Latest / We Mean Business / How to Build a Brand People Believe In: Marketing in the Age of AI | Anastasia Shtompel on We Mean Business
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- 0:08We mean business is presented by the next rodeo. The agency with bold ideas
- 0:12for ambitious brands. Get noticed, get remembered, get results. Welcome to your
- 0:19next rodeo. Let's ride. With a career that spans over 10 years
- 0:28in marketing, you've developed your proprietary brand revolution system to
- 0:32help modern brands grow. You're a Forbes council member and now you command an
- 0:38audience of over 160,000 followers with over 30 million views per
- 0:46month while speaking and educating about marketing brand and strategy for
- 0:50audiences that include legacy giants like LBMH, Dior and IKEA. Anastasia
- 0:58Strompel, welcome to We Mean Business.
- 1:00>> Thank you. Thank you very much for inviting me. I'm so excited to ask you
- 1:04everything and to be able to help share your wisdom today. So, let's get into
- 1:08it. When did you move to the States?
- 1:12>> Uh, several years ago. Um, I was actually originally born in Ukraine in
- 1:16Kiev.
- 1:17>> Um, and then a little bit of a background story.
- 1:21>> Yeah.
- 1:21>> Uh, yeah. Then at the age of 17, I alone moved to another country to Israel.
- 1:27>> Then I served in the army. I worked at a flight attendant. Yeah. uh did my
- 1:32bachelor's degree. Uh after that,
- 1:34>> how long did you serve in the army?
- 1:35>> Two years.
- 1:36>> Wow.
- 1:37>> After that, I went to college. I did my uh bachelor's degree. Uh then I did my
- 1:42master's degree in Germany. Um then started my career in marketing. Um very
- 1:47consistent. It was always marketing for me since the college. So I started from
- 1:52interning at the unicorn company Monday. After that, I worked throughout my 10
- 1:58years of career at several different companies throughout uh the years and
- 2:02with time grew to be a head of marketing of the multi-million dollar company. At
- 2:06some point I also had my own brand together with my sister here in the US
- 2:11and um yeah and approximately since that period of time I also started working
- 2:16with other brands and founders just because people started approaching me
- 2:19and I found myself having this useful combination of skills that is you know
- 2:23from one side having an education experience specifically in marketing but
- 2:27from other side having an experience of building of building actually my own
- 2:31brand. So this is kind of like a well-rounded set of skills that is was
- 2:35very and still is very helpful for a lot of founders. So uh I started working
- 2:40like in different let's say formats with them and with time it grew into the
- 2:43full-time work for me and this is how I developed uh you know after basically
- 2:47building my own brand and working with many different brands I just realized
- 2:51that many of the brands have similar let's say problems of this like lack of
- 2:56cohesiveness between different parts of the marketing let's say right and they
- 3:01sometimes have this disbalance between the performance marketing and brand
- 3:06marketing and not understanding that the customer journey is actually this
- 3:10complete let's say immersive loop rather than a very you know specific platform
- 3:15or a tool or the yeah yeah exactly exactly rather than
- 3:19fragmented so uh this is how I decided to kind of like you know have this one
- 3:24cohesive complete system let's say with this kind of like 8020 focus what you
- 3:30need first of all for your brand to do to build before you're you know
- 3:34investing your time and uh energy into different uh uh areas let's say uh so
- 3:40yeah I started you know working and uh uh today I work with absolutely
- 3:44different brands from small brands to nine figure brands and yeah and about
- 3:48year ago I also became a Forbes console console member and I was specifically
- 3:52invited thanks to my track record in marketing and business building so um
- 3:57yeah and this is what I do today I really enjoy doing it what is the
- 4:02company with your sister this is so interesting
- 4:05>> yeah of course of course yeah so we uh the e-commerce business um D2C brand of
- 4:11course this is my favorite let's say industry niche we had uh designer
- 4:16inflatable pools inflatable uh tubes for for the pool and different things like
- 4:21that basically if you know the brand Funboy so we were their competitors so
- 4:25basically for people who care for materials you know it's non-toxic
- 4:28materials everything is very unique shapes very unique uh patterns
- 4:32everything was designed from scratch by our our brand so Yeah, this is what we
- 4:37were doing.
- 4:38>> And then you were able to place that product within high-end hotels, correct?
- 4:43>> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, some of our clients were also Yeah. some of the biggest
- 4:47chains in the US. Yeah.
- 4:48>> Yeah. Do they still do they still have those?
- 4:50>> You're um I'm not sure regarding it right now because I'm not I'm not doing
- 4:55it today.
- 4:56>> Yeah. So amazing. So like chic inflatables.
- 4:59>> Yeah. Who knew?
- 5:00>> For people who don't want to buy it, you know, like just like AliExpress or like
- 5:03Amazon or something, right? for people who actually very intentional about
- 5:07everything that they're buying into their houses, right? You have a lot of
- 5:10houses like that in the US. So, we were very specific niche, you know, product
- 5:14for for those people. It's amazing. And I think that's one area too, like not to
- 5:19get too off topic, but I was in sustainability for over 13 years, and
- 5:22that's one area like that plastic kind of
- 5:24>> absolutely,
- 5:25>> you know, um kind of home accessories that really good for you. You figured it
- 5:29out. And this is the type of the product that children are exposed also a lot,
- 5:34right? And you as a parent, you don't want your children to always all
- 5:38throughout the summer being exposed to something that is toxic. Yeah, exactly.
- 5:43>> So, can you share your brand revolution system with us and what's the elevator
- 5:47pitch? We know why you created it, but what is the actual elevator pitch?
- 5:51Um so I would say that this is about being a onestop solution for everything
- 5:58because uh you as the business owner especially if you are a startup business
- 6:03owner right so you don't have like a huge team you don't have the budget of
- 6:06hire for hiring
- 6:08>> agency uh for every piece of your marketing right and you right now in the
- 6:13market most of the solutions that are offered is basically this like fractured
- 6:18solutions offered as a magic peel let's say Right? So for example, you know,
- 6:21there is, you know, one company saying, you know, we're going to fix your
- 6:25website. Everything is going to be amazing or like we're going to run your
- 6:28social media. You're not going to need to work a day in your life, you know, as
- 6:31a business owner and things like that. So it's basically kind of like this
- 6:34partial solutions that uh the founders trying to understand how to prioritize.
- 6:41But the problem is that you can't really prioritize those. It's not that you can
- 6:45invest in let's say having performance marketing and paid media, right? and and
- 6:50social media is just going to be, you know, on a side, right? Because
- 6:53>> maybe 15 years ago, you could have done that, right? Because you could have had
- 6:57just a great quality product, nice website, right? Put some money behind
- 7:01the ads and boom, you have revenue. Today, it's different, right? Today's
- 7:04the customer journey is much more complicated, right? So, when people
- 7:08let's say see your ads, if you hired an agency and there might be doing amazing
- 7:12job, right, and bringing you quality traffic, but if uh people let's say a
- 7:16person sees your ad, let's say in meta, right? They click on the ad, it's looks
- 7:20great, then they land. They al always go to your social media first, right? They
- 7:24never just Yeah, exactly. They never just like click and go to the website,
- 7:28don't care about anything else and just, you know, buying. No, they go to your
- 7:31social media, do like small research, let's say, right? If and if it's not
- 7:35convincing enough, they're not even seeing your website. Even if the website
- 7:38is absolutely amazing, you know, same when they land on the website, maybe,
- 7:42you know, like all this traffic was very very quality, but when they're on a
- 7:46website,
- 7:47>> it doesn't do its job. Maybe it's like pretty aesthetical website, right? But
- 7:50it doesn't convert. It doesn't have a very specific marketing logic behind
- 7:54that, right? So I'm just trying to say that this is kind of like this
- 7:57interconnected let's say chain of things that they really impact the results of
- 8:01each other and you can't even understand if let's say paid media work for you. Uh
- 8:06you know if if there other steps let's say don't perform. So basically brand
- 8:11revolution system was created to have this like a one-stop shop for for
- 8:16founders for brands to do like a checkup of everything that we need to have under
- 8:21one umbrella because most of the founders they they're not marketers
- 8:26right and they just trust the advice of the people that they're hiring but
- 8:30sometimes it lacks this cohesiveness and like this one umbrella let's say of the
- 8:35strategy and that's exactly what I'm doing with my brands. It makes so much
- 8:38sense too because I I what I hear with the next rodeo a lot is I'm in like all
- 8:43of the new business meetings and I meet with a lot of prospects and clients and
- 8:46they are so fragmented and the problem is that you know you hire someone for
- 8:51social media, you hire another person for the website, you hire another person
- 8:54for digital branding, they don't talk to each other.
