#006 – In this episode, Sidhant and I discuss your unfair advantage when it comes to content creation. We talk through not letting emotions get the best of us, the type of platforms we can use when we are getting started and the idea of the minimum viable product.
Hope you enjoy the episode!
Have a question/comment or just want to chat? Email me at mahrukh@mahrukhimtiaz.com
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Highlights from this episode:
[2:12] Your life experiences are your content
[5:00] Sidhant: A life experience I am grateful for
[11:31] When you start off on Instagram
[12:37] How to know which platform is right for you
[13:42] How do you grow Instagram followers?
[15:10] Design your Minimum Viable Product
[19:26] What’s one thing you will tell your younger self?
Connect with Sidhant:
Website
Instagram
LinkedIn
Facebook
Twitter
Blog
A little bit about the guest:
Sidhant currently has 35,000 followers+ over all his platforms and is a key business and transformational coach that helps people find meaning in the work they do. He is a college dropout who has had the courage to take the unconventional route.
Resources mentioned:
The Nuclear Effect by Scott Oldford
The 5 second Rule by Mel Robbins
Transcription:
Sidhant Kisshor
Then start writing. Well, I would say, if you need to do so much to start doing something, it’s not something you authentically want to do. Again, you’re attached to the result. Don’t do it.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
You are listening to the Spicy Chai podcast. I’m your host, Mahrukh Imtiaz. And I’m on a journey to create inspiring, helpful and meaningful content. This podcast is not going to showcase high-profile individuals spouting college advice like find your passion or hustle harder. Instead, my mission is to bring you the voices of people who are just a bit ahead of you. People you can relate to, and the people who will inspire you to put your own voice out there. So grab your cup of spicy Chai, and let’s get the show started.
Hello, so this is part two of the episode from Sidhant. If you want to watch part one, well, when I say watch, I mean listen, because obviously this is a podcast, but anywho. So if you want to listen to part one, please go down in the show notes and you’ll see the link. In part one, we speak about purpose and knowing when to transition into full-time entrepreneurship. We talk about self-awareness and how we as entrepreneurs or content creators or side hustlers can really figure out why we’re doing what we’re doing. And really how we can go about getting some of the basic content creation skills. The episodes are not related, so you can listen to just Part Two or just part one. But if you need more context on the guest Sidhant and hear more about our friendship, because why wouldn’t you want to know about that? Right? Then go back to part one and listen to that. But anywho I hope you enjoyed this episode. Thank you again for listening. Back to the episode, bye.
Sidhant Kisshor
Noticed that myself. So the last article I wrote about losing a lot of money and all that. I don’t know if I read that. Yes, I wrote that in three hours. And I didn’t write that because I thought I’m gonna write it. I just read. I was reading a book by Scott over old furred. It’s called the nuclear effect. Okay. And one key thing that he said was your biggest advantage is not that you have a lot of money or something, your biggest advantage is that your unfair advantage, you can find it through seven things. And one of those things was your life experiences. No one else on earth has the exact same life experiences as you so find out three life experiences you have. Other Few things are skills. And I’m not really sure if I remember the rest, but there was expedience, it was skills. There was I’m not really sure what the less but experienced part. So this was one of the experience that I felt Wow, this is actually good. This is a way for me to find authentic self. I used to always think that I do not have a story. Oh, my God, Warren Buffet went through so much. Opera went through so much. Oh, my God, these guys have gone through so much. I just think shit, man. I almost was feeling like, I wish I had gone through so much pain, so I could be the greatest in the world. I wish I wish I was an orphan like Steve Jobs. I was almost in that trap. And I believe a lot of people are because they say, well, they have gone through so much suffering. That is why they’re successful. And that’s when I started diving into my own thing. Like,
Mahrukh Imtiaz
That’s incredible. Do you mind sharing bits of that story? And then how you kind of went past that? Does that mean I’ve read it? But I’d be great ghosts.
