The Agency Hour
The Agency Hour is for digital agency owners like you who want to start, grow and scale their businesses. It’s like hanging out with friends while getting a masterclass in how to tackle the most significant obstacles you’re facing as an entrepreneur.
The Agency Hour
The Fastest Way Out
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Hire people who haven't done it before and train them how to do it the way you do it. That's the slowest and as far as I'm concerned, the dumbest way to try and replace yourself in the business. I just don't think it's very enlightened and I don't think it's very empowering to the people that you hire. And I've never I've I haven't seen it work.
SPEAKER_01If you have a vision for the agency you want to build, then we want to help you build it. Welcome to the Agency Hour Podcast, brought to you by Agency Mavericks.
SPEAKER_02Welcome to another episode of the Agency Hour live here in the Digital Mavericks Facebook group. How have you been, crispy butter? I've been well. What have you been up to? What's been the highlight of the last seven days?
SPEAKER_03That's a good question. Well, my birthday was last Friday. Oh, there we go. 74. Another year older. Well Pink Floyd put it. Another day closer to death. Happy birthday, brother. You're an Aquarian. Thank you. I am. I am. And uh I figure I'm about halfway through.
SPEAKER_02Right. That's ambitious. That's ambitious. You can live to 150, eh?
SPEAKER_03115, 111. 111. Wow. Um, so yeah, that's my goal. Um well done.
SPEAKER_02What did you do for your birthday?
SPEAKER_03Uh we kind of laid low because we were we were we actually went out the night before for something else. So we laid low and I cooked some filet mignon and oh and uh oh filet mignon.
SPEAKER_02You're dating yourself now. I remember filet mignon. That's uh wrapped up in bacon and no no no no that's that's uh chateau neuf or whatever.
SPEAKER_03That's uh filet is just the filet, just the meat.
SPEAKER_02Right, any cheese? Oh, oh I must I must have a we must have had a different version of filet mignon in where I grew up in Adelaide in South Australia. Uh filet mignon was a regular in our house and so was apricot chicken.
SPEAKER_03Hmm. Interesting. That sounds good, actually.
SPEAKER_02I'll have to look, I'll have to ask my mum how she cooked filet mignon because oh, maybe I'm getting confused with you know, like the schnitzel crumbed with cheese and bacon.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah, no, no, no, no, no. This is like you go to a restaurant here and get filet and it's fifty dollars.
SPEAKER_02Oh, wow. Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_03It's like a 40 bucks, yeah. It's good, good steak. Tenderline, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, and uh what have been the we do this thing every night when we're sitting around the dinner table with our four and a half year old and our little girl who's who's almost two, which is a lot of fun, where we share our highlight from the day. What's been the highlight from the day? Goldie doesn't really have much to offer at this stage. She normally just screams and throws food at me. Um, so uh what do you have a professional highlight over the last seven days? Anything happened professionally that's uh that you're proud of?
SPEAKER_03Uh yeah, just I mean, in general, just some of the coaching that I've been doing lately, like reaching out to some people and uh moving them forward. And and uh I don't want to give away numbers or names, but yeah, just uh moving moving a few people forward in their in their goals.
SPEAKER_02That's we've had some big we've had some big wins in the last seven days. Uh again, I won't name names or numbers either, but we have had big wins in the last uh seven days in Sales Accelerator and Mavericks Club, which has been awesome to see. Um cool. So the purpose of this episode, I put a post in the Facebook group uh on Monday, I think, and just asked if people would be interested in discovering the fastest way to remove yourself from your business altogether without writing dozens of SOPs, which frankly is just time consuming and a pain in the ass, right? Who wants to spend their time writing lots of SOPs so that you can train other people how to do what you do, so then you can get out of your business. That just sounds like it's gonna take way too long and uh be painful. So I this is not what this is about. And I did say if you leave enough comments, then we will run an episode of the agency hour devoted to that topic. And I'm just trying to find the post in the group. Here we go. Uh no, that's not the one. I'm just trying to find the post in the group. Here we go. We've had 27 comments so far on that post. Uh, people leaving the word freedom, except Daryl Carey, who said hello and clearly didn't read the instructions. You're supposed to use the word freedom, Daryl. Uh so I think 27 is enough. I think we should devote this episode to the fastest way to remove yourself from your business. So, what I would like to do is get uh a bit of a heads up from you guys in the chat. Someone's actually typing on that post right now. What do you think is the fastest way? What if if I said to you, hey, you've got six months to remove yourself from your business. You've got six months to remove yourself from your business. I was listening to a podcast episode yesterday on uh one of the podcasts I listened to, and this woman married the love of her life, and he had a an agribusiness, right? He had a seed and feed agribusiness. She married him and uh he uh contracted leukemia and within 18 months of marrying him, he was dead, and she inherited his business. She then ran it for uh 15 years or something and took it from one million a year to eight million a year in revenue and then sold it. So I'm not saying that and and and by the way, the number the two biggest reasons people exit a business is one, they get an offer they can't refuse from someone who wants to buy it, or two, they have a health reason for getting out. So not trying to fear monger here or put the wind up anyone, but pretend that there is an event coming up, or that you've or that something's happened in your life which means that you have to get out of your business in six months, right? Lance Evans says just sell the business. Well, that's easier said than done. So the question is, Lance, what do you need to do in order to sell the business? Well, you need to get out of the business so it's not reliant on you, because if a business is reliant on you, then it's not going to be worth much, right? So what do you think, what what do you what do you think is the fastest way to get out? What would you do if you had six months to get yourself out of the business? Leave some comments in the chat. Rory Flynn is just about close to picking a prize off the top shelf. Very close indeed. Define success outcomes and delegate. Very close. It's a good start. So uh Eloy Hunter Bruckhoff says need to invest in training. What would you do if you had six months to get yourself out of the business? What would you do, Pete?
