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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.
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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.
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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 Phil Wiseman, founder of Analytics that Profit, a digital marketing agency, connecting the dots from clicks to customers by focusing on all the nerdy things like SEO and data.
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Thanks for coming to our show today, Phil. Hey, Jesse, I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you a bunch. Yeah, absolutely. Can you tell us a little bit about your history and the background of your agency? So I truly am a nerd. I actually do have a degree in chemical physics. And I had an industrial wastewater business for decades. So that about 12 years ago, a friend of a friend had a calibration business and he said, hey, I could use some help.
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And so I started working with them, and I really did not know anything about websites or digital marketing. So I had a friend I played music with at built websites. So I was like, hey, I think we need a website. And then I hired agencies to run Google ads and digital marketing and analytics, and every month I just got frustrated with these reports that focused on the agency and not me.
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Me meaning, hey, I’ve got 30 people on payroll. Did that activity generate revenue? And so I just got frustrated in that process, became a Google partner. I got certified in ads and analytics. And then one day a bell went out in my head. I was like, hey, I wonder how many small business owners have the same frustration. They don’t know if they’re getting clicks or customers.
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So I started Analytics at Profit as a side hustle. To be completely honest, just saying, hey, I’ll come in one time, connect the dots. But over the years it continues to grow and people ask more questions and I’m doing more things and I really, really love working with small business and trying to keep them from wasting money on things they don’t understand.
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Yeah. I I love hearing the story of kind of how, analytics at profit started and, and kind of was born out of a need or frustration that you found. can you talk a little bit about that moment. Was it like a specific moment where you were like, man, I gotta start, even if it’s a side hustle, I gotta start that business.
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Or, what kind of led you towards entrepreneurship? So I’ve always I’ve been a 1099 or, goodness, most of my life, I’ve never fit in the corporate mold. I’ve always loved being a small business owner. I’ve worked with major corporations. but I kind of had that moment because I was like, hey, how many other businesses out there have this same frustration?
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And so I didn’t really know. I didn’t do market research. It was just kind of a gut feeling. And I started going to networking events, started pitching myself as the nerd. And then I get, you know, I call it the seven layers of Kevin Bacon. You know, I would get these referrals for layers deep. Oh, I was talking to so-and-so and he said, we should talk.
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And as I worked more small business owners, particularly with SEO, I found people are spending lots of money, not really getting results. They don’t know what they’re purchasing. And so if you follow me on LinkedIn, you’ll see I write a lot of articles about SEO because it’s very confusing to me. It’s really the new Emperor’s clothes. And if you’re going to be a business owner, you really, really need to understand what you’re purchasing before you purchase it.
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And I’m a big believer in having a scope of work and timelines and having regular communication. And I found a lot of places, a lot of agencies just didn’t do that because they just felt they were so much smarter than me, which they were. I didn’t know all these things, but I just kind of found it insulting that no one would take the time and step me through the process and answer my questions and explain things.
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And oftentimes I’ll tell people, hey, here’s a DIY, you don’t even need to hire me. You can do these six things and your website will be a thousand times better. that’s awesome. And has the side hustle turned into a full time. oh yes. I’ve been doing this full time. Goodness now six, seven years. and like I said, a lot of it’s referral, a lot of it is inbound marketing because, I do focus heavily on LinkedIn.
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I do a lot of content creation. And the reality is, you know, people say, stay in your lane. You hear that expression a lot. I don’t believe in that at all. I believe you should create your lane. And so I’ve just kind of created a little Uber niche. I don’t really fit with anything else in the digital marketing agency world, and I’m completely fine with that.
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And that kind of leads the conversation about do you have like a either a some ideal clients or a certain market or industry that you seem to fit really well into. Yes, I fit very well, particularly with ISO certified manufacturers. No, I know that sounds very bizarre because some people can listen to the podcast and go, what’s ISO?
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So in the quality world, which I spent decades, there are certifications that companies receive based on their quality system. And what I’ve found is a lot of companies just don’t know how to market that because they have the certificate. They spend lots of money on these certifications, but they’re like, oh, I don’t nobody wants to hear about all these technical things.
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In fact, they do. People want to know about your quality systems, your specification, what you’re doing to provide the best quality product. And that’s kind of a neglected area because most people have no idea what you’re talking about when you say you’re an ISO certified manufacturer, love working with businesses that were kind of, I call it that in between.
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They don’t really have a full time staff. Several people are handling social media, the website, they may have a web developer, but there’s really no strategic planning. They haven’t really set any KPIs or OKRs. They don’t have any real goals. And I just love sitting down and going, okay, what is success? What does success look like for you?
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What would be success in six months unless chart out a plan to get you there? Yeah, the the amount of clarity that can come from a really solid plan, and process that can be really beneficial for sure. What? I guess for your own kind of business, what time do you have team members or are you doing yourselfer, talk a little bit about your team.
