June 6, 2025 • 20 mins
Join founder Alexander Johannessen as he dives deep into the essentials of leveraging paid advertising and email marketing to ignite growth for your business. Learn how to structure your marketing campaigns for maximum ROI and hear real-world success stories that demonstrate what can be achieved when you invest wisely. Whether you're just starting out or looking to take your business to new heights, this episode is packed with actionable insights you won't want to miss.
Listen on Podbean:
https://brainworkframework.podbean.com/
Connect with Alexander Johannessen:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-johannessen-b52645137/
Connect with Chris Troka:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-troka-3a093058/
Website: https://focused-biz.com/
Website: https://christroka.com/ #brainwork #framework #business #marketing #advertising #investment
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
So it's very cool seeingmy vision come through.
(00:02):
Reality bring back up every time.
'cause it's a lot of downs.
Definitely.
So it's just persistence and beingrelentless because you have to be
in it for a long time to succeed.
You are listening to Brainwork Framework,a Business and Marketing podcast,
brought to you by Focused-biz.com.
(00:25):
With us is the founder ofDeus Marketing slash AJ Media.
Alexander Johannessen, soexcited to have him on.
His business helps other businesseswith paid advertising, email marketing,
specifically with businesses lookingto grow with $15,000 or more per
month available for their services.
Once again, so excitedto have Alexander on.
Welcome.
How you doing today?
Thank you for having me.
(00:46):
I'm doing well.
We wanted to ask our entrepreneurs,tell us more about your journey.
What were you doing before that kindof led you into what you're doing now?
So I'm still pretty young, I like to startwith my sporting background, so that's
where all my competitiveness comes in.
I played football or soccer for theAmerican audience but at a certain point
you realize you probably can make a pro.
So I tried to find something else, triedgoing into school for entrepreneurship
(01:11):
and business dropped out after fivemonths 'cause it was moving pretty slow.
And then I found out we could juststart this by myself and figure it out.
Of course the man, Gary V put me onin terms of getting started, getting
permission and then I just started aside hustle while working other jobs.
We started just posting organicallyfor businesses locally on Facebook
(01:35):
and then doing advertising.
And then I actually got a job inmarketing while running the side hustle.
So I did marketing for watches and jewelryfor three years but after Covid the side
hustle, which was media at the time.
I made more money on theside than from the main job.
It's time to quit and do it full-time.
So I've been running it full-timefor three years and now we're looking
(01:59):
to launch a new agency called DevsMarketing and we're looking to
work with high-end luxury clients.
Very nice.
Quite an exciting journey for all of us.
I feel like sometimes we have ageneral direction we want to go
but we never really know whereour paths are gonna end up.
And I think that hands-on experience,both working with local clients that
you had but while also working formarketing agency, I feel like that
(02:20):
went hand in hand cause you hadpractical applications and you got more
typical training from the job siteas well to launch into what you do.
So you focus more on the paid ads andthe email marketing side of things.
Tell me more about how this kind ofworks, what results you've had and
what you're doing for your clients.
Sure.
So most of our clients are doingpaid ads on Google and Meta
(02:42):
which is the biggest platforms.
What we're seeing is that paid ads willalways increase in cost because there are
always more players entering the game.
In the last couple of years we'vebeen moving more towards email
combined with those two platforms.
So we can retain customers for a longertime getting a higher AOV and less churn.
(03:02):
We've had a lot of great resultsand a lot of difficulties as well.
Especially when we work with kind ofsmaller local clients, it's hard getting
past the first level because most ofthem are starting doing this and then
they also need a take home salary, whichmeans we can't just be like team or she
just putting money into the machine.
(03:23):
We've had some amazing results like justlast year before Christmas, we did four
x in 60 days with the e-com store throughemail marketing, Google and Facebook.
That's one of our coolest accomplishments.
I love that.
That's so exciting and Iappreciate that you both shared
a really great success story.
And just the other ones that, we'retesting things, we're trying things.
(03:45):
I appreciate that honesty more thanjust coming with cherry picking your
best data and saying, Hey, this isexactly what we can do and guaranteed
results and you better contact us now.
But you're like, Hey, you knowwhat, we're just like everyone else.
We're testing things but we're usingthat background education and experience
to produce something better and achievebetter results eventually, hopefully.
Yeah, because I could come on hereand say we have 15 roas and all of our
(04:07):
campaigns are doing amazing which manyof them are but to be honest with you,
on previous podcasts and when I'vetalked with other media buyers as well.
We've been talking about like budgetsand the digital advertising or paid
advertising really is just testingand then you just keep testing.
So you might have this winningad but it's not finished.
It won't run forever.
(04:27):
So we need to test new stuff.
It's just like educated guesses but youreducation gets a bit better every time.
Absolutely.
And it's one of those thingsthat we'll only learn through
the testing and the experience.
Just as you mentioned before,sometimes even paid ads can
have a shorter cycle because itexponentially gets more costly to run.
So that isn't a long-term viable option.
(04:49):
Email can help introduce newtouchpoints, it can help bring
value, can be a reminder to them.
What are some of the ways that you'reintroducing email marketing into the mix
as far as like nurturing and bringingthem through the buyer's journey?
Sure.
So we actually have a YouTubevideo coming out about our strategy
for 2025 around email marketing.
I'm just gonna plug that right now.
But yeah, the standard automationsis like welcome emails, win back
(05:12):
emails, abandoned card and checkout.
Those types of things and then wework with different segmentations and
newsletters into those segmentationsas well and we're looking into
some AI tools to do this better.
Of course, there are some e-commerceplatforms that does it better than
others but we're looking to use moreAI in terms of hyper segmentation and
(05:34):
getting a higher conversion rate on theemails we send and then of course, writing
good copy and writing good emails helps.
So that's our philosophyaround email marketing.
And then I have a 10 to 20 minutevideo coming out very soon.
That's excellent 'cause I didn't wantyou to brain dump all of the tips.
It's like, Hey, give us a little insightand then appreciate that you have this
(05:55):
resource coming with everything thatyou're doing in your marketing strategy.
You as your company aretechnically B2B right?
You're selling to other businesses.
What has been most effective foryou to build these relationships?
You started more local, right?
And you're moving intomore of a boutique side.
But what's been most effective for you?
Are you just knocking on doors?
Are you calling people?
You hit 'em with an ad and then the email.
(06:15):
What's been effective for you?
We've done a little bit of both.
In terms of the media, which is theNorwegian one more locally based.
We did a lot of undergroundnetworking which has been great.
As well as the clients have a moreestablished connection with you,
they stay longer, the churn is lower.
In terms of other clients, we'vedone a lot of Facebook ads and the
(06:35):
average deal size isn't usuallybig but it's been very stable in
terms of volume and deals closed.
The bigger clients is stillnetworking but more online.
Some through podcasts like theseand then a lot of LinkedIn of
course but not in the way likeyou get pitched LinkedIn outreach.
It's not, hi, let's three xyour e-comm story in 90 days.
(06:57):
It's more getting the conversationgoing and building actual
relationship to see if there issomething you can do to help them.
It's not usually just pushy sales.
Yes.
And that's a huge part of marketingright now is the effectiveness of just
trying to go straight for the sale.
People obviously try to ignore thatand avoid that as much as they can.
When we try to elicit this reply here.
(07:19):
Most people are like, I need to get thesale or they need to book a meeting.
Sometimes you just need to get aconversation going and let's take it
from there 'cause that builds naturally.
You're not gonna get that rapportbuilding just by like taking someone
through a funnel into a signup form.
There has to be some nurturing involved.
Definitely.
And I've been doing thisfor six or seven years now.
I told you before, we started almosta veteran and I want to work with
(07:40):
people I like and I want to workwith people I actually can work with,
not just doing it for the paycheck.
'cause we've had some successand we know we can make money.
It's for long term and sustainability,I wanna work with people who wanna
work with us and I wanna work withand usually those people stay longer
so the contract value is higher andit takes a lot of less menthol energy.
(08:02):
Yes it does.
But that's something I think a lotof entrepreneurs recognize into a
few years into businesses that thereis a right fit client and there
are ones that are not a right fit.
And you're gonna expend so much energytrying to please the ones that shouldn't
have been a client in the first place.
And you get to a point whereluckily you can realize that and
now pick who you want to work with.
One thing you mentioned about thatis really important, not just for
(08:24):
that piece, but overall is retention.
The churn.
A lot of people when they thinkabout marketing, they're going
straight to the top of funnel.
Facebook ads.
I need more ads, I need moreconnections and they really forget
about that middle of funnel.
How do we actually communicate theoffer and get this conversation going.
What can we learn about the middle stageof this funnel here as far as conversions
and keeping happy clients long term?
(08:45):
Yeah.
So for getting leads in the middle funnel,I think it's more like just being visible
all of the time in different mediums.
We're doing a lot of organic content.
I think we have 50 blog posts going out.
We have YouTube going out.
We have podcasts going out and thenwe post on social every day as well.
And then kind of just contributingwhere you can in online forums as
(09:09):
well, if that's on LinkedIn or inInstagram or like a group on Telegram.
Just staying visible and being apart of an actual community house.
In terms of retention, when theclients are with you, I think we've
been bad at this for a long timeand that's why I'm focusing a lot
of my energy and time on it now.
(09:30):
It's more follow up, getting clear on whatyou're actually doing because often when
we work with marketing agencies, it's likeyou sign with them, then the onboarding
process and everything feels fine andthen after two weeks we don't hear from
them and then maybe you get a report,which we've been guilty many times.
But again, that's why we focus on that.
