Discovering Success with Video Podcasting: Sergei Leshchenko’s Journey

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the work at home rockstar podcast We have the owner of beverly production and what they do is they People to create beautiful videos that will stand out and promote their business i’m excited to be talking to sergey leshenko.

Hey sergey, you ready to rock?

Sergey Leshchecnko: Tim, hi, I’m ready to rock. Thanks for having me.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. So we always start off here at a good note. Tell me.

a story of success in your business that we can be inspired by.

Sergey Leshchecnko: It’s, this one last business, my last attempt that’s been successful Because I’m a serial entrepreneur And I think I’ve tried a number of times, maybe like, about, around 10 times Since I graduated university For some reason, I didn’t want to work for anybody Right off the university that was just my mindset three times I failed, then one attempt worked and I got into, working with like my partner.

We started a business, an e commerce business that, led us [00:01:00] to relative success. But then I left the business, sold my equity. And then I think in 2019, I started launching other businesses. We started an online English school for kids. This didn’t work because then I, shifted to working with my fellow Ukrainians as I’m from Ukraine, living in Kyiv, I started offering.

English, lessons to my fellow Ukrainians. Then I transitioned to being a coach offering some business advice also didn’t work. And then all of a sudden I came across this beautiful performance called podcasting. Then I became the podcaster, just like you, were fellow podcasters. My podcast is called be yourself.

And I just, because I always shared the love for. You know, connecting with people and communicating with people, globally. Right. and they have way with the English language and just started connecting with people [00:02:00] and all of a sudden Oh, I didn’t ever give a thought to it But one lady when they saw the video product that we put together As a result of one of our conversations she asked hey, so you guys produce podcasts.

Can you produce one for us? And I’m like, Holy cow, this could be, this could be, this could be a business because, you know, up to that point, I never had any of my businesses, starting in such an incredible way where, you never, don’t, you even don’t, Consider this to be like something that you can make money from.

And now someone asked me if I can do a similar video podcast for them. And this is where everything started. So I think this is something that, reminds me that if you follow the things that you truly love in life, good things can happen. This is exactly what happened. I [00:03:00] started.

following this idea. And right now we’re pretty successful delivering video products and creating video podcasts for customers from around the world.

Tim Melanson: That’s awesome. And that’s one of the tips that I typically give people is that what do people ask you to do for them? Right. And obviously if they’re asking you to do something, then it’s something that’s in need. Right. So it’s cool that that worked out.

Sergey Leshchecnko: And I really love, Naval Ravikant’s standpoint on this, that what you have to do is not only think that you love. Ideally, it’s the intersection of what you love, what you’re good at, and what the world needs. And up to that point, I actually was also always trying to follow things that I love and what I’m good at.

For example, I was trying to build an English school just because I speak English pretty well, but the competition was just through the roof, you know, and then [00:04:00] with this thing, the world asked me if I can do the same for them. So this is just an amazing, amazing lesson. What you love, what you’re good at, and actually what the people around you actually want,

Tim Melanson: If people are asking you for it, then chances are the other two things are fulfilled, right, because you wouldn’t really be good at it unless you like it at least a little. fine, you can be good at something that you hate.

I’ll give you that, but it’s less likely.

Sergey Leshchecnko: at workplaces do that. They do something that they’re paid for handsomely, but they’re not necessarily loving it every single day.

Tim Melanson: right. and I mean, that is unlikely to come about by accident. Like you, you’re probably not spending your spare time doing the thing that you hate you’re good at. in your spare time, if you’re doing something and you love it and it’s good, and then someone asks you for it and asks you to do it, chances are, that’s an excellent business idea right there, right?

Sergey Leshchecnko: [00:05:00] And you gotta be open. You gotta be open, and you gotta ask for feedback. That’s a big thing. And when really someone’s giving you feedback that, hey, that’s awesome, This is a great indicator that you can actually position this to be a product and sell it. Absolutely.

