Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jake Albion. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Jake thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Early in your career, how did you think about whether to start your own firm or join an established firm?

Well, I started working for a local marketing company at first, and over time I started to realize how I would do things better. This first job was really tempting to stay in though because the owner really played on knowing I wanted to be a business owner. He offered me small percentage ownership opportunities, but in the end I wasn’t happy with that company so I left. While working for them, I spent time building processes and researching from webinars, articles, and Facebook groups. I was an employee acting like an owner which really helped me learn more and ask more questions. When the company started moving in a direction I didn’t really agree with I knew it was time to leave, so starting my own business was a no-brainer. After all that, why would I work with someone else.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t as I ready as I thought I was. I was able to get some clients and do good work, but I realized I needed more experience and to focus more on a specialty. I didn’t want to be a full-service agency that did everything, and even if I did it takes a lot more than a working knowledge and an ability to outsource to execute. This lead me to web development where I found my true passion. I was able to build up my skills and fully own the work, the process and the standard of my business. I also added things I cared about that I knew clients needed which weren’t being addressed like web accessibility.

Now when you start on your own, it’s extremely easy to start doing white labeling, where the full-service agencies hire you and your team to do the work and they sell it as their own. As I did white label, I made sure to keep my independence as a business because I started bringing on my own clients and overtime both sides of the business become lucrative. I had seen other people do this and have done it myself. I would definitely suggest it for anyone starting but unsure of the sales side to do something similar.

What’s changed for me since starting on my own is that even though we do continue to work with marketing agencies with specialized services like web accessibility, most of the business has been serving client businesses directly for websites, web accessibility and SEO which we as a company enjoy more.

Why did you make that choice?

I like my independence. When I make a mistake, I’m willing to own it, learn from it, and move on. I didn’t have the same experience in someone else’s company. Some of my old colleagues are running their own businesses now as well and it started while we worked together at the same agency. We would have to constantly remind ourselves to do as we were told because we didn’t have a say, it wasn’t our business. I wanted the final say. I wanted to build high quality websites and work with specific types of clients. Starting my own firm has given me that freedom and also allowed me to express my passion through the services I offer. I couldn’t do that working for someone else and within their business, their system and their infrastructure. I think that’s why agencies like working with me now. They can sell websites using those benefits. You can’t get that out of an employee and I couldn’t get that working for a company or even in a partnership.

I was ready for the responsibility of running a business, having my own clients and maintaining my own standards.

Looking back do you think it was the right choice?
Absolutely. I always knew I was going to do it, so my timing wasn’t perfect. But when is it ever? I do work that supports my freedom and lifestyle while helping other people with their business. I would do it again.

Tell us the backstory – so we can understand what it was like being in your shoes, what the circumstances and context was when you were making the decision and what those first few years were like?

As I mentioned earlier my degree didn’t really prepare me for work. But it did teach me about people and how to think. More importantly, it taught me the basic principles of marketing from a different perspective. Growing up around entrepreneurs, I had no doubt whether I would start a business, it was more a matter of how. In college, I was naive to think I didn’t need to know many of the the pivotal skills I learned today, but I am happy I was more open when I went into the workforce.

I also never worked at a large corporate job. I spent my 20s the way many friends and family members told me to which was taking risks and trying different jobs. I worked in an agency first with 0 experience. My first month I worked for free. My first year I only made $21k. I was willing to grind and I did. After doing alot of different jobs with that agency and getting alot of exposure to all the aspects of marketing, I left. I did try some other jobs while I tried to learn some new skills. I did door-to-door sales where I learned a ton about sales and business, but I will admit it is not a pleasant experience and I don’t recommend it long-term. I worked for a small business as a marketing coordinator, getting to see the other side of how a small business handles their marketing. While working as a marketing coordinator I learned web development which lead to my first specialized job as a web developer for another marketing agency.

I worked at that job for a few years doing what I was told at work building cheap business websites and then would go home and build websites for homes service companies paying me 3x per project what the agency was making. Truth be told, I could have left alot sooner, but I liked working at that agency so I stuck around an extra year. It was a great culture, working there was like hanging out with my friends. Ultimately, the company was bought out and I left.

I called my friend who had helped me get into websites and helped me develop my side business. I still remember clear as day on January 6th, 2020, he told me the universe is telling you it’s time to move on do your own thing. You’ve been able to for a while you just got comfortable. The timing worked out because I was able to give my business and my clients my full attention and turn it into what it is today, a web studio that builds and maintains WordPress websites that helps businesses qualify their customers before they have a first call. I’m also able to offer services I believe are important to an optimal online experience like web accessibility and building an online presence like SEO.

All of the other experience in the full services agencies allow me to leverage my experience in all of those position to not only build great websites, but understand how my services live harmoniously in the marketing eco-systen to grow businesses. This is what makes us a great white label partner for marketing agencies and guide our non-agency clients.

We chose to focus on web accessibility because both of the Albion Digital web creators are colorblind. It opened us up to a mission to create a universal experience with all of our services, so our clients can reach as many ideal customers as possible and those customers have an easy and pleasant experience with our clients.

Most of my work experience was done remotely, so even though I have worked in-house, we have been able to use my past remote agency experience to build Albion Digital with the best talent and make amazing connections in both the physical and online worlds.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers?

