265: Be Yourself. Believe in Yourself. Build Big Things with Anna Belova

Toni:

Have you ever felt like you couldn’t lead in tech because you didn’t come from a technical background? Or have you been told to stay in your lane instead of asking what if? This week’s guest, Anna Belova, is here to flip that thinking on its head. Anna is a serial entrepreneur, a non-technical founder, CEO of multiple companies in the AR and AI space including her newest enterprise, which is in stealth mode. And yes, you heard that right. She’s built cutting edge tech companies with a background in the arts without writing a single line of code. So if you’ve ever been told you can’t do this because you’re not technical enough, I want you to flip this one on your head. In this conversation, we’re digging into what it means to lead a highly technical company without that technical background. How to turn doubt into creative power.

While your authenticity is your greatest asset as a leader, and Anna’s powerful belief that nothing is impossible, when you ask the right questions, including her favourite one, a what if. If you are a woman in tech who’s ever felt underestimated, sidelined, or unsure how to lead boldly, this episode is for you. It’s time to stay true to yourself. Let’s dive on in.

Welcome to the show, Anna. Thank you for joining us today.

Anna:

Hi, my pleasure.

Toni:

Let’s start off with telling everybody a little bit about yourself. Your incredible journey today to being a CEO. How did you get to that point? What is it you currently do? And what along your journey inspired you to become a CEO, to lead in what you’re going to hopefully explain to us? It’s actually quite a complex industry. Tell us a little bit about what you do and how you got there.

Anna:

It’s a perfect question. I’m not sure if I can have a short answer for it. I think being a is like making your dream happen to life. I want to say wait I don’t remember time when I don’t want it to be someone else like an entrepreneur I think it’s because entrepreneurship it’s not a profession it’s mostly like a mindset or it’s maybe way of life and I can be myself, I can feel some freedom, I can create, design anything I want and I think this is a main power that I can have in my life. mean a power of course is a good sense but it’s about not about I can control or manage, it’s about how I can feel myself and what can I do every day in my life. I think this is the main point why I am CEO and entrepreneur.

Toni:

So one of the things about you is that you are leading an AR and an AI company. How did you get to that point? Because you said to me before we hit record that you view yourself as a non-technical CEO to land yourself in the position where you’re a founder and CEO of an AR AI company. That’s a pretty big step. What brought you to such a complex industry? Why that and why now?

Anna:

Yeah, good question. So I think I need to give more context about my company before I will go forward with this question. first, as I mentioned, I’m the founder of Devar. This is a company who started to work in augmented reality in 2015. Our first journey was to create products for kids, like books for kids with augmented reality. When you can have a physical book, can scan the page and see how your characters come to life.

We sold more than 15 million copies worldwide and now in selling in 75 countries in 27 languages. After that, we launched No-Code platform, MyWebAR, which allows to create any AR experience without technical skills, things like Canva but for augmented reality. And today it’s one of the leading independent web XR platform in the world, used hundreds thousands business owners, marketers, vendors, big companies like Google, Meta, but also lot of SMBs and education. And recently I launched New Journey. It’s a company that works in the AI B2B industry and think like a grow hacker for solopreneurs and business owners as well. I cannot share more details right now, but it’s like AI who will really help to run your business. yeah, yeah, know someone sounds amazing. So I think the main pattern that I have in every my business and yeah, you mentioned I’m really non-technical person and sometimes people think that it’s some difficult or strange, but seriously, I think it’s one of the main power that they have because I’m always think about product like for people who are not geek or non-technical as well like me. I mean, when you’re a programmer, you have a special mindset, know, code, you know how it’s technical stuff work and blah, blah, blah. But when you’re non-technical, you need to care about how people, I mean, like usual people will work with your product. And this is a big challenge for everyone who’s non-technical and also who’s technical because you need to have a perfect balance.

So on one hand, it allows me to take all our technical stuff, all our complex technical solutions in the back and make just like two buttons for on the front for usual people like me or you I don’t know like or any technical yeah and it sounds fascinating but previously a lot of people think that augmented reality it’s only for high programmers or engineers but today we open the door for a lot of marketers designers and small business owners like I know like owner bakery from Main Street who can add augmented reality for their menu or ads just using like three buttons.

Yeah, and I can say that 70 % of our users before our platform never created augmented reality experiences. But now they can launch it and we’re really happy with that. so my education, I’m master of art and human science. It sounds more interesting. Yeah.

Toni:

That’s a bit of a different background for it. And this is kind of where I’m coming from. I think it’s a different background and yet you’ve obviously been incredibly successful. Do you put that success down to the very fact that you are non-technical and you can understand the users maybe?

