Produced By - From Hiding in the Background to Leading the Conversation: The Shift That Changed Everything | #95: Ionut Spataru

Episode Date: March 31, 2025

Ionut Spataru is a software engineer turned master copywriter and founder of FenPost, an AI-powered tool designed to make LinkedIn content creation effortless. Writing wasn’t always his strength. At first, he struggled to post online and found it difficult to share his ideas. Determined to improve, he immersed himself in copywriting, explored what makes content successful, and built FenPost to help professionals write faster, stand out, and stay consistent. Now, he is focused on removing the stress from LinkedIn posting so creators can share their ideas with confidence.In this episode, Johnny takes us behind the scenes of his journey, sharing how he overcame self-doubt, found his niche after testing different topics, and built a tool designed to simplify LinkedIn posting. You’ll hear exclusive insights into FenPost, practical LinkedIn strategies, and lessons on consistency, engagement, and finding your voice. If you want to improve your content and gain confidence in sharing your ideas, this episode is for you.Connect with Ionut:https://www.linkedin.com/in/ionut-spataru/FenPost:https://fenpost.com/ Connect with Tomas:X: https://x.com/TomasLoucky⁠⁠⁠Stan: https://stan.store/TommenLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomasloucky/⁠⁠Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisistommen/⁠⁠Unproduced:Newsletter: https://unproduced.substack.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@unproducednotesSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033Ddo8ibDlLYoaP7FFLIWMore:Links: https://linktr.ee/produced_by⁠⁠⁠Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://producednewsletter.substack.com/⁠The Podcast Club: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/25420030/Tools & gear that support the show:Metricool: https://f.mtr.cool/HRJBZKRiverside: https://riverside.sjv.io/vDnDodFavikon: https://www.favikon.com?fpr=tommenRa Optics: https://ra-optics.myshopify.com/discount/TOMMEN?rfsn=8803777.591d19JamX: https://jamx.ai/podcasters-offer?ref_id=e02d48af-ef66-4e76-b804-c2e8d282a8bfSome links are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. If you find them useful, using these links helps keep the podcast running. Thank you!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Fempo, it's a bit of my child, if I could say so. It was born because of my necessities, because I work a lot. I know if this is something that I should be proud of, but I work a lot. And I don't have time for LinkedIn. And in this age, it's so important to show up. So important. I don't know any reason why anyone wouldn't want to show up on LinkedIn and himself with a good ad. So people know them, associate them with some values.

And after that, it was hard work. Go to Chegy. Find the topics, write the first draft, try to improve them. Everyone says, go to Chagipiti, go to Cloud, now go to GROC. Everyone has his own opinion, and don't know where to go. And I had a small program that I was using that integrated ChGPT, Cloud Perplexity, helped me a lot. It was just a console app, nothing fancy. And after that I was thinking, maybe people could like this idea.

Maybe I can create something that would streamline the process of content creation. Before we dive into today's episode, please hit that subscribe button. Your support helps us grow and inspire more people on their journeys. Thank you. Hello, Yonuts. Thank you for joining today. It's a pleasure for this special crossover episode. And yeah, welcome.

Thank you for having me, Thomas. It's a great honor to be here. Great honor to speak with you because I know you've spoken with so many legends on LinkedIn before me and gives me a special. bit of feeling that I'm among them now. Of course you are. Always been and always will be. Just to say why this is a special episode,

it's like a crossover between our new upcoming podcast, which is called Fanpot, which we will discuss in more detail and at the same time produced by podcast. So in this episode, we will be discussing both our new, upcoming or already existing product, and also a bit more about the Onuts

because Yonuts, although he's very modest is also a big creator so I'm sure there will be a lot of exciting stuff to find out from you yeah let's not get all that excited I'm not a big creator I'm more a moderate creator

and somewhere in between so so getting there yeah so you're not let's start with the introduction can you tell us a bit more about yourself? No about myself that's interesting so I'm a senior developer I like

present like this because I've been doing programming for about 13 years now. So I code in every language that is out there. And with these new LLMs and with new chat GPD clone and so on, I found out that I can do almost everything. So everything that you need, knowledge is right there at your finger ticks. You just have to answer the right GPT and they will tell you how. however you want to create something or if you need any info. Yeah, it's an empowerment tool.

Like a magician. Yeah, I could say so. I was amazed. The first time that I tried GPT, I was about, think about the first thousand of people that tried GPT. I was in a close group. Oh, really? Yes, yes. And it was an awesome thing when I first tried it.

It was my mind was just blown. Whoa. I was both scared. extremely scared but also happy that I have this tool. So are you the type of person who's always been into AI as well or was it just tech or how did you, you know, discover it or got into this group of people? I wasn't in AI for the long run. I just discovered it with the latest trends on J.GPT a few years ago. Had the opportunity to try it. And when I first tried, it was love at first sight. I was amazed what it can do. And this made me learn more about it.

