Instagram Inspiration Episode 8 - Deepak Sharma
In this Instagram Live interview, host Haritosh Srivastav converses with Toastmaster DTM Deepak Sharma about his personal and professional journey. Deepak recounts his humble upbringing in a Punjabi, Hindi‑medium household, early struggles with English pronunciation, and the pivotal moment that led him to Toastmasters in 2007. He describes his initial fear of embarrassment, the mentorship he received from senior Toastmasters, and how successive speaking contests built his confidence. The conversation moves to his transition into corporate training, his first break with Astrum (later Sodexo), and the evolution into an outdoor‑adventure‑based training approach, eventually founding his own training company. Deepak shares philosophical insights – that pain is inevitable but suffering is a choice, and that leaders should empower rather than disempower. He narrates a painful failure when a senior trainer rejected his CV, turning it into a lesson on compassionate mentorship. He then outlines a practical framework for success: the three‑P model – Passion, Proficiency, Profit – and stresses the need for belief, alignment of actions with belief, and having fun. Advice for young professionals centers on these principles. Finally, he reflects on coping with COVID‑19, viewing the pandemic as a unique growth window, and shares personal goals like training for a marathon. The interview ends with a call to help others and keep stepping out of comfort zones.
Chapters
Jim Rohn says, you are the average of top 5 people you spend your most time with. And today I'm privileged to have one such leader who you definitely want to have in your top 5. Good morning, afternoon, good evening, people joining across the world and those who will watch it later. I am so privileged and humbled to have with me distinguished Toastmaster Deepak Sharma sir. Hello sir, thank you so much for joining this session.
Hello Haritosh Srivastav, it's my pleasure that I'm here today with you on this live Instagram Live.
Sure, so just for you to know the format, what I'll be doing is I'll be asking a few questions and I'm pretty sure you'll have very, very good answers for that and In the meanwhile, if audience have any question, they can post it in the chat and we'll see if we can take a few questions towards the end. So, uh, I remember my first interaction with you, uh, that was back in 2016, and I had recently joined Toastmasters and you were taking, I think, one of the TLI session, and you talked about the story of the mother giraffe and how she kicks her kid right after she's born, right after the kid is born. And that story has with me for like 4 more than 4 years now. So that's the power of storytelling, and especially your storytelling, that now I still remember the story. And so, so glad to have you. So would you take us, uh, for, for your journey, how, how did you start and what all things have you done in like next few minutes?
Sure, journey of public speaking, brother. I come from a very humble family. My father was a sepoy in army. He joined, he fought war for 1965 and 1971 with Pakistan, and he was at a very— started in army at a very junior position, and he retired in 1988. But because we are from a Punjabi family and we had no clue what is speaking in English, because even I used to speak Hindi in Punjabi, so that was how I used to be like. And it has always been all through, I lived my life through Hindi medium. Every time when I used to see people, uh, I speaking English, I used to think, can I speak in English someday? But I got my biggest jolt when I was participating in one of the debate competitions, and that too after doing all the ratification. And after participating in that debate competition in my 12th class in Hindi, that was on October 2nd, October, Gandhi Jayanti. And when I came back from the stage, my Hindi teacher gave me feedback. She said, 'You were good, but please stop speaking Hindi in Punjabi.' And I was thinking about speaking in English, and there I was not able to speak. Rather, my pronunciation in Hindi was so bad, it was so influenced by my mother tongue that it was very difficult to come out of that. So I still have one of my Toastmasters speeches where I always talk about this. Where I said I always used to say, uh, parak, phalam, you know, typical words that we use in Punjabi. And people later on, people started making fun of me. What? This is not parak, it's park, or it's film. So, and I used to think nobody ever told me all these things. And then Toastmasters happened to me in 2007. It was an accident that I— my wife told me that there is some club coming up in Dwaraka, and some people are joining hands. You want to go and they're starting at home. So they learn, teach you how to speak in English, how to speak in front of people. So I had no clue about Toastmasters in there. I have never heard about it. But when I first time entered that club, I didn't go to their house. I kept on postponing it for more than 