Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
In this episode of Faith, Frontlines, and Fortune, Anderson Salgado sits down with Keith Hubert, a fractional CMO and VP at Sagum, to explore the world of digital advertising, sales, and business growth. Keith shares insights on the role of a fractional CMO, the challenges of agency sales in today’s economic climate, and the unique commission-based model at Sagum that fosters entrepreneurial spirit among its team. The conversation delves into Keith’s transition from owning and exiting his business to working at Sagum, the importance of long-term client relationships, and the impact of the 2020 economic surge on e-commerce and marketing agencies. Keith also reflects on major business lessons, including a $9 million loss at his former company and the value of learning from setbacks to build a more resilient business strategy.
Creators and Guests
Guest
Keith Hubert
Started in marketing as a freelance photographer and videographer while studying at BYU for startups. One of those start-ups, Create Room, brought him in as an owner. Keith drove the marketing department from $1M in sales to $25M in sales per year He now works at Sagum and wants to pass on his experience to other budding entrepreneurs in the e-commerce industry.
What is Faith, Frontlines and Fortune?
Explore inspiring journeys of business, life, faith, and military entrepreneurship with Anderson Salgado. Tune in for deep dives into the experiences of industry leaders, Christian warriors, beauty experts and veteran entrepreneurs, sharing their stories of resilience, innovation, and success.
Anderson Salgado: Welcome to another
episode of Faith Frontlines on Fortune.
I have the pleasure today
to have Keith Hubert is a
fractional CMO and VP at Sagum.
Sagum is a company that
specializes in social media ads.
love for you, Keith, to give us a
little bit more information about
it, but first thing that comes to
mind is what is A fractional CMO.
Keith Hubert: Yeah.
So historical word for it,
might be consultant or, you
know, more, more negative.
Now, you hear a lot of people say
consultants, you know, they help
you, they tell you how to get there,
but don't actually do it with you.
And so the part I like about a
fractional CMO is we work with them.
Like we're, in the front lines with them.
We're like at Sagum specifically,
we're running ads with them.
We're helping them with email and
we're helping them grow without
just telling them what to do.
but we're also doing that as well.
Cause there's not everything we could do.
so yeah, most people at Sagum
are actually business owners.
And so that kind of gives us a benefit
of we've been, doing stuff to help other
businesses grow and have our actual, what
do you say, just our, we're in the ring.
We're not just, faking it or saying
we went to some prestigious school or
anything like we have actually gone and
made and built businesses on our own.
Anderson Salgado: Yeah, dude.
I love that.
And for anybody who's listening,
I've had conversations with Keith
and one of the things that intrigued
me about his position and what
he's doing right now with the
agency is that Keith, you had your.
business and you exited from
that business at one point and
now you're working with Sagum.
And if I'm not mistaken, a majority of
the people who are working at the agency
have had other businesses that they either
exit, sold, or they manage themselves
and now they're in this bigger platform.
is that an accurate statement?
And did you exit your prior business?
And if you did, which business was it?
And what were you doing
prior to going into Segum?
Keith Hubert: Yeah.
So I was a business owner at crate room
and we were together like I was with them
since about a million dollars a year in
sales to 25 million and we kind of grew
together and I got to a point where I
personally wanted a Grow something else.
I missed I got sick of I guess all
the Delegating everything and all
the meetings and I wanted to get
back in the weeds again and help
smaller businesses grow Which is
where when I took the leap to Segum.
Anderson Salgado: in terms of getting
tired, I hear that a lot from owners
where they get to a position where the
business is already in some sort of
automation, hands off the wheel approach,
now the plan is to either do a hard.
Exit or a soft exit?
Can you explain people when you're
saying that you exited is it a soft exit?
What are some of the
conditions of soft exit in?
If that's what you did and for those
of you who are listening, hard exit
would be someone sells their business
fully or they get acquired or soft
exit is that you get some sort
of compensation for the business.
You're still part owner, but
you don't do the day to day.
So which one was it and what are, what
are some of the things that you're
seeing right now from that exit that have
helped you catapult into the next thing?
Keith Hubert: Yeah, so It was a soft exit.
I, you know, told them we had like
90 days where I was, you know,
making a transition to my own thing.
you know, building from zero,
you know, it takes a big jump
to go from salary to nothing.
