Evan Rabin was born and raised in New York. After working in Corporate America, doing enterprise sales at Oracle and Rapid 7, he formed Premier Chess in September 2017. Premier Chess currently runs programs in 80+ schools and companies including the law firm Kramer Levin. He is a US Chess National Master. We discuss:

• What it means to be analytical in sales [02:09]
• Why entrepreneurs don’t make good fits as employees [06:09]
• The most important prerequisite to run a chess company [07:56]
• What made Evan start the sales company first [11:22]
• Learning business and life lessons through chess [13:24]
• The speed we need to go through an unexpected situation [15:35]
• Why players should not let a domino effect happen [18:13]
• How to use unexpected situations to your advantage [19:41]

Learn more about Evan at https://www.premierchess.com.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:00:00

We're getting too emotional here.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:00:02

Why did you blunder here?

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:00:03

90% of the time?

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:00:04

There was actually some sort of reason that.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:00:16

Welcome to smashing the plateau.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:00:18

We help you get unstuck so you can do what you love and get paid.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:00:22

What you're worth consistently.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:00:24

I'm your host David Schreiner Kahn today on episode 605 of smashing the plateau.

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I'm speaking with Evan.

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Evan has the unique combination of mastery at what he loves to do.

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Plus competence and sales and business.

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His niche, chess has lessons for all of us in how we can respond to unexpected

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obstacles, stay with us to hear all the details, figuring out your unique

David Shriner Cahn: 00:00:51

combination of what you love and what you're competent at doing is one

David Shriner Cahn: 00:00:54

of the keys to success in your own.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:00:57

Helping you find your uniqueness is just one of the ways the smashing the

David Shriner Cahn: 00:01:01

plateau community can help you launch and grow your consulting business.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:01:05

Especially if you've had a long career as a high achieving employee

David Shriner Cahn: 00:01:09

before you became a consultant.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:01:12

I know I've always had a great deal of trouble seeing my own uniqueness.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:01:16

That's why I've learned to rely on the wisdom and feedback of trusted colleagues.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:01:21

You can have the benefit of a whole community of trusted colleagues.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:01:24

When you join the smashing the plateau community, go to smashing

David Shriner Cahn: 00:01:28

the plateau.com/community.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:01:30

To learn more.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:01:32

That's smashing the plateau.com/.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:01:36

Now let's welcome.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:01:37

Evan Raman, Evan was born and raised in New York.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:01:40

After working in corporate America, doing enterprise sales

David Shriner Cahn: 00:01:43

at Oracle and rapid seven.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:01:45

He formed premier chess in September, 2017.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:01:49

Premier chest currently runs programs in over 80 schools and

David Shriner Cahn: 00:01:52

companies, including the law firm.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:01:54

Kramer-Levin, he's a us chess national master Evan.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:01:57

Welcome to the.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:01:59

Thank you so much for having me, my pleasure.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:02:01

So tell me a little bit about your career.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:02:03

it's interesting.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:02:04

You went corporate and then you didn't, what's behind that.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:02:07

basically I graduated Brandeis university in May, 2012.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:02:12

I was studying business and international global studies.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:02:16

after a very brief stint, working at chess in the schools for six

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:02:20

months, I started my career.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:02:23

Yeah.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:02:24

Oracle where I was doing enterprise sales for three years.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:02:28

And then I went to rapid seven, selling data security for.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:02:33

And it was enjoyable.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:02:35

I love sales.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:02:36

I love, working, with great individuals and, being analytical

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:02:42

in sales, but ultimately cited that, want to sell what I love.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:02:46

So in September, 2017, I formed premier chess.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:02:52

And within the first two months of the business, we were in 14 schools and

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:02:55

had 10 instructors, working for us.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:02:57

just kept going through.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:02:58

Ah, congratulations.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:03:00

What does it mean to be analytical in sales?

