In this Truelogic DX Podcast episode, we explore TD Consulting PH founder and industry expert, Dennis De Silva, a.k.a Tser Dennis’ journey from a graduate of business management and accountancy to becoming a successful digital marketer and renowned writer. He also shares his expertise on content marketing and the latest changes in the digital marketing landscape and how he has adapted his strategies to stay ahead of the curve.

Career Journey: From Business Management to Digital Marketing

Berns San Juan: So let’s talk career. You graduated, what was it? Oh ‘02, ‘01?

Dennis de Silva: Yes. Actually, I have two degrees the first one was in business management. So I was a graduate of the College of St. Benilde back in 2002, and then after that, so I worked for a real estate business for several months only. And then I decided to go back to school and study accounting. So that was like around from 2003 up to 2006.

Berns San Juan: So I’m curious, it sounds like they made you go through the whole accountancy course again. Normally when you’ve got a degree, don’t you just add on like, the years of the majors?

Dennis De Silva: So what happened was, there you go. So I wasted, well, not wasted. I enjoyed those four years, but then I was able to maximize it. Of course, there were realizations about it. Of course, education, you can never go wrong with education. But then I wasted it. So I have decided, hey, wait, I want to start from scratch somewhere. And then I wanted to take up accountancy first because something like, I wanted to prove something to myself. My father at that time was an accountant, but then at that time, I had a marketing job in real estate. Although several months, but then somehow I wanted an intersection of, you know, business and marketing.

But I decided to take up instead of an MBA. I took up accounting. So I had, in short, going back to your question, it should have been two more years left. But then at that time, my accounting grades, always a business degree, and my accounting grades were not so satisfying for schools offering secondary degree programs to accommodate me.

Berns San Juan: But it’s a pretty odd origin. So how does a business management turned accountant become a content writer, become a digital marketer? Like how did that get started?

Dennis de Silva: Okay, so I started with LinkedIn in 2009. At that time, LinkedIn was not interactive. No. It’s more like an online resume. It’s like a lottery ticket waiting for recruiters, the usual waiting for recruiters to pick up your name to drop by your profile, and then there you go. You’re just waiting for calls. That’s it.

And then there was a time that LinkedIn bought a platform partner, like a blogging platform. So I think it was named Pulse back then. I am not sure what year it was. So we started. “Why not?” I wanted to write something because when I took my second degree, I was into writing everyone knows how to write. But of course, you writing about anything, just to put your thoughts out there, because I’m an introspective person based on the gala, 2.0 strengths finder test I took. So I need to write it down.

So just to validate that point. So there, I maximize the platform until 2019. I saw this, you know, insight tracker, Hey, wait, so no likes, no shares, but I see the views. So there are so many people reading the content or viewing the content even if there are no likes, but someone’s reading it, so why not I build it on? And I didn’t know really what I was doing. I just wanted to put my thoughts out there, document them, and then surprisingly, I have created a career out of that. So that’s a story about why I was into content writing. So it evolved. So through LinkedIn, I just share my thoughts. I noticed that people were approaching me not just for a job, but more for kicks, “Hey, do you want to speak for us? Hey, do you want me to feature your article?” So, it evolved. So I noticed a lot of opportunities through that. So 2018, 19 onwards, that is how it started.

Berns San Juan: So, but you know, a couple of gigs don’t necessarily mean digital becomes the career decision. No. Do you remember the point in time when you thought, oh, you know what, this is for me? Like this is career material. Was it, what did you get to a point in time where you felt like you had to make a deliberate decision? I want to impact a digital community. Like was it a deliberate decision?

Dennis de Silva: It was not a deliberate decision. As I’ve said, I didn’t know what I was doing. I thought that you know, being like a social media manager was like a functional, social media manager posting content is, that’s digital marketing. That’s online marketing but sits deeper than that. So it came along the way when, you know, people started going to me, trying me out. Like, let’s say let’s do this for three months, and then let’s see what happens. So it’s more than content posting, to be honest with you. As I’ve said, it’s more than writing. So I will recall this write-up. I think it’s coming from the Rich Dad, Poor Dad, the best-selling versus the best technical writers thing. I think he brought that up. So those things, so whatever converts into something.

