Book-Talk with Ionut Danifeld, Co-Founder of DevMark
Hi peeps, Theo here, taking over Cristina’s intro-writing duties for today!
The reason I wanted to poke around here is because this interview is kind of special to me: Ionut Danifeld and I go way back! I met this guy when we were both volunteers in AIESEC, the world’s largest not-for-profit youth-run organization. It wasn’t hard for us to find common ground, as we were both marketing students, AIESEC volunteers and working together on the same projects and, as all of these brought us together, I knew that Ionut was an overachiever.
In the spring of 2017, he co-founded DevMark.co, a marketing and development agency, but he’s been tackling with entrepreneurship way before that.
His professional experience covers more than 6 years in Inbound Marketing, working at an international level (Germany, Belgium, Romania) for B2B and B2C clients. After his experience as a marketing coordinator for ASI DATAMYTE, Ionut decided to co-found his very first startup in 2014. That’s how Point Shout was born: a solution for fast and high-quality customer feedback.
If you ask Ionut to describe himself, he’ll tell you he’s “a certified inbound marketing specialist, highly motivated overachiever, life-long learner of all things public relations and social media, and dedicated volunteer.” Thanks to his charisma, thirst for knowledge, interest in marketing, desire to learn and travel and to share his experiences with whoever is willing to listen, Ionut now lives in Bali. I know, right? He is also an inbound marketing consultant, so when he’s not traveling around that amazing exotic destination, he’s providing support to clients who are looking to engage in different inbound marketing activities.
Oh, did I mention that he’ll soon be launching a new app? HakiTo is the first mobile app that helps you keep track of all your dog’s activities from daily meals and exercise to annual vet visits by sending reminders for all. So, if you are AT ALL passionate about marketing, you may want to keep reading to see just which are the books that Ionut believes in!
What’s your favorite book and why? Business and non-business, if possible.
One of my favorite books is Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. It’s an interesting book that gives a recipe for success, with examples from inspiring people.
We perceive these inspiring people that their fortune is due to luck, but we tend to forget: their culture, family, education and time spent for them to become successful.
Was there a moment, specifically, when something you read in a book helped you? Can you tell me about it?
It’s difficult to pinpoint an exact moment because all of the books helped me in a way. Probably a recent example was the book The Internet of Money by Andreas M. Antonopoulos. He is talking about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. After reading this book I was, damn that’s the future and I need to start investing in this technology. Didn’t stop ever since.
What books had the biggest impact on you? (perhaps changed the way you see things, dramatically changed your career path)
I remember that in my beginning of my career I was working mostly on offline marketing and this new era of digital marketing was emerging. I didn’t have any course during my university regarding online marketing and I was clueless where to start. A book that helped me a lot was: The Zen of Social Media Marketing by Shama Hyder.
Sometimes people ask me how to start and my answer is still: read this book, it’s mind-blowing.
What books would you recommend to youngsters interested in your professional path? Why? (no number limit here)
1. As I said before The Zen of Social Media Marketing by Shama Hyder – a great book for making the first steps in Social Media.
2. Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About Your Stuff by Mark Hughes – if you want to think outside of the box and read some outstanding examples, this book is a must.
3. Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs by Brian Halligan – if you want to find a niche and adapt to the marketing, one of my favorite techniques is Inbound Marketing. Great book to understand what’s inbound marketing and how you can use effectively this technique for your business or clients.
Links where you can follow Ionut Danifeld or find out more about his projects:
Books mentioned by Ionut Danifeld in this interview:
