March 23, 2025 • 25 mins
Company: LFG Media Group
Owners: Jonathan Daniele
Year Started: 2022
Employees: 1-10
What happens when you stop playing it safe and go all-in on performance? In this episode, Jonathan Daniele, founder of LFG Media Group, shares how he built a $2M+ agency in under two years by shifting from monthly retainers to a bold pay-per-call model.
From call center grit to entrepreneurial growth, Jonathan opens up about the risks, rewards, and mindset shifts that come with putting your money where your mouth is.
Inside This Episode: Key Takeaways
- The emotional and financial realities of scaling fast
- How to treat every client’s business like your own (and why it matters)
- Why working “on your own dime” builds better marketers
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome to An Agency Storypodcast where we share real
stories of marketing agencyowners from around the world.
From the excitement of startingup the first big sale, passion,
doubt, fear, freedom, and theemotional rollercoaster of
growth, hear it all on An AgencyStory podcast.
(00:24):
An Agency Story podcast ishosted by Russel Dubree,
successful agency owner with aneight figure exit turned
business coach.
Enjoy the next agency story.
Russel (00:40):
What happens when you leave the comfort of retainers
and steady income to invest in ain a pay for performance model?
Welcome to an agency Storypodcast.
I'm your host Russel.
Today we're diving into thefast-paced journey of Jonathan
Danieli, founder of LFG MediaGroup, as he shifts gears from
traditional agency work tobuilding a powerhouse paper call
performance network.
(01:01):
From scaling to seven figuresplus and under two years to
aiming for a$10 million vision,J D's story is all about
calculated risk, big ambition,and building a results only
business model.
Throughout this episode, we talkabout the mindset shift required
for a performance model, theemotional rollercoaster of
betting on your own assets andwhat it really means to take
your own advice.
Enjoy the story.
(01:24):
Welcome to the show today,everyone.
I have Jonathan Daniele with LFGMedia Group with us here today.
Thank you so much for being onthe show today, JD.
Jonathan (01:31):
Thanks for having me.
It's great to be here.
I appreciate it.
Russel (01:33):
I appreciate you joining and let's get right to it.
What does LFG Media Group do andwho do you do it for?
Jonathan (01:40):
We are a full service digital marketing firm that
specializes in search enginemarketing and social media
marketing.
The company basically startedoff in the healthcare sector,
primarily working with drug andalcohol rehabs, you know, in the
behavioral health space, and,uh, that's where we started.
We've morphed into, uh, doing alot of insurance as well, like
U65 Insurance.
Just recently we've startedgoing much, much heavier on
(02:02):
building a pay-per-call, uh,network.
We're really big in solar now.
We're also working in Tort and,uh, car insurance, we're just
kicking off.
We also sell a ton of, uh,mental health leads as well.
I wanted to be a pay-per-callnetwork, but we started off as
having, you know, monthlyclients, and then now that we've
had all these, these, theseclients, now we're lucky enough
to be able to start a paper callnetwork.
(02:22):
We're able to have the fundingnow to do it.
It's not a cheap thing to startoff.
Russel (02:25):
A little bit unique aspect and I'd want to learn a
lot more about that.
But before we get to all ofthat, well, I just got to get
the elephant out of the roomand, uh, the name LFG Media
Group.
What's the story there?
Jonathan (02:38):
Oh, man.
I'll tell you, I'm glad youdidn't ask me exactly what it
stood for.
But so the story behind it is Iworked in a call center and I
actually, that's really where Icome from is a call center space
originally, but worked in a callcenter and this one guy used to
say, you know, let's effin' go,you know, all the time.
That was like his, he wouldclose a deal, and he would say
either Yamaha, because Yamaha,he had a goal.
(02:58):
He was saving up to buy a YamahaJetski so he would say Yamaha
every time he got a deal, or hewould say let's, let's effin'
go.
I had started a consultingbusiness called LFG Consulting.
I just named it LFG Consultingbecause I was just like, I'll
just start with that.
And then when I started thiscompany two years ago, my wife
said I have to stick with LFG,LFG group, so.
Russel (03:17):
Simple enough.
Normally I, I want to wait untilwe get more into the story, but
I don't know.
I just had to know, I had to getto that right out of the gate.
I have that friend too, that,uh, loves that phrase with
pretty much every interaction wehave but what, what a cool
story.
Let's go back in time evenbefore you actually starting the
agency.
What was young Jonathan, wherewas he headed in life?
(03:37):
What did he want to be when hegrew up?
Jonathan (03:38):
Oh man, when I was younger, it was all about, I
was, I was into motocross, so Iwanted to be a professional
motocross racer, you know?
Fast forward, I, uh, you know, Iended up going to, to college.
I was big into lacrosse.
I got recruited to playlacrosse.
After that, I ended up inFlorida working for my dad who,
or for my biological dad, whohad a helmet business selling
motorcycle helmets.
(03:58):
That's where I started to learnabout marketing was back then.
He was a flea market guy, and sohe was your typical sales guy
and, like, he could sellanything to anybody.
Then he paid somebody to teachhim how to, you know, uh, use a
computer and, and, and basicallyteach them how to build a
website.
That was my first introductionto digital marketing.
I thought it was pretty neatback then.
It's kind of where it started.
Russel (04:17):
Did that compel you to actually, like, pick up the
skills to learn that?
Or just, just had to play withit, interact it and work with
it?
Jonathan (04:23):
Not at the time.
I liked building the web, like,adding products to the website,
very, like, simple point andshoot type stuff.
I always had this, like, thoughtthat I was going to own this
huge call center, you know,going to be like this big call
center guy.
I didn't know what the businesswas going to be, but that was
always kind of what I saw as myfuture.
Then I worked for, I got a jobat dish network down here in
South Florida.
(04:43):
I started off as a sales agent,worked up to a GM where I ended
up with a hundred salespeopleunder me, eight other managers
under me.
The phones never stoppedringing.
There was always 60, 70, 80calls in queue.
I was always just like, how theheck are these, how are these
guys doing this?
It like completely intrigued me.
I was like, that's what I wantto do.
I want to be the guy that makesthe phones ring.
Nothing wrong with being asales, um, uh, call center
(05:06):
manager, but I was like, this isnot what I want to do for the
rest of my life.
I don't want to manage a hundredpeople.
It's not for me.
I saw the calls coming in.
I was like, I got to figure thatout.
That's when I really got, like,really interested in marketing.
It didn't start then, but, uh,that's when, that's when the
fire was lit.
Russel (05:18):
What was the day you woke up or set of days or time
period where you're like, allright, I'm not working for the
man anymore.
Jonathan (05:24):
That was actually, um, forced on me.
Probably one of the best days ofmy life and, uh, was, was losing
that job.
Luckily, at that time, I just,that's when I was like, you
know, I've, I've worked formultiple treatment centers, uh,
and I've unfortunately, I've hadsome really horrible bosses down
here.
Worked for some really awfulpeople or what I thought was, in
my opinion, were awful.
I was just like, I don't, it'sjust not an option for me.
(05:45):
I could have picked up anothermarketing job, a six figure
salary pretty quickly, uh, andyou know, to fill the gap.
I had the conversation with mywife about it and she was like,
she was like, just do yourthing, you know, launch, launch
your company.
You've been wanting this for awhile.
Giving me goosebumps, like,reminding me of that day, but
she, she had my back the wholetime.
She was my, like, my biggestcheerleader because I had those
doubts in my mind, like, oh, howam I going to get clients?
(06:06):
I don't know anything aboutthis.
