How we helped Mark Grow His Kickboxing Gym And Increase His MRR by 71%

Sure.

So, so, so what was it like before you worked with us? I know you worked with another agency, you know, just working with the shift social. Like what's it been like for you?

It's been very, I don't want to give you just a generic answer. It's, it's definitely, it's been ideal because it's a situation where I'm paying a good bit of money for services and the services doesn't stop at just you launching the ads or getting me a bunch of leads and trying to fine tune their quality. It's really what comes in addition with just the lead generation. It's this stuff right here, right now we're doing. It's your team hitting me up on slack with updates. When I respond that one time I had that concern with the ad copy and. Got right on it, dude, right on it. Like I hardly even had them tagging her name in the slack and she was already responding to me saying she'd get on top of it. So it's just, you know, it's easy to spend money. Like if you were just sending me ads and that was it, we're getting the results we were doing, I would have been, we would have been done already because that's what happened to the guy. The Brits over in the uk, Santa Media was the name of the company. They would just give us leads. That was it. It was only when we started complaining about not getting, you know, good results that they sent us a little script. But I mean you go above and beyond to get us results. Your team's fast. We don't wait long at all for responses. So it's just ideal, man. It's ideal. It's a good exchange of value for what we pay for, sure. Especially. But you have, you have to have a client that's willing to, that understands how the game works though, you know, they're not, you know, 1250. Look, if it was 1250amonth and you were generating leads turning to conversions, you would be under priced significantly. Yeah, you know, if you got 200 conversions, you'd be charging me 10 grand a month and it would make sense. You know what I'm saying? Think about that. So crazy. But does it make sense? I mean like a customer's going to come and go 1250amonth. You give me 100 leads, they should all convert. Well then the price you're paying, if you're a good business owner, you know, that's not the trade off because you're not going to be that dumb to undersell yourself that much. It's getting you the leads, it's providing a lot of insight on how to fine tune that stuff and get better results. But, but your owners have to communicate with you as well. And I think, you know, maybe in the beginning, you know, you may have done that with me. Be sure to tell clients that. Be like, look, this is a two way relationship for me to help you. We have to communicate a lot in the slack and if you're seeing things you need us to fine tune, let's talk about it right away because we'll get right on it. Because like just the things we dialed into today, man, that's good. That's good stuff. You know, like, I really appreciate the two hours we got today. Both of us are very busy. So I really appreciate that. Like, I've got a list here of things to do and all the work I've been doing that I thought, man, we're spot on. I realized it's even mortifying too. So it excites me and it makes me feel like we're getting closer and closer to a system that's going to be near spot on but need smaller changes as we go. You know, it's like you're just fine tuning your fine tuning my business at the same time, right? The processes and you're helping me fine tune my business. So, you know, and I thought about this too, man. I know we talked about when I give you 10 referrals, the Boulder's free. I don't think that's reasonable, man. You know, you want to discount a little each month for the whatever. Cool. But I don't think free marketing on a boulder is reasonable. I wouldn't feel good about taking it with as much as you do for us.

So that's, that's amazing, man. And I appreciate that. You know, when I got started with you, I was kind of like, it's a new market, I'm new in town. You know, this guy's really cool. I just want to perform. I want it to be ROI positive. And you know, you're absolutely right. People have to commit to this program to get results. Like, I can't do any magic dust on the follow up and stuff. If somebody's a poor operational business owner, they can't do it. It's not going to work for us. So what about in terms of like, return on investment? Like dollar for dollar spent? Like are we, where, where do you see your return on, on, on everything that we've done and, and how much it's increased your Your bottom line, things like that.

