The DigitalMarketer Certified Partner Program

Kasim: 00:00:09

Hey, it's costume with your daily Google news.

Kasim: 00:00:11

And I'm here with my buddy mark.

Kasim: 00:00:12

Degras.

Kasim: 00:00:13

Mark is the general manager of digital market.

Kasim: 00:00:17

Yep.

Kasim: 00:00:18

Did I get that

Mark: 00:00:18

title right?

Mark: 00:00:19

GM?

Mark: 00:00:20

Well, I said president GM, a lot of people,

Kasim: 00:00:22

president GM and digital marketer.

Kasim: 00:00:23

That's a really big gig too.

Kasim: 00:00:24

I mean, to come in and just sort of take that over.

Kasim: 00:00:26

That feels daunting to me.

Mark: 00:00:28

Oh, easy, easy peasy, actually, you know, what's funny is I was originally

Mark: 00:00:31

gonna go in as the, the content executive for scalable to like run all of the

Mark: 00:00:37

content marketing for all the brands.

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And then they decided to like reform digital marketer and I, I.

Mark: 00:00:44

Been a part of a few different like executive teams.

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So it's kind of like, I'm like, oh yeah, I could, I could do that too.

Kasim: 00:00:51

why not this brand new hat?

Kasim: 00:00:53

I'll just take this over.

Kasim: 00:00:54

That's cool, man.

Kasim: 00:00:54

I remember when you and I first met.

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Um, you were explaining your vision and just how you're going

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deep, deep, deep into content.

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And what I thought was really interesting about it is you started espousing

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the need for high quality content.

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Before, like before iOS 14 really hit anybody knew what was going

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on before the privacy first, before Google's core update.

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And now the whole rest of the world is content first, but you've

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been kind of, you know, playing this tune, uh, quite a bit sooner

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than anybody else that I've seen.

Kasim: 00:01:21

So I just wanna say like your prophetic tendencies were right on.

Mark: 00:01:25

Oh, it's just something I like it has nothing to do with

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like, this'll eventually be a thing.

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I think I wanted it to always be a thing.

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Cause I started doing content back in like 2005, you know, I

Mark: 00:01:36

had a, a fitness magazine, a gym.

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And what I found was when I went online, I couldn't find any information.

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Like all I wanted, I, I wasn't.

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Fitness.

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Like I was wanted to get back into shape after, uh, you know, doing

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it for college sports and whatnot.

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And I had a friend who's like, okay, here's the workout plan,

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send me a list of exercises.

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And I tried to look up the exercises online and I'm

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like, what the hell is this?

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Like, why are there 50 ways to do a pushup?

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And why, why are there 50 ways to do a squat?

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And there's no names, there's no structure to it.

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And that, that bugs the crap outta me.

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So I was like, oh, why don't we just set up a website where we say, here's

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what a push up is with the video.

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Like no, no revolutionary, you know?

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Right.

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And so I was like, I just wanna list.

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I wanna be able to search stuff easily.

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And so I came up with that and then I found that nobody was doing it.

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And then I was like, oh, well, you know, fitness was so flexible.

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And marketing's kind of similar where there's so many terms out there and

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everybody has different definitions.

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So I said, if you have one organizing body that can actually define the terms

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and say, this is the way you do this thing, then they'll be the authority

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just because they took the time.

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Be the authority.

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So that's how the whole content thing does, you know, kind of went and I

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really just enjoy organizing information.

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So it just fit.

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And I'm like, this is great.

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I have all the content up.

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And then I found a list of professionals that didn't really

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know how to publish content.

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And I was like, oh, well you have the fitness knowledge.

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I have the ability to distribute that knowledge.

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We'll just work together and I'll promote you.

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You give me content, I organize it.

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You get leads and whatever you want from it.

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Good to go.

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So that's kind of where the whole concept came from.

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And then just my ability or my, uh, neurotic need to structure information.

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And I'm like, ah, this.

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This works and then nobody cared

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So it was all this, all this work happened.

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And then when I, uh, I sold my company to audit labs and formed their academy,

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like their content base, essentially.

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And then after that I wrote a book about the process and then my intention

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was really to set up digital market.

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Like, and that was like 2015.

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I set up the mega mad Institute and everybody, I was trying to

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teach kept on saying like, well, could you just do it for me?

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You do it for me.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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And then you get sucked into being an agency owner and then six years

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go by, you know, and then, then you work at digital marketer.

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That was yeah.

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Yeah.

Mark: 00:03:58

Easy peasy.

Kasim: 00:03:59

That's how I want.

Kasim: 00:03:59

It's funny, man.

Kasim: 00:04:00

We, we started trying to play in the course.

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Place just because I was like, oh, info is so scalable.

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We can just sell the info.

