I am Ayush Shukla - Founder of Finnet Media and host of ‘Restless’. If you are a brand that wants to collaborate or is looking to work with us - reach out to me at ayush@finnetmedia.com 

Before I share more details, here’s my story: 
Growing up, I've seen the power of the internet and how it can change everything. 
Post my Economics Grad in 2020, I tried freelancing in various startups, failed in e-commerce & tried my hands on my biggest fear a ‘full-time job’. 
But something felt missing—I soon found the answer when I was infected with COVID-19.
I have been into content creation since 2019 & since then, I've made over 100+ videos for my 300k+ followers across all my social media. I went full-time when I realized just how much I loved content & marketing. 
I have had the honour of hosting Anupam Mittal, Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Aman Gupta, Anupam Kher, and many more on my podcast Restless. 
Soon after leaving my job, I started building Finnet Media in May'21 an influencer marketing and creative consultancy, where we work towards building strong relationships between brands, creators, and consumers. 
We exclusively manage over 50+ of your favourite creators, including India’s top names like Sharan Hegde, Anushka, and many others. 
We have worked with brands like HDFC, POCO, boAt.300+ brands in the short span of our existence.
We help with 
1. Influencer marketing from brief, creator discovery, creatives, to execution. (Influencer & Performance marketing) 
2. We produce videos & creatives for brands.
3. We write content for their CXOs and help them establish their personal brand on LinkedIn and Instagram. (SMM) 

Some brownie points for credibility: 
- Red Carpet at Cannes’24 
- LinkedIn Top Voice in 2022 & 2024
- BW Disrupt 30 under 30, 2023
- Impact Top 30 under 30, 2023
- Culture Brand Ambassador by the Minister of Culture, GoI, 2022
- Awarded Best Use of Influencer Marketing 2023 - by Afaqs 
- Won Best Use of Influencer Marketing 2023 (multichannel) - by Afaqs 

Being in the creative space, we know what it takes to deliver high ROI, find the right talent, and craft a brand strategy.
We have aced content on a personal & professional level. 
What we offer is backed by proof of work and a high-trust ecosystem. 
If you are a brand/creator looking for growth, I can help you:
✅ Helping you grow using influencer & SMM marketing with a check on investment and pricing 
✅ Find the right balance between product, targeting, and creatives.
✅ Establish the 0-2 journey of your content and production teams.
You can contact me here: [ayush@finnetmedia.com]/drop me a DM.

Ayush Shukla

The biggest THREAT to Zakir Khan's career is familiarity & that's exactly why he EXITED till 2030 🚨

He announced it as a health break & yes, health matters. Obviously.

But zoom out.

Zakir did 5 specials in 8 years. 
Sold out Madison Square Garden, ran Farzi Mushaira, created Chacha Vidhayak Hain Humare, toured non-stop. 

He even admitted performing sick for a year because he loved the stage too much.

This is someone who understands something most creators don't:

Overexposure kills your edge.

The smartest artists don't wait for the audience to get bored. 
They leave while the hunger is still alive. 👀

(Unlike most of us who keep posting till even our mom stops liking the post😂)

We've seen this play out time & time again:
↳ Shah Rukh Khan vanished post-2018 when his films flopped. Came back with Pathaan & suddenly owned Bollywood again.

↳ Imran Khan disappeared at his peak. Years later, an entire generation started begging for his return.

↳ Ranbir Kapoor has ZERO social media presence. Calls it "extra headache." His films are events, not just box office releases.

Because scarcity compounds respect.

Health is part of it, sure 8 years of grinding breaks anyone.

But announcing "until 2030"? That's not a doctor's prescription. That's refusing to return until the hunger does.

Most artists stay until people stop caring.

Zakir left before we got the chance.

& when he returns, we'll fight for tickets instead of just buying them🎟️

Founder of Finnet Media, making creators & creatives work for your brand | Recognized as BW and Impact 30 under 30

EMoMee, a kids’ YouTube channel raised ₹2 crore on Shark Tank India & most creators still think “more views” is the strategy. (cute)

Just an FYI: Emomee raised money for repeat behaviour.

Globally, kids content already runs the creator economy.
Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes ~200M subscribers.
Vlad & Niki ~149M.
Kids Diana Shows ~138M.

This pattern has stayed consistent for years.

Kids content follows a different law: Audiences grow out but demand doesn’t.

And the buyer isn’t the child, it’s the parents who don’t optimise for price but for trust.

That’s why serious kids channels don’t stay channels.

They become characters, then products & then daily rituals inside homes.

& the Sharks, they bet on IP that compounds.

