#practical application of knowledge that proves to yourself it wasn’t a waste of time

[zeebreezin]

Yknow, I never would’ve suspected that the solution to Shaw’s problem of “Infinite loop of ‘oh I can’t enjoy anything down here in the neath because I’m here for dead serious revenge and I’m causing people suffering by being here’ into ‘If I don’t indulge in hedonistic self destructive escapism and/or obsessive knowledge seeking to escape the circumstances my life I will die’ causing his mental health to break down once every four days” would be.

Become a spymaster?

But it’s sure as hell working. He’s kinda thriving.

[themassculture]

Russia's youngest serial killer

Vladimir Vinnichevsky in many ways, a unique serial killer, and not only in the domestic criminal history, but also the world. It is surprising that such a truly monstrous in its cruelty and at the same time smart and resourceful criminal caught, in General, quite by accident, still remained unknown to the General public. Meanwhile, the story of Vova Vinnichevsky deserves attention.

Volodya, born in 1923, began killing at the age of 15 years. According to his own confession, he committed about 18 attacks on children aged 2-4 years for the purpose of rape, which often ended in death for them. The first victim Vinnichevsky , about which I learned Sverdlovsk law enforcement, became a 4-year-old Hertha Gribanova, raped and murdered in the garden of his house. It is actually a criminal and wasn't kidnapped. It was an extremely audacious attack.

Vinnichevsky not once, not twice kidnapped children literally from the front door or from under the Windows of the apartment where were the parents. This sleight for a long time baffled all knowledgeable about the details of the crimes. After capture Vova explained the method — in search of the potential victim he safely entered private houses and entrances and if adults weren't nearby, then spoke with the child and took away with itself. If there older then Vinnichevsky pretended Komsomolets social worker, they say, "we will have red Friday, we collect scrap metal, I came here to see if you have a scrap of some change?»

Komsomol members collecting scrap metal were a sign of the time. They did not surprise anyone and the legend worked perfectly. Even when the Sverdlovsk knew about the crimes and the unfamiliar man aroused widespread suspicion that the student is bypassing the house supposedly in search of scrap metal, fear is not aroused.

Going with Hertha in the garden, Vinnichevsky attacked the girl and began to choke. After she was quiet, he decided to try something new. The criminal for the first time started up a knife and began to strike blows to the head. Soviet factory knives have always been of disgusting quality, so that on the eighth blow the blade broke off and the tip remained in the head of the victim. The medical examiner suggested using the victim's skull as evidence. In that case, if the killer does not throw a broken knife and the knife is found, it was possible to conduct an examination, proving the application of wounds with this knife, and not any other. The idea seemed attractive, made decapitation, and the body of the relatives were given without the head of the child.

However, this calculation was not justified. Vinnichevsky did not keep a knife with broken blade and threw it out. But in the future I learned a lesson and began to use a screwdriver and a Swiss army knife. The killer actually turned out to be very trained man, and has come up with many elements of the criminal's handwriting, given that in those days there were no movies, thrillers, and good books-detectives were gold.

Vinnichevsky attack not only on girls, he, as a true pedophile, sexual identity of the victim was not fundamental. So, the fifth victim of Vova as he told, there was a boy, however, the militia didn't receive any messages on it. Most likely, the victim survived and relatives wished to hide the incident from law enforcement agencies. The baby, who became the object of the next attack, 4-year-old Borya Titov, also survived. He was the first who was able to report at least some information about the mysterious rapist and his manner of behavior: Vinnichevsky invited the boy to ride him on a sled, brought to the wasteland at the end of the street, where he attacked, and then threw him unconscious in a snowdrift, taking the sled away to ask the search for the wrong direction.

The mutilated body of the seventh victim, 3-year-old Wali p. Lobanova, Vinnichevsky dropped into a pit of feces under the wooden outdoor toilet. Those who have seen such a latrine can easily understand the calculation of the murderer — there is no light and smell. And this stench will mask the smell of rotting flesh. Dropping kids in the sump — another invention, which Vinnichevsky thought of yourself. He will be faithful to him in the future. One of the girls, thrown into the latrine in an unconscious state, survived. 4-year-old Paradise Rahmatulina saved by the fact that the killer was confined to the stifle and is not used edged weapons. Thanks to this, the girl woke up, began to call for help and heard her.

Vinnichevsky lived in the center of Sverdlovsk, but to commit crimes prefer to go to the outskirts of the city. In the spring of 1939 in the forest near the railway / road station, he killed 4-year-old Lida Surin. The guy stabbed her 24 injured with machetes and the body was camouflaged with branches. The girl quickly enough and began to look for. It was already 11 attack Vinnichevsky when local police finally realized that in the city operates a maniac, attacking young children. Therefore, for practicing all the messages about the disappearance of the toddler immediately rushed all available forces. Surin was found quickly, but she was already dead.

Soon investigators realized that the offender had not taken the victims more than a kilometer away from the abduction site, so if you quickly start a search from the point where the child was last seen, then you can manage to find him alive. Thanks to this speed, some of the children were rescued.

In the summer of 1939 the investigation of the crimes committed Bennicassim in Sverdlovsk, were United in one production. To a certain extent confused picture of the variability of the behavior of the killer — as mentioned above, sometimes he strangled victims with his hands, and sometimes resorted to melee weapons, so even with excessive brutality. The offender disguised the bodies of the dead in different ways, chose different places for attacks and did it, as it seemed, without any visible system.

