Agency Success Interview with Shawn Tiberio

Podcast where we're interviewing highly successful digital marketing agencies from across the country on how they're growing their, their businesses, how they're landing clients, delivering results, retaining the clients they have, and scaling. Today I'm super excited to be joined by Sean Tiberio, uh, who's built a great 7-figure agency serving the real estate investor niche. Um, he's doing some really innovative things, and I think you're going to get a lot of great insights today. So If you're excited, you're going to want to tune in. Um, Sean, welcome. Thanks so much for being here.

Josh, thanks for having me. It's been a, been a long time, so I'm excited to be on it.

Yeah, man. So for, for the single listeners, like, tell us a little bit about the agency as it sits today. How many clients, how much revenue, kind of what's the lay of the land?

Yep, currently, uh, we're just over there about the 92-ish or so thousand MRR. It's Kind of been bouncing around and, uh, starting to grow a little bit more. Um, we service just over about 260-something clients right now nationally, uh, which many of those have been around since the inception of the, of the agency, which is really cool to see.

Fantastic. So a very, you know, well-established 7-figure agency hasn't always been the case. Like you've, you've been growing rapidly over the last couple of years. Kind of tell us the story, kind of the evolution of the agency.

Um, over the last couple years, we got started probably no different than any other, you know, marketing agency out there. My business partner and I, we kind of came together back in 2019. I was doing a ton of business consulting in the real estate space. Uh, my partner comes from more of the web dev SEO model, was just kind of building his own web development agency. And, uh, I was pumping him full of clients of people that I was consulting with and he gave this grand idea, hey, why don't we build a true marketing agency? And that was the birth of the legacy side, right? Where we were pretty much taking anybody in any niche. We focused heavily in one industry being the real estate side, because that's my background. That's where we came from. But we were still kind of all over the place. And most of 2019 and even into 2020 with the rapid change with the pandemic and everything, we saw growth, but it wasn't consistent growth. It wasn't predictable growth. That was probably the biggest, uh, piece of it. We'd have really big up months, and then we'd have other months where it was like, what happened? Everything's dead. Um, and we were really focused on a model that, uh, you know, unfortunately, yes, we were scaling the number of clients, but the revenue wasn't scaling alongside of it. We were undercharging. Our program was a little bit kind of all over the place. Uh, and that's kind of when, uh, we when you and I kind of met and, and started to, to conversate. And next thing you know, we found the 7 Figure Agency Program. That's when things really started to, to turn around for us. And that was, I think, September of 2021 when we finally made the commitment, got involved with the group. Uh, and ever since, it's been night and day difference from the way agency life used to be to where it's at today.

That's awesome, man. Really excited and honored to have you as part of the, the community and excited to be part of your growth. Um, if you had to pick like 3 things that you implemented from 7 Figure Agency that you took away that helped to accelerate the growth, like, what would those be?

Biggest thing out of the gate was we made a commitment to niching down and building the niche brand. Uh, our legacy side was called Top Results Consulting. Again, it was more from the consulting space. It made it really difficult to tell the story and really position ourselves in an industry, uh, and really, you know, simply explain what it is that we did. We were again all over the place. So Right away when we joined 7FA, the first thing we said was, that's it. This name REI Toolbox was actually on the shelf. This was something that Roger and I came up with sitting in San Diego back in like 2017, 2018. We had this grand idea. It was a completely different vision than what it is today, but the name, we owned it. So we made that initial commitment. We're going to niche down, we're going to build a niche agency, we're going to build the brand around that. Uh, we're going to really heavily focus on serving one type of, of client. And as scary as that was, again, we were still young. MRR wasn't there. We had the, you know, desire to want to just take anybody and everybody. We really kind of committed to it. So that was probably one of the biggest changes. The second one, you talk about this all the time. It has been the staple. I had written a book prior, nothing to do with the agency, nothing to do with marketing. It was 100% more of a mindset style book. And when you started talking about the power of a book inside of the agency and positioning yourself, I mean, I immediately just ran with that, got it out. And ever since that, that has been our biggest growth piece. I ship more of those out, you know, in a month than probably anything else that we do. It's also landed us a ton of opportunities behind it. And then if I were to say the third one, the third one was really building a much better internal system for nurturing and consistent marketing with our— not just our current clients, but with our database. I come from a background of trainings, trainings, trainings. I run a lot of trainings, I run webinars, I get on stages, I do a lot of this stuff. But what I wasn't doing a good job of was repurposing that and using it from a more nurture standpoint. And it was just the systems were all over the place. So tapping into some of the, the community, learning how, you know, what softwares were they using, how are they building more of that omnipresence kind of, uh, piece. That was something powerful right out of the gate for us that kind of took the mess and the chaos, brought some organization to it, and we started to see some growth behind that.

I love it. So choosing the niche, publishing the book and marketing the book as a tool, and then putting your nurture systems in place to position yourself and be top of mind with your prospect base. Let's talk about the niche thing first, because you mentioned that first, and I know a lot of agencies struggle with this because it feels like there's more opportunity if you work with anybody than if you just focus on a niche. Um, how did you choose the, the real estate investor niche specifically, and what kind of— what drove you down that track?

