54. How to Bring WOW to Your Brand & Network

 

Listen on Spotify
Listen on Apple

 

How do you build a brand people remember and a network that actually leads to something meaningful?

Originally from Russia, Oksana Koriakova moved to Australia with a suitcase and a six-month visa, knowing no one and speaking no English.

20 years later, she’s built a thriving brand merchandise business, launched a successful speaking career, and become known in Sydney as the “networking queen.”

Oksana shares her story of reinvention, the key conversations that shaped her journey, and how she turned discomfort into confidence. 

She shares her views on branding and what it really means beyond logos, and why consistency, emotion, and trust matter most.

We discuss her keynote “How to Bring WOW to Your Marketing” and why thinking like a wedding planner could completely shift the way you approach your campaigns. 

She also shares her top networking tips, including how to follow up well, how to spot when a connection could become a real relationship, and why quality always beats quantity.

 

Whether you're looking to grow your business, find your voice, or rethink how you connect with people this is an insightful episode. 


Key Outtakes:

  • How one coffee in Moscow and a last-minute conversation at a farewell party changed Oksana’s life

  • Why branding is less about logos and more about how you make people feel

  • The secret to WOW marketing; and why she wears a wedding dress during her keynote

  • Oksana’s golden rule for networking: victory loves preparation

  • Why your customers will become your friends faster than your friends will become your customers

  • The mantra that guides her: if everyone’s doing it, that’s your sign to do the opposite

 

Episode Transcript: 

Amy

Welcome to the Really Good Conversations podcast. Today, I'm joined by Oksana Koriakova, Marketing Maverick, speaker and founder of Impero. Originally from Russia, Oksana has spent more than 20 years in Australia, helping brands become more memorable and helping people show up more confidently in business. She's passionate about human connection, branding and marketing that actually makes people feel something.

Welcome to the podcast Oksana!

Oksana (01:05)

Thank you, Amy. Thank you for the invitation.

Amy (01:08)

As I mentioned, you've been in Australia for over 20 years. Can you tell us a bit more about what brought you here from Russia? Was there a particular conversation or moment in time that prompted that move?

Oksana (01:20)

It's interesting how in life we have these sliding moments and we think this one conversation doesn't really matter, but life changes because of one conversation quite often, right? And I think a lot of people who are in Australia, they didn't have a plan to stay here and live here. And maybe even the same with you, Amy and your family. ⁓

And yes, I did have this conversation obviously where Russia became an open country after 1989 and the collapse of the communist systems that we were building. And this was an opportunity for the first time for us to travel. 

My goal was to learn English and I didn't have a conversation and coffee with someone in Moscow and they suggest that you know it's going to be winter ⁓ why don't you just go for summer in Australia for six months and I thought yeah sounds like a good idea why don't I and this is how I arrived to Australia with one suitcase I didn't speak any English, you know, I didn't know anyone. yeah, this was my six months that one little conversation that changed the direction of my life, I guess.


Amy (02:53)

Wow, that is amazing. 

It takes real courage to obviously move countries to a country where you don't speak the language. When you came over back then, there wasn't the WhatsApp and the technology and communication tools that we have now. So I have a lot of admiration because that really would have been going completely the other side of the world with little connection and communication back home.


Oksana (03:19)

Yeah, but it's forced you, like I always say, how do you shut up a talkative person? This is the only way to shut them up, to send them to a country where they don't speak the language, right?

And it also gives you the opportunity to actually listen and absorb because you can't speak, right? And it's an interesting journey. It's an interesting journey. It is a challenging journey, but with everything in life, our growth and our wisdom comes from the challenges. If everything was nice and smooth and we never had any problems, we would have no challenges, we would just become lazy, unmotivated humans, I think.


Amy (04:07)

Yeah, absolutely. And when you were first arriving in Australia, what helped build your confidence in those early years? So you've just mentioned that then that, you perhaps have to listen, you can't really talk to people, but that must have felt very isolating. So how did you overcome that?

Oksana (04:23)

I knew it's going to be hard and it was hard. I never say, oh my God, I was walking in the park because I came from a small city. It's under a million people and I almost knew everyone there. So not having a connection and we met and you know how important the human connection for me is. I was kind of like a fish out of water.