There was no clarity as to who to look for. For example, according to one version, the killer was seriously ill or disabled. Also, everyone was sure that he has a criminal past. And none of the prosecutors and the police, even in a head could not come that they are looking for 15-year-old student who is attending school loitering in the streets of the glorious city of Sverdlovsk and talking about the collection of waste paper and scrap metal.

Perfectly demonstrate criminal experience Vinnichevsky his actions during and after the Commission of the last murder. His victim was 4-year-old Tasia Morozova, whom he took away from home, promising to buy ice cream. The area where this crime took place had virtually no natural shelters — no forest, no shrubs, no ravines, there was not even a lawn, one dull wasteland with miserable individual houses and working dormitories — in General, a working suburb of the Stalin era. The killer raped and killed the girl in the latrine, threw the naked corpse into a fecal pit, and took away her clothes.

Vinnichevsky was not going to Rob the victim, and had nothing to profit from 4-year-old girl. He took the clothes because he knew that the body in the pit of faeces would sink, but the clothes would remain on the surface and could be seen. Therefore, the offender went to the house of the murdered and dumped the clothes, reaching a few tens of meters. His calculation was based on the fact that if the clothes and find that in itself was not obvious, it will look in the house and around it. And to the toilet, remote by more than 300 meters, you look and will not get.

However, the calculation of the offender was not justified. Not least because by October 1939 the tendency Vinnichevsky to heat the bodies of the victims in the cesspools was already well known in the Sverdlovsk militia. However, when Morozov was found, no one knew that this was the last child killed. The investigation had no leads to the killer. Employees of criminal investigation Department "closed" already more than 300 people, and crimes all didn't stop. The militia worked without days off and holidays, the city was flooded with the hidden patrols, but nobody could give a guarantee that they really will help.

Got Vinnichevsky in the end by accident. Returning from patrol cadets of school of militia noticed the guy who left the tram with the small boy on hands. In principle, nothing particularly suspicious Vinnichevsky did — he looked like the older brother of the child whom he held a casual conversation. And alerted the cadets that the teen took the baby to the side of the houses, and to the forest. So we decided to follow. They had time: in the thicket the guy was already choking the child, so the company immediately detained him.

Not to say that the young killer grew up in poverty and deprivation. Of course, the times were scarce, but Vinnichevsky wore leather shoes, sported in a tank helmet, which was then the dream of all the boys, and owned a Swiss penknife — such an artifact did not have a price in the eyes of teenagers. Plus, during the arrest, he was carrying more than 20 rubles, while the adults survived, then, is based less than 10 rubles per day. In General, it is impossible to call the guy miserable and the poor. Vinnichevsky sang well, knew by heart many songs, the most favorite of which was "Heroes of Hasana". In General, a normal member of the Komsomol. Wanted to be a tanker, the songs they sang in the helmet tank went, kids cut and strangled.

In December 1939, when the investigation was nearing completion, Vova's father and mother wrote letters to local Newspapers, asking the Soviet authorities to give their son what he deserved, according to the gravity of what he had done. In those days, it was politically correct and even politically correct to publicly call curses on the heads of fascists, imperialists, Trotskyists, white guards, unrecoverable opportunists and double-dealers, as well as all other external and internal Hydra of the counter-revolution. These letters by the decision of the regional Committee of the CPSU(b) were published, because the political situation required a demonstration of success in the field of strengthening of social law and order. Then these letters were read in court. Since the death penalty for children from the age of 12 was introduced in 1935, January 16, 1940 seventh-grader Volodya Vinnichevsky was sentenced to “the highest measure of social protection”, and soon shot.

victims

[sarcasticgaypotato]

For an interesting prompt: masquerade party. Both chell and Glados attend in masks not recognizing each other until after they've danced and are dumbstruck because they're on hostile ground and why is this person so alluring all of the sudden...

This was all ridiculous. Gladys strongly believed that.She understood the need to get funding for Aperture, she was well aware of the financial situation that Aperture was in.  She wouldn’t have even rolled her eyes too much at a normal black-tie event to look pretty for potential investors.But this? This was absurd.A masquerade, Cave had suggested. It would be perfect, he said. Interesting enough to create buzz, but formal enough to keep up a reputation.  Caroline had, of course, agreed with him.  And Gladys, being a lead scientist, found herself with an invitation.She had argued with Caroline for hours when she first found out, protesting to the idea of being sent out to chat up living sacks of money.  However, to her surprise, Caroline had openly admitted that wasn’t the reason Cave was sending her.  He was there to talk to investors, along with Caroline and a few others. Gladys was there to talk to the other guests.Potential test subjects.  If they seemed like they could be someone that Aperture would want- athletes and olympians being the preferred options- then they got an invitation.  Then, Gladys and the other scientists were to entice them in the same way that Cave intended to do for investors.  Except instead of money, they’d be giving Aperture their bodies.This information had been enough to get Gladys to agree to go, as she was admittedly interested in seeing what test subjects she might get to run through her program.However, as the night of the event was upon her, she was reminded why she had been against this idea in the first place.Gladys liked to know who she was speaking to. She liked having files on near everyone she spoke to so that no matter what, they could not surprise her. She would always be one step ahead, knowing them better than they knew themselves.A masquerade made that incredibly difficult.

