Build a Thriving Writing Career & Stand Out in the Creator Economy | Shreya Kandra by Kazuki Nakayashiki

Build a Thriving Writing Career & Stand Out in the Creator Economy | Shreya Kandra

Kazuki Nakayashiki

Feb 21, 2025 7:04 PM

Summary

Introduction of Shreya Kandra (00:08 - 00:28): Shreya Kandra, a writer and content strategist, joins the podcast to share her journey and perspectives on content creation and the creator economy.
Focus on Creator Economy (00:59 - 02:05): Shreya discusses her initial topics around self-development and productivity, eventually shifting her focus to the creator economy, driven by a passion for exploring new platforms and documenting personal experiments.
Shifts in Audience Interests (02:44 - 03:20): Over time, Shreya notes a change in audience interests from scarcity to abundance, with a stronger demand for practical systems and actionable content rather than just ideas.
Writing Platforms and Monetization (04:50 - 06:27): Shreya transitioned from Quora, where she didn't earn, to Medium for better monetization opportunities, and is also leveraging Substack to cater to a wider audience including those who cannot afford Medium's subscription.
Visual Storytelling (08:54 - 11:05): Shreya incorporates visual elements into her writing, using minimalistic graphics to enhance understanding and engagement, and highlights the importance of visual communication in storytelling.
Balancing AI and Originality in Writing (12:27 - 15:36): While Shreya utilizes AI tools for productivity, she emphasizes the importance of originality and maintaining her unique voice, believing creativity cannot be replicated by AI.
Legacy and Impact (47:07 - 47:47): Shreya aims to encourage future generations to trust themselves and overcome self-doubt through her writing, hoping to inspire creativity and authenticity rather than focusing solely on monetization.

Transcript

Hi, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Glasp Talk. Today, we are very excited to have Shreya Kandra with us. Shreya is a writer, content strategist, and visual thinker with a deep passion for the creator economy. She has been recognized as a Quora top writer and a 5X Medium top writer. With her work published in Thrive Global Newsletter, The Startup Publication, and Silver Lining Journal.

And beyond writing, she has experience in product management, content marketing, and design, and having worked with companies like Wow Labz and White Gold India. And today, we will explore Shreya's journey, her insights on content creation, and her vision for the evolving creator economy. Thank you for joining us, Shreya, today. Thank you for having me, guys. I'm really excited to be here and share my journey. Thank you so much.

So first of all, we love enjoying reading your content, writings, and you have over 7,000 followers on Medium. But could you tell us what topics do you focus on, write, and share, and so on, to the audience who don't know you yet? Yeah, sure. I started with self-development. That's how every writer starts. They start writing about productivity and all of that. But eventually, when I started dwelling into all these platforms, I realized that I am really passionate about the creator economy because

the opportunities are endless. And I loved exploring these new platforms, all these strategies that creators use. So then I slowly niched down to the creator economy and also started documenting the personal experiments that I was running in my life. So I do mostly the creator economy, but I don't shy away from sharing the crazy stuff that I do in my life. Okay.

And you mentioned that on LinkedIn post two years ago, you mentioned that, oh, here are top 15 articles in your article, and it's about creator economy and so on. But what content... The post was two years ago, but what content or articles are popular nowadays, and what your audience are interested in? And so could you tell us a little bit about the content? Absolutely. When I started, the creator economy topics was pretty new for people, and there were only limited information that was available.

So how to get started and how to find the right idea. So those were the topics that people were looking for. But from that point to this point, after seven years and eight years of writing, I realized that the interest of our audience and readers have shifted from that mindset of scarcity to the mindset of abundance. Now people have so much information in a fingertip that they don't want to know more about finding the right idea and all of these things.

They want systems that can help them continue their creative process. So that was a really alarming observation that I noticed in my readership. So now people want to read something that I have actually used in my life and something that gives them a valuable solution. The hows, not the whats. It's all about the hows and why. Yeah, that is very useful and very helpful. And also, could you tell us a bit about your audience? Where are they based in? Who are they? What do they do? If you know your audience in a group.

