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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. Before we kick off the show, here is a word from our sponsor.
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Lee Matthew Jackson:
Hi, and welcome to another episode of Agency Life. And today on the show, we have Simone Luciani. How are you today?
Simone Luciani:
Hey. Hello. I’m really good. Thank you. Really happy to be here.
Simone Luciani:
I nailed your name there, didn’t I?
Simone Luciani:
You did. Absolutely. Sounds good.
Simone Luciani:
Oh, happy. People won’t know that, Minh, you have literally just spent 20 minutes getting your name nailed. Maybe not 20 minutes.
Simone Luciani:
Not 20, but Maybe just 2. But yeah. I realize it’s difficult. I’m a
Simone Luciani:
little bit jealous. You’ve got a really cool sounding name. Lee Jackson is, like, 2 really common names, and your name is like a Italian film star. I love it.
Simone Luciani:
Yeah. It’s quite common in Italy, though, if you wanna Oh,
Simone Luciani:
is it?
Simone Luciani:
It says some bible names.
Simone Luciani:
Don’t tell me that. We we didn’t.
Simone Luciani:
Okay. That’s brilliant.
Simone Luciani:
Let me be impressed.
Simone Luciani:
Okay.
Simone Luciani:
Alright. Well, we’re gonna learn all about your business, about your agency. You know the format. We’re gonna hit you with a whole herd of questions. Are you ready to rock and roll?
Simone Luciani:
Absolutely. Yes.
Simone Luciani:
Alright. Let’s do this then. So tell us the name of your agency and what it is you do.
Simone Luciani:
So, yeah, we are, Rich Clicks. Let’s get the s right because, usually, in Italy, everybody forgets about it, and they call us Rich Clicks. So Rich Clicks, we’re, actually, we’re an award winning, ecommerce and digital marketing agency. Mhmm. We’re based in Milan, and London. So London is our headquarters where we have most of our people, but we have a second office in Milan because, actually, the Italian market is the biggest for us.
Simone Luciani:
Awesome.
Simone Luciani:
So we do ecommerce, as our main activity. This means helping businesses, sell online. We do especially the performance marketing bit, and we help them with usability, digital marketing, and everything that is, helpful for an ecommerce, environment. And we do digital marketing because we have some service clients as well. So we help them generate more leads, help them to grow their business online. And this, again, is all over Europe. We have clients in Italy, mostly, and Milan as our main city, a few in London, a few in France and Spain, I would say, and a couple in America as well.
Simone Luciani:
That’s really, really cool. So if we were gonna have a big birthday party, and, obviously, we’d have to do that in Milan because that’s an amazing, amazing place. So we’re we’re all meeting up in Milan. We’re gonna have a birthday party for your agency. How old is your business? When would your birthday be?
Simone Luciani:
Well, we’re gonna be almost 5 years old, and that is gonna be on 16th December. Yeah, because we were born on the 2013 of 16th December. And, actually, I can’t wait because we we’re gonna have something special for that day for sure.
Simone Luciani:
Oh, that’s awesome. You you don’t look old enough, mate.
Simone Luciani:
No. Actually, I’m 35.
Simone Luciani:
Really? Oh, crap. I’m older than you. I’m 36.
Simone Luciani:
Yeah. I’m I’m starting to feel it. But, yeah.
Simone Luciani:
I’m with you there, mate. Yeah? Past 30, and I’ve started to notice things creeping in. Like, sound effects as I sit down. Do you do that yet? Yeah.
Simone Luciani:
Let’s not talk about it. I wanna be. But the company is young, 5 years. So That’s
Simone Luciani:
good. We’ll hold on to that. Alright. Well, let’s find out about your company. So how many people do you have in your team? You said you’ve got 22 main centers. You’ve got London, and Milan. So, in the business, how many of you are there?
Simone Luciani:
Yeah. In total, we’re 15, which is 13 employed and 2 freelancers. I work full time with us, looking to grow. It took us quite a long time to get to this dimension. We’re still considered very small for the market we’re in. Mhmm. Especially in London. You you must know the market pretty well there.
