Crafting Success Through Stories: A Real Tale of Ghostwriting and Grit - Roman Pikalenko is RightOffTrack | Anya Smith

but uh that's one of the biggest struggles
I've ever faced
and the shiny object syndrome is basically
me wanting or actually trying
a bunch of different things all the time
but without finishing the previous things
somewhere in maybe second
third month of my freelancing
um I was feeling overwhelmed
and I wake up and I log into my LinkedIn
it's 10:00am
my regular routine
and I start engaging and I scroll through my feed
I engage with all the
creators in my engagement list before my post comes out
and I realized that it's just so damn
draining and discouraging
and I start wondering
why is it I crack on
I publish my post
I continue engaging
close my laptop
go about my day
same thing next day
day after week after
it went on for
like quite a few months
and I realized that that has been lingering for ages
and what was the issue is that
oh my God
and I keep saving
a bunch of different post on a strategy
or a template or a new framework and yada yada yada
and they're all great
I save them
I don't follow up on half of them
they're just safe
I never touch them
I start the other half
and I never finished it
and I end up feeling like I'm a failure
or I'm not doing enough or I should be
doing something
but I'm not sure what um
and it's just out there
I I try to do too much
and that's why I call it the shiny object syndrome
because you see a shiny strategy
a brand new uh
course a brand new ebook or a brand new notion template
haha
guilt and self doubt
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enjoy this episode
going off track is taking a chance on yourself
following your polls of curiosity
it's making your own decisions
the most wonderful adventure
hey friends
welcome back
so get ready for some serious inspiration
of today's guest
Roman Picolenko
a master of making big leaps
and crafting stories that sell
welcome Roman
I'm so excited to have you here
what an intro
I don't think anyone has ever introduced me like that
so thank you for having me
thanks for saying yes
I'm very grateful also to Jane
Um who introduced us on LinkedIn
and I have just been seeing you grow
like the impact of a story
on LinkedIn and helping others do the same
so can you share a little bit about your back
story before we dive in
yeah so I'll share with you the draft for my updated
origin story which
which is something I already shared before this episode
but it goes back to the time where
even before I came to Finland
which is where I'm based
um as a kid
I just used to fight with my mum a lot
um we will never see an eye to an eye on many topics
and I will always close off
like I would always be lectured and I will
and I will just see their stare into the blank
a beast and my mom herself is a Hustler
which is something I realized on this year
um I've realized that she's been working her ass off
for her entire life
um trying to provide for the family and also for me
uh I'm the only child
um and also to have
for me to have the
you know better life
uh eventually she founded my studies abroad
uh so I came to Finland to do my bachelors
um and at some point when I was graduating
the pandemic hit
it was the very beginning and um
I was in the middle of writing my
my thesis and my degree was in international business
and um it hit me that I have no idea what I'm gonna be
after graduation
to my grandma
I could have said
I'm gonna be international businessman
and there's that uh
it works just fine for her
but in the real world
there was no job with that title and um
I started googling
like what kind of jobs
what kind of skills are in demand
and one of them was marketing
and marketing is something I kind of was curious about
at the university
I only had a couple of courses there
and so I started looking at
different resources on how to get into marketing
I came across a course
uh a very generous uh
discount over course
it was just about 30 bucks
um and one of the uh
modules inside wasn't Facebook ads
that was my first ever entry into marketing
I struggled to find a proper employment in marketing
for the next two years
cause pandemic
uh I'm with no experience whatsoever
I was doing unpaid
poorly paid gigs
while working on the side of the restaurant
um at a bar
eventually landed my first ever marketing job
proper full time growth marketer at a sauce company
and I quit that job this March to just go solo
I grew frustrated with my job
uh while also
being surrounded by a lot of people that
did freelancing
or solo premiership or
own businesses
I was inspired by that
and stars aligned
and the timing was right
so I quit and decide to do what I'm doing now
which is ghost writing
that is my primary focus at the moment
um but it's definitely not
the only thing I'll ever be doing
what I love about the story is that
the sense of you know
perseverance
that you describe
often times on social media show hey
things are great right now
you know I made all of this
and it was so easy now
but there's a long story
often that's not being told
and the unglamorous part that
is difficult to share for a variety of reasons
and what have you Learned about yourself
like what kept you
being resilient and keep
kept you going
through those time
and years where you weren't necessarily
seeing the success
but you were trying things out
well there's definitely
an aspect of curiosity
and just willingness to grow
um I simply
at times didn't want to be
like some people in my life
uh whether it's family
friends or just someone that
I've met uh
I wanted to be better and have better life
uh which is a message of
inherited from my mom
um and at the other
at our times
I just feel like I don't really have a choice
um because for someone like me
I'm an immigrant
I came to Finland
I've been here over 7 years
uh I'm not a citizen yet
I applied already
uh waiting for that um
I don't really have a choice
I'm also a Russian immigrant
so given the current situation
I need to choose what's best for me
