From Struggling Freelancers to a $550K Deal with TikTok - Interview w/ Jon & Kale of KJ Growth

so we're here with mr. ko panoho hey kale from New Zealand down here in Los Angeles for Johnny's mastermind event and also with my buddy John Maxim who lives out here in LA and so these two fine gentlemen are my buddies and some of our original students and members of the accelerator program that we started up you

know they were one of the first 10 beta program users and it's been amazing to see their journey over the last what about two years since since then yeah so like 24 months and some change right and you know these guys have as you'll learn some achieve some amazing things during that time without you know slacking in

terms of wellness and health and you know making time for life it just adds some flavor one cut look you just walk in the teenage phenom himself you get punched today I'm kidding all right um so yeah you know over the last two years and a bit more these guys have partnered up and built I mean I

would say one of the leading marketing agencies in the world you know they've been featured all over the internet Forbes influences we got alums it's it's cool Inc I mean everywhere you name it you know these guys are making an amazing impact in the world and it's and it's awesome to see and so you know we wanted

to catch up with them and hear about their journey and see what you know what value they had to share so guys I mean where were you guys at back those 20-something months ago when you're just getting started with the program I mean what were you guys doing where were you guys at in terms of one business

and also like your lifestyle I for me a free program and free six-figure agency accelerator I was doing roughly like eight a there would be usd/month a month and that was still pretty tough I mean it was enough to make a living and like things were good but most of it for me was I was pretty helter-skelter

throughout my day like I was sporadic I wake up I try and do sales and trying to emails I was writing and doing a lot of work myself and the biggest thing too I was never really secure on having like a steady hidden jump which was like the scary pop of me so I got I got a

little worried about that and for me most it was like and most of it women stuff was the biggest series company so that was 360 pay a holiday only speak to what he was s I was founding a tech company and I was doing about five thousand five hundred per month with the University of Delaware and we

didn't really have a long contract offense fear was that the contract would expire and they would quit so when I got into the program there's a big squeeze for weeks I was the best there's so much money on my startup and I had Austin all right got it so I mean you guys were both you know you

had a few clients you had some revenue I mean were you pretty much just operating like one-man shows more or less or did you have a small team or what does that look like yeah me it was I had one VA that was it was sort of doing sporadic tasks that I didn't sort of allocate them but

I wasn't using them very effectively and like I maintained a virtual assistant for the second heavy one almost as opposed to someone who's executing doing tasks and sitting up sort of high-priority time for me it was I mean I can't finish this data entry task anything to do so I just had an intern helping me in we

didn't have any assistance for delivering stuff like I remember this one content calendar for a social media plan hundreds of revisions client can't scream about it and the intent really was a qualified to be writing that level of content that's all the support that I had because those who physios stretched so thin with the whole campaign itself

you know those two marketing campaign as well as my other startup and these are all conflicting priorities it's been really caused a lot of stress which led to anxiety and even at one point like a [ __ ] anxiety attack so that was pretty symbolic of where I was at at that stage and that mounted with the fact that

I wasn't making money on the 6-game revenue that I had frustrating got it got it okay and so I mean since the program I mean were you guys that now and then we'll dive into you know some of the kind of pivotal changes that you made but I mean tell us where you're at today and some exciting

things going on right you know ramping up after that big kill both using the sail strips of the program a little bit of negative burst selling we closed 16 K contracts and then there was one another I can deal so as a partnership we closed like 20,000 30,000 more dollars the next she wants so we got to

the six-figure mark about 1.2 and a month too and then find out a little bit and they grew a little bit more throughout the year since then we got up to 25k back down to 15 up to 40 and then soon up to 60 and we're stuck in 65-74 but then we had a breakout client which brought

us up to about 350 km over since then that was a really tough campaign to roll out but we were able to you know maximize it and I head back to the client and not have upgraded to about $550,000 and that was a result of a lot of sales tactics that we learned a lot of assistance in

architecture program I'll does deliver scalable campaigns because it wasn't the campaign we've done it just had a question larger PFI that increased our markup as well as overall revenue yeah the things I would speak to about that is that the revenue is like at they're great as if what we had obviously like OC perfect ahead capital but

