ABOUT RISE LOCAL · DALLAS, TEXAS
A Different Kind of Marketing Operation
Since 2015, Rise Local has helped Texas business owners stop guessing and start growing — with structured digital systems built around their business stage, not a generic agency playbook.
Our Story
Built by Operators Who've Lived It
After nine years at Verizon/Superpages — earning four President’s Awards and helping hundreds of local businesses build their first digital presence — Mike Stewart left in 2010 to build something of his own.
He operated as an independent digital strategist under SMB SEO LLC and later Status26 Inc., working directly with small and mid-sized businesses that were being oversold and underserved by the traditional agency model. That five-year stretch wasn’t theory — it was real-world proof that local businesses needed something the industry wasn’t offering.
John O’Grady brought the technical backbone. As former Manager of Internet Operations at Idearc Media (Verizon Superpages.com), he had spent years building the infrastructure that large publishers depend on. He and Mike had both watched the same problem play out from different angles — businesses paying for disconnected services, managed by people who didn’t understand local markets and weren’t accountable for results.
In 2015, they formalized their partnership and launched Rise Local. Not as another agency. As a marketing operations center — a system-built alternative to the billable-hour model that too often prioritizes protecting the agency’s margins over moving the client’s business forward.
OUR MISSION
We're a Marketing Operations Center, Not another “Agency”
From Humble Roots to Purpose-Driven Growth
The traditional agency model is built around billable hours, service packages, and loss prevention. Agencies protect their time. They protect their margins. And too often, they protect access to the very assets their clients paid to create.
We built Rise Local to operate differently. Every client is matched to a growth plan that fits where their business is right now. We set up the infrastructure, build the systems, execute the campaigns, and measure what actually matters — calls, form submissions, revenue, and growth.
Everything is done in Texas, by a team that lives and works in this market. No overseas handoffs. No account manager middlemen. When you work with us, you own everything we build — and you work directly with the people building it.
Core Values
What Drives Every Decision We Make
Three principles that guide every plan we build, every campaign we run, and every client relationship we keep.
Results Over Reporting
We measure success by your revenue growth, not impression counts. Every system we build is designed to produce calls, leads, and customers — not prettier charts.
Partnership Over Transactions
We earn your business month to month because we’re confident in the systems we build. No long-term contracts. Stay because it’s working.
Systems Over Services
We build integrated growth systems — hosting, SEO, ads, content, and listings working together — so the whole performs better than the sum of its parts.
Ready to Transform Your Business?
Let’s discuss how Rise Local can help you attract more qualified leads, close more deals, and build a business that dominates your local market.
Leadership Team
Meet the Founders
Rise Local was built by two people who’ve spent their careers inside the local marketing industry — and who got tired of watching it underserve the businesses that needed it most.
![International Project Management Day [Toronto, Nov. 5, 2020] - THE GREY CONSULTING](https://www.riselocal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/international-project-management-day-toronto-nov-5-2020-300x300.png)
Mike Stewart
Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer
Mike Stewart has spent more than 25 years working inside the local marketing industry — not consulting from the outside, but doing the work at every level.
At 15, he worked after school and through summers at his grandmother’s feed store in Hunt County, Texas — hauling hay, doing whatever needed doing. Nothing glamorous, but it’s where he developed the work ethic that has driven everything since.
After nine years at Verizon/Superpages — earning four President’s Awards and helping hundreds of local businesses build their first digital presence — he left in 2010 to build something of his own. He operated as an independent digital strategist under SMB SEO LLC and later Status26 Inc., working directly with small businesses that were being oversold and underserved by the traditional agency model.
In 2015, he and John O’Grady formalized their partnership and launched Rise Local as a marketing operations center — a system-driven alternative to the billable-hour agency structure that protects margins at the client’s expense.
Mike serves on the DFWSEM board, chaired SEMPO NTX in 2013–14, founded the State of Search conference, and has served as a certified expert witness in local SEO geotargeting cases. He leads strategy, client relationships, and the growth direction of Rise Local.
John O'Grady
Co-Founder, CEO & Chief Systems Architect
John O’Grady builds the infrastructure that makes Rise Local’s systems perform at a level most marketing operations never reach.
He spent years as Manager of Internet Operations at Idearc Media — the parent company behind Verizon Superpages.com — overseeing technical systems that powered one of the country’s largest local advertising platforms. He later served as Managing Director at RVglobalsoft before partnering with Mike Stewart in 2015 to launch Rise Local.
John designed and maintains Zonedock — Rise Local’s proprietary hosting and DNS infrastructure — built specifically to give local business websites the speed, security, and publishing performance that enterprise platforms take for granted. Every client site runs on his architecture.
His work ensures that clients own their presence, control their assets, and are never dependent on a vendor relationship to access what belongs to them. The systems he builds are open, documented, and designed around the client’s long-term interests — not to create dependency.
John oversees all technical operations, platform development, and the systems integration that ties hosting, SEO, and marketing execution into a single coherent operation.
Who We Serve
We Back the Backbone of America
We work with the businesses that drive local economies — owners who need a real marketing operation behind them, not another vendor on retainer.
Fixed Location Businesses
Local retailers, restaurants, salons, home service companies, and brick-and-mortar businesses that depend on foot traffic and phone calls to grow.
Professional Service Providers
Lawyers, accountants, HVAC contractors, plumbers, med spas, and licensed service businesses that need qualified leads — not just website visitors.
Local Startups
Entrepreneurs with the resources and ambition to dominate their local market fast, before a larger competitor does.
HOW WE DO IT
Our Methodology
Our work starts with the technical foundation — hosting, site architecture, and SEO infrastructure — the layer that most agencies skip or outsource and that determines how well everything else performs.
Once your site is live on our Zonedock infrastructure, we build out the full system: local listings, content, paid media, and conversion optimization — all tied together and measured against the outcomes that matter to your business.
- Technical SEO foundation & Zonedock hosting optimization
- Custom website builds on lightning-fast local servers
- Content strategy & high-quality asset creation
- Performance monitoring & continuous optimization
- PPC & social media scaling for sustained growth
Built From the Inside of Local Advertising
Three members of Rise Local’s core team—Mike Stewart, John O’Grady, and Kevin Adams—came out of the Verizon/SuperMedia/Superpages.com local advertising ecosystem.
Mike spent 9 years as a New Business Sales Strategist at Verizon Information Services, earning the President’s Award four times. John managed Internet Operations at Idearc Media (Verizon Superpages.com) for four years. Kevin started as an Optimization Account Manager at SuperMedia in 2004.
Combined, that’s 20+ years of experience inside one of the largest local advertising companies in the country—before any of them went independent.
They didn’t learn local marketing from blog posts. They built it from the inside. Then they left to do it better.
Rise Local’s founders and leadership spent a combined 20+ years inside Verizon’s local advertising division before building Rise Local to do what large publishers couldn’t—deliver connected, accountable marketing systems for local businesses.
Ready to Find Your Growth Stage?
We’ll match your business to the right plan and show you exactly what needs to happen next. No pressure. No generic proposals.