Podcast Episode 5: A Masterclass in iGaming Leadership: Dmitry Belianin his Story of Grit and Growth

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to really empower people, how to educate and mentor them be. Like their best friend at some point, not like a big mad boss, if you can find someone who does the thing at least 80 percent as good as you are, you should give it away. And you should not be afraid of actually, delegation. I'm here to stay in this industry. I'm here to build a legacy.

I want to understand how the business dynamics and the world dynamics will look like in three to five years

One of the biggest routines I came up with was, actually the sunlight, waking up with the sunlight, staring at the sun, briefing and probably the first time I tried it, I was like, whoa, my mind changed.

I think so clearly now

  📍 Welcome to the I gaming leader, where we interview some of the most well-respected leaders inside the industry to uncover what has led them to their success today.

Today I'm joined by a true industry powerhouse, Dimitry Belianin. He's been in the industry for over 17 years and has actually had the most successful year of his life this year. He's launched multiple companies and is truly this re-upping the industry with its products and services.

So I want you to join me today to hear his story about what led him to his success today and what some of the advices that I can give all of us to be more successful in our careers as well. Let's dive in. 📍

  📍 📍 Welcome to the iGaming Leader. Super excited to have you here. I've been wanting to, interview you for a long time. You're such an interesting character with such an interesting business and background. And yeah, so first of all, welcome, welcome to the show.

Thanks a lot for having me. I'm very excited and I'm a big fan as well. as well.

Thank you, Dima. Hey let's just start off with, Kind of where you started in the industry. You, I was listening to one of your podcasts where you're talking about having been in the industry for over half your life. Very true. So tell me a little bit about how you started and maybe what some of the challenges were when you first kicked off in your iGaming career.

Yeah I was a very competitive kid throughout all my life. I played video games on a very high level. even attended World Cyber Games and I was a very Curious and competitive kid, I would say. And the moment when everyone started playing online poker, I was the first to try.   📍 So I was 17 years old and I used my grandma's passport to be able to get my first time deposit Poker Stars back then.

But idea was very interesting about the poker itself. You're playing. Pretty much the same game as I used to play before, but for real money and, against the real people I started playing and then I discovered affiliation with one of the websites, which I came across was poker strategy dot com.

So I, I started studying their business model. I try to understand how these guys are making money. And I've combined my my college degree with with with software development and the web development with affiliation, and this is how I've created my very first website. And yeah, so I,   📍 I'm in the gaming since then, and it's been a beautiful and a very rewarding journey for me, and, I absolutely love it.

did you know that I actually started my iGaming career at PokerStrategy? Yeah,

okay, so probably we were on the same forum at the same time.

you were probably with Rustem, right? So Rustem was one of the guys I was managing.

So I came over to Gibraltar 15, 16 years ago together with PokerStrategy from Germany. I was one of the first six guys here in Gibraltar and then headed up all of the different country managers. So yeah, really cool.

Wow yeah, yeah.

So,  I was very active forum member. I was actually recording some videos and I think I had this like almost the highest status, like they had gold and then platinum or something.  

Yeah,

Platinum, then diamond, then black mamba, really cool. Oh, really cool. So that's so funny. Hey tell me a little bit more about that. So you transitioned into affiliation. What was your pivotal moments for you realizing this industry has hooked me.

This is what I'm going to keep on doing.

Yeah. To be honest, the very first website, it was just like a pure HTML with. With some of the text I wrote myself, which was a very simple text.  I created like a review of a website I played at myself. And coming from a player kind of a view and perspective. What are the pros?

What are the cons? How the players play here? What is the game looking like? Et cetera. So I've created like a literally review of the website, myself. And It was so easy to rank it. If you look at the websites nowadays, you need like back links. You need some old domain. Back then, it was so easy.

Like, You just created like a website, uploaded the text. There you go, right? And the pivotal moment for me was, it was very hard actually to get like a proper affiliate deal because Some kid from Belarus reaching out to you via Skype asking for like affiliate link and people are like, okay, this is a pure scam. Usually this is a Nigerian prince, but this is a kid from Belarus. So something similar, right? So yeah, it was very hard to get a link, but then I think, the moment I received the link, Very few first time depositors. I was like, okay, this thing actually works. And I started like doubling down.

