Vaishnavi Khandkar

“Art is just a hobby—it can never be a real profession.”

“Be practical! Do something worthwhile.”

“Who even takes the art stream in college? The intelligent ones take science, commerce, or law—not art.”

This is what society tells us. Over and over again.

Luckily, I never had to fight for permission to dream.

I grew up in a home where unconventional was the new normal.

While most kids my age were being told to prepare for engineering or medicine, I was training to become a professional cricketer. My father, a passionate cricket lover, put both me and my brother into the sport. And so, for 15 years, I played professional cricket, dreaming of representing India.

But beyond cricket, there was something else. A part of me that never left.

Back in childhood, I would spend entire days creating arts and crafts. If I wasn’t on the cricket field, I was at home—painting, cutting, gluing, designing.

📺 Pogo and Art Attack were my favorite shows.

🖌️ My hands were always covered in colors.

🎨 I made personalized gifts for my family, losing myself in the joy of creating.

And then, just like that—art disappeared.

By the time I reached eighth grade, art was completely removed from our school system. The message was clear:

“Art doesn’t matter. Study what will get you a real job.”

So, I buried my passion.

For 24 years, I didn’t pick up a pencil.

And every single year, that emptiness inside me grew.

I didn’t understand it at the time, but something inside me felt off.

I had everything—a loving family, a thriving cricket career, a life filled with opportunities.

But deep inside, there was a pain I couldn’t explain.

It was the pain of potential unused.

In 2020, as the world came to a standstill, I found myself with something I hadn’t had in years—time.

With nowhere to go and nothing to distract me, I picked up a pencil and began sketching again.

With every stroke, something inside me stirred.

The more I created, the lighter I felt—as if I was rediscovering a piece of myself that had been lost for years.

And then, life sent me a teacher.

“When the student is ready, the teacher appears.”

Siddharth appeared in my life as an angel.

In 2020, my father discovered Siddharth Rajsekar’s coaching program and decided to take it.

He was convinced that digital coaching could be the future.

Me? I thought he was crazy.

One day, while I was sketching in my room, he walked in and dropped a line that caught me off guard.

“You’re good at art, why don’t you create a course and sell it?”

I looked up, confused. “Who would buy from me? I don’t even know how to teach,” I replied with a laugh.

He just smiled. “Everyone starts somewhere. You’ve got something special—don’t keep it to yourself.”

That thought planted a seed. It took root slowly, but it wouldn’t let go. I started taking Siddharth’s coaching seriously, spending entire days absorbing his content.

His advice was simple: Start with one-on-one coaching.

So, I began by teaching my own family—learning how to handle Zoom, structure lessons, and engage students.

Despite attending two years of hackathons, I was still stuck—until I found an accountability partner, Sanket Thakre from my city, who pushed me to finally launch.

But one major roadblock remained—I didn’t understand Facebook ads.

That’s when I realized:

“I’m still just learning, not taking action.”

So, my partner and I hired a marketing agency to launch.

And that single step flipped the script.

I connected with Abdullah Ansari from the ILH community — an expert in ads and automation. After reviewing my business, he looked me straight in the eye and said:

“Vaishnavi, this is going to be BIG. Why are you holding back?”

My hands were ice-cold. My heart pounded. Butterflies stormed inside my stomach.

So, I finally ran my first ads. The cost per lead? Just ₹5.

That was my WOW moment.

Everything shifted after that. More leads poured in, conversions shot up, and momentum became unstoppable. And then came the day of my first paid webinar.  That was the start of a launchpad.

Over time, I mastered the art of webinar selling. I learned how to present with clarity, build trust effortlessly, and sell with genuine conviction. As my community grew, I became more attentive to their feedback — truly listening to what they needed next. That’s how I designed my L2 product — built not from my ideas but from their voices and needs. Every upgrade and every module had a purpose — to truly serve them better.

One of my biggest superpowers is learning fast and simplifying even faster. I can take something that seems complex, decode it, and break it down into simple, actionable steps that even a complete beginner can understand and apply.

My other superpower? Selling.

Not in a pushy, in-your-face way — but through genuine connection, clarity, and unshakable confidence.

And if there’s one message I want to give every aspiring entrepreneur out there, it’s this:

You don’t need to be great at many things. You just have to be really good at one thing.

It doesn’t matter whether it seems big or small. Be an expert at just one thing, and you can build a powerful business around it.

But for that, you must be willing to learn, to grow, and to invest time in equipping yourself with new-age digital skills — the kind of skills that can actually make you a millionaire.

Another big lesson from my journey?

Stop saying you don’t have time.

I’ve learned that I’m actually most productive when I’m the busiest.

Deadlines fuel action.

If I could build a multi-crore business around art while playing professional cricket full-time, you can absolutely build your dream alongside your job.

You just have to start.

In the beginning, I did it all — teaching, handling student queries, running ads, and answering messages at 2 AM. My days stretched to 16 hours, and while my business was growing, I felt like I was drowning in it.

That’s when my brother, Malay, stepped in. One evening, he put a hand on my shoulder and said,

“Vaishnavi, you need to stop working in the business and start working on it.”

He was right. I couldn’t keep running myself into the ground. So, Malay took over the backend operations. We built a sales team, automated our webinars, and streamlined the course structure. The more I delegated, the faster we scaled.

And just like that, my art coaching business crossed ₹2 crores in 20 months, impacting 4,000 students along the way.

The funniest part? I’ve already crossed ₹2 crores in revenue — and I still don’t have an L3 product.

I’m still building it, piece by piece, listening to my community, observing their needs, and co-creating the next step with them.

It just goes to show — you don’t need to have everything figured out to start.

You simply need to begin with what you have, stay close to your audience, and keep building as you grow.

Success isn’t a straight road—it’s a rollercoaster. And I learned that the hard way.

One chaotic moment came while I was traveling in Goa.

It was the day of my automated webinar—the one I had set up to run smoothly without me.

Until… my Wi-Fi stopped working.

Panic set in. I tried everything—hotspot, reconnecting, restarting the router—nothing worked.

The clock was ticking. The webinar was about to start, and I was miles away from a stable connection.

Without thinking twice, my brother and I ran through the streets of Goa, searching for Wi-Fi.

Sweating, heart pounding, we spotted a Starbucks and rushed inside.

The moment we connected, I refreshed my dashboard—the webinar had just begun.

Crisis averted.

One day, I received a message from a student.

“Vaishnavi, your course didn’t just teach me how to draw—it saved my life. I was battling depression, feeling completely lost. But art gave me a purpose again. Every morning, I wake up excited to create. I feel alive again.”

That was the moment I knew… This was something big.

For too long, artists have been told their passion isn’t practical.

That they’ll never make money doing what they love.

That belief ends now.

I’m here to prove that artists can thrive, not just survive.

That creativity isn’t just an escape—it’s a calling.

This started as a way to make a living doing what I love.

Now, it’s about helping others do the same.

Because when artists thrive, they don’t just create art.

They create impact. They create inspiration. They create change.