And do you guys do any of the Customization like the like CSS side of Things just like do you have dashboard Templates or something just to Differentiate the look and feel are you Guys just focused on building tools So we're focused on building tools in Fact I don't know if you went to our Website it's ugly as hell like there's This there's a reason why it's ugly it's Like we don't want you to think that This is some flashy stuff it's very Mechanical what you're getting is is Actual tools [Music] Episode of the high level satellite Sessions where we showcase awesome Marketers doing awesome marketing today I'm excited to be joined by Mo Z he's The founder and CEO of ghl Essentials a Company focused on making your high Level unique from the competition Mo Thanks so much for coming on Thank you thank you for having me I'm excited to have you here Um I saw some people shouting you out in The community for cool stuff that you Had uh built them and I was like well Let's get this guy on the show to talk About what he's been doing so talk to me What's the origin story how did you get Into the industry how did you find high Level So high level was actually
Um uh you know it was a it came into my Life at a point where I I was where my Business was very chaotic so I had va's I had appointments coming in for my own Agency and uh There were I didn't I was getting like Shape here and all of these different Softwares for every client that was Onboarding it was it was all over the Place and Um and then I found out about high level And I realized and back then uh there Was no SAS mode right there was just Agency mode but you guys had the zapier Um where you can create the locations And that changed my life where the Client would come in they'd get a you Know a video uh course on how to get Things done they get an account created They get an email and that that Absolutely changed my life and then from There what happened was I have some experience coding and I Realized hey like we could actually add Features in there So I'm running a real estate marketing Agency and I'm like oh I can I can add In a uh you know lead cost calculator or I can add in a method to Um What do you call create ad templates That you can then just copy and paste Into your ad into your ad account and That's when people start getting
Interested in what I was doing and Started asking for the features for Themselves and I was like hey maybe There's business there and so that's Where kind of ghl Essentials started From that's awesome so I was going to Ask you do you have a development Background that sounds like you do Hopefully everybody's watching knows That you can add custom CSS and JavaScript to your accounts which kind Of opens up a lot of doors and talk to Me about that freedom as somebody who Knows how to code being able to inject Your own JavaScript So yeah they they you know the freedom Is massive and and the weird thing is That uh And and people that have been oh geez Like have been in uh the high level Group and in the community development Community for a while now uh know how You know the the CSS and the uh JS box Are very small boxes in the settings Area and so when when I first started Out I'm like oh you know I guess it's For some tweaks or whatever and now like Because they're just small there's no Like there's no Development Center it's Just a small box right but now if you Look at what's going on it's like those Small boxes have completely changed Everything uh so I started off with very Small tweaks and like creating buttons
Here and there and then I saw other People doing some crazy stuff I'm like Holy like I can do so much more uh With you know and the possibilities were Endless so so yeah we did some crazy Stuff uh uh using I mean it changes Everything because without that you Can't stand out uh from the marketplace But just just having the CSS box and Changing the look right uh can make you Uh you know can separate you and then Obviously adding custom features uh the Thing I like about the JS box it allows You to add features that are uh industry Specific right so if I'm in real estate I can add real estate features like one Of my very first features that I created Were like three buttons which when when Clicked would give you a pop-up of three Different Scripts right so as someone's In the power dialer they can you know Depending on the situation they can Click that button and a script pops up While you know so and that changed the Game for us So um yeah I can do a lot of stuff it's Amazing power dialysis very cool so so You've got a whole Suite of add-ons that You've built and I want to talk about as Many as we can but what's the one that You would say has been the most popular So there have been two that have been Popular uh one is the phone number Verification so uh there was people were
Using um You know workflows or like workarounds Uh using workflows and triggers to get People to confirm their number by you Know sending a one-time code but that Code would never change and the lead Would submit through the survey and then They'd have to like kind of go back to The survey and submit a code or Something so we came out and we're like Hey how do we how do we prevent people From submitting survey uh if they don't Enter a code that's sent to their uh you Know phone before they you know complete The survey Um so that that's you know people love That and they you know people like Because we're in the most of the people Are in the lead game right and so the More quality of the lead is uh the more Valuable it is to their clients so That's been very popular Your own two-factor authentication in a Way yeah so we we ended up using like uh Basically this is what I like about high Level as well because because you guys Allowed um you know the twilio Integration everyone had twilio so what We did is we created our own program We're like hey you know the Toyota keys That you use in a high level you can use Them in our program and when you put Them in we send a quote out to your uh Users you know so we use their 20 to
Send out code and uh prevent uh Submitting um of surveys very cool Interesting and so what was the other One Uh the other one uh is okay so the other One is kind of competing they're two That compete with each other uh and They're the webinar uh Auto webinars and The uh what do you call the video Conferencing so the auto webinars was uh You know before high level was tracking Videos we came out with video tracking And we were tagging people based on the Amount of uh video time watched right And you could uh cust add custom tags You know it was all in in a way like we Give you a snapshot and in the funnel Builder you can add in Um the custom tags you wanna you know Based on the timestamp so you put the Timestamp in you put the custom tag in And then if if someone watches it that You know crosses that uh timestamp it Tags them and it also shows buttons and Sections that are hidden that show up at A specific time uh that someone watches At but the cool thing was we took that That initial idea of like Popping things up and we integrate it With the um the appointment uh uh what Do you call the booking calendar right So then we're like hey the only time Someone can someone can watch a video is If they have an appointment at that time
Right they don't have an appointment They get sent to like the registration Page Right uh or if the time has passed they Get sent to webinar ended page right or Uh and then like if if the time passes Then they get an email With a webinar replay but it was all Built in a way where It was automated webinars people could Not like differentiate between live and Um you know what we were doing which was Recorded automated And um and it was uh it was bulletproof In the sense that you couldn't watch it Unless you were registered for that time Uh which again did not exist within high Level people were using different Softwares and initially the entire idea Behind before ghl centrals was how do I Decrease the need for all these other Softwares sure right of course yeah That's where we built the webinar that's Very cool I'm curious how did the video Um the video tagging stuff work did you Have to use a specific uh video player Yeah so so we uh it was all built on Vimeo right so the the we had code in There that would uh Uh because venue has a very like it's Very documented API so you can you can Add uh in cue points so at every you can Go like hey like so so in the settings Or in the in the funnel settings you
Could like you know the way we had it Built out was you could add in custom Timestamps and the custom tags so when The page loaded we'd add cue points on Those timestamps so as soon as someone Crossed that it would tag them And because it was uh Auto webinars There was no it's not like people could Skip ahead right so every cue point was Hit because it was an auto automated Webinar one cool thing we did uh which Again surprised a lot of people uh was Um because it was because we we focus on The um the appointment slot so much uh What we did was the video like suppose Suppose like your appointment starts at 4 pm uh or like your registration or Like the webinar starts at 4 pm if you Show up at four or five the video Doesn't just start from the beginning You know it skips ahead oh cool five Minutes yeah so yeah you catch it five Minutes later yeah so it was all done in A way where you couldn't tell if it was Uh That's pretty cool I like it and you Still have that running right yeah Very cool What about um You a simple one that I thought is great Is just the auto completion of addresses Right you start typing in address and it Pulls I'm assuming from Google Maps API Yeah yeah so uh I was one of the first
People that did this and then there's Tom Bristol there are a couple people That did this I just did it for myself I Didn't know that other people need it or What not uh so that's that but yeah so I I was we we created it much later than Uh other other people yeah in the space Very cool so what else have you built What what are you most excited about now Are you working on anything new So So there's we're taking a different Direction which I can get into in a Second but one of the features that I Really like is the video conferencing Feature because it allows you to do Video conferencing uh without having Zoom right so it allows your clients to Do video conferencing right from ghl so Again making it an all-in-one software And Um and so that was all built on twilio Video they have a video API and the cool Thing about that is if you're having a One-on-one conversation And it's not being recorded it's free For as long as you want I think it's like 24 hours And then they boot you out but Uh but it's very scalable so we have so Many clients right now that Um you know they have meetings right They have meetings going on and I don't Know if you've dealt with this in your
Agency or you know even with coaching or Consulting I've noticed this with mine because I Had a website agency as soon as you Start creeping up to that 40 plus year Old people They they don't have zoom in their Computers you know and I'd have to go Like oh yeah you got to download zoom And all these different things so uh now They don't need to they just go to a Link right and they can they can stream Right from their browser Um yeah that's interesting we've Actually been having this conversation Internally a little bit when we think About building in video conferencing and It's like uh well you know we obviously Know the twilio API very well so it kind Of makes sense to just use twilio but Then also the zoom has such a brand Recognition these days it's like is it Smarter to integrate with zoom Um which has you know some unique Features and whatnot that they offer and I don't know which direction that will Go but I didn't know that's pretty cool That they give you they let you do an Hour at a time for free that's pretty Wild it's not an hour at a time it's up To 24 hours so if it's just you and me It's it's two participants uh without Video recording I I can talk to you for Just sit here all day yeah it'll just
Boot you out after 24 hours and the best Part is you could have 500 of those Rooms Under one sub account Uh-huh you know going on at one time Without getting charged now I'm sure That might change down the line uh but That's what's that that's what they have Right now I think they want people to Adopt um uh the video API uh that's very Cool so then are you just like dropping It on a funnel page for people and Saying hey you can use this URL to video Conference with whoever you need One-on-one no so we have it so so with The video conferencing uh we don't have It built in within a high level we try To do it okay but it was very uh it was It was starting to look very ugly Because we were really trying to fit it Into uh the funnel pages and like there Was no video resizing it was very weird So we uh have it on our own servers and You just add it as a custom menu link Um and the best part about that is we Allow Um the domain to be white labeled so It's not as if you know you're giving Our domain to your clients no you Register your own domain and that Connects to basically it would be Whatever domain you want and and that uh You know and it has your own branding so You go to The Domain you'll have your
Logo in there whatnot it's kind of like High level but for video conferencing so You go to like video.whatever.com and Exactly your conferencing link very cool That's awesome I can see that being Super helpful Um For pretty much every business nowadays Right yeah just a tip on the uh uh if You guys are planning between twilio and Uh Zoom I just want to say Zoom Uh Is very Um adamant On their own branding and also very Adamant on people downloading their apps Uh I don't know if you know this but Zoom used to White Label a lot of their Technology to like ring central and Stuff I don't know if you've seen that In the past but like bring Central again Very big company with their uh you know Uh phone systems and whatnot they used To have a video conferencing system that Was white label by zoom and then Zoom Cut their ties around 2020 uh where they Just wanted their brand to kind of take Off so interesting Yeah interesting I didn't know that yeah I mean there's definitely trade-offs Right and it's kind of crazy it still Fascinates me that they have such a Dominant share of brand in the space Right like you know my parents know what
Zoom is they have no idea what the next Competitor I mean what is the next Competitor I mean I don't even know Which one's the the second in the space Um but that's that's like Microsoft Teams and Skype and all these like I Mean Skype came in went right but the Thing about like a zoom is that I feel Like people know it because of the Pandemic if yeah and nothing didn't Happen I don't think they would have had This much of a brand recognition Yeah but no I like the twilio route Because like you said it's your own URL And they just send it out and show up And now you're conferencing that's uh That's really cool I'll definitely pass That feedback about zoom on as well and The cool thing is that you know like you Wouldn't think that it's so Advanced but Because it's in the browser like right Now on zoom we're on the computer so you Can go like hey I can have green green Screen or whatnot but like in in the in Our Toy app you could have custom Backgrounds so like you could have a Cool coffee shop and yeah virtual Background stuff it's pretty cool yeah That's awesome so it sounds like they Give you a lot of tools to play with Yeah 100 percent Very cool So anything else that you're excited About that you're working on or you're
Going to build this year So not yeah so we're going a different Route now uh Where you know initially the goal was How do I get rid of the need for Softwares uh so that high level becomes An all-in-one right so we're bringing Zoom in and we're you know we're trying To replace zoom and we're trying to play Replace uh you know the webinar Softwares and whatnot uh now we're Trying to go a different route where We're trying to Uh have our own hosted stuff so it's not A lot of stuff in Zoom it'll be more Custom menu linked but it it's more Um Niche specific so hey what do all Real estate agents need right so right Now we built something that's very in Demand is uh it's um It's scraping uh home value from Zillow And turning that into a bot see like you Know all these people uh have ran ads For home evaluations on Facebook for Ages but they've never been able to give Home valuations uh you know real time It's always been taking me your Information and you know and the person Kind of gets Bamboozled and then you Know you know people follow up with them But like no one's a like it's only Zillow that actually gives real-time Home valuations uh other people don't Have the option to do so uh it's not
