Yulia Aslamova is the Co-Founder at DRIM. DRIM is pioneering direct response influencer marketing in India building a true social commerce platform where micro influencers get paid on a CPA (cost-per-action) model and women across the country can work remotely as influencer talent managers.
In this episode, we delve into how to make influencer marketing actually drive ROI.
- The CPA model explained: attribution, ROAS, cost-per-visit vs cost-per-acquisition, and retention.
- Why micro influencers outperform mega campaigns for purchase intent and trust.
- Building a marketing career from zero: Google Analytics, Facebook Blueprint, internships, and rapid upskilling with AI.
- How brands should brief creators: set clear “don’ts,” then let authenticity and creativity lead.
Yulia also shares her personal journey from Siberia to Saint Petersburg to India pivoting from mining engineering to marketing, surviving burnout, navigating online hate, motherhood and mental health, and why she believes “work–life balance” is a myth unless you learn to fill your own glass first. Inside DRIM, she’s scaling an ROI-first creator economy where “millions can earn millions,” proving that influencer marketing can be both measurable and life-changing.
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Episode Timestamps
- 00:00 Empowering Women in India
- 00:12 The Reality of Influencers in India
- 00:47 Facing Hate and Challenges
- 01:44 Early Life in Russia
- 03:04 Educational Journey
- 05:49 Transition to Marketing
- 08:27 Starting a Career in Marketing
- 11:59 Navigating the Indian Job Market
- 14:48 Financial Independence
- 15:04 The Evolution of Marketing
- 16:10 Founding DRM
- 16:50 The Mission of DRM
- 23:44 Cost Per Action Model
- 25:17 Influencer Marketing Strategies
- 33:19 SEO and AI: The Future
- 42:44 Business Growth
- 43:23 Influencer Collaborations
- 43:37 Brand Control and Creative Freedom
- 44:51 The Journey of an Influencer
- 45:07 From Entrepreneur to Influencer
- 46:36 Navigating Cultural Expectations
- 48:23 Facing Online Hate and Privacy Concerns
- 50:10 Reevaluating the Influencer Path
- 51:35 Empowering Women Through Influence
- 58:50 Work-Life Balance: Myth or Reality?
- 01:06:54 Women Empowerment
- 01:10:53 Personal Branding vs. Company Branding
- 01:15:03 Monetizing as a Micro-Influencer
- 01:21:01 Public Speaking and Personal Growth
- 01:22:30 Future Goals for DRIM and Personal Aspirations
About Yulia Aslamova
Yulia Aslamova is the Co-Founder of DRIM, a social commerce platform pioneering direct response influencer marketing in India. She is building a CPA-driven ecosystem where micro influencers drive measurable ROI and women across the country can work remotely as influencer talent managers.
Full Transcript
Yulia Aslamova:
Empowering women in India requires a massive push to define what is normal and what is not. If 50% of the population does not work, the country is in trouble. I consider that an influencer can earn as much money as any cricketer. It is endless. If a food influencer presents the most awesome pani puri in Mumbai and it goes wildly viral, people love it and go buy and eat it on the street. The same person can present McDonald’s. They can bring the love people have for pani puri to McDonald’s. I am sure McDonald’s would love to be as popular as pani puri. It will make a real business difference.
One Indian Goa influencer with over a lakh followers reshared my story and said that because of these foreigners, we are all suffering; they are irresponsible and brought the virus to our country. People are dying because of them. That is where I experienced a hate wave that hit me mentally. When you see comments popping up every minute under your child’s photo wishing her to die, it is horrifying. I closed my profile.
Aditya Anand:
Would you like to start by telling us a little bit about your beginnings? Start with your childhood. How was your childhood, and what are your early memories?
Yulia Aslamova:
I’m Russian, born and brought up in Siberia, but I call myself a fake Russian because I hate the cold. I really fall sick every time I go in winter. I grew up in a normal middle-class Russian family. My mom was a teacher and later a principal at a school. My dad was a mechanical engineer working in a factory in a very small town of about 30,000 people, two hours away from Lake Baikal, a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site. It’s the purest and deepest lake in the world, where you can drink the water. The nature is breathtaking. I grew up about forty minutes away from there. That was my sea where we went in childhood.
