“If you must work extremely hard just to initiate something, you are too attached to the result”. -SIDHANT KISSHOR
#005 – In this episode, Sidhant and I discuss his journey to creating content on instagram where he has 35000 followers+. We talk through understanding when one can take the leap to go full time and how to dig into the real reason why one is creating content (and why that is important to figure out).
Hope you enjoy the episode!
Have a question/comment or just want to chat? Email me at [email protected]
Highlights from this episode:
[4:00] Sidhant: I paved my path for software engineering in college.
[9:03] How Sidhant started with content creation.
[10:55] How does one make the transition to full-time entrepreneurship through content creation?
[11:43] Don’t transition based on money
[12:31] Self-Awareness
[14:00]How do you know if they are actually doing this because you enjoy it?
[19:50] What skills do you need to get started on Instagram
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
When you transition full time, I would say you should transition not based on money because a lot of people transition based on money. Okay, now I can earn a good income. Let’s transition. No. I would say you transition when you feel you are enjoying the process, regardless of the result and that requires self-awareness.
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 hollow 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.
Welcome to the Spicy Chai podcast for content creators and today’s guest. Well I first saw them on the holistic psychologist Instagram page. So Dr. Nicola Para. And this page let me tell you has 3 million plus followers. So here it is Dr. Nicola Sara. She’s recommending this dude. So I’m just like, Hey, I wonder who this is. So I go check out his page and think okay, wow, well, he has some pretty awesome stuff. So then I tried to send him a DM. Just imagine this person who has around 35,000 followers, one of their Instagram pages, their business and key transformation coach, they’re a keynote speaker and also running a podcast.
I didn’t think they would say yes, I hear back from Sidhant. And honestly, it’s been amazing getting to know him, we meet on a weekly basis, and he’s part I can proudly say one of my really good friends. And I am so so so excited to have this person on the show, because not only did he have the courage to drop out of college, but he’s also had the courage to choose the very nontraditional life of not going for the nine to five, and he lives in India. You know where that is what the expectation is. So with all that, honestly, I am so stoked to have you here. Welcome Sidhant.
Sidhant Kisshor
Holy shit, I was not at all ready for expecting a Spicy Chai. It’s got to be a conversational thing. And I was waiting for the conversation to have really adopt me with that. Well, thank you so much for that. Thank you so much for that.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
And of course, I mean, honestly, like you’re not even 25 yet and your accomplishments, like the list just keeps going on and on. I was like looking online. And I think maybe let me let me do some research on this guy. I mean, yeah, you’re a good friend. But I don’t really know a lot about you. And the amount of blog posts you’ve written the amount of podcast content you’ve created, the kind of guests you’ve connected with. And you’ve done all of that without a college degree, like, talk a little bit about that. First, wait, what made you drop out of college? And second, how did you really go about all this process?
Sidhant Kisshor
Well, before I go into dropping out of college, I think it’s better to know what I was as a person before that. So yeah, yeah. Get from India, to build get straight A’s. All my life, I’ve been a straight A kid. Right. And I was also I was I was also a national level cricket player, a national level, lawn tennis player, and a national level athlete. And I’ve never trained a day for running in my life. Yet. I was the fastest runner in my state.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Just letting you know, I hate you a lot right now. Very much lots of hate coming your way.
Sidhant Kisshor
But yeah, I don’t talk about this a lot. But then that helps in giving slight context of the things. So I’m just trying to say that my path to college and an amazing software engineer was pretty much paved very well since my grade 10 and got into IoT prep school. It if you don’t know is the most prestigious institution in India. So it’s in ology. Yes. Exactly. Exactly. So it was pretty easy for me to get them. And I did start preparing for it. But somewhere between that I don’t know what happened, I came across Steve Jobs. The man who actually completely destroyed my life for my parents. So I read his books and one line really impacted me which is do not live your life in Dogma, which is based on someone else’s thinking, then everything changed. Everything’s in me sorted. You know? I don’t know. It kind of one ated I was not a straight A student anymore. Things things were not how they were supposed to be. All of a sudden I was in a turmoil. But then I still didn’t have the courage to you know, just drop out in me. lately, so I did what I had to do. I couldn’t just say no to my parents. I went to college, which was somebody else’s International University. That’s also pretty good college. Yeah, I don’t want to do it. Because, yeah, I did not want to do it because for some reason I just didn’t feel in my heart. I didn’t qualify for it, I did qualify for a few colleges in the US. And Edinburgh also remember was, I think, the 10th. Ranked college for computer science back then. So I would qualify for that. But then it was way too expensive. So I didn’t go for it. And I’m really proud of myself for that. I’m not going back. Yeah, we’re gonna symbiosis and then, since I’ve always been interested in computers, I already knew a lot of things, right. And then I go to college, and I send my first class. I was excited. Okay, finally, I’m going to enjoy my passion. It’s computer. So what could be the worst thing? Well, my worst fears came alive when six months down the line. first six months were fine. So six months later, what happened was, I got kicked out of my class for the first time ever in my entire life. Wow. And surprisingly, it would not hurt my ego.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Yeah, we have very different childhoods, by the way.
