Welcome to Elevate with Elsner. Join us for inspiring conversations with individuals who have transformed their lives and are making a difference through the work that they do. And now, here's your host, Blake Elsner.

Welcome to the Elevate with Ellsner podcast. Today, we have an exciting guest, Brad Starnes, a dynamic entrepreneur who made a bold transition from the fintech world into digital marketing. Brad took charge of enterprise sales, leading to a highly successful career that inspired him to start his own digital marketing agency. In just one year, his agency hit six figures in revenue, which is obviously a true testament to his effort and strategic planning. Brad was recognized as the Entrepreneur of the Year by the Block School in 2021, an accolade that highlights his innovative ideas and strong leadership. As the CEO of Screamin' Cow Marketing Group, Brad now leads a talented team crafting people-first marketing strategies that drive success for small and mid-sized businesses across the US and even now expanding into other countries. We're thrilled to dive into your journey, Brad, your passion for guiding others with big goals, what it takes to succeed in the ever-evolving world of digital marketing is truly inspiring. Welcome to the show, Brad. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me. Yeah, absolutely. So obviously, I like to I like to do a nice introduction and kind of give people a quick background on who who you might be and what what you've come from. The one thing I didn't I didn't mention is, you know, ever since you've you've been little, you've always had a stutter, right? So that's something you've, you know, started with at I'm guessing a young age.

Blake Elsner

Yeah. Oh yeah. I think about second or third grade is about what it was. Um, you know, I, I actually was one of those guys that got pulled out of class and it's like, Oh, you're going to this other classroom because you're more educated or whatever. And it was really because I was technically, I guess, had something wrong with me. Uh, and I honestly didn't even realize that that's what I was going there for probably until about like fourth or fifth grade is about the time that I finally like. click that, okay, I'm not going to this because I got something more talented about me. I got this because somebody out there thinks that something's wrong with me.

See that. And, you know, I guess I remember back thinking in my days at school, like I do remember the other teachers coming in and, you know, they go, OK, well, this kid's going to take a test in another room. And I, you know, I guess looking back on it, you never really thought why or what the the reason was behind it, behind besides the fact that they were different. Right. They never did explain to us growing up, at least my my time in grade school. Um, you know, they never explained like, Hey, kids have different challenges. Kids have different things that they have to battle through and that's going to happen as, as you grow. And we're, we're not taught that as kids. Right. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

And you know, one of the things I, it's interesting because I didn't meet somebody who stuttered until probably about three years ago. Um, so I went my entire life, like feeling isolated. And so we talk about entrepreneurship and all that stuff. And like the world of entrepreneurship feels isolating and lonely at times. Like you, you like know all these people, but it's like, can I really talk to them about this? I really talk about that. And I was just the other day was doing some reflecting and everything like that. And I was thinking about that and I'm like. In a way, like it kind of prepared me for this because I went my, my entire life, I went to this, these other classes or whatever, but I only, like, I worked with a speech pathologist, but they, you know, kind of like a jack of all trades in a way. Like they work with people who have trouble with their R's, their T's, like. We all recognize a lot of those kids like growing up and everything. And so there was always in this classroom, there was two or three people who had troubles with their hours working on the same thing together. And then there was me off to the side working on my own thing. Um, and so that's, what's interesting about it is because like at the time, like I didn't bug me. Um, but subconsciously it was always there that like, Hey, this is, I'm the only one doing this kind of thing. Um, but I feel like it really prepared me for. what entrepreneurship has in terms of like the, the isolation at times and all that stuff.

So, yeah, we know, well, we know that can be a lonely world, the world of entrepreneur. Um, but no, yeah, going back, thinking about that, you know, obviously thinking, was there a proper, you know, support system? Was there a proper, um, you know, plan or implemented in place for a child like yourself to succeed. And if everybody's working on their R's, et cetera, and then there's no really plan for you, that is difficult. And I can kind of relate to being different. I went to grade school. I had red hair. I've always struggled with my weight. So as somebody that was large and had red hair, I always stuck out like a sore thumb. And it probably prepared me as well for what I'm doing today. And it does make you kind of feel like you don't belong or what's wrong with you. And it's simply, that's not the case. It's what makes you unique and what actually makes people want to connect with you.

