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Kasim’s Embarrassing Confession and the New Solutions 8

Listen this candid conversation between Kasim and Caden discussing Kasim's embarrassing confession, the challenges Solutions 8 and other businesses are currently facing, and the economic state no one seems to be talking about. They also reveal how Solutions 8 is adapting and transforming to cope with the economy and the ever-changing world of digital marketing.

Dive deep into the difficult topics - client loss, economic pressures, the complexities of modern marketing, and business survival. Listen to this episdoe now.

Learn more about the new Solutions 8 Digital Marketing Services here: https://sol8.com/digital-marketing-se...

Transcript

Kasim: 00:00:12

Solutions8, along with every other agency I know, by

: 00:00:17

the way, is bleeding clients.

: 00:00:20

Let's see if we can, Hold on to them.

: 00:00:22

And then the business dies off.

: 00:00:23

And it's whoa, what was that for?

: 00:00:24

yeah, exactly.

: 00:00:25

Blood from a turnip.

: 00:00:26

That's the other thing too, is

just the responsibility we have to

: 00:00:29

entrepreneurs to tell them the truth.

: 00:00:31

We're shifting our entire

business model, which makes me

: 00:00:34

feel like such an epic hypocrite.

: 00:00:35

Cause I, dude, I spent the last three

years talking so much about all the

: 00:00:38

agencies and Oh, they try to do everything

and be everything for everybody.

: 00:00:46

Welcome to your day.

: 00:00:47

The Google news it's Kostom with

one of the best, the brightest,

: 00:00:52

the smartest Caden Thompson.

: 00:00:54

How you doing buddy?

: 00:00:54

Good man.

: 00:00:55

It's been a while.

: 00:00:56

How you doing?

: 00:00:56

it's been a long time since

we shot a video together.

: 00:00:59

I think it's been like a year.

: 00:01:01

Oh, at least a year.

: 00:01:02

Yeah.

: 00:01:03

It's been a really long time.

: 00:01:04

I remember first time when I

hopped on, I was like starstruck.

: 00:01:07

And now it's like flipping back

to we were doing the, what was it?

: 00:01:10

The strategist meetings.

: 00:01:11

And then I think that was, yeah, that was

the last time that we had a call together.

: 00:01:14

Yeah.

: 00:01:14

Yeah.

: 00:01:15

I'm glad it's feels like a reunion and

this call is going to be quite revealing.

: 00:01:20

I think in a lot of ways, we just got

finished putting our itinerary together.

: 00:01:23

And, the last words you said

to me before we hit record was,

: 00:01:26

honesty is the best policy.

: 00:01:28

here are the cards on the table solutions

eight, along with every other agency I

: 00:01:33

know, by the way, is bleeding clients.

: 00:01:36

in October of 2022, when we sold our

agency, we had almost 200 clients.

: 00:01:41

And today we've lost close to 40 percent

of them and we're losing them for reasons

: 00:01:49

that are in many cases inexplicable.

: 00:01:51

I've had four clients declare

bankruptcy in the last 90 days.

: 00:01:54

I haven't had a client declare

bankruptcy on us in the last two years.

: 00:01:57

It's unreal.

: 00:01:58

So there's obviously, there's like

an economic environment that nobody

: 00:02:01

wants to talk about for some reason.

: 00:02:02

I did a perpetual traffic episode

where I claimed that I think we're in a

: 00:02:05

shadow recession that nobody's talking

about and maybe I'm right, maybe I'm

: 00:02:08

wrong, but there does seem to be like

a lot of the clients that we're losing

: 00:02:10

are like, can't fulfill on products.

: 00:02:12

E commerce stores that just can't

get products for people that don't,

: 00:02:15

they have positive ROAS per se on

an LTV basis, but they don't have

: 00:02:18

the cashflow in order to keep going.

: 00:02:20

some people bringing it in

house, we're not losing people

: 00:02:22

to performance really at all.

