She Niched Into Martial Arts Schools and More Than Doubled to $72K a Month

Full transcript of Josh Nelson’s interview with Cris Rodriguez. Lightly edited for readability.

Josh Nelson: This is the Seven Figure Agency podcast. Discover the strategies and techniques to grow a highly successful and profitable digital marketing agency with your host, Josh Nelson All right. Well, hello and welcome. Thank you so much for joining us on today's session. I am super pumped to be in- i-interviewing today Chris Rodriguez from GrowPro Marketing. This is part of the Seven Figure Agency podcast series, where we interview highly successful digital marketing agencies from across the country. And I've known Chris going on, I would say, like, going on 10 months now, 10… Almost a year. Yeah, about. And is that, is that about right?

Cris Rodriguez: Yeah. Yeah. I, joined, like, at the end of the… Right when kinda COVID hit, is when I started looking because we took a massive hit in our industry. So I think I joined in, like, June or July of the Seven Figure Agency of last year.

Josh Nelson: Okay. And if my notes are right, you kinda grew from about 30K MRR to over 65, kind of on the brink of the seven figure, threshold over the last nine to 10 months or so.

Cris Rodriguez: Yeah. Well, this month, we're actually,… Th- we should be hitting, as long as all of the, you know, funds go through, 72. Nice. So this would be technically our first kinda run rate towards a million, this month, which, you know, we're, we're really excited about. Saw tremendous growth since we joined Seven Figure.

Josh Nelson: That's amazing. Well, well, congratulations. I'm sure everybody wants to hear kinda how you're doing it in your digital marketing agency, how you've had that level of growth, how you're serving the clients and retaining the clients. So if that sounds good and you're either watching this live, give me a yes in chat, or if you're watching this on Facebook, give us a like or a yes or a one or something just so we can get some engagement going. So Chris, to kinda just start off, introduce yourself a little bit, kinda your background, how you got into digital marketing in the first place.

Cris Rodriguez: Yeah. So, my story's, you know, pretty unique. It's not like most agencies. I actually own a brick-and-mortar martial art school. I've been a martial artist since I was eight years old. I've had that business for nine years, and it got to the point where it was running itself. You know, really focused on developing a really strong team, and, it's a Brazilian jujitsu school, so most people, when they think martial arts, they think, like, punching and kicking and blocking. We choke people out for a living, and it's, it's a lot of fun. And, once it got to that point, I started getting a lot of questions from other school owners in the industry like, "Hey, how did y- your school become so successful?" So I started consulting, just because the school was, you know, pretty much on autopilot. And consulting, the number one question you get as a consultant is, how do I sign up more customers, right?

Josh Nelson: How do I get more customers? How do I get more clients?

Cris Rodriguez: And in a martial arts school, it's how do we sign up more students? And we had had a lot of success with digital marketing, predominantly Facebook Ads and Google Ads, with the combination of a phenomenal website, built by actually one of our Seven Figure Agency, masterminders. Steven Reinstein, he's got a company, Market Muscles, that did our website. And we just, you know, when that question consistently came over and over again, I decided to start teaching school owners how to run Facebook Ads on their own. So I started with this eight-week marketing mastermind, and we've had probably, like, 600 people go through the course. It's an eight-week course where we do four weeks on Facebook, two weeks on Instagram, two weeks on Google, and at the end of the course… I started teaching this in 2018. Every single time, without fail, the school owners would say, "Chris, this was amazing. I learned so much information. But holy cow, that's a lot of work. Will you just do it for me?" And I kept saying, "Eh, you know, I don't really have an agency. I don't have the time." And then finally it was just kinda silly that I kept saying no. So I took on three clients, that had gone through the eight-week marketing mastermind course and got them great results that very quickly turned into 10 clients, and then I realized, all right, this is, like, legit, and I can't do this on my own. So I started hiring, remote team members, and GrowPro was launched back in March of 2019. And then I started hiring my first remote team member a couple of months later. And, you know, throughout 2019 and early '20, we grew to a four-team, remote ad account managers. And I realized that I was not a great leader in regards to a remote team. It's not my strength. And I think that's something that's really important for entrepreneurs to figure out. What are you really good at, and what are you not so good at? And I knew to… I knew how to gr- to, to grow and empower an in-house team, 'cause I did it with my brick and mortar. So I made the decision to, bring it in-house to really try to build long-term culture, build a strong local team. And I don't know. It's just kinda, like, boring on your, on your own in front of a computer. I like working with people and being around people, and life was really good. We were growing. We were producing better systems. We came on with Seven Figure. Changed our pricing structure, which was, like, the one little tweak that immediately saw our client value increase. And everything was going really great, and then COVID hit. And, we run ads for martial arts schools, and, you know, martial arts schools got shut down, including my own. And, you know, to be transparent, it was, it was tough. I wasn't just navigating COVID for my agency. I was navigating COVID for my martial arts school. I've got eight employees there. I was navigating COVID for my consulting business, which I also do on the side. So, you know, we took a big hit there and lost about 30% of, you know, our clients. So, you know, that kind of brings us to COVID, and we were fortunate we were one of those businesses that exploded once the EIDL loans started coming in and the PPP loans. And, we, recently purchased this office building, which was, something that, you know, has been on my to-do for a little while, and, it's, you know, bringing in extra money. We have a tenant, so now wearing this kinda, like, landlord hat. And, yeah, we're just really rocking and rolling. We're, we're sitting at 130 clients, and nine full team members. So I've brought everybody in-house, full-time team members. And, yeah, it's,… You know, running the martial arts school for as long as I did, I started to lose passion for it. Been doing it since I was eight years old, and the agency has really helped to reinvigorate that passion and, really allowed my ripple effect to go a little bit wider. So- Mm… That's kind of a long story short on how GrowPro got started.