6 months. And then one day again she told me that now they are not meeting in a house, they're meeting in a small primary school. So you go and meet them there. So I happened to reach there, and I was called— as you know, that in Toastmasters meeting there is a table topic session, and the guests are invited to speak on table topics. And I was invited to speak on table topics. And I remember my topic the way you remember that story. The topic was, your journey's, um, 1,000-mile journey starts with the first step, with the single step. I was very happy to, because I've heard this topic many times, so I thought I will be able to speak on it. But as I started, I was not able to speak on even it on 15 seconds. So I was, uh, that day I realized it's not about fear of public speaking. That day I realized it was fear of embarrassment that people don't go on stage. And I got embarrassed like anything, and then I left that meeting and never returned back for next 6 months. This was March 2007, and in October or November 2007, I got again an invite to attend a humorous speech contest which was happening at India International Center in Delhi. And I thought— and that person who invited me told me that, you know, you don't worry about it, you don't have to speak it's a contest, so you have to just go and have fun. It's going to be a lot of humor and all. You can have good laugh, good Sunday. So I went with one of my friend there, and we reached there, we enjoyed the contest, no doubt about it. But that was so hilarious. I still remember many speeches, and I still remember there was a presentation about presentation skill by one of the founders in India of Toastmasters. I am forgetting his name, but he— Deepak Menon always talk about him. He was his reason for joining Toastmasters. And maybe I'll get his name right now. So I saw him giving that presentation, and then I asked him after the meeting, I said, uh, I know he, he was like around 70, 75 years old. I said, I know you are very experienced, uh, I am just 38 years old. 'And you— I saw a lot of speakers today on the stage who was like making us laugh like anything. You think I have never spoken in front of anyone, can I do it? Will I be able to do it?' He said, 'Yes.' And I said, 'How?' He said, 'Join a Toastmasters Club.' So without thinking, I went to the Toastmasters Club of Dwarka's president. He was there in the meeting, and I told him that I will be joining the club. That's how journey started. And this was December 2017, and I, I got so excited after seeing that contest because you don't know what excites you, what could be your turning point in life. It could be anything. As you were sharing this story with me and that you said you remember that story, But if, for example, I still remember that one speech that Anagat Parekh gave on Indian mates, and that was amazing speech. And I joined Toastmasters only because of that speech. Though Anagat is not in Toastmasters now, he is a senior executive in one of the big company, but I am still in touch with him on Facebook and I know that I never told him, but I know that I have joined because of that speech, Toastmasters. So the journey started and I participated in the first contest in the month of March 2018— 2008. But the best thing happened to me that I realized that this was my blind spot and in my life which I was not aware that I knew I can do speaking. It was all about matter of time and all about picking up some things. I know everything I was doing all was cramming and then going on the stage and speaking at that point of time. But the best part is I was not feeling that fear. I was just making those mistakes and without even anybody telling me. And when I gave my 8th speech, because somebody told me, you have to, we have to give 6 speeches and to participate in the contest in March. It was December, I decided to give 6 speeches, one back to back. And when I gave my 6th or 7th speech, and luckily those days all the top current Toastmasters were part of that group. DTM Deepak Menon was there, DTM Rita Rodha was there, DTM Vinay Jain was there, DTM Puneetha Singh was there. So everybody is like the cream of Toastmasters, a part of the clubs that I used to go. And I got evaluated by each one of them during my first 6 speeches. And I think that made a difference. And I still remember, in my— I still got that manual where I where Dr. Rita Rhoda wrote that, uh, I'm liking the way you are running this race. Keep making mistakes, you will reach your destination soon. So this was the end of the one of the evaluations she wrote, and I got really motivated with that, and I participated in the contest. And they were all good speakers. Dr. Rita Rodda was also one of the participants. Obviously I lost. So, but that's how the journey started. That's how the journey started. And then I never looked back. And in 2008, I got so much of confidence after participating in the international speech contest. I lost the contest, but I won my confidence.
Oh, that's profound.