I am a colorblind web developer based in Minneola, FL. I became a web developer because I love the puzzles (problem solving) and learning new language skills required to build websites. I’ve been able to combine that in with my passion for business which comes from growing up around entrepreneurial family members. I own Albion Digital Web Studio where we build and maintain WordPress websites, audit and remediate websites for accessibility services and also do SEO which is already involved in each service we offer. We help clients build websites with digestible layouts and present content in bite-sized pieces so they can educate and qualify themselves before they reach out to get started.

How you got into your industry

My first job I interned for free for a month at a local Brand Marketing agency where my first jobs included Social Media Management, SEO and account management. Interestingly, they hired me because of my sociology and anthropology degree because they wanted to see how it work with social media which was still new at the time. Most social media managers were just interns posting things to see what works. Literally, one facebook post would generate like 3 leads. Now it’s 100% pay to play!

What are you most proud of and what are the main things you want potential clients/followers/fans to know about you/your brand/your work/ etc.

We have a new website coming out which I’m super excited about because it’s going to showcase the style you see with each of our clients. The site is modern and clean and more importantly they are build to educate and qualify new clients. The most important piece is we are an accessibility-first company, so we have a major focus on universal design and improving the online experience for everyone. Our older work may not reflect it but that’s going to change soon.

I’m really proud of the quality and longevity of all of our websites. We have a client that has been on a care plan for 7 years. We build their websites and it only needed some minor design upgrades to accommodate new content and offers. That’s our goal for each site. It’s not just a great experience now, it’s a high-quality and high-value site that will last a long-time and be profitable for the business it’s built for.

You’ll be able to read about our projects when the new site launches next month because we will have case studies outlining the work and thinking behind each project.

If you’re looking for a web developer who also is easy to talk to and stays in touch, that’s something alot of our clients comment on while reviewing us.

How do websites fit in with social media, SEO and driving traffic and driving conversions?

Websites are the center of your business’s universe online. A website with good content, that’s optimized for conversion and SEO gives you the messaging you need to use to drive qualified traffic to your website. Most people are coming to your website because you have their attention but they’re not ready to buy yet. You need to educate them so they can qualify themselves by understanding who you help and how you help them. We create each page like a sales pitch so that way each potential client feels like you understand them and you can fix their problem. You can set their expectations by explaining the process and most importantly, tell them what to do next once they are ready to get started. You can also offer more value with secondary call-to-actions. All of this content can be used and reused in SEO, social media posts and even paid online advertising to make sure you are reaching the right people and that they are warm enough to buy when you’re on the phone.

Even though we don’t offer social media and advertising, we make sure to connect our clients with the right people who have a similar philosophy, can cooperate (most full-service companies don’t play nice), and apply their specialized skills of knowing how to put this information in front of the right audience.

I like to call it the whirlpool effect. If you are anywhere off the site, you can follow the content back to the website where curious customers become warm leads. It reminds me of the old myspace days where you hear a song you like, so you go to find more music, then you look for concerts, then you find out their tour dates, find their merch and down, down the rabbit hole you go or as I like to call it the whirlpool! I call it the whirlpool because you can get sucked in at any point.

What type of products/services/creative works do you provide?

We are a web studio that provides website, web accessibility and SEO services for business that want to improve the quality of their leads and build a strong foundation for their marketing efforts.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

When I left that first agency. I had bought a minority ownership with my monthly salary and I thought I was a stud. I had done all of these different jobs, I had helped the company grow, who wouldn’t want me??? I found out when I left, we weren’t anywhere as good as we thought we were. It’s not that we were bad, we were just average.

When I moved onto those other jobs, I had to be open to relearning how to do sales, run ad campaigns even do social media. I was really fortunate because the second agency I worked at was more collaborative so I got to learn from the real experts on how to create and optimize very specific ad campaigns. How to build and implement long term SEO strategies that got better results. The biggest thing of all, I had to unlearn vanity metrics. We would always talk in other jobs about reach and clicks. Not there, there I learned how to talk to clients about conversions.

Nowadays, my conversations include us asking clients about sales and working our way backwards to make sure everything is working effectively. I started with things that mattered to an agency in that first job and over time reframed my thinking and understanding to what clients cared about which is sales and how to get there using all the same metrics. It’s helped me and my clients build a better relationship and service them better.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

My favorite book to read and re-read is The Dip by Seth Godin. It works for everything from door-to-door sales to agency life to waking up in the morning. My other favorite for business mindset is ReWork by the guys who created BaseCamp. In a world where people are used to hearing about silicon valley and these insane business strategies, these guys talk about their journey and give advice to the average entrepreneur and business. This book had a lot of advice that I think will stand the test of time.

One I’m reading now, less business and more general business philosophy is Universal Fuel by Mike Killen. I think it really expanded on my belief in business Karma and good people attract good people and why.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://albion.digital/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/albion.digital/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/albion.digital
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/27023640/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/albion_digital

Image Credits
Jake Albion portfolio image Kevin Dame for the dark image with me holding a camera Episode 78 Colorblind By Design is the Design Dominator Podcast I did with Colleen Gratzer about my experience as a colorblind web developer