The Code To Winning - THE RUSSIAN GIRL WHO’S CHANGING LIVES THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA || LADA POPOVA || EPISODE 025

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

FROM VODKA TO VICTORY    In this powerful, deeply human and short episode, we dive into the inspiring story of Lada Popova — a Russian entrepreneur, influencer, and mentor who turned her pain into purpose. Lada’s journey began in a cold, emotionally distant environment where affection and validation were hard to come by. Growing up in a home where love was rarely expressed, she yearned for attention and connection.   That void led her down a dark path. In her teenage years, she began drinking heavily — not for pleasure, but in a desperate attempt to feel seen by her parents. What started as a cry for love quickly spiraled into addiction, misery, and deep emotional pain. But Lada’s story didn’t end there. When the world shut down during COVID-19, she found herself at a crossroads. Isolated and introspective, she made a bold decision that would change her life forever — she launched a social media account.   Not for fame or followers, but to create the kind of meaningful change she never found for herself. Her raw, vulnerable content began to resonate. Her videos spread. Her voice reached people who felt just like she once had — invisible, broken, and longing for more. As her platform grew, so did her purpose. Lada leaned into the impact she was making and embraced a new mission: to empower others to reclaim their voice, build their own brand, and transform their lives. That mission brought her all the way to America — a land of new beginnings.   Today, Lada Popova is one of the most influential Russian voices on social media. She has helped over 5,000 students and rising entrepreneurs discover their message, build their brand, and find freedom through content creation. This episode is a tribute to transformation. It’s about how deep wounds can become powerful weapons for change — and how one woman turned suffering into strength, and silence into a movement.  

And I help people to grow their social media and sell their services or products through their Instagram accounts or YouTube accounts, whatever they want to. And also I make some entertainment and fun content to make people laugh. So I decided to start with TikTok and I was filming some funny videos. Then I understood, okay, funny videos is good, but I need to make money because I need to make something for my living. And then I started to make some content about social media, about social media marketing, and it really went well.

I started to get my first clients and then I built my company, which right now hit over than 5,000 students and we help across all the Eastern Europe different age, different functionality people who want to sell the services and products. Actually find those people who want to grow their business or they for example like psychologists or like beauty master and they want to sell their services right now they have a couple of clients and it's like just a word of mouth but it's uncontrollable so they they cannot control their like you know leads flow and they want to gain those leads they don't have money to actually like you know every single day invest in marketing but they have those like you know hungry, like you know,

hunger and thrive and they can create content and gain those leads and clients. What's the best social media platform for people trying to use and integrate? So if we're talking about just monetization by . Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of the Code 20. Insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow. Today we are on our Las Vegas, Nevada. We have an amazing and special guest for you today. She came all the way from Russia, literally, to join us

this episode today. She goes by the name of Lada Popova. I hope I didn't butcher that. Lada Popova. Social media influencer from Russia. And she's going to kind of give us a bit of an introduction and a lot of insights of what we can learn about social leaders as well. So especially with all the current trends in today's world.

So without further ado, our special guest, guest, Lady Lada. Hello. It's really nice to meet you. Thank you. Very good to meet you again. Yeah, absolutely. Awesome stuff.

Like I said, thank you very much for joining us in this episode. It's very exciting to actually have you and talk a bit more about social media, you know, in the influence you have. I was following a bit of your content. It's hard to plug everything in chat GPT to know what the heck you're saying. So I want to try and hope everything is at least, you know, positive and so forth, but it's exciting. I told you I had a... I love this. So can you give us a brief introduction of who you are? Yeah, of course. So I'm an employer that you said, and I help people to grow their social media and sell their services,

products through their Instagram accounts or YouTube accounts, whatever they want to. And also, I make some entertainment and fun content to make people. to make people smile, to make people enjoy their life. So like shortly, I am that kind of person who help people and entertain them as well. Awesome, awesome. So when did you start your journey in the social media space? That's really great question. I think it started like seven years ago.

Right now I'm 22, so like from 15, I started to do that. I think that started like in a sad story. I said story wise because I was alcohol addicted and it's Russia, you know. A lot of kids are alcohol addicted in childhood. This is normal in our country. The only two things I know about Russia, Vladimir Putin and vodka. So vodka was my thing. For sure.