in terms of my
well being and future
and so there is a specific course of life
the path that I was put on
and I've been doing my best to
to fulfill the requirements
to stay on that path
ever since I stepped my foot in Finland
so in a way
I just feel like
I don't always have a choice to just
relax and give up
and do whatever I want
ah there is definitely
flexibility
definitely freedom
in how I approach things
ah but it was laid out for me
ah in a way
and I have to follow it until I
at least become a citizen
that's kept me going
yeah and I want you to also
give yourself credit
because as he's saying
I had to do this
but honestly
you could have chosen
to do so many other things
to get chosen to give up
there's a lot of choices that we make
consciously
or so consciously
and tell me about the twist
you didn't decide to just go into the you know
big corporate
and have a corporate job
which is usually the safe
track route by
after school
so how did you decide to go another route
and then maybe
how did you even dive into LinkedIn as a whole
as a profession
well again I
I didn't get into
corporate because I couldn't
simply speaking
um I had my uh
toe duped into corporate
couple of times in the form of summer
internships
but it never lasted
longer than that
um and those two years that I mentioned
between my graduation
and first proper employment
no one simply wanted to take me
I had uh less experience
less requirements
I wasn't the way that people wanted
and you know how uh
recruitment processes
into companies
are you know
it's complicated
expectations
are all over the place
uh what what
what not um
the way I got my first job was
purely by coincidence
but it was also a compound
effect of me just trying things
um I was recommended to a job
I landed second
in one of the interviews for a different
company and the
the founder
who was also
recruiting um
he was so impressed with my application
he actually
called me to inform
that I was second
and that was
a shock to me
cause he woke me up at like
10:00am in the morning
uh he he called me saying Roman
am I disturbing
you are you
are you asleep
no no no no
no I'm completely awake
what's up ha ha
and he gave me feedback
and said he wanted to help me because he
he saw my potential
he recommended me to 5 companies
three actually responded
and one hired um
that's how I got into the company
that's not corporate
corporate simply
never worked out
the way I got into
Ling then was
at the same time as I got into that job
so when I started that job
my colleague
introduced me to his friend
who is now my friend as well
uh Leonardo Langraf
if you're listening um
she introduced me to the whole Lingdon thing
employer branding
personal branding um
and I saw it as a sign
as something worth
investing in
I wasn't planning to monetize it
I wasn't planning to freelance
I wasn't planning to
do anything about it
I just had a feeling that if I
invest my time in it
it will become some sort of safety net
it also came
shortly after another failed
interview before I got the job
where the founder
told me that the best marketers to stand out
are the ones that have something of their own
and I so linked them as something that could
potentially
be my own thing
and that's how I start
amazing it's amazing
it's interesting
how some things that don't work
for us in the moment
which could be upsetting
seem to work out for us in the end
the thing is
I've noticed
many times that if some
if some things don't work out
in a moment
eventually something else will work out and you'll
you'll connect the dots
eventually that okay
that actually made sense
ah it's actually good that it
didn't work out
because otherwise
it won't be where I am now
ah it hurts
in the moment
but you can only
connect those dots
way way later
I was gonna say
in the moment
it sucks ha ha
ha ha ha yeah
in the moment
remembering
that passes is helpful
but challenging stuff
and so now you
started linked
and you had this curiosity
you had this advice
and you took it to action
tell us what was the journey of
becoming a ghost
writer like
what is a ghost writer
for those that are not familiar
what the heck do you do
and how do you make money
and how did you get started in that
uh for those that don't know uh
ghost writing
is writing on
behalf of people
so in my case
I ghost write uh
in the name of
some founders my clients
consultants
whoever they are
so if you see a specific
consultant in London
posting content
it's not them writing it
it's not them publishing it
it's not them
strategizing
it's me that's my job
I'm a more advanced version of
uh copywriter
you could say
and I am for now in ish
purely for Linden
and I'm expanding into emails
um how I got into
that um well
let's roll back to
my job right
so I got the job
uh I got introduced to Linden
and I started posting
and if I go back
two and a half years
back when um
that all happened
my posts were
shameful I was
promoting events
I was sharing
some strange
observations
um and was not getting any attraction
I started with 3
content peelers in mind
because I heard
you need to have 3
content peelers
that was digital marketing
something I um
was good at I think um
sustainability
something I was passionate about
and personal branding
something I wanted to learn
sustainability
went away first
no one seem to click with that topic
and bear in mind
I sucked as a writer back then um
digital marketing got absorbed into personal branding
and so for another
that was maybe 3
4 months of experimentation
and then for the next year and a half
I was purely focusing
um on young marketers like myself
to help them build their personal brands
and Lingdon
that was my entire branding
and before I
I quit my job
and I decided to take freelancing more seriously
I started asking myself well
what am I supposed to do if I freelance
I need to sustain myself
um because just quitting with zero is not only smart
it not smart
it's risky as hell and again
bear in mind
I'm an immigrant
I can just do whatever I want
