In this testimonial interview, Zach, a partner at Scalability—a bookkeeping and finance firm for SMBs—describes his year‑long search for an effective marketing partner. After working with multiple agencies and spending significant time and money without clear results, he turned to Social Club Studios, led by Peter Vander Wall. Within three months, Zach saw a three‑fold increase in qualified client calls compared to the previous nine months, and after about two months he could finally calculate a reliable cost‑per‑appointment metric. This data clarity gave him the bandwidth to focus on pricing strategy and operational improvements, creating a positive feedback loop for growth. Zach emphasizes the value of working with an A‑player team, recommends Social Club Studios to other firm owners, and notes that while results aren’t guaranteed, the partnership offers a faster path to measurable marketing success.
Chapters
I had looked far and wide working with other agencies, working with other folks, probably for about a year, just trying different things and realizing that some of the roles I was playing in the business, like I didn't have as much time to the marketing side. I was interested in learning more. And honestly, in a nutshell, like I just wanted to work with A-players and I just like, I feel like I hadn't found it. That was probably the main thing. Cause like, I feel like I knew what an A-player looked like, an A-player team looked like, and I hadn't had that. And so after talking with people and going through it, you know, I'd been kind of watching Peter Vander Wall's content for a while, seeing what the team had done, seeing the results. The experience compared to before was awesome. Like I can, you know, we were tracking numbers pretty close 3 months of data with Social Club Studios, like in terms of just like number of like qualified calls we had where we were like with people who were, we consider like, oh, you could be a client, was probably more than we'd gotten through other channels over the past like 9 months before. So it was like an easy 3x, probably more. My name is Zach, one of the partners at Scalability, and we basically do bookkeeping, controllership, day-to-day finances for SMBs. That's a high level of what we do in a nutshell. I think we're serving folks, you know, typically maybe more in the medium-sized businesses depending depending how you look at the landscape. But ultimately, really looking to kind of plug in as like the finance team. And so that's essentially in a nutshell what we do.
How much did you spend with all the different other things that you tried before you came our way?
Yeah, it's a good question. The real pain was like time. Like there was a money cost, like I can't put, I won't put the exact number to it, but like I think the time cost was real for sure. And the money cost was real too. Like call it in, you know, like any folks in the space who are spending, you know, 6 months figuring out, you're probably spending at least in the thousands of dollars, like minimum. Like really hadn't seen like the results. And I was like, I feel like there should be a better way. And I kind of felt like I want to do it myself. But as I was doing other things, I was like, I'd love to just buy back my time, just like the same value prop we do to clients. It's like, we're trying to get this off your plate. Like, what's your bread and butter? We're really good at this other thing. I feel like I'm pretty good on certain pieces. But I was like, if there's a team who's been there, done that, who can be very helpful, who knows what it looks like, who can kind of hold up to the standard I want, like, I want to give that a shot. I want to be part of that team.
What's the experience been like? Working these leads, selling these leads, working with the team?
The experience compared to before was awesome. Like, I can, you know, we were tracking numbers pretty close, and 3 months of data with Social Club Studios, like, in terms of just like number of like qualified calls we had where we were like with people who were, we consider like, oh, you could be a client, was probably more than we'd gotten through other channels over the past like 9 months before. So it was like an easy 3x, probably more.
What would you say was that moment for you where you were like, wow, okay, this is the real deal?
I think I knew it when I started seeing, you know, after probably 2 months of consistent data where I was like, okay, I, I actually can come up with a number of kind of cost per appointment. Like, I really never was able to do that cleanly before. I was always pulling from disparate sources and trying to aggregate things across, you know, referrals versus not. It just wasn't clear. So like, I think just having some clear numbers for some of the first times through an acquisition channel was like, really nice. That took about 2 months, and I wouldn't say it's like perfect, I don't want to like tell people it's just perfect after 2 months, but I can say it's leaps and bounds better than what we had before. And that was really the big thing.
How has this changed the way you're kind of thinking about like growing the business from here?
I like getting involved with different facets of the business. I really enjoy the sales and marketing side. I also, you know, want to get more involved in the ops side. And so, once I had more data coming in and know that there was a bit more pipeline being generated, it gave me flexibility to understand what pricing should look like, kind of start to take a look at internal ops of how we can do things there. And so again, you're trying to like plug holes when you're getting started. I'd say we were past getting started, but it was this, I still felt we were kind of plugging holes and I was like, as painful as it is, like I think we need, I need to focus on this one before I can go to the other stuff. And now I've had a bit more space to kind of be like, hey, I do like ops. There's a lot of, you know, efficiency work that I would like to be working on, but like I'm not gonna take my eye off the ball until like I kind of work on this. So knowing that Peter Vander Wall has done that, it's given me a bit more flexibility to go to the other pieces that I want to work on and push harder there. And I think that creates that flywheel that I really want. Not that we're there, but like, I want to kickstart, I want to have more of that feel. And I do think that's how it's really changed this.
Let's wrap it up, Zach. What would you tell another firm owner who's like considering working with us? They're on the fence, they're not 100% sure yet.
Look, I know it's a big decision. I think it just comes down to like how fast you want to get there. Because you'll see, like, we're not the only people in the space. Like, there's other people who have been there, done that, and who are doing it. And so obviously no one can guarantee you results, I think you can, I can say you'll be working with an A-player team, and that has gone tremendously far. So I would say go for it, for sure. But that's kind of in an unbiased way, like you'll be working with a great team who will kind of uphold their world, and if you do what they say, you kind of deliver and show up ready, I think they give you better shot than any of the folks I've kind of got to work with. So I will say that. Results aren't guaranteed, your results may vary, but I think you'll be working with a great team.
