One of my guilty pleasures is binge-watching TV shows on Netflix, and I recently caught up on the first three seasons of The Mindy Project. For those of you who know me, that’s strange – I’m much more what Netflix might label the “Dark, Gritty Crime Dramas with a Strong Female Lead” type. Since watching The Mindy Project, and suddenly finding myself interested in how this oddly affirming show came to be, the marketer in me decided to a little research.
Mindy Kaling, like her character Mindy Lahiri, is witty and sarcastic and terribly intelligent. She’s beautiful and confident and abashedly unashamed of her enjoyment of pop culture and junk food. Rather than take a self-deprecating approach to her comedy, as women who don’t look like Ana Faris are often asked to do, Mindy is ALWAYS outrageously confident. She loves to say things like, “I have the right to life, liberty and chicken wings,” and “It is so weird being my own role model.”
It is with this mix of abundant confidence and a ridiculous commitment to being hilarious that Kaling has also become a marketing powerhouse in the entertainment industry. From a fashion blog that lists details about each gorgeous ensemble she wears on her show to her Facebook feed filled with merciless teasing of her colleagues and articles about how she is revolutionizing television, Kaling has leveraged the cult interest in her show effectively and with style. One of the busiest women in television (she created, writes, stars in and produces The Mindy Project) Kaling has built a creative social media empire that is equal parts serious and frivolous without losing sight of her brand or what her audience wants.
In spite of her current success Mindy Kaling’s journey has never, ever been easy. This isn’t the first time Kaling has had to create and produce a show so that she would have space to write the characters she wanted to play. She was even offered a sketch show at one point, but the now-defunct network decided she was not funny or pretty enough to play herself. Seriously.
Kaling’s unrelenting belief in her work could teach us a lot about how to survive in a highly competitive arts industry: be resilient, create the brand you wish existed, give customers what they want and don’t compromise your vision just rework your plan. In Kaling’s own words:
“…write your own part. It is the only way I’ve gotten anywhere. It is much harder work, but sometimes you have to take destiny into your own hands. It forces you to think about what your strengths really are, and once you find them, you can showcase them, and no one can stop you.”