ALOK
This series brings together individuals who have transformed, faced challenges head-on, and achieved remarkable feats in their lives, allowing us to engage in dialogue, share their personal stories, and gain a deeper understanding of their experiences. These are very new times, and it is so important to learn from each other, so that’s why we are doing a series where we can learn from the transformers themselves.
MIGMA
Hi, Alok, thank you so much for inviting everyone. How are you guys doing? I know you’re rocking and enjoying yourself, and you’re going to have a great day ahead.
ALOK
Wow, amazing! Yes, I love your energy, Migma. I’ve been following you on YouTube, and every time I see your videos or vlogs, I feel so inspired. Allow me to share a little bit about my experience with you. What I know about you, Migma, is that you have been a facilitator, a role that holds a special place in my heart, as I have been a facilitator for many years. So, based on the limited knowledge I have about you, Migma, I know that you are a facilitator. You were doing team-building workshops, and I saw you do one in Sohna [Haryana] on the same property.
While I was working on it, I discovered that you owned an event company called Qshow. I don’t know much about it, but I do know that you were involved. You were the driving force behind some extremely successful events, and that’s all I know about you.
Tell me your story.
What has your journey been like? Migma, when it started
MIGMA
I was born in the village of Rimbick in Darjeeling, and so basically, I could not study a lot because my father expired when I was 12 years old, and being the head of the family, I had to work from the age of 14 and a half. I was in a brief period in the armed forces as well, and then, due to some medical reasons, I had to come out. Life has been a roller coaster; I worked a lot of odd jobs, and then finally, I found something in a Sterling holiday resort.
So my first job in Sterling Holiday resort was a not a dishwasher but uh I used to wipe plates in F&B service you know F&B service is like so I used to we were a casual labour so I would hire as a party worker so I used to do wiping whole day and learn about room service then slowly graduate to a restaurant then I handled bar then during the bar I used to sing occasionally you know there used to be event department in that resort which used to call holiday activities then whenever there was a conference and some evening functions I used to leave my bar and go and sing you know and then one day uh and I back of the head I knew that if even if I worked hard or do whatever I could I will never be able to promote myself in the hotel industry because I don’t have the education required or I don’t have the management degree.
I grown as a casual labourer got the job permanent job but then I because of this two three factors no matter what I do I knew that I will not grow so event was one department where my talent if I work hard and I have a talent uh I will be able to you know become my event manager activity manager or something like that so the moment uh Mr. Pankaj Thapa and Kiran Thapa were there so these guys approach me says Migma you want to join us I left the F&B service and moved to the bar; sorry event. Indeed, during the holiday activities, our role involved keeping the guests occupied for seven days with a variety of activities such as Antaakshari, bonfires, tracking, rafting, and more. During this period, I gained valuable knowledge about crowd management, party games, and other aspects of hospitality.
So during those two, three years of stunting in the holiday activities, I had offers from throughout India for jobs, okay, so then I moved to Mumbai and, uh, then worked in Mumbai. I worked in Bareily, and then from Bareily I moved to a resort called Heritage Village Manesar, so there I worked for three-four years. Right then, I finally landed my dream job at the Radisson Hotel Kolkata as an event manager, so that was the day. It was like a dream come true from a casual laborer to become an event manager at a reputed, branded property.
Wow!! So that was that after I worked in Radisson for two years, I moved back to Gurgaon and worked in Heritage Village for another three years, and then I started doing freelancing because what happened in my uh, I used to do every day singing, party games that crowd management one day I saw in a corridor to the banquet hall one trainer was doing some games and there are people around and I just watched this guy’s doing the game and then I asked somebody what is happening, he said this is team building… Oh, I do it every day. though I don’t do it with the corporate, and then I started doing these group games for the resort guests. Okay, you know, the conference was happening, so I used to conduct, uh, during that day there were a lot of picnics, you know, so I used to conduct a lot of games, so those were the stories. Then after that, I started freelancing all right, then, uh, freelancing. Yeah, team, people hired me, and they used to pay me to take me wherever they wanted, and I and I conducted many, many sessions, and then, uh, what happened when I played a lot of team games, I was exhausted, Alok, so I was not enjoying it, so I wanted to reduce it because if I don’t enjoy it because I am not, I am somebody who does everything by heart, so I had to reduce it. I thought of creating a parallel income source by creating a company called Qshow, an event management company, so that I don’t have to take all the assignments.
