Beyond the Dashboard - Matt Caramenico

In 2012 I realized I had been on autopilot most of my life.

The coordinates were set; all I had to do was show up. Primary school, college, etc.

Suddenly, I realized how much school debt I had accrued, and interest would begin compounding monthly.

I was asleep, In a dream-like state; parents, teachers, professors, friends, and family were all telling me what to do…

It was like the "kick" scene from Inception.

When I woke up in the winter of 2012, the semester before graduating… the weight of my decisions came crashing in around me as I sunk to the bottom of the tub. - you gotta watch the "kick."

I was fully and painfully aware of my reality.

$122,284 in school debt, 6mo from graduation, and a herniated L4-L5 disc.

I woke into a sense of panic.

• How would I be able to live and pay this debt back?

• When would my life begin?

• When would I be free from this financial burden?

The questions swirled in my mind.

Drastic Change:

Quickly I realized that the only way through this was a drastic shift.

I needed to take my reality seriously because If I didn't change the way I lived, I'd wake up in another 22 years and still have no clue where I was going.

I realized If I continued to live in the same way, I would never see dreams become a reality.

I would live a dull life, suffocating under financial debt, shoveling on more through blind consumerism.

Autopilot wasn't serving me.

Autopilot certainty wouldn't dig me out of this debt.

And autopilot wouldn't help me identify my long-term goals and forge myself into the man I wanted to be.

Move Forward:

The change necessary was clear. Shut off autopilot

And thankfully, even at that time. I realized that my lack of vision was the problem.

Never having taken the reigns of my own life and deliberately set out on a trail with all of its unknowns.

My actions were the result of someone else's plan.

Societies plan.

A plan I wasn't executing intentionally.

I buckled down and took stock of what I'd done to get to this place.

• What were the actions?

• What was I reading?

• Who was I listening to?

I took stock of my informational diet.

I took stock of how I lived.

Having done that, it was easier to focus on what I needed to change.

I realized with a life on autopilot; it's easy to blame ignorance.

It's easy to say, "No one told me."

But for this transformation to stick and to fully shut off this autopilot lifestyle, it was crucial that I take full accountability for my own actions.

Everything I had, experienced, or created - I deserved it based on my actions.

In order to change that story, I would need to take a more active role in life.

Identify my dreams, plot a course, and execute that journey.

More days focused on and aimed at the outcome than not.

Use A System:

This is the process I used to change my trajectory.

Go from panic and fear with limited options to a life based on your own design.

Looking back on this period in my life, the process I used seems very similar to the process that many suggest.

It would have been great to have the book Principles by Ray Dalio at that point in my life, but it wasn’t published until 2017… sadly.

Fortunately for you it’s not 2012, go pick up a copy.

He’s got a detailed 5-step process for setting goals that is very similar.

Identify your goals:

What do you want to do, experience, build, feel, and inspire in this life?

You'll never make it to your destination if you don't have a map.

You can do anything in the world; why limit yourself? You have the whole world already doing that for you. Don't add to it.

"Is your ladder against the right wall" - Stephen Covey;

Although he wrote this specific for management and leadership, I see it as very applicable to goal setting. Forward motion towards a goal you don't want to achieve isn't serving you.

Work backward:

You have this lofty goal, now distill it into bite-sized pieces.

A Year out > 6mo> 1mo> 1wk> 1 day.

What will are you gonna be doing tomorrow? If you can't answer that, you didn't do it.

Clearly identify every task you need to do every day that ladders up to your goals.

A metaphor that is a perfect example of this:

General Abrams - tank commander from WWII - said this, and I’ve heard it used in many ways throughout corporate environments, it's always stuck with me because it clearly explains a simple way to break down a seemingly impossible task into many that are easy to complete.

Once you have your simple tasks nailed down, there is only one step left.

Execute

Everyday.

Move forward and execute your plan every single day. If you do this consistently for enough days, you'll end up reaching your goal and be able to look back on your accomplishment with pride and humility.

You will know yourself more fully.

You will know your limits.

You will have seen firsthand what you can imagine and how relatively easily that thought can be brought to fruition.

How is anything made? It's a fleeting thought in someone's mind at its birth, and only if it's written down or sketched out is there any hope of moving from the ethereal to the physical.

Fast-forward:

Simple Example:

A glaring issue...

I was panicking about paying off school debt.

But I hadn't been applying to jobs.

It seems so simple now, but I look back on myself at 22 with disgust - What the fuck?

It seemed pretty simple to me; if I wanted a job, I would need to apply to jobs.

Having lived through the horror stories and seen people graduate in 07-10, I knew it was going to be a numbers game.

I leveraged my network to the nth degree, and I applied to anything and everything I could find. GLOBALLY. 

And 22 days after I graduated, I started my first - post-college job.

It's a very simple formula here. Anyone can do it.

Goal- get a job

• Apply to jobs.

• Apply to as many and for as long as it takes.

• Practice interviewing with anyone that will listen.

• Learn as much about the company prior to interviewing.

• Learn more about the company if you make it to subsequent rounds.

The outcome for me was huge.

I spent 4 months in 2012-13 looking for a job. I landed at Johnson Matthey (a $20b multinational) within their North American HQ, working on Emission Control Technologies.

I was able to use my degree and really enjoyed the work for a while… more on that here.

I didn’t stop there. I continued to set goals:

• I was able to change my career from Chemical Characterization and working in a Lab to SEO.

• I was able to create a life that helped me heal my injured back and wounded spirit.

• I was able to get a 6-fig job with a skill I taught myself.

• I had my first article published by Entrepreneur.com, which has a readership of 8.5m a month.

• I was able to afford a beautiful, luxury apartment on my own, 3 miles from my job.

More importantly, all of this was planned ahead of time.

From the job to the career change, to the published article.

I set a trajectory, noted my goal, broke it down into tasks, and executed it day in and day out.

I went from a poor, broke, injured college student to a career I could be proud of that enabled me to have a more comfortable life all within 5 years.

Once I took an active role in designing my life, it completely changed.

I planned my trajectory. I took control.

What About SEO?

It sounds simple because it is. Most people complicate the goal-setting process to the point it bogs them down and turns into a chore.

People neglect it.

It's too powerful for that.

It should be enjoyable. A process that excites you because you know what it means.

Progress.

It means you're about to grow and build.

It means you're on an adventure.

The only people who don't believe this haven't connected the dots yet.

They haven't jumped into the driver's seat of their life, much less a team or organization.

Speaking of, how does this connect back to SEO?

Well, goal setting is just as powerful in our personal life as it is within one's own career.

It's actually a requirement for most roles.

You formulate the Annual Operating Plan with finance and cross-functional teams so you can set intentions for the year ahead.

As a team, you commit to overall financial and traffic goals for the year.

Maybe you go deeper and commit to the CVR and AOV along with a cxl and return rate that will enable you to forecast a year that results in your Traffic and Revenue goals.

From there, you nail down which projects enable your team to reach those traffic and revenue goals.

So you need more traffic and revenue?

• Could you rework product taxonomy and category hierarchy - what would the resulting impact on revenue be?

• Are your product pages not converting?

• Is there a site speed issue on a subfolder causing poor indexation and negatively impacting traffic and revenue?

• Is there a greenfield content opportunity - a competitor has a solution that you've identified as a potential for a more robust and thorough solution?

You take those goals and nail down specific projects that drive the results you're committed to.

From there, you identify the resources and cost to execute, create, and or build these projects.

• What are we building?

• Which resources are needed?

• How many resources are needed?

• Who does this impact?

  • Which external vendors does this impact?

  • Which internal teams does this impact?

• How much will each of these cost to rectify or solve?

• Do we have clarity on potential risks?

• Do we have clarity on revenue impact?

• Do we have alignment?

You need to have a detailed knowledge of the above.

Once you have cross-functional alignment and a full accounting of your needs in order to make these projects come to life and ultimately enable the team or organization to nail the goals -

You present the projects (knowing leadership already approved the committed goals) to the board or Capital Investment Committee so that you can gain funding and prioritization to move forward and execute throughout the year.

This is the process of setting goals for a traffic channel at a large organization.

It's not much different for any roles, functions, or teams - you have to gain funding and or prioritization in order to move forward and have access to resourcing.

That being said, SEO is notably difficult to forecast around and tie business cases/ revenue outcomes too.

This is where it's imperative (for SEO success) that you nail down the skills associated with selling/ evangelizing and managing upward. In other words, the (internal) marketing of your marketing is crucial to you and the SEO team's success.

I'll go into forecasting and evangelizing SEO in future newsletters, but I think this is a great place to wrap it up.

If you're focused on nailing your goals, over-index on accountability and prioritize taking action.

You'll get more of a dopamine hit from crossing off your tasks and be well on your way to seeing your goals come to fruition.

Join me as I build - Beyond the Dashboard, and share what's on my mind.

Matt Caramenico

Cool Cars:

I know it’s + 2 years old, but this recap of the LS swap on a Volvo 240 is something that I’ve wanted to do since my parents gave me the family wagon back as my first car.

Sadly, I never reached this goal. My Volvo was totaled in a front-on collision with a Toyota Tundra… True to form, the Volvo saved my family.

Anyway… check this one out. Watch the full series from Gingium if you want. Lots of great insight throughout if you’re looking to fully gut a 240

Cool Links:

Found myself watching this year in review from a channel called Project Kamp and it’s pretty enjoyable.

I really enjoyed seeing how they turned the shipping crates into modular kitchen and tool sheds.

Additionally, that pizza oven setup is awesome. For sure a backyard necessity.

Additionally, The Tour De France started last Saturday and I’ve skipped a few years, but I grew up watching it religiously with my Dad and Sister.

Stage 4 offered an insanely dramatic finish within the last 3km.