I don't think there is any other community, apart from Doerscircle, that focuses on this part of the world for this group of people, so it is kind of a no-brainer to be part of a community like this.
Travis Bennett: Hi everyone I'm Travis. I'm here from Doerscircle. And today we're talking to serious, and he's gonna be running us through this business and everything that he does. Welcome.
Sotirios Seridis: Hi, everyone! And Hi, Travis, Thank you for inviting me to this interview. I guess I need to explain a little bit about who I am and why I do what I do, to begin with.
Travis Bennett: Yes, for sure.
Sotirios Seridis: My name is Sotirios. I’m saying this slowly because it's very hard for people to pronounce. There is no short form, but some people call me Sotty or S if that helps. I'm originally from Greece, and that's why I have such a weird name. So now for, what I do. I have a background in digital marketing and for over a decade I worked in London, Dubai, and Singapore in media agencies. I started working in London in Havas. Then from there, I worked at MediaCom in Dubai, after which I moved to Singapore and I work for Phd. Media. I also worked for essence. At some point, I switched to becoming an instructor. So I started teaching digital marketing first with General Assembly. Then I also started doing corporate training sessions on my own. I contracted a little bit with Facebook, and I say a little bit because it happened to be during Covid times. Eventually, when Covid hit, I kind of decided to move back to my home country and start something on my own. So I started the company (XYZ Lab) based in Singapore, but I was physically not there. I was kind of a digital nomad.
So under this company, I do 3 things mainly. Number one is, I do a lot of corporate training & team training sessions alongside digital marketing with topics mainly like Google ads, Google analytics, and SEO, and anything that has to do with numbers and performance marketing. The next thing that I do is help some companies with the same. So I run Google ads, Meta ads, and I do SEO for a couple of companies. And the third thing that I do is a little bit of coding and personal training for digital marketers who want to upskill, or have certain questions on topics that I can help them with. So, these are the 3 things that I'm doing.
Travis Bennett: Awesome, awesome. And you said you've got customers that are digital marketers who are looking to upskill, small businesses and their Ad campaigns, and then also corporate training for larger enterprises.
Sotirios Seridis: Correct, yes. So, the typical customers that work with me and with my company, in general, are companies that want to drive efficiencies basically. So I'm a big believer of driving efficiencies. My slogan under my company is also “Make every marketing dollar spend smarter.” So these are companies that work to be lean in terms of their operations. They want to get things right and lower the cost per acquisition. They want someone who can understand their constraints – the fact that they are startups, and they want to grow as efficiently as possible, so they typically work with me to achieve that. So we either work on a consulting basis – some companies if they are very small or even freelancers who want to improve, opt-in for consultation/ training. The same thing also happens with corporates that want to improve in certain areas. And some companies that have the capacity, also outsource their performance marketing to me and my small team. So we manage everything regarding Google ads methods and also SEO on behalf of them. So that's more or less the ideal customer. So yes, it can be big corporations, mainly on the consultation and training part, or it can be smaller companies/startups where we work with them in a consulting/training capacity or outsourcing their small operations to us. Lastly, it can be individuals where we coach and teach them basically how to go about running everything on their own.
Travis Bennett: Okay, that's super cool. And for a lot of the people listening, we’d be wondering – How would I get started working with an agency like yours, or is there an easy way to figure out if I actually need an agency like yours to come in and help with my marketing?
Sotirios Seridis: I'm not saying that because I'm in this business, but in my experience, every company needs some help in certain areas. They might not realize that they need help, but let's say, if you go and look at companies’ websites, and/or the way they run ads, most of them need help, upskilling, or learning in certain areas. So the first step is for companies to identify that they need help, and also they need to identify that they want to improve. That also helps with the engagement, because I like working with companies that have ambitions to grow and improve things instead of just wanting to hire another agency to outsource ads and tick a box. That's the right type of client for me, at least. Once you identify that you need some help to grow, or certain areas that you are lagging behind in, you can get in touch with me or with any other professional.