Simone Luciani:
The Yeah.
Simone Luciani:
15 people is, like, still super niche and very small. So we need to grow it a bit more. Even if, my idea is to keep it still a boutique agency. So we don’t wanna become, 50 plus, but our dimension ideal dimension is around 30 people. Yeah. So that’s my my goal.
Simone Luciani:
And you mentioned you’ve got the 2 locations. Does that mean you’ve got physical offices that people go to? Yes. And how does that work in the 2 different countries?
Simone Luciani:
Yeah. We do. So, London is our headquarters where we have, most of the consultants. In Milan right now, there’s only one consultant plus me when I fly there and a couple of freelancers. We have 2 partners, strong partners where they do communication, so we have an office in common. So that helps to, you know, to have the environment. And I’m the guy flying up and down between the two countries mostly. I’m commuting based between Milan and London.
Simone Luciani:
Luckily, it’s cheap enough to and affordable to make that possible.
Simone Luciani:
That’s awesome. And like you said, in our chat earlier that we’ll be meeting up next time you’re in London, so that’d be really exciting.
Simone Luciani:
Unfortunately, I live in London, so I get all the bad things up out of, like, the weather and stuff.
Simone Luciani:
Oh, cool.
Simone Luciani:
So I’m in Milan only, like
Simone Luciani:
Yeah.
Simone Luciani:
24 hours, something like that.
Simone Luciani:
So you’re practically British now?
Simone Luciani:
Actually, I am. I even have a dual nationality.
Simone Luciani:
Oh, that’s cool.
Simone Luciani:
Well, for Brexit reasons more than anything else.
Simone Luciani:
Well, I was gonna say, yeah, it really sucks, doesn’t it? I’m not looking forward to Brexit.
Simone Luciani:
So Yeah.
Simone Luciani:
Yeah. But that’s a whole that’s a whole other podcast. Yeah. And in fact, I found YouTube channels all about it now.
Simone Luciani:
Oh, yeah.
Simone Luciani:
Yeah. There’s so many that just explain it all to me, and, I’ve had enough. I can’t cope with it. I’m just Yeah.
Simone Luciani:
Doing it.
Simone Luciani:
I’m gonna pretend it’s not happening.
Simone Luciani:
And if you see it from my side, I’m an Italian living in London for, 13 years. I think Yeah. 14 now. I’ve studied there, university, master degree. I worked in London. I paid so much tax that I could buy, I don’t know what. I was like, few Lamborghinis. And, and then now they wanna kick us out.
Simone Luciani:
So, yeah, as an Italian in London, it’s it’s not either.
Simone Luciani:
Please know it doesn’t represent me, though. I wanna keep you because you’re awesome.
Simone Luciani:
Thank you.
Simone Luciani:
Let’s talk about your team culture then. And, you’ve got you’ve like you said, you’ve got the 2 different locations. What’s the team dynamic? How do you all work together, etcetera?
Simone Luciani:
So first of all, important to say there’s a lot of Italians actually in London. Mhmm. We have, Spanish, few Italians, French, a couple of British, but, actually, most of the team is European. No. Not British. We can say that now because of Brexit. So the dynamics is, actually is quite cool and it’s gonna get into more our mission. But, what we reinvented, me and my business partner, because we’re 2 founders, the other Simone.
Simone Luciani:
Actually, there’s 2 Simone’s in the company. Simone Passagantile, which is my, my one of my best friends and and actually the, cofounder of Rich Clicks. And, the cool thing about us is that, actually, we don’t have accounts. So we don’t have a proper business account, but we have more digital consultants or more project managers and front end with the client. Mhmm. And why I say that they’re not accounts is because they’re actually they come from the execution. So they were, you know, proper performance execution before becoming consulting. So before being able to talk with their clients, they’re really good at what they do.
Simone Luciani:
Yeah. So we cut to the middleman, basically. And so we have the the main digital consultant that works with the, you know, pay per click executive or all the marketing automation, which is something strong that we have, ecommerce and whatsoever. So the digital marketing consultant is actually the project manager, project leader, talks with the clients, and then, you know, drags the entire team to get to the performance. So this is how it works.
