Immigrants Who Changed the Marketing World

Let's talk about diversity and immigrant success in the world. With recent events, immigration has been heavily thought about, Googled, and brought up at many not-so-ideal times, but it's a difficult subject for people of all industries and in all walks of life. In the world of marketing, many non-Americans have contributed to the industry, including some of the most successful people in the industry. Their contribution has molded the industry into what it is today, but this could not have happened if America was walled off from the rest of the world. Here’s a list of some of the most influential people in the marketing industry and coincidentally, most, if not all of them, are from countries all over the world.

Pat Flynn

Pat Flyyn is an entrepreneur, blogger, speaker and podcaster best known for his website Smart Passive Income. SPI has one of the most dedicated podcast fan bases in the world with millions of monthly listeners. Flynn was born in Connecticut, but his family is Filipino.  

Neil Patel

Neil Patel is probably someone you’ve heard of before. Patel is a is a NYT bestselling author and entrepreneur who has was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama. Patel is the co-founder of Crazy Egg, Hello Bar, and KISSmetrics. Patel was born in London, but raised in California.

Yanik Silv

Yanik Silver founded Maverick Business Adventures and Maverick1000 in 2008. Silver considers himself a serial entrepreneur and a self-proclaimed adventurist. Thus, he gave himself the idea to combine his love for the two. Before he became a successful entrepreneur, he started his businesses in marketing teaching physicians how to improve their sales. Silver was born in Russia and moved here with his parents when he was two.

Yaro Starak 

Yaro Starak is an Australian internet marketer, blogger and owner of the website Entrepreneurs-Journey.com, a blog about entrepreneurship, internet marketing, selling information online and personal development. Yaro has been creating, buying and selling internet assets since 1998. He teaches people how to make a full-time income from blogging part time through his Blog Mastermind coaching program and how to launch online membership sites through his Membership Site Mastermind course. He was born in Australia.

Gary Vaynerchuck 

Born in Babruysk, Belarus, Gary Vaynerchuck is now known as a serial entrepreneur, CEO, investor, author, public speaker, and internet personality. He got his start when he took over his father’s liquor store and through a combination of ecommerce, email marketing, and aggressive pricing, Vaynerchuk grew the business from $1 million to $50 million by 2005. He now owns several companies such as VaynerMedia, VaynerRSE, and VaynerSports.

Mari Smith

Mari Smith hailed by Forbes as a Top 10 Social Media Influencer, is a leading expert in Facebook marketing, an author of two books, and a speaker who has shared the stage with Richard Branson, the Dalai Lama, and Tony Robbins. She was born in Ontario, Canada.

Daniel Scocco

Born in Brazil but moved to Italy when he was 15. From there he attended Bocconi University where he obtained a degree in International Economics. He took a job, which he quickly resigned from a year later to start his own business in marketing building and managing blogs and websites. He then expanded his business once he started learning to code. Today he owns Online Profits LLC (his first company) and smartshop.com.br (a second-hand smartphone company that buys and sells old phones). Kubic was his app development company that he sold because he no longer enjoyed working on it.

Diversity (which stems from immigrants) contributes to a vital part of cultural, industrial, and economic development. These influencers have helped countless people around the world start their own businesses, including many Americans. By remaining a welcoming country and encouraging innovation and business growth from people of all backgrounds and origins, we can only continue to reap the benefits as an industry, and as a nation.

As an office made up of women from all backgrounds and corners of the globe, we take diversity pretty seriously. Have any questions about marketing or want to share your own story? Contact us here.