Sean McMeen & Josh Nelson - Agency Success Interview

All right, hello and welcome. So excited to have you with us today. We're gonna be interviewing Sean McMeen from Vinnie Mac Marketing. Now, this is part of the 7 Figure Agency Podcast where we're interviewing highly successful digital marketing agencies from across the country. And I am so pumped to have Sean with us today. So Sean, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you, thank you for having me.

So if I recall correctly, You kind of over the last 12, 15 months or so have made the leap from that like $15,000 to $20,000 mark to over $40,000 in monthly recurring with your, with your agency.

Yes, that's right. Yeah. Back in, um, I, I believe I joined a 7 Figure Agency in September 2019 and I was about $15,000 right then. So, um, and, and this is the second month now that we're going to be over $40,000. Boom!

That's amazing, man. Congratulations. It feels great. If you're in that place in your agency and you're like, man, I, you know, I need to get out of this struggle phase to, you know, to the scale phase, this interview is going to be great for you. So, Sean, to kick things off, just kind of give us an overview of, you know, your agency and kind of the services you provide.

Yes. So we, uh, we focus on restoration contractors and, um, The restoration contractor space is water, mold, fire, disinfectant services. And, you know, we also have legacy clients as well in the medical space. So medical spas, chiropractors, and a few little— still little local mom-and-pops that we help out as well. But the vast majority of our business now is in the contractor space. And so what we do for them is we basically provide a comprehensive package from PPC to SEO to website to social media. And it's about building the brand of their company and not just selling them leads. In the restoration space, it's highly, highly competitive. And my whole thing is like, you wanna build a company, you don't wanna just go lead by lead by lead, right? You wanna build a brand. And that's what we really focus on for our restoration clients.

Nice, nice. So, how long have you been in the agency game? Like just, you know, in general, doing websites, SEO, social media, kind of what's your transition period?

Yeah. So I should start off with saying when I was younger, probably 10, 11, I— that would— Commodore 64 was around. I don't know if you ever heard of that or not, but my dad taught me how to program.

I had a Commodore 64, right?

He taught me how to program when I was in like third grade. So that's, that's why I first got into computers and things like that. And I was never really a hardware guy and I like the visual side of it. And so like in high school, when FrontPage came out, it was like around '96, '97. I was like, wow, this is awesome. You can just, you know, plug and play things in here. You can do some little coding, little customization. And then when I went to college, I started my first business in college and developed a couple websites, one that was kind of like Match.com, and then a local directory, joined a chamber and like interacting with businesses and stuff like that. And that was my first dip into the actual, like, business-to-business relationship and things like that. And so after I graduated and got my master's degree and everything, I kind of took some time off, grew my family. And at the time, I got a corporate job, company called Thomson Reuters, sells financial software. And I was in that working 15 years in that space and did technical sales, had a team. And around, um, during that time I did a lot of white label fulfillment for agencies. So I knew the operational side and knew how to get results. Um, I just didn't, because I had a full-time job, I didn't have the time to meet with clients, you know. And so, um, you know, I had the experience and then around 2016, my boss, um, basically we, we had another downsizing, um, in the corporate world. And so that's when I went to my wife and I was like, you know, now's the time for me to volunteer and go. I was already making over half my salary on the side and freelancing. And so I was like, you know, I want to be able to control my own destiny going in the— going in the future, you know. So I wasn't at risk at that time of losing my job, but it's only a matter of time in the corporate space. So that's when— that's when I decided to go off on my own in 2016. And luckily, I had a severance package that helped. My wife is in the military, so we had TRICARE for insurance. You know, that's the big— that's the big difficult thing when you have a family. I always weighed that risk-reward. And so, I didn't want to risk my family's security. And so, when the time presented it, I haven't looked back since.

So, you saw the writing on the wall. You're like, "I've got this little passive income that's coming in from my freelance work. If I focus on this full-time, I could build it up." Yeah.

I mean, that's how it was. I have a huge operational background, and that's a good and bad thing when you're starting your agency, right? And the operations The operational side, still to this day, still, I'm in it and I'm trying to dig myself out of it, right? So that I can be above it and actually grow the agency versus doing the work in the agency.

Yeah, so it makes a lot of sense where you talk about the good and the bad. The good is, you know exactly how to do the work, you know exactly how to deliver the results, and that's good. The bad is, you wind up doing it yourself or feeling like you have to have your hand in almost every little thing that's going on for your clients. And that's one of the struggles you've had is like, oh, I'm still doing some of the work, which doesn't let you focus on growing and building the business, right?

Yeah. And this year with COVID and everything, that gave me a chance to look back. When COVID first started, we really doubled down with our clients just because we did, I mean, there was so much unknown with it going, right? And so, we were focused on making sure we produce, all of our clients get as much results, help them restructure their business and everything. But it also allowed me to really sit back and look and see where, where am I struggling personally the most, right? And it was the being in the operational side. And so we've, we've grown our team by 3 people over the last 6 months. So to help with that.

Nice. And so how has that impacted you being able to afford to do a team, but also having a team with the extra hands?

I couldn't do it without my team. My team is awesome. Abby, who's my operations manager, like project manager, she is She's, she's right there with me. I mean, I couldn't do it without her. I've got, I've got a team of, see, 5 now. So operations person/project manager, I have a content writer, dedicated content writer for SEO results and things. And then I have a marketing assistant. I have an account manager. And also, we just hired a dedicated SEO person.

Nice. So a good team to get the work done, to execute for the clients. That way you're not physically doing it yourself. Do you feel like that team is kind of, you've got enough people now that you could scale to, you know, 50, 60, 70 without having to add a lot of additional team members?

Yeah, so the next hire I'm making, and I'm doing interviews right now, is on the PPC side. With that hire, I've interviewed tons of people for it, and that's kind of where my background comes from, and I've spent a lot of energy in that dialing it in for our clients. In the water damage space and contractor space in general, you know how this is, it's very, very competitive and it can get very, very expensive. And the last thing I want to do is have mistakes for our clients, right? And so, I spent a lot of time documenting that and making sure we would find that process so that way when we hire somebody in, they're going to be able to start, you know, and understand what we do because we do extremely customized campaigns. We don't just throw up one campaign and say, "Okay, water damage and it's going to cover all this area." You know, it's very complicated. Complex, and it's hard to let it go, let's put it that way. But that's, I know without doing that, I'm not going to be able to scale past much more where we are. There's just not enough time.

