From Police Officer to Marketing Agency Owner

I asked Jonathan to tell people what he was doing before the agency.

He was not a marketer. He was a police officer. He went into law enforcement around 2009. Before that he was in sales: Real Estate Sales, other outside sales. He was a host at a casino, then worked in the casino business as a blackjack and craps dealer, worked his way up through Pit Boss and supervisor.

But he liked the customer interaction and relationship building even in the casino industry, so he went into the hosting side of it.

He went into law enforcement because it was always a childhood dream. He wanted to be a federal agent.

Shortly after he got into law enforcement, his wife and I started having babies. They had babies in 2012, 13, 14. They came quick and fast.

"At that time, law enforcement was not a great place in this country. I remember standing outside of my patrol car. My 12-year-old was I guess one or two and he's standing holding the steering wheel of my police car and she's telling me goodbye because I was getting ready to go into work. She said look, another cop today was shot and killed in Louisiana. What are you going to do?" Jonathan said.

She's sitting there pregnant, one's holding the steering wheel, and she said: you don't make enough money at all to have these little boys not have a dad.

Jonathan was like: well, she's got a pretty strong point there.

He knew it was definitely not going to be his forever job. He was enjoying it, enjoyed working the streets, enjoyed doing interdiction and working drugs. But when he looked at his supervisors (his sergeants, his lieutenants, the chief and assistant chief), they were some miserable people. He definitely didn't want to have that office job, no fun at all playing the whole politics thing.

Things happen in your life that will force you to make some decisions. Either you get the option to make it, sometimes you don't (sometimes it's a true force), but sometimes you're led down a path and you get to decide. At this moment, whatever direction you go is going to make a huge impact on your life.

He could have kept fighting and saying "no I'm going to stay in law enforcement, I'm going to do something else." But he got into a situation where politics came into play and he got a bad taste in his mouth.

The Phone Call That Changed Everything

Jonathan remembers the phone call. He remembers where he was standing. He's at a doctor's office. It had two doors: you open one door and you're in between two doors before you go into the one to the doctor's office. It was cold out, that's why he got in between those two doors.

He called a buddy of mine and said: hey are you working on anything right now? Because this guy was a very creative person. He had made two different movies to graduate college. One made it to the Sundance Film Festival (real creepy, real horror). Another one was a Hurricane Katrina documentary that sold hundreds of thousands of copies.

The buddy said: yeah matter of fact I was getting ready to call you because I'm making mobile apps and I want to get these to business owners.

This was 2014 or beginning of 2015. This new technology: if you can get people to download the app, you can send them push notifications and tell them whatever you want. Or you can create these geofences and if they come inside the geofence and they got the app, you can pop something up.

Coming from a sales background, Jonathan was like: all right this is super cool.

He's a golfer, been a golfer his whole life. He said: I can go sell these to every golf course. The first thing he thought was: everybody wants to warm up and hit balls at the driving range before they play, but that's already a fixed cost. The golf course has already bought the balls, they don't care about that.

So he was like: you put a plaque on the counter with a QR code and you tell people you can have a free bucket of balls if you download our app.

From Apps to SEO: Learning By Doing

Jonathan started selling them and started selling them quick. Then he went to people he played poker with (he's also a big poker player). Business owners he plays poker with, restaurant owners, one guy owned a trucking business (sold 18 wheelers).

He went to the trucking guy and that guy goes: yeah I'll buy an app Jonathan. When Jonathan was getting ready to leave, he goes: look, check out my website. He pulled out his phone and goes: it's hard to fit on my phone, you got to spread your fingers to see it. Can you help me fix that?

Jonathan said: sure yeah, we can help you fix that. Had no clue what they were going to do or what it was called. They had to reach out to a web developer and get it taken care of.

A couple weeks later he goes to this buddy named Scott who owned this really famous seafood restaurant. Scott buys an app. Jonathan's getting ready to leave, Scott goes: hey can you also help me out with my SEO? My SEO is horrible.

Jonathan was like: sure Scott. Then he goes to his car outside the parking lot of this restaurant and Googles "what is SEO" because he had no clue what it was.

"That's how I got started in marketing. A situation happened where I had a choice because I wasn't ready to leave law enforcement then. I knew it wasn't my forever job, but I was not ready. But a situation happened that I thought was so unfair, and now I realize it happened for a reason. It was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. Because I was open to exploring something different, the rest is history," Jonathan said.

The Critical Lesson: Why Great Results Aren't Enough

In 2018, Jonathan lost a client. He travels and speaks at different manufacturers events for Carrier and York. He's got presentation decks, either main stage or breakout sessions. He had this one client on a lot of his presentation decks.

He gets a phone call one day: hey we lost that client.

Jonathan was like: what do you mean we lost that client? We have the best results for them, the best SEO, the best paid ads. What do you mean we lost them?

