The First Or The Last with Jay Awal

Jay Awal
  • 5.0 (10)
  • Self-Improvement

“The First or The Last” is the podcast for those done waiting on the world to change… because they were born to lead it. I’m Jay Awal, college-dropout turned entrepreneur, speaker, and builder of systems that help people multiply their income, influence, and impact. Over the last 7 years, I’ve traveled to over 47 countries, helped thousands of leaders build residual income, grow their businesses, and build their freedom without burning out or selling their soul. This podcast is your weekly challenge to grow spiritually, mentally, financially, and relationally. If you’re ready to stop coasting and start building with intention, this podcast was made for you. Listen in for: First in Mindset → How to shift your thinking to lead First in Market → Systems for building income & impact First in Manhood → Spiritual + leadership growth for men First in Legacy → Building for your last name, not just your first Whether you’re still stuck in survival mode or scaling something sacred to you, every episode will push you to rise above culture and walk in your calling. Lead or follow. Build or consume. Obey or delay. Because in every season… You will either grow first or you’ll finish last. 📲 Connect with me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mr.jayawal 📣 Tag your favorite episode in your Story and I’ll repost it with a personal message. 👊 Your friend, Jay Awal , https://www.jayawal.com

  1. 9h ago

    The Day I Stopped Trusting My Own Feelings

    I spent years making decisions based on how I felt in the moment. It cost me more than I want to admit. And the worst part? I thought I was being authentic. In Episode 90 of First in Mindset, Jay Awal gets honest about what happens when you let your feelings run the show, and what it actually takes to build a life that doesn't depend on how you wake up. Here's the pattern most people never catch: you feel motivated, so you move. You feel scared, so you stop. You feel confident, so you speak. You feel doubt, so you go quiet. You've handed the controls over to something that changes every single day. And you wonder why your life feels inconsistent. Your feelings are not the problem. Letting them lead is. This episode names the real gap between people who make steady progress and people who stay stuck in cycles. It's not talent. It's not timing. It's not luck. It's the decision to stop waiting for the right feeling before you take the right action. Jay walks through what he calls the Steady Hand test, a simple way to catch yourself mid-feeling and decide who's actually in charge. You'll learn: • Why trusting your feelings sounds healthy but quietly holds you back • The difference between listening to yourself and being ruled by yourself • How to catch the moment your feelings are about to make a decision you'll regret • What consistent people do differently when doubt, fear, or comfort shows up • The one question that tells you whether your next move is grounded or just emotional Your feelings are real. They just aren't reliable enough to be your only guide. Build the discipline to move anyway, and everything changes. 🔥 SEASON 9: FIRST IN MINDSET This season is about: • Own it before you blame • Do the work before you feel ready • Know yourself before you copy anyone • Stand tall before you try to fit in • See it before you need proof We are building foundations not highlight reels. 🔗 CONNECT + TAKE ACTION If this episode hit different: • Re-listen. Your feelings will tell you to skip the hard parts. Don't. • Send it to someone who's still waiting to feel ready before they start moving. • Follow or subscribe to The First or The Last • For dreamers ready to start building for themselves, learn real skills, and join a global community of builders, visit https://www.jayawal.com. • For founders ready to scale, implement AI and tech, install sales training, culture training, or compliance training if you sell online, visit https://paradigmconsulting.io. • If this episode hit you, post it on social and tag me at https://www.instagram.com/mr.jayawal so I can recognize your journey. Lead or follow. Build or consume. Obey or delay. Because in every situation, you either grow first or finish last.

    The Day I Stopped Trusting My Own Feelings

  2. 1d ago

    What Are You Actually Doing With the Quiet?

