From Advertising to CRO Founder: Stuti Kathuria's Incredible Journey

Editor’s Note: This transcript was created using AI transcription and formatting tools. While we’ve reviewed it for accuracy, some errors may remain. If anything seems unclear, we recommend referring back to the episode above.

Episode trailer

Stuti: “Think not just about creating some fear of missing out or creating that urgency or reducing that friction or building that trust. I really want people to start thinking beyond these very common CRO principles. If I thought okay, I have to make this perfect, I would never have created my first design. I would not have written my first LinkedIn post, and I would have probably joined this call half an hour later just fixing my setup. I am a big anime fan, so I love watching anime, reading manga, and buying products like One Piece or other animes like Naruto or Bleach. If you go to the gym like only for one day for 9 hours, you will not get fit, and CRO is very similar to that. If you just try to optimize your website in one day, it’s not just going to happen. My partner has actually really pushed me to start my own business. If he wasn’t there, I would have just been the same Stuti at another CRO role in some company.”

About VWO

Welcome to the first episode of the Women in CRO series by VWO Podcast. This series is an ode to the contribution of women in the CRO industry. Before we speak to our special guest for this episode, here’s a quick summary of who we are and what we do.

VWO is a leading experience optimization platform that helps fast-growing brands optimize their digital experiences. Using our latest product, VWO Insights, you can understand user journeys and identify conversion roadblocks on your website and mobile apps.

So without any further delay, let’s jump right into the conversation.

Introduction

Jinal: We have got fantastic Stuti Kathuria in the house, and she’s the brain behind Conversion UX, where the magic happens for D2C brands and service websites looking to amp up your online sales game.

Apart from being a wizard in CRO, Stuti is also a go-to person for all things design, with a track record of optimizing over 100+ websites across the globe. She’s like a CRO fairy sprinkling success dust in the digital world. And I didn’t mention that she’s also a CRO coach extraordinary, spreading her wisdom to help others level up.

So stick around, it will be a good one. So Stuti, hi!

Stuti: Thank you for having me here, Jinal. That is such a lovely introduction, and thank you so much for having me here.

Jinal: Great, great. And how are you doing today? As it’s Valentine’s Day today, we are celebrating Valentine’s Day right now over here. How are you today?

Stuti: I’m doing all right. I was actually under the weather since the last two to three days, but this is something which I think I had already postponed initially, and I did not want to postpone this again. But I’m feeling a little bit better today, so no Valentine’s Day per se for me because of my health. But I’m really happy that I have a chance to speak to you and through you to so many more people, and tell them a little bit more about CRO and all that there is to it, and even beyond that, hopefully.

Jinal: Great, great, great to hear that. And hope you get well soon. And yes, it’s a great chance for us to connect over here with a larger community about women in CRO.

Personal Growth and Habits

Jinal: In the last five years, what new belief and behavior or habit has most improved your life? Could you tell something about it?

Stuti: Sure, so Jinal, I would say that the main habit which has helped me a lot is actually feeding my mind with the right things. And I do this in a couple of ways.

The first way would actually be to surround myself with other like-minded people, and I also feed myself mentally by listening to a lot of great podcasts. So I’m based out of Delhi in India, but the kind of people I follow, they are from all parts of the world.

So I follow Christo, who is the founder of The Future, which is a design agency. And now he used to work at Blind, that is a design agency, but now he has The Future, which is actually an educational institute which teaches people about business and design. And so much I have learned about my mindset from him.

And other than that, I find one person in different fields which I know I need to learn to grow. So for example, LinkedIn is something which really helps me stay challenged and helps me grow my business and my personal brand. That’s something I have learned from Yasman Alik, who is one of the popular writers on LinkedIn. And then for my communication, I follow Will Gantt.

So there are many people I follow, and I constantly make sure I listen to them at least once a day, so I keep myself up to pace. That’s the main habit which has really helped me out in the last few months, at least.

Jinal: That’s great. And I also see that you have been contributing to LinkedIn as well through your learnings and sharing maximum things. So that’s also a great contribution based on your learnings.

