Training SEO Agencies to 8/9 Figures - Mark A. Preston Interview

[00:03] thing I know a few years later I had 120 sites you know I've made a lot of money over the years and I've lost an awful lot of money what are your thoughts on the current current state of AI in the SEO industry they need to step out of

[00:18] the rankings and traffic mindset and step into their conversion and lead and step into their conversion and lead and sales mindset the SEO team sometimes

[00:30] isolated in a bubble do you see much value in doing reward based systems as well for agency employes it's super important for everyone within the team to get on with each [Music]

[00:54] episode where I'll be interviewing SEO experts and entrepreneurs from around the world in in today's episode we've got somebody who started doing SEO back in the very early 2000s with lead generation websites he built over aund

[01:08] lead generation websites in the early 2000s then ran and sold multiple agencies in the UK and now he's a speaker consultant and author and he runs training workshops for various agencies across the US and the UK please

[01:22] ladies and gentlemen hello thanks for having me no worries at all do you want introduction on where you've uh come from and what and and your background oh from and what and and your background oh yes well originally I'm a qualified

[01:37] mechanic oh okay and I've always said that in those days the ability to get a that in those days the ability to get a car and diagnose what the problem is and

[01:50] car and diagnose what the problem is and strip it down and fix it was the basis strip it down and fix it was the basis of what I'm I am now right then due to of what I'm I am now right then due to family health issues I had to do

[02:04] something myself so I wasn't tied to anything so I just started building sites and next thing I know a few years later I had 120 sites

[02:16] later I had 120 sites and they started generating loads of and they started generating loads of leads and I basically just tested things and worked out myself what were happening and drove organic traffic and

[02:28] happening and drove organic traffic and leads and sold those leads to related businesses then I sold all that and plowed my money into an plowed my money into an agency let's just say that that first

[02:42] agency let's just say that that first agency wasn't what I expected it to be I ended up working my ass off 247 literally for other people you know um

[02:54] and I've always said that I'm never going to start an agency ever again but going to start an agency ever again but I then set up my own franchise that did well I solved that uh but I found a real passion for educating people so

[03:11] basically I'm not going to lie you know I've made a lot of money over the years and I've lost an awful lot of money and if I can help others uh not go through the pain and heartache I went through and made the

[03:26] same mistakes then that has to be a benefit to other people uh so now I benefit to other people uh so now I concentrate on educating other people on you know the best ways forward give them a business mindset plus I

[03:42] also um am a non-exit director and advisor in a few companies I own a share advisor in a few companies I own a share of the business which is my retirement pretty nice retirement part that it's building towards I'm guessing at this

[03:56] building towards I'm guessing at this point it is yeah it's again one of the learnings I found is not to put all your eggs in one basket which was a very costly mistake and you know it went through a a very tough period because of

[04:11] that decision yeah no it's it's a very common thing when entrepreneurs kind of see everything going so well all you want to do is just keep on throwing cash at what's working so that you get more cash back right but inevitably that can

[04:24] putting loads in and that inevitably doesn't you know come come back with an business right and that's what happens to tons of agencies that kind of mess up their cash flow because they're not lean and that they're not you know um running

[04:38] times and Trends and stuff and kind of talking about the times and Trends and things um what are your thoughts on the current current state of AI in the SEO industry I think personally that a lot of people

[04:56] personally that a lot of people are uh confusing AI with the capabilities of AI and how it can help and streamline what they're doing I feel that a lot of the industry are just in this AI content generating

[05:13] are just in this AI content generating mindset right but AI when you when you look into it deep it goes much more I mean there's so many things you can do mean there's so many things you can do to help streamland processes you know

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[06:39] what I've done there I hope this case that inspires and I will start campaigns to land links to your or your client's website just like we've done it client's website just like we've done it with this

[06:54] of the new models and stuff especially the integrated multimodal models and things and stuff even in like the real world is absolutely scary right when you robots and things and stuff that can be 20 to 30 times more efficient than

