Carl Holden, a 2024 LinkedIn Top Voice in AI, has over 200 hours of AI training from Wharton, IBM, Microsoft, and Google. He is the creative director and co-owner of Zellus Marketing, known for achieving top Google rankings in SEO. A former Toastmasters world semifinalist, Carl speaks at conferences, sharing expertise in AI and marketing. He’s an Amazon Top Author in Marketing, a Forbes Business Council writer, and an AI contributor to the Huntsville Business Journal. Carl lives in west Madison with his wife Viridiana and two small boys, enjoying travel, local food adventures, trips in their RV/Tundra, and late-night video games.

In doing a little research, I see that you wear a lot of hats. How would you describe what you do? It’s best explained that I’m an entrepreneur. I am co-owner of Zellus Marketing, an AI and SEO-focused marketing agency. It is a 12-year-old endeavor I started with Craig Stults when I was in college. We really excel at improving the rank of businesses in the Google ecosystem, both locally and nationally. AI has made that easier and harder. I’ve owned a few other businesses, like Video Game Design Club. I do not currently run that business but I really enjoy helping young people learn game design. I will get back to it once (if) things calm down. My more recent endeavor is an AI-powered SaaS company that will launch next year. It takes my decade of marketing experience and creates automated workflows in search engine optimization. That will be announced soon!

How did you become interested in this work? Is it something you knew as a youngster you wanted to pursue? I didn’t grow up dreaming about being an agency owner. I did have a knack for making and selling things. Once after a day in fifth grade, I came home and my mom saw I had quite a bit of money on me. I taught myself how to make hackysacks and sold them to other kids at school. Approaching college, I had a love of web design and writing but wasn’t sure how to make it a career that paid money to survive and thrive. Marketing became the obvious choice.

How did you start designing video games? Game design is a very light hobby for me. I don’t have any published games. I’ve built prototypes and learned the systems. I tell people it’s more of a fun hobby than any kind of solid skill. However, my passion for learning it, did develop into about five years of running a club for kids. I really enjoyed showing them all that I had learned and it helped that it sometimes made money.

How will AI make everyday life easier going forward? What downsides do you see in terms of career evolution? When ChatGPT 3 launched in November 2022, I knew I had to become an expert with AI. It’s too transformative to ignore. I’m not sure “easier” is the word that AI is shaping up to be. If anything, it’s allowing all of us to create more output, so I do think it helps in that way. In the world of Marketing and SEO, that just means we get more done at the same time. I didn’t come up with it but I do tell people, “AI will not take your job. People who use AI will take your job.” I work hard to leverage it to my advantage, and the people in my circles. The major downside is lack of adoption will be far more punishing and the easy tasks we liked to get paid to do will fade away. Copy and pasting, translation, voiceovers, image editing – all of these are disappearing with the advent of AI.

What is Cyber Huntsville? AI Huntsville? Cyber Huntsville is a nonprofit organization that Zellus Marketing is a member of, as well as many government contractors and other organizations involved in IT and cyber security. Its mission is to establish Huntsville as a Cybersecurity resource for the United States. You should check out some of their events like the yearly Forces of Cyber Gala! Zellus also helps with some of their web needs.

When AI entered the mainstream, the mayor organized the AI Task Force, which has now been formalized into a nonprofit organization with ties to Cyber Huntsville. Like that organization, AI Huntsville is working to build out the same awareness, resources, and workforce around this exploding technology. I’ve been involved in that one since near its launch.

What’s your favorite spot in Huntsville? I love trying new restaurants with my wife, Viridiana. She’s from Mexico and loves to travel like me. Between our actual adventures, we love to try new places. As far as food goes, I’m a big fan of Luv Hawaiian BBQ and Phuket. We like going to Stovehouse during the summer as well as Lowe Mill and Downtown. Most places are fun to visit in Huntsville so it’s hard to really pick just one. We love seeing it grow!

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working? I love spending time with my family. My wife and I have two small boys under the age of 5 so, yes, we don’t sleep as much as we’d like. We recently purchased an RV and had our first summer of adventures. At night when the boys are in bed, we binge TV like most couples. I’m a bit of a night owl so I will also play video games. I have all of the consoles – I’m a gaming nerd for sure. I play with some of my other dad friends, but I do not compete in any capacity.