How to transform your agency

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Verbatim text

Lee:
Welcome to the agency Trailblazer podcast. This is your host, Lee. And today we’ve hit a milestone. Today is episode 200 and literally so much has changed over the last few years, guys. I’m so grateful to everyone who has supported the show by listening, sharing, joining the group financially and in so many other ways.

Lee:
Now, before we continue, there is a very special offer for our up and coming event here in the UK for those who are interested in making that next positive change in their business. So please stay tuned and listen very, very carefully throughout. All right, guys, I’ve learned so much from our guests and I’ve been able to evolve my own agencies into businesses that support the life we’d like as a family and also supports me being able to take significant time away for many hospital visits that we’ve had to take and will unfortunately have to continue to make over the next foreseeable few months. I find that life is too short and we’ve lost some really, really special people over the last few years. And we’ve also battled health issues very, very close to home, which has massively changed my perspective on what success means, on what makes me happy.

Lee:
Now, I mentioned many episodes ago about the importance of enjoying those mini retirements throughout our lives. The events of the last few years have taught me that we don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. Why work hard, nonstop for years to aim towards retirement and perhaps never hit it? So this is what happened to my dad. Now, he worked so hard for many years and it was becoming clear that he’d never actually get to retire.

Lee:
He’d need to continue to work past retirement age to keep making ends of meat, to keep making those payments on the house. And unfortunately, he worked one night till near midnight and then passed away in his sleep just an hour later. Now, don’t turn off the episode. I promise that I’m not going to depress you. I do want to encourage you, however, to take a look at what you’re building in your family, in your life, in your business, and then consider how you might want to make some changes.

Lee:
So after dad passed away, it made me realise that I need to make massive changes in my own agency. I was working 18 hour days. Weekend work was commonplace for sure, and I’d cancelled a visit to see Mum and Dad because of the work that I was having to do and the stress that I had. And this meant that I actually missed being there for my dad in those last few hours. My last conversation with dad was me, unfortunately, being grumpy and telling him that I just couldn’t talk to him because I was just too stressed out, there was too much to do and I pretty much hung up on him.

Lee:
And I was spending less and less time with my family because I was making ends meet and working without any focus. So after we lost that, it was really clear to me that something had to change and it had to change fast. So back to those mini retirements. What’s that all about? All right, simply putting it this way, it’s making time out of your life to do awesome things with your loved ones now whilst you have the energy and the health too.

Lee:
Let me say that again, making time out to do awesome things with your loved ones now whilst you have the energy and the health to do so. And if you don’t have a family yet, but you want to do some of those awesome things for yourself and create those memories, create those special moments, then this is exactly right for you to Being rich and successful need not be measured by money, but by the quality of time that you have with those closest to you. This is really, really impacting my life. Especially being rich and successful need not be measured by money, but by the quality of time that I can spend with those people that are the most closest to me. My daughter is not going to thank me for spending hours in the office making money.

Lee:
She is going to thank me though for those memories, those times that we had together. Now all of this was inspired by the book the Four Hour Work Week that’s by Tim Ferriss and I read it as an extreme reaction to those events. Not as though I ever expected to work for only four hours a week. However, there were several truths in that book that really hit home and a phrase that jumped out at me was the new rich how can you create a life and lifestyle that enriches your life now rather than working to something in the distant future? So this completely changed my outlook and led to us going on to many adventures together, including two months in Florida where we made heaps of new friends and made amazing memories.

Lee:
Now we are UK bound at the moment due to ongoing hospital treatments, but we’ve been able to draw on those experiences and create loads of special holidays together here in the UK and also close by in different countries in Europe like Lanzarote etc. In a couple of weeks time we’ll be spending a week together in a place called Blockley before Agency Transformation Live Now Blockley is where the BBC drama called Father Brown is filmed, not to be confused with Father Ted. Now we’re huge fans and we stay in a cottage that has its own babbling brook. It is so relaxing, it’s so awesome. And it’s certainly become one of those happy places for us as a family to be.

