0:00

Neil and I have an agency owners group called

0:02

the Agency Owners Association. All

0:04

you have to do just go to marketing school dot ioslash

0:07

Agency. Once again, it's marketing school dot Ioslash

0:09

Agency to learn more. And

0:12

now back to the show. All right, so we have a

0:14

little treat for you. So this is a

0:16

coaching call from the Agency Owners

0:19

Association. This is a group that Neil and

0:21

I have for agency owners to help you

0:23

grow faster. So if you're the agency space,

0:25

you are a services business, this is applicable

0:27

to you. It's a little preview of a call. It's probably ten

0:29

fifteen minutes or so, and you get a sense for what

0:31

it looks like to be in the group. If you want to

0:34

learn more about the group, you can go to marketing school dot

0:36

io Slash Agency. Again, it's marketing

0:38

School the ioslash Agency.

0:40

Hope you enjoyed the episode.

0:42

One thing I wanted to kick off with this

0:44

week and then you guys can start to go through

0:46

your questions is I'm sorry I'm traveling right.

0:48

Now, but what I

0:51

think sticks out.

0:52

To me is the lack

0:54

of founders that are unwilling

0:56

to write.

0:57

And I did.

0:58

I did a podcast interview the CEO

1:01

of eight Sleep. So it's a company I invested in. And

1:04

you know, his role is that if you want to do a one on

1:06

one with him, you know, you basically

1:08

have to you have to write a memo, right.

1:11

And I mentioned the book in my message yesterday

1:14

or the other day. The book

1:17

called Working Backwards from Amazon is a

1:19

fantastic book and it talks about how Amazon

1:21

grew really off the back

1:23

of writing these memos right, because a problem with a lot

1:25

of these organizations is a lot

1:27

of people come with half baked ideas, they're not well

1:30

thought through, and it ends up wasting a bunch of time

1:32

right at the end of the day. And especially

1:34

like the the you know executives, they end up

1:36

wasting a lot of time too that the memos, right.

1:39

Building a culture of writing forces

1:41

people to think. It stops people in their

1:43

tracks and you end up getting more clarity of thought

1:45

and you end up taking better actions from it at the end

1:47

of the day. And so you

1:49

know, he he Mateo,

1:52

that's his name.

1:52

He does that.

1:53

Amazon does that. And then another

1:55

company I invested in called Levels, they do the same

1:57

thing too. In fact, if you look for

2:00

or if you go to you do you

2:03

type in uh, you'll

2:06

find and

2:08

I think it'll be all of ideas too, because

2:11

a lot of you are I think everyone here is working

2:13

remote first, and I want to

2:15

build a high performance culture.

2:17

You're going to.

2:18

Have to be willing to write these memos. Right

2:20

Like even today on my flight, I'm going to be writing a couple

2:22

of memos. And these are memos where I'm thinking about strategic

2:24

issues, right, so issues with recruiting, issues

2:27

with issues with maybe you

2:29

know how maybe we're not moving quickly

2:31

enough, issues with sales, with marketing, just anything

2:33

that's bugging you. Because you, as the founder,

2:36

you're going to be able to push things a lot faster than other

2:38

people. And you know, I

2:41

think I've said this a couple of times. My biggest mistake is expecting

2:43

that I could hire a GM or a CEO and expecting

2:46

to push the face as quickly as I will. And

2:48

that's just not the reality, right because I

2:50

you know, another examples, I hung out with my buddy Syed

2:53

and he has a holding company of WordPress businesses,

2:55

and we're kind of just lamenting over the weekend that

2:57

you know, we used to think that we could just hire these people and leave

2:59

them alone. But the reality is that's not the case,

3:02

right, The best thoughts are going to come from you, and

3:04

the best thoughts often come from writing. So

3:06

we'll start it off with that. That's my

3:08

little spiel for the week. And

3:10

that being said, anybody feel free to chime in with

3:13

questions that you might have and we'll rip through

3:15

these more.

3:16

A clarifying question, I've never been to

3:18

one of these hangouts. Is a format

3:21

more just problems advice

3:23

think for going through and people chime in on

3:25

what they recommend solution or is there a particular

3:27

format I guess followed for this.

3:29

Yeah, it's more of a Q and A and I'm happy

3:31

for anybody else to chime in when someone has a question,

3:33

but it's typically than me answering so far. It's

3:36

more scalable for me when I when I do these, call it like

3:38

this and then we end up sharing the recording.

3:40

With the group afterwards. Does that makes sense? Abanov and

3:42

Abanov?

3:43

I don't think you've you and Kerrie, Can you introduce

3:45

yourself real quick, who you are, what you do, and one thing you

3:47

need and then pass the carry Yeah?

3:49

Sure, Hey guys, my name's Abanov based

3:51

in Austin, Texas. Been here for over a decade

3:54

run a software services agency, having

3:56

kind of positioned myself as more of a zero

3:58

to one for early state startups

4:00

and mid state startups to take an idea to

4:02

market and figure out what that path

4:05

looks like for you, and so trying to been

4:07

building around that. Started a podcast six

4:09

months ago to talk about the journey of building as well.

4:12

And the biggest problem right now is more finding

4:15

the right offering for my customers because

4:17

I'm working in a space where they're

4:20

not the most cash heavy businesses

4:22

or startups. So I'm trying to find the right offering

4:25

and the right customer segment within

4:28

the zero to one space. And I can go

4:30

deeper into that, but that's a real

4:33

all.

4:33

Right over you, Kerry, Hi,

4:35

I'm Kerrie.

4:36

I'm based here in New York City. I

4:39

have my agency group HUGS for the last five years.

4:41

It's a YouTube marketing focused agency,

4:43

long form only organic and we

4:47

work with brands, businesses and we started

4:49

working with a couple of creators which

4:51

are totally different ballgame and

4:54

like we do end to end, so from strategy

4:56

to scripting, to production editing,

5:00

remote production editing, and then uploads

5:02

and optimization, a B testing and what

5:04

I am focusing on

5:06

is this

5:09

just scaling this business in

5:11

general, because there's a lot of different steps in doing

5:13

all the different parts of YouTube and really

5:15

finding the right clients that are ready

5:17

to dedicate the time and effort to growing on YouTube,

5:19

because as you know, it is a lot.

5:22

Yeah, and carry are you Are you Korean

5:24

or Chinese?

5:25

Chinese?

5:26

Okay, that's what I thought, never

5:29

know.

5:30

But carry if you can, if

5:32

you can send me, maybe send me a message

5:34

and score or something with your one sheeter, because

5:36

we're getting more and more asked for YouTube stuff.

5:39

And so my whole thing is that Just so you know too

5:41

as well, Abanov, we get an

5:43

overflow of lead and we try to send them out to the group.

5:46

And I think the rule with Ezra is basically

5:49

you have to participate right in order to be qualify

5:51

each week.

5:51

So that's what it is.

5:53

So anyway, who else has got

5:55

some some questions we did and answer

5:57

here And by the way, anybody feel free to himent.

5:59

Doesn't have to be just me answering.

6:02

Does it have to be about writing, but also I do

6:04

help.

6:04

It could be anything, Okay, I

6:06

mean I do have a question, Yeah.

6:09

Do you write like on your laptop, Like you don't.

6:11

You're not like talking about like physically writing.

6:15

Literally what is I

6:18

do?

6:18

So A lot of it's Apple notes, I'm writing on my phone,

6:20

or I'm writing on my iPad or my

6:23

my laptop. But I will say that whenever

6:26

I get a chance to write

6:28

on a physical notebook, I feel like it.

6:31

It sounds maybe raw, raw, but I feel more connected

6:33

to it. And I feel like I've actually, like

6:35

a lot of people have said this, right, like, when you write in a physical

6:37

notebook, you're more connected to it. It seems like it

6:40

actually sits in your mind more

6:42

than like you know, when you're writing on a device.

6:45

Yeah, that's what they say.

6:48

I think there there's a science behind

6:50

that, because when you're using your muscles,

6:53

there's a there's a different part of the brain

6:55

that's kind of doing those things. So

6:58

I mean that's that's the reason that

7:01

it kind of assists more. Yeah,

7:03

you kind of get the connection with that, right,

7:06

Ali.

7:06

I think that's a good point.

7:07

I think my question for you all would be and maybe

7:09

if you could drop into chat to type in, like what's your

7:11

number one problem right now? And maybe that's

7:14

one thing you all should write a memo about right, And

7:16

I'm happy to share a template in

7:18

like a memo template that I've done recently, just so you

7:20

guys get a sense for how this looks and

7:23

then you guys can experiment with it, because

7:25

I think you guys, most of you.

7:27

Are going to find it.

7:28

It's very clarifying, all right, real quick, I

7:30

need to tell you about the group that Neil

7:32

and I created called the Agency Owners Association.

7:35

And this is a group that's similar to entrepreneurial organizations

7:37

such as YPO or EO. By the way, Neil

7:39

and I are both a YPO, but we thought it would

7:42

be really cool if we're able to create a group

7:44

that's dedicated to agency owners to helping them

7:46

scale, so you could be at six figures, seven figures, eight

7:48

figures. We have different groups for different levels. All

7:50

you have to do is go to marketing school the

7:52

io Slash Agency. Again, that's marketing

7:54

school, the Ioslash Agency, and you can go

7:56

there to apply. And I will tell you right now what

7:59

we're doing is there's online community. We

8:01

do calls every now and then there's stuff that we share

8:03

in there that we don't share publicly, and you can

8:05

at least the online community you can counsel any time,

8:07

so you can go there to learn more about it. And that

8:10

being said, back to the

8:12

video, can I ask you something about that's

8:15

connected that's that's connected to writing.