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So. So it’s interesting. as this started, I was just hanging out with all the nerds and just met a lot of really brilliant people that had either run their own agencies or been at agency life and didn’t like it. so I kind of do that spoken hub model. and so everybody that I collaborate with, they’re all independent contractors.
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And so they have their expertise, which is completely different than mine. And I’ve learned in every business I’ve had, if you want to be successful, you need to collaborate and work with people that are much smarter than you and that are experts. And so that’s kind of how I built my whole business. I I’ll be honest, I’m not a great writer.
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I’m just not. And so I work with really great copywriters because that’s something I don’t do well. Social media. Yeah, I’m on social media. I certainly wouldn’t say that I’m an expert. So I work with people that I call, you know, the kings and queens of curation. They really understand the platforms and where businesses fit, and those are areas I’m not experts in.
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So I get people that are smarter than me and collaborate with them. But, there’s a that’s a huge thing. because a lot of people that are maybe starting off, their business now, maybe a first time or they’re earlier in the journey, a lot of times they try to wear every single hat, or, you know, try to be a master at everything.
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And, kind of make them more average. So, is that one of the things that you would teach somebody that maybe is like 1 or 2 steps before, you right now? Absolutely. So always hire people that are smarter than you and then understand where you sit. And, you know, if you’re staying in your lane and that lane is crowded, look for a different lane.
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Don’t be like everybody else. Every business I’ve ever had, I’ve been the contrarian. I go exactly opposite to what the market’s doing, because if everybody’s doing it, I don’t want to be a part of it. I’ve always been that unique and different person, and most business owners started a business because they have a passion about something. And and like you said, they can get bogged down in the day to day and forget their passion.
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So if you’re starting a business, I don’t care what phase you’re in. The first thing you need is a good CPA and an attorney. Those are two things you’re not going to be experts in. They can be very beneficial, and they know lots of people and can really help you network your business. So if you’re not an expert, don’t try to become one.
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Keep your passion and you can be passionate about that, building your business and then hire people that are smarter than you. And that’s I see a lot of businesses fail because owners refuse to do that. They don’t give up control, they micromanage. And that’s not a great way to have a pathway to success. Absolutely. And what is what is success for you in the next like maybe 1 to 3 years.
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What are you hoping to do with analytics at profit. So I’m a big preacher of understanding what you purchase. So one of my big goals is to work with as many small businesses as possible. I don’t require retainers, so I’m more than happy to work with people on just, a training basis where I teach them these skills.
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Because as the market is so fluid, things change and people shouldn’t be locking themselves into long term contracts. So I want to give people enough knowledge that they feel comfortable making decisions. Maybe they’re not going to do the work, but are comfortable hiring an expert. and just as I look at things holistically, I want to work with as many small businesses as possible to give so many people the advantage that they can’t they can’t afford these big marketing agencies.
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So I want to equip people with the tools so they can grow and get to the next level and build their own capacity. yeah. Empowering the small businesses. Yes, yes, because that is where 80% of the marketplace is. And as you look at businesses over a 20 year life span, the majority of small businesses fail. And they fail usually within the first couple of years.
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And I think a lot of that is due to the fact that people haven’t sat down and really mapped out a business plan. And like the question just asked me, where do you want to be in a year? Where do you want to be in three years? You need to have that mapped out and have a timeline and really get articulate about those steps that you think will lead to success.
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And I’ve always been a big believer in fail as quick as possible. You will have more successes when you learn how to fail quickly and recover, and that’s a big gap I see with a lot of businesses, they’re afraid to fail and I’m like, no, no, no, no, let’s run this experiment. And if it crashes and burns, great, we’ve learned a great thing and we’re going to move on.
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I love it. Reminds me of my agile project management background. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. awesome. But what is the best way for people to get in touch with you, or do you have any offers for them that they can take advantage of them? Absolutely. So connect with me on LinkedIn. I talk nerdy all the time. I make little explainer videos, and it’s really most of those don’t have any pitch in them at all.
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I’m just trying to educate people so they could be, you know, informed consumers. if you hop over to our website analytics, that profit.com, you’re going to find a search bar about halfway down the page. Just type in technical SEO and you’ll see a free technical SEO audit hop over there. And it really is free. There are no strings attached.
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And it just kind of explains the good and the bad and the ugly about your website. Maybe why you’re not showing up in search like you think you should. And that can be a jumping off point to build an SEO strategy and like I said, free. Follow me on LinkedIn and you’re gonna hear lots of nerdy conversations. Awesome.
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So you can check out, Phil Wiseman on LinkedIn and analytics. That profit.com, for its free technical SEO on it. Thank you so much for coming on the show today. Hey, 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.
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Go to niche in control.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.
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