LaDay Smith is a serial entrepreneur, CEO of SmithMedia, and the author of several best-sellers. He is considered one of the leading global minds, a forward thinker in the field of marketing and sales. Smith has been helping startups, SMEs, and large enterprises since 2009 through his full-service advertising agency, SmithMedia.
In 1976, Smith migrated to the US from Belarus. His first startup was a lemonade franchise at the age of 7. During his teenage years, he joined his family business and grabbed the internet as an opportunity to grow his father’s handmade shoe company from $20k monthly sales to $1.5 million by exploiting e-commerce, content, email marketing, and Google AdWords in the best way possible.
In 2018 he wrote his first book, ‘Do It Your Way’ which became an Amazon bestseller. Smith documents his life daily as a CEO through his social media channels. He is a renowned public speaker who has his podcast ‘Meet Smith’ around the topic of digital advertising and entrepreneurship.
LaDay is not just a successful advertiser and entrepreneur, he is an active philanthropist. His affiliation with ‘The Water Project’ is a shining star in his resume. This inspirational interview explores LaDay’s amazing journey to where he is today.
Thanks for joining us! Let’s start with getting to know who LaDay Smith is? And What are you doing these days?
Hello, thanks for having me. I am LaDay Smith; I proudly claim myself as a purebred entrepreneur. My success owes a lot to the power of the internet. My entrepreneurial journey started at a very young age. I remember, I started a lemonade franchise at the age of 7 and successfully sold hundreds of dollars’ worth of baseball toys and cards throughout my high school career. In the 90s when the internet was becoming a thing, I leveraged it to transition my father’s local shoe store into one of the first e-commerce platforms for handmade shoes in the country. From that point, there was no looking back.
The success of ShoeLibrary gave me the confidence to co-found SmithMedia with my brother in 2009. I believe dedication and hard work always pays back and in a matter of 12 years, SmithMedia has established itself as a credible advertising agency serving big companies like ABB, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, and more.
I feel it is my responsibility to help new marketers to know what I took decades to learn. Through my podcast, public speaking, and my book, ‘Do It Your Way’, I feel satisfied that I am contributing a bit to the industry.
Currently, I am in the process of publishing and launching my second book ‘Consumer Attention: The New Marketing Currency‘. You will soon hear about it.
What made you decide to become an entrepreneur?
There are so many reasons why I decided not to have a nine-to-five lifestyle for myself. I have always seen my father working passionately building his own business. Although he wasn’t very successful yet he never gave up on his dreams.
Perhaps the biggest reason I became self-employed is that I found it difficult and frankly unnatural for myself to fit the corporate mold, working for someone else was simply not my piece of cake. I always had some great yet very risky ideas, and I knew it would be challenging to convince anyone to invest in my plans or see the value of my career goals. Even for SmithMedia I never raised a penny from investors.
I love to discover new information or study up on the latest innovation. If I say I am a consummate learner, it won’t be wrong. I am always researching the biggest trends in my field to stay on top of great ideas that are prevailing in the marketplace. So I believe entrepreneurship is what I am best suited for.
What would you say are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur, and why?
I believe, three skills make a huge difference in creating a successful trajectory as an entrepreneur.
First of all, one must have the service-based or solution-based expertise that the market needs. You should have the ability to connect with your ideal client, and the wisdom to do that at the right time. To become a successful CEO, you have the mindset to grow a business.
You sound quite passionate about your work; why? Is there a story behind it?
When I moved to the US from Belarus, I was a toddler and all my childhood I saw my father struggling to make a decent living. I always wondered if successful businessmen had some magic wand that money and success got attracted to them. I started working on my entrepreneurial spirit as soon as I got a little hold of life. I believed the internet was a land-grabbing opportunity and exploited its full potential to experiment with my family business. And voila! It worked. It gave me immense confidence to replicate what I had done for ShoeLibrary to other brands and businesses. I love when I see businesses growing and people living their dreams.
How do you separate SmithMedia from your competitors?
I think the biggest thing that sets SmithMedia apart is our focus on a customer-centric business approach. We have a lot of experience across numerous industries. It provides us with a unique perspective on the opportunities and challenges that growing businesses face.
We are truly passionate about what we do and we genuinely want to see our clients prosper. SmithMedia is not about making a quick buck – it is about building long-term relationships and helping our clients grow.
What was the biggest problem you encountered launching your podcast and how did you overcome it?
I’m an introvert so starting a podcast was a bit outside of my comfort zone. I wanted to do it because I wanted to help struggling marketers and people aspiring to become an entrepreneur. My biggest challenge was my set of insecurities about speaking publicly. But I worked on this weakness and after a couple of the initial recordings and editing, an interesting thing happened: I got comfortable, and in fact, I started enjoying it. This experience paved the way for public speaking.
How do you stay driven and motivated to keep going in your business and podcast?
It all comes down to building a seamless process. When I started, I found it really hard to keep up with all of the recording, editing, and promotion. Building out a process has enabled me to stay on top of it. Time management comes with experience. When I try to automate the process, I often spread out the tasks between myself and my team.
What’s the best part of your job?
The best part of my job is seeing my clients succeed, getting people inspired to follow their dreams after listening to my podcast, and also getting some practical guidance after reading my book. My work is never boring. I enjoy every bit of it.
What is your definition of success?
I believe that success isn’t a destination, it’s found within the process that you take daily. The life of an entrepreneur is full of ups and downs. The highs are high, and the lows are pretty low. For me, success comes in celebrating every small victory that comes along the path to building something greater for yourself.
Thank you so much for this truly amazing interview!
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