uh and I can't rely on the local
uh social uh
support system
so I asked around my network
uh a bunch of them were ghost riders
a bunch of them were people in person on branding
and I Learned
Learned a couple of
free Lansing gigs that were now ghost riding
um and eventually build up my side hustle
income to about 60 to 70% of my full time salary
that's when I had the courage to quit
and that's when I quit
and decide to double down on finding the actual ghost
writing clients
the reason I wanted to ghost writing is because
I thought I've been writing
content for myself for almost two years
why can't I do that for others at that
by that moment
I did three different Linden group
coaching cohorts for young people
um I had multiple Power Hour
sessions with people to help them on their strategy
so I had strategy to cover it in practice
um and content writing
covered for myself in practice as well
connected the dots um
realise that ghost writing will be nice
and that's how it began
and I'm still a ghost writer
maybe eight months in
yes and you're growing
obviously you're
you're following
you're going
your client base
so things are going up
what surprised you on this Ghost Ranger
like what were some of the
actionable things that you Learned as you
got into this space
um many one of the first things I've
realised is managing profiles of my clients
I hate it ha ha
I don't like it um
I don't like it because it's very time consuming and uh
it's literally
something you will have to spend a lot of time in um
there are very
there are a lot of
new answers when it comes to building a brand on Linden
there are very specific cases
where you don't need to do too much profile management
whether it's you or they client themselves
um but those cases are rare
um so the majority of people
they come with a very diluted and polluted network
I would say in a way that they're connect
they've been
connecting with anyone and everyone for years and years
so justify that you need to
clear it and audit it and establish
connections and relationships with the right people
takes so much time
at some point
I was managing five different accounts and my own
that was too much
and that's one of the first things I learnt
I hate that
right yeah anything else you wanna add
well I I can
I can list you that the
the entire uh
mistake directory if you want uh
but maybe one other thing that's very important uh
they're realized uh
and that's for anyone in freelancing world really
at some point
I had to stop focusing on client acquisition
and focus more on client retention because
there is a lot of glorified talk out there about oh
I got like 20 leads and 16 leads and 60 leads
every month um
and every month they're still looking for clients
and to me it's a sign that they cannot retain them
depending on the offer
of course uh
in my case as a ghost rider
if it's a ghost rider constantly getting leads
and they constantly look for a client
they can't retain them
and if you can't retain them
what's the point of doing it
so that was my second
biggest burning
that's why I'm focusing right now
I'm literally gonna write
Christmas cards for my clients and send them
if you're listening to it
you didn't hear it from me
close your ears
close your ears
yeah close your ears
one of them is in the UK
one of them is in the US
one of them is in Portugal
I have no idea how I'm gonna deliver it
but I'm just gonna ship it off
and hopefully it comes by Christmas
it will love it
okay what I love about you sharing those is that self
reflection piece
and often times what we see people doing
we don't know the struggles that they're going through
and the challenges
in the self reflection that they're having
so it's very powerful
I think to discuss this
so let's see that this is happening for everyone
that their challenge
that they're facing on their journey
that's normal
and use you mention a couple things that you're doing
differently
what are you looking to pivot now
now that you've known
you know what
you know you know
some of the drawbacks
what are you focusing now on to maybe change
some of those will kind of serve you better
my No. 1 priority is to retain my current customers
to make them happy and secure
contracts that are long term
one of my clients
is happy to continue for another six months
the other two are at work and progress
um because they're at the very different stages of
development and working with me
but essentially
No. 1 priorities for me to have a stable
ghost riding income
I do not aim to have more than three clients
simply because the quality gets deliberate
um after that
I really want to establish myself as
someone with it actually unique voice
uh the way I wanna do that is through storytelling and
emails because I feel like
emails are the natural next step in terms of content
and the whole point of doing all these things is for me
to build the foundation excuse me
to eventually help the impact leaders
in climate and social impact spaces
to do what I'm doing
either for myself or other clients
which is breaching the gap between their brands and
their target audience
yes that is my end goal
because the current state of climate sucks
um and a lot of climate
founders are focusing on the wrong things I
I find because quite often
at least they'll say
I met there are a lot of them
are trying to do things that I'm trying to help with
but a lot of them are hung up and fundraising
and chasing investors
and just doing things in a way that hurts their brand
from the very beginning
while oil giants are pumping millions into
influencer campaigns that make them seem more
empathetic or whatever
uh it's a it's an uphill battle
and they're fighting for crimes
they're not using the most powerful thing
which is their brand
combined with social media
how would you help them
or what advice would you have
for somebody in that space to help with their brand
find the person who's most impactful
in your organization
which is a founder
co founder CEO
and use their voice
use their voice on social media