This was a pivotal moment. He had never up to this day called a client and said why did you leave.

So he called this guy. There was something that he didn't understand: your results are great. There was probably fear there. Like holy crap, if he's willing to leave with great results, why won't these that don't have the same results leave or stay?

Jonathan said: I have a question if you got a second. I just need to understand why you're leaving. I'm so proud of the results with you, I got them all over our stuff. I'm about to go to Atlantic City next week and I'm going to talk all about our things but you're on it. I'm gonna have to change all that. So I just don't get it.

The guy goes: I'm happy to explain. If you've got a second I'll lay it all out for you.

Jonathan said: I'm all ears.

The guy goes: okay. We've been with you a little over two years. Both of those years our business has increased.

Jonathan's sitting there going: man, am I hearing this the right way?

The guy goes: but let me explain further. Year one we were forecasted to grow internally, we forecasted to grow by 1.2 million and we only grew 800,000. Year two we forecasted to grow 1.8, we grew 1.1 or 1.2.

"The problem with that is we forecasted and we couldn't just when we needed to hire someone, we needed the extra staff, we could just go and get them. So we had to hire, we had to train, we had to get trucks, we had to get equipment and prepare for the growth. And the growth didn't happen the way we needed to. So then we had to lay people off," the client said.

At first a part of Jonathan got defensive. He said: well sir, you're the one who makes the decisions on ad spend. You were telling us how much to spend. We were getting great results but we were only spending what you told us to spend.

The client goes: I understand that, however I looked at you to be the expert and we didn't hit our goal.

Jonathan got off of that call and thought about it. At first there's probably a side of him that was like: well screw him, this is stupid because we got the great results.

But the more he thought about it, light bulbs went off. He said: no, we have to start being a consultant and we need to be a consultant first. We need to find out deep what their problem is, what their challenges are, and where they're trying to get to.

"Where are they currently at now? Where were they? Where have they been last year, a couple years before? What is their history? Where are they trying to get to? But until we can understand where they've been and where they're coming from, they're never going to get to where they're trying to get to," Jonathan explained.

Now it's so much about education and diving into their numbers and asking them questions. Like: do you know what your cost per acquisition is on average?

Most people can't tell him that. They'll tell him some weird number that the marketing company gave them. No no no, not cost per lead, not how many phone calls did you get divided by how much money you spent. What is your true cost per acquisition?

Most can't tell him that number.

The Geo-Fencing Strategy: Locking Onto 9,400 Rooftops

Jonathan's doing things like geo-targeting right now. Geo-targeting to them is being able to lock on to a rooftop, onto an individual home.

He's got a roofer in Houston who lives in a big master development. This neighborhood the guy thought had 4,500 homes in it. It's got over 9,000 homes. They had replaced over 200 roofs in that neighborhood.

Jonathan's down there with his video team. Super nice guy. He's like: it's a nice neighborhood, how long you lived here?

The guy goes: 18 years in this neighborhood. We've done 200 roofs.

They did three testimonials from people in that neighborhood. Jonathan's going: man why don't you own this neighborhood? You should be the only person anyone in this neighborhood thinks about.

The guy's like: well what kind of ideas you have?

Jonathan called up his direct mail partner and said: hey I need you to tell me how many homes are in this neighborhood. They came back and said 9,400 and something.

Jonathan was like: okay well you were off by only 50%.

He said: let's put a direct mail strategy together. Let's create a video. You're going to go in your front yard and you're going to introduce who you are, how long you've lived here. They're going to be able to see the street sign, they're going to see your house, know that it matches with the other houses and the landscaping. You're going to call out that neighborhood. You're going to say you've lived here 18 years, y'all replaced over 200 roofs.

"We're going to do a direct mail card that has a picture of you that says 'I'm Carlos, scan the QR code to hear my story.' Underneath you're going to say here's three of your neighbors and what they said about us as well. We're now going to lock on to the 9,400 roofs, geo-fencing these homes," Jonathan said.

The way geo-fencing works: it's kind of creepy but it is what it is. They actually pull the parcel number through USPS, get the parcel number to your home. Then they have third party partnerships where they can actually see which internet provider that home is on. They can lock, they can connect into the IP address and the MAC address of that home from the parcel number. Then they can attach to any cell phone that is inside of that home.

The way they do that is because the phones are connected to a tower somewhere. They get the tower. The tower will say every person that's on it (not names, it's numbers). The last several digits of that number on the tower is the parcel number at which this phone is at this home.

Once you get that locking, you can then actually target them on connected TV like Roku and Hulu. Then you can get display ads on any website they go to. And then the same thing with social.

"For me it is omnipresent because I want to hit them using direct mail. We're going to hit them every two months, a different type of card: a big card, a little card, one that's got a magnet on the back with a sports team on it. They're going to get a different look and feel every two months. When they turn on their TV and they don't have cable and they're off of connected TV, we're going to be on their commercial. If they go to Wall Street Journal or ESPN website, they're going to see a display ad. If they go to Instagram or YouTube, they're going to get hit with an ad there. That's omnipresent, hyper-focused," Jonathan explained.

