Running the Bases with Small Businesses

Jason Swenk - Smart Agency Mastermind

February 22, 2021 Randy Rohde Season 1 Episode 22
Running the Bases with Small Businesses
Jason Swenk - Smart Agency Mastermind
Show Notes Transcript

Running the Bases today with Jason Swenk  - former marketing agency owner, and current partner in a $20M Digital Agency.  Jason now works with digital marketing agency owners from the around world helping to establish systems and processes to scale and grow faster.

Fresh out of college Jason was off to work for Arthur Anderson, one of the big 5 consulting firms. Quickly realizing that he couldn’t work for anyone but himself, so he changed direction, quit the day job, and launched a digital marketing agency that quickly grew to a multi-million dollar operation working with brands from AT&T, Hitachi, and Lotus Cars. After 12 years of steady growth, it caught the attention of bigger agencies, and the agency sold in 2012.

Now, Jason runs a unique consultancy helping marketing agency owners grow their agencies faster.

We talk about racing cars (Jason is an avid off-roader, race car driver), baseball and what it takes to thrive in today’s business climate.

Learn more about Jason Swenk and his Smart Agency Mastermind at https://jasonswenk.com/

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Randy:

I'm Randy Rohde and I'm fascinated with entrepreneurs and small business owners. Plus I love baseball. Every show I sit down with the small business owner and we discuss their running the bases of entrepreneurship. We throw the ball around on strategy management, execution and innovation, plus a little fun baseball talk. Hey, thanks for joining us today. Settle in, grab your Cracker jacks and you know what they say? All right. It's a great day for a ball game. This is Randy Rohde and you've got running the bases with small businesses and it is really a great pleasure for me, , to have our next guest on the show here. This guy is a digital marketing agency owner, or he was at one point is a agency consultant as a partner in a massively growing agency right now. And at one point he raced cars. And you can get all of his great resources and everything at jasonswenk.com. My honor, Jason Swenk. Welcome to the show.

Jason:

Oh, thanks for having me. I love the intro. I love the baseball theme. Yeah, there we go.

Randy:

Hey, so before we get digging too much into, uh, what we're going to explore with your agency life, tell us about this race car thing. Seriously, you were racing cars.

Jason:

Yeah. Uh, you know, I guess back in. 2002, I always wanted to buy a Mustang and it was the first car I really kind of bought nice brand new. And so I got a Mustang GT, and as soon as I got it, I wanted to go fast. Right. It's kind of like Ricky, Bobby. Uh, before Ricky, Bobby, and uh, someone said, well, why don't you come to, um, you know, I was in Atlanta at the time. Why don't you come to one of our track days where you can go to like one of these racetracks? And they have like high performance driving school. And I took it there and I was like, man, this is cool. And someone put me in there 66 Mustang. And I was like, Um, and so I went on Craigslist and shopping around and find my own 66 Mustang and found one. And it was everyday driver for someone really bad shape. And we just turn it into a race car over a period of two years, and then did wheel to wheel racing for a number of different years, all over the country and, uh, won a championship. Uh, one year and it was a lot of fun.

Randy:

So you were, you, you weren't just like behind the wheel, just living out, uh, you know, midlife, you were like, yeah, we're in, we're doing it.

Jason:

Yeah. Yeah. We were, we were in it. Um, it was a lot of fun and I met a lot of amazing people. And then, you know, I remember, uh, I had my second child and, uh, Some of my friends were starting to get hurt. And I remember my wife looking at her face. I was like, I can't do this anymore. She's she's too stressed out. So, Oh, I can only imagine I found another racing. Oh, there you go.

Randy:

All right. So Jason, so tell us what you're doing now. So you've grown an agency. I mean, you've done the life. You've grown an agency from like zero to, well, over seven figures. You've sold it. You essentially moved out to Colorado, out to the wilderness and are chopping trees down every day. But what are you doing now? Really?

