Are you prepared to elevate your creative agency business in India?
In this episode, Ayush Wadhwa, Founder & Creative Director of OWLED Media, a multi-million dollar digital marketing agency in India, unveils his systematic approach for developing a prosperous service-based enterprise. He'll divulge his leading strategies and recommendations, including methods to scale and expand your creative agency in India rapidly and effectively.
Brace yourself to advance your business to unprecedented heights with Ayush's proficient guidance!
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Saikat Pyne: This is the second episode for the U Incorporated podcast,
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Saikat Pyne: and I have a Wawa, the founder and creative director
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Saikat Pyne: for Old Media,
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Saikat Pyne: the creative agency behind some of those great curious podcast
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Saikat Pyne: episodes that you might have checked out on YouTube. Ayush
00:00:48
Saikat Pyne: created his first video at 13, and over the last
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Saikat Pyne: decade I worked with over 100 plus brands. I heard
00:00:56
Saikat Pyne: of A for the first time in testimonial from Uncle Varico.
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Saikat Pyne: So welcome to the show,
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Ayush Wadhwa: Ayush. Thank you so much for having me. It means
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Ayush Wadhwa: a lot.
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Ayush Wadhwa: And thanks for the kind introduction are excited for this conversation.
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Saikat Pyne: How did a mechanical engineer from Bets land up as
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Saikat Pyne: a creative agency
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Ayush Wadhwa: ahead? The story is actually fairly simple. I was always
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Ayush Wadhwa: a creator first, then an engineer or then a student
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Ayush Wadhwa: of engineering. So I did my years of mechanical engineering
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Ayush Wadhwa: and masters of chemistry from wits. I spent about five
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Ayush Wadhwa: years in that beautiful college,
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Ayush Wadhwa: but I was a creator before so almost a decade.
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Ayush Wadhwa: Read that right? So about 11 years ago I was
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Ayush Wadhwa: about 23. I was I'm 24 now. I was 13 then,
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Ayush Wadhwa: and that is when I started creating content. I was
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Ayush Wadhwa: creating YouTube videos way before it was cool to create
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Ayush Wadhwa: YouTube videos. I saw being a becoming A YouTuber has
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Ayush Wadhwa: become a profession, but this is before the bombs or
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Ayush Wadhwa: the mostly saints of the world. This is before we
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Ayush Wadhwa: saw a wave of creators coming
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Ayush Wadhwa: in India coming up in India. This is before Geo
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Ayush Wadhwa: before the entire Internet wave. That is, when we started
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Ayush Wadhwa: creating content. That is when I created my first Internet
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Ayush Wadhwa: company with a friend of mine. And that's how the
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Ayush Wadhwa: journey started. So I was always a creator. I always
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Ayush Wadhwa: consider my 11th and 12th of high school when you
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Ayush Wadhwa: prepare for I t g E as
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Ayush Wadhwa: the period where I took a break from content to
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Ayush Wadhwa: get into a good college and then only to get
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Ayush Wadhwa: into a good college to resume my content journey right?
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Ayush Wadhwa: So I think content was first. Engineering was second, and
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Ayush Wadhwa: those two years are very interesting because
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Ayush Wadhwa: the reason I took a break and did engineering in
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Ayush Wadhwa: the first place was only because of my parents. They
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Ayush Wadhwa: wanted me to crack this holy grail of an exam
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Ayush Wadhwa: called the I T G. J. 81 J Means, and
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Ayush Wadhwa: I cracked I t I cracked like a bunch of
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Ayush Wadhwa: these I t SI didn't get the top five or
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Ayush Wadhwa: six months. So I realised that if it's not those,
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Ayush Wadhwa: I don't want to go to the the college just
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Ayush Wadhwa: for the name of it. And then I talked to
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Ayush Wadhwa: a couple of people from bits,
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Ayush Wadhwa: loved the vibe, loved the energy. More than that, I
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Ayush Wadhwa: ended up discovering that there are a lot of entrepreneurs
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Ayush Wadhwa: and the fact that there is 0% attendance. You can
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Ayush Wadhwa: do whatever you want to, and that's exactly what I wanted, right? So, yeah,
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Ayush Wadhwa: that's how I ended up doing this. But there was
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Ayush Wadhwa: a time in the middle
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Ayush Wadhwa: where I started another agency again. Now I've been more
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Ayush Wadhwa: vocal about this. I was never the kind of person
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Ayush Wadhwa: who used to talk about this a lot, but yes,
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Ayush Wadhwa: so from a creator from my first company, back when
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Ayush Wadhwa: I was 13 to doing freelancing to, then starting my
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Ayush Wadhwa: first agency back in 2019,
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Ayush Wadhwa: terribly feeling addict and then starting out in 2020 which
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Ayush Wadhwa: has now become like a lot of things like is
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Ayush Wadhwa: it is grown way beyond like just me.
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Saikat Pyne: Basically reserve the seat at bits for your parents to
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Saikat Pyne: be happy with you. I moved into content creation through
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Saikat Pyne: your years at bits, right?
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Ayush Wadhwa: Yes and no. I cracked I t as a badge key.
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Ayush Wadhwa: This person was eligible to go into an I t.
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Ayush Wadhwa: But still didn't go to one. I think that was
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Ayush Wadhwa: what I satisfied my parents with Choosing bits was a
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Ayush Wadhwa: very personal decision. Choosing bits over the other i t
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Ayush Wadhwa: for the name of it or even other really solid
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Ayush Wadhwa: colleges in the country was because of the fact that, um,
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Ayush Wadhwa: I really wanted to be around people who could inspire
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Ayush Wadhwa: me and who were a lot more than just engineers.
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Ayush Wadhwa: My biggest. I hated the fact that I'm from a
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Ayush Wadhwa: small town and I'm not as creative maybe, or I'm
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Ayush Wadhwa: not as well rounded as somebody from a school in Delhi.
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Ayush Wadhwa: I My my extracurricular curricular activities included nothing. It was
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Ayush Wadhwa: just academics for the longest of the times. And that's
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Ayush Wadhwa: the reason I started creating content in the first place
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Ayush Wadhwa: because I used to feel so bad that all I
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Ayush Wadhwa: do is study.
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Ayush Wadhwa: I want something that defines me slightly more than K
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Ayush Wadhwa: R E. But just that this person just studies and
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Ayush Wadhwa: does nothing else. And that's why I wanted to go
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Ayush Wadhwa: to bits. Even though I wasn't. I was getting much
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Ayush Wadhwa: better branches in other colleges. People who are studying engineering
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Ayush Wadhwa: will get it. I still went ahead and chose bits
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Ayush Wadhwa: because to me the degree was not going to matter
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Ayush Wadhwa: at all. To me, the college was going to matter
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Ayush Wadhwa: a lot more than the degree.
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Saikat Pyne: Our journeys are pretty similar in the sense that both
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Saikat Pyne: of us sat for an exam that we might not
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Saikat Pyne: have intended to prove something to our parents. Only difference
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Saikat Pyne: seems to be that you were able to prove it,
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Saikat Pyne: and I wasn't because I think I scored some 88
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Saikat Pyne: or 90 in I TJ and eventually did to end liberal.
