From Dr. Ben Adkins - Serial Progress Seeker

How to Land Your First 10 Agency Clients Before Anyone Knows Your Name

120+ tested strategies for signing paying clients when you have no portfolio, no testimonials, and no reputation yet. The step-by-step playbook for going from zero to a full pipeline — even if nobody has ever heard of your agency.

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120+ Client-Getting Strategies
4 Real Case Studies
90 Day Action Plan
Before Anyone Knows Your Name – 3D book cover
Dr. Ben Adkins
Dr. Ben Adkins Founder, Serial Progress Seeker

Let me tell you a quick story.

In 2010, I was a chiropractor with a brand new practice, a very empty waiting room, and about $200 left in my marketing budget after printing business cards that nobody was picking up from the sandwich shop down the street.

I couldn't afford a billboard. I couldn't afford a radio ad. I definitely couldn't afford to hire a marketing agency.

So I did the only thing I could afford. I started messing around on the internet.

I taught myself how to build a basic website. I figured out how to get my practice showing up in Google searches. I started posting on social media before most local businesses even had a Facebook page.

Most of what I tried didn't work. But some of it did. And the stuff that worked… worked fast.

Within a few months, other business owners started noticing. The restaurant owner across the street asked how I was getting so many Google reviews. A lawyer friend asked if I could "do whatever you're doing" for his firm.

I said yes to a few of them. Then a few more. Before I knew it, I was running a digital marketing agency on the side of my chiropractic practice.

"By 2013, I sold my chiropractic practice and went full-time into the agency. Since then, the businesses I've built have generated millions of dollars - for me and for the clients I've served along the way."

This book is every strategy I used to build that agency from nothing. And every strategy I've learned, borrowed, tested, and refined in the years since.

I wrote it for you - the agency owner (or soon-to-be agency owner) who can deliver great work but hasn't cracked the code on landing clients yet. The one staring at an empty pipeline, wondering where the first 10 will come from. The one sitting where I sat in 2010.

I've been where you are. I know what it feels like. And I know it gets better.

But here's what I wish someone had told me on day one: you don't need a big-name agency, a portfolio wall, or a decade of case studies to land clients. You just need to get close to the people and institutions that already have the trust you haven't earned yet. Do that, and everything changes fast.

That's what this book will show you how to do.

- Ben
Dr. Ben Adkins  ·  Founder, Serial Progress Seeker
You don't need authority to be good at sales. You need proximity to authority.

The Hardest Part of Running an Agency Isn't the Work

You already know how to get results. You can build the websites, run the ads, manage the social, deliver the SEO. The skills aren't the problem.

The problem is that nobody knows your agency exists yet.

Every prospect you pitch is silently wondering why they should hire you over the established agency down the street. The one with the client logos. The one with the testimonials. The one that's been around for a decade.

You don't have any of that yet. And every piece of "get more clients" advice out there assumes you already do.

This book was written for the stage before all of that exists — when you just need your first 10 clients.

What's Inside the Book

This isn't a motivational pep talk. It's not a high-level overview of "marketing principles." It's a tactical playbook with over 120 specific, numbered strategies you can execute this week - built to take your agency from zero to its first 10 clients and beyond.

Part One

The Leverage Playbook

14 chapters. 120+ numbered strategies for landing clients when you have zero authority. Every strategy falls into one of three core mechanics. Master them and you'll never wonder where your next client is coming from again.

Section 1: Borrowed Credibility

You don't have a reputation yet - so you borrow one. Attach yourself to charities, chambers of commerce, business associations, and well-connected people your prospects already trust. Their credibility transfers to you instantly. Includes cause-based leverage, platform leverage, institutional leverage, data and analysis leverage, community and relationship leverage, and content and education leverage.

Section 2: Risk Removal

When a prospect has no reason to trust you, give them no reason to say no. Structure your offers so the client pays nothing if you don't deliver. Financial risk reversal, speed and availability as trust - models that make your lack of track record completely irrelevant.

Section 3: Manufactured Demand

Engineer the perception of expertise and momentum before the revenue proves it. Social proof engineering, positioning and framing, timing and cultural leverage, outbound strategies that feel like help, marketplace leverage, and meta-plays so bold they generate their own attention.

Part Two

Strategies in Action

Four detailed case studies showing how a chiropractor, a photographer, a financial advisor, and a plumber each used the playbook to build thriving businesses from zero. Why does that matter to you? Because if these mechanics can fill a plumber's calendar with no reputation, they'll fill your agency's pipeline too — and they're the exact same plays you'll run to get results for the clients you land. Different industries, different personalities, same mechanics.

