Dean DeCarlo is a New York based entrepreneur who is passionate about assisting companies navigate this digital era. Dean is the Founder and President of Mission Disrupt, an-industry leading marketing agency founded in 2015, with the goal of helping companies leverage digital channels to form deep relationships with their customers that are profitable and delightful for their clients. Mission Disrupt is dedicated to assisting large to mid-sized companies captivate users with dynamic experiences, targeted digital advertising, and engaging creative design. Dean’s experience includes working with e-commerce companies, financial institutions, retailers, and service firms that seek to gain an edge by utilizing a boutique firm.
What is Mission Disrupt all about?
Reinventing how DTC companies drive increased growth with an Impact based approach to paid media & user experience strategies. In 2016, we built an agency with one goal in mind, to build brands for today’s digital era. We focused on creating expertise in paid media channels where CPA & CAC could be optimized to a sales science, where creative could be deployed to grow loyalty in a cluttered world, and where ideas written on paper could become full-blown enterprises.
The digital world changes fast, but Mission Disrupt has dedicated itself to being a best-in-class strategic marketing partner for our clients. We take a no-short cut approach led by our brilliant staff to develop Impact based strategies. Above all, we grow brands every day, and couldn’t be more proud of the work we’re doing
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
During my senior year of college, I decided to stop working a part-time job for the first time since I was 14, instead, I opted to start freelancing for companies helping with Google Ad Management. I spent most of my last year working with two clients. At the end of the year when no job offers came my way, I realized that I didn’t need a traditional job, I just needed more freelance work.
In May of 2016 I graduated and that same month I stopped my full-time job search to focus on freelancing full time. 5 years later that same freelance gig turned into an award-winning digital marketing agency with 7 people and fortune 500 clients.
What would you say are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur, and why?
Perseverance – Success won’t happen overnight, and there are many bumps along the way, you need to be able to put your head down, get into the trenches, and work your way up to build the company you envision.
Patience – Building a company takes time, as a young entrepreneur I’ve learned that with time comes more experience to make better decisions. I also realized that it takes time to build a reputation & processes that can only be forged through years of experience.
Curiosity – No matter what level of success you have I think it’s important to take meetings with different people, learn new things and get new perspectives on your industry and others.
What are your plans for the future, how do you plan to grow this company?
We plan to grow Mission Disrupt by bringing top leadership into our company, we believe having the right people is the key to high growth, which in turn pushes us to drive better results and push creative boundaries.
Our ultimate goal will be to build a family of brands, using our expertise in paid media and user experience to launch other digital first brands. With this goal in mind, it allows me to keep building and pivoting.
How do you separate yourself from your competitors?
Instead of labeling ourselves as a full-service digital marketing firm, we decided to specialize in user experience design and paid media management, this means we are able to focus within these service verticals.
What were the top 3 mistakes you made starting your business, and what did you learn from them?
When I first started I made the mistake of taking on anyone I could as clients. I quickly realized this was a big mistake. First, it becomes difficult to become an expert in one area. Second, I noticed that people who paid $100 for a service would command the same attention as someone willing to pay $1,000, this became a big waste of time and was completely unscalable. It’s important to find the right clients who will get the maximum value out of your work.
Invest In The Right Employees – The people in your company are your most important assets. It’s important you seek out the right people who complement your weaknesses. When it comes to hiring, know that cheaper talent will almost always cost you more money and more importantly take you longer to reach your goals. I learned this the hard way when I hired a junior-level programmer to work with us, within a few weeks we knew it was a bad hire. Ultimately it cost us a month of productivity and over 10k in expenses.
Live Below Your Means. It’s important that as you begin to make more money you don’t get pressured into taking on more personal expenses. Remember there may be a time an emergency happens and it’s important to have capital within the company to support increased investment. The COVID-19 pandemic is a prime example of why your need to do so. Many businesses were not able to keep up with expenses, while we had two months where we had to float payroll costs and thankfully we had savings and were able to keep all employees on staff. This then led to more growth!
How do you go about marketing your business, and what has been the most successful form of marketing for you?
For marketing agencies, even the cobblers have to fix their shoes. Our business is highly relationship-based. I spend a lot of our marketing budget building out content that includes videos and podcasts to form better relationships with our clients.
What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?