Well, it's hard to say what's increased my bottom line right now because my bottom line is, is down. But it's because I'm spending so much on marketing and just other shit we got going on in the gyms. But I can't tell you what the net positive is financially because I just don't know. But I can tell you anecdotally, my managers have become more efficient with the automations, with the processes you put in place. As of lately, our leads are more responsive with the automations. You've helped me put in place, the understanding you've helped me have on what it is a click. What you've done very good at, what you've been very good at is putting me in the client's shoes. And whereas before we're like, thank you so much. Oh my God. And you know, we're like, come on in. And people kind of get put off to that. We're like, you know, and when you started telling me less is more and, you know, just these little things that we do here, like this is knowledge I'm gonna have forever. So that's priceless, you know, that's priceless. So the next year we open, I'm already gonna. It's gonna be easier for us to work together too, because we go boom. Automation's in place, processes in place, all this in place, launch the ads, and then we're going to be even more successful. So I think, I think next March, after New Year's, we'll be able to really have an idea of what working together has been like for us. And I'm sure you're learning in the process too, you know, but as long as we continue like this, this extra effort, you know, that you put in, like, you know, each gym that I open, I mean, I'm going to. Like I said, I'm just looking at this as a cost of doing business now until something crazy happens, I don't see it happen. So if you lose a lot of business and you know, if shit goes a long way, like you were just talking about, worst case, you just fire everybody, run the ad yourself for me, and you'll at least have three customers, you know, so, you know, maybe you hustle cars on the side, but I'm confident. Worst think about that, man. Like, I'll let you go. Cause I think you're good. When I think about my business, I think about the layers of protection before I'm in trouble, right? Like right now my income is very, very low. Dude, very low. But it's. Most of it is with intent. Right. I can go slash expenses tomorrow and put more in my pocket, but I want to keep a motivated team. I want to be thinking things up and I'm investing a lot in the business for the new Year's. But let's say things got real bad. Well, guess what? Expenses get slashed, gets even worse. Team gets slashed, gets even worse. I fire a manager, I'm back in the gym. There's layers before I'm homeless, you know, and we. Which, which means like there's such an insurance policy. Same for you. You get rid of your out of state people. Chase, sorry, brother. They work. You got to find a spot in Columbia. That sucks. But worst case scenario, you have all those layers to peel before you're worried about you. You might just have to work. You just might have to go back to doing work. You know what I'm saying? Like more work.

Yeah. And if that. Yeah. And. And I'll always have the skill set. Like I can teach any gym owner how to do this themselves if they want. So, you know, I, I think, I think the ads and stuff's only going to get better over time. You know, we have so much more to dive into. We're just on Facebook and Instagram with some basic, you know, follow up. But imagine we get a call center. Imagine we get Google Ads, TikTok ads, Snapchat, you know, like, of course they're all going to need to be ROI positive, but I really want to get you started on Snapchat, TikTok, optimize your landing page. And for the next gym you open, I would ask, please don't make a spark account for them. Let's run everything through the shift. Starting out, we'll hook them up with stripe, all the payments, all the processes. And I think that will literally like, I mean, just what I've seen from logos. It's insane. So I appreciate that feedback.

I just got one more.

What would you say to a close friend about working with us.

Prior? Probably a lot of the same. What I just told you. If you're, if you're looking to hire an agency and get the results you need, you have to be able to, to put in the, the. You have to do your part as an owner, as a customer, and probably the same spiel I just gave you. I mean, really, I could just say, you know, Rollie Delgado, I don't know if you heard back from him, but he called me, he goes, hey man, your guy was just saying you're Getting these kind of results. I don't know if it's true. I was like, well, I'm sure he's getting results like that in jiu jitsu. I said, you know our business because he's got kickboxing and Jiu jitsu. But I said, look man, I said it's a thing where you can't just be like, here's somebody run ads, give me customers. You've got to go, this is a relationship. And I've got to do my part too. I've got to use, I learned early I needed to use the slack chain because I wasn't using it much, wasn't checking it and now I'm like, I gotta get on my slack chamber. Not just when I need something, I need to look away. What Bella sending me, I need to ask questions and I need to look at my ads every day too. Because you all aren't perfect. You can make a mistake too. I thought there was a mistake on when it said North Texas. Turns out where it wasn't. But my point is an owner can't just go, well, hands off my business now. You should become more of an in tune business owner. And as a result, like I said, I'm a better business owner because I'm understanding a lot of these tactics. So if I would open a gym tomorrow, you know, the automations would be the most efficient they've ever been. The follow up process would be the most efficient it's ever been from all these things we've learned. And now that you and I developed a relationship, you're going to go, new gym, when's it open? I got you covered. Here's what we're going to run. Boom. And then we're just, instead of going, hey, you're my third agency for the year, what's your name? Let's get to know each other, right?

Well, when that new gym comes, let me know because if there's any, any, any opportunity for some kind of equity stake, anything, I don't know, business wise, what you want to do, I would build all the marketing myself from the ground up, invest in the ads to help grow that side potentially. I mean, we could have that conversation at a later date. But I mean I believe in this stuff a lot and I just know like if I was able to just get in there, build the funnel, if I'm running the ads myself, I'll make the videos myself. Like I, I'd love to blow something up like that. So. Yeah, man, I appreciate you.

Yeah. Real quick before we get off Are you worried right now?

I'm always worried, man.

This business is more, you seem, you seem more so now, though.

Yeah, we, we ran into a little bit of a cash flow issue in September, the beginning of September, and I had to literally just grind, cut a bunch of expenses. And I'm not worried, man, but it just doesn't feel like I have like, a lot of like, like people, people can, it seems like people don't like, need it sometimes, like, and I, I don't have a lot of continuity where I feel like I have like long term security. So I feel like I always got a hustle to get new clients. I feel like I always got to hustle to make sure you guys are good, you're getting good results. And so I'm not worried, but I just need to figure out something that's going to be, you know, it's going to be growing on its own, it's going to make sense to everybody and it's going to make good income come in because, I mean, I'm wearing a lot of hats, you know, but I'm not worried, man. I just, I just always want to do better, you know, I just always want to like, really make it happen. And you know, I, I, I might be really good at ads and stuff, but I'm not that great at businessman. I don't know that much about business. You know, I learned a lot from business from you, Butch. MIKE LERA SENIOR BUSINESS MENTORS but like, I'm really good at ads and stuff. But when it comes to like growing my own business and getting out of my way, like, not worried, but it's, it's, it's hard navigating on my own.

Yeah, yeah. Well, man, I'll say this. It's difficult too. We're both in the same boat. Both in businesses that tend to have a high turn rate. So that's always challenging because you're going, how do I increase retention? And sometimes the name of the, your industry has a lot more retention because, you know, whether it's the clients that are less motivated, don't want to work out that long, or maybe it's, you know, you got to tune up your process. Because when you sent me that text about the colony, you said, I got to get my business better. That's true, you know, and you should look at it that way. You shouldn't feel sorry for yourself. You should, you're going to question yourself for an hour or two. It hit you in the gut when they said that you're going, you know, you're really quick because then you'll start questioning yourself as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, are you really cut out for it? Then you start thinking about what if I'm back working for somebody else? And that makes you anxious and it's a cycle. But what I've always found is so long as I keep focusing on, on improving and addressing the things that are bothering the most, anxiety tends to go away. But when I put it off and I'm just, you know, three, four days go by, I've been floating on Instagram for too much. That's when it gets bad. So you know, just stay focused on it, man. And just try and sell yourself and be upfront with the client. That way they know what to expect. Is got to be a chance for this to work. We got to work together. What you know, very upfront, very clear. Right. Because what do most ad businesses. So we can get you 100 leads guaranteed. This, this, this and that. They don't say, well as the client to get that. Here's what I need from you. So as a business owner where I understand that now and more. And honestly I probably didn't understand it so much until we worked together because we would fine tune things. So I probably learned that working with you, I would just suggest maybe try making that clear to some clients and then maybe they know what to expect and you learn to look. Some months you may have great show, some of us may be low show and the tides turn based on these factors. So we always have to adjust so that one month and I may be rolling to get news the next, it may hit a brick wall. That's where we have to give them a call and start talking about it. Fine tune that way. So then they're not bad much. I'm done. They're like, hey, this is part of the process. Just like a long term stock investor. They know that it's going to be 30, 40% every 10 to 12 years. So Warren Buffett doesn't go, oh no, I need to sell everything. He goes, this is part of the process. I'm just going to keep buying. It'll go back up. If the owner understands that with your relationship, I think you'll probably keep more attention.

