MY NAME IS VLADIMIR!

Date of interview: 22/06/2023

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Inna: Heyhey! Ok Vlad! Glad you agreed to our interview. So let’s start. What’s your motherland? And how did you come to Cyprus? Tell something about you before you become popular.

Vlad: Okay so I'm half from Cyprus and half from Russia - Stavropol. I was born in Cyprus and I've been in Russia only for a couple of months or so each time, but I haven't lived there like in years or anything like that.

Before my popularity or whatever, it's actually crazy because I have a really interesting and long life story in terms of the things that I've been through. So I cannot really summarize that in any way because you wouldn't believe me in a way, but okay, let's just say that I was just working like normal jobs since the age of 13 or whatever. Yeah, that's about it. I was like, how do you call it?

*Russian comments from Vlad: «I don’t remember how it in English, long story short - bags, cement…»*

Inna: Loader!

Vlad: Exactly! Like I started doing that since age of 13. Then I was like a waiter, then again waiter, then I was like switching between these kinds of jobs and eventually I just got a certificate or whatever about personal training. And I became fitness instructor at five stars hotel here. And I also became a video editor at Technology University of Cyprus. And then I just kind of quit everything to become a YouTuber when I had like just 200 subs everything. Thought that was crazy. So, I summarize my last 4 years.

Inna: What kind of person you are? What’s your values?

Vlad: So if I had to describe myself, I would say that I'm really workaholic. I work twenty four/seven, I reduce my sleep just to work more. That's how much I'm going about it. And this actually makes really hard to have friends, relationship, etc, even though okay, I have a girlfriend, I have everything, but it's really hard because I don't have any time to do anything extra. But I know that I have to do this, so I'm fine with it. I always in a stage that I'm right now, I just put work first. If I have any friends or relationship or whatever, I'm like: "okay, listen, work comes work and then anything else." Okay. That's how I go about it. I just like to be clear from the start.

What kind of person am I? Okay, let me think about it a little bit. Obviously, I think I really enjoy entertaining people. I'm also not very great at answering, like, generic questions, haha. I'm not completely sure in that yeah. I like acting. I mean, I respect hard work. I respect people who say the truth. I mean in a really generic answer that would be.

Inna: And I'm listening to you and I see that you just monetize in great way your best character features.

Vlad: Yeah, pretty much.

Inna: How did you get the idea of Natalie character? How long time ago? Why this character exactly?

But I want to notice. I saw that you started YouTube five years ago.

Vlad: Yes and no. I started YouTube ten years ago, but I was doing gaming videos, that kind of stuff, so I swapped between many channels until I actually came up to this. So I started like a first person shooter gaming. Then I went to different games. It was always about gaming, but it never really worked. Then five years ago, I just started like, I posted one video, like a song, party, whatever. Then I didn't post anything for a really long time.

Inna: I saw that you made videos with your girlfriends, right?

Vlad: Yes

Inna: And then you decide to be Natalie. So tell me more about that.

Vlad: Sure I will tell you. So basically I was like trying a lot of many different videos, even some that I don't have public right now in my profile. But as I said, I did gaming, then I did song parodies, I did films, I did music, I did fitness, I did sketches, I did a lot of stuff. And it's just like I kept getting new ideas and new ideas. I tried many different kind of content ideas. And one day I just saw like some other American guy doing these kind of video, it was actually because of two people. The first one I used to watch this guy called YOUTUBABLEHD when I was like 13 years old or something, and he was doing exactly this. It's the closest thing to my content you'll ever get. Like, he was really buffed, all kind of stuff. And then I saw another guy, like recently okay, two years ago, whatever, called NATT. And then I was like, okay, this is actually pretty entertaining. I could try it, whatever. And I tried it. It got significantly more views than what I usually did. Usually I would get like a couple of hundred views that would get like 1000 views. I was like, okay, this could be something, whatever. So I tried a little bit further. The moment I quit my jobs, I just had like three Omegle videos which had like only 1000 views, and I had like 200 subscribers or something. And I was like, okay, I'm sure that if I really work on this, I can make it work. Something like that. I'm quitting everything. And by the end of this month, it was like November 2021. I was like, okay, by the end of this month, I will get more than 1000 subscribers and I will be monetized. And like, I did it in like a week. I started posting TikToks. I kind of saw how to make my YouTube videos better and stuff, and eventually I got monetized and stuff and I was like, okay, how do I make this super special? How? There is a really big way and easy way to become viral anywhere. And it's not the algorithm, it's shareability. If you make content that people will share without thinking about it, it's even better than even the algorithm that promotes you because it can spread way faster. Okay, how do I create something so fucked up that people just don't believe it and just send it to each other to troll each other? And then I kind of saw a couple of cosplayers who are male and do like female cosplays, like C9 Sneaky and F1nn5ter. And I was like, okay, but how do I make this even better? And I came up with this idea that what if make like a huge portion of people believing that this is actually like a woman or whatever. And then when those people learn that it's not, they're going to be so shocked that they're going to send it to their friends to troll them and so on and just keep the cycle rolling. So I also made the instagram and then it was just failure and error, trial and error to see what works, what doesn't, and how they keep improving everything.

