How Manny Made the JUMP from J.O.B to $30K monthly in his Digital Marketing Agency

This is the 7 Figure Agency Podcast. Discover the strategies and techniques to grow a highly successful and profitable digital marketing agency with your host, Joshua Nelson.

All right.

Well, hello, welcome. Thanks for joining me. I'm super excited about today's session with Emmanuel Oussou. Am I saying that right?

Oh yeah.

Well, I apologize. I know you as Manny Love up to this point. So, I'm super excited. This is part of our Agency Success Podcast series where we interview highly successful digital marketing agencies on how they're growing and scaling. And Manny's had some tremendous growth over the last, I don't know, like 6 to 9 months. I'll let him tell the story, but kind of from, you know, as I know it, working full-time doing internet marketing as a side hustle in his agency, to now over $30,000 a month in recurring revenue. Recently put in the resignation note. And so I thought, man, it would be just tremendous to interview Manny, hear his story, kind of hear how he's done this while working full-time. So Manny, thanks so much for coming on and congratulations on your momentum.

Yeah, yeah, I appreciate it. I appreciate having you on the call.

So let's start off, just kind of introduce yourself, your background, kind of who you are, where you're from, and kind of tell us your backstory a little bit.

Um, so, so my name is Emmanuel Owusu. A lot of you guys know me as Manny on Facebook. So I don't know if a lot of you guys know me as Emmanuel the Immigrant. So this is my 6th year of being in the US.

Oh wow.

Yeah, this year, August 31st, will be my 7th year of being in America. So I remember just 6 years ago, I remember when I first came doing, working for $8 an hour at my local mom-and-pop motel. I worked 2 jobs while still going online, going to school online, getting an MBA online full-time. I worked 2 full-time jobs and I was going to school for an MBA program. Few times as well. But I did that for probably about 12 months, and then I had a friend call me. So my background is chemical engineering, and I had a friend call me who was based in North Dakota. We went to the same high school in Ghana. So I'm originally from Ghana, West Africa. So he called me, and then we were just chit-chatting, and he's like, hey, you know, what, what did you go to school for? And I was like, engineering. He was like, hey, they need a lot of engineers up here, you know, up north. This is when hydraulic fracking was getting very big in the US. So I was like, I don't know if I want to drive all the way from North Carolina to North Dakota, you know, and it's just by myself. He's like, dude, it's going to change your life. And I'm like, well, show me how it's going to change my life. So he showed me a paycheck. He showed me a paycheck and I was like, I think I'm going to quit my job now. So I quit my job and I made the drive sometime in 2014. I made the drive all the way from North Carolina up here by myself. I was like a 34-hour driver. It took me like 3 days, you know. Being an immigrant, driving all the way, I didn't know where I was going. I was just relying on GPS, you know. But I came here and lo and behold, it was true. The very first day I went out looking for a job, I landed a 6-figure job just like that.

That's amazing.

It just changed my life. So, you know, if you know the history of how US came to become a dominant player in the whole oil, you know, exchange back and forth with OPEC and stuff. Now we have so much oil reserves that we're able to export oil. Now that was made possible by directional drilling, hydraulic fracking, all that stuff. So North Dakota is the state that really jump-started that entire episode in this country's history. So I was part of that whole thing, you know, but anyways, OPEC, because we were becoming kind of like competitors in the oil industry, OPEC kind of gave us a blow, and then the whole thing, the whole boom went bust. So back in 2015, I was back to square one. I lost my job, you know, a lot of, almost everybody lost their job. My company filed for bankruptcy. So I came back to North Carolina, you know, doing the same thing and going to school again. And then I think 7 months later, I found my company. And then since I had experience doing that, the industry was a little bit stable. When Trump came, the industry got stabilized a little bit. So, you know, all the engineers and the scientists that got laid off, everybody was kind of like absorbed back into the economy again. And so that's how I found myself back up here in North Dakota again. And so when I started working for my new company, I was like, man, you know, I'm in a very up and down kind of industry. I need to find something to do on the side in case anything happens. That's how I stumbled into internet marketing. I was looking at affiliate marketing, you know, Shopify, all these things, and then I was like, well, I think internet marketing, you know, I knew a little bit about it, but I was like, I don't really know much about it. So I mean, I started my company, I was following some YouTube guys. I started my company, my first year I made like $900 or something like that. You know, I made like $900, but it was proof of concept, right? It was proof of concept. And then my second year, I went from $900 to like $22,000.