Evan Brand Yeah, yeah, you know, I went through some of that same thing. I've had a weight problem all my life and you can't really tell now but I do have a little bit of red hair. I used to be like super red when I like was was little and as I got older, I kind of like wore out I guess I'd say but I was very much like growing up it was red hair, overweight, has problems with talking that kind of crap and Uh, I, I remember like the whole gingers have no souls and all that BS and everything. Uh, at one point, apparently I used to like, now I got a little bit like longer hair, but I used to like buzz cut my hair and I didn't have a beard. And so like, I was told constantly, you look like a Bobby Hill off King of the Hill. So I'd walk around like, God damn it, Bobby, like that kind of thing. Cause I just like. Okay. If there's any people who are going to like say crap and shit about me, like I'm going to run around and like, make those jokes about me. Cause it's like, okay, if I'm making the jokes, then they have no jokes to make kind of thing. So.

That that's pretty wild that you just said that because I was called the exact same thing. Bobby Hill, where I literally to my grave, I will tell you that exact same thing. And I would go along with it as well. Like I play you would play that role because you're like, well, what else am I supposed to do? Act mad. Yeah, or act, you know, act like it. It's upsetting when it truly does impact you on the inside. You're like, well, you know, I'm different. So they see me as this character on a show. So I guess I'll play the part. And and that's interesting because that that exact thing happened, happened to myself. And it is it's hard to kind of like push that stuff away and continue to be a kid and enjoy some of the stuff that I think we take for granted nowadays as a kid. I feel like you talk about the soul part. I've always kind of seen myself and people will tell you as an old soul, And I think part of it is that when you grow up in a different state where you're different and people, you know, they start to talk about you in different ways, you mature faster, you understand life a little differently. And I think that does prepare you for Um, and outcome to where, when your, your true self finally comes out and it finally shines, you become somebody that is truly successful.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And, and that's part of the reason why, so obviously, you know, I have a podcast, that's part of the reason why I have my podcast and why it's called the, the unfair advantage. is because the whole theme of it is like, whatever crap that you've gone through, other people would sit here and listen and talk about like, yeah, you know, growing up with weight issues, like that's unfair. That sucks. That sucks. That happens to you or me, like with my, um, speech or like my last business closing down after we raised six figures in capital from friends and family and everything, like all that shit sucks. It hurts like all that stuff, but like, I always say like, that was my set up for success by going through all that crap. And so like, to me, like, it's, it's very hard when you're going through it to like, think about like, okay, this doesn't suck. And I'm like, I'm excited for whatever this is going to set me up for in a way. But when you like, I always look in like. Looking back, and it's like everything I've gone through, it's always set me up for something else. My last business, I kid you not, out of all of these peers and mentors and other entrepreneurs and everything I met through that business, is I'm just throwing a number out there. But let's say out of 10 other entrepreneurs that I knew from that business, I have now worked with probably six or seven of them in some sort of fashion. They've been a client of mine or a partner of mine in this new business. But they were never that. They were just people that I met through like a entrepreneurship roundtable, through a co-working office, that kind of stuff. And it's like, I probably wouldn't have the revenue that I had today and been able to go from nothing to something pretty quickly, this business, if it wasn't for this last business failing and me meeting those people and networking with those people in that last business. And at the time, I couldn't fathom the fact of like what this was going to end up being.

Yeah, that's pretty, I, you know, I haven't, we didn't really dive into your, the business that failed. I haven't really. That's pretty neat to, you know, I say neat, but obviously because I know what it, you know, when you fail, like you say it, you, you rebound even higher and you see some of these guys that have lost millions of dollars. They're millionaires, right? They've lost millions, but they're still millionaires. Like this is what like comes with, with it. So to hear that and to know that even like you, you know, you had to face. you know, your family and investors that, you know, relied on you and thought, hey, this was going to be a good investment and it turned out not to be so you had to face face that music and I'm sure that's tough.