Lee:
These moments in life are wonderful, they’re rewarding, they’re unforgettable. And the great thing is we don’t need to be rich to do any of it. We’ve instead transformed the agencies that I have to facilitate these life events. So that includes focusing on our target markets and our missions. It means understanding the value that we provide.

Lee:
It means our platforms for communicating the value to our target audience have been established and tested. It means we focused on massive improvements on how we can deliver our solutions to be way more efficient. And it’s also been a massive focus of us to develop those processes and strategic relationships that will allow us to scale, to grow and to be able to shift with the times for the future. Now I’m still on this journey, I’m still making mistakes along the way, but these have been the best few years of my life in business and, and it couldn’t have come at a better time when we’ve had to deal with so much personally and that the past, Lee, if any of this would have happened, would simply have had a breakdown. So let me let you into a secret.

Lee:
Believe it or not, but I’m actually not a millionaire nor am I looking to become one purposefully. Instead, we as a family and we as a business have changed our priorities. Let me give you an insight into the world of Lee Jackson. I love my 9 year old Mariva, me and my wife, we will joke because there is pretty much no one else in the UK under 40 that owns a Meriva. Most people we see in a Mariva of the gold colour that we have is 60 and older and every time we see one we all howl with laughter.

Lee:
Seeing that we are definitely driving an old man car but I don’t mind because it gets us to the places that we need to be. Now we have a two bedroom mid terraced house and guys that suits us perfectly and I’ve even managed to fit some space at the back in the old utility room right now where I’m recording this where I can do some work or I can chill all by myself. Now our office that we have here in the village is part of a much larger office so we’re getting that for a really, really cost effective price. And like I said, it’s in the village so we can just walk, saving so much time so much stress in commuting. And it means also that my wife and daughter can come in and out as they please, or we can just have a meet up for coffee downstairs because there’s an amazing coffee shop seconds away from our office door.

Lee:
As a family, we’ve gotten into a great cycle of meal planning and budgeting so that we can increase the amount of things that we do together as a family and of course, save a fortune. So this is allowing us to invest our money into making memories. We’ve also realigned our priorities, how we spend our time and our money. And in turn, we’ve created two agencies that facilitate all of this. So how do you go about transforming your agency and your life?

Lee:
Well, let me share with you the five stages of transformation that we’ve been going through. Now, this creates a pathway that you can use to transform your agency one step at a time. Now remember, small achievable actions lead to big change. Write this down. Small achievable actions lead to big change.

Lee:
A house is built brick by brick and the end result is awesome. It’s a house, but it is built brick by brick, step by step. So on this show, I assure you, we live in the real world. We understand that being told to create content and a course and a funnel and yada, yada, yada is just more and more frustration for the everyday business person. More things that you can’t find the time to do.

Lee:
So let’s change that and let’s start right at the very beginning. The first step of transformation in any business and in your agency is identity. Everything starts with your identity as a business. It’s essential you understand who you are, the problems you solve and who you solve them for. This will drive everything in your marketing, your offering and your messaging.

Lee:
It’s done that for us every single time. For both of my agencies, we went through a very specific exercise to unpack. Why were we running our agencies? What were our strengths? What problems did we solve?

Lee:
Who did we serve? So let’s unpack this and help you get started. If you’ve got a pen and paper, this will be really helpful for you to write these down. The first things I would recommend is write down, why are you running an agency now? What gets you out of bed every day to run your business?

Lee:
This is going to be the driving force behind everything you do. This is your why, this is your mission. This is your legacy builder. With a purpose comes direction for your agency. My business mission is to help remove stress from agency life and to help agency owners Live their best life.

Lee:
If you ask me what my mission is that it was going to roll off the tongue, it’s to remove the stress from agency life, to help agency owners live their best life. And this absolutely drives everything I do. It drove this podcast, it drove the services that we offer. So take the time to understand your why, what drives you and your team and what is your collective mission for your business? Next thing to write down are what are your strengths?

