Tomorrow is Not Today

Kosala_Dav export
===

Kingsley: [00:00:00] Welcome to The Tomorrow Is Not Today podcast. You've already started to create the life you want just by being here, designed for you as a business professional so you can be physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy, more productive, less stressed, and living a life you truly love. My name's Kingsley and thank you for coming on another journey with one of our uniquely qualified professionals.

Welcome to the Tomorrow's Not Today podcast. Today is a very exciting one for me. Have a great guest in the studio, uh, we'll probably get into that in a minute. , but I am, I've been wanting to get cozy in here because he's a guy who, even though we only met probably 12, 18 months ago or so, yep. Just his attitude towards people, his ability to build a big business.

And not just that, but his technological expertise. No ego whatsoever. Very humble guy, [00:01:00] and I'm gonna hear a little bit about his story today. So Ozzy, I wanna ask you to start with, as we always do on the Tomorrow's Not Today podcast. First big question, how did you start a business called

Kosala: Block Stars? All right.

So, first of all, Kingsley, I say thank you so much for the invitation, and I'm humbled by seeing the other leaders who you got on this podcast. So I'm like, wow, I feel like I made it now. Yeah. You know? Awesome. It's like, thank you so much. So, all right, let's get into it. So, block stars, people say like, Hey, how do you come with the name block stars?

It's there's not much more thought into it. What happened was pretty much, let's start with the name and then how the business happened. So, first of all, with the name, we were in a room throwing ideas, Hey, we, what should we call ourselves? And then being a tech guy myself, and in the same room, my ops manager Charlie was there, and then another, another, you know, member from the board.

We were just discussing, Hey, what should come on name? So we are coming with all the tech names, you know, the blockchain, Web3, all these things. And. [00:02:00] And we are just talking about it. And we are super excited. So a lot of energy in the room. And then there's another, one of the other leaders from another business walks in and like, Hey, block stars.

And they're like, and all three of us are. Wow, that's a great name. You know what I mean? It's like nothing to the tech. It's just a blockchain and it's still like something. And and we always treat people like stars. They're all superstars, you know? And I'm a great believer. Everyone has their superpower, but we just haven't found it yet.

And that's why people are going through this process. But everyone's a superhero, you know? So that really aligned with me as well, and gives me a block. Chain the block stars part. So, okay, look. Alright, cool. Let's go with it. And did not think about, and the name stuck with, so that's how the name, we got the name.

I love that. 'cause often

Kingsley: the hardest part of starting a business is coming up with the right name. Yeah. And, and it suits you perfectly as well. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Absolutely perfectly. So now off air, you were telling me a little bit about how you actually got into this business in the first [00:03:00] place.

Yes. Yep, yep,

Kosala: yep. So let's go down that story. Yeah. So pretty much I was, I started and I joined a, an auction business. As a, one of the tech guys actually the first IT person, to set up like, you know, article networks and things like that. Mm-hmm. Reset passwords and things like that. And I was in the process of pretty much changing my lifestyle, looking for something different.

See how, where can I have a big, major impact and. Somehow I found this job advert in, con Gumtree, and I'm like, oh, okay. Must be a small business because, you know, otherwise they would be on seek. Yeah, yeah, right. So I'm like, oh, you know what? I must be a moms and pops place. So I just applied for that one and I got, you know, I got invited and then I, the interview and, oh, it's not as small.

You know, business as I thought. And then I, you know, so had a good chat and I was like, oh, you know what, this sounds like my type of people. I don't have to work hard in anything. Bring in [00:04:00] like, I, I can be pretty much myself. I. So then I worked there and then, you know, worked myself up to be the head of tech there.

And then came an opportunity gave, got us opportunity to help one of the custodians, , with one of their, , this called last negatives. Do you know what they are? No. Okay. Actually, you know, they, what they are, what they are, you know, you have seen like, you know, in the olden days, that's how they, the photography, they put a cape.

Oh, and they just burn it up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep. You know, it's burned. I, okay. Yep. So, and then the negatives of glass. Last, slides. And so we came across some of those ones and then by going through them, what we realized was some of these glass negatives were from, you know, , the Ned Kelly's armor.

So when Ned, Kelly and brother got, and it's a photo of all the armor, so. And then, the things like the, the landing of the GIP before the fallen soldier. So that's the first soldier jumping I, I'm mean in goosebumps, like first soldier jumping onto the, you know, to the thing. So I'm like, there's no fallen soldiers.

Like, so [00:05:00] looking at that, and the same time in 20 end of 2020, we had this whole nft mm-hmm. Craze starting. So we had look at, okay, how can we help this custodian. Not just by auctioning these glass negatives, but how else can we do it? I think that's the greatest thing about, that company is like, how can we add more value than.

