Company: Phaser Marketing
Owners: Luke Eggebraaten
Year Started: 2019
Employees: 1 – 10
Welcome to An Agency Story, where marketing agency owners share their inspiring journeys of growth, grit, and innovation. Hosted by Russel Dubree, this podcast brings real-world lessons and engaging discussions to help agency leaders craft their own success stories. This week’s episode, Devotion, features Luke Eggebraaten of Phaser Marketing, whose passion and creativity have revolutionized marketing for the excavation industry—lovingly dubbed the “Dirt World.”
From flipping go-karts in college to building a thriving niche agency, Luke’s journey is a masterclass in entrepreneurship, tenacity, and the power of slow, deliberate growth. He candidly shares his method of “bringing the boat to the dock”—minimizing risk while transitioning to full-time agency ownership. Listeners will learn how Luke embraced delayed gratification, avoided desperation-based selling, and found success by committing to a highly specific niche. His decision to exclusively serve excavation clients has allowed Phaser Marketing to scale sustainably while delivering immense value to an underserved industry.
Highlights of this episode include Luke’s humorous recounting of flying to a conference two weeks early (and salvaging the day with ice cream), the launch of The Dirt Bags Podcast, and how Phaser Marketing has become a cultural and professional hub for its team. Luke’s heartwarming fundraiser story—a black-tie gala supporting his hometown’s Boys & Girls Club—epitomizes his philosophy of giving back and making a lasting impact.
Listeners will leave inspired by Luke’s unwavering commitment to purpose-driven entrepreneurship, his team’s remarkable culture, and his ambitious goals, including raising $100,000 for charity and growing Phaser Marketing into a $5M business.
Tune in to hear why Luke believes success is a mix of being “born and made” as an entrepreneur—and why he’ll never stop refining his craft. This episode will leave you contemplating how your own business can create value, foster community, and make the world a better place.
You can listen to this episode of An Agency Story on your favorite podcast app:
Listen to other episodes like this one…
- Embrace – Coconspirator with guest Shane Needham
- Transition – Tagline Media with guest Jonathan Shepley
- Gain – ATX The Brand with guest Daniel Griggs
Show Transcript
Welcome to An Agency Story podcast where we share real stories of marketing agency owners from around the world. From the excitement of starting up the first big sale, passion, doubt, fear, freedom, and the emotional rollercoaster of growth, hear it all on An Agency Story podcast. An Agency Story podcast is hosted by Russel Dubree, successful agency owner with an eight figure exit turned business coach. Enjoy the next agency story.
Russel:
Welcome to An Agency Story podcast, I’m your host Russel. In this episode, we meet Luke Eggebraaten a Phaser Marketing based near Phoenix, Arizona. A longtime entrepreneur here’s journey from Craigslist flipper to niche agency leader, as a testament to passion and persistence. Discover how he carved out success in the dirt world, built an inspiring team culture, and turned his agency into a platform for giving back with humor, heart, and sharp business insights. Luke shows how purpose driven leadership can make a lasting impact. This episode is truly a testament to the power of a niche. Don’t miss a second of this inspiring conversation. Enjoy the story. Welcome to the show today, everyone. I have Luke Eggebraaten with Phaser Marketing with us here today. Thank you so much for joining us today, Luke.
Luke:
Russel, thank you so much for having me on the show and you absolutely nailed the last name. Good work.
Russel:
I practiced no less than 100 times to get that right. I appreciate it. Can’t wait to learn more about you and your story and everything else, but if you don’t mind, just start us off right out of the gate, what does Phaser Marketing do and who do you do it for?
Luke:
It’s a digital marketing agency and we focus on the Dirt World, we call it. Our niche is excavation clients and we kind of break that up into three different divisions. We’ve got our heavy mass excavation clients. We’ve got our hardscaping kind of outdoor living clients and then our septic clients as well. Those all go under the, the Dirt World clients that we serve.
Russel:
The Dirt World. I have no less than 100 questions about the Dirt World that we will certainly get to, um, sounds fascinating. Before we get into all the amazing things you’ve created within your agency, you don’t have to go back too far, but tell us, what did young Luke want to be when he grew up?