David Shriner Cahn: 00:03:02

I

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:03:02

think what it comes down to is always trying to figure out

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:03:07

how you could carve out your territory.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:03:10

Look for the low-hanging fruit.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:03:12

I remember when I first started at Oracle, my good friend and

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:03:15

mentor bill Peterson, he used to.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:03:18

Mentioned that, a lot of sales reps and when it first starting out, they

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:03:22

look for, the big whales they look for, their biggest deals possible.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:03:27

But at the end of the day, those are a little bit difficult and

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:03:31

it's better to, work for, smaller upgrades and things like that.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:03:35

I actually wrote a blog post a couple of weeks ago about the

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:03:39

parallels between sales and.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:03:41

And I talked about low-hanging fruit and now it's the same

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:03:44

thing on the chess board.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:03:46

I have a lot of beginner and intermediate students, so it will pretty much

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:03:51

every single time they could go for an attack, but that's not always justified.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:03:56

yes, the ultimate goal of a chess game is checkmate, means the king isn't check

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:04:01

and there's no way to get out of check, but at the end of the day, a lot of.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:04:08

Master games don't actually end in check me, you get a material

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:04:11

advantage and then you win.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:04:12

So the point is, you need to look for the specific weaknesses and figure out where

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:04:19

to attack and whether it's on the board or in sales or anything else for that

David Shriner Cahn: 00:04:23

matter.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:04:23

Yeah.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:04:24

The other parallel that comes to my mind is.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:04:26

Entrepreneurs in particular are often enamored of, what they

David Shriner Cahn: 00:04:29

perceive to be massive breakthroughs that other people achieve.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:04:34

And they try to get them and they hope to get them.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:04:38

Often much more quickly than is actually realistic.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:04:42

What we typically don't see is that when somebody else has used a

David Shriner Cahn: 00:04:45

breakthrough, there've been hundreds or maybe even thousands of tiny steps

David Shriner Cahn: 00:04:49

and pivots along the way, and those steps and pivots take a lot of time.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:04:53

They take energy, they take focus, they take perseverance and, which

David Shriner Cahn: 00:04:58

speaks to your comment about the low hanging fruit and going for the

David Shriner Cahn: 00:05:02

incremental steps along the way.

Evan Zachary Rabin:

: 00:05:05

Yeah, and I think it's.

Evan Zachary Rabin:

: 00:05:06

important to, consider and I think, yeah, every entrepreneur and chess

Evan Zachary Rabin:

: 00:05:12

player definitely has a drive.

Evan Zachary Rabin:

: 00:05:15

that I would say is more important in a way than even like

Evan Zachary Rabin:

: 00:05:19

studying, chess or anything else.

Evan Zachary Rabin:

: 00:05:21

you could study sales all you want, but until you actually get

Evan Zachary Rabin:

: 00:05:24

into like the weeds of it and do it, you're not going to succeed.

Evan Zachary Rabin:

: 00:05:27

that's why we were in 14 schools.

Evan Zachary Rabin:

: 00:05:30

Literally two months, but we just went at it.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:05:33

So Evan, how did it feel to suddenly make this huge

David Shriner Cahn: 00:05:36

shift and focus all your time and energy on something that you love

David Shriner Cahn: 00:05:41

as opposed to something that was interesting and maybe you were good

David Shriner Cahn: 00:05:44

at, but wasn't fueling something that was a kind of a personal desire.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:05:48

Yeah.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:05:49

I would say.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:05:49

we just look, everyone says it right.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:05:52

When you do something you love, you're not exactly working.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:05:55

there are definitely elements that I don't like, of course.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:05:59

And, imagine outsourcing most of those, we recently brought on a full-time

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:06:03

part-time, operations and finance person, in releasing a lot of the

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:06:07

burden of, some of the operations.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:06:09

But, everything else.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:06:10

I pretty much love, I love going to classrooms.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:06:13

I love teaching, I love the, all the corporate classes that we do.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:06:17

I love hiring instructors and networking beyond podcasts like this, just

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:06:22

talking about what we do, it's just never a dull moment, All in, around

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:06:26

from meeting to meeting, it's not being in the office and, I'm flexible.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:06:30

I don't see myself ever working again, for someone.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:06:33

And

David Shriner Cahn: 00:06:34

the other thing is you as an entrepreneur, once we've been doing

David Shriner Cahn: 00:06:37

it for a period of time, most of the time, somebody else doesn't really want to hire.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:06:44

We don't make good fits as employees.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:06:46

No, it's very

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:06:47

true.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:06:47

Yeah.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:06:47

That's why I was just networking with someone the other day, who

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:06:50

does sales at Google, she, and how we could help each other.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:06:53

And he was like, Hey, by the way, do do wine potentially get hired?

