AL EP 23: Danny Coello – Be The Dumbest Person In The Room

Show Notes

14 Years ago Danny Coello found his calling in life: To help other businesses grow through a combination of his experience as a serial entrepreneur, and the expertise and creativity of his agency.

Connect with Danny Coello & DS&P Digital Marketing Agency here –
Web: https://www.dial911fordesign.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dial911ForDesign
Twitter: https://twitter.com/911fordesign
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvAmIPVFjr5Wja-nIh4u0qg/videos
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dial911fordesign/
LinkedIn (personal): https://www.linkedin.com/in/dannycoello/
LinkedIn (business): https://www.linkedin.com/company/dial911fordesign/

Episode Transcript

00:00:00:00 – 00:00:32:22

Hey, everybody, this is Jessie Michael Moore, agency and transformation coach and founder of Mission Control. Creator of leverage for growth and I’m Lucas James, founder of Twist Attire, which scaled from 0 to $200,000 a month with my own agency. We are the host of leverage for growth, podcast agency leverage and Episodes. We know that in order to scale your agency successfully, there are multiple shifts that need to happen within the founders mindsets, skill sets, and leadership styles.

00:00:32:24 – 00:01:02:24

We are on a mission to interview marketing and PR agency owners on their journey to six, seven and eight figures and leverage the lessons from their journey to save you time, energy and money. In order for you to get your agency to the next level. If you find value in these episodes, watch the case study video to learn more about leverage growth and how we successfully scale agencies quickly at Niche in Control Decomp case study at Niche in Control Accommodation.

00:01:02:27 – 00:01:26:07

You are now listening to leverage for growth. Hey everybody, this is Jesse Gilmore, founder of Niche in Control and creator of leverage for growth. Welcome to the agency Leverage Edition. Today I am here with Danny Coelho, the CEO of the S&P Digital Marketing Agency, a full service digital marketing agency that has an almost fanatical approach to increasing small businesses revenue.

00:01:26:13 – 00:01:48:18

Thanks for coming to our show today. Thank you. Jesse, it’s a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. Can you tell us a little bit about the history in the background of your agency? Sure. it started as a one man show, and, we’ve, grown exponentially with the help of our clients and the support of, our clients.

00:01:48:21 – 00:02:14:04

and now, we have offices in, Dallas, Fort Worth, Chicago and Midtown Manhattan. Oh, got, 14 years. There’s probably been a lot of changes, not only from the solopreneur, to where you are right now, but also, in the agency landscape. Kind of talk a little bit about what the last 14 years has been, been like for you.

00:02:14:07 – 00:02:54:27

So let’s start with the fact that digital marketing wasn’t called digital marketing 14 years ago. Yeah. It’s, Well, if there is one thing that, you can count on specifically in this industry is that everything changes and everything can change in a flash. from, the solutions, are being offered. How, we go about, executing, those solutions, even the industry as a whole, we’re talking about, banning TikTok and, ChatGPT just two things that, that kind of, have come across, over the last few weeks.

00:02:54:29 – 00:03:16:13

And, you know, this industry changes on a daily basis. How have you ever been able to kind of adapt to the changes? over the period of time? I know a lot of people, they might be relying on a certain thing, you know, and then that thing changes and you’re like. And, you know, can you talk a little bit about how you kind of adapt to the changes?

00:03:16:13 – 00:03:45:18

You. You have to be flexible. and you have to have an insatiable, hunger and thirst for knowledge, because things are changing constantly. I remember at the beginning of the year when ChatGPT was was coming on board and everyone that worked on SEO was on, on A67 alarm fire saying, oh my gosh, everything’s going to change.

00:03:45:21 – 00:04:07:21

what’s what’s going to happen in reality? ChatGPT is an incredible tool that helps our current SEO. So you have to kind of take the punches as they come. Have to be extremely nimble and flexible, and things kind of fall where, where they should. Could you tell us a little bit more about, the history and background?

00:04:07:21 – 00:04:37:04

Is there a kind of like a story or an moment that maybe, started your agency? Sure. So, actually, I come from an entrepreneurial background. my father has always owned businesses. his two brothers, my two uncles have always owned businesses. I got cousins. my my brother starting also, a a side hustle.

00:04:37:06 – 00:05:11:16

When you get to see it first hand, it’s actually a little easier to to, dive into the abyss. but, but anyway. So how, the business started. I was actually coming off of, in, in 2009, coming off of the 2008, financial, meltdown and the housing crisis and all that. And my previous business, actually prior to, prior to that, was in real estate.

