Dear marketer and entrepreneur:

I was recently browsing on my business Upwork account and realized I’ve hired 220 contractors in the last 7 years (as I’m writing this).

It made me gasp....

That's a lot of hires!

Why am I telling you this?

Because after all these years of hiring experts, I have a pretty good idea about who’s going to be a great hire, who’s going to be a “meh” hire, and who do I need to run from…

If you have retained an agency or consultant in the past, you’ve probably found similar issues

• Big agencies that look good but bring underwhelming results, a lot of pretty reporting that means nothing to you.

• “Cheap” agencies or consultants you think could save you money, until you realize it's money wasted because they mess up your website or don't bring results.

• Expert agencies in your vertical that can’t give you the attention you deserve because you’re “another client” for them: just a number (I'll tell you why this happens in a minute).

• Agencies or consultants that don’t deliver what they promise, promise what they can’t deliver, send “pretty reports” that mean nothing to you or won’t really fight to make your business win in the competitive online world we live in.

And then you have The Unicorns 🦄

November 4th, 2015 is when I found my first unicorn.

It was for a personal project.

Jay was a writer at $35/hr, who wrote the most amazing content you could think of.

He was from, guess where?

The Philippines. 🤯

I had to go through 37 writers to find him.

Writers from all over the World, including the US.

He wrote at the quality of a $75-$100/hr native US writer and at the speed of light!

(I may be exaggerating with the speed, but you know what I mean).

As you may guess, he started to write a lot of my client’s content…

...until…

He got a full-time job offer...

And just like that…

Poof!

He was gone.

Why am I telling you this?

Because it’s VERY hard to find one of these one-in-a-lifetime unicorns.

(You knew that though).

You need to dig and go through A LOT of applications, agencies, consultants and then... some more.

But who has the time to go through 37 applicants?

At best you may go through 10… TOPS!

And in the real World, you're likely going to go through maaaaybe 5.

Now, did you know that 84% of agencies and consultants produce average or below average results?

I was shocked when I found out...

We’re talking about being VERY lucky to find above-average results (not even close to Unicorn).

And the size of the agency doesn't change the type of results you may get.

I've been hired as a contractor for big agencies with clients in the $80+ million/year and I have consulted agencies with 250 to 600 clients...

And let me tell you, I've seen how agencies waste money and upsell stuff that is not in their client's best interest.... I've even seen things that I think are borderline illegal.

And after years of seeing all that shady stuff, I chose to focus on delivering real value, instead of wasting businesses' time and money.

That means...

You need the person that's managing your campaign to be really good at SEO and have him or her fight for your business so you can win.

I’m talking about an SEO expert with 7-10 years of experience that has been involved in multiple industries, helped multiple business sizes, B2B, B2C, someone that can bring the best strategies from all these industries and apply them to your business.

I have an acquaintance that after 6 months out of college was managing mid-size clients for one of the Worlds’ largest CRM/Direct Marketing Networks.

6 months out of college!

Do you think he knew what he was doing?

No, he didn’t!

And there are PLENTY of agencies out there with Junior SEOs like my fried that are handling important SEO projects...

THAT WON'T HAPPEN WITH ME OR MY TEAM.

You need someone focused on doing what they say and saying what they do.

Shouldn’t this be a standard?

You expect a car to have an engine that works, right?

Imagine buying a brand new car and the engine doesn't work. How would you feel about that?

I'd be pissed off!

Unfortunately, if we get to talk and you've gone through agencies and consultants that didn't do what they said, it won't be the first time I hear about it (and won't be the last).

We have a client that was paying $4,500 a month and was receiving...

(wait for it):

two      blog       posts      per      month 

(I spaced the words because this needed some dramatic space-between-words). 

OK, OK, they were also submitting them to Google Search Console...

I thought it was a prank, but the face of the client told me differently.

Do you think that makes sense?

And no, the blog posts were not  5,500-word articles with 50 hours of research.

They were simple, average, blog posts.

You need someone that gives you the attention you deserve.

