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Nikita has an incredible story—his journey from a past in Ukraine to establishing himself as a skilled professional and digital nomad. Similarly, Polina has found her niche, excelling in business development, global sales, and product management. In our conversation, Nikita and Polina will open up about: – Starting a business and overcoming obstacles – Managing diverse projects and keeping the atmosphere positive – Embracing big changes in work and personal life Perhaps even more intriguing are their unique interests beyond work, which include tech, transhumanism, minimalism, and sports. Join us, participate in this sincere discussion and learn real-life lessons from Nikita and Polina’s experiences.
TIMESTAMPS:
00:01 Introduction and Guest Background
01:05 Journey from Ukraine to Georgia
06:23 Life and Challenges in Georgia
10:30 Moving to Bulgaria: Reasons and Experiences
19:41 Establishing Vertigo Marketing Services
23:57 Services and Portfolio of Vertigo
26:58 Working Dynamics in Vertigo
27:12 The Beginnings of Vertigo and Division of Responsibilities
28:15 The Dynamics of Co-Founders and Their Unique Strengths
29:07 The Importance of Complementing Each Other in Business
29:31 The Challenges and Rewards of Content Creation
30:37 Navigating Disagreements and Making Compromises
31:35 The Value of Having Co-Founders and Support Systems
33:46 Life in Bulgaria: Work-Life Balance and Leisure Activities
38:11 Exploring Future Opportunities and Potential Relocations
43:11 Interactions with Bulgarians and Learning the Language
48:02 Business Plans and Personal Goals for the Future
Emily: Hello. Hello. It’s me, Emily Bron. And today as promised, I have pleasure to have to guess that I was looking forward for a long time to have interview with it’s Nikita Solovyov CEO of a vertical marketing services and Polina Fogel which is working with Nikita for the same company.
And she’s Responsible for research and development, correct?
Nikita: Absolutely
Emily: Okay and I am Looking forward to learn more a little bit more about you and I believe it will be interesting For our guests as well your personal story In short, and we will start from Polina.
Polina: I think maybe Nikita should start.
Nikita: First of all, thanks a lot, Emily, for inviting us. It’s a huge pleasure talking to you and to have this opportunity to speak a little bit more about our lifestyle and how life, how things are changing so fast and how we’re trying to adapt to all the pace. But, yeah, let’s just start from the very beginning.
Basically I was born and raised in Ukraine in the south, beautiful south city of Kherson, which is basically was occupied during the Russian invasion in the beginning of 2022, and that’s, that was like the whole of my life, basically I spent all my years out there. Founded the first job.
I started my early career and so on. I actually spent all my childhood, all the friends, all the stuff. But eventually when the war hit, I was like somewhere in the middle of my career, trying different opportunities. So basically I have a background in business development and sales and project managers.
I swept many multiple industries starting from heavy ship building and in my native. city and finishing with the digital marketing and working for other companies in Europe, but eventually even when the COVID hit, I would say got a first remote job and we’ll find the career ladder But let’s say life give some corrections and some circumstances where you should like.
Change so basically this was the point I was having I was employed like a full time employee at the company from Europe and That was my status quo when the war hit. So basically there were no so many opportunities to work remotely still to be safe and to have all the necessary environment to still grow and develop like your career and your personal growth.
So basically that’s the point when the story goes in another direction. But I think we will go to that a little bit further on. Yeah,
Polina: yeah, my, my story almost the same with Nikita from the time we met with him. But before we met I was living in Gonski and unfortunately Russia occupied the city I lived in 2014.
And my family decided to move. To her son, actually, for me, it’s still a mystery why my parents chose those CD probably just because they have friends some friends there who could help them to navigate in a new city. And now when I’m moving from different countries to countries, I understand how important it is to have at least , somebody, at least one person at a new place who will help you.
The challenges of a new place. So yeah, I was at school when we moved to Kherson and I met Nikita in Kherson. We became friends from that time. We also studied at the same university, but In a different courses and we continued our friendship in university. We started dating at that time and , I was also working for a European company, but it was located in Kherson.
So it was Sometimes hybrid work, but mostly remote, and I have never imagined that I would really leave my country before the invasion of Russia in 2022. Yeah that is my story.
Nikita: basically, the story of how we became… For both life partners and business partners at the end of the day.
So that’s been a hell of a ride in a good sense, of course. Sound like ups and downs in ways, but still very exciting.
Emily: I’m just wondering how it was easy or possible for you to find work with international companies being in Kherson. Because I didn’t know that it was possible. And you mentioned even that there were some international companies in Kherson.
Polina: I Can answer this question.
Okay. For both me and Nikita, it’s similar situation. So it’s different companies. , they have headquarters in Europe. Mine company has headquarters in Portugal. Nikita’s company had headquarters in UK, but they all have representative in Ukraine, in, Kiev, of course, in capital.
But It was the period when remote work became very popular. It started before the COVID. And so it was a very easy to find remote job. And they didn’t care about your location. They just cared about your knowledge your skills. And both of us we were studying English in university.
Nikita is a translator and I’m applied linguist. So for us it was pretty easy to find something like that.
Emily: Great. I’m really happy to hear about this opportunities. And now I understand that you actually became remote workers before COVID times, actually before it became a big trend. So you are one of the pioneers of international remote work.
