Email:neill@outloudculture.com
Socials: @neillfrazer
Sergey, known for being one of the world’s most influential social media figures & Russia’s top content creator, is revolutionizing social media through giveaways. Initially inspired by promotional techniques involving gift drawings by major bloggers to attract subscribers for sponsors, Sergey established Russia’s largest giveaway organizer within just 1.5 years. His entrepreneurial journey later extended into the NFT project Amazy and the property firm Habibi Real Estate, currently valued at over $50 million. His quick success accelerated with pioneering educational projects such as “CryptoFarm,” a comprehensive guide to cryptocurrency investing along with other popular online courses, leading to significant global recognition. Beyond business, Sergey’s influence expanded into social media stardom, notably with his “Mr. Thank You” persona on Instagram, attracting millions of views and global popularity. His creative pursuits also ventured into music, after meeting a songwriter from Belgium, who creates songs in 5 languages. Sergey released his first track a month later and since then, Mr. Thank You regularly releases fresh songs with notable releases and collaborations. Aside from business, Sergey met Alexandra Belyakova, a prominent figure in social media and music. Together, they continue to inspire followers with their lifestyle and adventures worldwide.
Sergey, welcome to OLC! Could you tell us about what inspired you to create your new single “Love Love Love” and how it felt to collaborate with your wife Alexandra Belyakova?
First of all, thanks for interviewing me. Regarding the single “Love, Love, Love”. I came to this single in meditation, imagining myself on a big stage, and the whole hall was singing some of my songs. I realized that the main word that unites all people all over the world is the word “love”. The three loves are me, Sasha (wife) and Leo (son). Those are the three loves. In fact, Sasha and I didn’t even cross paths in the studio. I first recorded the whole song myself, then I thought that something was missing before the release. In the end, I asked Sasha, and she recorded it herself, and it turned out the way it did.
What fans should expect from the upcoming “Love Love Love” music video? Are there any special unique elements or themes you can share with us?
It’s not clear yet if there will be a music video. We haven’t fully decided if there will be one yet, so it’s hard to say.
You have revolutionized social media in Russia with your free channel. What prompted you to start this venture and how did you achieve such rapid success?
In terms of my social media in Russia, it’s actually been a very long journey. I’ve been on Instagram since 2013 already. First I was just using Instagram as a personal photo album. Then, it became a journal for the business I was running at the time. Then I started a YouTube channel that was all just business related stuff as well. Then I realized that the business itself was only a small percentage of everything I was doing in my life. Eventually I started to share less about business and more about what inspires me – bright pictures, traveling the world, cool lifestyles, reflections on life and charity work. That’s how I developed my Instagram account.
Next, I participated in a couple of “giveaways”. The condition for winning is to subscribe to the sponsors. I’ve participated in and been a customer of such “giveaways” myself. I quickly realized that everything was very disorganized. As an entrepreneur, I noticed that organization was generally lacking worldwide among companies that handle giveaways. So, I decided to start my own company. It became super successful because I adopted different entrepreneurial approaches. I started to guarantee people results, to sign contracts with bloggers from results, not just posts. This led to awesome results. Among other things, it impacted both my business and my own page, which started to grow. A year and a half ago, in November, I started a worldwide account. It was just about creating viral content. Before it was more of a blog about my life, meaning everything I was doing I was broadcasting on social media, whereas here I started just creating viral content that really went viral. So, doing that for a year and a half, I came up with some ideas for myself on how to grow very quickly. That is what led to me currently having 45 million followers on Instagram – @mr.thank.you. It’s the fastest growing account in the world, overtaking Cristiano Ronaldo’s account (in terms of follower growth dynamics)
What inspired you to get into real estate with Habibi Real Estate and what are your future plans for the company?
I am always creating my products and businesses based on the fact that I first become a client of some companies, and if I see potential in them, I can start creating a business in that niche. This is what happened with “Habibi”: I first bought apartments in Dubai, sold a few apartments and saw that this is a really profitable business. The prices are rising fast, low taxes, and many more factors why real estate in Dubai is attractive. Therefore, I decided to invest more in real estate. Simultaneously, my audience also wanted to buy apartments. At first I did a partnership program with different real estate agents, but then I realized that there were so many clients that it was better to create my own agency. Overall, I think the Dubai market is very promising. I would also like to add that in Habibi, as well as in any other companies, I am primarily engaged in marketing, while the operational business and development of the companies are always handled by my partners.
Your CryptoPharm project has attracted considerable attention. What was the driving force behind the creation of this educational platform and how has it impacted your audience?
