Long story long
(there is no other way)
Hear&How began in 2022, and over the last 4 years, we’ve been chaotic, unruly and given in to every one of our intrusive thoughts. Some worked well, some bombed before our eyes. We’ve cried at both. Some we’re abandoning like bad ideas that seemed really cool at the time but don’t anymore (like skinny jeans, ew). But some, we’re taking ahead.
If you’ve ever asked us what our long term plan with Hear&How is - we dare you to ask us again, cuz now we’ve written down a concise, comprehensive, well-articulated, business plan-appropriate, lawyer-approved, CA rejected (but ignored) mission statement that makes full sense to us.
Hear&How started as a zealous endeavour (okay fine, passion project) about the highs and lows of a creative life
We made skits, turned our shadow selves into characters and YES also had a podcast so we could rant, doubt, spiral, and still keep creating (It made us and the 37 others who viewed it feel less alone okay?)
Soon, we realised that feeling stuck or lonely was not limited to artists or designers. The countless “us, babe us”s in the comment section made us pause and wonder why Suri from Punjab Power resonated with us so hard.
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Maybe what we were building wasn’t only for people in the creative space, but could also for anyone who identified as a chronically online, tired of small talk, enthu cutlet without an outlet adult who could throw a rock at anyone who sends them another calendar invite to ‘get coffee’.
But how do you pry a phone out of a 20-something’s hand? Replace it with thread, paper, soap, clay, glue, ink, paint, scissors and zines.
We ran workshops for hobbies that don’t murder your attention span. We stitched, mixed, painted, built, wrote, cut, pasted and forgot to scroll.
And it worked! But something was off. It started feeling like we were (although unintentionally) signaling a more ‘productive’ way to spend the weekend, which is not who we are. Hear&How was never meant to be about ‘upskilling’ *cries in LinkedIn*
BUT- it wasn’t all “mera itna life kharaab ho gaya” okay.. We had some life-changing (and we’re not saying that lightly) experiences that gave our ‘zealous endeavor’ a direction that felt more us.
The 'Zealous' Endeavors
The Summer Afterparty
a complete trial experiment proved one thing - we’re all just looking to relive our favourite childhood memories… and that love for pepsi-cola is eternal (ok 2 things).
Pyaar Dosti Hai
we saw the magic of bringing people together to listen, share and make deeper connections.
Keepsake Fest
we found a community that values mindful, intentional experiences and spaces.
Hello Stranger
we saw the magic of bringing people together to listen, share and make deeper connections.
So we pivoted
AGAIN!
And after 4 years,
37 diversions,
823 buckets worth of tears,
we finally deduced something that many have told us before.
The highest common factor here was people.
Our core strength was bringing people together.
Hence proved LHS=RHS.
(Don’t ask us to show the working)
we finally deduced something that many have told us before.
The highest common factor here was people.
Our core strength was bringing people together.
Hence proved LHS=RHS.
(Don’t ask us to show the working)
For years Hear&How lived on the side, squeezed between our non-corporate but still tiring work days. But we started asking ourselves why. Why did we happily set up events till 2 am and still show up smiling the next morning. Why did pitching sponsors for Hear&How feel easier than pitching brand projects. Why did none of it feel like a chore?
The answer was always the same. The feeling in the room. Watching people let their guards down. Conversations that went beyond small talk. The loud laughter. The silly jokes. The quiet moments of making something just for fun. It filled us up.
Now, we choose more of that. Hear&How is no longer something we do to escape our lives. It is something we’re building into our lives, every single day. Because no matter who we are or what we do, play is a constant :)
If you made it here, we love you more than our families who abandoned after the first paragraph.
LYSM,
Hear&How