00:05:11:18 – 00:05:40:01

I, I was flipping houses, actually, and did a number on me. Yeah. So. And I was managing a print shop. Now this is back in 2009, and, one out of every 2 or 3 customers that would come in, to print fliers, door hangers, direct mailers, all of that. they would be asking if we offered website development.

00:05:40:03 – 00:06:05:16

Sure. of course we did. But then after I heard, my employees a few times say, no, no, we don’t offer a no, no, we don’t offer it. I said, you know what? tell them that. Yes, we do. And and so we’ll, we’ll discuss, what they want. And based on that, we’ll, we’ll just kind of kind of start, figuring it out.

00:06:05:19 – 00:06:32:18

being an entrepreneur, you’re, you’re, you learn, to, look for solutions. So once you get to a bridge, you try to figure out how to cross. And so, basically, that’s the way it was. And I actually started studying, myself how to code, how to build websites. What, platforms I could build websites on, depending on the needs of the client.

00:06:32:20 – 00:06:55:19

And so I started myself, getting some of these projects on the side. after a couple of years of doing this, I actually said, you know what, if I want to grow this, I need to first of all capitalize and second of all, I need to devote myself to this. I can’t be running a print shop and trying to run my own business.

00:06:55:21 – 00:07:24:02

So I actually took, two part time jobs. so I was doing I was working three jobs at a time, my my business and two different jobs. trying to capitalize the business. I did that for four years, and, finally, I think it was 2014. I finally took the job and said, okay, this is enough.

00:07:24:04 – 00:07:51:28

I need to devote myself full time to this. and in 2016, I, opened my, office in downtown Fort Worth, which was my first official office, which, by the way, my first official office for the business was a desk. I rented a desk inside of a used car dealership.

00:07:52:00 – 00:08:14:19

I knew the owner. He had a desk on the back of his dealership that he was not using. I told them, listen, now you lease that desk from you. And, so I would meet some clients there. and, Hey, you got to start somewhere. And, we, I’ve been extremely blessed and I’m extremely grateful.

00:08:14:22 – 00:08:53:25

because it’s been an incredible journey. now with having three different offices and being a much larger, much, much larger business than I was back in in 2009 when I started in 2009. I will say this, that, in 2014, as the business started to grow, into 2016 as well, I needed to make a choice into whether I wanted to continue addressing or helping small businesses or devote myself to mid-sized or larger accounts.

00:08:53:27 – 00:09:36:24

there were opportunities to, work with a government to become an approved vendor. there were opportunities to start working with some fortune 500 companies, but I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it. The money was good. But the money is not everything. That what I really had a passion for is actually helping businesses that were in the same position that I was just, a few years ago, helping businesses in which they’re either starting from scratch, they have nothing, or businesses that have already started, but they’re struggling to to kind of get their footing to, to become, successful online to, to to do all these different things.

00:09:36:26 – 00:10:09:24

I’ve, I’ve been there and I’ve done that. So through my previous experience as a business owner and through the creativity and the expertise of my, my staff, I actually get to see small businesses start from nothing. There are some clients that come to me with just a business plan or a name for the business, and we see them grow into full, successful, exciting, businesses and organizations.

00:10:09:24 – 00:10:30:17

And to me, that is what makes me excited about going to work every day. I love it. That’s awesome. it reminds me of one of my previous guest talked about, with small businesses, you go and be called a hero or you’ll never get that with like a big brand. They’ll never call you like at the agency a hero.

00:10:30:19 – 00:10:59:28

Exactly. And so that’s exactly the reason why I chose to stay where I’m at and to stay on, on that particular niche. And the reason is because you really make a difference in, in fortune 500 companies with working with government, contracts. It’s just a number. Who cares? and then any decision, the flexibility and the nimbleness is just not there.

00:11:00:01 – 00:11:24:08

it it’s a completely different deal. I love what I do. I love getting to to talk to business owners on a daily basis. I love seeing the difference that we make in their lives. Awesome. So for anybody that’s, listening, and if you were to look back and kind of see the different kind of like either tips or advice that you would give either your previous self or somebody that’s listening, there might be 1 or 2 steps.

00:11:24:15 – 00:11:38:20

And before you maybe they don’t have the multiple offices, maybe they’re in the auto dealership, you know, at their at the desk, you know, yeah. What kind of advice would you give them to either save them time, energy or money?

00:11:38:22 – 00:11:55:07

there is one thing that, there was a direct correlation from the moment that I realized that I needed to have people inside my operation that were smarter than me.

