The INC 5000 Agency Panel – Fastest Growing Digital Marketing Agencies in the Country

This is the 7 Figure Agency Podcast.

Discover the strategies and techniques to grow a highly successful and profitable digital marketing agency with your host, Joshua Nelson. All right.

It's the Ink 5000. That's amazing.

Bill, thank you. Welcome everybody. I'm super excited for today's session. We've got something probably that hasn't happened in recent history. We've got a number of the fastest growing digital marketing agencies in the country with us live. We're calling this our Inc. 5000 agency panel. And so if you're excited, I want you to hit the like button. I want you to type Inc. 5000 in the comments. I want you to share this with other agency owners that could benefit, uh, because this is a very unique opportunity to hear from these amazing agencies on how they've grown and how they've scaled and kind of what's accelerated their growth. And I want you to, like, as we do this panel, I want you to be listening in because I really believe that success leaves clues, right? The fastest way to grow your agency is to model other successful people. And what you have here is a panel of 11 of the most successful digital marketing agencies in the country right now. And I want you to be listening in to think about their mindset. Like, obviously very abundance-minded to be on a panel like this, not thinking about, oh, I can't share what I do, like, not like worried about competition, but abundance. Like, there's abundance in this world, and, and they're all very open to share and be thinking about what they're doing to land clients, deliver results, and retain the clients that they have long term. So without further ado, what I want to do is I want to have you guys just introduce yourselves. And as you introduce yourselves, what I'm going to be looking for is tell us your name, tell us the agency name, and then tell us kind of what niche you're in or kind of what market you serve and what your standard service offering looks like today. So I'm going to call you out, do a quick introduction, and that way the group can start to get to know us. And as you're listening, ladies and gentlemen, as you're listening and as you're watching, I want you to like hashtag name the person if they've had an impact on your life or if you've learned something from in the past. And I want you to be like kind of taking— what are your takeaways as you hear them say something useful, beneficial? Type that in the comments. So let's start with Billy, Billy Sticker. From Chiro Candy.

All right, well, my name is Billy Sticker from Chiro Candy, and we are in the dentist niche— and just kidding, we are in the chiropractic space. Uh, years ago I worked in office for a chiropractor and just fell in love with the profession, and, uh, I think that really gives us kind of a leg up. But we pretty much focus on paid ads, whether that's Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, uh, Google. We do some SEO and stuff, but focus more on the paid ad side of things.

Excellent. And let's, let's go to— let's go to Brady while we're on Chiro Candy.

Yep.

Hey guys, yeah, Brady Sticker, also with Chiro Candy. And just to echo everything Dad said, you know, our mission is to help chiropractors get new patients with digital marketing.

Amazing. Congratulations on your growth, guys. Thanks for being here. Next, let's go to JC Hite, the man, the myth, the legend.

What's up, guys? JC here with Hite Digital. We actually are not so much a traditional agency in the sense that we're the first to franchise the market. So we actually have a franchise model, kind of joining together with a bunch of agencies across the US. And, and we have a slew of products. We have about 200 employees right now, full-time in-house, And so we do SEO, PPC, Facebook ads, and we do a lot of creative stuff. And we're one of these weird guys that don't have a niche. So we have about, I think, 900 clients in all, and they are in a lot of different places. So all over the place.

Excellent. Welcome, man. Glad to have you here. And I think high 8-figure growth agency at this point.

Yep, we're a couple of 8 figures.

End.

So we're doing very blessed.

So good, man. Glad to have you here with us. Let's go. Let's go.

Nate.

Nate and Troy. Nate Hagerty and Troy Lakey, Tax Pro Marketers.

What's up, everybody? My name is Nate Hagerty. Troy and I run Tax Pro Marketer, which is marketing agencies focused in on tax and accounting professionals, which is a challenge. We've been doing this thing for 15 years. Which is unusual to hit the Inc. 5000 list after 15 years in business. Our core offering is actually our relational email marketing program that we have been doing since 2008 where we email on behalf of our clients to their lists. A lot of CPAs and tax practitioners are oriented towards content and authority kind of marketing. So we write and create that stuff on a weekly basis for them. That's been our primary thing. We are known in Josh's world because we take a week off every 8 weeks as a company. We call it our sabbatical rhythm. And interestingly, when we implemented that, we started 3 years ago. And once we started doing that, we experienced the kind of growth that the Inc. 5000 list recognized. So, I'm here to tell everybody less is more. And, um, that you don't have to kill yourself to achieve this kind of growth.

So good, man. Amazing. Troy, say something as well.

Yeah, yeah, I'm Troy. You know, everything Nate said goes for me too. We basically do, uh, websites, SEO, PPC, um, social and email content like Nate said, and your basic digital marketing stuff for tax types and accounting folks.

Amazing, guys. Congratulations on your growth. Congratulations on doing it in a way that's like not burning you out and creating a culture of joy, as you call it. Guys, put in joy in the comments if you're excited about learning more how they've been able to get that kind of growth while taking that amount of time off, not just for themselves, but their team as well.

Yeah, all 20 of our employees.

Amazing, amazing. Let's go to, let's go to Chris Dreyer next, Rankings.io.

What's up, guys? So Chris Dreyer, Rankings.io. We do one thing for one group. So we do SEO for personal injury law firms and that's it. I'm often referred to as the ambulance chaser chaser, and I wear that proudly and happy to be here.

So good, man. The niche within the niche. Also at 8 figures at this point, lots of momentum and growth.

Yeah, Inc. 5000 last 5 years in a row.

So good, man. Listen up, guys. We've got some, some amazing agencies on here today. This is exciting stuff. Let's go to Eric Schaefer and David Kozlerik now from Agency Elevation.

Hey guys, this is David Kozlerik with Agency Elevation. We're a little different because we're white labeled. So that's all that we do. We partner with agencies and do white labeled Google Ads, Facebook Ads, TikTok Ads, SEO, and now websites. We oversee the fulfillment of thousands and thousands of client campaigns. So we work with thousands of clients indirectly through the agency partners we have. And so we're a little unique that way, but I've had incredible growth and love this group and Josh. So excited to be here.

Amazing. Glad to have you. Congratulations, guys. Eric, you want to say a couple things?

Yeah, sure. So I co-own the company here with David. One thing to note too, we were just named to the Inc. Best Workplaces list a few months ago. We're one of only, I think, 300 or 400 companies in the country on that list. So, uh, we have a very happy team and excited to be able to share some of the things we've learned along the way that helped us get that and, uh, you know, just grow and have a good team.

So I can tell you guys, that's not easy to do. You know, you don't just like submit an application and get that. To have accelerated growth and a happy team that would like give you all the kudos to make that status, something to be proud of, man. Glad to have you guys with us. Amazing. All right, let's go to— let's go to Bill Hauser, SMB team.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

All right, let's do it. Yeah. Bill Hauser, SMB team. We serve lawyers, as you're going to hear. You just heard Chris. You're going to also hear Seth in a second. So 3 of us here serve lawyers. Interesting. And Our core product, it's funny, I was thinking about it when you asked, Josh, is like we really sell inspiration to lawyers and we just happen to be an agency. But yeah, we run the biggest virtual events in the legal industry and so we'll get like 1,000+ lawyers to register for our virtual events. So a very content-focused model and we basically started 4.5 years ago. My 31st birthday was last week, and actually the day after my 31st birthday, we broke the $20 million run rate mark. So just under $2 million in monthly recurring.

So good.

And yeah, I was cold calling attorneys in a basement 4 and a half years ago. About a year into that, I met a guy named Seth Price. You guys will learn from in a second who mentored me. And, and yeah, so we do full service marketing for attorneys and coaching. And a couple other services that we can dive into later today.

So good, man. Congratulations. Did you say $20 million at 31? That is ridiculously impressive, man. Good stuff. Can't wait to hear more. All right, let's go to Seth Price. He teed you up nicely.

Yeah, thank you, Josh, for having me here. You know, great, great panel. Some guys who play in my fishbowl. Seth Price from Blue Shark Digital. Don't hold it against me, but I'm a lawyer and had a day job as running a law firm, which I still have, but fully play in the legal niche doing websites, paid search, moving into social. So a lot of fun and a lot of great people here.

So good, man.

Welcome.

Congratulate. How many times on the Inc. list? I know you've got—

It's funny. I have to admit this. Early on, I would see the application fee and I'm like, should I do this? And so I've only been on the last 3 years, but I think that if we went back, we would been on for quite a bit.

Oh yeah. Well, congratulations. Thanks for being on here. I think we've introduced everybody now. Uh, so this is, this is quite an amazing panel. So our goal, right, our goal, everyone on here, is to, is to share, right? This is to share best ideas, best practices, what's working for these guys to grow and scale so you can model that within your business. I've got a series of questions that I'm going to ask. We're going to hear from the panel, but we want to make this as interactive as possible. We've got a couple hundred of you guys on with us live. And so if, as you're hearing one of these panelists share, something resonates with you or you have a specific question, type it into the chat. We're watching the chat. We'll do our best to make sure we get to answer some of your questions, whether it's for the group or for some of the individuals. So with that said, my first question for the panel is, now that we know who you are, we kind of have an idea what niche you're in, kind of what the model is. If you had to talk about one strategy that propelled your growth, in terms of, you know, obviously you're landing a lot of clients, your revenue is growing, otherwise you wouldn't be able to make the Inc. 5000 list. What would that number one strategy be? We'll start with, we'll start with you, Billy Sticker.