And why I'm saying is because in 2008, May, after participating in the contest in March, I went to my boss and I told him that I have found my calling. He said, what's that? I said, I want to get into training where I can impact people, because I was told by many people after listening to my speech That speech was on dream. Title was Fight or Flight. And after listening, after a lot of people came to me and said, you have impacted us, and I had no clue that these days today we always tell people that it's not about winning, it's about your message in the speech, how you can impact people. Nobody has ever told me. But a lot of people came to me and said, your speech was very inspiring. And I, and I realized that I have that little bit of possibility where I can impact people's life. I told my boss, he was making fun of me. He said, no, you cannot do it, don't do this. You have been working in this organization for last 16 years and you will fail. You have no idea of speaking, this, that. But he had no clue that I've joined Toastmasters. I said, no, I I should be able to do it. I think, uh, it is possible. But he, he said he was actually trying to protect me. So it happens in life. And whoever watch— watching this, or whoever will watch it later on, I want to tell you one very important thing, that all the people who are very close to you, when they say no to you, that you cannot do it, don't feel that they are discouraging you. They are trying to protect you, my friends. They're trying to protect you from all the bad evils in the world because they love you.
True.
And when, when they try to protect you, what will happen? Imagine if there's a plant, plant, and you cover that plant, try to protect the plant from sun and from all the heat and all the winds. The plant will die.
Die. It will not grow. True.
It will not grow. If you leave the plant in outside in open, whatever the weather is, the plant will be able to bear it, and after some time it will grow. So I was very adamant. So he told me, and you, as they say, that if you are clear about your goal, then all the forces conspire to help you. I was very adamant, and he said, okay, uh, don't leave the job because, because I care about you. Why don't you take your leave, that your— whatever you have, and whenever you have training programs, uh, figure it out, go and do the training program taking your leave. So I started looking for people, I started looking for training companies who can give opportunity to me and tell me, you tell me Can anybody give you an opportunity when you are not experienced? Very rare, very rare, very rare. So I had no knowledge about training, I had no knowledge about speaking. So one day I sat and I said, okay, I will prepare a module on goal setting because I was very passionate about goal setting. I practice, I practice, I practice in front of mirror, and I thought I will deliver it in one of the Toastmasters meeting. And then I was sending my applications and requests to many training companies, and there was this company called Astrum in Delhi, and this gentleman has met me in one of the session. He came to our office once, I remember, to deliver, to, for conducting training for our office. And I was part of admin team, so I was in that meeting. So I also wrote a mail to him because he knew me. So he told me, okay, you come and meet me. I met him, I was with full confidence, I went there. And he said, okay, what we'll do, with some of our team members, we will organize a small demo session for you. And I started, uh, I went there, I did a demo session, and they liked it. I don't know how they liked it, and they said, okay, we have a hospitality group that is basically based out of Noida, and they are the one who are providing all these, managing these kitchens and all in the various corporate offices. So you have to train those people. And then I got my first training program. I worked very hard, prepared very hard for that, and I delivered that program. And I don't know how I delivered that program, but it went off well. And then I started getting programs from them, at least one program a week. So, and finally that company got converted into Sodexo.
You know Sodexo?
Yeah, you know Sodexo. And then I did programs for Sodexo during— so it was under Sodexo. So, so I did some programs for Sodexo, and then I thought, uh, that I was not enjoying doing the program in the classroom. Then again, I started looking for— because I have— if you have heard my speech, I talked about my rappelling experience. So I, I realized that rappelling is very important part of learning. So I was looking for somewhere I can do some outbound training program where I can use these kind of adventure and outdoor activities to teach people how to learn various executive skills, communication skills, leadership skills by putting themselves into crisis situation. So that's how it started. And I was on a holiday, and there I happened to meet a hotel guy. He was saying that we get a lot of trainers in our resort, so he gave me a few names of trainers. I kept following up with them for many months, and one of them said, okay, come and meet us. I think I started— I went on a holiday in the month of January 2000. No, May 2008. I met this guy in October, November 2008, and then I started working with them as a co-facilitator. So because I come from administration background, I was managing the more of an administration of the training program and being there just to put on the board all the learnings. And that's how I started, uh, learning, watching them, and then And then the rest is history. So then I later on started my own training company. And then, so all these things, these are very small things, but every small step had changed that trajectory of my life. So even when I took the decision to become CGD in District 41, That has gave me immense learning. Okay, when I took a decision to not to con— not to— after losing my district director election, not to contest for PQD, that has also changed my trajectory of life. When I took the decision to start my own training company or close my training company or move to US, everything because It's my very personal experience that at that point of time— now, whatever we are going through today in COVID-19, we all are in pain. Similarly, whenever we go through these dark phases of life or challenges of life, we all are in pain. But I learned one very important sentence. I knew about it, but this has made my belief very strong on this word called pain. When I was in, uh, Chicago last year, or I think last to last year, for attending one of the conference— yeah, last to last year, for attending Toastmasters convention, Sara Khan was one of the speakers there, and she said one very important line. And again, you don't know what impacts you in life. He said, pain is inevitable, but suffering is your choice.
