Chris Guillebeau - A Story About Finding the Fortune in Your Own Backyard

Jake, are you there? Did we lose you?

In his mind, Jake Aarons felt fully in control of his life. Not only had he stopped worrying about the highly disturbing emails hed received right before the client meeting, but the problems they referred to didnt exist at all. He imagined a bright future with his girlfriend and a promising career at the agency.

But in the conference room where he sat, situated across from his boss and two seats away from the client who had just signed a major contract, he wasnt paying any attention at all. Even as he daydreamed about an alternate reality, he knew that the one he was suddenly facing was far less desirable. If only he could

Hey, Earth to Jake!

What? Oh... sorry. I was just gathering my thoughts.

He rewound the last few minutes in his mind, switching out of autopilot and willing himself to remember key details. Five people sat staring at him. First, his boss, Jan, who was leading the meeting and trying to get his attention. Next, two representatives of Avery Tech, the client that had hired them. A few seats farther over was Sloan, who carried the honorary title of Chief Asshole Officer. Sloan wasnt aware he held this high honor that Jake had conferred upon him. In his mind he saw himself as Senior Consultant, despite the fact that their agency didnt organize its employees by rank. Finally, next to Sloan sat Preena, a much nicer colleague hed come to consider a friend in the ten months hed been working at Brightside.

And then there was Jake. What was he supposed to do again?

Now he remembered. He was supposed to present his groups ideas to help Avery Tech get out of its rut and go back to making money. Helping businesses make money is what marketers are supposed to do, after all.

Hed been distracted all morning, obsessing over some untimely news hed received, but now it was time to rally. He cleared his throat and looked at the room, making eye contact with Jan and the client reps.

So, uh, I thought wed begin by looking at your social media accounts. I think you can do a lot more with them.

The group waited. What more could they do with them, Jake? Right. He needed to keep going.

We can get into specifics as we go along, but I also wonder if youve thought about reaching out to some of your current customers for feedback. You know, just checking in to see if they have suggestions for improvement.

It was obvious hed already lost them. Thats what happens when you come to a pitch meeting with no ideas.

Jan cut in. Its okay, Jake, Ill take over. Or actually, Sloan, did you have something to present?

Sloan, Chief Asshole Officer, could always be counted on to land self-promotion points.

Absolutely, he said, making sure he caught Jakes eye before continuing. Ive been doing a deep dive into your website analytics and noticed something really interesting. You guys sell memory chips and cards for computers, right?

The client reps perked up.

Well, it looks like most people who land on your site arent actually searching for those things, at least not directly. Theyre searching for phrases like data storage and computer processor. Not only that, but if you separate the people who make purchases from those who just come in and leave, the people who arrive looking for data storage are 26 percent more likely to buy.

Thats really interesting, Client Rep One said, while Rep Two nodded and wrote something down.

But heres the thing, Sloan said. You dont really have a strategy to target people searching for data storage. I think thats where we should start. From there, we can look at retargeting, developing custom upsells, and otherwise extracting more value from all those visitors.

Huh, Rep One said. I dont think we knew anything about that.

The rest of the meeting proceeded from there. Jake went back into wallflower status, Jan ran the show, and Sloan made himself look good. Only Jake knew that this whole deep dive into your website analytics shtick actually came from Preena. She was going to present it when the toss came her way, but Sloan had pushed her aside in the lineup and run with it.

It was that kind of move that had led Jake to confer his honorary title on Sloan. He was always willing to go above and beyond, especially for his own benefit. Always the first to arrive in the morning and the last to leave at night, at least as long as everyone else knew about it.

Unfortunately, in an agency structure it was often those kinds of self-serving behaviors that ended up being rewarded.

As for Jake, he was frequently distracted, but not usually to the point of being such a space cadet. Especially when going into a meeting with clients, his boss, and his adversary, he tried to be prepared. But the fact was that he had a lot on his mind. Something had happened earlier that morning that threw off his balance: Jake had finally gotten around to reading his email from Tuesday.

Reading your Tuesday messages on Friday could be considered a power move for some people. Maybe if you were into that whole dont check email in the morning mindset, and decided to interpret it as dont check email for several days at a time. Alternatively, it could end up getting you fired, or worse.

The first message that caught his attention had an ominous subject line:

Loan Collection Status

The message was from Midland Financial Services, which informed him that it had recently purchased Jakes student loan debt and was now seeking a payment schedule.

Eight years ago, Jake had discovered the miracle of student loans. Its free money from the government! his roommate said with the air of winning the lottery.