: 00:02:24

which would, I, to be honest with you,

I'd a business owner, I'd prefer, I'd

: 00:02:27

rather lose a client to performance.

: 00:02:28

Cause at least that I know

internally I can correct it.

: 00:02:30

And so we're shifting our entire

business model, which makes me

: 00:02:34

feel like such an epic hypocrite.

: 00:02:36

Cause I dude, I spent the last

three years talking so much shit

: 00:02:39

about all the agencies like,

Oh, they try to do everything

: 00:02:41

and be everything for everybody.

: 00:02:42

You need to niche down.

: 00:02:43

And at the time it was true, but

it was true because when you niched

: 00:02:47

down, you could actually see what

was going on within your niche.

: 00:02:50

And now with iOS 14 and first

party data and the death of

: 00:02:52

cookies and all that shit.

: 00:02:53

And the fact that Google and meta

continue to lie more, we've had to

: 00:02:58

zoom out and we had to go full funnel.

: 00:03:00

So really what you are Caden

is you're my bodyguard.

: 00:03:04

You're here to protect me

from the rabid listener.

: 00:03:08

As I explain.

: 00:03:09

The one 80 that we're about to do as an

agency, like we're going from the Google

: 00:03:14

ads agency, which we were very successful

at, dude, I think we built the biggest

: 00:03:17

Google ads agency in the world because

most agencies weren't Google ads specific.

: 00:03:20

So as far as the Google ads specific

agency, nobody got as big as we did.

: 00:03:23

but and you said something else

before this and I'll stop talking

: 00:03:26

and just hand the mic to you.

: 00:03:27

You said something else before we started

recording, which I really appreciate it.

: 00:03:29

You said that, I'm going to try

to quote you and then you fix it.

: 00:03:32

Okay.

: 00:03:33

You said that, we used to be able to

be responsible for 1 thing, but now

: 00:03:38

that everything is so interdependent,

1 thing because you, have to.

: 00:03:45

You have to rely on so much more.

: 00:03:46

So we have to increase the

scope of our responsibility.

: 00:03:49

how did I do quoting you there?

: 00:03:50

Yeah, no, I mean that, that pretty

much sums up a lot of the issues that

: 00:03:54

we're seeing across just accounts in

general and like communication with

: 00:03:56

clients is like the responsibility

of us as marketers is to essentially

: 00:04:01

make a client more profitable.

: 00:04:03

And when you have less tracking and

less, and that's going to even be

: 00:04:06

further on based in Q3 for Google.

: 00:04:08

That we can't just look at in app ROAS

or try to equate as much to in app

: 00:04:14

ROAS to try to see the full picture.

: 00:04:15

We have to look at what's

going on other channels.

: 00:04:17

And when you're an agency that just

looks at that one niche, you learn a lot

: 00:04:22

about all these other channels, but then

it's wait, they're not doing that right.

: 00:04:24

We can do that.

: 00:04:25

Wait, we can fix that problem over there.

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: 00:04:27

And so you start to notice.

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All these sort of issues that are

popping up that are outside of your

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: 00:04:32

scope of control and it makes you

think why don't we just do this?

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: 00:04:36

Why are we having to, look for

these problems outside of what

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: 00:04:39

we're servicing to, go outside

of the scope of what we're doing?

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: 00:04:43

And I find it good that we focused

on Google ads because it allows us

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: 00:04:47

to get really focused on the actual

niche itself and then grow from there.

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: 00:04:51

So we can notice small correlations

that, maybe we wouldn't have if we

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just threw everything right away.

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And so it's been a really good baseline.

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For us to build from, and so I think when

it comes to the economic situation that

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people are in right now, where, you were

saying, people are going bankrupt agencies

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are trying to find or not agencies,

but clients are trying to find a way

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to understand what agencies are doing.

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it's becoming more and more

important for us as an agency to

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educate the client on those things.

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However, since we're pushing global

numbers and, overall with your bank

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account, essentially, which is the end

all, it becomes 1 of those things to where

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we're the small agency that's pushing for.

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All these little things

explain what's going on.

