A good leader is not the one who leads by title but one who leads by an example. A company’s success is highly dependent upon the approach of the leader. In this highly competitive world, we are surrounded by two kinds of entrepreneurs—successful entrepreneurs and others who ultimately fail to execute their approach. Though, failure is part of everyday life, but, the fact can’t be ignored. To further understand the thin line between successful and less successful entrepreneurs, the team of Mirror Review came across Brendan M. Egan, Founder of Simple SEO Group who took out some time from his busy schedule and shared his thoughts and approach to leadership.
Born and raised in Chicago, Brendan is a serial entrepreneur who focuses on levering his experience in web development and marketing to dramatically impact businesses. In early 2020, Brendan published his first book “101 Tips from the Marketing Masters” and also launched a new podcast, “The Brendan Egan Show”. Being familiar with entrepreneurship and the approach towards the obstacles faced in the journey, he enlightened us with some interesting answers. Below are the highlights from the interview.
From an in-house team to a company
What is the story behind the establishment of Simple SEO Group?
I established Simple SEO Group in 2009 whilst I was also the Founder and CEO of an online education company. Back then I had terrible experiences with other SEO companies, thus as a solution I ended up forming an in-house team to handle their marketing and SEO. Not long after, friends, family and colleagues were asking me for marketing help, which led to the foundation of Simple SEO Group in 2009.
Quality and Experience is non-negotiable
What would you say are the unique qualities that differentiate your company from its competitors?
I think the key differentiator is quality and experience. In other marketing agencies, oftentimes projects get assigned to account managers and are not given the required attention. We are a boutique marketing firm where we don’t believe in assigning account managers to projects. I personally get involved in all our projects, which means whether the client’s project is large or small, they are getting quality and experience.
Focusing on the Positives
What is your take on failure? Is there any specific approach to tackle them?
In my opinion, failure is an inevitable part of life. The differentiator, however, remains is the way we approach them. My team’s and my approach as an agency are to scale what works and quickly cut what does not. Personally, this approach has helped me quickly get away from anything which is not working while we scale/monetize what does work.
Vital to be Structured
Describe your daily routine in one word and how you manage it?
If I could conclude my whole day in one word it would be ‘Hectic’. As a leader the roles and responsibilities too are varied. There are constantly new challenges and different responsibilities to tackle every day. Daily there are different things to juggle, and sometimes more balls in the air than you have hands to catch them with. It is important to stay structured, have systems in place, and stay accountable. You can navigate hectic days by simply having processes and systems in place to ensure you accomplish what is needed.
Keep Motivating Yourself
How would you keep yourself and your team members motivated who are struggling in day-to-day task?
Often through the day, we may encounter tasks that are too exhausting to tackle. In moments like this, organization is the key. Project management tools help us keep everything organized and keep our team firing on all cylinders.
Culture of Excellence
Are you satisfied with the current company culture or do you wish to see any changes?
Company culture cannot be compromised as it drives the success of the company. I am satisfied with the current company culture. But then again there is always room for growth and with time change is necessary. Right now, even I am far from perfect, but I believe our culture of excellence, attention to detail, quality, and results is something that is very deeply instilled in everyone both internally and externally at our company.
Believer of external motivation
How do you enhance your leadership capabilities? Is there any specific practice you would like to share?
My leadership capabilities stem from two major experiences. One is that I have grown this company from the ground up and know what it takes to do every job along the way, which enables me to relate to my team and understand their challenges and road blocks.
Secondly, I believe heavily in external motivation. We live in a very chaotic world full of distractions, and every day I start my day reading a motivational quote, watching a motivational video, or listening to a motivational podcast. This helps me stay focused and remember to lead every day.
Working on Improvement
What is your opinion on insecurities as a leader?
In my opinion, every individual, irrespective of his roles in the organization may get insecure. Personally, I sometimes let the client feedback get in my head or I take it too personally. Everyone has opinions, sometimes right and sometimes wrong. As I said even I am far from perfect and I need to continue to grow to be less impacted by critiques or feedback from clients or projects. This stems from our culture of excellence and quality, and is something I continue to work on improving.
Aiming for Faster Growth
Can you elaborate on your future plans for the company?
Right now, we are at an excellent stage of our business. We are successful and doing great but we are aiming to scale faster and grow. I am also involved in about a dozen other startup companies in varying roles from a member of the board to an investor to a team member and it helps keep things interesting every day!
Investing in Health
A role of leader demands you to be on your toes. Despite of your busy schedule, how do you keep yourself healthy?
Health is something I am very passionate about. In fact, I am in the middle of launching a new business that offers a line of health products which I am incredibly excited about. I make sure to eat clean, and workout daily. Also, I am a huge fan of daily sauna use, and make sure no matter how busy I am I get a solid 8 hours of sleep per night.
