11 Reasons I ❤️ Big Leap

1. Byan Phelps: I met Bryan years ago when I was running my own agency. He was at another top Utah digital marketing agency then. I then sold my company to my awesome partners and went on to do lots of other facets of marketing including email, product launches, & author/book marketing. In 2018 I was looking to get back into SEO fulltime when I saw a post from Bryan here on LinkedIn and before I knew it, I was working at his white hat agency, Big Leap as an SEO Manager. Bryan's very down to earth. He sincerely wants what's best for each of his employees and that's filtered throughout all those he's brought in to help him run the company. This care for people is easily felt throughout Big Leap and I'm proud to be a part of that kindness. Thanks Bryan for creating something great and including me in it!

2. It's Leadership: Really, this is just a continuation of point 1, but one that deserves just as much praise. I love companies that focus on finding the right people and then working to help them put their strengths into play. I've felt this kind of support from all those whom I'm worked under. It makes a big difference in work satisfaction, even amid the chaos that can sometimes be agency work. Leadership is very approachable and genuinely interested in making Big Leap the best place to work. I'm grateful to all my friends who I've been able to call boss.

3. Learning Opps: Big Leap allows 5% of work time to be spent in education. Monthly and weekly we have opportunities to learn from others in the company about their individual expertise. We get chances to teach ourselves. This is one of my favorite things about agency life: being immersed in SEO all day and having so many conversations with others who are doing the same. We've had in house webinars with the awesome folks at SEMrush, ScreamingFrog & SparkToro. It's great to learn directly from those who are creating awesome tools in our space. I also thoroughly enjoyed learning from the awesome speakers at Vid Summit (paid for by Big Leap) and getting flown out to Boston w/ a fellow coworker to attend HubSpot's amazing Inbound conference.

4. Process Improvement: For whatever reason I'm always on the lookout for ways to optimize and improve the systems my team is using. Not only is Big Leap dedicated to using the best and most effective SEO processes for our clients, but I personally thrive on contributing to this process development. This attention to our processes has been unrivaled in my professional career. Big Leap has a specific division dedicated to this and they incorporate feedback from the group. The tools just keep getting better and better.

I've been able to work on a YouTube Audit & other YouTube processes, help automate our beast of a site audit & get reports that more clearly show the value we're bringing to the table for our clients as an agency. I'm a sucker for Google Sheets, formulas, data addons like Supermetrics, Google Analytics for Sheets and more. I even started a slack channel for other #sheetsgeeks. :)

5. Friends & Fun: I thrive on positive relationships. While I can usually get along with just about anyone I work with, it's always very meaningful to me to like the people I work with and to share some good laughs and support for each other. Big Leap is full of people I love and am glad to see each day. We do regular team & company activities that help to facilitate these good times. Our team even ducked out one Friday to take a quick trip to Disney Land. Yup. Pretty cool!

6. Transparency: While we strive, and very often, drive results, that's not always how things pan out. There are many things out of our control and when that happens, you'll often hear us explaining to clients the factors that led to traffic drops or pages getting dropped out of Google's index. This kind of frankness leads to understanding situations more clearly and ultimately allows us to address them and get things movin'!

Internally, we have monthly company meetings (weekly during Covid times) where we hear how things are going financially, hear about challenges that are getting worked on get to highlight cool people and show appreciation:

7. Core Vales: When I was investigating Big Leap as a place I may want to work, I came to quickly see that their 5 core values at the time (Trust. Expertise. Data-Driven Decisions. Creative Thinking. Execution.) were something that weren't just pictures on the wall.

It was clear that they held themselves to a high standard, both internally and with the work they did for clients. I've never been at a company where its values were so...well, valued. They are not just stated in an annual corporate meeting, but actually talked about, visually displayed, and even incorporated into quarterly goals like at Big Leap.

8. Goals & Growth: I've been encouraged from day one to set goals that will contribute to my personal as well as professional development. We get bonuses here when we hit our goals. Additionally, as a company we routinely hit our client retention goals. We have an average of mid 90% monthly client retention and that's cool to be a part of. Many times when clients stop working with us it's due to internal complications that are out of their control or they're looking for a full service digital marketing solution, while Big Leap hasn't been that for many, we are moving in that direction. And for the clients that just use us for SEO, we have had some pretty killer results for many.

9. Client Match: I love being in a meeting with Dan Posner, our VP of Business Development, and hearing him say, hey, we may not be the best fit for you. It makes me feel good that we don't take everyone on just because they have a need and some money. We would rather work with companies for whom we can really serve and with whom we can build a long term relationship. We don't mind just saying no when it doesn't make sense.

10. SWAG! My wife has noticed that my wardrobe is slowly turning into Big Leap themed T's, jackets & sweatshirts. Love it! Sorry Hon. ;)

11. Integrity: When I made the decision to return to agency work I knew what I was looking for: positive culture, collaboration w/ others who knew SEO and a company that didn't cut corners. In SEO, we call a company that uses techniques for quick returns, trying to game the system, black-hat. Through my interview process I could tell that Big Leap was willing to forgo those kind those kind of shady quick wins for long-term gains. It shows too. When Google updates their search algorithms, I have very often see the rankings of clients who have been with us for a while go up. It also shows in our employee satisfaction numbers (NPS: 84, last time I checked)

BONUS REASON: Opportunity: With 38% growth in annual revenue in 2018 (still going strong in 2021 despite a crazy 2020) Big Leap has often been hiring for quite a few new positions. We even acquired a bit ago the warehouse behind our current location in Lehi, UT to accommodate for that growth. The addition will double the amount of space we have now. Internally, there is a clear structure for professional growth and all are encouraged to strive for improvement.

If you'd like to join this awesome team and you're passionate about digital marketing, check out one of our open positions! If something interests you, let me know, I'd be happy to pass your name along to our hiring team.

Big Leap's Job Openings