Mastering Tech Marketing: Strategies for Communicating with Non-Technical Audiences

“I would put tech language and technologies in simple terms. So I pull it apart, put it, and put it back into simple terms that other people would understand. Because with my many years experience of working with tech people, sometimes it’s quite difficult for non tech people understand what they talk about. And to make any decisions to purchase, let’s say, any software, anyone who’s not technical has to understand what it is, what problem is solving. And this is where I come on board and explain people how it’s supposed to be. Like, if you’re not technical person, I would explain, as a, like your five year old put it in simple terms for you.”
Olga Bubnova

Olga Bubnova, a tech marketing and branding expert who’s spent 13 years helping companies simplify and thrive. Olga’s not just talking theory—she’s actively transforming businesses by bridging the gap between complex tech and everyday understanding. From industrial automation to AI, Olga has a unique gift for translating dense technical language into clear, actionable insights.

In this episode, Olga shares her journey from translating embedded systems lingo into plain English to coaching businesses on how to present technology in a way that resonates with non-technical audiences. Whether you’re dealing with blockchain, cybersecurity, or just trying to make sense of software, Olga has tips that can help you break through the noise. Olga also unravels the common challenges faced by entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs alike, from the confusion of choosing the right tools to the paralysis that comes with tech overwhelm.

If you’re ready to transform how your business approaches technology and cut through the noise, tune in to this episode. Learn how to stay ahead without getting lost in the tech shuffle.

In this episode you’ll hear about

• What’s different from normal marketing, and how does it help in the technology world?
• What were the words tech people were using that people didn’t understand?
• How has Olga found, in her experience, the best ways to communicate technology to non-technical audiences? What are some major themes or strategies she focuses on?
• What are some steps that someone who isn’t a technical person should take to understand a technology and translate it for the outside world?
• How would people within a software company, who aren’t technical, go about learning things in the best way, do you think?
• How to help somebody reacting to tech overwhelm, how to facilitate a conversation to help them focus on the problem, challenge, or goal?
• Where should leaders look for insight and information about technological changes?
• How can leaders react more quickly to changes and adopt new technologies effectively?
• What advice would you give to entrepreneurs or leaders on setting up rituals that promote sharing knowledge about trends and technology within their teams?

https://youtu.be/GBGFL0aLUh4

Key links

Olga Bubnova LinkedIn
Tech Femme Fusion Website 

About our guest

Olga is a tech marketing and branding expert with 13 years of global experience. She specialises in helping tech businesses stand out and attract new opportunities through strategic branding, marketing solutions, and powerful storytelling. Her expertise covers areas like industrial automation, tech start-ups, software development, blockchain, FinTech, cybersecurity, AI, and SaaS, and more.

Olga is also the co-founder of a start-up named Tech Femme Fusion, which helps small businesses adopt and leverage new technologies to improve operations, future-proof their businesses, and stay competitive.

Olga hosts the “Marketing for Tech” podcast, where she interviews entrepreneurs and innovators about their unique marketing strategies in the tech industry. A sought-after speaker, she has also managed professional tech events and designed impactful digital campaigns, sharing her insights across various platforms.

About our host

Our host, Chris Hudson, is a Teacher, Experience Designer and Founder of business transformation coaching and consultancy Company Road.

Company Road was founded by Chris Hudson, who saw over-niching and specialisation within corporates as a significant barrier to change.

Chris considers himself incredibly fortunate to have worked with some of the world’s most ambitious and successful companies, including Google, Mercedes-Benz, Accenture (Fjord) and Dulux, to name a small few. He continues to teach with University of Melbourne in Innovation, and Academy Xi in CX, Product Management, Design Thinking and Service Design and mentors many business leaders internationally.

Transcript

Chris Hudson: 0:05
Hello and welcome back to the company road podcast, where we explore what it takes to change a company and look at the stories behind the people that make those changes possible. My name is Chris. I’m your host. And today we’re going to be diving into the exciting world of tech marketing and digital transformation. And I’m really thrilled to introduce our next guest, Olga Bubnova, tech marketing and branding expert with an impressive 13 years of global experience. And Olga’s made a name for herself. by helping tech businesses stand out in crowded markets and also attract new opportunities through strategic branding, marketing solutions and powerful storytelling. Olga’s expertise spans a wide range of things, and tech sectors, including industrial automation, tech startups, software development, blockchain, fintech, cybersecurity, AI, and SaaS. That’s a lot of things. Olga doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks the walk. And as the co founder of Tech Femme Fusion. She’s actively helping small businesses adopt and leverage new technologies to improve their operations, future proof their businesses and stay competitive in an evolving digital landscape. So you might also know Olga as the host of the Marketing for Tech podcast, which I’d urge you to check out as well, where she interviews entrepreneurs and innovators about their unique marketing strategies in the tech industry. And Olga is also a sought after speaker and event manager, and she’s shared her insights across various platforms and has designed impactful products. Digital campaigns for those things too. So I can pop a link to all that stuff in the show notes and you can check it out. But today we’re going to tap into Olga’s wealth knowledge about the intersection of technology, marketing, and business transformation. And Olga, a huge welcome to the show. Thanks so much for coming on.

