Wayne Veldsman: Digital Marketing Specialist

Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode. Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Wayne Veldsman with us. He is a digital marketing and advertising specialist. So welcome to the show, Wayne.

Thanks, Tyler, appreciate you having me on.

Of course, thanks for joining us. We'll dive in. The first question I have for you, Wayne, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

Yeah, so something pretty cool, I guess, right before I got into digital advertising space, I actually, in college, I went to study abroad and had an internship in Cape Town, South Africa. And sort of like when I got there, you know, I was thinking, I don't know if I needed more experience or I was trying to, obviously needed some money to be able to live there, but I ended up taking a job in an advertising agency that they told me in the beginning that they weren't going to pay me anything, and I decided, you know what, it's fine, let's take it just to get that experience, and what actually ended up happening was just because, you know, I wasn't getting paid and I decided to do it for so much just experience, it made me every single day when I came in just ask every person what I could help with, how I could help provide value to them. It's kind of funny because it was almost in a selfish way, right, to get more experience for me, but because of the amount of value that I was helping provide and the amount that I did, they ended up, you know, just ended up paying me also. They brought me on for a longer period of time, and so I got the experience, got to work in an amazing location, ended up getting paid for it too. So, that's awesome. You know, a lot of times, if you go into something wholeheartedly and you really try and give value to other people, just for that experience, it'll help you out financially in the long term too.

And what's the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

For sure. So yeah, like I said earlier, I'm in digital marketing. I'm busy. I'm currently partnered in a company called Full Sail Marketing and Touch Above Marketing. We do a lot of digital advertising. And I think something that a lot of people don't understand is really the power of LinkedIn and also, like I said, like paid advertising on LinkedIn. There's a stat that came out by, I think it was HubSpot, a couple weeks ago actually that stated that right under 50% of all business-to-business leads are coming through LinkedIn. And I want to say it's about 35, 37% are actually through paid methods of that too. And so, Funny enough, Tyler, we got connected through LinkedIn and here we are. So I thought that was kind of the perfect stat to share with you guys. I mean, it's just so relevant every day.

Yes, and I'll chime in there quick that I tell people, I actually do not personally do paid advertising on LinkedIn, but just from the free ways of connecting with people and optimizing your profile for search and other organic ways on LinkedIn, I think it's way, way underutilized, so I keep telling all the people in my network to hop on in there and start connecting because I think it is a very useful tool as well. Yeah, it's huge, definitely.

I just want to say, if anybody wants to look into more, Social Media Examiner actually does really great pieces on explaining how to properly use LinkedIn, so check that out for sure.

Awesome. Thanks for sharing that. And the next question I have for you, Wayne, is what is your best piece of overall business advice, so not necessarily industry-specific?

Yeah, for sure. So, you know, I'm still super early in my career. I'm only 25 now, and I've already been a part of about a dozen startups. And, you know, the most successful one, we grew to about $10,000 a month. This was when I was still a junior in college, and, you know, right now I have a couple other companies going too that are, I wouldn't consider startups anymore, but the most, you know, crucial piece of advice I would say is to just go for it, right? If someone comes to you with an idea or if you have an idea that sounds fun or sounds interesting, I mean, hit the ground running with it. Like, don't be so caught up in the nitty-gritty or thinking, okay, how is this going to be accepted? Especially early on in life, right? Because you have so much time, first off. You don't actually know which ideas are going to take off, which ones are going to gain traction. And so, you know, I would say try. That's the biggest thing, right? Just try and do. And if you have a cool idea, run with it and, you know, push it until successful.

And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

My younger self, nice. So, I very much consider myself still my younger self, but I think it would be something that, you know, Gary Vaynerchuk pushes to a lot of people, and it's almost to care less about what other people think about you, especially, you know, the people that you don't ever connect with. And social media these days makes Everybody's so almost like scared to post because they're worried about how many likes or comments they're gonna get or if somebody, I mean, who knows, somebody gonna talk trash about you behind the scenes. But when you look at it sort of from an outside perspective, it doesn't really matter. And I mean, the answer most of the time is no, it doesn't. So that's 100% the advice that I give my younger self, the advice that I still give to myself today. Is that really care less about what other people think. And hands down, especially care not at all about, you know, people that don't matter in your life, that don't have an effect. Your friends, your loved ones, they have a little bit of impact. And then, you know, mentors, mentees, people you look up to, care what they think. But other people, nah, doesn't matter at all.

And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?

Key to happiness, I think, is, you know, other than the classic, it's like, do what you love. I think it's super important to surround yourself with people who make you smile and who make you laugh. We've all heard that thing that's like, you know, you're the average of the 5 people you surround yourself with most. And, you know, it's great to grow yourself. And that's That's amazing. But you got to make sure that these people you're surrounding yourself with too are positive people. They're fun-loving people. They're going to make you laugh and have a great time. I think that's the key, right? That's what's going to lead to happiness in the long term.

And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?

Yeah, I thought this was a really great question, Tyler Wagner. So a few months ago, I read a book called Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss. Chris Voss is a long-term FBI negotiator, and so the book is somewhat about negotiating, but what it really boils down to for me is it's about listening. In every situation in life, things happen, like crisis, whatever, just because we're not truly understanding what other people's motives are or what other people are saying. And so, check out Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss and really just pay attention to active listening. You can really figure out what people's true motives are and, you know, why they're saying what they're saying, you can learn a lot and it's gonna help conflicts from ever arising in the first place. And if it does, then you're gonna be able to come up with a solution that's really gonna benefit everybody.

And what is your favorite quote and why?

Oh, my favorite quote and why? Oh man, I forgot about this one. To tell you the truth, I mean, I don't know if I would have to say I have necessarily a favorite quote. People, I guess, who in general I listen to a lot, I mean, man, this is just so hard that I'm trying to think about. I've read so many of Tony Robbins' books.

I listen to Gary Vaynerchuk a ton. It could be like a mantra, like a saying. It doesn't have to be a direct quote.

Not directly. Okay, cool. I mean, I guess kind of my motto that I live by is just work hard and do good, right? It's funny, I guess the law of attraction. Funny enough, first time I heard that, kind of just how I was raised, funny enough. And I just think, you know, you work hard and you do good to other people and you always have, you know, good in your heart. That's kind of right. Those are the sort of the words that I live by. I think it'll, you know, it'll eventually pay off. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but definitely in the long term.

Yes, man. Thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find you online?

Yeah, great. Thanks, Tyler. So again, yeah, my name's Wayne Veltman. I mean, I'm on all social platforms. The easiest to connect with me is definitely just gonna be through LinkedIn. There's not that many Wayne Wagners around, so just search me there. You can find me on Facebook. I have a personal page, professional page, so that'd be great. Reach out anytime. I'd love to help anybody that has a question or business idea or anything like that. Appreciate it, Tyler.

Perfect, man. Appreciate you coming on.

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