00:01:13
And I got a chance to work in a unicorn, like being on this, you know, hyper-growth trajectory to one billion for five years. Then I got a chance to join SEMrush and prepare the marketing for a successful IPO that followed. And also again, like triple growth in three years. And now another hyper-growth company for me, which is GotPhoto. com, my current place where I oversee all things marketing. And we're now again on this mission, like to conquer the world. I love this vision and mission that you are on with GotPhoto. com. I really also like that you worked in the past for SEMrush because I'm using SEMrush for a lot of tasks. And I think that it should be a really great experience at the beginning of your career and then really smoothly navigating your own entrepreneurship.
00:02:18
Can you tell us some lessons that you have learned from working for SEMrush? Yeah, well, there were a lot. I would say the first and most important lesson that I got from my SEMrush experience is experimentation is key. And when we talk about experimentation, it is very often limited to paid advertising or landing pages. So it's usually about certain channels and certain activities. But the SEMrush culture. taught me that experimentation is just you know, your own style of work, and literally like anything that uh we used to launch in some rush, um we used to test it's like never-ending testing and um. This is why like one of the key achievements that I consider during my time with SEMrush was also establishing a separate team, actually, whose entire job was to find you know this I'm mindful of the word growth hacks because it's about like short-term effect.
00:03:35
Their job was to find actually growth engines, I would say, entirely focused on finding gaps outlining gaps what gaps we have in our strategy and testing, testing, testing like new tools new approaches what we're missing out what's new in the market. So before we implemented on a regular basis it was always test first. And that was one of my biggest lessons there wow I love it. Especially like me as a founder, you always have so many hats on your head, actually, like you are doing everything from like implementation to marketing to strategies, etc. And you just naturally experiment, you test, you don't know what you are doing. I never had a really marketing degree. I never really learned it the traditional way. And you just try.
00:04:29
And then I hired a marketing person for my company. And she's like, yeah, we need. To do A/B testing, I'm like, 'What is it?' I'm really curious about this strategy, and she's like, 'Yeah, this is what you actually do. You just test, experiment, and I'm like, 'Okay, I learned something new.' Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you actually raise a very good point, Marie... Uh, this is about, like, sometimes you need to just go with your gut feeling. This is I think very unusual for us marketers, uh, I mean, uh, marketers, you know, by degree or again by title, uh, because, uh, for many years we used to function in super data-driven environment; there was like a data point for everything, uh, but then, I mean, thanks to GDPR and so many...
00:05:19
You know, mobile devices were like, 'We're a mobile-first generation.' It's very often that you just lose track of all the customer... Of all the customer uh touch points, right? And so this is where your gut feeling comes into play. And basically, you just showed... You know, the best lesson for a marketer: sometimes you just need To try to trust your gut and just go out there and again test uh without probably some data proving that you should do that. And also defensive phrases. It's also like, to understand sometimes the marketers, it's really hard. I struggled for a really long time to remember what is outbound and inbound marketing. And every time I'm like, which one is which? And every time I'm Googling it, which one I actually do and what does it even mean?
00:06:20
It's really funny. But yeah, also, I really like that you work with the companies currently, also with your business and you help people to stand out while also scaling rapidly, which is something really impressive because if we want to scale up our startup, our company, we sometimes also lose the authenticity in the competitive market. So can you tell us more about how a company can build a brand that authentically actually stands out and they can still keep this identity while still scaling rapidly so that they can reinvest their revenue etc Oh, my God. I love your question. So first, I would say that your brand strategy very much depends on where you are as a business, right? Whether you are a startup or a mid-sized, like established company or a scale-up or an enterprise, right?
00:07:22
So if we talk about startups, just again, starting your journey. I would say, I love to say that you better be cringe than boring. Because very often startups just, you know, look up at the bigger companies like, oh, I want to be like HubSpot, you know, and think big is like great. And I love people with ambition. But at the same time, you do need to realize that you don't have the budget, you don't have the capacity, you don't have the history of bigger brands, and you cannot rely on their strategies. You need to invent your own. And when inventing your own, again, it's more about capturing attention rather than playing by the rules. And so just BE BOLD, BE SUPER UNUSUAL, UNCONVENTIONAL** You mentioned the part about being authentic to the audience so just you know, cut the crap, and I mean people really appreciate that you're superhuman, that you're super relatable, that you're close to them and just call the spade a spade right.
