WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.440 And this is what I believe has married the best parts of agency and the best part of building 2 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:10.640 an enterprise and making a valuable business and avoided the agency trap that so many people 3 00:00:10.640 --> 00:00:17.600 fall into myself included. Welcome to the game where we talk about how to sell more stuff to more 4 00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:21.680 people in more ways and build businesses worth owning. I'm trying to build a billion dollar thing 5 00:00:21.680 --> 00:00:25.840 with acquisition.com. I always wish pesos, musk and buffet had documented their journey, 6 00:00:25.840 --> 00:00:28.080 so I'm doing it for the rest of us. Please share and enjoy. 7 00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:35.840 Over the last 24 months, I added 5 million people to my audience across all platforms and in the 8 00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:41.520 last 12, I added 4 million. And that was all from organic content. But believe it or not, 9 00:00:41.520 --> 00:00:47.680 I didn't post on any of those platforms or know much about any of it at all. And so rather than 10 00:00:47.680 --> 00:00:53.120 try and learn it all myself, I went to experts. And so what I want to break down today is how 11 00:00:53.120 --> 00:00:56.960 every single one of these platforms, I actually didn't start myself but started with an agency 12 00:00:56.960 --> 00:01:00.400 and kind of the process that I went through. So if you are somebody who wants to get into content, 13 00:01:00.400 --> 00:01:07.120 wants to start making stuff, I will break down how I did it so you can model whatever aspects 14 00:01:07.120 --> 00:01:13.360 of that are useful for you. So first off, I noticed this pattern only in retrospect. So when I get 15 00:01:13.360 --> 00:01:18.240 into something, I either have to pay in time or you pay money to get the experience. And so I, 16 00:01:18.240 --> 00:01:22.640 because I have more money than time, I prefer to pay with money. You can learn every platform on your 17 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:27.280 own. It just takes more time. But for me, I'd rather shortcut that. And so the next problem that comes 18 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:32.880 up is that you're ignorant. So sure, I had money, but I didn't know who was good at LinkedIn or good 19 00:01:32.880 --> 00:01:38.640 at TikTok or good at Instagram or good at YouTube. I didn't know any of that stuff. And so I just paid 20 00:01:38.640 --> 00:01:44.320 to get somebody who had an agency to help me out. And the main objective of having that person 21 00:01:44.320 --> 00:01:48.720 was just to get the basics down is like, make sure that the profiles set up a certain way and 22 00:01:48.800 --> 00:01:53.440 make sure that I'm doing a certain cadence of posting. And I usually would just lean on them and say, 23 00:01:53.440 --> 00:01:55.680 well, what are you, what have you seen that works well? And then they'll tell me and I'm like, 24 00:01:55.680 --> 00:02:00.960 cool, that's what I'll do. And so what happens is once I get in there, because I'm also pretty 25 00:02:00.960 --> 00:02:05.200 decent at advertising and start to learn that game, I start to see on my own, okay, what does seem 26 00:02:05.200 --> 00:02:09.440 to do better? What topics are good? How do I present these, these things? What is the audience like, 27 00:02:09.440 --> 00:02:15.520 et cetera? And so what happened is like phase one is I get what I would consider a basic agency. 28 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:19.600 Now I don't tend to overspend on the first people because I don't know anything. So I have no 29 00:02:19.600 --> 00:02:23.520 context to make a judgment. So I don't want to chill out a ton of cash because I don't know, 30 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:28.880 I might be making bad purchase. Once I have more context because I've spent three, six months working 31 00:02:28.880 --> 00:02:32.960 with them, getting on a consistent cadence, seeing what the audience likes, then I'm like, okay, 32 00:02:32.960 --> 00:02:39.040 I have more context now. Now I want to learn everything. So I go from beginner of learning the basics 33 00:02:39.040 --> 00:02:43.840 and doing the fundamentals to how do the top creators create on this platform. And so usually there's 34 00:02:43.840 --> 00:02:48.320 different tiers of agencies. There's the guys who just make stuff and then there's the people 35 00:02:48.320 --> 00:02:53.120 who are real pros. And the difference in cost is usually three to five X. So we're talking 36 00:02:53.120 --> 00:03:00.000 significantly more money. And just contextually here for one brand on one platform, a small one 37 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:05.920 might cost three-ish maybe five thousand a month. The more advanced ones are usually in the 15 to 38 00:03:05.920 --> 00:03:12.080 30 thousand dollars a month. So it's significantly more money just to be clear. But they usually work with 39 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:18.320 significantly larger creators who can afford that. And so I didn't have the audience at the time, 40 00:03:18.320 --> 00:03:23.280 but I had the money so I could shortcut my path there. So then I work with the much better 41 00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:28.800 more advanced agency, work with the top creators to learn all of the more nuanced pieces of the 42 00:03:28.800 --> 00:03:35.520 platform, how to package things, how to paste them, all that kind of stuff. Once I finished that phase, 43 00:03:35.520 --> 00:03:44.000 and for me finishing that phase is I start documenting what they're doing into our processes internally. 