Lee:
Now, full service agencies can’t possibly do everything really, really well, I guess, unless they are part of a large team of absolute geniuses that have also worked out the most amazing best communication strategy on the planet. So if that is your business, then hats off to you and get your butt on the show because we need to learn from you. Now, in the real world, we have skills as an agency that we are super talented at and it’s strengths that we should be taking the time to focus on. You’ve heard the phrase jack of all trades, master of none. I’m sure there’s different variations around the world, but let’s remind ourselves that in the real world we have skills as an agency that we are super talented at and it’s these strengths that we should be focusing on.

Lee:
So guys, what is your superpower and how does it serve your mission that you’ve established? So make a list of your strengths and then see how they can align with the direction that you are heading. How can these strengths be utilised with that mission? Next thing to write down would be what problems do you solve? So knowing what problems you solve becomes a key part of the story that you’re going to tell people every single day.

Lee:
People are going to resonate with your why, but they also connect with the problems that you solve. Now if you were to describe a problem that I have and that you have a solution, you’re very likely going to have my attention. So look at your strengths. What problems do they see solve for your clients? Do your web designs, for example, reduce bounce rate and lead to better leads and conversions.

Lee:
So take the time to make a list of all of the problems your strengths and services solve. Okay? And then who do you serve? So if you’re trying to work out if you have a service or industry niche, then take a look at the strengths and again, the problems that those solve. Do any of these resonate with a particular industry that you currently serve or do they match the aspirations of a type of business or a client avatar?

Lee:
Now it can help to make a list of the industries that you do currently serve to see if any particular align best with your why and would get the most value from your services. But don’t worry if your particular services solve wider business needs outside of a particular niche, for example Basecamp, allowing project managers from multiple different industries to be able to do something, then you may want to consider the service niche aspect of your offering. Now we’ve built up hundreds of pieces of really valuable content over the years, including the YouTube channel as well as the podcast. So to help you understand your niche, let me give a shout out to several episodes and please be sure to cheque the show notes because everything that I’m talking about here is going to be in the show notes as well as all these links. So the first one is going to be Episode number 160.

Lee:
These are in no particular order. Episode 160 how to Lock down your niche. Go cheque that one out. Then there is also episode 191 which is how to build authority in your niche. Episode number 53 was a podcast all about niche WordPress sites.

Lee:
And then episode 22 way way way back when I had a full head of hair which never happened. How to find your niche. There’s also so much more information out there. Cheque the anglecrown.com blog, there is an article on there and also cheque out the YouTube channel, the Agency Trailblazer YouTube channel because again there are videos on there on helping you find your niche. Now the next step of transformation is value.

Lee:
That’s understanding your value, recognising the value of your work and understanding how to charge for it. Now I would never be able to give you a three paragraph life changing summary of understanding the value that you have. Do remember though, one top tip would be when you are pricing, you are not pricing based on the amount of hours that it takes you to do something. Maybe you can build a site in five hours because you are a legend. However, it took you many years to learn how to build that site in five hours.

Lee:
So do not put yourself down to the hours that you work. Now there is so much more that we could do to unpack the value that you provide your clients as well as understanding how to price. So let me do a shout out to a whole load of episodes in the 200 episodes that we have here on the show that are going to help you with pricing and understanding your value. So first one is episode number 99 how to be confident in your pricing. Then it’s 198 how to productize your services.

Lee:
Definitely a great system for agency owners. Number 163, how to quote the right price for a project. How the heck do you quote that right price? That’s episode number 163. Number 128 is all about embracing change in your agency.

Lee:
A great story there from Jason Vance. Be sure to cheque that one out. Number 107, how to de stress your agency. That’s Geoffrey patch, legend again. 114, how to get paid what you are worth.

Lee:
I believe from memory that was Martin Huntbatch talking about educating the audience that you have so they understand the value of what you have to offer them. There’s also episode 112, Feel the Fear and do it anyway. That was Imogen sharing her story episode as well. 96 and 97. This is a two parter and that is turning creativity into profit.