Berns San Juan: And so at what point then in your journey did you start looking in a mirror and where you started seeing a digital marketer? Like at what point did you start identifying with that terminology?

Dennis de Silva: When I started writing, monetizing my writeups. So it all started, full bloom when I started, going all in for medium, medium.com. There’s a paywall in Medium. So I started about writing, you know, at that time it was locked down, it was pandemic, you know, 2019. And then the pandemic came. Okay. So I was just curious about, okay, I’ll push out many contain Jarvis or Jasper was not yet around open AI was not around. I’ll just learn the patterns of doing.

Berns San Juan: Pre-pandemic. What kind of projects would you have taken on, like before the pandemic? What kind of businesses did you wind up working with? What kind of projects did you wind up taking on? What part of digital were you working on before the lockdowns?

Dennis de Silva: So by starting writing articles, it evolved, right? So businesses were approaching me if I can help them with the SEO, you know, they’re vying for their searchability.

And of course, what I did, it’s more of freely saying yes without knowing what I know about the search engine results, but I don’t know how to get there. I thought it was more like a one-shot approach, as long as I use the keywords and that’s it, but, but it’s more than that. So that evolved, you know? So I started researching using Ahrefs, using those tools. It’s a long game. So I’ve learned that it’s a long game, well quick win, and I, it’s more free looking at the low keywords, but there are still people searching for those low keyword, so it’s more freely, you know, accepting projects and, you know, learning from there.

So there, another thing is more like, leads in terms of advertisement. So in terms of, of course, I need to leverage, as I’ve said. I’m more of a content writer, but it’s more of really, I don’t need to know them all, the technicalities of the advertisement. It’s more about understanding the context of each and how each platform works. And then I would leverage with other partners. So, I’m like the account manager when I face people, you know. Fly as if they would want to see how they would, you know, whatever their objective is, whether it’s about gaining attention or interest or, you know, it’s more of really getting leads, or hot leads and converting sales.

Demand of Content Marketing during the Pandemic

Berns San Juan: Did you notice any difference in your prod? Like what was the demand like? Like, let’s say when Covid hit, I would’ve assumed that digital should have gained a pretty hot demand during the lockdown, although of course people were slashing their marketing budgets at the same time. How did you find the demand environment from 2019 or like, just post lockdown March 15th, 16, 2020?

Dennis de Silva: Back then in the pandemic, Well, people were more freely having issues with their cash flow at least for in, on my end. Well, in general, yes. So they’re trying to work on to sustain their business. Of course, they have operational expenses to sustain. So somehow, you know, it’s more of losing clients at that time. It was a hard time. And I believe, that speaks for all, you know, so it’s more freely, you know, how do I sustain. So that’s a challenge for most and myself also, during the pandemic.

Back in 2021. So it’s like, you know, the first 16 months I guess was like, you know, the market was in, in panicky mode. Everything was businesses were assessing their situation and what can they say first? What can, it be like, you know, reassessing their priorities? Of course, they would want to push more sales coming in. They’re trying to look at their outstanding receivables, trying to, you know, get every single sent to be collected. Those were the first 16 months.

And then post that period when they say, Hey, so here’s the rhythm, they were able to get up on their feet, you know, adjust their campaigns.

Berns San Juan: How much of the acquisition and the pickup came from relationships you had before, and how much of the pickup came from new relationships entirely?

Dennis De Silva: Yeah. So it’s more of new relationships post the 16 months. So back then there were more of like one-time customers though, and I have very. Minimal recurring at that time.

Berns San Juan: Did you notice a change in demand? Like were the things that were getting asked of you in 2019 and earlier, the same things that were getting asked of you in 2021 onwards. Did you notice a shift in the demands that people had, or was it pretty much the same? Like, did they have the same content requirement? Did they have the same content needs? Like were the instructions and the output the same? Did they change?

