August 11, 2025 • 25 mins
🎙️ From Zero to Breakthrough: What It Really Takes to Grow with Ads
Ever feel like you're doing everything “right” with your ads — and still not getting results?
In this episode, I sit down with media buying expert David Schloss, who’s been mastering paid traffic for over 18 years. But success didn’t come fast — it came from years of trial, testing, and relentless persistence.
We break down how to build scalable ad strategies, the habits that actually lead to growth, and why most people quit right before it clicks.
💡 You’ll learn:
✔️ What actually works in media buying today
✔️ How to treat your ad manager like a “gym” (and why that mindset matters)
✔️ The daily practices behind digital success
📲 Connect with David Schloss:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/schlossy
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidmschloss
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmschloss
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@davidmschloss
💬 DM “GPT” on IG to access his free ad copy tool
🎁 Grab Amanda’s Free Resources:
Thrive & Scale Blueprint: https://thecoachesplaza.com/the-thrive-and-scale-blueprint
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theamandakaufmanshow
Listen to more episodes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-amanda-kaufman-show/id1450993176
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theamandakaufman
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandackaufman/
Clients Over Chaos: https://login.thecoachesplaza.com/communities/groups/clients-over-chaos/home
If this inspired you, share it with someone building their next breakthrough — and don’t forget to subscribe + review!
#TheAmandaKaufmanShow #ClientsOverChaos #DavidSchloss #MediaBuying #DigitalMarketing #EntrepreneurMindset
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
It was year after year after year of struggle.
(00:02):
And I think about that now and I'm like, I wonder how many people are learning ads andjust give up after six months or they give up after a year.
(00:29):
Well, hey, hey, welcome back to the Amanda Kaufman show.
And I've got a real treat for you.
This this guest, David Schloss, is a media buyer.
And if you don't know what a media buyer is, well, you will by the end of this episode.
Basically, his job is to get eyeballs, you know, for the brands that he supports.
And this man has 18 years of media buying experience.
(00:52):
That is uncommon.
And he has spent collectively.
Let me check my notes here.
$300 million in ad spend.
Like, whoa, that's quite a lot of ad spend.
I think it says a lot about how much trust the clients that work with David have.
And here's the real truth.
We met in a room.
We were in a room, and we connected, and we were talking about marketing, but alsocoaching and having impact and influence in really wonderful ways, ways to make the world.
(01:21):
much much better.
when David made a really interesting post on his Facebook, I had to follow up and I justreached out and said, Hey man, would you like to do a show?
And here he is.
I'm so excited to have you here, David.
Thank you, thank you.
I appreciate the invite and looking forward to giving value to the audience and seeingwhat I can do for them.
I love it.
love it.
Now, like, can you just give us a little bit of a primer?
(01:43):
I sort of introduced media buying 101, but what makes a role like yours or a job likeyours so important, especially now in 2025?
Yeah.
I will say that a lot of media buying these days, I mean, we're kind of like datascientists, right?
And so we're looking at not just the front end data, you know, getting the leads, gettingthe initial sale, you know, getting the website visitor, whatever it may be.
(02:10):
Now it's, I need to know that what happens in the middle of the cycle, meaning like, didthey buy anything else after the fact?
Did they buy an upsell, a downsell, a cross sell?
Did they buy anything three months later, six months later?
All those data points now are far more important.
in the media buying journey than they were when I started.
Because when I started, it was, I spent the dollar, I made two, can I do it again?
(02:34):
That was it.
There was not much else because there weren't platforms that existed back then like theyare today, where I can see a whole customer journey from beginning to end, whether it was
three months, six months, 12 months, or four years from now, that data was very difficultto track.
Now it's practically baked into every tracking platform.
where it's you acquired them from this network and they bought this and they bought thatand then they did this thing.
(02:59):
it's like you could see every step they took.
And it's a part of our job to figure out where can we increase that order value, thataverage order value from the very beginning all the way to the end.
And how do get them to stick in that ecosystem for as long as possible?
And we didn't have to do that before.
(03:19):
Yeah.
I remember starting my entrepreneurial journey because, you know, I've, I think it'simpolite to reference age, but I think we're about the exact same age.
But the first 10 years of my career, I spent in a corporate context and I was teachingabout procurement.
And when I think about procurement and I think about media buying, I'm like, man, it'skind of very similar in the sense that you're trusted with a dollar and
(03:40):
that your job is to make that dollar grow, right?
And do the best you can with that dollar.
It's like smarter spending, right?
But I remember when I became an entrepreneur about eight years ago, my whole, I guess, myinformed opinion about advertising, which was not terribly well informed, was mainly
informed by mad men.
I thought it was all about the...
(04:02):
the crazy creatives or the really flashy stop you in your tracks ads.
And I love that you're talking about this ecosystem thing because what I've learned overthe years is I'm like, you know, people ping pong between the podcast and the Instagram
and the Facebook and they're on and they're off and they're engaged and they'redisengaged.
And, know, so much of the game, you know, of building a real relationship relies nowadayson having a full on ecosystem.
(04:29):
Because even when I was learning from my mentors, everything was always taught in astraight line.
It was always this linear pathway where it's like, OK, I show the ad, and then they optin, and then I give value, and then they buy from me, and then you're a millionaire.
And it's like, that's not so much it anymore.
No, not at all.
No, I don't believe it's ever really been linear.
It's just, couldn't tell, right?
(04:51):
As more networks came along, it wasn't so linear.
no, you know, we started off, it wasn't even Facebook.
Go further back, right?
MySpace, Friendster, and there's all these other networks, you know, high five, there's abunch, but Facebook was the one that I really dove into because when that network first
(05:12):
opened up to the public,
around 2007.
It was the one platform where I was like, I could learn this for a dollar a day.
Oh my God, that's crazy.
All these other ones have limits.
I have to put a hundred dollars, $500.
You know, some of them had like, Oh, you can't do anything unless you put a thousanddollars pre-funded in the account.
It's like, I'm a college student.
I can't do that.
(05:33):
But Facebook was like $5 a dollar, $2.
And I was able to try something.
That's all I wanted to do was just figure it out.
And then on top of that, social networks back then weren't that big.
Like people didn't want to be on them and like, I'll just talk to my friends in person or,you know, I don't want to be on the internet all day.
That's all obviously changed.
But for me, it was like, I could put a dollar in here and make it two.
(05:57):
Okay.
How do I figure that out?
What is a landing page?
What are these affiliate IDs?
What's Clickbank?
Like these are all things that were still very new back then.
What's affiliate marketing, right?
How do I build a page out of HTML?
Like these were all things I had to figure out on my own because there wasn't aClickFunnels or a Go High Level or any of those other platforms because everything had to
(06:18):
be done one step at a time and you had to do it by hand and you had to pray it worked.
And then you would know it worked because you went, wow, I put a dollar in there and I seethere's $2 over here.
So I guess I did something right.
So now it's everything has a couple of push button opportunities to plug it all together.
And then you have these tracking platforms that could tell you if they go and didsomething else and clicked on this other thing and went to tick tock and came back and
(06:42):
that didn't exist.
And so it's actually more complicated in a sense, cause you have to track all these otherpieces, but
The ability to learn it is way easier now.
Like it, there was no training back then.
Your training was do it.
That was the training.
And so, you know, for me, this is my life.
(07:02):
It's been my life for the last 18 years, half my life, honestly.
And then on top of that,
There's not many other opportunities where you could put something in to where $5 turns to$10 or $1,000 turns to $2,000, right?
You can see the direct correlation of I put this in, it led to this, and the whole journeyof them getting to that point.
(07:22):
And that's what got me obsessed with media buying.
So yeah.
I'm thinking about where was I in 2007.
And that was when I started my Facebook account.
And I remember taking pictures of my salad and talking about something that happened atuniversity.
And you're so right.
There's more access to information in an organized way.
(07:46):
Because a lot of these opportunities, I think when they very first come on the scene,people are like, psh, you know.
they kind of scoff a little and they're like, nah, that's not real because they have allof this other stuff they've been doing for a long time that's more proven.
But I guess you're sort of laughing all the way to the bank after having figured that oneout, huh?
(08:07):
I mean, it's one of those things where I've had my ebbs and flows with media buying,right?
If you want to take it way back to the beginning.
I didn't have my breakthrough until around 2012.
So I had five years of convincing people why they even needed to have a Facebook account.
(08:30):
My first webinar ad was in 2010.
Yeah, it's right.
but go ahead.
still something that has to be done.
But 2010, I ran my first webinar ad.
Back then they were still called teleseminars or just online seminars, right?
And GoToWebinar was the primary platform through Citrix, right?
(08:52):
And so that's how you know I've been around for a while.
I remember the main company's name.
And so it's also the fact that like the technology couldn't handle a thousand people on atthe same time.
And back then you could get a registrant for a dollar or two dollars and just flood itwith people and then it would break.
And then you'd become known as the guy who breaks people's webinars, right?
And it's a lot of these things had to happen in order for me to finally get to the pointwhere I can go, you need to run Facebook ads.
(09:18):
then whoever I was talking to was like, okay, what do you need from me?
It took years.
It took a long time for me to get there.
Plus I was 23 by the time it finally started to click.
So I went all this time as a broke college kid.
graduated and was like I still am not making enough to do this full time.
Like this is ridiculous.
Like I'm really good at this and people just don't want to give me money consistentlyuntil my big breakout case study of getting someone like five thousand registrations in a
(09:47):
week.
And I was like and I did this for six thousand dollars or like a dollar something aregistrant.
Can you do that for me.
Yes.
And then that was the beginning of it.
Right.
It was just like OK we got something now.
But.
It was year after year after year of struggle.
And I think about that now and I'm like, I wonder how many people are learning ads andjust give up after six months or they give up after a year.
(10:10):
And I'm like, I went five to six years and I still couldn't get people after making themtens of thousands of dollars back then.
Right.
And I spent you, I gave you 5,000 registrations and you made a hundred thousand dollars.
I didn't get a piece of all that by the way, cause I didn't know how to structure thingsback then.
And so I was just getting a couple thousand dollars to do my job.
That was huge for me back then.
So now, yeah, tons.
(10:34):
was when you got an outstanding result in a repeatable process that you could carryforward to do again and again and again and replicate that.
And there's a lot of listeners of the show that they're in a position where they'repivoting their career and starting something new.
or they've been at this for a while and they're just, they're not seeing the breakthroughthey had hoped to see by now.
(10:58):
But really that answer of do something phenomenal that someone would brag about and have aprocess around it that you can repeat.
I mean, that's basically the recipe, isn't it?
That's business in general, right?
It's like you just want to have a similar output.
You know you can repeat this process over and over.
(11:19):
Is it something you can do and others can do, right?
Because eventually you want to hire some people to do it so then you can scale, right?
Is this a repeatable process that you believe in that you've probably done a couple timesnow so you validated that it works?
And then for me, at least it was, can I bring this to other niches and do it again?
Right.
Okay.
