Maxim Behar on “The Ku-Ku Band Night”: On Music, Communications and Big Dreams

Maxim Behar appeared on “The Ku-Ku Band Night,” where he spoke with Kamen Vodenicharov about music, journalism, the PR business, technology and promoting Bulgaria. During the conversation, he also talked about his music projects, his training at NASA, his professional journey and the importance of big dreams, freedom and love.

Host: Good evening, dear viewers. I am very happy that we are together. You are watching “The Ku-Ku Band Night.”

Dear friends, tonight our guest is a man whose life proves that boundaries exist only in our minds. He is the only Eastern European inducted into the World PR Hall of Fame in London.

He has been a journalist, diplomat and adviser. He has received numerous awards, including Best PR Professional in Europe. He has written some of the bestselling books on business, leadership and even cooking.

But above all, he is a dreamer who does not simply look at the stars, but literally went through an intensive training course at NASA.

Dear viewers, it is a true pleasure for me to introduce Maxim Behar.

Maxim Behar: Good evening.

Host: I am glad to see you.

Maxim Behar: I am very happy to see you too.

Host: Welcome. You know that here, in our studio, you are always not a guest, but at home.

Maxim Behar: I am already at home, that is a fact.

Host: Exactly.

I would really like to ask you about everything I mentioned in the introduction. But since this is “The Ku-Ku Band Night,” let us start with a question like this.

What is music to you?

Maxim Behar: Like everyone from my generation, we grew up with music that we listened to on shortwave radio, such as Radio Luxembourg, BBC, Voice of America and many others. And all of this was incredibly exciting.

Do you know why we listened to so much music in those years?

On the one hand, yes, it was interesting, although we had “Shturtsite” here, we had “Signal.”

I myself played in a band called “Salzite,” and Dancho Karadzhov from “Signal” remembers it very well. They used to come every Friday to the club in Pavlovo to watch “Salzite,” and on Saturdays we would go to watch “Bandaratsite” at the Ovcha Kupel hall.

But those are stories.

When I think about it now, so many years later, why did we listen to that music so persistently, with so much energy and involvement, when it was on shortwave radio, secretly, and not everything could be heard on Bulgarian radio stations?

Back then, I had the feeling that when you listened to good music, when you listened to The Beatles, Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, this world that we had never seen entered my little room in the Buxton neighbourhood.

That whole world, which was wonderful and about which so many beautiful things were sung, with such beautiful rhythms, made it feel as though we were suddenly going to the West without even realizing it.

Host: In other words, thanks to music, your imagination somehow helped you transport yourself to all sorts of different places.

Maxim Behar: I did not understand that at the time.

But now, looking back, I realize that we all know that back then we could not simply go to the West, watch and listen to concerts, as we do every year now.

But through music, somehow, we entered that world. And it was wonderful.

So I grew up with this music and, for me, it is simply part of life.

I make songs quite often. They get quite a lot of views, especially on YouTube. I hope that later in this wonderful show we will play one of them.

“Viva Bulgaria” has more than half a million views on YouTube.

When someone tells me, “You make music,” I say, “Wait a minute. I do not make music. I do marketing.”

I do marketing. I send messages through music.

You are musicians, of course. You are the best. I simply try to send messages through music.

Host: All right, let me pick up on what you just said. In recent years, does marketing not help enormously, when it is done well, the creators of what we now call creative content?

Maxim Behar: Yes.

Personally, I think that between 10 and 20 percent is having a musical sense, and of course you need to have a voice.

But everything else is marketing.

How are you going to sell it? How are you going to package it? What are you going to say?

The global market is currently flooded with music. Tons of it. Millions of tons.

You go into AI and it tells you: “Give me three seconds of your voice and I will make you great music that will be number one in the charts.”

That is why, in my opinion, the marketing messages you put into these songs are much more important.

Why, for example, did hundreds of thousands of people gather in stadiums for the concerts of our friends from “The Ku-Ku Band”?

Because those songs had messages.

Host: Messages from truly golden times, with a lot of meaning, sometimes with irony and satire, especially in the early years.

Later, of course, they developed tremendously and demonstrated exceptional skill both in composing and in writing lyrics.