And just to share out from my side, actually, I lived one year in Kherson. It was my first year of university. So many years ago. Yeah. So I remember this city when I didn’t visit it for a long time. And really warm memories I have from my one year life in Kherson. But let’s move to your life and I understand that war which started in February really changed course of life of many people and you found yourself or how it happened,
so what you can tell about this, , what are your impressions after living for some time in,
Nikita: let me just go first so the answer to this question is that Georgia met us really hospitably and it was a really great country. Indeed. People are really kind. There is basically no vivid language barrier. Because they basically speak Russian or English at least , younger generation, they speak English very well.
Older generation they usually speak Russian, so we are, like, bilingual. And that’s why there is no vivid reason for us not to communicate with the local people. So everything was pretty much settled. We really enjoyed our stay in Georgia. And To our honest opinion, it’s a really great choice.
If you want to have a very middle kind of a lifestyle, so you can find something ancient, something really traditional out there in Georgia. In at the same time, you can find really great, like vast amount of people who are really into some digital nomadism. You can. find some international labor, the guys who are moving all the time.
They have a really busy centers, especially in Tbilisi It’s like a capital city, because of course, if you go to the , seacoast, you will see completely different lifestyle. Like the people all chill, they’re all just having fun. So it’s like not the same. So we can judge our, say main opinion about Georgia of the capital.
And Tbilisi is a really great capital city. For our personal opinion we can compare that to Kyiv, which we visited many times in Ukraine. It’s different, it’s still different, maybe a little bit poorer still, but nevertheless, it’s really great. , . Belize, for example. So they have a four areas where you can rent a cheap, cheaper flat. And also you have a couple of really great and really fashionable districts where you can be more. Like with the poorer public.
Yeah, definitely the city is very diverse and the country is too. So that’s why it was really comfortable. No, like contradictions in that. And
Polina: in fact at first we didn’t want to stop in Georgia. It wasn’t our plan. We plan to go further somewhere in Europe because most of our French acquaintances, they were in Europe and we thought that it will be easier there.
And yeah, so we saw our somewhere in Europe, but, the plans of our life, they probably was different from our plans. , we were also escaping Kherson with my younger brother and he, he was 14 years old at that time. And for us, it was a big problem because of documents, we couldn’t just leave Georgia and go somewhere in Europe, it was challenging the only way was to return back to Ukraine from Georgia, it was possible but It was no sense at that time to return back to Ukraine.
The war just started and we just thought that it’s better to stay sometime here in Georgia. And now I think that it was amazing that we had this opportunity to stay in Georgia for a longer time. We live there. Almost for a year and we tested the life of digital nomads in Georgia on the full.
So my brother, he started in school in Georgia. We navigated different things like hospitals and everything. We had many problems and we’ve solved them in this country. And I think that, now everything was great in Georgia.
Emily: Interesting. And I think you’re absolutely correct that to start a digital nomad life with a place nearby where you can find people speaking the same language now, Russian.
And English, because I know that you can find a lot of English speaking digital nomads and young generation in Belize speaking English. It’s a good life exercise. Actually opportunity to. Learn how might be in a new place. but despite all this experience, you moved to Bulgaria.
Why Bulgaria? And how is Bulgaria for you versus
Polina: I think there were three main aspects why we moved to Bulgaria from Georgia. The first one is cost of living. Belize became extremely expensive when the war in Ukraine started because lots of Ukrainians from. occupied south regions, they escaped to Georgia.
Also, many Russians escaped Russia who doesn’t support their government. And all of these increased prices in Georgia. So before war, you could find some one bedroom apartment in the central neighborhood of Georgia in Belize for $250, $300. And when the war started and when we arrived to In, in, in Belize the apartments were around $500, $600 and of course more.
They just start from this price range. And I think we were also lucky before we arrived just before the prices grow even more. And we found a good apartment in the central neighborhood before the prices rise, but still it was we could feel that prices are growing for food, for everything there. Title: Thriving in Transition: An Insights from Nikolay Solovyov and Polina Fogel of Vertigo Marketing Services
When the going gets tough, the tough get going. This old maxim perfectly captures the journey of Nikolay Solovyov and Polina Fogel, the drives behind Vertigo Marketing Services. This pair of persistent and ambitious individuals share the tale of their professional journey amidst challenging times, detailing the ups and downs, the scoops and turns, and most importantly, the continuous strive for growth and success.
Much like many business journeys, Nikolay and Polina started their voyage in their homeland, Ukraine. Amidst the turmoil and hardships brought about by the war, both of them found themselves making a significant decision to move to Georgia. Alongside this life-altering move, they decided not only to adapt to their new surroundings but also to grab the opportunity to pursue a long-sought dream of establishing their own business.
Their venture, Vertigo Marketing Services, was born out of their desire to establish independence. They recognized that amidst the drastic changes happening around them, they needed to build something for themselves. Vertigo was their answer to this need – a side hustle that started with a few clients that eventually turned into a full-time venture as their client base started to grow. The ultimate goal? To create a business that allowed them to live comfortably, irrespective of the circumstances around them.
Vertigo is aimed at helping companies leverage the power of content marketing. With a unique system called Vertigo 360, they aim to help brands succeed and establish prominence in their market. They attract the right audience to their client’s businesses through organic growth – a feat they achieve using their skills in copywriting, content strategy, and creative vision.