Tim Melanson: So Sergei, I’m wondering what the good notes, sometimes things don’t go as planned, and I’m wondering, can you share with us something that, you know, maybe a mistake or some sort of failure that happened that you learned from that we can learn how to recover from?

Sergey Leshchecnko: Yeah, absolutely. well, I live in Ukraine and, I find it interesting that so many people start local before they go global. So it applies to all people living in small economies, thinking that big economies, you can only capture American market, Canadian market, any big market, tier one market, after you’ve succeeded locally.

And this was one of the mistakes that, I had in [00:06:00] this business, I started with this lady from Ukraine and then I had horrible time working with her because I don’t like, if she’s listening to this, I’m so sorry, but you know, I just had not only her, but other clients that came after her.

We’re also from Ukraine and they were also from one specific groups. I was focusing on coaches, you know, there’s like an explosion of coaches right now, there are coaches all over the place and I offered them to start a podcast as a, which is still a beautiful idea. But you have to be ready for a certain investment, both you and I, we know that it’s, it’s an

Tim Melanson: Oh,

Sergey Leshchecnko: and I had so many problems, like asking them to be consistent in what they’re doing and, finding guests and stuff like that.

So for me, the mistake was to start local and to probably. try to sell [00:07:00] this podcast idea to people who were not podcasters at the time. Right. So I wanted to make them become a podcaster in addition to their vocation. And that was a mistake because my best customers then arrived from, first of all, I started working with people from the U S and my main and biggest customer.

who I love to death right now, the chad and cheese podcast, the biggest podcast, NHR in America. They actually are, were an established brand already, and they wanted to have a reliable video, creation team, team, you know. So, I mean, this is like a windy, a windy, a way to answer that probably the mistake was first one to start local.

And second one, try to sell the idea to someone who’s not buying, who’s not there already, you know?

Tim Melanson: Oh, I agree with both of those [00:08:00] things. and especially if you’re offering something that can be, offered anywhere that doesn’t have to be local, then why would you even, I know I didn’t, I didn’t even bother. Like, I, I’m actually gotten more clients now. What is it? 10? Something odd years into it that are local.

I did not start that way. I started right off the bat trying to get clients outside of my area. the other good thing about that is that you can, depending on what your dollar is if you charge in different currencies, you can end up getting a massive raise as well.

Right?

Sergey Leshchecnko: Yes, sir. In your experience, have you stumbled this problem where you had, well, the people knew that, for example, Having this, outstanding design that is a great idea, but they are not used to paying, for example, this amount of money for a design or a website development. Have you ever had this problem?

And how did you have to persuade them? Or was it always something [00:09:00] that just a waste of time? Better find people who already know the value of a beautiful and professional website, for example.

Tim Melanson: Well, so yes, I’ve experienced it personally, but also it’s been on my podcast so many times with people talking about that kind of thing. what I’ve found is that the people that are looking for a deal will always be the hardest clients to work with, right? they sort of have this mindset of like, let me see how much I can get.

Sergey Leshchecnko: Yeah,

Tim Melanson: Let’s see, let’s see how much I can get for this amount of money. Right. Whereas, what ends up happening is that, I mean, Especially in a service, like if it’s a product, well, then it’s a product. I mean, you, you do the work, you sell the product, whatever. but for service, you know, a 10 hour project could turn into a a hundred hour project in no time, if you’re not careful, right.

And every extra hour you spend is decreasing your hourly rate. And [00:10:00] now all of a sudden you’re paid pretty much working for free and who has the time to do that? And I think in web development and I don’t know if you have the same thing But I know in web development for sure. There’s a ton of competition There’s a ton of people out there that are saying oh, yeah I’ll build your website for 500 bucks or whatever happens to be and what happens there is that they might not really fully understand what is required.

What kind of time is required to build the website? Cause maybe they just did it for themselves. Did you know how much time it actually took?

Sergey Leshchecnko: No.

Tim Melanson: You’re doing it cause you love it. You’re doing it cause it worked well and it didn’t really matter how much time.