She had a limited knowledge of the guests who would be there, but hadn’t been granted access to the full list.  All she was told was where to be, and what her end goal was. How she got there was up to her.With a small huff of annoyance, she stood outside the doors to one of the conference rooms that had been transformed into the ballroom, hand lingering on the door.She could do this. She didn’t like not being able to know these people, but at least they couldn’t know her.Pulling her mask down to rest in place, she opened the door and stepped into the the mass of people, trying not to lose herself to the mindless sound of music and chatter combined.The first couple hours passed without anything of interest. A few glasses of champagne to keep herself sane, a few successful attempts to chat up soon-to-be test subjects with more brawn than brains.  They spoke loudly to let their voices reach over the music, boasting about their athletic accomplishments, and sometimes going so far as introducing themselves- clearly missing the point of a masked event.Gladys treated them all the same: offer them a smile, some well twisted words, and perhaps even a dance, if they looked like they needed extra encouragement.While a promise to see their applications within the next week was certainly satisfying, Gladys hadn’t exactly been having fun.  She didn’t think she was supposed to, but sparing one glance towards where she knew Cave and Caroline to be proved that she might be the only one who thought that way.Her boss seemed to be having the time of his life, and she even noticed Caroline cracking a smile from time to time, or a hint of laughter that was quickly hidden behind her hand.Well good for them, Gladys thought bitterly.  Cave was a social man, and Caroline was seemingly content doing just about anything, so long as Cave wasn’t doing something reckless.Gladys, on the other hand, had higher standards of entertainment. She could be doing science right now.  She could be reviewing the reports that came back on the long-fall boots, or looking over the blueprints on the next prototype for the portal gun. She could be getting so much work done right now, and that would be ten times more interesting than-She was snapped out of her thoughts by the feeling of a pair of eyes on her. That on its own meant nothing- she was well aware of how hungry eyes that followed the lines of her low-cut black dress had been staring at her throughout the evening- but something about this was different.As Gladys brought her gaze up to meet the eyes in question, she found herself almost taken aback.Sharp, silvery grey eyes that seemed to look into her very soul. They held a heat within them that burned with intrigue, a look of awareness and intelligence that Gladys hadn’t expected to see from anyone tonight.The woman was dressed in nice enough clothes, a suit that didn’t look terribly expensive, but molded itself to its wearer’s body incredibly well. Her face was partially covered by a mask that matched the colors of her suit, simply painted with no excess adornments to distract from the simplicity. She was clearly not an investor, as her build alone gave away plenty to Gladys.A lean form, well built and muscled, holding herself high and at the ready with the attentiveness of a soldier, yet with a stance that seemed to radiate independence that didn’t come from someone who had been through the military.If not for the figure’s outstretched hand-presumably waiting to shake her hand- Gladys would’ve forgotten to speak, as her pre-prepared speech for everyone she met suddenly seemed to fail her, and she could hardly remember a word of it.“Good evening. I take it you’ve been enjoying yourself?”A polite nod in response, though Gladys didn’t miss the hint of a shrug that came with it. “Well I’m a scientist here at Aperture Science, and I take it that you must be-”Gladys was cut off mid-sentence.  She had taken the outstretched hand as she spoke, expecting a handshake, yet finding herself very surprised when she realized that the figure held her hand instead, surprisingly gingerly, and gestured to the dancefloor without a word.Well. That was bold.Gladys blinked, before a slow smile crossed her lips.  She liked bold.  Bold was interesting.Slowly, she allowed herself to be pulled into the fray of dancers, only vaguely taking note of the song that was playing, and instead finding herself more focused on the rhythm.Her newfound dance partner wasted no time slipping into position, keeping one of Gladys’s hands held in her own, while her other hand rested comfortably on Gladys’s back.  Not too low, but not too high either.Gladys could feel callouses on the woman’s hands, leaving them slightly rough to the touch, and stark contrast of her own, which were smooth and soft from a lifetime of watching other people do the physical labor. The closer she got, the more she realized how badly she wanted this woman. -As a test subject.  She wanted her as a test subject.She was clearly strong, yet showed no signs of being a complete meathead. She was aware of her surroundings, managing to easily avoid bumping into less talented and more intoxicated dancers, and most of all?  She just seemed to… fit.Something about the stranger just radiated Aperture. Something about her got Gladys practically tingling with excitement at the thought of all the tests she could run with her.  She didn’t feel like the others. She didn’t feel like she’d just give up. She would be the perfect fit… so long as Gladys could actually remember to talk to her and convince her to send in an application.As even when the first song ended, Gladys found that she didn’t try to coax the woman back to the sidelines to start chatting her up, finding the very thought to be so disinteresting that it was brushed away without debate. Instead, as the next song began- slower than the last- she found herself leaning a little closer.What had been somewhat stiff, calculated movements before slowly became more and more loose, as Gladys slowly stopped caring about the act of perfectly pulling off each move, and simply moved to the beat of her partner’s movements.Quicker than she liked to admit, she relaxed into it. Finding that time started to slip through her fingers as the two of them moved through song after song, each time allowing themselves to move closer and closer, to the point where Gladys hardly noticed that she was pressed against her partner’s chest, and that the mysterious stranger’s hand had moved to the small of her back, where it now rested, dangerously shifting in a motion too frequent not to be intentional.  In return, Gladys had allowed her leg to occasionally slip, pressing forward against the stranger. Brief enough to not break the flow of their movements, but distinct enough to make itself known.Gladys knew her cheeks were flushed a dark red at this point, and was genuinely thankful for her mask for keeping that mostly hidden.  Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she remembered why she was here. That now was a good of a time as any to pull this woman aside and rope her into Aperture. Yet, as their fifth song together slowly faded out, she found herself… reluctant.Those grey eyes had been on her this whole time, burning into Gladys and sending a heat that had only grown in intensity as time went on. She hadn’t even noticed that her partner hadn’t said a word this whole time, but she didn’t have to. It was unspoken between them, shared in each moment that their eyes met.Slowly, she leaned in closer, so that her lips were a breath away from the woman’s ear, allowing her to say what she needed to without anyone around them hearing it.“Come with me.”Pulling back just enough to meet the stranger’s gaze, she got her answer.A glimmer of excitement in those silver eyes, followed by the slightest twitch of her lips upwards.Without another word, Gladys lead her off the dancefloor, to the outskirts of the room where she knew she ought to stop and start talking, and then out the door, and down an adjacent hallway.She had been bored earlier, but not now.  Now her heart was hammering in her ears as she pushed this complete stranger- she tried not to think about that part- against the wall of the dark, currently unused hallway, and pressed their lips together.It was hot, messy, and exactly what she had been craving. Perhaps it was the champagne, perhaps it was the fact that it had been so long, but Gladys found her better judgement thrown out the window as she sucked on her partner’s bottom lip, earning a wordless sigh of encouragement, and prompting hands to snake back around her waist, pulling her closer.They broke apart for breath for only a brief moment, neither one of them wishing to do more than gasp for air as quickly as possible before clashing back together, lips and tongues seeming almost violent in how aggressively they were pressed against the other. It was exciting, intoxicating, and… familiar.Gladys brushed the thought aside at first, wanting to focus her full attention on the task at hand, yet it started to nag at her.As those calloused hands tangled themselves in her hair, as those lips- slightly chapped- moved from her lips to her neck, to a very specific spot on her neck, causing Gladys’s back to arch and a soft vocalization to escape her.It was all familiar. Like she had felt this before.She moved her hands away from her partner’s chest- where they had already started to undo the first three buttons- and brought them to the stranger’s face, coaxing her head upwards and away from her neck.  Her fingers slipped underneath the strap of the mask, and in one, swift movement, she pulled the mask off.And promptly after, dropped it to the floor.“You.”The face that greeted her was one that she should’ve recognized sooner. She should’ve known from the moment those eyes met hers.And, judging by the way the stranger’s expression was painted with confusion, Gladys had the feeling that she wasn’t the only one who had failed to recognize an old flame.Or, more accurately, a bitter ex.Pulling herself back, Gladys pulled her own mask off, tossing it to the side with a clatter, and meeting this woman- no, Chell’s- gaze once more, so that she could watch the dawning realization flicker into those silver eyes with no mask to distract them.The heat in the air between them had shifted from a comfortable warmth to something more akin to being burnt alive, as the two of them stared the other down, with only the heaving sounds of their breathing echoing through the hallway.Gladys had thought about this moment for a long time. What she would do if she ever saw Chell’s face in Aperture again.She thought about slapping her, or downright strangling her. Screaming at her, or perhaps leaving her in icy silence.She had not foreseen the surge of heat in her stomach that pushed her forward once more, so that her face was once again only inches away from Chell’s, as she uttered only three words-“I hate you.”- before kissing her again.

