I am hardly that old especially in the seo scene.
It could be backlinks that helps him rank. How fast his landing page loads, how well it's optimized for target keywords. You need to do a content and seo audit of his landing pages/sites.
Open a Hire a freelance, if you cant do it yourself, there are many expert here in this forum who can pin point what exactly he is doing right and give you a content and seo plan to outrank him.
So get Content and seo audit, competitor analysis and get a content and seo plan to outrank him.
(Don't open a thread asking help to rank in top 1 position in google.)
Good luck.