AN ENTREPRENEUR FROM THE BEGINNING
Growing up in an entrepreneurial family, Kevin Miller was surrounded by people who would eventually influence his career to become the co-founder and CEO of GR0, the fastest-growing SEO agency in the nation. He follows in the footsteps of his father, who served as the CEO of Budget Rent-A-Car during Miller’s childhood years.
Miller says his father encouraged his entrepreneurial tendencies from a young age. Even as a juvenile, Miller understood the true value of working for himself and finding financial freedom from his own ideas.
“Ever since I was a young kid, I was encouraged by what it means to be an entrepreneur because you get the freedom of time — it wasn’t a financial thing. For me, it’s really about being able to work on what I want to work on, which is a blessing. Most people don’t have that privilege,” says Miller.
BIG TECH FOCUSED
After graduating from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Miller ventured to San Francisco to join the country’s booming Big Tech landscape. There he came into contact with a company called Message Me, which offered a service similar to today’s WhatsApp (owned by Meta). When Yahoo bought Message Me, Miller transitioned into a role at Google.
Miller believes his two years working for Google were among the most influential in his career. “I soaked up every bit of cultural learning I could get, and I saw how they supported me personally and professionally. And I thought, if I ever have the chance to have my own company, I’m going to do this exact same thing.”
His role at Google was an excellent way to dip his toes into the realm of doing business on a professional scale, working with small and medium-sized businesses to build their ad campaigns.
After his two years at Google, Miller moved to Los Angeles and took on a role with a company named Open Listings, a competitor to today’s popular Redfin. Working as their director of growth, Miller and his team focused on driving organic traffic to the platform. As he progressed in his role, he fell in love with SEO and wanted to pursue it further.
He says the organic nature of Google’s results makes succeeding on the platform fulfilling.
“I fell in love with SEO and became fascinated with it because you can’t buy it — it has to be earned,” says Miller. “Meaning that in order to rank number one on Google for a specific term, you have to have a result on your website that is the most thorough and educated answer to a question. You earn that right to be in position one.”
HONEST CONSULTING FOR SUCCESS
When Opendoor, a publicly-traded real estate firm, acquired Open Listings, Miller stayed with the company for another year. After speaking with a friend about Ritual, a women’s vitamin company, he became interested in consulting for their team to help them achieve their SEO goals.
Miller’s work with Ritual was a turning point in his career, opening doors to new clients, contacts, and projects. Once Ritual had established a strong relationship with Miller, they began to recommend him to other companies. Over time, the offers flooded in.
With all of these new offers coming in, Miller turned to a friend in Los Angeles who offered full-time SEO services. Together, they decided to team up and try to create a winning formula for a digital marketing service, focusing on SEO for direct-to-consumer companies.
As Miller laid the foundation for his digital marketing agency, he used the lessons he learned from his time at Google as pillars for his own business.
He says, “When you’re doing sales, the best way to sell someone is to be honest. If you admit that there might be some deficiencies or this or that and set your expectations properly, it actually leads to more sales coming in, because people can tell you’re authentic in your credibility. I also wanted to be honest with my own employees by supporting them in their lives, through things they’re going through.”
Miller uses his own background and experiences to influence how he treats his employees. Referencing his past experience with addiction, he says his time during Alcoholics Anonymous meetings served as a form of therapy, helping him become more empathetic toward others — including his colleagues.
LEADING BY EXAMPLE
Today, Miller leads with patience and understanding, giving his employees time away from the office to tend to their personal lives. Whether they need to help family or take a mental health day, Miller’s team knows they can trust him to understand and empathize when they share their experiences.
“Every day that you wake up, we want you to strive to do a little bit better than you did the day before. It’s a very simple concept,” says Miller.
Miller subscribes to the “1% better every day concept,” explaining that it starts with something as simple as building an exercise routine with one pushup the first day, two the next, and so on to create a routine.
“I don’t believe in negative reinforcement,” says Miller. “Some people react well to that. I never did. Even when I was a kid, I needed people to believe in me, and maybe that’s a personal thing. Now, I can do it more on my own, but I think if you were to take 10 people in a room, eight out of 10 are going to do better with positive reinforcement rather than saying ‘you suck,’ here are all your deficiencies.”
He believes in building a motivational atmosphere where employees feel encouraged to do their best and are not afraid of what may happen if they make mistakes.
CULTURE OF SUPPORT
Part of the company’s commitment to improvement includes weekly all-hands-on-deck meetings, allowing Miller to inform the staff of changes or updates within the company. By providing regular feedback to the company and creating a transparent but supportive environment, Miller is able to help his team grow in the necessary areas without feeling deficient.
Another core tenant of the company’s work culture is respect. Miller instills foundations of respect into his staff and his employees, teaching them that they need to respect their clients but that it’s a two-way street.
Employees, in general, may be used to dealing with difficult clients, but those at GR0 know their leadership team will not tolerate disrespect from any party involved with their services.
“If anyone uses profanity or a derogatory or condescending tone, repeatedly says things that are insulting, and without interest in improving the subject matter of the work, I have no tolerance for that,” says Miller, who shared that he recently let go of two clients because of egregious instances of how they behaved towards his team. “I got on the phone with the CEO of both companies, and said, ‘If I was in your position, I’d want to have this feedback. We’re not going to work with you and here’s why.’”
Miller makes clear that his team’s mental health and their willingness and desire to want to work at the company is a high priority. It’s no wonder why employees love working with him; they know for a fact that he has their backs.