44 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:48.960 And ideally what we do is we want to start co-creating. So they're making stuff for us 45 00:03:48.960 --> 00:03:53.680 and we're making stuff for us. And eventually our stuff for us starts to be as good and eventually 46 00:03:53.680 --> 00:03:58.800 better than the stuff that they make for us. And it should be because I'm only one client of many 47 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:03.840 to them and I'm basically renting them as fractional labor with expertise at a premium. 48 00:04:04.480 --> 00:04:09.840 Eventually once your team has the same amount of expertise or more, they should be better because 49 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:14.640 one, they have more time because they're going to fully allocate their time to you. And secondly, 50 00:04:14.640 --> 00:04:19.760 because they will always have more context on your brand than an agent well. And so by combining 51 00:04:19.760 --> 00:04:25.040 those two things by having more time and more context, all we have to fill is the gap of expertise. 52 00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:30.560 And so once we have the expertise gap, then the in-house team should be better than the advanced team. 53 00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:35.680 And then at that point, you decouple and you let them go. And so this three-step process has 54 00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:41.280 been pretty much how I have attacked any new platform. And the thing is that this doesn't just apply 55 00:04:41.280 --> 00:04:45.920 for how I attacked content. When I wanted to learn paid ads, I did the exact same thing. If I want 56 00:04:45.920 --> 00:04:51.200 to learn cold outbound, I do the exact same thing. So I always want to attack whatever a new platform 57 00:04:51.200 --> 00:04:57.440 or method is by doing this kind of process. And one of the caveats I have here is that agencies 58 00:04:57.440 --> 00:05:01.760 many times, and the whole coaching industry might hate me for this, but agencies tend to be better 59 00:05:01.760 --> 00:05:06.480 a lot of times at doing the thing than the coaches are because a lot of times the coaches did 60 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:10.080 something a while ago, had some successes, and then they market those successes, but they don't 61 00:05:10.080 --> 00:05:14.960 stay up to date. The agencies have to keep doing it. And so they're usually way more in the 62 00:05:14.960 --> 00:05:19.280 in the trenches of what's working right now. And so even though they don't like to sell education, 63 00:05:19.280 --> 00:05:23.680 I find that I get my best education from the experts who are actually doing it every day. And 64 00:05:23.680 --> 00:05:27.680 that's just a personal note for me. Now, on the flip side, if you're an agency and you're hearing 65 00:05:27.680 --> 00:05:32.000 this and you're like, well, shit, what if everyone does this to me? I think you plan for that, 66 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:36.400 which is rather than on the front end being like, I hope this person stays forever. Instead saying, 67 00:05:36.400 --> 00:05:39.920 hey, let's ramp you up to speed way faster than you could in your own. You're going to learn all 68 00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:42.880 the basics. You're going to learn all the advanced stuff. And then I'm going to help you source and 69 00:05:42.880 --> 00:05:45.920 train the people inside of your business so eventually you can do this on your own, because that's 70 00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:49.440 ultimately what every business owner wants. Now, some businesses might just never want to do it. 71 00:05:49.440 --> 00:05:52.720 And there are definitely businesses that just never want to get into it and everyone own it and 72 00:05:52.720 --> 00:05:56.880 they're happy to pay it. In that case, awesome. But for many people, they want to have more control 73 00:05:56.880 --> 00:06:01.360 of that, especially if they're more brand driven, which you should be if you're trying to make money. 