She Turned a Dead Iguana Into a $110K-a-Month Agency

Full transcript of Josh Nelson’s interview with Ashley Bissing. Lightly edited for readability.

Josh Nelson: Agency podcast, where we're interviewing highly successful digital marketing agencies from across the country. And as you can see, we are live in studio here in Miami with Ashley Bissen. Ashley, thanks so much for being here.

Ashley Bissing: Oh my gosh, thank you so much for having me.

Josh Nelson: So tell us a little bit about the agency, kind of what, like niche you serve, size of the agency, where you're at in business.

Ashley Bissing: Okay. So I serve like the cleaning industry and lighting industry. I know it's funny, I have, you know, two niches. Right now the size of my… Is that, was that the other question? Mm-hmm. Okay. Size of my business. We have about, six, seven full-timers.

Josh Nelson: Okay. And, and what else? Approximate-… A- approximate MRR.

Ashley Bissing: Right now we're around like 110.

Josh Nelson: Amazing. So solid seven-figure agency. Yes. We celebrated you several months ago. And it's always fun to have people like yourself on to kind of share their experience, share their journey. Obviously you've, you're running a seven-figure agency today, and that's wonderful, but you didn't start there. Yeah. Take us back to like, you know, why you got into the digital marketing space and kind of your journey.

Ashley Bissing: So first of all, I've loved marketing since I was a kid. I just didn't always know that it was marketing. And, I went to s- to school, I went to school like a lot later, but I ended up getting my business degree. I minored in entrepreneurship and business law, and I got my first digital marketing job, at a physical therapy company, and I was in charge of all of the Facebook ads, which at that time nobody was really doing. Hm. And I fell in love. And I, at that moment, I kind of realized that I could probably do this, like what I was doing for this particular company that I was working for, I could probably do it for a lot more people. And then I was like, "Well, I'd probably make a lot more money too if I did that." And so that's where it pretty much all started. I did, you know, end up having a couple more jobs within, you know, digital marketing, and one day I just said, "You know what? This is it." Like, "I have to do this. I have to do this on my own." And, and I did.

Josh Nelson: Amazing. So, so you made the leap. Now the niche is home services, lighting companies. How did you land on that vertical? Like you were running Facebook ads for an organization, how did you get into, you know, the niches you serve?

Ashley Bissing: It's so… I like to say that, I didn't choose the niche, unfortunately. It chose me. Hm. And, it was, it was during COVID. So up until like COVID, I was kind of a generalist type of agency. I would take any local client. I'm like, "Yes, I can do that. Yes, I can do that." and it was, it was a headache. COVID hit and, I was spending a lot of time outside and outside of my garage, and I'm in Florida, and so there was, an iguana that somebody ran over right in front of my house. It was pretty gross. And, I just, I picked that iguana up and put it in a Publix shopping bag and threw it in the, in the trash can, and I wasn't really thinking anything of it. And, you know, two days later when I went to take the trash out, all these flies like flew into my face because there was a dead lizard in my, in my trash can. Hm. And so I was looking to throw away my trash can or find somebody to clean it, and that's kind of how I ended up getting started because I called somebody over and hired them to clean my trash can. And it turned out that, he needed more help, and he needed to get more customers because he had this trash can cleaning business. And I said, "Well, what do you know? I do this for a living. Maybe I can help you. And, you know, you do a good job," which I did. He told his friends, his friends told his friends, and then before I knew it, pfft, you know, we're the… I'm the trash can queen now. And so like it did happen. I wish I could say it was intentional, but unfortunately it wasn't. But I was intentional about- Hm… Getting more trash can cleaning clients, because I understood what I stumbled upon.

Josh Nelson: I love that. I think it's important for all of you guys to hear. Sometimes we think we're gonna choose the niche, right? And sometimes you choose the niche, you go out and you think you're gonna get it doesn't happen. Oftentimes the ch- the niche chooses you, right? You would get a couple of opportunities. You start to find, you know, a groundswell, and it sounds like that's what happened for you.

Ashley Bissing: Yes. Yeah. And, and, you know, we're also like in lighting, as well, and that's, you know how that happened as well? I had a trash can cleaning guy who was like, "Hey, I do this lighting thing too, and could you run our ads?" And I was like, "Yeah, let's do it." And, you know, so then that catapulted, you know, he tells all of his friends who do Christmas lights and it's, it's how it goes. At least that's how it worked for me. I- Hm… I, you know, now both of these, the niches that I'm in, they are kind of seasonal. Hm. So I wouldn't have intentionally chosen that, but maybe we'll get into it too in this, I'm working on ways to make it not seasonal- Hm… And try to get it into everyone's mind. Hey, just because it's not season doesn't mean you need to stop- Hm… Advertising or marketing.

