Small Business,
Big Mindset Podcast
Episode #26
Scaling the Modern Digital Ad Agency
For many, working a 9-5 job or one with inflexible hours is just reality. Once something disrupts our flow, such as having children, we realize…hey, wait a minute. There are other, higher priority things I want to be doing with my time.
This was the predicament of today's guest Salome Schillack, CEO/Founder of Shine and Succeed. Working as a pharmaceutical rep, Salome was tired of choosing between her income and her family. After attempting a coaching business, Salome dove into online course creation. (which by the way, she quit after her first course launch was not what she anticipated - more on that in this episode). Salome now has a multiple six-figure Facebook ads agency, a membership, and online courses…all which serve the online course creator niche.
Discussion Highlights:
The Start
- The rise and fall of an online coaching business
- Launching her first online course for $2,000 in revenue after only spending $400 on Facebook ads…and quit
- From Facebook ads side hustle to the start of a full Facebook ads agency
The Education
- B-School
- Amy Porterfield's suite of courses
- Any digital marketer and Facebook ads trainings she could get her hands on
- Podcasts, podcasts, podcasts
The Growth
- Free clients from Facebook group networking
- Started charging $500 a month, then $750, then $1500, then more to manage ads
- Now has an full scale agency with employees and amazing clients
- Niched down to serve digital course creators to build and scale their entire business with ads
- Word of mouth referrals, course launch ads
The Strategy
- Mission to help people get out of their jobs and not have to choose between a 9-5 job or being home with the kids
- Adjust their model to not run as an agency, has online courses and memberships too
- Created the original Shine Show with female entrepreneurs and broadcasted from her phone
- First course was Facebook Live Superstar
- Worked with online course creators as ads managers, saw the backend of people 20 steps ahead of her
The Shift
- Launched a course, A-Lister, during COVID-19
- From key learnings, pivoted to a membership
- Help students start earlier at a lower dollar value, so that over the course of a few months they get sustainable long term results
The Action
- Create your ad account, setup your pixel, set up your custom audiences
- Run engagement ads consistently in the background, all the time
- Build engagement, then build email list, and then build your launches
- Create lead magnets that solve a problem that your ideal customer wants solved
The Mindset
- Grateful for lessons learned and to learn; know you have learned enough now to keep going
- The pros talk about the same thing for years, gaining mastery
- Daily routine: Meditation, journaling, exercise
- Save social media and email for later - get to the meat of your day first thing
The Future
- Teach women to create more autonomy by creating more income, have more freedom
- Grow the membership of students learning and using ads to make an impact
- Teach students to be ads managers for online course creators
The Wrap-Up
If you could listen to only one music artist for the rest of your life, who would it be? Beyonce
Where can people find you online?