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But you know, everybody who bought the course was just

Kasim: 00:04:08

like, Hey, can you just do this?

Kasim: 00:04:09

I'm like, but I just told you exactly how like, and then trying to keep up with

Kasim: 00:04:13

the changes became damn near impossible.

Mark: 00:04:16

Um, yeah, it's kind of like, and that's, that's where I came.

Mark: 00:04:18

I mean, I had a more altruistic view for my agency.

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I was like, you know what?

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There's all these small business owners.

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Doctors there's attorneys, there's all these professionals out there

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that should be worried about being professionals, but they have the knowledge

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and all the knowledge you find online is actually created by marketers.

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So I was like, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna show these professionals how to

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do the marketing and then they'll fix the internet with good information.

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And that was.

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Stupid cause cause no business owner, no professional.

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Who's busy wants to do that stuff.

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And so that's where digital marker came around where I'm like, oh

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man, I gotta work with marketers.

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They love this stuff.

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They'll work with the, they'll get the content from, you know,

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the, the small business owners and we'll fix the internet together.

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And.

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It's sort of working.

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Yeah.

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You're getting there.

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get it there.

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Like it's, it's better, I think.

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But the tech kept, you know, catching up.

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So it's all kind of coming together at the same time.

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I'm like, oh, this is, this is kind of like I planned this, even though I didn't.

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And I, I ride a wave of chaos that I, I try to.

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To ride and stay up.

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And that's, that's kind of my, my life.

Kasim: 00:05:25

So it's funny, man, because the, the being a thought leader

Kasim: 00:05:28

and then just the distillation of information are two entirely different

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skills that are generally juxtaposed.

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Like the guy or gal who's cracking the code.

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Doesn't want to then sit down and break down how it's done.

Kasim: 00:05:39

Mm-hmm so, you know, merging those two.

Kasim: 00:05:41

Me, me and my business partner are like that.

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I'm supposed to be a Google ads authority.

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I just listen to what he says and I regurgitate it because he doesn't

Kasim: 00:05:47

want to, every time I'm like, oh John, we should shoot a video on that.

Kasim: 00:05:50

He's like, yeah.

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But I, you know, he's just too busy to do it.

Kasim: 00:05:52

And so, yeah, we we've partnered

Mark: 00:05:53

really well there.

Mark: 00:05:55

No, that's kind of how I was too.

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Cause I was, I always tell people, like, I don't even like fitness.

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Like I think it's necessary.

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It's something I, I consider it like brushing your teeth.

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Like you have to brush your teeth.

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It's not something you enjoy doing.

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You just do it because you should be doing it.

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That's how I, I always looked at fitness.

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And so my goal was always like, what's the minimum I have to do.

Mark: 00:06:15

To be in shape, you know, the bare minimum, but it's, it's totally different

Mark: 00:06:19

from my business partner at the time with Jim, where he's obsessed with fitness.

Mark: 00:06:23

Right.

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I grew up as a chubby kid and then I got not chubby and now I show

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other people how to get not chubby.

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And I'm like, ah, yeah, okay, whatever, right.

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Can I just organize the information and I'll shoot the videos and I'll build

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the website, I'll do all this stuff.

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And, but you need that person.

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You need the person who's super passionate and you need the person

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who organizes and distributes.

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And those.

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You could have that person be the same person and you'll see it

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with some YouTubers are like that.

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Uh, but a lot of times it's like, you know, people have

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roles and that's totally fine.

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You know, what do you enjoy doing?

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Where are you gonna do?

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Where are you gonna do consistently and often enough to be successful.

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And that's what, you know, that's really what everybody's trying to find out.

Mark: 00:07:03

Whether they realize it or not.

Kasim: 00:07:05

Yeah.

Kasim: 00:07:06

Success is found through re.

Kasim: 00:07:08

um, that was a hard lesson for me to learn as a young entrepreneur.

Mark: 00:07:12

Oh, you just want that, you just see the, I still remember the

Mark: 00:07:15

ads, even back in the two thousands where it was like, oh, I'll make

Mark: 00:07:18

10,000 a month writing content or publishing articles or whatever it was.

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And then you find out like, oh no, that was an advertisement.

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you're not gonna show me crap.

Mark: 00:07:30

Gonna have to learn this stuff.

Kasim: 00:07:31

You actually have to do it.

Kasim: 00:07:32

So let's, let's talk about that for a minute because digital marketer

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has a really amazing program called the digital marketer partner program.

Kasim: 00:07:40

Mm-hmm uh, certified partner program.

Kasim: 00:07:43

CP CP.

Kasim: 00:07:44

Yeah.

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And, uh, I I'm a DM C P I have been since I think 2016, maybe early.

Kasim: 00:07:50

Oh, wow.