Dennis de Silva: Well, it’s a case-to-case basis. There are many variables to be considered, Bernard. But for that question, of course, they’re considering the most cost-efficient, it’s a noisy word out there. So customers are now really, should I say, not just stringent in the budget. And there are so many people out there who are offering, you know, lowballing. And that’s the reason why I want to sit down with these people, understand their current landscape, getting where they want to go, from point A to point B, what campaigns that they, you know, did previously. So I didn’t mind if I was giving away things for free.

Berns San Juan: Right. That creates value. Like, I think one of the things that make prospects fall in love with us as a provider is most of the time people will ask them, what are your SEO goals? What are your keyword targets? How many of them would you like on the first page? The line of questioning we have tend to be very different. Like when we talk to them, I think it’s more similar to your lines of questioning, where we ask them, okay, who are you? Who do you serve? And what problem of theirs are you solving? Right? Like most of it, that’s primarily what we’re interested in. A lot of your work impacts the SEO, the optimization of the websites, and the businesses that you work on. And so you sort of have to know, how do I fit this story in? How do I fit this article into the narrative that this brand is trying to save? How it conveys the way it solves the problem. So I think if you don’t understand it, you’re just creating, like, you might as well generate it on Jarvis, you might as well generate it on ChatGPT, right?

‘Cause you know, I think they’re terrific, but they don’t understand your market. Right? Like if you told the ChatGPT to write an article that, let’s say appealed to, let’s say a common Filipino mom, the domestic engineer of the house, right? Would it know whether she’s a working mom or not? Would it know whether she’s budget conscious or not? Would you know what big considerations she would have, liked, to make that selection? I would argue it doesn’t yet. So there are still a lot of things that marketers can do. Like I think it’s terrific. Like I use brainstorming ideas, right? Like even the scripts, like I think, our team was joking earlier, we just came from two different recordings. Yes. And we use ChatGPT to help us generate those scripts, but we never make it do it for us. So it’s never a done-for-you process. Most of the time we brainstorm with it. And then if you are very exposed to the topic, you sort of pick up like, you know, whether it’s making up stuff, because it still does, right? Like it still does.

So, I think in that situation, asking questions that talk more about the brand and the business and the goal of the business versus asking the tactical questions like, okay, how many keywords do you wanna rank for? And, okay, how many articles do you want me to write? Like, everybody will ask them that. But asking them a question like, okay, who are we writing this for? Right? Like, what kind of customer are we writing this for? And what is their emotional bullseye? And when they look at your brand, what are they thinking, right?

Brands find it refreshing to have that conversation. ‘Cause, I think they rarely get a chance to thresh out their identity with other people they talk to. Like, especially not providers, right? Like, especially not vendors. Okay. So that’s one thing that differentiates you from everybody else that competes with you in the field. Is there a common ask? Are you finding any common feedback that comes from the different people you work with? Like, have you discovered that, oh, it seems like this always matters?

Dennis de Silva: Yeah. Like what you’ve mentioned, they’re particular about the meat. Like, let’s say when I, you mentioned it already, right? What the robot can’t do. Let’s say if you have noticed like you mentioned about can you generate this article in 500 words about this and that? So if you notice, try, try to notice it. You will always see that daunting and challenging, you know, whatever it is. You always see those words. And when I see that, I mean, okay, fine. When I see that in articles or some website, uh oh no, okay, you didn’t edit it. Yes. You just throw it out there and that’s it, right?

Berns San Juan: Yes. And I hate articles like that. It’s negative scripting.

Dennis de Silva: Exactly. So I agree with you in terms of, you know, the persona, you, the more you niche down, the more you would be, you know, hitting homerun, right? So as I’ve said, circling back, you need to up your game.