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Saikat Pyne: How did the people at wits help you come up
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Saikat Pyne: with some of these ideas?
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Ayush Wadhwa: Bits gave me the ability to dream well. Before I
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Ayush Wadhwa: joined college,
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Ayush Wadhwa: I was always very individualistic in nature. My entire life
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Ayush Wadhwa: was even though it started a company and we had
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Ayush Wadhwa: a team of about five people when we were in
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Ayush Wadhwa: class nine or 10 things were still my My dreams
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Ayush Wadhwa: were still like
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Ayush Wadhwa: big, but not big enough.
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Ayush Wadhwa: And I thought maybe earning like €10 a year is
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Ayush Wadhwa: a big dream. Or maybe earning €20 a year is
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Ayush Wadhwa: a big dream. I go to pits and I tell
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Ayush Wadhwa: people they used to ask me what your aspiration is,
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Ayush Wadhwa: what your dreams are. And we're doing this. We want
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Ayush Wadhwa: to become like a really big youtuber in India.
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Ayush Wadhwa: And two things used to point out You're like, Why India?
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Ayush Wadhwa: Why not globally? I'm like, I don't know. That's just
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Ayush Wadhwa: like way out of the and second, I always and
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Ayush Wadhwa: I see this like a lot of times I've said
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Ayush Wadhwa: this a lot that I went to bits with the
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Ayush Wadhwa: dream of becoming a big youtuber. I went out when
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Ayush Wadhwa: I heard people say that when I came out of
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Ayush Wadhwa: the college, I used to hear people say that Forget
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Ayush Wadhwa: being the biggest youtuber. We are going to build the
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Ayush Wadhwa: next YouTube. The fact that people in bits were
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Ayush Wadhwa: daring enough to build the next billion dollar company or
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Ayush Wadhwa: build the next tech giant. That would be of the
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Ayush Wadhwa: same scale as Google or Microsoft gave me a lot
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Ayush Wadhwa: of power, motivation, inspiration. So yeah, that's what bits did
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Ayush Wadhwa: to me. Although I implemented that very late in my life,
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Ayush Wadhwa: I still ended up freelancing for the longest time. And
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Ayush Wadhwa: I think that was the best decision because I learned
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Ayush Wadhwa: a lot about freelancing and made a lot of mistakes.
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Ayush Wadhwa: And then when I realised OK, I think it's now
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Ayush Wadhwa: time to scale up, but
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Ayush Wadhwa: 100% the way outlets scaled would have not scaled if
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Ayush Wadhwa: people in beds wouldn't have shown me. This is how
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Ayush Wadhwa: you dream big and whatever you have, it can be
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Ayush Wadhwa: bigger and bigger. I think that ability is extremely
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Saikat Pyne: underrated. And I think in the Indian education system the
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Saikat Pyne: ability to dream big
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Saikat Pyne: is not celebrated as much. Right out of bits, you
00:07:06
Saikat Pyne: started to freelance. What were you freelancing
00:07:08
Ayush Wadhwa: in? So I started freelancing in my first year, so
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Ayush Wadhwa: I started freelancing as a career back in school. So
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Ayush Wadhwa: I was always freelancing as an editor in bits I
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Ayush Wadhwa: changed to. I learned a couple of new skills. I
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Ayush Wadhwa: became a lot better at being a better cinematographer,
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Ayush Wadhwa: so I was throughout college. From first to fourth year,
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Ayush Wadhwa: I freelanced in a bunch of things. Editing used to
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Ayush Wadhwa: be the most highest paying of all, because I could
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Ayush Wadhwa: do that remotely. I could do that while I was
00:07:30
Ayush Wadhwa: in Pila, but I freelanced as a director. I freelanced
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Ayush Wadhwa: as AD o. P. I was a travel filmmaker for
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Ayush Wadhwa: a short while. After with multiple companies work with,
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Ayush Wadhwa: you know, brands like GoPro, insider, Thomas Cook, Cox and King.
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Ayush Wadhwa: That part was really exciting where I was when I
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Ayush Wadhwa: was getting to work as a freelancer with other agencies
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Ayush Wadhwa: or with clients directly, but that I used to really
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Ayush Wadhwa: like that, because at that point my only focus was
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Ayush Wadhwa: how to be a better creative.
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Ayush Wadhwa: I never learned how to sell. By the way, I
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Ayush Wadhwa: think most of like the sales in my early days
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Ayush Wadhwa: of freelancing happened because of luck. And then a lot
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Ayush Wadhwa: of really solid people saw my work, so my only
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Ayush Wadhwa: and only metric there was. How do I become a
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Ayush Wadhwa: better creative professional? So every day I just used to
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Ayush Wadhwa: learn something new, and I became a really solid editor.
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Ayush Wadhwa: Or rather, I became a really solid director D. O P.
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Ayush Wadhwa: Editor combination, which is hard to find the beauty skilled
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Ayush Wadhwa: in one sort of vertical, right? But because I had
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Ayush Wadhwa: a creator mindset as well and I was always creating
00:08:26
Ayush Wadhwa: content even throughout college, when I was creating content, I
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Ayush Wadhwa: never stopped. My my growth only happened in the last
00:08:30
Ayush Wadhwa: 1.5 years because this is when this is the time
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Ayush Wadhwa: when I'm actually, uh when I actually got to focus
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Ayush Wadhwa: on my content from a growth perspective, but I was
00:08:36
Ayush Wadhwa: always posting content online. Even if you go to the
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Ayush Wadhwa: YouTube channel now, you will see that
00:08:41
Ayush Wadhwa: from 20 like 14 to 20 there. There have always
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Ayush Wadhwa: been videos. So the videos were just coming one video
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Ayush Wadhwa: in three months instead of one video every day, which
00:08:50
Ayush Wadhwa: is the case now. But yes, I was freelancing in
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Ayush Wadhwa: these fields only to realise that as a freelancing, you
00:08:55
Ayush Wadhwa: actually need to learn sales. By the way, I take
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Ayush Wadhwa: workshops on now that I made a lot of mistakes,
00:09:00
Ayush Wadhwa: still made a killer career in freelancing, but still made
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Ayush Wadhwa: a lot of mistakes. You shouldn't do this where I
00:09:05
Ayush Wadhwa: reached in four years you can probably reach that like
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Ayush Wadhwa: year or so right? But yes, that's that's what I
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Ayush Wadhwa: was freelancing in.
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Saikat Pyne: Nice. So when did the idea really come about? Let's
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Saikat Pyne: move into an agency model and what really changed
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Ayush Wadhwa: There are two ways to look at This one is
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Ayush Wadhwa: the industry insight that I had, which allowed me to
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Ayush Wadhwa: position my agency, which is the answer to why, how
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Ayush Wadhwa: and why to the services that we offer and how
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Ayush Wadhwa: we offer that.
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Ayush Wadhwa: The other answer is more personal, which I'm going to
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Ayush Wadhwa: give now, which is why, as a person, I wanted
00:09:37
Ayush Wadhwa: to start an agency after doing freelancing, I think because
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Ayush Wadhwa: I was in the content space for quite some time.