Olga Bubnova: 1:34
Thank you so much for having me. And it’s really exciting because I think I’m the first time on the podcast discussing not just marketing and tech and diving into culture and digital transformation of organisations. It’s going to be really interesting and exciting.

Chris Hudson: 1:52
Yeah, wonderful. There’s going to be lots to talk about, I think. And yeah, let’s talk about this concept of marketing for tech first. Obviously there’s marketing and there’s technology, but you’ve brought these two worlds together in a way. And, you know, what’s different from normal marketing and how does it help in the technology world?

Olga Bubnova: 2:08
Great question. And I think I want to start with, my first marketing, my tech marketing job. it was around 14 years ago and it was an industrial automation. That was my first experience with technology and the project managers in particularly. Who would speak a tech language, so you wouldn’t be able to translate. If you don’t understand technology, you won’t be able to understand what they’re talking about.

Chris Hudson: 2:37
What were the words they were using that people didn’t understand? Do you remember?

Olga Bubnova: 2:41
Don’t make me try to remember those words because it was about embedded systems. It was about data centres. It was about microelectronics, uh, different microchips. So everything you could have imagined that would go into the tech for trains, factories, minings, and all that stuff. My role was about translating tech language into simple terms. I would say that to explain to our vendors, to explain our other people that we work with, what they’re actually talking about, what’s the meaning behind all this confidence. And that was quite challenging, but it’s actually made me go even deeper. And during my career, learning more and more about different tech. So going back to your question, what’s the difference between marketing for other businesses and marketing for tech? Marketing for tech and. Myself in person, I would put tech language and technologies in simple terms. So I pull it apart, put it back into simple terms that other people would understand. Because with my many, many years experience of working with tech people, sometimes it’s quite difficult for non tech people understand. What they talk about and to make any decisions to purchase, let’s say any software, anyone who’s not technical has to understand what it is, what problem is solving. And this is where I come on board and explain people how it’s supposed to be. Like if you’re not technical person, I would explain as a, like you’re five year old and put it in simple terms for you. So I think this is the difference between It’s quite challenging if you don’t really have technical background, if you don’t understand tech, it’s quite difficult to market it.

Chris Hudson: 4:35
Yeah. Yeah. No, that’s great to explain that. And I think that, I can think of maybe a few other industries that could do with that level of interpretation, kind of re imagination of how they present themselves in the outside world as well. But technology, it feels because of its. It’s been evolving at such a pace and obviously that speeds up and up, you know, and with every round of change that we’re now seeing, leaves a kind of wake of confusion amongst people that probably don’t really understand it and don’t understand the change of why it’s happening and don’t really Talking in that way. So I think of all of the industries out there in the sectors, I think tech feels like one that does need to be represented, in a different way to the outside world and because it’s affecting everybody and in every business people need to understand it. So I think it sounds like very important work.

Olga Bubnova: 5:23
Well, absolutely. You know, other people, they don’t have to understand every single aspect of the technology. They just need to understand the basics. And it’s a little bit challenging for them to explain in simple terms. You know what I mean? Because They know what they’re talking about. Others don’t.

Chris Hudson: 5:41
Yeah. Yeah. And obviously it’s not just the kind of outward expression in terms of how you talk about technology, but you’re thinking about the people that you’re talking to with that information. You’re thinking about your audiences, like you would with any other marketing activity. What are the insights behind the people that are receiving that information and how can you tailor, that communication or that, that engagement in some way to those groups how have you found that in your experience, what’s kind of coming up as some big themes?

Olga Bubnova: 6:09
Well, I think I would consider myself as a person who’s bridging the gap between non tech and tech people. With my experience, if I can explain it to my mum. I can explain it to anyone because my mum is not really a technical person at all. If I can explain it to her, I think this is how I was training on explaining blockchain technology. So now my mum knows what the blockchain technology is and how it works. I mean, the really, really basics. I’m not in the blockchain expert, but I can understand some of the factors and aspects of that tech. And my mum knows it. Now, I think that’s quite a successful story.

Chris Hudson: 6:51
Yeah, yeah. There was UX, but they talk about designing for eight year olds, but not just eight year olds, drunk eight year olds. So, you’ve got to think about a small child that’s under the influence of alcohol and whether your design is going to work in some way for them. It’s a similar thing, but you’re obviously using your mother for that kind of purpose. Is that a guinea pig?

Chris Hudson: 7:15
Yeah, yeah. Does she get a lot of phone calls? Does she, do you use her quite a lot?

Olga Bubnova: 7:19
I do, sometimes I do. And, well Now she knows about AI and how it works too, maybe not as much as I do, but she knows some basic things, yes, and what AI can do.

