#262 Exploring the Impact of AI on Content Creation and Personal Branding with Nico Lagan

0:00:03 - Mehmet
Hello and welcome back to a new episode of the CTO Show with Mehmet. Today, I'm very pleased joining me Nico Lagan. And Nico, the way I love to do it, I like my guests to introduce themselves, for simple reason no one can introduce someone else better than themselves, so the floor is yours. 

0:00:20 - Nico
Well, first and foremost, I'm a content creator, I'm a AI specialist, social media strategist, I'm a podcaster, I'm an author, I'm a men's coach. I do a lot of things, and it seems that you and I share a previous career too, as we're just talking about. 

0:00:37 - Mehmet
Yeah, we do. 

0:00:39 - Nico
I was a sales engineer for a telecommunication company for well more than a decade more than I want to admit to because it seems like I'm getting old now. 

0:00:50 - Mehmet
No, no, you're fine, you're fine. But you know like one thing and this is why I didn't ask you before we start recording Like I know a lot of people. You know like now I'm on the same journey, like, not like in the same domain as what you're doing, but also like I shifted completely to something close but different. You know if you get what I mean. So what was the main I like to call it inspiration for you to do this transition. 

0:01:19 - Nico
You know the transition that happened. It wasn't planned, it was really back in March 2020 when COVID happened, like I'm a Canadian and the restrictions there were interesting, to say the least, and all of my meetings went from being face to face, going from customer to customer. That was my life and it became. Everything was done like we're doing right now. Everything was done on Zoom teams, everything was done remotely. So I decided to move to my house in the middle of nowhere, like I lived in the city because all my customers were there. 

But once that need was gone, I moved to my investment property and I spent two and a half years in the middle of the woods One and one, and the first one and a half I was alone, and then my girlfriend came to join me. But that gave me a lot of time to think about my career, think about what I wanted, think about where I wanted to go. And you know, we tend to get stuck in our day to day, we tend to get stuck in on the grind, as we say, and we forget completely that there are other avenues that we could explore that would probably be more beneficial to our mind. But yeah, removing all the distractions, moving in the middle of nowhere. I was still working, but most of the time I spent it alone, like, as you know, spending time on platforms like what we're on right now is not the same as being face to face, like in the presence of somebody. 

So, I just looked at my transferable skills. I really looked at what are the skills that I had built over 12 years of sales engineer. What were the skills that I've acquired over the previous eight as a technical guy, as a martial artist, as a martial art instructor, as a public speaker what are the things I've acquired? And I decided that I would start recording a podcast and then, a year and a half, a bit more. What are we? 

13 months ago, give or take, we left my girlfriend and I decided to leave Canada, left my corporate job, started my own business where I help content creators, but that's all I did Like. For the past three and a half years, I've been creating content and content and content, and over the past year I've dedicated myself to that 100% and that's all I do now. So it's interesting that my start with two microphones and an H6 recorder that was the original idea took me where I am right now and that's what I do for a living. So it's life is very interesting, to say the least, when you have the courage to follow your dreams. 

0:04:10 - Mehmet
Wow, you know like it's like I'm talking to myself, honestly speaking. 

0:04:15 - Nico
You know the way you have the same haircut too, Did you notice? 

0:04:18 - Mehmet
Yeah, exactly, you know you started this journey way before me and, by the way, you know I wanted to start this whole thing. When COVID hit, because I thought it's the best you know, people were, like you know, screaming, Of course, I know like a lot of people were really affected, but I mean, for me, I start to see OK, let's remove negativity aside how we can turn this into something positive. 

And then you know, I had the idea of starting the podcast. I had the idea of living at that time, but for multiple reasons, you know, I got stuck. But beginning of this year 2023, I said enough is enough. You know, I don't care if I have one, you know, listener daily, or I have thousands later on, I don't, I'm going to do it, I'm going to bring a mic Again. I start to record. 

By the way, I started with Zoom, by the way, and it was not the best idea to do, you know. And actually, and actually, you know, I was doing solo episodes very tiny, you know, short five, six, seven minutes. And then, all of a sudden, someone told me hey, like why we don't have some guests? I said, ok, let me see. So, so, really, I'm talking to myself now and you know, but I get inspired. 

I keep, you know I'm, you know, this is why I was excited to speak to you, actually, because you know people like yourself, I think they can inspire others, like, in short, now let's get a little bit to business. Now, I mean in business sense, in what you do today, in content. So a lot of things are happening today, so we start. And because we were going to talk about AI as well. So, I know when you started, probably in 2020. Ok, people didn't Most of people. They don't know that actually open AI existed and actually they were. You know some tools in the background, but, of course, like beginning of this year and the first year to be precise, this AI hype came and we we hear a lot of stories about content creation. 

0:06:25 - Nico
So tell me what you are seeing in this space and what's going to happen to the content creators actually, and you know I want to start by this, by saying that content creation is everything, is not just the influencers you see on Instagram or TikTok. We're talking about any business that has a presence online. So if you are a business and you're using social media as a marketing platform, you are a content creator. So, first and foremost, let's make sure we are we're on the same page. What I'm seeing right now is basically a massive hype of what AI is capable of doing. We I don't know for you, but my social media feeds are Filled. All the sponsorship ads that I see are all based AI, because I use a lot of AI. I use it every day and I'm always looking, I'm always trying to stay up to date on what's coming out, but this is all I see. This is all I'm being targeted with, and I've tried most of the things out there and I can tell you right now there's the AI, is not, is nowhere close to being there. Can it be useful? Absolutely. Can you integrate it into your content creation workflow in order to streamline and optimize it? Absolutely, there are great tools out there. 

But take a, for example, a video credit, like creating videos from, let's say, a podcast like the one we're on right now. I have a team of video editors and even on last week I tested it again. I took a podcast that I recorded. I put it through Opuspro, which is the best platform right now that you can use to create videos. If you want to go from a long form video, a long form video format, to short reels, opus is the best by far. I've tried them all best by far. 