Josh Nelson: I love that. Try to figure out those problems, solve those problems for the niche and for the industry. So it sounds like chose kind of… The niche chose you, got a couple of clients in there. In your case, y- you hired somebody. They had a problem. You had a great conversation. That became the first client. If you had to reverse engineer your first five clients within that niche- Mm-hmm… What was it that worked? Was it all referral, or was there any other strategies that helped to kind of get to the critical mass of five plus within the vertical?

Ashley Bissing: You know, it's so… Yeah, I would say it was, a lot of it was ref- referrals. Hm. But I think Facebook every day because it was Facebook Groups. You know, there was a group that had maybe 2,000… I don't e- I think at the time, I don't even know if there was 2,000. It wasn't like a huge group, but it was a, it was a group of guys that cleaned trash cans. And, you know, every once in a while I'd go in the group and I'd, you know, maybe- Give them some free advice and just not ask for anything. But I do, you know, a big part of it was Facebook groups- Mm. Referrals. And yeah, I mean, I– that's actually, yeah, that's how we got our first five niche clients.

Josh Nelson: Love it. Love it. So look for those verticals that have Facebook groups that you can plug into. You know, don't just go in there and promote yourself. I doubt that you were doing it. No. Talk to us about what you did in the group that got people to know who you were and kind of express some level of interest.

Ashley Bissing: So my agency does Facebook ads and organic social media, which is kind of unique. – Mm. And we're, we're funny when it comes… Like, if you ever look at some of the stuff we do for our clients, it's cute. We do, like, funny memes. We do reels. And so what I started doing was, I would just, like, put, like… I'd go in the group and be like, "Oh my gosh, we made this, like, really fun post. You guys are welcome to steal it. Here's a good caption for you." Mm. And, you know, people were really grateful because, you know, every business owner, they're like, "Oh, what do I post?" You know, they, so that's… To me, I was just like, it's easy to get my name out there. It's actually gonna be used. And I would put, like, a watermark of my business name on there. Mm. So I would put One Love Social lightly. Right. So it was free advertising too. It was great. So I mean, that's, that's– And I still do that to this day.

Josh Nelson: So good. So go into the group and add value. In your case, you gave creative value, like they would've probably had to pay to come up with that content, and you're saying, "Hey, you'll go use this," right? Yeah. And you ki- kind of tapped into the power of reciprocity. Yes. They're like, "Oh, wow, I used that post, and it made me feel good, and maybe I got some likes and some comments. Maybe I should hire her to help create this content on an ongoing basis." Absolutely. Plant the, planting seeds. Love it. So, so good. So we've talked a little bit about how you wound up in the, in the niche. Let's talk a little, a little bit about the program. Like, what is it that you do, and how do you package it for your industry?

Ashley Bissing: So we now have a good, better, and best- Mm. Package- Love it… Which I learned from you. Excellent. And, you know, obviously, we wanna push everybody to the middle one, but we're, you know, basically most people do end up going to the middle one. And, the good package, the basic package is, you know, lead gen. Everybody needs lead gen. So, you know, then the middle one is organic social media, and the best one is e- I think right now it's like with Google business profile optimization. Mm. I think we throw in a couple, like, of engagement campaigns and stuff in there too. Okay. So lead generation is running Facebook ads- Yes… And posting on their organic social profiles.

Josh Nelson: Can you give us an idea what the charge range is for those services?

Ashley Bissing: Yeah. Good package starts at eight fifty, better package eleven hundred, – Mm… Best package is fifteen hundred. And then we do have, like, add-on services too. Mm. So, you know, if a client really went all in, they said, "We want everything," they would be probably around, like, two thousand a month.

Josh Nelson: Excellent. Awesome. Great breakdown of kinda how you package the program. And, you know, a lot of times we think there's a very specific thing we have to do. Like, either, like, we're gonna have to do Facebook, or we have to do websites, or we have to do SEO. It sounds like you've kind of leaned into your strengths in the area where you have expertise and crafted a custom program that matches. How do you, how do you quantify the results for clients, and how are you tracking that on the back end?

