INDUSTRY LEADER

How’s the Josh?

In conversation with Supriya Paul

Co-founder of Josh Talks

DISTRICT 98

You are the co-founder of Josh Talks. How did your journey begin?

As two twenty-something-year-olds, Shobhit & I shared a common frustration – we had so much untapped potential but didn’t have real role models to look up to. So, in college, while everyone around us was vying for a corporate job, or aspiring to become a doctor or an engineer, we were looking for someone who could share their story and inspire us to discover our true potential. When we spoke with other young people, we discovered the same issue and to address this gap, we formally launched Josh Talks in 2015 with the mission of unlocking the potentialof Bharat'syouth.

Was the biggest disruption that the pandemic posed for you and how did you overcome it? How has Josh Talks shaped you as a leader?

For the initial weeks, we couldn’t shoot Talks at our studio and the inability to release new Talks ledtoaviewershipdecline. Gradually, we started embracing a digital model and shifted our operations online. We improvised production processes and recorded content at our speakers’ homes, embracing a digital model and shifted our operations online. We improvised production processes and recorded content at our speakers’ homes, which turned out to be a zero-cost model with minimized efforts of traveling and set-up, with the same level of output. Over a couple of weeks, our channels startedgainingtractionandtheperformancewas backontrack.

I have transitioned from being involved in everything at work to being essential and have learnt the importance of delegating. The most important decision I now make as a leader is to allocate my time better - whether it’s for building our product or planning campaigns with our partners.

INDUSTRY LEADER

DISTRICT 98

Many people feel that communicating on a virtual platform doesn't create the same impact as in person. What are your thoughts?

It is subjective, but as an organisation with a digital ecosystem, I can say that we shifted online because we wanted to reach a broader set of audiences, particularly youth in Tier II and beyond cities in India, and we have received an enormously positive response, allowing us to makealargerimpact.

What do you have to say about the power of storytelling?

Tell us a little more about Josh Skills?

As the viewership for our Talks was growing, our audience, especially those from Tier II and Tier III towns and cities started looking up to us for careeradvice.Themajorproblemsthattheywere facingwerewithrespecttoskilldevelopmentand employment, with ‘Spoken English’ being a major barriertohigh-payingjobs.Totacklethispressing issues, we launched the Josh Skills app in 2020 to upskill Bharat. It uses strategies like peer-to-peer learning, gamification of complex concepts, intelligent feedback, and a chat-based interface to impart critical technical and soft skills to 170,000 students at the cost of just a mobile phone recharge! Within a few months of its launch, the app had 100,000+ paid users and became one of the highest-rated ed-tech apps on theGooglePlayStore. Both Shobhit and I, firmly believe that well-told stories have the power to create phenomenal social change. Our stories, or ‘Talks’ as we call them, are centered around the lives of real-life heroes who have overcome extraordinary challenges to make something meaningful of their lives. In the last few years, we have seen our stories change millions of lives ‒ from inspiring a young man in Madhya Pradesh to quit his job and contribute to his community by contesting elections in his village; to giving a woman in Bihar thestrengthtowalkoutofanabusivemarriage,to giving a Tuberculosis survivor in Mumbai the josh to live. Till now, we have shared over 4000 stories across 10 vernacular languages that have garneredover1.2billionviewsacrosstheglobe.

You've met some incredible speakers on your journey. What advice would you give to the aspiring speakers in the Toastmasters community?

Always try and make the experience memorable for your audiences ‒ leave them wanting more, notless.