I would say so. We actually started as a podcast. And I was already interviewing, you know, I used to be a marketer for a chiropractor. So that's the value I was trying to bring with the podcast. And I was interviewing all these industry leaders. And whenever we started our agency, already had all these referral sources because I'd built relationships with these people. Uh, so that's, that is such a great strategy. And it's something, you know, Brady has actually started another company, uh, where he does pretty much the same model we're doing, but he's doing it for churches. And it's the exact same formula that, that he's doing. Uh, and it's, it's working out so well. We still I mean, referral sources is still one of our biggest lead generators every month.

I love it. Maybe we can bring Brady on as well to talk about this. So podcast, what's the format? Are you interviewing successful people? Are you just sharing great information?

For me, we would do— I was very, very consistent with the podcast for several years, and then I gave myself permission to kind of step back from it. And we even had a new lead this week came from the podcast and we haven't even released one recently. But I would do a little bit of both. Some of it was just me just delivering content and then some were actually interviews. And I'll let Brady share what he's doing.

Yeah, the big strategy that I'm focusing on right now is one, just looking at what we did at Cairo Candy and think, how can we implement that at Church Candy to be successful? And so I'm following Russell Brunson's from Traffic Secrets, the Dream 100, where you make a list of 100 influencers in the space and try to get connected with them. And I've been having a lot of really successful people in this niche that are also serving churches or they're successful pastors. And it's really cool being able to— one, you know, because this is something that I'm like super passionate about, like no offense to Adam, I, Sure, chiropractic is awesome, but like I get so much more fulfillment doing this and I'm being able to talk to people that I grew up looking up to in this industry. And so reaching out to influencers and what's awesome is now I'm getting referrals from pastors that don't even work with us. They were just on my podcast and they're sending in people our way too.

I love it. So it's a very much value in advance strategy, right? You're not chasing prospects down, you're not sending thousands of cold messages. It's more, hey, we're going to put good out into the world and then good is going to come back. But obviously you're also going to the top of the hierarchy with people with big audiences and kind of featuring them, which helps to get that message out.

Absolutely.

And we did now for Cairo Candy, you know, we do paid ads. He has— he's not doing any— has not— he's actually grown a pretty successful agency so far in the church niche without spending any money. Uh, he's doing great at that, but you know, a lot of people look at the Dream 100 whenever, um, what was his name? Chet Holmes originally wrote that book. He talked about, you know, looking for the clients that you're looking for, but it works so much better when you're looking for the referral, make a list of the referral resources, because that's not one client. That could be one or two clients a month that they're sending you. You know, in perpetuity. So it's all about building those relationships. And I will say this, Bill has created obviously $2 million a month. That's phenomenal. Uh, and he started off cold calling. We've never cold called.

We've never even done cold outreach, no cold emails or anything like that.

We've never done any, any of that. It's all been putting out content and then people coming to us.

So good. Completely inbound, accelerated growth, Inc. 5000. Great share, guys. If you're getting a takeaway from this, guys, post it in the comments. Billy and Brady, amazing share. Next up, let's go to, let's go to JC Hite. 8 figures in the franchise space. If you had one strategy that propelled your growth, like, what would, what would you point to, man?

One of the things that I, we look at a lot, it's actually similar to, to Billy and them in the sense that What we like to look at is levels of service. Ron Kaufman actually wrote a book on levels of service. And you have, you have basic, you have expected. What do your clients expect from you at like every touchpoint? You have desired. What do people desire at every touchpoint? Then you have surprising. How do you like, how do you surprise people at everything? And then you have unbelievable. And for us, this is twofold. Number one, how do we treat our clients, right? Like, like every touchpoint. So if you think about if you do a cold call or you do a strategy, I could do whatever. Like, okay, just think, is this basic? Is this just like barely acceptable? Is this, is this desired? Is this what my client is looking for? Or how could I surprise them? How could I surprise them in the monthly report? How could I surprise them in whatever, right? We do the same philosophy when it comes to our team, right? Like, so we have about 6% turnover a year is what we've had for the last 2 years. And it's because we want to go above and beyond creating that unbelievable experience for our people. It's actually a biblical term, is love covers a multitude of sins. So the more you surprise your clients, the more you create unbelievable experience, the more you try to go above and beyond, when it messes up— because it will, marketing's not, uh, just rainbows and sunshine, right? When you mess up, it's easier to overcome. When you mess up with your team, it's easier to overcome, right? And so we are really big into this levels of service because For— I don't know about the rest of the people on this panel, but a 2.0 GPA in college, good old boy from Arkansas, like, I'm not this, but I'm going to love people as much as I can. I'm going to do as much as I can in terms of service to overcome all this other, you know, problems in my business. And so that's one thing that we thrive by.

So good. I love that. Love covers a multitude of sins. The book was Levels of Service. Um, Christian just asked that in the, in the chat. Um, yeah, and what I love about what you said— by who?

Ron Kaufman, Uplifting Service is his latest book, and, uh, it's, it's, it's beautiful.

Ron Kaufman. And what I love that you said, and I think this is 8-figure thinking, you know, a lot of us, you know, sub-7 figures, like, how do I get the clients? 7 figures, it's how do I retain the clients? 8 figures, it's like, how do I create a team culture where the people love working with me? Where they're going to like go above and beyond to serve. So you're thinking about how do we have this level of service for our clients, but also for our team. So our team loves working with us and is excited about going above and beyond for the clients.

That's right.

That's right. I mean, when you have a company that's 4, 5, 6 years old, and you got 50 people in that company that's been there for 4 years, they know the ins and outs, they know the culture, they know the team, like, there's not a lot more about— you can't, you can't buy that stuff. And so It's, it's a great thing if you're, if you're hiring the right people anyways and you want to keep them on.

So good, JC. Love that share. Thanks for, thanks for sharing. All right, let's go to, let's go to Nate and Troy now. Um, number one tip that you feel like really helped to accelerate your growth.

Well, we made a recent change, um, in addition to the adding the sabbatical rhythm to our, to our mix. We, we had had all of our clients enroll with our services online and we made the shift to consultative selling, which for us, uh, it's— everybody's been doing that for a long time, but we, we had not. And so we subsisted for 12 years as a company having people go to a website, enroll in their services, and then we'd start kickoff service and serve them from there. And we were also underpriced, um, so we raised our fees to consultative selling and implemented kind of team care and management. And I'd say those 3 things combined is what accelerated our growth. So, we have our company split up into 2 teams. There's about 20 of us here, and we go through these 6 to 7-week sprints where we build projects designed to be completed within that 6 to 7-week sprint. And then we have a 1-week off period. Where half the team is off, the other half is covering the roles for the other half, and then the next week, the other, the other team is off, and then the folks that were off come back on. And what that has done is that has cross-trained our people in amazing ways such that we are not as vulnerable to departures, which we haven't really had in years since we've implemented this, but if we were to have had a departure, we are not vulnerable to that because there's still— there's experience that our team has in covering at least the tasks while we might hire somebody if we had to. But on top of that, it just keeps us fresh. And for Troy and I, we were talking some years ago and we're like, we're taking this time as leaders of the company. We want our entire team to have what we've been having. And it has been a game changer. Now, all of our employees' friends want to come work for us. The spouses love us. We have a reputation in Kansas City now, and everybody wants to work here. So it kind of has created this pipeline of potential employees. And we don't pay top of market salary. We pay normal. But this ancillary benefit has been pretty amazing for our team.

So good, so powerful. Take more time off. And I think what you've done that most agencies don't— like, all of us want to think about ourselves as the owner, and I want to create freedom for myself, I want to be able to take this time off, but the team needs to work, you know, to the bone. Where you try to figure out how you create that freedom in that and that rhythm for the, for the team as well. And obviously that's, that's paying dividends in terms of your ability to attract talent, to retain talent, and to have that talent go all out to serve the clients.

It's been awesome.

Yeah, so good. Troy, anything you want to add?

Yeah, I think, you know, there are a number of practical moves that we made. Like, you know, Nate brought up the price raising. Obviously, that's a big deal. You know, we've raised our prices 3 or 4-fold from what they were several years ago. So that's obviously a really practical thing that led to some of this. We've also— and part of that was just leaning into our identity as an agency and a lot of the things that you preach, Josh. You know, I think that has been really helpful to us. We already had productized services, but that move helped us a lot. We've developed our leadership team. You know, I think that that's been a really big deal and just kind of leaned into a market that could pay us year-round more and less on a seasonal market that we had. So I think there's those practical things, but I would just go back to what Nate said about sabbaticals. I think it just is a telling thing to us that like what the Inc. 5000 tracked your last 3 years, you know, being the time period in which we implemented and have been practicing sabbaticals. And it just feels like there's almost like a, almost spiritual principle or something like that to it, you know, of like, we decided we were going to take this risk on behalf of our employees and ourselves, our families as well. And our mindset going into this piloting this program, we committed to it for a year and asked people to really, really try to make it work. And our kind of stated thing was, if we come out of this kind of neutral, revenue neutral, like, you know, like, and we were able to add in sabbaticals and not, you know, go down, um, then it's a win. Um, and that's kind of how we went into it. And instead we've just seen a lot of growth. Um, so that just— it feels like— it just feels like a confirming thing.

