From Corporate Burnout to 7-Figure Business: Srimoyee’s Journey

From corporate burnout to seven Figure Business re’s journey. Welcome back to Biz Bites for Thought Leaders. I’m your host, Anthony Perl, and today we are sitting down with Srimoyee who just launched Lumen, an employee branding and talent strategy firm that’s only a few months old, but already making waves.

She’s about to share why companies spend millions marketing their products, but. Get about the important product their people. We’ll explore how talent marketing isn’t just about hiring. It’s about building trust, retention, reputation, and so many more things to make sure it aligns with your values, your ethics.

So much detail in this episode. Have pen and paper ready for this episode of Biz Bites for Thought Leaders. And hey, don’t forget to subscribe while you are there.

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Biz Bites for Thought Leaders, and I’m delighted to have SRI joining me today, and I know we’re gonna have an amazing discussion about all things marketing and the fact that her business is very new, which is a little bit different for biz bites for thought leaders.

But I thought this was a great journey to take people on. So welcome to the program. Thank you so much Anthony. It’s great to be here. Lumen is an employer branding and talent strategy firm that I just started. It’s just been three months for me. And yes, it’s not a recruitment agency like most think it to be.

We try to help organizations attract, engage, and convert the right people by communicating what makes them a great place to work. And so happy to be here with you today. No, look and it’s great and there’s so much there to unpack as a starting point before we even get into your journey is to taking you there because, we hear a lot of people talking about cultural fits and things these days, but it’s it, there’s a difference between using the words and it actually meaning something. And I think that’s the key here, isn’t it? Because it’s the difference between marketing that is just made up terms because we think that’s the right thing and authentic based content. And that’s really what you are talking about here.

Absolutely. You know what we spend like millions marketing our products, right? But too often I feel, and many of us feel that we forget the most important product we have, which is our people. And talent is the engine of every business. You can have the best product, but if it’s your people.

Who make it real, authentic. And most companies I think invest heavily in marketing their products, ex and experience working in So your employer brand, it’s just not a campaign, it’s like one of campaign. It’s actually the foundation of trust, the retention, and the reputation as well. Yeah. And it’s something that is.

Underestimated, I think is probably the best way of describing in value. And I think part of that is business, has been very cautious previously about marketing team because they’re worried that they might move on. They’re worried what happens if they do move on. And so it’s just been kept very, close to their heart and not including other people.

And then other people’s voices don’t seem to count as much and it’s and it’s this steamroll effect of really what is. Old fashioned ideas and ones that in this day and age when it’s so important to build relationships, I think more important than ever before marketing is about relationship building with your audience.

And hence the reason why we’re doing podcasting for a lot of people as well, because it’s such a fundamental thing to be doing, including internally as well as externally. Absolutely. And I think talent marketing, like we call, is, it just doesn’t help someone to hire, it shapes who stays with you, what kind of experience a candidate is experiencing with your brand.

So when I feel that when talent marketing is treated like as a business strategy, hiring stops becoming reactive. So it becomes intentional brand driven and aligned with broader business goals. So it’s so important like a product marketing. Now think of a product that you would launch, right?

When you do launch the product, it’s important for you to understand your audience, the messaging. You would do some product testing. It’s the same way when you’re trying to hire, we need to do those tests in places to understand the audience, what they’re thinking. What is the candidate going through, and why should they apply to your organization?

Yeah, and I think this is the really important thing for business to remember is that. The right talent is everything. I know we’ve spoken a little bit about this in the past on the program how, having the right people is not necessarily about having technically the best person in the, in a particular role there, because if they are not a cultural fit with the organization, it can have much more of a negative impact than the positive of the fact that they may be brilliant at what they do.

Absolutely. And here’s where the strategy portion comes in. Now, suppose, we are trying to hire a key team. You, we could just do a job post and we hope that, the right people are coming in or we do something like a talent brand study Know, which is so important, which tells you what the candidates or employees perceive about the company.

