Rajesh Srivastava shares his takeaways from On Brand with Jimmy Fallon [Exclusive]

"RS: "I'm a professor. I'm used to saying, \"Okay, this is a good idea. This is how you could physically do it.\" I'm not used to doing it that much. The most difficult part, and I realized it, is that I'm not well-equipped to physically do things, and that's what shows. My ideas were good, but I'm not used to pitching. I'm used to having the idea of someone singing, but when I have to do it myself, it's no good. I just didn't do a good job.""

"GS: That's the feedback that you were getting as well. What was going through your mind with each new pitch, knowing you had to work on that feedback? RS: That's right. In episode 1, I realized that I wasn't well-equipped for this. In one episode, I'm supposed to make a drink, but I've never made that kind of drink. I did want to do something Indian, and I wish I had stuck to that in the end. I was just a fish out of water."

"Sadly, after four episodes of On Brand with Jimmy Fallon, his journey has come to an end. He just couldn't quite get there, and that's something he talked with us about in our exclusive interview with him. At the same time, he shared the lessons he's taking away from the series, and also how he's looking at it with his students who take his social media marketing classes."

Rajesh Srivastava possesses strong theoretical knowledge of marketing but struggled to translate ideas into practical execution on a televised branding competition. He excelled at developing concepts but lacked experience pitching and performing physical tasks required by brand challenges. Real-time feedback revealed shortcomings in presentation skills and comfort with hands-on activities, including making products and adapting cultural elements. He regrets not committing to an Indian-themed concept and describes feeling like a fish out of water. He plans to apply lessons from the experience when teaching social media marketing students and to emphasize bridging theory with practical, performative skills.

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