But it's not that great. If I take one of my guys, that's going to take about an hour and hour and a half to do me a reel from like a one minute reel. It is 10 times better than what Opus is capable of doing. So that's the thing. Like I can take Opus, you can yeah, sure you can put an hour and a half of podcasts, an hour and a half podcast episodes. Shove it into Opus within, let's say, half an hour. It will be like between the upload and chopping it off, like half an hour to an hour. Let's give it an hour just to make sure it will provide you 20 reels. But how many of those reels are actually good? Like? You seem to know that you've used that software. So be honest, how many of those 20, 30 reels that it's going to produce can you take as is without spending 30 minutes editing each reels? How much of those reels can you take and then pose them as is? 

0:09:23 - Mehmet
Good question, maybe, to be fair, 5%. 

0:09:28 - Nico
Yeah, 5%, so of 30. So you're talking about maybe one or two, and are they that great? Like they have weird cuts. Often it chops off one of the words that's super important and it switches it for some reason. Sometimes the camera, like you know to follow the person, the camera's way off, like I'm chopped down the middle. What's going on here? So does it work? Yes, is it great? No, absolutely not. You still need to do a lot of editing yourself 100% equal. 

0:10:03 - Mehmet
And just to add to you. So what I do, I don't use it all the time. You know I sometimes I post from it sometimes, but it's not like the cuts that I want to be the main one. So when I post, for example and for example you will see when I will post this, this episode I will choose myself. You know the place where I will take from, like a highlight, and I do it by myself and you know I'm lucky enough to use and I'm not associated with them guys. But you know, streamyard provide me the option that I can create kind of my what Opposite would do for you. So I can do it. 

It doesn't take from me much. All what I need to do is just because when I do editing, so I will be, you know, listening again to what happened. Of course, transcribing helps me, by the way, because I remember all, like Nico said at some stage this, so I think it's a good part. So I do a couple of of the of the majority of the world, but AI helps me. I don't rely on AI completely to produce this, so 100%. 

0:11:07 - Nico
So what you're saying is exactly what I say all the time to. It's the structure. You can use AI to build your structure, but it always needs a human touch. It always needs you or somebody from your team or somebody that you deal with to go back and make it better. It's a great structure, like, for example, I I released a blog, I did a few written posts this morning already and I have a structure. I know what I want to talk about. I write it out pretty fast. 

I asked chat GPT, for example, to tell me what do you think of this? And then it gives it will tell me oh, maybe you should think about doing this, think about doing this, think about doing this. So, to me, those that the AI platforms out there are very good as, let's say, brainstorming. They're very good at interacting with. If you don't have a team of of marketers and you don't have people to throw ideas at, to say, hey, what do you think about this subject? How do you think I should approach it? You have any idea on this? What's trending right now? Like, all of those things are absolutely genius. With AI, it's short your time of brainstorming. Like, I'm capable of chopping down my brainstorming and my content creation so much by using AI. But do I depend on AI at 100%? No, but another thing worth mentioning is I've taken a lot of courses on copywriting. I've taken some courses on video editing. I've taken a lot of courses on how to apply certain techniques when you're creating content. I have 12 years of sales experience, so I know how to speak in front of a camera and relay my opinion, my information, the facts that I have to bring to the conversation in a way that it makes sense to people and you know, you know this as a sales engineer taking extremely complex technical turns, and being able to explain it in layman's terms to customers that might not be technical at all but that needs your services, is one of the greatest skill I've ever developed as a content creator. So that skill alone is so helpful for me. Attending podcasts, like we're doing right now, or just creating content every single day. So those are that. That's the understanding you need. 

Can you use AI to optimize and streamline your platform, your content creation workflow? Absolutely, I use it every day, multiple times a day. It's great. Can you do it without the human touch? No, can you do it without learning the skills that you need to have in order to be able to be good in front of the camera. No, ai. You know, I was talking about this this week on another podcast and I was talking about philosophy of AI at a certain point, and I think we're already starting to see it. 

Right now, people are starting to replace themselves. So they create avatars of themselves using AI and then they just they record their voice, so the AI platform knows how you sound, they know how you move, because you provided some video. They scanned you and then they start feeding some wording to those, to those avatars. So they're going to write a. They're going to write a text, shove it into chat GPT. They're going to rewrite it, they're going to shove it into that engine. And then you have somebody like me right now that's just standing there, that's just talking, repeating the words that are not even mine. This is one of the future, like this will be a future of ours. 

I don't know if people realize this, but I'm part of a. You know, I'm part of a massive group, like a mastermind, as they call it, of content, the biggest content creators on the planet, and they're all talking about this. But here's where the issue is is. Ai is not authentic. Ai is not real and you can tell, like you. Show me two videos, one that's done by AI and one that isn't. There's something missing on the AI. There's not that authenticity that people are work or looking for. 

And it doesn't matter if you're a content creator, if you're a podcaster, if you're a business, if you're not a faceless company, if you represent a brand, if there's a face to your company. People want to see you. People buy from you. They like you. They're going to buy your services Like look at Donald Trump perfect example of this. 

People that didn't like him never listened to what he had to say. People that loved him loved everything he had to say because of who he was. It wasn't even about his policies anymore. It was really about I love that guy or I hate that guy. But this is a reality that we're all facing as content creators, influencers, business owners, coach, podcaster. People are going to like you. If they like you, they'll buy from you. So why would you replace yourself by AI when you are the person that they want to see? Use AI where it belongs to help you brainstorm, edit your videos, your audio, help you distribute your content by giving you titles, descriptions, giving you hashtags, promote. You can stay up to date on what's working, what's not working, what's trending right now. So there are massive advantage to AI, but you still need to be in front of that camera doing what you're supposed to be doing. They're not replacing you anytime soon. 

0:16:48 - Mehmet
No, 100%. And you know, like it's a coincidence, again, because just yesterday I shared something that. 

I shared like very tiny things on LinkedIn sometimes. So I just mentioned the same thing you said you know, because now I'm focusing my work on startups and people who are trying to become business owners. So I said, look, don't be very attracted by the term close the deal. You know, because me and you work in this close the deal do the business focus on the personal touch and because they know when you build the relationship to your point about, like the people, they know you, you know, or they know me, so this is why they follow me. 

