Let’s start off by saying that this was never a part of my plan. I did my Engineering in 2010, got placed in Birlasoft, and honestly wanted to settle down in the US. That was what I always wanted before I got introduced to this whole new world of makeup and beauty. I was always an average student when it came to studies, but I was good at understanding things. I did not score well because maybe I didn’t study much.
Coming back, in 2015, I just randomly stumbled upon this beauty community on YouTube by searching for a random beauty subscription box and I thought this was so fascinating that I just can't stop myself just watching more and more of it. And then I thought this is such a cool idea even I can do this it's not a big deal little did I know it is actually a big deal I had a full-time job from 12:30 to 9:30 PM and then I had a baby who was at that time just three years old or maybe 2.5 years which is quite young and kids that young do require a lot of attention. I already had a lot on my plate and then taking up YouTube just took away the little time that I had for myself.
The next year was very hard for me because I was constantly creating content working a full-time job and then I had a full family so you know it was a little too much for me to eat but that also led to some serious health problems so in 2016 around March.
I was having severe headaches for almost a month and then when I consulted a doctor I found out that I had hypertension my BP was always high and I was just gaining weight my thyroid has been like crazy so I decided that I would take a break from my job's cause that also required a lot of time and then I did not want to quit YouTube because I really enjoyed the process.
I took a break from my job like I took a week's leave and I just took care of myself then created content that didn't work for my job and then when I got back I was better but my son was also growing up and I thought I already have an alternate job that I can take up like YouTube and it's time now for me to quit my job so in May 2016 after six years of working and the IT industry which I absolutely love those are like the most precious cherished six years of my life I quit my job as a team lead in birlasoft and look up content creation full time.
I enjoyed the process of content creation for a month or so but since the growth was very slow it does become frustrating because you do not have another source of income like I used to have earlier and it does involves a lot of investment if you can save so after two months I was like I need money and because I just can't keep on asking for money for my YouTube from my husband so I decided to start selling makeup and I started selling Oriflame but since it's you know it's a door to door selling kind of thing for Oriflame I gave up pretty soon on that but I realized that I can still sell makeup and I think I would sell affordable makeup and that's when this whole cuffs and lashes thing started.
So in November 2016 I started with an online makeup store like it was called online makeup store it was just an Instagram store and I started selling affordable makeup brands like Swiss beauty Hilary Rhoda and the likes and then two months later I met a friend who suggested me that why don't you make like why don't you move onto a platform I was not aware that there are platforms like where you can just post pictures and take orders they have their whole payment gateway and everything.
So I was not aware of those kinds of platforms and she told me about that and I was like yes I wanted this because creating a full-fledged website all by yourself is obviously not that easy and in 2016 I think the information was not that easily available as it is available at this moment like today so I created my website on this platform and I started taking orders through that and honestly since being from the background I knew that just taking orders from WhatsApp or Instagram was not a feasible model so obviously, this was a great way to take orders even when you are not fully occupied.
All I had to do was just take care of the customer service and the procurement of products and that's how cuffs and lashes came into the picture and since then it's just been growing my brother joined in soon and he is actually now the co-founder of cuffs and lashes because a lot of things that have happened now is ordered because of him and our collective efforts have actually led to where it is today so last year in 2020 just before the pandemic hit we launched our own brand which is by the name of cuffs and lashes itself and we still have miles to go.
2. When did you first decide that you wanted to create content and how did you
start?
So as I mentioned that content creation was never a part of my plan but in 2015 when I stumbled upon the beauty community on YouTube that was my calling. I was like this is everything that I wanted to do ever and even though I was not a makeup person I learned makeup through YouTube and today I am spreading my knowledge about makeup through YouTube so yeah that shows it all happened.
3. Is vlogging and YouTube content creation a financially sustainable career?
Honestly speaking I would say no, blogging or content creation, in general, is not a financially stable career there are a lot of reasons why my answer is no for this-
To have a sustainable career first of all you will have to work really hard and there is no guarantee that you will be successful on social media because there is so much competition every single person is creating content on social media so you have to be very different very unique in order to stand out so first of all to make your place on any social media you have to work a lot.
