We are excited to bring to you a personal interview from a very prominent agency growth expert. Without further ado, we introduce Jason Swenk!
Eric Elliott:
I am so pumped up today to have this guy on the line with us today, and that guy, who I’m referring to is Mr. Jason Swenk, and today we are going to Swenk School. This is your Daily Development.
If you’re running away from the future man, you’re going to get caught up in the past.
Eric Elliott:
All right, so today I have none other than the man himself, Mr. Jason Swenk, and I’m going to brag on him a little bit, because there was a point, where I was struggling as an agency owner, I looked online and you can see thousands of people that are claiming to be experts, but no one has really proven themselves, until I really started looking into Mr. Jason Swenk; and I actually purchased one of his products. And I want to say that I’m taking our agency to Swenk School, so I am honored to have this gentleman on the line with us today, Mr. Jason Swenk. Jason, how are you man?
Jason Swenk:
Doing good, Eric, man, thanks for having me on.
Eric Elliott:
Thank you. Thank you, Jason. You have an impressive resume and also an impressive business history, so I definitely don’t want to screw it up man, so if you could totally just introduce yourself to our listeners out there, I’d appreciate that.
Jason Swenk:
Yeah, so I help agencies. I really guide them through a proven framework, so they can grow their agency faster and easier. And, you know, my backstory is, in ’99 I worked for a company, called Arthur Andersen, a paper shredding company, that we all know they took down Enron. They were an accounting firm.
Eric Elliott:
Wow.
Jason Swenk:
But I worked for them for about six months. I did not like it, and I was lucky enough that one of my best friends looked like Justin Timberlake, and so one day I was just messing around with, I think it was Front Page or maybe Netscape Composer.
Eric Elliott:
Oh, Netscape.
Jason Swenk:
If you remember that, while Al Gore invented the internet, and I designed a website called Nsh*t, and it got really popular. And, yeah, I know that’s hilarious, and it got really popular and people started asking me to design websites. Now, this is in ’99 so…
Eric Elliott:
Oh, my gosh.
Jason Swenk:
…I was like, yeah, sure. And so I just started designing websites, and then I like started getting busier and busier, started treating myself as a[n expert], I just kept increasing my prices, and people kept saying yes. I’m like, “Oh, this is awesome.” And then just started hiring more and more people, as you know more and more people wanted us to design websites. And so that’s how I got my start. Did that for 12 years. Grew it up to a fairly big team, and then a lot of people wanted to buy us, and we got the right offer, right timing and we said, “Yes.” And I didn’t know what the heck I wanted to do after that. Because like I think as entrepreneurs, we all kind of fall into you know running a business or different kinds of businesses. You kind of listen to the market, if you read the signs. And so I didn’t know what I wanted to do next. I literally was bored kind of sitting at the house. ‘Cause I’m a creator, right?
Eric Elliott:
Yeah.
Jason Swenk:
Everybody always ask like…
Eric Elliott:
Absolutely.
Jason Swenk:
You know, they’re always like, “Well, if you sold your agency for so much, you know, why are you working and why you trying to sell?” I’m like, “Well ‘cause I’m a creator, I’m a builder…
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
…and, plus, I want to help the market and I want to build this up even bigger than the agency, so that’s why.
Eric Elliott:
Man.
Jason Swenk:
So that’s my story.
Eric Elliott:
I totally agree with you. I’ve got a question about your buddy that looks like Justin Timberlake. Can he still pass for a look alike?
Jason Swenk:
Oh yeah, definitely, yeah, yeah. I mean he has that curly afro and all that kind of stuff.
Eric Elliott:
Oh man he had the blonde highlights?
Jason Swenk:
Yeah, and then my other buddy started looking like Justin Gruber or that famous singer, I can’t remember.
Eric Elliott:
Bieber?
Jason Swenk:
Not Justin Bieber, oh, God, no, I wouldn’t claim that.
Eric Elliott:
Well I mean I guess well you roll with good company, man, so, Jason, man…
Jason Swenk:
Yeah, they’re stunt doubles.
