- Speaker #0
Bonjour à toutes et à tous. Encore un épisode spécial en anglais. Parait que le précédent, j'avais trop envie. Et pourquoi pas après tout, c'est mon podcast, non? Hi everyone and welcome back to Réussir en France mode d'emploi. I'm thrilled to introduce you to Sasha, a bold, creative entrepreneur from Russia who moved to Paris to start from scratch. We talk about everything, her story, her challenges. the cultural shocks, dating experience,
- Speaker #1
and more.
- Speaker #0
Let's dive into Sasha's journey, and I hope it inspires you as much as it inspired me. Ready to dive in? Let's go. Hi, Sasha.
- Speaker #1
Hi, Yulia. Hi.
- Speaker #0
How are you today?
- Speaker #1
I'm great. The weather is better.
- Speaker #0
I know. I'm really happy to have you here. um so let's go straight away um so could you introduce yourself in your own words feel free to share your age what you do in paris now okay my name is sasha i'm 27 years old i'm living in paris for two
- Speaker #1
and a half years already and um since the last i would say five six years i'm entrepreneur and also an influencer so that's why i'm here great i think your jury
- Speaker #0
Actually, the reason why I invited you, I think your journey is really interesting. I think I'm saying this for every person that I invite, frankly. But everyone is different. And I think really like it will be very interesting for people to discover your journey. So how did you end up doing what you do today?
- Speaker #1
So, yeah, a little bit more about what I'm doing at the moment. So. I have many projects. That's the thing. At the moment, I'm an influencer on English language market on TikTok and Instagram. I'm also an owner of a marketing agency here in France. So we work mostly with European clients. We help businesses attract new clients through viral content. Also, I'm launching my own startup. It's a dating app. And currently we are doing an MVP. and um What else? Also, I do consulting and sometimes partnerships with other influencers, helping them to build system to increase their sales and all this stuff. How I ended up doing this? So initially, I started as a writer. That's my first education. I have one published novel, several written books. I started to be a writer for eight years. But that's the niche. That's the domain which doesn't have money at all. and what I always wanted to, I wanted to be rich. So quite, quite quickly, I realized that I cannot be rich with this. So in 2019, I first transferred to being coach. And then after this, I became social media marketing coach. And that's when my first project online school in Russia was launched. And that's what I'm doing right now.
- Speaker #0
Right. I really like your honesty when you're saying I want to be rich, you know, this is, I love this subject because a lot of people, I want to say, especially in France, but actually, yeah, let's say in France, I think it's because of the religion. I was discussing this once with Sue, who is my bachata teacher. And he's really like, we were discussing a lot about success and money and how people are sometimes, you know, some people like really, even can't say like the the word rich you know because like they have so many you know um what's the name in english clients you know like um a lot of barriers in their head yeah you know brain about this and like i really love and say i i always wanted to be rich so that's why i'm doing what i'm doing now um so about marketing agency how many people do you do you have now working for this agency?
- Speaker #1
You mean like employees?
- Speaker #0
Yeah.
- Speaker #1
I do not have like full-time employees. I have only freelancers. Also, one of the reasons why I do not have full-way employees because we know that in France, hiring people is a pain. First of all, huge taxes. Secondly, if a person is doing a bad job, it's really hard to get rid of them. Yeah,
- Speaker #0
I know.
- Speaker #1
And on the trickiest side here, I do believe that in most of cases, hiring freelancers makes much more sense. So I guess at the same time, I have around 10 different freelancers, video editors, designers, project managers who work for me in different projects.
- Speaker #0
Okay, so you've already learned this about France that, yeah, hiring full-time employees is a...
- Speaker #1
Yeah, not doing that.
- Speaker #0
And maybe the market is actually switching to this model. Like, France is really a conservative country, let's say, but, like, I see some small steps towards this model, actually. So, I think it's really... It will be more dynamic actually the market you know employees market and and stuff so with freelancers and are they all russian-speaking because so you haven't mentioned that you are from russia right yeah yeah so how i guess that what i know about you so you used to work in russia on russian speaking market and now yeah and that you're working in english-speaking market so how did you do the switch between those two?
