%20copy%202.jpg)
BECAUSE EVERYONE HAS A STORY "BEHAS"
BECAUSE EVERYONE HAS A STORY / PORQUE TODOS TENEMOS UNA HISTORIA QUE CONTAR. My podcast connects and relates through the sharing of regular peoples' stories of courage, transformation, adventure, love, overcoming life’s challenges and career changes. It is a platform to give ordinary people’s stories from all over the world the chance to be shared and preserved. You will listen to stories of captivating people, both young and elderly, that I, your host Daniela, meet on my life journey. Communicating wisdom, knowledge and personal experience, these stories will connect, motivate, inspire and relate to your own. Our stories become the language of connections. Let's ENJOY, CONNECT AND RELATE. COMPARTE, CONECTATE Y DISFRUTA. I have shared stories of people from Asia, Europe, North America and South America. If you want to share your story on my show, please get in touch because everyone has a story.
BECAUSE EVERYONE HAS A STORY "BEHAS"
A Digital Nomad's Journey Through Success, Failure, and Resilience - Edward Sturm : 103
Discover the captivating story of Edward - a versatile video producer and digital nomad. Follow his journey filled with ups and downs - from experimenting in various niches to establishing a thriving career in the tech industry. Edward's tale is a testament to his tenacity and perseverance in the face of challenges.
His transition from nightlife to a career in tech brought him face-to-face with the importance of emotional intelligence, particularly in email communication. As he traverses through various European cities, leveraging platforms like Airbnb, Edward finds a change of scene and a plethora of opportunities outside of New York City. Along the way, he developed impressive SEO expertise and shared his journey on TikTok, paving the way for the 'Build in Public' movement. All this while emphasizing the importance of having fun and fostering a world filled with empathy.
Yet, the conversation doesn't end here. Edward talks about the value of sales skills, highlighting his experiences and struggles as he navigated the tech arena. He also shares his insights on the role of traditional education, the influence of books like 'How To Win Friends and Influence People,' and the power of networking. Finally, he opens up about the challenges and strengths of being neurodiverse, viewing it as a superpower. Tune in for a journey filled with insights, inspiration, and a raw look into the life of a digital nomad.
Let's enjoy his story.
To connect on IG: @edward.builds
To listen to his show: The Edward Show
- Share Your Thoughts and Shape the Show! Tell me what you love about the podcast and what you want to hear more about. Please email me at behas.podcats@gmail.com and be part of the conversation!
- To be on the show Podmatch Profile
Thank you for listening - Hasta Pronto!
Hi, I'm Daniela. Welcome to my podcast, because everyone has a story, the place to give ordinary people, stories, the chance to be shared and preserved. Our stories become the language of connections. Let's enjoy it, connect and relate, because everyone has a story. Welcome my guest, edward Storm, a video producer and digital nomad.
Daniela:I always ask my guests why they want to share their story. Edward's response may seem pretentious and egotistic. He admits that he's egotistic, which I find refreshing. Don't dismiss his story for that. His honesty is priceless. Who usually says that? Right, he's seriously one of a kind. He's just so friendly and creative, always coming up with fresh ideas and looking for the next big thing. You know how I'm always curious about digital nomads, and so I was captivated by his amazing lifestyle. He was so pumped up and enthusiastic as he's traveled around from city to city in Europe and describes how amazing that experience was for him. Chatting with someone who actually living this kind of super cool life was such a treat. It was also cool to learn Edward, the influencer on TikTok and Instagram, talking to Daniela at Behas it's pretty lit. At the end, he emphasized the importance of having fun and fostering a world filled with empathy. So let's enjoy his story. Welcome Edward to the show. We have a digital nomad. I am very happy that you're here. We're here, wow, I'm hyped, I'm just hyped.
Daniela:Yes. So, edward, why do you want to share your story?
Edward Sturm:Why do I want to share my story? Well, as I told you, I like talking and I love attention. I am an attention seeker, so there's a derogatory phrase that I'm not going to say because we're on the air, but I love attention. Let me tell you how much I love attention. I don't really enjoy most concerts and my friends will go to big music festivals with a DJ on a stage and people treating the DJ like the DJ's. God, I can't go to those. And my friends are like why I get too jealous, You're not serious, I'm, I am well okay, I get. I'm like 50% serious. I'm half bored. I don't really do drugs. Some people can go to festivals for like eight hours and just dance. I'm not one of those people. So I'm half bored, but I'm also half jealous. So actually, yeah, no, I'm kind of serious.
Daniela:Okay, but you also said that you like to talk, and that was the main reason why you like to be at the podcast.
Edward Sturm:That's true, and I can't talk at festivals.
Daniela:All right. So we know why you want to share your story. How did they go in so far?