My mom was strict. She kept me very busy. I went to art school, did ballet for eight years, and did gymnastics at a semi-professional level until I got injured and had to end my sports career. I studied at the same time and always knew I would study well. My mom put that perspective in me. In Russia, the good thing is that if you study well, education is free. Schooling is free unless you choose a private school, which is debatable. Most of the time, government education has high standards too.
I graduated as an A+ student and got a 100% scholarship to the fifth-ranked university in Russia, a mining university. I admire my mom. A lot of who I am is because of her. She put in my head that I was made to be a Russian mining engineer and manager. Virtual high five to all engineers in India who were pushed by their parents. I was not forced. My mom made me believe it was what I wanted. My test results were good, and I chose universities. I wanted to do mining until I got admitted to the National Mining University. Spoiler: Putin did his PhD at my university. Russia runs on mining; it’s a primary economic driver.
I moved to Saint Petersburg. The environment was highly competitive. In my school I was the second-best student. At the university, I understood I was now barely passing. After the first exams, I passed with a low grade, which I was not used to. I felt devastated and heartbroken and did not know how to call my mom, a school principal, to say I passed with the lowest possible grade. I decided that if I was not doing well in mining studies, I would at least start working and do something productive. That is where I went into marketing.
I started from the ground level as a promoter in malls, pulling people into stores and offering freebies. Then I had a fantastic experience volunteering for Greenpeace, asking people to donate for clean water. I received world-class sales training. Imagine standing in a mall and convincing people to donate at least 500 rupees for clean water. It was challenging and built my sales skills.
Two months after my exams, I found a job. From 3 PM I attended university, then rushed to work and finished by 8 PM. After two months, I told my parents they did not need to send me money anymore because I could sustain myself. My mom was not happy. She felt I could do much better, and now I agree. I could have gone for an international internship or upskilled more. But that experience made me who I am: very independent. I believe every woman should be financially independent. When you have money, you can make decisions.
That helped me to be in India now. When I married my husband, my family did not support me. It was a love marriage story like in India. There was a lot of drama from my side. My mom cried and said she would get a heart attack. But I was used to making my own decisions from the age of 18, living on my own money. By 25, when I said I was marrying a guy from India, no one was happy, but no one could change it. It was my decision. We never know, but whatever works for us works for the best.
I started my marketing career in merchandising and learned the power of convincing and facing people. I got promoted, then worked in a cinema as a marketing and sales person selling ad time before movies. I made good money. I bought my own apartment in Saint Petersburg at 23. Avatar played a role; it is my favorite movie and helped me earn decent money to buy my house, which was unbelievable then.
Then I burned out. Studying mining, which I did not like, was draining. The worst thing would have been to work even one day in a mining company, though I did my bachelor’s and MBA in the same field because the university overall was good. No regrets: mathematics, physics, chemistry are important. Science helps us develop common sense and logic. It taught me how to learn quickly and apply logic. After burning out, I started working with an NGO, grew it with a cofounder, and we created a large social enterprise in Russia. That was my first time as a cofounder and social entrepreneur. After three years, I burned out again, and those burnouts led me to India. That is my story from childhood onward.
Aditya Anand:
Got it. Thanks for walking me through that. I’d love to double-click on marketing. For someone entering the workforce and considering a career in marketing, how should they get into it, and what does the career ladder look like?
Yulia Aslamova:
The ladder starts from execution. You need hands-on skills. Today much is digital marketing because it is scalable. Two companies dominate: Meta and Google. They both have free courses. Start with Google Analytics. It is a fantastic free course available on Coursera and elsewhere. Do not pay for generic digital marketing academies. Then go to Facebook Blueprint. Understand Meta advertising capacities.
After that, get an internship. If you understand the basics, go intern with different types of companies. It could be D2C in India, where you learn a lot about communicating with consumers. Go to SaaS to learn B2B growth, inbound and outbound marketing. Experience shapes us.
My career ladder in India: I struggled. I went to about 30 interviews; no one took me after I moved because of my husband. I had no network. My English was broken. I had the same problem many Indian students from tier 2 and tier 3 cities have. If I did it, you can too. I kept trying every day, checking LinkedIn, tailoring my CV. I was accepted by a startup, BHIVE Workspace, the largest profitable co-working network. They took me, even with broken English and without IIM or IIT on my resume.
