Kevin Miller is the Co-Founder and CEO of GR0 and The Word Counter. He is a growth marketer with an extensive background in SEO, paid acquisition and email marketing. Kevin studied at Georgetown University, worked at Google for several years, is a Forbes contributor, and has been a head of growth and marketing at several top-tier startups in Silicon Valley.
What is GR0all about?
GR0 is all about partnering with brands at different stages of their journey and building up their digital platform as something incredible that delivers immense value to not only shareholders and consumers but the world at large. The Word Counter is an online tool used for counting words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, and pages in real-time.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your business?
I grew up in Daytona Beach, FL and I have 3 other siblings, including a twin sister. My father was/is an entrepreneur and so I became accustomed to the road less traveled from a young age. After graduating from Georgetown University, I worked at Google for several years as a Digital Marketing Account Executive where I learned the ins and outs of digital advertising. After building my digital marketing expertise at several more companies, I decided to start my own agency, GR0.
How has the pandemic affected you or your new business?
The pandemic has generally been a tense period for us all in both our personal lives and professional routines. Being a digital agency has allowed us to actually propel ourselves fairly quickly. Over the course of the early months of the pandemic, we were able to scale up by employing a remote team from different places in the world. This access to diversity has given us an edge in our industry and I believe that has skyrocketed our success.
What was the biggest problem you encountered starting up and how did you overcome it?
I have had a number of failures as an entrepreneur. This leads me to believe that is the reason I am finally starting to see some success. I have started about 10 different website brands since I graduated from college. All but two of these websites failed and I lost the entirety of my investment. The last two to make the cut were interesting but I wasn’t able to scale them. I could go on and on about each and every thing that went wrong but it all came down to not having the right resources or organization. To avoid this, I simply apply all of my learnings from one project and roll them into the next. Winston Churchill said that success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm and I really believe that to be true.
What were the top mistakes you made starting your business and what did you learn from it?
Trying to shoulder absolutely every responsibility to cut costs is a classic newbie mistake. Of course, in the early stages, entrepreneurs have to wear many hats and be a jack and master of all trades but sometimes holding on to this “self-made” title can end up costing you more in the long run. I would suggest analyzing the aspects of the business you do not have expertise in, then figure out a way to outsource for help. Outsourcing earlier can save you from wasting time, energy, and resources.
What is one thing that you do daily to grow as an entrepreneur?
I like to spend time contemplating the ups and downs of each day. I go through and analyze my biggest wins of the day and I reflect on the good choices I made so I can secure more wins. Then, I compare that to the lowest points of the day to figure out where I misstepped. This helps me stay balanced and self-aware which I find necessary for growth and overall success. Being mindful about where you went right and where you went wrong is a major component of entrepreneurship.
What are three books or courses you recommend for new entrepreneurs?
- Shortcut Your Startup: Speed Up Success with Unconventional Advice from the Trenches, by Carter Milliken Reum and Courtney Reum — This book provided a tremendous amount of insight into entrepreneurship that helped me give my business a competitive edge. The unconventional nature of the advice given by these well-seasoned vets helped me understand the major components needed for scaling my SEO agency upwards and fairly quickly.
- The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, teaches numerous valuable startup lessons from notable entrepreneurs.
- Supermaker by Jamie Schmidt was a great knowledge bank for guidance on business growth, branding, development, different types of marketing styles, scaling, customer engagement, and PR. It was a business one-stop shop that I was able to grow with.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
The best strategy we have employed to help grow the business is to ask satisfied clients to refer me to their friends or colleagues. There is nothing more impactful than a warm referral. We have found the conversion rate from an introduction via a warm referral to a signed client is more than 3x higher than that of a lead that comes in cold. We have grown exponentially through this method and intend to continue to do so as long as we are able.
Also, SEO is a major component of establishing our brand as an authority in our industry. We optimize our website, both with on-page and technical SEO, to increase our ranking on search engine results pages. About 70% of search engine users will pick the top ranking websites listed in their search. Agencies like ours can get these rankings for your brand while you focus elsewhere.
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
It’s imperative to find your own stride instead of trying to match everyone else’s stride in hopes of keeping up. Pacing yourself could save you from a multitude of burnouts on your journey. As an entrepreneur, you learn that you truly are the sole architect of your outcome. It is extremely helpful to recognize the power you have over your environment as opposed to letting your environment control you. Set the tone for your own path instead of looking outside of yourself for validation. This inspires a sense of peace and assurance.
What’s a productivity tip you swear by?
I consistently dedicate time to going to the gym, working out outdoors, and bike riding. Getting your natural endorphins flowing does a world of good for minimizing stress and allows me to clear my mind and put my problems into perspective. Between putting out fires all day and managing a widespread team digitally, it’s easy to burn out and hold my stress in my body. All the build-up and the tension tends to hinder my focus and productivity so working out keeps my body healthy as well as my mind.
What is your favorite quote?
My most prized life lesson quote that I live by is
“Treat others the way you want to be treated”.
It was primarily my mom that instilled this into my mind during my adolescence. I have found this saying has served me in my personal and professional life very well and continues to stand the test of time. I truthfully attribute a lot of my success to this motto; because I have invested good treatment into others, I have gained so much good in return. Sowing good seeds in others has reaped good fruit in my life.
What is your definition of success?
My idea of success might sound a little unconventional. I have come to believe the best part about being an entrepreneur and running a business has been pouring into the lives of others. Being able to offer sizable salaries, benefits, 401k, as well as therapy and a gym stipend to my employees is far more rewarding than any sort of profitability or popularity. I am establishing bonds with people who have helped my life change and I am happy to pour back into their lives. This is the best way to encompass the definition of real success. Running a company means nothing to me if I’m not able to build anyone else up from it.
How do you personally overcome fear?
I don’t give life to negative thoughts. Negative thoughts are intrusive and destructive. To combat my negative thoughts and fears, I practice mindfulness; I spend time releasing things that scare me and allowing my mind to only ponder positive and edifying thoughts. I refuse to think about a deficit. Overthinking my fears usually prevents me from taking any risks which could stunt my growth so I try to not overthink and act on faith. These practices really help my fears dissipate.
How is running a company different than what you thought it would be?
Running a business requires a tremendous amount of leadership skills. Through entrepreneurship, I’ve learned that leadership means possessing an unwavering dedication to helping your team make progress no matter the risk or challenge. As a business leader, I have had to invest a great deal of time, money, and energy into developing myself as well as the individuals on my team. Being a leader means fronting the cost of development and guidance in all ways.
How can readers get in touch with you?
You can check out our social media pages where we post engaging content about digital marketing and SEO practices. Our content is aimed at helping readers understand SEO basics and intricacies. In addition to our socials, we will be running a blog about SEO wellness in the coming weeks. Our social media pages include LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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