Nicholas Brill

Nicholas Brill is the founder and CEO of Brill Marketing. Brill started Brill Marketing in 2017 and has grown to become a top-ranking marketing company, with more than 5o corporate clients. Brill credits his success to his skills and experience. In his undergrad, Brill did a degree in business administration with a major in marketing. He then pursued an MBA, focusing on marketing and strategic planning. Upon completing his studies, Brill landed a job at one of the top marketing and P.R. firms in New York City. Brill was so good at the job that he quickly rose through the ranks. By the fifth year at the job, Brill had made it to top management. At this point, he felt the need to try out a new challenge and formed Brill Marketing. Leveraging his skills and the experience he garnered on the job, Brill has grown Brill Marketing into the respectable marketing firm it is today. Besides work, Brill also doubles up as a philanthropist. He is always active in charity events, especially those touching on the homeless and needy children. It makes him feel good knowing he is touching a life with his deeds.

Where did the idea for Brill Marketing come from?

I studied marketing at the university and did the same for my MBA. My academic credentials got me a job at one of the largest marketing firms in New York. I worked there for 5-years, and by the 5th year, I felt like I needed a new challenge. I decided to get into business and start my own firm. Being an expert in the world of marketing, it was pretty natural for me to transition to the world of business. That’s how Brill Marketing was launched, and 5-years later, I love where I am at, helping business people make strategic marketing decisions and optimize their product offerings for sustainable growth.

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

My typical day entails handling regular office work in the morning, then meeting existing and potential clients in the afternoons. To make my day productive, I make sure that all the routine office stuff is off my desk by 11 a.m. This includes doing what I have to do by myself and delegating the rest to my team. This gives me the space to meet clients and catch up with industry peers on the latest in our industry. This approach has helped me grow my network of clients significantly in just a few years. It’s a strategy that I would urge all entrepreneurs to try out.

How do you bring ideas to life?

Whenever I get an idea, I throw it out there to my team and friends within the industry. Most people don’t do this out of fear that their ideas will be stolen. I believe it’s the best way to know whether an idea is worth anything. Besides, ideas are pretty worthless until implemented. Anyway, once I get the idea out there and love the feedback, I implement it. I have implemented a couple of ideas successfully using this approach.

What’s one trend that excites you?

I am very excited about the power of influencer marketing. It started off a few years ago, and today it has become one of the most powerful ways for companies to reach their clients. I find influencer marketing exciting because it opens a whole world of opportunities where companies can give their products a personal touch while reaching millions of people at the same time.

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

That would be my love for technology. Technology is moving exponentially, and for anyone who implements it well, productivity is by default always guaranteed to go up. In my case, I am constantly on the lookout for the latest technologies that apply to marketing. So far, I have implemented a couple of them, and I am happy with the results.

What advice would you give your younger self?

I would tell my younger self to be bold enough to focus on a goal no matter what distractions come up along the way. When you are young, you have awesome ideas, but naysayers plant doubts in your mind. Only those who are strong enough to follow their dreams without distractions make it in the world of business.

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

Besides marketing, I am hugely fascinated by space-related stuff. I am one of those people who believe that SpaceX will be the first company to land human beings on Mars and that it will happen before 2030. Most of my friends think this will never happen, at least not before the 2050s. However, if the latest space events are anything to go by, then chances are that it will happen. A few years back, no one believed reusable rockets would be a thing, but here we are.

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

I read a lot, and I am always looking for new stuff to read, especially anything that is marketing-related. Only through reading do you get insights that can help you understand potential changes in your industry and prepare for them before they happen. Information is power, and the best way to get it is by creating a habit of reading.

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

My strategy is simple, to always have an information edge over my competitors. I have leveraged technology a lot to achieve this goal. My team is not just made up of marketers. Most of our staff are I.T. guys, especially guys who understand data analytics. This way, we are able to understand trends before they blow up and share the same with our clients. I believe this strategy is working, as our client base is up by over 400% since we launched 5-years ago.

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

When I was starting out, I got ambitious and expanded too quickly. I opened multiple offices in months, yet the business was still too young to sustain them. The overheads were much higher than what I was making within a year. I was forced to close most of the branches after coming close to bankruptcy. I learned always to let the business grow organically and expand based on well-thought-out business metrics.

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

That would be something to do with creating web 3.0 apps. This is an industry growing fast, but it is still in its early days. I believe anyone who learns the requisite skills and jumps in now will reap big long-term rewards.

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

I bought some clothes and gave them to a homeless man who I see every day when going to work. The happiness on his face when he received the gift is out of this world. It made me feel good as well.

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

I use Trello to distribute work to my team and Slack for everyday team communication. Both are highly efficient and help me stay up to date on what everyone at the office is doing.

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

I would recommend “Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones.” It is a book that teaches you how to make changes to your lifestyle that will ultimately change your life for the better.

What is your favorite quote?

I am not a big fan of quotes, but one that I find interesting is, “Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts” by Winston Churchill. It is a quote that reminds me always to take risks since even if I fail, I can always try again and succeed.