Simone Luciani:
And and they actually do some they do quite a lot of the stuff as well, so they’re not just telling other people what to do necessary.
Simone Luciani:
Exactly. Very exactly.
Simone Luciani:
They are practitioners. They know their craft. Absolutely.
Simone Luciani:
They know how to get in the campaigns, and they know what use of it is. They come from that before being, you know, a a proper consultant with the client. So the people that actually are really good in talking with their clients, they have that first position, communicative, and Yeah. And what you need to be there, then they they do a career in which clicks, and they become, digital consultants. But this usually start as interns or as, pay per click executive or SEO executives or whatever the channel it is, and then they grow. And if they have the this position and they want to, because, you know, it’s someone to to their career in that sense. But most of our digital consultants actually started that way.
Simone Luciani:
Okay. And, with regards to, like, how you all work together, do you like to have a a good laugh as well? Do you go out to kind of, do any events together or anything like that?
Simone Luciani:
We’re very, very relaxed. Yeah. We have flexible time. You can work from home whenever you need to. People come in and out of the office whenever they want. What we really look, as a team is the performance, is what, the outcome we have with the client, the results that we bring. Sometimes, you know, you have to do, longer shifts, after 8 PM. Sometimes you don’t even come to the office because you have a a lie in and you have to work from home from where you
Simone Luciani:
I like that.
Simone Luciani:
In pajama. That happens often.
Simone Luciani:
So flex flexible. Work hard when, you know, when when you have to, but equally, you can then take that time back and and Absolutely. Charge. I love that.
Simone Luciani:
It’s very, very young, dynamic. Again, well, it says a Latin component,
Simone Luciani:
You know, I do that. Your newborn baby has a good set of lungs, and I I’m absolutely I love babies so much. Okay. You you you So he’s more than welcome to come on the show. I love it. So alright. Well, let’s talk about your mission then. We we’ve we’ve kind of started to understand what it is you do.
Simone Luciani:
You do mention performance marketing, etcetera. So, what what is the industry niche? Can you kind of try and describe it in layman’s terms what your niche is?
Simone Luciani:
Yeah. We have 2 big niche. One is the ecommerce and retail, world. So we help, most of our Italian or international companies that have headquarters in Italy. Example, fashion Mhmm. Is something very big for us. As you know, Italy is very strong in fashion. We have a lot of fashion brands, shoemakers, and, one of our big clients is Blauer USA.
Simone Luciani:
Then maybe maybe you’re now as a fashion brand. Yeah. And we help them, have better performance on ecommerce. Everything that is needed from, you know, handling all the Google activities, for example, search advertising, SEO, social advertising, Facebook. We do a lot of usability, tracking, reporting. It’s a full service agency
Simone Luciani:
Mhmm.
Simone Luciani:
In the real sense. We we, we even have a strong partnership with, with a company in Ireland called Qumo. Okay. It’s an Icloud ecommerce platform. So they develop, of course, the the software and we, do the rest. We help our clients to see them online, and that works really well. The second part of the business is more, towards service, companies. So for example, we have a lot of, university training, schools.
Simone Luciani:
We have a very big English, school in in Italy that now has gone international. They started in Italy. Now they’re in France. Opening in Spain. They’re becoming quite big. So we help them generate leads, for example. In all the way possible, helping them with building the landing pages, getting the campaigns right, and everything that is needed. So we have these two worlds, and the main, component, of all this is Google, who is, our biggest partner.
Simone Luciani:
In fact, Rich Clicks is one of the top a hundred, Google Premier Partner Agency. I just got an email yesterday, like, a few hours ago, actually, about being nominated, with 2, nominations at the Google Premier Partner Awards. So we represent Italy. There’s only 3 agencies for the Italian markets and one one of them, and, with top 100 for for email. So Google is is is really predominant in whatever we do. They help us a lot. We have 3 or 4 of their accounts, jumping in our projects, trying to innovate with us, and giving that extra push that we really need.
