The Agency Hour
The Agency Hour is for digital agency owners like you who want to start, grow and scale their businesses. It’s like hanging out with friends while getting a masterclass in how to tackle the most significant obstacles you’re facing as an entrepreneur.
The Agency Hour
The real reason the numbers in your agency matter
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I can't even do this. I can't do this. I might not even be able to stay in Aegis Mavericks at this point. I need to back away, um, take some time off, be with my family. And he's like, no, this is gonna be what gets you through, and we just have to reassess.
SPEAKER_00Welcome to the Agency Hour podcast, where we help web design and digital agency owners create abundance for themselves, their teams, and their communities. And this week there's a great example of that story. We're joined by Erin Jenkins, who is a Mavericks Club member. She is a member of our Mavericks Club Mentor Program, and she's also the CEO of her agency, secondclickmedia.com. I love that name, by the way, all the way from North Carolina in the US. In this episode, we talk about Erin's journey from freelancer to agency owner to CEO, productising your services with a signature system, the mindset shift required to make a decision and really own who you really are, and the real reason the numbers in your agency actually matter. I'm Troy Dean. Stay with us. Hey ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the agency hour all the way from North Carolina, Erin Jenkins. Hey Erin, how are you?
SPEAKER_01Good, how are you?
SPEAKER_00I'm very welcome.
SPEAKER_01Good to be here.
SPEAKER_00Great. Thanks for joining us, by the way. For those that don't know, Erin is a client of ours. Um you've been through a few programs of ours. Maybe just give people uh before we get there, just give people a bit of a uh elevator pitch on who you are, how you got into this business in the first place. What prompted you to start your own agency and and what do you do and what kind of clients do you serve?
SPEAKER_01Sure. I'll try to remember all that. Um yeah, I started, I started about three years ago as a freelancer um working just in web development. And the reason I got into the business was honestly I had the nine to five job that I loved, but I really didn't have the freedom to be with my family when I wanted to, or the freedom to like do the kind of projects and kind of work I wanted to. And so I took an online course actually um called uh the Geek Pack. It was through Julia Taylor. And she and so I took this to kind of teach yourself how to be a freelancer, basically, and did that. And um, while I was working my full-time job, um, and I loved, I fell in love with it just because it was this combination of design and function, and I knew I could help people. Like I had something that I could bring to a nonprofit or a business, which I work with a lot of nonprofits. And that's kind of where that passion came from. And so I thought I could do more if I worked for myself. And so that was the whole mindset shift of just I could do more for them, I could help them, and I could do it from the comfort of my own home. And this was all right before COVID happened. And then COVID hit, and it was just like the perfect opportunity. Say, you know, goodbye to the nine to five. I can go this full time. And um, so I just started freelancing to beginning at the beginning of it. Um, but right now I've scaled up to an agency, Second Click Media. We do website design, development, um, and SEO mainly, and we service small business owners and nonprofits, and we kind of act as the part-time marketing department for a nonprofit or for a small business. Um so and we I love it. I have a team of two people from the Philippines right now. Um, they're awesome, Eliza and George. And um, so yeah, we're just cruising along.
SPEAKER_00Great. Um, you're the is it Second Click Media? Is that the name of the agency? It is. I love it. That's a great name. I like it. Um thank you. The the just walk me through the mindset of leaving of leaving employment and the security of employment to work for yourself. Would were you was there any doubt or you know, imposter syndrome or any of that stuff that you had to overcome to make that move?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. And I would say it's a two two-phase process. Um from the go from just quitting my nine to five, it was the mindset shift that of who I am. You know, identifying yourself as who who are you? And I would say, oh, I, you know, I'm not a web designer. I just play a little bit, you know, I I know WordPress and I just do a little bit. I'm not a developer. And it was a mindset shift that, like, no, I am. I can build a website. I am a developer. I am a designer. I can do this. And so realizing like I can do this and I'm not this person anymore, um, I think it was just a mindset shift. And, you know, I started introducing myself as okay, people ask me what I did for a living. I'm like, I'm a developer, you know? And as soon as I started doing that, I actually got one of my uh an old friend became a client like right away. I had a client just a couple weeks into it, and I was really blessed. And then the shift from freelancer to agency, it was a very similar mindset. Um, you know, it's kind of like we we get stuck in our own heads um of just who am I? What do I do? It's like, oh no, I just do this for fun, or I'm just part-time, or I dabble in this. It's like, no, I am an agency owner and just declare declaring that, and you are who you put your, where you put your focus. So you're gonna you it's basically there's this analogy that I used to I used to play softball in high school. And you know, hitting, hitting a ball, it was the whole mindset of, you know, the ball is gonna go where your eyes go. So if your eyes are following the ball, your body's going to go where your eyes go. So wherever your eyes are focusing, you the rest of your body's gonna follow. So anyway, that's that was the mindset shift for me.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I'm stealing that. That's good. I love it. Uh I'll credit you, of course. Uh, you hear me for the next 12 months going. My friend Aaron Jenkins told me she used to play football in high school. Um so so by the way, we're huge fans of Julia Taylor uh and everything she's doing over there at GigPack. Go and check it out. I think she's got a partnership with uh another online Udemy.