Ashley Bissing: So with the lead gen with, like, Facebook ads, that's, you know… We, we track it by how many leads come in and what the cost per lead is. Mm. And we report that to the clients. Now we don't, we don't jump on calls with them- Okay… Because we're not charging them an arm and a leg. Right. You know, so we can't really do that. But what we do is, you know, every month we say, "Hey, look, guess what? This is how many leads that have come in. This is the cost per lead. This is what we did to get you there. This is what we're gonna do to make sure you stay there." Or, or maybe if there was a dip, "Hey, we're aware that there was a dip. This is what we're doing." Or maybe there's a win, like, "Look, we did this, and now you're here." Just to make sure that they understand that we are working for them. So that's typically what we do, for, like, the Facebook set, the Facebook ad side. The organic side, at this moment, we really don't get results. The organic side, the clients, our clients are just so happy to have it done and looking good. Yeah. And that's so, honestly, the organic part is, like, the easiest. Yeah. You know, because it- it's all vanity metrics for the most part. Right. And we're not, our clients are not influencers. Our clients are, you know, th- they're- Home service companies- Yeah… With a very small following, right? Yeah. Yeah. They're, again, most of the time the organic stuff really is for the business owner so that they feel happy and pride when they look, you know. But yeah, the organic side, we don't really track. Sometimes we'll talk about, "Oh, look, there's, look at all these new followers you, you've gotten." Mm. And then the Google business profile, optimization, we started utilizing heat maps, and that is such a beautiful visual. Yeah. And that, I mean, we show them, like, once a month, you know, "Hey, look, look, you're green here, or you're, you were red, and now you're yellow." Mm-hmm. And that's really it.

Josh Nelson: Yeah. Love it. So tangible, measurable results, right? She's One Love Social, but she's not just, "Hey, I'm gonna, you know, just post on your behalf." Like, that's a big part of what she does, but she's driving tangible, measurable leads that turn into sales. She's tracking that through, the conversion metrics and being able to show them that data. I think that's huge to land clients but also to retain the clients. Amazing. So we've got an idea kind of what your program looks like. You mentioned trying to figure out how to not be seasonal. Would lo- I'm sure the listeners would love to know kind of how you're approaching that, for, especially for those of you that are seasonal businesses.

Ashley Bissing: So I cry every year 'cause, like, we, you know, we'll have, you know, r- right now we had 135K month, which is huge. Wow. But then, you know, January is like, phew. So I decided this year, you know what? We're not, we're not gonna play this game. Let's not let history repeat itself. And so what we're doing is we're modifying our packages a little bit. Mm. And I've just called it an off-season package. Okay. And because that's how my clients talk. They talk about, well, it's not season- On season, off season. Yeah. Yeah. So I said, "All right. Well, guess what? We've got a solution for that, too, because you don't wanna just stop." And that's… So I think by me just saying, "Hey, you don't wanna just go in a cold turkey and, like, not do any advertising for like four or five months. You can't, can't do that." Right. Because your competitors aren't doing that. You need to, you know. And so I kind of position it that way and… But it is true because there is, it is, it is, there is some seasonality, so they're not gonna be getting the type of… The Christmas light guys, for example, they're not gonna get leads in January. Yeah. Right? It literally is on and off. You're just- Like, it's done… You're just not. Yeah. But, but we can keep up with the organic social. Mm-hmm. Right? We can keep up with a Google Business Profile because that's, we need that to be optimized all year round. All year round. And so what we do is we kind of, we do, we do lower, the package a little bit. So we do have them paying probably like a couple hundred dollars less than what they normally are for management, but they're, we're also saving them a lot of money on that ad budget. Mm. So they're just, you know, they're, they're very happy. So, you know, like an average client, if they stay with us off-season, they're gonna save probably like $1,500. Okay. And that's a big savings for them. Nice. And we're still make, you know, we're still doing pretty good over here, and now we've retained them and have made the lifetime value much more. So much better. Right. So be creative. If you're in an off-season business, maybe s- you know, snowplowing or landscaping, a lot of these industries, they're on and they're off. Like, be creative on how you can structure out throughout the course of the year.

Josh Nelson: Really great insights there. So you got the first handful of clients within the niche. You've grown it to over 100,000 monthly recurring, which is phenomenal. Like, what's worked best to land clients and to continue to get clients in today's environment for you?

Ashley Bissing: You know, like the networking part. Mm. And I've always been a big like trade show type of person. So not only do we have everything kind of working online, you know, in these Facebook groups and we're getting the referrals, but it pays dividends- Mm… By going to these events because I, first of all, now we know a lot of people there. Our clients are there. They, they get excited to see us. So I would say like that's a big part of that. And also this year we started running Facebook ads- Okay…

Josh Nelson: For our agency, which is also kind of funny because that's really like our bread and butter, and we never did it- Apply it to yourself, right?

Ashley Bissing: We never did it for us. So, what do you know? We did, and I, I know that's, you know, some of, some of you agency owners out there have like different experiences with Facebook ads, but I gotta tell you, like the quality of the leads that we had in- Mm… That we got in were amazing. Yeah. Amazing. It, it was like especially for like the cleaning side of the business, we all of a sudden got people who are really serious about scaling their businesses. Mm. And I raised my prices because of it. I was like, "Wait a second, these guys are willing to pay this? What was I thinking? How…" I mean, at one point I was charging six fifty. Mm. Don't tell anybody. But but yeah, I would say Fa- the Facebook ads were- Mm… Amazing. And we did it for about five months. We brought in, gosh, I should probably have it, dialed in exactly how much, but I wanna say that we brought in probably close to like sixty-five, seventy thousand.

