My Lock down Learning in 30 Days..

It is hard to believe that we are nearing 70 days of Lock down.

Initially it felt just like another holiday. The prevailing thought was I can relax and complete my pending domestic chores. Somehow the repeated extension of the lock down, though expected by all came to me like a bolt from the blue as I was not mentally prepared. I began to worry about future if this continues. Will I end up cooking, sweeping and wiping the house?

A New Journey Began!

Honestly, the thought landed in my mind quiet suddenly. I felt the urge to do something new apart from usual routine work. I wanted to up skill myself. I wanted to be well versed with Social Media Management and Digital Marketing which I thought I could learn easily, at this age, without even going out or seeking a mentor or coach

Social Media Management

Though learning has no age, but I still feel out of place if I have to go out and learn anything new. With my sister and son’s guidance I opened Twitter and Instagram account. I slowly learnt and began to post something relevant. I was not even aware of Hash tags which I am slowly able to capture. Believe me it is really interesting. Though I have not learnt fully, but I am sure, with some more time I will.

My key learning has been not in opening social media accounts but in identifying the theme I wanted to associate my learning and online profile with – Go Digital!

Design

I learnt Canva and prepared a Twitter cover page saying exactly that – Go Digital.

Template from Canva

I prepared slides of a presentation that had to be uploaded in YouTube. My confidence slowly began to soar.

The first one I did was a face book poster with content provided – This was to test my aesthetic sense. Learning indeed!

Content Writing

I had to write 750 words content / script for a YouTube video based on which I made the Canva Slides.

 Voice Over

After a few revisions of the draft, I had to do voice over for the final script. This was the easiest learning, just to read it aloud, but of course it took me more than an hour for just a five minutes voice over. You know why, I was just stammering in between, missing out lines etc.

Portfolio

I created a resume template in WIX which was a single page. I am yet to learn WIX properly and create sub-pages to establish my work portfolio and persona doing justice to my decades of experience in various capacities.

Mail Campaign

I watched YouTube on Mail Campaign done by another intern from this learning community, created account in Mail Chimp. I just sent a test mail and I have not done any campaign practically. Unless I do it for a real time project, I just cannot confirm if I have learnt it right. I have started though

Blogging

The first draft of this blog was terrible. I received 650 words feedback which is longer than the length of my blog. Phew!

I was supposed to write about my 30 days digital internship experience so that others benefit from reading it. What I did instead was repeat the content of YouTube script, rephrased some sections explaining how I did quality check for a white paper which was all about learning  just one task – Quality Check through web research

I missed the main aspect of blogging- the sequence of content. It was rightly pointed out to me that the video script would go with images and my voice while the blog has just words and therefore to retain attention span of target readers, the themes had to be presented differently.

In the second draft I wrote my personal journey in a conversational tone, created sub headings and wrapped up that draft in 553 words. The word count of the final blog is over 1000 words.

After edit when I do the Maths of final count of words, I can see the feedback got incorporated.

Story board

Writing content for two separate output format - video and blog makes this learning the most important – Story boarding - how to sequence, emphasize key themes, and ensure each reader has a take away. 

Track Changes in Word

I always used to think, I can type with utmost speed in word document. In fact I can challenge anyone for Typing speed, but had my vanity fairly bruised when I did not know the simplest thing in Word called Track Changes which I learnt during this lockdown, while preparing content for video script

Virtual Meetings

I conducted virtual meetings through Zoom. In my professional career I have provided secretarial and executive assistance to senior official and organized several offline meetings. Conducting virtual meeting was a great learning for me to invite others for meeting/ learning sessions/ discussion through a link, at the switch of a button, regardless of geography.

I prepared minutes of the meeting for my future reference.

Online Research

This one was live project for my Kinesthetic learning with definite time frame – 48 hours. I had to research and quality check content of a whitepaper that was supposed to be submitted to the Ministry pertaining to financial sector which was nowhere close to my domain. I had to self-learn from Google. At first, I was clueless what am I supposed to quality check, but I was determined to complete the assignment within the stipulated time.