Not only learn it, but use them. Use all the tools because whenever you say AI, people tend to associate CHAPT, open AI with AI. But it's not only those. Because you have Claude, you have Grok, you have Gemini. I haven't tried Gemini, to be honest, but I heard that it's pretty cool. Oh, you haven't tried it? No, I haven't tried it. I don't know if you are joking or if you actually haven't tried.

No, I haven't tried it. So actually, I have three tools that I am using each day. I have the chat GPD, cloud for front and chat. GPT is for the back and GROC if I need to search something. These are my three main tools that I'm using. I don't want to spend a lot of time learning new tools and discovering them because I have three that are awesome at the moment and I can do anything with them. They are my personal assistants and I am relying on them each day and night.

That's valid reasoning. But I would ask you, what about perplexity? It's quite a popular one. I would use this. I've used this a lot. To be honest, perplexity API is integrated into fanpost. If you click topics, it will go to perplexity. Perplexity generates those topics.

Yeah. A lot of background information. But now, you just mentioned it. So what is the fan post in the first place? What is the fan post? fan post a bit of my child if I could say so

it was born because of my necessities because I work a lot I know if this is something that I should be proud of but I work a lot and I don't have time for LinkedIn and in this age is so important to show up so important

I don't know any reason why anyone wouldn't want to show up on LinkedIn present himself with good the bad so people know them associate them with some values and after that it was hard work go to CHGPT find the topics write the first draft try to improve them everyone says go to CHGPT go to Claude now go to GROC everyone has his own opinion you don't know where to go and I say I had a little small program that I was using that integrated CHGPT, Claude perplexity helped me a lot it was just a console app nothing fancy and after that I was thinking maybe people could do Like this idea. Maybe I can create something that would streamline the process of content creation,

make them easier to have all the information on a single tool. Because everyone says, go to Perplexity, we have that. Go to chat GPT, we are integrated with that. Go to Cloud because he knows Cloud writes like no one else. Okay, I have that. Cloud API is right there. And you can integrate and streamline the whole process of this. I like the mindset and what you said in the beginning.

needed something so I created. I wish it was as simple for us as well. This is the basic of programming. Look around, see what the necessity of something and at the moment hire a virtual assistant like chat GPT or Claude or whatever you prefer and you can start doing it. A lot of no code solution out there.

Yeah, there is true. I often see, I've always been scared of coding. I'm not going to lie. I don't know any. I just tried some super basic, I think it would be laughing at me at high school, and I didn't like it. And these days when I see that there are so many no-code apps and tools, I'm so happy. Yes, yes. I'm both scared of that because I'm a software developer. This is the only thing that I know how to do, creating stuff out of programming. And when I see how good these tools are, because they can do better job than me,

but most of the things, what they cannot do is keep track. The files or the program or the architecture, they cannot do it now. But in the future, I don't know. I don't want to, I'm a bit scared of this, to be honest. Because I don't know what... I understand because the progress is crazy. I'm often amazed, surprised and scared of, for example, I don't know, some AI tools that do video or something like that. Yes, yes, yes, indeed.

Crazy improvements. Yes. So this is the time for us, all of us to show up. You want to be out there, we want to create trust, we want people to know you and maybe one day when the progress hits, you'll not be found so stranded. And something that we discussed before the recording, and I'm pretty sure that there will be more people curious about this.

So I think it's a good idea to answer it. What's the reason behind the name fan post? I was scared about this question, to be honest. You can say just briefly. So you can imagine myself sitting on my bed late at night and looking for domains, the best domain to choose. And I was in a brainstorm with Chad GPD and he presented to me a few options. Check them.

All of them were already bought. All of them. So many domains that actually don't point to anything that contain posting them are not used. I don't know why. People just buy domains, keep them, and then they do not do anything with them. And after that, I asked JGPD. Okay, give me a name that easier to remember in easier to pronounce. And he came up with fan.

And I checked fan post. Sounds okay, penpost. It's easier to remember. And also it was a dot-com domain. I wanted to be a dot-com because people tend to remember only the domain but not the extension. So dot com is the genesis. in the extension. So, here I was

on GoDaddy, buying fan, fan post, fam bit, fan draw, and we have a lot of I think actually it's a good starting point for the future because as we are recording in this podcast that we called Fanpot, we are also working

on a blog, some other exciting stuff, and I feel like that the fan is the first half of the title of what we are working on allows us to expand in the future. So it sounds good and we also came up with some reasonings behind it which will not share right now but keep following and you will find out more soon. Sure thing. Then let's look more into the specifics of the product because of course it's

still work in progress. We've got the page on the website where we want to show the progress our ambitions, our plans, and people can submit any requests, ideas, bugs and stuff like that. But tell us more, like in detail, what is it that FanPost does and what differentiates it from other tools out there. So I think the main thing that I try to achieve with Fanpost is to be easy to use, because you have five buttons. I think that's all. Five buttons. You select your niche. You select how your voice sounds like.