Wow, pain is inevitable, suffering is your choice.
Yeah, so I could relate to it because I knew that wherever I have reached, or wherever anybody in the world has reached in life, it's only because of choices. The choices they made when they were in pain. So choices are the one that helps you decide on the future of your, of your life. And you can only connect about the results by looking back. As I always say, connect the dots looking back. You cannot connect the dots looking forward. So at this point of time, what we are doing is we are connect— in this COVID-19 also, we are leaving different kind of dots in our life, and you cannot draw a picture at this point of time. Maybe 5 years down the line, you will emerge as an amazing and a very strong human being, and you will say to your kids or your friends, after I— if I can handle COVID situation, I can handle any crisis in life. Now nothing is bigger than COVID. If I can survive in this, I can handle anything. And there will be a lot of bigger crisis than COVID that will come in our life. So you will say thanks to COVID, that COVID has made me so strong that today I can handle these crisis like a cakewalk. So this has been my journey, and I have— I'm still in— I'm not saying that I have completed my journey. I am very excited about learning every day. I'm a work in progress, 100% work in progress, because I have— I think I have just laid down my foundation, and now the work on the building starts.
True. Yeah, thank you, thank you so much, sir. I think this has been like so much inspiration for all of us, not only Toastmasters, so many people who is joining or who will watch this. Now, your story, your journey has been so inspirational. So one of the things that I do in these interviews is to talk to people about— we all do talk about our success We boast about our success, to be honest. But I like to go to the dark things. I like to ask people about their one or two failures in life and what were their journeys. You did cover a few things, but now if you want to give one or two more examples of your failures and what all did you learn from it, I'm pretty sure it would be helpful for all of us.
So one of my failures was that I was— I used to really get inspired inspired by one of the speaker. I don't want to name, uh, the gentleman for a reason. You'll get to know. And I have attended one of his training program in, uh, this hotel in Narrow Place, Intercontinental. And I have— I was very inspired by him that I was nominated for his training program by my office, and I was The program was about executive, uh, the one-day training program for executive secretaries and administrative professionals. So I was really inspired. So I, I think he also sowed that seed that this is my calling after attending that training program. So that training program was done by him and his son. So both were trainers. So see, he was around 75 years old and the son was around 35, approximately 35-40. So when I started thinking about becoming a trainer, he was the first person that I contacted. I wrote a mail to him that I wanted to become a trainer and I, uh, want to come and meet you. So this gentleman was sick, so his son was actually responding to everything. His son was also very well-known trainer. And when I— so he agreed to meet me. And it, as in Toastmasters, we always look at that many times when you go on the stage first time are we doing anything first time, we mess up, right? So I also messed up when I took my profile, or so-called CV, to him. I wrote in that CV that I want to become a trainer because I want to get out of this slave job. Okay, okay. Now, I heard somewhere during those days that jobs are for slaves. Job makes you slave. Okay, now, uh, so I, because my English was not that good, I picked up this word. I like this word. I use this word. And when he saw me, he saw his, uh, my CV. He said, you cannot become a trainer. I said, why? He said, it is very important that you should know what to write in your CV. So I said, maybe I made a mistake, I'm sorry for it. But he was very furious. He said, I don't want to talk to you, you cannot become a trainer. Wow. So, so I had— so he really demotivated me. I was sitting in his office.
