For a parenting influencer such as myself, it is important to shift the focus from yourself to the parents – who they are, what they want, how the information can help them, and how they can benefit from it.
1. Tell us about your background and journey.
Hi, I’m Riddhi Deorah. I tried many things before Karma played her role and helped me find a clear mission. I want to thank my teachers, mentors, parents, and family for constantly standing by my side and helping me work and move closer to my mission each day. I am grateful for each one of you who is reading this. I would now like to share a little about my journey so far.
I was born and raised in Kolkata. As a kid, I was very inclined towards spirituality and mythology. I spent a lot of time listening to saints in an ashram that was right opposite our house. I am still very strongly grounded in spirituality. My tryst with economics began when I, as a child, started accompanying my father to his workplace.
I followed up on my interest by taking it up at the school level and subsequently majoring in it at college.
I had already spent 21 years living a protected life with my parents.
I wished to step out of my comfort zone and explore the world outside.
I applied to the London School of Economics, UK, and University of Cambridge, UK, and was fortunate enough to be selected by both. This was one of my happiest days, not because the best universities had accepted me, but because I was finally going to step out of Kolkata.
In 2013, after returning to India I started looking for opportunities in the job sector. However, one fine day I decided I will not apply for a job.
When I had returned to India in 2013, the e-commerce sector in India was growing at an exponential rate. I decided to take advantage of this opportunity and started selling casual knitwear products for men, women, and children through marketplace platforms like Flipkart, Amazon, Jabong, Myntra, etc.
The business picked up well and I had a great work-life balance.
June 2014, I found Rahul, my husband.
We got married after six months and I relocated to Gurgaon.
The relocation made things at work a little difficult. I tried to manage the business from Gurgaon. However, the distance from the production setup and the communication gap made execution very slow. Hence, I had to take the hard step of resigning from the company and allowed the company to be managed by my brother.
Once again karma was kind to me.
I started a label called Riddhi & Revika that makes designer apparel for women.
Riddhi & Revika started in 2015 as an exclusively online brand retailing through social media and online multi-designer websites.
With the overwhelming love and support that our clients showed us the brand started to retail in more than ten multi-designer stores across India and abroad with its flagship store in New Delhi.
March 2017 was another turning point in my life when I delivered my beautiful son, Veer. I started working from home. I love writing and used this time to document my journey as a mother and wrote small stories about my experiences with little Veer.
This was the starting point of my journey as a parenting coach. One thing led to the other and now I am on a journey to help 100,000 parents live a happy, holistic and spiritual life.
2. What led you to start your page on Instagram and what is it about?
One message, yes! one message is all you need to change your life.
I am so grateful that I received this message.
June 2018, I was in a meeting on Buddhism and the topic for the meeting was “ The importance of sharing our experience with others.’ Throughout the meeting, I kept thinking about sharing my experience as a mother with all other mothers going through a similar journey as me. I had no idea where to start and how to start.
But it’s truly said that when you want something the universe conspires to help you. That’s what happened to me.
I told my husband how much I wished to share my experience with other mothers. He instantly encouraged me to do it through Instagram. I was very hesitant at first because I didn’t want to make my profile public. I am a very shy person which is why I just didn’t feel that being an Instagram blogger was something I’d be able to do.
We turned this into a bet and this bet has today put my life on an entirely different path.
According to the bet I had to make my profile public for a night and If I got more than 500 new people to follow me, then I would have to keep it public. I was quite sure that I would lose this bet so I went ahead with it.
The next day when I woke up, I was shocked. I had almost 800 more followers now. I still haven’t seen such a jump in a day. I believe that I attracted this into my life by constantly thinking of a way to share my experience with others.
I lost the bet and now here I was sharing my experiences as a mother. I believe that people can see through you. If you are authentic, honest, and have a helpful attitude, people will get attracted to your energy.
You will see your group growing beautifully right before you. That’s what I believe happened to me. It was just the start of my journey and from just sharing experiences not too long ago, I now build parenting courses on mindful parenting, active parenting, hero method of communicating with your child, easy stress management, phonics, and so many other topics.
The journey has indeed been beautiful. But it is just the beginning and I want you to stay with me till the end.
3. Is it financially sustainable to be an influencer today?
Being an Instagram influencer or just any influencer takes a lot of patience, authenticity, commitment, and effort.
I don’t think that financial stability is something that you can expect when you start your journey as an influencer.
It is advisable to have another source of income for sure. I feel you can’t help or create content if you are always thinking about the financial aspect.
Money is a by-product of the value that you add. The more value you add the more stability you can expect. Having said that the rewards come in much later.
4. What do you look for in a brand before collaborating with them?
I look at three things.
The mission and vision of the brand.
The value that the product can add to my audience and whether I would use their product as a consumer. If I can say yes to all three that’s when I agree to partner with the brand.
5. How can someone become a successful social media influencer?
Understanding the platform, creating the right pieces of content, using the right hashtags if you are on Instagram to make the content visible, being authentic to yourself, and being consistent on the deliverables has got me here today.
For a parenting influencer such as myself, it is important to shift the focus from yourself to the parents – who they are, what they want, how the information can help them, and how they can benefit from it.
Once you have the right content, you have to know how to make it visible to the right audience.
To sum it up an attitude to add value and being consistent with the same is what I think makes for a successful social media influencer.
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