Sidhant Kisshor
I would believe so people tell me you were such a fucking nerd. When you were kid. I don’t know what happened. Six months into college, I got kicked out for the first time before everything was going fine. It was smooth. I had good friends. It was all chill. But then the reason I got kicked dog, that’s where everything changed. So I was in some hardware classes, where the teacher was teaching about how some binary something Well, I don’t even remember what the topic was. The reason I don’t remember is because I asked the teacher, why are you teaching this? And she said, we just have learned because it carries marks. And I was flabbergasted. Like, what the fuck? You’re not supposed to say that. I said, Okay, I understand. But like, Where will I actually use this in my practical life? And I’m always been described about this. As this in school, my teachers have always answered, but this was the first time she didn’t, I kind of got agitated and she kicked me out of the class. I was super happy. So for the next two days, I didn’t go to college, I contemplated thought about jobs, Steve Jobs, and I’m like, Felicia, this is not it. Let’s take some decisions.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Did you not like did you not go to your parents to ask you didn’t ask no friends, it was just like, Okay, I’m gonna take this decision. Yeah. So. So talk me through that as well. Like, what does that really look like? Mean? How I mean, given that you, you have grown up in an environment where, you know, your family is everything. It’s a very tight knit. It’s not like the American culture where it isn’t independence based culture. This is very interdependent culture. So how does one in that kind of culture make such decisions? Like, and what made you feel like, okay, I think I can, without the whole of the shame and the guilt around that.
Sidhant Kisshor
Oh, to be honest, I didn’t think there wouldn’t be shame and guilt. I’m pretty sure there would be shame and guilt. But I’m sure there would be shame and guilt only if my parents knew. So.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Right. So the plan was just to figure out life and then eventually tell your parents.
Sidhant Kisshor
Yeah, I’m still waiting. Tell them. Just kidding.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Oh, this is awesome.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
No, no.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
So that’s, that’s pretty interesting. Because I mean, kind of just like, tying it back. You spoke about becoming an app, like you were national level athlete. And you know, I mean, I play a lot of cricket. And I know how much goes into that sport. And I’ve been trying for like years and it’s a lot of like skill to and to make it to national level. And India’s says a lot. And then you talked about like you’re really really much into computers like computer science, where like the content creation world that requires writing video making all of that. So where did you acquire those skills from? Where did you think okay, now, I should start writing like, how did that come about? Or I should start putting myself out in the world, like, where did that happen?
Sidhant Kisshor
Well, I still am not very comfortable with the idea of putting myself out in the world to be honest. But again, somewhere during my grade 12 My friend and I we started making funny videos on YouTube. We amassed about, I don’t know, two 300 subscribers, we had five 6000 views. What what we did was just went out on the streets and started asking people random questions as in my city, Hyderabad, we started walking around asking people so what do you prefer? Weed and alcohol? That video had 6000 views out of nowhere, like, holy shit, this is fun. And then we just did it for fun than I did. Because to be honest, I hate doing the same thing for a long time. So I cannot sit in front of a book and study for 10,000 hours. I can’t do that. I prefer doing new things, different things. So computer science is fun for me, because in the internet world, things keep changing so fast. That’s a place where I try where things keep changing fast. So things are the same, the monotonous and boring. I don’t like it. I don’t like it. That’s why entrepreneurship is fun for me sports. It’s challenging. It’s fun. Yeah. But again, my journey to configuration Southbank.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Now that makes that makes a lot of sense in terms of, but you kind of just started making fun, funny videos or fun videos for yourself. And where did that transition? Come on? I’m like, oh, okay, I can actually do this, I can actually start like, I’m actually enjoying this process. Maybe this is what I want to do. Like, you know, there’s so many people out there that are in the process. I’m doing this for fun. I’m enjoying this as a hobby. And now with the influencer culture, and you know, the speaker culture, it’s, I mean, entrepreneurship is cool. Now, it wasn’t 15 years ago, but now it’s like, everyone wants to be one. And they’re always like, well, I’m doing this for hobby, and how can I do this? More full time? So what would you say? Like, what’s that transition? Like? And how do you make that decision that this is actually for me to do it full time, or versus like, actually, this should stay a hobby.