Like they they have a choice there so we Ended up using the API and also manually Scraping the website and gave that power To to our users so now you know you can Literally send a real-time value uh to To your uh leads Um so so you know that's just one of the Things and then we have like um Image Creators this is not out yet but like uh You know uh real estate agents post uh Listing images every time they get a Listing they have to post images on Facebook and those images are editing in A way where it says two bedroom two Baths and they usually use canva they go In and they chain things now it's just a Form they fill out and they get their Images so we're trying to go Niche Specific into real estate into Insurance Into solar so that uh no matter what Industry you're in you kind of get a uh Kind of you know you get all the all the You know uh things needed to kind of Separate yourself from from everyone Else in the marketplace yeah that's very Cool Um you mentioned calculator I could see That being big with solar and solar as Well right everybody wants a kind of an Estimate based on yeah we built some Figures from your bill and plug them in Here we built that where we started Scraping um project sunroof which no one Has by the way uh which is Google
Created this thing called project Sunroof where uh they they scan uh the Roofs of houses with the Angles and how Much sunlight they get to to uh to Estimate how much how much savings They're gonna get uh if they went solar And they don't have an API or anything But we went and we created a scraper That gives you a real-time uh value on Savings and stuff so and also a manual Calculator uh that gives real-time Savings we have uh you know we have Plans on getting into the personal Training Niche where you know Um uh clients need uh you know meal Plans and and workout plans based on Their weights bmis what not so we're Gonna include those so yeah so basically Targeting Niche is really cool do you Get much demand from restaurant I've Always been surprised that no one has Built just a really lightweight Reservation system system that bolts on The high level uh where you can manage Tables you know what I mean like you can Kind of hack the high level calendar you Make a user for your table type and Stuff like that Um but I've just been surprised that no One has gone there yet I've I've never thought of doing Anything for restaurants primarily Because I don't know as many people in That space uh and you think a lot of
People avoid it because typically the Space is known as not having a much Money to spend you know what I mean yeah Exactly but there's also another part to It which is the the sheer number of Competitors in that space that are Massively funded so hey who am I to go And create something for hot you know For high level when you know uh you know Open table and uh touch Bistro and all These other companies that are you know Crushing it you know we did this um with Shopify a couple of years ago where Shopify came out with this Um you know like because shopping those Online but they were because because now Like local businesses can accept orders Online uh and then deliver stuff Shopify Came out with their app where you can Estimate delivery routes right the Fastest way to get somewhere and like All for drivers basically for delivery Drivers so you did create something like That for restaurants uh in the pandemic To go from uh you know because because There were people not dealing with Ubereats because it was it was costing Too much so we're like hey you can still Like hire a driver you might have Drivers and you can go online Um but even then like the the demand is So low uh and there's so many people Willing to do so many things for less Just because of the funding they have
Well the interesting thing about the Restaurant industry that's always drove Me nuts is all those companies that you Just mentioned their apis are so stingy Right they don't want you getting access To any of the reservation information And then they all have some sort of like Marketing add-on but it's terrible you Know so it's like okay I have to use one Of these for reservations and I pay a Lot of money and but I can't get the Data out to do better marketing with it And that's why I feel like there's the Opportunity there for somebody to say You know what we'll just build the Reservation piece handle all the Marketing and high level and you could You could I would imagine you could go Do some damage because you'd definitely Be able to undercut like a lot of those Reservation systems are hundreds of Dollars a month like yeah for the Reservation piece the main problem is Like entering like basically breaking Into the market but once you have the Market you can stay there for a while uh One of the things we're coming out with Soon is We're building these tools for niches But we're also going to have General Tools or generic tools because I think That most restaurants and most local Businesses where they fail is Understanding what marketing really is