Yeah, you know it. So I had, it was me and two other co-founders. We have this company. I don't know what they did when we closed down or anything, but like when it was, when we closed down, like everybody who invested in the company because of me, because a lot of times you don't invest in the horse, you invest in the jockey behind the horse. Right. And so anybody who invested in me, like I called them and basically on the phone was like. Here's what happened. So out of those 130 investors, I don't know how many calls it was, 30, 40, something along those lines. I think we had a total of, so 130 grand, we had like, think like 60 something investors. So I'd say 40% of them were probably from me. I don't know at the moment, but I remember calling them. And at the time, this is when my. Speech is the worst. Like I could even go through a drive-thru and order a cheeseburger because of how hard it was for me to go through. And like my wife had to lean over from the passenger seat and order my dinner because I couldn't say I want an effing cheeseburger and fries. And so I'm calling these people, letting them know, like, here's what, here's what happened, blah, blah, blah. I couldn't even get my words out. I'm sure they hung up the phone over laughing in a way. But every, almost every single one of those investors, like when I call them and explain what happened, the number one thing I heard was, you know what, it sucks. But when I invested that money, I knew that money was gone. And when it comes time that you need an investment again, make sure you can give me a call because I'm all in. And it was like, eye opening for me because I'm like, I just lost all of this money. And they're saying, let me know when it happens again, like when you're ready for investments again, and I got I'll write you a check. And even to this day, that business I closed up September of 22. That's when my wife and I moved from Kansas City to St. Louis moved in with my mom and dad because we literally couldn't afford our rent anymore. And And I took this job doing enterprise sales here in St. Louis. So that happened in 22. Even to this day, I look these people in the eyes and like, it's probably behind them. They don't care. But some of these people I volunteer with, their family, their friends, they were former coworkers, all that stuff. I look them in the eyes and I see this person, 10 grand, this person, five grand, this person, 300 bucks. I know in the back of my mind the numbers of what they invested, and that shit is on my back every day. Whether they care or not or want it to be on my back, it is. is my goal. I may be 85 years old and on my deathbed and writing him a check, but my goal is to like get is to basically give that money back. And it's not because they've asked me to, they want me to, they expect me to, but it's because like, that's what I ride on every day. And what like gets me up and going every day is making sure that I can build enough wealth that I can at least return back to them what they invested in me. Because again, they didn't invest in the company. They invested in the jockey behind the horse.

Yeah. And that and that says a lot about who you are as a person, because somebody who's going to, you know, give their money to an individual that like they like, they know that, hey, there's a possibility it's a gamble that you might get zero back. But they trust the person and then to go back and say, hey, Brad, we'll trust you every single time. That is. a testament to your character. So that's all. I mean, that's awesome to hear that because, you know, most people don't have a work ethic like that. And the difference between a winner and a loser is the winner just tried it one more time. Right. And so, you know, if somebody knows that, hey, this person like Brad can is if he throws enough shit against the wall, something's bound to stick. And one day when that sticks, I want to be around, you know, profit from it. And that's what's going to happen. And a lot of times people who understand that, yeah, like those conversations you had, it probably went a lot easier. And then next thing you know, you feel like you just got, you know, a thousand pounds off your shoulders. I can't imagine how great that felt after getting rid of all those conversations. Yep. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That's that's pretty neat. But so then you obviously you came back to St. Louis, you know, you you're having to start fresh. Obviously, it's still in the back of your mind. And did this scream in cow marketing group? Is this how this kind of came out? You were screaming on the way on 70 or what?