Anna:

Yeah, it’s a one case, it’s just a one case. From another hand, when you are non-technical and you don’t have, you know, a struggle perception how it should be, you can ask yourself, what if? And more important that you can ask your team because sometimes people think that we know all. I mean, like, it’s not good or bad. It’s just fact. When people are really high professional, they think that they know all and they know how to do it. But if someone can ask them, what if they’re starting to think out of box? And I think that I can say that the point is I’m non-technical CEO on the high technical companies. It’s the reason why I can think out of box as well.

Toni:

So one of the things that you said to me when we first met was, it’s never impossible is your motto. And I sort feel like that is deeply related to this, this ability to lead. I mean, when we were talking before, you mentioned like having it on technical team, having turned in technical background with the technical team and the challenges that is. Do you, why do you have that motto of it’s never impossible? Like how has that mindset shaped you? as a leader, a CEO, as somebody on a mission to make technology accessible. Like what’s going on there?

Anna:

come on, people had a chance to be in the moon. How often I can say it’s something impossible. Yeah. No, seriously, yeah.

Toni:

Why does that motto drive you though? Yeah.

Anna:

Because it’s opened the door to see how this world is amazing and how many capabilities and opportunities I can find around me. I can say it’s like imagine that your eyes are already open and you can see everything. I know it may sound like a little crazy or difficult, I know, but If you ask yourself, is it possible? I think you’re on the wrong way because everything is possible and you just need to be open for it. It’s not about some theory of, you know, like magic or something like that. It’s about how your mind’s mind work. I mean, like if I see some difficult task and I don’t know how to do it.

Like a person, have two different ways. First, I can say, I don’t know, it’s not my area, I’m not an expert, it’s not my business, right? And in this case, you never find a solution. But if you ask yourself, hmm, it’s interesting, what can I do with that? Your brain We’ll try to find how you can solve it. And it can be different ways. You can ask someone, you can Google, you can, I don’t know, ask AI today. Yeah, it’s really easy. Yeah. So you can just think about it. You can go to a walk and hiking and spend some hours to think about it, but you will open to find a solution. This is the main point. My motto of life is Nothing is impossible.

Toni:

Yeah. I actually think with the emergence of AI and AI helping us, I almost feel like the challenge is moving on from accepting that you can ask that question. I actually, think one thing is I think shifting in the women I work with is a shift from, don’t know how to do this. So it’s not, as you say, it’s not my business, right? To AI can help me, but the challenge then becomes asking AI the right question. I think we’re in this golden era of we can solve we can solve so many more problems but we’ve got to be solving the right problem we’ve got to ask the right questions would you agree with that?

Anna:

Yeah, but I think that the challenge Ask Right question is not only about AI.

Toni:

That’s true with Google as well. There’s a reason why let me Google that for you exists. I think most people don’t know how to use Google. Yeah.

Anna:

In this case, I think AI will not will is already change. Not only patterns of behavior, but also some patterns, how we like a professional communicate with different tools or AI, because I just just one example. So yesterday, designers should know about colors, style, some tools like Photoshop or others. Today, designers need to have a skill to describe what we want to get. And this is a different skill. And it’s not only about designers, it’s about everyone. For example, like a CEO, like an effective CEO, I guess. I used a lot of AI tools every day. And from one hand, it’s really grow my results and effectiveness. But from another hand, from our hand, I got that I’m not a founder. Sometimes I feel like a secretary of all my AI tools because it’s all fragments and I need to change and I need to take that data from this and put on this and understand how it should work and blah, blah.

It’s also interesting balance today. How we need to use power of AI and make it really helpful and get the best results or just like no lie to ourself. Do you understand what mean?

Toni:

I do, I do, and I totally hear you on being the person who’s like just copying stuff from AI from one place to another. It’s so frustrating at times, but you do it because the results are so powerful, but it’s like, why has nobody developed something that’s really synergistic yet? There are all these different people training different AI models, different, know, a lot of them are based on a couple of them, right? But you then put stuff on top and it’s so frustrating for us, but.

I think AI is now necessary for every single one of us, whether we’re CEOs or another kind of leader. I think this is something that’s going to evolve so rapidly. Where do you see it changing? Because obviously you said you’ve obviously got something in stealth mode right now. What do you see coming? What are you able to share with us about what could come that could make it easier to be a leader in terms of the way we use AI?

Anna:

I’m not sure honestly, because AI is about, today is about how you can work, but for leadership, it’s still about your human skills.

Toni:

Yeah, I would agree with that completely. mean, actually, let’s talk about that for a second. Obviously, you’re a CEO. You are a multi-time CEO. What would say is your biggest barrier in terms of building your teams? I’m kind of curious from the AI perspective, but actually just generally as well. Like, what would you say is your biggest barrier as a leader today, leading teams?