And so I was kind of
building as I was working.
But it helped us get someone in place.
And now I function almost as
like a board member where I'm
helping consult on the side.
Like when I see things in different
clients, I'll pass on that knowledge
to them so they can help themselves.
grow and kind of help and teach.
And I go to lunch with them.
So I still work as almost a
consultant for them as well now.
And so that's, it's been a lot of fun.
And they've made some huge changes
to their business recently.
So I've been a little bit more
involved than I have in the past year.
so that's kind of been exciting.
Anderson Salgado: so,
let me get this straight.
you were at CreateRoom.
You did a soft exit.
you're at Sagum, and Sagum is managing
some of the ads for CreateRoom.
Am I understanding that correctly?
Keith Hubert: Yeah.
So it's not me personally managing
the ads and working, doing all.
Like direct contact.
That's so the way Segum functions is
we're all fully percent like 100 percent
commission like Segum doesn't pay me
anything unless I bring in that revenue
and I hold those clients that sometimes
they pass me clients kind of thing.
And so.
generally it builds an entrepreneurial
spirit within us all and makes
us work a lot harder so we
don't lose clients slash income.
and so that is not one of my
actual clients is create room.
I just help create room more as an
advisory role since I mean I worked
in new and hired most of the people
that are actually working there now.
And so I kind of help them and
see where I can make an impact
Anderson Salgado: That, that's so
interesting because I don't hear often
times, we don't hear it anymore where
companies are commissioned only, but
you're, you have multiple hats, you're
salesperson because you're bringing people
into Sagum, you're managing accounts
that you're bringing in, so you do the
sales and then you do the management.
Am I getting that correct?
Keith Hubert: yeah, because if I
have a full book of clients, in
other words, I just can't make time.
I enjoy my family, so I
Anderson Salgado: Sure.
Keith Hubert: do want
to see them sometimes.
And so what I do is I'll just pass
that client on to someone else.
I trust everyone we work with.
Like I said, they've all been
business owners and they're all
really smart and good at what they do.
So it's an easy sell to get, someone
I brought in to manage a client that,
Anderson Salgado: that's a clever
initiative to maintain levels of.
engagement on the sales process,
but also on the management side.
Oftentimes we see the sales people
in an organization are detached
from the day to day management.
They're just selling and oftentimes
are great sales people, but they're
not on the day to day with the client
after they have acquired such client.
You guys are somewhat changing
that narrative, which I find.
I find very hopeful in SAS type
products services or agency
types of products and services.
How difficult is it today's
day and age to do agency sales?
I can tell you from a personal
experience, I have my biases, but me
from your experience, how difficult
is it to now acquire new clients?
Keith Hubert: Yeah, it's
drastically different.
We have a lot less warm leads
coming in and we're having to
reach out for more cold leads.
the economy is not on fire like it
was a year or three years ago in 2020.
there's a lot less people really
hunting to spend their money it has been
harder one of our big selling points at
Sagum is we generally on average hold
a customer for seven years or seven,
sorry, seven months, but our long,
Anderson Salgado: bro,
you're killing it if
Keith Hubert: I wish.
No, but generally like our, on average
it's seven months, but we, like our
longest client is seven or eight years.
we're just not an ad buyer.
Like we really become partners
with these companies and we help
them grow and we find, you know,
connections with, within our network
to help these bit, this company or.
You know, consulting on like, I have
a little experience on the operation
side, so I help in that area as well.
So it's not just always
sticking in my lane.
I like to go above and beyond, which
sometimes shoots me in the foot
by just doing too much, but it's,
it pays dividends in the long run.
Anderson Salgado: Yeah, man, I think
that's the downfall of most of us in
the agency world that we end up doing
too many things for the clients without
getting the proper compensation for it.
and this is for us to ensure
that we gain clients long term.
So we end up.
spending too much time on bent
over backwards services that we
don't know whether or not we can
fulfill and if we potentially
can, but not our core offering.
I see it so often I've made that
mistake so many times, and it kills
me to see that 2020 you're right,
the economy was on fire, but I
think it was a very fictitious.
fire because the pandemic, intensified
and amplified anything related to e
commerce, anything related to, media
ads or anything related to the internet
Keith Hubert: All those government checks.