But then when you’re ready to price that, all of a sudden you realize that, Oh, Did take a lot more time than I thought it would. So I think your experience is very similar to mine is that the people that are coming to you going, like, I know what this costs and I know I’m prepared to pay it.

So, you know, tell me what you can do. And now all of a sudden you’re starting to [00:11:00] talk to them with a different lens. Now you’re not trying to, you know, give them the best price. Now you’re trying to give them the best service, which is really what they ultimately want, right?

Sergey Leshchecnko: I mean, this is the best, time investment in customers who know what they need, they need really high level stuff and you go an extra mile for them. Right now, I’m kind of in a really weird place with my, video production agency, where I don’t want to grow too fast, Tim.

I don’t know if you’ve experienced this stuff ever, but I want to have my customers. The ones that I almost handpick, because this is stepping on the toes of what you just said. You’re just gonna have so much. Hustle, working with clients who you persuaded to buy from you, right?

you can better just spend more time and find your real customers who you have great synergy with right off the bat, because we both know when you start talking to someone [00:12:00] and there is this, why, you know, that you’re going to have perfect working relationships. That’s I mean, so yeah, but it takes maturity and it’s definitely take patience You know, some people just want to sell to everyone, but we know that selling trying to please everyone is pleasing.

No one

Tim Melanson: Well, and I think when you first get started it’s like you’re trying to find your niche, right? You’re trying to find the person that vibes with you the best. And

Sergey Leshchecnko: maybe then you

Tim Melanson: yeah, but I mean, after time goes on, like you just said, you start to go now I’m gonna say no to this client might be unheard of.

I mean, you might be brand new in your business, you might be thinking, why would I say no? Well,

Sergey Leshchecnko: Saying no is the superpower In this life and the business

Tim Melanson: Yeah, It is. And it’s not even necessarily that you’re saying no, because you feel like it’s going to be a tough client or something like that. Sometimes it’s just it’s not like your system. You know what I mean? Like, there’s something that you do that you do really, really well.

And [00:13:00] if someone says, okay, well, I want that, but I want it done like this.

Sergey Leshchecnko: Yeah,

Tim Melanson: all of a sudden you’re kind of, you’re going, okay, well, I do it like that, you got to think to yourself, how much extra time is it going to take you to do it like that, right?

Sergey Leshchecnko: no, we we’re in products, productized service business where me personally. So I want people to actually see the way we do it. And just, you, you buy this, this thing, just exactly what we’re selling. And why do you want to buy it from us? Because we have a proven track record that it works. If you have a podcast right now and you want to, for example, like, you’re also, Business podcast, and you have, followers based on LinkedIn.

So this is where we thrive. We help our podcasters to grow, audience, on LinkedIn. I know that the things that we create, the things, and the way we position the [00:14:00] content, is really, really efficient and I don’t need to reinvent the wheel. I invented at one time and I’m just replicating, replicating it over or over again.

So yeah, I think this is just, common sense, man, for all small business owners and even big business owners.

Tim Melanson: what you just said there productized service. That’s, that’s cool. I like the way that that flows because you know, when you’re doing the service and now all of a sudden you’re all your quotes are all custom and all that stuff, it just gets confusing. But if you know exactly what you’re doing and you can create a product out of that, I’m sure it’s still a service, but it’s so much easier to, send someone a quote when it’s just like, Hey, just go here and this is what you get.

Right.

Sergey Leshchecnko: yeah. But sometimes you, like, I have my prices on the website. I don’t know if you have yours, but up to recent point, I had them, but I took them down because sometimes, There are just specifications and stuff where you wanna play with the [00:15:00] price, a little bit. Plus, my team gets better and we can talk about my team, a bit later, but it’s just a natural flow where, you kind of raise your prices a little bit every quarter or something like that.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, you know what? So the advice that I had gotten a long time ago with about prices on your website is that.

in the beginning of your business, You don’t want.

your prices on your website. really the prices on your website go onto your website when you’re actually too busy.