[topicprinter]

Hey guys,My name is Haydon and I run a mildly successful digital marketing agency ($30K MRR). I thought I would try to give back some value to Reddit as it's helped me a lot in my own journey over the years. I don't have all the answers, but I hope this can help a few people. This is for everyone who is interested in starting a digital marketing agency.This is mainly from my viewpoint as Director of Paid SearchIf you have any questions for me or you want me to cover another topic, please comment below. Let's try to keep the conversation in this thread so everyone can benefit from the questions / answers.Are You Sure?The most important thing is making sure you really want to be in this business. The internet will tell you it's sexy. You can get rich quick. There isn't any work involved. Well, that's total bullshit. To be honest, this industry SUCKS! It's an insane amount of work, clients are mostly terrible, and every day you will have to deal with 10 different problems. You will regret starting this business and often you will want to quit. You will need to be sure this is the business for you to even survive.If you're passionate about helping small businesses and passionate about marketing / advertising, then you might seriously consider this career path. But if you don't love it, keep looking for the right business for you. This will take 5 - 10 years (or more) of your life. I didn't think about this when I was starting out because I thought I would fail. Looking back it's really important to start a business doing what you love because this will become most of your life. Don't do it for the money, do it for your passion. If you work hard and don't give up, you can be successful at anything you do.About My JourneyWhen I graduated from University with a marketing degree, the only things that interested me were Google AdWords and Advertising (thanks Mad Men). I applied at a bunch of marketing agencies but no one would hire me.I ended up taking a job selling email marketing software over the phone. It was a terrible job but I learned how sales worked. I always told myself I would try to become an entrepreneur, but first I needed to invest in myself by learning the skills I would need to be a successful entrepreneur. I learned sales, how to work with business owners, how to talk to business owners, what they were looking for, what they needed help with, and how to pitch them my services (at the time email marketing software). Don't be afraid to spend a few years working and learning.I burnt out quickly at that job and I was basically at rock bottom. I personally felt terrible and was dealing with a lot of negative emotions. Eventually I quit because I just couldn't do it anymore. I cared too much about the small businesses and not enough about hard closing them. Fuck me, right?After that job, I spent 6 months unemployed just racking up credit card debt. I actually tried to start my own business selling a silly product on Etsy. It was a fun learning experience but I ultimately failed. I did learn a lot about keyword research though.Then I got serious about getting into a digital marketing agency again and I started applying to every digital marketing agency in Colorado. Even if they didn't have open positions on their website, I would submit a contact form or email them.A few agencies interviewed me, but I never got the job. At that point I knew digital marketing was what I wanted to do, so I just kept hammering out resumes and applications. I had to apply a few times to an agency in Denver, but they finally interviewed me. It went well and soon after they offered me a job as a PPC Specialist. On Friday they asked "When can you start?" I said I would see them Monday morning baby! I was really excited and even though I took a pay cut, it was worth it for the experience. I had actually gotten 2 job offers that same day but I picked the bigger agency. When it rains, it pours. Just keep going.I became the expert by learning from my boss (who had been doing PPC since AdWords launched) and by obsessively consuming FREE information on the internet. I worked hard, stayed late, and tried to soak up as much knowledge as I could. My boss taught me everything I needed to know, and for that I will always be thankful. 100% I would not have been successful without his help. I got experience working on tons of different accounts in a bunch of different industries. I tried to learn everything I could about PPC. I had the opportunity to work on massive accounts, and I was good at it.That agency had a lot of internal issues so I didn't spend long there (maybe 1 - 2 years), but they taught me everything I needed to know to start moonlighting / freelancing. I helped build their PPC agency up to become a Google Premier Partner and then I headed out. I worked for another year managing all the PPC for an Australian marketing agency. I rebuilt and managed all their PPC accounts, soon they were a Google Premier Partner too! At that point, I was comfortable with my skills and I was confident I knew what I was doing.Starting My AgencyWhen I started out I was broke, I had just quit my job at the agency, and I thought I was destined to fail. I had to move from Denver where I had lived for 10 years because I couldn't afford the expensive rent without a job. All I had was a dream of being an entrepreneur and the hope that I could do it better than the agencies where I had worked. I accepted that my chances of failure were very high, but I wanted to give it a shot. During this time period, I was so convinced I would fail and have to get another job. But hey, that wouldn't be that difficult now that I was experienced in PPC. I knew I could get a job at an agency anywhere.I had some freelance gigs, so I was already working with a few small clients when I started. I initially got a bit of work from business Facebook groups. I would help audit their PPC accounts for free and it turned into a handful of small clients. I still get referrals from this initial work. By proving value upfront, you can prove to people that you're legit and you're the expert. Most people running AdWords are wasting a ton of money, they just don't know it. After you put together an audit showing their mistakes and how you can improve performance, it's a natural transition into them hiring you to manage their account.At this point, I still didn't have a website, logo, or a business name. I wasn't even a legit LLC yet (shhhhh). That all came much later.I also applied to every UpWork gig I could find and searched Craigslist for