I don't know anything aboutrunning an agency and, uh, you
know, just figured it out.
It was just one of those thingswhere I had the support behind
me and I had just a couple ofconnections I reached out to,
and that led to my first coupleof clients.
Then I was like, okay.
I always thought, like, I'lljust have a couple of clients
and then sell some leads andI'll have just make double what
I was making as, working at thetreatment center.
(06:26):
It's turned into, I haveemployees now.
I have over 15 clients.
The business has grown almost to2 million dollar a year business
after the second year, or, youknow, coming up on our second
year.
I never would've imagined any ofthis.
Honestly, I've just been verylucky with the people that have
come onto my team that, uh, havehelped get me here.
Never would've got here bymyself.
Russel (06:45):
It's not, not uncommon that a lot of folks I talk to,
yes, that some, somewhere,someone along the way was that
support system, that encourageor that push us off the cliff,
maybe sometimes as well, uh, togo do what we often talk about
in the entrepreneurial space iskind of a crazy thing to go do.
I'm so glad to hear that you hadthat and so close to home, I
imagine had to make it evenbetter.
Everything about you just sofar, just, you know, it's no
(07:07):
surprise that I think youngJonathan wanted to be a BMX
racer.
You seem to be a fast mover.
I don't know, do you think ofyourself as that?
Like just once I decide and putmy nose in a particular
direction, I'm going a hundredmiles an hour?
Jonathan (07:18):
That's a hundred percent correct.
It's a blessing and a curse.
Everything I do, like, you know,like we talked about at the
beginning, fishing or the simracing or, like, anything I get
into, uh, especially when itcomes to business, uh, with,
with marketing.
That's it.
Especially, like, this new papercall network we're building out,
I just pushed all my chips inbecause I believe in it.
It's not like this whole thingisn't all about money to me.
I love the challenge of takingsomething that's not being done,
(07:40):
you know, currently by us and,like, cracking that, like
cracking the code and figuringit out.
Cause you know, you, you've beenin the game for a while.
You lose a lot of money when youfirst start off a new vertical
and it's scary.
It's very scary.
I love that excitement and Ilove, I love seeing it when it
works and when it doesn't work,that sucks too.
But when it works, you feellike, feel like the Incredible
Hulk.
It's a great feeling.
Russel (08:00):
I imagine a lot of people are at home shaking their
heads.
I hear you.
I know that feeling.
You've touched on at least alittle bit here that you started
off a more pure marketing focus,but a lot of your experience
background and where you saidyou're trying to evolve your,
your product slash service to,is, is this performance or pay
per aspect.
Why the shift?
Jonathan (08:18):
There's a million digital marketing companies out
there.
I talked to a, we prospect, wetalk, I, I have, our prospecting
team sends me appointmentsconstantly, so I'm constantly
talking to different companiesin different spaces and it's, I
hear the same thing over andover again.
I brought on this digitalmarketing company.
They promised me the star on themoon and they didn't deliver.
It's like the same old story.
Then I'll crack into an account.
(08:39):
I look at an account and, uh,see the account.
I'm like, I can't even believethese people are providing
digital marketing services.
I'm not saying this to theclient, but there's just so
much, I want to say thisgingerly, but, like, there's
just so many people out there, Ifeel like, that don't know what
they're doing and it's, andthat's not just marketing,
that's any industry and it justgives us marketers a bad name.
So I really like the performancething of, like, putting your
(08:59):
money where your mouth is.
I just am doing that right nowfor a car insurance client, uh,
you know, a high risk carinsurance client in Cali.
And I, you know, he said, that'swhat he wanted.
I said, you know what, we'll dothat.
That's kind of like what startedthe car insurance thing for me.
It's not working out with him,unfortunately, it's one of those
vertical.
It's a very thin margin, um, butI like, I like the fact that
it's like, I use our money.
(09:19):
We build our assets, we buildour own brands, and then we
promote the heck out of them.
And if it doesn't work out withthat client, because maybe their
sales team isn't good enough,maybe they want to go in a
different direction.
It's fine.
Those are all of our assets.
We put all of that time andenergy into something that's
ours and we can then take it andsell it somewhere else.
I had one, and I won't go long,long about this, but I had one
rehab client who, who fired me.
(09:40):
They had a, my opinion, a verybad sales team.
Another big digital marketingagency came in after me, um, saw
my whole strategy, which hasn'thappened to me, which I thought
was a pretty, a really goodstrategy.
I just pitched someone a coupleof weeks ago, and they're
dealing with that company now,and what their whole strategy
is, is my exact strategy to theT.
At first I was pissed off aboutit.
I kind of knew that was going tohappen sooner or later, but then
(10:01):
I was like, hey, that's kind ofcool.
A big agency took my strategyand is using it for their
clients now.
It's kind of, kind of highpraise, but I, but to answer
your question is, uh, I likedthe performance marketing piece
because, uh, it's, it's allabout us and what we're doing,
you know, internally, and we cansell the calls anywhere is
really what, how we feel aboutit.
Russel (10:18):
Getting a better sense of your personality and, you
know, move fast, you know, biggoals, approach.
It sounds like that just as partand parcel of your personality,
having been on both sides of thecoin of, kind of, let's just say
a more traditional agency andthen a more performance based
one, what, from a, just a purebusiness perspective, just kind
of touch on the pros and cons ofboth types of models as you look
at it?
Jonathan (10:37):
I think the pros, the pros of working, you know, on,
like, a monthly retainer type ofbasis with clients.
I like the relationships thatI've built.
At least in the beginning, I gotto be, like, really hands on
watching somebody else'sbusiness grow as a result of the
help that you've given them andthen seeing, you know, seeing
how happy they are and excitedabout it.
I love that.
That's a super great feeling.
We don't get that on the, on theperformance marketing side
(10:58):
because we're getting paid perlead.
That part's really cool.
The monthly recurring revenueis, it's safe.
That's definitely a pro because,uh, I feel like we do a good
job.
We don't lose clients veryoften.
Most of our clients have beenwith us for, since the
beginning, for two years, exceptfor our newer clients.
It's definitely a safer move.
And then you can always upsellthem to more services along the
way, which has been the case forus.
(11:18):
It's always started with PPCand, you know, now we do social
media and SEO and, you know,sell leads on top of it.
That's all cool.
The pros of the performancemarketing thing, like I
mentioned before, is I love thatyou're building your own brands
and, uh, you can take itwherever it goes.
It's very, very scary, you know,building out your own stuff
because there's no, when you'rea monthly recurring or monthly
(11:38):
recurring revenue client, it'stheir money that you're playing
with.
It's not your own money.
When it's on you, it's a littlebit, it's a lot more stressful
when it's the money coming outof your bank account.
So that's a con to it.
I would say, then, the bestthing, in my opinion, uh, for
the, for the pay-per-callnetwork is, uh, just the, being
able to grow something out asbig as you want it as long as
there's a need for those leads.
(11:59):
Solar has been, been such asurprise.
It was after doing rehab.
Cause I learned, I learneddigital marketing in the rehab
space, which is highlycompetitive.
Extremely, like, it wasextremely hard to learn and,
like, doing solar and healthinsurance, it's like running
without a parachute on.
It's just, like, super easy, Ifeel like.
Russel (12:15):
I'm going to net that out, high risk but potentially
higher reward.
If you are successful and pullit off is kind of where that
comes out to.
Jonathan (12:22):
You're going to lose on the pay per call side.
There's verticals we've tried tostand up that, you know, they
don't work out.
And that's, that's okay.
It's not our, not our thing.