I started as an executive in marketing, then shifted to events. Events are great: your network grows, and you learn on the ground. I do not suggest starting as a mall promoter in India. In Russia, social disparity is lower; in India it is huge, and that path is not worth it. Instead, go to a startup for an internship or an executive role. Hard work matters. You can grow in events, social media, paid marketing, or SEO. Deliver results businesses can measure. Any business will invest where it sees positive ROI. Then you can negotiate position and salary. Position without salary means nothing. People in India like labels. Focus on salary and measurable outcomes because you sell your time.
When you drive positive business impact, you can become a manager and grow a team. Keep upskilling. Marketing is changing fast. With AI, in the next three years, so-called gurus will be replaced by those who adopt faster. It is a window of opportunity for people with less experience and background. You can start as an intern now and be heading marketing in three years at a large company. Experience can lock you in loops of what worked before, but AI changes it. Younger folks without tunnel vision can pick things up faster.
Aditya Anand:
Got it. Do you want to talk about what you’re doing now? Tell us how DRIM got started and the mission of the company.
Yulia Aslamova:
Of course. I can speak for hours; it is my favorite topic. First, thank you for calling it Dream because many people call it DRIM, Direct Response Influencer Marketing. For me, it means so much that I keep saying, call it Dream because it is a dream.
Our mission: we are the first true social commerce platform where we believe and prove that millions can earn millions. In advertising, especially influencer marketing, advertisers have budgets to acquire consumers and improve sales. Eighty percent of that budget goes to Google and Meta, both with very high margins. If an advertiser is ready to spend 1 rupee on you, the value you receive as a consumer is a fraction of that. In influencer marketing, if an influencer charges 1 rupee, maybe 80 paisa goes to the influencer and 20 paisa to agents. After that, few benefit.
We go to large advertisers and say: if you have 1 rupee to increase business, first give value to your customer. We push for better offers and coupons so the consumer benefits. Then we have a system with fantastic women talent managers, mostly women, about 90 to 99%, who believe in financial independence but face constraints: orthodox backgrounds, cities with few jobs, or motherhood. We hire them as influencer talent managers. We educate them for free and take a commitment to performance. We do not offer a job where you sip chai and respond to emails; we are about performance and measure results. Women join remotely and earn a percentage from advertisers. Influencers also receive a percentage for every successful action. It is the CPA model: sales or any action that brings positive ROI. We do not pay influencers just for content; we pay for results. We take a percentage to run the business, software, and team. We recently started giving small amounts to social causes too.
Our mission is proven daily: millions earn millions. I have women in tier 2 cities like Pushkar in Rajasthan earning 50 to 60,000 rupees monthly from DRIM. That gives decision-making power and the ability to make crucial choices. We have around 200 women working with us. We also have influencers who create content that truly resonates. They have trust and a real connection with their audience; they are not living only Instagrammable lives. They present reality; people follow them like a serial about their life. Traditionally, advertisers declined them because they want a stagnant marketing paradise where beauty, sex, and desire sell. But for millennials, boomers, and zoomers, trust and authenticity sell. Decisions are made through connection.
We pick micro-influencers and connect them with huge brands. If a food influencer makes the best pani puri content in Mumbai and it goes viral, people go and eat it. The same person can present McDonald’s and transfer that love. McDonald’s would love to be as popular as pani puri, and if the influencer provides a discount and value to the customer, customers will love it.
Aditya Anand:
We’ll do a bit more on marketing, then on women and work-life balance, and then personal brand. What is the cost per action model? Can you tell us more about it?
Yulia Aslamova:
It is the fairest model. You pay per action. Businesses at different stages have different actions. For a small app, it could be installs. For a growing business, it could be purchases in the first instance. In marketing there are two terms: acquisition, when you get a new user, and repeat purchase. So CPA could be cost per acquisition or cost per repeat purchase. In large businesses, especially e-commerce in India, retention is a standard problem. They have acquired half of India; now it is about orders and retention. CPA is whatever action delivers business value and makes the business thrive.
