Erin Sparks is the owner and president of Site Strategics, a company he founded in 2004 specializing in high-end Web services for small and mid-sized businesses in the United States. His 25-year career in web technology straddles the IT and marketing professions, and includes 23 years of experience in search engine optimization (SEO). Site Strategics has been on the forefront of marketing technology for over 20 years and serves a diverse clientele throughout the Midwest and beyond. Erin has directed his organization toward omnichannel digital marketing tactics, utilizing an agile marketing approach which allows flexibility based on performance feedback, resulting in a positive return on investment.

Erin is also the creative force behind the EDGE of the Web Radio podcast, which interviews recognized thought leaders in marketing and technology, and is broadcast weekly to a worldwide audience and has produced over 680 episodes over the last 13 years, building literacy among digital marketers and corporate executives. The EDGE of the Web podcast has established itself as the longest running and one of the top ranking SEO podcasts, showcasing top names in the digital marketing industry such as Britney Muller. Robert Rose, Jay Acunzo, Bruce Clay, Aleyda Solis, Joe Paluzzi, Marie Haynes, LiIy Ray, and Jason Barnard.

Key Moments

[04:41] Constantly wanting to learn, adding to podcast.

[08:18] Interviews are informative but also entertaining.

[12:09] Seth Goldstein ends up with unexpected username.

[14:51] Started podcast, faced pushback, got call appease.

[18:11] Google collects data from various touch points.

[19:29] 25 years of experience in marketing. Old and digital.

[22:46] Need to process frustrations but avoid distractions.

[26:19] Digitize notes for convenience and accessibility.

Find Erin Online

https://www.facebook.com/erinlsparks

https://twitter.com/erinsparks

https://www.instagram.com/erinlsparks

https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinsparks/

https://erinsparks.com/

https://edgeofthewebradio.com/

https://edgemedia.studio/

https://www.sitestrategics.com/

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Also, if you’re getting value from the show and want to buy me a coffee, go to the show notes to get the link to get me a coffee to keep me awake, while I work on bringing you more great episodes to your ears. →  https://gmwd.us/buy-me-a-coffee

Follow Seth Online:

Seth | Digital Marketer (@s3th.me) • Instagram: Instagram.com/s3th.me

Seth Goldstein | LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/sethmgoldstein

Seth On Mastodon: https://s3th.me/@pch

Seth’s Marketing Junto Newsletter: https://MarketingJunto.com

Transcript Provided By CastMagic.io

Seth [00:00:00]:
Entrepreneur’s Enigma is a podcast for the ups and downs of entrepreneurship to the wins and the fails that we all face being entrepreneurs, how we learn from adversity. Every week I talk to a different entrepreneur with a story to tell. I’m Seth Goldstein. Come with me on the journey. This is Entrepreneurs Enigma. Let’s get started. Hey, everybody. Welcome to another edition of the Entrepreneur’s Enigma podcast.

Seth [00:00:35]:
By now, you know who the hell I am. You really do. I’m Seth. I’m your host.

Erin [00:00:38]:
Are you? What the

Seth [00:00:39]:
what what? And that guy is as we’ll change we’ll call you the indomitable indomitable Aaron Sparks of Site Strategics. He’s a president since 20 2004. He’s also the chief bottle washer, chief mastermind behind Edge of the Web along with Jacob Mann, who is he actually has a sound guy on my podcast making him sound really good.

Erin [00:01:07]:
Yes. He is. And you do you wanna speak up there, Jake? I sure will.

Seth [00:01:10]:
You can say hi. You can say hi.

Erin [00:01:12]:
Alright. Alright. Yeah. Turn it off now.

Seth [00:01:13]:
Turn it off now. So, man,

Erin [00:01:16]:
you’re not awesome, actually. He makes my job really, really easy.

Seth [00:01:20]:
Right? So You just need to talk, and he just makes the sound check.

Erin [00:01:24]:
Just gotta just gotta give him the props because he doesn’t get that many on a regular basis.

Seth [00:01:28]:
Exactly. Jacob’s the man. Jacob’s the man. He is the man.

Erin [00:01:31]:
He also does a lot, on-site. So we do a lot of, live broadcast and recording. Yeah.

Seth [00:01:36]:
You actually make money off your studio. So you don’t just have a studio that you do your own shows, which you do Edge of the Web Radio, which is both an interview podcast. I’m not gonna say this as well as you do, but both an interview podcast and a weekly show where you discover the headlines. A lot of Barry Schwartz in it.

Erin [00:01:54]:
We love Barry Schwartz.

Seth [00:01:55]:
We actually have How can we not love Barry Schwartz?

Erin [00:01:57]:
Well, behind Jacob is actually a shirt from Barry Schwartz, a signed shirt that he mailed us.

