Although it should be fun and engaging to use social media for your business, or even for your self, according to my guest Konstantinos of simplydigital.gr it's still a matter of dedicating time each day for consistency, 3 hours to be exact. In this episode we also take some time to resolve issues around the generational divide which I recommend taking note of since that may be a factor in knowing your audience.
Simply Digital is a digital agency based in Greece, ran by Konstantinos Synodinos, 2 time winner of the Greek Entrepreneurship award and one of the 32 Entrepreneurs invited by the US Department of State for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit of 2016 in Silicon Valley, California.
Konstantinos has worked as Marketing Manager for a few of the biggest brands worldwide (Pantene, Braun, Ariel, Johnnie Walker, Duracel, Pringles, Vicks, and he is also the founder of the awarded Sports platform ChampionsID.com
Who are you and what do you do
Joseph: Opening question for you my good man is tell us, what are you up to these days? What do you do?
Konstantinos: I do many things. I'm always active. I'm always trying to do evolve. That's my biggest, the biggest flame that burns, it signed me, you know, always trying to evolve, try new things become better than the things that I want to become a senior things. I expand my purples, stuff like that. So simply this is one of the things that I am doing.
This is what, you know, got us more eyeballs on us because you know, our TikTok growth and Instagram growth, but it's not the only thing that I'm doing. I have another company. It's a platform for athletes. So we're trying to help athletes because I was enough at myself.
So I'm trying to bring a platform, for athletes and help them if all their career, um, tase their sports dreams, find relevant people, stuff like that. And in parallel, we have symbol digital, which started as a marketing agency, but now it's becoming more like a movement of, you know, enabling, enabling people to make money online or to start the business or to evolve business, or to change the career to much more meaningful career for them, stuff like that, which is going quite well, where it lives in now. And in the beginning of October the assembly, this is the academy, which will be a video course academy for people that want to learn about TikTok Instagram, content creation, it's a marketing base. Uh, because we are all about, you know, simplifying stuff that people want to learn. And this is why people love simple stuff, especially online. So we're giving that to them.
The challenges on growing Instagram and TikTok
Joseph: Yeah. And I think social media in particular, it, it does seem like one of the, you know, the simpler path that somebody can take. Like, all they gotta do is, you know, talk about something.
Gord videos of it and, and be consistent with it. So actually I'm going to ask you, I guess, more of the, the, the flip side to that is, you know, what have you found from your experience has actually been some of the more tricky or one of the, some of the more difficult aspects of, you know, being able to grow and expand on Instagram and TikTok?
Konstantinos: Well, you know, content creation is much harder than people believe. And for me, when I'm talking about content creation, the process of making that a priority in your daily routine, because for the amount of growth that we have seen in our is like, you know, right now we're in 1.5 million on TikTok, we're 85K on, on Instagram. And that's less than a year. In order to get this kind of growth you need, treat social media like a priority, like a full-time job for you. So coming up daily with content ideas that really excites people, it's not easy graph them in a way that are really effective is not easy. And also this has a toll also on your mental health or your mood.
It's not an easy thing. So that's what I always say to people that, you know, content creation is a serious game. It's very beneficial if you do it right. It's not as, as you know, I just drop it Boston. Right. Oh, what I a steal a post from somebody else, or I copy a graphic and that's it. It's more than that.
It's building a community and building community means many hours on your smartphone. You need to have the expectation set, right? Because if you don't, you will end up either quitting or losing important stuff from your life. Like a friends, your time, your relationships right there.
Maximizing the value you give to your audience
Joseph: There's still things that stick out to me. One of them is the mentality of making it a full-time commitment. Some of that it gets into even the, the practicality of, you know, how much time are we actually talking? The community building the actual creation of it, uh, I suppose, editing and doing drafts. So it, it can be mystifying to think, well, how can this possibly take 40 to 60 hours out of my week?
There's certainly that element of it, but what stuck out to me the most out of everything and reminded me of some of my own career path is I think that inability or this forgetfulness or this neglection to remember to get the most value out of your work as you possibly can. And so one example that I draw from my own experiences back when I was an editor you know, and, and I get to listen to a lot of great guests, what I could and I didn't do it very often, but what I could've done was, you know, reach out to the guest afterwards, say, hey, I'm the editor for this podcast. I really liked what your, you know, what you're talking about and who knows where that's going to go. Maybe next thing I know I have a phone call where I have a coffee with them.
