I sleep beneath the pillow’s spell,

And dreamt about tinker bell

To lose control of the conscious mind

The secrets of my soul to find

The little fairy mend my heart

As she showed me the right path

She said fly high

And just follow your ikigai.

Let me tell you what the Tinker bell whispered in my ear-She said.”Achieve the life of your dreams”

This was nothing but the subconscious thought which was etched in the mind after watching a session from John and missy butcher, the creator of Lifebook, a session by Mindvalley.

It sounds like guided meditation but it shows you a clear vision of what you exactly want from your life.

How?

Jon Butcher guides you through a mind-blowing Instant Clarity exercise that takes you deep into your subconscious mind — and reconnects you with your soul’s deepest desires. In just minutes, this exercise shatters the illusions you’ve been conditioned with and shows you what you’re really here for.

After the session, When I opened my eyes, with a tint of pink and a hazy smile, I knew what my dream was.

I visioned a healthy life fraught with gratitude. I imagined myself in a spacious area working with artisans from different cultures and exploring different art forms.

That was an eye-opener, as I knew what I really want.

I want to be around colors, learn new artforms, help the artisans from remote areas.

The vision was clear.

And that’s when Jharokha, my venture came into existence.

The entire process of how this all started is beautiful but filled with turmoils.

I shared this dream of mine with my family and friends. Everyone was quite supportive and decided to help me. Then gradually they started taking time out and decided to schedule a call twice a week.

Getting support from everyone around, their insights made me feel as if half the job was done.

Initially, the process started with making a series of questions that we rolled out as a survey, to grasp an idea of what people want to buy in terms of handmade things.

The survey was successful, as we knew the right direction.

The next step was to decide the name, A ‘namkaran’ ceremony was scheduled for the same, in which we got approx 50 names and after drilling down, finally we came up with JHarokha, there is a colorful world out there.

I started working on the brand guidelines, researched, and came up with a logo. Since I wanted to relate Jharokha to the colorful world, I chose the color splash as the background tint. Used pink and yellow, as pink retain a sense of energy and cheer, whereas yellow is the happiest color in the color spectrum.

The typography, brand design, visiting cards, catalog, thank you notes and the process is never-ending.

I tried to connect with a few artisans from Rajasthan and a few handicapped artists from Orissa. I bought some amazing-looking artifacts from them.

Products were bought, a few paintings were made, the next important task was to do photography of the products. Research began by searching ideas from websites, Pinterest and I tried product photography and came out with a few good clicks, the next task want to make people aware of the brand. I knew the best and easy way out would be posting on social media. I read about social media marketing strategies and started posting products on Instagram and Facebook, made reels on trending songs, then added an extra edge by being creative and tried to stop motion animation, where products were tied with cute stories.

Initially, the things were sold, but gradually everything became stagnant because in the time of covid, everyone was going through a tough phase and no one was interested in buying things for home decor.

Challenges-People were not willing to buy home decor. Increasing reach and followers on Social media is still a challenge,

Tried different marketing techniques on social media, Post on some specific timing to increase the reach, made reels of the products, made stop motion videos, made interactive quizzes, Planned giveaway prizes to increase engagement, contacted a few influencers as well as asked them to promote my brand.

https://www.instagram.com/jharokhaaa/

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CXiT64tjSmv/

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CN9KwWxjptn/

Dropped that idea, and figured out some other way, to which we ended up making our products, in which my mom and neighbors started making beautiful and innovative things out of macrame thread and I started making paintings.

We added a unique dimension to Jharokha and yes it helped but I guess again that stagnance has hit hard and we have started to look out for new methods.

“Smooth seas, do not make skillful sailors”

We don’t grow when things are easy, we grow when we face challenges.

I am glad that am still in the growing phase and am going to conquer all the obstacles.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

While promoting it on Instagram, I faced a challenge and the designer in me started researching about the problem as a user.

I made a content calendar for the social media posts, which were predefined and designed to upload. But somehow, I used to forget the designated date and time of posting. I wondered how about if there is an option on Instagram itself which schedules my post well in advance and uploads it automatically.

I scribbled and came up with a rough flow.

There is a feature of ‘schedule post’ in the flow that allows the user to add an image, set the date and time for the post to be uploaded automatically.

Also, there is a feature of ‘Edit Queue’, where the user can delete and edit the posts. The ‘Pause Queue’ option lets you pause the uploading of the images.

This gives additional liberty to the user to manage in a much flexible manner

Thanks for your time!