November 24, 2024 • 37 mins
Company: Phaser Marketing
Owners: Luke Eggebraaten
Year Started: 2019
Employees: 11-25
What if going all-in on a niche could transform your agency and your purpose? In this episode, Luke Eggebraaten, founder of Phaser Marketing, shares how he went from flipping go-karts in college to leading a mission-driven digital agency serving the Dirt World. Discover how a clear focus, smart business model, and community-driven values helped him grow both a successful company and a meaningful cause.
Inside this episode:
- The overlooked danger of selling from desperation
- Why specificity beats versatility in agency positioning
- How a podcast and a book helped attract ideal clients
- A creative approach to building a mission-led team
- Why picking a niche that “cuts big checks” is smart strategy
Hear details for an agency planning workshop event November 10th and 11th 2025. Visit anagencystory.com to learn more.
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 (00:41):
Welcome to An Agency Story podcast, I'm your host
Russel.
In this episode, we meet LukeEggebraaten a Phaser Marketing
based near Phoenix, Arizona.
A longtime entrepreneur here'sjourney from Craigslist flipper
to niche agency leader, as atestament to passion and
persistence.
Discover how he carved outsuccess in the dirt world, built
(01:02):
an inspiring team culture, andturned his agency into a
platform for giving back withhumor, heart, and sharp business
insights.
Luke shows how purpose drivenleadership can make a lasting
impact.
This episode is truly atestament to the power of a
niche.
Don't miss a second of thisinspiring conversation.
Enjoy the story.
(01:23):
Welcome to the show today,everyone.
I have Luke Eggebraaten withPhaser Marketing with us here
today.
Thank you so much for joining ustoday, Luke.
Luke (01:29):
Russel, thank you so much for having me on the show and
you absolutely nailed the lastname.
Good work.
Russel (01:34):
I practiced no less than 100 times to get that right.
I appreciate it.
Can't wait to learn more aboutyou and your story and
everything else, but if youdon't mind, just start us off
right out of the gate, what doesPhaser Marketing do and who do
you do it for?
Luke (01:47):
It's a digital marketing agency and we focus on the Dirt
World, we call it.
Our niche is excavation clientsand we kind of break that up
into three different divisions.
We've got our heavy massexcavation clients.
We've got our hardscaping kindof outdoor living clients and
then our septic clients as well.
Those all go under the, the DirtWorld clients that we serve.
Russel (02:07):
The Dirt World.
I have no less than 100questions about the Dirt World
that we will certainly get to,um, sounds fascinating.
Before we get into all theamazing things you've created
within your agency, you don'thave to go back too far, but
tell us, what did young Lukewant to be when he grew up?
Luke (02:22):
I'll go back to kindergarten.
I wanted to be an astronaut, butthen you fast forward to high
school and college.
I wanted to be a general managerof the Minnesota Vikings.
Went to college, got a degree insport management with a minor in
marketing.
Did some work and did someinternships with college
programs with minor leaguebaseball teams.
I suppose this is a good pieceof advice for anyone looking for
a job is it, you're not alwayslooking for what you do want to
(02:45):
do, but looking for what youdon't want to do.
Fortunately, I just found outthat I'm a much bigger sports
fan than wanting to work insports.
That showed me that, okay, maybeI'll pivot and do something
else.
After sports, I had a love formarketing and business and and
that's how we got here today.
Russel (03:01):
I feel you.
I ended up choosing my major fornot great reasons, but other
than a passion of history, Ilove history and then chose that
as a major, but to the sameextent, I don't know that I even
anticipated a career in history.
Should have left that in thepassion space.
The Minnesota Vikings could haveused you, but guess the Dirt
World won that one.
As you got out of college, whatdid you always know you were
(03:23):
going to end up being anentrepreneur?
Luke (03:24):
When I got out of college, I would say yes.
But I knew I needed a job first.
To give you some context, incollege, I loved to flip things
on Craigslist.
I'd buy a go-kart, a dune buggy,a dirt bike, whatever it was,
and then I would sell it formore money.
I was always hunting for deals.
I was filling up our collegegarage with all these fun toys
arcade machines, beer vendingmachines, like, everything you
(03:47):
could think of, and then I wouldjust flip them.
Sometimes I'd have things forone day.
Sometimes I'd have things fortwo weeks, but I loved the idea
of being able to buy somethingand then sell it for more money
and then having that profit.
In college, that profit reallyjust went to, like, beer money
and nonsense, but coming out ofcollege, I had that drive to be
an entrepreneur, but like I justmentioned, I knew I needed a job
(04:10):
so I could hone in on some ofthose skills.
I was applying for jobs actuallyI applied to over 75 jobs all
across the country and could notnail anything down.
This was in 2018 and the jobmarket was on fire.
It was hot, like very, very goodjob market.
For some reason, I couldn'tfigure it out.
I, you know, I thought I had agood head on my shoulders.
I was willing to work hard forwhoever gave me a chance.
(04:32):
On the 76th interview finally, Igot a chance at an orthodontic
practice in Omaha, Nebraska.
I moved down to Nebraska.
My wife had gone to school inLincoln.
That, uh, helped as well.
Just a chance to do digitalmarketing for an orthodontic
practice, but then also learn awhole new industry.
That's really where I got thesefundamental skills that I've
learned in the workplace that Icould then bring to the
(04:55):
business.
Russel (04:55):
That's awesome.
Craigslist day trader and turnedentrepreneur.
Love it.
How does that all lead up toactually starting your agency?
Luke (05:04):
I think having that, the flipping knowledge and then
starting my full time job, partof my job was to manage this
marketing agency that my doctorhad hired.
This California agency.
I was like, okay, yeah so I'mthe liaison for this agency.
I tell you what, I was amazed.
I was like, these people werecool to talk to, funny.
(05:25):
I felt like I had a personalrelationship with them.
We were paying them a ton ofmoney, but they were making us
look awesome and making me looklike a hero because of their
results they were getting fromour SEO, from our paid ads and
everything.
I remember thinking in 2019,this would have been, I need to
do something like this.
These people are so cool.
Anytime we would host them atour office, we're just like, oh,
(05:46):
like, New V olumes coming, we'reso excited.
I was thinking, I'm like, wepaid them 12 grand or whatever
to come and hang out.
We're excited to see them.
What an amazing business.
In 2019, in October, Iofficially got my LLC papers
signed.
October 24th, Phaser Marketing,my own marketing agency was
born, and then I knew from thatday, I couldn't just dive into
(06:08):
it full time with no revenue,with no profit not paying
myself.
I made myself a goal that I willtake my first paycheck, when I
can go full time from Phaser.
The goal is to build this thingup on the side as a side hustle,
learn the ins and outs of how todeliver for clients, how to
build a team, how to invoicecustomers.
All of these things I had noidea how to do learn that on the
(06:30):
company's dollar without payingmyself.
Did that from 2019 until August1st, 2021.
That was the first day that Ileft my full time job and then
went full time in the business.
Russel (06:41):
Just to make sure I'm hearing that, basically building
a bankroll and bankroll andskills and experience, but also
just a bankroll to be able tomake that leap financially.
I really like that approach.
Luke (06:50):
Yeah.
I use the analogy, uh, of, howsome people say jumping off the
dock into the boat.
It's just this big, scary leapin entrepreneurship.
My goal was to pull the boatright next to the dock so that I
could just take a step off intoit.
Because I'd already had twoyears under my belt and we had,
I think when I went full time,we had like 7, 000 dollars in
the business bank account.
(07:10):
Not nothing.
Enough to be like, okay, yep.
I can pay myself now a thousandbucks a month.
We have a few clients that arerecurring clients.
It made that big, scary leap alot easier, and we never had any
debt on the company.
From day one, we were profitableand making sure that we stay
that way.
Russel (07:28):
That's really how you could probably assess anything
that you might be uncertain ofor just risk management in
general.
How do we bring the boat closerto our dock versus swimming out
into treacherous waters and theunknown waters in the dark and
all the things, the places youcould take that analogy.
I imagine there's just a lot ofexcitement, one moving into this
thing that you created and ableto make that full time, but what
were some of the biggerchallenges that you faced in the
(07:50):
early days?
Luke (07:50):
The one part that I left out is, so my wife got a full
time job.
That's why I left my job and wemoved down to Arizona, which I'd
never even been to the statewhen we moved.
Very exciting though.
I was just excited to get to theheat.
I'm originally from Minnesota.
Really just excited for thatchange, but so many challenges.
I could list off a bunch, but Ilooked at them as just
opportunities for growth.
(08:12):
I would say definitely at thebeginning, it's being okay with
growing very slowly.
You're not going to have thisflood of clients bursting down
your door.
We had probably five to eightclients for years.
Some people think we just got tothis point instantly, but it's
really just continually,consistently putting out your
best foot forward, continuallyposting on social media, using
(08:33):
your free avenues, your freemarketplaces, Facebook, sending
handwritten notes to anyone thateven talks positively about your
business and really trying tobuild that up from there.
I'd say that was the biggestchallenge, but at the same time
too, the biggest opportunity.
