I think that building trust is a must. And in a business with great service, trust is very important for the long-term vision.
Mangesh Shinde is a media entrepreneur, speaker, and content creator. He is the founder of WillStar Media which provides marketing solutions to several brands. He is also the founder of Blue Eye Entertainment and Resolution Studios – both of which create content and provide video/animation services to corporations. He started his journey with his YouTube channel known as “The WillPower star”. Now, he has more than 2.5 Million subscribers on his YouTube Channel and Social Media.
Mangesh has always been a curious kid. He used to spend most of his time exploring new things and trying to learn everything that caught his attention. Mangesh was the kind of person who would question everything – why, what, and when. He wanted to know everything! Moreover, this charming kid was also good at academics.
In the second year of engineering, he started his first side hustle business which was supplying flowers to hotel and events management companies. It eventually failed in the third year, but, without grieving over it he started a few more business ventures which eventually failed terribly. He printed his visiting cards on the first day of his business before even thinking of the business model. So why wouldn’t it fail? Though he failed, he never forgot the lessons learned from the experience. Due to lack of concentration, he wouldn’t do well in the exams and had to face a year down.
Mangesh looked at it as an opportunity to explore the startup world. He tried his hands on everything from selling second-hand cars to building WhatsApp-based consultancy services. He worked on several application-based ideas but all failed. He considers it a great year for him because he learned so many things in the actual practical world.
Let’s learn a little about you and really get to experience what makes us tick – starting at our beginnings. Where did your story begin?
Mangesh Shinde: This is the time when I came across YouTube and got to know that money can be earned through YouTube. I’ve always been great at communication. So, I started my first YouTube channel but it failed. After that failure, I came to understand YouTube, and that’s when I started The Willpower Star. Willpower Star was not an overnight success but I was consistent on content creation. Eventually, though, I lost focus on YouTube after I got my first job. It was all about marketing and that is where I learned the necessary soft skills. I was working in a multinational company and was getting a handsome salary yet I was not satisfied with the job. So I started exploring again. I researched a lot and found a great idea. It was a WhatsApp-based broadcasting service. I started it with my current business partner Dipak Barkale. I used to provide business motivation and self-improvement content daily on WhatsApp. We used to get their content from the Internet. After a month we realized that we need to give original content to the viewers and then we started working on our YouTube channel again. The WhatsApp business failed in the startup but the YouTube channel touched 1 million subscribers within six months. After I touched the 1 million mark on my YouTube Channel, I received an email from a brand for promotion. It was quite new for me. I saw a huge potential in this influencer marketing field but I was aware that I wouldn’t be able to do everything alone. So, I started hiring people and some of them became my partners. In December 2019, I started his first successful company called Willstar Media. In the first six months, we faced lots of issues but we managed to be consistent and slowly it started showing results. Now my partner and friend Nayan Tiwari handles all the day-to-day operations of Willstar media. During the pandemic, the team thought of starting new YouTube channels but I was super busy with the startup so I planned to hire a writer and voice artist to start a new channel. I did that and within three months, it became a great paying asset for us. So, we started four new YouTube channels in different niches by hiring new writers and voice artists and all of them are doing amazing today. Now it is all handled by my third partner – Moyeez Kagad. Recently, I started selling the e-learning course on my YouTube Channels and it is also doing great. We are planning to increase the frequency of courses in the coming future and all the YouTube and e-learning courses work under the startup BlueEye Entertainment. My team and I have huge plans for this company on which we are currently working. In December 2020, we realized that there is a huge requirement for video production and animation services in the market so we started our new venture Resolution Studios, where we are working with some well-known YouTubers and Brands.Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up?
Mangesh Shinde: When I started my journey full time as an entrepreneur I had no funding and no skilled people, so building the team was quite a big challenge for me. But my youtube channel helped me a lot to fund my startup. Still, the salary was quite high so there was a time when I used to spend 2 – 2.5 Lac per month on salaries and I had 200 – 300 rupees left in my pocket.Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons you learned from that?
Mangesh Shinde: I started my first startup when I was in 2nd year. It was about providing flowers to event management companies and hotels. The first mistake I made was I had no clients, no business plan, everything was in my mind, and on that basis, I printed 1000 visiting cards and this startup ended up getting no clients.Is there a particular podcast you listened to, or business thought leader that you find helpful while maneuvering this pandemic?
Mangesh Shinde: I have learned a lot about business from the youtube channel VALUETAINMENT. In the pandemic, our office was closed and everybody was working from home. At that time I found this channel and I really recommend it to budding entrepreneurs. Also, I saw a podcast of Mr. Ritesh Malik with Mr. Sahil Khanna and that changed my mindset completely. Best Books on Leadership: Find the Best Resources to Lead EffectivelyIn your opinion, what makes your company stand out from the competition?
Mangesh Shinde: Influencer marketing is a very vast market and the one thing which makes our company stand out is the transparency we keep in between the brand and influencers. I think that building trust is a must. And in a business with great service, trust is very important for the long-term vision.What do you consider are your strengths when dealing with staff workers, colleagues, senior management, and customers?
Mangesh Shinde: I think I have 2 strengths that help me to deal with my staff. Calmness and understanding of human psychology help me to treat them as they want them to treat me. It motivates them and by default, it helps to increase the productivity of my team.Being a CEO of the company, do you think that your personal brand reflects your company’s values?
Mangesh Shinde: At the start, the company didn’t have its own face. People who are working for it, who are running it, become the face, and because of that, personal branding is very important.How would you define “leadership”?
Mangesh Shinde: Understand the people, guide them, appreciate them, motivate them, reward them and make your work done. What Makes a Good Team Leader? A Guide to Effective Team LeadershipWhat advice would you give to our younger readers that want to become entrepreneurs?
Mangesh Shinde: Learn the basics before starting your own and never stop learning. Also, it is very important that at the starting stage of building your business you do some reverse engineering after a certain period of time. Best Universities for Entrepreneurship in the USAWhat’s your favorite “life lesson” quote and how has it affected your life?
Mangesh Shinde: “Finish what you start” is my favorite quote as in the journey of business, most of the time we start many things but we give up in between. Pivoting the business model is important but giving up is not a solution.
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