You see that guy right there?
Attempting to entertain you with unoriginal phrasing in a vein attempt to win your approval and entice you to read the rest of my life's story?
Well, that guy's actually me. Believe it or not.
I bet you're wondering how I got in this wacky situation?
It all started back in the Fall of 2012...
The year was 2012.
I was quietly contemplating the puzzling prospect of cultivating currency while in High School.
My resume containing 0 work experience for the past 14-years, no degrees or certifications, and my tendency to write poorly constructed attempts at alliteration meant I had a lot of options.
So, I did what everyone who's desperate for money does.
I Googled "how to make monies online"
The results were ripe with scams 100% legitimate opportunities.
So many ways to become a millionaire. From filling out surveys, multi-level marketing, money printing machines, entry-level home employment for $50,000/week.
Jackpot.
I knew it was all 100% real because every page had someone holding proof, a lot like this.
No way someone could fake something like that!
Rather than take the easy route to riches, I signed up for article writing services.
Basically, you get to write content for often less than $0.01 a word.
Through this bountiful endeavor, I discovered "SEO content"
AKA: stuff these 3 phrases into my 500 word article 5 times each so I can get some of that sweet sweet Google juice.
Naturally, this introduced me to the concept of SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
I read maybe 1-2 articles on the topic then forgot all about it for a couple years.
Fast forward a couple years.
It's now 2015. I'm 17, halfway through college, and working in corporate America.
As you can see, my life wasn't going anywhere.
Corporate bureaucracy wasn't my thing and not everything my employer did was exactly "legal".
Remembering that "SEO" thing, I did a little more digging.
Eventually, I created a profile on Upwork.com - a website where freelancers can find work.
So began my SEO career.
Working for a humble $5/hour while I figured out how to actually do this SEO thing.
About a year later, I was hired as a full-time contractor (employment laws are mostly a suggestion, I guess) for a marketing agency.
Goodbye corporate, hello agency life.
I started as an onpage SEO, and was promoted to Lead SEO Strategist fairly quickly.
While working here, I still freelanced on the side.
Sometimes working for other agencies, but mostly for SMBs.
Towards the tail end of my ~2-year tenure I had grown a decent client base of my own.
How I went about that landed me on the Lion Zeal Show with Daryl Rosser.
Within 72-hours of recording that interview, I fired about ~50% of my clients.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
For about 3-months I was "figuring out what I wanted to do"
I decided to give an agency a go
I founded my agency, Blue Dog Media on the principal of custom work.
Initially just offering SEO services.
Over the course of my hiatus I came up with what I called "The Blueprint" (creative, I know).
Basically, it was my process and system to create custom strategies at scale.
It took a while to figure out, but once I got it - it worked quite well.
80-90% close rate on the Blueprint and 100% close rate from Blueprint to retainer.
This was 20% of the reason why I was able to speak at one of the pre-events to CMSEO2018.
The other 80% was obviously my good looks.
Since then, the agency has grown beyond just offering SEO services.
I've also become obsessed with automation.
Eventually I'll add to this with more of an explanation on both points 🙂