Sarah Grosz, 21, dropped out of college, got fired from her first job, and built a marketing career on LinkedIn. She treats failure as a learning tool and says anyone can claim expertise regardless of age. Ryan Holiday's "Trust Me, I'm Lying" shaped her approach to guerrilla marketing tactics.
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All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Sarah Gross with us. She is a digital marketer and LinkedIn content creator with over 1 million views in the past 6 months. So welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me, Tyler Wagner.
Of course, pumped to have you on. So Sarah, the first question we ask on this show is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
So for me, in the past, let's say year, every single thing major that's happened to me, I was set to fail. So let me explain that a little bit. I dropped out of college.
Nice.
Easy one, easy one there. There's a huge stigma around college. If you have a degree, you're supposed to be more successful. Before I dropped out of college, I was kicked out of my extracurricular activity. Well, that— when that happened, I was actually offered a full-time job. And then when I accepted that full-time job, I was actually fired. And the underlying kind of lesson or meaning behind everything was every single thing that was supposed to push me back actually brought me forward 10 times. So when I was kicked out of the extracurricular activity, I got the job. When I was fired from my job, well, I ended up getting one 10 times better, one that was 10 times more fitting for who I am and what I want to be. And so that's kind of the biggest underlying lesson for me.
Yeah, love it. And I love the dropping out. I dropped out as well of school, and it was the best decision I ever made. I love that. So the next one I got for you then is, what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Hmm. Okay. So the most valuable piece of information. So I'm a, I'm a digital marketer and the, the best thing to do is to fail. And failing to me is not actually failing to me is actually learning. So for digital marketing, if you don't get the right audience the first time, well, the next time you're going to be 10 times better because you know, you're not going to target them. You're not going to use that copy. You're not going to use that language. And so that's what I would have to say to that is always treating failure as a success.
Yeah, I agree. I always say it's like the failing forward, like the quicker you can just get over the fear of failing, then the quicker you'll get to the success because failure is a part of success.
Exactly.
So the next one for you is what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific, and it could tie in.
Yeah, so the, the best advice I would have to give is, I mean, right now I'm 21, I, I live on my own, and I just have never let age define me. And so that goes for the complete opposite, where if you're 50, 60, 70 years old, it's still okay to learn. And if you're 20, 30 or like just starting out your career, it's okay to tell people that you're an industry expert if you are.
Yeah, absolutely. And I, you know, I respect what you're doing. 21, that's awesome. I think when I dropped out, I was 20. So this is cool. You got a year on me. So I know that you're only 21, but if you could give your even younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
I would have to say that it's okay to not know the future. And when I was younger, I thought I was going to be an actress. Even before that, like, I had the huge dream of being like a piercer, like piercing people's ears. And I like, you know, every single stage in my life, I did it because it was all under impulse. I saw, like, I, it was just getting my ears pierced was a dream at the time. And so I wanted to make it happen by becoming a piercer. When I wanted to become an actress, it was because I was into all of those pop culture and those big ticket movies and I just wanted to be a part of it. And so I wasn't looking at the big picture. And so I guess there's two pieces of advice here. One, make sure that it's okay to not know where you're going to go as long as it's moving up. And then also, don't limit yourself by what's in front of you. Always be thinking two steps ahead.
And then kind of going a little bit down a different path, in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
The key to happiness? Hmm. I mean, To me, as soon as I like, it's that split-second impulse where I catch myself smiling. And so it's okay to not have that mold of this is what makes me happy. Listening to my gut and just physically seeing myself happy and paying attention to it. That's how I, that's happiness to me.
And then what is the best book that you've read? And what was the number one thing you learned from that?
So the best book I've read is Trust Me, I'm Lying by Ryan Holiday. And so Ryan Holiday was, I think he was the CMO of American Apparel. And he talks about all of his actual tactics and stories on what he was doing before he got that position. And then also, as, as CMO, what he was doing, and it It was all like very guerrilla-style marketing, very unpractical. It was creating bad press for himself so that he could point a finger at him and tell reporters how bad he was doing. And it made me realize, one, any press is good press, which they say. And also, it's okay to get noticed. And you don't have to get noticed by the best things. You don't have to get noticed by the worst things, but as long as people take notice, it's you're doing something right.
And then what is your favorite quote and why?
My favorite quote, so I don't know the quote exactly, but it was, um, the definition of hell is dying and realizing you have regrets. And so that is, that quote has just stuck with me. It's super cool because as soon as you make the wrong decision and you're still alive, like, you have an opportunity to fix it, make it better, make it how you want it to be. And as soon as you don't get that opportunity, like, it's gone.
Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. And I'm a big fan of the Ryan Holiday books as well. So thank you so much for coming on. The last one that I got for you is, where can our audience best find you online?
The only place you can find me is LinkedIn. You can search #TechIntent to find a boatload of my content, or you can just search my name, Sarah Grose.
Perfect. Thanks again for coming on.
Thank you, Tyler Wagner.
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