Yeah, I think most of my audience is based in India and the U.S. I have, I mean, I have, I mean, see Medium and all, Substack and YouTube, wherever I create content, it's a great opportunity because the audience is global. So I have two, three percent and five percent here and there, but mostly it's India and U.S. Nice. And so when you start writing content, so why did you choose Medium? So did you try other platforms like Substack or other platforms

at the time? Yes, I in fact started writing on Quora, you know, the question answer platform. So Quora was really popular in India. So in fact, all the Medium writers, the top Medium writers who are from India, if you look at their writing journey, most of them started from Quora. And Quora gave us a platform where you did not feel like you were writing. It felt like you were talking to your friend and sending a long text to your friend who needs something from you.

So then I, you know, but Quora was not paying anything for writers. They did not have any partner program. And I in fact wrote around fourteen hundred or I think some thousand plus answers and I did not make a single penny. So I realized, OK, now this is time for me to actually monetize my skill and, you know, make a living out of it. And that's when I heard about Medium and Medium was really popular back then.

All the presidents and all the celebrities, they were using Medium for public statements like Obama still uses it even to today. So that's how I took that shift. And I started writing on Medium. And then once you get deeper into the creative economy and writing, you realize that you need to have your own audience. You need to have an email list. So that's when I also started repurposing my blogs on Substack because I realized that if I want to sell a book one day or maybe sell a product, I need email subscribers.

So that's I also kind of started building on Substack and but I mainly focused on Medium because I love the UI and it was really writer's friendly when I joined. Yeah, thanks for sharing. And yeah, when I watched or looked into your Medium blog, so I think it's all like paywall content. So don't you think you want to make it publicly accessible for non-paid users? I absolutely want to do that, yes. Ah, you want to do that. Because like, yeah, Medium partnership program is great.

So in terms of like, you know, earning money for creators, but so good ideas should be spread, right? So how do you keep balancing between them? I absolutely agree with you. And in fact, that's why I moved to Substack because I realized most of my readers who were students, you know, coming from small villages in India, they couldn't afford a Medium membership. So to help those readers and also to build my email list, Substack was a good platform because I was not,

it wasn't monetized for me. I was just using it to give a bridge for my paid articles on Medium, you know. So that's what I started doing it. And I really want to have my own website because I realize in this era, you should not be gatekeeping anything. And every article that you write should be free. So I'm still working on it. Hopefully my website will be out someday. Looking forward to it. And so if you publish or launch your website, so let us know.

And also, you know, I'm curious about, because I love, you know, writing, but at the same time, I think one thing that stands out, you know, your writing is illustration, I think, visual illustration, visual information. And that is very unique, but it is really easy to consume information, digest information. And I'm curious, how do you, where and how do you write those visual information? Yeah. You know, when I started my writing journey, I only focused to writing.

And trust me, I have seven years of experience in designing. So I studied communication design in my undergraduate. And I was not using that skill for so long, because I used to think to myself, you are a writer, you should just focus on words. But when you keep writing for years, you realize no, you are telling a story, you are, you know, sharing something, sharing a lesson with your readers.

And you just don't need to focus on words, there are so many elements of communication that you need to use in your work, which will make sure that your idea reaches a wider audience. That's when I started implementing these visuals into my writing, and, you know, started making these checklists. And I even stopped using unsplash images, because if you go on Medium, you would see that most of the writers, you know, they just go to Google and pick up the first image they find.

But for me, I, you know, thought about packaging my writing in such a way that it's not just words that make people stop and ruminate, I want my entire article to make them feel something starting from the headline, the cover image. And you won't believe it, I wrote like a 2000 word blog on how to pick the right cover image for your blog, which is pretty important because the attention span is going down every day. So you need to ensure that if you're spending five hours in an article, it needs to be packaged well, so that people are at least

clicking on it and reading it till the end. And do you use any, like a visual tools to create the visual information like, like a Figma or Canva? I'm curious about, you know, how do you, it's really, how to say, it's really great. And I'd love to know how do you, what tools do you use? Do you use AI to create it? Or do you handwrite, you know, draw? Yeah, I actually experimented with different softwares and different tools.

