Successful Life Podcast
The Successful Life Podcast, hosted by Corey Berrier, is a globally recognized show that ranks in the top 2% of podcasts worldwide. It offers expert insights tailored for contractors, focusing on business strategies, sales skills development, and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in the industry.
Successful Life Podcast
From Siberia to Success: Dmitry Lipinskiy's Resilient Journey, AI Innovations, and Building a Purpose-Driven Brand
Have you ever wondered what it takes to transform dreams into reality against all odds? Join us as we uncover the extraordinary journey of Dmitry Lipinskiy, from the rugged terrains of Siberia to the bustling streets of America. His story is one of resilience—a determined quest from aspiring teacher to thriving entrepreneur. Hear how Dmitry navigated the construction industry, overcame the challenges of language and culture, and ultimately founded his own flooring company after a pivotal turning point when his employer went bankrupt. His unwavering determination serves as a powerful reminder that success often blooms from the seeds of adversity.
Dmitry's journey is not just about personal triumph but also about embracing the future of technology. As he sets his sights on creating a billion-dollar enterprise, we explore his vision for a purpose-driven business in the roofing industry, led by the transformative potential of AI. Discover how emerging technologies like AI can revolutionize industries, offering both opportunities and ethical challenges. We discuss the evolving landscape of search engines and the shift toward AI tools, which promises to redefine the way we connect homeowners with contractors, all while holding a mirror to the societal complacency that can hinder technological adoption.
But what about building your own successful brand? We share insights into crafting an engaging online presence and the importance of community before monetization. Learn from real-world experiences about the art of patience, the power of consistency, and the pitfalls of jumping too soon into monetizing content. Whether in marketing, fitness, or beyond, Dmitry's story exemplifies how discipline and adaptability are key to thriving in an ever-changing digital world. Tune in for a thought-provoking conversation that offers valuable lessons in ambition, innovation, and the relentless pursuit of success.
https://dmitrylipinskiy.com
https://directorii.com
https://www.mymarketingfitness.com
https://www.audible.com/pd/9-Simple-Steps-to-Sell-More-ht-Audiobook/B0D4SJYD4Q?source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=library_overflow
https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Steps-Sell-More-Stereotypes-ebook/dp/B0BRNSFYG6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1OSB7HX6FQMHS&keywords=corey+berrier&qid=1674232549&sprefix=%2Caps%2C93&sr=8-1
https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreysalescoach/
Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast. I'm your host, Corey Barrier, and I'm here with my man, Dimitri Lipinski. What's up, brother?
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me brother Living the dream.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude, I'm really excited to talk to you. I know I got to meet you for the first time. You definitely stir up some things in the industry, which is pretty interesting, and look, it is what it is. I love that you call out people that are not good for the industry. Why the fuck do they keep doing that? Anyhow, it's all good, beatrice, for those folks that may not know who you are, just give us a quick background.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Grew up in Siberia, the coldest part of Russia, came to the United States in 2005, chasing my dreams. Always wanted to be a teacher, graduated college majoring in theater, Wanted to be a teacher of theater, working with the kids, and then went to university majoring in history. So I always saw myself teaching all my life and I teach today. I teach roofers what to do, what not to do. But long story short came to this country. Figure out that roofer teachers don't get paid a decent money anywhere in all countries they they don't get paid well in canada, russia, united states or china. The hardest working people who always get underpaid. I'm like I want to have kids, I want to have family. How do I support it? So the easiest jobs to get here in the united states as an immigrant who does not speak english was construction. So starting construction, hang signing. I've done like 10 trades hang installation, floors, tile painting, work in cabinet shop for a year. So I worked with my hands for a decade, got married, ended up with five kids in Atlanta, georgia. I started my first business in 2000. I want to say it was 11. I started my flooring company after the guy I used to work business in 2000. I want to say it was 11. I started my flooring company after the guy I used to work for filed bankruptcy. I came home I said babe, I'm never going to work for anyone else. I worked for the guy for two years and he lost it all. And I'm like you know what that guy has set me for this? He would not file bankruptcy. I probably still would be an employee. I don't want to say I have employee mentality, but I'm a very good employee Like I've never been fired in my life. If I quit the job it's because I quit or I move out. I always give two weeks notice Like perfect guy. One day that guy actually who filed bankruptcy he put us in the line. It was five guys in the line was, uh, five guys in the crew. I was the only immigrant and he said you four idiots are costing me money. Dimitri is the only one who makes me money because I get shit done. If you leave me on the job site, like in a remodeling project, can you say, dimitri, you're gonna be doing this style today? I will. I will do my best to manage my time to get it if If I tell you at 9 o'clock in the morning that this job will be done by 6 pm. It will be done by 6 pm. I have this inner clock in me that if I promise homeowner, if I promise my boss that I will do this because it needs to be done, I will not leave.
