Building an A Team

It’s been 4 years since I wrote the first word in the SEO Hacker blog. I vividly remember telling my then girlfriend “Oh that God would bless me with an awesome team!”

Lots of things have happened since then.

Here we are now – a band of crazy ones, misfits, rebels, round pegs in the square holes. A team that sees things differently, not fond of rules, and no respect for the status-quo.

A team that is meant to make a dent in the universe.

So here we are in our fourth year – young guns, all of us. And here are some questions that lay ahead of us:

  1. What’s next?
  2. Where are we headed?
  3. And why do we want to go there?

I’ve been blogging about this awesome book I’m reading: “Good to Great” by Jim Collins.

He talks about having the right people at the right seats and getting the wrong people off the bus.

This is something I am very focused about right now. It is critical for us to have the right people this year. For no other reason than because it is the year we are going to tip.

We are about to start an epidemic like the SEO industry has never seen before.

We’re going to be in blogs, in the news, and in the mouths of people who are hyped up about who we are and what we do.

We have built a brand that is strong enough to make a grand entrance in the online marketing scene.

That means we all need to be A players.

We all have to have an initiative for bringing the company forward.

We all need to put a high price on Spiritual Discipline. To Put God first. That’s the highest point of leadership. When you know your ultimate purpose in life, are secure in a love that is beyond anything this world can fill – then you can move, achieve and ultimately fly towards anything you set your heart and mind to do.

A players are people who Test. Test. And Test. Move fast and Break things. Have your own blog. Do whatever inspires your curiosity enough that you’ll take unwarranted action.

A players are people who Read. Don’t you know the reason why the Bible is not in video? It’s because reading leaves room for imagination. Grow that vision and dream big.

A players are people who Innovate. Imagining is thinking it. Innovating is doing it.

A players are people who Write. Document everything. Why we are here now is because of the things that were blogged in SEO Hacker when we were starting out. People will read your stuff. But even if they don’t. You will remember it because you wrote it.

There’s another truth to having an A team.

And that is taking the B players off the bus.

When you have a B player with an A player, what usually happens is that the A player is discouraged to perform in peak capacity. Because hey, the B players are getting their pay grade and the same benefits anyway.

We don’t want that to happen.

And you know what?

Because, you are going to be A players, I know you’ll be offered a job elsewhere – in fact, I’m predicting it.

And when that happens, I want you to know that I’ll be proud of you wherever you decide to go.

You guys have helped build SEO Hacker into what it is now and I know wherever you’ll be sent, you’ll make a positive change.

And for the people who will stay, I want you to know that I’ll take you with me all the way to the top. And the world will know who you are and what you’ve done to contribute to the society.

You’ll be a super star team.

Here’s the vision for SEO Hacker for this year:

SEO Hacker Team 2014

1) Be self-supplanting – We all know that our real goal is to have our own product and right now it’s SEO School, have its own online tool (which we’re working on with Richmond Ibasco as we speak), have a perpetual revenue stream from multiple incentive models (Issho Genki, Uratex eCommerce, Meiji eCommerce, etc.)

2) Be the thought leader – always innovating on how to do awesome marketing for our own branding first – then for our clients. We’ll keep on pushing and pushing until other companies are forced to keep up or die off. We’ll invent and invent because we have it in us to do so.

3) Grow the Talents – We are planning to hire more technical people to help us achieve our plans of perpetual revenue stream. In order to achieve this, we will need people who have an uncanny knack for awesome User Experience, Design, and Front and Back-end Development.

4) Build a million dollar company – Why stop where we’re at? When we get to a point where we can self supplant, it will be a colossal cataclysmic growth for greatness.

5) Have tons and tons of fun while we’re at it – And that’s what we’re about to do now.

So as we approach this year with our hopes held high and our jeering strong, let’s offer a clap of praise to what God has done for us.

Here’s to another year of growth, friendship, innovation and success!

Cheers guys!

Sean Si

 

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Sean Si

About Sean

is a Filipino motivational speaker and a Leadership Speaker in the Philippines. He is the head honcho and editor-in-chief of SEO Hacker. He does SEO Services for companies in the Philippines and Abroad. Connect with him at Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. Check out his new project, Aquascape Philippines.