TMTL: Trail Blazer Interview with Vietek (Vit) Ladislav

Surbhi Dedhia [0:00]  

Hello and welcome Vit to The Making of a Thought Leader podcast. It is my pleasure that you are here and going to share so much today with the audience. 
 
 Vietek Ladislav [ 0:10]
 Thank you very much for having me. 
 
 Surbhi Dedhia [ 0:12]
 
 To begin with. Let's start with your background. So where did you come from? What have you done? What's your experience? Share all of it.

Vietek Ladislav [0:19] 

Okay, do we have another two hours to? 
 
 Surbhi Dedhia [0:22]
 I really wish. 
 
 Vietek Ladislav [0:25]

Okay, I keep it short and simple. I'm originally from Prague, from Czech Republic. I'm actually a TV producer, I'm a profession. So I spent about more than 20 years around TV production. I used to have a TV production house, in Czech Republic, and we had a lot of success is especially with golf, though I've done a lot of golf related programs on the phone for TV, I was a TV commentator, and travel the world with golf, I covered the tournament's for the TV and all that. And actually, that brought me to Dubai from 2009, I was coming here to cover the DP World Championship, which is golf tournament, the European tour. And, yeah, three years later, from 2012, I actually relocated here and set up my own video production company and start working here. And then yet now, here we are 10 years down, the line still hears, I still have a lot of plans here. So that's my background story. 
 
 Surbhi Dedhia [01:29] 
 So you said you have your own video production house, and what does is it called?
 
 Vietek Ladislav [01:34]
 It's the company called square motion. And we've been around for quite some time we working with, with different clients on their on their on their online visibility. So we create a lot of videos, a lot of corporate videos, social media, videos, things like that we're not into film production, or TVC’s. We're more on a video- video side. And I always like to think about ourselves as a performance marketers, we really care about how the video performs for the client. So it's not just about giving the video to the client and not really caring about what that brings. Because at the end of the day, if you spend time and money and energy to create your video, you want that video to bring some results, right. And as a business owners, we always look at the ROI of any of our activities. So yeah, our videos and they always come with ROI.

Surbhi Dedhia  [02:27]  

Yes, that's I think very interesting. And I will pick your brains on that a little bit later. But first, let's talk about you still, the way we met. And I got to know you was through podcast, your LinkedIn smart podcast, tell the audience a little bit more about the podcast?

Vietek Ladislav [ 2:45]  

Yeah, it's everything interconnected. So I mentioned that I am a video producer. And that actually brought me to answer certain questions. And the questions were always, if I give the videos to my clients, and they place it somewhere what they can do with it, we saw very good results coming from LinkedIn. So we start to place these videos for our clients on LinkedIn and try to help those videos with little bit of a promotion and some organic reach reaching out to other people things. And then suddenly, you know, there were there were some leads coming in through LinkedIn. And that was really interesting. So we did it for ourselves, and for our company. And of course for our clients. And then some other clients were asking, you know how you do this and how you do that. So that's the whole idea of the other branch of our company, which is called be LinkedIn smart came about. Yeah, and the podcast was just inevitable part of all that strategy, where we sharing some best tips and tricks and strategies about how to go about LinkedIn, and how to actually create something for you for your business from LinkedIn. So I just went around, and actually, it just, it just started last year, during the pandemic, when our business our video business was pretty much shut down. Because we are shooting it at the clients that we couldn't go out as a TV commentator, I don't mind really to sit in front of the camera or microphone for that matter. And talk to some people and do the interviews. I thought Yeah, well, let me just talk to some LinkedIn experts around the world and recorded and create a podcast. So I just all the means are there. Like there's really no excuse for us not doing something what we think we should be doing. So if you decide to do podcasts, if you decide to do your YouTube channel, if you decide to do whatever we have all the resources are there. It's just our energy and our discipline to stick to it and do it actually. So we actually created about 50 episodes so far. Wow. So that's that whole story behind LinkedIn smart podcast

Surbhi Dedhia [04:55]  

That's so inspirational for me that what you said that if you put your energy and mind to it. The means are always there. You just need to do it. 

