Today we’d like to introduce you to Danny Gavin.
Danny, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and my parents emigrated to Houston in 1985 when I was an infant, with only a couple thousand dollars in their pockets to provide their children with a better life. I essentially grew up in an immigrant home, learning the values of hard work and striving for excellence.
Being an Orthodox Jew, it’s very common for young men to go to rabbinical school, to either become a Rabbi or at least create the foundation that the rest of your observant life will be built on. For my Rabbinical training, I went back to South Africa for and received my ordination at the end of 2007.
Not wanting to be a full-time Rabbi – I applied and got accepted to the MBA Program at the Bauer Business School, at the University of Houston, There I decided to focus on Marketing and Business Consulting. I took very practical courses where I ended up doing projects for real-life companies, and I even had a Digital Marketing Internship at one of the largest E-commerce companies in Houston.
This opened the door to launch my own consulting business and the formation of Optidge, a full-service Internet Marketing Agency.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The biggest challenge I had in my life was being sent away to an all-boys religious high school in Los Angeles at the age of 14 and leaving the comfort and security of my home and family. The first year was very traumatic, but in the long run, I stuck it out, and I know that it definitely altered my path. It gave me independence and forced me to deal with adversity and change at such a young age.
Being in the digital marketing space, where companies like Google constantly change their criteria on how to rank, the life skills I learned allow me to not only face the daily challenges head on but also mentor my employees on how to keep things in perspective and be successful in a constantly changing environment.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Optidge – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Optidge is an internet marketing agency focused on helping our clients generate and maintain business online. We specialize in search engine optimization; digital advertising through Google, Facebook & LinkedIn; content, social & email marketing, web analytics, and executive education.
I’m most proud of the tangible results that we have been able to accomplish for our clients, as well as the transparency that we offer with all that we do.
What differentiates us from all the other internet marketing agencies out there is the fact that we can provide the level of service that a large agency can give you, however we’re small enough that we pay attention and we’re there to really go into your company and integrate and help you with all of the fine details.
In addition, the fact that I’m able to teach at the University of Houston keeps me up to date with all of the latest and greatest and I’m really able to give that over to my clients.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Until now, I’ve grown very organically; when we do good work for one company another company finds out, and the growth happens exponentially. So right now, I have three full-time employees in the United States, I have a couple of employees in India, and with the success we are experiencing, I see that in the next couple of years we’re going to continue to grow.
We have the challenges of finding new office space and company culture and all those sorts of things, but the beautiful thing is I’ve seen a lot of blessings in what I do, and I think as long as we stay on the path things will grow and we’ll be able to help more people.
Contact Info:
- Address: 7322 Southwest Fwy, Suite 1810
Houston, TX 77074 - Website: https://optidge.com/
- Phone: 832-303-2686
- Email: contact@optidge.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/optidge/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/dannygavin
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