    What do you do when nobody is watching, nothing is urgent, and the noise goes away? That question is worth sitting with. In Episode 9 of First in Mindset, Jay Awal digs into one of the most honest tests of who you are becoming: what you do with silence. We live in a world that fills every gap. A notification. A scroll. A show. Another conversation that goes nowhere. The quiet used to be where people built things. Now it is where people hide. The problem is not that life is too loud. The problem is that silence got uncomfortable, and instead of asking why, most people just turned the volume up higher. This episode breaks down what your relationship with silence is actually telling you, why the people building real things treat quiet differently, and how to use a simple two-part check called the Quiet Account to find out whether your stillness is growing you or just protecting you from the work. You'll learn: • Why discomfort in silence is almost always a signal, not a mood • The difference between rest that refuels you and avoidance that drains you • What the Quiet Account is and how to run it honestly • How your use of silence today is building or shrinking the version of you that shows up tomorrow • One question to ask at the end of the day that exposes more than any goal list ever will Silence is not empty. It is either where you build or where you hide. This episode helps you find out which one you have been doing. 🔥 SEASON 9: FIRST IN MINDSET This season is about: • Own it before you blame • Do the work before you feel ready • Know yourself before you copy anyone • Stand tall before you try to fit in • See it before you need proof We are building foundations not highlight reels. 🔗 CONNECT + TAKE ACTION If this episode hit different: • Re-listen. Silence compounds. • Send it to someone who's still filling every quiet moment instead of building in it • Follow or subscribe to The First or The Last • For dreamers ready to start building for themselves, learn real skills, and join a global community of builders, visit https://www.jayawal.com. • For founders ready to scale, implement AI and tech, install sales training, culture training, or compliance training if you sell online, visit https://paradigmconsulting.io. • If this episode hit you, post it on social and tag me at https://www.instagram.com/mr.jayawal so I can recognize your journey. Lead or follow. Build or consume. Obey or delay. Because in every situation, you either grow first or finish last.

    What Are You Actually Doing With the Quiet?

  3. 2d ago

    The Thing You Keep Pretending You Do Not See

    I noticed something this week. The people who say they want change are often the same people who stop looking at the thing that needs to change. In Episode 88 of First in Mindset, Jay Awal digs into why we avoid honest self-awareness and what it actually costs us when we do. There is a difference between knowing something is off and being willing to sit with that knowledge long enough to do something about it. Most people get a glimpse of the truth about themselves and then quickly get busy. They scroll. They plan. They talk about what they are going to do. Anything to avoid the five seconds of uncomfortable honesty that would actually move them forward. This episode is about the habit of looking away. Why we do it. What it protects us from in the short term. And what it quietly destroys over years if we keep doing it. Jay walks through a simple two-part check called the Look Straight practice that helps you stop avoiding the obvious thing and start dealing with it before it deals with you. You'll learn: • Why uncomfortable truths do not go away when you stop looking at them • The difference between being self-aware and being honest with yourself • How avoidance disguises itself as being busy or staying positive • The two questions that make up the Look Straight practice • Why the thing you keep not looking at is usually the thing that matters most You already know what this episode is about. That is the point. The truth does not need you to discover it. It just needs you to stop pretending you have not already seen it. 🔥 SEASON 9: FIRST IN MINDSET This season is about: • Own it before you blame • Do the work before you feel ready • Know yourself before you copy anyone • Stand tall before you try to fit in • See it before you need proof We are building foundations not highlight reels. 🔗 CONNECT + TAKE ACTION If this episode hit different: • Re-listen. Honesty compounds. • Send it to someone who's still avoiding the thing they already know about • Follow or subscribe to The First or The Last • For dreamers ready to start building for themselves, learn real skills, and join a global community of builders, visit https://www.jayawal.com. • For founders ready to scale, implement AI and tech, install sales training, culture training, or compliance training if you sell online, visit https://paradigmconsulting.io. • If this episode hit you, post it on social and tag me at https://www.instagram.com/mr.jayawal so I can recognize your journey. Lead or follow. Build or consume. Obey or delay. Because in every situation, you either grow first or finish last.