You select who you are talking to. You hit next. We bring you the topics that are relevant to that niche. You hit next and after that we have the whole post there, ready for you to copy and paste it to LinkedIn. It will be mobile optimized and everything will be as it should be. Also, you will not have that double dash, that chat GPT and other LLMs keep.

I don't know why. I think this is the biggest bug that open. AI did putting that up online. Also, you will not see game changes. Oh my God. I was looking at Google trends. How often does game

slash changer appears in articles? It exploded. Right when Chad GPT first appeared, you will see a massive up trend for game changing. But you know what's the worst? I feel like sometimes I would actually want

to genuinely use that work. But because what it becomes I feel like I cannot do it because then they will think that I did it I know

I know I know And of course there are some other words But I think that the game changer is just the most

I literally I think every day I couldn't count how many times it shows up in comments of my post

which I would assume that by now the majority or many people would try to avoid such a word

I die a little bit inside when I see on my post game changer just a bit because I know I'm not one to be

honest I know that that person hadn't read that comment and then there are of course some other words which we in fan post try to erase as well yes yes

yes fan post knows just about AI it's a lot of programming and that works after you generate the post because we are integrated with multiple alias

Chagipt, Claude and maybe Grog even. Also, Lama, it's a big part of our Fembo's product. But after that, there's a lot of programming that is happening in order to make that post look awesome and also to avoid these nasty words that some LLAMS keep pushing out. And I think we are doing a great job and a lot of more cool stuff are coming.

Of course, I see it from the perspective of someone who's not decoder and who doesn't know doesn't see in the background but I think that makes me more impressed by all the work behind it and what we've achieved so far and also there are some pretty cool premium features can you introduce some actually I've those premium features are not premium you can now try them even with the free account so you can now generate quotes generate images transform that post to the video script that you can read because video is the next big thing and you want to have as many videos as possible and fan pose makes it easy

and everyone keeps pushing that pin comments i know i'm not a big fan comment of pin comments but everyone say you could have pin comments have pin comments fan posts can generate that also if you have the pin comments as well and also maybe you don't like the hook and re-hook because we know that 80% of post value it's in the hook you can regenerate the hook and re-hook as many times as you want because in order for you to choose the best one. I think it sounds great and also you've got a tool to help with Carousos because in case you are not fan of videos then you must be fan of Carousel because everyone likes Carousas.

Yes, yes. So there is also the feature that helps you to come up with the content for the Carousas. Yes, yes. Also a big idea would be to be community driver. I don't want just to create a product that fits me or fits you. I want a product that everyone could use. And if they want some improvement, they can just tell us on Pampost page or maybe even directly on our page or me and you. And we can try to see how we can implement it.

Yeah. We created a page, as mentioned before, and people can submit any ideas, improvement, stuff like that. And we also want to use it to show our ambitions and to show that. we are aware that the product is not perfected, because obviously we are working on it, we know what to do. But as mentioned before, it's just about the time,

so we are working on it. And yeah, if people have any ideas, please let us know so that we can make it even better. Yes. Yes. I'm here.

You are here also, and I know you can create a great product. A product that can help others show up. And I think also good thing to highlight is that on top of this tool we want to give more to people like on the website. For example, when you visit you've got a block. There is going to be some

custom GPs and even more stuff. So what are the plans like with custom GPs and any other features that we haven't mentioned yet? Okay, so there are something that you cannot achieve only with a tool that you have to brainstorm with something. So with a custom GPD. we can create a custom GPT that helps you, I don't know, finding your voice, finding your niche. And this requires a brainstorm.

And we can create a custom GPT that will help everyone finding their Y. Just like Simon Sinek says, you need to find your Y. And so on. Yeah, the popular TED Talk, if you haven't seen yet or read his book. I also have the books here somewhere. But, yeah, random. Just to collect the dust. No, no, no.

I was stuck in a learning curve. Before I hit post, first time, I think I read about 50 books because I thought myself that I'm not good enough to hit post. Well, like on LinkedIn. Yes, yes, yes. I was so afraid, so afraid to show up. Also, I'm an introvert. I don't know if you can see how nervous I am here right now. But, yeah, yes.

So I was stuck in that learning curve about. a year before I first hit post. And funny thing, I hit post and maybe did a few of them, three, five, low engagement, three likes, 50 likes. There was some colleagues from work

and I was so embarrassed thinking about what they think about it. And after that, I haven't posted for about four months, and after that I had a rush again. But I didn't start with posts. I started with commenting, so I started supporting others,

And after that, two months after I was just hitting comments, I put my first post out there. And I was amazed I had like 70 likes or something. Oh, yes. And it was the game changer for me. No, you are allowed to say that. Yes. Do you remember what those first posts were about, such as the first one and then the first one after a break? Yes.