The best way I can describe itas just delayed gratification
(08:53):
of, as an entrepreneur, you wantto go, go, go.
You want new businesses, but canyou put your gratification?
Can you delay that?
If you can, I think that'sprobably one of the best skill
sets an entrepreneur can have,because then they can see their
business through.
They can let the idea developand become fully grown and then
reap the rewards from it,similar to your agency, it just
(09:15):
doesn't happen overnight.
There are so many years you haveto put in the long nights and
build it up, but that's also therewarding part of why we do this
thing.
Russel (09:22):
I think it speaks to, I again, a good approach and
probably one, depending on howfolks get started in their
agency determines of how muchthey have to hit the ground
running.
Some folks need incomereplacement very quickly for how
they started, but a lot of timesthat does run some folks into
trouble where it's almost likeyou didn't really strategically
build your product or serviceand you're just selling a skill,
(09:43):
but that ultimately becomes hardto scale.
Just leads you down a lot oftroublesome paths a lot of
times.
For folks out there, the old, Ithink it's the Navy SEALs
saying, slow is smooth.
Smooth is fast.
I do think that applies toentrepreneurship as well.
Luke (09:57):
A good way to check yourself too on that is, uh, if
you're selling out ofdesperation.
I think anyone out there cansmell when somebody is just
selling because they'redesperate and they need the
sale.
That is one of the biggestturnoffs for anyone, for any
client, if they can tell thatyou just need this to pay your
bills.
That is probably one of thehardest challenges is when
you're trying to start and buildyour business.
(10:18):
You're not trying to sell out ofdesperation, but at the same
time too, you do need the moneycoming in.
I just wanted to throw that inthere because I think once you
break through that, it's a loteasier to just find the right
clients, be very picky andchoosy with your clients, but
those first five to 10 clients,it can be very hard to not be
desperate for those.
Russel (10:38):
There's a movie quote and I don't know what movie it
is, but it just popped in myhead.
Desperation is a stinky cologneor smelly cologne.
If someone's listening outthere, let me know what movie
that is cause it's not coming tomy brain.
I know you went through somestruggles in the early days and
then didn't.
How did you go from this few setof clients to where you are now?
What was the big shift?
Luke (10:57):
I'd say the big shift late 2021, I joined a mastermind
group called the Seven FigureAgency with Josh Nelson and they
took what I was doing and wentso much more specific.
They said, you know, they asked,Luke, what clients do you serve?
I said, uh, blue collar.
I serve the blue collar industryand they said, that's not
specific enough.
I'm like, okay, I serve theconstruction industry.
(11:18):
They said, roofers, flooring,dirt contractors, sewer, like,
who do you serve?
They helped me drill down somuch further into an industry,
which now is the excavationspace or the Dirt World.
When I did that and I made thefull commitment, our team made
the full commitment.
We said, no matter what, everysingle day, we're going to serve
the excavation industry.
(11:40):
We're going to come out withvalue for the industry.
Podcast, a book.
Our team is going to learn theins and outs of the keywords
we're looking for, we'retargeting, and we're going to do
this for the long haul.
We are all in this for the longhaul.
That was in 2021.
Now, fast forward, we're in,we've been doing that every
single day.
What really helped us was justturning away any project based
(12:02):
work, but then also turning awayany clients that wanted to work
with us, that weren't, didn't,specifically fit our target
market.
We went from eight clients,probably four of them were in
excavation to now 59 clientstoday, and every single one of
them is in the, is in our space.
It's really helped us expand andgrow, and then also become
(12:22):
experts in what we do and whatwe say we're going to do.
Russel (12:25):
It sounded like a very fascinating niche.
First off, I guess, do you haveany competitors in excavation
specifically focused marketing?
Luke (12:32):
There's a couple.
The nice thing is we're allreally good friends and we
collaborate more than anythingbecause there are so few of us.
But I have some really greatfriends and I, collar marketing.
They're up in Canada.
We work with them all the timeon all of our website builds.
They're the ones paving the way.
They actually coined the termDirt World.
I attend their summit everyyear, the Dirt World summit.
(12:53):
Their golf tournament, the DirtWorld Open, everything like
that.
There's a few others that I'vebecome very close with as well.
And we probably service 2percent of the industry, right?
It is so ripe for value to beadded to these companies.
There's really more of just,like, referrals back and forth
of like, hey, for example,BuildWitt, they take on the big
(13:13):
dogs.
The corporate big companies,anyone doing over a hundred
million in revenue.
For us, we actually prefer notto work with those guys because
we have to work with their boardof directors and investors.
We fit perfectly in the one to50 million and more specifically
one to 10 million, which, as anexcavation company, you can get
there with two, three guys onyour team and you can get there
(13:34):
very quickly.
Russel (13:35):
People are going and doing their research right now,
as we speak, on all thingsexcavation industry, but really
speaks to the idea ofcoopetition.
Underpins the idea of a nicheand just how many fish there are
in the sea.
I think if you went back 10years ago, at least, I guarantee
people would think you're crazyif you were this friendly with
other agencies.
Especially within a veryspecific marketplace.
(13:57):
But I love that this is wherethe industry evolved, this
sharing and caring andcoopetition place.
When you think about this slow,intentional progress had to help
you through this process, but itdoesn't sound like you really
had a lot of difficulty goingall in on this niche.
Sometimes it seems like it'smore natural for folks to walk
down this path and it's allabout different risk, personal
(14:17):
risk assessments, but it seemslike you had no issue with it
whatsoever.
Luke (14:20):
There's three main things that I looked at when it came to
deciding, what is going to beour niche for the next 20 years.
The three big things that got mewere, to preface this, we were
already working with likeprobably four companies that
were in demolition andexcavation and in the oil field,
but the three things were one, Iwanted to be able to add value
quickly to the industry.
(14:41):
And with excavation, they'reusually so far behind in this
that the work we do can have ahuge impact on their company and
just telling their story andbringing their company to life.
A lot of these companies we workwith sometimes are third, fourth
generation, and they don't evenhave a website and they do 5
million in revenue.
I'm like, well, let's tell thisstory.
Let's get this out there.
Being able to make a big impact.
(15:03):
Second thing would be thepassion for the industry.
I started to learn more and moreabout the men and women that
build America.
When you turn the faucet on andthe water comes out, most of us
don't think how that happens.
If the water didn't come out, wewould have no idea what to do.
When you flush the toilet andeverything goes away nice and
clean, we don't think aboutwhere that goes or who services
those, the roads, the road work,the road construction.
(15:25):
Most people get pissed off aboutroad construction, where they're
not thinking about the peoplethat are paving these roads and
making this happen.
I think just the passion that Istarted to develop for the men
and women that make up theindustry.
I just thought, like,absolutely.
I can get behind that.
My team can get behind that.
Let's do this thing.
And then the third thing, whichI think is often overlooked, is
the industry is not afraid tocut a check.
(15:46):
They're used to big expenses.
They're used to big equipment,money flowing in, money flowing
out.
That was a big thing I had tolook at because, with all due
respect to some smallercompanies or like a bakery, for
example, you have to sell a tonof baked goods to make up, a 1,
900 a month marketing charge.
I had to open my mind to we needan industry we can grow within,
(16:07):
be able to charge what the valueis and have them just have it be
a no brainer.
That was the third big thing, isthey're not afraid to cut a
check either, if there's value.
Russel (16:15):
Definitely sounds like I'm picturing this Venn diagram
there of opportunity, passionand skill slash value.
If you can find the intersectionof that, you've probably got a
pretty good winning combinationas it sounds like it's worked
out for you.
You mentioned earlier, just afew of the things that going
down this path allowed you to doin terms of book and some
speaking, I guess dive deeperinto those specific strategies
(16:37):
that you've been able toimplement and leverage as a
result of your positioning.
Luke (16:41):
Probably one of our biggest things that we've done
is, uh, our podcast.
It's called the Dirt BagsPodcast.
It's exactly what it soundslike.
It's myself and another Luke whoowns two excavation companies.
We're both co hosts on ittogether.
We usually have a couple ofglasses of bourbon as we talk on
there.
It's completely unfiltered.
Any of our guests can saywhatever they want, however they
(17:01):
want.
It is one of my favorite thingsthat we do but we have Dirt Bags
that listen all across theworld.
I think it's listened to in 25countries now, in all 50 States.
It's been amazing to connect theDirt Bags that are going through
the same shit that we're allgoing through, but then also
going through the same triumphsas well, and like, they, they
(17:22):
feel that connection.
Luke and I have been able towork on building that platform
and we started that in February,2022.
By the time this podcast comesout, we'll have just crossed our
hundred thousand download mark,which has been so much fun to
do.
From that podcast, we've beenable to spur out some other
values.
We have our webinar series,which is Dirt Bags University.
(17:43):
That's more of, like, a nittygritty.
We bring on a speaker, it's allon Zoom and, and we do a paid
class and people pay to be thereand they can, jump in from
anywhere in the world.
We have the Dirt Bag Universityand then, um, I did write a book
in March of 2023, that's when itwas published.
It's called The Digital DirtWorld.
That was meant to be moretangible, somebody that maybe
(18:04):
can't work with us, but wants tolearn more about digital
marketing specifically forexcavation.