- Speaker #1
Oh, that's a difficult thing. I do prefer working with freelancers from Eastern Europe. It's not only Russia, it can be Belarus, it can be Ukraine, it can be any country, but not only for price reasons, but also for work ethic reasons. These people are fast, these people are not as strict about their working hours. And I love it because I'm also not very strict about my working hours. You know, I'm not making a drama if I have to work at 10 o'clock in the evening. If I have to work, I have to work. That's That's not the problem. people who work for me if there's something urgent they're like no problem um so yeah the switch the switch was difficult because at the moment i hire people and i try to work with people who can speak both english both russian both french language and that's tricky definitely it cannot all be perfect they cannot be fluent in everything so something always a little bit down um the most tricky part is when we have for example russian or english speaking video editor and then he needs to do materials for french language projects but we're already doing this we learned how to do this it just takes a little bit more time but it works honestly costs also a little bit more money a
- Speaker #0
bit more money but um honestly still doing fine you know we found the model okay great uh what about the dating app because there are a lot of dating apps on the market but people are still complaining, right? It's really not like a magic match, you know? So what is really different about like your dating app?
- Speaker #1
So I guess like important to say a little bit about me. I'm a fan of dating. I'm a fan of love. I'm a fan of men. I love it all. You know, it was always like such a fascinating subject to me, like love. Do you know that at the moment, 60% of people meet through dating apps. so 60 of people who end up in a couple found each other on dating apps so basically everyone used them everyone needs them and me myself in last one year and a half i've been on 81st dates uh only from dating us it was a battle it was not easy and i know myself all the struggles and all the problems and um basically it's very simple women cannot find exactly what they're looking for and men. cannot find nothing. Not even that they're not looking for like... For men it's even more struggle than for women because many men they have only one match in one week, you know.
- Speaker #0
Oh yeah, okay.
- Speaker #1
Men struggling a lot. So my dating app would be artificial intelligence app and basically it will be like chat GPT where you will have a search query and you can write whatever you're searching for. For example, you can write, show me all the guys who work in finance, blue eyes, 6'5". And it will show you all the guys who match the criteria. And this function is more for women. And for men, we will have educational materials. Basically, if you're struggling with getting girls to go on a first date, there will be an e-book, how to make girls to go on a first date with you step by step. So men can finally like study dating.
- Speaker #0
That's necessary.
- Speaker #1
Because they just don't know, you know. Yeah,
- Speaker #0
they just don't do. What is the financial model around it? So who is going to pay?
- Speaker #1
So I should be honest. Usually people who pay on data gaps are men. So it's very important to target functions towards men. Though my business model now includes both genders. Basically, we will have subscriptions. For example, premium subscriptions allows you to use this search as many times as you want. I don't know, today I want to search for guys who love dogs and animals, and tomorrow I want to search for anyone who looks like young Johnny Depp, you know? Because the mood switches, we have different choices. So this would be unlimited, also unlimited swipes, unlimited likes, so pretty classy model. Also, the business model will be buying those educational materials. And also what we are testing right now, because we are finishing MVP in a few weeks, it's actually press queue ready. So what we're testing right now, we can do pretty cool compatibility analysis with AI. So for example, you match with someone, you like him, and you can get a full-weight analysis of... what potential problems you have with this person, like how it's gonna go with you like in the next few months and actually ChatGPT does it so good. Even with two photos it can understand what are my financial preferences in relationship, what are my, I don't know, like everything.
- Speaker #0
That's the future.
- Speaker #1
That's so fun actually, yes.
- Speaker #0
Yeah and you are at station F right now, right? So how do you find it?
- Speaker #1
I love it. I guess it's something which, you know, like it's the only place I would say very business oriented in Paris in a strange manner, you know, like it's very Americanized in a way. It's like always the funny thing I say when you go into station F and nobody like kisses each other into cheeks, everyone handshakes and I'm like wow. Also this place works. 24 7 it works even on christmas eve even a new year night and like for me that's a good thing you know it doesn't it's not closing at 6 p.m and it showcases me to me like work ethics i respect nice
- Speaker #0
i didn't know about this and yeah it's like even when you just go there because i did go there even for example for a conference last time it's like it's something in the air you know it's something you feel that something different you know comparing to the other places you can go to in paris so yeah i i love this time like the vibe for hard work you know like it has showers it
- Speaker #1
has kitchens so basically you can live in there and some people do i guess i'm afraid no i i feel like this place is too good for us like we're not taking its maximum
- Speaker #0
And do you like, do you connect with people there? How does it go? A lot.