Anderson Salgado: Well, the government
checks is an interesting portion.
government checks was an
interesting portion because I think
people started spending money.
I think it's a ripple effect, right?
If you get a government check, then
you end up spending stuff online.
Then the companies that are selling stuff
online are taking advantage of this in
terms of increased revenue, therefore
they end up spending more money on ads.
The problem is the heavy decline after.
To me, I see it as, and this happened
to us, by the way, I don't, we're not.
We're not, immune to what, what happened,
but what I've seen on the agency, we're
on, I'd love to hear your opinion on it
is we created this fictitious growth that
it wasn't, that that wasn't sustainable.
Some companies took advantage of it.
Tenfold.
Some other ones saw an high
element of growth, but all
of a sudden it's a decline.
Think about it from an
athlete perspective.
I tie things a lot from
an athlete perspective.
It's like you.
killing it and getting some great times
or some great PRs or personal records
and all of a sudden that drops and
they're uncontrollables Whether you
get sick or you have some or you break
your arm that impeach you from growth.
And that's what I
thought happened in 2023.
2023, three years after the pandemic,
people started trying to go out
more trying to get away from, you
know, that the purchase behavior
online, or at least the compulsive.
Purchase behavior and all of those ad
agencies or services agencies started
struggling to maintain the same level
of growth because it had to add more
people into the equation, but the
revenue now didn't catch up with, with
that, that, the expenses that they had.
So a lot of them went under.
We luckily didn't because
we have fantastic partners.
But dude, we have felt the
pain over the last two years.
What you guys are doing is so And
I mentioned that already because
you're grabbing the individuals
that are selling your products.
And then they're also doing the
management of the account, but that
you're on commission based only.
My people would hate me if
I do commission based only.
I think it requires a certain
amount of talent and people
to do commission based only.
What is that like to you?
to be commissioned based only.
Keith Hubert: Yeah, for sure.
At first, it was scary because I left a
salary and healthcare and all that stuff.
And all of a sudden I jump into a world
where, I mean, I was making a quarter
of what I was making before per month.
And so, Little shout
out to emergency funds.
If you don't have one that actually
helped float my family and helped my
wife actually get on board with me going
into a job and an opportunity like this.
So I could, have time
to build up my, monthly.
commissions and yeah, it was
scary at first, but in the long
run, I think it's way worth it.
You hunt, what you hunt and what you kill
is what you get at the end of the day.
You're not, complaining about
your manager, not paying you
enough or getting a big bonus.
instead, you're like.
it's on me.
This is 100 percent my, like, I
have control over my, destiny.
it's pretty awesome.
Anderson Salgado: You
say it's pretty awesome.
And I don't disagree.
I think that there is a level of
excitement once you close deals.
But dude, , it only only a certain
amount of people and individuals are
very comfortable with that scenario.
Let me ask you a little more technical
from, assuming that you guys have
a pretty large pipeline funnel.
for those of you who are listening
and don't know what that is, is
essentially the amount of people
that you're trying to engage.
Example, if I have, if I want to close
10 different, services or products in
a month, especially high ticket items,
then I need to have a 10 X on 10 X.
So my pipeline needs to be about
10, 000 people to then from the 10,
000 people, a hundred be interested.
And then we close a 10%, which is.
10 people from that 100.
in order for you guys to have success that
you have at scale, big is that pipeline?
And are you oblivious to it because
you're all independent contractors
and you're all doing your own
pipeline and customer acquisition?
Or do you guys have a pretty,
pretty large visibility?
Spectrum in terms of understanding who,
who your audience is and how big do you
want that pipeline to be to get the leads?
Keith Hubert: Yeah, so it's
mostly based off referrals
for the last year and a half.
Like, we fully work on referrals,
which, I mean, our close
rates at that is around 50%.
So it's not like a hard sell most of the
time, but I will say like more recently
we've been pushing for more growth.
we brought on a new team member
and so we've, you know, firing
up ads, we got, the way we, pay
salesman on commission as well.
We brought in a guy that just
as focused on driving business.
and it's like, it's not his main gig.
It's like a side hustle for him.
And so.
This is allowing us to hopefully scale
a little bit more and, fill the funnel
with him and in times are a little
tougher so the pipeline hasn't been
as hot as it has been in the past.