Yeah. Awesome. All right. So, let's kind of shift back for a minute here. So, you were at $15,000. What were the, well, I guess, what were the things you needed to solve for in order to break from, you know, that $15,000 to the $25,000, $35,000 $40,000 range. Just talk about some of the things you knew you needed to solve for at that point, and that helps you kind of get through that barrier.

Well, I think the biggest thing for me was, because I had the operational background, was getting out of the head that trying to do everything yourself, you know. Um, I think that's a big struggle for a lot of entrepreneurs and a lot of business owners themselves, because it's their baby, it's their, it's their company, right? And it represents them. And so, um, for me it was adding team members that are good, a good fit, and giving them the tools to be successful. And, um, not trying to second-guess and micromanage them. Give them the tools to be successful. They're going to make mistakes. They're not going to, they're not going to do exactly like you do it. Right. And if you're, if you're lucky, they're going to do it better. Right. And so that I've been fortunate enough to have a team that is, is you never want to be the smartest person in the room. Let's put it that way. You want to surround yourself with people that are very knowledgeable and that can help you grow along the way. So that's, that's one of the big keys for me was getting some people in to help and then giving them tools. And then secondly was outreach. So, um, our basic big success is the case study testimonial, um, Facebook ads. And that's, that's how we've been able to grow, um, over the, over the last year or so, uh, from our restoration side. And it's totally different from switching from a local agency where you can meet people face to face. It's actually somebody that's across the country, right? And then when you do meet with them, how do you show them the value that you can bring them and, and turn that in from a webinar situation into a relationship? And it's all about building relationship. If they trust you, they're willing to— they're going to do business with you.

Yeah, so it sounds like, you know, freeing yourself from the day-to-day operations— I definitely want to talk about that. Um, putting a system in place to get clients outside your local area. Because it sounds like the first $15,000 or so in monthly recurring came from your local market, right? Anybody that was a general type client could raise their hand and kind of hire your services.

Yes.

Okay. And then the other thing I want to talk a little bit about is kind of the, the struggle of choosing the niche, because I know for you, you kind of landed on one and then you had to— you were like, I don't know if this is the right one, and you changed, which a lot of agencies struggle with. Um, so let's, let's start there. Um, How did you like— so tell us about your, your process on finding a niche and then, you know, how you ultimately landed on damage restoration.

Yeah, so, so like I said before, we have had a lot of clients from either medical spas, realtors, to contractors, and we're generating tremendous results for them. Our retention rate is extremely high because I I think that is because of the personal relationship and the relationship building. But, um, the way I started with focusing on medical spas because we were just killing it for one of my local companies with Facebook advertising, CoolSculpting, Botox. And then when HighLevel came out, like, that just really made us explode. And we're still doing that for them. We still do get great results for them, um, and we know that market very well. But for me, I've had always a background in remodeling and construction and things like that. So in college, not only was I starting like an internet business, but I also flipped like 4 houses in college. And, you know, and remodeled. And my house I live in now, I basically rebuilt it from the ground up. So I have that contractor background in me. And as a DIYer, I'm not necessarily a contractor, but I love and enjoy doing that. And so, um, we had a client in that space, produced some tremendous results for them, got some case studies from that, and, um, ended up deciding to flip from medical spa focus to restoration contractors. And I remember having that call with you, and I was like, you know, I'm torn between this. I put so much work into this. And you said to me, do what feels more comfortable to you, do what feels right in your gut. right? And, um, and that's what I did. That's, you know, it's been well over a year just strictly, uh, restoration contractors now. And, um, we've had restoration clients for over 5 years, but just adding from the 7-figure agency side, uh, adding on restoration clients. And that's our, that's our niche that we're, we're all into right now.

That's awesome, man. So I want to talk about that selection process. I think, you know, that, that's something everybody needs to, needs to kind of think about and Sometimes you do have to pivot. Sometimes it's just not a right fit, the niche that you thought was going to be the right fit. Um, but before that, I just want to hear, like, how has being in the restoration niche or being in one niche specifically impacted your ability to grow and scale? Like, do you feel like that is part of the reason you've had the accelerated growth that you've had?

Yeah, absolutely. Because, you know, at the end of the day, when you deal with local businesses and businesses all over the place, you have— if you do it right, you have to learn about them not only them, the business owner, but the actual business that they run and the customers that they, they serve, right? If you don't do that, then you're not going to provide, provide an excellent service. And so constantly relearning every single type of industry is just— it, it's, it's not good for you. It's not good for your team. And, um, there's just no efficiency there at all. And so when you actually focus in on a specific niche, understand their concerns, their pain points, their fears, you know, what drives them, then you can address those on those sales calls, have a meaningful conversation with them, and then show them how you can get them from A to B, right? And so that's, that's kind of, you know, from focusing on one niche or, you know, some agencies that they have two niches and we kind of do too. You know, it's It allows you to scale, you know, and, and so then you create repeatable processes for your team so they can do their work and they don't have to be waiting on you all the time to tell them what to do.

Yeah, yeah, no doubt. Like, good, good, good feedback there. Um, as it relates to how you chose the niche, I think you did the right thing. You looked at your past experience, you looked at the clients you had success with, you kind of narrowed in on med spas. You were crushing it for a client there, you had a proven model. And then you looked at damage restoration, similar, and it was just kind of which one do you like better, which one do you have kind of a foot in the door with, which one do you feel like is going to be the better long-term fit? Um, and you, you just stayed the course inside of restoration. I know it was a tough decision, but it sounds like it was the right decision.

It was, in retrospect, it was. And part of that decision was actually talking to those clients too. So I've talked to both of them. Um, when I was starting the, uh, the medical spa space, I actually had a conversation, said, you know, hey, this is what I'm looking to do, what's your thoughts? Like, how can I connect with people? And so when you have a client that you're producing results with, that they're going to open up with you and make connections. Same thing happened with the restoration space, gave me a great testimonial. We use that to generate leads to this day. And, you know, just having that personal relationship when to fall back and ask them questions is huge.

Yeah, powerful, powerful insight there, guys. I think that's the the place to start. If you have some past clients, start there, right? If you don't, start with your sphere of influence. Think about the people you know, people you've done business with, and don't, you know, like, start selling right out of the gates. Have a meeting with them, talk to them about what you're thinking about doing, see what they think, see if they have anybody they can introduce yourself to. Um, early in your agency, I think that's one of the fastest ways to gain momentum.

Yeah, especially when you're first starting out, is, is you want to be helpful. Like, you, you want to be helpful, and you want to show that you can provide them value without trying to sell them. Nobody wants to be sold. Nobody likes to go buy a new car because they don't want to be sold, right? And so, um, if, if you can be helpful and show them value, then that's— you're going to get trust. And at the end of the day, if somebody trusts you, like I said before, they're going to do business with you.

Yep, great. So we've had the kind of the niche conversation. I think a number of really good, useful insights there. Thank you for sharing. Now, as it relates to getting the clients in that space, you know, you went from 15 to 40, like you said, the case study funnel has been working well for you. Let's talk about where you're getting the clients from, or at least where the first seedling clients outside of the initial client, where did the first ones come from and where are they coming from now?

Yeah, so like many agencies, I've tried a million different things, tried, you know, cold emailing, cold calling, oh my God, pull my hair out on that. Like, I can't do that. You know, we tried mailers, we've tried PPC, we've tried Facebook ads. And by far the best results we get is testimony case studies using Facebook to dial into your, your, your specific niche, right. And so that's, that's been the biggest driver for us is getting them to show a testimonial case study, getting them on a Zoom session and actually, um, you know, sell very similar processes, what you use as far as showing them, doing an audit for them real quick, um, showing them results that we get for our clients, showing them the system, the dashboard system that we use for call tracking. Um, and, um, you know, learning more about their business and, and listening to their problems, their concerns. And they're going to tell you if you dig deep enough, during that initial phase of it, they're going to tell you why they won't do business with you right then and there, right? If you ask the right probing questions. And so you can— if you can get— solve those, um, answer those questions or solve those problems right then and there, um, there's— at the end of the call, there's, you know, there's very few reasons why they should say no.

Yeah, I, I love that. I mean, I think that's— there's, there's a lot of ways to grow your agency and your niche agency. One of my favorites is get a client in your vertical, generate an amazing result, document that result, shoot a video of yourself explaining, hey, here's what we did, here's the result they got, here's how many leads they're getting. And then ideally a Zoom interview like we're doing right now with that client. Ask some questions, ask about their experience, ask about why they chose you, ask about the results. Now you can go to that vertical, not with, hey, you want to hire me? But you can go to that vertical and show a proven example of what you've done. And they just got to decide, do they want a similar result for themselves? Um, and so, you know, that, that's awesome. Did you get any clients through the cold outreach, the networking, uh, and a lot of the hustle efforts? Um, or was it pretty much the Facebook ads is what worked for you in your, in your business?

I, I actually got, um, um, I tried the cold email template. I think Jeff and that's, that's in the training. Um, And I, I actually signed one client through that. So it went out to around 2,000 people. I had several, um, several, uh, strategy sessions with people. Uh, for me, I, I, um, I know how hard it is to get results for restoration clients because it's such a competitive niche. Um, similar to lawyers, so competitive, lots of money for advertising that goes in that space. And so, I do not discount my services. I won't do that because I know what it takes results. I'm not going to discount our services because I know the value that we can bring. And so, we could have added additional clients and been less profitable than what we are right now. But for me, I just didn't think that, you know, it was worth it just to add clients, to add clients, you know, especially if they didn't have the money right then, it just, The money issue, um, it, it's always— if it's an issue at the beginning, it's always going to be an issue some— sometime down the road, um, no matter what results you're going to get, get for them.

Yeah, smart, smart move, right? You know, the client that, that nickels and dimes you at the beginning is going to nickel and dime you for forever. And you already had a case study client, so you didn't even have to negotiate. Like, you could say, look, I've already got this client, this result, I have a proven model. I think it's okay to maybe negotiate with the first client in a vertical if you don't have anything, just to cut your teeth and prove the viability of what you're bringing to the table. After that, stick to your guns, right?

Yeah.

So I think, I think that's a great place for you to, if you could just kind of explain how you package your service and kind of what the price points are, just so we understand kind of what you're, what you're selling to that space.

Yeah. So it all starts with, with a website. We make sure that their website is. Most of the time, we rebuild the entire thing, you know, and that's not only just about branding, but also conversion factors, right? We want to make sure that it's mobile-friendly, it loads fast, that at the end of the day, when emergency happens— and that's what our space is— they need to be able to contact them quickly and easily. And so, it all starts with a website. At the same time, we implement our PPC campaigns. And so the PPC campaigns, you know, depending on where they're located, you know, if it's in a big metropolitan area, it can be a very, very complex campaign, because we dial it in by location, and then by specific keyword. So SCAG campaigns. Once we get the PPC going and the website launched, we also do SEO plan for GMB optimizations, we do social media posts for local branding. And, um, you know, that's pretty much our main comprehensive package. We all— we, we use HighLevel to encompass all that and for our tracking and analytics for call tracking. Because at the end of the day, if you can show the value you're bringing in for calls, then it's, it's going to prove— it's going to show them, um, let's put it this way. If you say, okay, I got you 30 calls this month, and, and Client says, well, who were those people and what was it for? Right. If you can relate a call to a name, to value and job type, if you can do all of that, there's no questions. There's no questions around it. Right. We can't control if they close the deal, but we can control that we get sent them qualified calls for services that they offer.

Yeah. Powerful. So, so it sounds like website, SEO, pay-per-click, marketing automation, lead follow-up type stuff. What is a monthly average fee for that?