anyone who needed help with their marketing. We actually found a great client from Craigslist that I believe was our first client. Still with us to this day.Make no mistake, this business is difficult. Getting an agency off the ground will take blood, sweat, and tears. When I started off, I regularly worked at least 80 hours per week for very low pay. Weekends didn't exist. These days I have a few people helping me, so it's not as bad. I probably work closer to 40 hours per week now. I definitely work less but I'm still doing business related things pretty much 24/7.Becoming The ExpertWith digital marketing, you are really selling your knowledge and time / work to clients. If you don't know what you are doing (95% of digital marketing agencies), you are going to have a really difficult and stressful time in this business. Without a doubt, the only reason I've been successful with my agency is because I know more than other agencies. I can do better work for clients. That's the only way to succeed long term. If you can't make your clients money and grow their business, you're dead in the water.Getting Hired at a Digital Marketing AgencyThe best thing you can do to get hired at a digital marketing agency is prove to them your interest and passion. Start by passing the Google Ads Certifications in the Skillshop. At least get your Search Fundamentals certification, this will help get you ahead of most applicants. Try to learn the basics so that you have a leg up on other applicants and you can nail the interview.This was my path and I attribute a lot of my success to having worked at a few agencies before I went out on my own. If you try to skip this step, it will take much longer to be successful. Not only did I learn PPC and SEO, I also learned how an agency works and how to manage an agency. I learned almost everything I know working in agencies, I think of it as valuable schooling. Would you go to a dentist that skipped dental school, started his own practice right away, and hopes to just figure it out as he goes along?Sometimes I wish I had never started my own digital marketing agency and that I just had a great job in someone else's agency. It's more fun, less stressful, and you get to relax at 5PM and on weekends. Starting with a job at another agency will help you feel this out and make this decision for yourself. Do you want to work in digital marketing or start your own agency?Freelancing / MoonlightingAfter you get a job at a digital marketing agency, you'll learn the skills needed to start freelancing / moonlighting. It's a great way to earn some extra cash, get more experience, build your network, and start getting clients of your own. When I left the agency I was working at, I had already lined up a freelance position with an Australian marketing agency. I also had been freelancing for a few different small clients that helped keep me afloat without a full time job.Starting Your Digital Marketing AgencyIf you know what your doing and you're confident in your experience and abilities, then you can start your own digital marketing agency. There is really no barrier to entry to starting an agency. You can hop on a freelance website and start applying to jobs right away. Hopefully you've been freelancing / moonlighting so that you have a bit of revenue coming in before you quit your job.Don't Waste TimeFocus on getting clients and doing great work, try not to get distracted with time wasters like your business name, logo, website, or even setting up an LLC / EIN. You can do all of that later. When I got started, I didn't have ANY of those things. I see a lot of people get stuck at this point. They worry about their logo, their business name, or screw around building their website before they even have clients.Niche DownIf you're coming into digital marketing with experience in another industry. Use that knowledge as an asset. If you were an insurance salesman, then you know the insurance industry well. That's an asset and will help set you apart from other agencies. Focus on that niche and do Digital Marketing for Insurance Agents. The more experience you have in an industry, the more clients will want to work with you.Now I don't exactly follow this advice, but that's because I have a ton of experience in almost every industry. That allows me to work with many different clients across industries because I have that knowledge and experience. Although it's important to note, working in the same industry is MUCH easier. What works for a dentist in Denver, will pretty much work for a dentist in Miami.What Services Should You Offer?Play to your strengths. If you know email marketing, then focus on email marketing. If you know SEO, focus on SEO. Don't try to offer a service you don't know, it will just be a nightmare.I mainly offer my clients AdWords / PPC, SEO, Facebook Ads, and Website Development. In my opinion, that's a pretty basic marketing stack for an agency. You can niche down to only offering 1 service and still be successful.I know the services I offer very well. I believe they are all critical to a client's long term success. Managing multiple channels for them makes it easy to ensure they are successful. However, the services I offer are also the most competitive.You might consider starting an agency in other popular areas like: * Email MarketingContent MarketingOrganic SocialDesign, BrandingLanding Page DevelopmentVideo MarketingConversion Rate Optimization (CRO)If you only manage 1 service, it can be less stressful because they are not dependant on you. If you manage multiple services, their business often depends on you and your performance. Don't fuck up.Getting Your First ClientsI got my first clients by offering value for free upfront. I offered business owners a Free PPC Audit (I still do this) so I could show them they were wasting money and that I could help them improve performance.99% of AdWords accounts I've looked at over the years had MASSIVE mistakes and it was costing these businesses thousands of dollars. Many times I'd audit an account and find they wasted $10k in the last year just because they didn't know any better. Ouch.When I first started I got my initial clients from:Business Facebook GroupsCraigslistUpWork (kinda shitty now, mostly clueless agencies looking for someone to do their work)ReferralsRedditNetworkingPicking The Right ClientsIf you want to save yourself a lot of anxiety, stress, and problems... pick the right clients! It took me a few years to learn this lesson. You need to figure out who your ideal client is and only work with