Stuti: Yes, I try to be more regular at it, but because of the agency and my work, I feel that I’m a 6 on 10 on it. Still, I might be a little bit harsh on myself, but I feel I can do so much better. And I do have some plans which are upcoming for the LinkedIn audience and beyond as well in the next six months. So let’s see where that goes.

VWO Podcast Experience

Jinal: Great, great. And then what were your initial thoughts, I would want to know, when you received the invitation to be on the podcast?

Stuti: All right, so everybody actually knows about VWO. Anybody who is familiar with CRO would know the A/B testing tool, and any client that I speak to also is aware of it. So I was kind of surprised and I felt privileged to get a chance to speak on this platform, and I just felt blessed and very grateful.

Journey into CRO

Jinal: Great, great. Then we’ll just jump to what inspired you in your career of CRO and how has been your journey through?

Stuti: So quite frankly, I just stumbled upon CRO. So to give you a little bit of backstory, I was working in Mumbai, which was my first role, and this is the role where I got placed straight out of my college. And I worked there for about two years, and two years is a long time, after which I quit and came back home to spend time with my family in Delhi. And I spent good quality time with them for two to three months.

And then I’m wondering what’s the next thing I want to do in my career. And that’s where I just very randomly came across a post—I think it was a LinkedIn job post—which was at a CRO agency. And when I’m reading the job post, I can actually feel in my mind that okay, this is hitting all the right checkboxes.

So just to take a step back, what are these checkboxes, and how do I even know that this is the right role for me? At that point of time, obviously I wasn’t aware that I’ll be doing this and make this my primary career even five to six years down the line. So how would I know that this is the right role for me and for my career? Because my psychology might even help someone listening to this podcast to find what would be the right step in their career.

So where I was coming from is that I would actually get to interact with different business owners. And from a very early age, I knew I wanted to have my own business, and I thought that I would get a chance to speak with all these business owners who are the founders of various e-commerce companies. So I thought, okay, I might as well learn something talking to these people directly and working on their website. And website is the most important part of any business.

So that’s where I thought, let me just go with the learning mindset and just see how it goes from there. That’s how I stumbled upon CRO.

Jinal: Great. And I believe you have been into CRO for close to four to five years now?

Stuti: Yes, it’s been around five to six years now.

D2C Commerce Trends

Jinal: Great, great. Then, coming to based on your work with D2C brands, what are some key trends that you see in the D2C commerce space? And how can businesses leverage those trends for competitive edge? Can you share your thoughts around it?

Stuti: So actually, certain things which have really picked up in the last one year is shoppable video. And thanks to apps like Quin or VideoWise, this has really picked up like fire. You will see brands from every industry just adding shoppable video on their homepage, which is linked to their Instagram, and it makes their reels shoppable.

So that’s a trend which I’ve seen which has spread like rapid fire everywhere. And that’s also due to the increase in social media consumption. And these days, mostly people are hooked to Instagram and other [platforms], so that’s where it contributes much, at least in the e-commerce space. The learnings are that they contribute more from the social media space and then to website.

Jinal: That’s right. And social media somewhere really helps to build that authenticity if done correctly.

Stuti: So, and video is anyway such an entertaining thing to watch. So if your videos are short, well, it is such a powerful tool, and maybe that’s why everyone is now adding that as a feature to their website.

Jinal: Agree, agree.

Working Across Industries

Jinal: What I saw is that you have optimized websites for over 100+ brands across different industries like fashion, beauty, and even pet care. So can you share some of the unique challenges and opportunities that you encountered while working with any of these sectors or various sectors?

Stuti: So I think for me to genuinely help a business, no matter which industry they are from, we have to really understand what is stopping that business from actually growing. So I will talk a little bit more about the industry-level challenges, but before that, let’s just get a more high-level picture.