So I got a few of my buddies, from college. They helped me to create like a better design will build a better site. I was still writing all these texts myself. And I think we got to almost around like 35 to 50 websites in just a few months. And It was very easy and challenging and fun for us.

We were just, writing 24 7 and I think in just like a few months, we started making like a lot of money. And, we were even questioning ourselves whether we should, keep going with the college. And at the same time, I was still playing on my poker on the very competitive level. I think it was like an L.  50 than 100. So it was, 50, 50. And at some point when affiliation started making some ridiculous amount of money, we all stopped playing online poker.

It's always that, like how did that decision go for you, Dima? There's some, some point where you've, you have to make that decision. There's some sort of, I don't know, like a seesaw almost, right? What was the thing that kind of, the one thing that make you decide, all right, this is the direction that I'm going to go,

I think the competition

because,

I was always thinking, okay, what it takes to get onto the next level? What is the next level, right? And when you set up this milestone for you, you can immediately get it down into pieces to understand what is this consists of? What are the pieces? What kind of website we need to build?

What kind of traffic we need to acquire? What kind of territories we need to enter, right? Competitiveness of this industry. And, the challenge was always my main driver, right? Build, something better, become like a better professional, build a better brand, et cetera. So I think for me, that was the main driver.

And a lot of people, they still asking me what is your inspiration to really grind these bodies as I'm doing this right now? It's still the same challenge. It's still the same, motivation to build great products. And I still see a lot of gaps and points of improvement in this industry. And this is what drives me still further.

Yeah, You've got such a unique product and such a unique view on how we should grow the market. And I think your entire vision on how, how we should diversify the market more, how we should get like outside interest into it is something that I'd love to touch on in a bit as well.

But But let's dive dive back into that history. Like you've grown really fast then, right? Of, starting with affiliation business growing. A lot of revenue very quickly. That must've had a lot of challenges with it as well.

You must've had some really difficult moments in that growth where, I'm just thinking about if it's just poker, for example, I'm thinking about black Wednesday or that there must've been some really difficult times. What was some of the hardest times in, in that 17 year career that you've had?

Yeah, so I think, understanding the business itself when this is the first time you're building a business is probably the hardest. Combining the basic business, like a structure, combining the basic business, hygiene, finance, legal, all that stuff. And going through this the very first time in your life is probably the most challenging thing you can ever find, right?  But at the same time you come up with something, which our industry brings in on the table, which is completely undiscovered. And back then it was impossible to find any piece of information, so you go to the forums like GPWA, what was one of these forums. Two plus two was one of these forums, so you go to the forum and you start collecting this information bit by bit. There is no book. There is no course. There is no anyone who can help you with that, and still, I think the education in our industry is still something which no one still, did manage to uncover fully, right?

So education Is something which exists, but very well hidden. And if you only know how to dig properly, you will be able to find it. So probably, understanding the business and its basic hygiene. And at the same time, combining it with the eye gaming principles, the affiliation principles, understanding the user journey, understanding the. The basic behavioral patterns of the eye gaming user and how to combine it with the business model of affiliation was something which I needed to go through and seeing, me and as the professional and the industry, how it will since I think we are now in the forefront of what we The biggest transformation in the history of the internet since the internet was invented, right?  With all this like new AI search and everything, and what I feel like, for people like myself, this like long journey could be erased this like biggest behavioral shift in the history of the internet, which is happening right now. And, all the only thing you can do is, adjust all of your findings and all the information you've accumulated previously and to try to give it like a new spin to be able to adjust to the new business realities.

Yeah, I love that. I love that. One of the things I would say though, is that. Those challenges that you've gone through and that searching and that finding and that feeling uncomfortable, maybe even an imposter, that's helped shaped who you are today, right? And I sometimes worry about that if we provide shortcuts, if you will, which perhaps through AI search or whatever that is.

You don't get the same depth of knowledge and level of understanding to really provide solutions that are a perfect market fit, right? And I don't know, is that, how do you see that?

 To be honest, think to become like a serious leader and understand. What it takes, like to build this like a business and infrastructure. There is no shortcuts as you mentioned. And I keep saying this for a very long time is that. If you are an entrepreneur, you take a risk, right?