I had issues in understanding the scope of work, working in laptop, unable to highlight, copy the links etc. however when I received a positive feedback, it was like Wow, I can do this easily provided you had the will.

Reading

For the past couple of decades, my reading was limited to spiritual books only. Now I read all kind of blogs pertaining to digital marketing, women empowerment, business and I personally think that is a giant leap forward. However I should still begin to effectively use the knowledge I gather by reading.

 Habitual Changes

During weekends or any holiday during pre COVID times, I used to never sit with a Laptop to learn or read, but during this Lockdown, I have consciously made these habitual changes, sitting with the Laptop on or before 10 am, just like office goers, to read, learn or do something new.

Forum Posting

I have identified blogs, proposed hash tags and posted in a face book page dealing with shelter, livelihood and construction.

Instagram

Here I am just a beginner with merely four posts. In June I intend to focus on this and LinkedIn                    

Humble Beginnings

The simpler things I learn which is more important in the long run

1.     The big picture - What all this learning will tantamount to?

2.   Practicing brevity in writing mails because the most precious commodity today is people's attention span and one cannot afford to waste one's concentration with lengthy unnecessary details

3.   Time management  and work balance between home chores and learning productivity 

4.   One does not have to step out to add to our skills - Only a strong will counts

5.   Acknowledging mails, to keep the project leader posted about learning update

6.   How to appreciate the good work being done by different social media teams of large organization by liking, sharing and re tweeting effectively

A few things, I am yet to learn

1.     Self- learning or independent learning as I had to depend on my son

2.   I was not proactive and always needed external push, follow ups and validation for each work. In short I was not exactly self-driven. I needed reminders.

I am hoping this will change over time

After all this is just the first month – Have a heart!! When are you starting your learning journey?

Lastly, I would only like to say if I can, everyone can.

Author: Corporate Professional, Mother, Home Maker, Drape connoisseur

Digital Internship: Change Your Diet

Today, we had a fishing competition in the large pool within our residential complex premises.

There was a nominal participation fee - INR 500 and those who were interested, had to bring their own equipment.

The Bait

I am not talking about the bait for the fishes. The organisors made it clear that there is no advantage or fee waiver even if you are a resident here.

On a daily basis, people swim in this pool - even an instructor comes here every weekend to teach swimming to young kids. The kids pay the instructor however access to the pool, to the best of my understanding, is free.

Then how fair is it to charge for the fishing contest? Did you know the contest will last for 7 hours and what you catch will be worth much more than what you pay?

Moreover, there is unlimited supply of tea and biscuit as you wait for the fish to be hooked. Even lunch will be taken care.

All of this makes sense, and each time this contest attracts quiet a few participants. Even if the participant caught two fishes of adequate weight, he can easily recover the cost of participating in the contest.

The winning prize is for the one who caught maximum number of fishes in the shortest duration. So it is a win win.

The Association uses this money to maintain the pool every year. So fishing contest is the best bait they can think of so that they need not use the maintenance fund collected from residents every month and make this fishing thing an annual ritual to recover some of the pool cleaning costs.

People here look forward to it and is major talking point among residents. A quiet Sunday. A decent crowd and lots of fishes. It is quiet a trophy. A win win again for Association and residents.

The Diet

The most common issues with digital internship are mostly to deal with their  decades old habits - the rigid learning pattern, the predictable thinking pattern, the same expectations pattern and the common fear pattern

I have noticed this across all age groups - freshers and experienced people - who have approached me to learn alternative options to earn by working from home, adding skills and winning independent assignments from clients

The word internship is usually associated with fresh graduates who are stepping into the corporate world. However the reality is anyone who ventures to learn something new at any point of time, regardless of age, is an intern for that particular learning, when he applies it for the first time in real life and live projects

Change Your Diet

Most of us our slaves of our habits and natural thinking patterns.