00:08:34
So if there is some problem in the market don't hide behind you know these fancy words like 'boost your revenue' or 'build a sustainable business'. I mean we don't speak like that in real life, right? And probably again bigger companies can get away with it just because they again have certain legacy but if you're just starting your journey, I mean, speak like a real person and don't be afraid again to sometimes share some bold statements and bold vision. People would appreciate that. And I mean, as you grow and as you scale, I would say my advice would be try to appear bigger than you are not in terms of again deceiving anyone like stating you know wrongful facts but about again your vision like the way that you see the market.
00:09:31
Yes, you may be just, you know, a company with 100 employees. But it does not mean that you cannot be, again, ambitious enough, big enough in your vision and what you share. And, yeah, don't be again afraid to come there and share your view. So at this point, again, probably being cringe is not the best strategy anymore. But, again, not being afraid to think big here as a scale up, I think it's important. And when you are like a bigger company, I think the biggest pitfall of any bigger company is actually losing consistency and losing brand entity because, I mean, for the sake of a better example. Or like very vivid example, let's talk about like super big brand like McDonald's, for example, or Apple.
00:10:32
No matter what location you are, you know for sure that, okay, this is McDonald's or this is Apple. You know, there is brand consistency in terms of visual, in terms of tone of voice, in terms of, again, look and feel. It's super important as you're growing, as you're establishing your global presence to be really consistent. So, and I think here the best. I would just refer, you know, I would usually refer to a certain ratio between like the global consistency and like localization parts. So for me, it's like 80% should be super consistent. So it's like 80-20. 80% of your brand should come from, again, from the global versions being super consistent across the globe. But then you tweak, you iterate, you localize the rest, which is like 20%.
00:11:24
So in this way, you can be sure that again, SEMrush, for example, that you see in the States is the same SEMrush that you see, let's say, in Australia or in Japan or in MENA. I really like what you said that at the beginning, you should be more cringe than anything else. And I would say that this is usually about a founder, that the founder should be cringe to drive the vision and to drive the company. And then when they are for example 100 employees plus on the board there is where the consistency is coming because you cannot just expect that 100 employees in your company will be cringe it's you who is driving. The vision who is driving also the employees, and based on like how cringe you are, you usually do something extraordinary what is not normal, right like in real life, so it's why people consider cringe, etc.
00:12:25
And you should be cringe. You should actually push the boundaries towards the vision that you believe in. And then you put the employees inside your company who drives the consistency with 80-20 rule, so that you have the presence on the global and local market. And also, the rhetoric is really important. I also heard that right now, the main trend of 2025 is that you should be cringe. People are interested in emotions. For example, what we see on Instagram, on LinkedIn, that people want to connect with a human, especially now with the AI boom, where everybody uses Endeavor, Boost, the revenue, or this kind of machine rhetoric. People are interested in behind-the-scenes, who you are as a human, and emotions.
00:13:19
For example, for me, the best what worked recently was a reel where I sold my first course I was working on the online course for one year and I recorded myself like how I sold my first course that it was like wow like the kind of moment like that you start to like that you actually see the energy coming back to you what you have built it for so long and this reel made such a success on Instagram like this kind of like raw emotions that who what is it to make you human So what do you think that are other trends this year? Yeah, you actually touched upon one of the biggest ones, which is founder-led brand.
00:14:03
And I think it comes as, I mean, the precursor of this is just, yeah, the evolvement of social media and personal branding, right? And so sometimes personal brands, even stronger than companies once right? So when it comes to founders or to leaders of the company, it's very often it's not the company that impacts the founder's brand but vice versa. Right? So sometimes founders' appearance, uh, charisma, um, is so strong that it can be the foundation for the whole company identity. So, founder-led brands-that's definitely one of the biggest trends that we're seeing. Also, community-led, uh, community-led, uh, growth, uh, where again, imagine that you are again at the beginning of your journey or in general, your constraints, you have certain constraints in your budget, which is a very often situation nowadays in the market.
