I had Dubai and Melbourne mapped out for SEO Hacker’s business expansion. God had a booth placement at Echelon, two Indonesian entrepreneurs, and Jakarta waiting.
As a businessman, you make expansion plans. You study markets, weigh opportunities, and chart where your company goes next. I had mine mapped out — SEO Hacker was going to expand to Dubai and Melbourne.
God had other plans.
Author’s Note: Shoutout to Brilliant Kevin (leftmost in the photo) thank you so much for being such an amazing host – picking me up from the airport and treating me like a VIP! I will never forget your hospitality and all the fun we had just sharing about our lives and journeys as entrepreneurs.
The Cheapest Booth at Echelon
It started at Echelon in Singapore. It’s the cheapest expo we could join, and honestly, I didn’t expect much from it. We just showed up, set up our booth, and did what you do at these events.
But God has funny ways of overriding your plans. In His infinite wisdom, He placed a booth right beside ours — and in it were two entrepreneurs named Brilliant Kevin and his partner Ray. They run a tech company in Indonesia.
We talked. We hit it off. We had dinner together. And somewhere in those conversations, we had the crazy idea of partnering up — of me bringing SEO Hacker to Indonesia.
Indonesia Was Nowhere on My Map
Let me be honest about where Indonesia sat in my plans: nowhere. It wasn’t on my map. It’s a Muslim country, unfamiliar territory, and it was not anywhere near my list of countries to expand to. Dubai and Melbourne — those were the plans. Indonesia was just talk over dinner with two guys I had just met.
I didn’t think much of it. I didn’t think it would become real.
But that’s the thing about God — the encounters you don’t plan are often the ones that change everything.
A State-Owned Company. Ten Thousand People.
Fast forward to today. I’m writing this from Jakarta. And we just closed our first deal — a state-owned company. A ten-thousand-man corporation. We’ll be handling their SEO and their GEO — their AI searchability — here in Indonesia.
There’s a saying I’ve always believed in: when you invest, invest in the person. Not the product. Not the business. Not the service. The person. That’s exactly what happened here. The trust between Kevin, Ray, and me is what made this real. Four days in Jakarta by myself — talking with Kevin and his team, going over the documents and the project — and I just know. This is the hand of God.
“The Lord’s Purpose Prevails”
“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (Proverbs 19:21).
I planned Dubai. I planned Melbourne. God’s purpose prevailed, and His purpose was Jakarta.
And here’s what surprised me most — Indonesia feels so much like home. The culture. The hospitality. The people even look like Filipinos. In just four days, this unfamiliar country stopped feeling so… well… foreign. Maybe that’s part of God’s design too.
Plans to Prosper
I don’t know what the future holds here. I don’t know the full extent of God’s plan for SEO Hacker in Indonesia — the clients we’ll serve, the partners we’ll build with, the doors that will open. But I know this: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).
That’s what I cling to.
I have a good God. He started SEO Hacker sixteen years ago through a blog and my last ₱2,000 — one miracle and divine intervention after another. And now He’s brought us here, to a country I never planned for, through a booth placement I never arranged, with partners I never expected to meet.
The perfect place to be is at the center of God’s will. Even when… No… especially when… it looks nothing like your plans.
It’s amazing when God moves in your life.