Russel (12:30):
For those that maybe aren't even familiar for the
model, how you're setting up, itsounds like you're not marketing
these businesses that you'reyour clients, you're creating a
brand in that particular spacethat you're building a lead base
for and then now that you'veacquired that, nurtured, et
cetera, you're selling those towhatever, whatever the market,
the market that is your clientseffectively.
Jonathan (12:48):
We build high quality video.
We have a production company.
It builds really high qualityvideo for social media.
Then also for our PMAXcampaigns, you know, for
YouTube, uh, Discovery, all thatstuff.
We have that, that as our brand.
We build out, you know, all themeta accounts, you know, Google
ads accounts, and, uh, you know,and then start promoting it and
start running paid ads.
Then SEO will be a long termstrategy for it, but it's all
(13:10):
paid ads in the beginning.
Russel (13:11):
Okay.
Fascinating.
One of the things I talk to alot about to folks, right?
You're kind of speaking to thesafe model of charging hourly or
kind of, um, uh, fee for, uh,every, or fee for every sweat,
every ounce of sweat you putinto it, but you know, can we
move in the direction of a valuebased model?
One of the questions I alwaysask is just, hey, if you were
responsible or essentiallyaccountable to a certain set of
(13:31):
results to actually get paid andmake the money you need to make
at the end of the day, how wouldyou perform differently in the
business and interacting withclients and things like that?
I imagine that's has had to comeinto play when you look at your
model in terms of, you know,whether selecting clients or how
you're working and consultingwith clients, but what does that
look like in your business?
Jonathan (13:49):
This may sound cliche or whatever, but every, every
one of our clients, I treat itlike it's our own business, or
at least that's been theapproach.
Obviously, as we grow and getbigger, that's going to be a
little bit harder to do.
But everything in the beginninghas been that very white glove,
uh, approach with our clients.
Merging into the paper call sideof things, it was actually a,
you know, an easy marriage forus because we're already, I was
already used to treatingaccounts, like, I felt it when
(14:11):
my clients would do bad.
I felt it when they would losemoney or they would spend all
this money and not get the leadsor the admissions or, or
whatever that they needed.
It's funny because I'm having totake my own advice that I've
been giving clients for years.
You got to have the budget.
You got to spend the money toget the data.
You got to be patient,especially with Google ads.
Nowadays, it's like, we need tobe able to train the AI model
properly.
We need to start off like maxclicks.
(14:31):
We need to spend a bunch ofmoney to get the conversions in
the account.
Once we have the conversions, wecould start using, um, different
types of bid strategies.
All those things that I've beentelling my clients that I know
are true, I've caught myselfwhere I'll start off on a
project and like, we'll blow abunch of money over a couple of
days.
My initial knee jerk reaction islike, boom, I want to hit the
pause button.
But it's like, wait, what wouldI tell my clients?
(14:52):
How would I handle it?
That's helped me be better withthe pay-per-call call side of
things, because it's like takingmy own advice, like, hey, like,
you have to invest this money.
You have to basically pay fordata in the beginning is how I
look at it with Google ads.
And then you just push throughthat, like, super
uncomfortable-ness, which ourclients have always felt.
I'm feeling now and, and guesswhat?
We get to the other side of itand it's like, man, I'm glad I
(15:13):
stuck it out because now it'sworth it.
Now it's cranking.
Russel (15:16):
I typically just, probably for my own sake,
summarize kind of what I heardthere and I think there's some
really great takeaways in termsof, regardless of whether you're
doing a performance modelanyway, that this is a great
approach.
Take ownership, true ownership,uh, as if it was your business,
this was what we told ourselvesa lot in the agency.
Focus on quality first andforemost, and, and then, right,
that doesn't always pan out toprofitability per se, but, um,
(15:39):
in the long run, I'm going tomake the argument that it does,
uh, and, really, eating your ownmedicine or taking your own
medicine and, and being the sameway you are to your clients, to
yourselves, and that there's nota, a difference in any way.
You tell me, did I, does that,that sum up your, how your
approach has been in it?
Jonathan (15:54):
You nailed it.
Totally nailed it.
That's been it.
It's because, especially, like,with these smaller clients, some
of these contractors that, like,they just started their
businesses and they relied onus.
You don't want to let them downbecause they're, they're just
like us.
Small business owners in thebeginning that are just trying
to not work for the man and getsomething going and, uh, take it
very personally when we, when wedon't perform.
It almost always happens in thebeginning and then, and then it
(16:15):
works most of the time.
Russel (16:16):
That's great.
I don't always nail it, but I'mglad to hear that, uh, it was a
good summation there.
Again, I love your approach.
It's very easy to see why thatcan be very effective, uh, and
has been for you.
Because it's relevant, we were,as you said, we were talking
about it earlier.
The question I probably don'teven don't ask as much as I
should, but for the folks athome that can't see there's,
there's a lot of toys in yourbackground.
(16:36):
so it sounds like you're morethan just, uh, all gasoline and
fire when it comes to business,but you take the time to have
fun on the side as well.
Jonathan (16:44):
When the agency started, I used to fish every
Friday.
I unfortunately don't get to dothat as much anymore, which is a
good problem.
We've been super busy,especially since we launched the
other, a new business, thebeginning of this year.
I love fishing, you know,offshore fishing is, is my
disconnect.
You probably know, Russel, like,being in digital marketing,
you're tied to your phone, or atleast I am tied to my phone,
emails going off.
(17:04):
Checking calls coming in, youknow, checking everything
constantly.
I'm, like, kind of a lunaticwith it.
I want to make sure everythingis going right.
To be able to go out in themiddle of the ocean and totally
disconnect, be away from it all,be so far out that nobody can
get ahold of me.
to me, that's, that's superspiritual and super peaceful.
It's a really good recharge forme.
Even on the days where we don'tcatch a bunch of fish, it's,
it's fine because I still got toget away from the digital world.
(17:27):
Don't get me wrong.
I love the digital world.
My other hobby is SIM racing.
Real nerd stuff.
My wife can't believe a 44 yearold man is a SIM racing, but,
uh, every Friday night I'm, youknow, I have a league that I'm
in and race with a bunch ofother guys online.
It's a lot of fun.
I used to be big into cars andmotorcycles and racing.
I'm super competitive and I getto do it now, you know, in a SIM
where I'm not going to get aspeeding ticket and I'm not
(17:49):
going to kill anybody so it'ssafe.
Russel (17:50):
I like that.
I went through a briefmotorcycle phase and that was
kind of why I got out was myolder sense of mortality just
isn't making this enjoyable.
I love that about ourgeneration.
Maybe because we did grow upwith, with, uh, I guess you
could say one of the firstgenerations to really have
games, but that we haven't lostthat kid in us, uh, for, for a
lot of folks.
That's far more, far moresomething to embrace than
(18:10):
otherwise.
Glad you have those outlets.
It made me think of, this is whyI used to love a cruise, um, in
the, in the early days, as yougo back 10 or more years is
before they put internet oncruises, like, it was just
forced.
Oh, my phone is going in thesafe, um, for the next seven
days because I'm not going tocall anybody or get access.
There's no real way to do it.
Then they put internet on thereand now that's not as, it's not
(18:32):
as.
Jonathan (18:32):
Ruined it for everybody.
Russel (18:34):
Not as forced time away from your electronics.
That's great.
I know also too, you've got biggoals for the business that were
nowhere near the end, uh, interms of how you're approaching
this.
Tell us about what the future ofLFG Media Group looks like.
Jonathan (18:48):
Like I said in the very beginning, it started off
where I would have been happywith just doubling my, my
income, you know, having acouple of rehab clients selling
some calls.