Eric Elliott:
Il tell you, you know, I’ll be a little personal here, and I’ll just say you know a lot of stuff that Jason’s saying, man, I’ve seen it, I’ve read it, I’ve watched it all, and I think he’s an awesome teacher and mentor. And definitely a proven leader with some proven systems and we’ll get into that as well later.
Jason Swenk:
Sure.
Eric Elliott:
But, you know, not just for himself, you know, but also for other agencies. I mean Jason you’ve worked with probably over a thousand agencies around the world, right?
Jason Swenk:
Yeah, so we’ve helped over 20,000 agency owners, I think 48 or 54 countries, I can’t remember the last fact, but…
Eric Elliott:
Wow.
Jason Swenk:
…I mean it’s incredible about how you can reach people all over the world, now with all the technology. And if you specialize, and you really want to help, I mean it’s really endless. I mean I think we all think too small, and I even have to challenge myself to think bigger. And I think that’s what holds us all back.
Eric Elliott:
Yeah, Jason, when you owned your agency, do you think that you thought too small, at that point?
Jason Swenk:
I did. In the very beginning, yeah, I mean I didn’t even think in the beginning. I mean I didn’t…
Eric Elliott:
You just did it.
Jason Swenk:
Yeah, I mean my first client asked me for an invoice. I didn’t know what a damn invoice was.
Eric Elliott:
Oh, man.
Jason Swenk:
I couldn’t Google it, Google wasn’t around, so, you know, and we were just being reactive.
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
And I think we got to maybe year four, and then I actually started thinking. Then going, thinking about like really what’s that clarity? What do we want to build? Who do we want to serve? You know, how do we want to be different, right?
Eric Elliot:
Wow.
Jason Swenk:
And then, you know, starting to, you know, kind of implement those systems; but, yeah, the first couple of years we just reacted, we’re like, “You need a website? Cool, here.”
Eric Elliott:
You know, Jason, I remember one of the conversations I had with you, and this word came up, me too agency. And the more and more that I think about it, or the more I watch different agencies, I always think like, wow, I mean Jason’s right that these guys are me too agencies. It’s almost like the agencies are designing the websites for themselves, versus the customer or the potential customer.
Jason Swenk:
Yep, exactly. Yeah, I mean a me too business, or a me too agency is you’re modeling, here’s the biggest mistake that people do, is the smaller agencies, as you’re starting out, or you’re a smaller business, as you’re starting out, you’re looking at the big guy.
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
Right? And so you look at the big guys and you look at what they’re doing, and you model what they’re doing currently, not modeling how they actually got there.
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
And that’s the biggest mistake, right? So think about when Facebook came along. Did Facebook go up against Myspace right out of the gate? Hell, no, they didn’t.
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
They would have got crushed, right? They, literally, went after Harvard students, and then colleges, and then ex-boyfriends and girlfriends blocking each other, so like you kind of have that progression. And that’s the same thing with agencies. They look at these big agencies, like a a razor fish, or a moxie, or a gray, or whatever, and they go, “Man, they’re doing everything.
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
They’re going after everybody. They have all these different sectors.” And then they go, “We need to do that.”
Eric Elliott:
Right, right.
Jason Swenk:
But they don’t have the manpower, they don’t have the experience to do that. And so the only way you can really kind of separate yourself from everybody else is, to truly just define a specialization. Now, I’m not saying like you’re an agency space you can’t just say, “I’m gonna do FCO.”
Eric Elliott:
Right.
Jason Swenk:
They found it, right? But you could say, “I’m gonna be a PR agency, because that’s up and coming, that’s new.” You could say that was Instagram’s story, or whatever, you know, some kind of defined specialization, or the easier way is, do it after an industry. And the reason you do that is, so then you can change the positioning, and you can change the focus on the person actually coming to your website or digesting your marketing. Here’s the deal is, in your marketing or your sales pitch or all that, agencies put themselves as Batman, right?
