With the intention of inspiring his followers rather than influencing, Vishal Laddhaa likes to share his experiences and expertise.
Realising how men tend to feel less confident about their looks after hitting early 30s, Vishal Laddhaa started Mensaurus. With his blog, he endeavoured to explore the importance of lifestyle, grooming and fashion and how it can help those facing their own version of a mid-age crisis.
Looking back, where did it all begin?
Ever since I was a child, I wanted to make a pursue a career in the fashion industry, styling real people. I used to often style my friends and family. Adding value to people's lives gave me adrenaline rush and seeing them smile was the ultimate job satisfaction. After graduating and finishing my MBA, I joined the family printing business at 22. I got married at 26 and became a father at 28. Things were changing too fast in my life and I could see my dreams fading away.
I remember on December 31, 2016, I talked to my wife about pursuing a personal styling career parallel to my family business. That I would only spend weekends on this business and balance all responsibilities at the same time. She was and has been very supportive, so I decided to jump into this dream job.
What's in the name?
It was a very impulsive decision. I just saw a dictionary on my bookshelf and it struck me that I have to be a dictionary for me. Hence, I combined the two words, Men and Thesaurus to create Mensaurus.
What is your USP in this cluttered space? How does your content give you an edge?
My work is purely based on inspiring my followers. I don’t call myself an influencer because a person can always have good/bad influence, whereas inspiration is a very positive word. I don’t promote any brand or product without having my first experience on it. Maybe that’s the reason I don’t get a lot of collaborations.
My forte is Fashion and Lifestyle and I religiously stick to my content by giving daily tips and hacks to my followers. I don’t post or talk about food, travel, parenting, etc because I think it would confuse my audience.
Please take us through your content creation process. How do you stay relevant and relatable?
The ideology behind Mensaurus is to help men to upgrade and revive their lifestyle, especially those who are facing then mid-age crisis. Most of the men after marriage or in their early 30’s feel that they cannot look good or be the same how they used to be in their 20’s. Well, I was one of them and then I realised how dressing can change the whole game. A well-groomed man always stands out in the crowd and it gives a sense of confidence, responsibility and reliability.
Whatever I post or create comes from my personal experience. I am a certified Fashion Stylist and I have style a lot of people from corporates and also do wedding styling. This gives me a broader aspect to understand, what do men want?
How do you make moolah with your efforts?
As I said earlier, to me this business is passion. I am not very keen on making money through this platform. I have multiple businesses and I am a board of director at various companies which are good enough to sustain.
Talking about social media or online, I don’t make a lot of money. But every like, comment, share, DMs is worth a million for me.
How do you maintain editorial objectivity with the influx of brand briefs?
I do balance them well but this industry is vast. Believe it or not! Bloggers are exploited by many agencies; I have been a victim of quite a few. So if a brand or agency makes irrelevant demand I just walk out.
One instance/experience that made it all worthwhile
It was in 2018 when I got a chance to be on the bloggers' panel to judge Mr India.
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