You know, as a side income, that's pretty great.

Yep, as a side income. And then my third year, I went from $22,000 to almost $85,000.

Wow.

Yeah, so by then, I mean, I had invested in courses, learned how to sell and all this stuff. So yeah, and this is my 4th year doing it. And we, you know, like, I mean, it's 6 months into the year, we were over $120,000. Wow.

And so the base recurring is somewhere around $30,000 a month at this point, right?

At this point about— so this month, um, I think we've added just like $6,000 more. So about between $30,000 and $35,000, I would say.

Beautiful. That's awesome, man. So migrated here, started out with nothing, got a really good job, learned internet. Now you're on the precipice of a $35,000 a month agency that's well on its way to 7 figures and beyond.

Yeah, yeah, hopefully.

Yeah, well, yeah, kudos, man. You're definitely headed in the right direction. So the first thing that everybody wants to know, like when we're talking about this transition from kind of an on-ramp phase to, um, you know, just to scale and significance, how did you choose your niche, right? You've got a very specific niche that you went into. Like, how did you land on that one?

Oh, that was just by chance. Like, really, it's just by chance. Um, I had picked up a client organically that was already in the niche and they were my highest paying clients at the time. So I was like, well, yeah, I think around that time, that's the same time I joined your program and I was like, well, if they're my highest paying clients and a lot of people in that niche probably have a lot of money, right? So it just made sense and I just went into that niche. They were paying like $5,100 a month and I was literally doing everything for them. And I was also a consultant for them as well. It wasn't just like an à la carte, you know, manage your website, do SEO and all that stuff. I was kind of like an outsourced marketing consultant. They didn't make decisions without consulting me. So that's how the relationship was. And it was a very high-level decision. So when they came on board, I realized the professionalism and how easy it is to work with clients that pay high ticket. Versus clients that pay $1,000 a month and then you're doing all these things and they're giving you all the runaround. And so I was like, I think, you know, so I studied the niche a little bit and I liked it. You know, they were doing mold remediation, water damage, fire damage, the whole thing. And then, you know, biohazard cleanups and stuff like that. So I dabbled into it a lot and then I There's a lot of science in that industry as well. So, it kind of like just resonated with my personality. So, I just picked it up and I ran with it.

That's awesome. So, I think a good tip for everybody there is, you know, try and find something where you have some wins already. Don't try and, you know, scrap from the ground. Sometimes you have to scrap from the ground, but ideally, if you can find an industry that you've had some success with in the past, that's going to play really nicely to kind of build your focus on, right? It's kind of what your experience is here.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, so, so the next question everyone wants to know when it comes to this initial phase is, all right, so you've got this one client in the, in the niche. How did you get the next 5? Like, what was the approach to kind of get that first 5? And it sounds like your ticket's a little higher, um, but you know, that first 5 or so clients.

Um, so, um Really, so I was, before I hit, you know, currently at $35K a month, I think I was doing maybe $20K, I was doing around $25,000, but I didn't have a lot of clients because all my prices are like $4,000, $5,000, $3,500, between $3,000 and $5,000 a month. And so I would sell, and I wasn't even like actively prospecting, you know, I had organic stuff out there that just brought in inbound amount of traffic. And so what happened was when coronavirus hit, I went from like— and I told you this— I went from like $25,000 to like $14,000 or so. And I was like, man, I can't even quit my job now. So if you're doing— if you lose almost about 50% of your business, instantly, then you're like, wow, like, I, you know, then you kind of cling to your job because your job now, like, there's this pseudo-security that your job offers you, you know. So the decision was tough. But anyway, so when that happened, I was looking really, really hard into my niche and just what was going on to see those. And like you were saying, like, I was watching a lot of the videos that you would post about being in the right kind of mindset and all this stuff. And I was really down, like I was really down. I wasn't even active in the group and all that. So one day, my client came to me with a suggestion and said, hey, we want to offer coronavirus disinfection service. So I was like, Okay, so, you know, he was like, can you guys, you know, can you set up a landing page and all that stuff and then let's start driving traffic to it and let's see what happens. So we started that for him and it blew up for him. You know, it blew up. I knew how to get him clients and all that stuff. And so I was like, huh, now I wonder if I can carve a service or a product around coronavirus and go to the restoration industry because these guys already have the certifications for it, they have the equipment for it, you know, so it's going to be an easy target. I didn't know, but I was like, let me try it out. So I built an entire funnel around it, set up my Facebook ads, all that stuff, bought my niche list, used my list as my custom audience, you know, did all the techie stuff, and then I turned on my ads And then the first day, I remember turning on my ads at midnight or something like that. I woke up in the morning and I had like 8 bookings on my calendar. That has never happened to me.