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
And if you make yourself Batman, you’re gonna make that visitor, that person digesting that’s not Robin, and no one wants to wear those ugly green tights. You have to position yourself as Alfred, as the trusted advisor, the trusted guide, in order to help that super hero, you know, get to what they need. Like every super hero has a guide or an advisor, right? Tiger Woods, had his coach, you know, Michael Jordan had a coach.
Eric Elliott:
Right, right.
Jason Swenk:
Right? Steve Jobs had advisors, right? So you got to think about it that way, and then once you do that then you can separate yourself like, if you look at my home page, you would think it would talk all about me. It doesn’t talk anything about me until the very bottom, under the cat video, but it ask questions, and it positions. That’s the easiest way to kind of just change the focus to them.
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
And the easiest way to change the focus is, to ask questions.
Eric Elliott:
You know, Jason, I think some agency folks are lost. I mean, at some point, we were as well, just in full disclosure, but I think what happens is we have this perpetual state of rebranding. Like you said every agency is looking like, “Oh, my gosh, look at Y&R, it looks awesome. Let’s design our site like Y&R. We’ll get clients that way,” you know what I mean? So it’s almost like you have this perpetual state of rebranding. Let’s redo the website, maybe this will change the way we do things. Do you see that happening a lot with agencies, Jason?
Jason Swenk:
All the time, and they keep looking at the big guys. What they don’t know is, the big guys are not generating the business that you guys actually want off their website. They’re generating it through their network, and having their actual salesforce going out. Like no one cares about your stupid portfolio. You can have the best portfolio in the world, great, you can have the coolest awards in the world, who cares?
Eric Elliott:
Right.
Jason Swenk:
I’ve only lost one deal in my life time over not winning an award, and that was with Mellow Mushroom. I will never eat their pizza again, it’s crappy pizza, because they said Jason, “We’re not going with you, because we want to win Addy awards.” And I’m like, “You are crazy, I’m never eating your pizza.”
Eric Elliott:
Really?
Jason Swenk:
I don’t hold a grudge.
Eric Elliott:
Wow.
Jason Swenk:
But like at the end of the day, like everybody else went with us like Lotus Cars, AT&T, Hitachi, all these big brands, because of what we could for them.
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
Not because of the awards we won, not because of our portfolio, right? That’s all focused on us.
Eric Elliott:
Yeah.
Jason Swenk:
Focus on them, focus on helping them, and understanding what their challenges are, and understanding what they want. And you really got to dive deep into that, in order to really separate yourself from everybody else.
Eric Elliott:
So now, Jason, man, gosh you’re on fire right now, so one thing I want to jump into now, you talked about agencies being good at something, and specializing in something. Is it possible for them to have more than one niche nowadays?
Jason Swank:
Yes, but you have to start with one. Our agency, once we started thinking and getting smart, we started with one and then we dominated that, and we got really good. It all comes down to focus, right? Then it’s one commitment to build success. That’s what focus spells out, if you really thought about it.
Eric Elliott:
Wow.
Jason Swenk:
And so once we had success in one, then we can replicate that like a franchise, and then we can build other practice areas. So we first started off with a particular technology, just like Finity, then we went to SharePoint, and then we started going into the industry space, like higher education, automotive, you know, home improvement, all those different things, and we started building those practice areas. You have a practice director that acts as kind of the expert, or the so-called, you know, they understand and they obsess over that. Because if you put one person in charge of four factors, man, they’re going to get crushed. You’re not gonna know, you know, what to put out, you’re just going to be like, “Oh, I need to do this and this and this.”
Eric Elliott:
Now, here’s one thing that I guess that baffles me, and probably a lot of other agency owners though is, when we work with clients, you know, our clients are kind of specialist in their business and we help them with that, but we can’t help our own businesses at all, you know? One guest referred to it as the cobbler’s children, it’s just, why do you think we’re just so hardheaded? Why are we so hardheaded? Because we open up shop, we think we know everything, and we don’t know everything, sometimes we don’t have our processes, our back offices setup. I mean, why are we so hardheaded, Jason?