You know, that honestly should be like what I, what I lie to people and say is actually like how the company name came about. Um, but this is actually my aunt's company. Um, from before I went off to college, I think that when I was in high school, I was freelancing, working for her, building websites and everything. She's based out of, um, like the, um, Miami, Fort, Fort Lauderdale area. And, um, she has a disease called gaseous disease that basically. By the time I was like 17 or so, she basically like couldn't work anymore and had to close down the business for medical reasons. And at the time basically said. If you want to do something with this company, like it's yours, here's the branding, all that stuff, like all the clients were gone at that point, like she had closed it down, but was like, here's the branding. And so for, from then until basically when I went full time in the agency, April 1st of last year, I kind of like operated under the the name, but it was always like this freelancing side hustle type thing. And so a lot of these people from the last business knew what I was doing because when I was doing the last business, we only raised 130 grand. Like, yes, it was six figures in capital. That's a lot of fricking money, but it's nothing compared to what was needed to grow a company that these other fintech companies are getting three and a half mil, five million investments on the coast. And so me and my two co-founders, we opted to not take a paycheck at all. So we were all working a job or doing some sort of side hustle to pay our bills while we were trying to grow this company. And so for me, freelancing build websites was that side hustle. So when that business closed down, September of 22, my wife and I moved back here. We have like 25, 30 grand worth of debt on credit cards. I had already sold my car. So we were, we were down to one car at that point. We had to sell a bunch of crap to basically pay for our U-Haul and our gas to get to St. Louis and pay for our first month's rent, um, for all of our like crap to go in like one of those units and everything. And, um, So all of that happens. And as that's happening, I take this job doing enterprise sales for a company called 1904 Labs here in St. Louis. And I'm like cold calling, cold DMing. VPs of software engineering at MasterCard and like all these different places. And your intro made it seem like it was a lot better than it was. I got very lucky with the job. I was absolutely terrible at it. And part of that has to do with the fact that I was afraid to hop on the phone. Because of my disfluency and everything like that, I just closed down this business. I could hardly talk, like it was the most challenging job that I could take after just closing down a business. And so as I'm working that job, and making very good money for the role that I was in, I'm then taking on all these side projects. And it's from people that I knew from the last company. They were like, Hey, we saw what happened. We were already thinking about having our website redone. So we just want to see if that's something you could do. And then next thing I know, January 1st of last year, my wife and I are able to get back on our feet that quickly because of all these side projects coming in, this job, I'm working all that stuff. We buy a house sight unseen. We close in two weeks and got a 5.49% interest rate, which I'm sure you'd be in the real estate industry. You're like, that's crazy last year. And so we close at the end of January. And then it's like, Balls to the wall, like updating the house, full remodel, everything like that. We didn't even see the house before we had an offer accepted on it. And so we do all this, this renovation. And I mean, it is like 16, 18 hour days. I'm waking up in the morning. I'm building websites, working on a craft for clients. I'm going to work during the day. I'm coming back. I'm remodeling and flipping this house who my dad had been there throughout the day working on some things because he's in real estate. So he kind of like divided up his day. And then I'm working on things for, for clients for these, the side job again, and we move in the house. I just bought this truck because we had been down to one car for the longest time. I bought this truck and my wife looks at me. She's like, you're a walking zombie. You're quitting your job tomorrow. You're, and you're going full time in the agency. No, that is not happening. Like we, we just got back on our feet. I'm not. And she was like, Hey, I'm working all this overtime. She worked for Oracle at the time who had like just acquired her company. And she was on like a contract with the VA. So it's a federal contract, right? There's no way like the economy was looking rough last year. No way she's going to get laid off. All that crap. And then June 15th of last year, she gets laid off from her job. And so this cushion we thought we had to be able to allow that ramp up period and everything was, was no longer there. And we were engaged at the time we got married September 23rd of last year. And so it's like these last 18 months have been this constant, like up and down, up and down, up and down. And, you know, I look at that and when I was talking about, I look back and I'm like, I love that all this shit happened to me because now I'm like, what's next? Throw this shit at me because I'm ready to go. That's a very long answer to answer where the company branding name came from, but I was not like, Screaming and yelling because of everything that had happened. It was a family business, but when it happened, I was going all in. I'm like, you know what? If I'm doing this, I'm doing it. And I'm going to represent a family legacy that like my aunt is one of the core reasons and true reasons as to like how I got to where I am today. If it wasn't for her to taking that chance on me in high school to come work for her, I wouldn't know half the shit that I know now. And I wouldn't be where I'm at today. So.

That's yeah, that's pretty cool that that you that whole story and with your aunt and taking that over, it's it's kind of reminds me of actually the the owner of Worth Clark, who holds our real estate, our license. he named Dwarf Clark after his grandfather and he wasn't even alive when he named it after him. The point of it being was just the work ethic and everything behind it that previous generations brought and showed us. But I'm sure those conversations that you had, you know, with these people, when you had to, you know, had the hard conversations really actually helped you probably with these enterprise, these cold calling, um, calls that you had to get on the phone with and then all this, and then your wife, you know, losing her job or your fiance losing her job. And then now it was like everything that was meant to be. And here you are, you got put into your role and now I'm sure you're loving it.