Simone Luciani:
That is really, really cool, and congratulations on the nominations as well. That’s awesome. Does that mean you all get to go to a, like, an awards party? Yeah.
Simone Luciani:
We’re we’re going to Dublin.
Simone Luciani:
To be the plus 1, I’m available. Yeah. I’m staying.
Simone Luciani:
Why not? Why not? We’re we’re going twice to Dublin, actually, because we’re being invited to a summit in a couple of weeks, actually
Simone Luciani:
Yeah.
Simone Luciani:
To represent Italy. We’re the only agency representing Google, for the Italian market, and then in October for this award. So we get to have a lot of these meetings, actually, with
Simone Luciani:
And I love your pride in Italy as well. That’s really cool.
Simone Luciani:
Yeah.
Simone Luciani:
Thanks. And and you’re representing. Alright. Well, for your clients, you mentioned you’ve got kind of these 2, kind kind of 2 main avenues. If you can think of the the problems, what sort of problem or the main problem do you think you’re solving for your clients?
Simone Luciani:
Well, I think and I really want to, believe in this. One of the main problems that we solve is the fact that cutting the middlemans, as I said before Yeah. Is actually helping our business, our clients, the clients that work with us, feel like a partner of Rich Clix, and not just a client. I say this because, of course, before opening Rich Clix, I was working for eBay. I I I had a career in eBay for 5 years, and I was on the other side. I was, you know, part of a big corporation that needed to work with a lot of agents. At that time, we hired 6 or 7 different agencies for different products on eBay. So from an SEO, Paperclay, there was there was a lot of things going on.
Simone Luciani:
And I had to hire those agencies, and most of the time, I had to talk with accounts. And I would say that 80% of the people that I had to talk to were actually project managers with absolutely no clue what they were doing.
Simone Luciani:
Yeah. You
Simone Luciani:
know? So they were talking about, we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do that. But, actually, when I was going to get a bit technical, it was, oh, let me let me take the phone and talk to the person that actually knows how to do this. And we were trying to innovate and, you know, bring something extra on the table. It was always something that I was dragging from them, and they were not comfortable in doing. So, when when I decided to build up, rich clicks, I said, okay. I don’t wanna be like that. We wanna be different. We’re gonna be a real partner.
Simone Luciani:
The people, I I don’t care if we’re not able to sell or be able to be that, you know, strong communicators. What we really need to is show our clients that we’re able to deliver results and help them and guide them hand by hand. And this is where this is, actually working. We in the last, 3 years, we won 4 awards that actually was contemplating execution and strategy on the RAR Awards. So people are actually appreciating, and a lot of clients understand our philosophy. It’s not for everyone to understand it. Mhmm. But sometimes, you know, our our culture is a bit too, you know, too hand by hand and just companies that we need that account, that we need the Yeah.
Simone Luciani:
Different mentality. But for the ones that are the clients are working with us is actually delivering results, and that is what that is the problem that we’re solving, I think.
Simone Luciani:
Yeah. So it’s it’s like you said, cutting out the middleman, cutting out a whole lot of the bureaucracy that comes with having that person who doesn’t necessarily understand what, you know, the technicalities, and they’re trying to pass messages on to all of the relevant people whilst trying to keep that project on track. And it’s it can be quite a difficult model, I think, for many agencies to work with. Yeah. So quite often, you’ll find a lot of agencies are doing similar to what you’re doing now, which is becoming project managers in their own right, and, you know, the that kind of PM level
Simone Luciani:
Yeah.
Simone Luciani:
Without skill is getting less and less. You’re you’re finding you’re getting kind of a hybrid project management Yeah. Setup, which which is very effective.
Simone Luciani:
We’re starting from the other way. I’ve I’ve heard one of your podcasts, where we were talking about accounting, account management and importance and which, actually, I loved. I was really inspired. Actually, I think I’m gonna call her to to have her knowledge
Simone Luciani:
to help us. Brilliant. Jenny.
Simone Luciani:
Jenny Plant. Jenny. Yes. I I forgot the name.
Simone Luciani:
Yeah.
Simone Luciani:
And I really want her on board to to help us because I think from our side, from for me, it’s easier to have someone that is really good in what they’re doing in digital marketing
Simone Luciani:
Mhmm.
Simone Luciani:
And then help them to be really good accounts. I think it’s easier that way rather than having someone that is a really good account and then has to study to become a direct marketer. Because what we do actually is really difficult. Everyone says that it’s easy. Everyone can do it, but, actually, I I don’t feel that it’s true. I have to study every single day to do the job that I’m doing. And I feel that I’ve I’ve been on holiday for 3 weeks now for for Leonardo, my my newborn, son. I’m trying to take some time with him, and I haven’t, you know, opened, the the computer for 3 weeks.
Simone Luciani:
And I feel that I lost 30 years of of of my career because the world has evolved already so so much. It’s been a Google core update. I had seen one of that coming from holidays.
Simone Luciani:
Came August 1st, didn’t it?
Simone Luciani:
Yeah. There there there’s been a huge Google update, to have a look. I said, what? Like, just 3 days, man.
Simone Luciani:
We we have hoverboards and everything now, mate. Where have you been for the last 3 weeks?
Simone Luciani:
It’s crazy. And and I feel that, really, and I have to catch up. I have to go back and go vlogs and, listen to your podcast again.
Simone Luciani:
Well, I think the difference as well is the people who are the practitioners also have the passion about it and keep up to date. So if you can then give them the account management skill, like you said, so connecting with people like Jenny Plant to grow the account management skill in them, that’s gotta be a far more effective Yeah. Practitioner, consultant, and account manager all rolled into 1 rather than having too many pieces in the puzzle.
Simone Luciani:
Yeah.
Simone Luciani:
Yeah. I totally agree. Yeah. So let’s get into marketing then. You guys obviously do marketing, but how do you generate leads for your business?
Simone Luciani:
I think we do a, pretty well. We’re terrible at selling. Okay. And this is, something that we have to cope with and learn how to deal with. Because if you’re not a good seller, then it’s it’s difficult to generate new business. But what I’m good at, I think, first of all, is doing digital marketing for ourself, and I think we do it pretty well. We’re well positioned on Google. We do a lot of SEO.
Simone Luciani:
Actually, Rich Clix has a very strong SEO background because when I was working in eBay, I was the SEO manager, then I became the search marketing manager. So search is our big thing. It was at least our our core then we evolved. So we’re good at that, and Rich Clicks generates leads on its own, thanks to the content, thanks of just being on Google. The second thing that I do, myself and my, other team members do as well is a lot of LinkedIn, being, networking in groups, trying to, you know, give some free resources, tips. I do a lot of videos and, try to do some storytelling of of our things, and it works really well. We we get some leads from that as well. And the third thing, is partnerships.
Simone Luciani:
Partnerships for us is, probably, the key of our success. We’re not scared to share. We’re not scared to share how we’re growing our technology, what we do. We don’t have secret recipes that we that we’re we’re scared to share. I really believe that Internet is about sharing, and sharing helps everyone. So for this reason, we’re one of the cofounders of, an organization called DALL, DALL International.
Simone Luciani:
Mhmm.
Simone Luciani:
And this is basically an organization where, it associates, an agency for each, European country. So we’re the Italian Italian agency, then there’s one for the UK, one for Poland, France, and and so on. And we get to meet, twice a year, share, even employees. Mhmm. Share resources. Share know how. We have a group where we chat, very often on the CEO levels, and, we share. Basically, sharing is is exactly like what you’re doing with your podcast and with with your Yeah.
Simone Luciani:
And that is helping us. It’s helping other agencies, to thrive in a community which is huge, and there is really work for everyone. Everyone can can thrive in this community. And and it’s absolutely absolutely great for us.