Maxim Behar: I do not know anyone to whom you could say, “Let me play you a song,” and they would reply, “I do not care about music. Mind your own business. You are not going to play me any songs.”

I do not know such a person.

Host: And in early childhood, who shapes your musical taste?

Let us go back to those years. What kind of child was little Maxi?

Maxim Behar: I was not a very obedient child.

I wandered around the streets and played in the neighbourhood garden, like all of us, of course.

And somehow information passed from person to person: “Did you hear? The Beatles have a new song. The Stones have done something new.”

That music was passed around among us and we liked it very much because it was unfamiliar and sounded wonderful.

But I was not particularly obedient.

I read a tremendous amount. And to this day, I continue to read a lot.

I was very young, around 12 or 13 years old, when one evening my father called me into the little kitchen in the Buxton neighbourhood. He was sitting on a stool, I was standing, and that put us eye to eye.

He said to me: “Maxim, you cannot just wander around anymore. Go and work.”

I was thirteen and a half.

I asked him: “Where should I work?”

He said: “I have a friend at the Serdika factory. They might take you on as a carpenter.”

And that is how I ended up at the Serdika factory as a carpenter.

That was my first job, when I was thirteen and a half years old.

I have worked continuously ever since.

Even when I was studying in Prague, I was studying at two universities at the same time, the University of Economics and Charles University, both very prestigious universities, and I worked all day in a newsroom.

I wrote.

And on Saturdays and Sundays, I swept the streets.

Host: Why?

Maxim Behar: To earn some money.

And it was a great pleasure.

I think that when a person works, it somehow keeps them sharp, makes them better and allows them to see the results of what they do.

It does not matter whether you are sweeping streets or driving a car.

My friend Misho Shamara drives an Uber in Chicago.

Host: Yes, we see his posts on YouTube and Facebook. They are quite emotional.

Maxim Behar: Sometimes he uses pretty harsh language, which irritates many people, but his music is like that as well.

But in any case, he drives an Uber.

And he understands many other things too.

There is absolutely no problem with what kind of work you do. The important thing is to do it with pleasure, for it to bring you satisfaction and somehow make time pass quickly.

Host: And do different jobs and different environments help shape musical taste?

I am asking because I assume it was one thing in the carpentry workshop you mentioned and another thing in Prague.

Does the environment influence taste?

Maxim Behar: In my opinion, no.

It depends more on what kind of person you are.

Maybe it is your upbringing at home, maybe it is what your mother and father listen to. Although my parents did not really listen to much music at home.

It depends on who you are and what kind of company you find yourself in.

I doubt that your job, unless you are a musician, can shape your musical taste.

The music you listen to is who you are.

Host: It is your mirror.

Maxim Behar: If you listen to hard rock, you are probably a hard rocker in life as well.

You make tough decisions. You are uncompromising.

Host: Ultimately, the music you listen to builds you and shapes your character and your world.

Maxim Behar: The music you listen to is your mirror. It is your character.

Host: Tell us a little about the time when you decided to become a journalist.

Maxim Behar: I think that even back in that carpentry workshop, I wanted to do something that would allow me to report, analyse, tell stories, opinions or points of view, and have people listen to them.

When I found myself working in a newsroom in Prague, for a magazine with a circulation of around one million, I happened to sit down for coffee in a café.

The person next to me asked: “Is this seat free?”

Back then, it was normal for people to sit at an empty seat at someone else’s table.

He sat down and noticed that I did not speak the language very well.

He asked me: “Where are you from?”

I had just arrived in Prague.

I said: “Bulgaria.”

This was in 1981, when Bulgaria was celebrating 1,300 years since its establishment in 681.

There were huge celebrations.

He told me: “I run a very large magazine and I want someone to write an article for me about Bulgaria and the fact that you are celebrating 1,300 years.”

And that is how I ended up at that magazine.

I started learning, I started writing, and it gave me tremendous pleasure.

Then I returned to Bulgaria and started working for newspapers.

One day, a man called me on the landline. There were no mobile phones then.

He said: “Good evening. My name is Krasimir Stoychev. Is this Maxim Behar?”

