To the moon Read online

  Kangana Ranaut – There are many Bollywood actresses and I have worked with so many of them and I think a bad-ass partner in crime is Priyanka Chopra, and so is Kareena Kapoor. I have had a very brief meeting with her and she is awesome. So, for these two I will buy make-up and I would like to go out for a Valentine’s lunch and gossip about men!

  Kareena Kapoor – Well I think it would have to be like Sridevi cause I’ve grown up watching her movies and it was always a dream to become like Sridevi. Could I ever reach that mark and be like that? She will always be my inspiration.

  Alia Bhatt – Katrina Kaif! I love you. I love you because I think you are frank and an honest person, and I love all my work-out sessions with you. So, I love you, Kat.

  Kalki Kochelin – Kangana Ranaut. You’re an amazing actor, and I’m so jealous of your natural abilities. I don’t know you that well as a person because we hang out rarely but you are very cool.

  Deepika Padukone – ‘So many! There is Alia, there is Shraddha there is Parineeti – she is so sweet. I love you, I love you.’

  It’s the best kind of love, it’s #GirlLove!

  Lilly’s campaign also donates money towards important causes like the Malala campaign and is currently aimed at helping girls in Kenya, which you can contribute to simply by buying her aptly titled New York Times bestseller How to Be a Bawse and Rafiki pins and bracelets, so that you can wear your girl love around your wrist! #LoveThat

  And what have I learned about being a #BossLady? I have learned that what makes a boss lady truly unique is not only her IQ but her EQ (Emotional Quotient). The ability to scan a room and suss out the vibe, what some may call ‘women’s intuition’ (aka be the first to call bullsh*t – pardon my French). The deftness to read body language, what we call the natural capacity for empathy, an incredibly valuable skill in management and in life. So, I urge all women to embrace that in themselves. Don’t try to do business ‘like a man’. Harness your EQ and shoot for the moon. Which is why one of my favourite quotes is this:

  ‘Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.’ – Sometimes Being the Queen is All We Have to Hold Onto by Connie Cash

  So ladies, don’t just be a boss. Be a Boss Lady.

  PS. Dear PC, thank you for the love and for writing the foreword to my book. Just goes to show that a little girl love can go a long way! #tothemoon

  Blog #33: Trust Your Instincts.

  ‘You Do You.’

  If you were to ask me what the most important thing I have learnt on my journey through life is, it would be this: Trust. Your. Instincts. Nobody but you will ever live, breath and embody your ‘brand’ the way that you can and will. It’s your baby after all, it is a piece of you.

  There are actually two parts to this. One is trusting your instincts, which means don’t be afraid to captain your ship the way you best see fit. And the other is never apologize for who you are and how you express yourself, (obviously, this is not a free pass to be a huge a**hole to everyone in your life, but you know what I mean.)

  For the longest time in business meetings, where often it was a roomful of suits (primarily men), their secretaries and me and my pink highlights, I often felt an odd cocktail of emotions. Pride confidence, nervousness, anxiety and the constant fear that I would sound ‘silly’ or ‘like a girl’ when I voiced my opinion. The reason for this (and I’m sure this has become abundantly clear by now) is that I tend to see most things through a pretty ‘emo’ lens and I was worried that given my opinion would more often than not come cloaked in EQ over IQ, it would not be taken seriously. But I was wrong.

  Ninety-eight per cent of the time I would strike a chord that connected with people and engaged them, primarily because I believed so completely in what I was saying. I do have a 2 per cent tendency to ramble a bit because I sometimes forget what I’m saying while I’m saying it – literally mid-sentence – because my mind has wandered off out of the room and I’m scrambling to get it back. (#TrueStory, does that qualify as ADD?) Where was I…

  But I was made truly aware of the fact that my unconventional style works when, after a business meeting with a room full of high-powered suits, in the luxury automobile business – where I went down the path of emotionally connecting with your consumer – my creative head for video, Samira Major, lauded me for how it had all gone down. She said she was sitting in that meeting watching me and proudly thinking, ‘Preach, Malini, Preach!’ I love that and thank you, Sam.

