Alessandro Bogliari

Alessandro Bogliari is the CEO of The Influencer Marketing Factory, an agency that combines together Influencer Marketing and data optimization.

After a bachelor in Graphic Design & Art Direction, Alessandro changed his career path from the creative industry to digital marketing, graduating with a master degree in Digital Innovation & Management in Copenhagen, Denmark. Alessandro started his first startup, Milanoize, a website about his city Milan that became in just two years a 15-team project when he was only 19.

He specialized in the last years in growth hacking for B2B SaaS businesses and lately in B2C influencer marketing that became his core business. In his free time, Alessandro loves playing sports, going to modern art exhibitions and trying new restaurants and bars.

Where did the idea for your company come from?

After years working in the Digital Marketing space, I started looking at new possible acquisition channels raising in the industry and I recognized Influencer Marketing as a good combination of both brand awareness and targeted traffic/conversion channel.

What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?

I wake up pretty early, I drink an espresso (yes, I am Italian!), I make a veggie juice and I start checking my emails. After that, I prioritize all my tasks on Trello and I start organizing the day. Once at the office, I start communicating specific tasks to my team on Slack for the day to day operations. I work half a day standing and half a day sitting (I got this habit after my life and work experience in Copenhagen), it makes a huge difference in your body and your health.

How do you bring ideas to life?

I get ideas reading a lot of blog posts, business books, watching videos on YouTube or even tv shows on Netflix. Sometimes maybe I have an idea during an event or looking at a piece of art in an exhibition. Everything can give you a good idea when you are in the right mood.

What’s one trend that excites you?

Real influencers that can actually influence other peers. This has always been present in our society, before called word-of-mouth and now influencer marketing, but we finally can track it and show its power.

What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

Look back at myself of one year before and see my personal and business growth. I am always looking to be a better person and a better professional.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Focus on one, two projects max. When I was younger I was too excited for too many side- projects and I didn’t really focus on only one.

Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.

I understand people (if I can trust them or not) from their non-verbal gestures and face expressions and 90% of the times I am right, but the majority of the time I am not believed straight away.

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

Update yourself on a lot of things, not just related to your industry but in general. The day you are out of the loop of how things are running in the world, you are out of business.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

Find the right business partners. A referred client is 100X more valuable than a cold client that clicked your display ads.

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

My first startup when I was 19 has been a great success in terms of learning, fun, and leadership but it failed in terms of the business model: at that time I didn’t know how to monetize the business and I wasn’t able to pay the people, even if they were still happy to work for the project. So, in that case, the failure has been not being able to find the right revenue stream to make the business working by itself.

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

Focus on TikTok, its market is huge for marketing purposes and its audience is the next generation that will spend money on products.

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

Maybe for a Lego. It helps me to clear my mind and while you are building the construction you don’t have to be the adult entrepreneur that has to run a business. During those hours of Lego building, I only think about creating something like when I was a kid. And at the end of the process, you have a cool construction to show in your apartment.

What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?

Definitely Trello for tasks and deadlines organization. Having an overview of each project, specific tasks for each team member and timelines is crucial.

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

“The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F***”. It helped me in understanding that every person and every business might have hiccups, problems and complications, but that we have to face them with a problem-solving approach instead of being depressed about them.

What is your favorite quote?

“Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit”, a Latin quote that I personally translate in two different ways: the first is that nothing comes from nothing, meaning that everything becomes something else as the philosopher Parmenide used to say; the second meaning is that if you don’t work hard, things won’t get done by themselves: Work hard, play harder.

Key Learnings:

• Focus on one (or 2 max) projects and put all your efforts into it and be constant with it.
• Organize every project task by task and delegate them to your team with deadlines for each of them.
• Be always in the loop on what is going on around you in order to be updated and not run out of business.