Justin Day

Most people don't do that. It's like they feel like they've got this one strong offer and they believe in it so good and it's worked maybe for a year or two, but it's not scaling. Well, what can you bolt on? How can you position it differently? Only one out of every 10 offers can really hit.

Now you're worldwide. Yeah, I started out on a local agency, kind of a la carte instead of, you know, where I am now with the system base. But yeah, I started about five, six years ago. And yeah, it's been a journey, man.

Yeah, I mean, it really started out as a freelancer, right, where I was just doing graphic design for friends. They'd pay me for this and then get word of mouth out. And then I started to get bigger and bigger deals. I was like, man, I might have something here. It's like, okay, I don't have Google. What was your biggest website build where you were like, damn, that's like a year earning.

And instead of building an entire course, an entire system on the back end, if you have an idea, go ahead and put it out there. Just test it and see if it's biting, if you can get something to happen versus spending a year to build something that may or may not work.

Yeah, it was like a hundred K deals. Like, wow. Okay. They just gave me this money. I mean, let's do this, but okay. Money. Let's go.

Oh, I mean, one for myself and then two just for friends that, you know, trying to build a WordPress and it took, you know, forever and it just looked ridiculous. And you charged a few hundred dollars. Sure, yeah.

so so and what about some of the stepping stones through this where you were like really felt you were getting traction you were proud yeah i mean where i felt i was getting traction was just honestly the organic word of mouth because i i mean until until i really started working with you i was all word of mouth and i was able to grow my business to half a million just without any marketing on my own so it's like it just kept i just kept getting more and more leads from my people because i did such a good job it's like

okay, well, let's just keep going and keep going and keep going. So I was just like, all right, I got a business here, I'm committed. So it just organically grew.

Yeah.

The big jumps were one outsourcing, not having to do it all yourself. And then two, you know, obviously the personal brand, big development there to get more traction out there to stand out in a saturated market. But also having different offers and then testing like crazy, you know, just because you have one thing doesn't mean that's going to last forever or scale all of it. Right.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, the first place anywhere is like five or up. Yeah, that's easy. I mean, where where I really needed help was finding my first W2, getting my ops manager in because I didn't want to learn how to do all the ops and develop and have time.

And actually through networking through our group, I found somebody, it's about 80,000 a year, and he's completely changed my business over the last couple of years, and now I have a team of 30. So it's just gone from zero to 100 very fast.

What would you recommend? Absolutely. I mean, virtual assistants are the key for sure in any business, especially in the agency world. I think a lot of people have doubts if VAs can really handle the workload or do everything. It's not... I'd say they are 80% of the way there. They're not necessarily 100%, you know, like in America, but you know, done is better than perfect.

And a lot of clients will take that. It's like the perfectionism can kill you.

Well, I mean, for my word of mouth, I was always just posting stuff and I'd get a lot of people making fun of me or whatever, but you get those people, the business mind. It was like, okay, this guy's putting himself out there. I can see he does websites. Oh, he does social. Oh, he does X, Y, and Z. And that's really started to accumulate to build a business. And then

standing out, putting your story out there, making it a personalized approach versus business first. Like no one wants to follow or look at a business. They want to follow a brand and a story. Yeah. So that really breaks through and creates that unique view for people to get inside.

Yeah. I mean, I would just bring GoPros. I started out with GoPros and I learned to actually use the cameras and all of that. All the vacations are just going throughout the day to day and filming and just posting and just getting my feet wet and the reps in. I think the content perspective side, right, is getting the reps in. You don't just start by being good on camera or whatever.

It's just like, feel free to just put stuff out there. Who cares if people don't like it? Who cares about the vanity metrics? Just go, go, go. And it'll eventually come back. You never know who's going to see those posts.

yeah i love it and and the last one was testing i know yeah i always hammer that around really do and everybody most people don't do that it's like they they feel like they've got this one strong off and they believe in it so good and it's worked maybe for a year or two but it's not scaling well what what can you bolt on how can you position it differently you know only one out of every 10 offers can really hit and instead of building an entire course an entire system on the back end

If you have an idea, go ahead and put it out there. Just test it and see if it's biting, if you can get something to happen versus spending a year to build something that may or may not work. That's where people really get stuck. It's like just because you think it works doesn't mean other people will.

