Hello Jun / Monthly Review - Apr - May 2020

Good Morning, ladies and gents! 

Trust you and your loved ones are safe and well-taken care of! Here's the recap for April and May of 2020.

To jog your memory, I do this bi-monthly review and I track progress on to my yearly goals, life plan, and goals. And for the record, three large goals for 2020 are Book 2, a sub-5-hours marathon, a topline of 50 crores. 

Of course, these two months were spent indoors. To set the record straights, apart from my building watchmen and the delivery guys (and on order a woman), I have met Vivek, Ankit, Mrs. & Mr. Anubhab Goel. Vivek and Ankit came over to give me cash (there is no ATM nearby) and Goels came to pick something that no one else seemed to have the stock of :D

So, a total of 4 people. The least number of people I've ever met ina month! The human connection was super minimal. Yes yes, I had a million Zoom, Meet, Teams, and I don't know what all software-led meetings. To me, those are not really real interactions. I don't like the idea of meeting people virtually. Come to think of it, I did record a few podcast conversations with some marketers for The Podium. But again they were from behind a screen. 

I can't wait for this phase to get over. But if I am right (I hope I am proven wrong), with the opening, the cases will shoot up dramatically and that would mean yet another lockdown. You could call it the second wave if we had contained the first one. But I am not sure if we did. 

The worst part? When we got into the lockdown, people would religiously track the number of cases and with time the interest in new cases seems to have waned off. Which is ok - humans are adaptable and all that. Plus, now that some semblance of un-lock that has been announced, and if recent photos are any indication, people have started to throng outdoors like there is no tomorrow! 

The ones that can afford to stay indoors and choose to venture out, well, Mr. Darwin is watching you! 

Anyhow. Let's get to business. 

So here's a recap for April and May 2020

I would use the regular sections of fails, wins, inbetweens, lessons, and plans for the next two months. And a reminder that each thing I do this year must help me reach three large goals - Publish Book 2, Complete a full marathon in < 5 hours and create a business that has a topline of 50 crores. I wrote a longish post about this is here, in case. 

#fails 

The only documented goal for April and May 2020 was that I will have 25K words on book2. And I have failed at it. I am nowhere close to it :( 

Apart from that, things that I could have better are... 

• Work out! I had all the time in the world. And yet I could not do anything about it (except two 40-hour fasts). So that sucks. I've realized that I may not be able to work out but I can easily manage time-restricted eating. So I need to find a way to optimize running and not eating! 
• Missed deadlines. I don't have a large excuse but I did miss on a lot of deadlines these two months. I wish I could blame it on my mental state. But the thing is, I have been super ok and I've just whiled away time. Need to fix this. 

#wins

• Attended sessions on Screenwriting from Satyanshu Singh and Anjum Rajabali. They are among the best teachers of the trade ever! I am grateful to this lockdown that I could attend these sessions. If I have learned anything, it is that it's a long and tough road and would be fun to tread. I took reams of notes and in case you'd like to read those, please do let me know and I will be happy to share. 
• In partnership with AD, finally launched Podium. We aim to be a network of premium podcasts. Hired a team. Released Founder Thesis (we talk to some of the most celebrated entrepreneurs in the country) and Kahaniyon Ka Guccha (stories from the life of the famous Saadat Hasan Manto; thank you, Mudit, and Anamika). Recorded Marketing Matters (we talk to some CMOs are large consumer brands in India) and 1Up Your Career (to help the Class of 2020 navigate their way in these times). Getting ready for India Booked (thank you, Ayushi and Prakruti). Cracked a few deals. Oh, you can find us on your favorite podcast player! 
• Started publishing on SaurabhGarg.com. I really really would like you to read this piece on taking notes and tell me what you think.
• My #aPicADay has reached 160+ days! w00t! To date, I have NOT missed a single day. Considering how fickle I could be, this is a BIG BIG win! 

#inBetweens (these are neither wins / nor losses)

Three things. 

A. 