Jason:

Yeah. You know, it's creating a resource. I wish I had when I ran my agency. So, you know, what I, what I realized was I wish I knew a lot of the systems or I had a resource I could tap on, so I can create that freedom to pick and choose and do what I wanted within my business. Right. And rather than being reactionary. So that's what we do by creating as much of the relevant content that we can about what's working. What's not working and connecting amazing people together.

Randy:

That is awesome. So when you were starting out with your first agency, did you know that you wanted to start an agency or was it kind of by accident? I mean, what's the, what's the story on the very first, shingle, you hung out there.

Jason:

Yeah, it was totally by accident. I mean, I always knew I wanted to go into business. I mean, ever since I was little, you know, it was hustling, whether it be running out in the fairway and getting golfers golf balls and selling it back to them or, you know, whatever it was. Um, but, uh, one of my friends look like Justin Timberlake from Insync, uh, and this is back when in-sync was really popular. And so I created a fake band fake website called in shit. And featured him and three of my other friends. And, uh, and it got popular in like 99. And then people started asking me to design websites. And so that's kind of where it started and then just kept growing it over the years and working with some amazing clients for Lotus cars, which is pretty cool or, you know, Aflac and, um, and then we were lucky enough to sell.

Randy:

Good for you. Nice and lucky enough to sell. Yes. So what are some of the challenges? So as you can look back on those days, what were some of the challenges that you guys faced when you were growing your agency? How did you overcome those things?

Jason:

I mean, the list is so long. I can't, I couldn't even, you know what, let's start here. You know, one of the biggest challenges that I had was I was just being reactive to what was coming to us. Right. And if you think back I was, um, an accidental agency owner and I was just reacting to all the work coming to me, but I didn't have visions of where we wanted to take this. Um, and I didn't give my team the power. In order to make decisions for that. And until we got to a point where we were a little over a million in revenue, maybe 2 million, I can't remember. And I was just so frustrated. I just hated everything I did. And I was about to just close up shop and just go get a job. And I realized that if I could answer these two questions where, you know, what do I love doing every day and what don't I never want to do ever again. And by answering those two things, then I could say, all right, well, who do I need to bring in in order to help me with this? Um, what do I need to delegate? What do I need to say no to? And then, then it started becoming fun. And then I could focus on the systems I needed to do. And then I also could communicate to my team. I'm like, Hey, This is where we're going. This is why we're doing it and make the best decision you can, based on that knowledge, rather than coming to me for everything. And then from there, it just stemmed from, you know, we weren't charging enough, uh, which is a really big, big issue. A lot of people have, you know, we were positioning ourselves like everybody else was. We weren't, you know, focused on, you know, selling the result versus selling a service that we wanted to sell someone versus what they actually needed or what they wanted. So, you know, those were some of the mistakes we made

Randy:

and I would guess just, you know, in thinking about your. Clients that you've had in the past and just in business in general. I mean, some of that same stuff is, I mean, those are challenges, obstacles for anybody. We almost, regardless of what business you're in. Right? So sometimes as a business owner yeah. You get like bogged down and doing the stuff that is just the grind that like, I hate doing this. Why am I doing this? Right. And try to figure out a way to eliminate that. And then all of that introspection around. Pricing and around what is it? Are we providing, is it really a value or is it just a commodity? Good lessons. All right. Um, so listen, I've listened to a little, a lot of your podcasts and videos, uh, over the course of Monday years, you really do a lot of great, just a ton of content out there, and you really dig into the culture of an agency., which I, again, is one of those things I think can really train San and go across almost any industry of business. Tell us about your approach to building culture. Why do you think it's so important?