Jason Swank:
Because they’re too close to it. I mean at the end of the day, everybody struggles with that. I mean like, for example, a couple months ago I changed the picture on my home page, and it was just a cheesy picture, the stupid pose that everybody has of me, and I’m like, “Oh, this is horrible I can’t think of anything else to do.” And, literally, I spend like a week going, “What kind of image can I put there?” Right?
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
And then finally one of my clients says, “Put an image of you speaking.” Like, oh, it’s so easy, right? ‘Cause we’re too close to it.
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
And you’ve got to kind of back out of it, either get away from the business for a while, or have some outside help. It just — I hear that all day long. Like, literally, some of the things I go over with, you know, my clients, I’ll be like, “Man, we tell our clients that all day long, but we can’t do it for ourselves.”
Eric Elliott:
Right, and, Jason…
Jason Swenk:
You know, but, you know, and some people have that skill of kind of stepping outside of their own body, and kind of seeing it as a customer…
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
…versus, you know, just, “Yeah, we know everything, and we think out client want to know everything we do.”
Eric Elliott:
Wow.
Jason Swenk:
No, they don’t.
Eric Elliott:
Jason, I’m gonna take a break real quick, man, and we’re gonna pick right back up, where you left off, ‘cause I think a lot of folks need to hear that. So we’re gonna take a break real quick, and we’re gonna come back with Mr. Jason Swenk, and we’ll keep you in Swenk School. How about that Jason?
Jason Swank:
Sounds good.
Eric Elliott:
All right.
Eric Elliott:
I am in Swenk School right now. And we just left off with Jason kind of giving us a little story about himself, where he said he put himself on his website, with kind of a picture of him speaking. And Jason said that some agency owners, we are too close to the business, and sometimes we need outside help and that’s where he comes in. So, Jason, kind of elaborate a little more on us being too close to the business, or if you can give us just kind of an example of what you mean there?
Jason Swenk:
Well, I mean look you guys are in the business, and we assume that everybody knows exactly what we know. And so that actually hinders a lot of our marketing that we do, because we’re like, “Oh, they already know that, I don’t need to put that out there.”
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
But they may not. Or you may assume that they need to know more than you’re actually giving them. And so we’re just too close to it, and a lot times we have to step out of our skin, and kind of look at it in a visitor or a prospects view…
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
…and say, “If this was the first time seeing this, what would be my first impression?” Like within the first five seconds.
Eric Elliott:
Right.
Jason Swenk:
And like I was telling you before, like I had a cheesy picture of me on the home page, like every idiot does on their website, and I was like, “Oh, I can’t stand this,” ‘cause I don’t want to look like every idiot.
Eric Elliott:
Right.
Jason Swenk:
I want to look like my own idiot. I, literally, for like a week I couldn’t figure out what image to put there, until one of my clients was like, “Dude, just put a picture of like an authority.” I’m like, “Well, what do you mean?” And he’s like, “You speaking on stage.” I’m like, “Dude, that’s brilliant.”
Eric Elliott:
Yeah.
Jason Swenk:
I mean so like I knew that all along, but I was just too close to it, and that’s how a lot of us are. That’s why you’ve got to, you know, sometimes agencies need to use other agencies.
Eric Elliott:
I mean that’s a good point though. One of the things I want to ask you too is, do you find it where some agencies just don’t trust others? Because it’s — and especially such a dog eat dog world. You know I have a few select agencies that are friends with ours, and, you know, we kind of talk to them and they kind of operate as almost like a board for our agency; where they may help me with some pitfalls, and I may help them with some pitfalls, but some agencies they’re afraid to talk to other agencies.
Jason Swenk:
The ones that are afraid are the ones that are not constantly learning and innovating, right? They’ve reached a certain level, and they’re just trying to protect it, right? Versus like I tell everybody what I do, I don’t care. Like I have all kinds of copycats trying to be behind me. I’m always innovating.
Eric Elliott:
Right.