Vietek Ladislav  [05:05]  

I think Surbhi, sometimes some what we what we think is we want to do a perfect thing, right? Yes. We always try to think about, you know, how it should be and what it should be and we over analyse things. I'm the person who usually jumps in the pool and then trying to figure out how to swim. I'm not saying that this is the best option, or the first one, I think somewhere in the middle, it should be like a, you should have some bit of understanding of how to swim before you jump in. Because you may drown, right? Like that's, I think, over analysing is very often our biggest block, we kind of think that we really need to, it needs to be perfect. You know, no, actually it doesn't done is better than perfect, as we say, right.

Surbhi Dedhia [ 05:47]

Yeah. Something that I have overcome as well, is the imposter syndrome. Do I know enough? Do other people know more than me and what I'm adding as a value. So does it hit you? I mean, you like, you know, you jump into the pool already?

Vietek Ladislav  [06:03]  

Sure. Absolutely. I think I have what I found that the more imposter syndrome you have, the better qualified and skilled expert you are. Because by knowing more you understand the new knowing still a very little, that feeling that Oh, am I really the right person to talk about this? When you feel like this, be sure you are the right person to talk about it. I've seen a lot of those people who are just talking about something that they have absolutely no clue what they're talking about, are they teaching something that really don't have a clue about this? Usually they don't have this imposter syndrome. Actually, imposter syndrome comes to the experts who understand that the more they know, they would need to learn more, because they know still very, very little, oh, just twist it and invert that. You know, when you have imposter syndrome, when you feel like imposter, you are the right person to talk about your topic.

Surbhi Dedhia [06:58]  

Wow. Okay, that's like flipping the coin altogether. Amazing, whatever I've seen so far, like you do. BeLinkedIn smart podcast, I, some of your LinkedIn posts are so engaging and interesting. I feel that you are constantly doing something step up every time. And in a way you're building your expertise. So is there anything that you do consistently to bring those elements out within you?

Vietek Ladislav [07:26]  

Yeah, good question. And honestly speaking, like, for example, I really did not do consistently posting for the last, I think couple of weeks on LinkedIn, I had some polls there. So I'm far from being perfect in that sense. One thing, which I really found is that, I think the consistency is the key. Consistency is key to everything. And I was just talking about it to some someone the other day, and I was referring to water breaking the stone, how does water break the stone? Like one drop at a time, right? Yeah. And, and it's consistent, it's consistent and consistent and consistently dropping. And that's how water breaks in stone. Otherwise, there is no way like one splash and nothing afterwards. And there's no impact in the same way. We need to look at how consistent we are in whatever activities we're doing, whether it's posting, whether it's podcasting, whether it's you know, our business, are we consistent in what we know that this is the line we want to take. And if we are sure about that, of course, there are some tweaks along the way. But if we are like, overall, if we understand that this is our call, and we want to do, then we need to be consistent and consistently try to break through knock on the door. And if you knock on the door, that definitely will be someone who opens the door for you.

Surbhi Dedhia [08:48]  

Right, right, interesting. So that brings me to this other question that I have in mind. Like you said, you had your video production business in Dubai. And then it was organic, that you went on to LinkedIn as a medium as a channel. And then the next step is the link below LinkedIn smart podcast. And on the hindsight, it seems that you had perfectly solved a puzzle or you know, connected the dots, what I hear you say is that it was so organic, that every turn, there was an opportunity and you took it on. And now that you've taken it on, you're doing it consistently,

Vietek Ladislav [09:22]  

