Speaker 1 00:00:05 Hey there, thoughtful listener. Are you looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers and clients? Well, I've had private conversations with over 2000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from. I've got a free video you can watch with no opt in required, where I'll share the exact steps necessary to be 100% inbound in your industry over the next 6 to 8 months, with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for over 15 years, and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to up my influence. Com and watch my free class on how to create endless high ticket sales appointments. Also, don't forget the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for great guests. Go to up my influence. Com and click on podcast. I'd love to have you. With us right now, Colby Whittaker. Colby, you are the founder of the Delivery Mastery Community. You're found on the web at Colby whittaker.com. We spell that for you.

Speaker 1 00:01:16 And again, to our friend that's listening to your podcast app. Just click on the cover art of show notes or the information icon you'll you'll find a direct link. But it's Colby your website. Colby. W e g t e r.com. Colby, thank you so much for joining us.

Speaker 2 00:01:32 Honored to be here. Josh. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 00:01:34 Absolutely. All right. Well, I'll let you kind of share what the delivery mastery community is and the work that you do in the world.

Speaker 2 00:01:40 Yeah, I'll be brief. I've been in the digital marketing agency world for 12 years now. Eight as eight as an owner. And, I had crazy burnouts in 2022, two of them in the same year to the point where I was near hospitalization, just doing too much work, saying yes, too much. And so then I crawled out of that in 2023, and that was through networking with other people and found a whole bunch of interesting people basically trying to do the same thing I was, except they might have been a couple steps behind, you know, not at burnout stage yet.

Speaker 2 00:02:13 And so that's where Delivery Mastery was formed is the more I talk to these people, the more I realized how under supported they were that they were trying to do all the things and didn't have anyone to talk to who would understand. And that was exactly my experience when I had those burnout. So the goal of delivery mastery is really simple. It's surround people with like minds who are eating glass, same as them. And then, giving them any, any techniques, codes, tips, systems, frameworks that I have used to go from, as my description says, online, from multiple burnouts to multiple seven figures. So we're a global top 1% agency is my full time gig, and delivery mastery is going to be brand new as a pilot community later this year.

Speaker 1 00:02:54 Yeah, well, listen, I'd love your take on, you know, kind of agency, growth today or, you know, if someone, let's say, someone were to start an agency today, what advice would you give them? especially if we think of maybe outdated advice that may still be out there that you might say, yeah, you might still be seeing this lot.

Speaker 1 00:03:16 I wouldn't recommend that today. Here's what, you know, say you're a champion over what you're you're a fan of.

Speaker 2 00:03:24 Yeah. Well, the one thing I think is grossly mismanaged is just, like, actually caring about the client because the agency model is really attractive to a lot of people. Right? You can charge high margins. You can have someone fulfill the work for you, all that sort of stuff. But you're going to have a ton of client turnover. you're going to have unhappy employees. And over time, unless you're a complete crazy person, I haven't met anyone like this. You're going to hate it, too. So there's really no point in going into something that you either don't have an exit strategy to sell or like to put in the proper hands, or if you're not going to take care of the clients. And then, of course, with the way the world is trending, actually using AI to help you, but also making sure that you stand out, because if you're doing it exclusively with AI and congratulations, you're part of White Noise.

Speaker 2 00:04:10 And if you are actually ignoring it, then you're going to be too slow. So you basically need it to speed up process. But I find the biggest advantage that people are missing is actually leveraging the personalities of the people at the company. Right? Like every employee should be active on LinkedIn, every every employee should be giving educational content out there, because that's really what a client wants at the end of the day, is to know they're in good hands. Because anybody I say to our clients all the time, this strategy is not that different from a lot of our competitors. It's how we teach you the way in which it works that is different.

Speaker 1 00:04:46 Yeah. So I'm really.

Speaker 2 00:04:47 So really down to the client.

Speaker 1 00:04:48 For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. indeed. and so when we think about, retention, you know, which is one of the main formats that we think about where revenue comes from, you know, obviously visibility or impressions are important. conversion is critical, but then retention, you know, there's the old saying, right? It's just it's so much easier to keep a client than it is to get a new one.

Speaker 1 00:05:13 so I think that there's likely opportunity for, for most of us, you know, whether, again, no matter what it is that you're doing, you know, we could be talking about agencies, but I think a lot of these principles, are applicable no matter what your business is, you know, is, you know, how can you work with and who you know, with who you already have these relationships with? I, I find that most people, or at least I find that it's a, there's the temptation, to to not realize the goal that we have. We, we spend we don't spend where we potentially should be spending more time with fewer people. you know, we might just be out there, you know, swipe just trying to swipe right on more and more and more and more people when, you know, you kind of like, like, wait a minute. You already have a pretty good roster of people here. I don't know, just some thoughts. I've been going on too long.

Speaker 1 00:06:08 Colby. You're okay.

Speaker 2 00:06:09 Well, can I yeah. Can I jump on that? Because haven't you noticed, Josh? And I'm sure everyone who's online notices is like, all of these leads, agencies popping up, all of these people promising 50 leads a week. I got an email yesterday. Josh, I don't give you 500 leads in a month, was their promise. And it's just the idea of that is at least that people I talk to because I survey my audience all the time. That would be another just quick recommendation. Survey prospects survey existing client survey. Your staff always know. Don't assume. Assume is the worst word in the English language 100% right? So actually know what they need. But among surveying these agency owners, they were all saying they had a leads problem as their primary issue, but they already had existing clients, right? So just as you mentioned is ten times harder to go get somebody and you got all of these crazy promises by people who don't have the agency owners best interests at heart, promising 50 leads a week.

Speaker 2 00:07:02 Even if they delivered, they wouldn't be able to serve them and they never deliver anyway. So the problem is not an attraction or a legion problem. It's a retention problem. Because all of these people I spoke to, they have clients already, and then they couldn't keep them for over a year. But if you could keep a client for two years, three years, four years, you don't need as many leads. And if you can keep a client for two years, three years, four years, those clients will sell for you. They'll open their mouth, word of mouth referrals. And now you're an attractive agency. You're a magnet to people who you already like working with because you've worked with them for so long, and so everyone's chasing the next shiny thing or the huge pipeline influx, and it's all backwards to me. I think it's completely, I think there's way too much money going outward and not enough money invested. I think you should spend 80% of your time on improving your your service, not creating a new one, or not trying to find a new customer.

Speaker 1 00:07:56 Wow, wow. Kobe, share just a bit about how like, what does it look like when when when you work with a client, like, what are you doing together?

Speaker 2 00:08:07 Yeah. Great question. I mean, it's there's nothing sexy about it. It's there's nothing there's nothing amazing about anything I say. Yet so many people don't do what I do. Like I keep clients six, seven years because my number one goal is that they never have to guess what I'm doing, which means they never have to guess what the value is. And you can do that without having to message them every single day. My my relationships with clients are built on trust because I tell them exactly what the expectation is. I always try and put it on a long timeline. I want them to know that we're going to work with each other for a long time. So, for instance, I'm in digital marketing. The average digital marketing contract is around 6 to 7 months. Well, if I tell a client by this time next year, you should be seeing X subliminally in their head.

Speaker 2 00:08:53 They know they're working with me next year, and if I can start backing that up and keep delivering and making sure that the communication is clear, they'll be there, because then once you deliver, they're like, why would I go anywhere else? And I like working with this agency. Right. And so I think I say to all the clients in our very first call, one is I tell them, I encourage them to look elsewhere because I don't want anyone to sign up with us if if they just like how we sound, I want them to know where the right choice and to when they officially do sign and say communication is the number one key to success. I can't do my work without your help. And so just kind of sets more of a partnership dynamic than a vendor to client dynamic.

Speaker 1 00:09:35 Oh, yeah. Any Colby, any, maybe former clients or someone that you've worked with. Any stories come to mind about, you know, well, listen, we started improving this or started making this change or started really kind of doubling down or providing more resources around this and maybe kind of more of a kind of a before and after.