It's more touch points, more follow up,giving them the service they actually
(09:54):
are paying for 'cause the philosophynow with launching the new edges as
well is more agencies have become aproduct or a commodity more than a
service and we want to be a service.
We want to actually helpthe people work with them.
So that's why we're focusing onretention 'cause it takes a lot of time
and money getting new clients and ittakes less time and money to keep them.
(10:16):
Yes, I totally agree.
And I love your strategy around buildingthe content because this one is helpful
for SEO for that top of funnel, right?
You're getting organic search.
Now you can use that to helpnurture leads throughout any
stage of the buyer's journey.
So like you said before,segmenting some newsletters.
Maybe you have some blog topics thatare specific to them and Hey, I thought
(10:36):
this would be a great resource for you.
Now you just made a touch point andI think being visible with audiences
online, in groups and communities, justbeing a helpful resource helps you build
connections and referrals and if peoplelike you and trust you enough they
might be interested in moving forward.
Check out your website andreach out to learn more.
Yeah, definitely.
And we're doing exactly that.
We have some very top of funnel,some interesting reads as well but
(10:59):
also some very specific like nichecontent that we can use in outreach.
Like this is your store,this is your brand.
Just have a read and let's talk.
Absolutely.
So I wanted to ask somethingspecific to 2025, the trends
and changes we've seen withemail, deliverability, spam,
everything coming into play.
(11:19):
How are you trying to navigate throughthis landscape of the new changes with
emails and I think just the way peoplewanna be connected with and sold.
Yeah, I think it is a very broad topic aswell cause it's like some macro trends.
And then the email, in terms of thetechnical stuff like I was touching on a
bit earlier is more segmentation, whichkind of sucks for you as a email marketer
(11:42):
because you have to do more work in termsof writing emails or hitting the touch
points for those specific sub niches.
But I think the more personal you can getwith the emails the better and then you're
gonna do some sales push and whateverbut you can definitely increase your
conversion rate while hyper segmentingand making content more relevant.
(12:05):
And then there is a lot of coolmacro trends in my perspective, in
terms of branding and building likebrand worlds and events and stuff.
Absolutely.
It's something we need to be mindfulwith a lot of the changes and trends that
we're seeing people, business owners,marketers wanna stay on top of the
game here and even ahead of the game.
Oftentimes because AI has kind ofwreaked havoc it's both helped a lot of
(12:27):
businesses, solopreneurs kind of do morethings than they ever thought they could.
People are worried about their jobs.
People are using it to enhance their jobs.
What is your take on AI?
Does it play a role in your business oversome of the clients that you work with?
Yeah, I think last week changed myperception a little bit actually 'cause
in terms of usage, we use it a lot.
Just like I use it for content, gettingideas or helping writing scripts.
(12:52):
We use it for some ad creation as well.
We use it for some email orGoogle headlines if I don't feel
creative but in terms of usage.
I think we as online marketers orbusiness owners, we're so chronically
online that we think everyone uses AI andit's probably a lot less than we think.
(13:13):
' cause I had a discussion aboutGoogle search volume and going to
AI or TikTok for that instance.
But it's so much less peopleand we actually think it's
billions of users on Google.
It's a couple of million, 20 million.
So we're getting there definitelybut I think we should take a
step back and like go outside.
(13:33):
It's less people than we think butit has changed a lot on advertising
platforms more and more like mediabuy happens through AI models and
we're just gonna see how it changes.
Absolutely.
And I agree, it's something thatnot a lot of people know about.
I feel like the people who know about AIare the ones who are working with it and
selling it and offering it as a solution.
(13:55):
That's why I don't lead with AI in alot of messaging or even on my LinkedIn
because I think it scares people away.
You have to hide it in some way or justcraft a message that better resonates
with them because their perceptionof it is a little bit different.
So it's like, how do we bring theseemerging technologies to the table?
Whoever would've thoughtwith the internet, right.
(14:16):
Apparently there's thisplace called online.
There's this online and you can sendan email, an electronic mail and this
was the early stage of the internet.
No one thought it would be anything.
I wonder if that could be similar orthe same for AI and how it can evolve.
Yeah.
I definitely think so.
'cause I see some of my friends use itbut they don't use it well and then I
(14:37):
see some of my friends use it but theyask simple questions, which Google
could do but they just use chat GPTbecause it's cool and it's a very long
way from chat GPT to steal our jobs.
We're way ahead of the curveand I think it can be really
hard to sell AI because of it.
It's too much for a lot of peopleand a lot of businesses but I think
(15:00):
a lot of businesses could definitelybenefit of some power AI users or some
AI integrations into the business.
Yes, absolutely.
And AI is just one.
It's one of many toolsavailable in our toolbox.
We've been using software andtechnology for years automation tools
to help our clients and serve them.
Are there any ways that you're usingother technology to help your clients?
(15:23):
Either it's the creative stageor the growing scaling phase
'cause there's tools out there.
Would there be any thatyou recommend to others?
I would say inspire usin terms of ad creative.
It's basically just stealing.
So we have a tool called CreativeOs which takes the best performing,
it's just static ads in the US.
Which you can just scroll through or sorton like beauty and then you get the ads,
(15:48):
then you just copy them into Canva orFigma and then change them a bit to your
brand which we've used a lot and it worksbut I think it kind of fatigues audiences
pretty quickly 'cause they look the same.
There are a lot of cool tools andwe're testing constantly but I would
recommend that one and of course, likethird party tracking and stuff which
(16:08):
we have to use like Triple L or Hiro.
Depending on what business you run.
That's really cool to hear thatit's being used in the creative
competitive analysis space right now
because any person can go on aFacebook account and it's public
information, go look at their ads butto have a tool that can scan it, find
the information for you, put it alltogether, that is absolutely brilliant.
Very cool.
We can learn a lot from other businesses.
(16:29):
It doesn't have to bea one for one remake.
This can be still varied to your brandbut we can learn a lot from competitors.
Are there certain businesses thatyou try to model yourselves after
or have been an inspiration to someof the work that you've been doing?
You mentioned Gary V before but anynotable brands out there that have kind of
led the way for you and your inspiration?
Yeah, had some inspirations in terms ofentrepreneurship and then of course like
(16:52):
Gary V in terms of marketing and branding.
And there are others which definitelydon't need a shadow but they're awesome.
In terms of when we are buildingthis brand, it's more what I
like and looked at brands that I
both like and aspire to.
And I'm very into luxury stuff.
So like looking into Bentley, Austin,Martin looking into Patek in constant.
(17:15):
So it's more getting inspirationsfor the brands that we kinda dream
of working with more than stealing orlooking at the marketing space alone.
Right?
That could be so insightful to lookat a brand that is creating what
you want to be and mimic a styleor get some inspiration from that.
I absolutely love that.
(17:35):
I want to ask where can people findout more about you, get connected
with you online and give you anotherchance to plug YouTube podcast
channels where people can find you.
Yeah, so we're workingon a website right now.
It won't be live for a little whilebut you can find me on LinkedIn
with my name, Alexander Johannessenand you can find me on Instagram,
which is Alex, GAOH 13 and YouTube.
(17:58):
And I have a podcast calledThe Beauty of Business, which
you can also find on YouTube.
Very nice, and we'll have those linksavailable down in the description.
In the show notes for everyone.
Alexander, what are you kindalooking forward to in 2025?
You said you're kind ofcoming up with this new brand.
It's been a vision and a dreamthat you've been putting together.
It's finally coming to fruition.
How are you kind of planning to launchhere and what are some of the next
(18:19):
steps that you're working towards?
I'm really excited to get this started.
We're been working with a brandingagency who's been awesome for
three months now and I've had itin my head for like two years.
So it's very cool seeingmy vision come to reality.
In terms of launching, we've been workingon a launch plan, which includes organic
content ads and a lot of outreach aswell to the right people in the right
(18:44):
spaces and then jumping on podcastslike this and just spreading the word.
Very nice.
I want to ask a generalbusiness leadership question.
What do you think ittakes to be successful?
Getting back up every time 'causeit's a lot of downs definitely.
So it's just persistence and beingre relentless because you have to
(19:04):
be in it for a long time to succeed.
Absolutely.
And I think just a testament to that,when Alexander and I first got on the
podcast, he seemed kind of drained and itwas just like he'd been working all week.
He's been doing a lot of traveling,working hard, putting in a lot of hours.
And I was like, I hopethis is the last one.
He said, well, I have a few slackmessages, like a follow up after this.
The entrepreneurial mindset,I feel like it's never ending.
(19:25):
Always more work to be done butjust wanted to give you a kudos
to you for putting in the effort.
You're making these short-term sacrificesin hopes for a long-term gain and I
think you're working towards somethingreally you can work with and be proud of.
Thank you so much, Chris, andyou gave me a lot of energy.
So now I'll definitelyanswer the Slack messages.
Good.
That is excellent.
I wanted to also open the floor if there'sanything else we haven't covered yet.
(19:47):
Anything you might either tell youryounger self as an entrepreneur or
maybe you need some words of advicefor those who are kinda spinning
their wheels right now and kind oflacking some clarity and direction.
Yeah.
A younger me by Bitcoin and start earlier,that would be like the two main advice.
I definitely should have started a bitearlier 'cause you're young and you
(20:07):
have a lot of fear and probably shouldhave quit the job earlier as well.
Other people struggling.
It's just keep going.
Actually my best advice, just keep going.
Absolutely.
I'm glad that you highlighted that.
It's not all just sunshineand rainbows all the time.
There are dark days storm clouds roll in.
