Dustin Vann was born and currently resides in Birmingham, Alabama. Vann attended the University of Alabama where he studied business and marketing. He is currently the President of Digital and E-Commerce Ventures at local VC firm, Comer Companies. Additionally Dustin is the operating CEO of one of Comer Companies portfolio companies Trusy Social which he founded in 2019 in the Influencer Marketing industry.
Prior to his current position. Dustin spent 5 years working inside of creative agencies, freelancing for startups, and building startup businesses of his own in various industries.
His most recent venture, Trusy Social, has brought a fresh and unique opportunity to brands, businesses and influencers who are looking for a reliable path to substantial account growth and the ability to monetize their brand presence, primarily through Instagram and TikTok.
Since its inception, Trusy Social has serviced over 10,000 clients and worked with top influencers, brands and businesses to leverage their social media presence in order to gain massive followings, generate new business leads, facilitate influencer/brand partnerships and more.
In addition, through Trusy’s Celebrity Partnership service, Trusy has partnered it’s clients with some of the largest influencers in the world including: Cardi B, Floyd Mayweather, Jake Paul, Snoop Dogg and many more depending on the client’s specified industry and growth goals.
Why did you decide to create your own business?
The need for innovation in the Influencer Marketing industry was at an all-time high when we founded Trusy Social. We knew that with the right innovation, leadership, and development we could add a ton of value to the influencers, brands and businesses that we would get to work with. Having seen how large agencies treat ‘social media’ as a whole led us to create an alternative service agency that is ‘up the minute’ with every change and trend in the industry giving us the ability to provide our clients with the highest quality services in the industry.
What do you love most about the industry you are in?
Social media influencers have now moved into celebrity status. They can amass huge following and build big businesses from those followings and this is one of the most exciting things to witness in this industry. Everyone has witnessed a single piece of content that has made someone ‘famous’ overnight and completely changed that individual’s life. It is extremely rewarding to be on the forefront of this industry and help facilitate some of those experiences for people.
What does a typical day consist of for you?
A typical day for me consists of a pretty disciplined routine. I wake up at 4:15 every morning because it’s truly the only quiet and dedicated time I get to myself, during that time I am preparing myself for the day ahead through prayer and meditation, listening to or reading something relevant to what I am currently working on, and setting my intentions and expectations for the day ahead. By 6:45 I am out the door to the office, where I will work until 3:45, obviously the tasks vary day to day – But the primary focus of the day is to ensure that our team has the resources it needs to serve our client base and that we are constantly evolving as a company. I am usually home by around 4:15 and I spend the afternoon with my family.
How has your company grown from its early days to now?
The overall growth of Trusy Social has been substantial from its inception, but the day to day focus has overall remained the same: Continue to innovate and provide the best possible service we can to our clients. Sure, we have grown our employee count, our revenue, our client base, etc. But we still treat every day as day one, and every client that uses our service as if they are our only client.
We are now the largest influencer marketing growth agency in the world because of the focus we put on continued innovation and customer service.
How do you maintain a solid work life balance?
It’s very easy to let work overflow into home life, especially when office hours don’t really exist as an entrepreneur. So, I schedule my disconnects and downtime. My time at home is very important and most people know that for the most part I am completely unreachable from the hours of 5pm – 7am. This means: No phone, No computers out, No emails, etc.
What suggestions do you have for someone starting in your industry?
The entrepreneur’s journey as Elon Musk puts it is like “Staring into the abyss while eating shards of glass”, and you must learn to embrace the unknown, the uncertainty and being uncomfortable. It is in these situations that you will ultimately succeed or fail as an entrepreneur in any industry. I suggest that you get extremely comfortable with running through brick walls – over and over and over again.
What is one piece of advice that you have never forgotten?
“In this world, No one is coming to Save You” It echoes in my mind as a call to action. A lot of people are waiting to be rescued or waiting on something to happen that turns their situation around out of thin air. Fortunately this message is also very relevant to the clients we serve, We have the opportunity to work with ‘action takers’ who understand that in order to get ahead they have to put in the work and their willing to take the steps necessary to see success by using the services that we provide.
What’s one piece of advice you would give to others?
Don’t Quit. Plain and simple – I have given this advice to many people that have invited me to coffee to talk about an idea or a new business that they’ve started. You are going to want to quit, and sometimes it may be in your best interest to accept failure in one venture or pursuit, but if your goal is to be a successful entrepreneur you can’t let that one failure force you to quit. I’ve had my share of failures in life in business, but I have never given up, I’ve never quit. Trust me, you’re going to want to… Just don’t quit.