Nitisha Jain
Am I Dreaming or is this for real?
25% of course fee earned back in 1st assignment over 2 days of work.
I identified my area of gifting as Image Consulting and Soft Skills training 6 years back however joined the course only last year.
My Journey began with questions, doubts, uncertainties and where I stand today, all I can say is, “Many Lessons Learned, Many Battles Won”!
Lesson #1: You must find that thing that’s special about you, that can distinguish you from all the others, and has the power to make you successful.
I came across the profession of Image Consulting in 2011 when ICBI conducted a presentation in Vadodara. It all sounded like the plan that I had been looking for, quite up my alley and aligned with my strengths and areas of interest. Looked like, my destiny was about to get shaped.
Lesson #2: Over-thinking is the enemy of progress.
I now realize how the best opportunity may present itself in front of you and we fail to see it so, because largely and yes, unfortunately, I fell prey and became a victim of my own thoughts. I was unable to break free from conventional dilemmas like ‘Will I be able to make this work for me?’, ‘Is this too expensive’? ‘Sounds Good. Let me think some more’, ‘I am unsure. Maybe will take a call later’, ‘Let me research this some more’. In so doing, my thoughts simply gathered dust since I did nothing really to find answers. I simply put myself into inaction and limbo.
Lesson #3: Inaction may be safe, BUT, it builds nothing. Imperfect action is therefore better than inaction. So, START!
Whilst looking for the perfect answer, I continued to always keep watching and hearing news of several Image Consultants from Vadodara and other cities and their achievements, keeping the interest alive in my mind.
After 5 long years of waiting for that right time, Last year in 2016, I finally gathered all the courage and took the plunge into the world where I intuitively belonged.
Many questions remained, no great answers had emerged, but, I guess, something within simply said, NOW’s THE TIME’!
Lesson #4: Once you have commitment, you need the discipline and hard work to get you there.
Taking the right step is half the journey won. But the clincher is hard work and sustained effort. When you put your trust in the journey, you need to trust the process and see the magic unfold. So, for me it was like going back to school. I attended classes regularly, sought help whenever I needed it, diligently did my assignments, and most importantly, I adhered to the laid down program design and processes.
It was my fellowship activities (well designed, ready to deploy actions that we are all expected to take as a part of our learning, to convert knowledge to skill and to build a network that can be tapped into later for generating business), that I hit bullseye. I must add that we are blessed to be living in an era of connectedness and technology. It couldn’t get better for us self-starters.It was through such prescribed online posts on body shape and face shape analysis for dressing and accessorizing right, that I got spotted by a lovely woman with a very warm heart sitting in the beauty of Himalayas – Nepal. A message on my face book chat beeped and someone was wanting to connect. “Hi Nitisha! This is Khushboo from Nepal. Saw your work on face book, and it seems like something amazing that you are doing. We have a club with approx. 80 women and was wondering if you could do an event here with us in Kathmandu. Let us connect over a call.”
We connected and over a week’s time, the details were fixed!! A phone call to conduct a workshop in Nepal was not less than a miracle to me. My first overseas project, and the credit goes to ICBI. My salute indeed to the program architecture. Had it not been the fellowship activities assigned to us, this project probably would have never happened.
Lesson #5: Ideas are cheap and easily replicated. It’s the execution that really counts.
So, there it happened. I flew on the 5thof November’17 for my very first challenging assignment. Her only expectation defined to me was to leave the women of the Club “Elakshi” with a beautiful different learning and the best experience that they would ever have. And I am thankful to God, and my mentors for it is their faith and confidence in me that I succeeded in my mission to live up to their expectation.
I wanted to approach my assignment like my life depended on it. In fact, success in my profession will be about approaching every assignment like my life depends on it!
I drew out the structure of my workshop with a compelling tag-line -“SMART IS THE NEW SEXY” You don’t have to have a sexy figure with sexy clothes to be called sexy, because today, it is how smartly you dress irrespective of any body shape which IS THE NEW SEXY!
I conducted the workshop over two days dividing them into four groups so that I could interact personally and clear their queries.
It is rightly said, “All’s well that ends well! The two days’ workshop ended with a great success and with the best feedback that I could have received from them. They found my event the best amongst all they had ever had in their club!
Lesson #6: Something I truly live by and would like to share. When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
About the author: Nitisha Jain is a certified Image Consultant and Soft Skill Trainer based in Surat. She is a pass out of Mayo College Girls’ School, Ajmer (Rajasthan) and a BBA graduate from South Gujarat University. She has passion for dancing and is a trained Bharatnatyam dancer and a National Cricket Player too.She had been in one of the toughest profession of being a homemaker but wanted to do something more and came across the profession of Image Consulting and decided to take the plunge.