Edward Sturm:Today's a crazy day because I go viral a lot, but I'm going viral at a much faster rate on Instagram than I have before and I'm just increasing followers really fast. It's crazy. So on TikTok I have 32,000 followers. I made the most viewed video in the world on the Silicon Valley bank collapse, which was one of the biggest events in technology and business. Now, on Instagram, it's so strange how the Instagram algorithm worked and a video that I put up two days ago did nothing when it came out on Instagram, but it started going viral this morning. I started the account in November of last year and I post videos every day. I was trying to break 900 followers. So after six months I was almost at 900 followers and this video starts going viral and that video is only at 76,000 followers now, which is so many more than I thought it would have. I just broke like 1,150 followers. It just keeps going and I don't know when it will stop.
Edward Sturm:I'm so inspired with the content that I'm making, with everything that I'm doing. I make it really easy for people to get in touch with me and get on my calendar, because I like to talk and I like to learn and I like to get involved. I like to hear about opportunities, and so I make it really easy for people to get in touch with me. And people are getting in touch with me and I had all these calls today and I haven't even had time to work out yet. And our AI startup well, it's voice startup. We started this company at the end of 2019. We have thousands of daily active users, and so I am so crazy excited. So that's why I like to be on podcasts. I had fun.
Daniela:I introduced you as a digital nomad, but I just missed saying that you are also at Instagram and TikTok influencer.
Edward Sturm:I mean 1,150 followers. Instagram is not influential just yet.
Edward Sturm:No just say, 32,000 followers on TikTok, which doesn't sound like that much because there are like dancing accounts that have like 5, 10 million followers. But I talk specifically about technology and business, the followers that I have. They're more valuable to me because I get to share my startups with them. I get to share my companies with them. I guess I'm somewhat influential sometimes. I know how to make content that does really well. Some of the time, yeah, I'm an influencer, but like there's so many more levels to how influential I can be, maybe it's the humility in this egotistical person coming out as well. I'm like I'm a weird contrast because I'm one hand, I actually think I'm- quite humble.
Edward Sturm:Yes, I know, and I'm also quite egotistical.
Daniela:Yes, when I met you, I thought the second one, the latter that you were, that you were very modest, but now you're presenting yourself in a different way.
Edward Sturm:So well, I mean, I think I, I think I do think I am modest, but I also just I like attention a lot, which I can admit. I think a lot of people who like attention a lot and many of them won't admit it, and I think it's actually modest to admit it. Some people could even see that as a shortcoming.
Daniela:All right, I think we got it clear that you like attention. You're here because of that and because you like to talk. You were one of the early viral video producers. When does your story starts my story?
Edward Sturm:starts. When I was 19 in college, me and my friend we made a video driving around New York City. It's called Fastest Latman Hatton Put it out and then no one cared. No one watched it. It was on YouTube. No one watched. It Kind of sat there on YouTube. This was in 2009. Maybe it was 2010.
Edward Sturm:And then the next year I took a class in marketing and my teacher was like if you do something that you think people will care, that care about in a specific niche, you need to send it to the influencers in that niche, and specifically journalists and bloggers. And so I took this driving video that me and my friend made and it's kind of like this big stunt about us driving around Manhattan in a certain style Sent it to just the biggest auto blogs. The number one biggest auto blog picked it up and put it on their front page for two days and then I was on New York One. Our video was being shown on New York One and all of a sudden I was viral and people all over the internet were talking about me. But it wasn't that viral. I distinguished two types of viral. There's like niche viral and then there's like viral that transcends niches.
Edward Sturm:The first time I experienced virality that transcended niches was when I was 22. We did this video called Fake Celebrity Pranks NYC. That one has gotten several hundred million views across all media and syndication TV syndication and we went on the biggest TV shows in the world. So that was one of the craziest. I mean I've had many insane experiences but that was one of them.
Edward Sturm:And yeah, so I guess my story starts like 10 years ago I was making just making videos with my friends that made us laugh. You know, something will go viral. If you really just want to make it because it's so entertaining that then it has a really good chance of going viral. Or if it's hopping on like a big trend. It's the things that really make you smile and entertain you. The Silicon Valley Bank video that I think I just spoke about that one I read something that was really funny. I shared what I read on a TikTok and it went hyper viral and I'm like I have to share this. I felt compelled to share it because it was so good, it was so funny.
Daniela:Have you always had a sense of humor?
Edward Sturm:Yeah, I've always been pretty funny. When I was in my early 20s, I was working at New York City nightclubs. My job was to get cool people to come to the clubs. In order to do that, you need to be charismatic and you need to be entertaining. I was already, at that point, somewhat charismatic and entertaining, but I did that for three years and by the end of it, I was like 100x the charisma that I had. Actually, the video that's going viral on Instagram now so much similar. I made a video two days ago about what I learned doing networking business and tech events in New York for several years. I tell a story in the video and this is what's going viral now.
