Episode 271: The Goal is Not to Compete But to Win with Harpreet Kaur
Running a business is never an easy task. There are a lot of challenges that can block your way. In order to reach the goal of business success, you need to build the right foundation in your mind and be intentional in your decision to make it happen.
Harpreet Kaur is an entrepreneur, Co-Founder of Oh So Yum, and the winner of The Apprentice 2022. With her fearless personality and winning mentality, Harpreet made sure to win the show, take Lord Sugar’s investment to her business, and make major waves in the business world.
In today’s episode, Harpreet Kaur talks with Adam Stott about her experience joining and winning The Apprentice 2022. Harpreet shares how the show changed her life and business, how she attracts and takes action to achieve her goal, and shares her business growth secret that made her win.
Show Highlights:
- What Harpreet’s business looked like before she joined the Apprentice
- How is turn her business vision into reality
- The biggest key to a successful business; and
- Lesson Harpreet learns by joining the show
Links Mentioned:
Connect with Harpreet Kaur on Instagram at @harpsi_kaur and visit ohsoyum.co.uk to learn more about her business.
Join the Ultimate Three Day Business Event and learn more Business Growth Secrets
Be part of our Facebook Group Big Business Events Members Network
Connect with me on Instagram @adamstottcoach
Transcript:
Please note this is a verbatim transcription from the original audio and therefore may include some minor grammatical errors.
Adam Stott:
Hello everybody and welcome to this very special episode of Business Growth Secrets. I’m super excited. We are at the Business Show today and I have a very special guest in Harpreet Kaur, the winner of the Apprentice, who is making major, major waves in business. We’re gonna have a fantastic chat. We’re gonna jump straight in.
So Harpreet, thank you for being on.
Harpreet Kaur:
Thank you for having me. I’m excited.
Adam Stott:
Brilliant. I was a massive fan, very genuinely on the show when you were watching it because you really, your business acumen was far and above the other candidates, and you powered through, and I loved the directness and, and how you managed to really get your points across and complete the task. So, really pleased to have you on the podcast. The podcast obviously been business growth secret. I’ve seen that some of the things you’ve been doing with your brand and your business and it’s starting to grow. I was so young. What I wanna say to you is obviously you were in business before the Apprentice and what was it like before running that business? And then we’ll talk about some of the impact the media’s had on you. Tell me a bit about your business journey from the beginning.
Harpreet Kaur:
Yeah, so I’ve been running my (1:01.74), it’s been seven years now and it’s been a long seven years but at the same time it also goes very. As any business owner will know, every single day is just crazy different. You know, when I first went into business, I was really naive. I honestly thought there are so many other people out there that do it. Of course, I can give it a go. How difficult can it be? And was I for a shock because I just came from a job in banking and I’d always pursued like a very corporate route. But the skills that you have to have as a business owner and as an entrepreneur are just miles apart, you know?
So I think I had a lot of learning to do. It took me some time to really figure out, okay, to actually not just set up a business, but to set up a model that is sustainable, makes money, delivers a great product, a service has a reliable team that takes a lot of effort. So it took some time to nurture, grow, the pandemic hit, which was crazy. We had to re-strategize and really just think all over again. Are we going to survive? And then fast forward to The Apprentice where I went on, I battled through the show.
Adam Stott:
You did battle for it?
Harpreet Kaur:
I did battle through it, I wasn’t going to back down. I really had my eye on the end goal and nothing was gonna get in my way. So that’s where we are now. And I’ve got Lord Sugar on the board, which is.
Adam Stott:
It’s really interesting that what you just said, you had your eye on the end goal. Yeah. Joseph who I mentioned is a good friend of mine. Mark I know really well, Lee, every single one of them who all winners told me, they went on that show to win. And I think that was your mentality too, right?
Harpreet Kaur:
I wasn’t gonna give it a shot, I was gonna go on the Apprentice. I was gonna
Adam Stott:
I love that. Right. You’re in a win. I didn’t come to compete. I came to win.
Harpreet Kaur:
I didn’t. Yeah. The thing is, for me, I was almost fixated on the end goal, and this is gonna sound a little bit crazy but
I am really individualization manifesting the law of attraction so I knew that Lord Sugar was not going to point that finger at me and say, you’re fired. I just knew it in my gut because I told myself that. So, I made myself believe that, and I knew I just wouldn’t get that finger. He was not going to fire me, and I believe that so much that I just turned into a reality and I made sure that I just didn’t leave a single stone unturned going through that process. I didn’t let. Anxiety or nervousness or second thoughts creep into my mind.
Adam Stott:
It’s incredibly inspiring. I often tell business owners that the belief comes before the result. But the skills also come before the result. So we got, but I have belief first. Build the skills in order to get the result. Now you’ve been running the business now seven years, and it’s really interesting that you said you had these challenges. You built through the challenges and you stay focused on one goal. Yeah. So, in terms of the business, how important is that for business owners in your perspective of just staying focused?
Harpreet Kaur:
It’s tricky, and it’s also really hard to stay motivated, to keep focused. You also need motivation, but you also need discipline. Yeah so it all goes hand in hand. And even the most inspiring individuals that you see, they don’t stay 100% motivated all of the time. Your mind wanders so sometimes you’re just not feeling great or you’ve had some knock backs in business or some deal hasn’t pulled off that you really thought was going to, it knocks you okay?
But the biggest key is discipline. If you can keep yourself disciplined and think, okay, these are the actions I’m going to complete consistently, regardless of whatever happens around. All you have to sometimes shift your focus and that’s okay too. But I think something that a lot of business owners can make the mistake of is if one goal or vision isn’t working out in the way that they thought it would. They almost derail and they think, well, what was the point and what was it all for? That’s not the right mindset to have because actually you are consistently making steps in the right direction, and maybe you are just being shifted towards another opportunity instead, and you’ve learned throughout the process, you’ve gone throughout the process.
