August 17, 2025 • 32 mins
Company: Red Egg Marketing
Guests: Ryan Ellis
Year Started: 2011
Employees: 11-25
Growing an agency doesn’t always come from chasing the newest trends, it often comes from mastering the basics. In this episode, Ryan Ellis, Founder of Red Egg Marketing, shares how focusing on client relationships, intentional growth, and sticking to fundamentals helped him build a business that lasts.
Key Takeaways
- How low expenses gave Ryan the freedom to experiment and gain experience
- Why retention and consistency matter more than chasing quick wins
- The overlooked value of knowing when to let go of the wrong client
Details for an agency planning workshop event November 10th and 11th 2025.
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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 (00:42):
When it comes to growing your agency, how focused are you
on the fundamentals?
Welcome to An Agency Storypodcast.
I'm your host Russel.
In today's episode, I sit downwith Ryan Ellis, founder of Red
Egg Marketing, a full serviceagency for small and medium
sized businesses based out ofDenver, Colorado.
Ryan's journey from scrappy sidehustles and pro bono work to
(01:03):
building his agency is atestament to a slow and steady
attention to the fundamentals.
We'll dive into how retentionbecame the secret sauce for Red
Egg, the power of slow andintentional scaling, and why
sometimes the most importantmove you can make is firing the
wrong client.
You'll definitely wanna listento the story at the end for an
interesting take about giving apotential client, a ride.
(01:25):
Enjoy the story.
Welcome to the show todayeveryone.
I have Ryan Ellis with Red EggMarketing with us here today.
Thank you so much for joining ustoday, Ryan.
Ryan (01:34):
My pleasure.
Thanks for having me.
Russel (01:36):
My pleasure as well.
Looking forward to a greatconversation.
But if you don't mind, start usoff.
What does Red Egg do and who doyou do it for?
Ryan (01:42):
Red Egg is a full service marketing agency.
We work primarily with small andmedium sized businesses.
We act as their partner andresource.
We provide, uh, kind ofeverything that a small, medium
size business would need,including, uh, web development,
branding, marketing strategy,and also doing the
(02:04):
implementation.
Kind of a one stop shop.
Russel (02:07):
All right.
We're gonna dig so much moreinto all of those aspects of
your business, but, uh, as perusual, want to hear about what
young Ryan was doing in his lifeand where he was headed.
What did you want to be, andwhat were the early days of Ryan
Ellis like?
Ryan (02:23):
I always wanted to own a small business, but I could
never, uh, I could, I neverreally knew what it was going to
be you know what I was gonna do,but I, I always had a, an
interest in it.
I remember as a as a kid workingat a ice cream shop, there were
all these broken waffle conesand I crushed'em all up and I
(02:46):
tried to sell it as waffletopping.
They let me sell it for one dayand it was super fun and,
creating this new thing and newtopping.
It went well, but they said,yeah, that was fun, but we're
not gonna sell it anymore.
I said, okay, well this is why Iwanna work for myself someday.
Russel (03:03):
No one to deny your amazing and innovative product.
Ryan (03:06):
Yeah, waffle topping.
And you know what, um, there'san ice cream shop up in Winter
Park that we go to and they havewaffle topping, you know, so.
Russel (03:14):
What could have been?
Ryan (03:15):
Get prepared America.
It's coming.
Russel (03:17):
I used to not appreciate waffle, uh, you know, either
just a cone or, or even as atopping in, in my ice cream
journeys.
But now I, I do appreciate a lotmore.
I think it adds a good littlecompliment to when you're having
ice cream.
I'm, I'm about this.
It's never too late to rekindlethose long lost entrepreneurial
dreams.
all right.
Well, I assume, you know,obviously a young entrepreneur
(03:37):
at heart.
What path did you follow that'sgonna lead us up at least close
to when you decided to start theagency.
Ryan (03:43):
I went to, uh, college and thought, you know, that I, I'd
be really interested in doing,uh, doing marketing.
I, you know, enrolled as amarketing major.
In my marketing 101 class, theprofessor said, you know, you
could, uh, you could do anythingyou wanted to do in the
textbook.
Write a paper, your final paperon it.
I wanted to do grassrootsmarketing.
(04:04):
It was this little paragraph ofkind of, you know, word of
mouth, grassroots stylemarketing.
He said that was a, not a greatidea and I should do something
else.
It was more, commonplace.
I wrote the paper on it.
I interviewed a, a mentor ofmine that, started a, a auto
parts company from going to fleamarkets and selling them
through, over the phone off ofhis kitchen table and turned it
(04:27):
into a, multimillion dollarenterprise.
And, I thought the paper turnedout really well, but he gave me
a real mediocre grade on it andI said, well, this isn't for me.
I ended up abandoning thatthought, so I went and became an
econ, uh, major instead, stillknowing that I wanted to start
my own business someday, notnecessarily go work for Proctor
and Gamble or whatever.
Graduated into the GreatRecession.
(04:49):
Decided to come out to Coloradoand be a ski bum.
Did the ski bum thing for acouple years.
Met my now wife, moved down toDenver.
Thought that I might wanna workin the ski industry.
Couldn't really come up withanything.
I guess if I could take a stepback, um, while I was working up
there, I worked at a, at a golfcourse with some, you know, real
(05:10):
fancy people, um, that wentthere.
I park cars that were worth morethan, you know, houses.
One of the members there invitedall US guest service kids, uh,
to her house.
I was talking with her and I waslike, you know, telling her my
ideas and how I might wanna workin the ski industry and, you
know, maybe start a ski brand orsomething cool like that, or a
T-shirt company is what I wasthinking about at the time.
(05:32):
She looked at me and she said,no one comes to Vail to make it,
they make it and come to Vailand then that's when I decided
to move down to the city wherethere might be more opportunity
and go after something here.
Moved down to Denver.
Worked in a bike shop thinking Iwould, uh, become a, you know,
maybe run a bike shop someday orwork in the bike industry.
(05:52):
I kept trying to, you know,dabble in things I love doing,
um, but realized that maybe I,maybe working in those
industries wasn't for me.
But while I was at the bikeshop, I started, finding all the
service repair tickets.
People put their emails on itand I put'em all into a Word
document and started sending outmass BCC emails, you know,
through, to, to everyone who hadbeen a customer over the last 10
(06:16):
years.
I'd sell a bike.
I'd post, uh, about a new bikethat we had on Facebook and
people would, drive, you know,miles, uh, to come pick up that
specific bike.
'Cause we were the only ones whohad it.
And I just realized that, thislittle stuff was making a huge
difference for this smallbusiness.
What if I could just find othersmall businesses that needed
(06:37):
this kind of help?
That's, what finally gave me theidea of if I can't figure out,
you know, what business I wantedto start, I could start a
business where I get to work ineveryone else's business and,
you know, help them.
Russel (06:49):
I mean, It really does just sound like an extenuation
of what you were, what you werealready doing, of just trying,
getting some of this flexibilityof other industries and, and
business types and, so a lotmore natural progression than
you probably sounds like maybeyou initially thought or felt.
Ryan (07:04):
It makes sense in hindsight.
I can see how it all workstogether.
But yeah, if you'd asked me whatI'd be doing, you know, young
Ryan, I'll say, I wouldn't havebeen able to tell you.
I had no idea up until it, youknow, finally clicked, I guess.
Russel (07:17):
There is no timetable for, for clicking or, or
figuring ourselves out.
To the point, I don't know ifI've figured myself out.
We'll, We'll see.
