This transcript is auto-generated and may contain spelling and grammatical errors.
Tyler Jorgenson (00:00.046)
Welcome out to BizNinja Entrepreneur Radio. I’m your host, Tyler Jorgensen. And today’s a unique episode. I’m very excited to introduce this person to you. And before I do, I just want to give a little bit of a background. So for those of you that have been watching or listening to the show for years, you’ve heard you’ve heard me interview dozens and hundreds of entrepreneurs. You’ve heard me talk about the businesses I do. And not too long ago, I joined high level running their integrated marketing.
And as part of that, I get to meet some amazing people. And here at High Level, we currently have an internship program. And so one of those interns is joining us today. Her name is McKenley Suders, and she is the founder of Let Lead Getter, which is her white label instance of high level of high level. And so today we’re gonna talk about what she’s doing, why she’s doing her background, and all those amazing things. So, welcome out to the show, McKenley. We’re super excited.
Mckinlee Suitors (00:57.341)
Yeah, thank you so much. I’m super excited to be here. When you asked me, you know, the opportunity came up, I like, my gosh, I can’t can’t say no. This is awesome. So I really appreciate you having me on.
Tyler Jorgenson (01:07.488)
Absolutely. So I asked this question at the beginning for everyone, right? And so when was that moment in your life where you first realized you were an entrepreneur?
Mckinlee Suitors (01:17.371)
Ooh, it was definitely young. So to kind of give a backstory, I had a YouTube channel. let’s say I was probably like ten years old, right? And I loved to film every single thing in my life. I would, you know, get all my friends together and I would say, All right guys, this is our plan, this is what we’re gonna do, and I’m gonna film it all for my YouTube channel. We cool with that? And they would be like, Some of them were, you know, more cool about it than others. but I convinced them. I can convince people pretty easily sometimes, and I was like,
Alright, so I started posting on YouTube. And through that, I loved it because it was very creative hobby that, you know, learning cameras and editing and storytelling as well. Loved that part of it. But something that also sparked my interest and kind of grew from that hobby was learning like SEO for YouTube and like learning how to attract an audience and more of like the business technicality side of it was really.
very interesting to me at a young age. And so everything that I would do, I would be like, Okay, l how can I how can I track this to make sure things are working? And you know, I just from a young age, the business bug just caught me. So yeah. Yeah.
Tyler Jorgenson (02:28.558)
I love it. How did that channel do? Did you get have some success with it? Are we talking dozens of views or hundreds or
Mckinlee Suitors (02:32.54)
- No, no, no, no.
Mckinlee Suitors (02:39.081)
Well, I got to like I think eight hundred subscribers and you know
Tyler Jorgenson (02:42.722)
That’s not bad at all. That’s not bad at all. I always say like if you picture that in real life, right, if you had like an auditorium of eight hundred people watching your stuff, it’d feel pretty cool. we my my kids had a channel when they were young and it in they never took it really seriously, but we were looking at it the other day and we had, you know, we had a handful of videos that they did that did, you know, tens or hundreds of thousands of views. And it’s fun to look back on now as like a time capsule, but
Mckinlee Suitors (02:51.283)
Yeah, actually yeah.
Mckinlee Suitors (03:04.698)
gosh.
Yes, yeah.
Tyler Jorgenson (03:08.012)
What now you have there is a bit of entrepreneurship in your blood, right? So tell me a little bit about your background in business and your family’s connections.
Mckinlee Suitors (03:17.109)
Absolutely. And actually, just to touch base on what you just said, you know, just like a little time capsule that you get to watch back on, just really fun moments in life that are on YouTube now. That’s probably my favorite thing about having a YouTube channel. And I still keep all those personal videos up because I get to go back and look at, you know, all the fun times I have my friends because I’ve decided to have a video diary of, you know, hanging out with my friends and stuff. So
Yeah, but yeah, so entrepreneurship definitely runs my blood. My mom, she started a CrossFit gym in 09. So when CrossFit was, you know, first coming up, it was brand new. She started a gym out back of our house. We had a shed out there. Started that. She’s been running it ever since. She’s had it for 17 years. And so we as a family have really just gone through, you know, all the ups and downs that is.