Yes. So the, the, that package is $2,500 per month. It does not include ad spend and a $1,500 setup fee. We do not waive setup fees either. We've, we've tried to package it and present it as, okay, it's, it's $4,000 for the first month and then $2,500 for the next month. I've had better results breaking it out and basically explaining the The setup fee is, is that to, to speed up the process and get your new website dialed in, um, and, and get things rolling. And, you know, most of the time, you know, I'm— I close 1 out of 5 calls. So, um, that's, that's been what I've been lately.

So fantastic. So thanks for breaking down the kind of the program. How many, how many variations of that? Like if somebody wants to just do a custom website or if they just want to I want to, you know, just do like SEO with you. How do you handle those situations?

So we have a PPC-only package as well. And so that's $1,200 per month with a, with a $1,000 setup fee actually on that because of— we can reduce that one down a little bit depending on their market. You know, if it's a smaller market, it won't be as, as much work to get everything dialed in. But we— that's the, that's the one downsell we have. Outside of that, I don't have any other packages.

So it's, this is the program that's going to work. This is what we believe you need. You take it if it's a fit. If not, no hard feelings, you know, best of luck. I wish you luck elsewhere.

Yep. And then we put them in our cold follow-up sequence. And, and, um, you know, at the end of the— I've had a couple clients that said no on the initial call, continued to get communication from us, and then signed up later. So Love it.

So just kind of nurture them until they're ready.

Yep. You know, at the end of the day, results speak, speak volume, right? If you can, if you can go show results, get the client results, document that, and present it to people that are looking for the same results, then, then, you know, that's, that speaks volumes right there.

100%. Now, if I recall correctly, earlier in the agency you weren't niche-focused and you were kind of à la carte, like somebody could buy a website or they could buy whatever they needed. How has kind of packaging it and having like, this is our core thing that we're going to sell, simplified your operations? And, you know, do you feel like that's helped in the growth and scale in your agency?

It definitely has, because everybody on my team knows what they need to do when a client comes on board. You know, at the— once the client signs, pays the first month setup fee and everything, we have an onboarding call with them. Usually that's 40 minutes or so where we just dive deep into everything. We have an onboarding checklist that we go through, and once we get all that information, my team members know what to do, right? They know websites first, we get the PPC dialed in, Google Maps optimization. And so we've got everything set up in ClickUp from a template that we can clone over for each individual one of our clients, and we just go through that list as a team and make sure everything gets rocking, you know, the The important thing is to produce results fast. So, we do make sure within the first 7 days they have their PPC results up and running. If they don't have Google Local Services, we help them get that done. And so, it's important to get that phone ringing as quickly as possible.

100%. Hey, you just shared a writer downer. If you're listening and you didn't hear that, you need to generate quick wins, right? They just signed up for $2,500 a month. Yes, you're going to do a website. Yes, you're going to do SEO. Yes, you're going to do a lot of things behind the scenes, but as quickly as feasibly possible, you need them to get a call, a web submission, a lead, something where they're like, okay, they can see the, the return. Maybe not entire return, but they can see some types of wins that are going to keep them excited about the journey and the process. So I think that was, that was a great, a great tip.

Here's a perfect example. So now we've got our website process dialed in so much that it used to take us 30, 40 days maybe to, to revamp a website, and that's with location pages and all that, with their branding, everything. And we just launched— we signed a client, uh, 2 weeks ago and already launched the website. So, um, once you get that process dialed in, uh, it's just a matter of making sure that, you know, everything is set up in their branding and follow the process.

Simplify, simplify to multiply, right?

Yep.

Good stuff. A couple questions here I want to, I want to address because I think this is, this is, this is great stuff. Tyler wanted to confirm, how much is the inclusive package? $2,500 a month, right, Sean? You said with the $1,500 setup fee, correct? Okay. And then, um, do you offer the website as part of that package? Ricardo wanted to know.

We do with the 6-month minimum. We do.

So he's launching the website, he's creating the content, he's doing the SEO. That's all part of the strategy to help generate the best result possible for that particular client.

I always tell clients it's it You know, a lot of times they're like, well, I just want leads. And that's, that's one strategy in the water space, in the restoration space. There's a lot of insurance companies and there's a lot of pay-per-lead services. I tell them to keep them, keep them, right? You want to have as many poles and hooks in the water, right, as possible. But you also want to build a company. If you, if you're looking to build a brand and a company in your local area, like, I'm your guy. I'm going to help you with that. If you're looking for just a pay-per-lead thing, there's plenty of other companies out there, Home Advisors, that can help you with that, and they work good. They work good, but it's only going to get you so far.

Yeah, no doubt. Yeah, absolutely love that. Kenneth wants to know what the minimum PPC budget is that you're telling the client.

It depends on the population in the market space and the competitors, right? So, you know, if it's a smaller location, you might be able to get by with $1,500 per month. Um, in a lot of our bigger markets, you're looking at $4,000 to $10,000 per month depending on the results you want to get. Um, the, the thing that a lot of restoration contractors struggle with is there's tons and tons of competition, and there's tons of, um, like franchises and things like that, and they have these huge marketing budgets, right? So they'll take a loss on one service to upsell on another. And the other thing in the restoration space is the the job size is getting smaller, right? So insurance companies are beating down the cost of it. You know, I had one client tell me that they were— the insurance came and get— we're going to give them $30 to install a dishwasher and hook up the water line. He says, I can't even pay a licensed plumber to hook up a water line for that. And, and so, um, you know, that's what they struggle with is so much competition and the value of the leads have dropped. So, um, we try to make it as much as cost effective for them to get leads and increase their branding so that way they don't have to rely on paid ads all the time. Time they look up the company name too.

Yeah, 100%. And it's an important question. Like, you need to know what that minimum viable spend is for your vertical and for the market that that client's in. And it's usually more than the client probably perceives on the front end. I think also important as it relates to your price point, as it relates to, you know, the, the types of services you provide, how large are the companies you tend to work with? Are they startup restoration companies? Are they bigger restoration companies? Like, what's your ideal customer that you tend to work best with?

