Darren Shaw is one of the nicest people in the...

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Go boldly, not blindly.

For today's episode, we talk once again with a marketer who took a non-traditional path to find her career in the world of marketing. Today we learn how Sheena Schleicher became an accidental marketer, and how a freak accident influenced her career path.

Sheena Schleicher gained a lot of experience working in the world of content and SEO, with that experience eventually growing to the point where she was able to start her own agency.

She learned a lot along the way, and has shared her advice with others in a tremendously useful post on her blog: Practical tips for starting a consultancy.

During our interview, we learn about how Sheena grew her career in marketing, and how a surfing accident gave her a new perspective on where she should take her career.

You won't believe this story when you hear it! 

Seriously, my jaw dropped when Sheena shared her health scare and how it changed her career outlook. It may just be my favorite motivation story yet.

You know what else? Sheena also has one of my favorite outreach stories of all time as well. You will love her story about how she turned a cold email into an anchor client for her agency (without even trying). You can't make this stuff up.

When working as a consultant or agency, Clients are buying you (the person) and not the service (since we all sound the same).

I wrote about this phenomenon earlier this year.

On sharing your knowledge with clients:

"There are very few proprietary ideas in the world of online"

On nailing the relationship building process:

"Do as much free work as you can to build relationships"

"Plant as many seeds as you can in order to see what will grow"

Sheena's advice to marketers:

2) Take charge of something that has been forgotten or left on its own

3) Not everything needs to be backed by data - common sense can go really really far

4) Go boldly, but not blindly

5) Nothing is easy. Don’t let your efficiencies diminish your expertise or your value.

Get to know Sheena better

Sheena's Company Website

Past episodes on SoundCloud

The post Episode 9: Sheena Schleicher appeared first on Jeffalytics.

What does delivering a TED talk have to do with childhood shoplifting? It turns out that the two are more closely related than you think.

Oli Gardner never set out to be a marketer. In fact, for many years he hated marketers.

Oli never set out to be a public speaker, either, but that is going pretty well for him right now as well.

How did it all start?

You will have to listen to find out.

Pursuit of perfection is what makes us successful

Before that? He had a series of jobs that brought him to the point of starting Unbounce.

Oli wrote code, then got bored with it. Became a designer, got bored with it.

Every 6 to 18 months Oli switched job functions until the day started Unbounce. That was the day he became a marketer.

From that point on his competitive nature took hold. Oli didn't want to be an average marketer. He wanted to be the best marketer.

Driven, competitive and inspiring all at the same time. Listen on to learn how he became a highly regarded international speaker, and how it was influenced by his shoplifting as a kid. Hopefully the statute of limitations has passed there.

On pushing yourself to be the best:

On holding yourself accountable:

On whether he questioned his choice to join and market Unbounce:

On grabbing attention in speeches:

On the importance of writing:

On his source of ideas:

On how to achieve success:

On the value of public speaking:

On forming relationships in marketing:

Oli's advice to marketers:

More advice:

On risk taking:

Get to know Oli better

Oli's Company Website

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Past episodes on SoundCloud

The post Episode 8: Oli Gardner appeared first on Jeffalytics.

What happens when you take a performer with a tireless work ethic and teach him SEO?

He pulls rank on the entire industry.

It hasn't taken long for Mike King to become a refreshing voice in the world of SEO, but it took him a while to get there.

SEO wasn't Mike's first job. It wasn't even his 10th job!

Mike has a background in computer programming and music. He was signed as a recording artist and toured the world performing for 8 years.

Then Mike discovered the world of SEO. To get a feel for Mike's flavor of music, watch this video of him freestyle rapping at an SEO conference.

A man of many talents, Mike is also quite busy. So I was honored when he agreed to do an interview for the jumpstart podcast.

We recorded this episode while I was in Dubai, and I am afraid that the audio quality and connection was not as high as previous episodes. But the content? It's golden.

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Highlights from my talk with Mike King 

It took Mike a while to arrive at his career in SEO. Much like Cyrus Shepard. It just proves that you can still be successful without following a traditional path. In fact, you can be more successful when bringing other experiences to the table. Mike’s performance career translated very well to inspiring a crowd of marketers.

Mike has also created a strong personal brand. We heard Aleyda Solis talk about building a brand in Episode 6, and now Mike is talking about it here. Both realized that their personal brand was very valuable. So valuable that they used it to start their own agencies.

On structuring blog posts:

On structuring presentations:

On becoming a better communicator with your audience

On being entertaining in presentations:

On finding your calling:

On improving as a presenter:

On creating high quality work that gets noticed:

On starting an agency:

On his rise in the SEO career path:

On being based in New York City

On digital strategy:

On finding the best clients:

The best advice that Mike received:

Mike's advice to marketers:

Get to know Mike better

Mike's Company Website

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Past episodes on SoundCloud

The post Episode 7: Mike King appeared first on Jeffalytics.

Learn how Aleyda Solis became an internationally recognized SEO expert, started her own agency and become a great success. Get advice from Aleyda here!

The post Episode 6: Aleyda Solis appeared first on Jeffalytics.

Today we get to interview Rand Fishkin. You probably know him as the husband of Geraldine, a hilarious travel blogger. Or perhaps as the Wizard of Moz or as one of the most fashionable men in SEO. I call him a friend and mentor.

If you haven’t heard Rand’s story before, then you are in for a treat. Today you will hear about how Rand got his introduction into the world of web design, some of the good and bad decisions he made along the way (along with advice for his older, wiser self), and how he was able to turn a failing business into a venture backed startup.

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I have been learning from Rand for years, and there are some questions that I have always wanted to ask him but never had the nerve. Today I ask him these questions.

Like what was the name of SEOMoz when they were a web design agency?

We get the answer to that question, and many more on today’s podcast.

This week’s sponsor: PPC Course - Learn Google AdWords through 13 hours of HD video lessons! 

My personal lessons learned from the Rand Fishkin interview:

How things have changed over the years for Rand

Links related to this week’s episode

Rand’s personal blog

Moz website

Rand Fishkin on Twitter

Geraldine and Rand on Instagram

Rand on Google+

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Past episodes on SoundCloud

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