those people. My ideal client is someone who has a website, needs leads / calls, knows the value of digital marketing, and wants to hire someone to take care of it all for them. Red flags for me are when a client wants to be involved or wants to manage it themselves. One rule that I've learned... in this business the client is always wrong! You have to be the expert for them and many times you have to explain to them why their ideas are not going to work.Why keep a dog and bark yourself? - OgilvyIf a client is stressing you out, fire them immediately. Managing stress and anxiety is a big part of managing an agency. Bad clients lead to burnout and can take down your entire agency. Seriously, don't be afraid of firing clients.PricingThere are a few different pricing models. The two main options are:% of Ad SpendFlat FeeMy agency charges 25% of Ad Spend ($375 minimum) as our management fee to take care of everything. The fee goes down as Ad Spend goes up to $5k / $10k / $15k / etc. Some people don't like this model, I do. Some clients don't like this model, but they just don't understand it. With % of ad spend pricing, we make more when our clients spend more. BUT they only spend more when it's working well. No one is going to increase their budget if they aren't making money. In that way, our incentives are aligned. It also helps cover our time investment and allows us to focus more on the client as the account scales up. I’ve been told my pricing is too cheap by a lot of people, so keep that in mind as well. I don’t have it all figured out. I think a lot of people start with really low pricing (I started at $250) and then as you have more clients, you can raise your prices.I would caution against doing Pay Per Lead and even Hourly Billing. I've done those before and it was great... for me. The client ends up paying a lot more money. You can run into problems where the client owes you way more money than they expected and it usually results in you losing the client.Doing Great WorkThis is the only way you will be successful. If you want to build a real digital marketing agency, you have to be the expert at what you do and you have to do great work. There is no other way.Say what you will about Jeff Bezos, but he / Amazon have been successful because they focus on doing great work. No one can compete with the incredible convenience Amazon offers. If you want to have a successful digital marketing agency, you must do the best possible work so that no one can compete with you. If you don't do good work, someone like me will audit your account, show your client, and eat your lunch.Courses / Mentors / CoachesYou might be waiting for me to drop a link to my $5000 course that shows you how to do all this, but ya ain't gonna find it. Fuck those people. Most of them have never actually built a successful agency. You buy their course and they teach you to sell courses. Most of those guys are unethical, predatory, and in many cases what they are doing is straight up illegal.Do yourself a favor and just save your money. You don't need those guys at all. The information you need is available for free on the internet. All the course guys do is curate content that's available for free. The allure of these courses / gurus is that they pitch the new age Get Rich Quick Scheme by making false promises. "Buy my $5,000 course and start a digital marketing agency making $10,000/month." Seems like a no brainer, right? Wrong AF. There are no shortcuts. Most of these guys have very limited knowledge on how to do anything but sell courses to gullible people.It takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at what you do. There are no shortcuts for experience and knowledge. You can't buy an expensive course to get around this.This isn't super related but a good thing to keep in mind. Don't be so quick to elevate other people above yourself. They don't have it all figured out either. They are just like you. No one has all the answers, be especially wary when they say they do.Scarcity Mindset / Why I'm Posting ThisMany people have helped me over the years. I've learned a lot from other people's FREE content. This is a part of my contribution. If this helped you, I hope one day you can also turn around and help other people. Don't fall into the trap of the Scarcity Mindset. The truth is there are more clients than we could ever work with. There's a lot of agencies out there now that are practically begging you to eat their lunch.The Future of My AgencyI recently learned about the book EOS / Entrepreneurial Operating System and it's helped me plan out the growth of my agency. I recommend you check it out once you've started your own business. Below are a few things it helped me put together.Core ValuesDo the right thingBe honest / transparentNever stop learningDo great workThink it throughStay positive / have fun1 Year PlanFor 2020, my main goal is to hit $60K MRR with 80 clients at around $750 MRR each.To scale up to this level, I'll need to: * set up our first officehire 2-3 peoplebetter document our processeshammer out our exact packages and what they includeworking with larger clientsoffering clients at least 2 servicesfind a few large clientsimprove our automation3 Year PlanMy goal for the next 3 years is to build my agency to $250K MRR with 150 clients at around $1500 MRR each.This will mean: * building out my teamsoffering more services to clientshiring managersfinding bigger clients ($100k+)solidifying training / processesautomating as much as possiblestepping away from day to day account management10 Year Target500 clients and $1,000,000 MRRSoftware / ToolsHere are most of the software / tools we use in the agency. Many are available for free. Most are really affordable. * Asana (task management)Slack (team communications)Freshbooks (automated recurring billing)G Suite (Drive, Sheets, Docs, Gmail, etc)Google Data Studio (reporting)AHREFS (SEO)Moz (SEO)CallRail (call tracking / reporting)Unbounce (landing page development)WordPress (web dev)Elementor (web dev)Photoshop (design / ad creative)Google Web Designer (HTML5 banner ads)AdWords Editor (AdWords management)That's all I've got for now. If you want to know something else, comment below and I'll try to answer. If you want me to talk about another area of marketing, let me know and I can try to put together some content.I don't put together content very often, but it's something I want to do more of. So if you have any feedback / comments / advice for me on writing content, please leave a comment below.Thanks for reading and good luck!Haydon