the thing for me was the alleviation of sort of fear where makes chicken was coming from month to month I mean the systems are out net so for me it was a sense of my expenditures not too high but it's at least having money to know that I can start to fall back like if things do go

badly now like I know I can say oh I can rebuild but I also had started creating a savings right there those sort of check points when you starting 16:30 and now we can up to that sort of 350 mark you have extra capital t you can take times of things go badly you've got money in the

bank and I think for me what happened with six-figure agent accelerators and told me systems to ability to scale but also remove the lower value tasks from my time and this is a low ROI things like they need them to tell them I'm not their graded but I am pretty good at executing little pro things and I

got to spend my time on things that life but also executing last few sales like for us to spend the time on the deal for tick-tock I think for us it was the ability to actually focus on doing that and actually had this little toss removal so the alleviation of the PIA and then actually getting my own

time back to relax and focus on things that I really enjoy it was a really really big thing awesome that's crazy right I mean you know you both started out with like a few thousand bucks and now like multiple six figures a month I mean that's crazy in terms of business growth in like two years right and

Johnny and I quit our jobs within a few months of each other and you know we were both super scared and super nervous right about that transition but you know we both just committed and we haven't given up and you know look what happens right you guys I bet you're glad you know maybe you wish you would

have quit sooner I know I do sometimes right but uh so you know that's amazing to see that and see the the growth and and I mean on the other side of that like we're kind of you know you were talking about having panic attacks before you know overworking burning out right so I mean being able to

reach those numbers are awesome but what's the impact it's had on your guys's day-to-day life and you know overall outlook on life right right I've gotta be stealing which is 13 I'll fly like she likes 15 hours to get to the victim edits its clients but fine yeah the thing is like I now have one the free

time two weeks ago to the Gold Coast of Australia which is just some things in and I was able to take a holiday day I'm here now and I've just been away from another week for a retreat so I think those are my stop stuff there's one like huge vacations are pretty big the Sigma pod is like

I could spend my time around people by John like yourself that the ability to actually be physically with these people that's been an asset right because the Keegan's house like yes had money yes I had more time that like I'm getting to learn has been time with people that I really care about and like the relationships with

me and having the ability to grow and learn from these people are like the biggest assets in my mind and I get to spend more time doing and so it's been a huge outcome for me awesome yeah it's interesting because when I remember back when I was looking to join the program about the cost because I would

be looking at $3,000 when I only had about 1,000 dollars bank so I asked him for a loan he was gonna do it for me and I got lucky to close the $2,000 deal have enough to buy the perfect but that was a scale out sticking out which is pretty small and not have enough for the program

there one teaches you to have another strong accountability partners like through the mentors in the program through your partner's like hell and that enforced a structure and a rigor and it's helped me live a better lifestyle just outside of all the revenue I was not more disciplined which made me happy with my life because I had rigor

and structure which gave me freedom to the creative things that like so designed everything things like that so now that discipline I mean I've moved to Los Angeles about my dream car incredible we were just driving last thing music it's it's all indicative of a reward for the work that we've done but also for the foundation of

the bill and now at this point we're just reinvesting we're looking at some startups become companies tech needs and so on so we're now long no longer thinking about something small like a few thousand dollars best in which the other side to change yeah awesome and yeah I mean that's such you know I mean congrats and it's

great to hear that and see that you know huge transformations and growth for all for you guys and I mean what do you feel like where some of the specific things that had to change for you guys that you know the program prompted right to kind of bridge the gap on you know where you're at now versus

where you started especially made the mindset one around selling the ability that you have a technical sales group that takes you from literally hopping on the phone to closing the endpoint of the game of the sales was really huge the other one was looking at in terms of our lights ask so for me previously like try to

understand time and what my thoughts would if I can spin he's saving someone else to do a task for me that generates maybe twenty dollars of revenue it makes sense to hire someone who is cost me maybe ten dollars an hour right and I take the problem on top as opposed to trying to do that myself and

the key thing that I learned with those systems is like okay cool how the making of time effectively using EPS using automation and using skills around hiring the right people where to find those right people and how to hire them so that you can free yourself up to focus on the high ROI tasks giving yourself to a

point where you're doing okay maybe it's $500 now no one else makes you sell this client no one else but maybe actually do the tasks I'm doing which is like both campaigns were thinking those types of things and so for me I think that they have you rigid system to say cool block your time out learn how