The pair’s journey did not end in Georgia. Driven by the high cost cost of living, they moved to Bulgaria. They recognized its geographical proximity to Ukraine, making it easier for them to transition. Alongside this, they found themselves surrounded by a community of other Ukrainian refugees – a factor that made their stay in the foreign land more comfortable and less lonely.
In Bulgaria, the pair dove deep into growing Vertigo. They divided their roles according to their strengths – Nikolay took the reigns in overseeing sales and administrative tasks, while Polina took the lead on the creative and technical aspects of their workflows, although both have their roles interchanging with each other.
Vertigo’s growth journey is far from over. Nikolay and Polina continuously aim to develop their skills, broaden their knowledge, and generate more clients in order to grow their venture. Part of their plan involves expanding their service offerings to include video editing and content production – paths that align with the ever-changing digital landscape.
In the face of challenges, Nikolay and Polina showed that resilience, creativity, and proactive decision making are key in achieving success. Their journey serves as an inspiration for entrepreneurs – proving that no matter the circumstances, through determination and a relentless pursuit of excellence, success is always within reach.
The second aspect that made us move from Georgia is Geographical location so Ukraine doesn’t have air flights now the air is closed. That means that we can come back to Ukraine only through, through buses, railways and so on. So no, no air connection and from Belize it is very difficult to come back to Ukraine.
You can only do that through Russia, which of course we doesn’t want to experience again, and only through Turkey, through Bulgaria, or flight from Georgia to some nearby countries from the western part of Ukraine, and then return back to Ukraine. If we want to see our relatives or to solve some problems that we have in Ukraine.
It’s really difficult to come back to Ukraine. And also that the next aspect which made us move is our parents, because the rest of our family, they moved to Bulgaria, they moved to Bulgaria because they already knew Bulgaria before they visited Bulgaria four times in a row every summer they liked the places they knew the cities, so it was something known for them.
And in a when you’re in a stress, of course you don’t want some additional challenges of a new place. So we moved to Bulgaria.
Nikita: Yeah, I just wanted to add that the the fact that it’s really geographically close to Ukraine make this territory full of other Ukrainians, which is basically really warm to your heart to meet people from your motherland.
It’s easier to communicate. It’s easier to gather a community around yourself. Like even if you don’t arrange any community, you can just find a lot of people to reach out in case you have any problems, questions. Maybe some other guys, they come across the question and. And they managed to solve the problem and you can just ask for advice like a bigger amount of people who may tackle the same problem as you are experiencing right now.
So that’s another reason why like our family moved out there. So basically we want to have some people who would just like form a small child community for us because family is a community anyways. You can just find a community like of professionals who share the same professional interest with You can find people who have the same passions like hobbies with you, but family is also like An original community that you might have from the very beginning.
So that’s easier to handle the problems where you all together at least you’re not living all together in same apartment, but at least you live in the cities which are really nearby. And currently we are living on the seashore. So basically it is there is a Burgas province and it’s called the Nisabur municipality, where like a lot of villages, they come like in a row and that’s why we just spread it across all those villages.
to live our life here. And that’s might be another, it’s pretty comfortable out here to yeah. I could say that there is not a lot of fun in just in this place, but at least it’s really cool and a pretty beautiful place out here. If you want to have some fun, of course you can just go to nearby cities like Burgas, maybe Plovdiv.
And if you want to have even more fun or some, I don’t know business. Vibes. You could just go to Sophia, which is a capital like six hours on train. It’s not that easy, but still the opportunities are here
Emily: great. I like your outlook to the life and I understand that you found a lot of actually business opportunities in golden sands area and this.
It’s a golden sands of Bulgaria. You’re living between Varna and Burgas and I know that many people from Eastern Europe and not only Eastern, even Western actually selecting this area to leave. For retirement. And lately there is influx of Ukrainian refugees and you just proved how important to have expat community around because it’s the beginning of life in every new place you are.
You mentioned Belize and now Bulgaria. It’s important to have people with similar language and with similar mentality going through the same. Issues may be ahead of you, but who can advise you in in the first months of accommodation. I understand that you happen this place and now the next question of what brought you to the idea of opening Vertigo marketing services company.
I understand that you had Working before but at what point you created your own company?
Nikita: That’s a really easy question to be honest because when you Come to a point in your life where everything changed drastically, like maybe 180 degrees. You start to think about your personal values, about where you want to be in this life and where you move at the end of the day.
And I think that’s, that how we can come up with that idea. So basically, we’re full-time employees during, before war started. And then just imagine this situation when you have this. Like a peaceful life in one place and you like make some plans. You have something like a vision for your life. You plan to be somewhere and then it’s all like stops at the, at some point.
And there is no this vision is not the same. Basically there is no vision that you had before. And then you come to Georgia, for example, or any other country, and you are now. in new circumstances, you are surrounded by new people, new level of life, new prices, like everything is completely new to you.
And you have to build this strategy and vision from scratch and Vertigo agency that we founded with Polina was just a really organical way of adapting to new circumstances, to new environment that we started to live in. Because the prices went up. Like the world start to, I don’t know, merge into deep crisis, inflation, and so on and so forth.
And basically, we started to think that we need some degree of independence. The war shows us that, it’s really important to be independent from… Some factors we need to understand that we couldn’t rely on I don’t know depend on something for 100 So we decided to make an asset for ourselves because every business is an asset basically because you grow it with time like a personal brand like for example your business and we like it’s your assets which you grow over time, your consultant business, like you work for it and you build it in the long game, like a marathon.
