The Confident Communicator, founded by Deepma Jadeja and Sima Mehta, aims to train youngsters holistically so that they could focus on their inner strengths and become confident communicators, while having fun. In a conversation with The Morning Standard, Jadeja, a corporate soft skills trainer, points at some realworld challenges kids face nowadays.
“Our kids are grappling with the pressures of social media, stalking and seeking instant gratification, and it is our duty to help them rise above these influences and empower them to build positive self-worth, and resilience. Our programs have evolved from pure communication skills and public speaking training and workshops designed to engage children, teens and young adults, and to focus on their holistic development into confident, self assured, well adjusted adults who are comfortable with themselves.”
Addressing challenges
According to Jadeja, “Our approach to developing confidence is a complete 360 degree opposite of all of our competitors’ approaches. Most people say one has to be confident in order to be able to speak in public. We say, let’s create a safe space to practice public speaking (and other skill sets that are universally feared) – and by conquering your fears, including the fear of failure, you will automatically have developed confidence and self-assurance. Embracing failure as a crucial stepping stone to success is one of our primary tenets. We have trained over 2,000 children.”
Success story
Mehta and Jadeja have been friends for the last 35 years. Serendipitously, both had moved back to India from the US, with their kids between 6 to 10 years old. “We were very enthusiastic about the very high quality of education in the STEM areas, but were left wanting for platforms on soft skill development provided to our children even in the very high-ticket international schools. During interactions with friends, colleagues and other professionals, I noticed that they too wanted a communication skills-confidence building program for their children, and other than a few drama schools, they couldn’t find training programs that would empower the holistic development of their children with trainers they could trust. They kept encouraging me to use my experience and expertise to create a curriculum for kids.”
Navigating through COVID-19
The company took all its communication programs online post lockdown, and registered for a Zoom license as the medium of delivery.
“Zoom’s annotation feature, whiteboard, screen share options and breakout rooms have worked very well for us,” informs Mehta.
Major highlights
The Confident Communicator focuses on are confidence, critical thinking, creativity and communication
that empowers kids to deal with upskilling and reinventing themselves to compete in the 21st century.
Business lessons from 2020
“The key to a start-up’ success is to be adaptable. We embraced new teaching tools and made several collaborations,” concludes Mehta.