Kasim: 00:07:51

That's that's OG.

Kasim: 00:07:52

Yeah.

Kasim: 00:07:52

Well, I remember when they sold it, right.

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It was in a room at TNC.

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They brought us upstairs and they fed us lunch and then Ryan got on stage

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and I was expecting like this crazy hard pitch and he gets up and he

Kasim: 00:08:02

goes, we really don't know what this.

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We don't know what we're gonna do.

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We don't know how we're gonna do it, but we know it's gonna be awesome.

Kasim: 00:08:09

And, and I guess so many people were asking him for a, a partner program.

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He goes, look, I'm rolling it out because you asked for it.

Kasim: 00:08:15

And it was a significant amount of money for me at the time.

Kasim: 00:08:18

I remember thinking like it was 10 grand or

Mark: 00:08:19

something.

Kasim: 00:08:19

It was 10 grand.

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I had to pay 10 grand and it was up upfront.

Kasim: 00:08:21

There was like no payment plan.

Kasim: 00:08:23

Yeah.

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It was just like, we want 10 grand from you.

Kasim: 00:08:25

And we're not gonna tell you what it is, but I'm, I was so I, you know,

Kasim: 00:08:28

Really, you've always just been really inspired by Ryan as an entrepreneur.

Kasim: 00:08:32

I respect him.

Mark: 00:08:33

Yeah.

Mark: 00:08:34

And so well that that's, I mean, that's such a Testament for Ryan

Mark: 00:08:37

because it's like, not just respect him, but you trust him and you look

Mark: 00:08:40

at him and you're like, you know what?

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That's a, that's a good guy.

Mark: 00:08:42

He's not gonna.

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Screw me over.

Mark: 00:08:44

He's gonna make

Kasim: 00:08:45

good on this promise is how I felt.

Kasim: 00:08:46

Yeah.

Kasim: 00:08:46

Like, and, and more to the, you know, what's funny too about that time is,

Kasim: 00:08:50

um, man, I was, I was so stretched.

Kasim: 00:08:53

My agency's called solutions eight because we had eight,

Kasim: 00:08:55

eight core service offerings.

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And so I was doing SEO and video and graphics and web and software and PPP and

Kasim: 00:09:01

it was and content and I was just like, Bursting at the seams I had, I had no

Kasim: 00:09:05

systems, no processes, no, no peer group.

Kasim: 00:09:09

And I was so desperate for help.

Kasim: 00:09:11

And so I, I joined this partner program and I can't tell you, it

Kasim: 00:09:14

wasn't like, you know, like all of a sudden, the next day everything came.

Kasim: 00:09:16

Yeah.

Kasim: 00:09:17

Like, but it was, it was everything that I needed over time.

Kasim: 00:09:20

It was this phenomenal peer group.

Kasim: 00:09:21

And dude, the people that were in the partner program were just like

Kasim: 00:09:23

Dave albanino, you know, I'm the godfather freaking digital marketing,

Kasim: 00:09:26

Frank Cowell, Scott Cunningham.

Kasim: 00:09:28

I'm gonna stop naming because I'll miss people.

Kasim: 00:09:30

But like, it was a, it was a who's who all in their early stages.

Kasim: 00:09:33

And then it was, it was frameworks.

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It was like, Hey here's or, and, and the ability to ask other people questions.

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And so.

Kasim: 00:09:39

Like, I didn't really start to niche down until we joined the partner program.

Kasim: 00:09:43

And that's where, that's how we got to where we are now.

Kasim: 00:09:45

And, and, and so I'm, I'm just such a freaking advocate for it.

Kasim: 00:09:48

I think that it's maybe the most important thing that I had done in my professional

Kasim: 00:09:51

career is joining the partner program.

Kasim: 00:09:53

And, you know, if somebody's watching this, I don't want 'em feel like the

Kasim: 00:09:55

DMCP is the only thing out there.

Kasim: 00:09:57

What I would say is spend some money, get, get, get around peers.

Kasim: 00:10:00

That was the really big thing for me.

Kasim: 00:10:02

The DMCP like it's already there.

Kasim: 00:10:04

You know, it's already there.

Kasim: 00:10:04

It's already tenured.

Kasim: 00:10:05

It's it's already kind of y'all have cracked the code.

Kasim: 00:10:07

So I don't know.

Kasim: 00:10:08

I mean, not to go full on sales pitch, but let's shit.

Kasim: 00:10:11

Let's go full on sales pitch, man.

Kasim: 00:10:12

Like, what is it?

Kasim: 00:10:13

Why is it important?

Kasim: 00:10:14

Why should people join?

Mark: 00:10:15

So the certified partners, essentially what you're doing is

Mark: 00:10:18

licensing the digital marketer IPS and the digital marker IPS, the customer

Mark: 00:10:22

value journey and customer avatar.

