Reflections from India: Balancing Creativity, Marketing, and Authenticity

While traveling in India for my friend’s beautiful wedding, I initially planned to take a break from my usual work in creativity and AI. But for someone with a constantly active mind, a “vacation” doesn’t really exist—it’s just a shift in focus. My friend Miss R. even reminded me during her ceremonies that I was supposed to be taking time off, yet my creativity kept flowing.

Interestingly, I’m now revisiting a partnership with a marketing firm I worked with a few years ago. The more I deepen my own thinking, the less I want to handle social media on my own—especially because I feel it’s important that anyone who engages with my content should gain something meaningful from it. Together with the firm, I’m finalizing our first new Instagram posts after wiping the slate clean for the third time in recent years.

I do find it challenging to reconcile a human-centered approach with the more commercial aspects of marketing. I deeply admire the agency’s female owner and her new female account manager, and I often emphasize the importance of humility in our work. Yet I keep wondering: is humility always the right approach?

On social media platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn, I see people—often with less experience—who actively promote themselves with “humble brags,” or sometimes just plain boasting, and many of them are men. Meanwhile, I urge my team to promise only what we can realistically deliver. Is this perspective shaped by my being a woman who’s used to certain norms? Or does it still make sense to hold onto values like honesty and humility in a world that rewards self-promotion?

For now, I continue to believe there’s merit in staying authentic. I want to showcase my work in a way that’s both genuine and confident—without veering into empty boasting. Ultimately, I trust that a sincere approach resonates more deeply, no matter where I am in the world. And yes, I’m still in India, actively creating and reflecting, even while supposedly “on vacation.”

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