Sidhant Kisshor
Yeah. So again, during this process, I was trying to think what are the three experiences that I have? Then I my mind, instead keeps thinking about his experience because as an 18 year old, it’s heartbreaking. It’s mind boggling. So I’ll tell you a little bit about that. So I was 18 years old. I was having lunch with my best friend back then. And all I wanted to do was make a lot of money. And I think it was after the first year of college. I was 19 at I don’t remember the date. Exactly. And I was having lunch and it was after. Yeah, I think it was after I dropped out of college. Yeah. And what happened was, after dropping out my main focus was on making more money than I would have had I continued college. So anything that would work was okay working. I’m like great. Let’s try it because I’m open to try new things. I always that’s my favorite thing to do. Like dropping out of college getting that right.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Just random things that everyday. Yeah, of course.
Sidhant Kisshor
Having a new flavor of ice cream out of college, burning a lot of money, stocks.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
I’m telling you about it you You know?
Sidhant Kisshor
Why wouldn’t? Yeah, exactly. Chill everyday things. So this happened, my friend was like, okay, my dad is a great trader, he’s looking for really hardworking skilled people to work together. Well, I’m like, Great, I’m hard working. I’m scared. Let’s do this, you know, the typical thing you fall into, but he was 18 as well, I don’t think he was trying to get me into something. And anyway, so I started speaking with his father, we were already spoken before. His father was nice to me. And we disarm deal, which was he would share 40% of the total profits that we make. And right now, I think that was the worst trade deal in the history of trade deals with background like, Okay, I don’t want to be greedy, 40% school, right, like, Fine, we’ll do 40% How do we start? He said, arrange five lakh rupees. I don’t know how much that is. But that is a shit ton of money. Especially for an 18 year old kid from a middle class family. Who’s that that is actually a shit ton of money for anybody in India, especially middle class family. So I somehow managed to convince my dad who is a typical Indian dad, who would destroy your happiness, if you will, half an hour late from a party. Of course, that Dad, I managed to get some money because he’s a loving data fraud. He was He doesn’t hate me, they love. That happened, we started trading the first few months of fine. A few months down the line. However, my uncle made a request to me. He was like, hey, so if it’s my best friend’s birthday, let’s buy an iPhone. I’m like, Why the hell not? What’s the big deal costs? What 70 80,000 It’s easy, make a couple big trades, we’ll do it. So before I get into what happened after this, the entire journey as an afterthought, back then what happened was, so this, this ran on a profit sharing basis basis. Alright, so wherever we made a profit, he would share from that. And the other term that we signed together or verbally signed together was that he would also share the losses, which never happened. Right? As an 18 year old kid, I do not know how to fight off of a three year old man. What are you gonna raise my voice against that I can drop out of college. But I’m still not ready to raise my voice to somebody who calls me his son. Like, right? Fine. I don’t think he’s he’s doing anything wrong by me. Maybe that is the way business is done. I didn’t feel right here. This my my heart wasn’t happy. I always knew something was fishy. This is not right. This is not supposed to happen. Continue. Then came the other day, we we to buy this iPhone, we made a few heavy deals. So you can take some margin from the broker, I took a lot of margin, I took a lot of extra credit. Then I traded, all of them failed. All of them failed. For a month, I could hold them. But beyond that I was required to get another two lakhs in cash to inject into it. And now I know it’s a normal practice, I think in a way for people who are 50 It’s a normal practice. I get it because they have surplus amounts of cash before an 18 year old, old with no other sources of income that is no no a strict no, no. It’s impossible for me to do that. And he was like, Well, if you can’t do that you’re not the right person for schirmacher. Like, wow, that sucks. Then that was the first time I raised my voice on him like how dare you, blah, blah, blah, what should happen, never spoke to him. I was left with I was back to my original money, which is five bucks. And I had made enough money to be able to buy an apartment. Imagine I traded five lakhs to enough money to be able to buy an apartment. And I’m grateful to him, he he trained me how to do that he helped me walk me through it. Then he is also the one who brought me down.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
So, any great long back to this. I mean, you are where you are because of that experience. Absolutely.
