Podcasts about agency mastermind

In this power-packed episode, we are joined by JJ Rusell, Partner and Director at Best Damn Agency Mastermind. Together with Gray, they delve into the importance of having a clear vision for mastermind groups, the value of strong connections within the community, and overcoming self-limiting beliefs. They also discuss strategies for building a successful agency and fostering an entrepreneurial mindset in children. Tune in for an insightful conversation that's sure to leave you inspired and motivated to take your agency and personal growth to the next level.In this episode, you'll learn: The importance of having a clear vision and purpose for mastermind groups How to build a strong community with meaningful connections Strategies to overcome self-limiting beliefs in agency owners and leaders Key elements for building a successful agency, including niching and operational efficiency The benefits of a mixed staffing model with contractors and full-time employees Ways to instill an entrepreneurial mindset in children from an early age The significance of scheduling consistent one-on-one time with children for their development and nurturing relationships Presenting Sponsor: ZenPilotIf you're an agency owner or leader looking to level up your operations and maximize your team's potential, then we have the perfect solution for you.ZenPilot knows that you are tired of wasting time on trial and error — that's why we provide tried-and-true solutions that will help you grow and scale quickly and sustainably.So, what are you waiting for?Go to zenpilot.com to learn more.Resources mentioned in this episode: JJ Russell's LinkedIn Best Damn Agency Mastermind Website Best Damn Agency Podcast Website Apex Revenue's Website Gray MacKenzie's LinkedIn

In this chat…I have the pleasure of spending time with Jason Swenk, a digital agency entrepreneur and convener of leaders through is digital agency elite mastermind programs. In this conversation we talk about the stages of development for a digital agency owner, how to prioritize where you can get energy and what to delegate away, and how to realize maximum value on an exit. You don't want to miss this! Check it out here.

Roger Bryan has worked with some of the world's largest companies as an SEO consultant. He sold his first website in 1998 before he knew what SEO was, and spent years working with nonprofits. His agency Enfusen was recently acquired by Growth Foundry and now he joins us to talk about how he has led agencies to great success and failure, and analyzing both. Roger also explains why generating revenue is the real focus of SEO. He also shares tips from his book and even a few crappy jokes. 3 Golden Nuggets Rebuilding the team is key. After resetting his entire team, Roger started from scratch by filling three major roles. First, he hired an office manager that would handle HR and systematize everything they were doing in the business. After that, he hired a general manager to take care of hiring both divisions of the business. Finally, he looked for someone that could assist him in marketing and sale for tasks like managing outsource vendors and content teams. Pay people what they're worth. As Roger's first mentor used to say, the salary you pay someone is what keeps them at their desk and the money that you pay them after that is what you pay them to help you earn more. Some people will take their salary and sit at their desk, but a few will work very hard to make you money and you should compensate them in return. SEO is not all about ranking. If you're in SEO and you think your job is ranking websites, you've already failed. SEO is about generating revenue, so any task has to be correlated to a data point that leads to revenue. Anything that is not revenue-related it's just busy work and so much of what SEO professionals are doing is busy work. Sponsors and Resources Agency Dad: Today's episode is sponsored by Agency Dad. Agency Dad is an accounting solution focused on helping marketing agencies make better decisions based on their financials. Check out agencydad.money/freeaudit/ to get a phone call with Nate to assess your agency's financial needs and how he can help you. Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio | Stitcher | Radio FM Why Did One Agency Owner Fire His Entire Team? Jason: [00:00:00] All right. I have an amazing interview with one of my old clients who has sold a couple of agencies in the past. And we talk about a lot of the mistakes he made in running his SEO agency. Then we go into a lot of different tactics about how he fired his whole team in one meeting and then a year later he was at $3 Million. And what are the three major roles that he brought in to help? What did he pay them? What was the framework that he used for success and how he really positioned his agency from just being an SEO agency, to being a revenue agency for his clients? And that was a huge, huge thing. You're not going to want to miss out this episode. It's really great. Roger did an amazing job. So let's jump into it. Hey, Roger. Welcome to the show. Roger: [00:00:54] Hey, thanks for having me. Jason: [00:00:55] Yeah. I'm excited to have you on, you know, we were reminiscing about how many years ago was when you came out to Atlanta for a workshop with me. Can't believe how long ago that was. But, uh, for the people that don't know who you are, tell us who you are. And, uh, tell us a little bit about the agency. Roger: [00:01:11] Perfect. Uh, my name is Roger Bryan. I'm an SEO consultant. My former agency, Enfusen, was just acquired by a company called Growth Foundry. We do enterprise-level marketing, a lot of multi-location, franchise marketing, a lot of lead gen, SEO pay-per-click, specialized in healthcare, nonprofits, all across the gambit on the different industries that we work with. Jason: [00:01:35] Awesome. Well, let's kind of jump into it and we're kind of trying something new and you're the, you're the first guinea pig. So welcome to being the first guinea pig. And it's really kind of a thing of like a how-to series to figure out, you know, if you're an SEO agency because your agency that you sold was that, talk about how did you specialize in that? Because a lot of times people will start an agency and they start trying to do everything. You know, design pay-per-click, everything under the sun. How did you pick SEO? Let's start there. Roger: [00:02:10] I sold my first website in 1998 and it sold pagers in long-distance service. And what I found was is then I didn't know, I had never heard of SEO. I don't know that I even had met someone that had ever said the term before, but you're putting on content onto those pages to try to get people to find them. Uh, to me, it was no different than making your company AAA in the phone book a hundred years ago, so that people knew, would find you first. It was just as kind of simple. I got into the auto auction industry after that, and we had a website and we were working with nonprofit organizations and it was like, well, how do I get us to come up first so more people find us? I didn't get into paid traffic until 2005. So I spent seven or eight years just living off of organic traffic, not even knowing that that's what it was called. I've always just been… I've stayed focused on it, and always hired people to do everything else. Because I was good at it. To me, my left brain works. It's a science to me. And if you follow certain rules and you do the right competitive analysis, it's easy. Jason: [00:03:14] Walk us through some of the team structure, because obviously, you got amazing results for your clients because you were able to sell the agency. So walk us through, how was the team structured? Roger: [00:03:26] Yeah. I've gone through a couple of different iterations of this. So my first agency, when I sold it, we had 12 people on the team, but we also had a call center and we're taking in calls for the leads that we were generating. So it was a little bit more robust than just SEO services. Typically, when I think of an SEO agency, let's say sub-seven figure versus seven to eight-figure the, the differences between the two. The sub-seven figure, really you are the thought leader. You're the one that's looking at the data. You might have somebody else doing the research. You're making strategic decisions and you're allocating resources to certain people on your team. For me, that would be a content team, whether you have full-time, or part-time, outsource a link-building source that compliments your content team. Uh, one good web developer. We tend to, I used to tend to stick to WordPress until I started working with Growth Foundry. Now it's a whole different game with the clients they deal with and then one person that's going out and doing some type of syndication. So syndication means taking that content and putting it out into places. I've tried all of the different tools out there for social syndication or engagement syndication, or even manipulated social signals, a little decent outreach to the right outlets never, it never worked better. So especially in today's world where everybody uses automation on those things. And I think Google has found most of those. Getting one blog post picked up by one real news article is going to give you a hundred times the results of all of the automation tools that are out there. So I think I hit like 4 different people there. When you get into a larger agency and you're working with larger clients, say your retainers are six figures or more per year, you're going to have a strategist in there. You're going to have an account manager in there and they're going to be different. The account managers dealing with the relationship, the strategist is dealing with the success. You're going to have the same underlying. Four core sections that you're going to deal with, but those teams might be larger and have different points of interaction. I don't like having larger teams for the sake of larger teams, but you have to provide a level of service that demands the type of revenue that comes from working with those larger clients. Jason: [00:05:34] And then how was it structured? Like where you guys broken up into pods? Did these a strategists and the account managers, did they report up to an operations director? How was all that, you know, once you get above the seven-figure mark. Roger: [00:05:48] Yeah. What's nice is I've done this successfully once I've and done it completely wrong once. So I can compare and contrast. Jason: [00:05:55] So let's talk about the wrong first, like, and then get into the right way. Roger: [00:05:58] Absolutely. The wrong way is for you as an owner to be in the mix. And I there's a period at the end of that statement. There's no if ands or buts about it. So when I went and I sold my first agency, my team dealt with the customers. I signed checks and I looked at monthly reports. And if my team had a problem, we would talk about it. I had very little interaction with clients other than conferences, or once in a while, maybe I would chat with some of our larger clients. Now fast forward to my last agency Enfusen, I did everything wrong. I kept hiring kids straight out of college or interns, which there's nothing wrong with that, but I would want to be the point of contact. I didn't trust them enough. I didn't go out and hire the best people. Now with that being said, some of, one of them now runs Halle Barry's e-commerce business. So they've gone out and done amazing things. And if I would have trusted them more, Infusion would have probably flourished more. But I had, every week I was talking about each and every client to some extent, and it was exhausting and we never scaled that agency, no matter how hard I tried, we would scale and we would implode, we would scale and we would implode. So the worst part was I knew what I was doing. I look back now and I'm like, why the F, I don't know if you swear on your podcast, was I doing that? And the nice thing about Growth Foundry is I'm the Chief Revenue Officer, so I'm responsible for growth and strategic alignment within the SEO team between our software and services. So they've taken me away from the thing that I was doing bad in the last agency and giving me a chance to excel at what I'm good at. Jason: [00:07:33] No, you can always cuss. Uh, no kids are listening. You know, I look at it as. Thinking back at all the agencies I've chatted with and all the agencies we've done. I look at it like the first stage is like the doer, right? Like you're doing everything. And then you get to another stage. You're like the barker, like you're barking orders to everybody, but you're still the only one making decisions. Then you get to the delegation stage, and this is where you're delegating and you're trusting people. And then there's one above that where I see only a select few actually make it there. You know, one of our clients, Zach has actually made it there where he's starting to transition out of being the CEO and more to, you know, the chairman. And it's exciting to get to that leadership stage where now all you're doing is coming up with the vision and direction, passing it to your leadership team and that's it and you're hands-off. And that's total freedom where you can scale. You have the freedom, you have profitability, like let everybody else worry about all that shit. Cause there's always shit. It's just a matter of who's doing the shit, right? There's always like, I guess we use another analogy of like cleaning out the barn. There's always someone that has to take the shit out. Like it just doesn't evaporate. So let's talk about kind of the right way that you, you've seen it. Now you've kind of talked about like why you guys were going through that roller coaster, right? The ups and downs, because that's where you're focused. What do you think the better model for SEO agency is? Roger: [00:09:13] Yeah, it focuses almost too simplistic of a word. But when you focus in on a specific type of client in a specific service with a specific deliverable, that problem kind of works itself out over time. If you allow it, of course, if you're arrogant and your ego is this big, you're going to make that problem exist forever. But when I look at those ebbs and flows, I could see them dictated on the partnerships that we were in and the service that we were providing. And it was different enough each time that it created that need for like a recalibration of the underlying offer and then the implementation and the systems and procedures, if that is not a way to scale and grow an agency. When you get to that point where you've got a dependable, predictable revenue stream from the service that you provide, and you know that every client you sell it to has a 100% chance of success, then you have this model that people can go implement. And there's bumps, there's hurdles, there's hiccups. It's not perfectly easy every time, but you can overcome them better if you're working towards the same strategic goal each time. So starting with that focus element is going to make things so much easier. Jason: [00:10:16] Then how is the team structured? The right way. So, you know, a lot of agencies listening and be like, all right, man, that sounds like me, Roger. Like, man, I'm doing everything. I'm the doer. I'm the Barker. Like we're in this red zone here. So how do we get to the yellow and the green? Roger: [00:10:32] Yeah, the campaign managers a big part of it. You can call them client success, managers, campaign managers, cat herders, whatever you want to call them. But they're the, they're the face. They're the ones talking to the client. Whether some large clients, you have weekly calls with most clients you have monthly calls with and their responsibility is to gather up all of the information. And make sure that as they're going into that call, that they're presenting success, not problems. And if they're focusing in on that, then they spend the whole month building up their data, looking at the reports, making sure everything's going well. And then most importantly, we've got 10 data points that define success for every campaign. They go in and they look well, this one wrong, is this one-off? Why is this one going down? And they're talking to the team, they're talking to the people running paid traffic. They're talking to the people that are building links or writing content and saying, why is this data point off of what are we going to do to improve it? And their questions are what drives success from the underlying team doing the work. Jason: [00:11:27] And these people, are they acting as an Account Manager and a PM or are these two different people? Because there's a lot of, a lot of people struggle with, and I have my own kind of 2 cents on that too. So like, are they the same person? They're different, they're the unicorns, what are they? Roger: [00:11:43] The unicorns are nice. I have one that I wish I could get back. But they are managing both. Now, I've scaled up to right around $5 million. I don't know, at $10 million, if that dynamic would change, I'm going to assume that it will. And with the work that we're doing at Growth Foundry and the trajectory that we have, um, you do have an SEO department that's responsible for SEO, that reports up to the campaign manager now. But the campaign manager still needs to reach down at certain points and find when things need to be done. Now, there's a head of SEO, there's a head of Facebook and there's a head of, um, Google marketing, and then there's a head of IT and software development here. So I knew into that with them and I see that different structure. And it's interesting for me, I'm not an exact, I mean, I'm Chief Revenue Officer. I'm not involved in any of that now. So as I bring my clients over and I bring over relationships, I'll probably see how I fall into that mix. Jason: [00:12:39] Yeah, no, I love that. And I always saw like, I guess it would work really well for where you guys were with if they had really good SOPs to follow. But I guess you would have to probably find that Account Manager that really understood this and understood the strategy and could actually probably challenge the client. I mean, that's kind of why a lot of us as agency owners, we've kind of fallen into that role because we know exactly how to help them. Like we're not order-takers. If you hire like an order taker, you're just going to get a Big Mac, like, you know what to expect with a Big Mac, but you're not getting that most amazing burger that like, you start smelling it and your mouth starts watering and foaming, right? Like we can like taste that burger. And that's really what we want those Account Managers. So I presume that and you learn your lesson from the first one where you probably hired experienced people. So. Where did you find these people? And then, you know, what was the kind of levers that you would pull in order to make sure that they were right? And how did we move them out? Roger: [00:13:45] Yeah, it's interesting because this was, it was not a smooth process. So I started my last agency in Summer of 2005. And I remember coming in, it was April of 2007 and we were growing exponentially. We had, we were in one niche. We had one product offering. It was a home run. We were trying to scale. And I, it was just, the wheels were coming off. Like everything was wrong. So I walked in one day and it just, the tension was there. One girl in the office started an argument with me and I'm like, you know what, that's it, everyone just leave. And the entire company was fired. And then I spent the next six months going out and finding the right people. At that time I was based in Washington DC, and I don't recommend that anyone walk in and fire their entire staff in one day, but it was, it was a year in the making. And we went from that year doing $1.2M, and remember that was the beginning of the year. The next year we did $3.2M. So it was the right decision to make. Now there was a lot of fresh out of college. In fact, the girl that I brought in her, name's Amy to run marketing for us at the macro level. I sold that company in 2012, nine years later, she's still there running marketing for that company. And they've grown exponentially since then. The Office Manager that I hired in that timeframe, still there, the General Manager that's running the company since I sold, was my GM. So those right people helped me get to the point scale, sell, and then they continued to run the business for the investors that bought it. Where did I find them? I plugged into the universities. I would go and do the job fairs, but I wasn't looking for like interns. I was looking for the people that had gone out and done something. In 2005, 2007, when you're trying to hire digital marketers, there wasn't a lot that they could have done. So if they had a LinkedIn profile and they were doing any type of content creation online, they were, they were first in line. Jason: [00:15:34] Yeah. I mean, I remember when we hired designers. You didn't have to like, and this is where I kind of failed at school. I didn't really kind of create any side hustle while I was in school. But the people that we would bring in, if we brought them in right after they got their degree, which wasn't really a requirement with us. They had to, or had that side hustle and they were already having a portfolio that they could show us. They weren't just like this is their first pony, you know, the first rodeo. Was what I was trying to say, right? I was like first pony? Like where did we get a pony? Roger: [00:16:11] Like, I don't know. You got cows behind you. So maybe the pony's not too far. Jason: [00:16:14] That might be it. Maybe it was because I was watching Seinfeld. And, uh, when Seinfeld was at the table, he was like, I don't like anybody that has a pony. And then the, this, the old lady was like, I had a pony. Why don't you like me? So maybe I think of that. I don't know, listening on the show, make sure you guys come and go to the website and tell me if you have a pony or not. Roger: [00:16:36] We won't judge you. Jason: [00:16:38] We won't judge you. But getting back to, I don't even know where we were actually going since the pony. I guess that's where I show you my ADD, like pony, what? Go over here. Roger: [00:16:47] You took me for a ride on your pony and now we're lost in the woods. Jason: [00:16:50] We are so screwed. We were talking about hiring out of college. So I like what you were talking about. Like they already had the expertise there. They were already doing it. How did you make, after you evaluated that, what was kind of the first task that you had them do to make sure that they're right? Because I'm sure you probably hired some people that, you know, like, oh man, that was a wrong hire. Following this method when you reset the whole company. Cause that's fascinating. Like that's so fascinating. You come in, everybody get out and then a year later you bring on new people. So let's talk about that. Roger: [00:17:24] So there's been a couple of different iterations here too with the last agency and this was good or bad. The first 30 days that someone was hired, they would go through a whole set of tests, whether that be the digital marketer tests, some of the HubSpot certifications. And only about 70% of them would be able to complete the first set of tests. So a lot of them, it was just a natural, you know what? You can't pass these tests. You can't work for us. Including my brother, he tried to come work for us. He couldn't pass the test. He didn't get to work for us. Jason: [00:17:51] That's probably a good thing. You never had friends or family. Roger: [00:17:53] Yeah. I hired him in other businesses before. I don't even know why I tried. But that was a decent way. So you had something to show me now, can you do what we do? I had tried in the past, letting them launch a campaign. That was always a disaster because I wanted, I didn't want to spend money on my stuff. I wanted to spend money on customer stuff. I had one guy, he had a $250 a week budget to generate leads. You spent like four grand in the first week and didn't generate any and it was on my credit card. That was when I learned that that probably that wasn't going to work anymore. So every person is going to be a little different. Now we're trying to hire people that are coming from other agencies. That have been in the game for a little while. We don't have the luxury of time to train up from the beginning. If you can come in, maybe there's a little bit of retraining, but we need to put you in a role and we need you to go and then we'll figure out how to make it better and how we can scale. I learned that by watching one agency grow from like nothing to like a hundred million dollars over the last seven years. And I've worked with them on a couple of projects. I'm not going to name them because I don't want to say it's a good or a bad thing, but most of the projects I worked with them on failed. But the same people that were working on those projects five years ago are still there. And I bet you they're better now, now that they're a nine-figure agency. But that says it's, it's a choice, they chose to just take on every client, take on every project and then they found their niche once they hit scale. Again, not recommending that, but that's just another dynamic that I've seen people do. Jason: [00:19:20] Yeah. I probably know who they are. They will be nameless, but, um, let's talk about when you reset the whole darn team, who was the first three people and why they brought on. Like, the role, the roles. Roger: [00:19:35] Yeah. The first role was the office manager, because I needed someone to handle like the HR side. Obviously, if you go in and you fire everybody, you probably aren't thinking about HR too much. So they came in and their job was to help me systematize everything that I was doing in the business. From the way the clients are coming in. We had to have like insurance policies in every state that we were working in because of the space we were in. Getting that done, then the general manager to hire both divisions of the business, because there was a service and there was an e-commerce business. By the way, I didn't fire anybody in the e-commerce business side, they were fine. This was just the office and service staff. And then I needed someone that knew marketing and sales a little bit. Uh, I didn't expect them to go out and sell. I was the one going to the conferences. I was the one in the booths, I was the one building the relationships. And I enjoyed doing that, taking people out to dinner, buying them drinks and like, it's not that hard. And when she came in and got to work, and then she started managing our outsource vendors and our content teams, and at that time we were using a third party to do our paid traffic. It was just, it was like a light bulb went off in my head. Like, why did I ever try to do all this myself? But finding that person's hard because it, especially today, because in 2007, entrepreneurship wasn't as hot as it is now. And people weren't as willing to take as much risk as they are now. So there's that balancing act of if you're going to find that person now, you're going to need to pay them very, very well. You can't ask them to bootstrap with you as you're growing this thing, you're going to have to give them all the money, even if it means you're taking less. Uh, to grow the business because what's stopping them from going out and doing it themselves? It's not that hard anymore. Jason: [00:21:13] As an agency owner, it's hard to know when you have to make those big decisions. And I remember needing advice for thinking like hiring or firing or reinvesting. And when can I take distributions without hurting the agency? You know, we're excellent marketers, but when it comes to agency finances like bookkeeping, forecasting, or really organizing our financial data, most of us are really kind of a little lost. And that's why my friend Nate created Agency Dad specifically to solve these exact problems. You know, at Agency Aad, they help agency owners handle the financial part of their agency so they can focus on what they're really good at. Nate has spent years learning the ins and outs of agency business. He understands everything from how to structure your books, to improving the billing process and really managing your financial efficiencies. Agency Dad will show you how to use your financial data to make the key decisions from making your agency more successful and, most importantly, more profitable. If you want to know how your agency finances stack up to the rest of the industry Agency Dad can tell you how to do that. A lot of my listeners have already gotten their free audit from agency dad. And if you haven't yet go to agencydad.money/freeaudit before August 30th and get your free financial metrics audit. Also, just for smart agency listeners, find out how to get your first month of bookkeeping or dashboarding and consulting for free. It's time to clean up your agency finances and listen to dad. Go to agencydad.money/freeaudit. I love that you said pay them what they're worth. Because there's a lot of people that I see. That are like, well, just we'll give you equity. I'm like, no, like you believe in this, right? Do it all yourself. But like you were saying, it's very easy for other people to do it. So walk me through, like, we don't know who they were. So can you walk us through, what were you paying the office manager? What did you pay the GM or like, what would you pay right now? I guess let's do that since we're in 21. Roger: [00:23:26] So right now, I'm in Ohio and our agency's based in Pennsylvania, not in a big city, so we do have a little bit of luxury there. You're not going to get quality under 52 a year. And this isn't even people working remote. Jason: [00:23:40] For an Office Manager. Roger: [00:23:41] Oh, well, when we talk about people now? Jason: [00:23:44] Well, let's talk about the office manager, the GM and the marketer, the three roles, and then you can go into the other roles too. Roger: [00:23:51] So right now we pay our office manager probably makes around probably in the 46 to 48 range. We do and, it's interesting, I'm trying to not get sidetracked. We've got three service businesses here. We have two 20,000 square foot buildings here and play 65 people. So it's a little different, that's not agency work. On the agency side, I don't even know what they pay anyone yet, which is interesting if I think about it. Jason: [00:24:18] Well, go back to like when you hired those three people. Roger: [00:24:21] Those three people all started at 52. Jason: [00:24:24] 52, wow. Even the GM. Roger: [00:24:25] That was in 2007. Yep. Jason: [00:24:28] Wow. Of you had to do that now. Roger: [00:24:30] I'd probably be 80ish. Jason: [00:24:32] Good. I'm just trying to give someone a context. Roger: [00:24:34] Yeah. There's a part to that too, that no one stayed at 52. Within a year you were dramatically different. In fact, at 90 days, things started changing, uh, especially for the marketer who was handling all the client business. You figure if she was managing millions of dollars a year in revenue, I think she was getting dropped like 10 K every quarter, as long as our numbers were going up. And I'm sure she's a six-figure earner now having been there so long. Jason: [00:24:59] Yeah. And that's the crucial thing is, is like pay them a fair salary. That's what we always did. Fair salary and then do bonuses on performance quarterly. And you know, you'll get them above, you know, rather than pay someone, you know, some people come in for a GM and be like, I want 200K I'm like, sure. You know, crap in one hand and wish on the other. See which one fills that first. Roger: [00:25:24] You know what's interesting about this? My first mentor was a gentleman named Patrick Morsillo, he was a really old-school Italian guy. He's about 80 now. He owned the Greater Cleveland Auto Auction, which was the first real job that I had after the military. And he kind of trained me on business. If it wasn't for him, I'd probably always have the employee mindset coming from where I came from, but he told me he's like the salary that you pay someone is what keeps them at their desk. And he's like the money that you pay them after that is what you pay them to help you earn more. And he's like, not everybody wants more. Some people will take their salary and they'll sit at a desk and they'll plug, plug, plug, but there's a few of them in there that will bust their ass to make you money and you'll compensate them in return. I mean, and I've had that mentality. I mean, that was 2001 when I first started working for him, I was 23 years old and that never… they have something about cows going down and having sex in the field. Those two sayings have always stuck with me. Jason: [00:26:16] You just keep looking at the cows behind me. Roger: [00:26:20] I know, I can't. But it really was. You'd have this thing about patience and cows having sex, but it was a whole ordeal. Jason: [00:26:25] I kind of want to go there. I kind of want to go there, but I won't because it was such a good, like, I loved the saying that, that he said about like, people stay there because of what you pay them, but they'll make you money for what you pay them above that. That's brilliant. I love that. Let's talk about. Was there a framework that you guys used at the agency in order to get people success? Because a lot of times I talked to some agencies that they're just kind of winging it and they really don't have a framework for specifically for rankings. Can you talk a little bit about that? Roger: [00:26:59] Yeah, it comes down to a deliverable. So what we had then, the compelling offer with a guaranteed deliverable. So we did non-profit fundraising. So I could walk into a Goodwill and I could say, hey, I want to help you raise money by doing car donations online. Here's the deal, you're never going to pay me a penny. I'm going to invest all of my own money in advertising. If it works, we're going to split the profit 50, 50 after expenses. If it doesn't work, you just wash your hands of us and I walk away and never problem. The offer dictated the implementation strategy. Over time, we had a campaign for Goodwill, we had a campaign for Red Cross, we had a campaign for Salvation Army. They were different enough to be representative of the brand, the markets and the style of marketing that they were willing to do. But every Goodwill I walked into and there was 140 Goodwills at the time and we were working with 52 of them. So we were almost at 50% of Goodwills in the US were working with us. We made that offer and then it was a dependable, predictable model. We knew you set up a landing page, you launch a separate website. You set up a landing page on our site, you set up a separate website, you set up a landing page on their website. You rank all three of them, the top of Google, so that no matter where they donate, it's coming through us. And then you later on paid traffic for broad keyword terms. And it's the same keywords every time, just in a different market. And then you adjust your bids relative to the competition in that market. And that was it. I mean, there's intricacies of how you got them to rank, but we're going back to 2008. If you sneezed your websites ranked, it's a little bit more complicated today. Jason: [00:28:30] Yeah, it was so frustrating back then. Roger: [00:28:33] I know. Well, I had eight websites on the first page of Google ranking for Goodwill car donation. You could not donate a car in the United States without it coming through us. And three of them are still on the first page today. I mean, that's, that's all you had to do to win. I mean, that was, that was, uh, that was a seven figure ranking campaign right there. Jason: [00:28:52] I like that you had the success. What are some of the gotchas that you've learned with that? Because. I love that strategy. That's very easy for them to commit and especially of how you phrased it too, which I elegantly picked up on. I was like, well, we'll split the profits after our expenses. So probably it was maybe they were getting 30%, but they're 30% is better than zero, which was really good. So walk us through some of the gotchas there. Roger: [00:29:21] So some of the, the, some of the gotchas there is at a macro level, the only way that an SOP or a campaign strategy works is if you have a defined outcome, like you can't go into SEO with the idea that your job is to rank websites, you've already failed. If you even started that. In fact, internally in our organization, we kind of, we don't use the term SEO. We use organic revenue optimization. Our job is to deliver revenue to our customers. So any task has to be correlated to a data point that leads to revenue. And if somebody starts talking off tangent about this thing, okay, how does this get me to revenue? Nine times out of 10, that will bring them back. And honestly, they'll realize you went, I don't even need to be worrying about this because it's not revenue-related. It's just busy work. In so much of what I see SEO professionals doing is busy work. They read something in a Facebook group. They want to go try it to see if it works, but they don't sit down and write down, okay. How is this going to get me from where I am today to more revenue because the client's being need for revenue. Very rarely does a client pay for rank. And I say rarely because there are some doctors and lawyers that will actually pay for it because their ego says they just need to outrank the guy down the street. They don't care about money. They're few and far between, but they do exist. Jason: [00:30:31] And there are bad clients. Roger: [00:30:32] They are bad clients. They stick with you until they get there. Then they fire you and then they yell and scream at you six months later when they're not there anymore. So you know that there are short ride, six-month to 12-month client, which isn't what you should be going after. Anyways, if you have a dependable, predictable model that leads to revenue, your scaling capabilities completely open up. If you're chasing a different result for each client on a different traffic strategy on a different type of offer, you will continue to be stressed out. You will never scale, no matter how much you try to put SOPs and people in place. It's that, that single, dependable, predictable deliverable that makes business scalable and repeatable. Jason: [00:31:09] I love that you focused on the revenue. Because a lot of times an SEO agency will be like, we'll get you on the first page. We'll get your ranked. But you're doing things after that to control that. Because a lot of times, even with a pay-per-click agency, right, will be like, let's use dentists. They're a great example of a very hard client to work with. Right. We send a ton of leads to them, but their, their dumb staff never answers the phone. They never get back and they're like the leads are shit. Right. But you're kind of taking that out of going, like, we'll take it to here by picking the right market too. Right? Like it's very important. That's important. You pick a really bad market you have to be resourceful and figure it out. Like, I'm sure someone's going to figure it out. And I have some clients that really rock the dentist world, but they are a little bit more challenging, but I like how you did the solution. Roger: [00:32:06] The big thing that we needed to do in the nonprofit space that we're repeating now in the space that we're attacking right now is that we started answering the phones warm. So we set up a call center and answered the phones, got all of the information and went right into their scheduling system and put people in. It's not that hard to do. It's not that expensive to do. It can actually just be a couple hundred dollars a month. And if you've got multiple clients in the same space, that's nothing relative to the overall value that it creates. And it completely eliminated, like I remember one of my first clients when I moved back to the Ohio area after selling my agency, because I wasn't allowed to work in the nonprofit space for a certain number of years was a dentist. And to me, it was, it was a breeze. He went from said he was getting five phone calls, of course, no tracking in place. So like one week I generated like 76 phone calls, you know how many he answered? Three. So I drove to his office an hour away and I went in and I talked to his secretary or assistant, and I realized she wasn't there to answer the phones. And I was like, you know what? We should probably just stop spending your money cause we both wasting our time. But now we see like we're, we're scaling really large in the septic industry right now because we have the largest residential septic company in the state of Ohio. Jason: [00:33:14] Is it a shitty client? Roger: [00:33:16] It is. I get crappy jokes like that all the time. Jason: [00:33:19] Oh, I had to like, literally everybody listening was like, when is Jason going to say shit? Roger: [00:33:25] And the first key was setting up a call center. We quadrupled the number of conversions by adding in the phone calls. That means we didn't change anything with the marketing. But four times more end result just by setting up a call center and we use answerconnect.com. They're great. They're inexpensive sort of, we're kind of at that point now where we're asking ourselves that we want to have our own people doing this, but 24 hours a day, seven days a week you can get a live voice. If you call for services through any of our websites or partners, and in most cases we can direct schedule, not all of them, we're working on that. Jason: [00:34:00] I can only, I can imagine the call center would be like, you got shit? We'll help you with your shit. Roger: [00:34:06] I should throw that up on our tagline. We just, we just bought septictank.com. So we're going really heavy into growing this business. Jason: [00:34:15] The tagline should be like “we help you with your shit.” Sorry. Roger: [00:34:22] I don't know if that'll fly with like the Facebook mods or anything like that. Jason: [00:34:26] I know, I kknow. I just, hey, I got. Roger: [00:34:27] And when the team did their brainstorming under taglines for septictank.com. Don't worry, a lot of those came out. Jason: [00:34:33] Oh, I'm sure like how it would be such a fun project to be on. Roger: [00:34:36] Our engineers call themselves poop inspectors, so. Jason: [00:34:38] Oh, that's brilliant. Oh, that's awesome. That should be the title of the podcast. Let's talk about your book that's coming out or it's already out now, so, yup. “Local SEO secrets” Tell us a little bit about it. Roger: [00:34:53] So we've been putting out content for a long time and I'm pretty vocal in a lot of the Facebook groups that I'm in. We decided to take our top blog posts and put them together into a book and then reformat on them around a specific goal. And then I reached out to a couple people that I knew in the space that might be better at things like we got one guy to come in and talk about GMBs. Another one to call in and talk about the Google My Business, or Google Guarantee Program. One on e-commerce landing, page optimization, and one on PR for SEO. And we put them all together and just kind of packaged it so that we could give our customers a premier on SEO. So if you read this book, you're probably not going to be ready to do enterprise SEO, but you're going to be able to have a conversation with us about the different tactics that we're doing. Uh, it's the same thing. I published a book called “Data-Driven Marketing” in 2017 and it was written for the Microsoft partners that we were working with. It was like, hey, last year we generated $56 million in sales leads for Microsoft partners. Here's how we did it. Do you want to do it? Here's the book. It sold 10,000 copies on its own, but it was never really designed to be like a revenue stream from sales. It's, hey, I want to educate my clients cause educated customers actually stay around longer. I always hear agency people say I don't want to make them too smart because they might fire me. And you know what that happens from time to time, we had a customer paying us a quarter-million dollars a year for four years. And they're finally like, you know what? Roger, we got this. We'll come to you for one-off consulting. And I was like, okay, that's awesome. I just trained a multi-billion dollar company and how to do their own SEO. It took four years. They made me a million dollars, but. They moved on and that'll happen. Jason: [00:36:28] Yeah. Everything transitions. It's, it's kind of like when I work with people, like even yourself, like you bake it in, you, you help them out. And then they transitioned, they graduate and they get to the next level, they sell. You know, it's just, it all happens. And, and everybody should celebrate that. Not like I always hate when I hear, well, I don't want to teach them everything I know. I'm like, then what are they paying you for? Like, what are you even helping them for? Like, why are you throttling it? Like literally, it as much pressure as they can take, give it to them. And then they'll be your biggest advocates when they have a success, because that's why we're doing it. Right? Roger: [00:37:07] The head of marketing at that healthcare organization, it actually worked with me at a different company before that and brought me in because he's like, I like the way that you teach what you're doing, you don't just do it. And you know what. He left there and went to another company and guess what they hired me to. And another person from that health care company texted me over the weekend. He's was like, hey, I'm at a new organization. These are the problems I have. Can you come in and help consult? You actually get more business by training your customers to fire you. Then you do less. Jason: [00:37:34] Exactly. Give us one really killer thing in the book. And then we'll tell everybody where they can get the book. Roger: [00:37:40] Perfect. If there's one killer thing from the overall strategy in here, it's like flip it upside down. Don't try to read it upside down, you'll get a headache. But SEO, isn't about ranking websites. It's about generating revenue. So the one strategy that I tell everyone before you even start SEO is implement call tracking. Now, again, this is local SEO. So we're usually talking about a conversion path that is calls. I probably wouldn't work with the pizza shop. I can't track the revenue that comes in from that. Implement call tracking and figure out where you are before you do anything else. It only takes 30 days. If your customer is telling you, they're getting 50 phone calls a week, you implement call tracking. They're probably getting five and you're going to have a real benchmark set now you're also going to listen to do they answer their calls. If they get a hundred calls and answer five, you've got to fix that. There's so many things you have to fix in order to make SEO successful. And we charge, we charge maybe 1500 or $2,500 a month for our additional audit roadmap and data capture. But after that, you will know for certain, if you can help that person and what agencies chase money. Most of them do and it's why their lives are so stressful and so miserable. Because they'll take money from anyone. Be willing to say no. If the data doesn't tell you, you can make them successful. Uh, Travis Saga has a great thing. He's like you only take on someone if he's willing, and this goes back to poop, to give them a bucket of poop that they can dump on his head if he, if he doesn't make them successful. And knowing that he only works with a certain number of people and the ones that work with him and brag about working with them. But pretend there's a bucket of poop sitting next to you. Don't take that customer on if they're going to dump that bucket on your head. Jason: [00:39:15] I love it. I love that there's so many different things to break down, but I love how you were like, just do one thing to see if they're going to beat an amazing client and do that in early on, rather than invest all your time and you getting paid a great deal from them. And then you're like, this is miserable. You're gonna lose your team. Right that you're going to get bad clients and it's just a constant rollercoaster ride. But if you do it and you reset it and you think, how can I make sure? And even going to the prospect, I want to make sure you're good for us. You know, it goes back to an interview I did with Seth Godin, where he was like, look, there's this one agency that only want, doesn't want to hire over 50 people. And if they only have 50 people, there's only so many clients they can take on and they tell the clients, if you ever do anything, if you dump a pile of poop on us, we're firing you. Talking about shit the whole episode. Roger: [00:40:11] Going back to poop. Jason: [00:40:13] You like how I came back to the poop. That's what I did. That's what I do. Where can the audience go check out the book? Roger: [00:40:17] I mean, I'll give you a link. They can go to rcbryan.com/localseobook. And I'll just leave it up for a limited amount of time, but they can actually get the digital copy for free. So we took the whole book. We turned it into like a course format on teachable. And what's nice is we're actually there's conversations going on in there. There's been tweaks. There's been additions. Some chapters have been dropped to the bottom because people didn't find them useful. Some chapters have been moved up, we've redone some of the intro stuff, things that you can't do once you have a hard copy, but there's a great community building around it of SEO professionals and amateurs, just learning and trading, uh, skill sets and, uh, swapping ideas in order to create the best strategies for people. Jason: [00:40:56] Awesome. Well, this has been amazing. Everybody go to that URL, go to it now and go check it out. And, uh, is there anything Roger, I didn't ask you that you think would benefit the audience? Roger: [00:41:09] No, but I think we did 3 million, no, 300 billion cubic feet of poop last year. You forgot to ask me about that. Jason: [00:41:19] All right. Well, if, if all you listening, if you enjoyed this episode and you want to stay away from getting the bag of poop thrown on you, you need to be surrounded by amazing agency owners. And we're only looking for five agency owners that are over 500,000 and under 20 million. If, if that is you and you guys want to add multiple millions on, we want to invite you to go check out the Agency Mastermind. This is where we share the strategies that people are crushing it on and you'll be able to see the bags of poop that you can throw away. So make sure you go to, you guys can tell it's not a script cause I'm putting poop in there. But make sure you guys go to digitalagencyelite.com and request the invite, put in your application. And if I feel that we can help you out and you'll be amazing for the mastermind, we'll invite you to come on and uh, so you can stay away from the shit. All right, until next time have a Swenk day.

We're changing things up around here! As you know, our goal through this podcast isn't just to help you become a growth-driven agency, but for you to really become the best agency you can possibly be. So in line with this, we've decided to rebrand the podcast with a new, more fitting name! Find out what this podcast will be called by listening to this quick announcement. We'll have awesome episodes coming soon, along with a new segment most requested by you. We would love your thoughts on the new name! Let us know by leaving us a rating and review!

Running the Bases today with Jason Swenk - former marketing agency owner, and current partner in a $20M Digital Agency. Jason now works with digital marketing agency owners from the around world helping to establish systems and processes to scale and grow faster.Fresh out of college Jason was off to work for Arthur Anderson, one of the big 5 consulting firms. Quickly realizing that he couldn’t work for anyone but himself, so he changed direction, quit the day job, and launched a digital marketing agency that quickly grew to a multi-million dollar operation working with brands from AT&T, Hitachi, and Lotus Cars. After 12 years of steady growth, it caught the attention of bigger agencies, and the agency sold in 2012.Now, Jason runs a unique consultancy helping marketing agency owners grow their agencies faster.We talk about racing cars (Jason is an avid off-roader, race car driver), baseball and what it takes to thrive in today’s business climate.Learn more about Jason Swenk and his Smart Agency Mastermind at https://jasonswenk.com/Get Local SEO and Digital Marketing information from 38 Digital MarketListen and subscribe to our show on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcast, iHeart Radio, Pandora or TuneIn.Follow 38 Digital Market on our Social Accounts:FacebookLinkedInTwitterYoutubeInstagramFollow our guest today at:FacebookLinkedInTwitter

FunnelHub is kind of a new term, and it’s something that Mike and AJ Rivera are experts in.   A funnel is not a website… but sometimes people still get confused...   About a year ago, somebody reached out to me, and said, “Hey would you please take a look at our funnel it's not converting very well?”   They hired me to come in workout what was going on. I went to look at their funnel… I opened up all their URLs, and I immediately, off the bat, I could tell:   This is NOT a funnel. This is a website.   When I told them they were like, “No no, no, no, no, no. This is one hundred percent a funnel.”   I said: “No, one hundred percent, without a doubt, I swear on my life, this is NOT a funnel... because for starters, you’ve got exits all over the page.”   A funnel is a funnel because there's only one way to progress. You either have to purchase or opt-in. If you can exit in any other way, besides the one way forward, that's NOT a funnel. That by definition is a website.   They had exits in their headers all over the place. Exits the middle. You had to scroll down to the bottom to even opt into anything and move forward in the funnel they'd created. I was like,  “Guys!”   So we switched a few things up to make it a legitimate funnel, and just that one switch alone, BOOM!   WHAT THE FUNNELHUB???   This is the 228th episode of Sales Funnel Radio, and it's funny to me that a lot of people still have no idea about EVERYTHING that I offer…   And I get it…   It's for a lot of reasons:   I've focused on building a lot of stuff and linking it together. There have been little launch campaigns together to get noise around them. I've been working on fulfillment and systems for fulfillment. I've quietly launched some stuff to hyper-users just to see what would happen. Other stuff has made loud entrances with big old launch campaigns behind them.   … there's a lot of moving pieces.   However, there's gotta be a way to help everybody understand what it is you're selling at all times…   And that’s what I'm excited about what I’m gonna share with you next.   I have two very special guests today and they’ve created what they call a FunnelHub. It's NOT a website. It's almost like a directory.   A FunneHub looks very similar to a website but it has a different intent.   This is the official launch of my FunnelHub.   The old Steve J Larsen site is completely gone and SteveJLarsen.com has been TOTALLY REDESIGNED.   It's very exciting!   So now you're going to read an interview I did with my AMAZING FUNNELHUB creators so you can learn MORE about FunnelHubs and why your business needs one.   So let me introduce, Mike Schmidt and AJ Rivera...   WEBSITES ARE DEAD…?   Mike and AJ are members of the Inner Circle and they own an agency called they’re from AnchorWave…   Mike: Awesome, thanks so much Stephen for having us.   AJ: Super stoked, man.   Steve: Oh it's gonna be awesome. You guys approached me... when was this? It was a while ago.   Mike: It was in October, we were at the Traffic Seekers Events in Scottsdale.   Steve: That's right, yeah, yeah. And basically, they came to me and said something that would be very dumb for me to say no to: “Stephen can we build you something for free?” I said, sure!   … and as kind of a case study, we want to walk through what they built. because I believe that what they've got will revolutionize websites.   A lot of us make fun of websites. I make fun of websites. We all know that Russell in ClickFunnels' world definitely makes fun of websites.   Mike: Totally.   Steve: But you haven't built a website, you’ve built what you call a FunnelHub. We're definitely gonna get into that... but beforehand, we'd like to know about you guys.   What do you guys do?   Mike: So we have a web design digital marketing agency based in Tucson, Arizona. We have about a team of 20 people here. We started in 2003, so celebrated 16 years in business this year.   We've built A LOT of websites. More than 1300 by our closest count at this point.   Steve: Oh my gosh.   Mike: What's funny is we heard Russell recently renew his efforts around the death of a website.   Steve: He did.   Mike: And for those of you guys who were at Funnel Hacking Live, he enrolled us in the promotion of that message. I had to turn to Anthony here and say:   “I don't think that we can share that video for Russell, given what our company does.”    We have a lot of experience helping a lot of different types of clients build websites in order to build credibility and help them serve a local market.   We joined Russell's inner circle about four and a half, five years ago, before it was cool to be in the Inner Circle. It was just a bunch of nerds in a room giving Russell a lot of money to geek out on stuff.   And now, thanks to what he's done, and what you've done, it’s kind of elevated that status quite a bit… but originally, we joined in order to start our expert business.   Given our experience of running a sizable team, building websites, and doing digital marketing for a local type client, we just kind of understood inherently that there was something we needed to get out there and teach to:   Our marketplace WordPress developers Digital marketers   So about three years ago, we started something we call Agency Mastermind  - which is a group that's all about teaching the things that have helped us be successful in our world, to people out there.   We've just crossed the threshold, at the end of last year, to achieve our Two Comma Club Award.   Steve: Whoo! Nice!   Mike: We got to officially hang that on the wall not too long ago. So it's cool.   HOW TO INCREASE SALES   We live in a world where we are:   An agency of the traditional sort. A funnel business. An expert business. So things started to kind of collide for us, and especially with our proximity to a lot the people who are just doing some really, really amazing things with funnels, (yourself being one of them)...   We started to see this picture of how we could really redefine and bring our 16 years and 1300 websites of experience to something that Russell's currently saying is totally dead.   Steve: If Russell sees this, we still love ya. “Viva la funnels!”   Mike: Totally, and we get where that's coming from. There's parts of our bodies that feel that websites are dead for certain things and where the funnel makes more sense... and there's a lot of places it does. It’s the most amazing tool we've ever implemented for our expert business.   Steve: That's awesome, that's awesome.   So, obviously, we throw so many rocks at websites from a direct response marketers viewpoint.   I was looking at some stats just off Shopify; with like a single product on there, or multiple products... I mean they don't convert except for like maybe one to three percent (if you're good), you know.   From that standpoint, I can certainly see why Russell throws rocks at websites.   Mike: Totally.   Steve: But you guys, I mean, you're like scrapping that whole thing, and while it kind of looks like a website, you're calling this thing a FunnelHub...   Could you talk about that a little bit?   Mike: Yeah.   AJ: Yeah, so sure…   VIVA LA FUNNELHUB The idea behind the FunnelHub is really that, you know... Russell's right; the funnel's where the sales are going to happen.   We know that there's a lot of hot buyers that go through that process. When you're driving paid traffic, you're going to get them to a landing page, you're going to end up getting them to a webinar, or sell them something.   All your hot buyers are going to raise their hand and give you money. But what happens to everybody else that isn't in that bucket? They're gonna go, typically, and research your brand.   They're gonna do a search for you just to see if you're legit and they end up in the middle of nowhere. They're not sure what the message is.   Once you reach a certain level of status in doing this, (like yourself), a lot of people are coming to you and searching for your name because they have heard you on a podcast…   Or because someone told them, “Hey you gotta check out Stephen Larsen.”   So, of course, they're gonna Google that, and now they're kind of lost.   They didn't see your ad. They didn't get to your landing page. They didn’t see your videos that kind of explain everything.   ...they're having to piece all this together on their own.   So the FunnelHub is a spot where we can still guide them through that process.   We can still let them know everything that Stephen's about... and then get them right back into the sales funnel where we know that conversions are gonna happen.   That's the goal.   We want to communicate the movement, communicate the message, and then get them right back to where we know they're gonna actually give you some money.   Mike: Yeah, I think what's important…   If you figure that we're all high-fiving and celebrating the fact that we got three or five percent of the people that made it into our funnel to hand over cash...   Or three or five percent of the people who made it to a webinar to sign up for a course…   We're all really excited about that three-five percent who convert... but what about that other 95 percent?   What do they do? There's kind of a thought process that goes:   Those 95 percent of people, they're gonna buy sometime between three months and three years of interacting with you. The question is, are they going to buy from you? Or are they going to buy from somebody else?   CATCHING THE 95 PERCENT   The FunnelHub is about making sure there is a safe landing for that 95 percent of people, (by the way you probably paid for or earned them through your efforts)...   Giving them a place to get back into those funnels and really even cross-pollinate into things that they may not be ready for.   Steve: It's almost like a way to kind of turn them from warm and cold traffic to a little more hot before they re-enter your funnel.   Mike: And to think of it from a strategy that a lot of us look at in terms of our emails…   We hear about soap opera and Seinfeld emails that go out. For a lot of people, these may be the only other way that they're nurturing somebody along to build that relationship.   The FunnelHub is the only other platform, aside from email, that you can truly own.   At the end of the day, you're renting space on Facebook, you're renting time on YouTube.   Instagram is making it, (at the current moment), pretty easy for you to reach out to people... but those things change.   … but what won't change is:   You're going to own your customer database, and you're going to own your FunnelHub. And those are the two places that you can truly use in order to really nurture that 95 percent along.   Steve: Totally, and you know what's funny, everyone watching and listening to this, the thing that has made it so starkly real for me that I need this, is I actually have a lot of products that I sell…   But I know the majority of my audience has no idea what it is that I actually sell because they came in on one thing that was attractive to them…but I've been testing products and processes and things like that.   So, there isn't anything that's pushing them to the next thing... or saying, “By the way, I also have *these* things.”   Mike:  Right.   Steve: So when you guys first started talking about this, I was like:   “Oh my gosh, yes, it is the death of a website... but the birth of a FunnelHub.”   THE BIRTH OF A FUNNELHUB   When should somebody start looking to build a FunnelHub?   Mike: What we look at is if you're currently running a successful funnel that's getting you leads and sales every day, that means that you are building a mass of people who are going to be looking for you and going to be needing something like this.   So it's a wide spectrum because you could have just one funnel doing that, but many of us have built several funnels that are producing leads and opportunities.   Signs that I look for:   Are people confused about what you offer? They might think of you as the Sales Funnel Radio guy, but do they know that you have an event? Do they know about these other things? If you get the same questions over and over again, (especially easy ones like support questions). That's a key indicator. If there are things that you're trying to communicate to people that you just can't seem to get them to understand. If you feel like you're kind of shouting at a wall as a producer of this content.   How you organize that in a FunnelHub is a really, really key place for that.   AJ: - Yeah, I think I'd add to that:   If you're spending a lot of time getting some earned traffic, (appearing in a lot of podcasts, different publications or articles online where people are just being introduced to you)...   ...those are other indicators that you probably got the shadow traffic that's looking for your brand online.   Mike: And tell me if you think this sounds familiar?   You get introduced to someone, maybe through a Facebook ad or some kind of social post, and maybe you follow them a bit.   Maybe you opt into their funnel…   And then, one day you decide to look up something you saw them advertise…. you do a search for their name and their product…   And what comes up is their 25,000 dollar high ticket coaching application.   You're kind of brand new into this world, yet the thing they're leading with, (or Google's helping them lead with), is the funnel that's NOT appropriate for you at that point in time.   Steve: Straight to the 25 grand market.   Mike: If we could get those all day long without anything else   Steve: No one would build anything else!   Mike: Totally, but I think we can all relate to that scenario where it's like, this person has this really deep thing, but all I'm looking for is that thing, lead magnet, this thing they promised they could help me do…   ... and I can't find it anywhere! Right?   I'm ready to start dipping my toe in the water with you... and work my way towards that one-on-one 25,000 dollar Hawaiian vacation that we're gonna go on.   That's a scenario that I think a lot of us can relate to…   Where the FunnelHub comes in play to make sure it's very clear how your world and business works.   I think we see that happening more and more with a lot of people in this space. PUBLISH YOUR VALUE LADDER Russell, being a trailblazer that he is, at Funnel Hacking Live, what did he do? He did two things:   #1: He published his value ladder. First time ever.   Being in the inner circle, he had shared with us a number of months back…   About a year ago, he's like, “Guys, I'm working on my value ladder. I've promised the team that I will never change it for the foreseeable future.”   ...'Cause he's one of those guys, (just like a lot of us), that has a lot of good ideas... and he's constantly reorganizing what this means and looks like.   Steve: It took him like four months to get serious on that value ladder too. He changed it a million times.   Mike: Totally.   AJ:- All of us do, right?   Mike: It's a living breathing thing and that's a totally natural thing.   So the lesson isn't that you gotta lock it in place, but you do need to publish it... and you do need to help your people understand how they can move through your world.   They wanna know, they wanna buy, they want an offer, so making that clear is really key.   So we saw him put it on the screens and he published it. He printed 5000 plus versions of this thing, then distributed that to all of us so we could understand: How to live in his world. How to buy from him. How to associate ourselves with what he has to offer.   ...and that's really important for a lot of funnel hackers to pay attention to.   If you're not clearly communicating how to buy, people are going to make up their own story about what it is you do.   CLARITY EQUAL CASH   So the FunnelHub steps in place to really clarify what that is for people. So that way, they know how to move through your world.   Steve: Definitely! You know, there's a podcast episode I did a little while called Branding Comes Second. And I think when I said that, people heard, branding doesn't matter.   I was like, no, that's not what I said. It comes second. It comes way down the road…   In fact, there's a great book called Niche Down...   Once you have something that sells, once you have an amazing thing, you really should start looking at branding things.   I'm not throwing branding to the wind and saying it doesn't matter. I'm saying it's NOT what makes the sale…   But after the sale, it starts to matter for second and third sales.   One of the things that Russell taught me was that when people start saying cool things about you on Facebook or other places, start screenshotting it and keep a folder for it.   Start collecting those kinds of things for in the future, so you can go back and already have assets ready for essentially a FunnelHub.   What assets should somebody start collecting if they're not quite ready FunnelHub yet?   What should people be collecting along the way that makes it attractive and easy to build one?   Mike: Well the cool thing is that Russell's kind of outlined a lot of that in Expert Secrets.   AJ: Yeah, absolutely, that plan's already out there about establishing the attractive character, about creating the future-based cause, about creating new opportunities.   So what we find is a lot of people are aware of that, (and they might be communicating a lot that through their funnels), but for somebody that comes to their website... they're not seeing any of that.   They don't get that full picture.   So this is also helping people just do what Russell says and making sure that all of that stuff that they've worked hard on is put in a spot where people can actually see it, feel something for that movement... feel like they're part of that movement... and want to be part of it.   Mike: As you're working through those things and coming up with your:   Future-based cause Manifesto Value ladder False beliefs   … these are ALL the pieces that need to be represented there.   That's why this isn't just some fancy, “Oh, Russell killed websites, so let's call it something else,” type move.   Steve: No not at all.   Mike: This is very much about how do you align the important lessons from what we've learned in Expert Secrets and what we do as building an expert business and having that place where all this belongs.   This isn't just for the people who might land on that page and your audience.   It's for you as the expert to really have something to point at.   I know that there have been times where I've written my manifesto and re-wrote it. And I’d have like four or eight versions of it in my Google Drive…   Which one of them is the right one?   Being able to point to my FunnelHub and say:   This is the right one This is what I'm standing for This is who I'm throwing rocks at   … that's what takes that nebulous thing and really solidifies it … for not just the audience, but for the expert too.   Steve: Totally! So you're collecting those things along the way.   Again, a value ladder is a marketing idea and there are different products that represent that idea along this FunnelHub...   The FunnelHub is a representation of all the marketing idea that you have that's not just a value ladder... it's a manifesto and the title of liberty that you hold up and wave the flag around with. It's really such an awesome platform to do that on.   This is the unveiling of SteveJLarsen.com!   STEVE J LARSEN: THE ORIGIN STORY   The guy who owned SteveLarsen.com wanted like 30 grand, or whatever... and I was like, ‘There's no way!”   So Stephen Joseph Larsen was available, so I bought it and I built it … and it was terrible!   It's always poorly represented of what I do, and now it’s rebuilt. So do you want to walk us through it?   Mike: Yeah, we'd love to.   AJ: We're super proud of this, man.   Steve: It's incredible! I think I ran around the house a few times when I saw it the first time. Look at that!   Mike: Here we go. First things first, is I think we're going to have to get a picture of you with a proper beard here now.   AJ: Photoshop that in or something.   Steve: Yeah.   Mike: This FunnelHub is really designed to help guide people through the journey that they have with you.   A big part of that is helping them understand the programs and offerings that you have and really providing that piece.   So we've obviously got the events…   These are the things that people want to know about you:   They want to know who you are and what you stand for, and that's like one of the reasons we the manifesto that you've adopted here letting people know what you stand for. In programs, we've published your value ladder with this cool little graphic to help people see what steps someone can move through… being able to click on these things.   Steve: I'm so excited for people to see this. I guarantee most of them don't even know half that exists.   Mike: How many people listening to this knew you had, how many people knew about FunnelStache? They may have come in another funnel…   Obviously, a hundred percent of the people reading this right now know about Sales Funnel Radio, but there is an opportunity to ascend those people through the other things that you offer.   If you didn't know, Stephen is the offer creation king.   Clarify in your mind that he's the category king of helping someone clarify and launch an offer to the world…. And that's what this FunnelHub is really driving at.   As cool and as amazing as the podcast is, (and the stories that are told), at the end of the day, they're all in service to really building Stephen as the king of the offer creation.   It's NOT about funnels.   We use funnels, yes, but it's about, “How do we leverage the offer?” And that's really what this is doing.   AJ: Yeah, one thing I'd mention on this page is that this is a living breathing thing.   I feel like a lot of people feel like they can't get started with this unless they've got this all planned out and they know everything about their value ladder…   But this can change…   This is electronic. Unlike Russell printed 5,000 copies of his value ladder... this is just a graphic that we can update.   So if you have a smaller value ladder right now, and you know it's going to get bigger, give us what you've got and we can communicate that, and as it grows we can continue to add that later as well.   Steve: Yeah I'll say the thing that I was really kind of relieving to me was when you guys said that it could change. When we first started working together, I was feelin’ I can't ever change it! It's permanent. It's like a book, it will be printed... it cannot stop ever.   AJ: It's NOT a tattoo.   Mike: Absolutely, so one thing that we haven't touched much on is the media and speaking opportunities…   DO YOU HAVE A BLOG? One thing that I keep on hearing people say as it relates to their own website is they just call it a blog.   A blog is one component of a FunnelHub. It's one piece of that.   And so when you just reduce your web presence to just, “Hey it's where I publish my blog,” ...there's so much more that should be there.   We're not putting that there just for the just for fun, it's actually to help people understand:   What you do What you stand for   So our mission here with the FunnelHub is to help people understand that it's much more...   A FunnelHub is much more than a blog. It's much more than a website. It's really helping to help paint that entire picture that needs to be shown.   It’s even a big part of a traffic strategy and it's a big part of a Dream 100 Strategy. That it's NOT something that just kind of gets left off to the side.   AJ: - Yeah, I have an example of somebody in the Inner Circle, I'm not gonna mention her name, but she had an opportunity to appear on a pretty big podcast... and they went and searched for her name online, and they didn't like what came up. So they pulled that opportunity away from her.   So if she’d have had a FunnelHub that clearly outlined her movement, who she was, had all the credibility indicators that they were looking for to feel comfortable to welcome her on their show... then she would've been able to take advantage of the earned traffic there.   Steve:  So awesome. I love that you guys asked me, “What are all the questions that people ask you over and over and over again?”   You put that in there…   There's a FAQ…it's awesome. It helps support everything that I'm doing. Anyway, I'm excited.   Everything is going to have Steve J Larsen in it.   Mike: And kind of like to bring it full circle, what's cool about helping this audience, and coming from the point of view where we have our own expert business, is that we get that the experts are really busy and have a lot on their plate….   The fact that we got Stephen J. Larsen to dedicate some time to work on this project among all the other things you do, is amazing... But really, what we asked you to do is pretty minimal.   Steve: Oh, that's what was shocking to me. There's people who have asked stuff like that, and I'm like, “Ahhhh!”   I was excited to do this, but I think we had like three meetings and you just caught the vision and went and did it. It's rare.   Everybody listening and watching... it's rare to have somebody who clearly understands like FunnelHub/ websites, but then, also funnels and the funnel world and the roles between the two.   That’s rare. I don't see that often. So it was neat. You guys just took it and ran. It was really cool.   Mike: That's something we see as a unique aspect we provide:   Being in the Inner Circle Building our own funnels Having an agency that's done this for 16 years.   It's kind of an “Ah-ha,” and I almost feel guilty... or dumb, for not really thinking of this sooner.   They say there's a reason for everything... you know, some kids take the slow path through school, and that would be me.   Being in the inner circle as long as we have, the timing was just right around this.   AJ: For a long time, we never even talked about that side of the business. We just went to the inner circle asking for advice on our expert business and getting a lot of tips with that.   They didn't even know we had this agency.   So this is like a coming out for us, not only in the inner circle but everybody else in the Funnel Hacking community... like, “Hey, we've got an agency that can help you with all this stuff.”   Steve: Totally awesome. Where can people get information?   I know about half of my audience is already killin' it... and this actually would very much apply to them.   The other half, they're kind of brand new, which is great and “Welcomed,”  just know this is also what's in store.   ...where should people reach out?   Mike: Absolutely, so the best place to connect with us regarding this is FunnelHub.xyz. Yes, you can get an XYZ domain name!   Steve: I didn't know that.   Mike: And now we know that too…   But on that page, you'll find a lot of information about what we're talking about here today, also a little bit of video preview of Stephen's website.   You guys who are not watching the video, just head over to FunnelHub.xyz ...and you can kind of get the whole story there, as well.   Steve: Yeah, it's cool too, because they took the reins, they went and built it all out, and then I just did a critique... like, “Hey change this vernacular or whatever.”   They're always there, even on a monthly basis, for when I reach back out and say, “Hey, my product's changed... this has changed,” so nothing is cemented. That very much was like, “Ahh…” That helped me a lot.   Mike: As much as I would love to credit for the design or putting this whole thing together, it was absolutely our team here that helped out with that.   Jill one of our project coordinators played a major role in jockeying that. So, what's cool is, even though we're busy running our own expert business, you have access to the team that can make that happen.   Steve: You have a pretty big team too.   Mike: We have a team of 20 people here in Tucson, Arizona. So right outside this door right here, Jill's office is right there.   We've got the team that shows up to work every day to do this kind of stuff. That's something we're really proud of that and really proud of our team.   I hope that you guys can see the labor of love through the FunnelHub that was created for Stephen.   Steve: Totally! You all know that we focus heavily on hiring the who that knows the how.   Entrepreneurship is NOT about you learning how to play EVERY instrument in the orchestra. It's about you being the orchestrator. You're the conductor.   I want you to understand clearly that the who to FunnelHubs is definitely Mike and AJ.   Go to FunnelHub.xyz and check them out. They are the experts, they birthed a lot of this concept. You're getting it right from the horse's mouth.   Guys, thanks so much for being on with this. This was awesome.   BOOM!   If you're just starting out you're probably studying a lot. That's good. You're probably geeking out on all the strategies, right? That's also good.   But the hardest part is figuring out what the market wants to buy and how you should sell it to them, right?   That's what I struggled with for a while until I learned the formula.   So I created a special Mastermind called an OfferMind to get you on track with the right offer, and more importantly the right sales script to get it off the ground and sell it.   Wanna come?   There are small groups on purpose, so I can answer your direct questions in person for two straight days. You can hold your spot by going to OfferMind.com.   Again, that's OfferMind.com.