Next thing I know, they're actually saying, hey, I should, I'm actually thinking about doing a podcast myself. Next thing I know I've got this whole other thing. So let me bring this back to you. What have you found has been some of the most meaningful things that you can do to make sure you're getting the most value out of it because you're not necessarily making money right away, but you want to know that you're getting as much as you can out of it when you're creating this content.
Konstantinos: Yeah. So you mean how you maximize the value you give to your audience?
Joseph: And maximize the value you give to the customer, but also maximize the value that you get out of it.
Konstantinos: For me, the best way to win on social media is by expecting nothing. That's that's for me, the, the greatest lesson from this here, because that's how I started TikTok I was not expecting anything. I just wanted to genuinely go to the platform and set my own experience and showcase my own schemes and showcase my own secrets or hogs and the stuff that I've spent the last 20 years learning in marketing and did some marketing, and it might appear like an overnight success to people like in all the Konstantinos hit 1.5 million in eight months, but it's not the case.
It's, you know, my content creation goes back many years. Right? I have tried YouTube. I've been a blogger. I've been a marketeer many years for big companies had that extra roles in the corporate world and in big companies in Europe. So this comes from my experience. And then I evolved as a content creator to bring.
In my own way in the, in 2021 in the way that people want to consume content. Right. And for me was like at the beginning, when I joined social media and YouTube, I was very cautious about, you know, setting stuff. I was like, oh my God, they were going to say, my secrets, my competitor's going to steal my knowledge, my clients, my potential clients will not come to me because they would know already the solution that I would say with them.
And I realized that was the big bands of crap via equation that Gary V is screaming about all those years about, you know, giving value is totally true. So in a magic way, the more value you give, the more value you get. So the more value you could gain. And selflessly. I mean, everything, you know, every single thing, you know, you can really set it with your audience in a magic way builds a community, which is, you know, the most valuable thing for me on social media, much more valuable than getting money out of your followers. And you cannot really do that. If you just give, you know, whatever you feel comfortable giving, you need to share everything, you know, you have to be authentic and you have to be somebody who is willing to not, you know, uh, full people in order to gain.
Right. Be honest, be authentic, so everything, you know, be consistent and you're going to. If you can do to go and see something, there's no other way.
Joseph: What you reminded me of is, uh, again, drawing back from my own experience is, you know, we were talking to these potential clients and I was explaining a lot to them.
They hadn't signed up for anything like that. And then my, and then my producer, and then, you know, the one who was running the network says, you know, you told them a little bit too much. You know, you, you shouldn't be so trusting of strangers like that. And that grew up me the wrong way, because I'm an agreement with you, you know, you want to be, you want to give and you want to be genuine about it.
So I'm an interested in hearing about your experience with people have pushed back on you against this mentality. If people's like, oh no, you're oversharing. You're giving too much, you know, you're not, you're not getting enough in return.
Konstantinos: Nobody told me because you know, I'm the owner of the company. I don't have anybody telling me you're booking too much people or setting too much. It's my decision, what I'm going to say. It was me talking to Konstantinos and saying, oh man, maybe you're giving too much away or something like that. And many of my glands were like that, but like why you're giving the info?
And I was like, guess what you call me? But I did. So he didn't call me to tell me, thank you that I served my info with you. And you're running now your ads alone. You realize that I give too much volume. And that's why you pull me to do the job for you. Right. So people are surprisingly lazy. Although all the info we need out there is available. Everything, everything you need to know to be successful, to be a millionaire, to be a great market there, to be a jammies, to be whatever you want. And nuclear scientist is out there for free, right. But people are too lazy to connect the dots. They're too lazy. So I have my, my, my content on my page is super simple.
I have websites. I wish I knew where there's a series and more my labs. I wish I knew earlier. So all you gotta do in order to find something is just check, my last 10, 15 posts, and see what I'm talking about. People are lazy to do that, and they're coming to my DM asking to ma to be mouth fed, right?
They don't want to do the simple thing. So guess what? They will not even bother to do the things that I showcase in my most sophisticated videos that I showcase, you know, real solutions that should be paid for. So even if people believe that, you know, they're giving away too much is, is a great way to showcase that they know the game.
They, they have authority in that. That's how they earned the trust from people, they will not lose money by giving away to much.
Most common problems on social media
Joseph: All right. So here's here was the question that I've, I'm among the ones I'm excited to ask you. This is the one that I've been the most excited to ask you, because, you know, as part of your, your, your profile, going on here, we've been touching on this and here or there, but this is what the, one of the ones that I really wanted to talk to you about because that, as you, as we kind of just talked about before we started recording, it's prevalent and it's a bit of a generational issue as well. So, uh, take it away.
