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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 and Control and creator of leverage for growth. Welcome to the agency Leverage Edition. Today I am here with Michael Upshur, founder of Above the Cloud Media and Marketing, a digital marketing agency focused on integrating digital media and marketing solutions while innovating and optimizing your business processes.
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Welcome to the show. 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 and background of your agency? sure. so a little bit about above the cloud. We actually, started or formed, in about 2018. we really didn’t start taking on business until maybe late 2019, and then really in 2020.
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and part of that is because I was a co-owner in another organization that, I was owner, for about 15 years. and so as the pandemic happened, consulting services, just started to really come to a head and begin to fill my funnel because of the background that I have in multiple different areas of, digital media from live streaming, because that was a company that I owned previous before and audio video production and all of those things.
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and so as a result, we started to work with different organizations such as municipalities and, you know, other, corporate entities, that really had a desire to really move toward a more virtual, component of what they were doing in their in their really day to day business model. That has shifted, right? Because it shifted the whole world.
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Right. And so, so with that came the tools that we begin to leverage. you know, not only digital media in terms of marketing, but also, integrated solutions with audio, video and then really tying it all together and then creating distribution for a lot of those who really didn’t have the proper channels or platforms to distribute their content across based on their entire organization, both internally and externally.
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So we began to build those, from, you know, business cases that made sense for the type of clients that we were working with. So as a company, our, our footprint is a little different than most, in the space of just marketing. And that’s the reason why we’re media marketing agency, because we tend to have a type of client that needs, whole solution without having to go to multiple different platforms or, you know, companies to get that.
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And so we bring, a complete solution. And so that’s kind of our summary of how we started and a little bit of who we serve. Awesome. Yeah. doing these interviews always reminds me of how much of an impact 2020 had, like, with different businesses and having a shift towards the online environment. what kind of, led you towards the creation?
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Like, how did you know? Above the cloud. I’m called to be an entrepreneur. I’m going to create this agency. Can you talk a little bit about maybe either on a high or kind of like how you got started? Yeah. So how I got started. And I like the fact that you said the call. How did I know?
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Well, I was actually on an airplane. on my way back, I believe it was from either, business conference that I was at or, on my way to nab, if you’re familiar with NAB. I can’t remember exactly where I was going, but I do know that I was on an airplane. as I looked over the wing of the plane.
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we were just going above the cloud. I’m a man of faith. And so, I just heard the Lord speak to me and say exactly that above the cloud. And I wrote it down in my notes. wasn’t 100% sure of what it was. but then it began to come to me. The whole formation of the business, the organization itself, and how we would be able to serve, people really above the cloud.
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So when we think about cloud, we think about digital computing and all of those things. Right. And so, but everything that we do today, somehow refers back to the cloud and in the digital space, right where things are stored, how things are house, how things are delivered, so forth and so on. So, we wanted to ensure clients that what we do would not only go above the cloud in service, but really be able to bring those things down to a level that even they could understand.
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Because a lot of things, when it comes down to it, let’s face it, most of our clients, a lot of that stuff, language wise, is over their heads. so when I sit down in rooms with clients who are talking to developers about a product, or somebody on my team, they actually have the bandwidth to be able to take the information that’s coming in and translate that to a client.
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bringing it back to their level. so really, that’s how, you know, when we look at it from that perspective, that’s how the calling sort of came, of how we would be able to serve a business community. and, you know, do it in a way that was equitable for the clients that we served. And then, of course, us as an organization.
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Oh, I love it. I love the stories. I kind of like, I’ve just been obsessed with the either the entrepreneurial calling or like some daring like pull towards entrepreneurship because it’s definitely not the easy way out, you know. Yeah. Yeah. and it helps to have a foundation, you know, just a call to entrepreneurship.
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you know, that started back in early 2007. and I really went full time into entrepreneurship in 2000, seven, in the fall. and as I say, you know, having owned a, a previous company, led that for 15 years, had a great staff and team. In fact, some of my staff and it has come over with me when we made the transition to Above the Cloud.
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but it was just a pivot and going in a different direction, just based on where I felt I was being led, and then also where I saw the business community going. Awesome. And and now we’ve talked about, serving the business community who’s kind of like your either ideal client or what industries do you typically either focus on or, like to work with?