What is, and that's, I would say that's how you know we have a ethos. One of the ethos is like, always help people more than you want. You need one for yourself and without expectations. So that way you know, you don't get disappointed when you don't get back out. We never say like, Hey, you owe me one, or you owe me lunch, or anything like that.

We never use that in our vocabulary because that's the only reason why you would help someone otherwise don't offer your help. Right. I love

Kingsley: that. That is so contrary to most business out there. It, it really is. If I do something for you, then I expect something back. Yeah, but that's not what you're about.

No, no. I [00:06:00] love it.

Kosala: I think all of us were like that once upon a time ago and something happened along the way. You know, when, when I was a kid in school, we never, when I got, because I never had lunch money, like my parents always gave me lunchbox. But my friends, I was like, Hey, can you get me like one rupe for a bun?

And they'll always gimme that. I'm like, oh wow, this is like so cool. But they never said, Hey, okay, you owe me that one Rupe. This, were like in your grade, I don't know, year three, four. And I think somehow when you're growing up, I think we lose some of those things. I think it takes that, okay, someone's after us, you know?

Yeah. But I realized, hey, if you do something without expectation, then you don't get disappointed. So anyway. Along those lines. And so we went our way to help this custodian, and they did very well because they didn't not think even see about the whole. And if they didn't understand the blockchain, they didn't need to understand it ultimately.

The earnings from that really changed their lives, from a, they were living in a housing commission in rural [00:07:00] Victoria, so having the NFT money coming in and they change their lives in the process. We learned a lot about this new technology called NFT. And then we said, okay, how can we help other people with this?

And so we went in that mindset and then Block Stars was born, so Wow. And then we never looked back.

Kingsley: So that's, that's really cool. And it's just a concept that you sort of come across by accident. Yes. But also in a field that you, you love. Yes. You're very passionate about. A hundred percent. One of the things, and most people listening to this are gonna be business owners or.

Senior execs, maybe some people wanted to go out in their own business, and I think sometimes we make it too difficult. We try and overcomplicate the process. Now it's not easy setting up a business and doing the marketing and sales and getting all that sort of stuff. It's not, it's not an easy thing, but we can overcomplicate.

The whole process and how we've gotta [00:08:00] have some unique unicorn that's gonna take over the world. That it's, it's not like that, is it?

Kosala: Look, I would say it might be in some cases, but in my case, I would say I was like really lucky. Like I was like super lucky in my life. I say I to say that I had to, I had the, I was born at the right time, right place, the right parents, and everything worked.

My way. I dunno. I think I won the lottery of my life. Right. Even meeting you and you're inviting me to this, join a spec, you know, networking group. And, and I think along the line, I, along the way you meet people I. And, you get opportunities given to you, but they don't, sometimes they don't come, they don't given to you in a wrapped, Hey, okay, when you do this one, this is what gonna happen in the next year in Iraq.

You know what I mean? Nothing like that. Right. So

Kingsley: nothing like that.

Kosala: Exactly. So what happens? Sometimes you had to, and you know it doesn't work always, but what you're doing here, you think about, Hey, how can I [00:09:00] use it and add value to and use the opportunity to. Do better for myself, but better for other people.

And once you have that mindset, you can only see that, I dunno, I'm a glass half full type of guy, so, so it's very difficult for me to look at the other side. So it's, I'm not wired like that. But then there are people who are wired like opposite way and. Look, all I can say is like, there are opportunities everywhere, and one of the things that I came across the opportunities is that people say like, oh, Australia doesn't have opportunities.

Or When I was in the uk it's like, oh, UK doesn't have opportunities in Sri Lanka. Srilanka doesn't have opportunities, but there are opportunities, but we can't see it because we've been, what do you call, pretty much we born there. We live there. We know the law, we know everything, how it works, so we don't see the opportunities.

Now as soon as you go to another country. You only see opportunities because now your mindset different. You don't know how the law works. You don't know what the etiquette etiquette is. You don't know any of these things. Oh, you know what, if you do this one, you don't know anything, and that's why the immigrants.

[00:10:00] Always do well when you go to another country, it doesn't matter. They come from a developing country to a, a first work country or first work country. Go to a development country either way because it's the differences. You start seeing opportunities like, oh my God, I used to do this when I'm back home.

I can do this business here. I could not do it here. So you see all these different opportunities and every country I've been to, I only saw opportunities and, along the way because of great people, you know, those things come to fruition. So

Kingsley: do you think. Those opportunities that are there that a lot of people, 'cause if the opportunities are there and everyone, or a lot of other people going, there's no opportunities.

