My story. What brought me to Digital Marketing?
When I was a kid my dream was to become an inventor. I wanted to create something that would impact people life (Digital marketing didn’t exist yet ha)
I’ve changed 4 schools, then 3 universities, end up learning Product Design in a British High School of Art & Design.
I’ve tried many jobs, first was selling ‘semi-real’ discount cards for gas stations, then sticking illegal ads in metro; I’ve worked in a big pro-government company (run away after realizing the reality), car wash, sales, restaurants.
Cooking was my passion (well, I still love to cook for my family and friends),
I liked those moments when a waiter came back to the kitchen and said the guests asked to repeat the order. Means I nailed it. Problem was - I've never seen for whom I was cooking.
I wanted to help real people, so I decided I’ll start my restaurant one day.
5 years from now, I moved from Russia to Georgia as it seems more freedom for an individual, transparent business atmosphere - no corruption/racket from the state.
I saw an opportunity: by 2015 there were no real burgers on the market at an affordable price. Georgians may be conservative in what they eat, but I know for sure, they love good meat.
With my ex-wife we started a burger food-truck, after about a year it got great reputation within the expat community and I start thinking to shift for a brick and mortar.
After asking all my best friends (who consist of my customers) I’ve found an investor, Marine Capitan from Texas, who became my first business partner and invested $10k+ into a venue.
We did all mistakes possible, get tons of experience, spent a great 2 years and closed a restaurant.
Our product was the best in the city, the customers were our fans, but the business wasn't profitable. We decide to take part. And we still have good relationships with my partner.
After few more tries, I’ve couped with a group of two food enthusiasts, we rented just-closed pizza place, designed a new branding, identity, the story, new menu and using our experience we quickly turned it to a popular meeting point.
But I wanted to change something with my life. I wanted more freedom, taking risks and knowing I’ll never stay inactive. After just 2 months I’ve sold my shares and invested in education, I was learning sales and web design.
Completed my first projects and realize I can live my dream life, travel, to live wherever I want and still help people.
After I’ve done a few more projects, I found out that some clients still see me as ‘order-taker’, which was my own fault. My positioning was too vague, “I do it all” mentality was working against me. I didn’t want to became ‘fix this’ guy and wanted to solve real problems, be a practitioner.
I started to find answers in books, pro-business forums, further learning and applying this knowledge in practice.
That’s how I decided to make a shift, narrow down my focus to a catering niche, where I have skin in the game, a better understanding of potential problems that business owner may be facing and become a Digital Marketing Expert.
One of the insights that changed the way I work is this:
“While it is common practice on the creative professions to prescribe solutions without fully and accurately diagnosing the problem, in almost every other profession such a sequence would render the professional liable for malpractice.” - Blair Enns,
Before prescribing any solutions, or accepting a client’s self-diagnosis it’s important and necessary to make sure we got to the core needs and understand the real challenges in front of a client.
That is the reason I have the system of diagnostic interactions in place. The process where we start with a set of some deep questions to uncover the roots, something beyond “I need a new website”. This way allows me to come up with better quality solutions which result in a tailored ‘tools’ - the outcomes.
Book a FREE introductory call here: https://calendly.com/giobusinessdesign/10min
I’m learning something new every day and I’m going to share my journey with you.
It’s going to be fun, I’m not going to post only success stories but my fails as well. Because to fail means to move forward, this is something I understand myself.