So first in the beginning, I didn't know what. post about and I was just posting random things that I saw on others people. So maybe I saw some trending topics related to job interviews, I don't know, remote work or so on. I was just repurposing that content on mine. But students didn't work out. I didn't felt myself in that niche. After that, I switched to interviews because I keep a lot of interviews here with my company and before previously and I wanted to help others to find their perfect job but that wasn't what I liked also so I couldn't find myself in that niche also after that I had a chat with jonathan I'm pronouncing your name correct in Nathan yeah no thank you gohan shut out yes yes

and I was thinking to myself oh I want that life I want to do that because I love coding and I love copywriting also this is the book that I don't know if you can see it everybody right I'm very passionate about the copywriting and coding and I saw why don't I do this so here I am in my third niche and I finally found myself I don't know if many people experienced this feeling but this is where I want to be now this is what I want to do I want to create tools I want to help others and I want to have my freedom I really like what you just said many great points. Firstly, with Unatana, I think it's great that there are people, for example, like him, that it inspires others and shows that it's possible because it inspired me as well. Now,

just to subtly promote, if people want to learn more about Yonautan's journey, we did amazing episodes together. But also when you mentioned the fear of posting, I'm sure that like so many people go through that, I've been afraid as well. Yes. So it's good that we talk about it kind of publicly and you know it inspires some people just to hit post we can make a easy example

how many programmers great programmers not even great programmers do you see showing up on LinkedIn every day how many I know maybe I don't know

yeah I'm trying to think maybe I don't follow them or maybe I don't realize they are programmers I try to find for them for them on LinkedIn Are there any that I know? Do you know?

Besides Jonathan? And me? No. No. See, you're leading by example. You're the one. Yeah. With the interviews.

Because I did recently live event, live recording on LinkedIn. And one of the questions was about finding the niche. And as you said, I think sometimes people overthink it that they don't know what to post about. how to position themselves. But it's not wrong. If you do something, you find out it doesn't work and you just switch. Because with me, with the podcasting, I used to do podcasts with people from creative industries. I enjoyed it.

But I still felt like that it wasn't something that I wanted to focus on for the long time. Or I felt like that it wasn't working. And I remember when I found out that I want to focus on LinkedIn, such as speaking with people from LinkedIn, focusing on audience on LinkedIn and using LinkedIn as my primary platform. And since then, everything has been much easier. You know, when it comes to people that you talk to, kind of tailoring your content for the audience and making it everything more enjoyable. So I think, don't be afraid if you don't have a niche, keep exploring. Don't be afraid to try different ones and then switch if it doesn't work out.

And I'm pretty sure that you will find it in the end. Yes. Don't be afraid to show up. It's okay. You can make mistakes. People will not care. People will forget. But keep pushing.

Keep pushing yourself to show up. Because it's so important all these days. Remember the spotlight effect. For example, with posting, it's not like that everyone will be waiting for you to. Oh, he posted, it's terrible. People really don't care. It's not such a big deal.

We tend to over-complicate things. We really tend to over-complicate things. Yeah. So I was thinking about what my old colleagues will see when they see me being so active on LinkedIn. Or maybe, I don't know, maybe my employer or so on. But after a few months, you will not care that much about that. You will only your vision, your path, and that you have to be consistent. And I would say, or I wouldn't be surprised if they came to you for advice,

because I'm pretty sure that once we release this, you will hit the, beautiful milestone but already you've got some impressive following so there is no doubt that you have some advice wisdom and experience to share with others yeah and that close to 10k that close to 10k want to take your podcast to the next level at epic story we help you launch improve and market your podcast with expert guidance whether you're just starting out or refining an existing show we've got you cover visit epicstory digital and bring your epic story to life. Come back to Fed Post.

For people who are watching this on the video, I hope that they noticed my beautiful background. So the question is, why did we choose yellow color? Is there a reason behind it? Another tricky question that you are asking. Maybe there is not, but in case people are curious. Before you did that amazing logo, we had a cat. There is no reason why we had cats in the logo. It's just because I like cats and I don't know how to make an awesome logo.

And after that, I made you and things change. And after that, I don't know, it kind of sticks because it seems to resonate with people. That yellow shade that we are using. Yeah, I like it too. And we came with some reasoning again, but it's not like that it will be primarism. You know, what it is. You can come with the reasoning after. But I think what's also important is when you look at the competition,

not to mention any, but there are, of course, some other tools. So it makes sense that you don't want to use the color that is already being used. Of course, of course. And competition is the birth of progress. And it's good to show that we are aware of the competition, and we feel like that we've got something to offer that stands out, maybe and hopefully it will be better in the future and hope that people will be following and see the exciting progress that's coming here

still there are not so many tools so many AA creation tools out there and I think and I've read that in one or two years 50% of all the content that will be posted online video text and so on will be AI generated I think this is the next big thing out there creating custom LLMs or maybe I don't know GPDs, however we want to name them that help others show up and help them create content, not only for LinkedIn, but for other platforms as well. There's a good point. And I like it comes back to our logo because in our logo we are using this rectangle. I like it because it helps like to encompass multiple ideas and products that we are thinking about and that are all. on our road plan for the future.

