What Really Happened in Vegas...

You know what they say. What happens in Vegas....stays on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, etc. ??

To be honest, I usually just repost articles on LinkedIn. But today I will get a little more personal.

Once or twice in a lifetime one might have something happen that's historic and nothing will be the same afterward. I mean in a good way. No humans, animals, fish, or even used furniture were harmed in the making of the historic moment, which I will lay out below.

I spent the past week in Las Vegas for a conference about Search Box Optimization, a little-known but established service that gets Google and Bing to recommend your company at the exact moment a customer initiates a search.

I'd never seen any advertising service like this until last December, when my parent company, UmbrellaLocal, asked me to beta-test the vendor to see what it was like working with them, customer service, campaign results, etc.

I was intrigued.

I said yes, I would test it for them. Turns out, I was the only agent who agreed to do the testing. So this story almost didn't happen.

I effortlessly made about 10 sales, most of them within a one-month period. As a result of my personal feedback, UmbrellaLocal went ahead and inked a deal to become the exclusive sales partner for the vendor. The vendor was ecstatic because UmbrellaLocal was exactly the kind of company they were seeking.

At the conference, UmbrellaLocal awarded me the "OG" award. Apparently, that means, "Original Gangster."

Since I don't drink, smoke, gamble, or own a brothel, I wasn't sure if OG was the right description, but I just rolled with it. ??

Meeting the CEO of UmbrellaLocal and his team in person was fantastic, as I have been working with them for 3+ years, but had never met anyone from the company in person before. Itamar, the CEO, works from Israel. He was taller than I expected. His marketing partner, Barry, was a lot shorter than I expected. I tell a lot of bald men jokes, Barry makes a lot of short men jokes. It was a good combo, if corny jokes are your thing.

But it was also the first time a company went out of its way to genuinely recognize me for my efforts, multiple times, in front of the entire convention attendees, and thanked me profusely. All of the attendees were electrified about the product, and what it would mean for their income, their agencies, and their clients.

I hadn't realized up til that moment how many lives would be changed because I agreed to participate in the beta test. Many of the agents I met, like me, had switched careers and some were struggling to gain traction in the complex, highly competitive market of digital marketing. Now we had an exclusive service that improved online traffic and sales results north of 200% routinely.

Because I said, "Yes," to something new & different, many millionaires will be made through UmbrellaLocal; both our independent agents and business owners.

But things really got lit when Walmart inked a deal for our service in the middle of the convention. Although this service has been available for a number of years, and big companies like Hotels.com and Orbitz are already using it, having Walmart on board means things just got real. Walmart doesn't just sign up with any old company.

More about that in a minute.

I told my story to the attendees about how I made my sales, and how great the vendor staff treated me. But also that what really excited me was the chance we had to help the small and medium-sized businesses in local communities to level the online search playing field. I really believe we have the chance to do something amazing, not just for ourselves and our clients, but for the whole country.

Would I love to have Walmart-sized companies on my client roster? Of course.

But the US Economy thrives on local communities built on the bedrock of small businesses and entrepreneurs, who get out there and hustle every day. The money a small business makes tends to stay in the community, instead of being sent to other countries. When I say small, I mean 1-500 employees and workers.

My parting message to the crowd was to not waste any time getting the word out to everyone they know, because they could change the lives of many, many businesses enabling them to easily compete in online search results with companies the size of Walmart, Target, Macy's, Deloitte, or other retail and service companies.

Am I promoting this service to you? No, not really. I posted about it during my beta testing period and got nearly zero traction. In my experience, the people who already know you often don't listen. They already know everything I'm going to say, apparently. Just human nature.

No, I'm just marking the moment history was made and a single event rippled out into the universe, quietly and affordably slaying the competition on SERPs for thousands of companies. So when someone I know asks me, "Why didn't you tell me about this before all my competition purchased all the best keywords!" I can say, "I did. But you were too busy to hear it."

Not that I'm bitter. It's just human nature to ignore those you already know. I am busy, though, thanks to this new vendor.

So it's going to be quite the ride for the next couple of years. If you don't hear from me, it's because I'm still on a Zoom call helping a business beat the pants off its competition. And their competition won't be able to do anything about it, even if they are the size of a Walmart or Target.

And I'm going to do my part to give local businesses the biggest boost they've ever seen while goosing the US economy at the same time. It may be impossible, at this stage of the game, but I have to try. And doing something productive is better than sitting around calling the other side of the argument names, or whatever. Regardless of who is right or wrong about [insert your favorite political/religious/opinion here], we are still all in this together.

I'm going to need some more salespeople for my agency pretty quickly. Know anyone with good communication skills and a desire to help local communities burst out of any economic recession with an unbeatable and exclusive-to-them marketing campaign? I've already got several other ad agencies lining up to send me their clients, which number in the hundreds on the low end.

If you DO want to hear more about this, or how to get involved, book a slot here: https://optimizesearch.consulting/ScheduleTrevor

If you made it to the bottom of this article, I salute you!