I did this in the business opportunity space.
(11:39):
Can I do it in real estate?
Can I do it in insurance?
Can I do this in fitness?
Once I did this in a couple of industries, I was like, I figured this out.
Like I, I immediately knew it's game time.
And then I was able to bring that to other industries confidently showcase the results.
And then people were like, how much that took years.
years and I just didn't give up.
(12:01):
just kept going.
And look, even when I did figure it out, it still went broke.
Cause I was trying to scale quickly and I messed that up quite a few times.
Right.
And so it's like, there's tons of learning experience through this, but it was the factthat I took that one skill and I just got better and better and better and better.
And like, even now I'm still learning things.
I'm on more than one network, obviously.
(12:23):
And I have a whole team and a variety of other things, but I just didn't stop learning thebuying process and I kept buying more media.
And I made sure that I would educate the masses on like why you need to do this and howyou.
can do it and how I was able to do, you know, take someone's $5,000 and make it 25.
And I did it not once, but 10 times in a month.
And it was like all these, I was just showing off how I did it.
(12:46):
That was enough for people to go, okay, got it.
He's great.
How much that that's, that's really all it took.
It sounds easy because now it is now you can do that over and over and showcase once youhave it.
But
I didn't even have an audience back then.
And I was like, hey, look, case study.
And it's like 20 people saw it, right?
It's like, this is a part of the process.
(13:07):
I had to develop a brand and talk to people and get over the fear of being on a stage.
And there's so many things I had to evolve into as a business owner, as much as a mediabuyer, to get this all to work.
And from a online entrepreneur standpoint, it's like, even if you hone in on that oneskill,
(13:29):
in order to truly see the growth potential that you envision, because we all want to bewealthy, there's usually that point where you have to start over again.
And I mean start over as in like, I got to learn a new skill and I'm at ground zero again.
And in my case, it was speaking in front of hundreds of, if not thousands of people at atime.
Because I did it on a webinar and I'm like, this is easy.
Okay, go do it on the stage.
(13:50):
that's a little scary.
And then I had to work on that, right?
And then it was like, yeah, I gotta learn about personal branding and do all that again.
So, yeah.
totally.
I think that's the joy of entrepreneurship in my view is it feels kind of like a highstakes video game in some ways.
Because when you hit that, like when you get kind of to the level one where it's likepeople will pay you money to do your thing.
(14:15):
Yeah, and you figure that out.
It's like you can't un-figure that out.
Like you know, you know how to have the conversation once you learn how to have theconversation.
So it's like, okay, cool.
So I always get that.
And then you get to that next level, like you said, and it's like, oh, now I got to workon branding.
Oh, now I got to work on automation.
Oh, now I got to work on leading people.
Whoa, financial management.
(14:37):
And there's like all these different things.
And I think what makes it especially really interesting is that everyone is coming at thisfrom a different background, a different, even upbringing, know, different mindset.
and they're making decisions at different points in life that makes every single one ofour video games pretty unique.
(14:59):
And I think that's pretty cool.
And we all have a different story to tell, right?
I just happen to have a story that started in the social media world, right?
My entrepreneurial journey started on social.
Right?
Most people's entrepreneurial journey may have started because of their 20 years ofexperience in insurance.
And they were like, I'm tired of being an agent.
(15:20):
And so I transitioned and I was like, you know what?
I'm going to build my own brokerage and I'm going to have a team of agents.
They had a different story.
And then they integrated the online piece after.
Mine started online.
It was with the first network that went, let's make billions of dollars.
It's different.
It was just a different path.
But at the same time, I grew up with that.
(15:42):
Facebook is my, it's like another parent, because I literally started at 18.
I had a profile at 16.
I got in 2005.
But it was one of those things where,
Once I was growing as an adult, I was also growing on Facebook.
I was showcasing everything going on.
Hey, look where I'm going.
Look what I'm doing.
Look what I'm building.
(16:02):
And then would continually just journal life.
18 years of my life is on this network.
It's half my life, right?
And so...
So and that's the thing people are like, how could you be on social all the time?
It's like, because that's been my life.
It's been half my life.
So I don't know how else to showcase my results than to be on social media.
(16:23):
Because yeah, I could see.
That's why I'm here.
posted something and I was just like, that's outstanding.
Hey, do you do podcasts?
Exactly.
And so now, you know, when you show that to people and it's like, do I get results onsocial?
Well, you got to treat social is almost like you're talking to another human being, whichyou are, but like, imagine it's your friend.
What would you tell them?
(16:43):
What would you show them?
What would you break down?
I'm very vulnerable on social, not in a sense where I'm like, look at everything going onin my life.
But like when I'm having a struggle in my business, I'll tell him, Hey, I struggle withthese things and I'm working on it.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
And everyone responds.
Now, yes, there's engagement.
Got it.
But I'm also looking at it from the standpoint of, look, everyone, I'm human.
(17:07):
I'm an entrepreneur who actually has problems.
It's not just a highlight reel.
That's what's allowed me to be in a space where, you know, yeah, we're oftentimesshowcasing numbers.
And it's great to be like, look at all the money we're making for people.
But I'm not saying, look at all the money I'm making.
I'm talking about everyone else.
I only talk about me when it's like, I learned this thing.
(17:27):
I'd love to be able to do it for more people who's interested.
Or I'm having a struggle with this.
Who could help me?
And because of that, I built really good rapport in a marketplace flooded with BS.
Right?
And so it's helped really build this foundation of like,
a strong level of trust and responsibility and honesty, which has allowed my business togrow.