Yeah. So to be clear, we have 7 weeks scheduled paid time off for our entire team and us. And, um, it's not none of this like unlimited time off crap that, um, so many people put out there. And actually, in in practice ends up being 3 days off a year, um, because workaholics don't ever take time off. So we force our workaholics to slow down, chill out, and it actually like makes them so much more happy. And it affects everything. It affects sales conversations, it affects client service, it affects quality of the work. It's, it's been a game changer.

Yeah, so good, guys. Such a practical example and case study in real world, like doing this and actually seeing The exponential growth. Awesome. Sheer. Thanks for— thanks for doing it, guys. For those of you listening, if you're getting value, give me a 1 in the comments right now. I want some 1s. I want to make sure you guys are still with us. Let's go next to Bill Hauser, SMB team, $20 million in annual run rate. So good.

Let's do it, man.

Yeah, I think— I think there's got to be 3 things that all kind of tie together. I'll start with the first, which is the concept of reverse engineering. So every year's revenues— you and I talked about this, Josh, when we did the interview— like every year's revenues we've had for the last 4 and a half years or whatever has been preplanned and in a formalized strategic plan with every month's revenues pre-decided. Not contemplated, pre-decided with expense targets on cost of goods sold, with expense targets on marketing, with expense targets on payroll, with bonus pools. Like we run our whole business on a predetermined math equation. And so it starts with what is our 3-year picture? And that is our Vivid Vision document, which is like the holy Bible to me. From the Vivid Vision document, we break that down into an annual plan, which is an Excel spreadsheet that has every month's revenues itemized along with the expense projections. And then third, we have quarterly boulders. We don't call them quarterly rocks. I believe anyone could take a rock off of a table and throw it somewhere else. And a boulder is an unmovable object unless you detonate it, right? So we run our company on quarterly boulders that are unmovable objects. That will get achieved every single quarter. We operate with such urgency that it is very military-esque. It's not, you know, it's, it's very like cut and dry. Everyone knows their KPIs, everyone on our team. And this, this required us to literally, we had to fire almost every single member of our team to rebuild this culture that we, that we had in our mind. And in 3 years, we've lost 1 employee. In 3 years since we made this shift, the first year and a half was turmoil. I mean, I had people smoking pot coming into the office the morning before they come in. I mean, and I tolerated it because I was afraid. I was afraid. When you only have 5 employees, you feel like you're tiptoeing around. You can't really address them. So I noticed that once you get to the 20-employee mark, you can actually put your foot down around higher standards because the team becomes a little bit more able to be replaced, which then gives you the kind of permission slip to be, be more intentional with what, what's required. So, so, and we have a 90 employee net promoter score. We have all of our, all of our team members fill out surveys every single quarter on a scale of 1 to 10. How, how likely are you to recommend working here to a friend? and we score regularly for the last 2 years. We've scored over 90% on that. Um, and the reason is because we're upfront in our recruiting process. We don't dupe people. We tell people, if you're looking to clock in, clock out, this is not your job. Just don't join, right? So we try to scare people away during the recruiting process, and it leaves us with the cream of the crop. So we try and scare people. We, we, uh, we try, uh, you know, scare people by telling them how hard it's going to be before they accept the job position. And, and that has worked wonders for us because now everyone in the team is just on their own mission path within this entity we built. So reverse engineering. The second thing I would say is don't sell your services, sell a movement. Like, we don't spend much time selling our services. Um, if you attend our events, we spend— we'll have a 3-day event. We have an event coming up next month with Alex Rodriguez, uh, Jillian Michaels, Gloria Allred, um, Gary Vaynerchuk. Um, and you will— people who attend this event will have over 1,000 lawyers virtually, will have probably 200 in the room. Um, we are going to spend probably 15 minutes talking about what we sell. We're gonna spend 3 days talking about motivating the audience to what they're capable of, because most people in our market don't know what they're capable of. Most lawyers and all small business owners for that matter stumble into their business every single year. So we made the shift 3 years ago that we're just not gonna sell our services. Like, we're gonna sell what you are capable of. And okay, yeah, we just so happen to also provide services that can facilitate you on that journey. But our job is to help you reach your full potential, whether you hire us or not. That is our mission. Now, what happens when you stand for a movement is you think, yeah, it'll just win you clients. But I didn't know this. It also wins you absolute A-level talent. Like, we have people— I can name two companies that are very big in our industry very high-level roles who want to come work with us right now, VP-level roles, because they've heard about us, because we are delivering value to people. We're not just selling our services, right? So that's very important is what is the movement for us that's been vital? What is the movement you're trying to reach through your marketing? Push that first, push your services second. I mean, Seth and I who are on here, we got 3,700 lawyers on to register for our 4th webinar ever. And the webinar had nothing to do with what we sold. It only had to do with how to get PPP loans, had nothing to do with what we sold. So some of us, if we want to expand our marketing, we have to stop worrying about what we sell and we have to start worrying about what other people are thinking about.

So, can I just plus one on this and just say I've not ever heard somebody be so articulate and clear about this, Bill? The value that you bring in creating the movement, and I'm sorry to interrupt, I'm probably violating the rules right here, Josh, but I just want to say that's freaking awesome. And we've seen the same when we articulate a mission and a message to our marketplace because Working with CPAs, it's about serving clients and not being sharks. And I'll tell you what, that has been the most resonant content we've ever put out. And I'm realizing the less we sell, the more we sell. So, I love that.

So good.

Yeah, it's so true.

No, anybody that has something to +1, do it. Like, that makes this even more powerful. Yep.

So, yeah, the movement applies externally is my point as well. If you want to, like, think about, like, why do people want to work for Google? Why do people want to work for these big companies? It's because they know of them and there is something external through their marketing, some way subconsciously or consciously, that trickled through the marketplace to where not only do they attract new customers, but they also attract new applicants. That, that has absolutely changed the game for us in terms of the quality of applicants that we now attract as a company.

So good.

And then the last thing I'll say is like, don't be afraid to go out of what your competencies are and to build a team around that. Like what I phrase this as is create a blue ocean offer, create an offer where there is, there's the perception is that there is no competition for your offer, right? So anything that you can say, we are the only company that insert X, right, is perceived as more valuable than being in a commoditized niche. So, um, for us, that has been, um, you know, and it's partially because I love coaching, I love educating people, um, that it was very easy for me to spin off a coaching side of our business because it's, it's you— I could get paid no money for coaching. I love it. With like all my bones, right? So it was very easy to bolt coaching onto our done-for-you services because it was something I loved. And there were pieces of the agency world that I didn't love. And you know what's interesting is the things that you love doesn't mean you have to get out of them. A lot of people, they mistake the areas in their agency that they're frustrated with or overwhelmed with, they mistake that as, well, I'm just gonna get out of this. I'm gonna go do this. That's why people run from done-for-you. A lot of people run from done-for-you and they just go to high-ticket consulting, and then they just pocket a higher margin. I think you should run towards the things that frustrate you and that are hard to build, like done-for-you services, and just find people that love it. Find people that get lit up, that are like, yes, I'd love to solve problems around X, Y, and Z problem, right? And until you interview those people, you'll think that everyone sees the world that you do. Everyone hates the things that you hate. Um, and that's just not the case. So actually shore up the areas where you're frustrated and where you're having problems in your agency, right? Shore those areas up and find someone who does love those things. Don't necessarily abandon them. And then you can bolt on stuff that you're more passionate about to create a blue ocean offer. So that's what I would say.

So good, so good. So many great insights, guys. Type your takeaways. What I heard was kind of setting your goals and intention in advance, mapping it out month by month. I heard selling the movement, not the service. I know your big play is, is running these live events that are happening both in person and on Zoom, um, has been like a massive lever for you that a lot of agencies aren't doing in the niche, like live events with expert speakers and like really selling that movement. Um, and then really, you know, just being world class, right?

Yeah.

Amazing stuff. So good. All right, let's go to David and Eric. David Kosslerik, Eric Schaefer.

