OGAL Web Design – #AgencyLife

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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. 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. In today’s episode, we are talking with Kyle Van Dusen. Kyle, how are you today?

Kyle Van Dusen:
I am doing excellent. How about yourself, Lee?

Lee Matthew Jackson:
I’m doing alright. It is the height of summer here in England for all of the next 3 days at least, I imagine. So I’m sweating like a pig.

Kyle Van Dusen:
I’ll trade you for Texas weather.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Well, yeah, but you’re used to it. So Yeah.

Kyle Van Dusen:
You don’t get used to it.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Oh, okay. Good. It’s good to know because I thought I was just complaining about the 3 days of summer that we tend to get here in the UK. So thank you for joining us for hashtag agency life, and we wanna find out about your agency. So we’re gonna fire through these questions and learn all about you. So are you ready for this?

Kyle Van Dusen:
Absolutely. Let’s do it.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Alright. So first of all then, tell us the name of your agency and what it is that you do.

Kyle Van Dusen:
The name of my agency is OGALWeb Design. I focus primarily on developing websites for small businesses. About half of my clients are local, and the other half are I work with remotely. My background’s in graphic design, so I do a lot of, print design and stuff like that as well.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Awesome. Alright. So if your agency was to have a birthday party every single year, when is your agency’s birthday?

Kyle Van Dusen:
June 9th. So we you just missed my birthday party.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
I just missed your birthday party. And how many years old are you?

Kyle Van Dusen:
Well, official, June 9th is when I when I left my job and did this full time. So it’s been 1 year, just a couple weeks ago.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
You’re a whole so you’re a whole so you’re just starting to walk. Is

Kyle Van Dusen:
that what the diapers.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Well, that is kinda weird. Yeah. Alright. So I’d love to learn your setup. So we’re gonna go into the setup section where we’re gonna understand how you as a new agency are set up. And the first one would be how many people are in your team.

Kyle Van Dusen:
You’re looking at it. Just me. I do have, some subcontractors that I use on projects that might be outside of my expertise. So I do rely on some people like that. But for the most part, I handle all the work myself.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
And you’re starting as you mean to go on. You’re looking at growing an agency, so you are starting with the agency mindset, which I think is freaking awesome. So next question, and I see that certificate in the background on the video for anyone who’s watching video. Look at that. That looks pretty darn impressive.

Kyle Van Dusen:
Good thing you can’t read it.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
No. No. I can’t read it. Probably one of those eBay ones, isn’t it? So question is, do you have an office, or are you more of a virtual setup? So, for example, is it a physical office where your contractors will come to you, or are you more of a virtual setup, so maybe based at home and communicate via the web?

Kyle Van Dusen:
Yeah. I’m based at home. I really like that setup. I like that I can get up early in the morning and get to work if I need to. Or if I need to check out for 10 minutes, I can walk in the other room and see my family. So that’s super nice. I usually just go meet clients in public spaces. My wife has an office for her business, so sometimes I use that if I need to.

Kyle Van Dusen:
But, you know, it’s it’s maybe 1 or 2 times a week that I go see somebody in person. It’s it’s not real often.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Yeah. Now every now and again during this, we will slightly diverge just for something of interest. And my first point of interest here is how do you manage to switch off from business inside of a home office with the temptation of sitting there working all night?

Kyle Van Dusen:
Yeah. It’s hard for me to turn it off. I love what I do, so it makes it real easy to sit in front of this computer for 12 straight hours. So, So, luckily, I have a family that will come interrupt me quite a bit and and get me back to doing some family things. So I try my best to to not be in here on the weekends Yeah. And, you know, shut it off by 5 or 6 in the evening, and do stuff with the family. But the, you know, the freedom I have is, you know, some days I might work till 7 or 8 o’clock at night, but some days I might check out at noon, go out to lunch, and take the kids to the park or something, you know, for a couple hours during the middle of the day for no reason at all. So, you know, eventually, you kinda find a balance that works for you.

Kyle Van Dusen:
For me, I wish I could probably get another hour to work in, and for my family, they probably wish I would pull back another hour or 2. Yeah. We we land somewhere in the middle.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
But I think it’s beautiful that you get to go to park midday for 2 hours for no reason at all, and that is every reason because you’re building memories with your family, and that is freaking awesome and very admirable. Now you are a new business. You’re a year old, and you’ve yet to grow a full team, although you do have a team as it were of at least contractors. So just like any big company or big, agency, I assume that you have some form of culture that that you have at least internally, but something that you’re you have a a vision for your culture as well as your business grows. Could you describe what that might be?

