How To Start & Scale Digital Agency To Better Success With Josh Nelson

Scaling a digital agency isn’t just about landing clients—it’s about building a sustainable, profitable business that retains them. In this episode, I sit down with Josh Nelson, founder of Plumbing & HVAC SEO and Seven Figure Agency, to uncover the strategies behind his multi-million dollar success.

Josh shares how he went from shutting down his first agency to building one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S. We discuss the importance of niche specialization, why most agencies struggle with retention, and how the real game-changer is focusing not just on leads, but on generating revenue for clients.

If you’re an agency owner looking to scale, Josh’s insights on leadership, mentorship, and business growth will give you the roadmap you need. He also reveals the common mistakes agency owners make—and how you can avoid them. Plus, we dive into the latest trends shaping the digital marketing landscape.

Don't miss this conversation packed with actionable insights to help you build a thriving agency.

Connect with Josh Nelson:

Josh Nelson has built a multi-million dollar agency and now dedicates his time to helping other agency owners scale with proven strategies. If you're serious about growing your agency, grab a copy of his book, The Seven Figure Agency Roadmap, at 7figureagency.com or c

Right now, you can get an extra 20% off your ticket for the Scale with Stability Summit with my exclusive code CATALYTIC20 at checkout.

Visit scalewithstability.com to grab your ticket—I hope to see you there!

Right now, you can get an extra 20% off your ticket for the Scale with Stability Summit with my exclusive code CATALYTIC20 at checkout.

Visit scalewithstability.com to grab your ticket—I hope to see you there!

Right now, you can get an extra 20% off your ticket for the Scale with Stability Summit with my exclusive code CATALYTIC20 at checkout.

Visit scalewithstability.com to grab your ticket—I hope to see you there!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction & Josh’s Background
• 4:47 The Power of Teaching & Mentorship
• 7:07 Scaling a Digital Agency
• 9:57 Client Retention Strategies That Work
• 13:57 Emerging Trends in Digital Marketing
• 17:25 Leadership & Personal Growth
• 22:15 Overcoming Challenges & Mindset Shifts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:37

here in our third season of the Catalytic Leadership Podcast, we want to start introducing some older episodes. We want to do a throwback a bit to some episodes that I think will add value. Some of you many of you are new to the show and you haven't heard some of the interviews that we did early on. What we're going to start doing is introducing a few of those so that you can get a taste of what seasons one and two were like. So check out this episode A little bit of a throwback, but the information, the insights and the wisdom that are being shared are absolutely timeless.

Speaker 1: 1:10

I'm thrilled today to have Josh Nelson on the podcast. Josh started his digital marketing agency, humming and HVAC SEO, in 2011. He took that struggling two-person online marketing agency from a startup with zero clients and turned it into a $4 million per year agency with 30 employees and ranked 275 on the Inc 500 list of fastest growing companies in the US. Through his seven-figure agency, josh and his team now coach hundreds of digital marketing agencies, helping them to find the success and the freedom they want. Josh, I'm so glad you're here. Thanks for being on the show, thanks for that great introduction and I'm really excited to share. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2: 1:59

Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the podcast designed to help leaders intentionally grow and thrive. Here is your host author and leadership and executive coach, dr William Attaway.

Speaker 1: 2:15

Josh, I'd love for you to share some of your journey with our listeners, particularly around your journey and your development as a leader of your journey with our listeners, particularly around your journey and your development as a leader. How did you get started? I kind of started my first agency right out of high school. Went to high school, I decided I wanted to be an entrepreneur, started a web design and hosting company called Developcom, did all of the wrong things in terms of selling the wrong thing in the wrong way with the wrong package, ended up skimming my wheels for the better part of I don't know two or three years and wound up having to fold that company up and go get a regular job, which was a very uncomfortable process. But I think having the right model and being a leader kind of go hand in hand, and so for me at that time I was like I knew I needed to learn, I needed to continue to self-educate, and so while I was working in business to business sales during that window of time, I was reading all the books the Secrets of the Millionaire Mind and the E-Myth Revisited, and Book Yourself Solid and I knew I wanted to start another successful company, didn't know what. And then, around 2010-ish, I wound up working with Reach, local big pay-per-click management company. I figured, rather than trying to start my own business right out of the gates in the agency game, why not work with somebody that's crushing it in that space? Learned a lot about what I was doing wrong in terms of running my agency and what could be done differently. Armed with that, 2011, we started Plumbing and HVAC SEO, which was an originally Click Incorporated generalist agency. In the first six months, we pivoted to being a niche agency. We're working with plumbing and HVAC companies and have accelerated, like you said, from there over the years. And, like you said, the company actually now does $5 million. We finished last year at $5 million a little over 36 employees, and it's been a lot of fun doing that while at the same time, running seven-figure agency which is showing other agencies our model and how they can grow and scale their businesses.

