I remember the conversation perfectly…🤓
My wife Laura and I were driving down Charleston BLVD in Las Vegas, headed toward dinner…🚗
And she mentioned how a company she’d hired to help with content for her skincare company
also did Facebook Ads.
My wife said she was going to try them out…🤔
And I immediately warned her that this was a bad idea.❌
I told her that in my experience, 99% of all agencies out there aren’t very good…🤷‍♂️
They suck at media buying…
And it was going to cost her money.
But she did decide to go the agency route.
Over the next two months, she went through two different agencies…
And in that time, her sales have gone from ~$150k a month to $60k a month.
Not only that…
While she had been scaling her company and acquiring customers at a 2.5 – 3x ROAS (Return on
Ad Spend)…
These agencies were typically losing money acquiring customers…
PLUS, over the last 60+ days, neither agency wrote a SINGLE ad that was better than the ones
she made herself.
Not very fun.
She set up some new ads on her own…
Figured out a way to increase the reach of her ads…
Then set them live…
And sure enough, this morning, she woke up to customers pouring in and her CPA (the cost to
acquire customers) was hovering around $39.
My wife is happy about the new sales…
But she’s feeling PISSED that she wasted so much time and money with these agencies…
And even though it was risky, I had to remind her of that conversation we had two months
prior…
When I’d warned her that going with an agency was a bad idea.
She glared at me at first (understandably)…
But then a few minutes later, as I was about to hop in the shower…
She said, “I guess you did warn me…”
As if it was a revelation (LOL)…
And while it was nice to hear my wife admit I’d been right about something…
I didn’t feel smug…
Instead, I just felt compelled to rush to my computer and write you this blog post.
Because here’s the thing…
This illustrates a pretty important truth…
Which is that sometimes, we have to let people make their own mistakes.
We can teach, mentor, proselytize, and whatever else…
But in the end, experience can often be the best teacher.
For example, when I started my first health supplement company and everyone told me to
work with affiliates.
I was resistant for no reason…
And I grossed $1MM while losing $200k in the first year.
Then I finally started working with affiliates…
And in the next year, I grossed $23MM while netting $4MM.
I wish I’d just listened to folks out the gate…
But then, at the same time, that year of struggle taught me so many valuable lessons.
And this is just one example – I can go on-and-on.
This doesn’t mean that every piece of advice you get is good…
And I certainly don’t have all of the answers…
I just felt like this was an interesting enough thought to share with you.
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– SPG
P.S. I will say this: typically, with the right mentorship and training, you CAN avoid a lot of
mistakes. But you have to be willing to listen. And even then, you’re not going to get it 100%
correct. There are still going to be times where you make the wrong choice, and that’s okay. As
I said – making the wrong decision is part of the growth process. In fact, it’s invaluable.
So my philosophy is to try and shortcut the path to success through mentorship…
But when you do fail, celebrate it…
And then use the lessons you’ve learned to move forward as a stronger, wiser, and more
enlightened version of yourself.
P.P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more
stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.