Education-first: The Story Behind Colby Flood and Brighter Click’s Mission to Make a Difference

Colby Flood is the Founder of Brighter Click, a digital agency that helps improve eCommerce stores’ paid social performance by 2-3x by implementing a tested social media ad process. When Colby was an in-house marketer, he noticed the agencies he hired had a major issue – communication. 

In 2019 Colby founded Brighter Click to create an education-first agency that focuses not just on performance, but on proactive communication driven by education. They’ve since seen a record amount of growth as from 2020 – 2021 they grew over 300%.

Here we sit down with Colby to learn about his journey as an entrepreneur.

What inspired you to become an entrepreneur?

Colby: On January 4, 2016, I walked out of rehab with four months of sobriety from opiate addiction. I was 21 years old with no college degree or money to my name. I had three court cases for drug possession hanging over my head with a max sentence of 10 years and 3 months. Those legal troubles caused barriers as I began the sobriety journey and stuck with me even until this day as I was found guilty of felony possession of marijuana during the trial.

I couldn’t qualify for student loans to go back to college or find many employers that wanted to give me jobs or allow me to move up far within the company.

With your back against the wall, how did you get started in digital marketing? 

Colby: It started in 2016 when I became a business student and worked around the clock teaching myself everything I could. While working 70-80 hour weeks, doing day shifts, night shifts, and any shift I could get, I began teaching myself everything about my dream career as a digital marketer.

I ordered books off Amazon, took free and paid courses online, scoured business publications, attended any virtual marketing conference I could, and I took short-term marketing gigs that paid next to nothing to get the experience I needed.

I taught myself from 2016 to 2019 and gained experience doing copywriting, email marketing, website design, organic social media, and paid social media. In 2019 I founded Brighter Click and began to focus exclusively on paid media for eCommerce companies.

Fast forward to December 2020, I hired my first team member, and over the next 12 months, Brighter Click saw a 300% growth in revenue. The company grew to seven team members, including myself.

300% growth in one year sounds like a rapid pace, but it was a lifetime of work, not just one year. 

What methods are you using to spread your mission of education first?

Colby: We pay for continued education opportunities for our team. I personally share value over podcasts and the Entrepreneur Leadership Network and Forbes Business Council. 

We provide communication led by education to our clients, and our long-term goal is to create free educational programs for people in their 2nd opportunity in life.

People overcoming addiction, War veterans returning home from the military, Professionals at a turning point in their career and People in lower-income areas and countries who cannot afford college or educational resources.

Why? Because I understand how important it is to have access to education.

What are some lessons you’ve learned that you’d like to share with any new founders getting into their entrepreneurship journey?

Colby: Invest in your business as early as you can by finding an operations consultant that specializes in your industry and business model. Having a consultant that is niched to your business type will reduce your learning curve on everything from delivery processes to hiring and training. 

Also slowing down to speed up. Movement does not always equal progress, and sometimes it takes slowing down and planning things out to progress forward.

Networking is the most important thing you can do as a B2B business owner and is what will move the needle the most in the long term. Building a proper community around you will help speed up your growth by learning from their lessons and advice and it will help drive lead referrals. 

It’s easy enough to let life tear you down, but Colby’s story is evidence that if you want to make it you will. Learn as much as possible, dedicate yourself to education and growing your circle, and invest in those around you. To keep up to date with Colby and BrightClick, connect with them on Linkedin and Instagram.