Luke:
I’ll go back to kindergarten. I wanted to be an astronaut, but then you fast forward to high school and college. I wanted to be a general manager of the Minnesota Vikings. Went to college, got a degree in sport management with a minor in marketing. Did some work and did some internships with college programs with minor league baseball teams. I suppose this is a good piece of advice for anyone looking for a job is it, you’re not always looking for what you do want to do, but looking for what you don’t want to do. Fortunately, I just found out that I’m a much bigger sports fan than wanting to work in sports. That showed me that, okay, maybe I’ll pivot and do something else. After sports, I had a love for marketing and business and and that’s how we got here today.
Russel:
I feel you. I ended up choosing my major for not great reasons, but other than a passion of history, I love history and then chose that as a major, but to the same extent, I don’t know that I even anticipated a career in history. Should have left that in the passion space. The Minnesota Vikings could have used you, but guess the Dirt World won that one. As you got out of college, what did you always know you were going to end up being an entrepreneur?
Luke:
When I got out of college, I would say yes. But I knew I needed a job first. To give you some context, in college, I loved to flip things on Craigslist. I’d buy a go-kart, a dune buggy, a dirt bike, whatever it was, and then I would sell it for more money. I was always hunting for deals. I was filling up our college garage with all these fun toys arcade machines, beer vending machines, like, everything you could think of, and then I would just flip them. Sometimes I’d have things for one day. Sometimes I’d have things for two weeks, but I loved the idea of being able to buy something and then sell it for more money and then having that profit. In college, that profit really just went to, like, beer money and nonsense, but coming out of college, I had that drive to be an entrepreneur, but like I just mentioned, I knew I needed a job so I could hone in on some of those skills. I was applying for jobs actually I applied to over 75 jobs all across the country and could not nail anything down. This was in 2018 and the job market was on fire. It was hot, like very, very good job market. For some reason, I couldn’t figure it out. I, you know, I thought I had a good head on my shoulders. I was willing to work hard for whoever gave me a chance. On the 76th interview finally, I got a chance at an orthodontic practice in Omaha, Nebraska. I moved down to Nebraska. My wife had gone to school in Lincoln. That, uh, helped as well. Just a chance to do digital marketing for an orthodontic practice, but then also learn a whole new industry. That’s really where I got these fundamental skills that I’ve learned in the workplace that I could then bring to the business.
Russel:
That’s awesome. Craigslist day trader and turned entrepreneur. Love it. How does that all lead up to actually starting your agency?
Luke:
I think having that, the flipping knowledge and then starting my full time job, part of my job was to manage this marketing agency that my doctor had hired. This California agency. I was like, okay, yeah so I’m the liaison for this agency. I tell you what, I was amazed. I was like, these people were cool to talk to, funny. I felt like I had a personal relationship with them. We were paying them a ton of money, but they were making us look awesome and making me look like a hero because of their results they were getting from our SEO, from our paid ads and everything. I remember thinking in 2019, this would have been, I need to do something like this. These people are so cool. Anytime we would host them at our office, we’re just like, oh, like, New V olumes coming, we’re so excited. I was thinking, I’m like, we paid them 12 grand or whatever to come and hang out. We’re excited to see them. What an amazing business. In 2019, in October, I officially got my LLC papers signed. October 24th, Phaser Marketing, my own marketing agency was born, and then I knew from that day, I couldn’t just dive into it full time with no revenue, with no profit not paying myself. I made myself a goal that I will take my first paycheck, when I can go full time from Phaser. The goal is to build this thing up on the side as a side hustle, learn the ins and outs of how to deliver for clients, how to build a team, how to invoice customers. All of these things I had no idea how to do learn that on the company’s dollar without paying myself. Did that from 2019 until August 1st, 2021. That was the first day that I left my full time job and then went full time in the business.
Russel:
Just to make sure I’m hearing that, basically building a bankroll and bankroll and skills and experience, but also just a bankroll to be able to make that leap financially. I really like that approach.
Luke:
Yeah. I use the analogy, uh, of, how some people say jumping off the dock into the boat. It’s just this big, scary leap in entrepreneurship. My goal was to pull the boat right next to the dock so that I could just take a step off into it. Because I’d already had two years under my belt and we had, I think when I went full time, we had like 7, 000 dollars in the business bank account. Not nothing. Enough to be like, okay, yep. I can pay myself now a thousand bucks a month. We have a few clients that are recurring clients. It made that big, scary leap a lot easier, and we never had any debt on the company. From day one, we were profitable and making sure that we stay that way.
