"Do Your Part With Finesse, the Rest Will Unfold Itself" - Deepanjali Bhardwaj

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1. Tell us about your background and journey.

I have always been a creative person since I was a child always up to something but more so a curious one, I always would want to know the why what and how, and also the where of just about everything, still do. Back in 2013, I wondered how the back end/technical side works and hence lead me to my decision to pursue computer science and engineering for my graduation.

Then I worked on the actuality and practicality of it in Infosys for about two years in the field of business intelligence but I knew I greatly wanted to learn how the functional side works, I wanted to brainstorm the workings of marketing and thus, I landed up at UBS to study international business exactly one year after my epiphany.

2. What led you to start your page on Instagram and what is it about?

This is a funny story really, my blog is about four friends and their love for life. How each one uniquely brings their life and their quirks to the table but it started off on a sleepover. Late-night the four of us were chatting, talking about everything under the sky and then voila one of us, Chehak, said why don't we combine our love of fashion, food, writing and everything in between by starting a page and therefore, Sliceoflife was created.

3. How would you distinguish the term blogger from an influencer?

Essentially the basic and the most important difference between a blogger and influencer is that a blogger has an actual blog where they write and publish original content about various topics. But an influencer can be someone who has an impact on their following vis-a-vis buying decisions or even general life opinions through their content.

4. Is it financially sustainable to be an influencer today?

It’s not a straightforward answer pertaining to the fact, the journey is long and hard and the light at the end of the tunnel may come later than you hoped. It also majorly depends on your luck and the kind of content you post, if it has the original and viral quality.

But even so, before you hope to earn through brand collaborations or starting something on your own you need an enormous following to turn your content to monetised content.

5. What do you think influences consumer behaviour?

Since I have been on both sides of this particular table, I would say real examples which showcase the good and the bad of a product will build credibility in the minds of a consumer and influence their decision. And various deals could sway the decision of a customer into buying a product which they might not have considered buying at full price.

6. What is your idea of success or your mantra in life?

I honestly believe for you to hope to be successful, first, you need to give your 100%. I have always believed for me the journey is as dominant as the destination for the sole reason that it builds you, crashes you but forces you to build back up again.

At the end of the day what matters is you did your part and you did it with finesse, the rest will unfold itself accordingly. So give a determined effort on your part so no matter what the result turns out to be, you would have no regrets.

7. How can someone become a successful social media influencer?

Hard work and resilience, it’s an area of work that requires you to constantly create and create uniquely. So, you always have to be on your toes. There is no shortcut to it, but connect with brands and don’t shy away from reaching to them yourself. You never know what might catch the interest of a potential collaboration.

8. Which is your favourite book and why?

I may be biased since I just finished this yesterday, but right now my favourite book would be, ‘The silent patient’. It’s a thriller/suspense genre, and at the beginning, I had piles and piles and piles of questions with no answers in sight.

But as the ending approached on the corner, the author so beautifully tied up all ends and connected all dots to give us an ending that honestly was explosive in the good sense. I have read my fair share of thriller/suspense novels but this particular one is impactful and makes you wanna not keep the book down. A real page-turner.

Interview by - Sonam