Seth [00:02:04]:
I love it. I love Barry Schwartz.

Erin [00:02:05]:
I think Jacob won it in a in a raffle or something like that. He so we actually have it framed behind you.

Seth [00:02:11]:
Oh, that’s awesome. Does Barry know that it’s framed?

Erin [00:02:14]:
No. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Seth [00:02:16]:
So Barry, for everyone who doesn’t know, is even more prolific than Aaron. He writes a 3 or 4 blog posts a day on each site that he runs. And somehow, he still runs a software company. I don’t know how he does it. I don’t know how you do it. Honestly, I mean, you have a good team, but you have what you do. You do the interview show. You do the edge of the web radio show, you know, the overall,

Erin [00:02:39]:
The news. Yeah.

Seth [00:02:40]:
The news, but which is which I think is harder because you have Morty on it. Everyone who has no more It’s like whack

Erin [00:02:46]:
a mole, it really is. Trying to get through

Seth [00:02:48]:
He’s like he’s like me only only more ADD.

Erin [00:02:53]:
He’s the poster child. Yeah.

Seth [00:02:54]:
He is the poster child. I love Morty to death. He’s a great guy. But, you know, rag on. So it’s fun. So anyhow, Aaron is the owner of Site Strategix, a company that he founded in 2004. And he’s high end web services for small and midsize businesses in the US. He’s a so he’s done done this for a little just a little bit.

Seth [00:03:12]:
Just a little bit of time. And I guess that he is the force the creative force, that’s his words, creative force behind Edge of the Web Radio podcast. We have all these links in this show, but you’re the longest running SEO podcast, aren’t you? Or it seems like that.

Erin [00:03:26]:
I I believe so. At this point in time, this is this is our 13th year running. We’ve got we have 680 episodes or something like that, and that’s the that’s the official calendar. Technically, we actually have more than that.

Seth [00:03:39]:
Oh, you always have you should always have stuff in the hopper.

Erin [00:03:41]:
Oh, yeah. Absolutely. But, yeah, we’ve been running for a while, and and, Google finally, has blessed us to be at the top of the rank for SEO podcast, got us on the carousel, things like that. That’s right. Even in the knowledge graph, we now have the entity of edge of the web. So that that’s always fun, man.

Seth [00:03:58]:
That’s fine.

Erin [00:03:59]:
So we’ve been doing our own marketing, our own,

Seth [00:04:01]:
Is there did anyone search for it, though? That’s the thing. You didn’t know Edge of the Web or the or the SEO podcast maybe. But Edge of the Web Radio, they probably don’t search for it. It’s more of, like, oh, that’s a school. That’s

Erin [00:04:11]:
a school. You you search for Edge of the Web, and you get an an episode of Mannix from the eighties. Oh, wow. And we’re right next to Mannix.

Seth [00:04:19]:
That’s kinda funny. So how did so we’ll go back to your whole creative journey with, you know, the the agency and all that. But how do you avoid pod feed? 13 years. I mean, I’ve done I’ve been doing this for since 2010, podcasts. Right. But one podcast, I mean, variety of but for 13 years, jeez Louise.

Erin [00:04:41]:
Yeah. And, it keeps it keeps on getting a bit bigger. Every time we sit down a production meeting, we end up coming up with some additional things to do with the podcast. So that’s so that’s one good thing, but, I think, at the root of it for me is that I’m constantly wanting to learn. Yeah. And doing the news and doing interviews with subject matter experts puts me right there in the foxhole. It’s force it’s almost like a forced function. Right?

Seth [00:05:09]:
Mhmm.

Erin [00:05:10]:
Is that you’re forcing yourself to learn weekly.

Seth [00:05:13]:
And Right now with this podcast

Erin [00:05:15]:
that’s the only way that I can keep understanding what’s happening in the marketplace. So it is

Seth [00:05:20]:
Other than other than having a Google alert for Barry Schwartz.

Erin [00:05:23]:
Right. Exactly. Right.

Seth [00:05:24]:
And then sometimes it’s nice to hear it verbally. They didn’t have to read his because he writes a lot. And these are, like, 2 or 3 these are, like, 2 or 3 articles a day, and they’re not short articles.

Erin [00:05:34]:
No. They’re not. No. And their headlines are impeccable, to be honest with you.

Seth [00:05:37]:
He’s he’s on point with that. I mean, this is not the Berry show. This is the Aaron show right now, but still

Erin [00:05:41]:
The the the the deal is is that, from a learning standpoint, actually having to digest and then, feed it back to a dialogue and be able to actually also have opinions on it. I just I just realized I was I was talking to my mother days ago, and we’re just talking about how I studied in school, and I always did cram sessions.

Seth [00:06:04]:
Oh, you’re one of those guys.

