The anatomy of a personal brand
I reverse engineer the mesmerising brand of Rishabh Rikhiram Sharma
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I have been listening to Rishabh Rikhiram Sharma’s Sitar for Mental Health concert on loop this whole week.
I became curious, trawled the internet, and discovered a child prodigy and newly minted 26-year-old sitar maestro, whose music had enthralled me to the point of obsession.
In doing so, I had stumbled upon the perfect ingredients for building a personal brand.
Storytelling
Credibility
Distinctiveness
A Mission
Orchestration
The Magic Ingredient- Mystery
1. Storytelling
Stories are how we make sense of the world.
All personal brands have an origin story, or a discovery story, or a launch story.
Rishab has all three.
Origin story: He comes from a family of luthiers.
Discovery story: The story goes that he was not allowed to touch any musical instruments at home. So he found a broken Sitar, repaired it and started playing. His father noticed Rishab’s talent and started teaching him. He was then discovered on a Talent Show.
Launch story: If this was not already enough of a good thing, Pandit Ravi Shankar saw him perform and made him his youngest and last disciple. Then Pandit Ravi Shankar launched Rishab in a live concert, with his blessings, within 15 days of him becoming his disciple!
Brands without strong product performance fade. Personal brands need to work even harder to stand on top of strong performance.
Rishabh Rikhiram Sharma does just that.
2. Credibility
These three stories humanise him - he was not allowed to touch a musical instrument until he repaired a broken one because he wanted to play music so desperately. And also build his credibility. They tell us to not take his music lightly.
Three credibility-building facts are strategically scattered all over the media.
Even though he just turned 26, he has been playing sitar for the last 16 years and has been surrounded by music all his life.
Pandit Ravi Shankar launched him just within 15 days of accepting him as a student.
Then we notice that he started with an electric sitar, but once he becomes The Pandit’s disciple, he moves over to the regular sitar. We think, oh he is not just an arrogant prodigy, he is also a fast learner, he goes back to Indian cultural roots.
Now I am no classical music connoisseur, but even I think that if he is so good at this age, he will surpass his teachers within his lifetime for sure!
3. Distinctiveness
We may forget people, but we always remember their quirks.
Personal brands strategically cultivate quirks that are ‘on brand.’
For Rishab, it is Mehendi.
He wears mehendi whenever he performs. It’s always visible whenever the camera zooms into his sitar, so obviously, no one can miss it.
Mehendi is so odd because he is a Zoomer and a man. But it’s so right because he plays classical music.
He also wears diamond studs and a different kind of kurta (traditional Indian dress for men) with a belt. All these from his distinctive look.
This is a strategic quirk.
Another very distinctive aspect of his music is that his music is accessible. He does not play only classical Indian music. He plays the latest Bollywood and Hollywood hits too.
And this ties in with his mission.
4. A Mission
Great brands stand for something. A mission, a ‘why they exist.’
His stated mission is one of world domination. Through music. He wants everyone, yes, all 8 billion of us, to hear the sitar once.
Here he plays the Game of Thrones medley on Sitar.
This also means that his sitar playing is not self-indulgent. All his concerts are designed for Mental Health - a platform that cuts through geographical and age barriers.
His concerts are 360-degree experiences (not like Taylor Swift's, but his style). He runs the audience through breathing exercises. He engineers a multi-instrument experience, with beautiful images and soothing videos in the backdrop.
5. Orchestration
Great personal brands have great taste. And attention to detail.
Every move, every post, every write-up is sharp and well-orchestrated.
He already has performed at the White House.
And, hold your breath. He was the Brand Ambassador for Cartier this Diwali.
Every piece of media on him repeats the same stories and celebrates his music. Nothing more and nothing less.
And that brings us to the most fascinating ingredient of personal branding.
6. The Magic Ingredient- Mystery
Rishabh Rikhiram Sharma’s stories leave us thirsty for more.
He is a sitar player and he also sings like a Gandharva (real YouTube comment). We are thirsty for more of his singing. But apart from the Shiva chant and the Chanakya chant, we don’t find much else.
We know his three stories, and that he lives in NYC, but not much else.
We get curious. Is he gay? What does he eat? How many hours does he practice? What kinds of friends does he have?
Then we come across a reel where he tells us he is straight, whew! Then we think, does he have a girlfriend? And we spot him with a girl at the airport. Are they dating?
See how yet another layer of brand meaning is constructed?
This brand makes us curious, wonder, think, worry, and thirst for more. All these create more and more neural networks to embed the brand deeper into our brains.
And we go back to googling him to find out more.
When we reverse engineer brands, we build our branding playbook
What I just did here was an armchair exercise in reverse engineering a brand strategy.
In my experience, this is a good way to learn brand building.
Even if the reverse-engineered strategy was not the original intent, (many times some elements of brand building are pure luck) it still gives us a powerful playbook that we can apply to our context.
Thanks for reading and I will see you next week. Hopefully, I would have deaddicted myself from Rishabh Rikhiram Sharma's obsession by then.
Really enjoyed reading this breakup of personal branding and also discovering the sensation Rishabh n his music which I love to hear now!
Hi Rashi! Wonderfully written! Is Personal Rebranding a possibility? Are there examples of successful personal rebrands? If it interests you do write a sequel to this topic! Looking forward!