It's not possible. But someone comes along and goes, there is a massive opportunity here. What is that? Is that your mindset? Is that a willingness to be open to things? Is that a willingness to go, okay, this could be hard, but there's a big opportunity and I'm gonna give it a shot. Whereas a lot of people go, nah, I'm not gonna work that hard for something that may not [00:11:00] work.

Kosala: Yeah. That's a great question actually. Let me think about that. , look, I think it's, it's a conditioning. That's what I was looking for earlier. Conditioning of the mind right now. My, my parents are Sri Lankan, by birth. I'm not Sri Lankan, but my parents are Sri Lankan, so I would say my DNA is Sri Lankan.

Yeah. Yeah. And. We, where my, my, father's side is like all about education, all that, where my mom's side is all business. Mm-hmm. Right. So I don't know whether I have that right. DNA to become business or studies. I'm like somewhere between there. Yeah. Right. And, but I think it's, and you, you do also need that right environment.

You can't just go and start a business somewhere that doesn't support that Right. Infrastructure, like, it depends on each business, each country. But if you look at like Australia as a whole, very new country, right? When we arrived in Australia, we said, okay, you know, I was like, in the UK I had a, this engine connection, like a [00:12:00] hundred meg connection in 2007, 2008, I come to Australia and I got a DSL two.

I just barely got 56 K, right? And I'm like, oh, frustration. Like, oh my God, without, in my whole life around, it's a revolve around around internet. And I'm like, oh my God, how can I, and then. I, I realized this is a continent with I think 21 or 20 odd million people. And out of that, the working people probably about, I don't know, five, 6 million.

Rest of it's like, you know, older generation, younger. So I'm like, so 5 million people managing, you know, supporting a continent. I'm like, be appreciated that you got internet.

Kingsley: Actually, that's a really good, I've never thought of it like that. Right? That's, yeah. So then,

Kosala: then you are complain, you know, you stop complaining and look at, okay, look, how can I make this work?

You know, how can I make this work? So I think it's all, I think that that's opportunity. How can I make it work with what I've got? Necessity is the mother of, you know, I love that saying because , the less resources you have, you become a massive innovat and you Yeah.

And with that [00:13:00] you beget opportunities. And I think that's what it is, you know, I feel like that's where the opportunities comes along. And then. You see opportunities,

Kingsley: It's really interesting how you put that because you didn't look at it and go, I don't have this, I don't have decent internet, I don't have all of this going on.

You looked at it and went, wow, I've got this and these people, I can do something with this. Yeah. It's a completely different viewpoint altogether, isn't it?

Kosala: Oh, of course. Because I think, most people are, they want to be successful. Now, this is what I was, I was told, right, this is what I was told. I did not, I, this is not my idea.

This not my, I just come up with the soul, like, wow. Right? And I was told like, cozy, a lot of people want to become successful, but sometimes when this is signals of success, what success looks like, they get scared because they never had success, but they're very comfortable with failure. And they can say I could have been so rich, but.

I had to do this, I would've been, I [00:14:00] would've been, you know, a racing driver, but I had to look after this. I would've been, you know, it's always that, but this, right. ,

and there are people who go their own way and become successful. But for the majority, like myself, I. I need to have people around me. I draw, a lot of inspiration from people around you, like yourself, Kingsley, right? People don't think how much value they can add, but when you look at someone's like, okay, who, who would look?

You look at someone and inspires you, right? And I'm like, Elon Musk, Gandhi. And, some presidents in the us uh, presidents of like, uh, developing countries and all these things. Or it can be someone just, , down the road from you. You can always, there's no one person that we are all human, right?

Yeah. So there's one like, oh, I'm gonna just like, oh, this is the person that I want. So once you take all these little bits and pieces from each person, you're gonna create your own version of what that. Person looks like, [00:15:00] and that's what you live up to. And I think that's what I look at. And I don't put myself under pressure.

Like, oh my God, this is the perfect thing I want to be. Yeah,

Kingsley: yeah.

Kosala: But you've got something to strive

Kingsley: towards. So is that having the right people around you, is that, not just looking at them as an inspiration of who they are and where they're going and what they're doing? Is it also having people around you that believe in you?

Like, is that a big thing? Yes. Because obviously you've gotta believe in yourself, but where does that

Kosala: come

Kingsley: from as well?

Kosala: Oh, a hundred percent. You need, , you need, we call them mentors. They can be friends, they can be your parents, they can be anyone like you, really, truly believes in you. Like when there are some, you know, you always go through that dark times.