Kyle Van Dusen:
Yeah. You know, I worked, I worked for some large companies where things were pretty corporate and strict and rigid, and it’s not really my personality to be that way. I’m a hard worker. I like to get a lot of work done. I take what I do seriously, but, you know, if people aren’t enjoying what they’re doing, they’re not gonna produce really great results. You know? So for me, it’s important, and I think I’ve aligned with some contractors this way that we get along on a personal level. I think that’s pretty important as long as they can, you know, achieve the the quality of work you’re looking for. But when you can kinda have the camaraderie with your teammates, I think it it it shows in your work.

Kyle Van Dusen:
You know? When you when you have a passion for what you do, it comes out a whole lot better. So for me, I wanna find people that are, passionate about the work they do. But, you know, it it’s not it’s not so much a job for them. They enjoy what they’re doing.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Absolutely. They enjoy what they’re doing, and they’ve also got the freedom to have a balanced life. And I like the fact that you, you have that relationship where you can at least get on with them as well, the banter, etcetera. Now for your clients, so that’s kind of your mission for your internal company as it were and the growth and the development of your team. But for your clients, what is the main problem that you feel you solve?

Kyle Van Dusen:
Well, I think for the most part, most most of the clients I work with are fairly small, medium sized businesses that don’t have any sort of marketing department. So they have a lot of people doing DIY marketing efforts where, you know, the business owner is coming up with copy for an ad and sending it off to a newspaper that’s throwing something together and it looks shady.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Yeah.

Kyle Van Dusen:
Or, you know, they they’ve built a website themselves and it’s it’s a hot mess. So, you know, I try to partner with companies that are looking to really streamline that process and make themselves, look more legitimate. Most of the times, they are legitimate businesses doing good work, producing results for their clients. Mhmm. But they’re not positioning themselves that way. So with with my background in graphic design and branding and stuff like that, I think being able to streamline that whole marketing operation for them and give them something that’s more solid and a better representation of their company is is what I offer best to my clients.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
And with this service, with this problem that you are solving, is there a particular type of business? Do you have an industry or a niche that you, align yourself with?

Kyle Van Dusen:
You know, that’s something I’m definitely interested in. But, you know, you you hear a lot of people giving great advice about, you know, niching down to different, different things. For me, it’s something that I wanna keep in mind, but I think my business is so young right now. I I don’t know well enough which which industries I fit in best with. You know, you kinda have to get through all of them to see what works and what doesn’t work.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Absolutely.

Kyle Van Dusen:
So I I’m still in that process, but I’m open to, finding that that right fit. I just, hadn’t settled on anything yet.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
And remember, there are 2 types of niche as well. There is a service niche where you’re doing the same thing. It might be for many different people, but you’re really good at that one thing, and you do that for several different industries. But the messaging and the problem that you’re solving is like a global problem for all of those people. And then you also have the actual industry niche, and that may happen over the next few months years as you find you work with more and more maybe travel companies. And then you realize Right. What I don’t know about travel companies is not worth knowing. I am gonna be OGALWebb, the travel designer or whatever.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
So but that all will definitely come in time, and we’re gonna be lifelong friends, buddy. So I’m looking forward to that, and finding out what happens there as well with you. So, marketing, it’s a big thing for a lot of us agencies. You’re, you’re a very new agency as well, so it’s it’s incredibly important. How are you generating leads for your business?

Kyle Van Dusen:
So the customers that I work with here locally, a lot of that just comes through SEO and networking. So I’ve done a fairly good job of positioning my website to rank well in the small town I live in. So I I do get calls, you know, every week, a few every week from people around here. Not all those people are willing to spend money, but they’re they’re making phone calls. And then, I’ve been a a part of a lot of networking groups, chamber of commerce, stuff like that, just getting out and meeting people. So I just recently moved to a new town about 2 hours from where I live before. My old town, I knew most people in the town and the business owners and all that. So I’m kinda having to start over at this point.

Kyle Van Dusen:
But just trying to get out and meet people, get them to know, like, and trust me, and then I can sell it to them later.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
I I get it. And you still have as well a predominant, amount of people online as well. And, presumably, you can still serve the customers you left behind in the on the old location. But sounds like to me you’re a glint for punishment, brand new company, get to know everyone, and then move 2 hours away.

Kyle Van Dusen:
Although Exactly.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Man, you’re in America. 2 hours away is just down the road. Right?

Kyle Van Dusen:
Right. Especially in Texas.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Okay. Here in here in England, that is like a a day trip. Right. And you have to plan 6 months ahead.