Yes, but don't get me wrong. These things. Whenever you do something, it's not that like, you're like God is talking to you through brown bush or something and telling you should do podcasts. It's a process, right? Like you think about what would you want to do? You analyze it, you feel like would podcasts be the right addition to what I do? Would it would it make sense for us as a business would it make sense for people who are out there for our audience, you looking at different activities, different things and trying to figure out If they are part of the puzzle, and if they are not, then then it's okay. It's not necessary. Like, some people, they kept asking me like, should I do podcasts? I said, well, you know, I can't answer that question for you. Because you need to know if that is, you know, something which will bring value to the people who are around you bring value to your business. And if not, then just concentrate on something else. Maybe try a YouTube channel, or maybe you know, throw yourself on LinkedIn and be alive on LinkedIn, whatever it is, like, try these activities. And you will see how that fits into the overall puzzle. And if it's stuck missing piece or that important piece, which you want to create, but yes, definitely, once you decide to do that, please be consistent, like, try it at least for six months, don't give up after you know, few couple of tries, and then you see that maybe there is no response. But you need to give some time to do that activity and to see if it's taking off. And if not, then yeah, okay. It's there's no losing and leaving some activity just because it doesn't work. And it's fine. It's okay. Like, there was a Thomas Edison when he was, you know, saying that 99 times he came with a light bulb, it din’t work. But the 100th time was the one which worked. So yeah, same in same way,

Surbhi Dedhia  [11:18 ]

Okay, that's fantastic. I've seen that you also constantly tell individuals, business owners, that LinkedIn is a platform that they should leverage the values the consistency part, but people don't, they hesitate, people don't come out, especially the entrepreneurs and business owners who think that this is maybe too technical technical for them. Or maybe this is just social media, and they don't want to do social media, they outsource it. So what are your top three or five tips for such business owners who are hesitating, who are not coming out on LinkedIn, and sharing, or even maintaining the basic hygiene factors like updating their profile, their company pages?

Vietek Ladislav [12:02]  

One simple one simple thing when you when you start, Google your name. And if you google your name, see what comes up? Actually, most of the time, LinkedIn profile is on the top. Yes. So imagine you going for a business meeting with some of your prospect. And there's an opportunity to do business, and the person just Google's your name. What is that? If there is a LinkedIn profile? And then he clicks on your LinkedIn profile? What does it say about you and about your business? It's just simple as that. Nowadays, I think last year, we had a big lesson that in meetings, it's not necessary to take an input take place, just in person. I mean, there's online visibility, and online visibility is becoming more and more important for us. So yeah, I understand that you have a nice Armani suit and a fantastic shoes and all that stuff. But it's that same on your online presence. Do you have that Armani suit on your LinkedIn profile means like a symbolically is, is that your LinkedIn profile, actually symbolic expression of an Armani suit? And if not, then you need to do something with it. Because imagine, when someone lands on your profile, and it looks shabby, it doesn't really tell much about you. People are confused with what you actually do. And then there is no really activities, you don't really come across as a as an expert in your industry, and in really sharing anything. You know, people probably will say, well, that's, that's not really an expert, which I want to work with. And there's opportunity lost. And of course, the second big thing is, the online visibility is extremely important. As I said, last last year, we you know, we all had that lesson that that's really something we need to we need to work on, we need to take care of business can happen online business can go on the internet, I was just actually having a session yesterday with one of my clients. And she was she was asking me, you know, what I should always post about and all this, you know, and how to drive some traffic from my LinkedIn post, and then I looked at her post from just a couple of weeks back. And there were seven unanswered comments. And I told her have a look, you have seven unanswered comments. Imagine those seven people wrote a comment on your post, what does that mean? That they were interested in the topic you're sharing? Right? And you didn't didn't pick up the discussion? So there's a seven opportunities for the business most right that. So again, when we think that we are smarter, and we know better, but actually there is whole world out there online, which is waiting for us to explore it correct.

Surbhi Dedhia [14:43]  

I also find that the boundaries are collapsing. So the last year was a good teacher in terms of you can be anywhere in the world and you can talk to everybody and anybody in the world. Because suddenly there is this whole motivation to connect to talk to share. So long as your comment or your thought is kind of adding value.