Jason:

Well, I mean, you're going to be around the people in your organization more than your family and you better like, love them, you know, just as much and all have the same belief, right? It's not about hiring. Or working with your twin, that's going to be a complete nightmare, but it's about hiring and working with someone that believes in what you believe in, right? So if you believe in being resourceful and having fun, right? That's a diff that's a type of person that you want to have in your organization, but you just can't come out and say, are you resourceful and fun? Like, it's like, like whenever I'm interviewing people for, you know, our agency mastermind, I'll be like, one of the questions I ask is like, what do you do for fun? And for the ones that go all, I, I work like this. I'm like, Oh, you're, you're not going to do well in here. Like we got a waiting list. You're not ready. You're not ready for us. Right. And so, I mean, think back, you know, Simon Sinek had an amazing video on YouTube. Everybody should check out. I think it's called like, start with why or something like that. And he talks about like, um, back in the sixties, which is very relevant to right now about like Martin Luther King. And he had this big rally of hundreds of thousands of people, or however many people, you know, were Washington and they organize this without social media, without technology. And you think about like, well, how did all these people show up on this day? And why did they show up? Right. Well, they all believed in, they wanted some kind of change and they believed in what he believed in. Right. And so that's what you need to do within your organization. And everybody believes in the same thing. There's amazing things that you can create. I mean, Apple's a great example, they wanted to create a resource or they want to create the tools to let people change the world or, or something like that. I might be butchering it, but you know, those people and that's how they're able to do that. Versus if, if Steve never had 'em. You know, a vision, they'd just be like, you're scraping technology. And then you could be like, whatever other technology that we don't even know their name off.

Randy:

That's great. Yeah. And especially, I love the, uh, the reference to Apple because I think that's, uh, that's real appropriate as well. All right. Good, Jason, it's that time of the show that we call Do you like baseball? Uh, I used to watch it all the time. I don't, I don't watch, I watched it when nothing else is. Okay. To be honest with you. All right. Well, this is a great show for you, right? And then baseball. All right. Well, this is a part of the show where we just kind of deviate a little bit from our business talk and, uh, we have a little fun with baseball. Um, our research team goes through, we kind of try to find some, uh, Little relative aspect of baseball, uh, that our guests just might be interested in. And, uh, uh, with you today, we knowing that you love cars and stuff. So we like, Hey, let's kind of hit them up with the question about, uh, major league baseball players and their cars. Okay. Great. All right. So yeah, no, like what was the era of the winning pitcher of the last series? Kind of question. Yeah. Yeah. So you can only imagine, I mean, these are guys who are making millions every year and the kind of cars that they could literally have at a whim. You know, you've got the rolls, the range rovers Ferrari's a couple of these guys have got, uh, the Lamborghini, Evan. It's a door Aventador Roadster. That's a beautiful car. Justin Verlander has got one of those. If you know who that guy is. All right. So here we get down to a couple of really interesting ones. So I'm curious if you even have heard of this car. It's very rare. Evidently I didn't know anything until our team gave this, uh, uh, 2016, ADI are S seven. If you ever heard of that car. Oh yeah. Evidently like only 50 made. Uh, so this guy, Marcus Stroman, I'm not even familiar with Marcus, but, uh, he owns one of those. So right. As soon as he got drafted, that's what he went out and bought. So. I don't know about that. Yes. All right. So here's your question though? Bryce Harper, , if you've heard of that player, probably one of the top five players in the league today signed a massive contract a couple of years ago with, with, uh, Philadelphia, the Phillies $330 million contract. All right. His car of choice. That's what I'm going to throw at you. What do you think this guy's car of choice and he's, uh, he's probably 27, 28. I don't know, somewhere.

Jason:

So he's probably not going to vintage car. I would presume. So. I don't know, maybe a Bentley, a

Randy:

Bentley, actually. No, this is a guy I think is probably right after your own heart hearing. He has a 69 Camaro SS.

Jason:

Ooh, that's nice. Yeah. I would've thought since he's rather young.

Randy:

I know, no, he went old school, man. He's a, yeah, he's an old school player. He's hitting them out of the park and, uh, driving it home as well and very nice. All right. So that wasn't so bad. Was it? I know you were a little nervous about

Jason:

it was going to be a trick, but yeah. Okay. Now, now I know you're not trying to trick you, so I'll probably give him that.