You treat it, you can treat your personal brand and the business like a marathon. And that’s why we decided that we need to build this kind of asset from scratch. Start running this marathon because life is a really interesting thing, but you. You have to do something to if you want more, you should do more.
So that’s why we decided that instead of having a job, like a full time job, we need to think about a side hustle. So every Normal grown business at some point might start from a side hustle, where you just start building the asset like website, trying to make your offer clear and concise, and you’re trying to understand, like, where is your fit into the industry and so on and so forth.
So we started to treat this as a side hustle for ourselves. To. Basically to grow the businesses into something bigger. And then at some point when we understood that we have a couple of clients and we can just I don’t know, just continue with working with those clients and expand the base.
We just decided to quit the full time job or even switch some of our clients from full time employers to a freelance contractors. And that’s how we just gradually came up with that idea. So basically that’s that, that wasn’t easy, but it required a lot of extra effort because when you work like a full time you at least work eight hours per day, maybe even less, but anyways, it’s eight hours or something like that.
And you need to do every time before or after work, you need to go some extra miles in order to have something. So yeah, it was a challenge, but still it’s 100 percent worth it. So you now become more and more independent from I don’t know, our our outer factors.
Emily: Thank you. I understand about importance of being independent, business independent. So now my question, what kind of services Vertigo company is offering?
Nikita: Okay, so pretty easy, no brainer, basically we help companies to build their brands with the power of content marketing.
So we have a system, like it’s called Vertica 360 system. Which is designed to help brands to succeed, to be, to become worthy, to become really prominent. So we basically help them to grow their followers base, their lead base, to attract I don’t know, signups for their startups, for example, to attract investors or whatever to their business might need.
Basically we help to attract the right people to other guys businesses. So that’s pretty simple, but we do that organically with the power of content marketing because counter marketing is free You don’t need to pay for some paid ads for You don’t need to pay to google to facebook to whatever corporation you might have in mind You can just do that with the power of engagement and the power of content So basically those kind of things that help you to grow organically in any kind of social media And then transform that kind of audience into something More something that your business might need.
Those are might be like, I don’t know, users, clients, investors, whoever you might have in mind. So basically that’s what we do. And we do that for mostly tech driven businesses, but anyways, we are also having to have, we also have experience with growing even consultant businesses as well. So basically our portfolio is pretty broad.
Emily: Interesting. Can you mention several examples of your portfolio, specifically speaking about a tech driven businesses?
Nikita: Yeah, absolutely. We used to work with the startups from Europe mostly, and those are from such industries as space tech, health tech, even more tech solutions and many others.
And of course, FinTech, everything that has this tech suffix these are guys we worked with. Basically we helped them to develop their content strategies. Content marketing strategy, especially and to craft this content from scratch. So basically there were analytical dashboard, some tech consulting businesses some startups that are early stations require some explanations of what are their solution because content is a great way to Explain your solution to, to, to broader audience.
Imagine you have a really complicated, sophisticated kind of a system that is designed to do something very specific, but you don’t know how to explain the, how the system works. And here comes content when you can create a video explainer guide. Analytical article, guide article or whatever and just distribute it in the right way so the audience can catch a point and just be interested to sparkle this curiosity from the audience and bring those people to your startup just to start working with them to get their feedback, maybe to get them curious to make a sign up or pay you money.
So basically, that’s like a lot of work required. That’s that’s our let’s say that’s our typical plan
Emily: and now I have a question to Paulina. I’m just curious how you divide your work responsibilities in the company. Even I know that you have different titles, but you have. I believe different strong sides.
So how you working
Polina: together? Yeah, I think that when we started Vertigo, it was clear for us what strengths both of us have and what our weaknesses. We divide, we thought that we could easily divide all of the responsibilities, but it turned And it turned out that at the first steps it’s really difficult to divide all of our responsibilities and we just discussed who can do what who can energy for these, who know how to do these who can do sales, for example, who can do the content strategy, who can write content who can edit content, who can do visuals and so on.
I think that in the future when we will grow and we plan to grow these responsibilities will be Divide it as we thought at the beginning. For example, Nikita is a better manager and I prefer more creative work.
Emily: so who is writing, who’s creating written content?
Yeah, both. I didn’t understand.
Nikita: Yeah both. Let me just elaborate a little bit on that. Like it’s a really great book. I’m really don’t remember the name, but it was written about co founders and the main example of great co founders, like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, basically those are different type of personalities.
It’s not exactly the same situation with me and Paulina. It’s not like the situation where one of us is completely backend and the other guy is completely frontend. It’s not like the same, but still we possess different. Characters and I don’t know, pieces of character that allow us to, I’m maybe more extroversial and I can do the representative job and I could take care of sales.
Polina instead, if she’s more creative, she can work internally and really pay a lot of attention to detail. So some things that I personally lack, Polina can compensate that basically both in life and business.
Emily: No, it’s excellent. And it’s actually how life is working best way. And I think in the business, there is the strength to understand from the beginning or as you will develop what are strengths each of you have.
So you compliment each other, but you rely on each other and can cover in case it’s needed, life might turn different way and somebody don’t feel good. So other one can Take this assignment on for some reason. I thought that Nikita is the main copywriter and Polina is responsible for technical side now.