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Ayush Wadhwa: Once you are in a space for a long time
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Ayush Wadhwa: and you know that you're good at it, you want
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Ayush Wadhwa: to do something in the in the in a similar space,
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Ayush Wadhwa: an agency was the obvious next step for me because
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Ayush Wadhwa: of two reasons. Number one.
00:09:53
Ayush Wadhwa: I'd scale my freelancing business to a good 3 to
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Ayush Wadhwa: 5 lacs a month, and that was all those massive
00:09:58
Ayush Wadhwa: revenues for me, and I'm like, Wow, I'm peaking now.
00:10:01
Ayush Wadhwa: I'm peaking as a freelancer. I don't think I can
00:10:04
Ayush Wadhwa: take it beyond this. I'm not saying that's true, but
00:10:07
Ayush Wadhwa: at the time I felt like it can't go beyond
00:10:09
Ayush Wadhwa: this and in my head. The only way to take
00:10:12
Ayush Wadhwa: it beyond this revenue was to have multiple people in
00:10:16
Ayush Wadhwa: the team. So there are two ways to do it. A.
00:10:18
Ayush Wadhwa: Either we do a collective of creatives, so collectives are
00:10:21
Ayush Wadhwa: now becoming more and more popular. It's a very popular
00:10:23
Ayush Wadhwa: concept of which a lot of people in Amsterdam, UK Europe,
00:10:26
Ayush Wadhwa: even US do a lot of collectives, right? So I'm
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Ayush Wadhwa: like Either I form a collective or I make an
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Ayush Wadhwa: agency model fit and right for me because of a
00:10:34
Ayush Wadhwa: couple of reasons Number one was, I was always a journalist.
00:10:38
Ayush Wadhwa: I was always a great D p director editor. I'm
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Ayush Wadhwa: like I'm a great I'm great at these things. But
00:10:44
Ayush Wadhwa: am I the best? The answer was no.
00:10:46
Ayush Wadhwa: Can I become the best? It will probably take me years,
00:10:50
Ayush Wadhwa: however, because I understand these really well. That means I
00:10:54
Ayush Wadhwa: can hire the right directors. I can hire the right
00:10:57
Ayush Wadhwa: D o. P. SI can hire the right editors. I
00:10:59
Ayush Wadhwa: can hire the right social media person because I understood
00:11:02
Ayush Wadhwa: the field really well. I could hire right. So it started.
00:11:06
Ayush Wadhwa: I started realising that here what my skills and what
00:11:09
Ayush Wadhwa: I want to be 10 years later aligns better with
00:11:12
Ayush Wadhwa: me as an entrepreneur. And I may not be an
00:11:15
Ayush Wadhwa: entrepreneur now, but this is the time I take it.
00:11:17
Ayush Wadhwa: So because of all these reasons, a revenue scaling B
00:11:20
Ayush Wadhwa: I was a great fit as a person leading the
00:11:23
Ayush Wadhwa: team because I was a journalist who was to different
00:11:25
Ayush Wadhwa: fields so I could hire right. I could give the
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Ayush Wadhwa: right directions. I could sell the right thing. Third, I
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Ayush Wadhwa: knew I want to be good at selling,
00:11:35
Ayush Wadhwa: and the reason I say I want to be good
00:11:37
Ayush Wadhwa: at selling is because at the time I used to
00:11:39
Ayush Wadhwa: think I'm good at selling.
00:11:41
Ayush Wadhwa: If you talk to the 2018 19 I use, he
00:11:44
Ayush Wadhwa: would say these three points exactly in the same order
00:11:46
Ayush Wadhwa: except for the third point, he would say, because I'm
00:11:48
Ayush Wadhwa: great at selling now. Order A agencies. OK, it's only
00:11:51
Ayush Wadhwa: after starting the first agency, I realised that the first
00:11:54
Ayush Wadhwa: two points were correct
00:11:55
Ayush Wadhwa: that I I was fitting in better as an entrepreneur,
00:11:57
Ayush Wadhwa: I was enjoying the fact that now I can scale
00:12:00
Ayush Wadhwa: revenues even further. Right. Second point was also true that
00:12:04
Ayush Wadhwa: because I knew the skills really well, I was able
00:12:06
Ayush Wadhwa: to hire right, I was able to sell, right.
00:12:09
Ayush Wadhwa: But third, before you sell right, you have to initiate
00:12:12
Ayush Wadhwa: the sales process. I realise that I know nothing about sales.
00:12:16
Ayush Wadhwa: I know nothing about the fundamentals of sales. And that
00:12:19
Ayush Wadhwa: field agency is what took me to learn sales, to
00:12:23
Ayush Wadhwa: learn how not to be a freelancer and how to
00:12:26
Ayush Wadhwa: be an agency owner. What do you mean by the statement?
00:12:28
Ayush Wadhwa: Does a lot of people feel that the only way
00:12:31
Ayush Wadhwa: to scale up revenues as agencies I was wrong?
00:12:34
Ayush Wadhwa: I think the insight was is partially correct. And it
00:12:38
Ayush Wadhwa: it wasn't my favour that it worked for me. But
00:12:41
Ayush Wadhwa: the insight there is much more advanced, which is, uh
00:12:43
Ayush Wadhwa: you can always scale in revenues as a freelancer as well.
00:12:47
Ayush Wadhwa: The choice is do you want to be?
00:12:50
Ayush Wadhwa: Do you wanna live your life as a creative person?
00:12:52
Ayush Wadhwa: Or do you want to live your life as an entrepreneur?
00:12:54
Ayush Wadhwa: Because both of these are extremely different up now. As
00:12:57
Ayush Wadhwa: an entrepreneur, I don't get to sit on the creative
00:13:00
Ayush Wadhwa: part of the project at all, and I really miss
00:13:03
Ayush Wadhwa: it sometimes. So if you're a creative who genuinely loves
00:13:08
Ayush Wadhwa: the work that they do, I don't think you should
00:13:11
Ayush Wadhwa: open an agency, Max should you should do a collective
00:13:14
Ayush Wadhwa: or a small 4 to 5 people agency right more
00:13:17
Ayush Wadhwa: than that. And you can print massive money,
00:13:21
Ayush Wadhwa: right? Because once we sign the agency, we also try
00:13:24
Ayush Wadhwa: to realise that with an agency and a company, there
00:13:27
Ayush Wadhwa: are a lot of these hidden costs involved, right, which
00:13:30
Ayush Wadhwa: we didn't know of. Companies say that agencies are expensive,
00:13:34
Ayush Wadhwa: much more expensive than so there. There are a number
00:13:37
Ayush Wadhwa: of reasons. Why is that the case? You know, the
00:13:40
Ayush Wadhwa: fact that we are, of course, more feel safe. We
00:13:43
Ayush Wadhwa: are faster in a lot of ways and, of course,
00:13:45
Ayush Wadhwa: a bunch of benefits. But
00:13:47
Ayush Wadhwa: running a company has a lot of these hidden costs,
00:13:50
Ayush Wadhwa: but again, all of this there are a lot of
00:13:52
Ayush Wadhwa: positives and negatives of starting an agency as a freelancer.
00:13:54
Ayush Wadhwa: Luckily for me, positives turned out to be in my favour.