Is your agency profit where it should be? (Hint: net profit should be at least 30%) Are you constantly struggling with cash flow? Do you always pay yourself last, or not at all? Solve all these problems and actually enjoy running your business again when you apply the principle of Profit First. In this episode, we'll cover: What agencies are doing wrong with their cash flow. Why businesses should put profit first. 3 basic steps of putting profit first. We've got a repeat guest today, Mike Michalowicz who is an entrepreneur and the author of six business growth books. I had him on the show previously talking about his book Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself. Then recently, we used his Profit First theory as a workshop in our Agency Mastermind and I knew I had to get him on the show again. Mike got his start as an entrepreneur who was very successful very early in his career. His early success led him to other investment opportunities which left him feeling unstoppable and invincible. He had multiple homes and expensive vehicles... but, in hindsight, his own ego and arrogance got in the way. He says he never had a real pulse on his business finances and little care to know any details his accountant shared with him. So, in 2008 he had no idea his businesses were failing until his accountant called to tell him it was time to declare bankruptcy. Within a month he and his family if five lost their cars and homes. After a couple years of feeling sad, sorry, and insignificant Mike decided to become an author writing about his experienced with a new goal to eradicate entrepreneurial poverty. What Agencies Are Doing Wrong With Their Cashflow Typically, agencies (and for that matter, all businesses) are doing a bank balance accounting method. Your accountant tells you to look at income statements, P&L statements, balance sheets, etc. which can get mind-numbingly boring. And all you care about is the bottom line, right? That's because we're trained to think:   Sales (minus) Expenses = Profit And that "bottom line" is your profit. So that's where your attention is focused because that's what matters most. But Mike challenges us by asking, why is the thing we care most about falling to the bottom of the list. Think about it. Don't we always put the most important items at the top of our list? It's backward and wrong that profit is just considered "what's leftover" after everything else. Why Businesses Should Put Profit First Mike's formula for putting profit first is important because it means you are making money. It's human nature that the goals we put first are the ones we get done. That's why so many people work out in the morning. What comes first is what gets done. Look, as a society, we are always asking other business owners "How big is your business?" and that's because we care most about revenue. But, you can have a huge business and not be profitable at all. What we should be asking is, "How healthy is your business?" So many agencies are living check to check. They're most concerned with top-line revenue instead of profitability. But when you get into a situation where you can't pay vendors or worse, can't pay your employees does topline revenue even matter? No. Putting profit first flips the formula:   Sales (minus) Profit = Expenses 3 Basic Steps of Putting Profit First I know what you're thinking and it's a little more than just pulling profit out first. 1. Stop making excuses and give it a shot. We know it's difficult to get on board with trying something new. We're all are used to handling our business accounting the way we've always done it. And so Mike says there are 3 general excuses people give for why they can't implement Profit First. "My business isn't profitable so this will never work." ~ Yes, it's not profitable because you're using the old method. You can do this and you can be profitable if you get rid of your own head trash. "My bank will charge me fees for opening 5 different accounts." ~ Look, your bank is your vendor and they should want to help you do what you need to do to be profitable. Explain what you're doing and why. If they are adamant about charging fees, then change banks. Yes, it's a real pain to do that and it will take 1/2-day of your time making the switch. But in the end, it's your profitability worth it? "My accountant won't go for it." ~ A lot of accountants are set in their ways, but you're the client. Explain why you want to do things this way. If they can't get on board, ask them what percentage of their clients are profitable using the old-school accounting method :) If you really can't get your accountant onboard, check out Mike's resource of Profit First trained accountants. 2. Open multiple bank accounts and segment your money. Most business owners are habitual bank balance checkers. Admit it, you're checking at least daily, maybe even hourly. So in Mike's book, he spells out his process which includes opening 5 different accounts all dedicated to different things (profit, taxes, etc.) That way, when you're checking the balance you're looking at money that is earmarked for a specific use and not looking at one lump sum. 3. Start slow and ease yourself into the discipline of profit first. It's hard to undo the way we've always looked at business accounting. So, don't expect that you'll be able to pull out 30% profit right off the bat. At first, the goal is to break old habits so start by pulling 1-2% profit from every check that comes in. It's like someone who decides to run a marathon, they train by starting slow and building up to the marathon. For example, if you receive a $1,000 payment and you put 1% of that into a separate account for profit, that's just $10. If you can pay your expenses and run your business on $1,000 surely you can run it on $990 and you won't even miss that $10. Start slow and build that "profit muscle."  

Today’s episode of Just the Tips has me welcoming two guests to the show, one being former co-host Dean Holland whom I have summarily downgraded to recurring guest. The other is a guy who knows a thing or two about digital marketing, the amazing Mike Schmidt. MIKE is the CEO and Founder of a digital marketing agency based in Tucson, Arizona, and using his experience building a team of 20 in-house web professionals, Mike founded Agency Mastermind to share his craft and nurture and encourage more web professionals. Agency Mastermind is a thriving online community of web and digital professionals that range from the currently employed moonlighting pro, to the seasoned freelancer/entrepreneur, to the larger agencies with an international client list. This guy is the real deal, and you won’t want to miss this episode. Advice for starting your own agency Mike has been running his own successful digital marketing business for 15 years, which basically makes him an O.G. in this world. And since I’ve seen more and more entrepreneurs thinking of starting their own agencies, I had to ask him, what would be your one big tip for someone just getting started with their own agency. And Mike actually said something that every entrepreneur needs to hear: Don’t do everything yourself. That will be your impulse, but don’t do everything yourself. As he says, look at what you enjoy doing the most, and focus on that niche. If you’re thinking of starting your own agency, you need to listen to this episode of Just the Tips. Never too old for a new focus MIke’s agency does all of the digital things a small, local business needs to be able to do to compete, but often struggle to do. And he said one of the things that he found was that when he spoke to local business owners, a lot of times they had people who did discrete jobs, like their web guy or their social media person, etc. So what he realized was that businesses really need help with review and reputation management. As he says, it may not be a “sexy” idea, it’s something that every business owner worries about and cares about, and once he helps them with that problem, he has his foot in the door to offer them other services. It’s really savvy stuff you’ll hear on this week’s Just the Tips. The coolest webinar story (seriously) Mike works with local businesses, but what he realized was that there were so many businesses throughout the country that needed help with reputation and review management. So he started an online course to help businesses get a handle on it. He started offering the webinar in September 2017, but found that the cost per registrant was something on the order of $22. But after just a small tweak to the headline—same webinar, just a different offer wording—it went from $22 to $6. It’s a great lesson in not being afraid to tweak and rework until you find what sells. Curiosity hooks Mike has done it all in digital marketing, and as this episode proves, he’s constantly learning and constantly iterating to get better at his work. He drops so much knowledge in this week’s episode of Just the Tips, it’s a must-listen for anyone trying to get a handle on their digital marketing. Not only is his webinar story great, but what he does by planting “curiosity hooks” throughout, makes it a killer client acquisition tool. How does he do that? Listen to the episode! Outline of This Episode [4:15] Mike on the pitfalls of running your own agency [12:12] Mike’s agency’s new focus [16:51] The online course [25:08] How Mike transitions webinar recipients [29:25] Where to find Mike’s webinar Musicfor “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Resources Mentioned ReviewPro Launchpad Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel: AutoPilot Entrepreneur Program: www.jamespfriel.com/autopilot Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autopilotentrepreneur Site: www.jamespfriel.com Dean Holland: Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Digital Business Entrepreneurs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DigitalBusinessEntrepreneurs/  

This special episode of Sold With Webinars introduces its first case study! Mike Schmidt and Anthony Rivera grew their webinar sales from mediocre to million-dollar-massive. What made the difference? Implementing tips and strategies learned from this here podcast.   In this episode, Mike and AJ reveal the key takeaways from past Sold With Webinar episodes that helped put their course, ReviewPro Launchpad, on track to doing $1MM a year.   (Find links to all mentioned episodes at the end of the show notes)   Episode Discussions: The ad that dropped Mike and AJ’s cost per lead from $21 to $6 Strategies to boost live webinar attendance rates AJ and Mike’s high-converting webinar sales funnel How to use Facebook during your webinar to increase conversions Re-inviting an existing list to the same live weekly webinar When to go (and not go) evergreen Why you should consider offering 5-star reviews as a service Testing curiosity-based ads and pain-based vs desire-based ads Packaging an offer as a business growth strategy and business opportunity Automating with messenger bots A ringless voice messaging tool to send webinar reminders   [3:06] Mike Schmidt and Anthony Rivera Own AnchorWave - Website design, digital marketing agency based in Tuscon, AZ 15 years in business [6:11] Product: ReviewPro Launchpad is an online course that helps businesses get 5-star reviews. [8:58] Clients typically see results within 24 hours to 1 month from campaign launch. [9:14] The webinar is also packaged for freelancers and other agencies to include 5-star reviews as a service. [11:22] “You may be really close to something and just need to change the positioning of who you're selling it to...you might be just one reframe away." [12:30] What made the webinar successful? Transparency - about what was being taught on the webinar Curiosity based ads - helped with show up rate and dropped cost per lead from $21 to $6. Product isn't revealed until 20 minutes into the webinar. [19:26] Offer is $1K and the webinar converts 3-5% of cold traffic registrants. [20:26] Inspired by SWW guest Dan Henry: The audience is asked to write a Facebook post to gage interest in the service. Audience response proves opportunities and generates leads. [24:44] What boosted your show up rate?  Live webinar attendance rate: 30%-35% Emails: New registrants trigger a 3-part email sequence Messenger bot automation: Thank you page features a ManyChat button that invites registrants to join the Facebook group with a 3 min countdown timer - (inspired by SWW Guest Molly Keyser) Financial barrier: Registrants are offered a chance to watch a replay of the webinar for $3 instead of waiting for the live webinar (Wednesday 9 am PST) Reminders: Text message and voicemail drop via Sly Broadcast [30:39] When to go evergreen with your webinar. [33:15] Impactful content changes: copied successful webinars, implemented own successful strategies, added more value. [35:31] Joel's success with re-inviting an existing list to the same live weekly webinar. [37:25] What's next for AJ and Mike: Going evergreen and JV’s  [38:16] "It's a no-brainer for anybody who has a course teaching agencies or creatives copywriting or email marketing.” [39:35] Testing Ads and Conversion Optimization Testing new ads: Pain based ads are performing better. Longer video format ad had higher cost per registrant but had the best cost per sale. Social proof: Screenshots from Facebook group, emails, collecting testimonials via automation. [41:47] Pain-based ads vs desire-based ads (inspired by SWW Guest Jon Tarr) Desire-based ads attract wishful thinkers (no commitment) Connect with them on a current pain (committed to solving their problem)  [42:54] "We're super grateful for you and this podcast has been an amazing resource for us as we become more and more of webinar junkies ourselves.”   Connect with Mike and AJ Agencymastermind.com/learn Agency Mastermind group on Facebook Anchorwave.com   Mentioned in this episode: Interview with Dan Henry – Episode 19 Interview with Molly Keyser - Episode 21 Interview with Jon Tarr  - Episode 32     Follow and watch a behind-the-scenes look at how I’m personally launching a brand new 6 & 7 figure product from scratch at SoldWithWebinars.com/TV Join our Facebook group at SoldWithWebinars.com/Experts

