Red Mill Creative – #AgencyLife

Note: This transcript was auto generated. As our team is small, we have done our best to correct any errors. If you spot any issues, we’d sure appreciate it if you let us know and we can resolve! Thank you for being a part of the community.

Verbatim text

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Welcome to the Agency Trailblazer Podcast. This is an Agency Life episode coming to you every Wednesday Friday, where we interview an agency owner from around the world asking them the same questions because we’re all different, but we’re all the same. So let’s listen and learn from each other. This podcast is brought to you by the agency trailblazer community. Is agency life stressing you out? Then it is our mission to help you build an agency that you love. We’ve created a community which includes the agency reset roadmap that will allow you to get your agency back on the right track. We also have lots of noble straight to the point, easy to consume workshops. We have a thriving community of other agency owners.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
And we all wrap up every month with a mastermind call with myself and sometimes a special guest where we unpack your questions. For more details, check out agency trailblazer.com. Okay. Welcome to another episode of hashtag agency life. And on today’s show, we have the handsome mister Jason Vance. Yes. And It’s the beard. It’s the beard, isn’t it? So that is a beautiful beard.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
I kind of wanna reach through the screen and just stroke that beard. Actually, before we kick off, did you get to the point when you started growing it where you just couldn’t stop itching it for a while?

Jason Vance:
I never went through that.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Really? Okay. Yeah. Okay. Well, this is an entirely different episode where we will unpack Beard Life, but for now, we should probably focus on Agency Life. That was completely my fault. So let’s go straight into the about round. And the first question is, tell us the name of your agency, your business, and what it is that you do.

Jason Vance:
Yeah. The name is Red Mill Creative. We’re a digital agency specializing mainly in website development, but more recently been getting into a lot of social media marketing and, and some video as well.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Awesome. Now then if we could all sing happy birthday on a specific day of the year, what is the day of your agency’s birthday?

Jason Vance:
That’s a good question because I went through a name change in 2007

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Okay.

Jason Vance:
Because I didn’t like the old name, and I actually don’t know when it really started. But 2007 was officially the year of my new name, but I think 2001 or 2 was when I started my first business.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
So you So you basically started the agency at the same time as the iPhone was released, which is kinda scary. So 11 years old. Scary. Yeah. And iPhones just are like life now, aren’t they? So or smartphones are. So it’s like, I can’t even imagine what 2,006 was like with your BlackBerry or whatever it was that you had.

Jason Vance:
I had a BlackBerry too. I love that phone.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Alright. Let’s let’s go into the setup of your agency then. So we’ve learned that you’re 11, roughly. You you look great for 11, by the way, mate. But let’s talk about the setup of your agency. How is how is your agency structured? So how many people are in your team, and and how do you structure that?

Jason Vance:
So right now, I’ve got a, full time virtual assistant living in Manila. He helps with design, branding, web stuff. And I’ve got a part time web sort of dev person here locally that I work with. Yeah. And then I got a full time social media manager that does all my social media locally here as well. So, technically, she nobody works in the office. It’s just me. So everybody works out of their own house.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Yeah. Well, that was gonna be the next question. Do you have an actual office as in away from the home, or do you have an office there? And is everyone working virtually, or are they coming here now and again?

Jason Vance:
We meet at Starbucks a lot and local coffee shops. Mhmm. But, basically, I have my home office kind of away from the house a little bit, and then everybody else works in their home as well.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
I like the idea of meeting up in a Starbucks, because if you add up the coffees and that, it’s actually probably cheaper than rent. So y’all work from home, and then now and again, you have the official company meet up in the Starbucks, for a few quid or sorry, a few dollars just to A few dollars. To support you guys. Alright. Well, let’s let’s talk about your team culture. Obviously, you meet for coffee, which is great. But could you just give a description of your team culture or the culture that you want to foster with your agency?

Jason Vance:
Yeah. So one of the things that I try to do with everybody is is ask them, like, what they wanna learn and get out of it. So, like, right now, the girl that I’m working with has actually started her own sort of meet up group, and I’m helping her figure out how to monetize that and turn that into, something that she can actually eventually do full time. And so that’s sort of something I try to do with everybody. Right now, the guy that is also working locally locally with me, if we’re talking about actually coming together and him even maybe taking over my business where I work on a side project that’s taken off at the moment. So Mhmm. The goal for me is just empower everybody, give them all like, help them do what they love. And and if that even means, like, sending them off to find something different, then that all be it.

Jason Vance:
And that, for me, is a pretty pretty big piece of what I love doing and who I am, for sure. So even the guy in Manila, like, I ask him all the time, like, you know, what do you what’s your dream job, and how can I help you find that? Don’t wanna lose them, but, you know

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Sure. But at the same time, you might gain some amazing loyalty as well because you are helping people out. And I I love that, the concept of empowering people, helping them get to that next level. You’re a part of that journey. And they may or may not stay with you, but you’ve been able to bless them and encourage them and help them. And it’s gonna come full circle, mate. I’m sure. When they’re millionaires, they’re gonna be getting you involved.

