Dave Regula
Dave had grown his business to $3-4 million a year, but a media buyer who'd been "very good" early on wasn't the right fit as the business scaled, and results started sliding.
It felt like a math problem you stare at that makes you sick to your stomach because you know you can't solve it and the clock's ticking. This was a business we built from nothing to almost 4 million bucks the year before — how, how could that be?
Everyone around him pushed him toward another agency.
People in our position are force-fed 'agency, agency, agency'... fun fact, no one likes their agency.
A friend running a $15M/year business told him to go in-house instead, that's what led him to Lance.
Big fears — we wouldn't find anybody, they'd be too expensive, it'd take too long... I was operating from a scarcity mindset.
Lance gave him a playbook for hiring an in-house media buyer and coached him through the reporting cadence once that person was in place.
Results: "Turned around and stabilized pretty quickly — 2 out of the last 3 months have been record months." One record month: "About $620K in new sales, right about $790K in total sales, and cash was up towards $500K — a record for us."
Feels f***ng good, man... it's like your business is your baby... it also makes you realize you're not crazy.
Dave described 10-11 overnight travel tournaments for his three kids that he could now actually be present for, adding:
It's very hard to operate in the rest of your life and be present when the business isn't going well.
The risk is that you stay where you're at... run away as fast as you can from agency, because you've been in the spin cycle.