74 00:06:01.360 --> 00:06:06.480 When I was a baby, my father used to rock me to sleep at night saying, it's hard to be poor with 75 00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:10.320 leads banging down your door. It's a Hormosi family jingle. I'm just kidding. My dad had no 76 00:06:10.320 --> 00:06:14.720 interest in that whatsoever. But that being said, if you're a business owner and you're trying to 77 00:06:14.720 --> 00:06:19.120 get more leads and grow your business, or if you want to start a business, you need to let more 78 00:06:19.120 --> 00:06:23.280 people know about your stuff. In other words, you need to advertise. That is exactly what my next 79 00:06:23.280 --> 00:06:26.880 book, 100 million dollar leads is all about. And this has been two years in the making. I spent 80 00:06:26.880 --> 00:06:31.360 2,000 hours writing and editing this through 19 drafts. Acquisition.com forward slash leads, 81 00:06:31.360 --> 00:06:34.800 register for the event, and just to give you some context or some credibility. The stuff in this 82 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:38.640 book is how I'm advertising this event. We already have over 200,000 people registered. 83 00:06:38.640 --> 00:06:42.640 So I feel confident when I say that this can help you. I think we'll probably sell it at the event, 84 00:06:42.640 --> 00:06:46.320 and the only way to get it will be to be there live. See you then. So what I want to do is help 85 00:06:46.320 --> 00:06:51.760 you decide whether or not you should use an agency and avoid what I call the agency trap. So 86 00:06:51.760 --> 00:06:55.600 the first agency experience I ever had was actually really good. And I'll tell you why it was good 87 00:06:55.600 --> 00:07:01.280 later, but know that I had a good enough experience that I then worked with like 10 more agencies, 88 00:07:01.280 --> 00:07:05.840 and all of them were terrible. And this is the exact process what happened. Let me read it to you. 89 00:07:06.640 --> 00:07:11.600 So reading directly from 100 million dollar leads, step one, they got me excited about all the new 90 00:07:11.600 --> 00:07:15.920 leads they would bring. Step two, I'd go through an onboarding process that felt valuable, 91 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:21.200 and sometimes was, step three, they assigned their best senior rep to my account. Step four, 92 00:07:21.200 --> 00:07:26.160 I saw some results. Step five, they moved my senior rep to the newest customer. Step six, 93 00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:30.720 a junior rep starts managing my account. My results suffer. Step seven, I complained. 94 00:07:30.720 --> 00:07:34.560 Step eight, the senior rep would come back once in a while to make me feel better. Step nine, 95 00:07:34.560 --> 00:07:38.480 the results still never got back to where they were before, and I'd eventually cancel. 96 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:42.640 Step 10, I'd search for another agency and repeat the cycle of insanity. Step 11, for the 97 00:07:42.640 --> 00:07:45.760 zillionth time, start wondering why wasn't getting results like the first time. 98 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:52.640 So the thing is, is that agencies are actually incentivized to only do enough to keep you pay, 99 00:07:53.280 --> 00:07:58.320 which sucks, and I think that's why a lot of agency models were broken. And they're also incentivized 100 00:07:58.320 --> 00:08:02.240 to put their high skilled labor on the newest people who need to get sold and put their lowest skilled, 101 00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:06.800 lowest wage worker on the oldest ones, right, and continue to increase their margin in that way. 102 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:10.320 Now, one of the big breakthroughs I had was that I realized that these people that they had as 103 00:08:10.320 --> 00:08:14.240 their low skilled workers that were working my account, I was like, I too could pay someone 104 00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:19.600 $20 an hour to work on my account and not pay you to do that. And so, as soon as I realized that, 105 00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:24.080 I was like, okay, well, if they can teach that person to do this, then all I have to learn is 106 00:08:24.080 --> 00:08:28.160 that little checklist that probably took them two days to give to this person so that I can do it 107 00:08:28.160 --> 00:08:33.360 for everybody on my team internally. So here's how I use agencies now and how you can too. 108 00:08:33.440 --> 00:08:38.000 So rather than believe the lie that I'll never have to learn the stuff because they can do it, 109 00:08:39.040 --> 00:08:43.600 I start every agency relation with a purpose and a deadline to fulfill it, okay. And because here's 110 00:08:43.600 --> 00:08:49.120 the thing is, is that best case scenario, they are amazing, but then they own you because they own 111 00:08:49.120 --> 00:08:53.440 all your revenue. Worst case, they suck and then use lost money. So it's like, it feels like a lose 112 00:08:53.440 --> 00:08:57.520 lose, but I do think that there's a middle path that makes an actual win, which is what I'm going to 113 00:08:57.520 --> 00:09:03.840 share with you. So rather than