Lee:
So these episodes will help you understand value, they’ll help you develop the skills to get the right information and also help you get that budget nailed. So that’s the next step of transformation, identity, then value. Which leads us to the third step of transformation. That’s your platform. So when you understand your mission, your strengths, the problems you solve, who you solve it for and the value that you offer, you will be bursting with content.

Lee:
Talk to Oliver Martin. He’s a great friend of mine and he’s somebody that when he found his niche, the content just poured out of him. Cheque out the free Facebook group agency trailblazer.com group and connect with Oliver Martin. A fantastic story. So all of this feeds your messaging, your branding, your conversations.

Lee:
So now it’s time to work out what channels you can use to build your platform and to attract the right sorts of clients to your business. Those clients that you will want to work with and that they will want to work with you. So here are some questions, first of all to help prompt you and then I’m going to share some more episodes for you to cheque out. So the first question is, where are my ideal clients online? Where do they live?

Lee:
Where are they on social media? What platforms are they on? Next question is, how do they consume content? Are they travelling, listening to a podcast on the tube which takes them maybe a 30 minute journey in. So what is the ways that they consume content?

Lee:
Are they on YouTube, are they watching those videos, Are they reading blogs and so on? And then also, how should I show up? That’s another question for you. How should I show up? Are you showing up as yourself?

Lee:
Are you showing up as your brand and what’s your voice? All of those really important Questions. And there’s a few episodes, like I said here to help you out. The first one being number 139. This is a recording of a social media and a content mastermind that I did for our premium members [email protected] and we made that recording available for free to people to get a bit of a taster of the sort of stuff that we have inside of there.

Lee:
We’ve also got number 72. Wow, that sounds like years ago already. That’s your content strategy. Number 179 is how storytelling benefits business. When you’re having conversations, when you’re creating content, you are telling stories, you are building your narrative.

Lee:
So that’s a brilliant episode. Number 135, how to create content that gets you noticed. If I’m right, that was Janet Murray, brilliant content strategist. Okay, number 194, how to build your local agencies brand. So if you are working in a local environment, this is how you build your brand.

Lee:
Number186, how content influences your business. If I’m right, that was Kim doyle. Episode number 155, how to Market your content. People often will create content, but they forget to market it. So definitely a great episode to tune into.

Lee:
And finally, number 195, a very recent episode on how to get more traffic and leads. And you’ve guessed it, a lot of that is based around content, based around the platforms that you’re choosing and the messaging and the sort of messaging that you’re putting out there. That’s also a very good episode if you’re not wanting to create heaps of content, because we’re being taught how to make the most of either the content that we have or how to make most of a small amount of content. Okay. Once you have your platform, we can go on our journey to the next stage of transformation, which is your output.

Lee:
So as you build out your platform and your business, you’re going to want to continuously improve the output of your business. One of the best sources of leads will be existing clients who absolutely love you. And also one of your best sources of ongoing income are going to be those very same clients that benefit from the excellence that you offer them. Therefore, take the time to invest in your processes, in your procedures, and be sure that the tools that you use are fit for purpose and allow you to deliver on time, on budget, and of course, maintaining that profit line. So when I started Angled Crown, I recorded everything, everything that I did.

Lee:
Why? So that I could scale my agency by being able to give work to others with a clearly defined workflow. Now, having everything written down, having everything recorded allowed me to review how I did things and then I could continue to iterate, I could continue to improve. So this has allowed me to develop our design and development stack and to choose a small range of software tools that facilitate the workflow that we’ve established. So many people go for the shiny new tools or the lifetime deals in appsumo before they’ve even taken the time to work out how they can deliver their services to their clients in the most efficient manner.

Lee:
Now, in episode number 51, I share our WordPress website build process. And that was over two and a half years ago. Can you believe it? Episode number 51. And sure, it has evolved over time because we’ve improved, we’ve iterated, we’ve learned from our mistakes, but this process has ensured that we’ve been able to deliver a consistent experience to our clients.

Lee:
We always know where we’re at, our clients know where we’re at. And as we make mistakes, we can improve, we can evolve that process. And it’s also allowed us to scale as well as allowed us to teach other agencies our model. We work directly with agencies, as you know, so we’ve been able to pass this process on to other agencies so that they can build better experiences for their clients. And of course that’s going to pay dividends to us because we’re going to be those people who are building those website when it comes to the technical part of it.

Lee:
All right, other episodes that are going to be really helpful for your output is episode 199, how to onboard better quality clients. Episode number 48, an insight into Project management. Brilliant episode with Dan who really breaks it down for us. Episode number 94, onboarding and client communication. Episode number 61.

Lee:
I told you this was not in order. A WordPress website in a day. Brilliant episode. Being shown how this whole process and the planning up to that day really, really helps make that magic happen in just one day. An old classic, but definitely worth listening to.

Lee:
And as well, number 89, which is systemizing for profit. Somebody who’s been able to systemize what could be a very complicated service, but has been able to be productive, has been able to charge low entry fee and scale. So brilliant. Episode number 89, okay, the last stage of your transformation is your future. And guess what?

Lee:
No one can predict the future. However, we can plan, we can prepare. And one of the keys to a future proof business is scalability. And remember, our future is always changing. Now it’s tempting to confuse growth and scalability together.

Lee:
Scalability itself is the flexibility to handle an increase in demand. I say that again. Scalability is the flexibility to handle an increase in demand. Now this is achieved through clearly defined processes which we would have nailed in our output section, efficient practises again nailed in our output section, and a switched on team who are keeping their eye on the industry and on top of changes. We can’t predict the future, but we can keep investing in ourselves.

Lee:
We can keep our on what is going on, our finger on the pulse, trying new software, trying new techniques. Scalability is the flexibility to handle an increase in demand. Scalability helps facilitate that financial growth, but in a way more stable way than simply throwing as much resource at something as possible. So scalability in its very definition is never finished as hopefully as your future is a long, bright future, it’s not finished. It requires that you are able to change as the internal and the external influences change all around you and your business.

Lee:
Now for this sort of thing, I highly recommend a book by my really good friend Mike Killen and my man crush From Single to Scale. Remember, he’s also going to be at the Agency Transformation Live event here in the uk. If you want to meet up with Mike, he’s got some amazing content and we’ve also got Troy Dean as well who will be talking on these sorts of subjects. Now in Mike’s book he starts at the beginning for even solo entrepreneurs with a focus on developing a profitable and scalable business out of those key strengths of yours. And there’s a range of super useful other podcasts that we’ve made over the years because we’re an old podcast now which are going to help agencies that are growing, including with planning, growing pains, team management and all that sort of stuff.

Lee:
So cheque out the following episodes. Number five Way back when with Troy Dean, which was building a better WordPress business. If you don’t subscribe to the WP Elevation podcast or the YouTube channel or read their blogs, I highly Recommend Checking out wpelevation.com Next is episode 184, how to Deal with Growing Pains. That was, I believe, an episode on my own where I was sharing how we’ve dealt with growing pains. Number 178 how to build and invest in your team.

Lee:
That’s a good one. Number one, how to manage costs in agency Life. That sounds like one I would have made. Number 40. Holy moly, that’s a long time ago.

Lee:
Invest in your team. I believe I was talking with a HR Expert talking about contractors as well as team members. Episode 190 how to Build an agency in your unique ways Brilliant episode where they share their story from moving from the UK back to their home country. Brilliant. Episode number 179 House Storytelling benefits business number 104 the evolution of an agency really good to see the different arcs of agency life number 101 as well, which is an update on an agency four years and that was with a friend of mine who launched his agency over four years before that episode.

Lee:
And then we catch up with him and find out how things went really, really useful being able to learn from your past and other people’s past to set you up for the future. So guys, what’s next? What’s next for you? What stage are you at in agency life? Let me ask you some questions.