share the journey of
why did your startup or company come to existence
what's the problem you are trying to solve
what problems did you face
what mistakes did you make
engage your audience
before you start engaging the investors
because there are so many wonderful startups out there
I'm going to conference in less than two weeks
uh called slash
and there are so many climate
environmental biotech
clean tech startups
I've never heard of them
there's but their tech is promising
it's potentially revolutionary and you know
world changing
but I don't know anything about their company
I don't know anything about who's behind building it
I don't know anything about their teams
anything about their mission
all I hear or all I'm gonna hear when I go to the
conferences
them trying to please the investors
which is important
but it shouldn't be the only thing
and I understand that founders are very busy
and they don't have time quite often on communication
and content
but that's exactly when you invest in external help
I firmly believe that brand should be
someone you hire for
before you hire
a CTO or a CFO
if anything
you should have CFO
founder or chief branding officer
and then the rest
right because the story you tell
attracts everybody else right
and so it gives you perception that onto the world
and speaking of strategy
and challenges
what are the common
the biggest challenges that your clients
face when they come to you
the most basic ones are lack of time and lack of
resources uh
in terms of what to write
how to write it
lack of understanding of how Linden works
uh quite many people still you know
will to repost company page posts or will share
random articles and
write very chunky posts with like 30 hashtags
uh but people just don't know how
what's the best way to use the platform
uh besides that
the major problems that I help people with is
establishing themselves as authority
through storytelling
making their audience and potential clients
care about them
and one of the best examples I have
is one of the most random ah
industries I've ever met
uh maybe that's why she's succeeding so well
um she had a comment from um
so we've been posting on her profile
and she had a comment from uh
a wife of her husband's friend
they've never met
but that wife has been reading her post
which I've been writing uh
and said that she's invested in her story
and she wants her to win and succeed
and she's like rooting for her
bear in mind
they never met
it's like a third
fourth hand person and
they probably never will meet
but the thing that connects them is content
and I think that's beautiful
and I think anyone with the right approach
can achieve that if they know what they're doing
or hire someone who does
so storytelling is at the root of this
how can storytelling be powerful in this
in this space of building your brand
and maybe top
top couple piece of advice for people who want to be
better about using their stories in this way
that's a good question um
there are a lot of ways to make a story powerful
um the number one thing that
jumps to my mind is make it relatable
and then you know
the logical question is how do you make it relatable
um it all starts with the main character
which is often in everyone's cases themselves
um where you are right now
or where were you for example
when you um
before you found it
your company
um and find conflict
whether it's a villain
or a problem you were trying to solve
or just a set of challenges that you had to overcome
what's the conflict
and don't paint it like it's a superhero movie
because you're not trying to relate to superheroes
you're trying to relate to
people like you or your target audience
um who are just regular people um
and be honest about it
be transparent about it
cause I know a lot of founders are afraid of sharing
the vulnerable side of themselves
and I completely understand it
but there is um
there is a fine line between two
vulnerable and vulnerable
for relatability
you don't have to share your childhood drama uh trauma
but sharing mistakes you've had
uh on your journey as a founder
or maybe you were a freelancer before
or maybe you were struggling in your corporate
corporate job before
and you tried a specific thing that will make you money
because you saw an ad and it promised you um
to quit your job and make like 10K a month
and you really wanted to quit their job
because you're so overworked
you want to feed your family and you're so stressed
and you tried it and it failed
tell that story because I bet you
there are millions of people that tried the same
that's how you would make it relatable
and when it comes to an ending
happy ending
of course is nice
but the ending that is actionable is always best
and if if there is a lesson that can be taken out of it
that's the most beautiful thing
so the ending can be an open loop
leave them hanging
but still have a message
or make it actionable
as in here is what like if
if it's a mistake story
make sure that uh
the end of the story is something like
don't make the same mistake as I did um
but the the main point here is whatever your
um story is
have a main message
very very good advice
one thing I didn't realize
when I started using LinkedIn
as a content creator
versus just a consumer for a job application
is just how powerful storytelling is
we all know about storytelling you know
we get stories all the time since we're kids
but we often don't think about
how the craft of being able to tell a story
impacts our ability to influence
and share information in a memorable way
so I'm uncovering this power for myself more and more
and I transparently struggled
starting to write on LinkedIn because I
I felt like I had to do it a certain way
not even just a storytelling
and getting better about that
but I thought that why I have to post daily
start from zero
go to daily
it has to be a certain time
because you want to build up
and I realized slowly this was draining me
and that I have to do a different way
and so I Learned that from me
