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 entrepreneur – Pooja Dubey for an exclusive interview with us. She is a Coach, Storyteller, Author, Trainer and Founder & CEO of Global Writers Academy. Let’s learn more about her inspirational journey and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Pooja:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as a women entrepreneur/trainer, please;
When I was a kid, I loved telling stories and this love was never lost, though shadowed by other responsibilities. When I was studying, storytelling was not a career. Also, I did not know anything about making a career in writing so I followed the standard path that family suggested. I did engineering, MBA and then took up a job in Mumbai with an MNC that was into glass manufacturing. While on the professional side, I was doing well and had two raises in 18 months, the experience also exposed me to my passion areas that were hidden.
With the independence I got from my first job, I also gained the courage to explore new things. ‘The first two years of my career were pure exploration’. I discovered the concept of blogging so I started with my own blog where I would write stories. But writing was not the only thing that attracted me. I wanted to learn everything. I learnt photography, VBA programming, data analytics, research, website development, animation, graphic designing, and even explored subjects like palmistry, hypnosis, and psychology.”
By the second year, I had some crazy changes in my personal life that pushed me to the edge and I had a change of not just my career but also of my goals. I switched from marketing to business development. It was more of a challenge for a person who thought could never do sales but I wanted to learn. It was at HCL where I truly enjoyed the freedom of decision making as my boss was a very encouraging person who allowed me to explore possibilities by getting into research, data analytics, event management, and training, even when they were not the part of my profile.
I developed an interest in business and in the two next years, met like-minded people and made a lot of professional friends. It was the year 2010 when I discovered the concept of freelancing. It did not take long before I decided to quit my job to try it and by 2011, I became a freelance writer and researcher. While trying to build a new career, I was also exploring other avenues like e-commerce, photography, and training.
In 2013, I launched a digital magazine for women entrepreneurs and created a new website to launch my business of writing. Since then, I have grown vastly in the writing, content, and branding space turning from a freelance content writer to a professional with a more diversified portfolio of academic, technical, creative and business writing, copywriting, editing, book writing, strategy, content planning, branding, website development, and marketing. Today, I have four key business areas – Personal branding, training, strategy, and development.
As a professional, I feel that my major contribution is into the space of B2B marketing and learning. I assist SMEs in not just the development of content but I also provide them with a complete solution that covers the entire portfolio of sales and marketing.
Once I am boarding their corporate ship, they can depend on me for more than 80% of their marketing work including brand identification, strategy development, website content, marketing content, employee training, and more directly or through my associations with value partners.”
I am also a coach for aspiring writers, entrepreneurs, and professionals with a single aim to help them create a strong brand presence in the digital space through personal branding and content marketing.
“My contribution hereafter would be through the completion of my mission to create 100,000 personal brands by 2025.”
What attracts you towards entrepreneurship instead of a corporate career?
I have been into both ships and both have their own perks as well as challenges. While being in corporate keeps you less worried about money and less accountable with the development of an organization as you are mostly focused on one profile at the start, it does demand immense involvement as you grow up the corporate ladder.
What is most challenging in the corporate environment is the inability to take creative decisions which I enjoy as an entrepreneur. Being an entrepreneur is stimulating as you have to play multiple profiles and be a one-man company when beginning your journey. “The perk is the immense satisfaction that you get from having something of your own.”
Also, the freedom to decide on where to invest, what strategy to use, what clients to choose, and what processes to follow is what I can never get in the corporate world.
Being a creative person, the freedom of thoughts and decision making matter a lot to me. Also, I want to grow to do something I love to do so I do not feel the stress of work. I am happy for I have achieved the level where everything I am doing as work is actually chosen by me for the simple reason of my love for it. I do not just choose the strategies for my own marketing but also for the clients, industries and projects I work for. This freedom allowed me to explore the learner within me and take more than 100 courses for learning, create a community of learners in the online space where I could experiment with topics and programs, create my own personal brand as an author, writer, and coach, and have the capability to come up with really unique services that were non-existent earlier.
Entrepreneurship is like a roller coaster ride that comes with exciting discoveries every day and that is the reason, I can never leave it.
‘Global Writers Academy’ 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 startup?
Global Writers Academy began with the idea of filling the skill gap in writers who work in the B2B space. I have assisted 100+ organizations on content development projects in the B2B space and have discovered a huge gap in the capabilities that writers have to offer. While some writers do offer great services, they are very few in numbers which is why for writers, the scope of development is huge. However, for SMEs, hiring high-quality writers was a big challenge – first, because of the high cost involved and second, because they were not sure of the results they would get.
While most writers worked on the basis of given topics, rarely would a writer offer them strategic guidance to ensure not just development but also assure success from the content. I filled that gap which helped me acquire many clients. However, I found that very few writers had the capability to understand the strategy, branding, business, and content, all at the same time.
So, I developed courses based on my own experiences and the wealth of knowledge I gained from the courses I took to create. However, finding a true passion for writing was not just difficult for the organizations I served but even for me. Finding writers to cover B2C or C2C space was much easier than covering B2B arena in which I specialize. And finding passionate learners was becoming a challenge for me.
So, I began experimenting through my workshops and did a need analysis of learners, professionals, and organizations. My discoveries facilitated a new plan and I added personal branding as a big offer from GWA. While the development in the personal branding space was only recent and GWA is hardly a few months old into space, I can proudly say that it has already contributed to personal brand development for more than 15 professionals in different ways through workshops, personalized assistance, and one-on-one coaching.
