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

Mark [00:00:39] 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

Mark [00:00:47] 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

Kasim [00:00:56] Um, you were explaining your vision and just how you're going

Kasim [00:00:59] deep, deep, deep into content

Kasim [00:01:01] And what I thought was really interesting about it is you started espousing

Kasim [00:01:04] the need for high quality content

Kasim [00:01:06] Before, like before iOS 14 really hit anybody knew what was going

Kasim [00:01:10] on before the privacy first, before Google's core update

Kasim [00:01:13] And now the whole rest of the world is content first, but you've

Kasim [00:01:15] been kind of, you know, playing this tune, uh, quite a bit sooner

Kasim [00:01:20] 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

Mark [00:01:29] like, this'll eventually be a thing

Mark [00:01:30] I think I wanted it to always be a thing

Mark [00:01:32] Cause I started doing content back in like 2005, you know, I

Mark [00:01:36] had a, a fitness magazine, a gym

Mark [00:01:39] And what I found was when I went online, I couldn't find any information

Mark [00:01:42] Like all I wanted, I, I wasn't

Mark [00:01:44] Fitness

Mark [00:01:45] Like I was wanted to get back into shape after, uh, you know, doing

Mark [00:01:48] it for college sports and whatnot

Mark [00:01:50] And I had a friend who's like, okay, here's the workout plan,

Mark [00:01:52] send me a list of exercises

Mark [00:01:54] And I tried to look up the exercises online and I'm

Mark [00:01:55] like, what the hell is this?

Mark [00:01:57] Like, why are there 50 ways to do a pushup?

Mark [00:02:00] And why, why are there 50 ways to do a squat?

Mark [00:02:02] And there's no names, there's no structure to it

Mark [00:02:05] And that, that bugs the crap outta me

Mark [00:02:07] So I was like, oh, why don't we just set up a website where we say, here's

Mark [00:02:10] what a push up is with the video

Mark [00:02:12] Like no, no revolutionary, you know?

Mark [00:02:15] Right

Mark [00:02:16] And so I was like, I just wanna list

Mark [00:02:17] I wanna be able to search stuff easily

Mark [00:02:20] And so I came up with that and then I found that nobody was doing it

Mark [00:02:23] And then I was like, oh, well, you know, fitness was so flexible

Mark [00:02:26] And marketing's kind of similar where there's so many terms out there and

Mark [00:02:29] everybody has different definitions

Mark [00:02:31] So I said, if you have one organizing body that can actually define the terms

Mark [00:02:35] and say, this is the way you do this thing, then they'll be the authority

Mark [00:02:39] just because they took the time

Mark [00:02:41] Be the authority

Mark [00:02:42] So that's how the whole content thing does, you know, kind of went and I

Mark [00:02:46] really just enjoy organizing information

Mark [00:02:48] So it just fit

Mark [00:02:50] And I'm like, this is great

Mark [00:02:51] I have all the content up

Mark [00:02:52] And then I found a list of professionals that didn't really

Mark [00:02:55] know how to publish content

Mark [00:02:56] And I was like, oh, well you have the fitness knowledge

Mark [00:02:59] I have the ability to distribute that knowledge

Mark [00:03:02] We'll just work together and I'll promote you

Mark [00:03:04] You give me content, I organize it

Mark [00:03:06] You get leads and whatever you want from it

Mark [00:03:08] Good to go

Mark [00:03:09] So that's kind of where the whole concept came from

Mark [00:03:12] And then just my ability or my, uh, neurotic need to structure information

Mark [00:03:17] And I'm like, ah, this

Mark [00:03:18] This works and then nobody cared

Mark [00:03:24] So it was all this, all this work happened

Mark [00:03:26] And then when I, uh, I sold my company to audit labs and formed their academy,

Mark [00:03:32] like their content base, essentially

Mark [00:03:34] And then after that I wrote a book about the process and then my intention

Mark [00:03:37] was really to set up digital market

Mark [00:03:39] Like, and that was like 2015

Mark [00:03:41] I set up the mega mad Institute and everybody, I was trying to

Mark [00:03:45] teach kept on saying like, well, could you just do it for me?

Mark [00:03:47] You do it for me

Mark [00:03:48] Yeah

Mark [00:03:48] Yeah

Mark [00:03:49] And then you get sucked into being an agency owner and then six years

Mark [00:03:54] go by, you know, and then, then you work at digital marketer

Mark [00:03:57] That was yeah

Mark [00:03:58] 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

Kasim [00:04:02] Place just because I was like, oh, info is so scalable

Kasim [00:04:04] We can just sell the info

Kasim [00:04:05] 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

Mark [00:04:21] I was like, you know what?

