Modern Marketing Podcast - Dave Rogenmoser of the Entrepreneur Alliance

Key Takeaways

all right hey Dave how's it going going well Adam good to be here buddy hey thanks so much for being here really excited to have you on and to sort of get to share everything that you've been doing uh with the audience I know you've been up to a lot of cool things since uh since we first started talking I guess it's been over a year has it been two now it's been a while so yeah I've been doing this for about two years so it couldn't have been longer than two but we'll have to go Che back yeah we'll have to go check the Facebook message history yeah check the record started no kidding that's awesome well I again man I'm super excited to have you here I know that uh for those that don't know I just gave your intro there at the beginning but Dave's the founder of pivot and scale is up to a whole bunch of really cool projects uh entrepreneur Alliance is a big one that I'm a part of uh webin our boot camp payfunnels so essentially really want to give you the opportunity to share all those and also a little bit about your story and some of the marketing lessons that you've learned so as you know kind of the shows all about sharing the marketing strategies and tactics that are working right now um really the the valuable lesson that you've learned over over the last few years so why don't you start off with just giving us a bit of your story like what how did you get into all this what you what got you sort of started on the uh the entrepreneurial and marketing Journey yeah totally well my first ever experience as an entrepreneur as a marketer was when I was six years old I uh I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur I knew I needed to make some money and I didn't have any money to you know I didn't have any skills you know as was a six-year-old whatever and I didn't have any money to go get inventory or products whatever so I went into my dad's garage and saw a little 12 pack of beer and I thought well there's you know my inventory right I like I think I've seen people with money drinking this stuff and so I loaded it up in the Red Wagon and I started kind of walking down the street to sell this stuff door too and this is like the marketer me coming out instead of just like sticking it in there like walking around selling it I arranged it in the wagon in the shape of the Eiffel Tower and I called myself Eiffel Tower beer sales and this was like my first ever little deal and I walked down the street and actually sold so one can to a neighbor for 50 cents and and I think they called my mom and had her come down and get me and uh that was the end of Eiffel beers we were profitable and uh that's kind of I think when I got the uh the itch for entrepreneurship I was like wow I just made money and uh I didn't have to do a whole lot that was pretty sweet yeah that's fantastic I mean that's that's sort of it almost goes in line with so many different entrepreneurs the way they starts just a little shady kind of get into it maybe doing a bit of boot lagging at six years old sto from yeah exactly man exactly so that was kind of the the initial but then how I got into it you know uh I guess most recently as a full-time entrepreneur I was working for a campus ministry about two and a half years ago at the University of Missouri and kind of knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur kind of always had that itch but like had no idea how to go about that uh I read the I read three books that really kind of changed my life it was Rich Dad Poor Dad uh the four hour work week and Think and Grow Rich Y and and after reading those I was like I couldn't look at the world the same anymore I was like man like I I just it's almost like I Knew Too Much at that point so I had to go you know figure out how to be a full-time entrepreneur um at that point a buddy basic said hey I'll help you you know he was kind of working on a software product at the time he said I'll help you kind of build this software product um even I didn't know how to code you know still don't I hired it out um and I launched a fraternity recruitment software because that was kind of like the the people that I knew were in fraternities and I was like well these guys use spreadsheets every day to track the recruitment I can make a CRM basically for uh fraternity guys and that's how I got my start so about two and a half years ago kind of left my job and started out full-time in the entrepreneurial World awesome and then it's been no looking back yeah yeah well okay sometimes looking back yeah I guess that's it's again that sort of that entrepreneurial chart right the two steps forward one step back what am I doing totally totally totally fantastic no it's been amazing it's interesting that you mentioned that mind shift as well like when you when you first covered that Rich Dad Poor Dad and 4our work week and Think and Grow Rich kind of those staple books it's interesting what I found with um Entre rur ship and marketing as general is once you yeah once you sort of make that mind shift there is no looking back like you'll never be able to look at marketing or the world the same way and that's why I heard this statistic a long time ago where they said if you took the Millionaires and the billionaires and you took away everything from them they'd have it back within a year or two and I never got it right I was just