Yeah. I was really alcohol addicted from 13 years to 16, I think. And as I, like, you know, realize and dive in my childhood right now, I understood that I really create for attention of my parents. And I was like, oh my gosh, please parents look at me, notice me or something like that. Because, like, I was hardworking from 30 years old. And I was living alone. I left my home.

And then I figured out that COVID hits that right now, nobody's seeing me like drinking alcohol. So I won't be. able to attract those attention I was like craving for. So I decided, okay, maybe I need to switch my, you know, vision to attract those attention that I really craved by another way, by creating content. So I decided to start my TikTok and I was filming some funny videos. Then I understood, okay, funny videos is good, but I need to make money because I need to make something for my living. And then I started to make some content about social media, about social media marketing, and it really went viral.

I started to get my first clients and then I built my company, which right now is over than 5,000 students. And we help across all the Eastern Europe different age, different functionality people who want to sell the services and products. And yeah, something like that. And so this journey, it began in Russia or on social media, or was it when you came to America? No, no, no, in Russia. In America, I'm for three years. But yeah, I started my journey in content creation when I was back in Russia. Okay. So I know you and I spoke last night and today as well. I was just giving you a brief introduction of like my personal life and all that kind of stuff. And I remember I had a Zoom call with my mother-in-law and her mother-wise.

and the sister, it was a Zoom call. They were in Russia, right? Yeah, okay. So that was when, you know, everything broke out and stuff like that. And so did that, with the war and everything happened, did that affect, like, your reach or with certain things, like, censored? How did that, like, have an impact or effect on, like, your social media business? That's really great question.

I think I moved from Russia before the war. Okay. So, actually, I was living in Dubai. those time that war started. And Dubai, it's like, you know, it's like a bubble. In America, we actually know about some news, but in Dubai, it's like all the news are canceled or the bad things are canceled.

And in Dubai, it's everything about greatness and good and all that's like, you know, we're happy, blah, blah, blah. So that was so funny because after the war started, after two months, my mom called me. And we were like talking about some stuff. And she was like, blah, blah, blah, blah. I said, it is still going on. He said, yes.

I said, like, really? I thought it ended. She said, no, of course not. So, I mean, my personal life, I didn't think it's, like, really affected that much. I know some of my, like, previous friends, because right now I'm not, like, talk to people who in Russia, not because of, like, political things. But just, just we don't. just we don't talk anymore so I know that those people are like really into all the news and all the stuff because they're in the situation okay but all other people who for example live in America

both Ukrainians and Russians they don't like really give it down about all this thing I have a of friends from Ukraine, some of my best friends are from Ukraine as well. So I mean, I'm pretty okay with all the situation. Of course, I want to, of course I want to war to end. Yes. I'm not into this, you know, political stuff. Does it affect, like, does information, like, does social media get censored? Like, the people have access to Instagram back in still in Russia and stuff. Like everything is kind of still normal for residents, right? So, yeah, Instagram was banned in Russia. I think approximately two years ago. Okay.

So like it's been a long time from the point that was mine. But you know, I think it reduced the presence in Instagram especially for 40% for like the first two months. And then it rise up. And right now I think this like ban cuts like 20% of presents of Russians in Instagram. So it's not like a big deal. Of course, I lost some of my viewers, but it's not like a huge amount. So it's basically like all of those people who live in Russia still use Instagram mostly. They use other social media networks like VK, if you know that.

The guy who developed and like, you know, the founder of Telegram, if not Telegram. Yes, I know. Yeah, so he's Pavel Durev. And Pavel Durev, he's Russian, a Russian guy. He created before the telegram, he created like a social media called VK. So it's like basically Russian social media network and space. But then he sold into government. So right now it's like a, you know, Russian social media network inside.

All of those people like communicate. But, you know, like to be honest, still the huge amount, the majority of people use Instagram as well. Okay. With VPN. That's it. Just a brief history of like South Africa, my country, one of our closest allies is actually Russia. So the historical context, so we both part of Bricks. Bricks is Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa.