Jason Swenk:
I’m always doing something new. That’s why I started blogging three weeks ago, right? Like, cool, you suckers are coping my videos, and all that kind of stuff? Cool. You cannot copy this, right? And so you got to always be innovating. And so the people that are standoffish, don’t worry about them.
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
They will not be around very long. They won’t last. And they’re trying to go after everybody versus going after a specific market. Like, literally…
Eric Elliott:
That’s a good point.
Jason Swenk:
…their competition, if you really looked at it, if you really specialize your only competition is cat videos and procrastination. That’s it.
Eric Elliott:
Wow, cat videos and procrastination. Now, the minute I see someone on YouTube trying to do a video with three cats around them, Jason, I’m gonna be pissed, and I’m gonna let you know, okay?
Jason Swenk:
Well, that’s why I used the cat video on my home page.
Eric Elliott:
Well, Jason, I want to talk about this one product that you have. I mean you probably have more. But the agency playbook, I want to talk about that. Because I know when we started out, it was like, “Okay, yeah, we have talent, we have talent, but we had no processes in the beginning. Now, let’s talk about the agency playbook, because not only is it just, you know, the process, it kind of tells you what to do. Am I wrong?
Jason Swenk:
Yeah, so exactly. Well, it walks you through the systems that you need. And if you don’t have the people, the only difference between where you all are at now, and where you want to go, is the systems that you need in place.
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
And it kind of goes back to the very beginning. So think about like when I started my business, I started by accident, right? And probably a lot of you listening are probably in the same boat. Like, literally, people, you know how to do something cool, right?
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
In marketing or design or development, and someone offered you money, you’re like, “This is awesome.” And then you stuck up the middle finger to the person you were working for, and said, “I’m out of here, I’m gonna go do it myself.”
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
Right?
Eric Elliott:
Right, yeah.
Jason Swank:
And you start doing it, but you didn’t have the first system, which I call it clarity. You didn’t know where you wanted to go, why you wanted to do it. You didn’t know who you wanted to go after. You didn’t have that vision. And if you don’t have that foundation, you are screwed. Because then as you hire employees, you hire people, they’re going to probably come to you for questions, and you’re gonna be like, “Dude, why do you keep asking me this?” But it’s actually your fault, because if you gave them the vision of where the company was going, then they could make decisions based on where the company is going, why they do what they do, and who they go after, versus making decisions work better for themselves.
Eric Elliott:
That’s a great point, Jason.
Jason Swenk:
You got to have that vision. I mean it’s just like using Google Maps, great amazing software gets you anywhere in the world, but if you don’t put in the destination, completely useless.
Eric Elliott:
Great point. Now…
Jason Swenk:
And — yes, go on.
Eric Elliott:
The next step was you were talking about clarity, and how about like the positioning part of it?
Jason Swenk:
Well, yeah, so if you don’t know who you’re going after and where you’re going, how the hell are you going to position your agency to be the choice rather than a choice, right? So if you don’t know who you’re going after, picking a particular market, and here’s the deal, guys, is you’re only marketing to this particular niche or niche, wherever you’re at in the world, right?
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
You still can take on work outside of that, if you want. Like I work with all kinds of companies outside of digital agencies, but if you go on my website it just says digital agency. So you’re just marketing to that niche, and you’re doing exactly what I was talking about before in the positioning is, you’re changing the focal point to the prospect not yourself. No one cares about you. Not until they know you can actually help them.
Eric Elliott:
Right.
Jason Swenk:
So focus all your attention on them, position yourself that way, and you’ll win. Now, here’s the other deal is, after you get the clarity, and the positioning, and all these build upon each other, right? It’s kind of like you’re building a foundation. If you’re building a house on a mountain, and you don’t have the right foundation, it’s gonna crumble , it’s gonna fall to the ground.
Eric Elliott:
That’s right.
Jason Swenk:
And so after you have the positioning, now you can look at offering, right? And so so many of us, including myself, I tend to do this, is we pitch our core service first, right? We’re pitching marriage. We go up to that significant other in the bar or pub, and we say, “Will you marry me?” And they’re like, “Hell, no,” unless you’re like Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie, or whatever, right? They’re going to say no most of the time, the normal ones. The crazy ones you want to avoid.