  One of my dearest friends and a bonkers powerhouse of a creature, who calls himself @CandymanLondon on the internet, gave me the most epic advice I’ve ever heard in this regard.

  THOMAS DAWES

  Creative & Digital Director, Godrej Consumer Products Aka @CandymanLondon

  MissMalini is a brand oozing with youthful positivity, energy and take-over-the-world va va voom and that’s because Malini is all these things. Spend 30 minutes in her presence and she will have connected you with ten people who could make you/your company/your brand/your social life bigger and better. She’s inexplicably energetic, positive and inarguably better company than 99 per cent of people you might do business with. But therein lies the rub – this isn’t work for Malini, she’s living her dream and wants everyone around her to do the same.

  My advice to Malini? Be careful who you take business advice from. There will many ill-fitting suits queuing up to tell you how to run your growing empire. But the truth is, your inimitable style has taken you this far and will continue to take you places that spreadsheets could never forecast. Trust your gut and do business your way.

  Have you watched the movie The Intern? That movie sums up the advice Tom gave me. Except this time, it’s Robert De Niro giving it to Anne Hathaway and I’ve never tried to ride a bicycle through my office. (OMG Tom I should have known you’d be ‘The Godfather’ in my life!)

  The other thing about being YOU is that you need to stick to the values you want your brand to embody. Don’t compromise on that. Not for any amount of money. For example, I have a problem with fairness creams and the message they’re drilling into the minds of impressionable young Indian girls. I can’t support a storyline that claims a girl is a burden on her parents; no one will marry her, so she’s wilting away in the ‘darkness’ until she applies a fairness cream (that most likely bleaches her skin) and she magically finds the perfect man, makes her parents proud and becomes Miss India?! Come on. It’s 2017. Let’s grow up and appreciate the skin we’re in. #BrownIsBeautiful

  That doesn’t mean you suddenly must become a soapbox preacher for every cause on the internet. No, just find the things that matter to you and make sure your brand lives by them, just as much as you do. A good barometer of judgement for this is to consider, ‘If I do this will I be secretly ashamed that I did?’ and then ask yourself; what is the price of my soul? – then you do the math.

  Blog #34: Give Credit Where It’s Due

  While I was working at Go92.5, I encountered a very unique individual, our programming director, Kobad Mobedjina. He taught me an important lesson. He said, ‘Always give credit where it’s due.’ Especially as you climb the ranks and run your own operations, it is imperative that the people in your charge feel appreciated and ‘seen’. The worst possible thing, and perhaps you have experienced this yourself, is to work hard on something and either be given no credit for your effort or worse, have it usurped by a manager or colleague simply because you were part of their team and it was easy to gloss over your contribution.

  Since my blog is named ‘MissMalini’ this has always posed somewhat of a challenge for me. The automatic assumption about anything that goes up – good, bad or ugly – is that it has been written by me. To combat this, we decided early on to give each of the writers a by-line on their posts and let them develop a person style and voice in which to write. Over time, this has made it abundantly evident who’s telling which story.

  I was also always intensely conscious of the fact that whether it be blogs, web videos, television or ra
dio; the voices of this brand should stand out and shine (bright like diamonds!). I am proud to say that today, members of my team get recognized walking down the street or at fashion week or even by celebrities who send them complimentary personal DMs in appreciation of their work. Shraddha Kapoor complimented Nats on her videos, saying she is ‘original, funny and totally engaging.’ You go, Nats!

  Thank you, Shraddha Kapoor, how sweet is that? Aditi Rao Hydari, who is a burst of sunshine herself, had the most wonderful thing to say about Team MissMalini too.

