Bhumika Shajwani Interview
Advertising leader, Chief Growth Officer, and Elite Mrs Earth 2026 winner NIFT alumna balances executive growth strategies with international pageantry. Reflecting on starting over after becoming a young mother, she shares insights on separating identity from digital metrics, handling high-stakes professional rejection, and embracing non-linear career reinvention.
Q. When you see a retouched billboard or pageant photo of yourself, do you see your true self, or just a well-crafted marketing product?
I think I see a version of myself, but certainly not the whole of me. Interestingly, I come from outdoor advertising, so for me a billboard has always been about communication: you have just a few seconds to make someone notice, understand, and remember a message. Pageantry and personal branding have made me experience the other side of that billboard.
Of course, a pageant photograph can be beautifully styled, professionally shot, and retouched. I enjoy that glamour, but I’m also very conscious that it is a curated moment.
My true self is everything that exists beyond that photograph, the wife, the mother, the professional, the woman who works hard on her fitness, handles responsibilities, has difficult days, and still shows up.
So yes, I enjoy seeing the polished image, but I never mistake the packaging for the person.
Q. With both corporate executives and pageant judges constantly evaluating you, how do you keep a strong sense of self without taking their metrics to heart?
I think you have to learn the difference between feedback and identity.
In business, you’re evaluated on numbers, performance, and results. In pageantry, you’re evaluated on your communication, presentation, confidence, and how you perform on a particular day. I take feedback seriously because that’s how you grow. But I don’t take every opinion personally.
A judge sees you for a few minutes. A client sees a presentation. Social media sees a post. None of them sees your entire life. So I listen, I learn, I improve where I need to, but I don’t allow somebody else’s scorecard to become the definition of who I am.
Q. How has building a high-visibility personal brand changed how you define your own worth beyond likes, engagement, and reach?
It actually made me realise how dangerous it can be if you start measuring yourself through numbers.
One post performs beautifully, another doesn’t. One day everyone is talking about you, and the next day social media has moved on to something else. If your confidence moves with those numbers, it becomes exhausting.
For me, my personal brand has to be an extension of my life, not my entire life.
I’m a wife, a mother, a marketing professional, someone who takes her health seriously, and someone who decided to pursue completely new dreams in her 40s. Those things existed before a particular reel got views, and they’ll still exist after people stop scrolling. So I look at engagement as feedback about content, not feedback about my worth.
Q. In both business pitches and pageantry, rejection is common and rarely explained. How do you handle hearing “no” without letting it hit your confidence?
I won’t say rejection never affects me. Of course it does. I think pretending otherwise would be unrealistic. But I’ve learned not to stay with it for too long.
Advertising teaches you this very quickly. You can work incredibly hard on a pitch and still lose it. Pageantry is similar, you can prepare for months, give everything you have, and somebody else may still be chosen.
So when I hear “no,” I ask myself two things: Is there something here that I can learn from? And what can I do better the next time?
If there is a lesson, I take it. If there isn’t, I move forward. I’ve had enough restarts in my life to know that one rejection rarely decides the final outcome. Sometimes a “no” is simply one moment in a much longer journey.
Q. Which movie’s visual style, fashion, or atmosphere directly inspired you and why?
I know it’s technically a series, but Emily in Paris definitely comes to mind.
I love the whole visual world around it: fashion, colour, travel, beautiful locations, and, of course, the marketing side of it. Being from advertising myself, I enjoy how ideas, brands, and storytelling are woven into her everyday life.
And I love that Emily experiments with fashion. Not everything has to be safe or predictable; sometimes style is simply about having fun and owning what you’re wearing.
I think that resonates with me, especially at this stage of my life. I’m travelling more, experiencing international fashion weeks, experimenting with my personal style, and constantly discovering newer sides of myself.
The Devil Wears Prada is another favourite for its sharp, powerful fashion aesthetic, but Emily in Paris probably feels closer to where I am today, colourful, curious, and always open to what’s next.
BIO
A versatile corporate leader and international beauty queen, she serves as a Chief Growth Officer and Managing Partner in the advertising industry. A graduate of NIFT Gandhinagar with a gold medal in Corporate Communication and Advertising from Ahmedabad Management Association, she returned to corporate life after starting a family young, climbing the ranks to leadership. Representing India on the global stage, she was crowned Elite Mrs Earth 2026, proving that personal reinvention, ambition, and creative growth have no age limits.
Interviewed By Muskan Verma
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