Wise Marketing Secrets Interview Series with Jeet Banerjee

Jeet Banerjee is a 23 year old serial entrepreneur, digital marketing consultant, TEDx speaker and best selling author. Jeet began his journey at the age of 17 when he launched a multimedia agency before selling it two years later.

Since then, Jeet has launched a handful of success tech ventures while helping numerous other entrepreneurs find success with their own businesses. When Jeet isn’t in the office working on his tech projects, you can find him speaking at events all around the world sharing his experiences and insight on entrepreneurship.

How did you start out as a marketer?

I started out as a marketer when I decided to launch a multimedia agency. Aside from offering web and mobile app services to clients, we had to also give them the marketing services to help them promote their websites after we built it for them.

I started out as a marketer because I was passionate about the industry and I learned a lot from research, mentors and pure application of those skills.

Looking back, what is your hardest struggle when it came to delivering results?

The hardest struggle when it came to delivering results is always trying to balance what the clients want with your own ideas. Clients obviously are heavily invested in their own projects and often times limited what I could or couldn’t do to help get them results.

That was probably the biggest struggle when it came to delivering results because you have a crutch holding you back.

How did you get your first client back then, and what kind of service did you do for them?

I obtained my first client from just aggressive marketing. I was looking up websites that were lost in the back of Google and didn’t seem to have a really good marketing strategy and I would just approach them with an honest pitch.

I’d let them know how tough it was for me to find them and how easy I could make it if they decided to hire me. My first few clients that I hired, I actually did a lot of SEO, PPC and Social Media marketing for them.

What do you find most rewarding about what you do?

The most rewarding part of what I do is seeing the final product and results. It’s always an amazing feeling knowing that you have accomplished what many might seem to think is the impossible.

Seeing your hard work come to fruition and the results panning out over the course of a few months is a very good feeling.

We have a lot of readers who are bent on becoming freelancers, aside from freelancing how else can someone earn online, and what is your advise?

The online world has a plethora of ways to earn money. There are people everywhere make 6 figures+ on the internet and it just really comes down to what you know, how you can apply it and what you want to do.

Just a few things people can do online to make money: Write e-books, drop-shipping, create blogs, create online websites selling something, affiliate programs, mobile apps, etc. Tons and tons of ways to make money online, just have to find out what is right for you.

If you were given the chance to build your career all over again what would you do differently so that you will achieve your dreams faster?

The biggest thing I would probably do differently is to focus more on the things I truly enjoyed to do instead of chasing the money. Early on, it was about having freedom and getting rich quick for me so I was always chasing money.

However, I have learned through the years that money is the most illusive object of all. If you chase it and make that your primary goal, it will always elude you. However, if you focus on your passion and offering the best value possible, money will just come to you.

How is your typical work day structured?

I am usually up by 8 AM, I start my day off with clearing my email box from the night before. That usually takes me an hour and after that I usually schedule all my interview requests, phone meetings and networking calls during the hours of 9-10 AM each morning.

After that, I just get down to business and am usually working nonstop till about 1. I’ll take a quick 20-30 minute lunch break around this time and then get back to work until about 4:30. From 4:30 to 6, I head to the gym and play some pick up basketball. After playing, I’ll grab something to eat, shower up and work for another 2 hours or so.

Can you tell us about a time where you had to put in significant effort up front and then wait a long time for success?

I think that’s been the case with any startup venture that I’ve launched. You put in a ton of effort and hours in the beginning without getting paid a dime. You have no idea if it will work or not, but you are just putting all your faith and belief in yourself and your own ideas.

There has been many times where I’ve invested 4-6 months of time in a project and the return from it was absolutely zero, I just got the experience and knowledge. Other times, I’ve been able to turn a project into a massive success within just a few months.

You’ve been tasked with redesigning the company’s brand strategy from the ground up. Walk us through your process.

So it all starts with understanding who the ideal customer for the brand is. What is it that they sell and who do they want to sell it to out of everyone? When I say this, I mean getting as specific as: 19 year old male with black hair living in the midwest.

You can’t create a marketing or branding strategy without knowing who exactly you are marketing to. Once you figure out who you’re marketing to, it’s about figuring out where the cheapest and most effective ways to place your campaign would be so that you can get the best results out of it.

Can you tell us about a past situation where you had to juggle multiple projects with competing deadlines?

Yeah, I sometimes find that to be a daily thing just because I have a tough time turning down projects and various things so I’ll try to juggle it all the time. The best solution I have found for juggling multiple projects is to put a great team around me.

I have some of the most amazing minds working around me that make it so easy for me to take on numerous projects. I know what I’m good at and that’s what I focus on. I surround myself with people who are great at the things I am terrible at and that allows us to be extremely efficient.

What recently-developed marketing strategy, technique or tool interests you the most right now?

I am really digging the marketing that many people are doing right now through live streaming tools such as Periscope. I think the ability to market and to connect with your audience is better than ever with a tool like that and that’s the thing that has interested me the most as of late.

What do you do to stay up to date with new marketing techniques?

Just always keep your eyes and ears open. New trends are coming out every day and as long as you are open minded and willing to listen what the ‘big’ new thing is, you’ll be aware of it. Another very helpful thing is to follow and be linked up with some of the top marketers in the world.

They’re always sharing their own insight and techniques to the world and you can stay up to date by just following them on social media.

Can you tell us about a project you’re most proud of from your past work history?

I think the project that I would be the most proud of was being able to delivery a TEDx speech. It not only helped me validate the success and the path that I was on, but it was awesome having the opportunity to inspire so many people on a grand platform.

Which one book/blog post would you recommend every Marketer should read?

Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff. It’s a great book that talks about the art of pitching from one of the greatest marketers/pitchers in the world.

What advice would you share with other Marketer’s who want to become more productive?

Get organized and prioritize. If you can get your day organized and planned out properly, you will be much more productive. I usually organize my day and prioritize the tasks that I need to get done each day before going out and getting it done.

If there’s one Marketing Guru you’d recommend who and why.

There’s a lot of great marketing gurus that I would recommend, but my top pick would have to be Gary Vaynerchuk. His content, marketing strategies and just pure results have been amazing and his work is a thing of beauty. Not only that, but he’s very connected with his audience and followers which makes it an even better experience.