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:06:57

And I said no, it's just it felt weird to say that, to turn someone

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:07:00

down at Google, but, still,

David Shriner Cahn: 00:07:03

Yeah.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:07:03

congratulations on a and what you have achieved.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:07:06

How far in were you Evan, when you felt like what the business that

David Shriner Cahn: 00:07:11

you had launched was sustainable?

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:07:13

pretty much like in those first two months and it was

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:07:17

sustainable, also frankly it's not as much of a niche as people think

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:07:23

either, in New York alone there.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:07:25

Off the top of my head, 12 jazz companies and more, and has

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:07:28

been working for, many years.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:07:31

So I just knew, from prior history that it could definitely work, especially

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:07:36

with my sales background and willingness to, run programs around the country.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:07:42

And I pretty much never looked back.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:07:44

So given the fact that there was competition, what do you

David Shriner Cahn: 00:07:48

think differentiated you, your business?

David Shriner Cahn: 00:07:51

From what was already out there so that you could gain traction pretty

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:07:55

quickly?

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:07:56

I would say the biggest thing is my business acumen.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:08:00

Most of the chess companies and New York, are run by chess players, who are great at

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:08:05

chess and great at teaching, but they're just not particularly great at sale.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:08:10

I've had schools be surprised that we would even send them a statement of work

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:08:15

compared to like previous just companies that they've worked with, years ago that

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:08:19

just said, Hey, we're coming in tomorrow.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:08:21

Okay, great.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:08:22

and for me coming from Oracle and rapid seven, like there's no

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:08:25

way I would start working at a school without a signed contract.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:08:29

Yeah.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:08:30

It's like common sense to me, that thing it's just being very professional

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:08:35

standards, making sure that, Marshall very hands-on, but all of our programs

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:08:41

as much as possible, especially obviously our New York schools, we do

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:08:46

some schools around the country that are a little harder to visit, but

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:08:49

even them, I communicate every week and, I value in every way as possible.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:08:55

And yeah.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:08:56

So the last, big thing is being a master, as well.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:09:03

I am rated in the top 1.5% of players, in the country.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:09:07

There are.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:09:08

A few other just companies, held by masters, some aren't, it all the

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:09:12

time people tell me like, oh wow, you must be such a good chess player.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:09:16

You run a chess company.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:09:18

And I honestly laugh because my biggest competitor is not run by

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:09:22

a trusted or rated chess player.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:09:25

It is what it is, And he actually has some great instructors and

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:09:29

staff who are titled players.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:09:31

But yeah, it's definitely not like an obvious.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:09:35

That you could be a strong chess player to, to run a test company.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:09:37

So you have the unique combination of love and

David Shriner Cahn: 00:09:42

competence for the sector that you're in.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:09:46

Yeah, I would say love confidence.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:09:49

also the business skills I did actually before premier chess also

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:09:53

start a different company, pillar sales that, Dale tails for starting.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:09:58

Did that for about a year and she'd while I was teaching chess

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:10:02

a little bit like on the side.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:10:04

And were you full-time in that other company?

David Shriner Cahn: 00:10:06

Mostly.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:10:07

I was teaching chess like 10% and doing that in 90% of,

David Shriner Cahn: 00:10:11

ah, okay.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:10:12

But you weren't working in corporate at that point?

David Shriner Cahn: 00:10:15

No.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:10:16

Okay.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:10:17

What made you decide to start the sales company for.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:10:19

actually one of my former Oracle colleagues, Jad

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:10:23

Shaheen had a FinTech startup and, he was at the time struggling for

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:10:28

salespeople and just met me one day.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:10:32

and, he knew I was open to potentially leaving rapid seven.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:10:37

And, basically certain, I looked me in so many other entrepreneurs

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:10:41

are struggling to find salespeople.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:10:43

Why don't we consider doing this?