When I first began the biggest challenge I had consisted of the lack of a reputation because I started my business fresh out of college. I knew that I needed to quickly build up my reputation in order to grow. To do this I decided to document the results we received for clients and how we got them, using case studies. On top of the case studies, I created tutorial videos showing marketers’ best practices on digital advertising strategies.
What was your first business idea and what did you do with it?
The first business idea I had was selling sunglasses on eBay when I was in high school, it taught me a great deal about wholesale buying, inventory, and how third-party marketplaces worked. I had started the business to help get more funds to buy a car, once I reached this goal, I decided to stop selling sunglasses to spend more time on my studies, but it was a great introduction to business.
What are you learning now? Why is that important?
I learn something new every day because experience is what teaches me, right now I’ve been setting up meetings with mentors and new people in and outside of my industry to gain new perspectives on business. It’s important because it allows me to think of new strategies I never thought of before while challenging myself to be the best leader I can be.
If you started your business again, what things would you do differently?
Business is about the journey, and right now all of the experiences I’ve had wouldn’t make me want to do anything different. Ultimately, I like to keep a mindset of always looking forward. That means if I make decisions that were mistakes, I learn from them and become a better business leader for it.
What are the top 3 online tools and resources you’re currently using to grow your company?
- Monday.com is a project management tool I couldn’t live without, it keeps my team and I am very organized.
- Zapier is a codeless tool that has allowed us to save countless hours by daily automating tasks and processes between productivity tools.
- Slack has been instrumental in allowing our team to connect faster than email, keeping collaboration up during the pandemic.
What’s a productivity tip you swear by?
If you’re like me there are dozens of items on my to-do list. To keep myself focused before my day gets started I set two to three goals of things I must accomplish, then use a checklist to track the progress throughout the day. Chances are you will get sidetracked but if you choose only two or three to complete it will seem less daunting than the full to-do list and allow you to chip away at the list.
Can you recommend one book, one podcast, and one online course for entrepreneurs?
If entrepreneurs are interested in having a real base understanding of digital marketing and how tracking consumer data drives more revenue, I highly recommend the Google Analytics Academy and Google Ad courses by Google. Additionally, I recommend the Facebook Blueprint certification and courses to learn more about social media advertising.
It’s important for entrepreneurs to develop these skills because we live in a digital-first world. Eventually, it will make sense to bring in a digital marketing professional or agency and you want to make sure you can properly vet them by having an understanding of how these marketing channels work and what you’re looking for when you’re hiring.
If you had the chance to start your career over again what would you do differently?
I’m lucky that I love what I do, I wouldn’t do anything differently at the moment. However, I will leave this as a piece of advice for other entrepreneurs. It’s important to be defined in the services or products you sell. At first, you will want to take on many projects, but the truth is, this isn’t sustainable when it’s time to scale.
If you only had $1,000 dollars to start a new business, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
I would first set up an LLC or S-Corp in order to protect myself from business liability ($200). Secondly, I would hire a designer to create a logo and brand style guide to ensure that my marketing collateral would look professional ($500).
Next, I would buy a themed website from Squarespace or Shopify ($150), to allow me to explain the value my business brings to people. I would also purchase a professional email address ($100/year) to ensure communication with customers would look professional.
From there I would do my best not to spend a single cent unless required to build the product/service. I would spend my time creating content for social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram about my business, engaging in niche blogs/communities, and building a reputation for myself to attract customers.
Once I begin getting paying customers I would focus on improving the customer experience to be able to raise prices. From there, it would be crucial to purchase infrastructure upgrades that would allow the business to scale.
What helps you stay driven and motivated to keep going in your business?
Having a “why” in business is essential to keeping motivation levels up. The truth is, there are many bumps in the road, it will get hard but if you keep your focus on the ‘“why” you started your business it becomes easier to work through it.
What is your favorite quote?
Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.
The quote resonates with me because it takes years to build your vision into something great. I’m excited to be on the entrepreneurial journey.
What is your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
As broken down in another question above:
- Invest In The Right Employees
- Live Below Your Means
- Hard Work Is Like Interest
How can we get in touch with you?
The best way to get in touch with me is by connecting with me on Linkedin by searching my name Dean DeCarlo, this is where I constantly come out with new content and interact with my connections. Or if possible, by emailing me directly at dean@missiondisrupt.com.
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