Eric Elliott:
Right.
Jason Swenk:
And so you’ve got to figure out what’s your offer? Like can I offer a slice off my core offer. Can I do what I call foot in the door offer. Which is like a strategy session, a blueprint, an audit, paying, right? So you’re actually converting them from, you know, a prospect to a paying customer. So, now, if you do that, they’re gonna be 20 times more likely to pay you again…
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
…if you fulfil on the first promise. Does that make sense?
Eric Elliott:
Yeah, totally.
Jason Swenk:
And so you’ve got clarity, you’ve got positioning, and you’ve got offering. Now you can get into prospecting. See this is where one of the biggest mistakes agencies make is, they skip the first three systems and they go straight into prospecting. And they start trying to generate leads, but they don’t know where they’re going, they don’t know who they’re going after.
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
They have a bad offer, right? And so like everything crumbles, and they go, “Oh, Facebook doesn’t work, LinkedIn doesn’t work, or this doesn’t work.” I’m like, “Well, yeah, ‘cause you didn’t have the right foundation in order to build upon.
Eric Elliott:
Now, you just said with the prospecting, now, prospecting has changed so much, man. You know, Jason, I’ve been in the industry, just in marketing and advertising for almost 15 years now, and the agency space almost eight years. So the prospecting has changed so much, where you can’t use those interruptive tactics, like knocking on the door, or, “Hey, my name’s Sally Mae, and I’d like to talk to you about my agency.” I mean have you seen prospecting just change?
Jason Swenk:
Well, people think it’s changed, but I don’t really think it has, right? So I think people you have a lot more at your disposal, but at the end of the day, it’s people-to-people, right? It’s not C-to-C, it’s not B-to-B.
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
…it’s people to people, right. And so I believe in prospecting. You need to have three different channels. At least two channels. You need an outbound channel, which is picking up the phone and calling people.
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
Now, here’s the deal is, when they call people they’re not trying to help, they’re trying to sell them.
Eric Elliott:
That’s correct.
Jason Swenk:
And that’s the biggest mistake, or they’re thinking about what in it for me right now, versus thinking long-term. I go and like I watch the video with Jeff Bezos from Amazon, three things that they do, the part of their core value; they go one is customer centered, like they obsess over their customer, innovation is the other, and long-term, right. And if you look at anybody that thinks way, they’re crushing it right now.
Eric Elliott:
Wow.
Jason Swenk:
Or they’re going to crush it. And so we’re thinking too short-term, versus thinking long-term of going, like, for example, if I was doing outbound strategy, I would say — and let’s say you’re doing, well let’s use an example I did. So our core service was web design. We wanted to sell like 100,000 plus designs or dollar designs.
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swank:
So we would say all right, well anybody that would spend that they’re probably spending money on advertising. Probably spending a lot of money on advertising. So what numbers can we look at?
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
And I’d say, “Well, if they’re spending over $10,000 a month on AdWords, it’s gonna be a good prospect. So they say, “Okay, so we’re gonna literally come up with a strategy, and call these people.” So we’d call them up and say, “Hey, we know this, that you’re spending over $10,000 a month on AdWords. Tons of, you know, what we’ve seen in the past is there’s tons of overspending, and people doing it the wrong way, and a lot of agencies are, you know, taking advantage of you. We offer a service that can actually audit that…
Eric Elliott:
Yeah.
Jason Swenk:
…and make sure you’re doing it the right way.” And so that would be our foot in the door. That’s how we could actually help them out.
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
Or we would call someone up and say like, “Hey,” let’s say we were calling the hospitality industry, I’d say, you know, “Hey, are you aware the Power Editor, and how retargeting actually works in the hospitality space, and what you can actually do? I’d love to take ten minutes and show you.” And then you know, then we’d go from there. Like you’re helping them…
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
…not selling them. Like you don’t have any expectations for a return for a while.