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:10:45

starting a sales outsourcing business.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:10:48

And I brushed him away actually from the idea didn't really

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:10:52

make that much sense to me.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:10:54

And then literally two nights later, I was at a Shabbat dinner

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:10:57

and talking to my friend, Jonah, who is a serial entrepreneur.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:11:02

And I literally just asked him, what is.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:11:04

Doing, and he was like, wow, I'm starting this like sales business,

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:11:07

And I was like, whoa, like I just was talking to my friend.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:11:12

Dad felt like almost the same thing.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:11:14

Two days ago.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:11:16

I, started to think about it a little bit more.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:11:18

And eventually all of us met up one day, he and his two business

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:11:21

partners and Jad and all that.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:11:24

And then, it was interesting cause eventually Jonah and Jad actually

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:11:27

pulled out pretty early on, but then the three of us stayed Dale and John

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:11:32

took a night and it was a lot of fun.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:11:34

I, did it for a year.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:11:35

I was traveling around the world in Iceland, Israel, England, meeting

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:11:39

startups that were looking to come to the U S w it wasn't easy.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:11:43

And at the same time, I was, teaching chess again in New York.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:11:47

And.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:11:47

like, why not do this?

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:11:49

why not tell chess?

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:11:50

I did have a couple of connections as well and just, yeah, got it.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:11:54

Got the ground running.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:11:55

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:11:56

So in fact, the chest business is your second business, correct.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:12:01

Got it.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:12:02

So now in your current business, Who do you describe as your ideal client?

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:12:07

So for us, it's pretty broad.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:12:09

We do have three main types of clients.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:12:13

We have our corporate clients that are generally 50 employees.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:12:17

They're not in particular law firms, tech firms, and hedge funds and banks as well.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:12:26

Those are just some verticals that certainly have a lot of test players.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:12:30

Then we also do a lot of school programs all around the country, really

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:12:35

every type of school from preschool to 12th grade, public charter,

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:12:40

private, it doesn't really matter.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:12:42

We could be there.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:12:44

And then, individuals, three to 100 plus that are looking to, learn business

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:12:49

and life lessons through the game.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:12:51

whether it be privately or, in a group class,

David Shriner Cahn: 00:12:54

what's the most common problem you saw?

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:12:57

The biggest problem we have for organizations in

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:13:02

particular is just giving organizations platform, basically as a playground

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:13:09

for critical thinking and development.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:13:12

So we realized that for instance, with lawyers, that frame 11, that we

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:13:19

teach, once a month, they're attorneys.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:13:21

they know law in and out, and many of them have been

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:13:23

practicing for, 10, 20 plus years.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:13:27

But at the end of the day, every single case is different know, just like on a

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:13:32

chess board, I, all the time we'll go over games with students and I'll ask a

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:13:37

student, oh, why do you make this move?

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:13:39

And in a given opening position and be like, oh, that's like the common moves.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:13:43

That's what I normally do.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:13:44

and then I'll say, have you seen this position before?

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:13:47

And then he'll start to say, yeah, I've seen similar positions and

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:13:50

I'm like, no, I asked that, have you seen this position before?

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:13:54

No.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:13:55

I haven't either.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:13:56

So guess what?

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:13:56

This case is a little bit different, but it's, thinking about what you've learned

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:14:01

before, but also thinking right here.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:14:03

So how do you deal with unexpected situations

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:14:06

dealing with unexpected situations and also being able

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:14:11

to, even if it's something that you've seen before, not rushing through it?