I said: “Yes, Maxim Behar.”

And he said: “I am planning to finance the creation of a new newspaper. Would you agree to be part of my team?”

We are talking about Standart newspaper, and that is how I started working there.

That was actually my last job as a journalist, after which I decided that I wanted to try something new.

I do not even use the expression “something of my own,” because the work of a manager, and today I have a large company, companies with many people, is still not something I would describe as “mine.”

These are my colleagues.

I have responsibilities, they have responsibilities.

That is how I got into journalism, and it was incredibly interesting.

Wonderful years.

Maxim Behar: I am sure some of the viewers remember Standart newspaper. For its time, it was a very good media outlet.

We tried to maintain good, intelligent language.

We tried not to be aggressive, but to explain things calmly.

That is history now, but it is part of me.

Host: And the other universities, the other degrees, Seattle, London?

Maxim Behar: They are also part of my life.

Two years ago, when I was doing my doctorate at Sofia University, many people asked me: “Max, why do you need this doctorate?”

And I replied: “You know, it helped me tremendously because I read around 150 books in order to write my dissertation. Otherwise, I would never have read those books.”

It was a powerful motivation for a person to go much deeper and into much greater detail in something that interests them.

You should never stop learning.

Never.

Many of my colleagues know that I get up at 7:01 every morning.

Host: Why 01?

Maxim Behar: The reason is simple. Because I want to be number one.

Host: Wonderful. You have always been number one in everything you have taken on.

Maxim Behar: Sometimes, of course, I fall asleep again for a little while.

But when I get up, I make myself a coffee and start reading.

I read the interesting things that happened in my business the day before because my business is extremely dynamic.

Music is a little different.

You can create a composition, a song or a piece of music and it can still be relevant 20 years later.

Whereas my business, the media, is constantly changing.

Host: Let me ask you about public relations, as we are used to calling it in Bulgaria.

Maxim Behar: Yes.

The Bulgarian translation “relations with the public” is a rather funny translation, even lexically.

But it does not matter.

In Bulgarian, I think the closest term would be “public communications.”

We deal with communications and when we do them publicly for our clients or partners, that is probably the closest translation.

But it does not matter.

The term has already become established.

Even in German, for example, they use public relations as an English expression.

Just like “marketing.” In Bulgarian, we say “marketing.”

It is a very interesting business. A wonderful business.

When I started, it had so many levels, so many opportunities to do things for your clients in so many different directions.

Host: And what is important in this communication?

Maxim Behar: I have always said that for our business, and perhaps not only ours, the rule of the three S’s is important. I came up with it around 20 years ago.

And the more time passes, the more convinced I become that it works.

The three S’s are: Speed, Simplicity, Self-confidence.

Speed, simplicity and self-confidence.

Speed.

It is extremely important how quickly you reply to emails, how quickly you make decisions, how quickly you communicate with your colleagues and partners.

No one is going to wait a day for you to check your email and reply.

In the meantime, another thousand messages have arrived.

Simplicity.

You need to have priorities.

What do you do in the morning when you wake up?

You pick up your phone and look at it.

We all do it, everyone here at “The Ku-Ku Band” and everyone else.

You pick up your phone and check: who has written to me? Do I have anything on WhatsApp? Do I have anything on Viber? Has someone sent me a message?

All of this is information.

Millions of pieces of information.

You go into Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter or wherever else, and you read and read and read.

That is why you need priorities.

That is what simplicity actually means.

You tell yourself: “Three things are important to me. I may get everything else done or I may not. I can read it later.”

But you need to know what the three important things are that you have to do today, tomorrow or this week.

Then comes self-confidence.

I do not know anyone who is happy, successful or satisfied if they do not have self-confidence.

It is extremely important to have the confidence that you can do it, that you will do it, that you have to do it, that you can overcome something challenging.

These three S’s are extremely important for every person in order to work well.

Host: Is that also part of the reason why you are the only Eastern European in the World PR Hall of Fame in London?

Maxim Behar: I was president of the global PR organisation.

Even when I was elected, at a large gathering in Milan, I could not believe it.

