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Here at the Inner Edison Podcast, we often say that our greatest results often come out of our greatest failures.

That was the topic of this week’s podcast with Mario Nawfal. Mario is a serial entrepreneur with over 15 worldwide companies and the CEO of NFT Technologies.

We sat down and talked about growth hacking, entrepreneurship, and his greatest Edison moment. Read on to learn more about what he said.

An Introduction to Growth Hacking

The words “life hack” get thrown around often these days. It’s become a synonymous word with finding a more efficient way to do something. Mario says growth hacking is similar to that. Instead, it’s for businesses.

Growth Hacking is using systems, analytics, and marketing to help businesses grow and scale. Mario says part of the strategy is to use marketing to send out targeted messaging. When you’re targeting someone in a strategic way, it hardly ever comes across as spam.

Another common way to do growth hacking for businesses is through Google. Did you know Google uses over 200 ranking factors to rank websites?

Knowing the exact parameters and how to strategically use them can make you a valuable growth hacker for businesses stuck in the dumpster bin of Google pages.

How I Got Into Entrepreneurship

Mario explains that the moment that made him stop what he was doing in life (going to college) and become an entrepreneur was after watching an interview with Farrah Gray.

In the interview, Farrah explained how he became a millionaire at the age of 15. Mario remembered thinking that if he can make a million before getting out of high school, why do I need college? He quit the next day and started his first job.

He sold water filtration systems door-to-door and learned how to sell. He credits this job with helping him learn how to understand people. When you speak to people face-to-face, he says you learn how people think, their emotions, and how to sell.

It helped him understand a crucial part of his success, learning about copywriting and learning what to say at the right time to trigger an emotional response to buy. He’s used that skill in his 15 worldwide businesses as a serial entrepreneur.

My Edison Moment

Mario was quick to say that he has them all the time and left this advice for listeners.

“It’s okay to make mistakes. Just learn from them. I make mistakes all the time! Making mistakes two or three times is just stupid. If you can, learn from others’ mistakes. It will save you tons of time!”

He also mentioned that making mistakes is part of being an entrepreneur and seeing what works.

One mistake he’s still learning: to not rush into entrepreneurial ventures when he sees something promising.

Mario shared a couple of times when he was quick to jump in and make noise on a new platform only to get backlash from other users and moderators. A prime example was the new social media network Clubhouse.

When it first came out, Mario quickly jumped in and asked the moderators how he could join and support the platform. He created a LOT of noise in very little time, which led to users getting the wrong impression about him.

He mentioned that moderators then started banning him from chat rooms, making it hard for him to engage on the network. Eventually, he worked slowly to build back his reputation through connecting with users to grow organically.

He become one of the top people on the platform. It was a valuable lesson for him and one that paid off in the long run.

What Can You Learn From Your Mistakes?

Mistakes. We all make them, but some of us don’t learn from them. Others find Edison moments where mistakes propel them to greater understanding.

What are some of your Edison moments?