Meet Roman who is head of marketing of an online video creation platform

It all started with a goal to chat to entrepreneurs over 60. Then out of curiosity we decided to talk to entrepreneurs under 30. We believe these two very vast generations can learn and grow from each other. 

This week we chat to 22-year-old Roman Daneghyan who is head of marketing at Renderforest an online video creation platform based in Armenia.

Can you tell us a little about the business you work in and what you do?

I am the Chief Marketing Officer of Renderforest, an online video creation platform. We give small businesses and startups an opportunity to easily create their promotional videos without any tech or video production knowledge. Everyone can create intros, explainer videos, promos, slideshows, music visualizations, special event videos and more with Renderforest just in several minutes.  We implement different strategies for improving brand awareness of the company, do market research and offer new solutions for making our platform better.

What is it like leading five marketing specialists in your team?

The number doesn’t matter for me at all. Of course there is a difference in being a leader of five and 55 team members. But the mechanism is the same: you have to keep the motivation high. First, the team leader needs to be inspirational and full of energy. As a team leader you need to be a role model for others. For me its very important to be the kind of leader that I would want myself to be led by. I always try to take into consideration my teammates opinions. We always discuss the tasks I assign to them.  Asking for your team members opinions is very important, so you make them feel valued. Another important thing is to respect team members non working hours. I want them to be productive so I don’t overwhelm them with tasks, otherwise they will stay longer at work, which will certainly decrease their productivity over time.

What were some of the struggles you faced when you first started?

When I was just starting, as most people, I didn’t know actually from where and how to start. It was hard to do marketing for a company, when you are in the industry for only six months. Those were hard times. I had to write down a marketing plan for Renderforest and understand what were the main goals we were to reach for a specific period. I was to manage the tasks on my own before I could find teammates who would help. Everything was really messed up. But with time passing, I started understanding the key principles every marketer should have in mind. I developed a strategy, separated tasks and started finding people for joining the team. And the second part of the struggle started. I didn’t have experience in choosing the right people for the team. That turned out to be really challenging and I had to change the staff a lot until I found the right people. Now, the Renderforest marketing team consists of six hardworking people, who are the best teammates for me at the moment.

What are some of the most important lessons you have learnt in life?

There are two big lessons I have learnt in my life. First one is, only by learning to measure your time correctly you can measure your success. If you’re spending time on invaluable things, you’re wasting your time living a life you could have lived better. That’s the problem we all face every day. Its impossible to spend all our time on 100 percent useful things, but surely, if we limit spending time on irrelevant things, we can save time for doing things that matter. I’m not talking about working 20 hours a day and sleeping three hours for saving time. Im talking about hanging around with friends all the time, talking about non important things and having too long breaks,etc. The second important lesson I’ve learnt is being as patient as possible. That’s something very hard to do especially if your on your twenties. The world is moving very fast and we all want to reach success in a short period of time. We are so afraid to lose the game. But you know, it’s all about doing the right thing and being patient. All big people are big because they hustled so much and had patience. So we all need to.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Do whatever you want in this life. This sounds a little bit romantic, but that’s how someone can reach success. It doesn’t matter if you’re a salesperson or someone who is starting a business. There are always some reasons for not doing something, try to find a reason why you should do it and believe in yourself. Just go and do it. Don’t think about what others will say. You live your life only once. Do it for yourself. There is nothing that can stop you if you believe in what you are doing. What do you think can stop you? Lack of money? Which big company had money when it was just starting? Actually no one. And, by luck, there are many ways of getting investments for realising your ideas. So, money isn’t a big problem too. Maybe you think its your location? I don’t think so. Maybe you’re afraid of losing. Never be afraid of losing. It’s a game and you can’t always win. Just be strong to continue. Be patient, measure your time, spend less time on irrelevant things and you’ll succeed. This is the advice I would certainly give to my younger self.

Who is an older person that you admire and why?

Gary Vee. The reason I admire him so much is his energetic nature and patience. Can you imagine, waiting 15 years and learning a specific business without having any revenue. That sounds very weird. But thats how he become the man, who has grown his father’s wine business from three to 60 million revenue in three years. Thats just amazing. And I’m not talking about the revenue that he got. I’m about the patience and the energy that he had for that. He was learning the wine business for 15 years. I’m being motivated by watching his interviews, podcasts. I learn new things every day from him. I recommend you subscribe to his YouTube channel too. Watching his videos is a nice portion of daily motivation for me. I wish I knew him before.

If you could jump into a time machine what era would you visit and why?

If I was given that kind of opportunity, I would like to jump into the very beginning of humanity to change only one thing: tell people not to complain about everything. There are a lot of people complaining on everything happening in their life nowadays. That’s so sad that people can’t find motivation for doing something more valuable than just complaining all day long. I would love to remove that human feature and make them more hardworking.