So during apartheid, when it was segregation like my country, Russia was actually helping funding the oppressed party or the oppressed people at that time. They were helping us with weaponry, they were helping us with training, they were helping us with military combat, they were helping us a lot of stuff. And so when South Africa gained independence in 1994, it's just rightfully so that we were more loyal to those that kind of like helped us at our lowest kind of thing. So that's why if you look at Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa is known as Bricks right now. And so my country's orders just been one of the biggest like allies and partners with Russia, a long time. So that's one thing I'm not just my own personal life, everything you know, but also just like my country as a whole. So that's one thing I want to share. So hopefully you don't go to war with America because now I'm stuck here. So hopefully

for sure, I mean I don't want that for sure. Awesome. Now back to social media, no more politics, right? So now we've got that out the way, elephant on the room. But now if somebody were to start social media in terms of monetization, right, right now my YouTube's monetize. my Spotify and my Apple music that's fine however in terms of starting like if I want to start like monetizing in order to try and promote their products what's the best social media platform for people to try and use and integrate so if we're talking about like just monetization by a platform I will like strongly recommend YouTube because it's like high price you can like easily gain views

and you can like easily gain miniatization even with the entertainment concept for example, if people who are watching right now, they don't come up with a topic they want to speak about. So entertainment is like really one of the best niches they can jump into and earn pretty good money monetization. For example, one of my best friends earn about 15K to 20K in a month by gaining views just entertainment content in YouTube.

But if we're talking about selling facilities, like services or products, I will recommend, I think, right now Instagram because Instagram it's more about like business kind of wise of content. So it's much easier to sell something through that especially courses and all those stuff because you have their reels like a short format of YouTube as well and you have stories where people like actually, you know, get those close connection with you. and they start to trust you and when you get those trusts you can easily sell product or service to the person

so like all those coaches or all those like guys have any kind of services no matter what is it like psychology beauty or whatever i strongly recommend to go to instagram directly and sell their services or products in there so entertainments i think like first of all like in terms of monetization youtube in terms of views of course tic-tok but tic-tok it's not paying that much that youtube in comparison but yeah services products instagram for sure and i noticed one thing the reason i'm asking this i when i spoke to one lady who does all the stuff as well also influence in utah she loves the tic-tok in terms of like the live um because instagram didn't pay her anything close to tic-tok but obviously youtube it's a monetization kind of platform as well so if i want to try and sell like products

Which are the two Instagram or TikTok would be better for that? Like selling like merchandise? Merchandise? Merchandise. That's a great question. I think, you know, Instagram, because TikTok, it's more about also like entertainment. For example, those lives, what people actually do. They, for example, make some, like, challenges or like quizzes with other people, like battles or something like that. And they compete for some.

You know, not stupid, but like funny competition games and other people like send them some prices. And those prices like influencers can exchange to money. So those algorithms work like that. And of course there's a TikTok shop that you can also, for example, blow your merchandise. That's also a really great opportunity. but I think okay in terms of merchandise I think TikTok it's also like really good option but if we're talking about like services of course it's Instagram because it's trust so I'll recommend I mean if you're trying to create your personal brand I think you just need

to be everywhere because like YouTube have those like length or like long formats so where you can like you know record a podcast make an interview or make it like you know just a monologue where you explain something about... And then break it down to multiple short form contact. Of course, as well. And Instagram is really good to build trust because you can show your everyday live in stores and people really watch it. So like, you know, like for example, Grand Cardone or like Tony Robbins,

they post a bunch of stories every single day and they warm up their audience. And this is like every single day connection. Because if we're talking about YouTube, okay, maybe if you really love YouTube, you will watch one video in a day, long term, long format. Maybe like you will watch two videos in one week. That's okay. But Instagram, you watch every single day. You go there, you watch some stories of your friends, blah, blah, blah,

and then you like get to what. So it's like every single day connection. And if your stories pop up on Instagram on everyday basis, of course you build those trust with a creator. and creator can easily sell you something that they have. I love that so much. And speaking of that, every time I've connected with people,

I've never said, hey, what's your TikTok? You know what I'm saying? Hey, what's your ex? Like, oh, no, David and I broke up. No, no, no, no, your ex. Twitter, you know?