There weren't many books outthere on it, and so it was a fun
book to write.
That is up on Amazon.
People can still buy it.
I put a free copy and any everysingle welcome box we send out,
just so everyone can have theirhands on that.
Then just the speakingopportunities has been a big
(18:25):
push for us.
The last couple of years I'vehad the incredible honor to
speak at some of the biggestconstruction trade shows, in the
world.
The biggest one was ConExpo.
It's in Las Vegas and I spokethere in 2023, got to speak on
digital marketing forconstruction companies.
The show itself brings in over150, 000 people and then each
(18:46):
educational breakout session hadabout 200 to 300 people that
attended.
That really gave me the bug andthe itch to, like, okay, there's
so much more we can do with thisspeaking professionally.
Hit it hard in 2023, I spoke at,I think nine different
association trade shows, andthen 2024, about the same, seven
(19:07):
to nine trade shows.
Then in 2025, we'll be doing thesame thing.
Just continuing to evolve mypresentation so that we hit on
digital marketing for theindustry.
Also utilizing AI, for your SEO.
Excited for that one.
Then a big one too, that I'mgoing to be presenting on next
year is just retention andretaining your employees.
I'm really trying to hone in mypresentation on issues that the
(19:30):
industry is seeing and then how,from my perspective, my point of
view, we can help solve them..
Russel (19:35):
You're hitting on all the perfect elements of why a
niche can be such a great andvaluable, thing for everyone
involved.
You created this ladder ofvalue, right?
You're providing value to yourindustry at levels that might
even not make sense from aclient perspective, but that
they can be in your community,your circle your ecosystem, if
you will.
You're going to continue toexpand upon ways to enhance that
(19:55):
and even provide more value,which is amazing.
I'm curious, are there anystrategies you tried that didn't
work out or hadn't come out asquite as successful as the ones
you just shared?
Luke (20:04):
There's so many.
I would say on the podcast frontfor a short time there, we tried
weekly podcasts, which, my gosh,I have mad respect for you and
for anyone that can crank outweekly podcasts and especially
with a co-host.
That was extremely difficult.
We had to tailor that back toone every two weeks and even
that can sometimes be a stretch.
That was tough.
(20:25):
Our first Facebook group so thisis kind of part of that ladder
of value.
Our first Facebook group, Ithink we just did it the wrong
way.
We were shoving marketing infodown people's throats and nobody
wanted that.
We totally reimagined thatprobably a year ago, did it more
of just like podcast clips andmore overarching business.
Not everyone, believe it or not,thinks and cares as much about
(20:48):
marketing as we all do.
How can we sprinkle in five or10 percent marketing content,
but also hit on contracts,insurance, hiring retention?
How do you pay yourself as anowner?
Talk about topics that you know,relate to them as an
entrepreneur a little bit moreinstead of just Google
analytics, Google searchconsole, Google this, Google
that.
That was definitely a bigfailure that we then learned
(21:09):
from, repatched and put ittogether.
And even changing the name ofthe group, it's now just called
the Dirt Bags, so people areexcited to be in there to talk
with each other, to see thesepodcast clips.
I think that kind of goes intomy, one of my original points of
selling out of desperation andnot, like, looking like we need
the sale or this is all we do.
That has also helped as I'vegrown in our company and have
(21:31):
people that can handle a lot ofthe marketing stuff where now I
get to handle more of the highlevel business stuff and get to
talk to our clients more aboutbusiness instead of all about
marketing.
I think I've also grown as ourcompany has grown in that realm.
Russel (21:45):
Probably more so than you can ever even imagine.
Less, it can be more,especially, more, less frequent,
compelling content can certainlybe valuable.
And then, yes, we can't do thisidea of navel gazing when it
comes to marketing.
Sometimes we even have to mask,I think the work or the mountain
involved to be even successfulin marketing.
We've just got to entertain, orto your point, speak to more
(22:06):
nuanced, very, in front of theirface issues that they're
experiencing.
Some great takeaways there.
Thank you for sharing some ofyour, I won't call them
failures.
Your learning opportunities.
Luke (22:15):
Yeah.
There's a lot of those.
Russel (22:17):
We all have to pay our tuition to the school of hard
knocks.
You've clearly found a number ofways to solve what is a clear
obstacle for agency growth, thesales fronts and the ability to
generate and manufacture yourown clients and sales
opportunities.
What are you most focused on nowthat you've gotten past that
hurdle?
Luke (22:35):
Oh man.
Great question.
I'd love to touch on thisbecause I think it's been
pivotal in our business.
March of 2024, our businessstructure was mainly white
label.
I knew, to get to where wewanted to go, we had to focus on
selling and delivering, andwhite label's our best way to
get there.
Our white label partners wereamazing, absolutely loved them.
When we hit our seven figuremark, then I knew I wanted to
(22:57):
build an internal team.
We hit that in March of thisyear.
At that time we had one fulltime employee, plus myself, then
the white labels, and then abunch of consistent
subcontractors.
Now today, it's August of 2024,we now have seven full time
employees and one white labelthat we use.
It's been a total shift ofbringing everything in-house,
(23:18):
which I knew was going to bedifficult and I didn't realize
how rewarding it would be.
It is one of my favorite thingsnow, seeing, like our team,
wearing all their Phaser gear,showing up to every meeting,
eight to five Monday throughFriday, like, this is their
career and helping them tryingto accomplish some of their
personal goals and some of theirpersonal dreams, financial
dreams.
(23:38):
Couple of our employees want tobuy a house and so it's like,
okay, let's, let's talk aboutthis.
Realistically, how long is thisgoing to take?
How can we help you get there?
It doesn't mean I can write thema big check or give them a raise
right out of the gate.
But if we have time, we canmake, we can set goals and get
there.
That has been my biggestchapter, currently, is building
a team and we are ready again toscale and we're excited to get
(24:02):
to that 2 million mark would beour next mark and we do
everything off of monthlyrecurring revenue.
This would be, about 167 Ibelieve it is monthly recurring.
Having everyone on the same pageis so much fun.
We are ready to go.
We're ready to roll.
The team part of it is way moreexciting than I had ever
imagined.
It's been very fun.
Russel (24:22):
What was the one thing you didn't expect that you had
to maybe focus on yourself froma professional development or
overcome in this new phase thatyou're talking about?
Luke (24:30):
One of the things that comes to mind, it doesn't fully
answer the question, but one ofthe biggest surprises was how
amazed people were at, like, ourculture and our team and
everything.
Cause I think we've builtsomething very, very special
without even realizing it.
We're just like, yeah, what didyour other job not do that?
It's 4:59 PM.
Can I leave?
It's like, I don't care, dowhatever you want.
(24:51):
It just amazes me, I think, howhigh of a standard we have maybe
of, like, how excited people areto work with us.
I think that's just what we'veset from the beginning.
But another thing that I'velearned from myself is just, you
absolutely have to let go of thevine.
If you're going to be able togrow and manage the team and
manage the business, because Iam doing no good to anyone.
(25:14):
If I'm the one putting out allthe fires, if I'm the one
building the websites, if I'mthe one building the ad sets, we
need to develop our team and ourpeople.
To learn how to do it, to buildthe systems, to, for me to
empower them to make decisions,even tough decisions.
One of our core values is takingownership.
If something goes astray, ifsomething goes wrong, being able
to take ownership for that andsay like, that was on me, I
(25:37):
should have caught that.
That I think has been one of thebiggest things I've learned is
just, it's okay to take multiplesteps backwards out of the
business so that you cancontinue having your head above
water, seeing where you're goingnext, because winners want to
work with winners.
If your business isn't growingor doesn't have that next thing
it's going towards, it'sprobably not an exciting place
(25:57):
to work.
We have some big goals that wewant to hit and we need to do it
together.
If my head is below water andnobody's focusing on those goals
then we're not going to go andaccomplish those.
Russel (26:07):
What a great way to, in that thought process, your
agency eventually only becomesas good as you can move
collectively or together, andyou really want to avoid this
80/20 situation where 20 percentof the team is creating 80
percent of the output or value.
Something else that I thinkyou've hit on a couple of
different ways is this idea, Ithink, especially once a
business gets past survivalmode, how important it is to
(26:30):
lead with purpose, mission, andvalues in the business.
It sounds like you've got thoseelements baked in, but just
speak to that idea of howthat's, yeah, how that exists in
your business.
Luke (26:41):
I'll give a really amazing example as well that, it just
sometimes leaves me speechless,but, so we focus on a lot of
other things rather than justdigital marketing for
excavation.
We have a mission.
We have a direction we're tryingto go as a company an impact or
trying to leave for ourcommunity and also the industry.
One of the biggest things that Iget most excited about is our
(27:02):
Phaser fundraiser.
It's for my hometown in DetroitLakes, Minnesota.
It's a small town of about 9,000 people.
I started it when the businesswas still a side hustle in 2020.
I wanted to start somethingwhere I can make a financial
impact without being rich andfamous.
I think everyone thinks like,okay, when I've made it, then I
can start a fundraiser.
I can start giving or somethinglike that.