Simone Luciani:
Yeah. No. I’m a massive believer in in giving, of giving of your time and your talent, and of caring because it always comes full circle. I absolutely believe it comes full circle, and people will remember those conversations. People remember the information you gave, and that will always generate leads as well in the future. I love it. Okay. So the sort of line of business you’re in, I’m assuming you do all sorts of measurements and metrics, and my brain kind of turns to mush when people start talking about that.
Simone Luciani:
Do you have a measure for success for for your agency? Do you have targets that you try and meet? How would you guys, at the end of a a given year, go, that was a good year? What would make you feel that you’d succeeded for that year?
Simone Luciani:
Yeah. There’s a few things, that we use as, as a benchmark. We have 2 awards that we participate every year that we really believe in. Yeah. One is called the RAR. Any UK business, digital business should look at that. It’s the most famous, award that you that you could win in the UK, and it’s for every single, digital business. From ecommerce, there’s a category for for every single digital activity out there.
Simone Luciani:
And, we we go for the nominations and for the awards. And why we really believe in that is because it’s based on customer reviews. So it’s our customers endorsing us every year, writing what they think about us, how who they work with in the team, and, you know, that is also a report to understand how we’re doing with our clients. Mhmm. So it it’s it’s it’s really good. So we we we try to raise for the nominations, and we’ve been, there every year with, more than 10 nominations every year. We won 4 already, and that, for us, every year is a benchmark to understand. Okay.
Simone Luciani:
We’re doing well or not.
Simone Luciani:
That’s good. Yeah.
Simone Luciani:
This is, of course I’m talking about romantic things because everyone at the end of the year is looking at the profits, looking at turnovers, looking at is the accountant calling me? Like, okay.
Simone Luciani:
I I I would rather talk about the romantic things than the other stuff anyway.
Simone Luciani:
Because that’s obvious. No. Like, profitability and how much you’re turning over and if the team grew and all that things. I think it’s common for everyone. But, so their word is one thing, that they already are. And the second is, our partners. How happy are our partners with us? Because as I said before, the key of our, for us to set is always the clients, of course, because they are the ones that are giving the business. But the partners that we have in our, surroundings are actually the ones that are sometimes carrying us.
Simone Luciani:
And again, I said Google, I forgot to mention ShotSpring, which is a marketing automation, technology that we use, and we white label, and they’re an amazing partner for agencies that, advise any agency that is listening actually to have a look at their website. They they do marketing automation with a wonderful tool, very similar to HubSpot, but built on agencies. Mhmm. And, again, other partners that we have around the world that actually work with us. So these two metrics, awards and what the partners, say about us, if they’re happy of the business that we’re bringing, the relationship that we’re having, and so on.
Simone Luciani:
That’s good. And it’s it’s always good to get validation. I think we’re all all all as human beings, we kinda need some validation. We need to know we’re doing well. And if we don’t get get it, we’re obviously striving for it. It’s a good thing because it means we’re gonna make positive change to our business as well. So I’m a big believer in that. Yeah.
Simone Luciani:
Alright. It’s confession time then, mate. So it’s just me and you, a few thousand listeners around the world. So I’m pretty sure your secret is gonna be kept safe with us. What is the biggest problem you guys have as a business?
Simone Luciani:
People. People is Biggest problem. It’s very difficult to hire the right people. Mhmm. It’s very difficult to get them to believe, in what you’re doing. Yeah. London is a cancer, I think, for, business growth because people don’t wanna stick around for more than 2 years. Mhmm.
Simone Luciani:
I’ve I’ve listened this from everyone around. They want to jump between a career and another. They just wanna grow their, you know, list of titles most of the times. And it you can count them on a hand, the ones that actually really believe in what they’re doing. And, you know, I’m doing this because I’m passionate about it and not just for the title. And this happens a lot, especially in London and Italy, a bit less. I find it easily, easier in Italy to to have people actually believing in what you’re doing and, you know, the culture and participate in something big, and changing the world because I really believe that we are changing the world somehow. We’re changing our digital marketing world.