Speaker 1: 4:19

And I think to be a good leader, you have to be self-educated, right. You have to lead by example. You have to do the work on your end, bring in the right people, encourage them, show them how they can plug in and kind of let them give them the reins and let them run with their part of the organization. You know, josh, I love that story because I know there are so many parts that are left out, but what you shared illustrates a principle that I think is so important for leaders to get, which is you can either be a repository of everything that you learn, all the experiences that you have and the knowledge that you gain, or you can learn to be a conduit of it and share those experiences and that wisdom and insight with other people around you, for their benefit as well, and I love that. That is what seven-figure agency is all about.

Speaker 1: 5:09

It's not just about hey, look what I did. I built this $5 million agency. Isn't that amazing? Go me. No, you're like hey, I want to help you. I want all the other people to learn from my journey so they can accomplish that as well. Other people to learn from my journey so they can accomplish that as well.

Speaker 1: 5:25

Absolutely, I'm a big believer in this idea learn, do teach right. You learn something, you do it and you go out and get results with it, and then really, mastery comes from when you teach others and you kind of take what you learn and you say here's how I did it, here's how it works. I find that's sharpened. Our agency saw at plumbing and HVAC SEO. I think we do that a lot within seven-figure agency as well. It's not just me as the person teaching. Our most successful members do this as well. They learn it, they do it and now they're either a mentor or a coach in the program helping other agencies. And it doesn't just help the other members, it helps them, because when you teach something, that's when true mastery is developed.

Speaker 1: 6:05

So true, what did it look like for you to transition from just building your own agency to starting seven-figure agency? Because that's a turn most people don't make. They don't make that turn from doing to teaching. How did that happen for you? Yeah, well, I think it started initially with just being a passionate learner. I just love being at conferences, being in the events, reading books, buying the courses, and I'm an avid course buyer. I buy the course and I go through the material and I just consume it. I love it. I'm truly a passionate learner. But then also saying, okay, what is it that I've implemented that's working, that's giving me higher level results than others.

Speaker 1: 6:47

And I think, as I was at a lot of the conferences and events, other agencies that were following me were like, man, you've built this million dollar thing and we're still at like 10,000 trying to get our second or third client, what's different? And I was like, hey, here's what we did and here's how we did it. And before long there was a lot of people saying like, show me the way, show me how you can help me, kind of shortcut this process. And so it started with a course. Like I created the Send Figure Agency Roadmap, which was my course on how to choose the niche and create the service offering and do all of the stuff. And before long we developed into an actual coaching program with meetups and live events, just because a course in and of itself doesn't do it right, like you can give people the exact information, but a lot of times they need accountability, they need the ongoing support and things are constantly changing, problems continuously crop up, and so that journey from just a course to actually be a coaching and mentorship program was it was a fun journey and it's it's been a learning experience as well. And that became a book, the seven figure agency roadmap. It sure did, yeah, so it's not just a course, it's not just even. I mean it's you've. You've hit so many different, like venues where people are instead of expecting them to. You know, hey, if you want to do this, you have to take this course. Oh, we're going to hit you, we're going to go to you where you are. I love that.

Speaker 1: 8:11

So you also have a podcast where you talk about the principles of the seven-figure agency. What? What is that podcast like? So that that podcast is a mix of two formats? First, one of that is me interviewing successful digital marketing agencies. I think the best way to learn is to hear stories of others and be inspired by others, and so I tap other agencies that have built seven-figure and multiple seven-figure agencies and just ask them how did you get started? How did you choose your niche? What does your program package look like? What are you doing to land clients, to build the team, to scale the operations? And I think that content is super, super valuable. We put that out on the podcast and on YouTube, but it's also kind of my education, kind of infused in a podcast format, and I upload new episodes every single week on Mondays to 1030.

