1. Tell us about your back ground and journey.
So I always wanted to be a filmmaker in my school days, but ended up picking a very safe path, which was computer science engineering. When I was pursuing computer science engineering, I realized that if I want more leverage in life, then I should pick a skill which has potential to be in high demand in the future, but it is really available in the market.
Plus, I always wanted to do something creative. Now, the thing is that in traditional creative careers, it is slightly difficult to make money as soon as you graduate. So I wanted to find a field which has both scale, more money and more potential.
2. When did you first decide that you wanted to create content and how did you start?
As I said, I always wanted to be a filmmaker. So once I was done with my college and once I had some stability, one year after my first job, I realized that I need to start teaching people.
So I combined my passion for teaching and film-making and started making YouTube videos. And at that point, I rarely got any views. It is only after two years that I've started to get some attention. Even now, I think there's a very, very long way.
But it was after making sure that I know what I'm doing in life. My finances were stable only then I started creating content. Because if you don't have your finances in place or if you really don't know what you're doing, then you should not directly jump to content because it's pretty saturated and you need to be really, really outstanding to make a mark.
3. Is vlogging and YouTube content creation a financially sustainable career?
So there are many components to this. Question number one is we need to understand where is the content creator coming from and within the content creator there are three specific things that we need to check.
One is the current financial background. Is this person coming from an absolutely stable financial background or this person is responsible to pay the bills?
Second is this person's inherent abilities to be comfortable in front of the camera, to be a good communicator, to be a person who is actually very very outspoken because if you don't have this even then it will become very difficult for you.
And third what field is this content creator going to make videos on? Because even on YouTube or Instagram there are specific domains that have a huge audience while there are some domains that have very little audience.
So if you're working really really hard on making content on a subject which is way too niche and way too specific you require a lot of patience before you see some results. So you need to ask yourself do I have enough financial stability to take some risks and spend some time on my content without expecting quick returns in the short term?
Question number two, am I outspoken? Am I comfortable in front of the camera? Can I learn enough basics of editing and lighting and sound in general so that I can make videos at scale or do I have enough information to at least hire people or do I have the capital to hire people?
And point number three, what is the subject that I'm working on? So things like comedy, finance, upscaling, productivity, these things used to work well but now there's so many people in this market that even here it has become very difficult to stand out.
So now people are trying to enter small small niches but even in that niche you need to ask yourself if you're solving any three of the problems. Problem number one, am I helping somebody make money?
Problem number two, am I helping somebody save time? Problem number three, am I helping somebody forget about their problems? If your content is not doing any of these three well, helping somebody make money?
or save time or forget about their problems, then it'll be very difficult for you to get attention because people will pay you attention only if you solve their pain points. So once you have these three answers sorted, then you can actually say that, okay, now I'm on my path to make this into a financially sustainable career because the amount of money that you make is a direct function of the value give to the audiences.
And there are only specific things that the audience currently values. So you need to make content for the audiences. I see a lot of content creators making videos for themselves. They make videos that they would like.
The thing is that the market doesn't care for what you like. Market cares if you are solving their problem.
4. How and where do you find inspiration to churn out content?
I find inspiration from movies, songs, events, experiences, things that are outside of content because I think inspiration is something that you can't predict or plan.
So you just need to be out there, explore. And I've always invested in experiences. I spent a lot of money just exploring things, talking to new people, going to events. And when you brainstorm, when you see new things, when you travel, it actually opens up more circuitry in your brain.
So I think that is a very, very good way to find inspiration.
5. What does your typical day look like?
So I usually wake up around 7 30 a .m. I drink a big glass of warm water. I have a journal where I write down what I need to do for the day. Then I go to the gym. I come back, I take a bath and at 10 30 a .m.
I have my first call from my day job because I have a full time job. So then I'm just working on my job throughout the day. And after 7 p .m. I talk to my own editors, my own content managers. And then if they're scripting, then I would do scripting.
There are specific days for me. So some days are locked for scripting. Some days are locked for recording videos. So I would just follow that. And in the evening, I will just watch some YouTube videos and try to sleep by 11 30 or 12 a .m.
6. Which is your favorite book and why?
I would recommend five books that I recommend to every single person that I meet. Number one is Rework. Number two is Think and Grow Rich. Number three is Principles by Ray Dalio.
Number four would be Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. And book number five would be Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. Absolutely incredible books. Oh yes, Almanac of Naval Ravi Kant as well. Actually put Almanac of Naval Ravi Kant on ranked number zero like before Rework as well.
After you've read Almanac of Naval Ravi Kant then you can list out all of these.
7. Who is your favorite creator and why?
So I have personally learned a lot from Mr. Sandeep Mejwari sir and I was really really fortunate that I was invited as a guest on his channel as well. I think his content has really really shaped the way I think in general.
I also really recommend folks to you know read more. I think I of course there's YouTube channels that I used to watch this figmas YouTube channel that has really taught me a lot. But I think there's no one YouTube creator that I would mention because there's so many people.
So there's no favorite because I pick specific things from specific people and then learn from them. So at this point there are some friends of mine who have always watched this Ganesh Prasad from Think School.
So I think that channel has really taught me as to how do you structure your own thoughts? How do you build your own case studies? I was very fortunate to be under the mentorship of Ankur Variku when he started his How to YouTube cohorts.
I've really learned a lot from him as well. So I think these people have really shaped the way I look at content, the way I'm inspired. And yeah, I think there's no favorite creator but I think these three people have really inspired me.
8. What piece of advice would you like to give to future and aspiring creators?
So the thing is people are not understanding why some creators make money and while some don't it is a function of many many inputs. Number one is how good is this creator at even thinking and communicating and thinking clearly.
So I see a lot of people are not very clear with their verbal communication as well as written communication. So there are some core core skills that need to be good at right. Second is that you need to be a good leader because eventually if you want to scale you will need to hire people and manage them.
Another thing is that most creators start making content and they sell themselves very early for a short -term gain whereas in reality you should be patient and you should not be completely reliable on your content to make money so that you can have a loyal audience and eventually do something which is way bigger than making videos because I see a lot of creators now shifting to their own businesses because I'll tell you how this evolved.
Initially creators started making videos because they enjoyed making videos and then they gained distribution. The product of a creator, the actual income generating product of a creator is not his or her videos but it is actually the distribution she provides to a business.
So when a business comes to the creator, the business says I am purchasing your distribution. Now a lot of creators realize that why am I selling my own distribution to other companies when I can build my own products and sell them on my own distribution.
That is why you would see so many creators building their own businesses. So I would recommend all creators to keep this in their mind that just making videos is step number one. If you're extremely, extremely passionate about making content forever, that is great but very few people are actually that determined.
If you're here for let's say just money and you're using content creation as just a tool to make money, then you'll have to be very, very patient because it takes time and if you're not very passionate about it, you will go through a lot of pain or a lot of struggle.
It will be difficult for you to stay consistent but even if you say that no, I want to build my distribution, just make sure that you're giving value to the market and also plan if you can build a product eventually because a product will have more.
more scale rather than just making videos. There are 10% creators who have built an empire from creating videos. On the other hand, there are 90% creators who are still struggling making videos. So all to those 90% people now they are understanding that we actually need some business, some more value because the video market has been saturating.
So that is something that you need to keep in mind and also double down on long form in the longer run because the long form has a big moat. The audience in the long form is also pretty loyal. So I would recommend everybody to consider long form and not just stick to short form.
Oh yes, and I also make sure that I take a nap in the afternoon. That is very, very important.
Brief Bio:
Ansh is a YouTuber, UX and AI Consultant and Product Marketer at Zuddl.
As a student of Engineering, he represented his college at some of the most prestigious hackathons in the world, including hackMIT 2018 (held at Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and HackHarvard 2018 (held at Harvard University).
Out of hundreds of teams from 17 countries, Ansh and his team were one of the 12 Finalists at the Microsoft Imagine Cup Asia Regional Finals 2019, held at Sydney, Australia.
He was responsible for designing Zuddl's entire MVP from scratch. Zuddl recently closed its Series A of $13.5M in Feb 2022.
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Interviewed By - Aarya Gode
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