“It gets easier once you know the ‘Why?’ of what you do.” - Nikhil Kamath, Author - It Was You...Always

“The best work that anybody ever writes is the work that is on the verge of embarrassing him, always.”― Arthur Miller

The above saying goes perfectly for me. My journey of writing started with writing Power Rangers fanfiction when I was 9-10 years old. Power Rangers was pretty big at that time and that was the only thing we would discuss in our break-time at school. 5 years down the line when the Power Rangers craze died down, I had a newfound love for talking about food and travel that led to the birth of The Salt and Pepper Food Guide, and this I would say was just the beginning of my journey in the world of storytelling.

By the way, I’m Nikhil Kamath, Author and Brand & Content Strategist from New Delhi. I wear many hats and one of them is being the author of the romance novel ‘It Was You...Always’. Apart from that, I work with local brands and small businesses enabling them to expand their digital presence and reach out to their target users. In simple words, I make things and people look good online.

Since 2018 I have been working in the skill-building space and have mentored over 3000+ students and young professionals on topics like entrepreneurship, sustainable development, content writing, and storytelling.

My grandfather was a storyteller who wrote many stories and I feel I got that skill from him. As kids, my sister and I would help our grandfather write the stories as he narrated them to us.

Food has always been a love of mine, and writing about it was thrilling because food blogging was still something that many people didn't understand at the time in 2011. Wanting to explore more in writing I started taking up freelance projects and side-by-side worked on writing my novel.

An important part of being a writer is reading a lot. Thanks to my parents and teachers, I had developed the habit of reading since a very young age and I used my learnings from the stories I read in writing my own.

While the writing part was a piece of cake, publishing was a major challenge. Being a first-time writer having no prior experience or contacts, it was one of the toughest things I had to go through. This is the reason why I now mentor and train budding writers about the entire process of writing and publishing their novels.

For a first-time writer, it can be a heartbreaking experience being rejected by publishing houses; the key here is not just believing in yourself but also your story and being confident about it.

Writers should treat their manuscripts and books like their start-ups because I feel an author is no less than an entrepreneur. This has been my learning as an author and also a brand strategist. When you pitch your book to the publisher or your prospective reader, confidence, and clarity in communication work as the best drivers to generate conversion.

Another area I am highly passionate about is Climate Action and Sustainable Development. Since my school days, we were encouraged to ask burning questions and talk about the climate crisis that affects all of us in one way or the other.

Over the years, I have worked with many youth leaders and organizations to communicate the message of climate action and engage the youth with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set up by the United Nations. In August 2020, I trained under the Former Vice President of the U.S. Al Gore at The Climate Reality Project to become a 'Climate Reality Leader'.

This year I was one of the Climate Ambassadors at the Global Youth Climate Network (GYCN) of the World Bank Group.

Being in the content creation space for over a decade, I always aim to communicate to my audience and followers about how they can contribute to climate action at an individual level. Even the smallest actions we take have a huge impact. We need to understand that climate action is not just activism, there is much more to it. This includes green jobs, cleantech, climate finance, etc. As I wrap up this article here, I want to point out the fact that this is not the end yet. I feel my journey has just begun and there is a long way to go, from writing more stories to demanding real action for our planet to working with the youth for their skill-building.

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