Dejon is the 21-year-old Founder, who put his life savings into starting up Trend Watchers. After reaching over 50 million people through his own social platforms, Dejon now helps thousands of content creators go viral by taking advantage of internet trends. 

Can you tell our readers about your background?

Yeah, sure thing! Back in high school, I used to be a full-time YouTube creator. I did this for the majority of my sophomore year until my channel got demonetized. This forced me to look for other ways to earn money online so I tried dropshipping, real estate wholesaling, and starting a social media marketing agency. Unfortunately, all three of those failed.  

Before giving up on the concept of "entrepreneurship" I decided to give it one last shot. This new business I was creating is called Trend Watchers. It notified people about trends before they blow up. After focusing on Trend Watchers for the past two years, I’ve been able to help tens of thousands of creators on my platform. With the tools on my platform, my creators have been able to reach over 1 billion viewers with the trends we've issued. 

When you look at my story with a birdseye view, you’ll notice that I tend to focus on marketing alot. This is a skill that I have learned and polished throughout the years and plan on improving it even more. 

What inspired you to start your business?

I saw that a lot of creators were having a hard time going viral on platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. After reaching tens of millions of people with my personal brands, I was able to figure out a formula that was able to produce viral videos consistently. One of the key things within this formula was trending topics.

There are a few tools out there that help you find trending topics but none of them were designed for content creators which inspired me to create Trend Watchers. Trend Watchers was built to specifically help fill this gap within the marketplace.

 Where is your business based?

My business was created in Atlanta Georgia but I have things set up to where it can run 100% remote.

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

Starting Trend Watchers was easy due to my previous startup experiences. Within 6 hours, I was able to have my website up with Facebook ads ready to go. After my ads was turned on, I was able to get my first paying customers the following day.

The hardest part was developing my own software platform and building all the infrastructure for it. That was something I wasn’t familiar with and it took almost 2 years to really build out a system that not only gets our user's results but also flows really well.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

The one thing I did that helped me raise the most awareness for Trend Watchers was sending an email to every new user that signed up. Within this email, I would tell them my story. To make it more authentic, I included a picture of me and linked them to my Instagram where I interact with all of my users.

Adding this personal touch made it easy for me to build awareness. I also was able to get lots of press + word-of-mouth referrals. This marketing strategy has been my favorite so far.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

My biggest challenge so far was developing a software platform. I have never done that before and to make matters worse, I had a very small budget. To overcome this challenge, I first had to have faith and a creative mind to figure out solutions that would make my dream a reality.

To create the platform I first designed the entire thing by myself in images. Next, I connected all the images to create a prototype made out of images. After this was done I sent the prototype to a developer on upwork and he was able to turn my dream into reality for a couple thousand dollars.

What seemed impossible for my budget was able to be solved by me first having faith, then taking relentless action with some creativity.

How do you stay focused?

My favorite tactic for staying focused is setting goals. At the beginning of each year, I set my yearly goals then quarterly goals. After those are set next create monthly goals (as each month comes). After my monthly goals are set I set my weekly then daily goals. By setting goals for both the short and long-term allows me to know what I should be focusing on every single day.

In today’s age, it is really easy to get distracted by social media and all the other distractions. Having daily goals allows me to focus on the important first. 

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

One thing I do to make my business stand out is to share my everyday struggles and adventures on Instagram/email list. By being transparent, not only was I able to retain more paying customers but I also was able to build an awesome community that supports me. 

As far as my software, the thing that makes my business stand out from the competition is that we focus on content creators. All of our other competitors focus on different sectors such as venture capitalists and people that want to start a business.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?  

My most effective marketing strategy is to get dedicated YouTube influencer ads on YouTube. My theory was that if the entire video was a review of my platform, people would watch the video through, like what they see and sign up. If I only did 30-second ad integrations during a video people, would skip that portion to continue watching the video they were watching. But if the entire video was a review, there would be nothing to skip therefore they would watch the entire advertisement about my platform and sign up. 

This strategy helped me reach my first 5000 users on the Trend Watchers platform.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

My best piece of advice for new entrepreneurs is to just take action. Taking action puts you in a win-win scenario. If it works out, good for you! If you try something and it fails, from my experience most failures lead to another opportunity which makes this option a win scenario as well. 

My first couple businesses failed but all of them prepared me for when I created Trend Watchers. There was no way I was gonna find the idea for Trend Watchers on the first try but by me trying out other things, I eventually was able to find something that worked for me. The worst thing you can do is procrastinate. I would rather make the wrong decision and fail then to not try at all.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why? 

My favorite business book at the moment is the magic of thinking big. Every time I read that book, it always makes me feel like I am not doing enough. Not in a negative way but in an encouraging way that inspires me to think big so I can help even more people. It is really easy for us to get comfortable and keep things the same.

Whenever I read the magic of thinking big, it always helps me take myself to the next level.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

 My favorite business tool is probably Calendly. Whenever I want to speak to someone, I just send them a link to my personal calendar and I am able to speak with them on my time. Not only does this make setting up appointments a breeze but I also feel important by having people book times on my calendar.

Also having my own calendar makes me look a bit more professional. In the past I would always wing it by going back-and-forth asking what time works then trying to convert the time zones. Calendly does all this for me which is why it is currently my favorite business tool. Plus I love talking to people! 

Who is your business role model? Why?

Right now, my business role model is Sam Ovens. When I was 18 years old, I bought his $2000 program and it completely changed my life. I love how he looks at business with a scientific lens and makes things simple with systems and processes.

Just watching the way he runs his business and talks makes me look up to him.

How do you balance work and life? 

I balance my work in life by dedicating specific hours for working and dedicating other hours for socializing and personal time for myself. I personally like planning my days and weeks on a Google spreadsheet. This helps me know which critical tasks I need to complete for the day before I go out and have fun.

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

One of my favorite ways to decompress is to get a clipboard, an empty sheet of paper, and a pen. Next, I would go somewhere in nature for a few hours. By doing this, i’m always able to solve my problems by working  them out on the clipboard outside. I specifically like being next to water or by a great view because it clears my mind of anything that is stressing me out.

If I am unable to go outside taking a power nap often does the trick for me as well.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

For the next six months, I am planning on building out a sales team to help grow revenue exponentially. I spent the last two years building out infrastructure and processes and now is the time to really start expanding things both user and cash flow-wise.

How can our readers connect with you?

Here go the links to my Instagram & website. I am very response on Instagram if you would like to reach me!

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dejon_brooks/

Website - https://trendwatchers.co