We had the good fortune of connecting with Gail Menasco and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gail, how do you think about risk?
A few of my hobbies have included skydiving, shark diving, black water diving, and paragliding… so naturally, people see me as a risk-taker. I see myself as a conservative risk taker. Whatever I want to learn, I dive deep into that learning, find mentors, enroll in multiple courses and work to be as safe as I can be while experiencing life in a whole new way.

How I lead my life personally, has helped me professionally by helping me have a mindset ready for adventure instead of fear. Deciding to go out on my own to form my own SEO and content strategy agency in some ways was a risky move… but in reality, it was a calculated risk. I had the know-how, I believed in myself, and poured myself into my work and clients allowing for my business to succeed.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I run an SEO consulting firm, Menasco Consulting, which focuses on helping mid-size businesses understand the language of the searcher, search trends, and seasonality that help inform a content strategy that dovetails with a solid technical foundation.

Working with Enterprise companies and multiple agencies in the past gave me experience with different types of sites, search data analysis, data visualization and I’ve always been a curious person which also led me down a technical SEO rabbit hole. Essentially any business that wants to be found online needs to have a solid technical foundation, understand what the searcher wants and have a content strategy in place to drive organic visibility that can potentially dovetail with a paid strategy.

The clients that have invested in a knowledgeable dev team are the clients that have succeeded the most when it comes to organic visibility and increasing conversions. The clients that have skimped on dev resources have suffered the most.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Depends on the area. If we were in SoCal, I would relive one of my favorite weekends with a great girlfriend by hitting up Republique for brunch then head up to Santa Barbara to Uncorked for dinner and wine. The following morning, I would head to Ventura for an early departure to the Channel Islands aboard the Spectre for a day full of diving in the kelp forests. The next day, I’d head out to Deep Creek hot springs for a nice hike in, soak, and good conversation.

If in Oregon, we would start the day in Bend, Oregon at Chow for breakfast, then head up to hosmer lake for a stand up paddle session (along with a lakeside picnic), then on the way down we would take a detour to Tumalo Falls then hit up Spork for dinner, then drive out east to watch an epic sunset over the mountains and finish the day with stargazing under Oregon dark skies by a crackling fire.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Shout out to Opportunity Knocks. It’s a local business mentorship group that helped me work through some sticky points with my business to help give me the mindset I was looking for.

Website: https://menascoconsulting.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/experiencespodcast/?hl=en

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gaillovelacemenasco

Other: My Podcast site – Experiences You Should Have https://experiencesyoushouldhave.com/ Podcast Episodes – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/experiences-you-should-have/id1306204026

Image Credits
Luke Menasco

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutSocal is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.