How to survive & thrive in the wake of Coronavirus for Digital Marketing Agencies

Alright, well, hey, welcome everybody. Thank you for joining us on today's session. We've got an amazing panel of highly successful digital marketing agencies. We're gonna be talking all about how to survive and thrive in this coronavirus shutdown situation that we all find ourselves in. So we're gonna kick off here in just a minute, but I just wanted to welcome everybody. Excellent. Alright, well, thank you guys for joining us on today's session. You know, this is, I think, one of the most important sessions we've done in quite some time. Because it's, it's an extremely important topic that's happening right in this moment. And that's the, the coronavirus. You know, the coronavirus has swept our nation. It's kind of swept the entire world, and it's causing massive shutdowns of businesses. It's causing massive shutdowns of schools. And of course, there's going to be a financial ripple effect of this. And if you're watching CNN, you're watching Fox News, you're paying attention to what's going on, in the, in the media, this is a very scary time. And the fact is, if all you did was focus on that, you'd probably think, you know, there's no opportunities on the horizon running our digital marketing agencies, there's no opportunities in the immediate moment. And really, the reason I wanted to do this session was to kind of open your eyes to the fact that if you look at this as an opportunity as opposed to a threat, and you act strategically as the owner of your digital marketing agency, that not only can you survive, but you can actually thrive and come out of this in Q3, Q4, and into the future ahead. And so that's really the objective, that's what we wanna cover on today's session. And so I've got an amazing panel. You guys have probably seen videos of me talking about the strategy and kind of how to approach the coronavirus. But I want you to hear from other digital marketing agencies that are really successful as it sits in this moment and are thriving as well. So that it's not just me talking about it, but you get a roundtable of other successful agencies. And I'll introduce them in a second, and I'll kinda let them introduce themselves and their backgrounds, and then we're gonna dive in, and you're gonna hear from these guys in terms of what they're doing, how they're approaching it, and really get a lot of different thought processes on how to really succeed and thrive in these uncertain times. So post in comments, we've got about 100 of you with us right now, you know, in various channels. Give me a yes or sounds great or something like that if this is what you wanted to make sure you got out of today's session, just so I can make sure that we're, uh, we're on the right, on the right track.

Okay, awesome.

Got a lot of yeses coming in. Very cool. So before we kick off, I just want to say that I really believe that your mindset is mission critical. Really, really how you choose to think about this situation we're in will really dictate your success this year and over the next 12 to 24 months. I, I truly believe that because what you focus on expands. And so if you're spending all of your time focused on the negative situation, the fact that this is an illness that's going to impact a large portion of our population, focus on the fact that schools and businesses are shut down, and you spend all day listening to the news, that's going to expand. It's going to consume you. It's really going to become all you can think about and focus on. And if that's what you're thinking about and if that's what you're focused on, it's going to significantly paralyze you and your ability to take actions and get results. Really, what we know is that our thoughts lead to our feelings. Our feelings determine our actions, and our actions really are what result in our, in our outcomes and our results. So if your thoughts are negative and fearful, right, then you're going to feel scared and concerned. If you're scared and concerned, you won't take action, you won't be resourceful, you won't come with ideas and strategies. And of course, that's going to negatively impact your results. It's going to negatively impact your ability to land clients, to serve the clients that you have correctly, to focus on your team and make sure that they're taken care of, and to make wise decisions that position you for success. And so I really want you guys all to take a minute and be conscious that you have the ability to choose your thoughts, right? You can choose to think differently, think differently than what you're hearing on CNN here, think differently than what you might just be having in your internal dialogue, because you can choose to think, well, maybe there's an opportunity here, right? Maybe there's a chance for me to serve my clients better. Maybe there's an opportunity to position my company and myself as the go-to expert in my niche. And if you can choose those thoughts, then you're gonna feel optimistic, you're gonna feel in control, you're gonna feel like you have the ability to choose your outcomes and your actions that you take will be drastically different. So it's really important that your thoughts are gonna determine your outcomes and you can choose those thoughts. And really, I really wanna encourage you to think about the opportunity, right? In any of the verticals that you might be in, we happen to be in plumbing and HVAC, It would be easy to look at this and say, "Man, these plumbing companies aren't going to be getting many calls. They're not going to be doing many installations. Maybe I should just stop prospecting. Maybe I should stop trying to talk to my clients and hide underneath the sheet, so to speak." But the reality is there's more opportunity in our particular vertical than ever before. We're actually landing clients. We landed one right before I jumped on this call and we landed a couple other this week. Our clients aren't all canceling. They're sticking with us and they're getting better results than ever. And I know that ours is a unique scenario, but the reality is, in any vertical, you can look at restaurants and say, well, every restaurant across America is shut right now. Surely that's a dead end. Surely I'd be doomed if I was in that niche. But the reality is there's opportunities if you can think differently, right? People are stuck at home and they're ordering in, right? Right, so how about thinking about how do you help your restaurants, if that were your niche, help your restaurants stay in front of their customers online and on social media and help them deliver, help them get into the food delivery services like Postmates and things like that. So in any vertical, you can look at the negative, you can look at the positive, you can see the threat, or you can see the opportunity. And I hope that being on this call helps you to just kind of think a little bit differently, be a little bit more creative, have different thoughts that are gonna drive different feelings and actions, which will ultimately mean you can survive and thrive throughout this really, really tough time. And so I've got the COVID action plan. You guys have all seen it, you've all got access to it. If you don't, let me know, right? It's around prospecting, retention, and what you do with your team, and also kind of how you think through your finances during this period of time. You know, if we have time at the end, I'll go back and recap some of this stuff. But really what I want to do now is get with our panel, get what they're thinking, what they're doing, how they're planning, how they're responding to the situation, so that you have that diverse set of feedback and eyeballs. So let me stop sharing my screen so that we can see our panel and, and dive into some of the introductions. So let me see.

There we go.

Where's my stop share button? There we go, awesome. So let's start with Jim Allen. We're gonna go first pass here, just introduce yourself, who you are, what kind of clients you serve.

My name is Allen Hillsberg. I work with funeral homes and crematories Basically, I work in the death care industry, and I've been focused on that for now almost 4 years. I started with Josh Nelson back in 2015, and very good choice that I've made. And it's actually a very, very good niche because of the fact that Nobody really thinks about funeral homes. And it's been very good for me. I implemented the strategies that Josh is teaching, and I've gotten to a very high level in a few short years.

Nice. 7 figures and beyond?

Yes, I am.

Congratulations. Glad, super glad to have you on this panel. And I know that you're thinking creatively Let's go to Jim now. Jim Allen.

Jim Allene, the co-founder of Roofer Marketers, the roofing niche. So we service clients all over the country in residential and commercial roofing.

Awesome, glad to have you. Brian Stearman.

Hey, my name is Brian Stearman. I own Lawn Care Marketing Mechanic, obviously in the lawn care and landscaping industries, and service companies across the US and Canada. For lawn care services. And like Alan, been around for a couple years and have reached that 7-figure mark, so.

Awesome, congratulations. Pleased. Pumped to have you here. Excited to hear your thoughts and feedback. Josh Konigsberg?

Yes, Joshua Konigsberg, legacy company, legacy agency is Web Promotion Partners. We transitioned January 1st to Law Firm Marketing Pros. Focusing on the law firm market, obviously. Founder, co-founder, and partner with offices based here in Jupiter, Florida, and an office in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Excellent, glad to have you with us.

Thank you.

Danny Barrera.

Good day. Danny Barrera, Concrete Marketing Crew. Okay, um, Really started out right out of the 7 Figure Agency Program. Concrete Marketing Crew did not exist a couple of years ago. God has blessed us with a very good clientele right now. We service residential and decorative concrete contractors throughout the United States. And yeah, that's pretty much it.

Glad to have you with us. Jimmy?

Thank you for having me.

Jimmy Nicholas, I'm the president and founder of Jimmy Marketing. And I've known Josh now probably for about 10 years. We met in marketing circles and I was very, very happy to come across the 7 Figure Agency probably about a couple years ago. And we serve orthodontists, audiologists, podiatrists, plastic surgeons, dentists, pretty much doctors in private practice. Um, you know, I, I came on board Seven Figure Agency. Many of you probably, you know, know me, but I kind of disappeared for, uh, a good part of last year. And that's because Josh introduced me to the company that acquired us. And, um, you know, I used to say I'm the owner of Jimmy Marketing and, uh, now I'm, I'm the president and founder and an employee for the company that acquired us. So, um, you know, we were able to build the agency to about $4 million in revenue and sell it for, you know, multiple millions. And now I'm in, uh, I'm in the employee mode, but fighting for our team, fighting for our clients, and looking forward to today. Thank you, Josh, for putting this on, and I'm sure we're gonna get some great value. I'm here to just get whatever I can and help.