I've been really intrigued onTikTok now by like, hotdog stand
videos or these little burritomaking stands.
I mean, I, I could see myselfdoing that.
Ryan (07:32):
Totally.
That would be great.
I haven't given up my, uh, dreamof doing ice cream either, you
know.
Russel (07:38):
Yeah.
I'm just really just curious is,you know, the story of, you said
this woman told you, and youknow, as the, as you share it,
this had a profound impact.
You said, well, get me outtahere and I'm gonna go somewhere
else and, and, you know, try tomake it or whatever.
Can you really point back tolike that quote and that advice
and, and, that propelled youdown a completely different
(07:58):
path?
Ryan (07:58):
I grew up in a small town in rural New Hampshire.
I always knew that I kind ofwanted to go to the city, you
know, and, and see what that wasall about.
I stopped off in, in Vail for,for fun and it was a job, you
know, there weren't a lot ofjobs for people fresh outta
college at the time, especiallyin like the financial sector,
which is where most of the econpeople went.
(08:21):
so I was like, well, if I couldgo skiing and get paid for it,
that sounds, that sounds prettygood.
But I, I, I think I had biggerambitions and it was, it was
that moment when I, you know, Ilooked around our house and I
was like, man, this is a nicehouse.
You know, I wanted a little bitmore than scraping by with, one,
one paycheck went to rent, theother went to food and beer.
It's just like, got old after awhile.
Russel (08:44):
I mean, a little jealous.
I only came to skiing a fewyears ago, but I absolutely
loved it.
I also feel like I want to golive some ski bum life, at some
point too.
I've got a lot of things I gottado here, apparently is what I'm
coming out from this episode.
but.
The power of, you know, what wecan say to people, to, um, is
always, that's always just agood reminder of how we can help
them with our words and probablysome cases someone has said
(09:06):
something that, uh, did not helpsomeone.
But just remember that whenwe're talking with a young,
inspiring folks out there.
All these things lined up,started doing marketing for
folks.
Do you consider that theofficial start of your agency?
Or just kind of talk us throughsome of those early progression
of the early time period inyears.
Ryan (09:23):
Well, I was fortunate.
As I mentioned, when I was in,when I got that mediocre grade
on the, the, the paper, that wasthe same year that Facebook came
out, which was, you know,businesses were using that as
word of mouth grassrootsmarketing, and it's turned into,
you know, one of the top placesto, to get noticed these days
for businesses.
So, By the time I, uh, when Iwas ready to start this
(09:47):
marketing agency, nobody knewwhat they were doing, when it
came to social media.
I kinda just had to hone myskills into, you know, how I
could leverage it, uh, to help,help clients.
So, you know, It started withjust a computer and, you know, I
identified what I wanted tosell.
Social media services, buildwebsites, do some email
(10:11):
marketing.
So Then it was just aboutteaching myself how to do it,
um, so I got a HTML CSS book ForDummies.
Started, you know, learning howto do that.
Writing posts for social mediaand, and, uh, I, I guess, if I
go back, it was, I, I had tohustle.
I had to find people who werewilling to let me do this for
(10:33):
them.
And That meant I did it forfree.
I found, you know, the bikeshop.
I was kind enough to let me takeover all their stuff.
I didn't get paid for it, Iguess, I guess you could say.
I got whatever they were payingme, you know, hourly to be there
at the bike shop.
But, um, I started working.
Submitted a contact form at theDenver Chamber of Commerce.
They called me back right away.
He invited me to a businessafter hours that was happening
(10:56):
that night.
I was like, ah, I dunno, thatisn't, isn't for me.
I just wanted to ask somequestions about it and, and, uh,
she convinced me to go.
I went and, uh, just startedtalking to people.
I met a guy who sold popsiclesand he liked what I had to say,
but he didn't have any money topay for it.
I didn't have any clients, so ifhe was gonna be a client, I'd
(11:16):
just do it for free.
Pay me whatever you thought Iwas worth.
And so That's kind of where Igot, where I got started.
Did a lot of just pro bonostuff, make some money throws on
my way.
I even worked for an artist thatI was connected with and uh, he
paid me 15% of anything he soldon Facebook.
He would sell stuff for 20 bucksand so I'd just get a, he'd
(11:39):
throw me a few bucks here andthere.
but It gave me the practice andthe practical experience in
order to have the confidence forwhen somebody finally, you know,
gave me the, the chance or, towork for them.
Russel (11:53):
Another theme kind of coming up in this conversation
is hindsight.
At the time when you're doingthat, how do, how are you
balancing that idea of like,hey, I'm doing this all for
experience.
I'm happy to do it at whatever Ican get income wise, or was it,
hey, I'll do whatever I need todo to get any income to, to
scrape by?
I guess if you think of that asa teeter-totter, how much of one
(12:15):
was the real driving factorthere?
Ryan (12:17):
I was working while starting the agency.
I was working a few days at thebike shop.
I had cheap rent.
My car was paid for.
I was pretty frugal.
I didn't need a lot of money.
I had maybe two grand in mychecking account for rainy day,
you know, to try to get by.
so For me it was more aboutcould I get some people on my
client list so that when someonelooked at my website, they'd see
(12:39):
that, you know, they weren't thefirst.
Even my, you know, the firstwebsite I built, I think I
charged$500 for something likethat.
And it's still up.
I still host it, um, for awedding venue from my small
town.
But it was just that kind ofstuff that, you gave me the
experience so that when, youknow, one of my first big
clients finally, finally foundme, you know, I was, I was
(13:01):
ready.
Russel (13:02):
I love that.
I mean, It just reinforces thisidea of, I think for anyone
starting a business is just howimportant experience is.
We're just not, we, we know atrade and we know a thing or
two.
We don't know the 50 otherthings that we've gotta learn
just about how to presentourselves, how to get people to
understand the service we'redoing.
How to deliver that in a waythat's healthy and effective and
just all these millions ofthings that sounds like you had
(13:23):
to go through.
And then just runway, I mean,setting ourselves up for
success.
You sound like you did it from aplace of lower, lower expenses
and you know, some frugalness ifyou will.
But we've gotta give ourselvessome runway to figure that out.
If we can do that in a slightlymore meaningful way, then, uh,
you know, starting out the gateand having bigger clients and
just, and then say screw it up,per se, is, and I don't know if
(13:46):
I like that word or not, but,um, you know, we might, it might
lead us down some bad outcomesversus we can more gradually get
there to, to a good product.
may, Maybe it was early on, butwhen was the point when you're
like, oh, I've got this now.
I feel like I'm, I don't wannasay there, but, uh, this is a
real thing.
This is what I'm going to do forindefinite period of time.
Ryan (14:06):
I think I knew that this is what I was gonna do.
I remember holding that firstcheck in my hands being like, I
created this.
You know what I mean?
Nobody just paid this to me, youknow, because I showed up to
work.
I found this client.
I sold them on the work.
I did the work and I deliveredthe, the result and they were
happy with it and, you know,paid me money.
(14:28):
I was like, I like this feeling,I like that I created this.
As far as your other parts ofthe question of when did I feel
like I really get it, that wasprobably pretty recently.
you know, It's like sometimesI'm still wondering do I know
what I'm doing?
One thing that's made adifference to me is I got a
little feather in your cap, but,um, you know, working with a
(14:49):
business coach, um, over thepast year has been really
valuable for me.
Because, uh, it gave me someconfidence of like, oh yeah, you
know, I am performing up to thebenchmarks.
This is a real agency that, youknow, we can compete with anyone
out there.
I'd say that moment was, youknow, pretty recently, you know,
that we, that I finally got theconfidence to say, we can do
(15:11):
anything.
Russel (15:11):
I think slow and intentional is clearly how
you've gone about your path.
You of described there asgetting a business coach and,
and kinda what that was validfor you.
And By the way, I'm, I'm allabout team business coach and
what I think the value of thatis in my own personal experience
and, and why a big part of whatI do.
What in that time period betweenyour first employee and making
(15:34):
that decision where you neededjust some more validation What
was going on that made you maybefeel like you weren't up to par
or weren't up to snuff?
Ryan (15:41):
That's a good question.
When you run a business, there'sa lot of ups and downs as far as
you know, what your take homepay is ultimately, right?
There's a lot of second guessingdecisions on should I hire
another person or should I, youknow, how do I fix this problem?
It was just getting to the pointwhere I was like, man, I'd
really like to just know, youknow, how this agency is
(16:04):
performing compared to others?
I'd like to know, you know, isthere a better way than we're
busy?
I feel like I need to hiresomebody.
Is there a better way to lookat, what, how the business is
doing?
Should we be hiring anotherperson or, based on financials,
you know, things like that, thatjust, just someone who has some
experience in that, was reallyhelpful.
Russel (16:26):
Ultimately as you're kind of making that decision,
and I assume there was a processleading up to that.
Was that a tough decision tomake or were you at such a point
where you're just so uncertain,unsure, or felt like you needed
it?
Kind of just tell us how you'vebeen arrived at this is, this is
how I'm going to make thisinvestment in improving the
business.
Ryan (16:45):
As far as scaling, so previously, like you said, it's
been slow growing over the yearsand you know, it's partially by
design.
I don't work 80 hours a week.
I think I have a good familywork life balance, but I did
want to grow when I felt like wefinally got in a position where
we could, you know, take on somebigger clients and, and, and
(17:06):
grow in that way.
And I just wanted to make surethat I had all my processes in
place and that it, thateverything was prepared for that
because the last thing I wantedto do was, you know, implode
because we took on too muchwork, too fast and, um, weren't
prepared.
you know, Looking at theorganizational structure and
looking at, the team and, andwhere, where I needed to, to
(17:29):
fill in.
That was kind of the impetusfor, for reaching out to someone
to have that kind of second setof eyes on things.
Someone who scaled somethingbefore or grown something
before.
Russel (17:37):
I'm gonna kind of summarize what I'm, what I'm
taking to hear there is itwasn't necessarily from a place
of, oh, frustration.
I don't have this figured outor, or were the business even a
bad place?
It was, no, I, I know I want togrow and I want to move it, you
know, beyond where it's attoday.
I'd like some assurance and inmaybe some ways insurance that,
that I'm gonna do that in ahealthy, meaningful way so they
don't actually end up in a badspot.
(17:59):
Is that a, a fair summary?
Ryan (18:01):
Yeah.
Red Egg has been, you know,profitable since year one and,
continues to, to grow.
It really was, you know, I, Ihired one person each year
essentially since I hired myfirst person, and this year we
hired three people.
It's been a busy, busy year.
Russel (18:18):
Obviously clearly some things had to be working because
I, if I, if I read my, my notescorrectly, that 2023 was an
exceptional growth year for youand the business, which honestly
is not really the case and evencoming into 2024, it sounds like
as well, has not been the casefor a lot of agencies out there.
That has actually been a reallytough time period, especially if
(18:40):
you take into account the lastdecade or so.
I know the folks at home, wegotta be like, all right.
Gimme a little bit of secretsauce, Ryan.
Why do you think you've, you'vebeen effective in what has
otherwise been a down period?
Ryan (18:50):
We have a good balance of recurring revenue and project
work.
Client retention is huge.
I think last time I calculatedit, we were at, you know, five,
six years.
Clients have been with us onaverage, and that number
continues to grow, we've gotmultiple clients that have been
with, with us for, over adecade.
I think that's a testament tothe, uh, the team.
(19:10):
The team works really hard.
They care, which is important.
We genuinely want to do a goodjob.
Clients look at us as aextension of their team.
Those are a, a few things.
we, we have, We're flexible, andthat we, uh, you know, we work
on a month to month arrangement,so if we don't earn, our key
people are free to leave, but aslong as we do a good job, uh,
(19:31):
they stick around.
Russel (19:32):
One could say, if I, you know, if I'm being crass, one
could say, you know, there'snothing profound per se in what
you shared, but honestly say, ifyou listen to enough of these
episodes, that you'll find thatif we really do just focus on
what are fundamentals, and notto say there's not a lot of work
in things that need to go intothose fundamentals, but if we
don't get, complicate ourselvesand fool ourselves into thinking
(19:54):
there's big, magical otherthings we need to do, that it is
really these fundamentals thatmatter most in, in good times or
bad for that matter.
But you know that how important,really what I even took away
there is retention is by gosh,if we're already in lean times,
um, as across the board, we'vegot a fight so hard to make sure
we don't lose anyone that'scurrently, and you do that
(20:16):
through quality and, andbuilding relationship and, and
many of the things you shared.
Ryan (20:20):
I think you're exactly right.
mean, it's, I mean, What we dois special in the sense that
it's, you know, the Red Egg teamdoing it.
But, you know, you can go onlineand research SEO strategy and do
all the same things that we'redoing.
We just make sure it gets done,you know, and we look at it,
strategically and, we make surethat we do what we say we're
(20:42):
gonna do.
Why would you fire somebody whois making you more money?
That's why they hire marketingagencies.
It's not just a, have amarketing agency.
No one likes just paying someoneto do nothing.
So, We also have a good mix of,you know, we, we build websites,
we manage, manage, maintainthose websites.
There's a bit of, hey, you, youkind of need us.
(21:04):
You need a website, you needthat website to stay up and you
need it to work and functioncorrectly.
Some clients require ourservices and then there's other
stuff that we, that we do thatmaybe you don't need as much
like, you know, fancy typeproject work.
And then we also do a lot ofrecurring stuff that, like, you
also need.
You need someone running an adstrategy that gets results.
(21:25):
You need to continually investin your SEO.
You need to send out periodicemail newsletters to your
contacts.
By putting that all together andhaving one point of contact for
that whole, you know, process,one team that knows your brand,
knows your, your business, knowsyour goals, you know, that's why
they keep Red Egg around.
Russel (21:45):
To even piggyback off that is right, there, there's
all kinds of things that, youknow, our clients need or their
business needs in the world.
It's a whole nother ball gameinto one, making sure they
recognize that need, and itbeing a need, recognize that the
work that they're doing toproduce that is actually working
and producing that.
So, Maybe perhaps anothertakeaway there is just in, in
(22:08):
tough times as well, just fightreally hard to make sure that
you a, are being valuable, butthat your clients don't just
value or create your valuethrough activity but through
actually that you're providingresults and moving the needle
and, and essentially gettingthem more income, revenue, or
whatever it is that you'resupplying to their business.
Ryan (22:26):
You have to.
And you have to be able toadapt.
Sometimes things work betterthan others.
Sometimes you have to change thestrategy.
I think a lot of times, um,these clients we get that are
frustrated from whatever companythey were working with before,
like, well, they stoppedlistening to us or they stopped,
you know, they didn't changewhat they were doing when I told
'em that things weren't workingout.
(22:47):
Make sure what you're doing isin the best interest of your
client, not yourself.