agree to their initial terms, which is basically pay us as long 114 00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:07.680 as humanly possible and we hope you pay until you die, right, which doesn't work for me and doesn't 115 00:09:07.680 --> 00:09:14.000 work for them, all right, not long term. This is exactly what I say. So I like to open my saying 116 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:20.240 this. I want to do what you do in my business, but I don't know how. I'd like to work with you 117 00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:24.800 for six months so I can learn how you do it. Plus, I'll pay extra for you to break down why you make 118 00:09:24.800 --> 00:09:28.560 the decisions you do and the steps you take to make them. Then after I get a good idea of how it 119 00:09:28.560 --> 00:09:32.880 all works, I'll start training my team on it. And once they can do it well enough, I'd like to change 120 00:09:32.880 --> 00:09:36.720 to a lower cost consulting agreement. This way, you can still help us if we run into problems. 121 00:09:36.720 --> 00:09:41.520 Are you opposed to this? When you start that way, I like it because you're starting with very 122 00:09:41.520 --> 00:09:45.760 clear intentions and you're saying, Hey, I'm going to commit to six months. This is what I want from 123 00:09:45.760 --> 00:09:49.280 you. And I'm also saying I'm going to continue to pay you after the engagements over for a much 124 00:09:49.280 --> 00:09:54.080 higher leverage, much more profitable consulting engagement. So that's what a lot of agencies would 125 00:09:54.080 --> 00:09:58.240 ultimately want. But I'm being clear about this is my intention. And if I need to pay a little bit 126 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:02.960 more than the agency fee upfront, then I'm willing to do that. I also understand that as I start to 127 00:10:02.960 --> 00:10:07.360 train my team on internally, there will be a period of time where I'm paying above them and my team. 128 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:11.440 So you're paying twice. But the thing is is that when you do that, you're actually building the 129 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:16.000 enterprise value of your business and you're building the asset that you own rather than being 130 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:21.680 reliant on somebody else who eventually could, if you wanted to, cut you off and then you'd be 131 00:10:21.680 --> 00:10:26.240 dead in the water. Or what more realistically happens is they gouge you and they continue to raise 132 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:29.360 their price because they can see how much money you're making from the thing, right? And I get why 133 00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:33.920 they do it. But if you're the business owner, then you can protect both of you. You say, Hey, 134 00:10:33.920 --> 00:10:37.200 my LTV is going to be way longer than me just trying to say that I'm going to do this in 135 00:10:37.200 --> 00:10:41.920 eventually canceling. If you actually teach me how to do this. And I'm not going to expect you to 136 00:10:41.920 --> 00:10:45.920 save my business. I just want to learn how you do it. And that in my opinion is the best working 137 00:10:45.920 --> 00:10:50.000 relationship. And that's how I've had that's how I've done it for the vast majority of the agencies 138 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:54.000 they have done in any recent history. I didn't know anything about YouTube. I didn't know anything 139 00:10:54.000 --> 00:10:58.640 about short form content, reels, any of that stuff. So I'm going to break down how I got a new 140 00:10:58.640 --> 00:11:00.640 platform. So I do nothing about in short and long form content. 141 00:11:02.640 --> 00:11:07.200 Real quick guys, you guys already know that I don't run any ads on this and I don't sell anything. 142 00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:10.560 And so the only ask that I can ever have if you guys that you help me spread the words we 143 00:11:10.560 --> 00:11:14.960 cannot more entrepreneurs, make more money, feed their families, make better products and have 144 00:11:14.960 --> 00:11:19.360 better experiences for their employees and customers. And the only way we do that is if you can 145 00:11:19.440 --> 00:11:23.840 rate and review and share this podcast. So the single thing that I have to do is you can just 146 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:28.240 leave a review, take a 10 seconds or one type of a thumb to the absolute world to me. And more 147 00:11:28.240 --> 00:11:33.840 importantly, it may change the world for someone else. So let's start with long form. So long 148 00:11:33.840 --> 00:11:37.520 from getting into YouTube, the first step I did was I hired what I would consider like a basic 149 00:11:37.520 --> 00:11:41.600 level agency. So like three to five thousand more month agency. And they just got me to commit to 150 00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:46.000 doing three videos a week. And so I was like, cool, I can do that. That's pretty much what I was 151 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:50.560 doing on my podcast. So like, I'll just give them to you. And what they did was they just trimmed 152 00:11:50.560 --> 00:11:55.920 it, which means you take out the ooze and oz and put an intro and a thumbnail and a headline. 