I can’t count how many times an article or publication has come out debunking SEO – “It’s the END of SEO”. I’ve been doing this almost 15 years and it’s still just as strong as it ever was. Yes it looks different, but it’s still here.
Korey Kashmer is the Founder and Owner of Kashmer Interactive, LLC, a boutique SEO Agency that provides high quality SEO services to businesses throughout the United States.
Prior to founding Kashmer Interactive, Korey held the Director of SEO position at a large Digital Marketing Agency with 2 locations (Charlotte and Chicago). While managing a team of 8 SEO Analysts, Korey was ready to take his experience to the next level with Ki.
Korey has a wide range of experience, both in-house and within agencies. In-house positions provided the ability to get hands on with SEO as well as affiliate marketing, paid search marketing and email marketing. This was back in the days of Overture! Agency positions included the account management of 100’s of clients throughout an 8 year span as well as managing multiple team members. With those clients came corporate engagements with marketing teams and more.
Korey lives in Fort Mill, South Carolina where Ki resides (15 minutes south of Charlotte). He also serves with Nothing Pink, a non-profit organization geared raising awareness about the risks of hereditary breast cancer and the need for screening and testing.
Where did the idea for Kashmer Interactive, LLC come from?
KI was really a long time in the making. With over 15 years of internet marketing experience, 90% of that in SEO, it was only a matter of time. As I moved up through the ranks I had become the Director of SEO at a 70 employee agency. After a few years in that role it was time to take the next step.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
There’s probably not enough space here for a full answer. To make it short, my day consists of running an agency. That involves managing a portfolio of clients, managing a staff (Account Managers and Associates) as well as running a business (accounts payables, accounts receivables, work flow management and more).
How do you bring ideas to life?
For us, we’re a pretty methodical staff. We typically brainstorm ideas in our team meetings. From there, we’ll put a few of those ideas to paper and craft up an outline of what the strategy should look like. From there we execute. It sounds simple enough, but there are always variables.
What’s one trend that excites you?
The fact that SEO is still going strong after all these years. I can’t count how many times an article or publication has come out debunking SEO – “It’s the END of SEO”. I’ve been doing this almost 15 years and it’s still just as strong as it ever was. Yes it looks different, but it’s still here.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
The creation of mini task lists. Yes it may sound crazy, but it works well. We all have the endless task list that has 100’s of tasks. We use a third party system to house and manage our time and task flow. It works great. But I need something more. Each day I create a daily (mini) task list of the items I need to accomplish for that day. It may contain 3 items or 10 items. It could look like – process checks or allocate 3 hours towards X client. It’s a way to accomplish work within the work.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Trust yourself more!
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.
It’s all in how you present the data. You can spend hours on a report or a data analysis task, but it all comes down to how you represent that analysis or data to the person on the other end. It makes all the difference.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Be on-time and be ready. It sounds so easy, but you would be surprised at the lack of motivation that’s out there this day in age. I got where I am from hard work and showing up on-time, ready to work every day. It’s dedication. You can learn the details; it’s how you carry yourself that matters.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?
Taking care of our customers. If we engage with you, we will work hard to do what we say we’ll do. A perfect example, our contract lengths are pretty short with 90% of them being month to month. Many are shocked at that because of uncertainty. I don’t look at it that way. If a customer doesn’t want to pay us, why would I force them? Why not focus on getting a customer to WANT to pay us.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
Hiring the wrong person. Every business owner goes through it. It’s a part of being an owner. The candidate looks great on paper and looks great in the interview, yet when they land at their desk they look different. I’ve interviewed probably 40 – 50 candidates for internet marketing related roles during my career, and it’s still challenging finding the perfect fit. I’m not sure I’ve overcome it, but I’ve learned to ask better questions. I’ve changed the process to work more for me. All you can do is learn and make the next one better.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
A SEO Repository. It may sound crazy, but being in this industry for so long, I don’t have 1 place that is my life blood where I get all the latest information, tools I should use, tactics that are tested, etc. You have to find all this information on your own and use tons of different resources. I want to see something created that becomes an SEO’s go to.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
Tools and Software in general, more specifically, we use third party link building software to help us with outreach, management of our communications and to help streamline that workflow. Our job is about relationships when it comes down to it. Spending the extra money to secure additional licenses for my staff was well worth it. It was a little more than $100, but it provided my staff the ability to get more personal with the people they speak too.
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
That’s Ironic, as I just spoke about that in a previous question. BuzzStream is a tool we simply couldn’t live without. BuzzStream is a link building tool for SEO agencies. It does more than just help build links through. The key is the relationship management aspect. It helps my staff communicate with bloggers / though leaders and third party websites. It helps collect and store that communication. We can then leverage it across the agency in many ways.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
That’s a tough question in our industry. Most of the books I’ve picked up are outdated by the time you’re done reading them. Instead of picking up a book, I would consider following some of the blogs that provide good / up-to-date information. This might be the Moz Blog, The Google Search Blog and More.
What is your favorite quote?
“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” – Benjamin Franklin
Key learnings:
• By creating Mini / Daily task lists you get more done and feel more accomplished doing it
• Invest in tools for your business. While it may reduce profits up front, the reward long term is well worth it.
• Leverage the up-to-date SEO resources that exist online. Whether bloggers, major SEO companies or Google itself.
• When a new idea is rattling around in your head, leverage your staff to get it on paper. Their insight is extremely valuable and will more than likely shift how it looks for the better.
Connect:
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.