So starting with LinkedIn, one never knows in a few years in the future, what else there might be? Yes, yes. So I have some drafts of fan posts that have other features as well, helping you post on X and also I had another branch here on my code that helps you create your own newsletter and helps you create your own blog.

So there are different ways to create different types of format. And we, yeah, so I saw that trend that people that are active on LinkedIn, also most of them are also active on X. And somehow, even though Ellen doesn't like LinkedIn, people that are here also enjoy using X. It's a good point actually because when I speak with some people on the podcast and they are, of course, active on LinkedIn, when I ask the question, if they are planning to, explore any other platforms. Sometimes it's YouTube, obviously, for the video. But I would say the next, the most popular run is X. The one that they would go for.

And I'm honestly not surprised. Yeah, me neither. It's a great platform. Are you there on X? Yeah. No really have time for it. I barely have time for LinkedIn and I want to support others here on LinkedIn and create my name first here and after that we'll see.

I know that there will be a time when I have. have to move to X and also YouTube as well. But at the moment, I'm focusing all my time warning team. I remember. I think actually I discovered, I don't know if it discovered, but somehow connected back then and it was over those interviews that you mentioned before. And although, as you said, it wasn't really the niche for you or something that you enjoyed. For me, it still stood out because I felt like that you were sharing the advice that

was valuable in a format that was easy to digest and helpful. so it was just my memory. I don't know why I brought it up, but it just came to my mind. Yes, yes. I like helping others, because I've been in so many interviews, hold them,

and being both sides of the table. I've learned quite a lot of things, and maybe I can help others do the same because... Yeah, and you've been very modest when it comes to your LinkedIn. But still, 10K is impressive. So, you say you don't have much time,

but tell us more about your strategy such as posting engagement content you will laugh at me so I had three big milestones in my LinkedIn journey first this is the shout-out of Adam Ben if I'm not pronouncing your name correctly

I'm very sorry but he was the very big creator that helped me because he was engaging with my post And right after he hit like or even comment, I saw a massive hit growth in followers. Nice. Yeah. So after that, I started showing up on big creators also. So I was showing up on MJ, Daniel, and Lara. And they all started to engage with my content.

I remember the first time Lara hit like on my post and commented. Oh, it was a huge spike, huge spike in following. So I don't have a strategy. to be honest. I know one thing and I know for sure. If I support others, reciprocity will come to you also. If I support you, you will support me also and we both grow. LinkedIn is not an individual game. It's a team game. So you have to be there with your tribe. Try to help others more time than I'm reserving for me creating content. Yeah. You just need more people like that. And it's just nice when they are bigger creators.

and you never know if you, as you said, support someone how it can influence that person. Because even I remember like when some bigger name commented, liked or interacted or even sent DM, not only it makes your day better, but maybe it also gives you inspiration to continue. So for any bigger creators out there, I would encourage to do the same and have such a mindset. Yes, yes. Is anything that you can remember from this is that, LinkedIn is a team game. You have to find your tribe, you have to support others,

and magic things will happen. You will grow. What about your posting strategy? My posting strategy? Wow, you make me embarrassed. I don't really have a posting strategy. I am relying a lot of fan post. Because a PAMPost goes to X and perplexity,

find the trending topics. So let's say you are in the AI niche. you will find the latest news there and you can create an awesome post from that so I don't have a strategy one thing that I want to introduce is videos and I know this podcast will help a lot

yeah this morning just saw that LinkedIn has removed that videos button from the mobile app yes yes yes I don't know why this shift is coming I don't know either

sometimes just open the app and there are surprises Maybe open next time and it will be back. Yeah, so I had the surprise once. Why haven't you done any videos yet? Because I'm an introvert and my English is not that good as you can see. And I'm a bit nervous when I'm just here speaking to you, speaking to the camera. It's not my comfort zone, but I know I have to step out of it.

One way or another, I have to step out of my comfort zone. just like I did with the post when I hit my first post I have to do the same with my first video as well and we'll see in a few months or years when you get a YouTube channel doing daily blocks

I hope so I hope so so one of the people that had a great influence on me is I don't know if you can see it can you see what's on my wrist more? Do more do you know who has the same tattoo oh my god no idea

no Casey nice step Oh, okay, wow I didn't know Yeah, it's the same tattoo that Casey Nyster has on his forearm So a few years ago I was not in a great place Not with my job

Not with my mental health And I discovered Casey And he had such a big impact on me I think besides my family He had the biggest impact on my life I know that he will never know my name But this is one way to say thank you You don't know

Don't say that never know. Have you also started skateboarding? Yes, yes. I tried. It's not my piece of cake. So his vlog helped me a lot. And he also motivated me to double down on programming,

double down on going to interviews, showing up. And he had a big influence on my life. And I'm in this place because of him and because of a few other people that support me. Yeah. I can kind of relate because for me it also wasn't easy to start, whether it's on LinkedIn or even the podcast, because obviously it's showing up, putting yourself out there. And it's the hardest in the beginning. And with practice, it gets kind of easier.

