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. 2d ago

    The Thing You Never Got to Say to Them

    I waited too long to say it. And then the moment was gone. That one hit me harder than I expected it to. In Episode 76 of First in Legacy, Jay Awal digs into the thing most people don't think about until it's too late: the words, the presence, and the direction you never gave the people who needed it from you. There is a pattern playing out in a lot of families right now. People are busy building careers, chasing goals, handling life, and the people closest to them are watching, waiting, growing up, and moving on without ever hearing what they needed to hear. Not because you didn't care. Because you assumed there was more time. Because you figured you'd say it when things slowed down. Things don't slow down. And one day you look up and the window is closed. This episode is about that window. It asks one specific question: what are you holding back from the people who are depending on you right now? Not money. Not a plan. The actual thing. The conversation. The direction. The honest truth about what you've been through and what you want for them. This episode walks through a simple way to think about what you still have time to give before the season changes. You'll learn: • Why the people closest to you are forming their understanding of the world without your input right now • The difference between being present and actually being known by the people you love • What it costs a family when the builder never speaks the thing they were carrying • How to identify the one conversation you've been putting off and why it matters more than your plans • A simple practice called the Open Letter that turns what you've been meaning to say into something real You don't have to have it all figured out before you speak. The people depending on you don't need a finished version of you. They need the honest one. 🔥 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. The window closes faster than you think. • Send it to someone who's still waiting for the right moment to have the hard conversation. • 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 Never Got to Say to Them

  2. Sep 30

    You Already Chose Who You Are Today

    You already chose who you are today. The choice did not happen this morning. It happened in the small moments nobody clapped for. In Episode 4 of First in Mindset, Jay Awal breaks down why identity is not something you declare but something you demonstrate, one quiet choice at a time, and what it actually takes to shift it. There is a gap most people never talk about. The gap between who you say you are and who you actually show up as when no one is watching, when you are tired, when it costs you something. That gap is not a motivation problem. It is not a knowledge problem. It is a choice problem. And the hard part is, every single day you are either closing that gap or widening it. This episode walks through the Hidden Score, a simple framework for reading your own choices honestly. Not to shame yourself into action but to see clearly what your daily decisions are actually adding up to. Because you cannot change a score you refuse to look at. You'll learn: • Why your identity is already being built whether you are intentional about it or not • The difference between the self you perform and the self you practice in private • How to read your own choices like a scorecard instead of a story • Why effort without honesty keeps most people stuck in the same loop • The one shift that separates people who grow from people who just talk about growing You are not behind because life is unfair. You are not stuck because your circumstances are hard. You are exactly where your daily choices have been pointing you. The good news is, those choices are still yours to make. 🔥 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 identity is being shaped by choices you are making right now. • Send it to someone who's still waiting for a sign before they start taking ownership. • 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.

    You Already Chose Who You Are Today

  3. Sep 29

    The Day I Stopped Waiting to Feel Ready

    I had a mugshot at 21. By 28 I had three companies. The gap between those two facts is not talent. It is the one decision I had to make before anything else could move. In Episode 83 of First in Mindset, Jay Awal breaks down the single shift that separates the people who keep waiting from the people who actually build. Here is what most people do. They wait to feel ready. They wait for more confidence, more clarity, more time, more money, more proof that it is going to work. And while they wait, the waiting becomes the habit. It gets easier to stay still. The longer you sit, the more sitting feels normal. And one day you look up and realize the waiting was never about readiness. It was about fear dressed up in reasonable clothing. This episode is about the one thing Jay had to learn the hard way coming out of the lowest point of his life. Not a motivational speech. Not a pep talk. A real principle about how action produces the confidence that waiting never will. Jay walks through a framework called the First Move Test and explains how it works whether you are starting over or just stuck in place. You'll learn: • Why waiting to feel ready keeps you permanently unready • How Jay rebuilt after a real arrest at 21 with no blueprint and no father at home • What the First Move Test is and how to run it on any area of your life where you feel stuck • Why confidence comes after the move, not before it • The one question to ask yourself when fear sounds like wisdom The person you are waiting to become is not going to show up one morning fully formed. You build that person one move at a time, before you are ready, with what you have right now. 🔥 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. Confidence is built by moving, not by studying the move longer. • Send it to someone who's still waiting until the timing feels right • 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 Waiting to Feel Ready

  4. Sep 28

    What Are You Actually Practicing Every Day

    What are you actually practicing every day? Because whatever it is, you're getting better at it. In Episode 82 of First in Mindset, Jay Awal breaks down why your daily habits are not neutral, and what you're quietly becoming through the choices you repeat without thinking. There's a pattern most people never catch. They say they want more focus, more discipline, more of themselves back. But every day they practice the opposite. They practice distraction. They practice delay. They practice shrinking. And they never connect the dots between what they keep doing and who they keep being. The gap between where you are and where you want to go is not a motivation problem. It's a practice problem. This episode digs into one question that can change everything: what am I actually getting better at right now? Jay walks through a simple but uncomfortable framework called the Daily Practice Audit, three areas where your repeated choices are quietly building something, whether you meant them to or not. What you build with your attention. What you build with your time. What you build with your response when things get hard. Every area has a pattern running inside it. The audit is just being honest about what that pattern is. You'll learn: • Why your habits are not just things you do, they are things you are becoming • How to spot the hidden practice running underneath your daily routine • What the Daily Practice Audit is and how to run it on yourself today • Why getting better at the wrong thing is just as powerful as getting better at the right one • How one honest question can redirect the next 90 days of your life You are already in training. The only question is what you are training yourself to be. This episode gives you the tool to find out. 🔥 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. Practice compounds, and so does clarity. • Send it to someone who's still confusing busyness with progress • 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 Practicing Every Day