Because if you're doing what'sin the best interest of your
client, it'll ultimately comeback to you.
If I could turn$1 into$5,they're gonna keep paying me
money until infinitely, right?
As long as they can scale.
And that's the kind of approachthat we take.
Russel (23:09):
I love the, I, I actually use that at, at, I call
it the ATM analogy all the timeof if, if we knew there was a
machine out there that everydollar we put in got five bucks,
10 bucks back, et cetera, wewould have no problem putting
every dollar we possibly couldin that machine.
The work needs to become is one,how do we make sure we create
the machine that does that, uh,and then, you know, essentially
(23:31):
make sure our clients know it.
But it's only a matter of timeuntil people start beating down
your door.
If they know that machine existsand to the point, you'll never
stop, um, feeding that machine.
If you're smart, I guess, maybesomebody would, but.
Ryan (23:42):
Life's about expectations too, right?
Setting the correct expectationsI think are important.
Trying to promise specificmetrics.
I've never, never done thatbecause, you know, I don't know
what your sales process is oryou know, how great your product
or service is.
When we're working with aclient, we, um, you know, we
(24:03):
take their, their budget andprovide'em with the, you know,
best strategy we can to get themthe leads that they need to help
grow their business.
Russel (24:12):
And sometimes too, it's, about expectations, it's setting
up that, that takes time.
That this doesn't go on a, a 30day cycle based upon your
payment structure or somethinglike that.
But that, that, you know, andprobably in 2024 takes more time
than it did in 2015 even,because there's, there's more
people in the world, moremarketing, more, uh, and
digital's only gotten 10 timescrazier and, and introduce AI
(24:36):
and all that.
yeah.
I love that thought processthere.
Wonderful nuggets so far.
I'm curious, just as you'relooking at the future of this
business, what's the big goal?
What are you trying to achieve?
Ryan (24:45):
That's a great question.
Another reason to having a, acoach can be helpful, figuring
out that goal and how you'regonna attain it, right?
If you don't know where you'regoing, how you're gonna get
there.
Ultimately, I've thought aboutthis a lot.
I'm not looking to grow thishuge agency.
I think being more boutique,working with clients that we
like to work with, having a teamthat likes to work together and,
(25:08):
uh, you know, making an impact.
Those things are reallyimportant to me.
As I said, being able to, uh,have some flexibility is
important too.
Meaning, uh, you know, I want tocoach my kids' teams, so, you
know, there's, um, I'm not sureI want to, you know, scale this
infinitely.
we, We work on a, a differentstructure too.
(25:31):
We mostly work on time andmaterials.
For us it's, it's gonna be aboutraising that to the point where,
you know, we get the, the rightclients that are willing to pay
for our time versus the onesthat suck up our time and, you
know, constantly.
I guess I don't know a nice wayto say that, but you know what I
mean.
(25:51):
They use up your time.
They still might be niceclients, but you know, it's just
like.
Russel (25:55):
Well that's just a reminder right now to everyone
listening.
There are clients that youshould not have in your business
and, and while I understandthere's different pain levels of
getting rid of that, there'snever been a person that I met
on the other side of that hadregret on getting rid of the,
the time suckers, as you've saidthem, uh, hands down.
Ryan (26:14):
Man, I've only had to fire a few clients.
And, um, it was, you know, someof the more difficult decisions,
right?
I mean, you, You're leavingmoney on the table essentially.
One of'em was particularly gonnabe a great client, but oh, it
was just tearing the team apart.
It was, I was losing sleep atnight and, you know, it just
came down to it, this was notworth it.
(26:35):
Freeing up the time that we werespending on that was infinitely
better.
We could do better at the, forthe clients that did appreciate
us, I had that capacity to domore business development, to
get more of the clients thatappreciate us.
so yeah, Don't be afraid to firesomeone who's, who's not, you
(26:55):
know, not helping your, youragency.
Russel (26:58):
If you can't fire him today, and I get that, and it's
always a pain point per se, makea plan to fire him because it,
it, it, it costs two or threemore times than whatever that
revenue, uh, actually isbringing in.
and All the things you shared intime and time suck and your team
suck and yeah, energy and that,I've come to appreciate that,
but now more than others, thatenergy component and how
(27:19):
important that is that, uh,we're, we're doing a hard thing
here.
We've gotta bring energy in,particularly positive energy to
it.
That was a great reminder tothat end.
Alright, well, last big questionfor you, Ryan.
Are entrepreneurs born or arethey made?
Ryan (27:33):
I'd like to say that, both.
I hope that's not a cop out oranything, but it's, uh, you
know, I think anyone who reallywants to be, uh, could be an
entrepreneur.
There are some people who justknow right from the beginning,
and, you know, fall into it.
It just depends on, you know,what you wanna do, whether you
wanna, you know, create this,this big business or if you want
(27:56):
to, you know, just work foryourself.
I think as long as you work hardat it, you're passionate about
what you do, you care.
Those are the qualities thatmake a successful entrepreneur
more than necessarily having thebiggest and brightest idea.
If you're doing it for the wrongreasons, you're probably gonna
fail.
Russel (28:13):
Wonderful answer.
And no cop out whatsoever bysaying it's a little bit of
both.
In fact, most people share asimilar sentiment.
If people wanna know more aboutRed Egg Marketing, where can
they go?
Ryan (28:23):
They can go to redeggmarketing.com.
Check us out, join ournewsletter, shoot me a message.
Happy to talk.
You can also check us out onsocial media as well, the
standard places where you wouldexpect a marketing agency to be.
Russel (28:37):
Fair enough.
Well, good to know you're in allthose places.
Wonderful conversation, Ryan.
Another highlight to thefundamentals and doing good work
and, and all the things that wediscussed.
I really appreciate you takingthe time outta your scheduled
day to share that with us and,and, uh, a lot of great
takeaways for sure.
Ryan (28:54):
Absolutely.
Thanks for the opportunity.
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.
(29:15):
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.
When I was first starting out and, uh, you know, I didn't
(29:38):
have an office, I worked out ofthe house and uh, uh, I meet
people at coffee shops and I metthis lady who was starting a
cookie company.
We met at a coffee shop and, um,after the meeting, which I
thought went really well and Iwas excited about, she asked for
a ride.
I had this old car that I hadthrough high school and I was
(30:00):
trying to start a business, so,you know, getting a new car
wasn't in the cards at thatpoint.
It had been stolen prettyrecently, and some guy popped
the ignition right out of it andstole my stereo, and I hadn't
replaced the windshield inyears, so it had like a full
horizontal crack, a fullvertical crack.
(30:21):
I never replaced the ignition.
The guy left his screwdriver inthe car when I went to pick it
up at the impound lot so I justkind of had this screwdriver
that sat in the seat and I'dunsheathed it like a sword'cause
it was ridiculously big too.
It was like, I don't know, youcan't, probably can't see this,
but it must've been about footlong.
And so yeah, I hesitantly said,oh sure, I'll give you a ride.
(30:43):
And so She came to my car andhops in and I take the club off
'cause that was my new ignition,'cause otherwise anyone could
steal my car.
So I took the club, put the clubdown, unsheathed my giant
screwdriver, started up the carand looked over at her and I
said, I swear I didn't stealthis car.
Someone stole it from me and Istill just, you know, haven't
gotten around to fixing theignition yet.
(31:04):
Like It had been a year.
Anyway, so I dropped her off andshe never called back.
That's when I realized maybe,maybe it was time to take on a
car payment.
Russel (31:13):
That is a fascinating story.
I mean, one, I wasn't everentirely sure that was a thing
that could be done.
I've seen the movies orsomething like, you know, what,
is this really a thing?
Clearly this is proof that thatdoes happen.
I think you netted that out,right?
It's probably time for a carpayment.
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 (00:42):
When it comes to growing your agency, how focused are you
on the fundamentals?
Welcome to An Agency Storypodcast.
I'm your host Russel.
In today's episode, I sit downwith Ryan Ellis, founder of Red
Egg Marketing, a full serviceagency for small and medium
sized businesses based out ofDenver, Colorado.
Ryan's journey from scrappy sidehustles and pro bono work to
(01:03):
building his agency is atestament to a slow and steady
attention to the fundamentals.
We'll dive into how retentionbecame the secret sauce for Red
Egg, the power of slow andintentional scaling, and why
sometimes the most importantmove you can make is firing the
wrong client.
You'll definitely wanna listento the story at the end for an
interesting take about giving apotential client, a ride.
(01:25):
Enjoy the story.
Welcome to the show todayeveryone.
I have Ryan Ellis with Red EggMarketing with us here today.
Thank you so much for joining ustoday, Ryan.
Ryan (01:34):
My pleasure.
Thanks for having me.
Russel (01:36):
My pleasure as well.
Looking forward to a greatconversation.
But if you don't mind, start usoff.
What does Red Egg do and who doyou do it for?
Ryan (01:42):
Red Egg is a full service marketing agency.
We work primarily with small andmedium sized businesses.
We act as their partner andresource.
We provide, uh, kind ofeverything that a small, medium
size business would need,including, uh, web development,
branding, marketing strategy,and also doing the
(02:04):
implementation.
Kind of a one stop shop.
Russel (02:07):
All right.
We're gonna dig so much moreinto all of those aspects of
your business, but, uh, as perusual, want to hear about what
young Ryan was doing in his lifeand where he was headed.
What did you want to be, andwhat were the early days of Ryan
Ellis like?
Ryan (02:23):
I always wanted to own a small business, but I could
never, uh, I could, I neverreally knew what it was going to
be you know what I was gonna do,but I, I always had a, an
interest in it.
I remember as a as a kid workingat a ice cream shop, there were
all these broken waffle conesand I crushed'em all up and I
(02:46):
tried to sell it as waffletopping.
They let me sell it for one dayand it was super fun and,
creating this new thing and newtopping.
It went well, but they said,yeah, that was fun, but we're
not gonna sell it anymore.
I said, okay, well this is why Iwanna work for myself someday.
Russel (03:03):
No one to deny your amazing and innovative product.
Ryan (03:06):
Yeah, waffle topping.
And you know what, um, there'san ice cream shop up in Winter
Park that we go to and they havewaffle topping, you know, so.
Russel (03:14):
What could have been?
Ryan (03:15):
Get prepared America.
It's coming.
Russel (03:17):
I used to not appreciate waffle, uh, you know, either
just a cone or, or even as atopping in, in my ice cream
journeys.
But now I, I do appreciate a lotmore.
I think it adds a good littlecompliment to when you're having
ice cream.
I'm, I'm about this.
It's never too late to rekindlethose long lost entrepreneurial
dreams.
all right.
Well, I assume, you know,obviously a young entrepreneur
(03:37):
at heart.
What path did you follow that'sgonna lead us up at least close
to when you decided to start theagency.
Ryan (03:43):
I went to, uh, college and thought, you know, that I, I'd
be really interested in doing,uh, doing marketing.
I, you know, enrolled as amarketing major.
In my marketing 101 class, theprofessor said, you know, you
could, uh, you could do anythingyou wanted to do in the
textbook.
Write a paper, your final paperon it.
I wanted to do grassrootsmarketing.
(04:04):
It was this little paragraph ofkind of, you know, word of
mouth, grassroots stylemarketing.
He said that was a, not a greatidea and I should do something
else.
It was more, commonplace.
I wrote the paper on it.
I interviewed a, a mentor ofmine that, started a, a auto
parts company from going to fleamarkets and selling them
through, over the phone off ofhis kitchen table and turned it
(04:27):
into a, multimillion dollarenterprise.
And, I thought the paper turnedout really well, but he gave me
a real mediocre grade on it andI said, well, this isn't for me.
I ended up abandoning thatthought, so I went and became an
econ, uh, major instead, stillknowing that I wanted to start
my own business someday, notnecessarily go work for Proctor
and Gamble or whatever.
Graduated into the GreatRecession.
(04:49):
Decided to come out to Coloradoand be a ski bum.
Did the ski bum thing for acouple years.
Met my now wife, moved down toDenver.
Thought that I might wanna workin the ski industry.
Couldn't really come up withanything.
I guess if I could take a stepback, um, while I was working up
there, I worked at a, at a golfcourse with some, you know, real
(05:10):
fancy people, um, that wentthere.
I park cars that were worth morethan, you know, houses.
One of the members there invitedall US guest service kids, uh,
to her house.
I was talking with her and I waslike, you know, telling her my
ideas and how I might wanna workin the ski industry and, you
know, maybe start a ski brand orsomething cool like that, or a
T-shirt company is what I wasthinking about at the time.
(05:32):
She looked at me and she said,no one comes to Vail to make it,
they make it and come to Vailand then that's when I decided
to move down to the city wherethere might be more opportunity
and go after something here.
Moved down to Denver.
Worked in a bike shop thinking Iwould, uh, become a, you know,
maybe run a bike shop someday orwork in the bike industry.
(05:52):
I kept trying to, you know,dabble in things I love doing,
um, but realized that maybe I,maybe working in those
industries wasn't for me.
But while I was at the bikeshop, I started, finding all the
service repair tickets.
People put their emails on itand I put'em all into a Word
document and started sending outmass BCC emails, you know,
through, to, to everyone who hadbeen a customer over the last 10
(06:16):
years.
I'd sell a bike.
I'd post, uh, about a new bikethat we had on Facebook and
people would, drive, you know,miles, uh, to come pick up that
specific bike.
'Cause we were the only ones whohad it.
And I just realized that, thislittle stuff was making a huge
difference for this smallbusiness.
What if I could just find othersmall businesses that needed
(06:37):
this kind of help?
That's, what finally gave me theidea of if I can't figure out,
you know, what business I wantedto start, I could start a
business where I get to work ineveryone else's business and,
you know, help them.
Russel (06:49):
I mean, It really does just sound like an extenuation
of what you were, what you werealready doing, of just trying,
getting some of this flexibilityof other industries and, and
business types and, so a lotmore natural progression than
you probably sounds like maybeyou initially thought or felt.
Ryan (07:04):
It makes sense in hindsight.
I can see how it all workstogether.
But yeah, if you'd asked me whatI'd be doing, you know, young
Ryan, I'll say, I wouldn't havebeen able to tell you.
I had no idea up until it, youknow, finally clicked, I guess.
Russel (07:17):
There is no timetable for, for clicking or, or
figuring ourselves out.
To the point, I don't know ifI've figured myself out.
We'll, We'll see.
I've been really intrigued onTikTok now by like, hotdog stand
videos or these little burritomaking stands.
I mean, I, I could see myselfdoing that.
Ryan (07:32):
Totally.
That would be great.
I haven't given up my, uh, dreamof doing ice cream either, you
know.
Russel (07:38):
Yeah.
I'm just really just curious is,you know, the story of, you said
this woman told you, and youknow, as the, as you share it,
this had a profound impact.
You said, well, get me outtahere and I'm gonna go somewhere
else and, and, you know, try tomake it or whatever.
Can you really point back tolike that quote and that advice
and, and, that propelled youdown a completely different
(07:58):
path?
Ryan (07:58):
I grew up in a small town in rural New Hampshire.
I always knew that I kind ofwanted to go to the city, you
know, and, and see what that wasall about.
I stopped off in, in Vail for,for fun and it was a job, you
know, there weren't a lot ofjobs for people fresh outta
college at the time, especiallyin like the financial sector,
which is where most of the econpeople went.
(08:21):
so I was like, well, if I couldgo skiing and get paid for it,
that sounds, that sounds prettygood.
But I, I, I think I had biggerambitions and it was, it was
that moment when I, you know, Ilooked around our house and I
was like, man, this is a nicehouse.
You know, I wanted a little bitmore than scraping by with, one,
one paycheck went to rent, theother went to food and beer.
It's just like, got old after awhile.
Russel (08:44):
I mean, a little jealous.
I only came to skiing a fewyears ago, but I absolutely
loved it.
I also feel like I want to golive some ski bum life, at some
point too.
I've got a lot of things I gottado here, apparently is what I'm
coming out from this episode.
but.
The power of, you know, what wecan say to people, to, um, is
always, that's always just agood reminder of how we can help
them with our words and probablysome cases someone has said
(09:06):
something that, uh, did not helpsomeone.
But just remember that whenwe're talking with a young,
inspiring folks out there.
All these things lined up,started doing marketing for
folks.
Do you consider that theofficial start of your agency?
Or just kind of talk us throughsome of those early progression
of the early time period inyears.
Ryan (09:23):
Well, I was fortunate.
As I mentioned, when I was in,when I got that mediocre grade
on the, the, the paper, that wasthe same year that Facebook came
out, which was, you know,businesses were using that as
word of mouth grassrootsmarketing, and it's turned into,
you know, one of the top placesto, to get noticed these days
for businesses.
So, By the time I, uh, when Iwas ready to start this
(09:47):
marketing agency, nobody knewwhat they were doing, when it
came to social media.
I kinda just had to hone myskills into, you know, how I
could leverage it, uh, to help,help clients.
So, you know, It started withjust a computer and, you know, I
identified what I wanted tosell.
Social media services, buildwebsites, do some email
(10:11):
marketing.
So Then it was just aboutteaching myself how to do it,
um, so I got a HTML CSS book ForDummies.
Started, you know, learning howto do that.
Writing posts for social mediaand, and, uh, I, I guess, if I
go back, it was, I, I had tohustle.
I had to find people who werewilling to let me do this for
(10:33):
them.
And That meant I did it forfree.
I found, you know, the bikeshop.
I was kind enough to let me takeover all their stuff.
I didn't get paid for it, Iguess, I guess you could say.
I got whatever they were payingme, you know, hourly to be there
at the bike shop.
But, um, I started working.
Submitted a contact form at theDenver Chamber of Commerce.
They called me back right away.
He invited me to a businessafter hours that was happening
(10:56):
that night.
I was like, ah, I dunno, thatisn't, isn't for me.
I just wanted to ask somequestions about it and, and, uh,
she convinced me to go.
I went and, uh, just startedtalking to people.
I met a guy who sold popsiclesand he liked what I had to say,
but he didn't have any money topay for it.
I didn't have any clients, so ifhe was gonna be a client, I'd
(11:16):
just do it for free.
Pay me whatever you thought Iwas worth.
And so That's kind of where Igot, where I got started.
Did a lot of just pro bonostuff, make some money throws on
my way.
I even worked for an artist thatI was connected with and uh, he
paid me 15% of anything he soldon Facebook.
He would sell stuff for 20 bucksand so I'd just get a, he'd
(11:39):
throw me a few bucks here andthere.
but It gave me the practice andthe practical experience in
order to have the confidence forwhen somebody finally, you know,
gave me the, the chance or, towork for them.
Russel (11:53):
Another theme kind of coming up in this conversation
is hindsight.
At the time when you're doingthat, how do, how are you
balancing that idea of like,hey, I'm doing this all for
experience.
I'm happy to do it at whatever Ican get income wise, or was it,
hey, I'll do whatever I need todo to get any income to, to
scrape by?
I guess if you think of that asa teeter-totter, how much of one
(12:15):
was the real driving factorthere?
Ryan (12:17):
I was working while starting the agency.
I was working a few days at thebike shop.
I had cheap rent.
My car was paid for.
I was pretty frugal.
I didn't need a lot of money.
I had maybe two grand in mychecking account for rainy day,
you know, to try to get by.
so For me it was more aboutcould I get some people on my
client list so that when someonelooked at my website, they'd see
(12:39):
that, you know, they weren't thefirst.
Even my, you know, the firstwebsite I built, I think I
charged$500 for something likethat.
And it's still up.
I still host it, um, for awedding venue from my small
town.
But it was just that kind ofstuff that, you gave me the
experience so that when, youknow, one of my first big
clients finally, finally foundme, you know, I was, I was
(13:01):
ready.
Russel (13:02):
I love that.
I mean, It just reinforces thisidea of, I think for anyone
starting a business is just howimportant experience is.
We're just not, we, we know atrade and we know a thing or
two.
We don't know the 50 otherthings that we've gotta learn
just about how to presentourselves, how to get people to
understand the service we'redoing.
How to deliver that in a waythat's healthy and effective and
just all these millions ofthings that sounds like you had
(13:23):
to go through.
And then just runway, I mean,setting ourselves up for
success.
You sound like you did it from aplace of lower, lower expenses
and you know, some frugalness ifyou will.
But we've gotta give ourselvessome runway to figure that out.
If we can do that in a slightlymore meaningful way, then, uh,
you know, starting out the gateand having bigger clients and
just, and then say screw it up,per se, is, and I don't know if
(13:46):
I like that word or not, but,um, you know, we might, it might
lead us down some bad outcomesversus we can more gradually get
there to, to a good product.
may, Maybe it was early on, butwhen was the point when you're
like, oh, I've got this now.
I feel like I'm, I don't wannasay there, but, uh, this is a
real thing.
This is what I'm going to do forindefinite period of time.
Ryan (14:06):
I think I knew that this is what I was gonna do.
I remember holding that firstcheck in my hands being like, I
created this.
You know what I mean?
Nobody just paid this to me, youknow, because I showed up to
work.
I found this client.
I sold them on the work.
I did the work and I deliveredthe, the result and they were
happy with it and, you know,paid me money.
(14:28):
I was like, I like this feeling,I like that I created this.
As far as your other parts ofthe question of when did I feel
like I really get it, that wasprobably pretty recently.
you know, It's like sometimesI'm still wondering do I know
what I'm doing?
One thing that's made adifference to me is I got a
little feather in your cap, but,um, you know, working with a
(14:49):
business coach, um, over thepast year has been really
valuable for me.
Because, uh, it gave me someconfidence of like, oh yeah, you
know, I am performing up to thebenchmarks.
This is a real agency that, youknow, we can compete with anyone
out there.
I'd say that moment was, youknow, pretty recently, you know,
that we, that I finally got theconfidence to say, we can do
(15:11):
anything.
Russel (15:11):
I think slow and intentional is clearly how
you've gone about your path.
You of described there asgetting a business coach and,
and kinda what that was validfor you.