Vietek Ladislav [15:05]  

Yeah, I totally agree. Again, we were talking about this last year really was a big wake up call for all of us traditionalist, which we thought that, you know, business happens only in person versus actually it doesn't. It's not true. You know, there's a whole world out there, and we can reach out to those other people in different countries. And it's, it's actually easy it is it is easy. That's the beauty. That's the beauty of it. Yeah,

Surbhi Dedhia [15:33]  

Yes. Wonderful. I want to shift a little bit here and talk about your experience in video. And why do you think video is one of the greatest tools that businesses have today to share their voice to share their opinion? You're a master here. So I’ll let you talk.

Vietek Ladislav [15:52]  

We have a one day workshop about all this. So I'll try I'll try to squeeze that question into like a concise time. Obviously, video is a big phenomenon. And there is a saying that picture can tell 1000 words, right? So imagine, you have in one second way you have a 24 pictures in just one second. Right? So so you do the math. So if picture can one picture can tell 1000 words, once one second is 24. No, no, no. Anyway, have a look like we have a discussion now. Yeah, probably people will listen to it. But we have it on zoom, right? You see me you see my gesture, you see my emotion, you see, if I'm smiling and frowning, whatever, whatever it is, you see the you know the other person. Imagine that you are choosing I am using this example, in my in my seminars, imagine that you have a two painters, like you want to paint your house, and you have a two painters and you visit their website. And on one website, the painter has a perfect website, really nice website, he's everything about painting. And the other website is it's very, very similar. Also very nicely done. But at the beginning, there is a short video where the painter, the owner of the company explaining you know how they do things. And then you know, when you engaging with them, they will do this and this and this, you know, and they will paint it like this, they will first sit down with you choose the colors, things like this. Who would you go for? Yeah, in most cases, you would choose the person who had the video on their own website, right? Why? Because suddenly, you feel like you're talking to real person, you're not talking to the company in the first instance, it's a beautiful website, but just kind of like it feels not really personal. Right? And the second instance, you know, you cannot like you already know the person because you saw him on the video, right? Yes. And this is very important to understand that the video bridges the emotional connection, you cannot be with everybody all around the world, but you can be with them through the video. I have so many examples like this. For example, we look at a TV series like I love. I love big bang theory. Yeah. If I meet Jim Parsons and say Hi, Jim, how are you doing? He never saw me, you know, because I've seen 12 series 12 years of him. So kind of like it became almost like we know each other. Because of that connection that video brings. And this is extremely important. And that's important for us as a business owners, we want to bridge that gap we want to be we want to be known by our clients, our clients need to trust us, the more they see us, the more is the trust, you know, I'm part of BNI and, and at BNI we have something which called V C P, visibility, credibility, profitability, if you more visible to your clients, if you more visible so you create videos and you sharing some value. Probably your credit availability increasing, right, right. And if people trust you more they have you have more chances that they will buy from you and that's the profitability. So there's a direct correlation between visibility, credibility and profitability.

Surbhi Dedhia [19:14]  

Yes, visibility is directly proportional to credibility as directly proportional to profitability. Yeah, that's wonderful. I meet entrepreneurs and they are they all agree on all that you said? Yes. You know, they want to do video they want to do social media, they want to do everything. But for video in specific, they are very hesitant because they are camera shy. Tell me how do you unlock this in your clients and you know, especially those entrepreneurs and business owners who have not had the opportunity to go in corporate world or God received certain training, how can they unlock this within?

Vietek Ladislav [19:53]  