Mark: 00:10:23

You know, there's that whole grip of 'em are built out of, uh, you know,

Mark: 00:10:27

the founder's experience with hundreds of thousands of marketing agencies.

Mark: 00:10:31

Professional marketers.

Mark: 00:10:33

Uh, you know, if you talk to Ryan or Richard or, uh, Roland, like look at

Mark: 00:10:37

their Rolodexs of who they know, it's.

Mark: 00:10:39

Everybody, anybody who's ever been in marketing, like it's, it's incredible.

Mark: 00:10:44

And so what they did was they came together, you know, right before

Mark: 00:10:46

that meeting that you were talking about back in 2016 and said,

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Hey, what can we do for agencies?

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Like how can we make agencies, give them the tools they need to succeed?

Mark: 00:10:56

And that's kind of where the certified partner came from.

Mark: 00:10:58

Like, how do, how can we implement these and help people implement?

Mark: 00:11:02

Frameworks to their people.

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Cause at the end of the day, digital marketer is a educational institution.

Mark: 00:11:07

We can't, you can't hire digital marketer to do your marketing, but

Mark: 00:11:11

you could hire one of our certified partners to do your marketing.

Mark: 00:11:14

Mm-hmm . So while we're busy teaching everybody the frameworks and organizing

Mark: 00:11:17

all this content, you could now get the stuff done by professionals.

Mark: 00:11:22

They're licensed to get the stuff done for.

Mark: 00:11:24

And, you know, for agency owners, the, the big thing is it's, it takes away all the

Mark: 00:11:29

guesswork out of developing your agency.

Mark: 00:11:31

Cause if you've had an agency before or even tried to sell, you know,

Mark: 00:11:35

individual services as a, you know, an independent contractor, it's hard,

Mark: 00:11:39

you know, it's, it's super difficult.

Mark: 00:11:41

There's a lot of stress and it, you learn about sales, learn about

Mark: 00:11:44

your own marketing, learn about execution, learn about scaling,

Mark: 00:11:47

learn about exiting the business and.

Mark: 00:11:50

If you're trying to do it on your own, there's a good chance you're gonna fail,

Mark: 00:11:54

you know, and nobody wants to hear that.

Mark: 00:11:55

They always say like, oh no, I'll be the 5% that makes it, but this just

Mark: 00:11:59

takes that number and just makes it so much more likely because not only

Mark: 00:12:02

do you get the frameworks that are gonna make you successful, you're now

Mark: 00:12:06

part of an organization of people, you know, 500 other agencies that

Mark: 00:12:10

are doing the same thing as you, that now you could ask for feedback

Mark: 00:12:13

and they'll be happy to provide it.

Mark: 00:12:14

And you're not.

Mark: 00:12:16

Because at the end of the day, like if you're a small business

Mark: 00:12:18

owner, you feel alone a lot.

Kasim: 00:12:22

dude, all day time.

Kasim: 00:12:23

There's nobody you can talk to.

Mark: 00:12:24

Yeah.

Mark: 00:12:25

No, nobody gets it.

Mark: 00:12:26

And you can't complain to your family or your wife or your

Mark: 00:12:29

friends because they don't get it.

Mark: 00:12:31

And, and then you end up being alone.

Mark: 00:12:32

And so this is the, the ability to one start with a framework that has

Mark: 00:12:36

been proven over and over again.

Mark: 00:12:38

And then two not be alone, be with a group of peers who are just as

Mark: 00:12:42

committed to success as you are.

Mark: 00:12:44

And on top of that, you, you have a big organization, digital marketer,

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that's pushing you out there.

Mark: 00:12:50

You know, they're providing the marketing component that you might not have at all.

Mark: 00:12:55

Like with my agency, I was 95% referral.

Mark: 00:12:58

So my marketing system wasn't anything really, it was just take

Mark: 00:13:02

care of people and do a good job.

Mark: 00:13:04

When people send you business, that's not really a business model.

Mark: 00:13:07

That's you own a job.

Mark: 00:13:09

If you wanna have a business model, why not just take something that's

Mark: 00:13:12

already existed with a bunch of people who are already doing.

Mark: 00:13:16

And then just do it yourself because there's tons of work out there.

Mark: 00:13:20

You know, there's no, even if you're a big organization, solutions eight, you

Mark: 00:13:24

know, could you, is there a capacity limit to solutions eight if, uh, you know,

Mark: 00:13:29

5,000 businesses walked in the door and there's plenty more than that tomorrow

Mark: 00:13:33

could solutions eight facilitate that.

Kasim: 00:13:35

It's such a phenomenal point from a marketer.