ALOK
You know, it happens, when time become something for which you trade-off for a business or whatever you get, and it becomes very taxing that when you are completely involved throughout, there is always a limit to that very, very, very true yes, so that’s when the Qshow happened.
MIGMA
Yeah, so then I stopped team building for four years. years. Okay, I did not take any assignments. I focused on the Qshow and developed it from corporate events and small to large during birthday parties. From birthday parties to corporate events, some gradual Qshow happened, and then, uh, it is now three and three and four years now that I really started team building. Now I’m in a position where I can take a call about whether I want to perform or not. Yeah, now, once a week or maybe two, three months or a minimum crowd like 200, 300 people, so that I enjoy first before the crowd. You know, if I don’t enjoy it, the crowd will not enjoy it. So that’s the whole story. That’s Migma’s team games and Qshow story, so that’s all about me.
ALOK
Wow, this is so inspiring. inspiring. Migma You know, starting from a hotel as a staff member at a junior level all the way to building your own event organization is some kind of journey. I think even this whole phase is full of transformations, and I’m so proud that I’m getting a chance to speak to you today.
This is really, really inspiring to me, and as you said, yes, and later on, we take the call to do some activities later as well because, as a facilitator, I know that no matter what I do, I would always like to go back and facilitate because that’s completely in my heart. You see what has happened since March 24th, when the lockdown started because of COVID-19 there has been a dramatic shift in the event industry and the hospitality industry.
We were doing so many workshops before that. Suddenly, it came all to zero for the event, and because we are both connected to the event world so closely, we are definitely all impacted, and the people and the audience who are listening to this video are also impacted. What has been your story of impact after the lockdown happened, Migma??
MIGMA
So, alright, like, everything grows slowly, so we were actually, you know, in a very good phase before COVID-19 hit us. We were working with a lot of Japanese companies, and I had actually become a Japanese specialist.
I had inaugurated two factories in Ahmedabad. We worked a lot of factories in Gurgaon, so I was closely working with a very good Japanese company, and we were very happy the company was transforming or we were taking bigger events like the Oppo launch, and it was just like a dream for us someday, like for somebody who was doing uh family days only the launch of mobile was a dream for us, like the next level, you know, which needs a lot of good content and a lot of high-tech technicians, so I was very happy with the way Qshow was going, and then suddenly, COVID, uh, uh, things hit us.. and then initially, of course, I don’t take everything seriously, so then I decided to take my family and go on a vacation, Then I said, Why go on vacation? and Dharma said, Let’s go home. because a little longer I came back to my village and started my YouTube channel to keep me busy, you know.
ALOK
Oh, Yeah…I’ve seen some of your vlogs about trekking, running. was so engaging.
MIGMA
So after doing YouTube for two and a half months, like I also really thought,. Maybe three months or four months, then we’ll come back. Then, after two and a half months, I stopped enjoying YouTube because I was not feeling this was very productive. I needed to have my family take care. I know, and I have my kids to educate, so if events occur,. What if the events industry doesn’t revive, and what happens if I cannot survive with his YouTube thing? I knew, so I was doing it, but I was not then enjoying it, and I was not feeling unproductive, and it was a phase where I was almost, like, slightly hit by a low. You know, I was worried and worried, and then I thought of doing something.