Sergey Leshchecnko: Oh, it’s

Tim Melanson: it’s almost like you want to push them away because people will look at the price and that’s usually when they’re going to say no, they’re searching around.

if they’re looking for that price. and it’s going to scare them off. Well, then you don’t want them anyway, but if they’re your exact client, the client that you want, they know what it’s

Sergey Leshchecnko: Customer avatar.

Tim Melanson: They’re your avatar. They go to your price page.

They see that and they go. Yep. That’s what I want. That’s what I’m expecting to pay. And then they call you, well, then, you know, that this sales [00:16:00] conversation is going to be very simple.

Sergey Leshchecnko: Absolutely.

Tim Melanson: they’re basically just going to say, do you have availability for us right now? And you’re going to say, Yeah.

I do.

Or no, I don’t. That’s the end of the conversation. In the beginning, you can’t do that because like you said earlier, you’re going to have to have that back and forth with them, build a rapport, but you need clients. So you need to do that. But when you have too many clients or when you’re like almost full, you don’t need anybody.

You only need the perfect client, right?

Sergey Leshchecnko: Yeah. I don’t want to sound like in the beginning. I was so, so picky. Not at all. Like in the beginning, we all need someone to give us a break. So, definitely if that, if it means that we have to go down on our price and, that, or just make it, just to, just to have first customer.

It’s also a way to go. Absolutely.

Tim Melanson: Totally agree. So let’s talk about your band a little bit. So tell me who do you have in your team?

Sergey Leshchecnko: So we have incredible, video editors. And, we have [00:17:00] thumbnail designers, obviously, because we publish on YouTube and I have, project managers as well. They’re all, they all come from Ukraine. So I think this is like an extra, beautiful nugget for me that I’m able to, create workplaces for my fellow Ukrainians.

I mean, this is where I feel. Like I make a contribution and I help my country other than paying taxes, obviously, but I hire people. I hire, people, exclusively from Ukraine and likely for, for me, we have. Like top notch off the chart professionals. We have incredible technical talent. I think you might have heard it about the developers for coming from Ukraine, but, it also extends to video editors and the things that they’re able to do is mind blowing.

And, you know, right now, it’s, it’s interesting that. My [00:18:00] best employees, my best partners, I call them, even colleagues, they all saw my stuff on some social media. This is what I wanted to share with you. It’s interesting how I was putting myself out for the sake of potentially finding customers. But what I really found As amazing, amazing stuff members.

So you see, they watched my, my podcast and they saw what I was doing. one guy, he just sent, he sent me a message on Instagram that, Hey man, I want to work with you. And I said, okay, what’s your price tag? And it was like something that I couldn’t pay. And then. It was over, right? But in the week he said, he asked, so how much can you pay?

And I said, okay, I can pay you this. And we had the deal like based on volumes, because I would provide volumes. And here we go. Now I have like this amazing. incredible video editor, who’s, who’s a top, top notch [00:19:00] professional and who teaches my other video editors. Now I have motion designers on my squad.

It’s really, really interesting how putting out your brand and actually doing podcasts can lead to not only generating leads for your business, but also building a community around your brand and Hey, next thing, you know, when you need someone to hire, there could be a great person in your community.

Tim Melanson: It’s really cool. isn’t that a great way to do it too? Cause it’s someone that really wants to work for you rather than you going out there and trying to convince someone to work for you.

Sergey Leshchecnko: They’re loyal already. That’s the best part. The loyalty, the loyalty thing is just essential.

Tim Melanson: did they contact you?

Sergey Leshchecnko: One guy contacted me on Instagram. The other girl, I had this, like I have like a, we have Telegram, it’s a popular messenger here in Ukraine and we have groups. And I was doing like the group for, my, one of my, my previous businesses for [00:20:00] just English, business English.

And I had some people there. I decided to post a listing there. And next thing I saw was the girl saying, Hey, I’ve been following you for years. So she’s been loyal by default and she didn’t know anything about project management, but I taught her because I knew that I can trust her. Man, trust is the main currency we have as social animals.