So when I started, I was using Illustrator and Photoshop. So I use that. And then I, when AI was at the peak, I started using all these software to AI tools, image generation, and then everyone started using it. And then I realized, no, I want to create my own style, which nobody can copy. Then I started experimenting with different art forms and different designs. And I realized that I am more into minimal visual graphics, you know, just like visualize value, Jack Butcher, if you guys are

aware, he's pretty famous on Twitter. So I realized that I want minimal stuff so that it's easily understandable to the audience. And I, I haven't, I have that idea. I sometimes use Canva. And currently I'm using Procreate, which I totally love. Yeah. So that's my current favorite. But you know, you can use any tool if you have the idea. You can literally use any tool to create simple visuals. Thank you.

And since you mentioned about the AI tools, you know, and do you use, you know, nowadays people are using Chachi, VT, Anthropic Cloud, and so many AI tools, large language models. Do you use any AI tools in your writing process or ideation process or editing process and so on? Or is it all written by you? It is all written by me, but sometimes when I have too many ideas, when I have, want to streamline things. So I sometimes take my notes on Chachi VT and I wanted to like streamline it for me or maybe edit it for me or sometimes, you know, because when you are

writing, you are so focused on the story that you sometimes miss out on certain words that you forgot to remove or a code that you need. So Chachi VT is more like my assistant. I don't depend on it, but I know that I have a tool that I can use to increase my efficiency. So I absolutely use it, but I also ensure that I'm not fully dependent on it because, you know, what I want to say, Chachi VT cannot say it in my language.

So that's a fine difference between it. But what do you think about the impact of AI? You don't use AI in your writing much, but other writers, some people are using AI and AI is generating thousands of articles every day. And do you think is it a threat to writers or what do you, how do you see the impact of AI in writing or creator economy space? If you have any thoughts. I, you know, when AI came out, I was pretty excited because creators need these tools to

help them, you know, navigate and make this process easier. And Chachi VT and other tools have really done that, but people stop, they don't understand that too much of AI is also not the solution. You know, if you are not using your creativity and you're too much dependent on AI, that you don't understand that there are millions of others who are doing the same thing. So what is making you, keeping you apart from the rest of the world? If you really want to

create a strong brand or a strong voice for yourself, then using AI is not the solution. I really feel that for ideation, for storytelling, you need to use your own voice, but to ensure that the process is seamless for you, then maybe for your processes, you can use AI. So I think it totally depends on creators, how they want to use it in their, in their business or in their creative process.

But I don't think it's a threat because people who are creative, they know that AI cannot compete with their creativity. So I'm pretty confident about that. Do you use any AI tools? You mentioned Chachi VT, but so did you try, or do you use, you know, Anthropology Cloud or Gemini or other like AI tools? Yes, I used a couple. I used Gemini, I used Dolly, I used Runaway also. And there are so many coming out.

I don't remember the name, but I use the one where you could generate your head shots, the AI image generation. So I've used a couple of them. And they are pretty cool. I mean, they are the best resource for creators who can't afford a studio, right? You can, if you want to take a crazy shot, and you don't have the budget to go to that location and shoot it as the new filmmaker, you can use AI to do that. But using AI to make an entire film, I don't think that's going to work.

Because at the end of the day, we are creating for human beings. And if you don't have that human element in your content, it's not going to reach to the right audience. Yeah, totally. I'm just curious. I'm not sure if you have tried it out. But so, what if AI-generated content are published on Medium, so Medium can detect it and don't recommend to audience? Have you ever heard of anything about it? Yes, people are taking advantage of it.

See, if you give someone a magic wand, they're gonna try everything they can do. And that's what people are doing with AI. A lot of fake accounts have been coming up on Medium. And they are talking about writing and making money with AI. And it's even on YouTube. And everywhere you go, people are crazy about AI. But Medium is taking a strict stand behind AI content. And they have removed 1000s of profiles from their website to ensure that the content they are showcasing, it's from humans, for humans.

So they are pretty strict about that. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, as a platform, yes. And it should be fair. And at the same time, you know, you have over 7000 followers, right, on Medium. And I'm curious, how did your audience grow over time? Does one article go viral so that your audience grew? Or is that gradually, your audience gradually grow? You know, all the creators, they talk about how one blog took off and they got millions of followers. But it did not happen with me.

It hasn't yet. I hope it happens someday. But for me, the growth was pretty, pretty gradual. You know, I was slowly growing. Initially, when I joined Medium, it was pretty fast, because there were few people writing. And my writing, I always ensure that my ideas are unconventional. And I'm not writing about what everybody else is writing about. So that kind of helped. But eventually, it I mean, it's been growing on slowly, slowly, slowly.