Josh Nelson: I love it. So kind of born out of necessity, born out of, like, these other martial arts schools being like, "Hey, how did you do this?" Like, "Can you help me do this?" Started with education, and that education blossomed into some done-for-you marketing services and, you know, here we are today with a really fast-growing, digital marketing agency, which is, which is phenomenal. Let's, like, rewind back to about nine months ago. Agency was at about 35K monthly recurring, somewhere in that, in that range. What were some of the challenges you were trying to solve for that helped to accelerate the growth of the business?

Cris Rodriguez: Yeah. I mean, you know, when my martial arts school, the third year re- my martial arts school was in business, I did 346,000. That year I got a mentor. The next year I did 522,000. I mean- Mm… Just almost a $200,000 growth in one year because I found the right mentor. And that mentor, his name's Mike Medsker. He's, he's now, you know, become one of my best friends. And, I didn't have a mentor in the agency. I was literally just, you know, making decisions by, you know, "Oh, I think that sounds like a good decision. Oh, pricing structure, let me see what my competitors are charging and, you know, that's what I'll charge." And, I just really had no direction. And I actually, you know, found you through your book, and I read your book within a day, I mean, just fired through it. And I remember I was lying in bed reading the book, and I took a picture of it, and I tagged you on Instagram. And you actually responded, which I thought was super cool. And, you know, what I was really looking for was a mentor. I was looking for somebody that would tell it to me straight, that would, you know, guide me in the right direction. And, you know, it's,… I think there are three mistakes that entrepreneurs make, just kinda like if we're gonna generalize, and I've worked with, like, thousands of specifically martial arts school owners, and these are the three mistakes that I see them make over and over again. Number one is they don't hire fast enough. They wait too long, right? They're stuck doing $10, $12, $15 tasks. They have this mindset of, "Oh, I need to make more money and then I'll hire," when in reality, well, you hire so those people can make you more money, right? So I think that's mistake number one. Mistake number two is they don't reinvest their profits back into marketing, which is how you grow. It's how you scale. And then mistake number three is they don't find a mentor. And I made that mistake until I found you. And it's, you know, it's so funny because I know the importance of having a mentor and… You know, I had followed a couple of Facebook groups and a couple of, you know, the gurus in this industry. And, I don't know, Josh, you're just such a genuine dude. And I just think in the marketing industry, there's a lot of people that are really great at marketing themselves, but not necessarily great educators and teachers. And, you know, that's ultimately what I was looking for is, you know, sometimes you need somebody to, you know, put you on the right path, to tell you the way it is, and to set certain expectations. You know, when we do our, 90-day roadmap, you know, I'll, I'll set a certain goal and you're like, "Ah, you know, I think you could go a little bit higher." So, you know, constantly pushing us to become, you know, the best versions of ourselves that we can be. And, and that's ultimately what I was looking for when, you know, I was finding Seven Figure Agency.

Josh Nelson: That's awesome. And thanks for, thanks for all the kind words. I really appreciate it. So i- if you were to kind of encapsulate, let's say like two to three things that you changed in the business during that window of time that kind of helped you go, you know, you know, almost double the revenue and kind of on a, on this run rate, what were, what were k- some of the key changes that were put in place?

Cris Rodriguez: Yeah. So I've got four for you.

Josh Nelson: Okay. Perfect.

Cris Rodriguez: Number one was the pricing… Yeah. The pricing structure and the program packaging. And it's so funny because the very first day that I met my martial arts, school mentor, his name's Mike Medsker, the very first day I met him, he sat down and he said, "Show me your pricing structure for your martial arts school." And it was the first thing that he changed for us. Same thing with you. When we're doing the 90-day game plan, our very first kickoff, the first thing you told me I had to change was the pricing structure. And, you know, just dialing that in, was just incredible. Our cl- like our average client value was sitting at like 450 bucks, which I… You know, when I was reading your book, in one of the beginning chapters is talking about picking your niche, you specifically say, "Find a niche that on average does a million dollars a year." Y- it's very hard to find that in our industry. But, you know, the… It's just an industry that made sense for me, right? It's, it's just, you know, the industry that I'm in. So the pricing structure was the first thing that we implemented, and really program packaging. You know, I didn't have packaging. I had a la carte courses. You know, pick this one or pick this or pick this. And being able to basically stack those services on each other allowed us to improve our client value. So, you know, that was huge. It's, it's not just what you charge, it's how you charge as well. So that was kind of, you know, big takeaway number one. Big takeaway number two was the minimum viable funnel. Mm-hmm. And you know, as like digital marketers, we know that. And, you know, I'm really grateful for… You know, you've gone through and utilized lots of different platforms which have gotten you to where you're at. And, you know, not now… Because we're seven… In… With Seven Figure Agency, I don't have to make those same mistakes. So finding high level, which I honestly have a little bit of a love/hate relationship with- Don't we all… I- yeah, it's a phenomenal platform, but it doesn't work all the time. But setting up our minimum viable funnel, and specifically the lead acceleration session. So, you know, it's funny, I still get your emails for plumbing and HVAC SEO, because I love seeing the type of content that you put out. So when I joined Seven Figure, I went to your website, I went through the, you know, your minimum viable funnel and opted in and, you know, saw your video. And I literally sat there and hit play, and then listened to you, typed out what you said, and then paused and then typed it out again, and that's how I got the video scripts. I literally just sat there and typed it out, and then set up the minimum viable funnel. And utilizing high level and the triggers, you know, it's, just really allowed us to hone in on the sales process. So that's what I would say is, you know, biggest takeaway number two is the minimum viable funnel and, you know, very grateful for that piece.

Josh Nelson: So, so on that, just so I know, like the… What did you have? There was some type of appointment mechanism. Was it more warming the people up, giving them something to opt in for on the front end? What were some of the key things that you had to get in place to tighten that up?