Awesome, super pumped to have you with us, and congratulations obviously on the on the transition. So, so thank you. Round of applause for our panel. I think you guys can see that you can take a lot of stake in what you're going to hear. These are all very successful digital marketing agencies running niche-focused businesses. So I want to start with mindset. You know, I just— each of you, I'd like to hear how you're thinking about this from a mindset perspective and just kind of share what your thoughts are. We'll start, we'll start in the same order we went. We'll go to Alan first.

You know, as we all know, this has been a difficult time for everyone. There's a lot of uncertainty, a lot of stress, with people forced to stay home and at risk of losing paycheck. There has been heavy losses in the stock market, and small businesses are closed due to a lockdown. But I really truly believe that people are looking to feel positive. They're tired of feeling stressed. They want to be more constructive. I feel that a call from you is a positive conversation that they can focus on discussing move-forward strategies. And if I was on the phone speaking to somebody, I'd say something like this: Mr. Prospect, can I bring up some constructive strategies now that when this all passes you'll be in the position to be moving forward full steam ahead. Just keep it simple, and I guarantee you your prospects will listen.

No doubt. Think about, think about the long term and stay, stay positive. Uh, let's go to, let's go to Jim Allen. Aline, sorry.

That's all right. Um, so the— I had a big mindset shift the second that this started, you know, kind of rolling out, and it was How can we help, right? That's the, that's the mindset that I went into from, from the second that, you know, from the first conversations with, with the, with our clients and with prospects that were starting to feel it. Um, and, and that's what we've been doing. That, that's our whole focus now is how can we help? How can we help you now? How can we help you, uh, be in a better position when this ends? Because it will, right? Helping them, having conversations with them to calm their fears. And help them understand that there are good things to come if you make the right decisions during these times.

Yeah, no doubt.

How can we help? For sure, I like that mindset. Let's go to Brian Stearman.

Yeah, so in my mind, A, there's light at the end of this tunnel, and I work in a very seasonal industry. Business anyways. So every year at the end of October, early November, till really February, our customers have a downtime. Their revenue drops drastically, all those types of things. And so this is really no different. And what we see is those are our busiest months. So that's— as entrepreneurs just like us, your customers are entrepreneurs and they're looking for a way to grow their business. They're looking for the future. I mean, that's part of being an entrepreneur. And so this is a great time for them to start focusing on what can we do for our business to move forward? Because this is going to end. I mean, it may be 2 weeks, maybe 4, but at the end of the day, they're going to have businesses again. And having a plan and being able to work on their business, this might be for some industries the best time because they usually don't have this downtime to really focus on growing their business.

I like that. That's a really— I like that thought process around, look, it's downtime, right? And smart business entrepreneurs use that downtime to plan, to think, to put things in place. So great, great insight there.

I love that.

Let's go to Josh Konigsberg.

Thank you. Hey, Brian, love the glass half full attitude. I love it. So I want to take it on just a little bit of a deeper level, and then I want to talk about how we're handling it here. So deeper level, meaning that it's all going to be rooted in your core values. And as long as you take some time now if you haven't done it to identify those core values. And I'm talking about your personal core values that will translate over into your business, particularly for the smaller agencies out there, because values are going to lead to your attitude, and your attitude is going to ultimately lead to your behavior. And as long as you're congruent with, with that process, everything's going to work out all right. Don't be scared. I had that conversation with a family member the other day. Don't be scared about this. So, so With that being said, we've taken the position— when I say we, I mean the leadership team of Law Firm Marketing Pros— is we're going to be here as a leader for our families, our staff, and our community, which includes our clients. So that, that, that's the position you have to take. And we are all here for you as part of 7 Figure Agency to help support you in moving forward with that model.

I like it. Can you repeat something you said yesterday about, you know, you don't consider this to be as hard as times in ancient history? Like, there's been tougher days.

Yeah, so especially for America, this is not tough stuff, okay? Uh, you know, I like to— and those of you who heard me say it, I'll just say it again. Um, listen, storming the beaches of Normandy as an 18-year-old, 19-year-old kid, that's tough stuff, man. Okay, Iwo Jima, that was tough. This is not hard. Okay, you know, getting dropped into the jungles of Vietnam, that is tough. This is not hard stuff. I've got some recommended, maybe some recommended reading and a concept on that that I want to share later as we get to some concepts. And do you want me to share the story about my friend's father?

Sure.

Yeah, so, uh, my college roommate's father, dear friend of mine, still to this day. His father was a tank commander in the Second World War. He went into Normandy on D-Day plus 3 as a tank commander. There were 148 men in his platoon and 12 came home, and every one of the 12 came home with a Purple Heart. This is not hard. We're going to get through this and we're going to get through this together. So you have to have the attitude that you're going to be in a position of leadership as we got— as we navigate through this.

I like it.

And thank you, Josh, for your leadership.

Thank you.

Let's go to Danny.

I am right with Josh on pretty much everything he said. You know, going through a lot of personal hardships not too long ago, I shared this yesterday as well, is this is, yeah, we're, you know, everyone's in panic mode, but I tell you, I've been through very tough situations where I didn't even want to be alive, you know, I really didn't. I didn't want to wake up the next day and I wanted everything to be over. Didn't have any money, felt like the sky was falling on top of me. And when you're in the middle of situations, a lot of times it seems like it's never ending, like what are you gonna do? So, you know, one day at a time, one moment at a time, and you know, just like Josh said, it all starts right here. It's what you put, you know, like you started this off with, it's what your focus is. Expands. So for me, I've been doubling down on personal development, on, um, again, the core values. It's extremely important because that's going to determine what actions you take throughout the day, or if you stick to your action plan. Because guys, the reality is that it's not going to get easier right now. That is the bottom line. That is a reality. That is a reality. If you don't want to face that, you know, this is not rainbows and unicorns right now. So that is the reality. And I do believe, look, this is the time. This is probably the biggest time that you can take and— I don't want to use the word capitalize on, but for the lack of a better word, is to really take that leadership role in your industry and become the dominant force that you wish you were in your space. Be known, be the best known in your industry, be the one guy that they're gonna remember, hey, when everything was chaotic, and I need help with this, that was the company that helped me out with this. You know, so that's— those are the conversations I've been dealing with, you know, at the company level. And again, like we've said here, look, everyone's counting on us, and we get to be in that position where we're blessed as men and as leaders. And if there are females on this thread right here, you are blessed to be the queen of your castle. And, you know, if the king doesn't rise the kingdom will die. So whatever kingdom you're in charge of, which is your family, is your employees, is your clients, your clients, you got to make sure you're defending them and you're going out to the very end. Because at the end of the day, look, I don't know about you guys, but if I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die winning. That is, that is my motto, you know. So you see, that's how I feel and that's how I walk. That's, that's, that's a level of courage that I walk through So, you know, yeah, we're gonna face disappointment. Yeah, you know, the stock market is crashing. You know, I don't have a lot of money flying around, so, you know, but it's time for us to reassess, and it's also time for some of us to take ourselves seriously, because when the times were easy and didn't take advantage of the opportunity of putting ourselves out there, of prospecting, of investing the time, putting our assets investing. I want to share something with you. This just came in the mail, by the way, a magazine, uh, right here. Thanks to our sponsors, uh, Concrete Marketing Crew. Some of these companies are billions of dollars, billion-dollar companies that I associated myself. And yes, I invested a lot of money to put myself in this situation, but thanks to this, this has created a domino effect in our industry. Look, the A-list right here has my name right here, and Matty right on top of it. As a byproduct of investing, so that right now we're in a better position to endure the tough times. But it's a moment of realization to not take the good times for granted. And I think we all do that. We have a client base, you know, we're surviving, we're thriving. But going back to the mindset, it's something that I've had with since I started this thing, because I came from nothing. I came from not— I was with nothing, you know. So I feel blessed. I trust God. I pray every day, and like I shared yesterday, you know, when this whole thing started happening, I said, God, you know, if you want to hit the reset button on me, do it right now, you know. So that's my thing. I want to get it over with. But every day, one day at a time, a moment at a time, you know, and each one of us has different responsibilities. So for me, it's mapping out those responsibilities. I did give my team a race, my entire team a race. You know, right when this started happening, early, early March. And I'll tell you, that has brought a lot of encouragement, and I also instilled that in them, that our clients are counting on us more than ever, more than ever before. And we're— I'm playing this for the long term, so that, that is my mindset.

