Anuja Mishra’s expertise lies in brand management, category development, integrated marketing, channel sales, and revenue management. As the chief marketing officer (CMO) of Honasa Consumer, Mishra believes in being a lifelong student of learning.
In a conversation with Storyboard18, Mishra explained, “The moment you take on the pressure of feeling like ‘I’m at a certain position. I need to be seen as the expert’, you lose the skill and the art of learning. When you go to work like you’re going to school, you stay a student in your head. That makes you a lot more open to learning, and makes things much easier. Also, you become more approachable to people.”
Edited excerpts.
The creator economy has taken the world by storm. Which influencers and trends are you currently following?
From a professional perspective, I follow a lot of beauty creators and trends, just to ensure that we’re on top of our game. So trends like skinification (It is the presence of ingredients inspired by skincare, trends, and claims across beauty and personal care categories, as mentioned in an article), trends in makeup, and so on. I think that really helps me to constantly evolve our messaging to consumers. There’s a large creator ecosystem that we work with, and I think we are putting that to good use.
In my personal capacity, I follow Simon Sinek, Adam Grant, and Elon Musk.
There are a few content areas that I am particularly interested in, which is how education as a space is evolving, particularly edtech, followed by sustainability. As a student of marketing, and as a professional, it helps me understand how some of the brands in these domains have beautifully woven sustainability into their narrative.
That’s also an area where you come across a lot of experts, because today, everyone’s a creator and influencer in their own right. But there are some ridiculously provocative points of view that one sees in these spaces.
In your free time, what marketing-related content do you consume?
In the last three months, I have been reading up a lot on Generative AI. There are a few sources that I follow on Generative AI and its use cases in marketing, right from product innovation to creative communication. I feel that there’s a lot of potential in Generative AI, in terms of how we visualise and create communication today. These are early days, but there are things that we are trying at Honasa.
There is a lot of talk about burnout, workplace toxicity, and hustle culture. What steps have you taken to avoid the adverse impact of this culture on yourself, and your colleagues? What advice would you give to your colleagues and next-gen marketers?
The one advice that I have personally followed is to focus within instead of on the chatter. Youngsters tend to gossip. And that’s the breeding ground for a lot of negativity and toxicity.
I try to focus on staying centred. Among other things, I try to ensure that my team is always working on some creative ideas, which automatically demands a lot of collaboration and learning, which have an impact.
Collaboration is the need of the day, not just within our functions, but also cross-functionally. Collaboration ensures a lot of team wins, and that creates a stronger bonding within teams, and leaves little room for toxicity.
It also builds your belief in teamwork. For organisations, it’s extremely important that people believe in interpersonal relations and the positivity of human connection. So my hack has been to just create inter-functional and intra-functional teams pulling towards the same objective. And I’ve seen some brilliant results come out of that.
Is there any sport or fitness routine you practice?
I have been into running for almost a decade. I’m a marathoner. I draw many parallels between a marathon and a business. It’s a race that you’re running at your own pace.
That’s one space where I don’t want to compete with anybody. It puts a lot of pressure on me. For me, it’s very meditative because you’re actually training your mind. Every sport is a mind game before it is a physical act.
When you’re challenging your body, stretching your muscles, it’s actually your mind that’s communicating with every part of your body. So, that’s one piece that keeps me centred. I also practice kickboxing and a little martial arts. That’s both a combat and a compound exercise. It helps you build reflexes and build the art of defence and offence.
It also builds your personality and helps in self-control, which is very important in the times that we live in.
These are two sports that take away the stresses of the week and prepare me for what lies ahead.
Could you take us through your weekend? What does it look like?
My weekend is fairly unstructured. I’m very particular about scheduling my reading time. But other than that, the day starts with a good run and a workout. I usually do intermittent fasting. But, one day in the weekend, I take a day off from that.
I have a good brunch. I make it a point to spend quality time with my teenage daughter. I want to ensure that she can open up and talk about things. The weekend is for my family. While I make it a point to stay in touch with friends, I don’t get a chance to socialise much. But two days is not enough for doing all this.
What are you watching or streaming this weekend?
Last weekend, I watched ‘Pepsi, Where’s My Jet?’ I’ve worked with PepsiCo for a decade. So, it was very interesting to see how sometimes consumers can perceive and take marketing a lot more seriously than one thinks they do.
Another series that I started on Netflix is ‘Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones,’ which explores the various regions where the average human longevity is much higher. They delve into how they manage to do that.
Any work or life hack you swear by?
When it comes to a life hack, I swear by simplification. I feel that in this complicated world that we’re living in, it’s extremely important to simplify things.
I’m a Gemini. By design, Geminis are confused folks with minds that are always running in two directions. But I’m really training myself to learn, to simplify.
I think simplification makes life easier. You learn to make choices and prioritise. A lot of youngsters that I’ve been meeting tell me that their one area of development is being able to prioritise and manage their time well.
It’s very important to be focussed and prioritise what it is that you want to achieve in the day and the week. I think that’s my hack.
What are you reading? Any recommendations?
Currently, I am reading two books. One is actually the sequel to Ikigai, called ‘The Ikigai Journey’. It talks about Japanese concepts like the Shinkansen effect (Taken from the Japanese word ‘bullet train’, it is a technique to handle and sort out any kind of crisis). It is on how to simplify and prioritise, and the simplification process.
The second book I am reading is ‘Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All.’ It tells you how to harness and unleash your creative powers.
There is a belief that creativity is a right brain phenomenon and few people are born with it. But that’s actually not true. You can cultivate creativity and build the innovative faculties of your brain. As far as recommendations are concerned, the one book that I would recommend to anyone any day is No Rules Rules, by Reed Hastings. I think it’s a must for everyone.
A piece of wisdom you would like to share?
I try to keep reminding myself to be humble and keep learning, which is the equivalent of ‘Stay hungry and stay foolish.’ Because, the moment you take on the pressure of feeling like ‘I’m at a certain position. I need to be seen as the expert’, you lose the skill and the art of learning.
When you go to work like you’re going to school, you stay a student in your head. And that makes you a lot more open to learning, makes things easier. Also, you become more approachable to people. People feel comfortable refuting your ideas and coming up with a better one. In that process, you do yourself a great deal of good. Equally, you create a very easy environment for others.