What’s real, what’s aspirational, what are the gaps? And once you do that, you could craft employee value proposition or EVP. The, that’s just not a promise in words, right? So you are living that experience that you are going to give to people when this is like, when it’s clear people join for the right reason.

Your culture becomes tangible and candidate, especially Gen Z, trust you before they even apply. And today’s candidates the Gen Zs specifically are evaluating companies through a very different lens. They’re, they are just not looking at job ads. They’re not, they’re actually looking at some values, purpose and proof, and I’ll be happy to share some stats that, I came over while doing some research as we move on.

Yeah, absolutely, definitely. Definitely interested in those. And I think just to pick up on that point though, that I think there have been this kind of, this ideal, supposed, ideal working place that was constructed by big companies like Google, for example, where there’s perception that, you go and there’s rooms where you can, I don’t play pool and you can sit in different chairs and you can have coffee and whatever else it is that, that whole perception of what a workplace should.

Be like, has changed and therefore the younger generations have grown up with that perception that it should be different. And indeed, since COVID, we’ve obviously undergone this change again, where well do I actually have to be in an office, whatever that office looks like, and do I, if I do I have to be there nine to five, Monday to Friday?

Or can it look like something different? And I think the expectation of people out there is completely different to what it was, six or seven years ago, let alone what it was 20 or 30 years ago. Absolutely. In fact, my previous workplace, we worked remotely. So I was handling the talent marketing for apac as well as Americas.

And we were all connected virtually, right? It was never an expectation, and that was something that was driven from the leadership itself that, if you could get the work done. In a small, smarter ways. It’s not necessarily we would have to come to work. So it gave us a lot of flexibility because time zones was different for me based in Australia, we are much ahead in the time zone.

So it definitely gave that space and a comfort zone as well to finish certain things that you would like to do. It could be your person’s space before you could just come in and start your day. So I think that has been amazing and candidates are looking into those flexible options as well as we speak.

Yeah. Yeah. I like to think I was probably the lucky enough to be the forerunner to some of this and I wouldn’t say I was well among the first, I definitely wasn’t because I remember many years ago hearing an interview. With someone, and I’m sure it was someone who worked in a higher level at Channel nine at the time, who was spending quite a bit of time working from home.

And I thought, oh, that’s an interesting idea. And I was employed at a particular time to work in a in an office that was 45 minutes to an hour away from where I lived, depending on traffic that could increase even further. And I went to the CEO at the time and I said, look. It’s not very efficient for me to try and be here at nine o’clock in the morning if you allow me to work from home until nine 30 in the morning when the school zones are finished.

I can get an hour and a half work in. I can work for the 45 minutes while I’m in the car by taking phone calls and. Similarly, if I leave at the end of the day a little bit earlier to avoid that peak hour traffic, you’ll get more benefit out of that. And we trialed it and it unfortunately, it worked and it was great for a while and it was.

So I think that’s an important thing as well with all of this, is that with. The mix isn’t cut and dry as it used to be. It, it used to be literally you’re in the office nine to five, Monday to Friday. That’s what we pay you for and that’s what you’ll be, and and certain offices you’ll be there till six or seven o’clock at night and certain off certain offices, you’ll be there from seven 30 in the morning.

But whatever it is, that was the expectation. But now that blend of I can go and do a few things for a couple of hours. I can come back to work and work later in the evening. That flexibility is there. But the balance with that is what the expectation of the employer is as well, because the danger is that they expect that you’re now available 24 7.

And so we haven’t quite found that really nice way of making it work for everyone and designing it differently almost for everyone. That’s exactly like a great point that you you know. You’ve taken up here. Like I was talking about the stats, there is some interesting proof points which says that the current sort of talent, which is the Gen Zs right, are completely different.

And in fact, there are 44% of this group have rejected an employer because the company did align with their ethics. Now imagine you mentioned on your career site or somewhere about this, that we are flexible and, all of those words. But when it comes to implementation, it’s not they see and it’s just not about Gen Z.