Josh Nelson: Wow. From your Facebook advertising? Yeah. So, so good. So even in a very specialized niche, I get this question from agencies all the time. Like, how do I market myself other than just sending cold emails? And it doesn't sound like that's a big play for you. It's about getting into the industry, becoming known, be- being good enough that somebody wants to refer you and say good things about you, putting out relevant content and videos, and then running solid ads. Can you share any insights, like not necessarily specific to your niche, but just in a micro niche like that, how do you get the targeting on point so that your advertising isn't, you know, hitting everybody, but it's hitting that specific audience?

Ashley Bissing: Okay. So with Facebook, it's… The algorithm is very similar right now to like TikTok, and it's, it's very visual. Mm. So because I have… Okay, so here's an example. I'm in trash can cleaning, so I get in a trash can. That, that stands out. So if whatever micro niche you're in, think of something that represents the niche that you're in. Mm. You know, if it's snowplowing, I don't know, have a, have a shovel or something. Or get on one of those snowplow, like machines. Yes. And that's gonna catch their attention. Yes. It's gonna catch their attention, and the algorithm also says, "Oh, okay, that's a snowplow or that's a trash can." And it's, it will attract. And I, to be honest, my mind was blown too because I was, when I s- started running these, I was like, "Oh my gosh, I'm gonna get all these different home service people that I don't want." And it was just not the case. Mm. I, it was almo- almost 100% all trash can cleaning people. Wow. So that would be my advice is just make the visual what your, what your actual niche is. Obviously, and maybe not so obvious, you should also call out the niche. So, "Hey, snowplowing business owners." Mm-hmm. You know? So Facebook picks up on that and they're, and they're like, "Okay, we're gonna try to find people who are, you know, snowplowing business owners." Yeah. It, it… So visual copy, all of that, you really just wanna tailor it to whatever niche you're in and just say the niche. Love it. That would be like my advice.

Josh Nelson: So let the creative call out the audience, right?

Ashley Bissing: If you've got it in the, in the text and you've got it in the visual, whether it's a video or an image, don't be you in a studio talking Go out into the market. So if as, like applying that to our agency, I would wanna get into a plumbing truck or like get underneath a water heater, and that would really, like really resonate with that audience. I think for two parts, right? Like, first of all, it signals Facebook's algorithm, but it also signals the person looking at it on their, on their phone or on Facebook as they're browsing. Everyone else is gonna ignore it, but if you're a trash cleaning company and it actually jumps out of a little trash can, you're like, "What in the world was that?" Like, "Oh, that's for me," right? Yes. Yeah.

Josh Nelson: Love that. And, and you know, lookalike audiences are pretty special too, and probably most of you listening to this, you have an email list if you've, you know, if you've been doing the cold emails or you just have one from a client. Hmm. You know, if you have at least 1,000, you should also upload that into your Facebook, Ads Manager because that– I think that helped a lot too. Love it. All right. So, networking in groups, Facebook Ads, it sounds like when you say networking in groups, you're talking about industry association type of gatherings. Are they getting together? Like even in a, in a micro niche like that, is there gatherings that are happening where you can exhibit or you can hang out?

Ashley Bissing: Well, so the micro niches don't, at least the ones that, you know, that I'm in, they don't have their own association yet. Not nationalized. It's not, it's not yet. But they go to the bigger ones. Hmm. So, you know, one that we go to is in Nashville every year, and it's like all– It kind of is like all home service, but we make our booth look like the people we want to attract. Okay. And I mean- You grab the– you grab those people that are at that bigger audience- Yes… And they're like, "Wow, everyone else is just general, but you're very specific to us." Yes. Yeah. I love that. Yeah.

Josh Nelson: So, so good. And so like, as a digital marketing agency owner watching this, you know, the tendency is I'm gonna send emails, I'm gonna run ads potentially, I'm gonna hide behind the screen. But there's massive power in getting live and in person at these events, at these conferences. And so living example of that being a big driver of your growth.

Ashley Bissing: It, it's huge. Now, and I will say this, though, you don't see it at the very beginning because when I was- It takes a while. It, it,… Yes, it takes a while. And it wasn't really until year three of doing this that I was like- Mm-hmm… "Oh, this is… Yeah, yeah, I should definitely keep doing this." Because what we were trying to do, and we still do this when we're at these trade shows and, you know, little masterminds, is we do try to sell, you know. Mm-hmm. It is very rare when anybody signs up. Maybe we get two or three. We always have show specials, and it's like, "Oh, womp." Nobody takes it. But you know what happens two weeks later, a month later, sometimes it's a year later, you know, somebody will come in to talk, and I always ask, "How'd you hear about us?" And I'm telling you, I get a lot of people now that say, "I saw you at this convention." Mm-hmm. "Remember when we met here?" Right. And, and that's how I know, you know, obviously pays off. So like, don't get… Like if you're doing this, don't be mad at me and say, "Oh, I only got a couple clients." Me too, right? But just give it a few… This is one of those like slow burns. You just trust me on this. Like- Yeah… It– you will… If you do it and you keep up with it, you're gonna do really well.