Simone Luciani:
And and that is the the most difficult thing that we have, that we that we struggle with really to to get people to, to love what they’re doing and and and being being part of something something great. Not everyone is passionate as as much as the founders of of of the agency. That is normal, I think. I hope, sometimes it’s even hard to get, you know even the interns will be passionate of of what they’re learning. Mhmm. So that is the biggest the biggest thing that, you know, I’m I’m trying to learn trying to learn what I have to do to to make them feel comfortable on board and especially getting the the talents because, I feel that after Brexit, going back to to that bad topic, actually, London has lost a lot of European talents, especially, you know, we’re almost an Italian agency in London. I couldn’t define myself as as like that. And it’s very difficult to to find good, Italian, digital marketers after Brexit.
Simone Luciani:
Before, it was much easier.
Simone Luciani:
Yeah. Done. Breck what was they what were they thinking? But, anyway, moving on. And I’m sure there’ll be some pro Brexiteers listening as well. It’s all okay. We’re all good. We’re all friends. Let’s have a big hug.
Simone Luciani:
So well-being, you are a busy guy. You have taken 3 weeks off, which is awesome, especially to spend time with your new son. Again, congratulations. So cool to have a baby. It’s babies and children are a gift. I just they’re amazing. So, how do you personally switch off? And you have confessed that you feel like you’ve lost 30 years of knowledge just by taking 3 weeks off. So that’s you sound like, to me, somebody who is constantly thinking.
Simone Luciani:
How do you find ways of just switching off and just calming your brain down for a while?
Simone Luciani:
Yeah. I I just got back. Today is my 1st day back, and the first thing that I did is call my business partner, Simone. And we’ve been on the phone just about 5 hours, I think, from a holiday. Just updating each other and say, okay. And and he came back from holiday as well. Yeah. Well, I’m actually very busy.
Simone Luciani:
I love my job. My job is not a job for me. It’s just a passion, and it’s almost my hobby.
Simone Luciani:
Mhmm.
Simone Luciani:
And, actually, my job is is, is almost whatever is is is not my job. And I’m a marathoner, first of all. So when when I’m not in the office, I say that I’m out running. So if you don’t find me in the office, you’ll probably see me on some road in London running. And I’m running, the 6 major marathons. In October, I’m running, Chicago, which is gonna be the last one. Mhmm. The 6 with a target to run, under 3 hours.
Simone Luciani:
So Chicago’s the last
Simone Luciani:
I know how trying to run under 4 hours is very difficult. And I managed to 1 3 hours 56. That’s what I got to when I used to be a marathon runner, and that was it. So I can’t even imagine trying to get under 3 hours. That’s a whole other hour. That’s insane.
Simone Luciani:
Well, that’s really
Simone Luciani:
good. That means no stops.
Simone Luciani:
Absolutely no stops. So, yeah, I I I run a lot, but not only, actually. I’m I’m really passionate of so many things. I always say to my wife, sometimes I feel a bit down because I I would like to have more time to to to do so many other things. I love photography. I love traveling. I love speaking languages, meeting culture. I love so many things.
Simone Luciani:
Really, it’s not a problem to me to say, okay. I’m gonna I’m gonna do something else now. I’m gonna I’m gonna switch off from work. But it’s very difficult to switch off from work. So you find you find yourself that, actually, you’re running, and then you’re listening to your podcast, for example. And I do that all the time. That’s why, as I said before, I I listen to all your postcard podcast, while I run. And, you know, I’m running and actually thinking of, what can I do to improve rich clicks? What I can do to win another award? Or what can I do to help that client achieve its goals? So while I’m running, I’m still working at the end of the day.
Simone Luciani:
So
Simone Luciani:
But I think you alluded to the fact that it it may be quote, unquote, quote, unquote work, but it’s also your passion and your love. The the business is it’s your business, and it doesn’t drain you to think about it. In fact, it energizes you.
Simone Luciani:
But listen. I I always say to every single employee, every single partner, every single person that works in digital, I always tell them that if you don’t love this job, do something else. Yeah. Because digital really drains your battery if you don’t like it. Yeah. It’s an such an evolving and quickly evolving, place to be that if if you’re not passionate, you’re just gonna lose you’re just gonna lose it, at some point. And you’re gonna And it’s
Simone Luciani:
gonna be so hard to motivate yourself, so hard to even do the work. Because sometimes digital could be very mundane, repetitive, and boring. So if you don’t have that excitement or that passion about it, it makes it very hard to get through a day. Whoops.
