Our SEO Business Is Revolutionizing 'The Search Economy' [Update]

David Riggs

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Published: May 25th, 2024

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David Riggs

Founder, Pneuma Media

$200K

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Pneuma Media

pneumallc.co

from Denver

started November 2019

$200,000

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Discover what tools recommends to grow your business!

Discover what books David recommends to grow your business!

Want more updates on Pneuma Media? Check out these stories:

1. How We Scaled Our Agency From 0 To $2M/Year In Under 2 Years With Our Content-Focused SEO Services (2023) ➜

This is a follow up story for Pneuma Media. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published over 1 year ago, check it out here.

Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.

My name is David Riggs. I’m the CEO at Pneuma, a SEO/PPC/Website Development Agency. At Pneuma, we help modernize the way your business gets found in The Search Economy.

Your next customer is more online than ever before in The Search Economy. They’re using tools like Google, Instagram, TikTok, and newer platforms popping up everyday to search for companies just like you when they’re ready to purchase something or need help.

The opportunity for ambitious, growing businesses in The Search Economy is to show up as the solution when your next customer has a problem and Pneuma helps with that. We exist to put our customers into conversations that are already happening, and capture the demand that already exists in the marketplace, rather than working to create demand for a product or service everyone already knows about.

We were recently awarded 3rd place on Inc 5000 Regionals for the Rocky Mountain region, which is exciting news for our company as we continue to grow. It’s proof that what we’re doing is more than just SEO, it’s understanding how our client’s customers buy, and building an engine that supports that.

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Tell us about what you’ve been up to. Has the business been growing?

Since the last interview, our business has grown by nearly 30%. We crossed a few major milestones, both in revenue, total customers, and also layered in a new service line, Google Ads Management, which is exciting.

Ironically, we’ve aimed to reduce the amount of overall visibility we’re getting online, and shift some of the attention to in person events. The highest ROI “channel” for Pneuma currently is for our team to spend time at physical events like networking, coffee, masterminds, etc.

While the online world is helpful, I’m finding our customers actually hang out in person far more than they do online. That being said, we certainly haven’t given up on our content strategy.

We’ll be rolling out a new podcast called “The Search Economy” which aims to tell the story of how businesses can best show up when your future customers are searching for problems that your business can help solve.

When it comes to our business, one of the most important things our team has done this quarter is not only look at the value we deliver to clients, but how we talk about that value as well.

We’ve reviewed everything from specific keyword research tactics, all the way to our talk track for monthly and quarterly meetings. Since last time, we hired a VP of Client Success. He’s been a crucial piece of the puzzle as we look to not only grow our client’s businesses, but also keep our clients around for longer.

Culture can’t be manufactured. Culture can’t be created overnight. Culture is a byproduct of consistent work and decision making.

What have been your biggest challenges in the last year?

My main focus this quarter has been people. Who do we need to be successful? Are they on our team? If not, how do we find them? For those on our team, are they in the right role? If not, what role should they be in?

We know that we can help businesses enter the new era of The Search Economy, but our first priority is to always make sure we’ve got the best team in place to help them do it.

The main focal point is that people will be crucial to our growth moving forward. We talk with new CEOs, founders, and marketing leaders everyday about setting their businesses up for success in The Search Economy.

The more interest that we receive the more smart people we need to have at Pneuma to provide excellent services to our customers. As we continue to push for 8 figures in revenue, our team will need to evolve, and we’ll need to continue to be more accountable to ourselves, and the broader business as well.

I believe we’ve taken great strides towards this. We restructured our delivery team so it’s easier to work with CSMs moving forward. We also hired a VP of CS, like mentioned above, but a SVP of Revenue as well. Both of those roles have contributed to answering the question of “who else do we need to be successful”

As CEO of an agency, especially a bootstrapped company, you’ve done a little bit of everything. While I’m not the best at everything, sometimes the default is “well, just ask for David’s help on this!”

While I don’t mind playing a role in the day to day, my continual issue/opportunity is ensuring those requests get sent to the right person on the team.

What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?

The biggest learning lessons from the past year have come from the process of building culture, hiring people, and growing the broader Pneuma team.