(Yes, IP. Not “engagement rate”)

Bcs attention gets you noticed, distribution gets you funded but ownership is what lets you survive.

Most creators are still renting reach, only a few are owning worlds.

That’s the separation & that’s where the next decade is headed.

Everyone saw Deepinder Goyal’s RESIGNATION but that’s not why this moment ACTUALLY matters🚨

This is a founder calling time on himself.

Zomato was built on instinct.
Eternal is now a listed company - one controversy, and the ripple hits shareholders.

Deepinder says that he wants to work on some other passion and that there’s no fixed job for a CEO anymore.

And in his letter yesterday, he wrote: I’ve spent 18 years building this company.

He even acknowledged his personal brand now affects Zomato & Eternal as public entities.

That level of self-awareness is rare in founders who’ve actually won!!

& he created ~$20B in public market value - basically, a generational builder choosing not to overstay.

Most founders stay in the chair and tell themselves “I’ll figure it out.”

(The company usually pays tuition for that confidence 🙂)

DP didn’t wait for the company to force the change.
He moved BEFORE it hurt.

Bcs he understood that if you love the company enough,
you step aside when it needs a different version of leadership.

Won’t call it resignation but evolution :)

Also, congratulations Albinder Dhindsa on becoming the CEO of Eternal now🙌🏻

This is the only celebrity brand where the product gets more attention than the face, and it sold 1,000,000 bottles in 4 months.

Here’s how..

Sanjay Dutt launched The Glenwalk in June 2023 with a founder’s clarity. Whisky fit him, not as a meme, but as a persona. 

A legacy actor with a lived-in presence is entering a category where authenticity performs better than advertising.

So instead of lending his face, he lent his intent. If we look at the numbers, here is what happened: 1,000,000 bottles sold between April–August 2025 (a 5× jump vs. last year)

- ₹240 crore revenue target for this fiscal

- 10+ global whisky awards already in the bag

- Distribution across 15 Indian states + 4 international markets

Expanding next into the US, Hong Kong, and more

Now that’s a builder’s trajectory.

Because somewhere along the way, actors realised what founders always knew: Owning the brand beats endorsing the brand. Dutt’s journey makes that obvious.

Celebrity can give you attention, but scaling a brand requires trust built on consistency.

He always focused on the essential things: from launch → scale → expand → improve.

This is what “celebrity to owner” looks like in real life.

So tell me, which celebrity today is actually building a brand, not just putting their face on one?

Mumbai, I’m building a production team & starting with the hardest seat to fill 

I’m looking for a Head of Production who doesn’t just talk visual storytelling but can actually hold a camera, set a light, direct a frame, and then cut it together.

Because at Finnet Media, production is the engine.

The role looks like this:
• Turning brand briefs into shoot-ready ideas
• Running sets without chaos
• Making creators feel confident on camera
• Owning pre → shoot → post → delivery
• Keeping quality high when timelines get tight

This is for someone who has 5+ years of hands-on production experience, has shot and edited real brand + creator content, and can lead crews, not just review decks

If building a production machine from scratch excites you: 
📩 careers@finnetmedia.com

First Zakir and now Arijit… retiring was DEFINITELY not on my 2026 bingo card!! 🫣

Arijit Singh, the voice that defined a generation, just said goodbye to playback singing.

Every heartbreak, late-night drive, or moments you couldn't put into words - Arijit had a song for it :)

So could this mean independent albums? Live performances on his own terms? Personal projects outside the film fraternity? 🤨

Maybe. Maybe not.

But one thing is certain - an era has come to a close!

& bud did that one thing he is best at - made his fans cry one last time ✨

This company was born after its founding family LOST their cattle business to disease & today it’s a 800 crore food brand

When I sat down with Indraneel Chitale, I expected a food story, but I heard a founder obsessed with one terrifying question: What happens when trust breaks at scale?

Back then, Chitale Bandhu’s bakarwadi was handmade.
Taste depended on human hands.

And one bad week had already shown him how fragile that was.

So he decided: If he ever built again, taste would never be left to chance.

He rebuilt the company around systems, data, and automation.

Today, their Ranje facility produces ~17,000 kilos of bakarwadi every day & every batch is logged, variation is tracked, and every error is killed before it reaches the customer.

The taste you try in Pune is the taste someone gets in Chennai, and the same product sits on shelves in Toronto.

Most consumer founders think distribution is the hardest part.

Chitale learned something different:
Distribution becomes easy when trust is engineered first.

& that is the real moat in the Indian consumer.

🎙️ I’ve shared the full conversation on the podcast (link in comments).

