Unconventional Ways to WIN with Rand Fishkin

This week on the show we’ve got serial entrepreneur, marketer extraordinaire and SEO genius Rand Fishkin. Among other things, the guy is an online content legend, having built the legendary MOZ, one of the first online resources / communities helping creators optimize for SEO (yes search engine optimization…aka if you make content, it’s helping your people find you on the internet) and now he’s got a new company you’ve gotta know about, and a new BOOK, called Lost & Founder – aimed at helping all of us creators and entrepreneurs find our way. SUCH A USEFUL BOOK.

But even more than the “what” Rand does…it’s the HOW he does it that I find completely extraordinary. Everything, it seems, has been non-traditional. From college dropout to serial entrepreneur. Join us on this conversational journey as we dispel startup culture tropes, ‘best practices’ and fight back against “traditional” wisdom.

A few topics from this episode:

There are three key components to building successful and enjoyable content: build on a medium that you are passionate about, create something of unique value, and put the content where your audience actually hangs out. Sounds easy, but Rand is unapologetic and VERY helpful in guiding us you understand just how to get this right…
It’s been a recurring theme on this show that taking care of yourself with good habits- sleep, exercise, and not overworking yourself actually lead to your best work. The idea that overworking yourself will lead to success and happiness is misguided at best. Rand has solutions for you.
The most important things to be tracking from potential clients and followers are not Twitter or Instagram followers. It’s not likes or shares. It’s something else that is a leading indicator to be in control of your business growth on your own terms… the answer? Listen and find out 😉

Enjoy!

You can be anywhere and you can make a left turn and do the thing you want to do.

FOLLOW RAND:
instagram | twitter | website

Listen to the Podcast

Watch the Episode

Questons Asked

Tell us about the mission and vision for your new company, SparkToro. [1:30]
What’s the one liner for your new book, Lost and Founder? [5:10]
What’s your background? [10:50]
What were some of the tools you used that you felt like helped get you out of your depression? [23:40]
How did you decide that SEO was interesting enough to pursue? [32:30]
What should people be doing to both help others find them on the internet and to help them find like minded others? [35:41]
You’re not saying not to use Facebook or Twitter, right? You’re instead saying use those tools to point to your own website? [43:40]
Are you suggesting that people shouldn’t aspire to be social influencers? [43:30]
So how do you get on the front page of Google? [49:40]
How does Google measure the success of a website’s ability to solve the searchers’ problem? [53:20]
What are the things that we need to know to find where our people are online? [56:50]
Is this an art or science? [63:10]
Let’s talk about what kind of content can build an audience. [63:55]
Share your own personal example of how you create content. [72:01]
Was your success with video because you already had a place people were hanging out online? [78:04]
You’re really making stuff for your obsessed fans, right? [79:26]
What the most compelling idea that’s in your book, Lost and Founder? [80:15]
Has your success been as unconventional as I’m making it seem? [86:00]
Any other unconventional wisdom you can share? [88:54]
What’s something from your personal life that people don’t know about you? [92:30]
Do you meditate or have any mindfulness practices? [95:08]
Where can people follow you? [96:25]

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

How and why Rand is building a tool called SparkToro that can help you better connect with your potential audiences and their interests. [1:45]
If you want to start a statistically successful business, start a consulting business and stay far away from building tech startups. [6:15]
Why you don’t want to raise capital for your startup. [7:30]
How Rand learned about entrepreneurship from his mom and her one person marketing shop, Outlines West. He later went into business with her, but they financially struggled. [12:40]
Rand could no longer afford to subcontract SEO work for his clients, so he had to learn it himself; thus, Moz was born. [16:00]
Matt Inman of The Oatmeal was Rand’s developer for five years. In that time they built a tool on the side that made them more money than their primary business. [17:30]
Some of the tools that Rand found most effective for fighting anxiety and depression were prioritizing sleep, getting off phone and computer screens before bed, and physical activity. [23:55]
There is no glory to be had in overworking yourself. [25:40]
Rand got into SEO in an effort to change the things about an industry that he despised. [33:21]
Why you need to prioritize collecting email addresses. [37:37]
Why you need to stop hoping for a viral launch, and start asking who you can get involved in your next product. [40:30]
Why you shouldn’t rely on platforms other than your own when growing your reach. [46:00]
How to rank highly in Google search results. [50:00]
When building a website and hoping for organic search results think to yourself “how can I solve the searcher’s problem?” [52:40]
An hour or two of research into SEO best practices will set you on a path to being far more successful with it. [56:30]
If you want to buy beef online, check out Crowd Cow. [57:20]
Why you won’t find success on a platform you don’t enjoy. Lean into the tools and platforms you are passionate about. [65:00]
How Brandon Stanton of Humans of New York used Rand’s venn diagram to build one of the largest social platforms in the world. [68:20]
How “Whiteboard Fridays” started as a convenient way to condense Rand’s blogging efforts, but turned into a way to reach more people in a more productive way. [72:30]
Check out Wistia for hosting videos on your site. [77:10]
When Rand found out his wife had a brain tumor, he showed his vulnerability to his team and his team stepped up to show support and work their asses off for him. Vunerability is not a weakness. [80:30]
Psychological safety is more important to a team’s success than having top performers. [83:25]
Why you need to dig into whether common practices are useful to you or if they are actually myths. [87:00]
Why hiring for culture fit and values is more important than hiring for skills. [89:00]
How Rand uses personal time to be more productive. [92:45]
Find Rad online at @randfish or rand@sparktoro.com. [96:25]
Why you need to dig into whether common practices are useful to you or if they are actually myths. [87:00]
Why hiring for culture fit and values is more important than hiring for skills. [89:00]
How Rand uses personal time to be more productive. [92:45]
Find Rad online at @randfish or rand@sparktoro.com. [96:25]

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