- Speaker #1
Yeah? A lot. First of all, I'm making my own events. You've been to one. As a marketing agency, I promote our services. And like that, I met lots of cool projects, made some clients, made videos for several projects.
- Speaker #0
So people are very open. Okay. And I wanted to ask you this as well, because you worked a lot with Russian speaking world, let's say. social media. What is the difference for you between like Russian-speaking world and the French one? So about the level of knowledge and I don't know the dynamic side of it.
- Speaker #1
First of all Russian-speaking people know more about social media marketing so the basic level of knowledge very high, extremely high. French people, European people, even American people. They do not know. Like, I always need to start from basics. How many content pieces to do a month? What is Instagram? What is TikTok, you know? So the marketing level is extremely low at the moment. Also, again, work ethics. I would say Russian-speaking people are more money-oriented. Huge money, big money. We should do sales. We should do numbers, you know. And European market, it's a little bit more chill. Everything is more chill. nobody wants to do too much nobody wants to go crazy like everyone is a little bit scared nobody is ready to take risks so i would say that russian speaking people even with like lower salary and stuff are ready to pay more usually for services and for education and for everything because we see it as investment and we are ready to take risk and european they're not ready to take risk
- Speaker #0
Yeah, I know. Actually, I have, I think I know why about the, like, I'm going to say about France, because I've been here for 15 years now. And so in France, you should know several things. So the culture, you know, art de vivre, so, you know, you like work-life balance is all, you know, yeah, it's here, you know, you can touch it. Also, you should know that in France, people are really lucky because they have a lot of ways of doing. everything i mean not everything but almost everything for free you know when they want educate themselves when they want i don't know uh you there are a lot of programs that you know for them um like if you if you work in a corporate world you have like special program like if you work for five years you have a number of hours that you can spend actually it's money but you can't really touch it, you only can spend it on education so people in corporate world they can do it i think even entrepreneurs they have these kind of things but less so people not like they have so much many things to do um without paying so they are like maybe not so um easy you know to convince to pay from their own pocket except maybe entrepreneurs because they finance you know their own project but um i understand yeah this
- Speaker #1
cultural difference about this yeah but there are also like we need to understand there are historical reasons uh let's say europeans french especially they they have like in their minds they have a life like full life to earn money and to save money like because the history of france showcase that you can save money you can put them in banks you can like you can live chill way if we will look on history of russia it's completely different we are always oriented on earn as much as we can this exact moment and to spend as much as we can at this exact moment because somebody can come and take all the money and it will be so and do we know who yeah it can be anyone like but 100 every 100 years we tend to lose everything so we we cannot have the same mindset yeah of course of course and about the risk as well you know why france is so conservative because people don't Don't take much risk.
- Speaker #0
No, you have a new something, you know, going on in America or in some other European countries that are more, or maybe northern countries that are much more modern in some ways, or even in Russia or Russian-speaking world. And French people are like, let's see how it's going, you know, there. And maybe we're going to try like three years, five years. It's like, it's too late, guys. I mean, the technology is going so fast, you know.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, I believe that's why France is struggling business-wise. The majority of tech projects, they go bankrupt, even when they raised funds. Like, that's because France is not ready to take risks, because for people it doesn't work to take risks, because, like, after all, the person who took risks and earned money, it's not like he's earning much more than the person who didn't take risks, due to all the, you know, like, facilities and stuff, which France suggests, like, to people. Basically, it doesn't work.
- Speaker #0
So how is it for you to work with French people? What is your experience?
- Speaker #1
I love the chill vibe of that, you know. I love that I'm the most stressful person in the room always. I'm the one who, like, if I have a project, usually I want it to work more than anyone.
- Speaker #0
Even the owners.
- Speaker #1
Yes, I want it more. I'm worried I wanted more I always give more than people actually paid for me because I try to look on it as entrepreneur because our marketing agency we're not like other marketing agencies in Europe because usually marketing agencies in Europe you know they come and then they're like we will do visibility we will do it beautiful it will be aesthetic we will do like 6,000k for five videos that it will be beautiful and I don't like it I want to see leads I want to see sales I want to see exact numbers. How do I affect exact numbers? So, yeah, sometimes French entrepreneurs don't even need it. I'm like, we need sales. They're like, it's no.
