I went from absolute disaster of a marketing firm owner to a slightly less disastrous one.
Here’s how I did it:
I was drowning in an ocean of client work.
And I absolutely deserved it.
I was like the world’s greatest Captain Of Creating Systems.
But I was too busy making everyone else’s business flourish, while my own was crumbling around me.
My income was as stagnant as the water in a Florida swam.
And I had the spending habits of a coked-out rock star (minus the coke, of course).
I was barely breaking even each month.
And my employees needed paychecks, and my family needed food on the table.
For months I was stuck at a $15,000/mo income.
Now, I know some of you are probably thinking…
“Damn, that’s a lot of money!”
But listen…
With great power comes great responsibility.
And I was handling it about as well as a toddler with a flamethrower.
I couldn’t get any new clients.
I was just to busy doing the daily grunt work.
And I didn’t want to be that douchebag selling online courses on how to build a business while struggling to keep my own shit together.
Now, I must admit that temptation always lingered like a sweaty, uninvited guest at a party.
(Having thousands of follower on social can mess your mind up if you don’t have your great values instilled)
Anywho…
I did what I should’ve done years ago—I built a f*cking system for myself.
Today my marketing firm is averaging $50K per month.
And I only work 1 hour a day on it.
But how?
I built a system.
And it has 5 glorious, rock-hard pillars.
Let me break them down for you do…
But before you do… add your email below to join the waitlist for my 1 Hour Workday Program where I show you how I invest 1 hour a day in my marketing firm, all while making an average of $50,000/mo. Or you can read the details of the program here.
1. Asynchronous Work Mastery
Zoom? More like a virtual chamber of eternal despair.
I have a once-a-week, 15-minute call on Whatsapp with my operations manager.
He’s the key to making this work.
He puts me up to speed about everything.
For the rest of my hermits (all my employees love solitude), Slack and ClickUp are our weapons of choice.
Our communication code of honor has 3 tenets:
1. Brevity Is Our Religion
We’re all summary ninjas.
We cut through the bullshit.
And we deliver only the essential data.
No gossip or finger-pointing allowed.
Just the good stuff.
2. Audio Notes: The Forbidden Fruit
Voice notes are my go-to communication tool.
But my team?
They hit me short texts, bullets points, or snappy loom videos.
3. Meetings? More like Speed-Dating for Professionals.
I ruthlessly trim meetings.
I despise ’em.
So I keep ’em intensely short.
We mostly talk through Slack.
But when we do meet, it’s a 10-20 minute blitz.
2. Monthly Goals
The goals we set for our clients vary.
But here’s the gist.
We strive to make our clients four times what they pay us in the first month of working with them.
After that, we keep adding 20-30% growth each month.
It might not sound like much, but think about it like this:
If you pay me $5,000 per month, I’ll make you at least $20,000 in sales that first month.
Then, we keep adding 10-20% to that number every month.
So let’s whip out our trusty calculators and do some math, shall we?
Let’s say the client is starting at a solid $20K/mo.
The worse case scenario looks like this (10% growth):
1st month: $40K (Their $20K + the $20K we make them)
2nd month: $44K (Can you feel the intensity?)
3rd month: $48K (We’re just getting started, baby.)
4th month: $53K (Hold onto your butts!)
5th month: $58K (This is getting insane!)
6th month: $64K (I can’t even…)
Best case scenario?
$100K in sales is possible.
Keep in mind, this monthly income rollercoaster will range between $50K/mo and $100K/mo, depending on the clients and products we’re selling.
But hey, you get the point.
We’re out here making it rain.
3. SOP: The Magnum Opus of Efficiency
Our SOPs are like the Library of Alexandria, except for getting shit done instead of housing ancient wisdom.
SOP stands for “Standard Operating Procedures,” and they’re basically tutorials for employees.
That said…
I’ve got a long road ahead to fully build my SOPs up.
But it’s already doing wonders for my team.
We’ve got templates, tutorials, and other goodies to make our system swift.
So, let’s say I bring a new writer onboard.
I just send them into the depths of my SOP video library.