(27:24):
I knew that I couldn't write abig check.
I had to get creative and usesome of my other skill sets, and
I think one of my other skillsets is bringing people together
for a common cause.
That first year, 2020, I calledup the Boys Girls Club in
Detroit Lakes and said, hey, ifI try and raise money for you
guys can I do that?
Is that legal or how does thiswork?
And they said, absolutely, Luke.
We'll definitely take it.
(27:44):
I said, all right.
The next week I said, we have 10days to raise as much money as
possible.
Our goal is 5,000 dollars, andwe raised 6,000 dollars.
It wasn't from me, but it's fromeveryone that collectively
donated.
That just got me fired up.
I'm like, okay.
We're going to keep this thinggoing.
Then we had our Phaserfundraiser each year after that,
which started back in 2022.
We had a black tie gala and weraised 20,000 dollars.
(28:07):
Then in 2023, last year we did30, 000, and then this year we
just wrapped up our, 2024 and weraised 40,000 dollars for the
Boys Girls Club.
But the coolest part of thatstory is we had 20 sponsors that
sponsored our fundraiser thisyear.
12 of them were our clients inconstruction.
None of them live in DetroitLakes, have ever been to Detroit
(28:29):
Lakes, but how cool is that?
That they want to spend theirhard earned money for a
marketing agency that they'repaying as well for the kids and
his community.
It just really fired me up to,like, the impact that we can
have on one another and thedrive that we can have for, just
to make that impact.
I just thought that was so coolthat, like, that many people
(28:50):
that are paying clients of oursstepped up and sponsored the
fundraiser.
Russel (28:54):
I'm not a overly emotionally expressive guy, but
I just want you to know just onthe inside, I'm jumping up and
down in my chair.
Just to hear a story like thatand how we can make business
make the world better.
It's absolutely the reason why Ido what I do.
It was a big part of my ownbusiness.
Sometimes it can be hard toexpress to folks that, you know,
so easy sometimes, especially ifthings are tight, to want to
(29:15):
focus on the dollars.
But once you're just reallyoutside of survival mode, you've
got to have these elements andyou've got to lead with purpose
and you've got to lead with,vision and values for something
better because money in itselfjust doesn't get people out of
the bed.
Doesn't get people excited.
It doesn't give something torally around.
I'm so excited for you and can'twait to see what that continues
to look like within yourbusiness.
(29:36):
I would want to keep going forhours and hours in here and talk
about all these wonderful thingsyou're doing.
But I'll leave it to myself toask a couple more questions.
I'm really just curious, what isthe big plan for the future?
Your BHAG or whatever that lookslike?
What are the goals for PhaserMarketing?
Luke (29:50):
Our BHAG was our five year goal.
We said it two years ago, soit's now our three year goal,
but it kind of relates into thatfundraiser and scaling our
business.
In 2027, I want to be able towrite a hundred thousand dollar
check to an organization,probably the Boys Girls Club.
To do that, you need to havequite a bit of net profit.
I wanted to have that as thefocus goal, but then when I zoom
(30:12):
out, what does our business needto be doing for us to feel
comfortable doing that?
I would love to be atapproximately five million
dollars in revenue in 2027 andjust have a rockstar team that
we spend time with a couple oftimes a year, we travel with.
And building careers from acompany that I had started as
just an idea with my wife and apipe dream.
(30:34):
I just think that would be sorewarding.
It's certainly a BHAG, but it'snothing that we can't accomplish
if we,, like really focus on itand work together and build
that.
Russel (30:44):
If there is a casino table in front of me right now
and I get to put a bet on thistable if that goal is going to
happen, I am putting a large sumof money on this casino bet for
you, Luke.
I have no doubt.
Luke (30:54):
I love gambling too, so I like that.
Russel (30:57):
Same.
I can't wait to see that happen.
When we get done here, we'llbook a spot for your 2027 return
to the podcast as to share thatyou've actually gotten there.
Luke (31:04):
Let's go.
Russel (31:05):
I guess, then, I'll just leave with the last question I
ask folks is are entrepreneursborn or are they made?
Luke (31:11):
Love this.
I would say that, and I don'tknow if this is allowed, but
it's a little bit of both.
I think deep down, trueentrepreneurs have it, but I
think you can mold yourself intobeing a true entrepreneur.
What I mean by that is I thinkdeep down, like when I think
about myself in college, I hadit in my bones but I had no
guidance.
(31:31):
I had no idea whatentrepreneurship meant, what it
could look like.
I didn't have many mentors atthat time.
Then you can kind of moldyourself and make it into that
if you have that deep down inyour bones, that commitment of
like, I'm willing to do whateverit takes to make this work.
That would be my answer.
It's a little bit of both, butat the same time most of it is
made and it's the continualwork, that continual drive,
(31:55):
like, getting up every day andbeing excited for that cup of
coffee, getting to work foryourself and being unemployable.
I think it's one of the greatestthings ever where I'm probably
never going to get a job everagain, because it would be very
hard for me to go back to that.
Being employed is great for somany people and I think that's
where it goes back to the boringpart of like, I just don't think
I could ever go back to that.
I love that question.
(32:16):
It's something I'll probablywrestle with for a long time,
but I think it's a little bit ofboth.
Russel (32:19):
Wonderful answer.
I love the tagline there ofjust, make yourself
unemployable.
There's so many connotations andcontexts you could apply to
that, that, that makes sense.
If people want to know moreabout Phaser Marketing, where
can they go?
Luke (32:31):
Probably one of my favorites is all of our social
media accounts, either personal,Luke Eggebraaten, or our
business accounts.
I run both of them and alwayswill.
Facebook, Instagram, andLinkedIn.
LinkedIn is probably my favoriteby far.
If you connect with myself onthere or our business, uh, you
can shoot me a message and itwill be me responding.
I would love to, love to hearfrom you, especially anyone that
(32:53):
listened to this episode and gotthis far, kudos to you.
Cause this was, I had a blastRussell and, uh, I appreciate it
so much.
Russel (33:00):
I appreciate you throwing out that opportunity.
Definitely take advantage ofthat folks.
The pleasure has been all mine,Luke.
What an amazing journey you'vebeen on in what is a relatively
short run in all things, allrespects of the agency world.
Love to see what you'veaccomplished so far and can't
wait to see what the futurelooks like for you.
Really appreciate you taking thetime to share that with us
today.
Luke (33:19):
Thank you so much, Russel.
Can't tell you how much Iappreciate it and excited for
the episode in 2027.
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?
(33:39):
Send an email topodcast@performancefaction.com.
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.
(34:03):
In 2022, so I mentioned I started a seven figure agency
and they have this mastermind inMiami every year.
I'm like so excited to always bethere, meet up with, like, my
new friends and business owners.
To give you context, I live inPhoenix, Arizona, and I also fly
very cheap, so I'll take thecheapest frontier flight.
Usually when I go to Miami, I'llfly to, like, Las Vegas, and
(34:26):
then to Miami, or I'll fly tolike Detroit or Toronto, and
then I'll fly down to Miami.
Routes that make no sense, butit saves me a hundred bucks.
My total flight time to get fromPhoenix to Miami for this
intensive was like 16 hours.
I'm like, no big deal.
I'm so excited.
I pull up in Miami, humid as allhell, like, in July.
(34:47):
Get off the airplane at 8 a.m.
I've been flying all day and allnight.
I text my buddy who I'm gettinga hotel with.
I'm like, hey man, what time areyou getting in?
Today was Monday and he said, itwas, uh, he's like, oh, I get in
on Monday at 11 a.m.
I was like, that's a weird wayto say it cause like today's
Monday.
All of a sudden, like my heartdropped and I'm standing in the,
like, taxi line in Miamisweating, cause I'm wearing my
(35:09):
suit and I'm like, there's noway.
All of a sudden I'm scrambling.
I like call one of my otherbuddies.
I'm like, what time are yougetting into my, to the
intensive?
He's like, dude, that's in twoweeks.
So I flew all the way across thecountry, two weeks early for
this conference, and I'mstanding there in my suit coat,
it was one of those situationsand stories that was so
ridiculous.
I just had to laugh.
(35:29):
I'm like, of course I would dothis.
How could I not double check thedates?
I got then the taxi cab to myhotel.
I started walking back to theairport and I stopped and got a
Dairy Queen ice cream cone,cause I'm like, can't get any
worse so might as well get icecream.
Made the most out of that trip,got the next flight out and took
another 18 hour red-eye flighthome that same day, just because
(35:51):
I was like, well, I might aswell go home to see my wife and
try and explain why I was gonefor one day.
I guess the moral of that storyis.
It's never as bad as you thinkit is, just to take every
situation lightly and like, havefun with it.
Cause people are in way worsesituations.
I got to fly across the country.
I was in Miami, Florida.
It's really not a big deal.
I'm self employed, so I'm notmissing anything.
(36:12):
The second thing is, is doublecheck your dates anytime you're
flying.
Make sure that you're going, uh,but that story and I still get
crap from the whole group fromthat all the time.
That one will live on.
Russel (36:22):
That is an epic one and very, very warranted, you got
flack.
