[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_audio audio=”http://postivesparks-rebuild-com.stackstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/An_Entrepreneurial_Journey_To_The_True_Values_Of_Your_Life_with_Ivan__Csaba_of_CoChange128k_otter_ai.mp3″ _builder_version=”4.17.4″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#BD2442″ border_radii=”on|10px|10px|10px|10px” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][/et_pb_audio][et_pb_toggle title=”View transcript” open_toggle_text_color=”#BD2442″ open_toggle_background_color=”#FFFFFF” closed_toggle_background_color=”#FFFFFF” icon_color=”#BD2442″ open_icon_color=”#BD2442″ _builder_version=”4.17.4″ _module_preset=”default” title_text_color=”#BD2442″ border_radii=”on|10px|10px|10px|10px” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]
Phil Byrne 0:00
Hi, welcome to Positively Sparking a podcast on internet marketing, online productivity and business. Today I’m with Ivan and Csaba, the founders of CoChange, a new entrepreneurial retreat, set in the beautiful landscape of Thailand. Ivan, Csaba welcome to the podcast.
Ivan and Csaba 0:23
Thank you for having us Phil.
Phil Byrne 0:26
Great stuff. So guys, we’ve got a really good podcast today, you going to tell us about this exciting venture you both setup. So for those of us who don’t know you, tell us who you are and what you do.
Ivan 0:38
Right, it’s not an easy question actually. Who I Am? Which is what I do? Who I help? how others see me. I like to answer. I like the answer what I stand for. Which is basically my end goal, my purpose, which is always the same, whatever I do is greater wellbeing for more people.
Csaba 1:13
Yeah, from my side, something similar would be to help things happen, to dynamize people and projects, which can contribute to a better world. That’s what I’m more or less standing for, and I’m doing it in various ways. If it’s business, if it’s conversation, communications, whatever. I’m trying to contribute to the world as much as I can and in the way I can.
Phil Byrne 1:49
Wonderful things, I’m already wishing there were more people like you two on the planet, wouldn’t that be a good thing?
Ivan 1:55
There are most definitely, and probably many of them listening right now.
Phil Byrne 2:01
Hopefully so, I’m sure we shall find out when people start commenting and listening to what you have to say. So we have one of you who is interested in people’s well-being and one of you, Csaba, you’re interested in making things happen and making the world a better place. So you two meeting, tell us how that’s led to CoChange.
Ivan 2:24
Right, so around four years ago, we actually started Social Impact start up incubator, as sort of a school program. And that was the time when we met. When Csaba in fact, as a former participant of the program, He took the program and started the same thing in another city.
Csaba 3:00
So we basically after the first batch of Ivan’s team training program, entrepreneurial training program took off. And after it’s finished, I kept in touch with the team. And we soon got to the conclusion that the thing that we create in Budapest should be passed on to other cities in Hungary, and down the south, where I was born and where I’m living now, in Sigard, we launched something similar as Ivan and his team did. And we were basically incubating and helping dozens of pre-seed stage start-ups teams, to develop their ideas into reality. That’s what the purpose and the aim of the program was like that.
Ivan 3:50
Thanks, the program ever since had over 300 graduates a lot of them had a career change and quit their cubicle and started their own companies. And many of them just became more growth minded, corporate professionals maybe even become the so called intrapreneur.
Phil Byrne 4:23
So already what you guys are setting up for the first time this year is bouncing off something that’s already had great success in changing people’s lives. So you’ve gone from these events occurring in your own country of Hungary and now you’re going elsewhere. So tell us where the latest venture you’re doing is going to be.
Ivan 4:47
So it’s going to be based in Thailand, where I am right now in a super cosy island called Koh Pah Ngan, it’s a small island, in fact, mostly known for the Full Moon Party. But the lesser known side of it is lot more quiet a lot more spiritual, and also have a lot of co working
Phil Byrne 5:17
Well, and so Ivan just before we started the podcast, you were telling me how great the weather was today in Thailand. So as well as the great weather, why else is Thailand a right place for your next retreat?
Ivan 5:34
Right, So besides the beautiful natural surroundings, the ocean, the hummingbirds and all kinds of creatures, such as one of my favourite, gecko. It’s just very calming, very different than the big city life, that we used to live, where we didn’t have a minute to think, where everything was happening very fast. And it was pretty hard to look at things with different glasses from a different perspective, and change things.