What is your, I'll start you with this. So what's the common problems that you're encountering. Look, we want to get to those, but I'm also wondering if you all spot as a more rare instance of it. Like some, some bullshit that doesn't come up nearly as often, but for some reason it's coming up every now and then.
So I'm just curious if anything fits that bill, but broad, broad topic. What's getting on your nerves? What's causing, what are you considering to be bullshit these days?
Konstantinos: Really what really frustrates me and it's sad to see that from the new generation is the amount of hating that I see on the social media platforms and the specimen.
And I dunno if it has to do, because you know, the default setting of dictum is watching videos that are on the, for you page. So it's people that you are not following. Right. So you open the app and randomly you start consuming content from unknown people. Get me. Yeah, yeah.
Joseph: Yeah. My problem with TikTok is it's addictive.
I uninstalled it and reinstalled it like 10 times in this last. I don't know if I'm winning or losing the battle. It for what it's worth. It is helpful for me to be on TikTok because it's part of our marketing strategy anyways. So just so you know, best of my familiarity with it, people are seeing random people.
Konstantinos: And I don't know, they have a feeling that are, you know, their comments are not being seen or they're, you know, unknown, or they have the, they're entitled to say something K-12 because they don't know them or it's random people on their screen. And the amount of hating comments that I see. To a person that you know is not dancing or it's not, being polarizing or is not controversial, or it's not talking about sensitive topics.
All I'm doing on TikTok is, you know, showcasing to people, how to make money, how to grow their businesses, how to learn digital, what kind of platforms they can use to do something better. And Steve, the hit, you know, many people are kidding me. Like, like, you know, they're randomly coming and they, you're a scam.
You're an idiot. What kind of facts? And is that how you talk like that? Uh, you look like shit or whatever. So, and I'm like, why somebody is doing that. I'm trying to get into the, you know, the human behavior. I'm struggled to understand because when I was a kid, I was not doing that for example, to random people or I wasn't commending, I didn't have social media back then, but I'm trying to understand what is causing that, causing that.
And that's for me is the most frustrating thing that I see. I, I have learned to live, you know, I have learned to live with that ignoring totally those comments, those trolls. I know how you know why this is happening, but this is probably the thing that I struggled a lot to deal with at the beginning, until I learned to ignore.
Joseph: I'm part of the millennial generation. So I, for the first seven years of my life, I didn't have internet access and I got a brief glimpse as to what life is like without the internet. And then we had internet access and well, I have had it ever since, and it's brought a lot of good it's, you know, it's given me most of my meaningful employment has been by way of the internet.
Um, you know, most of the contacts, you know, most of my ability to contribute to society is thanks to the internet. So what I've found a way to contribute to society, whether the internet probably, I dunno. I mean, you can always get a job at the grocery store. There is a lot of good that comes from the unit.
And I think one of the, there's a number of issues here to unpack, but one of them, I think is positivity tends to be the thing that we take for granted. Whereas negativity tends to be the thing that sticks out and is very potent on, on our minds. Um, the good, the good is what we get used to and we just, and it becomes part of our day-to-day life.
It is good that I have a warm room. Oh, well, if I so choose, it's good to be on the internet. It's good to have you here in Ecomonics, it is, it is constantly good. We live in good. So when there is not good and where there's, when there's negative, when there's evil, even we will into a very natural response, which is we want to push back on it.
We want to deal with it. Uh, we wants to get away from it as, as quickly as we. And we can't because they're thousands of miles away, they hidden behind a barrier. I mean, I have more to say on this subject because you know, I've, I can share my experience with you and see what we can, we can figure out here, but I'll pause for a second.
In case you wanted to comment on that.
Konstantinos: You're literally right. Every, we always tend to focus on the things that, you know, are the things that stand out, right? Even if you're, if you were in a very, very negative situation with everything negative around you, we'll probably focus on the one single positive thing that happened.
So we tend to focus on what stands out. If it's negative, we stand up, you know, we focus there. If it's. Everything is negative and there's something positive happening we're focusing there. So I believe it's a tendency of people sending, you know, focusing on something that stands out, grabs their attention of it's different from what it's happening in their norm in their everyday life.
So that's how I explain it to myself.
Joseph: So like I said, I've been on the internet for quite some time and I've been a piece of garbage, you know, when I was younger, I got it out of my system, but I was that person that. No, maybe if I was that age now I might be the person that's saying awful things.
