Podcast Summary: Second in Command Ep. 554 – How To Scale to $500K Monthly and Manage $36 Million in Ad Spend

Guest: Isaac Toblin, CMO of Springs Rejuvenation
Host: Savannah Brewer (with Cameron Herold)
Date: February 17, 2026
Duration: ~58 minutes

Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into team building, hiring, and scalable business strategies with Isaac Toblin, who’s managed $36M+ in ad spend and scaled revenues from $100K to $500K/month. Isaac shares his frontline experience in transitioning from COO to CMO, pioneering direct-response marketing in the med-spa niche, and championing culture-focused growth amid hyper scaling. Both wins and growing pains are explored with hands-on tactics for entrepreneurs and second-in-command leaders.

Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Isaac’s Journey: From Real Estate to Leading Edge CMO

• Isaac’s entry into marketing (03:30):
  • Real estate crash in 2008 led to looking up “how to generate leads online,” which led to discovering Frank Kern and the world of direct-response.
  • Met Ashton through Traffic & Funnels events, quickly advanced from media buyer to COO, then CMO at Springs Rejuvenation.
  • Quote:

    “From that moment on my life changed... learning direct response marketing–that’s how I got sucked into this world.” (03:43 – Isaac Toblin)

2. Springs Rejuvenation’s Unique Model

• Pioneered national direct-response funnels for stem cell therapies, unlike most med spas relying on local ads (05:50).
  • Revenue at $1.2–1.3M/month; ~140 units/mo, main driver is hair restoration.
  • Customers from online ads book consult calls, then travel to one of five national locations.
  • Differentiation: blending med spa services with digital marketing frameworks usually reserved for info/coaching products.

3. Scaling an Agency: People, Process, and Hyper-Growth

• Agency scaled from $100K to $500K/month in ~18 months (10:40–11:00).
  • Core drivers: knowing your customer, hiring rigorously, training on how to think vs. what to do, and cultivating a team of problem-solvers.
  • Partnership dynamics: balancing vision (Ashton) and integration/execution (Isaac).
  • Quote:

    “Rather than teaching people how to do something, teach them how to think. Once we were able to delegate the thinking part, everything became a lot more simple.” (13:31 – Isaac Toblin)

4. Hiring: Values & Mindset > Experience

• Strong focus on value alignment during the interview process (14:51–18:07).
  • Seek in candidates what’s innate–going above and beyond, ownership, doing the right thing. Skills can be trained.
  • Cautionary tale: hiring for experience alone often led to misalignment and regret.
  • Savannah’s story reinforces this:

    “A misalignment on culture and core values just creates way more problems... imagine if you spent all the time that you’re putting into your B players... into your A players, how kick ass would your team be?” (20:25 – Savannah Brewer)

Detailed Hiring Process (21:09–25:21)

• Multi-step funnel, sales letter-style job descriptions, practical screenings, and scenario-based tasks with minimal hand holding to test proactivity.
• Final culture fit interview with Isaac to preserve and protect team values.
• Screen for resourcefulness:

  “If somebody’s willing to say yes because they really want something, they’re going to do it.” (23:46 – Isaac Toblin)

• Pro-tip: Seed resourcefulness checks—give vague instructions and see who finds their own solutions (26:25–27:40).

5. Retention, Motivation, and Culture

• Onboarding: strong, organized processes and SOPs are key to building trust from day one (30:09).
• Employee engagement systems:
  • Innovation Day: Monthly, each dept. tries new ideas/strategies–win or fail, all are shared, rewards for best ideas, cross-pollinates creativity (32:00–34:38).

    “People love to be valued… we put systems in place so their voices were heard and their ideas made it through…” (30:53 – Isaac Toblin)

  • Virtual Happy Hours: Regular team bonding events, games, themed fun, fostering connection and belonging.

6. Learning from Mistakes: Concentrated Key-Person Risk

• A single top-performer left, triggering a cascade of additional departures and client churn—lesson in monitoring for hidden dissatisfaction and not putting all eggs in one basket (39:18–43:50).

  • Quote:

    “One of the biggest mistakes we made… not the talent itself… but the concentration of risk… if you’re too far removed… and that person decides to leave, the entire business is in jeopardy. People buy people…” (39:18 – Isaac Toblin)

  • Check in proactively with high performers, not just those expressing problems.

• Acquisitions:

  • Rushed due diligence led to distraction, underperformance.
  • Always “do your due diligence… especially if acquiring a business or partnership.” (45:10)

7. People Skills—The Enduring Edge

• Isaac’s reflection: people skills are hard to quantify but invaluable—especially as AI proliferates.
• The COO as integrator:

  “Being a COO really gave me... if you’re a people person … it’s such a really cool role to be in… You’re the visionary for execution and integration.” (48:48 – Isaac Toblin)

• Support and uphold the CEO; translating vision into execution for the team.

8. Looking to the Future: The Role of AI

• AI's practical use is accelerating, especially in marketing and ops (51:38–56:07).
  • Literacy in AI is now a hiring screen.
  • “Pick two or three tools… dive in, make all the mistakes, don’t feel shy about it, use it, fail, understand it.” (54:56 – Isaac Toblin)
• But: People skills will grow even more important for business leaders as AI makes it harder to distinguish what’s authentic.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On hiring for culture, not just skill:

  “It was easier to take a little bit longer to hire but find the person that inherently had those values already… when things get tough, is that value system that keeps you together…” (15:11 – Isaac Toblin)

• On key-person risk:

  “If somebody’s good all the time, they’re not. Sometimes you have those seasons in your life where everything's perfect, but you work two years together, something’s gotta be wrong at some point…” (41:02 – Isaac Toblin)

• On the competitive future of human skills:

  “In a world that AI can make you seem better than what you are, having the people skills is definitely going to be a plus. Because now I could take somebody that's a C-ish person, use AI… but if I have a really incredible human next to me, man, you can build something really cool.” (56:24 – Isaac Toblin)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:30 – Isaac’s background and direct response journey
• 05:57 – How Springs Rejuvenation’s national model works
• 10:40 – Scaling an agency: reaching $500K+/mo
• 14:51 – Values-based hiring & culture alignment
• 18:07 – Savannah’s story: core values over experience
• 21:09 – Detailed hiring funnel process
• 26:25 – Screening for resourcefulness in hiring
• 30:09 – Onboarding and employee retention
• 32:00 – Innovation Day: culture of experimentation
• 39:18 – Lessons learned: key-person risk and growing pains
• 45:10 – Due diligence in acquisitions
• 48:48 – The unique role of COO in organizational vision
• 51:38 – The AI wave: what’s coming next
• 56:24 – Why people skills matter more as AI grows

Conclusion and Takeaways

This episode is a blueprint for rapidly scaling service businesses while maintaining (and repairing) company culture. The conversation offers practical hiring tactics, honest stories of what went wrong, and how to set up teams to thrive in a fast-changing, AI-empowered future. Whether you’re on the journey to COO/CMO or hiring your first team, Isaac’s focus on values, process, and nurturing real human connection stands out as core to both past success and future resilience.

Contact Isaac:
Find him on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn — just mention the podcast!