Talk at Southwestern Michigan College - Modern Marketing Careers

Early in October I had the privilege to give a presentation to students at Southwestern Michigan College in Dowagiac, MI about careers in digital marketing. This opportunity came from a conversation I had with my friend, Scott, who is Dean of Arts and Sciences at the school. He asked me "What is is exactly that you do?" As I described my job to him, he told me that I needed to come to talk to the students about it. Of course, I readily agreed.

One of students did a very nice writeup of the talk, which you can check out on their website.

Judging the US Search Awards

As part of this year's Pubcon experience, I was invited to judge the US Search Awards. This was my first time acting as a judge in this type of event, and I found it quite interesting and educational.

The main thing I learned from this experience: There are a lot of great people and teams doing some amazing work. It was very interesting to get outside my work bubble and see some of the work others are doing. Some of it is quite excellent.

Of course, I can't tell you about all the details, but you can see the short lists on the US Search Awards website. I attended the event a couple years ago when Rockfish was up for an award and can say that the organizers put together an excellent evening.

The US Search Awards will be held on Wednesday, November 8, 2017 starting at 6:30pm at the TI. If you're interested in going, there are still tickets available.

Upcoming Speaking Appearances: Pubcon Vegas 2017

Pubcon Vegas for 2017 is shaping up to be another amazing event. I am also quite honored that I have been invited to speak and moderate several sessions again this year. This will be my 8th consecutive year of speaking at Pubcon. In addition to speaking and moderating duties, I will also serve as track chair for the Organic SEO Track that will be held in Salon A on Tuesday.

Whether you've attended Pubcon in the past, or not, this is a conference you won't want to miss. Check out the coupon code at the end of this article and register today!

Presenting
The first session in which I will present is entitled "Knowledge Graph Max: From Strings to Things." Eric Enge will be presenting in the session with me. In this, we will share information about how "smart" Search Engines are getting in understanding queries and content and offer hints on how you can better optimize your digital ecosystem for best results. This session will be held in Salon A on Tuesday, November 7, 2017 at 2:00pm.

The second session for which I have a speaking part will be held on Thursday, November 9, 2017 at 11:10am in Salon E. This sessions is called "Reputation Management Saturation" and will cover how to saturate your online presence with the goal of positively affecting your online reputation. In this session, my co-presenter will be fellow Metro Detroiter Dwight Zahringer.

Moderating
I will be moderating 2 sessions at this year's Pubcon Vegas. The first is a session entitled "Using SEO Seasonally" which will feature Laura Scott and Ann Smarty. For those of you involved in eCommerce website optimization, this is a great session to listen in on. This will be held on Tuesday, November 7, 2017 at 4:20pm in Salon A.

Another session I'll be moderating is one that I enjoy very much: live site reviews. These sessions dish out tremendous value in free consulting and can often be worth the price of admission alone. "Site Reviews: Focus on Organic" will be held in Salon J on Wednesday, November 8, 2017 at 2:45pm.

Need a reason to come? These sessions should be enough to convince you. If it's not, then maybe a 15% off coupon code will do the trick! Register for Pubcon by October 20, 2017 and use the coupon code rc-3856015 when you check out. 

I hope to see you there!

Barry Schwartz Gets It - Leadership in Action

Barry Schwartz is certainly a leader in the digital marketing world. Not only is he the CEO of Rusty Brick, he is also the person behind Search Engine Roundtable and the news editor of Search Engine Land. Barry is often the first person to share important news in the world of search, making him an important person to follow online.

Given his prominence and fame online, some might find it surprising that he is most often the one who takes out the trash at the Rusty Brick offices. If you're one of those who is surprised at this, you shouldn't be. Barry is demonstrating real servant leadership in action. When his team is busy doing more productive work, Barry is taking care of business by making sure menial tasks don't get in the way.

Granted, he admits that taking out the trash is a great way to get away from his desk, get in a quick walk and clear his head. The motivation isn't as important as the net result of Rusty Brick people getting things done, practical things being accomplished, and establishing a culture of real teamwork in the organization.

Well done, Barry! I hope other "bosses" take a lesson here.

Doing Business Right With Alan Bleiweiss

Alan Bleiweiss is an SEO professional in the San Diego area who specializes in auditing client websites in order to help them address issues that hamper their performance in organic search. He's gotten so adept at his process that he generates a fairly significant income for himself and his part-time assistant.

The secret of his success is really no secret. He recently shared some insights from his journey in an article on his website. There are several great pieces of wisdom in there:

• Do amazing work and provide value to your customers
  Alan's process for relating to his customers is simple, yet very effective. He does great work, he takes care of his clients, he gives value beyond what was promised. Even when he has to fire a client, he works hard to refer them to someone else who can help.
• Be generous
  Alan mentions that he shares a lot in online groups, forums and through speaking at conferences. I can personally attest to his generous sharing from interacting with him both online and off. Few are the people who would pack up their household and move in order to help a friend over the course of several months; but, Alan is the kind of person who would do it. I know many generous people, but precious few can even come close to the things this man does for individuals and the digital marketing community.
• Be grateful
  Thankfulness is closely related to generosity. Alan often points out people he is grateful to in public forums. He has also put in a great deal of effort in sharing his gratitude with groups both large and small. He has gone through great pains to bring people together in the spirit of community and cooperation. That gratitude also spills into his client work.

By now, some of you may be thinking those "soft skills" don't matter much in the realm of "real business." I disagree. Beyond technical knowledge, beyond mere competence, beyond business savvy, the things that differentiate businesses are those soft skills. Success is more than just the bottom line, it also consists of those intangibles that bring more value to each interaction beyond just a transaction.

Alan will be sharing some of his audit knowledge at Pubcon Vegas 2017 in November. He will be sharing the stage with Bill Hartzer on Tuesday, November 7th at 10:10am. If you're interesting in attending Pubcon, register today and use coupon code rc-3856015 to save 15% (good until October 20, 2017).