At BrilliantRead Media, our aim is to bring to our community some of the unique and compelling stories from the start-up ecosystem. As part of this endeavour, we invited yet another passionate woman entrepreneur – Payal Irani for an exclusive interview with us. She is a Core Transformer, Therapist, Speaker, Author and the Founder and CEO of BLOOM. Let’s learn more about her inspirational journey and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Payal:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as a women entrepreneur, please;
I was born and brought up in Mumbai. I had my schooling and college education in Mumbai. After my graduation, I went to Switzerland for a year and then to London for four years for higher studies.
Apart from studying in London, I also got opportunities to work in different roles and segments. This has helped a great deal in widening my horizons and has also given me ideas on shaping my life.
Coming back to India, I have upgraded myself. After doing a 250 hours Master Diploma in Training and Development, I did a boot camp in Communication from an Australia based firm. Finding it useful, I have enrolled in their advanced course. Here I am being mentored by a world authority in Communication. In between, I did an exhaustive course in Psycho-Geometrics. This has helped me in analysing people and be able to predict their probable behaviour in a given set of circumstances.
While pursuing the above courses, the seed of an idea came to incubate a firm. In collaboration with like-minded people whom I met while doing the above courses, I founded Bloom. Thus, I started my new journey.
What attracts you towards entrepreneurship instead of a corporate career?
Opportunities for a Corporate career did open up. But I did not find them exciting. If I had taken up a position in the corporate world, I would be restricted within the role’s confines with little scope for personal innovation.
But with Entrepreneurship, the world would be my playground. I could give wings to my dreams. That is what I am doing with the incubation of Bloom.
‘Bloom’ is such a unique name; talk us through more about it, please. Our audience would also love to know what kind of problem you are solving with the help of your start-up?
Thank you for appreciating the name, Bloom.
It took a long time to zero in on the name that would be the vehicle for exposing to the world my dream.
Bloom was started in September 2020. The idea is for it to be a centre for excellence in education, training, and development.
We feel there is a dearth of quality trainers who have practical experience in their field. For example, we see some young people who claim they are parenting coaches.
Even before they have become parents, they claim they have the tools of good parenting. Downloading data from the Net or borrowing ideas from books doesn’t make great parenting coaches. Only someone who has experienced parenthood’s pangs can bring to the table practical experience to deliver high-quality training.
Taking this pattern of thinking, Bloom proposes to have domain experts who have practical experience at the field level to curate and deliver high-quality training that will be rich in content and addressing pain points from personal experiences.
What are the areas Bloom intends to make its presence felt?
We are positioning Bloom as a centre for Excellence in Education, Training, Development.
Bloom has commenced with a series of Talk Shows. Presently there are free sessions. In the future, we will be bringing domain experts who will provide value for money sessions on a wide range of topics. These sessions are expected to provide tangible take away and positive results for participants.
Plans are also on the anvil for starting coaching sessions for teaching the skills of Writing and Speaking to pre-teens and teenagers.
Once we are established, we also plan to foray into Research. I will talk about this aspect in detail some other time.
Can you please talk a bit more on the Talk shows of Bloom which has created waves?
We started the Talkshow series on 6th September 2020. Proud to say we have had an uninterrupted run to hosting this show every Sunday. This 90 odd minutes session has seen guests from around the world.
One of the guests was four times Olympian who has represented two different countries. She was even the flag bearer of her country’s contingent in the last summer Olympics at Rio in 2016. Some other guests included a Supreme Court lawyer. A Super Model has also graced the show.
The hosts of the Show, Premraj V Kalapadan and Deepak R Khemani, have developed a fan following for their conduct of the talk shows. Both these gentlemen are on their way to becoming brands in themselves.
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
Bloom was incubated and launched at the height of the COVID-19 crisis. It is a child of the pandemic.
Since its inception, we have been online. Our talk shows and panel discussions have all been online. We are steadily building a database of people whom we have impacted.
The core team of Bloom is Mumbai based who have known each other for some time. We conduct our meetings and brainstorming sessions virtually.
Till now, we have ensured our business is online and tech-enabled. This will help in the future to provide automation.
Please share with us – what has worked well for you so far?
I am the Founder of Bloom. I am the youngest member of the team in terms of age. The team I have hand-picked has gelled so well that we are on the way to being looked as a Brand in a short span of less than four months. I take decisions after bouncing off ideas with the core team.
This would not have happened without co-creation and collaboration. I am proud of my team
What are the business mantras you have embraced as you sought to establish your success story?
Collaboration and co-creation are the keys. Getting like-minded people in the team, brainstorming ideas, and taking it forward toward fulfilment has seen Bloom attain success.
How do you manage yourself and keep on going despite the challenges? What drives you?
I am a self-driven person. If I make up my mind on accomplishing anything, I work towards it with single-minded devotion. For Bloom, I had to pick a team to assist me in my dream. It was after a great deal of thought I zeroed in on the team.
Once I zeroed in on the team, when I approached them, it was surprising all of them agreed to team up without asking any questions. I am the youngest of the lot. But that has not made any difference as we have gelled and collaborated beautifully.
I empower the right people for excellent work according to their aptitude. This way, I do not feel overburdened with work that leads to stress. To see these senior members of the teamwork without having to be given directions fascinates me.
I am learning a lot from these senior professionals.
In your opinion – what is more necessary: Idea or a good team for a successful start-up?
It has to be a judicious mix of both. An idea without a good team will be stillborn. In the Corporate world, we have seen some great ideas which did not take off due to lack of a good team or teamwork. Later on, when the same idea was floated by someone else with a well-gelled team, it has taken off.
The Core team we have has worked well as a team, due to which we see success. If anyone has an idea, it gets debated, and after arriving at a consensus, we take it forward.
What are the three most important lessons you have learned building your start-up?
1 – Have an IDEA that can bloom.
2 – Create a TEAM of like-minded people who can take the idea forward.
3 – COLLABORATION with a team of like-minded individuals will help create a Brand that will make waves
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
I believe in myself. This self-belief has fuelled my work. I am a positive person looking for opportunities. Coupled with the dream team I have built around me, I stay motivated and build up a brand.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring women entrepreneur?
Be aware of your strengths. Play to your strengths. Everyone has different strengths. Carve something around your strengths and create opportunities around them.
There might be times when success may not come immediately. At these times, don’t be fazed by self-doubts. Analyze what went wrong and what went right. Draw lessons from what went wrong. These learnings to be incorporated in the next venture.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