Uh, this is a funny story because I'll be honest, I fought it. I did not want to go down this path. Uh, I've been in the real estate— I've been a real estate investor investor since 2011, built a couple businesses in the real estate sector, uh, exited my property management company. I was pretty much over it, I'll be honest. I, I looked at that industry and was like, I do not want to deal with these, you know, individuals any longer because I know what they're like because I was one of them. My business partner, on the other hand, he was so adamant because that was where his expertise was at. That's what he thrived on. That's what he loved. And when we sat back, and this is kind of going back to when we first joined 7FA, when I sat down with them and I said, okay, let's take a look at our client base because we've got a decent client base right now, but we're all over the map. Where is the best clients that we have in the client base as far as being active, getting involved in trainings, being in a position where we can actually impact them and help them grow? Because I don't like agency to just be in this position of, well, we're driving you leads, wish you the best of luck, right? I like to see the— and that's the consultant side of me coming out. And when we sat down and threw it all on the wall, real estate kept shining to the top. And not just real estate itself, but real estate investors, the cash home buyers, the ones that really struggle building a business around an investment, you know, model. And after fighting it for a good 6, 8 months, it kind of was, you know, smacked me in the face and was like, Sean, this is, this is what you guys are built for. This is what you, you know, uh, you really could become a dominant player in this industry if you just lean into it. And that's, that's what ended up happening.

I love that. I think it's interesting, a lot of us, they wind up with that struggle. It's like, I've got this background, but I want to, you know, go do something different. I want to chase other rainbows. But always the path of least resistance, where you've already got some background, you've already got some notoriety, you've already got some client wins on the board, is going to be the best play. And so, for you coming from that background, being a speaker and already having so much positioning already that you can carry forward, it was a no-brainer. And I'm glad you didn't continue to fight it because the path of least resistance is always the fastest path to accelerated growth.

100%.

Excellent. Okay. So the second thing you mentioned was your book. Um, and so you already had a book and then you published a book specifically for real estate. Tell me about like what that book was, what the topics were, how you got it done, just in, in Cliff Notes version.

So I don't know if you guys can see it on the board behind me, but the title's called Marketing Is Like Dating. This is a saying that I've been pretty much throwing out there to my audiences, the, the people that I've been working with. For years, and a bunch of old clients of mine, longtime friends of mine, they were like, man, you need to write a book called Marketing Is Like Dating. So when you started talking about it, I was like, okay, well, I think I have the book name already in place. So the concept of marketing is like dating, right? We can't go out— if I'm a single guy, I can't go somewhere, meet a, you know, beautiful woman that is attractive to me and immediately walk up to that person and say, would you like to get married? Yet in the real estate investor world, I see this so often with our, our type of investors reaching out to sellers that are in distress saying, hey, Josh, I know I just met you 2 seconds ago, but would you like to sell me your house for probably the most discounted rate you're ever going to see, uh, and, and make me a ton of money? And when our clients started to wrap their mind around, we have to date the prospect, right? We got to date our potential opportunities, build that relationship. And I started to really break that apart. That's kind of how the book got laid out then, where it talks about what does that first date look like. And, you know, if we go back to the dating scene for a second, if I meet somebody, I'm probably going to look them up. I'm probably going to see if there's some stuff out there. You know, today data is at a plethora. We can get so much at our fingertips. You know, if my daughter was going to date somebody right now, I'm probably going to look up the guy and see, you know, does he have any arrests, these type of things, right? Is he a criminal, right? Is there things that we should watch out for? Well, the same is true with our business. They're going to do a brand search. They're going to look at us and see what kind of reviews do we have and all these kind of things. So the book basically just translates back and forth between dating and business and how the two really, when you think about it, are pretty similar, just in two different spaces. Uh, and the name itself has been pretty catchy. I've literally had people come up to me at events and go, hey, I run a podcast for marriage couples, you know, marriage discussions. Can you— and it's like, no, that's not what it's about. Uh, but it always grabs people's attention when it's on the table. They stop, they laugh at it, and it opens up the door to have the bigger conversation with them.

I love it. So you came up with this, this concept, you put it into a book. Um, I know a lot of people publish a book and then maybe they get it on Amazon and it doesn't really do them any good. It sounds like you're using the book as a positioning asset. You're getting it into the hands of your prospects. Talk to us about how you market the book and how you use it as a promotional strategy to get appointments and sales.

I mean, obviously all the, the normal stuff, right? The free plus shipping, uh, funnel is out there where we consistently kind of keep some ads running at that. Uh, but the big thing that I use it for is I'm big with live events. I'm a, I'm a speaker by trade. This is— I thrive when you put me in front of an audience. I can probably do more business that way than any other time. So I use the book to open those doors. I, I send it out to a lot of event coordinators. I send it out to a lot of group owners. We've landed a handful of major partnerships lately, in this last 7, 8, 9 months. All that started from simply getting the book in front of that person, them starting to kind of look through it, and then, you know, seeing some of the other stuff behind it. The other area that I market it like crazy is we use it a lot when we set up our booth at trade shows. I always have copies there. And I've played the different strategies. You know, we'll give it away for free if you sign up for a strategy session. But I've also— what I've seen lately, when I put it on the table and I say that it's $10 today, it's $20 on Amazon, and then I get people really hemming and hawing, and then they start asking the questions, well, how can I get it for free? So we've used different techniques to let the book be more of a magnet at the different events or different places. I give them away like crazy. I've probably bought hundreds and hundreds of these things and, uh, made no money on them. I've just given them out. But, uh, it's real fun, especially the large trade shows when everybody in that trade room is walking, all the attendees are walking around and you see your book. I've had other vendors come up and be like, what, what is this thing about? Um, because everybody seems to have it in their hand when they walk by their booths, uh, which just draws more attention, opens those doors, um, which is, you know, what I'm ultimately after.

I love it. So, some great tips here. I really believe that having a published book is one of the best positioning assets you can have, right? Because the author and the speaker, the two things you referenced, make you the outright expert in what you're doing. But also promoting the book, and it sounds like you're using the book to get joint venture opportunities, to get speaking opportunities. And then when you're at events, you're using it as the lead magnet that you give in exchange for contact details in exchange for an appointment. And if you're listening, yes, this is the way to do it, right? Don't just put the book on Amazon and hope that people beat a path to it, right? You've got to get it up there, but then you got to get it out, right? You got to leverage it. And, and if you do it that way, it can pay dividends in terms of your positioning, in terms of your speaking opportunities, and ultimately in terms of your, your growth and your deal flow.