So, yeah, from that point about the name, I just thought of the most simplistic cute name of a girl that I do not know. So I don't think of here. Natalie is a cute name. Do I know any Natalie? No, I don't. Ok, good idea! And who at the end is just to be more of a memo.

Inna: You have already answered the next question! So you grew popular very fast. But maybe you can add something? How do you achieve that? Share some lifehacks please.

Vlad: Last two months I got like 200,000 subscribers more, so I went from seventy to two hundred and seventy. But okay, it was fast. But what took so long is mainly the knowledge of trial and error. And that's basically what it takes. Because you can read as many courses as you want, take as much advice as you want, but it's until you actually have it in your mind why it will work, you can identify that, okay, this will work, I'm going to do it like this and it's going to explode instantly. But that's purely experience at this point. So it's really difficult to actually just read a couple of things and put down the paper, I'm going to do this, it could work. But experience, it's a really big factor because I've come to a point where I just see a clip and I'm going to know, okay, this is going to hit like this amount of use. I've come to a point where I've done so many and I know this hook will keep a lot of people, this will make it replay able, this will keep the retention high or whatever. This is going to get easily 5 million views or whatever. And I'm usually right.

Inna: Where do you take ideas and inspiration for new content?

Vlad: So in terms of inspiration, I usually just take like long walks or whatever because what I usually do, like for exercise when I'm not lifting weights, I just like to walk like a fast paced walk by the sea. It also relaxes me and it gives me some time to clear my mind and get new ideas in. So that's how I usually get inspiration. Or the other way is that I gather with friends and we just say like stupid ideas. And some of those stupid ideas may be actually good ideas. So that's kind of how it works. And I take a lot of factors into consideration about how I can make viral content. And there is also something that many people don't understand is that some content can be library content, which might not hit the algorithm immediately, but if you leave it there and people actually come to your channel and shake it, it will blow up. For example, my OnlyFans video presented to be a Girl on OnlyFans, eventually it's going to hit millions of views because it's something that nobody has done. The thumbnail delivers or okay, it's eye catching or whatever. So it started off like really badly. It was like 10,000 views or whatever. But as soon as my channel starts exploding, it all it reached half a million real quickly. And on the next wave of my channel exploding, it will probably hit like a couple of millions. So a lot of the content that I make, I consider, okay, if somebody comes to my channel and binge watches it, will it satisfy them? So that's the way I look at it. So if it doesn't get views immediately as some of my videos, I don't really mind, but I know that it will deliver later.

And as I said, viral content. There is a really basic explanation. You just ask yourself, why would somebody watch me instead of somebody else? If you can answer that question, you can most probably get it. And that answer can be something along the lines of I can do something that nobody else can do.

I can be something that no one else can be. I have a specific trade I can answer really fast. For example, I immediately can think of a way to roast to make a come back. If a viewer cannot get them somewhere else, they'll come to you, obviously. And there also comes many other factors as has anyone done something similar before? How extreme is it? Why would somebody share it? Why would somebody comment on it? If you take a lot of these factors and you actually have answers for them, you will most likely have a really good piece of content on your hands.

Inna: How do you feel about experience as a webcam model, life streamer? If you try, what platform would you choose?

Vlad: Obviously I don't consider myself a live streamer. I consider myself a YouTuber. First of all, I don't really think that I would call myself that because… I get guided by my girlfriend who is a model on most of my photos. For instagram.