That's a wonderful feeling, right?

That has never happened to me before, so I was like, holy crap, you know, I'm on to something here. So the first call I had With that group, that first call that I had, I sold him for like $1,500. The first call.

Nice.

I was like, what the hell is going on? So anyway, so I had like 8 calls that day, nobody bought. The second day, the next call, the first person bought. Everybody else was like, well, yeah, I'm gonna call you back, all that stuff. And then so I sold 2 in a row in 2 days for like $1,500 apiece. And I was like, I wonder if I can sell this for $2,000 apiece.

More thinking, right?

Yeah, so I was like, so the next person that got on the phone, I was like, well, you know, yada yada, it's gonna be $2 grand a month. It was like, hey, you know, just send me an invoice. And I was like, okay. You know, and then I started selling for $1,500 $2,000 thereon afterwards. And then if any client wants to sign up and then they're really, really on the fence, now I would say, "All right, I can do it for $1,500," and then they would sign up. So I think I signed up about 8 clients in my niche offering this particular service for them, getting them coronavirus disinfection jobs. Using Facebook advertising. I was only doing Facebook ads. I wasn't doing PPC or anything like that. It was $2,000 a month. It was a Facebook ad service. I'm gonna bring you leads. I'm gonna have your phone ringing. And you know, if you spend in— and then on top of that, I was recommending they spend $50 to $100 a day on Facebook. So they were spending between, between $3,000 and $4,000 a month with this particular service. So a lot of the clients that I will speak with, you know, they would see my ads, they're like, oh hey, I saw coronavirus, I want to get into the business. I'd be like, well, this is not going to be a good fit. And so my target customer was somebody who already had the manpower, you know, they have the staff, they have the trucks, they did have— I mean, I worked with companies doing $50 million a year. It's crazy. I never thought, you know, I never thought I could snag such a client. So it's just been amazing. Yeah.

So it sounds like, I mean, you basically had the niche, you got an idea from one of the clients, it was like, okay, here's kind of a cool angle. And then you said, let's test it, let's kind of put it out there and see if we can get proof of concept. They got great results with it. They're like, hey, sweet, let's see if some other people in this space would be interested.

Yeah.

Mortley set up some really smart Facebook ads, a great funnel, Bringing people right onto your calendar, got the calendar slammed up, and just started landing deals.

Yeah, yeah, that's exactly what it was. So now that I've been doing that for them, a lot of them are coming to me with another service that I'm kinda still testing out a little bit to see how viable it is to go to market with it. And then when I do, I'm definitely sure I'm gonna snag some more clients with that. But yeah, that's the strategy that I used. I had a client, they came to me with an idea. I'm like, when they mentioned the idea to me, I was like, how the hell did I even think about this? I was like, ah, I'm so dumb. The marketing genius in the room, right? I know, so that was the strategy. I had a client, they came to me with an idea that was You know, that was kind of like a real-time idea, and I noticed that, you know, and then we tested it with the market and it worked. And then I took that entire concept and literally went to a broader market with that entire concept, and then it's working really, really good.

I love it. And so you're building up more and more success within the niche, more and more clout, more and more credibility.

Right.

Talk a little bit about the service offering. I know that for a lot of these guys it's been this one specific thing, but what are you selling to most your clients at this point? Is it that one package for $2,000 a month, or just kind of walk us through that a little bit?

Yeah, for sure. So, you know, if I snag a job, and right now because I'm not on like 50 clients, my goal is to hit $50K a month, and then I will just drop everybody else, and then I'll just solely focus on my niche. Because I still don't have a lot of clients in my niche to really fully, fully go in. If I have at least, I think if I have between 15 and 20 clients in my niche and the revenue is all the way up there, then I can turn off my other assets that are bringing in inbound leads so I can sell. Just the other day, we closed 2 clients. So the reason why we added about $6,000 is we closed a— what did they do? It's like a gym or something like that. We closed it for like $3,500 a month. And then we have another client that sells boats and stuff. We closed it for like $2,500 a month.

Wow.