I see it’s all moving
Nikita: Oh like It’s different. It depends on the context and the task at maybe we have different like knowledge because we have different background. And that’s why different content pieces and different content types we create different ways. Maybe I’m better at some kind of an analytical article at some point of time and Polina can do some creative more like.
Investigated writing at some point but we can could interchange each other since we are running a content marketing agency We are both good content makers by default And and our responsibilities is more like managing business, not like executing because executing we like in tandem, we basically do that both.
So we both can create, edit, make a copy and make visual, whatever. But when we’re talking about managing business, so something like administrative stuff, sales, operations, that’s where we divide because there, it requires different types of I don’t know, mindset, character, personality, whatever.
Emily: We have disagreements sometimes on the work, , how to write and what is important to outline.
Polina: I don’t know, Nikita, do we have some disagreements sometimes? Maybe.
Nikita: When we have even some kind of disagreements, we just trying to keep it really logical because when it’s like about taste, we can do a compromise. When it’s like about the visual gathering or I don’t know, maybe a reference or a style or whatever, we might just think about I don’t know, maybe to go for a compromise.
Maybe someone is really insisting really badly so the other guy can just step aside But if we are speaking about facts and data and objective truth I think we should go for an analysis and when analysis shows a result We both agree on that without any arguing. So I think it’s really organical That’s why we specialize in organic growth because we are both like organical in this kind of activity
Emily: Paulina, anything to add?
Polina: I just wanted to add that it’s also great that I think it’s a must to have co founders rather than one founder. Because sometimes when you are doing your business and It’s not that big at first, and sometimes you make some mistakes or you just don’t get the results you expected.
It’s difficult emotionally, psychologically to continue doing what you’re doing. Even if you understand that you just need a little bit more time. and it will work. You just need to test your idea a little bit more. So when you are alone, sometimes your emotions they can influence on you and you start thinking, oh no, maybe I’m not doing it right.
Maybe I should stop it. Maybe it wasn’t the right decision, but when there are two of you, usually how it works when I have got these emotional downside Nikita support us when he has this emotional downside. I support us and we find some positive things that help us to continue our journey.
Nikita: By the way, it’s a really good practice, a really wholesome stuff, even when you don’t have a co founder, it’s an accountability partner, so basically it might be your mentor, it might be your friend, your relative, or whoever you might have in mind, or the person with the necessary background that can just give you a lead.
Either a bird’s eye view or just a third party view just to say that you’re doing everything right You just need more time. You just need more consistency Or maybe you are not doing something right and you just a pivot at some point So basically that’s one of those like main core advices that we would give to any person who is running business or So planning to do a business and accountability partner, maybe even not a mentor because mentor is something really high level and maybe pricey at some point, I don’t know, but still accountability is really important here when to hear something back from other people, to receive some constructive feedback, or even just a word of support, it’s really important to keep you moving because if you want to treat that like a marathon, as I mentioned before, you need to have an accountability partner.
, thanks for your insights. I’M just wondering, we spoke a lot about work and your business in Bulgaria, but how you spend time, and I believe you have free time over there.
Emily: Can you share with us?
Polina: Sure. We can share. Unfortunately summer is over and during the summer there are lots of things to do here because it’s a seashore. There are many beautiful beaches and other natural destinations that we can visit mountains everything. Of course, now the weather…
Became colder and more rainy and it’s difficult to spend lots of time and at the fresh air. But I think the big part of our life is sport. We both like sports and Nikita goes to the gym where , he also has some community. And I also go to the gym, but I also visit a dance studio.
Our free time we like to spend actively. Or, of course, with our family. Our family is a big part of our life. I think the most important part of our life. That is why we are in Bulgaria to be close to them. And we usually spend time all together visiting different places, or just relaxing.
something like that. Nikita, maybe you would like to add something.
Nikita: Yeah, sure. Bulgaria is pretty diverse and except just working and doing some of our hobbies, we also can go hiking out here or even in when the weather got colder because there are plenty of different places in Bulgaria that you can visit, especially on the seashore line.
So basically this line that you mentioned, like this golden sand line Both near sea and to on the I don’t know, terrain side. You can usually, you can go to some castles, you can go to some I don’t know, maybe some beautiful constructions or you can visit some natural places. I don’t know, some seaside places or something like that.
Also, you can go something to the north. We also visited Sophia and we’ve been to the mountains out there because like even the weather is. pretty different where we are now and in Sofia. It’s really cold out there. Like the guys were wearing jackets even in September while we were wearing tank tops at the same time.
So basically it’s really diverse. So yeah, there is plenty of natural opportunities to, to say, exploring Bulgaria. The food is pretty, pretty good for us because it’s really similar. Balkan cuisine is It’s some kind of similar to Ukraine. That’s why we didn’t have to change or adjust our taste to that because like when you come to absolutely different country and you’re trying to try a new food and you try to adapt your like daily radio to that kind of food, you might get some problems with that.
But here we experienced no problem at all because we all eat meat, vegetables I didn’t know some pretty simple but very tasty food. So we don’t experience problems with that either. And, yeah, definitely it’s a really good place to stay, so you can just visit some events that meet your people from Ukraine too.