But although I've done quite a few podcasts, I did these life events on LinkedIn, and I still felt like it was a step out of the comfort zone, no? Because it was life. and I wasn't the person who is interviewing but I was on the other side so I was nervous too but in the end it was fun and I really enjoyed it haven't had the time to look at your first LinkedIn event but you'll

show on my list for today or tomorrow I hope it won't disappoint it's impossible to disappoint speaking of LinkedIn what are your goals for the future with LinkedIn besides you know growing Have you got like any specific ones?

I have a dream. I have a dream that LinkedIn can help me achieve. That one day I can wake up, put a cup of coffee and work on my own tools, on our tools. And this is the dream that I want to achieve. So this is a very long run, very long run. But with consistency, I know that it can pay off. Yeah. I think important topic that I would regret not asking is we've been talking a lot.

lot about, let's say, time management, because you've got a family, you've got your regular job, you show up on LinkedIn, although you say you don't do as much as you wish, I think the results speak for itself, and you also bid fan post. So how do you manage your time? I don't know. I don't know. So, do you have any, let's say, techniques that you follow, that help you or something like that? No, no, I don't have any techniques, to be honest. I would. I would. I would have any techniques, be lying if I would say that I have some such a plan. What no? Whenever I have the time, I either go to LinkedIn,

either I go to fanpost and start developing it. Even if I have five minutes or ten minutes, instead of scrolling YouTube shorts or TikTok, I don't have a TikTok, but I'm very active on YouTube shorts. I'm using that time either supporting others or developing them. And 10 minutes, 10 minutes, they sum up, And at the end of the week, you see that you've been on LinkedIn for five hours, because my app says so. And also, you see these new great features that are coming to temple.

Yeah, and it keeps you motivated. That is true. Never underestimate how much small actions like this might adapt if you do it consistently. In the end, it might be good progress. Of course. You don't have to spend hours on LinkedIn each day in order. the progress. Even 10 minutes, 15 minutes, that's enough.

That's enough. If anyone wanted to, let's say, become a part of fan post, we run affiliates and we also thinking of, let's say, recruiting. We haven't come up with the cool name yet, but sounds like ambassadors. Yes. So if anyone wants to join, let's start with affiliates, what would be the benefits and how they can do so? okay so it's an interesting topic and i hope that people will find it engaging so we are looking

for great partners not just affiliates not just someone that promotes our services but we really want someone to be part of fan post because his opinion or she's opinion matter i don't want them only to promote and see the monetization yeah behind it but i want them to help create a tool that many more people will use it and also help them. So I did a post a few weeks ago, days ago, and that you also

saw that I was searching for nine heroes. I was bombarded with DMs, people that only wanted to that affiliate money. Only one. Yeah. Besides you and Simon Schmitz, another name that makes. He's got actually

perfect Brandon. He's got the yellow as well. Yes, yes. he's the one with the cats. Yeah, yeah. Oh my God. And after I saw your message, after I saw Simons, but mainly you,

something clicked in my mind. I don't want just someone to promote an app. I want someone to be part of the app. Someone that can bring something that I can, just like you. You can help me with the logo, you help with ideas, you help a lot on these aspects.

And I do the coding stuff behind it. and I just like finding your own niche this is something also that you find oh I needed this I wanted this partnership and also this is an invitation to which creator out there that wants to be part of fanpost please reach up I agree and I like it and I share the same view

because it's not only about money but I would say we are kind of inviting people, creators, influencers on LinkedIn to join us On this journey, because we are still in early stages, so they can help us with the development of everything, whether it's by sharing any ideas, bucks, improvements, anything to improve. Of course, we want to give back, whether it's commissions from the affiliates or recommendations. But also, we want to feature them, let's say, on our blog, posts, website, maybe in the future even include them in the fan pot in our podcast. So it's really more like a fostering closer relationship that is based like on the values such as trust, loyalty, shared vision and not only about money.

Yes. So if there are people who resonate with our message who would like to become part of this, feel free to reach out source. Yes. Diem Thomas. Diem Thomas. But no sales pitches. Because I think it's similar to. What you mentioned before, like when people reach out for feedback,

sometimes I feel like it's, of course, it's not the same, but similar with the podcast. Because I feel like sometimes it's difficult to recognize whether people actually want to, I don't know, share something valuable or if they just want to get visibility. Yeah, I don't know. So, again, we don't want people just to come home from the money, but to be part of help create a better product. that others can use. Yeah, because finding affiliate is easy.

