Donovan J. Greening is a passionate advocate for the power of search engine optimization, also known as SEO, and it’s clear in just a few seconds of speaking with him that he has experience far beyond his years. While he is enthusiastic about sharing his expertise, he understands how to strike the right balance as a consultant using plenty of analogies to ensure his clients are always on the same page with him.
This is part of why Donovan has achieved so much success in such a short amount of time – he understands that people investing in digital marketing want clear explanations, honesty, and approachability, as well as sincere value. Donovan’s genuine passion for the industry makes it easy for him to get clients excited about what the power of SEO and digital marketing can do for them.
Donovan J. Greening was born on December 11th, 1997 in Farmington Hills Michigan. He is an Entrepreneur since he was 15 years old. At only 22 years of age, Greening is juggling being a full-time college student, an entrepreneur and a digital marketing consultant. Being a serial entrepreneur since the age of 15, Donovan has consolidated his efforts into one company we know today as Greening Corporation United which focuses all of its efforts on Digital Marketing and the real science of SEO. In 2017 he assisted his clients in generating millions in new revenue in new cases as well as supporting law firms helping those with class-action lawsuits for lung cancer and mesothelioma victims.
As a senior at Bowling Green State University, Donovan is majoring in Political science. He went to Brother Rice High School where he grew up in Farmington Hills, Michigan, and started two online companies while he was still in high school.
Donovan got his start in digital media via his YouTube channel XVSound, where he would take music from obscure artists that weren’t very popular and create a visual accompaniment to them. When the channel started to blow up, Donovan realised that he had a potential business on his hands, and the rest is history. That channel now has more than 12,000 subscribers and over 5.1 million views.
This eventually developed into the brand XVTech, which has a focus on social media marketing and cutting edge web design. Upon starting this business, Greening used his talents to turn around the fortunes of 3 local businesses including a gym and a juice shop.
His next big client was a seller of hydroponic lighting for indoor agricultural projects in Warren, Michigan. He helped the company create a flashy new website and streamlined e-commerce system that, combined with a shipping and logistics system map, made their business incredibly more efficient.
In just 2 months following his work, the company has turned over $600,000 in revenue following the launch of the new website. For Greening this was the first big milestone that showed him “OK, I can actually help people make some serious cash.”
At that point Greening applied to BGSU because he wanted to study somewhere that wasn’t too far from home, and that didn’t have too many distractions surrounding it. There’s no doubt that Greening’s decision to attend BGSU has influenced his ability to run 2 businesses at the same time.
Upon his arrival at College, Greening was determined to learn more about digital marketing so that he could leverage this knowledge on behalf of his clients. As a result, Greening is now considered a specialist in search engine optimization, web design, public relations and content creation for large corporations like law or financial firms.
One of Greening’s proudest achievements comes from helping his client Goldberg, Persky and White P.C., a legal firm that specialized in getting compensation for victims of asbestos poisoning and mesothelioma. At just 19 he was working alongside one of the firm’s managing partners.
The firm had never had any major experience with advertising other than a few TV spots, and Greening admits that the partner he worked under (Lane Clack) was difficult to impress, but eventually paid off when he was able to help the firm get to the top spots in Google search.
Greening provided a comprehensive, full-service digital marketing package to the law firm and, with a new website, was able to achieve outstanding success and bring a new wave of attention to the compensation cases the firm was taking on. Since then, the relationship has grown and now Greening is heading the digital marketing for their national expansion into other states.
Greening admits that he frequently reflects on the fact that he basically has two identities, one as a student and one as a businessman. Acknowledging the difficulty of balancing full-time study and managing a business, Greening jokes that he often needs to change from fully professional consultant to laidback student at different times of the day, depending on who he’s talking to.
However, Greening’s hard work has alienated him somewhat from his peers on campus, who don’t seem to understand why he doesn’t have as much time for partying as they do. Instead of delaying his career until after his studies, Greening seized an opportunity and developed it without hesitation, allowing him to enjoy the rewards that follow.
Greening is a strong advocate of SEO and how it can transform the fortunes of a business when they feel like all other options were exhausted. He knows the value that being on the first page of Google for a single keyword can have for many businesses, especially law firms where attracting a few high profile cases is all they need to turn a profit.
At this time, Greening is expanding to help even more law firms achieve the top ranking in their state and their practice area. He knows that websites need to be designed with SEO in mind from the ground up so they can maximize their visibility, and subsequently, their profitability.
Greening’s long-term goal is to manage a small and versatile firm that allows him to work with some of the world’s leading brands, while also giving something back to the community and brining value to people’s lives at the same time. Greening has already had a taste of this working with law firms that specialize in getting compensation for victims, so it’s only natural that he would want to continue doing work that has a real world positive impact.
Greening is still in the midst of his studies and is using his time to network and make future business connections. These connections are only going to help Greening skyrocket the growth of his businesses and his personal growth as a person.
One of Greening’s professors, Dr. Gene Poor, has said that “He’s aggressive, passionate, persistent and full of energy.”
Greening’s ongoing goal is to, by example, show his peers that it’s more than possible to run a successful business at a young age, and that all it requires in sincere passion and hard work. He has said that it would be great if his story could help make BGSU the #1 place for entrepreneurs to study in the mid-west United States.