Chris Hudson: 7:33
And talk me through your process, there are a lot of people out there that would really benefit from this skill, because they’re taking technological terms, talking about them, but probably not really understanding them that much, but they’re having to talk, now people feel like they have to talk about it, and really come across as if they understand AI. The technology and its application, all the things that you would do with it, for the people out there that are really looking to understand it at a deeper level and then do what you’re doing to some extent what would be some of the steps that you would typically take to understand the technology and then go about this level of translation or interpretation and preparing it for release into the outside world as a message in some way what are some of the things that you think would help?

Olga Bubnova: 8:11
If someone you mean, who’s not technical person and wants to learn more about technology and how to understand it properly.

Chris Hudson: 8:18
Yeah, probably. If you think about say software company, there’ll be people within a software company that aren’t technical probably because they might work in people and culture or they might work in a finance team and they need to understand what’s going on, but they don’t really, they talk about it, but without really understanding. So how would they go about learning things in the best way, do you think that’s a good question? And I think they should start with putting, forgetting about technology and thinking about problem solving, because quite often what I see in a tech company and you mentioned software developers, quite often I see they start talking about technology, the features they have, the coding, the languages they use for coding, I always say, forget about it. People don’t care how many software engineers you have they want to know, especially if it’s your potential client and you want to explain what’s your value proposition, explain how you’re solving the problem. Don’t explain how you built it, because if they want to get into details, you will go to, you will go into details later on, but let them think. You, the only one who would solve the problem. So it’s more about problem solving. It’s more about challenges. The software development company can solve. Rather than explaining how many features they have. For example, we’re using a software recording this podcast right now. I don’t really care what sort of language they use behind it. As soon as the solver, like, you know, the serve the purpose it’s recording, it’s working nicely. You can put a really nice episode after that. It’s all the tech, all the features we have is there. That’s it. That’s what we need. We don’t need to know the code behind it. We’re not tech people. And I think I would start with changing a little bit of mindset and get out there, go to a talk to different teams and saying, okay, this is tech we have, and this is how it can solve the problem. Help us to put everything in simple terms. And market it out there. You know, that’s another thing I would say, and I, I heard from somewhere and I really remembered and really resonated with me that tech people and software developers, any engineers, they now need to have skills on presenting on sales. Not just being who’s actually building behind, you know, in a dark room with hundreds of mentors and sitting and building and writing a code. Now they need to have, now they need to be agile and need to have this presenting in sales skills as well.

Chris Hudson: 11:11
Yeah, I mean, it’s a very interesting time, isn’t it? Because a lot of technology in a way is becoming more accessible, which means that in the hands of everybody that didn’t used to know how to be able to do a lot, even on their phone suddenly people are able to start building apps and they’re using AI and they’re kind of getting into the tools a little bit. So at one point, It felt like we’re fronting a lot of the technological advances and talking about them, but not having to actively work on them themselves from a technician’s point of view or in engineering or as a developer that’s sort of changing. And then, obviously, the traditional coders and the engineers they’re needing to present their own personal brands probably in a more outward ways than they were before as well. So it feels like there’s a lot of changing part, you know, changing parts and changing roles within the industry. Is that something that you’re seeing as well?

Olga Bubnova: 11:59
Absolutely. And you know what? And another thing I would like to mention, it’s vice versa at some non technical, technical people needs to learn more about technology because We use technology on a daily basis now, especially with AI. You don’t need to understand how large language model works, for example, but you need to understand if it’s open source, don’t chuck your data into it. Sensitive data. You need to understand how the basics just have this digital literacy to understand how everything works. Because I, there was a funny situation many years ago, and one of my managers asked, there was after 5 PM, I believe at work, and she started panicking and saying like, Oh, what’s, what’s the phone number of our tech guy? And so like, what’s happened? Maybe I can help you with. And she was like, Oh my God, I just, I don’t know, I don’t know how to send a PDF in via email. I was like, what do you mean? You don’t know how to send a PDF? She was struggling with a PDF file. She couldn’t attach it. So I had to go and download it to put it in my email and send it to her. And I was really surprised because she never showed the signs of that she’s not capable of Attaching a PDF, I was really surprised. And for me, it’s quite important to see that other people have this basic digital literacy. So it’s not just tech people need to learn more about non technical skills, presentation skills, sales skills, marketing skills. The other people need to put a little bit more effort on learning digital skills to be like a little bit more agile with that. Because that’s a little bit embarrassing these days, you know?

Chris Hudson: 13:54
Yeah, that’s an interesting point, isn’t it? Because I feel like there may have once been a tolerance, or more of a tolerance, for people that don’t understand the technology. I feel like now it’s pretty expected that you understand how to do all those things. And the training, in some cases, isn’t that formalised? It’s not like you learn how to do Excel or you learn how to do PowerPoint or, whatever the type, whatever the software is you’re doing, there’s so much expectation in the broader sense for technology, just being there. And you’re understanding how to use it from your phone all the way through to anything else that you would like use in a boardroom setting, if you’re trying to set up the presentation or whatever else. Like if you can’t do it, then it’s quite noticeable. And like you say, it’s quite embarrassing. So yeah. How do we fix that? Do you think?

