Mobile Marketing Engine

Greg Hickman spent over a decade in the mobile marketing space, working for agencies and on the brand side before becoming head of mobile at Cabela's, a 50+ location hunting, fishing, and camping retailer. With a salary just over $100,000 plus bonuses, he had the skills but also the golden handcuffs. He started building a business on the side while still employed, having set three clear requirements before making the leap: pay off his $25K debt, earn at least 60% of his full-time salary from the side business, and commit to the lifestyle sacrifice. For nearly a year, while friends went out, Greg worked evenings building his venture.

Greg initially tried creating mobile marketing training programs, but "more and more people were just asking me for service," so he morphed into a service-based business by late 2014/early 2015. He launched with three tiered packages: $350/month, $500/month, and $750/month—all offering done-for-you mobile loyalty programs and mobile wallet campaigns for independent retailers. The core value prop was simple: these retailers lacked the resources, money, and creativity to execute mobile marketing themselves. Greg came in, built a marketing calendar aligned with their promotional schedule, and created campaigns to drive repeat visits and higher cart sizes. Early traction came slowly—"a couple" at $350, "two or three" at $500.

Then he introduced a $1,500 discovery audit, a three-to-four week engagement that would map out a mobile marketing roadmap without implementation. This was a game-changer. Greg would present the audit via webinar, positioning it as: "We'll hand you this roadmap. You can implement it yourself, hire someone else, or we can do it for you." The audit disarmed the fear of monthly commitment and led several clients to convert to ongoing services.

Greg's first customers came directly from his corporate network and his reputation in mobile marketing. He focused on independent retailers and specialty retail shops—outdoor, camping, sporting goods, bike shops. He was reaching into a space where he had credibility and deep experience. The early wins came at the lower price points, but the audit model proved to be the real acquisition engine. By offering something concrete and limited in scope first, he lowered the barrier to a longer-term commitment.

The business climbed steadily. By mid-2015, Mobile Marketing Engine hit $6,000 MRR. Greg was disciplined about tracking monthly recurring revenue and had built a repeatable sales process. But the foundation cracked. "The day before you were here," he told Nathan Latka, he woke up to cancellation emails. Within one month, he lost $1,300 in MRR—two clients at $500 and one at $350. One client's key marketing contact left, killing the budget. Another was a two-location massage franchise that couldn't grow their mobile list fast enough; engagement was strong, but the growth was flat. "They weren't really willing to try more enticing offers" and hadn't integrated mobile into their other marketing channels. Greg had discovered the hard way that his ideal customer profile—independent retailers—had structural challenges: gatekeepers instead of decision-makers, constant email bombardment, tight budgets, and no awareness that mobile was a problem they needed to solve.

The emotional toll was real. Greg didn't get anything done that day; the cancellations set a dark tone that derailed his momentum. More importantly, they exposed a flaw in the business model: selling a solution to a problem customers didn't yet acknowledge.

Rather than doubling down on retail, Greg pivoted. He looked back at what he loved and what his network knew him for: marketing automation via Infusionsoft, which he'd become certified in and had been implementing for himself with great results. He identified a new audience—solopreneurs, small team online businesses, coaches, speakers, course creators—people who already felt the pain of drowning in administrative work. Within a week of conceptualizing the pivot, he had signed his first customer under the new model, offering done-for-you marketing automation and funnel management. By the time of the interview, he had three customers signed or about to sign—already capturing 24% of his old $6K MRR. Greg had learned the critical lesson: fall in love with the problem, not the solution. His next chapter was solving a problem his customers already knew they had.