If you’re building in FMCG, this will change how you think.

People leave careers like consulting and IB for marketing, thinking they'll get a better work-life balance. LOL😂😂

There's a notion that marketing folks work less. I say, just look at Zomato's team.

If you don't live under a rock, you know how cool their campaigns are. Marketing companies swear by their name. Industry folks dissect every tweet, every billboard, every notification.

But behind all of this is a team that works countless hours and gives their 200% to make it happen. I've met people from the inside. Here's what they don't show you:

1. Work-life balance is mostly a myth: 10-12 hours? Try 24/7. If a trend breaks at 11 pm or a match turns dramatic, creatives are expected to go live instantly. Moment marketing doesn’t wait for personal plans.

2. Microscopic scrutiny, all the time: Every word, colour, emoji and pixel is reviewed. Feedback loops are tight, opinions are many, and creative decisions are constantly second-guessed.

3. Relentless A/B testing: Copywriters don’t write one line. They write hundreds of variants just to chase a 0.3–0.5% CTR lift. Creativity lives by dashboards.

4. Permanent war-room mode: High visibility means high risk. A harmless joke can spiral into backlash. Teams stay on 24/7 alert to pull, clarify, apologise, or pivot in minutes.

5. Constant context switching: One person isn’t just a “Twitter copywriter”. They’re writing memes for X, visuals for Instagram, and measured posts for LinkedIn, sometimes in the same hour.

6. Heavy ops layered onto creativity: Influencer coordination, compliance checks, approvals, brand policing, much of it handled in-house, adding operational load to already stretched teams.

And this is just the surface.

The reality: marketing isn’t an “easy” career. It’s not posting memes from a beanbag.

It’s a high-stakes, metric-obsessed, always-on content engine where “going viral” is the expectation, and burnout is the quiet cost of staying relevant.

Marketing at this level isn’t “easy”. It’s just made to look easy.

And if you still feel the opposite, that’s probably the biggest compliment you can give to a marketing team.

Thoughts?

A 14-year-old left school, travelled 2,500 km alone, and risked his life to become an influencer & this is CRAZY!! 🫣

This isn’t a one-off story.
It’s what happens when an entire generation is raised inside dopamine machines.

The uncomfortable data nobody puts in motivational reels:

↳ 37% of Indian kids say they want to become influencers.
↳ India already has 83,000+ creators under the age of 16 on Instagram (growing 41% every year)
↳ Among Gen Z, 83% already identify as content creators.

Of course they do.
They grow up watching 19-year-olds buy cars, travel the world, and call it “content”.

The algorithm only shows the highlight reel.
Never the 5-year grind before anything works.

MrBeast uploaded from 2012 until roughly early 2017 before anything worked. CarryMinati spent his teenage life creating with no certainty, no safety net, and no guarantees. 

For every one of them, millions never break through.

India has 4–8 million creators today, only 12–13% earn more than ₹50,000/month.
Top 1% capture almost all the revenue. YouTube in India pays ₹0.40–₹3 per 1,000 views.

Romantic, right? 🙂

And in 2024 alone, 200,000+ creators quit due to burnout and low pay.

This rarely trends.
The Lamborghini thumbnails do.

& look, don't get me wrong, I love the creator economy. I build in it. I benefit from it.
But a generation believing education is optional if the algorithm loves you is a DANGEROUS trade.

Not every early start is ambition, some are warning signs 🫠

And this one should make us pause.

If you are shitting on gig apps but underpaying your own housemaid, you are the problem

India says it wants opportunity. But the moment someone builds scale & wins visibly, the conversation changes.

We stop asking how value was created and start asking how to morally dismantle it.
The gig economy debate shows this clearly.

It’s easy to tweet about “worker exploitation” while enjoying midnight deliveries, cheap convenience & flexible pricing, all paid for by a system you don’t want to examine too closely.

The truth is simpler and less ideological. The gig economy exists because market forces demand it. Speed, flexibility, variable demand & cost sensitivity.

No one designed this as a social experiment. It emerged because it works.

These platforms create income opportunities at a massive scale for people who would otherwise have fewer options, less mobility & far less leverage in the traditional job market.

Are these perfect jobs? No.
But dismantling them does not magically create better ones.

What actually happens is predictable:

- Jobs disappear
- Demand collapses
- Prices rise

And the 1st people to lose income are the very workers we claim to be protecting.

This isn’t about choosing sides between founders and riders, but about understanding that markets don’t respond to outrage.

- They respond to incentives
- Hold companies accountable
- Push for better systems
- Demand continuous improvement

But pretending that platforms like Zomato are “breaking the economy” by responding to market realities is intellectual laziness.