I still have other things going on. And then, you know, so this is what I'm doing now, but then I'm not even like— all those guys coming in, I'm not even actively chasing them. So I have assets out there that are bringing the inbound leads, and then when they come, if I feel that they have money, then I would spend the time and talk to them.

That's perfect. I want to pause you there for a second. I want to speak directly for those of you in OnRamp at 7 Figure Agency right now. What he said there is, is critical. I was actually on my leadership team meeting with Jeff this morning. We were talking about, you know, in the early phase of your agency, when like you've got, let's say, less than 5 clients in any specific niche At that phase, you're in survival mode. You really need to take anything you can get, right? Yes, you're going to hyper-target whatever damage restoration companies, but if something comes in for a pool build company, right, and you've got the capability to fulfill that, you take it, right? When, when Dean and I started our agency, Plumbing HVAC SEO, we were targeting restaurants. Like, that was our, that was our focus. We're going to do restaurants, but we didn't, we didn't get any traction there. Fortunately, one day I got a plumber, right? The plumber signed up for $1,500 a month. And I was like, hey, cool, that's great, but we're going to still focus on these restaurants. And then nothing happened with restaurants. We got 2 or 3 other plumbing companies. Sometimes, you know, the niche is going to choose you, and you have to be flexible. You got to take what you can get. You got to pay the bills in the early days. And so I'm really glad that you, you said that, Emmanuel, because I think it's a message, especially those in OnRamp. You know, we want to go tunnel vision in one niche, and yes, that's the long-term vision, but you got to take what you can get at the beginning until you get the momentum, until you get 5 or 6, or like Manny's looking for 15 in his niche before he says, okay, all the bridges are, all of the boats are burned, I'm just gonna double down on this, so.

Right, right. And the thing with my niche is that there are several sub-niches in the niche, and like when you start getting a lot of like clients in the niche, you would notice it, you would notice a trend. So my niche that do like water damage, you know, they work with some other, you know, they work like plumbers and stuff like that. And then if you go to mold remediation, they work with some other people. If you do fire damage, they work with some other people. So there's a whole lot of interconnected niches within the main niche. And as you start growing in the niche, you would notice all those connections. So I mean, like, there wasn't any way to do it because if I just had, if I just like, you know, shut everybody else out and then just focused on damage restoration, you know, it would have took me a long time to, you know, to get to like 10 clients, you know, while missing out on all the extra revenue that I could have picked up. So it definitely makes sense that if you're focusing on a client right now, you know, per the 7 Figure Agency Strategy, that if you're currently in the ORM, that you're still doing the things that you were doing before you joined On-Ramp. You know, you're making sure that you have that pipeline full with other activities, with all these inbound strategies, everything, all the things that you're doing for your niche-focused agency, you have to make sure that you're doing, you know, you want to, you have a target. So for me, it was like $20 grand a month or so, and then when I hit it, I was like, alright, now I'm not going to focus a lot on you know, the other niches. If they come in, I'll take them, but I'm not, you know, doing SEO or PPC or Facebook trying to get all of them. So now all the assets are there, and I have leads coming in, you know, coming to me instead of me going to them.

I love it. I love it. So can you talk a little bit about some of those inbound strategies that have worked well for you?

Yeah.

Just to get opportunities in play?

Yeah, yeah, for sure. So So I'm going to give you guys my personal experience, alright? So what I— if you were earlier on the call, you know, I kind of talked a little bit about how I stumbled into digital marketing. So I said that my first year in marketing in this business, I made $900, my first year. And in my second year, I made $22,000. Now, a lot of people ask me, what was the difference? Like, how do you go from $900 to $22,000? Almost $22,000. And mind you, I was doing this on the side. So, you know, when I started, I was watching a lot of YouTube videos and all this stuff, and everybody was saying, well, you know, do this and do this and do this. And I did all that stuff. I did the Facebook ads, I did the Google ads, I did SEO, and I wasn't getting anything. I really wasn't getting anything. And then one day I I read an article by a lady, I forget her name, and then see, the title of the article I still remember, it was like, How I Made $200,000 in 6 Months. Right, that's an interesting title, right? So it just, I read the article, and then this lady talked about this platform called Tomtac. All right, so a lot of you guys have probably heard about Tomtac, so she mentioned Tomtac, and I was like, huh, I've been doing this for a while and I haven't heard about Tomtac. At the time I've heard about Upwork and it's flooded with all these people. So I checked Thumbtack out and then I saw these negative reviews. Like all these pros who were offering marketing service and other services on the platform were leaving the platform. So I was like, wow, this is a great opportunity for me because all these people are leaving. Now I'm used to spending a lot of money doing PPC and I'm not getting anything. I'm gonna try channeling those funds into this platform and see what happens. My first month on the platform, I made like $4,500. I sold 2 websites and made like $4,500, and that was the most money I had made on the internet ever. And I was like, holy crap, like, I'm gonna stick with this, with this platform. You guys go check out the platform if you like. So that's how it started. I mean, my first month I made like $4,500, and then every single month I was making at least, you know, $2,000 to $5,000 in addition to my regular job income. So I did that on the side, and I wasn't even prospecting. I just had my profile and the things that I did, and I had inbound leads coming in through the platform. And then—

