AL EP 32: Nicolas Ullah – Injecting Passion Into Your Agency

Show Notes

Numinal helps athletes align their personal values with their media & brand strategy. After developing a strong brand position for their athletes, they select the right audiences, sponsorships, and media channels for a 360-degree strategy. Numinal offers customized packages to increase marketability (e.g. PGA Player Impact Program)

Connect with Nicolas Ullah & Numinal here:
Web – https://numinalagency.com
Twitter – https://twitter.com/NuminalAgency
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/numinal/

Episode Transcript

00;00;04;05 – 00;00;32;16

Everybody is adjusting to your agency and transformation coach and founder of Mission Control, creator of Leverage for Growth. And I’m Lucas James, founder of Twist that I am, which scaled from 0 to $200000 a month with my own agency. We are the hosts 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;25 – 00;00;59;22

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 for growth and how we successfully scale agencies quickly at Niche in control outcomes Case study at Niche in Control eCommerce.

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Keep in mind you are now listening to Leverage for Growth. Hey everybody, this is Jesse Gilmore, founder of Mission Control and creator of Leverage for Growth. Welcome to the Agency Leverage edition. And today I am here with Nicolas Ullah, the founder of a Numinal Agency, an L.A. based sports marketing agency, on a mission to help athletes align their personal values, whether media and brand strategy.

00;01;25;02 – 00;01;52;13

Thanks for coming to our show today, Nicholas. Thanks for having me, Jesse. Appreciate it. Absolutely. Can you tell us a little bit about the history and background of your agency? Absolutely. I would love to. So I started my career working in advertising and advertising agencies before transitioning to the brand side. And in 2011, I moved from Germany to the U.S., Los Angeles, to be specific.

00;01;52;13 – 00;02;19;16

And from from that time on, I mostly worked on the on the brand side. And on the brand side, I was exposed to a lot of sponsorships and marketing partnerships with professional athletes and found it very interesting, always I find it, you know, I find it interesting how much money athletes are leaving on the table by not really building their brands and building and building a brand for themselves and looking into their marketability.

00;02;19;29 – 00;02;49;01

But I guess that’s what makes them great too, right? Because they’re just focused on sports and they’re focused on their game and so you can’t blame them. But I find it I find it interesting. I find that there’s an opportunity. And fast forward to 2021, You know, finally started my agency and took me way too long to gather with my business partner and we were then able to sign, signed an incredible client.

00;02;50;14 – 00;03;15;09

He was, I think, like and a number seven golfer in the world. Zander self-select. So if you you know, if you know golf if you follow golf you know him and what was interesting at that time was that the PGA started a program called the Play and I program, and that was to measure the media performance and marketability of players.

00;03;15;27 – 00;03;46;22

And that that became ultimately the USP for our agency, where we really dove in so that the program incentivizes the players to be more active across all media channels. So ultimately, it helps the PGA Tour to to grow their brand. So they allocated 100 million in payouts to the top 20 players in this play and background. So first one gets 15 million, second one gets 12 and so on.

00;03;47;24 – 00;04;15;04

So the interesting part about that for us was how it’s measured, because it’s measured by we come from a performance marketing background and it’s measured in very familiar metrics for us. So then the PGA measuring that by Google searches, Meltwater mentions, which are media mentions, then MVP index, Q score, Nielsen Brand index. So we started looking into that.

00;04;15;13 – 00;04;49;17

We had a lot of experience working with these metrics on the brand side, but we wanted to basically translate that for athletes and and optimize it for athletes, help them increase their marketability. And so that’s, that’s what we started, first of all, was just the branding. And then we delve into that, those performance metrics specifically, and that that really includes everything, everything that can, you know, increase these metrics is part of our services.

00;04;49;29 – 00;05;18;04

So even if it’s entities or if it’s partnerships with video game companies, right. So of course, it was very helpful for us that we signed Zander stuff earlier so early, you know, in our first year. And then shortly after we signed him, he won the Olympic Games. And so, you know, we got we got really lucky there, and it opened a lot of doors for us.

00;05;19;19 – 00;05;45;25

Yeah, that’s a that’s a quick, quick overview about how how this thing started. Yeah. And you had talked about from 2011 to 2021 that there was kind of like the idea of baking and then it became a real agency. What was kind of like what was kind of like that? Aha moment or like, now is the time to start it and can you kind of bring yourself back a little bit too?

00;05;45;29 – 00;06;10;17

And at that moment, I think the moment was that me and my partner, we were doing some consulting and, and these consulting gigs were just increasing and we still had our corporate jobs. And I think, you know, many agency owners can probably relate. And, you know, at some point you you had more passion for your side hustle, basically.

00;06;11;02 – 00;06;35;20

And we had this conversation where we knew that we had have a good product and we have, you know, created certain services that the market needs. And athletes are responding very, very well to it. So it was a conversation with with my partner and he was really the one to say like, hey, you know what, if we don’t do it now, then we’ll just keep consulting and have our corporate jobs.