Olga Bubnova: 14:38
Quite interesting question. And I will try to answer it. And I should have told myself years ago, never be scared of asking for help. So I think if you can’t do something and sometimes the simple things, they don’t work, you know, that’s the ironical thing. And I actually, had a couple of situation like this when my work laptop just didn’t work. There’s something happened. I just like try too many different things. And I consider myself knowing a little bit about. Tech. And I definitely can deal with a laptop, but something doesn’t work. I call a tech guy. So I’m like, can you please help me? As soon as he comes, a laptop starts working. I don’t know. That’s the magic of tech people around technology. I don’t know what it is, but at the same time, never be scared or asking for help. When you work in an organisation. I think our organisation should provide some basic training as well. Not everyone has to be on the same level of expectations, knowing different tools knowing different softwares, not everyone on the same level and organisation should provide that training. At least basic training for those people. And I think this is what we’re trying to do and break this wall with tech confusion. They explain the companies, if you don’t have capacity and you don’t have employees. Who actually understand the tech well, train your staff, train your team, providing was a basic digital literacy skills, provide them with that. And it’s not really hard. And now it may be, we’ll take you a couple of workshops. It’s not that hard. You can organise a video training as well. So I think the organisation or companies should think about. Providing just the basic training for people.

Chris Hudson: 16:37
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it’s a hard one to kind of bring. You mentioned a team of, I don’t know, 20 people or however many people it is. Everyone’s going to be at different levels and they’re going to know different things. And then it might be a bit like, you know, we’re trying to explain really basic things to everybody. So there’s a shared understanding. I feel like the, It’s probably the same with, um, same with product management and it’s the same with agile. You always walk into the room thinking that there are different levels of understanding and you’re still going to have to level that team’s understanding in some way by giving everyone the same consistent message. For technology, it’s the thing where, okay, so I’m like, 10 percent of the room might know a lot and 10 percent of the room might not know anything that you’re talking about, but you’ve got to bring everyone together. So have you been in situations where that’s, that’s had to happen?

Olga Bubnova: 17:25
Yes. And it happened in one company when I, we worked with Salesforce on daily basis. So I could work with Salesforce with my eyes closed. And at one stage we had a change manager who would explain, uh, everyone, every new employee would come on board. They would get a training about how to work with Salesforce. And then when she was gone, they didn’t have anyone to replace her. So I started actually learning different things and asking people, or how can I do that? How can I do that? So I ended up within a few years, I was working for this company, ended up learning so much about Salesforce that I was putting a guide, a guidelines of how to use one part of the Salesforce for the rest of the company. And I think I remember there was like a handful of staff who would understand the sales force on like sort of advanced level and we would share the knowledge with the rest of the company who needed, like was the rest of people who needed to work with Salesforce too. So don’t be afraid asking. For health. This is what I was doing when I was learning and putting all my knowledge together. Yeah.

Chris Hudson: 18:53
Yeah, no, definitely. And I think there’s something really nice in there as a takeaway, which is around the fact that no matter how technological you are, like if you’re learning technology for the first time, then you’re still learning about it. For the first time, it’s not as if people that are technologically minded actually know everything walking in life. They’re picking up a new software application whatever it is, they don’t know that until they’ve tried it out themselves. So people that are less technologically comfortable, I want to say, are going to be looking at those people thinking, oh, they know everything, but actually everyone is on their own journey of learning in one way or another. And so all you have to do is really start and take the next step on that journey to then. Become more technologically aware. And in that example that you gave with Salesforce, effectively, it’s like faking it till you make it right. You’re going, you’re learning, you’re learning, you’re learning. And then all of a sudden you learn, you know, more than everybody else. And you’re running a course or you’re starting a business around it. That can be the beauty of technology because if you do put the effort in and focus in on it and obviously develop an area of knowledge or expertise, then people really value that around you. Don’t you think?

Olga Bubnova: 19:56
Yes, I absolutely agree. You know, this was another, probably a personal skill that is quite important when you start learning and explaining to artists. I think I can be really annoying person because I actually like to put everything in details. Sometimes I go too much into details. But it helps me with creating different templates or implementation guides, for example.

Chris Hudson: 20:22
Yeah, yeah. And actually, I think from what you were saying before about the interpretation and the translation almost of technology and its language to somebody else who doesn’t know. If you are going into details, then you can see in real time, really, how people are responding to those things that you’re talking about. If I describe to you blockchain in one sentence and you describe to me blockchain in 10 sentences, and we both look at each other’s reactions you’re going to get more from my reaction to you saying it in 10 sentences, if that makes sense, because you’ll have explained more of it. And that way can definitely be a good way to gather understanding as to how it’s being received as well.

Olga Bubnova: 20:59
Yes, it’s definitely helps within the organisations or if I start working with a client in, I become a part of a team. It definitely helps when I get into detail. I try to stop myself not to bore people with details that are important for my work. You know, there’s some details that are not important for people’s work. And I tried to actually stop myself and filter the words, filter what I say. Otherwise people get lost. Same as like with the tech people. If they go into details of the technology, it’s just like, slow down. I lost you like 10 minutes ago.