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
COVID was actually not a challenge for me as it created an environment that was conducive to my business as I am in the online space. This year, I have grown my clientele multi-fold. In the past 8 months, I have acquired 25 new clients and have taken or organized over 100 hours of sessions attended by 1000+ professionals including entrepreneurs, writers, trainers, and working professionals.
How do you manage yourself and keep on going despite the challenges? What drives you?
I am driven by dreams. I have always been like that. No matter what life throws at me, I am always ready to play the game and bounce back. Balancing personal life with business is tough but at the same time, if I am the one who dreamed, I am the one who is responsible for my own life then, challenges are not the shockers but the opportunities for me to learn and grow. In fact, I have created my own challenges by making specific choices.
In fact, I love challenges because they test my limits and by the way of doing that, they actually push me to grow beyond. Life is like an exciting game where every new month comes with a new level of challenge and if I can cross that, I am sure to grow up and I will keep growing till I achieve everything I have dreamt about. And I have so many dreams that this journey will never end.
Given the rapid pace at which the world is changing, what are the leadership traits that are necessary for success?
These traits are what I have learnt from my own experiences and my discussions with leaders and coaches –
1) The aura of leadership has to be carried everywhere and in every action. Your energy, your expressions, and your voice are always heard and support people’s judgements about you.
2) Leadership is more about how to make people do things and less about your own capabilities to do things but if you lead by example by showing them first that you can do it, the followers are assured
3) Leadership is reflected more in resolutions than delegations and most resolutions are related to people and the conflicts between them so a leader must be a master of conflict resolution and problem-solving.
What are the business mantras you have embraced as you sought to establish your success story?
My business mantras are –
1) Know the nerve of your market and understand the real pains of your customers or prospects because it is only and only the pain that they are unable to get out which makes you important in their lives if you can help them solve their problems.
2) Align not your consumers to your business ideas but your business to their needs and desires because that is when you can innovate and come up with products and solutions that will truly add value to your customers.
3) Learning is one skill that can beat all other skills so never leave an opportunity to learn or help others learn. Learn not just about your trade but also about self-management, leadership, and people management.
In your opinion – what is more necessary: Idea or a good team for a successful startup?
The idea is no doubt important but the idea only works when we have a strong team to create possibilities. Even simple ideas have become millionaire habits with the right minds engaged. Organizations like Oyo and Zomato have taken shape starting with the simple ideas of adding convenience in the lives of consumers.
A great idea at the start is idle but with the power of an aspiring mind, it can become ideal so in my opinion, team, even if it is one person, is what is most important.
What are the three most important lessons you have learned building your startup?
I’ve learned a lot from my work life and being a voracious learner, every day is new learning for me. However, success doesn’t lie in learning but in applying what you have learnt so the first most important lesson I would want to give is ‘Do not learn to just gather information but learn to create a knowledge that you can apply’.
The second valuable lesson is one I have heard from many coaches and leaders, yet, it is one most challenging to follow – Respect people including your customers, employees, partners, and prospects which should reflect in every action you take. If your customer has come to you because of lack of time then consuming time in long discussions, delays, and bouncing of balls in their courts would not serve the purpose. Respect your customer for being human, being professional, being an expert, and offer convenience.
The third advice that I want to give is if there is an activity that you are required to do but is not the core of your business, outsource it immediately if it can positively or negatively affect your business.
Please share with us – what has worked well for you so far?
Trust is what has worked for me so far. My clients remain with me because they trust my capabilities and I was able to develop this trust because I first trusted myself.
It begins with the trust that you can do it and only then, you work towards convincing others that you can do it by the way of persuasion, demonstration, or negotiation.
Believe in your best, leave the rest to others for worrying.
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
I enjoy my work and I know that everything I do on any day of my life is actually making me either grow or become a better person. I don’t want to remain just one person living on this earth but I want to grow beyond. I want to make a contribution to the world with my ideas and have my name ingrained in the minds of the people.
I am inspired by stories of people who have dominated minds for centuries and are still doing. Who would ever forget Freud, Einstein, or Shakespeare? I believe I am born to bring a revolution and create a legacy and that is what keeps me going and growing.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring women entrepreneur?
In 2013, I started with a magazine on women entrepreneurs in India and in the first year, I interviewed 24 women entrepreneurs from different industries. The magazine was later discontinued for my team was dissolved but the impressions that these women had on me lasted much longer and I did not remain just a writer but grew my horizon.
At that time, I connected with 200+ women with an aspiration to tell their stories. Many of these women have grown big in their respective business spaces and are still connected to me. So, I would give a few points based on not just my own experience but also from the knowledge that was created through my interactions with them
a) You need to first deny the gender difference created by society and be willing to do everything and walk every path that an entrepreneur needs to take.
b) Women are usually engrossed with family responsibilities of kids and relatives which keeps them holding on to their cocoons and never grow beyond. If you truly want to become an entrepreneur, you have to convert your family into your strength and not remain your weakness. Start by negotiating time for your dreams with them.
c) One major reason why people do not barge head-on in the entrepreneurship journey is that they do not believe that they have the capability. When I was younger, I did not even have to capacity to speak in English and I was the laughter stalk for everyone when I spoke because I hardly did and when I did, my voice would wave with shivers. If I can grow from being that timid youngster to a woman who fears nothing, I know this is something possible for every woman and as a part of my woman empowerment drive, I came up with many more such stories of women rising up despite limitations and adversities. Start with self-belief and have the courage to make a difference, first, in your life and then, on others.
d) The last but a bit of important advice is that if you do not know how to do something, be willing to learn and if you really want to speed up your journey, do not rely just on self-experiments but talk to those who are already where you want to be and learn from them.
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.
