growth @ Selzy // paid social @ FirstPour

I’ve been in digital marketing since 2017, and I kept seeing the same pattern: fuzzy results and no clear ROI.

I always wanted one thing — direct, measurable impact.

In 2022, I moved to a new country, started freelancing, and then built Dedicado Agency. Survival was simple: make marketing work.

I went all-in on B2B, tested multiple channels, and found outbound to be the most effective. For the first time, I saw Sales truly respect Marketing — we generated enough qualified leads to sign 3 new clients within a couple of months.

Since then, I’ve replicated the same playbook for multiple clients and for my own agency. It wasn’t easy: long days, heavy tooling investment, documenting processes from scratch, and building a team — with more than one moment of considering a return to full-time employment.

But it paid off.

Today, I know which projects can win with outbound — and which can’t. And I’ve gone beyond outbound to build full GTM systems (outbound + paid ads + organic content) that don’t just generate leads, but also build trust and awareness within a clearly defined audience — and turn that into demand.

If you’re building B2B and want a repeatable way to generate demand and pipeline, feel free to connect or DM.

Evgeny Kotelevskiy

After 4 years of working 100% remotely, I realised one simple thing:


This is the ideal work format for me.

Why ideal:

↳ You can focus 100% on work, eliminating water cooler small talks, coffee runs, and the like.

↳ The number of useless meetings decreases significantly.

↳ You choose where to work; in my case, the bike replaced the subway, and instead of the soulless skyscrapers of an office center, I started working in a cozy coworking space with a garden where roses bloom year-round 🌹.

↳ Conveniences like dress codes are a thing of the past - I never understood the relevance of clothing to professionalism.

I see two main advantages of remote work:

↳ Development of independence: there's no Maria or Peter sitting near you to give you hints or do something instead of you; you have to figure it out yourself.

↳ Considering all the above, your professional growth happens much faster.

What are your thoughts on the 100% remote format?

#remoteworker #remoteworklife #remotework

I created Dedicado Agency in 2024. The goal behind it was simple: prove to myself that I can make marketing work and make it clearly measurable.

Why this idea?

Before that, I’d seen so many teams (including myself) doing so many things that didn’t produce results:

- Generating reports for the sake of reports, full of BS
- Infinitely forwarding emails back and forth to approve one simple thing that could’ve been approved in 2 minutes
- Burning budgets on channels that didn’t generate any profit and inventing metrics to "prove" they actually bring results

The more I run my agency, the more I understand this story is less and less about money for me, and more about finding the connection between business results and marketing activities. And for that, I can tolerate a lot:

- Spending more and more money on tools, even if projects can go unprofitable
- Working with "hard clients" who aren’t very friendly, if I see they have product-market fit
- Focusing 100% on my work and on nothing else

That’s why the agency is called Dedicado [Dedicated].

Go all the way to the end.

I’d like to say this is a joke, but there’s zero irony here. I’m pretty damn serious.

🤑 How much does DIY outreach cost?

Last week I did a quick exercise to understand how much money you need for lead gen tools to launch properly on your own — and I was kinda shocked 🤪.

Let’s use our starter plan at Dedicado Agency as a benchmark.

2,000 contacts: 5,000 emails + 1,000 LinkedIn connections for $1,990/month

Let’s go:

↳ Lemlist (2 seats) — $198 (LinkedIn + email sender)
↳ Apollo — $100 (contact source)
↳ LinkedIn Sales Navigator — $120 (LinkedIn contact source)
↳ OpenAI API — $50 (to plug AI into spreadsheets, etc.)
↳ Apollo scrapers — $30 (so you don’t hit limits)
↳ MillionVerifier — $30 (email verification)
↳ Catch-All Verifier — $20 (to double-check emails after MillionVerifier)
↳ GetProspect — $50 (Sales Navigator scraper + email finder)
↳ Make.com — $19 (automations)
↳ Domains (10) — $130 (one-time payment)
↳ Google Workspace via Zapmail (12) — $70
↳ Apify — $100 (scrapers)

Then you choose:

🔴 Budget option:
GPT for Sheets — $30 (data work)
Perplexity Pro for 3 accounts — $20 (website research)

🟡 Optimal option:
Clay Explorer — $349 (data work)