Yeah, sure. So, you know, lots of things. I would say one thing right off the bat would be just enough diversification. And what I mean by that is not offering 100 different services, but offering at least, you know, a few and doing them really well. We work with a lot of agencies who only do one thing, which we all know the benefits of that, right? Like just doing Facebook ads or just doing Google Ads or what have you. But there's a lot of inherent fragility in that type of a model. Anyone who works with Facebook ads can attest to that with, you know, page disapprovals lately and iOS 14 last year and ad account issues and things. So, um, as I think David might have mentioned at the top of the call, we do SEO, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and TikTok ads. I oversee the ad side of the company and David oversees the SEO side. We've really been able to build teams out beneath us and sell in those areas, but still though have, you know, 4 services across that. We just added websites as well. So my point is just that don't start too, too narrow. Um, because the other thing too I should note with a marketing agency is that we see this a lot as well, but say you only do Facebook ads. Well, your client needs Google Ads and SEO, right? They may not know they they need it, but they do need it if they have any expectation to be as optimally successful as they could be. So they're either not doing it, which means there's an opportunity for you to land it, or if they are doing it, they're doing it with someone else, and that other agency then has their ear to be able to take away what you are doing. So diversification, but not too much, just enough would be the first point. Second one would be a really obvious fundamental business concept, but I see this too often neglected, which would just be to find something to make make yourself unique. You hear that, you know, anywhere you go when you're starting a business. But for us, it's been being entirely US-based, which is a rarity in the white label world. So a lot of other white label providers are overseas, which is nothing wrong with being overseas, but the challenge it creates for the agencies that we work with, which are predominantly in the United States, is slow response times, which we've been able to solve by providing Slack integrations where we reply, you know, essentially immediately during business hours. You know, really high-quality level of work with the responsive nature of that. So just making sure you stand out in some way. We're unique on this panel, and similar to Josh actually, and given— I mean, Josh isn't white label, but his market's the same as ours, right, which is white label agencies, or excuse me, which is marketing agencies. And so we see just so much in terms of what they're struggling with, what they're trying to do to grow. Often too, and this is I think relevant to many that are probably watching this, but we see this all the time as well where someone will come to us and they'll say, "Hey, I'm serving dentists and we're going to do Facebook ads." We ask them, "What's different about your model or your approach?" They say, "I have no idea. I just, I want to serve dentists and I want to do Facebook ads." Even in the very beginning, you've got to find something. There's just too many agencies serving these markets. I would suggest that. Then I think lastly, I mean, this isn't necessarily something you can predict, but we've just been fortunate that there's been really a big proliferation, I think, of agencies seeing the light in regard to the white label model over the last, really the last 5 years, it's really blown up. We've seen, we've been doing it since 2012, but really since the last 5 years or so, we've seen it really, really lift off. And I mean, the irony I always say is that we're entirely in-house. We can't white label our own stuff, but you know, we know firsthand experience when you're in-house, there can be, you know, just a lot of things like raises, bonuses, benefits, taxes, you know, training, other stressors, drama. We see it from, you know, all ends of the spectrum. So I would just say whether you're white labeling or you're doing it in-house, when you're starting out and growing— and there's been a lot of great stuff already on this call about building a team— but just make sure you have your ducks in a row. Um, David, anything you want to add?

Good stuff. I like that, guys, of like just making sure that you have some right to win, right? Don't go into a niche and try and sell the same thing that everyone else sells. Come up with your proprietary mix of services or your proprietary angle that makes you stand out, right? I think that's, that's the main takeaway from what you were saying there, Eric. Sorry, David, I didn't mean to interrupt you.

No, I was just gonna say I don't have too much to add. I echo everything Eric said, and a lot of great advice on building teams on here. But I think the big thing you got to build is just build your machine, right? Like, what's your What's your— what makes you special? What makes you unique? You know, even if it's just your culture and your team, then let people know that, that your customer service is better than everybody else. It doesn't have to be some special silver bullet Facebook strategy that gets 300 leads for 40 cents. You know, just letting people know that we're going to take care of you and we're going to work with you until you get it right alone is enough in this day and age where there's just a huge lack of customer service. We see this a lot where we get clients for white label. The biggest complaint is that Well, I was with 3 other white labels and guess what? Like their teams overseas, they don't get back to me. They don't answer my questions. I need support. I need support. And so I, I would just say that, that if I was gonna build an agency myself direct now in a niche, that I would just make sure that my support is heroic and amazing and that alone will carry you through most issues in my opinion. So that's it.

So good, man. Great share, guys. Agency Elevation, white label. Websites, SEO, TikTok, the whole nine yards. Great shares. Congratulations on your growth. Um, let's go next to Chris from rankings.io. Guys, if you're watching us live, I just want to kind of re-engage some of the engagement here. Give me a yes if you're getting value, if you get at least a couple of takeaways from this amazing panel of the fastest growing agencies in the United States on what they're doing to grow and scale. Right now they're sharing their number one tip that helped to propel their growth to Some of them their first time on the Inc. 5000, some of them their multiple time on the Inc. 5000. Floor Coating Marketer says heck yeah, yes sir. Okay, lots of comments. Keep it coming, guys. Let's hear from you, Chris. Rankings.io.

Yeah, I think everyone's expecting me to say niching, right? But I'm gonna— I will just preface this and say being laser focused and niching helped me get to 8 figures. I think on the journey to there, What's going to blow it out of the water is being more aware of leverage in all aspects of the business, and meaning labor leverage, right? Um, take— there's many examples of this, but take for example pricing arbitrage of hiring someone from the Midwest versus California, or hiring someone from the Philippines versus US, right? I can get 4 employees versus your 1. Now we can all make the case that, oh, my talent's worth 3 people. But what if the person that you hired for less can do just as much, right? So there's all different forms of leverage that exist. We could even talk about the difference between FTEs, subs, um, using white label providers and things like that. So that's the first thing is leverage is more bodies doing work. You can see this, that's, that's on a labor perspective, but you can see this on media, right? So a lot of people ask, and I joke about it, Chris, why don't you go to conferences? Why don't you go to conferences? And I'll tell you exactly why I don't go to conferences. It's not worth my time generally. I know that sounds pretty egotistical or whatever, but let me just say this. If I'm not speaking, you will not see me there. Because I don't have leverage. Um, why do I have a podcast? My podcast gets 10,000 downloads a month. Every single episode is a keynote presentation that I get to do from my home. So we're all talking about like growing, and but it's being aware of where, where you have a lever, a leveraged, um, benefit or, or over your competition in all aspects. Literally, I can— it can be HR, it can be the goods that you're paying for, right? Your links, your everything. That is how you win. Um, JC will probably get a kick out of this, but I identified leverage with his franchise model a while back. If he goes and checks his DMs, I guarantee there's a DM in there from me, right? Because I'm wanting to figure out how to get leverage there. Um, but that's the thing that's kind of behind the, behind the curtain, um, that I think is just, it's just so powerful. I mean, look at Bill Hauser's one-to-many webinars. I mean, and these events on stage, it's, that's what we're trying to obtain.

Powerful leverage. Find the leverage points. So good, man. Congratulations on 8 figures in a very narrow Niche. Amazing share. Let's go to you, Seth Price.

You know, a lot of great stuff. First, Nate and Troy, really inspirational. If you haven't hit it already, this sounds like stuff that should go national. If you think about the guy, he's not in great shape this minute, but the guy who wants $75,000 minimum salary, this sounds like one of those stories that could go super viral on a national basis. Bill, a lot of things resonated for me. We sort of had that upgrade of employees. Thankfully, we've had a few that stayed with us, but I remember early days where people were trading Adderall in the back office and getting that culture in place. It's sort of a one-two punch. I feel like you have to get the people to come, whether you go with sit at home, which Chris has been a genius at and has done great stuff, whether you get on the road, it doesn't really matter as long as the phone is ringing and things are coming in. To me, as we broke 8 figures and we're trying to get to multiples upon multiples, The question is the sausage making. And to me, again, one of the reasons I love, Josh, what you've done is that is your first book. I mean, it's the blueprint. It's when I looked at it, I was like, yeah, that's what we're doing. I was like, to me, it was— I wish that there was a book when I started to do this because it's the fundamentals. Because you execute the fundamentals as you scale and whether you're at 6 figures, 7 figures, or 8 figures, the fundamentals don't break. And that the But the need for labor to continue to build unless you're smart enough to white label it, but we have not. We've continued to train from within and build both training and culture programs to keep the people necessary to produce at that level. It's one thing to get the people in the door, but to keep those people, as somebody referred to before, thrilled about the service, not just what they expect. I think it's a combination of Continuing to figure out beg, borrow, steal to get the clients in, but then spend your time building the systems, following a blueprint to create the replicable ability to leverage the labor against the work that needs to be done.

Love it, love it. Great share. Congratulations on your growth. Um, so many, so many great insights, guys. So we, we're hearing from some of the fastest growing digital marketing agencies in the country in terms of what they've done to grow and scale their digital marketing agencies. I do want to make sure you guys get a chance to ask questions. So if you get like a pressing question for somebody on the panel or just for the entire group, post in the comments. Um, what I'd love to hear, like roundtable, just real quick answer from each of you guys, would be as you think about what you do for your clients— and we've got people in, in legal, we've got people in chiropractic, you guys have heard the different verticals that these agencies represent— like, if you had to think about what's the key secret sauce that's generating results, is it the SEO, is it the pay-per-click, is it the social media, is it the email marketing, is the database reactivation? Is it the combination of services unique to the niche? What's working best for you to deliver the goods and make it rain for your clients? And so let's come back to the top. We'll go with Billy and Brady, you guys first.

I'll say our secret sauce is our, what we call our Perfect Patient Tribe Turbine. It's basically, we tell these chiropractors, look, we know that there are very few people that are as passionate about their message as you guys, right? You may have, let's say, preachers, network marketers, and chiropractors, right?

We've got two of the niches already on lock.

Yeah, exactly. And so getting them to produce short content to build their brand in their community and what we always tell the doctors is, look, we're trying to get people to say yes to the doctor, not yes to the offer. And the only way to do that is to get you to produce some content. And then we coach them along the way on what kind of content to do, how to do it, how to do your videos and things like that. And people love that idea. You know, they don't want people choosing discounted offers. They, they want people to come in knowing who they are, that know, like, and trust factor, you know, knowing why, why you do what you do, how you do it. You can educate your patients before they ever come in. So that's one of our key things that I think has really helped us. I mean, because we're working with just about 400 doctors right now.