Every business has unit economics. If you spend 200 rupees per install, you will go bankrupt. We are shifting from the era of chasing potential product-market fit at any cost to an economy that demands profitability. Calculate and pay only for what makes your business work.
Aditya Anand:
For a company getting into influencer marketing for the first time, how should they start, and how should they think about budget?
Yulia Aslamova:
It depends on the business and its stage. One statistic for India in 2023: 95% of businesses spend on influencer marketing, but only 4% get positive ROAS (return on ad spend). The rest are burning money, which is not sustainable. Every business should think: what can I give more to the consumer? Influencers are a channel. Validate the channel. Identify true influencers and give them creative freedom. Do not force them into stiff briefs or to act like professional actors. It is inefficient. Let their creativity flow. They know their audience. Let them script and advertise your company their way.
Validate micro-influencers. I do not say macro and mega do not make sense. They do for large advertisers with long histories. A favorite example is Levi’s. For some in their thirties, Levi’s felt like their dad’s jeans. They hired Deepika Padukone as a brand ambassador. She is a celebrity and an influencer in the digital world. They created very cool TVC and DVC content to make Levi’s feel modern and cool again. That is where macro and mega influencers make sense.
But can that sell directly? Not always. I know I am not Deepika Padukone; the jeans look different on me. It does not create immediate purchase intent. That is where micro-influencers matter. Consider your neighbor wearing great jeans with a normal human body. If her jeans look nice, you ask the brand. If she says Levi’s, that drives purchase intent. It is relatable and within a realistic budget. If she can afford it, so can I. Brands should decide wisely. Use macro or mega for long-term brand sentiment across generations. Use micro to drive purchase intent.
Aditya Anand:
So with micro-influencers, it is a lot more about relatability. Got it. How should a company measure ROI in influencer marketing?
Yulia Aslamova:
Measure it like any performance marketing channel. Set up attribution and measure ROI. It is a digital world; you can measure everything. With micro-influencers, the audience often looks like the influencer, because people relate to those like them or who inspire them. That enables hyper-targeting and deep audience analysis. Influencer campaigns run on the same platforms as Meta or Google, just with a different method. Measure ROI, nothing else.
Aditya Anand:
Let’s talk about SEO. Is search engine optimization going to be relevant in the coming years, and how does AI impact it?
Yulia Aslamova:
Great question. You can see many SEO-focused public companies are not growing as they did three years ago. They are not dropping because SaaS can be profitable, but investors are cautious about the next five years. AI is changing behavior. Voice search is growing. With personalization and smarter assistants, will we need Google in five years? I often go to an AI assistant and ask for a summary instead of searching.
Google is huge and a monopolist in many ways. The US is even pushing antitrust action to break Alphabet into entities. They are not stupid. They have data, power, and money. I think Google will adapt. Their core business will likely remain, but how it works will change. Agile SEO agencies and SaaS companies that can pivot quickly will thrive. Google will not let search go away, but the future form is uncertain.
Aditya Anand:
For a company without much budget for marketing, PR, or SEO, how can they get noticed?
Yulia Aslamova:
Referrals. Make your customers refer you. Create a great referral program and let customers earn by promoting you. Second, if you are talented and a good marketer, focus on growth hacking. It is a mindset: what 20% of effort will give you 80% of results? Figure out how to grow without spending much money.
Aditya Anand:
Where does DRIM fit in a company’s journey into influencer marketing? What is DRIM’s proposition?
Yulia Aslamova:
We work with different segments. For startups and SMBs, many spend 10 to 15 lakhs on influencers because of hype, but that alone is not a magic pill. We have a large database of 1.8 lakh social media influencers. We crawl data, segment, and understand performance metrics. For SMBs we run cost per visit because visits are trackable and at the top of the performance funnel. They also need awareness. Selling an unknown fashion brand requires more interactions than selling H&M with an extra 10% off. We cannot make influencers suffer and not earn while the brand needs awareness. So cost per visit with optimization over a few months. We look at CPM (cost per mille, cost per thousand views) and cost per action to see if it makes sense for influencers to work on CPA. Product-market fit is a business problem, not mine. We can solve marketing problems, not fundamental business issues.