Kasim: 00:13:38

It would be hard yeah.

Kasim: 00:13:39

Well, so I've, I've made this point to somebody before, too.

Kasim: 00:13:42

You could choose a niche.

Kasim: 00:13:43

You could, I had to pick one dry cleaners, nail salons.

Kasim: 00:13:47

I could, I could, I could build a thousand agencies off of that one niche.

Kasim: 00:13:50

Cuz you think about, you know, every provider in every.

Kasim: 00:13:54

City on every country in the planet.

Kasim: 00:13:57

And it's just, there's this deep, this well run so deep.

Kasim: 00:14:01

You know what I mean?

Kasim: 00:14:01

Like it runs so deep and it's it's as of yet still kind of undiscovered

Kasim: 00:14:05

territory, like we're still like it's it's

Mark: 00:14:09

yeah.

Mark: 00:14:09

Mm-hmm yeah, there is.

Mark: 00:14:11

You could do anything you want.

Mark: 00:14:13

And if you have a system, which is what digital market provides, you

Mark: 00:14:17

could always innovate the system.

Mark: 00:14:18

You could change the system.

Mark: 00:14:19

You could not be a CP anymore.

Mark: 00:14:21

Do whatever the hell you.

Mark: 00:14:22

That's fine, but you started with a framework and now you understand the

Mark: 00:14:25

importance of value of a framework.

Mark: 00:14:28

And now you can build off of it, do whatever you wanna do.

Mark: 00:14:31

And like you were saying that there's a million niches out there.

Mark: 00:14:33

You could specialize in literally anything you want and you

Mark: 00:14:37

might be the only one doing it.

Mark: 00:14:39

Because there's like a billion, a, you know, a billion industries that you could

Mark: 00:14:42

focus on and a billion niches within those industries that you could focus on.

Mark: 00:14:47

So, you know, it's really unlimited and it's, and that's, that's the

Mark: 00:14:51

hard part because everybody sees, like, I don't know how to get a sale.

Mark: 00:14:55

And they're like, well, What do you sell?

Mark: 00:14:57

You know, and most people, even within the CPIs, the conversation

Mark: 00:15:01

all the time about niches, I'm like, okay, well, what's your niche?

Mark: 00:15:04

Oh, I don't really have one.

Mark: 00:15:05

I help 20 industries.

Mark: 00:15:07

It's like, no, you doubt you don't help 20 industries.

Mark: 00:15:11

You help one business in 20 industries.

Mark: 00:15:14

That's not 20 industries.

Mark: 00:15:15

So, and you might not be doing that.

Mark: 00:15:17

Great.

Mark: 00:15:18

You know, that great.

Mark: 00:15:19

A job of it.

Mark: 00:15:19

So it's almost like, you know, sometimes you feel like a parent where you're.

Mark: 00:15:24

Okay.

Mark: 00:15:25

I'll let you find out yourself, but at the end of the day, you're

Mark: 00:15:28

gonna come back and be like, yeah, I should have done that sooner.

Mark: 00:15:30

And that's fine.

Mark: 00:15:31

You know, you have to, you have to learn.

Mark: 00:15:33

But luckily with, you know, CP, you have a bunch of people who you could talk

Mark: 00:15:38

to about it, and we could hook you up with other specialty, not just that,

Mark: 00:15:41

but you could partner with these people.

Mark: 00:15:43

Like if you' best, you know, trade is doing SEO, but you have a client

Mark: 00:15:47

that also wants paid ads and.

Mark: 00:15:50

You know, whatever else, social media of marketing, then we can hook you

Mark: 00:15:54

up with a partnership with them.

Mark: 00:15:56

And since you're part of our network, that person's not gonna try to steal

Mark: 00:15:59

your client, uh, they're not gonna try to, you know, take over your

Mark: 00:16:02

business because you're one of them.

Mark: 00:16:05

So it's, it's, you know, it's kind of a, a ecosystem of, of marketers that.

Mark: 00:16:11

We train and then help you grow.

Mark: 00:16:14

And, you know, and if you do great, fantastic, you could be a course

Mark: 00:16:18

creator for us, or you could be in a certification or you could

Mark: 00:16:22

be, you know, whatever you want.

Mark: 00:16:24

So that's the, that's the fun part with, with digital marketers, just

Mark: 00:16:27

like there's so many things that you could do within this community

Mark: 00:16:31

and, and you don't have to be alone.

Kasim: 00:16:35

Yeah, that's awesome, man.

Kasim: 00:16:36

That's really well said.

Kasim: 00:16:36

What is it?

Kasim: 00:16:37

If you don't mind me asking nuts and bolts, like you sign

Kasim: 00:16:39

up as a CP, what do you get?

Kasim: 00:16:40

What does it cost?