And I remember, you know, I was part of this community of content creators, and one guy was constantly getting rewarded for what was content that was really cheap and easy to make. People were, were lashing out because they were invested in the platform and they were a content creators themselves. So there, there is an element of like feeling they need to come to the defense of, of something that they're invested in.
There was that element. And then really, I think the final part, just to summarize it is. It's a form of addiction. When I say addiction, usually there are a few things that come to mind and then there's things that we have become. So used to that, we've we forget that they're addictive and as a self caffeine, sugar, and being prick, what I've found is there, there's not enough of an ability to deploy a counter measure.
You know, you can report somebody, you can block them. The damage is already done. I, they, they said something awful and, you know, they're getting their dopamine hit because they enjoyed being a, being a jackass. But you know, other than that, there is not much else that you can do other than have pity on them because you know, most of them don't end up really doing anything significant in the end of the day.
So the other thing that I wanted to ask you about as well, in regard in regards to this is a lot of young people are lazy, guilty from your point of view, where do you think that this laziness is coming from? Is it like we just, we have too many things that make us feel good or too, I have too much access to pleasure has made it difficult to.
Konstantinos: Yeah, I think we're living in the era of instant gratification in everything. You know, you post a picture, you get in some gratification and validation with likes and comments. You go on Tinder and you get an, you know, you match with somebody and you might date in. 20 minutes or you know, you post something and you get a client in the next day or so we have been trained in the online world of getting things easier than we used to.
Right. Or download a song. I remember in my first internet days, we were waiting for, I dunno, three hours for to be downloaded. Imagine how much we were valuing that song. Right. Or before that, when I was trying, I remember I was with my stereo, listening to the radio songs that I was having a radio station on.
And I was waiting for that moment, for that song to come and play in order to put the play, to put a, you know, record and start recording the song so I can hear it back. And I was having my songs in a. With the odds in the middle or the speaker of the radio talking. And I was still valuing it that because you know, it was hard gained right now.
This is not anymore the case. So you're downloading songs in seconds, or you're meeting people in second year where you're swiping up people in seconds. So you're not valuing the same way. Anything the same way that we use to. So that's what I believe makes people lazy because they don't have to try so hard to get things.
And they believe also that the same rule applies to everything else. It builds relationship, friendships,you know, an online business, a real business, whatever they believe what they have been trained in applies to everything, but this is not the case.
Joseph: Yeah. I remember I only tried using it once or twice or a VHS and even stuff that we owned. We still, it still took time. Cause he had to rewind the film all the way back to at the beginning, even that took a little bit of time. So, you know, you've talked about. Acquire acquisition took time. Even the ownership of it itself took time. I remember was playing video games as a kid. It took a while to you just to get the cartridge to load up.
Cause you got to keep blowing into it. Let's go on to channel three. So, the tension release is just, it's in a very different situation than it is now. Again, this is more of like a gamble question. Maybe there's something interesting that we'll get out of it. If not, that's okay. We can always move on.
We talked about some of the common, I'm wondering if there's anything uncommon. Have you seen excuses that people make that don't come up very often, but still stick out to you?
Konstantinos: I don't think there is any uncommon excuse any more. I mean that third day, everything possible. And normally most of the excuses are like, Three four different categories.
The first one is that, you know, I don't have the time, right. Or it's too expensive for me. I cannot afford to do it, or to try to start my business or do a, run my social media or to invest in a course, or to invest in my consulting goals, for example, and stay, they pay 1.5 K for an iPhone. So everything is a matter of priorities.
Don't really make a priority, what they claim that it's important for them because it turns down it. Then it turns out that it's, it's not a priority. If you want to make something a priority, you invest time, you invest money, you make it a top priority in your life and your habits. And that's how it depicts in your routine.
Otherwise you're not, you're just making excuses. And for me, the greatest excuse is the way that people are trying to hide the fact that they're not prioritized and they're making excuses about money or time, or they have a family now and they need to feed their babies, or I don't know, whatever. So I don't really remember any kind of, you know, super crazy excuse.
But yesterday, for example, I'm Instagram I'm. I get frustrated so much with a guy who was like, he had two posts. He had two posts only. So his page was like, I don't know, five days, seven days old. So he was like, please, sir, can you, can you help me? I'm struggling to get to 30,000 followers and I cannot, can you help me? I'm like, man, what. You have two posts and you believe that you're entitled to 30,000 followers for what? So, you know, this is not something uncommon. I get that all the time. People are running social media for a month or 10 days, and like, I can not make it what I'm doing wrong. You're not making anything wrong.