Everyone knows HomeTech is like a service where you put up your profile and then you pay on a per inquiry basis, right? Like HomeAdvisor for plumbers or, you know, these services. It's a lead gen service for people that have to be in the market for a website or pay-per-click or whatever, right?

Right.

So that particular platform for internet marketing, usually think of it as I need someone to come assemble furniture. It's interesting you were able to tap into inbound opportunity there.

Yeah, and it was just by, by chance. You know, it was just by chance. And I remember my first month on platform, I literally looked at my wife and I said, I think this is it. I said, I think I found the gold mine. I think this is what's gonna make us, you know, I guess financially stable or whatever, right? So when I started the whole thing, my goal was to— my family was growing, right? So my goal was to be able to buy an SUV and have this side job pay for it. That was my goal, you know, and then when the money starts coming in, you're like, well, I think I can make my goals a little bit bigger. So that's how it— so TomTack was a really big blessing to me in disguise. I made a lot of money on that platform and I never imagined All my high-ticket clients, a lot of my high-ticket clients came off that platform. I never imagined that I could snag a $60,000 a year job. You know, somebody paid me $3,000 a month and all these companies that are making millions of dollars every single year, they're coming through the platform. You know, so you guys go check it out and you know, it might work for you, it might not work for you, but I'm I mean, it doesn't hurt to try it.

So you get that. Where else are the leads coming from? It sounds like Facebook ads is a massive play for you where the majority of the inbound opportunities are coming, right?

Yeah, yeah. So I have my niche website and I have my general agency website. So I have leads coming from those as well.

Nice.

So if you— when I set up my niche website, I did my research and I noticed some of the money keywords. And so I built my site to kind of, you know, to be centered around those money keywords for my niche. And so now if you go to Google and type in, you know, water damage marketing or something like that, my company is number one, way up there. I think we're like number two or number one or number three for that high volume keyword for my niche.

Nice.

And we rank our website for that particular keyword in less than 3 months. So when I get clients, I'm like, hey, you know, we're new to this, but guess what? You know, all the companies in our niche see what we're able to do in less than 3 months, and then they get impressed, you know, and they're like, how did you do it? And then you get a strategy call and all that stuff. That's great.

Alright, so we've got Facebook ads, we've got Thumbtack, we've got SEO, we've got inbound leads, obviously a high degree of confidence in the sales process. Like you're able to command a higher fee because you've got the background, you've got the confidence, you're willing to ask for that amount of money. Can you talk a little bit about like kind of the service model, like what you do, what you charge, kind of what's included?

Right, so when I get a general client, a lot of times I would do website management. I would redesign their website first and foremost, and then I would charge for website management. And I would do social media management, but my social media management, I don't like post every day and all that stuff. I just do ads. I just do Facebook and Instagram ads. So I do that, and then I do PPC management, and then SEO. I don't even do reputation management. So I do website management, SEO, PPC, and then Facebook and Instagram advertising, and then, you know, call tracking, all that stuff.

And that's all bundled in, in what they're, what they're paying for, right?

Correct. Fantastic.

So another big question, and this is what everybody's like kind of scratching their head about. So you work full-time, you're a high-paid engineer, but you've been able to grow this agency on the side. How in the world do you find the time to do this?

Well, you know, how many, and you've got how many kids? I have 3 kids.

3 kids, okay. Here you go, gentlemen. This is the secret mystery that we all need to understand right here.