I love it. Great, great stuff, Danny. Jimmy?

Yeah, so You know, I echo Josh Cosberg's comments around the fight, you know, fighting for your family, fighting for your friends, your— not your friends, your team, your clients. And it certainly has given me a sense of purpose. You know, I think when you have crises, leaders will rise to the top and they'll shine and people are looking. For leaders and, uh, you know, for our clients. Uh, I think it's very important to show confidence, you know, in general. I mean, we deal with doctors, so a lot of our, uh, team— I mean, let's face it, Mary— or all of our team makes a lot less money than these doctors typically are making. And, uh, the account managers that can lead with confidence and, uh, you know, lead with getting them to, to go down the right paths and make the right decisions. Those are the ones that are, are enabling us to retain a majority of our, our, of our accounts. And, uh, empathy, uh, thinking about putting yourself in the mindset of the doctor that, you know, has 30 employees, 2 locations, and both of them are closed, and, and you know, he can't practice for the next 3 months. I mean, empathizing and, you know, we're finding that over-communicating is better right now, informing as much as possible, giving them actions to take even beyond just digital marketing so that you can help them. And, you know, it's— I think it really comes down to at this point, You know, having that faith that Danny's talking about, that you're on the right path and that, hey, this is a bump in the road and your team's looking to you to lead and your clients are looking to you to lead and you're going to be just like Michael Jordan or Tom Brady at the end of the game with that ball and you're going to win the game at the end. So, um, that's the kind of mindset I'm going in with it.

I love it.

I love it.

Lots of, you know, positive, positive mindset here. Lots of good insights. Hopefully this just kind of, you know, refreshes your mind and kind of Maybe it shifts you from below the line to above the line. I want to hear from you guys in comments as we move to the next set of questions. What, what do you take away from that? What did you like? What will you implement in your own mindset? Um, post in comments just so we can keep this as interactive as possible. Um, and I'll say I saw this posted by somebody the other day and it said the antidote of fear is gratitude, right? So if you're in a state of fear, the best thing you can do, like Danny said, was like, look, What do I have? Like, I'm alive, I've got a family, the sun is coming up every day. If you let your mind focus on what you're grateful for, there's no place for the fear to live. So love to hear from you guys in comments. We'll move to the net— next, uh, next set of questions. I think, you know, as it relates to this running agencies, the next thing we all need to think about after mindset is client retention, right? We've got clients, we want to try and serve them as well as possible. We want to try and retain them as, as, you know, as high as possible. What are you guys doing from a retention perspective to, to retain your clients? And we'll start with, uh, we'll start with Alan. What kinds of things are you doing there?

Not sure if I'm the best person to ask that question, uh, considering my niche. Um, fortunately I'm not experiencing cancellations. Uh, what I've been doing is I've been focusing on sales. And basically, there is not only an increase in deaths caused by the virus, there's an increase in deaths caused by higher levels of stress, depression, and anxiety in our society, resulting in higher mortality rates than normal. And I don't say this in a positive way or a good way, but it's a busy time for funeral directors. Increasing their visibility now will put them in a position to help more families that are facing a very difficult time right now. And that is helping me make more sales because they see that this is a good time for me to be more visible, to allow my strengths and what I know, and, you know, walk these families through a very difficult time in their lives. As far as retraining my clients or retention, I'm not having that problem right now.

It's just they're not seeing it as an issue, so it's not even a blip on the radar for them?

No, no, with what's going on, no.

Okay, excellent. Let's go to you, Jim. Now, Aline.

So, what we're doing with retaining clients, the first thing that I did is I reached out and tried to get every single one of our the owners on the phone individually and have a conversation and, and figure out the mindset that they were in. And then from there, we, we kind of developed plans individually, like, hey, these— this company's not worried about anything, they're still full steam ahead, there's nothing to worry about there. There's another company over here that is a— that maybe the one— a company, for instance, that just got started with us Their website isn't even launched yet and they're in a state, in a location that got on lockdown really quick. In roofing, there was rules. Construction has been an essential service across most of the places that are getting locked down, but in this specific case, they said, "We don't want you doing re-roofs." but you can do roof repairs, right, in his area. So, you know, we're just shifting everything for him, putting together, uh, you know, social media strategies around it individually, client by client, figuring out what they need. For that client specifically, I said, hey, let's do a reduced fee for you on a month-to-month basis through this crisis, but you have to commit that reduction in fee to social media marketing instead. Right. So we're trying to help them as much as we can individually, depending on where they're at. So that's kind of how we've been handling it. You know, we've had to adjust our fees for a couple of people. We've had to add services for others. But it's just on an individual basis figuring out exactly what they need and how we can help them in that regard.

I like it. So getting in, getting in touch with all the clients, figuring out where they're at mentally. Are they worried? Are they stressed? Do they feel good? And then adjusting and building a plan specifically for them, basically for them.

That's right, specifically for them and their, you know, the fears that they're facing around, you know, what's happening in their area. Because every, every location, you know, we're, you know, coast to coast, every location's a little bit different. Talked to one, one of our clients the first time I called. He's like, I was at the restaurant last night. It's like, we've been shut down for a week here. That's a different— you're in a whole different— you're in a different place than a lot of other people are. So making sure you understand what they're going through. Yeah, personally, right?

And, and out of your client base, the retention's been pretty good so far. You haven't had a massive—

we haven't lost any clients. We have We have one client that we paused all services for, and we've done a reduction in fees on a couple of others in relation to that. So we've reduced our monthly recurring by about 10% right now.

Okay.

In response to these clients. But everyone, no one is, we haven't, no one is leaving.

Right.

It might be a temporary setback for some of them.

That's right.

Yeah.

Got it.

Good share. Thank you. Let's go to Brian Stearman.

You're muted.

Still muted.

Sorry, man. Here we go. Networks. All right. Yeah. So I'm also in a, what's considered an essential business in most states. There are a few states that we've had customers that completely shut down, but for the most part, everyone's an essential, or at least at this point considered essential. We've had, you know, kind of like roofing, depending on what aspect of the landscape industry they're in, depends on how much this is impacting them. So if they're real heavy into design-build, that type of stuff, those type of guys, When the economy's down, people aren't spending $20,000 to redo their backyard. We're working with clients on a one-by-one basis and making adjustments to billing and services offered and things like that based on their necessary, what they need for them, their family, their employees. We had one of our employees, or one of our customers lay off 14 employees. Last week. So we actually donated our fee, $100 to each customer, or to each one of their employees, and just said, hey, you know, help take care of your employees as opposed to pay us this month. So it's just a way of giving back. I mean, we haven't lost a lot, so we're in a position to do that. I know there's other agencies that aren't as fortunate as us during this time, so You know, we're just trying to do whatever we can and really make it about the people. And, you know, it's not about the business right now. It's about your customers and the relationships. And in my mind, that's what's going to pay forward in the end.

100%. Good, good share.

Josh?

Yeah, so we've lost two small customers in our legacy agency. Our retention plan, and we jumped right on it with some emails through We use Mailchimp. Our open rate, however, has been— is low. Everybody's inundated. I don't know how everybody else in the panel and the participants, how your emails are, but my email is flooded with COVID-19 policy changes and whatever. So we're taking a different tact. Actually, by the end of the business day today, we'll be sending a an email to all of our clients directly from Andy, 'cause they all respond to his emails. Andy's my partner, for those of you who don't know. That is going to be the first in a series of things that they should do. So what we've come up with is half a dozen things that are either we can do for you, you just need to tell us what you want us to do, fill in the blank, or Later, later on, it's going to be DIY stuff. These are things that you need to be doing for yourself, or could be, or should be doing, depending on, uh, what type of business it is. Obviously, a dentist is going to be different than a pressure wash company, right? But I'm actually developing a checklist based on yesterday's call that I will share, Josh, with you to share through to the group. A checklist of that you can actually just give this checklist of DIY things that your clients can do. So the position is that you, again, getting back to that leadership position, that you want to be a leader for your clients and also take it to another level of creativity that prior to this or heretofore has not been done before. I had that conversation this morning with the entire staff for a plastic surgery client. They loved what I had to say. They're going to actually implement everything I had on my list. So they're going to be working with, with our team on some of it, on the stuff we can do, and then the DIY stuff. Um, they're going to do it all. They loved everything I had to say. So we're just taking it to another level of creativity. Um, and, and again, I'll share that list. And when we get further down, uh, actually, here's— here, let me just throw out one nugget. Not sure, Jimmy, this might have come from you yesterday. I'm not sure, but, um I, I instructed the doctor and/or his two closest staff members to call every single past client patient, ask them personally how they're doing, let them know that they're here for them. And oh, by the way, when this is all said and done and over, we're now go— we're going to have extended hours to meet your needs and actually even work on weekends for you. So, um, they, they love that idea.