Here is a quick short story

Once a man went to his neighbor asking for a rope to tie his mule. The neighbor did not have any rope and asked the man to just put his hands around the neck of the mule and it will automatically believe that something was used to tie his neck and therefore not try to move.

What do you think possibly must have happened the next day when the man mounted the mule to set off to work? The mule obviously refused to budge an inch from its place.

The man had to remove the rope. Was there any rope? Nope.

Just the man knows that - Not the mule. So that is what it is - Slaves of habitual thinking pattern

The interns learn skills fast. Andragogy (Adult based learning) is need based and most adults find their own inspiration, need and motivation to act and yet fail to be consistent because they fall back to old habits and habitual thought patterns

So how to change habits? This is exactly where most new learners fail because they just go back to their old routines, with or without new skills.

It is very important to note, that y our diet is not only what you eat.

It is who you speak to on a regular basis, what  you watch on TV or YouTube, what you listen to, what you read, the people you hang out with, what topics you prefer to talk about, what you do on a daily basis, what you feed yourself with on social media and the things you subject your mind, heart and soul to.

If you are not mindful of the things that you expose yourself to, you end up absorbing and put a lot of weeds in your body emotionally, spiritually and physically instead of seeds that can bring out change in habits, behavior and results.

If things are not working, results are not happening, it is time to change your diet.

Do not fall for the bait no matter how tempting it is, if it is not part of your diet. If you do fall, then it the most predictable reaction you probably give for every temptation that you face.

If your past responses in similar situation has not got you the desired results, expecting a different output while the input is absolutely the same, is to live in fool's paradise.

Are you ready to set your diet right now?

Make Your Own Lane: Why You Need A Team To Execute Large Projects Virtually?

Here is what I do/ did for startups; corporations; first time entrepreneurs; fresh graduates; training firms so far

1] Business Plans

2] Feasibility Study

3] Sponsorship Proposal

4] Case Study

5] Marketing Strategy

6] Social Media Strategy

7] Call Script - Telemarketing

8] Storyboard for presentations

9] Pitch Deck

10] Learning Modules for Diploma Students (Instructional Design) (With Team) - Including "Accounting"

11] E-book

12] Blog writing

13] Business Coaching - I answer one critical question relating to client's business (Based on my experience or relevant research)

14] Social Media Plan

15] Social Media Management (With Team)

16] Screen play for Advertisement - Creative storyboard 

17] Business Name 

18] Consulting for BPO

19] Investment Offer

20] Visual Communication (In Presentations) - Shaping storyboard through format and visuals

21] Market research

22] Startup Checklist (Over 200 action items)

23] Investor Checklist (Over 50 investors)

24] Leadership Profiles for website

25] Website - Identifying critical pages

26] Website - Critical review (My perspectives on client's existing website)

27] Website - Content Development

28] Marketing Brochure - Two Pages

29] Managed client's business platform - ZOHO

30] Elevator Pitch (100/ 150 words in 45 to 60 seconds)

Over a period of time, there are 10 more skills/ services that can fetch regular clients (online and offline) with a team

31] Email Campaigns

32] Resume Writing

33] Virtual Assistance 

34] Transition support

35] Pre sales support

36] Digital Marketing (End to end)

37] Guest posts and Ghost Writing

38] Webinar

39] Action Learning Projects (Identify Issue, Team in large corporations - We drive the project towards actionable solution)

There are 10 more skills that I want from the team I am building:

1] Web designing

2] Logo designing

3] App development

4] Crowdfunding

5] Voice Support

6] Search Engine Optimization

7] Financial Planning - Individual and business

8] Whitepaper - Professional standards 

9] e-books - BECKON Series

10] Case Studies - BECKON Series

My current focus this year: Coaching only.