And, by the way, back to the talk about sales, like the most successful, the most successful people I've seen, at least in the domain that we and you and me we work in, which is tech, who are successful, are the ones who actually build relationships. So they were able, whenever they go any company, they can easily go and say, hey, hey, john, like I left X, I joined Y and you know, like I have, you know, I think we can work again together. You know this is how it works and people, they don't figure it out sometimes, but now and again, like I don't do this and I don't ask the questions to make a point, just you know open discussion, because you mentioned something about the faceless. But why do you think you know it's also a successful business model for some? 100%, 100%, what? What is the secret source for them, do you think? 

0:18:25 - Nico
because it's easy, because it doesn't require it. So see it this way when I say that it's easy, it's simple because recording, I record a lot, of, a lot of content myself, like most of my content is me in front of the camera doing what we're doing right now In order to do this. If you see one of my reels, it might last one minute, but it might have taken me an hour of research, an hour of writing it afterwards and recording it and editing it. So you have two to three hours spent on one reel. But this is me. This is my touch. I built it from the ground up. This is me. What you're seeing is me. That's one thing. Faceless, I can. I can name you about three apps right now that I could use. I tested it all. I did a bunch of content. That's faceless. I don't like it. But the reason it's so successful is that it's easy to make. You can pump it out, like all the time. It's really simple because you're not spending a lot. You're not spending any time in front of that camera and this is what's long is recording it, editing it. 

There are softwares out there that can simply you can do a text to video. You don't even need to write the whole thing. You can literally say write me a three minute video, a three minute YouTube video on this specific topic. Enter, it will do it all for you. We'll ask you who's the audience, what type of, what's the feel of it? Do you want it more professional, more humorous, more conversational, like what are you looking for? It's going to ask you a few questions and then it's going to start producing the images for you. It will have a narrator. You can change the voice of the narrator, you can change the accent, you can change whatever you want about the narrator. You can change all the images that it's chosen in the back. You can tell it hey, add me some caption. 

Enter, it's going to add some caption hey add me some some some music Enter Done and this is. You can pump up some some videos like this Also faceless, faceless accounts. Also what they do they repost other people's stuff. There's so many downloaders right now you can go on on YouTube and just download, like I know platform. 

I've been on podcasts of people that have three, four, five hundred thousand followers on their platforms and you know what? You never see their face unless they're doing a podcast. They can post four or five times a day, exactly like I do, but you never see their faces. All they do is that they have specific platforms, that they follow specific podcasts, specific shows, and all they do is that they're going to take those shows. They're going to shove it into Opus. Opus is going to chop it off for them. They're going to take it, edit it a bit, pop at their logo at the bottom, like they did it, and then pow, they're going to. They're going to post that. So you're capable of posting a lot of content like that because you're not in front of the camera. It's not original content, it doesn't belong to you. You just repurposed what other people are doing on top of that. The way they make money is by selling their audience. So, basically, they're going to spend time, they're going to find a niche where people are really looking into it. Once you've identified that niche, all they're going to do is post about this post, about this post, about this post, about this. All those videos are done through AI, through Opus, they're done through fates, through platforms. 

I'm just drawing a blank now. Just give me a second. I'll even name it for you guys. It's AI video creator in video. Ai great platform. Yeah, that's what you, if you want to do. That platform is great, but between Opus and that platform and a minimum understanding of how to make it look good, you never have to show your face. You grow your platform to a point where people are going to come see you. Coaches are going to come to your platform to say, hey, I want to, I want to target the people that's in your audience. You have 100,000 followers. Here's a few grand. Let me post on your stuff and that's how they make money and they never have to show their faces. 

0:22:19 - Mehmet
Absolutely fascinating and the term you and me are familiar with. So I did proof of concepts, or POC, almost on all these platforms and it seems we have the same taste, I would say even for the products. So we talked about Opus a little bit. Yeah, so in video AI, you know, I tried with a couple of things. But to your point again now, I'm not sure how they are able to, how they are targeting, and I will ask this question later, but for me, you know, it was good for very basic stuff. 

Honestly, you know, when I gave like the hard, more hard prompt, I would say the results were not. You know what I expected, or at least you know what people there were. Ok, if you say very simple topic and to your point, the copying stuff, explain to me the cycle of I don't know, like how it rains and how the water goes to the sea and, yeah, like any, like very, I would say, primary schools topic or even maybe secondary school topic. It does very well when you start to mix things which are a little bit complex. Even you know the picture that it tries to bring from. You know, on the Internet it doesn't match. Of course it gives you the ability to change that. 

But again to the point that you were mentioning Nico before, you still need the human action in there. Now, because you work, you know you are a content creator yourself and this question comes and I think we tried to cover it before In this whole noise, you know which is out there, how you can grow your presence, whether you are a coach, whether you are a business owner, maybe a startup founder who want to make some noise about you know what you're building. So what do you see? The most successful strategies? 

0:24:19 - Nico
I would say it depends on the person. Like, all the work that I do is one on one, so we need to establish what your personal skills are, because your personal skills are not going to be the same as me. Like, I have a sales background, so I know how to sell myself. I've studied how to create videos that work. I know what a hook is. I know how to grab your attention within two or three seconds of a video in order to prompt you to listen. I know how to create content that's going to be more controversial if you will. Not that I do it on purpose, it's just what I'd like to talk about. It's considered controversial nowadays, so there's multiple ways that you can do it, but it all starts with the understanding of what's your audience, because this is as basic as it is for marketing understanding who your niche is, what your audience is, what keeps them up at night, what can you do to make them, to convince them that you are the expert that can answer their questions? Like all those very simple content like this is 101,. This is branding 101. Your message, your audience, even the colors that you use will help you relay your message, but most people don't even take the time to do this properly, you need to understand what your audience wants, and this applies to people that are selling a service, people that are selling a product, to content creators, to influencers, podcasters, whatever it is. It's like what we're talking about right now. Who's our audience? Coaches, influencers, podcasters, business owners that want to understand how AI can be integrated into their content creation workflow. That's the people that we're targeting. Now, why would they listen? Because we can tell them how they can implement certain apps, certain programs that can help them do what they want save time. At the end of the day, the people that are probably listening to this are curious to see if AI can help them save some of their valuable time. Okay, cool, we understand that. 