like no there's no way that's nuts and now I finally get it I was like yeah they'd have it back probably within a couple weeks like it's just that that mind shift so unbelievable so true so true man no I I totally agree and I see that all the time now now like we started this little like side business about two weeks ago we were this is ridic we're not even you know doing it right now but we wanted to start this like little business on Shopify selling these like little baby bows yeah and it's called My Little Bow box.com excellent if anyone's listen to this I mean it's probably probably won't even be up you know if you if you go check it out yeah but we want to sell these things in this Niche that you know we don't really know it about and and so we kind of were like let's see if we can do it in like five days so really from like idea to like launch I was like probably five days in a week to this beautiful site with all these amazing pictures all that we started running Facebook ads to it and basically what we're doing is selling three baby bows uh every single month for like 19 bucks yeah and started this subscription box business and we ended up making like 22 sales just from turning on Facebook ads after just like a couple days and we like turned it off like okay like we don't even know how to like you know make all enough bows to do all this and everything like that I just like wow like this would have taken me a year to do even two years ago and we just did it in like six days yeah and have like a viable business right and uh and so yeah no I was just thinking about that today just how much faster we can do everything now yeah that's awesome I think you hit sort of two points there that I wouldn't mind diving into a bit more the first one is that ready fire aim mentality right like just get it out there I mean for yeah if you even look back a couple years ago with how much Technology's changed how quickly you're able to put up that minimum viable product right you're able to get it out there see is anyone even going to buy this and the second one is the miracle that is Facebook ads right like just phenomenal I mean you're now you've got access to all these people so that's something I wouldn't mind if you hit on that one for a bit how um how effective have you found Facebook ads to be in your business and also I understand you have worked with clients in the past and I understand that you also used it with them saw good results as well I'm assuming I know already but why don't you expand a bit more yeah no I mean we we love Facebook ads but I think as an entrepreneur early on you've got to be selling like you've got to be marketing like that's got to be main focus like sell sell sell like figure out the rest later like we've been in business two years and last night we had a big meeting about kind of the operating agreement like that you know that should have been done six months before launch and like we're already like we've got an established business now we're like okay like let's figure out some of these details here so I think selling is important and then I think having like one channel that you're really good at is important so so I I think it doesn't have to be Facebook ads that's kind of the one that you know I've you know fallen into and learned about I think Facebook's probably the best one for most people depends a little bit on your Market but yeah no I mean Facebook does an amazing job of getting the right ad in front of the right person and like you said like like those 22 people that bought those bows those are people that like I've never heard of before they've never heard of us we don't know them they're like total strangers uh and we didn't have to start with friends and family or emailing all of my aunts and uncles it just like instantly get a right ad in front of the right stranger they buy you know we make money transactions complete and I think Facebook's doing a better job of that than anybody in the world right now uh so yes so no we love it we love I think you know someday it'll be it'll be uh you know overcrowded on there and they'll be kind of a new platform and you already see some other platforms you can get good results on but right now Facebook's the Workhorse for sure cool yeah I couldn't agree more I think I think yeah we're we're probably looking at another few years of it where it's going to be the dominant sort of market leader but then like all things right like we saw with Google Adwords I mean they're they're kind of uh well on the way out depending depending on what your Niche is or whatever you're do in there but uh yeah absolutely so if you look back at sort of your transition into this I mean obviously now to be able to take a new business and and launch it and get it out there in 5 days I mean that's phenomenal so obviously you've had to learn a lot of things along the way what are some of the Big Marketing lessons that you've learned over the years the best advice that people have given you things that you've uncovered yourself what are the real kind of gems that if you'd have known now what you knew then or if You' have known then what you know now there we go yeah what uh what would it be I think you mentioned one of them just kind of you know figure out what the minimum viable product is I mean we're like really good at that I think like before I do anything I usually post it on my Facebook wall and see like