00:15:15
You do not have capacity and funds to roll out a massive paid campaign. And also people are just tired of ads. And so, I would say the biggest, the best foundation that you can put for your brand is to have community-led growth, which means that instead of investing into paid, you invest in your people, in your customer base, in general, in the community around your brand. And your presence, let's say, at the forums or in social media, support word of mouth and you just focus on how else you can accelerate this referral, uh, motion, uh, with everyone else so, uh, community-led growth, I would say, is the trend number two. And, uh, the third trend that I'm seeing in general is the reliance on video. So, video is really big.
00:16:27
It has been growing in the past five years like tremendously. And I remember before it used to be like, okay, this is like nice to have type of content. Right now, I would say it's number one. And remember when we started to think about like mobile first design. So I'm quite sure. Give it like probably a year or a couple years from now and I'm quite sure we will think about content strategy as video first strategy so instead of it used to be like okay we need, we need to seed some idea, we need to educate the audience, okay, what do we do? We probably do some text-based formats like blog, white paper again, some other probably gated content. But these days, it's okay, what video can we shoot?
00:17:19
Like, okay, what reels? What YouTube shorts? So it's all about video content. And then you think, okay, probably I can also populate a blog from it. Probably not. So yeah, that's the third, I would say, one of the biggest trends that I'm seeing. Thank you so much for mentioning this, especially with the video. It's actually my favorite because I love to rather like speak on camera than like to write because like to express my thoughts it's for me faster to speak them up rather than write them down nowadays, especially like we have really good cameras and things like this, and I was just thinking about it recently because in a lot of conferences, a lot of
00:18:07
personal brand leaders, influencers, they usually mention like don't worry, a video is not that big if you don't like video you can do like other stuff, and it seems to me rather like assurance for the people in the audience that like you can be in your comfort zone that you can still get through if you like the text if you prefer to write and to record yourself which is totally all right you should be your authentic self if you are good in writing then write don't record the video if you don't think that this is your thing, but on the other side I think it's that where the people go outside of the comfort zone because this was All throughout history, or like it's like public speaking is number one fear right?
00:18:53
And when we are recording a video, we get this fear of public speaking and also behind the recording video there is so much of work behind like it's not just about recording to be honest. I think that most of the people who are currently listening they can also relate to there is the whole workflow behind one reel to actually publish it. You need to record it, you need to script it, you need to edit it, trim it, then double checking, quality checking and it takes so much time to produce the video that I think that not a lot of people invest in producing. The video Because they want to be in their comfort zone and they actually realize how hard it is to produce the video at the end of the day.
00:19:39
So, what is your take on this? As you have the GotPhoto . com, so how do you usually deal with this workflow or what would you advise to the people who are dealing with this comfort zone kind of? Uh, fear, yeah, exactly so I think first and foremost, you're also obviously again, you always need to think about your audience, right? So, uh, I mean to be fair, regardless of the biggest trends, there are industry industries which are more, I would say, conservative and which also again still rely more on again text-heavy um formats like if we talk about like banking or again financial serve any type of financial services or insurance, like whenever again we talk about um more I would say slowly developing like industries obviously again um text can be can still be great for them.
00:20:42
Secondly, what you mentioned is um okay, probably again your best format is text, of course, again you you can rely on text only but I think again the key question is you can rely on text but you still need to be out there like to keep an eye on what's evolving and you just need to be realistic that okay probably your audience is going to shrink in a couple Of years just because again for the audience it is easier again to sometimes consume um videos or I'm quite sure also a lot of listeners will recognize themselves how often do you just you know you do not actually watch the video, but you just, you know, read the captions, like, you know, with your sound off.
00:21:35
So it's, again, it's a totally different pattern of information consumption. So you need to be realistic about this. And, okay, if you are not comfortable enough to speak on the camera, hey, there are so many motion agencies. There, there is AI now and okay, we are like 20 minutes into recording and and it's only now when we mention AI which is actually great because everyone uh talks about AI these days, but yes, uh, there is AI obviously that can also again help you uh with that. So um, again the bottom line is, first, think about your audience and whether you are in danger of losing some of the portion because you were afraid of this particular format. And secondly, defer to the tools that can help.