And so we've had to try new methods
and, you'll see I post on LinkedIn all
too often and I always get leads from
people that never liked or commented
or mentioned anything to me ever.
And all of a sudden I just get a DM
out of nowhere and they're saying,
Hey, could you run an ads for me?
I'm just like, sure.
I'd be happy to.
Let's meet.
I could do an, free, I always offer like a
free audit of their full marketing stacks.
That way I could help them
not just in the ads part.
Cause my idea is I want to help someone.
Even if they don't choose to do
business with me, because I'd rather
give something to someone and then
be a little bit better off and give
them a good direction rather than just
being like, these are all my secrets.
Let me, you have to pay
me before you get them.
I kind of go on more of the method
of I'll share everything freely
and that's That's kind of how we,
like one of our core values at
Sagum is that we teach our client.
Like the whole goal isn't for
us to run ads from them for the
rest of their entire business.
We want to help them educate them.
And I tell the business owners at
some point we'll run them, but I'm
sure they could pay someone and we can
help and guide and mentor them till
they're fully ready to take it over.
Like that's our mission
is to help companies grow.
Out of us.
our goal is to help them grow without
us kind of teach them to be better.
Anderson Salgado: I love that
methodology for so many reasons.
I've seen it time after
time where conversations and
relationships win a sale.
more often than me trying to
do certain things for you in
order for me to get a sale.
I love the idea of trying to do
something for you and help you as a
byproduct where we're doing a sale.
But.
It's hard.
Keith Hubert: Yeah.
Anderson Salgado: don't think,
I'm a little older than you.
You mentioned you're 35.
I'll be 40 this year.
I'm not just kidding.
Keith Hubert: Hitting over the hill.
Anderson Salgado: you look
like a kid when you shave.
but in honest truth, I don't think
millennials Or even a shorter version,
the Gen Z's, they're not used to selling.
don't know how to sell because
they grew up, especially the, the
younger, you know, anywhere from,
anywhere from 20 to 32, 33 years old.
right outside that spectrum.
They have such a hard time selling
because they have never done it.
And that's one of the things that
my team and I want to do more of.
Is if I could teach people how to sell
better, I think that's my next step.
My next commitment, because through
the podcast, what we've done cleverly
is through our podcast, where,
since we do have the agency and we
talk about obviously the natural.
phenomenon that happens whenever
you're doing a podcast, because all
of you that are listening, I met with
Keith already multiple times, and we
communicated in multiple platforms
before we jump on the podcast.
A lot of you who are trying to
sell and Keith, I think this is
applicable to you because you guys
are doing hardcore selling, and
you're on 100 percent commission.
you need to have this natural
reoccurring behavior with your
prospects to turn them into clients.
It doesn't happen overnight
and I just snapped my fingers.
It doesn't happen overnight.
It happens in a very progressive
sequential staging or manner
where you're trying to.
As you mentioned, you mentioned a
couple of times, warm up the leads.
So for those of you who are saying
like, what is a warm up, warming up the
lead, warming up the lead is two folds.
One it's in relation to your email
campaigns and the other one, or
whatever campaigns you're using.
And the other one is actually
warming up your lead.
So you have some sort of relationship.
Co leads are, Hey.
I do this.
Would you like to buy that?
Right?
But when you're warming up, the lead is,
Hey, this is what we did for so and so.
And somebody comes to you, like
you mentioned on your LinkedIn post
says, Hey, could you do this for us?
Yeah.
Let's jump on a call.
I want to see whether
or not we can help you.
That's so.
important.
As you mentioned, warming up those
leads, when somebody is reaching
out to you, what is your process
of understanding that prospect and
turning them into long term clients?
Keith Hubert: Yeah,
that's a great question.
One of the things I like to do is,
like you said, make a friend, right?
You got to find some kind
of connection with them.
So I always start out with a call and,
just kind of tell them what we do.
We understand their business.
We ask more questions than we do talking.
And a big question we like to do is if
they haven't run ads before, do they
have the structure in place to scale
their operations when we scale the ads?
Because very quickly, as you're
aware, when you start spending
money, you can get traction fast.
And if that happens and operations
can't catch up, you kind of.
Everything's good.
Just gets disrupted.
The ads become less efficient.
Exactly.