But for me, because it was such a huge investment for me to be here financially and emotionally, I knew this was my project and I knew that ⁓ I just need to give myself time. And the six months of discomfort and struggle and crying and all the difficulties, I knew that it would get better.

And it did get better, but we just have to, we don't want to sit in discomfort, right? Because it's the brain and the mind, they want to get out of the difficult situation. They want to find comfort. 


But I guess I'm grateful for my discipline that I grew up with in the communist country. So we kind of have the gene of sacrificing and toughen it up, know, like life is tough. get a helmet ⁓ kind of scenario.


Amy (05:56)

Oksana, take us back. How does one arrive in Australia and then you go into a life of brand merchandise? What was the top line journey when you got here?

Oksana (06:08)

So it was a six month visa. I went to school and then I was celebrating my Bon Voyage party and I was ready to leave. And then I met the girl again, one little conversation got me to Australia and one little conversation made me stay in Australia. She said, why are you leaving? Why didn't you apply for residency? I'm like, ⁓ and she said, and I can introduce you to someone who can help.


Again, who? She introduced me to immigration agent. And I thought, OK, sounds like a good idea. Why don't I? I know what's in Russia. I grew up in Russia. I finished school there in uni. And a year and a half later, I got my residency. And when I got the residency, because I'm unemployable, the only logical thing to do was to start the business.


So I started the Hamper company. Originally it was called Gifts on the Run. And I was on the run and there were a lot of gifts. And I loved it. I loved it. 

I did a calligraphy course and the business became very successful, but grew so fast and took all my freedom away. And freedom is my number one value. 

I did not want to have a great business and a lot of money and no freedom. So I rebranded and I started the Merch company because with Merch it's a different game. And this is how I got to, and now it's been 22 years since I launched Impero. And now I'm reinventing myself as well. Now I'm separating Impero from myself and I'm launching Oksana. 

Oksana the speaker and mentor. It's kind of the next step in the evolution of business.

Amy (08:19)

That's a fantastic journey. That is brilliant to hear. 

I genuinely find people's journeys interesting. And I think even more so when moving countries or speaking in other languages, et cetera, you are always interested to know what those stepping stones have been along the way. And we'll talk a little bit about branding and business because that is a huge part of your world and has been a part of your journey. And obviously with Impero, you have the merchandise branding business.


So for you, what does branding mean beyond just logos and colour palettes in your world?


Oksana (08:53)

Brand for me, it's trust and it's consistency that we deliver. ⁓ and this is what helps people that you serve to make a decision. If you're a small business owner, you start with yourself, you are the brand. It doesn't matter what business you do in everything you say, everything you do, every email you send, every meeting you have.

Every time you show up, you're building, you're building the brand. put in the tick in their mind. Can I trust them? Are they consistent? Do I like them? Are we on the same page? And this is, this is so then when they are ready to buy, they go, I go to this person because they have a brand. And if you don't have consistency, like you take people on the roller coaster ride, it's.

It's not a good journey, I think. And I also focus on the feeling, you know, the famous saying, people forget what you did, people forget what you said, but people never forget how you make them feel. So if we focus, before anything, we say, when people come to me and when they leave, how do I want them to feel? And if you just focus on that, then...

Oksana (10:22)

You create your processes and your customer experience around that, because it doesn't matter if you're serving coffee or you're building the website or you do the car wash. It's irrelevant, right? People come to people and come back to people because they make them feel a certain way. Brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room.


Amy (10:49)

Absolutely. What do you think people get wrong or they overlook when they come to building their brand?

Oksana (10:56)

They have an idea and for me, I'm not sure if you're familiar with Gallup's strength profile, my number one skill is strategic. So even when I sell merchandise, I never started with a product. We've got 20,000 products, the product is irrelevant. I discovered design thinking, I think 15 years ago. It's a revolutionary approach where you don't create the product.

You don't go and say, it's a great idea just start making it. You actually go and talk to the customer and you collect data and you see if this actual product has a place on the market. Because a lot of the time you fall in love with the product and you think great. And you go invest the money, build a website and create the product. And then suddenly you go, nobody buying it. And I will say, but why did you create it in the first place?

Where was your research? It's also like, I understand a lot of people go to the business because we've been sold the concept of freedom and everyone should have a business. I don't agree with that. I think business is not for everyone. For some people, they're just best as employees. And this is, think, statistically...