For known companies like Sugar Cosmetics, where trust and product-market fit exist, we propose a mix of top- and bottom-funnel or pure CPA. We are often more expensive than Meta on cost per sale because content creation takes time, and we do not have all of Meta’s targeting buttons, but our trust and conversion intent are higher. We also invest heavily in data and influencer selection. We might be 25 to 30% more expensive than Meta per sale, but we can work on CPA.
For very large companies that have saturated Meta and hunt for new channels, we fit well. If Meta’s bids rise, their unit economics suffer. They work with affiliates and other channels; we are one. On scale, even with a low cost per sale, one micro-influencer post for a brand like Domino’s Pizza can generate thousands of orders, and influencers can earn lakhs from one publication. We carefully manage fixed costs (campaign operations) and flexible costs (influencer payouts, talent manager payouts, data) to fit unit economics. On large campaigns we can optimize better.
Aditya Anand:
In working with influencers, should a company control the narrative or allow complete freedom?
Yulia Aslamova:
It should be a mix. Brands know their product and value propositions. Give the don’ts: what will damage your brand or dilute value. Maybe you do not want comparisons to McDonald’s if you are a burger company. Provide restrictions on what not to do, but do not dictate what to do. Let creativity flow. Make other people’s minds work for you.
Aditya Anand:
Let’s talk about the journey of an influencer. You are going through this journey yourself through Instagram and storytelling. First, tell us about your journey, your approach, and your mindset.
Yulia Aslamova:
I am not an influencer; I am an entrepreneur. It took me time to accept that. My journey with DRIM started after I resigned from a big SEO company. I did consultancy, which went great, and turned into a small boutique agency with a few big international clients. My income tripled compared to corporate. Then a friend, Kirill, the main cofounder, asked me to help find product-market fit. I wanted to consult, but I had so much faith in the product and the gap we were solving that I became a cofounding team member. I sold my agency and went all in on DRIM.
In parallel, I understood that being an influencer is a huge asset. Visibility makes you stand out. I started putting effort into my presence after resigning from corporate. The easiest way to grow for me, as a foreigner in India, would have been to wear Indian outfits, dance, pray, go to temples, or do cooking content. It would bring lots of followers, mostly men from tier 2 and tier 3 cities. It is a solid marketing strategy, and some Russian women do it. I have nothing against it, but I cannot do it. It is not me. I find saris uncomfortable. I would betray my personality. Also, what would I do with a large male follower base I cannot monetize? It would complicate my family life.
We shifted to Goa during the second COVID wave. I posted stories walking alone on the beach with my family without masks. An Indian Goa influencer with over a lakh followers reshared and said foreigners like me were responsible for suffering and bringing the virus. I experienced a hate wave that hit me mentally. Seeing people commenting under my child’s photo wishing her to die was horrifying. I made my profile private. I was growing slowly with a valuable audience, but that knocked me off the influencer path. Do not fight with influencers; that lady made my life a nightmare. I had to go to a therapist. I blocked about 700 people who wrote disgusting comments.
That made me question whether I was ready for popularity, which brings love but also hate. I kept my account private for a couple of years. With a private account you cannot go viral or gain followers, and engagement drops, but that was fine.
Now I am returning to the influencer journey for two reasons. First, I do not want to post much about my daughter; I will protect her fiercely. Second, working at DRIM showed me the power and impact. Entrepreneurship is a lonely journey with constant risk and responsibility. What drives me are the stories of women from Pushkar, Chandigarh, Mumbai and beyond. I do not interact with them as much as I wish because I am busy, but their stories give my work meaning, even more so after becoming a mother of a daughter.
I come from a country where women are very strong and independent. In India, many women are still suppressed. Before, it was not my problem. Then I became the mother of a girl who is half-Indian and lives in India. It became my problem. Why do so many women take career breaks and never come back because of marriage? Motherhood breaks are understandable; marriage should not end a career. This hits me because my daughter might grow up and marry in India. I do not want her potential locked in the kitchen.
Our influencer talent managers inspire me. Many follow my profile. I consistently say: be yourself and make your own choices. Work if you want to. Do not if you do not. Have a baby if you want to. Do not if you do not. I respect all choices as long as they are hers. That makes me want to come back as an influencer because I can drive positive impact. I am not keen on attracting large numbers of male followers. That complicates family life and is not my goal. I want to reach women who need to see that a foreigner from a tier 3 city with a not-so-relevant university and broken English could build a career.