The 4-Week Onboarding Experience That Changes Everything

Jonathan's been working on mastering their onboarding experience with clients. No matter what, in any situation, when a client comes on board, they're leaving another marketing agency.

They very rarely work with someone that's brand new. Because they have to have a very big budget and it just typically doesn't work that way.

"We have to accept and get it through our mindset that they're leaving somewhere else. We have to almost create the Apple experience. Steve Jobs created an experience because it was no longer just like a cell phone in your pocket. Those iPhone boxes are super nice, this opening up and revealing of this awesome device. You have to create an experience," Jonathan said.

When he's talking about their agency and some things they're working on is creating an experience from the second they sign their agreement and come on board.

He wants to know, he wants his whole team to know: why are they leaving their current company? What was bad and wrong? What challenges, what were the frictions and frustrations? How do they make sure they overcome that?

Before they even do the onboarding call, they make sure they acknowledge it, know it. We won't do these things anyway, great. But they know it's a soft sensitive point for the client.

Then they create an experience over those next four weeks that is so open, so much communication, so much transparency. It is giving them the entire road map of what they're doing and why they're going to do it. It is holding them and the client accountable every step of the way.

Jonathan's asked the last 25 people that have come on: I'm just curious, how was that onboarding experience?

He's been posting them on social media because the comments come back like: that is the best experience I've ever gone through. I've been with five marketing companies, I've been with three marketing companies.

They only do their onboardings during lunchtime. It is a 2 hour to two and a half hour meeting. The client fully knows everything they're going to cover and do.

"We send them an Uber Eats link in the morning of their onboarding call and we let them and anyone that's going to be part of the onboarding agenda to order lunch. Then my executive team who's going to be on the call has lunch as well. We all eat lunch with the client. We break bread and get to know each other over lunch while we're collecting and getting all this information. That's been super cool and allows us to get to know the client on a more personal level," Jonathan explained.

When they get off of that call, they've obtained and have logged into every single thing. They don't just get the passwords to Google and Facebook, they actually get logged in while they're on the call to make sure when they get off of there, there is no "oh well yeah we haven't done this because we don't have access to that and your team won't get us to us." Those excuses don't work anymore.

They do not leave that call until they have it.

My Main Takeaway

The biggest lesson from talking to Jonathan is that great results aren't enough to keep clients. You have to be a consultant first, diving deep into their actual goals and reverse engineering everything you do moving forward off of what that goal is.

Jonathan's journey from police officer to marketing agency owner proves that being open to exploring something different changes everything. He wasn't ready to leave law enforcement, but a situation happened that he thought was so unfair. Now he realizes it happened for a reason. It was the best thing that could have ever happened to him. Because he was open to exploring something different, the rest is history.

The pivotal 2018 client loss changed his entire approach. This client left despite great results. Both years their business increased. But year one they forecasted 1.2 million growth, only grew 800,000. Year two they forecasted 1.8, grew 1.1 or 1.2. They had to hire, train, get trucks, get equipment and prepare for the growth. The growth didn't happen the way they needed to. They had to lay people off. The client said: I looked at you to be the expert and we didn't hit our goal.

Jonathan realized: we have to start being a consultant first. Find out deep what their problem is, what their challenges are, where they're trying to get to. Where are they currently at now? Where have they been? Until we can understand where they've been and where they're coming from, they're never going to get to where they're trying to get to.

The geo-fencing strategy locking onto 9,400 individual rooftops is omnipresent hyper-focused. Pull the parcel number through USPS, connect into the IP address and MAC address of that home, attach to any cell phone inside. Hit them every two months with direct mail (different card each time: big card, little card, magnet with sports team). When they turn on connected TV, they're on the commercial. Wall Street Journal or ESPN website, they see a display ad. Instagram or YouTube, they get hit with an ad there.

The 4-week onboarding experience that gets "best experience I've ever gone through" feedback from the last 25 clients: send Uber Eats link in the morning, everyone orders lunch, executive team eats lunch with the client, break bread and get to know each other over lunch while collecting all information. Get logged into every single thing while on the call. Do not leave that call until they have it. No excuses work anymore.

Want to learn more from Jonathan? Follow him on Instagram and TikTok @jonathanismarketing, Facebook, listen to Home Service Hustle podcast on Spotify and Apple. Visit TopServeDigital.com. Jonathan brings people on from all walks of life to talk about marketing, money, and mindset.

Listen to the full episode to hear more of Jonathan's insights on why great results aren't enough, the geo-fencing strategy locking onto individual homes, the 4-week onboarding that breaks bread with clients, and why that first impression determines if they'll renew a year later.