Danny Morris, (B Mass Comm, 2011), is an alumnus with a full plate and a big heart.
A successful entrepreneur, Danny’s digital marketing journey accelerated when he moved to Silicon Valley in 2013, where he spent six years working and helping scale a start-up business. Alongside being a business owner, Director and family man, Danny still puts time aside time to mentor Murdoch students through the Launchpad program. He kindly reflected on his career path and the reasons he likes to pay it forward.
Can you tell us a bit about how you give back to the University through mentorship?
I’m currently helping as a mentor at the Murdoch Launchpad Program. I was introduced to the program when I first arrived back from the U.S in 2019 and was amazed to see, not only the high-quality program that was built, but the enthusiasm of the team that built and support it. This is my third year as a mentor in the program and I love being part of it. Working with students is something I hold very close to my heart.
What do you love about mentoring at Murdoch University’s Launchpad?
Firstly, I love the fact that a University would take that massive step of creating a stage and the right environment for students to build and work on a business idea. The part I love the most is listening to the students’ ideas, watching their ideas develop and supporting them when it comes to brainstorming, product, and process development, and helping in any way to take their idea to the next level. Mostly, I enjoy watching the sense of achievement felt by the students.
You clearly have a full plate as a business owner and Director. Many people with such a busy schedule would say they don’t have the time to mentor/volunteer. What would you say to those people?
I think the entire world is busy. For me personally, I set aside a certain percentage of the business time every month and reserve it for giving back to the community. It’s also given me the opportunity over the years to work on some great projects. As far as a full plate goes, as Iong as I can keep the priorities in place, it works well.
What are some of your achievements that you look back on with pride?
I first arrived in Perth in 2007 (I grew up in Israel) and began studying at Murdoch in 2009. Completing my degree with English as a second language was no easy task. I helped to grow a start up in Silicon Valley from four employees to 25+. I moved with my family back to Perth (my wife and two young boys, 6 and 4) and I started my own digital marketing business and supporting small family businesses in Australia and globally to share their stories and grow online organically. Lastly, I published a book in my early 20s titled Behind the Fence, based on my lived experiences in the military.
Where did your passion for people and marketing begin?
I would say traveling from a young age gave me the opportunity to meet people from all walks of life, different cultures, and backgrounds. The things you can learn from just sitting with people and listening is incredible. Not sure where or when the passion for people started, but I seemed to have always enjoyed it. With marketing, I studied Journalism at Murdoch and always enjoyed writing and content creation. It was only in 2013 when my wife and I moved to the U.S and I joined a start-up there that I was truly exposed to digital marketing and the impact it can have on a business when done right. As our business was scaling, I was given the opportunity to build and direct the account management team. That’s when I realised that the mix of building a team, working with people, and digital marketing was a perfect combination.
What do you love about working with video?
The fact that it gives everybody a voice and that it helps tell a story in a timeframe that will match people’s attention span these days. A person or business can reach their target audience and convey a message within a few minutes. It creates a massive opportunity and evens up the playing field, allowing all business sizes to compete.
What was your experience like in Silicon Valley? What were you doing there? What did you learn? How different was it from Perth?
It was an incredible experience. The first days in California were a little intimidating, living and working while surrounded by the offices of tech giants such as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and others. I learnt fast through the opportunity that comes with that and we really enjoyed our five and a half years over there. We eventually came back to Perth, wanting to raise our children in WA.
In California, I was working with a start-up (fourandhalf.com) where we specialise in digital marketing for property management companies, helping them scale their businesses through an organic digital presence. Joining as the fourth team member, it gave me the opportunity to learn an incredible amount about scaling a business, building processes, products, digital marketing, and teams in a fast-paced environment. I also learnt how to respond to an email within ten minutes of receiving it (joking, but seriously).
It was also my first job where I got to sit and work extremely closely with our CEO and learn a business mindset. I spent years taking down notes and learning as much as possible.
Something breaks every day. It’s about how it gets fixed. If we come to work with that mindset and expectation, building and fixing becomes much easier.
I miss the two-hour Amazon delivery, not so much the traffic.
What piece of advice would you give to a graduate who was looking to enter your industry?
Firstly, I would ask the following:
Why? There could be many answers to that but if the why is clear, it will help guide them. Ask yourself why you’re doing it. I don’t think there are too many wrong answers to that, but I certainly think the ‘why’ helps with direction and goal setting.
Then, I would say that digital marketing is a very broad term and big world, so I would suggest starting by finding which parts of it makes you happy and see if you can build a business around that.
Also, don’t be intimidated by the ads you see on social media of marketers telling you how successful they are while sitting on a private plane. It’s often a green screen behind them. Lastly, build your digital marketing business around honesty, transparency, and the actual passion to deliver a good product or service. If you’re doing it just so you can invoice, I wouldn’t recommend it. Do something that you care about. It makes it a lot more fun getting out of bed every day.
What’s next for you?
Continuing to help small family businesses build their digital presence and tell their story and I have a goal of teaching or tutoring in the future. Plus a few other projects in which I probably shouldn’t jinx by talking about them!