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: 00:05:29

The client's I don't want

to worry about this stuff.

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: 00:05:31

is too much to think about.

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it should be right?

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is a nightmare.

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That's, 1 of those things

that, all these tools.

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work on attribution,

but no tool is perfect.

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And so when it comes to marketing,

we've just noticed that, having

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control tests and shifting from us

having control over just Google,

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but us having control over Facebook

has turned into really good results.

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when, we look at it from that perspective,

it allows the client to be more

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comfortable with the understanding of.

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Okay, global numbers are great.

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I don't have to judge.

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Are you doing your job on

Google versus Facebook?

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I can judge it from the perspective

of you're making more money.

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You're in control of the attribution

and that's the proof, right?

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And then they don't have to learn

all the attribution nuances that

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you've spent years figuring out.

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You just show them.

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Here's the test.

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Here's the results.

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And then what clients can

argue with what's in their bank

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account at the end of the day.

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Yeah.

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That's the hard part of niching down

is even if you're really good at your

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niche, you're so heavily reliant on other

channels, let's say, or other modalities.

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And it turns you into kind of a tattletale

because then we just spend like our

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whole Client interaction is like,

Hey, your meta agency is screwing up.

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: 00:06:37

Your analytics agent is screwing up.

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The organic is not performing

the way that you think it is.

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Your CRM is not true.

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we're just constantly here's a problem.

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Here's a problem.

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Here's a problem.

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Here's a problem.

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And then clients fire us.

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And you're like, okay, you didn't want

the canary in the coal mine, which part

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of me is I was telling you the truth.

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But then the other part of me is I get it.

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It's exactly what you're saying.

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They're like, look, I don't want somebody

to tell me about all the problems I have.

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I want somebody who comes in

and provides me the solution.

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And it reminds me of that meme.

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Of the two kissing booths.

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And one of them says inconvenient truths.

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And the other one says kind lies.

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And there's got a great big, strong

line up against the kind lies.

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Like you almost want to go back

to being one of the agencies

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that just sells PMAX ROAS.

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It's I will rush the ROAS

game using performance max.

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Nobody's going to be better.

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Give me your money.

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And dude, those agencies are

actually doing really well.

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: 00:07:20

It's so nobody realizes

that they're lying.

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I don't even think some of

them know they're lying.

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They're just like, I press this

magic button and ROAS goes up.

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We're geniuses, So it's true.

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We reframe.

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it's totally true.

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And I think, I was on a sales call, I

think it was about like a month ago.

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And I think we were one out

of, 18 agencies that this

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person was going through.

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Yeah.

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And, we were the only one that promoted

global numbers out of all that.

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And everyone else was talking row as

everyone else was pushing, standard

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performance max and advantage plus

and not looking at the correlations,

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just going for as much as possible.

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And it's sure, that might work for a

little bit, but if you look at it, Strap

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laid it out from a long period of time.

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It's eventually going to eat down

and your business is going to be

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like, what the heck's going on?

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And you're not really going to look at it

from the marketing standpoint, because the

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rows is doing great because you're going

to say, oh no, it's the marketing's great.

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It's got to be my product.

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It's got to be something else.

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But the reality is, no, it's.

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It's a combination of everything.

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Like your marketing needs that focus.

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That's not just on ROAS, like you

can't live off of LTV forever.

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You have to go and find new people.

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Like it's just, growing a business,

you got to find new customers.

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There's no way around it.

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so our response is to go full funnel.

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And at solutions eight now, and you've

probably maybe seen some hints of this

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: 00:08:32

already, but we are, we're doing other

channels or we're doing meta, but

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we're also doing Amazon and we're doing

tabula and outbrain and we're doing

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CRM and we're doing CRO and we're doing

landing pages and we're doing everything

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that all the agencies are doing.

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Because we have to if we don't

have the ability to influence the

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global picture like you're saying,

so you can't sell global numbers.

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: 00:08:51

I guess this is what we found out here.

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: 00:08:52

We do.

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: 00:08:52

It's come full circle.

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: 00:08:54

You can't sell global numbers

without selling global services.

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: 00:08:57

Yeah, when we could sell Google numbers,

we sold Google services and we did great

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: 00:09:02

and we exploded and everybody loved us.

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: 00:09:03

But then as the narrative changed

and we had to sell global numbers.

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: 00:09:07

you have to.

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: 00:09:08

It's like a stick.

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: 00:09:09

If you pick up one end, you

have to pick up the other.

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: 00:09:11

So here we are a full funnel agency

for the first time in 10 years.

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we've contracted and now

we're expanding again.

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it's like an hourglass.

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: 00:09:18

It's like an eight.

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: 00:09:19

Oh my goodness.

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: 00:09:20

Kate, there you go.

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: 00:09:21

It's meant to be.

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Yeah.

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: 00:09:23

It's meant to be it's inception.

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: 00:09:24

you know what it reminds me of?

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: 00:09:25

I'm a lot older than you, so

you might not remember this.

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: 00:09:27

Did you ever have a Lightbrite as a kid?

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: 00:09:29

Lightbrite, okay, I gotta look this up.

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: 00:09:30

I'm gonna, I'll Google it so I can

bring up the image on screen share.

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Oh yes, I did not have one, but yes.

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: 00:09:36

that's why I'm embarrassed, I

should have known what that was.

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: 00:09:38

No, so here's, this is like

before Gameboys and shit,

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old people had Lightbrites.

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: 00:09:42

the thing about where digital marketing

is Google Ads is one light, It's one

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: 00:09:48

peg, and so we're going to this little

light, bright, we're putting one peg and

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: 00:09:51

then met as one peg and organics, But

we can't tell the full picture anymore.

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: 00:09:56

And you used to be able to, with

Google all by itself, stand alone.

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You used to be able to actually

paint an entire picture.

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Start to finish end to end, from the top

of the funnel to the bottom of the funnel,

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: 00:10:07

the beginning of the journey to the end

of the journey, you had a full picture.

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it just atrophied, the top of the

funnel atrophied first, the beginning

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of the journey atrophied first.

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And now we're like relegated to

this little teeny tiny corner.

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And we don't even have the full corner.

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We just have this one little peg and

we get to tell one part of the story.

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And so now we're being forced to zoom out.

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And I gotta be honest, it's so humbling.

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It's so humbling to go from, Oh,

we had a months long wait list I

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still think we are the best

Google ads agency on the planet.

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: 00:10:36

And now it's Oh, we have to

reinvent ourselves entirely

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: 00:10:39

because technology's changed.

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: 00:10:41

The market's changed.

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: 00:10:42

The customer's changed,

the economy's changed.

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: 00:10:44

And what we were offering, even

though we were the best, Blockbuster

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: 00:10:47

was the best video rental agency.

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: 00:10:49

It doesn't mean that

they're around anymore.

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: 00:10:51

Yeah.

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I wouldn't put us with Blockbuster.

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: 00:10:53

I don't think so either, it's just one

of those really interesting lessons

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from an entrepreneurial perspective.

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: 00:10:59

Yeah.

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And I think the benefit we have,

because I'm seeing a lot of

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little agencies just burn up.

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The benefit we have is we're big

enough to weather a storm, thank God.

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: 00:11:08

especially given the fact that

we've been acquired, they have deep

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enough pockets to help us figure

out what the evolution looks like.

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But if you're a small agency, and

you're experiencing what we're

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experiencing, which, we've got a

mastermind you versus Google, by

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the way, go join you versus Google.

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It's amazing for what you get.

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It's unbelievable.

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I think it's the most cost effective

mastermind I've ever seen put together.

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It's really phenomenal, amazing members.

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: 00:11:28

And everybody in there is

saying the exact same thing.

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: 00:11:30

dude, I'm just seeing we had a

conversation a week or two ago

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where one of our mastermind members

who's also in driven is I've never

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seen a dryer pipeline in my life.