Erin [00:06:06]:
I I am, and it’s been a 13 year cram session, to be honest with you, because I’ll actually get get ready for the show, sometimes even 2 hours before the show, but just jam my head into the space.

Seth [00:06:18]:
See, I don’t even do that. I usually usually, I have a preliminary call with a person. I mean, I I knew you had all the tech because you do this for a living. So I didn’t have to end. I we’ve already talked a little bit. I kinda get the sense of who you are and stuff. I didn’t have to do a preliminary meeting. Other than that, I don’t prep.

Seth [00:06:33]:
I I know as a journalist as a former journalist, you’re kinda trained to kind of fly by the seat of your pants. Go where the or go where the conversation goes

Erin [00:06:41]:
Right.

Seth [00:06:42]:
And just have fun with it, you know. And and, like and people are always, like, oh, you want a question? I’m like, if you listen to this show, it’s the same 3 damn questions every single show and you’re gonna get them. But it’s, like, the same face same 3 episodes, you know, just We’re gonna take a quick break, hear from our sponsors, and get right back to the show.

Erin [00:07:00]:
I understand that. Yeah. Whenever we’re talking about some of these concepts that we talk about on the show

Seth [00:07:05]:
You hit the prep.

Erin [00:07:05]:
Part of the prep, I will I’ll I’ll build an entire deck of questions. Oh, wow. And I’ll rarely go through that in sequence. It is my it’s almost on my journaling of I’m getting these points down. And by the effort of doing it, I’ll get it in my mind. So whenever I’m actually asking the questions, I’ve got my handrails in one way, shape, or form.

Seth [00:07:27]:
Or if you have a junior moment, you can kinda go back to, well, what’s the class? So yeah. Exactly.

Erin [00:07:31]:
Exactly. So it’s not really a script. It’s more of it’s a discipline of actually getting it in place. So I am now in the moment understanding the concept, understanding the different, you know, thoughts around the concept as well as what the guest thoughts are gonna be. So I I just kinda train myself in that space and then jump out, and then we have an organic conversation. And, ultimately

Seth [00:07:51]:
flows. Exactly. That’s what I like about your show is that it just flows. Even the news flows. Even with Morty, it flows because it’s because you kind of come to your show, you’re expecting banter. I mean, you what you’re fully expecting. That’s what I like about your show versus other SEO podcast. A lot of them are buttoned up and, like, kind of, like, you know, snore.

Seth [00:08:14]:
And then that’s some that’s some pretty PR, sweaty

Erin [00:08:17]:
balls kind of thing.

Seth [00:08:18]:
Right? Exactly. And then, like, yours are fun. Even and even interview ones are a little bit more buttoned up. I mean, it well, they are buttoned up versus completely, like, 19 nineties open buttoned down shirt open, you know. That’s a that’s a deep reference there, but, you know. But, I mean, literally, I mean, like, the the news is, you know, the news one is just kinda like you’re you’re showing the fact with Morty and Jacob and you’re having a good time. And this knowledge that you kinda sneak in there. And before you know, you’re learning something, but you’re having fun doing it, which I love.

Seth [00:08:46]:
So but to get on Go ahead.

Erin [00:08:48]:
In our interview in our interview prep, we actually really tried to crack up and and make jokes with the, guests beforehand just to level set and get everything Yeah.

Seth [00:08:57]:
You could

Erin [00:08:57]:
out of the way that it’s their show. Right? We’re navigating with them. If they wanna go someplace, we’re prepared to go there. You know?

Seth [00:09:04]:
So what got you into Site Strategics? That’s your that’s your web agency. Like, how did you find your way into this whole Oh my lord. Whack a mole of a industry? Because it is whack a mole right now.

Erin [00:09:14]:
Yeah. It really oh my gosh. Yeah. It is. Weirdly enough, I actually went through college studying philosophy and realized I could not actually make money in philosophy, so I jumped into computer science. Right?

Seth [00:09:24]:
Oh, there you go.

Erin [00:09:25]:
Fast forward and got into started my own web dev company right out right out of college and, ultimately moved from that sole proprietorship over to other marketing firms where I was a web web guy or the, you know, the internal, internal geek. Everybody has to have one.

Seth [00:09:45]:
How you fix this? Yeah.

Erin [00:09:46]:
But, ultimately, I kept on pushing the pushing the the button on the SEO side of things because sites sites were being built as just matching collateral with all the print content that was coming out of these marketing agencies. Like, no. No. No. There’s a there’s an entire treasure trove of non branded traffic out there, guys. Mhmm. The conventional traditional marketing firms couldn’t get a hold of it wouldn’t get a hold of it Yeah. Because of the the accountability.

Erin [00:10:12]:
Is that okay. What if it doesn’t happen? They’re they’re hold holding the bag there. And that’s really where my I got a bit of the stain from just traditional marketing because there’s not that much accountability in that space.