And By the way, I'm, I'm allabout team business coach and
what I think the value of thatis in my own personal experience
and, and why a big part of whatI do.
What in that time period betweenyour first employee and making
(15:34):
that decision where you neededjust some more validation What
was going on that made you maybefeel like you weren't up to par
or weren't up to snuff?
Ryan (15:41):
That's a good question.
When you run a business, there'sa lot of ups and downs as far as
you know, what your take homepay is ultimately, right?
There's a lot of second guessingdecisions on should I hire
another person or should I, youknow, how do I fix this problem?
It was just getting to the pointwhere I was like, man, I'd
really like to just know, youknow, how this agency is
(16:04):
performing compared to others?
I'd like to know, you know, isthere a better way than we're
busy?
I feel like I need to hiresomebody.
Is there a better way to lookat, what, how the business is
doing?
Should we be hiring anotherperson or, based on financials,
you know, things like that, thatjust, just someone who has some
experience in that, was reallyhelpful.
Russel (16:26):
Ultimately as you're kind of making that decision,
and I assume there was a processleading up to that.
Was that a tough decision tomake or were you at such a point
where you're just so uncertain,unsure, or felt like you needed
it?
Kind of just tell us how you'vebeen arrived at this is, this is
how I'm going to make thisinvestment in improving the
business.
Ryan (16:45):
As far as scaling, so previously, like you said, it's
been slow growing over the yearsand you know, it's partially by
design.
I don't work 80 hours a week.
I think I have a good familywork life balance, but I did
want to grow when I felt like wefinally got in a position where
we could, you know, take on somebigger clients and, and, and
(17:06):
grow in that way.
And I just wanted to make surethat I had all my processes in
place and that it, thateverything was prepared for that
because the last thing I wantedto do was, you know, implode
because we took on too muchwork, too fast and, um, weren't
prepared.
you know, Looking at theorganizational structure and
looking at, the team and, andwhere, where I needed to, to
(17:29):
fill in.
That was kind of the impetusfor, for reaching out to someone
to have that kind of second setof eyes on things.
Someone who scaled somethingbefore or grown something
before.
Russel (17:37):
I'm gonna kind of summarize what I'm, what I'm
taking to hear there is itwasn't necessarily from a place
of, oh, frustration.
I don't have this figured outor, or were the business even a
bad place?
It was, no, I, I know I want togrow and I want to move it, you
know, beyond where it's attoday.
I'd like some assurance and inmaybe some ways insurance that,
that I'm gonna do that in ahealthy, meaningful way so they
don't actually end up in a badspot.
(17:59):
Is that a, a fair summary?
Ryan (18:01):
Yeah.
Red Egg has been, you know,profitable since year one and,
continues to, to grow.
It really was, you know, I, Ihired one person each year
essentially since I hired myfirst person, and this year we
hired three people.
It's been a busy, busy year.
Russel (18:18):
Obviously clearly some things had to be working because
I, if I, if I read my, my notescorrectly, that 2023 was an
exceptional growth year for youand the business, which honestly
is not really the case and evencoming into 2024, it sounds like
as well, has not been the casefor a lot of agencies out there.
That has actually been a reallytough time period, especially if
(18:40):
you take into account the lastdecade or so.
I know the folks at home, wegotta be like, all right.
Gimme a little bit of secretsauce, Ryan.
Why do you think you've, you'vebeen effective in what has
otherwise been a down period?
Ryan (18:50):
We have a good balance of recurring revenue and project
work.
Client retention is huge.
I think last time I calculatedit, we were at, you know, five,
six years.
Clients have been with us onaverage, and that number
continues to grow, we've gotmultiple clients that have been
with, with us for, over adecade.
I think that's a testament tothe, uh, the team.
(19:10):
The team works really hard.
They care, which is important.
We genuinely want to do a goodjob.
Clients look at us as aextension of their team.
Those are a, a few things.
we, we have, We're flexible, andthat we, uh, you know, we work
on a month to month arrangement,so if we don't earn, our key
people are free to leave, but aslong as we do a good job, uh,
(19:31):
they stick around.
Russel (19:32):
One could say, if I, you know, if I'm being crass, one
could say, you know, there'snothing profound per se in what
you shared, but honestly say, ifyou listen to enough of these
episodes, that you'll find thatif we really do just focus on
what are fundamentals, and notto say there's not a lot of work
in things that need to go intothose fundamentals, but if we
don't get, complicate ourselvesand fool ourselves into thinking
(19:54):
there's big, magical otherthings we need to do, that it is
really these fundamentals thatmatter most in, in good times or
bad for that matter.
But you know that how important,really what I even took away
there is retention is by gosh,if we're already in lean times,
um, as across the board, we'vegot a fight so hard to make sure
we don't lose anyone that'scurrently, and you do that
(20:16):
through quality and, andbuilding relationship and, and
many of the things you shared.
Ryan (20:20):
I think you're exactly right.
mean, it's, I mean, What we dois special in the sense that
it's, you know, the Red Egg teamdoing it.
But, you know, you can go onlineand research SEO strategy and do
all the same things that we'redoing.
We just make sure it gets done,you know, and we look at it,
strategically and, we make surethat we do what we say we're
(20:42):
gonna do.
Why would you fire somebody whois making you more money?
That's why they hire marketingagencies.
It's not just a, have amarketing agency.
No one likes just paying someoneto do nothing.
So, We also have a good mix of,you know, we, we build websites,
we manage, manage, maintainthose websites.
There's a bit of, hey, you, youkind of need us.
(21:04):
You need a website, you needthat website to stay up and you
need it to work and functioncorrectly.
Some clients require ourservices and then there's other
stuff that we, that we do thatmaybe you don't need as much
like, you know, fancy typeproject work.
And then we also do a lot ofrecurring stuff that, like, you
also need.
You need someone running an adstrategy that gets results.
(21:25):
You need to continually investin your SEO.
You need to send out periodicemail newsletters to your
contacts.
By putting that all together andhaving one point of contact for
that whole, you know, process,one team that knows your brand,
knows your, your business, knowsyour goals, you know, that's why
they keep Red Egg around.
Russel (21:45):
To even piggyback off that is right, there, there's
all kinds of things that, youknow, our clients need or their
business needs in the world.
It's a whole nother ball gameinto one, making sure they
recognize that need, and itbeing a need, recognize that the
work that they're doing toproduce that is actually working
and producing that.
So, Maybe perhaps anothertakeaway there is just in, in
(22:08):
tough times as well, just fightreally hard to make sure that
you a, are being valuable, butthat your clients don't just
value or create your valuethrough activity but through
actually that you're providingresults and moving the needle
and, and essentially gettingthem more income, revenue, or
whatever it is that you'resupplying to their business.
Ryan (22:26):
You have to.
And you have to be able toadapt.
Sometimes things work betterthan others.
Sometimes you have to change thestrategy.
I think a lot of times, um,these clients we get that are
frustrated from whatever companythey were working with before,
like, well, they stoppedlistening to us or they stopped,
you know, they didn't changewhat they were doing when I told
'em that things weren't workingout.
(22:47):
Make sure what you're doing isin the best interest of your
client, not yourself.
Because if you're doing what'sin the best interest of your
client, it'll ultimately comeback to you.
If I could turn$1 into$5,they're gonna keep paying me
money until infinitely, right?
As long as they can scale.
And that's the kind of approachthat we take.