How do we create content around this? Now, this is where it gets interesting. Now, what are my personal skills? So, if you look at UNI or both SEs, we're both SE sales engineers, but I can tell you we don't have the same type of personality. I'm probably a lot louder than you are. I'm more out there. I take a lot of space with my voice, with just my pure personality. So how about I use this to create my content? This is where it gets interesting, is okay. So I understand who my audience is. I understand what they want to hear, or what they want to hear about Like how can I help them? Then I start crafting my message. Considering that UNI are not going to use the same methods in order to produce that type of content Like we're not, the content is not going to feel the same at all. Does that mean mine is better than yours? Absolutely not. 

The goal is to keep it authentic. It's really to create a message that is around you and your skills and the way, the person that you are, because the world that we live in right now people are interested in knowing who is behind that brand Like. I just posted a blog this morning about how this year, we've learned People are starting to understand. The silent majority is starting to understand that if you don't like a company and what they stand for, just don't buy their products. Buy boy cuttings companies that you don't like. You're voting with your wallet, so those are all things that make sense, but you need to understand how this whole thing works. But it's really that simple. So if people like you, they will buy your product. So be authentic. Create content that is around you, that is around what you're selling and make it personal. Show those people who you are, because that's what people want. 

Why do you think Kardashians are some of the richest people like entertainers ever? Because they literally shove the camera in all aspects of their lives. So people feel that they know them. Once they feel that they know you, they want to buy from you. It's easier for Kardashians to sell a service to my sister, for example, than my sister buying a product from me. How insane is that when you think about it, so you need Because my sister doesn't necessarily relate with what I do, but she'll relate to them she associates her likeliness of these people with buying their services. And this is why social media is so strong. If you're capable of producing content that is not only around your product, but in a way where your product is impacting you every day. 

What you stand for, what you, what the reason is behind you creating that service or product or the content that you create. This is where people get attached to you. There's a very good reason why how do you call it? The TV shows like Big Brothers, like Reality TV, are so popular. And this is the power of social media is to be able to show your personal side, your opinions, what you stand for. And this is where it really gets interesting when you have somebody that has the courage to speak about what they stand for, even though they represent the company. And this is where you want to be able to grow your platform. 

I have a video production company and I help clients grow their social media, but if you go to any of my platforms, you will know right away what I stand for. You know exactly the type of person that I am as an individual, and does that scare away a lot of customers? Absolutely. But you know what? For me, it's great because I don't want to work with those customers If you and I don't agree on our most primal values, I don't want to work with you. I want Personally, I want to work with clients that I can work with for five, ten years. I want to get to know you. I want to get, I want to be part of your life. I want to understand who you are, what you are, what your why is, and we will develop a strategy around you and we will keep evolving it because your needs and your goals are going to change over time. 

0:30:47 - Mehmet
Yeah, yeah, and you could question Actually, I have multiple ones from this, what you just said. But, the first one, because content creation is associated with individuals that become. Thought leaders, influencers, whatever. Now for me and this is something Also we had some guests we discussed it with them before about the importance of the CEO of LFA Startup or even if it's a big company that they have to establish this, how important it's no time before to establish this presence and being a content creator. 

0:31:36 - Nico
This is the number one skill you should develop. If you are a content creator, you should be a sales guy. This is the number one thing. Learn to sell yourself Because, again, people buy you. People will buy you and whatever you sell this is the advantage is, if you're capable of establishing yourself as somebody that they like. Whatever service you end up selling, eventually they will be interested in it, if indeed they're looking for that service. But they will buy from you from the get-go because they like you, and in marketing they say it takes seven points of contact with a customer before they buy something from you. 

What's easier? Since yesterday, I probably produced seven pieces of content, and it's nine o'clock in the morning where I'm from, so this is what I've done over not even 24 hours. So social media allows you to create content, and the thing is, the content doesn't even need to be related to the product that you're actually selling or to the service that you're selling, just you showing like. Tonight I'm going to go pack some bags for people that are struggling to have food. It's around Christmas and there's a church group that I'm part of that that's what they do, so that's what I'm going to do. So imagine that I go around and I'll probably take some pictures and just post it, not in a way where I'm trying to make myself look better than thou, but in a way that you know, guys, if you have an afternoon, if you have an evening, what's stopping you from doing this? 

People out there and I've done that multiple times in the past I picked up some bags and I jumped in my car and I went to deliver it to people that were in need. It's a great thing to do, but imagine that I represent my brand, like I'm representing my brand and I do this. This resonates with people. They want that. That shows them the type of person that I am. I'm not just somebody that's trying to take every single penny that you own. I'm really. I care. I care about my clients, I care about the people that follow my, my content. I care about them. I really do care, and you have to show this to people, because most people care and they want to deal with people that they care for. 

0:33:49 - Mehmet
Yeah, you, you brought interesting, so you brought another point and honestly, it's like consider me like a someone who's asking me a consultancy from you, so you're not gonna hurt my feelings and disagree with me, please, if you're not, if you don't agree, disagree with me as well, okay, so let me tell you because I became, by chance or by by planning, a content creator myself, because I have a podcast, even before the podcast, like you know, since like maybe five or six years, because I was in tech, I was an SE, so always I used to share some articles, but I put my comment anyway so now for me, content creation. 

Of course it's about you and building your brand. But you know, I ask myself maybe 10 times, okay, when I want to share this, am I sharing this to add value to the people who gonna read, watch, listen, or am I showing off? And, honestly speaking, I got irritated. Sometimes, you know, okay, I do it. 

Sometimes I take a selfie if I'm in a I don't know like in a great show or something, sure, but for people who keep you know, I don't know, correct me if I'm wrong, and this is something that I want an expert opinion sure, you find the content creator all the time sharing blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever. 

You know, sometimes I don't, but the problem is that with the social media thing, there is the hook, there is the algorithm, there is these things which, accepted or not, you need to. You know, if you want to get more people to follow you, you need to follow a few things, but one of the things that I find it difficult for me is to just keep posting myself, you know, doing like this, doing like that. You know, I don't want to show off at the same time, because my biggest concern is I don't want people to think about me that I am arrogant or I am narcissistic, you know, or something like this. So the question is how you do this balance when you are trying to build your social media presence you know, this is what we call the in imposter syndrome. 

0:36:13 - Nico
This is what it comes down to, what you're talking about. I've been through this. I think every single content creator or anybody that becomes somewhat renowned for what they do goes through this, and you know. The question is simple and I'll ask you what the question is what are you trying to do when you're posting? Whatever you're posting about, what is the goal? What's the goal of your posts? 