You know, it doesn't matter who you are. You think like, oh, this person is so rich and oh, this person is so poor. This person, it doesn't matter who you are. Right. Everyone goes through something and they're like, oh, I wish I had their life. Like I see here. People are like, oh, cozy, I wish I had that person's life or [00:16:00] this person's life.

And I'm like, I would not change my life because I just don't know what they're going through. But I know what I have gone through and it's good enough. 'cause I just want, you know, you just don't know. Right? Yeah. But you wish for a lot of people, the life that you are living. Because you are in a good place.

You know, we can't. And then, and then you think about it like, how do you get to this place? You can't get to a place by yourself. You need good people around you who believes in you and who guides you and who tells you the truth. And another great leader, he just, sent me other day a, a message on WhatsApp.

Said, best to, best to hurt you with lies rather than make you happy with. No, sorry. Best to make you Yeah. Happy with or sad with lies rather than make you happy with lies or something. You know what mean? Yep. I know what you can. Yeah. Yep. You know, and so it's always been the truth. Sorry, being the truth.

Right. So sad with truth or happy with lies. And it's like if it's a good friend, you can always make you sad with [00:17:00] truth. With the truth, you know? So I think when you have people like that and then you had to really, camera and have that true belief of that person they're doing for the right reasons.

And people say that some people, they say, oh, that's because they're jealous, or whatever that is. And, but if you are big enough, you know, I would always look at, I always look at people and say, okay, the more things that you say like, oh, of course that's not right. This is not right. I would take that lot more than, you know, people say, oh, cozy, you're doing great here.

Then I feel like, oh, I think I might be not doing that great because. There's so much to learn. So maybe they're not seeing something that I am not seeing, so then I had to focus a little bit on it, you know?

Kingsley: So let's, let's take that and put it into a leadership role in a, in an organization. So you've been going about four years, is that right?

Yes. Yeah. Just all four years. And you've got about 50 staff? Yes. Now that is really good going Yes. Like that's great [00:18:00] success. Well done. Thank you to do that. So. If we have a look at what you were just talking about Yeah. About really having Yes. People around you or people who are gonna be honest with you.

How does that play out Now you are, you are obviously the leader, you are, you are running the show. Mm-hmm. How does that play out with people who may be work for you in whatever position? Do, do you allow them to say things to you and go, Hey, cozy, what if we did this, maybe we could do this a little bit better, or whatever.

How does that work in your organization in Block Stars?

Kosala: , it's very simple. In our. Group of organizations, we have, we have set, expectations. So, people say, oh, you can't be negative at work. And you had to be like, all, and people are not like that. We are human, right? But we have a outlet. We say, okay, look, if you want to be negative.

You can't be negative towards your leader. Tell like, oh, you know [00:19:00] what? I have really bad traffic. I'm late, you know, or I don't like about this person and all that stuff. You can tell your, I don't like this place. Tell your leader, right? Yeah. Tell your leader, I don't like you. Alright? Tell your leader or the leader above.

Kingsley: Yeah.

Kosala: That's given because you, you need to give people a way to express themselves, right? So the negativity you always say is like. You can talk to your leaders, let it go up the chain. Positivity can go anywhere, but you can't let negativity go to your peers or to your people who are your leading. So as a leader, someone say, who COI I come across.

I don't like things about this website, I don't like about this thing I like. Cool. All right. Okay. Okay, cool. Thank you for letting me know. Okay. How can we work towards, how can we make you fix ka? Right. And I'm all about that and all our leaders are trained to be like that, but. At no point I am allowed as a leader to go to a person and say like, oh, that is like really [00:20:00] bad job.

You've done a bad job. Because that's negativity going down the chain. You can't say that, but you can be super, you know, what do you call constructive and say, Hey, can I show you something? Maybe I could be wrong, but can I show you something? , how I see this could work better. It's about helping them, right?

Ultimately. Mm-hmm. And guiding them because anybody, as a leader, your job role is not to, lead people. You had to be a servient towards your people. Right. I

Kingsley: think you were just turning this whole leadership thing on its head. I. Oh, I, I dunno. But no, and, and I absolutely love it because it's true. Yeah.

That's how it really works in the real life, is you, you do actually serve people. 'cause if you wanna build trust, if you wanna build culture, all of that sort of thing, what you are talking about is the best way to do that. And that obviously is one of the reasons for your success. And why you've got such a good team with you as well, and I, [00:21:00] I've met a few of your team and every one of them loves their job.

They love their work, and they're all happy. Yes. Thank you. , and it just is, so what you are saying obviously is having a very positive impact, not just in, in work Yes. But outside to other people like me who is an outsider looking in. Yes.

Kosala: I mean, like look, saying that. Given we are all human, I do triple my own shoelaces, right?