Inna: Is she webcam model?

Vlad: No, actual model, like fashion model. And so she knows how to do poses and stuff and she guides me through the photo shoots and stuff. Which for me are really painful because I have a male body. Getting into female posing is really painful. Like my back hurts after them. She also does a lot of the she does the editing of the photos and stuff. So I don't think I'm really great at that. I just know a couple of basic things that along with some guidance, I just kind of get the result and I really know how to manipulate angles. Lighting and mostly that for example on Omegle, obviously you can see as soon as I change angles everything falls apart. I just kind of understand how lighting and angles work. So that's about it. I don't really think that I'm a webcam model by any ways.

Inna: But did you hear something about webcam models or such platforms? Can you share something?

Vlad: Yeah, I know, but I really have nothing to do with that. Like the closest thing that I have to do with it is basically my OnlyFans, which as I said is covered by the previous point. I get like hot pictures, like hotter than what I have on my Instagram or whatever and they are being edited, whatever and then they're being put there.

Inna: How popular your OnlyFans?

Vlad: I have around 300 – 400 subs there.

Inna: Do you sell custom content as Natalie?

Vlad: And yes and no. For example, if I have something that is like for me, if I think like, okay, it's whatever, I can do it, then I'll do it before or after my actual recording. Like I'm not going to sit in dress up just specifically for that. But obviously it's not like actual sexual or whatever. For example, just people ask me to say something or that kind of stuff mostly.

Inna: Is there a team of assistants working with you? How many people help you to deal with social nets and content platforms?

Vlad: I used to do everything by myself until the last month or whatever. Like I didn't have any employees or  whatever you want to call it. But during this whole thing, I just had my girlfriend helping me whenever needed. I was always doing the editing by myself and the ideas and everything. But recently, in order to have more time to actually shoot content, I managed to hire editors. So I have two editors for my main and extra channels. I also have one more editor for my gaming channel, which I got really recently. I got one thumbnail editor and I got like a person who I also recently got that helps with the overall production with the sponsorships. And I hired one more person now to…. well, I'm not going to get into that because I feel like that's one of the most important points. But it's basically ways to promote the content through short form.

Inna: And I wanted to ask you about do you have assistant who maybe do texting for members on OnlyFans?

Vlad: NI do not provide that. Or maybe if somebody pays a lot, then I will I'll just do it by myself. I hold my phone.

Inna: Tell the funniest occasion you had as Nataly?

Vlad: In ChatRoulette I had a lot, but I guess there are some more iconic ones. One of them would be probably my most popular clip of all time, which got like over 200 million views across platforms, which is like “The surprise”. And it's funny because it was in one of my first videos. It was one of my very first videos. It was in the third video and my girlfriend actually almost ruined it at that point because she called me at the same time, like the ChatRoulette thing was changing person and you can see holding my phone in that clip. And she was like, I just answer the call and I just see those idiots be like, Surprise. And I didn't really think about it. I'm just like, Baby, hold on. Surprise. And somehow I posted and that video got on my account like 12 million views in like a day. And then it started being everywhere on compilations and I saw it in a million places getting like over 10 million views each time. So that's probably my all time favorite, even though that's really old. I also really like the Batman encounter. I saw a guy dressed as Batman. It was like a really dumb and stupid conversation, but it's really funny. Okay, obviously in my latest ones I got a couple but I mean I always tried to classify my content, my clips as like legendary clips or like, you know, just kind of categorize them so I know how to use them. So but I have a couple of legendary clips.

Inna: And how did you get the idea with octopus? I made a post in my telegram channel and used your video.

Vlad: That's easy. Yeah, because it was actually Belle Delphine and she's like an Internet celebrity or whatever and she was like really popular because she was playing with the octopus. So since I am playing here, I also need to have it.

Inna: How many guys from Chatroullet become your paid clients? For onlyfans or fansly and so on.

Vlad: I have no idea. *laughing* because usually I don't actually tell them: okay, go like subscribe. Now I just either give them the Instagram to troll them or eventually the YouTube. So I don't know if they will actually convert. So I don't care.

Inna: What’s the best platform for u to get traffic?

Vlad: TikTok.

Inna: Okay, but I think you don't know how many people come from TikTok to Onlyfans.