 

Image Credit: Canva Design

BECKON Coach will follow the same pattern - the 4 quadrant pricing - both for clients or students

Option 1: Free nuggets of your wisdom (If this is not good enough, will anyone want to associate with you?)

Option 2: Booklet ($40) - Prospect will Self Learn 

Option 3: Coaching ($150) - Guided Learning adhering to the booklet/ building prospect's habit and skill coaching, if required.

In 10 months you do not teach your prospect "All that you know" - They may not be ready. You begin with what they "Want to learn" and later steer towards learning that will lead to their outcomes. During these 10 months, you know everything about your learner so that you can steer in the right direction.

 BECKON Framework is learner centric.

Option 4: Outcomes ($550)  - Outcomes driven learning - You need not share client's details however in this option, you should be willing to share mails exchanged with client (without sharing  IP) to prove a point, feedback received, interesting case studies - all directed to mentally train prospect 

In this option, it is not just about "skill", but "will" otherwise you cannot lead the prospect to their outcomes)

Unlearning is the key here.

 Minutes of call/ Call highlights are critical for this framework.

Write to advocating.outcomes@gmail.com if you think you qualify to join our team based on your skills

Alternate Learning: Are You The Skill Coach or The Will Coach?

Today, I just abruptly discontinued coaching session with a BECKON Aspirant who is being trained to manage my professional social media first – Pages, blogs, tweets etc. and then for other clients. According to the aspirant, this is the scope of agreed skill coaching.

Post discontinuation, here is the impact analysis on BECKON Aspirant

Psychological Impact

The aspirant is under the impression that the coaching session ended due to performance issues (poor learning and grasping ability) however the reality is – this circumstance is being created deliberately for mental training (Will)

Financial Impact

No further fees have to be paid if the work in scope (Social Media pages) is managed with immediate effect to my entire satisfaction. This is one of the learning outcomes in the agenda

Learning Impact

On job training for a new “Skill” with ulterior motive to trigger “Will” to learn on their own when the situation arise.

Social Media Management

I have to read more blogs than necessary to choose the right ones for my followers or to increase my own understanding of the market

To make my bandwidth available for core functions I needed someone to manage few of the pages and blogs I maintain on a regular basis.

It is not about merely sharing links, it is about outcomes to be achieved and that is definitely not mere vanity metrics or branding. The bottom line is revenue, customer acquisition and growth.

The content has to be useful for me and my followers

I did consider Crowdfire for twitter account however the points listed below kind of diffused my enthusiasm

1] Post on our behalf

2] Followers are not always high quality and relevant to the industry in which we operate

3] I am not sure if they filter out spam or fake account.

4] I follow users that tweet information useful for our business and scope of work we are involved in.

5] It is beside the point which I may read immediately or when I have the time.

6] It is handy and finds new people to follow or un-follow inactive users however the relevance and usefulness are questionable.

7] It is simple, quick, and easy to understand. It is not smart or great for my needs and the motive seems vengeful (for the lack of exact word) which is quite unprofessional. I do not necessarily have to un-follow some just because they do not follow me. I am the loser then as their tweet quality may be far superior to mine. I would definitely want to follow them.

So the BECKON aspirant will be gradually made to understand the nuances and needs to manage my account – live, on the job and who is not quite aware of it yet.

Phase I:    Doing

Phase II:   Thinking

Phase III:  Consulting

Thinking is a natural process lead by repeated doing. The more you do the same thing mechanically, the more you will question why, when it turns mundane

Why social media management?

What business problems are being solved by our product or service?

What benefits have target audience realized?

Why follow few influential people and few average people?

What is end purpose?

While we let the BECKON aspirant here to dwell on outcome driven learning process and unexpected twists and turns, you can write to advocating.outcomes@gmail.com if you are ready to be a BECKON coach. 

We will be glad to know more about case studies with your learning intervention towards measurable outcomes.

Gig Economy: How Does Your Online Presence Impact Your Sales?