Owning a business, owning a gym business, because the gym industry is a very tough industry. and yeah, it’s just been it’s it’s been really cool because, you know, from a young age I was introduced to business. I literally remember being dragged into the gym at like four years old and saying, Hey, you’re gonna help us, you know, pull in these stall gym mats. Those things are so heavy, by the way. And yeah, and just helping out in the business, you know, when your parents are business owners,
You kinda just get shoved into it. Whether you like it or not, you gotta help out. and then my dad, he recently started a roofing company. And so we’ve been doing that together and that’s been really fun. You know, I handle all of the marketing side and actually the lead gen, and then he is, you know, making sure the cr like the crews are doing what would need to be done and you know, doing customer service and whatnot. So yeah, definitely a lot of entrepreneurship in my blood, and I love it. Wouldn’t change it for things.
Tyler Jorgenson (05:11.734)
Yeah. So growing up around with your mom running a business and and working in a gym, gyms are such a fascinating business because they’re you know, I always say no one walks into a CrossFit gym who hasn’t been working out, that didn’t go through some amazing emotional transformation recently, right? They’re like there to change, and it’s such a fascinating thing. And and helping them navigate that is kind of a privilege, but no one grows up in that and doesn’t learn some lessons. What were some of the business lessons you learned from?
Mckinlee Suitors (05:41.354)
Yeah, I would say definitely work ethic. Like people think I’m a workaholic. Like she’s like ten times more. Like she’s she’s such a hard worker. And I if I could just be like one percent of what she is, like I I I’ve made it, you know. She’s super like I mean, she just she gets it done in her mentality and her mental strength that I’ve gotten the privilege to just see growing up.
Is has inspired me to, you know, when I am going through a tough time during business, I’m like, no, I’ve watched my mom do this and ten times worse and get through it. Like I can I can get through this. And the thing about, you know, owning a gym and being in the gym space in general, my favorite thing is that it transfers over so easily to business. It’s like CrossFit’s not the easiest thing in the world. It can, I mean, you know that you did cross it for a little bit. It’s it’s it can be tough. And
When you do tough things in the gym, you you know, you do a hard workout, you’re on the ground, you’re like, man, this was this was this kicked my butt. when you are done, you’re like, okay, cool, I accomplished something hard today. I can go do whatever needs to be done in the business. I can sit at my desk for eight hours straight and like focus on one thing or learn this really hard skill that I’ve been stumped on and I just can’t get past it. Your mental capacity to deal with hard things.
just like skyrockets when you when you work out when you do CrossFit because you train yourself mentally to do hard things. So I love how it transfers in the business.
Tyler Jorgenson (07:17.42)
Yeah, really. For sure. So how did you find out about the high level internship program and what made you want to go?
Mckinlee Suitors (07:26.441)
Yeah. So funny enough, I actually got rejected initially when it first came out. And that’s a story in itself. But I have always you know, I started so I started my business in high school. I was seventeen. it was solely a videography agency back then, so I was using high level to, you know, run that business, but I was just doing videography and
After after high school, I was like, I’m not gonna go to college. I’m just gonna continue running my business, even though the one thing about college that I like really was just appealing to me was the ability to make a ton of friends my age. And that is something that I did miss out on. And I was like, man, like I love what I’m doing so much. I love business. I don’t want to give it up. I just wish there were people my age that were into this and like into talking business, into talking.
Claude and AI and sales and all that stuff because people my age are not really into that typically. If I find somebody like that, I’m like, wait, what? so when the internship came up, I was like, hold up. A software that I’ve been using for three years now, an entrepreneurial internship where they’re helping me grow my agency, and it’s all like college-age kids, this is
This is like too good to am I dreaming right now? This is too good to be true. and so yeah, when I saw it, I was like, this is exactly what I’ve been wanting for the past three years. business is already, you know, a lonely path. It definitely can be. And you know, nobody my age really does this. That I know of I haven’t really met many people in my circle that are interested in this. So when I s found this, I was like, I gotta get on this. So that was, you know.
The interest in it, like finding more people that are like me.