    The Thing You Keep Pretending You Do Not See

  4. 3d ago

    The Advice That Kept You Stuck

    They told you to believe in yourself. That was never the problem. Episode 87 of First in Mindset is about the advice that sounds right, feels right, and still leaves you exactly where you started. In Episode 87 of First in Mindset, Jay Awal breaks down why the most popular mindset advice in the world is missing a critical piece, and what to do instead. There is advice that travels everywhere right now. It shows up on t-shirts, in quotes, in graduation speeches. Believe in yourself. Trust the process. Your time is coming. And none of it is technically wrong. But something is still broken. People who follow it are still stuck, still waiting, still circling the same problem for the third year in a row. The advice is not the enemy. The gap in the advice is. This episode digs into the thing nobody attaches to the popular advice: the daily mechanism that makes belief do anything at all. Jay walks through a simple two-part check called the Belief Audit, which separates what you say you believe from what your actual calendar, your actual behavior, and your actual daily choices say you believe. The gap between those two things is the real conversation. You'll learn: • Why believing in yourself is not the starting point, it is the result of something else • What your daily choices are actually telling the world about what you believe • How to run the Belief Audit and find the gap in under five minutes • Why the most dangerous lies are the ones that sound like motivation • What it looks like when belief becomes a behavior instead of a feeling You can say you believe in something all day. But the person across the table from you, your family, your future, can only see what you do. What you do is the only version of belief that counts. 🔥 SEASON 9: FIRST IN MINDSET This season is about: • Own it before you blame • Do the work before you feel ready • Know yourself before you copy anyone • Stand tall before you try to fit in • See it before you need proof We are building foundations not highlight reels. 🔗 CONNECT + TAKE ACTION If this episode hit different: • Re-listen. Belief without behavior is just decoration. • Send it to someone who's still waiting for the feeling to show up before they start moving • Follow or subscribe to The First or The Last • For dreamers ready to start building for themselves, learn real skills, and join a global community of builders, visit https://www.jayawal.com. • For founders ready to scale, implement AI and tech, install sales training, culture training, or compliance training if you sell online, visit https://paradigmconsulting.io. • If this episode hit you, post it on social and tag me at https://www.instagram.com/mr.jayawal so I can recognize your journey. Lead or follow. Build or consume. Obey or delay. Because in every situation, you either grow first or finish last.

    The Advice That Kept You Stuck

  5. 6d ago

    The Score You Never See Is the One That Counts

    Two years. That is how long you can drift before anyone notices. Including you. In Episode 86 of First in Mindset, Jay Awal breaks down the hidden internal score that every person is running, why most people never look at it honestly, and what it costs them when they do not. There is a number that does not live on your screen or in your bank account. It lives in the space between who you said you were going to be and who you actually showed up as this week. Most people keep that number vague on purpose. Vague is comfortable. Vague lets you stay in the story that you are almost there, that you are just one shift away. But vague does not build anything real. And at some point, the gap between the story you are telling and the life you are actually living gets wide enough that you cannot look away. This episode is about closing that gap. Not with a new strategy, not with a new habit tracker, and not with a motivational push. With one honest question that most people are not brave enough to sit with for more than thirty seconds. Jay walks through a simple internal audit he calls the Return Check, why most people skip it, and what happens when you finally stop skipping it. You'll learn: • Why keeping your growth goals vague is not humility, it is avoidance • What the Return Check is and how to run it on any area of your life right now • How to tell the difference between a real setback and a habit you have been excusing • Why the score you are running on yourself in private is already shaping your future • How to use honest internal accounting without turning it into shame You cannot fix a score you refuse to check. And the longer you avoid it, the more expensive the gap gets. This is the episode that makes you stop averaging your excuses and start auditing your actual direction. 🔥 SEASON 9: FIRST IN MINDSET This season is about: • Own it before you blame • Do the work before you feel ready • Know yourself before you copy anyone • Stand tall before you try to fit in • See it before you need proof We are building foundations not highlight reels. 🔗 CONNECT + TAKE ACTION If this episode hit different: • Re-listen. Honest internal accounting changes direction. • Send it to someone who's still keeping their goals vague on purpose • Follow or subscribe to The First or The Last • For dreamers ready to start building for themselves, learn real skills, and join a global community of builders, visit https://www.jayawal.com. • For founders ready to scale, implement AI and tech, install sales training, culture training, or compliance training if you sell online, visit https://paradigmconsulting.io. • If this episode hit you, post it on social and tag me at https://www.instagram.com/mr.jayawal so I can recognize your journey. Lead or follow. Build or consume. Obey or delay. Because in every situation, you either grow first or finish last.