Because they also arrange some events in bigger cities, even in our villages and that. Yeah, basically we’re having pretty much fun out here. Anyways, we do a lot of work. Because if you wouldn’t work we would spend some more spectacular and funny place to be. But I think this place…
Matches our lifestyles perfectly because we spend a lot of time working and we don’t have that much time to go around Spend all the time on To explore things. So this is a perfect combination where when we have some free time we can explore something But otherwise we just still have this Work in life balance lifestyle and this place just perfectly matches the our needs at this point of time at least
Emily: So excellent e excellent explanation.
And you are lucky one having your family nearby, and I understand it’s very important and having a community of expats, refugees from Ukraine and UKs because many digital nomads and even the refugee complain about feeling of loneliness really to be. A new country without a circle of family, friends, or people, like minded people it’s not so easy.
And Bulgaria is working for you now. I don’t know about your condition and… Actually, how long you can live in Bulgaria, but I’m wondering, are you looking for new opportunities, like to move maybe to the next country, like what we can expect from you in the next year or two?
Polina: Of course, we are thinking about other places where we can stay or live longer.
We also don’t know how long we can stay in Bulgaria because of course right now until the war will end in Ukraine. Of course I think refugees could stay in, in Bulgaria. But what will be. Then we don’t know there are several options how we can stay in Bulgaria after after the war in Ukraine will end, we can get our permanent residence but of course it’s difficult process and we should start thinking about it, I think, right now.
We hope that the war will end very soon and we will start preparing all the things to stay longer in Bulgaria. But as you mentioned, many digital nomads they feel lonely here, especially at the seashore because we’re just happy that there are so many Ukrainians here and this is community, which is mentally in the mentality, very close to us.
So it’s easy for us to live here. And many Ukrainians, they start doing businesses here at the seashore. Many restaurants, cafes and beauty salons and so on. But if you’re not a Ukrainian it’s pretty lonely here. Everything is closed during the winter end of autumn and beginning of spring.
In our building, in our part of the building, there are only two apartments where people live right now. All the rest of the apartments, around 30 apartments are empty. And so there are not much people here and there are not many Bulgarians here. Most of them try to move to bigger cities during the colder season.
So you don’t have much to do here. But there are Bansko, which is famous in Bulgaria as a digital nomad hut. We haven’t tested it yet, but we plan to go there at the end of the winter, and maybe we will like that place more and we will see where we will stay. We also consider Poland as a.
possible place for relocation. It is also very close to Ukraine, it’s a big benefit for us. We have some friends there, the language is easy to learn, and the mentality is similar to us. we’re still thinking about this plan. I think in a year we will see.
Nikita: But nevertheless, we plan to travel even more to understand how…
Like the Europe ranges because we have the understanding of how people live in Europe, especially our our guys from Ukraine, how they change countries, change places and whatever, but still we need to do that ourselves. And then we’ll proceed to other continents. We also really. Fun of late in America, and I would love to visit it one day.
That’s one of our topics of interest. We also would love to pay attention to Asia. That’s not our mentality, but for traveling purposes to understand, maybe there are some beautiful and like personal matches might be out there to explore those places. Yeah, definitely we will spend some traveling, but there is one really…
Important accent here. Now we check everything and we just Trying to estimate everything from the point of view of living because before when we travel to any kind of a place We were just tourists. We just having fun. It was just chilling We just weren’t just looking at the prices at a I don’t know maybe a rent price.
I don’t know gas electricity I don’t know how to obtain a visa and Some other peculiarities, but now we are really precisely looking at the, at these various aspects when we travel. So we’re going to completely change our attitude and approach to traveling in the future to understand maybe there are some better places for us.
The life is long journey when we never know. So yeah, I’m pretty sure the next year is going to be really interesting.
Emily: I really adore your attitude and your adventurous spirit and understanding that all should be tried on your own experience because even stories of somebody else, maybe your friends and their impressions might be different from your personal impressions from the same place and from the same city.
And I really wish you will Visit the Bansko, which I heard and a lot about it and actually it’s a skiing resort and it’s good that summer as well. I believe that prices might be more like higher than where you live now, but I believe you will find a lot of like minded people from different countries because what I didn’t hear from you so far about your any interaction with Bulgarian.
With the people from Bulgaria. And I’m trying to understand if you’re learning Bulgarian and how on this front you are operating.
Polina: Nikita, maybe you want to answer because you. Talk with Bulgarians, , more than me.
Nikita: iT’s really interesting because at first, let’s start from language part Ukrainian and Bulgarian, pretty similar.
And at first when , a Bulgarian talks to you you might feel like you don’t understand a word, but like distinctively. But at the end, you understand what they want from you and or what they ask you about. that’s funny every time. But anyways, we’re trying to learn some Bulgarian a little bit.
Since we are staying here we, we don’t plan like to move like in a couple of months or whatever. So of course we’re trying to learn the basics. It’s easier in any country of the world. I’m pretty sure about that. If you know the basic language of the country You will be treated more with more respect like the people start to respect you.
They are more I don’t know polite kind and whatever they can do They will do their best to help you to and to be in touch with you Because you are showing respect to their culture and their language, and that’s really important. I thought for, it’s very clear for us as linguists, we understand the importance of that aspect of their lives.
