Dr Nona Djavid Reveals The POWER Of Mindset For Success

In this inspiring episode of The Quest for Success Podcast, Dr. Nona Djavid, chiropractor, entrepreneur, and mindset coach, shares how personal growth defines success more than achievement. She reflects on her transformative journey—from experiencing loss to building a thriving business—highlighting the mindset shifts that helped her overcome self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and limiting beliefs.

Dr. Nona discusses the power of visualisation, crafting an unshakable vision, and setting unreasonable goals to unlock one’s full potential. She breaks down the role of curiosity in personal development, how daily routines shape success, and why thinking bigger is essential for entrepreneurs. Whether you're looking to elevate your mindset, refine your business strategy, or simply get inspired, this episode is packed with game-changing insights.

Connect with Dr Nona:
🔹 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nonadjavid/
🔹 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nonadjavid/

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Transcript

Dylan Pathirana (00:02.498)
Our special guest today is Dr. Nona Javid is known her expertise in entrepreneurship, holistic wellness and business coaching. And she's also the author of Elevate Your Life. And she's also the founder of Elevate Club. Nona, thanks for joining us.

Dr Nona Djavid (02:58.842)
Thank you, thanks for having me.

Dylan Pathirana (03:01.336)
So now this podcast is all about success, right? And so I suppose to start the conversation off, we need to understand something pretty fundamental. And that is what does success actually mean to you?

Dr Nona Djavid (03:13.658)
That is such a good question. We're going deep right off the bat then.

Whoops.

That was you guys. There you are. Okay.

Dr Nona Djavid (03:36.428)
If there is not a little tech problem, it's... whoops.

Dylan Pathirana (03:59.519)
Sorry, I don't know what happened. No idea. That's first time that's ever happened to us.

Dr Nona Djavid (04:04.354)
It's never happened. I have that effect.

Dylan Pathirana (04:05.607)
No. You're special.

Dr Nona Djavid (04:10.808)
Yeah, very special. Okay.

Dylan Pathirana (04:13.691)
All right, maybe we'll just you know what happened? No, I didn't no idea. It's just like Riverside kind of just stopped recording Yeah

Dr Nona Djavid (04:23.97)
It says it continued to say record, so I feel like it's...

Dylan Pathirana (04:28.085)
Yeah. Maybe ask that first question again. Yeah. So no, no, this podcast is all about success. And so we want to start this conversation off and really like set the framework for what we're to talk about today. And to do that, we need to understand the fundamental question, which is what does success mean to you?

Dr Nona Djavid (04:48.794)
Okay, I have a couple of answers to that one. One, for me, the definition of success and really honestly, even happiness, they sort of tie in together. And for me, the definition for both of those is growth. So how much growth am I experiencing or have I experienced compared to myself?

in my last version of myself. So if I'm experiencing growth as a mom, if I'm experiencing growth as a partner, if I'm experiencing growth as a friend, as a business owner in my business, then I know I can be successful, again, relative to my previous self. And that brings me happiness.

Dylan Pathirana (05:32.467)
So it's more about growth and happiness for you.

Dr Nona Djavid (05:35.544)
Mm-hmm. I would say growth my definition of how I know I am on the right path as if I'm growing

Dylan Pathirana (05:42.133)
Yeah. And I suppose for us, like what we've noticed throughout our conversations is a person is very much defined by their early years. So could you take us back to kind of your, your early life, where you grew up and kind of what are the core traits that you think you got from your, family?

Dr Nona Djavid (06:00.474)
Yeah, how far back should we go? All right, well, there are definitely a couple of really key moments that I've experienced. When I was 2 and 1 half, the earliest childhood memory that I have is my mom. I'm the first born, and my mom was pregnant, like full blown, eight, nine months pregnant with a little boy.

Dylan Pathirana (06:02.697)
Right back, early childhood.

Dr Nona Djavid (06:25.958)
And I was just so excited being the only child to have this little boy come. this part I don't really have a lot of memory, but my mom would tell me stories about how she would take me grocery shopping and then all of a sudden I'm throwing the biggest tantrum like on the floor in the grocery store kind of.

next to my mom who's nine months pregnant and just kind of screaming and yelling, I want my little baby. I want my baby. I want my baby. And, but the memory that I do remember is of my dad lifting me up in the hospital and showing me behind this glass wall where my little brother was in the hospital in this little crib. And part of the reason why this memory is so ingrained, like I remember the smell of the hospital. I remember my dad making me up. I remember

literally the entire scene, I can see it immediately. Part of the reason for that is because it was such a traumatic experience because my brother ended up passing away in the hospital. So then I end up as a toddler who is still kind of obviously growing. I'm watching my mom grieve a baby that she couldn't have or she didn't have.

So I do think from those early moments, when I reflect back on it, I really understood and just kind of this seed in my soul and my heart, however you want to describe it, put in my heart to want to help other people. I became this healer and this fixer and...

wanted to want, didn't want my mom to suffer, wanted to fix my family dynamic, if you would, because that was a big loss that I experienced, never wanted anybody to be sad in that way. So that was really the first moment of that defined some pieces of what I ended up doing in all of my life. All of my entrepreneurial journey has really been about wanting to help people and wanting to reduce the suffering of, you know, of individuals, of humanity really.

Dr Nona Djavid (08:32.602)
And then fast forward, I was born and raised in Iran. Yeah, so I moved to the United States when I was 16 years old. And so I didn't speak a word of English. And, you know, if you're an immigrant to any Western,

Dylan Pathirana (08:36.83)
All right.

Dr Nona Djavid (08:48.282)
country, you kind of not like you come from a Middle Eastern, really a third world country. My parents, they brought all of their savings, like years worth of a savings and all of their like they sold their house and they sold and over here in the US, it would last like three months. So all of a sudden we, you know, we're like middle class, maybe higher middle class in Iran and we come here and we're like barely poverty line and we're like crammed in this little place. And

Dylan Pathirana (09:05.012)
Mm-hmm.

Dr Nona Djavid (09:18.236)
Two weeks after I moved, I was thrown into high school, so I don't speak a word of English. There's a massive culture shock. I'm 16. The hormones are through the roof. I'm mad at everybody. And a new country, and I don't have my friends around. I you can imagine.