Good stuff. So it's kind of getting, getting out in front of it and kind of mapping a custom plan and giving them ideas on what they can do to stay ahead of the situation.

That's very well said.

Love it. Danny?

Yeah, thank God, 100% retention. We have had Google Ads reductions for a couple of clients. And it's funny, this is what's funny, it's— so SEO is our core competency. There's one thing we shine in, we rise up to the top. Is SEO. However, over the past few months I've been shifting to leading with pay-per-click and paid Facebook ads and pay-per-click. I was to the point where I was starting to white label and outsource a lot of the SEO stuff, and I was thinking about shutting down my SEO team as a whole and just deal with white label stuff. And it just happens to be that my team, you know, everything we've done for our clients has been the thing that's kept us all aboard because we lead in with that setting expectations and the value that clients get, and we plant those seeds from the very beginning. This is what's going to happen. And, you know, I've always had that conversation and I always bring this up, hey, do you remember 2008? What happened back then? Well, when you're up on Google search, it doesn't matter if you're running ads or not, but if you're up on top, you're still gonna get calls. Yeah, it may not be 100 calls a month, but you're still gonna get calls. So that kind of like had, you know, those are the conversations we've been having where You need to maintain your positions, you know, things are going to be great. We're doubling down, we're doing additionally this, this, or that. Adding a bit more automation, which a lot of the archaic guys, they don't like all the technology, believe it or not. Like my niche is still a few years behind when it comes to adopting technology. Stubborn guys, but at the same time, that's stubbornness, if I can sell to that stubbornness, they stick around because they're so stubborn in their ways. So I've used that and I've leveraged that to my advantage. You know, are we gonna stick this out together? You know, and that, that's those sort of conversations. So I've taken that into the conversation. So, so far so good. You know, I shared this yesterday as well, one of my first clients He's been around for a while, we've grown tremendously. He's expanded to regional from a statewide to now he's a regional client, big, big business. And he told me, "Hey, you were there when I was trying to grow my company online. Now I want you to effing remember me that I'm gonna stick around through this tough time." So that was very encouraging for me to hear a couple of days ago.

Yeah, I love it. I love it. Great stuff. Let's go to Jimmy.

So to give you an idea numbers-wise, I mean, we've got about 120 clients paying us between $2,000 and $5,200 a month and mostly orthodontists, mostly dentists, some audiology, some podiatry, one plastic surgeon. But give me an idea of the range. Mostly orthodontists and dentists who have been forced to shut down in most instances other than emergencies. And some are donating their masks and their PPE, their personal protective equipment, for the COVID-19. So far we have 9 people that have either paused or we've discounted in some sort of way. Which to the tune about $15,000 a month. It's about 5% of our recurring revenue that we get in, about 7.5% of our clients. So, it is our lower paying clients that are pausing. You know, that's really helping me with retention, I believe, is getting out in front of situations in terms of the information to the client. So I started with an email right away, then a video. Now we're doing weekly webinars where it's just simple Q&A. And, you know, I, I built it, built the company so that we have about 25 to 30 accounts per account manager. So they're reaching out to the client, but then my overarching philosophy is coming across in the webinars and in the dialogue. And, uh, you know, I don't beat around the bush. The elephant in the room is, is, uh, you know, my practice is closed, I'm cutting unneeded expenses, what can you do for me, Jimmy Marketing? And, uh, they'll say like, my house payment got deferred, but my business loan didn't, you know, what can Jimmy Marketing do for me? And first and foremost, I acknowledge that. I say, you know, It's very, very smart, you as a business owner, going down the list of, you know, unneeded expenses. I'd be doing the same exact thing because I would want to be putting it into growth. And I don't look at the marketing as an expense, it's an investment. So first and foremost, I would keep it and I'd actually increase it. And I would go down the line and talk to them about, you know, the obvious, the Google cost per click that we're seeing The click costs go down because competition is down, costs have gone down, and these are the people are getting your website only when they're interested in what it is that you offer. So why on earth would you ever turn off Google Ads? That's like the— I don't think I said dumbest, but I may have. Facebook, I'm going to increase the ad spend because where is everybody? Everybody's at home, they have no social interaction. They're going on Facebook and the advertisers aren't there, the costs are down, let's get on Facebook. Let's maintain SEO, let's maintain retargeting. You know, $100, $200 a month and you're all over the internet for the hottest people that have been to your website. For top of mind awareness, you gotta do it. One thing we haven't done really in the past is YouTube ads. I'm telling them, let's test YouTube ads. And then I really make them get it into perspective and say, look, we haven't laid anybody off, we haven't furloughed employees. Matter of fact, we started a new employee last Tuesday. And you know, I got people working at 1 o'clock in the morning on Saturday, me included, updating websites, getting announcements out. And 3 other employees are working with me side by side. We're fighting for you. Don't you want us on your side here? You can't crawl under the covers and do nothing. You gotta fight. This is your chance to gain market share, and what's your plan today for your existing patients? You know, are you interacting with them in any sort of capacity? Yeah, you're closed. Let's talk about virtual consults. So we, we found a resource, Doxy.me.

We—

it was like the third one we ended up going with, with, with that one. We've been doing virtual consults for years for these people, but it hasn't taken off until now. And, um, you know, clients are actually getting consults already, so we're using that. As a success story. I see you gotta stay in touch with your existing clients, and Josh, I'm so glad you were able to use that today. That's awesome that they were able to get some value out of that. And, you know, stay in touch, use the video conferencing that's available to you, be of service. You're gonna be there for your patients so they can pay you. So subconsciously they're thinking, well, if Jimmy Marketing is doing all this work, I should really pay them. Right? And, and, and they want to. And then don't you want to build that pipeline so when it does open up that you're there? And let's use your digital assets. Let's get your book out there for free right now, your digital book, your, you know, all the different things. And, um, they got to be the best for their patients, and we have to be the best for them. So it's that, it's that, yeah, it's that motivating thing, but there were some actionable things in there. And if a client reaches out to me, I always empathize with them, but then, you know, I go down that path of really what they should be doing, how they should be thinking about this. And, you know, it's that confidence and leading to them. I think if we look at that checklist that Josh has, you know, that checklist gives them a plan of action. Wayne Gretzky skates to where the puck is going to be, not where it's been. So he's giving them hope, he's giving them activity that not only they can do as a client, but what we're going to do for them. So if you're positioning yourself as, look, we're working our balls off here for you, not because we want to, I mean, because we want to, you know what I'm saying? Like this is what we got to do. That sort of fight and that sense of hope. You got to make the marketing make sense. So they're not just going to market, you know, get a free consult, free smile consultation, like they normally do. It's got to be video appointment with a doctor, you know, and make it make sense so that you can get that revenue in. I know this was on retention. I think it's important. Brian brought up earlier around the— they have the time right now. One of our biggest challenges with clients, especially busy, busy doctors, they never give us the time in the beginning of the project that we need. Well, now is the perfect time. Well, they don't have no money. So what we're doing is we're doing 0% financing on a credit card, breaking up the payments for them, avoiding discounts, throwing in different bonuses as much as possible to get people to yes so that we can keep our people on the build side of our business, you know, busy as well. But they've picked up on the virtual consult and, you know, people are busy and everything, but I think it's that type of leadership that people need right now to lead them to where that puck's gonna go.

No doubt, some great insights here on how to retain the client base. I want to have you guys take for a second, kind of encapsulate what you took away from a retention perspective. While you're typing in, I'll say You know, some of the things that, that we're doing, and that really stuck with me with what these guys said, is you've got to get in touch with the clients right now. Now is the time to get every client on the phone or on a Zoom meeting, check in with them, let them know you're there for them, and let them know what you're going to be working on, right? Because everybody's thinking right now, no matter how successful they are, no matter how flush their bank account is, they're thinking, what expenses can I reduce right now? How can I reduce my overhead?

Right?

