Blog / Vlog

From a Hindi teacher to a cab driver to future content creator :)

Last month on my way to Delhi, I met Yakub, a cab driver. He had been here for 3 months and passionately talked about going back to Ranchi, to start his own Hindi tuition centre for classes 1-5. ‘Teen saal mein teen lakh’ was his goal, to save enough to return back and kickstart his little startup…

He spoke passionately about what he taught kids back in Ranchi. After a pause for few minutes, I asked him what if he could save that money in half the time? He looked back confused, until I pointed to keep eyes on the road..

‘Do you know how many people want their kids to learn Hindi, around the world?’ Confused still, he peeked into the rear view mirror at me. ‘How about you start teaching Hindi on YouTube, make videos for every little topic’ and focus on getting online tuition classes from people who find your video, and when you start getting parents from across India and abroad, you do online tuitions in your free time after the job, it can take sometime but you’ll do the work you love, and when you’ve hit your 3 lakh mark, with savings from the job and online classes.. you go start your centre… 

His eyes lit up, still looking through the mirror. By this time I was at my destination, as I got out.. I gave him the book (always carry a copy in my bag), gave him Rs. 1000 to invest in a tripod/ring light to start creating videos from his phone and told him to learn everyday anytime he gets.. 

Learn about how YouTube works by watching YouTube tutorials, watch what others teachers have done to see it’s not difficult and learn ‘what’ and ‘how’ to make videos from the book and call me when he has attempted his first video. He kept staring at me as I patted his back and got out. 

If you can find someone you can help, with skills you’ve learnt over the years.. don’t just give gyan.. but give an action plan and a little support.. once the extra wheels come off.. off they go empowered to thrive.. and that’s the India 🇮🇳 I love.. working hard with a twinkle in their eyes ♥️

Do share your stories, if you’ve had a similar experience 😊

Marketing Insanity, Until The Investors Come Calling

Have you noticed that whenever there’s a downturn, the first casualty in a startup is marketing. With the current state of economy and investor money become scarce, the marketing teams and spends are the first to go.

Why I wonder, do we spend like crazy in the first place? Who are we pleasing but our egos, because the audience doesn’t give a sh*t about your shiny ads or celebs.. it’s the storytelling they crave.

I saw a post by this ‘unicorn’ about their super expensive celebrity video shoot, and in two weeks they announced massive layoffs. The money they wasted in that hollywood style production could have saved jobs.

Marketing is not a function of money, but creativity. You cannot spend and buy engagement. But, everywhere you see, it’s fancy expensive campaigns, celeb endorsements and templated ads, until the investors come calling.

Spend like it’s your money, and you’re always frugal, creative in scarcity, and focus to increase per person efficiency.. ask any bootstrapped startup.

But when it’s big bucks from investors, then it’s like Bachmanity Insanity (Silicon Valley – S3E6)

Posted on LinkedIn

Jaipur – India Tour 2022

What an awesome start to the India tour, the energy and enthusiasm in Jaipur made it super special. It started with the scheduled two hour discussion/jam session about all things content, videos, startups, creator challenges and career direction.

The evening turned into an unexpected game of charades with everyone at a quaint little cafe inside an old Haveli (check out Den cafe, and ask for ‘Izhaar chai’) I visited Jaipur alone and came back with an amazing bunch of friends.

Thank you for making it awesome :) 

To the next city.. :)

The first video – Gurgaon Toll Surprise

This day eight years back, I released my first ever video. It was the happiest and the scariest moment of my life, happiest coz it was my first ‘viral’ experience and scariest coz if I did not build on that, if I did not figure out, learn, deep dive, obsess about why it worked.. then I’d be back to the rat race, nothing but a one hit wonder.

The journey and the obsession since then has resulted in 76 videos which went viral, 470M views and a best-selling book.. which for a college drop out, written off as a failure.. was beyond my wildest imagination. Results are never in our hands, but our action and performance is, and one brick at a time, compound effect works like magic. Life always gives you signs, shows you doors, but what matters is if you run through them.

And when that tiny door opened on Feb 18, eight years back.. I ran through it like my life depended on it.

AC

Super Grateful for everything that came after :)

The only thing which matters for viral videos – podcast preview

Few months back, Vani Gupta Dandia and I recorded the first episode of her podcast series, power packed ten minutes about videos, virality and branding.

Full episode here..