The Beyond Local Podcast

This week’s Beyond Local podcast guest pulls no punches with Jeff and Steve on workplace diversity. During her debut on Beyond Local’s “Get to Know LSEO” series, Anne Stramara, LSEO’s Paid Media Associate, gets real about how she’d like to see more women in the office. Her candid suggestion leads to an important conversation about women in tech. TL;DR — LSEO is in a perpetual state of growth, and invites women with skills to apply. At one point, Steve even throws up his email address ([email protected]), where anyone can ask about available jobs. Anne joined LSEO after proving her value in the media industry. Her background is in marketing and graphic design, and she has always advanced into leadership positions. She’s worked for LSEO founder Kris Jones’ other companies, and she appreciated the team spirit that characterized those places. “It is nice, I will say, at the end of the day before I head home, that somebody is saying, ‘Hey, you did a lot of work today. You did a great job, and I appreciate it.’” Anne said. “It makes you want to come back tomorrow and do it again.”

Steve steps in and steps up for this week’s edition of “Get to Know LSEO” on the Beyond Local podcast. Jeff was busy, so Steve leads a conversation steeped in counterculture with LSEO Senior SEO Associate Nina Koons. Nina offers a how-to on reading Japanese comic books and enlightens Steve on some heavy metal (or is that metalcore?) bands he’s certainly never heard of. Before joining LSEO, Nina had already built a rich career in search engine optimization and worked for several other companies. She joined LSEO and immediately appreciated the small-business atmosphere and easy access to every one of her colleagues in every department. At LSEO, our team’s success leads to successful online marketing strategies for our clients, and Nina plays an essential part in making that happen. As a veteran industry pro, she reminds all of us to stay eternally curious and watch how far it takes us.

 Jeff’s back from the beach in this week’s episode of the Beyond Local podcast and another edition of “Get to Know LSEO.” This week Jeff and Steve bring in Eric Meese, LSEO’s new Director of Paid Media. He’s a brilliant strategist and avid outdoorsman. Eric left high school pursuing a career with the Pennsylvania State Police, but had a moment of clarity when he realized the power of the internet and paid media. He discovered a knack for social media when he built curated Instagram pages for outdoorsy types and quickly racked up thousands of followers. In the short time he’e been with the LSEO team, Eric has learned that successful media companies should never be afraid to try new things. “There are a ton of companies out there, local and large brands, that have been stuck in their ways,” Eric tells Jeff and Steve. “By exploring those new opportunities … it could change their business in a positive way overnight.” 

Beyond Local celebrates its 50th episode by flipping the script. Jeff’s “down the shore” for vacation, so Kyle Kozie, LSEO’s Vice President of Search takes over and puts Steve in the hot seat for his turn at “Get to Know LSEO.” You all have to take a wild guess at how many times Steve’s seen the band Phish in concert (whatever number you said, it’s probably more than that). For his professional arc, Steve’s career could have easily gone in a couple very different directions, but we’re glad he’s with us now. He’s always first in the office and, as Kyle points out, does a great job at keeping the whole team pepped up. When it comes to digital strategy, Steve says the best thing to do is first define success so then you can chase it.

Jeff and Steve introduce LSEO’s newest team member, Client Services Manager Tucker Hottes, during this week’s edition of Beyond Local’s special series, “Get to Know LSEO.” Tucker’s a media Swiss army knife, with tons of experience in the local market. He’s got deep regional knowledge and an insatiable thirst to know how people consume media. He also just might be slick enough to fend off Jeff and Steve’s incessant ribbing. He also talks about his dog Artemis, his love for collectible figurines and offers one of the best reasons we’ve heard about why the much-maligned Star Wars prequel trilogy is worth giving another shot. When it comes to marketing advice, he’s blunt about his skepticism over plug-and-play solutions. Trends change and people are always using and consuming media differently. “Always look at your data, trust people who know the industry and don’t be afraid to pivot,” he says.

Jeff and Steve are back on their own sides of the Beyond Local podcast booth. This week LSEO Creative Nick Bukofski joins them for another edition of “Get to Know LSEO.” It’s your week-by-week, intimate introduction to the team behind Beyond Local. Nick’s a photographer and graphic designer. He’s also the youngest member of our team who just finished college. So, of course, expect a healthy dose of playful ribbing in this week’s episode over how young he is. There’s also an Easter egg reveal of just how young Steve is. Stay tuned to the end to hear Nick’s wizened approach to graphic design for marketing. In a nutshell, business leaders should clearly describe their preferred results before hiring a marketing agency. That way the team can steer creative content toward those results. Great idea, Nick! And they say youth is wasted on the young. 

Jeff jumps to the other side of the Beyond Local podcast booth for his debut, not as interviewer, but as the subject of this week’s “Get to Know LSEO” series. Steve runs point as host and together they explore Jeff’s career arc, first as a lifeguard, then as a Blimpie restaurant line cook, then his brief pursuit of a pre-med degree at Lebanon Valley College (boy, we’re glad he abandoned that path). Jeff offers his No. 1 tip for web marketing and search engine optimization: you can’t just “set it and forget it.” Any good business leader should constantly assess their growth online. “You have to make sure you’re at least gaining more traffic,” he says. “If you’re growing online, which is the way everything’s going today, you’re going to continue to grow as a company.” 

Beyond Local picks up its “Get to Know LSEO” series, this week featuring Finance Manager Adam Bravyak. Even though he’s more of a back-of-house kind of guy, Adam’s an important part of the culture here at LSEO. In fact, it was our culture that first brought him to us. “Since being here, I could definitely vouch for that from a culture standpoint,” he tells Jeff and Steve in the podcast booth. Adam also gently informs Jeff and Steve that they’ve probably been using “spoiler alert” incorrectly for weeks, and he clears the air that he was not, in fact, searched at the border on his latest trip to Costa Rica.

Beyond Local’s “Get to Know LSEO” series continues this week with SEO Specialist Eric Adamczyk. Jeff and Steve play hardball with Eric, who manages to deadpan just about every one of their needling, rapid-fire questions. He talks about his love of baseball, possibly accepts a pizza bake-off challenge from Jeff in the LSEO kitchen and recommends opening up the office to more dogs (we’re starting to see a trend here). When it comes to practical advice for improving your website’s SEO, Eric came ready to recommend disavowing spammy backlinks and running the occasional crawl to uncover broken links or missing pages.

 In this week’s edition of the Beyond Local series “Get to Know LSEO,” Jeff and Steve peel Content Writer Jade Matusick away from her keyboard to get her thoughts on copywriting best practices. But, perhaps more important, they find out how prepared she is to resume caring for office plants now that we’re back to in-person work. Needless to say, Steve forgot to add “water the plants” to his COVID-19 work-from-home plan. Jade graciously plays along with our hosts’ antics as they introduce another integral part of the LSEO workforce. What’s Jade’s best advice for producing effective web content? You’ll have to listen to find out.