It was around 1:30 PM. The workshop was supposed to be over by that time. Neither the host nor the participants seemed to take note of this. And hence I continued. After 25 minutes, the host asked me to narrate the story, the third and last story written during the workshop. While we were wrapping up, I heard her saying “Please submit all 3 stories before 11:59:59 PM today”.
During this pandemic, I have attended 15+ webinars and workshops. 3 things were common in most of the workshops.
- Comments: Boom Boom Boom. Awsum Awsum Awsum. The host desperately tried to entice the audience to comment on every silly stuff. To me, it looked like the success of the webinar was dependent on the number of comments.
- Personal branding. Majority of the time host bragged about himself/herself. I understand branding is the new normal, but there should be some restriction like you can’t swag about yourself for more than 40% of the time!
- Sale of the product: The remaining of the workshop or webinar was directly or indirectly about some product they were trying to hard-sell.
Did I wonder where was learning during those 3 hours? Yes, more often.
There is always hope. I took a leap of faith but fearing another waste of 3 hours, I signed up for Short Story Writing Workshop by Rashmi Bansal.
Typically, you pay and forget until you are prompted by Google calendar to attend the workshop 10 minutes before the schedule. However, this workshop was different. Rashmi had 2 clear instructions before attending the workshop.
- Read 3 stories; she had shared the link
- Have a pen and notebook handy
I was so excited about the workshop that I read 10 stories instead of 3. Kept one extra pen for unforeseen circumstances.
The workshop started sharply at 10 AM. There were 15 people. We had 6 years old kid who was struggling to set up zoom. We had 74 years old young learner who wanted to learn to write stories after 60 years of last story writing attempt.
At no point in time, I heard her saying that she is the author of several books with a few million copies sold. There was no buzz. There was no competition for comments. However, the aura in her simplicity was evident. Three hours was just pure learning.
Everyone wrote 3 stories during the session. One of the stories I wrote during the workshop can be read here. I thought workshop ended by 2 – 2:15 PM but I was not wrong.
Immediately after the workshop, we got the mail to submit the 3 stories we had written during the workshop before 11:59:59 PM same day. We got our reviewed copy after 3 days which I shamelessly posted on my blog.
The workshop had such a profound impact on me that I added additional Menu for STORIES in my blog and vowed to write small stories more often.
During this mesmerising journey, I was unable to reconcile why she is not leveraging the power of the network to promote her workshop. Maybe she is short of time. Maybe she was relying heavily on the word of mouth publicity. or maybe she has already earned enough 🙂
I was wrong here as well. An MBA graduate from IIMA knew exactly when to ask for a favour. I got a mail a few days later. The personal request was subtly placed at #3. In growth hacking, we call it leveraging Aha Moment.
Stay Hungry Stay Foolish, was one of the first few books I read beyond my curriculum. That book introduced me to entrepreneurship. A decade later, I got introduced to stories by her via this workshop. I hope to take this learning forward.
Link of workshop: https://rashmibansal.in/workshops/
Disclaimer: This article is based on my personal experience. Also, I am under Amazon affiliate so I earn a bit for qualified sale without adding any cost to the buyer.