Csaba 6:24
Just to reflect on what Ivan is saying that this relaxing, tropical environment is really something special, and it really gives you… when you’re working there because currently I’m not there, but I used to live almost half a year in Southeast Asia, and I used to be in places like Thailand and Malaysia. And I know that when someone is in this relaxing, tropical environment, it feels like you’re in a different planet, a planet where any project you envision can become a reality and being surrounded with inspiring people like a co working space, or the program specifically for change that we are almost with running really gives you this feeling that you’re capable of anything that you that you dream about.
Phil Byrne 7:14
Great stuff. Ivan, you mentioned there this concept of coming out of the city where you were both previously based in. Csaba, you were talking there about this environment and how it enables the possibility for something to come to life and happen to feel a bit more possible than it was if we were back in that city environment. So what do you think it is about being in the day to day of busy life that stops us achieving our dreams?
Ivan 7:44
Well, one of the things I guess is that we see that everyone is busy, and one of our most basic instinct is our mirror neuron, which mimics everyone else. And if we see other people doing things the way they do, we think that that is the right way to do it. One of the things I guess that distinguishes it very natural to human beings, if you act similarly, and somehow this is how it happened and progress. For some reason, this is how it happened.
Csaba 8:32
Yeah, so you pretty much like build patterns in your life that are similar to the patterns of others. And if you are in the middle of this huge race, huge competition for financial growth, you can easily lose sight of your real values and your real goals in your life. And that may make it a bit more difficult to come up with new things and make them into reality. So for example, stick to an innovative idea that you came up with and gather a team of people to work on it. And then finally, executing your strategy becomes way more difficult when you are in this competition and in this everyday life that Ivan has just described.
Phil Byrne 9:20
Great answer. So there are many entrepreneurial retreats out there. And I think you’re beginning to explain why yours is important. So tell us, is this what inspired you to create this particular retreat, this idea of leaving, wherever it is that we’re based in come into this very different environment? And looking at things in a different way, just in the same way that you’re saying Ivan, you wake up every day and look at the gecko. And everything else around you is that why you think there’s room for yours?
Ivan 9:53
While the gecko is the most definitely one of the reasons, both the gecko and the ocean, we’ll provide you with something that will decrease the level of stress that we all have. But I also have to emphasize that many entrepreneurial retreats or similar schools are only or mostly focused on the learning, and we’d like to say that we also focus on the doing as well. But having said that, we are conscious of our time, and we know that our time is not only for working. So we’ll be working four days a week, and the rest will be digital detox.
Phil Byrne 10:43
Sounds a beautiful word, isn’t it? digital detox, I could do with a lot of that myself. So what has been the toughest part of putting all this together, you’ve got this great concept was great philosophy that underpins what you’re both trying to achieve. So, and all of it sounds very harmonious, and energetically positive. But what have been the challenges of bringing all this together?
Ivan 11:10
I think all of it is tough and fun as well at the same time, probably the toughest part is reaching the people and telling them a good story that they can believe in. And people nowadays, we see hundreds of different ads and hundreds of people might email you and message you even in one day. So it’s not it’s not easy to allow yourself to tune in to something different.
Csaba 11:54
Yeah, another challenging part was mostly about picking the right tools out of the hundreds of available business development and personal development tools. And we worked a lot on it with Ivan, we selected those, those tools that are great, but somehow don’t fit into our program. And at the same time, we selected online courses and management tools and software that can actually help our participants to make their project, to execute their project. So really, to boil down all these different business development and innovation management tactics into a set of actionable tools was also another big challenge of preparing for change.
Ivan 12:47
I really like what you’re saying Csaba, thank you for bringing that up. Because this is one of the differentiation points that I see, is that we try to put the process together as a process itself. But it’s not just one thing, but it builds upon each other. And we call that a roadmap. And this is what we’re trying to provide is a clear roadmap on how to validate a business idea, which all participants of course will be able to use even afterwards. The program actually has real life experience during the 10 weeks of the program.
Phil Byrne 13:40
Very good. So there we had kind of two real things we had this this notion of bringing the tools together creating the roadmap Ivan that you were talking about there and getting the content right for this type of person who you’re trying to attract. And then we have the advertising problem, which is reaching that person that you want to come to your retreat when they’re in the middle of this busy life with all these ads coming at them for everything, coffee, whatever holidays, and your retreats in there somewhere. Trying to speak through all of that.
Ivan 14:15
Exactly, but at the end of the day, we really think that only things should exist that that are viable, that that that has a clear market where people are interested in. It’s a great validation for us as well.