Um, we do not have any startup companies. Uh, I find that, you know, they need to be doing at least $500,000 a year in revenue to— and have a team in place, um, to be able to have a sustainable— it can't be just a side hustle type thing, um, because, you know, last thing I want to do is, you know, bring on a client and 3 months down the way, down the way, they can't, they can't pay for the services, they can't pay for the, the ads to drive the leads and everything like that. So if they're, if they haven't been around very long, usually it's not a good fit for us. I mean, I'll put them in my sequence and I've said no, I've said no before and given them tools so that they can do, get themselves in a better position to succeed. And that's, that's kind of the way I approach it.

Yeah, good, good, good feedback there. Um, let's see, Megan. Megan's asking, can you please go over how these testimonials on Facebook and that case study piece works? There's a training in the members area called the Case Study Builder. Um, I don't know if that's exactly what Sean's doing, but the concept of you take your client, you document the result, you record a video of it, um, you run ads targeting your list or your ideal prospects on Facebook. And, you know, like they opt in for to watch that case study and it takes them straight to the calendar, right? So there's a training that walks you step by step through that in the members area. Can you— any gaps that you want to fill in on, on kind of that and how it works for you?

Yeah, we're in the process of revamping our ads because they kind of got played out a little bit. So if you go to my Facebook page, you're not gonna see anything right now. We just redid our landing page as well. For us, we do a very informal, not polished testimonial, testimonial video from the client. And basically, there will be a little, a few breaks in that interview type thing. We ask them where they, where they started before, where they were at before they started working with us. We asked them, you know, what kind of results they're getting now since working with us, and we asked them if they'd recommend us to someone else. right? So one of my better case studies was a new client we brought on. Within, within 30 days, they were— they had 30 jobs and they had to hire another crew. They had to go out and spend $60,000 in new equipment.

Um, that's huge in damage restoration.

Yeah, like, it's a no, no, it's a no-brainer when you see that video. It's like, okay, how did they get those results for that client, right?

Um, so it's like a juicy teaser video on Facebook Yeah, that brings them to a page to watch the rest of it, and then it's like an application or a schedule right there.

Correct. Yep.

Love it. Hopefully that helps. Like, this, this strategy works really, really well, and you have to, you know, the key is you have to have a client win and you have to knock it out of the park for them in the vertical, and then you've got to take the time to document it and get the client to speak to the, you know, to the impact.

Yes, definitely. Definitely. You know, if, you know, it's, it gives you a lot of social proof. And also, you know, you can say, you can say it works to your green, and you can say it works all day, but if your clients are actually saying it's working, then, then it speaks volumes.

100%. Brandon, great to have you with us. Brandon's asking, what do you recommend for the Facebook ad budget to generate leads for an agency?

Yeah, so what I did was I actually I customized my audience and I was spending $75 per day actually on ads before I paused them about a week ago to revamp the videos, landing pages and things like that. About $75 a day is what we were spending. And on average each week, I'd probably have 5 to 6 strategy sessions with that. And then we would sign, you know, 1 in 6, 1 in 5, something like that.

That's great, great, great insights there. It's like $75 a day should be generating appointments, right? If you're spending $75 a day and you're not getting nibbles and you're not getting people scheduled in your calendar, there's either something off with the targeting or there's something off with the case study or there's something off with your funnel, right? But, you know, that's super, super powerful.

Yeah, and you can do it for less. It just depends on your niche and how you're setting up custom audiences. I definitely take a look at the training because it goes in depth on how to set all that up. There's, you know, there's a number of people in the group that have— that offer that service as well.

I haven't used them personally, but, you know, with the operational background, again, I get like, I know how to do it, I'll do it, and I want to know how to do it.

Right, right. I need to get out of that mindset sometimes. And so You know, that, that's where I'm headed. But, uh, yeah, it definitely works.

That's, that's great. Let's see, um, how long is the teaser video that you run on Facebook, or the one that you were running before you're updating all of this?

So I had two. I had one that was, um, that was around 45, 50 seconds, something like that. And then I had one that was 3 minutes. The 3-minute one actually produced the best results.

So a little 3-minute, not too long, not too short, enough to be like, wait, this sounds pretty interesting. So when they get to the, to the page where they can watch the rest and schedule in, um, they're pretty, they're pretty warmed up.

And here's the, here's the, here's the tip I have is like, if you try to, at least in my experience, if you try to polish something up and make your logo and set music and all that stuff like that, those for me, they haven't produced as good results. But if you tell the client to take this little phone and take a video of them and, um, let them talk. That's where I get the best results.

Yeah, and it's very counterintuitive, right? Most of us want to have a super polished, professional, perfect lighting, perfect sound, you know, production. But on Facebook, that's not that impressive. You know, you'd rather see the authentic kind of broken video. And, you know, Sean, that's your tested result, right? That's what actually bore results for you better. And you've got some really nice polished videos. I've seen them. They look really great. With the lower thirds and the music coming in. Very, very good insight there.

The thing that I would do also is make sure you have captions on there and it's actually saying what they're saying too, because a lot of people on their phone, they don't turn on the volume, right? They're on who knows what they're doing, right? And so—

Sitting on the toilet, right? You don't want to be crass, but let's face it. They're like, ah, I'm not going to play this out loud right now. But if the caption is down there, they'll read it, right? And they'll get sucked into it.

Yep, definitely.

Good stuff, man. Good stuff. So lots of great questions here, and I definitely want to address many of these. Yes, I mean, it's the 7-Figure Agency coaching and mentorship program. We have a number of trainings like this to kind of break this stuff down with, with examples and things. So that's what we're referring to there. Um, Alpha Team, how do you entice clients to give you the video testimonial? Like, how did you get that client to say Yes, I'll do it for you.

Produce results for them, they will.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, um, people tend to like it when you knock it out of the park for them and you generate 30 jobs. Like, they're going to be pretty happy and pretty willing to do what you want. If you crap the bed, you know, you don't deliver the goods, you're gonna— you couldn't pay them enough to do anything like that for you, right?