100%.

Okay, so we talked about the niche, then we talked about the book. The third thing you mentioned was kind of, you know, putting the system in place internally to nurture your database and to kind of build that authority. Talk to us about that and kind of what you put in place on that front.

Yeah. So early on when we got going with everything, we were really big with HubSpot. We were HubSpot partners. That was the CRM that we were using. Loved it to death. Very cumbersome, right? Very robust, but also very deep on the pocketbook. Through meeting you, get involved in 7FA, that's where we found HighLevel. And instantly, once I saw that platform and saw how some of the coaches and some of the mentors inside of the 7FA program were implementing it, I immediately jumped on that. And ever since, we've, we've taken that, we've run with it. You know, we white label it now. It's baked into some of our pieces, but I probably use it at the most robust level possible inside of our own agency to run things. So everything from nurture sequences, when somebody fills out an ad, does whatever the case, it's so much stuff has been automated now inside of there, which has really allowed us to scale, but scale with a small team. When we look at the number of clients that we serve and what we do and how well we're leveraging not just that software, but a number of other pieces of software to help automate things inside the agency, We've been able to scale to this level. I think we've got 9 total team members if you include Roger and myself in the mix.

Wow.

So to be able to still do that, do it at a high level, deliver— you love to say it, right— those world-class results. For us, it was, you know, I'm a one-man show on this side of the company. The bulk of the team is on the other side. I got to leverage my time the best that I can because, again, I want to be on more podcasts. I want to be speaking. I don't want to be strapped in front of writing an email. Sending this stuff out. So building those automations, um, webinars is the other big one that we use it for. I've been playing with all different ways to, to pull some of that data in, put them into certain workflows, get those attendees showing up. And we're lately, we've been pulling a lot of offline marketing. Okay, the non-digital stuff, direct mail being a really big one. And baking that into the, the workflows and doing different things with it to continue to stay in front of prospects, right? Um, you know, in a way that maybe other digital agencies aren't doing. They're not used to seeing that 6x9 postcard showing up with REI Toolbox all over it when every other marketing agency's smacking them with ads and emails and, you know, text messages and all that kind of stuff. So that, that's been a big game changer for us is just HighLevel and the ability that it's given us, uh, not just to add to our programs and add value and be able to sell bigger programs out of it, but also what it's done to speed up and make internal operations a lot easier.

I love it. And so if you're, you're listening and you're trying to think like, what's the takeaway here, guys? If you don't have a database, uh, a funnel and marketing automation in place for your own agency, you're missing a massive opportunity, right? You need to build that. You need to eat your own dog food. If you're, if you're a marketing agency, and leverage automation, right? HighLevel is amazing where you can email, text message, direct mail, and kind of have it all in an automated platform. And it seems like that's worked really well for you, Sean.

It has.

Amazing. So let's, let's shift gears a little bit. We talked about some of the key strategies. Would love to know if you think about how you're landing clients, right? You made this pivot from being a general agency to being a niche agency. Um, what's working best? And you've kind of grown to, you know, $90,000 plus monthly. Like, what's working best to get those, those clients to sign up for your, your retainer-based services?

We've pretty much done it. We've done some paid strategies, but for the most part, what works best for us— and it's probably going to sound like a broken record— speaking, right? And when I say speaking, I'm not just talking about live in a room on a stage in front of audiences. I did a training yesterday. Basically was a webinar, but it's more of a training, right? Workshop style. I've got a webinar coming up today. I'm speaking virtually at an event this weekend on Saturday. I was at a live event 2 weeks ago in front of an audience. I've got another one coming up at the end of November. I got another one coming up in December. Like, speaking is everything from getting on podcasts to the webinars to the the workshop trainings. With the technology today, I personally think there is zero excuse for an agency owner to not be able to create their own space, to be able to position themselves, deliver value, impact, um, their, their, you know, audience, and impact the niche that they're trying to do. And yes, we want to get on other people's stages, we want to get in front of other audiences. That will come. Uh, but for us, our number one lead generator right now, uh, is me being in front of groups and, and talking. And that could be a group of 5 people, that could be a group of 500 people, getting in front of it, speaking, delivering those results. And a, a byproduct of it, it, we end up with more clients. We end up with people saying, I fell in love with you guys. I like what you're doing. I want your help.

Love it. So, for you, it's speaking virtually, in live workshops, at real estate investor conferences, at real estate meetups is kind of the lion's share of the opportunity. I think if you couple that with the book, that kind of helps you get those speaking opportunities, also helps you convert some of those people at the event to take the next step. For those that are listening and they're like, you know, you've got an amazing background in speaking, I mean, you were speaking before you started the agency. You've actually run amazing workshops for 7 Figure Agency Community on how to open your events and really how to be a world-class presenter. Like, what would be a couple of tips to, number one, get speaking opportunities in their niche, and then number two, how to actually do that well, right? Because not everybody is a confident, well-spoken speaker like you.

Yeah, before I even go into that, I wasn't this way. Um, if you were to back up to 2014, 2013, 2014 is kind of when I started to get exposed to the world of, of public speaking. And I remember telling one of my, my mentors at that time that I was learning under, I was deathly afraid not to be necessarily on the stage and speak, because I can find that confidence. But for me it was, what do you mean I need to do workshop style and, and kind of write some stuff out? I failed high school practically. I, I sucked at English, right? Spelling is probably the worst thing that I, I have on me. And he told me, he said, listen, Sean, if you get on stage, if you get in front of a room, you get in front of a webinar, whatever the case, and you're saying the same thing the same way every single time, it just becomes boring and you lack creativity. So just get up there and be creative. And I know at the time he was telling me that to try to ease my mind, but what I took from that was it's okay to, to get out there and do it. And it may not be perfect. 90% of the time, the audience that you're speaking with has no idea that you just messed up, that you meant to say something different than what you said, that you forgot to talk about something, because they didn't know any of these, right?

