Do you think it'd be impossible to start a digital marketing agency at 62 and thrive?
Well, I got news for you. I've done it and I'm gonna share my story with you right now.
My name is Charles Davis. I'm a certified brand strategist. I had 30 years in digital marketing and IT and at the age of 62, I had lost everything.
I went into the hospital, I spent 90 days in the hospital. I lost my apartment building, I lost my home and had to start my life all over again from scratch. I applied for my social security and I thought, well, fine, this was the end of my life. However, I came into another idea. So how can I rebuild my life? So
I had become a part of a nonprofit agency that worked with people trying to recover. It took me a couple of years, but I started donating my time doing service work for this nonprofit. I did it for at the neighborhood level, then I did it at the city level. However, as a result of me demonstrating my skills, someone asked me, and I'm gonna tell you just the way it is, they were having a problem with their laptop and asked if I could help them. I said, sure, I can. I got the laptop.
And it was a real simple problem. I told him, order this part from Dell. When it comes in here, you just take this screw loose and plug it back in. He said, thank you. said, He said, do you want me to pay you? I said, no, that's cool. That wasn't no big deal. Then he said, well, my wife got a problem with her computer. Can you help her too? I said, sure. I go by their house. And I straighten out the fact that she had a problem with a desktop. Then.
She paid me for that. And then she said she was having a problem with her business and her website. And she said, could I help her with that? That's right up my alley. I've been in IT since 1978. I helped implement the internet and all of that. So now I take over and I redesign her website.
Rebrand my digital marketing company, which at that time it was a web design company. That's all it was. It was something laying back. I had just started back in 2003 when the internet crashed and all that stuff. So then I started getting more clients. This is in Milwaukee as part of this, donating my time. There was a huge need for people at that level.
And the fact that I had did hers, people got aware of what I was capable of. Then the next thing I know, that's like, okay, how do I restart my digital marketing company? Because now I'm going through what they call a rebrand. So I start, I take a rebranding course on the internet. I go to Neil Patel after I rebuilt all of my online reputation. They check it out and they tell me they can't help me.
Neil Patel is the biggest marketing company in America. They have international sites and they said I was doing everything perfectly and they just continue to doing what I was doing. So I did. The next thing I know somebody's contacted me to run their political campaign.
This thing took off in the direction I'd expected, political campaign. But I have the skills to do the social media marketing. No big deal. However, I had also learned how to do personal branding. How to personal brand an individual so that they'll be attractive and how to present them on the internet. I took that client, do his digital marketing campaign.
And as a result of that,
Somebody that was on his political campaign needed an e-commerce website, they hired me for that. The next thing I know, the guy that hired me for his political campaign, he had gotten his MBA and he was doing AODA certification training in addition to teaching at the University of Wisconsin. He hired me to develop that website for him.
This is just taking on a life of its own. Once it was out there, once I applied these skills, my natural skills and ability and start rebuilding my business and my personal brand, this thing started to take off and take on a life of its own.
As the result of all of that exposure.
My client, who was at that time was working for the city of Milwaukee, made me aware of another nonprofit that was looking for somebody with my skillset. He told me to apply for it, I could get it. And I did. And I got it. I landed a $50,000 a year assignment.
As the result of rebuilding my digital marketing agency. Now I took a lot of classes, a lot of courses in the course of that storytelling, personal branding. But then when I was at the corporate nonprofit, that was a big one. They had lost their reputation. They had shut down during COVID and they needed somebody to rebuild the entire online reputation. This is a big deal.
This is a really big deal. I'm having to rebuild the online reputation from scratch.
So I'm applying all of my skills, all of them. While I'm there, though, I'm studying other ways of applying my talent. And I came across Chris Doe and Marty Neumeier on YouTube. And they were talking about what is branding. This is on a corporate level now. We just we didn't step beyond personal branding. And now
I'm into corporate branding. Little did I know that I had a personal experience in corporate branding. Real early in my career, real early in my career, I was a part of the International Harvester to Navistar Star Rebrand, who just rebranded again to Navistar Star International. I have been a part of that really early in my career.
It was absolutely fabulous. They were rebranding the company. The internet was hitting the business world. Personal computers connected to connectivity, decentralization. I was in the thick of it all. I was in heaven because I am a techie at heart. And so that's how it's got me to this part where I'm at today.
Right now, I'm sitting in Cebu, Philippines. developing my digital marketing agency as an international company. I had a client in Australia. I took him through personal branding. He ended up getting invited to the Forbes Business Council. These are invitation only positions. And that first client who started with his MBA, opened up his training center, I was shocked.
He contacted me one day from the skybox at the Milwaukee Bucks games during the playoffs. He had been invited and they were courting him for a CEO position. That's what people need to understand how important personal branding is. Those high profile positions, they are not advertised. They are scouted for.
And that is the importance of your personal brand and your personal brand reputation. And I have a course called Marketing Mavericks, which helps you be a brand of one. If you want to take the course or have me coach you, you'll see the description and the link in my description. And click like and click share. Thank you for watching.
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