So whatever promises you give on your marketing strategy, your career site, your social media, it’s the living proof of what you’re trying to say. And the minute there is a disconnect things just fall apart. So it’s important that, how do we ensure that, okay, if we are saying, talking about flexibility, that it is there, and to what extent should that be is something that the younger generation, they are, they live by that actually.

So yes, it’s so very important. And I think it’s almost like we’re writing new rules of the game. Yes. As far as marketing is concerned, isn’t it? Because it used to be that this was the trendy word, so we’ll throw it out there. It’s like one of my biggest bugbears in, in marketing is that every other business has, we are the leading.

In whatever it might be. Who says you’re the leading in it? What actual criteria have you met to suggest that you are the leader? Some can genuinely say that I get that, but that is a very small handful that have actually been through a process that says that they are the leading, because even a, even an award, even a competition, okay, you might have been the leader of the people that entered it.

But doesn’t make you necessarily the industry leader or the leader in a particular space and in what context that people don’t usually give it. I’m the leading whatever, but yeah, I might be the leading one in this street. That’s the, that’s, that might be true, but it’s, it doesn’t wash anymore.

I think that kind of phrasing and terminology doesn’t wash because people are looking for support to see that and saying, okay, if you’re the leader, where am I seeing that? That is actually evident. And I think the same applies to all of that marketing terminology that exists in different areas. Bang on I couldn’t just, we’ll talk about this more when it comes to certain words that we keep on using repeatedly.

Things like innovation, and these are very cliched in today’s word. And if you take that to a job description, say, where would we use those words? Because the job descriptions are so heavy and it already gives and an imposter syndrome to many when they read, even if they’re confident in applying, the minute these heavy words come into flow, it just am I too good to even apply?

Am I good enough to apply for these roles? So I think it’s time to shift, make. Easy. Some things that as per the job, what the skills are required, we have them do the real talks, have those real things that you know, matters. For example, that survey with the Gen Z also said that they need 88%.

They would need a clear purpose what they would like to do in the job and feel satisfied. So it’s just not about Gen Z. I think if today, me and you would read a job description. And it should be, wow, you know what? I feel connected and I think that’s what it is. And not glorified words so to speak.

Yeah. I, and I think it, it is so important to choose the phrasing correctly that matches in, I know, and I’m sure you’ve got examples of well as well of where, if you use the wrong terminology, the expectations of the people are different. That are applying to be with you and it ends in tears. I’ve definitely seen it.

I remember an organization I was dealing with a few years ago, and they used a particular word quite heavily in a lot of their materials. And despite me having conversations with the CEO at the time saying, it’s just not the right word for your business. It’s not a criticism of your business. It’s just not the right word for it.

No. It’s the right word. And I saw over a two year period, the the turnover in staff was astronomical. And when that word changed, so too, did the trend for staff to come and go as often as they were because they were attracted by something that wasn’t really. True to the business.

And again, not a criticism of the business or the person that was in charge of it, merely just the wrong word, reflecting something that they perhaps thought they should be rather than what they actually are. I completely, agree here to that and coming from I was attending a conference and it wasn’t.

It would, it was a networking event wherein this young graduate spoke up and said, you know what? I do pretty good in my college. I get good numbers, I get everything, and she’s now applying for jobs. And she mentioned this. The minute I open the jobs to apply, I pause and think if I’m good at it because.

It’s not even matching to what my, it’s, it might be the role that you open up, but then again, those heavy words make me feel like doubt myself even to applaud. So I think it has to be, those real insight has to be those authentic messaging and. The best people are your employees. So if they are the ones who come out and they are sharing their experience, that authenticity matters a lot.

So it becomes more credible and people are able to resonate to what they are saying and they are applying to you. Yeah and so I guess that’s the thing where we maybe start looking at some of the statistics and things that you’ve got there because. Again, we wanna put some authenticity to what you’re saying here because it is a very different landscape and I think many many businesses are not hearing it because.

They’ve got a mix of staff, right? They’ve got, it’s, they’ve got people that are old and young, different generations, so they’re catering to all of those. And that in itself can be a difficult thing because there can be a huge difference between it. I just while you are bringing up some of those stats.