SPEAKER_01Is it Udemy?
SPEAKER_00Udemy, right? Yeah. She's exploding, she's everywhere. Um, I remember the first time I saw her Facebook ad of her blowing up a laptop. Uh hilarious. That's what got my attention.
SPEAKER_01So her course is what launched all of this. She's amazing.
SPEAKER_00That's great. She's been uh we've done live streams with her, I think, or she's been on the show. Anyway, check it out, Julia Taylor over at uh GeekPack. She's a serious uh entrepreneur. Uh and she basically helps um females learn how to build websites and launch themselves as a freelancer. So then at what point did you find us? When did you come into our world and what did that look like?
SPEAKER_01Oh, I mean, now that I look back on it, oh, it's it's kind of funny, but the Facebook ad where it's like get our proposal template. And so it's like, okay, yeah, I need that. I need I need to figure out how to present myself. And then it was, oh, I found out about um blueprint. So I took the blueprint course. This was maybe two years ago.
SPEAKER_00Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01Two years ago, and then I just kind of got sucked into the funnel.
SPEAKER_00And and so what were you looking for when you did the blueprint? Well, and I'm not gonna, you know, I could sit here and pretend that it was because of our beautiful slick marketing funnel that sucked you in. But I mean, sure, we had done a lot of work on that and we'd been doing it for a long time, but you must have been, you know, I believe people don't buy something unless they feel like there's something on the other side of it that's gonna get them a return on value or a return on effort or whatever. What what were you looking for at that time? Why did you take the blueprint course and what problem were you trying to solve?
SPEAKER_01So I it's really simple. It's I needed a plan. Um I I was looking for, I I'm very much of a rule follower. And so it's like, okay, if you tell me do X, Y, and Z, you'll get here. I'm like, okay, I'm in. Like I you don't have to. So it's kind of so that's really what got me into the blueprint. And looking back to now that I mean, that's what got me in Cells Accelerator, and that is why I'm in Mavericks as well, is somebody who's laid out a plan for me that's like, okay, if you do this and this and this, you know, here, you could end up here. Um, and so I guess that would be that promise. And, you know, I'll even add in here, um at that time too, I was training for my very first marathon. Um, so I'm a runner, I love to work out and run. And I I just had this like idea of like, I'm gonna run my first marathon. I'm crazy. But um, and and in that process was okay, I like to run, I like to work out. The again, that mind shift, mindset, mind shift of I am a marathon runner. And and um, I started looking around for plans, like how do I how do I train for a marathon? And I came across Peloton. Peloton actually has like an app where you can you can download the app and like you have a trainer and they they they train in your ear while you're running and they break it down for you in like an 18-week course. And I was like, perfect. Um, and so having that that person who can just say, like, okay, here's what you do, here's what because if I were to go to go buy it myself, motivation would totally wane off. And I, you know, a consistent plan is what's gonna get you to to the to the end when you know motivation kind of fluctuates. So that's really that's really what I was looking for.