00:11:55:09 – 00:12:40:06

That moment was the moment where I started seeing exponential growth. I was trying to. I’m not a micromanager. I like, especially in my industry, especially with people who are creative. It’s it’s it’s a hassle to to try to have someone, overbearing on top of you. It’s good to, to have, the creators create, but, I didn’t have the support system around me, the smart people around me that would help me with the things that I was weak on, to help me with the things that I had no experience on.

00:12:40:08 – 00:13:09:00

Even though I’ve. I’ve owned several businesses, even though I’ve been there and done that. there’s always something that you have never been exposed to. And the moment that I realized I need help, and the moment that I was not afraid to bring people on board that were way smarter than I am. That was the moment where I started seeing my agency grow exponentially.

00:13:09:03 – 00:13:40:10

Don’t be afraid. As a matter of fact, what you would want to be is the dumbest person in the room, as opposed to the smart guy in the room. When you do that, and when you have people who are very smart around you, it’s going to make your your entire operation that much stronger. And by the way, this advice not only applies to marketing agencies or to people who are starting or in the process of trying to grow an agency.

00:13:40:16 – 00:14:07:06

This also applies to business owners, regardless of your industry. I tell my clients on a daily basis, make sure one of the beauties of being an entrepreneur is that you can pretty much do anything that you want, and a lot of people who have a talent for being an entrepreneur, they’re problem solvers. And so if there is something to tackle, if there’s something to do, they’re willing to do it.

00:14:07:08 – 00:14:32:14

The problem is that if you devote all of your time and effort to things that someone else has a gift for, or someone else can help you because they have the expertise, the ability, the creativity to do it better than you can. Let them do what they’re gifted to in you. Focus on the things that only you as a business owner could do.

00:14:32:17 – 00:14:56:21

When you do that, it frees you from so many things and from so many shackles and chains and things that are holding you back. So be my advice is be the dumbest person in the room. That’s my advice. I think that’s, the podcast episode title. I.

00:14:56:23 – 00:15:41:03

Absolutely. Yeah. what do you think is, like, what are you excited about? for your agency and what’s success for you in the next 1 to 3 years? I, I want to keep growing. I want to, make sure that we’re addressing, new, new industries, new things. the New York office, was actually opened in the beginning of last year, and it was one of the best decisions that I ever made, because in Dallas and in Chicago, the type of clientele that you get is very different.

00:15:41:06 – 00:16:00:29

The type of clients that you get in Chicago, their start ups and their, their, their companies who are, who are getting, or trying to solidify, but they’re a completely different type of business. And I love that. I it’s been a it’s been a completely learning experience, a completely new learning experience for me. But I love it.

00:16:00:29 – 00:16:19:25

And I think that I want to continue exploring, other opportunities that will make me expand or make our agency expand on what we do and how we do it. Awesome. So for anybody that’s listening, what’s the best way for people to get in touch with you? Or do you have any offers for them that they could take advantage of?

00:16:19:27 – 00:16:51:22

Sure. Go to our website. dial 911 for design.com. There’s a neat story behind the, that name, by the way. Dial 911 for design, Phil Knight. there is a movie coming up from, Nike and how he got started. And, NPR was asking Phil Knight, how did he come up with the logo? And he said that he had to go to the design, department in, Oregon University.

00:16:51:24 – 00:17:19:02

because it’s not like there’s you could dial A911 for design and, and, and boom, you got your self-help. So this was early 2000. I went online to see if dial 904 for design was available. And guess what? It was. It’s it it’s catchy. So I, that’s the reason why that domain. So dial 911 for design.com.

00:17:19:04 – 00:17:51:10

Go to our contact tab. And if you are a new client and you, contact us through there and you mention this podcast, you will get a discount on the first service that we offer you 20%. Just make sure that in the contact form you include and you mentioned this podcast. Awesome. Well, for everybody that’s listening, I will include the URL for dial 911 for design.com, in the show notes and I really want to, appreciate you.

00:17:51:10 – 00:18:15:28

And thank you very much for coming on the show today. It’s been a pleasure, Jesse, I appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Agency owners, if you want to transform your agency to sustain and grow without your direct involvement, where you can stop working in the business and switch to working on the business where you can regain control of your time, delegate effectively, get paid what you’re worth, and have your team run the day to day.

00:18:16:05 – 00:18:34:06

Go to niche incontrol.com/case study right now to learn more about leverage for growth. You can book a free strategy session with us to look at your systems, understand what needs to be done in order for you to scale and get a free strategic plan for the next year. To live the life of entrepreneurship that you’ve always dreamed about.

00:18:34:08 – 00:18:58:23

Go to niche in controlled Commerce case study that is niche in control. Dot com slash case study. Now you.

Transcripts are auto-generated and may contain errors.