Cris Rodriguez: I mean, you know, prior to Seven Figure Agency, I would just hop on a Zoom call with them and talk. Like, there was no procedure. There was no system. And I was able to be successful with that because of the authority that I had built in my, in my industry, which I know it's a very unique story, right? Most- Mm-hmm… Most agency owners don't, you know… W- w- you know, that might not be relevant to them. But I, you know, had put in a lot of time as a consultant in the industry as a school owner, and people trusted me. And, you know, they trusted me because I put a lot of really great free content out, and the paid content, the courses that I put out. You know, this eight-week marketing mastermind course I only charged 497 bucks for. I mean, eight weeks, 90-minute sessions. You get all the recordings. We had Facebook groups. You know, I would do Q&A sessions and, you know, really just provided a ton of value for what I was giving. So I really didn't have a sales process prior to Seven Figure. And, you know, even today, I have my sales mastery checklist, you know, straight out of Seven Figure. And every time I'm doing a lead acceleration session, which is really just a marketing audit. That's what we offer now. That's our, you know, way to jab, jab, right hook as Gary Vee would say. We do a marketing audit on their Facebook page, on their Google My Business, where they sit on the SERP and on their website. And again, it's just providing this, you know, massive amount of value upfront and, you know, that reciprocity usually kicks in. I will say that I've had to make some tweaks to the marketing audit because unfortunately a lot of martial arts schools' digital footprints are really bad. Mm. And when I was going through the audit, it's like, "Oh, you need this, and you need this, and you need this, and you need this." And it, you know, sometimes was overwhelming. So now we tweak it based off of what their digital footprint, you know, looks like, and we just wanna give them a couple of items, you know, and show them how we would be able to help them, you know, improve their digital footprint. So, yeah, I mean, prior to Seven Figure I didn't really have a sales process at all.

Josh Nelson: I love it. I love it. So increased the price in the package, then put the minimum viable funnel in place so people can, you know, kinda schedule an appointment, get warmed up, putting the automation in place. If you're getting value from these tips on how Chris was able to accelerate her growth, give us a one in comments just so we know you're there and this is resonating. So th- those are the first two. I'd love to hear the others.

Cris Rodriguez: Yeah. So next was… And, you know, I just absolutely love when we hop on our calls, and I was just blown away, you know, when we hopped on our first call. You shared your screen. You had my name, you know, typed out on the front and, you know, you had my 90-day game plan, and we did the current snapshot. And it's, it's just so funny because I know this because we do it in our martial arts school, which is just keeping super tight statistics. And, you know, it was just kinda silly that, hey, you know, I do this in one business. Why am I not doing it in this other business? And it's just because it's a journey, right? It's… You can't implement 100% of everything right in the beginning. So keeping super tight statistics and, you know, that really was prompted by the snapshot. And one thing that I never wanna do is hop on a call with you and you ask me what my numbers are, and I'm not able to tell you. Because I know as a consultant, the only way that I can help a client Is to know their numbers, 'cause your numbers are gonna tell us where, you know, you're, you're weak and where you're, you're strong, and it's going to guide us to hit our goals. So, you know, the sales and tracking retention, it's bookmarked on my computer. I think it's like the second bookmark. I'm in there every single day updating it. And that, you know, was just a huge takeaway. And I tell clients all the time, "Math is the path." The data should be driving the decisions in your, in your business. And very often as entrepreneurs, especially when we're first getting started, we develop, you know, relationships with clients and, you know, that was, that was something that, you know, I had, and I had to make sure that I was, you know, making data-driven decisions in the company, not just emotional decisions in the company. So that was really my third, you know, biggest takeaway, and it was just prompted by your organization that you have and the structure that you have with helping us achieve our goals. So just getting clear on, okay, here's where we're at, here's where we wanna go, key targets for the month, quarter, year, and having something the whole team is organized towards, okay, here's what we're trying to accomplish from a revenue growth perspective.

Josh Nelson: Absolutely. Absolutely. Love it.

Cris Rodriguez: And then there's one more. And, you know, success leaves clues, and a lot of people that I would consider successful were utilizing EOS. And when I found out that you were utilizing EOS, that is, that's, that's what I needed to take the push and dive in. And we've been operating with EOS, I wanna say, since like August of last year, and it has completely transformed our company. And, you know, I, I just cannot recommend it enough for building a really strong team. And, you know, we're, we're fully on board EOS. We had our annual, our first annual meeting last month. It was an eight-hour meeting. It was, it was so amazing. And, you know, my biggest takeaway is typically when I would do meetings, it would be me talking at my team. And what I love about like the level 10 meeting and the way that EOS is set up is that it produces a more collaborative environment. And when you collaborate, you just get better. And, you know, things that I would normally do on my own or have, you know, very specific i- ideas about, once we collaborate with the team, it just everything elevates. So EOS has been, you know, huge for us. I'm super pumped that you're bringing in an EOS implementer for the, the mastermind, you know, clients. I mean, what a huge value add. We have our first, training session tomorrow, which I'm super pumped for. But, you know, we talk a lot about systems in our business, and typically those systems are for our clients, right? For us to be able to do deliverables. Not very often do we talk about the internal systems that really just allows a team to work really well together, and we just have some like amazing synergy going on. We just hired two new team members, an ad account manager and a marketing assistant. And, you know, w- part of our interview process, and I learned this from the martial arts school, is we do a team interview because what I don't wanna happen is, man, I find this rock star and then they come in and it messes up the culture and the vibe and the environment. So we had been interviewing for a couple of weeks and we brought some people in with the team, and it was just really… You know, the trust level. You know, I had multiple team members come up to me and say, "I really appreciate you considering my feelings on hiring. I've never had a boss ask me if I wanna work with this person." And, you know, we've, we've done a, you know, a very conscious effort to building, a lot of trust, and the EOS system and the way the meetings are set up allow for that to happen. So, you know, the biggest takeaway, number four, would be, having that extra little push to go ahead and implement EOS. And, you know, it's not an overnight thing. It, it takes time, but it's, it's definitely, you know, an investment of that time and for your team.

Josh Nelson: So, so good. And, a couple people were asking, what's EOS? So EOS is the Entrepreneur Operating System. Look up the book Traction by Gino Wickman. It kind of lays it out. It's just, it's the way to develop your leadership team, how to handle your level, your, your m- meetings with your team, to organize it so that you have a leadership team that steps up and it diffuses the pressure from you doing everything in the company and really having a business that can start to operate with a group of people around you. So amazing work getting that set up and dialed in in your business, and I'm sure as we start to, you know, mastermind this as a group, it's only going to get better and tighter, and more effective.

Cris Rodriguez: Hundred percent. I'm so excited for tomorrow. I saw it was a four-hour session, cleared the calendar, and, yeah, just super pumped.

Josh Nelson: Awesome. David, thanks for dropping that link in. That's, that's perfect. So okay, so looking back now, these are the four things that you implemented, that have really helped to accelerate the growth. You know, looking back, would there be like one, two, maybe three lessons that you could say, you know, as I did this, these are like two or three lessons that maybe you learned or that you might change or that you could kinda help somebody with?

Cris Rodriguez: Yeah. So one that has been, just really powerful to me lately is I ask my… You know, as entrepreneurs in general, especially agency owners, there's just so many hats that we have to pl- like wear, right? And there's so many different skills that, you know, we usually want to develop. I, you know, jokingly call myself a skill collector. Like-… If there's a course out there, I wanna take it. If there's a book, I'm gonna read it. If there's an event, I'm gonna go to it. But I think what can happen very often is that we focus on the wrong things or the little things. So one thing that I have been, and this was really just in twenty twenty-one, have been super focused on is I ask myself this question before I start my work each day. And I ask myself, "Is this going to have a direct Or indirect impact on the bottom line of my business. And if it ha- if the answer is yes, it's going to have a direct impact on the bottom line, then it needs to be on my to-do list for that day, and it needs to get scheduled in my time blocking sessions. If the answer is, "Hey, it might have an impact, but it's gonna be an indirect impact, and it's gonna be down the line," then I have got to delegate it. And I think there's this misconception between delegating and deciding. And, th- they talk about this… Michael, I can never pronounce his last name. He's the guy that wrote Profits First, and he also wrote Clockwork. But he talks about- Micallef. Mike Micallef… Micallef. There we go. Micallef. You know, in the book, he talks about doing, deciding, delegating, and designing. And I had found myself, for pretty much like the first year and a half of my agency, being stuck in that doing. And when I thought I was delegating, I was not delegating. I was stuck in deciding. And, and what that means is very often when we think we're delegating something to a team member, well, we're actually… Like, delegation means empowerment, and also that they can make a decision on their own and feel empowered by it. And oftentimes, that's not what we do. We say, "Okay, this is how you do it. Go ahead and do it." And then they've got to come back to us to make a final decision, and that is, that is not delegating. And I was spending a lot of my time in the doing and also in the deciding. So in January, you know, obviously, this is when we, you know, re-look at our goals. I had made a commitment to offload my doing items. So I sat down for each one of my companies, my martial arts school, my consulting, my agency. We're also getting into real estate investment. And I looked at everything that I have to do in each one of those companies, and I wrote down the amount of hours that it was taking every single month. And in January, I started small, but I was able to buy back ten hours, which ten hours might not seem a lot, but ten hours of deep focused work, making sure I'm focusing on things that have a direct impact on the bottom line, that has helped us. I mean, last month we were at sixty thousand. This month we're at seventy-two. That is a direct impact to the bottom line. So now the next stage is in February, what else can I offload? And the major thing was training. Our team is growing, and when your team grows, it usually is a punch in the face to your systems and processes. And we committed as a team to get all of our systems and processes, in Teachable, which is like an online platform and a course. So that allowed me to buy back sixteen hours a month of training just by simply Loom recording every single system that we have. We got together as a team. We started with the ad account manager position, which is one of the biggest positions and requires the most technical and strategical, in, you know, knowledge. And we had a meeting that lasted two hours. We wrote down everything an ad account manager needs to do, and then we split it amongst five people. Like, "All right, you're gonna shoot these fifteen videos. I'm gonna shoot these fifteen. You're gonna do these fifteen." And in under a month, we had our entire ad account manager position now in a training course. And we did it for the next position, and we're doing it for the next position. And that has bought back sixteen hours a month in training, you know, that I don't have to do. And those hours not spent in doing or deciding now allow me to spend it in delegating. And, and that doesn't mean you don't do anything. I mean, you're still doing some things. But ultimately, I want the majority of my time to be spent in designing the business and really designing a better life for my team members, right? My team members take care of my clients. It's my responsibility to take care of my team members. Mm. And, we've actually implemented something about six months ago that I think would be very valuable for everybody that, if it's cool with you, I'll share. Absolutely. All right. So we are, you know, we're, we're in our office. We're in front of a computer literally all day. And what I wanted… What I didn't want to happen is for people to come to work and feel like it was monotonous, that Monday is the same thing as Tuesday, same thing as Wednesday, same thing as Thursday. And when you're in front of a computer all day and you're not really moving around, right? This is a much different business model than a martial arts school, right? Like completely different. So, you know, I really sat and I thought, "What could we do on a daily basis that would get people excited to go to a meeting," right? I mean, you say the word meeting, and everybody's like, "No, I don't want to go to the meeting." Well, I'm a huge fan of Jim Rohn, been following him for a really long time, and he has a quote that says, "Work harder on yourself than you do your job." And one of our core values at Grow Pro is we create a modern and fun environment. And that was really important to me. I wanted to create a modern and fun environment for the team. So every single day, we have something that breaks up the monotony of the day. So Monday is Monday Motivation. This is where I present a different personal development training for my team, whether that's, "Hey, this is the cliff notes to one of my favorite books," or, "Hey, this is how you should be time blocking so you can be more effective," or, "This is how I was able to get 100% out of consumer debt." So showing them how to budget properly. So that's Monday. Monday's motivation day. Tuesday, we have our level ten meeting, which is a 90-minute meeting, and there's a lot of to-dos and rocks that come out of that. So Tuesday is just our typical level ten meeting. Wednesday, we go outside and we get vitamin D and we go for a 30-minute walk together. Nice. It's required. Go put your, put your walking shoes on and we're all gonna go outside. We're in Florida, so we can do that right now. And we just go for a walk together to get some sunshine. When you're inside in front of a computer all day, you gotta get that. Thursday is podcast day, where we all get into the conference room, and we listen to a different digital marketing podcast. And as we listen, we pause and we discuss, and then we listen and we pause and we discuss. I kinda wanted it to be like a book club, but everybody kinda reads at, you know, different speeds, so at least the podcast, we would all listen to it together. And then Friday is game day. We legit, like, play Family Feud. This, month they had some online games that they wanted to play. 30 minutes we play games, and then we do a 60-minute training session. And the conversations and the trust that has been built in these specific time periods, you know, very often, you know, an owner would look like, "Oh, that's a waste of time. They should be…" Listen, if your team loves where they're at and they love what they do, they're gonna work super hard for you. And, this has really helped us to be like this. And, you know, even with these new two hires, you know, everybody's excited. Our last Friday, our ops manager used to be a yoga instructor, so she brought in yoga mats for everybody, and she brought them through, like a breathing and a meditation session, and they loved it. And that's the type of business I want. That's the type of people I wanna surround myself with. And, you know, that has, has really been game changing for us in building the culture of our team.

Josh Nelson: I love that. If you love this, put a chat here, love it. I see Nina Mendoza wrote, "Loving this. Thanks, Chris." Ricardo said, "This is, this is awesome. I'm really enjoying it." This is great stuff. A couple cool resources you referenced there. Clockwork by Mike Michalowicz, great book on kind of how to put these systems and procedures in place, and that whole strategy of kind of breaking up the, breaking up the week, I think, you know, is really around culture, right? It's not just around the fundamentals of doing a job, but developing a workplace that people actually wanna be in so that they do give you 110%, and so that you don't have a revolving door where somebody comes into the company, you train them up, they get to a certain level of competency, and their next thing is, "How do I go get a bigger paycheck?" Like, you can… It sounds like you can get around that by creating a culture like you're doing, where people really love what they're doing and they, and they wanna be there, and they wanna give 110%, which is awesome. Gabriel says, "So g- Gabriel says, "So good." Mario's asking, "Can you repeat Tuesday's activity?" So Tuesdays are level 10 meetings.

Cris Rodriguez: So, the entrepreneurial operating system has you do a level 10 meeting. The reason why they call it a level 10 meeting is because if you were to rate meetings from 1 to 10, the goal is for it to be a 10. And very often, you know, we find ourselves or can find ourselves in meetings that should've been an email, right? Like, we just wasted 30 minutes th- of time that could've been an email. So the level 10 meeting, it requires a lot of focus on everybody on the team, and, that's, that's what we do on Tuesday and it eats about 90 minutes, you know, of our, of our day. So that's the main focus for Tuesday.

Josh Nelson: Amazing stuff. Joanna says, "Hope this is recorded." Yes, it's recorded. We'll make sure you guys get access. Th- this is awesome. So I just wanna shift gears for a sec. So we talked about kind of how you bridged this gap. We know that the niche is martial arts. We know that the service offering is a monthly recurring based, pr- predominantly… Maybe talk a little bit about what you do for the clients, that you work with, kind of what the package looks like today.

Cris Rodriguez: Yeah. So, you know, since we came on board with the seven figure and we refigured it, we have, at the top line is our Online Dominance Complete program. Completely stole the name from Josh. Like it's like- Way to do it… Why reinvent the wheel? And, you know, because we are in a niche that the average, business is not doing a million, our prices are, you know, definitely lower than what most agencies do, which is why we have to have, you know, a higher client count. But our Online Dominance Complete, it's our Mack Daddy package, and it includes Facebook and Instagram ads, Google and YouTube ads, database reactivation, blogging, reputation management, and social media management, where we actually post for our clients, but it's not stock images. Everything is authentic. So we actually set up a Google Drive where they dump tons of pictures and videos, you know, because I just, I'm not a huge fan personally of stock images. So that's our Online Dominance Complete package, and it's 1,500 bucks a month. We do, a three-month agreement, and then we're on a month-to-month. All of, and when I say all, I mean all of the industry marketing agencies in the martial arts, right, like the well-known ones, they do something very similar. Nobody's doing 12 months. And, and I'm not saying, you know, "Oh, well, you should do what your competitors do," but that's what just kind of felt right. Our next package, we have our social media management and pay-per-click authority. Again, straight stolen from Josh. And that includes social media management where we post for them, and then Facebook and Instagram ads, Google and YouTube ads. Our most popular package, and that's $999 a month. Our most popular package is our pay-per-click authority, and it's the most popular because it gets people on the most popular platforms for pay-per-click: Google and YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. And the way that we position it is that they're two completely different types of marketing, right? If Josh and I are riding our bicycles and our bicycles break down, we're not going on Facebook to find a bicycle repair shop. Where are we gonna go? We're gonna go on Google, right? We have an intent, and that's what Google is. It's intent-based marketing. And what I consider Google to have is my today buyers, right? If a parent is going to Google and searching for martial arts in Tampa, Florida, they have an intent. Facebook, completely different. Why do we go on Facebook? We go on Facebook because we're bored. We go on Facebook because we wanna be entertained, because we wanna get in an argument with somebody, because we wanna catch up with our friends, right? So Facebook is more interest-based marketing, where we're really allowed to plant the seed, right, and then use our nurture systems to develop that relationship to move the customer in the customer journey. And I look at Facebook more as future buyers. Not saying you can't immediately turn a Facebook lead around, absolutely, but just kinda in general. So what do you need? Do you need Face- do you need today buyers or do you need future buyers? You need both. And, you know, because we present it that way, I believe it's, you know, our most popular program. It's $750 a month. And then we have a starter package which is just Facebook ads. And that, you know, that structure I used to offer just Facebook ads and just Google ads. And when we tweaked it and said, "Well, no, if you want Google ads you also have to have Facebook," and we stacked it really drove a lot more people to go to that pay-per-click authority package which ultimately helped us to inc- increase our client value. So those are the four packages that we do. We don't do any a la carte anymore. It's a three-month agreement and then they're on a month-to-month.

Josh Nelson: Awesome. Thanks for breaking that down. Zach actually says, "Really appreciate you elaborating on the price because that's something I've been struggling with, and that helps." So that's awesome. Looks like David posted a link to your website and they're saying the website looks good, nicely done. Great stuff. So thanks for elaborating on that. I'd love you guys to kinda type in chat here, like what are some of your key takeaways? What are you liking from this interview? Let's talk about what everybody likes to talk about most which is, like you're landing seven-plus clients per month. It's, I think you're on track for 10-plus this month. Like, w- where are the clients coming from? What's working for you right now in terms of new client acquisition?

Cris Rodriguez: Yes. So, seven-figure agency webinar model. That's really our main form of marketing. So each month we do a webinar and it works exactly how Josh teaches it. He says more than likely those people aren't even gonna show up to your webinar but they're gonna book the lead acceleration session prior. And, the last one that we did was the 2021 Internet Marketing Plan. I actually did it with Steven Reinstein, who's an, who's a seven-figure agency client. And, we had like 100 people show up on it which was really great. Wow. And that alone produced 10 clients, that one webinar. So this month we're doing eight simple steps to creating an irresistible offer. So we have that on February 23rd. So the webinars has really been the main focus and, and ways to bring people in. Kinda silly to say and, you know, this is something I had actually been struggling with that we had talked about, I, have never ran paid advertising for GrowPro. It's, I kinda had it stuck in my head that, you know, if I had to run paid ads and I had to go find people, then, you know, I wasn't good enough. And it's just so silly. It's a silly thing that I had stuck in my head. So we actually just started, filming a commercial. I took a page right out of your book, literally saw the one that you just launched, I think it was with Paul the Plumber. Sat there with the video, hit play, typed out the script, and we shot the video. And because all of our clients are gonna be at this event next week, we took a couple of our top-performing clients and asked them if we could interview them at the event next week so that we can get the remaining footage for our first commercial. So really it's been webinars. It's been word of mouth. You know, word of mouth can absolutely help you grow, but there's a tipping point. And, you know, the webinars have been phenomenal. I will say with webinars it's gonna take time. It's gonna take practice. So I don't, I don't know if our viewers know, I have my degree in education. I was supposed to be a teacher. I've been teaching martial arts since I was a teenager, so being on lives and, you know, being on Zooms is something that feels really natural to me. So, you know, when you're doing these webinars, if the first one doesn't knock it out of the park, well then guess what? You gotta do it again, and then you do it again, and then you do it again. And the compound effect is eventually gonna take over. And it's just, you know, how do you become confident in anything in life? You have to be competent in it. And how do you be competent? You gotta do it, right? So webinars has been, you know, the main focus of our marketing strategy, and just really the authority that I've built. I write an article for Martial Arts Success magazine, every single publication which has been huge. You know, I think that's something that pretty much everybody can do because magazines need writers. Like they are foaming at the mouth for content. And if you provide them with an article that provides value, then you're gonna get published in a magazine. And that, you know, I'm not saying that the magazine article is now suddenly gonna bring you five or 10 clients. What it's gonna do is help you to develop your authority. And, you know, that's what I want. I want people when they think of Chris Rodriguez, I want them to think like she is the expert on digital marketing in our industry, and I don't want them to think about anybody else. You know, but the authority, you know, that's a marathon. That's not a sprint. That doesn't happen overnight. And, you know, so those are really kind of the main ways, the webinars, the authority that's been built, writing for publications, you know, and the fact that I own a martial arts school immediately allows me to build rapport with my clients Yeah.

Josh Nelson: Yeah. I think really important for everyone to take note of, you know, you're, you're really entrenched in the industry, right? So it's not like you've entered the vertical like some of us, "Okay, I'm gonna go in this particular niche, and I'll buy an email list, and I'll email them and invite them to a webinar." Like, you're in the industry association, you're writing for the publications, you're at the events and kind of speaking at the events. And all of that, like, really positions you as the go-to expert, and then when you add a little rocket fuel to it with Facebook ads and with webinars that you promote that are just information-based, it really can fill the funnel on a consistent basis.

Cris Rodriguez: Yeah. And, you know, I am on a mission to prove that I can do this in another niche. I'm not there yet because we have not exhausted all of our options in our current niche, but that is on, you know, when we're doing our three-year or one-year, three-year, five-year, 10-year plan within three years, our goal is to dominate another niche because, you know, these skills, yes, I focused on the martial arts industry because that just made sense. You know, my skills aren't going to go away. Those skills will work in another niche. But, you know, I think one of a s- you know, a superpower that entrepreneurs can have is having blinders on. You know? Mm-hmm. Saying no sometimes, to certain opportunities can actually propel you even further in life. And if we tried to dive into a new niche right now, we'd completely split our focus. So I… It's something that I wanna do, but I'm keeping my blinders on until, you know, we really dominate this market. There's, there's 30,000 martial arts schools. We're running ads for 130. You know? It's like we haven't dominated it yet. We're doing well. We're, we're, you know, we're growing. But, you know, in the future, that is one of our goals.

Josh Nelson: Yeah. Just I think that's a wise move, right? Stay, stay focused where you're at. You know, yes, that's a vision down the road. You know, stay in your lane as long as long as you can until it makes sense to do otherwise. Bob says you're an inspiration. This has, this has been wonderful. – Awesome… Let's talk a little bit about retention, right? So now we've got hundreds of- Mm-hmm… Hundreds of martial arts studios paying us a monthly fee to do these works. What are you doing to retain the clients, to keep them engaged? And tell… Just kinda share some tips on that front since you're doing such a good job in that area.

Cris Rodriguez: Yeah. So this is just a page out of our martial arts book. People flock to excitement, but they stay where they are loved, all right? Mm. And if I go on Facebook right now and I start scrolling the news feed, I'm going to see a brand-new marketer trying to enter the martial arts niche, another person guaranteeing just absolute ridiculous results. And the way that we've been able to keep our clients, so in 2020, we had a 5% attrition. Now, our goal is to be at 3%, but we… Our industry also got hit very hard with COVID. You know, school owners, you- you're told by the government that you can no longer run martial arts classes. Like, martial arts is a combat art. I can't get better at martial arts unless I'm punching and kicking and grappling, right? We were fortunate that we had Zoom, that for jujitsu we could buy grappling dummies, and we could teach the kids to use pillows while they were doing the class. But, you know, we lost about 30% of our clientele, you know, in March and April. So if I removed that, my attrition would be where it needs to be. But again, people flock to excitement. They flock to the newest, latest, greatest hack, but they ultimately stay where they are loved. And part of that, one thing that we do that I truly believe helps with attrition is I teach a monthly master class to all of my clients on a different digital marketing skill that they should implement. So this month it's, the title is The Only Phone Script You Ever Need. Mm. You know, I can get a client 100 leads, but if they can't get those leads to walk the feet through the door, then it doesn't matter, right? That- that's what they ultimately want. And yes, you've gotta email, and yes, people prefer text message, and yes, you gotta leave voicemail, but if a lead opts in to martial arts school A and martial arts school A doesn't call, and the lead also opts into martial arts school B and martial arts school B does call, they're gonna have a better chance of building rapport. So for me to help my clients level up their skill set so they can get better results ultimately will keep them as a client longer with me. So that's one retention strategy that has worked really well. The, you know, the other thing is just constant communication. You know, one thing that I will say, we predominantly hire millennials, and I would say the average age in our company is, like, 23, all right? So we've got young kids. And they did not grow up on the phone. They grew up doing this. So one of the things that we've really had to implement, and we do this on our Friday trainings, we're actually going through a customer service training with them right now, is getting them to understand, listen, if you can pick up the phone and answer the question in 30 seconds, that's a better option than 15 emails going back and forth and back and forth. And you also have to understand your clients. You know, I would say the average age of our clients are, like, 45, 50 years old. These aren't people that necessarily grew up with computers. They're not technologically savvy. They're at an age where they did talk on the phone. Mm. So communicating with your clients in the way that they want you to communicate, not in the way that you want to communicate, I think is really important. And yes, people do love texting, but do we wanna have, you know, 50 texts back and forth when a 30-second conversation, you know, could've, could've, you know, fixed that? So just Constant communication, and if there is an issue with an account, being ahead of it. Your clients wanna know two things. They wanna know if you have their back, and they wanna know if you have a game plan. And for what we do, pay per click, right? We have 130 clients. We have some clients, they get $2 cost per lead. We have some clients that get $40 cost per lead. Same exact strategy, same exact strategy. There's only two variables, the assets that they provide, the pictures and the videos that they provide, and their location. And we do know that the platforms are auctions, and the more people that are vying for the attention of your audience that you're trying to advertise to, that can increase your cost. Well, that's crappy for us to say, "Hey, listen, you're just not in a really good location for us to advertise," right? One of our core values is, you know, we give results, not reasons. Mm-hmm. So if a client isn't performing well, it's, you know, our duty to let them know, "Hey, we see you. We're aware of it. We've got your back, and this is what we're going to do." I want to get ahead of the objection before the objection comes, right? So I think educating your clients and helping them become better, right? If we work harder, you know, we wanna work harder on ourselves, then we do our jobs. If they can level up as an entrepreneur and a business owner, they're gonna get better results with our services. And having constant communication with the clients and staying a step ahead has really been, you know, like, our two greatest, you know, retention strategies.

Josh Nelson: Love it. So many gold nuggets there. So many gold nuggets, right? Number one they le- number one reason they leave is perceived indifference, right? They… What was the exact phrase was they stay where they're loved, right? So you need to be showing the love. Don't hide behind the technology, right? Yes, we can text message, email. We can automate a lot of stuff, but you gotta train that team to pick up the phone, have those conversations, and stay ahead of the problems. Let them know what you're doing, what you're changing. If there's a, an issue, be the one to let them know and kinda shed the light on that. So good. Would love to have you guys in comments, like, what were some of your key takeaways? We talked about landing clients. We talked about retention. We talked about, you know, building the team and kinda building the culture. Would love to hear some CliffsNotes takeaways, in the chat. So we're coming to the end of this interview. I think this has been awesome. Chris, i- if you were talking to that agency owner that's… Well, whether they're at 10,000 a month or 50,000 a month or over that, like, if you had, like, one or two pieces of it… I-i- of insights for them or suggestions, what would they, what would they be?

