Creating award-winning websites.
Mehrab Reza is the Founder of Adlantica.
Adlantica creates winning websites that transform your visitors into paid customers. The relentless commitment to that goal helped them generate between $1 million and $25 million for our clients and win several awards. Ambitious businesses want a beautiful website, but they also want an effective tool that sells more products, ideas, and services. A winning website can help you do all of that by hooking your audience’s interest, building trust, and getting prompt action so that your business can grow.
Learn more about how Adlantica can help you transform visitors into paid customers by listening to this episode of The Thoughtful Entrepreneur above and don’t forget to subscribe on Apple Podcasts – Stitcher – Spotify –Google Play –Castbox – TuneIn – RSS.
More from UpMyInfluence
How much authority do YOU have? Take our quiz and find out!
Don’t forget to check out our other podcast, Authority Confidential, here.
UpMyInfluence is an Influence Agency dedicated to turning thoughtful entrepreneurs into media celebrities increasing their authority, influence and revenue. To learn how we can help YOU check out Josh’s free webinar.
Connect With Us
Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
0:00
Welcome to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. I'm Josh Elledge, founder and CEO of UpMyInfluence.com. We turn entrepreneurs into media celebrities, grow their authority, and help them build partnerships with top influencers. We believe that every person has a unique message that can positively impact the world. stick around to the end of the show, where I'll reveal how you can be our next guest on one of the fastest growing daily inspiration podcasts on the planet in 15 to 20 minutes. Let's go.
All right with us right now we have Mehrab Reza. Mehrab, you are the Founder of adlantica.com on the web at adlantica.com, and you've got a couple of areas that you've achieved some notoriety, number one that you have the coveted Click Funnels a plaque on your wall for generating $25 million in revenue with the single marketing roadmap. So first off, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Josh. It's my pleasure to be here. So a little bit of background, I guess maybe we'll start off, how did you achieve $25 million in revenue? Click Funnels is obviously one of the platforms you use. But could you kind of talk about that
1:22
business a little bit? Sure. So we had an e commerce product that we were selling through Shopify, and then we also had it on Amazon. And I did use Click Funnels to basically use that as a bridge to send Facebook traffic to first Click Funnels so that I can educate my audience about the product and then drive them over to Amazon, redirect them to Amazon, because Amazon is not really set up as a you know, page where you can educate your audience. It's more of when your audience knows what they want to buy. They search it, they find it and they hit by now. So you
1:58
actually saw that product. You actually took an exit on that is that right? I did
2:03
there was a well known you know home appliance and kitchen manufacturing brand and they wanted to sell on Amazon and Shopify etc and they actually bought out a few competitors so that they would have a better time you know taking over you know their market on on these channels.
2:24
Yeah. What What made you decide what can you explain like, how that came about how they acted? I was actually just at the Inc 5000 conference, I attended a session on exits, in fact, and so who initiated that? Did they reach out to you? Well, it was a third party that reached out on their behalf. So
2:44
you know, their bank and they gave us a really lowball offer. And we ended up and you know, I had never done this before, negotiated an exit. Since then. I have done it one other time, but when they reached out gave us their offer. Basically, I immediately reached out and tried to find a lawyer, somebody who can help me negotiate and they did a great job. And we ended up exiting for more than 10 times what their initial offer was.
3:15
Well, then I obviously you're pretty happy with that because you agreed to
3:18
it. I am. Yeah, yes. Yes.
3:20
So so you make an exit. You know, you're you're sitting on either, you know, a ton of equity or a ton of cash, then what do you do?
3:29
Well, I actually use that
3:31
cash and I reinvested it into the next business, which was a clothing line for women and I use that cash to work with a designer and I said that you know, I wanted to design some unique products and start selling it again on Shopify and used. Click Funnels, again to drive traffic and Facebook ads, etc. And over time when we started working on this e commerce store It was selling, you know, dozens of different types of articles that women could shop for. But now we've really narrowed it down to one product. So that I tried to look at my entire lineup and said, Okay, what is the best selling product out of the best selling products? which one can I manage the supply chain the most easiest and most efficiently four, and then out of those ones narrowed it down to again, narrowed it down again. And then I said, Okay, which one of these can now can I upgrade the material so that I can sell it at the luxury price point. So we ended it at, you know, from a couple, you know, like two dozen products down to like one thing and that's, you know, Italian wool silk blouses, just conscious. So one thing now instead of all these different things, and it does a lot better than when we were selling all those, that's amazing.
