SEOenthusiast

Today we’re going to get a little personal as I’ve been apt to do lately and talk about a few things that can often be tough subjects – especially in a work environment.

I recently finished my first week at my new job, and let me tell you it has been everything I expected – fun, challenging, and a bit eye-opening in many regards. As the new Internet Marketing Director at Germain of Columbus, I’ve had to make some fundamental changes to how I go about my day.

These would include shifting my mindset from just SEO or Social Media to working on a holistic marketing approach that evaluates every angle, going from being the vendor to managing them, and – my least favorite change – wearing a suit and tie to work. But hey, it comes with the territory.

The reason I talk about these changes is just this – I am a long way from where I was personally and professionally about 6 years ago. This post will by no means be to toot my own horn. Rather, it will be more about the power of believing in yourself, knowing your value, overcoming adversity and naysayers, and showing what a little elbow-grease can do.

So time to tell my story…

Six years ago, I had just quit the worst job of my life as a Part-Time Supervisor at UPS and was working 7 days a week at Staples and Petland to pay the bills. I dropped out of Ohio State University while at UPS as I couldn’t afford to finance the large out-of-pocket tuition payments that Financial Aid and UPS’ tuition reimbursement programs didn’t cover.

I had ZERO experience in anything related to marketing except my few graphic design programs at OSU. I repeat, ZERO experience! If you’d told me six years ago that I’d be doing anything of importance, I’m not sure if I’d have believed it. My outlook on life was very bleak.

There we two month stretches where I didn’t have but 1 day off of work. I honestly hated life and felt I’d been dealt a really shitty hand. I felt so out of control of my own destiny.

And then, things changed. Fate intervened. At the time, I couldn’t have known it but I was about to be introduced to a person who has had a bigger impact on my life than just about anyone else – save for my fiance (although he had a part in that too).

Who is that person? The well-known Eric Leslie (aka @BeOnScene).

Eric just happened to be dating the best friend of my ex-girlfriend. Luckily, that friend had talked to Eric about my background in graphic design and he was able to work his connections to get me a job at his company, the now-defunkt Cornerstone Local Marketing Services.

When I started at that company, there were two sides to the business. One side was a pure call center, and the other side – which Eric managed – did internet marketing. At first, I was put in the call center.

I was super-appreciative that Eric had given me the opportunity to get out of my 7-day a week hell, but I’ll be the first to say that talking on phones (and making cold calls) is not my forte. In fact, I even made a few calls where I got too flustered and hung up on the person I was calling. Imagine that, a cold caller that hangs up on you?!?

At the moment that I was surely on the brink of being fired for being a horrible telecommunications rep, Eric was kind enough to move me onto his team and take me under his wing a bit. And then, he effectively enabled me to kick the door down and begin to unlock the keys to what I didn’t know then would be my career path.

At first, I did cold-calls (yet again) to try to get people to sign up for Yahoo listings, but then I graduated into being allowed to to utilize my graphic design experience to tinker with people’s sites.

An the somewhere, it happened. From humble beginnings, I began my career as a web designer – tinkering with logos and graphics on people’s websites! Here was the problem. I had no idea how to design websites?!? I had always been a graphic designer, never a web designer.

In addition, I also had little experience with design software at the time – as most of my design courses at OSU were beginner courses. I had a HUGE learning curve.

So there was my fork in the road. I had a decision to make. I was given a great opportunity to take my graphic design skills and try to translate those into web design skills for a company that at the time barely sold websites.

What did I do? I bought a book. Where did I start? On the Blogger platform if you can believe it. The first design software I ever semi-used? Adobe Fireworks.

From there, I dedicated all waking hours to learning how to become a web designer – from learning that first bit of HTML code all the way to creating really (what I thought were) good-looking websites.

This part of my life involved little sleep, and many nights of being up till 4AM and going to work at 8AM for very little pay. It was quite a struggle to say the least. It was an amazing time and – slowly but surely – I was able to overcome that huge learning curve (although I’ll always have much more to learn).

But little did I know the real work was just beginning.

Being an unproven commodity is quite a thing to get your head around. Besides the part where you have to prove your worth, you will always start out as the only one who believes in yourself. Nobody else will.

There were literally times when I would get my paycheck, add up my bills, and realize that even if I spent $0 I’d still be in the red.

Sometimes it made me want to quit, made me question if I was going down the right path or not. Was it worth it in the long-run?

What I Will Say About Adversity:

Are there people out there who have faced or face more adversity than me? Of course. However, what I will say is that overcoming adversity is hard. If it were easy, then everyone would be skipping around with happy lives, happy jobs, and nobody would ever have any problems.

But we know that isn’t the real world. The real world is tough and unforgiving. If you want to succeed you have to do a couple things, work hard and work smart.

In my life, I’ve run myself into the ground working hard, but where I finally started to catch breaks was when I started to work smart. Sometimes people are lucky, and I have been lucky in many regards – meeting Eric for example at just the right time in my life. However, I wouldn’t rely on luck as it will only take you so far. Work smart and you’ll get opportunities to prove your worth eventually.

I’ve been told I don’t believe in myself enough. That is NOT true. There are many ways to believe in yourself and show confidence – and not all of them involve pounding your chest in front of everyone.