Russel:
That’s really how you could probably assess anything that you might be uncertain of or just risk management in general. How do we bring the boat closer to our dock versus swimming out into treacherous waters and the unknown waters in the dark and all the things, the places you could take that analogy. I imagine there’s just a lot of excitement, one moving into this thing that you created and able to make that full time, but what were some of the bigger challenges that you faced in the early days?
Luke:
The one part that I left out is, so my wife got a full time job. That’s why I left my job and we moved down to Arizona, which I’d never even been to the state when we moved. Very exciting though. I was just excited to get to the heat. I’m originally from Minnesota. Really just excited for that change, but so many challenges. I could list off a bunch, but I looked at them as just opportunities for growth. I would say definitely at the beginning, it’s being okay with growing very slowly. You’re not going to have this flood of clients bursting down your door. We had probably five to eight clients for years. Some people think we just got to this point instantly, but it’s really just continually, consistently putting out your best foot forward, continually posting on social media, using your free avenues, your free marketplaces, Facebook, sending handwritten notes to anyone that even talks positively about your business and really trying to build that up from there. I’d say that was the biggest challenge, but at the same time too, the biggest opportunity. The best way I can describe it as just delayed gratification of, as an entrepreneur, you want to go, go, go. You want new businesses, but can you put your gratification? Can you delay that? If you can, I think that’s probably one of the best skill sets an entrepreneur can have, because then they can see their business through. They can let the idea develop and become fully grown and then reap the rewards from it, similar to your agency, it just doesn’t happen overnight. There are so many years you have to put in the long nights and build it up, but that’s also the rewarding part of why we do this thing.
Russel:
I think it speaks to, I again, a good approach and probably one, depending on how folks get started in their agency determines of how much they have to hit the ground running. Some folks need income replacement very quickly for how they started, but a lot of times that does run some folks into trouble where it’s almost like you didn’t really strategically build your product or service and you’re just selling a skill, but that ultimately becomes hard to scale. Just leads you down a lot of troublesome paths a lot of times. For folks out there, the old, I think it’s the Navy SEALs saying, slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. I do think that applies to entrepreneurship as well.
Luke:
A good way to check yourself too on that is, uh, if you’re selling out of desperation. I think anyone out there can smell when somebody is just selling because they’re desperate and they need the sale. That is one of the biggest turnoffs for anyone, for any client, if they can tell that you just need this to pay your bills. That is probably one of the hardest challenges is when you’re trying to start and build your business. You’re not trying to sell out of desperation, but at the same time too, you do need the money coming in. I just wanted to throw that in there because I think once you break through that, it’s a lot easier to just find the right clients, be very picky and choosy with your clients, but those first five to 10 clients, it can be very hard to not be desperate for those.
Russel:
There’s a movie quote and I don’t know what movie it is, but it just popped in my head. Desperation is a stinky cologne or smelly cologne. If someone’s listening out there, let me know what movie that is cause it’s not coming to my brain. I know you went through some struggles in the early days and then didn’t. How did you go from this few set of clients to where you are now? What was the big shift?
Luke:
I’d say the big shift late 2021, I joined a mastermind group called the Seven Figure Agency with Josh Nelson and they took what I was doing and went so much more specific. They said, you know, they asked, Luke, what clients do you serve? I said, uh, blue collar. I serve the blue collar industry and they said, that’s not specific enough. I’m like, okay, I serve the construction industry. They said, roofers, flooring, dirt contractors, sewer, like, who do you serve? They helped me drill down so much further into an industry, which now is the excavation space or the Dirt World. When I did that and I made the full commitment, our team made the full commitment. We said, no matter what, every single day, we’re going to serve the excavation industry. We’re going to come out with value for the industry. Podcast, a book. Our team is going to learn the ins and outs of the keywords we’re looking for, we’re targeting, and we’re going to do this for the long haul. We are all in this for the long haul. That was in 2021. Now, fast forward, we’re in, we’ve been doing that every single day. What really helped us was just turning away any project based work, but then also turning away any clients that wanted to work with us, that weren’t, didn’t, specifically fit our target market. We went from eight clients, probably four of them were in excavation to now 59 clients today, and every single one of them is in the, is in our space. It’s really helped us expand and grow, and then also become experts in what we do and what we say we’re going to do.
Russel:
It sounded like a very fascinating niche. First off, I guess, do you have any competitors in excavation specifically focused marketing?
Luke:
There’s a couple. The nice thing is we’re all really good friends and we collaborate more than anything because there are so few of us. But I have some really great friends and I, collar marketing. They’re up in Canada. We work with them all the time on all of our website builds. They’re the ones paving the way. They actually coined the term Dirt World. I attend their summit every year, the Dirt World summit. Their golf tournament, the Dirt World Open, everything like that. There’s a few others that I’ve become very close with as well. And we probably service 2 percent of the industry, right? It is so ripe for value to be added to these companies. There’s really more of just, like, referrals back and forth of like, hey, for example, BuildWitt, they take on the big dogs. The corporate big companies, anyone doing over a hundred million in revenue. For us, we actually prefer not to work with those guys because we have to work with their board of directors and investors. We fit perfectly in the one to 50 million and more specifically one to 10 million, which, as an excavation company, you can get there with two, three guys on your team and you can get there very quickly.
Russel:
People are going and doing their research right now, as we speak, on all things excavation industry, but really speaks to the idea of coopetition. Underpins the idea of a niche and just how many fish there are in the sea. I think if you went back 10 years ago, at least, I guarantee people would think you’re crazy if you were this friendly with other agencies. Especially within a very specific marketplace. But I love that this is where the industry evolved, this sharing and caring and coopetition place. When you think about this slow, intentional progress had to help you through this process, but it doesn’t sound like you really had a lot of difficulty going all in on this niche. Sometimes it seems like it’s more natural for folks to walk down this path and it’s all about different risk, personal risk assessments, but it seems like you had no issue with it whatsoever.
Luke:
There’s three main things that I looked at when it came to deciding, what is going to be our niche for the next 20 years. The three big things that got me were, to preface this, we were already working with like probably four companies that were in demolition and excavation and in the oil field, but the three things were one, I wanted to be able to add value quickly to the industry. And with excavation, they’re usually so far behind in this that the work we do can have a huge impact on their company and just telling their story and bringing their company to life. A lot of these companies we work with sometimes are third, fourth generation, and they don’t even have a website and they do 5 million in revenue. I’m like, well, let’s tell this story. Let’s get this out there. Being able to make a big impact. Second thing would be the passion for the industry. I started to learn more and more about the men and women that build America. When you turn the faucet on and the water comes out, most of us don’t think how that happens. If the water didn’t come out, we would have no idea what to do. When you flush the toilet and everything goes away nice and clean, we don’t think about where that goes or who services those, the roads, the road work, the road construction. Most people get pissed off about road construction, where they’re not thinking about the people that are paving these roads and making this happen. I think just the passion that I started to develop for the men and women that make up the industry. I just thought, like, absolutely. I can get behind that. My team can get behind that. Let’s do this thing. And then the third thing, which I think is often overlooked, is the industry is not afraid to cut a check. They’re used to big expenses. They’re used to big equipment, money flowing in, money flowing out. That was a big thing I had to look at because, with all due respect to some smaller companies or like a bakery, for example, you have to sell a ton of baked goods to make up, a 1, 900 a month marketing charge. I had to open my mind to we need an industry we can grow within, be able to charge what the value is and have them just have it be a no brainer. That was the third big thing, is they’re not afraid to cut a check either, if there’s value.
Russel:
Definitely sounds like I’m picturing this Venn diagram there of opportunity, passion and skill slash value. If you can find the intersection of that, you’ve probably got a pretty good winning combination as it sounds like it’s worked out for you. You mentioned earlier, just a few of the things that going down this path allowed you to do in terms of book and some speaking, I guess dive deeper into those specific strategies that you’ve been able to implement and leverage as a result of your positioning.
