His favorite food is ... Impossible to answer or name one thing. I love food, cooking and sitting with good company at the dining table for hours. I eat almost anything, but I hate bananas. Friends of ours had moved to Malta the year before and really liked it. We thought it was a good place to check out because of the English language and also because it was an EU country, so we were allowed to work. And it has a nice climate. We arrived in June 2014. We both started in hospitality. I had no ambition to work in the gambling industry. But in 2017, while my partner was pregnant, I was made redundant. I was working as a warehouse manager at the time. Via my brother, who had also moved to Malta by then, I had an opportunity to take a link-building job. I had no idea what link building or SEO was, but I was assured that it wasn’t difficult and the money was good, so I took the opportunity. Actually, it’s a funny story. I came to the office for what I thought was an interview, but instead they said “here is your desk” and I started that day. The training went smoothly and, in a week, I had almost reached the target for the whole month. About two weeks later, the manager had resigned and the boss came to me and asked if I wanted the job. So, within a month on the job I was all of a sudden responsible for link building in four markets and a team of five link builders. That jump started my career in SEO. During my studies, I had an aversion toward marketing. I never really liked “creating a need.” I had done telemarketing in my early 20s and was always annoyed by commercials on TV and radio. That was my view of marketing. But when I learned about SEO, I instantly loved it. It’s dealing with people that are already motivated and trying to search for what they want. It’s language, communication, psychology, user experience, PR and, on top of that, the cat and mouse game with Google. I started reading all the blogs and spent hours on YouTube and pretty quickly I taught myself as much as I could about on-page SEO and link building. I must say I really enjoyed it since the first day. Of course, it wasn’t always fun and easy. But it was satisfying and rewarding and I never regretted it. Your past work experience includes everything from bartender to English teacher to digital marketing to SEO and content writing. How did each of these positions shape who you are today and how have they all helped you as an iGaming affiliate? Connecting the dots. Each role gave me experiences that each ended up being very valuable in what I am doing now, trying to build a business. It created synergy, where the whole has more value than the sum of the individual parts. Hospitality: taking care of the customer. Being “in service” of the customer. Teaching English without credentials or experience: I can learn and do anything if I want. HR relocation expert at Dupont: How big international (American) cooperation company culture is. Having done many different kinds of jobs that can be done without a degree (cleaning, factory work, construction, data admin, sales), I learned what hard work is. Working long hours made me be able to relate to what a lot of people go through in their daily life. I think that is essential to become a good manager. I don’t think you can be a good boss or manager if you have to manage people doing a job that you never experienced doing yourself (or something similar). Having worked in many different industries gave me good birds eye view. I am also very holistic in my thinking. I think it helped me become creative and a process thinker. At the top of the “About” section on your website you write, “Today, a company must take a stand for sustainability in the world and not simply provide lip service when the subject is brought up.” How did your extensive travels influence your dedication to sustainability? As a child growing up in the Middle East and having spent time GPWA AFFILIATE INTERVIEW SERIES about A little bit more Floris Assies He is 40 years old His favorite book is “Humankind: A Hopeful History” by Rutger Bregman He is living in Pola de Siero, Asturias, Spain His sites are BetterWorldCasinos.com blog philosoflourish.com He is from Groningen, the Netherlands groningen photo by Sander van der Werf/Shutterstock; Pola de Siero photo by grey_and/Shutterstock; Food image by PAPA WOR/Shutterstock; banana image by grey_and/Shutterstock. GPWAtimes.org 60
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