What is the Secret to Rapid Agency Scaling? If a goal for your business is to achieve rapid agency scaling, in this episode I talk with Paul Higgins and discuss what you can do to achieve rapid agency scaling as well as what not to do to make sure you don't fall into any agency scaling pitfalls. In this episode we discuss: 5 levels you'll reach when scaling your agency How to know what level your agency is at and where it's going next 3 ways to avoid growth and scaling pitfalls As a business growth expert, Paul Higgins knows a thing or two about entrepreneurship and scaling businesses. After all, he spent nearly two decades on the client side, climbing up the executive ladder with Coca-Cola before founding an agency that serves as a partnership resource to small businesses. He's also a Director and Empire Builder at Bollo Empire, which helps agencies scale. In this interview we talk about best practices for rapidly scaling your agency. There are 5 steps to climb on the stairway to success. Which step are you on? Which step is next? How are you going to climb from one step to the next? Here are the 5 Levels of Scaling Your Agency Startup This is like the honeymoon phase of agency ownership. You're in love with everything about being in business for yourself. You are fired up and ready to make your mark on the industry. Rapid Growth In this stage, things are really heating up. You've got lots of client and are adding team members. Your agency is really taking off! You're hustling hard and you're satisfied with your growth. The Grind This is just what is sounds like. You feel stuck working in your business instead of on it. You're bogged down by administrative duties, putting out fires and handling client issues. It's easy to feel like you're being buried by The Grind. Freedom This is where you're acting as more of a stakeholder than an agency employee. You're working on business development and strategies for future direction. The day-to-day business can run without you… as it should! Cashout This phase is your exit strategy. It's your ability to walk away with cash to retire or start something new. The timing is up to you. (You can plan it out, or it could sneak up on you like it did for me after I ran my agency for 12 years.) Status quo will not help you grow. As an entrepreneur, it's easy to get bogged down by running the business and never take the time to do what's required to grow your business. Your inbox is too full, existing clients need you, your team needs you… There are a million reasons but the biggest one is probably that you just don't have enough time. However, if you're too busy that's an indication that you are either: not charging enough, or you need to hire someone so you can re-focus your attention. (Or, maybe the problem is BOTH?!) 3 Ways to Avoid the Pitfalls that Prevent You From Scaling Don't get stuck in The Grind or worse.... slip backward from Freedom into The Grind! Escape being stuck in a rut by making these 3 things a priority: Stay on top of industry changes, trends, and innovation. Your clients expect you to be on top of emerging trends - so walk the walk. Don't be afraid of change, embrace it![ Spend time with agency leadership peers or a coach. These people see things from an objective point of view and have relevant experience that you can learn from Use platforms and technology that are efficient for running and scaling your business. Make sure that the systems you're using are current and most effective. Remember to always work on your business, even in the early stages when you are working in it, too. These 3 strategies will keep you relevant in the industry and help you climb the agency-scaling staircase to the Freedom you deserve. Tip from the Agency Trenches What's the best advice for rapid agency growth? Paul has a two-part answer for rapid growth: People and Platform. He says it's super important to keep your people happy and use the right systems. That means making sure your team is not overloaded all the time and maintaining a pleasant culture/ environment. As for systems, Paul uses and recommends Podio, a CRM software that evolves with the needs of your business as it grows and changes. He says that it scales as you scale, so you aren't paying for lots of software bells and whistles that you aren't using, but they're available to add on when you're ready to use them. Are you ready to work with peers to help you with your rapid agency scaling? I have led a lot of successful Agency Mastermind groups over the past couple of years. There are a few more spots to fill in the upcoming group. We meet every two weeks so it's not a huge time commitment yet the benefits are immeasurable. You can read more details here and if you're interested there is a brief application process. You'll fill out a quick form and then I'll let you know if the group is a good fit for you. Building Your Digital Agency There is no rule fits all to rapid agency scaling but the best thing you can do is find the strategies that fit your business model and see how they can work for you. Scaling your agency can also create more problems if your business isn't solid from the ground up. Don't worry as I am here to help. I have more than likely experienced all if not most of the different struggles an agency owner experiences through my own experience and I can help you from what I learned. I have covered many topics from what to do with your sales processes to improve them, how you can increase your agency's profit margins or how you can build authority for your agency. I have the best ways for your business to stop losing money on projects, how performance-based pricing models can be the best strategy for your agency, and why including remote teams or freelancers in your team can be beneficial in the long run. Learn more about my career as well as tips, tricks, and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. Find more from me like advice from other successful agency experts in my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my YouTube channel.

Are you looking for advice on improving your agency's growth strategy? Are the systems you have in place just not working for you and feeling like you've hit a plateau in your business growth?   Why Buying or Selling A Digital Agency is EASIER Than You Think. In this episode we cover: Why buying an agency isn't as expensive or as hard as you'd think. How rolling-in another agency can be a killer agency growth strategy. 5 ways to improve your digital agency's valuation to be acquired. What to look at if you're looking to acquire another agency. Today's guest, Eric Keiles was doing inbound before inbound was even a thing. Eric and his partner founded Square 2 Marketing in 2003 with the intention of helping brands revamp their old-school marketing to the way people are buying in the new millennium. In 2009, they partnered with Hubspot and took their business to a new level. I met Eric at Hubspot's 2015 Inbound Conference and quickly learned he is pretty serious about making a plan and sticking to it. He has one major B.H.A.G. (big, hairy, audacious goal) and that is for Square 2 to be the #1 inbound agency. They've been growing organically for a few years at 30%+ but that just wasn't aggressive enough... so they accelerated it with a layer of acquisitions. Actually, 3 acquisitions in just 18 months with 2 more in the pipeline. Why would you BUY another Marketing agency… or several? Eric says there are two reasons this is Square 2's agency growth strategy. They're looking to either acquire an agency with a specialization they don't have (like social media or an agency that works on a different platform) or to acquire another inbound agency in order to benefit from economies of scale. Size doesn't matter - 4 people or 20 - stability and profitability are key. It doesn't take a huge pile of cash to acquire another agency. Eric says it really doesn't. There is, of course, an initial layout of cash on the front end of the deal but his team feels pretty strongly about keeping the existing leadership in place and structuring an attainable earn-out for them. They've found this situation to be a win-win. Square 2 sees the growth and profitability they're seeking while the agency leader of the acquired firm eliminates the stresses of ownership and gets to focus on an area of the business they're passionate about while hitting earn-out goals. Use these to improve your agency valuation and as a guideline for vetting one you're looking to acquire. 1. Systems & Processes that Prevent Bottlenecking A great target for a potential merger is an agency that has great systems and processes in place. Everything cannot revolve around the owner. Eric says it's a major deal breaker if you're the only “go-to” person. It's important to have established systems and processes in place so the business can run without you. I say, “systems outperform talent every time.” 2. Long Term Client Relationships When someone is looking at buying you, they are looking at what kind of profit they can generate in the near future. As Eric and his team are looking at agencies to acquire, they're looking at ones that have retainer clients or long-term (12-18 month) project, clients. Shorter-term projects or one-and-done clients don't make a viable agency. A mix of both is OK too, but they find that agencies that are 100% project-based are not viable. A buyer a well-established business with predictable revenue. 3. Common Personalities and Culture It's more than just buying a business, it's marrying two entities: meshing teams, workflow, ideas… so it's important the owners have the same core beliefs and the culture of the offices will gel. There's success where there's synergy. The guys at Square 2 Marketing look for like-minded individuals to go into business with, so before going too far into a merger they like to hang out together. 4. Healthy Margins Without Underpricing or Over Servicing You can have amazing clients and top talent on your team, but if you don't have positive profit margins then you're too risky to merge with. A lot of agencies want so badly to keep their clients happy they will over service without tracking the time. Or, they just want to win the deal so badly, they will undercharge. Sounds like a no-brainer, but agency profit margins aren't usually calculated accurately. Time tracking and scoping are huge. Eric says when he's looking at an agency to buy he not only looks at an hourly rate but also excessive rounds of revisions and out-of-scope requests. An agency with healthy (and accurately accounted) margins has a much higher value than one that only thinks they do. 5. A Variety of Different Sized Accounts It's like the old adage goes, “don't have all your eggs in one basket.” The same is true for agency clients. It's not good to have just 1 key account. Eric says he categorizes clients in 3 ways: Acorns (have the ability to grow), Cornerstone (solid, long term), and Shit Box (tons of work, low profit, pain in the ass). He places a higher value on agencies that have plenty of Acorns and Cornerstones, with minimal or no Shit Boxes. It's the owner's job to be the agency's steward to the future, not involved to be in everyday operations. Here's a great post about the 5 roles of an agency owner. Guess what? Working IN the business isn't one of them :) Tips to Grow Your Digital Marketing Agency from the Agency Trenches Best Advice Ever Received for Building your Digital Agency: Fire the shit box accounts. At a time of struggle and despair, Eric was advised by a mentor to review and fire all the accounts that were a drain on hours and resources with little to zero profit margin. He listened and he got rid of ALL SIX… He says it was the best advice he's ever received and saw an improvement by adding this to his agency growth strategy. Best Business Building Tip for Building your Digital Agency:  Eric's answer is three-fold… (1.) Set aside time that is dedicated to focusing on growing your business. For Square 2, Eric and his partner have a standing 90 minute Monday morning meeting that is non-negotiable. (2.) Get involved in events and conferences that are focused on learning and new ideas. Eric says this forces them to clear their schedule and get their heads wrapped around leadership, and only leadership. (3.) Peer to peer coaching is great for bouncing ideas off someone who's been there and done it. Is My Agency Mastermind Right for You? Looking to improve your business and enhance your agency growth strategy? I have led a lot of successful Agency Mastermind groups over the past couple of years. There are a few more spots to fill in the upcoming group. We meet every two weeks so it's not a huge time commitment yet the benefits are immeasurable. You can read more details here and if you're interested there is a brief application process. You'll fill out a quick form and then I'll let you know if the group is a good fit for you.  

Are you starting to look into the opportunities available if you were to sell your agency? Are you unsure of how you can value your agency correctly and make it appealing to buyers? It can be super exciting when someone is interested in acquiring your agency… right up until the time that it gets super overwhelming. Here are the steps you need to take to make sure that when you sell your agency, it goes as smoothly as possible while also benefiting you and your employees the most. How to Sell Your Agency #1  Know what your agency is worth and the amount you need to have to walk away. Do you want to know the Agency Valuation Formula? These deals are done in a two-tier structure: cash amount and earn out. Come up with your cash amount figure, present it to the buyer and make sure you're happy with the amount. Most earn outs are structured in a way that make them unachievable, so don't get your heart set on earning it. #2  Resist the urge to celebrate. Celebrations and telling people too soon could seriously bite you in the ass. If someone is inquiring, they have interest but there is no deal in place. Keep it “business as usual” and try not to mentally spend all that money you think you're going to get in the buyout. #3  Be helpful without disclosing too much before you get the Letter of Intent. You'll feel the need to provide a ton of information to make sure the deal pans out. Stop yourself from tipping your hand too much. This buyer is probably a competitor, so why would you tell them all your secrets? They will want to know things like: margins, revenue, growth, client list, employees, and all that is alright to share. But don't start handing over documents, processes, or anything that is not necessary for them to get the full scope of the potential transaction. And, anything they ask you is fair game for you to ask them in return. Ask relevant questions to make sure  they have the capability to buy. #4  The Letter of Intent LOIs resemble written contracts, but are usually not binding on what the purchaser evaluates your agency's worth. It is always good to know how to evaluate the worth of your agency, check out my Agency Valuation Chart as a starting point to see what your agency might be worth. The chart shows you the EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amoritization). #5  Due diligence phase. Keep things quiet and keep moving your business forward. Instead of daydreaming of ways to spend your new income, act like it's not going to happen. Reality check: it may not happen. These things collapse all the time and if you check out now, your business bottoms out and you're left with no deal and no agency. In the meantime, learn what you can about your buyer. What their intentions or reasons for the acquisition? Do they want your clients? Do they need you for your specialization? Are they trying to expand in your geographical location? Learn what you can to help make this is smooth transition for your employees IF (not when) the time comes. Are you ready to kick it into gear and grow your agency into something worth buying? You might want to check out my Agency Mastermind group. This is a group of like-minded individuals that meets every other week , so it's not a huge time commitment but the benefits are immeasurable. You can read more details here and if you're interested there is a brief application process. You'll fill out a quick form and I'll let you know if the group is a good fit for you. Improve Your Agency and Become a Better Agency Owner! Through my years of experience, It's allowed me to provide advice on many topics from the struggles you may face with failing economies and recessions to how accepting a speaking opportunity can create business and the four phases of growth you may experience within your agency. Want extra help in taking your agency to the next level and sell your agency for a larger profit? Or want to become a better agency owner? Learn more about me and my experience and find lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading our blogs that cover a wide variety of topics! If videos are more your thing, don't worry, i've got you covered! Check out my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel for advice from myself and other agency experts.