🟢 Recommended add-on:
+ MasterInbox — $299 (reply management)

What you get in the end to launch your campaign:

🔴 Budget option:
$967 [$817/mo + $150 once a year]

🟡 Optimal option:
$1,317 [$1,167/mo + $150 once a year]

🟢 Optimal option with the recommended add-on (MasterInbox):
$1,616 [$1,466/mo + $150 once a year]

Writing this not only for you, but also for myself — to understand where the money is actually going. 😂

Outbound should work like this:

- A steady flow of interested leads
- Converting into meetings
- Meetings turning into sales

Yes, there can be nuances:

- The % of interested people can vary a lot
- You may need 2-3 follow-ups before someone agrees to a call
- The deal cycle can stretch out, and it’s not guaranteed a deal happens within a month

But the main thing is this:

!! Understanding that people are replying and that there’s interest. !!

If you have replies and you have interest, you can:

- Scale volumes multiple times
- Fine-tune your offer to make it more attractive
- Add extra channels (LinkedIn, WhatsApp, etc.)

But if you don’t have that, you need to think about 3 key things:

- Who you’re pitching
- What you’re pitching
- Do they actually need it

Because if at scale (1,000+ contacts) you’re not getting replies, most likely you’re not hitting the right audience with the thing they actually want.

Because if you are hitting it, people will forgive you for:

- Not-perfect deliverability
- AI-generated profile pics
- Domains that lead nowhere
- Your non-native or ChatGPT-ish English

All of that matters and affects conversion rate. But it’s not the core thing.

The core thing is understanding what your audience needs and communicating value that can actually satisfy that need.

That’s it!

I am a results-driven marketing leader with over a decade of experience in digital marketing, project management, and team leadership. Currently based in Paris, France, I specialize in developing and executing innovative marketing strategies that drive business growth, enhance brand visibility, and achieve measurable outcomes.

With a proven track record of success in online events, content marketing, and targeted advertising campaigns, I have consistently delivered impactful results, such as increasing conversions, launching high-profile projects, and managing budgets effectively. My expertise spans SEO, PPC, email marketing, influencer collaborations, and social media management, ensuring comprehensive solutions for business growth.

Notable achievements include organizing an online conference with 2,000 participants, leading content strategies that generated significant revenue, and mentoring teams to consistently exceed performance goals. I am passionate about building high-performing teams, optimizing processes, and creating meaningful connections with audiences across global markets.

I am actively seeking opportunities to collaborate with forward-thinking organizations or clients who are ready to take their marketing strategies to the next level. Let’s connect and discuss how I can contribute to your success!

📩 Contact: maksymovayuliia@gmail.com

Julia Maksymova

Marketing & сontent trends 2026: what actually wins

As we look toward 2026, one thing becomes clear: growth will not come from producing more content, but from making better decisions.

AI-powered tools are now widely accessible. Speed and scale are no longer competitive advantages.

What differentiates strong brands is judgment — the ability to choose what matters, what resonates, and what to ignore.

This carousel outlines the key marketing and content trends shaping 2026, based on practical observation rather than hype.

In 2026, the brands that win are not those chasing every new tool or trend.

They are the ones that stay focused, communicate clearly, and show up consistently for the same audience.

If you are building a company, a product, or a personal brand, these are not future predictions.
They are strategic priorities you can apply today.
If you looking how to monetize your expertise ask me how.

Julia  Maksymova 

Product marketing manager AI-driven projects | Marketing & Personal brand strategist | Product, Content & Growth | Business consulting | Mentorship #marketing #productmanagement #businessconsulting

Trends 2026

A pretty eventful start to the year. I flew from Rome to my village, picked up daughter after her holidays with her dad, got back to work, faced -5 degrees and a snowstorm, then a hurricane. Got sick. Started dental restoration. Bought tickets to Rome for the birthday. Sent sister to our native city for the holidays. Held a workshop about promotion strategy. I am full of energy. I love this year simply because I’m alive, my loved ones are alive, I am loved and in love, and I have work(s) that I truly enjoy. Everything else can be figured out. How is your start?

No matter what we do or plan, we need resources to make it happen.

