How NOT to write an invitation email to an Advisory board Member

Some days ago, I agreed to be on the Advisory Board of a start-up working in the disability space. I offered to do this pro-bono because this work is linked to Esha and the cause I stand for. 

I asked them to send me an invitation email and I would accept it to formalise the connection. 

Today, I got the formal invitation email. This, dear friends, is being recorded as the ultimate example of how NOT to write an invitation email to a member of the Advisory Board or Panel. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present: 

************

Dear Nidhi Arora,

 We at ******** are impressed with your expertise in the field and would like to invite you to be an Advisor on Product & User Acquisition. Your roles and responsibilities would include helping *******  with user acquisition / engagement,making contact with us to test the product pipeline - hardware and software, as well as introducing us to key people in the ecosystem.

We believe your knowledge and experience would be valuable in making our product better for use cases for the visually impaired. Please let us know your thoughts on the proposal and if you're interested, we would be honored to have you on board.

 Looking forward to hearing from you.

 Warm regards

 --

<Formal Signature of the Founder> 

**************** 

The case for NO REMINDERS

At TCP, the news articles are written by teenagers. 

They send in content whenever they can. 

We are, and always have been, a no-reminder culture. 

You get no reminders. If you don't send in your work on time, it does not get published, that's all. 

At Esha, we are a no reminders place. If you are a summer volunteer and don't send in your work by Friday 1700 hours IST, you are rolled over to the next week. 

At both places, one is expected to note and manage their calendar and deadlines. 

Why did we decide to do this? 

Because I believe that reminders have crippled our ability to manage our own calendars. 

Also, because reminders are irritating. 

So, we decided to do away with them. 

How has that worked out? 

Phenomenally well. 

The reminder to send a reminder was weighing us down too. 

Now, there is total peace. We trust that the person will send what they have to send before the deadline. So, there are no last hour palpitations at all. 

If they don't come, we just merrily go on. 

Its all very well in non-critical roles. But what about critical roles? 

As a PM for more than a decade, I have never given reminders to any member of the team. Their deadlines were always their responsibility. 

And it worked very well. Half the stress of my team was gone. By the way, our on schedule record was over 90%. My teams rarely ran late on deliverables. There were multiple factors responsible for that (perhaps another post for that), but this also, I think, led to massive reduction in stress all around. 

That is why, when setting the culture of TCP, we started with NO REMINDERS. 

Try it. I can assure you, its very productive. 

Today, I got a guidance from my meditation. 

It is time to be whole. It is time to present all dimensions of existence - the spiritual, the physical, the financial, intellectual, and emotional. 

Labelling is no longer necessary. 

The only thing is, i dont know how to do it! 

One day at a time, then? 

And I am listed on Barnes and Noble!!

Today, I was wondering what will happen if a book store owner wants to stock Probe8?? 

What will they find on the internet? 

So i did a vanity search on just hte name of the book and Surprise! 

I found that the book is listed on Barnes and Noble online store! 

How amazing is that! 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/probe8-nidhi-arora/1143301078

As a child, Barnes and Noble was aspirational. I never, never once dreamt that I would, one day, be a listed author on Barnes and Noble. 

I think, my dad would be very proud. 

That moment when a friend gets a Book recommendation email from Amazon, and its's your book!

The Happiness of seeing this screenshot cannot be put in words!

The subject of the email is my book name!

The email has only ONE recommendation - and that's my book. :)

#PureExhileration

Sylvia's Book Review of Probe8

 A first-time author is always looking for genuine feedback.

Getting this from a bibiophile like Sylvia Grace made my day! Sylvia's curated book recommendations are amazing. To be reviewed by her is truly an honour.

Thank you, Sylvia, for taking the time to read them, and for this lovely feedback. I can't stop grinning from ear to ear!

Announcing my first book - Probe8 - Eight modern mysteries of detective fiction

So, on March 27th, my first book, Probe 8, was listed on Notionpress.com 

From then to April 17th, we were sorting out one thing at a time. 

The book was next listed on Amazon, from where most of my friends bought it. 

A book is an entity unto itself. It has its own journey. 

The journey of writing the book, I have already shared in the Foreword. This post, and some that come after this, are the journey of the book. 

The book was bought, obviously, by friends and family, to do me a favour. 

But what happened after that was quite amazing. 

The readers actually LIKED the stories. 

They came back to say that this was not even their genre, but they just could not put the book down! 

Let's start with the reviews from Amazon. All these reviews are honest. Even if written by friends, i requested them to write what they really thought about the book. 

This one is by Viky Arya ji: 

And these: 

And these: 

And these: 

Sylvia, who recommends books professionally, took my breath away with this completely unanticipated review. She told me that of late, she had not been reading fiction all that much, so this is doubly precious for me: 

And from Manisha, who is a reluctant reader on account of time constraints: