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 Business Leader and Entrepreneur Yogita Bansal Ahuja for an exclusive interview with us. Yogita is a Thought Leader, Coach, Mentor, Entrepreneur, Storyteller and Keynote Speaker. She is the Founder of STORYCIRCLE and EduSaarthi. Let’s learn more about her inspirational journey and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Yogita:
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 in a very small town in the interiors of Punjab. I loved books and studying and during school time, I wanted to make use of every small opportunity, be it in studies, cultural or sports area. My mother, who had to drop out of school due to early marriage, was my biggest support when it came to exploring all facets of school life and dreaming of going to Delhi for higher studies.
I have always been very passionate about education and realised its importance in a girl’s life from the very beginning.”
I wasn’t much exposed to libraries and books beyond curriculum and competition books, because of my socio-cultural background. Conversations in my house mostly revolved around money, property and social get-togethers.
However, I focused on what mattered to me, as a child. Whenever I studied at home, I would play-act as a teacher and teach the imaginary me as a student. Just that I didn’t know with the playacting, I was sowing the seeds of my future career.
When my father suffered huge losses in his business, and I was just out of college, I part-funded my further studies with a part-time job as a nursery teacher. Later I did quite a few odd jobs, like working with a hotel and then a BPO. But when I got my first promotion in the BPO while working on the Dell Computers process as an SME, I started my first stint in training by working with the new hires. And that’s where my journey in the field of Training & Development started.”
From then on till date, I have worked with large and mid-size organisations as clients and facilitated training and leadership development interventions across levels. In the last few years, I started using the tool of Storytelling intensively for my interventions with corporates and educational institutions.
The fact that I had to move cities almost every second year in the last 16 years, made me develop an entrepreneurial spirit and helped me learn how to make a fresh start each time I had to say goodbye to my prevailing ecosystem.”
Therefore, when I came to Ahmedabad around 5 years ago, I soon decided to take a complete plunge into the world of entrepreneurship and started STORYCIRCLE – A Dedicated Academy of Storytelling & Training. And now, under STORYCIRCLE, I am pilot launching Mission Edusaarthi to enable more women to become education-based entrepreneurs by providing them skilling, mentoring and marketing support through STORYCIRCLE.
What attracts you towards entrepreneurship instead of a corporate career?
To be honest, when I saw my family’s established business going kaput, I didn’t want to step into business at all. I had a corporate career for many years.
However, even at my job, I would work as an intrapreneur, state my opinion fearlessly, and wanted to do things which would have an impact on a larger number of people and not just the organisational bosses.”
And sometimes that would become a roadblock for my own good. And soon I realised that the entrepreneurial bug had already bit me, because I wanted to create an organisation where every employee, every client and every beneficiary of our services, will discover the joy of growing and going far, together. The dream of such an organisation can only be realised by actually creating it myself, starting from ground zero and building it step by step.
‘STORYCIRCLE’ 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?
STORYCIRCLE is a Storytelling based skill building academy where everyone comes together and is treated equal- just like we are all equal and together in a circle. When I started I saw that millions of children around the country are still engaged in rote learning with the teacher being the centre of all attention. So ‘STORYCIRCLE’ was initially created to enable children to discover the joy of learning through stories and creative education.
As we progressed, I soon realised that there are thousands of women, who are educated and have the desire and passion for teaching and education but may lack skills, opportunities or resources to contribute meaningfully to the children’s learning while becoming financially independent themselves.”
Therefore, I am now launching Mission edusaarthi which will serve as a ‘Sutradhar’ or a bridge between all such women and children by skilling them, mentoring them and providing them curriculum and marketing support to enable them to reach lakhs of such students and make a difference to their education by helping them discover the joy of learning through storytelling and creative teaching tools. With STORYCIRCLE’s Mission Edusaarthi, we want to nurture women entrepreneurship through joyful education for children across our country.
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
a) Though we much prefer the offline mode of teaching children, during the start of Covid 19, we did become early adopters of tech-based Storytelling education sessions for children. I had to train my own educators to adapt to the new method of teaching and re-work the curriculum accordingly.
b) As the student fatigue started due to school online classes, we shifted the focus to reaching out to and upskilling more teachers, individuals across the country and stopped online children classes as a conscious decision while the pandemic continued. I personally do not promote children using screens too much and too often.
c) Also, Mission Edusaarthi became my focus point in the last few months and the Covid19 crisis probably gave me the opportunity to participate in Women Startup Program by IIM B‘s NSRCEL and after clearing two levels, STORYCIRCLE’S Mission Edusaarthi has recently been selected for incubation with them and we are looking a much brighter future with their support towards our startup venture.
How do you manage yourself and keep on going despite the challenges? What drives you?
India is a unique country and our socio-cultural fabric will take a long time to change, so we Indian women are still struggling with the basic challenges such as to balance our time between work and home and not feel guilty about either. In my case, I have managed to remove the edesire to be tagged as “ perfect mom, wife, businesswomen “ etc. I have learnt to be just comfortable with my imperfections and let myself be.
Along with my passion for excellence and education, what really drives me is the deep desire to empower more women to take up entrepreneurship and stand up for themselves which will also allow them the flexibility to balance personal and professional responsibilities. Personally, when the stress starts building up, I just unwind with my favourite music, movie, book or a long drive.
In your opinion, what is more necessary: An idea or a good team for a successful startup?
In my view, it has to be a balance of both. An Idea without Planning and team execution and a Team without an Idea or a Vision are a waste of time and effort.
A supercharged and high trust team can turn an ordinary idea into a super successful one with their efforts but the idea has to have some merit for even the best teams to make it turn into a successful venture. Learn to Collaborate and Learn to Delegate because none of us is as powerful or brilliant as all of us, together.
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
Staying positive, never say never, find alternatives, make things work – I feel these are the things that make you an entrepreneur. Not that you don’t have bad days, but you learn to pick up the threads and move on quickly, because you are responsible for so many people, their lives, their future.
Entrepreneurship is not for the weak-hearted ones for sure. Above all, when you see the impact you make in people’s lives, smiles that you add to the world, you just get motivated to keep going.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring women entrepreneur?
Don’t underestimate the power of your own dreams and don’t undervalue yourself. Dare to Dream and Dream to Dare because your one little step today can guide a whole new generation of our girls tomorrow. Be the light. God bless!
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.