Speaker 1: 9:00

And it's usually around the four pillars, right? How do we land clients? How do we deliver world-class results? How do we retain the clients we have at the highest level possible. And then, ultimately, how do we scale? How do we put the systems, procedure and the team in place so that we don't have to do it all ourselves and we can still provide world-class services? I love that you include retention in there. I mean, all four pillars are important, but retention is one that not a lot of people focus on. There's just an expectation of churn in the agency space, and you wrote a book on this. Right Another book specifically focused around retention.

Speaker 1: 9:38

What did you learn about retention from your journey? Well, like you said, there's not a ton of content about it, but if you run a digital marketing agency and it's retainer-based we're trying to grow recurring revenue business model. If we can't retain the clients we have, we're not going to get very far. Right, it's like we're taking one step forward, one step back and that hits you from so many different angles. Right, it's going to hit you from lost revenue. It's going to hit you from lost confidence to go out and continue to sell. It's also going to hit you from your reputation. If we're in a niche, whatever that niche is plumbing company, roofing companies, small market the good news grows fast, but the bad news goes just as fast. So you have to be maintaining your reputation and retaining your clients, and so it was a new process for us at plumbing and HVAC SEO, where we learned how to link clients and do great service.

Speaker 1: 10:25

But we had this point in time where we were churning just too many clients and it was like, man, I think we're doing a good job, where are we dropping the ball?

Speaker 1: 10:32

And we went deep on what can we do to create a better experience? What are other agencies doing to retain? And we made a lot of changes in terms of the way that we onboard, the way that we show appreciation, the way that we check in with the clients, what we actually report to them on an ongoing basis, how we show the vision and where we're going as an organization very specific things you can put in place to improve the client experience. In addition to the results that you generate. That will absolutely improve your retention rates, reduce your churn, which has an impact on profitability, has an impact on so many different aspects of a growing digital marketing agency.

Speaker 1: 11:12

Isn't it fascinating that how you treat clients and how you care for them has an impact on retention? That seems so simple and yet I watch so many people in the agency space, completely missing it. Do you see that as well? Yeah, I do, unfortunately, because you know what?

Speaker 1: 11:30

Usually, as agency owners, we're so focused on the results or whatever the fancy thing is SEO, pay-per-click social media funnels, youtube ads, retargeting we're so focused on that stuff which is important, and we're so focused on making it rain for the client. We've got to generate leads, we've got to generate sales, we've got to prove our value. We're so focused on that we don't realize that the number one reason a client will leave isn't just the results. The number one reason to leave is perceived indifference, and so that's so easy to solve for right. Just showing that you care for the client, sending appreciation gifts in the mail, treating them like a human as opposed to just a number it just creates a great opportunity to run a better business, but also better retention, in addition to generating great results. Treat them like a human, not just a gnome.

Speaker 1: 12:21

Yeah that's powerful, that's really good, and I hope everybody listening has written that down and is going to reflect on that, because I think that is the key to what has happened, not only with your agency, but with what you're teaching now, because I think that that's what I'm seeing come through loud and clear in the content that you're producing, whether it's your books or what you post online, the content that you're sharing and I'm sure, in your events as well. Treat them like a human, not just a number. Are there other mistakes that you see agency owners making these days as you look around the landscape? I mean there's lots of mistakes. I think one of the big mistakes is trying to be a generalist serving everybody, as opposed to being a specialist. We all know, if you can serve a very specific market, you can get better results, you can be more maddeningly attractive. I think that's one mistake. I think just focusing on one particular aspect of the agency service model. So just doing Facebook ads or just doing SEO or just doing funnels I know there's benefit in that, but the reality is the client is paying an agency to generate a result increase in sales, increase in revenue and if you're just pigeonholing yourself to one thing, you're limiting your ability to generate an outcome for the client, and so I truly believe you want to go on to that client, whatever niche you're in, and try to have a package that's going to tangibly and measurably increase the revenue, and oftentimes, just one little aspect of it isn't enough. You've got to take a more comprehensive approach. I love that you have insight into a lot of different agencies over to a seven-figure agency, and you're a student you're a perpetual student of this field.

Speaker 1: 15:18

I'm curious are there trends that you see emerging in the digital marketing world, things that you see coming our way that people should be mindful of? Yeah, well, I think one of the biggest shifts is moving away from just doing lead generation to generating sales, and so the closer you get as an agency owner to actually making the cash register ring or generating revenue, the better. There was a long time in the agency space. You know, like starting as an seo agency decade ago, that it was just let's get them ranked right. If we get them ranked, we win as the internet marketing company, and it was all around the keyword rankings and the analytics. As things have evolved, it's like oh, it's not just about the ranking, who cares about ranking. It's about giving leads right, like we got to make sure they're getting phone calls, they're getting web submissions, they're getting leads, but if they can't convert, then that's on them.