Sidhant Kisshor
Absolutely. For a long time I blamed him for that. But then I realized, if that didn’t happen, I would have been a different person. Maybe I wouldn’t have had self awareness, which I’m really proud of. So again, that fire like left, I could have left. But I had to act smart. I made some emotional trades. So if anybody is an avid trader, they know emotions, and not the market is your worst enemy. If you make emotional trades, you’re out. You need to have a lot of patience, a lot of holding capacity and a lot of other stuff, which I didn’t back then then I lost all that money went down zero and I was I was terrified. I didn’t know what to do. Another thing I couldn’t tell my parents, right back then.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
That’s another thing you were dealing with doing all these gutsy things by yourself. And also in the world’s eyes failing with all these gutsy things. So you know it’s like you’re you’re just kind of constantly going and I really liked what you said like you’re experiences are what make your story. And I didn’t I didn’t know about this about you until like, I read the article. And this is such a major part of the experience that you know, and it does make you you and we in like social media world, you always say you you are your niche, you are your niche, like, you know, your stories, your experiences is what people will relate to. But so often we’re so scared to put like the worst part of our lives like I mean, yeah, I mean, you know, you haven’t put this out before, but now you’re like, hey, at 18 year old, I was making a lot of money, and then I got broke. And then I have to figure my life out. And nobody really, I wasn’t even going towards a college degree. So things were shit. And it’s so hard putting that out there, especially when you’re still in the journey, right? It’s not like, you know, you’re a multimillionaire right now. And you’re like, now I’m going to share my struggles you still in the middle of your journey going about that? So Exactly. How do you how do you get the courage to continue sharing when you when you’re still in the middle of your journey? Like when you’re like creating content? Or like,
Sidhant Kisshor
I don’t know. Five-second rule. I’m not even getting my that is that is so powerful. Don’t let your brain donor your mind to dominate your heart.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Yeah. And for those that don’t know, five, five second rule is just literally all you say is 54321. And you do the action? You don’t you don’t think you don’t do you just it’s by mail. I think Mel Robbins wrote a lot about that. I don’t know if that’s her rule or not. But Mel Robbins. That’s awesome. And so that, that’s very interesting. And I do want to touch a bit more on the Instagram page, because I know you have quite a bit of a following there. You talked about your funny YouTube videos, and that really kind of got your mind’s turning towards okay, this is fun, something I can do when you started off on Instagram. And now I see like, you know, from your beginning posts, now there’s like a difference in terms of like, how much editing you do and all of that. And you again, you built a following because of the quality of your content. And again, the quantity as well, for someone starting off on Instagram. First, is that is that a platform that they should use versus other platforms? And when they’re starting out now? And second? How can if it is a platform of choice, how can they continue to build when it is starting to get be one of the saturated markets?
Sidhant Kisshor
Well, to be honest, it’s not really saturated. People say YouTube is saturated, it’s not really true. There’s no market that’s saturated right now. That’s the first thing. To figure out the platform, you need to figure out what you want to do your niche, right. So as a simple rule, if you’re on the b2b, LinkedIn is go to, right. That’s, that’s very simple if you’re in b2b is going to LinkedIn. Now in b2c, if your focus is on more of entertainment based content, I think Instagram or Tiktok is the way to go. If you’re more educational, long form educational, like you want to really delve into the depths of YouTube as a way to go. Now whether you want to make videos or whether you want to write that’s a personal choice you’re gonna write you can go on medium, you can be a writer on medium and LinkedIn as well. So that’s that’s basically how you decide but beyond that you go to look at you YouTuber is going to look at what kind of content you’re willing to make. I wouldn’t say Instagram is the best one for long form content yet, right? So short content, Instagram, Tik Tok, long videos, YouTube and b2b stuff, LinkedIn. And whoa, none of it was saturated.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Right will be one of some of your tips to like grow that Instagram following
Sidhant Kisshor
If you’re number one, don’t do what I did initially. Do not buy followers it fucks your account, right? How to do that. I was like, again, I like making these dishes decisions and not listening to what other people say. So I tried by buying followers saying okay, maybe people don’t want to talk about it. So I tried buying them sucks Fox engagement had to remove all of them. So don’t do that. Number two, you will post at least 5200 pieces of content before you even know what works before you will have an idea of what works. There is no set in stone rule that will tell you what works otherwise. Otherwise there would be no new viral videos. Right? There is no rule of what works. You can understand look at other people and a lot of people say emulate but I don’t even think emulating is the best practice because you’re emulating you’re not being authentic to yourself in a lot of ways. How so? Because if you’re emulating what what your brain or what my brain at least and it too was, it made me copy their design, copy their elements and just write my words or just just put in my words. And that’s not authentic. Just come with something concrete, something crappy. Alright, design your MVP. So I’m also making a course of business course for this how to start things. And in that intersection which says design your MVP.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