00:13:57
Ayush Wadhwa: And now I'm really enjoying the running, the agency life
00:14:01
Ayush Wadhwa: as well.
00:14:01
Saikat Pyne: Nice. Imagine a parallel universe where au the freelancer would
00:14:06
Saikat Pyne: have been a great of a collective a bunch of
00:14:10
Saikat Pyne: creators all together. What would the character of
00:14:15
Saikat Pyne: that version of I used to look like?
00:14:17
Ayush Wadhwa: Got it? I think years ago my answer would have
00:14:19
Ayush Wadhwa: been when I actually would have taken this decision. The
00:14:21
Ayush Wadhwa: answer would have been a creative director slash director, somebody
00:14:24
Ayush Wadhwa: who would be very deep into the creative process and
00:14:26
Ayush Wadhwa: would be leading a team. The reason I still lead
00:14:28
Ayush Wadhwa: a team because again, I could understand different parts of
00:14:30
Ayush Wadhwa: the creative process. And as a director, you need to
00:14:32
Ayush Wadhwa: understand not just one, but multiple processes. Right now, however,
00:14:36
Ayush Wadhwa: I would like to play a different role. I've realised
00:14:38
Ayush Wadhwa: over time that I'm extremely good at helping people
00:14:42
Ayush Wadhwa: and helping people is all that is there at sales, right?
00:14:46
Ayush Wadhwa: You get on a call with somebody, you try to
00:14:48
Ayush Wadhwa: help them. And when I say you help them, you
00:14:50
Ayush Wadhwa: also sometimes also say no to them and you say
00:14:53
Ayush Wadhwa: no to making money. And this is, I think, fundamentally
00:14:57
Ayush Wadhwa: the difference. Selling with Like you have this mentality at
00:15:00
Ayush Wadhwa: all as well. Don't sell help.
00:15:02
Ayush Wadhwa: Like I think great people who are great at sales
00:15:05
Ayush Wadhwa: don't sell at all. They go to help people.
00:15:09
Ayush Wadhwa: And I think because I have context of all like
00:15:11
Ayush Wadhwa: the creative field now I would like to play a
00:15:13
Ayush Wadhwa: role of somebody who either does strategy or does strategy
00:15:17
Ayush Wadhwa: plus business development. Because I know that for that collective,
00:15:20
Ayush Wadhwa: I can generate a lot of business because of the
00:15:22
Ayush Wadhwa: mentality and the knowledge that I have. Mentality is never
00:15:25
Ayush Wadhwa: to sell. Mentality is always to get on a call
00:15:28
Ayush Wadhwa: and genuinely try to understand. Can my collective even solve
00:15:31
Ayush Wadhwa: the problem? Is my collective even equipped to solve the problem?
00:15:34
Ayush Wadhwa: Because what people don't realise is if you sell wrong
00:15:37
Ayush Wadhwa: a you got the wrong client.
00:15:39
Ayush Wadhwa: The client will not be happy. He would then go
00:15:42
Ayush Wadhwa: and talk about how bad the collector was, so the
00:15:44
Ayush Wadhwa: collector's reputation is also at stake. Even the collector won't
00:15:47
Ayush Wadhwa: enjoy working with the client, so you're also spoiling your
00:15:50
Ayush Wadhwa: relationship with the collector right because they won't enjoy working
00:15:53
Ayush Wadhwa: with the client because the client is not happy. They're
00:15:55
Ayush Wadhwa: asking for more changes than you than were required in
00:15:57
Ayush Wadhwa: the process. The project, instead of a month, goes on
00:16:00
Ayush Wadhwa: for three months, so on. So I think now I'll
00:16:02
Ayush Wadhwa: be a great strategy and business development person because I
00:16:05
Ayush Wadhwa: go with the perspective of helping people,
00:16:06
Ayush Wadhwa: which involves saying no a lot, which involves also helping
00:16:10
Ayush Wadhwa: without even charging anything for that matter. Just and when
00:16:13
Ayush Wadhwa: I say help, not just helping in a way that
00:16:15
Ayush Wadhwa: care skills help because more than that just sitting with
00:16:19
Ayush Wadhwa: them very patiently, asking the right questions and just pointing
00:16:23
Ayush Wadhwa: them to the right direction because I'm not saying they
00:16:26
Ayush Wadhwa: can't point them themselves towards the right direction. The problem is,
00:16:29
Ayush Wadhwa: when you're too deep into the ecosystem, a lot of
00:16:32
Ayush Wadhwa: times you need a third person's perspective
00:16:35
Ayush Wadhwa: to just help you identify where the problems are right
00:16:39
Ayush Wadhwa: and this happens in big companies all the time, extremely
00:16:42
Ayush Wadhwa: smart people. But the processes are so complex and you
00:16:45
Ayush Wadhwa: have so many responsibilities as a marketing manager that the
00:16:49
Ayush Wadhwa: reason you need an agency is not because you can't
00:16:51
Ayush Wadhwa: do the job. The reason you need an agency is
00:16:53
Ayush Wadhwa: because a you have way too many things and you
00:16:56
Ayush Wadhwa: need a third person's perspective to come in and help
00:16:59
Ayush Wadhwa: you a first identify the problem and then solve it.
00:17:02
Ayush Wadhwa: True that true that this is what I would have
00:17:04
Ayush Wadhwa: played through that.
00:17:05
Saikat Pyne: Now let's imagine a third parallel universe. What version of
00:17:09
Saikat Pyne: I would have been great as a creative head for,
00:17:12
Saikat Pyne: Let's say, a wiggy or a
00:17:15
Ayush Wadhwa: wow.
00:17:16
Ayush Wadhwa: Do think about this, that if I had to take
00:17:19
Ayush Wadhwa: a job or if I would if I were to
00:17:20
Ayush Wadhwa: take a job in the future, what kind of a
00:17:23
Ayush Wadhwa: job would I take? I think I'm not too keen on,
00:17:26
Ayush Wadhwa: firstly taking a 1 to 10 or a 1 200
00:17:29
Ayush Wadhwa: job like I would take a job
00:17:32
Ayush Wadhwa: in a startup, which is going from 0 to 1.
00:17:35
Ayush Wadhwa: Somebody like me who has spent who breathes content day in,
00:17:40
Ayush Wadhwa: day out. My day starts with thinking about content. My
00:17:43
Ayush Wadhwa: day ends with either producing content or thinking about content.
00:17:47
Ayush Wadhwa: Somebody like me will not fit in well in a
00:17:49
Ayush Wadhwa: company which has a million processes to get through to
00:17:53
Ayush Wadhwa: produce something and 20 legal teams to get it passed through.
00:17:58
Ayush Wadhwa: I think somebody like me would do great favour to
00:18:01
Ayush Wadhwa: a company and vice versa. That company will be doing
00:18:04
Ayush Wadhwa: a favour to me when I am allowed to experiment
00:18:08
Ayush Wadhwa: and break things to me. I don't need a budget.
