If you’re an avid fan of reading online, Huffington Post is the name that you couldn’t have missed — but ever thought of contributing to the Huffington post?
I’m pretty sure that seems like an impossible task.
Not for Chirag Kulkarni, who got his first post published in the renowned magazine when he was just 18 years old.
With such a great start, Chirag became the Chief Marketing Officer of Medly, a digital pharmacy based in New York.
Now he’s running in his own venture and doing a lot of things at a young age along with being featured as the top 25 marketers by Forbes.
Eager to know more about his story?
Here’s all you need to know about the serial entrepreneur Chirag Kulkarni.
Early Life:
Chirag was a bright teenage boy living up to the aspirations of his father.
His father wanted him to quintessentially become an entrepreneurial spirit and learn by tackling his problems on his own.
Learning by trying and testing things, Chirag started his affiliate blog at the age of 13.
Undoubtedly he was filled with passion and an urge to create a space for himself in this world.
Soon, he moved to explore SEO and wrote about it.
A Kickstart to the ‘Writing Potential’
It was then that Chirag decided to write a cold email to Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post.
And guess what?
This fearless instinct of him led to the start of his vibrant career as a writer.
So, Ariana Huffington picked one of his works on Meditation that got published in the Huffington Post.
This began the glorious journey for Chirag Kulkarni.
He became an accidental specialist in marketing by discovering and exploring things by himself.
And it was a time when the only form of marketing that was popular around the world was the door to door marketing.
Curiosity is the Path to Discovery
His curiosity compelled Chirag to explore the power of content and online marketing strategies such as SEO.
Once Chirag figured out affiliate marketing, he went on to find new and other marketing practices on the Internet that could help one carve a niche for themselves.
The prominence of the Internet helped Chirag discover smart tactics in the content marketing space and how he could use content marketing to create sales conversions.
Failure is the Best Mentor
But what’s learning if everything is served on a plate? And so was the case for Chirag.
In 2011, at the age of 15, Chirag co-founded his first company STR and started tennis racquets stringing business.
He then went on to study the success and failures of entrepreneurs all across the world.
Soon after this, his venture insightfully that focused on predictive analysis and cross-platform research was launched but did not show significant results.
It ended up tanking!
Realizing the True Potential
This was the point where Chirag realized that his true calibre and potential lied in content and SEO.
And that’s how the popular content marketing agency ‘Taco’ was born.
The aim behind Taco was to provide SEO and content solutions to companies with $1 – $10 million in revenues.
Eventually, in 2013, the Chirag launched the C & N group.
The business venture was developed to find solutions for existing businesses by providing dynamic methods of business development and innovation.
The company incorporates strategies for Tech startups, App markets, operation management, logistics, ups and downs of business and more.
What Budding Content Marketers Must Read?
Chirag recommends budding content marketers to gather information from sources such as Quick Sprout, Social Media Examiner along with Content marketing Institute etc.
And just to hone your skills, you can also use various tools available in the market for curating content for the right audience.
Some of these tools recommended by Chirag are Suno, Crazy Egg and Kissmetrics.
Chirag is the proud owner of the website chiragkulkarni.com where you can learn about the latest content marketing practices and tips for your business.
Awards and Achievements:
Apart from being the CEO of Medley, Chirag Kulkarni has various recognitions and accolades credited to his name.
Chirag was invited to deliver a lecture as a guest in Fordham School of Business on the topic Innovation and Strategy.
His venture Taco, was also featured as one of the top 6 companies that grew fast in the year 2016 by Tech cocktail.
Chirag was also named among the top 25 marketers by Forbes along with a thought leader and expert in marketing by Inc.com.
Renowned Recommendations
Chirag has also been appreciated by a lot of people all across the world.
His influential persona and ability to learn has been admired and applauded no matter where he goes.
Popular Featured Publications
On his journey to becoming a serial entrepreneur, Chirag Kulkarni has been featured in various reputed national and international media.
He had made his mark in the world with his unique and engaging content.
Here are the top publications, where Chirag has been featured-
● Forbes: Advice For The New 30 Under 30 Class From The Alumni And Summit Attendees
● Inc.com: 10 Things Entrepreneurs Need to Know about Intrapreneurship
● Inc.com: 3 ways to Become A Thought Leader
● Venturebeat.com: Here are my rules for avoiding burnout while building a business
● The Huffington Post: 5 Non-Traditional Educations Doers Should Consider
● ExcelR8 Management Consulting: Five Corporate Growth Pains That Companies Will Face Over The Next 5 Years
5 Tips From Chirag Kulkarni That Will Help You Brainstorm New Ideas
When most of the writers are pressed with the urgency of work, they often fail to deliver the quality.
Furthermore, it becomes extremely challenging to keep up the motivation and think of new ideas for writing in such scenarios.
Chirag Kulkarni says that since the world is becoming more and more content driven the ability to stand out is extremely important for bloggers.
Here are a few brainstorming tips that writers must swear by:
Get Out:
Locking oneself in one room and thinking of new ideas can be extremely challenging.
Through his personal experience, Chirag shares how frustrating and stressful this practice can be.
For this reason, he emphasizes on the fact that getting out of home or office can be helpful in coming up with new ideas.
You never know how many correlations you might find as you move from one place to another.
Furthermore, as you meet new people or explore places, new ideas and thought processes start working rapidly.
So get out of your monotonous room as you find your go-to methods for thinking there.
Look For Opposite Blogs:
When we keep on writing a certain way, we often run out of fresh ideas.
However, Chirag Kulkarni states that looking for inverse blogs can be an excellent way to rejuvenate the thoughts in our brains.
For example, if you’ve written about ‘3 habits of highly successful people’, you can try writing inverse of the topic such as ‘3 habits successful people stay away from’.
While this will engage your users on the one hand, on the other hand, it will give you something to write.
Inverses are an excellent way of brainstorming new ideas.
Ask Your Audience:
As marketers of content, it can often be misleading if you only come up with blog topics from your gut.
Though this strategy may work a lot of times if you have experience, it is always best to research what your audience wants to read.
So, why not ask your audience what they prefer to read?
Now, you can ask your audience in plenty of ways, using social media or external surveying tools.
This practice will help you get a lot of ideas and increase the engagement for your blog as well.
Change your Timeframe:
Changing the time frames of your post is similar to looking for inverse blog topics.
A timeline can help gather engagement as well as help you think from a different point of view.
For example, if you’ve been writing on ‘social media’ for a long time, try writing about ‘Social Media Trends that Will Take 2019 by Storm’.
Doesn’t that sound more impactful? Exactly!
Chirag Kulkarni states that this practice gives you the scope of writing about current ideas and topics that might be helpful to a particular audience or segment.
Take the help of 3rd party tools:
If you’re still out of writing ideas, the last option you take up is referring to a few external tools.
Chirag shares his personal favorite tool Hubspot blog topic generator that instantly generates topics for you based on your top three keywords.
Hubspot blog topic generator gives you a week of topics for free along with a year of topics that is available in is paid plan.
Final Words
So, if you’ve got the creative writing potential just like Chirag, it’s time that you sharpen your skills and explore the world.
The key to success lies in reading more and more about the success and failure of different people, methods and practices.
Remember that the more you learn and out to practice, the more will you experience.
Chirag Kulkarni is currently the Chief Marketing Officer of Medley Pharmacy, and founder of Taco.
He has helped various companies such as Expedia, Dairy Queen, Berkshire Hathway, Infibeam, and others increase their return on investment using digital marketing.
If you’re a passionate writer and learning by your own experiences, let us know what motivates you, in the comments below.