Dylan Pathirana (09:35.881)
Mm-hmm.

Dr Nona Djavid (09:36.058)
dilemma, the struggle. didn't fit in. I didn't look like anybody else in that town that we were in. was like predominantly a white neighborhood. There was no diversity.

And I, as soon as I could, think I was like 16 and a half, you could start to get a job. I started to get a job at a fast food place. Cause the only thing that felt like freedom as is for a 16 year old was maybe I can make a bit of money to buy the things that a 16 year old girl wants to buy. Like some clothing, some makeup probably. And I got this job and I barely lasted in the job because

Dylan Pathirana (10:07.477)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Pathirana (10:15.317)
you

Dr Nona Djavid (10:16.026)
I was at a fast food place, I was a cashier there. And I just would look around and be like, this is the reason I've got to start some kind of a business on my own. Now, mind you, my parents, have zero business experience. They're both teach, my mom was a teacher, my dad was a professor at the university. So, so if anything, they would have been like, that is not the smartest thing to do. Like go be a doctor, go be a, uh, an engineer or something, lawyer.

So fast forward, quit that job or I may have been fired, I'm not sure. So I decided I was good at math and even though my English wasn't good, I could speak, like math was easy to communicate. So we had these kids in the neighborhood that sucked at math, they were younger kids, younger than me and the mom came over to my parents' house, my house at the time and...

Dylan Pathirana (10:51.927)
Hahaha

Dr Nona Djavid (11:13.358)
They knew I was really good at math, so I started tutoring kids in math. And so that was my really like first quote, quote business. It's taste of money, if you would, at 16. And then soon enough I realized I only had a couple hours a night to tutor these kids. This is very limited for, I forget how much I was getting paid.

Then I learned leverage because then I would go to the other kids in high school and I would be like, hey, can you teach this kid, because I was getting referrals, can you teach this kid and I will give you a kickback. So I started this underground tutoring company at 16 and then I ended up getting accepted at Berkeley and I liked the idea so much and I liked teaching and helping.

that actually it continued while I was at Berkeley and then I went to chiropractic school. Again, this business continued. And then after chiropractic school, I decided I was gonna open up my own practice. I'd already failed at having a job. then I did that and that in itself is a whole nother story. But those are the, I think the pieces that made my...

entrepreneurial that made me want to go in that route. It was like something for me out of the survival mode that I was in and it was it would pay off.

Dylan Pathirana (12:38.165)
And do think there was any like cool values that you took from either one of your parents?

Dr Nona Djavid (12:44.018)
yeah, my, my mom definitely was more of like, you can do anything you want. You can do anything you set your mind to. You can do. And I think with my dad came, it was more the support that I received from my dad. that led me to believe like even when I started my business as a private practice,

My dad took a loan on his house to buy me an x-ray machine and that in itself, and I had nothing. I mean, this is a lot of risk. I had $300 when I just started my business. I think he showed the core value and the support showed in the actions that my parents really took at that time.

Dylan Pathirana (13:33.503)
So Nona, what happened to that tutoring business? Initially you started after you start going to CharaPractic. Have you sold it or given to someone or just...

Dr Nona Djavid (13:46.4)
I it wasn't big enough and I didn't, I know I didn't sell it to anybody, but I did, even when I was at chiropractic school, would go to the library and meet people at the library of the chiropractic school and I would tutor them while I was there. So it did continue and pay off, paid for some of my schooling.

Dylan Pathirana (14:01.535)
Yeah.

I guess it's part of the journey, right? Did you take any learnings out of that experience?

Dr Nona Djavid (14:13.762)
Yeah, out of that experience, and I think also out of a personal struggles of at 16 moving into a new country, really one of the biggest things I learned early on was the power of sink and swim, sink or swim. And walking outside walking or sometimes being forced or thrown outside of your comfort zone, because I remember when I was trying to learn English.

There were other kids that spoke Farsi. They spoke my language. And if I went to go be friends with them and hang out in those circles, then one, I would have an accent like my uncle who had lived.

You know, in the United States for 20 years, I didn't want that. But also I was purposefully putting myself in situations where I would have to expand. And I learned that early on it's, and as an entrepreneur, we have to be really intentional about putting out, cause there's nobody else. There's no teacher, there's no boss, there's nobody else telling you. So you can consistently have to put yourself in those situations that create some level of.

sink or swim. And I also learned that you get to swim almost every single time.

Dylan Pathirana (15:25.577)
Yep. Yep. And then tell us about that kind of transition into chiropractic. What, kind of triggered that?

Dr Nona Djavid (15:34.49)
I think the underlying factor was the fact that I really just wanted to help people and I didn't want to go into medicine. I was looking for something alternative and I studied neurology at Berkeley and

Most people don't have the deep understanding that chiropractic actually has a lot of neurology involved. So it was a natural progression from neurology to chiropractic. And I'll be honest, it was more of an entrepreneurial journey because I knew if I go into chiropractic, can have my own practice. I would have a pretty high cap in terms of the level of freedom, whether it's finances, time and energy, I could really set my schedule. And that's really what happened. The first...

three years in business, I burnt out. and I sort of did things the way that traditionally had been done. Right. And I'd followed the system, the matrix, like get married, have children, do the thing, go to school, listen to your being a plus student. So I did all of that.

Dylan Pathirana (16:32.149)
Yeah.

Dr Nona Djavid (16:38.102)
Open a business. I did all of that and my business was doing great. However, I'm completely burnt out because it wasn't really in alignment with the kind of life that I wanted to create. wanted something where I experienced more freedom, more adventure. I was really a slave to my business at that point. But the, the, answer your question, it was because I really just have always wanted to help.

other people is still to this day. I have multiple businesses and different masterminds. The purpose of everything that I do, whether it's a social media thing or something in my community or this podcast is if I can reach one person that it's can influence them in a positive way, then that's I've done my job.

Dylan Pathirana (17:20.595)
That's amazing. So Nona, what are the things you are doing at the moment?

Dr Nona Djavid (17:26.906)
Right now, oh my gosh, where do I start? So many different things. Right now I have a couple of, I love teaching. I've always loved teaching, as you heard part of my story. But...