Vlad: I don't know the exact number, but I know that the conversion rate is very high if you work it correctly. Because I've seen so many people have one, two,3 million on TikTok and they have like 2000 Instagram followers and like 500 YouTube subscribers. Like how if you get so much traffic, why don't you just try and convert into because my numbers are really even. For example, I have like 1 million on TikTok, but I have almost 150,000 on Instagram and a quarter million on YouTube. The numbers are pretty close because actually people go to see what's there and you need to give the people a reason to do that. Either that's curiosity or they get something more or whatever. So I had a clip that I literally spoke. I said I spoke a guy about the Fansly thing, and he was like, how much per month? With that clip alone, I got, like, over 200 Onlyfans members in, like, a day or something. And I have high prices $50 subscriptions. So you can see that the conversion is five, assuming you give them a reason to.

Inna: How much time you need to transform into Natalya?

Vlad: My girlfriend helps me only on photoshoots. Only when I do Photoshops and I need the best result possible, then my girlfriend does my makeup. I do it by myself because I don't care if the eyeliner is a little bit, like, down, up. It seems really good on camera. But if you come closer, you'll see, like, the eyeliner, one is a little bit higher, the other one is a bit lower. The lines are not like, the same. Whatever on camera. You'll not see it, but in actual Photoshoot, you might notice it. So I get the best result possible, and it takes about like it depends, but it takes anywhere from 40 minutes to 1 hour, 30 minutes, depending on what I need to do.

Inna: You also told me about that. But. How complicated it is to combine your image and personal life?

Vlad: It’s very easy! I almost don’t have a personal life. *laughing* Essentially, from the moment I wake up until the moment they go to sleep, I work. So the only thing that my personal life is that it's mixed with my work because I have my girlfriend always working with me, and maybe sometimes we have a little bit of time off, like a couple of hours or whatever. We might go out on a walk or whatever, but it's mostly because we do anything anyway, everything together. So, yeah, that's my personal life, but I don't go out. Like, I don't go have fun or whatever. I don't have time for that.

Inna: Do you work with fetish audiences? I saw in your video that it seems weird for you. But I mean several fetishes: muscle domination/humiliation.

Vlad: I definitely do not target them, so I'm not trying to get them, but eventually they come. Yes, some of them come. Yes, some people do, like, girl with muscle things or whatever, but it's not that common. Like, I get another request, but to be honest, I haven't done any of it.

Inna: But I think you can, monetize it.

Vlad: I can, but at the same time, I count everything in terms of time. Like, time is the most valuable asset, and I see whether something is worth my time. Because, for example, if I can pay someone to do something that would save me time, I will right now. And for example, if somebody wants a piece of content that will take me, let's say, for an hour, but it would make sense, let's say, for me to charge them, like, $20. I'm not going to waste an hour for $20. That's the logic behind it. So that's why I don't do it.

Inna: You have a lot of fans among webcam models and content creators) Also we talked about that. What do you think and feel about your popularity?

Vlad: The only thing I really have to say, I think, is that it feels really good seeing people laugh at my stuff and being entertained. At the end of the day, that's what I enjoy the most about it, people being entertained. Now, I've noticed in my comments and my stuff that I have many people who a reverified, like, on their creators or whatever, but I haven't really spoken to any of those.

Inna: But do you have haters?

Vlad: None of any are actually brave enough to show their face. So any hate I receive is from fake profiles with zero followers. And it's pretty rare. It's not even that common. I would get very few messages of hate, and it's mainly, like, things like, oh, gay slurs and whatever, but it's very rare, and it's always from fake profiles. I've never seen a single person roasting me from their real profile. And when they did back in the day, like a couple of months ago on TikTok, I would actually open their profile and roast the hell out of them. And I've even made a couple of people delete their account after that. I'm like, okay, you wanted to get roasted. Now take the consequence.

Inna: What’s ur training work out program?))

Vlad: Unfortunately, now I have really ignored my workout. I've gained weight. I've gained way more fat than I would like to. Whatever. So I'm really not happy with my body currently. I used to be really stronger. Like, really stronger. I could do, like, l sit climbs on a robe and stuff.

Inna: But I see you are perfect.