So good. So kind of, you know, in your world, it's figuring out how to position that client as the, as the chiropractor or the choice of choice, right? Getting them to become the celebrity in the local area for that particular service.

Yeah.

Short-form content right now. And Josh, you've heard me talk about this before. Is huge. Instagram and Facebook, they're trying to keep up with TikTok. And so they're pushing Reels like crazy. And you guys have probably seen the chiropractor cracking videos. First, a lot of chiropractors, they don't really like that. But regardless, if it's just educational content, like, hey, here's 3 things you can do to get out of back pain. Number 1 is blank, right? So that's huge right now. And whenever we started offering TikTok ads, I think within the first 2 months, after 2 months, we added like almost $50K in MRR. So yes, it delivered them great results. But for us as an agency, I mean, we've had more growth this year just from adding TikTok than actually adding new clients. And so that's something that is a huge, you know, one, yes, it's delivering results. Obviously these clients are chiropractors are getting new patients from TikTok. But just us as an agency has grown tremendously to where now we have an entire division just over short-form video. We have editors on staff for the first time ever that all they do is edit videos. And it's just really cool being able to see not only it's helping our clients, but it's helping us adding that additional service.

Yeah, it was more than $50,000. It was, it was another 7 figures. It will be another 7 figures this year.

Yeah, but within 60 days. Is what I'm saying. It brought us there.

So good, man. So many great takeaways there. Thank you so much for sharing. Making your client the star, trying out new technology, not just saying like we do Facebook, but actually testing out TikTok and say, hey, can we make a play here? Can we figure out how to make it work and have this explosive new line of revenue for the business? Great shares. Let's go to, let's go to you next, JC. What's working best in terms of making it rain for the end client?

So for us, one of the things that I'll say, well, I'll say one thing specifically for us, it's all about decision making in the company and how we serve them. And I think there's, there's two ways we make decisions in business. I think there's probably billions, but we think of two things. One is data-driven decision. I'm looking at my numbers, I'm looking at my data, I'm looking at why are my clients churning? Where are they churning? When are they churning? How are they churning? For what reason are they churning? And I mean, our entire company's built on Salesforce. We have data for our data, right? And not only internally, externally. A lot of times we, we look at these loud people on Facebook and we see like, oh my gosh, they're crushing it, only to find out they're maybe not crushing it quite as much as you think, right? And so number one, we have data, and then number two, we have our gut. You can make decisions based on your gut. I invested in an agency, uh, last year. They were losing money, uh, they were actually in the hole. They every single month, but they were making like $75,000. I really like the owner. They had a lot of cool things going, but they were losing money. They had $80,000 in debt. There was that. I knew the data, I knew the numbers, but I still followed my gut, right? You can follow your gut, but you got to know what's really happening in your business. And so many of us don't know. So we not only use this at the business level, but also again at our client level, what is actually happening? It's beautiful to run Facebook and you might love Facebook, but if it's not working, you got to shift. You gotta move and leverage. And along that same lines, what we do is, you know, marketing is a competition. You know, we go out and we tell our clients. And so we have this saying that we talk about at, at HITE. It's called the closer's patience is what we say. So every closer in the world has a certain level of patience that they have. So for me, for you, everyone, right? And so if I give you 1,000 leads, but they're only one penny. That's it. There's just one penny. That's it. And if you close one out of the thousand, you're going to make 10x ROI. I mean, we've all said this. Oh man, it's not my campaigns. They just can't close the deals, right? Oh, they're just not patient enough. So every single business you work with has a certain level of patience. If you're working with a dentist and you're working with a receptionist, she's not going to call back that client. She's not going to like, you know, start doing email marketing and go forward, right? So Facebook ads might not be the best fit for someone like that, right? It might be SEO, it might be referral, it might be other deals. And so understanding where your clients— where are they at, reading the data, keeping up with your numbers. I can tell you right now what my churn rate was from a financials position, from an SEO position, from a team member position in 2018 of February, if you wanted to see it, right. And so now, as everyone up here on stage, I would probably be willing to bet, knows they have down seasons, they have up seasons, when to leverage, when to push, when is the right time to be having these events, and they know that. By, by, uh, keeping up with what, you know, what they've done in the past.

Love it. So knowing the data, figuring out what's working best for that client in that niche, in that particular market, and doubling down on the things that are really working, but not guessing, really looking at the data because the data is available. Love it, JC. So good, guys. For those of you listening, I want to— I want you to comment your takeaways. I want you to hit the like button. I want you to hashtag JC or hashtag Billy when you hear something you really like. Let's keep this interactive. And we are categorizing your questions. We're going to do a rapid-fire Q&A at the end. So, uh, up next, I want to hear from Nate and Troy. What's working best, you know, in terms of, you know, the delivery side of the equation, really knocking out of the park for your clients and helping them win?

Yeah, I mean, I, I do want to say one thing. I'm, I'm— we're a mere multi-seven-figure, and there's these 8-figure dudes on this thing, and I'm listening to some of the commonalities, and I'm taking notes because guys like JC and, um, who's the other one, and, uh, Seth, and I've seen Bill and, and David and some of these guys that are really building amazing organizations, and I'm just noticing the abundance mentality that these guys operate by. I'm noticing the, the way they're value forward and Chris and all these guys who are really approaching the marketplace from a position of confidence and strength and aren't doing it in such a way that they're seeing themselves in competition with one another and with those in their space. And I think it's a remarkable subtle message that I think takes a lot of people years to get around to. And so I, I, if you're kind of starting out, if you could just make that little switch. I mean, notice how when Seth got, got on, he had taken notes, um, and the first thing he does is compliment, uh, things that he had seen. And I know that that is a habitual thing because I can tell the kind of person that he is, that that's what he does.

Um, so I, I just think that abundance in the comments, guys, if that's a takeaway across this panel, um, abundance, right? There's enough opportunity for all of us. A lot of these guys are in the same niche. Um, so Nate, amazing takeaway. Appreciate you sharing that.

No, for real. And just in terms of our delivery, for us it's authority. Um, so we work with CPAs and tax practitioners. It's, it's really diving into the niche. Um, and, and I, I've never prepared a freaking tax return in my life. And I have, you know, CPAs all over the country asking me my interpretation of the tax code because of how I have we've positioned our content and what have you. And so, diving into your particular clients and understanding your clients and what they eat and sleep and drink about or dream about, whatever. We've had 1,000+ person webinars when we dive into the nerdy minutia of the tax code. And then I want to put up like this awesome marketing webinar and I've got like 75 people on the thing. But when I put like, you know, this is the way that your PPP loan gets forgiven and the things that tax pros need to know, I'm like, I don't care. But my clients, they care a ton. And so, when I do that, a lot like I think what Bill is putting on in his marketplace, when I lean into what my clients are actually caring about, Man, it makes a world of difference.

Love that. Powerful.

Like what you're doing, Josh. I just want to point you out, um, you know, you, you're gathering all these, all these folks, friends of yours, some, some who are in— I'm not sure if everybody's in the 7FA world or not, um, some aren't. But, uh, your events, this is what you do. You just share, share, share, share, share. And I will say one takeaway, if you're watching this thing on replay or live, you know, and you're not a part of the 7FA group, um, you're stupid. You're stupid. I've been a part of War Room, I've been part of Roundtable, I've been a part of so many other huge mastermind groups in our industry, and there's nothing like the 7FA world. So dive in, like, today.

Appreciate that.

I'll take, you know, the referral bonus later.

Joshua's gonna just Something—

one thing I forgot to say, which dovetails perfectly on what Nate said, was— and I talked about it to our potential clients, I talked about to our staff, literally had a meeting about this today— is the more we move the client to a consultative partnership world rather than vendor-vendee, that's where the magic happens, where it's a client for life and you're part of their DNA besides is the SEO working or not, right?

So good. Powerful, right? You're not just trying to How many more leads can we get? It's like, what's the goal? How can we be your consultant to help craft the solution to hit that goal, whether that's through our direct services or just your business operations as a whole?

I know Chris and Bill can speak to some of the guys in the other industries. We can do all the work we want, but if there's a hole in the intake bucket, which is more often the case than not, like, it throws everything off. And if you can show a way to get revenue up, generally that's the client who sees you. Because look, SEO and different techniques are going to come and go. And, you know, there'll be moments when you're a rock star and moments you're in the doghouse. But when you're, when you're able to bring a bigger picture and a bigger portfolio to the table, I think it's when you have the longer legs with the clients.

So good. One of the comments, if that's a great takeaway and if that resonates with you, like, shift from thinking about your digital marketing agency or an SEO agency or a Facebook Ads agency to you're a growth agency, right? You're helping your clients grow. You're helping them take their business to the next level, whether that's that mix of services or something outside of it. Like, that's what you want to be doing to really take your clients to the next level. And that's where you get really high retention rates, high referral rates, and everything in between. They enjoy great stuff. Thanks for, thanks for sharing. Let's go. Let's get Bill Hauser on here. Bill, number one strategy, making it rain for your, for your clients.