Randy:

Okay. All right. Good. All right, well, let's get back into it. All right. So Jason content, right? I mean, you live. The world of content you generate and provide just really excellent content and folks, you can grab it. Jasonswenk.com on YouTube. I don't know. What's what's your YouTube channel? Is it just Jason Swenk as well? In fact, yeah, actually you were the one to kind of kick me in the butt to get moving and rolling out my own podcasts. So. What's the value to you in this approach about generating content? How do you know, what, what is that mean to you?

Jason:

Well, yeah, it goes back to, you know, our why of, we wanted to create a resource we wish we had. And, and I know with the lifestyle I want to live, I can't work 24 seven, and I can't, even if I could work 24 seven, I couldn't help out the amount of people that we could. With the content that we actually put out, right? Like if I was working one-on-one and, and doing, uh, you know, private sessions with everybody, there's just not enough time that I couldn't, I couldn't reach that many people. And I always had people reaching out like, Jason, let me pick your brain, which I always hate. Like, it's like, Jason, let me, let me get your advice for free. right and go, which I don't mind, but I want to have that on a mass scale. Right. So that's why I was like, let me create a podcast, let me create YouTube videos. So, or let me create blog posts. So if you like to watch videos, if you like to listen to audio or write, I can, I can help help you out. And I also felt like at the time, when I got into this business, I think it was in like 14. Um, when I started working with agencies, Or maybe 15. I can't remember everybody was writing blood posts and you couldn't tell the tone. You couldn't get to know them, their personality. Excuse me. I'm choking. You're killing it. That's right. Yeah. I know. You're all, you're all nervous about. I really got ya. But, uh, they couldn't understand the tone. You couldn't understand the personality. And honestly, I was a horrible writer, right? So that was a huge weakness. I'm horrible at grammar. And so I was like, well, let me do a podcast and let me interview some of my old competitor's old friends. And, uh, and then I liked it. Like it was addictive, uh, you know, cause you build all this, this value for people.

Randy:

I love, you know, your YouTube channel. You've got, I don't even know how many I love the thing you do this Swenk today. Today you have 500 over 500 videos. And they're fabulous. And actually I referred to it even with some of my clients and say like, listen, here is some incredible content. And, but you know, when we talk about, you know, how it should look and whatever, I mean, it's just really good content. And, , and I, and I appreciate you saying that you really wanted to be able to provide kind of your experience in your life, , lessons around operating an agency in a, uh, in a. Uh, in a mass way, , for folks to be able to digest it because it's, uh, it, it really is a great approach. And I'm sure that it's come back to you, uh, in a multiple, , from, uh, just, uh, you know, just a benefit to you.

Jason:

Well, yeah, I mean, you know, it, it really builds a big, the longer you do it in the more consistent you do it. The bigger moat you create around what you're doing. Um, the cool thing that happens that I've realized over the years is most people that engage with me, whether it be a mastermind or a program or whatever, it's usually after two to three years of digesting the content, right. Which I love. And you see all these people out there now of like, that's kind of why I don't get on Facebook too much anymore. Right. It's like an ad. Here's your silver bullet for doing X. And, uh, and you see those people go, fly by night, but if you can get consistent and relevant and you really find your tribe, like Seth Godin talks about right. You know, it's been created. Amazing. And then the coolest part too, about you creating this content, you know, especially if you have kids like your legacy, right? It's your legacy like? Well, after I'm gone, they can always go back to it and be like, you know, like, let's say ride my mountain bike down or mountain and something happened. Oh, When they're older and they're running a business, if one will run a business, I guarantee it because these are they're just like me. They get fired from everything. They can go back to that advice. I think that's pretty cool.