Because IEG is almost like the form of identification, you know? Yes. Because everyone somehow connects with like Instagram, like, hey, listen, what's your IG? What's your handle and so forth as well? And so, as an influencer, I would assume one of the most important things is actually trying to also be relevant in the algorithm because you have to always continue to obviously produce content for your base, but also continue

to build your base as well. So what are techniques that you've used to continue to be relevant in the algorithm? That's really great question. I think first of all, the most important thing is that. just consistency. Because I noticed that multiple times if you for example upload those videos, like for example every single day, after a while Instagram will give you those views. Of course, if your content is not crap, but like if your content is normal, you will first of all learn from your content and algorithms will give you those views. And if we're talking about like

other hacks what I noticed. For example, if your video go viral and viral it's not means like one million views or like 100,000 views. For example, your average views are like 2,000 or like 500, for example 500. And then one of your all of those videos by gain for example like 5K. So it's 10 times more than your average. 5K is also a big number if your average is 500. So we consider those videos or that one video as a viral one for your brand.

So when you notice that one video, you need to copy those videos as much as you can. So for example, you notice that one, high performer for 5K, then your average like 500. So you look at that video.

You look, what scenario you used, what hook you used, what's the like you know the form of content you used and you just multiply it so that how i went viral like several times and several platforms i just recognized the pattern so i see what video went viral a little bit more than others and i like make 10 more those videos like similar to and algorithm see okay right now like he she have or like they're like they have or like they have this direction of the content of her personal brand and Instagram like understanding your like niche format and keep like you know giving you those use that you crave it for. Wow I love that.

Thank you so much for explaining that and I think with the what the trajectory of social media and now everything is going I think it's only going to get bigger for content creators because like there's a space for everyone to grow at the same time as well. Now my next question, you're super young. I mean, you're 22 years old. You're a Russian lady. You can easily just get a normal 9-to-5 job, work your way up and continue to push. Why are you pursuing this entrepreneurial journey?

I think right now I'm pursuing not like entrepreneurial entrepreneurial job. I think I'm pursuing more like, you know, like show woman jerky because my ultimate goal is to become one of the greatest show women in the world it means like acting singing and making content so i really want to make a really big impact to the world and i just like understood that to actually do that i need a lot of influencers influence so i need to like gain as much following that i can to actually like influence people for example like Mr. Beas, he just like made a lot of really cool videos and right now a lot of like people over the world like really isn't to him and his you know ideas is really like meaningful

for other people and they like you know listen to him every single day. So I understand that I need to see himself. I just need to gain as much more that I can and create some brands that will align with my purpose with my content that people can actually buy and get some useful stuff like either information or some products from my bread. You know, I was actually on my phone right now, and I heard everything you said, I promised I did. The reason I was on my phone, I remember I was in Salt Lake City with a bunch of my friends and we were actually watching a Netflix series about a Russian girl who came from Russia and well it didn't end so well but there's something that we've acknowledged about her drive

and like her persistent to try and push to be the very best version as she can she was just like she was also in New York probably know the story what's her name I think I know like Russian German yeah the girl who was um the girl who was she was she was pretending to be like rich and famous exactly she can be a trust-filemoner baby. She pretended to get a trust one baby. That's not my story. No, no, I know, I know. No, but the reason why, so it's so funny, I'm a, I'm a devil's advocate, right? Yeah. I'm a, I always like, not necessarily villains. I like a story and of course, like hers was pretentious and fake and stuff, but I looked at the positive and the grit she had to convince Wall Street investors to invests

multi-million dollars just off herbs and like everything kept going down but you kept pushing and pushing and pushing of course i don't want to use that story as an example but like it's something i've noticed and like just almost like russian culture it's just like you want to always reach the best versions of your staff whatever you know it takes as well so for sure it's like cold weather i'm from siberia as this is the coldest place in russia and like you know when you're cold you're cold you, you just want to move as quickly as you can. That's why I think. Trust me, I went to a university where it was like winter, eight months of the year and like you get two weeks of summer and then it's back to winter.