I don't post daily
I have a cadence in certain format and yes
it's still improving
it's not perfect
but I'm constantly getting better
and I'm trying to tell my story in a better way
what I did find that
by just getting into a cadence every time
it's a little bit easier
if you're not overthinking that one post yes
you wanna make it good
but you're not like ah
what if this one doesn't work
my life's gonna end
what people gonna think
okay let's post okay
move on to the next one
um so for you
as you were on this journey
kind of figuring out your own flow
how have you Learned to get better
at storytelling
mmm practice
as with anything
because storytelling is writing
at least in my case
um you only get better
the more you practice
if you talk about writing you know
you can get better at it by reading about how to write
you have to actually write it
um if your storytelling form at this videos
you're not gonna get buried by watching
TikTok tutorials on how to shoot it with your beautiful
iPhone camera
you need to actually shoot it on your iPhone camera
and then publish it
because again
if it's in your drafts
it will always
bring you zero
impressions and likes and comments
so it's it's practice free
there is no secret formula there
absolutely and then
when we were talking about what you wanna cover
you also mentioned something called a shiny
object syndrome
do you wanna touch on what that is
and what's your B F F
yeah that's uh
that's one of the biggest struggles I've ever faced
and the shiny object syndrome is basically
um me wanting
or actually trying
bunch of different things
all the time
but without finishing the previous thing
oh yeah um in my case
that has happened
in major ways
at least twice
first somewhere in maybe second
third month or fifth
my freelancing
um I was feeling overwhelmed
and I wake up and I log into my LinkedIn
it's 10:00am
um my regular routine
and I start engaging
and I scroll through my feed
I engage with all the
creators in my engagement list before my post comes out
and I realized that it's just so damn
draining and discouraging
and I start wondering why is it
um I crack on
I publish my post
I continue engaging
close my laptop
go about my day
same thing next day
day after week after
it went on for quite
quite a few months
uh and I realized that that has been lingering for ages
and what was the issue
is that I keep reading the content from all the
wonderful smart people on Linden
and I keep saving
a bunch of different posts on a strategy
or a template
or a new framework
and yada yada
yada and they're all great
I save them
I don't follow up on half of them
they're just safe
I never touch them
I start the other half
and I never finished that
and I end up feeling like I'm a failure
or I'm not doing enough or
I should be doing something
but I'm not sure what um
and it's just out there
I I try to do too much
the second time
it happened to me
and that is something um
catching up on right now is um
I've I've been impossibly buying coaching programs
I'm in three right now uh
one on ghost riding
one on uh making offers
and one on sales
and I got one after another
not all three at the same time
otherwise I'll be very broke
um but once I get
got the third one
I also realized well shoot
I haven't finished the first one
I didn't absorb all the hundred percent of knowledge
from that one
and then there is an even more expensive one
uh that I started after that
and I'm not pushing
that offer that
they really taught me how to
craft and master
now I'm in this third one
it was supposed to help me uh
patch it all together
and make it all
amazing but it's
it's just not coming and
and I fell apart again
and that's why I call it the shiny
object syndrome
because you see a shiny strategy
a brand new uh course
a brand new ebook
or a brand new notion template
and just go grab it
you want it
because the person that
promotes it
is really good at what they do right
but the issue is
99% of the time
you never implement
it to the fullest
and then you end up with the inner
guilt and self doubt
because you're not doing enough
or you're not doing it the right way
and I'm a recovering shiny
object syndrome
um Alec magic
ha ha ha yeah
um and at the moment I
I just have to
be strict with myself
I don't take on any courses
unless they
help me directly
with my goal
and even then I just
I just follow through things
I make time
with finishing
every course
and after each module
I make action points
and I put in my task
management and actually
try and fulfill it
it's not perfect
I haven't finished all of it
cause it's quite a lot
uh I know it's a little bit
super smart
um but the action
the action part is what
is missing every time
there is a shiny
object syndrome is just
you know really
scratching down my back
you know I can so
relate to that
thank you so much for sharing
I I think that's
a very important topic
that a lot of us can have
and the intention is good
the intention
is to grow and get better
to challenge yourself
but to your point
always we need
to have space
we need to have a reflection
space to action it
I realize for myself
that I want to help a lot of people
and I'm like oh
I can help you
and I help you
and then I get to a place where I'm overcommitted
and I feel drained
and what I realize
one thing I've been doing recently is
this practice
is reflecting
as my best self
what habits
would I have
and then the habits that are serving me
not serving me
from being my best self
and one of the habits
I imagine being my best self
is saying no to
99% of things yeah
is it being very clear about
what is not serving right now
and then having those tough
discussions
and the other part
I'm learning
that I was trusting my gut
trusting my gut
like you know
this is interesting
but this is not really the right time
or this is not really my prime intention
and remind myself that if I
if I have more than you know
at 2 right now
core focuses
it would be ideally
probably one
then I'm not serving
any of them better
and that's the truth