Right.

So we could be our own worst critic on that, that front. So how, how do you get more opportunities? It starts by you just doing it. Some of the best ways to land actual speaking opportunities is to have proof that you know what you're talking about. Well, what's an easy way in today's day and age to do that? Get on and run a webinar, put some YouTube videos together, host a podcast, get on podcasts, right? As much as you can do that puts you— this is still considered a form of speaking when it's you showcasing your knowledge. And when you take that couple that with the book, put together a strong speaker package, right? Speaker one sheet, enough information, and you give that off to some of the industry events that are out there, especially in some of the big niches that are around. It's not going to take long before they start inviting you. Um, you know, I'll give you a live example of that. At the event I was just at 2 weeks ago, I had no idea that there was a booth there, uh, that was planning on putting a major real estate event together up in Colorado.

Hmm.

Didn't notice that they were there for something else, but in the back of their mind, they were looking for vendors and people to invite to that event. I got so focused during my speaking session on the actual coordinator for the event that I was at, 'cause he chose to sit in my breakout session and I wanted to really make an impact on him. Didn't know any of this other stuff. Immediately when I was done, this individual came up to me and said, hey, here's the dates. It's in March. We're doing it up in Denver. We don't just want you there, we're mandating that you be there, and we're going to save the final keynote spot for you. Wow. Now that only happens because— proof, right? They saw it. I couldn't have applied for that, I couldn't have pushed for that without them seeing it firsthand and realizing that this is exactly what we want, you know, at our event. This is the information that we want, this presenter is the one that we want to do it, that kind of stuff. So how do you get more of these? Start doing more of it yourself. And that's why I go back to the point I said before, Today's day and age, technology, it's way too easy to create your own. Hey, if you had to, you could just turn the camera on and act like you're doing a live workshop and nobody's even there. Record it, right? There's zero excuse, in my opinion, to, uh, to not have good speaking opportunities to help you land better ones in the future.

I love it. So I think it starts, guys, with setting the intention, right? If you're trying to position yourself as the go-to expert in your space, Set the intention. I want to put out good content. I want to get speaking opportunities. Stage time is money time. And don't vex over it. Know that Shawn, when he started, didn't have confidence. He wasn't like, you know, a dynamic speaker. He had to develop that skill over time. And so know that at the beginning, it's going to be a little bit scary. And you might not be a rock star right out of the gates. But as you develop that skill, it's an extremely financially lucrative skill that will pay dividends and you will get better and better over time. And speaking opportunities are going to beget more speaking opportunities, and, and you'll be able to go up higher and higher. Like, Sean probably didn't start with the keynote at one of these conferences. He started as probably like a little breakout in one of the small rooms, and as he proved himself, you know, he started getting bigger and bigger stages.

Absolutely. Um, yeah, I can— there's stories I can tell for days. I remember standing on stage once and completely drawing the biggest mind blank I've ever had in front of one of the biggest rooms I've ever had. And, you know, those moments actually help us grow, in my opinion. And I know there's probably somebody out there listening right now and, you know, you're probably the PPC expert or you're the big SEO expert. Roger, my business partner, is actually a great example of this. The very first time I threw him in front of a room at an event that we were putting on ourselves for our clients, he was up the whole night before. I don't think he slept because he was in such a panic to have to get up and teach an area of expertise, something that if you just sat down and talked to him, you'd be like, man, he is so knowledgeable in this. But the thought of standing in front of a room crushed him. Fast forward about 6, 8 months, getting on consistent podcasts with me, doing different trainings with me in front of our clientele, that kind of stuff. Now you put him in front of a room and sometimes I have to like throw the hook and pull him away from the stage because he just, he's so comfortable with it. But 2 years ago, you know, he was completely frozen and didn't know what to say. So, absolutely.

So, it's a matter of kind of stretching that comfort zone, right? Everything's uncomfortable until you do it a couple of times. And then, once you stretch the comfort zone, you can do it confidently, get better and better over time.

Absolutely.

So, speaking opportunities is kind of the number one play for you. I know you've done a lot with joint ventures and kind of, you know, structuring arrangements where you work with groups or kind of consultants or coaches in the industry. Can you talk a little bit about like joint venture strategies and how that's playing into your growth?

Yep. So all of the joint ventures have actually come off the back of speaking opportunities. Uh, every joint venture that we've put together has come from a relationship that got built during an event where that person, uh, either saw me, saw something about it, or heard everybody raving about something. From that. So what we've been doing a lot with the, the JVs is in, in the real estate investing space, almost every area has what they call REIAs, Real Estate Investor Associations. Very small real estate groups. They typically meet once a month depending on the area. Like out here in Los Angeles, there's actually 3 of them. Each one of them will have consistently 100 to 150 attendees every single month. Now, every month they're looking for different speakers to come in, run an educational session, right? But they're also looking for sponsors and vendors and, you know, providers to add value to it during the networking times and these type of stuff. So what we started to do with those type of groups, many of them struggle to market their association. Their websites are out of date. They didn't do it. They're trying to bootstrap it internally. So what we've started to do is locate some of the ones that we want to partner up with, and we're saying, hey, let's step in. We're not going to charge you anything. Let's go ahead and take over the website. Let's rebuild your brand. Let's give you some tools. We set them up with our, our white-labeled version of, of HighLevel, get them a backend system. We're going to keep training you guys. We want to become partners with you, help you grow this agency, and all we're asking is that we get a booth and we occasionally get some, some speaking opportunities. And that has been massive with those groups, uh, because they, they just love the fact that they're getting all this help. Many of them are growing their, their, um, you know, their mini associations month over month over month, which brings better value to them. And it's based on our partnership. So then they start to rave about us, which just puts more clientele coming our way. Now with some of the bigger— were you going to say something else there?

I said I love that. I love the idea that you're going in with value in advance and not just like, hey, do you want to refer us business? Hey, like you said, hey, there's a problem, I think I could solve it, let me add value to you. And in so doing, then they're like, wow, they can see what you do, they can be confident referring you to their group. Um, so I think that's smart. Like, look, if you're listening or watching, you're thinking How does this apply to me? Like, look for the groups, either local, national, regional, and could you help them in some way? Could you solve a problem for them? Maybe could you take over their Facebook page or set up their website or set up their directory online that shows you're a person of value and they then want to reciprocate and obviously kind of bake into that, hey, we want to be able to speak or maybe do some workshops and things like that. You were about to say something else. I want you to continue that train of thought.

Yeah, with our, with our bigger consultants or bigger programs. So in our industry, education is, is very, very common. I don't know in the plumbing and HVAC space, you know, if you've seen this, but we have a lot of the, the quote unquote, you know, HGTV gurus that have programs out there, right? We don't necessarily want to target all of them, but there are some, um, individuals at that level that are selling more of a membership or more of a community type program, very similar to, you know, kind of like 7FA, bunch of agencies getting together. In this case, it's a bunch of real estate people getting together under this particular program. What we've done with, with those ones is there— we're not necessarily looking to, you know, take over a website or run ads for them. Where the value comes in theirs is they're building out very robust training modules, training courses, right? Master classes, these type of things. And what we've positioned on those is, hey, let us become the marketing team. And the marketing partner and let me go ahead and build an entire course specific to your program under your brand. It's us teaching it. And then as a result, what ends up happening, I'm in front of a ton of their students. My name's, you know, and Roger names and REI Toolbox is getting thrown out. And then when they're running their different boot camps and workshops and stuff quarterly and annually, they end up asking us to be there. Put your booth in the hallway, right? The one that I got coming up in December, I'm going to have an entire half-a-day session. And then probably as we look at 2024, they're seeing enough value out of this where we're going to start running 1- and 2-day workshops in advance of their full 3-day workshop. That's all around just the marketing side. So a little different angle on those ones. But those are the bigger groups that are, you know, bringing in a better— a bigger opportunity as far as numbers of people that are potential clients for us. And it's still the same strategy, lead with value. We're just going with the value that they need. Whereas the smaller associations, what they're struggling with is the brand, the website, maybe some systems. They're not necessarily building courses, uh, or putting together, you know, full, um, backend course platforms for their members.

So good. I think a lot of times, hopefully the takeaway for you guys as you're listening, a lot of times we think to grow the agency, we got to run Facebook ads and we got to do cold outreach and we got to make cold calls and you know, this whole chase method. Um, it doesn't sound like any of that's even in play for Sean. On Sean's side, it's more positioning, it's more joint ventures, it's being at live events and putting out content. They get clients to come to them pre-positioned to buy. So, you know, don't feel like you got to keep pushing the, the boulder up the hill, right? If that's not working for you, be innovative. Figure out how you can get in front of your ideal clients in a different way. Um, and Sean's living testament that you don't do any of that stuff, right? It's really what you're talking about here.

We could— I 100% agree, we could probably grow twice as fast if we would start to employ some, you know, paid strategies, get some better ads going, that kind of stuff. But for us, it— I don't need it. I don't need to grow that much faster than what we are growing. And then the other side of it is this, this other method of more this inbound nurture partnership I— the clientele that we work with is just at a completely different level than when I'm dealing with that more cold traffic, uh, coming in. So again, it's a little bit slower pace, took a little bit of time, right, to build the momentum behind it. But now that we're there, uh, it's, you know, I wouldn't, I wouldn't trade this for just pumping a bunch of ads. The other piece I want to throw— I've completely forgot, Josh— on the, on the bigger JVs, the other thing that's been really attractive So we built special programs just for their members and are doing a little bit of a rev share, uh, with them. So they have a special program. They don't— nobody else can get it unless it's part of that partnership over there. Um, and when that student comes in, works with us, there's a percentage that we kick over, uh, to, to that, you know, partnership so that they are now seeing, okay, this is a way for us to make a little bit of extra— another stream of revenue coming in that we can then use to market more, to bring more, which is then gonna help these guys out, which is also gonna help us out. And it really becomes that big win-win-win across the board.

So good. Lots of great insights and takeaways here. Um, I mean, love what you're doing on the business development side, how you're growing. I think you mentioned something important, you know, for the listener to hear, which is how you land the client also has an impact on how well you retain the client. Right? If you're landing someone through chase or through like random Facebook ads and they're not warmed up, they're not trained, you're going to have high resistance or a lower close ratio. You're also going to have a harder time retaining that client because they might not be the right pedigree. They might not be the right fit. Where if they come through this type of alignment, they get it, they want it, they believe it. And they're— I would imagine this has a big impact on your ability to retain them. And, and keep them long-term as well?

Yeah, our, our retention fluctuates right now, but, uh, we, we maintain somewhere between about 97 and 99% of the clients, uh, that we have. Um, again, they, they come to us, they've, they've already are in love with us most of the time by they're with us, or they're almost there, and shortly after working with us, they, they become very sticky and they don't want to go anywhere else.

Let's talk about that a little bit because I think that's, you know, real estate investors would kind of be, think, a flighty group, like where they're hot and then they're cold and very hard to retain. You're saying you're retaining about a 97 to 99 monthly average. Like, what are some of the strategies you're using to maximize your client retention rates?

It's, it's much of the same that we do on the front end to attract them and acquire them. Um, that our industry is very in love with consistent knowledge and consistent growth and always trying to, to get better. So we run, uh, there's been times in our agency over the last couple years where, especially when the market changed and things were getting really tough, we cranked it up a little bit. We were literally running 3, 4 training calls a week, uh, different topics each, each day. Around that. We've now backed that off. We've got 2 different calls that happen throughout the week. But just like I said, you know, we go out and we're spending a lot of time educating and leading with value that brings them in. We spend a lot of time on the back end making sure that we consistently provide value, create different events that are very specific for our clientele. They love that part. I get messages if we go 3 2 to 3 months without talking about when the next live event that we're going to run for ourselves, or when's the next, you know, weekend workshop that you're going to put together virtually. If we don't talk about something at least every 2 to 3 months, I have clients reaching out to me going, okay, when's the next one? I'm planning on— I want to be there, you know, I don't want to miss it. What's going on? What's the details? So the consistency of— don't just do it to get them, and then all of a sudden they get involved with you and it's like, well, where'd Sean and Roger and the team go? Right. What happened to all that? I got to go find them out there. And that's the same message that I keep hearing. I want— I want the deeper stuff. I want the more personalized focus. And that's the unique part that we brought into our agency. Remember, I come from a consulting background. That's my passion, right? I don't geek out on SEO or PPC. I love being more of that, you know, fractional CMO in a business, in a real estate company. So bringing that piece in to the clients and to our programs has been probably the biggest retention piece that we have, because that's a big ticket for them. If they want to, you know, cancel and leave us, they're not just leaving a website service or a PPC service or an SEO service. They're also leaving a consultancy service, an education service, right? A lot of stuff that has, has some very high value, uh, and it's not easy to walk away from.

Yeah, I think that's— it's, it's unique to you guys. I think what more agencies should do, you know, don't just deliver the SEO and the pay-per-click and, you know, the funnels or whatever it is that you're doing on your agency services. You know, you've almost got like a hybrid between a coaching program and an agency. Like, when they hire your agency services, they've also got access to to all of this training. Do they pay an extra fee for that, or is that just included in your, in your main package?

So we've now— some, some of our programs have that baked in, but we've also now launched another brand that's a little bit deeper level, more of a higher level mastermind. The idea is REI Toolbox is really designed to help guide them, coach them, provide services for them to get them to a certain level consistency. And once they're at that level, that's when it makes sense for them to be more involved in our higher level mastermind so we can actually truly make them a business owner. And it's not really about marketing at that point. Now it's about bringing in processes and systems and all the stuff into it. But a lot of that came because I started to sit back and, you know, when we joined the 7FA program, we were struggling to even get to the $20K mark. And I started looking at the 7-figure or multi-7-figure agencies at that time.

Right.

You've had many of them on the show, the Tony Ricketts, the Chris Rodriguez. And I think it was even just a couple of months ago at one of the events, Matt Plapp stood up and said, look like there's two individuals in here in the mastermind. Both of us happen to be in real estate. One deals with agents, we deal with investors. A lot of people think that's the most difficult ones, yet there was a similarity between us. And both of us are very focused on the education, the consultancy side, right? The, the experiential aspects of it. And both are retaining at very, very strong levels. And there's a number of other agencies in the program that are, that are following suit and doing some of that, and they're seeing some of that same, uh, piece. So I agree with you, Josh. I think as an agency, it's one of the easiest things— easy as far as to deliver. I think where people get in their way is, oh, that's more time, or I don't know what I'm going to talk about. You know, even just having a weekly office hour, you know, Q&A session that your, you know, clients or their team members can jump on, that brings a lot of value. And it— and as that grows and, and spreads, that will become a big piece on why people choose to stick with you. And sometimes when results aren't always the best, it makes delivering that message a little easier because we can show them not just we're telling you this, but this is how we're also making adjustments and we're teaching it and in these kind of components. So absolutely agree, it should be something that most agencies should be able to bake in.

Love that. Some great takeaways there. So kind of combining some of the education for the client base, like don't just put out great education to get them in. Once they're clients, do continuing education, and that's going to make you more sticky. Also, if you can do live events and you can bring the community together, there's a community component that also is going to improve the retention rate within your agency services.

Yep.

Can you talk a little bit about like what your program looks like and what you actually deliver for a real estate investor that hires your services? Like what, what's the mix look like today?

So we've got a kind of our, our low entry point program. We call it our Foundation Level. At the end of the day, that's really designed for the new real estate investor, the one that really just kind of getting going, decided, hey, maybe I'm not going to do this as a hobby. I do want to kind of build a business around this. We focus very heavy on just building just that, the foundational levels, right? Solid website, get them on the, the back end of, of HighLevel, our white-labeled version of it, uh, get some internal systems built out for them, get them involved in the Facebook group, get them involved in some training courses, get them involved in, in our weekly calls and kind of guide them. We call that the do-it-yourself, right? We're there and we're your cheerleader, we'll give you the knowledge You can kind of handle a lot of it, we'll support you, and it's that low ticket. From there we move up into— we've got a mid-tier that's about right at the $1,000 a month range. That one's really focused on bringing more software and more systems into it, so they get a little bit more robust functionality out of our white-labeled version. They've got a better, you know, structured website. We add a few more features there, we help them build out some of the other components. Uh, I told you we're doing some really unique stuff with direct mail right now. So we're bringing in a lot of site retargeting with direct mail, uh, automated direct mail through another partnership, uh, with another program that we're aligned with that ties into HighLevel. So really arming them with all the tools. And then that particular level has a very dedicated call every single week, uh, that that level and above can, can be on. And we call that one— that's more like we're shoulder to shoulder. We're gonna, we're gonna do some stuff for you. We'll help you with some of the automations, but you're still doing a big bulk of the work, but we've kind of armed you with everything you need. And then we get into our top tier. We call that one the, the Deal Machine, and that's where we're actually bringing in SEO. We're bringing in the PPC management, uh, and that's kind of more the, the well-rounded, uh, kind of full done-for-you program. That one's sitting at about $2,900, uh, a month. On that one, plus any ad spend, uh, or direct mail spend that they're, they're doing in that. And the idea, a lot of our, our clients, they get in, in one of those bottom two, and they get their feet wet, they get moving, they see the value even more, they start to lock up some, some opportunities, they get some money flowing back into the business, and they, they kind of climb the ladder, um, with us. We very rarely see somebody slide down the ladder. They, they climb up the ladder, uh, or in the rare event you know, something went wrong, uh, with them or their business, you know, they, they might end up leaving. But, uh, for the most part, everybody's climbing up the ladder, or they find the sweet spot and they're happy with it. They build a team around it, and we continue to support them.