Phil Byrne 14:35
Absolutely No, absolutely well done. I think you know that there are so many things as you said competing for people’s attention and to make something like this come together and work is a victory in itself. Who knows where it’ll go next. It’s a good thing. So guys, how did you promote the retreat? What worked out best for you in your promotion
Ivan 14:59
We promoted on a variety of social media channels, defined our target groups, and shown ads packaged as a storytelling. But as we talked about, people see hundreds of ads every single day. So we only had a small window of opportunity to reach them. So the first image, the first lines that they see really has to be something of value to them. But what’s been working better for my experience is in fact partnerships. And this is something that I really deeply believe in and advocate for is that we’re not against each other, even though we might be competing on the same market. But if partnerships could be done, a lot more people would understand clearly what each of us is aiming for. So bloggers influencers, in the areas of life coaching while being entrepreneurship.
Csaba 16:09
I think it was a very important part of the process to define who we want to target and who we don’t want to target. And it’s helped us a lot to define the idea of people that we would like to attract to the program. I can say that since we are trying to get together a group of likeminded and mutually inspiring people, we pretty much knew what these people are into and what these people are not in. And when we were, for example, targeting our ad, we are trying to pick the type of interests that we are also going to be providing during the program like yoga and mindfulness. And we at the same time, were trying to avoid reaching those people who are too busy at the moment to think about life, shifting their lifestyle, for example, people who have just moved to have just bought a new apartment, because they are in a totally different phase in their life. So that’s helped us a lot in promoting the retreat and, and stay focused on who we would like to target and who we don’t want to target
Phil Byrne 17:26
That’s a great point you mentioned this Csaba, that notion of targeting people both who we want and then bringing in what we want to exclude. So you both know, I’ve just had a baby boy, it’s a bad time for me to come on such a retreat. So much going on at home. And that’s when you have someone who might potentially be the right person for you, but it’s a wrong time of life. And then you also have people who are the right person for you. And it is the right time of life, it’s that it’s timing as well as it is targeted, isn’t it? Yeah.
Ivan 18:03
Exactly, Go on.
Csaba 18:08
For example, just the very small element of such a strategy was to define life situations, like people who are currently fed up with their nine to five lives, then them to post things on social media connected to this. And if you if you check Instagram, you can find a lot of hashtags that signify that specific person is trying to change their life, trying to become something different, something better, and if you are like a marketer, you can really spot this sign that people are putting out there to signal that they need change in their life.
Phil Byrne 19:02
That’s a great point.
Ivan 19:05
And as your listeners probably really interested in, let’s say Facebook ads, this point that Csaba made and you emphasize that it is indeed really good, not just to know who to target but also know who not to target because Facebook will give you the price of one ad or one reach at the lower level if your relevance score is higher. And this is one of the ways to make your relevance score higher. Exclude also some people
Phil Byrne 19:48
Absolutely. That’s a great point there about relevance and particularly now with such big changes coming into Facebook in the last two weeks. We’re going to have more focus I believe, on making sure our ads are even more relevant than they were before. Because we just have more focus on data and the privacy of data and people seeing things they don’t want to see, overall. So guys, you’ve learned so much in this journey so far, what advice would you give to someone new setting up their own retreat?
Ivan 20:24
Well, definitely experience one first then and see how they do it. Understand the subtleties that you can make better, hear out people’s thoughts and problems with the program and try to provide meaningful answers, make better experience for them.
Phil Byrne 20:49
Right. Would you say it’s easier to run a retreat like yours in this digital age that we’re in now?
Ivan 20:59
That’s a good question. Everything is easier in the digital age, and having said that, having said the former things about how hard it is to reach people, in fact, everything is harder at the same time in the digital age. We’re exposed to unlimited information, and you have a rather limited amount of time to get all that information.
Phil Byrne 21:32
Sure, absolutely right. And let’s think ahead to the day when your retreat ends, and all of your participants set off on their journeys home, what do you hope they come out of this with?
Ivan 21:46
All right, that’s a good one again, we really hope that there could be a shift in mind set, which doesn’t come from teaching or showing, but comes from the practice itself comes from questioning and finally, that people are not telling you what to do, but people are asking you questions, and you are the one who has to think about these questions. So I really hope that they’ll be able to ask more questions. Obviously of course, to add a little bit, that there will be more brave and follow through on their dreams, provide the experience of validating an idea to deliberate practice, and as we talked about it earlier, is to provide with this digital roadmap that can be copied and applied.
