We Fired 450 Clients in One Year. It Saved the Business.

FREE: the tools and templates to become an indispensable marketer: indispensablemarketer.com/free/

In 2020 Jacob fired 450 of Disruptive's 650 clients in a single year. The revenue

math said don't. He did it anyway, and it's the best decision the business has

ever made.

This episode is about what made that decision possible: a CEO who could finally

name why the business exists. Chad walks Jacob back through the Covid moment he

quietly hoped it was all over, the screen he ran every client through, and how

the company reacted when the directive came down. Then they get to the part

that's your job as a marketing leader. Every CEO has a why in their head whether

they've said it out loud or not, and extracting it is your work, not theirs. This

is the Vision pillar of VSET.

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CHAPTERS

0:00 The year we fired 450 clients, and why it saved the business

0:24 Brazil, 2020: the moment Jacob hoped his business was over

3:52 The screen Jacob ran every single client through

5:00 The math: 200 clients we believed in, 450 we didn't

6:04 How the company reacted, and why sales pushed back hardest

9:41 The two questions that pull a CEO's why into the open

13:40 The mistake almost every marketer makes with their CEO's why

14:55 The four founder stages, and how to meet your CEO where they actually are

17:50 What to do when your CEO seems closed off to this conversation

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WHO'S TALKING

Jacob Baadsgaard is the founder and CEO of Disruptive Advertising and the author

of The Indispensable Marketer. He's sat on both sides of this table: marketing

director at a public company, and now the CEO asking marketing for a number.

Chad de Lisle has been in marketing for nearly twenty years, half of that at

Disruptive working directly with Jacob. He was in the room when the 450-client

decision came down.

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ABOUT THE SHOW

The Indispensable Marketer is Disruptive Advertising's podcast. We're a

performance marketing agency, and our mission is to connect great marketers with

the brands they believe in. The goal of this show is simpler than that: we want

marketing leaders to win. Not just hit the number, but earn the trust and the

seat that comes with it.

For anyone who has no reason to trust us yet, some things you can check:

We've managed marketing for more than 2,000 client accounts.

When we studied those accounts, we found that on average 76% of ad budget had no

attributable revenue impact. Not low impact. No impact. That's the problem we

exist to solve.

We reject 96% of applicants, because the wrong person in the wrong seat costs

everyone.

We publish around 8 videos a month. We want these to be the episodes you forward

to your CEO or drop in your team's channel, because you're both better on the

other side of it.

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FREE RESOURCES: indispensablemarketer.com/free/Disruptive Advertising: https://disruptiveadvertising.com/The Indispensable Marketer (book): https://www.indispensablemarketer.com/book/Connect with Jacob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakebaadsgaard/ Connect with Chad on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-de-lisle/

NEXT EPISODE: the multi-million dollar contract we walked away from because it

conflicted with our values.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We fired 450 clients in one year, and it was the best decision that we ever made as a business. We're gonna talk about what it means to get clear on your reason for being, on your why, so that every piece of content, every marketing move you make aligns with that vision. And so to do that, I'm gonna bring in Jacob Badsgard, the CEO of Disruptive Advertising, and talk about what we did to get clear. So to start, Jacob, we are going back to 2020. I know nobody wants to. You remember what 2020 was like? But we want to remember 2020 because it was very important for the vision of disruptive advertising. You were in Brazil, right? Yeah can you tell us what happened? What went what was going on?

