Jake Summerhayes

Working with founders and business Leaders to craft powerful and authentic personal brands. 

Why? Because reputation matters. 

- 82% of customers trust a company when their senior management members are active on social media

- Brand messages are shared 24x more on personal accounts compared to company accounts

- Customers are willing to pay 13.5x more for elite industry experts

Yet only 1% of LinkedIn's 700 million users share weekly content. 

Our mission at Kurogo is to solve that.

Kurogo is derived from the Japanese ‘Kuroko’ referring to the black clad stagehands in traditional Japanese theatre.

The convention of wearing black implying the invisibility of the wearer on stage. 

We are your Kurogo. 

Directing, driving and delivering your personal brand from the background. 

Giving you the spotlight to excel in what you do best.

Head Of Client Services

Client: “Content approved, no changes”
Me (a nearly 30-year-old man ):

Client Services Director @ Kurogo | We create thought leaders through Personal Branding

“Who the fuck is Steven Bartlett?”

That was the response my Mrs had a few years ago when I said I wanted to watch Dragon's Den, because it was his first season.

This marketing bubble is much smaller than you think.

Go and touch some grass.

Just admit it, you’re never going to look at that saved post again…

I’m 29. I lead client services at a remote agency. 

My day: 

7:00am-1:00pm Work
1:00pm-3:00pm Break
3:00pm-4:30pm Work

Honestly any structure other than this would be bullshit, because it changes everyday.

My metrics for success are:
- Client Retention
- Team Happiness
- Team Performance

And whilst there is a list of tasks and responsibilities that fall under the pursuit of those, every day, week or month ends up being different. 

Things come up, priorities shift and I’m given the freedom to be flexible.

As long as we’re growing the business, and making progress towards those metrics, nothing else matters.

I am really not looking forward to 2026 

It's going to be an incredibly tough year for myself and Kurogo.

We're going to be dealing with a lot of consequences of 2025.

- Hitting Record MMR multiple times
- Crossing the £1,000,000 ARR mark
- Having our largest team yet 
- Having our biggest social ever
- Signing a record number of clients 
- Records across all client delivery metrics
- Record campaign performance metrics 

These are all huge problems because now we have to beat them again this year.

AND I need to hire a bunch of people to help us do it.

My steak is too juicy and my lobster is too buttery.

If you can be arsed being a part of it, keep an eye out on all personal and company socials.

We'll be releasing some roles soon...

I once fired a client during their onboarding call. 

They spent less than 15 minutes on the books.

What did the job was they were throwing around phrases like:
”What guarantees do I have after the contract ends?”
”This other agency offered me x, y and z”
”Can we add a refund if I’m not happy?”

(Bearing in mind they had already been back and forth with the sales team for over a month)

But these things weren’t the issue; they never are. 

Just symptoms of someone who’s jumped into something before they were ready. The reasons for which ultimately don’t matter. 

As soon as it becomes obvious we’re starting off on that foot, it’s best we end it before we both have a shit time and the regret spirals into resentment.

Like my first relationship
- I didn’t actually fire them, it was ‘mutual’ of course
- They went with someone else and came back a few months later
- We had a great time for 6-months and parted ways amicably 

Alls well that ends well.

When people say social media is cyclical this is what they mean…

4 years ago, I joined Kurogo as their 4th hire.

We’re now up to 20 of us with over £100k MRR.

In honour of that anniversary here’s my 4 biggest lessons beginning with f….

- Fucking focus: 1 thing done well is better than 10 things done poorly.
- Fuck Hustle Culture: Slow is smooth and smooth is fast, stop rushing
- Fucking Plan: It will never go the way you think, but it gives perspective.
- Fuck being scared of feedback: It’s never personal, but it is necessary.

4 years, 4 f’s, very fucking worth it. 

Here’s to another year of doing what we do. Sometimes wrong, mostly right, never boring.

Bonus For 2026: Fuck your shit AI content (still)

I check one number every week: client churn. If it's high, nothing else matters.

Most agency owners obsess over new leads.

But if your clients keep leaving, you’re running on a treadmill.

Acquisition feeds your ego. Retention feeds your bank balance.

Every Monday, I review churn with my senior team. If that number’s not low, nothing else in the business works. You can pile on as many new clients as you want-it’s like running a bath with the plug out.

