FecundFig - Coral Gables, Florida

Julian C.

When I decided to start my own law firm after dissolving my previous partnership, I knew I didn’t want to put my name on the firm. I reached out to Will Dukes and the team at Fecund Fig to help with branding—coming up with the name, logo, mission statement, vision statement, and everything in between.

From the beginning, the process was smooth and well-organized. I considered other branding firms, but based on my personal relationship with Will and strong recommendations from mutual contacts, I knew this team had the experience and expertise I was looking for, especially in the legal field.

They helped me establish Horizon Private Wealth Law PLLC, handling everything from the firm’s name to its visual identity and branding guide. Throughout the process, they were always on track, punctual with meetings, and made sure everything was reviewed and refined to my satisfaction.

The result has been fantastic. Not having my name on the firm has allowed me to delegate more efficiently—clients now go to my client relations coordinator for non-legal matters instead of expecting to speak with me directly. The brand itself has been well-received, especially among business professionals, who have given very positive feedback on the firm’s name, logo, and overall look.

If you’re a lawyer thinking about handling branding on your own—don’t. Our time is best spent on legal work, and hiring professionals like Fecund Fig is absolutely worth it. They saved me hours of work that I would have otherwise spent struggling through something outside my expertise. The experience was seamless, and I’m incredibly grateful for their work.

Renan D. S.

I left teaching and started my own tutoring “business.” Except I didn’t have any idea of how to run a business. I was a self-employed tutor.

I was doing fine money wise, but I was literally killing myself. I was doing 40 hours of tutoring a week, and then 40 doing all the follow up, prep work, and other business tasks. It was adversely affecting my health, and I had pretty much 0 personal life.

I was a mess. I have really high standards, which is one of the reasons I had a lot of organic growth and referrals. But I didn’t have time to actually work “on” the business. Everything was disorganized, the quality of my instruction was going down, and I was dropping leads all the time.

I wanted to grow and help more students, but I didn’t see how that was possible. I knew there was demand, but I didn’t know how to generate new leads when I needed them, nothing was systematic, and I couldn’t imagine a life where I wasn’t working 80+ hours a week.

Fortunately, one of my best clients said I should look at getting some help in growing the business. A “business tutor” of sorts. He recommended Will Dukes with SalesPartners, who he had worked with before.

It’s now a year later, and I can honestly say that everything has changed. Will was able to help me with my time management and allocation (probably the biggest thing), but also raising my rates, and changing my business model to generate more revenue and hire associate tutors.

Our biggest project was the creation of an SAT Math prep course. He helped me structure the course offering, and pushed me through some of my self-imposed limits on pricing, define a marketing and lead management program that worked with my existing workflows, and provided me some specific sales training to help me convert more leads.

I love having him almost “on call” to help me with prospect and client communications and answer quick questions between our consultations. But the biggest thing is that he helps keep me focused on MY goals, and what I am trying to accomplish.

In the last year, I’ve been able to raise my personal hourly tutoring rate 66% to over $100 an hour. We doubled monthly revenue, and now we are running twice the classes at twice the size, and have increased monthly revenue 6X. My conversion rate has also been ridiculous – pretty close to 99%.

And even though I’m on track to break $250,000 in 2021, the biggest results for me have been that I have dropped personal tutoring from 40 hours a week down to 10, direct clients to my new associates, and can now take 2 days off every week.

The financial stability I have now is empowering. But,the thing that ultimately brings me the most peace of mind, is the confidence I have in my business skills now. I could start any number of businesses to support my lifestyle. And that security is so much better than any “job security.”

I highly recommend Will and the SalesPartners methodology. It has literally changed the trajectory of my life.

Chris C.

I didn’t need any help selling. Having started my career in the car business, solving problems and selling solutions was second nature to me. But my business was stuck.

