but it’s a temporary setback, a temporary pain for the greater happiness, you will be happy. But you’re gonna like you gotta leave in order to be happy abuse, abuse. No one should abuse anybody, not even mentally, physically, definitely not, but mental abuse as well. If someone’s not respecting you, if your partner doesn’t respect you and mentally belittles you. And you feel like you’re walking on eggshells, it is not a way to live, I know so many people stay in it. I hope you find the courage to put yourself first and be like, I don’t deserve this. This is not the life I want to live.

And I’m going and then like, I didn’t have this. But find a support group or get into honestly getting into Reiki healing meditation. Meditation helps like I’m super like. I don’t like calling myself religious, but I’m spiritual. But Reiki healing and adding my seek pairs combination has really actually helped me heal on a larger scale. Like I knew I’d had internal things that I was still holding on to an abdomen in heels. So somehow I came across Reiki healing and I still do my Sikh prayers, but adding that extra layer in the healing has helped me truly here.

So I would say even in our I openly tell people. If you’re going through something bad. It’s really easy for anyone to say, Hey, leave, right, like just pick up and leave. But mentally you gotta have that courage, but doing a Reiki healing session like now does, you know. We’re blessed to have technology that lets people putting out meditations for free. And we didn’t have that in 2008 what we have access to today, we didn’t have it in 2008. Now you can find anything like so many people are doing YouTube channels, right?

Like, that’s why I love where we are today, like I’m here talking to you on a podcast. Did podcasts actually exist in 2008? No. Right. So we have so much information available to us, so anybody is listening, that’s going through a bad time or you’re in an abusive relationship. Honestly, adopt a meditation and go to you to find a Reiki healing. Because that will really help you to cleanse internal fears and issues of insecurities. And once you clear that out, you will be so secure to be like, I deserve better. I’m going and it will help you.

Pamela Bardhi
I love Gurpreet . Thank you so much, thank you so much for offering those tips. You mentioned that and I was like, you know, like, I know there’s people that need that guidance. So thank you so much for sharing that. I really appreciate that. And now where can everybody find you and your awesomeness?

Gurpreet Mann
LinkedIn is the best way to connect with me. So my LinkedIn profile is Gupreet Kaur Mann. And if you guys on Instagram, then my accounts are public and it’s the handle my name is G dot k m a n n, it’s public. Anybody can connect with me. So those are two platforms I’m on, but LinkedIn is my platform and you can find me like the fastest way to reach out to me is LinkedIn. I will respond back fast.

Pamela Bardhi
I love it so much. Is there anything you’re up to any new projects, any new programmes that you’re launching? Coming up soon?

Gurpreet Mann
Yeah, I’m actually launching two different things for two different like so I have two different businesses now. So for HR consulting, my company is called hr surveyhero. And we are actually launching a product called HR in a box. So it’s a total HR solution done for you ready to use. Click download and you can use it and it’s designed for smaller businesses. To really help them build the HR infrastructure from you know, hiring, onboarding new hires. How to manage the employee lifecycle and performance KPIs. It’s totally everything.

You need to set your business up for success when it comes to HR All right, so it’s all done for you. And you can just click on download. So we’re about to launch that. It’s just taking a little bit longer but, because it’s such a big project. That I’ve been working on for a couple of years I was giving it, but now we’re revamping it and it’s gonna be called a dry no box. So it’s right for you HR solution for my coaching business.

I’m actually launching a new programme, just for personal branding. So if anybody that’s interested in personally branding themselves as a career professional. That’s an amazing programme, that I’m launching to really help people understand why they need to brand themselves. And how they can make more money. If you brand yourself you can make more money.

Pamela Bardhi
I love that so much. Gurpreet thank you so much for being here today. You offered so much amazing insight and I loved hearing your stories. And thank you so much for being here.

Tune in to the episode to hear the rest of my incredible interview with the amazing Gurpreet Mann.

If you found this story worth your time and made changes in your life, we’d love to hear from you! Subscribe and leave a review.

The Underdog Podcast host is none other than Pamela Bardhi. She’s rocking the Real Estate Realm and has dedicated her life as a Life Coach. She is also Forbes Real Estate Council. To know more about Pam, check out the following: