By Rhett Wilkinson

South Valley - Passion.

In more than one way, it drives Dustin Nay.

Here’s what he tweeted about website speed:

“People say they got an A on GT Metrix or a 97 on PageSpeed Insights, and I say, I don't give a rat's behind. What's your load time? #rant”

He’s tweeted about favoring sleep over passion.

After returning from a typical day’s-long work in Draper, Nay works in digital marketing nearly into the middle of the night at his Riverton home.

With such passion, perhaps the Eighty & Eight founder indeed deserved a spot as an SLC|SEM session speaker alongside executives at companies like Deseret Book, DOMO and Progrexion.

Passion that is not limited to Twitter, sleep deprivation or presentations. When speaking with the Draper Journal and Riverton Journal, the Riverton native, without solicitation, said this:

“A lot of business owners and marketers don’t think about or realize how fast or slow websites are. If you can make it load really fast, you will increase sales. It’s a logical following: If you have a fast website, you will make more money.”

And this:

“The crux of everything for marketing is your website. As a general rule, websites are not going away.”

And wrote this:

“We'll cut your load time in half or more, make your site virtually unhackable, and iteratively make your site more productive by improving conversions and driving more traffic to you.”

No surprise, then, that he said “passion” when describing what internet marketing means to him.

Nay has worked for several years in site management. That includes WordPress. He has found a niche as a “WordPress site performance expert” by “straddling the line” between web development and digital marketing through the blogging company. Through Eighty & Eight, he does consulting for businesses who want “faster, more secure, more productive” WordPress websites.

Nay veered into online marketing largely because he needed to market himself. He faced the challenge of reaching the “right people” since, as a new business owner, he didn’t have a built-in audience, he said. He was further introduced to WordPress while doing video marketing.

That’s another passion. Nay owns an independent film production company. YEA-NAY Productions focuses on “quality of storytelling first, technical details second,” according to its LinkedIn profile. Its first film, a student production, was completed on a $1,200 budget. Three awards came YEA-NAY’s way in a student festival. After starting the studio, Nay worked over the next three years at SEO.COM and Oquirrh Mountain Symphony.

And that’s another – wait for it – passion: music. He is a board member of Utah Philharmonic Orchestra. On his way to earning a music education degree at the University of Utah, Nay was part of the “Pride (close!) of Utah,” the school’s marching band. He knows how to play the piano, trombone and French horn.

“Arts education is part of being a well-rounded person,” he said. “It’s an avenue of expression. It provides context to and connects you with the world around you.”

For the second time, Nay used the word when he said that he is “passion(ate)” about community. Nay loves living in Riverton. He and his wife moved there to be close to family and found it to be a safe place to raise children. He loves its business climate. He still sometimes attends city council meetings after making a pastime of it – as a kid.

Nay described products of passion, perhaps, in his speaker bio in saying that he is a “wannabe lifehacker” who runs a food blog with his wife.

And if plethora equals passion, take a look at another bio on a certain social media platform:

“Marketing technologist & manager, SEO, food blogger, INTJ, musician, entrepreneur, LDS, Deutsch, Chocolate, Paragon of Laziness, Husband, Dad.”

SLC|SEM is a digital marketing organization. Coordinators of its first event, held last month, included FairCom’s David Malmborg and B2Linked’s A.J. Wilcox. A Twitter round-up can be found here.