ALOK
You totally see that transformation, and you know that phase of low, which we, in fact, all reach there in some way when business is something you are into is completely, uh, kind of frozen, and it comes to zero. You need to pay the bills. You need to really get that money, which we have required. I’m not talking about making a lot of money, but at least essentials, and it is so important that we need to do something about it. But when the whole industry has sort of frozen, I’m so happy to see that there are opportunities sprouting up that we are getting inquiries, and a little bit of a lockdown has opened. So a little bit of inquiry is coming around, but you know, again, some little inquiries and a lot of people out there, so there’s a lot of flocking happening in those opportunities as well, well, it’s difficult to actually you know to convert it easily, but uh, this, we all have gone there. We have this. This is a time when I have made a video, especially for understanding change, because it is so important for people to understand this change because it will take away things from you. It will bring you to that loss that you had not expected. You were not, and we were not ready for COVID-19 yaar.
You’re doing everything, where nobody was, and it just happened, and, uh, you know, we have all been to that phase, but I was really kind of getting teased by your beautiful pictures from Darjeeling.
ALOK
I know you’re in Darjeeling. You have kind of relocated from Gurgaon there. You used to, and you were kind of like, I’m following you on Facebook and, uh, LinkedIn, and I keep watching beautiful pictures you share about it. Tell me the story about Rimbick Fresh. What happened, and how did the Rimbick the Rimbick fresh kind of idea come to your mind?
MIGMA
So, uh, uh, I was always inspired by my great grandfather, Korenji Gilmi Sherpa, who was doing this similar business model where they purchase good produce in the village, take it by pony or horse, and sell it to town, so that was our kind of family business.
In the beginning, my father was not into business. and I was inspired. He was my role model, and I always looked up to him. In my home, we have a lot of green veggies, so my mother takes care of them. So I saw it even in villages where people used to come like my mom doesn’t take money in cash, you know, instead of the vegetables. They come with the biscuits, bread, and some chocolates you know to give it a try and take them beside it. I think I can do this. this. I can sell this. You know, vegetables initially Just a vegetable idea: I can take this vegetable, buy it here, and sell it. in the market, and then gradually started with this name, Rimbick Fresh, and started a Facebook page. You know we are very good at creating content. I still had some money saved, so I had two options: do this business; basically, the business model is to buy from the farmers you know and not from the big farmers. for everybody, even if I am buying like one kg. butter or one small piece of vegetables or one kilo of Aalu, so I wanted to buy, empower, or engage, as many farmers I want you to know; that was the whole idea, but the idea was to buy from the village in my village, buy it, and then sell it in the town; that was the whole idea of this business.
ALOK
You mean that, Darjling? Darjling town, uh, because I think your village is a couple of meters away from Darjling, yeah.
MIGMA
70 kilometers away. 70 kilometers all right. Okay, a four-hour journey. The idea was, uh, I had two options, as I was telling you. One was the easy option to start this business, and one was the tough option. I always like to challenge myself, you know.
so the tough part was easy part was as I’m my store is going to open uh tomorrow, September 1, in Koomb. I will rent a store, design a store, and create a store, and then a source will produce a packet, place it on this store, and announce to the world that I have
opened the store; please come and buy. This could have been a very comfortable journey, right? very comfortable, yes, and the latter part, which was a tough part, I do the same on Facebook. Facebook brings everything back. Take this product and sell it on the road.
okay
So sell it on the road, you know, in a place where I grew up and up, and people looked up to me like these guys made something company. Blah blah blah, big cities; now imagine after 15 to 20 years. Same guy coming back to the same area and keeping everything
on the road, and I was literally shivering. shivering. I was scared. I was worried. worried. And the previous night, I could not sleep till 1 a.m., and then it was 4 hours of the journey towards the town, taking all my products; whatever I packed and bought already Oh, is this all paid? Yeah, yeah, money was invested.
ALOK
The villagers are taking cash, right? I don’t know if they take credit.
MIGMA
I’ll share that story when I initially used to ask them for veggies and produce , but they never gave it to me. Okay, they said okay, I’ll bring it, I’ll comment, and I’ll call you back… You know what the problem is: the provision they are not giving to the producers, and then later on they are fed up with the uh talks, okay, plus everybody comes and gives them schemes, government schemes apply schemes, and NGO schemes will make the future. So they don’t want to listen to the stories anymore, and then I realized they do. The real motivation is money, so I took cash out of my pocket, went to their house and told them, This is the money, and what do you have? Then things started pouring in, so I told my team in my sourcing area that we would not negotiate with farmers and that we’d pay them cash on the spot. spot. Wow, okay, so this is the only motivation farmers need it so they can revive farming right now.
I came to the town and then spread my produces on the road and
Nobody was there to buy my product, right? They were just walking. around, and they were looking at me, this guy. There used to be, you know, some event managers in the city. What are they doing?? is making him a vegetable seller on the road.
Oh my God!!
So imagine a guy who used to conduct 1 000 people team-building activities and manage 600 people events in five-star hotels, and he’s on the road among his vegetables and selling them. It was like a rock concert for me. I mean, I was scared, I was worried, and so all these things were going on, but I said and told myself, Migma, you have to face it. You know you can only save yourself; nobody else will come for you.
What if tomorrow my money dies up? What if I don’t have anything to do? I have to take care of myself. This is what I’m doing, and then I have to motivate myself, I told myself, This is my product. Whether it’s on the road or in the showroom, this is my product. It’s in my mind. I have purchased it, yes, you know, and I am selling it. There’s nothing to be shy wow so this is like talk within me like what I was going through and what I was telling myself during that phase and the place initially that I was selling knew a lot of people knew me personally. Then I stopped, this guy’s not buying because I have a good price or I have a good packaging or a good produce they’re buying because of me then I shift the uh I immediately packed my stuff so sale was going on well in between I stopped it I packed it and took it another place where nobody knew me okay and then I realized when people uh checked the product and then they bought it then I was happy okay now this thing will work because until then I was not sure Alok after so much of money invested and so much time invested I never knew that this would work until that moment when people uh like I was invisible and they saw my product they started buying it that was my first road show wow so then I realized okay I think this will work yeah
ALOK
like so inspiring I am kind of like I love to listen to a lot of you know leaders and a lot of speakers and motivational speakers. I think this is the most motivational stuff I have heard in recent times. A lot of people talk about taking uncomfortable action. A lot of people talk about going and doing the imperfect action and standing out when the times are tough, but how often do we do it? And that’s what it really is. I was not aware that I was going to get something like this in this interview today, which I have got from you. This is absolutely uncomfortable action. I am coming from a home. My hometown is Varanasi. I was born and bought up there. If you ask me, Alok, can you go there and sell vegetables to start with? I don’t know if I’ll be able to kind of have that courage, and it takes absolute courage and absolute grit to feel scared. You were scared when you were unloading. You said yeah, I was out. I was yeah. You were scared. You were afraid. You’re scared. You don’t know what the hell is happening. Will somebody even buy one pack?
You show up and say, Hey, I’m here. This is what I’m doing. Let COVID-19 hit me as badly as possible. I’ll still do it. Migma This is such an inspiration that you have started this way, you’ve taken the hard path, and this is something that everybody should know, and I would like to know my audience to know this: guys, a guy who has run a company who has got a place of respect and reputation going all the way in going 100 percent in and doing that imperfect action, taking that uncomfortable action is what it takes to become something in life. It is true transformation when you transform, you are absolutely different all together, Migma. What are your hopes and what are your dreams? What is now happening? Tell me something about it.
MIGMA
So the Rimbick fresh uh initiative when I started off was to engage myself and in order to take care and protect my family and my future but now what has happened it has I don’t know whether it is a big word to share with you it has somehow kind it’s somehow it has become like a revolution in this district in a town that I am and farmers are coming to me and telling me hope you will not go back to Gurgaon once everything is down because we want you to continue this we want you to uh you know make it a big in this my tomorrow my first uh store is going to open and then uh Rimbick fresh is a brand because what you know what is the what is now I’m more determined to take it forward the reason behind is in the first road show or the second road show so you know how many families produces that I was selling 45 to 50. Wow, second road show 60 to 70 tomorrow, my store is going to open at least a minimum 100 family’s products in my store.
what a service
I am impacting them directly.
