Nobody grows up wanting to do SEO (do they?) #seo #seostrategy #agencylife

31 Aug 2026 · 1 min

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1:15

Jason Berkowitz explains how he went from personal training in Tribeca to SEO. He built a microsite to rank for "personal trainer NYC," got clients from it, then started offering SEO services to other businesses. A practical origin story of stumbling into the industry.

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So how did you get from physical therapy into SEO? That's a— SEO is like a niche thing, you know, even marketing agency owners, probably like half of them are like, I have no idea about SEO at all. And they have to hire like a specialist.
Yeah, I don't think anyone grows up wanting to get into SEO when they get older. It's not one of those things that like, I met this guy and he's an SEO specialist. Oh man, he's so cool. It was, I think, the same way other people just naturally or business owners might naturally get into it is to solve a need. I was working at a commercial gym in Tribeca, New York City, and I was reliant on new gym signups and the lead flow within the gyms to get a lead as a personal trainer or to give a free training session to someone who signs up to the gym. And I just had the thought, I'm sure people are Googling personal trainer NYC. And that's kind of where it all started, where I ended up creating a microsite and helped rank and get some good visibility for personal trainer NYC. Was able to go into a few folks. Uh, apartment gyms that they had. Tribeca happens to be a very wealthy area of New York City, so everyone had apartment gyms. And then I was just like, forget personal training, I can do this for other businesses.