Speaker 2 00:09:53 Yeah. What I will say is, I think, the, the clients our agency attracts. And keep in mind, a lot of our clients come from other agencies, right. They just weren't taken care of very well. So we're we're typically a breath of fresh air just in how we operate. Right. and I'm learning that if all the strategies aren't that different, I mean, everything that we do, Google actually tells you exactly what to do. It's more of like a time investment and energy thing that our clients simply don't have. They have businesses to run. But in terms of like a before and after, what I will say is so many clients are focused on them, they're actually not focused on their customer. And we say their website and digital marketing should be their number one sales person. Most of the time all their website is doing is talking about them instead of the problem they solve for the customer. So the moment we flip that, it's we don't even have to have a massive influx of traffic like we specialize in as search engine optimization.

Speaker 2 00:10:46 That's not the quickest, but it's the most cost effective if you do it for over a year. But what happens in those first six months if the traffic isn't exploding? It's those little fixes that are like, your website is a salesperson who shows up late with an untucked shirt and bad breath. Let's fix that. Right. And so those little tiny things that other agencies just, quite frankly, don't care enough about their customers to, to recommend. Right. So, individual before and afters, I mean, we've had plenty of clients. I hope it's I don't know if it's unkosher. Can I talk about the CBD space on this podcast?

Speaker 3 00:11:20 Otherwise I went, yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 00:11:22 We good?

Speaker 3 00:11:24 Yeah.

Speaker 2 00:11:24 We we worked with a client who basically, you know, started with a couple thousand people, a month. And now organically, they're well over five figures in organic traffic a month, like those sorts of things. Now, that's also aided by the space. The CBD space is growing, right? It's a bubble that will burst at some point, but we've done so with moving companies.

Speaker 2 00:11:41 We've done so with local brick and mortars. The only thing I would say is we don't do a ton of e-commerce. We're much more like service provider B2B style.

Speaker 1 00:11:52 Yeah. your website, is Colby vector.com. And again, that's w e g t e r dot com. Colby, I know you've got some resources. By the way, you're a great follow on LinkedIn. do you mind maybe sharing to our friend that's been listening to us? what do you recommend? They they they do from here?

Speaker 2 00:12:12 Yeah. And depending on when you listen to this, all of all of this will look, new and refreshed because delivery mastery is coming later in 2024. LinkedIn is going to be the best, right? But what I can say, Josh, is I enjoy creating content so much, I am just laying the groundwork to be in other places as well, exploring long form and that sort of stuff. The one place I would highly recommend people follow me is on colby.com, and then just sign up for my newsletter.

Speaker 2 00:12:36 It's totally free. If you don't vibe with it, unsubscribe. It's right there. But the whole point is to just be the the voice that isn't saying, hey, here's how I made my millions. It's more of like, here are all the things that are were terrible along the way to multi seven figures for the agency and what I would do differently because my path is not one I would recommend to someone who's just starting out. I'm very thankful for the lessons, but I would love to help them avoid it. And that's the purpose of the newsletter.

Speaker 1 00:13:04 Yes please. Yes to to baby brand new entrepreneurs or agency owners, to all you can to learn from those who have already got their nose bloodied. And you don't want to go through that if you can avoid it. so, Colby, I appreciate all the work that you do for the kind of the agency world. again, your website, kobe.com. You also have a passion project, your podcast, what you want with Kobe Wagner. And again, to our friend that's listening can do a search there and you can find, your, your episodes or your podcast, there will be great conversation.

Speaker 1 00:13:38 Thank you so much. It's been I've really appreciated our time together. Yeah.

Speaker 2 00:13:41 Thanks, Josh. We gotta get you on mine as well. Appreciate it.

Speaker 1 00:13:51 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 up my influence. Com and click on podcast. We believe that every person has a message that can positively impact the world. We love our community who listens and shares our program every day. Together we are empowering one another as thoughtful leaders. And as I mentioned at the beginning of this program, if you're looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, and clients, I have had private conversations with over 2000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from. I've got a free video that you can watch right now with no opt in or email required, where I'm going to share the exact steps necessary to be 100% inbound in your industry over the next 6 to 8 months, with no spam, no ads, and no sales.

Speaker 1 00:14:49 What I teach has worked for me for more than 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to up my influence. Com and watch my free class on how to create endless high ticket sales appointments. Make sure to hit subscribe so that tomorrow morning. That's right, seven days a week you are going to be inspired and motivated to succeed. I promise to bring positivity and inspiration to you for around 15 minutes every single day. Thanks for listening and thank you for being a part of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur movement.