4:49
And so, Mehrab, one thing so and how does the all of that so you're running your own companies, obviously. And then you also run an agency and can you kind of talk about what what happens? What Adlantica, what Adlantica does and who you serve and what makes you unique in this world well,
5:07
so I started the advertising agency because well, it's there's there's a little bit of a backstory to that. When I was 24 years old, I'm 34 now, but when I was 2324 years old, I was actually working in the engineering field. And I was dabbling at night on things outside of engineering that really interested me, which was business and marketing. So I wanted to create my own online business and I really enjoyed the strategy piece of it and the marketing piece of it. And it was at that time that I was diagnosed with stage four cancer and I, you know, the cancer was actually in my neck on both of my lungs and in my chest. And when that happens, you don't really have a great prognosis. But you know, I went through chemotherapy and, you know, stem cell transplant Wasn't the hospital you know, not always conscious for the better part of a year, but somehow, you know, I'm really thankful, thankful and grateful I made it out. And once I made it out, I realized, you know, there's just not enough time in this life to not really do something that you're very, very passionate about that you can also excel in. And I decided to just go full in on business and marketing. And I made that my full time concentration. And after, you know, especially the first exit, it gave me a lot of confidence that not only can I maybe do it again, but I can also offer the services of my team, to other businesses who are wanting to grow who are want fast growth, who are trying to expand their market share, expand their reach and spread their message. So not only were we giving these marketing, you know, services out to other companies, we were also doing it ourselves for our own business. So that's how it all came together. Really. Yeah,
6:57
you know, I know there's one thing that You frequently talk about would be the elements that a good website would have. Can you kind of go into that a little bit? Yeah. By the way, just a spoiler alert, grab, you grab a pen. Oh, not spoiler alert. Let me just give you an alert, grab a pen right now get ready to write down some notes. And that was it. That was a cue to the to the fine person that's listening to us right now. They are about to get some very actionable advice. I hope. So.
7:27
That's my goal. But so, Josh, you know, I really stress on websites, because I think an effective website is what every successful business needs. Because if you think about it, what's the point of doing any paid advertising or organic traffic or email campaigns, or search engine optimization? The point of all of these things is to get people over to your website. You run Facebook ads, Google ads, hoping that people will click on it and visit your website and convert you create email campaigns, and send email blasts to your Because you want people to open that email, visit your website and complete the purchase. And you even hand out business cards and you hope that people will look at the URL on the business card, go on your website and book an appointment with you. And many people don't know this, but actually, even podcasts were invented by radio stations to increase traffic to their website. So all roads lead back to your website. And that's why it's your most powerful and most important business marketing and communication tool. However, the painful reality is that most websites lose money and many of them never make a profit. And I really wanted to figure out why that was because I believe that the success
8:48
that you know that the element of the success that we had and that our partners had was this one thing, that really effective, powerful engaging website. So after A lot of research, like reading books on conversion rate optimization, storytelling design. And I'm talking, you know, not just books but flying out to meet industry experts for one on one sessions, attending workshops, conferences, poring over case studies. You know, from Harvard Business Review and the sort, I found that there are really five important questions that your audience has in their mind when they land on your website. And if you're not answering these five questions on your website, then you're really going to struggle to grow your business, and you're going to waste a lot of time and money, mark on marketing that doesn't convert. So the first thing that I think every website needs to have is the problem that you're going to solve for your audience. You have to talk about the problem that you're going to solve for your audience because, you know, every great story begins with a character that has has to solve a problem is the hero going to Save the city from the villain is he going to be able to rescue the woman he loves before it's too late is our hero going to win the fight and live to tell about it. So a great story always starts with a problem that has to be solved. And that's why we keep listening. That's why we keep watching. So if you want your audience to keep reading your message, you have to start about their problem. So your website has to start out with an epic story of your audience. And the best way to do that is to talk about their problem. Josh, if you if you realize if the purpose of a product or a service is to act as the solution to a problem, then leaving out the problem on your website needs your product to having no purpose. Right. And that's those are the reasons why talking about the problem is is so important. And that's where you have to start. And so the second thing that your website has to have our elements of trust, why should your audience trust you? That's the second question your audience is asking, why should I trust you? And this part usually comes easy to most business owners, they already know what to say here. Or at least they think they do. Because the obvious things they think they have to share, like, how many awards they won, how much money they made, how many years they've been in business. You know, doctors, dentists, and lawyers talk like to talk about what school they graduated from, and so on. These things are great, but it's not effective at getting your audience to do business with you. Because your audience doesn't want to hear how great you are. Your audience wants to hear how great you can help them become. They're interested in their story and trust comes from proving to your audience that you can help them achieve the success that they want. So how do you do that? I you know, I argue that instead of talking about how large your company is and how much money you've made, you have to talk about how many happy clients you've helped Instead of you know, how instead of making it about you talk about how much money you've helped your clients make, share testimonials, but use ones that talk about your clients problems and how they succeeded with your help, not testimonials that talk about how amazing you are. Right data shows that testimonials work best when your past clients and your current website audience share similar circumstances. And those similar circumstances are the big problem they both share and the successes they want. If you look at our own website, which is in the process of being redone right now, we don't come out of the gate showing off, you know, our clickfunnels award or other awards we've won, right? We keep talking about our audiences problem, our customers problem and the success they want. And then the very last section, I mentioned an award that we received. So it's very important to focus your marketing material around your audience, especially on your website, and not on yourself. Now, the third and fourth part of all of this. The third and fourth thing that you know, your, your, your website, your landing page, your sales page, your OPT in page, whatever it is, it needs are closely related. The third and fourth thing are pretty closely related. So number three is the short term failure The audience will avoid by doing business with you. And four is the long term success you're going to help them achieve. Talking about the short term failure helps your audience who realize why they can't maintain the status quo. And the status quo is their greatest enemy. It's their inability to grow. It's a it's their inability to move forward and Excel, it's being stuck in the same place to experience the same pain and challenges over and over. And people want to avoid problems that are close by or rapidly approaching and that's why we talk about the short term problem if the problem is too far in the future, then it's not urgent, and what your website is all about creating urgency to. So there's no compulsion to act right now unless the problem is a short term problem that they're going to run into. And similarly, the long term success helps your audience see the big picture, it paints a picture of the Promised Land. And these two things together, defeat the biggest enemy for your audience, which is the status quo. And the last and final thing, you know, I want to keep it brief and not overwhelm anyone. Because this can really, you can talk I can talk about this for six hours because I have. But the last and final thing, the fifth part of this, the fifth piece of this framework is a powerful call to action. It's having a call to action button that's very clear, very strong and very direct at the at the bottom of every single section of your website, not just at the bottom of your website, but at the bottom of every single section. So bottom of the hero section, bottom of the problem section at the bottom of the you know 16 section at the bottom of the short term failure long term success section at the bottom of the you know, sales letter section at the bottom of every section, a clear call to action by now, Enroll now subscribe now, schedule now book now whatever it is, don't get cute or creative. And don't hide your call to action button. You know, the call to action button is your cash register. Imagine if you're at a department store, and you have the, you know, articles of clothing that you want to buy and you're holding them and you don't know where the cash register is. So you go to a sales associate and you're saying, you know, I'm ready to check out where do I go. And at that point, they say, you know, there's an escalator at, you know, at the end of the building, take that escalator, go to the third floor. Go straight, you know, you'll see a hallway on your left, ignore that hallway, take a hallway on your right, you'll pass the water fountain and then you know there's going to be a door and you go through that door and then you'll see a cash register there. When you hide your call to action button on your website. That's what you're doing to your customers, you know, you're making it hard for them to do business with you. So, you know, these were just the five questions that your audience has in their mind. And these are the five things they want to know when they land on your website. If you can address these five things on your website, then offering a guarantee won't help lowering the price won't help, you know, low stock alerts, adding scarcity won't help. Instead, you have to quickly engage their attention by talking about the problem you solve, which is number one, number two, the short, the you know what, what makes you competent, why they should trust you. That's number two. And number three, the short term failure you're going to help them avoid number for the long term success, you're going to help them achieve and number five, strong call to action at the end of every section and you know, these are the same tools. I used to generate $25 million from a single landing page and if done the right way, I think people are going to have a lot more success with their website, which is the most important business marketing and communication tool in their marketing arsenal.