That's all I foresaw in thefuture.
Then as things started to grow,and then I, you know, like I
said, I'd started this otherbusiness.
My partner in that business is abig Alex Hermosi guy.
He starts putting all this stuffin my head about, you know,
getting the 10 million, youknow, for, for, for a company in
(19:11):
an odd word after that, and I'dnever really thought of it in
numbers like that.
But now it's like, my goal is to10, become a 10 million dollar
company, you know, at minimum ofthat.
Within five years is my goal.
Is that possible?
I'm not sure.
My partner in LFG Media Group,who's a small partner in it, uh,
he is very seasoned businessguy.
He, you know, worked with DHL,put them on the map.
He was the president of sales inNorth and South America.
(19:33):
He's built up big companies andsold them.
That's what he does and knows.
He's got my back on it and heknows all the stuff that, that I
don't know, and he's, you know,keeps me out of trouble, let's
put it that way.
That's my goal is to, it'sreally, I want to hit the number
just for, I guess, to say that Idid it.
It's just like one of thosethings, like with fishing, you
know, I wanted to say I was ableto catch swordfish or SIM
racing, I wanted to win youknow, a championship in that.
(19:54):
It's just like one of those, itseems like for, for what we do
in the digital marketing world,like a 10 million dollar
company.
It's a pretty cool start to getto.
It's not really about the moneythough.
It's really, for me, I'd want tobe able to go to trade shows,
like,,LeadsCon Lead GenerationWorld, stuff like that.
I want to be able to talk topeople and be like, yeah, we
have these assets.
We sell these, like we're inthese verticals where we're good
at this.
We're good at that.
(20:14):
To be able to be recognizable bymy peers that like, hey, like,
LFG Media Group, man, theygenerate some really high
quality stuff.
They're not generating a bunchof crap like some of the other
people out there.
That's kind of, like, the vibethat I want to put out there
with, with our company.
I want to be known as the leadguys.
I want to be known back fromthose Dish Network days.
I want to be that guy that madethose phones ring.
I'm so far away from it, but I,but damn it, I'm gonna get
(20:36):
there.
Russel (20:36):
I think in sometimes, know, in talking with folks that
just say, you know, a number andgrowth and, and, you know, but
sometimes it can be lost on justhow important the quality and
results are and that that'sactually going to make it, the
make or break of whether or notyou achieve that amount of
revenue.
I'm not worried about it in yourcase because, because you have
such a strong attention toresults.
Very fascinating, uh,conversation.
(20:57):
You've done a lot in a shortamount of time.
The quote kept coming in mymind, if you ain't first, you're
last.
I don't know if you've seen, uh,uh, if you know the movie
reference there.
Jonathan (21:05):
I love that movie.
I used to say that all the time.
Well, there's second place,there's third place, that don't
make any sense.
Russel (21:11):
Yeah.
Right?
You seem to epitomize that, uh,uh, which I love about you.
We can wrap things up here withone big final question for you.
Are entrepreneurs born or arethey made?
Jonathan (21:20):
I think they're made.
I'll be brief on it, but I waslucky enough, my grandfather was
a, was a businessman and Iwatched how, you know, he was in
the machining business, uh, shotblast machine, buy shot blast
machines that were used in worldwar two to, you know, galvanize
steel wings and all that stuff.
He bought them to use them inthe industrial world, like, fix
them up.
I would go to work with him.
Those were my first jobs and Iwould see how he treated his
(21:41):
people.
That was, like, a really goodexample for me.
The guys that worked for himjust absolutely loved him.
They would have died for him.
My uncle was his son and, youknow, same thing.
That's how he treated people.
They grew out big businesses.
I was able to see that at ayoung age.
I'd never had any desire to bean entrepreneur back then, or
didn't think that I would be.
Then I got to go out in theworkforce and see how I don't
want to be treated and then Iwas able to bring it all
(22:03):
together.
Now I have my own agency.
I know exactly how I want totreat people, not just the
people that have worked with us,but our clients.
I think they're made.
I think it's, it's all aboutnone of us.
I don't think there's any self,self made millionaires.
I hate that term.
We all have mentors and peoplethat teach us along the way,
good and bad.
As long as our eyes and ears areopen to it all, we can, anybody
can be an entrepreneur.
(22:23):
Gotta have the stones too.
They can be inserted.
Russel (22:26):
That'd be the part I could argue.
Is that the born part is the, asyou say, the stones, but
perhaps, to your point, thestones can be made as well.
Those are forged over time inthe same way, or maybe that's
even what is getting forged overtime.
If you had a mic to drop, I'dtell you to drop it.
I don't want you to pick up yourcomputer and throw it down.
Very great story.
If people want to know moreabout LFG Media Group, where can
they go?
Jonathan (22:46):
Just go to our website, lfgmediagroup.com.
You can go there.
You could also, on our websiteis all of our social media
accounts that you can click on.
You can learn all about us.
We have tons of video andcontent out there about who we
are and what we do.
Or you can call the number onthe website to schedule an
appointment with me and I'll beon the call and see how we can
help.
Russel (23:03):
Perfect.
There you go, folks.
Wonderful conversation.
Fast paced, just like you runyour business, JD.
It was a pleasure just to get tohear all the things that have
forged you and your experienceand your focus on results.
I really appreciate you takingthe time to share that with us
today.
Jonathan (23:16):
Thanks for having me, Russel.
It was a pleasure to be herewith you and, uh, thanks again.
I really enjoyed it.
We hope you've enjoyed thisepisode of An Agency Story
podcast where we share realstories of marketing agency
owners from around the world.
Are you interested in being aguest on the show?
Send an email topodcast@performancefaction.com.
(23:41):
An Agency Story is brought toyou by Performance Faction.
Performance Faction offersservices to help agency owners
grow their business to 5 milliondollars and more in revenue.
To learn more, visitperformancefaction.com.
We were shooting content.
(24:01):
I had this, this girl workingfor me.
She's, like, 20, she doesn'twork with us anymore, but she's
like 23, 24 years old.
I forget why we were using it,but I bought a Trapper Keeper.
I forget what it was for.
We were shooting a video,whatever.
Long story short, I asked her, Isaid, hey, can you get the
Trapper Keeper for me?
She was like, what's a TrapperKeeper?
I was like, you gotta be kiddingme.
It was just like, you know, I'm44, she's 23, so it just showed,
(24:21):
like, the different age groups.
But, uh, it was cool because shebrought a whole different aspect
to the company that was, uh, youknow, that I didn't know about.
That whole younger generation.
It just reminds me, like, nomatter what, like, we have to
keep, we have to stay up onthings because, uh, what works
now, isn't going to be the samein 20 years.
I feel like we're going to beextinct, us marketers.
Digital marketers are gonnareplaced by robots.
Russel (24:41):
Might all get praised, replaced by robots in some, in
every sector.
Everything from the nineties iscoming back now.
I guess maybe Trapper Keepershaven't made the cut.
Jonathan (24:49):
Trapper Keepers are great.
I don't know why you wouldn'twant one of those, ones with
like BMX bikes on them, or youget them like, you know, you get
all kinds of graphics on them,really tell people who you are.
Russel (24:57):
I don't know what, why is that not a thing kids need?
I guess maybe they just don'twrite as much.
That might be part of theproblem.
Pretty much all, even in, Idon't know if it's everywhere,
but even in high school andespecially in college now, they
just expect kids have laptops.
Jonathan (25:09):
My kids in kindergarten, they gave him a
laptop.