SPEAKER_03Um good question. So I like I like to think of it as what would I do if I had six months before I was taking a three-month vacation or something like that? Because that will that will light a fire under you, I think. Because I don't like to think about having needing to leave the business. I want to think about wanting to leave the business. I've gotten myself, it took me a long time, but I got myself to the point where I'm I'm removed much more from the business than I ever was, but I'm not removed from the business. Um, I still put in some hours. So what what would what would what would fall through the cracks if if you I would I would need to I basically need to replace myself. I'd need to replace myself with basically two people a project, a really good project manager and a good salesperson. And I think if I'd had those people in place with the current team that I have in place, I'd probably be good to go. But there's a lot of things that have to happen between now and you know, you can't just find those people and throw them in together.
SPEAKER_02Lance has got an interesting uh point here. If your business is you, then there isn't all that much you can do other than if you have a senior associate who wants to take it over. So let me let me just get some clarity around this. If you're a freelance saxophonist and you get hired to go and play in jazz bands around town and that's how you make your living, it's gonna be very difficult to replace yourself. And that's not really your business, right? You just you're a freelance artist. That kind of business you can't replace yourself. If you're a painter, right, or a dancer or an actor, right? If if the business relies on your physicality, then there's not much you can do. If you're an acrobat in the circus, right, you can't replace yourself in that business. I don't think any of us are that in the world that we live in, the web design, digital agency, SEO, marketing agency, right?
SPEAKER_03These businesses, some people think they are.
SPEAKER_02That's right.
SPEAKER_03But they're not.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they're not. These businesses don't rely on your physicality, they don't rely on you actually doing the work. As Pete said, you might think they do, but they these businesses don't rely on you doing the work. Now, let me just preframe this by saying you don't have to replace yourself in your business. It's totally fine if you want to just run your business as a freelancer for, you know, with a couple of other contractors helping you out, you do that for the next 10 or 15 years and you and you have a good lifestyle, as long as you're extracting profit from that thing and doing what you need to do for your own personal financial situation, like buying a house, maybe buying an investment property, buying some shares, setting yourself up for retirement. And I know a lot of people watching this are like, well, I'm never going to retire. I'm so far away from retirement, it doesn't matter. I don't want to think about that right now. At some point in the future, you are going to need to think about how you want to take care of the people in your life, your family. If you are the breadwinner and you are no longer able to work because you get too old, right? Or you just get tired and you don't want to do it anymore, which will happen eventually, then you need some kind of plan, right? So if you just work the business for the next 15 years and you just extract as much profit as possible and you use that to build your own wealth, and then in 15 years' time you shut down the business, that's totally fine, right? I will I would applaud you for doing that. And if you manage to do that without growing a team, and you know, that that's awesome. There's no one's here to say that there's a right or a wrong way. The faster way to do it is to build yourself out of the business so that you just become the shareholder and the business delivers a profit to you, but you're not actually involved in the business, which is what we're going to talk about on this call, right? So, Lance, just wanted to clarify a couple of distinctions there. By the way, if you're listening to this podcast and you're not engaging in the comments, you should really come and join the Digital Mavericks Facebook group. And I think, Max, you know what? I reckon we I reckon we should put together an ad. I reckon we should put together a little ad spot for this podcast where we maybe get some audio testimonials from other people who are in the group and love it. There's an idea. And we can run a little uh ad ad spot in this podcast to promote the group. It's the Digital Mavericks Facebook group. Get on over to Facebook.com, search for Digital Mavericks. Come and join the group. There's about 12,000 people in that group at the time of recording this, and it's super awesome. And you can engage in this show and be a part of it. So let's get back to uh James says, let's go. Let's get back to replacing yourself in the business. I'm going to walk you through some questions that you need to answer and some very practical things that you need to do. And this is what I believe is the fastest way to replace yourself in the business. And I will say Rory Flynn is the closest at the moment as being on the right path, which is to design uh outcomes, success criteria, and success outcomes, and then delegate. There's a couple of other key pieces. The number one conversation that I'm having in my squadron at the moment in Mavericks Club is about recruiting and keeping good staff, right? People are resigning because they're being poached by larger agencies who have bigger wallets. And most agencies, and I'm also talking to some of our partners about this stuff as well, who also serve agencies, and they're experiencing the same thing. Most agencies don't have the margin to match an offer from a larger agency. So if you've got a great project manager or a great SEO and they get poached by a larger agency who happens to give them more flexible, you know, work conditions or allows them to work from home or whatever, and they can pay them more, and you can't match that because you don't have the margins, then that is going to be a problem. However, this comes back to the very first question I think you need to answer if you want to replace yourself from the business. And this is another way to attract good staff without having to match the salaries of larger agencies. I think there are two things that you can do to attract good staff without having to pay exorbitant salaries, right? And this goes this also goes back to um I've been doing a lot of reading around um parenting at the moment and figuring out you know how to get four-year-olds who only have half a brain to do what you want them to do. And it turns out that there are two things that a four-year-old needs. And I think this is true for most of us belonging and significance. So they need to know that they belong to the family unit, to the tribe, and they need to know that they are significant, that they matter, that their ideas are being heard. We were having breakfast before, and Oscar's asking me something, and he's he's trying to explain something, and Amy comes in and tries to explain something as well. And Oscar says, Mom, you interrupted me. He's four. He's four. I'm like, Oh, you're your father's son. I hate being interrupted. Stop it, stop it, stop it. My dad has this saying, he says, stop, stop talking while I'm interrupting you.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_02So belonging and significance, right? So let's just wind this back. The very first question, and and that comes down to belonging and significance, really for me, comes down to culture and meaningful work. If you can provide a good culture for your team members to belong to and show them that they're doing meaningful work, that allows them to understand, that facilitates them to understand that the work they are doing matters. And that's the significance piece. And the belonging piece is the culture. So this all starts with the most important question that I think you need to answer if you want to replace yourself from your business, which is apart from making money, why does your business exist? And the when you answer that question, the very first, the very next question you need to answer is, so what? So typically speaking, when you ask an agency owner why does your agency exist? They will say something like, Well, because we want to become the number one digital marketing agency on the planet for dentists. And I go, Great, so what? That's all about you. Who cares? I don't.
unknownRight?
SPEAKER_02And the dentists don't. Why does it matter that you're the number one agency on the planet for dentists? And then they might say something like, Well, because we help dentists grow and get more clients. And again, I say, so what? Who cares? What's the actual work that you're doing in the world? What you need to do is you need to uncover the real, as far as I'm concerned, you need to uncover the real true human stories amongst your dental clients, not your not your dentists, their clients, their customers, right? The teeth that they're fixing. Ask yourself, ask if you serve dentists, get on the phone and ask your dentists, do you guys know how you impact the lives in your community? Do you know what teeth whitening does to someone's self-confidence? Do you know, like, can you point to a story where someone has come in and had some work done and then gone out on the dating scene and met their second husband and has a whole new lease on life because of the work they had done in the dental chair? Have you saved mouths? Have you prevented someone getting dentures, you know, 10 years too early because of the work that you've done in the chair? Have you impacted a child's life teaching them how to clean their teeth properly? Like, what is the work that you're doing in the community? That's what I'm interested in, because that's why your staff, if you run a digital marketing agency for dentists, that's why it's important that they turn up every day and show up and bring their A game. Because it's not about helping the dentists grow, it's about helping the dentists do the good work in the community that they're doing. And if you don't know the good work that those dentists are doing, then you need to figure that out. That should actually be part of your vision as to why you exist and the world that you're trying to create, right? For us, it's to create abundant agencies. Like the truth is, I see agencies as a distribution channel for abundance, right? My whole purpose really is to democratize abundance. I don't come from abundance. I come from a working class background in South Australia. And I watched my grandfather give up his time and be so generous to help new uh uh immigrants to Australia get set up with their social security and get set up with their, you know, the government departments they need to get access to and get into public housing and get on the employment list and then go and start to get jobs and apply for jobs and write a regime. My grandfather would just volunteer to help local people in the community get themselves established, right? And he didn't have a lot. In fact, he he wasted most of what he did have, right? He was a bit of a naughty boy and uh he was a colorful character. But I watched him and I thought, and so when I, as I grew up and I created abundance for myself and I experienced some success after not having a blueprint to follow, by the way, dropped out of university, you know, kind of wandered around the planet until I was about 33, not really sure what I wanted to do with my life. Um then I figured out how to create value and how to create abundance. And and I've I make better choices in my life because I have an abundant mindset. I'm not as afraid anymore because I have an abundant mindset. I'm not perfect. I still make decisions out of fear every day because I'm a human being. But most of the time I try to make decisions from a place of love because I experience abundance. And I want to democratize that. I want to share that with people like people all over the planet. Like we provide, you know, great um working conditions and salary for our team in the Philippines. We have customers that have come from Indonesia and India and um and the Philippines and all over the US and Australia and Canada, New Zealand, and Europe. Doesn't matter where you're from. I believe if you've got access to the internet and you have digital marketing skills, you can create a great life for yourself. Okay. And that's why I do what I do. And our agency clients actually have lots of small business clients that they can help create abundance. So I actually see the agencies as a distribution channel to help me democratize abundance to as many people on the planet as possible. That's why I do what I do. And that's a story that I can use to attract people to come and work with us rather than saying we're an agency coaching company, of which there are hundreds, you know, take your pick. Some of them are hanging out in my Facebook group trying to poach our clients, right? Rather than saying we're an agency coaching company, I tell that story about democratizing abundance and that attracts the right kind of people. And that's that's that's a that's a tribe that people want to belong to, and it is significant, it's meaningful work that people want to be a part of. Making money is a byproduct, by the way, of you living your vision, right? The money will end up in the bank account if you just stay true to what it is you're trying to do. So, why do you do what you do apart from trying to make money? That's the first question. Why?
SPEAKER_03It's a very good, good, very good first and follow-up question.
SPEAKER_02Yes, that's right. Why? Why?
SPEAKER_03Why?
SPEAKER_02Who cares? Who cares? The second that's right. So what? Who cares? Uh, what why is that important? You know, what's the impact of that? So the second piece to this is once you once you once you have got now. By the way, I didn't say this was the easiest way to replace yourself in the business. I said it was the fastest way. The slowest way, the slowest way is to document everything you do and then hire hire people who haven't done it before and train them how to do it the way you do it. That's the slowest, and as far as I'm concerned, the dumbest way to try and replace yourself in the business, right? And the reason I say I just don't think it's very enlightened and I don't think it's very empowering to the people that you hire. And I've never, I've I haven't seen it work. The second piece to this is once you've got a once you've got meaningful work and a sense of why you exist that you can use to attract good people, the next part of this, which is what uh Rory, our friend Rory Flynn mentioned, is to figure out what it is you're what what what's the mission that you're on right now? What is it that you're trying to achieve as a way of bringing that vision to life? So at the moment, we are helping agencies close more deals. We are helping them grow their teams and grow their profits, and we're doing that through some programs that we have, Sales Accelerator and Mavericks Club, and also the courses that we have available on our website. It's very clear why we're doing the things that we're doing because they're in that they are in alignment with our vision. As I said, it's not all rainbows and unicorns, and there is definitely things that we need to fix in our business, but that's why we're doing what we do. And what we're doing is we help people through educational products and coaching, right? So, what is it that you do? And this is where you get tactical. You say, Well, we build websites and we do digital marketing campaigns for dentists. Unreal. We do lead gen for dentists, unreal. List out everything you do, right? And then figure out the the What your org chart needs to look like in a year's time. If that's the date that you've given yourself to replace yourself, what does your org chart need to look like? What does your team need to look like in order to deliver value to enough clients to be profitable enough to remove yourself from the business? So whatever you think you need, triple it, right? If you think you need to make $500,000 a year to remove yourself from business, set the goal at 1.5 million a year in revenue to remove yourself from the business, right? Because it's going to cost you way more than you think to hire people to deliver the value that you're promising, which is where the profit is. Okay. So figure out your org chart. And then, as Rory said, hire people. Don't hire people and then train them how to do their job. That's a whole different business model and is viable but is slower. In this case, the fastest way to do it is to hire people using your vision story to attract them. Hire people who want to be a part of your tribe and do that meaningful work. And then let go. Tell them, explain to them, these are the successful outcomes for your role. These are the outcomes that you are responsible for in this role. And then let go. Get out of the way. Leave the building. Go for a swim in the middle of the day. Go to the gym. I went at the gym yesterday at two o'clock in the afternoon. Go play guitar. Piss off. Get out of the way and let your team figure it out. Don't micromanage them and don't try and lead them by telling them or showing them exactly what to do. Clear their path, make sure they've got access to all the resources they need, clear any obstacles out of their way, and then get out of the way. Get off the field and let them play the game. So why do you exist? What is it that you're doing? How do you measure success? Who do you need on your team? Define the success criteria of each role. Give each role specific outcomes. We use the job scorecard to do that. And then let go and see what happens. I also didn't say what I didn't mention is this also happens to be the scariest way to remove it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I was gonna say let's take some balls.
SPEAKER_02Right. Yeah, yeah. So this is what this is this is known as a pull factor, right? You have a reason for getting out of your business because you have something else that you want to pursue, which is an excellent. They're the best reasons to remove yourself from the business because you have something else you want to pursue. That's called a pull factor. A push factor is where you're just cooked, you toast, you're over it, you're sick of it, you want out, and that's not a good reason to get out of the business because you'll make bad decisions. James Mugatroid says, We help small businesses make massive impact that positively impacts the community around us. Excellent. So, James, what are the stories that you can tell that prove that is true? What are the case studies? Right? If you've if you've seen the case study that we produced on Adam Silverman playing drums on his farm and driving the tractor on his farm, that is proof. I show that to my team and go, this is why we come to work every day. This is why we come to work every day. Watch that video. It's amazing. I mean, if I'm ever having a bad day, I just watch that video and go, oh man, dude, that's why we do what we do. I just want to see more stories like that. So, what is the what are the stories, James, that you what are the client stories that you can point to to say, there you go, there's a small business that we helped make a massive impact in their community. Lance, uh, for what it's worth, all of the greats and advertising that I've known here in New York City, not one has retired. They just dropped dead. There you go. Well, I mean, that's sure, if that's what you want to do, if you want to work until you drop dead, that's totally fine. Not really what I want to do, but that's there's no wrong or right answer here, okay? Now I want to talk about this. Uh, the vision story is nice, but trying to hire someone with it in trade for cash, that is a hard sell in metro areas where living is a bloody fortune. Yes, that is true. But here's the other side of that coin, Lance. Not everyone is right for your agency. And if people just want to come and work with you because they want a huge paycheck, they're probably not going to be right. And they're not going to hang around because there's no loyalty.
SPEAKER_03Please go back to question number one. Correct. What's the why? And and it's not just your why, it has to be everybody's reason for being in that business.
SPEAKER_02That's right. And people, I have seen this happen more than more than more than I've seen this happen dozens of times in the agencies that we work with, where someone works in that agency and takes a pay cut to work in that agency because they're miserable where they are, even though they're earning good money. Uh, let me just come back to Facebook because there are some anonymous Facebook users here asking questions, and I don't know who they are because they haven't given StreamYard permission. And one of them is Peter Butler in Perth. Peter, you naughty, naughty boy. Give StreamYard permission so we know who you are. Long time client bought a farm down south of Perth. He lived north of the river. The hassle was getting through the VBD. I'm gonna assume that's the central business district or the visible business district. I don't know what VBD stands for. So he bought another farm north of Perth as you do. There you go. So long-term client who Peter works with bought a farm down south. It was too far to travel. So he bought a farm up north and then went and got his pilot's license. Well done, Peter. Well, there's a great success story. Now, can he attribute any of his abundance or success to the work that you've done with him? Because that's the story I would be filming him flying in his plane and hanging out on his farms and using that as a case study, right? They're the kinds of stories that you want to uncover amongst your clients, and they're the kinds of stories that you want to use to attract people to uh come and work with you. And another anonymous Facebook user whose name I don't know. Can you walk us through an onboarding process to ensure they understand the vision and deliver according to the existing standards and client expectations? Well, I could, but then I'd have to kill you. Uh no, we don't have time to do that on this call.
SPEAKER_03We have an entire I would even say that that's not in the onboarding process, it's part of the interview process.
SPEAKER_02Correct. That's right. We have an entire recruitment process that we use as part of our team accelerator program where we help agency owners hire staff. And part of the on part of the interviewing process is making sure that there's a cultural alignment. Uh, in fact, the very first interview we have is called the culture interview, and we want to make sure that we're a good fit with the person and they're a good fit with the team. And by the way, if you I'll give you a little hint here, if if you have a team of some description, then you, as the agency owner, shouldn't do the culture interview. Someone else on the team should do the culture interview. And they should put the right people through who they think are a good cultural fit, who have an alignment with the vision. And in fact, even before that, your job ad that you run, the way that we structure job ads, is that it it all starts with the vision of what you're trying to achieve. It doesn't start with your roles and responsibilities are to manage SEO campaigns, that 25 clients and meet deadlines and meet budgets and meet targets and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Because that's how every job ad starts, and they're boring. So what we do is we start with why the vision, why we exist, and we use our personality in those job ads to get the right people to put their hand up. And then we talk about obviously the roles and responsibilities and the outcomes that people are responsible for based on uh their job scorecard. Once someone has been through the interview process, yes, we do have an onboarding checklist to make sure that they've got access to everything they need, but we're not onboarding anyone until they understand and we believe that there is a 90% chance of them succeeding in the role based on the outcomes that are articulated on their job scorecard. It's not a feeling, it's their previous experience and their knowledge, and they have demonstrated through the interview process that they can achieve these outcomes and they've kind of told us how they're going to do it and what they need to get there. Hey, Max, I think we should, I think we should watch the Adam Silverman case study.
SPEAKER_00Back in the day, I was a professional drummer. I still do session work and um I've toured all the way from my mid-20s into my mid-30s. At some point when I was drumming, I was trembling all the time. I loved music so much, and I loved the drum so much. I never liked trembling at all. I just didn't like it. I never thought of how much I had to give up to be away from my family, and my kids were gonna grow up when I was seeing them on the basement, and that was the future that I had. So I started looking for what the next chapter might be, and I filmed web development and ultimately the digital agency's base, and the agency that I had a mom was not an entrepreneur. Like I didn't want to just be me with some contractors. I really wanted to grow like a full-scale team, and so I needed something that's gonna show me how to do that. Financially, one of my joint members, it was it was it was a leap. My biggest struggle was do I really believe in myself enough to make this investment, and not just the physical investment, but the mental and time investment it takes to put into the business. And I really I'm gonna struggle with that. I can't think of am I good enough for this, or I'm not far enough ahead, or these people are gonna laugh at me. You know, there is a lot of like fear built up in there. And I'm if I'm not willing to make an investment in myself, I'm not gonna amend my clients to make an investment in what I'm doing. If I won't give to me, what's gonna inspire my customers to give to me? Like, why should they do it if I won't even do it? And a year and a half later, it's like I'm not root I'm gonna go back and tell them that you can. You just need some help. You need some help, you need some coaches that believe in you, but you can. And as soon as you get in there and realize there's all these other people that believe in you, not just coaches, but other agency owners, and knowing that they're rooting for you and cheering for you, there's just something in that that takes that fear away. You just have to take it. It is incredibly difficult to run the business when you're in the business. We're on a farm here, we're on an equestrian farm, and I do a lot of brush hugging, so I'm gonna run the tractor and I'm gonna mow tall fields, and really that's like where most of my thinking happens. When you're able to zoom out and you have team members that are doing the work for you, um, and they're doing the they're working with the clients, and you're able to actually get out of it and look at it, it looks completely different. I'm not I'm in the business every day all day, but I'm not in the business enough now to where I'm actually gonna see the business from a completely different perspective. Making the investment in Mavericks really helped me to build my team. And then ultimately, I was able to then spend my energy doing the things that were actually gonna propel the business forward. My name is Adam Silverman. Um with Realtown Digital in Williamsport, Tennessee.
SPEAKER_03So much to digest right there.
