We all wish we had more time in our schedules, right? We long for a day without interruptions so we can just focus and do our best work. Or, even worse, we’ve finished all of our work, and now we don’t know what to do with ourselves. These are two different problems, but, according to today’s guest, both have the same solution that starts in our agency operations.
This is where Joe Martin has a thing or two to teach us. He changed how his entire agency operates and meets its goals by switching to a 6-week cycle work schedule. This means four weeks on, two weeks off, and a lot of room for adjustment and flexibility for maximum efficiency.
Today, he teaches us how this benefits every level of agency culture, how to begin implementing it into your agency, and why it’s so effective. We’ll also learn why it might not be the best idea to bring this structure into your dating life.
A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.
What You Will Learn in This Episode:
- How to maximize efficiency and productivity in your agency
- Why it’s not about the hours we’re buying from employees, but rather their skills and ability to accomplish tasks
- How to break the 40-hour work week mindset and have more productive employees
- Why it’s important to learn what value you are offering to clients before implementing a strategy
- What is a 6-week cycle, and why does it work so well for agency operations?
- How to begin implementing this structure into agency culture
- Why this structure is even better than the popular 4-day work week model
This week on Building a Better Agency, we’re jumping right back into our breakdown of 2022 Marketing Trends. Last time, we talked about noticeable trends in agency spending, shifting client expectations, and not missing out on opportunities for business development. This time, we’re taking things a bit closer to home by talking about trends we’re seeing in our own marketing tactics, in our employees, and in ourselves as agency owners.
If you didn’t catch Part 1 of this conversation during our last solocast episode (#345) — no worries! There’s still plenty of time to go back and catch up. Then join us here for Part 2 of our discussion on the industry trends, insights, and predictions that agency owners should know about before entering the second half of the year.
A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.
What You Will Learn in This Episode:
- The marketing trends we’re seeing with agency owners, employees, and tactics
- Why agency owners across the board are so dang exhausted (nope, it’s not just you!)
- Why Drew believes that agency owners aren’t just tired, but tired of being afraid
- Where are agencies at with the whole “work from home” situation? What’s working and what isn’t?
- Why employees have never been more expensive than they are right now — and when that pendulum will swing back.
- Which marketing and sales tactics are working best for agencies right now
The market right now for attracting and retaining the best employees is insane. It feels like only three people on the planet are looking for work, and they all want $3 million, plus a signing bonus. Owners are in panic mode when they think about attracting and retaining the best employees. They’re struggling to find good candidates. Or, by the time they get a candidate through their 12-step process, they miss out because they accepted a different position.
So how in this environment should we be hiring? What should the process look like?
I invited Heenle Turner to join me for this episode of Build a Better Agency because she holds the golden ticket to your agency having a great rest of 2022.
She believes that not only should we all have a 5-star employee, but that we should have ALL 4- and 5-star employees in our agencies. She believes that this is absolutely possible and critical to our success.
A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.
What You Will Learn in This Episode:
- What does a 5-star employee look like, and why Heenle believes you can have an agency full of them
- How you can level up your employees, especially in this market when it’s hard to find anyone to take a job
- How you can find, hire, and keep 5-star employees
- What are the five distinct qualities of a 5-star employee
- What are the 11 universal qualities 5-star employees share
- What questions should you ask during an interview to ferret out if someone is a 5-star candidate before you hire them
As agencies, we tend to overlook certain platforms and channels when it comes to their perceived relevance to our audiences or bottom-line ad potential. That bias is one that Lindsay Shearer overcame to help her clients win new business and earn 2-3 times their initial ad spend on what most of us would consider an unlikely platform — Pinterest.
During our conversation on this week’s episode of Build a Better Agency, Lindsay talks about what led her to experiment with Pinterest in the first place and why she quickly adopted the platform into her agency’s diversified ad strategies. If you’re wondering what advertising on Pinterest looks like, how it works, and why you might want to consider incorporating it into your ad strategies, then you’re in the right place. Join Lindsay and I as we talk about using Pinterest — part social channel and part interest-based search engine — to win high-quality, top-of-funnel business for ourselves and our clients.
A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.
What You Will Learn in This Episode:
- What led Lindsay to experiment with Pinterest in the first place
- Why an entire department of Lindsay’s agency is now devoted to Pinterest ad strategies specifically
- How Pinterest functions as both a search engine and a social media site — and why that’s a game-changer
- The major role Pinterest plays in consumer behavior and the intentional purchasing decisions of its users
- What types of brands play well in the Pinterest space — and why
- How to set expectations for yourself, and your clients, about this channel that plays a bit differently than most
- Where Pinterest could fit into your current cross-channel ad strategies and how to get started