I have channeled that with my love for spirituality and growth and entrepreneurship and business. And I teach that inside of a community of entrepreneurs on weekly basis. And then we do some business and life coaching. One of my favorite things to do is to figure out how to collapse time and to be more efficient.

And I actually learned this early on in business because the first business that I started was my practice. And I would put in all of this time into it, completely burnt out year three, I almost got out of business. And then I decided I was gonna do things differently. And there is a great show in the States. It's called the under, it's actually very not well known at all. So,

in the US, people wouldn't know of it, you guys wouldn't know of it, is like this little tiny little show, it's called Undercover Billionaire. And what they do is they follow four billionaires, self-made billionaires, and they give them 100 bucks, $100, a beat up truck, and they give them 90 days to build a million dollar business, okay?

They take their contacts away. They put them in a new city. mean, it's just like adventurous thing that they follow through. So I got hooked on this show and I kind of like some version of Shark Tank entrepreneurial. And I started watching it and one of the entrepreneurs, one of these billionaires happens to live in Orange County where I live half the time. And so I a little bit stalked him on LinkedIn.

Dylan Pathirana (19:10.185)
Mm. Mm.

Dr Nona Djavid (19:34.914)
I sat down with him one day and had lunch with him, eventually with him and his wife. And one of the questions I asked him, I go, well, I asked him tons of questions, but one of the questions was, how come 90 days? Okay, how come 90 days? Was it a logistical thing? Did it have to do with...

I don't know, is that what it takes to build a business? How come not 120 days or how come not 30 days? And then he said something that was really profound and it completely shifted my perspective. He said that if they had given me 120 days, it would have taken me 120 days to build a million dollar business. They had given me 30 days, it would have taken me 30 days.

to build a business. And then I started to go down the rabbit hole and studied this a bit more. And I learned that this is called the Parkinson's law. The amount of time that you allocate to getting something done is the amount of time that it takes to get that thing done. We've all experienced it to different levels, right? So that was the beginning of me trying to create a kind of business that integrated much.

better with my life, with the life that I wanted to create. So in my first business after burning out in practice because I was just a slave to my business and didn't really have a lot of freedom.

I started to implement this success principle and a couple other success principles and I was able to move into a part-time lifestyle. opened up three other locations and a couple of other things that I took on. And yet I was spending half like less, 50 % less time doing that. And then in the more recent years, I've tapped into what it would be like to live a one week a month lifestyle as a business owner, which is this concept of collapsing time so much so

Dr Nona Djavid (21:27.744)
that you're spending a week on scaling and growing the business and making it profitable and then having the freedom or options to create, to go back into the business if you choose to, to spend time with your family, to volunteer, to contribute and do all the things. So that has been a journey. I'm writing a book about it. I have a mastermind around that. And all of that has to do

more with the mindset and less with strategy. And those are some of the things that I have been kind of diving deeper into.

Dylan Pathirana (22:07.253)
I actually seen a video of you talking about the mindset and you're saying that pretty much you're limiting yourself.

Dr Nona Djavid (22:12.378)
Mmm.

Dr Nona Djavid (22:18.104)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Pathirana (22:18.997)
And then you're talking about like even success. Just had a quick look at it and saying, know, the traditional way of doing it, we are the one actually limiting because it's too hard, too difficult. you know, going to work is hard. So we have that mindset all negative, right?

Dr Nona Djavid (22:33.178)
Mm.

Yeah.

Dr Nona Djavid (22:40.472)
Yep.

Dylan Pathirana (22:41.589)
Is that how you explain? Yeah.

Dr Nona Djavid (22:43.64)
Yeah, so mean, think about it. In almost every culture, you are told what? To work hard to be successful, right? There is struggle that is attached to success. Like there is phrases that, like in the US as an example, just because I live here, money doesn't grow on trees, or money is hard to come by, or.

Dylan Pathirana (23:05.685)
Mm-hmm.

Dr Nona Djavid (23:10.604)
you're not made out of money, or it's going to cost an arm and a leg. So there's all of this that basically trains our subconscious mind to make a neurological association of success with struggle, of success with a hustle, or with hard work. And so if you have that neurological

Dylan Pathirana (23:25.779)
Yeah. Yeah.

Dr Nona Djavid (23:32.314)
anchoring between the two of them it's very difficult to create that separation and you most people i think are familiar with pavlos dog right the wires that run together they they fire together they're going to wire together right so if i am running success and struggle and i'm running it at the same time in my neurology

then guess what I'm gonna experience at every level of success. It doesn't matter if I've had a hundred million dollar exit. It doesn't matter if my bank account is full. It doesn't matter all my bills are paid or if I'm struggling either way, I'm gonna associate success with struggle. So I'm gonna attract more of that at every level. And I've seen it in entrepreneurs that I work with all the time. So it becomes more about unhooking and

creating different neurological anchoring so that business becomes joy. So that money, wealth, freedom, the lifestyle that you would like to experience or the level of contribution you want to have is hooked with joy and love and peace instead of struggle and hard work.

Dylan Pathirana (24:41.319)
I quite like that. Yeah. And what are some actionable ways that people can actually go about doing that? Like shifting their mindset.

Dr Nona Djavid (24:47.628)
Okay, so I have this process that is a four step process and it helps people quantum leap. Now this could be in any area of life. So a shift in mindset, most people would say what? Go do affirmations or just do it or I don't know what else people say. But there's a process that needs to happen for the nervous system to actually feel safe moving into a new

version and new vision for business and new vision for life and speaking of that the very first step of any quantum leap that you're about to have whether it's in your relationship in life in business the very first step is as having a very crystal clear vision for where you are headed and that includes

What does that feel like? What are the emotions that you would have once you are at that next level? What are you feeling? What are you grateful for? What are you reflecting on? What are the thoughts that you're experiencing as you are in that next level? And including all the different things that you want. And this is one of the things that I teach people kind of develop.

in Elevate Club is we go through three categories just in the first step, which is wealth, lifestyle, contribution. That's all one. And then we've got health. What do you want your health to look like, to feel like? You want your body, what level of flexibility, strength, mobility? And then of course, area of connection. And that goes connection with yourself, connection with your higher self, connection with other people, your partner, and family and friends. So.

laying it all out for this vision that we want of the future. Now,

Dr Nona Djavid (26:35.19)
Most people will lay that out at the beginning of the year, usually sometime in January and they go, this is the life I want to live. But the nervous system does not feel safe at that level. The nervous system is safe over here, sort of playing it small for the amount of potential that we have. So that's why I developed the next three steps. The second step in the process would be to create, to figure out what's the identity of the version of you that is already

living this dream life, right?

because my identity as a business owner might be limited and that is how I make certain decisions. Identity will always drive your behavior. So if I feel like I'm a fit person, naturally I'll go to the gym. I don't have to write it down every January. If I feel like I am a good mom, I probably don't have to think about in what ways can I be a good mom if that's part of my identity. identity will always drive behavior. So if we can get intentional

Dylan Pathirana (27:18.805)
Mm-hmm.

