[Top Agency Series] Building an Eight-Figure Company With Scott Empringham of Empringham Media Group

Scott Empringham is the Owner and CEO of Empringham Media Group. For more than 21 years, his passion has been helping Fortune 50 companies to break through the clutter using digital marketing and social media to drive results in areas that matter most — customer retention and acquisition. Scott’s mission is to share his digital marketing and social media expertise to drive new business, retain current customers, and conquer the competition. He is also a member of the Orange County Chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO). 

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [04:40] Scott Empringham recounts the memory of shutting his office down
• [09:06] The game-changing advice Scott received from David Meltzer
• [13:17] How asking for and taking help allowed Scott to start over
• [16:29] Scott shares his eight-step marketing plan
• [17:49] Why you have to identify your ideal customer and the problem you solve
• [26:11] The people that helped Scott hone his speaking ability
• [27:45] Helping small businesses figure out where to start
• [35:05] Classic mistakes people make in the marketing process
• [38:04] Why technology is a double-edged sword

In this episode…

If your business has to shut down and you leave empty-handed, how do you pick yourself up and start over? What is the first step you have to take? Today’s guest was at his lowest point and found a way to pick himself up and rebuild. What are his secrets?

When faced with calamity, it’s hard to know where to turn. Scott Empringham decided to reach out for help which was the turning point he needed to start over. With a broad history of working in various industries worldwide, Scott leverages the power of his experiences to help companies and business leaders break through the clutter and focus on the direction they should take. Scott formulated an eight-step plan using digital marketing and social media to drive results in the business areas that matter most: sales and service. 

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down with Scott Empringham, Owner and CEO of Empringham Media Group, who shares how he regained his position after closing his office and leaving with just a phone. He shares how he started over, the steps he took to move forward, and the value of asking for help. Scott talks about honing his speaking skills, learning valuable lessons from others, and highlights the common mistakes people make in the marketing process and how to avoid them.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Scott Empringham on LinkedIn
• Empringham Media Group
• SMART90 Social

Special Mention(s):

• John Corcoran on LinkedIn
• David Meltzer on LinkedIn
• Young Presidents’ Organization
• Rancho Mission Viejo
• Pat Quinn on LinkedIn
• Coach Jimmy Hays Nelson
• Renée Marino on LinkedIn
• Dr. Danny Brassell on LinkedIn
• Diana Swillinger on Linkedin

Book(s) Mentioned: 

• Guerilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson
• Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century by Napoleon Hill
• Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable by Tim Grover

Podcast(s) Mentioned: 

• Second Bite Podcast

Related episode(s):

• “[Top Agency Series] Most Valuable Advice When Selling Your Agency With Todd Taskey of Potomac Business Capital”
• “[Top Agency Series] Expanding Your Brand Impact Through Social With Duncan Alney of Firebelly Marketing”

Episode Transcript

Intro  0:01 

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr. Jeremy Weisz.

Jeremy Weisz  0:22 

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here founder of inspiredinsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders today is no different. I am going to formally introduce Scott Empringham in a second of Empringham Media Group. And Scott, I always like to point out other episodes, people check out of the podcast and one person in particular, Todd Taskey, who has a Second Bite Podcast, check it out. But he talked about how with agency owners, he pairs private equity with agency owners and help them sell and sometimes they make more on the second bite than they do on the first and that’s a really fascinating conversation of valuation how he thinks about selling, also had Duncan Alney. Duncan Alney has an agency in helps food and beverage companies. And so check that out. And we’ll talk about niches on this podcast. And before this episode is brought to you by Rise25. At Rise25 we help businesses give to and connect to their dream 100 relationships and partnerships, and how do we do that we actually help you run your podcast, we’re an easy button for someone to launch and run their podcast, we do accountability strategy, and the full execution. And Scott, we know each other a little bit. For me, the number one thing in my life is relationships. And I’m always looking at ways to give to my best relationships. And I’ve found no better way over the past decade to profile the people in companies I most admire and share with the world what they’re working on, like Scott. So if you’ve thought about podcasting, you should if you have questions, go to rise25.com To learn more, and really, John Corcoran, my business partner, introduced me to Scott and the cool things he’s done. And let me just introduce Scott. He’s got a tremendous background. I have Scott Empringham. He’s founder of Empringham Media Group, and in 2018, after 20 years of building an eight figure agency and just put yourself in his shoes for a second. All right, Scott lost it all. He was off with no office, no staff, no customers, and beyond that. To make matters worse, 500,000 I was in debt. And he had 90 days to turn around. I mean, he had to pay that debt back. So what he did is he turned to social media. And he actually shared a story, which is great. A lot of times when we go through hard times we want to hide it. We don’t want to share with anyone. And sometimes it’s hard for people to help if you don’t share it right. He shared his story, His plan and his goal to get it all back in 90 days or less. And he actually did an 88 days, which is crazy to think about. But Scott has recognized digital marketing social media expert with over 20 years of expertise. He’s helped over 1000 entrepreneurs, small businesses and fortune 50 companies get customers of social media and AI. He’s worked with virtually every major OEM, Ford, Toyota, Cadillac, GMC, Honda, and many, many more in over 2000 dealers. He’s also worked with owners, CEOs, marketing departments of insurance companies, plastics, financial, and a lot more you can check him out. He is really one that I see carries on relationships and is a giver. And he has an on demand social media certification course and a coaching program to just to help teach people because some companies can’t afford his services. Right. So you can check that out smart90social.com. Scott, thanks for joining me.