Eric Elliott:
That’s a good point. So you said they should be three channels, when you’re prospecting. You said there’s outbound and what else?
Jason Swenk:
Inbound.
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
You need to be putting out valuable content on a consistent basis for a particular market. The last part is one of the most important, for a particular market. Too many agencies, too many businesses are trying to put out content for everybody.
Eric Elliott:
Yeah.
Jason Swenk:
You’re going to fail. And it’s going to be general, and you’re going to look like a me too business, or a me too agency. You got to have like headlines like, “Are you an agency owner, and are you tired of the prospect going completely silent after you send the proposal?” Like headlines like that.
Eric Elliott:
Right.
Jason Swenk:
They’re like, check, check, check, you know.
Eric Elliott:
Well, that’s actually how I found you by what you were actually — your inbound. I actually found you that way, and then, you know, we actually started talking from that way, so definitely true.
Jason Swenk:
Heck, yeah.
Eric Elliott:
Definitely true.
Jason Swenk:
And then the third part is strategic partnerships. So I mentioned we became one of the best partners in the world for Microsoft and say Finity, right? So figure out who else your audience is actually using…
Eric Elliott:
Uh-huh.
Jason Swenk:
…or going, you know, or going after them, and see how you can actually help them out. Now, don’t be the typical person going, “Hey, you’re going after the same people, you know, sending leads,” right, or, “Can you blast your list?” I get that all the time like, “Can you blast your list for me?” I’m like, “No, you didn’t offer me any value.” It’s kind of like a bank.
Eric Elliott:
Right.
Jason Swenk:
You’ve got to make deposits before you make withdrawals.
Eric Elliott:
That’s right.
Jason Swenk:
Right? So you’ve got to think about how can you help them? I mean I’ve got a friend of mine, Jay Baer wrote — I guess I had him on the podcast a long time ago, and he talked about it’s helping not selling. And it’s so true. Like think about how you can help someone, and you’ll never have to sell anything.
Eric Elliott:
Wow. Jason, you’re blowing this up right now. I mean I think there’s more. I would love to continue going on and talking about the agency playbook, and I think there’s some more steps, but what I’m gonna do is, is it okay with you, if I do an episode two, Jason? Can we do that? So what we’ll just definitely be respectful of our listeners time here, and just kind of wrap it up. So, Jason, I want to thank you definitely for being on the show, and for our listeners you can see this guy is super knowledgeable, and he is the truth, he’s definitely the truth. So I encourage any agency owner to get out there, and check out Jason. And, Jason, if you don’t mind, could you tell folks exactly where they can find you?
Jason Swank:
Yeah, so I’m gonna give you a fun and easy website to remember. Do swenk.it So all you have to do is swenk it.
Eric Elliott:
I like that.
Jason Swenk:
And Swenk is spelled with an E not an A. So swenk.it, and you’ll go to a page, and it will basically allow you to opt in, in order to receive all the information that we send out on a weekly basis. And then another place, obviously, is go to JasonSwenk.com, and, literally, we give away probably 75, 80 percent of our knowledge for free, and our weekly podcast that we interview agency owners, or the daily blog that we do on YouTube, so, you know, hit us up there, and if we can ever help out let us know. But here’s the deal, take action.
Eric Elliott:
Absolutely.
Jason Swank:
Actually transactions, so hopefully you learned one thing from today. Go take action. Write it down and go do it now.
Eric Elliott:
You heard the man. You heard him, take action. And, also, I want you guys to take action, as well, so stay tuned. We’re gonna bring you a new episode every Wednesday so each week we’ll give you an episode of your daily development, and if it’s content that you crave, just log on to veryimportantplacement.com, sign up for updates, and also get our weekly video marketing minute. And we love reviews here, one star’s cool, but five stars make us look awesome. So make sure you check us out, take a listen, give us your reviews on wherever you listen to your content. You Google Play, Sound Cloud or iTunes, and this has been your Daily Development. Thank you again, Mr. Swenk.
Jason Swenk:
Thanks man, thanks for having me.