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Well, on the flight down, we start getting blown up on our phones and on the news and all of these things of like COVID's dropping like it's hot. And we're like, I wonder how big of a deal this is. And half the group was like, this is the end of the world. And the other half of the group is like, you guys, this won't even be a big deal a week from now. And while we're down there, they literally start shutting down beaches. We don't know if we're gonna be able to get back on a plane to the United States. It was it was kind of intense. And it is clear we've now gone remote as a business. We're not going into the office anymore. And the way that we've been running business for years at this point has changed overnight. And there was this really uncomfortable feeling of everything I've worked so hard to build might be over. My business might be done. And I think a lot of people were feeling that way about their careers and their businesses and whatever. And yet when I finally just allowed myself to acknowledge that, I felt so relieved. I'm like, oh, why does it feel good that this might be the end? And I, like so many entrepreneurs, had built a business that I started to feel trapped in because it was no longer as aligned with my purpose anymore. And at this point in the business, we were servicing um over 650 clients every month and onboarding up to 50 to 60 new accounts and sometimes offboarding just as many. And I thought this is just feeling really stressful and doesn't feel worth it the way that it used to with the business. And then all of a sudden we find out, okay, well, it's not going to end the world, end the world. And everyone has a ton of money. Businesses are getting like PPP loans for free, and everyone's getting stimulus checks, but no one can leave their house is still. So all of these dollars that we're used to going to conferences, different types of like travel, everyone's spending money online now. And as a digital marketing performance agency, all of a sudden, like, this is gonna be a huge deal for us. Like, we're going to grow a lot. And that same icky feeling came back up where I'm like, oh no, I thought I was just gonna be free of this. And I'll give you the TLDR version of this. Because I'm like, okay, I've got to explore this feeling because I don't know if it's worth it for me to go down this path. Why, why, if if if I own and run the business, why not make the changes that I need to make if I really don't like where we're going? We had many clients at that time that we had been to war with together, that we were bonded beyond just being a marketing vendor for them. And we loved our jobs when we were serving these types of clients. And then we had another big group of clients that we didn't feel that way with. We, our success rate was lower, so it didn't feel good to them or us. Um, we were churning and burning through those. Uh, that's where most of the escalations or refunds or bad reviews or whatever were coming from. And what I realized is oh, we are not a great agency at brand new startups. And we're actually not the best agency for huge enterprises either, where they just see us as a commoditized service, and we're not really involved in the strategy of their business and aligning marketing, doing those types of things. What we landed on was my purpose, which is to see and activate greatness. And I had to then screen the business and say, what percentage of our clients do I really feel like we're living my my stated purpose with, which is the purpose of our companies. And yet here we were servicing many accounts and customers that we weren't seeing and activating greatness in, um, weren't pairing our teams with clients they were actually excited to work with. And no wonder it didn't feel good because that's not my purpose, is to see and activate mediocrity or uh work with clients we don't really believe in so we can make a buck. And I'm like, well, damn, when you say it that clearly, no wonder it doesn't feel right. And my first clients were people that I deeply cared about, my employer in college, um, a client, you know, a client that I'd worked with as a consultant, people that I just, I'm like, I love you and I want to see you win in life and business, and I'll do it for free because I just care about you. But when we look at it and say, do we care about the people we're working with beyond just making money? And do we believe in what they're building? And do we actually feel confident, 80% 80% plus, that we can drive meaningful results for them in the first 90 days of working together? And if the answer is yes, then hell yeah. Let's work together. That's aligned with who we are. But then the uncomfortable moment came of our 650 clients, we only feel that way about 200 of them. Give me a hell yeah. Yeah, and the other 450, we don't feel that way. And so in the moment, I'm like, if we don't replace any of this revenue and my costs stay the same, this will put us in the negative, and I might have to let people go and do layoffs, right? Which felt really crappy. But the there was two risks. Number one, do nothing and keep a business that we don't love running.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

Or two, take the risk and really align ourselves with the businesses and people we're built to serve and deal with the financial consequences, right? And ultimately we chose that one. We tried to be wise about it, and it didn't lead to us needing to do a layoff as a result of that decision. Um, but man, it was kind of scary to do that. And it changed a lot about the business and our marketing to get aligned with that.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

How was that received when you walked in and said, okay, we need to, we need to let go of a big portion of our client base here?