Edward Sturm:When I started going to networking events, this was after New York City Nightlife and I was trying to sell search engine optimizations. Right now, actually, I'm probably one of the best SEO search engine optimizers in the world, though SEO will change dramatically in the next several years because of AI. I even wrote a leading article on that, which is cool because I can be involved in the change rather than get left behind. This was back when I wasn't as good and I was trying to sell services and so I would go to business and tech events and SEO was really hot at that time. People really wanted search engine optimization. If you don't know what search engine optimization is, that means to make your website appear high on Google for search terms that are relevant to it, for things that are related to what your business does. So I'm like, yeah, I should be able to go to Meetups and just say, hi, I'm Edward, I do search engine optimization, and people will just hire me right there on the spot. That was kind of how I thought it would work and that's not what happened.
Edward Sturm:I took my same nightlife mentality, which is in nightlife, you talk to a lot of different people because you have a lot of stakeholders and you need to keep them entertained and you need to bounce back and forth between all these different people. I would go to these tech and business events and treat it like a nightclub and use a lot of charisma and just talk, do most of the talking and bounce around a lot of other people and create shallow connections where it was mostly me doing the talking. I did that for several months to a year, 2015 to 2016. I did that for that amount of time.
Edward Sturm:It got me nothing, nothing. It got me nothing, so then I slowly started changing my approach. Then, when I found out something that worked, I just stuck to that. So what I talked about on this Instagram video that's going viral now is, instead of talking about myself and saying, hi, I'm Edward, I do SEO and bouncing around to all these different people, I don't even talk about myself until the person asks, and all I do is I ask them questions and I stay with them. People can talk about themselves for a long, long, long, long time, kind of like I'm doing right now. Yes, exactly.
Edward Sturm:They will do that and you just ask question after question. You become very interested in their story and you ask question after question after question after question after question and then you go down all these conversation threads and eventually what will happen is the person will get bored just talking about themselves or feel reciprocity, or it'll be a combination of the two and they'll be like, by the way, I've never asked you about you and I'll be like, oh yeah, I do search engine optimization. And then that opens all these doors because they feel like they trust me. They're more likely to remember who I am because I ask them all these questions. If they do need SEO, they'll talk to me about it. They won't need SEO. When someone comes to them and says, hey, do you know anyone who does search engine optimization or something similar, they would recommend me and I would get not just referrals but friends like friendship as well, people who I talk to to this day because I just learned to go to tech events and just ask people about themselves. Here's the crazy thing about life is that even if someone is not directly beneficial to your life if we want to look at it just purely transactional even if someone is not directly beneficial to your life. Everybody knows somebody who is.
Edward Sturm:By having extreme top of mind awareness, you will get referred to all of these things. And before I stop this crazy rant, I'll explain. Top of mind awareness it's one of the most important concepts to understand. Top of mind awareness is when I think of shoes, I think of Nike. When I think of fast food, I think of McDonald's. When I think of a motivational coach, I think of Tony Robbins. It used to be that when you thought podcasts, you thought of Jorogin, and that's why Spotify acquired Jorogin's brand for $200 million. That's the power of top of mind awareness by getting people to trust you, then they think of you when opportunities come their way that you would be a good fit for and you get yeah.
Daniela:I used to be very good at networking as well, because I always knew that you have to ask other people questions. How difficult was it for you to go from the previous job, where you seem to be charismatic but you always had to talk about yourself, since you love attention. Now you have to actually hold your story and listen to other people. How difficult was that?
Edward Sturm:Yeah, very hard and it took practice and now that I'm like influential, thank God, I learned that then and I'm really happy that I know how important it is. I'm not doing it on this podcast because I'm with the guest and I guess the point is for me to be interviewed, but yeah, it was hard. It's still hard.
Daniela:So it's still hard. You haven't gotten the balance yet.
Edward Sturm:Well, if I was at a networking event, you wouldn't know anything about me until you asked.
Daniela:What if you find somebody like you Like? If you find me that I will be asking you all the questions. How would you be able to switch it?
Edward Sturm:Well, I would keep talking about myself and then until I got bored talking.
Daniela:Is it possible that you can get bored of talking about yourself?
Edward Sturm:It's hard, it's hard. The thing about me is I'm very empathetic and I also feel strong reciprocity urges, like a good way to take advantage of me is to give me free stuff, because then I feel like I need to reciprocate somehow.
Daniela:Oh, that's nice. Yes, I noticed from sending you an email that hey, remember recording these on the first that you reply, which usually people don't do, and you said I'm looking forward to it. And I was like, wow, that's very emotional intelligence, because you make me feel also important that you are paying attention and you are looking forward to something, so it's not just me.
