Born and raised in suburban Chicago, Brendan Egan’s entrepreneurial spirit was alive and well from a young age. At age 10, he went door to door, starting a neighbourhood leaf-raking and snow-shovelling business. But it wasn’t until college that he got his real taste for the business world. In 2009, he launched a digital trading education company, LearnToTrade, which was the highest-rated and most purchased price action trading course on the market. He later sold the company in 2012, a year after graduating from college. We at EliteX, are proud to introduce Brendan Egan as one of the Impactful Tech Leaders to Look Out In 2024.
He also founded Simple SEO Group, which he owns and operates to date.
Simple SEO is a Chicago-based digital marketing agency, offering website design and development, mobile app design and development, digital marketing campaigns (including SEO, PPC, email marketing, CRO, and social media management), and consulting.
I consider myself a serial entrepreneur who focuses on leveraging my experience in development and marketing to create new technologies, disrupt existing industries, and make an impactful change in people’s lives.
-Brendan Egan
He is also the co-founder and CEO of The Marketing Masters, a digital marketing agency offering full-service marketing campaigns.
The Marketing Masters has offices in Chicago and Los Angeles. Through the two agencies, he has worked with over 500 clients, ranging from startups to Fortune 100 companies, and has earned a reputation for delivering results-oriented, ROI-focused campaigns for every client.
He is also a co-founder and Chief Technology and Marketing Officer of Engage, an online platform disrupting the talent and entertainment booking industries as well as NCAA image and likeness management.
The Literary Wizard:
In 2019, he added another feather to his cap by publishing his first book, “101 Tips From The Marketing Masters“, which focuses on providing actionable tips and tricks for businesses looking to improve their digital marketing.
The book quickly became an Amazon #1 Best Seller in the categories of marketing and digital marketing.
In 2021, he co-authored my second book, “The Insecurity of Everything”, which focuses on how the technology revolution has led to a security crisis all around the world.
The Accolades Wizard:
Brendan is the recipient of several accolades and awards for his work in technology and marketing, including being named the Los Angeles Business Journal’s Most Influential Marketing Agency. He has also been featured in Forbes, The Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, and several other national publications. He also serves on the Board of Directors of ERI, the world’s largest cyber security hardware destruction company, and is the chairman of ERI’s technology committee. He also serves on the board of directors of Engage as well as 11 other companies.
The Advent Of A Career In Technology:
Egan’s introduction to the digital marketing and technology space is completely accidental. Several years ago, he owned another small business and he decided that he wanted to market his business online. The company offered consulting and educational services to active traders and investors. Egan contacted several different SEO and online marketing firms over a year, spent thousands upon thousands of dollars, and saw virtually no results.
Despondent with the situation, he decided to learn more about online marketing and SEO on his own. He consulted some of the best minds in the industry, did research for several hours at a stretch, and finally started to run his online marketing campaign. At first, things were a little dawdling, but they eventually picked up steam.
Before he knew it, he found myself training his own team of ten marketing associates on exactly what he was doing, and once they were all on the same page, the results started to really show.
Their sales doubled year over year, their website visitors were up over 1,000%, and the phone was buzzing more than ever. With that Egan knew he had finally mastered online marketing, and what he was doing was at a fraction of the cost of his competitors.
Seeing the progress some of his friends in business asked him about what we did to get so many more clients, and soon contracted Egan and requested with the company to handle online marketing and SEO for their business.
The company grew to a point where they were doing just as much online marketing business as consulting for their main business when he decided to branch off and form another division of the company in which they will work with small and medium-sized businesses on designing, optimizing, and marketing their company websites.
They built our own website and soon after started taking on clients from around the United States.
Today, I still actively manage our client’s websites and online marketing campaigns, which are growing at an exponential rate. As my business grows, I’ve recently taken a bit of a backseat role with operations and have shifted my focus toward mentorship. I take great pride in teaching the next generation the things I have learned over the last fifteen years in the digital marketing and technology spaces. In doing this, I plan to continue to scale and grow my business as well as target a higher-quality client base.
– Brendan Egan
The Advancement Ahead:
According to Egan he anticipates that 2024 will continue to bring forth a wave of transformative changes, just as 2023 did. Technology will continue to drive innovation, reshaping industries and challenging the status quo, as artificial intelligence, data analytics, and automation will become even more integral, revolutionizing how businesses operate and interact with their customers.
According to his opinion successful leaders in the industry who recognize the potential of AI, specifically, and invest in its integration will gain a competitive edge. AI-driven insights will allow businesses to understand customer behaviour on a profound level, enabling personalized marketing strategies and enhancing customer experiences. Automation powered by AI will streamline operations, leading to increased efficiency and reduced costs.
As far as Simple SEO Group is concerned, we have leveraged AI in our agency, not to perform client work, as that is a sure-fire way to a penalty and lower rankings on Google, but to calculate what Google wants you to be doing and what signals are most important on a client-by-client basis.
– Brendan Egan
The Efficacious Entreprenuer:
Egan’s most recent venture, Apollo Automation, is a project focused on revolutionizing manufacturing processes through advanced automation technologies. The team has developed a state-of-the-art robotic system that seamlessly integrates with existing industrial setups, enhancing efficiency and productivity manifold. By employing machine learning algorithms, these robots are enabled to adapt and optimize their tasks based on real-time data, significantly reducing production errors and downtime.
Moreover, the company has collaborated on an IIOT project aimed at creating intelligent, interconnected systems for predictive maintenance in industrial equipment. By leveraging IIOT devices and data analytics, they have transformed traditional factories into smart, data-driven facilities.
This initiative not only streamlined operations but also paved the way for predictive maintenance, allowing businesses to address potential issues before they escalate, thereby minimizing disruptions and maximizing operational uptime.
The above two projects showcase the transformative power of Apollo Automation’s technologies, underscoring our commitment to driving substantial impact in the tech world.
– Brendan Egan
The Visionary Leader:
Egan’s vision for continuous growth as a leader revolves around a combination of innovation, education, and a relentless pursuit of entrepreneurship.
For Simple SEO Group, he aims to foster a culture of continuous learning and adaptation. Embracing emerging SEO strategies, digital marketing trends, and web/app technologies is crucial. The company plans to continue investing in exploring advanced SEO techniques and data analytics to provide its clients with cutting-edge solutions designed for an ever-changing technological landscape.
As an entrepreneur at heart, he plans to continue growing their enterprise and learning from other great mentors and colleagues along the way. Egan has discovered that the most integral aspect of starting and growing a new business is the presence of like-minded and driven individuals working cohesively. In the coming year, the company plans to continue growing its current businesses as well as seeking out opportunities that align with its goals and values.
Regardless of your personal or political beliefs, everyone wants the earth to be the best place it can be for today’s generation and all generations to come. Technology needs to evolve so that we can be good stewards to the only planet we can currently call home.
-Brendan Egan