SPEAKER_01 6:05

There was almost no resistance from the fulfillment teams, you know, from the operations, client operations, client success. They're like, Yes, please. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

They felt like yeah, their hair was on fire. And you were one I was that was doing that.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Yeah, I was one of them. Yeah. Um, sales was the most resistant. Sure. Because they said, Well, what are we gonna sell? And if we're paid a big portion of our compensation is based on commissions, this feels like you're just hurting us by making this decision. And I said, I get that. And how does it feel to you to close accounts that end up not working out, which impact your commissions, and now you're dealing with upset clients instead of closing one that we're great at working with that last longer? And they're like, Okay, I you know, they could kind of see it, but you know, change is hard. So it was it was a mixed bag. Yeah, and was it worth it? Yeah, no, yeah, it was worth it. Why? A CEO needs to understand what truly motivates them. And when I say my purpose statement in life is to see and activate greatness, and when I look at the relationship I have with people at work, with the clients we serve, at home with my wife and kids, and I ask myself that question am I showing up in a way that sees and activates greatness? And if the answer is no, then what am I doing? And I need to make that change. And so, number one, it just helped me feel more congruent with who I am and how I am built to serve in the world. Yeah. Okay. Because when I'm incongruent with my nature, I'm not fun to work with. And then the second thing is it helped me have more energy and belief behind what I'm building, which helps me do better work versus like just going through the motions because I don't really believe in what we're doing anymore. And so I think it helped me to feel more aligned and B helped me perform better uh in order to do that. And in phases, helped the team with the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

So I was in the room when that directive was brought down. This idea of, hey, we what if we just worked with 200 clients that we really believed in? Right. And that uh opened all the pathways in my brain, right? And I felt fear and I felt, oh no, about what that means for our business. But I also felt a little glimmer of what that could feel like. Like, what if my whole book of business or the people, the people that I was working with as a marketer were all clients that I felt really excited about their products and really bought in and felt like I was making an impact. What if I was seeing and activating their greatness? You know? And I think that's the power of vision. When a CEO really steps in and does their job, which is to lead with vision, it really can ignite uh an entire company and align everyone behind that single directive and get us all moving in the same direction. But I would argue that it's not just so easy, right? Because one thing is you can come in and say, hey, our purpose is to see and activate greatness. But what does that mean in how does that impact marketing's day-to-day? How does that impact fulfillment's day-to-day? How does that, you know, what does that actually mean and how you translate that? So the question I would throw back to you, Jacob, is how do you take uh a high-level vision like that and start to translate it down into action that can that can be taking place throughout the company?

SPEAKER_01 9:24

Well, I think maybe the first thing that's worth calling out is the business vision is more than just the why. And the part that we're really diving into right now is the why. Because, you know, Simon Sinek would say, start there and then clarify the rest of the business vision that really embodies our reason for being and what we're here to do as a business. And because I've worked with so many CEOs and marketers at this point in my career, I have found that there are a couple of simple questions that reveal the truth. And they and they worked for me just like they've worked for you know thousands of other businesses. And the first one is founder, CEO, entrepreneur, tell me about some client examples that just inspire you, some client success stories. And you'll notice what I just told you before was let me tell you about Gary. Yeah, let me tell you about Matt. Let me tell you about these first couple of clients that I did work for free because I just believed in them and I wanted to do great work for them. And here's what happened for them and for their businesses, and for me, it helped me even start my own business type thing. And so when I look at that and say, oh man, that's the type of interaction that I'm looking for. Okay. Second question. Tell me about an employee success story that inspires you. And then all I have to do is ask myself the question: where am I living true to that in the business right now? And where are we not living true to that? And so when I point it back to the example of these are the clients that I don't feel proud of the outcomes that we're getting them. And I don't feel proud of the situation and circumstances that that puts my employees in. And it's like this isn't seeing an activating greatness with the clients, and this isn't seeing an activating greatness with the employees that are here. And when I'm not feeling that, I'm feeling misaligned with the why for the business. And then I stop caring and I'm not growing and expanding anymore. And so those are the two questions that I always just love to ask, which is okay, entrepreneur, tell me about client success stories that inspire you, and tell me about employee success stories that inspire you. And let us use that as a lens to come back and answer your why for the business. And it's a work in progress, usually for most businesses, but for us, our purpose is to see and activate greatness, which is very aligned with who I am and what I want to build. It has nothing to do with marketing at that point. The world that I want to contribute to is a world where everyone can work through their fears just like you did and experience their full potential by addressing and working through their fears. Now, practically, how do we do that as a business? Well, we do that by developing indispensable marketers and pairing them with the brands they actually believe in and want to do work for. And so that is our why as a business is being able to answer those three questions. We exist too, we envision a world where, and here's practically how we do that in our industry.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