The only reasons I succeeded: a different mindset and a very supportive partner who believes in me, even if he sometimes complains I work too much. Through influencer marketing, which is scalable, I can share values and impact thousands. That made me switch my profile from private back to public. I am still afraid that if a huge influencer goes against me, I might shut down again. But I hope it will not happen. I now have a marketing strategy for my profile. It is my playground. I started as a marketer; now I am an entrepreneur with a team. I still love marketing. My Instagram is where I apply my marketing skills. Progress is slow because work takes 90% of my focus, but I hope it will work.
Aditya Anand:
How do you think about work-life balance? What mindset would you recommend to a working mom or a woman facing cultural pressure to stop working?
Yulia Aslamova:
Work-life balance is largely a myth. We live more in a digital world than a physical one. Many are mentally exhausted. People say nine to six, then switch off. If you can switch off that easily, maybe you are doing something that does not interest you. Find something you love. Do what you love. When you love it, it feels like a playground. Sometimes I do not know if I work hard or play hard. It drives curiosity. It also backfired; I went through burnouts. But only people with fire can burn. I choose to have fire and learn from it.
What helps me: I do not compromise on experiences and health. I travel, run, and do strength training. I monetize and earn, but my life is my main project. I love DRIM and see meaning in it, but my life, health, experiences, family, and feelings come first. I prioritize myself, and women in India should too.
I had postpartum depression. It was tough. I took professional help from a therapist and avoided antidepressants, but medical support is valid if needed. Prioritize yourself. You love your child and family, but if your glass is empty, you cannot give. Fill your glass first. Today after important work calls, I will go for a deep meditation session because yesterday I worked late, tried to relax in a hot tub, then picked up my phone and worked again. That leads to burnout. I booked a session to reset. If I do not, I will make ineffective decisions and be irritated, which my family would feel first. I do not want to pass irritation to my daughter and feel guilt. To be a better person, I must take care of myself. A fulfilled person is better. In motherhood, you love your child more than yourself, which is normal. I love my daughter more than myself, but to give her love, my glass must be full.
Aditya Anand:
Thanks for sharing about motherhood. In terms of encouraging more women empowerment in India, how do you see the future over the coming years, and what needs to happen at home, work, or culturally to enable it?
Yulia Aslamova:
More must happen at the government level. The dowry concept, though prohibited, should be pushed out culturally. Some seats are allocated for women; generally I am not a fan of gender-based reservations, but in India it may be needed. Empowering women requires a massive push to normalize working. It benefits the economy. If half the population does not work, growth suffers.
Changing culture requires scale. I can impact 200 women, maybe 1,000 or 2,000, but India has 1.4 billion people, half of whom are women. Men must also normalize and support women working and making choices. Mass media campaigns running for years can shift culture over a generation. I already see positive change and hope my six-year-old daughter’s generation will not face the issues women in their 20s and 30s face today.
Alongside big efforts, every individual should contribute. Small drops make an ocean. It is not only women’s communities; men must take accountability too. Men often influence other men more. If you can impact even one person’s perspective, one more woman will return to work or start a business. Both top-down and bottom-up approaches are needed.
Aditya Anand:
I want to go back to branding. One learning for me is that a founder’s personal brand can be more powerful than a company’s brand, even in B2B. How do you view personal brands versus company brands, and how to build either?
Yulia Aslamova:
If the founder drives company growth, it is easier because humans connect with humans. Deepinder Goyal is a fantastic example of driving Zomato. Elon Musk’s opinions move stock prices; one tweet and shares go for a toss. But that is risky. A company is not one person. You need the right product manager, product, and engineering. You can be charismatic and loved, but if the product fails, your personal brand turns you into a celebrity, not a successful operator.
I believe in product-led marketing over personal brand. If I become a large influencer, it directly impacts my business, but it is risky. People make mistakes, and a wrong public statement can harm a company and team. You can accelerate growth with a personal brand, but you can also destroy it. Some people are uncomfortable on camera; some are fine. There is no one answer. Also, “personal brand” is overused. Having 30,000 LinkedIn followers does not mean you have a personal brand. If people make decisions based on your opinion, even a community of 1,000, that is impactful. Evaluate risks and benefits and choose accordingly.