I'm going to suggest you do the same here in a second. But the reality is you have to know the difference between an expense and an investment, right? Things that are just draining your account versus things that you put out that are going to make you money, right? And so you have to kind of talk into the mindset for them, right? You guys are hearing some mindset training here. The reality is your clients are watching Fox News and CNN and they're stressed out and they think the world's coming to an end. So you almost have to train their mindset that this too shall pass and the smart business owners are taking action now that's going to position them for success in Q3, Q4, and beyond, right? If you can get them to see that there's opportunity on the horizon, now's the time to be, you know, going deeper with the SEO strategy, going deeper with their pay-per-click campaign, capitalizing on the lower cost per click and the lower cost per impression. And, you know, and, you know, introduce one or two new things you're going to do as a company to help them out, right? So we're talking to our clients about a 10-mile domination strategy. Or we're going to really pump on Facebook and make sure that they're showing up in the 10-mile radius that they serve. You know, it's something new that we haven't done in the past, and it's really rallying our clients around it. So overcommunicate, get one-on-one with your clients, bring out new ideas and strategies, and retention— you'll be able to retain even in a tough vertical.

Go ahead, Josh.

I just wanted to add one thing, maybe some language that would help, because the initial reaction for for almost everyone, and that includes everybody on this panel, is contraction, right? That's the first thing you have to think is contraction. And it's counterintuitive, and use that language, counterintuitive to think expansion, but that's exactly what they need to do, and that's exactly what we're doing.

Nice, I like that. That's good, that's good language. So a lot of good, lot of good comments in here. Leadership mindset, making sure that they're focused on retention, retention.

Oh, what, what, what other thing, John?

Go ahead, Jimmy.

Um, you know, I, I am not one to follow politics and get involved with it, but I have been paying attention and summarizing it for our clients in certain instances on the webinar and, uh, giving them information around loans and how to get 0% credit cards and financing and, you know, helping them so that they believe and know that we— I'm the trusted authority And that, yeah, don't, don't worry about like the business stuff. I'm going to give you resources beyond even the digital marketing and just providing value to them in any way that you can so that, you know, one, you'll come across smart, but you're helping them because they, they got a lot going on too.

Yeah, another thing is, you know, shared, shared experience creates loyalty and it creates bonds. So the clients that you do retain during this shared experience of crisis And if you help bring them through it, not only are they going to stick with you in the short run, but their likeliness of sticking with you in the long run is significantly greater. So really, really take advantage of this opportunity. Go ahead, Jim.

We've done that also in getting out, thinking of anything that could help them on a, you know, on a broad scale. So I got with one of the top CRMs in our, in our agency and did a podcast episode with them. Blasted that out about how to work virtually. Along with that, now, you know, we've been in communication with the top CRM in our industry. So, you know, starting to develop that relationship. I brought on an SBA disaster loan expert from New York who was a, you know, did a lot of work in the SBA disaster loans when Sandy came through and had a conversation about that, that we're now, you know, providing that information that Anything that we can think of that not only our clients, but people in our industry or business owners in general could find useful at this time, we wanna be the ones bringing them that information.

Great point, yes, I mean, the stuff that's coming out with the stimulus bill and the SBA disaster relief, you just put that into an email and send it off. Hey, we know it's tough times, we know you're gonna have to make some tough decisions, here's some resources to help you out. And that information is readily available. I'll put it in the group, that way everybody has access to it. 'Cause I think that's a great idea. Don't feel like, oh, everybody knows this information and it's already out there. Take it, send it to your client base or to your industry and say, hey, look, here's the information you need in order to take advantage of that stimulus bill or in order to take advantage of that disaster relief fund. All right, so we've talked about retaining the clients, Obviously, we need to make sure our clients feel the love and that we retain them at the highest level possible. Now I wanna shift to landing clients. This is a tough time to be prospecting and to be landing clients. So I just wanna hear from the group, what are you guys doing as it relates to marketing and prospecting at this point, if any? And we'll start with Alan.

Okay. Never stop marketing. I have not stopped marketing since I started in 2015, and it's, it's really the secret to my success. And what I'm doing now is we're email marketing to the high population areas in the country using a targeted list, and those engaging with our outreach, either through opening or clicking through to the links that I have in my email, We are following up with a direct phone call. We're also speaking directly to our client base, and new sales this week have come from existing clients. So that is what we're doing. I did see somebody in the chat say, when you call clients, how do you not make it sound like it's a money grab? And the way I would answer that is I would call a prospect, Mr. Prospect, can I bring up some constructive strategies now that when this all passes, you'll be in a position to be moving forward full steam ahead? Keep it simple like that. Doesn't sound like a money grab. It's not a money grab. What you're doing is you are creating value now and keep keeping them in the positive mindset so when this is all over, they can be off the ground running.

Great, great point. Always, always be marketing, right? And then I think I'm going to hand it off here, but, um, one of the key tenets of marketing is to enter the conversation that's already going on in your customers' and prospects' minds. And so it's mission critical any prospecting that you do is a little bit tweaked to the current state of affairs, right? If you're not mentioning, you know, coronavirus or the lockdown and how the reason you're contacting them is because you think this is an opportune time for them to think about this, this, or that, your marketing is going to fall completely on deaf ears. So I think that was a great point. It's talking about here's why I think now's a good time. Let's go to, let's go to Jim.

We're entering that conversation. And so All the— any email, any emails that are going out have, you know, have constructive, you know, you know, here's things that you can do, here's some resources for you, things like that. Again, changing our content, you know, focusing the content around things that can help them in this, in this situation. I did 3 podcast episodes this week, so, um, you know, we're— I want to— I'm just essentially you know, Daniel, like this, I'm trying to, I'm trying to 100x what we're doing right now, man. We're, you know, so, you know, not just 10x it, like, let's, let's crank it up, let's crank it up, but have, have the right messaging at the same time. So same thing. And, um, so everything that we, we were doing, just, you know, a little more of it. That's what we're doing.

I love it. And, you know, all of that content you're putting out, it helps from a prospect perspective It also helps from a retention perspective because the clients see you out in front of it. They see you as a thought leader.

Yeah, I like that. Yeah, that everything for the, for the community right now, just with the, you know, help people and it'll come back around to you for sure. I've gotten messages now on LinkedIn. I got a message on LinkedIn from one of the largest distributors of roofing products in the country. Saying, hey, I shot your podcast episode out to a few of our clients recently, a few of our contractors that work with us. Thanks for doing that, right? Like, and so the con— we know that the content we're putting out is resonating, and, uh, and that's, you know, that, that's what we're trying to do.

So fantastic. Let's go to— let's go to Brian.

Yeah, so anyone that's followed kind of what I do, I spend a lot of time in social media closed groups for our industry. And so what we've been doing, and really specifically me, has just been spending a lot of time in those groups answering questions. You know, I talk to a lot of people on a weekly basis about what they're doing in their business, how they're dealing with COVID-19 issues, you know, things that they're doing with their business, staggering crews in and out of their shop so they don't have contact, that type of stuff. And then I'm just taking that, basically the information that my customers are giving me, and sharing it in social media groups where, you know, obviously there's a large group of people that are potentially my ideal client. So really just focusing on providing value. And, you know, we've closed 3 clients and 1 this week. And, you know, considering the times, I consider that to be really successful. So You know, that's, you know, really our biggest thing is just focus on providing value to the groups that we're in.

I love it. Josh?

Yeah, so we are going to embark on a very aggressive Facebook campaign. We'll be working on that in the next week or so, and then we're gonna go ahead and take advantage of the low cost per click and continuing on with everything else that's been in the queue as if nothing's changed, whether that be, you know, we're gonna do another web— we're actually probably going to end up doing 2 webinars here in the next 3 weeks and continuing to do all the content marketing that we're doing to try to drive as much traffic as we can. I've got hopefully 3 deals closing here in the next week to 10 days, and we're just gonna keep, you know, just got to keep pounding the rock, so to speak.

So, Stacy's asking if your stuff is directed to attorneys specifically, the ads you're gonna be running.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'll say, right now, a lot of people are actually having a lot of success in the group running case study campaigns and/or, like I just recently launched the COVID-19 marketing strategy for plumbing and HVAC contractors, and we're getting very, very cost-effective leads on that, like I'm talking about $2 and less, because you can pick a targeted audience, you can make it a lookalike, in your copy just kind of call out plumbing and HVAC contractors, now is not the time to be afraid, it's the time to take action, we've developed this to help you with that. There's another person in the group that specializes in working with chiropractors doing the same kind of a message, how to succeed or thrive with the COVID situation. And getting like the lowest cost per lead we've seen, uh, for agency-related type stuff in a long, long time. So, Stacy, to answer your question, yes, it is working and it is effective. Let's go to Danny.