Randy:

Well, listen, I know you're doing great work with your mastermind group and you're helping agencies grow., and I'm sure you got guys like me that just come in like, Hey Jason, I have like, I I'm the guy who's like calling Jason, can you, uh, give me a thought about this, but what are some of the common obstacles you see or hear from some of these folks that you're working with? You know, how do you help them get around some of those common things? Cause I'm sure you probably are having the same conversation, you know, with multiple people, right?

Jason:

Yeah. I mean, there's, there's so many, some of the things is just like, Uh, around pricing, like they're not charging enough or they're not putting their self out there as, you know, the thought leader. Right. But I'm so happy for you that you're doing the podcast. Right. It's just, it, it allows you to create this amazing content and it allows you to connect with amazing people, you know, and really tap on them. Right. Like, you know, a lot of times they're not doing that., and so those are some of the challenges they just can't see. What's. They tell their clients, right? Like especially marketers, they can give you amazing advice. But if they sometimes looked in the mirror about it, they'd be like, Oh, I'm not doing that. And I'm guilty for that. Many times I was talking to someone earlier, I was like, Hey, we had a big team. And now I have a very small team. And I was like, I don't know if I could go back to running a big team. Like, I think that'd be horrible at it.

Randy:

I think you're very, very right because, , I don't know how many times, you know, I'll have conversations with somebody and then I'll, uh, in regards to meeting a client, Hey, you should do this or do this. And I come back and, uh, you know, later that night, like, Oh man, I hope they don't go look at our stuff because we're not, it doesn't look anything like that. What I think what I know should be, um, yeah, but. You know, that's interesting. And again, I think so much of the content that you put out, , and talk about is really transcends around agency life and around the agency. So like as an example, pricing, you know, that could be relevant to any kind of service provider., and examine your pricing. What is it that's going to set you apart? Are you just delivering a commodity? Are you really driving, uh, driving great value in your service and you know, and, and there's a benefit to that and looking at examining the pricing structure of that stuff. So I think it's all good, man. That's good stuff. All right. So coming down, we're down at the bottom of the ninth here, Jason, and where we're down to the last one here. What advice do you have for rookies of the game? So these folks who are. Whether it's agencies or just any small business owner or somebody who's thinking about starting a small business. And what kind of advice do you have for those folks?

Jason:

Everything big starts off small. Um, and so, you know, meaning a lot of times when you're starting out, you look at the big guys of what they're doing, and then you try to emulate what they're doing, but you really didn't look at the path that they actually took to get there and look at, you know, cause like Tony Robbins says success leaves clues. So you really like, you may, like if you were trying to do my business, like you may look at everything I'm doing. And if you try to mirror that you would fail most because you didn't look at the path that got me here. And model that. And then as you're looking at that foundation, it's not about just copying someone it's about kind of using it as a framework and modeling it to fit yourself. Right. Like, and being patient and being consistent. There's no overnight success. It's just. Someone discovers you overnight. Right. And you were hiding, but you've been doing this for years and years. Right. So, you know, just remember, , everything big starts off small and be consistent and patient and, and driven.

Randy:

Oh, I love that. that is a home run, right there, everything big. Okay. That's good. Well, listen, Jason, thanks so much for being on the show. Uh, folks listening, you can catch Jason at jasonswenk.com. He's got his podcast up there. A lot of his training and resources are online right there. Check them out at YouTube, uh, search for him on there as well is incredible amount of. Videos and resources for you. It's great stuff, Jason, thanks so much for being on the show. Really appreciate it. And thank you for kicking me in the buttc saying, let's go and get it going.

Jason:

Good. Thanks for having me. And I'm glad you started. Yeah.

Randy:

Thank you. All right. And for those folks who are listening to, Hey, thanks for joining us today. If you liked our show, please tell your friends subscribe. And of course we would love those reviews. And as a, like to sit around here and see you around. Running the bases with small businesses is brought to you by 38 digital marketer, a digital marketing agency, committed to client growth with lead generation higher conversions and increased sales connect with us today. At 38 digital market.com.