Episode 175: Vietnam to Toronto to His Own the Road from Vietnam to Building the Top SEO Company ...

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Weidel and let's get started. All right, we are here with John Vaughn, and John has his own SCO company and I believe that is. Well, I'll let him explain that to you. Those of y' all that are not operating on the Internet. But anyway, he's got a company and he's in the Internet world. But if you're in business, all the rules apply of things you've got to do, lessons you know, you got to learn, and obstacles you have to overcome. So John has been in the industry a long time, but he started his own company called Local SEO Search, which is a full service digital agency. Started that 2013 and has been recognized as a top SEO agency in Canada. And so welcome John. Glad to have you. Congratulations on your success so far with your new business.

Well, thanks a lot, Larry. I'm excited to share insights with your audience members today.

And you talk about this a lot and with a lot of other people because you have your own podcast, right? Local SEO today.

That's right. I have my own. I've been doing it for a couple years now. Over 200 episodes and enjoying every minute of it.

Yeah. And you know, when you great, you get great people talking about great ideas, great things can happen. And if you talk to knuckleheads, then nothing good can happen except stupidity.

But.

But if you get some people that have, you know, they're motivated to do great things, have had some great effort and have been fortunate enough to have some great results, when you get together and talk with those kind of people, it's very stimulating. And so this going to be a stimulating day for everybody today. And John has what would people be most impressed about the success you and your company have had so far from the outside looking at you, people who want to be, you know, know your industry and want to get into the digital world, what would be the most impressive thing to them about what you've been able to accomplish so far?

So when I first started, I didn't know anything about SEO and I'm not even technical, so.

And SEO is what?

Search Engine optimization.

And that's how Google, that's what Google uses to find you with keywords and things like you type in. I'm looking for. I'm looking for turnips. I'm looking for roses. I'm looking for horses. That's. Yeah, this is a search. And so optimizing that to where when they're looking for that they find your website is you Optimize that. In other words, show people how to position themselves to be one of the ones that comes up first, you know, or on the first page anyway of, of Google. And so where did you start? And you know, but basically just go ahead and answer the first question. How far, what, what is the, what do people from the outside look at you and what are they most impressed by?

Yeah. So when I first started, didn't know anything seven years in actually a couple years ago, getting more recognition, I started getting more exposure and really just by doing good work. Right. So I think majority of it is referrals and word of mouth. But I think just being one of the top recognized agencies is a big thing for me now.

Now is that top because you know how to mark how to maximize your search engine recognition, but. Or is that because of things you've done, you know, what do you do to be recognized as a top?

Yeah, dealing with hundreds of clients over the years, getting good repeat customers, spreading the word and getting good results ultimately like saying what I do but actually proving it.

Yeah, there's a lot about the Facebook advertising and advertising marketing, but the best marketing is friend to friend. You know, we're, you know, we have all this marketing going on and you need to be focused on getting new clients as a primary thing or that you're not going to grow because you're always going to have clients leaving you, you know, and always have people you deal with. Maybe you deal with them one time. So everybody, if they're going to grow, they've got to be primarily focused on doing a good, you know, number one, getting new clients, but with the existing clients doing a good enough job where people say good things about you and you're not making things it harder and harder to get people in. So you did that well. And how did, did you notice that you were moving up the ladder and things that you were getting bigger stature in the industry?

I think just understanding retention, attrition, understanding like what value I'm bringing to the table and differentiating myself from other agencies but focusing on my own to really get better, adding more value and helping customers achieve their success.

You know, that's one the fifth thing I've got in my, the fifth step in my book about serial winning that winners, people who win regularly do after they have a victory, they go through and immediately put their mind on what's the next biggest opportunity. But also how can I improve to do it again quicker, faster, better. Because right when you finish, that's when the things that maybe didn't go right or the kind of help you support you needed that you didn't have before you get into the middle of another project, you can go bam, bam, bam and get those things in place while it's fresh on your mind where otherwise you might forget it, you know, and you know, you need to seize the moment for improvement as soon as you finish the project. And you've been doing that again and again. You know, there's a thing, John, I want to get you to comment on. It just kind of came to me. There's a thing that you hear from a lot of people who are in business startups and that is to keep your head down. I don't know if you've heard this about your podcast, but keep your head down, keep working like a dog, get better, and don't really worry too much about your results compared to others, you know, and everything. Don't worry. You know, you always got to worry about your results. That tells you if you're doing the right things. But don't, don't beat yourself down that you don't have the results you want because it may take until the third year to where things really start to, to take off, you know, you have to flap your wings as a new business for about, real hard for about three years before you can get liftoff, is what people say most of the time. I mean, there are exceptions. It takes less time or longer time. But did you find that in your business when you, you started.

Early days? I feel like I was spending a lot of time, definitely I was putting my head down and just going out there selling, getting clients, but not knowing my ideal type of client. And I was chasing and trying to get as much revenue and sales and, you know, keeping afloat because again, this is me bootstrapping. And it wasn't VC funded or, you know, any, anything that was funded by anyone. It was myself. And I wanted to ensure that I was sustainable. I had growth, I had revenue, I had sales in order to then build a team behind me to then put systems and processes in place.

Yeah, that's the sequence where, that's a successful sequence. You start with yourself and it's really good early on not to have enough money or a lot of extra money because that makes you lazy and that makes you rush into decisions rather than think it through. And a lot of times because you don't have the venture capital money behind you, you're forced to come up with solutions are even better and more duplicatable. And so it basically forces you to do the work rather than just hire a bunch of people and turn it over to them and like they already know how to do it. I'll just hire them. And how many times in my life have I done that? And I've never been happy that I did that. You know, somebody comes in, well, I can do that for you. You. Yeah, yeah, sure. And then months later I realized, well, that was just money down the drain. I should have done it myself. But when you do it yourself, then it is and you start to get some sustainability, you start to get some clients, you start to get your methods down. You know, your, your, your conversations, your answers to questions. You start to get things in place, even on your website and your toolkit together, all your support materials and people in place. And then when, then now you can add people on and they're going to be productive because you're teaching them to do what you've done. You're not just adding them on and hoping they know how to do it because they said they do. No, you're hiring people that are willing to be taught and willing to follow the pattern that you've set down. Set, set down. So that's the time that when you add on people and put in systems in place that you really can kick it into another gear in terms of growth and get more done out of 24 hour day cycles. So you got a comment on that?

Yeah, I totally agree. I think understanding distinguishing your avatar, which is your ideal type of client. Early days, because at the beginning I was scrambling, I was trying to figure that out once I understood their exact needs and answering all the problems and situation, their personality trait, where they reside, what their interests and groups are, then I could then put together a framework SOP process, hire people to cultivate people just like them. And that took time to develop, but I think it's much more rewarding when you do it slow and steady and actually you get a better retention rate. Knowing exactly who you want to target and who you want to work with.

Yeah, your ideal client. And SOP meaning standard operating procedure, which is basically a military term. And where you can get. Everybody knows what they're supposed to do at all times. You know, they're every. And that way the more you can standardize, the more the routine task, the repetitive task, like if it's in a house, you know, washing and folding the towels, you know, the more you can those jobs, you know, sweeping the floors, washing the dishes, the more you can standardize the sequencing on that, the more you can free your mind up and Your time up for more fun or productive or innovative type things, you know. And, and so when you started though as a kid would, were you always wanting your own business? Were you, you started. You're in Canada now. Where in Canada?

I'm in Toronto, Canada.

Uhhuh. I've never, I'm. I've never heard of it. No, just kidding.

So I grew up an hour outside of Toronto and my upbringing was. I'm the fourth child of immigrant family from Vietnam. They escaped the war and so we came from pretty much leaving a country of war and my parents didn't know English and we. I was born two weeks later and basically just started in government housing. Didn't really have much growing up so foundationally all I knew was we had each other, we had a family, we had dinner together and we had shelter in government housing. So we got a lot of support from food banks and Salvation army and stuff that actually helped us get ourselves on the ground. So I know what it feels like when people are starting from nothing. And therefore that's how I take on any project. Knowing and having good perspective in every aspect of where people's situation and life events are. In business.