Vlad: If you think that now it's perfect, then you haven't seen me a year ago. *laughing* That's all I have to say. But usually I would do, like, push pull legs. It means, like, on one day, I do push exercises, like push ups, bench press, whatever. On another day I would do like pull so like rows, pull ups and stuff. And on the third day I would do legs and I would do it twice a week. And when I was like at my peak physic, I would work out for like 3 hours a day or something. I would do like a lot of stuff and my progress would also be really good.

Inna: Do you want to back to this?

Vlad: Well, definitely I want the body that I had. It's just that I honestly don't have time. And it's exhausting because I try to get like an hour of the day but it's always phone calls, it's always I have to edit. I have so much stuff going on that I need to figure out a way to open some time just for this and I want to manage it.

Inna: Okay, so I think you just need to delegate more and more things to other people.

Vlad: Yes, but at the same time I'm a person who I feel like I have direct impact on the content so the quality stays there. Because I've been all through all the journey and stuff, I know what will work and how will work. So I need to be the person who will do the cuts on the video, like make the order of the clips and that kind of stuff. Because if somebody who is just an editor does it and they don't have the actual experience, what will work and how it will work and how you can actually implement some even filmmaking techniques into such simple content, then it will not work as well. So sadly, I need to have myself on the content in order to get that quality. But I'm not willing to change that for more.

Inna: And sure I see you love that you do. It’s always a point.

Vlad: Yeah!

Inna: What’s ur hobbies? How much do u spend on it?

Vlad: Um, there is a really simple answer that I think you can kind of guess. Like, realistically, my only hobby….

Inna: During the conversation I see that you don't do it. Haha.

Vlad: Haha! Exactly! I don't really have hobbies because I think that I made what people want, make their hobby a job. And basically my hobby always like content creation.

Inna: How much money do you spend on your work?

Vlad: Okay, it depends. From video to video. I have videos where the budget is basically zero and I'm fine with that. I have videos where I have spent thousands of dollars on. For example, I have a video where I went to the USA to meet Iraq and I had to go to LA, then to New York, and on that video I've spent more than $4,000. And at the time I was broke, so that wasn't even my $4,000.

Inna: Whom? Haha

Vlad: From people I was borrowing. I left that video and I was in debt. Yeah, funny conversation. Actually, I have another character, a friend of mine in the videos named Kimon, and I convinced him somehow to come to LA with me. I don't know how I did that. And we actually became so broke that I had to change a flight and I needed $20 and I didn't have $20. So I called him like, bro, I need $20 to change my flight back to Cyprus. And I was like, Bro, I don't have $20. *both laughing* And then he had to borrow from a relative so he can give it to me.

Inna: Oh my God. That’s pretty funny.

Vlad: Yeah, and we actually still joke about it. Do you remember a year ago that we had to borrow like $5 or something and we always had like a maximum of $50 on us and we would barely spend anything and stuff and now everything is good. So yeah, we can still joke about it. But yeah, I have videos where I've spent thousands on and those are the videos that I bet that in the future, one, two, three years will really do work and really make the fans engage and see who I really am as a person. And I also have the more fun videos where I spend just how much I need to. Sometimes it's $50, sometimes 100, sometimes 200, sometimes nothing.

Inna: Thank you so much for answers. So what's your opinion about homophobic? And do you face this in real life?

Vlad: You are welcome, Inna. In real life, like, I don't face it at all. Just in ChatRoulette, like Omegle or maybe even Instagram. But as I said, it's very rare. Like maybe it's one in 100 messages or something.

Well, I'm a person that I really mind my own business. So basically two things. One of the reasons that they even do well on YouTube and stuff is that I don't give a fuck about what people think. So like okay, I'll really think about something. If I feel like it's correct, I'll do it. I don't care what anybody thinks. And I feel like that's what holds most people back is that they really consider other people's opinion. I don't care if it's my mother, I don't care if it's anybody. I just okay, bro, that's my choice. That's whatever I want to do. So I don't care. Therefore I also take that approach to other people. Like I don't care what they do. So if somebody is gay or whatever, I honestly couldn't care less. They can do whatever they want. I don't care.

Inna: Right, I think it’s really easy to live with such position.

Vlad: Yeah! Really easy, exactly.

Inna: Could u share ur further plans? What should we wait from u?