Yeah. Yeah. And you know, it's one of those things when, when your back is against the wall, that is when you most persevere. As an example, I've been in the mindset of like investing into my team, growing the company. Like I can only grow as fast as Brad. I can grow a hundred times faster, 10 times faster, whatever it is with a team. And so one of the things we did, it was like, okay, let's try to get. buy with as little income coming to me as possible. And let's just keep going. It's like once basically June to September of last year, cause she actually accepted an offer with her new job a week before our wedding was like, let's just try to get by. And so I just took on whatever project we could. We were white labeling work for other agencies, all that stuff. And then like October hit, it was like, all right, let's now try to like wrap up these projects. first of the year going into 2024, let's pivot back into like the model that I wanted to do, which is working with like your home service companies and everything. And so when that happened January of this year, it was like, all right, we're good. We got some debt again from getting laid off and all that stuff. We just paid off 25, 30 grand. What we have now is nothing compared to that. Like we got this. And, uh, I remember us having the conversation of like, let's just take as little as we can. If we have to, you know, put, put a few things on a card, we'll just be careful about it. That kind of stuff. That was January of this year. I kid you not last month. See, we're in September. So July is the first month all year that I have gotten a check consistently on time when I needed it, when bills were hitting all that stuff, because it's been trying to invest in the team and grow the company and grow the company. And so now it's been July, August, and then now going in September, like things are great. It is the most comfortable I've been as an entrepreneur, and it's not comfortable, but it's the most comfortable I've been as an entrepreneur since the last business. And so, when I'm talking about back against the wall, our first kid is due December 12th. My wife's high risk. She has an autoimmune disease, all that stuff. But we find out from the doctors this week that based off the growth and all those things, some different things there, that's possible that we might be seeing a delivery where they'll induce her as early as 34, 36 weeks. So, in my mind, I'm a planner. I'm like, Okay, I need to be able to have enough income by December 12th to compensate her having a reduction in income because she'll be on, you know, maternity leave, short-term disability. They only pay her like 70% of what she gets paid or whatever. So my mind, I'm like, I got till December. And so now I'm sitting here, I'm like. I got six weeks less potentially. And it's that same thing. I'm like, all right, backs against the wall. Like what's the work that has to get done to be able to compensate the loss of income? Because again, we're comfortable compared to where we've been. but we're not comfortable in terms of like what we actually need and everything. Um, but it's this constant grind. And in a way, like I love the game of entrepreneurship in that case, because it's like, all right, you just, you just threw something at me. You just hit me in the gut. All right, let's get back up. Let's go. And how can we keep going and keep going?

I, I, yeah, I love that because, and then you decided to have a kid because to make things even more complicated after you get back on your feet is to have a kid, right?

Dr. Justin Marchegiani And we were beyond blessed, very lucky. It was our first time trying to get pregnant, but we were told by her doctors that it would take us a year and a half. easily, like it would not be the first try. And so we're very blessed and lucky in that case. And so when we began trying, we were like hoping that by the end of this year going in the next year, that we'd be blessed with being pregnant. And then it was like within four to five weeks, we found out. So that's been great. But then now it's like, okay, we got all these things coming up. We've already hit the out-of-pocket maximum with the insurance company because of all, she goes every, we totaled it up. If she makes it to term at 39, 40 weeks, I think she'll go a total of 38 doctors appointments. She basically goes once a week and getting the heartbeat read and all those things. And it's like, all right, like, I'm cool with whatever game is being played against me because I'm just ready to rock and roll and keep leveling up and keep leveling up. There's a saying I heard that new levels unlock nude devils. And I'm just like, all right, what's the next one? Come at me. I'm ready for this.