I use Rescue Time to track how I spend my time and the chart below reveals that I spend a LOT of time in communicating. I guess I am being a lot more manager than a maker. Which is ok. I know that I am not brilliant at one thing but I am better at getting things done :) 

B. 

I have also stuck to taking notes on the notepad and indexing those for posterity. It's a habit that took a long time but I am glad I got it. I am hooked onto this PKM / Digital Gardening bandwagon and I can not stop organizing my information. To what end, I don't know! I'll discover it in due time. Let's see. 

C. 

Started and quit a project with a friend. I am sure she is sore about it. And I of course blame her for it. To be honest, it sucked to pull the plug like that. But had to be done. Time is limited and I don't know if I am not ruthless, what would I be with it. Plus I want to be able to choose myself over others. So that. 

#miscNotes / What did I learn this month?

Two lessons.

A. 

Thanks to MK's continual reinforcement that all of us need a personal brand as of yesterday, I have started to take action. The thing is, in the connected world we live in, disproportionate opportunities would come to people that have a disproportionately large network in multiple niches (beyond the regular ones like college, neighbors, relatives, etc). I have done literally nothing to grow my personal brand. I need to work on it. Ideally, networks need to be tribes but then networks are a great place to start! 

In fact, a few days ago, I heard a podcast and for no reason pushed a twitter thread about it and that allowed me access to an opportunity that I would not have dreamt of. No, it did not convert. But I got access for sure! I saw the value of the network in action! 

B.

I have stayed off Diet Coke for almost 4 weeks now! Last I called for a case of Diet Coke was on April 25th. And last documented consumption of coke is on 3rd May when I had three cans. Yes, I record all these things :D.

#inJun-Jul20
What do I plan to do in Jun and Jul of 2020?

Two things. 

A. 

Inspired by the lesson I learned about personal branding from MK, I plan to get more social and create a community of sorts on one of the large social networks. 

For example, get to a 20K follower number on twitter (SUPER lofty goal). You may argue that the numbers are vain but the thing is, they work! Plus, I think this is important as places like twitter allow for serendipitous connections and opportunities. And I have seen the power in action already. 

Let's see how I go about it. If you are on Twitter, please follow me at https://twitter.com/saurabh. 

B. 

And this is important! 

Like I said last time, events is gone. A lot of event agencies have moved to digital events but I am not sure those would work. See this tweet (it sucks that I can no longer embed things in this new version of blogger. Time to move on from blogger, I guess). Plus a lot of other clients that I was consulting with as a digital strategy and brand planning consultant, work has dried up from there. Can't blame them. I never wanted to get married to them and good times had to come to an end. 

So I am looking for a new career. 

There are three options that I am considering. Lemme know what you think works... 

• Writer for hire. Thanks to Satyanshu and Anjum Sir's sessions, I am a tad more confident. Plus, I did acquire a new client in the last two months that's paying me to write for them. So that's a possibility.
• A podcaster. All of us know that there is no money to be made as a podcaster (we found out as a result of a study that AD and I did; that eventually helped us create Podium). But there is definitely an opportunity in creating a network of podcasts. I can probably do that? 
• Keep hustling. The way I have rumbled down whatever road promised the shiniest reward at the end of it, I can continue to chase it. This has served me well and I don't see a reason to change (except that there is far fewer opportunities now).

The trouble is, the first two are long-haul ideas. And not sure if I have the resources to tide through till then. The third is unpredictable. Which I am ok with. So there. 

What do you think I could do? And if you know of any interesting opportunities where I could be a mutual fit, please point me to those. 

***

So, that's about it for the update. As always, thank you for your time and attention. Please stay safe! 

Oh, last time around I had written that I actually like this lockdown. I think I'd like to revisit it. I do like it (I can control time better and all that) but I would love to have some freedom to walk around (while keeping a safe distance, of course) and meet people and hug them and all that. If we are all contained in our homes, we'd better live in the matrix! No? 

Over and out!
@saurabh
09 06 2020

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