0:36:37 - Mehmet
it depends on what I'm posting, but majority of the time my aim is to leave someone with a positive impression about me, first and second, you know, to learn something from me, or you know like, get get some information from me. Basically, that's it so inspiration, inspiration you're trying to inspire people. 

0:36:57 - Nico
Okay, so perfect, that's your goal. Perfect, that's. That's the best goal you can have it inspire people, surf people. That's what we should all strive to. Now, if you look at a, who's your favorite content creator? Who's the business owner that you're like the most, that creates a lot of content out there, which one do you follow that you like the most? 

0:37:17 - Mehmet
I have many, but you know the one that comes immediately to mind, like Simon Sinek, for example. Gary V, you know. 

0:37:25 - Nico
Gary V perfect example. I was hoping you'd say that, because I love Gary V too. Now is he a show off no, he does it perfectly in a very nice way. 

He posts 64 times daily across all of his platforms 64 times. You get a guy like Alex Hormosi posts 250 times between his wife and him, 250 times a week. Are they show-offs or do you think they're a narcissist? When you look at them, you're like, oh man, too much already, can you stop? No, what? Why is that? Because they're not doing it in a way that is obnoxious to people. They are literally just showing what their day-to-day is. 

And as a business owner, as a content creator, I look at a Gary V and Alex Hormosi. I'm like man, you guys are such an inspiration to me. I want to have one day, I hope to get where you guys are, to get the impact that you're capable of helping people the way that you guys do. Are you gonna? So this is the optic in which I always look at my content creation. Whatever I'm talking about, I'm always in the optic of if those guys so I have a hundred thousand followers and I get millions of views on my content right. So there's guys that have a tent of what I have, that look at me as an inspiration. So I have to continue doing what I'm doing because I'm inspiring them the same way. 

A guy like Gary V's inspiring me, like, if you're, if you're beginning to create content and again, content creation, we're talking about whatever. Whatever you do, you're just starting to put something out there. You're gonna get at a Gary V and you're like, oh man, the gap between me and him is so huge I'll never be able to get there. Now, like any goals out there, you always try to break it down into niblet's that are achievable so little, step by step by step. So maybe I'm your second step, maybe the content that you're creating is exactly that. 

So the guy that is getting started watches your podcast and he's like, oh, I started this three sorry, I started this five years ago, blah, blah, blah. This is where I'm at awesome. So that means that if I put in the time, I could get to where he is. So what Gary V does to you, you're doing it for somebody else, and this is how I see my content. This is how I see what I, what I do. I'm simply trying to inspire others, as a lot of people out there inspires me perfect. 

0:40:01 - Mehmet
You know, and, by the way, just for for the for you know it's not a confession, but you know, maybe I'm not sure if I've said it before or no one of the you know reasons or, let's say, encouragement for me to start the podcast is when, when, when you know I was, you know, read the book back in 2020, 2020, I think, yeah, during the pandemic that the gas is first book about content, and you know, like the strategy and the stories he shared said, okay, look, okay, this is something that exactly what I want to do. And I said, okay, if this, and you know, like, the best thing that he does is that he simplified to the maximum. You know, like you cannot doubt that, okay, this guy is trying to do kind of a clickbait for me here, like me, he's trying. So so you know and yeah, he's one of the few, by the way, out there that really he does it without the clickbait, you know, and the reason I mentioned the clickbait here because one of the things also that I see a lot and it happened to me. You know, I don't want to mention anyone or anything, but one of the platforms I've seen, you know. Hey, you know, like I'm trying to help people get blah blah blah, so just retweet. 

Okay, so it was on X, so just repost. It's not retweet anymore, so just repost, follow and I will send you ATM. Look, I understand. You know that you are trying to also get some followers. Somehow. I can understand this, because, especially especially if you are new but actually the one who did this was not someone who's just with three digit follows, it was someone with, in the case, you know, yeah, in hundreds of thousands, yeah said, okay, really, you really still need to do these tricks to to get some followers. But again, maybe I'm mistaken, nico. So so tell me what's your take on this? 

0:42:03 - Nico
well, there's a couple of things. One thing we have to stop seeing numbers as the ultimate goal. So a lot of people see other creators or other companies with massive followings and they're like, okay, this is what I need in order to sell my services or sell my product, and yet they don't realize that most of their followers nowadays are not even real. Like there's a specific podcast that I have in mind, that I'm not gonna name names, but you look at their platform. They're massive, massive, massive platform. But you start analyzing the type of comments that they get, the type of people that post on their stuff, the type of things that are shared, and you start to realize that most of their audiences are not even real. They're all bots you can buy. I get approached every day by people offering me to oh, I'm gonna boost your page. Oh, yeah, okay, so you're, I can do that right now for about 50 bucks a hundred bucks I can buy like 10 50,000 followers on any platform you want. So this is the thing. 

What is your goal? What are you trying to accomplish? Is your, is your goal just to show off a massive number, or is your goal to have people that will look at your content that will comment on your content. That will get something out of what you're creating. Are you helping people or is it something that you do in order to get an ego boost? Are you just trying to stay relevant within your own mind or you're trying to put quality content out there that will help people? It's all about the why. What are you trying to accomplish and what are you ready to do to do it? And what are the reasons like your personal reasons, because a lot of people say they want to help others, but do they really want to help others, do they really care, or are they just trying to sell their services? 

0:44:07 - Mehmet
True, true, by the way, I get asked this question. One time someone asked me why you're doing this. 

0:44:13 - Nico
They asked me. 

0:44:14 - Mehmet
Yes, I said look like you know someone must be naive, you know, if they think, yeah, if they think if, if you know someone would not I'm not sure if the term is right, but you know to, to, to you you built something. You have goals, right, Of course, your point and the problem is they have implanted in our minds and because both of us we work in sales that selling is a sin, you know like if you try to sell a service is ooh. 

So what I tell them? I said, look, guys, so what I'm trying to do, I'm trying to, of course, you know, I need to build my own personal brand. This is number one, right? So, people, when they say Mehmet, yes, the CTO show, you know they can relate. Okay, what Mehmet does, okay, he brings guests that you know, add a lot of value. They speak about different topics on the show and actually we can, you know, get get good benefits out of it. 