Chris Hudson: 21:35
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Olga Bubnova: 21:38
I think it’s a balance of, you have to understand who you need to explain more or who you need to explain less.

Chris Hudson: 21:44
Yeah. Okay. So you got the one minute version or the 10 minute version ready? Pretty much.

Chris Hudson: 21:51
Yeah. Yeah. In terms of how you deliver that, is there a technique in the way that you do it in relation to maybe storytelling and you giving a kind of headline up front and then you’re explaining everything and you come back to it with, is there a sort of like a narrative? technique that you use, or do you always start with background and then build up to a big explanation or, you know, big point that you’re going to raise at the end? Is there anything that you find works well in the way that you communicate there?

Olga Bubnova: 22:16
I think it’s a mix and you normally read a person. You normally read someone who’s talking to, if it’s like the client and already know how, the way they receive the information. I already know how to talk to them. If it’s someone new, not necessarily it’s a client or someone else, I’m trying to collaborate and do the project together. I normally read and understand how they react. I will try to start with a background to cover in a short version, everything, and then asking questions, whether they interested in learning more, whether they may be already know this sort of information and I don’t have to repeat myself, yes, it’s. Both, both.

Chris Hudson: 22:58
Yeah, great, great. I mean, I think there’s something really valuable in, in obviously not just talking at people, but using the opportunity to listen quite actively to, to what people are saying to you before you start pitching your new technology concepts or whatever it is to them. Because if you hear how they’re actually describing their situation, their problems, their customers problems whatever it is. You can then. Almost play that back through your pitch to some extent, and that will create the connection between what it is they’ve got in their head and what it is you’re talking about in the technology. I think that can be really helpful too.

Olga Bubnova: 23:31
Yes. And I think there’s my advice to any startups, whoever needs to pitch the technology, try to make it as short as possible. Two sentences, make it two sentences. Because you have 10 seconds to grab people’s attention. And if you pitch it for 10 minutes, people are not listening. They stop listening like nine and a half minutes ago.

Chris Hudson: 23:57
And if they stop listening, what do you do to hook them back in? What do you do?

Olga Bubnova: 24:03
Well, I personally didn’t really have that experience, but normally if a person is not interested, or maybe I want to see myself that I’ve never had this experience. Maybe I did My advice would be start with a short version and then go into A longer version and if you see that you’re losing a person You probably want to ask a question whether are you still interested? Do you want to hear more details? Just wondering are we on the same page? But probably you just double check with the person.

Chris Hudson: 24:34
The other one I want to ask you about, it’s not exactly the same, but it’s kind of related. It’s around this concept of overwhelm because in a lot of other conversations if we’re talking about the world of work and sensory and all the things around neurodivergence and the conversation around that, there’s this sense of overwhelm. And you know, if there’s too much, then there’s too much and you can’t take it in. So what have you noticed have been like the main situations where, you know, from an overwhelm point of view, it’s tech overwhelm because people are just trying to like, you could see the rabbit in the headlights, they’re trying to take in too much information. How do you notice those situations and what do you do in those situations?

Olga Bubnova: 25:10
I think you need to go back to the challenge. So not to know and learn about every single tech that out there. You actually need to go back and say like, what’s my challenge? My goal. What I need to achieve and then probably narrowing down a tech and tools resources you need. for solving your problem. So you’re going back to the problem. You’re going back to the challenge.

Chris Hudson: 25:41
Yeah. Yeah. And if you see somebody else reacting in that way, then obviously you can facilitate the conversation around that so that they then start thinking not about all of the information that they have to take in, but the problem, the challenge, the goal, you know, talking in, in simpler, higher level. Terms that people can get back into a normal conversation about essentially.

Olga Bubnova: 26:00
Yes, absolutely. This is what I was trying to do with my marketing for tech business. We began that if you need to solve a marketing challenges, if you don’t run any marketing, you need just a simple CRM. You don’t have to have a three, four, five different tools. They just sitting there. And again, it’s all some tools that can be too complicated, too expensive. Okay. It depends on the size of a company, for example, if the amount of data they have, there’s some people that don’t understand. They pay for tech so much, but not utilising it properly that utilising maybe like a 30 percent of this tech. Like, why would you need this tool to you paying so much money for this? And not really using it. Let’s say we had a conversation with a company that’s the, they were having the Salesforce and using the Salesforce and Salesforce is quite complicated, advanced CRM platform, quite customised and quite expensive too. And the data was just sitting there. They won’t do anything with it. They’re not building conversations. They won’t be following any notes. The data was just sitting is it was a storage. It’s like, you don’t utilise Salesforce as a storage. You need something simple. If I see, and when I see this as a challenge for the company, I try to understand like, okay, what do you want to do with this data? If you don’t want to utilise, if you just need to. Story it and from time to time to use as a contact point, let’s say you send like EDMs, um, newsletters, um, emails, let’s go back and just use a simple tool that you will be paying probably, I don’t know, 50 a month. Not a few thousand dollars. So you’re going back to the challenge and going back for the, for your goal. What are you going to do with it?

