How Cris grew her niche agency from $30K to over $130K MRR in less than a year

As we dive into thinking about retention and thinking about agency growth, I want to introduce Chris Rodriguez. Chris runs an amazing agency serving the martial arts industry. And again, as you guys see throughout the day, I'm trying to feature agencies that have embraced this model, have implemented it, and gotten the results so you can kind of get confidence in your ability to go out and execute. So Chris, thanks so much for being with us.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm super pumped.

Tell us a little bit about your journey, kind of like over the last 12 to 24 months.

Yeah. So I actually found Josh on Instagram and bought his book and tagged him in an IG story, and he sent me a DM, and that's really where our— yes, guys, if you haven't read the book, please go and read the book and Speaking of books, I just launched my book today, Following the 7-Figure Agency Process, and it's a number 1 bestseller in, uh, the martial arts category, and it's number 3 right behind Alex Hormozi, who is like a huge marketer. Yeah, in the direct marketing. So that is really, really exciting.

Amazing work. Congratulations. That book is amazing. I bought 5 copies myself and will be publishing my review Sue, I appreciate it.

And I just followed the exact system and process from the video inside of the online training portal that Seven Figure provides us. They make it as easy as possible to, uh, to do stuff like launching a book. But I own a martial arts school. I'm a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt. I've been in martial arts my entire life, and I started consulting other martial arts schools. And in any industry, any consultant, the number one question they get is, how How do I get more clients? Right? I mean, that's why most of you are on this call. You want to know what is the secret to getting more clients. And for us, we had always utilized and leveraged digital marketing. So I started my agency, Grow Pro Agency, prior to finding Josh, which is why the name is not niche related. And when I was reading his book in the very first chapter, he talks about, you know, how to choose a niche and you're supposed to choose a niche on average doing over a million a year. And if you know anything about martial arts schools, They're passion projects. People are not opening them because they, you know, want to become wealthy. It's because they love it. And we have a little bit different model than most other agencies because of that. But when I came to Josh, my client value was around $497 a month. We were doing about $30 grand a month when we came, and in less than a year, we are now at $132,000 MRR, and we have 215 clients. Literally while I was sitting here waiting for this, I know you're not gonna be able to see it, but I got a text right there, bling bling, we just enrolled a new client. I'm here at a martial arts event with part of my team. My other part of my team is at the office closing deals for me. And none of it would've been possible without having a roadmap, a game plan, Right? We know that fuzzy targets don't get hit. I knew nothing about running an agency. I didn't have a legacy agency before. And what Seven Figure has really provided is this step-by-step. If you can follow instructions, you can be successful with the Seven Figure Agency Model. And this has completely changed our lives. You know, I talk to my wife often about, this is, you know, maybe 7 or 8 years ago, standing in the grocery line and having to open up our bank app just to see if there was enough money to cover the groceries. And that is not a fun feeling, being in line, having to transfer money from savings to checking to be able to feed your family. And we were laying in bed a couple of nights ago and we were talking about, you know, how we used to have to do that. And money and finances isn't even a worry anymore. And this has literally— this program has changed the direction of our family tree. And I'm just so grateful for everybody at Seven Figure, you know, and especially Josh. But it's not just Josh, it's the entire team, right? That's one of the benefits of a mastermind is you get access to everybody else and their successes. So that's a little bit about, you know, our agency and our journey.

So good. Congratulations going from 30 to 120+. I'm sure you're going to be getting some awards and accolades at the end of this year. So, so well done. And kudos on execution, right? You've taken all of the elements and put them in place. Can you talk a little bit about the strategic decision to hire a salesperson and how that impacted your business?