Your ability to get back up again isreally gonna set you apart from anyone
(20:27):
else running in a similar space as well.
You have to be resilient.
Definitely.
Absolutely.
Alexander, we appreciate you comingout and sharing your tips and tricks.
Excited for your new journey,everything you're putting together.
Congratulations.
Thank you, man.
Thank you.
Absolutely.
Thank you.
So it's very cool seeingmy vision come through.
(00:02):
Reality bring back up every time.
'cause it's a lot of downs.
Definitely.
So it's just persistence and beingrelentless because you have to be
in it for a long time to succeed.
You are listening to Brainwork Framework,a Business and Marketing podcast,
brought to you by Focused-biz.com.
(00:25):
With us is the founder ofDeus Marketing slash AJ Media.
Alexander Johannessen, soexcited to have him on.
His business helps other businesseswith paid advertising, email marketing,
specifically with businesses lookingto grow with $15,000 or more per
month available for their services.
Once again, so excitedto have Alexander on.
Welcome.
How you doing today?
Thank you for having me.
(00:46):
I'm doing well.
We wanted to ask our entrepreneurs,tell us more about your journey.
What were you doing before that kindof led you into what you're doing now?
So I'm still pretty young, I like to startwith my sporting background, so that's
where all my competitiveness comes in.
I played football or soccer for theAmerican audience but at a certain point
you realize you probably can make a pro.
So I tried to find something else, triedgoing into school for entrepreneurship
(01:11):
and business dropped out after fivemonths 'cause it was moving pretty slow.
And then I found out we could juststart this by myself and figure it out.
Of course the man, Gary V put me onin terms of getting started, getting
permission and then I just started aside hustle while working other jobs.
We started just posting organicallyfor businesses locally on Facebook
(01:35):
and then doing advertising.
And then I actually got a job inmarketing while running the side hustle.
So I did marketing for watches and jewelryfor three years but after Covid the side
hustle, which was media at the time.
I made more money on theside than from the main job.
It's time to quit and do it full-time.
So I've been running it full-timefor three years and now we're looking
(01:59):
to launch a new agency called DevsMarketing and we're looking to
work with high-end luxury clients.
Very nice.
Quite an exciting journey for all of us.
I feel like sometimes we have ageneral direction we want to go
but we never really know whereour paths are gonna end up.
And I think that hands-on experience,both working with local clients that
you had but while also working formarketing agency, I feel like that
(02:20):
went hand in hand cause you hadpractical applications and you got more
typical training from the job siteas well to launch into what you do.
So you focus more on the paid ads andthe email marketing side of things.
Tell me more about how this kind ofworks, what results you've had and
what you're doing for your clients.
Sure.
So most of our clients are doingpaid ads on Google and Meta
(02:42):
which is the biggest platforms.
What we're seeing is that paid ads willalways increase in cost because there are
always more players entering the game.
In the last couple of years we'vebeen moving more towards email
combined with those two platforms.
So we can retain customers for a longertime getting a higher AOV and less churn.
(03:02):
We've had a lot of great resultsand a lot of difficulties as well.
Especially when we work with kind ofsmaller local clients, it's hard getting
past the first level because most ofthem are starting doing this and then
they also need a take home salary, whichmeans we can't just be like team or she
just putting money into the machine.
(03:23):
We've had some amazing results like justlast year before Christmas, we did four
x in 60 days with the e-com store throughemail marketing, Google and Facebook.
That's one of our coolest accomplishments.
I love that.
That's so exciting and Iappreciate that you both shared
a really great success story.
And just the other ones that, we'retesting things, we're trying things.
(03:45):
I appreciate that honesty more thanjust coming with cherry picking your
best data and saying, Hey, this isexactly what we can do and guaranteed
results and you better contact us now.
But you're like, Hey, you knowwhat, we're just like everyone else.
We're testing things but we're usingthat background education and experience
to produce something better and achievebetter results eventually, hopefully.
Yeah, because I could come on hereand say we have 15 roas and all of our
(04:07):
campaigns are doing amazing which manyof them are but to be honest with you,
on previous podcasts and when I'vetalked with other media buyers as well.
We've been talking about like budgetsand the digital advertising or paid
advertising really is just testingand then you just keep testing.
So you might have this winningad but it's not finished.
It won't run forever.
(04:27):
So we need to test new stuff.
It's just like educated guesses but youreducation gets a bit better every time.
Absolutely.
And it's one of those thingsthat we'll only learn through
the testing and the experience.
Just as you mentioned before,sometimes even paid ads can
have a shorter cycle because itexponentially gets more costly to run.
So that isn't a long-term viable option.
(04:49):
Email can help introduce newtouchpoints, it can help bring
value, can be a reminder to them.
What are some of the ways that you'reintroducing email marketing into the mix
as far as like nurturing and bringingthem through the buyer's journey?
Sure.
