We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tom Nguyen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Tom, we are so happy that our community is going to have a chance to learn more about you, your story and hopefully even take in some of the lessons you’ve learned along the way. Let’s start with self-care – what do you do for self-care and has it had any impact on your effectiveness?
I set aside time to exercise for at least an hour 4-6 days per week. Exercising makes me feel better, and when I feel better, I work better. Even though I work for myself, I take the weekends to recharge. When I come back to work, I’m recharged. Working is important, but self-care and playing are equally important.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I own and run Mr. Technique, a web design company that also provides SEO services. Since 2014, we’ve received at least one online mention about being a top web design or SEO company. in St. Petersburg (where Mr. Technique is currently located) or Atlanta (where Mr. Technique was located prior to October 2020).
One of the things that makes Mr. Technique so special is that we visit our clients in-person. Most companies in our industry don’t do this. Although we could connect with Zoom, Google Meet, etc, communication is best when it is in-person. Plus, I enjoy meeting new people. Recently, I just traveled to the other side of Florida to meet a new client in-person for the first time. Lots of clients aren’t great writers, so getting client answers in an email doesn’t quite cut it. I got so much more of an understanding of that client’s business by chatting with the owner and staff in-person. Understanding a client’s business is a key element to creating their website copy for SEO.
Next month, I’ll be meeting two more clients in-person for the first time in New York City. For prospective clients in St. Pete, I require an in-person meeting at our office prior to doing business. Once they become a client, I will visit their business at least once.
Something I’m proud of is that we recently built a responsive calculator app for a client. Apps aren’t something that we specialize in, but I was able to get an app designer to create it. Our client is beyond happy with the app, too.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I would say the ability to research Google for solutions to problems, learning WordPress, and learning SEO were the most impactful skills in my journey.
Understanding that text on a webpage can be indexed by Google and search engines helped me to troubleshoot web design/development problems as well as learning SEO.
Learning WordPress extensively allowed us to do more with websites than if we were to static code them.
Learning SEO not only helped Mr. Technique get more business, it has helped our clients, also.
What do you really enjoy doing in your business?
Writing educational blog posts is one of my favorite things to do, but I don’t get to do it as often as I’d like. I’ve written over 100 pages on the Mr. Technique website with most of those pages being blog posts. I’ve had some blog posts that have gotten 1000s of visits from people Googling their problem. My business is small, and I do a good bit of the web design work and all of the SEO work. The clients are the most important part of our business, so I have to give them first priority.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mrtechnique.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mr.technique/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mrtechnique
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mr-technique
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrtechnique
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/mrtechnique
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/mr-technique-st-petersburg
- Other: Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrtechnique/