SPEAKER_02Man, there's so much to unpack, isn't it? Now, when by the way, when I first met when I first met Adam, he was in in uh San Diego in February 2020, just before COVID, was when he joined Mavericks, and he was like a rabbit in the headlights. Yes, he knew what he wanted to do, but he was he had no idea completely what to do and which way to go. He was he was absolutely experiencing Stuart George. I hope that helps. Uh that's uh an example of a case study there. That is a kick in the ass, says Christine Lakin. Yes, it is. Hopefully.
SPEAKER_03If you if you only learn one thing from that, learn that if you're not willing to invest in yourself, how can you even begin to ask clients to invest in you? Yeah, I love I love that line. That line and him riding on the brush hog, that those are my two favorite things.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. It's a great, it's a great lesson. Now he now Adam has systematically, I've got a call with Adam actually straight after this because we still have you know coaching calls because he's still in Mavericks Club. Uh, he he systematically removes himself from the business, and and I guarantee this is what's going to happen when we get on this call this morning. Uh, he he every now and then he reaches out to me, books in a call, and we get on, and he says, Well, I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing now. Like, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing. And I'm like, this is excellent. I love these calls because uh he's replaced himself in another role, and now he's like, I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm like, go and get on the brush hog, right? So and uh think, get away from the business and think. So he's now replaced himself in sales, he's removed, he's got he's off the keyboard, he's not doing project management, he's replaced himself in sales, he's just moved into a new office space with his team. He literally is the CEO of Newtown Digital now, and his team are doing everything in the business.
SPEAKER_03Texted me the other day and he said, I won't use the numbers, but he told me about the big project that he just landed and had to do a presentation in front of the board of directors and all this stuff. And he texted me and said, I got that, I got that gig. He told me some numbers. Um I said, oh, great job. He goes, now to deliver all the things. Oh, wait, I don't do that anymore.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. Because he's he's and he, you know, he his the other thing is that his confidence has has grown so much because his team are amazing. His team are doing such a great job. So I'm looking forward to having a call with Adam uh after this to find out where he's at and get an update. Um, now the reason that the reason that we showed that is because I wanted to show Stuart uh an example of a case study. Essentially, what a case study should do is demonstrate and showcase change. That the change that the client has experienced as a result of working with you. That's what a case study should demonstrate, right? Uh James Murgatroyd, working on moving from chief everything officer to chief executive officer. Yes. Excellent. All right. Uh, do you guys have any questions? So we've talked about, just to recap, we've talked about the very first thing you need to understand is why your company exists, why your agency exists besides making money, because that's the vision story that you can tell to attract the right candidates to your team, right? People will take a pay cut to come and work for something they believe in. I don't know who it was. I I can't remember if it was, I think it might have been Stephen Covey who said the three things that motivate employees are in order, a cause they believe in, a leader they respect, money. Money is the least important. If they if people are earning really good money, but they're doing mind-numbing work that they don't care about, and their boss is an asshole, they're not going to hang around. They will come and work where they they can do meaningful work that they believe in and they respect their leadership team. Right? And they will take a pay cut to work in that environment. I've I see it happen all the time, not only in the agency world, but I see it happen amongst our friend circle of friends as well. So, hey, Amber Rushton. Uh, welcome, welcome, welcome. Amber's in beautiful Barossa Valley in South Australia. Stuart George, there you go. Amber Rushton is just up the road, mate, up in Nuriutpa.
SPEAKER_03Um Amber Rushton is our next case study.
SPEAKER_02Yes, she is. Um, so the we've been talking about replacing yourself in the business, Amber. We've talked about the importance of having a vision story, why your company exists apart from making money, because you use that vision story to attract the right kind of team members to your team. Um, we talked about the the two things that a four-year-old needs to feel, is also, I think, the two things that a 48-year-old needs to feel is uh belonging and significance. So people want to belong to a tribe, they want to belong to a team, and they want to know that they're doing meaningful work. And we use case studies and success stories to show our team the work that they're doing. And we have uh a great set of values that our team wrote. I didn't write it, but the team wrote our values, and they all believe in those values, and we all live those values. And it's not all rainbows and unicorns. It's freaking hard. Most days there's there are challenges that we need to overcome, there's shit goes wrong, things happen. But we have guardrails that govern how we behave and the decisions that we make, and they're our values and our vision of what we're trying to achieve, which is to democratize abundance and do that through agencies. Then figure out what it is you actually do, the services that you provide, work out your org chart, what your org chart needs to look like in 12 months' time so that you can actually get out of the business, and then uh follow our recruitment process to recruit team members and uh and delegate outcomes to team members. Make other people responsible for delivering outcomes and then get out of their way. Don't micromanage them, don't teach them your process, get them to teach you their process, right? Get, I'll say that again, get hire people who know what they're doing and get them to teach you their process.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and get them just to hire people that are better than you.
SPEAKER_02That's right. And here's here's why I don't like writing SOPs, because I'm not very good at it. So the team write the standard operating procedures, right? The team write the standard operating procedures, not you. Okay, that's the distinction. I don't write SOPs. I wrote one, I wrote the standard operating procedure to create standard operating procedures, and then the team write SOPs because they know if they go on holiday. I mean, we just have such a great affinity amongst our team that if someone goes on holiday, they they won't go on holiday unless someone else in the team knows how to do their job while they're away. And that comes down to processes. So we need to document the basics of how we do our job so that someone can sit in our seat while we're on holidays, right? Except me, because I don't really do much these days, except do this live stream, talk to potential partners, have calls with potential JV partners and you know, other partnership opportunities and and kind of try and lead the team best I can. But I'm I don't I'm not in sales, I'm not in delivery. I do I coach one squadron in Mavericks Club because I love it. I do a bit of coaching in sales accelerator because I like that.
