Robb Fahrion

Robb Fahrion founded Flying V Group along with his brother, Tyler and Brennan Smith, in 2016. Robb’s vision for the company is to grow Flying V Group into one of the largest and most successful agencies in Southern California and across the United States. Currently, Flying V Group has serviced over 300 companies with digital marketing and advertising needs ranging from SMB’s to F500’s.

At Security First Corp, Robb was the Director of Marketing and managed marketing strategies and relationships with clients like IBM, Unisys, Northrop Grumman, Microsoft, and Sengex.

Robb is native to Southern California and attended Chapman University where he received his Bachelors of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing and a Minor in Communications. Robb graduated with Summa Cum Laude honors. Robb also serves as the Chief Marketing Officer for the California Waste and Recycling Association, which is a professional group of waste haulers, recyclers, facility owners, and operators engaged in helping our communities become more sustainable. He is also the Chief Marketing Officer for Global Premier Fertility, which is the Nation’s leading group of fertility clinics.

In his spare time he enjoys watching all types of sports, spending time outdoors, and hanging out with his fiance Alexandra and dog Sunny.

Where did the idea for Flying V Group come from?

Flying V Group was not a master-planned company. The lightbulb moment came when I was approached by a mentor of mine that runs a very successful and large law firm. He asked Robb to assist him with issues he was having online (blacklisted email, hacked website, and more). I was told that I was the guy he thought of that could help fix the problem because I was young and understood technology. LOL!

I helped him out by rebuilding his site and fixing his email issues to get his business back online. I did not know what to charge him when he asked what he owed, so I sent him an invoice guestimating the cost and the invoice was paid within minutes. This is when the lightbulb went off.

“How many other successful individuals like this are out there that need digital support?”

And then Flying V Group was founded.

To this day, Flying V Group still serves firms in the law space and other professional service fields. These types of businesses need more support than ever from a digital perspective because they generally do not have people on staff to support these efforts.

What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?

My typical day is filled with a lot of meetings since we are a remote company. We hired a majority of our employees during the pandemic, which means we are very reliant on Zoom meetings and Slack channels to communicate.

I am involved in many different areas of the business that include, but are not limited to, sales, performance operations, and general administration.

Depending on the week, my day will be filled with new potential client calls, client status calls, or internal team calls where we ensure that performance is top notch for our clientele.

I love my daily work because it is always challenging and different each and every day.

How do you bring ideas to life?

I bring ideas to life by empowering our employees. We encourage are employees to contribute ideas on a regular basis. Each week status sheets are filled out and one of the questions we ask is “What can we be doing better or do you have any new ideas that we can implement?”

I am a keen believer in the power of teams and so we aim to enable each and every one of our team members to make their job their own. We will always listen to new ideas to ensure that our organization is constantly improving.

What’s one trend that excites you?

A trend that excites me is actually the fact that things are reverting back to pre-pandemic ways. So, the trend I am talking about is more meetings in-person and being able to travel and attend seminars or other types of conferences. There is no substitute for doing business together in person and we missed a lot of that over the past few years. Part of what makes business great is the opportunity to forge new relationships.

What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

A habit of mine that makes me more productive as an entrepreneur is I ALWAYS look for ways to leverage technology in order to help me work more efficiently of effectively. We utilize many different technologies at Flying V Group to ensure this and also to provide the best service for our clients. We know that we can do more and quicker than most of our competitors.

Our tech stack includes the following: Slack, Zoom, Ahrefs, GSuite, JIRA, Trello, Hubspot, Zoom Info, and much more!

What advice would you give your younger self?

I would tell my younger self to invest more time into relationships with individuals that were already successful and figure out what they did differently to get to where they are at. I was too worried spending time with friends, which is not a bad thing, but I definitely could have spent more time investing in networking that would progress my career.

Your network is the most valuable thing you have as an entrepreneur, but it needs to be cared for and worked on in order to get value out of it. What I find is that most individuals want to help and support you. All you need to do is show the effort to reach out.

Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.

SEO is the best investment you can make in your business online, bar none. Most people immediately turn to paid advertising because the results are immediate, but the truth of the matter is that SEO provides exponential returns if you can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The beauty of SEO is that the effort you put into SEO in month one works for you many, many years down the road. Also, your efforts compound even if the investment remains the same. This is similar to a compounding interest model and I encourage everyone to invest heavily in their SEO efforts.

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

I consider each and every opportunity that is presented to me. I read every single email that comes into my inbox and I consider it. I may not consider it for very long (a second or two), but I never just say no without an understanding of what the potential value of the opportunity may be.

This approach has led me to so many new opportunities, business relationships, great technologies, and much more. You don’t always have to say yes, but consideration is always encouraged.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

SEO. SEO. SEO. When we started the business, we had VERY little money to invest in marketing and advertising. We determined that we would use our knowledge and expertise in order to show and highlight what we could do for our clientele.

We relentlessly wrote content and worked on improving our technical SEO on the website. This led to traffic increases on a regular basis and eventually new inbound leads. I will say it again, SEO is the best digital investment you can make into your business.

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

The biggest failure I have had as an entrepreneur is our first hire. We were not ready to hire this individual and we did not have the proper training and processes in place in order for him to be successful. I learned a lot here and knew we needed to create more structure if we wanted to continue to bring new individuals into the fold.

I learned from this and we now have 16 employees and our employee retention is incredible.

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

A business idea that I think would be remarkable is a website that connects agencies with complementary services. Some of our best relationships are partnerships with video marketing agencies. We do not provide video marketing, so we are able to provide their services and they also provide ours to their clients. However, finding those that are looking for these types of relationships is tough!

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

I recently purchased a tool called Keywords Everywhere. It is a Google Chrome plugin and it gives you data and information directly on Google Search for the keywods you are looking up. It shows you search volume, cost-per-click, competition, and much more. It is an awesome tool.

What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?

Slack. It is our lifeblood. We use it for all internal communication and we even onboard certain clients onto the platform for ease of communication. I don’t know if I could run the business without this tool at this point in time.

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

Exactly What to Say by Phil Jones. This book transformed the way we communicate with potential clients and has helped us close more deals. It will help you do the same. I guarantee it.

What is your favorite quote?

“Jim Jarmusch once told me Fast, Cheap, and Good… pick two. If it’s fast and cheap it won’t be good. If it’s cheap and good, it won’t be fast. If it’s fast and good, it won’t be cheap. Fast, cheap and good … pick two words to live by.”

– Tom Waits

Key Learnings:

• Technology is a lifesaver. Use it as much as possible when applicable.
• Never turn down new opportunities without vetting it first.
• SEO is the best digital investment you can make into your business.
• Invest time and effort into your network and nurture relationships with successful individuals.