  ADITI RAO HYDARI

  Actress

  I know you have this book that’s almost out there and it’s an inspiring story. I know I sound misty-eyed and all but it is. Because I think you have created such an empire and you’ve done it so amazingly, so seamlessly, and I want to know how you did it because I only know you as The MissMalini. What I’m curious to know is how you got the idea, how you went about it and how you put together such an amazing team because every time that I’ve been to the office or every time the MissMalini team comes home – I don’t let too many people that I don’t know into my house – but the MissMalini team always feels like home. I feel very comfortable around them and they are just all so, so nice and I know that a lot of it has to do with you.

  Now it might seem obvious that giving credit is just a matter of throwing in the person’s name in conversation or print when they deserve it, but I urge you to take it up a notch.

  While I was working at Radio One, management had this interesting strategy of recognizing their top talent by creating a pool of ‘super employees’. We would meet once a fortnight to ideate on larger brand and company decisions, which made us feel like we were being rewarded for our work and thus given more say in company operations and brand strategy. Plus, everyone got stock options at a very minimal rate. Needless to say, it made everyone proud to be there.

  The other valuable strategy is to credit those who credit others. Recently we did a gruelling campaign for a brand that took an incredible amount of hard work and team-work. Yet again, Samira, while helping me write a presentation about influencer marketing, pointed out that there is something intrinsically awesome and unique about how we operate. Unlike some companies where that kind of pressure often results in the blame game or creates little ‘gang wars’ and cliques, the opposite happened. This team banded together to help each other through the toughest of shoots. Team members went above and beyond their expected roles to help each other out. Some even spent the day keeping everyone’s spirits up with off-camera entertainment.

  And my absolute favourite part of this was that when the campaign ended and we had a town hall congratulating the team at large, each of them took the time to appreciate someone else’s contribution to the project. Appreciation is the finest form of credit. Remember that.

  Here’s an email Neha Jambotkar (director of client services) from Team MissMalini sent a day after the project.

  Hi Nowshad, Mike and Malini,

  Just wanted to write to you to highlight the good work done by the team to pull this campaign off, in 1 week!

  Meghna Mirgnani (Executive Producer): Appreciate her attitude of facing the challenge head on and ensuring she executes to her word. She organized the sets, thought of every detail on the set i.e. Dress Dada, Runner, etc. She took charge and ran the shoot so well! She was a fabulous director. But what I appreciate the most is her willingness to go out of the way to make things happen – she ensured the backdrops were changed on Day 3 as we needed to bring a different colour element in our videos. And more so, organized the edit schedule to ensure I have 7 videos out of 8 in hand on 6 October – merely 2 days after our wrap up. She not only talks the talk, but walks the walk.

  Rishabh Maliwar (Head DOP): He was standing on his feet for the duration of the 10-12-hour shoot days. The best part – he never ever complained – always a smile on his face. It brings an amazing energy to the set!

  Aditya (Runner & Sound Technician): He is so on-point with his sound technicalities now. We had an issue of Navratri music post 5 p.m. and working under that stress was crippling but he took it head on and ensured we got the best out of our talent.

  Pankaj and Yogesh (Editors): They have worked diligently to get us one video out per day and manage other edit work despite Meghna not being in to supervise. The internal approvals on most videos were almost instant! *Fingers crossed* on client approvals now.

  Rashmi Daryanani (Executive Scriptwriter/Video Content Strategist): I really appreciate the promptness with which Rash worked on the scripts. She helped me divide the hacks into content pegs – a job she did voluntarily which helped so much pre-production. She also helped script for bloggers who were acting difficult.

  Rashmi Bhosale (Fashion Blogger): She has stepped up to sit on edits despite having almost no edit experience. She has done research on each blogger style and given such great inputs.

  Mallika Kulkarni (Key Account Manager - Sales & Marketing): She made this happen for the company. Despite the heat I gave her for timelines – to execute the shoot of 8 bloggers/24 videos in 5 DAYS – she stood by us all and donned various hats, i.e., director, hairdresser, make-up artist, content on set to ensure we went over all the bumps smoothly.

