Dave Burnett is the founder of AOK Marketing and author of From Bricks to Clicks. In this episode of Drop The Mic, Jason sits down with Dave to unpack how one massive SEO experiment—building 500 websites—turned a struggling promo business into a digital marketing powerhouse.
From his dorm room startup days to landing major clients like Bacardi and Labatt, Dave shares the lessons learned through surviving the 2008 recession, scaling with smart SEO, and now embracing AI tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Sora to drive real business results.
Jason and Dave dive deep into:
🔍 The experiment that taught him SEO (and still works today)
🤖 How AI tools are shaping the future of agency work
📈 Whether SEO is really dead—or just evolving into AEO
💡 Why brand identity still needs human creativity
💥 Real advice for founders scaling in a fragmented digital world
Whether you're building a brand, running ads, or figuring out your AI stack, this episode is full of insights for marketers who want to grow faster without burning out.
[00:00] – From Scarborough hustle to digital marketing
[02:03] – Building a promo biz in a dorm room
[06:18] – Surviving recessions with SEO
[10:05] – Launching AOK Marketing
[14:23] – Lessons from partnerships & pivots
[19:01] – How AI is changing content & creativity
[24:48] – Sora, Suno, Midjourney, and Dave’s AI toolkit
[30:02] – Is SEO dead? Enter AEO
[34:02] – Future of agencies in the AI era
[38:11] – Where to find From Bricks to Clicks
🌐 Website: https://jayhunt.social
📺 YouTube: @jayhuntofficial