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Jun 14, 2016 · 18m · top-founders

He's 27 and is actually making money as a social media consultant, EP 287: Kim Barrett

Nathan Latka · 9m spoken Kim Barrett · 6m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

Nathan Latka interviews Kim Barrett, founder of Your Social Voice, exploring how he built a successful social media and lead generation agency generating six-figure monthly revenues. Barrett shares his tiered service pricing, sales commission structures, client retention tactics, and internal operations powered by Podio.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 55.6% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.0 Guest teaching 1.0 Guest disagreement 0.8 Nathan pushing back 4.3
05100:0010:002:27–5:48 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Agency Business Model and Service Tiers Nathan invokes his background founding software company Heyo to express skepticism about social media consultants who claim high revenues while being broke on the back end. He presses Kim to provide concrete figures on actual cash collected versus invoiced revenue.5:49–10:26 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Client Retention and Recurring Revenue Challenges Nathan challenges Kim's claim of having recurring revenue, calculating that an 80% monthly retention rate means losing 20% of clients every month. He contrasts agency churn with SaaS metrics from past guests to argue agencies rely strictly on aggressive sales rather than true compounding revenue.10:27–14:52 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Co-Authored Book and Authority Marketing Strategy Nathan inspects Kim's claim of being a bestselling author, quickly determining that it was an un-royaltied, self-published anthology with nine other contributors. Nathan bluntly reframes the book as functioning more like a blog post than a genuine commercial asset.14:53–17:07 · Nathan as informed peer 2/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan conducts the standard Famous Five rapid-fire segment. Kim answers cleanly and Nathan wraps up the show recapping Kim's company milestones.2:27–5:48 · Guest teaching 1/10 Agency Business Model and Service Tiers Nathan invokes his background founding software company Heyo to express skepticism about social media consultants who claim high revenues while being broke on the back end. He presses Kim to provide concrete figures on actual cash collected versus invoiced revenue.5:49–10:26 · Guest teaching 1/10 Client Retention and Recurring Revenue Challenges Nathan challenges Kim's claim of having recurring revenue, calculating that an 80% monthly retention rate means losing 20% of clients every month. He contrasts agency churn with SaaS metrics from past guests to argue agencies rely strictly on aggressive sales rather than true compounding revenue.10:27–14:52 · Guest teaching 1/10 Co-Authored Book and Authority Marketing Strategy Nathan inspects Kim's claim of being a bestselling author, quickly determining that it was an un-royaltied, self-published anthology with nine other contributors. Nathan bluntly reframes the book as functioning more like a blog post than a genuine commercial asset.14:53–17:07 · Guest teaching 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan conducts the standard Famous Five rapid-fire segment. Kim answers cleanly and Nathan wraps up the show recapping Kim's company milestones.2:27–5:48 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Agency Business Model and Service Tiers Nathan invokes his background founding software company Heyo to express skepticism about social media consultants who claim high revenues while being broke on the back end. He presses Kim to provide concrete figures on actual cash collected versus invoiced revenue.5:49–10:26 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Client Retention and Recurring Revenue Challenges Nathan challenges Kim's claim of having recurring revenue, calculating that an 80% monthly retention rate means losing 20% of clients every month. He contrasts agency churn with SaaS metrics from past guests to argue agencies rely strictly on aggressive sales rather than true compounding revenue.10:27–14:52 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Co-Authored Book and Authority Marketing Strategy Nathan inspects Kim's claim of being a bestselling author, quickly determining that it was an un-royaltied, self-published anthology with nine other contributors. Nathan bluntly reframes the book as functioning more like a blog post than a genuine commercial asset.14:53–17:07 · Guest disagreement 0/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan conducts the standard Famous Five rapid-fire segment. Kim answers cleanly and Nathan wraps up the show recapping Kim's company milestones.2:27–5:48 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Agency Business Model and Service Tiers Nathan invokes his background founding software company Heyo to express skepticism about social media consultants who claim high revenues while being broke on the back end. He presses Kim to provide concrete figures on actual cash collected versus invoiced revenue.5:49–10:26 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Client Retention and Recurring Revenue Challenges Nathan challenges Kim's claim of having recurring revenue, calculating that an 80% monthly retention rate means losing 20% of clients every month. He contrasts agency churn with SaaS metrics from past guests to argue agencies rely strictly on aggressive sales rather than true compounding revenue.10:27–14:52 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Co-Authored Book and Authority Marketing Strategy Nathan inspects Kim's claim of being a bestselling author, quickly determining that it was an un-royaltied, self-published anthology with nine other contributors. Nathan bluntly reframes the book as functioning more like a blog post than a genuine commercial asset.14:53–17:07 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Nathan conducts the standard Famous Five rapid-fire segment. Kim answers cleanly and Nathan wraps up the show recapping Kim's company milestones.

speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Nathan 91.2% · guest 8.8%0:00 · Nathan 91.2% · guest 8.8%3:00 · Nathan 29.9% · guest 70.1%3:00 · Nathan 29.9% · guest 70.1%6:00 · Nathan 43% · guest 57%6:00 · Nathan 43% · guest 57%9:00 · Nathan 10.5% · guest 89.5%9:00 · Nathan 10.5% · guest 89.5%12:00 · Nathan 89.4% · guest 10.6%12:00 · Nathan 89.4% · guest 10.6%15:00 · Nathan 67.6% · guest 32.4%15:00 · Nathan 67.6% · guest 32.4%18:00 · Nathan 100% · guest 0%18:00 · Nathan 100% · guest 0%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 5:59 Kim defends month-to-month contracts over lock-in agreements

In a very mild exchange, Kim pushes back against the premise that clients will leave by arguing performance guarantees and avoiding lock-in contracts create better long-term loyalty.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 12:09 Nathan punctures the bestseller narrative

Nathan cuts through the 'international bestselling author' framing by pointing out that an un-royaltied multi-author self-published work is essentially equivalent to a blog post.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 9:33 Kim outlines his tiered sales commission and base pay structure

Kim provides detailed operational insight into how he structures recurring 15% commissions and performance-scaled base retainers to motivate his sales team.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 8:14 Nathan lectures on agency churn vs. SaaS retention economics

Nathan cites data from past SaaS guests like Cirrus Insight to demonstrate why high agency churn prevents true monthly recurring revenue compounding.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Agency Business Model and Service Tiers 5114 Nathan invokes his background founding software company Heyo to express skepticism about social media consultants who claim high revenues while being broke on the back end. He presses Kim to provide concrete figures on actual cash collected versus invoiced revenue.
Client Retention and Recurring Revenue Challenges 7116 Nathan challenges Kim's claim of having recurring revenue, calculating that an 80% monthly retention rate means losing 20% of clients every month. He contrasts agency churn with SaaS metrics from past guests to argue agencies rely strictly on aggressive sales rather than true compounding revenue.
Co-Authored Book and Authority Marketing Strategy 6116 Nathan inspects Kim's claim of being a bestselling author, quickly determining that it was an un-royaltied, self-published anthology with nine other contributors. Nathan bluntly reframes the book as functioning more like a blog post than a genuine commercial asset.
The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions 2101 Nathan conducts the standard Famous Five rapid-fire segment. Kim answers cleanly and Nathan wraps up the show recapping Kim's company milestones.

Statements from this episode (8)

Disclosure
Barrett: Agency reached $290k sales and $210k cash by March 2016
“So this year's sales we've done one 90 this month will be, so about 290, and then cash received will be two 10.”
Kim Barrett Jun 14, 2016 ▶ 5:17
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Barrett: Agency aims for $110k in monthly recurring revenue by October 2016
“Our aim is to hit consistently have over it's a 110 is our aim for October, a 110 a month on recurring. So cause that allows us month by month basis. So we're aiming to hit a 110 K recurring by October.”
Kim Barrett Jun 14, 2016 ▶ 5:34
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Barrett: Agency maintains an estimated 80% month-to-month client retention rate
“We have a probably 80% retention rate, but we do get a lot of one off projects where someone will just have like a big event and they just want to fill it and then they don't do anything for a couple of months.”
Kim Barrett Jun 14, 2016 ▶ 6:25
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Barrett: Agency served 25 active clients in March 2016
“This month, including some of our one off clients, we have 25 clients.”
Kim Barrett Jun 14, 2016 ▶ 6:46
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Latka: Cirrus Insight hit $640k monthly MRR with just 1% churn
“Cirrus Insights, which they're now doing they just crossed 640 grand per month in MRR, but their monthly churn rate is actually, it's actually one percent.”
Nathan Latka Jun 14, 2016 ▶ 8:20
Disclosure
Barrett: 99% of agency clients originate from own Facebook lead gen
“99% of our clients come from our own Facebook lead gen, and then we get a few referrals and we're looking to expand into LinkedIn”
Kim Barrett Jun 14, 2016 ▶ 9:10
Insight
Barrett: Study role models two steps ahead rather than five
“Well, kind of like to find someone who's like two steps ahead of you versus someone who's five steps ahead of you, catch up and then move on to the next person”
Kim Barrett Jun 14, 2016 ▶ 15:35
Assertion Supported
Barrett: Gary Vaynerchuk's agency generates about $100 million
“His agency is doing about a hundred million.”
Kim Barrett Jun 14, 2016 ▶ 15:35
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