Josh Nelson: Super powerful skier, right? There's a gestation period. Just like when you plant a seed into the ground and you put some water, it's not like the tree pops out and starts to bear fruit.

Ashley Bissing: Right. You know, it takes time, right? That the, the roots have to go down, the sun has to hit, tree has to grow up. And so couple of takeaways on that. Yes, you should go. Yes, you wanna be aggressive and plant seeds and have conversations and try and get people to appointments. But if you just go once and think that's gonna have the outcome that you want, it's not. It's like you going and then re-attending the next year, going to the next one. They want people that are gonna be consistent. Mm-hmm. Like there's a lot of fly-by-nights in any vertical where it's like, oh, they got a booth and they showed up that one time, and I haven't seen them again since. They have to see you two or three times live and in person, and that's where it doesn't just start to come in, it really starts to multiply, I think. Yes. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And, and then, you know, some-something else happens. Your brand, you're, you're branding yourself. Mm. You know, and your, and your agency. People recognize you. You get this a lot, Josh, where people wanna take pictures with you.

Josh Nelson: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Ashley Bissing: Well, guess what? I do too. They're like, "Oh, wow." "You're the trash can girl." I go, "That's, that's me." That's awesome. Love that. So hopefully some of my insights there on how you can develop your brand within the niche, even in a very micro niche, get out and in person, right? Run ads, put out great content, position yourself.

Josh Nelson: I'd love to talk a little bit about your sales process. So one of these companies raised their hand, they say, "Okay, let's, let's chat." Talk us through what a typical sales process looks like in your agency.

Ashley Bissing: So ours is pretty simple, and we're lucky in the sense that we're getting inbound leads. Mm. Yeah.

Josh Nelson: So- You're not chasing anybody down… We're… Yeah.

Ashley Bissing: We're, we're not. So people who wanna… They, they wanna talk to us, which is, which is wonderful. And the– we do like one call closes. It's a discovery call. I do have them fill out, you know, to even book the call. I gotta know they're serious. Mm-hmm. So I, you know, I ask questions like, "Hey, you know, what's your budget, and why do you wanna talk to me now? Like, what's the deal? What do you want your business to look like?" Mm-hmm. I, I do, you know, and there's a couple of non-negotiables now, like with my agency. Like, you wanna work with us or you want… Yeah, you wanna work with us, we need assets. We're not using stock images. So I gotta make that clear up front. So they gotta say yes to a whole bunch of things, and then once they're in, they book the call. The calls are usually 15 minutes. Okay. And yeah, I just kind of go over the program like I did, and I ne- I'm– I don't know. I don't know. I don't do this on purpose, but I am not a salesperson, so I usually never say, "So do you wanna sign up?" Mm. It's usually them saying, "Okay, I've heard enough. Like, what do I do? How– what's the next steps?" Like it's that every person on the phone asks- Mm… What are the next steps? And I go, "Oh, well, you know- Yeah, the next steps are I could send you an onboarding email, and it's gonna have everything you need, your invoice, your contract, and yeah, we'll get you going. And that's usually how it goes. Love it. We have a fo- you know, there are people who like to have a follow-up email, so we'll send those too.

Josh Nelson: Excellent. So imagine if you're in a case right now in your agency where you're chasing prospects down, you have to hard sell everybody, you know, you're sending five, six emails after the fact and things aren't converting. Contrast that to Ashley's position, the way she's structured her agency. She's positioned herself as the expert. Prospects come to her pre-positioned to buy, and she's got a very like, you tell me if this is a good fit, right? And they, and they're like asking what the next steps are. That is a magnetic sales process versus a chase sales process. Yes. And I think that's what we all should aspire to in our, in our agencies. So thanks for sharing that. Yeah. I think that's a powerful insight. Let's talk a little bit about delivery, right? So now you've got, you know, a hundred and ten thousand in monthly recurring, a bunch of clients, you know, and prices ranging from six hundred to fifteen hundred dollars per month. How do you get the work done? What does the team look like? Let's talk a little bit about the delivery side of the equation.