Berns San Juan: Some of the examples I like to give our, our take, for example, let’s say IKEA, right? Like, let’s say you were producing content for IKEA, and IKEA does not treat the Philippine population like a monolith, right? Like they understand that there are different personas, you know, oddly enough they also understand that most of the decision-makers they will talk to will be women, like I think brilliant on them, right? But they will talk to, yeah, they’ll talk to a young couple differently than the way they will talk to, let’s say an urban tita, right? Or an urban Tito. They will talk to them differently. The reverb is just different. The creatives are different, the pain points are different, and the emotional decision-makers are different. So I think it’s great when brands understand that and when they can explain that to the vendor, which is usually us.

So that we know how to help them create the content. If you are saying that this is the person we’re talking to, and this is the problem we’re trying to solve and that this is their emotional buying criteria. Here’s your content, right? This is drastically different from, okay, let me vomit, 700 words of content on your page when some keywords wrinkled in there, and then you don’t pray to the gods of Google.

Dennis de Silva: Anybody can do that.

Berns San Juan: Exactly. And I will argue Jasper can do that. I will argue ChatGPT can do that, right? But that’s not marketing, that’s just content production. So part of what you do is you do consulting, but if I’m not mistaken, you also help out emerging digital marketers, like people that wanna get into the digital marketing game.

Dennis de Silva: Like, do you mentor younger digital marketers, younger writers, and so on? I would be careful using the word mentor because as said, I’m just young in the game and I’m also learning, but it’s more freely working with them. Of course, I would love to join communities, I learn, I teach. So it works two ways, right? So I’m careful with that mentor thing, so, okay. I always wear my cloth myself without my learning glasses.

Berns San Juan: So expand on what you mean when you say you teach. Can you expand on that a bit?

Dennis de Silva: Of course. In terms of the life stage of like, let’s say small businesses, right? So let’s say, they’re already using tools, right? They’re already pretty much aware, like let’s say they’re some who have yet to adapt their early adapters. Guys are using it, but not really maximizing it. There are people already on the stage of road stage already. Such different live stages. So the early adopters. Or those small businesses or guys who have yet optimized it. For instance, very, this is a no-brainer. Like, let’s say in terms of companies not using a CRM tool or there are still means of sustaining the relationship with their customers and they would like to leverage email marketing. So that stuff, let’s say the platforms, they’re not aware, oh yes, they are aware that hey, convert kit is existing or MailChimp is existing, but they don’t know how to use it in a way that would work in their favor. Something like that.

Berns San Juan: So for a person that teaches what is on your learning wish list, like what are the items on your learning wish list?

Dennis de Silva: Wishlist is freer, probably more of my exposure is more of like what I’ve said small businesses in terms of being exposed to more like the corporate landscape. Well, it’s a different ballgame so that I would want to be more exposed to the campaigns would not change. End of the day, it’s these are tools, right? We’re using tools and those tools are somehow attributed to the audience. You’re finding your audience. So in terms of those tools you associate with the audience, like earlier, I had an engagement with vets, okay? So not, not all of them are into it yet. So they raise questions, “Hey, you know, how about farmers?” I’m targeting them, so I would not go to Instagram and you know, so something like that.

Berns San Juan: Like one of the things you gotta do is you have to be in the channel they’re in.

Dennis de Silva: Exactly. So people were sharing, like, so what they do, it’s smart into text blasting still because of course they’re not accustomed to it. So in terms of what they text, whether it’s like a happy birthday note or whatsoever, it’s more of free targeting the emotions because farmers are in their sixties or 70ish as their profile. So it means a lot for them to get those, you know, personal messages, package as a personal message. So those things.

Advice to Aspiring Writers

Berns San Juan: If you were going to give advice, so let’s say somebody that might be five to 10 years younger than you, what skills would you tell them to sharpen up upon writing?

Dennis de Silva: But I’m speaking because that’s my experience. And then from writing, it’ll evolve. Just be curious about, you know, beyond that, so like what I’ve said, I started with writing, I didn’t know that I could use my code content, I could draw attention to it. The time that I started speaking about this, this, this, people started to recognize me as, “Hey, this is a coach,” and they would start asking me questions.