And would you look at that!
Asynchronous magic—they can start working on stuff right away without plain ol’ me breathing down their necks.
All thanks to the power of SOPs.
My SOP library resides in ClickUp.
And it’s truly a sight to behold.
4. Execution Speed Max
Whenever I recruit a new member to my team of internet hermits, I lay down some real wisdom on ’em.
I tell ’em:
“Give me the shittiest first draft ever, and we’ll polish that turd together.”
Our deadlines are tighter than the jeans on a 2000’s emo kid.
But after about a week, they usually stop needing my guidance.
They absorb our work style.
They fully comprehend the stakes we’re dealing with here.
And my operations manager get a hold of the reins.
But working fast is not the same a half-assing the job.
They have do to great work in as little time as possible.
And believe it or not, I typically send these dumpster fire drafts to my clients—typos, mistakes, and all the glorious shittiness that comes with a first draft.
Now you might be thinking,
“Jose, why the hell would you do that?”
One word, my friend:
Speed.
I make it clear to the client that they’re looking at a first draft, fresh from the depths of chaos.
All I need from them is to judge the general vibe, flow, and overall direction of whatever we’re cooking up for them.
Once we’ve got that sweet approval, we’ll polish that draft until it shines like Walter White’s immaculate bald head.
5. Software, Automation, and AI
I’ll be honest:
My automation game is like a potato-powered calculator – nothing too fancy, but it gets the job done.
I don’t need a high-tech sales pipeline because I don’t take on too many client every month.
And what we mostly do is automate email marketing and sales funnels.
Here are the software we use:
- ChatGPT: This bad boy is like an AI guardian angel, swooping in to fix typos, brainstorm ideas, and make my content more engaging.
- Notion: The Swiss Army Knife of organizing marketing campaigns, client deliverables, and content.
- ClickUp: It keeps project and task management in check. Notion could handle this, but it sucks for task management.
- Google Drive: It’s the VIP room where I share top-secret designs and videos with clients.
- Figma: The graphic design software we use.
- Descript: The Usain Bolt of video editing – fast and efficient.
- ManyChat: My trusty sidekick for automating Instagram DMs.
- Missive: Where we manage customer support thru email (both mine and a few lucky clients’).
- ThriveCart and Gumroad: The dynamic duo for selling digital products.
- HypeFury: A Twitter wizard to magically schedule tweets.
- Meta Business Suite: what we use to schedule stories and carousels on Instagram.
Honorable mentions:
- Premier Pro: The video editing powerhouse for when Descript needs a break.
- Plausible: For tracking our webpage analytics.
Now, could we use fewer software?
Yes.
We just haven’t needed to change yet.
(Bonus) How we make money for our clients
We’ve got two main strategies here:
Strategy 1: DM Sales
Strategy 2: Product Launches
DM Sales
We’re all about that inbound and outbound action.
We slide into 20 to 50 DMs every day.
And we encourage our client’s follower to DM us.
Then we unleash the sales pitch—either selling a program right there in the DMs, or seducing them into booking a sales call with our client.
It’s straightforward, it’s simple, and it’s downright effective.
Product Launches
We typically have a product launch every month or every other month for our clients.
My team can conjure up a whole launch campaign in just 5 days.
This lightning-fast process usually includes the following deliverables:
- Sales page copy
- Sales page design and web dev
- 3 to 5 hype emails
- 9-12 sales emails
- 3 to 5 post-purchase emails, like a warm hug after you’ve handed over your cash
- 10-20 hype tweets
- 30 sales tweets
- 10-20 IG stories (we turn tweets into stories)
- 3 to 6 IG carousels
- Upsell page copy and design
- Bonuses design
It’s a metric ton of content to create in 5 days, but we’re just built different.
However, the usual delivery time is 25-ish days.
That’s how I went from an absolute disaster of a marketing firm owner to a slightly less disastrous one.
It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions
But now, armed with my trusty system, I’m ready to take on more clients.
All while working 1 hour a day.
Because I’ve delegated everything to my team.
– Jose