I certainly recall a time when I was working for an organization and I hired someone. I had was just a three person team, so it was quite small. And I had someone who was working under me that was close to my age, and then we hired someone younger and I remember we were just having a casual conversation about influencers and TV shows and music and stuff, and this poor.

A younger woman was looking at us just very blankly and completely lost. We were talking another language to her and equally she would be talking about stuff and we’d going, what are you saying? And that makes it hard when you’re trying to build a culture and you’re trying to show these different things.

But I’m interested in some of the stats that you’ve got there as well. Yep. So this survey or the study report that I was looking through, they specifically focused on Gen Z. So today’s candidates how they are evaluating pri primarily our younger generation here. So I’ll just read this through to you.

They are, most of the Gen Zs are evaluating companies through a very different lens, as I mentioned earlier to you. So it’s beyond even the job act. So 44% of Gen Zs are, je have rejected a employer because a company didn’t align with their ethics. Now, that’s a very big thing. I would have in my so many years of experience, ethics was always there, but it never played such a huge role.

Right then you would have about 86% who said that they need a clear sense of purpose in their job to feel satisfied. Yes. We always wanted to be of, have that satisfaction to the kind of job that I was looking for too, but it was not predominantly on my top list. It was maybe on the fourth fifth.

But looking at the way things are changing with the new generation, it is good for employers now to look and think how their messaging should be. Now, if the report also said that, 75% of them, they actively weigh community engagement engagement and societal impact, not that heavy. We wouldn’t have thought that would play such a huge role in their mindset while applying a job.

So these are some very interesting data points for employers to consider because of the way hiring is now happening. And more we could talk about. How is the landscape of social media and content changing predominantly for this in a younger mindset as well as we speak? Absolutely.

Because the thing about anyone that’s looking for somewhere to work, they’re all a, they’re almost interviewing you as the employer rather than the other way around these days. And they’re looking at what you are talking about on social media in other places. And making some judgment calls around there because they’re seeing through what might just be the marketing terminology and what is the reality there and.

You talk about ethics and impact as well out beyond the actual job. I think that is an important thing to people as well. That there is a culture of giving in some way, shape, or form. We’ve certainly had on this program in the past, a shout out as I do every now and then to Paul Dunn from B one G one because B one G one is a great way that you can make an impact through a business and giving something to other parts of the world, but it is important.

When I talk about ethics, that it’s that it’s beyond just you are doing the right thing in the way that you work. It’s actually, you’re going beyond that. It’s not just ticking boxes. Absolutely. Most organizations, we always have a part of corporate responsibility or CSR activities that we all do.

But does it define me when I’m looking at a job, does it define that, okay how much of contribution this company is making? And it gives me then the deciding power to join a company. So I felt that it’s a big shift. Nobody would, and when they’re making a social media strategy, for example, to attract talent, then this plays a big role that you know, what CSR activities that they’re doing, they make it as part of their content strategy too.

So whoever is looking at applying, they would know, Hey, you know what this organization does. Do a lot in this space. So it is one of my decision making process of thought when I apply. Yeah and I think that when you are looking through all of those things, it’s important that they’re aligned with the business and that.

Is where I think is a lot of businesses fall apart as well. I’ve certainly, again, we’re going back into the past, but I remember working at an a fairly large organization and on the whim of the then marketing director who was. Personally very involved with a particular charity and for very valid reasons, and a very great charity at that, an international charity dragged the organization into a relationship with that charity.

And it was a failure because it had no alignment with the business itself, as wonderful an organization as it was. It just didn’t have any relevance. To the business and therefore nobody bought into it. And I think that’s an important message as well, is that if you’re going to align a business with something and a charity is one idea, but not the only idea, it whatever you are doing in marketing sense, it needs to be aligned with the business and where it’s going and the core audience and what they think as well.

Absolutely. True that because. It’s just not about the candidates. And the business impact that you’re mentioning here end of the day is the people who are making the changes as well. While we are looking at the content strategy with regards to CSR to probably attract talent, it’s also client strategy as well.

I’m sure clients would also be interested to see where we are contributing with regards to the society overall. Yeah, and I think it’s so critical. That businesses think about all of these things because it also impacts their own course of action and their success. Because we’ve been talking about it in the context of employees, but the truth is that this has an impact in the context of clients and whoever is buying from them and partners and those things as well, because you want to be in a relationship with someone.

That shares the same values as you, because the reality is you have competitors. We all have competitors. Why people choose you. Is because of you and who you are as a person, as a brand, as a business, and that filters out into the bigger world. And I believe that’s becoming more and more important. I think AI is making it more important because yes, people are looking for that, which is different.

That is true to who they are. That stands out from what is the AI driven content. Absolutely true that as well because in this aspect, specifically because you brought up the space of competitors everybody is looking into the, so your. Competition as to what they’re doing.

And specifically there is when you strategically do things with regards to keeping in mind the client perspective, the, the future candidate perspective, that’s when everything that’s what the strategy is all about. So I would again, reiterate that talent marketing is all about that.

It is a strategy with regards to keeping business in mind. And now, in one of, one of the times where there could be a lot of content strategy build with regards to the client stories that you have in a way that your future candidates get. Attracted and say, wow, you know what, they have these kind of clients and this is what the employees, so it’s, I feel it’s like a holistic approach from business from client perspective, where then your employees and your future candidates, one in a hardship.

Yeah. It’s such an area of underestimated value, and that’s where I think it’s about businesses knowing where to start from with this. Because we’ve been talking all around the idea of this, but the question is how do they actually get started on this and put, meat on the bone as it were, of what is really driving them and where that authenticity is because.

It needs to come from a place of authenticity and there needs to be, people like yourself that is going to find what that is and take them through a process. Absolutely. And it is. That’s what the beauty of talent marketing or recruitment marketing, employer branding is all about. It is about saying that as important is your product marketing or your client marketing.

So is your talent marketing. How would you shape talents to ensure that they are the right people, you are trying to attract them while you are trying to it’s even before you sit and you think about promoting those jobs outside, it’s a step much ahead of that. Like even your thinking of the job ads that you would write.

You, you keep thinking about how to ensure that this entire process comes into place. It is, it’s about everything. So if you are giving the product client marketing importance, talent marketing has an equal space completely out to your. So let’s go back a little bit because I want to give people a bit of a sense of your journey.

’cause we talked in the beginning of the fact that this is a fairly new venture for you. So talk to me a little bit about where this journey came from and how you got to the point of establishing this where you saw the gap that was in the market. So you’ve been, actually was born out of redundancy and I think I give a lot to my journey.

Of being redundant. I don’t think otherwise. Human, which means light would come into being Now after the journey of being redundant, I was like, okay, you have very less, because the space is very niche. Not all organization are heavily investing on employee branding services and.

That’s where my story is to most organizations or talent leaders are that do not treat talent marketing or employ branding as a cosmetic afterthought. It has to be something that you blend in your process just like you would advertise or do marketing with any product out there.

So I did see that, there was. Not, there was client marketing, there was product marketing, but the talent space is where it was missing. And of course there was less of roles in this EV space or employee branding space is when I thought that, I have had 15 years, 16 years of experience in this from starting employer branded services from ground up, so everything like, how should.

The EVP messaging be how should a career side be? How should the candidate experience be? And of course, engage, attract everything together. So I was like, why not do something for the talent acquisition team? So I think Lumen is a solid partner to a talent acquisition team, the strategic partners.

We try to tell you authentically how this could help you instead of that constant rush through applying chasing applications rather. Yeah, I think it’s it’s a wonderful thing that you’re doing and it’s interesting to me how you talk so openly about it coming out of redundancy, but it’s amazing how.

Often the great ideas come from there. And as, and I can’t remember who to attribute this to, so apologies out there, but I know someone who told first told me this little piece, which says that, have you noticed how when things break they open? And I think it’s so true that some of the best ideas have come out of exactly the kind of situation that you find yourself in.

