At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring to our community some of the finest stories from the entrepreneurship world. As part of this endeavour, we invited a passionate entrepreneur – Sukhdeep for an exclusive interview with us. Sukhdeep is an Entrepreneur, Leader, Trainer, Coach and Mentor. She is the Founder of Corporate Hub. Let’s learn more about her inspiring journey, her background and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Sukhdeep:
Talk us through your background and your journey, please;
An MBA (HR) graduate, I started my professional career from the City beautiful Chandigarh in the year 2011.
I had been working in the IT industry for 10 long years as HR Generalist and Recruitment Specialist along with heading the Training & Development department. My decade long experience in the field of HR and Training helped me understand the challenges faced by the working professionals.”
Being in the IT industry, furthermore helped me understand technicalities, Project Management, Client Communication and on top of that need of the hour – “Soft Skills” and this paved the way for becoming a Communication and Soft Skills Trainer.
I started my entrepreneurial journey in the year 2020 and started my own venture- “Corporate Hub” with the tagline – “Step towards Professional growth.”
The journey of Corporate Hub started with just one student and one small room in Chandigarh. Today Corporate Hub has its own office, working on PAN India level, online presence on Social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and gained (16) Sixteen Thousand plus connections over one of the most prominent professional networks- “LINKEDIN”.
We have a team of professionals working behind the scenes. We also have onboard an IT Skills Trainer with 15+ certifications including Google and Microsoft, with 10 years of experience in the K-12 Education Industry.
Association with “Google Educator Group – Mohali” is a matter of pride for us.
Our Trainees do feel fantastic when they get a chance to learn new features of Word, PowerPoint, Advanced Excel Formulas or updates about Google Workplace Tools (Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, etc.)
As of now, I have already got a chance to work with professionals from Big Giants or MNC’S like Bebo Technologies, Seasia, Smart data and many more.
Now it’s high time to move ahead and touch international boundaries, either in the form of helping overseas working Professionals or with Corporate Clients.
Being the Founder of Corporate Hub, I always dream of making this journey more beautiful by adding value to Corporate Professionals and Graduates who do not have enough exposure and skills to crack any interview. I would like to use my skills to nourish such young minds and help them kick start their career.”
What made you passionate about ‘Training’?
During my journey as an HR manager, I found many working professionals suffered a lot, despite having subject matter expertise. Some of them were not able to crack interviews due to a lack of confidence. While others were facing challenges during Client Communications.
Understanding foreign accents, presenting before teammates, writing a business E-mail and heading a meeting was always the biggest obstacle in their journey.
This made me so passionate about Training that if I had that talent of mentioning them and showing the roadmap to their career growth, I would feel myself lucky.
Helping others is like food for my soul. I feel honoured to work on specific requirements of working professionals and freshers and this way they get the right path to change, what was holding them back.”
‘Corporate Hub’ 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?
Corporate Hub stands for Hub(place) for Corporate Professionals or young minds who want to start their career with Corporates.
We at Corporate Hub, work on Communication skills, Soft Skills, Public Speaking, Interview Preparation and Confidence Building of working professionals.”
These Training helps them in the areas where they lack Confidence for Client Communication, dealing with nervousness while interacting at their workplace, speaking in Public, cracking the interviews, getting the desired salary hike or even promotion.
Apart from this, we also empower them with Digital knowledge like Word, PowerPoint, Advance excel, Advanced features of Google Doc, Google Slides, Sheets etc.
How do you manage to keep going despite the challenges? What drives you?
Challenges are part of the journey to reach goals. I always learn from my failures and believe in consistency.
Entrepreneurial life can seem like Mount Everest, beautiful but difficult to achieve. Just take one step at a time and make small, easily attainable goals for yourself, you’ll feel much more successful and confident that way.”
If you ask about, what drives me –
The answer is quite simple, I always keep in my mind what I really want from my life. These challenges or obstacles cannot stop me from reaching my end goal. Sometimes, it might take time to get up and work in the same energetic way but giving up is never an option.
Please share with us, how do you motivate your clients?
I always prefer working on the confidence level of Professionals as most of the time they feel like they already know English but are unable to frame sentences. There I need to help them speak loud enough in front of the mirror and record themselves through their smartphones.
By doing such sort of activities, they really feel confident and on top of that, they do it under my guidance which gives them an extra edge over others.
Every mentee has a different problem when it comes to Communication. It could be speaking before an audience, talking to international clients, understanding foreign accents, presenting before teammates, talking during official meetings etc.
