At BrilliantRead Media, our aim is to bring to our community some of the finest stories from the startup ecosystem. As part of this endeavour, we invited a passionate entrepreneur – Sneha Sharma for an exclusive interview with us. She is an Entrepreneur, Leader, Coach, Trainer, Speaker, Influencer, Change Enabler, and Mentor. Sneha is the Founder and Director at Dream Career University. Let’s learn more about her exciting journey, her background and her advice for our growing community.
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Sneha:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey, please;
I started my journey in the field of training and confidence building about 12 years back, and today I am an established Career Spotlight Coach. I also, train people in Personal Branding and Public Speaking.
I help students and young professionals in getting the spotlight on them in their careers by helping them build on their strengths and confidence. I help my clients in building their personal brands on LinkedIn and achieve their desired goals. And because, I currently have over 11k+ followers on LinkedIn, and I am a daily content creator I am able to guide people perfectly towards building a brand on LinkedIn that gives the desired results.
The story behind choosing this profession is pretty simple, actually, I hail from an army background thus my childhood was in an environment where personality grooming and etiquette training came naturally. I am a postgraduate in Management and a graduate in science.”
After that, I did a doctorate in Marketing specialising in retailing from the prestigious University Business School, Chandigarh. And all these years I always had an inclination toward mentoring and public speaking. I was an all-rounder student in my school and college. Since childhood, I had always enjoyed mentoring and counselling. While I was doing MBA, my stint with training and mentoring got more solid. And I realized that I have the skills where I am able to help people in building their confidence, especially during team projects.
After completing my MBA I joined as a Full-Time Faculty in Business Communication and started grooming and training young minds right from the start.”
I am a firm believer that skills can be developed and inculcated. And being a student who transitioned from science to social science graduate, I can very well relate to the transitions that students face these days thus in 2018 I started working as an independent consultant and Coach, started helping students get career clarity and get their dream job.
What made you passionate about ‘Training and Coaching’?
I had always enjoyed helping people learn, whether it was my classmates or juniors. I was always complimented for a crisp and easy-to-understand approach towards solving their questions.
I love talking to students and helping them explore their career opportunities and motivating them. My career has also witnessed big transitions from a degree in science to management and then training. So, I connect well with the majority of the students, and I am able to guide and motivate them.”
And the reason why I am passionate towards what I do is because I feel I am able to empower people with what I do. I build them and groom them for their life. And this is a very satisfying feeling.
‘Dream Career University’ 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?
Dream Career University is my dream of fulfilling the dreams of 1000000 individuals in building their dream careers. I am helping young minds get their dream jobs in the industry. Career transition is a big issue these days and students are facing lots of problems in getting jobs.
I help students by making them realize their true potential, building their confidence, sharpening their strengths and then choosing the right career path. We then use a goal setting blueprint which makes their dream career a reality.”
And to make sure they are well prepared I also train them in using LinkedIn as a Personal Branding tool along with preparing for the Personal Interview, Confident Public Speaking and creating a five-star resume. And I am proud that with this approach students are getting great results.
How do you manage to keep going despite the challenges? What drives you?
Challenges are a part of life. And being an entrepreneur challenges becomes a daily routine. I believe that Entrepreneurship is a mindset. Although my journey of full-time entrepreneurship started just 4 years back, I have been an entrepreneur since the early days of my career.
And I believe being an entrepreneur is more about the ability to take a risk, give your 100 percent effort, produce extraordinary results and manage things with excellent coordination. Bringing clarity in the life and career of my students is my biggest drive towards working more.
Who do you believe has been the biggest source of motivation in your daily life?
I follow the concept of Robert Byrne: “The purpose of life is a life of purpose”. And I think I have truly got my purpose.
My purpose of impacting the lives of hundreds of thousands of students in building better careers for themselves gives me a kick every morning.
As a founder of a start-up that contributes to this purpose is like a blessing.
When you can do what you really want to do, Life becomes a bliss. And that is the reason I install my students in finding their purpose. Finding themselves a career that they love, they are good at, they can earn and add value to the world.”
What are some of the strategies that you believe have helped you grow as a person?
I believe in the power of mind over matter. I believe we all create our life , every single moment as an outcome of what we had asked for in the past. So this brings the ownership of all my actions on me.
And when you take ownership of your actions you are much sorted as then instead of feeling like a victim of circumstances or playing a blame game you take responsibility. And thus take responsible actions. You become goal and value-oriented.
Also, I believe in the concept of being your own biggest competitor. This helps me refine each day even more. And I think to improve each day and become a better version of ourselves is the goal of this life.
And lastly, Gratitude is what has the strongest Power. So being grateful for everything that I have is what I practice each day and urge each one to do. Having an attitude of gratitude Changes the whole path of life. Life is beautiful and with gratitude, it becomes even more joyful.
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
I think for me this positivity and motivation come as an outcome of taking ownership of your life. And to keep myself in this mode I rigorously read books or listen to books on audible, I meditate and Play Golf.
I really think everyone should play one game that they love the most. For me I enjoy playing Golf. I have got most of my difficult answers while playing golf and that too alone at times. That’s the beauty of a game. It relaxes you and connects you to your inner self. Having a game to relax upon is something that saves every entrepreneur from the stress and the pressure that comes at times.
The only mantra I follow is being goal-oriented, and by this, I mean daily goal orientation. As this process organizes everything, saves time, enhances efficiency and protects us from the feeling of being overwhelmed as well.
Also, I have a 4+ year-old daughter and I just love playing and learning with her. Kids teach you more than what you could learn in a lifetime reading books. They teach you how to be patient, how to ask, how to be fearless, how to be happy on every smallest possible thing. So yes, like I said, life is indeed beautiful.
In your opinion, what are the keys to success?
Well success to me means taking ownership of your actions. Not being a victim of external circumstances so keys to success are Consistent efforts, competing with yourself and being grateful for everything that you have.”
This helps you keep in the energy and vibration of joy and peace and you can achieve anything and everything you desire.
What advice would you give students and young professionals who want to have a successful career?
I believe self-faith and networking are two of the most crucial aspects for achieving the desired success in our careers. So I would request everyone to build their personal brand on a platform that they relate with and see opportunities based on their career choice and network.
I use LinkedIn for my growth, I have over 11K+ following and have received numerous opportunities from this platform. So building a personal brand has become very crucial.
Also, my last piece of advice to college graduates or professionals whether looking for a job or entrepreneurship is just to stay away from shiny object syndrome. It is basically the tendency for someone to chase something new, it can be an idea, trend or goal.
Instead of falling prey to this, they must focus on what they are doing and believe in themselves and their vision. Like I always say dots will connect.
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.
