The Woman Who Taught Me to Think Like an Entrepreneur

Sixteen years ago, I was the new guy at Whitepages, trying to figure out search marketing in a city where I barely knew anyone. That's when I discovered the Seattle search community—a scrappy group of SEM specialists who met monthly to share war stories about Google's latest algorithm changes and compare notes on what was actually working versus what the industry blogs claimed was working.

That's where I met Susan Urban.

I was intimidated by most of the group initially. These were people who'd been doing search marketing since before it had a proper name, who'd survived multiple Google apocalypses and built real businesses around something most people still thought was either magic or a scam. But Susan was different. She didn't just share tactics—she shared thinking. She'd break down complex problems in ways that made you smarter about the fundamentals, not just the latest trick.

What started as monthly meetups of the group we'd eventually rename the Seattle Search Insiders became a decade-plus education in what fearless expertise actually looks like in practice.

The Master Class in Pattern Recognition

Susan Urban has been doing SEO for 24 years, which in internet time makes her practically ancient. She launched Urban SEO LLC in 2006 and built it into the kind of consultancy that attracts clients like Google, Oracle, AT&T, and Smartsheet—companies that don't hire consultants who might embarrass them.

But here's what made Susan different from every other marketing expert in those early Seattle Search Insiders meetings: she never pretended complexity was simple, but she never let complexity become an excuse for paralysis.

When Google would inevitably break something fundamental—like suddenly removing keyword forecasting data from their API with zero notice—most of us would complain about it over drinks. Susan would disappear for a weekend and emerge with a workaround that was often better than the original tool.

I watched her do this pattern over and over through the years. Google would sunset some critical function. Other consultants would panic or pivot to whatever Google wanted them to use. Susan would reverse-engineer the problem, find the backdoor, and keep delivering results while everyone else was still processing the change.

That approach to problem-solving—refusing to accept "that's just how it is"—became the foundation of everything I'd eventually build.

The Long Education

Those monthly Seattle Search Insiders meetings became my MBA in strategic thinking. While other people networked, Susan taught. Not in some formal way, but by consistently asking the questions that mattered: "What's the actual mechanism? Where's the data? What happens when everyone else figures this out?"

She taught me to think in systems, not tactics. To look for the underlying patterns that create lasting advantage rather than chasing whatever was working this week. When AI started reshaping search years later, she didn't panic about the death of SEO—she pioneered AIO (AI search optimization) and started building new frameworks before most people even understood what was happening.

The marketing world is full of people selling magic bullets and miracle frameworks. Susan never played that game. When I'd get excited about some new tactic or trendy approach, she'd cut through the hype with surgical precision. Not to be discouraging, but to push toward something more durable.

The real lesson wasn't about staying ahead of trends. It was about building the kind of deep expertise that lets you adapt to anything. Susan showed me that true confidence comes from understanding principles so thoroughly that you can navigate any change, no matter how disruptive.

The Permission to Think Bigger

Somewhere around year six or seven of our professional friendship, I was complaining about some client who wanted unrealistic results on an impossible timeline. We were grabbing coffee after one of our group meetings, and Susan listened for about thirty seconds, then said something like: "You know you don't have to take projects from people who don't understand value, right? You're smart enough to build something they can't live without instead of constantly explaining why their bad ideas won't work."

It sounds simple, but for someone who'd spent years in reactive client mode, it was revolutionary. Susan wasn't just talking about raising rates or being more selective. She was talking about shifting from responding to demand to creating it. From solving other people's problems to building solutions that solved problems people didn't even know they had.

That conversation planted the seed that would eventually become COS—the Communications Optimization System I'm launching this year. The integration of personality psychology with engagement science, the systematic approach to measuring communication effectiveness, the belief that persuasion can be both ethical and powerful—all of that traces back to Susan's influence and those years of watching her turn industry obstacles into competitive advantages.

The Text Exchange Education

Even now, our text exchanges read like masterclasses in strategic thinking. Susan will drop a seemingly casual observation about some Google algorithm change, and two sentences later I'll realize she's identified a pattern that's going to reshape how we think about search for the next five years.

Just last year, she was texting about needing co-occurrence and co-citation analysis tools that didn't actually exist in any meaningful way. While most people saw a gap in the market, Susan saw it as an opportunity to build something better. That's the kind of thinking that creates entrepreneurs rather than just successful consultants.

The way she approached Google's constant API changes taught me how to think about platform risk in general. Her refusal to accept industry conventional wisdom showed me how to question fundamental assumptions. Her ability to see patterns across seemingly unrelated problems became my template for systems thinking.

The Ripple Effects in Action

Having just launched COS, Susan's influence is embedded in every framework. The obsession with measurable results over marketing theater? That's pure Susan Urban. The integration of psychological research with practical strategy? She taught me to respect both the science and the craft. The belief that communication problems always have systematic solutions if you're willing to dig deep enough? I learned that from watching her turn Google's obstacles into competitive advantages for over a decade.

But the deeper lesson was about what it means to build something that lasts. Susan didn't just adapt to changes in her industry—she helped define what the next evolution looked like. She didn't just survive disruption—she used it to create new forms of value that didn't exist before.

Most importantly, she demonstrated that you could be intellectually uncompromising without being personally brutal. Susan would eviscerate bad ideas while supporting the people who had them. She'd deliver hard truths wrapped in better solutions. She proved that clarity and kindness weren't opposites—they were multipliers.

From Search Insiders to Systems Thinking

Looking back, those Seattle Search Insiders meetings were where I learned that the difference between tactics and strategy isn't just about time horizon—it's about depth of understanding. Susan never just shared what was working; she shared why it was working and what would happen when it stopped working.

She showed me that true expertise isn't about having all the answers—it's about developing the systematic thinking that lets you find the right answers faster than anyone else. That the best way to predict the future isn't to read more industry blogs, but to understand the fundamental forces at work well enough to see where they're heading.

That systematic approach to problem-solving, learned over years of monthly meetings and countless text exchanges about Google's latest attempts to make our jobs impossible, became the foundation for everything I'd eventually build.

Thank You, Susan

Susan Urban gave me something more valuable than career advice or technical training. She gave me permission to think like someone who builds solutions rather than just implements them. She showed me what fearless expertise looks like in practice and proved that you can be both intellectually rigorous and strategically audacious.

The woman who taught me to turn Google's obstacles into competitive advantages also taught me that the best way to predict the future is to build it yourself. The friend who spent over a decade answering my random questions about search marketing also showed me that true mentorship isn't about formal programs—it's about consistently elevating the thinking of everyone around you.

Today, as we celebrate International Women's Day, I'm thinking about all the Susan Urbans out there—the women who don't just break glass ceilings but rebuild the entire architecture. Who don't just adapt to change but use it as raw material for innovation. Who don't just succeed in their fields but fundamentally redefine what success looks like.

And who show up to monthly meetups with insights that change how everyone else thinks about their work.

Thank you, Susan, for sixteen years of making me think deeper and aim higher. The ripple effects are still spreading.