Believing in yourself comes from deep within. It is that feeling that gives you knots, that spurns you on to try harder, to learn more, to keep picking yourself up by your bootstraps when you fall.

And so, as we progressed at Cornerstone Marketing Services our team developed to and we were able to launch a retail marketing and web design initiative called Your Marketing Corner in Columbus and Orlando. The team in Columbus (where most of the work came through) was led my Eric, and included myself along with Aaron Flax.

As we were churning out websites for clients here in the U.S. and even in Latin America, we began to notice one thing. They sites we were building – although pretty – were not doing so well in the search engines.

And – much like my start in web design – I saw my opportunity to begin learning Search Engine Optimization (SEO). So how do you learn SEO? Well, I’ll say it isn’t like design. I couldn’t go and get a degree, or learn too much from books.

How I learned SEO was by obsessively reading blogs and forums about it by industry leaders. It is for that reason that I try to pay it forward to this day. I owe those SEO bloggers my career – even if they don’t know it.

What drove me? Besides my own internal desire to be better, there was one statement from a manager (not Eric or Aaron) that really stuck in my crawl. I was told:

If you’re going to be a designer, be a designer. If you’re going to be an SEO, be an SEO. Most people can’t do both.

I thought that was bullshit then, and I do now! Although it is true that most people with those competencies compartmentalize and don’t branch out, I have a strong belief that the two go hand-in-hand.

In fact, from then on I completely understood who I was, what my value was, and where I had to go (see below).

What I Will Say About Believing in Yourself:

If you don’t believe in yourself, nobody else will. It starts with you! Now this isn’t to say that you have to be all “rah-rah” cheerleader-glass-half-full all the time, but you have to have the internal confidence that believes in you even when nobody else does (and that may happen).

This can be a struggle, and sometimes you may feel quite alone. But when you finally succeed, it is totally worth it!

When somebody cracks that door, kick that f@$#ing thing down!!! Opportunities don’t come very often, so when they do you have to take advantage.

For me, the crack started when I was given an opportunity by Steve White, Jen Ridenour, and Julie Brown to join People To My Site in 2008 as a full-time SEO analyst.

It was kind of cool to change from being full-time web designer/part-time SEO to full-time SEO/part-time web designer – although I may never be rid of my true passion for design.

From there, I’ve started this blog (which was one of the best things I’ve ever done), was promoted to SEO Director at PTMS, and then 3 years later was lucky enough to land the position I’m currently in as Internet Marketing Director at Germain of Columbus.

It’s crazy! I went from mopping floors, stocking shelves, and selling pets to designing websites and having a great – and probably career-defining – job in such a short time span.

I’ve barely had time to catch my breath and realize how much my life has changed for the better.

What I Will Say About Kicking the Door Down:

If someone gives you a chance and you’re smart enough to recognize the opportunity, then work your ass off the exceed their expectations at every turn. If you can continue to exceed expectations, other opportunities will come, and other doors can then be kicked down.

Half the battle is knowing when you have a good opportunity versus when you have a great opportunity. Again, this is where working smart helps. Don’t always take the first opportunity that comes along, take the BEST opportunity that comes along (referencing when looking for jobs). And don’t put money as the number one factor. It helps, but it isn’t always what makes you happiest!

As I referenced above, it is very important to know your value – even if nobody else does. For me, it was being a combination web designer/SEO/blogger/social media punk. That combination of skill sets is what makes me different.

For you, it could be something else. The key is knowing what makes you unique and different from everyone else, knowing what type of value can then be associated with that difference, and getting others to realize it too! This may not be easy, but never let people get you down and tell you you’re not with what you think you’re worth.

In fact, when somebody tries to knock you down a peg, take it as a challenge to prove them wrong. If you think you’re worth 40k, 50k, or more – or think you deserve to be treated with more respect, prove it.

If you can prove it, then there will be somebody out there who will see that value and give you a chance. Either that, or you’ll realize that what you’re worth isn’t something that can be measured by money or respect. In that case, you may choose to go on your own.

To each his own.

—

To my readers: Sorry that this post got long-winded, but I had a lot that I wanted to get off my chest. It’s not to blow my own horn or anything, but just to tell the story of how I got to be where I am.

It is my hope that there is somebody now who might be in the situation I was six years ago who might benefit by knowing if they can work hard and smart, that there is a chance they can be both professionally successful and happy in the not-so-distant future.

The moral of the story is sort of cliche: You can do anything you set your mind to if you work hard, work smart, know & believe in yourself, know your true value, and take advantage of opportunities when they come.

Hey, it happened to me! I have a great job, a beautiful fiancé, I’m back in school, and I’m very happy for one of the rare times in my life! And it all happened despite the fact that I was totally down and out six years ago. What a difference some time and hard work makes.

P.S. Sorry for the creepy picture and bushy eyebrows. I took it myself.

My related posts plugin has broken. I am currently searching for a replacement. Hold tight until then and use the search box in the siebar.

Why not subscribe to receive updates right to your inbox? If you're looking to learn more about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media, or Wordpress then I promise it will be worth your time! I won't share your email or use it to send you spam. That's just not my style...

View the original article here