Deepinder backing his model isn’t arrogance. It’s clarity.

Large systems don’t get better by apologising for existing, but they improve by staying viable, scalable & open to pressure that actually understands how markets work.

Progress doesn’t come from moral grandstanding, but from facing reality head-on.


P.S: The Raj Shamani podcast was shot over 20 days ago and was uploaded now (because timing was right). So no, not everything is PR washing machine  ;)

Image Credit: Raj Kunkolienkarr

Nobody in an Indian household wants to start this sentence: “What happens if I’m not around?”

So we do the Indian workaround.

Someone suggests life insurance, the premium seems affordable, fill out forms, and end conversations quickly 📄

Because staying in it is emotionally exhausting.

Over time, life insurance in India has taken on side-quests:
Returns, bonuses, add-ons, cashback, and wealth creation 💸

Because protection now has to compete for attention.
Because pure protection is a hard sell in a culture that avoids talking about loss.

But when one product is asked to solve fear, guilt, returns, and planning, clarity dies first.

I was reminded of this when I saw an Acko Life Insurance print ad today.

They have built it with just a blunt idea: If you’re not here, your family should be financially protected 🛡️
That’s the whole job.

But the idea of saying less, promising less is a category decision.

And it’s RARE!!

Because in products built around emotional avoidance, simplicity is respected.

In the end, your family won’t remember how cleverly a policy was sold.
They’ll only know whether it adequately covered ⏳

A new Indian founder category got a name & it explains a LOT of what’s happening right now.

Peyush Bansal to Aadit Palicha - different companies, industries but the same underlying pattern.

They left India to study, absorbed global operating playbooks & then came back to build here.

(Not for patriotism, but for arbitrage 😌)

Because India today has:
• cheap digital distribution
• massive consumer demand
• improving capital access
• hungry talent

So when globally-trained operators return, execution becomes unfairly strong.

Saw that someone on Twitter called this archetype “BARBIES”

Founders who did their Bachelors Abroad and Returned to Build in the Indian Ecosystem.

Cute name, serious signal.

For 2 decades, India exported talent & now it’s importing trained builders back.

And that’s why this startup wave feels different from 2015.
Less “idea energy”.
More systems energy.

Once you see this pattern,
Indian startup success stops feeling accidental.

It starts feeling inevitable.

PS: Image credit goes to anmol maini

I worked for 10+ hours everyday but still barely achieved anything.

I was learning constantly, ticking tasks, staying occupied. While everything looked fine from the outside, something still felt off. 

So I started asking harder questions: Am I actually getting better... or am I just being comfortable?

That shift changed how I approached tech learning and career prep. I stopped chasing volume and started choosing effort that stretched me, even when progress felt slow and invisible.

Kotak’s #HauslaHaiTohHoJayega captured that exact feeling for me.

Hausla is the courage to course-correct, to choose depth over ease when no one is watching.

If you’re in that phase, trust the discomfort.
It’s usually pointing you in the right direction.

Kedar Ravangave Rohit Bhasin Kotak Mahindra Bank

#ad
#KotakMahindraBank #HauslaHaiTohHoJayega #CareerGrowth #SkillBuilding #MindsetShift

When you’re an influencer known for transparency, how do you build a transparent brand? 

That’s the tightrope Revant Himatsingka (Food Pharmer) walks. This is a guy whose entire identity is built on calling out ingredients, exposing labels, and teaching India how to read labels. 

So when he decided to build Only What's Needed, there were only two outcomes. Either the brand matched his values, or his own audience would call him out.

And honestly, watching OWN evolve these last months has been the cleanest case study of what transparency actually looks like when you’re the one creating the product. 

Because it’s easy to react to bad labels but much harder to build one you’re willing to be judged by.

Here’s what OWN got right: 

* They lowered prices publicly and explained the math.
 
* They let the community shape flavours. Not vanity polls but real product decisions driven by comments and data.

* They opened their progress to the public. Every board meeting, every fallback, every mistake is shared on YouTube at the end of the month. 

* They put front-of-pack labels. A QR code for vernacular languages. A full cost and profit breakdown on the website. 

All in all, Revant didn’t switch tones when he launched a company. He built a brand that behaves exactly like the content he creates: factual, simple, measurable, accountable. 

Most influencer brands chase aesthetics. OWN chases alignment.

And that’s why this playbook is worth studying.