I was bombarded with DMs, but this is not what we want. We want people that actually want to be part of it, involved in it. And we also will create a fan post heroes page, I hope. Yeah. And also a good thing. Even if you have a few minutes and you play it or you want to play with the fan post, play with the features, see what it does. And any feedback is greatly appreciated, whether it's two DMs,

but we also have a special wall of love. We may rename it. But we greatly appreciate if anyone shares any testimonials, reviews, and stuff like that so that we can collect some lovely feedback on our website. Yes. Creating the product, it's easy. Yeah, you just get stuck in that zone when you think that your product is not ready. But creating the product is the easy.

part. Getting out, promoting it, finding the right people, this is where things get harder. And it will be 10 times harder than you can imagine. But if you can go through it, it will be all worth it. I think it comes back to very popular message on LinkedIn to start building your personal brand. Because if we were creators with 100K, it will be much easier to spread it among our audiences. But at the same time, imagine if we haven't started LinkedIn. In the first place, we wouldn't met. And in the second place, we wouldn't have any audience at all to share it with. Indeed. Indeed. The best time to start was yesterday. This was saying. The next time is today. You're never late to the party. Never. And I would be curious, when it comes to building a fan post,

again, I cannot imagine what it's like, but from what you say, you make it sound quite, easy but still what is it like for you when you see or experience a challenge that is hard or that you don't know how to tackle if you even are in such situations yeah there are many situations like this so i first start with a break if i can find the solution i start with a break go out i enjoyed some and after that i don't know brainstorm brainstorm with all your cool assistance and after if none of them work the solution that they deliver don't work you can always reach out there there don't be afraid to reach out to people and just ask them hey i'm in this situation i can't get out of it and you will be amazed by how much help you will be given that is true

there's the power of for example LinkedIn right you can text anyone but after chat gpt first emerged and cloud and the other platform. Data next, my daily workload, because now I can achieve much more in the same interval span than I was doing before. Yeah. How do you keep up with the news when it comes to AI? I'm relying on perplexity for this because I have a custom table feed there that only delivers AI news.

Also, LinkedIn is full of people that promote these news. and important updates. Because, yeah, I first found out about the new ChiGPT model 4.5, I believe it's name, on LinkedIn. Yeah, from a small creator. And after that, I went outright. It's awesome. Yeah, it's a great source of news. That's also something I discussed with many guests before, and I do it as well,

because you just find people that you trust, that you like, you follow them, and they give you bite-sized news right on time and usually reliable. Indeed. So we can find a lot of things just by scrolling LinkedIn. That is true. And before we talked about the books that you read, so can you share some other tips or recommendations that were impactful, that you enjoyed or that you would recommend to people?

Yes. so there were three books that actually shaped me I don't know maybe I can show them to me and I'm sure that you will recognize the author of them let me see where is it okay so I believe this is one you know who this is from Hermann's oh yeah Harman's XP

yes many people hate him I don't know why they hate him but actually his books are so valuable I learn a lot of new things and how to approach people, how to create content just from here. And another one is from our competition. I know you should promote him. I haven't read this one, to be honest. It's a great book.

Great book. I can say it. You need to learn from the competition. Yeah. So even if I try to pronounce his name, I can. I cannot either. Yeah. So reading their journeys motivated me to start mine.

And also, they are not long books. You can find out the roadmap that you should take in order to achieve your goals. Yeah, yeah, yeah, like a journey to take. And if anyone is just listening, what are the names of the books? The names of the books. So first is the 150 million secret from Gillem. Guilleme very hard

announcing that name and after that you can just search for Alex Hormozi and he only has two books at the moment and another one is coming soon

and yeah great work from him and I like the mentality behind it his books are very cheap but it also says that if you manage

to scale your business past one million a year call him he has his contact number Oh, really? Yes. I don't know if it was this book or which one was it, but pretty cool launch on YouTube.

Yes, yes. He's big on YouTube. He's big on each. Yeah, everywhere, I guess. So he started with some gym promoting stuff. This was his first business. And now he makes a living out of scaling other people's business. Then, you know, one of my favorite questions that I ask in my podcast is,

what do you do in your free time or what are your hobbies? My hobby is to spend time with my family. I feel that I'm not spending enough time and this is one of the reasons that I've started at temples because I work a lot and I try to be with my family whenever I can. Besides that, I don't know, learning, reading, the usual stuff. Nothing interesting.

What about some sport? So I practiced kickbox when I was young. Yeah, for about six years or so. Yeah, after that, right now I'm just doing the occasional joke. Not much more than that. Got any favorite films? Favorite films? Another tough question.

Would it be some cool sci-fis? Maybe, no? Yeah, I'm not that into sci-fis, to be honest. And I also like to promote some movies from my country because we do some great comedy shows. Maybe you can try them. I'm trying to think of, but I cannot think of any films from Romania. Yeah, because...