Kyle Van Dusen:
You know, the the other thing, and I’ve told my, you know, I’ve told my wife this, she’s not on Facebook, so she doesn’t she doesn’t get all the time spent on Facebook. You know? I’ve I’ve come to her many times and said, you know what? I hadn’t wasted 1 minute on Facebook because it’s not that I’ve been on there selling things to people, but I’ve been on there helping people out or talking to people through problems or whatever it might be. And down the road, they hit me up and they need something done. So it’s it’s amazing that just just being a part of that network, it kinda grows your profile, and, eventually, you can you can get some work out of that as well.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
That is 100% true. Something that we recommend agencies do, which is networking online. You don’t just have to go to the physical locations, but networking online. We, as an agency, have quoted on 2 leads that came in via Facebook Messenger, of all places, from 2 completely different people, someone in Germany, someone in the UK. And we’ve got a we’ve already been quoting as well as one in San Francisco as well. So we’ve got all of these different opportunities coming in all the time like you because of networking. So definitely recommend. If you’re not part of a network, then be sure to check out our free Facebook group, which is over on agencytroblazer.comforward/group.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
That’s a great place to be, and, obviously, Facebook is the reason that me and Kyle are also good friends. Kyle, in your business, how do you measure success?

Kyle Van Dusen:
Well, you know, number 1, I wanna still enjoy what I’m doing. So when I left my full time job, I I hated everything about it. So that was a big motivating factor of starting my business. So, when I can end the day in a in a good mood and enjoying what I do, that’s that’s success right there. Good moods don’t pay the bills. So I’ve I’ve set up a lot of benchmarks on on, you know, what I need to bring in every month, trying to grow monthly recurring revenue to a point where that’s stable to to cover the bills. So, you know, I’ll feel a little bit more successful when I know that every month, I’m already billing out enough to cover everything, but I’m working on that.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
I would argue that 2 hours with your kids at lunchtime is already a humongously amazing measure of success, and I think one that a lot of people would aspire to. So, grab on to things like that and be encouraged, mate, because that is so awesome. And I would agree with you. My measure of success is not necessarily, the dollars in the bank, although they’re important because you would be stressed if you didn’t have enough of them. But if there are enough to have that time with the family, we’ve got this mantra of together is our favorite place to be as a family. So absolutely, I’m with you a 100%. Now let’s get into confession corner, because there’s only me and you and maybe a few thousand of the listeners. And it would be really good to know, if you could be honest with us, what is the biggest problem that you feel you have as a agency?

Kyle Van Dusen:
You know, I I think the biggest problem that I struggle with, like, just in my own mind is just having a ton of self doubt and feeling like I’m faking all of this. You know? So, when I see if if I step back and look from a year ago where I am now, I think I’d be super excited and and proud of where I’ve gotten to in a year.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Mhmm.

Kyle Van Dusen:
But, you know, day to day, sometimes I’m just, you know, really wondering if if I’m good enough to do some of these things. So, you know, you always compare your work to other people’s work. You compare your pricing. You compare, you know, lifestyles, and you see other people with their their nice cars and boats and all those kinds of things. So, you know, sometimes you have some self doubt that that you’re, you’re doing all that you can. So I do struggle with that, you know, but you you kinda have to look at that big picture and step back from a little bit and say, you know, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and I’m certainly making progress every day, but that’s something I have to remind myself of pretty regularly.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Absolutely. And comparison is always a killer, isn’t it, in any type of business? But in Agency Life, comparing ourselves to other agency owners, seeing those advertisements as well saying, look at me working from the beach, and that can be really destroying when you feel like, oh, man. I’m just sat here in my office at home, or I’m sat here in my hot office, that I’m paying too much rent for down the whatever it is, it can be really depressing. But, I often have to remind myself that a lot of these pictures are actually stock photographs, or, they’ve just found the right angle to make the picture look great, but, actually, there’s, like, you know, it’s it’s an old maybe it’s even an old picture of from holiday from maybe last year or you know, because the I’m not saying that people lie on the Internet, but I’m also saying that people lie on the Internet. So Sure. It’s hard not to compare, but let’s try not to. And I’m with you a 100%. I’m still jealous, though, and I’m trying not to compare myself, mate, with your 2 hours with the kids.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
I totally wanna do that, and that is now a mission of mine.

Kyle Van Dusen:
Absolutely. Do.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Now well-being is really important to an agency owner. It’s your mental health, your physical health, etcetera. And I’d be interested 2 questions for you. First of all, how do you personally switch off?

Kyle Van Dusen:
It’s hard. It’s hard when you when you work from home, because you’re always at work and you’re never at work, and you’re always at home, but you’re never at home. So when when work and home are the same place, it’s hard to to make that switch. One thing I did recently was take the email notifications off my phone. Good plan. So when I’m sitting in front of my computer, they come up on my computer. I can handle them. But when I walk away from my computer, it kinda helps me step away from work.