But sometimes when a writer picks up, that gives me 10 or 15 new followers, but it hasn't been like a fun, like a one night or something. I mean, like, a luck factor. It did not happen overnight. It's been years. Yeah. Yeah, people, people think, oh, it's, you know, overnight success. But it usually not, you know, if you think it's same for startups to like, open AI, you know, started 2014. But people think, oh, they went, you know, they succeeded, you know, recently.

But you know, usually, same as great company, it takes time to grow. Everything takes time. Yeah. If you're building something meaningful, it will take time, because you need to take know the market, you need to know if your audience likes it. And it's a long journey. And same startup writing, they are pretty similar. But if you can go back, you know, six, seven years ago, or even 10 years ago, would you do something differently? Looking back at now? Oh, I wish I do XYZ or, you know,

different way? Or would you do the same thing? You know, I, I think, I am pretty grateful for this journey. And I've learned a lot, but I wouldn't change anything major, but I would tell myself to not stop YouTube, because YouTube, I used to do YouTube also. And I stopped because I thought I need to focus on my writing, you know, when they say don't try to catch two rabbits at once try to focus on one. So I think I would have loved to continue that.

And I would have started with having a product, you know, reverse engineering, because when I started writing, I did not have anything to sell. So I looked at it as having my hobby, getting a platform to showcase my creativity. So I never looked at my writing as a business, you know, but after five, six years, I realized that I'm pretty good at it. And people like reading my content. So I would have, you know, taken different routes to ensure that I make my writing my

full time job, and maybe have a product and send that traffic to my business. Because right now, all my traffic is going to all these big tech companies. You know, I have really nothing other than email list. So I would have really changed that. I see. Yeah. That that's what I heard from top creators, especially people, you know, get popular and famous. Oh, you know, I should be independent, you know, audience data and email, email lists and so on. And yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. So another topic about your writing process. So in your article, how I tricked my brain into writing, and you shared about the process you how to write, you know, correct, ideate and create, polish, publish these five steps. But that was written in 2023. Right? So as your process change, writing process change over time? Or do you still do the same process? And I'm curious about your Yeah, this step by step process.

I think in a nutshell, I follow the process, but I also have different situations. So if I'm traveling, I will not have that much time to you know, give on a piece, then I would tweak that process and ensure that my end goal is getting satisfied. Like if I want to publish something fast, then maybe I will not go through every step, but I try to do everything, you know, because if you have a system, and if you follow that system, it's very easy for you to be consistent.

That's why I, you know, I'm taking notes everywhere, I have a small pocket diary, which I keep with me all the time, I'm taking notes on my phone all the time. Because when you have a system that is helping you keep that habit to stay consistent, it's easier for you to publish more, and it's easier for you to not fall behind the fear of publishing or you know, inconsistency. So that's how I kind of tweak it according to my requirements. I see.

And what tools do you use? You said, you know, like, do you use notepad or iPhone, but do you use any application software? Or, or I think you have tried many applications. I try literally everything. I, I mean, I, I start my actually I start my day with a morning journal. So I sometimes write my ideas during that, you know, first entry I do in the morning. So which is basically my notebook. I don't have it here, but it's a normal notebook. So I just use that. And then I have Google Sheets.

I love Google Sheets, because I can use it on my iPad, my laptop, my phone. So I use that. And then Apple Notes is the best thing. I mean, you don't even have to download Notion or any other thing. And you just because initially, I used to use Notion. And you know, I made my process this glorified process of using so many tools and whatnot. And I realized the simpler your process is, the simpler your system is, the more time and effort you can focus on the main product, which is writing or, you know, my drawings or videos.

So that's why I keep these process pretty simple so that my energy is not getting devoted or not getting wasted. Yep, totally. Yes. And at the same time, when you write, you know, when you write something, and when you edit something, and since you're writing is the infinite process, you can edit forever, right? Oh, this doesn't sound good. And I okay, revise, revise, revise and edit, edit over time.