00:22:34
Again, not necessarily speaking on the camera, but instead, again, using motion graphics. Or again AI avatar or something so, and, and the way that we work with it in God for all specifically is first, we outsource because yeah like you said video is not the easiest format but at the same time not every company can afford you know having a full motion agency like internal agency in-house, so there are so many agencies out there who can help you with videos for a very, very modest check. Because again, AI now automated a lot of parts of the video and make it easier. So my recommendation would be just go out there and outsource. I really like this, especially what you said about user experience.
00:23:31
I never thought about it, even though I am doing it too, that sometimes I just don't want to listen to anything and I watch videos without the sound. So this is also a really interesting idea or the pattern that the people who are creators, they should think about how they are developing the videos for the exact audience, for the exact user. Like overload or overwhelm the user on the other side audience because if you post every day the speaking videos of yourself the audience might find it overwhelming because when they go on your feed and they see that they need to have a sound on all the time, it's you might lose the audience by this because you will not catch the audience that currently doesn't want to have for example sound.
00:24:18
So it's also interesting to think about it as a strategy that you should have some more like speaking heavier reels where you are saying more of the ideas like for example we do during this podcast and some other which are for example just really aesthetic with some text where the people can relate to so that you satisfy the all users that are at your current feet. So this is a really interesting takeaway for me, and I hope also for you who is listening right now from what Olga just said. And I would like to speak also more about you, Olga, because you also are doing amazing things. And from the branding perspective, I want to know more what.
00:25:05
You are actually doing uh like from the personal brand perspective because you're also active on LinkedIn or if you more tend to go to the company brand and uh what is the reason for you to choosing this exact strategy for yourself yeah oh okay um well thank you uh first and foremost I appreciate your uh your kind words uh I would say that I would um I started doing LinkedIn actually not for the sake of personal branding. And honestly, there was no strategy as such. It was more like an experiment for myself. I think a couple of years ago, I reached the point when I had a lot of, you know, ideas and thoughts, you know, bubbling up in my head. And sometimes I would just, you know.
00:25:52
I wake up at night with some, again, with some thoughts about marketing or about career or about leadership lessons or like, you know, reflecting on like my past experience. And I was like, okay. Probably, probably it's going to be interesting for someone, but honestly I was not sure and I was obviously as many of us also struggling with it-the imposter syndrome. I think it's just you know it's your, uh, I would say now kind of best friend as you climb the ladder or like as you progress in your professional life, it's just you always, uh, fight with your imposter syndrome and so it was an experiment, okay, like what if what happens if I start posting so and I would say that was my strategy at the very beginning, just endless experiment experiments but also, uh, again doing things that and raising questions that no one raised at this point at least, at that point at least.
00:26:53
For example, to give you an example, I remember again back two years ago, um, there was no such thing as you know reports about LinkedIn algorithm like everyone was making their guesses how things work and I remember a couple years ago people were like, okay, I think if I attached attach a photo, I think it's going to grab some more attention but no one again could put a finger on it like how particular it influences your experience so sorry your performance of your post and I remember I was like okay why don't I do a public a b test and I remember I published two posts one like they were completely the same completely identical with only one difference and it was having a photo without a photo and I was like hey guys I'm doing this open a b test if you see this post like Put a like.
00:27:49
And then I was just measuring, you know, the amount of likes. And then I was, again, super open, sharing my final numbers of the posts with everyone. And I remember these were, like, my early viral posts because everyone was like, oh, this is curious. Like, I want to be a part of this open test. And then I remember I was also. Very vulnerable, I would say. I just remember I also even though I was I was already a senior leader, a VP in Sam Rush, I was just very honest about, hey, like I wish I knew these things but I didn't and this is how I struggled because of that. And again, back then, I remember it was relatively unusual format because everyone, I mean we all want to appear you know super professional, like we all know all of the things, like and we usually share about
00:28:43
things that we learned already and that were about successes but I was like, again, I didn't know these things and I'm really sad about this but this is uh yeah this is what I didn't know and I hope that you guys get a chance you know to to spend some time on it and so yeah so first it was a lot of experimenting then it was uh showing you human side. And that's the thing about personal branding, right? So you really need to be personal. And I think my ultimate luck must test was whether I feel a bit uneasy about posting something. Because, I mean, again, if you share something which you are 100% comfortable about, about your another win in your career, I mean, yeah, of course, it's obvious.
