Varun Duggirala - Content Creator, Podcaster, and Personal Development Pundit who also happens to be an Entrepreneur, Co-Founder - The Glitch.
Tell us about your experiences from being an entrepreneur to creating content and even hosting 2 podcast shows?
I’ve always been someone who can be termed a “multi-hyphenate". Through my years building The Glitch I’ve always focussed on multiple disparate areas and my journey as a content creator and podcaster are in many ways an extension of the same. Having a broad basis of focus areas and interests all focussed on creating enables a wider spectrum of growth for all aspects of my focus as well as giving me a deep sense of satisfaction.
How does your content creator journey differ from your previous position as a Co-founder of Glitch
While at The Glitch my focus is extremely wide and Macro, my content creator side allows me the ability to be a lot more hands on in actually creating and enabling every aspect of the process. It also has helped me bring back a beginners mindset which helps me learn something new every day.
How do you juggle your life between being an entrepreneur, a content creator/ podcaster and your personal life?
I have a simple system of dividing my time into time for work, for life and for self. Each of these have compartmentalised time slots in my day and time and this modular approach ensures I know how to ensure i can balance all without having to struggle with overload. More than anything I’ve been able to do this by ensuring no aspect of my creator self feels like a stretch interns of effort by planning “what i create” basis the time I can give it.
What is your philosophy and if any advice you would like to give to the youth when it comes to maintaining a financial world?
My philosophy in life is to optimise my life for happiness. Visualise your ideal day and work towards it piece by piece. All my decisions, across career/creator and even financial are built off a clear focus on working towards the things and the structure that will optimise my time and life for happiness. When you look at it from that lens most decisions become easy.
What are the top 3 mistakes someone should avoid while starting a career?
-Don't be in a rush, life is a marathon not a sprint.
-Spend your early years over indexing on learning foundational principles and tools rather than trying to just focus on stability and security.
-Always ensure balance, from day 1.
What are the key factors you need to have to become a content creator or starting a podcast show?
You need to have a clear reason to create. I often say that you should create the kind of content you would create without any prospect of ever making money from it. Secondly, understand why someone will consume your content and keep learning from your audience. Find your unique voice/perspective and build everything on top of that.
Your latest talk show, ‘The Varun Duggi Show‘ is quite inspiring and insightful, tell us more about it? I'm a person who loves learning constantly. The Varun Duggi show is a twice-a-week audio blog that is my way of sharing learning’s, insights and beyond with my audience to help them in their life, work and everything in between Where do you see the content creation and podcast space in the coming years? The Creator economy has changed how content is created, distributed and monetised. The next few years will be further solidification of that aspect along with creators building deeper relationships with their audience but going deep rather than wide. And podcasters will be at the forefront of that aspect because podcasters have some of the most engaged audiences amongst creators What were the initial struggles you faced & how did you overcome them? The struggle at the start of every phase of my career has been finding my own place in the space I’m in, to not just stand out but more importantly be personally satisfied by the path I’m on. The singular way I’ve been able to overcome this has been to always be on learning mode. Clarity and focus comes from learning and absorbing everything around your area of interest. What do you love about content creation? Content creation has been one of the most enriching parts of my journey. At a foundational level I love the fact that it allows me to share information & ideas in my own unique way with a broader audience and in doing so allow me to learn and evolve with the feedback they give me in return. This feedback loop is what I love the most.
A brief about your social activities, if any, apart from your profession? Fitness is a core focus in my life, both physically and mentally. Everything from strength training to high intensity and yoga along with mental fitness exercises. I’m also the father of a 4 year old so needless to say dad mode is my favourite mode in life. I also read a ton of books,.. it’s my main form of content consumption in many ways. How do you stay up to date with content creation? I stay up to date by following a wide array of creators, often asking them about the tools and tricks they use and also by consuming a lot of content around content.