Luke:
Probably one of our biggest things that we’ve done is, uh, our podcast. It’s called the Dirt Bags Podcast. It’s exactly what it sounds like. It’s myself and another Luke who owns two excavation companies. We’re both co hosts on it together. We usually have a couple of glasses of bourbon as we talk on there. It’s completely unfiltered. Any of our guests can say whatever they want, however they want. It is one of my favorite things that we do but we have Dirt Bags that listen all across the world. I think it’s listened to in 25 countries now, in all 50 States. It’s been amazing to connect the Dirt Bags that are going through the same shit that we’re all going through, but then also going through the same triumphs as well, and like, they, they feel that connection. Luke and I have been able to work on building that platform and we started that in February, 2022. By the time this podcast comes out, we’ll have just crossed our hundred thousand download mark, which has been so much fun to do. From that podcast, we’ve been able to spur out some other values. We have our webinar series, which is Dirt Bags University. That’s more of, like, a nitty gritty. We bring on a speaker, it’s all on Zoom and, and we do a paid class and people pay to be there and they can, jump in from anywhere in the world. We have the Dirt Bag University and then, um, I did write a book in March of 2023, that’s when it was published. It’s called The Digital Dirt World. That was meant to be more tangible, somebody that maybe can’t work with us, but wants to learn more about digital marketing specifically for excavation. There weren’t many books out there on it, and so it was a fun book to write. That is up on Amazon. People can still buy it. I put a free copy and any every single welcome box we send out, just so everyone can have their hands on that. Then just the speaking opportunities has been a big push for us. The last couple of years I’ve had the incredible honor to speak at some of the biggest construction trade shows, in the world. The biggest one was ConExpo. It’s in Las Vegas and I spoke there in 2023, got to speak on digital marketing for construction companies. The show itself brings in over 150, 000 people and then each educational breakout session had about 200 to 300 people that attended. That really gave me the bug and the itch to, like, okay, there’s so much more we can do with this speaking professionally. Hit it hard in 2023, I spoke at, I think nine different association trade shows, and then 2024, about the same, seven to nine trade shows. Then in 2025, we’ll be doing the same thing. Just continuing to evolve my presentation so that we hit on digital marketing for the industry. Also utilizing AI, for your SEO. Excited for that one. Then a big one too, that I’m going to be presenting on next year is just retention and retaining your employees. I’m really trying to hone in my presentation on issues that the industry is seeing and then how, from my perspective, my point of view, we can help solve them..
Russel:
You’re hitting on all the perfect elements of why a niche can be such a great and valuable, thing for everyone involved. You created this ladder of value, right? You’re providing value to your industry at levels that might even not make sense from a client perspective, but that they can be in your community, your circle your ecosystem, if you will. You’re going to continue to expand upon ways to enhance that and even provide more value, which is amazing. I’m curious, are there any strategies you tried that didn’t work out or hadn’t come out as quite as successful as the ones you just shared?
Luke:
There’s so many. I would say on the podcast front for a short time there, we tried weekly podcasts, which, my gosh, I have mad respect for you and for anyone that can crank out weekly podcasts and especially with a co-host. That was extremely difficult. We had to tailor that back to one every two weeks and even that can sometimes be a stretch. That was tough. Our first Facebook group so this is kind of part of that ladder of value. Our first Facebook group, I think we just did it the wrong way. We were shoving marketing info down people’s throats and nobody wanted that. We totally reimagined that probably a year ago, did it more of just like podcast clips and more overarching business. Not everyone, believe it or not, thinks and cares as much about marketing as we all do. How can we sprinkle in five or 10 percent marketing content, but also hit on contracts, insurance, hiring retention? How do you pay yourself as an owner? Talk about topics that you know, relate to them as an entrepreneur a little bit more instead of just Google analytics, Google search console, Google this, Google that. That was definitely a big failure that we then learned from, repatched and put it together. And even changing the name of the group, it’s now just called the Dirt Bags, so people are excited to be in there to talk with each other, to see these podcast clips. I think that kind of goes into my, one of my original points of selling out of desperation and not, like, looking like we need the sale or this is all we do. That has also helped as I’ve grown in our company and have people that can handle a lot of the marketing stuff where now I get to handle more of the high level business stuff and get to talk to our clients more about business instead of all about marketing. I think I’ve also grown as our company has grown in that realm.
Russel:
Probably more so than you can ever even imagine. Less, it can be more, especially, more, less frequent, compelling content can certainly be valuable. And then, yes, we can’t do this idea of navel gazing when it comes to marketing. Sometimes we even have to mask, I think the work or the mountain involved to be even successful in marketing. We’ve just got to entertain, or to your point, speak to more nuanced, very, in front of their face issues that they’re experiencing. Some great takeaways there. Thank you for sharing some of your, I won’t call them failures. Your learning opportunities.
Luke:
Yeah. There’s a lot of those.