So hey I work with a chiropractor and I've been working with them for past Three years and I've been sending them Leads and as soon as the leads stop like Facebook's algorithm changes or whatnot They suddenly get very nervous they but They don't look at all the emails that They have all the phone numbers that They have that they could easily call or Shoot an email out uh or not even that Just like uh send a direct mail to the People that are around them right yeah Hey we have an offer going on they don't Think of this I I don't know why that is Maybe they're too focused on their uh uh Craft but these are basic business Marketing things right it's like you Know it's having an audience attack it's Having a customer customer base that you Keep talking to right and so we're Coming out with um A post grid integration where you can Send out mail uh Direct Mail Right Through high level and uh a couple of Other things where You can adopt multi-channel marketing Uh with basically workflows so hey you Know you add someone to workflow they Get an SMS they get a direct mail piece They if they go scan the QR code with The direct mail piece a trigger link is Fired and you know something else Happens So that you know the the business is
Always engage with their customers Right so they never feel like they're Dependent on one channel or one source Of leads right and I think that Ultimately is going to be way more Valuable than something like OpenTable Or whatnot Interesting cool well Mo I have to ask The question I'm sure folks that are Watching that are excited about the Stuff you built are are wondering uh Expecting me to ask is do you build Custom things are you do you take orders From folks that are like I really need This specific thing built for my Industry or do you focus on just the Stuff that you're building uh because You're confident it's gonna work Yeah so uh we used to take a lot of Custom work we rarely take custom work Now uh the only time we take customer Custom work is when someone's willing to Pay a lot of money for it's like hey We're not going to take it we're not Going to take it and then they're like Hey trust me I'm gonna give you so much Money and so that really happens uh but That's the case where we take it and Then the other case we take it in is Where uh we know that the thing that we Develop is ultimately going to be part Of DHL Essentials right so if someone Wants to build kind of early uh we built It and because we know that that base is
Going to be used later on for for Um you know to be sold again and again And so that leads us to the other Question that I have to ask of course Which is how do you sell these can People buy access to the one specific Tool do you sell it as a bundle where You have to buy the whole kit and Caboodle how do you guys price this Yeah so at the moment it's uh it's just 97 a month for everything uh we're Thinking of having uh Specific parts or cheaper Although it's just if if I like like We're we're gonna have all these tools For real estate for solar for all these Different niches for 97 bucks a month uh It's not going to be more uh there might Be a higher plan like for support or Whatever but like there's been so much Demand for the phone number verification When people find out it's like it's you Know it's 97 bucks a month because it's Part of this entire thing they get Discouraged in terms of purchasing it so I was like hey maybe I should you know Just offer that for 20 bucks a month but Honestly when you just get phone number Vacation for 20 bucks a month you're Basically like it's a it's a worse deal Than the 97 a month for everything else That you get right with video Conferencing and a lot of other cool Things so uh at the moment we just have
That one plan And do you guys do any of the Customization like the like CSS side of Things just like do you have dashboard Templates or something just to Differentiate the look and feel are you Guys just focused on building tools So we're focused on building tools in Fact I don't know if you went to our Website it's ugly as hell like this is There's a reason why it's ugly it's like We don't want you to think that this is Some flashy stuff it's very mechanical What you're getting is is actual tools Uh nothing that we do has to do with CSS We might down the line have Partners Where we you know collaborate with other People with TSS but we we suck at csos Like that's you know it's not something That we kind of uh uh specialize in so There there's way more there's way Better people that do CSS That's hilarious and uh I love the fact That you guys do that Um you guys the website is ghl Essentials.com so when you head there You'll you'll see immediately what Mo's Talking about it's it's basically just a Page uh full of a list of the things That they do that you can't even click On really and so it's just there's one Thing that says there's one link that Says more informed features and the only Reason we have that is because people
Kept asking for uh demo videos on Features so that takes you to a you know Go have a little uh landing page that Has videos on the features That's awesome well Mel thank you so Much for coming on I I think on behalf Of the community thanks for all the Awesome tools that you guys built super Cool I love chatting with folks like you That know how to you know build Ancillary things that large number of Large numbers of our community members Want and need and just plug them in and Make them work seamlessly so I I'm Really excited to hear about the stuff You build out industry industry specific We'll have to bring you back on when you Have some of that ready for sure for Sure thanks for having me All right guys ghl essentials.com is the Site check it out thanks for watching And we will see in the next one [Music]