So but how do you decide? Oh, okay, this is time to publish. Do you have some certain criteria or do in yourself? I really love this question. Because, you know, I have had too many opportunities to work for companies as right as a writer. And I realized that I am not a person who wants to change every word and you know, not have that creative freedom. So when I am writing a blog, writing a blog or an article that I am not submitting to a big publication, let's say

startup or publishers or any other big publication on medium, then I set myself free, I give myself the freedom to write whatever I want to write. And sometimes when I get an idea, these ideas, they come with a proper article in my head. So I don't have to spend too much time on it. But when I'm doing it for any external parties, you know, like a publication or maybe a magazine, then you have to spend a lot of time and then you have to follow the feedback and change it

multiple times. So I tried these two methods to create a healthy balance between creative freedom and also having to know how to take feedback and implement it into your writing. So that's how I create the balance. I see. At the same time, I'm curious, you know, since you were a designer, right? So when designers get better through design critics, that's what I understand. Meaning, you know, having the critic session and getting feedback from other designers and then

they improve and brush up their skillset, you know, and that brings, you know, that becomes experience, right? And as a writer, I'm curious, how do you think is the best way to brush up or improve their writing skill or as a writer? Because if you don't have an editor, and usually, you know, individual writers don't have editors, right? And in that case, meaning in case of design, they have design critics, but writers don't.

But audience can give them, you know, feedback, but how do you think, what do you think the best way for writers to improve? I actually been wanting to hire an editor for myself, because sometimes when you spend 10 hours on an article, you tend to forget, you tend to forget what you wanted to write, you're just so engrossed that you cannot see beyond that. So having an external pair of eyes really helps because sometimes you are reading something, you're just reading what's in your head, and you're not really focused

on what you've written. So I've been trying to do that. But also, if you don't have an editor, then you have the community, you spend so much time creating a blog, writing so many articles, and you already have a community. And when you write something good, you get good feedback. You people tell you if they liked it. And sometimes I also have like a community of writers, you know, my friends who are writers, and most of them are not, they don't read everything that I

write. But sometimes when I need feedback, I can reach out to them and ask them, hey, can you share what you think about this piece, and having that network who can, you know, support you and show you that, okay, you can improve here and take that feedback with an open heart, that really makes a lot of difference. Because sometimes we are so busy, we tend to ignore our own work, and we don't know if we're doing it correct or not. So having that network really helps in improving.

I see. And in case of Medium, Medium has a highlighting function, right? In native, on Medium highlighting function, and I remember people can see what is the top highlights, that you can see comments and so on. Do you think those feature help you understand what your audience resonate with, or as a feedback, and so on? Absolutely, absolutely.

And sometimes, you know, whenever I am writing an article, and I want to add a line, but I feel that it's too stupid, or it's dumb, or it's too vile. But sometimes I add it just to see how my audience reacts, how my readers, you know, how my readers react to it. And most of the time, the line that I feel very conscious about, that that's the one that my readers love, because that's something that you are sharing, like you, that's something that has no filters, and it's coming straight from your heart.

So readers tend to like that they don't want to read AI, because AI can't understand human emotions, but I can, and I can use that in my writing. That's really interesting. Yeah. And do you, do you, I'm curious, you know, since, you know, medium has top highlights, you know, that reminded me of, you know, do you care about the top highlights from the user? Or, you know, I'm just curious. Sometimes I do, you know, yeah, if I mean, there was a piece that I spent a lot of time writing,

and then I went back and see how the audience accepted it. And that time, I really did care about that. But you also need to ensure that you're not caring too much, because you, if you start caring too much about your readers, then you are stuck in that loop. And it's, it's, you're doing it for external validation. And I really feel when you are in a creative field, you need to stop doing it for the external validation, you need to do it for you, you need to do it for your

creative energy to go out and, you know, do that for your story to be heard by millions of people. That's very important. Yeah, yeah, I totally agree with that. And this is what Kay and I often talk about, but you know, there's so many great ideas or insights, you know, in, in people's writings, but when we, how to say, apply it to our daily life, daily work, it's really hard. And what do you think, you know, what's the best way for leaders to, okay, you share about, you know, in case of,

you know, how I tricked my brain into writing, and how, how can people apply your learning or insights into their daily life or work? Do you have some tips or advice on this? You know, I've been thinking about this one idea since the last six months, it's, it's like how you do one thing is how you do everything. And that has been really stuck in my mind.