    The Score You Never See Is the One That Counts

  6. Oct 15

    The Thing You Keep Calling a Phase

    It started as a rough patch. Then it became a season. Then a few years passed. At some point, the phase became the pattern. In Episode 5 of First in Mindset, Jay Awal breaks down how we talk ourselves into tolerating the wrong version of our lives by calling it temporary. There is a specific kind of lie we tell ourselves when things are not going the way we planned. We say it is just a phase. We say we are getting through something. We say we will reset when things calm down. But calm never comes on its own. The phase stretches. The months stack. And slowly, what we called temporary becomes the default. This episode digs into why the word 'phase' is one of the most dangerous words you can use on yourself. It looks at what actually keeps a pattern alive, how to tell the difference between a hard season and a settled habit, and what it costs you to keep waiting for a better moment that you are not building toward. You'll learn: • Why calling something a phase keeps you from actually changing it • The difference between a hard season and a habit you have made peace with • What the Phase Test is and how to use it in under two minutes • How to catch the moment you stopped fighting a pattern and started living it • What it looks like to end the phase on purpose instead of waiting for it to end itself You do not grow out of patterns. You build your way out. And that starts with being honest about which ones you have already stopped calling temporary. 🔥 SEASON 9: FIRST IN MINDSET This season is about: • Own it before you blame • Do the work before you feel ready • Know yourself before you copy anyone • Stand tall before you try to fit in • See it before you need proof We are building foundations not highlight reels. 🔗 CONNECT + TAKE ACTION If this episode hit different: • Re-listen. Patterns hide in plain sight until you name them. • Send it to someone who's still calling their situation temporary • Follow or subscribe to The First or The Last • For dreamers ready to start building for themselves, learn real skills, and join a global community of builders, visit https://www.jayawal.com. • For founders ready to scale, implement AI and tech, install sales training, culture training, or compliance training if you sell online, visit https://paradigmconsulting.io. • If this episode hit you, post it on social and tag me at https://www.instagram.com/mr.jayawal so I can recognize your journey. Lead or follow. Build or consume. Obey or delay. Because in every situation, you either grow first or finish last.

    The Thing You Keep Calling a Phase

  7. Oct 14

    The Thing You Keep Putting Off Is the Legacy

    They told you to leave something behind. They never told you it starts today. In Episode 80 of First in Legacy, Jay Awal breaks down why legacy is not a destination you arrive at, and why the thing you keep delaying is already shaping what the people after you inherit. Here's the pattern nobody catches in time. People treat legacy like a project they'll start later. When the money is better. When life settles down. When they finally feel ready. But the people who come after you are already watching what you do with the time you have right now. The delay is not neutral. The delay is the message. This episode digs into the one habit that quietly kills more legacies than failure ever could: waiting to begin. Jay walks through a simple framework called the Gap Check, a way to see clearly the distance between what you say you want to leave behind and what you are actually doing this week to build it. One question. Three areas. Honest answers. You'll learn: • Why waiting to feel ready is already a legacy decision • How the Gap Check works and what it reveals in under five minutes • The difference between a legacy you plan and a legacy you live • Why the people who come after you don't need your perfect year, they need your honest daily choices • How to close the gap between intention and action starting this week, not someday The people who come after you are not waiting for your best version. They're already being shaped by your current one. The gap between what you say matters and what you actually do this week is the only honest measure of the legacy you're building right now. 🔥 SEASON EIGHT: FIRST IN LEGACY This season is about: • Do right before you feel good • Get it right before you go bigger • Do the work before you want the crowd • Know what matters before you compare • Keep going before you look for praise We are building foundations not highlight reels. 🔗 CONNECT + TAKE ACTION If this episode hit different: • Re-listen. Legacy starts closing the gap today, not someday. • Send it to someone who's still waiting to feel ready before they start building. • Follow or subscribe to The First or The Last • For dreamers ready to start building for themselves, learn real skills, and join a global community of builders, visit https://www.jayawal.com. • For founders ready to scale, implement AI and tech, install sales training, culture training, or compliance training if you sell online, visit https://paradigmconsulting.io. • If this episode hit you, post it on social and tag me at https://www.instagram.com/mr.jayawal so I can recognize your journey. Lead or follow. Build or consume. Obey or delay. Because in every situation, you either grow first or finish last.

