For Nimish Agrawal, executive president and chief marketing officer, Niva Bupa, the power of visualisation and positive expectation is something he swears by. “I’ve generally come to believe that if you ask the universe, it will give. You have to ask with a lot of faith. So, whenever I’m stuck in my life, whenever I’m stuck at work, I do start seeing the end that I would be happy with,” he explains.
Edited excerpts from the interview with Storyboard18.
The creator economy has taken the world by storm. Which influencers and trends are you following currently?
I follow two influencers. One is the founder of Drishti IAS Coaching, Vikas Divyakirti. He has got some fantastic advice on life and philosophy. The second one is Yatinder Singh. He’s a bodybuilder and former Mr India and Mr World (7th position).
What marketing-related content do you consume in your free time?
I do a lot of marketing during my work time. But one thing that I do is that I watch a lot of advertisements. In fact, whenever my children are watching television, they generally watch a lot of YouTube, where they don’t skip an ad. What I do is after the advertisement has played, I ask my kids, and if my wife is around, if they recall the brand. Did they like the ad? I do a quick dipstick to understand what they like and what they don’t.
There is a lot of talk about burnout, workplace toxicity and hustle culture. What steps have you taken to avoid the adverse impact of the always-on culture on yourself and your colleagues? And what advice would you give to your peers, colleagues and next-gen marketers on this?
It’s important to disconnect from work or anything that one does quite regularly because monotony can create stress. We have a very strict understanding within the marketing team that Saturdays and Sundays are meant for family. Unless the earth is going to fall off its axis, we don’t bug each other on weekends. And I think two days is good enough for disconnecting.
The second thing that we started within the marketing team is that we’ve given one day mandatory work from home to all the sub-teams where they have the liberty to choose a day. So the team is divided into three sub-functions: brand, growth, channel, media and public relations.
A lot of burnout conversation is because of lack of communication. We do have a reasonable amount of communication so that we can understand if the person is in a good place mentally or not.
Is there any sport or fitness routine you practice?
In 2023, I began doing strength training and that’s something that I swear by. For the first time in my life, I’ve been using my yearly membership subscription. It helps me be energetic throughout the day and helps me to have a good night’s sleep.
Can you elaborate more on this?
I have never been athletic. Post-COVID, I realised that I had put on a lot of weight because for three years it was work from home. One fine day, something cracked in my head, and I went to the nearest possible gym and signed up. For some reason, I did not back out. There were days that I couldn’t go, but I always went back.
I am a big believer in tracking progress. I started recording then versus now. How am I looking in pictures versus what I was looking at? I take constant feedback from my family. They are my favourite consumer research sample.
So that’s something that I’ve been doing, and I intend to do this in 2024 as well. One important thing that I realised is I think the reason I was missing out, and the reason I was leaving things too quickly is because I was setting unrealistic goals.
I’m 38. I can continue to do strength training for a very long time. Why am I in a rush to look a certain way or shed a certain amount of weight in a certain period of time? So I’ve now given up on my end goal. I enjoy the process. I like the way I feel when I work out. I like the way my mind feels when I work out. I high-five myself for being disciplined and being able to make one more day into the gym or any other form of activity.
What does your weekend look like?
I need an afternoon nap on the weekend. I read a lot on weekends. There are a couple of books that I’m reading right now. So depending on my mood, and time of the day, I pick up the book. The third thing that I do is make it a point that I have to hit either cardio or strength, both on Saturday and Sunday.
What are you watching or streaming this weekend?
I watched a lot of Christmas movies with my sons.
Any work or life hack you swear by?
What I was talking about is the power of visualisation and the power of positive expectation. I’ve generally come to believe that if you ask the universe, it will give. You have to ask with a lot of faith. So, whenever I’m stuck in my life, whenever I’m stuck at work, I do start seeing the end that I would be happy with.
Even if I’m midway, even if I’m starting, I do visualise how the end outcome would look like and how that would make me feel very happy. So, that’s something that I swear by and I practise it as much as I can.
What are you reading? Any recommendations?
I’m reading two books right now. One is Courage to Be Disliked (By Fumitake Koga and Ichiro Kishimi). It’s based on Adlerian Psychology. The second I’m rereading is Deep Work (Cal Newport).
A piece of wisdom you would like to share.
This too shall pass. I think that statement covers the entirety of being a very small element in the overall grand scheme of things. We become very happy and we become very sad. And that oscillation happens very quickly, which is the reason why burnout, stress and anxiety happen. Enjoy the good times because they will pass. Have faith in the bad times because they too shall pass.