Russel:
We all have to pay our tuition to the school of hard knocks. You’ve clearly found a number of ways to solve what is a clear obstacle for agency growth, the sales fronts and the ability to generate and manufacture your own clients and sales opportunities. What are you most focused on now that you’ve gotten past that hurdle?
Luke:
Oh man. Great question. I’d love to touch on this because I think it’s been pivotal in our business. March of 2024, our business structure was mainly white label. I knew, to get to where we wanted to go, we had to focus on selling and delivering, and white label’s our best way to get there. Our white label partners were amazing, absolutely loved them. When we hit our seven figure mark, then I knew I wanted to build an internal team. We hit that in March of this year. At that time we had one full time employee, plus myself, then the white labels, and then a bunch of consistent subcontractors. Now today, it’s August of 2024, we now have seven full time employees and one white label that we use. It’s been a total shift of bringing everything in-house, which I knew was going to be difficult and I didn’t realize how rewarding it would be. It is one of my favorite things now, seeing, like our team, wearing all their Phaser gear, showing up to every meeting, eight to five Monday through Friday, like, this is their career and helping them trying to accomplish some of their personal goals and some of their personal dreams, financial dreams. Couple of our employees want to buy a house and so it’s like, okay, let’s, let’s talk about this. Realistically, how long is this going to take? How can we help you get there? It doesn’t mean I can write them a big check or give them a raise right out of the gate. But if we have time, we can make, we can set goals and get there. That has been my biggest chapter, currently, is building a team and we are ready again to scale and we’re excited to get to that 2 million mark would be our next mark and we do everything off of monthly recurring revenue. This would be, about 167 I believe it is monthly recurring. Having everyone on the same page is so much fun. We are ready to go. We’re ready to roll. The team part of it is way more exciting than I had ever imagined. It’s been very fun.
Russel:
What was the one thing you didn’t expect that you had to maybe focus on yourself from a professional development or overcome in this new phase that you’re talking about?
Luke:
One of the things that comes to mind, it doesn’t fully answer the question, but one of the biggest surprises was how amazed people were at, like, our culture and our team and everything. Cause I think we’ve built something very, very special without even realizing it. We’re just like, yeah, what did your other job not do that? It’s 4:59 PM. Can I leave? It’s like, I don’t care, do whatever you want. It just amazes me, I think, how high of a standard we have maybe of, like, how excited people are to work with us. I think that’s just what we’ve set from the beginning. But another thing that I’ve learned from myself is just, you absolutely have to let go of the vine. If you’re going to be able to grow and manage the team and manage the business, because I am doing no good to anyone. If I’m the one putting out all the fires, if I’m the one building the websites, if I’m the one building the ad sets, we need to develop our team and our people. To learn how to do it, to build the systems, to, for me to empower them to make decisions, even tough decisions. One of our core values is taking ownership. If something goes astray, if something goes wrong, being able to take ownership for that and say like, that was on me, I should have caught that. That I think has been one of the biggest things I’ve learned is just, it’s okay to take multiple steps backwards out of the business so that you can continue having your head above water, seeing where you’re going next, because winners want to work with winners. If your business isn’t growing or doesn’t have that next thing it’s going towards, it’s probably not an exciting place to work. We have some big goals that we want to hit and we need to do it together. If my head is below water and nobody’s focusing on those goals then we’re not going to go and accomplish those.
Russel:
What a great way to, in that thought process, your agency eventually only becomes as good as you can move collectively or together, and you really want to avoid this 80/20 situation where 20 percent of the team is creating 80 percent of the output or value. Something else that I think you’ve hit on a couple of different ways is this idea, I think, especially once a business gets past survival mode, how important it is to lead with purpose, mission, and values in the business. It sounds like you’ve got those elements baked in, but just speak to that idea of how that’s, yeah, how that exists in your business.
