Meet Ashish Yamdagni | Executive Producer and Content Creator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ashish Yamdagni and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ashish, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
For me risks are always things I want to learn, and in that sense I look at them as investments. Throughout my life I’ve always been quick to see a new opportunity and assess the pros and cons — most of the time I didn’t get the pros I expected. Almost all of the time, I could have made more money doing other safer things. However, the experiences, network, and skills that I gained from taking a new job opportunity (that didn’t pay as well) or working for a start-up paid out in kind where the salaries fell short.

I started my career in IT and was likely a few months away from making six figures. As I was only two years out college, this seemed pretty good at the time. However, during my time at this firm I started a Bollywood Dance competition, which took some investments from me and other people who were putting this together. We were not expecting to make money from this — breaking even would have been the best case scenario. In putting the competition together, I mastered event production and found an opportunity to make a documentary special that got aired on television. I utilized that chance to network and land a job at that television company… making minimum wage. It was in stark contrast to the financial trajectory I had, but that one decision to give up the money and take my first role in media was the catalyst to my future.

All this to say, every risk comes bundled with skills to learn and a network to grow. Learning to capitalize on those brings forth new opportunities that will bring on new risks as well. There isn’t any failing if you go through every risk trying to learn from it.

What should our readers know about your business?
I’m one of the founders of The Third Place Creative — a creative agency that roots itself in creating content that cultivates communities.

We’re a three–person team that grew out of coffee shops and chai houses. As children of immigrants we’re deeply attached to our culture and wanted to bring our unique skillsets together to help brands reach the heart of their communities.

We’re unique in that we focus on social media content first, and specifically through the lens of minorities. We also make our own content for fun to keep our tools sharp and to show the world that there’s a space for work and play to come together.

Putting an agency together, and especially trying to run a ship where others are dependent on you is an incredible mindset shift. The biggest change mentally is reframing your context to be bigger than yourself. It’s about the team now and always about the bigger picture. The freelance mindset and agency mindset are two different approaches — and the collective is always going to be stronger.

One thing we’ve been good at is showcasing our skills in ways to let our network know what we’re building. We’ve done this both in a way that created hype, but also in a vulnerable and authentic way to amplify our personalities and give more character to our brand. This has been great in getting inbound leads for us.

We’ve got some cool prospects and projects now in the pipeline (and we just started!) so it’s been a huge blessing. I’m excited to show our work to the world and also inspire others to collaborate more and band together to create something bigger than each individual could.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

In LA there’s one place I always have to go to get coffee and that’s The Butcher, The Baker, The Cappuccino Maker. Their coffees are so beautiful that it’s worth paying $10 for. They do something unique with it and it’s a fun spot for brunch with good food. That’s where the day would start – from there some shopping at Century City. There’s a few places to grab drinks there too.

I love hot pot and so we’d have a late lunch/early dinner at Haidilao Hot Pot (I know it’s a chain….) but it’s my favourite place in LA for hot pot.

Then depending on what’s going on we’ve got two options: either a dance class at RRB Dance Company if there’s someone fun (and easy) teaching. Otherwise, I’d take them for a drive along Malibu’s coast. It’s beautiful to see the sunset from the beach and a really iconic way to remember the West Coast.

I love the vibes of EP & LP so we’d end the night with a drink there if we’ve still got the energy.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

I love the work that Omika Jikaria is doing with her platform. She’s part of a trio the @jikariasisters and they make dance content which propelled them into the limelight. Leveraging that success, Omika has started making content related to health, mindfulness, manifestation, and meditation to help others find balance with their noisy lives.

Her work is a culmination of her own experiences navigating a rambunctious city like New York and moving through the corporate world, dating, and social circles which all can lead to moments of success, excitement, but also stress, depression, and discontentment. Her content serves as a reminder to seek fulfillment and happiness from within.

Website: https://www.thethirdplacecreative.co/

Instagram: @sheeshyams

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashishyamdagni/

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@sheeshyams