Geoffrey Colon works at the intersection of marketing, tech, and popular culture. Data punk, DJ, podcaster, and author, Geoffrey is a communications designer at Microsoft, where he markets search advertising products for Bing. He has written for The Futurist, Advertising Age, and Fast Company, and been quoted in Forbes, Billboard Magazine, The Huffington Post, The Guardian and The Los Angeles Times. He has also appeared on Marketplace on NPR, WABC-AM and Cheddar TV.

Colon has written his first book Disruptive Marketing: What Growth Hackers, Data Punks, and Other Hybrid Thinkers Can Teach Us About Navigating the New Normal (AMACOM) out now on Kindle, Audio and Hardcover.

Prior to joining Microsoft in 2013, Geoffrey was vice president of digital strategy at Ogilvy & Mather and digital community supervisor at 360i in New York City.

Colon has done work with several influential brands including Spotify, Netflix, American Express, IBM, The Economist, USA Network, WWE, History Channel and Red Bull. He also worked with high profile music artists including Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, The White Stripes and Moby.

He is a graduate of Lehigh University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Geoffrey is host of the weekly marketing podcast for eccentric minds Disruptive FM, producer and host of video blog series The Disruptive Marketer and regularly writes on Branding Strategy Insider, Search Engine Journal, LinkedIn and the Bing Ads blog. He is an avid speaker on the global marketing conference circuit.

You can follow him on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter @djgeoffe or his website geoffreycolon.net

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

• How Geoffrey met his literary agent Wendy Keller
• Geoffrey’s background
• How to know whether or not you should be an entrepreneur
• The importance of pivoting to stay relevant
• Why Geoffrey wrote his book
• Why you need to try new things
• Why social media is now one of the best listening chambers available
• Geoffrey’s high school punk rock band -- and why that gave him the confidence to stand up in front of crowds
• Why you should learn a musical instrument -- even if you have no plans to perform it for anyone
• Two books Geoffrey recommends
• Why you don’t need to explain your whole business and should leave some curiosity out there

Ways to contact Geoffrey:

• Website: geoffreycolon.net
• Book: geoffreycolon.net/book
• Podcasts: geoffreycolon.net/podcasts

Resources:

• Book: "Future Shock" by Alvin Toffler
• Book: "The Art of Immersion: How the Digital Generation Is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories" by Frank Rose