PS: This is one of the first pictures we took together 🙂

A man who never spoke on camera just made $975 million & that should TERRIFY every creator 🚨

Khaby Lame went from being laid off from a factory job in 2020 → started posting silent reaction videos → became the most followed creator on TikTok → now tied to a deal valued just shy of $1B 💰

The deal includes an AI digital twin of Khaby. His face, gestures, expressions, and reaction style - now generate shopping content 24/7, across languages, without him being ever present.

This moment will mark the NEW AGE of influencer marketing 🚨

& what’s replacing it is far more serious: identity as infrastructure.

Brands are no longer renting attention. They are acquiring programmable distribution systems built on trust, familiarity, and conversion history.

Once a creator’s face, voice, and behaviour can be replicated by machines, content stops being the asset.
Ownership becomes the asset.

This is also why personality rights are suddenly becoming non negotiable, and why moves like Raj Shamani securing his rights are not creator flexes but business decisions.

Bcs when machines outperform humans, contracts decide who gets paid.

And everyone is talking about the tech but the real leverage is - who owns the digital self when partnerships end.

Who owns the digital persona if partnerships end, who governs how it evolves, who is liable when it goes off brand, and who cashes in when the machine outperforms the human.

Perhaps maybe the creator economy is now about owning yourself before someone else does 🤷🏻‍♂️

I once wasted 4 hours sorting PDFs and felt embarrassed by how much time it took.

PDFs are essential to our work. Decks, briefs, contracts - everything lives there.

But when you run a team of 40+ content creators and 35+ team members, PDF management turns into an operational cost.

Time goes into finding the latest file.
Mental space goes into remembering what changed.
Team bandwidth goes into realigning people who should already be aligned.

This became clear during a delivery sprint where 3 teams worked off 3 different “final” versions of the same document.

All were correct, but none were usable.

That's why I was relieved when I came across Adobe Acrobat Studio.

It turned the document into an actual workspace - keeping feedback, changes, and decisions attached to the work.

We’ve kept it in place as the workload continues to grow.

If multiple PDFs also sit at the center of your workflow, try Adobe Acrobat to simplify workflow. 

#AdobePartner #AdobeAcrobat #paidcollab Adobe Acrobat

Assist Founders and Entrepreneurs to create a personal brand | LinkedIn Growth | Community Building | Organic Lead Generation

Hi all,

I’m Ashi, founder of Social Toast, a personal branding agency that loves giving social profiles a powerful makeover and here’s why we should work together to get the results your profile deserves!

My journey began when I started building my own brand from scratch. I experimented, tested strategies, and discovered what truly works and what doesn't. 

But here's the thing, I’ve always been fascinated by stories. Whether it’s a startup’s bold beginning, a founder’s journey, or a professional finding their voice, I believe stories are what make people memorable. That love for human connection naturally led me to personal branding. 

I realized that behind every profile is a person with a story worth sharing and I wanted to help them tell it in a way that drives real impact.

Today, at Social Toast, my team and I bring that same passion to every project. We combine strategic thinking with authentic storytelling to build brands that people don’t just notice but they remember.

If you're ready to turn your profile into a powerful narrative, let’s connect!

Ashi Kesarwani

In my early days, I misunderstood what a “professional tone” was supposed to look like.


In my writing, it meant sounding more formal than necessary. In client conversations, it meant being overly careful and choosing safe words, softening clarity, and keeping a bit of distance so I didn’t come across the wrong way.

I thought that was professionalism.

But over time, my understanding of professionalism changed. I started valuing clarity, steadiness, and honesty more than polish. 

The same approach worked everywhere, in posts, in client messages, and in real conversations.

Once I stopped trying to “sound professional” and focused on communicating well, everything got easier. 

Writing felt more natural and so did the client conversations. And there was less room for confusion on both sides.

So now, this is how I define professionalism. It doesn’t mean being distant or overly formal. It means being clear, respectful, and human and that approach works everywhere.


#solopreneurship

Helping founders drive sales by turning their story into a sales magnet. | Community Building | Organic Lead Generation | Corporate trainings

A client once said to me, while reviewing a draft, “I don’t want this to be taken the wrong way.”


We were discussing a post that had a clear point of view. Nothing controversial, just honest. 

And that sentence explained why their content kept sounding careful instead of confident.

The ideas were strong, but they were softened at the last minute. Extra context was added. Opinions were diluted and eventually the message tried to make space for every possible reaction.

They knew what they wanted to say. But the second-guessing started when they thought about how people might read it.

So we slowed the process down. Instead of rewriting the idea, we removed the extra lines added for safety. 

We asked one simple question: if this landed with the right person, would it still make sense? That became the filter.