Are there any well-known that I may know? Well-known? First, we have to define well-known. I would recommend some of them in a DM, maybe. No, you can say, maybe someone else, I will check them out as well, but maybe someone else wants to know. One of the greatest shows that have been produced here in Romania is called Miami Beach. Miami Beach.

Yes, it was an international hit. It was done by a Romanian team, but it was filmed in Miami. Okay, okay. Yeah, it's a great comedy show. You should watch it. And I'm pretty sure that there are quite a few, maybe not Romanian productions, but movies set there thanks to the castle. Yes.

Yeah. So I live right next to Dracula's castle. So to be honest, this is not his case. castle, but this is how people promote it. Spoiler alert. Yeah. His actual castle is in bad shape now.

But we have some awesome scening stuff behind. So, yeah, people enjoy it. I currently live in the most tourist active city in Romania. It's called Brasho. Why is that? Is it because of that castle? Because of the castle, because of

I don't know, the mountains that are here. And it's a Great place, geographically. Yeah. I haven't visited Romania yet. Not going to lie. But I guess I should. Waiting for you.

Yeah. I will remember. And also, me and my wife didn't visit London. Also, maybe we can pay a list. Not yet. No. But what about Czech Republic? I've been there.

Actually, I've been there multiple times, but not on my own. Microsoft invited me. I had three. failed to get into Microsoft. Oh, okay, okay, yeah. Was it like that it felt in interviews or why? It was very early in my career. I made a jump that I was not prepared at the moment

then, because maybe I was a young developer and I applied for a senior position. Oh, yeah, yeah. So I went there, went to Prague, and, yeah, things didn't that well. It was okay, learn a lot. But now I have a family and we are settled here. I don't want to relocate to another country.

Yeah, of course. So then before we finish, let's summarize. I guess it will be simple one, but where people can find you, follow you and promote any of your services. So LinkedIn, LinkedIn, on LinkedIn. I don't have on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok account. All my free time that I can spend on social media. spend on LinkedIn and I'm here for any advice that I could help maybe other developers that want to start this solo journey I'm here don't be afraid to reach out because I can help

I've been in your position I've been afraid to post I've been afraid to promote my own products I've been stuck in a learning curve and maybe I can help you don't be afraid to do you yeah now like when it's simple when it comes to any links and of course check out fan post and also the podcast that we will start with this very first episode. Then the very last question, is there anything that you would like to share or anything that I should have asked you and did not? Actually, I would like to send this last minutes or so to say the thank you note about how much you helped me with FAMPOST and I couldn't ask for a better partner here. Oh, it's so nice to hear, but I'm the one who's grateful for the opportunity. I think it's very exciting.

I'm looking forward to see where we bring this product. And I thank you for amazing partner as well. Because I've been enjoying it and I hope that. This is one of the benefits of showing up. If I only develop the product and promote the product, I would have a matthew. You wouldn't have been on the same team. And the product would not look the same as maybe looks now. and it would have a different roadmap.

Don't be afraid to show up. Don't be afraid to let others help you. As a team, things will happen. And I think it's also good. It proves the point about kind of showing up also authentically on LinkedIn, because if, let's say, you are one of those people who comments great post or doesn't really engage, I don't feel like we would really connect in the first place, but because I feel like there was some authenticity, friendliness, and just a different vibe.

It just helped with everything. So it might be a message for people to actually use LinkedIn as a networking platform, not just for the sake of, I don't know, trying to get clients or something. Yes. And you can use AI to generate PostMad. Don't use AI for comments. Yeah. Because in the very first, in the beginning, I was using AI.

guilty here. I was using AI to generate a lot of comments, a lot of comments. But no results, no results. And after that, I started writing my own comments with mistakes, with bad English, but those resonated with people. I agree. And I see it even from the perspective of someone reading the comments. Because you see when someone shows up regularly, but shows up regularly with AI comments, it makes a difference. Then if it's someone who, even if they are grammatical mistakes, I make them as well when I type quickly. But it's still authentic.

So that's a great message. Yes. Yes. Indeed. I think then, you know, we can finish our very first episode and first crossover. I'll be, of course, very much looking forward to next episodes. It was awesome to share our amazing tool. We put it out there.

So now we need to hold ourselves accountable with our big visions and the plans. And yeah, people please keep following, keep supporting. Of course, follow and support Yonuts, because I think he definitely deserves it. And thank you. You, Thomas as well. You are the real star here. No, no. I'm just facilitating this recording this interview or this episode.

Glad to be here for many more, many more episodes will come. So thank you, everyone. Thank you, Yonuts. And keep in touch. Bye, bye. Thanks for listening to Produce by With Tomlin. Check out show notes for all the links and don't forget to like, subscribe and leave your feedback. Speak soon.