So, guess what? In 12 months time you’re gonna think, thank God that door closed on me, because this one has opened. So it’s just about keeping yourself. Keeping yourself disciplined, because if you set out to go and achieve a mission with your business you gotta keep yourself going because no one else is going to.
Adam Stott:
Absolutely. I mean, I couldn’t agree more in terms of you having this psychology, which is very clear, which is brilliant, and that’s the psychology of a winner, right? How’s that been cultivated? Has it come naturally to you? Is it something that you’ve learned? Have you, is it something you’ve train yourself on? Or is something that comes naturally to you? Maybe your parents have tried? I don’t know. But I’d like to know from your psychology, because you’ve cultivated the psychology of a winner. Right?
Harpreet Kaur:
I love this question because I’ll be completely honest, I don’t have one answer to this. It’s definitely a work in progress. There’s not a single person out there, entrepreneur, business person. Just a wrong model that hasn’t actually consistently worked on themselves and is probably working on themselves by now. I love that answer, . Yeah. You know, I’m sure you are doing things. Oh, of course. You know? Yeah, of course. Yeah. Right Now you think, okay, I’m the best version I can be, and in 12 months time you look back and think, gosh, I’m even there now.
Yes, we are all a work in progress. I definitely am. I would say that I have accelerated my self progression over the past two, three. For me, my personal trick has really been goal setting, deciding what I want and taking the risk. Okay. I haven’t got time to procrastinate because that’s just time wasted. Okay. Yeah. Make a decision. Go with your gut and guess what, if it doesn’t work out, it’s okay. No one’s judging. It’s fine. You know, business and life is a journey and you’ve just gotta be ready to ride the wave cuz we’re all gonna go through it.
Adam Stott:
I love it. Now since the show, obviously you’ve. Your brand has been building.
Harpreet Kaur:
You know, I, I checked out your Instagram before we got together a moment ago, and I saw that you’ve just gone into Selfridges, for example. How. Exciting is that for you? I think it’s important for the audience to understand media and what media can do. Because you’ve obviously that’s helped you. I mean, you’re a successful business owner already, which I love. For that media and that brand building, what kind of doors does it open for you and how much would you encourage other people to get themselves out there into the media a bit more? What the Apprentice has taught me is that you have to put yourself out there. Okay. I have this almost essentially the same business that I did 12 months ago that I went into the Apprentice with, but now everyone knows my name. Yes. Everyone knows what I do
Adam Stott:
and how much easier.
Harpreet Kaur:
So much easier. I didn’t put myself out there before because I made the mistake of thinking, well, there’s similar businesses out there. What’s so different about me? But actually it all comes and boils down to self-belief. Okay? Put yourself out there. Put yourself on a platform. It doesn’t mean you have to go on a TV show to represent your brand. Yeah, come to events like the business show. Get yourself talking to like-minded individuals. Think about which platform you can showcase, not just your business, but yourself because people buy people.
So for me, amazing that we’re in Selfridges. Unreal I mean, how fancy, right? Love it. But for me, the opportunities are endless. I can’t stop there because there’s so much more to do. And, uh, the Apprentice, I would say, has given me a platform and a voice, but the business and the hardwork is still there. You know, I have to have logistics, full flight in place, a team in place. It’s not always easy, you know, things don’t get handed on a plate to you. Even if you’ve gone on a TV show
Adam Stott:
and you’ve still got the challenges, right. That you’ve got followed,
Harpreet Kaur:
there’s the challenges course. Yeah. And more pressure. Because I’ve now got an investor that I have to return that investment on and quickly , you know, the pressure’s on but I love it. I wouldn’t have changed the experience for the world.
Adam Stott:
Yeah. You’ve done really well. One of the questions I always ask the guests, and we’ll probably finish up. On this question, so we can do a shorter episode today because we’ve got this big business show going on and, you know, everybody’s out there and meeting and creating conversations. If you were to give someone some business growth secret, somebody listening to this podcast and you said, from all the experiences, seven years in business, first of all, building, six figure business, getting out there on the show, building that brand, becoming more known, finding your voice, all of those things. If you were to pinpoint one thing that you would say would be a business growth secret, something that people are perhaps not doing that you would recommend that they do, what would that be?
Harpreet Kaur:
This is gonna sound really simple and basic. And you know what? So many people are gonna think, oh, that’s fine. I’ll skip past that because I’ve got it in my mind. You need to do this. You need to write down your goals and revisit them daily, monthly, weekly, every single moment that you can, so you can consistently remind yourself why you are doing it. Okay? It’s okay if your goals change, but you need to be that specific about what you wanting to achieve right now. Because if you put that pen to paper, you are putting that out there in the universe, in the world. Okay? If you don’t have a specific goal, well then, what are you doing? What are you aiming towards?
Okay. Very basic, very simple, but it’s so important to visualize and decide what you want, make the decision, because if you are dilly-dallying and you are not quite sure what you wanna do, well, neither is anyone else.
Adam Stott:
And I’ll just tell you I backed that 100%. I’ve been doing that since I was 16 years old. You know, and it’s something that’s so, so important. Look, I’d loved having you on.
Harpreet Kaur:
Thank you.
Adam Stott:
You’re a superstar. She stood out. I saw her out there as well. And you know, uh, you’re really making waves and you’re gonna be ultra successful. Are you’re gonna be the most successful person on the apprentice ever.
Harpreet Kaur:
Ah, have to say yes. Hell yes to that. I’ll tell, I’ll do my best. I’ll give him my best job for sure.
Adam Stott:
Yeah. Good for you. Well done. Thank you very much. It’s been amazing having you on. Thank you. And I can’t wait to, I’ll be watching you progress.