153 00:11:55.920 --> 00:12:01.520 Like that was more or less what it was. I would say it was a basic level of help on the platform. 154 00:12:01.520 --> 00:12:08.640 And that's what I did. And the main objective of that first phase was just giving me the basics 155 00:12:08.640 --> 00:12:13.440 of just getting me involved in the platform and forcing me to create content on a regular cadence. 156 00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:19.520 Like those are the two objectives and those were met. The second phase was I had now more context 157 00:12:19.520 --> 00:12:26.720 and I had hired people on my team to start helping me do and replicate what that agency could do. And 158 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:34.320 so we very quickly wanted more quality in terms of edits and attention, which is fine because 159 00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:39.680 no business owner should change their business for one client. And so it makes sense for both me 160 00:12:39.680 --> 00:12:45.280 and the small agency or for you and a small agency to part ways at some point when your demands 161 00:12:45.280 --> 00:12:50.480 for what you want exceed their capacity. Right. And so my internal team and our bar had 162 00:12:50.480 --> 00:12:54.880 had raised in terms of the quality we wanted to put out in the quantity, etc. And so we started 163 00:12:54.880 --> 00:12:58.800 editing stuff internally, but we still felt even though we were better than the basic person 164 00:12:58.800 --> 00:13:03.360 that we weren't better than the top creators. And so then we went to what I would consider a much 165 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:08.160 more premium agency. And this is we're talking to the tune of like 20,000 a month rather than like 166 00:13:08.160 --> 00:13:13.120 three to five thousand dollars a month to help us create better thumbnails, better intros, 167 00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:20.080 pick better topics, better cuts, etc. And so with that new agency, we ran the same play. Hey, 168 00:13:20.080 --> 00:13:23.520 we want to learn from you. We want to understand why you're picking these things. We want to understand 169 00:13:23.520 --> 00:13:29.280 the decision making process, etc. And then by six months in, we say, okay, we've understood the SOPs, 170 00:13:29.280 --> 00:13:33.520 we understand the process and our team can now surpass your team in its creation of content or 171 00:13:33.520 --> 00:13:37.360 at least match it. And then we can get those those cost savings. In each of those scenarios, 172 00:13:37.360 --> 00:13:41.600 after we exit it, I'm still on fine terms with the people who are there. And if we had questions, 173 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:45.600 we could do that. And we had consulting agreements that kind of bridge those gaps at the end there. 174 00:13:45.600 --> 00:13:51.520 And that's how I did. That's how I grew my YouTube using HECs in the beginning to first get the 175 00:13:51.520 --> 00:13:55.840 basics, then become more advanced. And then just start ideating on our own, which is once we've earned 176 00:13:55.840 --> 00:14:00.160 that right. And now I pretty much just try and network with better creators than me to learn what 177 00:14:00.160 --> 00:14:05.520 the 10 million guys do versus the 1 million guys. So now let's approach the same concept, 178 00:14:05.520 --> 00:14:10.640 but on different platform. So I didn't understand TikTok at all. I didn't use it. I wasn't on it, 179 00:14:10.640 --> 00:14:17.040 etc. And I didn't understand short form either. And so I actually had an HD reach out to me, 180 00:14:17.040 --> 00:14:23.360 outbound, which is not common for me to accept that. But they said, listen, you do no work. So 181 00:14:23.360 --> 00:14:26.800 from a value perspective, the offer was, you already have enough content out there, I can 182 00:14:26.800 --> 00:14:30.320 repurpose it and make shorts out of it. And I was like, okay, sure. If you want to do all the work 183 00:14:30.320 --> 00:14:34.960 and involve me at nothing and just make content for me, it sounds good. And so that's what they did. 184 00:14:34.960 --> 00:14:40.000 And they started getting traction with the short videos and we're like, okay, this stuff works. 185 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:47.200 And then for me, my director of brand actually had a super deep history on short form content. 