Tyler Jorgenson (09:29.208)
Cool. And so, I know as part of the program, some people are just getting started, but you you brought in a business that had a little bit of momentum or at least some experience already. In your in those three years that you’ve been running your own agency, it sounded like that was the timeline. what was some what were some of the biggest mistakes you made and what’d you learn from
Mckinlee Suitors (09:50.342)
biggest mistake number one was getting so in high level they have the HIPAA compliance. you know, the you have to have it on if you have a HIPAA compliant person. And before I got my first client who is a chiropractor and I love and we’ve done great work with him, I was like, cool. I’m getting this type of, you know, healthcare industry. I need to get this HIPAA compliance and you know, got that and I was like,
You know, everything’s good now, but I don’t know if I want to like really dive into healthcare. And so I went to, you know, like take it back. You can’t take it back. So now that was mistake number one. but actually I wouldn’t really say it was a mistake because I’ve learned a lot about HIPAA and marketing. And now I feel very confident with helping healthcare and like more chiropractors or more, you know, PT or whatever. so actually in the moment I was like, my gosh, like
I can’t take this back, what do I do? But I learned so much about you know that specific industry when it comes to marketing that now I’m like, wow, I am so glad I did that, even though you know, tripped and fell on my face. I was like, okay, cool, I learned a lot, and I’m honestly glad that I did it. So I say that was a mistake, but not really a mistake, because I learned a lot and glad I did it. and
Mckinlee Suitors (11:16.757)
Trying to think. I can’t really think of
Tyler Jorgenson (11:18.082)
You don’t have to dig for more. That’s okay. That was a good that was a good answer. and that’s the reality is that if you have the right mindset, even mistakes are opportunities, right? Because you don’t you you just learn and you grow from it. but you’ve you’ve changed your business quite a bit, right? You’re not still doing video production. What’s the main focus of Lead Getter now?
Mckinlee Suitors (11:30.613)
Yeah.
Mckinlee Suitors (11:39.54)
Yeah, so main focus is websites and social media management. And like I said, when I first started, it was just videography services, which was great. It was a great stepping stone from you know doing YouTube videos for myself, doing promotional videos for my mom’s gym, and then going out and door knocking and trying to do promotional videos for other businesses. And that was a great, you know, everything, everything in your life is like a stepping stone. So I could definitely see how that path.
Was laid out. It’s like, perfect, that worked out. but now I really like to focus on you know helping businesses with a website first. And then from that, I can implement, you know, in high level, we have the whole like capture, nurture, close, evangelize, reactivate. And so I really try to help businesses implement that entire system. And I typically start with a website doing that, but I’ve just realized the more I’ve been doing this, if I can implement.
A system instead of a tool, they are going to get way better results. And you know, if they’re happy, I’m happy because I that’s I’m just trying to help them out, you know. And so that’s what I focus on mainly is like websites, social media management has been a very popular service, so I do that as well. But you know, if I have a website with them, I’ll do some content creation as well. It’s just not a main thing I push anymore. Yeah.
Tyler Jorgenson (13:00.706)
Gotcha. And then are you picking you know, as part of the program, are you guys encouraged to select a a niche or are you just kind of saying, Hey, we’re just going after businesses?
Mckinlee Suitors (13:10.429)
Yeah, so it’s kind of we’ve gotten, you know, we’ve had some incredible speakers, including yourself. and you know, we’ve gotten little bits of everything. Some people are like niche down, others are don’t niche down, you know, in the beginning, get whatever you can. And we have a couple people in our internship that are solely going into like, you know, mobile detailing or whatnot. And then others are just trying to get what they can get in the beginning, which I think
Tyler Jorgenson (13:38.67)
Mckinlee Suitors (13:39.934)
In the beginning, you know, and you know, I’m still in the beginning too, I’m still learning, but get what you can get. And you know, every single industry you have experiencing, experience in is just gonna, I mean, like more experience more is more experience, and the more you’re gonna learn from that. So I think in the beginning, yeah, get what you can get, like some of like the people have told us, but then once you start to scale, if you find an industry that you’re
really like working with roofing companies. I’m going to solely do that. I think for scalability, obviously that’s gonna be a lot easier when you can rinse her. But yeah, I think it’s a topic.
Tyler Jorgenson (14:16.462)
Sure. Who are some of the who are some of the entrepreneurs or like either on either authors or social media you know, entrepreneurial influencers that you really are attracted to and pull it like pull from?