Oh God, um, I think it's just that immigrant mentality, man. It's just, I don't know, my wife asks me all the time, you know, she's American, and she's like, you know, how do you like, I just do what I gotta do, you know what I mean? I know where I'm from, I know where I'm going, and the difference between, you know, the promise and the promised land is always the wilderness, you know? So you have to be willing to go through that wilderness, but the wilderness is not gonna last, you know, forever. It's gonna come a time when you go through your wilderness and go through all the pain and all the sleepless nights, when you get on the other side of the wilderness, you're on your promised land. So you have to pay the price. Any good thing in life comes with a price tag. For me, I went to kind of like a military-style high school, so I think that instilled that in me. Don't give excuses. Doesn't matter if you were born with one leg, like that kind of mentality, right? So it doesn't matter if I'm working 12 to 15 hours a day, at my day job. When I come home, you know, if I have to squeeze an hour into it to work on a client's SEO or to try to get backlinks for a client or to build a website or to outsource something or to give my client a call and tell them how stuff is going, I find the time. You know, it's like we all have 24 hours in a day. You have to find the time. And it's hard, like it's not easy. There are times I'm working until like 2, 3 AM and I'm waking up at like 5 and I'm checking on the ads. It's not easy, yeah, it's really hard. I mean, it's hard. And it's really hard. There's really no way to put it. It's hard. But you have to— it depends on how motivated you are. And I guess it's that immigrant mentality. You come in this country, you see how how blessed people are to be in this country. And you see how like, my friends tell me all the time, like, you know, if we're in America, we're gonna do this, we're gonna do that, you know, and then you come here and a lot of people have that opportunity and it's like they're just like, this is like there, you know, like, wow. But if you come from a different, I come from a third world country. I don't even have, I didn't grow up with internet or anything like that. You know, to drive an air-conditioned car is a luxury. To have AC at your home is a luxury. You know what I mean? So when you come here, you realize that a lot of people are taking this stuff that we don't joke around with, they're taking it for granted. You know what I mean? So that's where that comes from. That's where that drive comes from. Comes from. And plus, what really also most motivates me is how my mom passed away. I look at the last promise I made to my mom while I was looking at her lifeless body, and I'm like, that's always a motivation as well. Because I want better for myself. I want better for my kids. I want better for my kids' children. To leave a legacy, you know, somebody has to— the wealth building has to start from somewhere. And you have to be the one that makes that decision that, hey, even if I have to sacrifice my life to make sure that this is a legacy in my family, it has to start from me, and I'm gonna pay the price for it. So that's all it is. It's hard work, so you have to embrace it. That's really no way to make it juicy or anything like that. It's just hard work.

That's powerful. I mean, it's really powerful. So just so I can kind of wrap my head around it, What are the hour schedules? Like what time do you start? What time do you end? What time do you work on the agency? Because there's a lot of people doing this full-time and they haven't had anywhere near the momentum that you've had in what could only be like 3 or 4 hours a day, you know? Just kind of talk me through that.

So, I love what I do. I don't even count the hours. Like, you know, like I just got on a computer and my wife knows to leave me alone.

Good to have a supportive wife. I know.

You know, so I just jump on a computer and then I just do it for— I don't even realize the time going, you know what I mean? But I go to work, I start work, you know, 8 o'clock, and then I might come home sometimes at 5 o'clock, sometimes at 10 PM, but every single day I have to make sure that I'm putting, you know, I'm taking breaks I have, I had, well I used to, I had 2 15-minute breaks at my job and then I had 1 hour full break. And so every 15 minutes, I remember telling my boss, I said, hey, you know, the 15 minutes is not enough, can I combine both 15 minutes so it's 30-minute break and an hour break? So I had 2 breaks, 1 30-minute break and then 1 1-hour break. So during those 2 breaks, I will, you know, I will go in a break room or, you know, go sit in my car I'd be calling clients, you know, doing strategy sessions. That's what I was doing, you know, because the time is nowhere. Like, that's— you have to find the time. And then sometimes, you know, I would just— you know, if we're not very busy, I would take, you know, I would take half a day off, or I would go to work from like 8 to 3 o'clock, you know, and I would say, hey, can I go home? They all knew I was doing something on the side. It wasn't a secret. 'Cause they would notice all, you know, 'cause I remember my first day I sold my first high ticket, I came back in the room shouting and screaming. And they were all like, "What's going on?" And they knew I hadn't been doing it, they knew I had been struggling. So I invested into a sales program, into a sales training. I learned how to sell. My first high ticket was like $5,000 a month or something like that. I never charged anybody above $500 before. My first client used to pay me $300 a month, you know, and I have clients, you know, I still, till this day, I have clients who pay me $200 a month, you know, and I have clients who pay me $500 a month, you know, but those were the clients that I snagged when I was starting, you know, but I was willing to learn the ropes and with those smaller level clients, and then when I learned how to sell, You know, I wouldn't sell you my entire package for under $3,000 a month. You know, the least I would do is $2,500 a month because there's a lot of work involved if I have to make it work for you. Because think about it, you know, if you have a high-ticket job service and, you know, if I bring you 10 additional jobs per month and I'm making you $50,000, it doesn't make sense that if I get paid $1,500. It doesn't— to me, it doesn't make sense. It's not a fair trade, you know. It's not a fair trade. If I bring you $50,000 and you pay me $5,000, that is still a 10 to 1, right? A 10 to 1. So that's how I kind of like explain it to the clients, and then they're like, yeah, it makes sense now. So yeah, I went from like charging $200 a month to, you know, I've done deals where I've charged, you know, $8,000, $7,000. So it's just a blessing that, you know, and it's been a journey, you know what I mean? It's just, I've learned so much. Like I said, you know, 4 years ago I had no clue what digital marketing was, and then now, you know, here we are.