to sell here's what we need to do and then a roadmap for how to do each of those things so - a really easy to follow letter like hey do XYZ which I've picked up in each of the modules was some of the the really big changes me and it's been flown fixins I would say the dog

got our value buckets the capture box task prioritization again strategy sales script sales process for the program set a foundation for a whole different way of selling systems and processes documenting things making videos training videos with team members enabling us to delegate at this point we have you know 20 employees on the team ability to say was

a huge value because I wouldn't otherwise delegated it without somebody showing me leading it out to delegated said that she's changed for us because we're no longer just painting all the wrenches ourselves to develop there's work we can now run a much larger campaign that basically we want people to do it yeah awesome yeah I mean that's

that's amazing so got it and the processes around those things you know it's it's huge and you guys are just a living living proof of it works right in terms of transitioning from like the le operator to like business owner right so I mean what do you guys doing unlike a day-to-day basis now in the business and

like what does that look like and and how is the program contributed to to getting you there yeah me I mean I've moved through pretty much plus it's given me time in the morning to figure out what they're prototypes they visit my day so I can wake up and this is the most days me or me to

take of Journal and then I'll spend maybe 10 to 20 words reading from that point there I'm being able to sort of keep on the exercise of go train but for the most part what I'll do is I'll message by sled which is handled by the VA of mine and with that there she will prioritize each of

the tasks that needs to each data given for the day before so handle that inbound emails that I've got and say cool these the ones you need to handle based on time and their priority emergency and then I'll look at that go through and then I'll sit focus and act on those three tasks and then I'll try

and wreck my day I'll do at that time so I've got a lot of free time to sort of devote to the things that I want from there I picked up a few things are like machines and they can just try to learn those so that's usually sort of what a day looks like him they don't we

have ADHD maybe until cool threatens and link up the joint most of my days are spent doing sales to sort could I do it most so I think a lot of sales calls and gonna be people in person and there's not a lot of pressure itchy clothes new deals we have a lot of endowment a lot of

different girls and that allows us to work on deals that are super interesting to me so we just left a meeting today what we're looking at best platform and that's a lot more interesting to be been taking a cold call so now I'm just really the best in you more strategic level sales stuff partnerships joint ventures things

like that at this morn job awesome cool awesome well and I mean what sort of like unexpected experiences have been an you know come up over the past like two year journey or so right like share some kind of things you didn't expect what have been really rewarding and like fulfilling for you guys what I'm saying now

to this Tiffani civics fellows but we've had shitty clients have a bit to learn how to deal with it a really good example is a recent five that we we struggled a lot with delivering outcome they were very demanding but for the most part the things that we've been able to take away is an agency and its

business practices that we always want to consistently take the high road whether that's possibly losing money or even you know losing more time so the staff had to work over hours that just being understood like the things that are told me one like discipline perseverance knowing that it's not always gonna be rosy but for the most part

I do keep a lot of my time them quite happy with food like almost the majority of time my life's pretty [ __ ] exciting like I think to LA twice I've traveled a lot you're seven weeks last year and like my lifestyle I can afford to do those things and the things I'm 28 I don't think too many

people my age get the opportunities left head and I've been able to sort of seed that change in the last two years and it is lush and thanks to Bergen but also thanks to Joanie being around good people so for me that is those things a little keep things that are commendeth you have to say there's a

serendipitous moments in a journey like this well that really Bella show the ones that were acts of artists because I feel like that's where it tested my strengths and then be come fight for it myself you know we have the tick-tock the big client we failed that campaign for the full four weeks it would ask for a

one-week extension and on day 31 we got that $18,000 500 we got over the 4 weeks before we spent forty six thousand dollars of the budget and wasted it and that's my one of my favorite stories to tell that's something serendipitous if you ask me even though it seemed like we were all you know been to hell

we actually pulled through and that's really exciting for me and on the flip side of it all those negative stories like the anxiety attacks and stuff there's each positives you know we hosted is retrieved for 22 people in Temecula and a mansion in the French Riviera mentioned and have this amazing meditation experience is sound baths like I