You're doing it for too little people. Don't have, you know, the basic level of patience to give time to. Because of this, the discussion we had before, they believe that everything is fast, but it's not.
Balancing work and life priorities
Joseph: One of the things that I learned this last year is the structure and what you need to understand about what makes your product successful. It doesn't really come until you start as meticulous as a seven. It can be at the end of the plan and to strategize going into it. There are so many wildcards and there's so many things, so many variances that can occur on a day to day basis. You're far more likely to have a clear vision of what you're doing once you're actually getting them in the midst of doing it.
So let's go into the application of this. So are you still committing, you know, 40 hours a week to content creation? Or is it, or, you know, you're balancing that with the, your other priorities? What's your week to week look like these days?
Konstantinos: No, I'm not investing 40 hours in content creation for sure. I used to spend a lot of time on Instagram when I started this journey like 14 months ago, because I understood what Instagram is all about after so many years I was working on Instagram. So I focused on building a community, establishing connections, relationships. DM-ing people commenting on posts,nurturing my current audience.
So I focused a lot of that on that. I might be spending, I don't know, couple of hours or three hours per day, just in community engagement. And apart from the, I had lots of to create my content. My car shows back then I was trading those 10 slide gals that are really engaging in on, on Instagram. And then when victim came into the equation, I was spending.
Not more than two hours per day on content creation, coming up with ideas, posting the whole thing and engaging with the community. So I try to make it, you know, a bit less because I had other stuff to do. I have a marketing agency, I have to work with my clients, with my employees, with my team. I have my other company, Tom and shady now I'm launching my academy.
So I had to make time for everything. And that's why I'm trying to be as efficient as again, in my content creation, because for me, it's super important to still be consistent and deliver every single day a piece of content. And I haven't missed a day of posting for the last 14 months. I haven't, I posted on my birthday. I posted in new year's Eve and Christmas day. So I didn't lose a day of posting because for me it's important to stay, uh, consistent and make it a habit.
Joseph: And when, when you were building your Instagram presence, was it you on like your personal Konstantinos brand or were you doing it on behalf of like they're one of your companies or another company?
Konstantinos: No, we started, I started the pages as simplydigital.gr , which is my domain name, because simply this, that was not available back then. So I used that handle on a similar digital, then I added. because I wanted to give a personal thoughts and build a personal brand rather than having, you know, a nameless marketing agency, spades.
I thought it was much, much more engaging and much more impactful for people. And that was a wise decision. And then when I went to TikTok and I found the, the handle simply digital frame, I took it. So I kept building on the simply digital kind of and probably I will stick to that, although I would be willing to have my name, you know, cause you know, when you build a personal brand, the wisest thing to do is use your name.
But guess what? My name is too difficult. It's so difficult for people, especially non Greeks. And I was like, okay, nobody's going to remember that easily. But Konstantinos is something that people know. Uh, most of the people that follow me know that I am Konstantinos. So I'm building together simply digital and Konstantinos.
Joseph: One of my best friends from high school was, his name was Costian, but, I think it actually translates to Constantinos as well, or a Constantine as well. So I've had like a slightly higher degree of exposure to it. Yeah. It's certainly not the norm.
So actually I checked out your Facebook page. And I love just how dense and how condensed a lot of information can be in a very short amount of time.
His content sharing strategies
It's like, you know, five websites to the checkout or five apps to checked out. Or here's this, here's this game development one that one stuck out to me because I'm a nerd. What's your discovery process. You know how. Are you drawing from this community that you've been building all this time and you know, it's coming to you not naturally like, oh, okay.
I'm seeing a lot of music apps today. I guess I'll do an app video. I'm just wondering how you actually discover what's to share with others?
Konstantinos: By the way, Facebook page is my least engaged community. So I'm not even holding time on my Facebook page. I believe that Facebook is dead. To be honest on an organic level.
Joseph: I should mention when I looked at that, they looked like they were the TikToks. They were just repurposed on the Facebooks.
Konstantinos: What I do and what I do also, I mean, Instagram in 80% of the cases. So I'm using the same videos on TikTok and Instagram, and I'm also posting some, some Instagram on Instagram.