The data, they say, you have data, let's look at data. If you only have opinions, let's go with mine. And this is the reason I think statistically so many businesses fail in the first two years because they did not do the research. They did not test. They did not create the prototype. They did not talk to the customer. They just went and invested all the money, but you need sales, you know, before you do anything.

Yeah. Who is the customer? You don't need money, you need customers.

Amy (12:50)

Absolutely. And it is, yes, certainly the rollercoaster having your own business. So I think we can definitely agree on that. You talk a lot about how to bring wow to your marketing. What does wow mean to you and what do you think is one small change a business owner could make to bring more wow in their brand if they're not already?

Oksana (13:11)

Wow, it's what makes people talk about you. 

Because nobody talks about boring films. Nobody talks about boring parties that they went to. Nobody talks about boring branding. ⁓ And obviously, I think in 1970s, we had 500 messages, advertising messages coming at us every day. Now the number is, I think, 5,000.

So if this is the amount, and we all can relate because we are all the customers at the same time of something else. And if you think about how many advertising campaigns, how many brands you see every day, how often, how many services you experience from, you know, buying the coffee in the morning to picking up your kids in the afternoon, enrolling them for childcare or school or making decisions about what to buy online.

For your next party, how often that something happens that you go, my God, this was amazing. And you wanna go and tell your girlfriend and tell your friend and tell your husband and tell your neighbours, not often, this trigger of people wanna talk about, this is in my world, this is the wow.


Amy (14:36)

Yeah, love it. And when you deliver that keynote talk, you wear a wedding dress, don't you? So where does the wedding dress come from for when you're presenting?

Oksana (14:46)

The topic of this keynote, it's how to bring wow to your marketing. And yes, I do dress as a bride and wear the whale and have the red flowers and enter the room with the wedding walls. I also love fun and I love humor. And I think we just get so serious in business. ⁓ I think David Ogilvy said, you cannot bore people into buying your product.

I think if we just lighten up a bit and, you know, be more human and be more fun and be more approachable and write emails with a little bit of, you know, smiley, like how they, like when you write it, how are they going to make them feel? So the reason I dress up as a bride, because I compare marketing


It's like falling in love. It's only three stages. 

So firstly, you need to know who, who is the audience, right? Like who are going to marry? who you're going to sell this service to. 

Who is, who is the customer? Right. You start with who, because then when, know, what language do they speak? This would be helpful, right? If you're international, if you're international, you think, Our people don't speak English. 


So you have to be very clear who the second step is when you know who, then you go, okay, how, how are we going to get them to go on a date with us? How are we to get them to notice us? How are we going to send the proposal? Where are we going to take them? All this little how. But the third, the third step is when we get engaged and we get married and we have this so much fun at the wedding and we invite all the guests and it was so fun. How are we going to keep it? How are we going to keep this relationship going? Because I deliver it in such a way that everyone can relate. 

Everyone has been to the wedding. Everyone knows how it's so personalised. You know, you're not putting Facebook advertising, inviting people to come to your wedding because nobody will come, but you do a list. 

So do you have a list in your business? How do you approach every guest differently? What do you do after, know, how even at the wedding, we think how we're to put them, them strategically, right? So all of, so I actually say to the audience, imagine if you're going to plan your next campaign and you don't look at it as your marketing campaign, you're going to look at it as I am planning the wedding. Everything changes when you do that.

Amy (17:46)

Absolutely. And I've got to say mine and Alex's wedding was at the start of a pandemic in Bali. So we definitely had a lot of curve balls thrown at us with that wedding.

Oksana (17:58)

Yes. And again, this is the learning of things does not always go as you plan. How adaptable are you? What are you going to, if you only need to cut the list from 150 people, who are the 20 people going to be? Same in business, right? Who is, if you just sit and go, who are the people that I should really look after? Because if you're never going to call your friends and you never put any effort into nurturing a relationship, you have no friends.

Amy (18:27)

Yeah. And to build on that there, moving into more relationships, nurturing, networking and connection is a big part of your world as well. And you've been crowned the networking queen here in Sydney and equally host events, but also run talks on winning the networking game. Have you always found it easy to connect with people?

