This Kiwi began his career at an early age and now he’s an expert in blogging, social media and digital marketing.  He is passionate about brand building, company culture and entrepreneurship by leveraging digital technologies.

Being associated with several digital start-ups, he has gleaned tons of experience navigating the digital landscape. In this interview, he will share nuggets of wisdom exclusively with our readers. We welcome Tom Reidy on Branex Talks.

Branex: Your career is a blend of success and failure. Would you like to share career highlights along with the lessons you learned from your failures?

Tom Reidy: Success is the easy part of life throughout my career I have had the honor of working with some of the biggest brands, from Audi to Colgate Palmolive, helping them to build their brands and reputations online.

But through failure is when we learn and grow. Don’t get me wrong I have learned plenty working with large brands, but I have learned far more in the hard lessons in life. Some of my greatest takeaways would be:

• Choose your staff wisely, they will make or break a business. Surround yourself with people that believe in your vision.
• Learn from those who have gone before, wisdom comes from experience, so pay attention to people who have it.
• Test, learn, test and test some more. All too often, we have great ideas, but they may not actually turn into a business. So, test the ideas out, beyond your friends, make sure you have an audience and people who are willing to pay.
• Ask for the money, following on from my above point, don’t be shy, if your product or service provides value, make sure you ask a fair price for it.
• Love and passion are awesome and should always be part of the vision, but don’t work for free, love and passion don’t pay wages.
• Make sure you and your clients have the funds to pay for services.

Branex: Tell us about TAG The Agency, how did the idea pop up and from where did you start?

Tom Reidy: This brand is a result of the ever-evolving world of digital advertising, I’ve always been in the industry of tech and marketing/advertising, so it was a natural progression that fed my creative skills.

Branex: Digital storytelling is typically a new terminology among marketers. What do you think are the key elements of digital storytelling?

Tom Reidy: New term, same game. It’s just how and where we tell stories that have changed. In my view, the key elements are:

• To learn and adapt fast
• Test and try as new platforms are always coming out
• Don’t predict the future but be ready and aware to evolve
• To repeat myself so it’s crystal clear – Always be prepared.

Branex: You have multiple startups under your belt, share with us the lessons you have learned so far in establishing them.

Tom Reidy: All ideas are good and easy. It’s the execution and market development that is hard. Do your research and plan for the end game, not just the small steps to get you going. This way you will reduce surprises and cost escalation.

Branex: You emphasize a lot that B2B businesses should leverage content as a marketing strategy. Which type of content is truly engaging for the audience, can you share a few examples?

Tom Reidy: B2B is still about people and connecting to what inspires and resonates with them. I always prefer video as the medium as we are able to quickly connect to audiences. In the case of B2B, we look to see who the decision-maker is and work to influence their decisions, from content that nudges them to direct engagement. It sounds simple but can be a long game, so research to make sure you know your audience and where they consume content.

Branex: What trends do you anticipate in the digital world especially about social media in 2020?

Tom Reidy: Be ready, change is constant, so predictions are just guessing and looking at the wrong thing. Watch your audience, follow the trends and lead them through the platforms they choose. Then constantly test your content before launching into a bigger campaign.

Branex: Would you like to mention a few names who have inspired you in the industry? The ones who have contributed to your professional and personal growth.

Tom Reidy: Chris Bunce from 3Skye – Fintech visionary, friend and mentor. Chris has always been around to provide wise worlds and motivation to push for the next step.

Andrew Butel from EndGame – Tech genius, also a friend and mentor. Andrew has always been a support, from business mentoring to working through some of my biggest challenges with me.

Branex: How much do you believe in work-life balance? How do you balance both and why do you think it’s important to keep these aspects in equilibrium?

Tom Reidy: Work and life are not a separate thing when you hire someone, you are hiring a person and not a machine that can switch on and off. So work and life needs to balance themselves. For example, I have four kids, so I need to be able to provide them the attention they need to become successful humans, so rather than separating my job from my family, they are welcomed in and become part of the workday. Start times and end times can be flexible as ideas don’t happen between 9 am and 5 pm so my approach to work is also flexible.

For more on this, I wrote a book on company culture, here.

Branex: Being an avid marketer, our readers would like to see your workstation picture. Could you please share one.