So my community is to focus on or anybody who wants to check me out is TikTok and Instagram. So the way that I created gondola was at the beginning, I was just focusing on showcasing stuff that I knew that were quite intriguing. So I was looking for that whoa element. From people, because I knew that that was what will help me grow on TikTok.
Because that's what makes people save the content or share it with their friends, or watch it again, to understand the process of what you did. And that makes a video viral. So I was looking for those kinds of platforms, tools that I had saved in my bookmarks and. I was surprised when I initially found them or things that the other creators were presenting.
And I felt that, you know, if I put my own angle on, that might be even more interesting. So that's how I started creating some lists with, you know, doors and ideas that I want to explore and create videos about. And I started doing that. And when I saw that the title of the series got Vida, like, you know, websites, I wish I knew.
My first video got like 6 million views or something like that. And I said, again, maybe I need to do a second part of that video because I show them from other creators as well, you know, doing another series. And now we have, you know, two or three series of like, I don't know, 30, 40 videos, and we keep doing it because people love it. And they're asking.
Joseph: But as I comment out before asking the question is, you know, it's a potent amount of information and it, but you never know the next thing I know it expands into someone's mind. And next thing you know, they're committing, you know, hours to something that is actually going to be rather significant and really game game-changing for them and bring that gratitude back to you.
So, to me, I've never, honestly, I've never been a huge fan of social media, just because of the disparity between the face people quote on versus, you know, their actual faces, but when it's come to, you know, spreading information, it's the most refined and the most condensed way to do it.
Services that they offer and how it all works
So that's, that's my positive day. I have some questions about your, about your business as well. I always like to, you know, look around and see what services you offer. And I'm always keen to identify stuff that sticks out stuff that I haven't asked other people before. You would think that it gets harder as I do the show that's because it does, but also, you know, it also gives me a little bit of a, more, I guess, perspective a little bit more. There was another word for it. I can't come up with it right now. So one of the ones that stick out to me, I can't believe I never asked anybody about this, but you know, one of the, one of the content that you offer is a, is a press release. It's been a while doing the show. I haven't asked anybody about it.
So what has to happen, I guess, in order to justify a press release, like what's caused to actually do one, is it a product release? Is it, you know, an update for their website? Like, you know, where do you draw the line between, you know, what? You don't need to do a press release versus maybe you should. And then I love to know, you know, what goes into it and what's the process?
Konstantinos: Two things on that. The first thing is that when I created symbol, we were aiming to create a marketplace of services. So that wasn't meant to be a marketing agency. It was meant to be a marketing platform where people would come in and that will get.
Experts in specific services that they tend to look for, you know, hours or months to find, you know, credible professionals. So that was the initial idea. It didn't work out like that, increased because when we lost an English, people were not really. I don't really know what they are looking for.
So they want to talk to somebody on the phone and then be guided and offer a service. So before we knew we were a marketing agency and not the marketplace, so those services were, back then, you know, when we tried to make it a marketplace, but then we realized that we can really sell it to clients that come to us and they have a new platform or a new product, and it's worth being shown to the media because many times, you know, I really looking for news, really looking for new stuff and all you need to know or you need to do is you know, give them the story. So if you do it in a nice way, in an intriguing way, because you know, news is all about telling stories and interesting stories. So if you talk about, you know, Konstantinos, who was the next athlete, then we'll get this appointed by the corporate world and created the platform to help athletes, make their dreams come true.
This is a huge story, so I can help you create this kind of story. Through the media, so you can get some beer hits, right? That's the idea. It's not like everybody can get the, our governance for free. Some can get paid coverage, but some people can get it for free because it's usually worth it what they do.
Joseph: Just touch on that briefly. When you're, you know, when you're reaching out to media, is it this kind of question, these things, they tend to be case by case basis, but that's all right. You have a role at of what media outlets you think are worth reaching out to? Is it just reaching out to all of them, seeing what sticks being selective about who you, who you contact?
Konstantinos: For my own reason or for my clients?
Joseph: I'm thinking for clients, but if there's anything you want to say about for yourself as well, I'm happy to hear that too.
Konstantinos: So for me, there's only, I don't do paid PR. I've never done paid PR. I have publications in my name because we won the award in Greece, twice with my startup company. We were awarded we're the only company from Greta was awarded in US back in 2016 from the Obama administration. So that got a lot of noise, the media natively without doing anything. And I know some people in the media, so it's not like, you know, it's not us. I mean, we have specific media outlets, so I know who are the people that I can contact in order to get a story about a beauty article or a startup, which is tech related or a marketing blog, or, you know, you name it. So that's how we separate where we need to send the story.