That's, I mean, it's a tremendous story, and I think for those of you that are listening that are giving this a full-time effort, you need to give yourself a little bit of a gut check. Like, are you really Are you putting in the effort, right? Manny obviously has put in the effort to get where he's at. Can you talk a little bit about the decision to leave the security of a full-time job? 'Cause I know that's something you struggled with for a long time. Can you just talk about how you worked through that and kind of what you're, how you're feeling at this moment knowing that, you know, like full-time focus is on the horizon for you?

Yeah, it was tough. It was tough. Even when I was doing, even when I came for the Roadmap program in Miami, I was still at $25K a month. And if you remember, I had just taken, I think I had taken like 3 days off. I had called in sick just so I can attend the program.

You come down to Roadmap Live, right?

No, so I was still at $25K a month. I was making so much, I was making much more than I was doing at my day job. But I don't know, it's just like the way we are wired as a society to have this pseudo-security from a job, you know what I mean? So every time I had the thought of quitting my day job, I had this other person on the side telling me, what if this happened? What if that happened? What if so? And then, you know, now you have kids. What if this happened? So I never I never even thought about it. I thought I was gonna do this to get to $50,000 a month, even if it took me 10 years, and then I would quit my job, you know? But after getting on the call with you and then going through the mathematics of everything, it just didn't make sense to still be at my job. So that's where— so really, thank you, because you gave me that confidence to really quit my job. Really, I mean, if I didn't talk to you, I probably would still be at my job right now, guaranteed. Yeah, but when you showed me the math, I never thought of it that way. So when you showed me the math, it's like I saw it from a different perspective, and then all of a sudden it just made sense.

Yeah, because if you're able to do what you've done with a little part-time effort, imagine what you'll accomplish with the full-time effort.

Exactly.

How much longer are you there and what are you most excited about looking into the rest of 2020?

So the goal with 2020 is to— I mean, we're halfway into the year, so my goal is to, you know, get to $50K. Really, my goal is to get to $50K before 2021. And it's very exciting. It's very exciting. It's not even about the money, it's just about, it's just about, you know, I still have family back in Africa. It's just about having the potential to be able to help out, you know, when you're needed. You know, just the other day, my brother was like, hey, my wife went through this surgery, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and, you know, he's like, hey, can you help? You know, it's a lot of money for us down here. And I'm like, yeah, for sure I can help. You know what I mean? It's just that feeling that it gives you that you're doing something. You know what I mean? So, I mean, ultimately when I joined the program, ultimately my goal was multiple six figures per month, but obviously that's a ways out. But my goal definitely before 2021 is $50K per month. And, um, definitely I'm gonna hit it. No doubt.

Exciting stuff. Thank you so much for sharing. This has been awesome, you know, especially, you know, that journey from, you know, that, that, you know, less than $20K to over $30K and now being able to focus on this full-time. What would you say, kind of as we wrap up, to that agency owner that's still in OnRamp, still trying to like land those, those next 5 clients? What would your, what would your encouragement be, or what pieces of insight would you have?