Vlad: Okay, so I always plan like a long time ahead. So for example, from now I already know the videos that I will make in the next six months. Yeah, so that's a really easy way to work, I think, because if you know what you're going to do, then you don't really have to set yourself all the time about it.

Okay, I need to say it in a way that I don't spoil because some of those ideas are something that really nobody has ever done. So it's really stupid. Like just giving them away before I even do them. But let's say that I'll try to, as I do now, catfish, but on a much bigger scale. For example, like whole social media platforms, like, let's say I will try to do it on millions of people. I might have something in one and a half years that has to do with Hollywood. Yeah, I cannot really expand more on that because as I said, those are some ideas that I feel like are really game changing. So I cannot just give them away.

In the end of the interview Vlad showed me recording of rap battle with Indian guy. It was published couple days ago.

Inna: I wish you a big good luck! And the last question. What kind of recommendations could u give models and content creators that can help to be successful?

Vlad: Yeah, obviously the number one thing which is like the most important by far is be real with yourself about just one question. Why would somebody watch me instead of somebody else? That's like the number one. If you can answer that realistically, then eventually you're going to get there because I see many people that are like, oh, my content is good, my content is good. Why is it good. Why wouldn't you just watch somebody else who does the same thing but has more resources? And answers: “Whatever, it's me, it's nice.” That's really not how it works. Nobody cares about you. That's the reality. So it's really simple. Right now we're sitting at this cafe, okay? There is another cafe right there, like whatever, which is clearly worse. Right? This has better view, this has better food. It's nicer. So why would I go there if this exists? It's the same logic with content. Why would I watch that if this is just better in every single way? Does it make sense? Right? So you have to offer something that others do not. That's the number one. No matter what you do when it comes to content.

Inna: Something unique.

Vlad: Either unique or better. It doesn't have to be unique. You can do what somebody else does. You can just do it better. Well, that's the most important and the second most important is that is hooks. When it comes either to videos or photos or anything, you need to capture the attention. What I said right now about being about being better in some way than others has to do when somebody actually watches the whole thing. But in order for them to watch the whole thing, they first need to click on you. So you need a hook.

Inna: U need to know triggers.

Vlad: Yes! You need to understand how to trigger people's emotions. Yeah, you need to understand how to trigger people's emotions in some way. So they either click on you or if they come across you in some short form platform, the first like one and 2 seconds there is something that makes them stay - a statement, something visual, anything. So these are the most important things, how you bring people in and how you keep them in.

Inna: And didn't you notice that long videos on YouTube is worse watching than short? I think TikTok is much better for you and maybe you should make less time videos on YouTube.

Vlad: Wrong.

Inna: Okay, tell me why. *laughing*

Vlad: Because TikTok is something that you don't really think about. You just keep scrolling. You like something, you keep you press follow. I bet that you don't even know the names of 90% of the people you follow. Okay, so if you as a person don't know the 90% of the people you follow, you're not going to engage on them If they sell something, you're not going to buy it because you don't even know them. If they make something like longer, you don't care. You're there for the short content, for the Dopamine, for the laugh and skip, I don't care. But when it comes to YouTube, you actually engage. They come to watch you. They want to engage with you. If you release something, they will go check it out. But on TikTok, nobody cares. They just keep scrolling. That's why the numbers come so easily on TikTok. But that's also why people should actually understand how to convert. If they have something that drags the attention so much that actually people live from TikTok and go on any other platform which there is a personality sure. Then you can actually do really well.

Same as me, I don't know the names of 90% I follow. For example, I know most of them as the guy who looks like this or the girl who does that. I'll just give a stupid example. I can say that. Okay, yeah, I follow the girl who does this thingy. You'll have no idea what I'm talking about. Most likely if you have never seen it.

Inna: But if someone tell me – I saw a guy who is with pink hair and cosplay a girl and talk to people on chatrolette.

Vlad: Maybe yes. But you maybe don’t know the name of him! You can know it’s Russian guy but u won’t know his name is Vlad.

Inna: I thinks it all about brand, you know.

Vlad: Yes, definetely. But brand also mean engagement. People can know how you look like but it doesn’t mean they know who you are.

Inna: So our challenge – is to become a person who will be well known. And I wish you good luck it that! Exactly sure I will see you more and more everywhere! Thank you so much for that interview.