Sharan Hegde: Democratization of financial literacy has happened purely because of content creators

Recently 1% Club came out with a brand film featuring Finance with Sharan and Viraj Ghelani who depicted the country's working population. People are often stuck in jobs they dislike because financial obligations like EMIs and lifestyle expenses dictate their choices and, in a way, let money control them. They find themselves trapped in a vicious cycle, working for money that ultimately fails to liberate them, instead entangling them further due to their lack of financial knowledge. The only way out is to understand how money works. 1% Club’s “The Great Escape” showcased Sharan and Viraj in a familiar corporate office filled with unfamiliar comic twists. The duo play harrowed colleagues who unlock the secret of an exclusive club. What is this club’? How do we get in?

In an exclusive chat with Storyboard18, entrepreneur and financial content creator Sharan Hegde breaks down the rationale behind the campaign, transitioning into entrepreneurship, the finfluencers versus SEBI saga and more.

Sharan, can you take us through the genesis of this campaign?

The genesis of the campaign is very simple. Once the company reaches a very mature state, it becomes our responsibility to educate the audience. There is no other company which has a business model like ours. We educate our audience first and then we propose the right financial services to them. We feel that the biggest problem in financial services today is that companies are selling financial products to their customers without really educating them about what it is.

A very prevalent problem in today's country is that the youth feels like they are trapped in their jobs. Even though they have studied for so many years, they are not able to live a life that they envisioned in their twenties or thirties.

They still feel like they are trapped and we wanted to enunciate that feeling. A very similar kind of experience faced by students when they are preparing for competitive exams, you know, preparing for their exams and that sort of environment has now sort of percolated into our adult life as well because, you know, companies are taking unfair advantage.

Indian work culture is one of the worst in the world. We wanted to personify that and show that to the audience. There is one thing that is definitely in your control that is your hard earned money that you are making by toiling nine, twelve hours in your office. But unfortunately you've not been taught how to manage it, how to leverage it and how to make that money work for you.

As a company, we are coming up with solutions for you to manage the money that you're earning instead of letting it waste in your savings account or your FDs.

Do you aspire to transition into entrepreneurship following the footsteps of many creators who have also ventured into businesses?

We just opened an office, a five thousand square feet office and we have 100 employees. We have also raised money from Nikhil Kamath to the tune of 10 crores. Since last year, we were valued at 100 crores and since then we have quadrupled our revenues. We're thinking of opening another office space in another city.

The future entrepreneurs of the country will be creators first, because the only other way to be an entrepreneur otherwise is to be a deep tech person; either you come from a computer science background or from a product management background.

But that is no longer enough today because it's very easy to build an app and a product. There are so many white label solutions available for you to build your own digital product. How do you stand out when you start a business today?

Being a content creator really helps you to stand apart from the crowd and gives you a lot of unfair advantages in today's country. Within two years, we are at a state where most companies take 10 years. It's all possible because of the distribution, social media and content creation.

As a creator, how do you currently monetize your content and what strategies have been most effective for you in generating revenues?

As a content creator, you are essentially a media house. The additional media houses, newspaper channels - they are the original influencers; they're run by a team of writers. They have been making money by selling ad spaces in newspapers.

Fast forward to today, the new media houses are influencers like me who are creating content and educating the audience on the new age platforms like Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. Finance with Sharan as a media house reaches up to 60 lakh people.We have probably reached about 2-3 crore people in the last three years. When you're reaching so many people, companies come to you with a proposition to collaborate as they feel the brand's product resonates with the kind of influencer's content and the kind of audience that's following them, which is affluent people in metro cities.

The whole concept of brand deals is nothing new. It is just a reimagined version of how a newspaper made money from posting ads on their pages.

Now, an influencer is making money by talking about a product in an honest manner to their audience who is trusting them because of the content that they are producing. Now we go into a bifurcation; take the example of an education content creator; for them the natural progression is to create an education program because audiences follow you for learning.

I'm a finance content creator, therefore I'll be creating finance programmes. We have personal finance, stock market, credit card, insurance planning, tax planning, swing trading, the whole gamut. On the other hand, if you're an entertainment content creator, the natural progression is to get into Bollywood, maybe do advertisements, get into TV shows and get into movies.

Do you believe that earning through content creation is a sustainable trend or do you see it as a momentary high involving the digital landscape?

Yes and no. Being a content creator today is no longer a good-to-have thing, it's a must-have thing. When you think of a content creator, you're probably thinking about a person dancing on Instagram. However, I look at content creation as a way to market your own self.

Regardless of whether you make brand deals or not, content creation is going to help you in your own time. Why are CEOs today creating content? Why would a billionaire spend hours and hours creating content on YouTube? It is because it helps their own brand value, which in turn helps their business.

If someone is going to tell me that they are not from IIT, it is no longer an excuse. Today, it is very easy for a person who comes from a tier three or tier four college to create content on a topic that he or she likes and disrupt the competition.

It is not about how much money I can make through brand deals. It is about how much you can stand apart from the crowd in your chosen line of profession.

What are your future plans and aspirations in terms of expanding your brand and presence in the digital space?

Content creation is one such profession where it's always zero to one. Whatever is working right now will not work later on. There is nothing like a future plan where I'm building on top of something. It's always reinventing and reimagining what you are. Like, for example, when I started creating content, I was creating comedy skits.

Today, I ventured into podcasts. It’s all about reinventing yourself and reimagining yourself and resonating with the audience. Content creators are the ones who will probably be the best marketers going forward because nobody understands the consumer mindset as much as a content creator.

How do you view regulations? Do you think there are roadblocks to creative freedom or do they help the industry in any way?

In the last one year, the entire finfluencer versus SEBI saga has been blown out of proportion, thanks to the media who likes making mountains out of a mole hill. The regulators are on the side of content creators. If you talk to people in the industry or even the SEBI chairman, he clearly said that people who are creating content for the purpose of education and are looking to further financial literacy in the country are welcomed.

If you see the number of Demat accounts that have risen in the last two or three years, right, it has actually tripled in the last three or four years. This is very closely correlated to the number of finance content creators which has come up.

Thus democratization of financial literacy and awareness has happened purely because of content creators. Regulators are definitely on the side of content creators because without that, the country is going nowhere because our traditional education system has let down billions of people.

It's clearly evident that even a person who is very educated as per conventional standards doesn't know what to do with the money because 90 percent of the money is lying in the bank account.