What Am I Working On and Why

The Inquiry Engine originally started out as my lead gen website for my SEO services. I would rank for individual cities + SEO, and then work the leads that came in. What I discovered was that the quality of these leads tended to be very high closing, but very low budgets. That was fine when I was starting out, I was basically only capable of minor on-page SEO at the time anyway, but it became a problem once I realized how much easier things were when link building was involved. Unfortunately, link building and low prices never go together. I know, there are ways to reduce costs for link building, but the method I utilize takes time to accomplish.

What I did discover, though, was that referrals and networking provided much higher quality leads. You can create this network digitally, through producing high quality comments and interactions, or you can do it in person through events and friends. Both provide very great results, and are highly recommended.

As for ranking my own website for a niche, that would also produce very good results. When someone is searching for a specialist, and not just a local person, they have expectations of the product costing more. Speciality shoes cost more, as do speciality marketing.

That isn’t what Inquiry Engine is anymore. I have my main company website for that, and I don’t need this one to duplicate it anymore.

What this website is about is me and what I am interested in. For a short version that includes: being a father, being a husband, search engine optimization, cooking, weight lifting, reading, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Search Console, keyword research, Facebook Advertising, social media, and mass media.

Now, this blog isn’t simply about rambling. The purpose is about goals, and achieving them. I have family goals, life goals, health goals, and business goals that I want to put on (digital) paper, and go after. This will help document that journey.

Goal #1 Become A Better Husband

This sounds like the easiest goal ever, be good to your wife, and bam job well done. Well, life sometimes makes it more difficult than it should be. Between stress, helping my daughter through her heart disease, and trying to grow a company, my wife gets put on the back burner far too often. For me, my goal of being a better husband is learning to always be present, to listen better, to put her needs on a higher level, and to rekindle our relationship. I won’t say that our marriage is bad, but it is disconnected.

My goal for the rest of 2018 is to make being a good husband as natural as possible through consistency. Learn the right skills for the right times, and make them as natural as possible. This will have to further improve after 2018, of course, but being consistent and present will hopefully do wonders.

Goal #2 Double the Size of My Company

Now, it isn’t “my company,” but the company I work for. As employee #1 I have been there from almost the very start, and have a major incentive to make it grow. At this point the search department is mine to manage. Retention is extremely strong, but sales growth has slowed down. I have the skill set to improve this funnel, as I have done for over 200 companies in the past, but it has never been a focus. Now is the time to be a catalyst.

Goal #3 Be a Better Father

Holy cow are kids complicated! As my almost three year old is developing a personality and emotions I have realized that I am ill equipped to help her grow at peak capacity. She is doing incredible without me at my post – she is potty trained, knows all her letters, can count to 17, and has impressive reasoning skills – but I know that she would be even better if I were better prepared.

So, that’s what I’m doing. The first step is learning how to guide her through emotional development. It would be easy to always pick her up and comfort her, but that won’t help when I’m not around. So, I need to help her develop the skills to self sooth, which she does most often already, and to have more patience when finding a resolution. I too have to remain patient when she is purposely challenging the situation.

Goal #4 Become A Better Cook

I am satisfactory at cooking. I know a couple dozen recipes by heart, no longer needing a recipe, and can combine ingredients in ways that will taste good without a recipe. However, my flavor profiles are extremely limited. For example, despite loving Greek food I don’t know how to combine flavors to match that cuisine. I can always find a recipe and make the food, but for me I want to know how the use of spices and flavors make Greek food unique. My major focus will be on cuisines that primarily use vegetables and legumes, as this is the weakest part of my skill set.

Goal #5 Become Healthier

I lift weights a lot. Typically 4-6 times a week I will be at the gym lifting weights for 1-2 hours each session. I love the feeling of lifting, and have found a way to make it a big part of my daily routine. Lifting also helps my sleep patterns.

However, I am not at a healthy weight. I have lost 30 pounds in the last four months, but it is all due to my lifting, and not because of my diet. My diet is awful besides a proper amount of protein to match my lifting routine. I have put on several inches of muscle during this weight loss phase, so my overall fat loss is misleading, but I am still around 250 pounds. That is far too much for someone who is between 5’ 11” and 6’. Here are my health goals:

• Lost 45 pounds to reach 205
• Fit into large shirts again
• Maintain 18” arms
• 315 pound bench press
• 225 overhead press
• 400 pound squat

This goal actually goes right along with my cooking goal, and learning to cook and prepare real food as best I can. If I can make my dishes heavily focused on vegetables I can make them far healthier for my family.

Goal #6 Read One Book A Week

Read for joy or development, either way works for me, but do so constantly. I actually had this up on my dry erase board for the last three months, but only managed to read six books. That is a far cry of the twelve I was aiming for. I think the catch was how long of books I was reading. When you read Game of Thrones it is hard to expect to read it in one week on top of everything else I’m working on. Perhaps if I focus on books the size of Purple Cow I could maintain a better result, but we’ll see what interests me. Right now I’m reading “Crushing It” by Gary Vaynerchuck. As always, his content is incredible, so definitely pick up a copy if you don’t have it. I just finished “Ready Player One,” so maybe I’ll alternate Fun to Function from week to week.

Goal #7 Reduce Debt

I actually had a 6 Month plan of becoming totally debt free before my daughter was born. I have the cost of diapers and everything else worked in. That was tossed out the moment she was born with heart disease. Those bills racked up fast, and continue to do so as we are continuing treatments. Still, I want to put all of that behind us, and that means conquering those bills.

Goal #8 Add Two More Revenue Streams

My focus has been on my main revenue stream for the last six years, and it has really paid off. I have developed the skills I need, though, to produce another line of income. The easy method would be a training course for SEO that I sell, but I just can’t get behind that idea. Every website and niche is different, and a general SEO course will leave people confident but helpless. They would be able to fumble their way through, of course, but there is no way to properly train for when things don’t go perfect. Maybe the content management system doesn’t function the way they need to, I’m looking at you Wix, or the Webmaster blocks you at every turn.

This is something I’ve pondered for a long time, but I really want it to be something more than a training course or reselling widgets I buy on AliExpress. Something meaningful and fun.

What Now

So, you made it to the end of my “how cool I am” speech. However, where am I going from here? The first blog posts you are going to see are going to be about my thoughts on search engine optimization and whatever I’m reading. I’ve been doing SEO for almost eight years, and have worked on 300-400 websites. I have websites outranking Home Depot, Amazon, and Blue Nile currently, but I am working on some tricks with Google Tag Manager to take my projects to the next level. You will also see a guide on how to make a well optimized website coming out soon, too. Either way, thanks for reading.