Strategies for launching a new product, Hiring freelancers for mundane tasks, and more

So this next episode is covering a portion of our Agency Owners Association 1.5-hour call that Neil and I did. So if you're an agency owner and, or if you're looking to just learn more about how to scale an agency, there are a lot of questions that we get from the community members in here. This is basically a sneak preview into how the group works and one of the major benefits of the group. So if you're interested, please listen. And without further ado, here is the episode. Adam, go for it. Fisher.

This is me. All right. So I want help launching a product. It's kind of a zany product because I'm trying to have a good time here in the whole marketing world, right? So it's a physical product. It's called Business Biscuits. And I'm gonna try to fast track what the heck it is. So this doesn't go too long, but It's all about like in-person meetings, especially after COVID, really boring, stuffy, like, oh, talking about the weather, traffic, whatever, how boring your weekend was. And then you have a meeting like I worked at CVS, by the way, corporate CVS. I'm in Rhode Island and CVS is like the one big company and just meetings can be excruciating and there's no excitement. And but they'll sometimes do icebreakers and the icebreakers are super lame. So this is supposed to be like the antidote to that. So it's like a business engagement snack for in-person meetings called Business Biscuits. And so it contains like 12 icebreakers to make meetings more fun, basically. And I've had these for a while and I haven't done anything with it because it's kind of just sitting here and I'm like, is it a good idea? Is it a bad idea? But I'm doing a landing page now. I'm gonna launch it. I don't know if I should do paid. Like, I'm sort of like in the jar. I can't really see like, what should I do with this? Obviously, I'm gonna post it on LinkedIn. Give it to people for free. I'm thinking about, um, well, let's go back. I get it. Events all the time. And there's like EOS traction, like reach out to those guys that would bring these to meetings. But like what, Neil and Eric, like what would you do to launch this and what's your general and how do you think it might fail?

I'll tell you what I would do first, Adam. I would probably just focus on my, if my agency is doing good revenue and it's growing, I'd probably just focus on that. Yeah.

What would you do?

Yeah, go ahead, Neil.

It's a lead magnet, Eric.

No, no, but, but you have to explain how the Business Biscuits works. Is it a food?

Yeah, so it has 12 fortune cookies inside, and each fortune cookie—

Ah, sold! You should do this business.

Okay, so I would just create clever viral videos about people being really bored in meetings in person, being like, tired of these boring in-person meetings. You know, check out Business Biscuits. And that's a really bad energy or pitch to do it. But think of Harmon Brothers Squatty Potty, think Lume or Lume or whatever it's called, the deodorant. Try to create a funny video like that. And I would figure out how to just run a crapload of ads targeting business professionals on the social web.

And maybe segment each, each type of meeting that's really boring. Maybe it's like strategic planning. Maybe there's even a way to get granular, like HR meetings, offsites.

Offsites are usually fun. You gotta find the— if just people who do meetings, you gotta actually— I would actually more so focus on the type of companies that do a lot of meetings. So like agencies have lots of meetings, right?

Yeah.

But a lot of them are virtual now. Think of the industries that require you to go to the office and they do tons of meetings. Those are the ones where you want to pitch the business biscuits to. So you'd actually target corporations.

Adam, what's your goal with this business?

Yeah, so there's an intrinsic component because like obviously building an agency is a huge grind, right? This is a way for me to create like a physical product, which I'm excited about and be creative. So that's part of it, which could be, Recipe for, for failure, but it's also linked with Strategy Kiln, which is the agency parent name. And so it could become a lead magnet and help drive awareness of the agency.

So look, I have this, right? This is the best. I'm not, it's not, I bought it, but it's not even open right now. I literally, I have one of these like icebreaker things, right? Um, or you don't have an icebreaker thing, but I have a lot of these card things that I buy. I think I have like 4 more sitting over there. I think I have 3 in the living room. Um, so I love these things, right? But my usage on these, I probably only use it like once or twice and then I stop. I'm not saying yours is going to be that way, but I will say like, just to give practical experience here, I'm not going to give you advice here. I'm just going to experience share. I actually spoke to someone yesterday about buying their agency and he's like, yeah, you know what? I really want to do this venture studio next. And then I want to do this academy over here. And then I want to do this because like I need to do different things. Right. You know, I've made this mistake, you know, 8, 9 different things at once. Neil's made this mistake. He's had a lot of things. And I think I've learned to, to just control, focus my ADD on the business. And so my ADD is all over Single Grain, right? And it's, but it's, it's very focused ADD. Okay. Um, and the results are, they're undeniable at the end of the day. Um, so Neil, I don't know if you want to speak to this, but I, I think experience shares help here.

Yeah, I found I'd make the most money and do the best financially when I focus. Um, if you really hate your agency and you want to do business biscuits, go for it. But pick one and go all in. Like, agencies are great cash cows, uh, or they can be if run right and if you can scale them up. But if you hate it, money isn't everything in this world. Go do something that you're passionate about. Just figure out how to cut your expenses.

But also, every business sucks. Yeah, every business sucks.

And when people are like, agencies aren't scalable, there's so much work. Well, I've never met one business that's as easy as it seems, and they all suck to some degree or another.

Right, right.

But Adam, I do think Business Biscuits may have potential. I mean, the packaging's really like, the design's really cute. So I think there might be a need for, I think you're just going to have to test in the market. So best of luck to you on that.

Yeah, but think of it as the grass is greener on the other side scenario. Everyone always says the grass is greener. Fuck that.

The grass is greener where you water it.

Whoa. But sure.

But the way I look at it as there's always pros and cons to different kinds of businesses. You just got to figure out which one you like.

I got to take a minute to tell you about the Agency Owners Association. This is a peer group for agency owners. Think YPO or EO, but for agency owners. And I just wanted to read you a couple of testimonials. This first one comes from Carrie, and we asked her, what do you like most about the group? She said, having a group of people to discuss and bounce ideas. The leads are great too. Yes, we share leads in this group as well. This one from Aliyan, he says, the ability to really post whatever I want and need, and the group responds. Great experienced members. Getting a lot of insights from conversations with other members. Getting a lot of value from sessions from Eric. Getting advice from others as well. And so if you want to grow your agency faster and you want a peer group to do do so, just go to marketingschool.io/agency. This is a group that both Neil and I created, and our hope here is to create a vibrant community of agency owners and do a lot more with it in the future. So again, marketingschool.io/agency, and we'll see you inside.

Cool.

Adam, looks like you have something to say.

Yeah, there's, there's a risk that if I, if I half measure it to protect the core business, the agency, that it'll just fall flat.

Do you, wait, wait, let's go back. Do you actually like the agency work or no?

I do and I don't. So I mean, I don't want to give like the banal story of like, oh, I have a 5-month-old and I got a 3-year-old and I'm working like 50, 60 hours a week and it's hard and da da da. But like, that's part of it. And I see like, and 2 kids are gonna be going to daycare soon. So it's like, can I actually survive like working this much? Or like, or could I actually hire somebody and keep things going? It's like, I I don't spend enough time figuring out how to scale. Yeah, I'm my own worst enemy with that.

Yeah, but as your business grows and becomes larger, you'll slowly start solving problems by hiring. And, you know, don't worry too much about scaling, worry about getting customers and then infill roles with freelancers, contractors, eventually full-time employees that can help you do the mundane stuff that's wasting your time.

That's what I want help with. Maybe I can tap into the community because I tried hiring like 3 freelancers to be like digital marketing assistants and they've been abysmal. And it's not like as if I'm doing brain science, like, or brain rocket science here. I want their help for some very basic project management and paid media analysis and client-facing interaction. And I have— that's got me in a bad place because I feel like I'm just going to keep banging my head against the wall. So maybe I'll post something in the community.

Yeah.

And I think the issue that you're having is you're looking for someone— you just mentioned it— paid media, client relations, and there was a third one, strategy, I think.

Like project management.

Yep.

The project manager. You're usually not going to find someone who can do all of it. You can find some people who are good at client relationship and project management. So you maybe hire just someone fractionally just for that part and another person for more of the technical aspect. Then you'll start having better luck. It's hard to find an all-in-one.

Adam, I would also get the book Who? W-H-O with a question mark. I think books, I mean, they have a lot of frameworks, right? That's why I like these books. Books aren't the end-all be-all. You're still going to have to experience things and eat poo-poo as you experience things. But I think that's going to help you because Neil in his early career, same thing with me, we made a lot of hiring mistakes and sometimes it's just, oh, this guy feels really good. This gal feels really good, right? But I find a lot of people, they're just like, oh, I need a job description, and then they just go cut and paste from Google. But when you have a framework on, hey, here, these are the 3 to 5 jobs to be done, and I'm going to grade these people based on that, um, that goes a long way, right? Because everything at the end of the day, you know, anybody will tell you, I don't care what your mission is, I don't care what your product or service is, it's all about people. Um, so we got to make sure that we get that right. This will apply for any business that you do.

Uh, and I would also think of it this way, in which if you had to hire 3 people and none of them work out for the same role, there's something wrong with how you're hiring.

