https://www.listennotes.com/e/4cec6c0269744aaab80c454ff3c34386

Hey everybody and welcome to this week's Agency Accelerator podcast. Now, if you're a marketing agency owner who feels like you're constantly hustling but not quite seeing the rewards, then this episode is for you. For the past 18 years, I've been coaching SME marketing agencies to grow in a profitable, sustainable, and most importantly, an enjoyable way. But recently, I've made a big change in my own business. Now, if you go all the way back to episode 103 of this podcast, you'll know that in 2022, I cut my working week back to four day weeks and did so in a way that had no impact on my ability to provide a great level of service to my clients and also no major hit on my revenues. So go back and listen to that episode because it's well worth it. There are some good tips in there. Well, now I've taken this a step further and for the last three months I've shifted working to just three days a week. That's Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Now, of course, this hasn't been easy, but it has been really transformational. And I want to share with you what led to this shift, the strategies I've used to make it possible, and how I've balanced scaling back work with exploring personal passions like my travel focused YouTube channel, On the Road Again. Now, if you're wondering how to create a business that doesn't take over your life, let's dive into the mindset shifts and the practical steps that made it possible for me that can work for you too. Now, of course, you may not want to go to a three day week or maybe not even a four day week, but the principles I used would apply to helping you become more efficient and ensuring that you are running your business rather than it's running you. So, okay, let's get going and jump in.

I'm Rob De Costa and this is the Agency Accelerator podcast. As someone who has stood in your shoes, having started, grown and sold my own agency, I know just how it feels in the ups and downs of agency life. So this podcast aims to ease your journey just a little by sharing mine and my guests experiences and advice as you navigate your way to growing a profitable, sustainable and enjoyable business.

Let me take you back two years. I was working full time, super hard, running my coaching business, making good money and helping agency owners navigate everything from client acquisition to operational efficiency. but behind the scenes, I was starting to feel a little bit stretched and if I'm honest, a little bit burnt out. Now, I'm always telling my agency owner clients to get really good at prioritizing their time, set good boundaries and build a business that worked for them. Yeah, I realized I wasn't quite doing the same thing for myself. What's that expression? Physician heal thyself. Well, the wake up call came when I started reflecting on the parts of my life I was missing out on, like more time to travel. I really wanted to build up my YouTube channel, but if anybody does their own editing, they know it takes a a long time to shoot good content and then edit to good content and also just enjoying some more moments with my partner. I had a good chat with myself and I said, Rob, look, if I can coach others to build a sustainable businesses that isn't dependent on them 24/7, i.e. a self-running agency, why aren't I doing the same thing for myself? Also, this year I just hit 60 and if I'm honest, I want an exit plan in the next few years into retirement. and as you probably know, if you're self-employed, there's absolutely no concept of retiring on Friday and putting your feet up on Monday. It just doesn't work like that. So I decided that I would move to a four day week back in 2022, and in the last few months, I've moved to three days a week. So I think a key learning here for me and a question to ask yourself is what parts of your life are you putting off because your business demands too much of your time? Don't kid yourself that there's a light at the end of the tunnel and I'm going to work these crazy hours because I'll eventually get to that light because without Sanding Morbid you may never get there. And it's so important that we enjoy the journey, not just the destination. All those cliches are so true. And another one that's very true is life definitely isn't a dress rehearsal and we really have no idea how long we've got on this planet. So starting to think, especially at my age, of like the succession plan and retirement plan and to live the life I want to live and do the things I want to do, then this is a step in that direction. So just ask yourself, what parts of your life are you putting off because your business demands too much of your time? So let's get a bit practical now and let me tell you how I made the shift to working a three day week while still running a successful coaching business. And the first point I want to talk about is ruthless prioritization. because I sat down and I asked myself two key questions. Number one, what are the core activities in my business that drive real results for my clients? And what tasks could I let go of, delegate or automate without sacrificing quality? Now, this applies to both client acquisition, i.e. sales and marketing, and client delivery, client service. So actually delivering my service to the client. So using those two questions, I streamline my services, focusing on the high impact work, like my group coaching programs and creating resources that my clients could use independently, such as my AI coaching tool, ask Rob anything. And I also started saying no to a lot of opportunities that didn't align with my goals and no to tasks that I was doing that I've always done, but didn't really deliver any tangible results. So a key message here is stop doing things because you've always done them. And that was really true with social media. I cut back a ton on social media, and at first I felt like, oh, what if I don't do that, I'm going to be losing out. But you know what? When I dug into the analytics of tweeting and posting multiple times a week on other platforms, besides LinkedIn, I couldn't really quantify any results from them. So you really have to get strict and say, no, I'm not doing that. I'm going to cut it back to the minimum. So think about your own business. What would happen if you doubled down on your most impactful services and let go of the rest? The next thing I focused on was operational efficiency. So I implemented better tools to automate as much of sort of client onboarding, client delivery and follow-ups and I'm using AI everywhere I can to speed up production and communication. So I use a lot of AI tools to help me with my podcast, not just writing it, but producing all of the show notes and uploading and all that stuff. And of course, I developed my Ask Rob Anything AI coach to handle many of the first line questions that clients ask. And I did this because over the years I found myself being asked the same questions over and over and over again. I thought there must be a better way of answering them than me just constantly having to answer the same question. That was one of the reasons why I created Ask Rob Anything as well as wanting to have a knowledge base of everything I've learned over the past 18 years so that people can tap into that and it will be a bit of a legacy for me as well. I also created as many evergreen resources like templates and recorded sessions that clients can access anytime, reducing my need to be hands on every step of the way. and slowly starting to move away from the one-to-one coaching, which had been my bread and butter for many years, and focusing much more on my group program and my AI coach, Ask Rob Anything. And the net result of all of that when you add it all together is that I'm still able to deliver value to my clients, but I'm not glued to my desk every day to make it happen. So my time isn't any longer directly connected to the value of the services that I deliver. There are many other ways people can get value from me without directly using my time. The biggest win of this transition has been time to pursue my personal passions. For me, that's my on the road again YouTube channel where I document my travels. Over the years, travel has been a major source of inspiration and Rejuvenation for me, my partner, and now I have the time to fully embrace it. And to be honest, it is my succession plan because as I said, I want to retire in years time. And I'm very aware that when you take away your career and that's often your identity, you can feel a bit lost and useless and often depressed and that I'm determined that's not going to happen to me. So I'm finding how I'm going to fill the time when I do eventually retire full time. And that is going to be with travel and with documenting my travel on my YouTube channel. So we are starting that now and I'm using my two days a week on a Monday and a Friday to focus on creating great content, learning how to film better. editing, which if any of you edit your own stuff, you know how long that takes. And it's been an incredible way to tap into my creativity while stepping away from work. I'm fully aware that if I didn't have anything to do on a Monday and a Friday besides go to the gym and go for a coffee or whatever, then I would very quickly start working again because it's not like I hate my work. I love my work, but I just want to have that succession plan. So really, if you are going to work four days a week or three days a week, you need to know how you're going to fill that time that you've won. And for me, that's been with my YouTube channel. So let me ask you this. If you had more time, what would you do with it? What passion projects have you put on hold because you're too busy? One thing I realized is this, is that personal growth and professional development go absolutely hand in hand. Stepping back from work doesn't mean stepping away from purpose. It means making space to enjoy the life that your business is meant to support. And to be honest, since I now only work three days a week, I'm absolutely laser focused when I am working on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. And because of that, I'm more productive than ever. So if this has inspired you, maybe not to work three days a week, but to get more efficient or maybe move to a more realistic four day working week, here's how to start. Number one is to conduct a time audit. So what I want you to do is for two weeks, I want you to track everything you do and you'll quickly see which activities drive value and which ones are just time suckers that you could actually get rid of. Number two is I want you to set good boundaries. So I want you to define your ideal work schedule and to stick to it. Communicate those boundaries to your team if you've got one, and also to your clients. And don't be tempted to break the boundaries just because your client is. Number three, you need to streamline your offering. So you need to focus on what you do best and what creates the most value for your clients because that's your sweet spot and that's where you're going to have the most enjoyable work and it's going to be the most profitable work. I also want you to streamline your sales and marketing. So focus on those one or two things that really work for you. Just look back at what you've done historically and stop the other things that you've always done because you've always done them. And this is really what helped me really cut back on everything I do. So these days I send an email every week, I release a podcast every week, and I just do a little bit of social media. But my email list and my podcast are the two most important things the two things that deliver value and to be honest, the two things I most enjoy doing. And then number five is I want you to delegate and automate. So identify tasks that someone else could do or a tool can handle. And a VA and AI is definitely your friend here. And I'll leave the details of my VA in the show notes because hiring an offshore VA team was one of the smartest things I did and has really helped me get a lot of those low value tasks off my plate and also holds me accountable to getting things done. So those are the five practical takeaways that you need to take from this episode. Conduct a time audit, set good boundaries, streamline your offering, streamline your sales and marketing, and delegate and automate. So just to kind of wrap up today's short podcast, for the past 18 years, I've helped agency owners just like you build businesses that work for them. Now I've applied the same philosophy to my own business, and it's definitely been life-changing especially when I have an eye on succession and retirement in the next three or four years. So remember, you don't have to choose between success and happiness. You can design a business that supports your goals, your health and your passions. So what's one change you can make this week to move a little bit closer to that vision or to reconnect with your why? Maybe it's setting some boundaries, maybe it's stopping doing some things or delegating a task, or maybe it's just taking the time to reflect on what matters most to you. you. Okay, so as ever, food for thought. And I hope you found that useful and inspiring and maybe just take a little bit of time to think about the things I've said today. Now, I have a big listenership to this podcast, but a small amount of people that have actually left a review. So I'm just gonna put my hands up and say, please consider leaving a review, because it really helps me grow the podcast. It helps the algorithm. And also, when I hear back from you guys, I get a sense of what's really resonated with you. stuff that you'd like me to create more content on. So other than that, thank you so much for listening today, and I will see you next week for the next episode of the Agency Accelerator podcast.