Content creation is a space that is ever-evolving and challenging. There are so many individuals from around the world, who have been jumping onto this bandwagon. But to stay unique and true to it, can be quite a challenge. Raj Shamani is a creator and entrepreneur, who has tapped into the niche section of business content on social platforms and has been doing wonders. Right from his amazing content on digital platforms to inspirational talks in different parts of the world, this content creator has been working his charm and how!
About Raj Shamani
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Raj’s growth on social media as a content creator has been a phenomenal one. He often has content that is on the lines of motivation, business, share market, finance, stock, day-to-day life, among others. With over 200 motivational talks in about 26 countries, this creator’s presence grew not only digitally but also geographically. His video on ‘What’s The Hard You Want To Choose’ went viral and crossed 30 million views in just 15 days.
We got the opportunity to know more about Raj…
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1. Tell us about your journey from the moment you started your business to hopping onto the content creation bandwagon?
Since the time I have started my business I have always looked at storytelling as the most powerful tool to connect with my target audience, stakeholders, and that’s what I have always focused on. Once people connect with you, you can scale up and build a community where everyone is improving on day-to-day basis so it is a win-win and that particular thing helped me scale my business and while I was building my business I realised that at the end of the day all I am doing is creating content and telling a story. Whether it’s giving a speech in any country, or trying to get more clients by pitching my idea of trying to educate my dealers on how they can grow their own business or telling my customers about my product and building connections with them. So everything that I was doing was sort of content creation. It came naturally to me and that’s why I thought of scaling it up on social media platforms so that not only people who are connected to me directly get to learn things but the entire world can. Since I was enjoying what I was doing I wanted to help people at large and hence hopped onto content creation.
2. Was there an inspiration and/or a role model who encouraged you to become a content creator and podcaster?
One name is Gary Vaynerchuk, he is my role model. I love that guy. It’s commendable that he has been able to build on the back of content. He scaled a media business from zero to one of the biggest businesses in the world based on just content and that is an inspiration to me. I look up to him and I am fortunate enough to meet him and get mentored by him and just because I wanted him to get on my podcast, I started my podcast because he didn’t want to be my first guest but wanted to be my 16th guest. I recorded with 15 people so that I could get him on my podcast and that’s how I looked at my role model and became a content creator today.
3. What kind of audience do you wish to reach out to through your content?
I look forward to an audience who wants more out of their life, who are figuring out on an everyday basis to get what they want regardless of their current situation. More or less I want young people to, let’s say from 15 to 25, this is the time where one can build their life. And I can help them with clear, honest business and finance content and help them achieve a certain kind of mindset which will help the younger generation to look at life from a different perspective. I want set audiences who are ready to hustle in life to make it big.
4. What are the kinds of challenges you faced back then in the content creation space and how different are the challenges now?
One challenge that I faced as a content creator is that I feel I don’t know how to edit videos, I am not a good editor, I am pretty bad at it and I felt my quality of the content wasn’t up to the mark, that was the biggest challenge that I faced. I used to feel that other content creators have such good quality content. I didn’t even know how to use a basic camera even with an iPhone, I didn’t know how to place it well and set the lighting so that it turned out well, even the videos shot from my iPhone looked bad. And now I feel the biggest challenge is with scaling, how I can keep more people interested in my content, and what kind of content should I deliver so that my audience like it. Because once a creator grows he can’t keep doing the same thing, he will have to try 10 different things to retain the audience, but the problem with trying new things is that once you experiment you tend to lose your initial followers. I think most of the content creators face this as they grow.
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5. Where do you see content creation and podcasts in the coming years?
Content creation and podcast is going to go places. I believe that the podcast scenario has not even started in the country and it’s going to blow up big time. Majorly because of 2 things:
With the podcasts, you don’t have to sit in front of a screen and watch it with your full attention while you listen to a podcast you can be driving, doing your house chores, or do anything and listen to a podcast. So audio is easy to consume and much more convenient and you can easily multi-task while listening to a good conversation and learning from it. On the other hand with video you will have to sit in front of a screen and pay full attention. That’s why the podcast is going to be consumed more.
Another major reason I feel that the format of the podcast is very raw and natural for anyone who is creating a podcast is because all they have to do is have a good conversation with a guest or talk to your audience. It doesn’t have to be in a structured way, the creator doesn’t have to think about how they are looking. All you have to do is connect with your audience, be open, be honest and build a community that comes naturally hence you don’t have to put extra effort into creation as well. Audio is more convenient in both creation and consumption, that’s why I believe it’s going to blow up.
6. One quirky fact about you…
One quirky fact about me is that I talk a lot about consistency, mindset, upgrading yourself with new skills but there is one thing that I can’t be consistent about and I keep switching and that is sports. One quirky thing about me is that I am bad at almost every sport, I know how to play about 20 sports now but I am bad at all of them. One fact that people should know is that I can’t stick to one sport for more than a month. I will do boxing for a month, then switch to table tennis, then squash, then cricket, football and the list goes on. I keep switching that’s a quirky fact that people should know about me.
7. Who is your dream collab?
My dream collaboration would be calling Mukesh Ambani and Jeff Bezos on my podcast, any one of them or together, I don’t know but that’s my dream collaboration – Jeff Bezos and Mukesh Ambani as my guests. That’s going to be crazy. I am putting it out in front of the world. I am sure one day it will happen because I am working towards it.
8. One tip for budding content creators…
One tip for budding content creators is to start focusing on data and start analysing start looking at the numbers. Start taking your insights seriously and based on those insights and data start creating your content. Stop doing anything that doesn’t work and focus on doing more of what works. That is how you will scale. Start tracking your engagement, track how many people swiped up to check your story or how many people clicked on your bio. Look at the number and insights of every content, number of shares, watch time, how many people are clicking after looking at your thumbnail, number of comments, number of likes, number of shares. You need to track your data and metrics for different platforms. Take numbers very seriously that’s going to help you scale fast.
Raj Shamani’s journey has truly been an inspiring one. Every time we watch his content, we are pumped up and motivated to do better and achieve greater heights. If you haven’t checked his profile out yet, you must do so right away. Also, for everyone reading this, we hope that you are staying safe and have taken your vaccination shots.