Speaker 2:One time I was working on an insulation company and we were getting like five, six bucks per bag, averaging like 70 bucks a day, like the cheapest job, the dirtiest job I've ever done. It was in Atlanta, georgia, and one day they have this fire at this church. So they rented these giant vacuums to suck in insulation from the attic because it absorbs the smoke and you have to suck it out, the blow insulation and then you have to blow the new one in. So that was the job, that was the task. So we got there in the morning with the machine and the boss told us if you finish this job today because rent the equipment, it was so much money I'm gonna pay both of you it was two of us I'll pay both of you 700 bucks. I've never made 700 bucks a day in my life. I'm like you got this. We finished four o'clock in the morning with a headlight on me, you know, sucking freaking installation with a mask until four o'clock. You know I'm not going like you promise, otherwise it was 350. So he doubled my ticket. If I stay overnight I'm like heck, yeah, I'm making it. I have two babies at home. Anyways, I was always a good employee. I've never lost a job. But when my boss filed bankruptcy I came home I figured what do I know? Looks like flooring guys making good money. I'm gonna start making floors.
Speaker 2:Went on the crag list put an ad two weeks special, one dollar square. For I made first week doing floors two thousand dollars. I'm like this is easy. All I have to do is just sell myself and, like you know how I worked my first couple weeks in business, I would come to the homeowner. I knew, knew I was cheap, I'm in dollar foot but I would do 1,000 square feet. So I still make 1,000 bucks, 500 bucks average. So I come to the homeowner.
Speaker 2:I said, mr and Ms Smith, I work very hard. I started at 7 o'clock. I don't have time to take lunch. You'll have to go and bring me something, what it is, just need some calories. I'm not smoker. I would drink two liter of coke. So my diet wasn't healthy. I needed that sugar to keep me going and typical construction diet homeowner would bring me lunch and by six, seven, eight pm I'm getting this shit done and I'm going home. I'm going to the next job.
Speaker 2:I was the cheapest guy but I was getting paid the most. Started my business and never was the same. Never was the same. I'm like I was getting paid the most, started my business and never was the same. Never was the same. I'm like selling jobs easy. Advertising is easy, just hassle. There's so much work out there. Economy was shit when I started it back in 2011, 12. But with the prices today, I would be making like five, six thousand a week installing floors. That's how awesome buying power in this country is. You can install carpet floors, painting trim, cabinets wherever you like.
Speaker 2:If you want to hustle roofing, it's there. Wake up in the morning, go to the forest, kill something, drag it home and cook it it's there. You will eat what you kill. There's no excuses for anyone. My mom came to this country in 2015. The only skill that she has cleaning homes. She raised seven kids seven kids. She's been cooking and cleaning all her life. She comes here, start, start cleaning for another lady and within a year she's. I'm gonna go on my own. Barely speaks english, never drove a car in her life, learn how to drive, pass the test, everything. And before you know it, she makes two, three grand a week. 150, 200 per pop. Two, three homes per week, like with my sister insane.
Speaker 2:If you're hungry and you want to hustle, here's what I love about this country. We don't like beggars here. We don't like people who ask for money, a gas station anywhere like give me a dollar. We hate that. But people in America are great keepers and they rarely say no to the hustle. If I knock at the door, if I'm a 12-year-old kid and I say can I I cut your grass? We respect it so much. We're like of course you can't, we just you want to work. I'll pay you, but you want to do something for me and you're this awesome. You want to do something, boom you. If your friend calls, you say I want to start a business doing this, we're going to start advertising for that guy because he has a dream and I want to. We want to support that dream. That's what I love about this country the most. Anything possible, anything you do, any business, people will support you, as long as you work your ass off.
Speaker 1:That's, in a nutshell, how I started, and that's an interesting perspective, because I don't think I know there's a lot of people that don't share that same perspective and I can just relate it to. I'm sober, I've had my struggles with alcohol and drugs, and so there comes a level of, there comes a level of defeat when you've got to admit that you've got a problem and you've got to change it, and there's a lot of humility that you must have in order to do that, and I think that is what you're talking about here. You came from a country where it sounds like it was probably miserable.
