"Going in one more round when you don't think you can, that's what makes all the difference in your life".
Danavir Sarria is a growth consultant with 11 years of digital marketing experience. He specializes in helping 7 and 8 figure eCommerce brands grow with performance marketing through his agency, SupplyDrop.
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Table of Contents
Let’s start with a brief introduction first. Introduce yourself to our readers.
Danavir Sarria: Hi, my name is Danavir Sarria and I run an eCommerce email marketing agency called SupplyDrop. We help 7-8 figure brands turn email into their most profitable marketing channel. Some clients we’ve had in the past include Kettle & Fire, Fangoria, and Lensabl.
Our audience is interested to know about how you got started in the first place. Did you always want to become a CEO or was it something you were led to? Our readers would love to know your story!
Danavir Sarria: I started my journey 12 years ago when I was just 16 years old. I spent the majority of my time as a freelancer. However, SupplyDrop is only about 2 years old. I started it because I made the switch from helping online course founders as a freelancer to building my eCommerce brand. Unfortunately, my eCommerce business failed. I wanted to stay in the eCommerce world though and since I already had experience as a freelancer, I decided to start an eCommerce marketing agency. Ever since I was a little kid, I always wanted to own my own company. So by the time I realized it was possible to start an online business at home without much of a startup budget, I went all in.
“Selfmade” is a myth. We all received help, no doubt you love to show appreciation to those who supported you when the going got tough, who has been your most important professional inspiration?
Danavir Sarria: I’ve received so much help from people I’ve met on my journey, but the biggest by far has been my parents. It’s an unfair advantage to have parents who pay off college for you and let you live at home without having to pay for anything. This allowed me to make a ton of mistakes with very few consequences. Years later, I can say without a doubt that if it wasn’t for my parents, it’s unlikely I would have had the time I needed to explorer all of my strengths, interests, and opportunities.
How did your journey lead you to become a CEO? What difficulties did you face along the way and what did you learn from them?
Danavir Sarria: I became a CEO because I didn’t want a job, period. I’m very much the type to work 60 hours a week for myself rather than 40 hours a week for someone else. With that said, I knew that I valued myself more than anyone else valued me and the only way I could turn that realization into money was if I build my own business.
There have been a ton of challenges along the way, but I would say the biggest that always bothered me the most was the idea of “passion”. It’s sold that you should find something you’re passionate about and build a business around it. However, all the things I was good at were not the things I was passionate about. Eventually, though, I realized that I had to follow my effort because it was still better than having a job. And when you fail over and over again, it gets easier and easier to focus on things that bring in money.
Tell us about your company. What does your business do and what are your responsibilities as a CEO?
Danavir Sarria: I run SupplyDrop. We do full-service eCommerce email marketing for eCommerce brands. By full service, I mean everything from strategy and calendering to creative and Klaviyo management. When you hire us, we’ll become your in-house email marketing team and our job is to help you generate 30% of your total revenue from email. As CEO, my job is to bring in clients and manage the people who deliver the service. This means I do all the lead generation, sales, and hiring.
What does CEO stand for? Beyond the dictionary definition, how would you define it?
Danavir Sarria: Honestly, it should stand for “Chief Everything Officer”. My job is to make sure the entire operation runs as smoothly as possible. And if something goes wrong, then it’s all my fault as well. Ultimately, being the founder and CEO means I will care more about my business than anyone else, so I’ve done just about every job in the agency multiple times whenever the need for it arises.
When you first became a CEO, how was it different from what you expected? What surprised you?
Danavir Sarria: Considering I’ve never had a regular job, I didn’t have anything to compare it to. What surprised me the most was when other people got involved, such as freelancers, employees, promotional partners, and others. It’s one thing to run a business where you only rely on yourself and one where you rely on other people. Because once other people are involved, you can’t just make everything about the spreadsheet.
Now you have to manage people who have hopes, dreams, feelings, stresses, and other emotional statuses. This matters even when you’re dealing with contractors. It surprised me just how complicated it was to keep people happy in a professional setting, especially when you can’t shower your workers with money as a Fortune 500 company can.
There are many schools of thought as to what a CEO’s core roles and responsibilities are. Based on your experience, what are the main things a CEO should focus on? Explain and please share examples or stories to illustrate your vision.
Danavir Sarria: The CEO’s job is to make sure the business runs smoothly. This primarily means that they must keep an eye on what’s keeping the business profitable. So if you’re an eCommerce brand looking to bring manufacturing in-house so you can improve the economics of the business, then it’s the CEO’s job to be able to decide to go forward with this idea or not.
Share with us one of the most difficult decisions you had to make for your company that benefited your employees or customers. What made this decision so difficult and what were the positive impacts?
Danavir Sarria: Agencies can be stressful businesses to both the founder and the employees, particularly when there are clients who demand a lot with very little notice. When we were growing, we did everything almost overnight and took on anyone we could at any time. This made it easy to say yes to everyone. Now, I’ve set up the business to be much more selective with who, what, when, and how we’re doing our work. Today, my employees don’t have to worry about being worked to the bone.
How would you define success? Does it mean generating a certain amount of wealth, gaining a certain level of popularity, or helping a certain number of people?
Danavir Sarria: Personally, success in entrepreneurship is freedom. I want just enough money to do the things that I want, while also avoiding doing all the things I don’t want to do. So if I don’t want to work on a Friday, I don’t have to. If I want to splurge on a vacation, I should be able to. And if I can do everything on my terms, then I’ve won. I don’t need millions of dollars. I want time.
Some leadership skills are innate while others can be learned. What leadership skills do you possess innately and what skills have you cultivated over the years as a CEO?
Danavir Sarria: I’m very good at talking to people on a personal, 1 on 1 basis. I’m a very good listener, I ask the right questions, and I do a pretty good job of relating to other people. What I’ve had to learn to control though has been bad decision-making. I’ve realized I’m very bad at making quick decisions. I need to think this over and look at problems with fresh eyes for me to make the best possible decision.
How did your role as a CEO help your business overcome challenges caused by the pandemic? Explain with practical examples.
Danavir Sarria: When I started SupplyDrop, it was originally an ad creative agency. However, the country started to shut down just a few weeks later. Considering ad creative is one of the few services that require people in close quarters to do the filming, I had to pivot the business to something that could be done digitally. So I pivoted SupplyDrop to specialize in just eCommerce email marketing.
Do you have any advice for aspiring CEOs and future leaders? What advice would you give a CEO that is just starting on their journey?
Danavir Sarria: When you’re in a position of power, your sense of reality will be warped, especially when you’re under pressure to perform. Always remember though that other people matter and you need to do your best to be as relatable as possible. You need to do much more listening than talking. You need to be more patient than before. And you need to connect with your workers at a deeper level than what most CEOs are ok with.
Thank you for sharing some of your knowledge with our readers! They would also like to know, what is one skill that you’ve always wanted to acquire but never really could?
Danavir Sarria: Accounting is one skill that would have helped me so much through my journey, because if the math doesn’t work, then the business won’t work. Alas, I’m the worst at math and I can’t stand looking at spreadsheets. Even though I’m CEO, I hate small details and there is nothing more “small details” than line items. I have improved though. I’m just not as good as I wish I was.
Before we finish things off, we have one final question for you. If you wrote a book about your life today, what would the title be?
Danavir Sarria: ‘One More Round’
My favorite quote came from Rock 4 where Rocky says, “Going in one more round when you don’t think you can, that’s what makes all the difference in your life”.
Larry Yatch, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Danavir Sarria for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Danavir Sarria or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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