Lee:
Are you struggling with your identity? Is understanding your value and how to price your services your biggest struggle? Or are you struggling to define your marketing platforms, your messaging? Perhaps growth is affecting your output, you’re maybe trying to employ too many extra people to be able to cope with demand, etc. Or perhaps you are planning for the future.

Lee:
You’re looking at scaling your business, you’re looking at learning from the past and making a better tomorrow. So whatever stage you are at, you’re on a journey. And if you feel like you’ve been stuck in a rut for too long, then make that decision to change. Don’t do what I did and wait for something awful to happen in family life to make that change happen. Do something about it today.

Lee:
Now, I’ve written everything down for this entire episode so I’ll upload that along with all of the links to the supporting episodes. I want you to be really honest with yourself. Unpack what stage you are at and then focus on the content that I’ve shared. But just for that stage. One step at a time.

Lee:
Now, if you struggle to do things alone, then I do have a couple of other options for you. Now you can join our Premium Members Community and in there we have our Agency Reset roadmap that helps you unpack your identity, your messaging, your platform, your processes and so much more. That’s something that Oliver Martin did as well with me that made so much change in his business. And you can also join us for those weekly calls where we unpack lessons and are accountable to each other. And you can find out more information about that community, our Premium members community on agencytrailblazer.com for 2019 you can join for 50% off of your first payment using the code 50 off 2019.

Lee:
So that’s no spaces and they are all numbers 50 off 2019. Be sure to cheque out the show notes and you’ll be able to see that code, copy and paste it. You’ll get 50% off your first payment. It’s your choice whether you want 50% off your first month or your first year. Now, if you want to spend some intense time making change and are listening before the 25th of April of 2019, then you can join us live in the UK with 20 speakers and panel members, including myself and Troy Dean for Agency Transformation Live.

Lee:
Now, this is a two day conference full of actionable information for each and every stage of agency life. Our tracks are going to be covering those five stages that we’ve discussed today. That’s identity, value, platform output and future. So no matter where you are at, you’re going to be coming away with a plan to make the next 25% of change in your business. However, that looks for you and guys today.

Lee:
If you are a premium member of Agency Trailblazer, then you can get £150 off of the ticket. That’s £150 for anybody listening who is a premium Agency Trailblazer member. And if you have committed to listening to this whole episode and are not an Agency Trailblazer member, then do not fear because I’ve created a special code for you which will give you £75 off the price. That’s £75 off of the ticket price using the code Ilistened. That’s all one word, no spaces.

Lee:
Just do it in lowercase. I listened. Now, we want to help as many agency owners avoid the hell that I went through many years ago. So this is one of our ways of making this accessible. You’ve invested the time to listen to this episode.

Lee:
You want to make change in your agency, so we want to help you do that by giving you that 75 pounds off of the ticket. Now, the venue is in Wellingborough in England, which is just a short journey up from Luton Airport. If you’re travelling from another country or from London or from any major train here in the uk and the local help tail prices are really competitive compared to London. So if you grab the I listened offer, then you’re probably going to have the the spare funds to stay in a nice place overnight here in Wellingborough or the surrounding area. And don’t forget, there is always our free yay free Facebook group where we have a wonderfully supportive community who are at all stages of agency life.

Lee:
Who can help support each other. So you can cheque that out over on agency. Trailblazer.com forward/group agencytrailblazer.com forward/group A wonderful community of agency owners, of business owners, of designers, WordPress enthusiasts. You name it, they’re in there. Over 2500, I believe, now of people who are there to seek help and to help.

Lee:
Wonderful place to be. So if you’re not in any of the others, at least be in the Facebook group. All right, folks, thank you. Wherever we meet, be that in the premium membership.

Lee:
Be that in Agency Transformation Live. Be that in the Facebook group. I look forward to seeing you take that next step that is going to make a massive impact in your life. Here is to the next 100 episodes, and here’s to the future.