Every now and then I'll freakout for like a half a second
that I did just book a wrongdate for a flight.
I'm sure you have that OCD atthis point going forward way
more than anybody else, butthat's an amazing story.
Luke (36:39):
Oh yeah.
I double and triple check, andeven then it's just like the
worst thing that's going tohappen is you just grab the next
flight.
What a country that we live inwhere you can just grab the next
flight and it's a couple hundredbucks and it's really never a
big deal.
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 (00:41):
Welcome to An Agency Story podcast, I'm your host
Russel.
In this episode, we meet LukeEggebraaten a Phaser Marketing
based near Phoenix, Arizona.
A longtime entrepreneur here'sjourney from Craigslist flipper
to niche agency leader, as atestament to passion and
persistence.
Discover how he carved outsuccess in the dirt world, built
(01:02):
an inspiring team culture, andturned his agency into a
platform for giving back withhumor, heart, and sharp business
insights.
Luke shows how purpose drivenleadership can make a lasting
impact.
This episode is truly atestament to the power of a
niche.
Don't miss a second of thisinspiring conversation.
Enjoy the story.
(01:23):
Welcome to the show today,everyone.
I have Luke Eggebraaten withPhaser Marketing with us here
today.
Thank you so much for joining ustoday, Luke.
Luke (01:29):
Russel, thank you so much for having me on the show and
you absolutely nailed the lastname.
Good work.
Russel (01:34):
I practiced no less than 100 times to get that right.
I appreciate it.
Can't wait to learn more aboutyou and your story and
everything else, but if youdon't mind, just start us off
right out of the gate, what doesPhaser Marketing do and who do
you do it for?
Luke (01:47):
It's a digital marketing agency and we focus on the Dirt
World, we call it.
Our niche is excavation clientsand we kind of break that up
into three different divisions.
We've got our heavy massexcavation clients.
We've got our hardscaping kindof outdoor living clients and
then our septic clients as well.
Those all go under the, the DirtWorld clients that we serve.
Russel (02:07):
The Dirt World.
I have no less than 100questions about the Dirt World
that we will certainly get to,um, sounds fascinating.
Before we get into all theamazing things you've created
within your agency, you don'thave to go back too far, but
tell us, what did young Lukewant to be when he grew up?
Luke (02:22):
I'll go back to kindergarten.
I wanted to be an astronaut, butthen you fast forward to high
school and college.
I wanted to be a general managerof the Minnesota Vikings.
Went to college, got a degree insport management with a minor in
marketing.
Did some work and did someinternships with college
programs with minor leaguebaseball teams.
I suppose this is a good pieceof advice for anyone looking for
a job is it, you're not alwayslooking for what you do want to
(02:45):
do, but looking for what youdon't want to do.
Fortunately, I just found outthat I'm a much bigger sports
fan than wanting to work insports.
That showed me that, okay, maybeI'll pivot and do something
else.
After sports, I had a love formarketing and business and and
that's how we got here today.
Russel (03:01):
I feel you.
I ended up choosing my major fornot great reasons, but other
than a passion of history, Ilove history and then chose that
as a major, but to the sameextent, I don't know that I even
anticipated a career in history.
Should have left that in thepassion space.
The Minnesota Vikings could haveused you, but guess the Dirt
World won that one.
As you got out of college, whatdid you always know you were
(03:23):
going to end up being anentrepreneur?
Luke (03:24):
When I got out of college, I would say yes.
But I knew I needed a job first.
To give you some context, incollege, I loved to flip things
on Craigslist.
I'd buy a go-kart, a dune buggy,a dirt bike, whatever it was,
and then I would sell it formore money.
I was always hunting for deals.
I was filling up our collegegarage with all these fun toys
arcade machines, beer vendingmachines, like, everything you
(03:47):
could think of, and then I wouldjust flip them.
Sometimes I'd have things forone day.
Sometimes I'd have things fortwo weeks, but I loved the idea
of being able to buy somethingand then sell it for more money
and then having that profit.
In college, that profit reallyjust went to, like, beer money
and nonsense, but coming out ofcollege, I had that drive to be
an entrepreneur, but like I justmentioned, I knew I needed a job
(04:10):
so I could hone in on some ofthose skills.
I was applying for jobs actuallyI applied to over 75 jobs all
across the country and could notnail anything down.
This was in 2018 and the jobmarket was on fire.
It was hot, like very, very goodjob market.
For some reason, I couldn'tfigure it out.
I, you know, I thought I had agood head on my shoulders.
I was willing to work hard forwhoever gave me a chance.
(04:32):
On the 76th interview finally, Igot a chance at an orthodontic
practice in Omaha, Nebraska.
I moved down to Nebraska.
My wife had gone to school inLincoln.
That, uh, helped as well.
Just a chance to do digitalmarketing for an orthodontic
practice, but then also learn awhole new industry.
That's really where I got thesefundamental skills that I've
learned in the workplace that Icould then bring to the
(04:55):
business.
Russel (04:55):
That's awesome.
Craigslist day trader and turnedentrepreneur.
Love it.
How does that all lead up toactually starting your agency?
Luke (05:04):
I think having that, the flipping knowledge and then
starting my full time job, partof my job was to manage this
marketing agency that my doctorhad hired.
This California agency.
I was like, okay, yeah so I'mthe liaison for this agency.
I tell you what, I was amazed.
I was like, these people werecool to talk to, funny.
(05:25):
I felt like I had a personalrelationship with them.
We were paying them a ton ofmoney, but they were making us
look awesome and making me looklike a hero because of their
results they were getting fromour SEO, from our paid ads and
everything.
I remember thinking in 2019,this would have been, I need to
do something like this.
These people are so cool.
Anytime we would host them atour office, we're just like, oh,
(05:46):
like, New V olumes coming, we'reso excited.
I was thinking, I'm like, wepaid them 12 grand or whatever
to come and hang out.
We're excited to see them.
What an amazing business.
In 2019, in October, Iofficially got my LLC papers
signed.
October 24th, Phaser Marketing,my own marketing agency was
born, and then I knew from thatday, I couldn't just dive into
(06:08):
it full time with no revenue,with no profit not paying
myself.
I made myself a goal that I willtake my first paycheck, when I
can go full time from Phaser.
The goal is to build this thingup on the side as a side hustle,
learn the ins and outs of how todeliver for clients, how to
build a team, how to invoicecustomers.
All of these things I had noidea how to do learn that on the
(06:30):
company's dollar without payingmyself.
Did that from 2019 until August1st, 2021.
That was the first day that Ileft my full time job and then
went full time in the business.
Russel (06:41):
Just to make sure I'm hearing that, basically building
a bankroll and bankroll andskills and experience, but also
just a bankroll to be able tomake that leap financially.
I really like that approach.
Luke (06:50):
Yeah.
I use the analogy, uh, of, howsome people say jumping off the
dock into the boat.
It's just this big, scary leapin entrepreneurship.
My goal was to pull the boatright next to the dock so that I
could just take a step off intoit.
Because I'd already had twoyears under my belt and we had,
I think when I went full time,we had like 7, 000 dollars in
the business bank account.
(07:10):
Not nothing.
Enough to be like, okay, yep.
I can pay myself now a thousandbucks a month.
We have a few clients that arerecurring clients.
It made that big, scary leap alot easier, and we never had any
debt on the company.
From day one, we were profitableand making sure that we stay
that way.
Russel (07:28):
That's really how you could probably assess anything
that you might be uncertain ofor just risk management in
general.
How do we bring the boat closerto our dock versus swimming out
into treacherous waters and theunknown waters in the dark and
all the things, the places youcould take that analogy.
I imagine there's just a lot ofexcitement, one moving into this
thing that you created and ableto make that full time, but what
were some of the biggerchallenges that you faced in the
(07:50):
early days?
Luke (07:50):
The one part that I left out is, so my wife got a full
time job.
That's why I left my job and wemoved down to Arizona, which I'd
never even been to the statewhen we moved.
Very exciting though.
I was just excited to get to theheat.
I'm originally from Minnesota.
Really just excited for thatchange, but so many challenges.
I could list off a bunch, but Ilooked at them as just
opportunities for growth.
(08:12):
I would say definitely at thebeginning, it's being okay with
growing very slowly.
You're not going to have thisflood of clients bursting down
your door.
We had probably five to eightclients for years.
Some people think we just got tothis point instantly, but it's
really just continually,consistently putting out your
best foot forward, continuallyposting on social media, using
(08:33):
your free avenues, your freemarketplaces, Facebook, sending
handwritten notes to anyone thateven talks positively about your
business and really trying tobuild that up from there.
I'd say that was the biggestchallenge, but at the same time
too, the biggest opportunity.
The best way I can describe itas just delayed gratification
(08:53):
of, as an entrepreneur, you wantto go, go, go.
You want new businesses, but canyou put your gratification?
Can you delay that?
If you can, I think that'sprobably one of the best skill
sets an entrepreneur can have,because then they can see their
business through.
They can let the idea developand become fully grown and then
reap the rewards from it,similar to your agency, it just
(09:15):
doesn't happen overnight.
There are so many years you haveto put in the long nights and
build it up, but that's also therewarding part of why we do this
thing.
