What's up?
Corbitt here... Founder & CEO of Apex Current, getting my blog on! :-)
We've had the opportunity to collaborate with businesses in Australia, Colombia, France, the U.K. as well as across the U.S. from San Francisco to New Jersey...
We were also recognized as one of 2019's Top Advertising Agencies in the World by DesignRush which was published in Business Insider.
This has been one wild ass ride for sure, growing Apex Curren, a bootstrapped business, from the basement of my home to a dedicated office space, reaching top line revenue of just over a million dollars in our first fiscal year in 2018.
I've had no investors, funding or a dime given to me by anyone so I'm fortunate enough that we've been able to accomplish what we have. Especially given that statistics show only 3% of the nearly 600,000 new businesses / startups in the U,S. each year hit $1 million in revenue in their first year and only 4% of the ones that are started, even make it into their second year.
One of the biggest challenges has always been scaling what we do while selecting the right clients as partners. Basically, replicating myself through processes and finding staff who can replicate this granular protocols of performance-driven digital ad buying in conjunction with the type of clients we want to have as partners.
So, this year, I’ve minimized overhead as I contemplate how best to move our business model forward. I’ve also moved to more of a virtual staff which was a great decision, but that’s a topic for a different post all together.
What's key to this recipe is finding the appropriate client partners which is in part where the title of this post comes in. I was blessed to be mentored by one of the best Facebook Marketers in the world. He drilled what we do everyday into me daily, but also a quote that I’ll never forget - "when someone shows you who they are, believe them."
It had nothing to do with digital marketing, but everything to do with everything else... There have been so many situations where I've given people the benefit of the doubt - whether clients, team members, vendors, etc…
I'm at a point in this journey now where I can't do that anymore. If someone says they're going to do one thing yet does another, makes a commitment and then breaks it, to me, they've shown their true colors.
As we well know, all we have in this day and age is our word and so many people seem not to really give a shit if they break, manipulate or completely change the story on whatever it is they’ve committed to.
Things come up, I get it, but that's not really what I'm talking about... What I'm talking about is blatant and repetitive disregard for something someone says they're going to do or commits to. It seems to be happening at an alarming rate these days and so for me, partnering with the right client is absolutely paramount to our continued growth so that we're poised to grow and help grow the right businesses with what we do.
Because what we do is everything to me and only the perfect partners are deserving of our services. It takes more work than anyone will ever know. So much has to be sacrificed, but when the fat lady sings, we’ve created something that’s a marketing machine and will grow our partner’s revenue each month consistently.
So here's the million dollar question for you... What examples of this are happening to you? Be it your business, team members in your department or even personal life?
What tough decisions are you not making that you need to make right now?
Because after being on this journey for a couple years now I can tell you with confidence, 99.9% of the time, when someone shows you who they are, you need to believe them. If not, you're going to get taken advantage of and it could cost you everything.
I made the decision this year, that when we break things off with a client, team member, vendor, etc. - for whatever reason - we won't ever work with them again... It seems cutthroat, I know, but I can attest to the fact that it's been an absolute game changer to my business. It takes a massive amount of pressure to make a diamond so as I’m creating my diamond, I’m getting comfortable with that increasing pressure more each day.
I hope this helps give you a gentle nudge in the direction you need to go. It's not always easy, but it's necessary and will make a big difference in your life, maybe all the difference. I can promise you that!
Have an amazing rest of your day and make big EPIC things happen!!
— Corbitt
