I got started in this career by accident you could say.
What do you do and what is your passion?
I am a Digital Marketer from Melbourne, Australia. My focus is really to help small to medium sized companies alter their positioning in the market and ultimately increase leads and sales.
Humble Beginnings
I got started in this career by accident you could say. Whilst at University I was working as a Web Developer for a very mundane product and hated every minute of the job as I could see how horrible their marketing was. The problem was, I was powerless and when I made suggestions they laughed at me. In the end the role didn’t work out.
For the next few weeks I applied for every digital marketing position I could find on Seek. The main issue was, I had no Digital Marketing experience and didn’t even study this at University. However, lucky for me I found an amazing company to work for which sold Machinery. I took this job very seriously and helped grow the company’s online presence massively over the next few months, so much that the owner of the company let me have full control of the marketing spend. We started to really take advantage of Facebook Advertising and SEO.
After working for this company for a year the owner could see I was pushing for more and getting offers from Digital Marketing Agencies, he offered me a GodFather offer. The offer was I could work 3 days a week for them whilst growing my consulting business on the side. This was an offer I could not refuse and jumped at the opportunity. My boss at the time could actually see the future and made some comments that I could actually never see coming true, to this day I have far surpassed the comment he made.
What was the most unique challenge you faced when beginning?
Sales. Sales was something I really struggled with at first and found this to be extremely hard actually asking for money for the services I was offering. This was seriously hard. It felt so awkward, I would almost say it like “please can I have x amount” in a little mouse voice. At least, that’s how it felt. Now I am very confident in my pricing as I know I am very good at what I do and I can produce them amazing results. Getting to that level does take time.
Mindset
This has to be work ethic and actually enjoying the process and not just looking to gain materialistic things. So many people get into the Digital Marketing space thinking they can make a quick buck because they watched a video on YouTube or bought a $997 Digital Marketing Course. But the truth is, it’s hard. Like really hard. Sure you may be able to sell some services to a business owner, but can you actually produce results? What about when an algorithm changes? What about when the client isn’t happy? What about when you can’t sleep because the stress has mounted on top of each other?
So many people think this is easy, but it’s not. If you want easy, go get a job and work 9-5.. Because when you work for yourself you don’t get to go home and clock off at 5pm for Friday Beers… It’s always on your mind.
What is your definition of success?
My definition of success changes all the time. But realistically it has to be happiness. Really… if I’m not happy what’s the point. We have one life we may as well be happy?
Why do some people face failure when going after their vision?
Most people don’t believe they can actually do it and are afraid of what people will think when they fail. When you get past that, you realise that failure is just a lesson and a footpath on the road to success.
What would you say to someone who is trying to discover themselves & how did you discover who you are?
This was extremely hard for me at first, as I had no idea who I was or wanted to be. I mean, my thoughts on this change month by month as it is. However, the biggest shift was when I got out of a long term relationship and really got to think about who I am and who I really want to be. This also helped greatly by reading Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.
This book seriously changed my life. After being dumped by a partner I was with for over 7 years I really had no idea what I wanted to do and was just pitying myself. After reading this book it was like someone punched me straight in the face and said get over yourself. I kept thinking to myself after reading this book, “if this guy can find meaning in the holocaust, how can’t I find meaning in a breakup?”
After that book I started to get more into self development, reading, meditating, exercising more regularly but also trying to learn and better myself everyday. If I did have to tell someone one thing, it would be to read Man’s Search for Meaning and read from people who have been through much worse than you. Also read from successful people…
What is the best piece of advice you have received or came across and would like to share with everyone?
Not worrying about other people’s opinions, most people are just focused on themselves and actually don’t care about others. This really took so long for me to realise. I remember shaking when I used to go up to speak in front of a class of 20 people in Year 12… Like what was I thinking. All the other students cared about was themselves, just like I was. At the end of the day you just need to not worry about other people’s opinions, most people just don’t care.
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