The journey to becoming a Full Stack Marketer starts with Furlough. As a previous business owner in the food and beverage sector, who was looking to break into a new industry, I know that to make it work you have to prove your skill set to any potential clients or employers.

In a world filled with “guru’s” and “experts” cutting through the noise can be a challenge. 

That’s where Furlough comes in. The supportive community here along with the mentorship from entrepreneurs like Joe Casanova – has skyrocketed my growth to the point where I am now taking on paid clients. 

 

The best way to describe Joe is “The anti-guru, serial entrepreneur.” 

Being a seasoned business owner, Joe has a wealth of knowledge and experience behind him. The youngest of 5 children from immigrant parents, his story follows the typical entrepreneurial journey: full of ups and downs!

In business and life, everyone has the common ground of having to overcome challenges and adapt to new situations. Joe’s mom emigrated to the US through legal channels. His father on the other hand….

Was a pilot for the Cuban Regime. After the war he flew crop dusters and would log his fuel a bit less than what he actually had.

After a lot of perseverance, one day he has enough fuel in the plane. He took off and flew to Key West, Florida.

It’s the typical American Dream story with only a few bucks in his pocket!

Talk about adventurous! And as the saying goes, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!

If you look at life as if it’s a timeline, it’s full of ebbs and flows. 

Fast forward to Joe’s freshman year of high school. His father unfortunately passed away and left his mom some money. The family found fortune came, when they were hit by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

Turning Tragedy Into Opportunity. 

Joe’s dad had the idea of buying up all the destroyed properties and fixing them up. So when his dad passed his mom doubled down on the real estate venture because that’s the industry she knew.

As much as this seemed like the right choice at the time, they couldn’t have foreseen the 2008 mortgage crisis. An entrepreneur’s life is full of these struggles over time. As much as you’d like to have complete control over every situation this is an impossible task. 

The 2008 crash was a blow for so many people. There are so many occurrences that happen in a person’s life when the situation is out of their control. It can be a real test of strength and willpower to keep going! 

Joe’s family went from being rich, being poor, being rich and being poor again.

As an early investor in Bitcoin and Etherium, Joe has explored many industries and opportunities. This led him to pull some of his earnings out in 2016 to purchase his first boutique hotel in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico and then again in 2019, he made his second boutique hotel in Tulum.

It’s clear in an entrepreneur’s journey you have the ability to tolerate risk and uncertain circumstances! 

The fact that crypto currency went on a massive bull run and the hotel industry being destroyed by the pandemic is proof of this! 

The thing is, you have to keep going. You have to keep pushing forward. 

With slight depression, Joe hit the reset button and asked himself “what’s next?”

With money usually at the forefront, this time, he felt that he needed to chase something much bigger.

And so, the next mission began. 

With everyone selling online courses, programs and positioning themselves as “experts” and “guru’s,” Joe asked himself:

“What would happen if I did the same thing but just gave it all away for free?”

Who would have thought it was the best decision he made in his life. 

Furlough really is a great community. The fact that business owners, influencers and marketers can connect in real-time, grow and ultimately make money together is a very unique proposition. 

Building something from scratch which has never been done before takes a lot of perseverance.

Joe realised that in order to create a community you simply have to have your audience engage with each other.”

“I used to wake up every morning and the first thing I did was respond to all the messages in our discord server.

 One morning I woke up and saw that I didn’t have too because everyone already chimed in and answered all the questions.

 I still gave my two cents but that really was the first time I thought to myself — wow we really might have something here!”

His biggest “a-ha moment” was the first time he saw the Furlough community hit a critical mass. 

Furlough provides an escape from the guru trap. 

At the moment, the marketing and entrepreneur industry seems to be filled with newbies posing in front of exotic cars, selling a dream that they aren’t really living. 

It’s unfortunate because a true master is always a student and this industry seems to be filled with Guru’s trying to over complicate a service and hook you onto a retainer.

We have all noticed the other thing these guru’s do. They throw around lots of abbreviations when there isn’t really much of a standard, especially in the influencer space, to doing things.

Joe is known for coining the term “Full Stack Marketer.” But what exactly is that?

Full Stack Marketing is a simple process that should be applied to any digital venture.

It’s a strong web presence with SEO, brand presence with social media, nurturing your audience with remarketing, and growing your community with advertising.”

So why should someone become a Full Stack Marketer?

Marketing isn’t difficult and it is very complimentary to a lot of professions.

For example, if you’re a photographer and a full stack marketer you’ll be able to better present your brand and services to the world.

Some people have a great product or service they just don’t have any people to try them out.

If you’d like to learn more about what Full Stack Marketing is check out our guide. 

How can someone get involved and learn to be a Full Stack Marketer?

Being an autodidact, Joe and I are both students of Youtube University and Google’s search. The internet is a great resource for just about anything.

I don’t think you need to pay for courses to find information as someone possibly wrote a blog post covering the insights you’re looking for.

Courses are great if you want to set yourself up for accountability but if it is support you’re looking for, we’ve built a community that can help you along the journey. The best part is, we’ve made it completely free.

This community Joe has built has helped so many people already. We are a tight knit group and the opportunities and connections that have been forged are growing all the time.

In 10 years time Joe believes we will be using VR in our everyday lives a lot more and the community may even transition into some sort of metaverse. Futuristic right?

Imagine being able to walk into a boardroom in virtual reality and join in on a conversation of entrepreneurs discussing how they can grow their business.

“I believe that Furlough’s community and network would make a great place to socialize with other professionals in this metaverse. 

That’s where I see Furlough going, but we’re still a way to go!”

One of the best pieces of advice Joe has given me in my entrepreneurial journey is that:

Showing up is half the battle. 

Take small steps everyday towards the direction you want to go.

Never care about your client’s business more than your client.

Don’t be afraid to end projects that you’ve invested time and money into. Don’t work with friends but learn to make friends with your coworkers.

Read, test, experiment, and have fun.   

I think any aspiring influencers, brands and entrepreneurs can agree that this is useful advice. 

We are also both in alignment with the attitude that it’s much easier to push a product you believe in then one you are hired to do. That’s why Joe and I believe in Furlough and the community so much – because we would proudly be customers ourselves. 

We are really excited to see what the future of Furlough has in store.
Click here to begin your journey to becoming a fully fledged Full Stack Marketer.