Kasim: 00:16:41

What's the timeline look.

Mark: 00:16:43

So we try to, uh, start people off on like a 30 to like 90 day program.

Mark: 00:16:48

The, the important part is that you, you do the master class.

Mark: 00:16:50

So we have a, a certified partner master class where you're gonna learn

Mark: 00:16:54

all the frameworks and then you'll get into whatever else you wanna execute.

Mark: 00:16:58

You actually have access to all certifications.

Mark: 00:17:00

And so you could train your people within the frameworks that we.

Mark: 00:17:04

Using our certifications.

Mark: 00:17:06

Plus you get the agency course, which is what CP is, uh, and

Mark: 00:17:10

all the frameworks within that.

Mark: 00:17:12

And then you instantly get access to the community.

Mark: 00:17:15

Uh, we just have a Facebook group where everybody chats, uh, the email list, the.

Mark: 00:17:21

You know, back of academy, which actually lists all the courses that

Mark: 00:17:23

you need to take then after you're kind of in the system and you're

Mark: 00:17:27

qualified, then you get added to our directory@digitalmarketer.com.

Mark: 00:17:32

Uh, and then you could come to our certified partner training days, which

Mark: 00:17:35

are quarterly, uh, where we actually have our best CP kind of get up and give their

Mark: 00:17:40

hottest tips essentially for eight hours.

Mark: 00:17:43

During that time.

Mark: 00:17:44

Uh, and then we also have like weekly meetings where you could learn more

Mark: 00:17:48

about specific aspects of marketing, whether it's paid ads or again, content

Mark: 00:17:52

marketing or any other aspect of, uh, systemizing within your business.

Mark: 00:17:57

Cause that's where really, what we're doing now is called the, the agency

Mark: 00:18:00

scale accelerator, which you spoke at last week, which was fantastic.

Mark: 00:18:04

Uh, and it's actually showing people how to scale your brand within 90 days, uh,

Mark: 00:18:09

or launch a fractional CMO service within.

Mark: 00:18:13

However fast you wanna get the courses done.

Mark: 00:18:15

So it's, it's almost like, you know, choose your own adventure, but still

Mark: 00:18:19

based on the frameworks that we know work.

Mark: 00:18:22

Yeah.

Mark: 00:18:22

Got yeah.

Mark: 00:18:22

Proven models.

Kasim: 00:18:23

Mm-hmm , that's what funny man.

Kasim: 00:18:25

So many entrepreneurs are like, oh, I wanna, I wanna figure it out myself.

Kasim: 00:18:27

And it's like, well, you can, and you probably will.

Kasim: 00:18:29

But like it's, it's, you know, three years to three months, you know, let's

Kasim: 00:18:33

just condense this timeline, go follow the folks that have done it before

Kasim: 00:18:35

you don't have to do it the way that they're telling you to do it, but

Kasim: 00:18:37

know the rules first before you break.

Kasim: 00:18:40

And mm-hmm, again, that's a lesson that I learned the hard way and, and it took

Mark: 00:18:44

me way too long.

Mark: 00:18:45

It's just like a personality trait for entrepreneurs.

Mark: 00:18:48

Cause I'm the same way.

Mark: 00:18:49

I'm like, man, why did I try so hard for so long on things that were figured out?

Mark: 00:18:53

Like, it's, it's just pointless though.

Mark: 00:18:56

You don't get extra credit.

Mark: 00:18:57

There's no extra money.

Mark: 00:18:58

Like, oh, well you do it yourself.

Mark: 00:19:00

So yeah.

Mark: 00:19:01

Pat on the back for double the revenue.

Mark: 00:19:03

Yeah.

Mark: 00:19:03

Pat on the back for you.

Mark: 00:19:04

Good job.

Mark: 00:19:05

Uh, but most of the time it's.

Mark: 00:19:08

Who cares, like just get started.

Mark: 00:19:10

This will go way faster.

Mark: 00:19:12

You know, you don't have to build the house, you just have to buy

Mark: 00:19:15

the house and then you could modify it however you feel like.

Mark: 00:19:19

Right.

Mark: 00:19:19

And that's it.

Mark: 00:19:20

So that's kind of what, it it's like a cheat code for having a successful agency.

Mark: 00:19:26

And it's, you know, it, the price, you know, if, if you are making no money.

Mark: 00:19:31

Yeah.

Mark: 00:19:32

It could feel significant.

Mark: 00:19:33

But in terms of like, how many clients does it take to

Mark: 00:19:36

pay for your CP membership?

Mark: 00:19:39

Like couple.

Mark: 00:19:40

One what, what is it?

Kasim: 00:19:42

Crossmark are you allowed to share that?

Mark: 00:19:44

Yeah.

Mark: 00:19:44

Yeah.