I think this is one that may shock you (If you don't know about what's going on with agencies).

How many clients do you think a project manager handles at the typical agency?

Let me show you instead of telling you:

Source: Moz (managing 55 clients, haven't got to half of them in 5 months)

Source: Reddit (Managing 60 clients)

In the low end, it could be 30, in the high end, I’ve seen 100!

(yes, I handpicked those, but it's the norm out there)

Now, let’s imagine you ask one of these project managers a question specific to your campaign.

Do you think they know what’s going on?

They may be able to find information, but if you get on a call, this is what you’re going to hear:

"Let me check with my team and I'll get back to you."

They don’t own the campaign so they’re a “messenger”.

And that’s frustrating and a time-waster.

When you work with us, you'll be talking directly with the person that's on top of your campaign, not someone that needs to ask someone else about what's happening with your company

No more: "I'll check with my team and will answer in 24-48 hours."

You need someone that's flexible and can change strategies if your business changes or if they find new opportunities for you.

Most agencies out there have a defined process they can’t change.

Why?

Because their resources are not flexible.

Having a defined "one process for all" makes changing one thing in their strategies a major pain!

So if you change strategies, focus, etc., you’re stuck with a contract that won’t evolve with your business.

Now, I’m not a Unicorn, neither is my team, but it’s the closest you may find.

Am I flexing here?

It may sound like it, but I'm pretty serious about what I'm saying.

Skeptical?

You should be.

In a World plagued with agencies and consultants that disappoint, how could you trust another one by just reading what they say even if:

• They have great case studies.

• They say the right things.

• They have a VERY charming founder? C'mon, I'm pretty charming, and it doesn't get better than: "Jesus will do your SEO" 😉 .

You shouldn't blindly trust what I'm saying.

You're likely "seeing me" for the first time (unless you're connected with me on Linkedin, or have read any of my content online).

So no "I want to marry you" on the first date.

After 220 hires in the last 7 years, I've learned that the best first step is: to do a short VIDEO call.

It's easy to see at how someone talks, behaves, communicates, and if he/she complicates things instead of going straight to the point.

I personally like people that are direct.

With a "tell it how it is" attitude.

If they can’t help me, don’t have the time, it’s not a good fit, just tell me.

Now, direct doesn't mean being disrespectful or harsh.

It is telling you what's the best for you even if it's not what you want to hear.

You need someone that's interested in helping your company grow and asks a bunch of questions to make sure he or she understands exactly how to help you.

So my suggestion is to have a quick 20-30 min call

We usually talk about:

• Short intro about your business.

• Challenges (past and present).

• Where's your company now.

• Where do you want your company to be.

• What’s your budget to get there.

• And see how we may be able to help (or if we consider it is best for you to pursue other growth channels).

In my 11 years of experience, I've never had anyone saying: This call was a waste of time. 

In fact, quite the opposite. People are usually glad they talked with me.

I hear things like:

"Thanks for being honest, it's refreshing (for example when I tell anyone they shouldn't pursue SEO)."

"I wish I'd found you earlier."

And stuff like that.

My promise to you is that in our call, I will get to the point and see if I can help you achieve your goals.

My request from you is to please only book a call if SEO is a channel that's important for your business.

Maybe you don't know yet and want to find out, and that's ok too.

But I like to waste as little time as you do.

Something else before you book a call.

Most people want to know if they can afford us.

"Jesus, what's our "typical" budget range?"

In business, there are always two sides.

• The buyer wants the biggest upside for the less amount of money possible.
• The seller wants the most money and the biggest profit they can make.

So you're likely wanting to pay less than what I want to charge you.

We need to compromise at some range, though.

Our clients invest between $3k and $20k per month with a median of $5k/month.

I'm using the median because it is more accurate than the average.

We have two clients under $3k/mo but they're in special circumstances.

IF all this doesn't sound like a bad idea:

Get in touch for a 30 min SEO Strategy Session

P.S. In our call, feel free to ask me how I found out 84% of agencies and consultants deliver average or below average results.