00:18:10
Ayush Wadhwa: I've always, especially before I would be operated without budgets
00:18:14
Ayush Wadhwa: but free creative thinking. So I think any startup 0
00:18:17
Ayush Wadhwa: to 1 journey might create
00:18:19
Ayush Wadhwa: as a creative head. Like I think that is the
00:18:20
Ayush Wadhwa: company that I would pick firstly, second, how would my
00:18:23
Ayush Wadhwa: role look like I I'd be doing a lot of
00:18:25
Ayush Wadhwa: video content. I'd be taking a lot of bets. A
00:18:28
Ayush Wadhwa: lot of experiments. I would do new things because a
00:18:31
Ayush Wadhwa: lot of times companies are scared of trying new things.
00:18:33
Ayush Wadhwa: But because I know I'm very good at learning new skills.
00:18:36
Ayush Wadhwa: And like ER, for example, which other company I'm in,
00:18:39
Ayush Wadhwa: I would make a r part of their marketing strategy, which, sadly,
00:18:41
Ayush Wadhwa: a lot of companies don't. Yeah, and to implement it
00:18:44
Ayush Wadhwa: I When I had to implement a r at, I
00:18:46
Ayush Wadhwa: would
00:18:47
Ayush Wadhwa: I learned that it took five days to learn basic
00:18:49
Ayush Wadhwa: how to make an a r philtre. I'm of course,
00:18:51
Ayush Wadhwa: learning different things and a R is very detailed and deep,
00:18:54
Ayush Wadhwa: but at least you can get things started. So I'm
00:18:55
Ayush Wadhwa: very good at producing M v. P s. I'm very
00:18:59
Ayush Wadhwa: good at producing the first version. A very rough raw version.
00:19:02
Ayush Wadhwa: And
00:19:03
Ayush Wadhwa: that is what is required in a in a 0
00:19:04
Ayush Wadhwa: to 1 stage. That is what is required in a
00:19:06
Ayush Wadhwa: startup of that scale which has produced a lot of
00:19:07
Ayush Wadhwa: these M. V. P s quickly figure out what moves,
00:19:10
Ayush Wadhwa: and then I would want to give it to somebody
00:19:11
Ayush Wadhwa: who has done this for 20. Now, you are a
00:19:13
Ayush Wadhwa: much more responsible person to be able to track this,
00:19:17
Ayush Wadhwa: to be able to execute this and yeah, even now
00:19:20
Ayush Wadhwa: I started hiring people who are much more experienced than me.
00:19:22
Ayush Wadhwa: But I am. I know my strength lies in understanding
00:19:26
Ayush Wadhwa: a problem quickly and pitching the right solution to that problem.
00:19:30
Ayush Wadhwa: Executing that solution,
00:19:32
Ayush Wadhwa: the team is much better equipped than I am. Yeah,
00:19:34
Ayush Wadhwa: so I think this is what I'd be doing. I'd
00:19:36
Ayush Wadhwa: be making a bunch of M v. P s and
00:19:38
Ayush Wadhwa: would be making a marketing plan, which, to be honest,
00:19:40
Ayush Wadhwa: looks very different from most companies because we did This
00:19:43
Ayush Wadhwa: experiment at doesn't need marketing since you b to B
00:19:46
Ayush Wadhwa: So you got 55 million plus impressions on our launch.
00:19:51
Ayush Wadhwa: $0 spent in marketing zero literally zero. We recently broke
00:19:56
Ayush Wadhwa: the Spotify and order them.
00:19:58
Ayush Wadhwa: I made a reel and I've done this not three times,
00:20:01
Ayush Wadhwa: because the first time I thought it's luck. Second time
00:20:03
Ayush Wadhwa: I thought, Fine, it's just we have proved it. Once
00:20:05
Ayush Wadhwa: we did it the third time to prove it to
00:20:08
Ayush Wadhwa: the audience, we broke the Spotify algorithm the point that
00:20:11
Ayush Wadhwa: Spotify started recommending songs in the same order that I
00:20:15
Ayush Wadhwa: recommended them.
00:20:17
Ayush Wadhwa: So I think like when you know that you understand
00:20:19
Ayush Wadhwa: the content space, you need the freedom to break rules.
00:20:22
Ayush Wadhwa: So I think I'm very good at that.
00:20:24
Ayush Wadhwa: And of course, for consistency to make sure we have
00:20:27
Ayush Wadhwa: the right goal setting the right K p i s
00:20:29
Ayush Wadhwa: you need somebody experience. You need somebody who has seen
00:20:32
Ayush Wadhwa: that 1 200 journey through that. So yeah, I think
00:20:35
Ayush Wadhwa: I'd be a co creative head and the other co
00:20:37
Ayush Wadhwa: creative head would be the one who would be much
00:20:38
Ayush Wadhwa: more structured, much more patient with the results much more
00:20:42
Ayush Wadhwa: organised in their thinking, which is something that our team
00:20:46
Ayush Wadhwa: is now. For me.
00:20:47
Saikat Pyne: You're the crazy one, and the rest of the team
00:20:49
Saikat Pyne: keeps you grounded
00:20:51
Ayush Wadhwa: pretty much.
00:20:52
Saikat Pyne: What's the way to learn creative skills? In your opinion,
00:20:58
Ayush Wadhwa: I have a terrible memory. You will tell me something
00:21:01
Ayush Wadhwa: today and I'll forget it two days later, I think.
00:21:04
Ayush Wadhwa: And I believe that I'm a very solid editor, but
00:21:06
Ayush Wadhwa: I've not touched Premiere in two years. Premier for the software.
00:21:10
Ayush Wadhwa: If I sit on the software now, I'll forget where
00:21:13
Ayush Wadhwa: things were.
00:21:14
Ayush Wadhwa: Does that make me a bad editor? Probably. I think
00:21:18
Ayush Wadhwa: every person learns very differently. I as a creative. I
00:21:23
Ayush Wadhwa: have always learned something. When I've tested. I'm a very
00:21:27
Ayush Wadhwa: execution first person. As much as I love perfectionism like there,
00:21:30
Ayush Wadhwa: there are parts of me, especially when we're shipping our
00:21:32
Ayush Wadhwa: client work. I'm very particular about the smallest of the things,
00:21:35
Ayush Wadhwa: but especially when learning and doing things for myself, I
00:21:39
Ayush Wadhwa: I prefer execution first. I prefer just learning one thing, quickly,
00:21:42
Ayush Wadhwa: executing it
00:21:43
Ayush Wadhwa: and then because I know if I just watched the video,
00:21:48
Ayush Wadhwa: if I just make notes, I'm gonna forget it for sure.