Csaba 22:55
I’m really hoping that in ethical change, we will be able to give a boost of inspiration to our participants that might be enough for a lifetime, putting them on a positive upward pointing spiral. So they come to us, they spend 10 weeks with each other, they come up with projects, but first of all, they come out with the whole experience with a big dose of inspiration. And maybe they go back to their regular life, maybe they go back to the regular office chair, but at the same time they are they are the they are already on a higher level of inspiration, on a higher level of consciousness, and this might drive them to very exciting directions later in their lifetime.
Phil Byrne 23:49
Great stuff. I think if all of them come out with those kinds of things, then you’ve changed this little sector of humanity there, haven’t you? you’ve done something to spark them on to a different course and that would be a wonderful thing. So what about yourselves What are you to want to come out of this first retreat with
Ivan 24:12
Well, again it’s what we try to give to people is as what we as well want, sort of walk the talk is validation that people are interested in the program and they like it validation that we can manage and put together such a program and further feedback on how to do the next one.
Csaba 24:43
Yeah, like a vision for the future. Our possible next step will be awesome again, because we are on a journey on our own.
Ivan 24:58
We really like to always start with the whys and go on to the vision. So we have a lot of different visions of what could be the potential outcomes. But we also like reality a lot. This would mean that we can only know what we will be doing in half year when we get there, when we cross the bridge, when we will have enough experience, from the program itself to know, what are the things that we want to change? And what are the things that we should leave out or add?
Phil Byrne 25:45
Great stuff. And so for everyone listening to the podcast, and have a little bit intrigued by everything that you’ve been saying, where can we find you online? Tell us about the retreat, where we can browse to it and when it’s actually on what date it runs?
Ivan 26:01
So our name is CoChange, and you’ll find that on cochange.co, and just a little bit about the name is that obviously, it’s a little game with change, as I think it’s sort of the same thing because it’s sort of the definition of change, because I think change cannot start without other people. So in fact, CoChange should be the new change. And it starts on May the first this year 2018
Phil Byrne 26:48
Great stuff, I love the concept behind the name CoChange, that change needs others as well. I like that. It’s really good. And what about you two guys? Where can we find you two online?
Ivan 27:03
In fact, once you visit our website, we have both our profiles there, probably just easier to visit the site and then click on us, and then you can see all about us. And we’re in fact, really open guys and fully open to all kinds of collaborations. So if somebody’s interested in anything, even just talking, having a chat. Just hit us up. Yeah.
Phil Byrne 27:41
Great stuff. And it’s been great talking to you both today. It’s my first ever three-way podcast. Can you believe that? Any final message you want to give to everybody?
Ivan 27:54
Oh, sure. I love this part. I think that everybody’s basically wants to be happy and successful. And I really think that that is the mind-set. And to achieve this mind set, we need to look at our current situations through new glasses through new perspectives. And I particularly like these two concepts to help look at things differently. Which puts us in the centre of importance, is that I am the CEO of my own life and career, and for other people this could be put as I am the star of my own movie. And people don’t really tend to look at it from this perspective, while I think it’s 100% valid to look at things this way.
Phil Byrne 29:05
Ivan, I really liked that I am the CEO of my own life, or the star of my own movie. What a great way to look at life.
Csaba 29:14
And also, you should never forget about the power of collaboration as Ivan has mentioned a few minutes ago because like just imagine if we haven’t found each other and have not started to this conversation with each other you Phil and us Ivan and Csaba this CoChange topic podcast wouldn’t have happened, like we should always be open to form new connections and new partnerships to bring about new and invaluable stuff so people should be open and change will come about
Phil Byrne 29:55
Great points Csaba. I 100%. agree with you. I think that really, I could say that pretty much everything I’ve ever done in my life is through new connections, new people, meetings, possibilities that come from that. And then the great thing about your retreat, and the two of you is you’re very much about that is how can we do something positive and fantastic with people? Have the right mind set have the same mind-set that we meet?
Csaba 30:23
Absolutely.
Phil Byrne 30:25
Great stuff. Well, guys, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. It’s been a pleasure.
Csaba 30:30
Thank you for having us Phil.
Phil Byrne 30:31
It’s been wonderful. I wish you all the success with your retreat. You’ve made me think about Thailand because you told me how warm and nice it was natural wonders walking around you. So I’ll just walk away with that my imagination and have a great rest of the day.
This podcast is brought to you by Positive Sparks, multi-channel pay per click and web analytics agency. If you would like to place clever adverts across search and social media, or you’re looking to dig deeper into what your web data can tell you about your audience online. Come and visit us at positivesparks.com We’d love to help
[/et_pb_toggle][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]