Simone Luciani:
Yeah. Just do something else, man. Yeah.
Simone Luciani:
Alright. So we’re into our last question then, and that is name one tool, and you have to be one tool, that you believe has been essential to your agency’s success and why.
Simone Luciani:
It’s difficult to to to do only one tool, but I’ll try to stick to it. It’s marketing automation, Shot Spring. We implemented it 3 years ago in our in our processes, for our lead acquisition in nurturing, but not only, especially to learn, to test, to, you know, get get some knowledge there about content, about how to nurture lead, and and so on. So the marketing, automation for us has been life changing.
Simone Luciani:
And that’s at sharpspring.com. Yeah?
Simone Luciani:
Absolutely.
Simone Luciani:
Brilliant. So, folks, check out sharpspring.com. Well, it’s been absolutely fascinating learning about your agency. I love your passion. Absolutely love that. And, I’m very flattered, that you did. You confessed just before we recorded this that you’ve managed to listen to every single episode.
Simone Luciani:
Every single podcast. And I’m waiting for the next one.
Simone Luciani:
Well, it’s it well, the there’s one out that’s gone out today, and there’ll be one out tomorrow. So happy day.
Simone Luciani:
Oh, great. Yeah. I have a lot of running to do.
Simone Luciani:
That’s perfect. And they’ll be yours will be out on Friday, so you get to listen to yours as well. Great. That’s fantastic. But thank you so much for your time. How can people connect with you, mate, and then we shall say goodbye?
Simone Luciani:
Rich clicks dot, co dot u k. You can find the contact form there. Go on my LinkedIn profile. It’s Simon and Luciani. Straightforward. My name and surname, you’ll you’ll find me there. Please connect. I love to connect with everyone.
Simone Luciani:
And before I close, let me just thank you and thank you very much for what you’re doing because, I really love the community. I’m learning so much, and I’m really I’m not saying to to flat out. You know? I I really honestly think that what you’re doing is helping the community very much, and a lot of agencies need it. I I’ve been there. I’ve been, in the place where only me and Simone are sitting in a room trying to think what the hell to do with our with our lives. We struggle so much, in in so many parts of our life. Yeah. Sometimes we said, okay.
Simone Luciani:
We’re gonna just, you know, go back to do freelancing because it’s just too hard. Yeah. And if I had your postcard before that, that would definitely help. Absolutely.
Simone Luciani:
Well, if you agree with, Simone, then please spread the word because the whole purpose of this podcast is to help agency owners, freelancers, designers, etcetera, to fall back in love with your business again. There are too many agencies that are closing where the problems within those agencies could easily be resolved. This is exactly why we’re doing agency life as well because we get to learn from all of our guests who are sharing how they run their agencies. So thank you very much for that encouragement. I love it. Absolutely love it. My I won’t be able to get out of this door. My head will be too big, but, yeah.
Simone Luciani:
Please spread the word as far and wide as you can because we wanna help as many agency owners just love what they do again and and find a way of staying in the industry. Too many agencies that have closed because, you know, they’ve become jaded, they’ve become down, depressed, sad, or stressed out with horrible clients, all of that good stuff. We don’t want that. We want them to stay in business and to grow because there is enough business for everyone, and we’re in a digital age. There’s only going to there’s gonna be more business for everyone as as everything grows. So thanks, buddy. You’re a legend. Thank you so much for your time.
Simone Luciani:
I’m looking forward to having you back again on the show very soon because we’re gonna record a full episode, an audio episode together. So that will be awesome.
Simone Luciani:
Oh, that’s great.
Simone Luciani:
Until then, mate. Have a great day.
Simone Luciani:
Yeah. You too. Bye.
Simone Luciani:
Cheerio.
Simone Luciani:
Bye bye.