In 2017 I bought my first bitcoins, a year later I sold them at a loss, lost a few tens of thousands of dollars and thought crypto wasn’t for me. But then, in 2020, I got into the market again and started to understand more, I saw huge opportunities. One of my acquaintances had been involved in this market for a very long time. We started investing in crypto together, and I started to get much better at finding profitable projects at an early stage and investing in them. I created a long-term investment strategy according to my partner’s recommendations. Then we realized that a huge part of my audience also wanted to invest in cryptocurrency, so we created an educational product called “CryptoFarm”, conducted several large-scale launches, and now there is a club with several thousands of people in it, and my partner teaches people how to make money in crypto. As I said, in all of these projects, I’m doing something that I like very much – doing social media marketing. I act more as a marketing partner.
As an internet creator, entrepreneur and musician, how do you combine these diverse roles and what challenges have you faced along the way?
I believe that there are a huge number of facets within each person. And the more facets you reveal in yourself, the more interesting your life is, the more realized you feel, the happier you are. In addition to the roles you mentioned, there are others: husband, father, friend, benefactor, philanthropist, son, coach and mentor. And then there’s probably something else I’m missing. So there are a huge number of facets, and I pay attention to all of them.
How do I combine the different roles? As I mentioned earlier, I try to only do things that I enjoy in life. Specifically, I delegate all routine operational tasks to teams, allowing myself to concentrate on creativity, ideas, big-picture vision, and strategy. This principle applies across all aspects of my life, including music. In my music endeavors, I’m fortunate to have a talented team that assists with writing lyrics, creating songs, and managing releases. This approach ensures that I remain deeply engaged in the creative process without being distracted by technical aspects. I believe a common challenge people face is attempting to handle every aspect of an industrythemselves, which is impractical, especially if they lack interest in certain tasks. For me, effective delegation, trust in my team, and focusing on what I excel at are key to avoiding such difficulties.
Can you tell us a little bit about your personal journey and how you became a leading content creator in Russia and a globally recognized social media figure?
For many years I developed only within the Russian region. Having said that, I have been traveling the world for the past six years. I’ve traveled a lot in Indonesia, Dubai, the Maldives, Europe, America – practically all over the world. I have a lot of friends who don’t speak Russian, and they were always telling me, “Man, you need to start speaking English right away and create a separate account for that, because the content you do and shoot, inspires a large number of people. Just because you’re not doing it in English, you’re not giving a lot of people a chance to connect with you and your content.” So I decided to get started: I created a foreign account, for the first two months I was pretty much failing, and after two months I wanted to quit. And that’s when I got my first viral Instagram video, which got 40 million views. It was a “thank you” video. After that, I re-shot it many times and became Mr. Thank You. Then I continued to do what I did a lot in Russia – I was giving gifts to people. These were Rolls-Royces, Bentleys, Porsche Kaenas, and Mercedes. A lot of different kinds of gifts. I realized I was really into it, so I started adding funny relationship videos, as well as charity content, which showed a strong response from the audience. Eventually people started subscribing by the hundreds of thousands, and one day I had over a million people subscribed. It’s incredible, and I’m honestly still in shock at what’s happening. But I think this is just the beginning.
What’s going to happen next? Are there any upcoming projects or goals you’re particularly excited about?
Actually, within two to three years I want to become the most popular Instagram blogger on the planet. At the moment that’s Cristiano Ronaldo with 630 million followers. I’m pretty far away, but I believe that my ideas are in demand by the world and that it should work. That’s goal number one. Number two, I really want to do more charity work, to help people. Mainly, to unlock their creative potential. This involves not just giving away money, but also providing education. I recently launched the Mr. Thank You Club for just a token $15 a month. It’s a community where I share my thoughts, insights, secrets—what’s worked for me, what hasn’t— covering social media, mindset, meditations, and spiritual practices I’ve embraced for years. I broadcast my views on life and I truly believe that this will help many people see the world differently, start to live differently and be in a state of happiness, while increasing their income by giving up what they don’t like in favor of what they feel pleasure and passion in. This second goal is creative, charitable, and educational endeavors.
The third is movie making. My dream is to make big movies starring Mr. Thank You. I really want to make a movie about the story, perhaps, of several people whom Mr.Thank You will help to change their lives. As a reference, the Will Smith movie Seven Lives. I’d really like to do something like that. So if this interview is seen by big directors and producers who want cool ideas and big traffic, I have 2.2 billion views a month and I’m ready to star and “promote” this movie on all my social networks. Thanks for the interview
SOCIALS: Instagram 1.0 (42.8Million) , Instagram 2.0 Russian-language account (7.2M) , TikTok (6.1M Followers, 47 Million Views) , YouTube(205k Subs, 4.9M Views)