SPEAKER_03You've delegated the decision making.
SPEAKER_02Correct. Delegated the decision making. That's right. Right. So so in fact, I don't even care how many decisions need to be made. Like, I'm not interested in the decisions, I'm interested in the outcome. Right. If we if we achieve a great outcome, I'm like, oh wow, how do how did you do that? I want to learn how you did that, and I'm curious, but I I'm not interested in holding people's hand and showing them how to do it. I don't have time. There's 21 people in our team and one of me.
SPEAKER_03You know, I I respect you a lot, you know that. But one of the things I respected the most in the last couple of months was not only did you delegate decision making, but you actually told me listen, if you hear me starting to make a decision, kick me in the ass and tell me to stop.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, right. Because it's not gonna be it's not gonna be a good decision. It's not gonna be a good decision, right? Because because and the reason it's not gonna be a good decision is because I'm not in the coal face with that part of the business. So, you know, which which so we had a call this morning with Damien uh who's uh in sales and Dioza and Pete and myself and Emily. We had a conversation about what we're offering on the front end, like which products and programs are we offering to clients, and which ones can we scale and which ones can't we scale? And we don't want to offer products unless or services or programs unless we can really deliver on our promise. And so I said, we cut like here's what I'm thinking about this, and here's what Pete and I have been kind of talking about and some of the challenges that we're having. But Damien, you go away, come back in 48 hours and tell me if you think we're wrong. Like, I don't want to cut off your oxygen supply, and also you know what our clients want more than anything because you're you're talking to several of them every day. He talks to more people than I do because that's his job. So you come back and tell me, right? And if you come back and tell me, I definitely want to scale that program because I know I can sell a lot of people into it and help a lot of people through that program. Then my job is to go back to the team and say, right, Damien wants to ramp this up. How do we make sure we deliver on the lose, Troy?
SPEAKER_03How do we make sure we deliver on the promise? Is what he was about to say.
SPEAKER_02I accidentally just hit enter on the keyboard and it refreshed the browser. Um so the so the point of the story is like I the most of the decisions in the business are not mine to make because I don't have all the information to make the decisions, right? You Pete, you've got more information. You coach more people than me across sales accelerator and Mavericks. I coach my squadron and I I coach a little bit in sales accelerator. You actually coach more people than I do, you have more coaching calls with people than I do. So I can't make a decision about what is best for all of the clients we have in Mavericks or or sales accelerator or team accelerator, because I know I have a limited amount of information, right? And I'm also trying to make a lot of other decisions that are sort of more strategic decisions about the vision, the you know, the direction of the company and who we're going to partner with and where the opportunities are, right? So if this is why I said to Pete, if you see me making a decision that I'm not equipped to make, slap me down and tell me to shut up and get out of the way. I want to be involved in the decision making process because it's my company, but I'd realized that I just don't have all the information or the mental bandwidth to make all the freaking decisions in the business.
SPEAKER_03Because um And most of the decisions are not um are not going to. Be business changing decisions, like those are the ones you really not don't need to be involved in. The little ones, you know, right like how we handle a certain client, or how we do this, or how we do that. That you don't need to worry about that stuff, right? Anything that has to do with financial situation in a in a big way, then obviously you need to be involved. But but yeah, you know, other than that, the CEO doesn't need to be involved in every decision.
SPEAKER_02That's right. So Simon Major in Mavericks had an interesting uh conversation recently with one of his his main SEOs. Uh it was that uh was that a demonstration?
SPEAKER_03Demonstration of removing Trey from the business, and clearly, and clearly Pete wasn't provided, wasn't uh prepared.
SPEAKER_02Uh Simon had one of his main SEOs doing a great job, but um just noticed that you know they weren't kind of like vibing, you know, they weren't kind of like jumping out of their skin with excitement. Kind of had a sit-down chat with them and said, Hey, how would you feel about actually rolling out the process? Like we've got kind of got this new way of doing things that you've been doing. How would you feel about leading that project of rolling out the new SEO process and teaching the rest of the team? Well, dude, it has been transformational. She is like so pumped to have that opportunity to do meaningful work, to belong, belonging in significance, right? She is so excited to have that opportunity. And guess what? Simon and his ops manager no longer need to document the process because she's gonna do it. And that's exactly what she wants to do. Because just doing the job every day was kind of getting a little bit monotonous, right? And so, like, what is my significance here? Right? What's what how am I important here? So giving your team extra responsibility and empowering them to make decisions and empowering them to become more autonomous allows them to feel more significant, right? Yeah, Dioza is also a great example. Dioza put her hand up and said, uh, you know, you know, I used to work in a call center and I'm really experienced at talking to people on the phone, and I think I could do something here. I I I Dioza was answering support tickets and actually came to me and was super nervous and said, I I want to get on the phone and start talking to prospects and clients and and see if we can onboard them into new programs and see if I can help out. I'm like, dude, let's get your phone number.
SPEAKER_03And oh my god, she's a rock star at it. Like, yeah, she's killing it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03She's now on she's so good, we're gonna let her train a Mavericks outreach specialist.