Not quite a St. Petersburg, but my gosh, Utah and Idaho are so cold. Anyway, now I love this entrepreneurial journey that you're talking about and you're helping students and focusing on uplifting and building personal brands, like what you did for yourself. what do you do for students? So I actually like find those people who want to grow their business or they, for example, like, psychologists or like beauty master and they want to sell their services right now, they have a couple of clients and it's like just a word of mouth, but it's uncontrollable. So they cannot control their like, you know, leads flow.

and they want to gain those leads. They don't have money to actually like, you know, every single day invest in marketing, but they have those like, you know, hunger and thrive, and they can create content and gain those leads and clients like just without any money. They can just like do content and get those clients. And that's why they came to me,

they buy my course or program or just listen to my free. stuff and start to do that. That's amazing. I love that so much. I love that so much. And so do you have different courses for different stuff or do you have one straight course? For sure. Yeah, I mean, I have like, you know, the main course, the big one. Right now we're launching as well. That will be our last lunch ever in Russia because I'm like completely switching the market to entertainment content and I decided like to burn the bolts and like end up all my businesses that I have before to make you know entertainment content for life and make it like the the main thing of myself because I was trying to you know to do both things for half a

year and I end up understanding that I cannot do both like really high quality and I understood that my ultimate goal is different and move so yeah Back to course, I have the main one and I have like several programs for those who like on the next stage, you know, then the main course and I have some like really, really cheap programs for like $5 or $10 just for those people who want to start with something and they do that. So I have like multiple programs and courses that people can like buy or watch for free. to actually like, you know, do what they want to do to sell their products and services.

Love that, love that. And I noticed a lot of your content, speaking of that with the courses, a lot of your content is Russian, and I think right now you have both a Russian and American market. How are you transitioning to the American market? So actually, I decided just to leave my main account. Okay. That's it. I mean, I was thinking about, like, you know, oh, maybe I should translate it into English.

and that's it, but I understood the real truth. Of course, I have a lot of English speakers in my Russian account right now. A lot of people understand English as well, but the algorithms don't. So I understood that it's much easier to just create one more account and start from scratch in there and focus on their entertainment content, and that's it. So I already did that, and I gained in one month 10K followers in Instagram and YouTube as well, tanking there and take it there. So I'm just keep pushing it and yeah.

You know, it's crazy. I don't. I used to like my Instagram. I love my Instagram. It's fine. But my gosh, like my YouTube is like my baby. Yeah. It's everything.

And the one thing I've noticed is it's been the artist in terms of growing. But like when you start seeing the exact same 4,200 people on the same comment section each week that are pushing it out there. Whereas my Instagram, yeah, I just put my reels together. My editor cuts a few things up, throw it out there. But my YouTube is my baby because it actually pays me. You know what I'm saying? It actually pays me. So when I start, like, my YouTube is one thing I've really focused a lot on.

Okay, what advice would you give me to try and besides Google Ads and SEOs and other stuff? What are the best ways to try and continue to build, like, my personal YouTuber? I think I have like what, 28 or 29 on Instagram, K, it doesn't pay me. My YouTube's got like 20,000 and it pays me relatively well per month as well. So what advice would you give me to try and continue to build my YouTube? I think in terms of YouTube, you need to start like we're really hot topics. So for example, in our conversation, you can pick the theme like, she, we're drug and alcohol addicted in the very beginning.

And that will be really good. It will be really good. Because people don't interest about sex stories. I talk about a lot of today and you too and it was like really useful conversation but they don't give it to him.

They were really interested in oh my gosh, she was drug addicted and alcohol addicted. I really want to watch it. So like you should start with all those things and your videos will probably go much more viral. This is the thirsting.

And yeah, I think this is the main stuff to actually grab... So you think I should catch fish my viewers? For sure. I mean, you need to grab attention. So I should twindle my viewers. Yes, yes. Awesome. No, no, I like that.

It's true. I use a lot of platforms that kind of like get good form of captions to try and invigorate it. Because when I get like one reel or YouTube short that goes off, people often go click on it and watch. the actual full podcast. For sure. For sure. Yeah. Like short format videos are like really good. And actually what you can do as well, you can not only like cut those like short format videos from your long form, but you actually can film some short form videos like from scratch. Just you know, for example, you have like that separate shoot is set for just short form videos.