that I have to and it's
it's easy for it
said and done
a lot of times
right there's
practicality
there's money
involved all that
but I'm honoring
this space that
if I do too much
I'm not showing up best for myself
for the intentions
that I have
and just having this guy like
what is the right priority for me
because I realize
a lot of things I'm doing are out of fear
you know I'm doing a lot
because I have a fear that
I need to do this all
to get a certain kind of
income and stability
but I'm not showing up best for myself
so I can really
relate to that
and for me it's
discovering
what's pushing me
that's not serving me
and a lot of time
it's fear out of Protection
it's not because
you're trying to hurt me
it's just you're like
trying to protect me to be safe
for not doing that
effectively
that is such a
great topic as well
just you know
that fear also
formal over
trying to keep up with the standards
um like tell me
tell me a little bit about it
like do you ever feel formal
like you're missing out on
brand new thing
or something
you could do better
with a podcast
for example
but you're not doing it right now
cause limits
yes I um I I have to check myself
so I'm doing this at the corner of my bedroom
right with a certain kind of income
going into it
and so there's always something
oh I could be doing it better
if only I had more money
if only I had this
then I would be doing it differently
and or you know
if I wasn't a mom of three kids
running around
I'd be doing it differently
I have and then
I have to check
myself it's like
well but and
what can I do now
though right
like what can I do
that's the best for me
right now of what I
what I can accomplish
because we all can make
excuse about why
it's not perfect right now
or it could be more
but there's like
there's now a separation making
what can I do
right now to make it
and what's the highest priority
of all the things
you could be doing
because a lot of times
I find that also
I have this
priority tasks
and I don't tackle the hype
I think I'm like well
there's three other things
I could kind of tackle
so I'm gonna do them first
and then it's the end of the day
and you don't get to the really important thing
so I think for me
FOMO I I combat
FOMO with a
reflection of what's
actually important
and then am I actually creating
space for that
and actioning on
the high priority
thing versus
creating 3 million
less important things
that I'm putting up
into my day
and yeah so
that's helping me
and then just a reflection of like
what's serving me
what's not serving me
um how do I
become a productivity
junkie so I'm
I'm trying to absorb all kinds of
wisdom on productivity
and time management
to exactly avoid uh
a trap like you are in
and sometimes
and I am in
in my own form
and it's tough I
I gotta say
because it never goes away
and even if it does
it comes back
in some new
stronger form
it's like germs that
keep on getting better
Ronnie you know
what's interesting
for me is that
I've gotten better
by giving my
by doing less
and creating
space for reflection
so I was always
somebody that's
like do do do
and then I realized
the imports
of just stopping
and just like
honoring that taste
like what do
I actually need to do
that that is
so relatable
because literally today
I went on a walk
and I felt like um
and that's a bit
related to what I told you
right before the
podcast like
I've been struggling
a little bit
on the mental side
recently and I
I've started questioning
whether I am
uh slightly
depressed cause
I've noticed
um uh it bit
negative on things
I don't see the
the positivity
you know there are a lot of
exciting things
that are coming and um
I'm walking
and thinking
am I depressed
am I depressed
and it reminded me of this
phrase from
Wimhoff the Iceman
that once said
if you feel
depressed all you
need is deep
rest you need
to rest and
immediately I thought
how can I do that
how can I achieve that
and for me because
I'm so much
into social media
it's my livelihood
my immediate
thought was
well I need to
quit social
for like a month
just stop focus
on my client work
focus on my
reflections
I'm not good at it
I just started
journaling because
things have gotten
too much uh
on on on the back end
to be honest
and I need a
way to reflect
I got into story season um
I'm trying to get to
to implement
a lot of things from there
and that just break
is something I
potentially
really need
and that's the part of
freelancing
into the Premiership that
is discussed
but maybe not
as much in that
lens because
every single
peer of mind
that I'm talking to
everyone is
going through it
the same way
everyone is smashing
everyone is
slaying with a
client work
and they're
building things
but on the back end
it's like it
comes in ways
you know there is
a period when
you're struggling
with clients
but everything
else is great
because you're
you have this one goal
you need to
get more clients
yeah you get
clients and
you're struggling
to retain them
and then everything
else is great
but all of a sudden
your mental side
takes a hit
and it's like
yeah yeah Ramon
you know you know
what recently
changed for me is
I went to this
coaching session
of course and
it was about
energy work
which is something
I was interested in
but you know
the interest
um slow down
but this was just
a random uh
recovery of it
and one thing she said
the coach a Camilla
is that the energy
that you have
when you achieve a goal
the same energy
gonna have after
you achieve it
and that really shook me
because I was
somebody who
constantly was like
you know go go go
you know hustle
hustle hustle
make it happen
get to the goal
and if I never
felt a piece
cause like why
am I always stressed
why is this for years
not going away
and I realized
it's because
the energy I
put into it
is always of the grind
and that was
for me a wake
up call like
I don't wanna
grind anymore
I don't wanna
I don't wanna
be miserable
working for
this anymore
and there has to be
another way
so that's what's keeping me
in check right now
is this we call
our collection