Mckinlee Suitors (14:32.617)
Yeah, so I’ve always been a big Alex Hermozzi fan. I’ve listened to his podcast like every day. yeah, so love him. And then also, like book wise, James Clear, the Atomic Habocks book. I love that book. definitely helped reframe, you know, mindset and stuff. It’s like a little little bit every day. and I mean she’s not a celebrity, but like my mom, like she’s she’s like
She’s incredible, so yeah, I would say Yeah, yeah. You know, it’s like
Tyler Jorgenson (15:03.842)
He’s your celebrity and there’s nothing wrong with that. I think that’s awesome. So you’ve got a little bit of time left. What you’re about halfway through the internship program, is that about right, or more?
Mckinlee Suitors (15:14.417)
We have like three weeks left, which is crazy. It’s gone by so fast. Like dang it.
Tyler Jorgenson (15:17.952)
Yeah. So what are your big goals for that three weeks? What do you want to see happen?
Mckinlee Suitors (15:21.907)
Yeah, I would like to. I have two people in the pipeline coming up. I just got on another business who has or business owner who has two businesses. And so I’m excited to help him out and build out his entire system because he’s actually familiar with GHL. but he’s just like, I need help using it. And I’m like, okay, awesome, I got you. I use this every day. And so I’m excited to help him, but I have two other businesses in the pipeline that I’m just, you know, hopefully.
I’m able to help them as well, but if I’m not, it’s like on to the next. You know, it’s like whatever every no you get is gonna be a no closer to a yes. So I, you know, I’m just excited to see what other opportunities come up, not only for my agency, but also just, you know, high levels talked about some positions that they may be opening for like field marketing and whatnot. So I was like, that that can be cool. So
I don’t know, there’s just a lot of a lot of opportunities coming up. So yeah.
Tyler Jorgenson (16:21.4)
There are in there are indeed a lot of opportunities, especially when you have good work ethic and you’re in right, you’re willing to put in the work. The opportunities seem to be more and more. But you’ve got, you know, you have this amazing opportunity. You get to work there with all these other interns. what’s been the highlight of the program for you so far?
Mckinlee Suitors (16:29.065)
Yeah. Yeah.
Mckinlee Suitors (16:40.233)
Definitely the people, like a hundred percent. I think that I it being with people who wanna succeed themselves and want to see you succeed too is just a total game changer. Like these other interns are incredible, super supportive people, and everybody’s like when somebody gets back from a sales call, we’re like, how’d that sales call go? Like, what did you do? We do a lot of like sales role playing together and trying to help each other get better and we share
Tips and like snapshots of like workflows I’ve been working for us. And I would absolutely say the people, you know, we go out, they’re actually at pickleball right now. I couldn’t like, I was like, I’ll catch you next time. But we go play pickleball together, we go to events and stuff. So it’s crazy how quickly you can click with people when it y’all have that same like passion and drive to go do big things in life. Because a lot of people
and this isn’t a bad thing, but they’re just like content with where there are, and that’s great, that’s awesome. but when you are an ambitious person, it can feel a little bit like a you know, like, man, am I the only one that wants to like go do big things that may seem impossible, but you know, if you put in the work, it could happen. So it’s really cool to be surrounded by other people who think very similarly. And yeah, we just instant
The day we met, I was like, this is gonna be a good this is gonna be a good time. Yes, great group.
Tyler Jorgenson (18:07.288)
Good group. Awesome. So you shared you you you shared your top three celebrities as your mom, James Clear, and Alex Ramosy. And you shared that from your mom you learned work ethic. From James Clear you learned the the principle of getting a little bit better every day or one percent better. What what’s a big lesson you’ve learned from from Alex Ramosy?
Mckinlee Suitors (18:26.599)
Ooh, I would say the full like work ethic wise, like it’s gonna take a lot more volume than you think. And I also think, too, he gives a good just preface on like you’ve gotta put in the work yourself. actually, one of Wesley, our speaker yesterday, was talking about how a lot of people who are in the agency world when they are first getting into it, they try to outsource too early. And
And they don’t ever put in the work themselves. They don’t know how to build out the workflows manually or build the websites manually or whatnot or run the ads, you know, for themselves. I think, okay, I got a client, I need to outsource this. And when he said that, I was like, Yes, thank you for saying that. Because, you know, Alex is all about like high, high volume, like do the work and whatnot. And I have always had that adoption in my mind. But I’ve been hearing a lot of people be like, you need to outsource and whatnot.