To work online, for yourself, or as a freelancer, you need technical resources. A phone with enough memory. A computer that can run all browsers without problems.

Right now I work on a project where I constantly download huge videos. Several reels every day and long, heavy YouTube videos. Very often, instead of working, I clean my computer memory just to download new files. Who pays for this? Nobody 🙂 This is a resource that I provide for myself.

Besides that, we need software resources. A paid ChatGPT subscription, Canva, Zoom, a website, Photoshop, cloud storage, and other services. All this costs money. It is paid every month and usually on different days.

We also need a time resource. Work, life, and health all need time. We are always spinning in a wheel where only one thing gets the prize. External factors try to take our resources, and we are forced to protect them.

The most important resource is health. What goals can we reach if we have no health? Vitamins, sleep, eating on time. Our bio resource often suffers while we chase other things.

And there is also the network resource. People are a resource too. Knowledge, skills, connections. We are fuel and a resource for each other. And this is normal.

I ran two workshops on personal brand promotion strategy. After setting goals for the year and the quarter, we did an exercise. Next to each goal, we wrote what resources are needed to achieve it. Because planning is not enough. You also need to understand what fuel is required.

For example, for my goals I need:
An iPad for working on video content and visuals
A more powerful MacBook with more memory
Connections and networking
Photo and video content
Time

I was very surprised when I realized that for some tasks I already have everything. The equipment, the knowledge, and even the content. But for some reason, I still have not reached the goal. Let’s see how this exercise and these realizations will help me finally move forward.

So often, when we talk about personal branding, promotion, and goals, everything gets reduced to numbers.

Followers. Views. Money. Millions.

And every time, I come back to the same realization: a goal can't be purely quantitative.

When people come to me for consultations and say, “I need to make five thousand dollars,” we almost always end up digging deeper.

It’s not just about the five thousand. Under what conditions? From what sources? In what format? And most importantly why?

Because the emotional driver always comes first. The numbers come second.
Even if, on the surface, it looks like the opposite.

Of course, when your brain sees an empty fridge, it focuses on money. That’s normal.

But long-term, we can't stay motivated by numbers alone. Eventually, burnout, crisis, or inner conflict creeps in.

I’ve been through it myself.

At one point, while working on my personal brand strategy, I set a clear financial goal—X thousand dollars.

At the time, I was living in a tiny one-bedroom apartment with a child, and yes, that money really mattered.

So I built a strategy around that number. But in the end, the goal was wrong.

I didn’t reach X dollars. And I didn’t feel fulfilled either. Because the goal wasn’t aligned with me as a person.

That’s why it’s so important to separate money and likes.

One doesn’t cancel out the other. When you grow your personal brand, you usually get both — recognition and income.

But your true motivation? That’s something you have to be honest with yourself about.

That’s where this simple framework comes in:
What do you want?
How will you know when you have it?
What signs will show you're on the right path?
And what happens if it doesn’t work out?

That last question is the most revealing. It tells you how real and how important the goal truly is.

And this is exactly why I don’t see virality as a goal in itself. A viral video can feel great. But behind a million views, there’s also work. Criticism. Emotional highs and lows.

Virality doesn’t guarantee clients or stability. In the end, it all comes down to your niche, your goals, and your context.

For some people, going viral helps. For others, it’s not the right fit at all. That’s why I’ve stopped focusing so much on whether something “went viral.”

Instead, I pay attention to other things:
Are people reaching out?
Are they coming back?
Are they getting to the point where they’re ready to take action?

Because a personal brand is our foundation: system, compass, income source. We’re building our own factory.

And what that factory produces: noise, clutter, or something meaningful — depends entirely on us.

#marketing #perosnalstrategy #goals #personalbrand

I recently watch a podcast with Phoebe Gates and there was one part that I think is seriously underrated by experts.

Phoebe shared that she and her partner don’t use ChatGPT as an idea generator. They use it as a tool to analyze viral content.

Here’s what they do:
— they take viral videos from TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts
— upload them to OpenAI’s ChatGPT
— break down the structure: hook, rhythm, delivery, emotion
— look for recurring patterns
— and only then start creating their own content based on those insights

The key is, they’re not copying, they’re doing reverse engineering: “Then we’ll make an Excel sheet: These are really good videos, here’s why this video was good, and then we’ll reverse engineer how to make that video,” Gates said. “A lot of times, even for our simple founder videos, we’re reverse engineering other content that we’ve seen do really, really well.”