[07:08] that's kind of scary now when it can actually start replacing experts at their job for um a lot lower cost right and and some of these machines aren't really that expensive you're just basically uh calling back to a server in

[07:22] API credits and things right to to essentially run these um large machineries and stuff so do think that AI is going to be replacing a lot of the human writing tasks it seems like you said there that you thought it would

[07:35] more be improving the capabilities but you also said that a lot of agencies and people seemed quite worried about it and Confused from the wrong way as if it was they're just worried about it and they will kind of because they're so um

[07:50] confused and worried and things it might actually you know inevitably happen to about it right um do you think that it will start replacing people or is it just going to improve people's tasks specifically in agencies right there's

[08:02] specifically in agencies right there's two sides of it here is I speak to some two sides of it here is I speak to some CEOs who see you know when GPT come out they saw it as this magic wand that they don't have to employ people anymore that

[08:16] that will do it for them so there's that education side of it but as far as seos and content writers taking over their job well if you strip it right back

[08:30] AI content is just the new Baseline that you can you know use tremendous prompts and give it all the tremendous prompts and give it all the research and sources to create a

[08:44] research and sources to create a starting point then as um a Content writer SEO it's your job to then add value to what it pumps out because that is just a starting point because all AI content is is just basically Rewritten

[09:02] information that's already out there so in order to really Propel yourself you need to add value just copy and pasting what it spits out is the people it's

[09:14] going to replace the people it's going to replace are the what I call the the to replace are the what I call the the low lower content writers low quality low lower content writers low quality content writers one that just writes an

[09:28] article based on this topic and it has so many words and that kind of thing and we as an industry we need to get a lot more detailed into you know the purpose more detailed into you know the purpose of it you know looking at conversions

[09:43] you know is this you know piece of content actually going to convert into real business yeah 100% I think that um with AI it's this whole thing of got kind of speaking from firsthand experience right

[09:56] whereas writers can actually speak from firstand experience whereas an AI is people's firsthand experience and you see it in the AI content so you can ask an AI to do a review of a piece of content and because it is rewriting

[10:10] multiple people's firsthand experience firstand opinions sometimes it will contradict itself even within the same paragraph right it will say oh this is a really good product and then it'll say actually it's a scam right because it's

[10:23] opinions because it's not a sole individual right um and that's where you additional oversight and things to kind of maximize the output um so how do you

[10:35] think agencies can kind of future proof themselves going forward against this technology maybe utilizing it even more so honestly I believe they need to step

[10:48] so honestly I believe they need to step out of the rankings and traffic mindset out of the rankings and traffic mindset and step into their conversion and leads and sales mindset because at the end of the day if an agency is basically

[11:06] helping the business to actually physically grow with profit then they're not going to want to let that agency leave but if all they're doing is

[11:19] regurgitating content and yes it might get ranked it might drive traffic but I do think there's a disconnection in the industry and I've seen it when I've been in agencies there is a disconnection with

[11:33] the business mindset because maybe the SEO team isn't given the sort of business information on that side so that's the that's a sort of disconnection I think

[11:46] from an agency point of view if the business you're working with the goal is business you're working with the goal is to drive revenue or so many leads you know then that's what you need to focus on

[12:00] yeah clients care about their bottom line the most at the end of the day right you can come out with all this amazing technical jargon and stuff and they won't listen to you they don't care right all they want to listen to is how

[12:12] the day and how much money more than they paid you that you made them right think a lot of seos get wrong when it comes to selling things um so You' dealing with the ins and outs of agencies especially kind of you know

[12:27] going into agencies training things like that then most people in the industry maybe even in the world what do you think are the most common things that agencies are getting wrong at the moment do you think it's from an SEO

[12:39] perspective from a hiring perspective what do you think is the the main kind of common issues well this one when when that's when you say common issues I truly believe it's

[12:55] issues I truly believe it's communication right I mean does an there's some tremendously very good agencies out there with fantastic agencies out there with fantastic teams right now I think that the scos

[13:10] need to be involved in the pre-sale stage and I think there's a the SEO team stage and I think there's a the SEO team sometimes are isolated in a bubble right