And and this is something I don't hide, because people ask me okay, do you do something other than the podcast? Of course I do. You know, I have my own, I have my own consultancy, right? So now, of course, what I try to to make sure is that I'm not overselling myself through the podcast. This is why, for example, I never advert, put an ad for myself at the beginning or the end, right, I don't do this. But I know, for a matter of fact, nico and this is where you know, I say him, like you, I don't accept these people that they come, and actually one of them the other day he did something which was weird. So they, they let the bot work, and then he said hey, we let the bot increase your view on one of your videos. Do you want to continue? I said no, thank you, but anyway, it's not about the number for me, because I know, for a matter of fact, you know people now they trust me because you know they can see the way I talk to my guests, they see the way I ask the questions, they see the way how I act outside as well. So, yeah, so now these people, they come to me and they are ready to make business with me and I'm like because all the content that I share, whether it's like in written, in the podcast or whatever you know it shows my character to people. So, again, this is this is the point. Now to your point. Just I want to add and I know you like this because we were also both in in tech or tech background numbers never lie. I know you like this term. So the other day, and just you know, because it's not like I want to be like them I just I like to analyze. 

I noticed one of the podcast slash YouTube channel. So they are on both and they are local here. They are. They are not in the US, so they are local here in the, in Dubai, in the Middle East. So you know it doesn't take you much time to see that you have a certain number of subscribers, right. And then the number of views. And even you know, to make sure, I asked charge PT, like I said, okay, how much, you know the ratio, if it's a normal, organic or whatever. And I asked even people and you know the numbers. There were funny, because you know you're not supposed, for example, to have so much views, too much views. And actually there is a tool which I think you're aware about, which is vid IQ. Right, so vid IQ, yeah. So, so so they can show you you can put some competition. They call it competition over there. 

0:47:43 - Nico
For me it's not competition, it's just like I want to see how, but it is yeah. You're comparing yourself to them. 

0:47:50 - Mehmet
Yeah, I'm just, I won't just. 

I wonder it's in human nature. You get curious, right? I'm not hiding this. So I put some you know other podcasts, local ones. I just want to see where I am right, yep, yep. And then I saw something very funny. You know, like the number of views. You know it's so much obvious that it's it's a bot generated. It's no way, you know, because you get a, you know such views in after, let's say, two hours or three hours of posting and you get like hundred thousand views. Give me a break, right. So it's, it's very obvious. Or, for example, and I'm talking about Now. 

0:48:31 - Nico
I'm curious. You're gonna have to tell me who they are. I'm going to go check them out afterwards, yeah. 

0:48:36 - Mehmet
Later on I can tell you so, so, but, but but to your point, you know, and I repeat this, you know they asked me, but you know, maybe you don't have that big audience yet I said okay, yet, you just said yet for me it's not like a short-term game and I'm looking at the numbers. Refresh, refresh the page. I don't do this, you know, I check maybe. You know, of course at the beginning I was checking too much, but now, you know, every maybe two, three weeks, I go check, okay, how much is the download going for the podcast, how much views I'm getting on on YouTube, just out of curiosity. Again, we are curious creators. So, but it's not like I want to reach one million download. I wish I can one day. 

As to your point, with Gary Vee and others, but I mean, I need it. I know it needs time, I need it, needs consistency, right. So I've been doing this now for 11 months, right? So this podcast is 11 months and I was doing daily, you know, daily, you know, even though I was not skipping weekends and I shortened, and now I'm going to shorten again because I have some other things to do, but I got to keep doing it, of course, because I enjoy doing it. And I will always tell people, nico, even if I have one viewer or one listener, you know, on whatever platform, I'm happy because my voice reach at least one person and he or she might benefit out of it. So for me, so for me, this is the formula you know, because, to the point Now, I want to get you back to something. 

0:50:04 - Nico
You have seen it in your bio but before you go, though, there's just one thing I wanted to say the. This is why I'd be curious to see it, because I could give you a more in depth Like. Once we're done recording, send it to me. I'll go check them out, but there are ways like. One of my strengths that I do that most content creators are not capable of doing is my ratio of views. So if you look on Instagram, for example, I can go, and I can. If you look at the insights, they can tell you where the views are coming from. They will split them into sex cities. Yes, the most important part is the split between followers and non followers. 

Yeah, this is the split, because if, in my head, I'm trying to reach new people, I want the non followers to be bigger. Now, if you look at a platform like Instagram, for example, organically, if you don't boost, you don't put and I don't put any money behind any of my posts. I just do organic. That's all I do, but by default. If you do that, instagram is only going to push about 10% of your audience. So your content is only going to reach about 10% of the people that follow you. So if you have 10,000 followers, a thousand people might see your content. So how do you explain what a guy that has 10,000 followers that I do millions of views every month and I don't do bots. I don't buy anything because I understand how to put my content in front of non followers. I am not scared to go. If I'm talking about a specific subject, I will tag groups. I will hashtag people that are against me, that don't believe in what I'm saying, because I'm trying to generate a conversation. I'm trying to get inputs. I'm always looking for people to criticize me. Criticize me all you want. If you're polite, I'll have conversations with you. I actually really enjoyed this, but my point is that, again, based my number onto the master group that I'm part of, with massive influencers and business owners. 

Some of the guys are proud to have a few million views every month, but they have 4,500,000 followers and I asked them. I'm like what's your ratio? What's your ratio of views of followers, non followers? 90%. 95% as followers. 95% of it is non followers. So that means that even if you have 500,000 followers, that means 50,000 people are seeing your videos and if I go check their videos, that's about what they average like 50 to 100,000 people see their videos. That's the views that they have. But that's insane to me. That is absolutely insane. You guys don't understand how to push your content at all. So is it possible for somebody that doesn't have a lot of followers to get 100,000 views? Absolutely, some videos are in the five to 10 million views on one single video. So is it possible? Absolutely, but you need to know how. It did not happen by accident. I know exactly how I did, how I did it. 