And it just all makes sense. Now every single time when I want to hire someone, Of course, I want to have, a proficient individual with years of experience, but oftentimes these people, you know, they’re too spoiled in a way, right?

Tim Melanson: They can be.

Sergey Leshchecnko: Yeah, so maybe you invest some time and teach one, like someone who’s loyal, already in your community and this is a way to go.

this, community based approach, finding [00:21:00] people from your community. I learned it from. groups on discord because on discord communities are really, really big. And I was involved with some NFT project and they had huge followers, huge community on their discord.

And the founder and creator of the NFT was always, hiring. People from the community, like he wanted some publishing manager. He would just send an offer and find someone from the community. So yeah, shout out to communities.

Tim Melanson: Right on. So then what about, how do you find your fans then? How do you find the people that are going to be buying from you?

Sergey Leshchecnko: Oh man, the worst can just, just can not describe how grateful I am. For, my first American customer, because I was really having hard times with these local customers, with these ladies who are always, really, really demanding and picky after paying like a hundred [00:22:00] dollars, you know, how it goes most, ungrateful.

Clients, the ones who didn’t pay much, but always think that you have, yeah, I have to spend so much time on her, on them. and this first customer, I actually had one of them on the podcast. I had this, the chat and cheese podcast. I had Chad, not even on my podcast. I had him on live stream within Instagram and he decided to come over and I don’t know why he agreed probably.

Oh no. I know because I had some mutual connection. This is very important and you know how it goes and mutual connections really helps. to invite people to podcasts or whatever, event. So I think I had the mutual connection and he agreed to come. And six months later, he became my first customer.

and this is not the only case where [00:23:00] podcasts helped me to find customers. So I can say that doing podcasts is a great, lead generation channel. What do you think about that?

Tim Melanson: Me too. Then other than, like I had a similar situation where there was a fellow here locally that I actually met. He was my first, actually, he was one who convinced me to even go into business building websites because I was doing something totally different at the time. I was doing some sales stuff and he says, I want to start a podcast and I need a website.

And it just so happened that I’m a tech guy. So I built him his website. And through that experience, I realized that it was something that, that, he’s like, I could refer you to people if you want. So he starts referring me to people. So a lot of my customers come from those referrals from that?

job, but everything else has come through the podcast.

I mean, it’s a great way to put out content, right. And to help people, especially nowadays, I think it’s just a matter of like, There’s so much [00:24:00] competition. You can’t just go there and buy a billboard anymore. you need to create that trust with people and how are you gonna do that?

Sergey Leshchecnko: Podcast is a really great way people get to see your face. They get to interact with you, even though it’s online and you get to really explain about who you are and get that feeling about people. Absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, we always, give some free clips after I’ve had someone on my podcast, we create clips, so we share, we send them as gifts. You see, you have to be willing to give something for free as a lead magnet in a way. Not, because you want to sell, you’re just doing it as, goodwill, but they already know that you’re great in something.

So we love to give our guests this great, pieces of content that they can share on their socials.

that’s a great idea. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: So, let’s talk a little bit about, like, how did you, how did you, learn all this stuff? Do you have mentors or, you know, how do you [00:25:00] keep up on all this?

Sergey Leshchecnko: Yeah. I think the role of mentors in my life is so, so crucial. it’s not, you know, the difference between coach and a mentor. Supposedly that mentor, says what you should do because they’ve already had similar experience while coaches, they usually, they don’t have the similar experience. And I have my share, working with coaches, but then I realized that I want someone.

who have already achieved something in what I’m trying to achieve. And I have a few amazing human beings who we really connect on the human level first, but who are also successful in business. And I have one guy who already built a successful, agency business in his past, before he actually started a product business.

so it’s interesting how he always says that. [00:26:00] Agency is just like, a stage in your life. it’s not going to be forever. sooner or later, you will create a product as well. It’s interesting. how he says that, but, he’s been a great influence on me.

name is Sasha. Hey man, if you’re listening, if you’re watching, and I always get inspired by watching people like Tony Robbins or Simon Sinek, who just, I just love, really strong, individuals who were able to build a really strong brand.

