About

Here’s the whole story (aka my ‘Why’):

Now I’m an accomplished and recognized SEO professional. But things were not always like that.

Sunday morning, the sun is shining bright. It’s summer outside, and I’m super excited that we’ve just moved to our new place in Toronto. I go to the balcony and feel the wind on my face. Then I smell something. It’s a pleasant smell that arises old memories and brings me 10 years back…

I was a debt collector at that time. 

It was after dropping out of the university. I always was a good student. I actually liked learning and I didn’t know how to do anything else except for learning. I also hoped to move to an English speaking country one day (I’m originally from Belarus). 

I wanted to live a life full of adventure, a life where I could easily provide for myself and enjoy things that I loved. I’m sure you can relate to it too!

But I was disappointed with my university experience and decided to give it up.

I was so scared. And my parents were mad at me. I desperately needed to find a job to pay my bills. That’s how I became a debt collector at a small private factory producing watches. I called big and small retailer stores that owed money to my employer and made sure they paid on time.

I remember waking up every day and thinking: this is not the life I had dreamed about. I hated calling the clients every day reminding them to pay their debts. I hated this feeling of misery. 

I also had to prove every penny that I earned in bonuses as the company just didn’t want to pay them (there was a fixed sum they paid me monthly but it was tiny and the main income came from a performance bonus).

I remember one New Year’s eve. My employer changed one of the ‘bonus rules’ 1 day before the bonus calculation. I worked so hard to meet the performance requirements and to earn enough money to buy presents for my family. But that change literally meant that I was not going to get any bonus. I was pissed off. I was let down. Again. That year I couldn’t afford to buy presents for all my family.

I decided I needed to change something. I decided I needed to stop doing the same things over and over again and hope for a different outcome. I went to the Internet to search for a new opportunity. And I found it!

It was an offline SEO course. I didn’t even know what SEO was at that point. I didn’t know what a website was. I didn’t know anything! Yet I decided to try. Honestly, I didn’t have another choice. And I didn’t have anything to lose.

Oh god, I remember how hard it was! I even took a break from my job to read and read and read and read about SEO. I went to the classes, got some info there and then came back home to find more info. 

That was a good course but it lacked practice. And we also didn’t have access to the training sessions replays (as they were offline). That’s why it took me so long to really ‘get it’. I didn’t have a clear direction and I didn’t have anybody to ask follow-up questions (which are so important when you’re just starting!) as the teachers were different in each class.

It was then when I realized how a good SEO course should look like. It should arise questions. But it should provide answers too. 

All this happened almost 10 years ago. Here’s a funny photo I found in my archives. It was taken on the last day of the SEO course (do you recognize anybody in the front row? 🙂

After the SEO course, my life completely transformed. 

SEO helped me to land a good job at an agency.

SEO helped me to earn good money and never miss family holidays because I couldn’t afford the presents.

SEO completely changed how I think and view the world.

SEO helped me to move to Canada and find a good job here.

SEO helped me to meet so many interesting people and work on so many interesting projects that I’m so thankful for!

SEO helped me to be more flexible with my schedule as it can be easily turned into a remote job.

What’s next?

Now, this is not a ‘quick way to earn money’ game. This is not a skill you can pick up overnight. But SEO IS the answer to so many questions. And it IS a powerful tool that in good hands can become gold. 

Over these 10 years, I was working with companies of different sizes helping them increase their visibility in search engines and revenue. I also graduated from university as a teacher, and I feel that is the reason why I feel the urge to share information with people.

That’s how I came up with this SEO Challenge Course idea. The aim is to train people to really get SEO and to be there for them when they need me.

I’ve already had 3 successful launches of the SEO Challenge course. I’m doing it again soon!

For now, you can download a free list of the 23 core SEO skills which are so needed in this profession (hint: you will learn them in the SEO Challenge course!).