Because I naturally had the hunters’ mentality, I always had work, but I was constantly having to find new prospective clients, which didn’t leave me a lot of time to actually work on my business. And when we had great months up front, we’d end up with a backlog of work that I’d have to step into, which I meant I didn’t have as much time to prospect the next month. I tried hiring people, but if I took time to properly manage train them, I didn’t have time to sell enough to sustain them. I needed a systematic approach to growing my business and become a farmer, or I was going to be stuck being a hunter forever, and that’s not why I went into business.

I had known Will for years through a common networking organization. This guy was always talking about farming – always! Then I found out he was a legitimate farmer – literally grew up on a farm and had a degree in it! After a long conversation at a networking event one night, I realized he could help me.

While Will gave me and my team some pointers on our sales presentations and offers, what he really focused on was the overall sales process. He got me to laser focus my efforts on my referral network and giving presentations with better “right hook” calls to action, which led to higher quality leads. I put out more meaningful, educational content on our social media channels to strengthen our brand, and he showed me that I could get powerful testimonials from my clients (which we had always felt our clients wouldn’t want to do).

He even dove in to understand the operations side of our business and helped us implement the CRM system we barely used to automate a lot of our processes, improve communication with our clients, and increase our overall capacity to handle more work with the same amount of staff. It took a while to get everything in place, and we definitely had a lot of curve balls thrown at us along the way, but my business is as lean now as it’s ever been and we’re still hitting our goals.

Working with Mr. Will Dukes has been an extreme honor. He listened to our firm’s needs, designed the strategy and he helped us execute it at the macro big picture level and achieve our micro goals. Having his wisdom and knowledge is just the beginning, but having him as a friend is the prize. Thank you Will for your help, support, guidance, but more for your trust. I highly recommend Mr. Will Dukes for all your strategic growth with sales, staff, and marketing.

Stuart D.

I had the pleasure of working with Will to kickstart the new year for my architectural firm, the Debowsky Design Group. Being in the industry for 15 years, I felt it was time to steer towards more significant, high-quality projects. Knowing Will's successful track record with other firms, especially in facilitating team dynamics, I reached out to him.

Will's approach was not just about architecture; it was about understanding our team's strengths and aligning our mindset to achieve larger, more impactful projects. What impressed me the most was Will's ability to foster a collaborative environment. Despite being a small team of nine, everyone felt comfortable contributing, creating a real camaraderie among us.

The day was filled with unexpected but impactful moments. Will used techniques like giant flip charts, encouraging us to share our thoughts openly. As a team accustomed to working remotely, this was a novel experience. Will's patience and skill in drawing out insights from everyone, regardless of their natural inclination to share, were commendable.

One highlight was when he challenged us individually, asking what limits us in our work. The initial confusion among the team, possibly due to my presence as the leader, turned out to be a testament to their lack of perceived limitations. Will's skill as a facilitator shone through, making everyone feel comfortable expressing themselves.

The major takeaways were twofold. Firstly, we recognized the camaraderie within our team, acknowledging that while not perfect, we stand up for and support each other. Secondly, Will guided us towards a collective realization that focusing on fewer, higher-scale projects would be more beneficial.

Reflecting on the day, I appreciate Will's ability to bring out the best in each team member. His patience and warm approach, and unexpected exercises, like the giant flip charts, made the training memorable. The session wasn't just about identifying weaknesses but building a fabric of mutual transparency and commitment among the team.

The true value emerged when we acknowledged the need for readiness. Will's insightful question about being prepared for success lingered with us. We left the session not just with goals for the year but with a heightened energy and momentum, ready to embrace the challenges that larger projects might bring.

Looking ahead, I can see the potential for Will's continued involvement, providing an outsider's perspective and helping us stay on course. The session wasn't just a kickstart; it set the tone for a year of audacious goals and collaborative success.

Alejandro B.

2018 was a great year in my business - but it scared me. I wanted to send a newsletter back in January and realized I didn't have an accurate database of contacts, which led me to realize that my sales "process" was very passive and reactive. There was no intentional design, no systematic follow up, and there were missed opportunities everywhere. I thought that if I had such a great year without any design, what would be like if I had an actual strategy?