Oksana (18:49)

Yeah, this is my superpower. I don't take credit. I got five planets in Libra. If you are familiar with astrology, you know it's very rare. And if you're not familiar, Libra, it's all about partnership. It's a partnership. So connecting, talking to strangers, ⁓ building community. If you invite ⁓ Libra to the party, the Libra response would be, who else can I invite?

It's all about togetherness. This is kind of a lot of time, I just do what feels good. And then, and then only later I discover, ⁓ this is why it feels so good, because it's really my DNA. Right? So I, I encourage people, I know of business mentoring and marketing kind of advisory. You have to discover.

What is your superpower, right? You don't, you don't, can't just go, because this person is doing this. I'm going to do that because for some introverts, it's not natural, but they have other talents, right? So find what's your talent and just put a dial it up on that or magnify it because then this is where the joy comes from. Because when I do this event, I'm like, I don't need to put it on.

I just show up with joy and because it's so authentic, feel it. And this is where you can't fake your way to being authentic.

Amy (20:29)

But when you are out there, attending the events or doing the talks, you know, it does require a lot of energy and presence from yourself. Do you get tired of it all ever or find, you know, at the end of the day you've got that energy drain or...

Oksana (20:45)

Again, it's just, know, Libra, it's all about balance. 

So I might have an event until three o'clock in the morning and by four o'clock I'm barefoot in the ocean, you know, swimming and doing yoga. Or I would, you know, switch off my phone for a few days and don't talk to anyone. I think it's even, even as an extrovert, it's for, you know, like for me, get energised being around people, discussing ideas being out there, it's, it's energises me, but still, you know, it's sometimes I said, I'm not even a good company for myself. 

It's finding the balance and finding what works for you. And for some people, if you're introverted, maybe they recharge by being, you know, alone. Some people are charged by being out. Other people are charged by being in nature. Again, it's like,


I always say, and I apply it to marketing, find what works for you. It's not such a thing. ⁓ I have a magic wand. And if you only buy it, I can solve all your problems. And if somebody tried to sell you this magic wand, ⁓ I'll say, buy it, be aware.


Amy (22:02)

Yeah.

When it comes to the world of networking, what do you think makes a good networking experience for both sides?

Oksana (22:12)

Oh, victory loves preparation. 

This is like a wedding. Why weddings are so amazing. How much preparation goes in, right? So if you organise an event, like when I organise, my list to do is very long. I pay attention to every details, right? I have a list of people who are coming. I, you know, I've got a flower organised. I make sure I talk to the chef. I don't leave anything to  chance, right? The venue picked very specific. I don't just go, let's just have it in the garage.  So then when you do that, the people who show up, they can actually see that. They can appreciate it. And they step up as well, you know, with the high tie, all the boards rise. Suddenly they put more effort and communication, right? Communication.

In terms of arriving early or telling them to come early, communicate what the next step is. If you go into the event, maybe ask event organisers, look, I'm looking to meet this kind of people. Would you be able to introduce me? Because especially if you're shy and you can't just walk in the room and talk to anyone, maybe they can do the introduction. 

Do the preparation and slowing down and be more strategic. It definitely will give you a better outcome than just showing up anywhere and hoping. 

You might get lucky. But from my experience and I've done a lot of networking, like the first few years, I think I was at 400 events a year. I was there for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I joke, I used to go t the opening of an envelope. But nowadays I only go to the red carpet events, right? Yeah, but it's, you have to learn it, right? You have to experiment and you find, you have to find your tribe a lot of time, like energetically, some of the places you walk in and I left the vents because I walked in and energetically doesn't feel good. I don't stay, I just leave like, I don't want to be here.


Amy (24:38)

How do you decipher what's a surface level networking chat versus what could become more of an actual friendship and connection?


Oksana (24:47)

You know, you would know instantly. It's also, like with friends, you cannot ask people to be your friend. It's for me, it's a dance. Same with the customers. People say, but who am I, if I'm going to do LinkedIn reach out, but who do I, who do, who do I continue the conversation with? I would say, continue conversation with people who reply to you. Don't harass people.


You know, that and be persistent with people who are not interested. So so many. And another thing I say is that your customers will become your friends much faster than your friends become the customer. So you meet someone and you don't, you don't even like it when you meet someone, you don't even know about the business because statistically only 3% of people are ready to buy now.