SPEAKER_00I love it. I'm in my office right now. The other side of this camera is a Peloton tread at home. I have the Peloton bike. These are new acquisitions, by the way. We've had them about a month with the Peloton app. I dude, I am in love with this thing, man. Like it's you know, I get on the tread and I get my dose of vitamin JJ, Jermaine Johnson from their London Studios is like one of my favorite trainers. And I've like, I know it's pre-recorded because the time zones, it's hard for me to join in a live class, but I feel like the guys in the studio just putting that class on for me. You know what I mean? I feel like he's my own personal trainer. I love the community, I love everything about Peloton. I'm just praying they don't go broke. I'm praying that they fix their situation and you know, either sell to Apple or continue on because they're essentially a content company now, they're a software company. I read recently that their software subscription revenue has just surpassed their hardware revenue. The hardware is also unbelievably good. I mean, you would it's like you would it's like Tesla or Apple quality products, right? Um and it's the I'm the same, like without that accountability, and also the hardware's really expensive. So the one of the reasons my wife and I are kind of struggling with our exercise routine, we've got two kids, three and six. It's really hard to keep up your exercise routine. And I'm like, you know what? I'm just gonna spend a lot of money on hardware and put it in front of us, and it's so beautiful that we're gonna feel so stupid if we don't use it, and it's working, we're exercising regularly, which is totally down the Peloton rabbit hole, man.
SPEAKER_01Oh, V2 is I'm I'm there. And if you ever wanted to like start running outside or working out in a gym, like they have all they have all of it. And I have a workout junkie for the last 20 years. I'm gonna tell you they're the best out there.
SPEAKER_00They are 100%. I agree. So I'm gonna look you up on Peloton and high five you next time I see you doing some exercise. Uh awesome. So so you do the blueprint course, which now we were just we just had an all-hands meeting this morning with our entire team. We've got uh team members in eight countries, so it was very challenging to coordinate this. Um, Garner, who's based in the Philippines, was up at 5 a.m. And Thomas in the UK was up at 10 p.m. So that just gives you an idea of the different time zones that we're working across. And we were talking about uh the history of a lot of our all of our coaches have been through the blueprint program from like 2016 onwards. We don't sell the blueprint course anymore on the website. We don't sell any courses on our website now. We've basically closed all that down and we're just focusing on coaching agencies because we know that we do our best work with people who we work with them on a more kind of one-to-one high touch level. However, having said that, what did you you came out of the blueprint. What what changed for you as a result of doing that program?
SPEAKER_01Good question. I think I realized the possibility that I could do more. Um that you know I'm not like I said, it was those it was a slow progression of the mindset shi mindset shift of agency owner to like, no, I'm actually gonna be a CEO. I can be a CEO. Here's here the this is how it could look. So I think it was just a taste of what the possibilities could be. Because like I said, I I I didn't do any, I'm not a business owner, I've never been a business owner before this. I didn't know what I was doing. And so looking for something for somebody who did who who has done it, I can follow in those footsteps and and replicate it. Um so yeah, does that answer your question?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, totally. And I think um it's really funny because I when I originally built the blueprint of course, it was designed to essentially give people structure and give them something to follow. What I didn't realize at the time was having spoken to, I don't know, I think we had three and a half, I think we've had three and a half thousand agencies go through the blueprint over the last however many years. And I've met a lot of these people either online or at live events when I've you know flown out to WordCamps or our own events in the US or the you know, the UK or around Australia or New Zealand. And the people that have been through that program, the the number one theme, if you put this in like one of those word tag bubbles, right, that were popular in the good old days of WordPress where you'd have like a tag tag cloud at the end of your blog post with all the keywords in it. The the biggest tag in our tag cloud would be confidence. And it's yeah, it's hard to sell confidence, it's hard to go, hey, do this course and you'll feel more confident in your business. But that's the number one thing that came out of people going through that program is that they felt more confident to because they had some structure and they had the support of the community, they felt more confident to put their foot on the pedal and kind of go to the next level and think about employing their first team member or their next team member or saying no to a client that they would have said yes to previously because it didn't fit the vision of where they wanted to take the company. And it's it's as I said, it's hard to sell confidence in community, but they're two of the things that keep coming up from people that have been through our programs.
SPEAKER_01Um I would definitely say that about sales accelerator. I don't even know if that's you know probably the course, but doing that uh wow, did I gain the confidence to like actually sell myself?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so that was my next question. Is you came through uh and I just think this is interesting, by the way. This is not we're not here trying to sell blueprint or sales accelerator because that those programs no longer exist, right? So you can't buy them. Uh however, I just think it's interesting to see the the trajectory. You come through the blueprint. How long after the blueprint did you join sales accelerator?
SPEAKER_01How much time between I don't even think I finished the blueprint, I think it was like two weeks.
SPEAKER_00Oh wow, okay.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I was I was all in. Like I drank the Kool-Aid. Definitely drank Kool-Aid.
SPEAKER_00That's interesting. And then what happened in Sales Accelerator? Tell me about like because sales accelerator was a significant investment, more so than the blueprint at that stage. So you you're all in. Um uh you've seen what's possible. What happened during sales accelerator uh into your mindset and your confidence and and the business?
SPEAKER_01Um I gotta think about that. So again, I think the structure of how to sell myself, but how to productize my services with a signature system um that I could actually go in front of someone and say, This is what I do, and this is a results, it'll it'll it'll provide your business. Um and it was the accountability, the encouragement to just put the foot on the gas pedal. Like I am an agency owner. Um, that was the mindset shift there with sales excellent. I am an agency owner, I can do this. Um, I do make 14 grand and or 14 um thousand in recurring revenue. Like I do this, I can do this. Um, so with sales exceller and just practicing, like that I wasn't getting enough practice be because before, you know, I was making averaging 2K, maybe 3K on a good month, um, a month, you know, just for about six months up until I took sales accelerator. And by the time I was I was done with sales accelerator, I'm making eight to ten. And so, you know, I think it was just it was the time to put the gas on the pedal. Like I was all in.
SPEAKER_00And then you come out of SARS Accelerator. Did you ascend straight into Mavericks Club? Or did you did you take some time in between?
SPEAKER_01I took some time in between to like, okay, just uh to grow the revenue, pay back what I, you know, spent on Sales Accelerator. And um, I did want to meet that mark, you know. I had to have that recurring, you know, revenue every month to qualify for agency Mavericks. Um, and the the the moment I was like, okay, I'm ready for agency Mavericks, I've I sold my first 20 gram 20 grand prog project. And that's when I was like, okay, I'm in. Like I you sold me, you promised that this would happen. It happened pretty quick. Like, I mean, so again, drink the Kool-Aid.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. And and then recently, um and you posted something in Slack recently um about your husband and your ability to support the family through that journey. Um, what at what point were you were in Mavericks Club when that happened, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, um, it was two weeks after I joined Mavericks Club and signed the form and and said, Hey.
SPEAKER_00Can you tell us a a little bit about that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so um I joined Agency Mavericks, so excited. I was all in. My husband supported me at that point because we wanted to scale, we want this to become, you know, income for our family. And um he about two weeks later had a stroke-like episode from reaction to some pain medicines he was on for some severe neuropathy. And it got so bad, like it was so bad. We called 9-1-1. I was driving while I was happy, it was very traumatic. Daughter was in the car, I actually thought my husband was dying. Um, and he had been dealing with some health problems before that, but that led into some serious health issues or you know, having to come off these medicines that were causing him Parkinson's like symptoms. Um it was really and detoxing, you know, I'll be in full disclosure, right? The detoxing from pain medications, even though they're they're um prescribed by a doctor, as my husband would say, is harder than breaking, getting off heroin. He's a he's a recovering drug addict. And, you know, 15 years of recovery. And so he's been on these pain meds for two years, and and all of a sudden it just tipped. Um, so he had he was a different person during this time. You know, anybody who's gone through a drug recovery of supporting a family's family member, it's hard in and out of the hospital. So thankfully, and so at that point, at that point, um, you know, I developed a flight plan. I, you know, here's my next three months, Coach Pete and I, okay, here's my next three months. This is what it's gonna look like, this is what I'm gonna do. And I had to send him a Slack message and it's like, I I can't even do this. I can't do this. I might not even be able to stay in I just matrix at this point. I need to back away, um, take some time off, be with my family. And he's like, No, this is gonna be what gets you through. And we just have to reassess. Like, let's break it down into smaller, more achievable goals. Like, this is, you know, busy time. And and, you know, how, you know, my job may be able to have to replace the income of the family at this point. I didn't know. I had no idea. So he's like, don't, don't walk away. Um, and so he was really helpful. And I shared with my squadron, hey, you know, this this is what's going on. And what did you what did you guys do? How did you keep your agency going when, you know, at the at one point, I mean, I'm having to drop at the drop of the hat go down to the Mayo Clinic, which is a specialized research facility here in the