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Marc Brookland’s journey into entrepreneurship was driven by a firsthand experience of the challenges small business owners face with digital marketing. After witnessing his father’s business suffer due to an SEO agency’s lack of transparency, Marc took matters into his own hands—an experience that ultimately led to the founding of SEO Locale. With a strong commitment to fairness, honesty, and client empowerment, Marc built his company on the foundation of transparency and results-driven strategies. In this interview, he shares the pivotal moments that shaped his entrepreneurial path, the hurdles he overcame to grow his business, and the core values that continue to drive his success.

Thank you for joining us, Marc—your experiences are always so insightful. Let’s start with your entrepreneurial journey. What inspired you to start your business?

My dad owned his own pharmacy in Bensalem. He worked with a “big SEO agency” that wasn’t exactly cheap—they charged him around $1,500 per month. After being in the industry for a bit, my dad asked if I could handle it for him. Of course, I was happy to. He sent his cancellation notice, and about two weeks later, his site disappeared. You could still go to his domain, but it was just a blank white page.

My dad was an older guy, so I assumed he had broken something. He connected me with his former SEO rep, who then explained that my dad never actually owned the design of the website—part of his package involved “renting the assets.” Naturally, my dad had no knowledge of this whatsoever, and what’s even worse is that when he canceled, no one warned him.

You can imagine my reaction and how the rest of that phone call with his former rep went… I was forced to cobble together what was, frankly, a pathetic website, just to get something back online for him. I was lucky to have one of my best friends—and now business partner—fix it all up for me, but most people don’t have that option.

I managed to get his site back up in less than a week. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop many of his keyword rankings from tanking, which really impacted his business. It took some time to regain those rankings, even though the whole situation could have been easily avoided.

That was when I thought to myself, Wow… I can’t imagine how many other small businesses get screwed like this every day.

Thus, SEO Locale was born.

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced when launching your business, and how did you overcome them?

The biggest challenge for me was getting clients. I was only 27 at the time, so I didn’t have a ton of direct relationships with businesses. I couldn’t rely on SEO because it takes time to build up before it starts working effectively. I couldn’t rely on paid ads because I didn’t have the money to spend on them.

I started doing a lot of networking, but even that takes time—referral partners need to really trust you before they start sending business your way. My only option was to start cold-calling people.

I got a scraper that would pull data from Facebook based on specific parameters I set. For example, I’d search for “roofing companies in Philadelphia,” and it would generate a huge list of businesses, including phone numbers, websites, emails, etc. I’m not sure how many businesses I called, but I know it was physically and mentally draining.

Somehow, I managed to sell 14 new clients in 30 days—and I never had to look back at cold outreach again.

Landing those first clients sounds like a real grind, but it’s impressive how you pushed through. Looking back, how do you think your personal background and experiences shaped the way you approach entrepreneurship?

I do my very best to do what’s right. I try to be fair. I try to be honest and transparent. I treat clients the way I would want to be treated. To me, these are simple, foundational values that good parents instill in their children at a young age.
I’m fortunate to have some of the best parents out there—both of whom owned small businesses themselves—and they’ve taught me a lot about how to handle business. That doesn’t mean being a yes man or doing free work, but it does mean understanding the difference between right and wrong. If I feel something is wrong, I speak my mind and stand up for what I believe is right.

It’s great to hear how your upbringing shaped your approach to business—fairness, honesty, and doing what’s right clearly play a big role in how you operate. With that in mind, what are the core values that drive your business, and how do you make sure they’re reflected in your day-to-day operations?

Transparency is one of the most important things to us—especially in an industry where people can’t easily see what you’re doing and often don’t have a strong understanding of it. Since it’s not a tangible product, clients naturally struggle to see and understand what they’re getting.

That’s why we involve our clients in everything we do. We require approvals or simple FYI notices so that, at the very least—whether they care or not—they can see that we’re actively working on their campaign.

In addition, we created an in-house client dashboard that details the progress of each campaign. We show the keywords we’re targeting, how they’ve progressed over time, and integrate Google Analytics to display traffic, conversions—really, whatever information they’d like to see.

Marc’s journey is a testament to the power of resilience, integrity, and transparency in building a successful business. From navigating the challenges of launching SEO Locale to fostering a client-first approach, his story offers valuable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs. His commitment to honesty and fairness has not only shaped his company’s culture but also set a new standard in the digital marketing industry.

Marc, thank you for sharing your insights and experiences with us—it’s been a pleasure learning from your journey!

Marc J. Bernstein JD, ChFC®, CLU®, CAP®

Financial Planner and Consultant, Bestselling Author, and Creator of the Forward Focus Forums

Marc helps high performing entrepreneurs and business owners create a vision for the future, accomplish their business and personal goals, financial and otherwise, and assists them in following through on their intentions.  Marc recently co-founded March, a forward-looking company with a unique approach to wealth management.  He captured his philosophy in his #1 Amazon Bestseller, The Fiscal Therapy Solution 1.0.  Marc is also the founder of the Forward Focus Forum, a suite of resources tailored specifically to educate and connect high performing entrepreneurs, and to help them realize their vision of true financial independence. The forum includes;

• the Founders’ Forward Focus Forum: a series of articles focused on entrepreneurship
• the Founders’ Forum Radio Show and Podcast: featuring interviews with some of the area’s top founders and their experiences in business
• the Manufacturers’ Forward Focus Forum: a specialized resource group for owners/founders of manufacturing companies, including a private Facebook group; a private discussion group for high performing leaders of manufacturing companies to share resources, news, network with each other, and collaborate