I officially got into this business in late 2006 when I decided to put my education to the test and decided to go work at Xeal, Inc. in Tulsa.  I left behind my amazing supervisor job at DirecTV with excellent benefits includig free VIP service, equipment, and programming.  I put myself into debt to do this and we even filed bankruptcy just so I could pursue my dream.  But that’s a different story.  For the two years I was there I learned that Xeal had previously gone by a different name – The Dreamstar Group.  I came to learn that the Dreamstar Group was highly successful.

I’m not sure what exactly they did, but for a time they were able to make their clients a lot of money which in turn made them a lot of money.  I imagine they had a high end office in the Citiplex Towers in Tulsa and were really enjoying the spoils of some sort of trick that required little to no effort.  The only thing I know about the service was that someone in Russia was running some kind of program and it was driving traffic like crazy.

Life was good, until it got so bad, and everyone caught on to the same trick, that Google changes their Algorithm and gave what was known as a Google Slap.  In one small change to the way Google worked, an entire industry went down the tubes.  When they reformed as Xeal, Inc. it was completely driven on how to prevent this from happening again.

I was fortunate to learn how to pretend like “Google doesn’t exist” and on how to promote your site with honesty and integrity.  In everything we did, we had a vigorous checklist to make sure that we were not depending on Google (or any entity for that matter) to drive traffic.  We had to do it the old fashioned way in the new modern era.  That’s mainly where I got my inspiration to start Finding Innovation.  I wanted to do old school business in the modern world.

I used to think of my time at Xeal to be negative because I used to think about the stress, lack of pay, no benefits, etc.  But what I got was an opportunity on how to learn how not to run a business.  I love Tony Baker like a brother and he was the first mentor I had in this business.  I learned  a lot of great things from him.  But what I took the most away from the experience was how to not run a business, because I saw how much of a struggle it was to try to recoup from such a disaster.  Before I left Xeal, they were hit with one disaster after another and the giant was finally taken down.

Why am I telling you this story?

Because it’s about to happen again.  There are millions of “Internet Marketers” out there that are taking a  lot of shortcut and they aren’t putting in the work it takes to get to #1.  Do you know why they want #1?  Because the #1 organic link gets 46% of all of the traffic on a Search Engine Results Page.  They cheated, and now Google is about to mete out its punishment.

I am excited! Because I have built all of my client’s presence on honesty, integrity, and hard work.  I did it as if Google didn’t exist and for that reason my clients will prevail while all of the trash is taken out.  Apparently Matt Cutts of Google announced this would happen at SXSW and now I am getting a warning message from every Internet Marketing Guru that I subscribe to.  They likely taught shortcuts and now they have pie in their face.  There are no shortcuts in life.  Even in the Internet world.  Just ask Tony Baker.  He will tell you.  That’s why he is a guru with over 15 years experience.  He’s experienced it.  He taught me the lesson and now I am telling you to brace yourself.  Good Luck.  Stay Classy, San Diego!