And you not only take a risk for us as the person and your family, you take a risk of all these people you hired. You've take the risk of all these people. You need to pay

them salaries tomorrow,

right? There is no day offs. There is no shortcuts. There is no easy way out. So you really need to embrace the grind and you really need to evolve every single day.

If you're not doing it, then going to be like gone tomorrow. And sometimes I look at the companies and people who feel like, okay, they found their comfort zone, but it's not like that in the business. One very smart person told me You know, In the business, there is only two way outs. 

Either you go like on the IPO and you cash out through it or you become a part of the private capital. So you feel like there is a way where you can find that comfort zone and to be able to just, stay there, it's not the right path. You either evolve or you just stagnate.

Yeah. that's where I sometimes worry, right?  It's, it is through in the grind and it's in the, like the not so comfortable moments where the biggest lessons are and they drive real performance, long term growth. So what's, working with different businesses and in, you've got a lot of people around you now as well. 

What has been some of the biggest lessons that you've learned from that, from grinding through that and, hitting your head against the wall and all those kinds of things.

Yeah, I think I think I think

one of the biggest learnings was actually something which. Allowed me to transform my, my leadership style is empower and mentor against control and direct, right?  So this is something which I think, changed my persona probably like seven to eight years back where I found a way how to really empower people, how to educate and mentor them be. Like their best friend at some point, not like a big mad boss,

which is just always like screaming, right? And And, this has been probably my biggest learning. And then the thing which you can actually extract of it is the power of delegation, right? If you understand and find a way how to, build this like a next generation of leaders inside of your organizations, You can always give them more responsibilities.

You can find a way how to, allow

them to come up with, new responsibilities, new functions, new organizational twists. So I think, empowering as the leadership style and delegation are probably two biggest things I

uncovered throughout the year. And this is something which I even like, some of the portfolio companies I got. This is something which,  I keep telling to the CEOs and the founders that delegate as much as possible. Try to find a way how you empower your leaders. Try to find a way how you build frameworks and, empower people against just, doing everything by yourself.

Yeah, love that. Like it is so true. We've got to delegate decisions, not just tasks, right? And And but many of the people that will be listening will actually be struggling with that, right? Because it's also, delegating like that is also can feel like you're losing control. And therefore the quality of the work is going to go down.

So tell me a little bit about how seven, eight years ago, when you first decided that's the route that you were going to take in your leadership style, what was some of the, like, how do you get to that decision? And what was some of the fears or things that were going through your head as you were going through changing that leadership style of yours?

Yeah, I think this is a really good question. And This is something which a lot of like senior or middle management are going through in their career where they feel like, okay, if I will start delegating, I'm losing the power and becoming more replaceable, and I'm coming to the point where I gave everything myself.

So what I'm going to do now, right? And this is something which was. At some point going through my head as well, especially, you know, they always keep saying, and I think, the Alibaba founder, this is someone who has said this originally is like,  We hire people not to tell them what to do.

They should tell us what to do, so to follow that that that path, you need to hire stronger people than yourself. So this is where you, you, you are becoming, fragile at some point because this person you hired might replace yourself tomorrow, right? But at the same time, which actually allows you to do it, that stage is you can go to the next level yourself.

You can come up with, the new decisions. The new frameworks. You can start seeing things clearly and you're not this much, digging into the operations. You're not this much digging into day to day routine. This actually allows you to start thinking about business more clearly and understand and seeing connections which previously you haven't seen before.

Going all the way back seven years ago, I had the same fear of delegation, but the moment I said to myself that, if I'm like the same competitive kid, if I'm the same guy who was before all my life, I will find a way through, I will find a way how to become better. And always I remember when I hired the first marketing guy in my team. It was a brilliant guy, right? And it's actually now that the CEO of plus max Tesla, right? So

he was a brilliant guy. Like I saw, this is one of the smartest guys in my life ever saw. And it actually gave me an extra motivation to become smarter myself, to do more, become better, et cetera.

So that's the power you can bring in your organization and you should not be afraid of like delegation. And I think the golden rule of delegation,

 if you can find someone who does the thing at least 80 percent as good as you are, you should give it away. And you should not be afraid of actually, delegation.