states, a couple states away and just be there for a week. And um I was like, how did you guys deal with that? And a couple Mavericks, you know, sent me some private messages and said, Hey, give me some advice on, you know, keep your current clients happy, you know, don't start any new projects. Um, white label what you can, or let me help you, like I can offset some of the project load. And that was really, that really meant a lot. Um, just that when you're in need, people coming around you, that's when you know people are really genuine, right? Um so I'm so thankful. Um and that took about six months of our life of of just going, you know, I I did all the things I mentioned, all the advice I gave, I did. Um, white labeled. And so, and at that point, I'm thinking, you know, am I still gonna be able to scale my business the way that I want to? Um and when I look back at the numbers and I'm like, I don't know how I did, but I did it. I I I don't know. I mean, I had great clients, they understood, you know, I followed the system, I followed the plan, I had a coach remind me of what's true, um, and not panic. And um looking back, you know, it's uh it seems simple now, but um, it was hard. It was hard, but I couldn't imagine any other job to be able to do that. Like you just go up, be a take your laptop, go, do a Zoom call from a hotel lobby, they don't know the difference, and uh clients don't, and um be able to sustain it. Um so it was pretty incredible, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Wow. You know, um I know I didn't know this story until I saw it recently in Slack. Um so that this was a while ago. How's everything now? It's a year. How's everything how's it has been now?
SPEAKER_01Um yeah, so the Mayo Clinic in um the United States has a pain center. So he went and stayed there for three weeks. Um he's now off medication and back to full time working. Our lives are not the same though, because he still has drop like it's not like the disease goes away.
unknownSure.
SPEAKER_01But he's able to manage it in a way that's healthy. Um and not be on pain on pain med. So we're we're really the grateful. It was hard, um, a big sacrifice, but yeah, yeah. We're we've recovered, which I'm grateful.
SPEAKER_00So grateful. Well done. Congratulations. Um you know, it's it's we don't often hear stories like this. A lot of a lot of the stories that we hear about, you know, how I grew my revenue and how, you know, I've whatever growing my profit or whatever. Um and the f the I think the reason a lot of these stories and I kind of call them surface level stories, I'm like growing your revenue and growing your recurring revenue is important and growing your profit, that all that's important. But for me, it's only important because those numbers mean something. Those numbers give you choices, right? Recurring revenue gives you choices, profit gives you choices. You can take your foot off the pedal and just go into autopilot for three months if you have to, if you've got recurring revenue and you've got a couple of team members who can continue to serve your clients.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00You're right. If you're if you're an employee, you'd be in all sorts of strife. You'd be constantly asking your boss for time off to make appointments, and that you know, that's a very scary place to be because then you your job and your financial security is at risk. One of the um reasons that we do what we do, and it's taken me a long time to kind of even get comfortable with being able to say this, but I th I kind of believe that my purpose is to help democratize abundance. And you know, Julia Taylor's doing a very similar uh job, is we're empowering people to take control of their financial future and their financial security by lifting the ceiling off what would normally sit on employment. If you're employed, if you're an employee, there's a certain amount of money you can make and you kind of capped at that ceiling, right? Um so we're trying to lift the ceiling off that and and show people that there is an opportunity here to earn more than you have ever thought was possible and to have control to then be able to pull back when the season requires you to pull back and accelerate when you're able to so that you can make your highest contribution. That's my full kind of value proposition is is I help democratize abundance so that people can make their highest contribution, whether that's just to yourself, your family, your community, society at large, whatever it is. Um and this story that you tell is you know, I'm gl I'm so glad we uncovered it because it's exactly what the numbers mean. It's the numbers allow you to make those choices and not be not be stuck in a situation where you don't have those choices.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and and to your point, I have it on my whiteboard right next to my desk is I'm in this for the freedom to make choices. Like it's in all in big letters, like that's what that's the desire I want. That's the end goal. And whether that that's the choice of who I hire, who I work with, what projects I work on, down to the freedom to choose my family, um, the freedom to make a certain amount of money. Um, that is what I want. That's my desire. That's what motivates me to do what I do is because I want that freedom.
