Market Ease Digital was founded by CEO, Mr Binh An Nguyen, in 2006. In the last decade, Binh and his team have helped several medium and large companies in Australia sell billions of dollars worth of products and services, through the leverage of digital media.
Binh’s personal journey has certainly been a unique one. “When I started the business 16 years ago, I had nothing. Naivety, no contacts and no experience. To start at the beginning, I was born in Vietnam and moved to Australia when I was 8 years old. We came here with nothing, after escaping the war. My father had been in jail for most of my childhood and to find a way out we had to bribe the guards to let my dad out. We managed to escape to Ho Chi Minh City and hid there for several months while waiting for our visa to be approved. Over the years we were taught that if you wanted something, you needed to make it happen for yourself. At university I studied and worked on the side, in different jobs from data entry to farms to factories and kitchen hand - most paying around $8 an hour. I then decided to start my own business and this never sat well with my parents. My father's generation had an average life expectancy of 50 years and one night my father was rushed to hospital and my mother asked me to return to university so as not to stress my father further. I returned to university and once he recovered, I quit again. I prefer the practical side of things. When I quit university the second time, my father was upset about the decision. He wasn’t there for a lot of my childhood but he was a very well respected man especially in our community. He had survived very challenging circumstances including a near death experience where his work van had been bombed, I felt conscious not to disappoint him. In 2006 I started my business and I used my dad as my motivation to succeed. I wanted to prove to him and to myself that I could find success and fulfilment without going to university, without working my way up through the corporate ladder, that I could just do something and not follow the traditional path. Fast forward to today and we have a reasonable business that we run”.
One of Binh’s strategies is his commitment to continue to learn and up-skill. “A part of our success as a business has come because I am a natural sponge. Anyone in my Syndicate will concur that I always want to learn and absorb as much as I can. Even though my education doesn't stem from the normal University path, I am always seeking out education through books, people, seminars, courses - not just through text books. Having a curious mind has led me to explore and understand all areas of business; not just marketing”.
Binh is regularly invited to share his knowledge on stage at business events around Australia, including The CEO institute, CPA Australia, and the Marketing and Communications Executives International.
When it comes to passion, Binh reflects on one of his key values, integrity. “We are in digital marketing and the entry level is low. Unfortunately there are a lot of cowboys and unethical operators in the industry and mostly they focus on their own rewards rather than helping others. I am passionate about changing the industry, letting the success of our clients tell our story and hope to transform the industry by leading by example. Our systems and approach is based on data science. Using factual information, a lot of the guess work can be eliminated and our clients achieve high levels of success as a result. Whilst the organic approach is a good approach, you are still leaving things to chance. Our system aims to remove the uncertainty and unpredictability of business growth”.
Challenges have been many according to Binh. One of the greatest challenges that comes to mind is the campaign he and his team ran for Barack Obama, dubbed the Obama phone. “The Obama administration had a program where anyone with a low socio-economic status could obtain a free phone from the government. That campaign received a lot of media coverage and as a result, did really well. The downside was that the campaign managers wanted more access to me personally which meant I was up at all hours of the day and night for months due to the time zone difference. During the evening I would chat to people in America and then during the day here in Australia. At that time we had clients in five different countries. Unfortunately my mental health and physical health became an issue and it was then I decided to, over time, limit our client base to Australia rather than overseas”.
Binh believes the key to success is building a business and an environment that is not dependent on the Founder. “Each staff member has to be able to make empowered decisions. I am a firm believer that you alone can do it, but you can’t do it alone. You need to leverage the resources around you. We create an environment where our staff are empowered, where they have the opportunity to grow, they have the autonomy to make decisions, and the supporting environment to be able to develop into who they aspire to be. Success in any field is in being able to help others succeed and if possible be more successful than you”.
“I believe true creation will have its own life without you. It must live on and grow even when you're not there”.
“I love talking to other business leaders. How they think, what their approach is, their strategies and what they might do to tackle an issue. One thing I didn’t realise I would receive from being a member of The CEO Institute, that has been really valuable, is being able to see from the lens of a CEO that was not a Founder. Being able to understand what drives them, what frustrates them etc. has been valuable because they have a completely different perspective. It has changed my view point on a number of different issues”.
“When you are at the top of your organisation, the people you can talk to that understand what are you are going through, are limited. That could be because of their position or their role, and I am conscious not to overshare the problems and have that form our conversations. The CEO Institute provides me with other leaders who I can talk to, share problems with and getting another perspective on how they would deal with it. I see The CEO Institute as an advisory board - many different ways to look at an issue from people with different experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives. It stops you from being fixated and one dimensional”.
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