You should not be afraid of, giving this to someone else because this gives you a new way of leverage and this gives you a new way of, empowering yourself and the organization

the result.

yeah. Feeling the fear and doing it anyway, right? Even if it's at 80 percent of the quality, because you will still be responsible for those. Decisions and the output of that work. And I think that's maybe the fear that some people are stuck with. So just sticking with that delegation, topic here, Dima, what was some of the mistakes that you made early on while doing that and how did you recover from that?

Oh, yeah, probably number one mistake is just delegated blindly, right? So

Just give it away as it is. And this probably been my mistake. Number one, whether you realize, okay, is the person ready for it? Is the person got an out of context for it, and, making sure that the path, you opening in front of him is ready for to for him to be walked through, right? 

This is probably the number one mistake, because if you work in the organization for a while, all this like little neaties, greedy, sometimes even politics within the organization. And if someone just steps in blindly, he will do a lot of mistakes. So probably the number one rule for me is to prepare and out of context for the person is to prepare like a proper guideline to prepare like a routine if it's necessary for this person to be able to take over. And I think the golden rule for me here is that the way delegate things. Should always come in with the challenge. So if you have a senior person and you know that he will absolutely smash, that task is probably not the right thing. You need to make sure that the task should be challenging enough for him.

So he has this motivation to grow, to challenge himself, et cetera. So this always been my practice and one of the frameworks. Which, I discovered many years back was objectives and key results, OKR, right? So the way OKRs are designed is actually, it's about setting up the tasks in a very ambitious manner, right?

So OKR found the perfect way in, in my, playbook where I would have set the OKR for a person which is challenging, which is very aspirational, so then he has a target to reach down. So if he needs to drive me 100 customers. I will set it at 125. So at least, he has this like challenging 25 percent okay, where do I find them?

It's impossible, and you should find a way.

that. Yeah. It's a, you've got to,  you've got to create tension. So. like over the last year, especially you've launched, multiple ventures simultaneously, and I really want to touch on that.  What have been some of the biggest drivers and challenges for you in launching those over the last year, because it is a lot at the same time.

Right.

Yeah, I think, I call it the most expensive MBA in the world. So, um, I've always been a fan of something. If the best education you can get is by doing something right. So this year has been probably the most significant and the most foundational year. Throughout my whole career   as you mentioned, I embarked on the completely new journey.

I've never done in my life previously on the same scale. Like I, I've invested previously, I I built companies previously, but on the scale I've reached these days, it's unimaginable to go there without a proper preparation. So the number one challenge was to find right people to hire these people, to empower these people, to find them a right. Function or the right area of responsibilities within the organization because the way it's been built like I had no idea about it myself. I was just really experimenting a lot, and this is where sometimes finding the right people was a big challenge. Sometimes, people and realizing, okay, this is not the right person for this job and whether I can find him a better meaning or. I can, really get him like into, some other place and in the organization to, not waste his time, not waste his talent, et cetera. It's been very tough journey, very draining, very, I'd say, stressful, with a lot of emotional rollercoaster. But I think this is like the only way how you can become better, become stronger, and looking at what, what what we've achieved throughout this year is insane, right?

And, I kept saying we're not moving fast enough. We're not strong enough. We're not good enough, but looking at actually what we've achieved. In this year is just insane, and this is like the word which I'm saying a lot because thinking about it like five years ago, 10 years ago, but what we've achieved right now would have been like, like a dream for me, and I think this is something which a big problem for me, and I think for a lot of people is you really need to find, how you ground yourself, right? There will always be a new challenge tomorrow. There will always be a new milestone tomorrow, right? But But you really need to find a way how to satisfy yourself in the moment. How to find a way how to Understand achievements, how to properly evaluate them and to satisfy yourself and your inner beast because sometimes this like inner beast in me, for example, is never enough for him, right? And I am still fighting against myself to find like a good place of mine for me to, switch off after, some time, but it's still hard. I'm still learning.  As I mentioned, it's been probably the most foundational year of all my career and the amount of learnings, amount of people, amount of amazing conversations I had is it's probably the biggest MBA I could have gotten, better than going to any of the colleges because that was the real work and the real effort, me and all my colleagues and partners put all together.

I love that. have to put it, this always was very difficult, but if you would put a,

You mean, what was that only like achievement?

yet? No. Why do you think this year was so much more successful than any other year? If you would have to put it down to one thing, what would that be?