Anna:

I think the right answer will be ask my team about it. Yeah. So I think, yeah, from my side, I think it’s a few things.

Toni:

Of course. That’s a good answer actually. That’s really good. That’s a good level of stuff awareness a lot of leaders don’t have. But I mean if you…

Anna:

So a good leader really understands when he or should listen. So I can say it doesn’t mean that like a good leader, I just only listen, but I really need to know when I should listen to people. And it’s first. The second, my job is create opportunities for the talent people, so themselves and have an opportunity to make something bigger or make something creativity or make something, I don’t know, like something what we want. My job is not to build rules. My job is not to build a roadmaps or something. I just say, this is our goal. This is time that we have. So let’s create something magic.

And if you join and if you bring the right people to your team, you will see how it works. I mean, like, of course, sometimes, and it’s my fault as well, sometimes I feel that in a lot of questions, the best professional is me. Because it’s like, really like that. It’s like, sorry, I mean…

I really want to achieve this goal. It’s my purpose. It’s my motto of life. And sometimes I have a lot of energy and I want it to be faster and more result and hours. But right CEO sometimes should step away a little bit and give more time for his OSHI team.

Do you understand what mean? But for me it’s really difficult sometimes, it’s my fault, I’ll honest. Sometimes I like an energy rabbit who wants to make everything in just one time. But from another hand it’s also a good example for your team.

Toni:

I do think one of the challenges of being a great passionate leader, whether it’s a CEO or you know, not a CEO, but is you’re probably there because you’ve got passion and excitement and so you want to do things, but it’s the realization which hits you hard as a CEO, I think, but it hits you in every leadership position at some point, or if it doesn’t, you’ve missed something. It’s that realization that if you hold on to what you love, you can’t do as much, so you have to allow others to do and as you say creating opportunities for people is our job because they then get to flourish in a smaller area than we can hold. And especially as a CEO, we’re holding everything. We’re holding the entire business and more. I mean, empowering those around us to do great things. That is our job description. It’s channeling that, right?

Anna:

Yeah, but you know, in the modern world, business should have a face. And my work as a CEO is not only about building an opportunity for my team, but also to understand

but a lot of people will think about my business like about me. in the different stages of a company, your business, it’s like your reflection.

I mean, like if you have your human values different, it definitely will find themselves in your business, in your company. And this is, some people call it corporate culture. And it makes sense because if you’re a leader and you bring right people around you and you work together, you have a creativity, you have a passion and others, your human values.

will really matter in your business, in your company. Because it’s just like one line. And for me, I don’t split my life and my business life. Because like a CEO and like an entrepreneur, again, I said that it’s a mindset, it’s like a style of life. And every time you think about your business, I mean, like I can go to the mountains in a weekend, but it doesn’t mean that I will put my business in my hat.

Toni:

I think actually, and I would say as somebody who works with leaders at different levels, think those of us who are meant to lead, think as entrepreneurs, we’re a special character category of this, but those of us who are meant to lead, I don’t think we do stop thinking about it. We’re always being creative. We’re always thinking. always, you don’t turn it off, but you need time to recover. Go walk up a mountain, right?

Anna:

Yes, sometimes it sounds like a little problem because you can’t stop.

Toni:

but you don’t stop. You can’t start, no. And I do, this is one of things I look out for in, when I’m really looking for great leaders to hire, to work with, I’m looking for somebody who struggles with turning up because you know, I can deal with you not being alternative, I can coach you in how to have balance, how to make sure you don’t burn out, but if you are very able to not think about work outside work, you want excited about work.

Anna:

I find a solution for this. Yeah, yeah, like a little secret. So, an Earth Star for every, I mean, like a dream for every entrepreneur, it’s to build multi, it’s to build unicorn, or like billion companies, right? And this is our goal.

But I decide for myself I’m not building a unicorn or billion company. I’m building myself like a person who can build a billion company. See the difference? It means that every my decision, business, work, pleasure, I don’t know self-development, books that I read, people with whom I talk and spend my time, and others, my thoughts and others. It’s all about, can I be a person, can I build myself like a person who can build a billion companies? And in this case, honestly, doesn’t matter, can I or not, because we weigh with journey. It’s amazing, interesting.

