How I went from doing CPR and reviving patients to “reviving ” online businesses…

“Hurry… we have to catch the bus…”

My wife (who was 5 months pregnant at that time) told me as we’ve realized that we had to run and catch the Go Bus Transit to Mississauga.

We’ve just realized that if you’re late even for a few minutes and missed the bus, you’ll probably wait for another 30 mins or more for the next bus…

We were just learning about these things, the hard way…

You see, we were NEW to Canada as we immigrated from the Philippines way back in May 2010…

And just like most newcomers here, we were trying to learn how “everything works” and figuring out our day-to-day activities…

And that’s while looking for a job, expecting our 1st baby in the next 4 months, and basically establishing our family here…

To get things in perspective, I’ve worked as an ER nurse in the Philippines for almost 2+ years, and have taught Nursing subjects in a Nursing College for 4+ years.

I remember that during my days as an ER nurse, I would take care of adult patients who are either having a myocardial infarction (heart attack) or any acute conditions requiring emergency care.

I’ve revived several patients with CPR(cardio-pulmonary resuscitation) and it was one of the most satisfying experiences in my nursing career: seeing patients get revived and get another chance in life…

So I thought that looking for a job related to nursing would be easy (I wasn’t a registered nurse yet in Ontario, as I was waiting for my education and credentials assessment from the Board of Nursing)...

But I was wrong.

Looking for a job related to nursing either requires a Canadian experience or a related job that requires license. I knew I wouldn’t be able to find a job within a few months if I needed to “study and pass” exams first before I get a license.

And with my growing family along the way, I knew I needed to look for a source of income… fast…

So I looked at what skills and knowledge I currently have. Then I also looked at the demand at the current marketplace…

I didn’t want to find just a “survival” job… So I thought to myself, maybe I could try another career in a different field…

Something that I’m interested and passionate about…

I did find it in the “digital marketing industry”…

I was able to found out that SEO or Search Engine Optimization was an in-demand skill and knowledge here in North America…

If you’re not familiar about it, it’s how you “optimize” your website so that it shows to the top of the search results.

When people “search online”, they’ll visit your site because your website is showing on the first page of results…

So how did I learn SEO?

It was actually an accident.

When I was teaching nursing back in the Philippines, I created a FREE website at blogger.com and just started blogging and sharing this website with others (my students, peers and other people).

I didn’t really knew what SEO was or what “I was doing” to optimize it…

I wasn’t after “LINKS”, all I did was create and write content and then REACHED out to others that I knew would benefit from it and ask them if this would be a great resource for them.

And unexpectedly, they did find it useful. Others, including my students and peers started visiting it and sharing it with others…

This was my very first website.

And then something happened after a few months. I noticed that I started to get more people visiting the website.

I didn’t know where they were coming from. I thought it was just “my friends and students”.

But one day, I saw over 1,000+ visits to the site in a day.

I don’t have that much students and peers.

Something “must have happened”.

I later figured out that I started to get traffic from google.com, google.ca, google.com.ph, etc and that people were coming from the “search engines”…

What had happened?

Back at that time, it ranked for a lot of highly competitive terms in Nursing including the term “Nursing lectures”…

And when I applied for a job in the Digital Marketing Industry as an SEO professional, all I did was to show them my results..

How my FREE blogger website was sitting on the #1 spot for the lucrative term “Nursing Lectures”…

And the rest was history.

Since then, I’ve loved this industry and have never looked back.

What started out as an accident for me became a lifelong career and passion.

I’ve learned a lot and have continued to “hunger for knowledge” as the industry evolved.

I continued to advanced my skills and knowledge to include not only SEO, but also PPC, CRO, Email Marketing and lately Sales Funnels.

I’m now a certified Google Adwords Professional, Conversion Rate Optimizer by ConversionXL, Conversion Marketing Certified by Leadpages and Email Marketing Automation Certified by Drip.

I’ve also published numerous industry articles published on Search Engine Journal, Moz, Serpstat and have spoken in numerous meetups and events sharing my knowledge and expertise.

I’ve been blessed to have worked with dozens of clients in numerous verticals in different industries (Real Estate, Fitness, eCommerce, Local Businesses, Photographers, Dentists, Chiropractors, Shipping companies, etc) and have also built my own multi 6-figures online businesses.

If you’re thinking of diving into the world of Digital Marketing, be prepared to be challenged, inspired, motivated and most of all be changed.

This is my journey from Nurse to Digital Entrepreneur. If you want to follow my updates and progress, follow me on these social networks:

Facebook — My Official Fanpage
Instagram — My “Behind-the-scenes” updates
Twitter — My 140 Character updates
Trafficsalad — My Digital Marketing Blog
My Personal Blog

How about you? I’d love to hear your story. Let me know in the comments below.