Mark [00:04:21] There's all these small business owners

Mark [00:04:23] Doctors there's attorneys, there's all these professionals out there

Mark [00:04:26] that should be worried about being professionals, but they have the knowledge

Mark [00:04:29] and all the knowledge you find online is actually created by marketers

Mark [00:04:32] So I was like, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna show these professionals how to

Mark [00:04:36] do the marketing and then they'll fix the internet with good information

Mark [00:04:40] And that was

Mark [00:04:41] Stupid cause cause no business owner, no professional

Mark [00:04:46] Who's busy wants to do that stuff

Mark [00:04:48] And so that's where digital marker came around where I'm like, oh

Mark [00:04:51] man, I gotta work with marketers

Mark [00:04:52] They love this stuff

Mark [00:04:54] They'll work with the, they'll get the content from, you know,

Mark [00:04:57] the, the small business owners and we'll fix the internet together

Mark [00:05:01] And

Mark [00:05:02] It's sort of working

Mark [00:05:03] Yeah

Mark [00:05:05] You're getting there

Mark [00:05:05] get it there

Mark [00:05:05] Like it's, it's better, I think

Mark [00:05:08] But the tech kept, you know, catching up

Mark [00:05:09] So it's all kind of coming together at the same time

Mark [00:05:11] I'm like, oh, this is, this is kind of like I planned this, even though I didn't

Mark [00:05:16] And I, I ride a wave of chaos that I, I try to

Mark [00:05:21] To ride and stay up

Mark [00:05:23] 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

Kasim [00:05:31] skills that are generally juxtaposed

Kasim [00:05:33] Like the guy or gal who's cracking the code

Kasim [00:05:36] 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

Kasim [00:05:43] I'm supposed to be a Google ads authority

Kasim [00:05:45] 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

Kasim [00:05:50] 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

Mark [00:05:56] Cause I was, I always tell people, like, I don't even like fitness

Mark [00:05:59] Like I think it's necessary

Mark [00:06:01] It's something I, I consider it like brushing your teeth

Mark [00:06:04] Like you have to brush your teeth

Mark [00:06:05] It's not something you enjoy doing

Mark [00:06:06] You just do it because you should be doing it

Mark [00:06:08] That's how I, I always looked at fitness

Mark [00:06:10] 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

Mark [00:06:23] I grew up as a chubby kid and then I got not chubby and now I show

Mark [00:06:27] other people how to get not chubby

Mark [00:06:28] And I'm like, ah, yeah, okay, whatever, right

Mark [00:06:30] Can I just organize the information and I'll shoot the videos and I'll build

Mark [00:06:34] the website, I'll do all this stuff

Mark [00:06:35] And, but you need that person

Mark [00:06:37] You need the person who's super passionate and you need the person

Mark [00:06:39] who organizes and distributes

Mark [00:06:41] And those

Mark [00:06:42] You could have that person be the same person and you'll see it

Mark [00:06:45] with some YouTubers are like that

Mark [00:06:47] Uh, but a lot of times it's like, you know, people have

Mark [00:06:50] roles and that's totally fine

Mark [00:06:53] You know, what do you enjoy doing?

Mark [00:06:54] Where are you gonna do?

Mark [00:06:55] Where are you gonna do consistently and often enough to be successful

Mark [00:06:59] 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

Mark [00:07:24] And then you find out like, oh no, that was an advertisement

Mark [00:07:28] 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

Kasim [00:07:35] 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

Kasim [00:07:45] 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

Kasim [00:07:54] It was in a room at TNC

Kasim [00:07:55] They brought us upstairs and they fed us lunch and then Ryan got on stage

Kasim [00:07:59] 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

Kasim [00:08:05] We don't know what we're gonna do

Kasim [00:08:06] 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

Kasim [00:08:13] 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

Kasim [00:08:20] 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

Kasim [00:08:23] 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?

Mark [00:08:40] That's a, that's a good guy

Mark [00:08:42] He's not gonna

Mark [00:08:44] 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

Kasim [00:08:56] 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

Kasim [00:09:35] It was like, Hey here's or, and, and the ability to ask other people questions

Kasim [00:09:38] 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,

Mark [00:10:50] Hey, what can we do for agencies?

Mark [00:10:53] 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

Mark [00:11:04] 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,

Mark [00:12:49] 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