Mark: 00:19:44

Yeah.

Mark: 00:19:44

So it's, it's $5,000 upfront.

Mark: 00:19:46

That's essentially the setup, uh, you know, for getting you into the system

Mark: 00:19:50

and then you have, uh, $500 a month for as long as you're a part of the network.

Mark: 00:19:55

So

Kasim: 00:19:56

here's, what's interesting.

Kasim: 00:19:57

I paid double that I paid 10 grand.

Kasim: 00:19:59

Yeah.

Kasim: 00:19:59

Um, so it's gone, it's gone down since then, but man, it's just,

Kasim: 00:20:03

you know, everything that you named, all the certifications worth

Kasim: 00:20:06

more than five grand, for sure.

Kasim: 00:20:08

The ability to join that Facebook group like that, that thing is super active too.

Kasim: 00:20:11

I don't want to diminish or dismiss that.

Kasim: 00:20:13

There's a ton of people in there and they're really responsive.

Kasim: 00:20:16

Um, and then those partner training days, that's.

Kasim: 00:20:18

It's a value packed day.

Kasim: 00:20:20

You're gonna be drinking from a fire hose.

Kasim: 00:20:22

I remember those.

Kasim: 00:20:23

Um, there's one coming up in September.

Kasim: 00:20:26

Yeah.

Mark: 00:20:27

It's every quarter.

Mark: 00:20:27

We actually just had ours in Austin two weeks ago, three weeks ago.

Mark: 00:20:31

And so that was, that was probably the best ever.

Mark: 00:20:32

We did a, a marketing competition, which I thought was a lot of fun.

Mark: 00:20:36

Uh, so we'll be keeping that around.

Mark: 00:20:39

We have the, the top marketer, we made a little plaque, you know, just fun stuff.

Mark: 00:20:44

I mean, that, that's really what you'll find with the, the certified

Mark: 00:20:46

partner community is they're all fun.

Mark: 00:20:48

They're all engaged.

Mark: 00:20:49

They're all super interested in learning and that's actually, and the lack of.

Mark: 00:20:54

Uh, ego is so refreshing.

Mark: 00:20:57

Mm-hmm because, especially with, with marketing, I'm not saying that there's a

Mark: 00:21:00

bunch of egocentric marketers, but it's almost like if you're gonna be that guru

Mark: 00:21:04

level, you have to kind of be a Dick.

Mark: 00:21:06

Yeah.

Mark: 00:21:08

You gotta be like, yeah, like, uh, I figured it out and now I fly around

Mark: 00:21:13

in a private jet and whatever.

Mark: 00:21:15

Yeah.

Mark: 00:21:15

And I'm like, Ugh.

Mark: 00:21:17

God, I don't care about that stuff.

Mark: 00:21:19

like, it's, uh, I mean, I do, I guess that's neat, but it's, it's just such

Mark: 00:21:24

a sales piece that I'm like yeah.

Mark: 00:21:26

I'm with money.

Mark: 00:21:27

Yeah.

Mark: 00:21:28

Like , it's great.

Kasim: 00:21:31

Yeah, no, I think you guys have really crafted a, a solid

Kasim: 00:21:34

culture with the DMCP specifically.

Kasim: 00:21:36

What do people do if they wanna sign up?

Kasim: 00:21:37

Where do they go?

Mark: 00:21:39

Oh yeah.

Mark: 00:21:39

So you just digital marker.com.

Mark: 00:21:41

We have a whole section for a certified partner.

Mark: 00:21:44

Uh, really the first step is just.

Mark: 00:21:46

Talk to us.

Mark: 00:21:47

Uh, you can technically just sign up on the website, but chance are

Mark: 00:21:50

you you'll wanna talk to somebody.

Mark: 00:21:52

We have a, a webinar that you sign up for, watch the webinar, and then,

Mark: 00:21:56

uh, you'll learn about all the really specific aspects of certified partner.

Mark: 00:22:00

But it's, I mean, there's just so much you could do.

Mark: 00:22:02

It's almost like we can't even.

Mark: 00:22:04

List it all on the website of the things that you'll get out of the program.

Mark: 00:22:08

Uh, but once you see the look at the database of all the other marketers

Mark: 00:22:12

that are already part of the network, and then, you know, watch the videos

Mark: 00:22:16

and you'll, you'll learn, you know, or check out anything on Ryan,

Mark: 00:22:20

because if you watch any of Ryan Dice's videos, that's what we teach.

Mark: 00:22:24

There's like zero secrets.

Mark: 00:22:25

Like you are actually learning the stuff that built digital marketer from

Mark: 00:22:29

nothing into what it is now and now.

Mark: 00:22:32

And it's just.

Mark: 00:22:33

You know, it's just there.

