Artist Profile: Jay Shetty On Meaningful Conversations and the ‘On Purpose Live Tour’

Think about the people in your life to whom you might go to for advice. A friend. An author that you love. Your favorite podcast host. A life coach. A monk. Well, Jay Shetty is all of these things. And he has some incredible advice to share.

After graduating from Cass Business School in London at the age of 22, Shetty became a monk for three years, traveling across India and the UK to practice hours of meditation each day and enrich the purpose of his own life. Now, he helps others find their purpose.

You might know Shetty as the author of New York Times bestselling books “Think Like a Monk” and “8 Rules of Love.” You might also know Shetty as a life coach, the founder of the Jay Shetty Certification School, and the Chief Purpose Officer of Calm, a mindfulness and meditation app.

Shetty may be most widely known as the host of the hit podcast “On Purpose with Jay Shetty.” The platform was started in 2019 to share Shetty’s personal insights, as well as his interviews with guests ranging from Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey to President Joe Biden and Kobe Bryant. The podcast demonstrates that everyone has a story and a purpose worth sharing with the world and provides these insights to listeners — and, now, audience members.

Shetty recently announced his new tour, the “On Purpose Live Tour with Jay Shetty,” which covers 15 different cities, including Boston on May 15 at the Boch Center Wang Theatre. The tour features live interviews, surprise guests, and even an in-person meditation led by Shetty for all attendees.

In an interview with The Crimson, Shetty shared that, although he often reaches people through his books and podcast episodes, his favorite form of connection is in-person and with audience members.

“I started my career with live in-person events, and when I say events, I mean like two people showing up. But I’ve spent hours and hours and hours in rooms full of five, 10, 15, 20 people,” said Shetty. “The energy and the connection and the spirit that you experience in person are just incomparable.”

The podcast host quickly turned those rooms filled with a handful of people into audiences of thousands. Shetty’s podcast is extremely successful, from the traditional metrics of downloads and chart rankings — his platform ranked in the top five most popular podcasts on Spotify globally in 2023 and has about 35 million downloads per month.

Many podcasts feature interviews; few feature conversations. Shetty — through his intention to create a safe emotional environment for guests where they feel comfortable sharing their true selves — offers listeners a real conversation instead of a rehearsed interview.

So what creates a meaningful interaction, one where someone can share their truth? While most people are never formally taught in school how to have a conversation, Shetty outlines a framework that helps create true connection.

One of the principles that Shetty follows is that he never focuses on buzzword-ridden questions and short-form interview content — often prized in our social media-dominated culture.

“I want to ask the least gossip-y questions and the least clickbait-y questions and get the same views as everyone else who asks the easy questions,” Shetty said. “I try and challenge myself to always live by that — to not wanting to exploit someone or take advantage of someone. And I think that’s what makes people safe. I don’t want anything from them. I just want them to be able to share their truth, and I think that creates a genuine, safe environment.”

Shetty also prepares for a thoughtful interview by recording his podcast episodes in his home, if possible, to bring comfort to each guest. In addition to the recorded conversations that listeners hear, Shetty also prioritizes connecting with each guest off record.

“I set an intention before we start recording, and this is something I never share publicly. I only share with the guests. It’s never recorded. It’s only said in the room, and it will always stay that way — because I think it creates a really sacred connection before you dive into an interview to set an intention,” Shetty said.

Shetty shares that the best framework for an interview is really to have no framework at all — to completely follow the emotions and topics brought up by oneself and the other person.

“When I started, I really felt that everything had to be chronological and that everything had to make sense for the audience in order of how it flowed. And I think today I’m far more intuitive in that I feel it’s not like there’s an outline I’m trying to follow. I’m actually following my curiosity, inquisitiveness, and intuition, instead of trying to follow a predetermined arc,” said Shetty. “I think that flexibility allows me to have a more real, authentic conversation for that moment, for that person. I also used to believe, in the past, there was a perfect interview, and now I realize there’s only a unique and original interview.”

Shetty plans to bring this same level of care and authenticity for himself, his guests on stage, and his guests in the audience to his upcoming tour.

Just as with his podcast, there is a large amount of intention and preparation that Shetty has put into creating a unique experience for each of the venues on his 15-city tour.

Much of this preparation has to do with his stage presence and confidence in front of thousands of in-person listeners. When asked about his confidence, Shetty reflected that this attribute is a product of hours of preparation and purpose that he puts into each event, each interview, and each conversation.

To curate this tour, he spent hours listening to audience reviews and feedback. He practices breathing exercises to slow down his heart rate and calm any nerves before going on stage. He sometimes fasts on the day of each performance for mental clarity. He looks up pictures of venues so that he can visualize himself walking out on stage and speaking to each audience. The effortlessness of each of his interviews and live events, in other words, comes from an incredible, invisible amount of effort — an incredible amount of purpose.

“Anyone who’s confident in public is doing challenging things in private,” said Shetty. “Confidence doesn’t come from just a belief or a natural sense. It comes from having done hard things.”

Shetty was quick to note that possessing the skill of confidence doesn’t prevent the inevitable nervousness he feels before stepping out in front of an audience. However, Shetty refreshingly framed nervousness not as a detriment to — but actually a marker of — one’s strong character.

“Before I go on stage, I’m always nervous, but I see it as excitement. I get nervous when I care, and so I see it as a beautiful thing. If I’m not nervous, it means I don't care. If I’m nervous, it means I care. And that’s been a great reframe for me,” said Shetty.

While he uses this reframe before greeting his thousands of audience members now, Shetty once approached his nervousness when he was figuring out what to do with his life. He shared that making the decision as a 22-year-old to become a monk for three years after going to school was one of the most profound experiences of nervousness and uncertainty that he has ever had.

“It felt like the hardest decision at the time, because all my friends and family couldn't understand why I’d possibly want to give up my career and everything to go and do that,” Shetty said.

He reminds us that the question of purpose — your purpose — can be answered by one person and one person only, despite how easy it is to pay attention to the opinions and advice of others.

“Don’t be afraid to follow your curiosity and your intuition and your purpose and that which is calling to you at this moment, and stop caring so much about what everyone thinks about your decision,” said Shetty. “Try and make unpopular decisions, because that’s what’s going to make you happy for the rest of your life: making unpopular decisions. If you make popular decisions, it may not be what your purpose is.”

Be unpopular. Confidence comes from discomfort. There is no perfect conversation: only an original one.

These are just some of the mantras and pieces of advice that Shetty offers for listeners to best direct themselves on their unique, individual life path. While Shetty has over 50 million followers across all of his platforms, he asks that you are a follower not of him, but of yourself. A follower of your intuition, needs, and aspirations. A follower of your purpose.

—Staff writer Sarah M. Rojas can be reached at sarah.rojas@thecrimson.com.