[heidigital-blog]

Inspirational People

Aida Hubanic

Monday morning at Laurea Otaniemi started out with an inspirational and emotional presentation of Aida Hubanic and her life story all the way from Sarajevo. It was all about world of marketing and technology and “unshakable possibilities and self-management”. She had participated in this revolutionary Game Jam and won the 1st prize, an awarded trip to Barcelona, via educational games application idea! Her idea, Hungry cells, to help children to make healthier choices in life via virtual games, was interesting and really uplifted her uniqueness to create games, even though she stated that this is not an area she is actually interested at all. Talk about stepping away from comfort zones! I do agree with her mindset, how using bloggers is nowadays an effective way of marketing or promoting things and how developing an idea into potentially innovative solution around specific themes are truly what creative business is all about. I remember our self-management virtual course last semester, it was filled with very beneficial links and inspirational reading which I think Aida’s story would fit perfectly. Without a doubt one of the best courses I have taken in Laurea, for I love independent reading and writing. Self-management is important, that was something that her presentation was giving answers to.

There was one Powerpoint slide about motivational killers; negative mind set and comparing yourself to others, these are in my opinion the most common ones. When Aida talked about brainstorming, I also came to think of great memories from our project to Citycon where teams gathered together to find some useful, innovative ideas and even the sky wasn’t the limit to the creativeness shared in the class. The importance of great pitching is also a talent that one can practice to master. I was overwhelmed with happiness when me and my fellow classmate Oliver won the best pitch of one of our teamwork project; before this successful three minutes’ performance  I thought we had enough material for a gag reel, but that was obviously essential, to be able to perform a quality show in a strict schedule. Turns out if Aida Hubanic is an inspiration seeker, she has all the potential in the world of being an inspiration herself, so many thoughts raised during her presentation.

Here’s a link to her story told by APU magazine.

Sani Leino

On Wednesday, me and my fellow classmates attended Easyfairs Shop eCommerce 2017 trade and it was all about networking and learning. We were in a bit hurry to get to listen one of the best Finnish performers, Sani Leino, Sales and Marketing specialist from ThingLink, talking about “Chats, Social Media and VR – the marketplace for the future”. He talked about how the chat-like social medias will be on the rise the fastest (e.g. We Chat in Asia), how 83% of the information shared online is eventually private and introduced us an application called Franz. I installed it and oh, how much easier my SoMe usage has become. I use chats (WhatsApp and Messenger) quite a lot myself, it’s so easy via the internet connection instead of just regular messages. Sani made it clear that Artificial Intelligence and bots will be hot topic in the future businesses, as they already are. For example, an eService called KIKKA from Lassila&Tikanoja helps customers to decide where to put their waste, if hesitating. Awesome way of bringing the service straight to customers when in need. KLM on the other hand is taking things to a whole other level when it’s now possible to have your flight tickets and check-in done in Messenger. I have only experienced chatting with Norwegian staff online, and for a moment it felt surreal, that if I have any questions about my flights or anything, there’s an actual person online to answer to me right away.