how many likes I can get you know or I'll send an email out and like do a quick survey like even before it's anything and a lot of times I don't even follow up with it because like I'm not going to do the idea afterwards but I kind of test it all you know just through posting on my wall and just asking a few people before I do anything um probably the big one is is having one funnel on online that converts profitably inside of like 30 or 45 days changes everything and so you know even right now with the entrepreneur Alliance you know we've got it set up we've got about 200 people you know that have joined in the first month here and uh it's really exciting we're working on making the product better and all that but what we don't have yet we're working on is getting a profitably converting funnel because once you have that that's when it goes from 200 to 10,000 in a matter of a year or six months or whatever and uh and I think there's no better thing to focus on than getting a funnel that converts profitably inside of 30 days and then Mak some you know Pro you know profit on the back end of that because you can throw it on a credit card U by the time the credit card comes due you've already made the profit back you can pay that thing off and there's profits afterwards and so yeah I think that's probably the uh the biggest piece of advice is is focus on on you know uh converting cold traffic and uh you'll be good to go excellent excellent so when we talk about funnels because that's kind of an interesting subject without getting super advanced cuz I know we've kind of got a range of of experience with the listeners so some of them aren't as familiar a lot we have a lot of brick and mortar in some offline businesses so the concept of a funnel what I've been sort of trying to introduce is that this funnel is just as applicable for an offline business as it is for an online business so obviously we kind of geek out with the online stuff and we're setting up webinar campaigns and all sorts of different uh inputs and ways to to expand that but for even for an offline business what do you think are some of the best ways to sort of go out there and start a funnel like what was the process for kind of building this thing out for entrepreneur Alliance let's talk about yeah well I think you know online or offline I think leading with value you know was really good like something that I tried to lead with is story I think stories are really important and most businesses aren't thinking about that um they're just leading with the benefits you know they're saying hey use us because you know we're the best chiropractor in town and you know whatever uh I think if you lead with story like people's brains are wired to be really attracted to that and so you know in a really crowded world I know that it I may not have the best features and even if I do they may not remember that but if they like something about my story something unique that they say oh that guy's like me uh they'll probably listen to a lot of stuff that I say after that and so uh we try to lead with story and lead with value and that's kind of from the principle of like reciprocity um from the book influence by uh Robert Chini orini Robert Chini you got her um you know just said hey if I can give first uh not only are they going to like you know appreciate that but people tend to feel like they need to give back like if I've changed someone's life a little bit they' be like wow I need to kind of give back to this guy maybe I want to you know pay him or check him more out you know what he's got or be a part of what he's got going on and um and so when I lead with value good things happen it's like delaying the sale a little bit but it increases profitability a ton and so yeah I think you know whether that's online um you could be you know offer a lead magnet you could offer you know write some articles like we're starting to spend more time writing like really really meaty articles to just like totally like blow people's socks off like day one um or if yeah you're kind of a brick and mortar and you've got you know say again a chiropractic business I mean like put stuff out there that's giving value about how they can help you know fix their back even if they don't come in to see you right and then like there's a good chance that they will come in if you lead with that initially there and so yeah that's kind of how we we start the funnels at least awesome oh that's awesome there's so I mean what you just said there's so many good points in there so many good points obviously leading with value and reciprocity that's such a huge one I'll link to the show notes uh Robert shalini's book as well there it's just it's such an important right yeah it's like just a mandatory one he actually has a new book out right now that just got launched I think a week or two ago called PR suasion and I haven't read that one yet but it's all about sort of framing your offer so people are more inclined to say yes before you even have a chance so that's definitely on my my reading list for the uh the upcoming holidays here I think what what I like about him and I think as I've grown as a marketer this might be helpful for some people is when I first started marketing I just wanted to like learn marketing you know marketing tips and just like like what's you know you kind of learn the basics about how to do good marketing and I think what I've