Vaughndre Henry: The marketing prodigy you didn’t know you needed (but you do!)
Vaughndre Henry may be young, but he has accomplished more in 24 years than many of us accomplish in a lifetime. Vaughndre has been running his own marketing agency for over 4 years now, working with a variety of clients, from small businesses to some of the largest influencers in the world. All you have to do is sit in on one of Groundwork’s marketing lab’s to know how knowledgable Vaughndre is about his profession. He is always up for a chat or to throw a few darts, and is more than willing to give out some key marketing advice in a pinch. We are so happy to have Vaughndre in our Groundwork community, and look forward to watching him continue on his path to further success. Read on to find out more, from what keeps Vaughndre focused to who inspires him.
What is your profession?
I run my own Digital Marketing Agency – Syren Digital. I started the business officially back in January 2022 after several years freelancing, and the experience so far has been amazing.
Describe a typical work day for you.
Every day, my job is to make sure all of my clients marketing objectives and goals are being met and exceeded. Typically, my day consists of meeting with clients to talk through strategy with them, creating their landing pages & other marketing assets, and assessing their performance and return on investment into their marketing.
What’s the biggest challenge you face in your job?
In marketing, you have to prove your worth month in and month out. The most challenging part of my job is making sure that my clients get $2, $5, or sometimes even $10 or $20 back from every dollar they invest into marketing.
It’s a lot of analysis, a lot of planning, and a lot of uncertainty. Over the years I’ve been able to come up with my own frameworks and strategies to make sure we always hit the mark, but marketing is a creative business – so nothing is ever guaranteed. You always have to be on the ball.
Do you have a morning routine?
I typically wake up around 5am, and the first thing I always do is make my bed.
From there, I hop in the shower, have some supplements, and check my Slack/email for anything that might be urgent. I double check all of my clients’ analytics, and write down any additional action items from the day.
I’ll make sure my team has their action items for the day as well, and then I’ll start working on my action item list and see where the day takes me.
What are your favorite productivity tips or hacks?
Using my iPhone “focus” settings has been a game changer.
During the work day, I have a “Work” preset where only Slack, Asana, and other work-related apps can make my phone buzz. I’ll check my texts at lunch and spend maybe 10 mins texting back to anything urgent.
When I really need to focus and I’m in the zone, I have a preset called “Album Mode” – where nothing except for double phone calls or calendar notifications will wake my phone. The phrase comes from the music industry, where you typically won’t hear from artists (primarily rappers) when they’re locked in, focused on finishing their albums. It’s kinda synonymous with the idea of “deep work.”
What do you listen to during the day?
It kinda depends on how I’m feeling and what I’m working on.
If I have a lot of writing to do, I’ll listen to maybe ocean/rain sounds or lofi hip hop – the main point being that there are no words to it. This will help me stay focused and I don’t have any lyrics distracting me as I write.
If I’m working on anything else, anything goes. Typically I’ll listen to a lot of Drake and The Weeknd on a normal day. If I’m feeling like I need to be pumped up, I’ll listen to more Pop or House artists.
How do you benefit from using a coworking space?
The one thing that was missing when I was working from home was the dedicated space just to work and be productive. Even though I had an “office” at home, it was easy to get distracted. Being at Groundwork has given me a place that’s super aligned with my goals and helps me focus.
The other thing that I’ve loved is the sense of community – which is hard to come by in my line of work unless you’re working for a big agency. I love seeing everyone at Groundwork working on their projects and having small chats with the members throughout the day.
What’s in your digital toolbox?
Asana is my favorite tool to manage all of the projects I’m working on and plan for the future. It’s great to make sure I get everything taken care of on the day to day and plan ahead as well.
Databox is a bit pricey, but I have a birds eye view of everything happening with my clients’ marketing analytics all in one place. Every morning, I get a Slack Message with the updated metrics of how all my clients’ various accounts are doing and what the trends look like. It’s been a game changer for me.
I’m building some amazing landing pages and websites using Webflow at the moment too. I’ve used every website builder out there, and nothing compares to Webflow.
What (or who) inspires you?
In my family, my Mom, Dad, and my Uncle inspire me to become the best man I can be. Outside of my immediate family, my late friend Tucker is someone that still inspires me to this day.
My mom has true grit – and she always did her absolute best to provide me with opportunities to succeed and never once got complacent. She always pushed the envelope and fought hard to give me the best life she could. She’s one of the smartest and hardest working people that I know, and she always supports me in everything I do.
My dad showed me what being a father and a husband is really about, and I hope to be as great of a man as he is one day. I’m only 24 and I’ve got big shoes to fill, but he always showed me what it would take to become the man he knew I could be, and I work toward that every day. He taught me a lot of hard lessons and showed me the way, and he is always there to give me advice when times get tough.
My uncle has always been one of the closest people to me – and he’s somebody I look up to a lot. He and I are 10 years apart, and some of my fondest childhood memories are from the time we spent together. I admire him for his insane work ethic and his perseverance through all types of adversity. He’s a police officer in the city, has served in the military for more than 10 years, and he’s grown into an amazing family man.
Tucker was like the older brother I always wanted. He believed in me more than I believed in myself, and he taught me to have confidence in myself to chase my dreams. He passed away right after we graduated high school, and it hit me super hard. As I get older, I try to honor his memory by working hard, believing in myself, and always remembering to “be nice” as he would often say while he was alive.
Vaughndre gets his work done in a private office at our New Bedford location. If you are looking for private office space, check out our current availability.
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