- 8:56>> Exactly.
- 8:57>> And so there's such a disconnect and that can show in the finished product.
- 9:01>> Yeah. And you're so right like the consumer journey that really it's
- 9:05interconnected but then that means like your backend has to be so
- 9:08interconnected. You need like single resource which is exactly what you do.
- 9:12That's incredible. Do you do an audit like how do you start? How does someone
- 9:15come to you and start?
- 9:16>> Yeah, we do basically an audit of everything that is going on right now in
- 9:20the brand understanding where is this disbalance let's say right? because I
- 9:25really see a lot that often brands prioritize uh performance marketing or
- 9:30brand marketing. So like there is a very uh let's say often I see the problem
- 9:35that is kind of like this disbalance let's say. So of course definitely we're
- 9:38doing this audit and then the overall let's say strategy right and is there a
- 9:42strategy because that might be a strategy in each separate department
- 9:46right so the social media has a strategy right and the paid media has a strategy
- 9:50but like somehow in between them they're communicating different messages right
- 9:54so and the problem here that the customers they even don't make the
- 9:58decision in the vacuum of one platform right so if you say something uh you
- 10:02know one message in your social media right or and the another one in the ads
- 10:06right there's just like this disconnect and this the effect doesn't compound you
- 10:10know like of this like repeated message and cohesiveness and this is you know
- 10:14what doesn't do the job let's say so we're doing the audit and of course the
- 10:17audit of a separate uh specific let's say pillars let's say of your marketing
- 10:21strategy you know platforms parts of your marketing strategy right uh and
- 10:25understanding you know what we need to fix and in a lot of cases some parts are
- 10:29really great you know others are not doing the job and you're kind of like
- 10:32blame blaming one you know but without understanding that it is impacted by
- 10:36another. So doing the overall audit and the audit of each specific part let's
- 10:41say of the marketing
- 10:43>> is that what you find is a company's kind of the most common mistake is that
- 10:48they're fragmented. Yeah, I would say that I would say that fragmentation and
- 10:53as I already mentioned this this balance between the brand marketing and
- 10:58performance marketing uh because people tend to just you know prioritize one
- 11:04over another let's say uh either one without understanding that they have to
- 11:09work together it's not the choice to make in between it's just about this
- 11:13like balance in between I mean in a modern marketing let's say again
- 11:16>> yeah especially in like you know the world that is meta and everything. Yeah,
- 11:20>> exactly. Exactly. And especially with the uh main audience becoming Gen Z,
- 11:25right? That they really buying into this like world and not just an ad with a
- 11:30great review or something like that.
- 11:33>> So what's so interesting about you is that to get into kind of your personal
- 11:38brand, you thrive at the intersection like you connect everything even in your
- 11:42own branding. So you work with solo founders, right? But then you appeal to
- 11:47like the intersection of these mega brands. And then you've also packaged
- 11:51yourself, which is so cool. I love your feed by the way. You've packaged
- 11:54yourself as a premium personality and that intersects your own consulting
- 11:58business with the brand revolution system. It's you're like an architect of
- 12:02branding and marketing. So you stated that in our the beginning of our time
- 12:07together that high quality products and beautiful visuals are like the baseline,
- 12:11right? You can't just have one or the other or even both anymore. So if stakes
- 12:15are that high and we know that consumer attention is short, very short, how do
- 12:20we get our product to become as you say a brand that people will line up to buy?
- 12:25Like what is the first step?
- 12:26>> Again, if you know 15 years ago your brand was just a great product plus
- 12:31website plus ads, right? Just tradition. Yeah, exactly. Revenue. Today we live in
- 12:36the world of this like product parity, right? It's to have a nice ingredients
- 12:41you know some certain level let's say of them or materials right or like fabrics
- 12:45it's already kind of like a baseline right everybody have this you know nice
- 12:50>> logo they have the uh uh good quality product right more or less and they have
- 12:56you know some website designer right especially with the eye everybody have
- 13:00access to those things everybody have this fast shipping and kind of like the
- 13:04same offer right so in the world where you have a lot of different options of
- 13:09the very similar product. What people buy is basically what represents who
- 13:15they are or what represents who they want to become, right? So between this
- 13:20like relatable and inspirational let's say marketing uh uh let's say um scale,
- 13:25right? So basically today to build this world that brand that people line up to
- 13:31buy,
- 13:32>> you build a universe, you build a world around your brand, right? rather than
- 13:36just a product. You always today build identity over the over the product,
- 13:42right? And that means that you as a brand, you need to start
- 13:46>> thinking about your brand, about the verbal identity, about the visual
- 13:50identity, building this aesthetics world around that, understanding how you
- 13:54communicate the lifestyle of your uh audience, your customers, right, through
- 13:59social media. So they want to be a part of or associate themselves with, for
- 14:03example, right? And you know a great example of that is for example road
- 14:07right they they're amazing at it they are they they call it you know the world
- 14:13of road right and road is successful not just because it's highly bi's brand
- 14:18right not because she's a celebrity she's absolutely amazing at what she's
- 14:21doing but there are a lot of celebrity brands that flop right they're really
- 14:25great at understanding their audience and building the world that they want to
- 14:29be a part of right they they have built this world that is uh of this like bling
- 14:34girl eat girl right aesthetics that people when they buy this product it
- 14:39becomes the symbol of who they are right or who they want to become right so uh
- 14:45this is why it's so strong for them and this is something that is very important
- 14:49to do today for every brand because again uh especially jinzy especially
- 14:54this new generation they are buying into this identities belonging and
- 14:59communities rather than just a product because they have other options
- 15:04And even so your product is a service, right? So it truly it's so true that you
- 15:09can do this with any sort of um offering because you have a service and you've
- 15:14done the same thing for yourself.
- 15:15>> Yeah.
- 15:15>> Yeah. It's like proof is in the pudding.
- 15:17>> Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Because you know brand is it a consumer
- 15:21brand or a personal brand or a brand around your agency for example, right?
- 15:26Or a service business. It's it's same marketing psychology behind those
- 15:30things, right? It's more about this uh consumer behavior rather than just you
- 15:35know a tool or a specific trick let's say. Yeah.
- 15:38>> It's building a lifestyle. Yeah. Around the brand.
- 15:40>> Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And resonate with your audience, not being like all
- 15:44over the place rather than just understanding very clearly who they are
- 15:48and what resonates with them. And I to tell the truth, I'm always the fan of
- 15:52just synergy between uh I feel that it's just much easier that when you have the
- 15:57synergy between your own lifestyle, task, taste, preferences, values and
- 16:02your audiences, right? Because then it's so much easier to maintain that. And
- 16:07there are a lot of brands that founders they u create a brand for a different
- 16:11audience that they are not a part of. And that's totally fine. And there is
- 16:14many, you know, marketing ways to do that, but it's just so much intuitively
- 16:18harder to do. And uh like you know it's always better if the founder and the
- 16:23team overall who you hire resonate with that and just intuitive about that. So
- 16:28for me this is exactly how I build it. Uh this is about you know my taste, my
- 16:32values, my preferences that resonate with the exact audience that I chose and
- 16:36I really understand what they value. So there is this some sort of let's say
- 16:40synergy that uh doesn't come to me very hard let's say right? It's not that I'm
- 16:45like, you know, thinking every day while creating a content like, oh my god, why
- 16:49would what would they like? I just create from from from my energy, let's
- 16:53say, and my taste and that resonates and it finds its audience, let's say.
- 16:56>> It's like built in authenticity. Yeah. By the way, I'm I have to be in your in
- 17:00your marketing target then because I love everything you do.
- 17:03>> Thank you. Thank you.
- 17:04>> So, you've said that building a brand isn't just for big companies anymore,
- 17:07right? So for a founder who feels they don't have the team or the budget to
- 17:11build that brand where would you start?
- 17:16>> Um so for me brand is not about and in general brand is not about having this
- 17:23huge brand events or having billboards across the country right or being this
- 17:28like huge Exactly. You know so or like hiring a big celebrity you know to lead
- 17:33your campaign or something like that. It's it's really not about that. It's
- 17:36just about building this added value over the product that we discussed,
- 17:42right? This identity that people buy into and it's really not about the uh
- 17:47the the budget, the size of your budget. It's about the strategy and your
- 17:51priorities, right? So, you start from understanding
- 17:56who you are and who is your audience, right? And who you build this world for.
- 18:01Then you're starting to basically understanding exactly what is your brand
- 18:05DNA all of statements of it right understanding exactly what is your
- 18:09verbal identity basically what is your tone of voice then of course your visual
- 18:13world then this lifestyle that you basically can communicate through social
- 18:17media right social media is accessible for everybody and you in any case invest
- 18:22your time and money into that you just need to do it intentional with
- 18:25understanding of what you're doing right and the world you're building and of
- 18:28course you can partner with other brands and kind of like borrow their like
- 18:32association, right? So, there is a lot of different strategies that you can do
- 18:36that it's not about the size of the budget. Of course, you the big the
- 18:40bigger budget you have, the more creative freedom you have, but it's
- 18:43really not about, you know, having this like huge moments in marketing. It's
- 18:48really about building this world as small or as big as you can and uh um and
- 18:54that will just, you know, compound with the time and you will have a bigger
- 18:57budget at the end for those huge events on billboards.
- 19:00>> Totally. as long as you build the the world authentically. Right.
- 19:04>> So, you've also said that there's a new trend now called the anti-marketing
- 19:08marketing.
- 19:09>> So, instead of that clean, polished marketing and websites like you just
- 19:12talked about, consumers like to see kind of the behindthescenes imperfections of
- 19:16a brand in its world, but then how can we create something that feels premium
- 19:22but then shows those like lifts the veil on those imperfections?
- 19:26>> Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
- 19:28>> It feels like a like a dichotomy, right? It feels like opposite.
- 19:31>> Yeah. Yeah. I mean the problem that people really already they're used to
- 19:37this let's say perfect uh visuals this perfect fits everything is very curated
- 19:43and again this is accessible right now to brands especially with AI with this
- 19:47like perfect skin dolls right everything became like this like perfection became
- 19:52accessible right to the point that is everywhere right now. So with time right
- 19:58right now customers consumers and we all just even as consumers of content right
- 20:03social media we really got tired of that. So right now we kind of like this
- 20:10psychologically we crave something that feels more human, more relatable, more
- 20:15raw and this is something that is uh called Pretful effect and this is
- 20:19basically this psychological effect of uh uh someone or a brand uh becoming
- 20:25more likable and more relatable, more trustworthy uh while they're showing
- 20:31like a small imperfection, right? But because basically what it does to our
- 20:36brain is that when we see something imperfect, let's say a brand shows like
- 20:40imperfect sides of it, right? Or let's say, you know, like a great example
- 20:43always comes to my mind a company uh Misfits. It's like a supermarket of this
- 20:48like uh oddly shaped uh uh vegetable. I love it. It used to be perfect foods,
- 20:54right?
- 20:54>> I don't remember. I didn't remember.
- 20:56>> It's one or the other now. They one bought the other. Yeah. But I used to
- 20:59use a service. I love it.
- 21:00>> Yeah. So basically I love them you know from a marketing also perspective
- 21:04because this is like a great example of exactly this psychological effect
- 21:07because when you see this like oddly let's say imperfect shaped you know ugly
- 21:12let's call it vegetables what it does to our brain is basically it thinks like
- 21:16okay if they show like how they are and all this imperfection I can I can trust
- 21:22them because this this must be
- 21:24>> the real
- 21:24>> the full picture yeah and the real deal let's say right so you just
- 21:28automatically trust that let's say more so um basically you know today when you
- 21:33kind of like create marketing and it doesn't have to be a company that is
- 21:37based on this principle let's say right and whole marketing is built on that it
- 21:41can be in just small let's say decisions like you are in your campaigns right in
- 21:46your content showing this more let's say like raw textures or like raw materials
- 21:51for your packaging or showing this imperfect let's say moments of the
- 21:55behind the scenes of your brand you know in the content right so or like using
- 22:00this again like oddly shaped uh uh fruits and vegetables just in your
- 22:04shoots. Great example of that is Loavva for example, right? They use a lot of
- 22:07this like veg like sensory marketing but with like weirdly shaped which brand
- 22:13>> Oh yes. Yes. Yes. Okay.
- 22:14>> Yeah. Yeah. So they use that also a lot. So this
- 22:18>> this kind of like mix let's say of perfect and imperfect, right? and like
- 22:22raw textures and um it just like feels more human and uh more relatable for our
- 22:29our brain let's say and this is why it works in the in the world that is you
- 22:34know very saturated with this like
- 22:37>> polished let's say content.
- 22:39>> Yeah. So there's also cultural bubbles that you speak a lot about. So can you
- 22:44explain how these bubbles form the foundational strategy to marketing a
- 22:47brand?
- 22:48>> Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. um also coming back to uh to the psychology let's say
- 22:54of the marketing right and uh sociology let's say right I love coming back in my
- 22:59marketing to those let's say basics as you as you can understand
- 23:03>> so what it is uh if 20 years 30 years ago right we all
- 23:10>> consumed the same let's say uh uh we had this joint world right so we consumed
- 23:16the same TV shows you know we watch the same TV shows basically right I listen
- 23:20to the same uh radio um we're exposed to this like big celebrities that everybody
- 23:26knew right so and this major outlets and like medias like newspaper for example
- 23:32so we were all part of this one one culture joint culture right and then
- 23:38Google came right as like a first thing and it ruined this monopoly of the media
- 23:43let's say right but at that point there were like there was still there were
- 23:49still um a couple of like this still massive let's say gravitation points
- 23:54like for example some uh major medias right and uh again like some magazines
- 23:59and stuff like that although we had already many more sources of the content
- 24:03and information right but then social media came right and social media with
- 24:07its personalized algorithms personalized feed what it created is that you don't
- 24:12see information or internet you see your own version of internet that basically
- 24:18reflects your own interests, right? And then
- 24:21after that, you know, with Netflix and all the streaming, we now consume even
- 24:25like all the shows. All of the content became very individual and personalized,
- 24:30right? So what it created, it created what researchers call this like filter
- 24:35bubbles basically. Filter bubbles is that
- 24:39>> several different cultures trends they exist at the at at par on the parallel
- 24:44basically, right? So it's not that we are in this like joint one trend and
- 24:49culture right there's a couple of like not a couple of many different uh uh
- 24:53bubbles exist at the same time with it own culture and trends inside and uh
- 25:00sometimes you know you when you live in that bubble and we all live in our own
- 25:05bubble right yeah exactly
- 25:07>> you you think that you know some let's say a brand or like news or a person
- 25:12they're like everywhere you know you can't miss it
- 25:16for some people invisible right
- 25:21let's say bubbs is that you need to right now not to
- 25:28cater to just like general public because they it it is very fractured.
- 25:32You can't be like running after everything right and you as the brand
- 25:36always you try to keep up with the trends and like what right now people
- 25:39care about the agenda that everybody are talking about. You can't like run after
- 25:44everything because there is so many things exist at the same time. For
- 25:47example, just you know recently in fashion we saw this like trend for um
- 25:52you know 90s let's say uh fashion sense of like this Caroline bet let's say
- 25:57style at at absolutely at the same time we also have the trend of like this
- 26:02early 2000 2000s right it's like this Y2K yeah exactly Paris Hilton vibe and
- 26:08stuff like that so that those are opposite right and they exist at the
- 26:11same time because of that right and you as a brand you can't be everywhere right
- 26:16so instead of like catering trying to cater to like just like a must let's say
- 26:20culture that is fading right now you need to understand what is the cultural
- 26:24bubble that you want to dominate and and out of this to make your decisions. So
- 26:30for example, one of the great examples of those decisions could be your choice
- 26:34of the influencers and celebrities you know and people who you uh hire let's
- 26:38say to represent your brand and partner with right so in this like modern um
- 26:44like bubbles let's say culture right you like in many cases as a brand it's much
- 26:50better for you to partner with someone who is like let's say has 3,000 uh um
- 26:57300,000 followers let's say in social media media but a very relevant in
- 27:01specific bubble very with very engaged audience with the authority in that
- 27:06bubble rather than you will partner with like 5 million followers celebrity that
- 27:10people just a little bit aware everywhere about let's say right so in
- 27:14this like current culture this 300,000 followers in a lot of cases will beat 5
- 27:20million followers right so you as a brand need to also understand that yeah
- 27:25>> so niching
- 27:26>> yeah kind of like niching down and yeah and those bubbles can be small, can be
- 27:30very very big, right? But uh it's not about having small audience. It's just
- 27:34understanding
- 27:35>> who who are you uh exist let's say for and who is your marketing like
- 27:41absolutely on spot on for because if you going to be trying to be for everybody,
- 27:46you know, it's it's not going to be washed out.
- 27:48>> Yeah. It's it's it it doesn't hit for anyone then. Yeah. Which also goes it
- 27:52also connects to your um strategy behind creating a world.
- 27:57>> Yep. Yeah, absolutely.
- 28:00>> So, should brands still pursue influencer marketing? Because we can
- 28:03spot paid ads from a mile away. How do you feel about that?
- 28:07>> It definitely um changes right now a lot. I wouldn't say that influencer
- 28:12marketing is dead or something like that. I would actually say that this um
- 28:16creator commerce is getting bigger and even more uh important for brands like
- 28:21it. It definitely grows and this is also influencers as a part of it. So it's
- 28:26really not about you know because like as much as we as consumers already can
- 28:31see the paid partnership very easily you know especially with the tag over the
- 28:37post you know paid partnership
- 28:39>> we like it's even easier for us to uh to recognize paid ads right those we just
- 28:46developed total blindness towards so you know influencers yeah influencers are
- 28:51still a better solution in many let's say cases again it's one instead of
- 28:56another. It's more about you know like understanding like who does what job
- 29:00let's say right but definitely influencer marketing changes its format
- 29:04I would say so this let's say um um historically what influencer marketing
- 29:10was right you just send a product you pay an influencer within with the
- 29:13audience and they promote it to their audience you don't get any guarantees
- 29:17that it's going to work and you just hope it works and it worked for quite
- 29:20some time right but because people used to that and they expect that paid
- 29:25partnership they understand that paid partnership partership it doesn't
- 29:27necessarily mean that you actually like the product. You just you just show it
- 29:31let's say right? So because of that people right now you know don't
- 29:36basically don't trust those recommendations and they don't buy from
- 29:40them. what it created the situation that um it's very hard to right now justify
- 29:46let's say your investment in influencer marketing when there is no proper ROI on
- 29:51that let's say right so basically you pay influencer they influencers got you
- 29:56know quite expensive you don't get any guarantees sometimes it's hard to
- 30:00justify this investment so
- 30:02>> of course naturally right now we kind of like this entered this correction phase
- 30:08let's say of influencer marketing And right now instead of um brand paying for
- 30:13let's say five big influencers and hope that it you know that that they chose
- 30:17them right and it's going to hit right uh brands right now starting to build
- 30:21this affiliate networks right so instead of five big influencers they hire
- 30:26hundreds or even thousands people who promote their product and they share
- 30:30revenue with them they pay them a commission and you know smartest brands
- 30:34even go take it even further and they create not just a distribution channel
- 30:39in the face of influencer market influencers. But they create this um
- 30:45flywheels this like systems
- 30:47>> that basically you have those uh creators right uh that promote your
- 30:52product they receive the money uh for this product as a in a form of
- 30:56commission right then this content first of all it gives you sales right but it
- 31:00also gives you content for your social media you test different angles messages
- 31:04different things like that it's content for social media right then it's content
- 31:07also it also feeds your paid media right so your uh uh um performance marketing
- 31:14basically. So it's kind of like creates this let's say loop of of of the
- 31:18basically what's called creator flywheel right that instead of having this just
- 31:23the distribution channel right you have a very well-rounded immersive let's say
- 31:29um loop of that so uh yeah and of course you know in addition to that also we see
- 31:34how ambassadors also growing right so neither the influ uh affiliate marketing
- 31:39or ambassadors it's not a new thing it just grows right now very fast and we're
- 31:44going to see so much more of that this year and the next year but uh uh again
- 31:49it's not new but it just becomes more important so like as I you know started
- 31:54saying
- 31:55>> ambassadors are also becoming bigger and bigger let's say thing why again because
- 32:00if you show the product one time to your audience they don't really care they're
- 32:04already blind towards that right they know that you probably got paid for it
- 32:08you don't necessarily like that
- 32:09>> but if you show this product
- 32:13>> from time to time Right? It becomes part of your world, let's say, right? It
- 32:17becomes kind of like associated with you, right?
- 32:20>> C consumers, they they believe that it's probably then it's actually a part of
- 32:24your world. It's actually something that you use, right? And they still trust
- 32:29those people. They just need to trust that they're genuinely recommending
- 32:33something, right? Because when those people genuinely recommending something
- 32:36and not advertising, people still listen and trust and and act upon it, right? So
- 32:42it's about this like a format of advice rather than the channel itself let's
- 32:46say.
- 32:47>> Yeah that makes sense. So also when it comes to UGC user generated content
- 32:52what's the difference like how can how can we ensure that the UGC is not like
- 32:56lowquality kind of amateur like that? How can we make sure that the creators
- 33:02or ambassadors that we're hiring are creating you know posts that make people
- 33:07stop scrolling?
- 33:08>> Yeah absolutely.
- 33:09>> Any tips?
- 33:10>> Yeah. Yeah, of course. Uh I understand what you're saying. I mean there is
- 33:13always a risk and you just test. Yeah, of course there is just no like uh one
- 33:17two three uh you know of course you check their let's say content and
- 33:22portfolio and how they're you know how well done. Of course you do that
- 33:27>> but at the same time there are different products there are different brands and
- 33:30you can sometimes hire someone who is great at let's say selling wellness
- 33:33products but not necessarily really great at fashion. Let's let's say right
- 33:37it's a little bit different approach. So definitely you're always you're you know
- 33:41you're doing your research of course understanding you're not just like to
- 33:44minimize this like testing let's say and just you know being blind let's say but
- 33:49of course you are choosing people who first of all aligned to your brands and
- 33:53aesthetics right because
- 33:55>> if a person is really great and creating let's say sports outdoorsy content
- 34:00they're great at that it doesn't mean that they're great at you know being
- 34:04fashionable you know outfit uh uh uh showing Right? Same. I always
- 34:09recommending my clients, you know, when they're doing the photo shoots, right?
- 34:12When you're looking for a photographer, right?
- 34:15>> You you don't need to just find a person who is like has a great portfolio of
- 34:18whatever they doing. Because if, let's say, they're great at, let's say, uh,
- 34:22filming people, right? Faces, portraits. It doesn't automatically mean that
- 34:26they're going to be great in product photography, you need to you need to
- 34:30find a person who is the has the experience that is closest to what
- 34:33you're looking for because then it might be like a surprise, let's say. Right.
- 34:37Yeah. So, yeah, that's the first thing. Second of all, you need to make sure
- 34:40that they understand the product and they understand the um,
- 34:46>> you know, the benefits of it and how to basically sell it because the problem
- 34:50that I see most often is that a lot of creators, they're not again, they're not
- 34:56necessary marketers, right? They're they're content creators. And so in a
- 35:00lot of cases they're amazing at creating content that is a visual content but
- 35:05they don't necessarily understand how to sell through it and this is what you
- 35:08eventually you know ultimately need right. So basically what you need to
- 35:13understand is that
- 35:14>> they understand the marketing let's say logic behind that. So of course you can
- 35:20have a little bit more strategic let's say content creation with them right and
- 35:25guide them through uh some things and maybe explain some things right having
- 35:30some kind of briefs or just just explaining them what is the marketing
- 35:33let's say logic so for example you know a lot of content creators they tend to
- 35:38think that just by showing a product in a beautiful nice way that sells
- 35:44>> it it doesn't
- 35:45>> right
- 35:46>> it doesn't because people actually if even if it looks nice they spend less
- 35:50than one second you know looking at it they don't care that product might be
- 35:54relevant for them they don't care they don't think about that so unless you
- 35:57actualize this problem so I see that
- 36:00>> very common problem is the skipping the step of actualization of the problem so
- 36:05for example if you kind of like research my let's say content and approach and
- 36:10this is also the reason why my paid collaboration do very well because I
- 36:15just always actualize the problem before I'm offering the solution because people
- 36:20even if they have a problem they don't
- 36:22>> sit right now and think about that especially when they have less than one
- 36:26second to like even connect those dots right so you need to actualize this
- 36:30problem and then to offer like happen it is just happens that I have also this
- 36:35brand or product or a tool as a solution right but you always need to actualize
- 36:39this problem uh first and this is um I see as a very common mistake let's say
- 36:44when content creators create content to solve something.
- 36:47>> So you're when you actualize a problem, you're showing that in the clip or
- 36:51saying like do you suffer from this or whatever.
- 36:54>> It can be in any absolute way. It can be very short or very long, right? So for
- 36:58for example, you know, my content is definitely a little bit more
- 37:01explanatory, right? Because you know the format and the and the problem and stuff
- 37:04like that, but it can be like literally as you mentioned, you know, just asking
- 37:08a question, right? It really depends on what you're selling. Some products need
- 37:13more problemization, right, than others. Some problems are already very on top of
- 37:18the minds of people and you just you just you know kind of like pin on it and
- 37:23and say I have a solution. Some problems they don't even they're not even aware
- 37:28they have right then you need to explain the problem right. So sometimes me in my
- 37:32content right for example everything that is about this like new world right
- 37:36of uh of AI and agentic let's say commerce and everything a lot of people
- 37:41don't they don't really know that
- 37:43>> you know that they need to know about that right so definitely there's a
- 37:46little bit more explanation so short or long you just you just need to have that
- 37:51step before you're jumping into recommending things let's say yeah that
- 37:55makes so much sense so speaking of your brand part of what you do is you have
- 37:58these beautiful written interviews with big celebrities who have their own
- 38:04brands. So, is there anything that's through these interviews that's really
- 38:07stuck out to you or did anything surprise you? Like what what really
- 38:11stuck with you?
- 38:12>> Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, first of all, I just want to say that
- 38:16I'm definitely very blessed and grateful for being able to do those interviews.
- 38:20>> Oh my gosh, we're talking Kendall Jenner, Rosie Huntington Whitley, Jed
- 38:23Atkins.
- 38:24>> Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. People who when I started my journey as a marketer,
- 38:28I I learned from them, right? I look what they're doing. Yeah, absolutely.
- 38:32And they're still absolutely amazing. And me like when I was a child, I
- 38:36actually dreamed of being a journalist. This is how I got into the
- 38:39communications in the in the university and just I fell in love with marketing.
- 38:44This is what I do right now. But those interviews, it's some sort of let's say
- 38:50journalist side of me, let's say. So I'm really enjoying that. Um but definitely
- 38:55all of them have amazing insights because they've built absolutely
- 38:59incredible brands and their journeys are so interesting. So all of them have very
- 39:04interesting insights, but I would think I would say that probably
- 39:09>> the one that stuck with me and uh the one that I kind of like keep coming back
- 39:14to
- 39:15>> is the um interview with Matilda Derf, the Swedish influencer that she has um
- 39:22her own brand uh uh DJF Avenue. So she mentioned this like insight of the
- 39:29importance of community
- 39:32>> and community in marketing became this sort of buzzword at this point right
- 39:38like you you as the brand owner and marketer you just hear from everywhere
- 39:42you need community you need community but a lot of people don't really
- 39:46comprehend like okay like what exactly for uh how we like exactly trace it and
- 39:52what does it do for us let's say right we just we just know that we need to do
- 39:55that and in most like in a lot of cases it's just kind of like rushed through
- 39:59that outsource to some other agencies or people or something like that and
- 40:04Matilda in our interview she mentioned that she feels that she learned that
- 40:10this is something that can be can't be outsourced or rushed community it is
- 40:14something that you build in a very close rel relationship between you and your
- 40:20customers right and uh it's built on this uh understanding, genuine care,
- 40:26right? And that you actually listen to them. And I learned from her that I
- 40:30understood from her that community is truly one of your most valuable assets
- 40:36as a brand. This is something that will take you through some tough periods uh
- 40:42in your brand history, let's say. And those probably will be, right? And
- 40:45there's a big difference between customers and community, right?
- 40:49Customers, the people who choose you right now, right? community. Those are
- 40:53the people that are loyal to you. They feel that they know you. They will
- 40:56support you when you need this support, right? Because it's it's sort of
- 41:00personal, right? But this is something that you definitely need to nurture. So,
- 41:04for example, for me was very interesting to see that for every influencer
- 41:08marketing uh sorry, influencer event uh Derf Avenue is doing, they're doing one
- 41:13community event.
- 41:15>> So, every time they're doing something for influencers, they're doing something
- 41:18for community. So because first of all those are not interchangeable right like
- 41:23you do the influencer events for this like reach right and image and different
- 41:27like PR basically you do the community events for your customers right and for
- 41:32this connection with them right it's it's different so for me it was
- 41:36interesting that for like every you know influencer event they're doing community
- 41:39event and this is something that you know we see a lot of frustration on the
- 41:43market like by customers that they're not receiving this like nice PR packages
- 41:48that influence influencers receiving. They're not invited to those events or
- 41:52like influencer trips that influencers invited to while there is the one, you
- 41:57know, thanks to who this brand exists and they're spending their money on it,
- 42:01right? So, they feel this this a little bit of a frustration that even, you
- 42:05know, makes it even further this distance between the brand and your
- 42:09community. And I feel that derf avenue they truly understand like this like
- 42:14basics of and the importance of it and they they they genuinely authentically
- 42:20act upon it. So this is something that you know stuck with me as like an deeper
- 42:25understanding of the importance of community not just as a buzz word but
- 42:29what it actually means.