Toni:

It always has to be about the journey. It’s such a cliche thing to say, but I think we put so much of our heart and soul into this that it has to be about the journey. And I love that. It is, you know, we’ve all heard now that you should surround yourself with people that are, you know, like the people you want to be, right? And I a hundred percent agree with that, but you go further. You surround yourself with decisions, with development, with books of all the things you want to be. I just, it’s all encompassing and it is what makes success. I know we’re running out of time, so I do want to ask you quite a pointed question, which is you work in a very male-dominated industry. How have you kept your authenticity? How have you made sure that you’ve stayed confident, that you are showing up the way you need to show up, leading the company you want to lead? You’re clearly an extraordinary people leader. You get people leadership just listening to you talk about it. How have you held onto that in an industry that’s a little bit notorious for not being good with people, for having a bit of a bro culture and not dealing well with female CEOs. How have you thrived?

Anna:

Sorry, I’m not sure we can understand your question.

Toni:

Okay, let me just say that again. So we are running out of time and so I want to wrap up this conversation with a somewhat pointed question. You are a female CEO in a very male-dominated industry but you’ve got, you’ve held on to who you are, you’ve held on to being the people leader that you believe is what makes you successful and makes the business successful.

And I can tell that just by listening to the way you talk about it. You’ve not become like the majority of the industry. How have you in the face of being surrounded by men in a male dominated industry with bro culture, how have you done that? How have you held onto you?

Anna:

Honest? I never thought about it like this.

Toni:

Okay, well that’s fine. I mean clearly you’re doing something right because you are holding on to you definitely

Anna:

I find a way how I can have a smart people around me. Because you know, it’s like it’s your life, it’s your choice and you choose with whom you can talk and who will be around you, right? And in this case, honestly, in the business sometimes it doesn’t matter who you are, man or female or not, because It’s about my skills, it’s about my opportunities to change the world and it’s about my passion, it’s about my work, it’s not about me like how long a high I have or something like that, right? It’s the same like ask me what colors of your eyes? it’s green? No, it doesn’t work. I mean like who cares, honestly I know it’s for women, know, and it’s true, sometimes it’s more difficult to find the right way how to explain why your company will be successful. But in any case, and by the end, the results will be more loud than any words. And if you can be strong and you can be passionate about your goals, who cares?

Toni:

I hope that’s true. I think one of the things that really stands out to me, and maybe this is why you’re an entrepreneur, a serial entrepreneur, you’ve never done anything else, is there’s no doubt in you that this is what you’re meant to do. And I think a lot of the time when we lose ourselves as women leaders, it’s because we have doubts. Somebody is saying, you’re not doing well enough, or somebody’s pushing your buttons and you start looking around at other people and they’re all male role models and so you start doing what they do and that’s what I’m seeing you’re not doing. You aren’t just copying the male CEOs out there. You’re doing your own thing and that to me is a very unusual gift, a very very unusual gift and you should be very proud of that. Very very proud of that.

Anna:

Thank you. So I just want to say with every woman leader that you don’t need to listen to anyone around you. You just need to listen to your brain and your heart. That’s it.

Toni:

Well, let’s move on to the quick fire round. You ready for this? What is the worst piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

Anna:

Be like someone.

Toni:

See, this is why you’ve got this down. Okay. I love this so much. What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

Anna:

You can guess. Be yourself.

Toni:

If you had to ask yourself one question every day, what would it be?

Anna:

I recommend it every day. Ask yourself what if. Because it’s a question that opens a door for the first that everything is possible and the second that it sounds like a little adventure. What if? And if you don’t know the answer to your question, business, work, pleasure, something like that, just ask yourself what if? And believe me, It will be really surprised for you what kind of doors will be open every time when you will really ask yourself what if. And it’s true magic.

Toni:

How can people connect with you and find out more about what you do?

Anna:

it’s an easy way. I’m pretty open on LinkedIn and Facebook. And yeah, I post it sometimes about my business, about my work, my dreams, about me and something. And yeah, two different ways.

Toni:

Well I hope that if you’re listening to this and you’re inspired by Anna today that you head on over to Facebook or LinkedIn, give her a follow, maybe reach out with a message, connect. We’re all about networking around here, this thing is the way the world goes around, so if in doubt, reach out. Any final thoughts you’d like to share with us today, Anna?

Anna:

And finally I can just say be yourself, believe yourself and after that nothing is impossible.

Toni:

Nothing is impossible. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I just want to leave everybody with those final thoughts. Be yourself, believe in yourself. Nothing is impossible. And if in doubt, ask that question, what if? That is such a great question. I love to ask my clients, what is the worst thing that can happen? But I love the openness and the positivity around what if. So as I often say at the end of an episode, have a think, what is it that you would take away as a listener today?

What is it that you are going to start doing differently having listened to this conversation with Anna? And as I always like to hear from you, drop me a message on LinkedIn. Let me know what it is you’re going to do differently, but if nothing else, yourself, believe in yourself. Bye for now.