Joseph: The other service that I was personally curious about was the Google search.
I don't know it too much about it, but you know, what are you, what exactly is the process here? What are you looking for? What are you looking to do for people who are interested in that?
Konstantinos: Like couple of weeks ago?
Joseph: I do believe, and this was, it was either post or it was a service that is offered.
Yeah, it does say see, or Google search tax service then.
Konstantinos: You know, Google hacks or Facebook hacks or whatever. There are things that really work and that's what makes them, and all you need to do is, you know, consistently do the work when you realize what are the things and the points that really make something, a hot show in order to explain what I'm talking about, ranking me, boom.
It's not rocket science or something. It's all about understanding. What are the things that people are looking for, because what Google is all about QA, we come there, we ask and they give the answers, right. And the competition of everybody is becoming the answer. So if you want to become the answer, you need to understand the question and realizing what are the questions of your audience is a real.
That's what you need to train yourself, how you can really investigate and research and understand what the hack that, the questions that your audience is doing daily. So when you do that and you know exactly what's happening, you can really create content that answers those questions. That's it. And you do a little with research tools with stuff like that.
Transitioning to digital space
Joseph: We've got a bit of time before we hit the hour mark and a, and I'd like to hear, you know, your, your history with the athletics and you know, how you were transitioning from that into the digital marketing space. Yeah.
Konstantinos: So I used to be a martial arts martial arts athletes. So I started practicing, got up there. When I was like, I don't know, nine years old, 10 years old, I was seriously bullied in my high school years. I was a bit sappy, a bit shy, you know, it was a kid that was not very popular. So that got me into a lot of bullying back then. So my reaction and because karate was very popular, back then with karate kid, and all those Bruce Lee movies and stuff like that, I was like, okay, I want to find a dojo and stuff practicing so I can kick some asses.
So starting doing that, it turned out that that was really good at. I was natural. So I was selecting the national team of Greece. I spent 10 years in that I won a couple of times the world time and shape. I, that boost my confidence boosted. My confidence helped me become disciplined as a person. And that's how I always wanted to do something, to find a way to bridge my two passions, business and sports.
And that's how my platform, you know, came out as an idea. And there was a reason why I quit my corporate life back then after 10 years, that was my, my initial intention, you know, of making a global platform. And then through the process, I realized that, you know, my expertise and my marketing expertise and the things that I learned through the process of making a platform work can really help many other people as well.
And that's how it should be dissolved emotional in the game. And I'm grateful that.,I had another child and didn't stick to the first one because it really helps me also for my first kid as well. So for time you say D so it's a great journey. And that's why I always say to people take that leap of faith, you know, of whatever you want to try online or business wise, because there is a magic way of always, you know, finding the road that is meant to be for you.
It might not be the one that you see as. You know, your first vision is not my might not be the, uh, the ultimate one, but trust the process, keep evolving, keep trying things. And you will end up, you know, where you need to.
Joseph: Yeah. I mean even from the very beginning of this conversation, it's just the motivation to, you know, expand your energy and put it out into, into the ether.
And it does come back and, and we only. And understand so much about how energy works, but we seem to understand that if we put it out in a positive way and we're helping others, it does come back. I went through some of the same problems that you went through by the way in elementary school. I didn't get very far in, in karate.
Only got an orange belt. And I learned, don't tell people you're taking karate because if you be like, oh, you're going to get me with your Kabuki stuff. I never actually got into a fight. There was a few times where I wish I did, because one of the, I know we're, we're almost done here. I'm just letting this out of my system.
You know, one of the one time with somebody he grabs my arm and I know the technique, which is no, you push it off with your, with your open hand and then palms drag. And, and I keep writing that scenario through my head, like, man, I wish to just Palm strike that guy. Have you actually ended up getting into any any fights.
Konstantinos: Yeah. When I was younger and I was like, it was, you know, I was my early twenties. Great, safe, but then, you know, I was competing, I was a world champion champions. I had a huge amount of confidence and everything. And I'm a guy who has a, you know, Mediterranean temperamental, you know, half Italian, half Greek.
So, you know, it's not very easy to become and, you know, very it seals. So that was when I was driving a motorcycle here in Athens, because it's super dangerous and you have many people, you know, it really can really, you know, put you on the floor for nothing. So I was really getting furious with people that were driving recklessly and we know without being cautious and I was having a lot of many fights back then.