Tom Reidy: Sure, it’s pretty simple, just the things I need.

Branex: Branex is one of those agencies which are facilitating brands globally with its digital solutions. Do you have any piece of advice for us?

Go hard, experiment and keep communication open and strong with clients, they are part of your success, which makes them part of the team, not a thing that pays the bills.

The post Tom Reidy Discusses The Importance of Leveraging Social Media & Digital Storytelling appeared first on Branex Official Blog.

Today on Branex Talks, we are privileged to have such a gentleman with us. To date, he has helped businesses and startups founders scale their business. He has extensive experience working with various professionals in 70+ countries, including Taiwan, Spain, Ireland, the US and the UK.

Aufray is passionate about boosting organic traffic, increase conversions and enhance ROI by data-driven strategies. He has helped multiple companies like Voodoo.io, SeeLevelHX, Zeneduc with lead generation and improves revenue with growth hacking.

Without further ado, let’s welcome Jonathan Aufray, chief executive officer of Growth hackers.

Branex: You have traveled to many countries across the globe, which notable differences have you witnessed in business practices and workplace cultures until now.

Jonathan: I lived in 7 countries (France, US, UK, Ireland, Spain, Australia, and Taiwan), traveled in many more and worked with businesses from more than 70 countries. There are a lot of differences between places, cities, countries, and continents. For instance, when I was doing business in Ivory Coast, I could notice that time management is very different from other places.

In Japan, things are very formal during the day when doing business, but at night it completely changes where you will go out to eat drink (And even doing Karaoke) to sign business deals. For the US, business relationships are less formal and more friendly.

Every place is different but the most important is to stay yourself while respecting the local culture. For instance, in Taiwan, there’s a specific way to give your business card and people appreciate when you do it their way (Handing out your business card with two hands)

Branex: In an interview, you stated that “startups need fast execution and iteration, even more than SMBs”. What are the tools and techniques which can eventually lead to the growth of startups and what’s the right way of scaling it?

Jonathan: For startups, SMBs or SaaS businesses, it’s important to have a lean startup approach where you want to launch your product sooner than later. Why? Because you want to test your products with “real” users, gather feedback and data to see what people like, what people don’t like, optimize your product and make it more user-centric.

I met many entrepreneurs that developed products for many months without gathering feedback as they wanted their product to be “perfect”. Eventually, when they launched, they found out that there was no market for the product they built.

I usually recommend entrepreneurs to invest 50% of their time and money on product development and 50% on growth.

There are many tools and techniques startups and more mature businesses can use to grow and scale. The most important isn’t the set of tools or tactics but the process and systems put in place.

Branex: Growth hacking is one of your most prominent areas of expertise. How can marketers working with startups embrace the magic of growth hacking and skyrocket their growth?

Jonathan: As I just mentioned, growth hacking is a process rather than a set of tools or cheap tactics. There are a lot of things that are being said on growth hacking such as:

• Growth hacking is unethical
• Growth hacking is cheap tactics to get millions of users
• Growth hacking is just a buzzword for marketing

Actually, I have a different opinion of what growth hacking really is. I believe this is a mix between marketing, product development and data. Before working in growth hacking, I worked in marketing for multiple companies and I always found that the marketing department and the product department were not linked and were not working together.

I believe growth hacking makes the connection between these two departments. The goal of growth hacking isn’t just to work on user acquisition. The goal is to grow your marketing and grow (Improve) your product. This is why the AARRR (Acquisition – Activation – Retention – Revenue – Referral) metrics are used in growth hacking.

Branex: Is constant learning necessary for success? When it comes to startups and SMBs, how a culture of learning and continuous development can be promoted?

Jonathan: Constant learning is essential for business success. I’m learning every day either by reading books or blog posts or by testing new tools, new strategies or processes. The best way to learn is by trying new things, making mistakes and learning from these mistakes.

The culture of learning can be promoted by showing real-life examples of successful entrepreneurs who keep learning and succeeded doing it.

Branex: Do you have a checklist for novice growth hackers before they embark on the journey to make businesses succeed?

Jonathan: Launch Fast – Test – Gather Feedback (And most importantly act on it) – Optimize your product accordingly – Promote – Scale – Repeat.

