Lidia Vijga: Account Executive at StackAdapt

Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite makes the process of becoming a published bestselling author as simple as sipping your morning cup of coffee. You can learn more about Authors Unite at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode. All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Lydia Viszka with us. She's an account executive at StackAdapt. StackAdapt is a native advertising platform powered by machine learning, and it is in the top 25 startups in Canada ranked by LinkedIn. So welcome to the show.

Thanks, Tyler. Excited to be here.

Of course. Grateful to have you on and congratulations. That's an awesome honor to be in the top 25 startups. We will jump into the first one, Lydia. The first question I have for you is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

Okay. So this is actually the story that I've mentioned in one of your books. It was, I believe, the second volume in Better Business Book. It's about that time when I went all the way to south of India, bought half a ton of organic cotton and had absolutely no idea how to bring it back to Canada. I have honestly failed miserably, but that was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I know this sounds controversial. It makes absolutely no sense, but here's what happened. So after my India trip, I was a bit depressed. I flew to Europe, uh, just to take my mind away from this cotton situation. Um, I was meeting all kinds of different people from entrepreneurs and artists and local business owners. And I've learned a lot from them. I learned something new from every single person I met. It was either business advice or a certain perspective. And if I knew all those things before my India trip, of course I could have done things differently. I had my camera with me all the time. I do photography on the side, and I was so grateful to meet all those interesting people, and I wanted to do something for them. So I was taking pictures for their social accounts, for their websites. Taking product shots for their marketing material. And during that process, they were sharing their stories and how they build their, their businesses. So together we end up creating inspiring content. And that's how my blog was created. At that point, I never pursued my cotton journey, but I have created something else instead. So by opening up my mind to new ideas, by meeting new people, by learning from people and collaborating together with them, I ended up in a completely new direction, um, of content, actually content creation. And I've discovered the passion for content marketing. So the point here is that take action, fail, learn from it, and have an open mind for a completely new direction. Then take action again, um, in that direction. It's a cycle that eventually will lead you somewhere, and most of the times it will not end up where you originally wanted to be, but that's okay. It's the journey and the process that will guide you into the new direction and just embrace it and keep moving forward.

Thank you for sharing that with us. The next one I have for you, Lidia, is what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

Okay, so I will start talking about a little bit of an intro here. So advertising technology does pretty impressive things. These days, and I'm very grateful to be working in the top Canadian tech startup with the best talents and the smartest minds in the industry who made StackItUp what it is today. So from leveraging artificial intelligence, first-party data, machine learning algorithms, all of the other good stuff, we've gone really, really far when it comes to targeting audience in the digital space. So now advertisers, they can reach anyone they would like on any device at any given time and place. So because So as we got the tech side covered, advertisers can now focus more on creating meaningful experiences for their audience, and they can do it through content. A lot of brands today already produce highly engaging content to connect to their audience. And if you think about it, companies are becoming online publishers in a way. They, they produce their own editorial articles, they run their own blogs, they create media properties. And they form communities around their products. And when you give audience the experience they value, they will convert. So another great thing about getting your content out there, you get the engagement in return that you can actually measure and learn from it. And this way you can even uncover alternative audience that you never thought of before and create even more compelling content and connect with more audience in a more meaningful way. It's another cycle here. You create, learn, measure, and you create again, pretty much.

Yeah, it is, uh, it is incredible. And it's, uh, I'm very excited to even learn more about StackAdapt. So, uh, and again, congratulations on it. It's very exciting. Um, the next one I have for you, Lidia, is what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.

Okay. Um, so this might not be the typical advice or bold business advice, but What I think gets you really far in life and in business is, I would say, kindness. Be kind to all the people around you regardless of the situation.

And yeah, I could not agree more. And if Lydia, if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

That one is easy. I think I would be learning more languages. I think the more languages you know, the more opportunities you can create for yourself. I think that every language gives you that extra wisdom of that culture. And kind of a new perspective to things. So I'll definitely learn more languages.

And kind of going down a different path, in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?

Yeah, so that's the toughest question, Tyler, actually. And I'm really happy that you sent me those questions in advance. On top of my head, I wouldn't be able to answer it right away. But I think happiness is so subjective and everyone got their own key to it, obviously, right? So I personally think happiness is when you stay true to yourself. So what, what's important is to understand who you are and what, what makes you happy. And again, back to my India trip and what happened after, I have rediscovered myself completely. I found my little happy place. For me, it was all about collaborating with people and the ability to create, share, and inspire. It was just that amazing feeling.

And, uh, what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?

Um, I'm a big fan of Scott Goodson. Uh, so he's the founder of New York creative ad agency called Strawberry Frog. Um, and the book he wrote called, um, Uprising. So initially it was the tagline that got my attention. It was, um, something like how to build a brand and change the world. Um, the book was about how big ideas— sorry, the book was about big ideas pretty much, and how the big ideas come from higher purposes. And the book actually had practical guidelines on how to make cultural and social movements. What's, what's interesting is that movements can be created by anyone, not just by non-for-profit organizations or politicians. A movement can be ignited by tech innovators, by artists, or by business leaders. And it can be ignited by you, by me. We got all it takes to do a great social movement. So companies who create positive social change and bring people together, they drive massive, massive awareness for themselves, and eventually they build loyal client base.

And what is your favorite quote and why?

Right. So the quote that sits all the time at the back of my mind is the one that my grandmother always told me when I was a kid. She was always saying one thing. She was saying that life consists of people you meet and the things you create with them. And I absolutely agree with her. The skill set we possess today and the people we surround ourselves with, they determine your overall life pretty much.

I agree. Thank you so much for coming on. This was really an awesome interview. The last question I have for you, Lidia, is where's the best place for people to find you online?

Uh, so yeah, there are a few ways. So for anyone who would like to learn more about content marketing, uh, about native advertising, about StackAdapt, uh, the best way would be through LinkedIn. Uh, for those, um, for those brave ones who would like to share their inspiring story with me, um, on my blog, the best way to contact me would be through, through my website, which is byvi.co. It's B-Y-V-I.co. And, um, and I will share their inspiring stories.

Awesome. Thanks again for jumping on.

Well, thanks for having me on. It was really great to be here. The podcast you just heard was made using Anchor. Ever thought about making your own podcast? Anchor makes it really easy for anyone to get started. It's a one-stop shop for recording, hosting, and distributing podcasts. Best of all, it's 100% free. Sign up now at anchor.fm/new. That's anchor.fm/new to get started.