Best Buy Employee Moonlights as Online Ad Consultant

Notes from Chris

Episode 850

Jordon Meyer now runs the digital marketing agency Granular. It’s a 16-person team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. These days, it’s his full-time job and a multi-million dollar agency. But like most of our stories, it didn’t start out that way...

Before building this digital marketing behemoth, Jordon was holding down a job at the Best Buy head office in Minneapolis. He climbed the corporate ladder for a while before realizing there was no end in sight.

He then transitioned into the for-profit, higher-education industry, but felt like he was selling his soul to the highest bidder while making someone else a lot of money. It was around this time that Jordon decided to put his PPC skills to work.

By the way, PPC or Pay-Per-Click, is an internet marketing model where advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. You know when you do a Google search for something and at the top of the screen, you see those ads? Those are Jordon’s! Well, maybe not Jordon’s specifically, but those are someone’s ads. It’s a way for business owners to buy traffic to their website.

If his talents were already helping someone else’s business earn a lot of money, why not apply those same talents and build something of his own?

He started freelancing on the side as a Google Adwords, Paid Social Media, and Analytics consultant for businesses around the country. He based the business out of his house, specifically, his living room recliner.

Each day, Jordon worked on campaigns late into the night after getting home from his corporate job. He’d even sit in his car during his lunch break to make calls! And he ran his hustle this way for the first two years.

It wasn’t until a few years in that he explored the option of quitting his day job. Jordon had grown to managing ten clients by himself (which he admits was too many) while working 50 hours a week in the corporate role.

Encouraged by one of his larger clients to take the leap (and sweetening the deal by offering up their office to work out of for free), Jordon left his corporate marketing job and returned home to his native Milwaukee. He then officially started Granular Digital Marketing Agency.

Currently, Jordon’s annual profits from Granular total around two million dollars per year. However, unlike typical agencies who charge a percentage of ad spend or a markup (one of the things Jordon doesn’t like doing), he charges more like a consultant by blocks of hours.

The pricing varies, but he usually has a monthly minimum $1,500 agency consulting fee (for about nine hours of work). His hourly rate is $200 per hour. For his enterprise clients, that figure could extend to over 100 hours a month with a multi-person team servicing them.

So what’s next? He wants to continue building Granular along with helping other companies grow where he sees opportunity. He’d also like to build wealth outside of his business through real estate and other investments.

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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Granular: Learn more about the work that Jordon is doing over on his website!
• WordPress: Jordon used WordPress to set up the website for Granular, and here you can learn how to install your own WordPress site in 5 minutes

SEE ALSO:

• College Grads Start $6 Million Agency in Social Media Wild West: Today’s featured hustlers were in the first wave of college students to use Facebook. It didn’t take long to see how big it would become—and how much money they could make with it
• College Student Manages Large Ad Campaigns for Businesses: A teenager learns online marketing techniques by watching YouTube, then goes on to manage ad campaigns of up to $50,000/month
• Orthodontist Spends $500 in Facebook Ads; Produces $65,000 in New Revenue: When a marketing pro discovers a lack of efficient online marketing in the medical industry, he helps a new client bring in 13 new patients and $65,000 in new revenue with the help of Facebook Ads

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,