Seth [00:10:25]:
There isn’t.

Erin [00:10:27]:
As opposed to

Seth [00:10:28]:
to. Yeah. It

Erin [00:10:29]:
really is. I mean, if you get so many returns on that direct mailing piece, what are the variables that you really were able to steer to be able to get that

Seth [00:10:38]:
Mhmm.

Erin [00:10:39]:
As opposed to digital? So

Seth [00:10:41]:
Yeah. Digital is a lot more trackable. I mean, even some of it now is it’s it’s trackable to an extent. Right. But you gotta think that’s at the box now. Like, with AI, I’m starting to talk to my clients about how to get the citations, not in the knowledge graph anymore in perplexity. Get perplexity or get chance GBT to actually say, here’s all my here’s all the output. But down here is where I got got it from.

Seth [00:11:03]:
Oh, it’s from Aaron at Edge of the Web.

Erin [00:11:05]:
Oh, wow.

Seth [00:11:06]:
And they’re gonna they’re gonna click in on that and read more. I always find people click in from these things because they wanna read more, or they don’t trust AI fully, and they wanna see who this Aaron guy is kind of thing. So I would try to do that.

Erin [00:11:19]:
Sparks, who’s a botanist, I think, out of Vanderbilt. And we keep on battling our my knowledge graph with her knowledge graph. And if anybody who’s in Vanderbilt, I gotta I gotta I gotta I I really can’t say hit job, can I? No.

Seth [00:11:33]:
No. You can’t say. You can’t. No. You got you got you got to pay her off to change her name.

Erin [00:11:38]:
Exactly. I’m

Seth [00:11:40]:
a lot more famous stuff. Other than

Erin [00:11:41]:
the thing is that she’s a accredited scientist in the journalist journals, scientific references. Oh, well, she got with

Seth [00:11:49]:
backlinks than you do. Absolutely. Yeah. And good ones.

Erin [00:11:51]:
Authority in that And the good ones. Right.

Seth [00:11:53]:
Yeah. You can keep that. Yeah. I have a Seth Goldstein that is angel investor, Alan Alan Southern California. And back when with X, when I was back on X, he was at Seth. I was at Seth Goldstein. I would have to redirect his tweets to him. Oh, wow.

Seth [00:12:09]:
People would cite him as Seth Goldstein, because most logical people would use would use, you know, your full name. But I got that. He got at Seth. And when Facebook came around and started giving you usernames, we were both on instant messenger on on Facebook messenger at the time at 12 midnight when that happened. And I hit refresh too fast and ended up with an m in my in my name. Oh. And he got Seth Goldstein, like, oh. And he’s teasing me, and he’s Oh, jeez.

Seth [00:12:37]:
I’m a very professional for an angel investor, you know, that kind of thing. There there

Erin [00:12:41]:
was a tool that you could use a lot of that called know them.com where you could actually Yeah. Squat on your your business on all of these different platforms and be able to do it in one fell swoop. I don’t know if that’s still around.

Seth [00:12:54]:
No. I think the APIs cut that down. Yeah. But yeah. Something like that. So you suggest So anyway So you so so strategic. Yeah.

Erin [00:13:00]:
Back to my story.

Seth [00:13:01]:
Yeah.

Erin [00:13:02]:
I jumped into another not different marketing firms, and ultimately, I was not seeing that we were bringing success to these companies that were bringing their nest egg to Yeah. These marketing firms. They they have a a chance to be able to really rank well. So set up my own company in 2004. Wow. I had

Seth [00:13:20]:
just graduated from college. Not to make you feel old. I that’s they already graduated college. So

Erin [00:13:26]:
Not to make you feel old. What? Oh, you’re old. I have I have a few gray hairs nowadays.

Seth [00:13:31]:
Oh, so

Erin [00:13:31]:
oh, look at me. I’m younger, sir.

Seth [00:13:33]:
Have more gray hair. Yeah.

Erin [00:13:34]:
I think you do, actually.

Seth [00:13:36]:
I have a lot of gray hair. I’m all gray.

Erin [00:13:39]:
See? See, the the constant cram sessions keep me perpetually young. That’s that’s what I think.

Seth [00:13:44]:
Knowledge is power. Right? No. No.

Erin [00:13:47]:
Or just lack of sleep just keeps me I don’t know. It’s keeping me youth. Gives my gives me some a youthful vigor there.

Seth [00:13:55]:
Exactly. So anyhow, back to this that you’ve used you said strategic in 2004.

Erin [00:13:59]:
Traveled there and, we’re we’re really focused on SEO and other digital marketing touch points, building websites that were successful

Seth [00:14:06]:
Yeah.