Berns San Juan: So with this, this is like digress warning, right? One of the companies I used to work with, I think way back in ’05 or ’06, might be ’06, is a company called knifefloor.com. And the founder’s name was Steve Simonson. I love him to bits. He’s from Bellevue, Washington. And the story’s very similar to what you are talking about, right? Steve did experiments. I flew wound up being the largest flooring retailer in the US. I can’t remember the figures anymore. There was a year when we were a 65 million business. And then there was a year where we were way more than that. But Steve broke through e-commerce with content. Like when he was trying to figure out, “Oh, what’s this?” Cuz I’m not sure if you guys are familiar, Washington is home to Microsoft. Jeff Bezos is from there. It’s no surprise that Bill Gates is from there. Microsoft is based there. Jeff Bezos is there, there are a lot of tech companies that are in Seattle, in Seattle, Washington, like in that area. Bellevue can’t Seattle. So that area, and before Steve, you know, dove into the water with both feet, he was testing whether there was a flooring market. He was already into flooring, but he was trying to see if would people go online for flooring? Would people go online for flooring? I mean, he thinks in his head, no, this is great and this is romantic, but you know, will people be crazy enough to buy cartons and cartons and thousands and thousands of dollars of flooring online? So he started by doing a content experiment. He started publishing content on flooring, and he knew his stuff about flooring. He started publishing content about wood floors and engineered floors and carpeting just to see if people would look for that content and would read that content. And sure enough, there was a market online. Some people were on informational flooring journeys online. Right. Yeah. Super. And, you know, I still remember the story so it stuck with me. I can still tell it like, you could get me drunk and I could still tell this story.

Then he wanted to know, okay, so sure some people researched flooring online seems like, duh, that’s a no-brainer. Are people willing to pay for this kind of information? So he expands on the content, he locks his content behind a Paywall just to see if people would pay for resources like that. And people were paying, like they were downloading the PDFs, they were downloading the documents, the instructions, the guides, like what flooring is best for what area in a house. And people were paying for it, even when he put it behind a Paygate. And he goes, “Wow. Well if people are willing to pay for information about flooring, then they must be willing to purchase flooring online.” So he used to joke, I don’t think it was a joke, but he always delivered it like a joke. He used to joke, he first employee you as his mom, which is probably true, right? Because that was their first warehouse. So he is this, you know, mom’s garage startup kind of guy. And then they put the inventory there, they started selling the most popular brands, and they started selling the most popular brands. And then he started getting orders. Like they started getting orders and he remembers delivering them. But, you know, from the first 2, 3, 4 orders in a matter of like two years, Knifefloor was, was millions of dollars worth. And then it was, you know, in a matter of three, four years, it was in two, three different countries. And I remember getting in and there were like 60 plus of us, and I remember staying there for three years, and by my third year, there were like 200 plus of us. And he started putting up stores in dozens of locations across the US.

So I remembered the story because you were talking about doing experiments and trying to understand, you know, how does content help you sharpen up your writing? Because Steve’s not a writer, like by any stretch of the imagination. He’s an entrepreneur. But you know, that’s sort of how he got into it, right? He never imagined writing flooring guides was gonna open a multimillion-dollar e-commerce business. But it did. Right. So. Agreed. So, your first tip for people that are listening to us is to sharpen up their writing. What would you say would be the next biggest piece of advice you’d give them?

Dennis de Silva: Well, everybody loves a free taste nowadays. I mean, you know, well people abuse this thing, but they still employ it, embrace it. When I say, everybody loves the free taste, you mentioned hiding content in the pay gate. And then, let’s see if people will download it or pay it right now, right now people pretty much abuse it. But anyway, I still do that. But of course when I’m there already, let’s say like, whether it’s a free ebook or a free consultee, it must be noteworthy of their time downloading it, it’s noteworthy of their time–

Well in terms of, well, it’s not a scalable thing to do unless you’re offering big-ticket items, right? So it’s worth sitting down. I mean, if you’re just starting, then why not offer it for free? Because right during that they would see how you approach things. So there are a lot of things that can happen in 30 minutes. So it’s your time to showcase what you can offer.