And then all of a sudden, that becomes the screen or the lens by which we make decisions for the business that keep me aligned with my authenticity and the business as well. And that actually makes difficult decisions a lot easier because it's like, would we really make a decision that's not aligned with our why here? The answer is always no. And the answer is, well, what would happen if we focused on our why? Okay, well, that's an adventure we're willing to go on, even if results temporarily are worse before they get better. And so that to me is again in this framework that we use for creating business vision clarity, starting with the why and just having a conversation with your CEO like you and I are right now.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

Tell me about a client success story, tell me about an employee success story, and let's use that information to start filling out why we exist, the world we want to contribute to, and how we practically do that in our industry.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

Well, and you just articulated it beautifully, but that why exists in every CEO's mind, whether they've articulated it or not. And our job as a marketing leader is to extract it, is to have that conversation, is to get in and ask those questions that you just did. Tell me about the client success story, tell me about an employee success story, help me understand where what's at the heartbeat, you know, the genesis story of this business, so that I can really get to know what makes you tick and what drives all the actions that we take as a business.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

And and I will just say that there is a point that happens so commonly where the marketer starts to turn it into their why. You've done it. Yeah. Every marketer at Disruptive has done that. Rather than getting clear on what is the why for this business and do you feel aligned with it is the question for the marketer. Do the same exercise for yourself. Oh, sure. Right? Do it for yourself and do it with the CEO so that you can see your values and their values showing up and saying, are they compatible? Because if they are, hell yeah, let's go. And if they're not, then you're getting the clarity that you need to say, I might not be the right guy for the job because what really matters to me and what really matters to you are different enough that I think you deserve a marketer that's aligned. And I deserve to do marketing for a business that's aligned with what I'm looking for as well.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

And we say it all the time. It should be on a plaque somewhere in the company that marketing is either the best job of the world or the worst job in the world, depending on if you believe in the product or service that you're marketing. Right. And so understanding your why and understanding the why of the business that you're doing marketing for is just critical. You've got to have alignment. That's what makes the hard moments worth it. A hundred percent.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

So, in addition to the questions that we've just talked about asking a CEO, you actually have a framework, a little cheat sheet, even of different ways you can approach founders depending on where they're at in their stage of business. Can you tell us about that?

SPEAKER_01 14:56

So this is just a little bit of a hack so that you can show up with reasonable expectations and understanding where they are and maybe why it matters so much to them. And the first one is is the business in like the prove it stage? Is it we might not make it two months from now? Right. And that's kind of the first stage that a business goes through. And I would say that an entrepreneur goes through in their career. I've got to prove something. I've got to prove this business model can work. I've got to prove I can be a successful entrepreneur. The second phase that we move into is, okay, now we've proven it. And so that chip on my shoulder that was motivating me before, now I want to see how much we can grow and scale this now that we've proven that something works. But then there comes this third stage for a CEO and entrepreneur where they say, growth for the sake of growth is starting to feel hollow. It is no longer fulfilling me the way that it used to. And I almost feel embarrassed to say that because everyone's going to be like, oh, boo-hoo, you're too, it's working too good and it and it you don't feel good about it anymore, which is why most CEOs won't bring it up. Even consciously for themselves. But there just comes this stage where they're like, it's not enough for me to just grow this business agree. It's not worth the stress anymore, it's not worth the money anymore, it's not worth the whatever anymore. And that's what happened to me during COVID. And that's in the more purposeful phase of an entrepreneur's journey. That's the third stage. That's the one I'm in, is to say, no, I still want to grow a successful business, but it needs to mean more than just making money.