Agency Partner: How to Grow a Successful Agency with One Have you ever considered running your business with an agency partner? It's not easy being agency stakeholders and close friends but in this episode, these two ladies have it all figured out. Renee Warren and Heather Carson, co-founders of Onboardly, a demand marketing agency servicing clients in PR, content marketing, and social media talk with me about their secrets... Secrets to successful partnerships, secrets to their agency growth, and the one secret every new startup owner needs to know.   What's the Secret to a Great Partnership? I usually tell people, “You either know the bad partner or you are the bad partner.” Not true for Renee and Heather. They get along like besties and they tell me it's because they have rules for keeping business and friendship separate. They are careful to keep the lines drawn and clear about when they're wearing their “friend hat” or their “founder hat”. They say this distinction has really made a lot of hard conversations go more smoothly than they might've otherwise. Heather and Renee also told me another key to their successful partnership is trust. Both ladies are totally confident that the other has the company's best interest at heart when making decisions or representing the business. There's no control freak in this duo! Another thing they've found helpful is bringing a mentor or advisor in when they've needed some guidance or third-party input. (Not to brag but they did give me some props here.) And, even if it's not me, I agree that an unbiased opinion from an outsider can really benefit an agency partner and solopreneurs. Learn from the mistakes and successes of those who have been there and done it. What are the Secrets to Agency Growth? Onboardly was established in 2011. Throughout those four years, Renee and Heather have learned a few things about growing their agency. Here are their 3 tips for actualizing growth: 1. Shared Goals For starters, these partners share the same goals and have a growth mindset. When their company reached a plateau in the third year, they decided to focus on removing the obstacles that were standing in their way. They articulate their goals to each other and their team, and don't let excuses get in the way. 2. Laser Focus Target Not only do they have a specific niche, but Heather and Renee are also very selective in which clients they will work with inside that niche. These ladies are clear that they will only work with clients that will allow them to produce good work. They won't spin their wheels on clients that require too much red tape or hand-holding. And over the past few years, Heather has honed her process for vetting clients which saves them a lot of time and energy in the long run. 3. Say No They've done it. Even when it was hard, Renee and Heather have turned down work from family and friends. They've turned away work from clients who couldn't afford them. They have had those awkward “thanks, but no thanks” conversations that keep the integrity of their business intact. What's One Secret for New Entrepreneurs? These ladies believe that if you get into business for any reason other than yourself, you're in it for the wrong reason. Knowing your "why" creates the playbook for your entire organization. It defines your culture, your employees, your clients... it becomes everything. In hindsight, if they'd known and articulated their purpose sooner it may have changed the trajectory of their entire business.  Bottom line: be true to your story and don't lose sight of it. So, What Exactly Is ‘Onboardly'? They are the startup for startups. Now, they're not in their early stages anymore but they still act like a startup. They model their clients by using the same systems and technology. They want to be able to relate to and provide value to their clients. Looking for a third-party opinion to help your agency grow? Would you like to meet other agency owners that have achieved what you're aspiring towards? That's what my Agency Mastermind group is all about. As a group and a team... we will work together to figure out the best sales, operations, and marketing strategies needed to exceed your goals. In other words, you will have all of the help you need to crush it! Learn more by clicking here... Become a Better Agency Owner Having an agency partner to run your business with you can bring many benefits but I suggest making sure to take my advice and find someone that is the best fit for you when you are ready to start your journey with an agency partner. Taking a step back and reviewing any other areas of weakness in your agency, how else I can help? During my time in the industry, I have had my own experience running my own digital agency and helping other digital agency owners so there are many topics where I can offer guidance. Whether you are experiencing challenges as an established agency or a new agency unsure of what the different phases of growth you will experience will look like, I've got you covered. As you continue to grow your agency team, I can show you how to recognize when it's time to hire a sales manager or expand your sales team to perfect your business strategy by creating a process for performance-based pricing and how to keep your big name clients happy. Are you ready to create something cool and want more advice? Learn about my career and different experiences as well as tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. Check out more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my YouTube channel. There you will find advice from myself

Hiring People Better Than You To Take Your Agency to the Next Level In today's session of The Smart Agency Master Class, I talk with Rich Brooks, president of Flyte New Media, a web design and marketing company.  This episode is all about how to manage your team. You need to be hiring people better than you, and we're going to help you find those people, as well as get over being afraid of their skills. Plus, you'll hear about how to avoid some common mistakes.   When should you hire someone else? The right time is different for everyone. For Rich, he was prompted to hire someone by a client. They wanted to give him more business but felt he wouldn't have been able to handle it on his own. For most of us, the right time is when we realize we can't handle it on our own. But maybe you're feeling like you can handle most of it on your own. In that case, think about bringing someone in on a part-time basis. Rich started with a part-time person and has since grown to a staff of seven; five of which are full-time. Take your time finding someone. Remember: hire slowly, and fire quickly. (More on that in a second.) Four of the biggest mistakes when hiring people. Hiring people too quickly! If you need someone ASAP for a project, or you're just going to hire so-and-so because you like them, then you are probably hiring too quickly. Cool your jets a little and really think about what kind of fit that person will be. And if you find yourself employing the wrong person, get rid of them! Not casting a wide enough net. If you're advertising for potential employees in a place where the kind of people you want to hire aren't looking, then you're making a mistake. Perhaps you should think about ditching the free neighborhood circular and paying for an ad on the hottest industry job board. Hiring without a plan. You hired them for a specific project, but what happens after that project ends? Have you made a job description for them? These are the kinds of questions you need to ask yourself before you bring someone on board. Hiring someone because you liked them. If your only requirement is that you like the person, you are going about hiring all wrong. Great people are great, but you don't have to hire people you want to spend holidays with. Sometimes the best people aren't your best friends. You're looking for people that will be a good compliment to you. That means you need to stay away from hiring someone just like you. You'll never get anything done that way. Instead, look for people you can work well with, but who will challenge you and fill in the gaps that you can't. Measuring employee performance. Everyone hates reviews. So let's ditch that term and start calling them Coaching Sessions. It can still be a painful process to go through, but it's a lot easier if we go ahead and reframe it as a conversation rather than a scolding. Secondly, you do not need to be everyone's best friend. Repeat it with me: I do not need to be everyone's best friend. What you need to be is your company's best friend, and your company needs you to toughen up and be the bad guy sometimes. At Flyte, Rich does his reviews quarterly. That way it's a more continuous conversation with the employee rather than an annual lambasting. I also do quarterly coaching, but instead of talking about what my goals are for the company, I let the employees set their 90-day goals that will help us reach the company's goals. Then we can sit down and see what goals were met, which weren't and why, and how to improve going forward in the next 90 days. This way everyone knows exactly what is expected and exactly what will be measured. Pro tip: deliver bad news last, or at least, in the middle. That whole bad news before good news idea is backwards. Instead, give the employee some positives before delivering any bad news. Then end on a high note for bonus points. How to say ‘You're Fired.' Firing people sucks. It just plain does. But as a business owner, it is your job. You need to keep reminding yourself that it's not what you want as the agency owner, but what the company needs. Unfortunately, what you personally want and what the company needs don't always line up. Of course, firing awful employees is easy. It's those middle-of-the-road ones that are tricky. They're not really doing a good job, but they're not necessarily doing a bad job either. According to Rich, the so-so employees are actually the worst. They're doing nothing to improve and grow your company. In fact, they're just slowly dragging it down. As the owner, you need to tell the employee that it's time to rise to the occasion or get out. You aren't personally responsible for their well-being. If you've given them the opportunity to succeed, and they still can't, then you need to let go. Be zen about it: perhaps the reason they aren't succeeding with you is because they should be succeeding elsewhere. Hire dwarfs or giants. Do not be afraid when hiring people to hire people better than you. If you have any fear that they're going to come in and take your business, you need to let go of that immediately. You want people better than you! This is how your business will grow. You're still going to be needed, but your position will evolve, and that's okay. Think of it this way (courtesy of Rich's old business coach): if you hire people smaller than you, you'll have a company of dwarfs, but if you hire people bigger than you, you'll have a company of giants. AGENCY MASTERMIND for agency owners that want to GROW PROFITS It can be very isolating running your own agency. Wouldn't you like to join a community of other agency owners that will hold you accountable for growing beyond yourself, all while supporting your journey to get there? That is exactly what the AGENCY Mastermind is all about.  Learn more... Becoming a Better Agency Owner Hiring people who are better than you is the best and only way to create the best team possible for your digital agency. I have probably experienced all the different struggles of an agency owner through my own experience and I can help you from what I learned. From what to do with your sales processes, ways to increase your profit margins or how you can build authority for your agency. I can tell you the best ways to stop losing money on projects, why performance-based pricing can be the best pricing strategy for your agency as well as why including remote working or freelancers in your team can be beneficial in the long run. You can learn more about my career and different experiences as well as tips, tricks, and insights by checking out my blogs which cover a wide variety of topics. Find more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my YouTube channel. There you will find advice from me and other agency experts.

In this episode of The Smart Agency Master Class I have my first ever three way:)  For the first time ever, I have two guests - Jim Hohl and Lucas Gavin of Visify. Jim and Lucas are going to share with us how you can use events to build your authority and grow your business by creating leads.   Where do you start with creating leads for your agency? Jim and Lucas knew that they didn't just want to do business as usual. Chasing after projects and pitching all the time is exhausting. The duo decided to begin speaking at events and hosting webinars, which allowed them the chance to get their message out to a lot of people at once. Bonus: you automatically earn some street cred by being an event speaker. It's instant authority! No events in your area? Make one! It'll be a great opportunity for you to get your feet wet. It's fairly simple to throw together a 2-3 hour weeknight event. For something larger, consider hiring an event planner. Jim and Lucas hired an event company, allowing them to focus on work and let the professionals handle event stuff. Or you can create a mini-event around a bigger industry event. This way you can invite a select group to take part in a lunch-and-learn without having to do too much organizing. Start small. The event doesn't have to be a huge crowd. No one expects you to start out at a TED Talk. Start smaller and work your way up. Jim, Lucas, and I are all huge fans of webinars. Not only are they easy to set up, but they're an excellent first step in getting comfortable with speaking in front of people. But first, you need to come up with what you want to say. The simplest way to do that is to think about what you find yourself saying to most of your clients. What's some common advice that you give? Or, what is some aspect of your business that you are really passionate about? Use these as starting points for creating webinar content. Tech to use: Try GoToWebinar or Google Hangouts for a simple, effective setup. Save the sales pitch. You will attract a lot more people to create leads if you don't make the event a sales pitch. Seriously, you don't need to be pitching all the time, and no one wants to hear it. Instead, focus on creating quality content that delivers something of value to the audience.  Have a genuine conversation. Offer a free download of a tool or white paper that they can actually use. They are guaranteed to remember you for it. Don't forget to include a CTA. You want to keep the conversation going, so make sure you include a call to action. Not the lame “buy my stuff” CTA, but something like “comment on my blog to join the discussion.” You want to create a thoughtful and engaged community around your events. So whether you're doing a webinar or an in-person event, make certain that you have some sort of call to action. Success Story We had our first Agency Mastermind event last week and one of our members has already generated over $20,000 in extra income from one thing we have covered. If you would like to have a similar story, click here Discover the best Digital Agency Strategies today. Get Online Training to help you set up the right systems and strategies to help you grow faster. Improving Your Agency So now you know where to start in creating leads for your agency but is this your only struggle right now? My years of experience have allowed me to provide advice on many topics from the struggles you may face with failing economies and recessions to how accepting a speaking opportunity can create business and the four phases of growth you may experience within your agency. Learn more about me and my experience or all my tips, tricks, and everything you need to know in my blogs. I have covered a wide variety of topics! If videos are more your thing, don't worry, I've got you covered! Check out my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my YouTube channel for advice from myself and other agency experts.

In this session of The Smart Agency Master Class, I chat with Peter Caputa, VP of Sales for Hubspot, the king of inbound marketing. We chat about how you should stop relying solely on referrals, and how you can use strategic partners get your business to the next level.   Strategic partners are awesome. You can get a lot out of having a strategic partner. Here are just a few benefits: Steady stream of referrals Marketing opportunities They can help you grow from small agency to large agency There will be many chances to learn from partners How you can you become one of the top strategic partners for a company like Hubspot? Unlike some, a strategic partnership with Hubspot cannot be bought. Peter says being a Hubspot strategic partner is earned, not purchased. In order to become one of Hubspot's top strategic partners, you need to: Have the ability to make your clients successful on Hubspot. Be able to sell and acquire new clients. Communicate your goals and successes with the strategic partner. Do something unique with your new client using the strategic partner. What your agency is probably doing wrong. According to Peter, agencies are failing to create the right relationship with their clients. Going in and selling tactics is the wrong approach. You need to be selling long-term value because you want a lasting relationship with the client that focuses on success. It's not just about what you're doing. You need to be showing the value of it. And remember - know your audience! A lot of agencies are afraid of committing to a niche for fear of losing out on an opportunity. It's time to raise your prices. Stop worrying about what other agencies are charging. You're worth more! Take time to figure out how much value you're providing the client. If you're helping them earn a million dollars, then you should rethink your $4k per month retainer. You need to find out the prospect's goal and explain to them the value that you can deliver. Their answers will help you determine what to charge. Also, make sure you don't lose the prospect in all the bells and whistles. Sure, you love the software, but the client just loves the outcomes. Keep the business conversation upfront, and explain the methodology in a way they can understand. I asked Peter what the biggest retainer per month was for inbound marketing services...and it's $25,000! Per month! The art and science behind hiring salespeople. The first sales hire is key. Peter is a fan of the Objective Management Group, which is an assessment tool that includes an assessment for salespeople. Peter also warns that you need to be ruthless in finding the right fit, not just hiring someone because you like them. Once you've hired someone, don't just tell them to “go sell.” That's setting everyone up for failure. You need to be sure you've put objectives in place to hold the salesperson accountable (how much, by when, etc). You also need to be sure you are motivating and empowering them. Salespeople need praise as much as they need to want to make money. Give them lots of incentives and high-fives. AGENCY MASTERMIND for agency owners that want to GROW PROFITS It can be very isolating running your own agency. Wouldn't you like to join a community of other agency owners that will hold you accountable for growing beyond yourself, all while supporting your journey to get there? That is exactly what the AGENCY Mastermind is all about.  Learn more... Become an Agency Mastermind Creating leverage to bring in strategic partners for your agency can bring your digital agency to a whole new level but this can cause issues if you don't work on the other challenges you have within your business. Don't worry, I can help you get through all of it. I can give you advice on recognizing new client opportunities to different ways of building authority to improve your agency. If you are having issues with growing your agency, I've the different phases of growth within your agency and how performance-based pricing can be the best pricing strategy for your business as well as the three questions you need to ask yourself to sell more! Learn all about my career and different experiences as well as lots of tips, tricks, and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. Check out more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my YouTube channel. There you will find advice from me and other agency experts.