Berns San Juan: Do you go around, do you join communities? Like do you join like Blogappalooza is one of those things that would make sense to me? Those guys are bloggers, they’re content creators. Do you join content creator communities in the Philippines or elsewhere?

Dennis de Silva: In the Philippines, I don’t have one, but I have a community sponsored, or it was launched by Tim Denning. Most people know Tim Denning because I have enrolled in one of his courses. So writing communities, I do have around three communities. So it’s very helpful because it would up your game somehow and of course, you’re not always in shape or on top of your game, but when you see the channel, just lurk what they’re talking about, it would pretty much give you that boost again. Say, okay, so I’m, I’m okay now. So let’s start all over again. Something like that. So it’s somehow motivating, you’ll get a lot of nuggets there if you’re a part of a community.

Berns San Juan: So if there were these guys right, like, that is like five, 10 years younger than you, 20 years my juniors and they do wanna look in the mirror and see a digital marketer, they do wanna break into the space. They do wanna contribute to the Internet economy. What are the top one, top two tips that you would give young people to be able to break through the game, to be able to gain experience just to start moving their career in the digital field?

Dennis de Silva: So first I think it knows no age. I guess this sounds superficial, but then anyway, I’ll just still say it, you know, just do it because a lot of people, well, coming off if someone is, someone would wait for instructions, step one to empty and then there you go. So that was me before. So an analysis per paralysis, I would buy courses, you know, I spent thousands of courses, but on books also white pages. I mean, but it didn’t get me started. So those are head knowledge, it would somehow spike you up, and motivate you, but then if you don’t do it, nothing will happen, right? So it’s just a matter of not thinking. So it’s my practice right now, so I won’t think I just do it.

Berns San Juan: So the segue warning related to that is, I remember I hired an engineer. I didn’t hire him to be an engineer. So we call them digital marketing assistants. And they’re the people we groom to become social media specialists and SEO specialists. They become analysts eventually, like when they’re great at data analytics, when they’re better at data science when they’re good with integrating with analytics, search console via API calls, and managing, like doing data visualization. So when they get really good, they become analysts. But the most entry-level is a digital marketing assistant. And I remember this is ancient history, right? So we’re talking like maybe seven, eight years ago. One of the applicants I had was an engineer. One of the applicants I had was an engineer. And I remember sitting in the interview like, “What are you doing here? Get out here. You’re an engineer.”

He worked with a building company like a company builder, right? He worked with builders. He was an engineer. He was deployed to the field. They put up presidential and commercial spaces. So this is what he does. He’s the guy’s an engineer. I’m not sure if people know, but if you guys ever know an engineer, they have the most wonderful signatures. I don’t know why their signatures are like that, but they have the most wonderful signatures. In my opinion, the people with the best signatures anywhere come from that engineers. Like, look at blueprints. For some reason, their signatures don’t look like signatures. They look like icons. It’s amazing. I love it. So here’s this engineer, he’s doing an interview. I go like, “Are you sure? You’re like a five-year experienced engineer and you’re asking for an entry-level job,” right? So none of the shifting gears work. His yeah, none of the work histories is a match, but my god, the personality and the values are a match, right? Like I just check, I test them for the ability to communicate how curious they are. Did they do any research about us? Are they proactive? Do they tend to get victimized? Are they techy? Do they use only the default things on their phones? Are they technophobic, are they excited about technology? So these are the things that I check for and he took all the boxes except for the wrong background, right? So I go like, you know what? Let’s give it a shot. Sure, let’s give it a shot. And I never had an employee that was so enthusiastic. I swear to God, until he was regularized, I was thinking, oh, this guy’s gonna resign on me any day. And he’s gonna go, I know, I think I know where this is going. He never gave up, like completing his marketing assistant course, in record speed, was a specialist at the point of regularization, and became very good at it for a year in a little shorter period that is shorter than two years. And I guess part of it is because by the time he joined us, he was midway through his career, definitely more mature than the people in his badge, right? In two years, he’s been a team lead. So not only is he an SEO specialist, not only is he a full-fledged SEO specialist that can do keyword research and that’s familiar with a dozen tools that can make websites faster, that can spot errors on a website that can read content and say, that’s crap. Not only could he do all of that, but he could also manage people that could do that. So I just thought, wow, like that was wow. And it’s an example of what you’re talking about where the guy’s motivation was, he just had it. He just didn’t wanna be an engineer anymore. It didn’t blow his whistles, it didn’t ring his bells.

There wasn’t a lot of immaturity, but wow. Yeah. If that guy came back, I would hire him in a heartbeat, right? And as is the problem, most of the time when Truelogic winds up on their resume, they get a pretty nice premium from outside. So you can’t hold onto them forever. But my God, like, what a story, right? So one of the best, I think we worked together for like four years. I loved it. We are still in touch. We still see each other now and then. But it’s a great example of what you were talking about where you said, just do it like don’t analysis paralysis, by the way, he didn’t do any super hard thinking on, you know what I’m going to do digital marketing and I’m going to specialize in SEO. He didn’t do that. He just thought like, “I’m done with engineering anywhere but here,” you know what, what’s that company over there? Amma went there and he learned to love it. Like he learned to love it. And he applied himself and he did very well. So it’s very similar to this thing that you’re talking about.

Dennis de Silva: And that would’ve happened if you didn’t give him a break. It breaks to race. Well, that’s missing. Well, you gave him a break.

Berns San Juan: Well, so to me, I don’t think giving him a break was an act of generosity, I think, and most young people I think need to understand this. Companies that are serious about their core values will discover whether you align with their values or not. And companies that are serious about their core values will hire you for core values. They will not hire you for background. Because I think we’ve already accepted, especially in the digital marketing industry, we know people are not gonna graduate BS in SEO, right? Like BS AdWords Management, BS…AB and social media, no offense to social media people, but it requires a lot of art. And, you know, psychology…

Sure people don’t graduate from AB social media, right? Like we don’t graduate BS in web development, or web design. So I think every digital marketing company has accepted, we’re never gonna hire turnkey people. We are gonna have to teach them. Every digital marketing company is going to have a dojo where people can learn the skills and sharpen their skills. So I think as a business and then as an industry, we’ve come to accept that. So hiring for values, I would say as an industry is more important to us than anything else should. It’s more important to us than anything else.

Dennis de Silva: That should be the way because most of, you know, still people are still eyeing with that because it’s like plug and play. They’re not willing to train people because they need to offer someone, I need the skills but it’s very so that people would work on, and give these people attention when they see the willingness they train.

Berns San Juan: And, you know, I think you cannot train for that. You can train for skill. You cannot train for will. There you go. Yes.

Dennis de Silva: I owe you one more answer. Ask me two points. Yeah. So first, just do it and second, before you offer services to others, try it with your account. Build your experiment. Because that’s my experience, right? I tried it with my account. I started with LinkedIn then…

Berns San Juan: I see a lot of the content you publish on LinkedIn. So that raises another question for me. How much of the content that you experiment with that you try out, do you make publicly, openly available? And then how many of them do you charge for a premium? You never charge it for a premium unless it’s for a specific business. Most of the time when you do content, you do it for altruism.

Dennis de Silva: I do it for free. I mean, well, this is an open secret. I mean, of course, I would have them scheduled. Of course, I would take time right at night to answer the comments and then those are for free. Those are nuggets. And then I would carry on, you know, once I get inbound, increase them. There you go.

Berns San Juan: And so that makes sense. I also teach sales. And in sales, we have a technique. It’s a concept called you offer value first. Because as social animals, we tend to be reciprocal, right? And so when people execute an amount of goodwill, like for example, creating really valuable content and putting it out there for free, not putting it behind a Paywall, people usually want to return the goodwill that you do, right? So that’s excellent. I think that will sort of wrap up this episode. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Truelogic DX podcast. My thanks again to Ron and the team at Podmachine for powering this.

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