In this live interview hosted by Haritosh Srivastav for the Public Speaking Mastermind community, Meenu Khurana shares her journey from joining the community to completing the 15‑day storytelling challenge. She explains why she joined—seeking interview preparation and recognizing storytelling’s importance for leaders— and describes her background as an engineer, startup co‑founder, and program manager. Meenu outlines her top learnings: creating a personal story bank, practicing delivery with community feedback, and the habit of daily reading and writing. She highlights her favorite assignment, a “first date” story set in Jim Corbett National Park, and reflects on the outcomes of the challenge, including increased confidence, a daily writing habit, and enhanced leadership authenticity. Meenu offers advice to future participants, emphasizing the power of showing up daily and taking micro‑actions, and stresses storytelling’s role in building trust and influence for leaders. The interview concludes with encouragement for others to join the community and a recommendation of the challenge.
Chapters
When I started your course, the first chapter in that, in the first training module was like we had to create our own story bank. Before joining this community, I had never written any stories.
Hello everyone who is joining us on Facebook Live on our community Public Speaking Mastermind. I know it's been a while that we came here, but I'm here for a special reason. In our community, in the month of April, we ran a challenge, a 15-day storytelling challenge, where I asked the members to go through a rigorous 15 assignments on storytelling. And as part of these, 3 of our community members were able to complete the challenge successfully. We have one member here who I am going to interview. If you are watching this live on Facebook, or maybe you'll watch it later on YouTube, feel free to like it, comment it, and share your question as well. And help me welcome Minu Kurana, who is one of the finishers. Hello, Minuji, how are you doing?
Hi, Haritosh. Hi, everyone.
Awesome, awesome. Meenu ji, you are live on Facebook. We are doing this interview. Before we get into the detail about the challenge and how did you do, I want you to tell a little bit about yourself and your journey.
I am Meenu. I was born and brought up in Allahabad, and I did my engineering from NIT Allahabad, and then I spent my next 22 years in my professional life in Bangalore, and 5 years ago I had moved to Delhi. I'm a startup co-founder and work as a program manager. We design smart energy meters for Government of India. I know Haritosh Srivastav for last 6 months. I'm glad to be part of this community.
We are so grateful to have you as part of the community. So let me ask you, you told a little bit about your journey in the community, but I want to know How long have you been part of, and most importantly, why did you join our community?
It was, uh, in the first week of October, and, uh, when I was, uh, actually that was the time when I thought of applying for some consultancy assignments and some jobs, and I was preparing for my interview because the last interview I had was around 23 years back, and after that I didn't get the chance. To apply, to appear in an interview. So when I was preparing for interview, that is where I read about how important is storytelling for leaders. And at that time, I came across your FB ad on Facebook about the storytelling session, and I grabbed the opportunity. I like the way you explained, and I had read like leaders are readers, but Now I know that how much storytelling is important for leaders. So that was the reason why I joined it, and I am happy to see my growth as well as your growth, Haritosh Srivastav. Like, I saw that in 6 months you started the newsletters and the podcast, and you have been very regular with your YouTube videos. So that inspires.
You were one of the finishers of this whole storytelling challenge. So let me ask you, what were your top 3 learnings by going through this challenge?
When I started your course, the first chapter in that, in the first training module was like we had to create our own story bank. So where we have to, because sometimes we feel, okay, we don't have any stories to tell. We don't have much experiences to share with others. So I really like the idea about the story bank where even I started capturing. Very first story I wrote was on 10th October, which which I shared with the community and I got the good feedback and that inspired me to write more stories. After that, like, I even wrote my startup journey story which a lot of people liked on LinkedIn and even my college coordinator alumni had— she said that she is going to share with all the students in the MNIT where they'll also be learning from the insights I shared. Because before joining this community, I had never written any stories. So, so that's creating a story bank is the first thing which I can share. And then second thing is we also had to be, uh, practice the art of delivering. So we have very good community team members where like Sharon, and we, they also shared the nuances of storytelling, how we can improve that., and it can only be done by practicing. So we are— I'm working on that. So with each video, I, I thought, okay, I got some new learning. So that was second learning from that.
And the members who are there in the call, if you have any question, feel free to put it in the chat for Menuji. I love to take this. Uh, let's talk about, you know, when you go through such a challenge, you have some tasks which are your least favorite and some of them were your most favorite. So I'm not going to ask which was your least favorite, but which one task was your most favorite task out of this whole challenge?
Yeah, I want to share about the task which I did was where sharing the experience of like your first date. So you said it could be with anyone, and that day I was Jim Corbett National Park, and I thought, okay, what could be the better topic than doing this, my first date with wildlife. So I had covered that and it was a great learning. So that, yeah, that was the most interesting and relevant topic for me that day because I was live at the location when the task was shared.
That was so amazing. And yeah, never ever I thought when I talk about first, you're gonna take it to the wildlife. Okay, so my next question to you is, uh, What has been the outcome of you going through this challenge? What has changed in you and how do you take this?
What I feel is, I know that I'm getting better every day. I'm becoming better and I can do much better also. So this is something I'll be working upon. So I'll be writing more stories. These days I've kind of made it a habit to read and write every day. So that is the one change I can see that where I'm more committed to reading and writing.
Awesome, awesome. And I can see that I've been, been associated for 6 months now. I can see from the time you joined the community to right now, you are much more confident and you are open right there, putting out there. Before that, I thought you were a little bit reserved. Now I see you are more open, which is a great quality of a great communicator. So you are on to great things. Amazing. Second last question for you is, what is your message and tip for anyone who is willing to take up this challenge in future?
I would tell everyone is the most important thing for the success is to show up. So if you show up every day, you will be successful. That is, and then you have to put in effort also, but that will be the most important thing. When I decided to, uh, to Work on the assignment every day, and it worked. Like, I know that— I remember the 15th date, I was in the train. I was traveling to one of my family members' engagement ceremony, so we had a group of around 20 people in the train. And by that time, it was already 11:50, and then I thought, okay, I have to do that video again. That was— the video was about what message you will give once you are 90 years old to your grandchildren or great-grandchildren. So that was the message, okay? You just have to enjoy the life.
I can very well say that you are a very committed person. It's very easy to start, it's very— it's easier to quit in between, but it takes guts, it takes a lot of grit and determination to go through and complete any of the assignments, any of the initiatives that we take out. So more power to you, kudos to you.
The fourth thing which I want to add, because I was looking for a leadership role and you also told me that you can be a leader in your organization as well as if you are looking opportunities outside. So, uh, I, I feel that for leaders it's very important so that they can be more authentic, authentic with their stakeholders, be it their employees, their customers., or any vendors or anyone. So they will trust you more and they'll be motivated to take action. Like once you share their— in stories, your organization's vision, your objectives, your culture. So that would be, I feel, would be very helpful for me because I am into that role. And I think so everyone should be part of the storytelling community. That is what my take is.
Awesome, awesome. And that was my last question to you. Would you recommend this challenge to anyone in the community or outside the community as well?
Yes, because again, I'm a believer in taking small actions and small wins. So I think this micro actions, what we can say is, because if we take it every day, it will give us a lot of confidence. So for once you build the confidence, you can achieve greater things.
Awesome, awesome. More power to you. Thank you so much, Benuji, for being part of the community, for going through the challenge, and for inspiring other community members, and also people who are watching this on Facebook and will watch it on YouTube and other places. Thank you for that. And for any of you, you want to be part of the community, do reach out to us. We can cater to that. So thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you for giving us the platform to hone our skills.