So let’s say minimum
viable product, right? Yeah, I’m gonna make sure people understand. Yeah. My bad. Yeah,
Sidhant Kisshor
Yeah. So if you have to design a car, you don’t, your MVP wouldn’t be a car without an engine, it’s the better way to put it would be design your product based on the use case. What is my use case, I want to take my customer or my viewer from point A to point B as a car manufacturer. Right. So what’s the simplest way to do that I’ll first design a skateboard will take my person from point A to point B, the latter handle, he can change directions down make it a bicycle, he can, he does not have to use his feet to run anymore, he can just paddle then I can add a motor to where it becomes a bicycle. And then I’ll add two more wheels to it or maybe a hill to and then becomes a car. But most people try to do is start by trying to make it a car. I want the video equipment, I want a lot of money. I want the most expensive microphone, do not need all of that. First, find out your style. Find out what it is that you can provide people, what is what is your way to contribute? And then improve maybe buy a better microphone initially, right? Then maybe spend on selfcare, stuff like that.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
So if we were to like simplify this, and like pure social media terms, let’s say I’m someone who wants to motivate people in the fitness industry. So for me, that would be my ad to be like, I want people to feel motivated after my content and then create content around that, like, is that what it would look like? Like? How would you break it? Hi, me again. I absolutely love this concept of minimum viable product. Basically, what’s the dot the saying figure out the minimum thing, the least thing that you need to do to get started. That’s why I love the idea of going from A to B, you don’t have to build a car, you can start off with a scooter and then add things to it. And just like he said, that’s how it applies to content creation as well. You don’t need fancy equipment, you don’t need editing software skills. First, just create content on your phone, and then keep adding to it and using his example eventually you will get to that car. Alright, back to the interview.
Sidhant Kisshor
Again, first again, self awareness. Who are you? What’s your story? Well, sustaining that start talking about it. And then again, your use cases that you want people to feel more motivated. Now there are two ways to do it. Number one would be the typical way which which everyone would everyone does see a lot of YouTube videos See how editing is done by a lot of expensive software while expensive equipment cameras. Yeah, cameras by the inverter subscription bullshit is not needed. First. Check whether you even enjoy this process. If you’re not even if you’re in this for the glam, or if you actually enjoy this process, actually engaged with the community. Put out just a simple video made in front of the wall. India’s one of India’s biggest YouTuber he’s called Baby BBQ whines Alright, he started making videos from $100 Phone $100 Phone Can you believe that? That’s all he had $100 phone and an internet connection. Right people say oh my god, I have the old MacBook. I cannot edit video is shit.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
She had I’ve heard that
word that. Yeah, I don’t have Adobe Premiere Pro. I can’t edit this. Just like well, you have so many other software’s or sometimes you want to see apps like Tiktok reels like everything’s kind of really available. That is something that I’ve heard again, again, it’s so important to just record especially in the beginning stages like your own first 100 Like just put stuff out there. And I think I think Gary Vaynerchuk says a lot is document rather than create, like just document your experiences like we spoke about that earlier. Like talk about your own story. People resonate with that sounds more authentic. But no, this is this is honestly been a great, great conversation. And I know people will get a lot out of this. I do have one last question for what is one thing you would tell your younger self when you were starting to create content putting yourself out there
Sidhant Kisshor
Stick with it a little longer.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Got it. Just my
Sidhant Kisshor
One of my biggest problems is I quit too soon with things. That’s fair. Just before I’m about to get somewhere I quit.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
That’s self awareness. That’s some self awareness. Well, that that that is it. Bye and stick longer. Well, and just want to thank you again to Taiwan for being on this for those of you who have subscribed already. Thank you so much for those who haven’t. Hello again, so I forgot to ask where we could find him. So you can head over to his website Sidhant kiss hora.com. It’s available in the show notes, but I want to make sure I give it a shout out here as well. All right back to the episode. Please click the Subscribe button and I will see you soon.
Sidhant Kisshor
All right, thanks, Mahrukh. It was good.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Hey, you thanks for listening to Spicy Chai. I really appreciate it. And to make sure you never miss an episode, subscribe to the podcast the obvious. And if you want to learn more, head over to mahrukhimtiaz.com and until next time, my friend hit the record button or you know the publish lots of love from your favorite.
You got this beautiful!