Cris Rodriguez: Yeah. You know, I'm gonna bring it back to the three biggest mistakes that I just think in, you know, in general entrepreneurs make. They don't hire fast enough, they don't reinvest in marketing, and they don't find a mentor. But sometimes people do find a mentor, but they do not do exactly what said mentor says, right? It's like the mentor gives them a recipe to make chocolate chip cookies, and they take the chocolate chips out and they put raisins instead. Like, who wants a oatmeal raisin cookie over a chocolate chip, right? I don't. So I think that's another huge mistake is that they do find a mentor, but they don't follow what the mentor said, and you've gotta follow the… You know, you gotta follow the recipe. You gotta follow what they're telling you to do, and don't try to, don't try to change it up, right? There's no point in reinventing the wheel. Now, the other thing about that, there are many different ways to run a successful agency. There are many different ways to run a successful martial arts school. So what I do think is you've gotta find a mentor that has the same core values as you do, and that's one thing that attracted me to Josh and the 7 Figure Agency. You know, it's not this, like, glitz and glam and these ridiculous email subject lines that just make my eyes roll when I see them, you know? It's, it's, it's honest, it's transparent, and that's in line with my personal core values. So, you know, you, you guys, you have 7 Figure Agency, just pull the trigger on it. And you know, I was in the on-ramp, group for I think three days. So when I, when I hopped on board, I basically told my wife, I said, "I just joined. I've got X amount of hours of videos that I need to watch, and I am going to binge-watch these over the next three days." And I had gone through the course literally in three days, and I was out of on-ramp. And so often, you know, we see the shiny new object and, "Oh, I wanna do the course." Like, knowledge is not enough, and just because you know, in- intellectually understand something, right? I can listen to something and intellectually understand it. That doesn't make me a master of it. If I wanna be a master of it, I gotta put the action in place. And, you know, I think people do understand they need to get a mentor, but sometimes when they do get the mentor, they try to change the recipe and they don't take massive action. And, you know, I… It's funny, you have recently had me start tracking my free days. And when you said like, "Chris, how many free days do you have?" Like, what's a free day? What, what do you mean by free day? Does that like, I don't check my email or I don't go into the office? You know, and for me, I honestly, I get anxiety when I'm not working because I love what I do so much. And you know, just being that passionate and exciting about what you do gives you the fuel that you need to take action. You know, I, for people that come on board, like when you're on on-ramp, why does it take six months to go through the videos? You could go through it in six days if you really wanted it. So it's, you know, about, yes, pulling the trigger and finding that mentor and following what they do to the T, but also taking massive action on it and on, even on the days that you don't feel like doing it. That's the most important day. When you don't feel like doing it, that's the most important day that you should.

Josh Nelson: 100%. Great, great stuff. Chris, thank you so much for sharing. Thank you for being such a great inspiration, and I'm so excited to see where you're gonna go over the next 12 months and kinda where things continue to blossom in your, in your business and in your life. If somebody wants to connect with you, is it best to just connect with you in the Facebook group, or what's the best way for someone to connect with you if they want, you know, just wanna get to know you better?

Cris Rodriguez: Yeah. If we're being 100% honest, I absolutely cannot stand Facebook messages. I just… I'm not a fan of Facebook messages. I love email. So my email, is midgettwister@gmail.com, and it's the most professional sounding email you're ever gonna hear. So midgettwister@gmail.

Josh Nelson: David, thanks for dropping that in there. Awesome. That's the best way to connect. Yeah. Be sure to thank her either via email, not via personal message, but maybe in the Facebook group. "Hey, thanks for sharing. Thanks for the insights." Chris, this has been awesome. Thanks so much for your time. We'll talk to you again soon. Thank you guys for the interactive engagement on today's session. We will be sure to get this recording out to you ASAP. Thanks for your time and energy, everybody. Make it a great day. You too.

Transcript of Cris Rodriguez’s testimonial video.

It's such a great feeling to know that anything that I will ever experience in my agency, somebody else here in this community has experienced it and they have the answer to solving it. My name is Chris Rodriguez. I am the founder and visionary of Grow Pro Agency, and we work in the martial arts studio niche. I've been a member of 7 Figure Agency since April of 2020. When we joined in April of 2020, we were at about the thirty thousand MRR mark. We had just experienced some churn due to COVID, and I was in dire need of finding a support group, a community, and a coach to help us get through COVID.

Right now, we just crossed the four million dollar run rate, and we are at about a three hundred and fifty thousand MRR. Zero to one million was really just all about sales. It was a grind. All of my focus was on sales, sales, sales. I remember having a little Post-it note on the bottom of my monitor that said, "RGA, revenue generating activity." And I just made sure from that zero to one million mark that the majority of my time was spent on revenue generating activities. Once we crossed the one million mark, I thought all of our problems would be gone, and it's just not true.

You have bigger problems to solve, and fortunately, we had the 7FA community to help us solve those problems. And one to two million was all about refining our delivery and fulfillment because at that time we were already at triple digit client numbers. From two to three million, this is really where we started to expand our team. We had to start implementing mid-management, which is very different from leadership. And when you start implementing that mid-management level, things can start to slow down a little bit because your communication tactics internally have to change.

Once we hit the three million mark, everything broke. We were at about three hundred clients at that time, and what we really had to focus on was leveling up our hiring process and making sure that we were bringing on more skillful and talented team members onto the team. And now we've officially hit the four million run rate mark. Some key strategies that we've implemented since joining 7 Figures was really going all in on the authority play. If Josh and 7FA told us to do it, we implemented and we implemented very, very quickly.

So from monthly webinars to doing the book, to speaking at conferences, to joining local associations and developing JV partners, to creating a Facebook group that we can utilize and leverage to market to get new prospects. If 7FA has told us to do it, we have done it, but the major lever that we pulled was the authority play. It's very important to understand that the absolute best marketing tactic is to become famous, and you've got to make sure that you are famous inside of your niche. My favorite aspect of 7 Figure Agency is the community.

I've been a part of it now for five years, getting to come to the events. It feels like a reunion with all of my best friends. I have literally made what I know will be lifelong friendships from this community. It's such a great feeling to know that anything that I will ever experience in my agency, somebody else here in this community has experienced it and they have the answer to solving it. And I get a lot of comfort in knowing that I do have that community and no matter what comes my way, somebody in this community is gonna be able to help me overcome it.

Where I see Grow Pro in the next six to twelve months is growing predominantly through acquisition as well as JV partners. So we are currently in due diligence with acquiring another agency, and we're looking to continue to acquire other agencies in that aspect. And Josh always says, "You're one JV partnership away from a 7 Figure agency." Well, we have six JV partners, so continuing to focus as the visionary on those big relationships. That's one of my responsibilities and because of through everything I've learned through 7FA, I have the capacity and the ability to focus on those big relationships that will really help to move the needle forward.

The reason why you should join 7FA is because there is success story after success story after success story. And everybody's definition of success is different. And whatever yours is, 7FA is gonna allow you and give you the tools and resources and roadmap to get there. You just gotta put in the work.