Chris Hudson: 27:55
Yeah. And that comes down to the conversation at that point, right? Around what the requirements are and how are you going to use it and what do you need? And I feel like the decisioning in that part for any organisation is actually really hard because there are certain people within the room that obviously know the technology and there’ll be other people in the room that don’t. That knows it less, and I’m basically looking to those CTO, whoever it is, looking to those people for the recommendation on what the business should take forward and business never stands still. So a set of requirements that you’re defining in that time, they might be correct for this current state of the business, but they don’t want to invest in something they’re going to have to. Rethink about in two years or three years, they want to build on it. And so there might be a tendency to basically buy the deluxe version that has all of these things and to overpay. But like you say you might only be using 10 percent of the functionality if you’re going about it that way. So it’s a hard one to swallow, I think from a commercial point of view, because a lot of businesses are having to over invest upfront and that’s how the pricing models are designed by. You know, the likes of these software companies. So it’s a really hard one to navigate. Don’t you think? Absolutely. And from the company’s point of view, if they’re selling it they don’t really maybe care too much about who’s buying they had onboarding session, they’re not having any troubles, any issues with that. The way they use it is the problem, right? But for the company who is buying tech, they need to understand a few things. What’s the goal? Like how are they going to utilise this tool? Who is going to utilise it just to make sure it’s not over complicated for resources you have in house. If you have just the one marketer, just to make sure that this person is trained enough to use this tool properly, and then who’s going to maintain it, who’s going to look after it. Do you need a tech person specifically, or maybe just the IT person that will have an hour a week just to make sure this the tool is working properly, do you need someone to maintain it? Or you can from time to time to call a company and say like, Hey, I have a challenge. This is not working. It’s going to be enough for you. And what are you going to do with it? So it is a few things. Who’s utilising, what are you utilising for? Who’s maintaining and how are you utilising it? I think it’s quite simple. As soon as you answer this questions, it becomes quite simple for you to make a decision on What exactly you need.

Chris Hudson: 30:20
Yeah. Yeah, that’s right. And I think change management is probably done in a more structured way in larger organisations, but some of those key questions that you’re asking would be incredibly relevant, obviously for any small business, it doesn’t have to be that all of those people that you mentioned are different, that you’re just basically assigning roles to maybe one or two people as you were describing. So, yeah, I think it’s definitely an opportunity to think about that, almost that, that ownership of the technology in one way or another. And it’s quite tempting with it when you’re in those roles, obviously, to just consider yourself as like a user. But I think there’s a responsibility in a sense to basically make the most of the technology. If you’re paying for it, you may as well make the most of it, right?

Olga Bubnova: 30:59
Yeah, absolutely. And because these days, We do have so many tools, people get lost. And as you mentioned before there’s so many tools. People just don’t know. They were like, there was this crazy eyes looking at those tools and say, like, I don’t know what to do. Do I need to use all of them 50 percent or just one tool? That’s why those questions need to be answered. And this is for small businesses they never heard about. Change management they simply don’t have a room for that in a company with a medium size organisations. It’s a little bit different. So there’s different departments, they have innovation, digital transformation, change management. So those areas are looked after for small businesses. They need to be really smart with how they utilise. On human resources. I’m not even talking about digital resources, human resources as well, just to make sure that your staff members are comfortable with whatever you implementing, whatever you bringing on the table.

Chris Hudson: 32:07
Yeah, that’s it. Yeah. I mean, You and I have both witnessed when it goes wrong, right? Technology’s all there. And like, you can be the best user in the world, but if the technology is not working and there’s a bad day, then it is a bad day, right? There’s a meltdown. It works 99. 9 percent of the time. And then all of a sudden there’s nothing you can do. Can’t do my job. It feels like that. So that can be really hard for people to come to terms with, particularly in a stressful moment. Have you got any coping strategies for that kind of moment in technology?

Olga Bubnova: 32:34
Well, always have a plan B. I think when chat GPT was released, lots of people started jumping on board saying like, you know, we don’t need anyone now. We don’t need any staff member. The chat GPT will do everything for us. And then all of a sudden there was outage. I think it was like a year ago it was Optus outage and then nothing was working. I was like, okay, where is your chat GPT? So you always have to have a plan B. On if something goes wrong, what are you going to do? It’s like a risk assessment. I would say if you, if we talk a little bit like a bigger words, risk assessment and saying like, okay, if one of my tool is not working, what I got to do? Am I using just an email address? And letting my customers know, but I need to know how to go into a data. If I can’t send anything, but do I have an access to this data? How I store it? And there’s so many different things. Just have a plan B. It just depends on the situation, but have a plan B and risk assessment in place.