But nevertheless, Bulgarians are pretty nice people. I don’t know, they’re just really nice folks. I’m pretty sure that all Welcome countries. They share the same mentality. But anyways They are pretty open to you and it’s really interesting that in bulgarian seashore You don’t need to put a lot of effort to communicate because these people are more open to understand you to solve your problem because they’re tourist oriented and No matter what, like what I don’t know time of the year it is, they are going to switch to some of your language, they’re going to assist you anyways, but if you go further in the country you might come to a problem that they won’t talk or speak to you in Russian, Ukrainian, or English, or whatever you language you will pick to talk with them, so that might be a challenge to go deeper in the country, but here on this Or we’re pretty comfortable with the talking to other people.
Yeah, that’s our impressions from talking to bulgarians Yeah, definitely. We also refer to clinics to solve some health problems with family members. We went to some services where we administrative services where we need to settle some papers. We also try to fix some tack and to do other like this like home bounded stuff.
And it was pretty easy for us. So even at some point, Bulgarians didn’t switch the language. We got everything pretty much clear. So maybe it’s just a case for us Maybe for other people it’s not that easy and not that clear But at our place in our situation, we are pretty comfortable talking to bulgarians of course, Bulgarians might be different as Ukrainians and other people in the world.
So everything depends on what people you pick for yourself to talk to. And this is really important too. So you’d better pick the right guys everywhere where you live, not only in Bulgaria.
Polina: Yeah. And I want to add that there is no much opportunity to practice Bulgarian in fact, because as Nikita mentioned, Bulgarians are very tourist oriented and during the summer in the restaurants.
All the signs, all menus, you can read in info languages, Bulgarian, Russian, English, and usually German. Because many Germans come here and spend their retirement here. When they understand that I don’t speak Bulgarian, they switch to Russian and start to speak to me in Russian, even if I try to say something in Bulgarian.
Emily: So they’re very welcoming.
Polina: Yeah, they were welcoming. I think that people in Georgia were very hospitable, and Bulgarians are also very hospitable and friendly.
Nikita: Maybe we’re just lucky.
Emily: Yeah, you’re lucky, and you’re selecting kind of places which are very close by mentality. To you, which is very important for the well being because and you probably heard different stories when people are moving to completely like even to, like to Germany, to Western Europe it’s a different mentality.
That’s why to Eastern European, it’s maybe. Too hard to assimilate quickly or to feel welcomed and accepted. I learned a lot about you from this conversation. Thank you. And it’s not secret. I would say that we know each other already for some time and I even notice your, from what I knew you around year ago, how you changed and I’m really happy for you.
So my probably last question will be what are your new plans development. Plans for the next year, speaking about business. Now, I know that you’re working on research and development. I know that you participating in different online conferences and really working on the self development personally and business wise.
What you can share with us.
Nikita: Sure, Emily. Thanks a lot. I just wanted to elaborate that about your last call that we know each other for some time. And I think that the secret of a good interview, when you know the people you talk to and you spoke to them in real life, that’s why you might show the depth in the interview.
And that’s why I think this is a good one. So thanks again for this opportunity. to speak. And speaking business plans wise, I think we are going to expand. Our target goal is not to have all the clients in the world or to be the biggest agency in the world. We just want to build our business for ourselves.
So it allow us to live our comfortable and best life possible. So the initial goal is to create a couple of project teams that are going to collaborate in multiple clients and different projects at the same time. So we could create this internal group of people working on multiple projects and growing our client businesses.
That’s our main goal. It might be not even the goal for the whole year because it requires some time, but speaking about business side, yeah, definitely we’re going to participate in real life. Workshops and events and conferences because we understand the importance of that we all go in remote.
We all go in hybrid or whatever, but we need to shake hands in real life We need to go to conferences if we need to meet people and to establish personal relations So that’s our plan for the next year to attend some. In person events, which is really important our case since we work remotely.
We don’t want to be some kind of wild animals out here. So definitely. Yeah, we should operate on that too yeah, and that’s maybe it of course, we’ll double down our effort on sales and cold outreach for To generate more clients eventually to generate more revenue to hire more people. So that’s Pretty simple.
We will double down on that. Also we develop, we’ll develop both our personal brands and the agency brand too, because you need to be visible to you when you make a boots, but you don’t own one, but this we’ll try not to make this case with us because when you’re trying to grow others brands, you, your brand might be underdeveloped.
So yeah, we’ll definitely put some attention to that too. Yeah, and personally wise, we will also, I don’t know, just increase our qualifications. I personally currently engaged into a computer science course from Harvard, CS50, which is really exciting for me because I felt like this gap at some point of time a knowledge gap since I work with the tech driven businesses.
And it’s important for me to understand the same language we, we are talking on. So yeah, we are creative guys. We create content. Of course it’s pretty clear, but we need to be on the same page with the founders, with the technical teams to understand their goals and what they have in mind out here, because we think in a different way.
Like we, with me and Paulina, we are both humanitarians. So we’re trying to keep our technical qualifications on the good level as well. So that’s another kind of a plan for my personal opinion. Maybe I’ll just. Polina will operate and do her personal plans and our, some of our common business plans altogether.
Polina: Yeah I can add that , it is both my personal goals for the next year and of our company is to focus a little bit more and to develop better our skills in video editing because with almost every tech business we talk this year We were asking them about video content. What do they think?
Do they want to use it to grow through it and Almost everyone was interested in it, but nobody knew how to start what to do like video editing, video content for many businesses. It’s something unknown. They just carry off it. But it’s a big gap, which we can close in the next year.