Obviously, there are a lot of people who are camera shy. Thanks God for COVID because all of us were sitting in front of this zoom. So it's getting kind of like us to ourselves, because that's usually the problem, right? Like, you see yourself, oh my god, this is really how I look. Oh, no, I don't want to, you know, because we are sitting on the zoom than we are getting accustomed to see ourselves, which is, which is actually good. That's, that's a good thing. So yeah, first thing is just just to start doing the videos, I'm not saying you need to post them, you need to put them anywhere, just start none of us who aren't like now, okay, in front of the camera, we're not camera shy, none of us started like, like that at the beginning, like when you when you would see my, I worked as a TV producer, I stand in front of the camera as well, many times. So for me, it was when I stood in front of a camera for the first time it was, you know, it was a frightening moment. And it just got better and better and better as I practiced more. And this is the whole thing, right? Like, it's just you need to practice. So now we have the opportunity to record ourselves, for example, to create some short script and record ourselves and not posted anywhere. And then maybe next day you can try again. And again and again. And then you will see that you will get better and better and better. So we have a lot of a lot of different educational, or like information on the YouTube, you know how to do this, how to do that. So you can learn from other people or how they, how they do how they perform, you can try it out as well. Of course, the one thing is just to try and then you know get better as you go on. Second thing is usually when we have a client that they have a problem with, with the camera, what do we do? We use teleprompter. And the teleprompter actually is even on your phone. So there are a number of apps you can download. I use I use Nano teleprompter, that's a very specific one for Android. And basically what it does, you create a script, you put it on your screen on your phone, and then you record in front facing camera. As you record yourself, you just read off the screen the text which you which you prepared, because sometimes people just you know, they don't know what to say. And then they you know, after and they go on. And so that takes away that fear of I don't know what to say. Now you go focus on how you saying things. Yeah. So you don't need to memorize the text, the text is there for you. And just basically you just read it off the screen. Of course, it shouldn't be like reading this. Yeah, there is a bit of art to it as well, you know how to read it and how to not show that you're actually reading it. But that's a different story. And third thing, which we normally say is when you don't want to see yourself all the time, do it as you know, when there is a newscast? Usually when somebody is reporting from let's say there was a flood in Czech Republic right now. Yeah. So there's a there's a person who is the reporter and report to say, Oh, hi, I'm in the spot. And then there are floods, the things are happening like this. And then as he speaks, the camera cuts in into a different shots. So we can still hear what the person is saying, like talking about the floods, but we actually see a different pictures, different footage. And that's what we call B-rolls. So what you can do, you can actually memorize your intro, and outro. So you can say for example, today, I'm going to tell you a tip about how to become more visible on LinkedIn. And that's your intro. And then as you speak, so you can just record your voice, and then put some other visuals on the top of your voice. So you don't see yourself, you know, you know, but still you giving some very valuable information valuable tip to your clients. And at the end say, or I hope this this tip was really valuable. If so, if so follow me some kind of call to action. Thank you very much and see you next time. Yeah, yeah, that's called bureaus. And yeah, these the footage here, which you can see, like the cutaway shots here we call it in in the media, we call it B rolls. A role is the reporter with the audio and the B rolls are the cutaway shots.

Surbhi Dedhia [24:21] 

Yes. All right. So just to revise on what you said, because these are so valuable. One is you practice, you do a video. You don't post it anywhere. So you get more confident and you get the hang of things really. Second is you use a teleprompter because you only have to then take care of how you are saying it, but you're not stuttering and that's not putting you off. And the third thing that you just mentioned is use B rolls, very much a technique that telecasters or TV presenters use. So Wow, that is phenomenal. And I think just as we were talking before today, there are umpteen number of resources. Like I didn't know about this Nano teleprompter that you mentioned, which is an app and you know, such kind of resources are so helpful to let anybody and everybody gets started. Yeah, yeah. Okay, let's talk a little bit about you now. And how are you planning your own content? How do you balance? Because I think it will be interesting to know that you are a business owner, you are obviously busy, but you still kind of show up consistently, either or what cause LinkedIn post? So how do you plan on? How do you balance?

Vietek Ladislav [25:33]  