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:14:18

I not, yes.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:14:19

Using your instincts that obviously I think is a very important part of

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:14:24

jazz for business or anything else.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:14:27

They're not blindly doing it.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:14:29

Yeah, I think that not rushing through it when you're

David Shriner Cahn: 00:14:31

in an unexpected situation, sounds to me like a real aha moment for

David Shriner Cahn: 00:14:36

people, because particularly if the unexpected situation makes you feel

David Shriner Cahn: 00:14:40

uncomfortable, you may want to get it over with as quickly as possible.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:14:45

Yeah, absolutely.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:14:46

I just look chest half of them battle is controlling your emotions.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:14:52

My coach actually, who I master Leyanna do Dawson, who I'm working

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:14:56

on a book with now actually is a former world championship candidate.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:15:00

I used to get annoyed and when we first started working together, because

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:15:05

know, we'd go over one of my games and you'd say something like, oh, I

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:15:08

haven't, we're getting too emotional.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:15:09

and I kept being like, I Astra, you're a chess coach.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:15:12

You're not my psychologist.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:15:14

And, he would then ask me, look, why did you blunder here?

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:15:18

And I'm like, what?

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:15:19

I made a silly mistake.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:15:21

I wasn't thinking let's move on.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:15:22

Let's go to the next, game or whatever, but, no, he would dig into it.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:15:28

And 90% of the time there was.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:15:30

Actually some sort of reason that I wondered whether I was, I

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:15:34

missed the value of the position.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:15:36

I was thinking about something completely unrelated, like an exam the next

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:15:41

day, or I was tired and I shouldn't have even played the tournament.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:15:45

I did that yesterday.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:15:46

Actually I played a tournament, it was scheduled, but I was running

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:15:49

around on morning before, ran home, literally with a minute to spare,

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:15:53

to hop on the online tournament.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:15:56

Of course, ponder is the first two games.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:15:57

I just wasn't in the mindset to play.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:16:01

So I think it's a, yeah, it really important to, be able to control that and,

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:16:06

be able to, take a deep breath and, just.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:16:09

How important do you find your mindset is and how

David Shriner Cahn: 00:16:12

important do you find it is to understand your emotions when you're facing an

David Shriner Cahn: 00:16:18

unexpected situation in order to be able to come out on the other side with a

David Shriner Cahn: 00:16:23

move that is as successful as possible in terms of how it positions you for.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:16:32

I think it's extremely important.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:16:34

one common mistake that a lot of players, including myself make a

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:16:39

lot, as much as I try not to is letting a domino effect happen.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:16:44

you make one mistake, you go from a winning position to, a slightly better

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:16:48

position to lose a position to an equal, completely losing possession.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:16:52

very common.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:16:54

So the biggest thing I tell students all the time and I'd chill is look,

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:16:58

you make a mistake and it happens, go get up, go get a drink of water, relax,

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:17:03

take a deep breath, and come back to the board then and play a whole new game.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:17:06

Basically, as much as possible.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:17:09

Similarly, once people lose a game, they'll be so much more likely to

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:17:13

lose another game and, a bunch more.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:17:16

yeah, I think, ultimately it really is just important to, take a deep breath

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:17:21

and think about it as, a game that serious, but not like too crazy for the

David Shriner Cahn: 00:17:26

folks that you teach in a business context using.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:17:30

What are some of their takeaways when it comes to understanding their mindset

David Shriner Cahn: 00:17:35

and their emotions when they're dealing with one of these unexpected, yet

David Shriner Cahn: 00:17:41

critical junctures in their business?

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:17:44

Yeah.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:17:45

I would say, business people, could struggle when there's no unexpected turn.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:17:51

I think COVID-19, of course is a very good example of that.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:17:55

A great example, of course.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:17:57

probably better than anything else, but, yeah.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:18:00

And much, 2020, pretty much businesses suddenly had to

David Shriner Cahn: 00:18:04

stop and some flourished and

David Shriner Cahn: 00:18:06

some pivoted and flourished,

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:18:08

some pivoted and flourished.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:18:10

we did, we started running all of our programs virtually for the most part.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:18:15

But a lot more.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:18:16

I was actually quoted in the New York times about how our virtual business

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:18:19

went up 150%, yet I honestly like almost disappoints me sometimes when I like

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:18:25

still hear like some chest people test teachers, for instance, have not taught

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:18:30

virtual classes, since then I was just like, whoa, don't, some of them have

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:18:33

just been off know, never adapted.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:18:36