Your online presence is your brand.

Let us take just a quick look at a few forums you think you are active and participating regularly. (Actually, you are not)

Facebook

When you upload 197 photos of your recent trip to Thailand, the green grass there included and the blue sky, what are others thinking about you?

That is some sincere reporting to Zuckerberg - How do they manage time to upload 197 pictures?

Vanity metrics –The count of likes and comments gives a high – How self- absorbed is that?

Your joblessness is for everyone to see - You upload and then thank each one of them individually – Is there nothing else to do?

Your need for external validation to feel important – How does it matter to anyone what you eat in Thailand and the crockery you used? Has self-esteem gone for a ride?

Takeaway: The point is - what you do in Thailand does not matter, what you do in Facebook matter to people who intend to hire your services.

If I were a buyer, I would think twice, doubt the individual's maturity wondering how can this person deliver my complex project if these are his/her priorities?

LinkedIn

You created a profile in this professional network when the dinosaur lived and then forgot all about it as you were extremely busy after that – with Facebook and Snap chat.

As a fresher, you have nothing much to add here and as an experienced resource, you cannot figure out how to stop – Both are potentially dangerous in this era where attention span is the biggest challenge.

Takeaway: Cut content and be crisp so that the target audience get the right messages and can gauge your capability.

Twitter

I guarantee you this – there is still considerably a large population out there who has no idea and is clueless what to do with their Twitter account

They have created a profile because they thought it was something similar to Face book and they are missing being trendy. Some just add followers and follow their heartthrobs without the faintest idea about the power of Twitter in branding and business

Takeaway: Twitter is not Facebook. Learn what to do with it that can brand you well in a global platform

Quora

Some use Quora for these

How does it feel to make Crores before you are 23 years old?
How to gauge gold diggers from non-gold diggers?

What is your first opinion about the people who have these questions - Juvenile, immature, curious or plain time wasters.

You also have serious ones like these

Is Qnet a Scam?

What are your questions and expert/ experience responses on this platform? The categories define you.

Takeaway: Genuine questions and genuine responses make you a reliable resource.

Website

It is expensive. That is history. You can always begin with a blog spot or word press

Website is not an extension of your Resume. It is not the sum total of all your roles. It is you as a person and professional, your services and your portfolio, your capability and your thoughts, your causes and outcomes.

Takeaway: This is your key marketing tool.

What is  your online reputation  or social media score today?

Are You Alive Online?

If your marketing road map is still about finding the ideal customer, creating a campaign and surveying your customers for a possible lead and your advertising channels are still broadcast and print, the action items below are for you:

Build Target Audience: How can you reach out to your target audience (Someone who needs what you offer) if you are not following them on social media channels? In all possibility they will follow you, even if they do not need your services right away. Each time you post about your company products, share a relevant article or event; it reaches the right people and the interested ones will subscribe to your newsletters to know more.

Soft Sell: Just keeping them in the radar is not enough. At regular intervals, get the experts and researchers of your company to reflect their knowledge about the industry through blogs and feed the same audience. Would a customer like to do business with someone who knows the market and is well informed about current industry trends? Would he wait for the blogger to call him or reach out to the company, when the need arises?

Experience Centric: Target not just the customers but aim to impact their overall experience. When this becomes company’s primary agenda, the focus is not just about product quality, delivery timelines etc it is about influencing client’s mind with each sale and service. That builds loyalty. If you can handle client’s negative feedback in record time speed for minimum customer impact, that will not only restore faith but build trust many fold.

There are many small and medium enterprises, outlet owners, high value product dealers, exporters and institutes who still run their business without being alive online, as the myth is, the Social Media exercise requires a full time resource and if not done right, it can impact existing business.

To break that myth and know more, contact advocating.outcomes@gmail.com. We will do a session with your employees who can contribute to your company’s content strategy and be part of the learning to achieve business outcomes. Serious business is not done just with a handshake anymore.