Yeah, the COVID-19 plan, guys, reach out to every major manufacturer, every major group owner, and, and offer that help. So I'm going on my 7th with one of those 20-minute webinars, live Zoom calls in tight groups, and there is nothing better for positioning right now than being of help. And, you know, be there with open help, and I'm sharing with them different ways that they can do estimating and quoting over the phone. Like I said, I work with concrete guys, and those guys, when I say they don't want to deal with technology, they really don't. Like, getting them to open up Zoom is just 20-minute call in itself, but getting them to adopt that, showing them and sharing different strategies, that has been a winner for me right now, and that's just organic reach out. On top of that, the messaging overall, the communication that we're putting out there is different. I just invested in more advertising on one of the association's channels, so they're gonna let me do a new another webinar for this time. And that's just giving me exposure in that front. So I am looking at this as in, if they didn't know who I was before this started, when this is done, they're gonna know my name. They're gonna know our company name. So it's more branding play than anything else, Josh. Positioning, you know, to be, yeah, just a big player in the industry.

I love it. I like the fact that your thought isn't just one-to-one prospecting. Let's create the content, let's get it to our prospects, but let's also look for the industry partners, the associations, and they all want it.

They all want—

they all want the reach and wider the, um, the impact.

They all want it. They all— they all want it. I have not had one person that said no, and I'm being very, uh, very specific on who I want, you know, what groups I want to be known in and all that stuff. So it's not just anywhere, you know, it's just I'm very Yeah, very, very targeted audience there.

Awesome.

Jimmy, prospecting, marketing, business development? Absolutely.

So, uh, Danny, kudos to you for that action. That, that's gonna make you grow fast.

I love it.

I love it. Um, I mean, we, we built Jimmy Marketing, uh, with no ads, no, no direct outreach, no, no ads. We use joint venture partners where we teamed up with gurus who teach these doctors on practice management, how to build their practice, that sort of stuff. So we're doing those webinars. I'm not doing them with them live, I'm actually doing them on my own and then they're distributing them for me. They're using them in their materials. But I mean, Danny, you gave me an action item to go and look at other associations because the content that we have in these webinars is great. Even if they get the replay out would be phenomenal. So we stopped all normal nurturing. When I say normal, you know, your traditional nurturing in terms of, you know, go get more reviews, all the basic kind of evergreen stuff that's out there. We've stopped that. We've shifted 100% on the COVID-19 topic. I think, Josh, you posted in the Facebook group, you know, make sure your ads are timely. So, we're not doing the generic stuff anymore, we're going all on the COVID-19. We're upselling, while we're not doing the virtual consult software, it's not our software, we're selling the integration of that with, you know, with like the calendaring so they can do the real-time appointments, some training, setting up a landing page, and you know, we've been able to bring in about $10,000 of revenue to existing clients on upsells and then new clients as well, where normally we would make them pay our full $37,000 package in the first 6 months with ad spend or nothing. Like, you got to do that with us or nothing. We're now doing, you know, the virtual consults to start to set up the relationship, the 0% financing. We're doing direct mail now, FedEx, and and getting them information on the webinar around COVID-19. Now I recorded 2 webinars last night. We're going to get the replay out to those people and add new people to the list. We're looking into LinkedIn Sales Navigator to get the replay to other people in the niche. And, you know, more of the joint ventures and just, you know, trying to do everything we can because now You know, our retention rate before this thing was 99% month over month.

Wow.

And, uh, we— so this is new to us to lose 6% of our, of our monthly revenue. And we had goals of growth, and not only is our growth, uh, you know, not as good right now because we're not getting as many new sales, but we're losing money. So now we're gonna have to replace the loss of the money plus the existing growth that we had. So we're really ramping up to, to just be out there. And, uh, you know, when this thing turns and we want to be top of mind for them, um, and I love the, you know, Alan, always be, always be marketing, always be closing. I love it.

No doubt. Good stuff. So some, some good insights here on how to land clients and kind of keep the pedal to the metal. Um, you know, a lot of people, you know, they look at this scenario and they just think there's no new clients to be had, right? It might be one thing to retain what you've got, but there's no chance to land new clients. I can tell you, you know, just about everybody in this, in this group has landed clients in the last 2 to 3 weeks and they're positioning themselves to be even stronger and better positioned in their vertical going forward. So I'd love to hear from you guys. What were some of the key things that stuck with you from this session on landing clients? And how to remain top of mind even during this economic crisis. What I want to talk about next, you know, we're going to talk about, we're going to talk about team here in a minute, how to keep the team engaged and what are you doing with the fact that if you've got an in-office team now they've got to be virtual. But before we go there, I want to talk a little bit about financial planning, right? You know, right now we're in a place where things are okay, right? And if, if, if the government doesn't keep this shutdown going 3 to 6 months, everything will be fine. But on the outside chance that this does like kind of spiral a little bit further, have any of you guys done any type of financial planning or contingency planning? I'm just curious, would love to hear like what your thoughts are on potentially getting some backup funding and/or, you know, looking at, oh, who would we have to if we had a much larger drop than anticipated? So we'll start with you on this one, Alan.

Again, this is something I'm not faced with. I think that, you know, all of us are at different stages of our lives as far as financial planning goes. I don't have a contingency plan in place. We're not losing clients and there's no need for me to consider lining up any SBA loans or setting a program up for my clients that they can use as a resource as was discussed earlier in this webinar. They just don't need it. So I think that for this question I'm going to take a pass.

Yep.

Fair enough. And listen, you know, no, I'm not doing that. I don't think it's necessary is fine. You don't need to explain it any further than that. Yeah, good deal. Jim?

So we— I have a background in finance a little bit, and I thought of one of the things that happens is when you— banks don't like to lend to people who need money, right? So always put yourself in place. Now we're kind of in an odd situation here, right? So if you haven't established some of these contingency plans, maybe do it now before your recurring revenue looks different to the bank, right? So maybe setting up a line of credit. We have lines of credit. We have all of those types of things in place already. But so having those things in place, making sure you're aware of all the disaster relief, because not only it will— it can affect you also. Economic disaster relief through the SBA is something real.

It's—

I think that they have— they usually do it on a specific location-by-location basis, but I think that now that this is a national crisis that it's available everywhere. And then from a, from a monthly recurring standpoint, what we did and what we're still working on is, is creating levels. If we get to this level, this is our action plan with our employees, with our own salaries, with with all of those things and having that emergency plan of, hey, if this thing does spiral out of control, we know where we're gonna continue to— we have a plan in place of— we'll have a plan in place of who's gonna go, when they're gonna go, who may be reducing hours, maybe things like that. And just having— but having that plan is definitely important.

I like it. I think it's advisable to have some type of backup You know, you don't want to focus on it, right? You can't just go into disaster mode, you know, like, when the revenue goes here, we're going to do this and not do anything else. But you want to have a little bit of time earmarked, you know, for worst-case scenarios. Yeah, good point. Brian?

Yeah, so, um, we're positioned well. Um, we, we're a debt-free company. I'm debt-free. Um, so, and we, we use profit first. We have quite a bit of reserves, about 6 months for the business. So, I mean, things would have to get really, really bad for us to have to lay people off or do anything. But, you know, it's something that I've certainly considered. Consider, like, so, you know, now they're giving away cars for 0% interest. We've certainly considered leveraging some of that and cashing out some of the vehicles we have, just in case. But, you know, at this point we're not in a desperate situation and really haven't, you know, I just, I guess I don't believe that it's going to last longer than we have the reserves for to carry us forward.

Got it. Makes sense.

At least I certainly hope not.

Josh?

Yes, so what Jim said is in fact the right way to go. We've had some discussions similar probably not to the level Jim has, not having a background in finance. But I think it's important that you do start to create some planning with some different tiers of, you know, what to do if we lose this amount of business, what to do if we lose the next level of business, and so on. And we've set those thresholds. And we know, you know, right now, we'll talk about this in the next session, section about managing the team. And their expectations. But one of the things we did, and I want to stress this to everybody, is to establish a good banking relationship. And right now in my email, I have a loan package that I haven't even opened yet from my bank. And we made a strategic decision about a year and a half ago to switch from a large, probably the largest or second largest bank in the country. You don't need to mention names. We could probably guess who it is, to a regional business bank. And I want to restate that, they are a business bank. Now, do I have personal bank accounts there? Of course I do. But they are a business-focused bank and they want, they are in the business of helping small businesses grow within the community. So the level of service that I have, if I downloaded that package and called my representative and said, listen, can you come by tomorrow and help me complete this paperwork?