So you're not selling anything for a long, long, long time. So it's all about building relationships. Do they like you? Do you have a lot in common? You talk, you know, this is a travel or you ski or you like yoga or you like human design. And then, I don't know, one of my friends, when we met before, before she even asked my name, she goes, my God, I love your purple mascara. What is it? And it was like instant.


She didn't ask me, what do you do? Like don't start the conversation. ⁓ so tell me what you do. Like this is the most boring question you can ask. If somebody asks, they can, here's my card, here's my LinkedIn. If you want to know what I do. And people say to me, what do you do? And my reply often is that I pay attention.


Right. And they go, this is interesting. Tell me more. Because like what conversation would you do? I'm an accountant. What do you want to do when somebody says to you, want to leave the room, right? You know, it's going to be boring 95 % of the time, you know, it's going to be boring conversation. And because everyone loves talking about what they do. It might be a long conversation and then you feel awkward because you don't know how to escape it.


Like don't make people want to escape, you know, like, but it takes time to create the emotional intelligence where you say it has to be the monologue. You can't just go. Somebody ask you a question and you just tell them the story from, you know, what's happened in your childhood and how you move the country and what you're doing now and what you, and you don't even see how is this person, you know,


How is this person feeling about all of these buckets of information that you just delivered or keep delivering because they simply ask you a question. What do you do? don't know which part you want to know? Where are you from? Oh, which one? What kind of question is that? What do you mean where I'm from? Country, company, position. Oh, all right. Suddenly you kind of break the pattern of cookie cutter question, cookie cutter answer. Boring.


Amy (28:17)

I’m nodding along here and agree because ultimately, we launch conversation cards to make conversation more interesting, interesting and meaningful, whether it is with existing friends or families. And I think we saw in our own world and you still do see it, you'll catch up with friends or family and it is, how are you doing or how's your last week been and da-da-da. And it's like, ⁓ same old.


And that's the end of the conversation really. And it's not until you ask different questions, you start to then hear interesting or different stories. 

If you could summarise, what would be some of the biggest networking mistakes you see people make?


Oksana (29:01)

coming up to strangers and telling what they do and, know, pushing the cards without asking, right. ⁓ you know, then ask, say, look, I actually never give cards until people ask me. My cards are very expensive. So I don't want to give it to people. And, and I don't want to be, you know, they take a card and another mistake, don't chase the numbers, chase the quality. 

Take less cards. And this is one of my tips that I teach. You have to be responsible. Don't think they got my card. So this is your car. You are the driver. Don't worry about the passengers. Don't worry about what they're doing. Yes, they all have your business cards. Don't worry about them. Just worry about you as a driver.

Hi, Amy, lovely to meet you. Enjoy our conversation. I would love to stay in touch. Maybe we can do the Zoom coffee, la la la. And do reach out in the next 24 hours. Because if you don't, I can guarantee, if you email a week later, people would not know who you are. 

So don't let them forget you. If you do it as soon as possible, like I do it, literally if I meet someone by the time I get home on the bus, I already emailed them all.

It's if it's only three, five people, you can do it, right? You may even create a template saying, Hey, like it's not, I'm not saying, but make your, make it your priority. And then you go, okay, here's my cards, right? I I live in

Amy (30:40)

Ha ha!

Oksana (30:54)

So what does it mean? Look at them. What's the next step for this person? How can I set off value? Because it's the reason you took the card. Because if it's of no value, stay at home, don't go to the network, stop collecting cards and killing trees. This would be my boy.

Amy (31:15)

Okay, we're going to move into a couple of more general questions now, I guess. What has been the biggest challenge you faced in your business and how have you moved through it?

Oksana (31:26)

The biggest challenge when I started the business, China was only open for us. And then suddenly when it's open, every person now become an expert and they say, ⁓ I'm going to bring my own stuff from Alibaba. And people think they don't, they don't need experts. do. You need experts when you have a knee operation, you need experts when you do your dentistry, you need experts when you do anything, marketing included. And obviously COVID came and killed my business18 years in business. wake up and I have no business. 

