Sam Shepler
@SamShepler
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I run two productized agencies (Testimonial Hero & Product Hype). Sharing learnings on scaling B2B services.
Connecticut
Joined February 2011
Legacy is not the money your great grandkids forget. Legacy is the mindset and values your kids absorb and pass forward. You change your family line more through who you become than what you leave behind.
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Most creative agency owners talk about CAC to LTV. It sounds smart. It feels like the metric that matters. But here is the thing most people miss. CAC to LTV is basically irrelevant if you do not know your gross margin. And almost no agencies who are project-based or that
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Big news: We’re officially launching https://t.co/OUUbHKcdET as our parent brand 🚀 For years, many of you have known us through Testimonial Hero and, more recently, Product Hype. But behind the scenes, we’ve actually always been Storysnap, LLC. As we plan for more
storysnap.com
We operate a portfolio of category-leading video agencies each built to master a specific stage of the buyer journey. Whether you’re a B2B marketer seeking results or an agency founder seeking a...
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Who is the best ad copywriter you know with B2B experience? Our new agency Product Hype [.] Com has some use cases for video ads upcoming and we'd like to collab with someone. Looking for concept, copy, and then we'd execute the video.
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The invaluable thing to learn from entrepreneur mentors isn't tactics—it's their mindset and their strategy. Tactical knowledge can be learned in a variety of places, but understanding the mindset and strategy of people who exactly where you want to be in 3-5 years is
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I love B2B because it's selling things people and businesses actually need. Products and services that actually create economic value. A lot of "best" consumer marketing feels like it's psychologically manipulating people to buy things they really don't need. Am I heavily
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If the lottery is a “tax” on the poor… Angel investing is a tax on the rich
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Really fun to participate in this @IndieHackers writeup by @JamesOfTheDrum. This is probably the most in-depth I've ever gone on my backstory and the "behind the scenes" of Testimonial Hero 👇 https://t.co/7XY7N7onsB
indiehackers.com
Sam Shepler sold his first agency, then tried productized services before graduating to tech-enabled services. Now, he's bringing in over $5M/yr.
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New agency , who dis? Meet Product Hype -> https://t.co/RhxvWHgWS7 SaaS product marketing videos that stop the scroll and excite your prospects. Check out our reel below 👇
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Starting a new agency brand for the first time in 7+ years Just dropped five-figures on the domain AMA
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Need help with a small brand identity project (color palette iconography, typography, textures, etc) - who do you recommend for cutting edge (very current feeling) brand identity for B2B?
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People who complain about the agency business model often fall into two camps. The first group? Those who got stuck at a few hundred thousand dollars of revenue. It's a grind, and they became jaded and burnt out. That's real and legitimate - it can happen. In my experience,
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Gross margin is one of the most critical metrics for agencies and productized services, yet it's often overlooked or miscalculated. Why is it so important? Because gross margin tells you how good your fundamental unit economics are at the project or monthly level. If your unit
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Don't underestimate the power of taking a simple idea, and taking it seriously.
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Productized Agencies have the ability to run a B2B SaaS-like GTM playbook, and leverage the best practices there. Unproductized Agencies do not have this luxury. Both work, but you are able to proactively create demand much easier with Productized Agencies (assuming a proper
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If you run a project based agency or productized service, it's imperative to understand deferred revenue:
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This is a solid breakdown for creative service/productized businesses. After getting to know Sam and learning how he built Testimonial Hero, I realized he approaches productized services differently than most. MRR can be tempting, but chasing it blindly might be the shiny
@coreyhainesco 7 things I’ve learned running a $3M Productized Agency: 1) Lifetime value and AOV are more important than MRR - Especially in the early days. You will grow faster and have better cash-flow starting out if you can increase your AOV and if possible, collect all of that upfront or
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We are looking to acquire another video marketing agency. Ideally, majority B2B clients. If this is you, or you know someone, please send them my way.
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Ideally, from the start, but at a minimum as soon as you have traction and PMF. Because yes, it is more of a hassle and more expensive. But without it, you are most likely flying blind on your gross margins.
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One massive key to a project based agency is knowing your gross margin—and keeping it at least 50%. This is almost impossible to know if only do cash basis accounting. If you want to scale a project based agency, get on accrual accounting after you have product-market-fit.
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