Couldn't believe it.
Blew my wife's mind.
She was like, why does a fiveyear old need a laptop?
He's in this, like, magnetschool that he, he got, there
was a lottery that he got pickedfor.
We're really lucky.
But they, like, the stuff thatthey have these kids doing now
in kindergarten.
I remember taking naps inkindergarten.
They don't that anymore.
Welcome to An Agency Storypodcast where we share real
stories of marketing agencyowners from around the world.
From the excitement of startingup the first big sale, passion,
doubt, fear, freedom, and theemotional rollercoaster of
growth, hear it all on An AgencyStory podcast.
(00:24):
An Agency Story podcast ishosted by Russel Dubree,
successful agency owner with aneight figure exit turned
business coach.
Enjoy the next agency story.
Russel (00:40):
What happens when you leave the comfort of retainers
and steady income to invest in ain a pay for performance model?
Welcome to an agency Storypodcast.
I'm your host Russel.
Today we're diving into thefast-paced journey of Jonathan
Danieli, founder of LFG MediaGroup, as he shifts gears from
traditional agency work tobuilding a powerhouse paper call
performance network.
(01:01):
From scaling to seven figuresplus and under two years to
aiming for a$10 million vision,J D's story is all about
calculated risk, big ambition,and building a results only
business model.
Throughout this episode, we talkabout the mindset shift required
for a performance model, theemotional rollercoaster of
betting on your own assets andwhat it really means to take
your own advice.
Enjoy the story.
(01:24):
Welcome to the show today,everyone.
I have Jonathan Daniele with LFGMedia Group with us here today.
Thank you so much for being onthe show today, JD.
Jonathan (01:31):
Thanks for having me.
It's great to be here.
I appreciate it.
Russel (01:33):
I appreciate you joining and let's get right to it.
What does LFG Media Group do andwho do you do it for?
Jonathan (01:40):
We are a full service digital marketing firm that
specializes in search enginemarketing and social media
marketing.
The company basically startedoff in the healthcare sector,
primarily working with drug andalcohol rehabs, you know, in the
behavioral health space, and,uh, that's where we started.
We've morphed into, uh, doing alot of insurance as well, like
U65 Insurance.
Just recently we've startedgoing much, much heavier on
(02:02):
building a pay-per-call, uh,network.
We're really big in solar now.
We're also working in Tort and,uh, car insurance, we're just
kicking off.
We also sell a ton of, uh,mental health leads as well.
I wanted to be a pay-per-callnetwork, but we started off as
having, you know, monthlyclients, and then now that we've
had all these, these, theseclients, now we're lucky enough
to be able to start a paper callnetwork.
(02:22):
We're able to have the fundingnow to do it.
It's not a cheap thing to startoff.
Russel (02:25):
A little bit unique aspect and I'd want to learn a
lot more about that.
But before we get to all ofthat, well, I just got to get
the elephant out of the roomand, uh, the name LFG Media
Group.
What's the story there?
Jonathan (02:38):
Oh, man.
I'll tell you, I'm glad youdidn't ask me exactly what it
stood for.
But so the story behind it is Iworked in a call center and I
actually, that's really where Icome from is a call center space
originally, but worked in a callcenter and this one guy used to
say, you know, let's effin' go,you know, all the time.
That was like his, he wouldclose a deal, and he would say
either Yamaha, because Yamaha,he had a goal.
(02:58):
He was saving up to buy a YamahaJetski so he would say Yamaha
every time he got a deal, or hewould say let's, let's effin'
go.
I had started a consultingbusiness called LFG Consulting.
I just named it LFG Consultingbecause I was just like, I'll
just start with that.
And then when I started thiscompany two years ago, my wife
said I have to stick with LFG,LFG group, so.
Russel (03:17):
Simple enough.
Normally I, I want to wait untilwe get more into the story, but
I don't know.
I just had to know, I had to getto that right out of the gate.
I have that friend too, that,uh, loves that phrase with
pretty much every interaction wehave but what, what a cool
story.
Let's go back in time evenbefore you actually starting the
agency.
What was young Jonathan, wherewas he headed in life?
(03:37):
What did he want to be when hegrew up?
Jonathan (03:38):
Oh man, when I was younger, it was all about, I
was, I was into motocross, so Iwanted to be a professional
motocross racer, you know?
Fast forward, I, uh, you know, Iended up going to, to college.
I was big into lacrosse.
I got recruited to playlacrosse.
After that, I ended up inFlorida working for my dad who,
or for my biological dad, whohad a helmet business selling
motorcycle helmets.
(03:58):
That's where I started to learnabout marketing was back then.
He was a flea market guy, and sohe was your typical sales guy
and, like, he could sellanything to anybody.
Then he paid somebody to teachhim how to, you know, uh, use a
computer and, and, and basicallyteach them how to build a
website.
That was my first introductionto digital marketing.
I thought it was pretty neatback then.
It's kind of where it started.
Russel (04:17):
Did that compel you to actually, like, pick up the
skills to learn that?
Or just, just had to play withit, interact it and work with
it?
Jonathan (04:23):
Not at the time.
I liked building the web, like,adding products to the website,
very, like, simple point andshoot type stuff.
I always had this, like, thoughtthat I was going to own this
huge call center, you know,going to be like this big call
center guy.
I didn't know what the businesswas going to be, but that was
always kind of what I saw as myfuture.
Then I worked for, I got a jobat dish network down here in
South Florida.
(04:43):
I started off as a sales agent,worked up to a GM where I ended
up with a hundred salespeopleunder me, eight other managers
under me.
The phones never stoppedringing.
There was always 60, 70, 80calls in queue.
I was always just like, how theheck are these, how are these
guys doing this?
It like completely intrigued me.
I was like, that's what I wantto do.
I want to be the guy that makesthe phones ring.
Nothing wrong with being asales, um, uh, call center
(05:06):
manager, but I was like, this isnot what I want to do for the
rest of my life.
I don't want to manage a hundredpeople.
It's not for me.
I saw the calls coming in.
I was like, I got to figure thatout.
That's when I really got, like,really interested in marketing.
It didn't start then, but, uh,that's when, that's when the
fire was lit.
Russel (05:18):
What was the day you woke up or set of days or time
period where you're like, allright, I'm not working for the
man anymore.
Jonathan (05:24):
That was actually, um, forced on me.
Probably one of the best days ofmy life and, uh, was, was losing
that job.
Luckily, at that time, I just,that's when I was like, you
know, I've, I've worked formultiple treatment centers, uh,
and I've unfortunately, I've hadsome really horrible bosses down
here.
Worked for some really awfulpeople or what I thought was, in
my opinion, were awful.
I was just like, I don't, it'sjust not an option for me.
(05:45):
I could have picked up anothermarketing job, a six figure
salary pretty quickly, uh, andyou know, to fill the gap.
I had the conversation with mywife about it and she was like,
she was like, just do yourthing, you know, launch, launch
your company.
You've been wanting this for awhile.
Giving me goosebumps, like,reminding me of that day, but
she, she had my back the wholetime.
She was my, like, my biggestcheerleader because I had those
doubts in my mind, like, oh, howam I going to get clients?
(06:06):
I don't know anything aboutthis.
I don't know anything aboutrunning an agency and, uh, you
know, just figured it out.
It was just one of those thingswhere I had the support behind
me and I had just a couple ofconnections I reached out to,
and that led to my first coupleof clients.
Then I was like, okay.
I always thought, like, I'lljust have a couple of clients
and then sell some leads andI'll have just make double what
I was making as, working at thetreatment center.
