[av_heading heading=’#115. Highly Lucrative, Impactful Ways to Monetize Your Language Skills That You’ve Never Heard About with Stuart Jay Raj’ tag=’h1′ link_apply=” link=’manually,http://’ link_target=” style=” size=” subheading_active=” subheading_size=’15’ margin=” margin_sync=’true’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” av_uid=’av-kqw0qvzd’ admin_preview_bg=”][/av_heading]
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Language mastery has taken Stuart Jay Raj into many corners of Asia and facets of business. He’s worked in diverse areas from facilitation and interpreting to helping Western firms succeed in the East.
In 2013 he began to share his knowledge online by offering a suite of products on his website, Jcademy.
Now that the pandemic has accelerated learning online and Jay’s found new ways to communicate with his audience. So, he’s excited to share his latest venture, Mindkraft, with a growing community of passionate, online learners.
What you’ll learn in this interview:
- How languages have opened many doors in Stuart Jay Raj’s career
- Using the Discord platform to build community and deliver information
- Some ways Jay has adapted to changing circumstances and audiences in his business.
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Stuart Jay Raj has an impressive set of jobs and skills in his portfolio. He’s fluent in Indonesian, Thai, Mandarin, Danish and speaks 15 languages altogether. Together they’ve helped him to develop business acumen and facilitation skills in many industries.
Jay’s always been busy. As a university student, he worked in Indonesian tourism and as a flight attendant. He worked as an interpreter and even hosted a Thai TV show.
Translation was always part of his core repertoire. But Jay, as he’s known in Asia, soon found that it opened other doors. He worked for international companies and the United Nations. That gave him an invaluable understanding of trade, industry and business. Then, he seized an opportunity to become accredited as a Dale Carnegie trainer. That added presentation and business skills to his repertoire.
Jay noticed how difficult it was for people to learn when they had to work through interpreters. When he suggested to Pepsi that he should conduct the programmes himself in Thai, they jumped at the idea. Soon other local languages followed.
Later still, he worked with the Miss Universe Pageant and Herbalife. He joined the Foreign Correspondents Club board, and rescued victims of people-smuggling gangs. Everything added to his diverse skill set.
Beginning the Mindkraft Journey
Three years ago, a friend asked Jay to teach her eleven-year-old son some of his many skills. The boy soaked up everything offered, from Jazz piano to coding. Jay was so impressed that he decided to extend into teaching other children too.
Down the road was VERSO, a progressive international school. Jay worked with students and teachers there to develop the programme that eventually became Mindkraft.
Jay’s business teaches people to learn languages by first working on their brains. His methods help them optimise their brain state and mental recall abilities. But Jay also believes that the future of learning is in data. So, Mindkraft also offers an impressive set of data and tech skills. Students learn everything from coding in Linux to open-source intelligence gathering.
The courses and methods appeal to many people. Students are military attachés and retirees. MIT graduates and old-school Com experts. Learners are young, old and come from all corners of the world. What they share is a passion for learning and a serious commitment to push their brains to the limit.
Jay is clear on who he does and doesn’t want to attract.
“You can see mind-blowing conversations in there. It’s like a family. People are supportive no matter the level and excited to see others learn. And if you’re a troll… don’t come in.”
He’s also clearly enthusiastic about Discord, the platform he uses to host his Mindkraft community.
What is Discord?
Discord is a video, text and voice chat app used to communicate with individuals and groups on any device. It’s free but has a premium version called Nitro which offers extra perks and abilities.
Communities on Discord are called servers. These are organised into text and voice channels, usually dedicated to specific topics. Most servers are private, invitation-only spaces used for friends or colleagues to communicate. However, others include large groups, and some are public servers that anyone is free to join.
How does Mindkraft use Discord?
Mindkraft has built a thriving community on Discord, using servers that deliver free and premium content.
The general discussion channel is free. Anyone can request an invitation to join by scanning the QR code on the Mindkraft website. There’s a paid membership for those who want to join the discussions on multiple topic-specific channels.
There are voice and coaching and language-specific channels. Then come others: Morse Code, Sign Language, coding and more. There’s even a book club server where members share lessons from their favourite books.
Finally, learners can join Mindkraft’s premium programme. The course lives on Mindkraft’s website but includes weekly coaching sessions and projects on Discord.
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Adapt a core product for new audiences
Jay firmly believes that businesses and schools must allow people to get together. But, he says that the Covid pandemic has accelerated the online learning process. Schools and businesses have had to take their lessons and training programmes online.
Many businesses would love to train their teams in Mindkraft. Jay is planning to create specialist versions of the course aimed at corporate teams. He can see massive benefits to sales teams, for example. Imagine how intelligence gathering skills would help them to gather data to build lists of potential clients.
Recognise when you need to change or pivot
Jay has seized every opportunity to learn and expand his skills over the years. Sometimes change comes by choice. But at other times he’s had to recognise when it makes sense to change.
Jcademy.com was originally designed to be a digital host platform like Google Schools and Thinkific. But, soon became clear that Jcademy couldn’t compete with the digital giants. So Jay decided to use it to house his own suite of content and products instead.
Mindkraft, too, began as something different. First it was a one-on-one programme then extended into an in-school offering. When Covid hit, Jay pivoted again. At first, he taught his Mindkraft students through Zoom. It made sense to record the sessions which now form part of the evergreen Mindkraft product. Jay’s excited by the potential of the community and by his students’ results.
“I’m just loving it. And I really hope that I can keep this going and make it sustain itself because I’m having a blast creating the content and seeing people grow and that people are getting new leases on a whole range of skill areas that they never thought that they’d ever do in their lifetime.”
Contact Stuart Jay Raj
YouTube: Stuart Jay Raj
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