You can have an exploration call and let the agency know what areas you need help with. That's the starting point. And then, if you are aligned, (you can work together) because obviously, also for me, I don't do everything and there are areas I cannot help with For example, creative areas like web development, I don't deal with these areas. I can advise in certain areas and if there is a match, where my skillsets and the team’s skillsets can help the company, then we can go ahead and discuss how this can materialize into a form of engagement.
Travis Bennett: Okay, cool. One of the things that you just mentioned is that people will need to realize that they need help. When you look back on your business, what help would you have loved to have got when you were growing and building it out?
Sotirios Seridis: That's a great question. I wish I had joined the community earlier. This is the first thing that I wish I would have done a lot earlier when I started. I wish I were also connected with people that have a similar lifestyle, and run companies a lot earlier. I wish I also had a mentor to teach me a lot of different things. And for me, it was more about running the company itself. For example. when you run a company, you have to learn how accounting works. You have to learn about everything from banking, hiring, achieving SOPs like creating scopes of work, and managing a team, to what software you need and how to strike a balance between doing the work and getting new clients. So obviously you are not exposed to all these things as an employee because, you just do your job, go home, and that's it. Although I don't feel 100% like a business owner because I still like doing a lot of the work myself, as a business owner, I had to learn all these things the hard way. I wished I could have gone to a course or a Webinar to network and meet people who could have taught me exactly what I should have been doing to grow my business and structure my operations more smoothly.
Travis Bennett: Yeah, that is super good feedback. Running my own agency, I had a lot of such experiences as well. With things like accounting at the end of the month and sending invoices, you have to do it so that you get paid, but it was my least favorite task out of everything. It’s not fun and there are probably smarter ways that you could do it, so that’s good to hear.
Travis Bennett: So circling around to Doerscircle a little bit. How would you describe Doerscircle if someone asks you, “What is it? And what are these guys about?”
Sotirios Seridis: So I would say, Doerscirlce is a community of people of all sorts of life. It is mainly freelancers, solopreneurs, people wanting to start businesses, and people who have already started businesses and now are growing. Even people that are working with startups or within this type of setting mainly focusing on the Southeast Asia market, through Doerscircle, can not only meet other people but also attend really interesting events and take advantage of a lot of offers that you have. For example, your solution of co-working spaces is great, especially for people who are traveling. We can find really good packages on Doerscircle. For instance, insurance is a problem for a lot of us that work independently and there are offers that we miss out on because we are not living a corporate life. Doerscricle can help with that. So that’s how I would describe Doerscircle and the value add it can bring to everyone who works independently, and within this ecosystem.
Travis Bennett: Oh, that's a super good summary there. Maybe you could even expand and say what's the best thing about Doerscircle in your opinion. What is it that you love the most?
Sotirios Seridis: I think because I like learning and networking, I would say my favorite thing about Doerscircle is the many sessions that you run and bringing people together through such Webinars. The second thing I really like is that it is super easy to sign up, navigate on the platform and find things you need. It’s very simple and straightforward to go and discover something that you can get value from.
Travis Bennett: Awesome, awesome. And I guess then the last question I have is: Would you recommend the people in your network to join Doerscircle?
Sotirios Seridis: Yeah, sure, especially if you are in Singapore or Southeast Asia. Honestly speaking, I don't think there is any other community that focuses on this part of the world for this group of people, so it is kind of a no-brainer to be part of a community like that. So, if you are in this part of the world, you should join Doerscircle to connect with like-minded individuals and also find deals that will help you to navigate financially and operationally as a freelancer or a startup owner in Southeast Asia.
Travis Bennett: Awesome. That’s great to hear, Sotirios. Thank you for your time today and for everyone listening. There'll be some links in the caption of this video that you can check out, to connect with Sotirios. If you need help with your ads or your performance marketing, please do reach out because he is super good at what he does, and he actually works with us at Doerscircle to help optimize a lot of our things as well, so highly recommended.
Sotirios Seridis: Thanks a lot for inviting me, and happy to connect with everyone. You can use the links under this interview or find me on Linkedin – my name is pretty unique
Travis Bennett: Awesome. Thank you.