started to shift into more now is realizing that like like people are people brains are brains and like I'm I'm not reading a lot more about brain science and psychology and sociology and like how do people think as groups how do people think individual ually how do you target people in various you know ways and it's it's I think you know I still read the marketing books I still like that but I think if you can go deeper than that I realized that the marketing tactics that worked 200 years ago you know are still going to be the same principles that they are today like the brain has not changed in 200 years and I can use those all the same so so I think if you can learn that doesn't matter if Facebook comes and goes if websites come and go if we're all using chat bots in 10 years uh it doesn't matter you just use the same principles and you just figure out how to apply it and that and so that's been kind of my development as a marketer I think yeah no that's huge I mean it's shocking to me still the amount of times that I will make a purchase and then wonder what just happened like what like I mean I know what's going on I know I I'm aware of the triggers they're using and the reoc I'm I'm analyzing everything and I still still go for it I still buy it and I look back and I'm like why did I even do that it's like oh man that was good yeah they did well totally no I'm with you man yeah that's funny so actually another really good point about those sort of meaty articles that you're producing that's huge have you uh heard about the skyscraper technique it's sort of yeah so Neil Patel has I believe no where did he get it from where's the skyscraper tick it might be Brian it was the yeah yep yeah that's right back Linko so basically yeah taking these articles and then making them finding the top results on the search engines and then just making them 10 times the um 10 times the effort I haven't dived into that one yet but you've sort of just started with with that one or seeing good results kind of just starting yeah I mean really what we're trying to do is build like a platform right because I realized at this point in our business you know I think through funnels and paid traffic and so people were asking me that and I realized there was like no central place to do that like we just had the tops of funnels so it's like well what product do you want to learn about I can send you into this cool webinar funnel you want to learn about the entreprene Lance I send you into this and there's like no central place and you know in our business like you know we've done great with paid traffic but if I turn it off everything pretty much drops to zero right and I'm like gosh I've been doing this for like long enough there should be some residual happening so uh at this point now we're kind of building out you know a proper website you know WordPress site with a Blog and we're going to you know have our funnels you know linked to that but uh but that'll kind of be a standing place and we're really going to try to start um generating some more organic traffic and so yeah we're really just taking a look at some of the best articles that are out there what's ranking for different keywords that we like you know building out you know really meaty like legit content for it not just like you know cheap articles um and then you know something we're doing that's really easy is we're just asking a lot of influencers we're building one right now like um you know 50 marketing failures from you know business winners or something like that we're just GNA ask like 50 different people what's your biggest like failure um and just kind of including that's an easy way to build out a lot of really cool content yeah um yeah so we're doing things like that but uh but yeah really we're trying to build a platform that can you know generate leads for us even if traffic turns off yeah excellent and is that going to be on the pivot and scale website that one's actually going to be at join Thee alliance. I believe will be will be that that website there okay excellent so I'll make sure to link that up in the show notes as well there but yeah those Roundup posts are are yeah they're still effective right if you get people in there which actually that's going to lead me to my next uh my next and one of my final questions here is uh biggest failures so what was what were some of the mistakes we've all we've all made them we all keep making them that's how we learn what's what was one of the ones that was like man that did that did not go well oh man I mean it really is so many uh I don't you know I think I think I always saw people like said that like humbly like oh they're just GNA make it up like literally no it's like every day we like blow something I think one like one of my biggest lessons that was a big mistake this year was we were running this brand new you know webinar funnel this is like my very first webinar funnel this is this started the year ago selling a course called 6K success um for $997 or like three went to 397 and it was working it was converting you know we instantly went from you know not making much money to making a lot of money from this thing but we're also racking up a big credit card bill you know buying traffic on Facebook and so um we basically just got lost on the cash flow and how much money it was bringing in and fast forward to like April so five months of running this we're thinking we're loaded this is amazing like this is too easy and we kind of look at the bank account and it had you know whatever 10,000 20,000 in there look at the credit card bill coming up like due in like a day and it's like 50,000 right and I was like I was like what the heck happened here like where did it go like we just got lost in it all and and we didn't realize that we were kind of like growing broke that we were you know we had money coming in in payment plans but it wasn't here today and American Express wanted their money today and so it was just a good lesson to learn like you can grow you can grow fast but you still got to grow you know there's so fast you can grow without getting better and better cash flow cycles and so that when I learned about cash flow Cycles that's when I learned that cash today is important it's not just about payment plans and uh that was a huge lesson were just like you know we all sudden have to get on like a payment plan for the credit card like figure that out we turned off the funnel and we had to kind of like regroup uh to figure out yeah how do we grow uh you know how do we grow a little bit more conservatively in the future excellent yeah that's huge I mean that you really hit the nail on the head there with cash flow because a lot of people that sort of get into business or entrepreneurship or marketing especially right like marketing people we tend not to be really analytical accounting minded want to look at all the bookkeeping stuff so yeah when that when that um hammer finally drops it's yeah it's frightening and growing broke that's another really yeah really important term I think I never had that in my business but I did have rapid expansion that I wasn't prepared for so I had like um you always dream about success but then when it happens and you're just scrambling and you're working all day all night and you don't have the systems you don't have any processes everything's just all up in your head yeah I think looking back I'd probably have wanted to start that a little bit earlier would have made things a lot smoother as as things sort of took off I think that's something that yeah we've learned this year is that there's a difference between making money and learning how to make money and learning how to build a business yeah and I think you know this year again we've only been at this two years like like we've learned how to like make like a lot of money here we can like generate Revenue we can like make sales we can build products but I think as we look at the year right now evaluating it we feel like we haven't been building a a business you know I think if somebody came mark C came in to look at and say hey I'm looking at buying you know you guys you know tell me about your system tell me about the processes how's it all work I'd be like it's just me you know like yeah the you know and so I think what next year's gonna be about is is okay now that we know how to make sales now that we know how to generate Revenue how how do we build a true business here uh that can really scale structurally um that could you know maybe even be sold someday and uh build something that that's going to last and not just you know not just a lot of work yeah that's not what I want yeah a legacy a business yeah that's awesome that's awesome cool buddy so to wrap this up before we go is there anything that I didn't ask you that I should have anything else that uh that is really important that people know about or hear about any of those gems I think one thing I've been been thinking about a lot recently and you see this come through like in the entrepreneur Alliance a lot is just being authentic and how you know it's it's scary it's it feels risky but if like you're yourself and you're authentic then it just works so much better uh I think when I was first kind of starting out and you know the first you know year and a half really I just would kind of copy what I saw everybody else do I'd act like them I'd talk like them I'd do those things and I was just like this isn't really me and and and when I kind of shifted you know I'm still making I'll be making the shift my whole life uh when I started just kind of being more authentic like the right people got like really attracted to that maybe it turned some people off and that's great and so I think what I'm trying to do more now and and with the alliance is is not it's not just be talking about how to make money all the time not just be talking about business but like be authentically connecting with people and uh and when you can do that like like the sky is the limit there and so that just my encourage to anybody as a marketer like be yourself take some risks just be passion about what you're passionate about and uh and the right people will come to you awesome I couldn't have said it better that's that's yeah awesome hey well Dave thanks so much for being here today super super valuable stuff really appreciate you sharing that all I'm going to put all the show notes uh and all the links that you mention in the show notes below there so everybody's going to be able to check it out and uh and once again man look forward to continue to follow your journey here and to uh to get to watch and be a part of the growth so it's been a absolute blast yeah dude pump to have you in the Alliance man good to have you there all right buddy we'll talk to you soon there uh see you man byebye