A great example also was Lemonade, insurance company, that will give you the insurance money in 3 minutes’ time, after you send a video call in their application to tell what’s wrong. It’s so common to break your phone’s screen that OP Pohjola for example doesn’t even require too much to prove that to be true. Tiitus – The tinder-like way for finding a job was also presented, very informative description of their services and I instantly linked other tinder-like applications in my mind to get a better picture. For example, Finnish innovative application called IVALO, is about swiping left and right for Finnish clothing and accessories. I had the opportunity to talk to the creators in Slush and they have found a perfect solution for all the shop-a-holics out there, also supporting local small companies to stand up even greater. Their next goal is to conquer the Spanish markets, best of luck with their assertive business development!

Leino made great explanations of AR, VR and mixed reality definitions and their importance. Voice controlled effective working and how the world around you will turn into user interface were really interesting! Future teaching possibilities in schools and universities are endless if you take a look at the AR glasses only. For medical students around the world to be able to study in a whole other level or for the history teacher to re-create historical platforms for students, or in the court room to have the possibility to see the evidence and the actions take place, to add 1 + 1 in a case with multiple stories that differ. Of course, there was a small sample of an option that ThingLink offers; if you have taken a 360-photo and 10minutes time, you are capable of creating your own online shop. A small shoutout for Mr. Leino’s new book, “Viiden tähden asiakaskokemus” (A five-star customer experience) that will definitely be something to seek inspiration from when available in stores, especially if the ultimate customer service is something one graves to master.

Here is a link to Medium, find out more about digital marketing and social media trends

Here is a short video of whale hologram to represent the Augmented Reality Leino had a screenshot of in his presentation.

Jonas Heinonen & Tom Backman

These performers (CEO and co-founder) were presenting us Boomerang distribution company. This was very informative for our project for SSM/Lisäduuni is kind of alike. Boomerang is a distribution company, that takes care of the import, customers and warehousing to name a few. They have spread their business around Nordic countries all the way to European and US markets, based in Tallinn. Their statistics stated that the US has the largest number of customers, following Sweden, South-Korea etc. Their aim is to cut the number of manual points and via Unifaun it is possible to bind it all together. Notable customers they have are are BlackEye clip-on optical lens, Swedish fashion company and Nelly.com (3 million return items per year gets through) and Sudio-named high end electronics company. Boomerang connects distribution route daily from Tallinn to Helsinki. B2B and B2C play a vital role in this simple, yet clever company.

Not to blow pass my love for food, I decided to check the Fastfood & Café area as well. It was easy to attend, since I was in the company of my male classmates who also happen to be fond of food;)

Me and fellow digital bloggers (Ilari and Ville) sharing some tastings:

Me and other notable digibloggers, Joel and Sten, exploring Messukeskus

Kateline Porritt & Tuure Parkkinen

These performances are related to digital business in the matter of digitalization as a hot potato also in the restaurant business. Kateline Porritt is a Food and Beverage Trends Writer for thefoodpeople, who talked about the trends occurring in restaurant business. “In a world of increasing overload of information and rapidly changing and demanding consumer behaviors & attitudes it’s increasingly complex to stay relevant to today’s customer.” According to a little research on my own, there will be: more delivery services and high-tech cooking equipment, increasing popularity of probiotics and minerals, vivid colors (matcha buns, algae lattes, black bread!) and exotic flavors all around, more importance on food delivery access, embracing the plant based and vegan eating, non-alcoholic offering and reusing food waste to create new dishes.

The last one brings me to Tuure Parkkinen, CEO and Founder of ResQ Club Oy. It is an application that allows you to purchase and pick up food from listed restaurants and cafés near you, in ridiculously low prices after lunch hour. I have installed it and it has been the savior for many hungry evenings. Edible food does not end up in trash and all due to technology, I get a low-price quality food to go! Fantastic! Besides these two notable performances, there were numerous of stands that we visited and tasted their delicious foods and beverages. My favorite restaurateur Richard McCormick was also performing but I was at the eCommerce stage, too bad!

This is a screen capture of the application Resque Club.

The thing that caught my eye was the Touch & Collect -option in the Easyfairs entrance pass. I managed to gather all the info from my day just touching the reader sign in my pass, green light is on and one can hear a “beep”. After the fair, I got an email about all the interesting companies, that I clicked my pass by. Talk about digiservices!

After the eCommerce fair I went to Hard Rock Café to an event called “Somedrinkit” and spent 2 hours socializing and networking with the legal field experts. I attended the Legal Design Summit few months ago, and this was great continuance for broadening my knowledge in the future of combining design and legal matter.

Next week I will be attending Helsinki Megaspeaker Event, where I’m looking forward to meet JT Foxx, an entrepreneur who’s newest passion is his work with various children’s hospitals. Very much into charity work myself, ready to get inspired! I’m going to end my blog with a quote from him; “--Everything in life happens because you took action.--”