Edward Sturm:Wow, I was looking forward to it and I love doing these. I wanted you to know. Yeah, I'm definitely going to be there, because I was a host and I'm like OK, the date is then, and someone didn't respond to me. I'd be like, well, are they going to forget about it?
Daniela:You will be surprised that very few people actually respond back. That's crazy.
Edward Sturm:Yeah, that's so weird, honestly.
Daniela:With your story. People tend to judge people that are said oh, I want attention and I'm an influencer, people roll their eyes, but here you are being an amazing guy who is having these opportunities and know how to put videos that people actually would like to watch, so that's pretty interesting.
Edward Sturm:Yeah, thank you. I want to bring joy to the world. I want to teach people things and also be nice to people. I just have empathy for the struggle. If I can do a one-second thing, say yeah, I'm looking forward to this podcast, and make someone feel less anxiety and also be nicer, I'm going to do that. The type of person that I am.
Daniela:Nice. I like empathy for the struggle. Good, OK, I want to go back to so you did a video when you were 19. You went to school for marketing.
Edward Sturm:I went to school for film. Then I switched to TV. So I studied film, tv and I minored in marketing when I was in college. I went to college for four years. I probably went to one of the best schools for filmmaking and for communication. Actually, I talked to a lot of young people. Something people asked me is you did OK, you went to college. Should I be going to college? And I'm like no, yeah, I think I would have learned way more and way faster if I spent the tuition money and the four years in college trying to market different businesses and trying to make videos. I would have learned way more and way faster.
Daniela:This is because the instructors perhaps are not as knowledgeable because they're outdated.
Edward Sturm:That's part of it, and teaching in a classroom to a bunch of kids. That's very different than the way that I teach on social media. But the other part is very important, and that's when you don't have anything on the line, when you don't actually have, like a real stake in the game. Tuition is not. It's not the same type of stake when you're not actively out there getting firsthand experience. The level that you learn is way worse. I learned the most from the things that I did, not the things that I studied. So, yeah, I wouldn't recommend college actually unless you were studying to be a doctor or a lawyer, and lawyers even like lawyers. Now, with the way that AI is displacing a lot of attorneys is crazy.
Daniela:Yes. So you said no college, but you did want to college.
Edward Sturm:and then I went to college and I think I've done okay in spite of that. My journey would have been way more accelerated if I knew to like start a business and go to networking events, read how to win friends and influence people and learn taxes and do all that sort of stuff when instead I was like partying and college. So dumb yeah.
Daniela:but you need that, you need to party, you need to have fun. If you start, you're young.
Edward Sturm:I think going to tech and business events can be a lot of fun. You know what else is fun Making money. Making money is really fun. Being successful is really fun. I'm actually pretty anti-college, with the exception of, like I said, yes.
Daniela:And you mentioned the book from Dale Carnegie. You read it then.
Edward Sturm:Oh, I've read it multiple times. I read it in college for the first time. I was a senior in college. This guy he's actually now a very successful musician. He didn't go to college. Him and I were friends. We met before he was successful. He's like Edward. You got to read this book. It's going to like set you on fire, and it did. It inspired me so much how to win friends, see.
Daniela:I feel that that should be the Bible for everybody in high school. Just start from there.
Edward Sturm:Yeah, it's true. It's really true. Everybody should read that book. The world would be a better place. Can you imagine if everyone had a win-win approach to everything? Yes, and they got indoctrinated with that when they were kids. God.
Daniela:That's the book that my dad gave me. I've been always very successful with networking and sales. I'd enjoy it. When I saw the first situation compliment people and so I was in the boss and I complimented this lady really wrinkly, but she was really cute. She had such a smile that I thought, oh my God, what a gift. And I saw I want those gifts, I want those smiles, I want people to feel amazing. And that's how I started.
Daniela:Even when I was a toast master, I made a speech. I had to take compliments. There was this guy who opened the door for us and he has really nice red shoes and I said, oh, what a nice red shoes. And he said thank you. And then he said I really appreciate it. And I was like, oh no, it was not that he only said thank you, but he also appreciated it. And I was like, oh my God, that's the answer. You just have to say something else.
Daniela:And so then I was at the Skytrain in the metro and this lady complimented her on my boots and I said thank you. And then I realized, oh shit, I forgot the other bar and I was following her when she came out of the train to tell her that I really appreciate it, but I think she was looking from the corner of her eyes. Oh my God, this crazy woman is after me and I was trying to go really fast and I never found her, wow, and I was not able to find a second part. So I was like, oh my God, I didn't finish the process. Oh no, so that was the point. Yeah, yeah, but something more.
Edward Sturm:Actually, that's great. I don't even think I say that most of the time. I was just saying thank you when I get a compliment. I like that there's something more. Thank you, I really appreciate that.
Daniela:When I said I like your shirt, you say thank you, okay, you pay back, right. But when you say you really appreciate it, you actually recognizing that what I did to you, which was making me happy, was even something that makes you happy. So it's like double happiness right there. That's my theory.
Edward Sturm:I feel like when I say I really appreciate it, I don't sound genuine.
Daniela:Well, it depends. I mean, obviously you're not going to always use the same sentence. One more sentence. People usually say, you know, you say nice shoes and they will say, oh, they're so old. Or they will say something negative like, oh, I bought it so cheap. Oh, they're from my mother. Oh, really, they're that nice. You know that they kind of destroy the good thing about it, Right?
Edward Sturm:A lot of people do that.
Daniela:Yeah, so I think we should do a TikTok video about how to take compliments. What do you think?
Edward Sturm:I think that's a really good idea. Actually, I might make that after this, yeah.
Daniela:There you go See.
Edward Sturm:I think that's a cool idea.
Daniela:I think that it will be nice. People will be a bit more grateful. But back to you, because you're the important person.
Edward Sturm:No, come on. Actually, I think it's interesting that you've always been good at sales, because I'm making a bunch of TikToks. I realized lately this is another reason why you shouldn't go to college. You want to get good at sales as early as you can and the only way to get good at sales is with firsthand experience. I'm making it really easy for people to get in touch with me because I just want to get sales experience.
Edward Sturm:Even if someone isn't like qualified or anything, I want to try to sell them because I want to get really good at sales. So I realized very recent as in like a month ago, being good at sales is probably the most important skill that somebody can have. I've always been good at it when there's no like transaction involved or there's no like outcome for me. When it's an outcome for me, I'm not that good at it when I need to close, I need to want, I need to reframe it in my head that I'm closing for somebody else and that, like, the transaction is just part of it. But yeah, I want to get really good at sales and I think it's cool that you've always been good.
Daniela:I don't think it's only sales Negotiation is very important. That too, I want to be very good at that as well. You always have to think about the other person's needs before your needs and then see how it will fit whatever you have. I think negotiation with sales is all kind of like a good combination of both.
Edward Sturm:I can see you being very good at sales. It's because you're so nice. I'm really enjoying talking to you. You have a great smile and you're a really nice person and you're a genuine person.
Daniela:Here you are doing your thing.
Edward Sturm:No, no, no, no, I'm being, I'm being completely serious.
Daniela:And here. Would you like to buy these from me now?
Edward Sturm:Like I could see you. I could see you. I think I'm pretty good at everything. Oh good, you're leading up to the close and then, when it comes time to really close, that's what I need to work on a lot, and there's a lot that goes into the close, like knowing your exact offer. I think that's a really important skill to have.
Daniela:But here is the opportunity you have, that you are an influencer. You can talk to anybody you want. To teach you these skills Daniel Pink.
Edward Sturm:Oh no, I have a mentor. Now I have one of my very close friends Actually. He's great at sales and he's mentoring me and helping me a lot. I always used to like listen to sales books and most of that was wrong. Now I'm like watching the same good videos over and over again, but I'm also trying to watch like one sales video a day. If you do something in a single day, the retention is so low. If you spread it out, then actually the retention can be quite high, and I think the reason for that is because you think about it day after day after day after day and so it kind of compounds. It's like interest, it's just a kind of compounds.
Daniela:Okay, Edward, we need to get back to your story. You know you're not pro college. Then you did the second video, and then what happened?
Edward Sturm:Oh right, okay, I made all these viral videos. I was one of the first people doing it on YouTube and I didn't stick with it. I wish I did. No one really knew at the time just how big YouTube would get. Can you imagine Like it's ubiquitous now, but it wasn't, and no one knew that like if you just put out a video every day on YouTube, you would be hyper famous. We made these viral videos. We weren't doing like one a month or something, we were doing like one every couple of months and we weren't making as many videos as we should have and I just should have been focusing on myself and doing my own like daily vlog. I didn't know that at the time I was also doing the night life thing. A lot of my friends from nightlife started getting interested in technology. I said, okay, I want to do, I want to get into tech. I don't know anything about tech. I knowing about tech is very important. Yeah, what year is this? This is 2014. Okay, transition I started transitioning away from nightlife.
Edward Sturm:I wasn't thinking about being an entertainer, which is kind of what I am now. Me and my friend we put out a video information product. It was about how to make viral videos. I didn't show up on Google. When you Google the name of the product, it wasn't on Google. And it wasn't on Google for other things. And I said, how do I make this appear on Google? And so I started learning about this thing called search engine optimization. I genuinely became really fascinated in it and I couldn't stop reading about it and learning about it. I taught it to myself. I started a blog.
Edward Sturm:Then I went to work at like one of the top companies in the world to do SEO at yeah, and so I was doing SEO, and I didn't even really know it at the time, so I was learning on the job. And when I started at the company, I was like the worst at SEO. I left in like six or seven months because there wasn't anything left for me to learn. I was the best. Everyone from the company would go out to have drinks after work and on weekends they would just play with party. I went home and I did more SEO. I read more articles, I did it on my website and I did that on weekends as well. And so when he literally when I started, I was the worst. Within three months I was second best and then at the end, I was the best, and so I felt like there wasn't anywhere for me to grow and I have gotten my own clients at that time from referrals, from doing the networking thing that I talked about. So I started my own SEO agency. And then a mentor of mine came to me and he's like Edward, you're the best person at marketing that I know I'd love to like.
Edward Sturm:These things called this thing called blockchain is blowing up. Can we do a project in it? Can you do marketing for me? I think, with you involved, we'll make so much money. And I'm like, oh, I got this marketing, I got this SEO agency, the search engine optimization agency. I really can't. He begged me and begged me and begged me. And then I found out that I had an unfair advantage because a friend of mine from New York City Nightlife became a co-founder of the second biggest cryptocurrency called Ethereum. So I'm like, oh, yeah, okay, I have an unfair advantage. I really should. And yeah, these things are making these projects in the space are making a lot of money. And I was running the New York City search engine optimization meetup and I had my SEO agency, and so we started throwing blockchain events with his meetup, which was a really big programming meetup. When we turned that into the biggest blockchain meetup group in the world. And then in January 2018, we made the first video game in crypto. We invented the genre of play to earn and that did really well financially. So I was getting recognized at conferences, I was speaking. We stopped the meetup because the project was taking up so much of our time.
Edward Sturm:I was always a kid who never left New York City because I'm like New York City has every, everyone and everything, so why would I leave? Then I was turning 30. I had this success under my belt with a blockchain company. I'm like I should see the rest of the world. I really haven't done much traveling and so I thought I would be gone for like three to six months. I was having fun.
Edward Sturm:So I extended it to a year and I was living in Kiev in Ukraine when COVID happened and I had a flight home and COVID happened and my flight was canceled and I had to make the decision Should I stay in my comfortable apartment with my friends and give Ukraine, or should I take an a cramped emergency flight Back to New York to be there with during lockdowns? And I chose to stay in Kiev. It took so long for the world to recover. I ended up living in Kiev, in Ukraine, for two years. I left only 10 days before the war started. Last year of 2022 was supposed to be like the year of stability and it was like the most unstable years of my life. But out of that year, at the end of it, came this tiktok. I have a bunch of startups, and there's another one that incentivizes people to do daily challenges, daily self-improvement challenges, through Social incentives and cash incentives.
Daniela:You said you went traveling and that's why you are a digital nomad. You weren't traveling, but you never stopped working.
Edward Sturm:No, I can't stop working.
Daniela:Okay, and how many countries you visit 25? And why you decided to stay in Kiev.
Edward Sturm:I love Kiev. I've missed that city death. I miss, I miss it so much. I'd lived there in summer of 2019 for three months and then I came back to live there for a month and a half in early 2020. I and then, by the time that the world did recover, I had a big friend group, I was really comfortable and I had a beautiful apartment and I had my routines. I was really happy there and that's why I stayed for two years living in Kiev, ukraine.
Daniela:All right okay.
Edward Sturm:I'm not there now that because there's a war there. If there wasn't a war there, I might, I might still be there, and where are you now? I'm in Warsaw, in Poland. Okay, and I'll be. I'll be back in New York City in two weeks.
Daniela:You seem to go to East European countries.
Edward Sturm:I actually, before this, I was living in Barcelona and Rome. I have lived in many Eastern European countries, but I've also lived in Berlin, I've lived in Prague, I've lived in Vienna, but I love East Europe.
Daniela:How many months do you stay in every place?
Edward Sturm:as many as I can. It's been limited because Americans can only spend 90 out of a hundred and eighty days in a certain place.
Daniela:You always use Airbnb or what you do.
Edward Sturm:I love Airbnb. The most important thing for me when I travel is how comfortable my apartment is and how Responsive my host is. It seems crazy, but if you're doing a stay in a city for a week and above, the most important thing is the apartment. It's how comfortable you are. I like Airbnb because it makes it very easy to find Good places to live with reliable and responsive hosts. Maybe, like a week, you can get away with having a crappy place, but when I was in Vienna, that was the only time that I didn't get a super host. I had a bad place and it was cold. I enjoyed being in Vienna, but my apartment sucked. Because I work a lot, I also spend a decent amount of time in my apartment working.
Daniela:Do you spend most of your income then in the Airbnb, because they're expensive.
Edward Sturm:No well compared to New York City. Actually, I think traveling is very inexpensive. My Airbnb in Barcelona was one thousand four hundred dollars for one month, and that's how much I'm paying for my apartment here in Warsaw one thousand four hundred dollars. This apartment in New York City would cost seven thousand dollars a month. Okay, I think Traveling is really like. It's a way to live really well. A lot of countries have way higher standards of living than Than New York City. People out of outside of New York City don't really realize it because New York City is seen.
Edward Sturm:I love New York City. It's my home. I'm not trying to trash talk New York, but it seems as the capital of world and it's really a great place for Like. It's the best place for opportunity and I'm really excited to go back because now I'm like going viral all the time and I think I'm gonna have such crazy. I'm gonna have crazy opportunities, like I did before, and this time I'm not a bozo, whereas like before I didn't. I was a bozo and I didn't know how to use these opportunities. Now I'm not a bozo and so I think I'll do some great things and it's the best place for opportunity. It's like it's such a good place if you are, if you are hard-working and you can get yourself into an upwards funnel, but it's also crushingly difficult. Yes, and and yeah, so so standard standard of living, like you can spend Comparatively less to have a great standard of living if you leave New York City, if you leave the big American cities.
Daniela:So, edward, you are going to go back to New York and are you going to keep traveling or stay in New York for a long time?
Edward Sturm:I would like to live in a European city for like at least a year, and now it's starting to really depress me how I don't have time to develop a community because I I bounce around so much. I had that community in Kia. How long do you need to build a?
Edward Sturm:community years, years to build a community. I say like I might return to Europe, but at the same time, there's a chance that New York City, my home, will be, just because of what's happening with my companies. Reverbchat is the voice company that I spoke of, and we're putting in this crazy AI feature that could make us one of the fastest Growing companies in the world, and my personal brand now is doing so well. It might make financial sense actually for me to stay in New York, because the opportunities no more, no more, edward.
Edward Sturm:Let me tell you. What's so funny is I just got dual citizenship in Austria because my grandmother had to flee because of the Holocaust and that's where she's from. She's from Vienna, and so she kept all her documentation. My grandfather is from Breslau, which is now Wortswold in Poland, and my friend said to me isn't it funny, like the guy who's been traveling for the last four years and has been living in Europe, he gets this, this citizenship, and so he can go live in Europe without having to bounce around, and then he, once he gets that, he goes and lives in New York where his home. It's possible that that could happen. I have a lot of access in New York to like high value Places and people. I don't I don't know what will happen. I'm very excited to find out. I talk about it and it makes me excited, but then also what I think about, like how stressful the city is, that makes me not excited. So it's just like weird balance between like excitement and anxiety, and we'll find out.
Daniela:I have a question to go back to the SEO, the seven months that you were having. How can you tell that you were not good? And then you were really good. How can you tell that?
Edward Sturm:Because I was so obsessed with SEO that all I would talk about with other people was SEO. I knew everyone's skill level at the company because I would try to have conversations with them about SEO. We would talk about it and I would very quickly realize who was apathetic to it different levels of apathy and engagement and then like people's knowledge levels because I wanted someone to teach me stuff. I wanted to learn from other people. Okay, after three months there was only one person at the company that I was really learning from. This is a guy. He's a friend of mine today and still a mentor. He's head of SEO for the biggest agency in the world. I can't trash talk that guy. And then by the end of the company, I kind of felt like him and I were on the same level or I was better.
Daniela:To be very good at SEOs. I mean, besides that you were reading so much, I mean, what other skills you need to have? I don't think anybody can come and start reading a lot about it and understanding. No, there has to be some skills that you have.
Edward Sturm:Well, I was lucky because I had technical mentors so I could understand the test technical aspects of it, because there was a lot that I didn't understand. That was one of the things that I was trying to understand a lot while I was at this company was the technical aspects. The people who taught it to me were my developer friends, who I made by going to tech and business events and doing networking. I was lucky in that regard. But you also need to understand human language and I think you also need to like writing. It was about crafting content on a page to satisfy search engines.
Daniela:Okay, Wow, so you're a good writer too.
Edward Sturm:I think so. I have a newsletter that I just started. I'm going to edwardstermcom forward slash newsletter. I recommend anyone sign up for it. I share the biggest marketing secrets that I've learned in the last like 10 years and things that I'm trying now and then. I also have a bunch of articles on my site because I like to write.
Daniela:Okay, so we're going to not be an omat anymore. We're going to go back to New York, or maybe not. And now you discover TikTok. And then what happened?
Edward Sturm:Oh yeah, so I started this TikTok to get users. Well, first I was doing this thing on Twitter called Build in Public, which is when you just you're completely open about everything that you're doing for your company, all the changes that you're making, failures that you have, the successes that you have and the movements called Build in Public. I was trying to do that on Twitter, which is where it's really popular on, but it was just too saturated and it took way too much time and work for me to stand out. I was living in Rome at the time. I tried this Build in Public thing for like two, three weeks and I was spending two and a half hours every day on Twitter trying to do this. It was too much work and I wasn't enjoying it. And then I had this theory A bunch of people had been telling me to get on a TikTok, but I hadn't done it. But I had this theory. I said I bet you Build in Public isn't as saturated on TikTok. So I started learning the TikTok platform and as I learned TikTok, I realized that I just enjoyed making videos. I was having fun making videos and some of my videos would do like not even super well, but just get a few hundred views. And the way that I did it is I first just created a test account, which I had for like for two weeks, and I was putting up like several videos a day, just trying to learn how to make videos and get okay at making videos.
Edward Sturm:And I started this Build in Public account on November 1st, a few days after I had gotten to Barcelona from Rome. After I talked about my app on ad nauseam, I just started talking about other things slowly because I needed more content and occasionally I would have hits. I know how practice compounds and I know how, like effort over time compounds, and so I said I'm just going to do this every day for like three months and see what happens. Putting out several videos a day Took me 85 days. I write my follower account every morning at 6am because I want to see how I'm improving over time. By day 85, I had like 1300 followers, so almost three months after starting the account. And then I learned how important hooks are. I started trying to put focus on to the hooks of the video, the beginning of the video, and by day 90, I had 9000 followers, so in five days.
Daniela:Then you discovered that that was your platform.
Edward Sturm:Yeah, I did at that time. Now there's like no going back. I mean I guess I should have known this sooner. Like I've been making viral videos my whole life but I keep taking breaks and that's the stupid thing is the breaks that I've taken, and I'm kind of done taking breaks and jumping around different things. I'm not going to do that anymore. That's what creates failure in my opinion. It's not being consistent. Yeah, I'm going to be very consistent now.
Daniela:You have tried different things that you have seen, that you like or don't, so I feel like it's not a failure. You needed to try different things, and now you're more diverse than many things that you didn't know before.
Edward Sturm:Yeah, that's true, but I also could have just stuck with like YouTube from the beginning, when I was going viral on YouTube and I could have literally just like made a vlog every day. I'm a naturally curious person. I would have learned a lot anyway. I just would have gotten to where I'm going to be faster had I done that. Let's just stick with something for like at least two years and go hard.
Daniela:So where is here? What does?
Edward Sturm:that mean as in, like I'm pretty happy, like with where I am in my life and I feel like really confident now. I actually think you can create a monetizable audience in six months if you just go hard with something Okay.
Daniela:So a lot of lessons learned, a lot of trouble. Could you say that you are neurodiverse? You have ADD.
Edward Sturm:Yeah, I totally have it. I was diagnosed with it when I was a boy. I think it's a superpower.
Daniela:It is a superpower, right See? People didn't say that before Now.
Edward Sturm:I like it's like so funny how it was seen as a disability, lol, Like no, actually the most successful people on the planet have that. My friend who's a mentor to me, very successful and actually this is mean because a lot of people don't have this superpower. If you don't have ADD, you can still be successful.
Daniela:I am so happy that you said that. I agree 100%. We're the current moment and we are excited for you and I'm really happy that I got to meet you, because you are really an amazing guy and the fact that you read the same book as me be an influencer for everybody to read that book. The world will be so much better.
Edward Sturm:That's a great book, I agree. I agree, yeah.
Daniela:They just need to write a book in a bigger letters because it's so small.
Edward Sturm:The next time I read the book I think the second time I also read it, and then after that I just started doing the audiobook version of it, which is also really good and inspiring.
Daniela:It's the first self-help book that I think there was.
Edward Sturm:The truth of the book is it's a book that will inspire you to love other people, and if you can genuinely love other people, then people will love you back.
Daniela:Yeah, exactly Exactly so, Edward, who likes attention and likes to talk a lot, are you happy with your story here?
Edward Sturm:This was great.
Daniela:All right. Thank you so much for being in my podcast. Thank you, I really appreciate it.
Edward Sturm:Oh yeah, thank you, I really appreciate you having me. And if anyone wants to get in touch, instagram at edwardbuilds like build a house, edwardbuilds. My TikTok is build in public.
Daniela:Yes, thank you, and we will put that in the show notes so that people know how to find you.
Edward Sturm:Yeah, awesome. Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.
Daniela:I hope you enjoyed today's episode I am Daniela and you were listening to, because Everyone has a Story. Please take five seconds right now and think of somebody in your life that may enjoy what you just heard, or someone that has a story to be shared and preserved. When you think of that person, shoot them a text with the link of this podcast. This would allow the ordinary magic to go further. Join me next time for another story conversation. Thank you for listening. Hasta pronto.