00:29:31
But think about, okay, again, what is it that I'm really sad or I feel uncomfortable or I struggle with? That's the pro, that's the part in personal brand that's your personal thing, your personal struggles, your personal um again, sad things sometimes. And so yeah, I started also sharing, so to give you an example... um, I'm an introvert by nature and for me, sometimes it's really hard to be a leader because a leader is about connecting; it's about driving, leading people, and sometimes that means that you need to have like 20 minutes uh, 20 meetings per day, and literally your job is to talk to people. But I'm an introvert and I struggle sometimes, and sometimes I just need An hour for myself, but I don't have this luxury, and I was again it was; I would say one of my most best performing posts ever; I was like, 'Okay, these are five lessons for me as an introverted leader and no one, I don't remember, like, again, anyone speaking publicly about this.
00:30:46
I did see a couple of posts following up my post. But at that point, I remember I received so many comments from so many people, incredible leaders who said that, you know, actually Olga, I struggled so much being an introvert and a leader. Thank you so much for being open about this. And yeah, so all of a sudden, you become a leader. By just, you know, naming some things that we are just afraid to name and to call out. So that was my third lesson. Just, you know, don't be afraid and post about something that everyone is afraid to post. I really love this speak up culture that is currently evolving on the social media. I think that we are not yet there; it's just like blooming right now.
00:31:36
In 2025, the trend is to actually really like connect with the people behind the AI and to speak your emotions and behind-the-scenes. And there are lots of personal brands that are exactly connecting with a higher purpose. Like for example, that you were struggling. With like being the introvert leader, so then you can connect, for example, with some company which is actually like doing the researches for the introvert that is like moving the things. Or I know other leaders who, for example, are struggling with imposter syndrome. So they speak openly about their current state of emotions every day being the founder with imposter syndrome. or for example uh there is a lady she doesn't have a dogs but she is very much like fighting for the dog's rights and she's doing actually fashion and it's uh like uh she doesn't really sell like for example like skins of the animals or anything like this she doesn't really like push forward her company in this regard she has a really like um
00:32:47
company brand and her brand and she's really visible leader and she's really going really hard towards like enhancing the rights of animals in Czech Republic and it makes her like really big PR because Czech Republic is like there are a lot of dogs like every second person I think it's the dog owner so she's like getting the market from I mean it's like the side effect of course like she doesn't do it because she would get she it's not her marketing strategy it's rather that she connects with these values and the Czech republic is like a dog culture so then It has this side effect, also for her company, so it's really interesting to see this as a founder, that all of your fears and the things that you are thinking that are not right to actually speak up.
00:33:42
Currently on social media is doing really great thing that other people who are there they will connect with the same fears that you are having and they're just, I would not say like that, they are afraid of speaking it up; it's they just think that maybe the social media are not the place where they should share this. There was also this kind of, like, saying 'I don't know, like five ten years ago that uh, 'I don't want to be the one who' Is crying on social media, uh, and like, uh, or like, uh, my friends were like, yeah, you're crying on social media, it's not like that I was like crying like really like oh, but rather that I was like sharing
00:34:23
my emotions what I think and they consider it as like crying that I should just be professional that I just should uh speak uh with I don't know suit and like really like with the proper rhetoric like Obama but it's no longer where we are with social media people want to connect with the real people and AI do you actually think that AI highlighted this phenomenon? Yeah, no, 100%. And I think with the evolution of AI, it became even more important to show the human side of things. And I think for many of us, it's kind of, I would say, it's so interesting how contradictory it is. We all admire the AI wave and how many things it can do. But at the same time, no one wants to be treated by AI.
00:35:22
Should it be like an AI support agent or like AI creative agent? Like imagine that you reach out to the agency and you really want, let's say, a good copy. They say, okay, so we can assign a real professional copywriter to you or we can provide copy that AI generated. And I'm quite sure that it's actually interesting, like which one would you prefer? Is it AI or is it a human copywriter? For me, I was just thinking when you were asking and I would say, let's try with the AI and then let's get the human copywriter afterwards. Exactly, exactly. So that's the thing, like regardless of how excited about AI we are, We always want to have some human double checking on it after it produces the result.
