I’ve been doing this job for 11 years and people still ask me if I do social media.
My mom thinks I “fix websites.” My friends think I work for Google. And at every family dinner, someone eventually asks me to explain what I actually do for a living.
So this one’s for them. And honestly, for anyone who has ever wondered why some businesses seem to just show up everywhere online without paying for ads.
The answer is organic growth. And it’s the whole reason I do what I do.
Let Me Start at the Beginning
In 2013 I was dispatching tow trucks. Long hours, low pay, a workplace that made my stomach drop every morning when I walked through the door.
I knew I needed out. So I started poking around online, looking for ways to make money differently. And I noticed something that I couldn’t stop thinking about.
Some websites just showed up. For free.
I’d type something into Google and the same sites kept appearing at the top. No ads. No sponsored labels. Just there. And people were clicking on them by the thousands.
I needed to know how that worked.
That was it. That was the whole origin of my career. I chased the free traffic. I taught myself SEO. And I never looked back.
So What Is Organic Growth, Actually?
Here’s the plain version.
Organic growth means people find your business without you paying for the click. They searched for something, your website showed up, they clicked. No ad spend. No boosted posts. No cost per click.
It’s your business showing up because Google (or Bing, or now AI tools) decided you were the best answer to someone’s question.
That’s it. That’s the whole concept.
The opposite is paid traffic. You’ve seen those “Sponsored” labels at the top of Google search results. Those businesses paid for that spot. The second they stop paying, they disappear.
Organic doesn’t work that way.
A blog post I write for a client today can still be bringing in new customers three years from now. A Google Ad I run today stops the second I pause the budget.
Paid traffic is renting. Organic growth is owning.
Why I Became Obsessed With It
When I figured out that you could actually engineer which websites showed up in search results, I lost my mind a little.
This was a learnable skill. A system. And once you understood how it worked, you could use it to help businesses get found without spending a dollar on ads.
I self-taught. I tested. I failed a lot. I learned what worked.
Eventually, I started doing it professionally. And for the last four-plus years, I’ve been specializing in it for cannabis businesses specifically, which is its own whole thing because cannabis companies basically can’t run traditional ads. Most ad platforms won’t touch them.
So for my clients, organic growth isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s everything. It’s the only real play they have to get found online.
That’s what happens when you work in an industry that’s forced to do SEO right. You get really good at it.
Here’s Where It Gets Really Interesting
When I started in 2013, organic growth meant showing up on Google.
That’s still true. But now there’s a whole new playing field.
People aren’t just typing into Google anymore. They’re asking ChatGPT. They’re using Perplexity. They’re asking Claude (my favorite). And those AI tools are answering in full sentences, recommending businesses, naming brands, giving directions.
Someone in your city might right now be asking an AI tool “what’s the best dispensary near me” or “who’s a good SEO consultant in Michigan.” And something is getting mentioned in that answer.
The question is whether it’s you or your competitor.
This is the newest version of the same game I’ve been playing since 2013. It’s still organic. Nobody paid to be mentioned in that AI response. The AI pulled from everything it learned about the web and made a judgment call.
Which means the work of building organic visibility now has to cover two fronts: traditional search AND AI tools.
Here’s my brutally honest take: most businesses haven’t even started thinking about the AI side yet. Which means right now is the best possible time to get ahead of it.
What Organic Growth Actually Requires
I’m not going to sugarcoat it. Organic growth takes time.
It’s not a switch you flip. It’s a foundation you build. You create content that answers real questions. You build authority in your space. You make sure your website is set up so search engines and AI tools can actually understand and trust it.
But here’s the thing. Once it’s working, it keeps working.
I have clients who get thousands of visits a month to pages we built years ago. That traffic didn’t cost them anything last month. It’s the compound interest of the work we did upfront.
Paid ads don’t do that. The moment you stop paying, the traffic stops. Full stop.
Why I Still Love This Work
I’ve been feeding the algorithm since 1996. I was that kid obsessed with AOL, convinced the internet was going to change everything.
Turns out I was right.
The thing that gets me out of bed is that organic growth is the great equalizer. A small business with a smart SEO strategy can show up right next to a massive competitor. You don’t need the biggest ad budget. You need the best answer.
That’s a game I want to play.
So when my family asks what I do at dinner, here’s the short version: I help businesses show up for free in the places people are looking. Google, AI tools, all of it.
I help them own their traffic rather than rent it.
That’s organic growth. And it’s the only kind worth chasing.
Want to talk about what organic growth could look like for your business? Book a free call here.