But then I realized that it's super dangerous. Not because of, you know, me being hurt or something because you can not, they're not, you know, being insane, right. Because you know, you can really post somebody's not just hit, you know, just put somebody he can fall down on the floor, hit his head. Goodbye.
Hello, jail, jail time for 15 years out of nowhere. So, or somebody, some crazy guy can pull out the gun and shoot.
Joseph: Yeah. Yeah. So nobody ever fights in jail. Right?
Konstantinos: Exactly. Exactly. So after a while I realized I was stupid and, I tried to be much more sealed and calm and, you know, focus on the important things of life and ignore that. Like I do now with social.
Joseph: That was the thing that always stopped me as like, oh man, I'm going to get, you know, I'm going to, this is going to go on my permanent record. I'm going to get suspended. I'm going to get expelled then arrested. I'm going to get taken to court. And there's always that pushback that I guess, you know, it keeps more and more fights from breaking out.
But I guess what I appreciate about it is it makes me weigh whether or not this is really the hill. I want to die. Or is it, and you know what, maybe it's better to, to pass on this. So, and it was rare chances. Do I get to get that out of my system?
Konstantinos: Exactly. And, you know, you realize that the true power is always, you know, secure and strong to live and make a fight, be dismissed rather than initiate the fight.
So that's a true strength and that's what we did. Soul train, self defense. I mean, the first lesson that I do when I was dating self-defense is try to destruct somebody even for a second. That's it, there's not technique, nothing to be brave or to be the, you know, the hero that you see on the TV series.
Just fucking run there's no, there are no heroes entails, you know, or in the, the death yard. So just run and make yourself, find a way to live. Disengaged.
Joseph: Yeah. If you want to be a hero, become a doctor and it'd be the person that picks up the pieces after the fights are over. All right.
So, I'm gonna wrap this up, but I just wanted to ask one more question just for the fun of it. Um, because whenever I get a chance to talk to people from different parts of the world, I'd like to walk away with a little tidbits of I guess like I don't know, like a verbal souvenir or something like that, but, anything interesting about Greece that they wouldn't normally know about your country?
Konstantinos: And that's why you see that, you know, the color of my brand is still was, it's like the color of the sea of grace that you see in the islands and the garden bolsters and everything. So that's why, you know, although I've lived abroad, I was always coming back to live in Greece because I am addicted to the sea.
I'm looking at the sea right now, out of the window. So that's for me, it's really important to be happy and to wake up with a smile in my face. And doesn't matter if it's Greece or whatever. I just always say to people just do things that you love and being places and with people that make you feel.
Because at the end of the day, even if you make, I don't know, 50 K per month, and you hate your office and your boss and everything, doesn't, doesn't worth it. You know, it doesn't worth it. So do things that make you happy for me. It's that there cause for you might be. I don't know, Vancouver and the Grizzlies, whatever that, that goes into the, the camp of fights.
Joseph: I only fantasize about getting into.
Great, I mean, great to meet you. Great to talk to you, a great to share some knowledge, macro knowledge, macro knowledge, all that good stuff. That's why I'm honored and privileged to be able to do this podcast here. The final parting question is if you have any last bits of wisdom, you're free to share it, but we spent the last five minutes doing that.
So I'll give you the floor was more just in case, but other than that, also let the audience know how they can make contact with..
Konstantinos: So you can find me as simply digital, everywhere. So if you search for me on TikTok or on my website is simplydigital.Gr. My Instagram is simplydigital.Gr as well.
So you can reach out to me and my DM. I answered to everybody,more than my emails, so you can reach out to me for whatever you want. And just tell two people to say to people that, you know, at somewhat of time, you're going to realize that regrets is the heaviest burden that you can carry as a person.
So if you want to start the podcast, do it today. They, I mean tonight, not today, like right now, if you want to start the social media page to share your experiences or your thoughts or whatever, do it right now, whatever you want to do online business wise, start the community first, start with that. No matter how we can, dirty days or 70 perfect or whatever you believe that it is.
And you will figure it out later later, nobody has figured it out from the get go. Nobody, nobody has planned everything so perfectly. That, you know, everything evolves from that moment in a perfect role. Nobody we're all beveled every single day, we all have the process and that's the beauty of it. You know, the journey is this the greatest thing you having podcasts that have, I don't know, five years or six or seven, it's part of the process you need to learn.
And you might love it more than when you're going to get 1 million listeners it's sexier. The struggle is sexier than the success sometimes. So enjoy the process, take the first step, you know, and you're going to figure it out.