And even though I don’t know these people personally, it’s who your surroundings decide what you’re going to be in life. It’s just how it goes if you spend time with people who earn less than you guess what? your Average earning will be their average earning so if you want to earn more hang out with people who earn more if you want to know more hang out with people who know more right and At one [00:27:00] point I realized that who do I watch, and who do we follow on, on who do we see on Twitter and Instagram?

That’s also our surroundings. So why don’t we pick wisely people who we watch so that they have influence on us and we grow using their personal experience. That’s my stance on this.

Tim Melanson: I agree, man, and that is so smart. I think that we live in a very fortunate time. because as you said, I mean, you know, maybe a hundred years ago. If you wanted to, like you say, increase your knowledge, increase your income, you’d put yourself around.

These laws have never changed. I mean, let’s face it, right?

Sergey Leshchecnko: access.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. it would be really hard to put yourself around the millionaires in your city. However, now, you can go on YouTube, you can subscribe to a millionaire’s channel, or a billionaire’s channel, and you [00:28:00] can just spend time with them. Hey, I agree.

It’s not the same as having a mentor that actually sits down with you for coffee, It’s not the same. I agree. the next best thing, isn’t it? You know, I mean, if you’re spending some time learning from the way that they think through just consuming their content, that’s something because we also know that consuming mindless content also has an impact on you too.

Sergey Leshchecnko: yeah, playing Worlds of Tanks, I have nothing against Worlds of Tanks, beautiful game, but I mean, yeah, it’s only us who we can blame for the life that we have, no one’s to blame, only us, we gotta have a responsibility for our own life.

Tim Melanson: And you know what? This is something that you’ll hear over and over again on podcasts with people who are living the life that they want. However, you’ll hear the opposite from people who are not living the life.

they want. They all say, it’s not my fault. It’s not your fault. you [00:29:00] know, the circumstances, this circumstance is that, but then when you go on and, you listen to these podcasts about people that are doing stuff, they’ll always tell you the opposite.

So. I guess it’s up to you. Who do you want to listen to? Right.

Sergey Leshchecnko: absolutely.

Tim Melanson: we’re running out of time. I want to get to your guest solo. So tell me what’s exciting in your business.

Sergey Leshchecnko: Oh man, I’m on the track of. Attracting amazing, amazing new customers. It just so happened that I have customers specifically from the HR industry, from the recruitment industry in America. I have wonderful communities and podcasts who work with, but I’m open to having. New customers from different walks of life.

If you’re a podcaster, if you’re a business who need to take advantage of from video, if you want to start a YouTube channel, and also if you want to [00:30:00] run your tech doc and LinkedIn. That’s all we can help with. I think, we’re really, really well versed with this stuff at this point. So I’m confident that finally, what I really love and what we can, we’re really, really good at is something that the world needs.

So if you need something like that, take a flyer with us.

Tim Melanson: So tell me what would be the type of person that would get the most out of working with you then?

Sergey Leshchecnko: So a podcaster who runs a podcast to propel their business activities. We can really, help you grow your, social page on LinkedIn, but at the same time, we can help you promote your podcast with the little clips, because we’re really, really good at creating this viral clips in the very high quality, Because they’re already over this month of why we already found so many secrets that can make your, short vertical clips to stand out.

So there’s a science behind it. [00:31:00] So if you, if you’re like that, don’t hesitate to contact us,

Tim Melanson: So how did they contact you?

please go to beverlyen.com Awesome.

Sergey Leshchecnko: Yes. B, E, V, E, R, L, Y, E, N, dot com.

Tim Melanson: Thank you so much, for rocking out with me today, Sergei. This has been really good. Lots of great advice.

Sergey Leshchecnko: Thank you.

Tim Melanson: Cool. And to the listeners, make sure you subscribe, rate, comment. We’ll see you next time on the work at home rockstar podcast,