And I try to duplicate this all the time. I understand the algorithm, I understand what works. I know why that video worked. It wasn't by chance. I know exactly why it worked and all I do is try to duplicate it as soon as I possibly can. But it's easy. Like you said, with vidIQ, I can tell you right away. Show me a video of somebody that does not have a lot of followers that went viral. I can tell you if it's real or not. It's not that hard Once you understand how to create great content, how you understand how to capture people's attention, the type of hashtags you need to use, the description, how the algorithm works, because TikTok does not work like Instagram, facebook, youtube, rumble, nameit, twitter or X. Now they don't work any. None of them work the same, so you need to understand that as well. So if you have people that put in the time, like I did, absolutely you can do those numbers, but you can tell right away if it's fake or not. 

0:54:11 - Mehmet
Yeah, yeah, good one. It's good information also, niko, now, as the time really passed fast, but I don't want to finish before talking about your Alpha Creator Blueprint, so just walk me through it, what it is and how it can help content creators. 

0:54:40 - Nico
Just, first and foremost, the company that I run. We can do everything. We can do everything from all your post-production to posting for you, to taking care of your social media. We can do it all. But a lot of people don't necessarily need a team. Like a lot of people, like even me I edit a lot of my videos. I'd rather my guys work on our clients than work on mine, because I do enjoy the video production. Like the video production side, I enjoy doing it because I'm always testing and this is what I teach. Like the Alpha Creator Blueprint is what it is. 

It's some one-on-one coaching that I do with content creators on how to implement AI and sales slash, nlp and psychology tactics in the way that they produce content. Like how to become a salesperson while using AI to optimize your workflow. Because, as I was saying earlier, like creating content, when you understand, like, let's say, chat GPT, for example, that you can treat it as somebody from your team and interact with it. Just to say I want to create a post about this. This is the subject. This is the way I was thinking. What do you suggest? And as you're just spitballing, you're just exchanging information, so there's a certain way you need to understand how to do it and this is what I teach. So I teach not only on one side to do becoming better in front of that camera, and that's something that takes a lot of time. I work with my clients for at least six months. I don't take any clients that want to do anything below six months. It's not worth it to take. It takes way more time than that. But the point is to develop your personal skills, become more of a marketer, more of a salesperson, because at the end of the day, you're the product. Even though you might sell a service or you might sell a physical product, at the end of the day, if you're doing face type of content, where you appear on it, you are the service people are buying you. So we go from the brainstorming to video editing, audio. Where does AI fit in both of them? Distribution in SEO same thing. 

You need to understand the titles, the hashtag, the description. When to post a, when to post on specific platform, how many times a day am I supposed to be posting? What type of content do I post? Because there are such things as I call social media funnels. So there's certain type of content that you can create that will reach more people. And then you want to attract those people to get into your page where they can see what you call your evergreen content, the type of stuff that you talk about every day. So there are strategies not only to create good content, but to create specific type of content for specific platform. With the option, with the idea that you're going to reach a ton of people and hopefully you're going to through call for actions or call to action, sorry and just share amount of views, people will go on your profile, go on your page, go on your website, whatever your call to action is, and you will retain some of that viewership. 

So this is the harder part. This is a lot of testing, because you need to check the engagement. Like, there's a lot of things. As you said earlier, numbers don't lie and this is what it's all about. So we integrate AI with a person with a human touch and we develop the human being that's in front of that camera, that's creating that content, not only in front of that camera, but how to distribute it, how to deal with the engagement and how to review the numbers and how to pivot, because there's types of content like you, for example, you like to do a podcast. 

Let's say you and I work together and I look at the numbers and I look at certain type of videos and posts that you do and I'm like you know what, bro, this is not for you. How would you feel about that? You might like the type of content that you create, but the numbers don't lie. They don't work for you. So you know what. It's a waste of your time. You should concentrate on something else. I'm not saying that that's the case. I'm just using that as an example that this is the type of knowledge that I bring to the equation. I do everything myself. Yes, I have video editors that I deal with that can do all of that stuff. 

But the Alpha Creator Blueprint was really meant for personal relationship, where I can sit down with someone, understand what they're doing, will revamp your branding, will revamp your message, will develop you in front of that camera and then eventually, we're going to do exactly what we're doing right now. You're going to start appearing on podcasts. Once we both feel that your content is on point, that your message is on point, let's start having you on small podcasts. Then grow the audience, then grow the audience, then grow the size of the podcast. Let's start booking you on stages so you can start really becoming an expert in your field. This is what I do. My whole company could take it from. I've never produced any type of content in my life in the optic that I want to appear on stages like Gary Vee. This is the journey that I want to do with my clients. 

When I started three years ago, did I know that I would be on podcasts I have 11 million followers that I'd start appearing on TV, that I do radio shows, that my content would get millions of views every month? Did I know this would happen? I hope so. This is what I wished for, but it took me some time. It took me three to four years, and one of those years I dedicated myself to it. 

This is what the Alpha Creator Blueprint is all about is really sitting down in a personal format where you and I figure out what do you want to do, what type of person are you? If I have to, I'm going to fly. I've done that to one of my clients. I flew where he was and I actually put some equipment and I directed him. I'm like, okay, we have 20 grand of equipment right now. Let's go. I'll show you how to record some videos. Let's do it. He didn't like it. I can tell you he hated it. He swore at me, screamed at me. He hated it. But you know what? He's awesome in front of a camera now. So this is what I want I want to make you the best person that you can be in front of that camera and, using AI, I want to speed up your process to save your valuable time. 

1:01:23 - Mehmet
Wow, if I cut from this lost part only alone, people will know that you have an SE background. 

I will tell you why because I'm a big believer in storytelling and what we used to call it customer journey, and this is exactly what you have done now, nico, and this is exactly what I'm passionate about also as well, because I want 3D. 

It's not just by the talk, but by telling you the story Today, here, where you are, here's what you are facing or here's what you want to do and you are not able to do, and then here are the steps that we're going to take together and this is the ultimate result that you want to reach. So it's like I call it the customer journey. And now, because I focus on startups and founders and I tell them the same thing and I had an SE, like I think, last month, so anyway, so we were saying like SEs are actually entrepreneurs by design, because you have to do all this, because you need to do the objection handling, you need to pitch your idea, you need to face a lot of troubles. So you know, nico, like it was really a nice story, I would say at the end, because it's all about the story Now, as we are almost done, nico where we can find more about you. Well, it depends. 