Yeah, I think the amount of people I've met and amount of, learning and insights I got from these people. I think this has been the reason number one and I kept saying the gaming is a very close to industry people. They don't share their learnings. They don't share their victories. They try to keep, everything to themselves and be very protective and something which. I position is completely different.  I'm very open minded. I openly brag about my victories, about my losses. This is something which I think started gathering the same like minded people around myself, and this is where it gives you a completely different perspective on things what Someone's career looked like what were the biggest learning.

And I remember actually, I want to highlight one person like Nico Chamizo. I remember at a game in next this year, 25 minutes conversation I had with him was probably like years of education at some point, right? So I think people So I think people meeting people talking with people, understanding the journey, understanding their victories and their failures.

What was probably the biggest thing I've done this year.

 That really touches on the next subject I wanted to talk about, which is that your vision really is about creating more openness and not just by hiring from outside of the industry and creating, what Petra was calling cross politic pronation, but also about what I loved about you launching those businesses, how much you've built in public, right?

Like this building in public and openly with the launch of your podcast, with Blast, with everything you. Really openly talking about and creating excitement around your products and around what you're building. So tell me a little bit more about that. Dima, why do you find it so important to hire from the outside?

What's driven this big vision of yours that that you keep talking about?

Yeah, I think, talking a little bit more about the openness, right? I think that  the challenge and in a certain in a certain way, fearless approach towards, towards the possible failures is something which I embrace daily. If We fail. If we lose, if something goes wrong, this is where we learn. So this has been my motto since day one, right? And I'm not afraid of making mistakes. I'm not afraid off, actually learning and building on top of this mistake. So this led me to something which started using a lot in my previous organization, actually hiring people from the outside, right? Getting people with. With the relevant skill set from the relevant industries has been like one of my biggest superpowers, getting these people and injecting and empowering all this monstrous I gaming experience, either I had or organization, I used to work before was probably one of the biggest things I've done because, I remember the first day I said, okay, I want to get. There was a very smart lady from from the FMCG sector. I said this is going to be the biggest CMO of all times if we give her a chance and people, they started criticizing me like, no, we cannot effort, get in not ready person. We need the person right now is give me like two months. This will be the best CMO tomorrow. And we took that risk and this fearless open mindset allowed me to even think about it and, get this person to risk, a possible business uplift to risk a possible failure because I wasn't afraid of that, and this girl she became indeed one of the, one of the best CMOs I've ever seen in my life. And I think getting people with the right mindset, with the right attitude education, people who are open minded, because, sometimes, from the outside, iGaming, look like, like an angry menacing industry, right? And, it's, when people, they see it, from a different angle, as technological, as, very competitive, very innovative industry, this is where people they embrace this, opportunity, and, they join, because fintech, FMCG, automotive, mobile, all these industries, they're very similar.

And  if you find a way how to apply the skill set from these industries towards die gaming, you will be unstoppable.

  📍 📍 Dima is so right because after coaching over 200, I gaming leaders.

I've discovered one simple truth. Success in your career, really? Isn't about talent. It's about your skills and skills you can develop. So if you're a Head of, VP, director or executive. And you want to accelerate your career in a way that you can achieve sustainable high-performance then the I gaming leader mastermind might be a great fit for you. Inside.

We help people just like you live lead and perform better in less than 20 minutes a day. So, if you would like to join, please [email protected].

Yeah, I love that.   📍 One of the things I hear you talking about a lot is, and I think people from the outside struggle with, is how much of a short term vision there often is in gaming, right? And you talk about it a lot when you talk about acquisition marketing, specifically performance marketing, how, if that dries up, then obviously many businesses, they haven't got a business anymore.

And so brand is obviously a little bit more long term. I don't want to go really into the specifics of Marketing. But how do you balance in your case with your ventures that balance between short term results and long term opportunities? How do you stay sane in that, those competing kind of forces?