00:21:51
Ayush Wadhwa: I don't have a good memory at all, and somehow
00:21:55
Ayush Wadhwa: I've always learned things. When I was executing, I didn't
00:21:57
Ayush Wadhwa: go to a film school. I didn't go to any
00:21:59
Ayush Wadhwa: advertising school. Whatever I've learned is either from other people
00:22:02
Ayush Wadhwa: or observing the Internet or by practising it. And personally,
00:22:07
Ayush Wadhwa: I think that's the best way. However, to be honest,
00:22:09
Ayush Wadhwa: I've seen people who have done the complete opposite and
00:22:12
Ayush Wadhwa: are extremely successful. To be honest
00:22:14
Ayush Wadhwa: floes here. What
00:22:15
Saikat Pyne: were the first couple of buyers for you, For our
00:22:18
Saikat Pyne: as an agency
00:22:19
Ayush Wadhwa: founder, we bought software of course equipment. We didn't buy
00:22:22
Ayush Wadhwa: a lot. To be honest, we are a very asset
00:22:23
Ayush Wadhwa: like company that we like because we do like really
00:22:26
Ayush Wadhwa: big suits, a lot of small suits as well. Most
00:22:28
Ayush Wadhwa: of the revenue comes from the bigger suits and the
00:22:30
Ayush Wadhwa: fact that everything that has to be very proprietary, everything
00:22:33
Ayush Wadhwa: is rented right. So even in our industry, most of
00:22:36
Ayush Wadhwa: the production officers don't own the equipment, and it's not
00:22:39
Ayush Wadhwa: a very logical purchase, either, for a lot of people, right, because,
00:22:44
Ayush Wadhwa: uh, every project has a very unique requirement, and you
00:22:47
Ayush Wadhwa: need a unique set of lights. You need a unique
00:22:50
Ayush Wadhwa: set of equipment. You need a new maybe not a
00:22:52
Ayush Wadhwa: unique camera, because camera that treasure the existing at G
00:22:55
Ayush Wadhwa: on you can click on them on your fingers. But
00:22:57
Ayush Wadhwa: the combination is always very unique, and that's the reason
00:23:00
Ayush Wadhwa: we don't own it. Software we used to. Of course,
00:23:02
Ayush Wadhwa: we invested in software a lot in the beginning, but
00:23:04
Ayush Wadhwa: mostly I have all the software that I used to
00:23:06
Ayush Wadhwa: get the video done because at how we started
00:23:09
Ayush Wadhwa: just as a video production company. Now we've expanded into
00:23:12
Ayush Wadhwa: a network which now we are a group of agencies.
00:23:14
Ayush Wadhwa: So now we're not in. We're not just one agency anymore. So, yeah,
00:23:17
Ayush Wadhwa: we started off as a video production house. Then we
00:23:19
Ayush Wadhwa: realised that we should be an agency. Then we we
00:23:21
Ayush Wadhwa: came from one agency to three agencies and yeah, I
00:23:24
Ayush Wadhwa: think it was just It happened like extremely fast. But
00:23:28
Ayush Wadhwa: the vision was defined for a somewhere last year. I
00:23:32
Ayush Wadhwa: think the 1st 1.5 years were
00:23:35
Ayush Wadhwa: they just went and execution and just figuring out what
00:23:38
Ayush Wadhwa: we like, what we don't like. And then once we
00:23:40
Ayush Wadhwa: knew that This is what we like. And this is
00:23:42
Ayush Wadhwa: what we want to do. And the vision was defined
00:23:44
Ayush Wadhwa: much more clearly. We still haven't announced it yet publicly,
00:23:48
Ayush Wadhwa: but happy to tell you this more about this may
00:23:50
Ayush Wadhwa: be offline. Like, what are we trying to do over
00:23:51
Ayush Wadhwa: the next couple of years?
00:23:53
Saikat Pyne: Lovely man, And tell me about the first three hires.
00:23:57
Ayush Wadhwa: First three hires were the first one was an editor
00:24:00
Ayush Wadhwa: the second we had interns. So I'm not sure if
00:24:03
Ayush Wadhwa: they count as hires, but we hired these social media interns.
00:24:06
Ayush Wadhwa: Then I hired another editor. Then I hired this guy
00:24:11
Ayush Wadhwa: and ER philtre developer. Yeah, The first few hires are
00:24:14
Ayush Wadhwa: actually very chaotic. I just operated with interns and just me,
00:24:17
Ayush Wadhwa: so I didn't hire at all for the 1st 89 months. Oh, wow.
00:24:20
Ayush Wadhwa: I used to call myself an agency but didn't hire
00:24:22
Ayush Wadhwa: at all.
00:24:23
Ayush Wadhwa: I don't know why. I think it's the same mentality shift, right?
00:24:25
Ayush Wadhwa: I told you, right. Like I I started implementing the
00:24:28
Ayush Wadhwa: the vision, the ability to dream very late in life.
00:24:32
Ayush Wadhwa: Even at our old I thought I can run the
00:24:34
Ayush Wadhwa: entire company. I can work with a lot of freelancers
00:24:36
Ayush Wadhwa: realise it's not working. Yeah, I think it were. It
00:24:38
Ayush Wadhwa: was a And we had three designers, but all of
00:24:40
Ayush Wadhwa: them are interns. Our full first full time designer came in,
00:24:43
Ayush Wadhwa: I think July or August, Right?
00:24:46
Ayush Wadhwa: So, yeah, but once I realised the power of the team,
00:24:49
Ayush Wadhwa: I scaled up really fast. Now, collectively, in the network,
00:24:52
Ayush Wadhwa: I think the number keeps varying by three or four
00:24:55
Ayush Wadhwa: every month. But yeah, that's the count right now.
00:24:57
Saikat Pyne: Wow. So for a year close to a year, you
00:25:01
Saikat Pyne: were just going to the client saying we are an
00:25:03
Saikat Pyne: agency and it was just you and a bunch of interns.
00:25:07
Saikat Pyne: It was crazy.
00:25:08
Ayush Wadhwa: Yeah, it was really funny. And I was doing everything
00:25:11
Ayush Wadhwa: I was doing selling. I was the one editing videos.
00:25:13
Ayush Wadhwa: I was the one making the air philtre. Oh, damn.
00:25:16
Saikat Pyne: Yeah. And pulling the things in our shifts, I'm sure.
00:25:20
Saikat Pyne: And you're pulling 16 hour shifts. I'm sure right more
00:25:23
Ayush Wadhwa: sometimes. Of course. Now I don't do it Now. I'm
00:25:25
Ayush Wadhwa: a big proponent of a healthier life. But at that time,
00:25:29
Ayush Wadhwa: so I was just all over the place. I was
00:25:31
Ayush Wadhwa: so eager to prove people wrong because I had a
00:25:34
Ayush Wadhwa: failed agency and I was like Is And the first
00:25:38
Ayush Wadhwa: agency had a couple of co-founders and the initial team,
00:25:42
Ayush Wadhwa: but
00:25:44
Ayush Wadhwa: nothing really worked out. We crack bigger clients in in
00:25:48
Ayush Wadhwa: in the first month itself. I realised that of course,
00:25:50
Ayush Wadhwa: team is very important. But because you don't have the team,
00:25:54
Ayush Wadhwa: you can't use it as a reason to not scale.
00:25:56
Saikat Pyne: Of course, I'm curious how you cracked your first three
00:25:59
Ayush Wadhwa: deals. I'll tell you. So. Ankur was our first client. A.
00:26:02
Ayush Wadhwa: A lot of you know him as a creator, right?
00:26:04
Ayush Wadhwa: At that time, he was an entrepreneur exploring the creator space.
00:26:08
Ayush Wadhwa: I think his socials had about 20 30 followers each.
00:26:11
Ayush Wadhwa: He had a good presence on LinkedIn, though, right? Because
00:26:14
Ayush Wadhwa: he had been producing content there for quite some time.