I kept thinking: “Who am I? Some guy from Bulgaria, and I am president of the global PR organisation.”

I walked out of the hall stunned.

After several very successful years, they invited me to join the World PR Hall of Fame.

That is recognition.

Recognition for me, but also recognition for Bulgaria, of course.

It is extremely important to me that Bulgaria is heard around the world.

That is my greatest concern.

That is my cause.

Twenty-five years ago, together with my partner, former Nevada Governor Bob Miller, we started working on that.

Bob Miller was also a guest on “Slavi’s Show.” I remember he was a very successful guest many years ago.

We started a series of conferences called “Bulgaria, Dream Area.”

I came up with the name because it rhymes, it is easy to remember, and it has a dream in it.

There were also many critics who said: “What Dream Area? Look at the mess here.”

That negativity always appears at some point.

But we organised seven or eight “Bulgaria, Dream Area” events at an extremely high level.

That was in the early 2000s.

At the time, I thought that by 2007 or 2008 Bulgaria really had a chance to start having a much stronger presence both in the news and in people’s minds.

Today, of course, it is present, but it is not where it should be.

Bulgaria continues to be something of a big secret.

Not enough people know that we have the lowest taxes in Europe.

Not enough people know that Bulgaria is full of young, intelligent, wonderful European people.

A few months ago, I told a story on one of your programmes about when my wife and I returned from our NASA training.

On the first day, when we were introducing ourselves, one of the people in charge, an engineer, asked us where we were from.

My wife said: “Bulgaria.”

We expected to start explaining where Bulgaria was, whether it had been part of the Soviet Union and so on.

The engineer said: “Bulgaria? You have fantastic mathematicians. You have incredible engineers. We know you. You are way ahead.”

That gave me tremendous pleasure.

But I still believe that Bulgaria needs to be promoted much more actively abroad, and that is part of our business.

When a young Bulgarian student wins a world Olympiad, when an athlete becomes the best in the world, when we have talented tennis players, volleyball players, when we see Hristo Stoichkov on the pitch, step by step, drop by drop, Bulgaria becomes more recognisable.

Host: I reserve the right to ask you in a moment how this can happen today with all these networks and all this dynamic change.

But let us return to music and to the first song you chose for this musical evening.

It is Leonard Cohen’s “I’m Your Man.”

Why did you choose it for tonight’s show?

Maxim Behar: Tonight I am going to tell two stories that I have never told anywhere before.

One of them is connected to “I’m Your Man.”

Many years ago, quite by chance, I met a girl at a party.

Completely by chance.

It took us literally 15 seconds to meet.

Then we went our separate ways.

Later, I invited her to lunch.

We had lunch and when we got up, everything was already clear.

I left her a flash drive.

A memory stick, a flash drive.

I said: “This is for you.”

There was one song on it.

That song was Leonard Cohen’s “I’m Your Man,” by a man I love very much. I have also been to his concerts.

I left that flash drive with that girl.

And that girl is my wife today.

Host: Dear viewers, sometimes the most beautiful declarations of love are wrapped in the most beautiful music.

Now we are going to enjoy exactly that.

It is my pleasure to present Leonard Cohen’s “I’m Your Man,” performed by my wonderful colleagues from “The Ku-Ku Band.”

[Musical performance: “I’m Your Man”, Leonard Cohen]

Host: Dear viewers, you are watching “The Ku-Ku Band Night,” and today our guest is Maxim Behar.

You have also written many books that have become bestsellers.

I will ask you about your first book as well, but before that, since in a moment we are going to watch a video featuring you and Misho Shamara, whom we already mentioned at the beginning, how did you start working together?

Maxim Behar: Completely by chance.

We already said that Misho is very emotional in his comments.

Someone had attacked him on Facebook.

It was around two in the morning.

I was sitting there, doing something over a glass of wine.

I defended him and wrote something along the lines of: “Leave the man alone. Everyone has the right to an opinion. After all, this is a free medium. Why are you attacking him so much?”

He sent me a private message and said: “My brother, thank you so much. You were the only person who defended me. I owe you.”

I told him: “Misho, what do you mean you owe me? One day we will make a song together.”