SPEAKER_00Yep, totally. And freedom freedom is different to different people, right? Yeah. Um we I know Mara in Mavericks Club, she travels, um, she travels in a in a motorhome with her partner who um and and the reason that she does that is because that they just don't want to be stuck in a particular location. I spoke to her about this the other day and she's like, we just want to kind of wake up and go, hey, let's, you know, it's getting cold, let's drive north and spend three months up north where the weather's a bit nicer, and she doesn't want to be stuck in a location. For her, that's freedom, right? She's not right. One of the things one of the reasons I do this as well is because I want my kids to grow up and realize that they don't have to trudge off to a job they hate just to earn money. That you can actually have a you can actually earn money and have a lot of fun at the same time. Who would have thought? It's a crazy idea, right? But we spend like most of our most of our adult lives we spend earning money in the in the Western kind of developed economies that we live in. We spend most of our adult lives earning money, and yet people people still believe that uh, you know, that should be divorced from having fun, that you go to work to earn money, you don't go to work to have fun. And uh I just can't go to work and not have fun. I mean, what is the problem?
SPEAKER_01And now I can never go back. Like now that I've never go back. Yeah, I can never go back. Yeah. I mean, it's appealing every once in a while, you know. Yeah, it is if you've had a bad day, but you know, I'll just go back and listen to this podcast and remind me that, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yes. I quite often will say to my wife, you know, man, I'm just I'm just gonna get a job. It would just be easier to get a job. Because I reckon I could probably get a pretty high-paid job with my experience uh now. And she always says, You're kidding, like you wouldn't make it to lunchtime. You'd you know, there's just no way you could do that. Dan Sullivan, who's one of my favorite guys to follow. I just love everything that Dan Sullivan um is doing. He's got a a recent book with um uh I can't remember the other author's name, um, who uh and it's called 10x is easier than 2x, and there's a series of podcasts around it as well. And one of the things he talks about is the entrepreneur's curse is that once you it's a life sentence, right? Once you start, it's very hard to go back because there is a sense of control that you have as an entrepreneur, and that freedom of how to choose to use your time is one of the things. When I first met my wife, I'd said to her, you know, talked about being self-employed and having my own business. And I said, And at the time we were new, we were only like within our first few months. And I said, Because I never want to ask permission from anyone to take the morning off so I can drop my kids at school or go to sports day or you know, whatever. And she actually said the moment I said that, she she kind of went, I'm gonna marry this person and have kids with them because that was like the thing that got her over the line. Little did she know that she'd spend the next rest of her life talking me off the ledge because I'm a business owner and things don't always go as uh But your worst day as a business owner, your worst day as a business owner is what I tell myself.
SPEAKER_01Your worst day as a business owner is better than the best day of the job that you're thinking about.
SPEAKER_00Yes, so that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And yeah, it's true.
SPEAKER_00So just to so talk to me about the white label support that you got during that time. Because obviously you're now at capacity, you're stretched, you're dealing with this family situation, but you got some white label support to get you through that. Can you talk to me a little bit about that?
SPEAKER_01Sure. So I had a recommendation from agent for one of the Mavericks, I'm not sure which one, um, E2M Solutions, um, to reach out to them for doing white label support. Because what's great about them is that they don't require to host all of your sites. They they'll still maintain your sites on your server, um, which I loved that. And um I could scale up and down, kind of depending on what I needed at the time. So at the time, you know, in a crisis mode, that sounded perfect. And so they were great. I reached out to them, they gave a special MAV discount at the time and um got started and situated until, you know, I think I was with them for about three or four months. Um and I knew it was short term just because of the situation I I was in. Um, but they were fantastic and they helped uh definitely in time of crisis. But I also recommend them and if you needed somebody ongoing, wonderful.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, great, that's great to hear. And I like full transparency, I did not know that you'd use them in that capacity to get you through that period to uh use their white label service. They are the they are the exclusive sponsor of this podcast, and so I just want to let our listeners know I did not know that you had a previous relationship with them. That just came up by complete coincidence. Uh Manish was out at Mavcon in the Gold Coast a few weeks ago and was just he he was just a legend. Everyone loved him. He was supposed to be on stage for half an hour. I think he was there for an hour and a half because people were just picking his brain and asking him questions because he's just seen so much inside lots of agencies that they've served, and he's he's a wealth of knowledge and experience. So I'm glad that you had a great time.