(17:49):
And if more people treated social like that, they'd probably get results too.
So I just wanted to throw that part in there.
I love that.
love that.
So I also got on Facebook pretty early on, but then I worked for a corporation that waslike, don't ever be online.
They were trying to mitigate their risk by making sure that we were always ambassadors ofthe company, et cetera.
(18:10):
So I developed kind of a fear of being on social media or saying the wrong thing.
So when I started, I was like two years anti-social media.
And really it took a lot of reflection to realize exactly what you just said.
And I developed my mantra, which is I'm using media to be social.
(18:30):
That's it.
That's all I'm doing.
I'm just using media to be social.
I don't treat it as much like a live journal.
My journals are for generally me.
But I do exactly what you're talking about of I treat it the conversation with my friendsbecause that's what it is.
You know, and here's the breakthrough.
Here's what I've learned.
(18:51):
Here's what I'm going through using media to be social as opposed to using the media tojust get attention because getting attention is actually not that hard, you know, but.
and it's a, as an advertiser.
a different thing.
Right.
But I will say this, getting attention, which is my whole thing.
I call myself an attention architect, so I'm just crafting attention all day.
(19:14):
but one of the things that I've told people for years is that you can learn ads for adollar a day.
Still to this day, you can spend a dollar and use, let's say the ad platform on Facebookas your gym.
Because if you think about it, you don't go to the gym once work out and go, it's notworking.
(19:34):
I don't have abs.
This isn't working for me.
You have to go over and over and over and over to build muscle.
The ad manager is where you're building your muscle.
Every dollar you spend, you're working the muscle.
You're also learning where you're going to make mistakes.
I clicked the wrong button.
It didn't spend.
I clicked the wrong button.
My ads been deleted.
(19:54):
That's your reps.
You're putting in your reps.
So the ads manager is the gym and the more time you spend in the gym, the better you getat it.
It's like that on any ad platform.
Because I've spent, I don't even know how many hours in the ads manager, I'm sure it's alot, it's one of those things where I can do it in my sleep.
I've told people how to connect me to a business manager, not in front of my computer.
(20:17):
I've just done it off memory.
I've been outside and been like, go here, click this, it looks like this, go do that, andthen boom, I'm connected.
I even know my business ID off the top of my head.
It's just because I've done it so many times.
It's like a credit card number.
And so because of that,
They know I've put in the work because there are other agencies and media buyers out therewho can't even repeat the steps of connecting certain things when I've done it thousands
(20:44):
of times.
And that's how you know you've put in the work.
Right?
So if you ever felt like, I can't figure this out.
You just haven't put in the reps.
Right?
And so you do that.
It changes everything.
somebody like you maybe who has the mastery.
Because I think one of the side steps or mistakes that I've certainly made over the yearswhen it comes to media buying is just getting third hand training on how to do it from
(21:12):
someone who learned from a guy, who learned from a guy, who learned from a guy.
And it took me a hot minute to be like, you know.
If I went more directly to the source of a real master in this stuff, then maybe I mightget even better results.
And one of the things I'm really taking away from this conversation is this idea of likewalking before you're running and doing, you know, pull-ups and doing crazy, you know,
(21:36):
crazy antics in the gym.
It's like that's a future you can have, but be willing to do the walking before you do therunning and...
You know, don't look for a silver bullet and don't look for people who haven't got thereps to show you what you need to know.
Pretty straightforward.
So David, this is awesome.
(21:57):
How can people like keep up with you, see what's coming up next and follow your journey?
So, I put a lot of stuff out on Facebook and Instagram, obviously.
That's where I tell everyone what's going on in my world.
Facebook.com slash S-C-H-L-O-S-S-Y.
My nickname is Schlossy.
Everyone's called me that since I was in sixth grade.
(22:19):
It's very easy to find.
Now, on Instagram, I'm a little more proper.
It's Instagram.com slash David Schloss, S-C-H-L-O-S-S.
I have a pinned post.
For all of you who want to have some really cool stuff in your arsenal, you can basicallyget it for free.
No cost to you.
just type in GPT, I send you a free nice gift and it'll tell you how to write copy justlike me.
(22:42):
And it'll also give you posts just like me, but it makes everything very simple.
So that way you can learn how exactly I craft ads that convert the whole bot is built tocreate long form and short form content.
The exact way I do it in ads.
So you don't have to think it's literally your prompted a couple of lines.
What do you, what's your product about?
(23:04):
Boom, it's done.
And I'm not joking.
It's like instant
And if you're like, I don't know what images to make.
Ask it.
Hey, what do I create in Canva?
here's what you make in Canva.
I don't know what to do for my Notion template.
Here's what I do in my Notion template.
Like it's pretty straightforward.
And the whole point of me building that for people was so that they're not scared tostart.
(23:24):
That's it.
You know, I don't know how to write copy.
OK, I'll do it for you.
I don't know what images to make.
All right, I'll do it for you.
I just want you to start.
And then once you start, then we'll have a conversation about some other stuff.
But I just want you to start.
And so that's why I built it.
So Instagram is where you'll find me.
Just type in my name.
I'm the one with the blue check.
There's no other David Schloss with a blue check.
(23:45):
It's just me.
And then I give away a lot of cool stuff there.
So yeah.
cool.
I always have so much respect for somebody who has achieved at the level that you havethat turns around and makes it beginner easy.
Not many people take the time to do that because frankly, you don't have to.
(24:05):
And so thank you so much for making such a generous gift so widely and publicly available.
And by the way, dear listener,
We've got David's Schlossies links below.
So you can go check him out on all the platforms, check out his website, all the things.