We tightened the language, cut the explanations, and let the point stand on its own. No cushioning and no pre-emptive clarifications.

That approach comes up more often than people realize, in posts, in client messages, even in leadership decisions.

“I don’t want this to be taken the wrong way” is usually a signal to simplify, not soften.

Clarity doesn’t need protection. And thoughtful communication works best when it’s precise.

That’s usually where better work begins.

There are certain sentences that instantly make good content sound “generic”.


I wouldn’t say they're wrong. But they're really overused, over-polished, and emotionally empty at this point.

For example:

"1. Do this, 2. Avoid that, 3. Remember this"
"At the end of the day, what really matters is…”
"Success and failure. Fear and courage."

Most people don’t realize how often these slip into their writing and how much they flatten otherwise strong thinking.

I’ve put together a list of 10 such sentences and some generic buzz words I actively remove when refining content.

If you want it, comment GENERIC and I’ll share it.

Simple tweaks, big difference.

Strategic vulnerability (not emotional dumping)
There’s a difference.


Sharing something real vs sharing something that weakens how people perceive you.

Early on, I used to over-explain everything. I thought clarity meant saying more.

But it doesn’t.

Clarity is knowing what to leave out and trusting people to catch up.

I’ve also realized the hardest part of building a brand isn’t consistency or content. It’s unlearning all the borrowed voices you picked up along the way.

And one of the biggest unlearning is, I stopped trying to sound impressive. Now I completely focus on sounding precise.

Because that’s when people start listening.

Vulnerability works best when it adds depth and sharpens trust.

Everything else belongs in a journal, not on the feed.

If you think people come to LinkedIn mainly to read about your work, achievements, or what’s happening in your life, you might be slightly off.


Most people are here because they’re trying to make sense of something. 

It can be a problem at work. A decision they’re stuck on. A shift they’re noticing in their industry but can’t fully articulate yet.

They read to understand how others are thinking about the same challenges. What’s working and what isn’t. What someone else tried when things didn’t go as planned.

That’s why posts focused only on ourselves rarely land the way we expect them to. They inform, but they don’t always connect.

What tends to resonate more is when you talk about the real problems you’ve faced recently. 

Not abstract ones or generic solutions. But situations you’ve actually navigated, like the trade-offs you made, the mistakes you noticed, the small adjustments that helped.

Your experience still matters. It just works better when it’s used as context, not the headline.

Remember people aren’t here to follow lives. They’re here to sharpen their thinking.

If your content helps them do that, they’ll remember you.

The internet didn’t get disrespectful. It got accessible.


I’ve noticed that when women step into visible positions of power, boundaries start getting blurry. 

Professional presence is mistaken for personal availability. Confidence gets read as openness.
Titles don’t protect the way they once did. 
Being public now often means people feel entitled to access, without earning familiarity.

What’s taken for granted isn’t attention. It’s access.

There’s an expectation that visible women should be accommodating. That strength should be softened. And when it isn’t, it’s quickly labelled as arrogance or attitude.

But boundaries aren’t arrogance. They’re self-respect.

Being visible doesn’t mean being available. And power often shows up as restraint.

On Republic Day, this feels like a reminder we still need. Visibility doesn’t cancel boundaries and power doesn’t require permission.

Happy Republic Day all!

I’m in Bangalore for the next couple of days.
Thinking of doing a super chill creators’ catch-up.

No agenda and definitely no networking pressure.

Just conversations, coffee, and meeting people off LinkedIn.

📍 Bangalore
🗓️ 8th Jan
⏰ 11 AM – 1 PM

So if you’re around and feel like joining, DM me.

Let's catch up! :)

Ever noticed how we’ve all normalised doom scrolling?


I was a part of it too.

And over time, I realised it was quietly affecting how I think. 

You can’t focus deeply, ideas feel less original, creativity feels rushed and the mind feels cluttered.

My work demands my presence on social media, so I can’t quit.

But I can definitely control how and how much I consumed.

So I became more mindful when I scroll and I stopped filling every empty moment with content. 

That small shift gave me time back to read, to go on solo coffee dates, to think creatively, and without interruption.

The difference has been real.

My ideas feel fresher and I see things with a new perspective instead of repeating what I’ve already absorbed online.

Being on social media doesn’t have to mean being consumed by it. When you manage your attention well, clarity follows.

And clarity makes both work and life feel lighter.

Just a small reminder, especially if you’re building something.


I’m a founder too, and last year my health took a bigger hit than it ever had before. 

It was a quiet reminder that health really is wealth and no amount of consistency or visibility makes up for burning yourself out.

