Her ideas are her investment

Shreyaa Kapoor, ruling the finance content space by playing all riveting characters like the HR person, Banker and South Delhi aunty to spread finance-related consciousness in people. Acing in studies, she secured AIR 51 from one of the coveted DU colleges and got placed by the campus in Bain. She has been quite a sport during her career, pivoted her career several times but made the most of wherever she was, and that has led her to where she is now.

In the middle of the pandemic, she quit her job to do something independently, started her own business where she made strategies for small business owners. A year later, she started creating content and now has a following of 750k+ across her social media. She has a reel titled “Does your dad own the bank?” has crossed 8M views and the other titled “Ratan Tata is not your uncle” got more than 7M views.

Having experiential knowledge in the finance sector as she has worked with traditional banks along with a notable company “Bain”, which she left to convert her knowledge into awareness for the people that made her content more trustworthy and genuine. From National news appearances to writing and acting for an ad for StockGro, she has done it all. She has been awarded Linkedin Top Voice in 2022 and has travelled to Dubai with Niyo Global.

In an exclusive conversation with Hans India, Shreyaa speaks about her journey. Let’s have a look into it.

What motivated you to become a finance creator and how do you ensure your content is valuable and reliable for your followers?

I was never someone who was comfortable in front of the camera and hence becoming a content creator was never on my bucket list. Content creation for me was an accidental experience. I was working as a strategist for fin-tech startups when one of them asked me to be a part of their youtube channel - that was the tipping point for me to start my own content creation journey.

I ensure value by being super active in my comment section and DMs in order to address each and every query that comes my way. This also gives me a directional answer on what the audience wants to see more of!

Reliability is maintained by doing multiple fact checks from numerous websites and providing sources for all the information mentioned!

You have had quite a traditional career path, what made you quit it all and take that leap of faith to give content creation a shot as a career?

I quit my job long before I became a content creator. I left my job to start my own strategy start-up and I did so because I wanted to do something of my own and have ownership over my work!

Your travel finance content is highly popular, when were you bit by the travel bug?

I did my first solo trip right out of college which was an overnight trek to Kareri lake in Himachal pradesh. I think that trip definitely changed my perspective on travel and especially travelling solo! Since then I have gone on multiple treks in India and even been to Indonesia, Thailand and UAE!

Can you give tips on how young women should start investing in the beginning of their career?

Start by understanding your short and long term goals. If your short term goal (2-5 years) consists of going for higher education try to not invest in volatile asset classes like equity. But if you feel you have the risk appetite and time horizon for equity, start with index funds which mirror the market. Post which you can explore the mutual fund market and even individual stocks!

If you are investing for the short term - opt for debt instruments or sovereign gold bonds!

Tell us a little bit about your research process and how you squeeze information into a 60 second reel?

There are three areas which help me with research topics:

The audience: Audience actively asks questions in the DMs and comments. If you are active there it is a goldmine of quality questions the audience needs answers to!

News: There are new regulations and laws in the finance space very frequently. Just reading news publications and keeping yourself abreast with the happenings can be of extreme help!

Problems you face: There are issues you have yourself faced over the years with banks and stock exchanges - you can cover those questions in detail because in all likelihood others are also facing similar issues!

What would you tell women who want to make a place for themselves in the content creation/finance industry?

As a creator, this is the one thing you need to know! Define your MOAT. MOAT is usually something that is used in the context of a company, say for example: APPLE has a MOAT around its brand name.

As a creator, it is equally important to have your MOAT defined. With an influx of creators coming up in every niche and getting “inspired” by someone’s content becoming easier than ever - here are my two cents on the same.

Pick your strength: In the entire process of creating a video - chances are you excel at only 1 or 2. This could be research, script writing, acting skills, editing, your pedigree among others. Pick what your MOAT as a creator is and play on that.

Good content gets copied: If you see multiple creators taking inspiration from your scripts/ ideas - see it in a positive light. That means you are doing something right. While I completely understand how incredibly frustrating it is when someone copy pastes your idea and script, you probably spent hours coming up with, remember that while you are honing your skills as a storyteller, they aren’t. So at the end of the day - you are still one step ahead!

Don’t create for the algorithm alone: While keeping the algorithm happy is super important, try to not fret over the numbers so much so that you curb your creative instincts just to go viral. You are a content creator after all! It is very easy to follow what everyone else is doing when you see that bringing in the numbers- but try to strike the balance between the two!

If you are someone just starting out with the content creation game - I would highly recommend that you try and find what defines you as a creator and how you can be the best at that through your content!