We recently had the chance to connect with Matt Smith and have shared our conversation below.
Matt, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What do you think others are secretly struggling with—but never say?
I believe a lot of small business owners are struggling to manage money and make smart money decisions. They are spending on things that aren’t helping to grow their businesses and carrying a ton of debt. They wait too long to make adjustments to their budgets when circumstances change—like when they go through a slow season or market conditions change. Or they don’t have a budget at all. They just spend as they go and hope that their revenues will be enough to cover it.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am the owner of Modmacro, a web design and digital marketing agency that works mainly with small businesses and nonprofits. We help our clients get found online through a combination of search engine optimization (SEO), digital advertising, email marketing, social media marketing, and most recently, answer engine optimization (AEO).
For just about all business types, their first big challenge is marketing—and it’s an ongoing challenge as long as they’re in business. Finding effective ways to continue generating new business and bring in new leads, especially at scale, is something you need to stay on top of, but that’s where we come in. Our company stays up to date on the latest digital marketing tactics and also implements those strategies on behalf of our clients. What we do allows our clients to do what they do best!
One thing that makes us unique is our software development capabilities. Not only have we been able to help our clients with their very specific needs when it comes to customized software, but recently, we have also developed a service that can benefit just about any small business or nonprofit. It’s a system that helps organizations bring in more positive Google reviews. It’s called Moxly, and since its launch, it has been very successful! Moxly clients are seeing a huge increase in the number of five-star reviews they receive.
Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. Who taught you the most about work?
My dad is a great example of someone who always worked hard to support his family. Growing up, we rarely had extra money, but we never went hungry, and my parents were able to do almost everything without going into debt. They paid for me to attend college, and did the same for my sister. Through my dad, I developed a strong work ethic, and learned the benefits of hard work. I started working for his construction company when I was 14 and I’ve been working hard for the three decades since.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Since starting Modmacro in 2010, we’ve certainly had some ups and downs, but I never really considered giving up on the business. We have, however, given up on clients. It happens from time-time. Sometimes, clients just aren’t reasonable and there’s no reason for us to continue working together. We’ve had a few cases when, after many years of successfully working together, clients simply go off the rails. It seems like it’s often triggered by something in their personal lives that causes them pain or frustration, and as a result, they begin expecting unreasonable things from us, or suddenly expect us to provide additional services at no additional cost. We can usually work through odd times like these, but sometimes it’s clear that it’s best to just part ways.
We’ve worked with hundreds of businesses and nonprofits around the county during our time in business, and we’ve only had to let a few clients go in that time. It’s unfortunate when it happens, but we’re interested in maintaining healthy, respectful relationships.
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. Where are smart people getting it totally wrong today?
Right now, we’re seeing a lot of people running as fast as possible to fully embrace AI. We are taking a much more cautious approach to it. Certainly, we can’t put our heads in the sand and pretend it doesn’t exist, but we’re seeing people put a lot of misplaced confidence in this technology. They take what ChatGPT or Gemini tells them as gospel truth and don’t even stop to think that the answers they could be given are wrong.
We’re also starting to see how the use of AI in so many parts of life is really reducing the value that people place on experts, knowledge, and experience. With AI, everything seems like it should be free and easy. I think people really need to stop and think about where we could end up if we continue down this path.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. How do you know when you’re out of your depth?
At Modmacro we’re mindful about staying in our lane. We know what we’re good at, and what we’re not good at. Clients will sometimes ask if we can help them with something specific that we really don’t know much about. In some cases, it makes sense for us to learn new skills, techniques, or technologies to meet their needs, but there are certainly times when we don’t take on a task because it really deserves expertise that we don’t have in-house. Video production is one example of this. On a few occasions, our clients have asked us if we could help them with various types of video content, and we have referred them out to someone else, simply because we don’t have the capabilities in-house.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.modmacro.com/
- Other: https://moxly.us/
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