1:02:49 - Nico
If you're trying to see the type of person that I am, you go to nicolagoncom. This is more my men's coaching, the work that I do with men itself. But if you want to know more about the Alpha Creator, about what the business does, how you can integrate AI, like, this podcast will appear on that website. It's under plproductionco. And one thing that I'd like to say, too, is there's this I've seen, because I've been coaching people for a long time now, and there's this misunderstanding that using a coach is not for everybody. Like, if you're like a lot of people have marketing companies and they're like, oh, I'm too good to have a coach, like that's how they feel, and I'm like you know what? Bro Elon Musk has business coach. All those you don't think Gary Vee has a business coach. 

You don't think that there's somebody behind Gary Vee, that tells them hey, hey, man, we need to do this, we need to do that. What you're doing right now not working. We need to change that. So this is a big thing. We are so arrogant that we believe it's like me, for example. Okay, yeah, I grew. I grew extraordinary over the past year. 

I do have a company I deal with. I've dealt with marketing company. I've dealt with coaches. 

I spent thousands, tens of thousands, probably $40,000 within the past three years on people to help me do what I do, and there's no shame in that. Are you kidding me? Can you learn everything that I have to teach you? 100%? You can. Can you build your own team to do it for you? Absolutely, you can. How long you got? 

My goal is to take you from a to Z, at least in the process, in a fraction of the time that it would take you to do it by yourself. This is the whole point of dealing with people like me, dealing with people like you. Can you learn it? Absolutely, you have access to all the same tool, all the same information that I have. How much time you got, though? How much time are you ready to invest in order to learn it yourself? Do you rather buy the knowledge and methodology from somebody that you like, or would you rather develop it for yourself? My time is important. I'd rather pay money where it makes sense for people to show me how to speed up the process than spend years discovering it by myself. 

Yeah, of course, because time is everything right Most valuable asset that we have because we don't even know how long we have. We have no clue how much of it we actually have 100%. 

1:05:29 - Mehmet
Yeah. So to your point and about having a at least. Look, I can understand, because I pass through this Even if you don't want to find a coach, try to find a mentor at least. If you cannot find a mentor, find someone that he can or she can hold you accountable. Minimum, this is the bare minimum. 

1:05:53 - Nico
But you know that's what I do with most of my clients too. I expect people if you want to up your numbers I want you to post four or five times a day. That's what all your stories. I want you to create four or five type of content every day, day in, day out, and a lot of the time I have to go to your profile and make sure that you're doing your job, because that's what you're supposed to do. 

There's a reason why Alex Hormosi posts 250 times a week that Gary Vee posts 64 times a day because they, even at their size and we're talking millions they probably get billions of views every year. Like it's not out of the context to imagine that they get that much views every month, every year. Sorry, they still post like crazy person. This is the difference between they have. I think Gary Vee said he was paying 70 grand a month just in people handling his post, just to make sure that he's posting that much. It's something like 70 grand a month. That's insane. That's 940,000 dollars every. It's almost a million dollars just in having people post your stuff for you. That's insane. But how much money does he make? 

1:07:14 - Mehmet
Exactly. 

1:07:16 - Nico
Number of views, number of likes, number of comments, number of buyers. This is the ratio that you need to understand how it is and how do you translate it. But those are math. As an SC, as somebody, that's very logical, you have to know those numbers. 

1:07:33 - Mehmet
Yeah, true, 100%. And at the end of the day, it's back to Gary Vee and we are almost done. The thing that he was able to show in the book if you follow him, it's not like about only the numbers here because the reason he wanted to do it this way? Because and I think maybe two years back he was having an interview and said okay because he was saying I don't trust algorithms, so this is also why he keeps insisting on posting. He said okay at that time. He said if Twitter would promote my post at 6pm, I want to make sure if they change the algorithm, after one hour, the 7pm one will be also promoted. And the way he did it, he built a business about it and he showed that it's something world and it's a perfect example of a sexist story. I would say, in our SC terms, this is what we call the sexist story. This is the use case that you want to be, but why? 

1:08:39 - Nico
do people follow Gary Vee? Because they like Gary Vee? Because if you looked where he started with his father with his little wine business one store and now took it, he has a more than a billion dollar empire. It's insane what he's built. 

1:08:54 - Mehmet
And he stayed authentic. And how did? 

1:08:57 - Nico
he start doing little YouTube videos of him testing wine and saying why some wines better than others. Do you think his videos were good at the beginning? They were horrendous they were horrible. And even with his little hair that he's hanging on to when he's getting bald it looks terrible, but look how amazing he is today. But, this is the journey itself. Content creation is not easy. If you're going to have to take the time in it, just put the time because it is not easy, and Gary Vee is the perfect example. 

1:09:34 - Mehmet
I agree with you, Nico. I think we can go hours and hours and hours, and I believe this is also. I was recording an episode yesterday and I told my guest I think we're going to need part two, part three, and I'm going to tell you the same, Nico. So we're going to need part two, part three, maybe part four as well. A lot of common things that we have in common. 

Thank you very much for sharing all this useful information and insightful also hints and tips and tricks. Nico, I loved the way you convey and you mentioned about something about your voice tone, and this I can see it has this, at least for me. If I'm listening to you or I'm watching you, I can feel the comfort, I can feel the trust. I can tell you this. So I hope the same for the audience as well. I'm sure that they will have the same. And, guys, this is how we finish every episode. 

I keep listening to your suggestions, I'm trying to change this. I keep changing, you know, I mean the way, even how I do the zoom in, zoom out, all because I like, first, not to let you feel bored. So I hope that I'm doing this the right way. Second thing, if you are first time here, you are listening or watching us. Thank you for passing by. I hope you stay a loyal fan. 

And if you are one of the loyal fans, thank you again for sending me the comments, sending me all your notes and all your suggestions. I really read every one of them. I don't miss any one of them. And again, if you are interested to be on the show. I'm on a mission to get as much as people who can share information with us about any topic related to business, to startups, to technology. If you have your own idea and you're struggling you're not finding the best PR out to get out there you can also do it and reach out to me. Maybe today we are small, but I'm sure that we're going to be very big thing in the future. So thank you very much for tuning in and we'll meet again very soon. Thank you, bye-bye.