SPEAKER_01I'll just I'll just add a little plug too, especially when you're a growing agency and you don't have your standard operating procedures yet. Honestly, like go with somebody and you need something fast, they already have a system in place.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, so it just it just makes sense for that easy jump. Instead of hiring trying to hire somebody, get them on your team, train them through all your SOPs, like it it transition happens a lot faster.
SPEAKER_00I I did this with sales when when I knew that we wanted to build our own sales team and we didn't really have a sales pipeline or sales processes in place. I hired a sales agency. I'm doing this is like at the start of well, mid-2020, right? So we're in the middle of lockdown. I can't leave the house in Melbourne, the whole world's panicking in COVID. We hired a sales agency and I basically watched what they were doing and tried to model what they were doing and learned a bunch of stuff that I didn't like that they were doing, learned a bunch of stuff that I did like, and in the background rebuilt, kind of built our sales process and our pipeline from scratch based on what they were doing, kind of did that in stealth mode. And then when I was ready, we brought in our own salespeople because then I had the SOPs in place. And so you're right, if you're like even doing care plans, for example, and you don't have your SOPs for running care plans, you partner with someone like E2M, they've already got the infrastructure and SOPs in place. So they can do it, they can hit the ground running really fast. You can then watch what they're doing, model, build your own SOPs, and then gradually build your own team in-house if that's what you want to do.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I recommend them for sure.
SPEAKER_00Love it. Yeah. Um, and so where where's where's the business at today? Uh, middle of 2023. How are things looking? Um, what's the what's the um the current state of affairs and what are you looking forward to over the next three months?
SPEAKER_01So right now, um I say the state of the business, I just you know, talking numbers, starting out at freelancer making three K a month tops, and you know, just to about three months, averaging now 10 to 14k a month, and and majority of that being recurring. And and I say that in I that's a scale fast, and I'm looking forward for it to continue. Um I am so excited that my team is growing. Um just sent out a job posting for another developer, and so that excites me, just that you know, I'm giving other people an opportunity to do what they love and give them the same freedom that I have in terms of just time and schedule and to be put family first. So I'm excited about that. And honestly, um I joined a local uh networking group just a couple months ago because my coach Jen, you know, Coach Jen told me that's a great way to get clients. Um and because of that, I've just built some really amazing relationships with people and it's led to some great client opportunities. So honestly, I'm very excited about all the projects that are coming up. They're really fun, you know, building out template for this person, do a digital strategy session with multiple realtors, you know, having opportunities to just really be in the community and rub shoulders with people instead of just sitting at my desk. I think that that's that's exciting to me. I love sitting at my desk and I love working, but getting out and meeting people, networking, and that's exciting.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It's good to leave the building uh because you can get, by the way, coach Jen Jen Sikowski from Rainy Day Design, one of the original, one of the OGs of Mavericks Club uh back in the day, and now she's back as a coach. We're very excited to have her on the team. Um, you can get stuck in a I even find this, I need to get out and and and I'm not doing as much kind of business networking at the moment. And I kind of I've always justified this myself by going, well, most of our customers in the US, and you know, we're coming out for Mavcon in October in uh Fairfax, Virginia. I'm I'm assuming that you're coming to Mavcon.
SPEAKER_01I am coming. I missed the last two, so of course. And I can drive. I can't ex I can't, they're no excuse if it's drivable.
