What You’ll Learn in This Episode
Tanvi Singh moved from research science in Germany to entrepreneurship in India, working with brands like India Today and Beer Biceps while heading marketing for Wah Story. In this episode, she shares how she grew a YouTube channel from 40,000 to 2 million subscribers, why integrity matters in brand marketing, and how she decides between full-time work and freelancing.
[00:00:00.05] – Speaker 1
Hi there. Welcome to the Digital Jayasty Show, your go-to podcast for digital marketing insights that drive business growth and career success. I am Jayasty Anandan, your host, and this podcast is brought to you by Digital Jayasty. That’s my digital marketing consultancy, helping businesses worldwide. You can check it out at digitaljayasty.com. Whether you are a B2B business looking to expand your online presence or a professional in a full-time job or freelancing, this podcast is designed to help you learn from top marketing experts and make smarter, more strategic decisions. If you’re watching on YouTube, subscribe to my channel and hit the bell icon for updates. If you’re listening on any podcast app, follow The Digital Jayasty Show, and if you like the show, leave a rating. All right, let’s jump right in.
[00:00:49.28] – Speaker 1
Hi everyone, welcome back to the show. Today we have Tanvi Singh with us. Tanvi’s journey took her from being a research scientist in Germany to an entrepreneur in India. She’s consistently been an overachiever throughout her life, always setting and exceeding high standards. She’s worked with impressive brands like India Today and Beer Biceps. She’s also a dedicated philanthropist. She has worked with multiple NGOs over the years. In fact, that’s where I first met her a decade ago. Her commitment to giving back has been a constant throughout her impressive career. Her entrepreneurial drive led her to launch her own film production house, run a jewellery store, and establish her own NGO. Currently, she heads the marketing for Wah Story. So Tanvi, welcome to the show. I am excited to learn more about your remarkable journey. So you have had diverse careers spanning tech, marketing, content creation, and social entrepreneurship. So what motivated you to make such significant career transitions?
[00:01:45.19] – Speaker 2
So hi, thank you so much for the wonderful introduction, first of all. And so, coming to the background and the question that you’ve asked me, first off, I think I’m, I’m an explorer. So I don’t think if overachiever is like a byproduct; I don’t know what that is. So yeah, I think I like to explore and learn. So with a similar mindset, I have had, yes, transitions in my career. When I started with my background in physics, and I started in research in computer science, it all happened because I was in— I am still in the quest of finding something that really intrigues me. And I have sort of a problem-solving mindset. So I like solving problems, and I enjoy difficult questions. You could say. And once I started learning that, I realised that there is another thing called something that society needs. And hence my philanthropy has always been going on in parallel. And these 2 skills together, like social entrepreneurship and my hope to actually add to society, have given me a drive to make multiple shifts in my career. So coming to marketing, I think that is one thing that helps people become aware of the right product, how they can use it, and how a business is adding sort of the correct value into their lives.
[00:03:07.18] – Speaker 2
And at the same time, solve a problem that I’ve learned from my tech background.
[00:03:11.29] – Speaker 2
Awesome. So you have co-founded multiple ventures like Phoodie Productions, And Life Goes On. What inspired you to start these businesses?
[00:03:20.15] – Speaker 2
So both had very different aspirations and hence very different models. When it comes to And Life Goes On, that’s older, and And Life Goes On was founded— was started back in 2021. That came with the intention that mental health is super important, importance of alternative healing alternate therapy in this world. I think there are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to meditation, when it comes to alternative therapy, when it comes to healing modalities, and people usually look at tarot or healing modalities just as ways to escape. Or just as ways to, you know, just quick releases into what will happen in our futures. So they just boil it down to predictions, rather than analysing what’s going on in their heads and trying to find a way to be better and heal themselves. So that change in perception, that hope to give others hope and help them shift, find the shift within their own mindsets. was the intention behind And Life Goes On, which ended up becoming a jewellery store which had healing crystals and their importance and their relevance. And where all the— where are the restrictions there?