Yeah, in every area of life. The people that do it all the time have their little terms they use and acronyms, you know, sop, things like SEO. You know, if you get in the army, there's a million of them. But you could. It's real easy on the entry level into any industry to feel like an outsider because you just don't know. It's not the language, you don't know the jargon, you don't know these abbreviations, you don't know what they're mean. They mean. I had a degree in building construction from Georgia Tech and I started architecture then switched once I found out you had to be we're going to make any money until you're 35 years old in architecture. I said, you know, I got to make money quicker than that. So I switched into building construction. I had a degree from a first class institution, Georgia Tech, Bachelor of science in building construction. And I didn't know anything about construction. And I went out on the job site and was hired by a guy to be the field superintendent. And they were taught. We walked through a house and he would order the doors and the windows and you know, we need, you know, we need six three by six, three six by four, six casings for this and we need a, you know, a three, zero panel here and a case, you know, all of this, you know, crown molding here, and I didn't know what anything was, you know, and nothing stuck in my head. And. But, you know, two days later, I was like an old pro because you. You learn to ask questions, and then you. What you learn is it's not all that hard because most things in life, it's just people working in one area or another, and they've worked away to where they kind of know how it goes. And then depending on your motivation, you can get familiar and the questions you ask, you can move up pretty quick. You know, you beat half of the people just by working hard. And so we noticed that in our business, when we have staff, people come on, if they're a hard worker, it doesn't take them a whole long, you know, much time before all of a sudden they're making contributions to the team and. And they're making life easier for us, you know. But now, as you came up and grew up and started to think beyond food, shelter, clothing, the next meal, what was going on in your mind with your friends, your family and community? What were the conversations? What was the outlook for the future?

Like, so at home, my parents really grounded us. They basically made sure that we studied hard, get a good education, and really focused on, like, school, right? Good education. Outside of that, I had a lot of friends from sports. There's different crowds, right? People that were very disciplined in terms of hard work, putting in the time and effort, and get excelling in some sports realm. And then there's other ones that were really about fast money, right? Get quick rich, try to do some, you know, underground activities to earn money so that they can buy nice clothes, buy nice cars, whatever, right? And dropouts. So it was more about, like, which crowd did I want to gravitate towards? And I stuck with what my parents told me, stay in school, and also with my friends that stayed in sports. So that really helped me guide me through the next stage of my life, which was, you know, post education as well as my career.

Were you thinking, I mean, did you have any grandiose vision for the future, whatever, but. Or were you focused? You know, I'm thinking, like, how would have I answered this question back when I was that age? You know, I was just focused when I was growing up, I was focused. Like, you know, you said, you know, the. The family was solid, hard working, and I was focused on doing well in the situation I was in. And I wasn't a genius by any means, but, you know, if you go to small schools, you can look like a genius. So, you know, you you know, I wound, always was at the top of the class president, the school and this, that and the other. But that was mainly the side because of the size. Schools I went to were small, you know, there weren't a lot of possibilities there. And it's like, who should we get? Oh, let's get Larry. But that's how I explain that. But when it came even to going to school, I didn't have, you know, I didn't have this vision of I want to make hundreds of millions of dollars. I didn't even know you could make hundreds of millions of dollars. You know, I, it's, it's. I was out in Long island and the Hamptons when I graduated from high school. It's a good thing all the hedge funders had not come out there. And I had learned that you could, you know, that I heard that you could get, make billions of dollars by the hedge funds. Or I might have gone to Wall street, but the, the possibilities were like, do something you love. You know, I was chasing, I was always chasing something I loved and that I could, you know, after two years of the architecture, I put the idea, well, also something you love that you can make money on sometime before you die. And so that's why I said, I got to get, get out of, yeah, I got to get my degree. I'm not going to quit, but I got to get something where I can make money faster. But I didn't really have a vision of I want to be a concert pianist, you know, I want to be the greatest anything, you know, it was just a matter of I want to make a mark, I want to build up a thing. And the main thing that drove me, I've said on this podcast before, was I wanted my own freedom and I didn't want to be low paid because I did those labor jobs growing up in high school. And I learned that the lowest paid person usually gets treated the worst and is paid the worst. And I said, whatever I've got to do to not be on the bottom of whatever it is I'm doing, you know, where I can be closer to the top, I'm going to do that. And so what did you have any formula for formative type ideas happening in your mind? Playing in sports allows you to, if you got good coaching, especially playing in sports can cause a lot of these things to form in your mind. You know, the kind of person you want to be on a team. Do you just want to be on the team and maybe score some points and be the occasional hero or do you want to be the main guy or, you know, go higher, to a higher level or something like that? Talk about. Talk about that.

Yeah. So in the sports realm, I always wanted to be a captain, so I wanted to lead by example and be the best I can. In terms of what I wanted to be when I was growing up, I definitely wanted to be the top, right, like, CEO. I wanted to drive that nice car. It was an Audi at the time, and, like, live in a big mansion and have a private jet, because I saw that on TV as well as magazines. That's how I live my life. But I was surrounded by people that wasn't doing that right. So I was always imagining what it would be like having all those things. And throughout my early years, I had 20, 30 different jobs, just like yourself, from factory laborers to working in restaurants, working as a fryer. You name it, I've kind of done it. And these are things that you kind of live to really understand what it means by being treated like crap and getting paid like nothing, because that's what they do there, right? So you just have to understand what situation you're at and where you're at in your life and what you don't want in your life. So moving up in life was a big thing for me and my family, and I wanted the best for myself and my parents, and family was really out to guide me properly. And with sports, it's all about, like, making sure that you have the proper training, the proper mental focus, the proper repetition, the hard work, the discipline. All these things, I think, molded me to become really good at sales. Like, I was listening to Zig Ziglar's Brian Tracy, all that going to conferences on sales, even though I wasn't, like, hardcore sales, but I wanted to be the best my first year of sales, right?