- 42:31>> What would a community event look like? Like obviously Matilda would be there
- 42:34but then what else is there?
- 42:36>> Yeah. So, I mean it it looks in absolutely different uh uh formats,
- 42:39right? You uh um you host an event. It can be just a meet and greet, let's say,
- 42:44with Matilda, right? Or like a breakfast or something, you know, for like a
- 42:48>> lunch of a collection or something like that. But you can take it even further.
- 42:52I know that they're doing some very cool events like every year, let's say, in a
- 42:56very unique uh space giving this very interesting experience for their let's
- 43:01say customers, right? So I know that some brands even doing taking it further
- 43:05and uh doing um this trips but for like you know chosen customers and not
- 43:10influencers right so it literally looks similar to how influencer events look
- 43:16but without necessary
- 43:18>> content being an absolute priority let's say right because the influencers uh
- 43:23events they're definitely optimized towards the content and you know the
- 43:28deliverables yeah out of that but uh community event is optimized toward
- 43:32towards the experience for them. Yeah,
- 43:34>> that makes so that's such a good insight. Thank you for that.
- 43:38>> Yes, thanks Matilda for that.
- 43:40>> Yeah, exactly. So, as a seasoned brander, marketer and strategist, you
- 43:44have a multicultural perspective which is so special. So, is there anything you
- 43:49wish you would have known sooner?
- 43:52>> Um, I feel that I I wish I would have known sooner that
- 43:59everything changes so fast.
- 44:01>> Yeah. so so fast. Every tool, every platform that you are learning, right,
- 44:08and trying to understand as a marketer, right? Like there's a new one
- 44:12>> nowadays. Exactly. There's a new one next month like literally and it's hard
- 44:16to keep up with that. So I was actually I mean but at the same time I did
- 44:22understand that quite let's say early that and again just thanks to my great
- 44:27you know teachers at the beginning of my journey but I do see right now often
- 44:31that marketers
- 44:33>> focus very much on the different tools and platforms and they consider them
- 44:38being in marketing while
- 44:40>> your tools and platforms it's not it's it's tools for the marketing marketing
- 44:45is literally this um marketing you know psychology that stands behind that and
- 44:52this is actually something you know all the psychological triggers that we're
- 44:55working with right and you know the marketing logic and this is something
- 44:59that
- 45:01>> is is not changing because this is something that is based on our you know
- 45:05uh reptilian brain and limbic brain right and there is a neocortex right
- 45:09soortex this is the one who is responsible for the logic and all the
- 45:13our new tools right like the form of everything But those marketing
- 45:17psychology right and the uh marketing logic right the one
- 45:22>> that is based on this uh reptilian brain right and the liyic brain the one the
- 45:27ones that responsible for the instincts and emotions right those are the ones
- 45:31that developed throughout millions of years and they're going to be for
- 45:35another million years here. So you as a marketer if you understand those and
- 45:40this is the basic you just you just work with those using different tools. So
- 45:45then you don't feel like you're just running after like different like you
- 45:48know formats of everything right it feels like everything is changing you're
- 45:53so much more grounded in this like basic understanding of like like people's
- 45:58behavior and consumer's behavior let's say right and I wish that you know as so
- 46:02for as many marketer as possible to understand that because I do feel that
- 46:06for me it gives me this sense of being a little bit more grounded and feel that
- 46:12for another million years I'm that in understanding how people think, let's
- 46:18say, and behave with the tools. We're going to figure that out,
- 46:21>> right? You just adapt with the tools. That's allact. Then you don't feel like
- 46:25that your basics changing all the time. The basics stay the same. You just, you
- 46:29know, change the the tools. Yeah. The ground is solid. That makes much sense.
- 46:34>> So, speaking of tools, let's talk about tech. I'm so excited to talk about tech
- 46:37with you.
- 46:38>> You've said that traditional e-commerce is dead, and I'm assuming that has to do
- 46:42with probably generative search. So, can you walk us through what this means for
- 46:45brands?
- 46:46>> Yeah. The end of e-commerce.
- 46:49>> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's not that's definitely a hook for for the content.
- 46:54The end. It's just about this transformation, right? Again, like the
- 46:58with the arrival of AI um the behavior of consumers changing a lot. So
- 47:07basically when you know several years ago we thought oh my god thanks to
- 47:12Google we don't need to go to several stores across the across the uh town uh
- 47:20comparing things blah blah blah blah we just you know we just like Google we
- 47:24have a couple of links we just compare a couple of things right or we don't need
- 47:28to go to a library we just have a couple of links we have information so much
- 47:32easier
- 47:32>> today we arrived at the spot that we're thinking oh my god how we lived without
- 47:37AI now like people needed to have a couple
- 47:42of links comparing in between them. It feels so so much hard like it's it feels
- 47:47so hard right because today like we're already in this such short period we all
- 47:53of us as people right we really got used to different let's say like a much
- 47:59shorter
- 48:00>> journey from the question to the answer right from the demand yeah to to to the
- 48:04response basically so we right now expect to just say hey clot whatever
- 48:10right I need you know uh I need the uh best uh uh um face cream for the
- 48:17sensitive skin uh that breaks out often. Um I'm a woman of this age um and this
- 48:23this is my price point, you know, this is what I care for and AI will provide
- 48:28you with the exact answer that is fitted to you. don't need to Google that and
- 48:32then compare 21st searches. read through all of the through all of their let's
- 48:37say uh marketing and you know their statements if you care let's say maybe
- 48:40for ingredients sustainability things like that you literally ask okay but
- 48:44this is this option that you provided me AI like like what about their
- 48:48ingredients what people are saying about them are they sustainable like different
- 48:51different things right it's so much shorter so basically today
- 48:57>> this is something that we as people are getting used to very very fast if not
- 49:01already used to but when you land on the website. Websites are built as still as
- 49:08like cataloges, let's say that people need to research, they need to compare,
- 49:12they need to read through descriptions. They're basically built
- 49:16>> with the uh um presumption that person that people know exactly what they need
- 49:23and they're very motivated to find it, right? Doing a research, comparing like
- 49:27reading D and people are less and less willing to do that. We're right kind of
- 49:32becoming a little bit lazy in this let's say in this like research let's say
- 49:36phase right so and this creates a lot of friction for the for the brands on their
- 49:40websites right when you you you make your customers do the job right and that
- 49:45was fine when they needed to do the job you know in in every place they went to
- 49:51let's say but but it's different right now when they're used to different
- 49:55experience so first of all
- 49:59>> all the world and we like all the e-commerce world and we will see more
- 50:02and more of that moves into this agentic commerce also model right so basically
- 50:08doesn't mean that you are deleting your website right it's basically right now
- 50:12it's about adding this additional layer additional let's say
- 50:16>> feature let's call it this way right that is aic storefront and this is
- 50:21basically that when for for with the purpose that your customer goes to your
- 50:27uh website and on your website they don't need to ask you uh to to to do the
- 50:32research. They just literally ask, "I'm looking for a red jacket under $300, you
- 50:37know, leather d." And you are recommended exactly the option that fits
- 50:42your needs, then you know, helps you with size. I'm I'm size
- 50:47>> small, but I tend to be medium because I have, you know, breast like this and I
- 50:53have, you know, something like this. And it can recommend you based on the you
- 50:57know description and understanding of the product rather than you needed to
- 51:00like open all the tabs. Yeah. And try to figure out and all this like you know
- 51:04like tables of of sizes and stuff like that and trying to figure out what does
- 51:09that mean and sometimes convert European US size. So that sometimes you're just
- 51:13like oh my god I don't have even time for that and I didn't even want it that
- 51:17that much. Yeah. So here like in one click you get exactly the the the
- 51:22product exactly the you know the size and it also takes you to the
- 51:27>> to the checkout basically. So it removes all of those points of friction when
- 51:32before that a person needed to do a very proactive action. Right now just in one
- 51:37chat very easy literally by saying right the the this agentic storefront takes
- 51:43the customer from the from not understanding like what product they
- 51:47want from this website to having a decision and a very you know best option
- 51:51for them let's say right and what it creates basically for the customers it's
- 51:55easier better experience right something that they are getting used to in in
- 52:01other places let's say too but for the brands it's higher conversions Right?
