Issue#37 Building while you wait

“…once this immigration situation gets sorted, I will build my YouTube channel.”

“I can’t monetize this on my visa.” “My visa doesn’t allow this.”

If you’re an immigrant, you’ve experienced some version of this unique brand of let-immigration-get-sorted procrastination. No judgement here. I totally get it. Life feels like it’s on hold. You want to see how things shake out. What if it doesn’t work out?

This limbo has many causalities - Travel, taking a hobby to the next level, speaking publicly on your expertise, building your personal brand, launching a startup, writing online.

That’s why I wanted to speak to Sohan Sethi.

Sohan works as a Data analytics leader & Unit Manager at HCSC. He’s also a LinkedIn creator with 130K+ followers and a TEDx speaker featured in CNBC, Business Insider & Fox News.

I know him through his passion - helping people navigate careers and immigration.

Certainly, there’s much to admire about his achievements. But a very different thing stood out to me when I spoke to him.

You know the kind of person that you talk to once and you feel like they’re now your friend? Sohan is that person. He’s warm, thoughtful and the genuine joy he experiences in learning something new is evident, even in casual conversation.

He’s also an immigrant in the US.

Sohan graduated with a Masters’ degree from the University of Illinois, Chicago in 2023. He arrived, like so many of us do, with that foggy, textbook understanding of what it takes to live and work there.

I had zero clarity. My view of the horizon was just -

You go to the US. There is something called an F1 visa. You get 3 attempts at the H1B lottery and if nothing works out you probably come back. Or you do a second masters or something.

And that’s literally it.

If you’re an immigrant, you are already plotting an immigration-timeline in your head. In case you have wondered, you’re not alone in this. It’s a condition called immigration-induced-cerebral-reconfiguration. You just HAVE to know someone’s status to properly locate them in space and time. 😂

No word from scientists on a cure yet.

So here it is - He’s on OPT. No H-1B yet. And its getting a bit concerning. For most of us, that’s heads-down time with little bandwidth leftover from immigration anxiety and the unique pressures of being a new, entry-level professional.

Sohan has handled things very differently. He guides other immigrants in their job hunts, offers resources, inputs and insightful LinkedIn posts. He recently launched a community to support newcomers in the US too, has been featured in US media and delivered a TedTalk too - all this adding up to a sizeable online following. And this, alongside full-time work and immigration stress - that inescapable condition that takes up residence in the lives of all international graduates in the US.

Oh, by the way, he can’t monetize any of it. At all. Visa restrictions 😒

So…the question is why?

Like many eventual positive initiatives, this one started with deep frustration. A pain point that’s almost a rite of passage for international students - a scarring job hunt. Sohan recalls the loneliness of that experience -

I was just so frustrated going through my own job search majorly because once I went through that entire 10 month long journey of constant rejections and then some highs. I was about to get an offer and then being rejected after seven rounds of interview.

So much back and forth definitely exhausted me. But what really frustrated me even more is that is the same thing happening to the people around me I really care about.

…that was the initial emotion behind starting this.

It started in a comically modern way - with an online rant.

I remember the date very clearly - It was 6th Feb, 2024.

I just go to LinkedIn one day and just write a rant…I just was very frustrated. I don’t know where it came from. I wrote - “Hey, the job market is literally so frustrating and it’s very heartbreaking to see people around me go through this.”

So that post went viral and it got like 250,000 impressions or something and it makes sense because everyone was going through that. I’m like okay there is…worth to what I’m saying because people are resonating but also, it is a responsibility on my end now.

I have to provide them with the right resources and the right information to be the light in someone else’s journey or the light that wasn’t in mine and that that was the initial beginning motivation

Right off the bat, Sohan concedes that there are some valid concerns for someone that wants to build an online presence, but he doesn’t think of them as barriers.

Some safeguards are needed to make sure that you are abiding by by your visa rules…I’ve seen people definitely be cautious about “What will my employer think?” It makes sense so you have to be very cautious as to you are not crossing any boundaries - you should not be disclosing anything that you’re working on.

The bandwidth definitely is the second factor. In all honesty, I struggle with that as well. I struggle with being exhausted after coming back home and doing my chores and creating my LinkedIn and Instagram posts, sending out my newsletter and all that. But yeah, no one is obligating you to do that but it’s just your choice, right? I would I would do it thousand times over.

And why is he building all this, despite not being able to monetize it?

Before you can fly an F-16, you need to learn from a single engine plane. And before that you need to learn from a simulator, right?