Here’s what moved our retention from “average” to “best-in-class” in the last 6 months:

1. Set real expectations.
Tempting to promise the world in sales calls. But if you do, you’ll deal with unhappy clients and refunds. Be clear about what they get and what they don’t.

2. Nail the first 30 days.
Onboarding sets the tone. Give them a win in the first 48 hours. Show progress, no matter how small. Always tell them what’s next. Uncertainty kills trust.

3. Over-communicate.
We send weekly roundups: what we did, results, stats, next steps. Monthly reports give the big picture. Never let a client wonder if you’re working for them.

4. Do what you say, when you say.
Missed deadlines are worse than missed features. I left an agency once, not because they failed to deliver, but because they never did it on time. Consistency > fireworks.

5. Incentivise your team on retention.
Forget fancy bonus schemes. Reward your team for keeping clients. Simple target, simple reward.

Retention is not just about service. It’s about trust, clarity, and doing the basics right every time.

Want to scale? Obsess over churn.

ps. Save this post for the week you feel like you’re losing clients faster than you gain them.

Every business has three core systems:

1️⃣ Acquisition (get attention and leads)
2️⃣ Value Delivery (give clients what you promised)
3️⃣ Infrastructure (everything behind the scenes)

Most people scale the first one too early. 
They pour fuel on the fire before fixing leaks.

Here’s my rule: Don’t scale until less than 10% of your clients have problems. 

If you ignore this, you only scale the headaches.

Client experience is the same. 

Call clients at key points. 
Ask where the process broke. 
Use their feedback to smooth the journey.

Acquisition feeds your ego. Retention feeds your bank balance.

Everyone loves chasing new clients. Feels good. Makes you look busy. But if you can’t keep them, you’re running a business with the plug out.

Here’s what I see all the time:

- People refuse to work for free, saying they’re “worth more.” They spend 6 months searching for that first paid client.
- Meanwhile, the ones willing to work for free land their first client in 30 days, get proof, and start charging real money within 60.
- The ego crowd is still arguing about their value. The others are building a real business.

You don’t need to quit your day job to start. Validate your offer. Get a few case studies. Then focus on what actually matters: keeping those clients.

Retaining clients is where the real game starts. Most people obsess over acquisition. But acquisition is vanity. Retention is sanity.

Here are 5 things that have doubled our retention rate in the last 6 months:

1️⃣ Set real expectations. Overpromise in sales and you’ll create unhappy clients who leave fast. Be honest about what you deliver.

2️⃣ Nail the first 30 days. Give your client a clear win within 48 hours. Remove uncertainty. Let them know what happens next. First impressions stick.

3️⃣ Weekly communication. Every Friday, we send clients a roundup: what we did, what worked, and what’s next. If you don’t remind clients of your value, they’ll forget it.

4️⃣ Do what you say, when you say it. I’ve left agencies-not because the work was bad, but because promises weren’t kept. Reliability beats over-delivery every time.

5️⃣ Incentivise your team for retention. Tie bonuses to client stickiness, not just acquisition. The team cares about what you measure.

If you can’t retain clients, you’ll never scale. It’s that simple.

Acquisition is loud. Retention is quiet-but it’s where the money is.

Save this for the days you’re tempted to chase shiny new leads.

Most businesses are hemorrhaging money on "leads" that never buy anything.

I've seen companies spend £50k+ per month and get maybe 2-3 actual customers.

Here's the thing everyone gets wrong:

More leads ≠ More sales

What you actually need are qualified prospects who are ready to buy.

That's what we do at Adbetter.

We don't just drive traffic. We deliver prospects who convert.

How?
→ Every lead goes through 10+ qualification checkpoints
→ Phone verification (because fake numbers waste your time)
→ Multi-step forms that filter out time-wasters
→ Only pay for leads that meet your exact criteria

Results speak louder than promises:
→ One property client sold £125M worth of real estate to our leads
→ 1400% increase in lead volumes while reducing cost-per-lead by 16%
→ 5.8x ROI achieved for cosmetic surgery within 4 months
→ 467% increase in sales volume with 83% lower cost-per-sale

Here's what I've learned after helping clients generate hundreds of millions in revenue from leads we've delivered:

Most agencies optimise for vanity metrics. We optimise for revenue.

Most agencies want to get paid whether they generate quality leads or not. We have skin in the game.

Most agencies deliver leads that look good on paper but never pick up the phone.

The difference?

We only get paid when you get genuine, qualified prospects.

No fluff. No fake numbers. No "leads" that ghost your sales team.