Oh, absolutely. We all do. So, yeah. You know, and the biggest, you know, the out of that is like, okay, put your hand up and say, own up to it, rather than just trying to show it under the carpet.

Kingsley: Yeah.

Kosala: And, you know, and all of us, I, I say like, Hey, once you at this level, once you're out of kindy, out of school, out of uni, you are an adult.

And everyone should be able to have adult conversation, you know? And I think, leading with fear, it's not, I. It's not a health, it's not healthy. No. It used to be. Maybe there's a once upon a time it was thing like, okay, I had to be scared of the boss when the boss walks. [00:22:00] There was a time, right. There was a time.

And that's okay. It work that time. But I think we had to change with the time, we gotta change the mentality. If you think about the youngsters at the moment, right, the amount of pressures that they're going through, we don't, I don't think we appreciate them enough. Mm-hmm. Like I read, , an article somewhere that, you know, when you look at the generations.

Number of decisions that you made, like our great grandparents and how many decisions they made a day? I dunno, my great grandparents were like farmers. Mm-hmm. In Sri Lanka. So they're just like, alright, should go to the farm. Oh, actually it's raining. I should make babies. Yeah. Not much going on.

Right? Yeah. It's a farming orbit. And when you start from that one and when you look at. Our youngsters now our children. Mm-hmm. Okay. Or should I post this or should I not? Or what is the outside world gonna think? How am I gonna feel? Or I had to do this one here. Oh, I had to go that one. I do a quick, before I do that, I go on [00:23:00] x, do a post on x, Insta, TikTok, Snapchat.

Oh, Facebook. Or actually I had send a quick email while you, I'm at it. Or I had pressures of listening to podcast. Oh my God. On top of that, I do this. So when you think of like how much pressure they're going through. And then we are seeing, like, and I hear people like, oh, the youngster feel like they, you know, we owe them something.

I think that's not right. I, I have a feeling I had when I was growing up. I had friends like that. So it's always, you know, every generation had that. Yeah. Right. But I think we had to appreciate the generations coming through the pressure that like, you know, I'm sure we're gonna talk about a little bit of AI and how that, really disrupt our lifestyles, our food, what we eat, and how our mental health, and I think the mental, mental health evolves.

With technology, right? So there's all that's going on. And I think that's what you empower, understand the youngsters, to really, okay, how can you still make them leaders, but not a version of you, it's a version of them. [00:24:00] With the few years of experience that you had as a leader,

Kingsley: I, I am loving what you're say, like, really loving this because.

A, a lot of people pigeonhole in the younger generation, because they're not this and they're not that. And you go back generation after generation, they would come before us. Mm-hmm. And now we're doing exactly the same thing. Yes. And and I, I look at it and I'm like, well, we created that generation. Yep.

So if that's what they are, yes. Then we've gotta take a bit of onus on that. I understand. And the responsibility that you are taking on yourself as a business leader to be able to understand them and go, how can I help you be the best version of you? Mm-hmm. And not complain because they're different.

Yeah. I think that's fantastic. Yeah.

Kosala: Thank you. And I think, I think we all have that. We all have that. I think, again, like I'm saying, like I said before, I'm gonna go back to like along the way, somewhere something happened and we just change it, [00:25:00] but it's all underneath us. 'cause we are humans, we are herd beings and we are always, we are made to help people.

Yes. Right. And we put something over. I don't want to help for something, something, but I think there's so much op, you know, opportunities. I think that's what we'll open up with ai. So. Yes. Able to help people.

Kingsley: I, I love the way you frame how. How you talk with people of different generations and the younger generation and just the way that you look at people in life.

I think that's one of the things that attracts me to you as a person and as a business leader, is the fact you appreciate stuff you, you are grateful for things, you're grateful for people, all of that. And at the same time, you are really on the cutting edge of what's going on. So you managed to be able to, you are one of these, I think.

Unusual people where you are a geek, but you know how to work well with people. Mm-hmm. At the same time bug, they're not, that's not a [00:26:00] common, nothing personal. Yeah. But it's not necessarily a common thing that that happens. Yeah. So with things that are changing with AI and that sort of thing, how do business owners and business leaders, how do they need to view.

That coming into their business, being part of their business, and the younger, let's say younger generation. Mm-hmm. That seems to be what you say. Yeah. Coming through and it's part of their life. Yes. Yep. It's what they do. How do business owners accept, involve, and make it part of what they are and not get scared of it?

Oh, it's easy.

Kosala: Okay. You know why? Great. You know why? Because all of us have gone through with computers. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And we were the young ones then. We were the young ones, right? And we came in and disrupted all the. Older ones like, I dunno my age, not your age, but my age. You're still young. You're still young.