I appreciate that, man.

That's a bad month or two. They're like, it's the name of the game. That's the marketing game. Where because but they're so you seeing ads from all these agencies saying I can get you these results. Look how this guy. Yeah, it's awesome. But not everybody's going to get that. It's rare and most of the time it's over a long period of time.

Yes. And it takes a lot. Like I've been telling people that a little bit more lately. Like some things that you're going to have to do, you're going to hate. You're going to be working leads, you're going to have to use this new system, you know, you're going to have to follow our protocol and it's going to take a lot of work, but you know, whatever if you want to get to that result.

So yeah man, I appreciate like a six month deal or something. Just like, I don't know, I don't, I know everybody's doing month to month but man, for me to honestly get these results, it takes time. All these agencies are telling you they get a month. It's hogwash, you know, it's, it's dreams.

At least 90 days, you know. At least 90 days, you Know.

Yeah. That way you lock in that revenue.

So what would you tell somebody that's on the fence about working with us?

I don't know man. I'd have to think about that. I told Eric and Steve, the guys you talked to, Pyramid. I said, hey, I'm spending this much a month marketing working with him right now. And it was like, you know, with ad spends like six grand, seven grand, something like that between the three gyms. And that was just to put into perspective for them because their kickboxing program's like nine grand a month revenue. So I just said that put it in perspective. But they know me, they know me, they call me a lot, they know me as a business owner. So I don't know, I mean, what's the worst that can happen? You invest three months, you get a lot of leads at some point. They may not have high intent right now, but you can recycle them and get them later. You know, what do you have to lose? Just a little bit of money, you know, I mean, I know, I don't know, I'd have to think more about it to give you a more.

Oh, that's great, man.

Advanced, you know. But in my opinion, that's what I told Eric. What's the worst that can happen? You spend some money, it doesn't go the way you want it to. It's the worst that can happen. You're not gonna lose your business, you're not gonna lose your house tax.

Write off.

What's the best that can happen? It could be a long term marketing relationship where like because this takes a lot of stress off me. Because I'm not bouncing in between agencies trying to figure who's gonna do it, trying to do it myself when I can't stand it, am I good at it. I have a lot of confidence now going, I know who my agency is and I know, I know what goes into getting good results, and it includes work from my side. So it takes a lot of load off me as a customer and as a business owner, for sure. He leads. So he leads.

That's perfect, man. Well, I really appreciate that insight, man. You're awesome to work with. Like, literally, you know, meeting you at the gym and you said, hey, I was working with this agency and leads and Facebook, I. I got so excited because I just felt it. I was like, I think, I think this is my alley.

You know, I got you that deal too. Is you sending that free video unsolicited. Hey, Mark, here's what you can do on the ads you've built. You gave me free, and I immediately said, right there, I'm gonna give him one gym just for that. We'll give a gym and see what happens. I wasn't gonna take. I wasn't gonna go change my ads on what you told me for free. I wouldn't. I wouldn't dare do it. Just like I won't dare take free marketing out of Boulder. It's just not. It's just not something I'm. I'm with. You know what I'm saying? If you do good work, if you want to get, you know, 250 for a referral for one month link, that's pretty cool to me. I think you should be able to depend on long term revenue, you know, so if, you know, call Everybody signed up. 250 discount on Boulder. Cool. No problem. I think permanently, 1250 is. It's fine. It's fine for the work you do, man. We wouldn't be where we are right now without you. Matter of fact, I can tell you this, here's some numbers for you. I can tell you that since working with you, we went from. Give me one sec. Do you have a second?