SPEAKER_00So right, cannot wait to hang out. Super excited about that. We're coming out to Fairfax, Virginia. I've booked my flights. I'm I'm flying via Singapore, I'm flying Singapore Air into Newark and then coming down to uh Dallas Airport, I think, and then uh hanging out with Johnny, Coach Johnny, who's based in Virginia, and he's apparently gonna take me quad biking, which I'm excited about. Um quad biking is like you know, those four-wheel motorbikes, like going on a yeah, yeah. I'm super excited about that. Um so we're there for Mavcon in the middle of October, and then the week after we're going to the high-level summer down in Texas. So that'll be fun. Um, but I kind of still feel like you know, you need to get out of the building every now and then and go and meet other business owners because otherwise you can kind you can get stuck in your own little silo, even though we've got the community here that we can lean on, you can still get stuck in your own little silo. And I think it's important to go and talk to other people and meet other people outside the building, literally, not just on Zoom, but like outside the building, so that you can realize there's a whole world out there uh that is going on. And I use it to kind of um I heard this analogy once that great chefs regularly go and eat at other restaurants because they need inspiration. They need to see what other people are doing and then come back to their restaurant and go, oh wow, I I had this this uh fillet uh last week at this other restaurant, and they did this amazing thing with this Bernays mushroom sauce, and I'm gonna try that. And and so it's it's just kind of going and restocking the ice chest, if you like, so that you can then come back and serve your people with some new ideas and new ingredients.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, yeah, totally agree. And it inspires me to it inspires me to in new ways. So it's like, oh, I could offer add this little bit of service to make it more personal or you know, just little little nuances and working on my elevator pitch in front of people and talking about myself. You know, that's another thing I think entrepreneurs or business owners, especially Mavericks, talking about ourselves like is it comes off as prideful or like, hey, I know this. But no, really, you just it's the desire to help people and you've got to tell people that you can help them in order for them to know that you can help them. So you gotta talk about yourself.
SPEAKER_00So if you want to close if you want to help more clients and you want to serve more clients, you want to make more money as a result of that, then you just gotta make more offers. You just gotta tell more people that you can actually help them. Exactly. Uh sometimes that means you've got to get out of the building and go and talk to other people. And also having I think referrals are super interesting. Um, having being known for something particular makes it easier for people to refer to you, right? Um, like when Samantha Johnson was in Mavericks Club at uh Neapolitan Creative, it was very easy to refer people to her because she was basically an entreport automation specialist helping female entrepreneurs who had online courses and coaching programs. It's like, well, you're easy to refer to. Like if a dentist needs a website, I'm probably not going to send them to you, right? Jenny Lakin was another one. She basically built sales funnels for co for life coaches. It's like super easy to refer to you. Um, and so I think just going out and networking and meeting other people, you if you start explaining to people what you do and their eyes glaze over, it's kind of like, oh yeah, I haven't really nailed my value proposition yet because they're not they're not getting super excited about what I'm saying. And and you can only really sense that when you're in person with someone, you can't really sense it over Zoom. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01And yeah, I I would definitely agree. Fine-tuning what it is I say and how I present myself. I'm getting there. Getting there.
SPEAKER_00Love it. Hey Erin Jenkins, thank you so much for being a part of the agency hour here. Thank you for coming on and sharing your story. I really appreciate it. I know you've got kids who are coming home from a swimming class very soon. Uh and so I want to respect your time and also respect our listeners' time. Um, looking forward to hanging out at MavCon in October in Fairfax, Virginia. Looking forward to meeting you in real life and uh looking forward to continuing sharing your journey and your growth in Mavericks Club.
SPEAKER_01All right. Well, thank you, True, for having me. It was fun.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for listening to the Agency Hour Podcast and a massive thanks to Erin Jenkins for coming on and sharing her story. Thank you so much for just being so vulnerable and sharing your struggles and hardships as well as your wins with our audience. We really appreciate you. I love hearing beautiful stories like yours, and I'll definitely catch you soon on the Peloton app. Special thanks to E2M Solutions for becoming the exclusive sponsor of the Agency Hour Podcast. If you need to boost your bandwidth and capacity so you can serve more clients and increase your recurring revenue, be sure to visit E2M. We now have a special link for you guys to join e2msolutions.com slash agency dash mavericks. We'll drop a link under this podcast. If you go there, I do believe you get a discount every first month so you can try them out. And they're a fantastic team. Just go and have a conversation with them and they'll tell you straight up whether or not they can help you. Now there are so many stories in our community that are just like Errands, and it's why we do what we do. So if you'd like to work with us to grow your agency so you can free up your time, increase your profit margins, and spend more time with the people you care about, click the link beneath this podcast, have a quick chat with our team, and we'll see if we can help. And if we can, we'll explain the next steps. I guarantee you are sitting on your agency's most valuable asset and you're just not getting paid for it. So if you want to learn more, click the link and have a chat with our team. Okay, folks, don't forget to subscribe and please share this with anyone that you think may need to hear it. I'm Troy Dean. Stay classy, gangsters.