Chris Hudson: 33:35
Yeah. I think it’s a good one. Like we’re talking about the audience of this show are intrapreneurs and they’re thinking about how they can make positive change within their businesses and the things they can do to help. So even something as simple as technology and getting people to all have a shared understanding of it. And then, like you say in the event of disaster, what is the plan and what’s the plan B and how do we work if all of the team is using chat GPT to do all of their work tomorrow? If that doesn’t work, how are we going to come up with work? Yep. Yeah, it’s going to stop if we don’t know how to think for ourselves anymore, then how are we going to do the work?

Olga Bubnova: 34:09
Exactly. Exactly. And I think there’s lots of people maybe realised with that particular challenge, like a year ago, that people realise it’s like, now I can’t really rely on technology, like a hundred percent, you know, like you have to have this plan B.

Chris Hudson: 34:25
Yeah. Yeah. No, it’s interesting. It’s interesting. Obviously my uncle in Germany, he was a car mechanic, right? And he worked for Peugeot and he was fine to the point that they brought all these, the, you know, digital systems and computer systems in. And then all of a sudden that changed the role of the car mechanic. And he wasn’t that quick in getting on board with some of the new advances. But nowadays, if you want to fix a car, you need to know how all the computer systems work. To be able to do it and run the diagnostic and everything. Whereas if all of that failed, he’d still know how to fix the car and make it drive, you know, yeah.

Chris Hudson: 34:59
I feel sort of like there’s a responsibility when it comes to this technology, a lot of things to consider in its usage. What are you taking on yourself? What does it say about you when you’re using it? What do you recognise as your own strengths and maybe some gaps in your knowledge that I think we need to be aware of a little bit about what we, you know, how we’re using the technology and how we could improve its usage and not just sort of jump in and use it without a break of thought. I don’t know. What do you think? Is it becoming one of these things that we have to be a bit more careful about?

Olga Bubnova: 35:26
Oh, hundred percent, hundred percent. And I think it’d go, we can go back. To that part we were discussing about the digital literacy, you know, basic digital literacy, my business partner says your stuff, most likely your stuff already using AI, you just don’t know about it. So what you can do, you can teach your staff how to use it in a smart way, just to make sure your data is safe. The data of your clients is safe. Your brand identity, your brand is not being compromised. If you use a chat GPT, let’s say for marketing, for social media, just don’t copy and paste it, you know, well make some edits. Don’t embarrass yourself because it, it gets the point when people don’t even think people don’t even, uh, make any effort to edit text. You’re probably, you, I believe that you saw on the LinkedIn, this type of post where you can see a clear chat GPT talking. My point is just teach your stuff. Most likely they already using it, but just at least explain. How to use it in a smart way just to make sure that your organisation and everyone who’s involved in it are safe.

Chris Hudson: 36:47
Yeah, for sure. For sure. And I think that’s another thing that the intrapreneurs or leaders should be setting up really, if that’s not in place. I think that an acknowledgement of people using it, obviously, but I think the safeguarding aspects, you know, it feels like everyone is riding the crest of the wave a little bit. They don’t, There haven’t been any major backlashes from companies using ChatGPT so far. Anyway, I don’t know. Maybe that’s a ticking time bomb. Maybe it’s going to happen. That’s going to be a big kind of exposure of all of this company data that somehow sits there and it’s out of people’s control. But yeah, it’s a hard one, isn’t it? Who should be leading the change for that? How do they safeguard for something that’s moving and developing so quickly? I think that’s always been the case with technology. The point at which you understand it and you can start writing policy documents and you put it up on your intranet, like the technology’s already changed and it’s doing something else and you don’t need to start again. So, um, yeah, some of that can be pretty hard to manage. Don’t you think?

Olga Bubnova: 37:42
I believe that a small business, it’s. It’s a little bit more flexible because they don’t really have this time to waste. They need to make sure they are not falling behind with medium sized businesses. With the organisational structure is quite big and comprehensive and quite difficult to understand change to this organisation to implement any new change in this organisation becomes quite challenging because it takes time. For anything you want to do for any innovation, for any change, you need to get so many different approvals and This is where executives have to understand and keep an eye on what’s happening in the market. You know how market behaves, what’s the changes out there, what’s coming, always keep an eye on anything that’s happening in the market. Because as I said, for larger organisations take Longer to implement anything to make any change, looking for change and knowing where to look and what information to trust. Have you got a, have you got a point of view around the leaders and where they should be looking for that level of insight?

Olga Bubnova: 38:56
I personally stay up to date with trusted sources, obviously different news. Sources, I subscribe for a few newsletters, also follow different influences. This is how I stay up to date with all the information. Maybe not with every single piece of information, but at least trying to educate myself on a daily basis. Probably reading more and now it’s everything digital, you don’t need to subscribe for a physical magazine or newspaper to get any updates. Now you get them straight away into your mailbox. Now you go into a LinkedIn one of the most trusted social media platforms for professionals. You go to LinkedIn and lots of people are talking about, there’s so many influential voices out there. You know, they know before. You actually open your eyes in the morning, so they already know what’s happening. This is the job, sort of, uh, to stay up to date. I would recommend to follow these people, subscribe for different sources, newsletters. EDMs, anything like that. That would be my piece of advice.