Yeah, so it's so funny, you know, Seth and I are on the same page here. I was gonna tongue-in-cheek say it has nothing to do with what, with how we skin the orange, right? Or how we peel the pickle, right? So it's like, it has nothing to do with— yeah, it does. Okay, you need processes in place and a dependable team to execute on those processes. To stay on timelines, to get good QA done, quality assurance, to have checks and balances for what is released to clients. But here's the truth. At the budgets of most clients that we are working with as agency owners, they don't have the bandwidth, the budget, the mental fortitude, the intestinal or mental fortitude to spend what they need to spend to get to what they think the number of leads they need are. Right. So the real battle is around sales process, right? If the, if the business owner has a flawless sales process, they are following up on each lead 15 times, text follow-up, email follow-up, call follow-up. If every lead is responded to in under 10 to 15 minutes, like clockwork, right, then everything that we do as agency owners starts to fall into place. So the first thing I said, what's helping clients get results? Yeah, we have like, you know, the execution piece, which is really systems and dependable team, right? But most importantly, I find is the sales process is number one at the top of the list. The second I would say is the actual management knowledge of the business owner. And it's called the leadership lid, which John Maxwell talks about, right? Every, every person unconsciously or consciously has a leadership lid. Our business owner clients that we serve as agency owners, they have a leadership lid. If they believe they're a 100-lead-per-month law firm, business, whatever it is, and that's their entire operating paradigm— I am a 100-lead-per-month business— and they haven't made the mental shift in their head that I am going to go to 200 leads per month, I am willing to hire who needs to be hired, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to actually fall into a bigger business, then what they're going to do is they're going to point the finger at the agency and say, it's because of you that my law firm's not growing or my business is not growing. But the truth is they haven't come to mental terms with where they're going. And that's why what we do on the coaching side is so important, is because To Seth's point, like, we're not a vendor. We are a strategic partner with them. When a law firm signs up with us, we create their entire annual plan with them. We create their 3-year picture. We create their pre-projections around who they're going to have to hire. We create their marketing budget. They commit to their marketing budget as a percentage of their future gross revenues, not their current gross revenues, because a law firm comes in, they say, oh, I want to double my revenues. And then they're like, How can I do this on $500 a month? I'm like, you said you want to double your revenues. Let's calculate what percent an average law firm spends on marketing, which is 20% of a firm who's in growth mode, right? 20%. And let's take a piece of that future growth that you want. Let's audit whether you're actually at that spend right now, and let's create a strategic plan so that you're going to, you're going to pre-invest in your marketing if you're so adamant about growing your law firm. And we have an expectations agreement process where they actually have to write down and commit to it. And we do it this way because we ran into a problem. They have to tell us what their next year's revenue goal is. When they tell us what that is, it automatically calculates 20% of that number and says, okay, there's your marketing budget. And then we'll get people on onboarding calls go, well, I didn't say that. No, you told us what your revenue goal is. Here's statistic 1, statistic 2, statistic 3. Here's 18 attorneys I've interviewed that all said 20%, 20%, 20%, 20%, 20%, right? So are you serious about growing, or are you looking as just having this be another agency relationship that you milk out for 1 year, you get frustrated at the end of the year when nothing really changed? So we're really aggressive with that because we want our clients to see the end result that they want. Um, so that's what I call spend alignment. So We basically have— we got to dial in our client sales processes. We have to— we have found that it's vitally important to coach them on where they're going rather than where they're currently at. And then number 3 is we have to help them calculate what it's going to take for them to spend in order to get there. Now, we do focus groups with our clients every quarter, so we take key clients, dream clients of ours every quarter. We put them in a focus group and we run them through questions around their fears, frustrations, wants, and aspirations. FFWA— fears, frustrations, wants, and aspirations— every quarter, like clockwork. And what do you think came up every single quarter? Their top frustration is around intake or sales process, number one. And number two is around recruiting. Had nothing to do with what we serve. Right? So our job as our partner of, of these law firm owners, we have to solve— doesn't matter if we're an agency, we gotta solve recruiting, we gotta solve intake somehow. So we just as of yesterday announced a new partnership only to our current clients where we've partnered with a, with a virtual assistant intake system, intake outsourcing process for all of our clients, and it is phenomenal how this works. And I know, by the way, another thing I know I have no idea about, but I found a brilliant executor of this who built it for his dad's $100 million law firm. 120 virtual assistants, runs overnight hours, uh, uh, overnight hours, weekend hours, during the day. And law firm clicks a button and now they get virtual assistants set up to— every single lead gets called back 15 times. Text, email, uh, text, email, call. Every single lead is responded to in under 15 minutes, right? And we use this now as a bolt-on to our agency services. Now, what are we doing next? We're starting the bits and pieces of a recruiting company. We just hired 2 full-time in-house recruiters. Why? Because our clients keep begging us. They can't find attorneys, they can't find support staff, right? So either we're going to go point the finger and say, well, maybe they want to cancel with us because they can't expand their team, right? And whatever the reason is, right? Well, we're going to solve that problem now. We're going to help you expand your team. We're going to help you dial in your intake process. We're going to help you create a strategic plan for your law firm, and we're going to help you with the done-for-you marketing. So my, my belief is I will never tolerate a client's problem as an objection to them reaching what they're capable of. So, so that, that's kind of, um, uh, that, that those are the things that I would say are most important. So long as— a big disclaimer, all caps, red text— so long as you have 90% their processes, 90% their team dependability, so long as you're at that point, my viewpoint is hire great leaders to run the day-to-day and get into the innovation business.

So good. Love it. So I'm really just again hammering in on you want to be the strategic partner, like you're helping them grow regardless of what that means. Expand the spend, not for your own pocket, but because like, look, if their goal is to double, their goal is to add half a million, they're gonna need to spend more, right? Most agencies struggle because they don't have enough money that they can put into the SEO strategy or their Facebook ads or whatever else it is. So, you know, explain to them what they're going to need to spend to hit that goal that you're responsible for helping them grow towards. And then be in the problem-solving business, right? What Bill said there about doing focus groups— figure out what the bleeding neck for your client is, really get clear on that, and decide, like, is that something you can help with in your business? Is that a division you can spawn, or is there some strategic partner you can align with? So good, Bill. Amazing insights here, guys. I want to hear some takeaways. Type takeaways at least in the comments if you're getting some takeaways that you're going to be able to take in and run with. Bill, that, that's amazing. Let's go next to David and Eric, Agency Elevation.

Yeah, so I think, you know, lots of things other than just provide— like everybody on this call, you know, providing really good services. That's, that's the obvious thing. But I think for us, seeing agencies who go deeper than only reporting on surface-level metrics. Like leads. We see that so commonly, even bigger agents, like really, you know, 8-figure agencies. We've seen that their focus is, you know, well, we've got you— I'm just making up numbers, right— we got you 40 leads last month at a $7 CPL on Facebook. It's like that's the extent of what they're trying to sell. So what we see works best is— and Bill alluded to this a lot with revenue— is just going deeper than that, right? So really understanding your customer and what they're trying to accomplish and what success looks like to them. Not only for the sake of our optimizations being able to then be better if we have more data and we understand what's actually happening with the leads, but so that your client then can then properly see success. So because again, I mentioned fragility in an earlier comment that I provided, but it's just you don't want to be in that rat race, in my opinion, of just trying to sell leads or even rankings with SEO, right? You need to understand what's happening. And then as an extenuation of that, just not understanding, well, did this person become a client, right? Did this lead become a customer? But, you know, what's the customer lifetime value? What's the referral value? When you get a customer, how many people do they tell? You know, do they repeat buy depending on the service or, you know, product offering that you have? So, um, I— we just see it so many times over that that's just neglected, and it should be, I would think, you know, rather obvious to know that. And have those metrics. But, um, I think just one other quick thing would be for us, and the guy— everybody knows this, but this stuff all changes rapidly. Like, I always mess with David. Our SEO packages, I feel like, have changed 1,000 times in the last 5 years. And it's not that SEO has fundamentally changed, right? It's been about content and links for a long time, but there are a lot of little nuances and techniques that have changed. It's even more so true on the ad side. So continuing to be innovative— and one thing we've been doing that's been helping a lot has working more closely with Hiros. If any of you are familiar with that, in our opinion, they're the leader right now in attribution, and they're coming out with some really cool stuff. We have no stake in the company. I mean, David's been working closely with Alex Becker, the owner, but, you know, they could supplant CallRail even in terms of being a full call tracking provider. They've been really helpful too for clients that we have that have been running conversion campaigns that were really negatively affected by iOS 14 and haven't wanted to run lead ads. Having that in place, we've seen night and day difference in regard to, you know, lead activity that's able to be reported from Facebook that wasn't prior to that. So just making sure that you're staying up to date on those things. These are all things that we do, you know, for our clients and make sure we're out in front of. So that would be my, my thoughts. David, anything to add?

No, and really I just want to say about Hiros again, If you're not familiar with it, please check it out. I know I talked to Josh about maybe doing like a training on, you know, in the group and things like that for it long term because the attribution is all screwed up ever since iOS 14. But I'll give you an example. Literally last week I was going over with one of our Facebook ads managers, a client campaign where they were getting— Facebook was showing only 6 leads and Hiros actually had 13 leads. And so the customer was wondering why we didn't pause this ad set that according to them was underperforming. But really it's because literally over half the leads are not even being reported back to Facebook because that's how bad their tracking is with what we call it CAPI conversion API. So I really think you should, you know, look at your attribution and things that then report on the full value from top of funnel to bottom. Because a lot of times you're missing that picture, which is what CallRail does, but they're kind of slowly becoming kind of antiquated. But they offer superior tracking. So I just recommend looking at that, the attribution and tracking for fully reporting on leads and value is is immense.