Sidhant Kisshor
For me, personally, anything that gets mainstream, I get too bored out of it. Because then too many people come up with too many systems, which do not work is to try to fool other people. So again, that’s that’s a different pain that I have that I carry with myself, I watch these things online. However, when you transition full time, I would say you should transition not based on money, because a lot of people transition based on money, okay, now I can earn a good income, let’s transition No, I would say you transition when you feel you are enjoying the process, regardless of the result. And that requires self awareness, I would say I think anything in life, if you’re gonna do, you’re gonna require self awareness. So that’s step one, gotta have some self awareness. And if you’re aware that you are actually enjoying the process, then you know, you can transition. I’ll give you an example. So let’s say there are two people, okay? Both of them have Instagram page, say 10,000 followers, both, say $1,000 a month, on this day, from their Instagram, doing what to do. Now person one is thinking now how do I make this $1,000 2000? Alright, so that is His Spirit. He is a business minded guy. Now for him, it is very clear for a third person to say that he is not really a content creator, He’s more of a business person. Right? If you think from if you zoom out, if you look at bigger picture, that is his main driving force, wow, this is making a lot of money. Let’s do this. But if you’re an actual content creator, if if if it is actually fun for you, then you wouldn’t care of about making the $1,000. Under 2000, you would care more about Wow. Now how do I actually improve the quality of this? How do I make this more fun for me? What else can I try in this? Now, the fun part is the second day will inevitably make more money than the guy number one. Why? Because he enjoys the process. But people lack the self awareness. They think I’m making more money in the short term. So I’m good at the process, rational the truth, and they’re probably better making money rather than process itself.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
Yeah, that makes sense. And there’s a few things you said there that I would like to unpack a little first thing you said self awareness is key. Right? So let’s say someone who’s going through this process, really just starting in their journey. How do they know if they’re actually doing this? Because they enjoy it? Or they’re really running after the shiny object which is like the fame now like you don’t have these many followers or even I mean, money, yes, eventually comes but I feel like right now it’s a cool thing to how do you make that distinction of how do you go through the can you walk us through that step by step or like whatever, like how do you get to that self awareness of like, this is actually what I really love to do. And I do it even if I didn’t get that fame?
Sidhant Kisshor
Well, to be honest, there’s no one key answer to that. Right. I can say that because I have answered this question for a lot of people who actually personally come and talk to me I coach a lot of people for the very same thing. So the process is different for different people. But one common thing that everyone can do which I even suggest you to do is go seven steps into the why.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
So, let me give you all a bit more context and what the seven why’s are. And I did this exercise myself so I absolutely loved it. You take a problem, a problem that you’re struggling with any decision point and you put down why seven times on a journal, and then you answer the why seven times for Danville, why do I want to create content? answer the why? And then answer it again, six more times. The point of this exercise is the first two or three times your y will be general. But then you’ll notice as you get into the fourth, fifth and sixth y, that you’ll actually know why you’re creating content on why you’re doing what you’re doing. It’s extremely powerful. So definitely try it out. And do let me know what you think back to the interview,
Sidhant Kisshor
Where you’re struggling with, let’s say you are struggling with whether concentration is the real deal. It’s your main passion. Ask yourself, why are you creating content? You get an answer, maybe, maybe you get you say, I’m doing it because it’s fun, or I’m doing this because I want to make my money. I do the roads, you dive deeper into it, right? Because most of the times the first two or three answers your mind just bullshit you, the deeper you go into it, the real answers come in. And the real answers look not not like something that you you would have conceived instantly, they are more deeper rooted into your personality, they are more deep rooted into your past into your childhood, maybe into your experiences, rather than result. Right? If you’re running behind the result, I don’t think it is the true answer that you’re getting out of yourself.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