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No, absolutely. great. Great question. So our typical clients are non-profits, municipalities. And then we do have some corporate clients, who we like to work with. All of the above. you know, because each one brings something different to the equation based on what their needs are. And a lot of times when you get into solving problems for, clients, you find that some of the problems that you may solve for one entity may also work for another.
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so our whole motto is understanding our client’s business landscape. And so when we look at it, you know, from, from soup to nuts with all the things that we do, we try to make sure that we got our clients process better than anybody else can. So our number one thing is really listening to the client need and then discovering ways that we can work together.
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And we realized that not all clients. or as we say, not our business is good business. So it doesn’t really matter the size of the client or the brand, if it’s not good business for us is something that we probably will kind of move away from. Maybe make a recommendation, to a client or maybe even jump in on a consulting level up front and then help guide them to the process that’s best for them.
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yeah, I know, for those of, the audience that are listening and kind of maybe a little bit earlier in the journey, a lot of times people, and the beginning of their agency will just kind of take whatever comes their way. whatever, you know, clients are, you know, like, and what got you to maybe did you start from the beginning kind of having a very select, kind of criteria of who you were looking for or did that kind of evolve over time?
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great question. Yeah, yeah. Great question. So my, my background, started in sales. and so because my background started in sales, qualifying clients have been something that I’ve done the course of my ten year and my sales career. you know, and so I’ve never wanted to be a needy business owner. I think that those one, it doesn’t serve your client well and it doesn’t serve you well.
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you end up overcommitting, and underpay, right? And you deliver products sometimes that the client never really understands what it took to go into it. part of that is because most entrepreneurs want to impress, their clients. And so a lot of times they’ll, they’ll work, to try to impress them and oftentimes end up just not doing that.
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I’ve been fortunate to grow up in a family of entrepreneurs. You know, my father, owned his own business. my godmother owned her own business. So I’ve, I’ve watched him. And the number one thing that I watch was how they serve their clients. Right? When you serve your clients right from the beginning, you set the right expectation.
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When you set the right expectation, then you have an opportunity to kind of qualify your clients based on what their need is and how you value the services that you’re bringing to them. If you undervalue the service, then certainly they’ll undervalue the service, right? They may appreciate a low price, but they won’t necessarily appreciate all that went into it when you’re losing on the back end.
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And I’ve watched many entrepreneurs do that. and I’ve coached people not to do that. And I’ve worked with other, you know, entrepreneurs to kind of help them to understand that the number one thing that you have to do is not be afraid of pricing. as I said, I got my start selling cars, right. I was number one at what I did.
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I did it at a high level, and I was never ashamed of what it was that I did or what I presented. And so never allow somebody else to dictate to you what the value of your services are. So my thing is, I never going and counting the money. whether that’s the money that’s coming to us or the money that’s coming out of the client’s, pocket.
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I always go into it looking at what is the need and can we address the need, and then we associate the value with the need, and then everybody wins. Oh, I love it. I absolutely love it. And I bet you that’s probably one of the things that you know kind of the frame is if you were to look at people that are, maybe are 1 or 2 steps before you and you’re kind of teaching them something that, you wish you would have known.
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I’m sure that’s one of those things, but is there some other things that you would tell somebody that maybe just a little bit before where you are, right now? the number one thing and this is probably something that, you know, people say all the time is find a mentor or find somebody who’s either done it before you.
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Right. yeah. Get somebody who’s willing to train you and find somebody who’s willing to pour into you the knowledge and expertise that they’ve had along the way, because they’ve probably already experienced a lot of what you’re going to experience. And if you’ll listen and allow them to guide you along that process, it’ll help to really, I guess, in my way of looking at it, it’ll help you build momentum in your success.
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Right? Because then you’re saying, hey, I have somebody this here that’s willing to coach and guide me along the way. And I don’t have to, you know, have all the same pitfalls that they have experience. Right? Yeah, absolutely. I love it, man. So 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?
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absolutely. So number one best way to reach us is through our website. It’s, we are above the cloud.com. and as far as, you know, special offers, generally we do a free consultation for, you know, anybody that reaches out to us and, you know, that consultation can go from, you know, the different services that we offer.
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So when you take a look at our site, you know, you look at the service that fits you best and then we can go from there and then we, you know, we kind of do a business, you know, analysis of where you are and how we can help you kind of take it to the next level.
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awesome. Well, you can check out. we are above the cloud.com. And thank you so much, Michael, for being on the show. Absolutely. Jesse, thank you for having. The 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 controlled.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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