[00:04:38.26] – Speaker 1
Like, you know, a crystal, for example, cannot just evacuate all the problems in your life, but then you’d have to do the work. It can only be a good assistant. So things like these minute details, like that. That was the idea behind And Life Goes On. Its entire ecosystem was geared around that. When it comes to Phoodie Productions, it’s a film production house that started with the intention to just create good content that had great quality. Did not expect to build so many films so soon. So we just started building content online. We just came up with the name Foodie because it was catchy, and pH because it’s like the litmus test, the pH test, to test, you know, like how good the food is. So that was our initial content. We never launched it because it turned out to be very bad. So we didn’t like the content that we created. We made sure that whatever pieces of content we were pushing out showed that we knew how to edit content. We know how to sell any piece of content. And we know how to market whatever we get.
[00:05:46.29] – Speaker 1
With that intention, luckily, and again with the social entrepreneurship spirit that I have and the sense of responsibility that I feel towards society, we did produce films that were all documentaries focused on creating a better environment. So one was to reduce the plastic pollution in local rivers. Then another one was to promote education and the importance of saving electricity in local schools in Delhi. So we went from one school to another and shot and created a documentary there. The third one was for another big government organisation, and they were posting this bio— they were promoting biodiversity in different parts of India. So hence, like, again, combining creativity with social responsibility has been a theme was a theme, a common theme in both, but Foodie was more creatively oriented. And Life Goes On was more, again, passion, or like passion in terms of responsibility-driven.
[00:06:53.15] – Speaker 1
Okay, so what unique marketing approaches have you found effective for social entrepreneurship ventures that differ from traditional business marketing?
[00:07:01.16] – Speaker 2
I think the centre of social entrepreneurship is honesty. You have to have authenticity and honesty as your centre, no matter what happens, no matter what’s trending. The other thing that I’ve observed happens with marketing and social entrepreneurship is that when you are too responsible and, at times, you’re too honest, you don’t feel like advertising as much. This is, this is a block that I’ve seen in a lot of people who are in this sector. They feel like, all right, there’s no point in advertising this thing. In Hindi, there’s a saying that says, neki kar dariya me dal, which means that you do good and you’d never show it to anybody else, right? And that sort of backfires on any kind of a social entrepreneurship venture, and hence it doesn’t expand the ecosystem much. So I think the first is overcoming this belief that whatever good is being done in society, it’s important to publicise that. It’s important to take the work outside and show others that there’s a way to live in another way. Everyone has a responsibility towards society. And then, of course, be honest in whatever you’re portraying. Do not— again, that goes for not just the social entrepreneurship section, but I think honesty is the best policy that creates a long-term audience, that creates people who trust you and your brand.
[00:08:29.17] – Speaker 2
So these 2, I think, are super important sections. The 3rd could be storytelling over selling. Like, for example, even if you are raising funds at times, it should come from an intention of why raising funds is important, are important for a particular cause. So, for example, if you’re raising school fees for a child, right, what is the background of the child? Where is the child coming from? Why does the child need support? And why does the child need more and more support beyond what we think is already being done? So the storytelling becomes an important marketing strategy, you can say, and so does social entrepreneurship.
[00:09:10.09] – Speaker 1
Okay, you were— your work with Beer Biceps Media helped grow a YouTube channel from 40K to 2 million subscribers. So what strategies did you use to drive such significant audience growth?
[00:09:24.03] – Speaker 2
With Beer Biceps, we worked on this channel called Raaaz. Raz was actually rebranded; it was the rebranded name of the original channel called Big Brain. Big Brain was the name. The colour scheme was different, and the brand was different. We rebranded this thing. So the first thing that we did was work on the rebranding. So again, branding and marketing are 2 separate things. Branding is the identity of the brand. What kind of audience would we need? Why are we rebranding it? So we, we want Big Brain— a Big Brain sort of like reached a peak. And it sort of wasn’t going beyond that. So the idea of Big Brain was to just spread a lot of education, but it was still reaching a peak. So we wanted to make it a little more about what people did that, like, you know, there’s an economy, economics, there’s this concept of supply and demand. There’s this thing called demand in terms of entertainment as well. So I think that was missing in the original concept of Big Brain, and hence that was rectified with Raaaz. We made it into a little bit of a mystery channel.
[00:10:36.02] – Speaker 2
We figured, okay, 3 concepts are doing well on our channel: mystery, horror, and Indian history in terms of Sanatana Dharma. So these 3 things were doing well on the channel, and we tried keeping our focus restricted to these 3 topics. We also saw that sci-fi was doing a little better, but that was like a topic that wasn’t always well received. The second thing that we did in terms of rebranding was, again, that was before as well, but we made sure that the research was even more solid. And the fourth thing I think was the shift towards a pure Hindi channel. So from Big Brain to Raaaz, to make it more massy, to make it, to expand the community in India. So anytime you, you create a YouTube channel, it’s important to decide on the language. If the language is Hindi, what you’ll get in return is you’ll get a lot of subscribers very quickly. You’ll get a lot— subscribers mean that you’ll have a lot bigger community to interact with. So again, it very much goes back to what your desired outcome is and how to channel towards it. When we rebranded, we also changed the colours of the logo.
[00:11:51.01] – Speaker 2
We had to come up with a name that was that had a little bit of mystery, had a little bit of horror and all the elements in the logo. So we chose the colours blue and black. And hence, every script, every edit also had that piece. When we were editing, we made sure that the shot pre-production was on point, which means scripting and directions given to the collaborators, who were our creators. Everything was on point, and even the post-production had to be of extreme quality. Extremely good-quality views. Like top-notch editors, top-notch animations and everything- graphics. Another thing that we did was we collaborated with a lot of creators for the YouTube channel. So, for example, creators who already had a presence on Instagram, we had them as hosts for a lot of— from all the videos, and that helped us expand our audience base.
[00:12:47.20] – Speaker 1
Great. We have seen brands evolve their messaging to be more socially responsible, like how Fair and Lovely went through that transformation. When you are developing marketing strategies, what do you think about integrity and authenticity?
[00:13:03.00] – Speaker 2
I think it’s super important. I believe that if not today, tomorrow people get to know the brand and the people behind it. And if there’s inauthenticity, if not today, tomorrow the brand does suffer. It does. There’s a thing called building awareness, but then at the same time, there’s a thing in terms of audience retention. Retention is just loyalty. You don’t get loyalty by, you know, fake promises. You can have a great product in terms of the marketing advertisement. It might look great on camera. You might have the best edits and everything. But if the product at the end isn’t satisfying the customers, you aren’t delivering what you said you would deliver; of course, the brand is going to suffer. The other thing that happens today is that I feel integrity is super important in terms of the founder as well, because today every brand— like, people want to know who the person behind this brand is, you know. So we want to not just trust the product; we also want to trust the thought process that was put behind this brand. And so if we see that there’s a product that is coming from a person who’s had good intention when when it comes to creating that product, or was creatively driven, or has had, like, an extremely inspiring background, then of course the audience becomes more inclined towards buying that particular product.
[00:14:38.06] – Speaker 2
So again, story of the founder, of the brand, and the product experience- all of it needs, like, strong integrity in terms of building not just an initial audience, but building a brand and an enterprise in the long run. So I think these things are super important. Like again, coming to the case of Fair and Lovely, right? So a friend, uh, like, and I know this girl; her name is Chandana Hirath. She was actually one of the people who protested against the word fair in Fair and Lovely. So that’s what, like, it’s very important to be mindful because today’s audience and Gen Z are not afraid to call things out, to call people out that, you know, this is bogus marketing; you’re just fooling us. This is not— and 0% trans fat does not mean it has no fat, that it is good for you, you know. So things like that, it’s not going to work on today’s audience. It might have worked, like I don’t know, 50 years back. But today is— today everyone’s very, very well-versed. They know how to read; they know how to read between the lines. They like reading about the product, about the founder, and they know how to catch bullshit, for lack of a better word.
[00:15:49.25] – Speaker 2
You know, they know when someone is just lying to your face, and they dislike that kind of marketing. So I think integrity is super essential. It is also important in terms of the differentiation factor. So technically, any marketing campaign is successful because it’s different from the others, right? So today, ironically, if you have to be different, you just have to be honest because people crave honesty in terms of celebrities. They want them to be honest. They don’t want them to come with perfect skin, you know, and they want them to, they want to feel a sense of belongingness. Hence, a lot of founders are very focused on building their personal brands. Pushing it forward because they want to create that ecosystem which feels vulnerable and safe, and the product also feels safe to use. So I think there are a lot of preservatives in the market; there are a lot of products that are already unsafe, and hence the audience is more conscious, and they’re trying their best to purchase the best and do the best for the world and society. So I think in terms of marketing, integrity is very important.
[00:16:56.29] – Speaker 1
Awesome. As the head of brand marketing, what role do you see content marketing and voice of content playing in today’s landscape, and how do you ensure your brand’s voice remains both engaging and authentic?
[00:17:10.13] – Speaker 2
I think content marketing is not a constant dialogue, and it’s not a monologue. Like, it should not be about one person, and this is again, like in terms of how people are planning content, be it like content for a brand, content for their own personal brand; it should never become a monologue. Every content marketing piece has to have a takeaway. Like, taking the case of Raaaz, what we did there was we did very good research behind every piece of content so that the audience would come and end up learning something. While we were planning the content, writing the content, we used to learn a lot. So the same intention has to be behind any piece of content or brand voice, or while building the brand. And hence, marketing happens at times also. Now you look at any kind of big marketing trend, we always rely on Zomato, right? Zomato does not suppress brand voices. Zomato does not follow just trends. They are trendsetters. The same is true with Red Bull. Red Bull never says, you know, you should, you should, you should only drink Red Bull. Even if they’re saying it, they’re saying it in a very indirect fashion.
[00:18:30.12] – Speaker 2
They would just sell the byproducts of what happens after you consume Red Bull. Sure, you do also experience the quick increase in your energy after you consume Red Bull. And at the same time, it’s selling the experience to the audience with adventure sports, with this and that. It never directly tells you, you know, this is the best brand in the market. So I think innovation is important when it comes to brand voice, not suppressing, uh, some, like, an idea that seems out of the box but also could may or may not be something that others are following. So I think these few things are things that have to be kept in mind when building a brand and when marketing it.
[00:19:15.13] – Speaker 1
Amazing. So you have experienced both full-time roles and freelance work. What are the pros and cons of each?
[00:19:24.12] – Speaker 2
Well, the pros of full-time work are that you get a paycheck at the end of the month. That is, I think, the biggest pro why most people go for a full-time role. The other pro of having a full-time role is that, because you are getting a paycheck at the end of the month, people around you are also getting paychecks at the end of the month. So you have people who are always around you, so you have, like, a collaborative environment. I think that is the biggest plus of working in a full-time role. I could be a little biased towards consultancy and freelance roles, and even entrepreneurship, because that is something that I desire at my core. When it comes to freelance, the pros are, of course, that there’s more freedom. Freedom in terms of the choice, the kind of work that you’d like to do. Freedom in terms of your voice. And you have a faster learning curve. That is very important. You know, a lot of people ask me that: why did you make so many switches? And I was— and that’s because I introspect a lot, okay? So at the end of the day, I often- anytime- and I get this question a lot.
[00:20:30.06] – Speaker 2
So very regularly, I just sit with myself, okay, maybe I could have done something better? But I have one thing at my core is that I want to grow and learn, okay? I don’t like just doing something because it is practical. After all, it is something that is supposed to be done at a particular age. If it’s not adding to my growth, if it’s not aligned with some sort of value or vision, then I don’t feel motivated enough to do it. And so freelance roles give you, like, a quicker learning curve. I moved back to India in 2021. Since then, I’ve done multiple freelance roles and consultancy roles, and I think that is the reason why I have been able to learn this quickly. I don’t think a shift in your career, or, you know, just getting another job and then working on one full-time job for the next 5, 6 years would give you as much freedom, as much growth as would like you’re building your own ventures, failing at your own ventures, making mistakes, getting one freelance role, working with one culture in a company, then getting to work with another in parallel, learning from here and there, applying their learning to your own journey, you know, doing so much work at the same time that adds on to your growth.