Yeah, I'm going cheap. I'm going Upwork. It's not—

There's a lot of amazing people on Upwork that are cheap. It's how you're hiring.

It's how I'm hiring.

Yeah.

And I, I honestly think the first part of it is you're looking for one person to do all the things that you're doing versus paying someone on Upwork just to do strategy or just to do, you know, project management and client relationships. Like have 'em focus. You have to remember if you're hiring people from Upwork that specialize in tasks, it's not like it costs you a lot more money or anything like that because what's happening is you're paying 'em per hour. So you're just paying the people per hour for that specific task.

Yeah. And Adam, occasionally you'll find a diamond in the rough and this is someone that you might want to hire full-time. But I think the first key here, again, jobs to be done, check out the book Who, you'll understand role scorecards and things like that. Um, and you know, Upwork's a little, I mean, you know, you have better filters for Upwork too, right? Like who has a bunch of 5 stars, who has like a, they're consistent. Um, and then be, be, have them on a, I find from Upwork you have to have a very short leash too. If they don't perform, they start disappearing and stuff. They're just gone after probably the second or third time.

So, um, you should also connect with Chris. I hired my first project manager on Upwork and she has worked full-time for me for 2.5 years now.

Wow.

Yeah, it's gotta be me then. My approach.

Cool. I'm telling you, you're trying to look for one person to do everything. That is too hard.

Adam, that's your homework. Hit up Chris in the school group and get that going and definitely throw it in the school group too so we can get more actual messages in there. But I'm going to move on to Arian again. All right, quick note. This is about my company. It's called Single Grain and Single Grain is an ad agency where we're focused on driving innovation. I want to talk about a couple of new strategies. And if you need help with marketing, great. If not, here are a couple of new strategies that you should try out. One is programmatic CRO. So we are doing programmatic conversion rate optimization on our site. So it's building products that will automatically optimize your site to increase conversion rates. We're also auto-optimizing, auto-updating from an SEO standpoint. And we're constantly thinking about what else we can do in terms of enriching the visitors that are hitting your website and also tailoring custom messages for for them using AI. And so there's a handful of things that we're doing from a marketing standpoint, and our mission is just to drive more innovation. So if you want to learn more, just go to singlegrain.com, grain like rice. So singlegrain.com to learn more, and we'll see you inside.

Okay, so that's a connecting question to the Adam one as well. So the thing is, I don't want to— yeah, so backstory is that I happen to have this media platform which is generating about 100,000 visitors per month. It's not big, But it's growing and it itself attracts a lot of customers. My question is, how can agencies— how can I leverage that to grow my agency? And as you said, I don't— sometimes it feels like I'm running 2 businesses, 2 separate businesses. But the thing is that what I want to do is that I want to focus on one. I don't want to do 2 businesses, but I'm trying to balance, I'm trying to see where the synergy can come, uh, can come and that can help agency grow. How can I abuse it and utilize those, uh, media platforms?

How much does the media platform drive in revenue? What percentage of your customers come from it?

Um, it started to have like recently, Uh, I didn't— very small, but like about 20 to 30%. 20 to 30%. I have to— I'm just, I'm just calculating on my, my mind.

Yeah, so if it's 20 to 30%, I look at that as it's part of the business. You're looking at this separate and you're running 2 separate, but it could just be a mental thing and more so structural. So if it's owned by your existing corporation, your ad agency, you may end up looking at it more as one business. It's like we have Ubersuggest, not really a separate business, drives a lot of leads for the agency, but it's also a different kind of product because it's a software.

Yeah.

And what you need to do is grow it. And if it keeps driving you more and more customers, then pay someone part-time to maintain it for you and continually grow it so you can get more leads and customers from it.

Okay.

But have that in mind that the goal should be to continually drive leads to your agency. If you start being like, oh, well, we want to monetize it and do this and that, yeah, then it's going to feel like 2 separate businesses.

Yeah. So we're monetizing it as well. And that's why I think it's, there's 2 businesses in the mind and you have to focus on one. Yeah. Vice Media, that was something that I was looking at as a case study because they had an agency, Virtual I think they gone bankrupt. I don't know why.

Yeah, don't look at Vice, they failed. Look at their earnings and what they did wrong, but they didn't do well as a corporation.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool. Well, look, I think that's it for today. Um, Ezra's gonna send you guys a survey just to see what we can do better here. How you— what you— please be brutally honest with us. Um, and we look forward to doing the next one.

Thank you.

Have a great weekend. Thanks, guys.

Very much appreciated.

Thanks, guys. Thank you.