I love it. So it sounds like it gives you the opportunity to sell something to, to anyone based on spectrum and then move them up the, the ladder. So whether they got your book or they saw you in an event, it's not like you've only got this high-ticket option you can serve the entire market and help everybody basically. Yep.

And we did that for a little while. We tried just going with kind of the, you know, high-ticket one approach. Here's our single program. And yes, I mean, they're out there. We can find them all day long. But again, I keep going back to where's my passion? You know, my passion is helping them grow. My passion is helping guide them and get them the education that they need to really build a business and move forward. So how best to do that? Then create a couple programs that can get anybody in, can get anybody going, and then in time the cream will kind of rise, so to say, right? We'll find the ones that make sense for our deal machine, and that's where we can really throw, you know, our entire arsenal at it and let the team do what they're designed to do.

Love it. Amazing. So we've talked about how you chose the niche. We talked about how you kind of package your program. We've talked about how you land clients and kind of what's working best on that front. We've talked about retention and some of the strategies that you're using to use coaching to put your arms around the clients. Let's talk a little bit about delivery.

This is—

now we're talking about $90,000. You said, you know, 250+ clients. What does the team look like and how were you able to build the team to deliver on the promises you're making?

Yeah, so we've had a bunch of different iterations of the team. I mean, a couple months back, we were just on the writing side alone, I think we had about 12 or 14 writers on staff. Obviously with the, the change with AI and some of the different stuff that's come out, that's really had a big change in the way that, that things work there. Uh, so right now the way the team looks, we've got a pretty solid dev team. We've got, I think, 3 developers on staff. They handle the bulk of the support because we're doing a lot of email support, especially in those lower tiers. They're doing a lot of the work, but they're sending stuff in. So our dev teams kind of stepping in and helping put stuff on websites. They're also the ones involved in building everything out initially, uh, on it. Uh, on the, the SEO side, we've got a very strong team that's really focused on the content side, a lot of the, the ordering of backlinks and all the, the components behind that. That's the side Roger oversees, that, uh, big portion of the, the department. Um, overall in operations, we do have one operations manager kind of quarterbacks everything and oversees stuff and is really kind of the driver, especially with our L10 meetings every week. Gab pretty much, you know, takes point and runs a lot of that stuff and drives the ship for us. And then we've got some strong white label partnerships. That's something that we decided to, you know, look at instead of continuing to build the team, the bench, so to say, deeper. We started locating— many of them have come through relationships with the 7FA program. Strong white label partnerships, especially on our PPC side. We don't have an internal PPC expert. I know enough to be dangerous with it and enough to be knowledgeable in it, but I don't want to be the one managing it. So we've got a partner on that side that we work with on that front. So do a lot of SEOs are our big thing, especially localized SEO. It isn't until a real estate investor gets to a pretty significant level that paid ads really make sense for them from a budgeting standpoint and to be able to get the right return. But building that brand, building it locally, you know, getting them to show up organically, show up in the maps, that's a big focus for us. And then the offline stuff that we bake in and a lot of the automations, it's myself and another team member that kind of oversee and help them implement those pieces.

Love it. So you've mentioned a couple of iterations on this operations team. Any key lessons you've learned in the last 12 months on, you know, you've got the 7-figure team now, to, to make sure the work gets done and the clients get retained and everything continues to move forward?

Biggest thing I would say, we've learned it the hard way, um, hire faster than you think you need to hire. Uh, too many times we sat back and was like, I think we can still manage, you know, we're, we might get an influx next month of 10, 12 new clients. I think we can do it. And then something breaks and the team, you know, is, is going crazy or whatever the case. Uh, so I would always say, you know, always be forecasting ahead and really think about that. Hire in advance of what you need to hire. But we've also done it the wrong way too. We've, we've actually overhired way too much, uh, and then we start to, you know, wonder, well, what happened to profitability?

Where's the money?

Right, exactly. Um, so we've kind of gone through both of those iterations where we've had to sit back and have the hard conversation and cut team, not because of performance, but just because we're— we got too much. There's just not enough going on, uh, to, to fulfill that. But then we've done the opposite where we're like, well, shoot, I wish I had— you know, I wish I would have thought of getting another player in that role, uh, prior to. So for us right now, our big focus, we look into '24, the big change we're looking to make is we're finally ready to get some of the account management, um, off of Roger and I completely, uh, and and get that on to somebody full-time and really start to take kind of that piece over. Love it.

If you had to think about like the order at which you hired to scale, um, what was it like? You've got 9 employees now full-time. Like, what, what, like, what did you replace in what order?