Even if you are there even if you have made your own space on social media you have a community on social media it is very very volatile you have to constantly work hard to stay relevant. There will be months where you get a lot of sponsorships lot of work and a lot of money inflow but then there will be months where you might not even get a sponsorship so it's very very fluctuating just like any other business you have to constantly constantly constantly keep working towards it and the moment you stop working towards it, it's that same point the money inflow will also stop so that is why I feel that blogging or content creation is not very sustainable in terms of career and also we do not know it shows long. we seriously don't know how long your career will last as a content creator because we have just seen the first generation of content creators so that is also another thing that I am really concerned about.
4. Who is your favorite creator and why?
So the answer to this question is not one person I actually watch a lot of content, be it on Instagram or YouTube but I actually keep on learning so I cannot name a single person who would be my favorite creator but I watch a lot of creators in different categories to learn from.
For example, I would watch for example pixel village for camera setup and all those things then I would watch a lot of makeup artists to upgrade my makeup skills and then a lot of editing videos to just you keep up my game in terms of editing so obviously there is not just one person but whole community out there who I look up to and I learn a lot from.
5. How and where do you find inspiration to churn out content?
So content can be created in multiple ways you could be inspired by things that you see online or you could be like it could be your own idea so there has been a mix of me being inspired and me having my own ideas that you can see in my content like for example in 2020 when we hit the pandemic, I did a series which was called the color series which I thought was very unique.
Nobody has actually done it and then I did this whole series where it was inspired by a designer who made all these pictures of Disney princesses in Indian attires and I was like this is a cool idea to see how you know in Disney princesses will look like in real life if they would have to go to a party so that was kind of an inspired idea you have to constantly look around to be inspired.
Even if you want to come up with your own ideas I feel the best way is to keep on working because when you work on a certain thing and every time you just look at it and I feel that you just have a spin on it you get another idea out of the same idea which would be better at least that's what I feel.
6. What does your typical day look like?
So I usually divide my days into two parts so there will be a day where I will be just filming and then there will be a day where I will be doing a lot of admin work or maybe editing so on a filming day like a typical filming day I would wake up do my household chores and then I would sit down to film at 9:00 AM yes I start my filming that early so at 9:00 AM I would sit because then at 12:30 I have to you know provide lunch to my family.
So from 9:00 AM to 12:30 is my time slot to film. If I'm not done I would just you know do the lunch and then I'll get back at say one 1:30 PM again so on a filming day I would just extract as much as I can from the makeup that I've put on or you know I would just do all my planning a day before in the evening or night time so that I know what I want to film the next day and I'm not blank like Oh my God now I don't know how to film or what to film so that's my typical filming day it starts at 9:00 AM and on an edit day I would be more chill relax.
I would still start editing at 8:30 AM in the morning or 9:00 AM in the morning as early as possible so that you know we have been told since our childhood that you're you get your best output early morning so that's my philosophy too so I started working at 9 AM in the morning till 12:30 and then I call it a day so yeah that's how my typical days looks like and the rest of the day I would probably either spend with my family or I would go to my office the cuffs and lashes office and spend my time there and look at what needs my attention there.
7. Which is your favorite book and why?
So I like to read a lot of fiction books over non-fiction and that is just because there is so much reality already around me that I don't want to see more in books I just want to be in this whole fantasy world where I can imagine things and you know I could just picture things mentally like I hope you can understand that it's just, I just want to get lost in a world which is difficult to find so I love to read a lot of fantasy books I love reading Agatha Christie I love reading crime novels like Sidney Sheldon, Harry Potter so you get my point I like to read things which are not real.
8. What piece of advice would you like to give to future and aspiring creators?
So this would be difficult but yeah I would just like to advise people around me or just who are trying to make their place and so on social media, that just be authentic that's the best part because people see through you and they could make out whether you're fake or you're real and when you're real you're being real on social media, you tend to attract more people because they can relate to you.
Therefore just be real as much as possible let your personality shine through because that's what makes people connect to you more and try to be just consistent just give out clear content don't misinform people and just do what you want to do and just be consistent that that's the main thing be consistent and be real that's it.
-Nidhi Katiyar
Content Creator from India
Interviewed By Dimpy Mavar
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