And that makes a lot of sense. I remember you talking about the seven whys of like, Hey, why are you really creating content? Or why are you really going about doing this? Why do you want to set up this LinkedIn page. And the first three are very much generic, oh, I want more awareness, or this is going to help me and but when you go into the fourth and fifth eighth, you get really stuck. So I think I’d like to point that out. Like, I could, like my brain just couldn’t think of the fourth why, or the fifth why? Like, it’s almost like I had to kind of sit on it for a bit, sometimes even come back to it. So and then a six y comes and then seven y and seven twice the real y and it could be like in a lot of people it’s it’s things that they never expected. For me, it was something that I never expected. It had a lot to do with my childhood, like, you know, and, and I was like, oh, here, I thought this was because you know, I’m doing something more creative. And I’m getting to express my creativity. And it wasn’t really that at all. So I do agree that is a good way as a starting point, at least to figure out, am I doing this for the right reason? Or is this more so? I’m good. I want to be famous because I want to tell the people that I have 10,000 followers, and eventually want to become an influencer that earns money because apparently that’s a cool thing to do. So yeah, that’s actually this really good. And this, the second thing that I wanted to unpack a little bit there was, you mentioned, you know, the person a person B, I really liked that ideology, there’s that person with the process. And then there’s a person who’s kind of just having fun with it. Now, lots of entrepreneurs actually swear by the process, like, you know, they say that, you know, it’s actually good to have systems in place to event and it is good to look at metrics, you know. So how is that different than what you said?
Sidhant Kisshor
Well, I’m not saying you should completely say no to metrics, fair. But I’m saying that if you’re you got to understand what the more attached to the result, or the process, that’s what I actually meant. Not saying that, are you in love with the process? Or are you having fun with it? Right? Right, a lot of goes to another proposal? Are you having fun with it? Or are you behind results is what I meant. Then another thing I would like to point out here is, if you’re running behind anything that is manmade, know that it’s not authentic to you. Anything like money, money is man made, it’s not authentic to you as a human being, if you’re running behind, if your biggest dream is that you want to buy a house. So true. It’s not authentic to you. Anything man made, it’s not authentic, dig deeper. It’s a very easy framework to think about. Whether the dreams that you have, that you say that you have, are authentic or not.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
I love that. It’s it’s even going about the seven why’s with that, like, Why do I want that car? Why do I want that house and go into the why and really figure out what, what’s really driving you. And that’s actually very interesting, because I mean, purpose work has become so big. Now, what’s by Simon Sinek being like the leading forefront of that, and yeah, it’s it’s important that not lots of people know that it’s good to have a purpose, but it’s like, how do I really go about it? Like, what does that even mean? It’s the same thing about like, you know, passion. How do I know what I’m passionate about? Versus it’s just a hobby. So it’s one of those things that I feel like those words are used so much in our generation without people really understanding it. So this is this is some really like good stuff. Another thing that I really wanted to get into was something that I had kind of gotten asked you earlier, like you had the you had the sports background, you had the computer science, you didn’t have the writing, you didn’t have the video and I’ve seen I’ve read your articles. You know that I bring them up often. I’ve watched your videos I’ve creeped Like all of your Instagram videos, and I think you know that really well, you know, and you have good video presence and you write and you’re very authentic. With someone who has no experience, what advice would you give to them to kind of start like becoming better with like those key skills that are required, but content creation these days?
Sidhant Kisshor
I’ll say two things here. Number one, do not even try to get better. If you don’t, if you don’t even good at it, of course, it’s a skill you can develop. There are so many art articles, you can read so many videos you can watch, we’ll say, start by adding 100 200 words, sit there on the corner, set a separate corner, look at a blank wall, make that your key space and 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. I’ve 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 experience it was skills there was I’m not really sure what the list but experience 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 Buffett went through so much. Opera went through so much. Oh, my God, these guys have gone through so much. I just think shed man who 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.
Mahrukh Imtiaz
That’s when I said diving into my own thing like that incredible. And do you mind sharing bits of that story? And then how you kind of went past that? Ooh, guess who’s back again, this is where part one will end.
And if you want to listen to the story, go to part two. Know that I love you. Bye.
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 publish lots of love from your favorite.
You’ve got this beautiful!
