We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dominic De Souza. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dominic below.

Dominic, appreciate you joining us today. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today.

I would work harder to involve friends, or find a partner, brainstorm more boldly to do remarkable things, and identify a clearer product. The challenge is that you need 3 years to figure out market fit, but those three things help to launch faster without waiting for credibility, permission, or income.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I work fulltime as a marketing strategist and brand designer, and host several side projects to let off creative steam. My dayjob is director of marketing for a nonprofit, and my hobbies include writing novels, creating podcasts, and corralling communities of fascinating people together so that we can create freedom for ourselves.

The edge that I bring is an ability to identify the story, the characters, and the possible quests that their brand is on. Applying the skills of novel writing and plot development to branding turned out to be a superpower, and one that naturally leads to a lot of strategy. Since I’ve freelanced and scaled my own hobbies alongside my dayjobs, I’ve also learned how to make decisions and ship things quickly. This has saved me from getting bogged down in ideation. i can see both sides of an equation – the high level brainstorming, and the tacticals that get it all done, and I’m told that’s a rare combo that’s served me well.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Outreach with a plan. I hate cold calls and pitching strangers. So I tried to lean into my own strengths, such as podcasting and conversations, and launched shows. This way I could cold pitch people with a gift. Especially during Covid, this was a very valuable way to make new friends and contacts. I would try to create a compelling show, but the real focus was the 10 minutes after each show where I would try to build a friendship, and ask them how I could help them further. That has led to a host of referrals, and a reputation of positivity, helpfullness, and insights gleaned from a thousand conversations.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

‘This is Marketing’ by Seth Godin, and his other books, have been a massive help. ‘Marketing: A Love Letter’ and ‘StoryBrand’ reoriented me away from marketing as spam, toward marketing as a shared quest, and an invitation to adventure.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dominicdesouza.com