00:26:16
Ayush Wadhwa: How did this happen? Is so I wasn't planning to
00:26:18
Ayush Wadhwa: start another agency because I thought, but he I had
00:26:23
Ayush Wadhwa: no idea what I wanted to do. So I wrote
00:26:25
Ayush Wadhwa: an email to a
00:26:27
Ayush Wadhwa: fairly straightforward email. A project was to shoot all of
00:26:30
Ayush Wadhwa: his courses, the courses that he's still selling to date,
00:26:33
Ayush Wadhwa: incredible guy, incredible business that he has built over time.
00:26:37
Ayush Wadhwa: And I was like, Sure, let's do this. And yeah,
00:26:39
Ayush Wadhwa: this time I put myself as just a father, not
00:26:43
Ayush Wadhwa: as an agency.
00:26:44
Ayush Wadhwa: But when I started working with him, I realised he
00:26:49
Ayush Wadhwa: I can sell this The last agency we weren't able
00:26:51
Ayush Wadhwa: to sell, right? That doesn't mean you can't sell at all. Right?
00:26:56
Ayush Wadhwa: The next few clients were an academy then and were
00:27:01
Ayush Wadhwa: cracked at a similar time. I I'm not sure which
00:27:04
Ayush Wadhwa: one was cracked for.
00:27:05
Saikat Pyne: Are these co mes? I'm
00:27:07
Ayush Wadhwa: guessing mail. An academy was also co mare was also
00:27:10
Ayush Wadhwa: co mils, but it was a reference. Wow.
00:27:13
Saikat Pyne: So your first three clients were via mail. Nice.
00:27:16
Ayush Wadhwa: Yeah, and I've been cold emailing since the last four years. Uh,
00:27:20
Ayush Wadhwa: but I only saw the impact of it now because
00:27:23
Ayush Wadhwa: I understood that there has to be a structured your
00:27:25
Ayush Wadhwa: co mailing strategy. You can't just write a code email
00:27:29
Ayush Wadhwa: to everyone. There is a lot of thinking that should
00:27:32
Ayush Wadhwa: you talk about what to write in the email? I
00:27:35
Ayush Wadhwa: give a lot of thought to who to write to
00:27:38
Ayush Wadhwa: and who to write to. Maybe again and again or
00:27:40
Ayush Wadhwa: who to write or who not to take a follow
00:27:42
Ayush Wadhwa: up from, I don't know. Like I have this structure
00:27:44
Ayush Wadhwa: in place. I want to talk about it all. It's
00:27:46
Ayush Wadhwa: a fairly long structure. It takes at least 20 minutes
00:27:48
Ayush Wadhwa: to explain that structure, in fact, like our workshop on
00:27:51
Ayush Wadhwa: Sunday will literally be explaining the same structure again because
00:27:53
Ayush Wadhwa: I've done this again. So I I love to join
00:27:56
Ayush Wadhwa: to please do this, but I think that structure is
00:27:58
Ayush Wadhwa: what really helped me think through clearly that OK,
00:28:06
Ayush Wadhwa: clarity that you get a lot of clarity yourself when
00:28:08
Ayush Wadhwa: you do things in a structure, right? Uh, that structure
00:28:11
Ayush Wadhwa: is not gonna get you a lot of sales, but
00:28:12
Ayush Wadhwa: that structure will help you scale your sales, right? Uh,
00:28:15
Ayush Wadhwa: very advanced inside. And you start doing sales
00:28:17
Ayush Wadhwa: is then you understand. It's very so you need to
00:28:20
Ayush Wadhwa: bring the structure to it. What's the
00:28:22
Saikat Pyne: way for an agency founder to go about thinking about
00:28:25
Saikat Pyne: growing in bread or in depth of service offerings for
00:28:29
Saikat Pyne: the first six months?
00:28:29
Ayush Wadhwa: Let's say this is a very good question, because this
00:28:33
Ayush Wadhwa: question was in my mind when I was starting out
00:28:36
Ayush Wadhwa: that motion trooper, which was The last agency was an
00:28:39
Ayush Wadhwa: agency That was everything for everyone that it won't work
00:28:42
Ayush Wadhwa: without right. Can't be everything for everyone. We just started
00:28:45
Ayush Wadhwa: off as
00:28:46
Ayush Wadhwa: I was really inspired by this company called Sandwich Video.
00:28:49
Ayush Wadhwa: I was like, OK, we're gonna become a startup video
00:28:52
Ayush Wadhwa: company called our Media OK, that would create, like these
00:28:55
Ayush Wadhwa: digital videos for startups. That's what we started off with.
00:28:58
Ayush Wadhwa: We end up becoming something completely different and now to
00:29:00
Ayush Wadhwa: a point where we are working at the end. So
00:29:02
Ayush Wadhwa: from working with startups to working with one of the
00:29:05
Ayush Wadhwa: biggest users in the world, and I realised that the
00:29:08
Ayush Wadhwa: vision has to change eventually and it did last year.
00:29:11
Ayush Wadhwa: Right now, what we believe in is two things. I
00:29:14
Ayush Wadhwa: understand that the scale of clients we work with
00:29:16
Ayush Wadhwa: they require a 3 60 degree form because the marketing
00:29:21
Ayush Wadhwa: manager there cannot possibly talk to 10 different agencies for
00:29:25
Ayush Wadhwa: 10 different as a creative. I also understand that specialisation
00:29:29
Ayush Wadhwa: is more important than anything. That's the reason a lot
00:29:32
Ayush Wadhwa: of agencies in India produce really average work. So, like,
00:29:36
Ayush Wadhwa: how do I find an intersection? And that is when
00:29:38
Ayush Wadhwa: the ID Network came in, which is
00:29:41
Ayush Wadhwa: why usually agencies turn into a network or get bought
00:29:44
Ayush Wadhwa: by a network when they become too big or when
00:29:47
Ayush Wadhwa: they become successful. We did the opposite. We're like, Why
00:29:50
Ayush Wadhwa: don't we bring in really solid founders and companies into
00:29:53
Ayush Wadhwa: the our network, right? Make them part of the old
00:29:56
Ayush Wadhwa: network
00:29:57
Ayush Wadhwa: and let them be specialised
00:30:00
Ayush Wadhwa: so to a client who wants a 3 60 degree service,
00:30:04
Ayush Wadhwa: they talk to our
00:30:06
Ayush Wadhwa: one person from old, and that person gets things done
00:30:09
Ayush Wadhwa: from a lot of sister agencies and condom studios.
00:30:13
Ayush Wadhwa: But they just want something from our specialised. So this way,
00:30:17
Ayush Wadhwa: instead of training the same writer to do 20 things,
00:30:21
Ayush Wadhwa: we're training the writer to only do five things similarly
00:30:24
Ayush Wadhwa: for the designer. Similarly, for the animators so that they
00:30:26
Ayush Wadhwa: can in those five things go really deep. The only
00:30:29
Ayush Wadhwa: team that required extra training was our strategy and client
00:30:31
Ayush Wadhwa: service team,
00:30:32
Ayush Wadhwa: which now was selling more services than they were with naturally.