Branex: How do you see the future of marketing in light of rising dependency on artificial intelligence?

Jonathan: AI is going to take most industries by storm, marketing being one of them. I believe that thanks to AI, more and more tasks will be automated such as chatbots mimicking human interaction. Hyper-personalization of messages and accurate segmentation will be done by AI in marketing making the user experience much better.

Branex: Any nuggets of wisdom you would like to share with aspiring young entrepreneurs who small businesses trying to make it big in the digital economy?

Jonathan: Don’t keep your ideas for yourself. A lot of entrepreneurs are scared to share their ideas because they believe it’s going to be stolen. An idea is worth nothing, execution is everything. Focus on execution.

Branex: Being a marketing ninja, which influencers do you follow in the industry and who are a true inspiration for you?

Jonathan: Not sure if I’m qualified to be dubbed as a ninja or even if I was in Japan last month. Here are a few influencers, fellow marketers and entrepreneurs that I follow:

• Joel Gascoigne (Buffer CEO)
• Ann Handley (Content Marketer)
• Mike Quindazzi (PwC)
• Paula Piccard (Cybersecurity)
• Elon Musk (needs no introduction)

Branex: Branex is a web/app development, a digital agency that has helped scores of startups and established businesses navigate smoothly in the digital marketing sphere. What is the one piece of advice that you would like to give agencies like us?

Jonathan:

• Create content answering the questions/problems your target audience is facing and, then, promote that content.
• Focus on customer experience and success.
• Actively ask for referrals.

The post Interview With CEO of Growth Hackers: Jonathan Aufray appeared first on Branex Official Blog.

Branex: How did you come to specialize in web design? What inspired you to walk this path?

Mudit: I had just started learning advanced java in the December of 2013, and it was there that I came across a topic of creating your own website with the help of JSP (Java Server Pages). Once I started exploring deep into the field of web designing, I really got fascinated with the idea of how building and shaping your own creativity, thoughts, and inspiration, which are accessible to the whole world, is just a click away.It was truly an incredible thing, at least for me. And then, I decided to leave the software world behind and started learning complete web designing, including HTML, CSS, jQuery, JavaScript, and PHP for myself. I believe in self-learning since no matter how much you learn from others, the things that you learn from yourself are the things which stay with you the longest.

Branex: Can you tell us a little about your work history? What was your first real design job and how much work have you done to get to where you are today?

Mudit: As I mentioned above, I started learning Advanced Java in the December of 2013, and in January 2014, I got introduced to web designing, and suddenly it dawned on me that this was what I had always wanted to do for as long as I can remember, because it’s indeed fun to delve in web designing and creating stellar online presences.

I created my first website for a family business, even though I had very little experience in web designing at that time, just over 2 months to be exact. And yet, I created that website of around 20 pages in a mere 3 days. Even though, my favorite Indian festival“Holi”, the festival of colors, was falling in between, so excited was I with the prospect of creating my first ever website, that I actually sat it out at home and worked on my project instead.  After I had successfully finished on the project and was about to buy a hosting domain for it, the client, one of my uncles, dropped the bomb that the website only ran on Asp or PHP, not JSP!

Even though all my high hopes had gone down the drain, I came back home and focused all my energy on building it up from scratch again, this time choosing PHP from my arsenal. It Was after I had breathed a sigh of relief after hosting the website that I started working on bigger projects for myself, such as a classified website, an online shopping website, and a personal social network just for the kick of it. After gaining a steadier ground after 7-8 website, I hit upon the idea of launching my own blog where I could write about designing and offer my readers my valuable insights and how-to tutorials, involving the solutions of common problems that designers had to face in web designing and web programming. This is when I started with TalkersCode.

From the word go, I always worked with a clear vision: I wanted to work for myself instead of laboring away at a 9-5 for someone else. I always believed in why one should work for someone else and take orders from others when you have the resources and the skills to fulfill your dreams.I started to build TalkersCode rather aggressively in my passion and started filling up my blog with 5-7 articles every day just to complete the basic learning section as soon as possible, and start on the web-tricks section, where I could show my clients solutions of many problems with the help of coding. I enjoyed creating tutorials so much that I created 3-4 tutorials every day. Even though each one took 3-4 hours, I was having such a blast that I lost track of time. Today we have more than 200 tutorials to our name, with most being working demos.

