Have you ever invented something for your business and realized other businesses could also benefit from using it? That’s what today’s guest did.
Kyle Roof started a search engine optimization business – High Voltage SEO — and needed a tool to help him serve clients. He created Page Optimizer Pro and launched a second business selling it to other SEO agencies.
On this episode of The Clarity Advisors Show, Kyle joins host Ken Trupke to share some stories of growth and figuring things out.
Timestamps
(01:04): Why Thailand?
(03:04): Entry into SEO business
(06:35): The launch of High Voltage.
(07:08): Page Optimizer Pro.
(09:55): Figuring it out.
(11:53): The POP and High Voltage teams.
(14:14): Working across distance.
(16:48): Meeting in person.
(18:19): Lessons learned.
(20:05): Kyle’s role in the companies.
(22:09): Attracting/retaining talent.
(25:35): Recommended reading.
(27:40): Connecting with Kyle.
Episode quotes
“For me to pay the rent next month, I needed to learn how to do SEO that day. And that’s basically what I did.”
“When Covid happened, we…didn’t really see any change in productivity or in culture or in anything else because people were already pretty much remote as it was. Once we could get back together, we just let everything go. There wasn’t any point in keeping the expense because it really didn’t give us anything extra.”
“You need strict rules about how communication will happen. If you’ve received a message from someone internally, you need to respond within 12 hours. If it’s a communication from a client, it needs to be responded to within 24 hours.”
“The biggest thing you fear in remote work is things are going to fall through the cracks. And if you have your communication set, then that doesn’t happen.”
“Make sure the meetings are worthwhile meetings – that they aren’t just for the sake of getting together, but they are actually doing something and that the right people are together.”
“One of the biggest things you learn, especially with hiring people is that if you have a red flag at the beginning, it’s not going to go away. It’s not going to improve.”
“If you’re not seeing that effort, it’s probably not going to appear. If somebody’s doing something repeatedly where you say, ‘hey, this is how we do it here, we’d like you to do it this way,’ and they repeatedly don’t do it, they’re not going to improve. And as difficult as it is, you do need to get them off the team as quickly as possible.”
“I really don’t like that family analogy too much. Families have a lot of dysfunction and families often don’t have a goal. The point of a team is that there’s a goal we’re working together to do this thing and with families, that’s not really their function.”
“SEO is problem solving and it’s really kind of connecting dots that are hard to see or connecting dots in a fog. And how I often stay sharp is I watch mysteries and I read mysteries, and it’s kind a fun way of turning the brain off so you’re not thinking about work, but then also constantly problem solving.”
Recommended reading and listening
- The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Connect with Kyle Roof