8:17

And actually this

8:19

past week I listened to some of the podcasts

8:22

like Sam part maybe

8:24

I think it's even you as well some

8:26

of the guys as well, which

8:29

were saying the same thing that you have

8:31

to get good at I think, yeah, Greg,

8:33

Greg, Yeah, Greg shared this as

8:35

well. You know that you have to get

8:37

good at copywriting, which means writing.

8:40

You have to get at good at getting

8:43

the writing. So I'm trying

8:45

to write, but for me, I'm

8:47

trying to write to see what's

8:49

what I'm thinking, to organize my

8:51

thoughts and all that. And recently

8:54

I am trying to figure out

8:56

what's my unfair advantage

9:00

where I really think that I can lead

9:03

or where I can differentiate myself at

9:05

from other agency owners especially,

9:08

so I think I'm still struggling,

9:10

struggling to find the focus and all

9:12

that. So how

9:15

do you use writing to really

9:17

dig into those areas

9:19

as well to really understand what's my and

9:22

fair advantage or to use

9:24

that for your own strategic vision

9:27

for your own company.

9:28

Yeah, So you're talking about writing in two contexts.

9:31

So one is you're talking about writing in

9:33

terms of building an audience. The other writing

9:35

is just writing for your organization to really get

9:37

things done. What the phrase

9:39

I put in there is like writing is like casting a spell

9:41

on your organization, right, because you're you're basically

9:44

writing a document and then things actually happened from

9:46

it. And it's pretty amazing because all of you as

9:48

founders have this invisible hammer where

9:50

you can push things through, right, and you're

9:52

probably not aware that you have that much power. Your

9:54

word goes a long way, right, And

9:57

so I think that that's one piece, Allian.

9:59

I think you have to think through what are the core problems

10:01

right now, maybe one, two, and three, and then start

10:03

to write about, Hey, like, this is the problem

10:06

right now, this is the potential solution.

10:08

Here the resources.

10:09

Required, and here's what we're trying to accomplish with

10:11

this, and then buy when as well, and then

10:14

you know you can read it, you can read it in a

10:16

in a meeting with the right

10:18

stakeholders, and then you can push its a

10:20

product through after you or like a solution

10:23

through after you debate it and discussed it with

10:25

the team.

10:25

Right. So that's one piece.

10:26

The second piece is Ali, And you

10:28

know when you talk about creating content for

10:31

for the public,

10:33

I guess my question for you would be, what

10:35

are you actually world class at?

10:38

Yeah?

10:42

Some because I'm still trying

10:44

to kind of figuring out what's what's the

10:46

thing that I'm really good at. I

10:48

think I just write.

10:50

I started to write where my thoughts go

10:53

and when when when

10:56

the audience kind of write resonates

10:58

with that one thing. I

11:00

think it's more about the blend of

11:03

I'm starting to kind of figuring out that

11:06

when when. Because I'm from Japan,

11:08

when I start, when I do the

11:10

blend of like Japanese technology

11:14

with the global marketing, I think that's a

11:16

part that where I think I'm kind

11:18

of kind of ahead from than

11:21

other people. So, yeah, that's

11:23

that's the thing that I'm but yeah, I don't

11:25

know how to how to put

11:28

that those into words.

11:29

Ali interest to you would be, how about you

11:32

can you assume me okay?

11:33

Yes, no, okay, sorry?

11:36

So Alan, why don't you try for the

11:38

next thirty days committing to writing thirty minutes

11:40

a day and see what happens after

11:43

that.

11:45

Yeah, I've been doing that for past

11:47

five days and yeah.

11:49

I'll okay, So just

11:51

stay consistent for twenty five days and sometimes

11:53

you might miss like I did the I did the accountability

11:56

buddy thing right, Like I mentioned you guys last time, and

11:58

I think some of you have accountability buddies here right that

12:02

I think without the accountability buddy, I wouldn't have been

12:04

consistent. But even then I still missed a couple of times,

12:06

So just keep in mind, it's okay to miss a.

12:08

Couple, all right.

12:10

So I wanted to take a second to tell you about

12:13

leveling up Founders. This is

12:15

an event slash Mastermind

12:17

for people doing seven eight, nine figures.

12:19

These are founders that are doing that amount, and

12:22

we've been doing this event for a couple.