SPEAKER_02 16:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

And that's where we've put these things together. And then the last one is more of the legacy CEO and entrepreneur saying, it's not about me anymore. It's about the next generation of leaders here. It's about what's beyond me. And if you talk to a legacy entrepreneur and say, and you talk to them like they're in the prove it stage, it's going to land weird. If you talk to one that cares about performance and purpose coming together in that third stage and you talk about prove it, it's going to land weird as well. If you talk to someone that's in the prove it stage of how's this going to go beyond you, and to the next generation of leaders here at the company, they're going to go, what the hell are you talking about, man?

unknown 16:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

And so when you have this conversation and explore, tell me about the employees and customer success stories that inspire you. Tell me about where you're in your journey and what just matters to you right now. Is it, I've got to prove this, I've got to actually, you know, get a win on the table from a financial standpoint. I'm ready to reintroduce purpose, or I'm kind of in the legacy phase of my career as an entrepreneur. Then if you just understand those four stages, you'll understand why they're responding the way that they are, and you can meet them where they're at versus where you think they should be. And what you'll notice in the customer and in the employee success stories that they share with you is you'll understand the essence of their why that will transcend all four stages. But then when you ask, hey, what kind of stage are you in and what really matters most to you and the business right now? Then you can get a little bit more practical in how that applies to the here and now.

SPEAKER_02 17:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

Awesome advice about meeting a CEO, where they're at, because this conversation could be weird or fall flat if you're not clear on where they're actually at right now. So having these kinds of conversations, these why extraction conversations as a marketing leader can actually be pretty intimidating.

unknown 18:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

You know, and and even after having worked together as long as we have, Jake, like sometimes I have to psych myself up in the mirror to like, you know, Chad, you go in, you talk to, you know, you're gonna ask these questions. And and part of that, I think is just a very real experience for marketing leaders. And what, you know, what would you say to the marketing leader who feels like the CEO isn't open to a conversation like this? Or um how how to get psyched up to have that convo if it's feeling uncomfortable?

SPEAKER_01 18:38

Well, the first thing I would say is, and that's why we've given you like six questions that make it way easier. Yeah. Uh-huh. Tell me about a is it weird to ask your CEO, tell me about a customer story that inspires you? Is that scary? Is it scary to ask, tell me about an employee success story that inspires you? Is it is it scary to say, help me understand what stage you're in with the business and what matters most to you right now? Because I want to make sure that we're aligned and working towards that together.

SPEAKER_02 19:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

So I'm just gonna say that's why we've developed these frameworks to make the conversation easier. Now, that doesn't make doing it easier, but it does give you something to work with.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

And actually having that conversation comes with risk. There was risk when you said, I don't know if I'm the right guy for the job. Uh, you know, when we when we kicked off this podcast. There is a risk when you go and have this conversation that it doesn't go well and that it's weird. And and you lose your job, but there's a risk if you don't, because if you don't get aligned with the CEO here, it's going to be hard to align your marketing in a way that feels aligned with where they're at and what they're really trying to accomplish. And there's actually more risk in not getting aligned on their why and the why for the business. And so it's okay that it feels uncomfortable. It's okay that you might even be afraid to do it. It's okay to be flexible and catch the CEO at a good time and not force it this week. But get it on the calendar, make it happen. And you could even send them beforehand. Here's the questions I want to cover, and here's how it's gonna help me do better marketing for us to really cue it up in a way that like you're gonna succeed 90% of the time. And if you go through that conversation and realize I am not aligned with where the CEO is at, their why and what they're trying to accomplish with this business, that's actually the reason why the conversation feels uncomfortable to have. What if you find out this isn't the right place for you to be? What if the CEO finds out this isn't the right place for you to be? And it's okay to feel that. But if it's not the right place for you to be, it's probably better to resolve that sooner rather than later. And what you'll probably find out, and with a gift that you might give the CEO that he forgot like I did for many years, is helping him or her remember why they're doing any of this in the first place. And you might change their life when you have this conversation. You might transform the business. The risk for upside, I actually think is a lot more than the risk for the downside. And you might be that indispensable marketing partner that they needed to recenter on what actually matters to them and why they're doing this.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

And give them the courage to make the hard decisions like I had to make, like we had to make in our business. That is what makes a marketer indispensable. And I think that the people listening to this are capable of doing that.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

So, marketing leaders, go look yourself in the mirror, get psyched up, and start having this conversation. Because if you don't do it, no one will. This is actually the role that you get to play in the company that you are a part of. You get to be the one that helps to start this conversation and extract the why. All right, that is it for this episode of The Indispensable Marketer. Next time, we are talking about a multi million dollar contract that we walked away from because it conflicted with our values. You're gonna want to tune in.