Yeah, I know I’m getting goose bumps because of listening to your story. What a service, Migma. What a service Tell us something about what Rimbick Fresh is into and what you are selling. Tell us a little bit about the
Yeah, Rimbick Fresh is of course a farmer’s market, so we buy from the farmers and then we bring it to town, and now I have a shop showroom and the way we sell, and then from there we’ll do home delivery, and in the future, we will like to go online and sell it and send it globally wherever we can, so right now the idea is my whole, um, idea, like in when you do events or something in a business, you have numbers, you have a target. I only have a target to add more farmers in my list of suppliers and they started farming again so that I get more produce and more variety, which I can sell to the town at a cheaper rate.
So there was a problem two, three, like, as event managers and as businessmen, we have to find the problem and solve it for the town at a cheaper rate. So there was a problem two, three, like, as event managers and as businessmen, we have to find the problem and solve it for the town at a cheaper rate.
So there was a problem two, three, like, as event managers and as businessmen, we have to find the problem and solve it for the town at a cheaper rate. So there was a problem two, three, like, as event managers and as businessmen, we have to find the problem and solve it for the town at a cheaper rate. So there was a problem two, three, like, as event managers and as businessmen, we have to find the problem and solve it.
The problem was that everybody who was buying from my village was a big buyer. They used to buy a lot of potatoes and a lot of other stuff, but nobody’s buying small smart things, so they’re playing big games a lot, and they buy it from Rimbick and sell it to Siliguri. middlemen thing, and, uh, yes right even veggies they buy it from farmer they take it to town give it to distributor something, and they go to small shops, so by the time it reaches the consumer hand, it changes actually from minimum to maximum forehands, and how will they maximize the profit? How will they make a product because either they mix something in it or they charge it higher, so products become expensive when it becomes expensive organic becomes expensive people buy local People avoid it because it’s expensive, so, uh, that is the reason. When I buy from the farmers, it is a one-point stop and reaches the consumer’s hand, so I solve both problems. I reduced the price. I bring the best quality to the town. I pay farmers cash. I do free home delivery. What else should I ask for? I do, yeah, and I do all the packing.
ALOK
Yeah, packing’s, and they are beautiful. I’ll try to show some of the pictures as well in my video later, and, uh, you know, we talk about making business plans, we talk about scalability, we talk about going global. What I really love about your thought process is that, before you look at scalability, value, and money into it, you’re looking at two things: you’re looking at your vendors to make their lives better, the farmers get some benefit, and you’re also looking at taking care of the consumers here and customers to make sure they get fresh organic food at a reasonable price, and I think that’s a very noble cause to take it ahead. I have a lot of best wishes for you, and I’m sure, with such a noble thought, that if you start a business, it will go to any limit, and I know that it is going to launch tomorrow.
First of all, a big congratulations for taking this courageous step Migma to bring it to this level, and I hope and I think all our listeners will wish that Rimbick Fresh will go to success, and you already have success. What should I say?
And I’m really waiting for you to start delivering in Gurgaon so that we can have some of your products as well. I’m just waiting for that day when Rimbick Fresh comes to Delhi, NCR.
MIGMA
Thank you, Alok, for inviting me, and thank you everyone. Um, and okay, all the best to you. I hope this series reaches out to too many people and that you get a good viewership as well. And at last,
Zindagi ek safar hai Suhana, Yahan kal kya ho kisne jana.
ALOK
In the first episode of We Transform, and I am sure this will be a great start, I can’t find a better transformative story than yours to start with a great one. Thank you so much for your time and for joining us today.
MIGMA
Thank you, Alok. Thank you, bye-bye, and take care.
ALOK
So guys, this was Migma Sherpa with his story of transformation. What a story, and what an inspirational journey he has! We will come back again next Wednesday with the new story of transformation, and then goodbye.
This is a series of candid conversations with those who transformed. We bring inspiring first-person stories of those who faced the change and the challenges that came along with it.
We have Migma Sherpa with us for the first episode. Migma has been a fighter for life, and he has a truly inspiring story to share.
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