I met Will Dukes through a mutual organization, and had heard the success stories from other members about how he had brought focus and intention to their sales and marketing processes. And they were all different scenarios. Will took the time to understand the processes of each industry and particular business, rather than just supplying some cookie-cutter approach.

We engaged back in February on an intensive basis for the first three months to really focus on a campaign to build relationships with commercial lenders and get in front of them on a regular basis. Will helped me focus on giving more talks about the SBA program I provide with groups of bankers, and broaden my reach through content on LinkedIn. In the future, I'll expand this to other key types of referral partners. Since then, will has been helping me with regular interaction to keep me on track and discuss additional improvements in my marketing and sales processes.
I couldn't be happier with the results. Q2 of this year was my best quarter ever in terms of closed business and units of new business. I actually had five deals go all the way from initial inquiry to closing with the 90 days of Q2, which is amazing for my industry (and people say the SBA is slow - not with this guy!). In addition, I hit one of my biggest goals, surpassing 50% market share in Miami-Dade county, which helped my company become the top Certified Development Company in the US.

Ultimately, Will helped me prove that focused effort makes a huge impact. I've now raised the bar, built many more and stronger relationships within the lending community, and on a personal side, the bonus from all of this is really accelerating my plan for paying off student loans and my family being debt-free.
I definitely recommend working with Will.

Ambar M.

I met Will in the South Florida Professionals networking group, and when he offered the “Intriguing Introductions that Open Opportunities” workshop, I was drawn in ('intrigued') by the title and that other established business owners from SFP were participating. I figured if they need to improve their intros, I certainly do.

I'm so glad I attended the workshop. The workshop was thought-provoking, stimulating to my creative juices, and engaging. You're invited and encouraged to think about what problem you help people solve in your line of business. Truly did not disappoint!

Jon B.

I’ve been a networker for years. But I felt that my introductions were getting stale and not precise enough. I was regularly having the afterthought of, "I should have said ... " or "I missed the opportunity to really set the hook."

I have known Will and have been a follower for years. I had to register for his Intriguing Introductions Workshop because every opportunity that presents itself to me that can help me better connect with potential clients is a must-try to attend event.

I was right. It was really beneficial, especially for those that don't get to try out their commercials with different audiences. And the thing that stood out was that this was about "your" commercial, fine-tuning it, and getting feedback from others

It reaffirmed my belief that knowing your business is always better than reading it. You’ve got to be ready to switch it up based on your audience and surroundings.

In my business (and in any business), you have to be confident in what you say, make it short and sweet, and not overload or try to sell, and this workshop helped me continue to do exactly that. The only thing I didn’t understand was why more people that Will is in contact with didn't line up around the block to listen and learn from a real master!

Danais P.

After hearing Will speak at an event, I realized I had not given enough thought to the various types of networking introductions I needed. I always did pretty well at networking events, but introducing myself has always been challenging.

If I have some time, I can always get someone to understand what I do, but in settings where I have a few seconds, people will assume I am a loan broker, which is not good for me. My services are very different and add more value than those of a broker alone, but how could I avoid those assumptions and get the time to explain in more detail?

Fortunately, the workshop, “Intriguing Introductions that Open Opportunities” allowed me to finetune my message, improve it, and make it effective for maximizing my opportunities when networking and meeting people. It was interactive, with useful information and honest feedback from other participants.

I was able to come up with an intro that is definitely better than what I was using, and I will continue working on it: “I ensure business owners have fair and beneficial dealings with financial institutions when the need for capital arises”

Thanks to Will’s workshop, I absolutely feel more confident as these introductions better portray how I add value and will allow me to get more out of the time invested in networking events, and I also feel better prepared for those unexpected opportunities when you meet someone you would like to do business with and need to catch their attention and spark interest.