From Burnout to Systems: How Justin Day Transformed Everything

Summary

Podcast Summary: Living The Red Life - From Burnout to Systems: How Justin Day Transformed Everything

Host: Rudy Mawer
Guest: Justin Day
Release Date: March 20, 2025
Length: Approximately 14 minutes

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Introduction

In the episode titled "From Burnout to Systems: How Justin Day Transformed Everything," Rudy Mawer, the host of Living The Red Life, welcomes Justin Day, a seasoned entrepreneur who has successfully scaled his agency from a local setup to a worldwide operation generating multiple millions in revenue. Justin shares his journey, strategies for growth, insights on leveraging AI, and personal lessons learned along the way.

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Justin Day’s Journey: From Freelancer to Multi-Million Agency

Justin Day began his entrepreneurial journey as a freelancer, offering graphic design services to friends. His dedication and quality of work led to organic word-of-mouth referrals, enabling him to secure larger deals over time.

Justin Day [00:18]: "It really started out as a freelancer, right. Where I was just doing graphic design for friends. They'd pay me for this and then get word of mouth out and then I started to get bigger and bigger deals."

As his reputation grew, Justin transitioned from a local agency to a system-based, scalable business model over five to six years. This transformation was marked by significant milestones, including landing his first $100k deal, which served as a catalyst for rapid growth.

Justin Day [02:22]: "Yeah, I was like 100k deals like, wow, okay. They just gave me this money. I mean, let's do this."

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Key Strategies for Scaling

Justin attributes his success to three core strategies: building a robust team, personal branding, and continuous offer testing.

a. Team Building

One of the pivotal moments in Justin's journey was the decision to outsource tasks and build a reliable team. Initially, he struggled with managing operations alone but found his first Operations Manager through networking within a community group.

Justin Day [04:10]: "Where I really needed help was finding my first W2, getting my Ops manager in because I didn't want to learn how to do all the ops and develop and I didn't have time."

Utilizing virtual assistants (VAs) also played a crucial role. Justin emphasizes that while VAs might not achieve 100% perfection, they are "80% of the way there" and significantly alleviate the workload.

Justin Day [04:46]: "...VAs are the key for sure in any business, especially in the agency world... done is better than perfect, and a lot of clients will take that."

b. Personal Branding

Justin highlights the importance of building a strong personal brand to stand out in a saturated market. By sharing his journey and personal stories, he created a unique connection with his audience, differentiating his business from others.

Justin Day [06:03]: "Standing out, putting your story out there, making it a personalized approach versus business first. Like, no one wants to follow or look at a business. They want to follow a brand and a story."

He advocates for consistent content creation, even if initial efforts feel unsuccessful, as persistence eventually leads to visibility and engagement.

Justin Day [06:17]: "Feel free to just put stuff out there. Who cares if people don't like it?... you never know who's going to see those posts."

c. Offer Testing

Justin stresses the necessity of testing multiple offers to identify what resonates with the market. Relying on a single offer can hinder scalability, as only a fraction of ideas typically succeed.

Justin Day [07:19]: "Only one out of every 10 offers can really hit... put it out there, just test it and see if it's biting."

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Leveraging AI for Business Growth

A significant portion of the discussion delves into the strategic use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance business operations and profitability.

a. Beyond ChatGPT: Advanced AI Uses

While many entrepreneurs experiment with basic AI tools like ChatGPT, Justin explores more advanced applications, particularly in video content and automation.

Justin Day [07:38]: "Leveraging Sora to get kind of some very interesting videos out there to break through mold... AI avatars... use it for scripts, ideas, testing new offers, and just understanding your target audience."

b. Five Ways to Use AI

Justin outlines five innovative ways businesses can harness AI to streamline operations and boost efficiency:

1. Deep Understanding of Target Audience

   • Justin Day [08:07]: "Do you know 10 things that keep them up at night? Do you know where they shop? Who their best friends are?"

2. Connecting Business Systems

   • Justin Day [08:33]: "Connecting the dots in your business... increase your LTV, reduce your CAC... make onboarding super easy."

3. AI Assistant for Email Management

   • Justin Day [09:12]: "Set filters to notify you when an important client comes through... safeguard you from getting buried in emails."

4. Ongoing Content Generation

   • Justin Day [09:37]: "Generating content for SEO and social media... leverage AI to post consistently without overwhelming your team."

5. Automating Repetitive Tasks

   • Justin Day [09:39]: "Use AI to handle mundane tasks, freeing up time for strategic initiatives."

c. Future of AI

Looking ahead, Justin envisions AI becoming more conversational and embodied, with advancements allowing for more natural interactions and comprehensive task management.