Part Three

Putting It All Together

A week-by-week guide for your agency's first 90 days - from zero to paying clients with real momentum. Plus a closing chapter on the journey from borrowing leverage to earning it to eventually lending it to the next person starting from scratch.

Ready to Land Your First 10 Clients?

Every strategy in this book works even when nobody knows your agency's name. That's the whole point.

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The Three Mechanics That Make Unknown Businesses Known

Every strategy in the book falls into one of three categories. Master them and you'll never wonder where your next client is coming from again.

🤝 Mechanic #1: Borrowed Credibility Attach yourself to causes, platforms, institutions, and people that prospects already trust. Their credibility transfers to you - instantly.
🛡 Mechanic #2: Risk Removal Structure your offers so saying "yes" costs the client nothing if you don't deliver. When risk is zero, your lack of credentials becomes irrelevant.
📈 Mechanic #3: Manufactured Demand Engineer the perception of expertise and momentum before the revenue proves it. In the early days, perception is reality.

A Look at Every Chapter

Over 120 specific, actionable strategies across 20 chapters. Here's what you'll find.

Part One: The Leverage Playbook

Part Two: Strategies in Action

Part Three: Putting It All Together

From unknown to the person everyone wants to be known by.

This Book Was Written for You If…

You've started a digital agency (or you're about to) and you need your first paying clients — fast.

You can deliver the work — web, ads, SEO, social, design — but your pipeline is empty and you're not sure where the next lead comes from.

You've landed a client or two through luck or a friend, and now you need a repeatable way to get to 10 that doesn't depend on who you happen to know.

You're tired of pitching against established agencies with logo walls and case studies you don't have yet.

You're done cold-DMing into the void and want plays that actually make prospects want to talk to you.

Or you're the person I was in 2010. Sitting in an empty room. Wondering how you're going to make this work. Knowing you're capable but not sure where to start.

This book is especially for you.

From Borrowed Leverage to Earned Reputation

There's a moment every business owner who starts from zero eventually experiences.

Someone hires you without needing to be convinced. No pitch. No guarantee. No free mockup. No borrowed credential. They just hire you. Because they heard your name from someone they trust. Or they've been reading your newsletter for six months.

That's the shift from borrowed leverage to earned reputation. And once it starts, it accelerates. One happy client tells three people. Those three become clients who each tell three more.

"You stop running campaigns. You start receiving referrals. You stop explaining what you do. People already know. You stop borrowing. You start lending."

The strategies in this book get you to that moment faster than anything else I've seen in 15 years of building businesses from scratch.

The Promise

If you read this book, pick three strategies, and execute them consistently for 90 days - you will have paying clients. Not because of luck. Not because of timing. Because these strategies have been tested by thousands of people in thousands of markets. They work when nobody knows your name. That's the whole point — and at $27, the only thing standing between you and your first 10 clients is the decision to start.

Common Questions

The case studies aren't about agencies. Will this still work for mine?

Yes. The 120+ strategies in Part One are about landing clients when you have no reputation — that's the exact spot a new agency is in. The case studies use a chiropractor, photographer, advisor, and plumber on purpose: to prove the mechanics work in any market. They're the same plays you'll use to sign your own agency clients, and the same ones you'll run to get results for the clients you land.

I already have a couple of clients. Is this just for total beginners?

The strategies work at every stage. If you have 3 clients and want 30, the leverage mechanics in this book will get you there faster than what you're doing now. It's built to get you past the first 10 — the hardest part — and keep the pipeline full after that.

What exactly do I get for $27?

The complete digital book — all 20 chapters, 120+ numbered strategies, four case studies, and the 90-day action plan. That's it. No upsell required to use any of it, no mastermind to join. Just the full playbook, yours to keep.

When do I get access?

Instantly. The moment your checkout is complete, you'll get your digital copy and can start reading in the next five minutes.

How long is the book?

20 chapters across three parts: the strategy playbook, four real-world case studies, and a 90-day action plan. But it's designed to be used, not just read. Pick one strategy from the first part of the book, execute it this week, and keep reading as you go.

Before Anyone Knows Your Name

Your First 10 Clients Are Closer Than You Think.

The strategies are here. The playbook is open. The only thing left is the decision to start - before you feel ready, before anyone knows your name.

Get the entire book today for just $27.

Get Instant Access – $27

Instant digital download. Yours to keep forever.

From Dr. Ben Adkins  ·  Founder, Serial Progress Seeker

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