Aditya Anand:
You must have seen a lot of influencer journeys. How much money can you make as an influencer?
Yulia Aslamova:
Endless. That is why it is called the creator economy. People buy because of influencers. They create informational products and sell courses infinitely. For huge creators, normal marketing economics like CPM and engagement rates do not apply. Their association cost is whatever they demand because demand for them exceeds their capacity. Influencers can earn as much as top cricketers or Bollywood superstars.
Aditya Anand:
For an Instagram lifestyle influencer with a few thousand to tens of thousands of followers, how do you start monetizing?
Yulia Aslamova:
DRIM is the best way. Choose brands you want to associate with and add value to your audience. Do not lock yourself into fixed pricing. The first thousand followers might include all your ideal customers. Audience quality matters more than quantity. If you are generic lifestyle, DRIM lets you choose brands. Do not sell something just for 5k or 10k. I have examples where influencers with 20,000 followers earned 8 to 9 lakhs per month from one reel that went viral because we also offered value to customers. No advertiser can match that on a flat fee.
More important than money is authenticity. If a product fits your audience, your efforts in building trust will be rewarded. I cannot promote McDonald’s, even though they are our customer, because I am health conscious. I do eat it occasionally with my family because my daughter loves it, but I cannot promote it; it is a value mismatch. I can promote Domino’s Pizza because I bake pizza weekly with my daughter for movie night. I can promote fitness clothes, but not traditional Indian wear, because it is not me. As a micro-influencer, do not betray yourself. People followed you for who you are. If you promote brands that do not resonate with your audience, you will destroy trust. Many micro-influencers hit 20k followers, then pick brands just for money, and growth stalls, engagement drops, and virality disappears unless you spend heavily.
Aditya Anand:
You have done public speaking as well. What is your approach, and what would you recommend to someone looking to get into it?
Yulia Aslamova:
I have done very little because every event requires preparation, time, and mind space. Being deeply involved in operations, I trade my time carefully. You can use PR to get accepted more often, but you also need to do active, shameless pitching of yourself until you are a recognized expert. Then you will get invited more. I do not hunt for speaking because I do not have time.
Aditya Anand:
What is next for DRIM and what is next for Yulia in the next six to twelve months?
Yulia Aslamova:
We are growing at close to 3x year over year. I want to double the speed. That is challenging, and the whole team is working hard in a culture that is both hardworking and playful. In the next twelve months, by October 2025, I want to be at least 4x bigger in revenue, and have at least 500 women scouts, our influencer talent managers. I want the team bigger, but not 4x, otherwise our economics will suffer.
We are a transparent company with clear revenue goals. Once we hit them, we will do a cool off-site in Goa. With our international team across Russia, the US, Mexico, and more, I want to bring everyone under one roof for a week of training and parties. I told my team the best birthday gift for me in February is to hit the goal so we can celebrate together in Goa.
For me personally, I usually set goals before my birthday. Some are performance-driven, but 90% are about how I want to feel. In a year, I want to be healthier with a stronger immune system. I measure everything on a smart scale and want more muscle and better overall markers. We have couple goals with my husband. After nine years together, every couple goes through phases; we want to grow deeper together.
I want to be a calmer, more supportive mother who truly hears my daughter. That requires attention and a calm mind. I have travel goals every year: family travel for shared experiences and individual travel for adventure. Last year I swam with whales. This year it might be skydiving or something else unforgettable. I have goals to meet my parents more often since they are in another country. I dream of going to Australia. Time zones make it hard to work from there, so I want to plan a two-week break next October during the school break to be with my family in Australia and hug a koala. I want to take a real vacation with very limited tasks and zero calls, which I have not done in several years.
Aditya Anand:
Thanks so much for doing this, Yulia. It has been educational for me and for the audience, from motherhood to marketing to your journey as an entrepreneur. I am excited to keep following your journey.
Yulia Aslamova:
Thank you very much. The pleasure is mine. I hope it was helpful.