Kyle Van Dusen:
So even if it I’m just on the couch watching TV with the kids, if my phone dings and I know it’s a work email, I know I’m gonna pick it up, and I know I’m a have to stop what I’m doing and go respond to this email. Even if it’s, you know, 10 o’clock at night, I’m still gonna do it. So that’s been one little, you know, trick that’s helped me quite a bit. It’s just turning that off, so I don’t even have to think about it. But, you know, my family, they keep me accountable. You know? Yeah. The kids will come in and and start bugging me when they know I’ve been gone too long.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
So Yes.

Kyle Van Dusen:
They’re they’re good at doing that.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
I I can I can, I can do I can imagine that as well? I just think, you know, my daughter doing the same, and then that guilty feeling that if I don’t respond, then I’m a terrible human being.

Kyle Van Dusen:
Right.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
How do you stay healthy? Because we’re we’re chained to our desks a lot of the time. So how do you keep healthy?

Kyle Van Dusen:
Yeah. I probably could do a better job at that.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Same here.

Kyle Van Dusen:
Yeah. So, I I eat too much fast food, and I sit in a chair a lot. Okay. But here, since we made the move yeah. The struggle is real. Since we made the move, the new town we live in has a big beautiful YMCA with a pool and a gym and all this kind of stuff, and the kids love going there. So, we got memberships there, and I’ve been trying to get there 3 or 4 days a week. Sometimes it’s to work out.

Kyle Van Dusen:
Sometimes it’s go play in the pool with the kids. But either way, at least it’s, you know, some sort of, you know, getting out of my office chair and doing something. But I could certainly do better on that.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
I could certainly do better too. And I’ve heard a lot of advice recently, even just going for a regular walk, even if it’s a 10 minute walk a day. That’s something that I would love the community to hold me accountable to for a 10 minute walk, because it mentally as well with regards to getting out of your head, getting out the office environment, but also just a physical 10 minute walk doesn’t sound like much, but I guess it builds up over time. Sure. So, yeah, I I would I would agree with that one wholeheartedly. So the last section, which is tools. You’re a new agency. I imagine, therefore, you’ve had a lot of tools you have tried and tested to try and work out what is the best.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
I know AppSumo is constantly tempting me and my wallet with mainly junk, and then you now and again find the absolute amazing program. So could you share one tool with the with the community that has been massively helpful to your agency’s success?

Kyle Van Dusen:
Just one,

Lee Matthew Jackson:
You gotta pick 1.

Kyle Van Dusen:
I would say the thing that’s probably helped me the most, but I’m still not great at always utilizing is better proposals. Okay. I hate the thought of even sitting down to write a proposal. I I rather wing everything. I had the conversation with the client. They know what I’m talking about. Let’s just start building something. But having that framework, you know, you can have so many things already laid out for you.

Kyle Van Dusen:
You can do it a whole lot quicker, and it saved my butt more times than I can count when a customer came back and didn’t understand the scope of a project or the terms of a project, and I can go back and remind them, hey. Here’s the proposal that you signed. That tool has been awesome.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Absolutely. And we did an episode, actually, Kyle. If you’ve not listened to it, mate.

Kyle Van Dusen:
I already listened.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Okay. So when you tend to write the proposal, I was trying to find the episode number, but I’ll just put it in the notes instead. Adam talks about when you’ve had the meeting and you know what it is in your head that they want to write the proposal there. And then whilst it’s fresh, which means you’re not putting it off for hours and it gets done.

Kyle Van Dusen:
I can tie this all into a nice I can tie this all into a nice bow for you. So the other day I was at the gym working out, listening to that episode of the podcast, had a meeting with a client later that day, went to the meeting with the client. I didn’t stay in the place and write the proposal, but I came immediately home, wrote the proposal, sent it off to him immediately, got it signed that day.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Perfect.

Kyle Van Dusen:
Yep.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
We’ve got to tell Adam about that. And I’ll make sure I put that episode in the show notes because that was a really highly valuable episode. And it’s one that I’ve been taking the advice of ever since. Mate, you have been awesome. It’s been amazing to learn about your agency and I’m looking forward to talking to you in a year’s time to see how much has changed. Maybe if you found that niche, etcetera. So all that is left for me to ask, sorry, is how can people connect with you, and then we will say goodbye?

Kyle Van Dusen:
Well, you can find me on Facebook. If you can spell my name, you can find me. Good luck with that. Alright. But I’m in the WP Innovator Group, as well as plenty of others, or you can visit my website, OGALweb.com. Instagram, probably the same. I don’t know. I don’t check that a lot.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
So. Alrighty, mate. Thanks so much for your time. Have a great day.

Kyle Van Dusen:
Thank you.