Here’s my take as a marketer and mentor: this is exactly the point where AI stops being a toy and becomes a business tool. The issue isn’t that AI “makes everyone sound the same.” The real issue is that most people use it without a clear strategy.

The wrong approach is: “Give me 10 post ideas" that leads to generic content and noise.

What Phoebe Gates describes is a totally different mindset:
— first, analyze the market
— then package your expertise
— and only after that, create content

So what’s the real value for experts and founders here?
— you understand faster why something performs well
— you guess less
— you manage attention better
— and you build content as a system

More and more, I’m saying that personal branding in 2026 isn’t about writing posts, it’s about understanding the market, managing attention, and building funnels. Without that, neither ChatGPT nor trends can help you.

How are you using AI right now? Got any hacks to share?

#AI #genai #chatgpt #gptanalytics #aiconetnt #viralstrategy

«I was working on a project, and when it came time to promote it I was already burned out.» Sounds familiar?

This kind of thing has been happening to my clients a lot over the past few years.

Someone decides to create something: a digital product, a startup, a book, whatever. They pour in a ton of energy, time, and money.

But the moment it needs to be shown to people, they're out of steam. All their energy went into building the product, and now there’s nothing left for distribution. Just… done. No strength to move forward.

So begins the search for co-founders, marketers working for equity, rookie social media managers for pennies. Because it seems like that’ll help.

This is the point where failure becomes almost inevitable.

Why? Because very few people plan for distribution from the beginning. The mindset is: first the product, it has to be amazing, it has to be perfect.

Nope. That’s not how it works. Even the most mind-blowing product won’t be mind-blowing if no one uses it. There won’t be enough data or feedback to prove how great it is. No audience, no test group.

Getting the word out about what you’ve built is, in many ways, more important than the product itself. Worst case scenario: at launch, you run into the town square (aka the internet) and just start yelling about it everywhere you can.

Best case: you’ve already been creating demand and talking about the product long before it exists. Got an idea? Great. Start talking about where it came from, what problem it solves, what goals you’re aiming for. Share anything from the space you’re building in.

Your goal is to start showing up in people’s feeds: people who, when launch day comes, are already following you. Even better if they already know what you're working on and are waiting for it.

Spreading the word about your project should take up just as much time as building the project itself. Coded for 40 hours? Cool. Now spend 40 hours building a content plan, writing posts, and publishing them everywhere.

And no, that doesn’t mean dropping everything to just make posts. It means if you planned to build something in X days, you should also plan to promote it for X days. Do it in parallel or right after, but do it.

Otherwise, yeah, congrats, you built something, but still fumbled at the stage where your product needed reach = revenue.

And that’s a straight shot to burnout. “All marketers suck,” “I have no promo skills,” “I’m a creator, not a seller.” Lol. No one wants to sell, but you have to.

There’s a moment nearly everyone knows.

You’re sitting in front of your laptop. Notion or Google Docs is open. You need to create something.

But your mind is blank. Just that meme monkey going ding ding, and the sound of the wind.

You wait for inspiration and tell yourself today just isn’t the day.

But here’s the truth: ideas don’t just show up on their own. You have to call them. You have to create the right environment for them to show up. You just haven’t learned how yet.

I used to think creativity was something you either had or didn’t, then I started seeing a pattern. When people struggle to come up with ideas, they’re usually thinking too broadly.

🫧 I want an idea for content.
🫧 I want to write something interesting.
🫧 I need a post.
🫧 It has to go viral.

This kind of thinking creates noise, but not ideas, and nothing is born from noise.

So how do you train yourself to generate ideas on demand?

Start with focus. If you haven’t decided what exactly you’re thinking about, you’re not really thinking at all.

Pick a specific area of interest.

Your personal brand > The fear of being visible.
Your product > The struggle of making the right choice.
Your content > The feeling of being unheard.

Once you define the work zone, your mind stops bouncing around and starts to engage. But focus alone isn’t enough. Ideas don’t appear by accident. They show up as a response to the right question.