Russel (09:22):
I think it speaks to, I again, a good approach and
probably one, depending on howfolks get started in their
agency determines of how muchthey have to hit the ground
running.
Some folks need incomereplacement very quickly for how
they started, but a lot of timesthat does run some folks into
trouble where it's almost likeyou didn't really strategically
build your product or serviceand you're just selling a skill,
(09:43):
but that ultimately becomes hardto scale.
Just leads you down a lot oftroublesome paths a lot of
times.
For folks out there, the old, Ithink it's the Navy SEALs
saying, slow is smooth.
Smooth is fast.
I do think that applies toentrepreneurship as well.
Luke (09:57):
A good way to check yourself too on that is, uh, if
you're selling out ofdesperation.
I think anyone out there cansmell when somebody is just
selling because they'redesperate and they need the
sale.
That is one of the biggestturnoffs for anyone, for any
client, if they can tell thatyou just need this to pay your
bills.
That is probably one of thehardest challenges is when
you're trying to start and buildyour business.
(10:18):
You're not trying to sell out ofdesperation, but at the same
time too, you do need the moneycoming in.
I just wanted to throw that inthere because I think once you
break through that, it's a loteasier to just find the right
clients, be very picky andchoosy with your clients, but
those first five to 10 clients,it can be very hard to not be
desperate for those.
Russel (10:38):
There's a movie quote and I don't know what movie it
is, but it just popped in myhead.
Desperation is a stinky cologneor smelly cologne.
If someone's listening outthere, let me know what movie
that is cause it's not coming tomy brain.
I know you went through somestruggles in the early days and
then didn't.
How did you go from this few setof clients to where you are now?
What was the big shift?
Luke (10:57):
I'd say the big shift late 2021, I joined a mastermind
group called the Seven FigureAgency with Josh Nelson and they
took what I was doing and wentso much more specific.
They said, you know, they asked,Luke, what clients do you serve?
I said, uh, blue collar.
I serve the blue collar industryand they said, that's not
specific enough.
I'm like, okay, I serve theconstruction industry.
(11:18):
They said, roofers, flooring,dirt contractors, sewer, like,
who do you serve?
They helped me drill down somuch further into an industry,
which now is the excavationspace or the Dirt World.
When I did that and I made thefull commitment, our team made
the full commitment.
We said, no matter what, everysingle day, we're going to serve
the excavation industry.
(11:40):
We're going to come out withvalue for the industry.
Podcast, a book.
Our team is going to learn theins and outs of the keywords
we're looking for, we'retargeting, and we're going to do
this for the long haul.
We are all in this for the longhaul.
That was in 2021.
Now, fast forward, we're in,we've been doing that every
single day.
What really helped us was justturning away any project based
(12:02):
work, but then also turning awayany clients that wanted to work
with us, that weren't, didn't,specifically fit our target
market.
We went from eight clients,probably four of them were in
excavation to now 59 clientstoday, and every single one of
them is in the, is in our space.
It's really helped us expand andgrow, and then also become
(12:22):
experts in what we do and whatwe say we're going to do.
Russel (12:25):
It sounded like a very fascinating niche.
First off, I guess, do you haveany competitors in excavation
specifically focused marketing?
Luke (12:32):
There's a couple.
The nice thing is we're allreally good friends and we
collaborate more than anythingbecause there are so few of us.
But I have some really greatfriends and I, collar marketing.
They're up in Canada.
We work with them all the timeon all of our website builds.
They're the ones paving the way.
They actually coined the termDirt World.
I attend their summit everyyear, the Dirt World summit.
(12:53):
Their golf tournament, the DirtWorld Open, everything like
that.
There's a few others that I'vebecome very close with as well.
And we probably service 2percent of the industry, right?
It is so ripe for value to beadded to these companies.
There's really more of just,like, referrals back and forth
of like, hey, for example,BuildWitt, they take on the big
(13:13):
dogs.
The corporate big companies,anyone doing over a hundred
million in revenue.
For us, we actually prefer notto work with those guys because
we have to work with their boardof directors and investors.
We fit perfectly in the one to50 million and more specifically
one to 10 million, which, as anexcavation company, you can get
there with two, three guys onyour team and you can get there
(13:34):
very quickly.
Russel (13:35):
People are going and doing their research right now,
as we speak, on all thingsexcavation industry, but really
speaks to the idea ofcoopetition.
Underpins the idea of a nicheand just how many fish there are
in the sea.
I think if you went back 10years ago, at least, I guarantee
people would think you're crazyif you were this friendly with
other agencies.
Especially within a veryspecific marketplace.
(13:57):
But I love that this is wherethe industry evolved, this
sharing and caring andcoopetition place.
When you think about this slow,intentional progress had to help
you through this process, but itdoesn't sound like you really
had a lot of difficulty goingall in on this niche.
Sometimes it seems like it'smore natural for folks to walk
down this path and it's allabout different risk, personal
(14:17):
risk assessments, but it seemslike you had no issue with it
whatsoever.
Luke (14:20):
There's three main things that I looked at when it came to
deciding, what is going to beour niche for the next 20 years.
The three big things that got mewere, to preface this, we were
already working with likeprobably four companies that
were in demolition andexcavation and in the oil field,
but the three things were one, Iwanted to be able to add value
quickly to the industry.
(14:41):
And with excavation, they'reusually so far behind in this
that the work we do can have ahuge impact on their company and
just telling their story andbringing their company to life.
A lot of these companies we workwith sometimes are third, fourth
generation, and they don't evenhave a website and they do 5
million in revenue.
I'm like, well, let's tell thisstory.
Let's get this out there.
Being able to make a big impact.
(15:03):
Second thing would be thepassion for the industry.
I started to learn more and moreabout the men and women that
build America.
When you turn the faucet on andthe water comes out, most of us
don't think how that happens.
If the water didn't come out, wewould have no idea what to do.
When you flush the toilet andeverything goes away nice and
clean, we don't think aboutwhere that goes or who services
those, the roads, the road work,the road construction.
(15:25):
Most people get pissed off aboutroad construction, where they're
not thinking about the peoplethat are paving these roads and
making this happen.
I think just the passion that Istarted to develop for the men
and women that make up theindustry.
I just thought, like,absolutely.
I can get behind that.
My team can get behind that.
Let's do this thing.
And then the third thing, whichI think is often overlooked, is
the industry is not afraid tocut a check.
(15:46):
They're used to big expenses.
They're used to big equipment,money flowing in, money flowing
out.
That was a big thing I had tolook at because, with all due
respect to some smallercompanies or like a bakery, for
example, you have to sell a tonof baked goods to make up, a 1,
900 a month marketing charge.
I had to open my mind to we needan industry we can grow within,
(16:07):
be able to charge what the valueis and have them just have it be
a no brainer.
That was the third big thing, isthey're not afraid to cut a
check either, if there's value.
Russel (16:15):
Definitely sounds like I'm picturing this Venn diagram
there of opportunity, passionand skill slash value.
If you can find the intersectionof that, you've probably got a
pretty good winning combinationas it sounds like it's worked
out for you.
You mentioned earlier, just afew of the things that going
down this path allowed you to doin terms of book and some
speaking, I guess dive deeperinto those specific strategies
(16:37):
that you've been able toimplement and leverage as a
result of your positioning.
Luke (16:41):
Probably one of our biggest things that we've done
is, uh, our podcast.
It's called the Dirt BagsPodcast.
It's exactly what it soundslike.
It's myself and another Luke whoowns two excavation companies.
We're both co hosts on ittogether.
We usually have a couple ofglasses of bourbon as we talk on
there.
It's completely unfiltered.
Any of our guests can saywhatever they want, however they
(17:01):
want.
It is one of my favorite thingsthat we do but we have Dirt Bags
that listen all across theworld.
I think it's listened to in 25countries now, in all 50 States.
It's been amazing to connect theDirt Bags that are going through
the same shit that we're allgoing through, but then also
going through the same triumphsas well, and like, they, they
(17:22):
feel that connection.
Luke and I have been able towork on building that platform
and we started that in February,2022.
By the time this podcast comesout, we'll have just crossed our
hundred thousand download mark,which has been so much fun to
do.
From that podcast, we've beenable to spur out some other
values.
We have our webinar series,which is Dirt Bags University.
(17:43):
That's more of, like, a nittygritty.
We bring on a speaker, it's allon Zoom and, and we do a paid
class and people pay to be thereand they can, jump in from
anywhere in the world.
We have the Dirt Bag Universityand then, um, I did write a book
in March of 2023, that's when itwas published.
It's called The Digital DirtWorld.
That was meant to be moretangible, somebody that maybe
(18:04):
can't work with us, but wants tolearn more about digital
marketing specifically forexcavation.
There weren't many books outthere on it, and so it was a fun
book to write.
That is up on Amazon.
People can still buy it.
I put a free copy and any everysingle welcome box we send out,
just so everyone can have theirhands on that.
Then just the speakingopportunities has been a big
(18:25):
push for us.
The last couple of years I'vehad the incredible honor to
speak at some of the biggestconstruction trade shows, in the
world.