Yeah that's a really good question. And we had a great example one of our ventures earlier.  one of the guys, he came in onto a very senior role, and he was like looking at, immediate returns. He was looking at, okay, the uplifts of the revenue here and there. I was like, dude, don't do it like we're here, to stay and everything you do right now, all this like little losses, all this little investments are here to build like the monstrous synergy within the organization and to explode one day, right? If you start looking at everything from that perspective. You understand? Okay. All this like little pieces of the puzzle, all this like little seeds you're planting right now are aimed to bring you like revenue in three to five years, some organizations and like I had a chat with. What with I don't want to mention the name, but

one of the smartest people in our industry, and he mentioned that we switched from three years planning to five. Sorry, from five years planning to three years planning, then to one year planning, right? So for them, they need to be accomplishing within one year and planning within one year. I'm not looking like that, and I'm not thinking like that, because. I'm here to stay in this industry. I'm here to build a legacy.

I'm here to build like a next generation of projects So I want to think like in three five years time I want to understand how the business dynamics and the world dynamics will look like in three to five years and this allows me to start building the foundation off the next year's girls right to suffer right now to be able to, take some losses right now, but to be able to exploit in the next 3 to 5 years.

So I think this long term thinking is applying onto hiring people. As I mentioned, education is very big part of my routine. Having people from the outside is also that because you cannot start, extracting the value of the person right now in the day one, right building the new projects, which I've taken years to build, thinking about products, thinking about brands, thinking about communities because it's very hard to build and it's taken, years to unfold because this is where I think the internet goes right now and this is where, businesses are going to as well because with all this AI and generated content.  Only the genuine businesses, only the businesses which has values, which has something which will stay deeply inside of the heart and the soul of the consumer. Only this kind of businesses will survive, and this takes time to build. So this is my mindset.

So true. It's all about,  people to people, not business to business. And yeah, I love that. I wanted to touch a little bit on your well being. I know you've mentioned it to me a few times that you've been on a really big journey in how you've changed your approach to your personal health and being almost as a person.

As a foundational area to drive your own performance and with everything that's going on in your professional life and personal life as well. I think it's been a, it's been a game changer for you. So tell us a little bit more about that on what's started that mindset of focusing on your wellbeing.

And secondly, what are some of the most important things that you do that help you through these daily pressures? 

Yeah, absolutely. Enjoy that conversation, by the way, the last time, and I think You are one of, one of a few experts in this industry who really understand the matter, on this, highest level, and I actually learned a few things from you last time we spoke, and I started using them journaling was one of these things, for example. So I think that I'm still a very newbie person on that bus, right? I'm still like a beginner and the way I'm doing everything when it comes down to business or myself is just by, experimenting. So I experiment a lot with, with my nutrition, I experiment a lot with my sleep, with my habits, with my routines and everything.

And, this is how I find the way. To something which really means a lot to me and actually has an influence on my body and my mindset.  So one of the biggest routines I came up with was, actually the sunlight, waking up with the sunlight, staring at the sun, briefing and probably briefing is something which the first time I tried it, I was like, whoa, my mind changed.

I think so clearly now I was so pumped up. Like I was really like high of the, I injected in my body. So I started just, testing new routines, applying them, so sunlight briefing. I was, I was a fan of the intermediate fasting for for a very long time.

So I started applying this. Now Now I took a pose to check how my body reacts if I'm not doing this. So I'm going everywhere with a very experimental and proven approach. Also, And, think one of the things is,

Sleep, probably the number one doctor for you, making sure that your sleep routine is well balanced. You're going to sleep at the same time you're waking up at the same time.

I'm not using the alarm clock. I'm just waking up, myself, staring at the first light. Briefing outside trying to, get as much water as possible throughout the day. All this like little basic steps are actually turning myself into a relentless superhuman being

and, I keep saying this joke that you know People I had a chat about it with a friend.

He's ah, I'm not going to give up drinking alcohol like never. I'm like, dude, I'm fine with that. Then I will always have a handicap against you. So I'm fine with that. So

I will take it.

So I stopped drinking alcohol and it was probably one of the biggest discoveries I ever found because I don't think I ever in my life stopped drinking alcohol.

Drinking alcohol for more than 30 days and when I've done this 90 days experiment, I was like, wow, I'm not going back, right? And sometimes people they become a slight offense. It's no you're not gonna drink me I was like no dude that's my new mindset. It's not because of you It's not because of the achievements the business like got nothing.

It's  It has nothing to do with you. It's just about myself and my future mindset, right? I like the way, my mind works when I'm not drinking. I like the way I'm waking up tomorrow fresh, energized. And, this sets me onto this like relentless menacing mood where there is no like barriers in front of me.