(06:26):
It's turned into, I haveemployees now.
I have over 15 clients.
The business has grown almost to2 million dollar a year business
after the second year, or, youknow, coming up on our second
year.
I never would've imagined any ofthis.
Honestly, I've just been verylucky with the people that have
come onto my team that, uh, havehelped get me here.
Never would've got here bymyself.
Russel (06:45):
It's not, not uncommon that a lot of folks I talk to,
yes, that some, somewhere,someone along the way was that
support system, that encourageor that push us off the cliff,
maybe sometimes as well, uh, togo do what we often talk about
in the entrepreneurial space iskind of a crazy thing to go do.
I'm so glad to hear that you hadthat and so close to home, I
imagine had to make it evenbetter.
Everything about you just sofar, just, you know, it's no
(07:07):
surprise that I think youngJonathan wanted to be a BMX
racer.
You seem to be a fast mover.
I don't know, do you think ofyourself as that?
Like just once I decide and putmy nose in a particular
direction, I'm going a hundredmiles an hour?
Jonathan (07:18):
That's a hundred percent correct.
It's a blessing and a curse.
Everything I do, like, you know,like we talked about at the
beginning, fishing or the simracing or, like, anything I get
into, uh, especially when itcomes to business, uh, with,
with marketing.
That's it.
Especially, like, this new papercall network we're building out,
I just pushed all my chips inbecause I believe in it.
It's not like this whole thingisn't all about money to me.
I love the challenge of takingsomething that's not being done,
(07:40):
you know, currently by us and,like, cracking that, like
cracking the code and figuringit out.
Cause you know, you, you've beenin the game for a while.
You lose a lot of money when youfirst start off a new vertical
and it's scary.
It's very scary.
I love that excitement and Ilove, I love seeing it when it
works and when it doesn't work,that sucks too.
But when it works, you feellike, feel like the Incredible
Hulk.
It's a great feeling.
Russel (08:00):
I imagine a lot of people are at home shaking their
heads.
I hear you.
I know that feeling.
You've touched on at least alittle bit here that you started
off a more pure marketing focus,but a lot of your experience
background and where you saidyou're trying to evolve your,
your product slash service to,is, is this performance or pay
per aspect.
Why the shift?
Jonathan (08:18):
There's a million digital marketing companies out
there.
I talked to a, we prospect, wetalk, I, I have, our prospecting
team sends me appointmentsconstantly, so I'm constantly
talking to different companiesin different spaces and it's, I
hear the same thing over andover again.
I brought on this digitalmarketing company.
They promised me the star on themoon and they didn't deliver.
It's like the same old story.
Then I'll crack into an account.
(08:39):
I look at an account and, uh,see the account.
I'm like, I can't even believethese people are providing
digital marketing services.
I'm not saying this to theclient, but there's just so
much, I want to say thisgingerly, but, like, there's
just so many people out there, Ifeel like, that don't know what
they're doing and it's, andthat's not just marketing,
that's any industry and it justgives us marketers a bad name.
So I really like the performancething of, like, putting your
(08:59):
money where your mouth is.
I just am doing that right nowfor a car insurance client, uh,
you know, a high risk carinsurance client in Cali.
And I, you know, he said, that'swhat he wanted.
I said, you know what, we'll dothat.
That's kind of like what startedthe car insurance thing for me.
It's not working out with him,unfortunately, it's one of those
vertical.
It's a very thin margin, um, butI like, I like the fact that
it's like, I use our money.
(09:19):
We build our assets, we buildour own brands, and then we
promote the heck out of them.
And if it doesn't work out withthat client, because maybe their
sales team isn't good enough,maybe they want to go in a
different direction.
It's fine.
Those are all of our assets.
We put all of that time andenergy into something that's
ours and we can then take it andsell it somewhere else.
I had one, and I won't go long,long about this, but I had one
rehab client who, who fired me.
(09:40):
They had a, my opinion, a verybad sales team.
Another big digital marketingagency came in after me, um, saw
my whole strategy, which hasn'thappened to me, which I thought
was a pretty, a really goodstrategy.
I just pitched someone a coupleof weeks ago, and they're
dealing with that company now,and what their whole strategy
is, is my exact strategy to theT.
At first I was pissed off aboutit.
I kind of knew that was going tohappen sooner or later, but then
(10:01):
I was like, hey, that's kind ofcool.
A big agency took my strategyand is using it for their
clients now.
It's kind of, kind of highpraise, but I, but to answer
your question is, uh, I likedthe performance marketing piece
because, uh, it's, it's allabout us and what we're doing,
you know, internally, and we cansell the calls anywhere is
really what, how we feel aboutit.
Russel (10:18):
Getting a better sense of your personality and, you
know, move fast, you know, biggoals, approach.
It sounds like that just as partand parcel of your personality,
having been on both sides of thecoin of, kind of, let's just say
a more traditional agency andthen a more performance based
one, what, from a, just a purebusiness perspective, just kind
of touch on the pros and cons ofboth types of models as you look
at it?
Jonathan (10:37):
I think the pros, the pros of working, you know, on,
like, a monthly retainer type ofbasis with clients.
I like the relationships thatI've built.
At least in the beginning, I gotto be, like, really hands on
watching somebody else'sbusiness grow as a result of the
help that you've given them andthen seeing, you know, seeing
how happy they are and excitedabout it.
I love that.
That's a super great feeling.
We don't get that on the, on theperformance marketing side
(10:58):
because we're getting paid perlead.
That part's really cool.
The monthly recurring revenueis, it's safe.
That's definitely a pro because,uh, I feel like we do a good
job.
We don't lose clients veryoften.
Most of our clients have beenwith us for, since the
beginning, for two years, exceptfor our newer clients.
It's definitely a safer move.
And then you can always upsellthem to more services along the
way, which has been the case forus.
(11:18):
It's always started with PPCand, you know, now we do social
media and SEO and, you know,sell leads on top of it.
That's all cool.
The pros of the performancemarketing thing, like I
mentioned before, is I love thatyou're building your own brands
and, uh, you can take itwherever it goes.
It's very, very scary, you know,building out your own stuff
because there's no, when you'rea monthly recurring or monthly
(11:38):
recurring revenue client, it'stheir money that you're playing
with.
It's not your own money.
When it's on you, it's a littlebit, it's a lot more stressful
when it's the money coming outof your bank account.
So that's a con to it.
I would say, then, the bestthing, in my opinion, uh, for
the, for the pay-per-callnetwork is, uh, just the, being
able to grow something out asbig as you want it as long as
there's a need for those leads.
(11:59):
Solar has been, been such asurprise.
It was after doing rehab.
Cause I learned, I learneddigital marketing in the rehab
space, which is highlycompetitive.
Extremely, like, it wasextremely hard to learn and,
like, doing solar and healthinsurance, it's like running
without a parachute on.
It's just, like, super easy, Ifeel like.
Russel (12:15):
I'm going to net that out, high risk but potentially
higher reward.
If you are successful and pullit off is kind of where that
comes out to.
Jonathan (12:22):
You're going to lose on the pay per call side.
There's verticals we've tried tostand up that, you know, they
don't work out.
And that's, that's okay.
It's not our, not our thing.
Russel (12:30):
For those that maybe aren't even familiar for the
model, how you're setting up, itsounds like you're not marketing
these businesses that you'reyour clients, you're creating a
brand in that particular spacethat you're building a lead base
for and then now that you'veacquired that, nurtured, et
cetera, you're selling those towhatever, whatever the market,
the market that is your clientseffectively.
Jonathan (12:48):
We build high quality video.