Yeah, I mean, definitely in the video side is coming more and more out, like leveraging Sora to get kind of some very interesting videos out there to break through the mold. If you're not comfortable on camera, you can use things like Hagen for AI avatars.

There's so many ways on a content perspective to leverage, whether it's for scripts, ideas, testing new offers, and just understanding your target audience. There's ways to use it to really break through the mold.

So the number one thing I always tell people, the target audience is the key, right? So leveraging it for your source of truth, your foundation. Well, what if they already go, I already know my target audience? Okay, well, then I would challenge you, say, do you know 10 things that keep them up at night? Do you know where they shop? Do you know who their best friends are?

Like, if you're not at a very detailed level, then I'd really challenge you to, like, understand how important that can be. Good. So that's one. Next one, number two, what would you say? From an AI perspective, I mean, just connecting the dots in your business.

So most platforms now have integrations, whether it be for your billing or for your onboarding process, connecting the dots to create a personalized and streamlined experience will increase your LTV or reduce your CAC and really give that personalized approach when people are just coming on. So I think the

connecting all the dots but not overdoing it because a lot of people get overwhelmed really quickly with ai and trying to just connect all the dots just start looking at where's where are the things that are like holding you back maybe saving 10 minutes here 30 minutes here and i think really for the first space in ai is like get your billing connected with contracts and everything like that so that the onboarding process is super easy

Yeah, good. And number three? Number three, I would say leveraging it as an AI assistant, right? You can connect it to your email so you're not just buried in it. You can set filters in there to notify you when an important client comes through or just crap comes through, right? So that you're not spending your day in your email because people get distracted.

Shifting in and out of work is super hard, but you have to be there in front of your clients or being aware of what's going on. So having that as an AI assistant to kind of safeguard you. Good. And last two. Yeah. So the last would be just generating content on an ongoing basis, whether it's for SEO, for social, you know, being top minded tongue is so key.

And to do that, you've got to be posting every day, whether it be on social, whether it be SEO, but to do that yourself is so cumbersome. Leveraging AI to be able to get through that and actually do it is really the way to execute not having a team to do that for you. Good.

Yeah, the future of AI is kind of here. I said this about a year ago, and I think it's going to stay in this position I keep moving forward as a conversational AI. Instead of typing things out, now you can have conversations with it in a more organic way. And I think there's going to be more and more embodiment of AI, maybe in a more

avatar way where you can have a conversation with it and get things that, you know, that wouldn't take you hours to type out and really it's going to be developing a brain that can remember who you are, what you're talking about and all that kind of stuff.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So we're actually working with a company right now that's doing all of our qualifying and everything like that so that we don't have to spend time doing that. And I think later on down the road, we're going to have AI agents so that you can have an AI at the top managing different AI bots to do all these different things.

So if you're getting in now and understanding how to use it, you'll be enabling yourself for the future really scale like at the speed of light.

Yeah, so a la carte will kill you. Stop doing that. There's no reason that, like, if you want to be an expert, I'd say niche down and creating systems, repeatable things that you can offload to your team and scale. having just so many different divisions that don't talk to each other or departments that don't work together in a system was really the biggest thing that held me back for so long.

And that's when I developed my Swarm system where it all cohesively works together so that you can scale. And then again, having other people come in so that you're not in the day to day. So the systems is the number one thing and definitely niching down to whether it be your target audience or an offer, not trying to boil the ocean.

From a marketing side, I mean, I definitely, you're just putting yourself out there nonstop, just getting content. If you're not posting every day, you need to be posting every day, two or three times a day, just getting your brand out there. Again, being top of mind, tip of tongue. And leveraging your network and going to networking events, connecting with like-minded entrepreneurs.