And I want to write a long piece on it, because I really feel how you write is how you live your life. And how you live your life is how you write. And it's a very beautiful way of understanding that creativity does not just stick to your writing, it is how you live your life. And the processes that you use in your writing, like how I wrote about how I tricked my brain to write, I have also tricked my brain to work out every day. I've also tricked my brain to talk confidently, how, how to, you know, how to trick my brain to eat healthy.

So I do all these things, all these experiments. And I think if you really want to do something, you find a way. And I think for me, it is just playing these psychological tricks with myself so that I am doing, you know, reaching my goal and finishing a task that I have in hand. Yes, I think so, yeah. And also sometimes people care about perfectionist, you know, perfection. And then, you know, some people are tired of, you know, perfection.

But yeah, I totally resonate with that. And yeah, interesting. Yeah. And you mentioned that you spend like 10 hours to, yeah, 10 hours to write one article sometimes. But how much time do you spend on average to publish one article? That's a very good question. And it kind of depends on the article, it depends on the idea. So the article that I'm talking about was about habits that helped me live as an expat, like self-learned habits that helped me live a good life as an expat,

something like that. And that required a lot of thinking, you know, because it wasn't just about writing, you also need to provide the right examples, you need to share relevant anecdotes and relevant quotes and all of that. So that took a lot of time. But sometimes your idea is simple, you just want to share, you know, a small, like a small story or something like that. So it totally depends on the idea.

Because sometimes the idea needs three hours like a movie, but sometimes it just needs 36 seconds like a TikTok. So you need to know, is it a YouTube idea? Is it a three hour idea? Or is it a 30 second idea? So for me as a writer, I need to decide if it's a 40 minute idea, or if it's a 10 hour idea, that's really important, because I can't spend 10 hours on every article. Yeah, depending on the category or, you know, articles you write, so you can choose how much you can spend.

And so I think you are writing a lot of articles on publications on Medium, such as like Illuminations, or, you know, Startup, or Change Your Mind, Change Your Life. So, you know, many publications on Medium, right? So how can you publish those articles on those publications? So do they reach out to you, and so request you to write the article, or you just, like, reach out to them to publish? Okay. It's a simple process. So you have to send a request to be a writer on that platform.

So once they have accepted your profile, then once you have written a piece, then you submit it for the editors to go through it. And if they think that your article is relevant for their platform, and if it's good enough to be published under their publication, then they give it a red, green flag. So you need to become a part of that publication, and then you can submit it directly to the editors. Yeah, thanks.

Yeah, I thought it's a more, like, you know, complicated process, but it's just simple. It's pretty simple, yeah. I mean, once you are, you join that medium, join that publication, then it becomes pretty easy. And I'm curious about, you know, there are many, you know, popular content in your writings, and you pin some articles in Medium, but I'm curious, you know, do you have some article or writings that you, that's your favorite, but, you know, underrated, you know,

from your audience, or unpopular from your audience? Or, I mean, you wish more audience readers read? Plenty of them, plenty of them. You won't believe the articles that I'm most excited about. Sometimes they tank, because most of the people, they want to improve their life, make money, but, you know, the real depth, the real core messages, you know, something that I write from my heart and soul, most of the people don't understand it.

So, but it's not on them, because people are on different journeys. And sometimes they're not in that headspace to understand. I'll give you an example. One of the articles that I wrote was, you don't need to be successful by 30, you know, because I wanted to be on the Forbes cover, and I was working too hard in my 20s, because I wanted to achieve a lot of things. And I realized that, you know, when I did the first principle exercise, why, why, why, I realized I wanted to

do it, because that's how media has taught us. That's how what we've seen on TV and in movies, and that wasn't something that I wanted. And luckily, I understood it pretty, I mean, understood it before it was too late. Otherwise, I would still be a workaholic. The some of these pieces are very close to my heart, and they don't get, they don't get the traffic they deserve. But that's okay. I'm just happy that I got to write them.

Yeah. Thanks. Yeah, thank you. That makes, yeah, people are on different journey. And I totally agree with that. And at the same time, this is a little bit philosophical question. But what is writing for you? For me, writing is actually putting something that's in my mind onto a piece of paper. Seriously, that's exactly how I started writing. I was 12 years old when I started journaling. And I was, I would cut David Beckham's pictures from newspaper and stick it in my journal.