Yeah, I got a second.

Yeah, this is great. Second. I know you got a roll, but you wanted numbers. Well, I got something for you. So are we on share screen right now?

You got to share your screen still.

Okay. I'm not. It's just. This is like, I'm going through some personal or a lot of, like, confidential stuff's about to pop up. So I just wanted to make sure. Not that I don't trust you, but I don't know exactly what number is about to pop up.

Yeah, no worries. And yeah, this is recording, so I'll take anything out that if there, if there is anything.

But you still see me, you don't see my screen, right?

Yeah, I just see you.

Yeah. So here's what I can tell you. I can tell you that we were considering closing Boulder just because we were frustrated with Boulder, we were frustrated with our politics, etc. Etc. We started working with you. Was it February? That's when our advertising budget went up significantly. Was it off top of your head?

I think March, because February is my first month. I was there a couple weeks. Probably February, maybe we started.

Okay, I'm going to say February because that's when my, my spending went up. So we went from. I'll give you, I'll give you a great number here for you. Dude, you can use this number because I don't think it would have happened without you at all. So in February, we did 11,858 revenue last month. And again, those hard numbers, you know, that's confidential. You can use the, you can use the percentages though, which you'll like. Okay. Last month we did 2284. Wow. So you can call that, see here, 2284 -1158 divided by. You can call it a 71% increase in revenue since we started using it. Wow.

And you guys were actually thinking about closing Boulder.

Well, man, you got to think about it. We knew the market was the market we wanted to be in, but they wouldn't let us take the freaking masks off.

Yeah.

You know, working out a mass, nobody wanted to do that. So I mean, if we were to say some of that might be from the lack the rules easing people want to work out again, but I'm telling you, the majority of it, even last year, you know, last year when we were maskless, doing our own. Let's see here. I mean, I'll tell you, last year, 20, 21, date shoot. Wrong business. So this is why I clicked the wrong spreadsheets, is why I want to have it on recording. It shows numbers that have nothing to do what we're talking about. Absolutely. Yeah. So, dude, we never went past the best month we had. Last year when they had the masks off, we did 12,763 bucks. And I was spending, you know, about 1500amonth in ad spend in marketing. And that was me building the ads. So that's all ad spend there on my low quality ads. And we didn't spend much August through October because shit, man, they weren't, they were not letting us do anything. In November, we spent 3,000 with that agency out of the UK, which is Santra Media, which I still see their ads, and we were not happy with them at all. And I bet you if they took the approach you did, they may have been able to keep our business, but they didn't do anything but go, oh, you're having problems. Okay, cool, here's a sheet. Use this. That's it? That's it. There's no team going. We're updating. We do slack messages two, three days before responses. Sometimes that's, that's a pain in the ass. We're spending 1400 bucks a month for the service, so. Discounted from 1997. You can believe that. Which is great.

Just to run ads with no real responsibility on the results.

Yeah, so, so there you go, man. I mean you call it a 71% send you to say, you know, what is that? March, April, May, June, July, August. In a six month period, we experienced a 71% increase in total revenue since working with, you know, shift social.

That's amazing, man. I'm so, I'm so blessed, bro. And so, so grateful to be able to do that for you guys. Like, I had an idea. I was a broke kid coming off partying drugs.

Were you broke when you had a long hair to get you?

Yeah, no, when you first met me, Was that before I moved here?

I think you just moved here. I mean, it was the first time I'd seen you here training.

I wasn't very broke. I've been ups for the last few years since I started my business. But when I, when I got this idea to do these ads and stuff, I was so broke, like I couldn't afford rent month to month working detailing cars. And I just had this idea. I was like, business owners don't have time for this. If I get really good at this.