Dr Nona Djavid (27:37.9)
in step two in figuring out who is the version of Nona, who's the version of Jam or Dylan, who is living that next level lifestyle. What are the pieces of the identity? So if you say, I wanna be a great investor, entrepreneur, okay, well, how would that version of you show up?

Dylan Pathirana (28:01.556)
Mm-hmm.

Dr Nona Djavid (28:01.742)
That version of you probably takes really fast action. The speed of implementation is more confident version of you. Makes decisions really quickly. So what are the pieces of the identity that I need to express more of? And then of course, what are the pieces of identity that I need to express less of? Because there's a part of me that's a procrastinator. I gotta be less procrastinating.

If there is a part of me that is not showing up fully to the things I do to this podcast or to a Zoom call or to an email.

Well, I got to work on that and I got to show up less like her and more like the next version of myself. So in step two, you're kind of creating that identity. And then in step three, there is the embodiment. So I will show up to this podcast as I'm having this conversation with you guys. And I will show up as the version of myself that's already living this life. And it's showing up as the more confident, as the more

vibrant, more present version of myself. And I think in this process, before I go into the last step, sometimes people say, because this will come up in somebody who's listening in their head, well, isn't that faking it till you make it? Right? So the

Dylan Pathirana (29:21.325)
It is, hey, Yeah.

Dr Nona Djavid (29:27.008)
My answer to that is what we are doing currently in this frequency is actually more faking it. Because if you're not expressing your full potential, then you're faking it. If you're playing small, then you're faking it. By you tapping into and getting in touch with what the next level consciousness of you would be doing, that's actually the most truthful, the most authentic version of you that you're showing up.

right here, me sitting here, this version is really faking it. Maybe there is insecurity, maybe there is a bit of like, am I saying the wrong things or how does my nose look in this video or what am I sounding like? That is the version of me that's faking it because the real version of me is at full potential.

Dylan Pathirana (30:09.397)
Mm.

Dylan Pathirana (30:16.149)
So in a very like a nutshell, it's more of a kind of visualizing what's the future look like, what do you want to become? Is that easy way to describe?

Dr Nona Djavid (30:29.302)
is definitely part of it. Yeah, because the way that your nervous system works is that you have to include all of the senses. So in step one, I teach that people will create a vision that includes all the senses. So they're kind of what would you hear when you are at that level?

Dylan Pathirana (30:50.239)
Yeah.

Dr Nona Djavid (30:50.638)
what would you see and what would you, if you're touching something, what does that feel like as an example? And that's definitely a part of the equation. And then part of the nervous system says, I'm not going to, the nervous system, in order for anything to kind of become a pattern in your system and you end up doing it, a pattern for success as an example.

your nervous system requires both parts of the brain. So it goes to the right side of the brain and the left side of the brain. So the left side of the brain is like the logical piece. I'm taking these steps. These are the mechanical things I got to do. This is the systems, this is the marketing, the things you got to do. The right side of your brain is more the emotional portion of things is the more creative portion of it. And then there's the limbic system, which is on the back of your brain. And that is really where we process majority of our emotions. So

If I can combine the visualization like you are saying and then add the emotions into it, then now my brain is anchoring in success with joy like we originally talked about instead of success with hustle. So that is kind of how you rewire the nervous system for some of those things.

Dylan Pathirana (32:06.165)
That's really nice advice, know, because Dylan and I, we talked about, I mean, as a family as well, we kind of have a four year plan. So we talked about it on a quite regular basis, you know. So we actually visualizing it, we can see it. And I mean, some of the things that you shared, definitely we can apply, know. Yeah, that's really amazing. What do you think of like self-doubt? Is that something that...

Dr Nona Djavid (32:15.556)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Pathirana (32:35.709)
you think stopping you maybe more of a like a imposter syndrome. Like, know, sometimes, you know, you feel like, well, I'm not good enough. what I mean, you've probably seen many entrepreneurs. Even they're very successful. They feel like, there are better people than me. You know, like, do you think that's kind of stopping you to get to where you want to go?

Dr Nona Djavid (33:04.154)
Absolutely. I think that any kind of a negative emotion or negative thought or limiting blockage, that's where you're kind of, well, that's fake. Those are things we picked up along the way. Because if you think about it, when you're born, you really only have two fears. A human body only has two fears. One is fear of loud noises, and the other one is fear of

Dylan Pathirana (33:18.741)
Mm-hmm.

Dr Nona Djavid (33:31.138)
Loud noises and fear of falling, not failing, but falling, right? So as a baby, when you're in your mom's womb, it's warm in there and there's no, the effect of gravity is not all that much. So of course, when you come out into the physical world, you are afraid of loud noises and you're afraid of falling. But even as a baby, we're not like, is someone gonna drop me or is there gonna be a loud noise like the way that we process fear?

Dylan Pathirana (33:33.941)
That's interesting.

Dr Nona Djavid (34:00.698)
It's more like a reactive response, right? Or a reflex that happens. Everything else that we pick up, whether it's self-doubt, fear of success, fear of failure, fear of whatever not being good enough, all of that has been picked up along the way.

Now, traditionally in psychology, if you're going to a psychologist or you're working with traditional ways of dealing with things, which I'm a big fan of, you need to, and that works for you great, you should do it. But traditionally, the idea is to go deeper into why did you pick that up? When did you pick it up? You hey, my mom said this, or here's what happened on the playground, or this is the trauma I experienced. Where when me coming from my background with the neurology, I would say,

the way I've made it work for myself and by the way I've done both I don't want to say the traditional ways don't work but one of the ways that it's really effective is actually having that next level vision for life and then keep taking your nervous system there and almost living there for as much of the time as you possibly can so that your nervous system can get used to being a confident assertive decision maker

or whatever it is that you want, the opposite of self-doubt and the opposite of imposter syndrome, right? Like who do you want to be in this next level? So you would take those things that you have identified, if it's self-doubt or imposter syndrome or any of those, and you plug those in step two, which is what do you want to experience instead? If you don't want self-doubt, what do you want to experience? Okay, maybe it's certainty. Maybe I want to experience certainty. And then in step three, you go, okay, step two, I

Dylan Pathirana (35:41.748)
Mm-hmm.

Dr Nona Djavid (35:47.062)
identified at step three, how can I embody certainty? Where can I show certain certainty on day to day basis? And also where do I feel it in my body? And how can I feel it more in my body and then extend it beyond the body and into the energetic fields that I'm a part of. that way, know, in step three, and sorry, in the last step is, okay, what are the actions that I'm going to take?

Dylan Pathirana (36:13.309)
Mm.

Dr Nona Djavid (36:14.244)
from a place of certainty, not from a place of self doubt.

Dylan Pathirana (36:17.414)
Yeah, you spoke a lot about vision. What's your vision?

Dr Nona Djavid (36:20.91)
Yeah. Ooh. You know, right now, I am living such an incredibly blessed life. I have two little boys and they are just...

Dylan Pathirana (36:24.373)
You

Dr Nona Djavid (36:39.794)
so sweet. There's such an expression of love. So I'm truly living that. I'm the partner of my dreams. I live between Laguna Beach and Italy. everything that I live right now has actually, it used to be part of my vision. It used to be things that seemed so unreasonable. Oftentimes I share the story about

Dylan Pathirana (36:50.857)
Beautiful.

Dr Nona Djavid (37:07.066)
when I was a new mom, so one of my boys, he's nine years old. I have a nine year old and a five year old right now. So the nine year old was just born. And this is when I was in the thick of my business. I took a, I put him to sleep to take a nap. And then I took a call with my staff. I had 13 people working for me at the time. And then I walked right over to the closet and I shut the door and I shut the

the lights and I started crying. I started just bawling my eyes out because I was first of all postpartum depression. Second of all, as I mentioned, I checked off all the different things that I was, you know, go to college, get married, have children and they're supposed to bring you happiness or they're supposed to bring you success. And yet here I was and I not only wasn't experiencing any of those, but I had also worked so hard.

because remember that anchoring? That's what my parents told me, work hard. So I'd worked so hard and built this life where I really felt completely trapped into it. And so in that closet, I remember having the vision for the life that I live right now.

for just a moment. And while I was sitting there, while I was sobbing, I remember a couple of things. I remember thinking that is so unreasonable. You're unhappy in your marriage. You're depressed. You're business. Sure, it's doing great. However, you're completely a slave to it. You feel trapped. All of these things that I was experiencing. So this vision for the life I just described to you seemed so far out there and

so unreasonable, so unreasonable and I remember making one decision.

Dr Nona Djavid (39:01.644)
where I told myself, said, instead of keep questioning the vision and saying, how is this going to become a reality? How am I going to live this life? How is this going to happen? This is so not me. Who are you to think that this life is possible for you? Instead of all of those things, I'm going to continue to say yes to my vision. And so I did that. so fast forward how nine years later I get to live here. And I share that story because I don't want people to think

first of all that this is an overnight story and second that if that is possible for me from that moment on the closet then anything you set your mind to is definitely a possibility for you as long as that vision you're committing to that vision and you keep saying yes to that vision part of my vision moving forward is to have a more bigger impact and a bigger level of contribution out into the world and sharing my message that's a really big part of

Dylan Pathirana (39:34.261)
Mm-hmm.

Dr Nona Djavid (40:01.414)
my vision now.

Dylan Pathirana (40:02.771)
Amazing. And for, for young people like myself, how, how do you create a or curate a vision? Because I feel like there's so much out there, so many different influences, like kind of trying to take over what your vision should be. How do you just like curate your own vision?

Dr Nona Djavid (40:24.622)
You know, I always tell people start with three to five things that you know you want. You know you want and do not question them. and do not judge them either. So if it's a Ferrari, if it's a red,

Supercar if it's a house in the mountains that makes no sense It's totally unreasonable if it is a level of contribution that seems out of reach if whatever that is find three things Literally, that's all it takes to start with a vision start with the start with what you know and keep it simple and Then and if you can keep saying yes to it on day-to-day basis, then you can start to expand on it

and give it wings. So if I write I want a house in the mountains, this is one of things I wrote down, then I said okay, well what are some things that are must haves in this house? Well I definitely want Mountain View, okay so I'm going to put that down. Well how much Mountain View do I want? Well I don't care as long as I have one window, right? So then I put that down and as you come across, you know, your reticular activating system too in your nervous system goes Mountain

house and then all you see is mountain houses you get invited to a mountain house same with the whole red car situation right so you keep seeing it and then you can filter through and you can go I would like this and I don't want that and I would like a piece of this and so slowly slowly you start to expand on the one thing that you'd like to experience you're an entrepreneur in business like you guys are if anybody listening numbers numbers are a great start except you do not want to set smart

numbers, right? Because those are just within reach. Smart goals are measurable, realistic, a little bit boring, but they do not have you stepping outside of your identity right now. They just kind of keep you in this identity. You want to set goals that require a whole level of a different identity to show up for you to be able to accomplish them, and that is the process of evolution and humanity.

Dylan Pathirana (42:41.365)
No, no, that's really interesting. We're learning quite a lot in this session. Thank you for sharing all your wisdom with us. You know, I just want to go back to that experience that you talked about talking to that billionaire, build a business, billion dollar or million dollar business in 90 days. And you can also see some struggling entrepreneurs trying to start and trying to grow their business.

Dr Nona Djavid (42:56.27)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Pathirana (43:11.305)
What do you see the difference between someone very successful, create that business and someone trying and starting and struggling? What's the difference?

Dr Nona Djavid (43:23.364)
certainty in the vision and where they're headed.

This guy I talked to his name is Glenn Stearns, billionaire in the real estate and the mortgage industry, not even real estate industry here in Southern California. And if you ask him, and now I'm blessed to be around so many very successful people at that level or sometimes higher even. And if you ask any of them, what's the vision that you have, they'll tell you exactly what the vision is. They'll tell you how many employees they'll tell you how

much money, they'll tell you what kind of house, they'll tell you how they take care of their family, you know, what's in their dream. They'll have an entire list of and they have certainty that that is their right, that they are going to get there no matter what. And that certainty oftentimes comes from a certainty in themselves that if I say yes to a decision that might be risky, if it works out, great. I have

certainty. If it doesn't work out, great, because I know that I'm going to learn from that process and I'm going to get up. All of that comes in from the certainty that you would have in your vision. Now I work with entrepreneurs who want to be at that next level. And guess what's the first question I ask them? Where are you headed? And there's three paragraphs later or, you know, old six minute conversation later, and they have no idea. They're just kind of throwing things at me that they

thought about but they don't have that clarity, that focused energy and attention on where they're headed.

Dylan Pathirana (45:05.727)
That's really nice. I like that certainty. So take us through your Elevate Your Life book.

Dr Nona Djavid (45:16.25)
Yeah, that's an old book that I wrote. I wrote that book in 2015, I think. I wrote that book with a friend of mine and there was a book that was in me needed to come out and my friend and I, and this is a great story about collapsing time. I'd been thinking about writing a book.

Dylan Pathirana (45:20.821)
Okay.

Dr Nona Djavid (45:42.978)
at that point probably for four years. All right. And once I made the decision,

that I was going to write the book. So I'd never, I'd sit down at my computer with a glass of wine and try to write this book and, you know, pretend like I was the author that I wasn't. It just really wasn't coming about. Once I made the decision to do it and once I was prepared to do it with the vision of what this book was going to be, and I partnered up with my best friend to write the book, we met up every Thursday and we time blocked the crap out of the schedule to write this

book and get it done and we were done within three months and so we wrote that book in three months. Now I'm working on my second book which is called One Week and Month Lifestyle teaching entrepreneurs the mindset of what it takes to feel safety around freedom of money, of time and of energy instead of feeling safe and comfortable with struggle. So that's kind of the new thing that I'm working on right now.

Dylan Pathirana (46:54.001)
I imagine like with all of the workshops that you do, you encounter a lot of different business owners. Do you have like one big mistake that you see a lot of them make?

Dr Nona Djavid (47:07.194)
The biggest mistakes that they make. Yes, I would say, I don't know if this is the biggest one, but this is the one that happens often. It's very common. Business owners will make decisions based on where they are and not based on where they're headed. So you look at a business.

And here's where vision comes into play. if you have a, if you know where you're headed, right, you know, you're going to need an assistant. You know, you're going to need an executive team. You know, you're going to need, or if you're looking to, for example, exit a business at a hundred million, you know what the outcome looks like. Right. So no matter what, if you know the outcome, most entrepreneurs that are stuck, small business owners, entrepreneurs, service providers that are stuck, they'll keep making decisions based on where they are.

Instead of, wait a second, if I'm about to have a hundred million dollar exit, well what decisions do I need to make now for that? If I know that I need to have a team, well maybe I need to hire an assistant right now, even though it might not be in the budget, right? Or even though it might be tough on the budget. So they keep making decisions based on the small character, you know, version of themselves, instead of making decisions

based on where their business is headed. So if your business is headed in a big way, your branding needs to be done a certain way.

your marketing needs, there's a lot more investment that you need to be made. I'm not saying put money where you cannot afford, but most of us are really living, most entrepreneurs are living in scarcity and making scarcity based decisions instead of expansive inspired decisions and moving in the direction of dream life.

Dylan Pathirana (49:00.15)
And is that just a mindset shift that they have to make?

Dr Nona Djavid (49:03.81)
I think it's a mindset shift and it is also a practice, like practicing a muscle of thinking from a future place instead of where you are right now. Because where I'm at right now, my bank account might be a certain way. I've got bills to pay and I'm not in my dream house. My business has only grown 10 % in the past year, but where I'm headed, it's a lot more grand and it's a lot more juicy. There's actually tons of research

on out of I believe in Harvard where they talk about

getting in touch with the future version of yourself. They did this study where they took a bunch of people, two groups of people, one group, they just gave them financial education. This is what you do, save, retirement, this year, 401 kids, pension, whatever. And then there was a second group where they gave them the education, but also they showed them using utilizing AI what the older version, retired version of themselves was going to look like.

Isn't that fascinating?

Dylan Pathirana (50:12.382)
Amazing,

Dr Nona Djavid (50:13.572)
pretty cool. So they put that picture in front of them every day on top of the same bit of information that the other group got like, make sure you save money. I don't know what they said to them. And what they found and they did a long term study. Don't quote me on this, but I think it may have been like a seven year study, something long term. They followed those people and they found the people who were in front of their future version, utilizing AI, some older version looking of themselves, aged version. Those people

ended up making significantly more savings and retirement and different decisions when it came down to financial intelligence in terms of making those decisions for their future. That group made significantly more important decisions than the group that just got the education.

So how do we become on day-to-day basis, emerged with the future version of ourselves so that we end up behaving as if we are that next version of our entrepreneur, mother, father, parents, whatever.

Dylan Pathirana (51:24.821)
So it's really, it's almost like an empathy practice with your future self. Cause like you're really just putting yourself in the shoes of your future self almost.

Dr Nona Djavid (51:33.978)
Yeah, and it's kind of actually an interesting conversation because I'm fascinated by this. If you can't tell, I'm super excited. it's almost as if you think about your future self, right?

there could be a little bit of resentment because the future version, she's got a six pack, she's living her best life. And then the version of me now is the one that's disciplined and shows up and does the things. And we rarely have an actual relationship with the future version of ourselves. And if we do, it's almost like I'm doing all this work and I don't even know if that's a possibility. So there's separation or blockage between this version and next version.

So one of the ways that's suggested through this particular researcher was to write a letter to your future version so that you can actually start to make a connection and write a letter from your future version to your present self and create gratitude for all the sacrifices that the present self makes in the future. So in some ways in your mind's eye you're creating this connection or this relationship.

that makes it safer to, you know, head in that direction.

Dylan Pathirana (52:54.549)
That's fascinating. I mean, I had some experience. I did some studies at Harvard Business School. Some of the guys, like one of my good friends, very, very successful guy, he visualized himself 90 year old. And he visualized him as a grandfather. And he was just telling that story. Now I can relate it to what you're saying.

That's a nicer way to plan and visualize yourself so you feel comfortable getting that through. And Nona, what are some of the daily routines that you do as a person? Any special daily routines that you do?

Dr Nona Djavid (53:49.658)
This one's gonna shock you. You ready? Okay. I go over my life vision every single day. So I go through...

Dylan Pathirana (53:52.643)
Yep.

Dr Nona Djavid (53:59.202)
and I read through and I feel through the vision that I have for my future with my partner and my kids. And that's a non-negotiable for me. Another non-negotiable I have is a 45 minute version of some kind of meditation or visualization that I do. That's also a non-negotiable for me. And I used to wake up at 4 a.m. and do the whole morning routine and all of those things. And now I just have those two non-negotiables.

to fit them whenever I can and then I try to show up as the next version of myself throughout the day in the small daily activities that I do. Those are my non-negotiables.

Dylan Pathirana (54:41.331)
Yeah, so you actually do this with your family?

Dr Nona Djavid (54:45.05)
Oh, I do this with my family. teach my children how to do this. Yeah, absolutely. And even the vision that I have with my partner, we have a vision together. We have...

you know, the next house that we want, in, in Rome as an example, or the travel or the investments that we want or the level of contribution. we do work, we do retreats together. So we have a next level for what our retreats would look like. We often talk about them. And even on daily basis, we have, we have a process where you said you guys kind of talk about your dream and your vision and we go for walks and we talk as if the dream is here and we sort of, you know, riff on.

what life looks like and we do it in present tense so that we're giving it to our brain in the present tense so we're feeling that safety and it is happening and that certainty that we've been talking about.

Dylan Pathirana (55:40.789)
Do you have like say for example you can see like say 10 year plan right so you can see 10 year yourself what this look like but do you set a plan like a goal like stepping stones like okay what's gonna happen next year or second year third year fourth year something like that?

Dr Nona Djavid (55:58.19)
Yeah. the way that there's so many different ways that you could do it, and I think people should do whatever works for them, I've done it all. I've done it all. But the way that I do is I set a big, unreasonable vision for myself. So instead of a goal like, I want to hit this number by the end of this year, I go really big, really outside of the comfort zone, and I call it an unreasonable goal, right, or a vision.

And the criteria for this vision that I set for myself and I teach other people to do it is to go listen this vision that you set two criteria's one you have no idea how to get there.

You should have no idea how to get there. You don't know anyone who's done it. You can't Google it. You cannot get a mentor to teach you how to do it. It needs to be so outside so that it requires an evolution, requires a level of growth that you haven't had before. Okay, so there's that one criteria. The second criteria is that that vision has to activate a voice in your subconscious that says you cannot do this. The imposter syndrome, the self-defeat, it has to be activated.

If it's not activated, it's not big enough. It's within your frequency right now. So that's, to me, that's like, that's no growth. Kind of what we started the conversation with. So that's, that's, where were we going with that? I got way too excited. You asked me, what did you ask me? how do I set the goals, right? So I have the big vision.

Dylan Pathirana (57:32.565)
Yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah.

Dr Nona Djavid (57:39.606)
And then meanwhile, I have short term themes that I go with. For me personally in my business, I have months. So I have it chunked down to months in terms of how I want to move forward. This month I'm doing this, this month I'm going to work on this. And then of course, just like any other business person or entrepreneur, I have a set of to-do lists that I will approach to make those kinds of things happen.

The most important thing that has happened with me taking the vision route instead of the usual like left brain set a goal, get to it, which by the way, I also did and was successful at. The biggest difference between the two is when I do the vision, I'm more likely to attract or see the opportunities that I wouldn't necessarily see when I was doing the SMART goals. Because now I'm in this frequency, my reticular activating system, all it sees are the mountain homes or

So the opportunities based on that vision are showing up in my life. So that's creating more of a quantum leap and a faster result versus when I was just doing the smart goals.

Dylan Pathirana (58:52.117)
That's amazing. Nona, you listening to what you're saying, do we think small?

Dr Nona Djavid (59:00.43)
We as a collective.

Dylan Pathirana (59:03.08)
I mean people, know, so what you're saying, there's so much you can do, but we are limiting ourselves.

Dr Nona Djavid (59:11.396)
thousand percent and literally that's that's what I want to tell people is you're thinking too small go bigger and Giving people permission not that anybody needs permission We're giving people permission to go bigger to dream bigger and to go back into that childlike Creativity that we've we've all lost throughout life

Dylan Pathirana (59:33.365)
Yeah, I mean, something I learned also, you probably know, creative tension, right? So it's just like elastic. know, we can, even my team, even with Dylan, sometimes we have some arguments because I mean, Dylan is so awesome. his stuff that he's doing is like, I don't think any other kid, like father son relationship that we have, we are very fortunate. I'm very fortunate to have him. He's doing so many things for me.

He's like my personal assistant, everything, right? And then sometimes, you know, my wife always said, well, I'm not really appreciating. I'm not right. I'm keep asking him to do more. Right. So, and yeah, I remember last week Dylan got upset as well because I keep saying, no, you could have done better. Right. But I keep saying, you know, I mean, yes, I could say, you've done a fantastic job and

Dr Nona Djavid (01:00:24.121)
Mm.

Dylan Pathirana (01:00:31.673)
not pushing him to do more. I'm not sure as a father is this the right thing to do or there's a better way to do it.

Dr Nona Djavid (01:00:39.802)
Well, I can speak from the daughter of a kind of dad that you are today. If I could speak from her, I would tell you. And also I can speak from the kind of human, based on my background and everything else I've experienced, constantly wanting to people in my life to grow.