Justin Day [10:08]: "Conversational AI... more organic conversations... AI avatars that manage different AI bots... scale at the speed of light."

He anticipates AI handling complex functions like creating entire videos and managing sales calls in the next few years.

Justin Day [10:46]: "AI agents managing different AI bots... enabling you to scale really fast."

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Lessons in Agency Growth

Justin shares actionable insights for entrepreneurs aiming to scale their agencies beyond the $500k mark.

a. Niching Down and System Building

He advises against offering a la carte services, advocating instead for niching down and developing repeatable systems that can be delegated to a growing team.

Justin Day [11:28]: "A la carte will kill you... niche down and create systems... develop the Swarm system for cohesive operations."

b. Client Acquisition Strategies

Justin emphasizes the importance of consistent content creation and networking. Posting multiple times a day and engaging in networking events can significantly enhance brand visibility and client acquisition.

Justin Day [12:14]: "Posting every day, two or three times a day... leveraging your network and going to networking events... open up doors you never knew existed."

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Personal Insights and Lessons

a. Biggest Failure

Justin candidly discusses a significant setback where he filed his business just before the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to substantial debt.

Justin Day [12:53]: "Filed for my business right before COVID hit... ended up in about a hundred grand of debt."

He managed to recover within eight months by adjusting his strategies and raising his prices.

Justin Day [13:00]: "It took me about eight months to get out of it... a big lesson in understanding how to put your eggs in specific baskets."

b. Advice to Younger Self

Reflecting on his experiences, Justin advises his younger self to focus on one area, outsource early, and avoid spreading himself too thin.

Justin Day [13:45]: "Don't try and be everywhere all at once... niche down... go get a VA, go outsource... scaled so much faster if I started earlier."

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Conclusion

Justin Day's journey from a solo freelancer to leading a multi-million-dollar agency underscores the importance of strategic outsourcing, personal branding, and leveraging technology like AI to drive growth. His insights offer valuable lessons for entrepreneurs and business owners aiming to scale their operations efficiently.

Rudy Mawer [14:30]: "If you want to learn AI, go see this guy... keep living the red life and I'll see you guys soon."

Connect with Justin Day:

• Website: swarmsystemAI, aimarketingtools.com
• Instagram: Justin Day Digital

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This episode serves as an enlightening guide for entrepreneurs seeking to transition from burnout to building scalable, efficient systems using both human resources and cutting-edge AI technologies.

Transcript

[Justin Day]

Most people don't do that. It's like they feel like they've got this one strong offer and they believe in it. So good. And it's worked maybe for a year or two, but it's not scaling well. What can you bolt on? How can you position it differently? You know, only one out of every 10 offers can really hit. And instead of building an entire course, an entire system on the back end, if you have an idea, go ahead and put it out there, just test it and see if it's biting. If you can get something to happen versus spending a year to build something that may or may not work, what.

[Rudy Moore]

Are five ways to use AI? People are probably not using it right now.

[Justin Day]

So the number one thing I always.

[Rudy Moore]

Tell people, my name is Rudy Moore, host of Living the Red Life podcast, and I'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week. If you're ready to start living the red life, ditch the blue pill. Take the red pill. Join me in wonderland and change your life. What's up, guys? Welcome back to another episode of Living the Red Life. Today we're going to talk all about AI systems automations becoming more profitable and a bunch more. Justin's joining me. He's been a friend and member for many years. An epic journey. You know, as he really started to scale his agency, he's gone from, I think when he joined, you're about half a million year revenue now, multiple millions, growing a big team, getting on stages, speaking, growing your personal brand. So really been epic to see that.

[Justin Day]

Yeah.

[Rudy Moore]

A to Z and we're going to dive into some of the tactics, strategies during his growth period and also what he's doing with hundreds of entrepreneurs to automate their business, speed their business up and get more done. So welcome.

[Justin Day]

Thanks for having me.

[Rudy Moore]

So let's start with the journey. Yeah, right. So you kind of started, you know, agency, more typical, maybe local agency and stuff, right?

[Justin Day]

Local.

[Rudy Moore]

Now you're worldwide.

[Justin Day]

Yeah. Started out on a local agency, kind of a la carte instead of, you know, where I am now with the system base. But yeah, it started about five, six years ago and yeah, it's been a journey, man.

[Rudy Moore]

And what would you say, like what were some of the biggest lessons and also stepping stones or achievements where you're like, okay, I'm getting traction now.

