Founder Stories: Robb Fahrion On Building Flying V Group
In today’s Founder Story, we feature Robb Fahrion, the co-founder of Flying V Group.
Read on for lessons he has learned from launching and marketing his digital marketing agency.
1. Please introduce your business and share your role.
Flying V Group is a digital marketing and advertising agency located in Southern California. I am one of the partners and co-founders of the organization. And I oversee all operational components of the business across our different service offerings.
Flying V Group is unique in that it provides a holistic marketing and advertising strategy that spans:
- Website design and development
- SEO (search engine optimization)
- Pay-per-click advertising
- Social media marketing
- And advanced content creation in the form of blog writing and/or graphic design
Our firm prides itself on providing a white-glove, concierge level of marketing service that focuses on the highest potential return on investment for our clients. At Flying V Group, the status quo is not enough; going above and beyond to drive exponential returns for our clients is what makes us successful.
2. What’s your backstory, what kind of challenges did you face, and how did you come up with your business idea?
Flying V Group was not a master-planned business by any means. We really just stumbled upon the idea of servicing those in the professional services space which includes legal, accounting, real estate, healthcare, and other more antiquated industries.
I came up with the business idea when I was approached by a mentor of mine who owned his own legal practice. He came to me in a panic because his website was hacked, his emails were blacklisted, and he wasn’t sure what to do.
We were able to help get him back up on his feet. And that’s when the light bulb moment came to me. I realized that many others similar to him who had successful businesses needed tons of digital marketing and advertising support to run their businesses. Most of these businesses are really good at what they do. But, they are not good at generating new business online. This is the gap we aimed to close.
Most in the professional services space rely primarily on word of mouth, referrals, or just slow organic growth for their business. There is absolutely nothing wrong with these methods, but our goal is to supplement these methods and increase the velocity of business and revenue growth.
3. How did you prepare for, and go about your launch?
We really did not prepare a formal launch at all. We started off with building out our website and spent a ton of time and effort to make sure that we had a professional online image. From there we reached out to friends and family and others that were close to us that may be able to provide referrals to local businesses.
The company was bootstrapped from the beginning. So we needed to make sure that we were extremely frugal with our budget.
One area of emphasis from a marketing standpoint that we focused on was content creation and SEO. We were confident that we could differentiate ourselves with how we do things in written format and that we would be rewarded through search engine optimization efforts.
Still to this day, SEO is the number one lead generator for Flying V Group and we continue to invest heavily in this particular channel compared to paid advertising channels.
4. Since launching, what types of marketing campaigns and designs have worked best to attract and retain customers?
As I mentioned previously, search engine optimization is by far and away the best investment we have made in our business. We have also tried paid advertising channels on Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms, but none of them have generated business like SEO. SEO is a long-term game, but those who understand the reward at the end of the road will reap incredible benefits.
SEO provides compounding return benefits, but not only that, we have found over and over and over again that leads generated through organic search engine optimization efforts tend to be the highest quality leads compared to any other marketing channel. The leads have shorter sales cycles and are often more profitable in terms of average deal size.
5. What have been the most influential brands for your business? Whose branding and marketing do you aspire to and why?
I would not say that there is one particular business that we try to model ourselves after. We always try to take a unique approach to what it is we do in the marketplace. We really learn how to market better through engagements with our own clients.
When we are running campaigns for our clients, a lot of times we are running the same campaigns for ourselves. So, any of the insights that we glean from those efforts with our clients, we then apply them to our own business.
With that being said, one of my favorite companies from a branding and advertising standpoint continues to be a fast-rising store based in San Diego called Vuori. Everything they do is the highest quality and we try to emulate their focus on quality over quantity.
6. What are your favorite marketing platforms/tools?
I have so many marketing platforms and tools that I love to use. Some of my favorites include Ahrefs, Hubspot, Clearscope, and Semrush.
The tech stack above has a strong focus and emphasis on search engine optimization efforts, which again is our bread and butter. Utilizing these tools allows us to uncover insights like which keyword should we target for our blog writing, where do we have backlink opportunities, and how do we compete against competitors.
I’m a big believer in the utilization of technology in order to help you work faster, more efficiently, and more precisely.
7. Who or what inspires and motivates you?
My inspiration comes from the people around me. I am inspired by my employees, my family, and other entrepreneurs around me. These groups are also my motivation. I am motivated to provide a better life for my family and employees and I enjoy leading the charge from the front.
Waking up every morning excites me to see what challenges lie ahead. Being an entrepreneur is the most difficult thing to do in the world, but the rewards make every bit of struggle worth it.
8. What are some lessons you’ve learned along the way that you would share with entrepreneurs hoping to launch or who have just launched?
The number one lesson I’ve learned as an entrepreneur is that you need to embrace failure. Failure is not a matter of if, but a matter of when for entrepreneurs.
It is not the failure that makes or breaks an entrepreneur, it is how the entrepreneur deals with the failure and what they learn from it. If an entrepreneur is able to understand that they are better off because of failure, this will lead them to success. Why are they better off? Because they now know what not to do and are able to learn from their past experiences.
9. What do you believe are the qualities of a good entrepreneur? And what makes a team successful?
The qualities of a good entrepreneur are persistence, diligence, trustworthiness, the ability to lead, fearlessness, and the ability to motivate.
What makes a team successful is when everyone knows and understands their role. You also need to get buy-in from each member of the team and ensure that they know how important they are to the overall goal of the organization. If you can get people to buy into your vision and have an understanding of why you do what you do, you will have one of the strongest teams around.
10. Let us know where we can go to learn more!
I really enjoy meeting and connecting with new people on social media and am open to any and all conversations. I’d love it if you could check out our website at www.flyingvgroup.com or visit the social media pages at the links below. Thank you so much for reading!
- Website:
- Twitter:
- LinkedIn:
- Facebook:
For more entrepreneurial insights from Robb Fahrion, check out his interview below: