Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Building a personal brand is all about serving your audience, educating, enlightening, entertaining your consumers. It's all about communication. I think nowadays marketers are focused on algorithms, automation, and they forget human connection.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Welcome to the agency Hour podcast where we help web design and digital agency owners create abundance for themselves, their teams and their communities. This week we're joined by Vladimir Botsbaze. Vladimir is a world renowned social media influencer, keynote speaker, startup advisor, and Internet personality who drives growth and positions brands as market leaders in their industries. In this episode, we discuss brand building and marketing using AI. We also discuss the importance of remaining consumer centric, adapting to the reality of the marketplace, and so much more. If you're looking to define your personal brand and target audience, this episode is for you. I'm Johnny Flash. Stay with us.
Hey, Vladimir, how's it going?
[00:01:00] Speaker A: Hi, Johnny. It is a pleasure to be a guest on your podcast and many thanks for invitation. I'm doing great. How are, how about you?
[00:01:07] Speaker B: We're doing. I'm doing great as well. Hey, so if someone's been under a rock and they just don't know who you are, can you just give a quick intro of yourself and where you're located at?
[00:01:18] Speaker A: I'm currently in Tbilisi, Georgia, and I have more than 15 years of internship experience with a proven track of guiding executive topics worldwide to initiate change, drive growth, and position brazilian market leaders in their industries.
I have been recognized as number one global marketing software bias in 2016. I serve on the advisory boards for the United States AI Institute, Data Science Institute, and Cybersecurity Institute. I'm also a mentor at Techstars founder KTLS in Saudi Arabia and Techstars Detroit powered by JPMorgan. I also settle as a judge for the web awards and I also work for speakers bureaus throughout the world. So I totally to deliver my speeches.
[00:02:05] Speaker B: Awesome. Well, it's so great to have you here and I wanted to talk a little bit. AI is like going crazy right now. All I hear about is AI. I was at a board meeting for the college nearby. They're talking about AI last night, they're talking about AI earlier today on my meetings. Like, everybody's just talking about AI. And obviously, you know, as agency owners, um, we're all trying to like, put out helpful content. Some of us have personal brands. Like, I'm Johnny Flash, I run Johnny Flash production. So there's like a, there's a personal brand, but then there's also kind of the, the corporate brand, you know, and that kind of stuff. So I thought we could just talk a little bit about, um, because I know you have a lot of experience with this, with personal branding and content creation and AI. Right, so when should we use AI? When should we not use AI? Like, are we going to get penal. Is Google going to come out and just penalize us? Like, hey, you created that with AI. Like, we're done with you or whatever. Like, give. Give me your take on it.
[00:03:04] Speaker A: Well, you know, I think you should strike while the iron is hot because it is a probably the best time in the history of mankind to be successful to create great content.
I think when I started on my, when I started my journey in 2014 on Twitter, I had only, I attended some conferences in Dubai in 2014. It was March or April, and I attended, I listened to speakers, I understood how important it was to build a personal brand. I said, listed the ground running on Twitter. So I built my following from zero followers to 57,000 followers from 2014 to 2020 by working 16 hours a day, 16 hours a day in six years. So I won a few year few awards in 20, 1520, 1718. I was recognized among top 100 b, two b marketing influencers, digital transformation influencers. I was ranked number one marketing influencer in 2020 by sequence 60. So I, I was using, I was building my personal brand organically without chat, GPT and I tools, you know. So I think it is much easier now journey to stand out in this noise marketplace because I'm also a enabled judge for the web awards. And I see how there is a better going on for american brands to win consumers attention, you know, so I think AI can help you create better content, it can reduce your costs, it can improve your efficiency. So I think what I see nowadays is that, I mean, my friends at Techstars and all over the world, wherever I contribute as a mentor, they are building multi million and billion dollar startups through creating content by AI, because AI helps them create great content, you know. So I think it's better nowadays. I think anyone should create consistently on a daily basis, like 40, 50, 60 pieces of content across six, seven, eight social media channels. You know, there are probably said 40.
[00:05:25] Speaker B: Or 50 a day.
[00:05:26] Speaker A: You said, yes, 40, 50.