Going from Agency Owners to Agency CEOs In today's session of The Smart Agency Master Class, I chat with Hannah Paramore, president of Paramore Digital. Hannah is going to talk about the five jobs of an agency owner, how to handle those roles and transition from agency owners into an agency CEOs.   The 5 Roles of an Agency Owner. As the agency owner, it is your job to: Grow and mentor the leadership team. To be the face of the company. To set vision and direction. Manage the financials. Be available for key relationships. Whatever you're doing, make sure they are part of these five roles. If it's something outside of these, you need to assess whether or not you are the one that should be doing it. Being comfortable as the agency CEO. No doubt you started out as the smartest person in the room. You were consumed with passion and drive. You were the best at everything, from account management to writing to sales. But as you started to grow from a one-person agency, you probably realized you need to hire people to help you. Suddenly, you're not the smartest. And that's a good thing! You want to hire people smarter and better than you to do the work you don't have time for anymore. Who to hire for your agency. It may take some trial and error to find the right person. You need to clearly define what it is that you need, and how you envision working with someone. Think about what you want your team to look like. Try using a personality profile to find the right fit. If you hire someone, and it goes poorly, don't be disheartened. Remember, it's trial and error. Maybe you need to redefine what you need, or how you want to work with someone. Maybe that person was just an awful fit for your agency. It's okay. There are lots of wonderful people out there. If Hannah had to do it all over again, her first hire would be a Director of Client Services. According to her, "Good work doesn't keep the clients. You're hired for your creative and technical abilities but you're fired for your service." How to motivate and inspire your team. All agency CEOs should know the importance of a happy team. There is no magic formula, but here's a darn good one: Great clients + Great office space + Great culture + Ownership of work These factors, when combined with the right people, make for happy employees. Happy employees motivate and inspire each other, and that's how awesome agencies thrive. (Note: giving out employee bonuses doesn't hurt either!) The “too busy” excuse. Sometimes also known as the “too poor” excuse, and it's just that - an excuse. If you want your business to grow, you're going to have to make time for it. Hire people organically as you grow. Don't think you can afford them? Then you're not charging enough. Your team is part of the billable hours, don't be afraid to include them in the costs. Would you like to get more strategies like this, and be apart of an elite group of agency owners? It can be very isolating running your own agency. Wouldn't you like to join a community of other agency owners that will hold you accountable for growing beyond yourself, all while supporting your journey to get there? That is exactly what the AGENCY Mastermind is all about. Check it out now.  Find the right Systems and Strategies that will help you grow faster. Check out the Playbook and the exclusive digital agency elite mastermind. Taking Your Agency to the Next Level Now that all your business owners know how to transition into agency CEOs, are there weaknesses within your agency that are causing everything to break down? Don't worry, I'm here for all the advice you need. I have been in the industry for a long time and I have had my own experience running my own digital agency as well as helping other digital agency owners so there are many topics where I can offer guidance. Whether you are experiencing challenges as an established agency or a new agency unsure of what the different phases of growth you will experience will look like, I've got you covered. As you continue to grow your agency team, I can show you how to recognize when it's time to hire a sales manager or expand your sales team to perfect your business strategy by creating a process for performance-based pricing and how to keep your big name clients happy. Are you ready to create something cool and want more advice? Learn about my career and different experiences as well as tips, tricks, and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. Or if videos are more your thing, visit my YouTube channel!

The Power of Visual Storytelling Do you want to learn the power of visual storytelling and how it can improve your branding marketing on social media as well as your relationship with clients?     In this episode I chat with Ekaterina Walter who is a marketer who has worked with numerous Fortune 500 brands to help them with social business. She's also an expert at visual storytelling and is going to show us the power of using video on social media to market your brand. Why visual storytelling is the future. Just go ahead and accept it. We are so inundated with various amounts of information that we have a hard time figuring out how to sort it correctly. So we're just kind of making up our own filters as we go along. What's so great about visual storytelling is that it's a filter that comes to us naturally. Humans process visuals faster than they process text. Considering our attention spans are about 3.9 secs long, presenting information as a visual makes sense. How to make your content snackable. You don't have to do away with long form posts completely, but when posting a link to your blog pull out some interesting tidbits to highlight along with the link. Showcasing the good bits will increase overall traffic. There are lots of visual techniques to help get your overall message across. Infographics, data points, quotes, emphasized text, and animation are just some ways to deliver your message. But king of all these techniques is video. Videos are highly consumable. If you're putting out a press release don't just do the same old boring release. Add a video to go along with the release, and you could increase your traffic by up to 50%. Bonus - people love cartoons. Including a cartoon in your email or newsletter actually increases the open rate to 45%+. What are some visual tools you can use? If you want to make quick, easy visuals for your site or blog, here are some of Ekaterina's suggested tools: Canva QuotesCover PicMonkey Try adding infographics, infograms, or infoactives. Learn to use Vine, for goodness sake! Gifs, memes, etc. are all great additions that make your posts more appealing. Ekaterina's advice to telling a better story. Make sure that you really understand your brand, what your goal is, and where your audience hangs out. Once you've sorted those out, prioritize activities that allow you to build relationships with customers, stakeholders, and your employees. Understanding your community and knowing what they like is what will bring you success. Would you like to be apart of an elite group of agency owners? It can be very isolating running your own agency. Wouldn't you like to join a community of other agency owners that will hold you accountable for growing beyond yourself, all while supporting your journey to get there? That is exactly what the AGENCY Mastermind is all about. Check it out now.  How to Further Improve Your Agency I hope you feel ready to improve your brand and connections with clients through visual storytelling but what other challenges are you facing? I cover all topics from the struggles you may face in your agency to creating the best agency proposals and more. Have other topics you want advice on? You can check out all my tips, tricks, and insights in my blog covering a wide variety of topics, as well as answering your questions in more from my Ask Swenk series. Are videos more your thing?  You can check out my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel for advice from myself and other agency experts.

Going from Agency Owners to Agency CEOs In today's session of The Smart Agency Master Class, I chat with Hannah Paramore, president of Paramore Digital. Hannah is going to talk about the five jobs of an agency owner, how to handle those roles and transition from agency owners into an agency CEOs. https://traffic.libsyn.com/jasonswenk/The_5_Roles_of_an_Agency_Owner_1.mp3 The 5 Roles of an Agency Owner. As the agency owner, it is your job to: Grow and mentor the leadership team. To be the face of the company. To set vision and direction. Manage the financials. Be available for key relationships. Whatever you're doing, make sure they are part of these five roles. If it's something outside of these, you need to assess whether or not you are the one that should be doing it. Being comfortable as the agency CEO. No doubt you started out as the smartest person in the room. You were consumed with passion and drive. You were the best at everything, from account management to writing to sales. But as you started to grow from a one-person agency, you probably realized you need to hire people to help you. Suddenly, you're not the smartest. And that's a good thing! You want to hire people smarter and better than you to do the work you don't have time for anymore. Who to hire for your agency. It may take some trial and error to find the right person. You need to clearly define what it is that you need, and how you envision working with someone. Think about what you want your team to look like. Try using a personality profile to find the right fit. If you hire someone, and it goes poorly, don't be disheartened. Remember, it's trial and error. Maybe you need to redefine what you need, or how you want to work with someone. Maybe that person was just an awful fit for your agency. It's okay. There are lots of wonderful people out there. If Hannah had to do it all over again, her first hire would be a Director of Client Services. According to her, "Good work doesn't keep the clients. You're hired for your creative and technical abilities but you're fired for your service." How to motivate and inspire your team. All agency CEOs should know the importance of a happy team. There is no magic formula, but here's a darn good one: Great clients + Great office space + Great culture + Ownership of work These factors, when combined with the right people, make for happy employees. Happy employees motivate and inspire each other, and that's how awesome agencies thrive. (Note: giving out employee bonuses doesn't hurt either!) The “too busy” excuse. Sometimes also known as the “too poor” excuse, and it's just that - an excuse. If you want your business to grow, you're going to have to make time for it. Hire people organically as you grow. Don't think you can afford them? Then you're not charging enough. Your team is part of the billable hours, don't be afraid to include them in the costs. Would you like to get more strategies like this, and be apart of an elite group of agency owners? It can be very isolating running your own agency. Wouldn't you like to join a community of other agency owners that will hold you accountable for growing beyond yourself, all while supporting your journey to get there? That is exactly what the AGENCY Mastermind is all about. Check it out now.  Find the right Systems and Strategies that will help you grow faster. Check out the Playbook and the exclusive digital agency elite mastermind. Taking Your Agency to the Next Level Now that all your business owners know how to transition into agency CEOs, are there weaknesses within your agency that are causing everything to break down? Don't worry, I'm here for all the advice you need. I have been in the industry for a long time and I have had my own experience running my own digital agency as well as helping other digital agency owners so there are many topics where I can offer guidance. Whether you are experiencing challenges as an established agency or a new agency unsure of what the different phases of growth you will experience will look like, I've got you covered. As you continue to grow your agency team, I can show you how to recognize when it's time to hire a sales manager or expand your sales team to perfect your business strategy by creating a process for performance-based pricing and how to keep your big name clients happy. Are you ready to create something cool and want more advice? Learn about my career and different experiences as well as tips, tricks, and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. Or if videos are more your thing, visit my YouTube channel!

How to Overcome the Common Sales Objections In today's episode, I chat with Pamela Bruner about the common sales objections owners and salespeople encounter when dealing with prospective clients. How to change the perception of sales. Sales get a bad rap. People think of salespeople as being sleazy, or that the whole process is manipulation which leads to common sales objections. This bad perception is a challenge, but definitely something that can be changed. Talk to the prospective client as if you're partners. You're not selling, you're providing a service. Changing the conversation is how you'll do away with the negative image of sales. How to put the client at ease. Don't go in thinking “I have to get this sale no matter what.” That's how you end up with bad clients. Not to mention, you're not really going to be listening to their needs or to see if they're the right fit for your agency if it's just about the sale. Let's face it, people are uncomfortable in the sales process. They're nervous. And when you're presenting to a prospect, they're suspicious about you trying to sell them something. Sometimes they're too nervous to speak up about what they want. You need to understand all of this. By knowing the subtext of what they're going through and the source of their fears, you can combat the hesitations and create a better conversation. What are the magic questions to ask to get the answers you need? According to Pamela, asking questions is the magic tool of sales. Here are some gems for your toolbox: What is important to you? Name the #1 result you want to have? What is the cost to you to be in the position you're in now? How do you feel about where you are now? What frustrations are you experiencing? Remember, the meeting isn't about you... It's about the prospective client wanting what you offer. And you won't know if you offer what they want unless you listen. Plus, people love to be heard. Giving potential clients a chance to share how they feel and what they need makes them feel good and builds a sense of security. Use the Three I's to find out what the client needs. Ask about their issue, the impact it's having on their business, and how important it is to them to solve the problem. What if the client doesn't know the answers? If the prospect doesn't know how to do what you're telling them to do, that's great! They can hire you to do it. You're their expert. If the client doesn't know the answers to questions that you need in order to move forward, you may need to get the right person in the room. Ask the prospective client who can help answer those unknowns. But if they don't know the answers to questions or seem uninterested in finding them you need to take that as a red flag. Clients like that can quickly become nightmares. How to avoid sticker shock. Surely you've heard, “You cost how much? I could get it elsewhere five time cheaper!” You need to start out your conversations to avoid sticker shock. It will still come up but you can try to head off some of the brunt. Be very clear on what it will cost and why. Explaining the quality of your solution will help the prospect understand your pricing. To really drive the value home, ask them where their revenues are now versus where they would be if the problem was solved. It's almost always a significant amount which are common sales objections. Meaning it would cost them more not to solve the problem than it would to hire you. “But I don't have enough time or money to do it.” Chances are you've probably heard this one from potential clients too. Help them understand by breaking down how much time and money they'll get out of what they put in. People find time (and money) for what is important to them. Demonstrate to the client that it's important and they'll find a way to make it work. AGENCY MASTERMIND for agency owners that want to GROW PROFITS It can be very isolating running your own agency. Wouldn't you like to join a community of other agency owners that will hold you accountable for growing beyond yourself, all while supporting your journey to get there? That is exactly what the AGENCY Mastermind is all about. Click here to learn more... Discover the best Digital Agency Strategies today. Get Online Training to help you setup the right systems and strategies to help you grow faster. Improve Your Agency After common sales objections, what's next? Want to know how to face failing economies and recessions or how a speaking opportunity can create business? Maybe you want to know the four phases of growth within your agency and want extra help in taking your agency to the next level and selling your agency for a larger profit. I have all the information you need to help you through it. Learn more about me and my experience and find lots of tips, tricks, and insights by reading our blogs that cover a wide variety of topics! If videos are more your thing, don't worry, I've got you covered! Check out more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my YouTube channel. There you will find advice from me and other agency experts.

Interested in learning how to increase user engagement with your target audience? In this session of The Smart Agency Master Class I'm going to tell you about some agencies that are using surveys all wrong and give you suggestions on how to use them to have more frequent conversations. How you're probably using surveys now. Most agencies are using surveys to gain insights on their audience. These surveys ask questions like: What would you want in a particular product? The surveyor is asking because they're trying to find out what they should build. But the response they're most likely to hear is "faster" and "cheaper." Most surveyees don't know what they want. And how could they? They've never even seen it. Here's how to use surveys to increase user engagement. I use surveys to engage my audience more. For example, as I'm building my list (you need to be building lists, too!) I will ask for more engagement. I want to know more about them so I can send relevant information in the future. In order to learn more, I ask questions like: Are you a freelancer? Are you an agency under $1 million? Are you an agency over $10 million? I ask these questions because it changes how you talk to them going forward. You wouldn't have the same conversation with a freelancer that you would with an agency over $10 million. Now, I have - and do - use surveys to ask what their biggest challenges are. Most of the time, I already know the answer, but in these cases I'm asking so I can respond back with help and can get more engagement. The whole goal is to get the engagement back and forth. You want that dialog! B2B (even B2C) conversations lead to transactions. Pro Tip: People love for you to reach out to them and ask for their expert opinion. You're setting them up on a pedestal, and who doesn't love that? Part of the reason I do this podcast is to reach out to killer guests and start a relationship with them. Survey Challenge! I challenge you to create your own survey. Come up with a strategy to get more engagement and make a survey. Would you like to get more strategies like this, and be apart of an elite group of agency owners? It can be very isolating running your own agency. Wouldn't you like to join a community of other agency owners that will hold you accountable for growing beyond yourself, all while supporting your journey to get there? That is exactly what the AGENCY Mastermind is all about. Check it out now.  Discover the best Digital Agency Strategies today. Get Online Training to help you setup the right systems and strategies to help you grow faster. What's Next? Now you know how to increase user engagement, what is the next challenge you want to overcome in your agency? Through my own career and professional life, I have more than likely experienced all if not most of the different struggles you have and can help you with what I have learned. From bad agency clients, developing agency products as well as how you can build authority for your agency. If you want to grow your agency even further, I have agency growth hacks, the best ways to improve management of your business as well as why building a remote team can be beneficial in the long run. As well as this, you can learn more about my career as well as tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. I also hear the experience and advice from other successful agency experts in my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel.