<p><em>Zhenya Zerkalenkov is a freelance marketing consultant and content creator as well as the Founder of House of Creators – a company that helps digital artists build an online business around their art. In addition to House of Creators, Zhenya hosts a YouTube channel, a podcast, and writes on Medium. He lives in Germany. </em></p><p>What you’ll learn from this conversation:</p><p>* <strong>How to take a loan, start 7 businesses in 7 months, and fail at all of them. </strong>We start the interview talking about Zhenya’s crazy story of taking a loan from his father and starting 7 business in 7 months (spoiler: all of them failed because he wasn’t patient enough.) Zhenya learned from his mistakes and soon started a company with his wife – House of Creators – that helps digital artists monetize their art. </p><p>* <strong>Pinterest is not just furniture and tattoos.</strong> According to Zhenya, Pinterest is “the most underappreciated marketing channel” for influencers. (Yes, I also thought that Pinterest is just for furniture and design inspiration. But Zhenya changed my mind.) </p><p>* <strong>How to be on Pat Flynn’s live stream. </strong>Zhenya told a story of how he connected with Pat Flynn and appeared on his daily live stream on YouTube. (Spoiler: it’s the same tactic that got him on this podcast. Ha-ha.) </p><p>* <strong>Why being kind, caring, and providing value is the best strategy. </strong>Most people are focused on the “taking”, but Zhenya and I discussed at length how “giving” – lots of free, valuable content – is the best marketing strategy. </p><p>* <strong>It’s the people that sell, not ads. </strong>Seth Godin says, “Companies should market <em>with </em>people, not at them.” In my conversation with Zhenya, we go really deep on the topic of passion economy, “true fans”, how to turn your followers into die-hard fans that sell your product. </p><p>I hope you enjoy this episode. </p><p>Mentioned in this episode: </p><p>* <a target="_blank" href="https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/">Pat Flynn’s SmartPassiveIncome blog</a></p><p>* Book: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/Superfans-Stand-Tribe-Successful-Business/dp/1949709469"><em>Superfans</em></a><a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/Superfans-Stand-Tribe-Successful-Business/dp/1949709469"> </a></p><p>* <a target="_blank" href="https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/">Kevin Kelly “1,000 Fans”</a> concept (<a target="_blank" href="https://medium.com/better-marketing/how-to-attract-keep-and-get-paid-by-your-1-000-true-fans-dd957194c38?source=search_post---------0">my article on this topic</a>) </p><p>* Zhenya’s <a target="_blank" href="https://houseofcreators.thinkific.com">House Of Creators</a></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://www.faldin.blog?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_1">www.faldin.blog</a>