Mark: 00:22:34

It's, it's pretty incredible.

Mark: 00:22:36

Cuz it's, you know, especially because with the fitness industry that I

Mark: 00:22:40

came from, everything was so closed.

Mark: 00:22:42

Like, oh, I have this product or I have this system and I have

Mark: 00:22:44

this and nobody wants to share it.

Mark: 00:22:45

Like this is mine.

Mark: 00:22:46

I don't want anybody to copy it.

Mark: 00:22:47

And this is the exact opposite of that.

Mark: 00:22:49

It's like, no, here's what worked for me.

Mark: 00:22:52

You know?

Mark: 00:22:52

I hope it works for you too, you know?

Mark: 00:22:54

Okay.

Mark: 00:22:54

Oh no, it didn't work.

Mark: 00:22:55

Okay.

Mark: 00:22:56

We'll find out something else.

Mark: 00:22:57

Let's go talk to some other person.

Mark: 00:22:58

Oh, that works for you.

Mark: 00:22:59

Okay, great.

Mark: 00:22:59

Let's bring it in.

Mark: 00:23:01

Let's try it.

Mark: 00:23:01

Here's some case studies, you know, it's just a, it's a learning community.

Mark: 00:23:05

It's, it's what you wish every educational institution was, but they're

Mark: 00:23:10

incapable of doing it because things move too fast and it's too structured.

Mark: 00:23:15

We're like a, yeah, it's like a tribe, you know, how's that going?

Mark: 00:23:21

Oh, that's going great.

Mark: 00:23:22

Can you show me?

Mark: 00:23:23

Sure.

Mark: 00:23:25

like, it's well, you watch any of the certs, like the, the

Mark: 00:23:27

e-commerce cert that we just did.

Mark: 00:23:29

And you have Scott just given like gold in terms of how he.

Mark: 00:23:33

You know, generates millions of sales for all these different, uh, you

Mark: 00:23:36

know, small businesses on Shopify.

Mark: 00:23:38

And it's not about that's fancy tech.

Mark: 00:23:41

Mm-hmm, , it's not about even the product necessarily.

Mark: 00:23:43

It's about how you sell and how you build the website and how

Mark: 00:23:47

you build the marketing plan.

Mark: 00:23:49

And it's it's there.

Mark: 00:23:51

You just watch the stuff , you don't have to go through 10, 15 years of struggle.

Mark: 00:23:57

You could just watch these things implement.

Mark: 00:24:00

That's always the best stories when somebody's like, yeah, I just watched the

Mark: 00:24:03

thing and then I did the thing and then it happened and now, and then it worked

Mark: 00:24:07

as full . It's like, oh, oh, that's nice.

Mark: 00:24:11

That's, that's a good feeling.

Mark: 00:24:12

That's the best feeling.

Mark: 00:24:13

Well, it's just like, great.

Mark: 00:24:14

That is so good for you.

Mark: 00:24:15

I'm so happy for you.

Mark: 00:24:17

That's awesome.

Mark: 00:24:18

And, and what's, what's funny is you'll see that like even the people,

Mark: 00:24:21

cause I, you know, again, coming from fitness, it's so competitive and

Mark: 00:24:24

so kind of cutthroat and here it's like, you will have employees leave

Mark: 00:24:29

and they'll start new businesses and technically become our competitors.

Mark: 00:24:32

And I I'll ask Ryan and richer.

Mark: 00:24:34

I'm like, oh, well, what do you think of that?

Mark: 00:24:35

They're like, oh, that's so good for, them like, they're doing so great.

Mark: 00:24:39

And I'm like, but they were working for you.

Mark: 00:24:41

And that's not how they think at all.

Mark: 00:24:43

It's just.

Mark: 00:24:44

Yeah, that was good.

Mark: 00:24:45

They worked for us and now they now they're successful and that's great.

Mark: 00:24:49

I'm like, that's, that's a unique thing.

Mark: 00:24:52

You don't get that in most businesses or industries.

Mark: 00:24:55

Like it's super cool.

Mark: 00:24:56

And that's, you know, that's why I'm here.

Mark: 00:24:58

That's good people.

Kasim: 00:25:00

Total abundance mentality.

Kasim: 00:25:01

Well, I appreciate you coming on, man.

Kasim: 00:25:03

Thanks for telling us about it.

Kasim: 00:25:03

If you're watching this vote@digitalmarketer.com, check out

Kasim: 00:25:07

the partner program, reach out to mark.

Kasim: 00:25:08

If, uh, you're interested, you wanna join up?

Kasim: 00:25:10

I shoot a video every day, like come and subscribe and I'll see you.

Mark: 00:25:14

Awesome.

Mark: 00:25:15

Thanks for having me on.