This video has been sponsored by Brave. Download Brave at https://brave.com/upflip to get started. Enter code UPFLIP at checkout for 25% off your first 3 months! You might know Eric Siu as a co-host of the Marketing School podcast, where he and Neil Patel share daily digital marketing insights. He’s also the founder of Single Grain, a $1 million a month SMMA agency, and he explains how to start a marketing agency in this interview. When Eric bought Single Grain in 2014 it was a struggling SEO agency. With a combination of an all-star team and state-of-the-art technology, Eric brought it back from the brink of failure. Now his digital marketing agency is among the top in the industry. He’ll share how he achieved this impressive transformation, and his advice for how to start a digital marketing agency with no experience. Eric is also an avid gamer, and viewing life like a game is part of how he’s achieved success with his marketing agency. He explains this mindset in his book, Leveling Up, and he’ll share some key concepts for how to level up your life and business in this interview. Resilience is a big part of this. He’ll share how he recovers from setbacks with his digital agency and his advice for how to develop more resilience as an entrepreneur. One surprising tip Eric has: offering free work can help you build a business. He’ll explain when and why this is a good idea and how to get SMMA clients using this approach. You’ll also learn about the missteps he’s taken in his entrepreneurial journey and the lessons he learned in the process that helped him keep leveling up his life. If you liked this video, check out some of our past interviews with marketing experts: How Jason Built $500K/Year Social Media Marketing Agency ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb1czTEK8f8 Reyes the Entrepreneur: How He Makes $210K a Year from YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg-ymfCpYcQ Resources https://www.singlegrain.com/ - Learn more about Single Grain on their website https://www.upflip.com/courses - Get step-by-step advice on how to start a business with UpFlip’s courses https://www.upflip.com/ - Find tips and insights to start and grow a business in any niche on UpFlip Timestamps: 00:00 - START 00:38 - How he started 01:26 - Buying the business 03:12 - Value of books 04:45 - Mistakes made 05:56 - Social media dos and don’ts 07:01 - What he’d change 07:45 - Key digital marketing strategies 11:10 - Resilience 12:28 - Best advertising websites 13:57 - Podcast 15:01 - Digital marketing myth 15:54 - Fan Blitz 16:59 - AI’s role in digital marketing 18:45 - Running the business 20:20 - Landing big clients 21:23 - Hiring employees 22:57 - Continuous growth 24:07 - Dealing with burnout 25:00 - Retaining employees 26:24 - Advice on starting an agency 27:11 - Role of self-belief 28:05 - Writing a book 29:06 - Best platforms to gain traffic 30:04 - Daily habits for success 31:32 - Platform to scale 33:03 - Outro #howtostartadigitalmarketingagency #digitalmarketingagency #smma