So yeah, like I think that the point is.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:18:39

Yeah, it's really important to be able to, use this as an opportunity, not a problem.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:18:46

And, ultimately take it and realize, things happen for a reason know,

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:18:52

given the pandemic actually.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:18:54

personally, I've been able to connect people around the world.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:18:58

I've had one person who comes to mind is it's this lady Tundra.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:19:01

who's a life coach and Slovenia that I met networking.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:19:05

She's been on my podcast naturally.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:19:07

And I'm coming in horizontally in a few weeks.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:19:09

taking advantage of, the whole situation, BC, there's like a new

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:19:14

competitor out there, use them as a partner, we've get tons of business

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:19:18

from other trust companies and vice versa, so really it's important just

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:19:22

to, you see something that's incorrect, it's, what could you learn from it?

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:19:26

And, how could you actually use it to your advantage?

David Shriner Cahn: 00:19:30

Yeah, the ability to.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:19:32

To reflect, understand where you are, understand what's driving

David Shriner Cahn: 00:19:35

you and then learn from that.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:19:38

And pivot is really critical.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:19:40

Evan, we've covered a lot of territory about, your own career

David Shriner Cahn: 00:19:44

trajectory, the success that you have achieved in your business.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:19:48

And also.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:19:50

How you help your clients.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:19:52

If somebody wants to go deeper with anything we've discussed today, access

David Shriner Cahn: 00:19:56

any resources you may have or learn more about you get in touch with you

David Shriner Cahn: 00:19:59

where it'd be the best place for them.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:20:01

Thank you.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:20:02

So yeah.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:20:02

Thank you again for having me.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:20:05

And I do want to actually give a quick shout out to Gary Ireland,

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:20:08

your previous guests, which is how I found out about you.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:20:11

he's also been on my podcast as well, but, yeah, if anyone is interested in learning

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:20:17

more talking to you, Learning about options as a company, as a school, as an

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:20:22

individual to, work with us, you could certainly check out premier chests.com or

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:20:29

you could email Evan at premier, Jessica.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:20:31

Sounds great.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:20:32

Well, Evan, it's been a pleasure to have you on today.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:20:35

As part of the part of smashing the plateau.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:20:38

My guest today has been the CEO of premier chess academy.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:20:42

Evan, Raven, thank you for sharing your story with us.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:20:47

Smashing a plateau community.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:20:49

Thank you.

Evan Zachary Rabin: 00:20:49

My sincere pleasure

David Shriner Cahn: 00:20:52

when you visit the smashing the plateau

David Shriner Cahn: 00:20:54

website@smashingtheplateau.com, you'll find a summary of each episode,

David Shriner Cahn: 00:20:59

along with the links we mentioned on the show today, we learned how

David Shriner Cahn: 00:21:03

you use your unique combination of mastery at what you love to do.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:21:07

Plus other areas of competence to build a successful business,

David Shriner Cahn: 00:21:12

figuring out your unique combination of what you love and what you're

David Shriner Cahn: 00:21:15

competent at doing is one of the key.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:21:18

To success in your own business, helping you find your uniqueness.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:21:22

It's just one of the ways the smashing the plateau community can help you

David Shriner Cahn: 00:21:26

launch and grow your consulting business.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:21:28

Especially if you've had a long career as a high achieving employee

David Shriner Cahn: 00:21:32

before you became a consultant.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:21:34

The challenge is it's hard to see what makes you unique on your own.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:21:38

I know I've always had a great deal of trouble seeing my own uniqueness.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:21:42

That's why I've learned to rely on the wisdom and feedback of trusted colleagues.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:21:47

You can have the benefit of a whole community of trusted colleagues.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:21:50

When you joined the smashing the plateau community, go to smashing

David Shriner Cahn: 00:21:54

the plateau.com/community.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:21:57

To learn more.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:21:58

That's smashing the plateau.com/community.

David Shriner Cahn: 00:22:01

Thank you for taking the time to listen to our show.