And, and then eventually, I started scribbling and writing. And as an overthinker, as a curious person, I have so many questions in my mind, I am constantly thinking about one thing going into another rabbit hole after another. And for me, writing is taking out that data from here and to the paper or on the screen, for me to have a place where I document these ideas.

And also, because I want to share, you know, some of these things, because we don't get the time to think about the real issues, the real emotions of life. And I want to share these things, which people are too shy to think about or share about. So that, I think that what makes me write, because words have power. And I think if my words help someone in their bad times, or even to help them in their greater journey, I think that's why I write, yeah. This is also a difficult question, a philosophical question, but so,

how can like platform or writers publish or reach the great content, really great content to readers that need it? Because so nowadays people publish sugar bite contents on Twitter or social media, which is not valuable in short term. Then, but people love it. Then, so at the same time, so like evergreen great content are not visible or not searchable for appropriate leaders or audience.

This is pretty difficult question, but so what platform or like a writer should do to address it? I really think that technology has given us immense power, but it has taken our ability to read for more than five minutes. There are people who hardly read anyways, TikTok and Instagram reels. They've spoiled our attention span and people are, these days, we don't even Google things. We go on YouTube. We're like, okay, I'm going to watch a short and I'm going to find the answer. We don't have that will to learn, to read.

Changing that, I don't know how we're going to change that. And the only thing that I as a creator, as a writer can do is to share compelling stories, share, you know, a glimpse of my life and my journey journey so that people who follow me, who stumble upon it, they have a desire to read. So now what you're talking about is creating that desire in someone else, which is definitely not in our control.

But what we can do is create something so extraordinary, you know, that people are dying to read it, but it's a long journey. I am still, you know, in the middle of my writing journey. I haven't really made it as I'd like to do in the future. So I am working on it and I hope people also understand that we really need to spend more time on reading and understanding ourselves and less time on social media. Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned that, you know, our, you know, people's attention span is getting lower and lower because of the social media.

But I, at the same time, I realized, you know, then people read less and that's what some media or some people say. At the same time, people are texting, I think. In that sense, people are reading, text, yeah, chatting, texting, over time, 30 minutes, one hour. In that sense, people can read if it's interesting, as you mentioned, if they have desire. And I think that has something and we can address it. Sorry, this is my random. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, people are reading, some people still reading, you know, huge books. So there are a large group of people who are reading, but much larger who aren't reading. So that's something that's a bigger problem to solve. Yeah, I think so. Yes. Anyway, yeah, thank you. So, so yeah, since time is running out, so two more questions and one is advice. And since our audience are aspiring writers, newsletter writers, bloggers, and content creators,

do you have some advice to those people who want to be like you? I think the biggest advice I have is let go of perfection. The one thing that has stood in between where I am and where I want to be is perfection. You know, most of the time we don't understand it, but the perfection is nothing but our ego. It is stopping us from taking action, from publishing a blog, publishing a video. You don't need to be perfect.

If people need perfection, they can find an AI robot doing that. People need to see real human beings who are failing, who are making mistakes. And you need to be that human, you don't need to be perfect. So let go of perfection and just publish it because you will never be this young again. And friends are going to change, new things will come and the idea that you are sitting on now will be too old to share. So do it while you have time. Thank you. Yeah, that's a great advice.

And this is the last question. Since Glasp is a platform where people can share what they are reading and learning as their digital legacy, we want to ask you this question. So what legacy or impact do you want to leave behind for future generations? I think self-doubt is one thing that most of the creative people face. You know, it's not the world that is against you, it's you yourself, your own mind, your negative thinking.

So when any creator or writer, when they are in that position where they're doubting themselves, I want them to, you know, maybe look at my content and I want to leave a legacy in such a way that people trust themselves because they have read my work or they remember my words. And I want people to be their best self, being their most creative self. And that's what I want to be remembered for. And that's what I want to leave behind. And that's why you know, I don't even care about monetization and all because I know that if my ideas are good,

if I'm helping someone, then everything else will come. So I want to ensure that the future generation is creating more and being more than they think they are. Yeah, that's a really beautiful answer. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much for joining today. We really enjoyed the conversation and learned a lot from you today. Thanks for having me. I really had a great conversation.

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Build a Thriving Writing Career & Stand Out in the Creator Economy | Shreya Kandra

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