Poornima Kotak
It is one thing to get opportunities to learn something for yourself, but it is another thing to be able to share it with others. This is a blessing, an elevation in itself.
I had the opportunity to step on stage at the age of 3 and life kept giving me more opportunities in several forms to express myself and learn. I have always enjoyed the limelight, it is intoxicating and it pushes you to crave for more. When there were no opportunities, I created opportunities for myself, by getting together a group of friends and family and performing either a dance or enacting a mono-act for them. My life slowly started becoming a stage for me. I had my challenges – being born and brought up in Bangalore, I had a regional accent, my friends made fun of me and I faced rejection many times. The only way out was to learn and improve. I used ‘pretence’ as a tool, pretended to be a newsreader and read from the newspaper, spoke to myself in the mirror for hours and pretended to be many characters from both English and Hindi movies. I tried implementing several things like working on my vocabulary through word games, theatre workshops for presentation skills, etc.  I started getting better. This helped me learn one thing – nothing is impossible, you just have to try.
In my 20 years of corporate career, I have worked in various organizations across India in leadership positions, handled large teams, and trained people from various cultural backgrounds. One thing is common; people easily give up on their challenges! They feel that their limitations are permanent and cannot be worked upon, be it children, young adults, or adults.
In fact, I have seen highly successful and very senior people in the corporate industry fret when it comes to public speaking or project a powerful Image. The truth is that by using the right techniques and practice, it is definitely possible to overcome these limitations at any age or stage in life. I still do it.
Life has come a full circle for me, now I am a certified Image Consultant from Image Consulting Business Institute, India (ICBI). Employing Image concepts on myself, I have been able to refine my skills and talent, bring together all my experiences and have been able to elevate myself into a much higher dimension.  I have again got an opportunity – this time, to share my experience and learning with my clients, to help them to fight their inner-most fears and demons, to partner with them on enhancing their over- all Image. I work with Individual clients on one-to-one consulting and help organizations align their employees’ Image to the organization’s Image through trainings.
I started working with children on personality development a few years ago, using theatre as a medium. This is my quest to give today’s children similar opportunities that life gave me when I was growing. Now, I also work on helping them build a strong self Image.
When my life’s journey whizzes past my eyes, it feels good that today I specialize in offering Image-Transformation services to people in the senior-most levels of several organizations. I was once the KING in my job, now as an Image Consultant; I am a KING-MAKER.