And so we ask those questions.
We ask why their product product
is different because we've had
people come to us the past that
we've turned away just because
their product was a me too product.
It was just a product that, you know,
a Nike shoe, but slightly different.
Maybe it's a plus sign.
This is made up, but you know what I mean?
And so I think often.
Like we look for people with like
a unique value to their product
that we can help them scale.
And lastly, like what I like
to, I offer a free audit.
Like we look through their ad
platforms, we look through their
website, we look through their email
platform, and we see what they're not
doing or what they're doing wrong.
And we also tell them what they're
doing right, because we don't want to
make them feel like they're failures.
But we give them a full audit and in
that audit we meet with them again.
So it gives us an opportunity
for a second meeting with them
to get them know them better.
And after that, sometimes it's
just a matter of, you know,
I send over the proposal.
We wait to hear back from them.
And patience with follow
up is what I found.
Three months once till
I finally got a yes.
and it was just consistent,
Hey, how's it going?
They're like, Oh, sorry.
I haven't gotten it to it yet.
Cause the people we're working
with are building small businesses.
They're very busy.
And so I've, having been on that
side myself, I know you forget, even
if it's like something that could
rocket launch your company into
the atmosphere, you just forget.
And so that's where, we just are.
Persistently reaching out and often
in a friendly way, and look for
ways that we can help them grow.
Anderson Salgado: Today's episode of
Faith Frontlines and Fortune is brought
to you by our sponsors, Dall'Italia.
Dall'Italia is your destination
for authentic Italian craftsmanship
in the beauty and personal care
space, offering premium brands that
bring the elegance, quality, and
tradition of Italy straight to you.
Whether it is a luxurious hair
care brand, rejuvenating skincare
product, or even high performance
styling tools, Dall'Italia curates.
The best of Italy's beauty industry.
Look guys, they have little gems like
Envy and Sali di Ischia or other brands
like Meoro that are elevating hair
care routines and Solano, which is a
professional grade hairstyling appliance.
They have it all.
So if you are into Italian products
and you love the quality, elegance
and tradition right from Italy.
Head over to dialitalia.
com that's D A L L I T A L I A dot com and
use the promo code FFF25 at checkout for
25 percent off for any of our listeners.
So again, FFF25 for 25 percent off
when you head over to dialitalia.
com and use that code at checkout.
Yeah, you touch so many good points.
So, the first one is relationship.
You mentioned you become friends.
Perhaps this is a hard reach, but you're
friendly with your prospect, because at
the end of the day, I love what you guys
are saying is you want to help them grow.
There is a methodology of
getting hired to be fired.
And I know sounds very antiquated, but or
perhaps not, not a hard reach, but you're
friendly with your prospect, because at
the end of the day, I love what you guys
are saying is you want to help them grow.
There is a methodology of
getting hired to be fired.
And I know sounds very antiquated,
but or perhaps not, not It's gonna
touch a point that some people are
like that doesn't make any sense.
No, no, it does is true True mentors
one you to eventually become a mentor.
Yeah, you'll still need a mentor
who's you know older and wiser and
Has made the mistakes that you're
about to make but oftentimes What
I tell my employees or what I tell
my clients is I want us to get to a
point where the process is so spot on.
The machine is so well kept and
oiled that you won't need us anymore.
And I know it sounds terrible,
but I want us to upgrade in
some sort of other capacity.
E commerce is a little different
as you know, because you're always
working on something, right?
But what we have seen is when
we truly help our clients.
When they grow so large, they either get
acquired by somebody else and they no
longer need us, their ads or everything
is just so spot on that the maintenance
that we're doing, it's minimal.
So, it sounds so bad, that's why sometimes
the agency world is so difficult,
for those of you who are listening,
you know what I'm talking about.
Is because if you grow them too much,
And they're paying you too much.
You're going to end up getting fired
because they're paying you too much.
You did such a good job, but if you don't
do a good job, you're going to get fired
because you're not doing the right thing.
So this is like middle ground
that a lot of agencies have.
And honestly, I just rather
have a success story.
To say, yeah, we grew this company
from zero to hero in this amount of
months, they end up getting acquired,
but those guys are the ones that
are going to give us the referral.
So I understand why you guys do referrals
so much because you're doing a good
job in one sector, then when they on.