I love that. I love that. And no, I, what's interesting is how many things we have in common and it, it, my wife has an autoimmune disease. So, um, she had to go through pregnancies. We've had two first one was early induced. Um, so I got the same thing. Uh, the, you know, we went to the OB OBGYNs office and he's like, you're coming in tomorrow. And I was like, What? Wait, I go, there's still like four weeks. I thought like, or three weeks. I'm like, whatever it was. And he's like, no, we have to get this baby out tomorrow, 7am. And you're like, oh my gosh, like, I don't, I don't even have a backpack. I mean, there's, there's nothing like, it was like panic, panic, panic. And I, you know, I know how those stress tests are where they're hooked up. Yeah. Our whole second one going through IVF, she's seeing a high risk OBGYN and an OBGYN. So she was, yeah, you're going to, I know how that is multiple appointments. per week, and then you got to go to work and you only have so many days off and so much time and whatnot. So it's very difficult to do all that and then to still make money. Absolutely. I've been down that path twice, so I know exactly what you're doing. And one thing I always said was, I wish I had the support and the people to talk to through those type of situations, because it is difficult when you don't have someone to reach out to that has maybe walked the exact same path, has been down these stress tests and knows what it's like to go to the OBGYN's office twice a week and take all this extra time and money and then realizing, Hey, you hit your out-of-pocket max. And I did joke about that is, is you do do that every time you have a child. And I go this year, this year we've been taking advantage cause we both, uh, Cassidy and I, my wife, we're both on Zepp bound. And since it's been, you know, we've hit our out-of-pocket, it's been free. And I joked that Zepp bound that weight loss drug. Um, is a very expensive drug just because I guess the science behind it. So we've been able to take advantage of that. And I've been able to lose about 56 pounds on that. So the whole, you know, the whole health care system and having kids, it puts a stress on your life. But like you said, I love that, that quote, uh, where, you know, the next demon, the next level, you just, you face the challenge and you really do, man, it's fun when you, when you beat those demons and push to that next level and keep going, it's like, it gets, it gets fun. I'll tell you. And I never thought I'd have a second kid. and do it the way we did it. And, and, uh, you know, you, you put in a lot of effort. It's not easy. Like I'll tell you, tell you right now, like the, the emotions and, and, and what you go through, um, just from, I joke, it's like contract to close, but, uh, it's, it's pregnancy to birth. Um, so it's, it's, it's an emotional rollercoaster for sure. So I, I'm, I'm excited for your, uh, chapter on that and hopefully everything goes well. I always say that these doctors are so, they're so intelligent when it comes to, um, you know, what to do and when to take the baby out. And then I always say these, some of these babies are, you know, they come out like ours, our first one, he was a day. technically a day later than he would have been preterm where he would have had to go to the ICU no matter what. And a lot of times I tell parents that are about to be parents, like, hey, if your kid goes, if your baby goes to the ICU, that's okay. That's where the child needs to be because it's just growing. That's part of the buildup of where the child has to get proper care and then eventually the baby comes back. But it is difficult knowing those type of things and all the different circumstances and all that type of stuff that can happen. But yeah, you just stay faithful and leave it up to God and things will work out for the best.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, now that I know somebody who's gone through what I've gone through, when it happens, I'm like, Blake, it happened. What do I do? But I will say one of the best things I did this year was I hired an executive admin. Um, I think like April timeframe, it was like right as we found out. And, um, it was like the first couple of months where we're Rocky, you know, trying to figure out the ropes and all that stuff. But now it's like, I can go to a. doctor's appointment and come back and I don't have emails that I have to go through because she knows how to respond to certain emails for me and she filters certain emails that I need to see and all those things. As you know, being in real estate, there is no maternity leave or paternity leave for, for the father, like as an entrepreneur, like you're like, we were on vacation last week and like, I, I didn't work. I took two phone calls while she was taking a nap, but then it was the last day of the month. I had to run payroll to pay my team. Like there is no time off. And by me bringing her on, it is. lifted up so much of like, those things of like to myself, I'm like, how am I gonna be able to enjoy the first couple weeks of his life? Because I got this business I'm running. But with her, like, she has access to everything. She could be honest, she could hack me if she wanted to. She's got access to everything. It takes a lot of trust. And so I'm saying that for for anybody who's listening, like, if you there's a book I have I'm not sending these all out to my clients. There's this book called Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell. And he talks about hiring an EA and on all of those things. But like, that is the one thing if you're an entrepreneur, and you like your you have some big life change, you have a kid coming into your life, you whatever. do something like hire on an EA because they will be like, Karen's my executive assistant. She is like one of the best things that has happened to me and my business is doing that.