Yeah.

And therefore, I started getting better and learning as much as I can and, you know, just being admired by other successful salespeople. Yeah.

And the point here with everybody is not that everybody has to have their own company and be the leader and be in charge, but the deal is, you know, behind this podcast and behind everything I do is to help people reach the potential of what's important to them. What do they think they're supposed to do? You know, if. What do you feel most energized by thinking about or seeing? You know, where do you want to see yourself, that you want it bad enough that you'd be willing to, like, work like a dog to make it happen, you know, and that could be the head of something, head of a company, head of a charity, head of a volunteer organization, a foundation. I could be, heaven forbid, a politician or something, you know, but, you know, I can't relate to that. But what, whatever it is that's in you, you got to realize that was put in you for a purpose. And already at a young age, you're seeing that that probably wasn't an accident, that you had those. Your mind set on being the captain of the team or this, that and the other. Because you. Your mindset was forming early on about what you were destined to be. Don't you believe I now that I.

Reflect and I look back? Definitely, because I've always wanted better. I was always curious to live a life that I was not living in right now. Right, right. So, you know, watching these TV shows, looking at these magazines and all these things, I just wanted a car. I wanted my own house. Like, not huge goals.

Right.

Huge aspirations. But then I wanted to travel. I never flew in my life. So for me, it was like just these little baby steps to eventually mold my way to what I am today.

Yeah. And the thing that I would say, and I'm going to wrap up this episode, is that if I had to say anything to anybody, is pay attention to these things going on inside your mind about where you are today, where you're thinking about, don't, you know, don't let people hold you back because you can't. You can't take a dog and make it into a cow or a cat, because a dog's a dog. You know, a leader is a leader. You know, someone who is a great support person. You know, they don't want the spotlight. But, you know, it's like in football, or did you play, what, soccer or whatever, you know, the thing is, like, a goalie's a goalie. You know, a quarterback is a quarterback. In football, if you take the. If you take the greatest quarterback, Tom Brady in the NFL, and you stick him at center, he's going to get destroyed. First of all, he'll be lifetime injured on the first play, and that would be the end to him. So the thing is, you've got your first job in reaching fulfillment in your life is get yourself in the right place or get yourself moving towards the right place. And the way you do that is to override what other people are telling you. What, you know, you think life, you know, society, it would, would say is right for you, but go down deep into the mare of your bones and say, what do I inside feel like is right for me and follow that because you're never going to be anything but who you are. Do you have kids yet?

Yes, I do.

Isn't it funny how kids, when kids are born, they are the way they are, you know, some are neat, some are a mess. And you're never going to change. You can modify it for a period of time, but they're going to be the way they're going to be. And you know, the ones that naturally are smiling and look in the positive, you know, they're just going to be that way. And then the others are a little bit reserved and held back, they're going to be that way. So our job is to help people reach their potential. And I think everybody can be smiling regardless of what their personality type is, if they are on track or they have arrived at the place they're supposed to be in life. And I want to get into how you made that transition from launching out of your preparation phase. There's a preparation phase for all of us, but the deal is try and get some preparation and the things in line with what you want to do, you know, and if you're not really sure what that is, get a good widespread foundation, you know, that gives you the options to move in different areas. And as I'm saying this, I wanted to make this point, John, for those of y' all that are older and have kids growing up, realize they're going through these things too. And this is the kind of counsel you should be giving them rather than saying, I'm an attorney, my son's going to be an attorney, you know, I'm artists, my son's going to be an artist, you know, or that, that type thing. And you got to let them become what they're supposed to become and what they're, that will be what they're most interested in, you know. And so anyway, thanks so much, John, and look forward to talking to you again.

Thanks a lot, Larry.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Million Dollar Mastermind with me, Larry Widell. If I've helped you in any way, leave us a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. For more information like this, listen to our other Million Dollar Mastermind episodes and check out my Widel Academy YouTube channel and visit us on wdl on winning.com I'm the million Dooll Mastermind. And until next time, go, go, go.