What if I do the opposite?
What if this isn’t a problem, but a benefit?
What if I push this to the extreme?

The most vibrant ideas often come from the places that first feel ridiculous. That’s the trick — creativity doesn’t fear looking stupid, narrow thinking does.

Then comes the trickiest part. The stage where most people, including me, get stuck.

You get an idea.
It’s exciting. It feels fresh.
And you let it sit in a corner.
Cool, I’ll use it later.
And then it ends up in a forgotten folder.

This is where setting up comes in. Ask yourself one question:  «What can I do with this?»

Setting up means turning a thought into action.

A post.
A set of stories.
An exercise.
A content format.
One clear next step.

Creativity isn’t chaos or magic. It’s a process you can control.

If you’re stuck, read this post again, find the part where you got lost, restart the process and take it all the way through.

So, what can you do with this?

I am on my way to set up this, highly recommend

Technical Product Manager | Full-Stack Software & Hardware Development | Founder | Inventor

My first product release in 2026. An AI secretary that manages your phone notifications.

It lets you work deeply while staying on track. No clock-watching. No constant phone checks. Just gentle reminders when you need to shift, and alerts when something can't wait.

How It Works

Runs in your browser. Connects to your phone via the companion app.

Notifications mirror from your phone to the browser tab.

Your phone stays on DND. The app processes everything.

You create the rules — in what situation and how you want to be notified.

Three Things I Built With It

1. The Hourly Briefing

All my notifications are batched for 1-2 hours. Then AI summarizes them as a secretary would actually report:

"You got 3 emails — two marketing, one from your accountant about Q4. Alex asked about weekend plans. Your delivery arrives tomorrow."

Then it reads it aloud.

(I always wanted some sort of batching notification on my phone, but this one is even better)

2. The Urgent Filter

AI checks every notification while I'm in focus mode.

Meeting reschedule? Pushes through.
Random newsletter? Waits for the hourly batch.

I can finally put my phone on DND without the background urge to check if something happened.

3. Conditional Alarm

I have a couple of cases when I need to wake up if I get a message about something specific.

Now I can set it up: if a notification from this app or this person with such and such content — wake me up. Everything else gets filtered.

Sleep undisturbed unless it actually matters.

Try it out for free!
Link in the comments ↓
(If you don't see the comment with a link, leave "+" in the comments, and I'll send you the link)

#NotificationManagement #ProductivityTools #AIAssistant #AndroidApps #FocusMode #DoNotDisturb #WorkflowAutomation #IndieHacker #ProductLaunch

I’ve been thinking a lot about a recent comment by Kiran Mani, CEO of JioStar, on how AI is reshaping the way audiences discover and engage with content.

What stood out to me is this → the most meaningful impact of AI today is not on production, but on distribution.

AI increasingly influences three things that matter far more than formats or posting frequency:
✦what content gets discovered,
✦what holds attention,
✦and which voices are perceived as relevant or credible.

That means the content journey itself is changing.

Audiences no longer rely primarily on subscriptions or chronological feeds. Discovery now happens through AI-powered recommendations, personalized feeds, and generative search results. In many cases, content is filtered before a user ever sees it.

From a marketing and personal brand perspective, this shifts the competitive landscape.

We are no longer competing post by post.
↪︎We are competing for algorithmic recognition.

In practice, that favors brands and experts who are:
✦clearly positioned,
✦topically consistent,
✦and easy for systems to categorize and recommend.

What this means for those who adapt, there are real advantages:
✦greater discoverability without proportional increases in content volume,
✦better alignment with audience intent,
✦and stronger long-term visibility through recommendation systems.

For those who don’t, the risk is subtle but serious: producing valuable content that never enters the discovery loop.

The key shift is this: content strategy is becoming inseparable from distribution logic.

As AI becomes an intermediary between creators and audiences, success depends less on what you publish today and more on how your brand is understood by systems over time.

taplio

The Battle

Evgeny Kotelevskiy

Julia Maksymova

Followers

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Performance ScoreEvgeny Kotelevskiy's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJulia Maksymova's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Evgeny Kotelevskiy

Julia Maksymova

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Evgeny Kotelevskiy's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJulia Maksymova's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreEvgeny Kotelevskiy's LinkedIn Performance