The biggest one was ConExpo.
It's in Las Vegas and I spokethere in 2023, got to speak on
digital marketing forconstruction companies.
The show itself brings in over150, 000 people and then each
(18:46):
educational breakout session hadabout 200 to 300 people that
attended.
That really gave me the bug andthe itch to, like, okay, there's
so much more we can do with thisspeaking professionally.
Hit it hard in 2023, I spoke at,I think nine different
association trade shows, andthen 2024, about the same, seven
(19:07):
to nine trade shows.
Then in 2025, we'll be doing thesame thing.
Just continuing to evolve mypresentation so that we hit on
digital marketing for theindustry.
Also utilizing AI, for your SEO.
Excited for that one.
Then a big one too, that I'mgoing to be presenting on next
year is just retention andretaining your employees.
I'm really trying to hone in mypresentation on issues that the
(19:30):
industry is seeing and then how,from my perspective, my point of
view, we can help solve them..
Russel (19:35):
You're hitting on all the perfect elements of why a
niche can be such a great andvaluable, thing for everyone
involved.
You created this ladder ofvalue, right?
You're providing value to yourindustry at levels that might
even not make sense from aclient perspective, but that
they can be in your community,your circle your ecosystem, if
you will.
You're going to continue toexpand upon ways to enhance that
(19:55):
and even provide more value,which is amazing.
I'm curious, are there anystrategies you tried that didn't
work out or hadn't come out asquite as successful as the ones
you just shared?
Luke (20:04):
There's so many.
I would say on the podcast frontfor a short time there, we tried
weekly podcasts, which, my gosh,I have mad respect for you and
for anyone that can crank outweekly podcasts and especially
with a co-host.
That was extremely difficult.
We had to tailor that back toone every two weeks and even
that can sometimes be a stretch.
That was tough.
(20:25):
Our first Facebook group so thisis kind of part of that ladder
of value.
Our first Facebook group, Ithink we just did it the wrong
way.
We were shoving marketing infodown people's throats and nobody
wanted that.
We totally reimagined thatprobably a year ago, did it more
of just like podcast clips andmore overarching business.
Not everyone, believe it or not,thinks and cares as much about
(20:48):
marketing as we all do.
How can we sprinkle in five or10 percent marketing content,
but also hit on contracts,insurance, hiring retention?
How do you pay yourself as anowner?
Talk about topics that you know,relate to them as an
entrepreneur a little bit moreinstead of just Google
analytics, Google searchconsole, Google this, Google
that.
That was definitely a bigfailure that we then learned
(21:09):
from, repatched and put ittogether.
And even changing the name ofthe group, it's now just called
the Dirt Bags, so people areexcited to be in there to talk
with each other, to see thesepodcast clips.
I think that kind of goes intomy, one of my original points of
selling out of desperation andnot, like, looking like we need
the sale or this is all we do.
That has also helped as I'vegrown in our company and have
(21:31):
people that can handle a lot ofthe marketing stuff where now I
get to handle more of the highlevel business stuff and get to
talk to our clients more aboutbusiness instead of all about
marketing.
I think I've also grown as ourcompany has grown in that realm.
Russel (21:45):
Probably more so than you can ever even imagine.
Less, it can be more,especially, more, less frequent,
compelling content can certainlybe valuable.
And then, yes, we can't do thisidea of navel gazing when it
comes to marketing.
Sometimes we even have to mask,I think the work or the mountain
involved to be even successfulin marketing.
We've just got to entertain, orto your point, speak to more
(22:06):
nuanced, very, in front of theirface issues that they're
experiencing.
Some great takeaways there.
Thank you for sharing some ofyour, I won't call them
failures.
Your learning opportunities.
Luke (22:15):
Yeah.
There's a lot of those.
Russel (22:17):
We all have to pay our tuition to the school of hard
knocks.
You've clearly found a number ofways to solve what is a clear
obstacle for agency growth, thesales fronts and the ability to
generate and manufacture yourown clients and sales
opportunities.
What are you most focused on nowthat you've gotten past that
hurdle?
Luke (22:35):
Oh man.
Great question.
I'd love to touch on thisbecause I think it's been
pivotal in our business.
March of 2024, our businessstructure was mainly white
label.
I knew, to get to where wewanted to go, we had to focus on
selling and delivering, andwhite label's our best way to
get there.
Our white label partners wereamazing, absolutely loved them.
When we hit our seven figuremark, then I knew I wanted to
(22:57):
build an internal team.
We hit that in March of thisyear.
At that time we had one fulltime employee, plus myself, then
the white labels, and then abunch of consistent
subcontractors.
Now today, it's August of 2024,we now have seven full time
employees and one white labelthat we use.
It's been a total shift ofbringing everything in-house,
(23:18):
which I knew was going to bedifficult and I didn't realize
how rewarding it would be.
It is one of my favorite thingsnow, seeing, like our team,
wearing all their Phaser gear,showing up to every meeting,
eight to five Monday throughFriday, like, this is their
career and helping them tryingto accomplish some of their
personal goals and some of theirpersonal dreams, financial
dreams.
(23:38):
Couple of our employees want tobuy a house and so it's like,
okay, let's, let's talk aboutthis.
Realistically, how long is thisgoing to take?
How can we help you get there?
It doesn't mean I can write thema big check or give them a raise
right out of the gate.
But if we have time, we canmake, we can set goals and get
there.
That has been my biggestchapter, currently, is building
a team and we are ready again toscale and we're excited to get
(24:02):
to that 2 million mark would beour next mark and we do
everything off of monthlyrecurring revenue.
This would be, about 167 Ibelieve it is monthly recurring.
Having everyone on the same pageis so much fun.
We are ready to go.
We're ready to roll.
The team part of it is way moreexciting than I had ever
imagined.
It's been very fun.
Russel (24:22):
What was the one thing you didn't expect that you had
to maybe focus on yourself froma professional development or
overcome in this new phase thatyou're talking about?
Luke (24:30):
One of the things that comes to mind, it doesn't fully
answer the question, but one ofthe biggest surprises was how
amazed people were at, like, ourculture and our team and
everything.
Cause I think we've builtsomething very, very special
without even realizing it.
We're just like, yeah, what didyour other job not do that?
It's 4:59 PM.
Can I leave?
It's like, I don't care, dowhatever you want.
(24:51):
It just amazes me, I think, howhigh of a standard we have maybe
of, like, how excited people areto work with us.
I think that's just what we'veset from the beginning.
But another thing that I'velearned from myself is just, you
absolutely have to let go of thevine.
If you're going to be able togrow and manage the team and
manage the business, because Iam doing no good to anyone.
(25:14):
If I'm the one putting out allthe fires, if I'm the one
building the websites, if I'mthe one building the ad sets, we
need to develop our team and ourpeople.
To learn how to do it, to buildthe systems, to, for me to
empower them to make decisions,even tough decisions.
One of our core values is takingownership.
If something goes astray, ifsomething goes wrong, being able
to take ownership for that andsay like, that was on me, I
(25:37):
should have caught that.
That I think has been one of thebiggest things I've learned is
just, it's okay to take multiplesteps backwards out of the
business so that you cancontinue having your head above
water, seeing where you're goingnext, because winners want to
work with winners.
If your business isn't growingor doesn't have that next thing
it's going towards, it'sprobably not an exciting place
(25:57):
to work.
We have some big goals that wewant to hit and we need to do it
together.
If my head is below water andnobody's focusing on those goals
then we're not going to go andaccomplish those.
Russel (26:07):
What a great way to, in that thought process, your
agency eventually only becomesas good as you can move
collectively or together, andyou really want to avoid this
80/20 situation where 20 percentof the team is creating 80
percent of the output or value.
Something else that I thinkyou've hit on a couple of
different ways is this idea, Ithink, especially once a
business gets past survivalmode, how important it is to
(26:30):
lead with purpose, mission, andvalues in the business.
It sounds like you've got thoseelements baked in, but just
speak to that idea of howthat's, yeah, how that exists in
your business.
Luke (26:41):
I'll give a really amazing example as well that, it just
sometimes leaves me speechless,but, so we focus on a lot of
other things rather than justdigital marketing for
excavation.
We have a mission.
We have a direction we're tryingto go as a company an impact or
trying to leave for ourcommunity and also the industry.
One of the biggest things that Iget most excited about is our
(27:02):
Phaser fundraiser.
It's for my hometown in DetroitLakes, Minnesota.
It's a small town of about 9,000 people.
I started it when the businesswas still a side hustle in 2020.
I wanted to start somethingwhere I can make a financial
impact without being rich andfamous.
I think everyone thinks like,okay, when I've made it, then I
can start a fundraiser.
I can start giving or somethinglike that.
(27:24):
I knew that I couldn't write abig check.
I had to get creative and usesome of my other skill sets, and
I think one of my other skillsets is bringing people together
for a common cause.
That first year, 2020, I calledup the Boys Girls Club in
Detroit Lakes and said, hey, ifI try and raise money for you
guys can I do that?
Is that legal or how does thiswork?
And they said, absolutely, Luke.
We'll definitely take it.
(27:44):
I said, all right.