Kingsley. So we went in with computers and they're [00:27:00] like using typewriters. I remember this time like my dad took me to an exhibition that they had electronic typewriters. How My God, that goes, I'm like, wow, with my mom using typewriter. This is like electronic typewriter. I'm like, wow, this is like so cool.

Then the, you know, computers come along and the typewriter is like, oh, what are we supposed to do? No, you don't type in letters anymore. Now executives start typing their own emails and typing their own documents. And what about the who's type piece, you know? So we were the young ones then who came in and changed how that worked, and now it's happening to us.

I think we should appreciate it now I'm like, okay, you know what? How can this benefit? Because when I did computing and new tech and the mobile phones and texting and social media and all that stuff, when other people are like, still, they're getting hang of emails, right? You were cool with Facebook now, you didn't do that [00:28:00] with a bad mindset. You didn't go and say like, okay, I'm gonna just mess that person's life. That is, that was not it. Technology, you can't stop technology, you can't slow it down. Technology will take its own pace and along the line there are some people get left out, but ultimately they find other opportunities again.

'cause everything creates opportunities, doesn't matter what it is. Yeah. So I would say for the leaders, I would say look back. At a time that what you were doing, you came in like super cool and then you know you're not cool anymore. That's okay. Right? That's okay. And give other kids, like the cool kids, let them experiment and let them fail in a safe place because you are there to as, to make sure that you grow them safely, but not give, just hand out to everything, but let them fail.

But in a safe place. Don't just like, oh my God, you did something [00:29:00] bad and I'm gonna. Not repercussions, but let them understand what happens. So I think when you look at from the human aspect, doesn't matter what technology, you know, it could be AI could just disappear and we'll have, quantum computing next, right?

So what's gonna happen then? What are we, what, what be sleep? What are we going to do at all? Then because quantum computing can run a company, can run a country. You don't need politicians to tell us what to do because quantum computing will do everything because that's another whole different thing, right?

So technology will always evolve, but I bring it back to what humans, what are we supposed to do? So if you take separate them two together, they're just, you know, calculator, calculator came along. So you don't need people who sit there and do calculations for you anymore, like in the, in the banks. Right. I was told old in pre old days.

They to have maths people at the bank to do the calculations, so they calculate, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the computers calculators came along [00:30:00] and they're like, oh, what are we supposed to do now? So they went back to academia, became professors, maths professors, and all that stuff, right? So, so what I, the whole AI coming to it, it's just another wave.

Look at the human element and how can you help people? People get scared, like, oh my God, this is going to, I feel like I'm late because the cycles of technology becomes fast and compressed. So instead of 10 year cycles, we are having five year, four year cycles. And now with ai, maybe two year cycles, right?

And you can't slow it down. No. And I, you can't, right? So as business leaders, I'm leaders, like, don't worry about, you don't have to be the expert at every single version of chat GPT, right? You can jump in a chat g PT 4.5 now, and play around.

Kingsley: It's interesting. I remember when, desktop computers was starting to become like.

Lots of businesses were using them. Yes. All of a sudden. Yes. And the conversations about, well, computers are gonna take over all the jobs and they won't be, we won't be needing people. What are [00:31:00] people gonna do? So many people are gonna be out of work because the computers are gonna do all their jobs for them.

But yet when you look at it, the number of. Not just businesses, but whole industries that were spawn. Mm-hmm. From the fact of now there's desktop computers everywhere and what that leads onto, and then the internet comes along. Well now what are we gonna do with everything? Where are we gonna fit in? We won't need all of these things because the computer's got it all.

It just keeps happening. And, and I think going back to what you said earlier is there's opportunities everywhere. Yeah. And it seems like, and you are in this space, like you are one of the leaders in this space, I believe are, and at least probably in the country. Yes. If not further afield, the opportunities that are there.

That are coming up for us. And it's not a matter of getting rid of people No. But it's working with together.

Kosala: Yes. How do you see that? Okay. So one of the businesses that we work [00:32:00] with, when you come to, , we develop this AI voice agent, a lot of people are like, ah, I don't believe in ai. Okay, that's cool.

It's not good at the stage, per se. Like, it's not like a superhuman, like you know what, but when you look at three months ago to now, it's like maybe 30 fold improvement. Mm. So at that space, I'm like, maybe in about another two months it'll be very good. Right. And, but in that. While we are doing that, what we found was we implemented this tech to a large retail customer and they had, close about 10, customer service agents, humans.

And, so we implemented this tech and the number of people went down to two people in the department. So what the business did, instead of saying, okay, look, let's, let's fire them. Instead of like, because all these people are doing is answering calls about, Hey, okay, this is how you should do your reset password.