Yes. So this was something that I was very nervous to let go. I am pretty well known in my industry. I've built a lot of rapport with people and closing deals wasn't necessarily difficult, but it was sucking my time out. I mean, 40, 50, 60 hours a month on audits and sales calls. And I was very hesitant to let that go, right? Oftentimes, you know, these agencies are our babies and we end up becoming the bottleneck. And that's where I was at. So Josh said, Chris, You gotta hire somebody. And I said, okay. And, uh, about 4 months ago I hired, uh, somebody that had zero sales experience at all. He was a beekeeper, but he was hungry. And last month, uh, he closed 31 clients. So far it's the 21st of the month and we're sitting at 17 new clients for this month. And it was a pivotal moment because opening up— imagine gaining an extra 40 hours a month. I mean, that's a typical work week. And that's what I gained to be able to focus on more working on the business as opposed to in the business. That was the last step from getting me out of any aspect of the business. So now, my sole focus is focusing on helping my team, developing a leadership team, taking care of my team so my team can take care of our clients.

So good. Amazing stuff. I just got through the, the kind of the offer for 7 Figure Agency, and a number of people joined, and I'm excited. Some of them are sitting here thinking, I don't know, like, maybe I should, maybe I shouldn't. Um, what would you say to that agency that's thinking, you know, whether they should move forward or not?

I mean, to me, it's an absolute no-brainer. Josh put a money-back guarantee on it. So unless you just don't believe in yourself, which, I mean, you guys are here, there's a reason why you're here. There is no lack of knowledge. We all have at our fingertips Google, YouTube. We have those resources, right? I'm sure you guys are in Josh's free group where he drops tons of knowledge. There's not a lack of knowledge in any industry. It's simply a lack of execution, right? If all— if knowledge was all we needed, we'd all be driving Lambos and we would all have six-packs. It's not knowledge. And here's the thing, you guys being on this call, that's you being in motion, which is great, right? We've got to start somewhere. But being in motion is different from taking action. And there's a lot of people that, you know, will hop on these and, oh, that's good, and then nothing happens. And it's just because you don't execute. So I mean, it's an absolute no-brainer I think the number one question when you are deciding who you're going to follow, who's going to be your leader, who's going to be your coach, is one, have they done it themselves, which Josh has, right? And have they helped other people get to where you want to be? And he has success story after success story after success. You can hear it on the podcast. You can listen to it on IG. So to me, it's a no-brainer. He's also giving you a coupon. I didn't get a coupon, guys. What's up with that?

You're getting mad at me now.

Come on, man. Like I said, uh, he and this program has literally been able to change our family tree. And, um, we don't, we don't have to worry about finances. And even if it's not finances, it's the impact. To me, it's about freedom of choice. I never want to not be able to make the choice that I want. And 7 Figure Agency has helped to get us to that point where we have all of the choices that we want in front of us. So guys, don't stay in motion. It's awesome that you're in motion, you're moving, but that there is a difference between being in motion and taking action. So click the link and let's just go and you get to hang out with me too, which is fun.

Awesome. So if you've got a couple of key points the group can benefit from on what you've done to improve client retention, would love to dive into it.