Luke:
I’ll give a really amazing example as well that, it just sometimes leaves me speechless, but, so we focus on a lot of other things rather than just digital marketing for excavation. We have a mission. We have a direction we’re trying to go as a company an impact or trying to leave for our community and also the industry. One of the biggest things that I get most excited about is our Phaser fundraiser. It’s for my hometown in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. It’s a small town of about 9, 000 people. I started it when the business was still a side hustle in 2020. I wanted to start something where I can make a financial impact without being rich and famous. I think everyone thinks like, okay, when I’ve made it, then I can start a fundraiser. I can start giving or something like that. I knew that I couldn’t write a big check. I had to get creative and use some of my other skill sets, and I think one of my other skill sets is bringing people together for a common cause. That first year, 2020, I called up the Boys Girls Club in Detroit Lakes and said, hey, if I try and raise money for you guys can I do that? Is that legal or how does this work? And they said, absolutely, Luke. We’ll definitely take it. I said, all right. The next week I said, we have 10 days to raise as much money as possible. Our goal is 5,000 dollars, and we raised 6,000 dollars. It wasn’t from me, but it’s from everyone that collectively donated. That just got me fired up. I’m like, okay. We’re going to keep this thing going. Then we had our Phaser fundraiser each year after that, which started back in 2022. We had a black tie gala and we raised 20,000 dollars. Then in 2023, last year we did 30, 000, and then this year we just wrapped up our, 2024 and we raised 40,000 dollars for the Boys Girls Club. But the coolest part of that story is we had 20 sponsors that sponsored our fundraiser this year. 12 of them were our clients in construction. None of them live in Detroit Lakes, have ever been to Detroit Lakes, but how cool is that? That they want to spend their hard earned money for a marketing agency that they’re paying as well for the kids and his community. It just really fired me up to, like, the impact that we can have on one another and the drive that we can have for, just to make that impact. I just thought that was so cool that, like, that many people that are paying clients of ours stepped up and sponsored the fundraiser.
Russel:
I’m not a overly emotionally expressive guy, but I just want you to know just on the inside, I’m jumping up and down in my chair. Just to hear a story like that and how we can make business make the world better. It’s absolutely the reason why I do what I do. It was a big part of my own business. Sometimes it can be hard to express to folks that, you know, so easy sometimes, especially if things are tight, to want to focus on the dollars. But once you’re just really outside of survival mode, you’ve got to have these elements and you’ve got to lead with purpose and you’ve got to lead with, vision and values for something better because money in itself just doesn’t get people out of the bed. Doesn’t get people excited. It doesn’t give something to rally around. I’m so excited for you and can’t wait to see what that continues to look like within your business. I would want to keep going for hours and hours in here and talk about all these wonderful things you’re doing. But I’ll leave it to myself to ask a couple more questions. I’m really just curious, what is the big plan for the future? Your BHAG or whatever that looks like? What are the goals for Phaser Marketing?
Luke:
Our BHAG was our five year goal. We said it two years ago, so it’s now our three year goal, but it kind of relates into that fundraiser and scaling our business. In 2027, I want to be able to write a hundred thousand dollar check to an organization, probably the Boys Girls Club. To do that, you need to have quite a bit of net profit. I wanted to have that as the focus goal, but then when I zoom out, what does our business need to be doing for us to feel comfortable doing that? I would love to be at approximately five million dollars in revenue in 2027 and just have a rockstar team that we spend time with a couple of times a year, we travel with. And building careers from a company that I had started as just an idea with my wife and a pipe dream. I just think that would be so rewarding. It’s certainly a BHAG, but it’s nothing that we can’t accomplish if we,, like really focus on it and work together and build that.
Russel:
If there is a casino table in front of me right now and I get to put a bet on this table if that goal is going to happen, I am putting a large sum of money on this casino bet for you, Luke. I have no doubt.
Luke:
I love gambling too, so I like that.
Russel:
Same. I can’t wait to see that happen. When we get done here, we’ll book a spot for your 2027 return to the podcast as to share that you’ve actually gotten there.
Luke:
Let’s go.
Russel:
I guess, then, I’ll just leave with the last question I ask folks is are entrepreneurs born or are they made?
Luke:
Love this. I would say that, and I don’t know if this is allowed, but it’s a little bit of both. I think deep down, true entrepreneurs have it, but I think you can mold yourself into being a true entrepreneur. What I mean by that is I think deep down, like when I think about myself in college, I had it in my bones but I had no guidance. I had no idea what entrepreneurship meant, what it could look like. I didn’t have many mentors at that time. Then you can kind of mold yourself and make it into that if you have that deep down in your bones, that commitment of like, I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make this work. That would be my answer. It’s a little bit of both, but at the same time most of it is made and it’s the continual work, that continual drive, like, getting up every day and being excited for that cup of coffee, getting to work for yourself and being unemployable. I think it’s one of the greatest things ever where I’m probably never going to get a job ever again, because it would be very hard for me to go back to that. Being employed is great for so many people and I think that’s where it goes back to the boring part of like, I just don’t think I could ever go back to that. I love that question. It’s something I’ll probably wrestle with for a long time, but I think it’s a little bit of both.