And they fire you for
the lack of better terms.
They're still sending you referrals
because you did such a good
job in that transition period.
Well, that's still hard, man.
selling a management account
simultaneously is the hardest thing
when it comes to agency and consulting,
because you're not handing things off.
You're grabbing them.
And then you're working it.
Oftentimes you mentioned you would
send it to one of your colleagues
and that's totally fine, but you're
still, you're still in it, right?
You still want to maintain
that relationship with the,
Keith Hubert: Yeah, even the clients
I do pass along, I won't lie, I still,
like, I keep a dashboard of all my
clients and then I throw on the ones I
brought on just so I can keep an eye,
you know, cause to me it is important,
cause I always felt like the amount of
times I got sold when I had my business
on certain platforms or agencies and
then you never hear from them again.
Anderson Salgado: Totally
Keith Hubert: exactly.
Anderson Salgado: so we talked about
a good amount of positive things,
and there is one that You and I
spoke about previously and I love
and I don't know the details So I'd
love to know more about this nine
million dollar loss that you guys had
at one point about major failures.
me that story.
what happened there?
Keith Hubert: Yeah.
So at Crate Room, it was right after 2020.
We were, we sold more than we could make.
And so we put a ton in operations
and we put a lot of money.
We put a lot of manpower because we
thought we were going to be the next
hundred million dollar business.
And so Yeah.
I mean, in short, we just
got way ahead of ourselves.
We were forecasting 50 million
years and we ended up, you
know, the same type of year.
I mean, granted, 25 million
is still a great year, right?
For any company, but when your ops scaled.
for a 50 million company and
you're still doing 25, you
know, there's a lot of waste.
10 times as expensive as on
a ship and those big crates.
And so we blew a lot of money and made a
lot of bad decisions because we thought
we were just going to scale to the moon.
And I mean, to no one's fault,
you know, I think we all
thought we were going to grow.
And so, you know, I'd like to place
blame on say I was all ops fault,
but marketing, we hired more people.
We spent really heavy on ad spend when we
probably should have been as conservative
as we were in 2020 because as for those
that aren't aware, cost per click for
like what you would get in 2020 was
miles lower than what you'd get in 2021.
And so it was just a whole different
world and we assumed it was the same.
And so yeah, beginning of the
year we just spent, spent, spent.
And by the end of the year,
I think it was October.
There was no money in our
bank account, no cash.
Like at the beginning of the year, we
had 9 million like in our cash account,
ready to invest in new stuff, new growth.
And it was just all gone.
Anderson Salgado: That's painful
Keith Hubert: Yeah.
It was hard.
Anderson Salgado: Talk to me about
making more products that what you
could deliver For the audience.
What does that mean exactly?
Keith Hubert: Yeah.
So we scaled our operations.
Like we went from 20 employees
because we had our own factory
here in the United States.
We had some stuff coming across seas from
China, but not our core hero product.
And so we probably, we had scaled
to 50 employees, like by the
end of the year, we had over a
hundred employees at our company.
And like, that's a lot for a 25
million company, especially when.
most e commerce businesses, get
like 70 to 80 percent margins
if their products are small.
Ours was like a 40 percent margin.
so our cash disappeared.
we had to do huge layoffs.
We had to cut most of our platforms that
were going to grow us to 50 million.
We had to reevaluate everything.
it was pretty significant in the fact
that we just took our eye off of the cash.
that tells the truth always.
And you know, the balance sheets
and everything sometimes can
give you illusion of truth.
And so that was an
important lesson for us.
if you've never read the book, how to
grow a small business by Donald Miller,
it is in my opinion, one of the best
books if I had read it and the rest of
the owners had read it prior to that year,
I think we would have been fine, but, or
profit first, that's another great one.
Anderson Salgado: So shout out to how to
grow your small business and profit first
Great books for entrepreneurs, by the
way, remember Similarly to you guys,
we, our operation started growing
massively, and I needed more people.
So, as you know, when you need
more people now, you gotta dedicate
the time to those people to train
them on your, on your X factor.
And then also train them on the culture.
when you're hiring the right people,
you want to ensure that they're
fully acclimated with the culture.
So you want to hire within the
culture that you think, you know, your
audience, your, your staff is going
to align with, but oftentimes when
you're hiring, hiring fast, you don't.
