We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Krishna Betai. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Krishna below.
Krishna, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
Resilience, for me, is borne out of rejections. As a writer, I’ve built resilience over the years from the countless rejections in the various avenues of writing I’ve dabbled in—whether it’s submitting poems and short stories for my college newsletter, or humor pieces for literary magazines and websites, or writing (and ghostwriting) blogs for freelance clients, or creating ads for brands.
Over time, I not only got used to rejections, but started to expect it as part of the process. While hearing “I’m sorry,” “no,” “it’s a pass from me,” and other synonyms of non-acceptance felt demotivating, it’s really another chance to make the work better, which is what I strive to do in anything I write.
I’ve learned that a rejection is never about you, but only about the work — it is creator-agnostic. Writing something that makes the reader feel something is difficult, and rejections do nothing but push you closer to that masterpiece, all the while building your resilience behind the scenes.
When you finally reach that stage and look back, you’ll see how far you’ve come along and improved as a writer. Through all the rejections, you would’ve grown a thick skin to withstand rejection, but would’ve left it permeable enough to accept feedback and take your work to its best version—and that is resilience.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Starting out as a freelance content writer for tech and fintech clients across India and the world, I have since become an advertising copywriter.
Miami Ad School Toronto in Canada was my gateway to ad land, where I was privileged to learn how to come up with ideas for ads from some of the best in the Canadian and American ad industry. I also had the opportunity to work on some of the biggest brands in the world at prestigious ad agencies such as Rethink Toronto, JOAN Creative New York, and LG2 Toronto. At every agency, I became a sponge, soaking in everything the experiences had to offer—from the creative process to valuable feedback on the work I presented—from the smartest creative teams and industry leaders.
The best part about being a copywriter in the ad industry is that no two days are the same—one day you’re writing taglines for a music school, the next day you’re thinking of different ways to launch a new kind of paper towel. It’s the kind of work that doesn’t feel like work, because you get to come up with smart, purposeful, weird, and funny ideas for a living.
I’m a big fan of humor and try to bring in some of that in my work, whether it is for a client or a spec project. I strive to come up with ideas and words that evoke a feeling inside someone, because a bad ad is one that fails to do that and becomes ignorable, forgotten among a sea of other ads that people consume everyday. For me, that feeling comes from a human truth—something hidden in plain sight, something that’s part of your everyday life, something that makes someone say, “Oh, that’s so true, I never thought of that!”
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I’d reiterate the importance of resilience and growing a thick skin, especially as a creative individual. You just need one yes, but you’ll have to ready to hear a hundred nos before that.
Secondly, not taking feedback personally. There is no place for egos in the creative space, and the feedback is just about the creation, not the creator, which ultimately makes the work better. Taking feedback positively and using that to improve your work will make yourself easy and fun to work with.
Finally, constantly improving your craft. (This is where getting feedback from peers and mentors helps, too.) Writing or creating art or making music or any of the thousand creative pursuits is a muscle that you have to keep chipping away at to reach the top of your game. The journey of improving your skill is a never-ending one, everyday you learn something new.
As a copywriter, the one advice I’d give to other copywriters is consume media in different forms—not just other ads, but also movies, TV shows, books, music, standup comedy, greeting cards, speeches, plaques in museum, cereal boxes, and anywhere you see words, because words are everywhere. You’ll learn something new from each form of media, mainstream and otherwise, and will broaden your thinking and the way you look at the world around you.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
In the ad industry, it takes a creative team to make a campaign, regardless of whether it is client work or spec work. I love collaborating with art directors and designers, because working in a team makes the work better. It’s also great to have a partner to bounce ideas and brainstorm with—a nugget of a thought can snowball into a great idea. In the process of sharing ideas, we could teach one another a skill, which you may or may not apply in your work, but it would help in broadening your thinking and growing as a creative individual.
Anyone who is interested in collaborating can visit my portfolio website and/or reach out to me via LinkedIn or email.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://krishnabetai.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krishnabetai
Image Credits
Images from spec ad campaigns created by Krishna Betai and his collaborators.
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