[Justin Day]

Yeah, I mean the, it really started out as a freelancer, right. Where I was just doing graphic design for friends. They'd pay me for this and then get word of mouth out and then I Started to get bigger and bigger deals. I was like, man, I might have something here. It's like, okay, I don't have.

[Rudy Moore]

What was your biggest website build where you're like, damn, that's like a year earning.

[Justin Day]

Yeah, I was like 100k deals like, wow, okay. They just gave me this money. I mean, let's do this. But okay, money, let's go.

[Rudy Moore]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, 100k. And what about. Where did you. What was your first website, your smallest deal when you first started?

[Justin Day]

Oh, I mean, one for myself and then two just for friends that, you know, trying to build a WordPress and it took, you know, forever and it just looked ridiculous.

[Rudy Moore]

Look, charged a few hundred dollars.

[Justin Day]

Sure, yeah.

[Rudy Moore]

Friends. Yeah. People. That's funny. So, so. And what about some of the stepping stones through this where you were, like, really felt you were getting traction? You were proud?

[Justin Day]

Yeah, I mean, where I felt I was getting traction was just honestly the organic word of mouth. Because, I mean, until. Until I really started working with you, I was all word of mouth and I was able to grow my business to half a million just without any marketing on my own. So it's like it just kept. I just kept getting more and more leads from my people because I did such a good job. It's like, okay, well, let's just keep going and keep going and keep going. So I was just like, all right, I've got a business here, I'm committed. So it's just organically grew.

[Rudy Moore]

But then what were the. So what? And then the big jumps? Because I think a lot of people listening are at that half a million mark. Right. I see so many people there and they get stuck there.

[Justin Day]

Yeah, right.

[Rudy Moore]

So what were some of the big jumps to get to multiple millions?

[Justin Day]

The big jumps were one, outsourcing, not having to do it all yourself, and then two, you know, obviously the personal brand, big development there to get, you know, more traction out there to stand out in a saturated market, but also having different offers and then testing like crazy. You know, just because you have one thing doesn't mean that's going to last forever. Or can you scale all of it?

[Rudy Moore]

Right, so three big things that. And, you know, we were working with you on. So let's break each one down. So number one was the team.

[Justin Day]

Yeah.

[Rudy Moore]

So what? Who was some key hires? Where did you, you know, what are you paying them? Where do you find them? Where should people listening that are in your old shoes start?

[Justin Day]

Yeah, I mean, the first place, anywhere is like five or up. Yeah, right. That's easy. I Mean, we're.

[Rudy Moore]

We're.

[Justin Day]

Where I really needed help was finding my first W2, getting my Ops manager in because I didn't want to learn how to do all the ops and develop and I didn't have time. And actually through networking through our group. Right. I found somebody. It's about like 80,000 a year. And, you know, he's completely changed my business over the last couple of years. And now I have a team of 30, so it's just gone like from zero to a hundred very fast.

[Rudy Moore]

And what were some of the other key upwork hires or like VAs? What would you recommend?

[Justin Day]

Absolutely. I mean, virtual assistants are the key for sure in any business, especially in the agency world. You know, I think it's. A lot of people have doubts if bas can really handle the workload or do everything. It's not. I'd say they are 80% of the way there. They're not necessarily 100%, you know, like in America, but, you know, done is better than perfect, and a lot of clients will take that. It's like the perfectionism can kill you.

[Rudy Moore]

And yeah, so I think too, like, we, you know, we do hire some ourselves, but we use a couple of recruitment firms that get really like BAS in overseas. But they have like PhDs or they were like accountants. So they're like more expensive, but still cheap. But they are more expensive than a $400 va.

[Justin Day]

Right. But.

[Rudy Moore]

But they actually, they're stronger than some of our US staff. Like, we've actually replaced US staff and saved, you know, 80%.

[Justin Day]

Yeah.

[Rudy Moore]

And they're just dead on.

[Justin Day]

Absolutely. There's, I think a lot of people be surprised how powerful they can be.

[Rudy Moore]

So the first one was the team, I think. Second one you said was personal branding.

[Justin Day]

Absolutely.

[Rudy Moore]

Talk us through that. What change?

[Justin Day]

Well, I mean, my word of mouth, I was always just posting stuff and I'd get a lot of people making fun of me or whatever, but you get those people, the business mind was like, okay, this guy's putting himself out there. I can see he does websites. Oh, he does social. Oh, he does X, Y and Z. And that all that, that's really starting to accumulate to build a business and then standing out, putting your story out there, making it a personalized approach versus business first. Like, no one wants to follow or look at a business. They want to follow a brand and a story.

[Rudy Moore]

Yeah.

[Justin Day]

So that really breaks through and creates that unique view for people to get inside.

[Rudy Moore]

And was there a couple of posts, the. Or, you know, techniques or times you posted where you're like, okay, this is good. I'm getting the hang of this now.

[Justin Day]

Yeah. I mean, I would just bring GoPros. I started out with GoPros and I learned to actually use the cameras and all that. All the vacations are just going throughout the day to day and filming and just posting and just getting my feet wet in the reps in. I think the content perspective side. Right. Is getting the reps in. It does. You don't just start by being good on camera or whatever. It's just like, feel free to just put stuff out there. Who cares if people don't like it? Who cares about the vanity metrics? Just go, go, go. And it'll eventually come back. You never know who's going to see those posts.

[Rudy Moore]

Yeah, I love it. And the last one was testing. I know.

[Justin Day]

Yeah.

[Rudy Moore]

I always hammer that around.

[Justin Day]

I really do. And everybody. Most people don't do that. It's like they, they feel like they've got this one strong offer and they believe in it. So good. And it's worked maybe for a year or two, but it's not scaling well. What, what can you bolt on? How can you position it differently? You know, only one out of every 10 offers can really hit. And instead of building an entire course, an entire system on the back end, if you have a, if you have an idea, go ahead and put it out there. Just test it and see if it's biting. If you can get, you know, something to happen versus spending a year to build something that may or may not work, that's where people really get stuck. It's like, just because you think it works doesn't mean other people will.

[Rudy Moore]

Yeah. Love it. So, so, you know, I love asking you those questions during that journey. I think it's so valuable. Let's talk now about the AI side. Right. So what are entrepreneurs, you know, listening? Most of them are probably playing with chat gpc. Where does AI go beyond that that they're probably missing?

[Justin Day]

Yeah, I mean, definitely in the video side is coming more and more out, like leveraging Sora to get kind of some very interesting videos out there to break through mold. If you're not comfortable on camera, you can use things like hey Gen for AI avatars. There's so many ways on a content perspective to leverage. Whether it's for scripts, ideas, testing new offers, and just understanding your target audience, there's ways to use it to really break through the mold.

[Rudy Moore]

Good. And what are, you know, five ways to use AI? People are probably not using it right now.

[Justin Day]

So the number One thing I always tell people, the target audience is the key, Right. So leveraging it for your source of truth, your foundation.

[Rudy Moore]

Well, what if they already go, I already know my target audience.

[Justin Day]

Okay, well, then I would challenge you, say, do you know 10 things that keep them up at night? Do you know where they shop? You know who their best friends are? Like, if you're not at a very detailed level, then I really challenge you to, like, understand how important that can be.

[Rudy Moore]

Good. So that's one. Next one. Number two, what would you say from an AI perspective?

[Justin Day]

I mean, just connecting the dots in your business. So most platforms now have integrations, whether it be for your billing or for your onboarding process. Connecting the dots to create a personalized and streamlined experience will increase your ltv, will reduce your cac, and really give that personalized approach when people are just coming on. So I think the connecting all the dots but not overdoing it, because a lot of people get overwhelmed really quickly with AI and trying to just connect all the dots. Just start looking at where's. Where are the things that are like holding you back, maybe saving 10 minutes here, 30 minutes here. And I think really for the first space in AI is like get your billing connected with contracts and everything like that so that the onboarding process is super easy.

[Rudy Moore]

Yeah. Good.

[Justin Day]

And number three, Number three, I would say leveraging it as an AI assistant. Right. You can connect it to your email so you're not just buried in it. You can set filters in there to notify you when an important client comes through or just crap comes through. Right. So that you're not spending your day in your email because people get distracted. Shifting in and out of work is super hard, but you have to be there in front of your clients or being aware of what's going on. So having that as an AI assistant to kind of safeguard you.

[Rudy Moore]

Good. And last two.

[Justin Day]

Yeah. So the last would be just generating content on an ongoing basis, whether it's for SEO, for social, you know, being top line tip tongue is so key. And to do that, you've got to be posting every day, whether it be on social, whether it be SEO. But to do that yourself is so cumbersome. Leveraging AI to be able to get through that and actually do it is really the way to execute. Not having a team to do that for you.

[Rudy Moore]

Good. And then let's talk now a little about the future of AI. How, how do you see it changing in one year, three years, five years?

[Justin Day]

Yeah. The future of AI is kind of here. I said this about a year ago and I think it's going to stay in this, in, in this position to keep moving forward is a conversational AI. Instead of typing things out, you're really, now you can have conversations with it in a more organic way. And I think there's going to be more and more embodiment of AI, maybe in a more avatar way where you can have a conversation with it and get things that you know that would have taken you hours to type out. And really it's going to be developing a brain that can remember who you are, what you're talking about and all that kind of stuff.

