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Why Do I Run A Marketing Business?

Question: So did you choose to start a marketing business because you’re a good problem solver?

Answer: I’m really good at being a dick. I’m hypercritical. I’m Scottish. I just automatically think “It’s not good enough, and here’s why. Here’s how we fix it.”

Coming to America, people talk with a certain amount of fluff. I always hear these happy-go-lucky Americans saying “Hi!!! How are you???” and I respond, “Uh, I don’t know you. Let’s start there.” Let’s formalize it first before we dive into friendship. I don’t add fluff to problem-solving, I’m a practical thinker.

Marketing for me was an accident based on a logical progression. For example, a client may want more traffic to their website. And I’ll respond “Here are six things we can do to improve that and make it work.” Let’s say their company is already doing three out of the six. I’ll just remind them that they need all six for it to work. After we see if it’s a success for them, we continue to grow off of that. I get a lot of satisfaction about solving problems. Other people are more inept than you’d think, including these self-professed experts and gurus. I’m not a guru. I’m not an expert. I’m just a basic thinker. I’m a basic bro. It doesn’t need to be fancy and complicated. It just takes common sense to make things work.

The moment where I realized this was the thing I wanted to do was because of my first client that I actually got by accident. About four or five months in working with them, I started thinking “This stuff actually works.” This client was paying half of what they paid their last agency. An agency that couldn’t even get the work done that I was doing. It might be a little egotistical, but I would think “Tell me I can’t do it or tell me it can’t be done,” and I work to make it happen.

I’m ok with failure. I’m good at stepping up and finding out I wasn’t good enough. Obviously not with clients, but with me personally. I wasn’t always that way, but when it comes to marketing I know that I can figure out a solution. Don’t tell me it can’t be done, because I know it can be. I’ll find that solution, send it to my team, and have them implement it.

I don’t think I’m smarter than anyone. I just think I’m more practical. I get less caught up in that happy-go-lucky fluff than a lot of people do.