On this episode of the circuit of Success, host Brett Gilliland interviews Chris Dreyer, the CEO and founder of Rankings.io. Chris talks about his competitive upbringing, his journey to becoming a digital marketer, and his decision to start his own agency. He also discusses marketing tactics, relationship equity, SEO, and branding, as well as the importance of having a coach or mentor and taking care of his health. Chris is looking forward to growing his business and real estate portfolio. Tune in to learn how to unlock your competitive edge!



https://youtu.be/JDEQtDzdK9Y

 

Speaker Brett Gilliland: Welcome to the Circuit of Success podcast. It's the Circuit of Success podcast. With your host. Brett, Dreyer. Speaker Chris Dreyer: Brett, Brett. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Go over. Brett Gilliland visionary wealth advisory. The circuit of success podcast to start this show. Welcome to the circuit of success. I'm your host, Brett Gilliland today. I've got my old buddy Chris Dreyer here. What's up, man? Excited here. Speaker Chris Dreyer: It's good Speaker Brett Gilliland: to have you back in the building. Speaker Chris Dreyer: Yes. Yes. It's changed. It's changed. I miss it. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yes. So Chris used to be in our office building here now. He's living the life in Southern Illinois. Right? Speaker Chris Dreyer: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Southern Illinois Murfreesboro, Marion. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Love it. It's a good area. God's country. Right? Speaker Chris Dreyer: Right. What else? Speaker Brett Gilliland: It's awesome. Well, it's good to have you, man. You are the CEO and founder of rankings, Inc. Five thousand man, five years in a row. Six years in a row. Who's counting? Speaker Chris Dreyer: Who's counting? Who's counting? That's old news. Speaker Brett Gilliland: You know, it's just old news. So six years in a row, man. And, What I think is cool is I I didn't know much about you or your business and, you know, here you are. You're on our second floor and like, what is this rankings dot I o thing? I don't even know what I o is, and it's like, you know, as we've, you know, gotten to know each other, and I've seen you grow over the last five, six, seven years, whatever it's been, It's been amazing to watch, man. Thank you. So, but before we dive into all the great stuff, let's talk about what's made you the man you are today. And go into that back story a little bit because there's a drive that's in there. Oh, yeah. We gotta figure out what that's about. Speaker Chris Dreyer: But let's let's hear. Let's look. Like, what do you wanna know? How far back? Speaker Brett Gilliland: Hey, whatever, can some moments in your life that you think, this Speaker Chris Dreyer: is Speaker Brett Gilliland: probably why I do what I do in today's world. Speaker Chris Dreyer: Yeah. So the audience is probably gonna think I'm a crazy person after some of this, but, let's see. So in I was really competitive in sports, and my dad was like, always drilling me. Like, weekends were practice. It didn't matter. Like, we got the reps in. To the point where, like, some of my friends, like, they would wanna come to practice with the dad, and then they'd come and be like, no. We're never going again. And I was like, yeah, it's practice. It's not shoot around time. Alright. So that kinda Dreyer stem from him. He's very Rick Ricky Bobby esque. Like, second place is the first loser. It was, like, basically my dad. So he pushed me. I went to college. I knew my mom always told me I was a rebel, and I didn't know what I wanted to do. I was honestly a terrible student Speaker Brett Gilliland: I Speaker Chris Dreyer: don't know how I ended up with a history education degree. And I thought I was gonna be a basketball coach and do the collegiate path. Just stay with the competitive side. And I got this job at Herron High School, and I was the detention room supervisor because if you're a supervisor there, it was the same track teaching. So I could do that for two or three years and be a fourth year teacher. Right? And I typed in how to make money Gilliland I took this course. And by the end of my second year teacher, I was making, like, four times the amount doing digital marketing I was teaching. And it was just Speaker Brett Gilliland: time to go. Speaker Chris Dreyer: Time to go. Yeah. Well, I got paid those summers off. So it was like, I get paid the whole summer, and I got this. And I moved to Florida, and my roommates all work from home, and it just wasn't the best environment as a party environment. And my I hit this first Google algorithm that everyone talks about and it took my income down from like, let's say sixteen or like two Wow. Back in, I wasn't the saver of money, or the investor. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Mhmm. Speaker Chris Dreyer: And so I got on Craigslist because that's what you used to do. And I typed in SEO, and I sent off my resume to so many people that I hit their filter, and that's just an insane amount. And I got hire I got three job offers, and most people say Chris, well, which one you did you take? And well, I took all three because they're they're remote full time jobs. I had my team, and they're all agencies. So I got to see what worked, what didn't work, And after about a year and a half of that, I I got the confidence to start my agency. So that's like the fast paced version. There's a lot of chaos and, little things learnings and, Speaker Brett Gilliland: victories and losses. Mhmm. Yeah. So what, when when did you bet on yourself to say, you know, instead of getting this nice gig from these big agencies, I'm gonna bet on myself Gilliland I'm gonna go out and do this on my own. What was that turning point for you? Speaker Chris Dreyer: The real turning point was I had the three agencies because I had a team, and I and I today, everyone talks about delegation and working on your business and SOPs and all these things, but I already had that. I had a knowledge base and processes that my affiliate team was from the Philippines, and I was using a company called OdAS. It's now Upwork. And so I was the best employee to all three jobs. Because the amount of productivity I could do was so much more than everybody else because I had a team behind me. And I that's where I got the confidence always say, you know. Speaker Brett Gilliland: The team behind you is from these other employees. Right? These other companies. Yep. Speaker Chris Dreyer: I I like to say that confidence gives you confidence. You probably heard a version of that. And I just the confidence increased enough to where I started the agency. And just from a math perspective, it was like, I only needed a handful of retainers to to make the equivalent of what I was from a salary perspective. And I knew that I could hustle and do it, and that's what I did. Speaker Brett Gilliland: It's just a math problem at that point. Right? Yeah. So, for that, so you started that, and and I think what I've appreciate it over time watching you. What what I think is also scary for a lot of people is you you went into a niche market. Speaker Chris Dreyer: Right? Oh, yeah. Speaker Brett Gilliland: I'm only gonna work with lawyers. Right? Attorney lawyers. Was that scary? And if so, how did you overcome that? Speaker Chris Dreyer: The scary, yes, different aspects of it. Right? The the first thing I thought was I didn't have I was under capitalized, And I knew that if I was gonna hit multiple industries, I need to have a lot of capital to really have the best chance to succeed. I know there's a lot of stories of other people that did it, but so I looked at Gilliland being transparent, there's a status component to legal. It's not like you're doing home services for you know, pest control, not saying anything's wrong with pest control companies. There's a little status component there. It's been around for a long time, so a little bit more insulated to from risk versus new tech or AI or web three or whatever, not to say those aren't emerging too. And I made that decision, but the real decision that I did was different is I took not only legal, but I did a subset for personal entry law. And that was the real scary part because it's, like, I'm saying no to all these areas of law, and I'm only gonna focus on this one. So my Tom, significantly smaller. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. Yeah. And so when you think about that, then how did you go about marketing yourself? Right? So if you're a new agency, I could work with this big guy or a big gal, New York or, you know, California wherever. How did you differentiate yourself to then get the client? Speaker Chris Dreyer: Yeah. That's a that's a a big question here, right, is differentiation. And back in the seventies, this term evolved, and it was a USB. That's when it came about. But really what it what it meant was how are you distinct? How are you distinctive in the market? One way to be distinctive is to be the best and to be to focus on a certain area. There's perception that you're the best in that field, but, you know, you gotta remember every brain surgeon has their first brain surgery. There's a perception there no matter what you know about them from their background. So that was that was part of it. The a lot of times people talk about marketing and and doing different tactics, and they miss the relationship equity. And for example, even in the legal space, I don't I don't know the top criminal defense firms or family law, besides maybe some locally they hear on the radio. But in the PI, there's an awareness that comes about, and you kinda move up the ladder from a relationship equity. And now, you know, I know Morgan and Morgan. I know Mike Papantonio, but it took time to develop that. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. So how did you do that, though? So, like, the yeah. I mean, so because I think about it in my world too is trying to find the people that I've been able to be around, you know, in my career.

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