[00:05:28] Speaker B: Whoa. Okay, well, we're going to have to dive into that because that sounds overwhelming to me. But I believe you. I was just thinking as you were talking that, um, kind of like when the smartphone came out, you know, I tell my kids, like, back when I was in high school and college, there was no smartphone and it was totally different. And I think this AI thing is going to be kind of like that too, right? Where it's going to be like, back in the old days, we had to like, kind of what you were saying, we had to do organic marketing and all these things without AI. And then there's going to be a point where in a few years from now, we're going to be like, how did we do it without AI? Because it's going to be such a different thing. But, um, let's, let's talk about that pieces of content that you mentioned. Like, so how, how would you recommend if I wanted to create 40, 50, 60 pieces of content in a day with AI? Like, what does that look like? Can you give me a little more detail there, Johnny?
[00:06:19] Speaker A: Just imagine that, you know, since 2014, I have sent more than 130,000 tweets to, I have posted more than 60,000 times on Instagram. I have capital, I have capitalized on WordPress, Tumblr, medium, blogger, the rest of blogging and micro blogging platforms to tell my story. So marketing is all about telling your story, you know, market, because, you know, we are in a streaming economy nowadays. We literally watch Netflix and we watch no ads. We listen to Spotify, no ads. Amazon prime, no ads. Disney plus, no ads. Podcast, no ads. Audiobooks, no ads. Just imagine that consumers are willing to pay more not to consume ads. Because advertising steals our time, Johnny. Advertising steals our time. You know, so it's all about storytelling. It's all about direct communication. It's all about positioning your breath as a media company and to forget you are salesperson because nobody cares about sales pitches on social media. So we need to forget that we are salesy on social media and we need to become marketers, brand builders, communicators. So communication dictates everything that is going on in this world. You know, since 2020, 2000, more than 62% of 4500 brands have disappeared from the list since 2000. Journey because why? Because they have not adapted to the reality of the marketplace. Because still in 2024, they are marketing like it is. 1995, 2000, 520, ten. They disregard consumers, they disregard personal branding. They totally depend on a backward looking advertising like blase. Because when I, when I was a new kid on the block in Menaces, Virginia, when I was 1819, when I was working in Virginia, I used to see a blockbuster store in my neighborhood because it was still popular to rent dvd to watch films. So blockbuster, blockbuster board members, they sat in their board, the smart people who made billions of dollars, and they were considering buying Netflix, for buying Netflix for $50 million. They did not buy. They saw that you know, this forced industrial revolution is not going to affect our business. They totally invested all their money in advertising. They went out of business, lost market share, you know, because they did not adapt it. They did not adapt to the reality of the marketplace. This is a problem that majority of brands don't adapt. Like, like, for example, hospitality brands did not adapt to the reality of the marketplace because Airbnb disrupted them. Because nowadays, kid and convenience win all the time. So I prefer Airbnb oversold luxury and exorbitant and extortionate, extortionate hotel brands, you know, so I think. I think Brian Chesky is more curious. Open minded, directly communicates with Airbnb users through X, formally Twitter. That's why he has become dominant, because of this curiosity and open mindedness, you know, but I don't think that you remember anybody from hospitality brands where they're executive, directly communicate with consumers on social media. I don't remember anybody, you know, but. So this is open mindedness, personal branding, even Elon Musk, Tesla doesn't have an advertising department. And in the last 15 years, Tesla has depended on a strong personal brand of Elon Musk because he communicates, he shares product updates with Tesla's owners on X. So this built his communities, this has built his trust. That's why nowadays Tesla's brand value is $71 billion, followed by Toyota, Athenae, $30 billion, Mercedes Benz and BMW, $23 billion and $22 billion. So personal branding is the ultimate marketing strategy in 2024. It's all about emotional connection with your consumers, you know?
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[00:11:22] Speaker B: I love it. If we can dig a little bit deeper on that, because I'm totally with you on that. And I think obviously you've had great success with this in your own story, but I think some of our agency owners that are listening to this, they're kind of sometimes like, and I think I fall into this myself. It's like I tell myself, no one wants to hear my story. I don't know what to talk about.
It can feel kind of intimidating to put out that much content. And it can also feel like, man, it's going to take a lot of time. So talk a little bit. Like, you know, if the agency's listening, the agency owner's listening, and they build websites, they do maybe SEO or Google Ads, they do some other like, digital marketing for, you know, clients. Like what story should they be telling on social media? Like how, like, can we unpack that a little bit more? Because I think sometimes it's just like you kind of are not sure what to post. And I think that that's, that's part of the hurdle, I think.