But I think Tony Robbins said, it's never lack of resources. It's a lack of resourcefulness. I just have to reinvent myself and guess what? I use direct mail and direct mail took me to, you know, becoming the finalist for Australia marketing Institute award with an entry. You got mail saying,

If you want to cut through the noise and you want to reach someone, this is what marketing is. Keep the conversation going. And then mail, 100 % opening rate. Inbox is full, mailbox is empty. What a great opportunity to wow your customers and become memorable and to be creative and to have fun.

Amy (32:31)

Absolutely.

Absolutely, that's a good one. If you've already gone on to my next question, is there a piece of advice or mantra that's guided you both in your life and business?

Oksana (32:59)

I don't comply, so I do. If everyone is doing something, this is the sign for me, I have to do it opposite. I need to be inspired. I need to create. I need to collaborate and create something that's meaningful, not just create it for the sake of it, that doesn't benefit. If Almonds can become milk, you can do anything.

Amy (33:30)

Yeah, I love that. Brilliant. Well, on that note, I'm going to ask you our questions from our pack of cards. Question number one. If money was no object, what one thing would you buy?

Oksana (33:44)

I would buy a little city. 

The little city where not many people there and we could rebuild the city. Rebuild the city and give opportunities for people to come and rebuild it and create the community. of the, maybe, I don't know, maybe I'm going to be a mayor of the happy town.

Amy (34:13)

Love it!

Oksana (34:14)

I'll buy a little city. the way. Yes. You know someone who sells the city? Yeah. Give them my number.

Amy (34:17)

That is cool. ⁓

Question number two, always a favourite, is if you came with a warning label, what would it say?

Oksana (34:31)

Put your seatbelt on. It's gonna be a fun ride.


Amy (34:37)

Fab. Love it. Question number three. What is the most proud moment of your life? Because I feel you've had quite a journey and a lot of experiences and a lot of different junctions.


Oksana (34:50)

⁓ The most proud, I think when I got the blue passport, when I got a passport, because it's just, this was a level of freedom because getting the Australian passport suddenly, you can actually go anywhere. And global is my favorite word. Like you don't need a visa. Like if you have a Russian passport, I think it's like two countries you can enter without the visa.

For the rest you have to apply and wait and you know maybe you don't get it and it costs money. With an Australian passport you can go anywhere, right? Yeah.


Amy (35:31)

And that is amazing. As someone who obviously, you I'm British, you often don't realise or acknowledge the differences that other nationalities, like you said, different restrictions and what freedom, you know, a lot of countries that you're, you know, for example, that I'm from, that you take for granted, really.

Oksana (35:48)

And another thing ⁓ I remember when I was at uni and my father's car was stolen. He was so upset and I didn't want him to be upset. And I said, don't worry dad, I'll buy you the new car. So I was at uni and it was summer holiday and I walked my ass off to make all the money to buy him a car. This was very good.

Amy (36:17)

Yeah, amazing achievement. That's beautiful.

And the last question that I like to ask all of our guests is if you could ask any person dead or alive a question, who would it be and what would you ask them?

Oksana (36:19)

I would say I would ask Leonardo da Vinci because he's I love him and he's so

multidimensional and so progressive. So the question I would ask him. ⁓

How did you learn to trust your ideas before the world could see the reality of that, right? Because he was so ahead of his time and everything that he created, how did he actually learn to trust and to drive it without giving up, before the world could even understand them, right?

learning, studying the birds so she can create the plane like we're talking 500 years ago.

Amy (37:34)

It is, it's crazy to think about it.

Oksana (37:36)

How do you sell the idea and tell people we're going to have a plane where they never saw anything but a bird? How much of what he developed we still have? One person. Revolutionary. Definitely a revolutionary human being.

Amy (37:57)

Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for everything you've shared today, Oksana. Where can listeners connect with you or find out more about you?

Oksana (38:06)

If we are not connected on LinkedIn, it's a very slim chance, in case we are not connected on LinkedIn, do connect with me on LinkedIn.

Amy (38:19)

I feel like you're a LinkedIn brand ambassador.

Oksana (38:21)

Yes, yes. ⁓ I'm a volunteer for LinkedIn. I love it. If you don't use LinkedIn and you're in business, please use LinkedIn. Please follow me on Instagram. I am impero by Oksana and soon my Oksana brand will come alive. Yeah.

Amy (38:39)

Thank you so much for your time today Oksana, it's been great chatting to you.

Oksana (38:45)

Thank you.