This is how you do your [00:33:00] payments. This is how you do, this thing. This is how you buy things. You know all that. Or, is your store open? You know, things like that. Yeah. Right. So rather than answering those questions and it's, it's not good for the soul anyway, you know, for some people, but they're doing it because they need a paycheck.

Kingsley: Yeah.

Kosala: Right. And it, it's great, rather than just think that they're doing something to, get that paycheck. So I have massive respect to people, and they're doing the hardest jobs out there, those people. So I have a different type of appreciation for people who works in call centers because, oh my god.

Superheroes, they talk a lot. Yeah. Superheroes, right? And to hear that constantly, the mindset that you just be someone like that get understand about mindset to hit that, no, no, no, no, no. Right. Absolutely. It sound unreal. So what they did was, instead of saying, letting them go. They got them to look, do customer relations.

So they like, they would call up customers instead of receiving calls. Now they call customer like, Hey, how was experience? What else can we do for you? , is there anything that you know, can we be, make your experience [00:34:00] better? So now they're bringing value to business. Rather than just, you know, so there are good people who, they hired for a reason, right?

They hired them because they're good people. They fit the company culture and they're stuck there for a long time. Not stuck there, but they work there for a long time. And so why would you let people like that go? You can add so much value to your business. Mm. And that's what AI is gonna enable us. Yes.

It's a freedom to give people purpose.

Kingsley: And it, it sounds like what you're talking about there is actually not. Transactional mm-hmm. Side of things. It is that serving the customers and the clients. And if you are doing that side of things, then they're gonna wanna stick with you. Hundred percent because you actually care about me as your customer.

Mm-hmm. I wanna buy off you. And it makes a big difference. And, and it, it's easy sometimes, I think for business leaders to look and go, okay, I can't see an actual bottom line figure on here that directly relates to that there. Yes. Where. [00:35:00] If you understand how people work, you do understand that that can be one of the, the best sales tactics, so to speak, that you can have going out there is actually going and serving and helping people.

How can we do better? A

Kosala: hundred percent. And I think. You said something really good, like pointing at one thing that make a business work. There are so many little things and it compounds, right? It compounds and compounds and I think there's a lot of people don't realize, hey, if I do something here, they don't see the compounding.

I don't think they see it. I think some people are only, they're in their little world, they're doing that department, but they don't see the, where the other dominoes fall. Yeah. And this, as leaders, I think that's our responsibility showcase. Hey, it doesn't matter what you do and this is the impact that you have.

Ultimate, like for example, I'll just use something from my [00:36:00] experience that I had a, a seafood restaurant. It was not successful, but Right. It was, uh, it was a good project for me. I learned a lot of lessons. Stay away from that because it's, oh, I have massive, another thing, appreciation for these people who run hospitality.

Kingsley: Yeah.

Kosala: Oh my god. Hardaker. So, um, what I, exactly, it doesn't matter whether you, uh, clean the windows or wipe the tables because what happens when you. When you clean the windows, it looks presentable. You can't see anything like out of shape. People are like, oh, you know what? This looks like a good place to eat.

So once you come there, when you walk in through the door and the next thing person's gonna see is like, who's in the counter? So you to smile, welcome them. And once you do that, when you sit at the table, okay, now what if this tables are sticky or, you know, don't have cutlery? So what you're doing is you're building up that experience.

And you giving that, that ball to the chef [00:37:00] to be the best at you. So when he brings his food, it's just like, oh, you know what? Everything step has been so good. One after another one after another one. So the food is gonna be so good. And then when they leave, they'll be like, oh, okay. Thank you so much.

And when they pay, they, they feel like, you know what? They're paying for something great and they refuse something and when they leave. So I said, look, if you, if any of those steps fails. It doesn't matter. The chef has the best food because up to that point, they had bad experience, you know? So then the food is not gonna be as tasty as it would be.

Yeah. Because your emotions are different. Right. So I think as a leader, I think that's where you should spend your time in to showcase, show people, hey, whatever you are doing, do it with pride, because that has a massive compounding effect at the other end. So whether you are answering calls or you are emptying the dust bin, whatever that is, because if you don't empty dust bin, guess what?

It's gonna get filled and smelly and everything's, the compounding effect is [00:38:00] bad, but if you just do it, it has a big impact.

Kingsley: That's absolutely genius. And, and that also says that no matter what your role is mm-hmm. In an organization. You are vitally important. A hundred percent vitally important. 'cause you're right, it's, if any one of those steps doesn't happen, the rest falls apart.

Yep. That's, that's brilliant. And I guess that goes back to your point earlier where you respecting whoever it is, whatever role they're playing, whatever they're doing, they're incredibly important to everything working.

