IAM2885 – Founder Specializes in WordPress Websites Development

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Transcription:

Jackie Owen 00:00
Being a CEO means being like a captain of a ship, right? Where your essential jobs are controlling and coordinating the crew. Which are your team members responsible for anything on the ship, whether it's good or bad. Come up with unique and creative solutions to the problems, which ultimately makes sure that the ship is selling in the right direction smoothly.

Gresham Harkless 00:51
Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I Am CEO Podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Jackie Owens of TechJackie.com Jackie, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Jackie Owen 01:01
Me too. Thank you for having me.

Gresham Harkless 01:03
No problem. Pleasure's all mine. And what I want to do is just read a little bit more about Jackie so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And Jackie is a professional web developer and online marketer specializing in WordPress development and SEO. He's the founder of TechJackie.com, an online marketing agency in Pattaya, Thailand, and a blog providing knowledge about digital marketing. Jackie, are you ready to speak to the I Am CEO community?

Jackie Owen 01:26
Yeah, definitely.

Gresham Harkless 01:28
Awesome. Well, I appreciate you for coming on the show, so I wanted to kick everything off and ask you for what I call your CEO story and what led you to get started with the business.

Jackie Owen 01:36
Sure. So basically it was right back in January this year, in fact, late December last year, after I came back from my college. Right. I just wanted to put whatever I've learned into action. At that time, my core passion was web development. So, you know, sitting around at home, I decided to probably try, you know, freelancing service. So I hopped on freelancers and, you know, basically offer a web development service right there. A couple of, you know, time later, you know, people started asking me, like, whether I offer SEO or, you know, Google AdWords, Facebook Ad, all those stuff. At that time, you know, SEO was completely new to me. I literally had no idea what SEO was. Sure. I know, you know Google AdWords, right. And Facebook Ad. I've seen them from time to time, but obviously I didn't know how to run those or set those up. So, like, you know, I decided to, you know, like, watch a couple of videos, rate online tutorials. Right. What, what is SEO? All those stuff. And it kind of, you know, sounds interesting to me. So I decided to give it a shot and, you know, start. Learn everything by myself, right? Like start online buying online courses, watch YouTube videos or read article or something like that. Then, you know, later on, like, you know, I was skeptical about whether, you know, could we really rank our website, the first page of Google, like, you know, by following all these kind of, you know, steps, right? Because I was quite skeptical, right, Because I actually came from a computer science background, like, like after I graduated from my college and you know, it was like, you know, engineering mindset, right? Where I wouldn't, you know, trust anything unless, you know, I really see it in action. So I decided to build up my website and, you know, practice what I learned, put everything into action. At that moment it was just a normal blog, right? Because obviously I was into SEO at that time, but I was also started learning other things as well, side by side. I blogged about, basically about basics about digital marketing, right? Then while working as a freelancer, three months later, I started getting traffic, organic traffic. And I thought, like, whoa, this, this thing really works, right? Then I decided to, you know, I thought that if it worked for me, it might work for others as well, right? So I decided to offer it as a, you know, free SEO package alongside with my web development service. Then soon, later on, you know, it worked for a couple of clients. Obviously it was not that good, right, Because I was obviously a beginner at that time. But at least it got them, you know, traffic leads and, you know, got all those stuff. So it started working for others. It worked well for me. Then, you know, then I decided there's a potential line, you know, in this stuff. Then I decided to like, make my own website, like rebuild it a little bit, change the homepage to, you know, basically offer just web development service and SEO. At that time, like, it was just all about me, nothing about my agency at that moment. And I was kind of, you know, managing the web development, freelancing and as well as my own website side by side, right? And later on, it was later in August where I decided to really, you know, quit freelancing and, you know, fully focus on my website and build everything from there and make it as an agency. Because to be honest, like, you know, working as a freelancer was pretty tough. Like, like really have to be on time and you get all those stuff. Communication barriers as well, right? With other clients and all this stuff. And also I've always wanted to have my own business Since I was a child. Right. Because one thing which I really love about being an entrepreneur is, you know, the freedom of idea execution. Right. Where you can execute whatever ideas you have and put into real practice. Whereas if suppose if I work for, let's say in any other companies, sure, you know, we are working towards some goals, but that goals are not truly yours. Right. Like someone else goal. And besides all those, you know, freedom, lifestyle and all those stuff which eventually I have to get there, I like that's basically what every entrepreneurs will be. And yeah, I mean like, you know, from August onwards I've been focusing on purely on my own agency and started, you know, building up smaller group of people. Also started working full time and later on start, you know, offering other types of service beside SEO as well. And basically that's my story.

Gresham Harkless 05:50
Nice. I definitely appreciate that. I appreciate you, you know, sharing all that with us because I think a lot of times, you know, especially I think I usually say, and I don't know if I want to call it technology driven, but it's definitely constantly changing. A lot of industries like that you to really kind of work in it. A lot of times people get started by just, you know, doing and tinkering on their own website. They have an interest and they start to love it and then they start to spend more time and then they start to do more and then they start to, you know, offer it to, to close friends and family, maybe something like that. Then all of a sudden it starts to become an agency. So I appreciate you for, for sharing that with us and reminding us that it also wasn't, you know, an overnight thing where you just said, okay, I want to have an agency and then you started to put in the work.

Jackie Owen 06:29
Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, I didn't decide to quit my freelancing that right. That moment. Right. I mean it took time for me to really build the experience and build the confidence that. Because you see, like I started out learning everything by myself, right. Like through the Internet and then really put everything I learned into my own website. Then later on I started offering to other clients as a free service because I would. I wasn't really sure that I was going to be able to do it or not. Right. But it actually worked out. Right. Although, you know, it went through different, you know, trials and errors, but eventually it worked out then, then later on when I became pretty much confident with it as well as, you know, it was the right time because when I quit my freelancing job, I also got a couple of testimonials you know, which says this person has done a very good job with SEO as well as web development. So I was able to put all those testimony, testimonials and reviews on my own website as well. So to really build that kind of portfolio. Right. So it wasn't just a one, you know, overnight success, obviously.

Gresham Harkless 07:25
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's a process and sometimes we, we often will forget that process that it takes to get to, you know, where we want to be. So I know you touched on, you know, a lot of the things that you're doing for your clients. Did you have anything additional to add? And kind of like what do you feel kind of sets you or your organization apart in this, your secret sauce?

Jackie Owen 07:42
Sure. Well, I don't think it's really our unique stuff, but I think, you know, whenever I offer the service, we try like our agency, try to be as transparent as possible and try to educate our client as much as we can. Right. Because you see like many people who came to us, right. Or any other companies in fact, which like 99% of them. Right. Had had some disappointment with their previous companies. Right. Either they got cheated or they didn't get the expected results. Right. And lots of them always came to me like, you know, obviously these clients, they have, they know that digital marketing is a thing, right. It really works. But they have lost trust in the companies that they have worked with. Right. So they always came to me with some doubts in their mind. So we always try to make sure that, you know, we like, for example, right before they even hire us, we set up clear goals, right. Better processes, which we will. What we are about to achieve. Right. Then we would further break these down into sub processes and goals to make each one of them seems achievable and realistic. Right. Besides what I mean by educating them, for example, we try to come up with logical reasons behind every processes that we do. Once we start working with them, for example, we explain to them why we're doing this instead of that or why this is happening or something like that. Basically try to walk them through the process along with us and make them feel being a part of the journey. Right. Basically, that's what we're trying to do with each of our clients, whether it's a small project or big project.

Gresham Harkless 09:21
Absolutely. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit, so I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this could be digital marketing related or just anything you use for business, but what's kind of like an app, a book, or a habit that you have that makes you more effective and

Jackie Owen 09:34
efficient habits and mindset.

Gresham Harkless 09:36
I appreciate you for, for sharing that with us. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this could be a word of wisdom, especially if you have something digital marketing related that you know, our, you know, listeners and viewers can, can, can take advantage of. But what's something that you might tell you know, your younger business self or tell a younger client as well?

Jackie Owen 09:56
I think there are three things that you know, everyone or any anyone who wants to start a business online should really, you know, take into consideration, right? So first I would say to combine organic and quick win strategies. Now for me personally, I have divided online marketing or digital marketing to two main categories. That is organic strategies which you know, SEO, social media marketing, pretty much all those strategies which requires time and effort and money, right? It takes some time to you know, put in all this stuff and you if eventually you'll get the results, right? Like what they said, you know, once they get the ball rolling, it's worth it, right? So those kind of stuff. And on the other side there's a quick win strategies which such as, you know, the all pretty much all the ads, right? Like Google AdWords and Facebook marketing. Because you see with, with the organic approach you, you, you build the, the credibility and trust with, with your brand and business, right? Whereas when you look at the quick wink strategy, you, you be able to produce the quick profit and money out of it, right? So and I think for any business to be successful out there, you know, you need trust and credibility of course, but you also need profit and money to you know, to reinvest those in back into your business to you know, further grow it, right? So when you combine these two approach together it forms a com, you know, a perfect business model and what every business should know really need to get have right to become successful. And the second tips I have is to leverage omnichannel approach which you know, basically focus on more than one channel, right? Because you see if you just completely rely your business on let's say SEO or social media marketing, it doesn't be that it's not that safe, right? Because on the Internet nothing is reliable. Suppose if your entire business model depends on SEO, if one day you'll get your website gets hit by by a penalty, then your business is gone, right? Or let's say social media marketing, let's say your Facebook ads or your ads account gets banned, then you're gone as well. So it's much better to you know, to Leverage different marketing approach. Right. Different marketing channels. So in that case, number one, you become more safe. Number two, you be able to, you know, generate more awareness and more income. Right. More sources. And number three, you'll be able to reach out to more number of people and audiences. And the final tip I have is to leverage offline relationship, right? Like to build offline relationship. Because what I see many new business owners who, you know, have come to online marketing, what they tend to be focusing on is to, you know, building the online relationship. Right. Much more than the offline relationship. True, that is important. But I think, you know, at the fundamental level, we as a human, we still crave for, you know, physical contact or, you know, the eye contact or, you know, the, the real physical presence with the, whether it's meeting or handshake, something like that, which I think is still pretty very effective. Right. So just like for example, let's say joining local meetups or, you know, national meetup or you know, attending any events, right. Business events. So I think that's really effective as well. So, yeah, these are the three tips.

Gresham Harkless 12:59
I love those three tips. And I think it's so important, just as you said, you know, just understanding the different types of marketing that you're doing. If you're doing something for the quick wins as you talk about with the advertising, or if you're doing something that's more for foundational building, you know, something long term, just understanding what you're doing is huge. And as you talked about, you know, just like in business, you want to have multiple streams of revenue, the same thing should be the approach and having that omnichannel approach to your marketing. So that, like you said, if, you know, Facebook changes their algorithm or Instagram does, which it has a couple of times, you are not kind of left up to that one channel to grow and develop your business. And like you said, I think a lot of times, especially in the digital world, we forget about the offline relationships. We forget about, you know, going to those networking events, even, you know, hopping on a call sometimes and just going to get coffee with somebody. All that kind of goes hand in hand, just deepens those relationships. So I appreciate those nuggets.

Jackie Owen 13:52
Yeah, sure. On the prom.

Gresham Harkless 13:53
Absolutely. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote unquote, CEOs on this show. So, Jackie, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Jackie Owen 14:03
Sure. So according to me, being a CEO means being like a captain of a ship. Right. Where your essential jobs are controlling and, you know, coordinating the crew, which are your team members responsible for anything on the ship, whether it's good or bad. Come up with a unique and creative solutions to the problems which, you know, ultimately makes sure that the ship is sailing in the right direction smoothly.

Gresham Harkless 14:27
Nice. I definitely appreciate that definition and even that, that kind of visual where you understand that the decisions that you make or, you know, for the larger journey that you're going on and a lot of sometimes the small decisions that we make, you had to have to have that vision of the entire ship and where you're going, you know, on the, on the waters as well too. So I appreciate that definition. I appreciate your time even more, Jackie. What I wanted to do was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and listeners know and then of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

Jackie Owen 14:57
Sure. So as far as, you know, any additional thing is concerned, I don't think there's anything left, like, unless you want to ask me more. But yeah, like you can find me like on, you know, pretty much every social media channel is Facebook. Right. You can find me with the name of Tech Jackie, Twitter, Jackie Owen. Right. There's also bracket with Tech Jackie and pretty much active on Instagram. Right. Tech Jackie as well. So you can find me on those channels or even LinkedIn, but I'm pretty much not active there. Yeah.

Gresham Harkless 15:25
All right. Yeah, perfect, perfect, perfect. Well, thank you so much, Jackie. Yes, we definitely looking forward to continuing the conversation with you. We will have the links and information in your show notes so that everybody can follow up with you. But again, I appreciate you, appreciate your time, appreciate all the awesome things you provided and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of that.