00:30:36
Ayush Wadhwa: But but that's still easier than training probably five teams.
00:30:39
Ayush Wadhwa: This is now helping us scale better. When I say better,
00:30:43
Ayush Wadhwa: I'm not saying more per se short, full 3 60
00:30:46
Ayush Wadhwa: degree marketing agency might still get more business. But I
00:30:48
Ayush Wadhwa: think the future is specialisation because now I know for
00:30:52
Ayush Wadhwa: a fact that everything that I'm doing this year is
00:30:55
Ayush Wadhwa: a lot better in quality than last year. And sadly,
00:30:58
Ayush Wadhwa: a lot of agencies are not in a position to
00:31:00
Ayush Wadhwa: say this through them because their people were growing in
00:31:03
Ayush Wadhwa: all kinds of directions.
00:31:05
Ayush Wadhwa: Our people are growing in a specific direction,
00:31:08
Ayush Wadhwa: which makes it like, extremely it. It became our special point.
00:31:14
Saikat Pyne: Grow your speciality, and over time it becomes a network
00:31:18
Saikat Pyne: of specialists. And in that you become a journalist. By
00:31:21
Saikat Pyne: becoming a network of specialists, I kept best for the last.
00:31:24
Saikat Pyne: The things you'd like to warn aspiring agency founders to
00:31:29
Saikat Pyne: steer clear of when they're growing their agencies.
00:31:33
Ayush Wadhwa: OK,
00:31:35
Ayush Wadhwa: Number one have a very well defined process in which
00:31:38
Ayush Wadhwa: you do the task because a client will come in
00:31:41
Ayush Wadhwa: mostly confused
00:31:44
Ayush Wadhwa: but thinking they're not confused. Every client thinks they're clear.
00:31:48
Ayush Wadhwa: Most clients are not. I have been a client myself, right?
00:31:51
Ayush Wadhwa: I've been a client myself. I know how clients think,
00:31:55
Ayush Wadhwa: and it's not their fault, right? Uh, you can't possibly
00:31:58
Ayush Wadhwa: know everything before you start the project to discover things.
00:32:01
Ayush Wadhwa: But I think accepting it is very important, and your
00:32:04
Ayush Wadhwa: job as an agency owner and as a team is
00:32:06
Ayush Wadhwa: to help them steer better in that journey of discovering
00:32:10
Ayush Wadhwa: what do they exactly want?
00:32:13
Ayush Wadhwa: There is also your job, so it's not the client's
00:32:15
Ayush Wadhwa: fault at all. So if you blame it on that,
00:32:16
Ayush Wadhwa: you are the wrong one there. So that Number one
00:32:19
Ayush Wadhwa: is have a very well defined process of How do
00:32:21
Ayush Wadhwa: you ask the right questions? How do you navigate really
00:32:24
Ayush Wadhwa: well with the client and act as the expert in
00:32:28
Ayush Wadhwa: the equation?
00:32:30
Ayush Wadhwa: Second is 100% have some kind of training system for
00:32:36
Ayush Wadhwa: a team members. This is something which I've understood the
00:32:38
Ayush Wadhwa: importance of very late, and even now we are in
00:32:40
Ayush Wadhwa: the midway there, but not quite there. But make sure
00:32:44
Ayush Wadhwa: that you understand some people's business that we're in your people,
00:32:48
Ayush Wadhwa: the people that you have. They make the company not
00:32:51
Ayush Wadhwa: the other way around. You don't make the company anymore
00:32:53
Ayush Wadhwa: once you have the agency
00:32:54
Ayush Wadhwa: and it's not like a product that if the people leave,
00:32:56
Ayush Wadhwa: the product will still exist.
00:32:58
Ayush Wadhwa: The company will vanish if the people go, so take
00:33:02
Ayush Wadhwa: really good care of them.
00:33:04
Ayush Wadhwa: Also have some way to train them skills, train
00:33:07
Saikat Pyne: them in process, train
00:33:08
Ayush Wadhwa: them in the way you want to do things at
00:33:10
Ayush Wadhwa: this agency. Skills is something that they should know already, right? However,
00:33:15
Ayush Wadhwa: of course, as a leader, like, of course, if you are,
00:33:18
Ayush Wadhwa: if you do design and if you are a designer,
00:33:20
Ayush Wadhwa: you have to train them in. How do you want
00:33:23
Ayush Wadhwa: to approach design? What is your thought process? Right. I
00:33:26
Ayush Wadhwa: think you should go into it Softwares. I think that's
00:33:28
Ayush Wadhwa: something that YouTube will do them. Do that do for
00:33:30
Ayush Wadhwa: them already? Third would be
00:33:33
Ayush Wadhwa: being. I think I would like to divide third into
00:33:35
Ayush Wadhwa: two parts, or rather 3rd and 4th. But third is,
00:33:39
Ayush Wadhwa: I think, as a service company, you have to be
00:33:42
Ayush Wadhwa: a lot more ambitious at all times. Be very optimistic
00:33:44
Ayush Wadhwa: and be very ambitious, right? Like there's so much work
00:33:48
Ayush Wadhwa: in the market that more often than not, two agencies
00:33:50
Ayush Wadhwa: will start it together. And even if one's work is
00:33:53
Ayush Wadhwa: really good, the second one can still win, even if
00:33:56
Ayush Wadhwa: their work is not as good as the first one
00:33:58
Ayush Wadhwa: if they are just
00:33:59
Ayush Wadhwa: very aggressive with how they approach client acquisition. Very aggressive
00:34:02
Ayush Wadhwa: with how they proceeds. So I think be very optimistic
00:34:05
Ayush Wadhwa: and be very ambitious. There is tonnes of money, tonnes
00:34:08
Ayush Wadhwa: of opportunities, tonnes of great work for everyone in the ecosystem. 100%.
00:34:18
Ayush Wadhwa: Yeah, I think. And the fourth and the bonus point,
00:34:21
Ayush Wadhwa: which I mentioned would be to hire early, not wait 89,
00:34:24
Ayush Wadhwa: 10 months like me to hire team is what will
00:34:27
Ayush Wadhwa: help you scale 100%
00:34:30
Saikat Pyne: lovely guys. And on that insightful note, it's a wrap.
00:34:35
Saikat Pyne: Thank you so much for being on the podcast. I
00:34:37
Saikat Pyne: really appreciate it, man.
00:34:40
Ayush Wadhwa: Thank you so much for having me here. It really
00:34:42
Ayush Wadhwa: meant a lot to me. I hope I was able
00:34:44
Ayush Wadhwa: to provide some value to people who showed up on
00:34:46
Ayush Wadhwa: this podcast. It really means a lot to me and yes,
00:34:49
Ayush Wadhwa: happy to chat offline more. I really like the way
00:34:52
Ayush Wadhwa: you let the questions was was very calm and composed
00:34:55
Ayush Wadhwa: throughout the entire session.
00:34:56
Saikat Pyne: Thank you, buddy. We are definitely keeping that part. Please
00:34:59
Saikat Pyne: do tune in next week for the next episode of
00:35:02
Saikat Pyne: the U Incorporated podcast. See ya