We have a production company.
It builds really high qualityvideo for social media.
Then also for our PMAXcampaigns, you know, for
YouTube, uh, Discovery, all thatstuff.
We have that, that as our brand.
We build out, you know, all themeta accounts, you know, Google
ads accounts, and, uh, you know,and then start promoting it and
start running paid ads.
Then SEO will be a long termstrategy for it, but it's all
(13:10):
paid ads in the beginning.
Russel (13:11):
Okay.
Fascinating.
One of the things I talk to alot about to folks, right?
You're kind of speaking to thesafe model of charging hourly or
kind of, um, uh, fee for, uh,every, or fee for every sweat,
every ounce of sweat you putinto it, but you know, can we
move in the direction of a valuebased model?
One of the questions I alwaysask is just, hey, if you were
responsible or essentiallyaccountable to a certain set of
(13:31):
results to actually get paid andmake the money you need to make
at the end of the day, how wouldyou perform differently in the
business and interacting withclients and things like that?
I imagine that's has had to comeinto play when you look at your
model in terms of, you know,whether selecting clients or how
you're working and consultingwith clients, but what does that
look like in your business?
Jonathan (13:49):
This may sound cliche or whatever, but every, every
one of our clients, I treat itlike it's our own business, or
at least that's been theapproach.
Obviously, as we grow and getbigger, that's going to be a
little bit harder to do.
But everything in the beginninghas been that very white glove,
uh, approach with our clients.
Merging into the paper call sideof things, it was actually a,
you know, an easy marriage forus because we're already, I was
already used to treatingaccounts, like, I felt it when
(14:11):
my clients would do bad.
I felt it when they would losemoney or they would spend all
this money and not get the leadsor the admissions or, or
whatever that they needed.
It's funny because I'm having totake my own advice that I've
been giving clients for years.
You got to have the budget.
You got to spend the money toget the data.
You got to be patient,especially with Google ads.
Nowadays, it's like, we need tobe able to train the AI model
properly.
We need to start off like maxclicks.
(14:31):
We need to spend a bunch ofmoney to get the conversions in
the account.
Once we have the conversions, wecould start using, um, different
types of bid strategies.
All those things that I've beentelling my clients that I know
are true, I've caught myselfwhere I'll start off on a
project and like, we'll blow abunch of money over a couple of
days.
My initial knee jerk reaction islike, boom, I want to hit the
pause button.
But it's like, wait, what wouldI tell my clients?
(14:52):
How would I handle it?
That's helped me be better withthe pay-per-call call side of
things, because it's like takingmy own advice, like, hey, like,
you have to invest this money.
You have to basically pay fordata in the beginning is how I
look at it with Google ads.
And then you just push throughthat, like, super
uncomfortable-ness, which ourclients have always felt.
I'm feeling now and, and guesswhat?
We get to the other side of itand it's like, man, I'm glad I
(15:13):
stuck it out because now it'sworth it.
Now it's cranking.
Russel (15:16):
I typically just, probably for my own sake,
summarize kind of what I heardthere and I think there's some
really great takeaways in termsof, regardless of whether you're
doing a performance modelanyway, that this is a great
approach.
Take ownership, true ownership,uh, as if it was your business,
this was what we told ourselvesa lot in the agency.
Focus on quality first andforemost, and, and then, right,
that doesn't always pan out toprofitability per se, but, um,
(15:39):
in the long run, I'm going tomake the argument that it does,
uh, and, really, eating your ownmedicine or taking your own
medicine and, and being the sameway you are to your clients, to
yourselves, and that there's nota, a difference in any way.
You tell me, did I, does that,that sum up your, how your
approach has been in it?
Jonathan (15:54):
You nailed it.
Totally nailed it.
That's been it.
It's because, especially, like,with these smaller clients, some
of these contractors that, like,they just started their
businesses and they relied onus.
You don't want to let them downbecause they're, they're just
like us.
Small business owners in thebeginning that are just trying
to not work for the man and getsomething going and, uh, take it
very personally when we, when wedon't perform.
It almost always happens in thebeginning and then, and then it
(16:15):
works most of the time.
Russel (16:16):
That's great.
I don't always nail it, but I'mglad to hear that, uh, it was a
good summation there.
Again, I love your approach.
It's very easy to see why thatcan be very effective, uh, and
has been for you.
Because it's relevant, we were,as you said, we were talking
about it earlier.
The question I probably don'teven don't ask as much as I
should, but for the folks athome that can't see there's,
there's a lot of toys in yourbackground.
(16:36):
so it sounds like you're morethan just, uh, all gasoline and
fire when it comes to business,but you take the time to have
fun on the side as well.
Jonathan (16:44):
When the agency started, I used to fish every
Friday.
I unfortunately don't get to dothat as much anymore, which is a
good problem.
We've been super busy,especially since we launched the
other, a new business, thebeginning of this year.
I love fishing, you know,offshore fishing is, is my
disconnect.
You probably know, Russel, like,being in digital marketing,
you're tied to your phone, or atleast I am tied to my phone,
emails going off.
(17:04):
Checking calls coming in, youknow, checking everything
constantly.
I'm, like, kind of a lunaticwith it.
I want to make sure everythingis going right.
To be able to go out in themiddle of the ocean and totally
disconnect, be away from it all,be so far out that nobody can
get ahold of me.
to me, that's, that's superspiritual and super peaceful.
It's a really good recharge forme.
Even on the days where we don'tcatch a bunch of fish, it's,
it's fine because I still got toget away from the digital world.
(17:27):
Don't get me wrong.
I love the digital world.
My other hobby is SIM racing.
Real nerd stuff.
My wife can't believe a 44 yearold man is a SIM racing, but,
uh, every Friday night I'm, youknow, I have a league that I'm
in and race with a bunch ofother guys online.
It's a lot of fun.
I used to be big into cars andmotorcycles and racing.
I'm super competitive and I getto do it now, you know, in a SIM
where I'm not going to get aspeeding ticket and I'm not
(17:49):
going to kill anybody so it'ssafe.
Russel (17:50):
I like that.
I went through a briefmotorcycle phase and that was
kind of why I got out was myolder sense of mortality just
isn't making this enjoyable.
I love that about ourgeneration.
Maybe because we did grow upwith, with, uh, I guess you
could say one of the firstgenerations to really have
games, but that we haven't lostthat kid in us, uh, for, for a
lot of folks.
That's far more, far moresomething to embrace than
(18:10):
otherwise.
Glad you have those outlets.
It made me think of, this is whyI used to love a cruise, um, in
the, in the early days, as yougo back 10 or more years is
before they put internet oncruises, like, it was just
forced.
Oh, my phone is going in thesafe, um, for the next seven
days because I'm not going tocall anybody or get access.
There's no real way to do it.
Then they put internet on thereand now that's not as, it's not
(18:32):
as.
Jonathan (18:32):
Ruined it for everybody.
Russel (18:34):
Not as forced time away from your electronics.
That's great.
I know also too, you've got biggoals for the business that were
nowhere near the end, uh, interms of how you're approaching
this.
Tell us about what the future ofLFG Media Group looks like.
Jonathan (18:48):
Like I said in the very beginning, it started off
where I would have been happywith just doubling my, my
income, you know, having acouple of rehab clients selling
some calls.
That's all I foresaw in thefuture.
Then as things started to grow,and then I, you know, like I
said, I'd started this otherbusiness.
My partner in that business is abig Alex Hermosi guy.
He starts putting all this stuffin my head about, you know,
getting the 10 million, youknow, for, for, for a company in
(19:11):
an odd word after that, and I'dnever really thought of it in
numbers like that.