    The Thing You Keep Putting Off Is the Legacy

  8. Oct 13

    The Inheritance Nobody Talks About

    47 countries. That number keeps me honest. In Episode 9 of First in Legacy, Jay Awal breaks down the hidden thing you are passing down right now, without knowing it, and why the most important inheritance has nothing to do with money. Most people think about legacy in terms of what they will leave behind when they die. A house. A savings account. A name. But the thing that actually shapes the next generation is not in a will. It is in the room. It is in the patterns. It is in the way you handle pressure when nobody is watching. You are already passing something down. The only question is whether you chose it. This episode gets into the gap between the inheritance people plan for and the one they are actually building. Jay walks through a single honest question that can change the direction of what your family receives from you, not just financially, but in the way they see the world, handle hard things, and build their own lives. You'll learn: • Why the inheritance that shapes families the most is never written in a will • The difference between leaving resources and leaving patterns • How to identify what you are passing down without knowing it • One question that can redirect the entire direction of your legacy • Why both the people building and the people receiving need to understand this equally What you model daily is the inheritance. Not what you plan to leave. What you are doing right now. 🔥 SEASON EIGHT: FIRST IN LEGACY This season is about: • Do right before you feel good • Get it right before you go bigger • Do the work before you want the crowd • Know what matters before you compare • Keep going before you look for praise We are building foundations not highlight reels. 🔗 CONNECT + TAKE ACTION If this episode hit different: • Re-listen. Patterns compound. • Send it to someone who's still confusing a good plan with a good example • Follow or subscribe to The First or The Last • For dreamers ready to start building for themselves, learn real skills, and join a global community of builders, visit https://www.jayawal.com. • For founders ready to scale, implement AI and tech, install sales training, culture training, or compliance training if you sell online, visit https://paradigmconsulting.io. • If this episode hit you, post it on social and tag me at https://www.instagram.com/mr.jayawal so I can recognize your journey. Lead or follow. Build or consume. Obey or delay. Because in every situation, you either grow first or finish last.

    The Inheritance Nobody Talks About
See All (90)

5
out of 5
10 Ratings

About

“The First or The Last” is the podcast for those done waiting on the world to change… because they were born to lead it. I’m Jay Awal, college-dropout turned entrepreneur, speaker, and builder of systems that help people multiply their income, influence, and impact. Over the last 7 years, I’ve traveled to over 47 countries, helped thousands of leaders build residual income, grow their businesses, and build their freedom without burning out or selling their soul. This podcast is your weekly challenge to grow spiritually, mentally, financially, and relationally. If you’re ready to stop coasting and start building with intention, this podcast was made for you. Listen in for: First in Mindset → How to shift your thinking to lead First in Market → Systems for building income & impact First in Manhood → Spiritual + leadership growth for men First in Legacy → Building for your last name, not just your first Whether you’re still stuck in survival mode or scaling something sacred to you, every episode will push you to rise above culture and walk in your calling. Lead or follow. Build or consume. Obey or delay. Because in every season… You will either grow first or you’ll finish last. 📲 Connect with me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mr.jayawal 📣 Tag your favorite episode in your Story and I’ll repost it with a personal message. 👊 Your friend, Jay Awal , https://www.jayawal.com

Information