One, one last real quick thing I want to point out. Nate mentioned this, but I wanted to, to, uh, just also shout out Josh. Um, his, you know, working with so many agencies again puts us in kind of a unique position. We see a lot of the inner workings of things, and we're in a lot of other groups and things, but Josh's is the best out there by far. Also, humble Josh. I think— I, I'm sorry if I'm mistaken anyone here on the panel— I think Josh had the highest highest ranking this year on the Inc. 5000 list of anyone on this panel, which wasn't even acknowledged. Uh, so it just goes to show how amazing he is. And, you know, anyone listening, definitely sign up for his group.

Appreciate, appreciate that, guys. Appreciate, appreciate the plug. I'm not sure if it was or not, but, um, great shares there. Really getting dialed in with the, the tracking and really generating the results. I think HiROS is a great tool. And, you know, if you can get with a company like Agency Elevation that can run this stuff down to the, down to the, you know, to the dollar for you to generate better results. Great shares, guys. Appreciate you. Let's go to, let's go to Chris, Rankings.io. What are we doing? What's, what's generating the best results for the clients?

So what's the saying? You can't lose if you don't quit. That's what SEO is about. Anybody in the SEO game, knows the peaks and valleys and the new algorithm every other week and Google Helpful Content. So for us, it's just, it's just being tenacious. We do this from our hiring and training perspective. So we're trying to surround ourselves with like literally SEO psychopaths. We don't have an EOS leadership L10, we have a war room L10. Our core values are not fluffy team player, you know, it's foxhole mentality and true grit. And it's, it's that type of training and focus. So a lot of times, like we're making snipers, we're making literally Navy SEALs of SEO. We don't hire employees and throw them to follow a process and that's it. It's, we don't rule by abdication. We, we are constantly focused on nurturing and training our staff to be the best at their craft. The other thing I'll tell you too is, look, you're trying to win the Super Bowl. You want Tom Brady or whoever, right? You want the best players. So we're not creating an Indeed listing and praying that some amazing SEO person lands on our lap. Like, we have an active recruiting list. We're recruiting the best. Somebody leaves, we've got 5 other people lined up. So it's, that's what it's about. It's, it's the best and people that share your values. If we find someone soft, they're out. Like, and, and me personally, look, I, I'm an abundance mindset, love meeting all the agency owners, but when it comes to like trying to get results, it's like a bloodbath. Half when it comes to SEO, the difference between the first page or the number 1 position versus number 2. So that's just, that's just kind of how we roll, but that's, that's why we're delivering.

I love it. So some great philosophy there on like, go get the best of the best, you know, build that, that bench of people that, that could step in on a moment's notice to move the needle for your clients. You know, don't just put an ad and try and find a newbie and train them up. You're not going to create world-class results like that. World-class results come from finding the Tom Brady of whatever it is you do, getting them on your team, right? Recruiting that talent. Now, of course, you got to charge more to do that, right? You got to be the premium player to do that. But if you want to be the best, you want to really make it rain for your clients. That's the philosophy that, that's required. Amazing.

Let me add something on that for you, Chris. Like, and I'm curious to hear your thought on this. To me, isn't it scary when you get that big of a lineup of people who could replace any one person on your team? Because it's like, now you can really hold people accountable. Like, my stomach dropped when you said that, when you said like you have 5 people, right? Because I like— I'm a people pleaser. Like, I don't like being the drill sergeant. So I'm curious, how do you, how do you cope with that feeling of having 5 super talented people And how does that not negatively affect your culture with people knowing that there are backups ready to go?

So it can, right, for certain people. But like, we, we like to hire people that are competitive, that don't want to lose themselves, right? So if they don't have that, those values, they don't share the same values, they will be intimidated and, and have those issues. But a lot of them are just as competitive. We try to ask You know, Elon Musk has his question, you know, what's one thing that you've done that's been exceptional in your life? I don't care, like, were you the best volleyball player at your school? Were you the, the top chess player? Where, where is one instance where you were the best? Were you the best collectible card game player? Um, it just shows the focus and, and the, like, the, the discipline to win. And you know, the recruiting list is different, right? So, you know, our HR and our leadership, it's not like posted on the wall. Right. And, but we do pay for our employees for referrals. You know, Mike Shashefsky. So I heard this from Jack Daly. I'll say one final thing on this. Jack Daly was this legendary salesperson. Anyone that's been in Vistage or heard him speak, he is a legend. You can find some of his old YouTube videos. They're, they're, they're not SEO optimized. You'll have to do some, some searching. But he kind of came into a room and I was in Vistage and he's like, who here has a recruiting list? And like, I was one of the individuals in there that did not, right? It's living— every employee leaves, I gotta go out and scramble. And he's like, well, what about Mike Krzyzewski? You know, his top 5 players going to the NBA every year, and then the next year 5 new players come in and they're competing at the same level. And look, I'm not a Duke fan. I'm just, I'm just using that as an example. And it was like kind of shocking that like my business, I didn't have a recruiting list. Like, how crazy is that? I'm just being aware of who the best is. So that was, that was something we did. And we just, we do not tolerate mediocrity and we, It's identified through KPIs. It's like on a scoreboard, like, what's going on here, man? Like, there's no subjective whatever. Like, you're not getting it done. So that's how we do it.

Powerful.

I love that.

Such a powerful share, man. And really just, that's an 8-figure mentality right there. It's, you gotta be top grading your talent and you gotta be recruiting.

Right.

It's not just about getting the clients, it's about getting the clients, delivering world-class results. And that world-class results isn't going to be from you typing away on the keyboard. It's from the talent that you attract and the talent that you put in place. Uh, amazing stuff, Chris. Thanks so much.

You know, one of the things that Chris is great at that I've always admired is in a competitive market, he's been able to extract a reasonable fee to get work done, which is not nothing. That is a You know, and Bill addressed this, something that my— one of my takeaways from this was the idea of looking at marketing budget and what the goals are. Because I know that in, in the world we play in, the legal space, um, gets more competitive by the minute.

And that—

and the PI is the pinnacle of that competitive piece. So that you're sitting there and that the, the idea that you're starting with— and again, thankfully we've over the last— through COVID, I think, moved away from this. But it's, it's something that I think Bill's comments sort of crystallized in my mind, was that instead of here's a fixed amount for what should be going on, figuring out what the goal is with a percentage. And I've never heard somebody articulate it before, of where you want to be versus where you are right now.

So that was—

this is awesome, Bill.

Yeah, I just wanted to add one thing too, guys, that what's amazing with Chris I don't know Chris personally, but I've seen him around his website, their business. He's a niche inside of a niche, right? So Josh preaches how important it is to niche down. And we actually see all the time, people are like, what industries work best? Should we go to? Should we do this, this, and this? He's PI inside of the legal niche, which is amazing to think that he's built a company doing, I think you said 8 figures within a niche of a niche, right? So that just goes to show you the importance of niching down and following Josh's advice and not trying to go too broad, get very specific. That's how many agencies— or I'm sorry, how many customers your agency can have is— he's the niche of a niche and doing 8 figures. It's amazing. I tip my hat to him for sure. And, uh, hopefully you guys can take away from that though the importance of niching down and becoming the expert for what you do. And so I just wanted to leave that there.

You should give him the steak analogy, Chris. Oh, you're muted. You should give him the high-end steakhouse analogy you used to give me.

Yeah, two things I want to say. First, David, thank you for that. It was really, really kind. Um, the one thing I say is there's a lot of ways to skin a cat. Like, I'm looking at what JC's doing with No Niche and like how he's, you know, I mean, that's, that's really exciting. I think in Michael Masterson's book Ready, Fire, Aim, when it's talking about these different levels, you can have, you know, one service and multiple channels in terms of getting the leads, or you can have a bigger market cap, a bigger TAM. Um, so you can go, you can go horizontal or vertical. There's just different strategies that apply. Um, the one thing that Bill's talking about is there's this limiting belief. There's just so much fear about throwing a big price point out there. Um, you have to understand your value and what you're worth, and then that fear goes away. So confidence builds confidence. And I use the analogy, it's like, how many fast food restaurants are near you? Like tons, right? Like they're all competing for margin on a bundled Happy Meal, right? Tons of competition. But how many high-end steak joints are near you? A couple, right? They have this experience, higher quality of meat, and, and you can sell at much higher fees, and you got even more time. And but there's less competition for the high-end steak joint. Who else is throwing— like, we literally have $180,000 a month SEO retainer. Who else has that?

I don't know.

I'll throw it at you if it's the right situation and I understand it, but people aren't used to it, right? So everyone's throwing them a $5K retainer or $10K. It's, it's just a— it's a different mindset, and most of us have a limiting belief because we undervalue our worth.

So good, man. So good. And put that higher price range. You're the only one, so you stand out. Like, if you're an attorney looking for the best of the best and you get a $20,000 estimate versus a $5,000 a month, you might, you know, swallow hard and be like, I don't know about that, but you're standing out. It's like, I guess he must be better, right? That's why he's charging at that point.

