Jay Shetty sells motivation and himself with a monk's zeal

July 21, 2022

A wide range of people, from psychologists and academics to business founders and armed forces veterans, offer motivational advice via coaching, courses, books, podcasts, videos and speeches.

Last year, the global market for such work, aimed at tackling personal, career and business challenges, was estimated to be $42 billion. The demand is especially huge in the West. For instance, half of the current top ten New York Times best-selling business books deal with these issues. James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, the top seller on the list, describes his book as “the most comprehensive guide on how to change your habits and get 1% better every day.”

Every few years one of the motivational speakers rises above the intense competition to become a wealthy superstar. Typically, they are engaging speakers who repackage age-old, common sense-based practices for pursuing a successful, healthy life. They have also figured out a new marketing wrapper to attract wide media attention that brings in customers.    

Some of the gurus, who are of Indian origin, spice their motivational talk with yoga and Eastern spiritualism. They include the late Maharishi Yogi, a physics graduate from Allahabad University, India, who taught “transcendental meditation” to the Beatles in the 1960s; and Deepak Chopra, a New York based medical doctor and author of 91 books, podcaster and speaker, who first got popular in the 1980’s with his focus on what he calls “integrative medicine and personal transformation.” Chopra, 74-years-old, reportedly has a net worth of $150 million.

Jay Shetty, an Indian who grew up in London and now lives in Los Angeles, is the current, rapidly rising motivational guru embraced by the Western media. A former follower of Hare Krishna, a semimonastic Hindu organization, he describes himself as an “Author, Purpose Coach, Former Monk.” Shetty, 34-years-old, has 28 million followers on Facebook, 11.4 million on Instagram and 4.2 million on YouTube.

This week, he spoke of a way to uplift life each day by following practices which he labels with the acronym TIME: be thankful and grateful; seek inspiration and insights for action; meditate and spend time with yourself; and exercise. He was addressing a gathering in New York organized by American Express for small business owners.  

In his twice weekly podcasts On Purpose, Shetty seeks “to make wisdom go viral.” He uses tabloid style headlines like “6 Relationship Mistakes” and “9 Personality Types.” He also chats with Hollywood and other celebrities: actor Matt Damon on “Seeing Problems and Taking Actions”; and singer Alicia Keys on “Permission to be More Yourself & the Gift of Saying No.”

The podcasts can be accessed through a subscription for Calm.com, an app to “help improve your health and happiness”, for $42 a year. Shetty joined Calm in January this year as its “Chief Purpose Officer.” In addition to receiving a share of the subscription fees, he may also be a part owner of Calm.

Two million students have taken Shetty’s online courses on turning a passion into a business. “Imagine having the freedom and BIG earning capacity you need to do the things you really LOVE,” Shetty states on a site which pitches his course on social media. “I'm offering my life-changing course to you for $399 only. Yes, there are courses that cost a whole lot more.” He also offers a training program to start a career as a life and success coach. The course, which provides the “methodology, tools, and techniques” Shetty uses, costs $675 a month.  

Shetty’s videos, which he started creating in 2016 and can be viewed for free, have gotten over four billion views on social media platforms. Like other popular social media content creators, he must receive a share of the advertising revenues as well as a likely payment from the platforms. So he has to constantly figure out ways to attract bigger audiences and keep them engaged longer.

Not surprisingly, the videos, based on real life stories including from Shetty’s life, are simple, blunt, scripted, acted tales with click-bait titles topped with a message for action. Through his videos, he aims to share knowledge at the same pace as people want entertainment, which he calls “making wisdom go viral.”

The videos include “A Dying Father Teaches His Son A Lesson,” which has gotten over 56 million views on Facebook; “Daughter Ashamed of Dad, Watch What Happens Next,”  which has gotten roughly six million views on Facebook and around 200,000 views on YouTube; and “If You GIVE To Others But Don't RECEIVE In Return - WATCH THIS.”