The next week I said, we have 10days to raise as much money as
possible.
Our goal is 5,000 dollars, andwe raised 6,000 dollars.
It wasn't from me, but it's fromeveryone that collectively
donated.
That just got me fired up.
I'm like, okay.
We're going to keep this thinggoing.
Then we had our Phaserfundraiser each year after that,
which started back in 2022.
We had a black tie gala and weraised 20,000 dollars.
(28:07):
Then in 2023, last year we did30, 000, and then this year we
just wrapped up our, 2024 and weraised 40,000 dollars for the
Boys Girls Club.
But the coolest part of thatstory is we had 20 sponsors that
sponsored our fundraiser thisyear.
12 of them were our clients inconstruction.
None of them live in DetroitLakes, have ever been to Detroit
(28:29):
Lakes, but how cool is that?
That they want to spend theirhard earned money for a
marketing agency that they'repaying as well for the kids and
his community.
It just really fired me up to,like, the impact that we can
have on one another and thedrive that we can have for, just
to make that impact.
I just thought that was so coolthat, like, that many people
(28:50):
that are paying clients of oursstepped up and sponsored the
fundraiser.
Russel (28:54):
I'm not a overly emotionally expressive guy, but
I just want you to know just onthe inside, I'm jumping up and
down in my chair.
Just to hear a story like thatand how we can make business
make the world better.
It's absolutely the reason why Ido what I do.
It was a big part of my ownbusiness.
Sometimes it can be hard toexpress to folks that, you know,
so easy sometimes, especially ifthings are tight, to want to
(29:15):
focus on the dollars.
But once you're just reallyoutside of survival mode, you've
got to have these elements andyou've got to lead with purpose
and you've got to lead with,vision and values for something
better because money in itselfjust doesn't get people out of
the bed.
Doesn't get people excited.
It doesn't give something torally around.
I'm so excited for you and can'twait to see what that continues
to look like within yourbusiness.
(29:36):
I would want to keep going forhours and hours in here and talk
about all these wonderful thingsyou're doing.
But I'll leave it to myself toask a couple more questions.
I'm really just curious, what isthe big plan for the future?
Your BHAG or whatever that lookslike?
What are the goals for PhaserMarketing?
Luke (29:50):
Our BHAG was our five year goal.
We said it two years ago, soit's now our three year goal,
but it kind of relates into thatfundraiser and scaling our
business.
In 2027, I want to be able towrite a hundred thousand dollar
check to an organization,probably the Boys Girls Club.
To do that, you need to havequite a bit of net profit.
I wanted to have that as thefocus goal, but then when I zoom
(30:12):
out, what does our business needto be doing for us to feel
comfortable doing that?
I would love to be atapproximately five million
dollars in revenue in 2027 andjust have a rockstar team that
we spend time with a couple oftimes a year, we travel with.
And building careers from acompany that I had started as
just an idea with my wife and apipe dream.
(30:34):
I just think that would be sorewarding.
It's certainly a BHAG, but it'snothing that we can't accomplish
if we,, like really focus on itand work together and build
that.
Russel (30:44):
If there is a casino table in front of me right now
and I get to put a bet on thistable if that goal is going to
happen, I am putting a large sumof money on this casino bet for
you, Luke.
I have no doubt.
Luke (30:54):
I love gambling too, so I like that.
Russel (30:57):
Same.
I can't wait to see that happen.
When we get done here, we'llbook a spot for your 2027 return
to the podcast as to share thatyou've actually gotten there.
Luke (31:04):
Let's go.
Russel (31:05):
I guess, then, I'll just leave with the last question I
ask folks is are entrepreneursborn or are they made?
Luke (31:11):
Love this.
I would say that, and I don'tknow if this is allowed, but
it's a little bit of both.
I think deep down, trueentrepreneurs have it, but I
think you can mold yourself intobeing a true entrepreneur.
What I mean by that is I thinkdeep down, like when I think
about myself in college, I hadit in my bones but I had no
guidance.
(31:31):
I had no idea whatentrepreneurship meant, what it
could look like.
I didn't have many mentors atthat time.
Then you can kind of moldyourself and make it into that
if you have that deep down inyour bones, that commitment of
like, I'm willing to do whateverit takes to make this work.
That would be my answer.
It's a little bit of both, butat the same time most of it is
made and it's the continualwork, that continual drive,
(31:55):
like, getting up every day andbeing excited for that cup of
coffee, getting to work foryourself and being unemployable.
I think it's one of the greatestthings ever where I'm probably
never going to get a job everagain, because it would be very
hard for me to go back to that.
Being employed is great for somany people and I think that's
where it goes back to the boringpart of like, I just don't think
I could ever go back to that.
I love that question.
(32:16):
It's something I'll probablywrestle with for a long time,
but I think it's a little bit ofboth.
Russel (32:19):
Wonderful answer.
I love the tagline there ofjust, make yourself
unemployable.
There's so many connotations andcontexts you could apply to
that, that, that makes sense.
If people want to know moreabout Phaser Marketing, where
can they go?
Luke (32:31):
Probably one of my favorites is all of our social
media accounts, either personal,Luke Eggebraaten, or our
business accounts.
I run both of them and alwayswill.
Facebook, Instagram, andLinkedIn.
LinkedIn is probably my favoriteby far.
If you connect with myself onthere or our business, uh, you
can shoot me a message and itwill be me responding.
I would love to, love to hearfrom you, especially anyone that
(32:53):
listened to this episode and gotthis far, kudos to you.
Cause this was, I had a blastRussell and, uh, I appreciate it
so much.
Russel (33:00):
I appreciate you throwing out that opportunity.
Definitely take advantage ofthat folks.
The pleasure has been all mine,Luke.
What an amazing journey you'vebeen on in what is a relatively
short run in all things, allrespects of the agency world.
Love to see what you'veaccomplished so far and can't
wait to see what the futurelooks like for you.
Really appreciate you taking thetime to share that with us
today.
Luke (33:19):
Thank you so much, Russel.
Can't tell you how much Iappreciate it and excited for
the episode in 2027.
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?
(33:39):
Send an email topodcast@performancefaction.com.
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.
(34:03):
In 2022, so I mentioned I started a seven figure agency
and they have this mastermind inMiami every year.
I'm like so excited to always bethere, meet up with, like, my
new friends and business owners.
To give you context, I live inPhoenix, Arizona, and I also fly
very cheap, so I'll take thecheapest frontier flight.
Usually when I go to Miami, I'llfly to, like, Las Vegas, and
(34:26):
then to Miami, or I'll fly tolike Detroit or Toronto, and
then I'll fly down to Miami.
Routes that make no sense, butit saves me a hundred bucks.
My total flight time to get fromPhoenix to Miami for this
intensive was like 16 hours.
I'm like, no big deal.
I'm so excited.
I pull up in Miami, humid as allhell, like, in July.
(34:47):
Get off the airplane at 8 a.m.
I've been flying all day and allnight.
I text my buddy who I'm gettinga hotel with.
I'm like, hey man, what time areyou getting in?
Today was Monday and he said, itwas, uh, he's like, oh, I get in
on Monday at 11 a.m.
I was like, that's a weird wayto say it cause like today's
Monday.
All of a sudden, like my heartdropped and I'm standing in the,
like, taxi line in Miamisweating, cause I'm wearing my
(35:09):
suit and I'm like, there's noway.
All of a sudden I'm scrambling.
I like call one of my otherbuddies.
I'm like, what time are yougetting into my, to the
intensive?
He's like, dude, that's in twoweeks.
So I flew all the way across thecountry, two weeks early for
this conference, and I'mstanding there in my suit coat,
it was one of those situationsand stories that was so
ridiculous.
I just had to laugh.
(35:29):
I'm like, of course I would dothis.
How could I not double check thedates?
I got then the taxi cab to myhotel.
I started walking back to theairport and I stopped and got a
Dairy Queen ice cream cone,cause I'm like, can't get any
worse so might as well get icecream.
Made the most out of that trip,got the next flight out and took
another 18 hour red-eye flighthome that same day, just because
(35:51):
I was like, well, I might aswell go home to see my wife and
try and explain why I was gonefor one day.
I guess the moral of that storyis.
It's never as bad as you thinkit is, just to take every
situation lightly and like, havefun with it.
Cause people are in way worsesituations.
I got to fly across the country.
I was in Miami, Florida.
It's really not a big deal.
I'm self employed, so I'm notmissing anything.
(36:12):
The second thing is, is doublecheck your dates anytime you're
flying.
Make sure that you're going, uh,but that story and I still get
crap from the whole group fromthat all the time.
That one will live on.
Russel (36:22):
That is an epic one and very, very warranted, you got
flack.
Every now and then I'll freakout for like a half a second
that I did just book a wrongdate for a flight.
I'm sure you have that OCD atthis point going forward way
more than anybody else, butthat's an amazing story.
Luke (36:39):
Oh yeah.
I double and triple check, andeven then it's just like the
worst thing that's going tohappen is you just grab the next
flight.
What a country that we live inwhere you can just grab the next
flight and it's a couple hundredbucks and it's really never a
big deal.
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