- 52:06It's more data to work with. It's a better understanding how your customers
- 52:11even thinking because like what are the questions they're asking? You never know
- 52:14what are the questions they're asking when they are just looking at your
- 52:17website, right? You just like try to assume, right? So you have a lot of a
- 52:22lot of data also to work with and understanding of their psychology, let's
- 52:25say, right? Behind that. So this is you know this agentic let's say commerces
- 52:30this is something that definitely e-commerce is moving into and of course
- 52:34absolutely for sure the go right and uh this is basically the um optimizing
- 52:41towards this AI engines right so similar to SEO but for searches in AI right so
- 52:47for example when people right now asking I need this you know uh skincare for
- 52:52sorry the the face cream for the sensitive skin d so you appear in that
- 52:57in that in those recommendations of AI, right? So you definitely need to do a
- 53:02preparation let's say uh um of your let's say structure and everything
- 53:07around your brand to be recommended because again there is still a lot of
- 53:12different brands in the world and AI pools whatever you know is the best fit
- 53:17and you need to be visible for it and it's a little bit different optimization
- 53:21uh than the SEO but of course you still need the SEO
- 53:24>> yeah but you want to niche down right
- 53:26>> so in terms of the recommendation of uh uh for like go I would just say that you
- 53:33need to to
- 53:34>> first of all yes understanding how the AI recommendations work right and they
- 53:39build on this like very specific questions and a very specific answers
- 53:44right uh because so and that means that you need to structure your content right
- 53:49on your website in all the backlinks everywhere
- 53:52>> your language
- 53:53>> exactly exactly to niche down to have a very specific positioning and a benefit
- 53:58and domin ate that rather than just to be for everything for just a great skin,
- 54:03right? Because then when someone asks for the for the sensitive skin that
- 54:08breaks out,
- 54:10>> AI will pull up the one that matches the closest to this basically um request,
- 54:17right? And also it pulls a lot of information from SEO. So it's just
- 54:21important to understand it's not about
- 54:23>> exchanging, you know, like go and forgetting about SEO. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
- 54:27Yeah. AI still pulls a lot from SEO. Absolutely. And of course, AI also um
- 54:33takes a lot of information for this like third-party authority, let's say. So,
- 54:36it's not only about your website, similar to SEO, right? But it's also
- 54:40very important this other sources talking about you in the same way. So,
- 54:43this like cohesiveness of the language and the positioning, a very precise
- 54:48niche down positioning, this is something that will be winning, let's
- 54:52say, in this like new uh type of optimization. So before we get into fast
- 54:56field notes to close our time together, speaking about an agentic storefront, do
- 55:01you have a favorite app to install that agent? If I was a brand and I had an an
- 55:07ecommerce, you know, site, which app would I use to install that agent?
- 55:12>> Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So one of the companies that are leading right now the
- 55:17way is Swap.
- 55:19>> Okay.
- 55:20>> Uh Swap. So uh this is the um company that basically they build this agentic
- 55:26storefront and they work with you know many companies like Pangaya Vera Wong.
- 55:31So this is the companies that are already having this agentic storefront
- 55:34on their websites. Um so I would recommend just checking this out SAP
- 55:40right uh SWAP. Yep.
- 55:43>> Swap. Okay.
- 55:43>> Y
- 55:44>> so fast field notes top AI tool every company should be using for marketing.
- 55:49So in addition to swap yeah yeah
- 55:53>> so I would say that um I would like to recommend not even the yi tool specific
- 55:58one because again there's a new one every every other week I would say right
- 56:03and there's many platforms that you could be using you know for uh visuals
- 56:07creation for you know strategy recommendations for optimizing different
- 56:11different things right but I would recommend
- 56:16focusing not just like running up after different tools
- 56:19But uh um using MCP so basically model context protocol. So basic basically
- 56:25this is something that allows uh your AI that you're already using. It can be you
- 56:30know chpt cloud whatever whatever the AI or the tool you're using to be connected
- 56:34to your actual data to get the access to your actual data of your brand because
- 56:40if you're just like let's say chipd right like this most common let's say
- 56:43tool brands are using to get some advice for example me as the founder I need or
- 56:48as a marketer right I need to understand how good is my email marketing doing for
- 56:53example right right now you can just say liked
- 56:57this is kind of like something that I can give you about my marketing like
- 57:00help me you know and it gives you this like generic advice let's say right but
- 57:05if you connect your chbpt to with MCP to your let's say uh clavio or what's that
- 57:12right your like actual email platform it pulls the data from there it knows
- 57:17exactly you know the patterns the the data everything it can understand
- 57:22exactly like to to recommend you you know what you should be doing you know
- 57:26what campaign performed the best or what is like are your uh um subscribers
- 57:31dropping or growing like where it drops where it grows like it just has the
- 57:36access to all this data that without that it takes you
- 57:41>> someone very analytical going through that and being on top of that and trying
- 57:44to understand and AI you know is very very great in
- 57:48>> recognizing patterns and working with data. So instead of just like asking for
- 57:54generic advice from Chad GPT, right? You give you give him provide him him it a
- 58:00very specific data and then it gives you a very great advice because AI is really
- 58:04great. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I mean AI is it's it's really really great tool and
- 58:09just you know intelligence but it is as good as the data and information you
- 58:15provide it to work with and as good as the questions that you ask. Right? So
- 58:19this is why you know for some people they use a y and they say it's stupid
- 58:23because I mean they didn't don't understand
- 58:26>> it's like a therapist
- 58:27>> something like that probably. Yeah. It's like you know but
- 58:30>> you only work with so much right.
- 58:32>> Exactly. Exactly. So for example even just like in marketing right if you
- 58:35don't understand in marketing asking this like generic questions AI it will
- 58:39probably give you a very generic answer and you will not even know if it's good
- 58:42or bad. Right. But if you're a marketer working with AI and you can ask right
- 58:48questions, control its quality, then the output you're getting is just
- 58:52absolutely, you know, next level from this generic advice. So MCP. MCP. Yeah.
- 58:57>> Such a good integration.
- 58:59>> Uh what's the first brand that comes to mind that just does it right
- 59:02>> for marketing?
- 59:03>> Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean there's so many brands that come to my mind.
- 59:07marketing a marketer what do you look to
- 59:10>> I think that kind of like different things and different brands I would say
- 59:13so I think that those that come to my mind often let's say is uh
- 59:18>> uh salt and stone for building this very tasteful very created world that you
- 59:24just want to be a part of let's say and they're by the way great in
- 59:27understanding how to work in those cultural bubbles so you know for example
- 59:32one of their recent campaigns instead of hiring like a huge celebrity they hired
- 59:36a very specific like a singer, a woman who is a singer with about 100,000
- 59:41followers, but a very relevant for their brand and for the audience they're
- 59:45talking to. So, they're are very precise on what they're doing. They're so
- 59:49>> uh thought out and smart and I also have the interview with the Nema Jalal. So,
- 59:54you know, he's absolutely amazing have so many different uh insights. Uh
- 59:57another brand that comes to my mind, of course, is also 818 for
- 1:00:02>> candles. Yeah. Yeah. Candles. Scandal Tequila brand for um reimagining very
- 1:00:09traditional category in a in an absolutely great way for the new
- 1:00:14consumer. So like literally they they're building something that resonates so
- 1:00:18much with the new generation of drinkers consumers and you know so they're really
- 1:00:23good at this like reimagination of the old category let's say right
- 1:00:27>> and that she's built a world.
- 1:00:28>> Absolutely. Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. And uh um of course road for building
- 1:00:35this world of road that
- 1:00:38>> a lot of women and girls want to be a part of and this is such a great
- 1:00:43>> uh balance of this aspirational marketing but being approachable not
- 1:00:48like distant as like a luxury brand but being very aspirational but in reach
- 1:00:52let's say and like on a warmer side of things let's say um also the David
- 1:00:59Protein
- 1:01:00>> I think that they're doing really great with turning their product into a
- 1:01:06lifestyle into this like everyday object and also they're very brave and they're,
- 1:01:12you know, very creative and their campaigns and their ideas. You just want
- 1:01:16to follow up and see what they're doing. I'm not even a consumer of the protein
- 1:01:19bars, but I absolutely love this brand and marketing that uh that they're
- 1:01:23doing.
- 1:01:24>> They're everywhere now.
- 1:01:25>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And of course, you know, DJ Gerf, of course,
- 1:01:29for their like community, let's say. Yeah.
- 1:01:31>> Yeah. The community events.
- 1:01:32>> Yeah. So, as an entrepreneur yourself, how do you avoid exhaustion and keep the
- 1:01:37magic and the joy alive?
- 1:01:40>> That's a very interesting question. I would definitely say that I'm still
- 1:01:43learning to do that, right? I tend to prioritize work. Yeah, exactly.
- 1:01:50>> And uh and then I realized that, you know, when it's a little late. But
- 1:01:55definitely you know after years of not even having uh uh weekends right I
- 1:02:00thought I will just work through weekend I will get there faster let's say right
- 1:02:04uh I will you know rest
- 1:02:05>> in a month or what right
- 1:02:07>> um I just realized that is something that you know eventually I just burn out
- 1:02:11and I don't want to do anything so for me definitely this balance is
- 1:02:15>> about having weekends as much as I can I mean like I try to so hard
- 1:02:20>> yeah yeah I try to definitely there's still sometimes you are in a rush you
- 1:02:24have so many different things and you kind of like I work but I definitely
- 1:02:27feel that after on myself that like it's it it impacts me but having those uh
- 1:02:33weekends definitely also meditations the big is a big thing for me so for me
- 1:02:38meditating is uh you know it it changed me a lot let's say especially
- 1:02:43>> yeah especially in the
- 1:02:45>> if you work um in environment let's say that you constantly challenge yourself
- 1:02:50and you constantly constantly meet like new let's say things to deal with let's
- 1:02:55in a in a best way sometimes right but it's still for your brain it is a it is
- 1:03:00a challenge you meet a lot of fears you met a lot of your personal let's say
- 1:03:04things inside right so to kind of kind of like calm my brain and be centered
- 1:03:08meditation uh meditations it's a it's a big thing but again not just doing it
- 1:03:13like once a year and hoping it's going to fix my problems it's about this
- 1:03:18compound a effect let's say I definitely since I'm doing meditations I feel that
- 1:03:22I'm so much more um balanced and centered and uh stress resilient let's
- 1:03:28say thanks to that but thanks to this compound effect not just because one
- 1:03:32magic meditation or something like that. Yeah. And of course also for me as a New
- 1:03:36Yorker is
- 1:03:38>> reconnecting with nature.
- 1:03:40>> So glad you said that.
- 1:03:41>> Yeah. Yeah. I feel that you know here and I'm I live you know in this in the
- 1:03:46uh the area that we barely have any any nature although like on the water but
- 1:03:51still it's not like green nature. I I truly feel that you know like every time
- 1:03:56I'm like next to something green I'm just like you know like
- 1:03:59>> take your shoes off
- 1:04:00>> taking my shoes off doing some grounding you know it really restores my mental
- 1:04:06energy. Yeah. And of course, you know, in general, uh, trying to take care of
- 1:04:10my mental health, of course, throughout this crazy journey, you know, of the
- 1:04:16living in New York and chasing your dreams, let's say, lifestyle. So, as New
- 1:04:20Yorkers, we're all about saving time, right? We're in the hustle. We're in the
- 1:04:23city. What do you do? Is there something that you do that saves you a ton of
- 1:04:26time? The hot tip.
- 1:04:28>> Yeah. So, uh, for me, I would say that as English is not my first language,
- 1:04:34obviously. So uh uh for me previously before AI every email everything that
- 1:04:39I'm writing right it takes a couple minutes more like you know basically
- 1:04:44proofreading that understanding okay is the grammar correct like do people
- 1:04:48phrase it in this way right or is it me taking it from another language so every
- 1:04:52email takes a little longer let's say right because you try to at least write
- 1:04:56things grammatically right so for me it's a great trick I'm just literally
- 1:05:00having a chip open all the time I'm just like writing or even sometimes recording
- 1:05:04the email that I want to say and it just like gives me the clean version in terms
- 1:05:08of grammar and I'm just like sending. So for me it saves me so much time
- 1:05:12basically fixing my grammar. But before that I was like spending I probably cut
- 1:05:17in half my time you know for like emails and stuff like that without like you
- 1:05:22know checking and proof reading and stuff like that and you know especially
- 1:05:24when I on my roles as let's say as a copyriter at the beginning of of the of
- 1:05:29my let's say career everything like I worked throughout my career a lot with
- 1:05:32American and eur European brands even before moving to uh to United States
- 1:05:36like so when I was writing anything we need to like I need to be very uh um you
- 1:05:42know focused on you know writing that and thinking about that in grammar and
- 1:05:45then proofreading that with the person who is actually
- 1:05:49>> this is his hers first language so everything is so much longer every text
- 1:05:53like like imagine every email you are writing everything that you're putting
- 1:05:57on the website needs to go through like you know people and thinking and stuff
- 1:06:01so for me
- 1:06:02>> grammar fixing GPD help is lifechanging it saves me so much time
- 1:06:08>> so if our listeners take away only one single thing from this entire
- 1:06:13conversation for how to mean business. What should
- 1:06:16that be?
- 1:06:18>> Um, I would say that what we already talked a lot about during this
- 1:06:23conversation is having this approach your brand in this complete let's say
- 1:06:29way uh rather than fractured, right? Understand that the modern
- 1:06:36consumer journey, right? Is is not even linear. is this like immersive loop with
- 1:06:42all of those pieces and parts of your marketing being uh in one let's say in
- 1:06:48one system right and no consumer makes a decision in the vacuum of one platform
- 1:06:54or one uh uh um place right so I feel that the most important thing for brands
- 1:07:00to understand right now is that that is that the modern consumer's journey
- 1:07:05changed and they're not skipping the steps in between. So you also can't skip
- 1:07:11those thinking we're gonna just push ads you know our brand marketing is gonna is
- 1:07:16gonna wait or our social media is gonna wait. No it doesn't work this way
- 1:07:21because your customers doesn't skip those steps. So you also need to
- 1:07:25approach it in this like complete balanced out way and approach to uh to
- 1:07:30meet with them.
- 1:07:32>> Where can we find you and the brand revolution system? of course at my uh
- 1:07:36social media Instagram right the Anastasia Stumpel and of course my
- 1:07:41website anastasia stumpel.com of course and you can reach out to me and we'll
- 1:07:45talk. Thank you. Thank you. If you've enjoyed this episode,
- 1:07:51subscribe and comment below. You can also find us on social at we mean
- 1:07:55business pod. And if you prefer to listen to this episode, you can find us
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- 1:08:02with us and truly hope we've unlocked new ways of building, believing, and
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- 1:08:14Collective. From all of us, thank you for watching and remember, the future
- 1:08:18belongs to those who mean business.