The Moment It CLiCK'd

I never intended to start a consulting business. Like Ad Zombies, it was an unintentional development.

In the years since I founded Ad Zombies, I've been approached by business owners who have quietly watched me grow and scale my business. They would call and ask to "pick my brain" on this or that. Eventually, I agreed to work with a few, then a few more, and, well… reread the first sentence.

More on this shortly, but first, I need to share a story.

Unlocking Change

As the pandemic raged on, I, like many business owners, had to pivot, react, and nimbly navigate the murky waters of operating through the challenges of Covid. These were some really challenging times for many businesses, mine included.

As we thought we were rounding the corner, I was asked to deliver a keynote speech at the first live event since the lockdown. In Dallas, I delivered my Pivot keynote, Change Is Always An Option, for Master Networks' Connect Conference.

This annual conference connected me to some wonderful people, many business owners who each experienced the effects of the pandemic in their own way.

The community built by the Master Networks leadership is amazing, and I grew closer to the organization as they formed new chapters. One of those new chapters was in Chandler, Arizona. That's where I met Tadd Terry D.C.

Gurus Give Gross Guidance

Over a period of months, Tadd and I got to know one another, and he'd ask me questions about different things relating to his business. He's a chiropractor with his own practice.

Tadd had gotten lots of advice from "gurus" in the chiropractic space but was not seeing the success they spoke about. He followed their roadmaps and did the cookie-cutter things that worked at every other office they consulted, yet none of it worked for his practice. That's the problem with guru advice -- it's built for the average case, and your business isn't the average case.

So, one day, I received a call from Tadd. He said he wanted me to partner with him to grow his practice. I'd essentially become an equity partner, whose contribution was the 11-pound bowling ball sitting atop my neck. Brains over bucks is what he wanted. I agreed, and in an instant, I was in the chiropractic business. It was quite an adjustment for me.

Extreme Makeover - Chiropractic Edition

I don't know much about chiropractic care, other than you hop on a table, pop this, crack that, and go on with your day. What I do know is Branding, Advertising & Marketing. With nearly four decades in the creative business, nine Super Bowl ads, and north of 100,000 pieces of ad copy written for clients, I know how to bring a brand to life. Plus, with my growth of Ad Zombies, I'd learned a few new tricks about running a business, not just advertising one.

In a matter of days, I'd advised Tadd to change his entire practice, to literally throw out all the crap these gurus gave him and let me steer the ship. He did and was totally comfortable being uncomfortable because he trusted me.

You see, I am not a guru. I am in the trenches of growing my businesses, my client's businesses, and now a chiropractic business. And when you write copy for a living, you learn fast that a good headline or a good offer doesn't matter if the business behind it can't turn a first-time patient into a repeat one.

I started eviscerating his business in March of 2022. We rebranded his practice to compete with a large multi-location office, developed his organic and paid social media strategy, and engineered a subscription model that would not only help him grow his business but make revenue more predictable. Part of this subscription model was making it easy to communicate, frictionless to join, and sticky so people would stay on the plan. CLiCK was born, and the once-flailing practice turned into a thriving one in a matter of months.

Subscribe & Save… Your Business

I cannot tell you how important it is to figure out how to transform your business into a subscription model. If you want consistent and predictable revenue instead of a rollercoaster of good months and bad ones, figuring out a subscription model is key.

I've helped clients in varying industries, ones they didn't think could have a subscription model, figure out a subscription that worked for their customer base. Hell, if I can help a pizza chain sell a monthly membership on something people assume is a one-off purchase, I can help a chiropractor sell recurring adjustments.

How Did January Turn Out?

Tadd recorded a video just a few days into January, before the CLiCK numbers for the month were even in. A few weeks later, I got a text from him: new patient visits were up, existing CLiCK members were renewing without a second thought, and for the first time since he opened his doors, he wasn't spending his mornings worrying about whether the practice would make payroll. That's the real test of a subscription model -- not whether it sounds good in a pitch deck, but whether it's still working when the excitement of launch day has worn off.

The success story of Dr. Tadd is proof of what a subscription model can do when it's built around the actual customer, not a template from a guru's PDF. With guidance built on nearly 40 years of watching what makes people buy and keep buying, the once-flailing chiropractic practice turned into a thriving one in a matter of months. That transformation was possible because Tadd trusted the process even when it meant tearing up everything he'd been told was "best practice."

If you're looking to grow and scale your business, you need to consider the power of a subscription model. I've helped clients in various industries, including ones they didn't think could have a subscription model, figure out a plan that works for their customer base. If you want the deeper version of how I build client relationships strong enough to let me make changes like this, read what I've learned about earning that kind of trust.

The story of Tadd is just one of many examples of how a subscription model can revolutionize a business. As someone who's spent decades in branding, advertising, and marketing -- and who still writes the headlines and builds the offers myself -- I can help you develop a subscription model that will not only grow your business but make its revenue predictable, too.