  Harshad (Special Projects Manager): He took ownership and ensured the communication with all these bloggers was seamless. His attitude of working towards the bigger picture will ensure a long successful career run here.

  Happy to say that these resources made for a crazy, beautiful experience of bringing together this campaign. We still have the execution of the videos to go, but it’s important to highlight good work where its due.

  Regards,

  Neha

  Thank you, Neha, for this exceptional email and I was told you went above and beyond your role as well by everyone who was on set. And that you did it with your 10,000-watt smile. I hope you know this email is everything.

  PS. Repeatedly I have seen this team step up and support one another. There is zero bitchiness at our HQ and for that I am so grateful. I however cannot take credit for this one because creating an environment where there is a great vibe and people thrive is the collective work of a team of absolute ninjas. It takes each and every team member at MissMalini Entertainment to keep this ecosystem alive and negativity free. So, thank you team. All along I thought it was up to me to teach you this company’s core values, turns out you taught me.

  Blog #35: The Other F Word – Funding!

  As I started my maiden journey as an entrepreneur, the one thing I kept hearing time and again was ‘beware of VCs!’ and ‘find the right investors or you’re sunk’. And so, I tip-toed into the world of venture capital with a fair amount of trepidation.

  I am happy to report, however, that my experience with investors has been absolutely awesome. Due props to the first two people who believed in me and my brand, Sonny Caberwal and Rajan Anandan and a great deal of gratitude to everyone else who made contributions, whether as friends, family or financial institutions.

  I have asked all my investors to share their thoughts on the MissMalini brand and give me a piece of advice, which no doubt may apply to a brand or business you’re looking to build too. But first here are five crucial rules of finding and keeping your funding, as I have understood them from my experience so far.

  Show them your passion. I firmly to believe that investors don’t invest in businesses, they invest in people. If they can sense the fire in your belly, they are more likely to believe that you will stop at nothing to achieve your dreams.

  Align your goals and mission. Make sure your investors believe in the long-term potential of your brand. You’re in it for the long haul, find people who are willing to give you the time to see it through.

  Know what you want your investors to do for you. Whether it’s to open networking doors, or provide invaluable access to technology, or simply allow you to pick their brains for business strategy.

  Make promises you can keep. Don’t inflate y
our balance sheet to an unachievable number. Be ambitious but realistic. Ambi-realistic? (Okay, maybe don’t try to make up fancy words!)

  Be Marwari. And by that, I mean be as frugal with your cash injection as you were without it. You want the funding to last as long as possible and your balance sheet in the green asap.

  Obviously, there is a lot more that goes into funding, but I’m going to spare you the excel sheet lecture today. For now, it’s over to the people who believed in my dream and continue to fuel my rocket ship.

  SONNY CABERWAL

  Serial entrepreneur & Tech Executive

  Your passion and interest in technology and sharing with friends has not only made you a trailblazer in your field, but beloved by millions of readers around the world.

  Advice: Never forget how and why you started – keep on having fun and experimenting as if it’s day one, and you’ll continue to stay on top as the most trusted source of information for millions of followers around the world!

  RAJAN ANANDAN

  Vice President, South East Asia and India, Google Angel Investor

  As an angel investor, my focus is on backing awesome founders who are building businesses that can scale.

  I invested in MissMalini when Malini had a very small team and some level of traction on users. What struck me when I met her and her co-founder was that she deeply understood her target segment, had a truly insider view into Bollywood with strong access to the people and stories that matter, and the team was complementary with both content and business skills. Bollywood moves in India and Malini has a great pulse on what moved Bollywood. If someone had told me four years ago that MissMalini would become one of India’s leading online destinations with a very small amount of seed capital I would have said, ‘No way.’ Clearly they have proven that an Indian digital start-up can be built in a highly capital efficient way, and this has been great to see. As MissMalini enters their new phase of growth, their growth possibilities are infinite.