David, thank you so much for being here.
Of thank you.
appreciate the invite.
(24:26):
Yes, and dear listener, if this was an inspiring conversation, I'll bet you've got likethree friends who would love to hear it.
So grab the link to the episode, make sure you send it off to them.
Could be DM, could be text, and don't forget to hit subscribe if you haven't alreadybecause we've got other episodes coming out real soon that I think are gonna be really
interesting.
And if you really love this, do take a moment to leave a review.
(24:48):
because those reviews help people choose our show when they're out for their walks, whenthey're looking for inspiration, and that is the way that you can give back the very most.
Until our very next episode, I can't wait to hear what you found really helpful, what'smoving you forward.
Just remember, keep doing what matters.
It was year after year after year of struggle.
(00:02):
And I think about that now and I'm like, I wonder how many people are learning ads andjust give up after six months or they give up after a year.
(00:29):
Well, hey, hey, welcome back to the Amanda Kaufman show.
And I've got a real treat for you.
This this guest, David Schloss, is a media buyer.
And if you don't know what a media buyer is, well, you will by the end of this episode.
Basically, his job is to get eyeballs, you know, for the brands that he supports.
And this man has 18 years of media buying experience.
(00:52):
That is uncommon.
And he has spent collectively.
Let me check my notes here.
$300 million in ad spend.
Like, whoa, that's quite a lot of ad spend.
I think it says a lot about how much trust the clients that work with David have.
And here's the real truth.
We met in a room.
We were in a room, and we connected, and we were talking about marketing, but alsocoaching and having impact and influence in really wonderful ways, ways to make the world.
(01:21):
much much better.
when David made a really interesting post on his Facebook, I had to follow up and I justreached out and said, Hey man, would you like to do a show?
And here he is.
I'm so excited to have you here, David.
Thank you, thank you.
I appreciate the invite and looking forward to giving value to the audience and seeingwhat I can do for them.
I love it.
love it.
Now, like, can you just give us a little bit of a primer?
(01:43):
I sort of introduced media buying 101, but what makes a role like yours or a job likeyours so important, especially now in 2025?
Yeah.
I will say that a lot of media buying these days, I mean, we're kind of like datascientists, right?
And so we're looking at not just the front end data, you know, getting the leads, gettingthe initial sale, you know, getting the website visitor, whatever it may be.
(02:10):
Now it's, I need to know that what happens in the middle of the cycle, meaning like, didthey buy anything else after the fact?
Did they buy an upsell, a downsell, a cross sell?
Did they buy anything three months later, six months later?
All those data points now are far more important.
in the media buying journey than they were when I started.
Because when I started, it was, I spent the dollar, I made two, can I do it again?
(02:34):
That was it.
There was not much else because there weren't platforms that existed back then like theyare today, where I can see a whole customer journey from beginning to end, whether it was
three months, six months, 12 months, or four years from now, that data was very difficultto track.
Now it's practically baked into every tracking platform.
where it's you acquired them from this network and they bought this and they bought thatand then they did this thing.
(02:59):
it's like you could see every step they took.
And it's a part of our job to figure out where can we increase that order value, thataverage order value from the very beginning all the way to the end.
And how do get them to stick in that ecosystem for as long as possible?
And we didn't have to do that before.
(03:19):
Yeah.
I remember starting my entrepreneurial journey because, you know, I've, I think it'simpolite to reference age, but I think we're about the exact same age.
But the first 10 years of my career, I spent in a corporate context and I was teachingabout procurement.
And when I think about procurement and I think about media buying, I'm like, man, it'skind of very similar in the sense that you're trusted with a dollar and
(03:40):
that your job is to make that dollar grow, right?
And do the best you can with that dollar.
It's like smarter spending, right?
But I remember when I became an entrepreneur about eight years ago, my whole, I guess, myinformed opinion about advertising, which was not terribly well informed, was mainly
informed by mad men.
I thought it was all about the...
(04:02):
the crazy creatives or the really flashy stop you in your tracks ads.
And I love that you're talking about this ecosystem thing because what I've learned overthe years is I'm like, you know, people ping pong between the podcast and the Instagram
and the Facebook and they're on and they're off and they're engaged and they'redisengaged.
And, know, so much of the game, you know, of building a real relationship relies nowadayson having a full on ecosystem.
(04:29):
Because even when I was learning from my mentors, everything was always taught in astraight line.
It was always this linear pathway where it's like, OK, I show the ad, and then they optin, and then I give value, and then they buy from me, and then you're a millionaire.
And it's like, that's not so much it anymore.
No, not at all.
No, I don't believe it's ever really been linear.
It's just, couldn't tell, right?
(04:51):
As more networks came along, it wasn't so linear.
no, you know, we started off, it wasn't even Facebook.
Go further back, right?
MySpace, Friendster, and there's all these other networks, you know, high five, there's abunch, but Facebook was the one that I really dove into because when that network first
(05:12):
opened up to the public,
around 2007.
It was the one platform where I was like, I could learn this for a dollar a day.
Oh my God, that's crazy.
All these other ones have limits.
I have to put a hundred dollars, $500.
You know, some of them had like, Oh, you can't do anything unless you put a thousanddollars pre-funded in the account.
It's like, I'm a college student.
I can't do that.
(05:33):
But Facebook was like $5 a dollar, $2.
And I was able to try something.
That's all I wanted to do was just figure it out.
And then on top of that, social networks back then weren't that big.
Like people didn't want to be on them and like, I'll just talk to my friends in person or,you know, I don't want to be on the internet all day.
That's all obviously changed.
But for me, it was like, I could put a dollar in here and make it two.
(05:57):
Okay.
How do I figure that out?
What is a landing page?
What are these affiliate IDs?
What's Clickbank?
Like these are all things that were still very new back then.
What's affiliate marketing, right?
How do I build a page out of HTML?
Like these were all things I had to figure out on my own because there wasn't aClickFunnels or a Go High Level or any of those other platforms because everything had to
(06:18):
be done one step at a time and you had to do it by hand and you had to pray it worked.
And then you would know it worked because you went, wow, I put a dollar in there and I seethere's $2 over here.
So I guess I did something right.
So now it's everything has a couple of push button opportunities to plug it all together.
And then you have these tracking platforms that could tell you if they go and didsomething else and clicked on this other thing and went to tick tock and came back and
(06:42):
that didn't exist.
And so it's actually more complicated in a sense, cause you have to track all these otherpieces, but
The ability to learn it is way easier now.
Like it, there was no training back then.
Your training was do it.
That was the training.
And so, you know, for me, this is my life.
(07:02):
It's been my life for the last 18 years, half my life, honestly.
And then on top of that,
There's not many other opportunities where you could put something in to where $5 turns to$10 or $1,000 turns to $2,000, right?
You can see the direct correlation of I put this in, it led to this, and the whole journeyof them getting to that point.
(07:22):
And that's what got me obsessed with media buying.
So yeah.
I'm thinking about where was I in 2007.
And that was when I started my Facebook account.
And I remember taking pictures of my salad and talking about something that happened atuniversity.
And you're so right.
There's more access to information in an organized way.
(07:46):
Because a lot of these opportunities, I think when they very first come on the scene,people are like, psh, you know.
they kind of scoff a little and they're like, nah, that's not real because they have allof this other stuff they've been doing for a long time that's more proven.
But I guess you're sort of laughing all the way to the bank after having figured that oneout, huh?
(08:07):
I mean, it's one of those things where I've had my ebbs and flows with media buying,right?
If you want to take it way back to the beginning.
I didn't have my breakthrough until around 2012.
So I had five years of convincing people why they even needed to have a Facebook account.
(08:30):
My first webinar ad was in 2010.
Yeah, it's right.
but go ahead.
still something that has to be done.
But 2010, I ran my first webinar ad.
Back then they were still called teleseminars or just online seminars, right?
And GoToWebinar was the primary platform through Citrix, right?
(08:52):
And so that's how you know I've been around for a while.
I remember the main company's name.
And so it's also the fact that like the technology couldn't handle a thousand people on atthe same time.
And back then you could get a registrant for a dollar or two dollars and just flood itwith people and then it would break.
And then you'd become known as the guy who breaks people's webinars, right?
And it's a lot of these things had to happen in order for me to finally get to the pointwhere I can go, you need to run Facebook ads.
(09:18):
then whoever I was talking to was like, okay, what do you need from me?
It took years.
It took a long time for me to get there.
Plus I was 23 by the time it finally started to click.
So I went all this time as a broke college kid.
graduated and was like I still am not making enough to do this full time.
Like this is ridiculous.
Like I'm really good at this and people just don't want to give me money consistentlyuntil my big breakout case study of getting someone like five thousand registrations in a
(09:47):
week.
And I was like and I did this for six thousand dollars or like a dollar something aregistrant.
Can you do that for me.
Yes.
And then that was the beginning of it.
Right.
It was just like OK we got something now.
But.
It was year after year after year of struggle.
And I think about that now and I'm like, I wonder how many people are learning ads andjust give up after six months or they give up after a year.
(10:10):
And I'm like, I went five to six years and I still couldn't get people after making themtens of thousands of dollars back then.
Right.
And I spent you, I gave you 5,000 registrations and you made a hundred thousand dollars.
I didn't get a piece of all that by the way, cause I didn't know how to structure thingsback then.
And so I was just getting a couple thousand dollars to do my job.
That was huge for me back then.
So now, yeah, tons.
(10:34):
was when you got an outstanding result in a repeatable process that you could carryforward to do again and again and again and replicate that.
And there's a lot of listeners of the show that they're in a position where they'repivoting their career and starting something new.
or they've been at this for a while and they're just, they're not seeing the breakthroughthey had hoped to see by now.
(10:58):
But really that answer of do something phenomenal that someone would brag about and have aprocess around it that you can repeat.
I mean, that's basically the recipe, isn't it?
That's business in general, right?
It's like you just want to have a similar output.
You know you can repeat this process over and over.
(11:19):
Is it something you can do and others can do, right?
Because eventually you want to hire some people to do it so then you can scale, right?
Is this a repeatable process that you believe in that you've probably done a couple timesnow so you validated that it works?
And then for me, at least it was, can I bring this to other niches and do it again?
Right.
Okay.
I did this in the business opportunity space.
(11:39):
Can I do it in real estate?
Can I do it in insurance?
Can I do this in fitness?
Once I did this in a couple of industries, I was like, I figured this out.
Like I, I immediately knew it's game time.
And then I was able to bring that to other industries confidently showcase the results.
And then people were like, how much that took years.
years and I just didn't give up.
(12:01):
just kept going.
And look, even when I did figure it out, it still went broke.
Cause I was trying to scale quickly and I messed that up quite a few times.
Right.
And so it's like, there's tons of learning experience through this, but it was the factthat I took that one skill and I just got better and better and better and better.
And like, even now I'm still learning things.
I'm on more than one network, obviously.
(12:23):
And I have a whole team and a variety of other things, but I just didn't stop learning thebuying process and I kept buying more media.
And I made sure that I would educate the masses on like why you need to do this and howyou.
can do it and how I was able to do, you know, take someone's $5,000 and make it 25.
And I did it not once, but 10 times in a month.
And it was like all these, I was just showing off how I did it.
(12:46):
That was enough for people to go, okay, got it.
He's great.
How much that that's, that's really all it took.
It sounds easy because now it is now you can do that over and over and showcase once youhave it.
But
I didn't even have an audience back then.
And I was like, hey, look, case study.
And it's like 20 people saw it, right?
It's like, this is a part of the process.
(13:07):
I had to develop a brand and talk to people and get over the fear of being on a stage.
And there's so many things I had to evolve into as a business owner, as much as a mediabuyer, to get this all to work.
And from a online entrepreneur standpoint, it's like, even if you hone in on that oneskill,
(13:29):
in order to truly see the growth potential that you envision, because we all want to bewealthy, there's usually that point where you have to start over again.
And I mean start over as in like, I got to learn a new skill and I'm at ground zero again.
And in my case, it was speaking in front of hundreds of, if not thousands of people at atime.
Because I did it on a webinar and I'm like, this is easy.
Okay, go do it on the stage.
(13:50):
that's a little scary.
And then I had to work on that, right?
And then it was like, yeah, I gotta learn about personal branding and do all that again.
So, yeah.
totally.
I think that's the joy of entrepreneurship in my view is it feels kind of like a highstakes video game in some ways.
Because when you hit that, like when you get kind of to the level one where it's likepeople will pay you money to do your thing.
(14:15):
Yeah, and you figure that out.
It's like you can't un-figure that out.
Like you know, you know how to have the conversation once you learn how to have theconversation.
So it's like, okay, cool.
So I always get that.
And then you get to that next level, like you said, and it's like, oh, now I got to workon branding.
Oh, now I got to work on automation.
Oh, now I got to work on leading people.
Whoa, financial management.
(14:37):
And there's like all these different things.
And I think what makes it especially really interesting is that everyone is coming at thisfrom a different background, a different, even upbringing, know, different mindset.
and they're making decisions at different points in life that makes every single one ofour video games pretty unique.
(14:59):
And I think that's pretty cool.
And we all have a different story to tell, right?
I just happen to have a story that started in the social media world, right?
My entrepreneurial journey started on social.
Right?
Most people's entrepreneurial journey may have started because of their 20 years ofexperience in insurance.
And they were like, I'm tired of being an agent.
(15:20):
And so I transitioned and I was like, you know what?
I'm going to build my own brokerage and I'm going to have a team of agents.
They had a different story.
And then they integrated the online piece after.
Mine started online.
It was with the first network that went, let's make billions of dollars.
It's different.
It was just a different path.
But at the same time, I grew up with that.
(15:42):
Facebook is my, it's like another parent, because I literally started at 18.
I had a profile at 16.
I got in 2005.
But it was one of those things where,
Once I was growing as an adult, I was also growing on Facebook.
I was showcasing everything going on.
Hey, look where I'm going.
Look what I'm doing.
Look what I'm building.
(16:02):
And then would continually just journal life.
18 years of my life is on this network.
It's half my life, right?
And so...
So and that's the thing people are like, how could you be on social all the time?
It's like, because that's been my life.
It's been half my life.
So I don't know how else to showcase my results than to be on social media.
(16:23):
Because yeah, I could see.
That's why I'm here.
posted something and I was just like, that's outstanding.
Hey, do you do podcasts?
Exactly.
And so now, you know, when you show that to people and it's like, do I get results onsocial?
Well, you got to treat social is almost like you're talking to another human being, whichyou are, but like, imagine it's your friend.
What would you tell them?
(16:43):
What would you show them?
What would you break down?
I'm very vulnerable on social, not in a sense where I'm like, look at everything going onin my life.
But like when I'm having a struggle in my business, I'll tell him, Hey, I struggle withthese things and I'm working on it.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
And everyone responds.
Now, yes, there's engagement.
Got it.
But I'm also looking at it from the standpoint of, look, everyone, I'm human.
(17:07):
I'm an entrepreneur who actually has problems.
It's not just a highlight reel.
That's what's allowed me to be in a space where, you know, yeah, we're oftentimesshowcasing numbers.
And it's great to be like, look at all the money we're making for people.
But I'm not saying, look at all the money I'm making.
I'm talking about everyone else.
I only talk about me when it's like, I learned this thing.
(17:27):
I'd love to be able to do it for more people who's interested.
Or I'm having a struggle with this.
Who could help me?
And because of that, I built really good rapport in a marketplace flooded with BS.
Right?
And so it's helped really build this foundation of like,
a strong level of trust and responsibility and honesty, which has allowed my business togrow.
(17:49):
And if more people treated social like that, they'd probably get results too.
So I just wanted to throw that part in there.
I love that.
love that.
So I also got on Facebook pretty early on, but then I worked for a corporation that waslike, don't ever be online.
They were trying to mitigate their risk by making sure that we were always ambassadors ofthe company, et cetera.
(18:10):
So I developed kind of a fear of being on social media or saying the wrong thing.
So when I started, I was like two years anti-social media.
And really it took a lot of reflection to realize exactly what you just said.
And I developed my mantra, which is I'm using media to be social.
(18:30):
That's it.
That's all I'm doing.
I'm just using media to be social.
I don't treat it as much like a live journal.
My journals are for generally me.
But I do exactly what you're talking about of I treat it the conversation with my friendsbecause that's what it is.
You know, and here's the breakthrough.
Here's what I've learned.
(18:51):
Here's what I'm going through using media to be social as opposed to using the media tojust get attention because getting attention is actually not that hard, you know, but.
and it's a, as an advertiser.
a different thing.
Right.
But I will say this, getting attention, which is my whole thing.
I call myself an attention architect, so I'm just crafting attention all day.
(19:14):
but one of the things that I've told people for years is that you can learn ads for adollar a day.
Still to this day, you can spend a dollar and use, let's say the ad platform on Facebookas your gym.
Because if you think about it, you don't go to the gym once work out and go, it's notworking.
(19:34):
I don't have abs.
This isn't working for me.
You have to go over and over and over and over to build muscle.
The ad manager is where you're building your muscle.
Every dollar you spend, you're working the muscle.
You're also learning where you're going to make mistakes.
I clicked the wrong button.
It didn't spend.
I clicked the wrong button.
My ads been deleted.
(19:54):
That's your reps.
You're putting in your reps.
So the ads manager is the gym and the more time you spend in the gym, the better you getat it.
It's like that on any ad platform.
Because I've spent, I don't even know how many hours in the ads manager, I'm sure it's alot, it's one of those things where I can do it in my sleep.
I've told people how to connect me to a business manager, not in front of my computer.
(20:17):
I've just done it off memory.
I've been outside and been like, go here, click this, it looks like this, go do that, andthen boom, I'm connected.
I even know my business ID off the top of my head.
It's just because I've done it so many times.
It's like a credit card number.
And so because of that,
They know I've put in the work because there are other agencies and media buyers out therewho can't even repeat the steps of connecting certain things when I've done it thousands
(20:44):
of times.
And that's how you know you've put in the work.
Right?
So if you ever felt like, I can't figure this out.
You just haven't put in the reps.
Right?
And so you do that.
It changes everything.
somebody like you maybe who has the mastery.
Because I think one of the side steps or mistakes that I've certainly made over the yearswhen it comes to media buying is just getting third hand training on how to do it from
(21:12):
someone who learned from a guy, who learned from a guy, who learned from a guy.
And it took me a hot minute to be like, you know.
If I went more directly to the source of a real master in this stuff, then maybe I mightget even better results.
And one of the things I'm really taking away from this conversation is this idea of likewalking before you're running and doing, you know, pull-ups and doing crazy, you know,
(21:36):
crazy antics in the gym.
It's like that's a future you can have, but be willing to do the walking before you do therunning and...
You know, don't look for a silver bullet and don't look for people who haven't got thereps to show you what you need to know.
Pretty straightforward.
So David, this is awesome.
(21:57):
How can people like keep up with you, see what's coming up next and follow your journey?
So, I put a lot of stuff out on Facebook and Instagram, obviously.
That's where I tell everyone what's going on in my world.
Facebook.com slash S-C-H-L-O-S-S-Y.
My nickname is Schlossy.
Everyone's called me that since I was in sixth grade.
(22:19):
It's very easy to find.
Now, on Instagram, I'm a little more proper.
It's Instagram.com slash David Schloss, S-C-H-L-O-S-S.
I have a pinned post.
For all of you who want to have some really cool stuff in your arsenal, you can basicallyget it for free.
No cost to you.
just type in GPT, I send you a free nice gift and it'll tell you how to write copy justlike me.
(22:42):
And it'll also give you posts just like me, but it makes everything very simple.
So that way you can learn how exactly I craft ads that convert the whole bot is built tocreate long form and short form content.
The exact way I do it in ads.
So you don't have to think it's literally your prompted a couple of lines.
What do you, what's your product about?
(23:04):
Boom, it's done.
And I'm not joking.
It's like instant
And if you're like, I don't know what images to make.
Ask it.
Hey, what do I create in Canva?
here's what you make in Canva.
I don't know what to do for my Notion template.
Here's what I do in my Notion template.
Like it's pretty straightforward.
And the whole point of me building that for people was so that they're not scared tostart.
(23:24):
That's it.
You know, I don't know how to write copy.
OK, I'll do it for you.
I don't know what images to make.
All right, I'll do it for you.
I just want you to start.
And then once you start, then we'll have a conversation about some other stuff.
But I just want you to start.
And so that's why I built it.
So Instagram is where you'll find me.
Just type in my name.
I'm the one with the blue check.
There's no other David Schloss with a blue check.
(23:45):
It's just me.
And then I give away a lot of cool stuff there.
So yeah.
cool.
I always have so much respect for somebody who has achieved at the level that you havethat turns around and makes it beginner easy.
Not many people take the time to do that because frankly, you don't have to.
(24:05):
And so thank you so much for making such a generous gift so widely and publicly available.
And by the way, dear listener,
We've got David's Schlossies links below.
So you can go check him out on all the platforms, check out his website, all the things.
David, thank you so much for being here.
Of thank you.
appreciate the invite.
(24:26):
Yes, and dear listener, if this was an inspiring conversation, I'll bet you've got likethree friends who would love to hear it.
So grab the link to the episode, make sure you send it off to them.
Could be DM, could be text, and don't forget to hit subscribe if you haven't alreadybecause we've got other episodes coming out real soon that I think are gonna be really
interesting.
And if you really love this, do take a moment to leave a review.
(24:48):
because those reviews help people choose our show when they're out for their walks, whenthey're looking for inspiration, and that is the way that you can give back the very most.
Until our very next episode, I can't wait to hear what you found really helpful, what'smoving you forward.
Just remember, keep doing what matters.
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