Until then, I had never made songs.

After that, he started writing to me from time to time: “I have booked a studio. When are you here? You write the lyrics, get moving, Lil Sha will make the music.”

Eventually, at one point, he wrote to me: “I am arriving on Tuesday morning. At nine o’clock we are at the studio in Ovcha Kupel. I am waiting for you with the lyrics.”

And I thought: “Oh wow, what have we got ourselves into now?”

I had written lyrics in Bulgarian called “PR Is a Gift from God.”

We went into the studio.

Lil Sha was 16 or 17 years old at the time.

I gave him the lyrics and he said: “Max, who is going to listen to these lyrics in Bulgarian? Let us do something in English so that people in America can listen to it too.”

I said: “All right, but wait a minute.”

He asked me: “Tell me, what rhymes with PR?”

And suddenly, out of nowhere, I said: “Behar.”

And that is how the title “PR We Are” was born.

The song starts with “My name is Max Behar...”

He added lyrics, I added lyrics, and we made the song.

Then it was sent to a number of American radio stations.

We played it first on BG Radio.

Suddenly, Hot 21, one of the major R&B and hip-hop radio stations in America, said that they liked the song.

Why?

Because no one before had made a song about PR.

At least that is what ChatGPT and all the research I have done show.

And millions of people around the world work in PR.

Hot 21 liked it and started playing it.

Suddenly there was some Maxim Behar appearing out of nowhere.

Misho and Lil Sha at least live in Chicago.

And that is how it all began.

That was our first production.

After that, we made another five, six, seven songs.

Our latest song is about the Seychelles and is called “We Are Seychelles.”

In it, I sing with a Seychellois woman who lives in Paris, Rita Romain.

She recorded her part in Paris.

I recorded part of mine in the Seychelles and part in Bulgaria.

It was mastered in Chicago.

Like in the movies, one person records on one side of the world and the other on the other side.

Before coming here, I saw that it already had around 750,000 views on YouTube.

And I am still just me.

But that is marketing.

Host: I assume that many of the people working in your companies also support and help with these projects.

I mean the younger generation, fans of R&B music, for example.

Maxim Behar: The younger generation does not listen to that much R&B anymore.

It is more of a remnant of the 1990s, Bulgarian rap, Vanko 1, Misho Shamara and that whole story.

You are part of it and you witnessed it.

My colleagues mainly help me by being the first people to listen to everything we have made.

Host: They are the first listeners and viewers?

Maxim Behar: Yes.

They listen to the songs and say: “No one is going to listen to this.”

And I say: “All right, we are doing it.”

But as I keep saying, for me this is not so much music.

When I wrote “Viva Bulgaria,” I really wanted this song to appear among the results if someone typed “Bulgaria” into Spotify or somewhere else.

And now it does, because it has a lot of listens.

When I made “Viva Bulgaria,” no one believed that this song could somehow “sell” Bulgaria.

Everyone kept asking me: “What are you going to sing about Bulgaria for?”

But in the end, it became a good production and the video turned out very well.

Then my good friend Poli Genova called me and said: “I really like your latest song.”

And I said: “Wait, Poli, I do not make music. I do marketing. To me, these are messages.”

Host: But look at how many valuable lessons you are giving, especially to our viewers who work in music.

They can hear from you an example of how something created as music finds its way.

Maxim Behar: No one can convince me that marketing is not important for Madonna, Pink or any other world-famous performer.

They are great.

They have exceptional qualities.

Veneta and I go to their concerts whenever we can.

But marketing is a huge part of it.

Host: A little earlier you said that you defended Misho Shamara.

I assume I know why he was being attacked, because he is one of our compatriots in the United States who quite openly sympathises with the current president, Donald Trump.

My observations from our tours there are that a large part of the Bulgarian community also sympathises with Donald Trump.

That was the case before as well.

My question is: should artists show their political preferences and feelings, even at the risk of losing part of their audience, or is it better to be more moderate?

What would you advise them?

Maxim Behar: I would not use the verb “should.”

I would say that everyone has the right to an opinion.