We at Corporate Hub, work according to the needs of our mentees. We figure out solutions according to their specific needs. This is how they feel motivated as they get customized solutions to their problems that too with individual attention.
Who do you believe has been the biggest source of motivation in your daily life?
My supportive Husband and Sister in law are the biggest source of motivation in my life.
If you talk about my husband, he never raised any questions on my abilities to start a new venture. Quitting a job where you were getting a handsome salary and on top of that, when you were holding a managerial position, was never easy. But my husband made this decision very comforting for me.
My sister in law always understands my work pressure and the challenges of being a working woman.
In fact, no one in my family asked me the reason why I made the decision to quit my full-time job and enter into a new domain. They all were very supportive and were confident that I can achieve anything and they will always be there as my backbone.
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
My motivation comes from expressing myself on Instagram reels or Youtube short videos because I enjoy it. Rather, whenever somebody writes a comment on social media like he/she got knowledge through my videos,it works as a great motivational tool. This is the ultimate feeling I cannot express.
The motivation to stay focused comes from the desire to keep learning something new, and my passion towards my goal. I am a firm believer of God and I believe in showing gratitude for all the beautiful things happening in my life.
I also enjoy watching videos by people I admire in my field. They are the Industry leaders of Communication Mastery or motivational speakers like Mr Sandeep Maheshwari. Whenever I feel low, I always prefer to watch their videos that help me stay focused. When I see my clients having an impact, I get the privilege of witnessing their improvement through me, it’s the most powerful stimulant I can imagine.
What about your journey makes it satisfying/exciting?
Getting great feedback from those who have been inspired through my social media content, through my coaching sessions/programs amps up my energy to deliver more value to them.
My joy knew no bounds when the owner of an IT company got amazing results because of my Business Communication Training program as he got successful in his first client communication during the Training only. Earlier he was taking help from other Co-founders who were better than him in this aspect.”
If you talk about other achievements of mine, one of my students got selected in IIM Ghaziabad college- (counted amongst India’s top management institutes for MBA and is one of the oldest business schools in India). According to him, our “Interview Preparation Training” has been one of the best Training of his life as he got a chance to study in “Dubai” through IIM Ghaziabad college.
Most recently, I have received credit for mentoring an HR Professional for Public Speaking and general HR advanced level Training. He showed me gratitude as he was able to deliver a speech in front of 500+ people and gained this confidence through my coaching program.
The Testimonial Tab on my Instagram page is showing the love and affection showered by my mentees.
Even if you talk about “Google Reviews” they are the proof of the quality of Training provided by me.
This all really makes my journey more exciting.
What are the business mantras you have embraced as you sought to establish your success story?
Being flexible and adaptable is my business mantra for success –
I believe in reacting quickly to change and adapt in a market-responsive way. I prefer turning a crisis into a new opportunity.
COVID-19 pandemic is a great example of the same. Corporate Hub is working in online and offline (In-person) Training modes.
When almost every business was facing a financial crunch, Corporate Hub, adapted the market response quickly and offered special online coaching programs.”
These programs helped many working professionals, not in their self-development but also in terms of mental relaxation activities as our business mantra is “Learn in a fun way”.
Self-investment is the best investment that anyone can make to climb the ladder of success, and I also adopted this as my mantra of success.
I do take entrepreneur courses and study digital marketing related books and learn from the experiences of industry leaders.
In your opinion, what are the keys to success?
I will say it straight that there are many factors but if you really want to know the key elements then to me these are the ones:
(1) Passionate about my work which helps me to keep going despite of challenges
(2) Effective Communication
(3) Have fun along the way
(4) Consistency
(5) “Never Give up” Attitude
(6) Learn from my Failures
What advice would you give students and working professionals who want to have a successful career?
I believe that in today’s era of a competitive world, one has to work on Soft Skills along with becoming Subject matter expertise.
Anyone with soft skills like creativity, Leadership, Time management, Decision making, Teamwork, Communication, and Public Speaking will always be the one to lead from the front.
Holding good command over the English language, an Effective Communicator, and a great Public Speaker can always get a chance to stand apart from the crowd.
Being a technical guy, one has to be well versed with all the latest technical aspects in the market but once you get promoted like getting a post of Team Leader or CTO, your job is not only left to code or get your team of coders to work.
One has to interact with the clients, present their product in a presentation to the board or non-technical end-users or any other such requirement will surface up. Everyone should always be ready for this. This is not a skill that can be learnt from a book or can be gained overnight. This is a habit and it needs practice. one should first understand the importance of this skill.
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.