The issues that we faced when we started Pneuma stemmed from operational deficiencies. I spent a majority of my time getting a good handle on our services, the way in which they were delivered, and how we delivered our core services to each individual client.

I’ve learned that building a business is a constant evolution. The moment that I felt like I had a good grip on our service delivery was the exact moment that I knew it was time to grow the team. Our people are our product and team growth presents an entirely new set of challenges.

Right now we are in the process of defining who we are as a team, how we want to treat and manage clients, and how we want to communicate with them. The work that we put into defining the mission of our team and the results we deliver to our clients directly ties to the culture that we’re building.

Culture can’t be manufactured. Culture can’t be created overnight. Culture is a byproduct of consistent work and decision making. It’s one thing to say it, it’s another to embody culture in our daily work.

Building teams that are excited to show up to work every day to deliver for our clients isn’t easy. It’s been a lesson for me to understand that the work to create that type of environment never stops.

Stick it out! Time is the greatest asset as you build a business. The longer you stay in the game, the harder it is to beat you, and the smarter you become at “playing the game of business.”

What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?

Pneuma’s immediate plan is to focus on growth. We’re not just looking at growth by the number of people that we add to the Pneuma team, but also the results that were consistently delivering for our clients.

At this point in business, not only do we have aspirations to grow, but I believe we have the team to grow as well. Our services have created value for nearly every client. We want to continue to help as many of the right types of businesses prepare for the The Search Economy as possible.

I would wager we don’t introduce many new services, if any, between now and the 8 figure threshold. The ultimate goal would be to continue to run our methodology with clients, focused solely on capturing demand, not creating it.

As I think to the 8 figure mark, I’m most excited about some of the challenges and obstacles we’ll face and solve on the way there. There is a lot for us to figure out and that’s the fun of business. If you were to ask me today, I don’t have any doubt that we’ll hit our goals. If you’d ask me the exact steps that will happen between now and then, I would at least try to pretend like I knew how we were going to get there.

The uncertainty of how to make it happen is one of the most exciting parts about growing a business like Pneuma. It’s like flying a plane while changing the engine at the same time. We know we’re heading in the right direction, but are constantly making adjustments to help get us there more efficiently.

While I’m confident in the team that we have, I do believe we have a lot left ahead of us to solve for. However, I’m always reminded that we’ve figured out (to me) the most important part - the vision for what we want to achieve.

Pneuma’s ultimate goal is to help grow companies, most notably through what we call The Search Economy.

In The Search Economy your next customer is on offense. They’re searching for topics, ideas, content, questions and so much more that your company can help answer.

The problem?

So many companies neglect taking the necessary steps to make sure they’re set up for The Search Economy. The result is that companies miss so many “at bats” when their future customers are searching for problems their company can help solve.

That’s where we come in and help fill the gap. We take deserving companies to the first page so they can be a part of a conversation that’s already happening.

What’s the best thing you read in the last year?

The Great Game of Business was one of the only books I read last year, and by far the most impactful. I’m a sports person, so thinking of business like a game not only helped clarify a few aspects of the business for me, but gave me a renewed sense of passion to tackle certain issues within the business.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?

Stick it out! Time is the greatest asset as you build a business. The longer you stay in the game, the harder it is to beat you, and the smarter you become at “playing the game of business.”

A saying I frequent quite often is “walk to success, don’t sprint to failure”. A lot of business owners involuntarily speed up the rate of success they need to hit, not realizing they’re sprinting to a failed business, not a successful long lasting one.

Equally important is another saying I reference - “business problems are personal problems.” 99% of the time, an issue in the business simply stems from an issue someone is having personally.

Sometimes you can solve it, sometimes you can’t, but it’s a great reminder to come back to the fact that businesses are more than just operations and systems, they’re made up of people just like you and I.

Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?

Currently, we’re looking to hire someone to oversee all client strategy across our business lines - web, SEO, and PPC. We’re also looking for our first CSM as well!

Job postings are not live (yet), but if you think you know someone (or if that someone is you!), feel free to email me [email protected].