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Meet Akshay Saxena on Interview with Interns

By Deepak Kanakaraju in Digital Marketing —

Season 1 – Episode 2

He is our intern from Batch 2 of the DigitalDeepak Internship Program. He was our top performer in the batch and has placed himself quite well in the Digital Marketing Industry..

Ladies and Gentlemen here’s Akshay for you..

[cheers and claps]

Hello Akshay..

Hello Deepak Sir..

Tell us your story? How did you get started?

I spent my childhood in a small town called Haldwani (Uttarakhand). Later I did all my higher education and worked in Chennai & Bangalore. Currently, I’m working as a Digital Marketing Executive in a Bangalore based company. I got started with Digital Marketing in the below 3 transformational steps:

  1. Choosing the path of Entrepreneurship and leaving behind my research journey.

I was working at IIT-Madras to gain research experience to start my PhD. My mind wanted to do a PhD in my area of expertise, that was, Aerospace Engineering. But my heart wanted to deal with the common people’s problems such as unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, hunger, and so on.. After going through the initial phase of self-education, the research path did not make much sense to me. Entrepreneurs are real problem solvers, not academic researchers. And, I am striving to become an entrepreneur 🙂

  1.   Mindset shift through 2 events

One day I got a chance to work with NPTEL for a couple of months, where I thoroughly enjoyed interacting with online students. NPTEL experience gave me a little mindset-shift towards online education.  A couple of months later, I attended a 3-Day event called Millionaire Mind Intensive (MMI) in Chennai. That was the real game-changer which shifted my mindset completely. It gave me the exposure to exactly those thoughts that I was longing for. I met Siddharth Rajsekar in the same event and started following him to learn online entrepreneurship. Slowly, I started taking baby steps to pursue my dream of entrepreneurship.

  1.   Found You Sir as DigitalDeepak

I heard about you for the first time at an Online Millionaire Summit event and read your very first book called “How to get your Dream Digital marketing job”. This is exactly what I wanted at that moment. Because entrepreneurship is not an overnight success path. It requires consistent intentions and actions. After reading this practical book I took a bold decision to join a Digital Marketing job.

Started learning from your blogs and other good blogs and strived hard to gain a grip on writing content. And, finally joined a Digital Marketing job in Chennai city.

Digital Marketing is closely connected with entrepreneurship since it requires selling, marketing, and business skills. My conclusion was that if I do well in my job, I will do well as an online entrepreneur, as well. While doing my first Digital Marketing job, I started learning from more courses on your website to upskill my Digital marketing knowledge. I must admit you had a major role to play in my Digital Marketing career.

[smiles]

What describes Akshay? What do you have to offer to people?

Though I am in a full time Digital Marketing job, I always see myself as an emerging online entrepreneur. I read a lot of books. I am just walking on the shoulders of giants, those who already achieved everything I desire to achieve. I believe one can only offer one’s experience to other people.So, I will be offering my experience to other people in the field of online marketing and entrepreneurship.So, I am working hard every single day.

[applause]

How important is digital marketing for your business?

Without Digital Marketing I can’t even think about online entrepreneurship. Digital Marketing is the glue between producer and the customer. The year 2020 has already given us a hint about the importance of Digital marketing in the years ahead, 😂😂 Digital Marketing is a core of all businesses across the globe now. 😊 Compassion, Communication, and Consumer friendly Marketing abilities are foundational traits of Digital Marketing. I’ve practically observed this from you Sir.

[smiles]

Could you share your journey with us? Your life before and after the Digital Marketing Internship Program?