I like I like the word strategy. And in a sense, I'm a lazy person. So I try to be as effective as possible. I think Bill Gates said, like, if you want to solve an issue, give it to a lazy person, because he will find the easiest way how to do that, that problem. And I kind of feel like I'm there as well. So it is not being effective, yet still helpful and valuable to your audience. So what I do and create your own content library. So start creating your own content library. If you sharing a tip, for example, as I mentioned, you know how to create a video with the help of teleprompter. Right, this tip is valid today, it will be valid probably in three months, and it will be probably valid in one year time. Yeah. So if I have this kind of content, why should I use it only once. So I'll keep this as is, and we have all the Google Drive in and you can you can organize that you know in on your Google Drive. So you just put this video there or post for that matter, that whenever you need some content, and you delete it immediately, we just go to that, because you are I created it can a common misconception on social media is that when I post the content, everybody will see that content, so I cannot use it anymore. That's a lie. That's, that's, that's not correct. If you post your content, we say in the marketing that about 30% of your audience will actually see that post only 30%. What does that mean? That you can you can actually use it three times, right? Yes, of course not to, you know, next day and saying that, but give it a month, give it a maybe you know, I don't know, six weeks, seven weeks before you repeat that thing. Another thing is that your new collections, which you get in the period, they they've never seen that content before. So they will, they will appreciate that again. So be smart about creating content, you don't be a machine that you need to like, churn out every day new content, new content, yes, you can, can do that. Republish the old content, which is still valuable, which is still makes sense. So that's how I go about it. So I see my week. And I say for example, okay, this week, I will do four posts. So three of them are three of them are new, and one of them is republished, or two plus two, whatever it is I kind of like you know, what I want to do, sometimes it's something very intuitive, you know, I do something so I just I can do a picture now from talking to you and I can use this this content, you know, yes, I've been on the podcast, and I'm talking to Surbhi, about certain things. So you see, like, everything, what we do can be turned into some kind of content piece. And if it's if it's valuable for the audience, I would definitely advise to create your own content library where you can always go to, if you if you feel like. 

Surbhi Dedhia [28:41]  

Sure, sure. So these are your top two way of organizing yourself. First is create a library and second is republish older content. All right, so let's talk about what is your source of inspiration? Like what keeps you going?

Vietek Ladislav [28:56]  

Oh, source of inspiration. You know, I like variety. And if you ask me who am I, I would have probably hard time to kind of like put myself into one box because currently my main business is in a video production, which is a lot of creative work. But on the other hand, that creativity or that creative work is also very technical and sometimes very manual. So I want to balance it out. So I'm artist I paint so I like to try out a lot of things I tried to go every morning to the beach and do the mind meditation that so I think i'm not really sure if I can answer the question where I get my inspiration from, but these are from all these activities. I've heard once somebody said that, if you want to be in control, creating a lot of opportunities for yourself, so the more opportunities you have, the better you are in control of your life. And I think this is really true. Honestly speaking, I don't believe in lifetime opportunity. Because I know if you create an opportunity, the next one may be the lifetime opportunity or the next one. So there is no lifetime opportunity, there are only opportunities, and you are in charge of creating them for yourself. So I just like to create an opportunities for myself and in a different ways of life and in different, you know, different fields.

Surbhi Dedhia [30:19]  

Yeah, and by the way, I am a big fan of your art, I keep looking for those LinkedIn posts where you share your latest painting, and that inspires me to go paint myself. So that's really lovely. Keep doing more of it. Thank you. Thank you so much for generously sharing all about LinkedIn about video, what entrepreneurs can do. One of the key themes that the making of thought leader podcast is to get more people get engaged, share their stories, create their personal brand, get out there and stand out in the cacophony of digital world. Yeah. So thank you so much for coming today. But before I let you go, tell me why people should look you up.

Vietek Ladislav [31:00]  

Yeah, I think the easiest is really to go to LinkedIn, type my name on LinkedIn most of the time. That's, that's my, that's my social media I like the professionalism of the platform, if people want to see a little bit more about the LinkedIn so there's, there's a website called BeLinkedInsmart.com, where we share all the all the things about our LinkedIn work and lead generation. If you want to see some of my art, I actually have an Instagram page, which call square motion art. So that's a handle handle square motion art. I'm sharing that my some of my art pieces.

Surbhi Dedhia [31:38]  

That would be wonderful. Thank you. And there's only one of you Vietek Ladislav. Yes. Yes. Yes. Great. Thank you so much. We'd really appreciate you joining here today. 
 
 Vietek Ladislav [31:49] 
 It was absolutely a pleasure. Thank you very much.