1st Edition of #WorkshopsByNaina : Online Brand Building, Photography, Influencer Marketing

Second edition of #WorkshopsByNaina announced here!

After 14 years of doing whatever it is I do, and after exhortations from multiple friends, peers & even the fam, sometime in the month of May, I decided I would conduct my first ever workshop. And that I would do it in the month of June, come what may. Happy to report that I did it. Fuck yeah!

The agenda was simple and I announced the workshop in a blog post – but of course!

I imagined that if I had wanted to start on the online space today, what would be some of the things I wish someone had told me. I took that and developed content around it and on the 30th of June, seven participants and I got together for a fast-paced EXHAUSTING workshop. We were all in the conference room for four hours straight with maybe one loo break and lots of glasses of water.

Content of the Workshop

We kicked off the workshop with a quick round of #EyesForPeople portraits for all the seven participants.

Then, instead of the traditional and very boring powerpoint presentation method, I launched into blog posts. I developed content for 9 blog posts, specifically for this workshop and I opened up each one of those one by one and talked about what they covered.

Participants asked questions throughout the workshop and I tried my best to address all queries. Luckily, most of the questions were common amongst the participants, so we all learned something. At one point during the session, I remarked that it was turning out to be more of a “My Brand on Instagram” workshop than anything else. There is no doubt that Instagram is a vital platform for a brand these days but I also emphasized that it is still a third-party platform with its own algorithms and profit margins. You MUST have your own blog / website / store. It is super easy these days to do this. You just have to do it.

I shared examples of Instagram accounts that I believe are doing a great job with brand building. I shared links to the apps and software I use to edit my images. I shared some very basic & doable pointers to make better photos whether shooting on a mobile phone or on a DSLR and we also discussed the importance of an Editorial Calendar.

The last part of the workshop was a brief introduction to Influencer Marketing and how a small brand can approach influencers and work with them. And then we proceeded to take a bunch of selfies, pose for a group photograph and then we were off!

Participants also received access to all nine blog posts and will have access forever.

Thank you for coming Paulami Saha, Mehtab Luthra, Nidhi Gupta, Avi Ananya, Sparsh Gupta, Sunanda Aggarwal and Mohit Sehgal.

What’s Next

I have been swamped with a photo shoot since the day after the workshop and have not had the time to write about it or talk about it till now. A few video snippets from the workshop were posted on my Instagram stories and I’ve saved those to my highlights on my main Instagram page. I’m still working on the #EyesForPeople portraits of all the participants. I will share a little more about the participants when I publish the portraits.

If you were not able to make it to this workshop, and would like access to the Subscriber Only blog posts ( over 4,000 words ), this can be purchased from my store. The blog posts are freely available to workshop participants.

If you would like to be informed about any upcoming workshops / on-ground events, you can sign up to my mailing list / newsletter. ( It is infrequent – I’ve only sent out one email so far – it is easy to unsubscribe at any point, I promise I won’t guilt trip you AT ALL. It is the first place where I share new products on the store or new photo editing apps I’ve discovered or new workshops I’m announcing. )

Acknowledgements

To me, it is unbelievable that this happened. I announced the workshop on the 4th of June and by the 9th of June, it was not only sold out for the 05 seats that I’d announced but the two extra reserve seats I’d kept aside were also booked. It’s been quite stunning and I’m pleasantly shocked at the response from everyone. Having received so much encouragement and support, I’m planning to take my workshops to other Indian cities as well.

Could not have done it without the on-ground support from my sister Akanksha Redhu. She sat through the entire four hours, photographed the workshop for me and even re-filled my glass of water. She could have conducted her own workshop if she wanted!

Special thanks to CoWrks for the unexpected sandwiches and the lovely support from the team. I had booked a conference room at CoWrks and they managed everything smoothly for me. It is incredible what options are available to entrepreneurs these days. I wanted a professional space, WiFi, air-conditioning, on-ground support if I needed anything, etc. and this was a hassle-free experience.

For Future Workshop Announcements

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This was the first edition of #WorkshopsByNaina, which is an on-ground initiative under the umbrella of #TheNainaRedhuExperience videos & podcasts.

Subscribe to my YouTube channel for the videos. The podcast is called “The Naina Redhu Experience” and can be found on iTunes as well as any podcast app that you use. This is the RSS feed for the podcast.