Your first book motivated me enough to join a Digital Marketing job. After joining a job my goal was to learn various areas of Digital Marketing, or Integrated Digital Marketing.  I was learning through the Digital Marketing mastery bundle. But the major issue was Digital Marketing can’t be learned through simply going through lecture videos. If you really want to learn Digital Marketing you need to IMPLEMENT what you learn. Once I was done with almost all courses of DM Mastery bundle, the announcement of the internship came. After thinking for a while, I gladly joined it. My main motive was to UPSKILL my Digital Marketing knowledge. And, DD internship became the major game changer in my existing career path. I gained a lot through the internship,

  • I created my first ever Ad-copy, where I tested my copy-writing skills.
  • I ran Facebook and Google Ads for the first time. Now it’s difficult to forget what I learned in the Facebook ads mastery course because I implemented my learning..
  • Conducted my first ever webinar.
  • Created landing pages and conducted lead generation campaigns to collect leads.
  • Last but not the least, I created my first ever eBook called “Untold Secrets of Digital Marketing career” and sold 16 copies within a month. That’s not all, since I was in Top-100 in all the assignments and among Top-25 in the overall batch performance, I received crazy bonuses from you too. 😄

Internship gave me hands on experience in doing the thing that I was longing to do…

Post the Internship, I am now placed as a Digital Marketer in a company, part of an enriching community that we batch-mates build naming it as DD Army :). Each day growing my contact list on social media with all my fellow learners and mentors being a part of it..

Yes, the internship was really a massive experience for me.

Probably I should write a full length book on my internship experience 😉

[Chuckles]

Do you think organic promotion is almost dead in major social media platforms? what’s your take on this?

No, I don’t think so. I believe things would die only when they are mishandled by some unskilled hands. Each and every aspect of Digital Marketing will continue to thrive, if handled by skilled hands.

[applause]

What is the most common reason for people failing/giving up?

There are 3 reasons in my view, which I’ve experienced  in my life:

  • The number one reason is Comfort zone. Comfort zone resists change.
  • Second reason is Lack of clarity on what we actually want in our lives.
  • And, the third reason is unwillingness to learn and grow. Some people wrongly assume that they already know it all and they don’t invest in their learning.

[applause]

What were the roadblocks, that you had to watch for?

It’s Comfort Zone…It is very dangerous. Once I stop learning, I will bounce back to the comfort zone of my job doing irrelevant things and wasting away time in petty entertainment. I may lose the track of my vision. Hence,  I’m always careful of my biggest roadblock which is  “Comfort Zone.”

How about something to help people to get started, What resources are available out there in the market?

Digital Marketing is special to me, since I am into the entrepreneurial path.  Otherwise, Digital marketing is just another career path, with not much uniqueness. Therefore, to be in the entrepreneurial path we all need to work on ourselves consistently. Let’s learn from globally recognized highly successful people such as Tony Robbins, Harv Eker, Robert Kiyosaki, Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar, Napoleon Hill and many more. I learn from all, but  follow Harv Eker, because my life shifted after his event.

With that we come to the next segment of our interview and that is “Candid talk” Are you ready?

Yes, Sir!

Great ! What hobby would you get into if time and money weren’t an issue?

GIVING. As I mentioned earlier, my objective is to solve the problems like poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, hunger, and so on. Honestly speaking if I have enough money and time, I’ll resolve these issues not only in India but across the globe. Therefore, my hobby is Giving 😊

What’s your dream car?

It’s BMW (Black Sapphire). I feel it suits my inner personality 😊

What is that one app, you can’t live without?

It’s Audible. I can’t imagine my life without the Audible app.

Finally, would you like to say something to our readers?

If you are new to Digital Marketing, work on your ‘Why’ sincerely. Our life is created by our choices, so don’t get into it unplanned.

How was your experience doing this interview?

After this interview I feel myself more accountable towards  my goals and visions. Whenever I get to interact with you through any medium, I always end up receiving a lot..

[smiles]

Thank You Akshay !

That was Great!, wishing you the best in all your future endeavours..

[smiles]

Thank you Deepak Sir for this great experience..

[cheers and claps]

Stay tuned for more!

You never know you could be the next one here!

Cheers,

Deepak Kanakaraju