Erin [00:14:06]:
Strategic and successful websites, and and moving towards, I’ve always been wanting to educate because, especially SEO,

Seth [00:14:14]:
you

Erin [00:14:14]:
gotta educate your clients. You gotta be able to demonstrate the ethereal. Right? You’re selling the invisible.

Seth [00:14:20]:
Oh, it’s it’s hard it’s hard to justify. I’m thinking it’s just there’s actually some return or there’s a potential for return. Yeah.

Erin [00:14:27]:
It made logical sense to actually start getting this communication into the ears on traditional radio. So we started to buy a spot on, a local radio station. Oh,

Seth [00:14:39]:
you did old school.

Erin [00:14:40]:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we were broadcasting at 7 AM on Saturday. Who the hell wants to listen to digital marketing at 7 AM on Saturday?

Seth [00:14:47]:
Not the best spot, but I’m sure it’s a little little cheaper though than having, like, a podcast. Cheaper,

Erin [00:14:51]:
and we immediately started grabbing our audio and started to create the podcast from there. And I was put giving some pushback on the state on the stations going, alright. You realize I’m not getting any calls in. I’m not getting any type of Through your show marketing. Exactly. Exactly. So literally, one of their sales guys called from a golf course, called into the show just just to appease me. It’s like, alright.

Seth [00:15:14]:
I’m done. Yeah. It’s time to leave that medium.

Erin [00:15:17]:
We were we were doing a number of different radio stations, and, ultimately, we started getting the video and curating our content more and more. And, Shag and Carpet can only go so far in a radio station whenever you’re doing video. So we, picked up and started to build out our own studio

Seth [00:15:34]:
in 2016.

Erin [00:15:35]:
Thank you. I appreciate it.

Seth [00:15:36]:
I mean, it’s neat. I mean, you got big screen TV, which is taken up by Morty’s huge head, which is terrifying, I have to say. I mean, I love Morty. He’s not a bad looking dude, but when it’s that big behind you, it’s like it’s like it’s like Oz.

Erin [00:15:49]:
It’s great,

Seth [00:15:50]:
wonderful Oz, only it’s Morty.

Erin [00:15:52]:
Oh my gosh. We we have a You

Seth [00:15:54]:
can use that. You can you can you can attribute it to me saying I was talking to Seth, and he’ll know who I am. More than this to me, unfortunately.

Erin [00:16:00]:
So we we built this guy up, in 2016 and, built the studio with the full goal of offering, our local business here in Indianapolis, the ability to actually come in and do podcasting. So we created a kind of a a brand neutral studio where we can actually customize the lights, the design of the entire site, the entire,

Seth [00:16:24]:
So you run this all over your basement. Right?

Erin [00:16:26]:
Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. It’s like

Seth [00:16:28]:
it’s it’s

Erin [00:16:29]:
Mom, of all the of all the podcast, mom.

Seth [00:16:32]:
Exactly. Kids run down all of a sudden. Morty’s like, what happens to Morty, unfortunately? He’s in his kitchen.

Erin [00:16:40]:
It’s true. So 2016, we’ve been cultivating this, and we really built a model where people can come in and record raw. They can give them their their raw asset. We can also go the full mix of production. So we’ve really got our chops in

Seth [00:16:56]:
You got yourself a

Erin [00:16:57]:
Jacob. Podcast production. Yeah. And that’s then there’s been that’s a good deal, attributable to Jacob’s investment. But on top of that actually, involvement. But But on top of that, we also go, remote on this. So we actually have a remote studio that we go on location so we can capture not just audio, not just video, but also do livestream. We brought them by Oh,

Seth [00:17:20]:
you did that you did that at Brighton SEO in, in, San Diego. San Diego. Yep. And Morty was still off the rails. He’s even more off the rails because he couldn’t edit them that much.

Erin [00:17:30]:
Oh, yeah. Exactly. I’ve learned my lesson there. Right? If if I’m not worried. Morty. Yeah. My gosh. Yeah.

Erin [00:17:36]:
He’s he’s he he was literally looking at my tattoo. What the crap was that?

Seth [00:17:40]:
That was pretty funny. That was

Erin [00:17:41]:
pretty funny. Anyway Yeah. So we built built a, a whole another, product Yeah. From, from our company, which is the entire media side of the thing, media production side of things, but it has a a very tight, connection to marketing, obviously, because Yeah. Marketing firms should be creating the content for their clients in this omnichannel space. Yes. Right.

Seth [00:18:04]:
There’s the word omnichannel. You get that into your ad you get that into your ad read every time. Very impressive. This flows up the mouth.

Erin [00:18:11]:
Well, it’s it’s all the touch points, and I’ll double down on this is this. This is what Google’s listening and watching for. It’s that mosaic of understanding that it has of you the entity. Right? Mhmm. Are you a person or are you a brand? It does it understand you through the video space, through the audio space, through the content on your site as well as social media space? Does it actually understand you in all these different lanes?