Yeah. And it's funny you talk about that. And I think back on when my dad, so our executive assistant's been with us, I think it's 17 years now. And her name's Mickey and she is like, I joke, I can't live without her because she keeps everything in order. She makes sure we get paid. And it really does free up your time. And sometimes like I, It's one of those things where you're like, I don't want to take too much of her time. Um, so sometimes where you're like, I'm like, ah, you know, like Mickey, hey, can you do this? Can you do that? And she's like, always like, oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And, and it's truly, if you treat people like your, your assistants, like you treat yourself, then they're going to do things for you because they know when they're growing the business, it's just going to grow their income and their opportunity.

Yeah, absolutely. And those types of people, like I'm a completely different person than Karen. We actually took this test before I hired her to see like what areas were different and it could complement each other and everything. And but those types of people. If they don't have work to do, they get bored, and they will find another job that has work for them to do. I know somebody who did because she was bored, and so she just went and found another job. It was at work eight hours a day, but it was only working an hour a day kind of thing because there wasn't that much work for her to do. Didn't like it. So she found another job. It's like that's something that I have the conversation with Karen I'm like if I ever put too much on your plate You have every right to push back and tell me no tell me no or if you don't know how to do this you think it's better for somebody else in the team to do like you have full control to delegate things, push back that kind of stuff. But until I'm told, no, like I'm going to keep like delegating things off to you and it's either going to get delegated off from there or she's going to do it or she's going to push it back to me and say, Hey Brian, like I can't handle this. Or this is actually something that's better suited for, for you to handle, not me.

Totally. Totally. And you got that, you got it down already. And that I'm sure you've already, if you could even. account all the time you've bought back, I'm sure. It's quite a bit. I'm freaking rich when it comes to that. That's what I mean. I got to say, yeah. Just right now, we have our assistant, she's working on sending, listing paperwork so I can do this. Like, it is stuff like that where I'm able to connect with you where, you know, your team's working, my team's working, we're doing that. It's just like, when you have high level individuals, they like high or top level systems, right? So in order to have a top level system, you're constantly producing, you're constantly leveling up, you're constantly scaling, or you have the ability to scale. Yep. So that, yeah. Well, that, you know, talking about, uh, we didn't, we didn't get much into the, uh, marketing group, but I know you're, you're kind of right now offering a little, what is this? Like a pre baby sale? You're a little, a little coupon.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, so typically, the ideal client we work with is like a home service company doing between 750k to like three and a half million years like our sweet spot. So those clients are paying us anywhere between 1500 to four grand a month on average for what they're doing. So we've done two things. One is anybody who's in that area, we're giving 10% off their plans for the life of the plant. And so like, if you're somebody in that area, you're working with an agency, you're not, you're thinking about switching, like it can't hurt to call, like to chat with me. I would say I'm like the shittiest salesperson in the world, because if it's not going to work, it's not going to work. Like I'm the first person to tell somebody that this isn't a right fit. And like, we should not be working together because I'd much rather have. few of the right clients than a ton of like the worst clients or the not right clients. So there's that part. And then we've rolled out two other packages that are for the people who are trying to get to that 750k plus mark. So we have one you and I were just talking before we hopped on about how you guys got a lead from somebody who found you on Google Maps. Um, and they actually like plugged in your address and came knocking on the door. And so we have one that's like a package just for Google maps. If you just want to get optimized in that area for people searching in your case, like a realtor near me, somebody to list my house, like that kind of stuff. That's what that package is for. Then we got. Another one that if you want to optimize on Google maps and everything, but also have a website and want to begin doing some of like the search engine optimization for your website, some blog content, all that stuff, we have that plan. And those begin the first one, 600, the other ones, nine 75 a month. So very affordable for somebody who's either just getting going or has a little bit of revenue under their belts to actually begin implementing some of like the basic SEO and marketing practices for their business.

Yeah. Not only is it going to be excellent quality, but like you say, you're buying back a lot of time and this is stuff that you can't just, you know, you can't YouTube it and just do it like, you know, building, building something. It takes, it takes a serious, uh, a mind and a lot of knowledge diving into that, uh, SEO. So I, I, I joke the first time I actually ran into you, we were both getting our headshots done by Allison. I literally walked by you and you, I'm like, who's this guy? He's got like seven outfits in his hand, just ready to go. Like, and I go, I looked at Alice. I'm like the lady doing our headshots. And, um, I'm like, who was that? And she goes, that's Brad Starnes. He's doing big things. I go, I can tell that guy's got seven outfits with them. Um, so yeah, no, I, I knew from that, I'm like, man, we're probably going to connect somehow. And it's pretty cool to see, to see what you've, uh, what you've built and, and I'm sure, you know, going forward, um, you know, people in terms of these packages, I just saw one of your websites, um, you just released, it was pretty neat. I think it was a, was it a roofing company?