- Speaker #0
And like, I mean, what is missing is the why. Like, why do you want followers? You know, why? Like, I remember you were talking about this, like, okay, you have visibility, but what are you going to do with this, right?
- Speaker #1
Yes, yes. So basically there's a little problem with sales. I will be honest, it's complicated to sell marketing services in the current market here in France because people who do have money, that's not many people, let's be honest. And people who do not have money, they're not ready to spend even small amount because it's too much of a risk. So basically, my belief... is that most of projects here in France go bankrupt or do not work out because of extremely weak marketing and because people invest in marketing lost.
- Speaker #0
And I see it actually even with entrepreneurs because I used to be one, I'm still one, but now I'm doing both. For me, if you start and there are a few different stages, you know, when you're open like auto entrepreneur and then you have a company. And when you're an entrepreneur mood, it's like, it's really not risky. I mean like you pay only from what the percentage of what you um what you really get and and i remember in my coaching school um the director she was saying and i believe she's right like treat your business as a business because if you treat your business as a hobby it will take like three four years you know to even like maybe not at all and experts you know entrepreneurs are you know uh experts in their fields but Not many experts know also how to do marketing, how to do sales, how to do any of it. So they only know their expertise and it's not enough to do the business. And people are really 100%. I believe if you want it to go faster and to work, actually, you have to invest. And you have to invest a lot. So if you are not ready to invest and take risks, it's never going to work.
- Speaker #1
Absolutely. People are too comfortable in France to do business. I'm like, I'm sorry, that's a rough thing to say, but that's how, you know, like nobody is ready to go all in. There's always this side for that. If it's not going to work out, there's shamaj. It's going to be fun.
- Speaker #0
I know, I know. Yeah, they're doing it using this period and it's great. I mean, but a lot of people, what is like, I saw some statistics that a lot of people like they... The first year, they're going to chill, you know, because burnout. And I can understand that burnout or some, you know, they're taking some, I don't know, new courses to become, I don't know, a farmer or something else. And then at the end of the chômage, they're like, okay, I'm going to start business. But guys, why didn't you do it earlier when you do have money, you know?
- Speaker #1
Yeah, no, that I think like one of the reasons why business works good for me. I'm not saying I'm perfect. Like I had to start everything from scratch. You know, when I decided to close my Russian project, I was 0.0. I'm still trying to get back to the track. But basically last six years, I earned money only from business. And I believe it works good for me because never in my life I worked in office. I have a writing education, which is the most useless thing you can have in the world. So I always have this thought in my mind that I have no other choice. There is no plan B. I will not have Shamaj. I will not find a job ever. I'm too lazy to do education. I'm not even too lazy. I will not be good at this. I don't know if you know this fact, but I was home studying since I was 13 years old.
- Speaker #0
Oh my God.
- Speaker #1
Okay. And in universities and in stuff, I was home studying because I do not have enough attention and focus to do this. So I always know if I'm not an entrepreneur, I'm no one. And it really helps.
- Speaker #0
Yeah, not to have a plan B is actually a good thing. But when I wrote a post on LinkedIn saying that the market is not dynamic because people are much more comfortable. And I've got a lot of, you know, comments, negative comments saying like, no, the government is already changing it. And we only have one year now of Shemash instead of two. I mean, guys,
- Speaker #1
come on.
- Speaker #0
come on or like when you got your cd you know the unlimited contract you're like oof now i can you know have this that's why i will not hire people on cd because i know that yeah passing the you know the the trial period like trial period they're like okay i'm gonna work you know and then abstract not everyone of course but like okay now chill now you know absolutely that's now I'm working for a small company and it's a problem. Like people are really like this, you know, and it's, it's, it's a sad thing. I mean, like, okay, come on. Like you are, you are still working for the company. So when your boss doesn't like anymore, because you're not so invested that you used to be at the beginning, it's like, okay, how gonna, how the relationship is going to work, you know? And like for, for small businesses or like, I mean, it's really hard actually. Like you're stuck. with the person like so what i'm gonna do now you know no yeah absolutely i'm not supporting this Let's talk about your integration. So I wanted to ask you first, like why Paris?