For example, Robert De Niro is someone who talks about Trump categorically from morning until night.

In my opinion, it is a matter of personal choice.

If you have an opinion and you want to express it, do it.

You are an artist.

A free person in a free world.

But if it does not concern you that much and you say to yourself: “Wait a minute. Even if I express my opinion, nothing will change. It is better to make a nice, positive song that can provoke good feelings, and when all these people hear it, perhaps they will become a little better.”

There are different ways to express your position.

But if someone is against Trump or supports Trump, or anyone else, let them say it.

We live in a free world.

That is an enormous, enormous advantage that sometimes we do not realise in 2026.

Half of my life was spent in a world that was not quite so free, so perhaps that is why I appreciate it.

God willing, such times will never return.

But if they ever do, then we will understand what freedom means, the ability to express your opinion, and that it is not something to be taken for granted.

It is something we fight for every day.

If you do not want to express your opinion publicly, do not.

But once every four years, go and express it where people vote, through your right to vote.

Host: This shows how important it is, dear viewers, to have a good specialist, a good PR professional who can give you good advice when asked a question.

Maxim Behar: This is not even so much about my PR business.

It is about how a person feels and how they want to participate in the society in which we all live.

We travel on the metro, on trams and buses, we wait in queues, we go to concerts, we sit in restaurants.

If you want to express an opinion, express it.

No one is going to stop you.

Just do not do it aggressively.

Do not insult people.

Do not disturb them.

Express your opinion.

And if you do not want to, make good music, like “The Ku-Ku Band” does.

Host: Let us now go to the song we were talking about.

It is “PR We Are.”

Dear viewers, let us watch the video for the song by our guest Maxim Behar together with Misho Shamara and Lil Sha.

Host: It really is very entertaining.

Maxim Behar: Now it even makes me laugh a little when I watch it because we shot it in a single day.

We recorded everything and I called my colleagues and said: “We are doing something here with Misho Shamara. Can you come with two cameras?”

They came from the office and we shot the video.

When we were finished, I first sent it to a few friends.

One of them, Martin Zahariev, told me: “Max, fix the ending.”

So we added that ending, which cuts off abruptly.

But I wanted there to be a bridge, to have a female voice moving between one part and the other.

One evening, I went to a party at a small bar owned by Vasko Krapkata, behind the Madara baths, a bar called “Krapkata.”

There was a girl there singing in English.

I had something written on my T-shirt.

She came up to me and asked what it meant.

I explained it to her, although I no longer remember exactly what it was.

She said she really liked it.

We started talking.

At some point, she left.

The next morning, I sent her a message on Facebook: “It was very nice meeting you.”

She replied: “It was nice meeting you too.”

I wrote to her: “By the way, you sing very well, even though it looked so effortless.”

She said: “I am a professional singer.”

I said: “You know what? I have a song. Would you like to take part in it?”

At the time, she was at Munich Airport and we were messaging each other.

She was going back to America.

I sent her the song.

She said: “Okay. I am in. Send me everything.”

That was Sarah Harralson.

After that, she also took part in our second song, “Runaway.”

After “Runaway,” she received Grammy nominations as well.

When I invited her to take part in our next song, “Viva Bulgaria,” she told me: “Max, there is no way. I already have publishers, I have a company representing me, and I am not allowed to participate in any other projects.”

Host: That is already another level.

Host: Since this is a music show, I am asking you more about music, but our viewers know you well, so let us not leave out everything else.

You work with tremendous passion and love in many different fields.

Where do you feel most at home?

In economics? In politics? In sport?

What companies have you worked with? Who have you advised?

Maxim Behar: I feel best in communications.

When I talk to people like you.

When I am in the company of the wonderful “Ku-Ku Band.”

When I am out on the street.

When I communicate with clients.

Host: All right, but when we are talking about businesses worth millions.

Maxim Behar: I run a business from morning until night.

But I feel best when I am doing something different.

When I have an innovation.

When I come up with something interesting.

When I say to myself: “I have never done this before.”

Or when I see that my company, which has now existed for more than 30 years, 32 years, has reached a certain level and I want to take it up another floor or half a floor.

I ask myself: “What should I come up with?”

I start reading, watching videos, consulting friends.

And when I achieve something new, then I say to myself: “Wow. It worked. Keep going.”

Host: And do technological innovations help you in that direction?

All this dynamic change that we are immersed in, particularly over the last year and a half or two years?

I am talking mainly about artificial intelligence and the possibility of using enormous amounts of information through it.

Maxim Behar: Before artificial intelligence came social media.

For the first time in history, social media put an interactive medium on the table.

In other words, you speak and they answer you.

You post something and people comment, like it and so on.

And there is something else.

For the first time, social media created a medium that could be measured.

Before that, for example, you had a news story in a newspaper.

You knew approximately how many readers the newspaper had, but who could prove to you who had actually read your story on page nine, at the bottom right?

Now everything can be measured.

With absolute precision.

And that is extremely important.

Then, of course, artificial intelligence arrived, and it is going to completely change our business.

Recently, I sent an email to all my colleagues through our internal email system.

I told them: “Colleagues, relax. Artificial intelligence will not replace you.”

But people who know how to work with artificial intelligence can replace you.

We need to remain calm, but every one of us needs to develop, to change, to learn the latest technologies and the newest things.

Technology is extremely important.

We really cannot do without it anymore.

For example, I do not particularly care what kind of car I drive.

But I do care what kind of phone I have.

Because I use it to reply to emails, work with different software, post on TikTok and Instagram.

I drive a small electric car for two people.

A month or two ago, I was stopped at an intersection.

A large SUV pulled up next to me.

Inside were a beautiful woman and a young tattooed man.

He gestured for me to roll down the window.

I did.

He said: “My wife and I watched you on television yesterday.”

I said: “Thank you.”

And he said: “Why are you driving that car? Do you not have money for a bigger, nicer one?”

I replied: “Well, you see, that is how much they pay on television.”

Of course, it is a joke, although the story itself is true.

But the car is not important.

The phone and technology are important.

Host: If we were having this conversation in the early or mid-1990s, viewers would look at you very strangely.

“What phone? The big car is what matters.”

Maxim Behar: I was like that back then too.

But today this is part of my business.

If I have a fast phone with different functions, I can do my work anywhere, in beautiful surroundings, while drinking coffee, from home, without sitting behind a computer.

Technology has changed all of us, not just my business.

We are no longer simply Homo sapiens.

We have become something like Homo socionicus.

But the change happened gradually, and that is why we cannot fully realise how much we have changed.

Not to mention the people we call Gen Z.

Sometimes we do not understand each other at all.

We say one thing, they say another.

And there is nothing wrong with that.

But if we make an effort to learn the best and most useful things, to master the technologies and even the language of the new generation, to put ourselves in their shoes, that can change us a great deal.

In the office, we have lots of monitors, computers and lots of young people.

I often walk past a colleague and ask: “What do you see on the monitor?”

She says: “I am writing a press release and I see the text.”

I say: “Do not look at the text. Try to see the reader inside it.”

You need to see the reader in that monitor.

The text itself will not bring you anything.

That is the highest level of professionalism, being able to put yourself in the shoes of the person you are talking to.

To know whether they will understand you.

Whether our viewers will understand us.

Whether they will have an idea of what we are talking about.

I have always taken tremendous pleasure in putting myself in other people’s shoes and trying to understand the people I communicate with.

Host: Let us move on to “Viva Bulgaria.”

You already mentioned the idea behind it.

How did you make it happen?

Again in one day?

Maxim Behar: Absolutely in one day. We have never spent more than one day recording.

We record everything in the same studio in Ovcha Kupel.

A very nice studio.

When we were recording “PR We Are,” the owner of the studio was getting married that same day.

He said: “Guys, can I go and sign the marriage papers? You stay here and I will be back shortly.”

Two or three hours later, he came back, like something out of a Kusturica film.

With several bottles of rakia, the bride and another hundred people, and he walked into the studio.

And we were shooting a video.

We said: “Please, we are shooting a video, wait a minute.”

And he said: “But I got married!”

It was a fantastic story.

We recorded “Viva Bulgaria” in the same studio.

With that song, I really wanted to show Bulgaria as we would like to see it 50 years from now.

May we be alive and well.

Host: Why not?

Dear viewers, let us watch the video for “Viva Bulgaria” by Maxim Behar, Misho Shamara and Lil Sha.

Host: Dear viewers, you are watching “The Ku-Ku Band Night.” Today’s guest is Maxim Behar.

What message would you like to leave with people who are afraid to dream big?

Maxim Behar: I think it is more than clear.

I have said it a million times, and I have even written it in several places in my company:

If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.

Then they are not dreams.

They are simply wishes.

What does it mean to dream of building yourself a house?

Yes, that is wonderful.

It is very important to have a nice house.

But that is not a dream.

That is a wish.

A dream should scare you.

Last December, I was thinking: “What should I give myself for my birthday?”

I started looking at different things and said to myself: “Go and train to become a cosmonaut.”

My children said: “Are you crazy?”

My daughter Ralitsa said to me: “What astronaut?”

I said: “Wait a minute. I found a NASA facility. I have to apply.”

I immediately sat down at the computer and applied.

They looked at me and said: “This cannot be real. How are you going to train for that?”

Then my wife Veneta started telling me almost every evening: “I want to do it too. I want to do it too.”

I said: “No, please, this is not for women.”

She said: “No, I want to do it too.”

And so we went together.

Three, four, five years ago, we also walked the Camino.

She insisted that we go.

One day she said to me: “Look at the nice programme I have made. We will not walk more than 15 or 20 kilometres a day.”

I calculated it and thought: “When we are in London, we walk 15 kilometres anyway.”

But I did not calculate that we would be doing it for many days in a row.

I said: “All right, let us go.”

We walked the Camino.

We came back and wrote a book.

Now we are also writing a book about space and our training.

You need to have dreams that truly scare you.

Not terrify you, but make you say to yourself: “Can I do this? This is shocking. Can I?”

And then: “Let me try.”

Many of these things work out.

And really, if your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.

Host: Tonight, we are going to end our meeting with the great Beatles song “All You Need Is Love.”

Why did you choose this one?

Maxim Behar: This is the second story I have never told before.

Many years ago, I had quite a few meetings with Prince Charles.

He made a very good impression on me, and when he became King, I congratulated him.

After all those years, he sent me a personal letter to thank me.

One day, I was speaking with members of his team at St. James’s Palace, where his office was at the time.

We were talking and, half-jokingly, I said that their anthem at the time was “God Save the Queen,” and now it is “God Save the King.”

But perhaps one day you should change that anthem.

Everyone froze.

Ladies with big hats and handbags.

And they said: “What do you mean, Mr. Behar? Why are you saying that?”

I said: “There is a wonderful song which, in my opinion, could be the anthem of the United Kingdom, ‘All You Need Is Love.’”

All of us, when we listen to it, know that whatever we want in life, in the end it comes down to love.

There is nothing greater.

There is nothing more valuable.

They looked at me and said: “We do not know whether that will happen in our lifetime.”

But I am convinced that one day the United Kingdom may have a new anthem.

There will be a King, a Queen or whoever it may be, and that anthem will be “All You Need Is Love.”

Host: Thank you very much for being our guest.

On behalf of myself and my colleagues, we wish you good health and that you always remain this inspired.

We have enormous respect and admiration for you and for everything you have created over the years.

Our regards to your loved ones at home.

Maxim Behar: Thank you very much.

And thank you to the girls and boys from “The Ku-Ku Band.”

I also want to say something to your viewers.

Only a happy person is a successful person.

And to be happy, you need to have love.

Nothing more.

Successful people are not those who have wealth, money, cars, houses or anything else.

Successful people are happy people.

And what I want to tell you, dear viewers of 7/8 TV, is:

All you need is love.

Host: Thank you for being with us.

That is all from us for tonight.

Stay with the programme of 7/8 TV.

We leave you with the great Beatles song “All You Need Is Love.”

You can watch the whole interview here: https://www.maximbehar.com/en/video/448/maxim-behar-on-the-ku-ku-band-night?-on-music-communications-and-big-dreams