Marc Guberti is a young entrepreneur who’s achieved great success at the age of only 17-years-old. He’s a successful blogger, a speaker, an author, and a social media influencer with over 250K followers on Twitter.
It goes without saying, Marc is not your ordinary teenager. He’s actually an inspiration to us all, especially to youngsters who are looking to find meaning in their lives.
Marc shared very interesting details about his journey in my latest interview with him. He also gave some great tips for young freelancers on how to work with clients and how to find leads through Twitter. Keep scrolling down to see what he had to say.
Roshan: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Where you’re from and what kind of studies you’re doing?
Marc: I am a 17 year old entrepreneur from New York. I am a senior in high school who runs on the cross country and track teams. I am exploring different universities but am not sure which one I will choose.
Roshan: You must be getting this question a lot, but I have to ask. What made you want to become a social media influencer?
Marc: I originally went on social media to promote my blog about Yugioh Cards. I haven’t updated that blog in over a year but at the time I was writing new content for it every day. In the beginning, just like any other newbie, I didn’t get any social media traffic. At that moment, I committed myself to mastering social media.
I did the research and experimented with my own methods. Then, as I started to grow on social media, I began to enjoy social media. Soon enough, I created my current blog about digital marketing. I eventually shifted more of my time towards that blog and stopped updating the blog about Yugioh Cards.
Then, people started engaging with my content and congratulating me for what I was doing at my age. At that moment, I realized I could impact the world. My mission from then on was to spread the message that age is not a limit to success. Elevating the lives of other became one of my top priorities, and doing so would show teens that they can start pursuing their dreams now.
Roshan: For a person at such young age, you’ve achieved a lot and you’ve already created a career path for your future. What do you have to say to teenagers who are still struggling to find their life purpose?
Marc: My advice would be to do a deep examination of your life. Identify your values and what you enjoy doing. You will find your life purpose in what you love to do. I enjoy writing content, having an impact, and the other work that I do. If I don’t enjoy it, I don’t even consider it a part of my purpose.
Ask yourself what you love to do or desperately want to do (so desperately that you can’t stop thinking about it) and that’s what you’ve got to do.
Roshan: Entrepreneurship and freelancing have a very close relationship. As a young entrepreneur, what are your thoughts on freelancing and do you think it’s a valid career for students and graduates?
Marc: Freelancing is valid because you choose the work you do. Entrepreneurship and freelancing both allow you to make a full-time income by doing what you love. Being a freelancer also opens the door to more work experience. You get a better idea of the type of work that you like and don’t like. Getting a good ideas of these types of things now will allow you to become a better person later.
Roshan: Have you ever worked with freelancers? If so, what was it like?
Marc: I currently work with over 10 freelancers. We communicate with each other back and forth about what needs to be done. When I hired my first freelancer, there was a small miscommunication and I thought that hiring freelancers was one of the worst things I did in a while.
However, no matter how good a freelancer is, it will take you 1-2 days of back and forth messages for you both to be on the same page. Once you and your freelancers are on the same page, most of the stress gets taken away. At that point, all you have to do is manage your freelancers and make sure they do their work and you do the work on your end too.
Roshan: And that brings me to my biggest question: Do you think it’s possible for a freelancer to find jobs through social media? And if so, which is the best platform to get started?
Marc: I believe it is possible for a freelancer to find jobs through social media. The platform you should get started on depends on the type of job you are pursuing. However, with that said, LinkedIn seems like the best platform because you get connections and have the ability to create a legitimate profile.
If I were a freelancer, I would go on UpWork and build my profile there. UpWork doesn’t fit the traditional definition of “social network,” but it’s probably the best place for freelancers to find work.
Roshan: What kind of tips can you give to a freelancer who’s looking to find leads through Twitter?
Marc: My recommendation with finding leads with Twitter is to grow your audience (an account with 1,000 followers looks better than an account with 100 followers), have an effective bio (you summarize all of your key skills, accomplishments, and facts about you in 160 characters or less) and get more connections.
Just like with LinkedIn, Twitter is an excellent place to find freelancers. When you find people on UpWork or some other freelancing site who are looking for freelancers with your skills, you can follow these people on Twitter and engage with their content. If you like (still getting used to the favorite being changed to like) and retweet their tweets, then the people looking for freelancers will have an added incentive to choose you.
Roshan: Is it important for a freelancer to build a large following on Twitter?
Marc: I believe a large audience on Twitter is critical for anyone regardless of what field they are in. Part of the reason is because you never know who your followers are. Maybe one of your followers is someone looking for a freelancer with your skills.
I learned this lesson when I discovered that most of the guest posts I wrote and podcasts I got featured on were directly because I grew my audience. Some of the people within my audience wanted me on their podcasts and to contribute to their blogs.
Roshan: What are the top 3 tips you can give to someone who’s new to Twitter?
Marc:
- Become comfortable with the platform
- Learn something new about Twitter every day
- Experiment to see which methods have the greatest impact on the results you get from Twitter
Roshan: Are there any great apps or tools that you use for your work?
Marc: HootSuite is the lifeline of my social media strategy. I hire a freelancer to post to all of my social networks from that one platform. Before the freelancer, I would schedule the social media content all by myself. If I had to log into and out of each of my Twitter accounts (let alone my other social media accounts), I would have lost valuable time.
If you really want to take social media to the next level, my recommendation is to use HootSuite Pro.
Roshan: What are your future plans? Will you be changing careers or continue along the road as a social media influencer?
Marc: My future plans for myself are to remain a social media influencer. However, I don’t want to just be a social media influencer. I want to be an influencer in general. I want to impact and elevate the lives of others so they can tap into their inner potential.
I recently started playing the piano and it felt great. I am going to start singing eventually and see how that goes. All that I do is for the sake of helping people to live better lives.
I’d like to thank Marc for taking the time to answer all my questions. Be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his blog for more great content and tips on social media.