At Brilliant Read Media, we always strive to bring you meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community of investors, coaches, leaders, management students, entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs. This week we invited yet another passionate entrepreneur Swarleen Kaur for an exclusive interview with us. She is a coach, leader, mentor, entrepreneur and educator. She is the Founder & Director of The Talk Room. Let’s learn more about her inspiring journey, her way forward and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Swarleen:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as a women entrepreneur, please;
I am a small-town girl, yet I was so lucky to get the best of education from the most learned educators in a reputed school, I further did my graduation and pursued my Masters in English from Kurukshetra University. I always had the passion to have some records in my kitty and in my college got the chance too, I did a hat trick in extempore at State Level and got the chance to speak at National Youth Festival at Ahemdabad.
I was an all-rounder student, along with academics, I did dramatics and public speaking which became my genre. Unfortunately, those days public speaking was not considered as a sought after profession so I thought becoming an educator would help me fulfil my dream, so I started to teach which was one more passion I lived for.”
Finally, after my Graduation I started to teach students at home, I would love to teach them, and then schools became my second home, I worked with schools and used to prepare students for debates and declamations. Personality was one thing which always caught my attention, so I thought of becoming a Personality Development Coach.
Eventually in 2019 I won my first International Public Speaking Championship and then I got into thinking what if the students and the youth got into communication skills at an early age which will help them grow personally and professionally.”
This venture needed the courage to leave my job of being an educator in schools but I had my three golden D’S with me Desire,Dedication and Determination and I set out to build my own set up THE TALK ROOM which is built with sole purpose of CONVERSING, COMMUNICATING AND CONFERRING.
The first of its kind in my city and lot of innovative ideas cropping in my mind, I started to work on creating some new courses for young minds which was well accepted not only in India but Internationally too. And then the talk room had its first physical office flourishing in a span of six months
What attracts you towards entrepreneurship instead of a corporate career?
Entrepreneurship as the name itself suggests enter in a ship, now do not forget that ship has to brave out all the storms, has to fight with pirates and has to bear all kinds of weather.
I always wanted to make the difference and that was only possible if I had POWER
P – Planning
O – Organising
W – Working
E – Energetic
R – Redesigning
So to reach till my goal I had to cross all these stages and the basic reason was I could maximise my potential when I could imply on my students practically what had been in my mind to construct and shape a better future of the youth. I had to make sure that Personality is our unique identity card.”
Entrepreneurship helps in self-motivation which has to be one of the prerequisites of an entrepreneur. It is all about taking risks, helps in growing our knowledge. Being an entrepreneur is like testing yourself in the whirlpools time to time but when you emerge out as the winner, you realise that it was not easy but then you tell it to yourself it was not that tough too. All these challenges and hardships fascinate me more towards being an entrepreneur.
‘The Talk Room’ 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?
When I thought of the name The Talk Room it appeared to be quite unique but there were apprehensions that people may not take it for another chatting site, so we gave a clear tag line Communicate, Converse and Confer. We talk absolute sense in The Talk Room which helps us to enhance the pursuits of our personality.
While I was thinking to build up an organisation which could help people to develop their communication skills, one day I happened to see a furniture shop Drawing Room and that is where I thought I would create a Talk Room. The need of the hour is to work on our communication skills, so many people come with hesitation to speak in public, so many of them come with low confidence but we are happy that when they leave they are absolutely a changed personality.
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
Our organisation was born in the covid times, so its a product of the lockdown so we call it OOPS system, Online Overseas Programming System which means we are adaptive to new techniques and new normal.
Our business model has resource persons who are tech-savvy and are connected virtually, we started without physically meeting. Every aspect of the business is online and tech-enabled to ensure automation as much as possible.
How do you manage yourself and keep on going despite the challenges? What drives you?
“When the going gets tough, put one foot in front of the other and just keep going”.
Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. If you accept challenges as big rocks you will never be able to cross them but if you take them as stepping stones nothing can stop you as you will keep on moving ahead.
I grew up watching my dad, putting up endless labour and never say die spirit so I made Desire to go ahead, determination with which we make our move shows our dedication and eventually results into success.”
I try to keep myself motivated by reading books, listening to music and travelling. Now when travelling is not happening one thing that keeps me focussed is mediations. It really uplifts my dampened spirit. One thing that keeps me going is smiles of my family and their warm affection and support.
What are the business mantras you have embraced as you sought to establish your success story?
Do not wait for the opportunity, create it. Every day is your day, you just have to believe in yourself.
There will be times when you will be at your rock bottom, get up dust your failures and tell yourself, yesterday is gone, today is mine and tomorrow I will create.
In your opinion – what is more necessary: Idea or a good team for a successful startup?
We cannot overlook both, a good idea and a good team are like two sides of one coin, both cannot be ignored. A good team will always rope in great ideas, your rapport with your team, your empathy towards the need of your team will help you form a bond with them which increases the zeal and vigour of the entire team.
There are organisations which have great ideas but when not implemented in the right angle by the team leads to failure, so a proper implementation requires a good team.
Given the rapid pace at which the world is changing, what are the leadership traits that are necessary for success?
Leadership is the ability to influence, modify and exercise control over the behaviour of others in a group.
To be a leader it is important to have a clear vision, sharing the vision with others. It is important to have that willingness which can take the organisation to a further level.
What are the three most important lessons you have learned building your startup?
I learnt you are original, there is no second you and similarly, you cannot be anybody so stop looking at what others are doing or what they have achieved, walk at your own pace.
Age is just a number, you have to walk and for that, you need to make that start. START NOW
Never let the virtues in you die they are your biggest strengths.
Please share with us – what has worked well for you so far?
Remember you are working because you want to tell your customer that you care, prioritize their needs, listen to their requirements and work in the most efficient manner to satisfy their wants and expectations from you.
Be humble and you will never stumble. This is one. more secret for success.
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
My work is my passion, it drives me completely. There are ups and downs and there are highs and lows.
When I am on the highs I enjoy and rejoice whereas when are lows I think of the good times that I have to create ahead so I get back to think where there was a flaw, learn from it and step forward.
I love to create novel ideas and strong systems through which I can create the best courses for my mentees
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring women entrepreneur?
When you are standing at the edge your mind will tell you not to jump, you will get hurt, you will fail but I will tell you to jump, follow your gut feeling and follow the madness that is there inside of you to change your life for good.
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.
