 The story starts a long time ago. I think people always ask me how I started the blog. It was completely by accident because there was no concept of blogging when I started it. So what I was trying to do was actually write sort of a daily column, you know, just to sort of capture what was happening in my daily life. Alongside I used to be a radio jockey with Go92.5 and now known as Radio 1. And that was owned by the midday newspaper. So I had a column called Malini's Mumbai, a gossip column, like a page 3 column. And I never had enough space to write all the things I wanted. So I actually started the blog just to have more space to write what I want. And the reason why I stress about the fact that I didn't really start the blog as a business is because I really think that's why it was successful. Because a lot of people ask me today, hey, how do I become a rich and famous blogger? I'm like, first of all, don't try to become a rich and famous anything. You should find the one thing that you are really passionate about and that you would love to do for the rest of your life, even if nobody paid you to do it, and hopefully somebody will. Your way inside Bollywood, tell me how are you able to achieve it? I mean, it's not an easy path. I think I learned a couple of lessons along the way. When I started off, I was a straight up gossip blogger. We'd write who was dating who and who was, you know, doing what. And then very quickly I realized that I didn't really like how it made me feel about myself. I felt like, you know, I don't know, if you guys have you watched a show called Black Mirror? We're all kind of living in an episode of Black Mirror, you know, where we have this free pass to behave online in a way that we never would in real life. And I realized that when I was writing this blog, I was hurting people that I didn't even know just for a few clicks and to raise my social media cloud of followers and likes. So I stopped and I said, okay, I'm going to make myself a rule, which is I'm never going to write anything I can't say to someone's face. You'd think that people only want to hear the negative things in Bollywood, but actually that's not true. People like to celebrate their idols and that's really what made it successful. So over the last 18 years it took time, but I think I changed people's perceptions within the industry of what entertainment journalists are like. I think you've probably been seeing the various wars going on with celebrities and journalists in the news. I think that comes from a lot of fear and, you know, attacking and defensiveness over the years, but I think you have to treat them like humans as well. So I think over the years, because I never made it about clickbait as a result, I created those relationships. You know, Malini, there are very few businesses they've seen being evolved out of communities. So the power of the community really exists. But I want to know from you what, according to you, is the power of this community? So just to back up, I've started something called Malini's Girl Tribe, which is a community that currently resides on Facebook. I encourage all the women to join it. Also men, please encourage the girls you know. There's also another group called Positive Masculinity. So where this community came from, there's a little backstory to it. And I'm sure all of us are feeling it. I think everyone is starting to feel social media fatigue, where we're scrolling through each other's Instagram feeds and feeling bad about ourselves. Me as a creator, I feel it too. You know, I feel the pressure of living this imperfectly perfect life, no makeup selfie next to my face app picture. And it's not really reflective of who I am, you know, as a person. And what I realized is that social media, what was it meant for, right? It was meant to be able to amplify your ability to connect on a scale that is not otherwise humanly possible. I can have 5,000 friends on Facebook and talk to them at different times about different things. I could never keep that up in real life. But somewhere along the way, we fell off the rails. And I'm sure all of you feel it. And I'm sure every girl in this audience knows what her other's inbox is filled with. And I'm sure guys, you know this too. Hi, dear, be my friend, love you, a dick pic now and again. And it's awful. And I think that we've, you know, turned a blind eye to it for so long. But that is making women really unhappy. And it's making it difficult for us to use social media. So I started this community as a safe space for women, where it's at the moment only women, of course. So there's no negativity. There's no trolling. We have rules of empathy and kindness. And I genuinely believe, I'm sure a lot of people here are from brands or work with brands, that the future of influencers and influencer marketing is such a hot term right now. Influencer, the future of influencer marketing is going to be influencers who can create community around themselves, not just have fans that idol worship them. Because there's three phases of advertising, right? They used to be the big Bollywood star on the billboard. Look at this product, which is great for awareness, market awareness of your product. Then you have the influencer who can use the product and show you how to use this shampoo, how to use this makeup product. But at the end of the day, everybody who's watching them knows that this person was paid to make this video. So even if they love them, they may not immediately run to go buy that product because they see them advertising so many products. The third kind of referral is non-celebrity influencer. All of us are influencers. We influence our circle of friends and family every single day. Now, I ask you this, if I were to say, hey, as your friend, I use this particular sunscreen because it helps my skin. I have oily skin and it's better for acne. Are you more likely to take my advice as someone you know or go and just Google some influencer or just there's too much noise and information? So community is key. Community is the missing piece between brand and consumer. Because what's happening right now is that brands go online. They create all this awareness about their brand. They get influencers to do this massive campaign and then the conversation drops off the internet. Whereas in our groups or even offline, women are sitting and talking about, hey, I tried this, did you try that? I don't know, right now there's an app going crazy called the Fat Learn that tells you everything that you need to know about yourself. It's iOS, it's amazing. So this is how news gets around. You know, you started at a time when people didn't know that internet had to be used how. So from then to now, do you feel that the internet has revolutionized the way we create businesses and how avid a fan are you of internet businesses? I think the internet has revolutionized so much. I now meet so many young entrepreneurs that are doing fantastic work and some of them are just using social media as their marketplace. There's a girl who runs a business called Thatch and she sells lungies only on Instagram. I think it's amazing. So I think it's really revolutionized the ability for people to reach an audience without needing brick and mortar stores, without needing a ton of inventory. I think you're able to start a small business with the concept of 1,000 fans. I don't know if you know this concept. If you have 1,000 fans who genuinely like your brand, you can have a successful brand. And then of course you amplify from that. I'm a big fan of it. I think that you have to be a little bit cognizant of how you advertise. I think a lot of people who are building new brands online feel this pressure that, okay, I have to get into influencer marketing. I have to do what everyone else is doing. Maybe that is not the way for you. I mean, I'm saying this from a place. I have my own influencer marketing business within Ms. Malini, but I wouldn't always recommend it for every brand. I would say it depends on what your needs are. Who you're trying to reach, what that TG is, and what is the purpose of that campaign. Is it to get a sale? Is it just to create awareness? Is it to align yourself with a messaging? You have to decide that first. Good point you made. And in these times of digital businesses, it would be absolutely oblivious to say that there's no competition. And I do understand that you're a fantastic brand, but I'm sure that there is some conversation and some discussion as well as some thought about competition. How do you view that? And in that context, how do you deal with your community? Competition for me as a brand. I mean, I genuinely think competition is a very healthy thing. Because if there was no competition, one, if I'd started my blog and nobody else started a blog, there would be no industry. And two, I would get really lazy about how I do my work. So I think competition is healthy. Of course, does it stress me out sometimes? Do I compare my numbers? Absolutely. But I think there is something to be learned from the YouTubers today. If you notice, they don't compete with each other the way traditional media or enterprises do. Instead of competing, they collaborate. So as a result, they double their audience. They both collaborate and they make an audience together. Now, you would never see that in traditional media, right? You wouldn't see Hindustan times and Times of India do a collaboration. That's never gonna happen. But what if they did? That's the common audience. So I think that's the secret of where things need to go. Because look at, from the perspective of your audience, that audience is not someone who consumes only one kind of soft drink or only consumes one kind of retail brand. They're a 360 kind of person. And if you look at the brands that are most successful digitally are the ones who are aware of that. I don't know if you've noticed, there was a trend recently on Twitter that said six word horror story. So Pepsi tweeted Coke and said six word horror story. We don't have Coke. Oh, we don't have Pepsi, only Coke. And they respond, so they play with each other and they acknowledge each other's existence and it really makes a difference on the consumer's mind. Tell me, when it comes to dealing with your community, where does the buck stop? In what sense? In the sense that, like for example, Pepsi and Coke, people are talking about you being a great brand and wanting to endorse Coke, which in some eyes may not be the best thing or maybe advertising a brand which is using animal products or... So for me, my community is not a place where I go to promote things. I go to the community to create an audience that can talk about all the things they care about. Is there interest and a possibility for a brand to collaborate? Absolutely. For example, we did something called mismanage. A lot of women, and I'm sure there's a lot of women here really struggle with managing their finances. We just don't spend time on it. It's not like we're stupid and can't do it. I don't spend enough time wondering where should I invest, what mutual fund, what insurance. I would love to sit down with a bunch of women and learn this. We had hundreds of women come. Now that's something that a bank could easily sponsor. A mutual fund can actually sponsor. Same thing with other things as well. We've done stuff with for clear skin. We've done healthy living. So I think you have to be cognizant of the fact that everything doesn't need to be because this is not an NGO, right? It's for-profit business, but you have to be aware. Like I would never work with a brand that promotes fairness crimes. Because I think it sends the wrong message to women. Would I do something with anti-aging? Sure, so I think it's a personal preference. And I think that intrinsically, everyone has certain flaws. And I believe that in my community, if someone were to call me out and say, hey, how could you promote that? I didn't like that. I would accept that conversation and say, I see your point, or I respectfully disagree. So I don't think you need to be so afraid. I think if you just approach it genuinely, you'll be fine. Are there any housekeeping points that you keep with respect to managing this community? Because this is where the trust and the love and also your business comes from. So my business comes from the Ms. Malini entire bouquet of things. The community is a larger piece with her. I think it's going to progress into community and then commerce. I think the key online right now is that it's almost like unlearning the internet. We've all become so accustomed to being so quick to anger, attack, or get defensive online that I think lots of things are lost in translation. Think about for a second, even for yourself. Think about how you write or how you communicate when you leave a comment online, whether it's to a friend or an angry comment to a brand. Have you ever stopped to think, would I behave like this if this person was in front of me? And if not, why? And I think that's the key to community. We struggle with it too sometimes. People easily get upset with each other, right? So there was a conversation that someone said there's such a large population on the planet. It's irresponsible for people to have more children. And then the mothers in the group got really upset about it. But we understand that you have to apply empathy and kindness to be able to agree to disagree about certain things to move forward. I know this is something that a lot of people, especially who work in social media, come don't come and sit here and say, but I'm really here to tell you something larger. I think that we're using social media incorrectly, not just as brands, but even as human beings. And I really think we can change it, but it all has to come from all of us. And it's three simple rules I apply, right? One, don't say anything or write anything you can't say to someone's face, as a brand, as a human. Two, I don't know if you've seen a show called Tidying Up with Mary Kondo. She says, spark joy. The things that you keep must spark joy. And I encourage you to spark joy with what you offer others. I feel the fatigue, you know? I log on and I'm like, how many followers does my brand have? How many likes did I get today? And I've started to force myself to change that. That every time I go and say, okay, how many likes do I have? I stop myself and say, I'm gonna go to someone else's handle and I'm gonna communicate with them. And the third most important thing possible, especially as entrepreneurs, is remember that followers are people too. What we've done is we've dehumanized people, right? We've dehumanized them and made them into a follower count. So we don't see the people anymore. And I really believe that if we could unsee the numbers and see the people, we would conduct ourselves very differently in business and in person.