[00:12:29] Speaker A: So just imagine that is a last social media. It is a reactionary business journey. You know, it is all about listening and responding, listening and responding. But majority of brands and agency owners treat social media like they treated tv, billboards, advertise, I mean, magazines, the offline marketing channels, you know, so social media is a two way communication, tv is a one way communication, you know, so majority of brands we are in the pushing business is the last 150 plus years. But social media is all about pulling, it's all about communication. It's all about showing your heart, showing your face, showing your smile, you know. So I think many, many, many open minded entrepreneurs are capitalized on social media to tell their stories, to create content that is in followers best interests. It is very important, Johnny, to create content that is in followers best interest, you know, so building a personal brand is all about serving your audience, serving your audience, you know, but so it's all about educating, enlightening, entertaining your consumers. It's all about communication, you know, gratitude drives, drives personal brand building, gratitude, you know. So when I embarked on my Twitter journey in 20, 1415, 1617, actually, you know, I had 7000 followers at the end of 2014. So in 2015 I already had 50,000. 2016 25,020 1740. 5000. So I gained momentum. I gained momentum, Johnny. I won awards. I was invited as a guest on podcast. Then I started judging awards because I'm consumer centric. I'm not a no costume competitor. Centric and audience centric. And the reason why I, for example, nowadays, Johnny, when you Google digital marketing keynote speaker, my website, vladimir botswana.com is ranked number one on Google, Johnny, number one on Google, you know, because I never worked on SEO, but I, if I'm earning someone trust on, on podcasts or in magazines, I'm also earning Google Trust. So I have never worked on SEO, but I have built my authority, I have built my reputation.
If people don't like personal brandings, they should call it reputation, because reputation is decisive nowadays. So I know I have been a guest on 60 podcasts. I have 50 media interviews. I have been featured in more than 50 global magazines. So 150 sticky engagements worldwide. So I think I have been building my personal brand by leaps and bounds, through passion, long term thinking, patience, communicating with my audience. And I have never sold any programs in the back of conference soon, because I give away my best advice for free. Whether I tweet, whether I speak, or wherever I contribute, I always want my audience to win, you know, love it.
[00:15:55] Speaker B: So, um. And that's great. That's great. I love the education and lightning and entertaining, you know, communication kind of stuff. What, what does that look like on a practical level, in terms of, like, am I. So I'll just, I'll just give out a few examples and tell me if I'm in the right, like, ball ballpark, right? So, uh, entertaining might be, hey, I did this. We did this thing as a team, or we went to this place, or I did this thing with my kids. Totally off topic, right? But entertaining, um, then educational might be like, hey, here's five things you can do to your Google business profile to, like, get you more visibility or something like that. So I'm providing some, like, helpful tips. Um, am I kind of touch? Talk to me.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, I think, um, even if you attend, uh, you know what Steve Jobs said, right? People who know what they are talking about, they don't need PowerPoint, right? So I know my content, so I don't need a visual help, you know, to read from Slideshare, slideshows and PowerPoint presentations, you know, from slides. You know, I rarely use slides when I speak, right? Because. Because I practice what I preach. I help build my personal brand. I'm a practitioner of my craft.
I know what is happening across extant social media channels. There are 8.1 billion people in the world and 5.1 billion social media users. Just imagine that power journey, the power from Medicine Avenue, Wall street, big advertising agencies, has shifted dramatically to human beings. Nowadays, everyone has a voice. Everyone is a media company, Johnny. Everyone is a media company, you know, so it is a very powerful, very powerful. But so this has, this shift has created so many renowned and prominent self made influencers. Elon Musk's success is self made, right? Because he has disrupted all traditional automakers through building his personal brand, because he directly communicates with Tesla's owners. That's why. And still, you know, when I check out Elon Musk's ex account. It is incredible how he engages with followers. You know, he can, he can retweet anyone. He can share their posts, you know, he can comment on their tweets. It is incredible. That's why we put Elon on a pedestal, because of his. Because he's down to earth, because he's never on his high horse as a majority of executives and directors at top organizations, because they rarely communicate and interact with their consumers and followers. But. But commercially, Elon is down to earth. Elon loves communicating. That's why he's a greatest entrepreneur of our generation, you know?