00;06;36;06 – 00;07;00;02

And so I think sometimes that needs the right partner to, you know, push you over the line. That was the case for me. But of course, also finding that that niche and understanding that’s the need in the market. And this is the type of marketing we can offer. Mm hmm. I think finding that niche is one of the things I’m extremely passionate about.

00;07;00;02 – 00;07;21;03

I didn’t have a niche in my previous businesses, and then I see an agency is when they’re able to focus on kind of what makes them different or unique and have the right messaging and everything. It’s really powerful. And yeah, I think, you know, the name of your podcast resonated with me because that that niche is ultimately what you have to go for.

00;07;21;03 – 00;07;43;21

All right. We were too broad in the beginning, and also the consulting was everything marketing. But I think once you figure out that niche, you and you know what you’re passionate about, you will be so much better than anyone else competing with you right in that niche. And so that’s that’s always my recommendation to anyone trying to start start an agency.

00;07;44;08 – 00;08;06;09

Mm hmm. And you brought up passion, and you had also. I was that was my first question I was about to ask you. And you’re talking about, like, athletes and what that’s what they’re so passionate about. You’re also very passionate about it. Can you talk a little about how you’ve brought passion into your agency and kind of creating a life and a business by design?

00;08;07;18 – 00;08;43;09

Yeah, I think, you know, the passion of helping athletes to really, really create a brand for themselves and, you know, I think it started with understanding that, yeah, so focus on that game. And in a lot of cases, to have an active career that’s very short. And after that, the brand falls off. So they haven’t positioned themselves. And I mean, you hear the stories, you know, whether it’s football players or other athletes that make a lot of money during their active career and then all of a sudden it stops and don’t go bankrupt even.

00;08;44;07 – 00;09;15;10

So I think I was always I realized that I was passionate about helping them establish that brand and ultimately be able to monetize it over time. And I think the difference is, you know, you have a lot of agents, a lot of agencies involved that are very focused on the present moment they want to monetize right now. But I think that’s where it goes wrong many times.

00;09;15;10 – 00;09;41;00

Right, Right. Athletes are going in the wrong direction because, okay, let’s sell this or let’s do like a short term NFT, you know, cash grab. But as no real strategy behind it, that that can help them create lifetime value. You know, once of I started realizing that, hey, I was really passionate. I’m passionate about sports performance marketing and helping these athletes.

00;09;41;08 – 00;10;09;01

I think that was the combination where oftentimes I think it’s a combination, but like you’re passionate about a couple of things. If you combine them, then that’s your superpower, right on. Because yeah, marketing, there’s so many people in marketing, so, so much so much talent in marketing. But once your net down and you understand what you’re really passionate about, I think it just gives you something to to be feel excited to, to get up to every morning.

00;10;09;16 – 00;10;33;27

Mm hmm. And over the last year and so since 2021 till now, you’re probably gone on quite, quite a journey. And if you were to maybe talk to your previous version of yourself and go, hey, you know, do this, don’t do this, any type of leverage that you could pass on maybe to our audience is also listening. Might be one or two steps behind you.

00;10;33;28 – 00;10;58;15

What would you say? Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, number one is what we just discussed. But that to really is if you’re offering marketing and it’s too broad, really find out what you’re passionate about and what is your superpower, what are the areas of marketing that you have experience in and you’re passionate about? In my case, it was I did a lot of media planning and advertising in the past and felt very comfortable with that.

00;10;58;24 – 00;11;23;16

And then, you know, combine my skill set with my passion. And I think that’s where you can create a nice product. So I would say that’s number one. And then I mean, number two, I think is as as an agency to to be able to adapt to to the the trends in your market is is really crucial for us.

00;11;23;16 – 00;11;53;15

It was crucial because we were too broad. We realized this is a impact program and it’s very performance driven. And so we have to go all in because that’s a market trend and you need to develop a service for it. So I think, you know, pivoting and understanding the market trends is important. And then, you know, that that’s just something that I think comes at the time is just picking picking the right people and the right business partners.

00;11;53;15 – 00;12;14;02

I think that’s that’s critical, too. Mm hmm. I love it. Add passion and take advantage of the environment when it’s in supportive of what you’re going after. Exactly. Awesome. For anybody that’s listening, what what’s the best way of people getting either a hold of you or do you have any offers for them that they could take advantage of?

00;12;15;06 – 00;12;43;24

Well, if you’re an athlete or if you’re a brand within within sports, you can book free consultation with us. You can find out on our website no in the agency dot com. And you can also find us on on Twitter. You can find me on Twitter. My handle is reframe underscore. Nick. And I see you on Twitter and you can follow the agency that’s at normal agency on Twitter and of course, you can find us on LinkedIn.

00;12;43;26 – 00;13;18;20

Both my personal and and agency profile go. And for anybody that’s listening to the podcast, I’ll put all the links in the show notes. And Nicholas, I want to say thank you very much for being on the show today. Okay. Thank you so much, Jesse. I appreciate it. 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;13;18;27 – 00;13;36;14

Go to niche in control dot com slash 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;13;37;01 – 00;13;57;21

Go to niche in control com slash case study that is niche in control dot com slash case now.

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