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And that's about the environment that

we're contending with at the moment.

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I think the pendulum swings back, but not

before a bunch of little agencies go away.

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And that's what's really interesting too,

is you lose 30 percent of the market.

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So you lose 80 percent of the competition.

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So now there's this big

market to be scooped up.

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: 00:11:53

So if you're listening to this,

Some of my advice just again, as a

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guy who's been through a couple of

cycles now is just hang on, don't

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overextend, don't get desperate, don't

do anything stupid, just hang on,

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but realize that we have to do more.

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We have to offer more.

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Another thing that you said before

is the promises have to be bolder.

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Like you actually have to know what you're

doing and you have to commit to some type

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of like output, some result, let's say.

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No, definitely.

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I think.

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that's, it's the market demands it.

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: 00:12:23

at the end of the day, like you

get a fall with the market once.

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And so if the market wants more emphasis

on, Hey, if you're going to give me global

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: 00:12:31

numbers, I need to make sure it's you kind

of thing, then that's what we got to do.

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: 00:12:34

it's one of those things to where it

seems like there's the beginning point,

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: 00:12:38

like you were saying, and then the end

point or the next step in the process of,

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okay, we start, you see all those beginner

agencies, oh, I'm focused on Google.

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I'm focused on, row as in app numbers.

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: 00:12:47

Yeah.

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Sweet.

307

: 00:12:49

Oh no, my business dropping off.

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: 00:12:50

my average retention rate is six

months, three months, whatever it is.

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: 00:12:53

And it's if you're growing a

business, your average retention

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rate should be way higher than that.

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Cause at that point, you're just looking

at, okay, I held onto the business

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this long and then they went away.

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And it's like, why did they go away?

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Dude, you know what our retention

was when we sold 16 months.

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Yeah.

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That's insane.

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And that's for one channel too.

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Yeah.

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: 00:13:09

Average agency retention is three months.

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According to HubSpot, we were at 16.

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the thing we did, man, is God, did

we love on people, like we just

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really treated customers really well.

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And I think that agencies

lost that a little bit.

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Everybody got real spoiled.

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: 00:13:22

It was the land of milk and honey.

326

: 00:13:23

It was easy to bring customers on.

327

: 00:13:25

So most agencies were

just sales organizations.

328

: 00:13:28

Yeah.

329

: 00:13:29

Fulfillment was half assed, outsourced.

330

: 00:13:31

and that'll bite you quick and

you can outsource fulfillment

331

: 00:13:35

and still a great job.

332

: 00:13:36

this is an open air conspiracy, but

we didn't do our own Google ads for

333

: 00:13:39

for a longer period of time than we

did, but we worked with a great agency

334

: 00:13:43

and we managed them really well.

335

: 00:13:45

but man, what a great point

you just made about retention.

336

: 00:13:47

And that's true for all businesses.

337

: 00:13:49

If you're not retaining past the

industry benchmark, you're built to fail.

338

: 00:13:55

It's forced obsolescence.

339

: 00:13:56

and it's leveraging the uneducated

portion of market that just knows,

340

: 00:14:00

Hey, this is the common thing to track.

341

: 00:14:02

Let's just lean into that.

342

: 00:14:03

And then you realize, oh, wait,

this doesn't work anymore.

343

: 00:14:06

And then who knows when you're going

to be able to say, okay, no, I need to

344

: 00:14:09

not focus on this and to focus on this.

345

: 00:14:11

Instead.

346

: 00:14:11

This is how you grow businesses.

347

: 00:14:13

it's like John's been saying before

the, row as versus the end set of

348

: 00:14:16

things, long term versus short term.

349

: 00:14:18

Our short term versus long term.

350

: 00:14:20

In terms of, growing a business, right?

351

: 00:14:22

We're thinking of this from a year

over year perspective, not a hold on

352

: 00:14:25

to the client for another 3 months.

353

: 00:14:26

let's see if we can, hold on to them.

354

: 00:14:28

And then the business size off.

355

: 00:14:29

It's what was that for?

356

: 00:14:30

yeah, exactly.

357

: 00:14:31

Blood from a turnip.

358

: 00:14:32

That's the other thing too,

is just the responsibility.

359

: 00:14:34

We have entrepreneurs

to tell them the truth.

360

: 00:14:37

Yeah, there's some people and

we've done this a lot where it's

361

: 00:14:41

like you don't need to hire us.

362

: 00:14:42

You need to turn this off.

363

: 00:14:44

are hemorrhaging money right now.

364

: 00:14:46

I don't care that Google

says you're getting a ROAS.

365

: 00:14:48

Because you're not and John's

been able to prove that.

366

: 00:14:50

there was a large client that

was going for massive raise.

367

: 00:14:54

It was like their series B or some shit.

368

: 00:14:56

I don't know.

369

: 00:14:56

I don't know what those words mean.

370

: 00:14:57

I'm not, I went to public.

371

: 00:14:58

Fancy words, fancy business,

fancy business words.

372

: 00:15:00

They're doing some equity

raise with M and a people.

373

: 00:15:02

And the executive of the company

said, Hey, I need to show this.

374

: 00:15:06

you don't, the start I'm talking about.

375

: 00:15:08

I need to show an

increase in profitability.

376

: 00:15:09

And John's Oh great.

377

: 00:15:10

Turn this off.

378

: 00:15:11

And the guy's what?

379

: 00:15:12

And he goes, dude, I've been telling

you guys to turn this off for the last

380

: 00:15:14

18 months, and I don't know what it

was, but it was like their brand camp.

381

: 00:15:16

I'll just to use easy terms, it

was like their brand campaign.

382

: 00:15:19

They're spending six figures on

it a month because it showed.

383

: 00:15:23

Positive results that their board liked.

384

: 00:15:24

And John's that's not producing anything.

385

: 00:15:26

And the guy did, trusted him and it

was a bold move and he turns it off

386

: 00:15:29

and sure enough, costs went down.

387

: 00:15:31

Profits stay the same margins increased

and they got whatever they needed to do.

388

: 00:15:36

But it was just one of those

examples of, the dude was

389

: 00:15:38

pissed at himself and his team.

390

: 00:15:39

He's and we've been doing this for how

long, it's and John's nobody listens

391

: 00:15:43

to me until it's time to listen to me.

392

: 00:15:44

So John Moran.

393

: 00:15:48

It's true though.

394

: 00:15:49

it's one of those things to where you,

have access to all these accounts and you

395

: 00:15:52

learn like what the whole market is doing

and what works and what doesn't work.

396

: 00:15:55

And I think it's one of those things

to where it's like, you got to

397

: 00:15:57

leverage that as much as possible.

398

: 00:15:59

If it works in another

account, try it in this.

399

: 00:16:00

And how does that,

interact with one another?

400

: 00:16:03

Google ads has gotten easier

in the last two, three years.

401

: 00:16:06

I think that Google ads

has stayed the same.

402

: 00:16:10

I think that the marketing

in general has gotten harder.

403

: 00:16:13

I think that's what it's come down to.

404

: 00:16:15

Like the tools themselves have

stayed relatively the same.

405

: 00:16:18

I like attribution obviously has

gotten harder, but that's been

406

: 00:16:21

the lean of you just learn more.

407

: 00:16:23

And so there's more to worry about.

408

: 00:16:25

It's really what comes down to.

409

: 00:16:27

and I think that at least for

me personally, that's been my

410

: 00:16:29

biggest, developing processes.

411

: 00:16:32

Understanding when to push, when

to pull for certain metrics that

412

: 00:16:35

the client needs to be profitable.

413

: 00:16:37

and using Google ads is one of those

things where it's like, we already

414

: 00:16:40

know how this functions, but how

does this impact everything else?

415

: 00:16:43

that's a truth that I don't

think we've delved deep enough

416

: 00:16:46

into like private equity.

417

: 00:16:48

these Silicon Valley guys, these Stanford

graduate children that come out and

418

: 00:16:52

just crack the code on every business.

419

: 00:16:54

Ecom, even five years ago, but Ecom 10

years ago, there was a ton of margin.

420

: 00:16:59

You can make a bunch of mistakes.

421

: 00:17:00

You can still make, you could drop

ship shit and still make money.

422

: 00:17:03

But then you had these Silicon Valley

Stanford tech whiz nerd, they just

423

: 00:17:07

came out and they're like, and then

they built the triple PhD blueprint

424

: 00:17:11

for exactly how this shit works.

425

: 00:17:13

And then it just commoditized everything.

426

: 00:17:15

There's no margin.

427

: 00:17:17

Yeah.

428

: 00:17:17

Because they've perfected it.

429

: 00:17:19

And so I think that you're right.

430

: 00:17:20

Marketing got harder.

431

: 00:17:22

And at the same time, businesses

got way more sophisticated.

432

: 00:17:26

it's been really, you

gotta be good at this shit.

433

: 00:17:28

You have to have a good offer.

434

: 00:17:29

You have to have a good business.

435

: 00:17:30

You have to have good fulfillment,

good customer service.

436

: 00:17:32

Like you just have to be good.

437

: 00:17:34

And that wasn't true.

438

: 00:17:35

The sure shit wasn't true 10 years ago.

439

: 00:17:37

Really wasn't true five years ago.

440

: 00:17:39

There was still a lot of meat

on the bone three years ago.

441

: 00:17:41

But man, you have to be good.

442

: 00:17:44

Yeah.

443

: 00:17:45

And I'm glad for it because that

puts us in a better position.

444

: 00:17:48

Like you were saying, if the

majority of the market falls off.

445

: 00:17:52

You just hold on, like you were

saying earlier and you'll survive

446

: 00:17:55

it and then you get better from it.

447

: 00:17:56

what sucks about it for us though,

is our clients have to be good too.

448

: 00:17:59

there used to be a hundred plumbers

in every city and now there's five.

449

: 00:18:02

There's a hundred florists in

every city and now there's five.

450

: 00:18:04

that's the commoditization of the market.

451

: 00:18:06

it's the product distribution.

452

: 00:18:07

It's the survival of the fittest.

453

: 00:18:08

And it's always going to naturally

turn into this kind of, it's what

454

: 00:18:11

happened with, wireless and, telecom.

455

: 00:18:14

it's just interesting the way that

works and the way that it manifests.

456

: 00:18:17

all that to say, we're zooming out.

457

: 00:18:19

Solutions Aid is zooming out.

458

: 00:18:20

We're reinventing ourselves.

459

: 00:18:21

We're offering an insane

level of services.

460

: 00:18:25

To be honest with you, it'll never

be cheaper than it is right now

461

: 00:18:27

because we're figuring it out.

462

: 00:18:28

So there's a sales pitch here.

463

: 00:18:31

Bad end of the sales pitch.

464

: 00:18:32

You're a guinea pig.

465

: 00:18:32

While we know how to do all this shit

because everybody knows how to do

466

: 00:18:36

all this shit, A, and then B, we've

already been doing it even though

467

: 00:18:38

we haven't said we've been doing it.

468

: 00:18:40

We don't know how to service it.

469

: 00:18:42

So you're a guinea pig as we figure out

the processes and the client management

470

: 00:18:46

and the approach, but you get way more

than anybody's willing to give you for way

471

: 00:18:50

less than anybody's ever going to charge.

472

: 00:18:51

And you'll be grandfathered

into that pricing.

473

: 00:18:53

So if you don't want to be

a guinea pig, don't hire us.

474

: 00:18:56

But if you like the idea of, and

that's the other thing too, is

475

: 00:18:59

it's going to be all hands on deck.

476

: 00:19:00

We're going to throw way more

just in terms of human capital.

477

: 00:19:04

And then of course, AI, because

the people that bought us have.

478

: 00:19:06

a billion dollar

valuation and a ton of ai.

479

: 00:19:09

we've got the firepower to crack

the code and really figure this out.

480

: 00:19:12

so my agency brethren, who I love

dear and deeply, even though you're

481

: 00:19:16

competitors, hang in there or don't.

482

: 00:19:19

And here's the advice

that I'll give, really.

483

: 00:19:21

I'll tell you what I did wrong, dude.

484

: 00:19:22

In my first go round, I tell this

story a lot, I had a business that went

485

: 00:19:26

under when the banking world collapsed

'cause I was building banking software.

486

: 00:19:30

And imagine having a fleet of ships.

487

: 00:19:33

That's what a business is in a lot of

ways, You have clients and employees

488

: 00:19:36

and strategic partners or whatever.

489

: 00:19:37

And if you try to keep the entire fleet of

float for too long, the whole thing goes

490

: 00:19:41

under, it might make a lot of sense to

just pick the one best boat in Alamo up.

491

: 00:19:47

And so don't overextend yourself.

492

: 00:19:48

Don't spend money you don't have.

493

: 00:19:49

Don't take out loans.

494

: 00:19:51

it's okay to wave the white flag.

495

: 00:19:52

It's okay to quit now.

496

: 00:19:53

It's okay to go get a job.

497

: 00:19:54

It's okay to galvanize yourself.

498

: 00:19:55

It's okay to pay rent.

499

: 00:19:57

And then wait this out.

500

: 00:19:58

If you don't have the financial

backing to ride out a storm,

501

: 00:20:03

please don't put yourself at risk.

502

: 00:20:04

I ended up.

503

: 00:20:06

Despondent dude, like just no

and some people like, Oh, I

504

: 00:20:10

have no money for Starbucks.

505

: 00:20:12

I'm like, no, I had no money

for anything digging under my

506

: 00:20:16

car seat for the dollar 50.

507

: 00:20:17

I could spend on a Costco hot

dog, not able to pay rent.

508

: 00:20:21

I lived in a heroin den because I had

somebody I loved that was a drug addict.

509

: 00:20:24

Like it was the worst time of my life.

510

: 00:20:26

And it's because I just kept

thinking like, roll the dice

511

: 00:20:30

again, it's going to get better.

512

: 00:20:31

So I hope that didn't get too

touchy feely, but I, hopefully some

513

: 00:20:35

people can learn from my mistakes.

514

: 00:20:36

if you do see an end in sight in terms of

your runway, it's all right to opt out.

515

: 00:20:40

Now you can always come back.

516

: 00:20:42

That's the best part about the agency

world is startup costs are low.

517

: 00:20:46

So there's no shame in crying uncle,

especially if you have payroll to make,

518

: 00:20:49

thank God I never missed a payroll, you

have a sacred responsibility to make

519

: 00:20:52

sure that people work for you paid.

520

: 00:20:53

last words.

521

: 00:20:54

Do you what advice do you have

for clients agency owners?

522

: 00:20:57

All that?

523

: 00:20:57

I would say, just follow the market.

524

: 00:20:59

Honestly, look for what

other companies are offering.

525

: 00:21:03

Try to understand why they're

offering it and then build

526

: 00:21:05

your own offering from that.

527

: 00:21:06

Don't just copy paste what

other people are offering.

528

: 00:21:09

Look at it from the perspective

of what does the client want?

529

: 00:21:11

What are they getting?

530

: 00:21:12

Why is this offer showing up more?

531

: 00:21:13

And then build your own offer from that.

532

: 00:21:15

I really like that.

533

: 00:21:16

It's don't reinvent the wheel.

534

: 00:21:18

Let the market lead.

535

: 00:21:19

This is awesome, dude.

536

: 00:21:19

You're awesome.

537

: 00:21:20

Kaden Thompson, one of the best and

the brightest in the whole wide world.

538

: 00:21:23

YouTube channel, comment, subscribe.

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Kasim’s Embarrassing Confession and the New Solutions 8

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