Ashley Bissing: Well, this is, you know, one of those things that we're always evolving. Mm. But the fulfillment's pretty tight. And, you know, as soon as the client says yes and they pay their first invoice, the team is like, "All right. Let's go." we have, you know, our video people and our creative side. Th-they're starting to create, you know, four or five different ads. Mm. We have the social media side. You know, we already– we have a lot of these things templated as well. Nice. So it's… But it still feels very custom. Right. And so then the social media team gets– they prepare the first two weeks of social, and our promise to our, most of our clients, like most, is we'll, we'll do, like, a two-day turnaround. Wow. And so we have to have a very tight operation to be able to fulfill- Yeah… And to do that. But we have it. I mean, and that's, that's pretty much what it is. It's like we utilize Slack. We started this last year, and it's been amazing. Mm. So we have, like, an onboarding specialist. As soon as a new client comes in, there's a workflow that we click on, and we say, "Okay. We…" I fill out, I fill out all the information. This is the client's name, this is their business, this is the package, this is the promise. And then it goes straight to her, and she does her thing. As soon as she onboards them, she opens up another workflow, and she assigns everything to the ads manager, to the social. And it's just, it's this beautiful system that we have, and then everything is also in ClickUp.

Josh Nelson: Love that. Lots of great insights there. So first of all, you know, as you're building and scaling your agency, if you wanna be able to scale to seven figures and ultimately seven fi- multiple seven figures, y-you have to systematize the delivery in advance, right? If you're reinventing the wheel for every client, making it up as you go, it's gonna be catastrophic, right? Because in order to retain clients in today's marketplace, you have to be able to get the results, but you also have to be quick. Yes. Quick to implement, quick to get them that first hit. Otherwise, they're starting to say, "Hey, I don't know if this is the right move.

Ashley Bissing: I don't know if I'm in the right place." and so the fact that you're, within the first two days, getting the onboard form, kicking the thing off, they're starting to see the fruits of their investment, is super powerful. Yes. A-and I don't know why I decided it was two days, but one day I did, and I do pull my hair out a lot thanks to that. It could've, could've been five days. Why didn't I just say a week? Why did I just… But that's the promise, and I think that's what's special is that we can promise something. Mm. 'Cause every… At least, you know, maybe some of you can relate, but I feel like every client of mine that comes in, they're like, "Well, well, how fast can we get started?" And I'm like, "Two days. Forty-eight hours. How does that sound?" Sound, sounds great, right? Yeah. Everybody's happy. Meanwhile, the team's like, "Ugh, what? Ugh." Yeah. But systems help.

Josh Nelson: So you said this is in Slack. Is there some kind of project management system on the back end? Can you just talk to us a little bit about, like, the infrastructure of that?

Ashley Bissing: Yes. So all– most of the team's internal conversation is in Slack. Mm-hmm. And that's where we're all getting notified. But the project management system is ClickUp. Okay. It– we're newer to ClickUp right now, and I wish I could elaborate more.

Josh Nelson: The team is very much- Mm… Though on ClickUp. Yeah.

Ashley Bissing: I need to get more in it, but I'm able to keep up and add tasks from Slack to ClickUp. Okay. And that's really the most important thing for me as, like, the, you know, the business owner. But the team is thriving- They're on top of it… Thriving with ClickUp. It is like, it's like what they needed. And I would say, you know, we d- we, like, really dialed in our fulfillment, which has been a struggle for a long time, as soon as we adopted, ClickUp.

Josh Nelson: Nice. Mm-hmm. Love that. And so hopefully that relieves some pressure for you if you're running an agency and you feel like, "I need to know how to use ClickUp or Basecamp or all these project management systems." Typically, as the entrepreneur or the owner, we're quick starts with low follow-through. And I'm not saying that's Ashley, but maybe that's you. Me personally, at Plumbing and HVAC SEO, I was terrible with project management, and when I tried to set up the tools, they were never set up right. I never checked the right boxes. And recognizing that's not my strength, and that's probably not your strength if you're a type A, you know, looking to grow your agency person. You gotta find an operations team that is high follow-through, that loves those tools, that will nerd out on ClickUp- Yes… And know how that stuff works, and make sure that the boxes are checked. Because that's the first position you wanna remove yourself from in the agency, right? Is the actual doing of the work, the managing of the team. So I'm glad you shared that. That way you're like, don't feel like you have to know how to do it all in the agency.

Ashley Bissing: No. Oh my goodness, no. And the reason, you know, that I'm able to not really be that involved in ClickUp, we– I hired somebody to build it out. Mm. And n-now this person was wonderful because she has worked with us before, and she knows our bus- We're unique. You know, I do– I don't think that we're like every agency, and the person I hired to build out our ClickUp understood that. Mm. And so it's very custom- Right… To us. And, – She trained the team how to use it, and sh- you know, I have somebody holding everybody responsible to the, to the things in ClickUp, so I can kind of just sit back and be like, "Okay, this is great.

Josh Nelson: Everything's working." They've got it. Yeah.

Ashley Bissing: The system's in place.

Josh Nelson: Yes. You're obviously driving the innovation on like the creative on the ads and how to modify it, but not necessarily in the day-to-day- Yeah… Of doing that type of work. Would love to talk a little bit about how you think about your team, either virtual, in-office, types of roles, accountability chart.