So tell me businesses that are sitting out there at the moment going, okay, I hear you. What are the immediate steps that they can and should be doing? So the first thing that you know, I tell any of the talent acquisition leaders or employer employers, whoever I meet, is that you can’t fix hiring with more job ads.

You fix it with clarity. So that’s where I do a discovery session. And I try to take them through a journey of trying to understand what’s taking them or what keeps them awake the night to fill in those numbers. Because I’ve been a recruiter myself in my earlier days, so I know when, businesses give you the requisition and you have to fill in certain roles and specifically in the tech.

Space. It’s not easy. So what I do is I do a discovery session where I ask them a whole lot of questions and try to understand what is there. Do they have a EVP? They don’t have a EVP. Is it the candidate experience? Or sometimes I had a TA leader who said, Sri, I have a whole lot of applications coming in.

So I said that’s a great problem to have. But his challenge was something different. From having a whole lot of people applying, how does the candidate experience can feel broken when you have a lot of applications, right? So that clarity is where I’d like and I help TA leaders then think through coming back from the discovery sessions that I think this is what needs are fixed.

These 1, 2, 3 things could help you fix it. Now some things can be. A little longer process. Some can be a quick fix. So that’s accordingly how we shape it out for the leaders. Fantastic. We’re gonna include some links on how people can get in touch with you in the show notes and some of the, that initial discovery session I think is an important thing for businesses to be doing, like dealing with to work with you on.

So talk to me a little bit about the kind of. Ideal organizations that you are looking to work with, because of course there’s a, there’s such a range, right? I think what you’ve said today is relevant to someone who’s having their first hire to someone that’s, got hundreds of team. It’s would be for each and any organizations.

That is for my ideal customer, I would say, or a client would definitely be, I am focused very much on, the it and the tech world because that’s where I’ve done most of my my work experience is there, but then it’s just like shifting the coin if it is like an FMCG or if it’s some other clients coming and they want to fix their hiring.

So anybody who’s trying to hire in, every situation is very different. Every TA leader that I speak has a very unique challenge that they come up with. It could be from hiring, they’re having hiring problem. It could be candidate experience problem, it could be career sites. So depending on what that discovery session leads to, the solutions are given.

But mostly anybody’s trying to hire a hundred thousand, or they’re trying to set up. Probably a center offshore because we are with my ki, with my experience over across multiple countries and regions, I do have that lens of how the local experience or the local candidates would actually look at or what would help them to get them going.

Those numbers. Look, there’s so many more things that we can talk about in this space, and I think it’s a fascinating area. Again, reminded of people to check out the show notes of how to get in touch with Sri. Just one final question that I wanna ask you, and I ask this of all of my guests, and this is an interesting one to ask you because you’re so new in the journey.

So maybe it’s a little bit more about what you wish than what is actually happening at the moment. ’cause it’s so early on. But the question is. What is the at heart moment that people have when they come to work with you that you wish and hope more people will know about in the future? So you’ll have more people coming to knock on your door.

I’d say this Anthony, that instead of, like treating the recruitment marketing or talent marketing, like as I mentioned as a cosmetic afterthought we need to see it as a strategic partner. And I think that wow moment is that the talent acquisition team feels, oh, she’s one of us because she knows the trenches.

There is something that I have dealt it in and out. So of course there are a lot of agencies who you can probably give your work outsource to, but unless you’ve been in that trenches of hiring or recruitment, you wouldn’t understand the pain of the talent acquisition leaders. Like what it takes them to fill those roles and everything.

A snap of a finger probably. So yes, I said that would be the aha. Wow. Movement. Fantastic. I love that. I love everything that you’ve talked about today. It’s so relevant and important. It stretches beyond just the internal employees. It also looks to outside relationships and it’s a very specific kind of marketing that is becoming more and more important to organizations.

So thank you for being an amazing guest on the program. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much, Anthony. It was great talking to you. Thank you so much and to everyone listen in. Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode of Biz Bites for Thought Leaders. Until next time, we look forward to your company then.

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