Yep. Yep. And, and I mean, at the end of the day, that you got to produce results. Um, you can promise and say everything, but if you don't produce results, it's, you know, it's all for naught. So, um, for me it was one of them was done via Zoom and the other one, um, the guy just took it on a cell phone. Um, you know, and I have a couple other ones too that are a little, just very, very unpolished testimonials. So, um, you know, just, just make sure it all starts with relationship. I can't tell you that express that enough. If whether you have an account manager or you're the, you're the person that goes to, um, if you can build that rapport with them and they feel like you're get— you're— they're getting something of value from you, they're going to open up to you and tell the— tell you their problems. They're going to do whatever they can for you as well because they're running a small business just like you are.

Yeah, great, great insights here. So decided on the niche, simplify the service offering, put a strategy in place to get 5+ strategy sessions per month, started landing clients and kind of growing the agency quickly. The big thing that you started with, which is probably the biggest struggle, is now how do we make sure you're not personally doing all of the work? And this is where the team came into place. Let's just talk a little bit about that evolution, how you mentally bought into, okay, I've got to hire some people, and then who do we hire first and how do we hire those people and how do we train them? Let's just talk a little bit about that now?

Yeah, I mean, again, the biggest struggle for me is letting go of things. It's my company, it's my baby, and I want to produce tremendous results for our clients. But, you know, if you can— I think Jeff is the best. If you struggle with that, Jeff is the best person for you to talk to because, you know, he kind of breaks it down like You know, are you, are you a person that like, what do you make per hour? If you, if you were to pay yourself, what do you make per hour? Like, are you getting paid $15, $20 an hour? Are you at the $100 range or whatever? What's your time worth? Right. And so if you look at it at that standpoint, you know, would you rather pay somebody to do, do a job for $20, or would you rather yourself make $20? Versus making what you should be making, which is growing the business, you know. So if you look at it in that standpoint, um, I don't know if I explained it very well, but perfect. That's, that's kind of how I looked at it is, and, and I still struggle with it. I'm not trying to paint a rosy picture here because, um, it's ingrained in me. The operational side is just ingrained in me, um, and I, I want results for our clients. And so, um, I still struggle with it, But if you have processes documented and you have a good project management system like ClickUp or Teamwork or whatever works for you, it makes your life so much easier. I can't tell you how much easier it is since I've added 2, 3 team members where things just get done. And then I'm like, that's— I mean, how good that feels that they just get done and you don't have to, you know, check up on it, you know. So I still find myself like Hey, did I get that? Yeah, I got done 2 days ago or whatever, you know. So, um, it's— it— I can't tell you, like, if you can just, um, look at it that way as far as like whether you pay somebody versus your time, because we only have so much time. And that, that's kind of what it boiled down to me with 4 kids. I have 4 kids, um, wife, and I did— I coached my son in baseball for— since he was 9 years old or 8 years old, and now he's going on to high school, um, my time is limited, right? And so, um, my family is number one priority. And if I'm spending 60, 70 hours a week trying to fulfill things, it doesn't matter how much money I'm making, right? I have no time to spend with the people that I love and care about. So, um, that, that's what has driven me to, um, really put a team in place and give them the tools to be successful.

I love it. So like, what was the first position that you realized, okay, I gotta get this type of person in place? Like, what was that first person and how much revenue were you generating before you were like, okay, I know now I can afford to make that investment?

I've had a couple interns even over the last couple, well, since I started my agency in 2016 off on my own from freelancing, I've had a few interns in between there. That did 20 to 30 hours a week. And so they would do basic website stuff, and WordPress makes it so much easier. We use Elementor for everything. And, and so those were the two. I had interns before, but the main hire for me was the operations project manager piece. And that took so much off of my plate. And you've got to find somebody that's, that's a doer, like somebody that just gets stuff done, right? For me, I'm a multitasker and I have 30 windows open. I'm dabbling in a lot of different things, right? That's not an operational project manager type role. You want somebody that can— has a job to do, gets it done, right? Moves on to the next one. Doesn't mean they're not juggling multiple things, but you want somebody that gets things done. And, you know, if you're— I saw somebody comment, that's me, you know, 30 tabs open, right? I'm dabbling in a lot of things. That's just my mind works constantly, right? And so if you can find somebody that gets things done for you, that is a game changer. It's a game changer. And, um, that was the biggest hire for me. Abby's my team, my operations person, project manager. She, she's exceptional. I couldn't do it without her. Um, and then I have other great team members that, that fill in, um, around her. So, um, yeah, that's awesome.

So I think that usually the first thing you wanna take yourself out of is operations, right? The day-to-day fulfillment of the work for the clients. And so you had like freelancers, but there's something different between having freelancers that you have to direct and having a project manager, an operations director, whatever you wanna call them, that now takes over responsibility for operations. And while you still know what's going on and you still have a pulse on it, they're responsible for making sure when the client comes in, this, this, this, this, this, and that gets done. And if you've got a system, like you said, like Teamwork or ClickUp, and you've got all of the steps documented, you can confidently feel like, okay, this person has the right profile to go out and do this work and make sure that it all gets executed. You can focus on positioning, running those Facebook ads, selling the new clients, and know that you're still gonna generate great results for the client base, right?

For me, it was, You know, I was like, I always knew I need to document everything. And then I'm sure a lot of people even on this call or they'll listen to this and be like, yeah, I know I need to do it. I just don't have the time to do it. Right. Because I'm too busy doing it. So Loom was a huge thing for me. If I do a task more than once, Jeff's a big proponent of this, video it, right? Video it. And then whoever on your team is going to be doing that, let them write up the task. Right, and let them write up the template, whether it's a Google Doc, ClickUp, Teamwork, whatever. And so the more and more I've been able to do that, the more and more I've been able to take off my plate. And so, I mean, that's, that's key right there. Powerful.

Yeah, super powerful. So how did you find your, your project manager? You know, did you— was it Upwork or some other platform? Like, how do you find somebody like that?