Because sometimes from podcast or interviews to make like really good short video, it's like It's hard, it's hard. But if we're talking about like really good short video, it's better to, you know, to write a hook like separately to understand what right now audience really craving for. For example, maybe motivation or entrepreneurial thing or business thing, whatever you want to speak about. So just create some short format like videos separately and start to upload because, you know, that short format videos,

they can gain much more views than long format videos, much easier and much quicker. Of course, it pays you less, but those videos can actually grow your channel really fast, and all these followers will watch your long format video that bring you a lot of money. Love that, love that. Last two questions right now.

So the second last one right now, What is the vast differences between the market in Russia and the market in America? That's great question. I think in Russia it's much harder to sell something. Because people don't really have opportunity and a lot of money to actually invest in their education or all of those things. And they're like, you know, they're really thinking about, oh my gosh, should I do this or should I don't do this? And it's like, you know, hard question for them. So warming up strategy in Russia is really tough.

And I know how to do that. So like, you know, when I switch in right now, it's English-speaking market. I understand, oh, my God, I have those skills that like any Americans don't have just because Americans buy much easier than Russian. And I understand how to sell Russian guys, so I easily can sell anything to America. And that's like really good, like, you know, difference for myself. We're talking about like Russian market and American market. I think like Russian just much more straightforward. So Americans try to cut angles, but Russian just like, it is where it is.

I love you, I don't love you. I hate you. I hate you. Yeah, yeah, something like that. They like crazy. For example, like Gran Cardone, he's like really controversial personality and America recognizes him like this. But in Russia, we have a bunch of Gran Cardone's and even worse. I mean, worse in their like, you know, phrases and in their statements

because I love Gran Cardone, but like, you know, we're talking about Russian guys. They're like much more straightforward and it's like normal thing for us. Love that, love that. One last question right now. So the code to winning insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow. The question I ask all my guests, what is your definition of winning? What is my definition of winning? Oh my gosh, I love this question.

I think it is when you have in your mind something like really crazy, a really crazy goal that you like, oh my God, like, how can I, how can I do that? No matter what is that for you, for me, like, all the people have those like goals or like this idea that, oh my gosh, how can I do that? I really want it, but I don't know how to do that. And when this person actually achieved that, I call this movie. Love that so much. If you can let our viewers know where they could get a hold of you, your social media, your

handles and like your courses, just give a brief. like outro like who you are as well So if we're talking about my English speaking page because we're in an English speaking podcast so my English speaking page is

the Lady Pop it's T-H-E L-A-D-Y-B-O-B-O-B-B but if we're talking about my Russian-speaking page where there's my all of my courses I don't know there's Lada de Popova

L-A-D-A-P-O-V-A awesome stuff the coach-winning insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow. Lada Popova, great honor. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I started in 2005 selling satellites. I legit ran door to door. I would run from one house to the next house.

I would cut through the lawns before somebody can say, don't run through my lawn. I was already at the neighbor's house. You know, how will you measure your life talks about that you got to meet your needs first, like your physical needs. But then once you've met your needs and kind of met your money needs, then there's other levels of influence and other levels of things that you're trying to get, right? One of the next level up is recognition. People really want to be recognized and honored for what they've done.

And then after that, it's like leaving a legacy. Like what do I want to do? How do I want to leave a legacy for the rest of it? But it's not about the money. It's about the number, right? I put a goal out and I've got other people that are counting on me and I'm counting on me and I'm a man of my word and that's what I said. So I'm going to go do it. You know what I mean?

100%. You know what are the questions? You know, what are the qualities? I think somebody that is willing to work irregardless of the outcome. If you get married to the process, you're going to win. If you get married to the result, you may or may not win. If I'm engaged with them, they feel like,

man, this guy really likes me. This guy's really, he's really talking to me. Because so often we're, even when we're talking to, even when we're trying to network with somebody, we're like getting an home a little bit and we're kind of all over the place instead of just locking in. My, I coached a little four-year-old soccer once and AYSO and at the end of the game, I would go up to the kids and I would just make them stare at me.

And I'd say, did you have fun today? Did you? You did so great. I'm so proud of you. I'm so happy here. You're an emotional finger about it. Because that kid, I want that kid to know that they're important. I want to make sure that I'm associating with good people. What will happen if you become the best, if you become the best person that you can be,

people will be attracted to that. People want to come talk to you. That's powerful. Right? And then you'll get to know them and your network will grow.