Ashley Bissing: Like how do you think about the philosophy of the team that does the work? Well, we're, we're all virtual, and we all have a, we have a great relationship.

Josh Nelson: I mean, we're small, you know, and I like to say that we're small and mighty.

Ashley Bissing: Mm. We have weekly team meetings. I w- maybe it's not every week. We, we, we will. We're gonna get better with that. But, I personally, like, I think for my, the lifestyle that I want, the type of entrepreneur- Mm… And business owner that I am, the virtual thing really is perfect for me. I am not, I've never really been much of a corporate person even though I was in the corporate world at one point. I left. Mm. It, it's very hard for me. I can't re- I don't actually, this is a, nobody knows this, I don't have a desk. Is that right? Yeah. Like it's something in my head, like I was just like, I don't, I don't want a desk. I don't wanna work from a computer. I mean, I have a laptop. I'm on, I'm on my laptop often, but maybe I'm on a lounge chair. Maybe I'm sitting outside. I might be on my couch. I might be at my kitchen table. But that's how I like it because I don't, I like to be informal, and I don't wanna feel like I have to be somewhere. Mm. So for me, that's why virtual is better. Yeah. And I think for my, you know, I've attracted those people very similar to me on my team who can work really well virtually. Now they all have desks, but- They have desks… They have desks. They have desks.

Josh Nelson: – That's great. And as the entrepreneur in your business, you get to choose, right? You get to choose whether you want a team that comes in or whether you want a virtual team, whether you want that team in the United States or international, whether you wanna sit at a desk or have the autonomy to, to do it anywhere or like from your laptop. It sounds like that's what's worked for Ashley. I've seen agencies go to seven figures in all of those different models. So you gotta find what works best and what like is natural for you that's gonna really, you know, create your own business lifestyle, create your own dream for how you want the o- the organization to operate. Would love to hear about kind of how you think about hiring and onboarding that virtual team and how you keep that team engaged.

Ashley Bissing: So I do actually, for quite a few of my team members, especially some of the newer ones, I have used like recruiters- Mm… To help. Smart. Because that's another thing. I mean, if you present me with, you know, the best options, I, I'm very, I can interview them and, you know, I can say, "This is the person." But to actually get them and to do the thing, the JD on Indeed or wherever, it, that is also something I used to be very embarrassed and I felt ashamed, but I just, I mean, I couldn't get myself to do it. Mm. But, we, you know, as a virtual agency, I h- we do have a little bit more disposable income coming in, right? So I, it's okay for me to hire a recruiter- Absolutely. Mm… To, to get, you know, to get me ninety percent of what I need and then I take it from there and, you know, actually make the, make the hires.

Josh Nelson: Love that. So lean on people that specialize in recruitment of these types of roles. Talk to me about team culture. You said that you guys all work together really well. You've got weekly meetings. What, like what are some of the things you do in order to create a culture, you know, people are engaged, they're bought in, and they're, you know, they're generating the outcomes?

Ashley Bissing: Well, in Slack, we have a chat that everybody checks into every morning. Okay. And it's just like a simple, "Hey, good morning. How's it going?" You know, we talk about like personal wins. What else do we do? We have a culture, I promise. I'm just trying to think what else. Gosh, Josh. What else do we do? Week- weekly meetings.

Josh Nelson: You guys get on Zoom.

Ashley Bissing: We do, we do Zooms. You know what help, what… My team is very motivated by money. Mm. So we, you know, I'll do spiffs sometimes. So I, we really wanted to hit a hundred percent all client satisfaction, and we were so close, so I said, "All right. So I'll do this every once in a while, and like five hundred for every team member if this, this happens by next week. And if it doesn't, it's okay, but you won't get five hundred dollars." And so I, I try to keep it fun doing that with them. Mm. They, I can… They all have like a really good relationship with each other too. Like I see them chatting in the groups and, you know, teasing each other. And when I do these, you know, funny, fun spiffs, like Jack will message Mia, "Mia, don't mess up. You better get on that account today." And it's just, it's really cute. It just kind of works. Mm. And so I would say like bonuses and like little spiffs like that help the team when you're, when it's virtual. Having fun, engaging questions when you're doing the meeting. So we always do a personal win, and we also do a business win. Mm. A professional win. And we talk about it every week.

Josh Nelson: Love it. So, so good. So let's shift gears. We've talked about how you land clients. We've talked about what the program looks like and how you deliver results. Let's talk about retention, right? And in your niche, it's, you know, that's a tough niche to retain in. What are some of the things you do to create the, you know, ideally that retention level so that you continue to grow?