186 00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:52.400 And so normally I would have had that second phase where I would go for that premium agency, 187 00:14:52.400 --> 00:14:57.200 but that individual worked at a premium agency. And so I actually got kind of like 188 00:14:57.200 --> 00:15:03.200 bought the SOPs automatically and we were able to massively scale our output on short content 189 00:15:03.200 --> 00:15:08.080 within six or so months of working with that original agency. And again, we're on good terms 190 00:15:08.080 --> 00:15:12.080 with the person in the agency. We don't work together anymore. But I think the important part is 191 00:15:12.080 --> 00:15:16.400 if you set the expectation up front, which is I want to learn from you and I want to be transparent 192 00:15:16.400 --> 00:15:20.160 about my intentions. And I want to eventually bring this in house because it's my belief that my 193 00:15:20.160 --> 00:15:23.840 team will understand we'll be able to allocate more time to my thing and understand my brand better. 194 00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:27.840 And if they had your skills, they will be able to do more output at higher quality than you could 195 00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:32.800 ever do. And that's not an insult. That's just a reality of time to money. You have to make a 196 00:15:32.800 --> 00:15:37.120 margin. I don't. I'm going to cover cost and get five times more output. And so that's fundamentally 197 00:15:37.120 --> 00:15:42.000 what we did there. And that process is how we approached LinkedIn, how we approached podcasts, 198 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:47.360 how we approached paid ads, how we approached new methods, all of them. I run the same playbook. 199 00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:52.720 And this is what I believe has married the best parts of agency and the best part of building 200 00:15:52.720 --> 00:15:58.000 an enterprise and making a valuable business and avoided the agency trap that so many people 201 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:02.000 fall into myself included. The other reason I like this method is that because you bring the agency 202 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:05.520 on early, you get better short-term results. So you get faster wins for your team. So you get 203 00:16:05.520 --> 00:16:08.400 momentum, which let's be real, it's important. Like if you start doing a lot of stuff and you see 204 00:16:08.400 --> 00:16:12.080 nothing back, it kind of sucks. And so getting short-term wins is important and you get that with the 205 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:15.920 agency. But rather than have the drop off, where they stop caring about you as much, they assign 206 00:16:15.920 --> 00:16:20.640 some junior reps to your account, you then by that point, your team is good enough to keep that 207 00:16:20.640 --> 00:16:25.520 long-term momentum and keep growing. And so that's what I think is it maximizes the best of both. 208 00:16:25.520 --> 00:16:28.560 Where you get the short-term from the agency and then you get the long-term from the team. 209 00:16:28.560 --> 00:16:32.880 And so last point is like why even bother building an announced team, right? Because why can't I just 210 00:16:32.880 --> 00:16:36.240 keep the agency? Well, for all the reasons I just said, that's why I don't like the agency. But 211 00:16:36.240 --> 00:16:41.600 from a business perspective, I want to build enterprise value because it is the fastest way to grow 212 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:46.240 my wealth is tax-recompounding of enterprise value, okay, in the business. And if a business, 213 00:16:46.240 --> 00:16:50.960 for example, relied on six agencies in order to get to make its money, that would be a less reliable 214 00:16:50.960 --> 00:16:54.880 business than if all of those things were in-house because it's much more under your control. If all 215 00:16:54.880 --> 00:17:01.120 of those agencies either cut you off, you'd be screwed, or gouged you to compress your margin, 216 00:17:01.120 --> 00:17:06.320 you'd also be screwed. And so this gives you, it de-risks a future investor from purchasing your 217 00:17:06.320 --> 00:17:10.160 business. And many times you might be that future investor, right? But when we think about the value 218 00:17:10.160 --> 00:17:14.160 of a business, it's how likely are we able to sustain and grow cash flows over an extended period 219 00:17:14.160 --> 00:17:17.600 of time. And so if you're relying on other people for your cash flow, that's a very big 220 00:17:19.200 --> 00:17:24.560 risk. And that's what we try to pay down. With this cost, which in the short term does cost you 221 00:17:24.560 --> 00:17:29.760 more, but long term you get way more back. Now my dear, this may not be the traditional agency 222 00:17:29.760 --> 00:17:34.000 model, but both businesses do benefit, right? They get a customer they otherwise would not have 223 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:40.960 gotten. And we get to make money, which is, sorry, we get a money-making skill from the engagement, 224 00:17:40.960 --> 00:17:45.040 not just the leads. So the real thing we get isn't the customers we generate while working with 225 00:17:45.040 --> 00:17:49.680 them, but