Episode 248: What Every Leader Needs to Know about SEO, with Stephen Woessner.

Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.

Good Morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner. And thank you for joining me for this week’s solocast.

I enjoy every solocast — and I especially enjoyed the solocasts the last several weeks. They have been so special because of the opportunity to open up and share a deeply personal story about one of my most influential mentors, my grandfather…and the impact he had on my life…and how one of those lessons was to never ever quit.

No matter what the odds — no matter the circumstances — no matter who believes in you, or doesn’t — no matter what — you keep pushing forward to pursue your version of total happiness.

My grandfather Peter Maronitis did that…when he came to this country, he couldn’t speak the language, he had no money, no social circle, no rich friends, he couldn’t go on to Kickstarter and raise funds for the restaurant he dreamed that he would open.

Nope.

But what did he do? He got to work…and saved his money…learned English, perfected his talents and skills in the kitchen, and six years after coming to the United States he had saved enough money to launch his dream. Six years, Onward Nation. Six.

A remarkable man — a humble man — who quietly did remarkable things.

How? Because he never ever quit.

And then last week, to be able to continue the momentum by sharing the story of Sylvester Stallone — how he was broker than broke — so broke that he didn’t have anything to eat — he couldn’t heat his New York City apartment so he had to go to the public library to find a warm seat — and so broke that he was forced to sell his dog, his best friend in the whole world, for $25 so he could buy some food.

That’s broke, Onward Nation.

And yet, despite it all — despite being rejected over 1,500 times — and despite being told that he looked funny, talked funny, and that he would never amount to anything — despite all of it…he didn’t quit.

He kept pushing forward — he met the conflict head on — transformed as a result of the conflict — and then became one of Hollywood’s most successful actors.

Because he refused to quit. Love that story.

So for today’s solocast lesson — I am going to continue that momentum — in what — on the surface, may seem like a strange way to do so.

Because today…I am going to share with you what is, in my opinion, one of the biggest, most expensive money draining mistakes that business owners make. And the mistake is made because they quit too soon. They don’t push for answers…they don’t do the depth of research they should…they assume someone on their team took care of it already…or they use the excuse of, “Ugh, Stephen, I don’t need to know how to do that…I have people on my team who can do that.”

In other words…they quit.

So what is the money draining mistake we are going to confront this morning? It’s search engine optimization, Onward Nation.