felt like a completely luxury experience that just kind of happened just kind of thought my lap and so there's a lot of things that kind of manifest out of your vision in your dream and you start to see success just make your lifestyle beautiful once you really set up those foundations for success in the company even today

it's a Monday power today so I consider that a success that's really gratifying without guilt to build to take a one hour a day whereas before I would have a lot of anxiety with that yeah and I think you should one thing I want to add is that for the most part when I have seen most of

these videos and I was in the position of someone like when the squeeze was difficult like to pay $3,000 school of course when the sheave whatever the family's Pete was a lot of the seemed quite surreal like you've seen people who were successful they've made it and it's hard to believe with another time the truth I think

the biggest part for me getting involved and doing this stuff is there I changed my mindset around money and looked at if I was going to level up my career most people will pay for an MBA or some form of extra education by a university and I think the stuff around here is that the experiences that we

learn the cheer is that this in there as the education it costs a technique force like this door similar to what we've done is that if you're okay with spending money and not a huge amount to gain some extra skills look at it as an extra payments new tuition to get me to be a bit of person

to have a bit of lifestyle because essentially that's what we're doing and the failings of the learnings of the money that we have lost to get to this point all right so so yeah I mean you know looking back when you guys were about to get started I mean what were some hesitations that you had around joining

a program like this and talk us through that a little better k3 David shitload of money right I think I mean yeah company with exact figure but three whatever five pay I think but for me there was a new HD as well so the time it was a stretch I wasn't making enough money to totally cover up

initially all upfront and I had to be very strategic about the way that I paid it and I think you guys were pretty good but at that point in time it was a huge art and it's hard to take a gamble on something that you don't know the words so I had to talk to one that people

are trusted but - I had to change my mindset on it and the big thing for me was that if I was to pay extra tuition to go back to university or to grab another course that's like a Timothy Kruger that's an investment on me and it's something that if I was gonna be a I'm looking at

anywhere from 100 K so I thought maybe I need to make transition and think okay if I can spend this money on something that can at least generate profits for me to which Lee as opposed to getting a salary job will literally up and maybe getting my career a bit further I think it might be worth it

and that ship initially for me was allowed me to sort of say okay cool I'm happy to do this with the money but again like I think particularly any one of the people will achieve us - you've seen the highlight reel but for the most part that was scary I was in doing this and I didn't want

to [ __ ] spend the money and it was hard to stomach at the time but ultimately getting the right advice and change my mindset around that was the plot that's before me on the run the football would to get started you haven't seen my biggest hesitation is where one is the program we got to work other people trust

where you are running it thankfully I have known about my whole life so huge the care his honesty around you know what was contained within it to the financial investment I mean like I said I got a loan for my dad for a few thousand dollars like that shows that I was pretty gross so it was a

huge leap there and the third thing was I was running another company so I was talking for my time was I'm just gonna abandon that company and so you know the doubts about the program's potential combined with the financial cost am I gonna be able to execute this properly with these prior commitments and I haven't bought any

coaching or any kind of play one to one leveling up type of service and so I was hesitant but I was like you know I need to give this is shop you know even Michael Jordan cousin coach right like LeBron has do they have a coach because you can't do it all on your own that was my

thinking going into it aside to the lead my talk to people who have been in the program before we each did it separately because we thought it was that powerful and we saw Matt's business who's doing 25k at the time for a month yeah that had grown from like 10k just a couple months all based around systems

and have been asking about the assistant forever and finally got access to this program I knew I had to do it and so I put it on credit and gave it a try yeah I promised myself that out if I was going to invest in this I was gonna invest in it ninety five percent or more so

I'll have to apply the program 95 percent accurately to the books and I did I followed it bit by bit more like almost exactly to the T and I think that was what set the foundation of mental foundation for real scale because I built a bunch of systems started executing on them and they started working even though

we made the business pivot three times between now and then the systems in the architecture were all they all stood true right they all served a foundation the whole time so now looking back to the [ __ ] if I was somebody who's concerning the program I would say I can't risk not buying this program I can't risk going

on working 80-hour weeks and having anxiety attacks news that's gonna break me down faster than a financial sacrifice whether I need to get for my dad a financing from some third party and it's more powerful than the hundred thousand by of the a that I have because that was built on brands like frito-lay and Procter and Gamble

all of these old-school marketing strategies don't need but anyhow join spend $3,000 on their five thousand dollars on this program and I build a real business in a couple of years like the time it took me to get the MBA so I think that's pretty indicative if I think you're still having hesitations at this point it's not

a matter of money it's a matter of whether you can deliver on it you know that's just a personal commitment thing if you can't commit to it and don't do it but if you can it's worth your money awesome and well and I mean you know looking back when you were just getting started is there any sort

of like what's what's the most important lesson that you would share with Kayla and Johnny back in time a little bit right what would be the having been through this experience what would that be I think the biggest one and this is maybe my people business club at this time too I think I may be in a

transitioning out of it but I think the thing to me was don't be afraid to try this stuff and don't be afraid to fail in front of your peers one of the bigger his attentions to me too was telling people that like I hadn't wanted to follow my own career path and start my own agency and what

you see under the protocol tall poppy syndrome like I was afraid that if I'd said this to other people I was like essentially ostracizing myself every strange way and so I would say don't worry about what other people think and the last part too is that money is always attainable and if there's any time appointed your life

that's in between this 0:35 for the most part I can still screw up and pop up in a massive way and restart again and get a completely sell to job and still be financially safe by the time I retire and changing my mindset of things oh very cool look you can't [ __ ] up you can lose money and

you can still stop all over again and do this even by the time you've still gonna hike 17 years to do it now is the best time to take these risks so for me that's the stuff I would have gone back and say this is what we need to do this is why you want to do it

and the last part would be stop walking around like this every day what else being productive but I was essentially being busy for the sake of being busy and that air is like the biggest killer of time and your thoughts and energy because if you want to look busy for other people it doesn't serve anything but the

keepers are for other people right and you know I kind of get any of the results you need so that's what I would have said and this probably would have been and trust my people to Johnny's recommendation was the reason I do jumped into the pool suspicion sexuals that's still the time how citizens so opponents should be

able to trust the people that you loved looking at all of the programs out there the people who always fail when they go through the course or the coaching platform or any kind of educational program are the ones who don't connect with the mentors in the program so you're paying this mentor to help you why not get

close with them I mean this is your role model you you want to do it and wants to do so I connect it with the mentors in the program I leveraged everyone I joined all the calls and that's just it's like easy access to the people who can give you the keys so you know I think it's

hugely underrated to to leverage the resources to come in a program like that buddy agency entrepreneur is most great yourself in don't work too many hours and offer too many services have too many businesses invest in too much marketing or whatever that affects and capex looks like for you don't spread yourself in in my case I had

to to quit my other company and close that down in order to really make a success out of this one and I also had to give my team my work so I wasn't personally spread thin and I had to narrow my product says it's gonna spread this stuff in focus and a program like this is it's very

dense which is great because that allows you to just focus on these strict set tasks and not have all these other marketing tactics that are just distractions or services that you offer you know ten gentle clients things like that so really just focus on focus and that program that's the backbone of the program is focus awesome beautiful

and how can we you know everyone listening how can we follow along with you guys get to know you guys you know maybe work with you guys right so direct us direct the people to where we can find you online yeah it was one go folder change a growth on Instagram we don't - how to fine so

just topping at em change a growth the other one is that's on the screen you can find us both on LinkedIn I know for me it's just and the other one I'm pretty good at getting back to people on it's LinkedIn so if you're gonna try to connect with you there Edda no tell me what you found

jumbled in now you can find me on instagram TCG underscore style Facebook Jonathan dot Maxim we've offered so many free coaching calls mentorship calls internships and partnerships a lot of people who came out of agency accelerator we look at them up gangster our work so don't feel bad reach out or just follow along for the journey we

offer a lot of free resources like a guide on how to happened an or a guide on the house we're making a viral video something talk so check them out if you want to reach out we happen to chat with you all right awesome well yeah thank you guys so much it's been awesome to see you guys

start is just you know kind of a few man shops and and really build a killer business that's I mean working with some of the biggest brands in the world right powered by some of the smartest minds in the world and they're they're sent sending many of their resources your way so that's a testament to you guys

in your discipline and talent and so yeah it's been awesome to to witness the journey and thanks so much and can't wait to see you know where we're at in the next few months all right Kayne j-johnny and Cale peace