For new entrepreneurs the rate of success isn’t that great: about one in five business owners fail in their first year, and half will fail within the first five years. And I’ve seen that first hand as someone who’s helped thousands of people start online businesses.
I wish I could say that every single person who has come through one of my programs has been successful, but the truth is that it takes a certain kind of attitude to succeed. That might sound overly simplistic, but you have to believe that failure isn’t an option, and then prepare yourself to fight every day against a pretty high rate of failure.
When I look at the people who have succeeded with my programs, they have that attitude – tenacity, grit, determination, whatever you want to call it.
Brien Gearin is one of those people, and he joined the Facebook Side Hustle course back in 2017 as one of our first students. He calls himself a “late bloomer” and “terrible employee,” who realized pretty quickly that he was better suited for entrepreneurship.
We recently caught up to talk about his journey to entrepreneurship, how he’s designing the life he wants, growing your business to meet your client’s needs, where he’s headed, and more.
Hey Brien, I’m really excited to talk more about where you’re at with your agency these days, but one of your client acquisition strategies in the beginning was leveraging your local Chamber of Commerce really early on – can you tell me more about that?
Yes, besides my very first client who came from LinkedIn, joining the Chamber of Commerce in my town changed the game for me. After about six months of pretty much striking out with all other methods or being too afraid to really give them a fair shake, I called myself out for hiding behind the computer.
I have always been an outgoing person and could hold a conversation with anyone, so I figured maybe it was time to figure out how to meet people in my area and see if it might be easier to do business in person.
So I forced myself down to the local Chamber office, inquired about membership and at that meeting, the president of the Chamber said they’d love to have me and that they always get questions about Facebook ads and had no one to refer people to.
She then asked if I’d lead a lunch-and-learn the following month. I said yes, did a Facebook ads 101 presentation for 15 people, booked eight meetings, and sold my next three clients.
That’s incredible. Are you still involved with them now?
My Chamber participation is near zero now because my business has expanded beyond it. But for those two to three years that I was active in multiple Chambers, I honed my relationship and networking building skills that are still the backbone of my client acquisition.
In just the past year or so my business, Ricochet Digital Marketing, has nearly tripled and it is due in very large part to the relationships I’ve been cultivating for two plus years now as well as becoming close with more and more influential people.
Congrats, man! I remember you really struggling to find your first client. What is it like when you look back on trying to land your first client?
It’s kind of weird looking back, but I never did truly consider quitting. In the 11 months it took me from learning Facebook ads to getting my first dollar, I was all sorts of frustrated but knew I had burned the boats. There were literally no other options, and I refused to consider getting a real job again.
Could I have gotten a job doing something somewhere if I needed to? Sure, but I was so afraid of the anger and shame I’d feel if I quit that I never even considered it.
Yeah, I remember that feeling when I quit teaching to blog full time. It was that failure wasn’t an option. Can you tell me more about that feeling for you?
I had been completely unhappy with where I was in my professional life and dreading the thought of “this must be how life is, reporting to other adults who I don’t even like.”
I knew I couldn’t live a happy life that way. What was going through my head was an unshakeable belief that I could do it.
It was a “now or never” type of feeling, so I burned the boats and said there’s no looking back, only option is to succeed, somehow. Though I had no clue how to do so at that time.
One of the things I’ve loved about watching you grow as an entrepreneur, and it’s probably because of your “there’s no looking back” attitude is that you’ve done a great job of matching your client’s service needs even if they’re outside of your current offerings. Did you have an approach to expanding your services beyond Facebook ads?
I knew I needed to add more services if I intended to grow beyond my own capabilities so that’s exactly what I did.
I was a one man band only doing Facebook ads until around 2021 when I was introduced to a guy who ran a business only doing Google ads in my area. At about the same time, I received a referral to someone looking for Google ads. So I brought on the guy needing Google ads, and I then contracted out my new Google ads expert with him fulfilling the account under my agency.
We’ve been working together ever since. I have since added Google business profile management (using AI), email newsletter management, SEO management, web development, and direct mail. And by my experience, I’ve become a strategist as well since nearly each account requires guidance, strategy, and budget management.
That’s such a smart way to build your business, and by that I mean your team too. So I have to ask, where does your business stand right now? As in how much are you making, what’s your team size like, etc?
Business is booming! Monthly recurring revenue is just a tick under $30k, and we’re due to cross that barrier in the next 30 days with incoming projects. I currently have five contractors that work with me, one of which is in the process of working towards partnership in the business. We have huge plans for 2025!
I can’t wait to see what the rest of this year brings for you. As we wrap up, tell me where you see your business in five to ten years?
We are in the process of building out our flagship webinar series that will build new relationships and develop new business opportunities with home service provider companies. This will grow our roster of full-service clients exponentially while providing unmatched value, even for those who may not even end up working with us. This will be the springboard to seven figures in ARR.
Within five to ten years my presumption is this business will have been acquired at a large multiple or be a massive acquisition target. Who knows what the future holds but we’re building this business to be a big target, whether or not we even intend to sell.
I will be anxiously following along to see how things go, and it’s truly an honor to be part of your journey.
If you want to follow along with Brien’s entrepreneurial journey and agency, you can find him here on LinkedIn and check out how he’s helping other budding entrepreneurs with Millionaire University.
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