Find your nirvana here! Shhh, I meant Digital marketing nirvana…. ;)
Hi there! I am Swathi Sreekant and I work for a large technology company. I am free-spirited, an animal lover, prefer nature and the mountains any day to cities. I love reading and I like to make deep spiritual conversations over a cup of chai. I will let you know when I find true nirvana.
Hey, but is this is all just small talk!! let’s move to the real deal, let’s talk about a small dose of nirvana in this materialistic world….
<<<Rewind to two weeks back, it was a usual day at work and I took a tea break with a friend and colleague discussing life, politics, and work. It was more of a venting session over a hot cuppa chai. My friend and colleague mentioned about Deepak Kanakaraju of DigitalDeepak and the Digital marketing internship program batch 2 that was going to begin soon. He suggested we both join the same to upgrade our skills and find a direction to channel our capabilities better.
He went on raving about this guy Deepak.
“He’s being very insistent”! I thought to myself as I had not heard of Digital Deepak or Deepak Kanankaraju before (Sorry Deepak!! I am probably your only student who did not know you from before)
I almost had a FOMO moment there :) and to add to that my skepticism and fear of online courses especially digital marketing had reached an all-time high as I had in the past enrolled for a digital marketing program from a reputed institute and was thoroughly disappointed as it did not add any value to my learning and now I secretly hoped DigitalDeepak would prove me wrong. Like they say, “When the seeker gives up all hope, the path appears”
I went back to my desk and checked out some of Deepak’s digital marketing videos and website and testimonials and boy was I impressed!
First impressions first, Deepak really seemed to have a grasp of what he speaks. There is no pretense in his words. He speaks with authority and clarity and I was readily convinced to join the program. I paid the fees of INR 14,999/- and the promise of earning back the money with an internship program was like music to my ears that seemed too good to be true! This blog happens to be an assignment too!
>>>Fast forward to 25th Feb, it’s a high tension environment in Delhi, my city is in news for all the wrong reasons. It’s saddening to watch the news and the only thing that I look forward to is the first session from DigitalDeepak at 9 pm. I logged in 2 mins earlier than schedule so that I don’t miss anything (FOMO again!). Deepak joined exactly at 9 pm and started by introducing himself and discussing the agenda for the day. He created a Facebook group and telegram group immediately to ensure a more interactive session and bond us into a family who learns and shares with each other. He also held many polls in between to gauge the audience’s feedback at every step of this class.
So far so good….
How many of us remember the power of Gratitude?
Deepak started by thanking us for joining the program and expressed his gratitude and commended the fact that there was a huge turnout for class 1, about 600+ people had joined. He isn’t a usual boisterous instructor immersed in himself, he values people and the time and effort people are taking to be a part of his program. I instantly knew why he’s so successful, his connection with people is genuine and heartfelt, and he has his feet firmly planted on the ground.
Top Nirvana Moments of Class 1
1. The golden triangle of Learn, Do, Teach is an immensely powerful tool and it leads to success. Help each other and you will find yourself learning better. ( and feeling better !)
2. Effective Communication helps us to sell ourselves better, whether it’s our brand or our products that we want to sell.
Expressing yourself uniquely in this age and time is a challenge especially when we have such diluted forms of communication like texting in short forms etc. (Read FOMO!)
LOL! :D
Commit to becoming an effective communicator by listening to Podcasts, writing regularly and watching SITCOMs! It’s that easy.
Writing for me is a venting mechanism more than a discipline, does this qualify as good writing? I wonder?! My diary knows my writing skills more than anyone else does. Maybe its time to bring the diary out I ponder….
3. Goals tell you where you want to go… Choose your goals.
Most often I struggle to even articulate what I want from life?! Knowing where to go is the first step. I wonder at this Zen-like realization I feel, Deepak is teaching me key life skills, not just digital marketing!!
Is he a monk in disguise?
Do you want to become a blogger? An affiliate marketer? A video maker? Do you want to grow your business? No goal is big or small, one just needs to know what to aim for. Once you know your goal move on to finding the gold…yes, GOLD! Everyone needs the GOLD and money! Even people in search of Nirvana….
Is Deepak a goldsmith? Who knows?
4. Find your Niche
Markets are expanding and there are infinite niches and riches (look it rhymes too) available for us to make the most of.
What’s your niche? Find a small niche and be the best in that niche. Find what you resonate with and stick to it like a postage stamp till you get to your destination.
Become a leader in the niche you choose. A niche lies at the intersection of passion, talent, and market opportunity.
Find the market demand for your niche using google autosuggest (Well, I was using it all this while to entertain myself, the humor you can find google autosuggest is incredible go check for yourself! and now I get to choose how to make money from it, AWESOME!!) and many other tools like answerthepublic.com and of course be more creative and scratch your own itch said Deepak. (Hmpf! Well, well tell me about it, I just recovered from an allergic condition.)
5. The Math behind the niche
To become a crorepati, you don’t have to compete with the rest of India to win the quiz show Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) with Amitabh Bachchan.
It’s as simple as finding 1000 customers who are willing to pay Rs.10,000 each for your service/product and you will easily reach a revenue of 1 crore. Hmm…easy isn’t it? Makes it seem achievable too unlike KBC!
there you go, Deepak is a startup advisor too!
He even gifted a startup course to all class 1 attendees(The startup course 2.0) but pity my poor internet connection which played a spoilt sport. I could not register in time Ahem! I will use the blog now to vent. :)
Didn't I tell you before, I write to vent and vent to write!
6. Going from Micro to Macro, let's talk about the Global Economies.
I have a master’s degree in economics and I had a serious “bulb on” moment.
Eureka I said! There is finally something I know and can relate to
India is a young nation. It will take a while for us to age in economic terms. The average age here is around 27. In an economy where the average age is 25- 50, there will be high spending. The next 30 years will see our economy grow with greater demand for goods and services, greater expenditure leading to greater debt pool, leading to more money supply and more trickle-down effects
A recession offers a good way to know if you are creating value in the economy or not. A valued service or product will always demand a price, no matter what cycles the economy goes through.
Only the strong survive a recession, the rest perish away, akin to the Darwinian theory of evolution. There is economics even in the animal world but that’s a topic for another day 😉
7. Integrated Digital Marketing and the Funnel
Technology enables marketing. One of the core ways to improve and generate traffic is to create a relationship with customers by adding valuable content, adding value in the form of blogs, social media that help generate traffic back to your brand.
Build trust into your sales funnel. Eg. Start with 1 million people at the broad end of the funnel, narrow down to get to about1000 brand ambassadors who can represent and help you build more leads making the funnel automated. Create value and authenticity and more customers will join in.
8. Build your Personnel Brand
People resonate with what is authentic and real and real stories come from real people. Show your real self to the world fearlessly and you will stand out! Understand and evaluate your own unique and characteristic traits and embrace them. Create real content by being yourself and own more of the internet. Own more of yourself and you will start owning the internet as well!
This resonated so much with me. “Fitting in” never worked for me. This part reminded me of days when I tried to fit in, wanted to be someone else, was easily influenced and doubted my own unique traits as I was just fitting in and not standing out. Create your own tribe, choose people who choose you!
See how Deepak became a shrink now!
I wonder how many hats this guy wears? Read more about him at Digitaldeepak.com
