Best in Class with Harish Narayanan Harish Narayanan

"Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it is about learning to dance in the rain". 

Sapna Chadha is a dear friend and the VP of Marketing for India and SEA at Google. She is a force of nature, and there's a lot to learn from her career journey. Her early years of learning from her inspiring mother, her experience dealing with imposter syndrome and building tenacity, her journey in Google creating exceptional campaigns and leading large teams - all of these and more can serve as inspiration for many. This is a no-miss episode for all the young women listeners of this podcast.

If you like this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, and please rate the podcast on Google podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to it. Thank you and let's get started.

Timestamps:


1:33 Welcome and Intro.
4:00 Childhood, growing up in the US, immigrant hustle, learning from her parents, seeing men supporting women in their journeys. 
10:54 Working moms of the past generation. Women in the work-force, and the issue of 'unpaid' labour. The power of having the right support network. 
26:19 What could men do to enable women? 
31:18 Tenacity and grit, in the face of imposter syndrome. The importance of having a good coach. Turning 'gremlins' into 'weapons'. 
40:12 The balance between self-compassion and pushing oneself to achieve greatness. "Balance comes from purpose". 
45:53 Storytelling and building a trusted 'real' brand with authentic stories. The story of 'Internet Saathi'. Her favourite Google campaigns. 
54:47 Nuances about marketing to Indians. Differences between marketing to Indians vs folks from South-east Asia. 
59:45 Building the skill of organisational influence. Understanding different perspectives, leveraging org behaviour, influencing without authority.

1:05:31 Personal work habits, organisational processes and habits that help her lead a large org. "Multiplying herself" to increase leverage, by writing regularly to her team. 
1:12:00 Raising confident children, with a growth mindset. 
1:15:07 Meaning of success - "Doing transformational work". 
1:20:20 Dance and Pranic healing. Bringing positive energy into one's life. 


1:24:54 Favourite quotes. "You can't make everyone happy, you are not pizza". "Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it is about learning to dance in the rain". 

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the series are solely personal and do not necessarily represent those of my company / employers.

Manan Khurma is the founder of Cuemath (www.cuemath.com), a leading math learning platform. He is a passionate educator, entrepreneur and a deep believer in making 'mathematical thinking' accessible and enjoyable to every child. My inner geek enjoyed this conversation and we explored many questions about math tutoring and enabling children to aim for 'mastery'. Don't miss the end section where we discuss Manan's favourite math equation, math constant etc. 

If you like this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, and please rate the podcast on Google podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to it. Thank you and let's get started. 

Timestamps:


1:54 Welcome and Intro.
3:32 Why should everyone love math? The universal need for 'mathematical thinking'.
10:41 The history of how math has been taught (and the underlying problem with the approach). 
16:58 Different models of math education and scaling the impact. 'Aristocratic tutoring'. 
24:00 Scaling the quality of the teacher network. "A great teacher is someone who can engineer outcomes in their student".
28:30 Incentivising children to seek 'mastery'. Creating a 'gradual-ramp' to mastery. 
34:23 Entrepreneurship journey. Creating a 'math learning' company. 
44:46 Keeping the passion alive over the longer term. Building and aligning a team.
49:52 Dealing with competition. 
55:25 Favourite math equation, math constant, simple math explanation of a complex concept. 
59:42 Favourite books. 
1.02:51 Message to teachers and parents. 

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the series are solely personal and do not necessarily represent those of my company / employers.

Rajesh Jain (www.rajeshjain.com) is a legend in the Indian startup ecosystem. He is one of the earliest tech entrepreneurs of the country, one of the original success stories of the dotcom era and beyond (he is the founder of IndiaWorld & Netcore). He is a deep thinker and has wonderful insights on entrepreneurship, bootstrapping, bringing prosperity to the country, dealing with failure et al. Hope you enjoy!

If you like this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, and please rate the podcast on Google podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to it. Thank you and let's get started.