Seth [00:18:34]:
It’s wild.

Erin [00:18:35]:
Yeah. This parsing content, it’s transcribing content. It understands all of the all the the the the digital wake that you create. If it’s just in an on page reference, then you’re not really capitalizing on everything that it’s listening for.

Seth [00:18:50]:
So Exactly. Yeah.

Erin [00:18:51]:
We’ve built this for our clients, and we also not only produce media, omnichannel media for our clients, but we also use the studio as an interview method to get to learn our clients more, and we pan for gold. We’ll have 2 or 3 hour sessions where we’re talking to the subject matter experts finding their nuggets of information that aren’t

Seth [00:19:12]:
online Mhmm.

Erin [00:19:14]:
Or gap analysis on their competitors going, you know what? This is a really good space to to leverage, and we’ll have that organic back and forth, that AirView process. It’s fantastic. Find some incredible value there. They would transcribe it, curate it, and get it into a whole new channel.

Seth [00:19:29]:
Chop it up and all that stuff. It’s it’s great. It’s fantastic. So on the on so you’ve done old school marketing. You’ve done digital marketing for companies. You also done it for yourself for, what is it, 25 years, which is insane, you know, because back in the Stone Age. I I started in the stone age, so I started 1998. And but, you know, but back in the same age when we were doing this, it was a completely different ballgame.

Seth [00:19:55]:
And every and it seems like now, every week is something different versus, like, every year or something changed. Not every minute even, like, I think perplexity just told me that Microsoft did something else weird with their open source model, which is like, you heard about that, you know, how they released without testing it for bad words pretty much and bad Yep. Thoughts.

Erin [00:20:15]:
Yep.

Seth [00:20:15]:
And then, of course, once it’s out there, it’s out there. And boy, was it out there.

Erin [00:20:21]:
But I It’s crazy. Yeah. These releases where they’re that we are all being beta tested. Right? It’s

Seth [00:20:27]:
it’s it’s interesting and scary at the same time. So what is the most important thing that you have learned about entrepreneurship that you like the best about it? What’s what’s the best thing about being an entrepreneur? Am I

Erin [00:20:40]:
I think the best thing is to be able to steer towards a blue ocean. To be able to actually say, you know what? There’s a there there and you’re not trapped in the the corporate structure and the corporate deliverables. You have direct, steerage in there and accountability too because with that The bust out

Seth [00:21:02]:
of Aaron. Yeah.

Erin [00:21:03]:
Yeah. Exactly. But we have the ability to steer towards something that we see, and we have to have good reasoning for that. What we see is a valuable investment of time, and, you just don’t get that in the corporate environment unless you’re all the way through the corporate ladder. And at that point in time, you’re not you don’t have the pulse of

Seth [00:21:24]:
Then you’re detached.

Erin [00:21:25]:
Behavior change. You’re detached from the the metrics. Right?

Seth [00:21:28]:
Absolutely.

Erin [00:21:29]:
In an entrepreneurial especially in digital marketing, you can actually rally the team. We go there. We experiment, and we have that collective view of this really did change this for a 35% growth in impressions.

Seth [00:21:42]:
Yeah.

Erin [00:21:42]:
Let’s do more of this. Right? So it’s

Seth [00:21:45]:
It’s nice versus versus having the sales rep call into your radio show saying, hi.

Erin [00:21:50]:
I’m on the golf course. What you’re saying is really, really striking to me. It’s it’s you’ve got musicians in the band mentality here Yeah. At at site strategic center. We’re all playing a part, and we go where we want to go to be able to deliver, success for our clients.

Seth [00:22:07]:
Love it. So on the flip side, what keeps you up at night besides I think you also have a herd of kids. Don’t you? Do you have, like, 5

Erin [00:22:13]:
kids? You got 4 kids

Seth [00:22:14]:
Four kids.

Erin [00:22:15]:
And Jacob’s got 4 kids, and Morne has got 4 kids. My lord.

Seth [00:22:19]:
I mean, it’s a whole family reunion right there.

Erin [00:22:22]:
We do we still don’t know how that actually happens. I have no idea.

Seth [00:22:25]:
But but other than that keeping my point was other than that keeping you up at night, what business wise, what keeps you up at night?

Erin [00:22:32]:
I think, making sure that I tend to go chase squirrels a lot, and I wanna be able to bring that back and focus the team on things that that I think are valuable. Right?

Seth [00:22:45]:
Yeah. But,

Erin [00:22:46]:
we still have to have to process it. And, I think a lot of times what I get frustrated with is that we don’t process and steer towards certain things as quickly as I would like. Right? But at the same time, it’s good that way because if you’re if if you keep on chasing squirrels

Seth [00:23:07]:
Yeah.