Jason Vance:
Yeah. Exactly.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Alright. Well, you mentioned your mission. And I would love to know, do you work in any particular industry or niche?

Jason Vance:
Not really. I think yeah. I tried I I was thinking about that and really it’s like, I like people who love what they do. Mhmm. And it and I find that when that’s the case, like, it’s way easier to work with them, because then we can kind of get the passions going and dreaming a little bit. But, I mean, I I do work a lot in the, real estate development industry, like, over half my clients are working there. I do some tourism stuff. Mhmm.

Jason Vance:
Most of my almost all my work comes out of relationship. So people just get to know me and the work I do and, you know, they come to me and we figure out how to speak their language and design and work work for them and what they need, and that’s kind of what I’ve done. I’ve never really niched down, thought about it, but

Lee Matthew Jackson:
No worries.

Jason Vance:
Never went anywhere.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
If you could imagine then a problem that you solve, can you think of the main problem that you solve for your clients, how you might verbalize that?

Jason Vance:
That’s a good question. Well, I I think of, like, for a lot of my developer clients because they’ve got these huge budgets, I often I’m actually the 2nd guy to the job. Like, they’ll get these big agencies, and then I come along. I fix a lot of the problems. Yeah. So I have one I have one developer client. You know, they’re a $1,000,000,000 company. They they’ll go out and do like, they’ll hire some big agency to do all their stuff.

Jason Vance:
And then, you know, year or 2 later, they always get me to redesign. So I redesigned and design every single one of their development sites over the past, like, 6, 7 years. Some of them a couple times now. And yeah. So, like, I’m not the cheapest by any ways, but it seems like I get a lot of that middle of the road work. And, yeah, just a lot of trust, and people still seem to trust me. I still have my my first hosting client from 2001. He just hasn’t gone anywhere.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Amazing. Well, I I I was gonna call you the but I don’t know if that means something different in the USA, but I understand what you mean with regards to, you will inherit jobs from other from other agencies that maybe haven’t done a great job, and then you can do it the right way for them. So I like that. I like that a lot. I think you’ve already alluded to this. You kinda gave the game away a little bit earlier. But one of the questions we ask in the marketing round is how do you generate leads?

Jason Vance:
Yeah. I I’m almost a 100% referral. There was a time when we did some marketing and we did, like, quite a bit of live video, and we got got a lot of just little jobs. But other than that, everything’s a 100% referral. I haven’t even finished my website since I started. So Yeah. A little more than a landing page right now, but for for, like, last 8 years, 9 years, it was just, like, you know, we’re here to serve you. How can I help kinda thing?

Lee Matthew Jackson:
I love that.

Jason Vance:
So, yeah, it’s all referral.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
You’ll find it’s quite common as well. Including us, we didn’t actually have a web presence for nearly a year because there was just no time we were helping everyone else. And it was always like you through referral, a lot through the networking that we were doing and from existing clients. Okay. How do you, Jason, measure success?

Jason Vance:
That’s a good question. I actually wrote that down on a piece of paper earlier today, rethinking that. For me, like, I think at the end of my life and, you know, looking back, the success the biggest thing I could ever accomplish is the family that I’ve made, and for me, family’s family success. You know, and then second to that would be really helping people figure out their purpose and then help empower them along the way. So and right now, that means, like, helping their branding, helping get their website out, helping get a message out. For me, I love that, and I wanna be able to help as many people do that as possible.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
So time with the family and helping people achieve their dreams, that sounds, again, like your mission, but also how you would measure success. If you can see someone succeed, that’s a that for you is an element of success. Or if you have time with a family, for you, you’re like, yes. So, for example, Kyle Van Dusen mentioned that sometimes he will have 2 hours with his kid, at lunchtime with his kids at lunchtime, and that was phenomenal. And for me, that would be yes. Absolutely. I’ve succeeded today. This was a good day.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Maybe I built a website in the morning or part of a site, but I got 2 hours with the kids. That was freaking awesome. Okay. Let’s let’s go for confession because there’s only me and you and just a few thousand listeners Mhmm. Around the world. So what is the biggest problem that you have?

Jason Vance:
Right now, it’s organization. Like and I’m actually slowly been working on that, but just kinda knowing what to prioritize and when. And even, like, even with working too much and just so tied with that would be, like, scheduling and sort of just the all around chaos of being the boss and deadlines and Mhmm. And all that.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
I think that’s a common problem, and people should know this is 1 AM for you, and it’s 9 AM for me. And you’re out walking your dog just a few minutes before this call. Yeah. So he’s really living the living the organization.

Jason Vance:
I do like working late. Yes. So we put the like, I put the kids to bed, and then my wife and I sit out in the couch outside and chat for bed, and then I go to work for 3, 4 hours, and and then I sleep in, though, and then I get enough sleep. And then I pick up in the morning, and then it’s it’s just sort of what’s worked. Now we got 6 kids, so the house is can be pretty crazy, and it’s quiet at night.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
You have a lot of respect for me with 6 kids. We struggled with just the one around the house. Well, let’s talk about well-being then, especially because you’re saying, you you know, you get that sleep, etcetera. You’ve got the the large family, but you are also busy. That’s one of the biggest problems you have kind of trying to organize everything. So let’s talk about well-being, and how do you personally switch off, especially from your agency?

