At BrilliantRead, we always strive to bring to our community some of the meaningful and powerful stories from the entrepreneurship world. This week we spoke to yet another promising young entrepreneur – Devan Bhalla, who is a Marketer, Researcher, Transformer and a TEDx Speaker. He is a firm believer of self education and transformation. Let’s read more about his journey!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Devan Bhalla:
What made you want to build yourself as a brand?
I believe that a marketer’s role becomes well rounded when he or she undertakes experiments. For me, my role has helped me to grow as an individual in the digital, content and product marketing domains. In order to further that understanding, I have proceeded with starting posting regularly on my LinkedIn and Instagram handles to guide students and professionals on making a career in marketing and motivating them. My stints as a TEDx speaker and as a public speaker at prestigious colleges across India have helped me to grow as a communicator which is integral to a marketer’s role. As a matter of fact, I do all this while having a full-time job. By the time this interview will be published, I will be joining in as a Senior Brand Manager for IndiaMART post its massive IPO success.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
Well, the thought of becoming immortal by having my name live beyond my life is what makes me work towards achieving more. Through my experience (limited though), I have learnt that, through continuous hard work and persistence, we can achieve anything in life, be it a seat at a coveted institution or a specific role or a dream organization. Ever since I have started interacting with students, I have learnt that in order to stand at a stage and share your learnings, one has to know more than them and be willing to experiment and derive insights. That makes me want to learn more and share more!
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
There is no journey worth emulating that has not had its own share of challenges. Learning, however, makes the journey easier. At the Info Edge group firm, I learnt that no matter what role you are hired for, your will to learn can make you earn a name in an organization. The same has been my learnings from my stints at McKinsey&Co, Satyam Packaging and Rockman Industries (Hero Motocorp group firm). I learnt a lot on the job, be it leading a team or setting up processes for a business vertical or launching a new product. According to me, the biggest challenge is fighting complacency and handling a team of diverse individuals. Each team member is unique and to get everyone on the same page, is a skill in itself.
Tell our audience more about your failures? How should one bounce back?
For me, fortunately, I haven’t had failures but learnings. That’s how I view a setback as. I have had my fair share of learnings from ‘not so successful’ experiences. I will quote one, where we as a team were trying to implement a certain strategy for a localized region. The initial attempt resulted in a mixed response. We decided to re-launch it and it was a success. How you approach a setback is what determines its success. We as a team took an initiative to re-visit the campaign, fix the leakages in the marketing funnel and relaunch it.
One can bounce back from their failure, by learning from the experience and by being more focused.
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
In life, there is nothing that is absolute. Everything has a priority attached to it and has its own importance. For me both are important, but what is even more important is satisfaction. The satisfaction that what I am trying to build is of value for all.
Like any human, I too am emotional and I love a few sets of people around me a lot. My family, my BFF (Apoorva), best friends-Abhayam, Ishdeep and Reddy and my fauj of elder brothers and friends-Ishan, Chakradhar, Ambar, Ankush, Saurabh, Sharath, Rahul, Manish, Sumitabh, Swapnil, Nasreen, Shantanu, Vikram, Suraj, Sushant, Sunil, Varun, Sumit, Pawan, Niyathi, Kirubashini, Venkat, Bhaskar and so many more! Special mention: Kapil sir and Jackson. My mentors and motivators- Ankit Daga sir, Soham Wagh sir, Sourav Shah sir, Dr Kushal Sanghvi, Patturaja sir, Gaurav Sangtani sir and Sandeep sir whom I look up to.
I have learnt a lot from each and every one of them and my colleagues and peers at all of my organizations. It has helped me considerably to grow as a professional and as an individual, thus making me a better person.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
Well, I believe that pressure is required to perform. As a marketer and as a salesperson, there are certain targets set out, which are to be achieved. That definitely causes stress but the delight on over-achieving those and meeting them makes it worth the chase. It’s like an adrenaline rush of sorts. I usually work out 5 days a week and maintain a dedicated time for zoning out regularly so as to be calmer. Well, the process is yet to be perfected but I try every day. Over the weekends, I spend most of time reading and learning and implementing new things. It is important that you keep a certain time set out for yourself in your daily routine.
Why should people follow their passion?
We all have just one life to live, then why not live it the best way possible. It is a matter of great pride to be able to impact the lives of others and again a rare privilege given to a few. It is imperative to make that change. So just get out there and kill it!
Follow Devan At:
Instagram handle: https://www.instagram.com/devanbhalla/
LinkedIn handle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devanbhalla/
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