Erin [00:23:08]:
Little legitimate squirrels, it does give everybody a good deal of whiplash as we’re moving back and forth back and forth.

Seth [00:23:14]:
So I tried my team,

Erin [00:23:15]:
so I don’t know. Discipline that we’ve instilled that I’ll bring I’ll go hunt some concepts down, but we also have to vet these concepts out as well.

Seth [00:23:22]:
And try them out and all that kind of stuff. And I’m sure that keeps you up at night waking up in the middle of the night saying, I have an idea, and you’re saying good about the bad. You’ll if you remember it tomorrow morning, it’s worth keeping.

Erin [00:23:31]:
Yeah.

Seth [00:23:33]:
Weirdly, I don’t remember actually

Erin [00:23:34]:
had that a couple couple days ago.

Seth [00:23:36]:
Yeah. But, I mean, at

Erin [00:23:36]:
the same time, you you can’t do everything No. With a small shop.

Seth [00:23:41]:
Right? How big is we have inside strategics?

Erin [00:23:43]:
We’ve got 6 full 7 full times, and we also have a number of partners. Yeah. Actually reside in the same building from Oh, wow. Traditional marketing. Yeah.

Seth [00:23:53]:
And we

Erin [00:23:53]:
actually have a relationship with another marketing firm, so we can go into PR and print, but we don’t have to sign Omnichannel, baby. Omnichannel. But we also have, other subcontractors that have been with us for a long time as well.

Seth [00:24:05]:
How that goes. Yeah. So what is the most oh, go ahead.

Erin [00:24:08]:
Well, well, I guess the other I guess I finished on the point, but it’s it’s the it’s the the the pursuit of what keeps you up is that there’s so many things out there.

Seth [00:24:21]:
Mhmm.

Erin [00:24:21]:
Right? Yeah. We can’t do everything. And I look at Lily Ray’s company and other companies. I I you know, Michael King over there. They’ve got they’ve got a suite of

Seth [00:24:30]:
He’s writing books, and he’s even doing all he’s even doing rap albums for crying out loud.

Erin [00:24:36]:
And and they’re Well,

Seth [00:24:36]:
Reynolds is running marathons. Like Mhmm. I’m just staying on my fat ass all day.

Erin [00:24:43]:
Yeah. I think it’s I would I would love to be able to expand into a number of different services, but we’re a SEO SWAT team.

Seth [00:24:51]:
Yeah.

Erin [00:24:51]:
So we gotta focus very, very, very focused on the things that we are very good

Seth [00:24:56]:
and good at. Right? So Awesome. So what is the most important thing to carry with you all the time? This can be as woo woo as you wanna go.

Erin [00:25:04]:
The most important thing that I what?

Seth [00:25:06]:
That you carry with you all the time. Jacob’s Jacob’s cell phone number. He’s a stranger right now.

Erin [00:25:17]:
That I carry with me most recently is lip balm.

Seth [00:25:21]:
There you go. It’s getting it’s getting it’s getting dry out there now. It’s getting warm. What

Erin [00:25:25]:
do I carry with me all the time? Well, I I would love to say another magazine of ammo, but this is probably not the best audience for that. I I think I I carry my, the remarkable tablet. You know, the Oh, I

Seth [00:25:44]:
love the remarkable. I’m over here. Yeah.

Erin [00:25:46]:
That thing has really turned me around. I used to have journals and journal yeah. Yeah. I Journals and journals and journals that where I would finish half the book and then pick up another fresh journal because I like the feel of a fresh journal.

Seth [00:25:59]:
Yeah. It feels worse than a beat up journal. It’s like, oh.

Erin [00:26:02]:
But that remarkable is actually so cool, and I’ve actually given that that to my kids in college Wow. Because you’re syncing up to your computer. You can actually it’s a it’s a digital notebook. It’s a digital journal.

Seth [00:26:14]:
Fantastic. That is And they’re not a paid sponsor either. Just fantastic. They’re just fantastic.

Erin [00:26:19]:
Should actually knock on their door. No. I think that’s been one of them I carried it around everywhere, and any any regardless of business or our our family or faith. Right? If I’m taking notes, I’m gonna whip that thing out because I can actually digitize it, kick it into a PDF. I can email notes to myself and things like that. So that

Seth [00:26:38]:
And you still have to decipher it because it’s like paper. Right. So if it’s strict discretion on that, it does not recognize my handwriting at all. Because the only thing worse than doctor handwriting is journalism handwriting, journalist handwriting. Right. I mean, it’s like one giant line, and you have to say for what that line is different from that line.

Erin [00:26:54]:
You get to you get to draw the cool thing. One of the cool things whenever we’re in a, business meeting, you can throw your reMarkable, cast it to your screen.