like the energy
I'm putting
into my work
is gonna be the answer
that I have
when I achieve
something hmm
I like that
I like that a lot
and you also
mentioned doing less
that is something
I wanna end
this year on
just instead of having
you know the
basic New Year's
resolutions
mine will be in
the form of
what could have
could I have done
less off this
year that I can
eliminate or
or do less in
2024 because
it's an issue
on every level of society
in my opinion
or we chase
more things
we always want more
more growth
more things
more bigger
apartments more cars
more money it's
like oh and
and the prefix is
always more
but quite often
we need to cut down
because a lot of
those things
without you realizing
eventually start
dragging you
and when they drag you
for too long
you start doubting yourself
you start having guilt
you start having mental
uh struggles
and it just
so interconnected
um yeah there
is a reason
when they say
you know people
back in the day
maybe we're not
the happiest
uh because like
a plague comes
and everyone dies
they didn't
have medicine
but they lived
simpler life
and they felt
more fulfilled
with it they
just had less
thank you so much for being vulnerable and sharing this
conversation
I certainly
I do journaling every day
it's nothing that I used to do in the past
but recently I just find it really helpful again
they're flexing what's not serving me
like what are my thoughts
habits and emotions that are not serving my best self
and what hmm
what I have in terms of thoughts
habits and emotions
if as my best self right now
like that earth lection is very powerful for me
I do that daily journaling right now
it's been really profound to be transparent
but I support you anywhere you are in your path again
you showing up so vulnerably here
you showing your full story and the challenge that
I think a lot of people can relate to
and then also giving us practical advice on
you know the career side of things and how to make work
to your point about less is more
I had to please agree that we need to refill ourselves
like we need to have this
compassion for ourselves to say
we show up and live better
fuller lives when we restore ourselves
and create space for that and reflection for that
and so everything is possible
as long as we create the cycle
where our success is measured
by how much we actually also put into ourselves
not just you know
performance wise
but just like as a deep human energy
and there is one
tip I could give to whoever is listening
to us and is saying oh yeah
I feel that I'm going through that
uh that's something I haven't used in a while
but I just remember that I have it
um create a love folder
just screenshot
every nice message a stranger or a friend sent you
um congratulating you or some
on something or complimenting you on your work on just
or just messaging and saying
hey I love what you do
keep going um
I don't know how much
how many of those messages you have
but I know you do have some yeah
save them in one place
go back to them read them
I know they make you smile
look at them
read them whenever you feel the lowest
um I honestly feel that is also benefit of just
being out there
like you and I
building our presence online
I would never imagine strangers from the internet
would message me out of the blue
because I haven't posted in a week or two
asking Roman
is everything okay
are are you sick
where where are you
uh and it's just so nice
cause I haven't done anything significant for them
probably share the useful tips but um
I guess sharing my journey and just being present there
um it helps
so it's a form of therapy for me
I think absolutely
great advice
and I wanna remind everybody that when we
show up in the world and do our best and
try to do something meaningful and help others
that creates a ripple effect for others
other people notice
other people have an example that they could possibly
do something more
or like give them other options
how to show up in the world
so thank you for doing that
and Roman can we also explore
like the resources that you have for people
so how can people work with you
what resources do you have available for them
well currently
the best single
resource that I have
is my email course on storytelling
it's more of a
um playbook for founders
um how to win on Linden using storytelling
so it's not just in storytelling
it's on so if you're struggling to
identify your target audience
what stories you need to tell
how to actually write them
I have framework there and some
additional resources
um how to engage on lingdan
so you don't have to spend like two hours a day
uh commenting 200 times a day
like some lingdan growth experts
experts quote unquote
uh will recommend
and how to plan your content in advance
because a lot of people think they don't have ideas and
wants to write
two or three stories
that they're done
if you're not
so I give some recommendations there
it's completely free
it's a five day email course
you just sign up and you get email
uh emails coming to your inbox every single day
um besides that
my own content
I publish portrait
try to 5 times a week
Monday to Friday
currently at
three PM Helsinki time
but that can change
um and if you follow my content
then you also bump into a bunch of other free resources
which I'm now pumping up
it's notion based
anything from
storytelling
prompts to how to overcome
the story paralysis paralysis
which is when you don't know what stories to tell
or if you have that fear
I'm working on those
I'm working
on an extra
email course
and then of course
if you want to work directly with me
I have a bunch of services
ghost writing being
primary one
and it's very exclusive
as Roman mentioned
he only works of a couple of people
so if you really want to help
I want expert help
reach out of the pitch for Roman
I'll tell you what
reach out anyways
and I'll find you the best way I can help
and if I'm not available
uh I know people that I will recommend that
will be a good fit
at this point
I've worked with