Scott Empringham  3:52 

Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate being here.

Jeremy Weisz  3:54 

You’ll Scott some people for motivation when they’re working out, listen to their favorite music. Okay. I listen to people like you and Les last night, I’m, I’m thinking I need to, you know, I like to do research. It’s, you know, 10 at night. I’m like, I need to listen to a bunch of Scott’s interviews. And so I went and I did a workout and your story pumped me up because it’s just a story of comeback and it’s a story of just hard times and just take me back for a second. Take us back to your daughter. Your daughter is on your lap. Just paint the picture of what’s happening.

Scott Empringham  4:40 

I assume you’re talking about when I shut the office down. I think you’re gonna take me right back there. Wow, you went right for it. So you did your homework. You really did your homework. I’m closing my office and my attorneys just informed me that I can’t take my laptop because it’s an asset of the business out. The business is gone, the customers are gone. The employees are gone. Public faceplant on social media. And I know that I deep underwater. I don’t know how bad it is, but it’s bad. And the attorney and my daughter and my son go back to the office for the final time my office in Newport Beach. And I’m taking one final look around as I’m about to leave the office for good knowing that I’m walking out with nothing. And I’m sitting in my office and I started to fall apart. My stomach was in knots and I was sinking. And I just felt beneath so far beneath the waves. I didn’t know how it was going to come up. And I started to cry. And I’m looking out the window just thinking about everything that I’d lost. And my daughter walks in. And as a dad, I wanted to pull myself out to freak her out. And she said, daddy, are you crying? And I said, yeah, yeah, these are these are happy tears. Everything’s okay. Everything’s okay. And she sat on my lap. And she said, what are you going to do now? And I looked at I said, we’re gonna start again. We’re gonna start again. I said, great. And you know, kids don’t understand the gravity, and the enormity of maybe what a dad or a mom is feeling when they’re going through something like that. And I said, we’re going to start again, sweetheart. She said, great. I’ll help you see what’s the name of your company. And I hadn’t given it any thought. And I said, it’s Empringham Media Group. And she said, great, let’s do your first social media post. And it was exactly what God nature designed for me in that moment. And it gave me that it helped me turn a corner. I got out my phone. And it was the last piece of property I had for my business. I had free social media accounts. And it was a great reminder of what I still had. And so she said, great, what is it going to be and if you go on my Instagram account, you can see it’s like June 18, or June, I should know the date. But it’s in June. It’s a very first post. And it’s something about when things fall apart, we start again, and we found a quote. And that was my very first posts for Empringham Media Group. And it’s on there today. And it was the very first step to rebuild. And the optimism of a child right? She says, great, well, let’s go get some ice cream. I walked out, I took one final look at the office. And as she walked out, I had the foresight to just take some pictures as she’s walking out. She’s in her jammies in her Ugg boots. And she’s walking out and I still use that picture. Sometimes in my campaigns today, or in my videos today, to say this was the last day in my office. And it doesn’t matter where you are, it doesn’t matter what happened. It doesn’t matter how deep, you might be underneath the waves, taking one step at a time, you can accomplish some amazing things. And I’m pretty good proof of that

Jeremy Weisz  8:18 

How old was she at the time?

Scott Empringham  8:21 

This was in 2018. Probably four years ago, she’s like nine or eight, eight or nine, something like that.

Jeremy Weisz  8:30 

Yeah, I’m like doing squats holding dumbbells last night. I’m like, if he got through that I could do a couple more reps. So I appreciate that. But at that point, you had built up an eight figure agency. And we’ll get to kind of a little bit about what happened. But you got some really key advice from David Meltzer. And can you talk about that? He’s been on the podcast to really cool story. Great advice.