I’m a Social Media Entrepreneur, Professor of Digital Marketing, Author of 9 books, Podcaster and an Organic Farmer.

Conducted a collaborative & interactive workshop on Work Productivity. The participants were heads of all departments at NotionPress, the book publishing company. 
I love the unconference methodology because the team gets to open up on problem areas, growth opportunities and the best part is that they put their heads together to suggest solutions and strategies for implementing them. The team committing to ideas and solutions on their own is far more powerful than an external person telling them what they need to do.
I peppered the event with fun activities as a way to infuse in energy. We ended the event with everyone committing to areas of improvement for their team as well as themselves. We recorded these on audio as a reminder for the team and will be useful to gauge them when we reconvene next week for the second half of the workshop. Eagerly look forward.

Yesterday was the finals of the Merchants & Bankers Regatta at the Madras Rowing Club. I wish I had known this earlier and would surely have been there. The Rowing Sport is very special to me. It taught me the beauty and power of team work. Had the privilege of captaining an amazing team where we went on to win a record breaking number of championship titles in the century and half history of the club. Such a beautiful sport. Such fond memories of camaraderie and sportsmanship spirit. 

(Photo courtesy: Muthu Rajamani)

Such a pleasure to be invited by St.Johns School to address their students. I did my initial schooling at St.Johns, though at a different campus. 

The guy who excelled in telling other’s stories now gets his story told…and how! Excellent video profile of Abhash Kumar, Head of Marketing at FactorDaily and earlier the Head of Digital Marketing and Growth at YourStory. I first met Abhash at the Book Authoring Workshop that I conducted at my farm. I loved his passion for content and importantly building readership. This video also reaffirms my belief in the power of videos in effective storytelling.

Thank you for your contributions and heartfelt support for the Food Forest Project. We have collected Rs.28,200 so far. The amount will be used for buying fruit saplings and these will be planted starting this Sunday and over the coming weeks.

This amount will help cover part of the Rs.6 lakhs expenses that will take to afforest the 7 acres of the farm over the next two years. The majority of the expense is setting up the drip irrigation, manuring, mulching, and labour.

The Rain Gods helped as well and the farm received a decent rain yesterday after a gap of 3 scorching months. What a wonderful coincidence! This is easily the most meaningful birthday I have had. Thank you for making it special.

It was wonderful to see this poster at a school I spoke at recently. When mistakes are not frowned upon, it encourages kids to boldly try new things. That’s when growth happens. 

It’s election time at my daughters’ school. My elder daughter, Krithya, has been nominated for the Vice-Captain’s post for one of the four houses. 

They need to campaign and convince their school mates on why they need to vote for her. Interesting to see her plan her strategies and her publicity plans. Nice way to inculcate leadership. 

Today is my birthday. And I wanted this to be meaningful. I’m committing to convert 7 acres of my 13-acre farm into a Food Forest, like the one you see in the photo. Can you help contribute Rs.200 for this cause? I will name the fruit tree after you. Thank you in advance for helping create a green lung. https://imjo.in/cpZYWF

It was a proud moment for me to be dressed in Dhoti, our traditional attire and address the Rotary Meeting. This was the last meeting under the leadership of the current President of the Club and he wanted this talk to be a special one. I chose a topic that is not only unique but also one that’s close to my heart: Life Lessons I’ve Learned from Farming.

Wasting Food is Easy. Producing it is so Damn Hard: There are many times I have plonked in way too much food on my plate, way more than I could eat. I would empty the uneaten food in the bin without any remorse. It’s only after I started growing paddy at our farm did I fully realize the extent of work it takes. Planning, Ploughing, Seed germination, Transplanting, weeding, fertilizing, harvesting, thrashing, dehusking, packaging and selling. And this is just for one cycle of a crop. Now, my family and I are a lot more sensitive to our food. When we go to a buffet, subconsciously, we only serve food that we can finish.

Don’t Lose Long-term Vision for Short-term Benefits: About a decade ago, there was a construction boom and a huge demand for bricks. The price of bricks had shot up and my Dad decided to capitalize on the demand to make a quick buck. He hired brick makers to make bricks and sold them for a decent profit. Little did he realize that this short-sighted move will haunt us for many years to come. You see, the most fertile part of the land is the first one feet of soil. When that was dug up and used for baking bricks, the land lost its fertility. We are paying the price for it even now. Plants grow very slowly and we are painstakingly trying to regenerate the fertility of the soil which unfortunately will take us a few decades to catch up.

There is No Perfect Land. You get a Land and you Make it Perfect: A few of my friends who have an interest in farming are on the look out for buying farm land. One common thing I have noticed among them is that it takes a very long gestation period before they settle on one. They spend many months and in some cases, even a few years, before they nail the perfect piece. One strong realization that I’ve had is that the real joy lies in making the land the place of your dreams. It’s the time you spend with the land that gives you greater joy than the land itself. The journey is better than the destination.

The Importance of Being Idle: I host a leadership podcast show titled, ‘Movers and Shakers’ at The Hindu Businessline and this gives me an opportunity to meet with achievers. During the conversation, I’m always curious to learn the tips and techniques that made them successful. In addition to the cliched answers like hard work and focus, I also get very unique ones. Like this one: Just Do Nothing! Whaaat?! Yes, Sridhar Vembu, the founder of Zoho, said he does not believe in working for long hours. He stressed the importance of down time where one does nothing. This time is needed for thinking and ideation. Daydreaming is actually good. When I go to my farm during the weekends, I mix working in the fields and also take the time to relax. Some of my best ideas come when I simply lie down and think.

Very excited to be one of the mentors for the ‘Little Journalists’ program. My session today is on Blogging and how the kids can ace it.