[13:23] sometimes are isolated in a bubble right and in the agency it's like a conveyor and in the agency it's like a conveyor belt so so but unless those people in belt so so but unless those people in those bubbles totally understand what's

[13:36] going on and what's expected and everything they tend to go off on a tangent and I do think that's one of the main for it's not about you know this SEO doesn't know how to do this certain scheme or anything it's realistically

[13:54] stepping back and looking at the agency from a a higher business perspective from a a higher business perspective especially it you know is in them pre-sales conversations get the team

[14:07] involved and I think that's the that's the for me looking from the outside in when I've gone in and ask certain questions to the SEO team or the content team or anything it's just yeah we've been given the these tasks to

[14:23] do yeah you you said about getting on the call prior to the sale with the setting expectations thing as well with the client where agencies just are kind capabilities and what they're going to produce for client results as well yeah

[14:38] well the the SE te doesn't need to be on the sales core but there needs to be an the sales core but there needs to be an internal meeting to discuss that call before they jump on so you know an agency employes people because they are

[14:54] specialists in their individual field hopefully hopefully now why not you know ask them in advance just say look you know we're going to pitch to this business who's you know

[15:09] pitch to this business who's you know wanted us um to work with them what do you think what do you think we need to happen What Can you spot what opportunities what quick wins can we gain and I think sometimes that's the

[15:23] gain and I think sometimes that's the disconnection so getting the team involved at the start before they even win the business can really benefit things moving forward I think it also kind of

[15:37] levels up your entire Staffing team right because then everybody has a better understanding of what they're doing what they're selling how to go about business how to go about conducting sales the whole lot right

[15:49] it's kind of like a a holistic approach to improving your team without actually having to invest a large amount of resources or time into doing it yeah I mean it's it's just getting people involved they feel as though they are

[16:04] part of this because they've contributed to it other than you know they've got to it other than you know they've got this new client just go and do SEO but basically you know that there's no like personal connection with it and if a

[16:20] team has a personal connection with something they're going to do a better something they're going to do a better job whether what anybody says do do you see much value in doing reward-based systems as well for agency employee

[16:35] team I think that it depends how you go about rewarding depends how you go about rewarding people you know

[16:51] they're doing it is because they gain a certain reward I don't think that's a good environment right now not having a reward system and then saying look you know we smashed that client they're

[17:06] super happy you know they've increased the budget let's all go out for a meal to celebrate that's the sort of things that I think needs to happen rather than

[17:18] that I think needs to happen rather than you know if you achieve XYZ you'll get XY yeah and you you want to team that like at the end of day like each other as well and actually talk to each other this point of communication right I've

[17:30] gone into a lot of agencies before where you can kind of see some people are gritting their teeth other people and there's definitely just a very kind of almost toxic work culture that has been portrayed and I don't know if that's uh

[17:43] on the manager or it's on the CEO but I think at the end of the day there needs to be like you said like a cohesive communication between the entire uh team and all departments otherwise the agency isn't going to be able to improve um

[17:55] isn't going to be able to improve um across the board so yep yeah I'm going across the board so yep yeah I'm going to said that I've seen I've seen some to said that I've seen I've seen some agency teams destroyed because of one

[18:07] negative person they they come in the face is on the floor they always negative and it drains everybody and from a h manager's

[18:19] drains everybody and from a h manager's point of view if you can't turn those people around you need to get shot and it's a cruel thing to say but you can't have those types of people bringing everyone down so it's super important

[18:36] everyone down so it's super important for everyone within the team to get on with each other yeah you know you have you cut the rotting fruit off at the L I think right otherwise the whole the whole batch gets corrupted yeah 100 well

[18:49] anywhere where anybody can find you online uh yes uh you can find me at marqu Preston just search that I'm all over the place and um I have a podcast

[19:04] at unscripted SEO podcast if you search it you can find it perfect well I appreciate you coming on I'll see you in next next episode on I'll see you in next next episode guys peace