[Rudy Moore]

What about like further down the line, like three, five years? Is it going to be creating entire videos and like taking full sales calls? Like, do you mean.

[Justin Day]

Oh, absolutely, yeah. So we're, we're actually working with a company right now that's doing all of our qualifying and everything like that so that we don't have to spend time doing that. And I think later on down the road we're going to have AI agents so that you can have an AI at the top managing different AI bots to do all these different things. So if you're getting in now and understanding how to use it, you'll be, you'll be enabling yourself for the future, really Scale, like at the speed of light.

[Rudy Moore]

Good. And I would love to just ask you now on the agency side, a lot of people listening, maybe like you, they're making 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 grand a month. Like you were doing gigs, right?

[Justin Day]

Yes.

[Rudy Moore]

Websites or whatever. How, how. What are some lessons with the agency side going to multiple millions, 30 staff.

[Justin Day]

Yeah. So a la carte will kill you. Stop doing that. There's no reason that like if you want to be an expert, I'd say niche down and creating systems, repeatable things that you can offload to your team and scale. Like having just so many different divisions that don't talk to each other or departments that don't work together in a system was really the biggest thing that held me back for so long. And that's when I developed my Swarm system where it all cohesively works together so that you can scale and then again having other people come in so that you're not in the day to day. So the systems is the number one thing and definitely niching down to whether it be your target audience or an offer not trying to boil the ocean.

[Rudy Moore]

Yep, good. So that's, that's one great one. What about getting clients, like not obviously referrals, but like from a Marketing side.

[Justin Day]

From a marketing side, I mean I definitely. You're just putting yourself out there nonstop, just getting content. If you're not posting every day, you need to be posting every day, two or three times a day. Just getting your brand out there again, being top of mind, tip of tongue and leveraging your network and going to networking events, connecting with like minded entrepreneurs. I mean this is, that's the thing that really caught my business on fire, especially from an agency perspective because there's so many agencies out there. I think going to events like it's your masterminds and stuff like that, connecting with people, you actually open up another world and doors that you would have never known.

[Rudy Moore]

Good. Last couple of questions I always like to ask as we come towards the end, more personal, more about your journey. Biggest failure.

[Justin Day]

Biggest failure would be filing for my business right before COVID hit. Yeah.

[Rudy Moore]

Yeah. And what happened?

[Justin Day]

Well, right when Covid hit, I mean before then I was, I was a freelancer and solopreneur. I was already in a little bit of debt and then I filed and then all my business went away and then I, I ended up in about a hundred grand of debt. So that was, you know, that was a big lesson for sure.

[Rudy Moore]

And how long did it take you to get out of the debt?

[Justin Day]

Well, when Covid kind of started coming, you know, they lifted it up. It took me about eight months to get out of it.

[Rudy Moore]

Wow.

[Justin Day]

I mean I really hit it hard because you know, after the, those restrictions came up, people came back flooding in and then I just raised my prices too. So just to get out of that hole. And I mean it was a big lesson in understanding how to put your eggs in specific baskets, not all one basket.

[Rudy Moore]

Good. And I always ask, you know, if you could go on a time machine and tell your younger self one thing, what would it be?

[Justin Day]

That's a great question. I would tell myself to not try and be everywhere all at once and like doing, doing everything. As an expert, I think being focusing on one thing and then bolting things on and obviously like we talked about testing like crazy. I think the, the, the model of just trying to be an expert in everything is just too much. Just focusing on one thing because I was trying to do websites and social and all this by myself. And also even even further than that, I would say if I could have gone back five years ago, I say go get a va, go outsource. Because being doing this by yourself, I wish, I mean it took me years to get through it and I could have scaled so much faster if I would have started doing that earlier on.

[Rudy Moore]

Good. Love it. And last question, where, if they want to learn AI or hire you, where do they find you?

[Justin Day]

Yeah, it's swarmsystem AI or aimarketingtools.com on Instagram. Justin Day Digital.

[Rudy Moore]

Love it. Guys, that's a wrap. If you want to learn AI, go see this guy. If you want to keep apprised of all the latest and greatest developments, which is basically a daily thing in the AI world, you need to follow AI experts. And also if you're growing an agency service business. And obviously, you know, Justin's been through it and, you know, I've watched him grow and implement while he's been in our community, and it's been so fun to see. But that's a wrap. Keep living the red life and I'll see you guys soon.