And it was very refreshing hearing what Wesley said yesterday as like, no, put in the work. You’re still in the learning phase. It’s good for you to get your hands dirty a little bit. So then when you do outsource it, you can manage it from afar because you know how it works. You’ve done it. You’ve done it over and over again. And that repetitiveness of it’s gonna take a lot of volume, a lot more than you think, is what I get from Alex Ramosy. You know, so it’s like that’s yeah, that’s it for sure.
Tyler Jorgenson (19:50.189)
Yeah, Alex and Layla both like to say that the long way is the shortcut, right? And so like doing the work and taking the time, like that’s actually the shortcut. So so many people are looking for shortcuts that they never just do the actual work and take the path, like take all the steps. And if they just would have done that, instead of trying to take five shorter paths, the one that would have taken three times longer would have actually been faster.
Mckinlee Suitors (20:12.573)
Yeah. And if you look at it as like a this is going to grow me putting in the work, me, you know, spending the time on this, like money will come if you have the high income skills that is your leverage. You know what I mean? And that’s gonna take time and building your skills is not happen overnight. It takes a lot of work. And so if you look at it as it look at it as I’m just putting into my skill bucket, like that will compound later on.
I think sometimes people can get into and I’ve been a victim to this myself, it’s like, okay, like chasing the money when it’s like, no, chase the skills, like that, that’s where that’s the value right there. It’s like if you, you know, fill your brain up with a bunch of really, really valuable skills, like that’ll pay off in the end. But focus on building your skills and building up your knowledge.
Tyler Jorgenson (21:04.792)
Yep. One of the early quotes I heard I learned was work to learn, not work to earn, right? I mean, obviously you need to get paid, but you want to look f if you’re gonna have two job opportunities, but one of them gives you a skill and gives you lessons and the other one’s just paying the bills, right? That’s a better opportunity. which is why that the internship you guys are doing is so powerful, right? Because it’s not just like the basic internship where you’re just filing papers or doing basic stuff. You’re learning, I mean, really
powerful, like you said, high value skill, whether you stay and do your own business or whether you step into somebody else, the world needs entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs, right? And so people that can step in and create and do things is is so powerful. What if if you had one thing that you said, man, okay, like in my business, I want I if I had a magic wand, I could fix one thing. What would you fix right now?
Mckinlee Suitors (22:02.533)
Honestly, there’s not really anything I would fix because this is part of it. Sometimes you can think, man, why is this taking so long? Or I should be at X amount of people like clients right now. But I don’t think there’s anything to fix because you know, when I get in that mindset of like, I should be here, but I’m not there yet. It’s like that’s gonna take time and that’s gonna take more work. So there’s nothing I would really fix because it’s just gonna take more time and more.
And I gotta, I gotta go through that. I can’t like like you said, you can’t skip steps. Otherwise, that’s gonna backfire in the future. And yeah, no, there’s nothing, nothing I’d really fix right now. I love it too. It’s like what I do right now, I work a lot. My friends are like, you’re a workaholic. but it’s because I love it. Like it’s not work to me. It’s very creative and it’s very challenging and new and it’s problem solving. And I love doing that. So it’s like,
It’s not even a work. It’s just yeah, it’s just fun. It’s part of the journey. So yeah, nothing I’ll really fix right now actually.
Tyler Jorgenson (23:02.168)
Yeah. So you’ve got to meet you’ve gotten to meet a few of my friends, guys like Alex Schlinski. yesterday you had my boss, right? Wesley was in there. we also brought in Neil Patel yesterday. So you you’ve had a really cool opportunity to meet a lot of other people. any any big takeaways from some of those guest speakers that would you think are is powerful have been powerful for you?
Mckinlee Suitors (23:11.075)
Yeah.