I was—
my friend was waiting at the reception. He was with me. It was in Nizamuddin in Delhi. And when I came out of his house, I still remember standing on the road and crying. And I thought my journey has ended today. So my learning from this situation is— and I decided that day that anybody who will come to me to take guidance to become trainer, I will make sure that the person is handled with care, because you don't know from what background he is coming and with what thoughts is coming to you. And I'm glad that I was able to guide more than— I think at this point of time, if I not less, 10 people, minimum 10 people are in various phases of their journey of being a trainer or a speaker, uh, because they came to me with this question. And I guided them, I helped them. Two of them are already working with Blue Sky Learning, where I used to work. And there are a lot of people who are on this journey of training, doing separately. So I think, uh, as a leader, my learning is whenever people comes to you, you don't have to disempower them. You have to empower them with your words with your thoughts. They may come with anything, any mess. That's fine, that's fine. They can come with any mess, but it is our responsibility as a communicator, as a leader, as a speaker, what words to use. How do we empower? Like, I, I heard very important thing recently, and it means a leader is somebody when you go to him He should empower you, then only a leader is called a powerful leader. But many leaders, what they do, as soon as people go to them, or people actually scared to go to them, oh, I cannot go in front of my boss, I cannot talk to him, oh, he is DTM, I cannot talk to him. 'How will I talk to him?' So if somebody is that kind of stature and people get the vibes that you cannot talk to him or you cannot go and speak to him when you go to his room or her room, it means you have a personality that is snatching that power from people, okay? Power to speak. So you are not a powerful leader, you are a powerless leader. Powerful leader is somebody who gives power to others. And a powerless leader is one who is not even knowing that he is taking power from others. So why is taking power? Because he's powerless. That's why he's taking power from others so that he can become powerful, but he cannot become powerful. So this is my learning from that one instance that I would like to— that I shared with you, that please use some empowering words when you're dealing with new people, or new— I call it new recruits when they're coming into any new industry because they are very naive, very new, very— they're like those budding plans.
Truly, thank you, sir. And yeah, I totally agree that our leaders should be powerful and not powerless. In my corporate career of 12+ years now, I have had many powerful leaders and a few powerless leaders, but I think I've learned from most of them. So my next question to you is About if you have to give 2 or 3 tips for any young person who's gonna join any, regardless of the choice, any career, what would be some of the 2-3 tips that they, that is like universal and they can apply to be successful?
So I think, uh, there are 3 things that makes any career, any person successful in life. One is how passionate you are for that. Okay, now passion means that you believe in that particular thing. So for example, if I am saying something, I believe in that. Okay, so more than I believe in that, you should be able to understand that that you believe that I believe in that. Are you getting my point? Yeah. Haritosh Srivastav is sitting in front of me. Haritosh should be able to see from my eyes or my talk that yes, what Deepak is saying, he believes in that. So when you start doing things that you're passionate about people start watching you, and your progress is automatic if you believe in that. If you're saying that I am, I'm a leader and you believe in, in motivating your team, it means people will get to know whether you believe it or not. Yeah, whether you— where is it? Where is the fake motivation or it's a real motivation?
True.
Okay, if you are saying that we have to follow these values in the organization, people will get to know that leader is only talking because his management is telling him to follow these values, or he's actually the custodian of these values. Hmm. So one thing is passion and belief. So belief— passion comes from your belief. Second thing is, now when you believe in something, one believing is something and doing is something. So means, for example, I'm saying that you should get up at 5 o'clock. Let me say that I take out a video on the my YouTube channel, the how to get up at 4:45, and you call me one day and you say, Deepak, I want to do a session with you at 7 o'clock, and I say, sorry, I get up only at 7:30, I— or we cannot do at 7:30 because I only get up— it's Sunday. So you'll get to know that my audio and my video is not aligned.
Yeah.
So your actions has to be aligned with your belief. Hmm, true. Okay, so your actions also be aligned. And the third important thing is, are you having fun? What are you doing? So if your passion or belief, your actions, and you are also having fun in that profession Then where all the three circles get, uh, intersect, that is the point where you become a professional and you actually start delivering values to people in that process.
Wow.