It's just like me and the challenge in front of me.

 I want to make a comparison here, Dima. If you would have had the same habits and behaviors as you had a few years ago, and you would have had the same year as this year, what would have happened? 

  I would have been so productive. I would have been so relentless in everything I do, and I regret that some of the routines I started only recently, I wasn't applying them earlier. And you know, I read a lot. I I consume a lot of content and, some of these things I knew them for years, and, people, they were talking about it for years, and I felt ah, no, this is scum. Thinking, yeah, health is a scum thing, right? I was

stupid not listening, and now I regret I haven't done it, earlier, but still, I keep asking this question to myself, I'm still young, I'm still I'm turning 36 in a few weeks, but I'm still young. I still have such a long journey in front of me. 

So this is where I'm blessed that I found these routines right now and I'm blessed that I started applying them and seeing such a crazy difference, in my mental health and my body. I, yeah I would have been unstoppable if I started earlier. So I gave everyone a little bit of a handicap.

Yeah. Love that. Okay. And my last question here, I'd like to leave listeners with something actionable. So if So if you, maybe we'd do it like this. If you would, if you if you kind of teleport yourself back a few years, maybe when you were starting out, maybe that's seven years ago. Like you were saying, Like you were saying, what would be some of the advice that you would give yourself or some of the steps that you would recommend you would take?

 Probably the health and being routine. This is something which I would have prioritized against everything else. Probably Building a well balanced, like work life balance, a routine as well. Walking more, going to gym, more, going, into some sports. I love sports.

I, I, I play football, but not enough. I play tennis, not enough, et cetera. So prioritizing health, wellbeing, prioritizing sports and routines. And, probably number three is being, less. Less fearful when it comes down to, opening up to people, talking with people, reaching out to people, asking people questions, because I think I think the moment when, like many years back, I I understood that I need a mentor and I send this like signal to the universe that I need to mentor that this has been one of the biggest light changing moments of my life.

So doing this earlier, right? So finding a mentor. opening up to people, asking questions, admitting that something you don't know, just being very honest, being very transparent. I don't know that thing. And not only in front of everyone, but in front of yourself, because this gives you a leverage and this opening up a path towards a new education.

And so the education probably, will be the next piece because reading a lot. I think I, I took a few mini MBAs in my life and, some of them, they were very good and opening my eyes on to something. So probably this will be the number four, four thing, which, I probably not did in out, in the last seven to eight years. 

Love it. Thank you very much, Dima. Hey, I just want to say great job and fantastic work on on your your business, I really love what you're doing, love your vision for what you want to achieve within the industry and how you want to help transform the industry. So thank you very much for opening up and sharing your story with us.

It was absolute my absolute pleasure. And to be honest, I feel everything I said with a little bit sarcastic matter. So please don't take some of these things super seriously. And I just want to really help the industry. I just really want to empower more people. I just want to You know, help to build the next generation of leaders.

And whatever I find is working for me, whatever I find working for the business, I'm here to share and I'm here to, help this industry to become a better place. So I'm on the mission. And, the moment I will probably, become like bloody rich. I will. I will just, spend 24 7 just helping 📍 people.

Love it, man. Thank you very much. Speak to you soon.

Thanks.

  📍 Well, what a great interview with Dima really enjoyed talking to him. And I loved. What he shared about what it takes to be a high performance gaming leader. There are three takeaways that I think you could take from this episode. The first one is that it's so important to delegate in a way that we create the next generation of leaders inside of our business, because that will accelerate the growth that we all want to achieve. The second thing was all about embracing long-term vision over short-term gains, and almost thinking about the legacy that you leave behind with your business. And the third thing. I was all about how important it is to prioritize your own health and wellbeing, because that is the foundation. To sustainable high-performance as an I gaming leader. So those were the three key takeaways. If you enjoyed this episode, please make sure you leave a rating and review super important for helping other gaming leaders find this show as well.

It'll take you less than 10 seconds and I'll be forever grateful. So please leave a rating review. And then next week we're interviewing Maria Hammond. Who's a marketing director at relaxed gaming, super inspirational woman. I've seen her speak a few times live. She's doing amazing with how she is developing her own personal brand Very inspirational woman. So I can't wait for you. To listen to that episode as well. I hope to see you there. Take care.   📍