I've seen a lot of
different accounts
and I don't know everything of course
there's always more to learn um
but I know some patterns
I know why perhaps
just content
will not help you
maybe your issue is actually half of your network
or your office sucks
you need to work on that before
investing into any other help
or you know
just no time
commitment to it
if you wanna do it yourself
uh many different factors
just reach out
and I'm sure we'll figure something out yeah
if you're listening
you can tell that I'm on
has a big heart
and it's very transparent and authentic
so you know
that if you reach out
you're gonna get some real
real advice right there
real support
so welcome to do that
I'll show link here
and here come on
we do three rapid
5 questions
to wrap up so
whenever you're ready
yes shoot them my way
okay let's see
uh what's your go to strategy
when you hit a creative block
hmm get off Linden
get off writing
get up and leave
just take a break
um go for a walk
um my guilty pleasure is playing video games
um if there is a significant block
I just push it to the next day
um and one other thing that might help
you and sometimes helps me is I take a break
I just get up and you know
do my thing
and I get back to it and I set a timer for 30 minutes
I just try to close my eyes
visualise myself just doing this task
for example
writing the next 10 posts for my clients
um and I create
space where this is the only thing that I focus on
so first I visualize it
but also I just close all the relevant tabs
I put everything on do not disturb
throw my phone away into the other room
um just open the relevant tabs and tell myself
this is what I focus on
and for 30 minutes
I do my best
if after 30 minutes
you know nothing's working out
forget it move it to next day
you know it's not urgent but if you
notice that you're still going after 30 minutes
just finish the thing
uh huh I love that sound advice
creating that space already
okay second question
what's one piece of advice you wish you received
when you were just starting out
the shiny object syndrome here
watch out for that um
the advice I would have given myself is um
just complete things that you start um
you would have progressed much faster
but at the same time also
I think where I am now is a significant enough progress
compared to many other people
you know compared to the speaking
um so on the other hand
if I didn't make those mistakes
I wouldn't be where I am now
um but yeah
definitely the shiny object syndrome
watch out for that
oh hi and yeah
re replay this video
if you need that reminder of the dangers of it
so thank you
okay last but not least in the positive context
what's going off track is
you got me off guard there
what do you mean
so I mean that our podcast is called Right Off Track
and so we're supporting
the notion that having your knee path is good
so in your in your sense
what does the positive sense that going off track mean
oh I've been thinking about a passion project of mine
yeah for for a few days
and it's inspired by yes
theory if you're familiar
so YouTube channel of guys that
their immortal is sick discomfort
and just explore different um
parts of the world
meet different people and yeah
I'm thinking
the right of track for me will be in YouTube direction
for the reason of
self reflection
um challenges
perhaps you know
I was thinking if I'm doing in a context of writing
I just lock myself in the bedroom for like
entire morning for like six hours
and I just comment for all six hours
because that's what gurus tell you right
so I just record myself and then report back
or I lock myself in a room for two days
and then my sole task without the internet connection
is to write as much content as possible
how much can I write
yeah things like that
but also it's a form of discomfort for me
and I know that the growth lies beyond the comfort zone
I hate videos
um I feel uh
in the rage every time I have to edit a video
it's so annoying
especially if there is a soundtrack
and it just keeps replaying
cause it keep editing this one little bit
yeah uh I don't like it
uh so that will be a challenge but yeah
right off track will go towards YouTube
I'm gonna root you for that Ramon
you said it
now it's in reality
now it's in the universe
it should happen
I will be rooting your language
showing all the tips
so um once that happens
definitely I will let all of you know
and to all listeners
thank you so much for investing your time
to listen to this
to invest in yourself
as you hear
growth is hard
but it's worth it
incredible things happen along the journey
and you learn so much about yourself
and I just wanna create a quick plug for a non
profit that I'm supporting called ready to empower
they have been around for 10 years now
celebrating
that big event this year
and they are fundraising $50,000 by December 8th
so if you have a dollar 5
whatever you just want to support
a good cost
because you feel inspired
about making a difference in the world
I would so appreciate it
the link is in the description and I'm on
any final words for our listeners
um take charge of your life um
in whatever form that comes
whether it's just taking charge of your finances
choices you make
regarding your emotional responses to things
or what you wanna do in life
even if it's not possible to do the thing
you really wanna do and feel free doing at the moment
ask yourself
what can you start doing today to get where you want
cause it's a big goal and it's scary
and the only way to get there is to break it down into
smaller ones
baby baby steps
one time everyday
single time a day
I don't know
I don't English anymore
it's been a long day
you know what I mean
I just really do
make it happen
have small steps
wrap it up and yeah
there will be challenges
but you can get through it as what I'm hearing
yeah and as I as always
I wanna remind everybody that we should
take over the world together
and thank you so much for coming up track of us
until next time
take care thank you
I'm your host Anya Smith