So whenever you are choosing a profession, whether it's speaking or becoming a doctor or becoming a lawyer, please ask yourself Do I believe in what I'm saying? Am I— is my actions aligned to my thoughts, what I'm believing? Am I having fun? So for example, when I am learning about my area, whether it's public speaking or communication, and I mean, I don't get tired. Yesterday I started at 7 o'clock in the morning and at I was working till 8 o'clock in the night. It was Saturday, and, and I, I was not tired at 8 o'clock. I was like as fresh as I can go for another 10 hours. Wow. So that is what happens when you enjoy something. It's like when kids are playing in the ground and you keep on calling them, but they are— they say, ah, they'll come, they'll come, they'll come, because they're enjoying, because they're enjoying. Yeah, that is very important.
Wow, that, that's so, uh, I'd say it's so interesting and still so empowering to say. And one thing, I'm— this is the 8th episode that I'm doing, and I'm bringing all the people who really inspired me. And one common word which is common across the episode is the word passion. Everyone I've talked to talked about passion, and, and that really shows the power that passion brings up.
So I want to add one thing here, and I think this is a very important rider to passion. A lot of people start doing things which they are passionate about, okay? So, but it is very important to understand that If you are passionate about something, are you proficient about that thing? Hmm.
Or you—
are you ready to become proficient about it? I may be passionate about football, but I— if I'm— I cannot start playing football now. So there are 3 Ps in life. This is a different model: passion, proficiency, and profit.
No.
Okay. Now, if you are passionate about something and you are proficient about something, you will definitely be able to earn profit in terms of, uh, of course money, and of course people, relationships, and life. So if you are passionate but not proficient, you will lose. You'll not get profit. If you are passionate and you are earning profit— sometimes you're passionate about something, you're earning profit, and but if you are not proficient, you may earn profit for some time, but you lose very soon. And if you are proficient and you are earning profit, you are not passionate, it leads to boredom in life.
Wow.
So the three pillars has to come together if you really want to go into your profession, whichever you like. Wow, amazing.
I mean, you must have noticed I'm saying wow for at least 30th time in this. That's not because I'm just trying to repeat something. I, I'm just being empowered or enlightened with the knowledge that I'm getting. So thank you so much, sir. Thank you. So my next and probably last question, and before I do, if anyone has any question, please put it in the comment box. We'll see if we can take it. How are you coping or enjoying with COVID-19?
I will say, see, I have taken— so this is Somehow a part of my system now, because for the so many years I've been training, there are a lot of negative voices in life, okay? And COVID is something like that. So it's our choice what, how we want to take this negative voice. Having said that, we are in much better situation than those, all those poor people who are walking on the roads Definitely the best part, I think, and I'm blessed. I always am my gratitude on this particular thing that I have a house I'm staying in, whether it is rented or whatever it is, and I have food to eat.
True.
And I have job. I'm blessed in lockdown. I am working. I'm blessed in lockdown. But even a lot of people are not even enjoying this COVID, even if they have all these things. They're still complaining. So my message to them is that this is the time to build up, this is the time to learn, this is the time to discover, and this is the time to unleash your potential. Because you will never get this much time again in life. Okay, so I have a very clear agenda in this COVID, very clear, that I am— I think I've already done 2-3 courses. I'm already on my journey of— have a new goal of running marathon by November or December. So I've hired a coach who is teaching me and training me on marathon. So every alternate day I'm running few kilometers to start with. So I'm doing all those things that has never been done. So I am writing, I am doing a lot of interesting things. So it's all time to build up. I think it's time to build up. And I would tell everyone, go and find your passion now. And build your proficiency so that when you go out of COVID you'll have passion and proficiency. Profit will follow, right?
Thank you, thank you so much, sir. Thank you. This has been great having you, and I'm very sure all of, all of us have learned so much things already, and those who will watch will definitely love this. So I think with this, I think we have come towards the end, and I don't see any questions, so I'm not now gonna end the episode, uh, like I do every time, that let's help each other. And when I say help, it's not always about money. Sometimes it's also about talking to somebody for 5 minutes, feeding a pet, or doing anything which helps any living being. So thank you so much once again, sir. Uh, This was a privilege and honor to have you.
And thank you.
And I'm gonna end like I do every time, that now let's keep learning, keep growing, and keep going out of our comfort zone. This is Haritosh Srivastav signing off with episode 8 with Deepak Sharma DTM. I'll be back next week with another inspiration who has helped me in my life. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Haritosh Srivastav. Nice talking to you. Bye-bye.
Thank you, sir. Bye.