Speaker 1: 16:13

I think today's agency owner has to be thinking it's not just about the leads right. Who cares about leads? It's how many sales do they generate? And so being more mindful of not just can we generate leads and can we get them ranked, but can we get them leads that are going to convert into sales? How can we help them follow up with those leads? How can we help them leverage marketing automation? How can we help them put systems in place that are absolutely going to generate more sales? And I think the more as an agency owner whether you're digital or not the more you can be focused on making it rain for the client, actually generating that bottom line result. That's the trend we should all be focused on.

Speaker 1: 16:50

So good, you have to lead at a higher level, josh, today than you did five years ago, both for your agency and for seven figure agency. And five years from now, you're going to need to lead at a higher level still. What do you do to keep your saw sharp? What do you do to continue to grow and develop the skills that you're going to need to lead at a higher level. Well, I think taking care of your health is super important, so I'm a big advocate for exercise. I love my cold plunge and I know it's a trend right now, but I do enjoy the cold plunge. I think continuing learning right. I'm passionate about learning, so there's always an audio book or a conference or a new course that I'm checking out. I think if you're going to lead, you need to educate right, and it shouldn't just be on digital marketing, right. Yes, you need to be on the cutting edge of everything with SEO and pay-per-click and social media, but you should also be on the cutting edge of what's happening in business, what's happening in health and wellness, leveling up your leadership skills.

Speaker 1: 17:55

I think, if you're not full, that you can't share right, and so I think you know, for me, carving out that time and making it a priority to self-develop and to continue to learn is mission critical. You know, I think it's really easy for somebody listening to look at you and listen to your story and say, wow, you know, josh man, he's just been on a rocket ride, it's just up and to the right, like since 2011 no failures, no challenges. He didn't face the same stuff I deal with every day. If you heard somebody say that, what would be your response? No, I would say.

Speaker 1: 18:33

You know, there's no perfect execution, right, there's just like anybody else, right? We all face challenges. We all have that entrepreneurial journey where we're like we're crushing it and then we're like, oh no, what's going on? Alliance cancel, team members quit. New people have to be onboarded that aren't a good fit. We all face obstacles and it's just a matter of focusing on what you can control, focusing on what you want more of and taking daily, consistent action. That's going to keep you in a state of momentum where you have more wins than you have setbacks. That's good. So failure is part of the journey and, just to be clear, you didn't build your agency to seven figures in six months, correct? Yeah, it took two years to get to the seven-figure level. I think that's an important note, because there's a lot of people who are over promising and under delivery and there's an expectation that this can happen in a matter of months, and I think it's important to understand that building something in a healthy and sustainable way emphasis on the healthy and sustainable is not something that you do in a microwave 100%. It's a time process and, depending upon your raw materials like if you're coming into a new agency and maybe you worked at a large agency before, you have lots of experience, you've got lots of connections it might be a quicker journey for you. If you're coming in completely green and you're like I think I'm going to start an agency, there's going to be some time, right you know, like just to develop the connections and to develop the relationships and understand how to package and understand how to build the team and everything around it, it's going to be a longer journey for you, but the fact is the opportunity is there. There are so many businesses that need these services, that need these services done correctly, in a way that generates tangible, measurable results. It's an undeniable opportunity in a 12 to 24 month span of time for most driven entrepreneurs. That's really helpful.

Speaker 1: 20:39

Josh, if we were to go back and talk to the Josh Nelson who was getting ready to wind down that first company, who was facing a bit of discouragement, I might imagine and wondering what was ahead. If you could go back and talk to that guy, given what you know now, and you could say one thing to him. What would you love to say? I would say stick with it, go get the education that you need. Don't give up, don't quit. I needed to quit that agency, but don't quit trying. Don't quit taking action and trying to figure it out.

Speaker 1: 21:12

I did have massive discouragement in that first agency and there was no path to success. Quite frankly, it was like you know what that's it. I'm not built to be an entrepreneur. I don't have the skills. I tried my best. It's just not in the cards. I'm just going to get a regular job. I'm going to go get some consistent income and call it a day. And that's really where I was at mentally. It was like this isn't going to work for me. Other people are successful, but successful business isn't in the cards for me. Wow, and so quit it. And I think that's a key Watch. Too many people get so close to that point of breakthrough and that's when they quit, and I think your story is such an illustration of what happens. If you persist, if you break through, you can see what is on the other side. You're a perpetual learner. We've alluded to this several times already.