Speaker 2:It was opportunity. That wasn't the same. It was miserable on a different level. Like I was always grateful for what I have. Even we live in a one bedroom apartment in the coldest place on earth, but it was depressing. I knew when I was 16 years old that I'm not going to spend the rest of my life here. I didn't want to grow my kids there. The money was all right. Later you can make it anywhere.
Speaker 2:When I'm looking at Syria, iran I just came from Istanbul, turkey I'm like could I live here? You can. If you work your ass off, you can live in a lot of places in the world. And the secret to success is you just have to be content with what you have. Never compare yourself with anybody else. Just be happy, no matter. I was happy.
Speaker 2:Like I'm the same guy who was making six bucks an hour, 18,000 a year, 30,000 a year, 100. Like, how much you make does not define you, does not change thing in a great like. If you're not happy with 100,000 a year, you will not be happy with 500,000 a year. But we make decisions, we move to the better. If you have option, like when you're 16, 17, 18,. You have to have that immigrant mentality. I call it like where you have to shut one door to open another one. No one like who tells you that you have to live in this city, marry this girl, or from your like. You make decision. It's your free will. God gave us all free will. It's not. We're not slaves to anyone. You're not slaves to your parents, to your society. If you have a dream, it's in you for a reason. If you want to be a number one basketball player who can tell you not to chase that dream, so I knew that I wanted to be in a warm country. I don't know how or what. We watch movies, like when we travel, our brain opens up, but you don't know what you don't know.
Speaker 2:I remember, for the first time ever I took my wife to mexico. Like I saved up some money when we didn't have a honeymoon. We got married like true honeymoon, went to disney, but I see all my friends are going to Mexico and I'm like what is this place? Mexico? And we went to Camacón Nothing fancy. I remember I spent $5,000 on that trip. I can't change man. I'm like I want this. This is life. I did not know it was this night. Like I did not know water can be this blue. The sky can be so light. I grew up in freaking Siberia. When it's dark at 3 pm, it's depressing. It's physically depressing when you don't have enough oxygen in the air because it's nine months, it's winter. My sister's birthday is June 27th. It's been snowing on one of her birthdays. I don't hate it. If I have to do business there, I'll do it, but if I have an option, if I have a dream, I'm going to chase that dream.
Speaker 1:So how did you, how would listen to what you just said? And being in that one bedroom apartment, a lot of people without any experience outside of there don't have the capacity to be able to visualize being in that warm place. What you mentioned when you said to Mexico right, you couldn't really visualize what that water was like until you went and saw it. So, being stuck in a place that's like you just described, how did you transform your mind or how did you think outside of the box enough to get out of that?
Speaker 2:I would say you have to take action on what you really want. I feel like we all have it, but we procrastinate, we don't take risk. In personal business, in all aspects of our life, we're living someone else's lives, right. I would say you have one life, one opportunity. Just an Eminem song Lose Yourself is the best song ever. That's why it's an intro to all my videos. If you have one chance, one opportunity to seize, that's what it's all about. At a conference, Tommy Miles says he said, if not me, who? You have to ask yourself why are you there and who determines your future? You do, and if that's true, like if that's true today, you have to make a decision, what you're gonna do about it. It's one step at a time, but it's step in the right direction. I would say this If you have a dream or a desire, it requires two things Number one, it's a discipline and number two is a focus. I'll give you an example To go from Siberia, russia, to the United States, there is like 10 different steps in between.
Speaker 2:So I had to actually follow the path. I have to be a full-time student in my university. I have to be a full-time student in my university, have to learn English and I have to have some money in my pocket. So there's the programs like student exchange programs. So actually I consider a couple countries, but you have to work visa. I think 70% of Russians don't have international passports, which requires to travel even to Europe. So 70% of people cannot even leave the country if they want to, because it's a process even to get that passport. It requires right. So for me it was two year goal. I like I sacrificed a lot. Like when I say a lot, it's a lot, like I've been working, get this. When I came to united states I have 200 to my name but I'm a student, so I have a side jobs I would take in russian rubles and buying dollars, five, ten dollars at a time until I saved 200. Took me two years to save 200, from 2003 to 2005. I came in 2005.
Speaker 2:Then you have to learn. Like when I started I did not speak one word of english, so it's not, oh, I'm just gonna go to united states. Is I'm gonna go to united states, I'm not coming back, and if I die on the streets as bomb homeless, so beat. But I'm doing it. And every day I was learning five words of english because I did not. My English level was zero, 20, zero English, 21,. I'm in front of an ambassador, like in the embassy, to pass the interview, broken English. What are you going to do there? Why are you coming? Like typical questions, and I did it in English and if I would fail my English interview they would not accept me in the program. So, like step number one get in university. Step number two learn English. Step number three qualify for this program. Step number four go and then work your ass off here.
