In this episode, host John Rebecchi (M.B.A. ’83), Ph.D., sits down with Bob Miglani, Keynote Speaker, Bestselling Author, Leadership Coach and Founder & CEO of Hoot and Embrace the Chaos. Miglani 's remarkable journey began when he arrived in the U.S. from India with his family at the age of 9, carrying just $75 and a strong determination to pursue the American dream. With over 20 years of executive experience at Pfizer and in entrepreneurship, Miglani has turned his insights into impactful books and resources that empower others in their business and personal growth.

Our host, John Rebecchi, highlights one of Miglani’s books, "Embrace the Chaos: How India Taught Me to Stop Overthinking and Start Living." In the book, Rebecchi was especially moved by Miglani’s insight, “No matter how smart we are, we cannot actually predict what will happen tomorrow. Life is complicated, interconnected, and intertwined. The world is complex and growing fast, so let’s re-channel overthinking.” This idea resonated with Rebecchi, as many of us tend to overthink things. He emphasized Miglani’s advice to “re-channel all the overthinking and worrying about tomorrow towards the most certain thing we have in life: our own actions today.”

During the interview, Miglani shared that his inspiration for the book came after 20 years as an executive at Pfizer. Despite financial success, he felt stuck, but recognized that he has life responsibilities. However, through several trips to India to reconnect with family and work, Miglani came to three key realizations. First, he shared that "we overthink because we feel as though we have some level of control.” Second, he explained, "We think we have control, but we do not. We really have very little control and it scares the crap out of us. Right? We want control; we want certainty. The truth is we don’t have certainty. The only certainty we have is your words, your thoughts and your actions.” Lastly, Miglani emphasized that “if we want to get unstuck, we must take action and move forward, regardless of what we think.” Moving forward and taking action, he noted, is the key to achieving the results we want.

Building on this mindset, Miglani recently launched Hoot, a marketing automation platform designed specifically for specialty doctors. While he reflected on how it all began, he shares, "It was curiosity, it was a problem, it was someone asking me for my help... If we are looking to change and grow, as human beings and as professionals, we all want to grow."

The inspiration for Hoot came when Miglani’s wife, an Optometrist was facing challenges in attracting patients. Realizing that sales play a crucial role in every area of life, Miglani applied his extensive sales and marketing expertise to help her solve this problem. Through targeted strategies, including a “7 touch point” approach to patient engagement, he was able to significantly boost her practice’s growth. After witnessing his wife’ business grow, this inspired Miglani to create Hoot, a platform designed to bring these effective tools to other specialty doctors looking to grow their practices.

Drawing from his experiences, Miglani shared key advice for entrepreneurs and aspiring business owners. “Be curious,” he emphasized. “I think curiosity leads to innovation, and it leads to solving problems. What you want to do is try to solve a problem today.” He elaborated, “If you really want to innovate and grow, you’ve got to find someone who has a problem, see what the limitations are of that problem, and bring your resources in your mind, your creativity to play to solve that problem. I did it for my spouse that led me to launching Hoot.” He also highlighted the value of solving challenging problems. “When we focus on a hard problem, we realize we that have an opportunity to actually make an impact on something,” he explained. “Working on hard problems also come with less competition.”

Lastly, Miglani stressed the importance of being passion in some way. “I love listening to podcasts, your podcast is one of the ones I listen to because you have so many great guests and you provide so much value,” he shared. He continued, “Be curious. There are so many conferences and podcasts…so many opportunities to learn [from], because that is going to make you interested in doing more and trying new things.”

Listen to the full episode: Podbean, Apple Podcast, YouTube Podcast, Spotify.

By Patthara Chandaragga