The Headmaster developed the 21st Century Soft Skills Development Curriculum keeping in mind the holistic development of students’ personalities that goes beyond just academics. As important as it is for students to learn concepts, it is just as important for them to learn about their practical implications.
Keeping that in mind, we organized a session on “Personal Branding” with Radhika Agarwal (@thefoodiedevi) to help our students understand the concepts of personal branding through her brand’s practical application.
Radhika Agarwal is a big name in the influencer marketing industry. She is well known for her content curation in the food blogging industry. A dentist by education, blogger and passion, and profession – Radhika started her content creation journey in 2016.
Back then, social media wasn’t as big, and Radhika was one of the first to make a career by making her passion her profession. She has successfully collaborated with over 500+ brands and has been recognized for her incredible work in the industry, and continues to build her brand.
In our conversation, she shed light on the career options available within the influencer marketing industry and how one can penetrate the market with individuality and authenticity. Talking about her journey from dentistry to food blogging, she addressed the adversities she had to face in terms of shifting her career from a very stable profession to entering into a volatile, competitive market where one is prone to backlash, trolling, and public opinion. However, very beautifully, she reflected on the core value of her brand and herself that helped her get to where she is now – Honesty.
From the beginning of her brand, she made it a point to be genuinely herself in front of her audience and not filter her reviews and opinions to fit others’ wishes and perceptions. There have been multiple instances in her professional life where she had the option of choosing the easier way over the right one, but she stood firm on her core values even in the face of conflict.
She recalled an incident with us wherein she enrolled in a Latin dance class as a recreational activity – something she didn’t want to do professionally but for herself. The facility's management offered her a fee waiver for their brand marketing. While it could have been a great marketing and business expansion opportunity for her, she turned the offer down in the wake of her ethical standing and insisted on paying for her enrollment.
Despite the confident external front, like all of us - Radhika faced internal struggle and conflict wherein she questioned her life choices multiple times. Every time, consciously choosing to remain true to herself and her dream of not just building an Instagram page for food lovers - but a brand - the foodiedevi for all the at-home chefs, food lovers, influencers, and dreamers.
To survive in a competitive market, it is beyond essential to hold your ground, and that is precisely what she did. With her sheer display of resilience, she overcame her internal conflict and external competition. Even the pandemic could not stop her stride towards her dream! Keeping up with the trends, in an attempt to cheer her audience up through her content, she shifted gears, quickly adapted to the flow of things, and explored multiple avenues of food blogging.
Being a content curator, she understands the importance of words and the right to opinion like no one else. While she focused on writing authentic and genuine reviews about food and restaurants, she also understood the importance of others’ opinions about her work. She recalled how a negative comment would initially upset her, but then she found her way of turning adversities into opportunities and taking away constructive feedback from all the negative comments. She made it a point to interact with her followers regularly, learn about their opinions on her work, and incorporate their feedback into her brand to make it better and more personable.
She understood the uncertainty and volatility of the market. She was able to share some brand survival tips and tricks with our students through her personal experience within the industry for the past six years. She continues to take confident steps towards her dreams with her core values ingrained at the foundation of her brand’s being, with a hope to expand and make a more prominent name in the industry than she already is.
In her conclusion, she addressed multiple questions our students had about her brand and personal branding concepts. She guided them through the ideas with tips and tricks on how they can get started, maintain good standing in the influencer industry and build their unique, personal brand.
We are thankful to Agrawal PG College, Mr. Pradhyuman Singh Rathore, and other distinguished faculties of the college for providing us with this opportunity of letting students connect with the world they’ll soon be stepping into.
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