Jason Portnoy

Don’t be scared or intimidated to do what you love, and don’t care what others think.

 

Jason Portnoy is a Montreal, Canada based entrepreneur, CEO and founder of JPORT Media. He is obsessed with using cutting-edge marketing to help companies take their awareness and revenue from good to great.

Jason has made a career out of working with brands and businesses who want to reach the next level but do not know how. He has helped scale products that are already generating revenue and helped brands launch from square one.

The journey of how Jason Portnoy became a master of online advertising started with his obsession to make his former business; clothing brand True Rivalry, into a success. Starting from nearly nothing, he was able to turn True Rivalry into a brand that was sold across 250 clothing stores in North America. The brand’s marketing was so successful that he ended up getting the attention and forming a close relationship with Shark Tank’s Daymond John.

Serving others has always been at Jason Portnoy’s core, which inspired him to start his consulting agency JPORT Media. He has built a reputation for himself as a marketing expert who is on top of the latest marketing strategies to increase business’s bottom lines. He has scaled multiple companies to 7+ figures in sales, including one client who he was able to grow from $2,500 in monthly sales to $300,000 monthly sales in under a year (while retaining a positive ROI), using paid media.

Understanding the issues that plague business owners, Jason runs JPORT Media with a belief in full transparency and empathy for his clients. Jason Portnoy is an entrepreneur who is driven by results more than profits. He is also the host of the Perfectly Mentored Podcast, providing “Your dose of high-level mentorship when you’re on the go.”

Where did the idea for your company come from?

While growing my clothing brand True Rivalry a lot of opportunities began opening up. Having the opportunity to build a relationship Daymond John was a very unique privilege which I am grateful for, and which helped me gain the confidence to pursue my purpose of helping other entrepreneurs by launching JPORT Media. I almost immediately began getting a lot of requests to do consulting for other companies. I love marketing and turned it into a business.

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

My typical days now revolve around growing the agency, serving my clients and working on their accounts. What that means changes day to day, but overall, it follows a pretty standard process. First we work to determine the perfect audience that we want to target and who will not just be interested in their product, but who is the most likely to actually buy it. This can be determined by researching similarities in their past client behavior, or just experimenting and tracking metrics. Once the audience is defined, we start developing creative assets, which can include photos, videos, and text descriptions of their products and services. Then JPORT Media sets up, launches and monitors their ads, cuts off losing campaigns, and scales winners. The entire process can be complicated but very exciting, especially when it is generating substantial results!
The rest of my time is spent working on my personal brand. I believe the best personal brands are built around delivering value to a targeted audience. I enjoy helping grow businesses, but I also enjoy working with entrepreneurs and helping other agencies learn and grow as well. The goal of my personal brand is to establish reputation and authority by creating and sharing knowledge and insights via multiple channels which includes social media, blogging and my podcast, the Perfectly Mentored Podcast.

How do you bring ideas to life?

I bring my ideas to life by following my strategy which consistently works. Start with defining and understand the audience. It is not about what you think is cool, it is about what the audience wants. Once the audience is defined, the next step I take to bring an idea to life is being creating advertising assets to use in ads. Once the assets have been created, the idea has been brought to life. There is more than just bringing ideas to life, these ideas also need to succeed.

What’s one trend that excites you?

The rise of social media agencies that can fully execute comprehensive marketing campaigns is an exciting trend. Agency was a very broad term in the digital marketing world, but there seems to be a rise in agencies focusing on not just creating content, but also connecting audiences and brands in new ways that were never possible before.

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

One habit I follow that helps me be a more productive entrepreneur is my addiction to learning. Instead of wasting time consuming content for entertainment or to pass time, I look at opportunities to absorb content and learn things that I can apply to my business, become a better entrepreneur, and add value to my clients. I have made a habit out of reading as much as possible. If I am not reading, I try to keep an educational podcast on in the background while I am staying productive.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Don’t be scared or intimidated to do what you love, and don’t care what others think.

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

School isn’t for everyone. This is probably one of the most controversial topics out there. I really am one of those people who believes that most people can do more following a life of self education rather than investing the time and money necessary to pursue a formal education. There are a lot of skills out there today that people can learn themselves and make a fortune with that they do not even cover in high schools or colleges.

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

I recommend that entrepreneurs never stop learning, and always be a student on the pursuit of becoming a master of your craft. I have seen two things happen to entrepreneurs and other business owners. The first is that they become very comfortable with where they are, and eventually get out paced by a competitor or fail because they were not paying attention and did not know how or when to adapt. The other is that they do not spend enough time mastering their craft, and constantly learning and improving and staying current. I consider it part of my job to be keeping up with trends and educating myself to best serve clients.

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

Documenting my journey as an entrepreneur is one strategy that has helped me grow JPORT Media. I document the journey through my podcast, and also through social media. Documenting how hard I work for my clients, as well as having a platform the showcase results, has been an effective way of growing the agency and attracting new clients.

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

As an entrepreneur, I fail almost every day. You overcome it by learning from it and moving on fast. Dwelling is poison.

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

I recommend all readers of this, regardless what industry they are in, go all in on Facebook ads to generate traffic for their business. I also recommend that they use LinkedIn to generate traffic organically. If you do not know what business to start, dedicate yourself to learning these two platforms, and then make a business out of teaching it to others. There is virtually limitless opportunity in being able to help people and entrepreneurs leverage social media to start or grow a business.

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

The best $100 I recently spent was on more books. I am always trying to get better and better, and consider myself a student of life. The only way to become a master at what you do, is to always be investing in learning and self education.

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

Trello. I absolutely love it for organizing things. As a busy agency owner, it is important to be able to plan projects and stay on top of those tasks.

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

10x Rule by Grant Cardone. Shows you how to reach big, dream big, execute big.

What is your favorite quote?

“I didn’t come this far, just to come this far” – unknown.

Key Learnings:

• Any business can be successful if you understand your audience, run the right ads to reach them, and fulfill with quality and care.
• The fastest way to grow a business today is with social media advertising.
• Never stop learning and focus on becoming a master.

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