Currently building: Something that's going to solve the biggest problem in lead generation - the broken feedback loop between your ads and your sales team.

Think: Smart forms that qualify prospects → Rich lead data for your sales team → Custom reporting that tracks every lead → Feeding quality signals back to ad platforms so they get smarter.

Can't say much yet, but if you're tired of ad platforms optimising for junk leads, watch this space!

P.S. If you're spending money on ads and not getting the quality of leads you need, message me. I'll tell you exactly what's going wrong (for free).

Tom Richards

If you’re waiting 30 minutes to call a lead, you might as well burn your ad budget.

It sounds harsh.

But the data doesn’t lie.

We audit sales processes for new clients all the time.

And the most common killer of ROI isn’t the ad copy, the creative, or the targeting.

It’s speed to lead.

Here is the brutal reality of the "5-Minute Golden Window":

If you call a lead within 5 minutes vs. 30 minutes:

👉 You are 100x more likely to contact them.
👉 You are 21x more likely to qualify them.

Wait just 10 minutes?

You are 4x less likely to qualify that lead than if you’d called at the 5-minute mark.

(That is a terrifying drop-off for just 300 seconds of hesitation).

We spend hours obsessing over lowering Cost Per Lead by a few pence.

But if your sales team is taking an hour (or even days) to pick up the phone, none of that optimisation matters.

The lead has already moved on.

Likely to your competitor (30% of them do exactly that).

Don’t let your ad spend die in a voicemail box.

Tighten the process. Pick up the phone.

Speed pays.

Stop wasting money on leads that don’t convert | Founder @ Adbetter | Building lead gen software that makes your ads smarter

Google Ads doesn't care about your lead quality.

It cares about hitting your conversion targets.

And if you're only tracking form submissions, you've basically told Google: 
"Get me as many form fills as possible, as cheaply as possible."

So that's exactly what it does. 

Bots, tyre kickers, competitors, people who'll never buy. 

All count as "success."

This is why most lead gen campaigns die after a few months. Google burns through the easy conversions, then starts scraping the bottom of the barrel for cheap clicks.

Your CPL stays low. But your sales team wants to murder you because the leads are worthless.

The problem isn't Google. 

The problem is you never taught Google what a good lead actually looks like.

Offline conversion tracking solves this. You connect your CRM to Google Ads. Upload which leads actually closed into revenue.

And Google's algorithm finally understands the difference between a £10k customer and someone who filled in a fake email. 

It stops chasing cheap form fills. Starts finding real buyers.

I've watched this fix campaigns that were completely broken: one client was getting 40 leads a week at £75 each. Sales team closed maybe 2.

We set up offline conversions. 
Lead volume dropped to 28 per week. 
CPL went up to £95. 
But closed deals went from 2 to 7.

That's what happens when Google knows what it's optimising for.

Most setups are botched though. Missing tracking parameters, wrong conversion values, dodgy timestamps.

But when it's done properly? Completely different platform.

DM me if you need help auditing your setup 👊

Who actually wakes up in the morning and thinks:

“I really hope I get sold to today.”

(Spoiler: Absolutely nobody)

Yet, look at 90% of lead gen funnels out there. They drive cold traffic directly to a form that says: “Book a Free Consultation.”

Let’s be real about what that actually means to a user. 

It means: “Give us your number so our sales team can chase you for the next two weeks.”

That is a huge ask. 

And if you’re asking for that level of commitment, the value exchange has to make sense.

A lead form is a transaction. 

👉 They pay with their data (privacy/time). 
👉 You pay with value (insight/solution).

If your “value” is just the opportunity to speak to your sales guy… …you’re going to have a very expensive Cost Per Lead.

Instead of “Book a Call,” try offering something they actually want right now:

1️⃣ A custom ROI calculator. 
2️⃣ A specific audit of their current setup. 
3️⃣ A pricing breakdown (without the gatekeeping).

Stop selling the phone call. Sell the outcome of the call.

If the value isn't clear, don't expect them to put their hand up.

If you don't know these 3 numbers, you're burning money on lead gen campaigns.

Every week, we speak to new prospects who tell us their ads "aren't working."

When I ask them to show me the numbers, they can't.

They know their cost per click. Maybe their cost per lead.

But they have no idea if those leads actually make them money.

Here's what I ask them:

→ What's your average customer worth over 12 months?
(Not the dream client. The average one)

→ Out of 10 qualified leads, how many actually buy?
(If you're not tracking this, you're flying blind)

→ What does it cost you to get one of those leads?
Let's say it's £100 per lead, and 1 in 10 converts.
That's £1,000 to acquire a customer.

If that customer is worth £5,000 over the year?
Brilliant. Your ads are printing money.

If they're worth £700?
Your funnel is broken. Fix that before you blame the ad platforms.

The truth is, most businesses waste thousands every month because they never do this basic calculation.

They look at vanity metrics instead of cash flow.

And if you want to take it to the next level?

Pass those down-funnel sales metrics back to Google and Meta.

So the algorithm can learn which leads are making you money...

...and which leads are costing you.

That's when campaigns go from profitable to predictable.

PSA: Your landing page is not your website.

And treating it like one is costing you money.

I see so many businesses pumping £££ into Meta and Google, only to send that traffic to a page that talks exclusively about themselves.

“We were founded in 2010.”
“We have state-of-the-art technology.”
“We are the market leaders.”

Boring. 😴

And more importantly: ineffective.

When we build a funnel, we look at the emotional drivers. 
Why is someone actually considering buying?

It’s rarely about the “product.”

It’s usually about:

👉 Status
👉 Security
👉 Saving time

If your page is text-heavy with product info but light on empathy, you’re just paying for clicks to bounce.

You have seconds to capture attention.

Don’t waste them talking about yourself.

Talk about their problems. Talk about their goals.

It’s a simple switch.

But it’s the difference between a campaign that burns cash and one that scales. 📈

What’s the biggest emotional driver for your customers? 👇

Paid Search lead generation is simple, right?

Pick some keywords, write an ad, and wait for the phone to ring.

That’s what the gurus sell you.

But the reality?

If you treat Google Ads like a vending machine (put money in, get leads out) without understanding the mechanics, you will get eaten alive.

We see the same 15 mistakes destroying lead quality and cost time and time again.

Here is our "Avoid at All Costs" list ❌:

1. Broad Match + Max Clicks: The fastest way to burn budget on irrelevant clicks.

2. "Interested in" Location Targeting: Targeting people interested in your city, not in it.

3. Search Partners: Often low-quality inventory that dilutes your CTR.

4. Ignoring Negatives: Paying for clicks looking for "free", "jobs", or "cheap".

6. No CRM Integration: You can't optimise for revenue if you don't know which leads closed. 

7. Generic Ad Copy: If you sound like everyone else (by using AI), you lose. 

8. Smart Bidding too early: Automating chaos just creates faster chaos. 

9. Ignoring Attribution: Giving 100% credit to the last click is 2010 thinking.

10. Sending traffic to Homepages: Remove the navigation bar. Focus the user.

11. Weak CTAs: "Submit" is not a call to action. 

12. Slow Mobile Speed: If it takes 3 seconds to load, they’ve already bounced.
 
13. No Offline Tracking: Google needs to know which leads were qualified. 

14. Unnecessary Form Friction: Asking for their life story on the first date.

15. Leaving Auto-Apply ON: You're handing Google a blank cheque. 

Google Ads isn't pay-to-win.

It's pay-to-play. Strategy is how you win.

Any I've missed? 👇

Nobody cares about your brand.

(Sorry, but it’s true)

When a prospect clicks on your ad and lands on your page, they aren’t looking for a history lesson.

They aren’t looking for your company values. And they certainly aren’t looking for a list of your awards.

They are looking for one thing:

A solution to their problem.

If your landing page is “me-focused” (look at our features, look at our office dog), you’ve already lost them.

Your page needs to be “you-focused.”

It has to prove you understand their pain points better than they do.

Because deep down, people don’t buy products. 
They buy emotional outcomes:

👉 Security (I won’t get fired for choosing this) 
👉 Status (This makes me look good) 
👉 Opportunity (This gets me ahead) 
👉 Relief (This stops the headache)

If your landing page is loaded with product specs but says nothing about their actual goals...

You’re wasting budget on traffic that will never convert.

So, take a look at your current landing page.

Is it a brochure about you? Or a mirror for them?

Get that right, and the leads will follow.

taplio

The Battle

Jake Summerhayes

Tom Richards

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreJake Summerhayes's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreTom Richards's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Jake Summerhayes

Tom Richards

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Jake Summerhayes's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreTom Richards's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreJake Summerhayes's LinkedIn Performance