Vitaliy Lyubezhnin of The Motion Books tells us about starting a business when everything went to a standstill.
Tell us about you, your career, and how you founded The Motion Books.
Vitaliy Lyubezhnin: I was a wedding videographer for over 15 years. After filming hundreds of weddings, I started noticing that I wish there were a way to deliver my wedding films to my couples better and physically (since all video deliveries became digital). Wedding photographers have wedding albums, and videographers kinda have nothing besides a digital link. Nothing on the market existed. I kept this idea in my mind and kept filming weddings. Years later, the pandemic hit, and we were left with a lot of time on our hands. So I decided it was time to find a solution. Luckily, I was in a better position to figure this out (with a lot of time on my hands), and towards the end of 2020, I launched The Motion Books. The Motion Books are video albums (or video books) that play videos when you open the cover. YEP… as simple as that. You open the cover, and the video book comes to life, playing a video on the screen.
Do you have small habits that made a meaningful impact on your life and business?
Vitaliy Lyubezhnin: Moving forward is my approach. I try to focus on things that keep my life and business moving forward. To-do lists help a lot. But more importantly, having a habit of “getting things done” versus having a lot of ideas.
How does The Motion Books market its products/services online?
Vitaliy Lyubezhnin: We primarily are marketing on Social Media – primarily on Instagram and TikTok. Going viral a few times has helped, of course.
What specific tools, software, and management skills are you using to manage your online marketing?
Vitaliy Lyubezhnin: I like to keep things very organic on Social Media, so our company has a dedicated Social Media person who fully understands our company vision and product. They are dedicated to their craft and are doing really well. This way, we organically grow our company without having to be worried that some algorithm with change in the future. Luckily, our product is unique, so it’s easier to go viral (that totally helps), but a lot of hard work does pay off.
What is your hiring policy/process, and how do you retain your employees?
Vitaliy Lyubezhnin: We are a small company, so most of the people we have hired are people that we’ve known over the years and are professionals in their field. It’s a very blessed atmosphere.
How are you funding your growth?
Vitaliy Lyubezhnin: As a small company that has grown dramatically in the past 2 years, we are simply funding our growth by the organic growth of the company as our revenue continues to grow. We are being very careful in this area as we want to ensure we don’t get ourselves into a hole, especially right before a recession (if that happens).
Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?
Vitaliy Lyubezhnin: There are known competitors on the market, but we are happy that we are still the #1 video book company in the USA. We are aggressively working with our team to continue streamlining our production processes, lowering our product costs, increasing our social media presence, and increasing our overall online presence (those are just some of the goals). More importantly, we want to ensure that our product is the best video book on the market.
Tell us a customer success story of yours.
Vitaliy Lyubezhnin: A groom recently purchased The Motion Books video books and recorded a video of him saying a sweet message to the bride. He loaded the video book with that video, which we delivered to the bride on the morning of her wedding. The bride was taken aback by seeing and hearing her groom on The Motion Books. This added a layer of joy to her wedding day, eased her nerves, and excited her for the rest of the day. Our passion is to bring joy to customers who use The Motion Books, and that customer story is the epiphany of that. (here is a video of that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czj9l0S7coQ)
Your final thoughts?
Vitaliy Lyubezhnin: Challenging times sometimes create amazing opportunities. In my case, I was sitting on an idea but really had no time to implement the concept. I was “too busy.”. A challenging time (the pandemic) really opened the doors for me and forced me to act on my idea (of course, working on an idea is also important). Now we have a successful company that helps people relive the moment that matter most.
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