Last year, when the world of e-commerce experienced an unprecedented boom, SEO became more important than ever. For small and medium-sized companies, getting noticed online is not easy, and today’s guest, John Vuong, is passionate about helping these businesses shine and thrive. John is at the helm of Local SEO Search, a full-service SEO company that has done the work to understand what it takes to help small enterprises succeed in today’s business environment. In this episode, John talks about making the transition from traditional sales to SEO despite not having the technical knowledge. He brought his passion for people, work, and small businesses and learned as he went. The result has been his very successful company. We talk about the value of clarifying your vision and connecting with your customers and the patience that these processes require. In the age of hustle and comparison, it is easy as a business owner to feel like you are falling behind, but as John highlights, life, like business, requires equal parts patience and dedication. We also touch on John's learning journey, what SEO data business owners should focus on, and some salient advice for entrepreneurs about enjoying the journey. If you are a small to medium-sized business owner and curious about how SEO could help you, this episode is perfect for you!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Get to know John, his background, and insights into his company; Local SEO Search. 
• Unique lessons John learned during his time in traditional advertising sales. 
• The importance of entrepreneurs learning sales techniques. 
• John’s passion for small businesses and what he wanted to help these owners to do. 
• What John learned early on about hiring the right people; it’s okay to make mistakes. 
• The importance of finding people you look up to. 
• Being vulnerable and sharing yourself helps people relate to you and makes you more authentic. 
• How John managed to spend so much time building his business. 
• How John handled so many accounts at once during the early stages of his business. 
• SEO versus PPC: John’s insights and the cases in which each is suitable. 
• The types of companies John believes should be doing SEO. 
• What John believes companies should know about SEO. 
• The SEO data that matters for business owners; it’s not all equally important. 
• How to reach out to John online.
• John’s advice for entrepreneurs; think about what, other than your business, is important to you.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Data Rich Show

AJ Yager

Praxis Metrics

John Vuong

Local SEO Search

Local SEO Search on Twitter

Dave Asprey: Books

There is often a chasm that arises between IT and business leaders because of the way they communicate with one another. This happens when people do not speak the same language and understand the business from a fundamentally different vantage point. The Narrative Group, led by today’s guest, Bruce Fairley, looks to change that. Their mission is to go beyond technology and enable holistic change within organizations. In this episode, Bruce sheds light on his career and shares the impetus for founding The Narrative Group. We talk about his passion for leveraging enterprise value through technology. While big corporations are using data to scale and make more of an impact, small and medium-sized businesses are getting left behind. Bruce works with these companies to create solutions that help them be competitive. Our conversation also touches on using software, rather than people, to implement and maintain your backend infrastructure, using data to inform behavioral changes, and why tech people need to be looking at the bottom line. Bruce’s unique message is timelier than ever, given the pandemic-related shifts. Tune in to hear it all.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Get to know Bruce, his background, and how he came to found The Narrative Group.
• The common theme throughout Bruce’s career so far.
• Redefining enterprise value for small and medium-sized businesses.
• Many small and medium-sized businesses are not leveraging IT to enhance their business.
• Some of the reasons Bruce believes technology is such a sticking point for businesses.
• Technology requires growth and innovation, which leads to new insights and data.
• An example of a client Bruce worked with where they made the data insights actionable.
• As a data person, you need to give business leaders information they don’t already know.
• What we have learned about technological commodities during the pandemic.
• Bruce’s insights on how tech people should be communicating with executives.
• The role of culture in business and how it ties into a company’s ability to evolve.
• How small and medium-sized businesses need to think about their IT and data teams.
• Why Bruce believes that you do not need personnel to run your backend infrastructure.
• The three commonalities when it comes to measuring success.
• Bruce’s final words for us to think about.
• The Narrative Group’s “financial first” methodology and how it helps their clients achieve their desired outcomes.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Bruce Fairley on LinkedIn

The Narrative Group

iSecurity

QuickBooks

Data Rich Show

AJ Yager

Praxis Metrics

Applying the power of data to the sales game cannot be underestimated and here on the show today to unpack this subject is a great friend and expert! Rudy Rodriguez has a strong message for sales teams and the people who build and hire them, and we guarantee that it can help you too! A generous, sincere, smart, and caring individual, Rudy offers a huge amount of value for today's show, talking about bringing in a sales team, and why preparation for others doing your sales for you, from the beginning, is essential. We then turn to Rudy's thoughts on the hiring process and he drops a whole selection of pearls on this part of his work! He talks about the framework he has adopted and adapted for making the best hires, why building company culture and finding 'A' players are so vitally important on all levels, and gives us the powerful questions he asks at specific points of the process. To finish off our amazing chat, Rudy offers some great resource recommendations, talking about the books and thinkers that have impacted him and his business the most. Make sure to tune in to hear it all!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Rudy's mission in life, career history, entrance into the entrepreneurial space, and more! 
• The types and sizes of companies that Rudy and his team typically work with. 
• Avoiding and getting out of the doldrums; applying lessons from the navy to sales.
• Planning the model for your business, so that others can do your sales for you.
• Staying in touch with your customer base as a business grows. 
• Better measurement of sales success using critical drivers and KPIs. 
• The million-dollar question that Rudy asks about improving on a bad month. 
• Implementation of the critical drivers; using 'thinking time' to find a way forward.
• Rudy's thoughts on the hiring process and why the culture you create is so important. 
• The four critical components of hiring 'A' players and how these can safeguard against missteps.  
• Avoiding common pitfalls of hiring sales professionals by identifying a natural affinity.
• The Harvard study that exemplifies a good lead qualification process.  
• Better practices for lead collection and the most important information to gather. 
• Some great book recommendations from Rudy that everybody should check out! 
• How to find Rudy and his team online and set up a call today!   

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Data Rich Show

Virtual Event Sales Team

Topgrading 

Taking Flight

Harvard Business Review

Measure What Matters

Who

The Dream Manager

AJ Yager

Praxis Metrics