In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- The benefit of putting yourself out there
- How to give yourself permission to take a step back
- The importance of implementing what you learn
Translating Skills
Brendan realized quickly that his career as a teacher would be short-lived. Disenchanted by the bureaucracy of the school system, he decided to quit his job and search for a career more aligned with his life goals.
When building his first website, Brenden realized that the Google results for “SEO” were limited. He knew he’d stumbled across an opportunity. That opportunity eventually grew into SEO for the Rest of Us — and Brenden’s goal is to help businesses get discovered on Google.
Brendan explains that despite the challenges he has faced through leaving his job and founding a company, he has found that pursuing a career more aligned with his values has been incredibly freeing.
The Hustler Trigger
Brendan was not always a go-getter with a hustler mentality. There are many people living mediocre lives that simply need a mentor to give them advice on how to get started.
”You can just work kind of hard and good things will happen.”
Brendan says the pivoting moments in his life generally stem from these simple steps:
- Join a community
- Get on someone’s radar
- Get permission to ask a question
- Go out and implement their advice
- Come back and ask another question
“I make sure that when I do shoot my shot, . . . I don’t overanalyze it and . . . I realize that people are busy.”
If people don’t respond the first time, simply try again. The most important thing is just getting out there and implementing your industry’s best practices.
It can be scary to put yourself out there, but Brendan says you have to do the hard work — if you want to stand out, you have to be willing to do what other people won’t.
Organizing Your Brand
Brendan operated multiple brands for a long time, taking on everything that came his way. He now realizes you have to give yourself permission to say no and let go.
You won’t be an authority on your topic if you try to take a “Jack-of-all-trades” approach. Focus on your niche. If you want to branch out to other topics, do so on separate sites, otherwise you run the risk of confusing Google.
”If [your focused topic] is confusing for a human, it’s definitely going to be confusing for an algorithm.”
Learn More:
Also Mentioned In This Episode:
- Body of Work by Pamela Slim
- Pat Flynn
- Jon Cooper
- 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries & Jack Trout
- SEO for the Rest of Us
- Entrepreneurs and Coffee Podcast
- GI Reviews