Yeah, so I actually found them from Express Scripts, which is a temp service. I— it was kind of random. I— they had reached out to me, are you looking for a marketing person? And just so happens they had somebody. And so she started with 30 hours a week. And you basically, with, with that type of service, you just call them and say, hey, I need somebody that has these skills. And they'll try to find you somebody, right? So you pay a little bit of premium there for that. But, but they pay them, they do all the payroll and everything like that. And then after X number of hours, then they become on your payroll. And so just, I mean, if I could clone Abby 10 times, like, I'd be off to the races, right? Right. And that's so, so that's how, that's how I found her. But the intern, I have a friend that's in the university here that's in town here, and she, she's my— my intern is my marketing assistant. She, she came from a recommendation. And then my content writer came from the staffing service as well. She, she graduated from university and a career or degree in journalism. So perfect fit there. And then my account manager was from my operational— she's a referral from my operations person. So, you know, and my SEO person I just hired, I actually hired off of Upwork. And Jeff helped me out with that process. And it wasn't, you know, I've had everybody in-house before, but this person is over in the Philippines and she's outstanding. I've had her— she's been on board for 3 weeks now and game changer, big time. So, um, you know, I've kind of tried a lot of different ways and, um, you know, so far I've kind of lucked into it and, and found good people. And, and, you know, if you can treat your people right and have a good team in place, you know, it makes your life a lot easier.

I love it. So Kenneth, Kenneth had 30 tabs open, but he was wanting to make sure he didn't miss out. How much, approximately how much recurring revenue did you have when you made that investment? In that operations manager?

Um, probably around $20,000.

Okay. Yeah, I think that's when we got ours. We were probably like $17,000 in monthly recurring. And then that's like, you've got enough money coming in that you could say, I could take a little bit of a financial hit to create a lot more, you know, potential revenue, or I can just keep all this myself and be completely bottlenecked. So I think that's a, that's a wise spot, somewhere between like, you know, $17,000 and $25,000 a month recurring. Invest in a resource to help take over the operations load so you can do other things. That's a great question.

A lot of questions that come up in the group I know a lot is like, do you hire in-house or do you out, you know, find somebody on Upwork? Do you do white label services? For me, it's just all about what you feel comfortable with. Since I have a bit of a more operational background, like I felt more comfortable training them to, you know, to be successful and put them in the right spot and then go from there. The SEO side. Like, I'm, I'm okay in SEO, you know, I've in the past generated tons of results for my clients, but, um, I need somebody that had more knowledge where I didn't have to handhold them as much to get them to be up to speed. And that's where I found this person on Upwork, had him do a test project, uh, had him do two test projects as fixed cost projects, um, for our agency first before I had him do it for the client. And, um, she knocked it out of the park and, and hopefully it's a long-term relationship with that person. So, next hire is a PPC person, and that's, if I can get that, it's gonna take a lot off my plate.

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I mean, and so, great stuff, Shawn. Guys, if you're getting value, you're watching this on Facebook or you're here with us live, put a yes in the comments or a why, if you're like, this has been great stuff, Shawn's unpacking how he went from $15K to $40K, the pivots that he made. If you're watching on Facebook, give us a like and a comment. Engagement is appreciated. And if you're watching this after the fact, be sure to tag Shawn and thank him. He's got such a generous spirit here to like just share exactly what's working for him and exactly how he's grown and kind of what he's focused on, on next. So we've got about a couple minutes left. So if you have specific questions for Shawn, I thank you guys for the the feedback and the comments in here. If you have specific questions, put them in the comments. Um, I want to talk a little bit about retention. So now we've got, um, I don't know how many— we've got clients, they're paying us a monthly fee, $2,500 a month. What things are you putting in place in order to, you know, to retain those clients and keep them with you month after month? Sounds like you get a very high retention rate.

Yeah, so I think the, the high retention rate is, is a testament to number one, results. If you're not getting results, you gotta, you gotta make changes to get the results, right. And number 2, you have to have that relationship. In the past, it's always been I've had that personal one-on-one relationship, and it just can't— I can't keep that going. It doesn't mean I'm gonna go away and be gone. But, you know, as a business owner, I have to let go of some of that. And so I hired an account manager. She's been on board for about 3 months now. And so she's now regularly providing value to the clients. Um, and when she introduced herself, she wasn't like, okay, I'm replacing Sean, or I'm your, your go-to person. We're slowly introducing her as the go-to point. And the point of that, I think when you did your last intensive with the account manager, um, training, right?

Uh, yeah, the Account Manager Advantage.

Right, right. So, um, I was in the process of hiring somebody and that that training actually helped out with that. So, so I, you know, she's just providing value to them. And at some point, they're going to realize that, you know, hey, Jennifer's, she's helping me out big time, right? I'm gonna ask her questions. And that way, they don't have to go to me all the time, you know. So, you know, I have to— she has a degree in psychology. So she knows how to speak to people and relate to people and have a, you know, conversation with— she texts with them, right? So that's been, that's been great, you know. And so, for me, the retention side is just really produce results, share those results with them, don't overload them with, oh, I did this for you on SEO side. At the end of the day, depending on your niche, all they want to do is the phone to ring or sales to come in. And if you can show them value from if it's— if you're tracking calls or leads or whatever, to— and, and just don't show them a number, show them actual real data. Clients, services, value of those services. You know, your retention rate is going to be much better than if you just say, yeah, I sent you 50 calls. What does that mean?

Right. I love it. I love it. So just, just, you know, kind of focusing on, on the relationship side, taking yourself out of it, right? Because at a certain point You can't retain the clients and do the work and focus on the business. So you made a wise decision to get that account manager in place to manage that relationship so they don't sense perceived indifference, right? Get them amazing results, provide an amazing experience, and the clients will stay for the most part. Not always, but for the most part.

There's one thing, I had my first cancel in a long time, not too long ago. And that was after you had asked me to talk about retention in the 7-Figure Agency thing. I was like, Josh, you jinxed me there. But ultimately it was a thing that was out of my control, you know? And so, um, as a business owner, you— it's hard to— sometimes you take it personal, right? And there's, there's only so much that you can carry from a baggage standpoint. If you look back and you say, okay, I did these things that I promised that I would do. And if they're not happy, there's some things you just can't control, whether it's money, their, their attitude, their decisions, their business. You can't control that, right? And so if you can somehow disconnect the personal feelings from the business side of it, um, you know, it's, it's easy to swallow. It doesn't mean you don't learn from it and, and, you know, kind of, um, you know, grow from it. You know, it's, it's, it's just one of those things, you know, you just gotta, gotta move on from. You're going to have people cancel.