Rest is also part of brand building.

Because when you slow down, you come back with better energy, clearer thinking, and a voice that feels more like you.

So if you’ve been pushing non-stop, take this as a sign to pause.

Your work and your brand will benefit from it.

Happy weekends :)

One thing I’ve noticed after working with clients for a while is that no one wakes up and decides to hire you because of one post.


What usually happens is way quieter.

Someone sees your name pop up once, then again, weeks later. Then they realise, “Oh, I’ve read her stuff before.”

They don’t follow immediately nor do they like anything immediately. But they just keep reading.

And at some point, you become familiar and yeah not famous or viral. 
They start feeling relatable and relevant with your content.

And that’s when the DM happens.

Not after a best post or an offer launch.

But on a random day when they finally feel ready.

That’s why consistency matters in a very unsexy way.

Because you’re not convincing people, you’re just becoming obvious.

So if you’re doing “everything right” and still feel stuck then you’re probably not invisible.

You’re just early in someone else’s decision.

And believe me I have experienced this firsthand, I’m sure clients are quietly watching you too!

I’ve always found Hermès interesting


Hermès doesn’t sell urgency or chase conversions, and it rarely explains itself but it sells trust.
Scarcity is a byproduct there. 

Supply is limited because craftsmanship takes time, not because demand needs to be engineered. You don’t rush a Hermès purchase, and they don’t rush you into one.

What they build instead is a long-term relationship. Familiarity over time and repeated exposure. 

A good understanding that if you’re here, you already know why.

The brand assumes patience. And in doing so, it filters for people who value longevity over impulse.

And that’s the best part.

Personal brands work the same way.

Elite personal brands don’t chase virality or explain themselves repeatedly. They simply show up consistently with a clear point of view and let recognition compound.

Trust is built through repeated, calm exposure and not spikes.

Hermès doesn’t sell to everyone. And that’s exactly why it’s trusted by those who matter.

Personal brands that age well understand this well, that you don’t grow by being everywhere.
You grow by being unmistakable.

So maybe cater to lesser clients but cater them like Hermes :)

In my freelancing days, I thought negotiation was about proving value.


Making the case, justifying the number or just explaining why something was worth the price.

Over time, that understanding changed.

Now I see negotiation as reducing risk on both sides. 

My focus is on creating clarity and making sure expectations are aligned and no one feels exposed after the decision is made.

I believe when people feel safe about outcomes, timelines, and intent, conversations get easier. 

Less pushing. Less posturing. More honesty.

Yes, value still matters. But trust is what actually closes the gap.

That shift quietly changed how I approach every conversation since.

Repetitive content is one thing you see very often on LinkedIn.


Same language and similar framings. Just phrased differently every few weeks.

I used to think the problem was what I was posting about. That I needed new topics to stay interesting.

Turns out, that wasn’t it.

I see people writing from surface opinions instead of lived insight. 

Saying things they agreed with, but hadn’t fully thought through yet. When the thinking stays shallow, the content starts sounding repetitive, even if the topic changes.

I believe this could be fixed easily by changing the angle.

Less “this is what people say about this” and more “this is what I’ve actually noticed.”

Once you start writing from experience, the repetition stops feeling boring. The same ideas start to carry more depth and more truth.

Now I very well know, the topic wasn’t the problem, the thinking just needed to go deeper.
That made all the difference.

Try doing the same, I’m sure you’ll stand on the other side.


#personalbranding

This is something I’ve been tracking for a while, because the numbers on the surface can be misleading.


Likes, comments, impressions - they feel like progress. But they don’t always correlate with what most people actually want from LinkedIn, that is inbound conversations.

When I started looking at posts side by side, a pattern emerged.

Posts with high likes were often the most agreeable ones. Easy to react to and easy to scroll past. They performed well publicly, but rarely translated into profile visits or DMs.

Posts with high comments were better, especially when the comments were thoughtful. They created visibility and familiarity. But even here, not every heavily commented post led to real inbound.

The strongest correlation showed up elsewhere.

Posts that led to profile visits and DMs were usually the ones with a clear point of view. Not always the most popular but specific enough that the right people felt seen and curious.

That’s why low-engagement posts can still convert. Because engagement is public validation and Inbound is private intent.

If you’re building a business, it’s worth paying attention to which metric you’re optimizing for. 

Because they don’t always move together and the quieter signals are often the ones that matter most.

I’m very selective about tools, especially when it comes to LinkedIn.


I think most tools don’t actually make things easier. They just add dashboards, notifications, and things to “keep track of,” which quietly increases mental load instead of reducing it.

