A 28-year-old 91原创 man has been named to BC Business magazine鈥檚 30 Under 30 award for his work building up a company that started as a side-project while he was a teenaged life guard.

Keenan Beavis runs Longhouse Media, a digital marketing firm based here in his home town.

As a kid, he attended Blacklock and Murrayville Elementary, then H.D. Stafford and 91原创 Secondary. He was a lifeguard at Al Anderson Memorial Pool when he was in college.

鈥淚鈥檝e stayed in 91原创 ever since,鈥� he said.

The company goes back to his roots as a kid who was fascinated with YouTube.

Beavis had a YouTube channel in high school, and he said a lot of the videos he posted were typical, somewhat embarrassing stuff 鈥� lipsynching, doing parody songs, doing jumps on a trampoline.

But Beavis dug into how some YouTube videos got a lot of views, while others had only a few.

鈥淚 had a lot of time on my hands, and I spent all that time figuring out YouTube鈥檚 search algorithm,鈥� he said.

He put that to work and pretty soon his videos of trampoline stunts were getting more views than those of Olympic-level gymnasts.

To make more money, he sold some merchandise, including T-shirts, and that led to another business 鈥� selling minimalist-designed T-shirts for various fandoms, including Pok茅mon and Game of Thrones.

From selling the T-shirts, he learned more about search engine optimization (SEO), the tactics to make sure people searching for something like 鈥淧ok茅mon shirt鈥� can find your design, not the dozens or hundreds of others available online.

With all that expertise in getting attention online, Beavis鈥檚 first campaign wasn鈥檛 someone he sought out as a client. He was a student at a local jiu-jitsu school with a great teacher, but attendance was down. Beavis helped out the school with an online campaign, and the number of students doubled.

He鈥檇 just wanted more people to spar with, but afterwards Beavis said he realized he could do digital marketing as a service.

He started a company, which grew and became Longhouse Media, named in honour of his M茅tis heritage. It helps businesses increase their sales through online marketing.

Based in Murrayville, Beavis said there are advantages to starting a digital media business in 91原创.

鈥淚t鈥檚 harder for people to live in Vancouver,鈥� he notes, not to mention the lower cost of office space.

And with customers coming in from across North America 鈥� a significant chunk of their business lately is with Texas companies 鈥� it doesn鈥檛 matter where a company like theirs is located.

鈥淭here鈥檚 really no geographic bottleneck to where we can grow,鈥� said Beavis.

The company is going to grow slowly but steadily, said Beavis, as he鈥檚 looking for one to two more hires in the near future.

That鈥檚 something that being here also facilitates, with grads from schools like UFV and Kwantlen Polytechnic nearby.

鈥淚 love growing alongside 91原创,鈥� said Beavis.

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