Mckinlee Suitors (23:25.767)
Yeah, well, so I I kind of I already mentioned Wesley’s a little bit ago, but I’ve actually been making recap reels of each speaker. I have one for Michael coming up, Michael Ramer did one for Alex Schlinsky. And I would say a takeaway that was really cool from Alex was first of all, incredible at his skill set. Like it I I was literally watching his training videos before we hopped on because I was like
I need to get better at this. but very, very generous and like, you know, was just so willing to help and you know, give away like all of his secrets because a lot of the stuff I was like, wow, this is so good. Why is he giving this away? but he’s just very, very generous and it’s really cool to see people who have made it and but still recognize like, you know, we all start somewhere and just have the heart to be like, you know, I wanna help these kids out, you know, because we’re all
We’re all trying to learn and yeah, I think like just generosity and yeah, that’s definitely a takeaway I got from him for sure. Of of of course the sales skills of course, but yeah.
Tyler Jorgenson (24:31.65)
Yeah, that’s it’s strong. Yeah. But you know, I think that’s that’s says a lot about you that the lessons are important, right? And what they’re teaching you, but what you’re learning about the people is just as important. And so, and in my life I’ve definitely learned as I’ve watched many people in business start and grow and fail and recover, is givers gain, right? The people who are are generous, generosity returns. the people who are generous with their time.
Mckinlee Suitors (24:44.361)
Yeah, absolutely for sure.
Tyler Jorgenson (24:59.512)
There is absolutely that conversation of abundance mindset versus scarcity mindset, right? Like helping people grow. Everyone, it’s a rising tide, right? And I I how is that happening at the internship program? Is everyone lifting each other up?
Mckinlee Suitors (25:12.897)
absolutely. Yeah. I mean, a hundred percent. And like we’ve even talked about too, like, a lot of us have occasionally felt the, you know, the thief of like comparison and being like, well, so so’s doing this, dang, I need to be doing that or whatnot. But it’s cool because we all talk about it with each other because we’re all we all get in that, you know, mindset sometimes. But it’s not of like we all want to see each other win, you know, it’s like
We just we all lift each other up. We all help e like all help each other. It’s it’s just great. And kind of like going back to Alex Shalinski’s just generosity, he he gave he wrote his number on the whiteboard for us interns to, you know, reach out to if we needed any help. And I was like, Okay, I’m gonna I’m gonna take Alex up on this, I’m gonna put on my phone. And I had a deal that it was, you know, a twelve K up front, and I got on the call and I didn’t sell right then and there. And I was like
I’m gonna text Alex. I doubt he’ll respond, but I’m just gonna shoot my shot and see if he answers. And he actually he did answer. And not only that, he gave me the like he showed interest and was like, okay, cool. Give me the context. What’s your build out? What do you do? Like, really was invested into what I was doing. I was like, wow, this is really nice. Like, I just and then, you know, gave me some advice on what to do next and kept checking up on me. Hey, has he paid? Has he paid? and
Unfortunately, there were some times I was like, no, he isn’t paid yet. Like, I don’t know if it’s gonna go through. but it did go through, and thanks to Alex, he gave me advice and I implemented that advice and it went through. So it’s just things like that, too, where it’s like, man, you did not have to do that at all. And very, very grateful for that. Cause it also just goes to show that, like, that’s somebody I wanna be like, you know, when I, you know.
grow and wanna I wanna I wanna mimic that. I wanna model that. That’s really cool. Makes a big impact.
Tyler Jorgenson (27:12.982)
Yeah. Yeah, it’s a good good concept of of energy to return back into the universe. As we get into the end here, business is important, right? But so is living. What’s one item on your personal bucket list you’re gonna do here in the next year?
Mckinlee Suitors (27:28.293)
Ooh, I would love, I would love to travel and travel abroad specifically. And if we’re getting really specific, I have my passport, so I know this. I I can do this. I would love to go bungee jumping. I’m like I love adrenaline, a big adrenaline donkey. skydiving wasn’t scary enough, so I wanna try bungee jumping. And yeah, I feel like bungee jumping somewhere abroad would be really cool. Yeah.
Tyler Jorgenson (27:53.399)
Love it. Make it happen. Life doesn’t, but it’s not going to go any slower. So McKinley, thank you so much for coming out on the show and for sharing your experience with the listeners here and to all my biz ninjas, wherever you’re watching, listening, or tuning in, it’s your turn to go out and do something.