I mean, that's the thing that really caught my business on fire, especially from an agency perspective, because there's so many agencies out there. I think going to events like if you're masterminds and stuff like that, connecting with people, you actually open up another world and doors that you would have never known.

good last couple of questions i always like to ask as we come towards the end more personal more about your journey biggest failure biggest failure would be filing for my business right before kobit head yeah yeah and what happened well right when covet hit i mean before that i was i was a freelancer and solopreneur i was already a little bit of debt and then i filed and then all my business went away and then i i ended up in about 100 grand of debt so that was you know that was a big lesson for sure

And how long did it take you to get out of the debt? Well, when COVID kind of started coming up, you know, they lifted it up. It took me about eight months to get out of it. Wow. I mean, I really hit it hard because, you know, after those restrictions came up, people came back flooding in and then I just raised my prices too, just to get out of that hole.

And I mean, it was a big lesson in understanding how to put your eggs in specific baskets, not all in one basket.

That's a great question. I would tell myself to not try and be everywhere all at once and like doing everything as an expert. I think being focusing on one thing and then bolting things on. And obviously, like we talked about testing like crazy. I think the model of just trying to be an expert in everything is just too much. Just focusing on one thing because I was starting to do

websites and social and all this by myself. And also even, even further than that, I would say if I could have gone back five years ago, I say, go get a VA, go outsource because being, doing this by yourself, I wish, I mean, it took me years to get through it and I could have scaled so much faster if I would have started doing that earlier on.

Yeah. It's swarm system.ai or ai marketing tools.com on Instagram, Justin day digital.

The challenges were definitely being a solopreneur and really doing all these things myself. I didn't figure out until three or four years in that, hey, you don't have to do everything. You don't have to be everywhere all at once.

Yeah, I mean, I started about 10 years ago at my mom's agency, kind of learning the ropes of marketing and development, learning coding. And kind of along the way, I learned things like leveraging Zapier to connect the DOS to kind of automate things one by one. And then along came ChatGPT, which kind of shifted everything. It really changed it all, right?

And through that experience, I was really I saw kind of the vision towards where it's not going anywhere. This is an amazing thing that's going to change businesses. So it's kind of spearhead at the top of it always. And I just saw the future. It's like always being the front of it to build.

Yeah, so both of my parents own marketing agencies, so I kind of grew up in that space. So it was, you know, just kind of natural. I was always hearing about it as a kid, listening to the client problems. I knew what I was getting into. It's weird saying you're the first person I've met that has grew up with a parent or agency. Yeah, well, in most people, right, that would turn you away.

You hear all of like this.

crazy well it's pretty new too it's probably only that generation yeah right you know yeah so just growing up in that environment and i always had that creative spark and that you know you got fling that are fanned over the years and that you know burst into starting a you know doing a little bit of graphic design you got friends and then it was like getting paid for that doing some freelance stuff and it kind of organically snowballed and i got word of mouth and grew my business

The challenges were definitely being a solopreneur and really doing all these things myself. I didn't figure out until three or four years in that, hey, you don't have to do everything. You don't have to be everywhere all at once. really outsourcing and leveraging other tools.

And that's really where I came in with your mastermind a few years ago and actually learned how to outsource and be involved in networking and that kind of stuff. So that kind of really shifted my business towards being a solopreneur to actually being a CEO and a business owner.

The lessons I would say is don't feel like you have to do it all right. There's websites out there like Fiverr or Upwork. There's like, you don't have to have a W-2 or like hire a big house team.

Right. And definitely the biggest thing is done is better than perfect. Yeah. Right. Perfectionism is the killer of business. Yes.

Yeah. Why do you think most people struggle with that? I think it's a little bit of ego. I know myself a little bit of ego trying to always make it perfect and hit deadlines and stay up late and do all this kind of stuff.

But I think just a lot of people don't know how those first steps are so hard, especially outsourcing and telling people or teaching people how to do the things that you want to do is very hard. It took me a while to really develop those for my team. But, you know, I think that's the biggest first step as a business owner to really start not doing it all yourself.