Ashley Bissing: Well, I think it does come down to like making sure that they're getting stats, they're getting, you know- Mm… We're telling them like everything that we're doing. So we'll, we purposely sometimes will just make small adjustments. Even, e-even just the smallest adjustment on an ad, what's great is the owner gets a notification that, oh, an ad's been published. Mm. Because sometimes I You know, I think they feel like, "Oh, well, what are, what are they really doing?" And I think that's very important to make sure that you're go– You know, that's what we do. We, we go into the accounts at least two to three times a month- Mm. Sometimes more. But really to make sure that the business owner knows. And so if you were to ask any of our clients, "Does One Love Social care? Do you think that they're doing what, you know, they said?" "Oh, yes. Oh," and they're, they're ecstatic. Mm. So I think little things like that have helped. Now that we have those off-season, you know, packages, they're… I– That helps. They're like, "Wow, they really care. They care so much that they made a special package. You know, they're thinking about me." you know, and I, and I know that that's, that's working.

Josh Nelson: I love that. And she said two things there, that number one is, results, right? All other things being equal, if you're not getting results for the client and they don't perceive those results, you're gonna, you're gonna get churn. But the other thing is care. The number one reason a client leaves is perceived indifference. And so, you know, caring, showing that you care, bringing them up to speed and, you know, showing that will make the big difference in whether they stick around with you long term or whether they churn out a couple months in.

Ashley Bissing: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And it, churn does… You know what? I mean, it does happen, but I would al– I sometimes I let it. I'll purposely, like, just… I don't like to fight anybody, so if they don't wanna stay, I go, "You know what?

Josh Nelson: I think you should go then." Mm.

Ashley Bissing: And what happens a lot is they come back a couple months later, maybe it's five months later. I've had some come back a year later. They go, "Look, the grass was not greener. Turns out, you know, you guys are actually the best." I always act surprised. I go, "Really?" And then they never leave again.

Josh Nelson: Love that. Love it. It sounds like that's, like, your philosophy is more the, you know, let them come to you, let them see the value versus trying to chase them, and that attracts clients into your world, on the way in and, you know, on the way back in, it sounds like. Yes. So let's talk, let's talk about productivity. It sounds like you like to have more of a, you know, not at the desk environment. You like the flexibility to travel and kind of work wherever you want. How do you structure your day? Like, any thoughts you can share with the group on remaining productive in a virtual environment?

Ashley Bissing: I keep everything in my calendar. Mm. So I may work from the pool, I may work from the beach or from the couch, but I do have everything in my calendar, so I do know, okay, well, at ten o'clock every Monday, this is our meeting. That's done. You know, eleven o'clock, I've gotta watch something that Josh is going to be producing. And but no, so I have, like, just… It's, it's all on my calendar. And if it's not, then, then it won't get done. And I have, an executive assistant now that helps me a lot- Mm. -with this a lot. And so she makes, you know, she makes sure everything's there. And I have, you know, team– not even just te– like individual meetings, like maybe once or twice a week with people in, on the team. So I think, yeah, just like keeping it in the calendar has helped. And then, you know, then there's… I do work out. I make sure that I go on a midday walk- Mm. -to like clear my mind, and yeah.

Josh Nelson: Excellent. So, so time blocking, right? Especially if you're non-productive and you're kinda like all over the place, set into the calendar, follow the calendar. That's one of the keys to productivity and efficiency. It sounds like it's working really well for you. Yes. Amazing. Well, Ashley, thanks so much for sharing today. Congratulations on growing to seven figures. I have no doubt you're gonna continue to grow and scale. Thanks for your wisdom that you've shared with the group today. If you had one piece of advice, one final piece of advice for our listeners, maybe an agency at ten or twenty thousand dollars a month that's trying to get to the next level, what would that be?

Ashley Bissing: You said it earlier. I think it's care. Like, really care about whatever niche you're in. So like if you're not already super passionate about it, like figure out a way, just figure out a way to like, be really passionate about it and be passionate about the results that you get your clients. Because I do know that the way that we operate is a little special- Mm. -but it all comes from we just care a lot. And so I would really encourage you to really care about the results that you're getting your clients. Do whatever you can because, you know, a year from now, you're gonna be very happy that you did. Mm. And you could just have a very… You'll have a good reputation out there and, yeah, just do the best you can with your clients.

Josh Nelson: So good. Care. Care about the results- Care. -care about the client, care about the relationship. It's gonna come back to you in dividends. Actually, if someone wanted to connect with you further or learn more about you and your services, what would be the best way?

Ashley Bissing: Y- Probably go, find me on Facebook. In, in my little bio, you can schedule, a call with me, or you can just jump into the DMs.

Josh Nelson: Slide into the DMs.

Ashley Bissing: Slide into the DMs. Yes.

Josh Nelson: Excellent. Well, thanks so much for sharing. Guys, if you got value today, be sure to reach out to Ashley, thank her for sharing, and, we'll see you on a future episode of the Seven Figure Agency podcast.