Speaker 2:Nothing is easy, but you have to. It's a sport, life is a sport. You have to sacrifice. Every athlete knows it. If you want to be champion, you have to have a couple years of absolute sacrifice. There's things that you cannot eat, there's things you cannot drink and there's tons of stuff that you have to freaking do a lot of. And it's not easy. But you do that for two, three years. The rest of your life you live in the glory. It's a labor in years and you have to accept it.
Speaker 2:When left my country, I said to myself so I was finishing second year on a five-year university course. So the whole thing is five years and after two years I go here and everybody's go there for a summer, come back and go again and but you take risks because you're not guaranteed to get visa second time and usually if you last year in university they're not guaranteed to get visa second time. And usually if you last year in university they're not stupid, they're like he's not coming back, there's nothing holding him back and I'm like, why would I do that? So I told everyone I'm gonna spend three years in the united states as my studying years. After first three years you're gonna be graduating here and I hope I will figure out what I'm gonna do in my life there. So I treat first three years. You're going to be graduating here and I hope I will figure out what I'm going to do in my life there. So I treat first three years in the United States as a couch to figure out what I'm going to do.
Speaker 2:And after three years I figured it was going to be construction. I did not know it. I'm not a construction guy. I've never done construction in Russia. So I came here. I'm like, okay, money is here. I could become a truck driver, I could be chef at the restaurant, maybe do something else, who knows.
Speaker 2:But I figured construction and after three years. I have a profession and I was married and I started having kids and that was my college. I treated first three years in the United States. So you have to have a lot of discipline and clear focus. That what it is that you want to do in life and just freaking, go for it. And even today, if I want to become a lawyer today. I was telling my wife the other day baby, if I want to become a lawyer, I still can become a lawyer. I'm 40 years old. She's like I bet you can. I literally will go get a three-year degree and you will know Dmitry Lipinski, the lawyer, who's going to tell me no, if that's what I want to do, I'll do it.
Speaker 2:If I want to do it or get this, if actually it's on my bucket list, I want to play a role in a Hollywood movie and I know for a fact, if I would chase a dream to get into Hollywood forget about roofing, forget about the concert If I want to do that, no one would stop me, I would get it done.
Speaker 2:So are you going to get it done? I don't think I have a desire, I don't think it's in front of me, I don't think I want it. I want to build a billion-dollar company and that's what I'm doing right now. I'll get that done, that's for sure. I have a 10-year plan to build a billion dollar company, so that's my goal number one. I don't think like playing a role in a movie is excites me as much like I figure out how would I like I already know if I accomplish that it's not gonna do much to me, like the fame that, like what I'm like. Oh look, I'm in this movie, okay, great, can I take? Can I take a picture? I don't care, I don't think it's a big deal anymore.
Speaker 1:So what would be fulfilling about getting to the $1 billion company Mark? Because it's not the money right. The money is part of it, but I don't believe that's really the underlying reason.
Speaker 2:So I found my niche. So we don't have a household name in uh, in this category. So I found I'm a purpose-driven, not a money-driven person, and I have a purpose, like in the roofing industry. The biggest problem was lead generation. If you ask a contractor how to find leads, they're like angels list, maybe home advisors. So we don't have u. So we don't have Uber, we don't have Facebook. We don't have Airbnb that connects homeowners and contractors. We do have players, but we don't have the player. We don't have number one leader.
Speaker 2:And I know exactly what homeowner wants. I know exactly what contractor wants and I'm like, why not me? I'll build it. I'll build it the platform that I would use myself. That's truly good for the homeowner and truly good for the contractor, because there's none there right now that I would use personally. So I went to build it and because it's mission driven I would compare it to Elon Musk does a lot of it. Mission driven I would compare it to Elon Musk does a lot of it. Tesla yes, it's profitable. It's a big brand, but there's a mission behind it. There's a mission behind Starlink and SpaceX. There's a mission. He's ambitious. Not everything is working. He does his failures Solar is one of them, but he has a mission. He's on a mission to to fix the problem. I'm on a mission to fix the problem and mine is just follow that so I know that you were in the in where gary v was talking.
Speaker 1:Since you mentioned leads, I'm curious what your thoughts are on. I'm a big AI person. Like I use AI for a lot of stuff. What do you think about the shift in search going from Google or wherever now to chat, or perplexity, or any of the others that he named?
Speaker 2:I'll compare it to YouTube algorithm, right? So I'm a firm believer that you can play the system. You can play your gimmicks or pay to play up to the certain point. Sooner or later you're gonna fail. Sooner or later someone with a better product will still race to the certain point. Sooner or later you're gonna fail. Sooner or later someone with a better product will still race to the top like number one players in each category are there for a reason apple successful for a reason, facebook successful for a reason they doing something right.
Speaker 2:It's, it's organic algorithm. So all the like google, youtube, they figure out or again they figure out, what do people really want to watch? Like mr beast is popular not because of ai and all that, but because he figured what humans wants, what do they engage the most and what right. So for me, let's say I build my company, directorycom, and I want to compete with the home advisor or an agency. If I have a better product, better service, organically, I feel like companies, like anybody behind AI, will say that this is better, this is safer. You have to be in front of AI. I think AI for me, it can be manipulated, it can be tweaked, it can be bought right. Think about this Google recently during the elections. So we have Joe Rogan goes to a podcast, right, the whole story with Joe Rogan and Trump. So they go do this debate and they get 40 million views within like first 48 hours and it's not in the search. Why? Because someone is suppressing it like pure evil. Should not be happening, but that's what you get with companies like google and that's why we need something else, and I was.
Speaker 2:I would wonder if you go to ai like not biased ai, because what's ai? It's numbers don't lie. If you give it clear data and people will always try to manipulate it, crooks will be crooks, like what they're doing right now when they what government, bad government, what bad governments are doing. So they're buying chatbots, they're trying to influence organic stuff. So you go to Facebook, we're buying fake reviews. So we need AI to combat it, to suppress it. But because people, if you're Putin or Saudi Sheikh, who is corrupt and have a billion dollars to spend, he's I want a public opinion to be this. Instead of that, let's buy one million accounts, try to do it. But I feel like AI will be smart enough to suppress it and to balance it. So there's no way out of it. If you're a good player, if you're a good person with a good product, if you are the best in your category, I feel like AI will always make the best recommendation and tell people, others users that you are the best. That's my opinion, yeah.
Speaker 1:But do you see it changing how people are? Look, I don't use Google to search anything anymore.
Speaker 2:I still do because I'm a little bit behind on the trend, but I use ChatGPT 100%. Old habits die hard. Right, once you used to do it. But yeah, it's all building new habits. Five, ten years from now we'll be living in a different world.
Speaker 2:What I'm afraid of? That we will have couple precedents to kill ai and I think that's what they might try to do, because if ai, like if someone comes in and does something stupid with the ai and actually we already have a couple cases I don't know if you've heard, but recently there was a case which is sickening a boy committed suicide. So he was talking to AI, to this machine, like it was a. He was chatting, it's like a psychology episode. It was his girlfriend and she suggested just go take your life. And he did. And then they discovered, oh freaking, this machine tell him to kill himself, yeah. So I'm afraid, few more incidents like that and they're gonna ban it. They're gonna say no, let's go back to google, because information is dangerous. If you're trying to control minds, information, free information, is dangerous. The government does not like it. They want anything that it can control. So we'll see, but it's definitely changing. I'm a big believer in AI. I want AI to win, I want us to use it, but I don't want people to manipulate it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know if there's any way around that because, as you said, there's going to be bad players in everything right, people are just people and people see opportunities. That, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2:We will have lawmakers, we will build laws around it what's legal, what's not legal and if we see big danger, the punishment should be great. If you do something evil with AI, you should go to 20 years in prison, right? People should be afraid to touch, just like we do, securities investments, right? So if we have such laws for wire fraud and this like this is even more dangerous If someone gets killed because you created some kind of algorithm, you should go to 20 years in prison. This is not as innocent as it sounds. If you program AI to do something evil, boom. We just have to regulate it, and I think that's the future.
Speaker 1:So so how much conversation. If I look at the roofing industry, they're a decade. They're a decade behind anybody else in technology. That's not me talking shit about the roofing industry, it's just the facts are. They're just really behind in technology. So is h plumbing. They're pretty far behind as well. What kind of conversations do you have around the people that you talk to, around how they're using this or are they using it and what are they using?
Speaker 2:it for I think the biggest problem that I see not only I want you to understand what a roofing industry is, what it consists of. So you have a lot of high school dropouts, college dropouts, people who were dropped in the roofing industry not by desire, not because they dreamed of it. It was just like, okay, I'll do this because there's no other chance, right. So they were desperate. Now, with that, it's a hard work, it's a decent pay, so they're making money and people are complacent. You don't need a lot to survive in the United States and that's a general problem for a good capitalist country. Once your basic needs are met, how do you go from $50,000 to $500,000? So many people are happy, or it's not even that they're not happy. If you make $75,000, let me give you some numbers. So let's say, typical roofer makes $80,000 a year. Right, I make $80,000 a year. I have my sandwich in the morning from gas station, my Coke, my freaking, some drinks beer on a Friday. Now you have this tool in front of you. Everybody has cell phones with very powerful machines, computers. That's not a problem. But you have to make a choice, and it's a disciplined choice. Do I use it to entertain myself, to make my business better, to work a little bit harder, to double my income? Or do I want to scroll through TikTok and waste three hours tonight and drink beers? Right, because of the lack of education and your basic needs already met. Do we blame them for not using technology? They work hard. So it's a lack of discipline problem, lack of ambitions and also because we live in this country, you you're not starving. If you're gonna waste 20 hours a week and doing stupid shit on your phone, you're not gonna go bankrupt. You're not gonna lose your house. Government probably gonna bail you out anyway. Hey, your student loan and you're behind your bills. Wherever you will be, okay, you are protected from dumb decisions and a lot of people living that life. So I think it's a lack of ambitions because you know how they say that first generations build it, second, build, maintain it and third generation like, ruins it. Right, so we're like the third, fourth generation. So if your parents or grandparents came to this country because we're all immigrants here, essentially, and they killed it and they worked their asses off, now you benefit in this great life, but now you're like OK, I know this is not good for me, but I'll drink it. I know this should not watch this, but it's OK. I know this is not healthy, right, and we just settle because everybody else is and it takes energy and effort. You need to wake up call. Something needs to happen for that roofer or whatever.
Speaker 2:If you've been at the conference, tommy mellow says I'm the one, like you have to be the one to change the family. I'm the one in my family. I know, like last night I worked until 10 11 o'clock and I love it. Like I sold it underlayment, like at the record, like 24 hours I sold everything I have on hands. And then this morning I started like with a Wells Fargo call. I'm taking my kids to school and I'm like kids. I'm sorry I have to call Wells Fargo. Figure this problem. 10-minute phone call not a big deal. My kids are listening. I'm not listening to podcasts or watching some stupid stuff on YouTube. I'm doing business. My kids see it. But it's a choice. I have every excuse in the book not to do it and I want to do it. So the problem is a little bit deeper. We don't use AI because we don't need it. We don't have ambition to triple our income.
Speaker 1:Sometimes don't? I think also there's. It goes back to that desire to think outside of the box, to do anything extra, especially after a long day, and you've worked and you've got all the things that you just mentioned. Why should they? Why should I, If I'm that guy? Why should I? It's just easier to scroll through TikTok and then you're locked in, TikTok's figured out. I don't even have TikTok on my phone because of that very reason, dude, because it just sucks you in. I'm sure you've been there, right.
Speaker 2:All of them are the same. Instagram is just switching apps to do the same thing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So how do you mitigate that for yourself? Because you're on YouTube, you're on everywhere, but I think your mindset is this is a business tool. This is not this. I'm not here for any other reason than to grow my business.
Speaker 2:I love that question. When you become a user, when you become creator, you consume content differently. That's right. When you, if you love, if you start like, okay, you, I analyze what you love, count and you like, so you like a podcast, start a podcast. You will improve podcast game if you do one solid piece of content every single week. I'm just, I work hard, but I'm one of the most disciplined people you'll meet in your life. If I do something, I'll do it for the rest until it stops working. I go to the gym every day. I go to the gym every day. If I produce three, four solid YouTube videos per week and then we do Instagram, tiktoks, all of it, but I have a team for it now, right, but I have to still come up with a solid three videos. I'm not going to, no matter what. I'll give you one example I have a private group like five, six hundred contractors and I drop five marketing videos every single week. I just have to. And I drop five marketing videos every single week. I just have to. In the entire year. I might skip two, maybe three weeks if I'm traveling out of country or whatever, but usually I record them.
Speaker 2:I was on a flight from Paris to Minneapolis 11 o'clock flight. We have good Wi-Fi and I have Delta One, so very big cabin. So I filmed all five videos from the plane on the first two hours, uploaded on telegram, send it to my video guy because I was coming in on friday and we upload them by monday and he did five videos like five six minutes per video. I did the whole programming. I could not do it in turkey, was too busy. I did it on the plane, uploaded it, my audience got it and I loved it. About this country we have so many options if you have it, but if, but or. I could take that 10 hour flight and just entertain yourself, watch every movie, but now you do that. It took me like an hour 10 of my flight time. They bring you food, you sleep, go right, so you do that for one hour and then I've been waiting. It took me longer to upload it because Wi-Fi is slower and upload like 25 minute worth of content. It took me like three hours but my guy got video by video within three hours. So half of my flight was that task.
Speaker 2:Once you start consuming, you will watch content differently. You will be like, how do they do it. How do I do it? Or I like that piece, I'll do my own version of it. Right, it changes you because now you're a creator and if it's a drug, now you're creating this drug for others and people will come back to you for more and you start doing, you build. It's all about building these habits. So you have a habit of consuming, start having having. I have a habit. Now, when I come home, I have to research them.
Speaker 2:What absolutely inspires me is sometimes watching what my competitors doing not steal from them or whatever, but I will go. So let's say there's four websites my website and my three competitors and I will go every once in a while, like usually once in three months, and I'll see front pages mine and everybody else and I'll say, okay, why do they call it this way? And I call it this way, and I'll scroll and I'll see what I like, what I don't like, and immediately I'm giving tasks to my team. Hey guys, here's the example of what I like. Please change.
Speaker 2:When you become ultimate consumer, ultimate creator, you will consume differently. When I get notifications from apps, I'm like oh, I like that language. Look what they did. Send it to my team. We should have this notification. When people buy from us, when you always create stuff, when you consume, everything matters. Everything becomes a case study. Every single day you look at the ads, you buy something. It's your customer experience, and then you can give this customer experience to your customers. If you think about it. So you have to ask yourself am I a consumer or am I a creator? If you're a creator, if you think about it, so you have to ask yourself am I a consumer or am I a creator? If you're a creator, you will consume differently.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I agree with you. I totally agree. I look at content very differently and I look it's like my. I don't have a huge YouTube channel, but I upload a bunch of shorts to it and I always try to figure out why a certain one did well, why a certain one didn't do well. Was it the time of day? Was it the music I put behind it? Was it what? There's a whole gamut of reasons why things work and why they don't work, but it's just the mindset of looking at it that way and trying to analyze and figure out what made it work, and you probably have. Obviously you've got a much better grasp on what makes it work and what doesn't. But it takes time, you know. It takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of discipline to continue putting out for lack of a better term shitty content, because it takes. How long did you put out content before it ever took off?
Speaker 2:Just curious Couple of years. I mean, for the first three I did not monetize channel or anything related to the channel for the first three years. So I had 30,000 subscribers after three years and I'm like you know what I'm bringing way too much value for a couple of brands because I've been promoting everybody for free. And I remember I came to the very first sponsor of the channel and say hey, I know you got hundreds and hundreds of clients from me. Would you mind giving me like 5K a month, Keep doing it, but on a more professional level, and be official listed? So within three months I got 13 partners and so it was good. But you have to do like what people the biggest mistake people make with the content they start monetizing too early. You start doing the first podcast oh, this was brought to you by this and here's the, our sponsors. You're scamming everyone, yeah like you don't have.
Speaker 2:You have 20 views. Yeah, why are you taking money from anyone Like? What value do you bring to them? You haven't earned it Build yourself first.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you haven't earned it. You haven't earned the right to ask for monetization at that point. Build the audience.
Speaker 2:Everybody starts from zero. Okay, then be yourself and see what creating community, creating content, creates community. Once you have community, once you have people. Now they say that it takes at least 1000 loyal followers to make it a legit business in whatever you do. So if you have 1000, it's enough to quit wherever you do and do this full time, and then it just improves. And then, once you're going to have a team, if you do big podcasts and you're going to have video guys, we have two full-time videographers, two full-time graphic designers. I have a script writer. People don't realize, but it's not just me. My payroll is like $10,000, $12,000 a week just to create content that doesn't even pay the bills, like news. Yeah, it takes money for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it takes a lot of, as you mentioned before, discipline and consistency. Consistency is vastly important here, and have you found that? How many videos compared to now? You said you're putting out about three a week. What were you? How did you start it out? Was it more, was it less?
Speaker 2:I wasn't as consistent, but I was. I was putting every week. So you I would say we've done two videos per week minimum. I probably had weeks where I only have one early on, just so for me it's if it's news, if it's something time sensitive, I'll do more. I do feel like less is more, like I would I'll take it back. You can post every day. You can post twice a day, as long as it's relevant and it's consistent.
Speaker 2:Now the challenge is people get used to you and if information is not like we have so many options, nobody follows no one when it's I love gary v, but I cannot watch gary v every day. I love so many like we don't have any creator will watch every day because it gets it's people. When people say that they watch all my videos, I feel bad for them. I'm like how can you? I cannot watch anyone right like we get tired. So you have to respect attention span of your viewers. So if you provide now the reason we do scripted videos, they're like I do news, my news, like 12 minutes. It takes me three days to prepare, takes me like 30, 40 minutes just to film and then do a 12 minute episode. But every new I. I was watching today one use like 40, 50 seconds.
Speaker 2:You have a picture that someone created. You have a script someone wrote. You have quick take. I can say share that news in five minutes, like here's the new right, but where's the time? Respect my time. Like I watch news, boom, let's go. You go on youtube. It's like you have option to watch this new news for five minutes or 30 minutes. Which one are you gonna click? Five minutes right shorter? Yeah, so I feel like a lot of guys. They don't respect anyone's time. You know, if I start watching you and you drive it in the car and it takes you three, four minutes, just get into the topic, you already lost me. I'm like fuck. You like I click on it because and you're still like waiting for the people to come in and this, and I'm like you think no, get to the point. And that's what I'm trying to get better at yeah no that makes sense.
Speaker 1:I think I don't know if this is still the accurate or not, but it's pretty. It's got to be pretty close. You think about you're scrolling through whatever platform. It's about three seconds and maybe less than that. Now, if you don't, if I don't catch your eye in that first three seconds, you're moving on, just like I'm going to move on, just like you're going to move on. And so people got to realize that in that first three seconds is when everything that determines whether people are going to stay or not.
Speaker 2:Especially with a shorter content, like you can get their attention and the thing is shorter content. I'll say this it's cheating, it's deceiving, it feeds your ego. So if you create a short clip and you got 1 million views and you think you're a big deal, you need a humbling lesson because you're no one. Every time I have a video that goes viral like five million views, ten million views who cares? That will never bring you business. The only thing that matters is a watch time and conversions. So I'm I'll have thousand views per video and I might have 10 orders and you can have 10 million. And do you think those 10 pakistan or india will actually remember you or whatever? No, attention span is just not there. It's nothing.
Speaker 1:Well, you've got to think. If you've got 10 million views, it does obviously feed the ego, but that just means that 99.9% of those people are probably not even your customers to begin with. I don't know if it's 99%, but a good portion they're not your customers. So it doesn't really equate to dollars at all.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, I really appreciate you sharing that, and I know we're getting close on time, so if someone wants to reach out to you, what's the best way to do that, dimitri?
Speaker 2:Any social media. I give my phone number to everyone. If you here's what I would say I'm going to share my number, if it's okay. That's probably going to be the straightest point. I want to help anyone who's trying to like, especially. We made a lot of talk about the podcast. If you want to start a podcast, if you want to start a show and you just don't know how to, you can text me. It's 612-558-4881. 612-558-4881.
Speaker 2:My best program is called mymarketingfitnesscom, so that's my best program. I pour my heart into it. Every Monday I do Zoom calls, I do five videos per week for my guys, and it's always what works on social media, what works on YouTube, what works on Google. For me, marketing is fitness. That's why I call it mymarketingfitnesscom, because you have to go to the gym every single day. You just have to right, but you're not going to do the chest exercise every single time. So for me, monday is a Facebook day, tuesday is a Google day, wednesday is a video day, but you have to find a partner. So today I'm doing Facebook with this guy. So when I interview people for marketing fitness program, I ask the same five questions.
Speaker 2:It's okay, martin Pettigrew, monarch Roofing here's what they do on social media and it's almost like working out with that person. Oh, this is how they advertise. I'll try that. Your business will die if you don't advertise. And my job is I'm looking what works for me, how I'm being sold and this is how I sell, and it's constantly changing. Like market is changing, it's never the same. Like Facebook, youtube, instagram, google, they have so many updates. If you sleep in it for one month, you will be behind. If you don't work out for one month, you will be fat. So don't be fat. You can join my marketingfitnesscom. Join me every Monday. See my videos daily. Work out with me, do marketing with me. That's my best program.
Speaker 1:Love it. I appreciate you, my friend. Thanks for coming on. Thank you, brother, appreciate you. Yes, sir.