And that's the difference between premium pricing and the psychology behind it versus— there's a ton of— there's skimming, there's bundling, there's all different types, and I'd encourage everyone to look at the advantages and disadvantages. One of the reasons why we haven't bundled is because one of the disadvantages of bundling is that there's perception of lower quality when you bundle, because it's a form of discounting. There are extremes on all of this, right? Even the words and phrases and the copy that we're using, um, in terms of having that perception of justifying the price.

So good, man. Powerful, powerful stuff. Uh, let's go to— let's go to Seth. What are we doing? What's making it rain for the clients?

You know, I think it's, it's staying one step ahead. Um, you know, we're in the legal space. The LSAs were something that we jumped on early and turned out to be one of those things that had we ignored would have been at the detriment of our clients. I think it's figuring out not only what is currently hot, but what— I mean, having the bandwidth to figure out what's coming next and always experiment. They have the benefit of having a lot— 40-lawyer law firm where we basically use it as a test kitchen, so I can throw things out there. If it works— and I encourage people in some form or fashion to be always putting a certain amount of effort into R&D. Because the next big thing coming, if you can catch the curve, and it's not like you always want to be in a cat and mouse game, there are fundamentals and we focus on those content and links have been discussed before. But if you can figure out what thing you can get somebody 6 months to 9 months of a run on that, that can be huge. And one of those things that clients don't forget.

Love it. Invest in R&D, right? Figure out what's working. Have a couple of test clients if you don't run in your niche, like Seth's got the benefit of being in his niche, so he's his own test case. But just because you don't, like, you could find like 2 or 3 clients, be like, look, we're gonna, we're gonna use you to test all these initiatives and really try and figure out that next thing. Like Billy and Brady said at the beginning, they started testing TikTok, they proved value, and they created a, you know, a 7-figure additional line of revenue through that, through that piece.

So, so good, Seth.

Thanks so much for sharing, guys. What a, what a powerful panel, I just want to stop for a second and say thank you. You know, you guys are all super busy. You've all got a million things going on. Thank you for your abundance mentality and taking the time to be on a panel like this and share with the, with the community in terms of what's working for you and how you're getting clients and kind of what your mindset is. Um, for those of you listening, if you have a specific question, now's the time. Put it in the comments. Um, if you just want to say amazing, wow, you guys have knocked it out of the park, put in Ink 5000 because this is just an amazing panel. So while we wait for some questions to come in, if any of you guys have to hop off because you've got a hard stop, just feel free to pop off. You know, we appreciate what you shared. If you've got some burning thing you want to share with the group, like, hey, you know what, as I was listening, this is something I wanted to make sure I shared. Just, you know, chime right in right now. Let's, let's hear if you have any powerful insights or things you want to share.

I think I'd like to share that you're thanking us for our time here, and I think it's like right back at you that you've created a mastermind environment. And I think one thing that's probably shared across everyone who's here right now is we're probably all involved with masterminds and learning and constantly— like, this is how many notes I have right now, and that's just two of the pages. So like, The thank you goes right back to you. I know for me, I spend $600,000 a year on coaches, personal development, education. I'm part of every major coaching program out there. And you putting something like this together shows your level of curiosity. I think all of us are learning just as much. So I just wanted to say right back at you and also as a lesson for everyone. Um, like, are you the most curious person in your market? If yes, you're probably the most successful person in your market.

Powerful, powerful share. I think everybody, like, everybody on this panel is among the fastest growing agencies in the United States. They're all taking notes. No one's sitting here thinking, oh, I already know all this stuff. Like, everybody's like, wow, there's some unique insight that they can take away. From Bill at $20 million and everybody in between. And so are you doing that yourself? Like, are you personally always learning? Do you come into any situation thinking, what's— what can I take away from this? Instead of, I already know that. And these guys all invest in trainings, in coaching, in things like 7 Figure Agency and other coaching programs and other masterminds. It is a master skill that the most successful people in the world do. right? They don't operate in a vacuum. They get around other successful people, and they learn and they sharpen their saw. And that's how they're able to accelerate their growth. Bill, that was awesome. Share. Anybody else? Anything else you want to share as we kind of start to wrap up?

Yeah, this is simple. But I mean, I just to that point, you know, Nate and I are over here DMing each other about Chris's thoughts and how provoking that is for us, you know. So this has been an inspiring session just to kind of learn from the smart things that other people are doing.

So good. Yeah.

And look, there's nothing better than the mastermind. I'm a member of dozens of them, a huge fan of you, Josh. You know, but there's also the, the other piece, like Chris, who we are, you know, we've had probably 3 or 4 jump balls over the years, but at the same time, you know, pick up the phone, we deal with the same issues day in and day out. And it's not always there's a silver bullet or a magic answer, but knowing that another agency has that same struggle can be reinforcing, not the commiserating and sort of the negative piece, but the positive piece that like, there is no magic answer, just keep pushing forward. I find that those— having that sort of— having the mastermind is great. And then having those people that know their stuff that are sort of at or around your level really also helps.

So good.

I would say also, there's—

go ahead.

You'll notice there's a settledness to a lot of these just so happens to be men on this call, but I know a lot of women in the 7FA world as well that carry this. There's a subtleness to identity issues that are underneath business that you have to really get clear on, I think, if you're going to actually reach where you need to get. You know, you— I think a lot of what holds people back is they've got their identity wrapped up too much in the numbers. And I mean, the Inc. 5000 is honestly kind of a BS metric. Let's be— let's all be honest. It's just revenue. And like, there's people that I know that have been on the Inc. 5000 that are bankrupt a couple years later. And you can pop all kinds of juice into a company to get to the Inc. 5000. But what matters more is like, at the end of the day, are you soul satisfied in your vocation and your work? And if you are making, you know, $50,000 a year or you're netting $5 million a year, if you don't have clarity on that, then you're spinning in a hamster wheel that is going to burn you out. And so, get clear on who you are as a person. And that gives you the strength and the freedom to make decisions in your business that don't affect your identity. So, I hate to get too wild and weird on this thing, but I just, I see the commonality of a bunch of settled, settled in their minds who they are men, and you've got to get there because like you're going to make poverty-oriented choices until you do. Like, you've got to stop seeing your business as the main thing that is going to create your self-worth.

Love that insight. Powerful. Well, this is— this has been amazing. Unless anyone else has something else they want to say, I'm going to let the panel get back to their businesses.

I can— I can add one quick thing here, like saying no.

I mean—

Yes!

You realize like for all of this identity clarity allows you to say no to things? And I do tonne stuff on Clubhouse (LinkedIn). Go live on Instagram(Instagram) or Twitter(Social Media), YouTube channel has tons entrepreneur followers, get asked coach people at virtual events. Get ask coaching an entrepreneurship program...

It's "Nope!" Noooopeeeeee!!

Nope-no-peeep-peop-epp-pewp-wapowwwaahhh!!! And I feel like a lot of agency owners struggle with opportunity overload where they start noticing a little bit about their chops. They start seeing that they have some skills in some certain areas and then they get distracted. And after they hit the million-dollar mark, like, I'm gonna start a new business, right? And I always say this to my team and to clients of mine, there's no competition for focus. There's no competition for being the most focused person in your market. And my invitation for everyone is don't stop until you have finished what you started. I don't care if someone paid me $50,000 for a day of my time and it didn't have to do with what I'm doing right now. I would say no to it. I would say no to $50,000 for a day of my time right now because the opportunity cost is way higher than what I'm building right now. And the long-tail effect of me accepting short-term cash for something that's distracted from my major definite purpose is often something we don't confront until it's too late. So for everyone who's getting started right now, because I know not most of the people that listen to Josh are not at 8 figures, like, you need to stay blinders on, focused on one thing, serving profitably, obsessive, maniacal, to the point where you're getting criticized for it until you've reached a breaking point where you have some time or money to reinvest. Um, that's just my invitation. Like, I wouldn't follow most of the advice until you're ready to follow that advice. Finish what you started, then go into new advice categories. I just wanted to share that. It's my little kick in the butt.

Focus. Love it, love it, love it. World-class panel, guys. If you got value, tag these guys. Thank them for their time. Thank them for the insights. Guys, from the bottom of my heart, thanks for being on here. I know you guys are busy. This has been amazing. Extremely powerful. What I want you to do, guys, if you're watching, like my ask for you on today's session would be to take at least one takeaway and put it in the comments. If you're watching this in the Facebook group, if you're watching this on YouTube, if you're watching this after the fact, at least one takeaway that you're like, you know what, something that Chris said resonated and this was it— put that in the comments. That way everybody can learn from the insights and the takeaways from this panel. Um, you've just heard from some of the fastest growing agencies in the United States. A lot of the stuff wasn't tactical. A lot of it was around mindset. A lot of it was around recruiting and training and retaining their client base, right? This is how high-growth, highly successful entrepreneurs think. If you're listening to this, hopefully you were looking at the model, right? How are they landing clients? How are they delivering results? How are they retaining? A couple of them have mentioned the 7 Figure Agency Coaching and Mentorship. If you'd like to talk with us about that and you're not already a member, you'd like to learn more about what it is, how it works. We have a free session called an Agency Acceleration Session. You can go to 7figureagency.com/schedule. Give me some information about your agency and we will help you map a plan to accelerate your growth. 7figureagency.com/schedule. That's all for today. Panel, congratulations on your growth and success. Thanks so much for your time and we'll talk to you guys all soon. [MUSIC] [MUSIC]