Kosala: Mm-hmm.

Kingsley: A

Kosala: hundred percent. That's awesome. I think that's, all of us knows that, but I don't think we are, even myself, sometimes I feel like I'm not taking enough time to tell people, Hey, you're doing a great job.

And that's all people want to hear sometimes Yeah. That b they're being, socially

Kingsley: recognized.

Kosala: Yeah.

Kingsley: I'm gonna take that on board myself to do, to do more of that.

Kosala: Yeah.

Kingsley: I do it, but I think from what you're saying,

Kosala: I don't do it [00:39:00] enough. Yeah. I think all of us, I think, can do a lot more. If you do a hundred times, you can do another one better.

Yeah. You know what I mean? So, no, I'm gonna,

Kingsley: yeah, I'm gonna do that. Thank you. Thank you. That's, that's it. Welcome. That's a good thing. Hey, cozy. Yep. I hate to say this, but our time's up. Oh. , I know it went really quick. Thank you so much for being on here. I, I just love. Like your attitude, your heart towards people and business and that sort of thing.

And you're growing a phenomenal business very quickly. Thank you. There's so much more stuff that we wanted to talk about, but we, we'll get you back and do it again at another time. But I like to end the podcast with two questions. Mm-hmm. The first one is, what To You is The Ultimate Tomorrow?

Kosala: Ultimate Tomorrow is being able to help someone.

It doesn't matter who, however you do it. Right. But give having the opportunity to help someone, I think that's great. I go out looking to help people. It doesn't matter. Whatever it is. [00:40:00] Right. Getting a bottle of water or whatever that is. Right. I think that really makes you, that's what I wake up. I'm like, if I wake up a day and like, oh, no one needs my help.

I can't be a servant, someone. I mean, that will be a pretty bad day for me.

Kingsley: I love that. I love, it's the first time I've had that. That's really cool. The second one, how do you create the ultimate tomorrow?

Kosala: So this doesn't apply to everyone, but for me, there was a, there's a, a great YouTube, from one of the, Navy Seals at murals.

Very famous. He's giving a, one of the convocations in the US a speech, I think Another one. Yeah. Right. It's very famous. And how, you know, what is the first win you should have is make your bed. That's the win, right? Yeah. So for me, I would, that's how it started. And then. When I wake up and I do a bit of work, [00:41:00] work out, and I say like, okay.

When I work, work out, I'm like, okay, this is the hardest thing I'm going today. And from here, everything's gonna be so easy, but if I make it so hard, nothing's gonna stop me today. Right. And that's how I create it. Yeah. So then anything comes around, I'm like, oh, you know what? I done that this morning. I was like so tired.

Like everything, you know. That makes you, so I created, you had to create these things.

Kingsley: Yeah. You

Kosala: know, and or anchor yourself. To something, that got brought you happiness or, or you, overcame a challenge or you did something great to someone or whatever that is something that happy and something that is great.

Anchor yourself in certain things. It can be physical, it can be emotion, it can be people. You might say like, you know what? Every time I go and say good morning to this person, that is my anchor thinking like, you know what? This person brought me happiness. This person believed in me, so [00:42:00] in my mind, if I have this person to change his life or her life, I think I can do it for another million people, right?

So that's the person you anchor. So you go and say, good morning to this person because now, now you days anchored to this person. So once you set up those anchors everywhere in your life, you are always setting yourself to, triple over success, right? That's

Kingsley: how I look at it. You've said so many brilliant things that are very much the opposite of how people do look at a lot of things in all reality.

Okay. Uh, and I appreciate that because it, everything you've said, I a hundred percent back and think it's absolutely fantastic what you're doing and you got proof that it works. Because of what you're doing and the business you're building. Yeah. And the culture you have and the team that you have. Yeah.

So it's not like you're just throwing out some theories here. It's actually working every single day. Thank you so much for coming on The Tomorrow's Not Today podcast. Really appreciate you as a person and your friendship and uh, what you have [00:43:00] said. And yeah, we're definitely gonna get you back to.

Tackle on some of the other things as well.

Kosala: Ah, thank you so much for having me and love the conversation and would love to actually hear more about your side of the story. You know what I mean? Yeah. This is on my side, but, and I think, you know, someone told me, just before they passed away, very, very smart person.

You know, that person, like a coaching head and, you know, coaching group. And he said, course life happens with conversations. So I think it's super important to keep this going. I think you're bringing the good side of people and keep going and, you're adding so much value and I loved watching your podcast, so can't wait.

Perfect. Thank you, ZY.

Kingsley: Remember, create the life that you want.