USA Today is featuring an article about the man I call "fearless leader" - Danny Sullivan. A quick excerpt:

Sullivan, 40, says he shares common roots with employees at Google and Yahoo, even though he works thousands of miles away. He recalled his life over a lunch of soup and crisps (potato chips) at a small pub on a tiny, lush country lane with lots of sheep and barely enough room for one car.

He was born and raised in Newport Beach, Calif. After graduating from the University of California, Irvine, he spent a year in England, where he was hired by the BBC to type articles for reporters.

He met his future wife, Lorna, at the BBC. They married and moved back to California, where Sullivan worked at the Los Angeles Times and The Orange County Register in their graphics departments.

Then search came into his life. At the time, a friend had put up a website and couldn't make sense of how to be found in search listings. Sullivan tried to help him and was so successful, he went to work with his friend helping others with their sites.

Overall, the article does a good job of giving a background on Danny, and, as is typical of Danny - he underplays his importance with the humility and goodwill that has become his trademark.

I actually spent quite a bit of time on the phone with Mr. Graham, who authored the piece. We talked about what Danny's done for the industry (legitimized it), what his ambitions are (my opinion is that he wants to make the life of people on all sides of the search industry easier) and my personal feelings about him (I believe I said "Danny's a hero to me, but don't write that - I'll never live it down"). Well, no more secrets for me.

What I think is so incredible about Danny is his amazing ability to be down-to-earth. In a recent conversation, we spent almost an hour talking about making the decision to get married. Danny approached that topic with the same logic, empathy and tact that he does when talking about the latest Google foible. Unlike so many people in the business world, there's nothing two-faced about him - what you see is what you get, no matter the topic or the crowd.

I'm proud to say that Danny is the representative of my industry, proud to know him and grateful for his leadership. Without him, I think that the world of search marketing would be vastly changed for the worse. Danny's actually more than just a hero to me - he's a role model, someone I aspire to be. Let's just hope he doesn't read this post before I see him on Friday or I'll be blushing like a school girl.

Danny, Mystery Guest & I in Seattle earlier this Spring

p.s. At the last minute before publication, Mr. Graham rung me up to put together the 3 "ways to attract attention" in the left sidebar. I was a bit on the spot and didn't give the best responses I could have, particularly on the URL issue, which I think should probably have been replaced with a note about accessibility or crawler-friendliness. Ah, well - such is the price of deadlines.