Yeah, the future of AI is obviously not going anywhere and it's not going to take your business, but it's definitely going to speed up your business. I think it's important to know that there's so many places within your business to integrate it, not necessarily just blast it everywhere and just like AI dump it, you know, just all over your business.

There's smart ways to integrate that and to automate it. And whether that's checking your emails or

know whether it's doing or you know helping you with taxes or just understanding information at a whole you know when I started writing blogs myself that would take me hours or days now I can just snap my finger I'm like where was this five years ago I used to write a ton of blogs like ten you know when I was in college as a researcher for money and yeah you'd spend ten hours on like a blog you know I'd get paid a grand so it's still great money as a college student but it's like

now is like you throw it in chat you can see and tweak it it's just so crazy how it's changed so so let's do this give me five key ways everyone listening should be using ai so number one number one is leveraging it to do your target audience research that's the foundation towards really everything understanding that right so just leveraging chat gbt to dump all that information in there have your source of truth right and then that goes through everything in your business

Got it. Number two. I would say then connect Zapier throughout your business, whether that's your billing system so that you can automate the onboarding process, make it a seamless integration, not have to do all these manual processes, cutting down on labor and time, getting a better personalized experience. Love that. Yep. Number three. Number three is just leveraging AI for content, right?

A lot of people get stuck in the mode of trying to do content, but you have to really post every single day. So to be able to do that, you have to leverage AI to get the content ideas and to spit out scripts and stuff like that.

Number four would definitely be, you know, doing key research for, you know, whether that be competitive or landscape so you can see opportunities to grow. So that's a lot of ways.

And a fifth? The fifth one is a new thing that they're doing is being able to actually have conversations with AI. That's the best way. So it's now you can just instead of having to type all because that's kind of been a bottleneck for a lot of people now just have a conversation with it to get the best results. And that's where it's going to be. And that's where it's going to stay, I think.

Absolutely. So, you know, I started my business, like actually filed, actually being an LLC right before COVID. COVID hit. Boom. I was doing about 50 grand a month. All gone. And they were all local businesses, right? Yeah. I was like, okay, well, I don't know what to do here, but I guess I'm just going to keep powering through because I wasn't about this. Not like the job market was there.

So I just kind of sucked it in and I got in about $100,000 of debt. And then I climbed my way right back out of it because I just felt. That was just from living expenses, business expenses. Yeah. I mean, even before, I mean, just doing investments and everything like that, setting up the business and then trying to hold on to that through COVID for six to eight months was Really hard.

But I mean, it all came back to because people had to come back to business and marketing had to happen.

Yeah, I mean, I would say, you know, if you have that threshold and that greatness within you feel like you can push through it, keep pushing through, be smart about things, but understand the landscape that you're going towards. And then obviously look, look in other places. Don't just keep in one line.

If you're just doing one thing and you're in debt and it's not working, don't keep doing that one thing, right? Look at other offers, look at different areas, go to your family, your friends, Just put yourself out there as much as possible so that you can be top of mind, tip of tongue.

Yeah, absolutely. So I think we're in a right now we're a big generation of the TikTok influencers and gurus that haven't done it themselves, but they make money on just projecting all of this stuff. My real legacy is to impact at least a million entrepreneurs with the systems and everything that I'm putting out there in the community that I'm building.

You have any tips for them? I mean, I would definitely look at your mission and vision. What's the long-term things? What's the short-term things? What makes you unique? What makes you you? And then putting that into your business so that you can grow it because the market is so saturated in any business, right? It's what you're bringing out your story, make it more personal.

Don't just make it so business-focused, right? And be genuine. That's what really takes you over the edge.

Yeah, absolutely. On my episode, you know, there's going to be my story about why I have this nine tattoo on me, why I have legacy tattooed. It's super important, right? I got it on my body to always remember that there's a greatness within. And I think it'll be surprising to kind of hear the challenges that we go through because it's so easy to judge on social media.

But really understanding someone's story, where they come, where they came from, it's a big deal.

Find me at swarmsystem.ai, aimarketingtools.com, and on Instagram, justindaydigital.