Russel:
Wonderful answer. I love the tagline there of just, make yourself unemployable. There’s so many connotations and contexts you could apply to that, that, that makes sense. If people want to know more about Phaser Marketing, where can they go?
Luke:
Probably one of my favorites is all of our social media accounts, either personal, Luke Eggebraaten, or our business accounts. I run both of them and always will. Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. LinkedIn is probably my favorite by far. If you connect with myself on there or our business, uh, you can shoot me a message and it will be me responding. I would love to, love to hear from you, especially anyone that listened to this episode and got this far, kudos to you. Cause this was, I had a blast Russell and, uh, I appreciate it so much.
Russel:
I appreciate you throwing out that opportunity. Definitely take advantage of that folks. The pleasure has been all mine, Luke. What an amazing journey you’ve been on in what is a relatively short run in all things, all respects of the agency world. Love to see what you’ve accomplished so far and can’t wait to see what the future looks like for you. Really appreciate you taking the time to share that with us today.
Luke:
Thank you so much, Russel. Can’t tell you how much I appreciate it and excited for the episode in 2027.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of An Agency Story podcast where we share real stories of marketing agency owners from around the world. Are you interested in being a guest on the show? Send an email to podcast@performancefaction.com. An Agency Story is brought to you by Performance Faction. Performance Faction offers services to help agency owners grow their business to 5 million dollars and more in revenue. To learn more, visit performancefaction.com.
Luke:
In 2022, so I mentioned I started a seven figure agency and they have this mastermind in Miami every year. I’m like so excited to always be there, meet up with, like, my new friends and business owners. To give you context, I live in Phoenix, Arizona, and I also fly very cheap, so I’ll take the cheapest frontier flight. Usually when I go to Miami, I’ll fly to, like, Las Vegas, and then to Miami, or I’ll fly to like Detroit or Toronto, and then I’ll fly down to Miami. Routes that make no sense, but it saves me a hundred bucks. My total flight time to get from Phoenix to Miami for this intensive was like 16 hours. I’m like, no big deal. I’m so excited. I pull up in Miami, humid as all hell, like, in July. Get off the airplane at 8 a.m. I’ve been flying all day and all night. I text my buddy who I’m getting a hotel with. I’m like, hey man, what time are you getting in? Today was Monday and he said, it was, uh, he’s like, oh, I get in on Monday at 11 a.m. I was like, that’s a weird way to say it cause like today’s Monday. All of a sudden, like my heart dropped and I’m standing in the, like, taxi line in Miami sweating, cause I’m wearing my suit and I’m like, there’s no way. All of a sudden I’m scrambling. I like call one of my other buddies. I’m like, what time are you getting into my, to the intensive? He’s like, dude, that’s in two weeks. So I flew all the way across the country, two weeks early for this conference, and I’m standing there in my suit coat, it was one of those situations and stories that was so ridiculous. I just had to laugh. I’m like, of course I would do this. How could I not double check the dates? I got then the taxi cab to my hotel. I started walking back to the airport and I stopped and got a Dairy Queen ice cream cone, cause I’m like, can’t get any worse so might as well get ice cream. Made the most out of that trip, got the next flight out and took another 18 hour red-eye flight home that same day, just because I was like, well, I might as well go home to see my wife and try and explain why I was gone for one day. I guess the moral of that story is. It’s never as bad as you think it is, just to take every situation lightly and like, have fun with it. Cause people are in way worse situations. I got to fly across the country. I was in Miami, Florida. It’s really not a big deal. I’m self employed, so I’m not missing anything. The second thing is, is double check your dates anytime you’re flying. Make sure that you’re going, uh, but that story and I still get crap from the whole group from that all the time. That one will live on.
Russel:
That is an epic one and very, very warranted, you got flack. Every now and then I’ll freak out for like a half a second that I did just book a wrong date for a flight. I’m sure you have that OCD at this point going forward way more than anybody else, but that’s an amazing story.
Luke:
Oh yeah. I double and triple check, and even then it’s just like the worst thing that’s going to happen is you just grab the next flight. What a country that we live in where you can just grab the next flight and it’s a couple hundred bucks and it’s really never a big deal.