Yep. Uh, roofing company in Cincinnati. So solution roof.com, uh, was that one we just launched that last week. Um, and so now we're going into that. And so what I'll say is I don't want to tell exactly what that client's pain, but let's just say anywhere between 1750 to three grand per month, you take that times 12 months and average roof and gross costs before expenses and everything is, let's say about 10 grand, 12 grand or whatever. So if you think about it, that client needs. three roofs over the course of a year for our marketing package to pay for itself in terms of gross revenues, probably six or seven, we're talking about including expenses and everything. We can do more well over that in a year for a client. And so like, that's what people have to look at when they're thinking about investing in marketing costs is not the monthly cost, the short term, you're going to have months where we're going into the winter season. A lot of my clients know they're going to be paying for the marketing. We're going to be doing the work They're not going to see a ton of leads out of it because they're a roofing company. They can't put on shingles on a house when it's like below, I think it's like 40 something degrees or something like that. Um, but they know that come March, April, May, when it's like prime roofing season, like those leads are going to be kicking and kicking and kicking. So, and, uh, Alison Hillman, you mentioned her with our, like, uh, I was getting our headshots and everything. We actually built her website as well. Um, so if you go to a. btpbyallison.com. You can see some of our work through there, see some of her work. You and I are both in St. Louis. I'll give her a little plug that she's one of the best photographers here in St. Louis.

Yeah, she's really good. I didn't realize you built her website because yeah, I've been on the website myself. So yeah, it's always interesting to see the person behind the URL, right? Yep, absolutely. Yeah, no, that's that's pretty neat. All this, all this stuff and you're still young, you got a lot of life ahead of you. And it's pretty cool. We're gonna have to talk about this, talk about this some more. But in terms of that, you know, that roofing website, if if you're, if you're not, if you're kind of like on the edge of, you know, doing a website or, or doing the Google maps thing on these type of packages, I'll tell you right now, it was like, I was joking about that Google maps thing. It's, it's meant for like brick and mortar or stuff that, you know, not a, uh, an office like mine where we're just sitting in it on a computer. There's not a whole lot to come look at. Right. Um, But somebody came to our office because of Google Maps, and that says a lot about Google Maps. And that's the first time, and my dad will tell you, that's the first time in his 30 years in real estate that anybody's actually used a map to come find him. Yeah. So that's saying a lot about. Yeah.

Yeah. And it actually happens more times than you think. Like people will call you and they'll say, Oh, I found you online or whatever. And you guys probably think, Oh, they found us on Zillow realtor.com. If Facebook, it very well could have been, they like found you on Google and doing a search. And so that's one thing, like I always ask people is like, do you ask every customer? Where they found you at because there's no point of me doing the work if these clients don't know like These are coming from referrals or from door hangers or from organic search or from Facebook ads or whatever So if that's something you guys aren't doing or anybody's listening like it should be a required field in your CRM as to like exactly what source a contact came from

Love that. And like you said, don't look at, it's kind of like when I say commissions, don't look at what the commission is. Don't look at the marketing price. You got to look at the bottom line. Like you say, it pays for itself. Like I started figuring that out. I put myself into certain rooms that are cost a lot of money to be in that room and it's paid for. itself already. And once you realize that, then you put yourself into every single room that you can possibly be in because you know these investments pay for themselves and more. So I always say don't look at the price of a marketing plan like yourself because you got to look at the bottom line of what's going to come. And that's success and leads and leads turn into dollars. Right. Everybody loves that. So I appreciate you coming on here today, Brad. And yeah, we're going to have to do this again because we'll have to dive into some more, uh, some more information about your, your business and see how that, that kid's doing. And we'll have to, uh, continue our conversation again, sometime down the road here. Absolutely. All right, Brad, well, I appreciate you joining us. And as always, let's remember to elevate together.

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