There are so many steps that you that you have to build towards. If I was to start a business five years down the line when my visa situation is taken care of, this is a great time for me to learn those skills - learn storytelling, understand marketing, consumer behavior, sales as well. When you can legally start monetizing, you have saved yourself five years.

Yes, what Sohan says is true. But I know, from personal experience, the incredible stuck-ness of immigration constraints. Everything I’m doing now - writing this newsletter, posting on LinkedIn, connecting with other creators - I could more than easily have done in the pits of my immigration problems. In fact, it would have been easier - I was unable to work for some time. I had nothing but time. I was just…stuck.

What would Sohan say to the Stuck Sindhu from 2018?

Firstly, I’d say have very basic clarity as to what you want to do. A pre-step could be a very honest dissection of what your skills are currently. Second step - thinking about your dream goal or that dream person you want to be. What dream niche would want to get into. And so that’s the second step. And the third step is how do you bridge that gap?

A very honest self analysis is very important because I I would hate for you to dive into something and then pivot two years later saying, “Hey this is not the correct thing for me.”

And then, you just…start. No great secret there. You’ve heard it all before - Take baby steps, try different ways of doing it. Iterate, iterate, iterate.

If you want to be a content creator, Sohan says, start with finding an existing content creator you like. Find a style that works for you, examine your own experiences - what is a subject you can really speak well about?

The great thing about just getting started is that you can choose whatever format, platform and storytelling method that seems most accessible. See how you are engaging with the audience. Do you even like your own content?!?!

He highlights a point he thinks is key -

Are you enjoying your process? Or are you in it for just the outcome?

If tomorrow everything was taken away from me I would still continue doing this because I am doing because I enjoy my process. I don't know what the end result is…When you build something and enjoy the process, it really keeps you grounded whether things are going your way or not.

Ok, all that is great. But there are those pesky voices inside our heads come up, right?

“Yeah, this is a problem. But what can I do about it?”

“What if I’m just not good?” “I really don’t have it in me.”

“I’m good, but not good enough for that!!”

I’ve definitely had my own share with being with being under confident, facing criticism. A lot of self-doubt and self-sabotage, for that matter. I have always wanted to become a public speaker but for the longest time I was so terrified of speaking in front of others that I would stammer like crazy. It took me 10 minutes to get through one page of written material.

But practice really helps a lot.

Before practice though, comes permission.

I learned this from Steve Jobs - just give yourself the liberty of being a fool in the short term to be a success in in the long term. Everyone goes through that journey no matter where they are at this point of time. The best artists, the best sports people, the best entrepreneurs…everyone everyone has to go through that.

Sohan’s persistence is not recent. Neither is his desire to achieve a dream. He overcame a bumpy path in getting to the US to study. The US entered Sohan’s imagination with a bang through that incredible trigger of immigrant aspiration - Movies.

Fascination for the US followed. And landed in…Chicago. And it landed hard!

…when I was preparing for my masters in the US I had a laptop wallpaper which was a bridge on the River - there’s a bridge there and it has a beautiful landscape of the entire Chicago skyline…

It was my wallpaper for the longest time.

Sohan’s desktop background

It grew beyond a pretty picture. That wallpaper saw him through grueling days balancing the substantial workload of a full-time job and GRE prep. Then the covid pandemic. Then, getting sick.

And, finally…

On my 25th birthday just 20 days after I came to the US, I went to that spot and clicked a picture like hey with that like exact skyline I’m standing on that bridge. It was a dream being fulfilled with so many years in the backdrop.

You know what strikes me about Sohan? His ability to Just Take Action. And meet the outcomes with reflection and openness. It can be hard to do.

Especially when there are decent reasons to put it all off.

You don’t know where you’ll end up.
Your visa needs to be renewed.
Ok, just wait for this next step - just for a little clarity, right?
Phew, it worked. Let me enjoy this a little.

Soon…its been forever. The core insight is this - starting is low stakes. It doesn’t require perfection - in craft, or in life. And to build later, you have to learn now.

What are you thinking of building? Share it with me. If you are reading by email, just hit reply and let me know. Or leave it in the comments on the Substack app.

I would love to hear from you.

See you next month…
Sindhu

Guest Bio:

Sohan is a Data analytics leader & Unit Manager at HCSC. He’s also a LinkedIn creator with 130K+ followers and a TEDx speaker featured in CNBC, Business Insider & Fox News.

He’s on a mission to help millions navigate careers, visas, and live their best life.

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