She would be here.

So, so, um, I want to urge you moving forward to try to establish that type of relationship. And the sooner you do that, the smaller you are, the better the relationship's going to develop because they're going to be there to help you grow.

Good point, good point. Danny?

And that's, that's the part I need to work on, so I need to call Josh and Jim. So I'll pass on this one, I'll pass on this one. I have a lot to learn, guys.

Um, so for, for us, I mean, I said it yesterday, I look like a genius selling my business in August of last year. Crisis. We were backed by two private equity firms. And, uh, you know, for our employees, as I shared with them, I mean, we're, we work from home anyway, so we're, we haven't missed a beat in that, in that standpoint. But we're so lucky to be part of this bigger company because, you know, we're not, we're not worried about cash. And prior to me selling, I was more month-to-month, you know. I commend Brian Stearman for, you know, implementing Profit First to the fullest extent and gotten those reserves and being debt-free. And so, I mean, one thing that I'm doing naturally because I'm working so much is I am cutting back personally. I think it's always a good a good opportunity to say, hey, what, what could I cut out? In terms of financing itself, look at your state also. Connecticut right now, yesterday they were offering 0% up to $75,000 loans. Gotta pay it back within 18 months, short-term loan, but 0%. And again, if you, even if you don't need it, I think it's a very good idea in a time like this to get these types of things in place. So we're recommending to our clients, you know, if you don't have a personal line of credit, get a personal line of credit. If you don't have a business line of credit, get a business line of credit. Get, get these, the SBA loans. I've been through that process previously. It's typically a very, very arduous process. It's a pain in the butt. I've worked with the big banks, I've worked with the small banks. In either case, the small banks, what I've experienced is they've been more likely to call a loan due early. So I've been through the 2008 crisis and everything, and credit lines were shrunk. And we're not there at this point because the financial markets are very strong from the security side of things. Of the loans. But I would get it because, you know, you know, it is gonna be harder to get it when you, when you don't get it. On the 0% credit card stuff, I use websites like NerdWallet that have links right over to the 0% credit cards. I get them in the personal and the business. Even if you don't need it, get it. And, and then, because, you know, most of these things are no fees. Sometimes the credit lines would cost me a couple hundred bucks a year, but if I could have a $200,000 cushion, you know, for $200 a year, it's worth it. And this last resource, I don't know if anybody's watching this that is in this position, but to be transparent, if we went back probably about 7 years ago, 7, 8 years ago, I didn't know what I was doing in marketing. And I racked up about $200,000 in credit card debt trying to advertise to get clients. Here I was, the marketing company that didn't know how to market. Kind of funny. But my back was against the wall. I had to sit down with my wife and say, look, we're near bankruptcy here. She said, what?

What are you talking about?

Because I shielded her from it and tried to protect her from it. And I said, yeah, you know, we're we owe about $190,000 right now. She's like, what the hell? She said a couple other explicatives. I'll keep it clean. So I said, but I did find this bank that's gonna loan us the money. She's like, you're kidding. 'Cause my balance sheet was terrible. Everything was terrible. And there are companies out there. There are like these merchant account financing companies that will, most likely get you approved. I'm telling you, the terms aren't 0%. They were like, at that time it was about 15%, and I paid $10,000 in fees. They would take money from my merchant account deposits each day to pay them back, but it got me through, and it would enable me to keep going and just, you know, things started to click once that— for me, once that financial pressure was off, I started really focusing on how to serve the clients instead of trying to sell. And really, I think if we bring it back to that, where, you know, giving as much value and serving as much as possible, you're going to get through this and you're going to get paid. Maybe not today with certain industries, but certainly tomorrow if you can help some people out as well.

That's, that's, that's great. A great testament to like, you know, you can be at that place and now you've grown it and sold it and that, and that's awesome. So some good, some good feedback, some good insights here, right? I think, I mean, from a financial preparedness perspective, you probably— now is a great time to look at all your expenses in your company, and we all are probably getting eaten alive by death by a thousand cuts. You know, you've got all these little tools and softwares and things. Now's a great time to look and see like, where's the wasted expense and the fat in the company, and kind of see what you can trim back. And I think it, you know, it's a good idea to have a contingency plan, not to focus on it, but like, look, if our revenue's at $120,000 a month right now, if it dropped to $90,000, what does that mean, right? And if it dropped to $75,000, what does that mean? Like, what would we have to shift? What we have to change? Just for your own peace of mind, so you kind of have contingency plan. I think that's smart to have in place. I'm all for zero debt. We never took on a dollar of debt in our company to build it. But at the same time, it's good to have, like Jim said, a little bit of a backup. And with financing being available at less than 5%, you know, in the 3% range, you know, it's worth looking at that SBA Disaster Recovery Fund. It's worth paying attention to the stimulus stuff that comes out because there should be things we should all be able to capitalize on as small business owners. So be looking for that. And also, this can turn into a great opportunity to maybe buy an agency in your space that's going to fold, right? To potentially hire great, great talent that just got let go from a major company. And if you've got the financial resources to capitalize on those opportunities, you can do it. Like, if you don't, you can't. So just something to think about on those, on those lines. So now I want to wrap up. Go ahead, Jimmy.

Real quick, for the financial assistance thing made me think you may have employees where they can't work for you because their kids are at school. Now they're home, the kids are home, and that first bill or second bill that got passed already is through. You can get reimbursed through payroll taxes if you're still paying them. Actually, by law, you got to pay them for 2 weeks, 80 hours. And what will happen is you pay them, doesn't count as their sick time or paid time off or anything like that. But then when you pay your payroll taxes, you're going to pay less, you get that back as a credit, your payroll company can help you with that.

Good point. Yeah. So really pay attention to those.

$200 a day for, you know, if it's childcare, if they're directly related to COVID-19, that they have it, and they're sick and they can't, you know, work because of that, but you still have to pay them for at least 2 weeks. That's up to $500 a day.

Good stuff. So, so, well, I'm going to shift the team. I want to hear from you guys in comments. Has this been useful? Like, have you gotten some good insights? Do you feel like you've gotten energy from these successful agencies and kind of what they're doing and how they're thinking about this and how they're approaching it? Just kind of pop some of that in the, in the comments. So now let's move to team. What, like, what are you guys doing, if anything, differently with the team? The fact that everybody's in chaos mode, you know, have you shifted your approach from a team management perspective? We'll go to, we'll go to Alan. Like, all the positive affirmations. Hopefully you guys are seeing this. Lots of great stuff. Yes, thank you. This is awesome. Good stuff. They're getting value. So thank you guys for taking your valuable time and sharing. So go ahead, Alan.

Like Danny, I gave my team a raise. While most business— while most business is laying off, we are rewarding our staff. And even if it's a small raise, speaks volumes to them on how much you care, and it comes back to you tenfold. They have more energy, they've got more focus, They're more creative, and best of all, they're dedicated. And it's been just— it's just been great. I mean, I'm getting a lot more out of my staff from the small raise I gave them than I expected. And, you know, doing it at this time with things being so uncertain has really made them feel very special. And again, it's coming back to me in a big way.

So actually raising the team, I like that. Smart.

I'm sorry.

No, I say that's good. That's— wouldn't have thought of that.

As far as recruiting goes, I have 2 new in-house hires pending. What I'm doing is I ask for it if I like them, I like their resume, I want to speak to them. I ask for a Zoom meeting and we actually have a meeting as we're having right now. And if all goes well, I'll invite them to my office when this all passes and have a sit-down and probably hire them at that point. So everything now is more virtual for me, but I am putting employees in place. I'm putting them in place now so that when the time comes, I can be off and running. I can have them come in and hire them and just get going right away.

Nice.

So that's how I'm approaching managing my team as well as recruiting.

I like it. Good stuff.

Jim?

Right when things kind of started getting real, we did a bonus— we bonused our employees. Kind of— we didn't give anyone raises, but we did bonus our employees. We got that as a tip from someone in the group, and the appreciation came back, you know, right away. They were very appreciative of that. We have a team in the Philippines. They're all on lockdown. You know, you have to have a card to go out and get your groceries now. So that was very impactful for that team. And then, and we're still hiring, just Just put a, had hired another person of the team this week that started Monday, hiring another or hiring a sales and marketing assistant. Hopefully I'll be able to finalize that candidate by the end of the week. And yeah, we're putting our sales and marketing assistant 100% to 10x the prospecting side of things right now that, you know, we're gonna double down.