So before we start working on any project, I make sure that we really investigate where are the major gaps on your store. So we’ll identify all the major things which need to be improved. It could be the copy, could be the images, the structure of your website, the branding—which is the fonts and the colors. It could be any part of it. We’ll see which one, if changed, will give your business the highest return on investment and will increase your profit the most. And we just attack that first.

So that’s the approach which I think has worked out so well for me and for the clients I have worked with. And the biggest mistake that brands really do here is that as a small company, you will have seven things that you think you have to fix, and then you try to tackle all seven at the same time. If you start to do that, it’s just going to spread your focus too thin.

Rather, what I would suggest is that focus on one key problem for the first month, really get the results from it, and then see. And then once you’re happy with the results, then you move on to the next thing. Don’t rush it. Focus on quality over quantity.

So that’s the approach that we’ve been using, and that’s given us really great results for any industry, actually.

Jinal: That’s great. And often we see that people find gaps in prioritization. They have a lot of things to do and a lot of ideas, but then down the line it happens that they stop innovating. Based on certain results, they don’t try to continue learning and continue to learn from the results. But somewhere they see the downside because they had a lot of things on their plate, and then gradually it happens that they don’t move towards the prioritization. It comes to a halt sometimes, or they totally just move to a different direction.

I’m sure you would have faced such brands as well wherein they come up with a lot of things in the initial months and then slightly they slow down a bit.

Stuti: Yes, it’s our job as the specialist to bring the client back on track and to be very patient and tell them that CRO is not something which is for the short run. It requires consistency.

So for example, if you’re going to the gym, you will work out for minutes every single day for the next, say, three months to see results. And CRO is actually so much similar to that. If you go to the gym only for one day for nine hours, you will not get fit. And CRO is very similar to that. If you just try to optimize your website in one day, it’s not just going to happen.

So to achieve great things personally or in your business, you have to be patient, and you have to have that discipline and consistency, which is a very key and actually a forgotten ingredient when it comes to conversion optimization.

Jinal: Agree, absolutely. It should be a recurring activity instead of stop at a time and rig that up.

Early Career Experiences

Jinal: All right, then. You have had your early career experiences including roles in business development, account management, and even event organizing. So how have these diverse experiences contributed to your overall skill set and approach to client relationships and your current role as a CRO consultant and leading yourself as a brand of your own as well?

Stuti: I think the main skill that I am glad I could have and polish from my earlier jobs would actually be how to build meaningful client relationships.

So I would say I was really blessed to have two clients in my first CRO role where I had a solid bond with them. One of my clients was actually based out of UK, and the day I was leaving that job, he was genuinely emotional, and he actually asked me, “Wouldn’t we get to work again together? Would I be losing you and would I be losing your talent?”

And so that is something which really stuck with me, and that’s the kind of bond I want to have with any client that I work with.

Jinal: That’s great.

Stuti: Yes, we are still in touch on LinkedIn. Six years have passed, and that’s the client relationship which I take as an example to build from there.

Jinal: That’s great. That’s your credit as well. That’s also your work and your skill set and all that reflects back to you. So that’s truly inspiring as well to know that you are even connected till today down the line six years.

Stuti: Yes, and there would be other things with which I would recommend—which are other skills which I have learned from my past jobs which I think other people who are still in CRO roles can probably take some inspiration from.

So some of the other skills that I’ve learned on the job would be things like Google Analytics or Data Studio, which are pretty popular in performance marketing or in CRO. But then there were a bunch of things which I learned on my own, and these were the things which were not a part of my job description.

So what was really driving this? It was mainly the curiosity, and that is something which has helped me start my own agency as well as differentiate myself as a CRO specialist.

So I think most CRO roles or agencies don’t talk as much about web design, and they talk at a very high level about things like competitor analysis. And things like brand strategy or copywriting are hardly spoken about.

So the things—the skills which are the web design, the competitor analysis, brand strategy, copywriting—these are things which I just happened to learn on my own and through online courses or through mentors. And these were not the skills which I had to learn in my job, but I wanted to learn to grow myself.

