Meet Nikhil Rajagopalan

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nikhil Rajagopalan. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Nikhil, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
I’m an award-winning Canadian advertising copywriter. In our industry, creativity, or rather, the ability to solve a challenge that’s troubling our clients with wit, facts, or humour is indispensable. I have a notes application on my phone that I use to list ideas that pop into my head no matter how improbable they are. At this stage, I don’t vet them because I can’t be objective about them yet; I come back to them a week or two later and start fine tuning.

I read a lot because there’s power in the knowledge of pop culture, in quotes, in the way that a line can sway hearts and start movements. The librarians at my local branch know I’ll be there every Saturday morning with my coffee, scanning every periodical.

I also have a growing collection of internet memes on my cloud account. They are wholesome, or existential, or silly, or all of the above. They help me understand my own creative tone and sensibilities, and can serve as inspiration for an ad campaign. I’m happy to share the link if anyone wants it.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I moved to Canada from India as a permanent resident in September 2020. In 2023, I made the bold decision to pivot careers from medical writing to creative advertising.

I figured ad school wasn’t for me, and I decided to earn the chops myself. In just 10 months, I won first place in two student competitions (YS Awards and The Crowbar Awards), built my copywriter portfolio from scratch, got interviewed by the legendary Eric Kallman, won two full-ride scholarships to AdHouse NYC and Jason Bagley’s Creative Megamachine. I’ve been nominated as one of 2024’s top 20 talent to watch out for by Breaking and Entering Advertising podcast.

This year, I’ve started my sole proprietorship, and plan to build my freelance creative copywriter business. I’m extraordinarily grateful for my network of friends, former colleagues and new acquaintances for mentoring me and giving me my first leads. Currently, I’m writing copy for B2B clients in the fintech/financial space, but I’ve helped B2C educational clients with website copy too!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1. Create your own success: There are too many intermediaries between you and your goal. The more you think you need to follow a recipe, a route, a beaten path to get to where you need to be increases the odds of failure or delay. Be proactive, have unquenchable curiosity, and pursue independent learning.

2. Nothing risked, nothing gained: 20 years ago, you could never change a single thing about your life and you could retire happy. With the way the economy is, the issues of lack of capital in markets, and the extreme competition, you have to adapt, and roll with the punches, and increase your risk appetite. Otherwise, you’ll be forgotten.

3. Help others by volunteering: As your skills improve, give back in some way, shape, or form. A 30-min mentorship call, a portfolio review, or just helping others with job leads.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
Two books, actually. Both are personalized, autographed copies with words of encouragement that I gratefully look on when I have the rare bout of imposter syndrome.

‘Pick Me’ by Nancy Vonk and Janet Kestin. The nugget of wisdom here is that you have to keep planting seeds, keep showing up, keep adapting, and always be aware of the possibility that a break-in onto the industry might entirely be up to being in the right place at the right time, in the right situation where you are needed.

‘Chew with your mind open’ by Cameron Day. Cameron continues to be a mentor and ‘ad amigo’. His late father was *the* Day of legendary ad agency Chiat\Day and Cameron passes on his and his father’s wisdom for folks entering the creative field. The biggest takeaway from this first book (of a trilogy) is that you need to be nimble and flexible. And, yeah, always keep your portfolio tight.

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Nikhil Rajagopalan

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