Dylan Pathirana (01:00:48.254)
You

Dr Nona Djavid (01:01:07.77)
constantly wanting because I see their potential and including my clients including my community and my students I see so much potential I in the last retreat I Cried about this because I told everybody I said if I have one superpowers I can look you in the eyes and I could legitimately see your full potential and it's a little bit sad because I know you're not there and I know you can be there

Now, in the past, the old version of me would have pushed Dylan, would have pushed you, would have pushed my dad, even with my ex-husband, even in the most loving way, trying to make that shift happen or make that recognition happen. And ultimately, what happened is oftentimes it would drive people away.

And oftentimes it would burn me out because it I was carrying the burden for making that, making them recognize, like trying to shake them out of their, you know, out of their smallness, if you would. And I realized that, that's not the way to go. And the way to go would be to be in a place of inspiration instead of trying to inspire others.

Dylan Pathirana (01:02:25.237)
Mm-hmm.

Dr Nona Djavid (01:02:28.514)
So I live now by this quote that is really powerful to me. I want to say it's roomy. It says, let your life be your message. So instead of me pushing anybody to get to that next level, I do the things that are the light of my heart and the joy of my heart. And I kid you not, I have had way more impact on people that are close to me and

people that are not like the online community and my students just by focusing on living an inspired life instead of trying to inspire other people.

Dylan Pathirana (01:03:10.837)
Leading by example almost. Yeah. I mean, that's, it's amazing. I mean, what we learned today is, is, is, is a lot like there's a lot takeaways, you know, for us to even think, you know, yeah, the way we do things. But I suppose to kind of wrap this conversation up, what's, what's next for you?

Dr Nona Djavid (01:03:13.476)
leading my exam.

Dr Nona Djavid (01:03:32.122)
What's next for me? Well, a lot of the things I want to experience in life are more of what I'm already experiencing. I'd like to take my retreats to the next level. home-school my kids, or world-school my kids whenever I can, travel with the kids often. I'd like to do a lot more of that, more time off, more travel, more contribution. Those are some of the things that I would love to experience at a bigger level.

Dylan Pathirana (01:03:59.785)
Yeah. And looking back on your journey, given that your definition of success was about always finding growth, do you feel successful?

Dr Nona Djavid (01:04:10.33)
have made it a point to look back and define my success by the amount of growth that I have had because often times, as you can tell, I can get lost in the future. If I get lost in the future, then I'm not good enough. So I've made it a point to look back at where I was last year, where I was two years ago, 10 years ago, and every time that I do that, absolutely 1,000 % I feel successful.

Dylan Pathirana (01:04:36.959)
That's amazing. And yeah, there's been so many key takeaways for I think both of us throughout this conversation. And I'm glad that you feel successful because I would definitely agree with you. And I suppose while we've been chatting, I've tried to write down a few core traits which I think have led to your success. I want to share them with you. I think the first one is I don't know if risk appetites the right word, but you you take things by the horns and you just go straight into them. Give it all your energy and

you kind of perceive risk a little bit differently, like, especially in that example you gave as you know, quite a young girl going out, starting your own tutoring business, and then going straight into starting your own chiropractic business and all of these risks that you've taken, you've kind of just seen them as that growth opportunity. As you said, you put yourself in your shoes, your future shoes, and known that you're gonna you're gonna make good of this opportunity. So I think that kind of risk taking behavior is definitely one of

The second one is you're a very deep learner and that's pretty clear by all of the research and, and learnings that you brought today. But you also more than just a learner, you're a teacher. And one thing which I've really found is the way that you know, someone really understands a topic is when they have the ability to teach it and teach it really succinctly as well. Because then that really shows that at the core you understand the real fundamentals of

of what you're trying to teach. And I think that kind of continuous learning attitude is something that we're seeing across a lot of our guests is always wanting to go and learn more, whether it's from the literature or from, you know, as you said, like the mentor, these billionaire people, always trying to take the learnings and share it with others. And then the last one I've got is you have like a very sure sense of certainty. And I think that's one thing that I've

I've really liked about this conversation is you portray this certainty and confidence almost about where you want to go and the vision you have. And yeah, I think that's, that's one thing that's kind of driving you forward. That is the driving force essentially towards your success. And so thank you so much for, for your time today. It's been a great conversation. think just summarizing in one word, how I see you, you're very like, you had that curiosity.

Dylan Pathirana (01:07:04.36)
You're very curious, know, which is pretty much that's when you talk to people, you, you saying you, you're kind of spying on other people, like, you know, because you are very curious to know what are the secret ingredient for their success. And, you know, so that continuously helping you to grow. Right. That's amazing. I mean, I've seen that throughout the discussion with many entrepreneurs. That's probably a fundamental thing for

really successful entrepreneurs, know, that never, never die. Like, you know, we want to learn, want to know what this person's doing and things like that. I mean, that's why we're here together. We're talking to you and because we both, we all are curious, right? We want to know from each other, learn from each other. And thank you so much for your time today. I think it's fascinating discussion and we learned quite a lot.

And for people who want to learn more about you and what you're working on, can they go and find you?

Dr Nona Djavid (01:08:08.827)
First, I want to thank you for giving me the space and the platform and what a great finish to

tell me all the things, all these great things about myself. So thank you, I appreciate that. And that the fact that you guys recognize that in me, it's gotta mean that you've got all of those things in yourself too. So I'm truly grateful for the time that you've given me. I think probably the best place where I can offer some resources for people, if this conversation resonated, if you follow me or just send me a message on Instagram, on social media, you could search my name, Nona.

Javid, DJA, VID. And if you reference this conversation, since we brought it up when I was in this conversation about the four steps, I have a blueprint that I can send to anybody that I personally use on regular basis to take my life to the next level. So that's just a little free resource that anybody can have.

Dylan Pathirana (01:09:05.671)
Awesome. No, no. Thank you so much for this conversation. It's been incredible. And if you have found this conversation insightful, it would be amazing if you could go over and follow us or subscribe to us on whichever platform you're listening to this on right now. And we're trying to grow our YouTube channel. So head over to YouTube and subscribe to us there. And all our conversations are available on our website, the quest for success podcast.com. And with that, we'll catch you guys in the next episode. Thanks for listening. Thank you.

Thanks Naina, that was awesome. That's really awesome. We learned so much.