At a Glance
Ashley Galina Dudarenok, Founder of Alarice & ChoZanFocus Areas: Marketing, Business Strategy, Retail, Entrepreneurship Thinkers360 In-Depth Profile & Portfolio: Ashley Galina Dudarenok Social Media: LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram Latest Content: How to Win With Virtual Influencers in 2022 – Ashley’s Digital China Ep. 10, Creating Your IP in China: What Stands Behind This – Thinkers360 Leaderboards: 150 Women B2B Thought Leaders You Should Follow in 2022,Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Digital Disruption 2022, Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Entrepreneurship (August 2021)
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Thought Leader Interview
Thinkers360 thought leader interviews profile prominent members of the Thinkers360 community who embody the power of ideas in their work. In this edition, we speak with Ashley Galina Dudarenok, founder of a China-focused digital marketing agency, Alarice, and ChoZan 超赞, a China digital consultancy. Ashley is also an active supporter of women in leadership and business and is the creator of the FIRE self-development program.
Ashley is a renowned China digital expert, entrepreneur, bestselling author, and vlogger. She’s a LinkedIn Top Voice in Marketing with 80,000 followers, a Holmes Report Asia’s Top 25 Innovator, and made Thinkers50’s Radar Class of 2021 as a “China digital marketing and trend guru”. In 2021, she received the Women Leadership Award by IPWS and was named the Young Business Leader of the Year. In 2022, she was named one of the top 30 global gurus in digital marketing by Global Gurus and has been awarded a prestigious Outstanding Women Professionals and Entrepreneurs Award in Hong Kong.
Her top-rated YouTube vlog covers China’s tech, the Chinese consumers, new retail ecosystems, and digital marketing. Ashley is a regular media contributor and has been interviewed by the BBC, the SCMP, Forbes, and Bloomberg, among others. You can find out more about Ashley and her work via her LinkedIn profile or website.
Ashley has been featured in Thinkers360 150 Women B2B Thought Leaders You Should Follow in 2022, Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Digital Disruption 2022, and Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Entrepreneurship (August 2021), as well.
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Thinkers360: Tell us a bit about your background and areas of expertise
AGD: My expertise lies in the China digital field. I moved to China in 2006 and that was the genesis of how everything started to become even more digital and social. Inspired by China’s speed, entrepreneurship drive, digital transformation, new consumer scenarios, and business models — I started a China-focused digital agency called Alarice in 2011. At Alarice, we develop tailored marketing strategies for China and execute them. This includes doing consumer research and crafting China’s marketing strategies, developing content, managing brands’ social media communities (WeChat, RED, Weibo, Douyin), executing campaigns, working with influencers and live streamers, etc. A few years later in 2016, I opened ChoZan, which helps foreign multinational and tech giants to learn from China’s digital journey. ChoZan is a Digital China consulting firm that focuses on trendwatching and learning for and from China. We consult, educate and provide resources for in-house marketing & e-commerce teams to be successful in China. We also work with multinationals and global tech companies that are going through digitalisation and want to shorten the learning curve by learning from their Chinese counterparts. Today, I am also a global keynote speaker. My topics include China’s new retail ecosystems and technology, modern Chinese consumers, Web3 and digital marketing as well as other ‘digital + China’ related topics. Since 2016, I’ve spoken at over 300 events across the globe and have trained leaders from brands, such as Coca-Cola, Disney, BMW, P&G, Richemont, Shiseido, and others. My expertise lies in delivering the latest and most actionable insights with high energy and clarity.
Thinkers360: What are your current responsibilities, and what’s a typical day look like?
AGD: Mornings are powerful! I have a set morning routine filled with sports, water, daily planning, and a compulsory dancing session to get into a high-energy state. 🙂 After that, I prefer to arrive in the office early and get the items of my agenda done. Meetings typically come soon after. I then usually head home in the afternoon to think. Yes, in the world of doing, we often do too little thinking. These powerful thinking and planning sessions help us stay focused and that’s where cool ideas come. You can think at home, in the park, and brainstorm with your mastermind community. It is important to stay open, have a focused request for each thinking session, and have fun. The evening means family time with food, board games, and the occasional movie.
Thinkers360: What’s the favorite part of your current role?
AGD: What I love about my current role has to be the ability to drive and shape the industry and to build bridges between China and the rest of the world. My current role also allows me to empower young professionals which is something I enjoy doing.
It’s important to have a work culture that’s driven by responsibility, accountability, and delivering results. The work culture should also be a friendly and inclusive place, where people can feel safe to be themselves, try new things, get things done and contribute to the world.
Thinkers360: What is the secret to your success?
AGD: One word: mindset. Let me share below a few of my mantras for business and life that I live by. Many are common wisdom, things I learned in school or work, or things my mentors have taught me through their words or actions. I hope this short list will help.
1) Let’s go get them! There’s so much to do and experience in life. Embrace it. 2) If some part of your life, including business, isn’t working, it’s always because of limiting beliefs. As a business owner, your mental fitness determines 90% of your venture. If something isn’t working, work on yourself first. 3) There are no competitors. Everybody has their own clients. There are just industry insiders. Support them. 4) You can’t make good decisions when you’re in a bad state. So set yourself in motion, get yourself excited first, dance to your favourite playlist — and when you feel great, make decisions. 5) Be the person with the highest energy in the room. This person always wins. 6) You are the average of 10 people you spend the most time with. Choose these people wisely. Upgrade your peer group regularly. 7) Business isn’t a chore. It’s growth. It’s fun. It’s your contribution to the world. 8) As an entrepreneur, determine early on, whether you’re an expert, a business leader or a business owner in your current venture. These are 3 separate roles, with their own job descriptions and if you’re doing all 3, you need to clearly know which is which, and make sure you spend time on all three areas, without neglect. 9) Do thought leadership online. Always give your best tips and your best advice. Give it generously, give it frequently, online and for free. 10) Ask yourself better questions. Your brain is a phenomenal machine that looks for answers for any questions you ask. If you ask better questions, you’ll get better answers. Instead of asking, “Why can’t I get this to work?”, ask “How can I do this and enjoy the process?”Thinkers360: How do you utilize Thinkers360?
AGD: As a thought leader myself, I find Thinkers360 to be a good resource to discover leading thinkers in specific areas. It also has global coverage and a variety of topics the platform covers. With Thinkers360, I found new ways to evaluate my expertise and found a platform where I could advance my audience and impact.
See Ashley’s Thinkers360 In-Depth Profile & Portfolio: Ashley Galina Dudarenok
Thinkers360: How do you like to work with brands that wish to engage you as a thought leader?
AGD: I personally work with brands’ top leaders through my speaking events and consulting. That being said, we are most frequently engaged with brands through my two companies Alarice and ChoZan where we either help them in a digital agency capacity or a consulting one respectively.
Thinkers360: What’s your main advice for upcoming thought leaders?
AGD: Be consistent. Ordinary things done consistently produce extraordinary results. I also firmly believe that the formula to success is: 10% skills and knowledge possessed, 40% mindset and how you think, and 50% the people you surround yourself with. Keep learning and never stop improving, but also continuously work on your mindset and network.
Upcoming thought leaders should also know that their global beliefs (I am…The world is…Business is…Money is…I can…I can’t…) determine their actions and life. If their current beliefs are not empowering them, change them.Thinkers360: How can people find out more about your work?
AGD: The best way to find out about my work is to follow me on LinkedIn. My DMs on LinkedIn are always open should you wish to get in touch and send me a message. Feel free to also reach out to my team via contact forms on Chozan or Alarice.
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