It was a beautiful summer morning of 1955. Sarojini was born in a small village named Khalisa, in Azamgarh. She was wise since she was little and would conquer the world with her smile. She had a curious mind that wanted to know everything. It was not a practice to send girls to school in... Continue Reading →
How do words and design help you with brand storytelling
Words and design are two inseparable elements of a story. Let me give you an example. The journey of traffic lights - The idea of electric traffic lights originated in 1912. In 1920, William Potts, a policeman from Detroit invented the four-way, three-color signal, leading to the invention of automatic traffic systems. While the design... Continue Reading →
How to do “inclusive” content marketing?
Back in 2010, our college had organised an AIDS Awareness Program. The chief guests were a couple diagnosed with AIDS who were running an AIDS awareness centre in the city. I remember they gave a speech on the basics of the syndrome that included the fact that it wasn’t contagious. That it was okay to... Continue Reading →
How to create unique and useful content for your brand
Recently, I had an epiphany while creating content for our Instagram page (21dtalkies). We have been doing it for almost a year now. We redefined our strategies myriad of times. We were confused. We wanted to share content that drives engagement, content that people could not miss, content that made them pause and think. Initially,... Continue Reading →
How can you create and publish 10+ different pieces of content every day?
This blog is created keeping the following social media platforms in mind - Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blog, Quora. Are you a rabbit or a tortoise? Do you run fast and stop after a while? Or are you a tortoise who keeps a steady pace and doesn’t stop until the finish line. Tell you what.... Continue Reading →
Before you publish any content, always ask, what conversation will this start?
In ‘I've never been (Un)happier’, Shaheen Bhatt talks about her personal experience and ongoing struggles with depression and anxiety. The book started a series of conversations on mental illness in many parts of the country. Even though credit to immediate recognition of the book could be given to the author’s elite stature, it’s worth what... Continue Reading →
What have I learnt so far from ‘Orange is the new Black’?
I began watching this series (Orange is the new Black) a couple of weeks ago and am now on the 3rd season. Before I move on with further episodes, there are a few thoughts that I wish to put together for you and for my future self. The story of this show revolves around a... Continue Reading →
How can I create content that is unique and useful?
The sky is black. That’s what science says and that’s public knowledge. But wat color do you see when you look up beyond the stars? Blue? Pink? Green? Black? Orange? Now that’s perspective. Your perspectives and your experiences make your story unique. So, as far as uniqueness of your content goes, analyse the subject or... Continue Reading →
How can you put heart and soul into cold emailing
Cold Emailing – “A cold email is an unsolicited e-mail that is sent to a receiver without prior contact.” – Wikipedia. By any definition of cold emailing, the premise holds that the sender doesn’t have any existing connection with the receiver. Nada. The sender doesn’t know the receiver and the receiver doesn’t know the sender.... Continue Reading →
A book on business wisdom that you must read
“…in search of excellence and in fear of failure, most of us opt to fit in rather than stand out.” Stories move me but they hardly immediately change my perspective. They have to hit me intuitively and should be backed by credible data. If there is one book that has done it magically, it’s ‘Originals’... Continue Reading →
How to find the best SEO keywords for your website
Sam enters into a supermarket which consists of every product item that he can imagine. He is specifically looking for a red colored bottle. He asks one of the supermarket representatives, Sara, to help him find that. Sara takes him to the lane where he could find each and every red-colored bottle in different shapes,... Continue Reading →
It gets tougher before it gets better
My grandmother was a very simple and an extremely hard-working person. Back then, women were not allowed to go out of their homes without permission of an elderly male member of the family. There were many conditions attached to this permission, with a lot of why’s and where’s. This system still prevails in a lot... Continue Reading →
History repeats itself. So how long should we hold on to it?
Every time Anaya would broach the subject of her interest in dancing, her family would gaze at her with disappointment and concern. This wasn’t a new predicament. Payal, Anaya's mother, was a dancer herself and had run away to city for the love of it, after giving birth to her. Payal had never looked back... Continue Reading →
While running 21D, what till date is your greatest personal failure and your biggest learning from it?
We, Anuradha Ghosh and I, started 21D Solutions about one and a half years ago. Our shared interest in creating something new and useful and our penchant towards entrepreneurship, held us together. In this duration of more than 18 months, we tried myriad of things – from offering training expertise to social media content to... Continue Reading →
Becoming – How Michelle Obama inspires us to ‘Become’ our best selves through her story
Who is Michelle Obama? What’s her biggest accomplishment? How do you know her? How much do you know about her? Most of us know her as the ex-first lady of the United States. But those who have followed her, who have heard her or read about her, who have worked with her, who have met... Continue Reading →
Mentoring by less experienced people – Better or Worse?
I was watching this Instagram video of a celebrity who is a father to two very cute little girls. In the video he was showing one of his daughters a video of him raising a hand on his wife, that was a part of an act meant as a prank. The little kid didn’t understand... Continue Reading →
Why is post corona the best time for D2C marketing?
Corona times that we are living in today have changed the once considered eternal way of living. The work from home setting that many were conservative towards, is no longer an option now; the online grocery shopping that many generations were not receptive to, is now the need and order of the day. With this... Continue Reading →
It is only through the stories of others that we can make sense of our own
I am a big ‘Zakir Khan’ fan. Zakir Khan is an Indian stand up comedian. More than a comedian, he is a storyteller, he says the most obvious things that most of us have experienced at some point, in ways that leave us astounded and impressed. One of the things that he said and that... Continue Reading →