Jason Vance:
Yeah. I don’t know that I know how to do that very well. I love going to, going out to movies. I’ll go by myself or, you know, whoever’s around to join me. That for sure gets me to switch off. My new favorite thing I’ve been doing is taking the dog for a walk. But first, we stop by the local pub and grab a beer together, and we go for a walk. And that’s that’s helped a lot.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Beer in the bowl for him as well.

Jason Vance:
Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. It’s a dog friendly pub. So

Lee Matthew Jackson:
That’s awesome.

Jason Vance:
Yeah. No. I like because I actually really love what I do, and I I don’t like I’m always thinking about it. And and so, yeah, switching off, like, it doesn’t feel like a burden to me. Now I don’t think about client projects all the time, but I, you know, I think about the dream and, you know, what I’m trying to accomplish. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to switch that off. But I do enjoy like, I do try to take time. I do take quite a bit of time for myself.

Jason Vance:
Yeah. Even just to go write a journal a lot, you know, go for coffee with people. I try to go for coffee few times a week. You know, being at home in my office, it’s good to get out and just meet with local people who do what I do or just random friends and and chat. So been pretty good that way.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Totally agree. When you do love what you’re doing, as long as what it whatever you’re thinking about is kind of building you up and edifying you, then I don’t think it’s a problem. You did hit the nail on the head, though. What you don’t wanna be doing is thinking about client projects when you are chilling in the pub with your dog. So I think your way is to go out of the office and go and do something nice. And it may be that you’re still thinking about the dream, which is cool because that’s building you up, but you’re not sat there thinking, right, how can I schedule the next client project in, or how can I generate more leads? Because that is a drainer. At least in my experience, if I’m out still thinking about that, and my wife can tell when I’m thinking about it because she’d be like, what’s wrong? What’s wrong? You’re off the lead. You

Jason Vance:
don’t stress. When I’m stressed, my wife knows it. Exactly. Updates when I’m stressed isn’t fun.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
So I’m asking everyone this next question because it’s something I’m really struggling with, and it is how do you stay healthy or try to stay healthy? Because we are very often chained to our desks.

Jason Vance:
I I’m the wrong person to ask for that.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Well, you do dog walking. That’s the first positive step Well,

Jason Vance:
we we just got the dog, and and it’s actually been really good. Just get me out going. Yeah. The dog for walk every day, that’s been really good. And, actually, like, one of the reasons for getting the dog was to get me out of my desk because I knew I needed to change that. Mhmm. Yeah. I tried the keto diet not long ago.

Jason Vance:
I actually really enjoyed that. But, yeah, it’s getting up. Not sitting all day is a challenge. I don’t have a really good answer for that one at all.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
And me neither, which is pretty much why I’m asking everyone. So, I think I think you’ve hit the nail there. You’ve got the dog walking. We mentioned in another episode how important just, a 10 minute walk a day is actually very good for people’s health. So it’s something that I’ve been trying to do. Although, literally since I said that last time 3 days ago, I have not had a 10 minute walk for the last 3 days. So still struggling. Hashtag the struggle is real.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
But hopefully, an agency owner is gonna give us that, gold nugget of wisdom at some point on the most amazing way to still stay healthy. A lot of it is mindset for me just thinking of going to the gym, and I’m I’m already I’ve already given up. Okay. So the last question, and then we will let you go, mate, is if you could name one tool that has been essential to your agency’s success, what would it be?

Jason Vance:
Right now, I’m really loving Trello, like and it’s just kinda my brain dump. Let’s move parts around, and that was Zapier together. It’s actually been a really good really good tool for me. Mhmm. Is

Lee Matthew Jackson:
that something you use personally to manage yourself, or is that something you’re using to manage the whole team on projects?

Jason Vance:
Everything. Like, my personal stuff, you know, even, like, we use it for the house with my wife a little bit Mhmm. Plus project work. We’ve got roadmaps, content, calendars. I’ve started using it just recently for for client communication stuff Mhmm. Instead of, like, Google Docs for that, and it seemed to be working a lot better. Awesome. So I’ve yeah.

Jason Vance:
I really like it.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Well, we’ll put a link, folks, to Trello in the show notes. That’s Trello to check out, and I know I’ve used it in the past. We’ve used it especially for the visualizations of things like roadmaps. We’ve kind of Yeah. To stick with Asana though for, like, just regular tasks that we’re doing. But yeah, that’s trello.com. So Jason, thank you very much for being a part of hashtag agency life. It’s always an eye opener learning how other people are operating.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
What is the best way of people getting a hold of you? And then we will say goodbye.

Jason Vance:
Yeah. You can just follow me on Twitter at Jason Vance or, find me on Facebook, jason.im, I think.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Awesome.

Jason Vance:
Or Red Mill Creative.com is my agency website

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Jason, thanks for your time and have a wonderful evening.

Jason Vance:
Me on. You too. Bye.