Digital content creator Raj Shamani, who started his journey as a speaker at the age of 16, now has over 789k followers on Instagram.
The young entrepreneur has given over 200+ speeches across 26 countries on platforms such as TED and the United Nations and at organizations like Jaguar, Land Rover, TCS, Reliance and Forbes.
In a conversation with The Free Press Journal, Raj Shamani speaks about his biggest inspiration, shares advice for teenagers on how to save money, gives tips on investment and more.
Talking about why he decided to create content online, Raj shares, "It was 2016, when I decided that I want to test it out and try to become a digital creator."
"I started my journey as a speaker when I was 16, I used to give speeches across countries and soon I realised that I alone, physically, cannot be everywhere. So, in order for me to expand the message and to reach out to more people, I need to find a platform where even if I'm not physically present, I can share my message with the audience. That's when the idea of being a digital speaker came to my mind," he adds.
Raj reveals that he then started breaking it down into small five-minute videos or 30-second reels to make it more appealing.
Calling his parents his biggest inspiration, Raj Shamani says that he has learnt about life from his father.
"My Dad, from him I have learnt how to protect family, save money, live under the means, having a long term approach," he says, adding, "The way my mom puts everyone else before herself... my idea of giving so much that the other person is guilty to give you back comes from her."
Raj, who has represented India in United Nations under UNIDO, shares that he has always admired Belarusian-American entrepreneur and chairman of VaynerX, Gary Vaynerchuk.
"I love the way he works, the way he hustles, his work ethics. I have learnt a lot from him the way he is rebuilding himself for a greater cause," he says.
Here are his interesting tips and tricks on how to invest, save money and more:
Suggestion for millennials who want to investing but have no knowledge about finance.
Finance is not as complicated as we think. You don't have to understand every analyses, every tool, every ratio. You just need to track how much money you are spending, how much you're making and how much have you saved. Then, figure out who are the right people you can invest on. If you don't understand about all the sectors, start with one sector that you think has the potential.
Suppose, you think techno (technology sector) is going to kill in future, start investing in technology or if you feel that rural India is going to become big, you have to go through companies working for it and start investing in the right ideas.
Favourite books
'Rich Dad Poor Dad', Brain Tracy’s 'Get Smart', one of the best books I have read and third would be 'Crushing it by Gary Vaynerchuk'."
An advice for teenagers on how to save money.
I would rather say, learn to earn money and then invest the money instead of thinking about how to save money. Because, if you are saving money, you are losing money.
You need to invest money in the right places because, with the rising inflation, if you just keep on saving money, you will lose it.
The best tip is to figure out how much you are making every month, it can be your profits, salary or pocket money from your parents.
Then, have this auto credit system that 10 per cent of whatever you are making automatically goes to investment. No matter how much you earn, at least 10 per cent should go in investment. That's how you can save money and secure your future.
What’s next for Raj Shamani as an entrepreneur and as a creator
Both as content creator and entrepreneur I have two things in mind. With the expertise I have in the entrepreneurial world, I have started mentoring startups and young people who are ready to hustle. The next step for me is to invest in the right startup, in the field that interests me and help them so these startups can scale up from X to 10X to 100X.
To help such startups with the right kind of mindset and the reach and distribution, which I have built for myself, and the money they require during the process.
My plan is to invest money, time and efforts in such startups in terms of entrepreneurship world.
And, as a content creator, my aim is to bring out the real side of businesses and entrepreneurs to the world. Everyone feels that the entrepreneur world is glamorous and is a piece of cake. For them, I have started vlogging on weekly basis to show how we live and what I do on daily basis, how I have scaled my business, built my team, how I am transitioning from old Raj to new Raj - from just being a business content creator to an entrepreneur and now an investor.