[00:19:02] Speaker B: Yeah, amazing, amazing entrepreneur. Super inspiring. And fact that he's running like two, three, four big companies between Tesla and SpaceX and X, Twitter, you know, all these things. It's just like, it's. It's amazing. I don't even know how he sleeps. Maybe he doesn't sleep. Maybe he's. Maybe he's Got a Secret formula that he's going to release to us.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: You know, your journey. I think whoever, whoever is consumer centric, they are dominant in their domains, you know?
And so I think Elon is consumer centric, right? Elon is not competitor centric. Elon is consumer centric. That's why he's close to consumers through communicating with them on X. Right. So it is remarkable, a great example to follow for us. And I think. I think, I still imagine that so many big brands will lose market share in the foreseeable future because you know that at top accelerators, so many AI startups are being built, and they will drive those slow big brands out of business because speed and convenience win all the time, you know?
[00:20:12] Speaker B: So let's circle back to AI with what we're talking about with the social media, the personal brand being consumer centric, you know, communicating directly with your audience. How does, how does AI play into all that? Because on the surface, it seems like AI is kind of the opposite of that, right? It's the canned messages, it's the written by the bots, it's the not personal. It feels kind of impersonal. So how do we mix the use AI but have the personal brand that's consumer centric?
[00:20:44] Speaker A: Well, you know, I think nowadays marketers are focused on algorithms, automation, and they forget human connection, you know? And so I think it's all about acquiring and retaining. Retention and lifetime value are everything nowadays, Johnny. Lifetime value and retention. So for me, everything is about retention, right? Because when I started building my following on exit, it has never been a walk in the park. Right. I, but I have shown fortitude, determination, patience. So I have grown my following because of retention and lifetime value, John, you know, so I think, what about AI, right? Global AI market value is expected to reach $267 billion by 2027. Only 28% of companies use AI for marketing purposes. Only 28%, John, you know, and only 12% of businesses use AI for content creation. It's very low. It's very low, Johnny. And so more than 40% of global businesses use AI to lower operational costs. And I think that 84% of global business organizations believe that AIH gives them a competitive advantage. You know, I believe that and I. It is very interesting that 38% of human workforce globally will be replaced by AI and by 2020, and 375 million professionals will switch other carriers by 2030. Just imagine that any, anyone in marketing, coding, copywriting is replaced 85% by generative AI, Johnny. And 50% is your personal brand. 50%, you know, so 50% is all about emotional connection, John, you know, because if I'm a marketer and if I, if I build my personal brand, if I have an emotional attachment to the world, I will not be replaced by generative AI because, because this world allows picking my brain because of this emotional connection. But if you are a copywriter, coder, a blogger, marketer, and you built your personal, you never built your personal brand and you don't have emotional attachment to the world, you will be replaced by genetic AI because of you. You never built your personal brand and you don't have an emotional connection, emotional attachment. So emotional attachment and emotional connection is becoming decisive in this age of AI and automation, you know, so I think that AI, AI, you know, I think total contribution of AI to the global economy will be in the ballpark of by 2030. And nowadays, 77% of people use a service or device that is AI powered, and 62% of b, two b, and 38% of b, two c or businesses plan to use AI for content generation, for content generation to assist their marketing efforts in the foreseeable future. Just imagine that as I mentioned, that only 12% of businesses use AI for content creation. More nowadays, 60% of organizations, more than 60% are planning to use generative AI tools to assist their marketing efforts. So I think that 64% of businesses expect AI to increase productivity. And chatbots, for example, save businesses 2 hours and 20 minutes. And half, half of us mobile users use voice search every day. Half of us mobile users, you know, it's remarkable. So I think we see nowadays, we use AI everywhere nowadays, Johnny, you know, everywhere device service.
So I think AI is becoming a competitive advantage for global brands, you know?
[00:25:15] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And I think it's those who are able to use AI to its fullest extent because AI still needs some direction. Right. And I was looking at a prompt yesterday of, you can give a very general description of, like, hey, make this generative image for me. And if you're vague, you get kind of like lackluster results. When you write in the descriptive paragraph of what you're looking for and the details and stuff, you can get some really amazing results. And so it's sort of a little bit of a junk into AI. Junk out of AI. But if you put good stuff into AI, you can get some really amazing results. And so I feel like as agency owners, as digital marketers, we have to be, like you said, kind of on the forefront of using AI and getting good with AI because that's going to keep us relevant. Right.
[00:26:05] Speaker A: Just imagine, just imagine, Johnny, that chat GPT, 5.5 point zero's iq will be in the somewhere 100 and 8180. And Elon Musk's and Albert Einstein's iq.