So for personal branding on LinkedIn, I stick to a very small, very practical stack. All free, all LinkedIn-specific and all management-centric.

- For scheduling, I mostly rely on LinkedIn’s native scheduler. It’s simple, built into the platform, and removes the pressure of posting in real time. If I need a queue view, Buffer’s free plan does the job without overcomplicating things.


- For performance tracking, I don’t use external dashboards. LinkedIn’s own post analytics tell you enough about impressions, engagement, who’s actually reading. 


- For profile and positioning checks, tools like AuthoredUp help you review how your profile and posts are landing, without turning it into a growth hack exercise.


- For writing and research, it has always been Chatgpt and Claude too helps writing good posts.


- And for planning, I still use Google Sheets. One sheet usually has Day and Date, Theme of post, Target, topics, Content Link, Status of the post and quick notes. Simple and sorted!


That’s it, that’s literally my whole system.

I think if a tool doesn’t reduce cognitive load and make LinkedIn feel easier to manage, there’s no point keeping it around.

What’s your favorite tool for management?


#aitools #AI

For a change today, I don’t want to share the bts grind.


No late-night laptop photos or the “always busy” moments. They don’t really show where good work comes from anyway.

What actually matters are the small, quiet rituals behind the scenes. 

Sitting at a calm desk, letting the sun shine through, writing things down and giving your mind some space instead of jumping from one screen to another.

That’s usually where clarity barges in. 

These moments are my favorite, they shape everything that follows.

And I must tell you deep work is the only way to produce high-stake strategies.
This is where the magic actually happens.

Over the last few weeks, I started tracking a different kind of LinkedIn post.


The small, observational posts, the ones that sound like someone noting something they noticed while working.

I looked at around 30–50 posts like this across my feed.

Here’s what I noted down..

Most of these posts didn’t cross high like counts. Many stayed under 20–30 likes and some barely had comments.

But nearly 40–50% of them were reposted and often by operators, founders, or people with very selective feeds.

A few patterns were consistent:

- They usually mentioned one small observation, not a big takeaway.
- They avoided advice and didn’t tell people what to do.
- They read like notes someone wrote for themselves and decided to share.

What surprised me was where they travelled.

Because some of these posts were discussed in our creator circle, regardless of how they performed on the feed.

It made something very clear to me that high engagement gets attention but quiet signal gets passed around.

If you’re building for the right audience then, observation-first posts work incredibly well.

They let the right people recognize them silently.

I’ve always been a confident communicator. Speaking, expressing ideas, holding a room, those things came naturally to me early on.


And personal branding has only added more precision to my confidence.

It made me more intentional with how I frame thoughts, when to say less, and how to let ideas land without overworking them. 

I became more aware of the context of who I’m speaking to, what they’re listening for, and what actually needs to be said at that moment.

It also sharpened how I communicate in work settings. 

Client conversations became cleaner. Expectations are clearer and feedback is more direct, without losing warmth.

Personal branding didn’t give me a voice. Rather, it helped me use it better.

And that refinement has quietly carried into everything I do here, in meetings, and in real conversations.


#personalbranding

LinkedIn has rolled out its 2026 algorithm update, and the impact on reach is already visible.


Lower impressions could be noticed even for people who are posting consistently.

LinkedIn is now looking for clearer signals of who you are and what you’re known for before it decides who should see your content. 

Your profile, your topics, and your network matter more than volume now.

Here’s what aligns better with how the platform works now:

- Your profile and your content need to match. If your headline says founder but your posts read like an HR feed, the system gets confused and so does your audience.

- Relevance beats random reach. Jumping across too many topics dilutes distribution. Clear, repeatable themes help LinkedIn understand where you belong.

- Prioritizing saves and thoughtful comments matter more than likes. 

- Consistency now means topic consistency, not daily posting. Showing up around the same ideas trains both the algorithm and your audience.

- Depth performs better than surface-level takes. Posts that keep people reading are favored over quick, disposable ones.

- Engaging intentionally within your niche helps distribution. Who you interact with shapes where your content travels next.

- The algorithm has outgrown many of the old tactics. Things like chasing the “perfect” posting time or stuffing hashtags don’t really help now. System is about context and quality.


Being understood now matters more than being everywhere.

That’s the direction LinkedIn is clearly moving in for 2026.

taplio

The Battle

Ayush Shukla

Ashi Kesarwani

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreAyush Shukla's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreAshi Kesarwani's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Ayush Shukla

Ashi Kesarwani

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Ayush Shukla's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreAshi Kesarwani's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreAyush Shukla's LinkedIn Performance