But now it's like, my goal is to10, become a 10 million dollar
company, you know, at minimum ofthat.
Within five years is my goal.
Is that possible?
I'm not sure.
My partner in LFG Media Group,who's a small partner in it, uh,
he is very seasoned businessguy.
He, you know, worked with DHL,put them on the map.
He was the president of sales inNorth and South America.
(19:33):
He's built up big companies andsold them.
That's what he does and knows.
He's got my back on it and heknows all the stuff that, that I
don't know, and he's, you know,keeps me out of trouble, let's
put it that way.
That's my goal is to, it'sreally, I want to hit the number
just for, I guess, to say that Idid it.
It's just like one of thosethings, like with fishing, you
know, I wanted to say I was ableto catch swordfish or SIM
racing, I wanted to win youknow, a championship in that.
(19:54):
It's just like one of those, itseems like for, for what we do
in the digital marketing world,like a 10 million dollar
company.
It's a pretty cool start to getto.
It's not really about the moneythough.
It's really, for me, I'd want tobe able to go to trade shows,
like,,LeadsCon Lead GenerationWorld, stuff like that.
I want to be able to talk topeople and be like, yeah, we
have these assets.
We sell these, like we're inthese verticals where we're good
at this.
We're good at that.
(20:14):
To be able to be recognizable bymy peers that like, hey, like,
LFG Media Group, man, theygenerate some really high
quality stuff.
They're not generating a bunchof crap like some of the other
people out there.
That's kind of, like, the vibethat I want to put out there
with, with our company.
I want to be known as the leadguys.
I want to be known back fromthose Dish Network days.
I want to be that guy that madethose phones ring.
I'm so far away from it, but I,but damn it, I'm gonna get
(20:36):
there.
Russel (20:36):
I think in sometimes, know, in talking with folks that
just say, you know, a number andgrowth and, and, you know, but
sometimes it can be lost on justhow important the quality and
results are and that that'sactually going to make it, the
make or break of whether or notyou achieve that amount of
revenue.
I'm not worried about it in yourcase because, because you have
such a strong attention toresults.
Very fascinating, uh,conversation.
(20:57):
You've done a lot in a shortamount of time.
The quote kept coming in mymind, if you ain't first, you're
last.
I don't know if you've seen, uh,uh, if you know the movie
reference there.
Jonathan (21:05):
I love that movie.
I used to say that all the time.
Well, there's second place,there's third place, that don't
make any sense.
Russel (21:11):
Yeah.
Right?
You seem to epitomize that, uh,uh, which I love about you.
We can wrap things up here withone big final question for you.
Are entrepreneurs born or arethey made?
Jonathan (21:20):
I think they're made.
I'll be brief on it, but I waslucky enough, my grandfather was
a, was a businessman and Iwatched how, you know, he was in
the machining business, uh, shotblast machine, buy shot blast
machines that were used in worldwar two to, you know, galvanize
steel wings and all that stuff.
He bought them to use them inthe industrial world, like, fix
them up.
I would go to work with him.
Those were my first jobs and Iwould see how he treated his
(21:41):
people.
That was, like, a really goodexample for me.
The guys that worked for himjust absolutely loved him.
They would have died for him.
My uncle was his son and, youknow, same thing.
That's how he treated people.
They grew out big businesses.
I was able to see that at ayoung age.
I'd never had any desire to bean entrepreneur back then, or
didn't think that I would be.
Then I got to go out in theworkforce and see how I don't
want to be treated and then Iwas able to bring it all
(22:03):
together.
Now I have my own agency.
I know exactly how I want totreat people, not just the
people that have worked with us,but our clients.
I think they're made.
I think it's, it's all aboutnone of us.
I don't think there's any self,self made millionaires.
I hate that term.
We all have mentors and peoplethat teach us along the way,
good and bad.
As long as our eyes and ears areopen to it all, we can, anybody
can be an entrepreneur.
(22:23):
Gotta have the stones too.
They can be inserted.
Russel (22:26):
That'd be the part I could argue.
Is that the born part is the, asyou say, the stones, but
perhaps, to your point, thestones can be made as well.
Those are forged over time inthe same way, or maybe that's
even what is getting forged overtime.
If you had a mic to drop, I'dtell you to drop it.
I don't want you to pick up yourcomputer and throw it down.
Very great story.
If people want to know moreabout LFG Media Group, where can
they go?
Jonathan (22:46):
Just go to our website, lfgmediagroup.com.
You can go there.
You could also, on our websiteis all of our social media
accounts that you can click on.
You can learn all about us.
We have tons of video andcontent out there about who we
are and what we do.
Or you can call the number onthe website to schedule an
appointment with me and I'll beon the call and see how we can
help.
Russel (23:03):
Perfect.
There you go, folks.
Wonderful conversation.
Fast paced, just like you runyour business, JD.
It was a pleasure just to get tohear all the things that have
forged you and your experienceand your focus on results.
I really appreciate you takingthe time to share that with us
today.
Jonathan (23:16):
Thanks for having me, Russel.
It was a pleasure to be herewith you and, uh, thanks again.
I really enjoyed it.
We hope you've enjoyed thisepisode of An Agency Story
podcast where we share realstories of marketing agency
owners from around the world.
Are you interested in being aguest on the show?
Send an email topodcast@performancefaction.com.
(23:41):
An Agency Story is brought toyou by Performance Faction.
Performance Faction offersservices to help agency owners
grow their business to 5 milliondollars and more in revenue.
To learn more, visitperformancefaction.com.
We were shooting content.
(24:01):
I had this, this girl workingfor me.
She's, like, 20, she doesn'twork with us anymore, but she's
like 23, 24 years old.
I forget why we were using it,but I bought a Trapper Keeper.
I forget what it was for.
We were shooting a video,whatever.
Long story short, I asked her, Isaid, hey, can you get the
Trapper Keeper for me?
She was like, what's a TrapperKeeper?
I was like, you gotta be kiddingme.
It was just like, you know, I'm44, she's 23, so it just showed,
(24:21):
like, the different age groups.
But, uh, it was cool because shebrought a whole different aspect
to the company that was, uh, youknow, that I didn't know about.
That whole younger generation.
It just reminds me, like, nomatter what, like, we have to
keep, we have to stay up onthings because, uh, what works
now, isn't going to be the samein 20 years.
I feel like we're going to beextinct, us marketers.
Digital marketers are gonnareplaced by robots.
Russel (24:41):
Might all get praised, replaced by robots in some, in
every sector.
Everything from the nineties iscoming back now.
I guess maybe Trapper Keepershaven't made the cut.
Jonathan (24:49):
Trapper Keepers are great.
I don't know why you wouldn'twant one of those, ones with
like BMX bikes on them, or youget them like, you know, you get
all kinds of graphics on them,really tell people who you are.
Russel (24:57):
I don't know what, why is that not a thing kids need?
I guess maybe they just don'twrite as much.
That might be part of theproblem.
Pretty much all, even in, Idon't know if it's everywhere,
but even in high school andespecially in college now, they
just expect kids have laptops.
Jonathan (25:09):
My kids in kindergarten, they gave him a
laptop.
Couldn't believe it.
Blew my wife's mind.
She was like, why does a fiveyear old need a laptop?
He's in this, like, magnetschool that he, he got, there
was a lottery that he got pickedfor.
We're really lucky.
But they, like, the stuff thatthey have these kids doing now
in kindergarten.
I remember taking naps inkindergarten.
They don't that anymore.
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