Emily: Okay. I wish you to learn also in podcasting direction, because it’s what I’m interested in right now and what I’m learning myself, and I know that it’s somehow overlap. It is video editing video productions that you are planning to learn. It’s all going hand in hand. And with the new tools, which are developing as we speak it became less time consuming from technical side, but still need creative part of planning and content vision.
Of how to do it. And I’m really happy that you’re going to this direction that I’m thinking about right now. And really wish you success in next years because I believe in you and I feel that you are people who are working your talk and you are really growing yearly.
Please let us know. And I will share with you this recording as well how people or companies. can connect with Vertigo marketing services and with you personally if needed.
Nikita: Of course, Emily, thanks a lot again for your kind words and like the words of appreciation and support.
We really appreciate this opportunity to speak, to give a go to our personal stories and the our business story. Yeah, basically all people could just drop us DMS on LinkedIn. It’s open. It’s always welcome. And of course you can just visit vertigo agency. com to to book a call with us or to talk in the business or just casually to get acquainted.
, we are open networkers, so all opportunities are more than welcome.
Emily: Okay. Thank you very much. And today I was speaking with my dear guests, Nikita Solovyov and Polina Fogel from Vertigo Marketing Services. Thank you and see you soon.
Polina: Thank you very much, Emily,
Nikita: for inviting us. Thank you.
Helping tech-driven businesses to boost revenue & growth organically w/ the power of content I share insights on tech, marketing & creative economy.
Being born and raised in Ukraine I grew up in a family with a scientific background. I completed two Bachelor’s degrees (one in Translation and another one in Management) and after that, I earned a Master’s degree in Management at a top Ukrainian university; all with honors. During my student years, I started to build my career in sales, which made me try multiple businesses and domains. I’ve honed my business development and marketing skills in different SMEs and Corporations globally as an on-site and remote contractor. I have enjoyed many senior positions in marketing, business development, project management, and strategy. My personal and professional experiences taught me about myself that I can: – manage small and mid-sized teams and drive them to success – create engaging, lead-generating content for B2B – evaluate and leverage risks in order to build a solid strategic plan – develop and execute marketing strategy with a minimum budget – start a business from scratch with “zero” resources and get the first paying customers → scale it up as a result – lead the project from starting point till the very end, making stakeholders’ interests meet expectations – build a sustainable brand in the public – tell great narratives that motivate – listen to my gut instinct, but still seek data for my decisions I enjoy meeting new people and hearing new perspectives. Reach out to me if you want to talk about tech, transhumanism, minimalism, or basketball. Professional Skills Project Management | Product Strategy | Market Analysis | SaaS | Digitalization | Business Development | Strategic Planning | Business Analysis | Scrum | Agile Development | Digital Marketing | SMM | Copywriting | Team Development | Interactive Dashboards | Content Creation Domain Knowledge DeepTech | SpaceTech | FinTech | GovTech | Consulting | Investment | International Trade | Impact Investing | Philanthropy | AI
Imagine starting over in a new country, facing uncertainty and upheaval. That’s what Nikita and Polina experienced when they left their home in Ukraine due to the war. But instead of letting challenges define them, they used them as springboards.
When the going gets tough, the tough get going. This old maxim perfectly captures the journey of Nikita Solovyov and Polina Fogel, the drives behind Vertigo Marketing Services. This pair of persistent and ambitious individuals share the tale of their professional journey amidst challenging times, detailing the ups and downs, the scoops and turns, and most importantly, the continuous strive for growth and success.
When things got tough in Ukraine, Nikita and Polina knew it was time for a change. They packed their bags and headed to Georgia, ready to adapt and rebuild. It was a big leap, but they were determined to make the most of it.
Amidst the hustle and bustle of a new life, a dream from their past resurfaced: starting their own business. That’s where Vertigo Marketing Services took flight. Initially a side hustle, it quickly grew into a full-time passion, helping businesses stand out with clever content. The ultimate goal? To create a business that allowed them to live comfortably, irrespective of the circumstances around them.
Vertigo is aimed at helping companies leverage the power of content marketing. With a unique system called Vertigo 360, they aim to help brands succeed and establish prominence in their market. They attract the right audience to their client’s businesses through organic growth – a feat they achieve using their skills in copywriting, content strategy, and creative vision.
The pair’s journey did not end in Georgia. Driven by the high cost of living, they moved to Bulgaria. They recognized its geographical proximity to Ukraine, making it easier for them to transition. Alongside this, they found themselves surrounded by a community of other Ukrainian refugees – a factor that made their stay in the foreign land more comfortable and less lonely.
In Bulgaria, the pair dove deep into growing Vertigo. They divided their roles according to their strengths – Nikita took the reins in overseeing sales and administrative tasks, while Polina took the lead on the creative and technical aspects of their workflows, although both have their roles interchanging with each other.
Vertigo’s growth journey is far from over. Nikita and Polina continuously aim to develop their skills, broaden their knowledge, and generate more clients to grow their venture. Part of their plan involves expanding their service offerings to include video editing and content production – paths that align with the ever-changing digital landscape.
In the face of challenges, Nikita and Polina showed that resilience, creativity, and proactive decision-making are key to achieving success. Their journey serves as an inspiration for entrepreneurs – proving that no matter the circumstances, through determination and a relentless pursuit of excellence, success is always within reach.
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