Timestamps:


1:08 Welcome and Intro.
3:39 His entrepreneurship journey, starting India's early dotcom company. 
10:44 Getting into technology & martech.
20:19 (Not) Raising external capital, building 'proficorns'.
28:56 Design choices to create bootstrapped companies.
36:13 Solving for India. Creating economic prosperity.
48:46 Making India 'irreversibly prosperous' using digital tech. 
51:23 Rapidfire: Writing every day, thoughts on Web3 and DAO, 
57:53 Closing questions. '30 failures and 2 and a half successes'. 

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the series are solely personal and do not necessarily represent those of my company / employers.

Gaurav Dagaonkar (Wiki) is a music director, singer, songwriter, Youtuber and founder. After his engineering degree and MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, he choose to go down the unconventional route of becoming a full time musician, even though he had no formal training or experience in the field. Since then he has composed and performed many albums, scored multiple Bollywood movies and worked with many legends in the Indian music scene. We talk about his journey, his path to success in this notoriously difficult industry, his favorite artists and much more. 

For all budding young musicians out there, this one is a no-miss episode! Hope you enjoy it.

If you like this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, and please rate the podcast on Google podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to it. Thank you and let's get started.

Timestamps:


1:17 Intro.
6:53 Journey into music, working with Ranjit Barot, learning Indian classical music later in life. 
15:05 The business of music, getting the 'foot in the door', getting sponsors for music albums, falling in love with the art form. 
22:05 Mentors, learning from the experts, putting out work consistently.
27:19 Stories of favourite artists - A R Rahman, KK, Shankar Mahadevan, Sonu Nigam, Pritam, Arijit Singh. 
35:00 Music in India, then and now. Indipop, Mp3s and then, YouTube and streaming. The 'golden age' of independent musicians. 
45:40 Creating a music content brand with 'Songfest' and pivoting to an ad agency. 
50:29 Launching a music SAAS product with hoopr.ai. 
54:20 What should you NOT do while pursuing music as a career path. 
1.04:00 Keeping the freshness alive in the art. 
1.07:53 'Ek ajnabee haseena se' and 'College days'. 

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the series are solely personal and do not necessarily represent those of my company / employers.

Karthik Srinivasan is a marketing commentator, solopreneur and personal branding consultant. He is a top Linkedin voice on all things marketing, and has incisive and insightful takes on brand storytelling from across the globe. He is also helping others build their personal brands and make their voices more heard. For all budding young marketers & brand builders out there, this one is a no-miss episode! Hope you enjoy it.

If you like this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, and please rate the podcast on Google podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to it. Thank you and let's get started.

Timestamps:


1:13 Intro + How he got into marketing.
6:46 The evolution of marketing and communications.
12:00 What do marketers usually get wrong?
14:47 Writing regularly, creating a writing process.
20:23 Journey as a solopreneur.
32:53 Long format vs short format storytelling. Brand vs performance marketing.
39:00 Favourite books.
45:21 Interesting personalities on social media.
46:34 Closing questions.

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the series are solely personal and do not necessarily represent those of my company / employers.

Karan Shroff is the CMO and Partner at Unacademy. He's a good friend and a fellow marketer, and there's a lot to be learnt from his career journey and his stellar work in brand building and content marketing. He's the driving force between Unacademy's "Let's crack it" campaign and superhit web-shows such as Kota Factory and Aspirants (co-created with TVF). For all budding young marketers & brand builders out there, this one is a no-miss episode! Hope you enjoy it. 

If you like this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, and please rate the podcast on Google podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to it. Thank you and let's get started.

Timestamps:


1:22 Intro.
2:35 Career pivots, learning brand marketing.
7:13 Joining Unacademy, building a brand from scratch.
12:37 Creative and storytelling, balancing brand building and revenue orientation.
17:11 Content marketing and the importance of relatability in content (Kota Factory).
23:28 "Let's Crack It" campaign and connecting deeply with the customers.
28:27 Role of TV and Digital Video in building a millennial brand in India.
34:10 Working with Sachin & Dhoni. Learning from the Champions. 
41:22 Building great marketing teams.
46:24 Rapidfire questions: Favourite brand, inspiring people, favourite books, movies. 
50:31 Advice for young marketers.

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the series are solely personal and do not necessarily represent those of my company / employers.