Dr. Dhru Bee welcomes Dr. Stefan Zavalin, The Professional Unicorn, to discuss a wide range of topics, from when and how to be vulnerable in your content to what it means to be creative and many topics in between. You’ll hear how to find confidence in yourself, get to the root of your motivation, and why it’s important to avoid seeking external validation. From when to fire your clients to knowing if running a business is right for you, this episode has great lessons for entrepreneurs. In addition to talking about business and content creation, Dr. Stefan Zavalin also tells the story of how he lost his vision in graduate school and how he went on to complete his degree in physiotherapy and practice as a physiotherapist. He shares his passion for getting people to move more and sit less, which motivated him to write a well-received Ted X Talk and write the book Sit Less. About Stefan ZavalinDr. Stefan Zavalin is The Professional Unicorn. After losing his vision in graduate school, Stefan not only finished his degree, but went on to work in the clinic, start a business, write a book, and give a TEDx Talk. He went further into creating a digital interactive show for desk workers that was revolutionary for the virtual meeting era.Resources discussed in this episode:Move More. Sit Less. TedX Talk - Dr. Stefan ZavalinSit Less by Dr. Stefan ZavalinGary VaynerchukImpact Theory with Tom BilyeuTask RabbitTim MinchinContact Dhru Beeharilal | Nayan Leadership: Website: NayanLeadership.comLinkedIn: DhruBeeFacebook: NayanLeadershipYouTude: DhruBeeContact Stefan Zavalin | The Professional Unicorn: Website: StefanZavalin.comInstagram: Stefan.ZavalinTwitter: stefanzavalinTikTok: stefan.zavalinLinkedin: Stefan-ZavalinTranscript:Dhru: [00:00:02] Hey, everybody. This is Dr. Dhru, and I'm here to welcome you to my podcast, Ikigai Leadership. We're going to be talking to leaders in all different industries from all different backgrounds and demographics from all over the world. And we'll be discussing topics like leadership development, culture, DEI content creation and marketing and all things business and entrepreneurship. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another edition of Ikigai Leadership. And my name is Dhru Beeharilal. I'm here with Dr. Stefan Zavalin. So one thing I love about Stefan, he also loves Purple, which is my favorite color as well, which is cool, makes him automatically close to my heart. On top of that, he's also a fellow nerd and fellow business owner, so we have a lot in common. And you're actually also legally blind, right? So which is amazing. You couldn't tell because again, just you operate. So I don't want to say normally, but you operate so ably, I should say. What's the politically right way to say that? I don't know. But either way, you'd never be able to tell Stefan. You know, you call yourself the unicorn. I'll start with that. Where did that come from? What does that what does that mean to you?Stefan: [00:01:08] You know, it actually it came about because I was being called a unicorn a lot of times. And then I just started sort of wearing it. It came about so I was originally born in Russia and then moved when we were seven and grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. And I think that many people don't know about Nashville, Tennessee nowadays is that if you grew up in Nashville and you're still in Nashville, you're a unicorn, that's what you're referred to as because it's so rare, most people move away. And so that kind of unicorn thing came out from being called there. And then I always loved to do things differently. I always just stand out and just do random stuff all the time and make it theatrical. I was never in theater, but I was one of those kids where you're like, That's a theater kid. I didn't get exposed to what theater even was until I got to undergrad when I joined a rock band. And all of them were theater kids, and I was like, Oh, I'm just a musician. I don't know what this is all about. So the unicorn thing was kind of always there. And I went to school. I went to grad school for physical therapy. I got my doctorate in physical therapy. I also got a parasite in grad school. That's not something that they advertise on the university brochure.Stefan: [00:02:09] But it wasn't even there. It sounds so bad now. I wasn't born blind. I became blind, as all of that. And I was in the clinic. I was doing just the usual clinic stuff and documentation got so much, and I wanted to start my own business. And I swear this relates to unicorns. It's coming. And when I started my first business, and I was still in this shell of being like, no, I have to be very professional. I have to do things this way. This is how we do it. In the clinics, they always made us wear ties even though we did exercises. I was like, Man, why? What is this? Come on. And so then finally when I really pushed out, and I was like, No, I want to be the me that everybody says, like, be yourself, do the thing that you're ...