Uh, first, first area was obviously on the development side, uh, because that is our big, you know, leader. Our primary thing that we're doing is, is website builds, uh, for them and getting, getting that component up. So our first set of hires actually was one individual. When Roger and I partnered, he already had one guy with him, and then we ended up bringing a couple others on staff, uh, to handle that and handle the support side. Behind that, where we really started to focus was on the content development side. So we had a— the next person that we brought in was actually more of a graphic designer to handle some of the graphic work. And then we were still at that time outsourcing a lot of the content writing. Then we decided we had enough clientele, enough in a, in a, in a content program that it made sense to actually bring some writers on staff. Uh, and then we brought the— some writers in and we built that team, uh, out. Then we started to look at some of the other, uh, partnerships. And that's kind of what we've done is as programs get to a certain level and the current structure isn't able to handle much more, that's when we start to look. Do we want to find the white label? Do we want to find, you know, an outsourced way of getting this done? Or do we want to go hire somebody, bring them in-house? Put them on full time, you know, and build them out that way. We've also done a lot over the last probably 2, 2.5 years, really leveraging internships to help scale the team and bring things in. So really finding our last one, she was a recent graduate out of Grand Canyon University in Phoenix that was a marketing major. And she, you know, was looking for an opportunity. This is the second or third one now that we've hired that graduated with a marketing degree. Was looking for experience to build, brought her in as a, as an intern, let her kind of shadow multiple different departments and kind of get her hands wet in a lot of different things. And then ultimately say, okay, well, what do you love? And this individual, she absolutely fell in love with the SEO process and, and all the stuff that goes into an SEO campaign on a monthly basis. And probably, you know, hopefully she's not listening to this and holds me to it, but, uh, probably by January, February Um, she might be in a position now to pretty much take over all of, uh, all of our SEO department, uh, and really kind of replace Roger as the, the SEO manager.

Love it. Yeah, it's a, it's a great play to tap into, to internships and, and you can find really hungry talent and get the right people early that can become loyal and long-term, you know, members of your team. I love that play. You mentioned AI and kind of that changing the game a little bit on the content stuff. Any cool insights you can share on what kind of what you've done with AI and how you're leveraging it in your content strategy?

I'd love to be able to share a ton, but I'm gonna be honest. I'm so far removed from that aspect of it as we've scaled and, you know, I've really had to kind of keep myself focused on the areas of the business that I want. But, Yep. I know, I know Roger has been super involved, especially a lot of members, uh, of 7FA that are really tapping into, uh, AI. And, um, I, I know they're using 3 or 4 different AI systems to help on the writing aspect. We're using AI for a lot of image creations now. Uh, we did scale down our, our, uh, graphic design team. We've got one solid designer on staff, but leveraging AI software, uh, for a lot of that stuff. So, It took, you know, as businesses we never really want to look at downsizing team just for the sake of it, but when we can speed things up, make delivery better, be more quick with our delivery for our clients, and ultimately from a business standpoint impact the bottom line, help the profitability, you know, profitability, which is going to then help the company scale and grow better, we have to make those decisions. And that's just something that we've looked at lately, and it happened to be on the content side. So I think at one point they were producing somewhere in the vicinity of about 270 pieces of content a month, our writing staff, and we've been able to slim that down. And what 12 we're doing are now being fulfilled by 2 people.

So love the efficiency of that. And it's amazing what can be done and how you can actually improve the outputs with less when you're strategic and you make good decisions like that. So that's That's amazing. Well, I mean, this has been awesome, man. First of all, congratulations on your growth and success. Thank you so much for your willingness to come on and open the kimono and share with the group kind of what's working for you and how you were able to grow the agency from, I think you said, $20K to over $90K, and you've got a great steam going behind you to go to multiple 7 figures, I think, over the next 12 to 24 months. If you had one last piece of wisdom to share with that agency owner that's just trying to get to the next level, what would that be?

On the, I mean, client acquisition is obviously the biggest key. We can't grow if we're not bringing in new clients. And I think if I were to go back and look at like what's led to consistent success, it's picking one thing. Gary Keller's book, The One Thing, has always been one of my favorites. Something I think every business owner should read and live by. But pick that one strategy. You know, for me it was speaking, webinars, that kind of anything that dealt with me, you know, presenting. For you, that might not be it right now, but find that one strategy on the client, you know, acquisition side that you can do on a consistent basis. Don't get distracted with the shiny objects or, oh, so-and-so said this and then next week, you know, this person's saying this and keep running all over the place. Because we get spread too thin and next thing you know, you know, we're kind of like half doing everything. Pick that one. It's gonna feel slow, it will, I can promise you that early on, but build the steam, build the momentum behind that, and then you can start to layer in, uh, a couple other pieces. It's the same advice that I give our clients all the time, like pick the one marketing tactic that you can consistently hang on to that, you know, budget allows, that you can be excited about. Because there's nothing worse than trying to wake up every day and self-motivate yourself to get going, right? It's a lot easier to run business when you get up every day and you're like, I can't wait to do this. Figure what it is for you and shut the blinders off. Continue to learn. Absolutely. Get on trainings, learn new tactics, see if they, they make a, you know, a stance where you're at right now. But hold true to that one strategy that you can really lean into and let it work.

Love it. Great stuff. Great insight. Great takeaway. Focus on the one initiative that you can get off the ground and stick with. Congratulations again on your growth and success. Thank you so much for sharing. If somebody wanted to connect with you, what would be the best way to connect with you?

reitoolbox.com is our website. Pretty much anything you do on there, I see at some point. If you want to hit me up on social media, it's just Shawn Tiberio on all the social platforms.

Fantastic. Shawn, congratulations. Thanks for sharing. Watchers, listeners, thanks for being here. If you got value, be sure to hit the like button, hit the subscribe button, share some love for Shawn. You know, he doesn't gain anything by doing this, just from his abundance mindset. So, be sure to reach out to him, thank him for sharing, congratulate him on his success, and, uh, we'll catch you on a future episode of the 7 Figure Agency Podcast. Thanks everybody.

Thanks again, Josh Nelson.