Russel (23:09):
I love the, I, I actually use that at, at, I call
it the ATM analogy all the timeof if, if we knew there was a
machine out there that everydollar we put in got five bucks,
10 bucks back, et cetera, wewould have no problem putting
every dollar we possibly couldin that machine.
The work needs to become is one,how do we make sure we create
the machine that does that, uh,and then, you know, essentially
(23:31):
make sure our clients know it.
But it's only a matter of timeuntil people start beating down
your door.
If they know that machine existsand to the point, you'll never
stop, um, feeding that machine.
If you're smart, I guess, maybesomebody would, but.
Ryan (23:42):
Life's about expectations too, right?
Setting the correct expectationsI think are important.
Trying to promise specificmetrics.
I've never, never done thatbecause, you know, I don't know
what your sales process is oryou know, how great your product
or service is.
When we're working with aclient, we, um, you know, we
(24:03):
take their, their budget andprovide'em with the, you know,
best strategy we can to get themthe leads that they need to help
grow their business.
Russel (24:12):
And sometimes too, it's, about expectations, it's setting
up that, that takes time.
That this doesn't go on a, a 30day cycle based upon your
payment structure or somethinglike that.
But that, that, you know, andprobably in 2024 takes more time
than it did in 2015 even,because there's, there's more
people in the world, moremarketing, more, uh, and
digital's only gotten 10 timescrazier and, and introduce AI
(24:36):
and all that.
yeah.
I love that thought processthere.
Wonderful nuggets so far.
I'm curious, just as you'relooking at the future of this
business, what's the big goal?
What are you trying to achieve?
Ryan (24:45):
That's a great question.
Another reason to having a, acoach can be helpful, figuring
out that goal and how you'regonna attain it, right?
If you don't know where you'regoing, how you're gonna get
there.
Ultimately, I've thought aboutthis a lot.
I'm not looking to grow thishuge agency.
I think being more boutique,working with clients that we
like to work with, having a teamthat likes to work together and,
(25:08):
uh, you know, making an impact.
Those things are reallyimportant to me.
As I said, being able to, uh,have some flexibility is
important too.
Meaning, uh, you know, I want tocoach my kids' teams, so, you
know, there's, um, I'm not sureI want to, you know, scale this
infinitely.
we, We work on a, a differentstructure too.
(25:31):
We mostly work on time andmaterials.
For us it's, it's gonna be aboutraising that to the point where,
you know, we get the, the rightclients that are willing to pay
for our time versus the onesthat suck up our time and, you
know, constantly.
I guess I don't know a nice wayto say that, but you know what I
mean.
(25:51):
They use up your time.
They still might be niceclients, but you know, it's just
like.
Russel (25:55):
Well that's just a reminder right now to everyone
listening.
There are clients that youshould not have in your business
and, and while I understandthere's different pain levels of
getting rid of that, there'snever been a person that I met
on the other side of that hadregret on getting rid of the,
the time suckers, as you've saidthem, uh, hands down.
Ryan (26:14):
Man, I've only had to fire a few clients.
And, um, it was, you know, someof the more difficult decisions,
right?
I mean, you, You're leavingmoney on the table essentially.
One of'em was particularly gonnabe a great client, but oh, it
was just tearing the team apart.
It was, I was losing sleep atnight and, you know, it just
came down to it, this was notworth it.
(26:35):
Freeing up the time that we werespending on that was infinitely
better.
We could do better at the, forthe clients that did appreciate
us, I had that capacity to domore business development, to
get more of the clients thatappreciate us.
so yeah, Don't be afraid to firesomeone who's, who's not, you
(26:55):
know, not helping your, youragency.
Russel (26:58):
If you can't fire him today, and I get that, and it's
always a pain point per se, makea plan to fire him because it,
it, it, it costs two or threemore times than whatever that
revenue, uh, actually isbringing in.
and All the things you shared intime and time suck and your team
suck and yeah, energy and that,I've come to appreciate that,
but now more than others, thatenergy component and how
(27:19):
important that is that, uh,we're, we're doing a hard thing
here.
We've gotta bring energy in,particularly positive energy to
it.
That was a great reminder tothat end.
Alright, well, last big questionfor you, Ryan.
Are entrepreneurs born or arethey made?
Ryan (27:33):
I'd like to say that, both.
I hope that's not a cop out oranything, but it's, uh, you
know, I think anyone who reallywants to be, uh, could be an
entrepreneur.
There are some people who justknow right from the beginning,
and, you know, fall into it.
It just depends on, you know,what you wanna do, whether you
wanna, you know, create this,this big business or if you want
(27:56):
to, you know, just work foryourself.
I think as long as you work hardat it, you're passionate about
what you do, you care.
Those are the qualities thatmake a successful entrepreneur
more than necessarily having thebiggest and brightest idea.
If you're doing it for the wrongreasons, you're probably gonna
fail.
Russel (28:13):
Wonderful answer.
And no cop out whatsoever bysaying it's a little bit of
both.
In fact, most people share asimilar sentiment.
If people wanna know more aboutRed Egg Marketing, where can
they go?
Ryan (28:23):
They can go to redeggmarketing.com.
Check us out, join ournewsletter, shoot me a message.
Happy to talk.
You can also check us out onsocial media as well, the
standard places where you wouldexpect a marketing agency to be.
Russel (28:37):
Fair enough.
Well, good to know you're in allthose places.
Wonderful conversation, Ryan.
Another highlight to thefundamentals and doing good work
and, and all the things that wediscussed.
I really appreciate you takingthe time outta your scheduled
day to share that with us and,and, uh, a lot of great
takeaways for sure.
Ryan (28:54):
Absolutely.
Thanks for the opportunity.
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.
(29:15):
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.
When I was first starting out and, uh, you know, I didn't
(29:38):
have an office, I worked out ofthe house and uh, uh, I meet
people at coffee shops and I metthis lady who was starting a
cookie company.
We met at a coffee shop and, um,after the meeting, which I
thought went really well and Iwas excited about, she asked for
a ride.
I had this old car that I hadthrough high school and I was
(30:00):
trying to start a business, so,you know, getting a new car
wasn't in the cards at thatpoint.
It had been stolen prettyrecently, and some guy popped
the ignition right out of it andstole my stereo, and I hadn't
replaced the windshield inyears, so it had like a full
horizontal crack, a fullvertical crack.
(30:21):
I never replaced the ignition.
The guy left his screwdriver inthe car when I went to pick it
up at the impound lot so I justkind of had this screwdriver
that sat in the seat and I'dunsheathed it like a sword'cause
it was ridiculously big too.
It was like, I don't know, youcan't, probably can't see this,
but it must've been about footlong.
And so yeah, I hesitantly said,oh sure, I'll give you a ride.
(30:43):
And so She came to my car andhops in and I take the club off
'cause that was my new ignition,'cause otherwise anyone could
steal my car.
So I took the club, put the clubdown, unsheathed my giant
screwdriver, started up the carand looked over at her and I
said, I swear I didn't stealthis car.
Someone stole it from me and Istill just, you know, haven't
gotten around to fixing theignition yet.
(31:04):
Like It had been a year.
Anyway, so I dropped her off andshe never called back.
That's when I realized maybe,maybe it was time to take on a
car payment.
Russel (31:13):
That is a fascinating story.
I mean, one, I wasn't everentirely sure that was a thing
that could be done.
I've seen the movies orsomething like, you know, what,
is this really a thing?
Clearly this is proof that thatdoes happen.
I think you netted that out,right?
It's probably time for a carpayment.
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