The topics and content of many of Shetty’s popular videos are similar to those in videos made by Dhar Mann, an Indian American also based in Los Angeles. Mann has roughly 50% more followers on social media than Shetty. Many of Mann’s videos are aimed at pre-teens and teenagers while Shetty’s content seems to be for those 20 and above.

Unlike Mann, Shetty anchors his videos discussing the problems faced, lessons to be learned and corrective actions to take. This is seen, for instance, in Change For Yourself, Not Others, which has gotten more than 15 million views on Facebook, and Before You Waste Your Life, Watch This

Also, while Mann is in the process of writing a book, Shetty’s 2020 book Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Everyday topped The New York Times bestseller list. Shetty describes his 2020 book as a guide to thinking like a monk in order to be “courageous, compassionate and determined” and helping “develop the skills and tools to breakthrough negativity, anxiety, overthinking and people’s expectations.” A reviewer of the book in The Guardian disagreed noting that “though Shetty isn’t a tech CEO, he’s definitely building a brand”, that Shetty talks about higher purpose in the down-to-earth tones of a TV sports pundit and that his videos are “humourless and a bit manipulative.”

The book brought Shetty wider media attention and raised his profile in the business world. Shetty charges $100,000 to $200,000 for a speech and, besides American Express, has spoken at events organized by Coca Cola, Google, Microsoft, Netflix and other companies. He has created content for Snapchat, Facebook, National Geographic and other media outlets.

Born and raised in Wood Green, London, Shetty was shy and introverted. As a child he was bullied for being overweight and nerdy.  He was suspended from school on multiple occasions for apparently experimenting with drugs, fighting and drinking. At 16, he lost two of his best friends, one in a car accident and the other due to gang violence.

Shetty earned a BSc in Behavioral Science from the Cass Business School, London University. While in college, “Hearing a (Hindu) monk speak for the first time…changed my life,” Shetty states on his website. He then spent half his summer vacations working for a large financial organization in London and the other half living with the monks.

Starting at 22, Shetty spent three years with monks in Europe and India from the International Society of Krishna Consciousness. Known as the Hare Krishna movement or Hare Krishnas, the society is a Western outgrowth of a Hindu devotional yoga tradition. Groups of the orange robed, shaven headed Hare Krishnas are seen in parks and public spaces in New York, London and other major Western cities. They advocate the pursuit of mystical devotion through repetitive chanting.

A Hare Krishna group chanting in Toronto, Canada

According to their site, the Krishna Society has a process to ensure they select candidates for monks who have a “purer and deeper” intention and who “are at a reasonably mature age, and have experienced family life for long enough to genuinely be able to renounce it.” Also, those below 35 are put on a waiting list for five or more years. So, though he calls himself a former monk, it is unclear if Shetty was formally accepted as one by the Hare Krishnas.

After he left the Hare Krishnas, Shetty worked at Accenture, the consulting firm, as a social media coach for executives online branding and digital strategy. He also conducted motivational and meditation workshops for friends.

Arianna Huffington, founder of HuffPost, saw one of his motivational videos and invited him to New York to work for her online publication. In 2016, Shetty moved from London to New York to host HuffPost Live, a daily video show online where he interviewed Deepak Chopra and other prominent people. As with Huffington, mass media producers try to hold on to and expand their audience by finding a fresh face and voice to host programs, which recycle old, yet popular, content, from a new perspective - in Shetty’s case his being a former monk.

Shetty explains on his website that by joining the Hare Krishnas he shifted to seeking “a life of service, impact and passion as opposed to money, fame and power.” Now, as a motivation guru, Shetty reportedly has a net worth of $18 million. A year ago, he and his wife Radhi Devlukia paid $8.4 million for a 6,2000 square feet mansion In Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, according to a news report.

Earlier this year, Trevor Noah, host of The Daily Show, asked Shetty about giving up life as a monk with no attachments to pursuing fame and money in a capitalist society. Shetty replied that he likes the paradox: “I really enjoy the battle… and seeing my attachment for money come through…I would rather grapple with my flaws on a daily basis than be so far removed” living an isolated monastic life. A visibly puzzled Noah said he could spend hours discussing Shetty’s career shift.

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