Failing to keep up with the latest marketing trends can prove detrimental for any business, especially in today's ultra-competitive digital landscape. You can't afford to sit back and relax, knowing full well that your competitors are doing everything to get a more significant share of your target market. Simultaneously, you need to take a comprehensive approach to the market, integrating design into your overall strategy to boost brand recognition and gain prospective customers' trust. This is precisely what Jackson Yew, the co-founder of Funnel Duo Media, has learned over the past decade.
Learning the art of selling
Growing up, Jackson never viewed himself as a salesperson. He was more fascinated in figuring out how things worked, which made him pursue a mechanical engineering degree. After completing his Master's Degree, Jackson began his professional career as a sales engineer.
According to Jackson, sales engineer was nothing but a fancier term for a salesman. He would spend most of his days looking at machines and counting money, a routine job that he soon learned didn't make him happy. After only two years, he quit his job and teamed up with a business partner to start a ship salvaging company.
Looking back, Jackson is thankful for all the opportunities that his sales engineering job afforded him. He had to face clients and negotiate with them almost every day, inevitably sharpening his communication and selling skills.
Unexpected venture into design and marketing
Building a digital marketing agency wasn't in Jackson's initial plans. In a way, it happened by accident. His ship salvaging company turned out to be a failure, forcing him to shut it down after two years. With little money left, Jackson started offering web development services to local clients.
He was making a decent amount of money, but he knew that expanding his services would generate more income. And so, Jackson studied marketing. He thought it would be easy considering his ability to sell to someone, but Jackson quickly realized that marketing was an entirely different game. He also took up web design independently, knowing that the digital landscape is leaning toward visual content. What followed was months of strategic planning, trial and error, and market analysis until he felt confident to reach out to international clients.
Jackson approached companies from the US, UK, Australia, and Canada, equipped with virtually nothing but his design and marketing expertise. The first few months were a struggle, getting small projects that paid his bills. But after a full year, he landed his early $10,000-client-and things took off from there.
To this day, Jackson feels grateful for his experiences, both the good and the bad. He picked up lessons along the way, choosing to better himself rather than fret and lose hope. His story is one of grit and resilience, and he now takes time to share them with his students in the hope of helping them overcome the odds, find their true passion, and avoid settling for mediocrity.