Speaker 1: 22:05

Is there a book that has made a big difference in your journey, josh, that you would recommend that every leader listening add to their to-read list so many books. One of the big books that had a huge impact on me was the Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by Keith R Ecker Not sure if you're familiar. It's more of a mindset book than anything else. Just having the right mental blueprint for building a very successful life and a very successful business changed the way I looked at and thought about a lot of things. I came from a missionary family. My parents were missionaries in Haiti for 10 years. Massive abundance from a love perspective, not a lot of abundance from a financial perspective. Shifting my mental perspective to like look, there's more than enough financial opportunity out there for all of us. There's plenty of businesses that are willing to pay $2,000 to $5,000 a month for their services. Making those shifts was a big leap for me. Based on my upbringing, I think that's so powerful. I'm not familiar with the book, but I'm going to check that out. That sounds absolutely brilliant. It's a great book.

Speaker 1: 23:14

If you were thinking about legacy, what would you want your legacy to be at this point in your journey? I would want my legacy to be that I helped hundreds of agencies transform their lives where they were able to make more money, have more freedom and, most importantly, have a big impact, because I know that, as these agencies serve their clients, they make the money they need to take care of their family, to live a great life of abundance, but that has a huge ripple effect on the team that they hire, that they train and, more importantly, the clients that they serve that are able to grow and able to hire more people. I'd love that to be my legacy. And again, there's that conduit, there's that outward focus, right, and I want everybody listening to hear that, because that is the difference between a leader and an extraordinary, high-capacity leader, one who is focused beyond himself. And that's what I hear in you, josh, and I just want to affirm that and encourage everyone listening to pick up on that and to begin to model after that, because I think that is what makes a leader truly catalytic.

Speaker 1: 24:18

If you could, if you could share one thing people typically walk away for an episode like this with one big idea. If you could define that one big idea, you could share what you want that one thing to be. What would that one thing be? It's a concept that I got from Zig Ziglar, and I think it really resonates with me I think it will resonate with the audience, based on this full session is that if you can help enough people get what they want, you can get anything that you want in life, and I think that applies to your leadership, I think it applies to your agency, I think it applies to the whole idea of helping and coaching other people. Focus more on helping other people get what they want in your agency or in your business, and everything else will take care of itself. What a great way to tie a bow on this discussion. You know you have modeled. This has just been a masterclass in servant leadership, because that's what the thread that I've felt throughout this entire conversation. It's focusing on other people. It's focusing on helping others and allowing yourself to be a conduit of all the experiences that you've had, because there's no such thing as a wasted experience.

Speaker 1: 25:26

I so appreciate your generosity today in sharing so freely and so openly about your journey so far, and I can't wait to see what the next chapters are going to look like, because I think the best is yet to come for you. I know people are going to want to stay connected with you, josh, and continue to learn from you and about you. What is the best way for them to do that? I think well. Thank you so much for saying that. It's been an honor to be on. I think the best place would be to grab a copy of my book, the 7-Figure Agency Roadmap. You can find it on Amazon If you go to 7figureagencycom. It's right there on the site. I think that's a great entry point to connect to learn more Brilliant. We'll have that link in the show notes, josh. Again, thank you so much for your time and your generosity today. This has been so helpful. Thank you, thanks for joining me for this episode today.

Speaker 1: 26:24

As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things. First, subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode. And if you find value here, I'd love it if you would rate it and review it. That really does make a difference in helping other people to discover this podcast. Second, if you don't have a copy of my newest book, catalytic Leadership, I'd love to put a copy in your hands. If you go to catalyticleadershipbookcom, you can get a copy for free. Just pay the shipping so I can get it to you and we'll get one right out.

Speaker 1: 26:51

My goal is to put this into the hands of as many leaders as possible. This book captures principles that I've learned in 20 plus years of coaching leaders in the entrepreneurial space, in business, government, nonprofits, education and the local church. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn to keep up with what I'm currently learning and thinking about, and if you're ready to take a next step with a coach to help you intentionally grow and thrive as a leader, I'd be honored to help you. Just go to catalytic leadershipnet to book a call with me. Stay tuned for our next episode next week. Until then, as always, leaders choose to be catalytic.