Yeah. So just, uh, you know, real quick because I was kind of mentally prepared to drop that. I think it's, you know, really important to understand where our customers are in their journey. And certain customers are in different steps of the journey. And this is something I'm really passionate about. It's actually going to be the topic of my next book. Nice. There are really 6 stages that our customers go through. And whether you own a martial arts school or a dance studio or an HVAC company, these are the stages. And the first one is awareness. And we Gotta get people aware of us before we can get them to consider us. And that's the second stage, consideration. The third stage is purchase, right? We want to get them to pull the trigger, to take action. And then the fourth stage is onboarding. And I truly believe that retention starts in the onboarding phase. It's that first initial, you know, response that the clients are getting that is really going to help dictate how long this relationship is going to last. And I think a lot of people drop the the ball in onboarding. Why? Because we get the purchase and we're pumped and we're excited. So what do we go do? We want to go get the next purchase. And it's like, why do you need all of these purchases? Yes, we do need more clients, but acquiring clients costs money. You wouldn't need as many new clients if you were able to keep them. And that relationship, I mean, it starts at awareness. I mean, you know, your Facebook ads and how you're sending out cold emails and All of this Josh teaches you so you don't have to reinvent the wheel. But I think where a lot of people drop the ball in regards to retention is the onboarding, and it starts in that first 90 days of the relationship. You've really got to knock that out of the park. So that's the fourth stage of the customer journey. Fifth is retention itself. What are you doing to retain those? And I mean, the number one retention strategy is giving them great results. I mean, that's, you know, like, that's the number one. If you want to keep your clients, you got to get them great results. But obviously there's a lot of other little aspects that you can do as well. Um, some of the things that we've implemented for retention: we have an online training academy where they can actually log in, and we have training videos for the staff. Because I can get them all the leads and the appointments in the world, but if they don't have a conversion system to close them they're going to tell me that the leads are garbage, right? So the online training academy we have, we have a lot of the member mentors that are also offering this. A lot of people in 7 Figure Agency are offering that to our clients. We're just value stacking, right? I teach a monthly masterclass to all of our clients on a different digital marketing topic to help them stay in the know. Um, we also send mailers out. I mean, yeah, like handwritten cards, old school. We want to be in their mailbox. We send birthday cards and anniversary cards and thoughtful actions, right? We're trying to be friends with everybody on Facebook, and you see that, you know, somebody's dog died or somebody just got married. We look at those as thoughtful actions. This is something that Josh and Yesenia knock out of the park for all of their clients. Something big happens, you're getting something in the mail. And just to know that, like, they care enough that they saw that and they're sending something to you, like It's a great retention strategy, but that's not the only reason why they're doing it. It's because they really care. And then also milestone gifts. So something that we recently implemented was sending Sherry's Berries when they hit their 1-year anniversary with us, their 2-year anniversary, 3-year, and so on. And I don't know what it is about food, everybody loves food. And I know sometimes you gotta— we're all like, gluten-free and stuff like that, but Every single time we send these Sherry Berries, which is about $20 to $25, it's not a crazy amount of money. They take a picture, they tag us on Facebook, they go into our Facebook group and thank us. And, you know, what did that take us? 4 minutes to, to put that order in online. And then finally, the last stage of the customer journey is advocacy. And I think that's, that's the stage I'm in for Seven Figure Agency. I am here as an advocate. I am a brand ambassador. And guys, I don't get anything for that. Like, it's not like an affiliate link. I am doing this because I believe in this program so much. And I think that's where we want to get all of our clients. We want to get our clients to that advocacy stage so that they are making those referrals. Because in my opinion, there is no better prospect than a referral prospect, right? If I had a choice of getting a referral prospect or getting a prospect off of a Facebook ad, I'm gonna take that referral every day of the week and twice on Sunday. So really start looking at retention. Really, I mean, that starts from kind of day one at the awareness stage, that your messaging, right, how you're speaking to people. But I think where the ball gets dropped the most is in that onboarding, because we're looking for that next sale, we're looking for that next client. And your goal should ultimately be to move them stage by stage to get them into the advocacy stage so they're walking billboards for your agency.

So good. That was awesome. I'm glad you didn't jump off before you got the chance to drop that load of value. Um, I want you to type in Chris, C-R-I-S, in the chat if you get value. You know, here's Chris, and she knows retention because she's adding 30+ clients over the last couple of months. Um, so, so good. Chris, thank you for taking the time. Thank you for sharing. Keep crushing it. Thank you for being an advocate and a mentor for the 7 Figure Agency.

Um, anything you want to share before you get back to Your stuff, uh, guys, you've got about an hour and 10 minutes to be an action taker, and I really hope to be able to see you inside of the Facebook group to be able to help you as well, because I am in the stage in my agency where I'm not working in the agency, so I have time to be able to give back. And, uh, just don't just stay in motion, go take action. Final, final answer.

Hey, Chris, thank you so much. It's an honor to be part of your continued growth and success. It's so fun to watch you continue to thrive.