Related: 7 E-commerce Web Design Trends for 2018 You Should be Aware of

Branex: Where should a designer put a stopper to specialization, in your opinion? Is it better for a Designer to attempt to become the jack of all trades or focus on one area (calligraphy, web, print) at a time?

Mudit: No one, not just Designers, should ever put a full stop to learning and strive to specialize in new fields. Your quest for learning should be a perpetual one. Once you have aced a field, move on and learn something new. For instance, even though I had focused on web designing and programming for around 4 years, and still loving it, I also want to learn proper blogging, online marketing etc. I can’t just restrict myself to web designing when I aspire to expand my horizon to other fields. I believe that constant learning attracts opportunities your way. Like, if I hadn’t gotten my feet wet in PHP and had stuck to JSP instead, my codes would have been much more time-consuming, complex, and redundant, not to mention, I would never have gotten the chance to write tutorials for my PHP audience. So yeah, learning does open a lot of doors, and if you want to learn something, just go ahead and do it. You will never regret the time you used to learn that thing.

Branex: What are a few of your favorite web development frameworks and why?

Mudit: To be honest, I had not used any frameworks to date, as I started building websites in rather traditional ways. Not to mention, I didn’t feel any pull towards a particular framework, so haven’t had a chance to experiment yet. However, I will be sure to learn about one when the need arises.

Branex: In your eyes, what makes a good designer?

Mudit: In my opinion, a good designer should know about things other than what he had used for designing, since I know a lot of designers who are only aware of HTML and CSS, with no background knowledge of PHP and jQuery. The secret of being a good designer is to have a familiarity with everything connected to your field.

Branex: How do you stay abreast of the most up-to-the-minute design trends? How important do you think it is to keep up with the Joneses?

Mudit: It’s indispensable to stay abreast of the most up-to-the-date trends in designing since the realm of web designing keeps evolving by the day. If you don’t stay updated, you can never be your ultimate creative self. New things, new concepts, and new creatives keep coming up, so you have to take inspiration from those to boost up your own creativity.

Branex: People are jumping on the responsive web design bandwagon, but the number of different sizes and types of device continue to grow. How are designers poised to deal with this?

Mudit: This is not a big deal.All you need is to do some extra work to deal with such problems for responsive web design.I personally recommend designers to leverage CSS media queries in their designs, since they are easy to learn and implement.

Branex: What’s a day in your life like? What do you do to fuel your creativity? What is your morning routine before you start designing?

Mudit: I wake up around 7 am.Every day. While I am not a morning person, I check my Emails and the performance of my website as soon as I open my eyes. After dragging through the regular morning rituals, I start working on my projects with a fresh perspective. I sometimes work 12-13 hours every day on the projects that I want to keep running successfully. I read a lot in my free time about the things which are related to my work and this inspires me a lot to do more and more.

Branex: What is going to change in the next ten years on the web?

Mudit: I think not much, but these days artificial intelligence plays a major role in other industries, so I am excited to see the implementation of A.I in the web designing, programming and blogging industry as well.

Related Read: Stellar Website Design Trends that are Going to Surface in 2018

Branex: Can you share any nuggets of wisdom for young design students just stepping into their careers?

Mudit: For all the new designers out there, I think that unless you are solely dedicated to this field and are passionate about it, you are in the wrong industry, since this area of web entails creativity which does not come easily to all. Also, try to keep yourself updated, so that as soon as an opportunity comes your way, you can grab it. You have to be multi-talented to stay in this field and stay on top of your game. Instead of thinking that you are a know-it-all, you would do well to excel in one facet before moving on to the next area, instead of stopping to seek after a while.

Branex: Branex is one of those agencies which are facilitating brands over the world with its digital solutions. Do you have any nuggets of wisdom for us?

Mudit: I just browsed through your company website, and I must say that you are really doing a good job delivering high-quality services to your clients, and keeping your users up-to-date with your blog. Keep up this level and the work portfolio you are delivering right now.

The post A Sneak-Peak into the Realm of Web Designing with Mudit Jain appeared first on Branex Official Blog.