the skill to generate customers for life. On whatever platform or method I learned from 226 00:17:49.680 --> 00:17:54.000 them. So how do you decide if using agencies right for you? First off, do you have more money or 227 00:17:54.000 --> 00:17:58.800 more time? If you have more money, then that's what you're going to have to do. No. If you don't 228 00:17:58.800 --> 00:18:02.320 have any money, then you got to learn it. And it's going to take time. And you know what? That's part 229 00:18:02.320 --> 00:18:07.040 of life. Everybody starts somewhere and usually you master one platform, you get some success, 230 00:18:07.040 --> 00:18:10.560 you get a little bit cash flow, and then you can more quickly pay to learn the other ones. You 231 00:18:10.560 --> 00:18:14.640 pay down your ignorance test faster, right? If you have the money and you're willing to lose it, 232 00:18:14.640 --> 00:18:17.440 because the agencies aren't going to give you fast wins immediately, but they'll give you faster 233 00:18:17.440 --> 00:18:22.400 than you could on your own, then for me, it's always worth paying on that debt. In terms of the 234 00:18:22.400 --> 00:18:28.000 process, I outline my entire agency seeking process in my book. And I also have my agreement 235 00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:32.960 framework in here that you can use for having the conversation with them, giving the terms, 236 00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:37.600 what things I look for specifically, but with broad brushstrokes, talk to a lot of agencies. 237 00:18:38.800 --> 00:18:42.080 I would recommend talking to the most expensive ones, even if you're not going to work with them, 238 00:18:42.080 --> 00:18:47.600 you will get an idea for quality and the things that they talk about. If someone else isn't bringing 239 00:18:47.600 --> 00:18:51.360 up any of those nuances, you might be like, oh, this person has way more depth in their knowledge 240 00:18:51.360 --> 00:18:55.120 than this person. And so you'll become a more informed consumer, which ultimately, 241 00:18:55.280 --> 00:18:59.920 both you and the agencies should want that, because if you aren't informed consumer and then you 242 00:18:59.920 --> 00:19:03.280 make a purchasing decision, you'll be formally likely to stick with that decision for an extended 243 00:19:03.280 --> 00:19:06.800 period of time, rather than getting over-promised some expectation from a hot sales guy, 244 00:19:08.320 --> 00:19:12.800 I say hot sales guy, I mean, somebody who's selling hot to be clear, who's over-promising, 245 00:19:12.800 --> 00:19:17.360 it's called selling hot, over-promising to get somebody to buy. You don't want to have that 246 00:19:17.360 --> 00:19:21.280 be your expectation that's being set, because then you both are set up for failure. Next, 247 00:19:21.280 --> 00:19:25.200 you want to make sure that you have a clear deadline for when you want to make that transition. 248 00:19:25.200 --> 00:19:28.080 And this is good for a couple of reasons. One is because it sets expectations with them, 249 00:19:28.080 --> 00:19:31.760 they can also see the LTV, and you can talk in terms of that, which is like, hey, I'm committing 250 00:19:31.760 --> 00:19:36.560 to six months, which let's say it's $6,000 a month, I'm committing to $36,000. All right, so like, 251 00:19:36.560 --> 00:19:40.800 you're going to get that for me, as long as you're not an idiot, right? Cool. But the real real is 252 00:19:40.800 --> 00:19:45.360 that your team also knows that you're like, hey, we're rolling month down. We got to understand 253 00:19:45.360 --> 00:19:48.720 the stuff in five months. Hey, we're two months down. We got to understand the stuff in four months. 254 00:19:48.720 --> 00:19:53.600 And so it drives you towards the outcome of getting your team up to speed faster. So having 255 00:19:53.600 --> 00:19:58.080 the deadline, I think, works great for both parties. Now, you have that deadline, but what if your team 256 00:19:58.080 --> 00:20:02.320 is not as good as there is by the time the deadline comes? Well, in my opinion, you either need to change 257 00:20:02.320 --> 00:20:05.760 the people, or they're not teaching you everything that needs to happen, because if they're low-skilled 258 00:20:05.760 --> 00:20:11.680 people are doing better than your team, somewhat, some who is a problem, either them or you, right? 259 00:20:11.680 --> 00:20:16.240 And so my belief here is like, you might have to look at your people, but let's assume that the 260 00:20:16.240 --> 00:20:21.040 people are right. And let me be just a more complex platform, whatever. I keep going until our team 261 00:20:21.040 --> 00:20:24.960 matches theirs. Once our team matches theirs, then I drop it off. We downgraded to a consulting 262 00:20:24.960 --> 00:20:28.880 agreement just for insurance. And then one or two months later, if we feel like we're not learning 263 00:20:28.880 --> 00:20:34.720 anything on the calls that we have from a consulting perspective, we cut it. And we do so amicably 264 00:20:34.720 --> 00:20:44.720 because we set that as the expectation.