This is Nick From Fuck Your Business Book

Why Advice From Nick Prieve Might Not Suck

You are dying to be sold on what we call in the business world, Knowledge ,Skills , and Abilities, not to mention my store so I will list them off in that order I guess. This is the part of the book, like all others where you find out why the hell you should read it. I know your options are not limited so I will put it up. Behind my name I could boast MBA,MLIS,MIS,CFP, and in front of it the the term (ABD) doctor , but I won’t I will tell you how I got there.

Knowledge: Milton Was Too Generous

See, that is what I love about co-writing a book or a blog, it just gives you something great to leverage. So Milton says I am an expert and to be honest, I am. As far as information retrieval goes I am. There are literally six people in this country that can do what I do and understand it well enough to apply it to Search Engine Optimization and internet marketing. I pack a big bag of fucking wrenches and a tool kit full of corporate background, business acumen and all around say hello to my little friend. I operate a few major firms with the knowledge I have and so far so good, turns out we own a non profit too. But let me back up a bit and tell you how it happened, the first thing a doctoral candidate learns is that the research has to be generalizable. I hold a masters in business administration , a degree in information science with a major of information retrieval (search engines ) and a BA and BS  in public administration, political science , and mass communication. Originally I was ready to be a tax attorney but something changed my mind, the public library. So here is why you can take some of my assholeness with a grain of salt, it’s my story.

Fuck Mortgages: Our Hero Escapes Unscathed

Back in 2000 I was a kid, with a good enough diploma, you might know this as a GED. I fell into sales after a tattooing career and a brief stint as a rockstar. In short, I needed a break from the whole subculture and hipster community.  I fell into mortgages at the right time as a telemarketer and worked my way up quickly to  a floor manager and then a full time broker. This was lucrative and we all know how it  turned out. Some members of my firm walked away in handcuffs , I did not. I had a conversation with another broker one night that led to his real dream of being a teacher and his wondering how we could sleep at night. I wondered the same. I did not do anything illegal or use backdoor tactics , but frankly I got economics enough to know that this housing bubble was a bad thing and the fed should not be doing what it happened to be.

Anyway, I chose to talk to my first sales boss and make a list of real goals, one of them was to go to college and do something good for people. That is how I started community college. Thank you Todd.

College & Research: Days At The Libary

Milton talked about hardships, and I have had my share. As a kid , the thought I had epilepsy, mostly from hitting my head a lot and the massive wear and tear on all of my muscles. Anyway, it turns out I have parkinsons disease and what is called general dystonia. Once a week I feel the pain of death, sometimes more than that. Today was one of the days where all the muscles in my body fought against me and it fucking blew. Sometimes my vision would go and I grew fonder of books that could explain the world every single day. It was at the library that I found my calling and really where I learned 90 percent of what I know. See, I subscribe to that Good Will Hunting theory of (Not the bit about not being an asshole, I do that accidentally all the time) learning in the library. So my mission was set , study all the things needed to run a library and you will one day. Sure enough I did as the youngest library director in the state of Minnesota, ever. Along the way though I had to get a library degree, the stuff seemed boring to me so I went to a school that was rooted in information science and computer science instead of library science and that is where I fell in love with SEO. I studied the IR algorithms, I worked as a hired gun for goo I mean my contract says I cannot name that name and bi I mean my contract says I cannot name that search engine either.I studied under Iris Xie, this is a really small group of IR scholars and I published some papers and some theory’s. Once you understand a search engine and can mix that understanding , however sloppily , into the marketing mix you have really made a name for yourself.At any rate , I am still working on a Ph.D in Business and pretty happy about the chance I have to give back through the work we do at www.seodonetherightway.com and www.webgoddess.net

So you know I really have a monoply on this brain trust thing as far as SEO goes and I have worked as a marketing officer for three very large insurance companies and also boned up on a few things to help me start a successful business along the way, including a leadership certificate taught by the good folks at Harvard as well as being the smartest person in human resources in 2007. I am not shitting you, I am the championship team member of the SHRM HR games and I didn’t even major in the shit, I just needed something to do.

Motivation

I had been running a market research firm and SEO company for some time but it was not until I met Anna that I learned that you cannot operate in a vacum and you need a partner. She is my beloved and also the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) for Webgoddess LLC, our umbrella firm. I almost took a job at Aimclear, a big PR house that focuses on paid per click advertising and sold my company. I did not like their snobby as fuck corporate culture nor the bullshit book put out about Facebook. No offense, they are great for going on a diet pill of adsense dollars to watch your products rise to the top while you have them on retainer but it is an old model and not built to last. So on the day of my final interview I faked that I knew nothing about SEO (which surprised the hell out of them considering they scouted me) and pissed them off to keep going on my own, this was Anna’s advice. They are a cool firm but it is not my style and the trendster thing just doesn’t work for me. Sorry, if my clients cannot afford 90 thousand dollar bottles of wine neither can I. Anna inspired me to talk with Irene Hartfield about merging and expanding on what I love to do , which was marketing and thus I did.

Fuck Them, Go Forward, Now

I have never looked back, my choices have left me happy and I guess my alma mater figured I should teach classes on SEO and Social Media since there is really no such thing by a qualified hybrid information scientist and business guru like me in well, the world. So I do, and I love it. This book, which will begin after this post, is rooted in helping you make tough choices and take risks when everyone says “but you need XZYZ” ( I put in the extra Z to be a dick because they always tell you you need a billion things and you don’t ) and that you have to have a background in this or that first and some massive collateral. Not in todays world you don’t so fuck the naysayers and fuck living beneath your own expectations. Now we can start chapter one, it is titled , How To Do What You Love Without Fucking Up, and we hope you enjoy it. Look forward to articles on starting up or expanding and the basics of running an enterprise while keeping bullshit mission statements at bay.