  5. Sep 25

    The Boring Thing You Keep Skipping Is the Whole Point

    I noticed something this week. The people who say they want a different life are often waiting for a feeling that never comes. In Episode 81 of First in Mindset, Jay Awal digs into why so many people are stuck not because they lack information or talent, but because they keep skipping the dull, invisible work that actually builds a life. There is a pattern that almost everyone falls into. You read the right things. You follow the right people. You know what you are supposed to do. But the boring step, the one with no applause attached to it, keeps getting pushed to tomorrow. And tomorrow keeps arriving empty. The gap between knowing and living is almost always filled with one thing: the unsexy work you decided was not urgent enough to do today. This episode breaks down why your brain is wired to avoid the boring step, what it actually costs you when you keep skipping it, and a simple framework Jay calls the Friction Test. You will walk away with a way to identify exactly which boring thing is blocking your next level, and what to do about it before the week is over. You'll learn: • Why the boring step is almost always the most important one • How your brain confuses comfort with progress • What the Friction Test is and how to use it on yourself right now • Why the people who build real things rarely feel motivated while doing it • How skipping one small unsexy task compounds into a life that stays stuck The thing you keep pushing off is not small. It is the whole point. And the longer you skip it, the more it costs. 🔥 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. The boring step compounds. • Send it to someone who's still waiting to feel ready before they start • 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 Boring Thing You Keep Skipping Is the Whole Point

  6. Sep 15

    You Are Not the First to Carry This

    You've been carrying something that started before you were born. And until someone names it, it just keeps moving. In Episode 77 of First in Legacy, Jay Awal digs into the invisible weight people carry from the generations before them, and what it actually takes to stop passing it forward. There is a pattern most people never examine. The survival habits. The emotional silence. The way money gets handled, or avoided, or feared. The way conflict gets buried until it explodes. These things do not appear from nowhere. They were handed down. And unless someone decides to look at them clearly, they get handed forward again. That is not weakness. That is just what happens when nobody stops to pay attention. This episode is about paying attention. Jay walks through what he calls the Chain Break, a way of looking at what you inherited, deciding what you keep, what you stop, and what you build new. Not as a lecture. As something he is still working through himself. You'll learn: • Why most people pass down patterns they never chose to carry • How to tell the difference between what you inherited and what you actually decided • The Chain Break: a three-part way to examine what you are passing forward right now • Why breaking a generational pattern is not about blaming the people before you • What it looks like to be the person in your family who finally makes a different choice You do not have to be the last one to carry it. But you do have to be the first one to put it down. 🔥 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 run deep. One pass is rarely enough. • Send it to someone who's still carrying something they never chose • 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.

    You Are Not the First to Carry This

  7. Sep 11

    What Did You Actually Leave Running

    What is still working when you stop? If the answer is nothing, that is the thing worth sitting with. In Episode 75 of First in Legacy, Jay Awal gets into the difference between a life that runs on your presence and a life that keeps running after you. Here is the real problem. Most people are building things that only work when they are in the room. The business stops when they stop. The income stops when they stop. The peace at home stops when they stop holding it together by sheer force. That is not a legacy. That is a job with a nice story around it. And the scary part is that most people do not realize they are building that way until something takes them out of the room. A health scare. A forced break. A bad season. And then they look around and see that nothing kept going without them. This episode is about one honest question. Not a list. Not a system with five steps. One question that exposes whether you are building something real or something that lives and dies with your attention. Jay walks through what it actually looks like to build a life that keeps producing, keeps protecting, and keeps pointing people forward even when you are not there to push it. You'll learn: • Why most people are building things that stop the moment they stop • The difference between presence-dependent living and self-running systems • What the people who built before you actually left behind versus what they meant to leave • How to use one honest question to audit your life right now • What it looks like to build something that keeps going after you This is not about being remembered. It is about whether what you built is still feeding people after you are gone. That is the only audit that matters. 🔥 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. What you leave running is what you actually built. • Send it to someone who's still building things that only work when they are in the room. • 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 Did You Actually Leave Running

  8. Sep 10

    The Version of You That Already Existed

    I noticed something this week. The people building the most are not the loudest ones. They are the ones who already decided who they were before anyone was watching. In Episode 74 of First in Legacy, Jay Awal breaks down why legacy does not start with a big decision but with a quiet identity that you carry into every ordinary moment. There is a version of you that the people who come after you will inherit. Not the version you planned to be. The version you actually were on a regular day when nothing was on the line. Most people never think about that version. They are waiting for the right moment to become the person they want to pass down. But that moment is not coming. The person you are becoming right now, in the quiet, is already the inheritance. This episode introduces a simple test Jay calls the Already Test. It is not about what you are working toward. It is about who you already are when no one is keeping score. The answer to that question is what gets passed down. Not your goals. Not your highlight reel. The pattern underneath both. You'll learn: • Why the version of you that shows up on a regular Tuesday is the one that gets inherited • What the Already Test is and how to run it honestly • Why waiting to become someone before building legacy is the most expensive delay you can make • How identity gets absorbed by the people closest to you before you ever say a word • The difference between who you want to be and who you already are, and why that gap is the real work The legacy you leave is not the version of yourself you were trying to build. It is the version you already were. Every single day. 🔥 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. Identity compounds before you notice it. • Send it to someone who's still waiting for the right moment to start becoming who they want to pass down • 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 Version of You That Already Existed
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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

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