Yeah, a powerful, powerful insight there. Like, don't take it too personal, right? Pay attention, but don't let it, let it happen where it brings you all the way down to the ground, because it's— there's going to be natural churn in any business, right? So, you know, live with it and kind of move on. A couple great questions here. First of all, Ron says he's a long-term, uh, friend of yours and, and Hey, Ron, you guys work together and, um, he's happy to see you crushing it. So that, that's cool. Um, so Brent, um, Don wants to know in HighLevel, how do you actually show the results than just the calls that have been generated?

Yeah, so there's a training that, that, um, in one of the, uh, monthly— let's see, it was an operations training that, um, that, that I did. It wasn't the, uh, reactivation campaign, but there's an another training that I break down and show you how we do that. But at the end, really what it involves is we have my account manager, this is her responsibility, she actually goes into each one of our clients, and will spot listen to phone calls, and, and make sure we're generating results from those calls, make sure we're getting qualified leads and actually put name, a name to that, that, that call or that opportunity. So whenever a call comes in, we have triggers set up that will create an opportunity. Obviously, the call is recorded, we tag a name to it and a job type to it. So then at the end of the month, we can send them a fancy little screenshot that says, okay, we sent you— this was the total number of calls you had come in, lots of spam stuff that happens all the time. But these are the qualified calls you had come in. And this is what we estimate your value to be of those calls if you close them, right? And then we try to provide them resources and training on, you know, how to answer the phone correctly. And kind of in a corporate world, when I worked with Ron, I did— I had a team and I did call coaching. So we would have to sit there and listen to our calls and learn from our calls, how to speak to people and things like that. So we provide some training on that to our clients as well.

So yeah, so I'll make sure if that's not already converted to a module I'll convert that. I think that would be a great one to convert to a module, how to track your client ROI in HighLevel. 'Cause yeah, you broke that down really, really, really nicely in a step-by-step fashion. Sometimes it's just realizing it can be done. It's okay, I can see how that, the fact that it can be done makes you feel like, okay, I gotta roll up my sleeves a little bit and figure out how to make this work. I think the bottom line is it takes work, right? You can't just think the client is gonna magically go into HighLevel and update their pipelines and put an exact dollar amount. Because they won't. So Sean invests the time from his own team to listen to those calls, rate those calls, and, and kind of track the outcomes, right?

Definitely. I mean, it does definitely take time, um, but like, if you can— if there ever becomes a question, um, from a client, um, I don't feel like there's— I got work this month, right? Or, um, I didn't get any qualified calls. Well, if you have a name associated to a job type, you can say, this is the calls that we sent you, right? Not to say, you know, hey, client, you're wrong, but just to back it up, right? You have the call recordings, you have the names associated with them. And, you know, the estimated value associated with it, right? You can't control if they're going to close that deal, though, you know, but you can have conversations with them and help them understand that You know, maybe a team member that's answering the phone isn't answering the phone the way they should be, or they answered the phone and they say hello, you know, like that's not how you should be answering the phone, right? So the call recordings is huge. HighLevel helped us change our business and simplify our business. You know, Sean and Robin, those guys over there, um, do a tremendous job. Uh, the software is continuing to evolve and we love it. Um, there's some things that I would like to add in there, and Sean knows that about some call stuff, whatever, but But, you know, at the end of the day, it's such a game changer. And I know you're high on iLevel and everything. It just simplifies your life so much easier than what we used to have to do with multiple systems.

Great stuff. Well, I mean, this has been awesome, man. Congratulations on your growth and your success. Thank you for all the specific, you know, insights and actions. Members, what an honor to have Shawn as one of our mentors on the team. That, you know, shows up for the skill sessions and helps people and answers questions and helps figure out, you know, helps you figure out how to do this stuff. Um, it's like, uh, Vincent— Vince Stott is asking if you can get together for lunch because I think he really liked, uh, like what you shared.

Yeah, definitely hit me up on Facebook. I'll be— I'm actually visiting a client in Pompano Beach on Monday, so next week.

Cool. So I guess in closing, You know, if you were to have one last nugget of wisdom for that digital marketing agency that's struggling and trying to get to the next level, uh, what would you say? And we'll, and we'll wrap up on that.

For me, it's about accountability. Um, the reason why I joined Seven Figure Agency is to be able to network with people, be able to learn from people that, um, have gone through what, what I'm going through in the agency space. It's, it's a, you know, when you're a local agency, you feel like you're kind of in your own little bubble. You don't want to talk to the agency down the street because you're competing for the same customers. And for me, it's just about being, being around people that are going to help lift you up, right? And if you can associate yourself around those people, you know, it's going to drive you to want to do better. You know, I have a— I told myself once I reached $40,000 MMR, monthly recurring revenue. I was going to put a pool in the backyard of our house, and I had that picture up on my wall up here, and we're putting it in next spring.

So that's awesome, man.

And that was, you know, on my sheet here, that was on from the last— I think it was from the first intensive, first or second.

That was the reward for the, the reward for hitting the goal.

That was my reward, you know? And so for me, it's, it's all relates back to family. And if I can provide for my family, keep my family at my house and support my family, that's, you know, that's the most important to me. And being a part of the 7 Figure Agency has, has allowed me to do that. Being around yourself, Josh, and the tremendous other agencies in the group have just, I mean, it's lifted me up and driven me to to want to do better, um, to support my family.

That's awesome, man. I appreciate you saying that. And thank you so much for coming on. Thank you so much for sharing. Um, if you have follow-up questions, we can move this into the, into the Facebook group. Feel free to, you know, tag Shawn in the questions. Make sure that you reach out and thank him for sharing, right? Too often we just take, right? We sit on these sessions and we learn and we get good ideas. Um, be sure to share some appreciation with Shawn for what he's given you and kind of what he's, what he's shared on today's session. So, um, that's it for now. Thanks again, man. And, uh, we'll see you guys in the Facebook group and we'll, we'll continue the conversation there.

I'll see you next week.

Yes, looking forward to it.

All right, bye.

Bye, guys.