- Speaker #1
So that's very interesting question because I guess Paris and France is very like opposite to my values and stuff. But when I came here for the first time, I was 13 years old. I came here with my mom and my brother and I just fell in love immediately. Like in the morning when I woke up, after first night, I told my mom like I want to live here one day. and she told me like so what's the problem go for it so it took many years to do so but it was a lifelong dream okay when you say it doesn't correspond to my values what do you mean i believe i'm a bit more conservative on many things i believe i'm more business oriented i'm more capitalistic that's for sure and i understand that Paris is not the most comfortable country for my dreams and for my stuff. So I'm actually kind of at a point in my life where I'm trying to find a way to keep friends, but at the same time to do what I believe in.
- Speaker #0
Okay, I see. So you've been here for two, three years, right?
- Speaker #1
Two and a half, almost three.
- Speaker #0
How did Paris welcome you?
- Speaker #1
talk about a little bit about your first impressions and some challenges that you faced i know you did yeah um so i've been here like 17 times before actually moving here so i was really familiar with paris um and also i guess i was lucky during moving because i had money and uh immigration with money is a totally different thing i will i will keep repeating it again and again if you have money in like integration will never hit you the same as people who do not have. I had all the opportunities to settle down. I have a great apartment. I found it like after one month and a half. Yes, first month I needed to live in a hotel with my dog. But again, the majority of people do not have even an opportunity to live in a hotel with their dog, you know.
- Speaker #0
Of course. And so how did you manage to find an apartment? Because it's a real pain in the ass.
- Speaker #1
So I decided to do it myself at some point. At first I started with somebody but I understood like... It was my first time when I realized that in Paris money do not solve all the problems.
- Speaker #0
No, I was going to say that.
- Speaker #1
That was, yes, I was like... Do I need to give like bunch of money to you for everything to go smoothly? No one, like no one is gonna take it. Nobody wants like extra free to help me, you know. It was crazy for me. Yeah. So basically I found it myself and I guess the only reason why I get it because it was expensive and nobody else wanted it.
- Speaker #0
Okay.
- Speaker #1
Yep.
- Speaker #0
So when you came here, you knew about all the arrondissement, you know, where to live, where not to live, right?
- Speaker #1
Initially I wanted to live in Marais actually.
- Speaker #0
Okay.
- Speaker #1
But I switched to six.
- Speaker #0
Okay. Very nice. Very nice.
- Speaker #1
I love it.
- Speaker #0
Because at the beginning, you know, a lot of foreigners and actually a lot of Russian-speaking still, they live in the 16th, which I personally don't understand because it's like the most boring arrondissement in Paris for me. I mean, okay, there are some others maybe that are more boring, but when you are young and when you have money, so why go into 16?
- Speaker #1
No, no, yeah, 16 is, I guess it's a great place when you have a child, when you have a car, when you have like, I don't know.
- Speaker #0
the different
- Speaker #1
yeah older actually older actually uh okay some other challenges apart of apartments um well the biggest challenge for me was a business honestly like also uh i moved back down with my ex-boyfriend so he came a bit later to me it also helped with integration i had my dog i had my boyfriend you know so it felt nice uh finding friends and getting into community because three years ago it was not as colorful as as now you know it was just starting to grow i would say but slowly slowly i found my people um i guess like the biggest challenges for me were like were business challenges uh
- Speaker #0
that was hard okay um what about your friends like they're all like international or russian speaking or did you manage to get any or french friends no french at all okay yeah no french at all uh i have a few international friends they're mostly russian speaking we understand some of my friends they live abroad so they quite often visit me here in paris that's also one of the options yeah i would say that um maybe it will change in the the future but I haven't yet matched with French person in a personal relationship, friendship, or a man didn't work out for me yet.
- Speaker #1
I think with French people, it's just some, you know, information for you to know, or for any, actually, foreigner who comes to France, it really takes time. It really takes time. It's much more easy if you go, if you come here for studies, or if you work in a corporate world. Because... Of course, your study mates and your colleagues at work, right? Otherwise, like maybe some hobbies, like, I don't know, you play tennis or you do some, I don't know, a reading club, but like a French speaking people, or I don't know, any hobbies, but that you can do with French people and it will still take time, maybe one year, you know, to get invited. Or like, I do have a few, actually. Maybe half of my friends are French now, but, like, studies, beginning of my work, and, yeah, that's it, I guess. And also dancing now, because I dance a lot, but... Yeah. Otherwise, you know, yeah, like, so, study, work, and hobbies. I don't see how... Oh, actually, did you date a Frenchman?
- Speaker #0
A lot. Yeah. A lot. I guess in my life, in my early 20s, and a bit later on, like... one and a half years ago, I was even involved into like small relationship with Frenchman. Okay.
- Speaker #1
So what's your impressions?
- Speaker #0
For me to work out like somehow with Frenchman, they should be very specific Frenchman. You know, it will not be traditional French person as well as friendship, you know, like for it to work out should be very specific set of values. So yeah, didn't work out good. basically I would say that I look on relationship a little bit more traditionally with a bit of feminist twist I've been working I will be working all my life business is a passion but at the same time I want to be a mother I want to be a wife and I want a man who respects that and who is ready I don't know like to to support for our family in case I need this when I'm a mother and when I'm a wife so So that's very difficult for to take for Frenchman.
- Speaker #1
But they're still like a lot of them are married and have kids, right?
- Speaker #0
That's crazy.
- Speaker #1
But actually Paris is a specific place. Like Paris is a little bit like any big city in New York or London. Like when there are a lot of Moscow, I mean, a little bit different. There are a lot of men, but they are not so stressed to get married. They don't want to immediately get married. On the rest of France, I think it's much more... Actually, the smaller city is the fastest people get married.
- Speaker #0
The choice in Paris is crazy and let's say you're handsome, you are successful, you earn money as a guy and you live in Paris, you will not rush to get married, absolutely. There's so much choice. But again, once they meet someone, it happens pretty quickly.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, quickly, I don't know, it can still take time, you know, depending on the age. depending on the age, but they like French people they really um can stay in relationship for like five six seven years without getting married and then suddenly meet someone and get you know married in a year but it's i i guess it just describes the relationship yeah the right woman yeah it all works yeah um all right uh what about your french right now
- Speaker #0
So it's in level of B1, B1, B2. So basically it's a fluent restaurant tax level. I'm so good when I'm ordering wine, for instance. I can. say it all about it so yeah and also yes my french language level it uh increases proportionally to amount of alpha-gla drink so usually when i'm on the back on the way back home in uber or something uh the most fluent dialogues i ever had were with taxi drivers you know because you're like suddenly you know always so smooth mm-hmm that's good talking about wine what other things you like about
- Speaker #1
Paris, France. So what... What was it that brought you immediately there, even when you were 13?
- Speaker #0
Architecture. I love that city is very aesthetic. There is one style. For example, I also quite often visit Istanbul. And I'm not a fan of Istanbul because of how chaotic it is, how different it is. It has a massive history. We all know it. But due to this history, it's different everywhere. The city itself, the architecture, the vibes are different. And Paris, it's so polished, you know, it's like one style everywhere and I love it.
- Speaker #1
Like thanks to Osman, you know.
- Speaker #0
My dream was to have Osman apartment, like I guess many people dream, but.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, that's, but for you, I think it's even like a goal more than the dream. If you set it as a goal, you're going to get it. Yeah, no,
- Speaker #0
of course. Yeah, I guess it's pretty achievable.
- Speaker #1
So I know you work a lot. How do you relax? What do you do to relax?
- Speaker #0
Going on dates.
- Speaker #1
You think it's a relaxing thing?
- Speaker #0
Are you kidding? Absolutely. For me, yeah, I love going on dates. Honestly, maybe now a bit less. I'm seeing someone, so I'm a little bit less interested. I'm not even sure I should have said it, but anyway. Yeah, I'm a little bit more... chill about this now but before yes going on dates was uh because it's something like you know you're in your masculine energy when you do business that's for sure like talking to clients talking to freelancers that's a very you very put together everything and then I have one hour to get ready for the date putting a dress putting a high heels I'm always going all in you know I'm all in in business I'm all in in dating curling my hair So the switch of energies is what brings me relax and calm and when I'm going on a date I can just chill.
- Speaker #1
Okay.
- Speaker #0
Yes, from start to finish I prefer to chill. Okay,
- Speaker #1
nice. What is the song? Work hard?
- Speaker #0
No. Play hard, yeah, work hard, play hard. Yes, but otherwise than that I do a lot of gym. I don't know, like in last year... I lost around 14 kilograms. Oh my God. Yeah, and gym became a huge passion of mine. So I do gym every morning, basically. I do meditations. I meditate a lot. I watch TV shows. Yeah, but no specific hobbies for the moment.
- Speaker #1
I mean, going to a day can be a hobby.
- Speaker #0
Absolutely, yeah. Doing my social networks is a hobby. I do believe that for entrepreneurs, it's really hard to have a hobby because business takes both. place of work, both place of hobby. It's both like a thing like it's a thing of money, it's a thing of passion. I'm coming from entrepreneur family and we always yeah we always talk about the fact that entrepreneur cannot have a full way hobby sometimes.
- Speaker #1
Talking about dreams, do you remember what you wanted to do as a kid?
- Speaker #0
I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to write a book and I wrote a book. What else did I want to do? I wanted to be filthy rich, like crazy rich.
- Speaker #1
Thank God. Wow.
- Speaker #0
Yeah. And somehow I thought that writing and being... I always tell this joke. There was a little bit of conflict. I always tell this joke that actually I wanted to be a canologist working with dogs. Oh my God. I'm a huge fan of dogs. So I spent... probably until 12 years old, I wanted to be a kinologist. And then I asked my mom, how much do kinologists earn? Like, do they earn some money? And she told me, no, not much. And I'm always telling that the joke is here, that after that, I decided to be a writer.
- Speaker #1
And actually, you said earlier that writing is the most, how do you say it? The most non-human.
- Speaker #0
The most famous thing is education.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But... Actually, it does help you now as a, you know, marketing manager and to, because you are basically telling stories. Yes. You know?
- Speaker #0
Yes. Recently, one of my videos, it was already like after we agreed to view an interview, my videos went viral. It gained 8 million views. overnight and it brought me 10 000 followers in one week you know so yeah and it was basically storytelling how did i spend 17 000 on my glow up and i just told the whole story i love doing reels i love doing tiktoks it's like small movies little storylines and it's very easy for me so i'm grateful to writing for that talking about talking about viral videos how do you manage
- Speaker #1
hater comments?
- Speaker #0
I don't pay much attention to it because I'm doing blog. Actually my first blog was on the live journal Maybe you remember this Like a blogging platform back in Russia, and I was 13 years old So I guess it was the first time when I when I met hating comments. I'm very cool about this You know, I don't pay too much attention. I don't care, but I would be honest. I do believe that my glow up because I did a rhinoplasty, I did veneers, I lost lots of weight injections, like I did a huge work on my appearance. I do believe that the roots, the origins of these decisions might lie in comments, which I get beforehand. Yes, because I never thought as much about my appearance as when I started receiving those comments. But otherwise, I would say it doesn't bother me. But when my video goes viral, I usually take around two days to just lie down and be very chill because it affects you energetically, even if you do not feel it actually. Yeah. That's a very strange feeling. You are very exposed suddenly. And even if it doesn't affect you like exactly some wording or something, you just feel there's a lot of attention to your persona at the moment. And you just need to be extremely careful with yourself at the moment.
- Speaker #1
Negative energy, right?
- Speaker #0
Yeah, sometimes negative energy.
- Speaker #1
And people are so cruel. Like, wow. We say kids are cruel, but people sometimes... And do you actually see the difference between Russian-speaking audience and English-speaking audience on this topic?
- Speaker #0
No. Honestly saying no. I do not see the difference. There are bad people. There are supporting people. I would say that amount of extremely warm... and supporting people but i'm not sure i'm not sure i'm objective but uh sometimes i feel this whole very like positive american culture i feel it more from english language speaking because i have like real fans like people who are like fighting for me like the advocates of my brand and stuff and i do not i never felt it as much on a russian language platforms i guess we are more you know like reserved in a way yeah maybe
- Speaker #1
I forgot what I wanted to ask you as well. Is there anything you wanted to share, to tell, that I didn't ask you?
- Speaker #0
I don't know. I guess the pretty cool thing I'm doing right now, it's a very questionable thing, but I'm doing it. Maybe you saw on social media, I will be launching my own... um how to say oh my god uh social media community basically content creator club ccc yes um and um basically it will be like the the club the community with recurrence payments like 90 euro per month or something where people can get all the informations all the video editors all the exact trends all their like meetings with real speakers about how to make content on French and English language market and to start earning from it from collaborations and also selling their own services. So I will be doing this project and I decided to... It will be an English language project obviously, but I decided to start from selling it to Russian-speaking audience.
- Speaker #1
Okay.
- Speaker #0
So I'm gonna have this event next week and I just hope that people who are now currently... on Russian language market that they are ready to switch and they're interested to switch and try to talk to this audience and because I guess it's important I guess it's important when you move to another country to start searching for ways to integrate yourself not to this exact country but like at least to new language you know because the thing which I find not very I would not say like not smart but I do not believe in this is when you live, for example, in France for 15 years, 17 years, 20 years, and you still stick only to Russian-speaking audience. That's a very...
- Speaker #1
wrong way on my opinion to do yeah i agree actually you know what i've been i really like the idea of your content creator club and i've been to one actually if you need one i can send it to you uh because yeah the guy is really smart and he's getting i mean um there are also some you know french-speaking stars of course and they're a girl i know um maybe i don't remember his name, but I will check. And it was like really at the beginning. So I was in a very early bird edition of this club. But so he was still, you know, finding the way of doing it and stuff. And I think the idea is really great because like I think it has a lot of potential.
- Speaker #0
Yes, because for me, like English language, social media, like market honestly changed my life. I found friends. I found events, like now I'm invited to events. I don't know, like I'm paid for collaborations. When somebody asks me what's the easiest money I ever get, it's when somebody pays me, I don't know, 500 euro to do one video. And as an entrepreneur, for me, I'm like, oh my God, that's crazy. That's absolutely nuts, you know. So I want to give this opportunity to other people. And also, for example, crazy thing happened to me recently. I wanted some, I liked some brand of clothes. I wanted to get this clothes so I was like why not to try I texted them and I'm like I'm influencer etc and they just like sending me free clothes yeah that's cool that's yeah just the funny things you know
- Speaker #1
I love that and actually you know um of course french people are complaining as always uh and like they say like yeah um we have less and less you know with artificial intelligence we have like less jobs etc and I'm always like I'm always like advocating for like but see on the other side like with blogging with everything's going on yeah but it's like less like I don't know give me statistics like how it's less you know then I don't know I think it's much more interesting like from creative side of it and I guess not everyone can do this even if I strongly believe that everyone has a creative part you know but like it's much more interesting that working on a i don't know as a cashier you know in a shop you know and if and i think it this person is capable of doing also blog i mean of course it's a lot of work and i don't you know underestimate it but it's much more interesting much more creative and you can get a lot more money actually on it than working as a cashier right so like when people say i'm like no let's let's see how many opportunities you get in the
- Speaker #0
other field and like uh because we live in this modern uh great yeah like when people tell me that artificial intelligence is gonna take our jobs okay become somebody who teaches artificial intelligence or who creates it or who manages it because artificial intelligence doesn't work like by itself completely somebody needs to work with this always and that's such an interesting profession and i also yeah not bad all right i think i asked
- Speaker #1
all the questions I had. And I think it was really interesting, very nice discussion. I hope it will inspire others. And yeah, try your social creator club, content, sorry, content creator club or your app quickly or soon, hopefully. So thank you very much. If you have anything to add for the end.
- Speaker #0
Yeah, no, thank you so much, Julia. It was a pleasure. pleasure my first interview on english language and i just loved it and good luck to everyone try to be a content creator even if your job is different um try to do this at least as a side hustle for now because you cannot imagine what kind of doors it can open for you in the future great great yep thank you so much bye bye
- Speaker #2
Merci d'avoir écouté cet épisode. Si vous avez aimé, n'hésitez pas à me laisser un 5 étoiles et un commentaire sur Apple Podcasts ou Spotify. Vous pouvez me suivre sur Instagram, Career Consulting France, ou sur LinkedIn, Julia Bonnet, où je partage mon quotidien, les coulisses du coaching, ainsi que mes conseils et astuces pour réussir sa carrière en France. N'hésitez pas à me faire part dans les commentaires des pays, des métiers qui vous intéressent le plus pour orienter mes prochains épisodes. If you have people you would like to see interviewed, let me know. See you soon for a new episode.
