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A few years ago, someone posted a rant about my company BlitzMetrics on Reddit. The post said I was running a scam, tricking job applicants into doing free work. It got traction. People were chiming in saying things like “yep, that’s a con for sure” and “you should always get paid for your work.”
If you didn’t know anything about me or my company, you’d probably believe it.
The Reddit attack
The poster was using the name “Mr. Miracle.” I decided to look into who this person actually was.
His real name was John Grillo. He had applied for a position at BlitzMetrics through a job site called Startuply.
As part of our hiring process, I asked him to spend 15 minutes looking over some of our materials and writing a short note on how to measure ROI on Facebook. Nothing crazy. Just a way to see if someone is genuinely interested in the space before we bring them in for an interview.
John refused. He said he doesn’t do free labor, and that our process was a way to trick people into giving us free work.
He then went on Reddit and posted his rant warning everyone to stay away from BlitzMetrics.
Then we Googled him
So I Googled him.
What I found stopped me cold. John Grillo from Hillsboro, Oregon had pled guilty to killing his own brother. He had agreed to a plea deal for what he claimed was an accidental stabbing. He had to live with that for the rest of his life.
The irony of a self-proclaimed SEO expert
And here’s the irony. On his personal website, John Grillo calls himself an SEO expert. But when you search his name, the first things that come up are the court records and the Reddit posts.
If he were really an SEO expert, he would have cleaned that up.
Why I still feel empathy
I’m not sharing this story to pile on. I actually feel empathy for the guy. When you go one step beyond someone’s aggression, you’ll always find pain. In John’s case, he couldn’t find a job. Everywhere he went, he got turned down. We were just the next person in line that he was going to take his anger out on.
The reputation management lesson
And that’s the key thing I’ve learned about reputation management. The majority of people who are non-hirable are sending out 80 or 90 percent of the job applications out there. There are a lot of great people out there. Most people are good people. But all it takes is a couple of people like this, and because they can’t get jobs, because they’re in trouble, that 1 percent will feel like 80 percent.
Don’t take it personally. Understand where it’s coming from. And keep building your reputation through the work you do, not by trying to convince the haters.
People who are the exact opposite of what they claim to be
John Grillo isn’t the only person I’ve dealt with who turned out to be the exact opposite of what they claimed. Over the years, I’ve documented several cases of people who misrepresented themselves, stole from partners, or scammed clients while projecting expertise and success online.
How Tristan Parmley Ripped Me Off— I installed a promising young adult as CEO of our agency. He locked me out of the accounts, renamed everything under his new company, stole $20K in equipment, and declared he built a 7-figure agency overnight. All with our clients, our systems, and our money.
Why I’m Relentless About Exposing Josh Crouch— Josh Crouch of Relentless Digital took $25,000 from a plumber named Matt Howard, failed to deliver, and then threatened me when I published the audit. His only defense was linking to a 17-year-old blog post about me.
Lane Houk and the Signal Genesys Scam— I paid Lane Houk $10,500 for SEO software that never delivered a single indexed page. When I asked for a refund, he ghosted me, then started spreading lies about our apprenticeship program.
Brandon DeBoer: My $2,500 Lesson— Brandon took $2,500 to build a Google Knowledge Panel and Wikipedia page. After 97 follow-up attempts, he blocked me on Instagram. At least five other victims have come forward with the same story.
The pattern is always the same. They take the money, fail to deliver, and when you call them out, they attack you instead of making things right.
Dennis Yu
Dennis Yu is the CEO of Local Service Spotlight, a platform that amplifies the reputations of contractors and local service businesses using the Content Factory process. He is a former search engine engineer who has spent a billion dollars on Google and Facebook ads for Nike, Quiznos, Ashley Furniture, Red Bull, State Farm, and other brands.
Dennis has achieved 25% of his goal of creating a million digital marketing jobs by partnering with universities, professional organizations, and agencies. Through Local Service Spotlight, he teaches the Dollar a Day strategy and Content Factory training to help local service businesses enhance their existing local reputation and make the phone ring.
Dennis coaches young adult agency owners serving plumbers, AC technicians, landscapers, roofers, electricians, and believes there should be a standard in measuring local marketing efforts, much like doctors and plumbers must be certified.