Chris Hudson: 40:08
Yeah. Good advice. Yeah. I think we should all do a bit more of that just to make sure that we know what’s going on. And based on what you’re seeing maybe as we draw this conversation to a close, what are you thinking, uh, some of the, the bigger challenges that are coming up for leaders within organisations what are the things that people need to be aware of and probably start thinking about. More seriously, as big, big things to fix or any challenges, anything like that, they need to be ready to react quicker. Every single day they have to react, adopt and adapt to changes quicker than yesterday. Because two, three years ago, we wouldn’t even think about anything. I’m not talking about AI. AI already being there in some form of AI already. For years with us, but something like generative AI, you know, there’s a charge of your team, different tools for marketers, creative people, for designers, like you have to be faster. Now you have to be faster. And it probably in the other point I would raise with that is have a conversation with your team, with your staff, because if you didn’t hear about those news, one of your staff members probably heard. They’re probably tech savvies, let’s say, and they follow different influencers, as I said before, they subscribe for so many different newsletters, they know what’s coming, they know the changes. Have a like, I don’t know, 15 minutes meeting and say there’s anything you heard yesterday or this week or last month, that’s something that we need to pay attention to.

Chris Hudson: 41:47
That’s definitely worth doing. And I think the power of many and the collective knowledge of many is also really powerful within a business context. So I’m always thinking, can you unlock different people are interested in different things. Can you bring those people together? Can you share learnings? Can you, yeah. So anyone in entrepreneurs out there couldn’t can be. Setting some of those rituals up in a way where the knowledge is shared and it just becomes part of the natural conversation and part of the way in which you don’t just talk about the work or the deadlines or the status of this project but in a way that allows for some of these bigger topics and trends. I mean, it doesn’t have to be that formal either. You probably just talk about it over coffee or whatever, or if something interesting came up too, it doesn’t have to be an agenda point in the meeting.

Olga Bubnova: 42:30
No, not necessarily, but it’s good for your staff as well, for your employees. So there’s someone who will actually will feel valued, I would say, just to bring something to the table. You ask for the opinion and the experience rather than telling them what to do every time. Sometimes there’s this. type of management still exists, but you ask them what’s happening. Does anything interesting happening? Maybe you heard something. Do you read about something?

Chris Hudson: 42:56
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I want to also finish the chat with your perspective on what’s exciting about this. technology and maybe a story if you’d like to tell it around how you got into technology just for the listeners out there that are maybe still trying to find their feet a little bit with technology just so that you can give an impression of what makes you interested in it so that people can hear that and maybe they’ll find it interesting too. So what made you interested in technology to begin with and how did that all come about?

Olga Bubnova: 43:22
For me, it was probably a challenge. And curiosity of just trying to understand how everything works and more, I trying to dig deeper, like, you know, becoming fascinating for me, don’t afraid to be replaced by technology because you will never, you’ll never be replaced by the technology. Because a human knowledge is really, really important. Only humans can say what’s bad, what’s good, and only humans can make decisions. Technology not making decisions. They just help you with analysing information, put everything together connect different dot points. You will still be that person who will make a decision, but don’t be afraid of that. You will be replaced by AI. You know, there’s another trend trendy topic going around and we will be replaced by technology, artificial intelligence. No, AI is just analysing information. It doesn’t make decisions. So don’t be afraid. And, uh, you probably need to stay a little bit more creative to think what’s The different ways I can learn and explain the tech, not necessarily tech, just whatever I know and passionate about. Just be creative and curious.

Chris Hudson: 44:46
Yeah, I think everyone can learn from that. Thank you. Thank you. I think there are different responses to something that, that you don’t know about. This can be anything, right? If you see something and you’re not sure about it, then you might look at it and you might try and Understand it a little bit. You might fear it and you know, the fear instinct obviously tells you to run in the other direction a lot of the time. But in the case of technology, it just feels like there’s a way for it to become useful to you. If you’re open to finding out what that would be, I’d like you to say, be curious, be open minded find a way to understand it to the extent that you can determine, you know How are you going to use it yourself and how it might be able to help other people within your teams as well? So, um, I think you’ve summarised it even better than I said Hey, i’ll just say i’m playing back what you said, so um Olga, I really loved our chat this evening and yeah I really appreciate the time you’ve taken to join us here on the company road podcast And yeah people want to get in touch with you. How would they? How would they find out more about you? And if they had a question, where could they go?

Olga Bubnova: 45:50
Really active on LinkedIn. So you can find me on LinkedIn. If you share the links, that would be awesome. I also have my YouTube channel. It’s started growing. It’s Olga underscore B gain. That’s my YouTube channel and yeah, LinkedIn and YouTube channel as my main platforms.

Chris Hudson: 46:09
Amazing. Well, thank you so much. I’ll let you do what you need to do for the rest of the evening, but yeah, really enjoyed the chat and thanks so much for coming on.

Olga Bubnova: 46:16
Thank you so much, Chris. Thanks for inviting me.

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