12:23

Of years now.

12:24

We've had amazing speakers, but more than anything,

12:26

it's about the people. What I mean by that is

12:29

like minded people want to hang out with like minded people,

12:31

and this is the best spot to connect with people

12:33

of a certain caliber. And we vet every single

12:36

person that comes through. So if people

12:38

are even though they make a lot of money, but

12:40

their character we don't really align with that, we're not necessarily

12:43

going to let them in. We do this event in Beverly Hills

12:45

and it's happening in the beginning

12:47

of August. All you have to do to learn more about

12:49

it is just go to levelingop dot com slash Founders.

12:52

Again, it's levelingop dot com slash founders.

12:54

If you want to hang out with amazing people. Neil, my

12:56

podcast co host, is going to be there. I'm going to

12:58

be there. People like say It Bulky he will

13:00

be there as well, and again it's going to

13:02

be a great time leveling off dot com slash founders.

13:05

To learn more, let's continue to see you inside

13:07

to move along here, who else has got some stuff? Otherwise

13:14

I'm going to read through some questions. Okay,

13:16

Brian's got a question here. What's the

13:18

number one thing you focus on to scale quickly?

13:21

So I

13:24

think.

13:27

So, I think Brian can maybe maybe you can give

13:29

us some more context around where you are right now, where you're trying.

13:32

To go, because then this question depends

13:35

mm hmm.

13:37

Yeah.

13:37

I mean it's

13:42

just scratching six figures the agency.

13:44

It's relatively new, so I'm just trying

13:46

to figure out what I can do to scale. I think

13:49

one pain point is that it's

13:51

easier to get some of these lower cost clients,

13:53

and a lot of the clients I'm dealing with their

13:55

small businesses that don't have a big budget.

13:58

I'm trying to branch off a little bit more and some

14:00

larger ones that can afford a little bit more,

14:02

that are a little bit less price sensitive.

14:05

Yeah, I was thinking about you know what

14:07

that could look like over the next six to twelve

14:09

months.

14:10

Yeah, you know, Brian, I would

14:12

say one thing that's been working for us, and we've

14:14

never really done cold out about we're just trying it

14:16

now as an experiment that I

14:18

did I mention this test to you already.

14:20

Or not really, I'm not sure.

14:23

Okay, so you tell me if I've said this already.

14:26

But basically, we use this thing

14:28

called I think it's smartly dot

14:30

ai, not saleslead dot ai.

14:32

So smartly dot ai. That's a tool

14:34

that will allow you to use a bunch of.

14:36

Different inboxes to send maybe five

14:38

hundred or a thousand emails a day, okay. And

14:42

the key thing with the email is we've tried,

14:44

you know, floating like our because we create a

14:46

lot of content, we've tried floating content to people that

14:48

doesn't really generate responses.

14:51

But now we've changed our first email

14:53

to a really good offer. So the first offer is,

14:56

hey, we'll design using

14:58

AI, will design ten ten

15:00

landing pages for you, and we're guaran We guarantee

15:03

that will be at least a ten percent lift over your current

15:05

landing pages. You'll pay us two thousand dollars

15:07

for these ten pages, and if we don't perform,

15:10

we'll give you your money back and we'll even send

15:12

you a legally binding document.

15:14

Right.

15:14

So that email gets about

15:16

a three to four percent response rate right now,

15:18

and we're still creaking it. But it comes

15:21

down to, Brian, the offer that you have at the end of the

15:23

day, Right, how can you give people no brain er offer

15:25

and really de risk it for people?

15:27

And it's it's working

15:29

for us.

15:33

I'm not sure you mentioned it, but that does makes sense. I have

15:35

someone doing called outreach for me, so I can

15:37

maybe ask him to, you know,

15:39

try giving them an offer.

15:41

Yeah, well that's Brian.

15:43

So you have to be if you have someone you've

15:45

outsourced it to, like a contractor, right,

15:47

yeah, yeah, so you've got to be all

15:49

over them, right you can. That's one of those things where it's like it's

15:52

nice to it's you know, to hope

15:54

that someone can do it for you, but

15:57

like you basically have the micromagement them

15:59

because it's a it's a high risk being like the offer.

16:01

You're gonna have to keep tweaking and you're keep treaking the

16:03

coffee, keep tweaking the headline.

16:05

So that's what I would say.

16:07

Yeah, No, I'm on top of it. And it's it's

16:09

a young guy. He's he's

16:12

doing like massive melic and texts and he's getting

16:14

the appointments and I've gottence applients

16:16

out of it, so it is working. But we

16:19

have like quickly touched points and all

16:21

that, so I'll talk to him. But that's a good

16:23

idea, I think.

16:24

Yep, Okay, cool,