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Prior to turning entrepreneur, Jashoda Madhavji helmed senior positions with several established publicity outfits such as Vaishnavi Corporate Communications, Weber Shandwick and MSL Group.
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Meet the smart, sassy and suave Jashoda Madhavji. All of 38 years, she has slowly and steadily climbed the ladder of success and is widely respected as one of India's most powerful celebrity publicists and image consultants in India with a cumulative experience spanning over two decades. Imbibing a self-starter spirit from her early teens, the young entrepreneur successfully founded her independent media and marketing consultancy in 2015 that goes by the alias Dream N Hustle Media.
Prior to turning entrepreneur, she helmed senior positions with several established publicity outfits such as Vaishnavi Corporate Communications, Weber Shandwick and MSL Group. During her early teens, she was mentored by her grandfather, Ranjit Laxmidas Madhavji, founder of the iconic Hamilton Studios and thereafter forayed into public relations the age of 20, whilst simultaneously pursuing her university education.
She sat down with us and took us through her journey as she completes over 7 years as a female entrepreneur .
Tell us something about your childhood and your education.
I was born and brought up in South Mumbai. I studied ICSE in a convent discipline – J. B. Petit High School. I enrolled for commerce at H R College but I graduated in economics, literature and politics from Jai Hind College. I also have pursued theatre from Trinity College Of Dramatics, London. Apart from this, I am a trained professional healer who enjoys spirituality to a great extent. I was raised with very middle-class values and that has helped me to succeed today. Nothing came on a silver platter and I had to work very hard to get where I am today. I was always taught being compassionate and cultivated is more important than being affluent and illustrious and I feel somewhere that ideal has stayed on and for me who you really are is more important than what you own.
Tell us about your family background?
My grandfather, Ranjit Laxmidas Madhavji is the proprietor of the one of the world’s most iconic portraiture studio, Hamilton Studios while my great great grandfather owned a prolific legal firm called Madhavji Virji Solicitors who were instrumental in shaping up Bhulabhai Desai’s career. My mother, Ajita Madhavji who single handedly raised me and my sister Vaishnavi is a spiritual healer and currently runs Hamilton Studios.
How were you directed towards PR?
It has been over 2 decades now since I started working when I was 18 years old. Whilst I was studying in high school I was simultaneously spending my free time interning with my grandfather. This is where I learnt the essentials of being a successful entrepreneur and learnt the ropes of running your own enterprise. Post my graduation I dabbled in event management, celebrity management and film production but eventually settled for public relations and there has been no looking back since. Having worked with some of the leading PR agencies in India, I realized that large format companies catered to the requirements of clients with deep pockets and there was a lack of interest for smaller clients who couldn’t necessarily afford expensive retainers. This is the gap that I wanted to fill in because there was a dearth of talent in the market. I was always employed to set up and oversee lifestyle and entertainment verticals at various PR agencies and 7 years back I decided it was about time to venture out on my own.
Building up a company into public relations, what challenges did you face? I believe it’s how you perceive life. There were many obstacles but somehow I was raised to always view an obstacle as an opportunity and convert negatives into positives. It is the hard times that made me the successful person I am today. When I launched my consultancy, I didn’t have a string of clients signed up but I refused to give up. I put my head down, launched the firm, and kept moving ahead. And here we are celebrating our 7th year anniversary. I don't take my success very seriously because everything is temporary and what matters is the impact you have on other lives, the quality of your work and the ethics you don't compromise on.
Tell us something about your best and worst experiences in this field. I clock in at least 100 hours a week, 9 am – 1am everyday but it also brings a lot of pleasure! We get to work with amazing people, get to work at amazing events and the work is very rewarding and diverse too! On the flipside, I am basically available 24/7, which is not conducive to maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
As an entrepreneur it is important to build a brand image in the market. How did you go about it? I personally get a lot of positivity from my profession. PR is something you need to feel for, then you can achieve substantial results. Brand building and public relations has a lot to do with communication, creativity , journalism and psychology. This is something that comes very naturally to me. It’s a part of my DNA to be a people's person. I find it very exciting to build platforms from scratch and create trendsetters out of ordinary people and ideas. PR is a creative art that allows you to tap into your inner potential and constantly evolve. It’s extremely exhilarating to be a catalyst of change responsible for remodelling thought leaders and campaign ideas and showcasing them to the masses.
What motivated you to be in this line? PR is one of the most stressful professions in the world owing to the nature of the business of managing and meeting expectations. What makes this service industry unique is the expertise that vests in professionals like me to convert brand perceptions into realities and build an army of endorsers who eventually become the heroes of the brand story. Unlike advertising, PR will give your business the best return for its marketing budget. We breathe life into words, craft a creditable plot, enact it through dramatic storytelling that culminates with a happy ending, more simply put. Spin doctors with a potent passion that's who we are.
What are your future plans? To be an undisputed market leader in India when it comes to managing the public profiles of international celebrities in India. I am looking forward to collaborating with many more international agencies and artists.
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