Seth [00:27:02]:
Yeah.

Erin [00:27:02]:
Right? And, actually, you can draw out just like white paper or whiteboard your different concepts. So it it gives another dimension to those, virtual meetings as well.

Seth [00:27:12]:
That’s awesome.

Erin [00:27:13]:
Yeah. I I’d like that thing.

Seth [00:27:14]:
Awesome. Well, good endorsement for Morty, a good endorsement for Jacob, a good endorsement for the Alessio community and Barry. But, Aaron, where can they find the indomitable? I think this is not right. Where did they find you online? Where where is your main watering home? I’m still trying to get you back in the mastodon more.

Erin [00:27:32]:
Oh, boy. I tell you what. I did walk off that, I gotta get back to that platform. I it

Seth [00:27:37]:
I’m I’m on board right now, and you get SEO channel in Mastodon just easy. And he’s like, oh, it’s too hard. I’m like, no. It’s not.

Erin [00:27:43]:
It’s really easy. And, it’s just, you know, that that whole exodus really did show a need for decentralization. It really did.

Seth [00:27:53]:
It did.

Erin [00:27:53]:
You know? Mhmm. So I’ve got I’ve got a massive on profile out there. I swear I’ll get back there. So So thank you very much for being in the

Seth [00:28:00]:
I’ll keep harping on you. I keep on I keep on I keep on I not tweeting tooting at you guys. Tooting. Oh, terrible. It’s called tooting. Toots.

Erin [00:28:07]:
It is. It is. And, just makes me hungry for beans, unfortunately. Oh,

Seth [00:28:11]:
wah wah wah.

Erin [00:28:13]:
Bad joke. So you can find me over on x, Twitter, Aaron Sparks, but, look for us on SEO podcast. You’ll be able to find edge of the web sites for TV.

Seth [00:28:23]:
And if you can’t let them know.

Erin [00:28:25]:
Yeah. Exactly. I I need to know this. You know, you can search search me for Erin Sparks SEO because I’m still not toppling her knowledge graph.

Seth [00:28:36]:
But it will come also e e r I n, like, the Irish iron.

Erin [00:28:40]:
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you very much. As opposed to a girl’s name.

Seth [00:28:44]:
No. It’s Irish. The Sparks. Erin Sparks,

Erin [00:28:46]:
it was Irish name. Actually, my mom’s British, and she named me after Ireland. But I had I had a curse of the boy named Sue all the way through my childhood. So see how that went. But, you can’t you can’t

Seth [00:29:00]:
None for the wear. Right? None for the wear.

Erin [00:29:02]:
Can’t see. You can’t swing a dead cat and not find me out there Exactly. Worrying about SEO.

Seth [00:29:07]:
See that or botanist at Vanderbilt. 1 of those 2.

Erin [00:29:11]:
No. No. We don’t go there. Don’t we

Seth [00:29:13]:
don’t go there. We’ll leave that we’ll leave that alone. We’ll leave that on the clean room floor. Well, Aaron, this is

Erin [00:29:17]:
But we certainly like your your input on how we do on the show as well. We’re always looking for I’m

Seth [00:29:22]:
always giving my input or possibly a Morty one of the 2.

Erin [00:29:25]:
Yeah. And and please please help us as we deal with Morty all the time. Give us a review out there because Absolutely. This is not a labor of love. This is this is painful each and every week.

Seth [00:29:37]:
Painfully but fun at the same time. Because you can tell it’s it’s it’s like, oh, he went there. But it’s also like, oh, that was kind of fun. Look, I mean, that’s what I like about it. It’s it’s not NPR. Yeah. Podcasting is not NPR. We’re not Terry Gross.

Seth [00:29:50]:
We’re not talking like this.

Erin [00:29:52]:
Oh my gosh.

Seth [00:29:52]:
No. We’re we’re we’re we’re shooting this shit and having a good time. That’s what that’s We were

Erin [00:29:56]:
really trying to come up with what we could put in a Patreon chat channel, but the the the edits and the outtakes and the and the preshow

Seth [00:30:05]:
Yeah.

Erin [00:30:05]:
Would get us in so much trouble. We got we got nothing left.

Seth [00:30:09]:
Yeah. Exactly. You’re enough off the rails as it is with the edited one. So Yeah. You got nothing else to share. Alright, Aaron. Thank you so much for being on the show, and we’ll see everyone next week.

Erin [00:30:19]:
Thanks, Seth.

Seth [00:30:20]:
That was a great show. If you’re enjoying Entrepreneur’s Enigma, please view us in the podcast directory of your choice. Every review helps other podcast listeners find our show. If you’re looking for other podcasts in the marketing space, look no further than the marketing podcast network at marketing .net. Goldstein Gee. I hope you have enjoyed this episode.