Albert Einstein's iq was 155. And Elon Musk's iq is 155. Just imagine that KGPT, five point zero's iq will be 180. And you have chat GPT in your pocket that is smarter than Elon Musk. You know what?
[00:26:43] Speaker B: So I've used chat GPT a lot. I've used a few other AI tools, obviously, and it's kind of, like you said, embedded in a lot of the different things that we use in small ways. Siri here, Alexa there, different things like that. But what are some of your favorite AI tools that you're using or seeing a lot of people use?
[00:27:01] Speaker A: Perplexity is a remarkable search engine powered by AI. So perplexity garners information from 567 different websites. Remarkable, remarkable generated AI tool.
I think I use nowadays perplexity more than Google search, because when you scroll down, perplexity also provides four or five different questions that I may be interested in. So it is a remarkable tool. I think Mixo IO is also great website builder. So you can build websites in three minutes without coding, you know. So Mixo IO has already built almost 3 million websites, Johnny. 3 million websites.
[00:27:54] Speaker B: Wow. Awesome. Well, I know we're coming up here on the time. Is there any other tips that you want to leave our audience in terms of. This has been so helpful for me, and I'm already like, oh, man, I need to talk to our social media person who helps with our social media of our agency.
[00:28:09] Speaker A: I think journey is all about being curious on a daily basis to show more patience in your journey, to be more flexible. Agility is decisive. You know, we need to have this curiosity, this lifelong learning, because I have been reading 400, 500 pages a day, and I also believe that it is all about big information smart, not book smart, because if you are information smart, it is your ultimate competitive advantage, because so much is changing every single day, you know, so you need to keep up yourself with recent trends and recent news. And I also believe that, and they actively send it, I think the most successful businesses, the most successful startups, then the people who have built their personal brands are in the listening business. Listening business, because before I start speaking at global events, I listen to my audience across various social media channels and I engage and I interact with audience, you know, so it is very important to show gratitude to our followers, because when I had hundred followers, a thousand followers, well, 10,000 followers, 25,000 followers, I was showing gratitude. So I'm always down to earth, and I have never been on my high horse. No, I have been very down to earth, very humble, very humble, you know, so we also need to give more than we take. We need to be givers, not takers, because majority of people are takers nowadays. So if we want to win in the long term, we need to give more, you know.
[00:29:55] Speaker B: Love it. So good, man. This has been so helpful. Vladimir. I'm taking notes. If you see me typing, I'm taking notes here so I can talk with them with our team internally about how we need to make some shifts. Love your analogies.
[00:30:09] Speaker A: Thank you so much.
I'm very grateful to the United States, to my, I have the best friends in the US and I'm very proud of them, you know, when I moved to United States at the age of 18, I was involved in a summer exchange work and travel program, and I moved in 2006 from my country, Georgia, to the US. I was on cloud nine when I, I was given this amazing j one visa, you know, and I moved to Washington, DC, where I lived on the outcast in Seaworld Springs in Maryland. You know, it was amazing period for me. Then when I completed this training, then I moved to menace, as you know, 35 minutes drive from DC. So just imagine that 18 year old kid from Georgia is in DC. It was very transformational experience. So I started seeing the world faster. Is it clear? Then I moved to New York City, which is the best multi part in the world. So I'm very grateful to the US from the bottom of my heart to my friends for helping me to make my dreams come true. So I believe in giving back. So I mentor amazing startups and entrepreneurs at tech starts, you know.
[00:31:20] Speaker B: Love it, love it. Thank you so much for all the input. This is super helpful and it's great to connect with you.
[00:31:26] Speaker A: Yeah. So I believe that United States will have more disruptors because they live in Bris, innovation, marketing, content creation. They communicate with their consumer, and it is what sets United States apart because United States is the best at marketing without the shadow of a doubt.
[00:31:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:48] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:31:48] Speaker B: Well, thanks for. Thanks for joining on. I won't tell Troy that you said the US is better than Australia, Van Nutskin. But great talking with you and I'll catch up with you soon. Thanks.
[00:32:00] Speaker A: Thank you so much, Johnny. And please send my regards to your entire team.
[00:32:04] Speaker B: You know, thanks for listening to the agency hour podcast and a massive thanks to Vladimir for joining us. Okay, folks, remember to subscribe and please share this with anyone who you think may need to hear it. I'm Johnny Flash. Let's get to work.