17:10
Now, why should point out so if you go to adlantica.com, you scroll down to where it says free video five things your website needs before running ads, click on get the free video and punching your name and email and you could start watching it looks like about a 16 minute video is over what you just
17:31
it's actually over time I've become a little bit better at just you know, highlighting the most important points, yes, you know, 555 piece framework. So I would say this podcast that your audience is listening to is a is a really great overview and succinct message that's covered in that bit free video.
17:54
That's great. So when Rob How do people connect with you or what's what's the next thing that they could do if they really They say you know it, skies, pretty smart, obviously pretty successful. What would be the best way to connect with you join your tribe and kind of, you know, maybe that that next step of worship with you
18:11
Sure, well, you know, if anybody listening to this podcast things I'm pretty smart with then you know, I've done a really good job at hiding my flaws. So if you know, I do two things that I'm really passionate about number one, is, we know we like to build really effective and exceptional websites for clients all over the world, no matter if they're a startup, or if they're a publicly traded company that's doing millions or hundreds, millions of dollars in revenue. Building exceptional websites is our passion. So if that's something they're interested in, obviously, they can just go to Atlantic a.com and book a free consultation with me or a free call with me just to even talk about strategies for their business. It doesn't have to be like, you know, the other thing that I'm really passionate about is when I went to the clickfunnels annual conference, I think I spoke to about, I hosted a roundtable clickfunnels asked me to host a roundtable to talk to some business owners who were attending the conference. And I think I spoke to at least 40 business owners and a lot of them have had the same frustrations, which is, you know, I had some capital to invest in the business and I started working with somebody, but they ended up not being who I thought they were, or they ended up being, not being the person that they represented themselves as, and I lost my money and this and that. So that really hit me hard because I've been in that position before, because when people lose their initial funding, you know, that's all they had. They didn't have Yeah, they don't have another $10,000 to start over and try again. So what I did is I created a few free Facebook group and the point of this free face a free, free Facebook group is to provide free live trainings, weekly live trainings that are better than paid courses. And every single week I tell the audience in my free group that hey, if this free training that I just did wasn't better than paid courses you have paid for and taken then let me know, because I want to hold myself accountable. And I want to hold myself to that standard. So they can also join that free Facebook group. It's called funnels and conversions with merabh. Reza, if they search it on Facebook, they can join that free group. I don't do any selling in that group because I don't sell courses or coaching. So there's no selling going on in there. They can ask the members it's just there to provide the best strategies that I have seen, and that I have used and tested and proven working on my own business and working with companies that are just starting up or well established doing tons of revenue.
20:58
Now I am actually Actually in that group, Mehrab, and I really appreciate I mean, you give away what other people sell. And absolutely, that's Yeah, very, very cool. Well, Mehrab Reza, you are again, the Founder of Adlantica. On the web that's adlantica.com. You know, certainly watch the free video, join Mehrab in the Facebook group. And again, what do they search to find that Facebook group
21:26
funnels and conversions with Mehrab Reza.
21:30
Okay, and Mehrab is MEHRAB, and Reza is REZA, of course, we'll have that show notes on the web, you can go to upmyinfluence.com and find the post and we'll have all those links as well. Mehrab, thank you so much for joining us.
21:44
Hey, Josh. This was an absolute pleasure, any chance I have to go somewhere or talk to someone about websites and marketing, you know, I'm all for that. So it was really a pleasure for me to share some of this stuff with you and Your audience. I'm just so thankful for the for the chance to talk about this with you.
22:06
Thanks for listening to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program, please visit UpMyInfluence.com/guest that we've got something out of this interview. Would you share this episode on social media? Just do a quick screenshot with your phone and text it to a friend or postit on the socials. If you do that tag us with the hashtag UpMyInfluence. Each month we scour Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. We pick one winner from each platform, and you get crowned king or queen of that social media. Now what do you win? We're going to promote you and your business to over 120,000 social media fans totally free. Now. Can you also hook us up now in your podcast player right now. Please give us a thumbs up or a rating and review. We promise to read it all and take action. We believe that every person has a message that can positively impact the world. Your feedback helps us fulfill that mission. While you're at it, hit that subscribe button. You know why? Tomorrow? That's right. seven days a week, you are going to be inspired and motivated to succeed 15 minutes a day. My name is Josh Elledge. Let's connect on the socials. You'll find all the stuff we're doing at UpMyInfluence.com. Thanks for listening and thank you for being a part of the thoughtful entrepreneur movement.