[00:21:49.01] – Speaker 2
Very exponentially. So I am personally a person who likes stimulation a lot. I love growth. I love learning a lot. That is my ask from any full-time or a freelance role. They ask me, What is the one thing that is your expectation? I say, please help me learn. And if, you know, that is missing, I think that is a drawback at times of a full-time role, because then you’re expected sometimes to just sit there, go clock in, have lunch, and come back. I think that, for me, is like, oh my God, I’ve wasted 10 hours of my day. I can’t waste time. That is another thing that happens with me. So I think that kind of freedom happens when you are working in freelance roles and you get to add value at multiple places.
[00:22:40.04] – Speaker 1
I agree. I resonate with you completely here because I have been there myself. Doing a full-time job and freelancing right now. So I can understand where you’re coming from. So how do you decide when to take on a full-time role versus pursuing freelance opportunities?
[00:22:57.05] – Speaker 2
I think lots of alignment with your life phase and goals. I don’t think anyone, you know, whenever you ask this question to someone, where do you see yourself in 10 years? I feel if someone has a very fixed answer, there’s something off with that person. I- this is just a personal belief. Like, because, you know, 10 years back I had— I, I think I was very sure of what I wanted to do. And every time I’ve been very sure of what I wanted to do, things have always turned out in some other fashion. At times by my own choice, or at times because, you know, life is unexpected. Unexpected things happen in your life. It is bound to happen. You’re bound to grow in a way that you do not expect. And that is the beauty of life. So I think about alignment with the current phase of your life and current goals. If something is not aligning today, maybe it was great 5 years back. Maybe it is great from some other person’s perspective. Maybe it could be great one day, but today it makes you feel miserable. It sucks the life out of you.
[00:23:58.14] – Speaker 2
Then just get out of that place. This could be a full-time or a freelance space. You have to know when to leave things behind. I know that this is an English-based podcast, but again, dialogue from this Bollywood film is coming into my head. That सही समय पर छोड़ देना चाहिए वरना किले शिक्षित होने लायक जाते हैं from ये जवानी है दीवानी, which means that you know you have to learn how to leave at the right time before you build resentment or before you feel like you’ve wasted so much time of your life. Like I personally, I dislike wasting even a single day of my life. So if I feel like, oh my God, I’m gonna waste the next 5 years just clocking in the same way. I think I’m gonna resent that phase, and not just that place; I’m gonna resent my version from that moment on. Why did I not be a little brave and take the risk, take the momentary unrest, accept the uncertainty, and do something better? So I think alignment is what intrigues me, and the desire for growth is how I decide when to take a pot.
[00:25:05.00] – Speaker 1
That’s really amazing. So thank you so much for being on the show today. Uh, your journey from tech to marketing to running your own business is really inspiring. I loved hearing about how you grew Biceps to 2 million subscribers and your thoughts on authentic marketing. Your experience balancing full-time work and your own projects gives us, our listeners, a lot to think about. And best of luck with all your social entrepreneurship work, and it’s making a real difference. Where can people find you online if they want to follow you, your work, or connect with you?
[00:25:38.06] – Speaker 2
Depends where you’re gonna post it on the internet. So if it’s on LinkedIn, you can find me on LinkedIn. If it’s on Instagram, my personal Instagram is @itsjustanvi. So it’s just Tanvi, but there is only one T. Okay, so jus tanvi or just anvi. So that’s just one T there. And yes, so I think that’s where you can reach out to me anytime.
[00:26:05.26] – Speaker 1
Okay. So thanks again for sharing your story with us today. It was great having you here and learning a lot from your experience and how to be authentic. Thank you so much once again, Tanvi, for being here.
[00:26:19.14] – Speaker 1
This podcast is brought to you by Digital Jayasty. If you want more tips, strategies, and interviews with top marketing experts from around the world, make sure to subscribe or follow The Digital Jayasty Show. Thank you for tuning in, and I’ll catch you next time.