And that’s something I just want people who listen to this podcast to know: that don’t restrict yourself to just your job role. If you really want to grow in your career and do something meaningful, see what keeps you fulfilled and just focus on developing yourself.

Jinal: Yeah, that’s great. So you learned Google Analytics and a lot of things on yourself, and that’s also a good enough skill to fuel your CRO strategies as well, because that would help you drive data-driven strategies, right? Even the Data Studio and now called Looker, so that also helps us analyze a few things and bring up the data-driven ideas as well, apart from the normal UX strategies that are being followed in the market. So that’s also amazing.

Data-Driven Strategies

Jinal: Any good use case that you would like to share that, okay, this is how data-driven strategies help you somewhere? Any such example that you remember from recent past? I know there would be many, but if you can handpick them out.

Stuti: Sure. So data actually forms the foundation of any project, and to be honest with you, I do an introduction or a sales call with my client, and I just ask them some of the very basic questions like: What’s the traffic? What’s the bounce rate? What’s the conversion rate? What’s the AOV?

And based on my past experience of working with clients from similar industry, I would actually try to see if this is someone I can genuinely help with. If I know that the conversion rate is on the higher side, or their bounce is not concerning, or humanistically I don’t see that I can help them on their website, I would just not take up that kind of a project. So that’s the basic data check that I do.

But once I start to work, I just figure out some of the basic things. So to give you a laundry list of things I would check:

First of all, I would see which are the top landing pages, how are the conversion rates, what are the bounce rates on those top landing pages. Is there any one page which gets most of your revenue? And is that optimized? Is that page converting better or lower than your other pages on your website? So that way I can actually focus on the pages which are genuinely valuable to the business.

Other than that, we can check the drop-off rate and the abandonment rate. So there is a metric called buy-to-detail rate, which is how many people added that product to [cart] vs. how many of them actually bought the product after they viewed the product. So it’s a conversion rate metric but at a product level.

And sometimes you’ll be surprised to see that there are products which hardly get any impressions, but they convert really well. So those are your dark horses. The brand should be promoting them in the ads or should have them featured on the homepage, but that’s just something which people don’t really think about. That’s where we come into the picture and help them really find these hidden gems through data.

Jinal: Yes, and even the search conversions also help us fuel up these things. Okay, if people are not seeing those products, maybe they are searching them and then trying to convert. So maybe it’s the brand’s own value that is known and widespread to people, and that’s how they are trying to convert and probably search for a product instead of finding them upfront. So yes, I think it’s a good way to pick the unpicked or the untouched things that way out and help people convert better.

Future of CRO

Jinal: All right, then would you want to share your predictions for the future of CRO over the next few years?

Stuti: So brands that are authentic—I think those are the kind of brands that will actually sustain in the long run. The competition is increasing. There are more and more brands [that] start to advertise every year on Meta, on Instagram, on Google. So we know for the fact that the competition is rising.

So brands who genuinely, I think, speak from their heart and are able to create a bond with their audience, with their customers—those are the kind of brands which will genuinely have a competitive advantage.

So CRO is just not about your website. I think once the user has bought from your website, how do you treat them? Do you reply to them on time? How is your customer support? Is the quality of your product great? If any of these things are broken, they are not going to come back to you, no matter how amazing and how optimized your website really is.

So I think those are the brands who are authentic and who put their customers first would be the ones who actually become successful.

And one more thing I want to talk about here is actually the storytelling bit, and that is a trend which is just so underutilized.

So what is exactly storytelling? That is the core human behavior—how we really connect. So that is something which is so much missing. Let’s think about it from a CRO perspective. What really would be a story from a website’s perspective?

So if a user is landing on your website, they are reading through your homepage, they need to feel an emotion which connects them to your brand. That is the story piece, and it could be copy, it could be your branding. These two things have to be in sync, which will create that meaningful connection with your audience.

And this is a concept which actually has to come from the founder, because the team, the marketing team, cannot really come up with the story which will connect with the audience. The founder has to really dive deep into their heart and think about things like: Why did I start this business? What impact do I want this business to create on people?

So once the founder starts to think about these things and starts to really write from their heart, it could actually just be on their social media before they actually even post something on their website. See what works, see what connects with your audience on social. Once you’re confident that this is getting high engagement and response from your audience, then use that copy on your website, on your homepage, or on your about us page.

This gives you flexibility to try different concepts and messaging, and then finally put the piece which works the best for you on your website.

So I think that’s such a powerful concept, but hardly anybody even uses it. It’s underutilized, I guess, in current industry, though it’s the need of the… it’s still underutilized.

Jinal: That’s so true. And you would hear people like Simon Sinek say that people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. And there’s also a saying that people no longer buy products, they join tribes. There’s so much truth to that, but people just don’t take it as seriously.

One of my favorite brands in this space who does it really well is actually Olio Stories. This is a jewelry brand which I worked with around five to six years back. They were my first client. And if you just go to their Instagram, you would just connect with what I’m saying right now. Everything from their images to their copy to the way the founders come upfront and talk about the brand—it is so meaningful, and they have a global audience base, and they do their storytelling really well.

So if anybody who’s hearing this wants to get a good example, just head to their Instagram and you would see what’s the best practice for that.

Jinal: Great. And I think that would also inspire other brands and others who are looking to amp up in this space, at least in future for CRO.

Stuti: Yeah, this is actually mostly for founders, because CRO specialists cannot really think about the story. They have to dig into the founder’s mind to see what can I get from this person and what knowledge do they have which I can use.

So from some perspective, we have to stop thinking like a CRO specialist, and we have to think of the brand as our own business and see how can we really grow this business beyond what it is right now.

Jinal: You mean to say we need to step into the shoes of the CEO of that brand in order to drive actual strategies and improve the brand?

Stuti: Yes, I think because as a CRO specialist, I have worked with around 20 to 30 CRO specialists in my entire career, and it’s a pattern that we get so stuck in the data that we do not even think about things like brand strategy. People won’t even know what brand strategy is.

So after that, other things which are such complementary skills which will help you grow exponentially is web design, if you know that as a CRO specialist. So if you focus and you think bigger, you would grow in your career really fast and just don’t limit yourself to what everybody else is doing in your field.

Jinal: That helps, at least to know your thoughts as well, and it’s also a great tip for others who are trying to look for a career in this field for a longer run.

Role Models and Influences

Jinal: All right, can you share which female personality do you look up to in the field, if any, and why?

Stuti: To be honest with you, I don’t really have a female personality that I look up to in the CRO space. I do stay connected with the CRO community through LinkedIn and through some roundtable conferences, so I do stay up to date, but I don’t really have one personality that I really closely follow.

But if you want to know more about the other people that I follow, I would love to talk about that that have helped me actually grow.

Jinal: Sure, you can share about that.

Stuti: Yeah, so as I mentioned before, Christo—he is like a virtual business and a design mentor. He may or may not know it, but he’s just done wonders for my life and for my mindset, personal growth. And for the days where I just do not feel like working, I listen to Dan Koe. He is a very popular writer on Twitter, and he has actually helped so many content writers find their voice and succeed in writing on LinkedIn and on Twitter.

So his talks are very motivational, so I just listen to a podcast in 1.2x speed the days I’m not feeling like working, and he will just put us back on track.

Jinal: Yeah, and that makes you happy as well.

Stuti: Yes, I think we need a little bit of a push every once in a while, and discipline is the only thing which will actually help you succeed. Motivation just lasts for a couple of days, maybe a week or two weeks, but what really gets you to succeed is just consistency and discipline.

So whatever helps you get that motivation, you have to be open to that and identify that. So if I know that, okay, listening to this guy really helps me come back on my track, I will consciously think of it when I’m feeling not motivated and just do what I need to do to get back on track. It could also be playing with my dog or going for a walk, but this is one of the things which really helps me get back on track.

Jinal: That’s great. That’s great routine as well.

Personal Interests

Jinal: Time for some casual discussion. I would like to know what’s your favorite travel destination and why?

Stuti: Well, my favorite travel destination would be Japan without a doubt, because I am a big anime fan. So I love watching anime, reading manga, and buying products like One Piece or other animes like Naruto or Bleach.

So Japan would, without a thought, be my first choice. And I feel the culture and people there are so down to earth, and so much to learn from Japan as a country. I would just want to travel there and spend more time there.

Jinal: That’s great. And also you can spend time when it’s around April, because that’s the best season, I guess, to be in April-May is somewhere the best season to be there.

Stuti: Awesome, yes, yes.

Advice for Women

Jinal: Do you have a message for women facing challenges and pursuing big dreams and excelling in their careers?

Stuti: That’s such a great question, Jinal, and this is something which I would love to throw some light on.

So anybody—not just women, but anybody who is struggling to really succeed in their business or want to start their own business—they have to first figure out just one thing, which is: What is your actual strength?

It could be anything. It could just be that you are highly disciplined, or it could be that you cook great. It could be that you love to draw or you love to paint, or it could be a professional skill set like you love to do web design or graphic design. It doesn’t matter what it is, but you have to first really introspect and ask yourself: What is this one thing which I’m really passionate about, and I would be very fulfilled if I am able to achieve a specific goal which has to do with this skill set?

Once you have that answer—and take your time with it, brainstorm, write down the different things that you’re interested in—and then find that one thing which really resonates with you and just focus on that.

Second thing would be: Once you have that skill sorted, just create an offer which can help you sell that skill. Don’t overthink this. Don’t give yourself any excuse. Just start to find a way to showcase that skill that you have. It could be a direct message, it could be cold outreach, it could be that you post on Instagram about it, it could be that you make a message on WhatsApp and broadcast to your network. It could be any path, but just get started to sell your skill and to get that first customer without thinking, because if you start thinking, you will not do it. You will procrastinate.

So that’s the second step.

And third would be that be ready to adapt in case it does not work out. Think how can you make it better. Be ready to be flexible. If you get stuck on something, it’s just not going to work out. You have to have that flexibility and that skill to adapt. When you think that you’ve tried your best and things are not working out, so just move on to the next thing or see how can you make this one even better and try from different angles.

The final advice would be to get a mentor if you’re stuck. I actually have two mentors. One is my official mentor who is from Portugal, and she is a web design agency owner. And I actually got her on board somewhere last year, and I knew I wanted to scale further and I wanted to manage my time better and not be burnt out at the same time while I’m scaling up.

So through her help, I’ve been able to create better processes, delegate to my team better, hire better people, and that has just saved me years of just figuring out things by just getting a mentor. And they don’t teach you these things in an MBA. You might learn this on a job, but it will take you years to learn that. So the only way you can actually learn things fast is by getting a mentor.

And the second thing is that my partner has actually really pushed me to start my own business. If he wasn’t there, I would have just been the same Stuti at another CRO role in some company. I actually got laid off in November 2022, and after that, every single day he would be like, “Okay, you have the skills. What are you even waiting for? Just do it. You’re just wasting your time. Why don’t you do something of your own?”

And when you hear this over a long period of time, I just bought a domain. I just made my offer, and I just started doing it because I had that push from him. And I’m just so grateful for that.

So make sure who you surround yourself with, because those kind of people really can shape your career moving forward.

Jinal: That’s true. It also depends on the company and the type of push that we get, because definitely we are self-motivated, but apart from that, yes, the energy from surroundings does help. And that’s your case as well and many other people in the world.

Stuti: So great.

Rapid Fire Round

Jinal: Then we had a fantastic discussion so far, Stuti, and it’s now the time to switch gears and enter our rapid fire round, where I’ll just put certain quick questions your way, and I would love to hear your spontaneous answers.

Stuti: Sure.

Jinal: Three apps that you can’t live without?

Stuti: Applications? Okay, that would be… um, let me think about that. I actually don’t use my phone that often. It would be LinkedIn for sure. It would be my Gmail and maybe just WhatsApp. Other than that, I don’t really use my phone for anything else.

Jinal: Oh, that’s great. Then if a movie was made about your life, what would be the title?

Stuti: That’s something I haven’t thought about before, but I’m sure it will have some keywords to do with some dogs and struggle and then overcoming that struggle. And I will have to think about that movie topic, but these are some of the hints which are coming to top of my mind.

Jinal: No worries. I think that’s a good start as well. And one thing you would like to change about the CRO industry?

Stuti: I would just want… yeah, one thing I would like to change would just be that think CRO just more than A/B testing. It is, I think, very limiting belief. So A/B testing is obviously a method which helps you to achieve something, but what you feed into that A/B test, think about that more broadly.

Think not just about creating some fear of missing out or creating that urgency or reducing that friction or building that trust. I really want people to start thinking beyond these very common CRO principles.

So I want people to think more about their brand and how do they really portray themselves online—not just on their website, but on their social media, in their ads. When a founder speaks in a public setting, all of that has to be in sync for your website to convert better. It is just not about the website. It’s a much broader picture than that.

So A/B testing is obviously a means to achieve and grow your business, but what you feed into it really depends on the output. So garbage in, garbage out is the sort of saying. So if you feed in bad stuff, you’re not going to get anything good out of it. So keep innovating and think of other things that you can really A/B test other than the general concepts which have been going around since a long time.

Jinal: True. Then what’s the most random fact that you know by heart?

Stuti: Random fact? Yes, that you feel that, okay, this is very much known, at least to you.

Stuti: Perfection is the enemy of progress. That’s something which I live by every day. If I did not—if I thought, okay, I have to make this perfect—I would never have created my first design. I would not have written my first LinkedIn post, and I would have probably joined this call half an hour later just fixing my setup if I wanted to just be perfect.

So that’s the thing which you have to live by if you want to really progress in your day and in your life.

Jinal: That’s true. We shouldn’t wait for the time, otherwise time would just slip.

Stuti: Yes, and the right time is actually now to do the thing that you’ve been waiting on since a long time, if there is anything.

Jinal: And your guilty pleasure TV show or movie, if any?

Stuti: That would just be the anime which I watch. So I keep rewatching One Piece. I’ve seen it once already, but I would still spend hours to just rewatch it when I’m not able to sleep or if I’m just taking a break like eating some food or just chilling for some time.

That’s just something which feeds—I think that again coming back to feeding your mind with the right things. So it just helps me watching that show. It just might sound very superficial, but it has actually helped me create more meaningful bonds with my family, with my friends, because Japanese anime actually tells you so much more about human beings and friendship and how it develops from a very young age in their culture. So I just enjoy watching that so much, and I just stick with that.

Jinal: Great. I think you would have read Ikigai many times based on your love for the Japanese activities and habits. That’s my thought, but you can correct me.

Stuti: I have not read the book actually, but I’m familiar with the concept that you find something which is internally which motivates you and your purpose in life. That’s the concept of Ikigai. I’ve not read the book though, but I’ve heard people talk about this a lot.

So they just tell you to find the purpose of your life, which I think is a little difficult to find. So you have to be very conscious about what really keeps you happy.

So personally, I would say that my Ikigai would be to actually help animals. And at some point of time, I want to at least have 10% of my company’s profit to go in animal welfare. I do still take care of a lot of strays in my society, and I have adopted one a year back as well. So I do whatever I can, but I think that’s the main purpose of my life.

So that’s such a beautiful concept, and that’s just one of the things that we can learn from Japanese theories and concepts.

Jinal: If you had a podcast, who is the first person you would want to invite on the show?

Stuti: That would be my mom, because she herself has a very popular YouTube channel by the name of Chit Chat, and she takes interviews of many people herself. So if I have to get someone, I think it would be just someone from my home, and she will be so happy to be on it. And I think I can just get very comfortable talking to her, so she would be, without a doubt, the first person I pick for my podcast.

Plus, I think she will add a lot of value to it because she has been a business owner herself, and she actually did her architecture from IIT when she was pregnant with me. So she is very inspiring as a person and very ambitious in her own career as well.

Jinal: It’s great, great.

Jinal: Three books that you would want to recommend to our listeners?

Stuti: So it depends who is the listener, but if you are getting started with CRO, “Making Websites Win”—which is actually right here, it’s going to spoil my setup—but this is the book which I would actually suggest people to read. It’s by Conversion Rate Experts, and these are the folks who actually even coined the term CRO. And I read this book maybe six years ago. So that’s one book. If you are into CRO and you want to just learn more about it, you can read it online or you can get it from their website.

And what else? There’s one book by Christo. It’s called “Pocket Full of Do.” I haven’t read it, but I’ve heard so many people talk about that book. It actually has references to how you can become better in every sphere of your life, whether it is your career or your personal growth. That would be another great book.

And if you have your own business and you want to make your business a bit better and streamline it, you can read two books. One is “Built to Sell” and the other one is “Clockwork,” which have kind of helped me with my own business and streamlining it. And this is coming not from me but from my mentor who I talked about a little earlier. These would be the three books.

Jinal: Great, great. And then one superpower that you would like to have?

Stuti: It would be healing, because I think a lot of that would just solve a lot of pain on Earth, especially during COVID or when I see any animals suffer. That would be the only power that I would want to have, so we can just reduce some suffering and pain and just help people recover and animals recover from whatever problem they’re going through physically, at least.

Jinal: I think that would be the greatest of all, because many people damage, but yes, power of healing is even higher than that. It’s the topmost power.

Stuti: Yes.

Jinal: And one thing that you are tired of explaining to your clients?

Stuti: So I don’t take up a client with whom I will get tired explaining something to anymore. This would be—I would get tired explaining things to people maybe three years back, but now I make sure I set my boundaries and expectations straight from the very first call, which is the sales call that I do with them. So the answer would be nothing anymore.

One thing I would request is just give us less feedback and trust us more with that process. But that’s something which I think depends on how confident you are and how much proof you put into the kind of work that you do. That just helps to streamline that a little bit.

But some of the brand owners, because it’s your website, it’s your own baby, you want it to be perfect. So revisions is a part of life, but I just wish we can reduce that just to save us some more time and at least give us some free space in order to let us run the programs ourselves.

Jinal: I think that would be also your request to have a free hand—not totally on the website, but yes, on the strategies that you are trying to bring down for each brand.

Stuti: Yes, I think you have to just build that confidence and that trust. So if anybody is reaching out to you and wants to work with you, they already have that trust built. So you have to just maintain that trust and make sure that you don’t do anything that just makes you lose it.

Jinal: Yes, definitely.

Jinal: One goal or dream that you would want to achieve in the next three years?

Stuti: I’m not going to talk about that, because the moment I say it out loud, I just feel the chances of that happening reduces substantially. So I’m going to keep my goals in my diary and just try to work towards it. I hardly talk about my goals, so sorry, I cannot really answer that one.

Jinal: Yes, otherwise it won’t be a dream. It would be like a benchmark that you would be looking for.

Stuti: Great, great.

Closing Thoughts

Jinal: Cool, then I think that’s a wrap over, and it was great speaking to you. Looking forward to your messages into the women in CRO and more and more on LinkedIn. And it was great speaking to you via this podcast and reaching the other audience as well. Anything you’d like to add?

Stuti: I think that’s all. I would just say that if you are somebody who wants to join CRO and make it your career, just make sure that you get a very solid foundation, because the competition in the space is going to increase exponentially in the upcoming future.

So make sure that you have a solid foundation of all your concepts. At the same time, focus on the bigger picture and keep yourself in the founder’s shoes, as we spoke about a little while back. That will help you just keep the bigger picture in mind and think about optimization beyond the website and actually think about profit and growing a business.

So that would just be my two cents as a closing note for anybody who wants to start or wants to make a career or improve their career in this field.