SPEAKER_02Correct. Right? So that's what happens when you empower your people to make decisions and you imp and you you delegate outcomes to them, right? Here's the outcome that we're looking for. The other thing that and really just to peel the onions, onion skin back one more layer. One thing I've learned, and and Damien's kind of leaned into this with me as well, is let's not dictate the outcomes to people, right? People are far more likely to achieve an outcome if they have some say in that outcome rather than you just dictate it to them. Yeah. So uh involve your team in that conversation. Hey, your role is this. How do we know your role is successful? And how do we know that you're doing a good job by our clients and by the business? Let's get some outcomes and some KPIs on that scorecard and then figure out, let me know what you need, but figure out how to get there. It's your job to figure out how to achieve these outcomes. It's not my job to tell you what to do, it's your job to figure out how to get there. I'm here to help if you need me. Yeah. Cool. Hey, this has been fun. This is the fastest way to replace yourself in the business. It's not the easiest and it's not the safest. It's scary, it takes kahunas, but it's the fastest way to do it is just to let go, get out of the way and allow other people to accept the responsibility. Right. Um I was on a call with a Maverick who's coming back, who took a few months off to help his dad sell a business and now he's coming back. And he said to me on the call yesterday, he he read this line in a book which basically said opportunity exists where responsibility has been abdicated. Right? So, so when so think about this, for example, you inherit a client who has had a website built and the web developers just disappeared and they've abdicated their responsibility. There's an opportunity for you to take that project over and save them, which is basically his model. His model is he he gets you out of a pickle, he saves small businesses from the shitstorm that they're in with their current developer, right? Or a DIY solution that they've tried to build. So think about this opportunity exists. If you if you abdicate the responsibility and go, well, that's actually not my responsibility. My responsibility as the company owner is to stay liquid, make sure we don't run out of money, make sure we stay profitable, and to build a great culture for our team. That's my job, right? Your job, Pete, is to uh make sure our coaching clients in Sales Accelerator and Team Accelerator and Mavericks Club are successful. Right? That I'm not responsible for that. So I'm gonna abdicate that responsibility, which is now an opportunity for Pete to own that responsibility and add heaps of value, and is empowering for Pete to actually put his hands on the wheel and go, I got this, this is my baby. So when you abdicate responsibility for outcomes, you create an opportunity for other team members to take responsibility for those outcomes. Uh Stuart George says, We're lucky enough to have very dedicated team members. They share the passion for great work. That's a very big comment to bring up on the screen, isn't it? Our lead dev, without prompting, started writing a full manual as he saw the need as we expand. Our next goal is to selectively roll through holidays early. Burnout is real. Yep, we need to expand so we can find more team members so they can cross over roles, as you mentioned. Stuart George. Ladies and gentlemen, why aren't you in Mavericks Club, my friend? I know we had a call about this late last year. Why aren't you in Mavericks Club already? Remind me. I'm confused. You said that you wanted help growing your agency, and you're not in Mavericks Club yet. Help me understand this.
SPEAKER_03I love that.
SPEAKER_02I'm confused, you said. I'm confused. You said you wanted movie night on Saturday night, Oscar. So that means you have to go to bed now, buddy. That's how it works. You said you wanted to grow your agency, Stuart, and you're not in Mavericks Club. I'm confused. Help me understand this. Um, ping me, dude. And let's uh start that conversation again. All right. Hey, this has been 58 minutes.
SPEAKER_03We're there, man. We're there. By the time we wrap up and back play some cool funky music, we're uh we're good.
SPEAKER_02We're so good. We're good at we're good at padding it out. I'd be a great news presenter, you know, in the news, and they say, but you have to run to the second. It's like we got 15 seconds left. I'd be really good at that, I reckon.
SPEAKER_03You can stretch, yeah. Yeah, I'm not good at that stretching thing. Yeah, no, yeah. I just I'm a man of few words, right? Yeah, it's like people listen to me and they listen to me and they just kind of glaze over with you. But it's okay.
SPEAKER_02I open my mouth and words just come out, and then I try and make sense of them as they're hitting the as they're hitting the ecosystem, right? And I'm I'm not afraid of talking shit and sounding stupid. And I think that's why I'm good at stretching stuff because I'll just keep talking until someone cuts me off. Um, right. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, this has been fun. Thank you very much. Keep the conversation going. Remember, the podcast launches officially next Tuesday, 1st of March. It is live in the podcast apps right now, Spotify, Pocketcasts, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcast. Go and check it out. The agency hour brought to you by Agency Mavericks. Please subscribe to it, follow it, like it, love it, leave some comments, give us a rating and review, share it with your friends, help us come up in the suggested podcast section so that we can get this in front of uh a wider audience and help more people just like you. And if you're listening to this podcast, remember to join the Digital Mavericks Facebook group, Facebook.com, and then search for the Digital Mavericks group uh and uh get amongst it. We'll see you next week on the agency hour. Have a great week. Crispy Butter.
SPEAKER_01Thanks for listening to the Agency Hour Podcast. Subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocketcast, Audible, and wherever you'd like to listen. You can catch all of the Agency Hour episodes on our YouTube channel at youtube.com slash agencymaverics. Or you can get involved. Check that out free Digital Mavericks Facebook, where we broadcast these episodes light for our community every week, along with a ton of free trick. We'll see you there.