[Wil Reynolds, CEO, SEER Interactive. YouTube, 4:22']
I had the opportunity to sit down with Wil Reynolds and talk about his philosophy of leadership In the very fast growing, high tech organization he founded and leads -- SEER Interactive.
His Golden Rule for running the company is the same thing we learned in the Sandbox, as children:
"Always take the other person's interest into account."
He always wants to feel comfortable about the decisions he makes. Whether those decisions affect his team or his clients, he always wants to be able to put his head on the pillow at the end of the day and feel good about what he's putting out in the world.
It's the same principle you can apply to content. Ask yourself what people are looking for, and then write to that. The approach is the same with his team as it is with clients.
Clients work with SEER to grow their business. They may not necessarily know what they're looking for, at first. In working with clients, Reynolds looks to keep his promises at all times, and he instructs his team to do the same.
Working with Google, clients know that there will be changes in the search engine algorithm that make the work challenging.Yet, Reynolds feels that doesn't get him off the hook to deliver on his promises and the effort they planned to put forth on their behalf.
The team at SEER does all it can to work through the changes and if, despite the efforts, things don't work out, they hit pause with the client to gain a better understanding of what's going on. In other words, they stop billing until they figure stuff out.
Raynolds' passion about the integrity of his work comes across:
"There's something that has been lost over the years, which is you made a promise."
[...]
"I challenge everyone, from a business standpoint. Go do the same for your clients. I had clients who where paused. It doesn't happen often. But I had clients who were paused who referred three clients to us, even though we were not creating success for them. Because what we did spoke volumes about who we are."
Do the same thing. Wouldn't you want them to do the same for you?
This is one of the many reasons why I'm very excited the workshop will be held at SEER Interactive, where Reynolds will teach us about SEO and content. We look forward to working with you on April 19.