So we actually have a YouTubevideo coming out about our strategy
for 2025 around email marketing.
I'm just gonna plug that right now.
But yeah, the standard automationsis like welcome emails, win back
(05:12):
emails, abandoned card and checkout.
Those types of things and then wework with different segmentations and
newsletters into those segmentationsas well and we're looking into
some AI tools to do this better.
Of course, there are some e-commerceplatforms that does it better than
others but we're looking to use moreAI in terms of hyper segmentation and
(05:34):
getting a higher conversion rate on theemails we send and then of course, writing
good copy and writing good emails helps.
So that's our philosophyaround email marketing.
And then I have a 10 to 20 minutevideo coming out very soon.
That's excellent 'cause I didn't wantyou to brain dump all of the tips.
It's like, Hey, give us a little insightand then appreciate that you have this
(05:55):
resource coming with everything thatyou're doing in your marketing strategy.
You as your company aretechnically B2B right?
You're selling to other businesses.
What has been most effective foryou to build these relationships?
You started more local, right?
And you're moving intomore of a boutique side.
But what's been most effective for you?
Are you just knocking on doors?
Are you calling people?
You hit 'em with an ad and then the email.
(06:15):
What's been effective for you?
We've done a little bit of both.
In terms of the media, which is theNorwegian one more locally based.
We did a lot of undergroundnetworking which has been great.
As well as the clients have a moreestablished connection with you,
they stay longer, the churn is lower.
In terms of other clients, we'vedone a lot of Facebook ads and the
(06:35):
average deal size isn't usuallybig but it's been very stable in
terms of volume and deals closed.
The bigger clients is stillnetworking but more online.
Some through podcasts like theseand then a lot of LinkedIn of
course but not in the way likeyou get pitched LinkedIn outreach.
It's not, hi, let's three xyour e-comm story in 90 days.
(06:57):
It's more getting the conversationgoing and building actual
relationship to see if there issomething you can do to help them.
It's not usually just pushy sales.
Yes.
And that's a huge part of marketingright now is the effectiveness of just
trying to go straight for the sale.
People obviously try to ignore thatand avoid that as much as they can.
When we try to elicit this reply here.
(07:19):
Most people are like, I need to get thesale or they need to book a meeting.
Sometimes you just need to get aconversation going and let's take it
from there 'cause that builds naturally.
You're not gonna get that rapportbuilding just by like taking someone
through a funnel into a signup form.
There has to be some nurturing involved.
Definitely.
And I've been doing thisfor six or seven years now.
I told you before, we started almosta veteran and I want to work with
(07:40):
people I like and I want to workwith people I actually can work with,
not just doing it for the paycheck.
'cause we've had some successand we know we can make money.
It's for long term and sustainability,I wanna work with people who wanna
work with us and I wanna work withand usually those people stay longer
so the contract value is higher andit takes a lot of less menthol energy.
(08:02):
Yes it does.
But that's something I think a lotof entrepreneurs recognize into a
few years into businesses that thereis a right fit client and there
are ones that are not a right fit.
And you're gonna expend so much energytrying to please the ones that shouldn't
have been a client in the first place.
And you get to a point whereluckily you can realize that and
now pick who you want to work with.
One thing you mentioned about thatis really important, not just for
(08:24):
that piece, but overall is retention.
The churn.
A lot of people when they thinkabout marketing, they're going
straight to the top of funnel.
Facebook ads.
I need more ads, I need moreconnections and they really forget
about that middle of funnel.
How do we actually communicate theoffer and get this conversation going.
What can we learn about the middle stageof this funnel here as far as conversions
and keeping happy clients long term?
(08:45):
Yeah.
So for getting leads in the middle funnel,I think it's more like just being visible
all of the time in different mediums.
We're doing a lot of organic content.
I think we have 50 blog posts going out.
We have YouTube going out.
We have podcasts going out and thenwe post on social every day as well.
And then kind of just contributingwhere you can in online forums as
(09:09):
well, if that's on LinkedIn or inInstagram or like a group on Telegram.
Just staying visible and being apart of an actual community house.
In terms of retention, when theclients are with you, I think we've
been bad at this for a long timeand that's why I'm focusing a lot
of my energy and time on it now.
(09:30):
It's more follow up, getting clear on whatyou're actually doing because often when
we work with marketing agencies, it's likeyou sign with them, then the onboarding
process and everything feels fine andthen after two weeks we don't hear from
them and then maybe you get a report,which we've been guilty many times.
But again, that's why we focus on that.
It's more touch points, more follow up,giving them the service they actually
(09:54):
are paying for 'cause the philosophynow with launching the new edges as
well is more agencies have become aproduct or a commodity more than a
service and we want to be a service.
We want to actually helpthe people work with them.
So that's why we're focusing onretention 'cause it takes a lot of time
and money getting new clients and ittakes less time and money to keep them.
(10:16):
Yes, I totally agree.
And I love your strategy around buildingthe content because this one is helpful
for SEO for that top of funnel, right?
You're getting organic search.
Now you can use that to helpnurture leads throughout any
stage of the buyer's journey.
So like you said before,segmenting some newsletters.
Maybe you have some blog topics thatare specific to them and Hey, I thought
(10:36):
this would be a great resource for you.
Now you just made a touch point andI think being visible with audiences
online, in groups and communities, justbeing a helpful resource helps you build
connections and referrals and if peoplelike you and trust you enough they
might be interested in moving forward.
Check out your website andreach out to learn more.
Yeah, definitely.
And we're doing exactly that.
We have some very top of funnel,some interesting reads as well but
(10:59):
also some very specific like nichecontent that we can use in outreach.
Like this is your store,this is your brand.
Just have a read and let's talk.
Absolutely.
So I wanted to ask somethingspecific to 2025, the trends
and changes we've seen withemail, deliverability, spam,
everything coming into play.
(11:19):
How are you trying to navigate throughthis landscape of the new changes with
emails and I think just the way peoplewanna be connected with and sold.
Yeah, I think it is a very broad topic aswell cause it's like some macro trends.
And then the email, in terms of thetechnical stuff like I was touching on a
bit earlier is more segmentation, whichkind of sucks for you as a email marketer
(11:42):
because you have to do more work in termsof writing emails or hitting the touch
points for those specific sub niches.
But I think the more personal you can getwith the emails the better and then you're
gonna do some sales push and whateverbut you can definitely increase your
conversion rate while hyper segmentingand making content more relevant.
(12:05):
And then there is a lot of coolmacro trends in my perspective, in
terms of branding and building likebrand worlds and events and stuff.
Absolutely.
It's something we need to be mindfulwith a lot of the changes and trends that
we're seeing people, business owners,marketers wanna stay on top of the
game here and even ahead of the game.
Oftentimes because AI has kind ofwreaked havoc it's both helped a lot of
(12:27):
businesses, solopreneurs kind of do morethings than they ever thought they could.
People are worried about their jobs.
People are using it to enhance their jobs.
What is your take on AI?
Does it play a role in your business oversome of the clients that you work with?
Yeah, I think last week changed myperception a little bit actually 'cause
in terms of usage, we use it a lot.
Just like I use it for content, gettingideas or helping writing scripts.
(12:52):
We use it for some ad creation as well.
We use it for some email orGoogle headlines if I don't feel
creative but in terms of usage.
I think we as online marketers orbusiness owners, we're so chronically
online that we think everyone uses AI andit's probably a lot less than we think.
(13:13):
' cause I had a discussion aboutGoogle search volume and going to
AI or TikTok for that instance.
But it's so much less peopleand we actually think it's
billions of users on Google.
It's a couple of million, 20 million.
So we're getting there definitelybut I think we should take a
step back and like go outside.
(13:33):
It's less people than we think butit has changed a lot on advertising
platforms more and more like mediabuy happens through AI models and
we're just gonna see how it changes.
Absolutely.
And I agree, it's something thatnot a lot of people know about.
I feel like the people who know about AIare the ones who are working with it and
selling it and offering it as a solution.
(13:55):
That's why I don't lead with AI in alot of messaging or even on my LinkedIn
because I think it scares people away.
You have to hide it in some way or justcraft a message that better resonates
with them because their perceptionof it is a little bit different.
So it's like, how do we bring theseemerging technologies to the table?
Whoever would've thoughtwith the internet, right.
(14:16):
Apparently there's thisplace called online.
There's this online and you can sendan email, an electronic mail and this
was the early stage of the internet.
No one thought it would be anything.
I wonder if that could be similar orthe same for AI and how it can evolve.
Yeah.
I definitely think so.
'cause I see some of my friends use itbut they don't use it well and then I
(14:37):
see some of my friends use it but theyask simple questions, which Google
could do but they just use chat GPTbecause it's cool and it's a very long
way from chat GPT to steal our jobs.
We're way ahead of the curveand I think it can be really
hard to sell AI because of it.
It's too much for a lot of peopleand a lot of businesses but I think
(15:00):
a lot of businesses could definitelybenefit of some power AI users or some
AI integrations into the business.
Yes, absolutely.
And AI is just one.
It's one of many toolsavailable in our toolbox.
We've been using software andtechnology for years automation tools
to help our clients and serve them.
Are there any ways that you're usingother technology to help your clients?
(15:23):
Either it's the creative stageor the growing scaling phase
'cause there's tools out there.
Would there be any thatyou recommend to others?
I would say inspire usin terms of ad creative.
It's basically just stealing.
So we have a tool called CreativeOs which takes the best performing,
it's just static ads in the US.
Which you can just scroll through or sorton like beauty and then you get the ads,
(15:48):
then you just copy them into Canva orFigma and then change them a bit to your
brand which we've used a lot and it worksbut I think it kind of fatigues audiences
pretty quickly 'cause they look the same.
There are a lot of cool tools andwe're testing constantly but I would
recommend that one and of course, likethird party tracking and stuff which
(16:08):
we have to use like Triple L or Hiro.
Depending on what business you run.
That's really cool to hear thatit's being used in the creative
competitive analysis space right now
because any person can go on aFacebook account and it's public
information, go look at their ads butto have a tool that can scan it, find
the information for you, put it alltogether, that is absolutely brilliant.
Very cool.
We can learn a lot from other businesses.
(16:29):
It doesn't have to bea one for one remake.
This can be still varied to your brandbut we can learn a lot from competitors.
Are there certain businesses thatyou try to model yourselves after
or have been an inspiration to someof the work that you've been doing?
You mentioned Gary V before but anynotable brands out there that have kind of
led the way for you and your inspiration?
Yeah, had some inspirations in terms ofentrepreneurship and then of course like
(16:52):
Gary V in terms of marketing and branding.
And there are others which definitelydon't need a shadow but they're awesome.
In terms of when we are buildingthis brand, it's more what I
like and looked at brands that I
both like and aspire to.
And I'm very into luxury stuff.
So like looking into Bentley, Austin,Martin looking into Patek in constant.
(17:15):
So it's more getting inspirationsfor the brands that we kinda dream
of working with more than stealing orlooking at the marketing space alone.
Right?
That could be so insightful to lookat a brand that is creating what
you want to be and mimic a styleor get some inspiration from that.
I absolutely love that.
(17:35):
I want to ask where can people findout more about you, get connected
with you online and give you anotherchance to plug YouTube podcast
channels where people can find you.
Yeah, so we're workingon a website right now.
It won't be live for a little whilebut you can find me on LinkedIn
with my name, Alexander Johannessenand you can find me on Instagram,
which is Alex, GAOH 13 and YouTube.
(17:58):
And I have a podcast calledThe Beauty of Business, which
you can also find on YouTube.
Very nice, and we'll have those linksavailable down in the description.
In the show notes for everyone.
Alexander, what are you kindalooking forward to in 2025?
You said you're kind ofcoming up with this new brand.
It's been a vision and a dreamthat you've been putting together.
It's finally coming to fruition.
How are you kind of planning to launchhere and what are some of the next
(18:19):
steps that you're working towards?
I'm really excited to get this started.
We're been working with a brandingagency who's been awesome for
three months now and I've had itin my head for like two years.
So it's very cool seeingmy vision come to reality.
In terms of launching, we've been workingon a launch plan, which includes organic
content ads and a lot of outreach aswell to the right people in the right
(18:44):
spaces and then jumping on podcastslike this and just spreading the word.
Very nice.
I want to ask a generalbusiness leadership question.
What do you think ittakes to be successful?
Getting back up every time 'causeit's a lot of downs definitely.
So it's just persistence and beingre relentless because you have to
(19:04):
be in it for a long time to succeed.
Absolutely.
And I think just a testament to that,when Alexander and I first got on the
podcast, he seemed kind of drained and itwas just like he'd been working all week.
He's been doing a lot of traveling,working hard, putting in a lot of hours.
And I was like, I hopethis is the last one.
He said, well, I have a few slackmessages, like a follow up after this.
The entrepreneurial mindset,I feel like it's never ending.
(19:25):
Always more work to be done butjust wanted to give you a kudos
to you for putting in the effort.
You're making these short-term sacrificesin hopes for a long-term gain and I
think you're working towards somethingreally you can work with and be proud of.
Thank you so much, Chris, andyou gave me a lot of energy.
So now I'll definitelyanswer the Slack messages.
Good.
That is excellent.
I wanted to also open the floor if there'sanything else we haven't covered yet.
(19:47):
Anything you might either tell youryounger self as an entrepreneur or
maybe you need some words of advicefor those who are kinda spinning
their wheels right now and kind oflacking some clarity and direction.
Yeah.
A younger me by Bitcoin and start earlier,that would be like the two main advice.
I definitely should have started a bitearlier 'cause you're young and you
(20:07):
have a lot of fear and probably shouldhave quit the job earlier as well.
Other people struggling.
It's just keep going.
Actually my best advice, just keep going.
Absolutely.
I'm glad that you highlighted that.
It's not all just sunshineand rainbows all the time.
There are dark days storm clouds roll in.
Your ability to get back up again isreally gonna set you apart from anyone
(20:27):
else running in a similar space as well.
You have to be resilient.
Definitely.
Absolutely.
Alexander, we appreciate you comingout and sharing your tips and tricks.
Excited for your new journey,everything you're putting together.
Congratulations.
Thank you, man.
Thank you.
Absolutely.
Thank you.
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