Yeah, so I remember, you know, one of the first things that really caught my eye about the program is you have made a statement about the rule of ones, right? Where you had said something about, you know, a lot of the big agencies were studied and they all had these traits about what they had accomplished. and it was the rule of ones. So what I took from that whole, you know, that whole thought process about the rule of ones is if you look at your niche, one of the first things that you need to determine about your niche is what is that one thing, all right? We all think that our clients want SEO and websites and all this stuff, but really, you know, the client doesn't really care about all that stuff. What the client wants is profitable sales leads that can turn into jobs, you know, and the question is, what kind of job does your client really want? You know, that's the million-dollar question, guys. That's the million-dollar question. So if you're in plumbing or if you're in roofing, you have to ask yourself, what is that one thing that plumbers really like to do? It doesn't really take a lot of time, but it's a high-ticket offer. Whether it's hot water, I know in the plumbing niche it's like hot water or something. In my niche it's different. In your niche you have to do the, you have to ask your clients. Even if you don't have clients in the niche, get your industry list and call them up and say, hey, I'm a student from college or whatever, right? And I'm doing this research, can you guys tell me what is that, what keeps you guys up at night? What is that one thing that if I work with you, you would really want me to bring you more leads, um, more leads, uh, so that you can sell these, these guys and make more money? And then they will tell you, they will divulge the information. So that's the one thing that I would definitely advise you guys to do, all right? To go to your niche, figure out the one or two things, all right? Maybe that one thing that they really want, all right? I can't stress that enough. In my niche, they really want high-quality water damage leads. Water damage leads, a water damage job could be a $50,000 to $100,000 to whatever, you know, a quarter million dollar job. You know, that's what they want. You know, so if I can go to them and say, hey, I can get you guys, you know, 5 to 10 water damage leads every single day, and here is my proof, everybody will be flocking to you. That is how you start getting people who want to talk to you, and that is how you control the conversation from your perspective. Because if you go to them and you're like, hey, I can handle your website, I can do social media and all these things, guess what? Everybody else is telling them the same thing. You know what I mean? Everyone is telling them the same thing. So how are you differentiating yourself from everyone else that is emailing them and showing them Facebook ads and all that stuff? You have to tell them that, hey, this is what I can do for you guys. And that's what piques their interest to wanna listen to you or to wanna have a conversation with you. And then when you jump on that sales call, it's very, very different. It's very different because now it looks like you have something that they want. Not the other way around. It's not— now they are selling. Like, I have guys get on the phone with me and they're like, they're like, I'm like, hey, I only work with one client per area. And they're like, well, can't you squeeze me in? It's like, so funny. Can't you squeeze me in there? But all because I have found what the niche wants, and now they want me. So that's how you have to approach this thing, guys.

I love it. Great, great insight, right? Figure out that high transaction value, high profit, differentiated service that they want more of and focus on that. Talk about the thing that will really pique their interest. I think that's an amazing insight and, and something, you know, just really powerful to close on today. So, Emmanuel, thank you so much for your time. Congratulations on your success. What a story from migrating to the United States to now, you know, having a really successful agency that I have no question is going to be at 7 figures in the next 12 to 24 months. Congratulations, thanks for sharing. I can't wait to do the next interview where we're looking back at this and like, remember when you were just at $30K? How exciting is this where we're at now?

So, sure, awesome.

Any last thoughts before we wrap up today?

Um, yeah, I mean, to you guys that are You know, you feel like you're struggling, you feel like you're doing everything that everybody's saying to do and you're not making headway. Here's the thing that you need to remember. You know, there's something called the compound interest, alright? The compound interest effect. Everything that you're learning right now and you're implementing You might not see the results right now, but guess what? Einstein says compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world. What that means is all the efforts that you put in right now, you might not see the effects right away, but guess what? I went from $900 to $22,000 on the side to $85,000 on the side to where this month, this year, we've crossed crossed over 6 figures, still on the side. Alright, you see the effect of compound interest? It starts small and it starts compounding over time. So you might not see the effects right now, but I guarantee you, you're gonna definitely see the effects, you know, if you don't quit. Just do not quit. You have to stick with it, keep doing what you're doing. Compound interest is gonna work in your favor. Trust me.

I love it. That's a great, it's a great tip. Wonderful, wonderful place to stop. Thank you so much for your time. Congratulations, and thank you guys for joining us and listening in. And we'll, we'll see you on the next episode of the, the Plumbing and Age— on the next episode of the 7 Figure Agency Podcast. Thanks a lot, Manny.

All right, no problem.