00:36:21
And I think that's key to actually today's brand as well. Everyone jumps on this bandwagon of 'we are AI-driven' or 'we are AI-powered', which is, yes, can be impressive. But because everyone says the same thing. I feel like sometimes AI is considered not a power anymore, but instead almost like a commodity or even a turn-off factor, because you're like, okay, you're AI-driven, but what else? And how can I make sure that I get a decent result from AI? Want to change anything about this result, that there will be human being who is going, you know, to help me navigate the whole process. So yeah, to your question, yes, AI definitely, I would say highlighted that there are so many things, so many factors that AI cannot just account for.
00:37:23
And I think the biggest parameter here is just, you know, empathy. And ability you know to sympathize and just you know to to understand the context, and I'm talking first and foremost about like the emotional context, it's only humans who who can do that, so yeah yet again we just realize that emotions and empathy and all the feelings, this is what makes us human, and yeah, we just need to stick to that. I would say to own it. Yeah, so let's own our emotional side here. Especially, I just have in mind that AI is quite young. I mean, there were AI engineers before the AI boom, but this usage of the AI to GPT, it's currently on the market for three years, I think, not even maybe.
00:38:24
And I'm just really curious right now if the AI will be able to evolve with my brand. Because, for example, that I mean, of course, like you can train it, et cetera. But let's say that I, for example, made my own or recently actually made my own GPT model for the different activities to help actually the different teammates in my team to speak similar like me when they are creating the marketing contents, et cetera. And it's really saving us a lot of time and money. Because they were actually like, our team was like, 'Marie, can we please have this like GPT license?' And like for each team member, then like you have 10 people in your team. So it's like 20 per one head.
00:39:10
Plus, also you have this, like, then you are starting to think, also about this, like, premium, which is 200 per month. And I was like thinking, like, yeah, if we need it, like, yeah, we can get it. But then I was like, yeah, I can create my own GPT model and program it like how. I speak this, I need to do myself because I know the best how I speak and nobody can do it behalf me. And I just distributed this, like, GPT models based on their tasks and how they are actually proceeding with the different activities in our company. But I'm just thinking right now, as we go further with AI, how the AI can actually evolve with me so that it might be something really interesting in the future because every company, every founder, whether a personal brand, company brand, it's evolving to some extent, of course.
00:40:01
When you then get into the higher sphere as being McDonald's, cheeseburger is just cheeseburger. Like there isn't a lot of rocket engineering behind it. I mean, you have the brands that the McDonald's is still using and going along the generations. But as personal brand, you really go for the evolution. You want to evolve with your brand and your brand is evolving with you. So I'm just like thinking how we can achieve the evolution of AI alongside the founders who are. who are doing the personal branding as their number one strategy. So this just pops into my mind currently that this might be maybe a challenge because AI is young currently and it's definitely important to use it, but to also think about the risks, think about the challenges.
00:40:57
And many of my clients, they use it in the lazy way that they just write a prompt. Write me, for example, the LinkedIn post. And then there was not the double checking of the text. It uses the AI-heavy boards. It uses the dashes, the long dashes. I'm really a bit allergic to words because it's like giving the first impression. Okay, this is CGPT. Are there any other? Uh, tips that when you as a marketer look at the text or the script or anything what we are currently producing as a content that you say, 'Like, yes this is AI like I don't connect with this person at all, interesting. Um, yeah, the notorious M dashes. I think, yeah, there was a lot of buzz about these dashes. Poor guys.
00:41:55
So I would say, for me, I mean, I don't mind people using AI, obviously, again. I mean, it's just another tool, right? So I'm not obsessed, like, whether it's AI or not. For me, it's like, at the end of the day, if it delivers any value. i would say that's the problem with some of the ai posts it's not that they were written by ai but it's the fact that they do not deliver any value you know they're like very you know it's fluff like watery like the the content is like fluffy watery um and they just lack essence right because sometimes and it can happen again with human written posts as well it's just It doesn't give you any food for thought. It doesn't give you any revelation.
00:42:49
It doesn't give you any unique content. And that's the problem with it. So I'm quite sure a lot of weekly written posts are also generated at least to some extent with the help of AI. But as long as they, again, they are witty, they have some character to them um I mean yeah it's fine so at the end of the day whether you use AI or not just think about what's the main idea what's the main lesson uh what's the main emotion that my audience is going to derive from this this post and if you're not able to answer this question no AI will ever help you. Yeah, I totally agree, especially like sometimes it feels on LinkedIn that it's like copy pasting because it's like machine produced.
00:43:46
And if you don't add. your background, emotions, etc it's really just copying and people also like there is a big widespread thing which is that, like, people write the AI posts on AI comments on the post and AI replies on a post. I mean, what is at the end of the day really your goal to get from this marketing strategy like why you do the AI commenting when you don't do anything with this result? Because I have for example like two-three people who are like commenting on my posts with AI but they never really reach out to me; they never really like ask me how I am, what I am actually doing or they never even pitched me. I mean, this is just like basic right!
00:44:34
Like if you use the AI to comment on my post, just pitch me at least something so you have the return of investment but if you are just spreading around your AI bots, I mean just tell me like what is the reason yeah and bless you, thank you very. much yeah no you're so right and I also I saw this there is like this whole very interesting industry of engagement pods and ai supported profiles and you can see them like they they boast like 50k followers and like 700 comments per post and then it's like comments are all the same and you can just see it and you just wonder like it's so obvious that it's it is all fake so what are you trying to do with this and Honestly, I don't have the answer.
00:45:37
But yeah, it still bugs me. What's the value that you want to get from there? And it feels like it's just some vanity game. And probably people did not just spend enough time, let's say, on LinkedIn to actually realize how visible it is that they try to play the system. I'm quite sure at some point it's going just, you know, to play, to play against them because again, it's so obvious. Yeah. Can you tell me also more about how somebody can differentiate themselves and create a brand that truly stands out? So how would you like, what would you recommend to the people who wants to create a brand that currently stands out on social media? Okay. I would say it's a game of two parts.
00:46:38
So first, you need to understand, again, your value and what can you bring to the table, to the discussion, to the LinkedIn community. Because you can follow certain tricks like creating certain hooks or again participating in engagement pods and driving this you know artificial engagement and tricking the algo, but at the end of the day if you're liking the essence, if you're not covering the topic that you are not truly knowledgeable about or passionate about, um probably not in a couple of months more but in a few your audience will just realize that, again, there is nothing behind this trick program. So I'll start with what do you consider to be your value, both professionally, but also personally? Who are you? What makes you, you?
00:47:39
Like, is it again, do you adore dogs or do you fight for the echo uh topics and do support like the ecology or are passionate about traveling or anything else so create your own personal brand based on your authentic qualities and knowledge so that's one part but then um read the room as they say uh but in this regard just check the context so what do you think um is happening in the market and what is in demand right so uh if there is again demand or on certain type of uh topics a certain type of formats and uh on serpent on certain type of again characters and then first checking again with yourself, but then checking with the context With the market, with the existing community, you will understand, okay, so this is what I can bring, and this is at the same time what's missing out there.
00:48:57
And then you kind of, you know, connect to pictures, and this is how you build your unique brand USP as an expert. So I would just start with these things, but also don't just again, don't get into this analysis paralysis. And sometimes the best thing that you can do is just again, go out there and start testing because yes, you're going to create some vision, but it's going to be purely theoretical. And then you need to test it by practice. I love it. So it's actually 'Discover Who You Are.' Be cringe, test it, implement it, repeat. Exactly. 100%. Yes. Nice. My last question would be, what would you advise to your younger self at the beginning of the career after gaining all of these experiences that you landed to today?
00:49:50
What would be the one advice that you would give to yourself and to also other young founders who are like starting with their brand? So what would you advise them? And what would you also advise to yourself at the beginning? Yeah. You are your biggest supporter, but also your biggest enemy. So first and foremost, work with yourself. Learn how to support yourself. And at the same time, learn how to fight your inner you know, um, your inner devil, uh, which is doubts like self-doubt and, uh, learn how to not let yourself undermine yourself, um, so, um, yeah, that would be I would say my biggest learning so far and advice: learn to support yourself and learn to find against your own demons. I really love this because at the end of the day, if you are a founder or entrepreneur, you're really like, with yourself, and, like, you might sometimes feel lonely, and it's how you speak to yourself in your thoughts. So that's a wrap-up for today's episode of Your Brand, Your Business. I hope you got some valuable insights.
00:51:42
Thank you so much, everyone, for joining us. And also to you, Olga. I will see you next time. Thank you. Bye.