Get to do a lot of that betting
process on will this person be with
us, you know, for more than six months.
So I had similarly to you
guys, I was hiring left and
right, you know, increasing our
operations, doing X, Y, and Z.
And.
we created such a fragile methodology
in our process because we were
heavily dependent on three clients
for majority of our revenue.
And we lost two of those
clients in one year,
Keith Hubert: Wow.
Anderson Salgado: I want to say almost
50 percent of our revenue was driven by.
clients, we lost two of those three
Keith Hubert: Wow.
Anderson Salgado: they grew so much.
So one of them got a financial
infusion and one of the conditions
of that financial infusion is that
they would use a different agency for
the Amazon work that we were doing.
And we grew those guys, man, from 2, 000
a month to 700, 000 a month in sales.
Keith Hubert: Oh, I'm sorry.
Anderson Salgado: So rough
and our payouts were so nice.
Like we were seeing 20, 20 to 25 grand
a month in payouts from one client.
And as you know, on the agency
side, that's huge because that's
a highly dependent client, right?
And we have three of those.
And then the other one, we grew them
so much too, from 20, 000 a month.
to 4 million a year in
less than two years.
And they moved their execution
on Amazon to a distributor.
Keith Hubert: Wow.
Anderson Salgado: Blew my mind.
I was so pissed.
I was so upset.
but, now I, you know, almost
40 percent of our revenue gone.
And I had, full staff.
That was managing those accounts.
So, little by little, layoffs
happen and that's not something
that we ever want to do or see.
So, I totally get it.
it's so hard.
So, I'm always cautious
of growing too fast.
Going back into the athlete
methodology, if you get too big,
you're going to get stretch marks
if you're getting too big, too fast,
Keith Hubert: Yeah,
Anderson Salgado: know, like I
started training heavily, at one
point and I started getting stretch
marks right here and I'm like,
Keith Hubert: yeah,
Anderson Salgado: going on is because
I was bulking too fast and my body
couldn't have that level of growth and
expansion in such a short period of time.
Keith Hubert: yeah
Anderson Salgado: did you
guys turn it around though?
What was the, the, the
total outcome right after
Keith Hubert: yeah, we were able to
cut costs like mad and the following
year we were able to do another 20
million dollar year and Currently like
they're struggling a little bit again.
I'd like to think it's cuz I left
but that's definitely not why But
they, you know, the economy has
gotten harder and their 3, 000 piece
of furniture, like it's not cheap.
It's like for these, it's like
this big armoire that opens
for anyone that loves crafting.
Like it's their dream space,
essentially, is what it is.
And so, yeah, They're struggling
currently, but it's pretty cool with
some of the consulting I've been doing
with them recently One of the big things
that helps me through the hard times
is I like to continually learn not just
with books, but like courses online or
YouTube or wherever Recently I listened
to I couldn't even tell you who it was.
So there's like three core principles
to focus to grow any e commerce
business and it's simply new
customers, AOV and purchase frequency.
And if you can increase all three of
those by 30 percent you double the size of
your business, I started doing the math.
I was like, Holy crap, this works.
it gives you core principles to focus on.
I helped create room kind of look
at their core principles and in the
past two years, their big kicker for
not growing has been new customers.
they just haven't been tracking that.
And it's been treated like dramatically
lower, like five times lower than
what it has been in 2020, 2021.
And so it gives them somewhere
they can start focusing now.
And so hopefully that
can solve their problem.
that's my hope, but the clients
I currently have, as I learned
these principles, as I started.
running that data on all of them.
Thanks to AI and ChachiBT, it takes
me like 10 minutes to run that data.
So I don't think I'm a data genius
or a data scientist or anything like
that, but it's amazing to see the
companies that do well just don't
know they're focusing on those things.
Even though they are.
And now, you know, I'm
pointing it out to them.
They can start focusing on those
core metrics so they can grow.
just another Testament to never
stop learning in life, I think.
Anderson Salgado: Today's episode
of Faith Frontlines and Fortune
is brought to you by our sponsors.
American Christian Capital or
A-C-C-A-C-C is dedicated on helping
Christian entrepreneurs and business
owners to secure the funding they need.
To grow and thrive, whether you're
looking for business loans, real estate
financing, or capital solutions, A C.
C provides faith driven financial
strategies tailored to your success.
American Christian Capital guys is hosting
a fantastic webinar on March 13 at 6:00
PM Eastern Time, where they'll break down
lending options, funding strategies, and
real estate financing, and so much more.
If you're ready to take your business
to the next level, this is the
opportunity you do not want to miss.
Again, guys, that's american
christian capital.com
and you can register for that
webinar@americanchristiancapital.com
slash webinar.
that's, that's awesome, man.
That's commendable.
And I think you're absolutely right.
That there is
based on what you're saying, there
is this level of hope terms of.
methodology for agencies.
I think agencies need to start paying
attention more in relation to helping
their client versus, know, how much
money can we make out of the client?
So treat, I always say to my staff
and to the brands that I work with,
is I treat your brand like it's mine.
And everybody in our staff will treat,
will, if we have all the mentality that
this brand that we're working on, is it's
also ours, even if it is temporarily, it
changes completely the narrative because
you don't start spending in a bunch of
BS that you don't need the, the other
element that I add to the table is when
you put the customer first, it also
changes in the way that you're going
to be managing certain operational.
complexities, because you're,
you want to ask the question,
does this benefit the customer?
And whoever the customer is, so in
our case, as you know, on a B2B side,
the customer is our client, right?
So how does this help the client?
How does this help the customer?
How does this help my patient?
For them, when we're consulting or
when we're doing certain things is
how does this action that you're
doing help your end consumer?
So anything that we do is, yeah,
how does this help the client?
But also what is it that you're
doing that is helping your client?
And if we frame it in such way, I
think provides a lot more leverage
in a long term relationship, but
we can never disregard the power.
of profit.
If you're doing something and it's
just not profitable, we're not, not
all of us are Amazon man that could
operate unprofitably for seven years.
And it
Keith Hubert: Yeah,
Anderson Salgado: level of profit in order
for you to operate and say, Yeah, let's
kind of double down in this initiative.
Otherwise, it just doesn't work.
Keith Hubert: I feel like
getting that profit, like seeing
that hit your bank account.
You're like, Oh, okay.
I'm doing something rather than charity to
all these customers that you're helping.
Yeah,
Anderson Salgado: fantastic.
Keith Hubert: yeah.
Anderson Salgado: you one last,
time to address whoever's listening,
if they want to work with you or
if they want to work with Sagum.
Sagan just provides a lot of leverage in
terms of media ads for companies, whether
it is through Google, Facebook, Instagram,
or anything related to meta in order for
you to do your ad campaigns in contrast
to the company running them by themselves.
So you guys have a lot of
that, that initiative of.
selling your services in relation
to ad buys and pay per click.
Keith Hubert: Yeah.
So thank you.
it's been awesome learning from you
and meeting with you the last few
times because it's really inspired
me to, I mean, one, your optimism
is great and your, excitement for
the e commerce world is amazing.
but one of the things that Segum can
bring and has brought in our true
belief really nails down what you
just said about the importance of the
customer or the client in our case
We do everything we can to help them.
I mean we come in we do the audit for free
because You got to know where they are to
help them get to where they want to go.
And that's why we brought in, in the last
year and a half, I found a guy in Croatia.
That was a huge risk I took by, because
you know, he's, his English isn't as
great, but with AI in the world now and
Grammarly, he sends out better emails
than most agencies that I've seen and
worked with, which is really cool.
And so we help on email,
we help on ad buying.
And we help on website design and website
conversion is like our core, like three
core things, which generally will help you
can turn around a business really quickly.
And so, if you're interested in
our services, you can reach out
to me, Keith Hubert on LinkedIn.
We do believe and believe strongly
that we are a partner to help you grow.
Anderson Salgado: Fantastic.
Keith, I appreciate your time, brother.
Thank you for doing what you do in terms
of What you do, it's hopeful for a lot
of my audience because a lot of them
are in the sales, arena and knowing that
you're fully commissioned in the sales.
e commerce slash agency sector.
It's unheard of in today's day and
age, but you guys are obviously
you're doing some stuff, right?
Thank you everybody for tuning
in on Faithful Online 10 Fortune.
Keith, you for your time, brother.
And I will see you next time.