Nice.

10 times down.

10x, 10x, right? Brian?

Yeah, so, um, kind of like what Jim was saying, a lot of our team members are in the Philippines. And, you know, if you watch the news here locally, um, it's all about the U.S., Italy. Um, yeah, and, and you don't, you know, it's hard to, to— it's happening everywhere. It's not just, you know, the big countries. And, uh, the Philippines has a major problem, as Jim was saying. We gave all of our Filipino workers an additional week's pay as a bonus, kind of like what he did. I don't know how much he did, but because we heard from actually one of our longest employees there that they were having the same food shortages and issues that we're having here. So, you know, and for them it was, you know, it's scary. They don't have enough money to go buy groceries and things like that. So we wanted to do something to to give them that capability to buy some additional groceries for their families and that kind of thing. And like he was saying, they're all in lockdown. As far as US-based team, I actually, right before this, probably horrible timing, we let go of one of our US-based team members. Looking back, I probably would have waited just because I'm softy, but—

If they shouldn't have been on the payroll, they shouldn't have been on the payroll. Just for the sake of getting them through this period.

Right. I know. It's just, you know, I look back at it and go, dang, what a horrible time to try to find a job. But, you know, so we put an ad out on Indeed and we went from, you know, a couple of qualified applicants a day to hundreds of qualified applicants. So it may turn out to be really well. You know, try it. It's almost like posting a job in the Philippines. I mean, it's It's insane how many people have applied. So I think there's a really good opportunity if you're in a position to hire someone, especially key people, because there's a lot of great people that got laid off that need to find a way to provide for their families. So it might be a really good opportunity to find some good people.

100%. Like, if you can keep in your mind that there's an opportunity— this too shall pass— you're going to need talent as your company grows, and there's a pool of talent on the market that has not been on the market for 20 years. You know what I mean? Like, try to find a good PPC person, try to find a good social media coordinator. You know, now there's people that have experience and expertise and they're hungry for an opportunity. So, that's a great point. Josh?

Yes. So, rather than give a bonus, we sent a 6-pack of toilet paper to all of our staff members. First of all, some of my staff may be on this, and a big shout out to our team. Just a tremendous job for everybody sticking together. It's really just so wonderful and heartwarming to see our team come together. We work predominantly remotely anyway. Obviously we have an office in Halifax, and they are all on lockdown and have been, so they've been working remotely. Our team here has been working remotely and then we've got a couple of outliers that work remotely anyway, coming into the office, you know, once a week or once a month depending. So, we have transitioned from a once a week huddle to a twice a week huddle with the team and we may increase that to 3 times a week. We had a fantastic follow-up call today. Normally we do it on Mondays to try to, you know, plan for the week and share whatever's in front of you or any issues that anybody has. But we had a great call today, and what we're trying to do is create that culture of warmth and family. Let's get to know each other a little bit better. So one of the things we threw out today, and this was great, it really, really came across great, everybody's got a nickname. But do you know what a nickname is of one of your staff members? Maybe the person that works right next to you, do you know what their nickname was growing up as a kid? So everybody got to share with the team one of their nicknames, how they got it, and what it meant— means to them. So it was really a great way for us just to get a little bit closer. And I got to tell you, it really, really resonated through the entire team. So, so, and moving forward, we're going to try to drop something like that in once a week. Another thing that I haven't even introduced to the team yet, we're We're all into business reading here. We all have some books that we think that we, we know we love, but have our staff members read them and love them. So what I'm going to introduce on our next call, uh, team meeting, is a voluntary book club. So this is the book that I'm reading, whether it be Secrets of the Millionaire Mind or Think and Grow Rich, or, you know, nothing too heavy for them, but, but something that they can really grasp and get the right. And then, and, and we'll just huddle in one evening a week and talk about the chapter that was designated for the week, and I think that'll help bring the team closer. In terms of hires, we hired an MA. She started late last week. She's on board and loving everything so far, and we had an SEO assistant, a local SEO assistant in the queue, and we've moved forward That would be our first Philippine hire, and that person has come right on down, and I believe they're starting on Monday. So nothing's changed there. We're again, full speed ahead, and it's all about right now as part of this is more and more great team building stuff.

I like it. Good stuff. Good, good stuff. Jimmy?

So we're 100% remote company. A few years ago, we had offices for about 10 years, and we grew to about a team of 50 people, and 4 people went into the office, and I wasn't one of them. So, uh, you know, we decided to get rid of our office. And ironically though, we started a new employee last Tuesday, and, uh, she, she's going to work at the headquarters of the place that, that bought us. So she went in, got her laptop and had to leave because, you know, the whole stay at home thing. Um, so she didn't really get to have a first day with, you know, like office type people, but, um, you know, we're, we're 100% remote. So we really haven't missed a beat when it comes to, you know, the team sort of stuff. However, um, I am acknowledging people for going above and beyond. Publicly in the company through emails, and I sent out a video on Sunday to my team, updates around COVID-19, what it means to them, some things that they should be aware of. And then we had a call just like this with everyone on Tuesday, and we're going to have them weekly every Monday. Until this thing is over, which we've implemented EOS, uh, the management system at Jimmy Marketing. And, uh, you know, typically they're not getting too much from me, it's from their own team leaders. So they're still— we're still running the traditional EOS model, but we are, um, I'm doing company-wide ones as well. And, uh, we have given out to 2 gift cards to Amazon for $100 apiece for people that have been working with me on the weekends and really going above and beyond. And, um, one thing that we're doing at this big company, uh, that I think I can apply it to this group as a, as a potential strategy for some of you, um, from recruiting standpoint right now, uh, our, our across the board, our big company, is in a hiring freeze, but some of their subsidiaries are really doing terrible. They work, their software is for salons, and they've lost all their clients, they're in pause mode. So rather than lay them off, we were in the process of hiring people, we're actually looking to bring them in. Those people that really don't have work right now, bring those into our company. And how I can apply to this group is Lynn just the other night posted— if it was Lynn or Michael Tasner, I think Lynn responded— Michael Tasner posted about potential of joining forces and sharing resources. And it was great to see people are out of work, we're giving people work within this community here is phenomenal. But I could see how the concept in big business of bringing employees from different divisions could be done right here in the 7 Figure Agency. And, you know, I merged my hosting company before I really got into marketing back in like 2002, 2003, in that timeframe. And it was great. We we merged and all of our expenses that were shared were completely gone. So we instantly increased our profits right away. And, you know, I was more of a salesperson and he was more of an operations person. So it worked, it worked out to where we complement each other well. And, um, you know, there may be some sort of synergies that can be developed here within this group, uh, as well from a recruiting standpoint.

That's a good idea. Yeah, look for opportunities. If you've got a position that's kind of semi-full-time, and if you find a good candidate that you're not just ready to hire yet, share it to the group. That, that's a smart, that's a smart idea. So I would say from a, from a retention perspective, what if, I mean, from a, from a team management perspective, we do have a bricks-and-mortar team and, you know, all of them are now working from home. And so it was an interesting transition to have everybody go from working at our office to working virtually. I think the biggest thing we've had to do is just, you know, be a lot, a lot more, a lot more huddles, a lot more team meetings, really make sure the communication is still active. So our team is doing a daily huddle at the beginning of the day, at the end of the day, just to keep everybody in some type of level of communication. And it's going, it's going really well. So if you do have a, if you do have an in-office team, just think about You know, don't just leave them on their island. They're not used to being on an island. Like, bring them into a daily huddle situation and keep a pulse even more than you have in the, in the past. So that's it. We've come full circle. We're at about an hour and a half, 90 minutes in. I know you guys all have to hop off and do other things. Thank you so much for sharing the great insights. I mean, I take away from this just a difference in mindset, right? I mean, You're all coming from a, from a position of abundance, and most of you aren't sweating like, oh gosh, I need to go cut 9 employees, or I got to find these 12 expenses to reduce. You're really focused on, this is an opportunity, let's keep our arms around our clients, let's keep our arms around our team, let's look for opportunities to continue to grow and scale. So thank you guys for sharing. Keep up the great work. Um, in the group, you know, guys, you know, be sure to tag these guys and thank them for their for their insights and for sharing. And, um, and that's it. Think of this as an opportunity. Keep your mind right, keep pressing forward, and let us know how we can serve and support you. Great work, guys. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you.

Have a good day.

You too. We'll talk to you later.