Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 It's not your fault. If you need something, it's not your fault. If you need help, it's your fault. If you don't get the help that you need, but you're not gonna get fired over anything. Like let's, let's figure it out and let's, let's make it happen. Um, I'm here to help you and by to facilitate progress basically. And you know, in the last couple years we've been talking more about outcomes versus tasks and things like that. And I delegate decisions and they, they, they make decisions for me. And the best example of that was disappearing for 14 days when I went to Italy and not communicating with them. And I came back and saw slack messages between them, that they took care of things that they normally would've turned to me for. So now they don't have to ever turn to me again.
Speaker 1 00:00:45 If you have a vision for the agency you want to build, then we want to help you build it. Welcome to the agency hour podcast brought to you by agency Mavericks.
Speaker 2 00:00:54 Welcome to another episode of the agency hour. Live here in the digital Mavericks Facebook group. Hey, uh, crispy butter. How you doing?
Speaker 0 00:01:02 I'm doing right. Doing alright. It's getting a little chilly here. Is it? Let me get, we get like winter coat kind of weather here.
Speaker 2 00:01:08 All right. Well, lucky the jackets on the way in the post. I believe. There you go. New jacket,
Speaker 0 00:01:14 Like gave you that layout, right?
Speaker 2 00:01:16 Yeah, no, it's good. We've got new. We got new merch. We got new merch for agency Mavericks. Um, what do you, where you are? You are upstate New York, right? Does it like, is it snow where you are? Do you like spend Christmas? Not
Speaker 0 00:01:28 Yet, but sometimes it does by now, but, um, you know, December, January, February, we get some, we get some snow, like three or four inches at the time. Nothing outrageous.
Speaker 2 00:01:40 You have to like clear the driveway before you drive out.
Speaker 0 00:01:42 Oh yeah, really? Wow. I got a snowblower to take care of that
Speaker 2 00:01:46 Though. You got a snowblower. Of course you have. Uh, it's so far into us. It doesn't rain in the city here in Australia. It rains in the, in the, what we call the snow, uh, the snow, um, what do we call 'em the snow fields we call 'em the snow fields because their fields full of snow.
Speaker 0 00:02:01 It snows there.
Speaker 2 00:02:02 Yeah, it snows then. That's right. Um, fun fact, the blue mountains, sorry, the snowy mountains, not the blue mountains. Uh, the snowy mountains, which are kind of in between Melbourne and Sydney. When you fly from Melbourne to Sydney, you fly over the snowy mountains, regardless of what time of year they're so high, there's usually snow. So you can fly there in summer and still see snow on the top of the mountains. And that snow is what melts comes down the mountain and forms the snowy river. And of course, if you are familiar with any Australian folk law, you might be familiar with the story. The man from snowy river, which is actually one of our most famous poems by a famous poet called banjo Patterson. I only know this because, well, I, I mean, I've known this all my life, but I know this it's fresh in my head now because I'm teaching Oscar about the man from snowy river, such an amazing story.
Speaker 2 00:02:48 The man from snow river definitely worth checking out. Um, anyway, we are here to talk about today. We're gonna do a couple things. We're gonna talk about our team. And we're also gonna show you one of our documentation, things in click up. We are nerds here and we like to run our business from click up. And so what we are doing is we are documenting what we had when we continue to document everything that we teach our agency clients, and we put it in click up and we share this stuff with our clients. Most of it, we only share with our clients every now and then we give a little bit away for free. Um, cuz that's what good drug dealers do. They give you a little bit for free. They get you to have a bit of a taste and then you come back for more.
Speaker 2 00:03:31 Um, this, what we're showing you now is not free. So don't ask for it please, cuz you're not, you can't have it right, unless you're a paying client, but we're gonna show you anyway. So take some screenshots and feel free to rip it off. What we're gonna talk about is check ins with team members. And now this is something I didn't do for a long time because I didn't know how to, and I was terrible at it. And it used to freak me out, having like a one-on-one check in with a team member, never used to like to do it. I used to just think everyone was fine and they were off doing their job and they didn't need a check in, but I was wrong. I learned that people do like to have a check in every now and then they like to, uh, know that they're doing the right thing and that they're doing a good job and that they're being heard and listened to and valued. And they also like a bit of mentoring and a bit of guidance. And they like to be able to course correct. If they're off track, what's your usual, I'm just gonna throw you on the spot here. What's your usual, uh, cadence for checking in with your team members, crispy butter.
Speaker 0 00:04:31 So we do a, uh, every, every day we, I just check. I actually, because they're in the Philippines and uh, video is not always great. And especially in one of, one of my employees, we just kind of handle it on slack, which I know is not ideal, but um, and there's only three of us or three of them and me. So I chat them every day and ask them to give me the following update. What did you accomplish yesterday? What are you gonna work on today? And what do you need help with?
Speaker 2 00:05:03 Mm-hmm <affirmative> that's
Speaker 0 00:05:04 Really, that's really the three things I asked them every day. One of them is kind of more of a project manager. So I meet with them once a month, once a week to kind of make sure everything's copacetic. So
Speaker 2 00:05:17 Copacetic.
Speaker 0 00:05:19 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:05:20 What the hell is that word? I don't know this word. How do I not know this word? I'm 48 years old. I thought I knew all the words. Coptic. What the hell does that mean?
Speaker 0 00:05:28 I don't know. It's it's it's a, it's a higher level word. I don't know.
Speaker 2 00:05:32 Ah, it's beyond my intelligence. Is it? And we
Speaker 0 00:05:34 Didn't give you guys that dictionary,
Speaker 2 00:05:36 Right? It's it's a, it's a word reserve for the elite copacetic someone course
Speaker 0 00:05:42 And throw the,
Speaker 2 00:05:43 How do you spell copacetic? How do you spell copacetic copacetic? Here we go. Copacetic copacetic. Meaning copacetic is an objective is an adjective are copacetic. Copacetic. Copacetic is an adjective. That means fine. Okay. Or satisfactory. It is pronounced copacetic. Never, never seen that word before. Why don't you just say satisfactory instead of making up fancy words, just to confuse the Australian
Speaker 0 00:06:10 To me, the Australian that's exactly right.
Speaker 2 00:06:12 What I'm curious about is most people won't tell you that they need help until it's too late.
Speaker 0 00:06:20 Yes. This is true. <laugh> and, and this can also be a cultural thing.
Speaker 2 00:06:25 Mm-hmm <affirmative>
Speaker 0 00:06:26 Definitely. Um, yeah, so I think I've gotten them, like, they've all been with me for some of them six years, five years, and I think two years now. So, so the culture that I've tried to build is one that like, it's not your fault. If you need something, it's not your fault. If you need help. So just it's your fault. If you don't get the help that you need, but you're not gonna get fired over anything. Like let's, let's figure it out and let's, let's make it happen. Um, I'm here to help you and by to facilitate progress basically. So you've got your job and, and you know, in the last couple years we've been talking more about outcomes versus tasks and things like that. And I delegate decisions and they, they, they make decisions for me and, you know, the be, and the best example of that was disappearing for 14 days when I went to Italy and not communicating with them. And I came back and saw slack messages between them, that like they took care of things that they normally would've turned to me for. So now they don't have to ever turn to me again. So,
Speaker 0 00:07:38 But, and so when something goes wrong or when they need, need something, sorry, when they need something, um, they need to raise their hand and let me know, you know,
Speaker 2 00:07:49 And, um, uh, a little bit off topic, but how do you then, and, and I think you just touched on it because when you went to Italy for 14 days, uh, they didn't have you there, but then if they, if they need something and they turn to you, how do you then prevent you becoming the conduit through which every decision needs to be made in the agency? Like how do you get them talking to each other more?
Speaker 0 00:08:08 Yeah. That's not easy. And now that I'm back, I think they kind of fall back into their own, their old habits of reaching out to me for the things, um, you know, and right now I'm, I'm actually only working five, four to five hours a week, a day in my agency cuz I'm coaching with you for the other part of it. So, um, and they know that, so they know that I'm only available certain times. So for me, that's, it's, it's a matter of I'm not available. So figure, figure that shit out <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:08:42 Yeah. And uh, and I think also there's, there's a, a lot of people are afraid to make a decision. Yep. Because they don't wanna make the wrong decision. Right. So how do you make it okay. For them to,
Speaker 0 00:08:57 To make a mistake,
Speaker 2 00:08:58 Make a mistake. Yeah. How do, how do you make it okay. For them to make the wrong decision.
Speaker 0 00:09:01 It's just a matter of when they make a mistake, proving that it's okay for them to make a mistake. Cause they, everybody makes mistakes. And um, when those, especially when they're first starting out, like when they make a mistake, turn it into a learning experience and, and, you know, figure out where the hole is, blame the process. And not really them, I mean, not blame, but you know, like let's figure out, let's get this in the process so that this doesn't happen again. That kind of thing. Mm. I mean, it depends on what it is of course, but yeah. Um, only one of my employees is really truly client facing mm-hmm <affirmative> so she's she, you know, other, other mistakes we can kind of quickly <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:09:48 Adjust. Yeah. Yeah. Cover on. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:09:50 It's it's the bad messages or, you know, lack of message. Lack of communication. Those are the things that we work on lately and, um, you know, she's getting better and she knows that like, you know, I'm not the only, the only way I'm gonna fire 'em is if they steal in from me, like I'm not gonna fire somebody because they make a mistake.
Speaker 2 00:10:09 Do you, do you think that's the fear? Do you think people are afraid of losing their job or
Speaker 0 00:10:13 I think they're, I think they're yeah. And mine are, I don't know about everybody, but my, my employees, I think that that's like the cultural thing. Like they're afraid if I make a mistake, I'm gonna be done. Like I'm I'm out here. So I've had to, I've had to build that culture that it's okay to make mistakes.
Speaker 2 00:10:30 Do you
Speaker 0 00:10:30 Think also, and when I make a mistake, I own it in front of them. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, that's totally on me. That was my fault, you know?
Speaker 2 00:10:38 Yeah. Do you think also there's a fear of looking stupid, do you think also there's like, not only the, not only the fear of losing my job, but there's a fear of like letting the rest of the team down and there's like a fear of embarrassment.
Speaker 0 00:10:48 Mm-hmm <affirmative> I, I think it is. Yeah. Mm, absolutely.
Speaker 2 00:10:52 One of the things I know about, uh, um, especially in the Philippines too, is that there's, um, a lot of pride. I know that our team are very proud of the fact that they work with us. Right. Yeah. And, uh, it is, it's a not a status thing, but it it's something it's kind of like, they, they feel very proud to, you know, say to their family and their friends, you know, they're with trading company or American company
Speaker 0 00:11:17 A status thing, I think.
Speaker 2 00:11:18 Yeah,
Speaker 0 00:11:18 Yeah, yeah. There is something there. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:11:20 Yeah. Um, the other thing I've learned
Speaker 0 00:11:22 Talking about the overseas people.
Speaker 2 00:11:25 Yeah. The, the other thing I've learned,
Speaker 0 00:11:26 I feel no prestige working for you. Like
Speaker 2 00:11:29 I know, I know. And there's something I know, I know there's something we need to talk about too. Um, is, um, the, uh, the, the other thing I've learned over the years is that, uh, um, like I just, I was talking to someone the other day who was, you know, an agency and they're like, oh, you know, we, I couldn't hire someone in the Philippines that would talk to my clients. I'm like, really? What, what talk, talk me through that. Why is that? Like you talk to my team in the Philippines, like you are a client of mine, you talk to my team in the Philippines. Like, what's the problem. Um, uh, what I I've learned over the years is that it just doesn't matter where people live. No, it just doesn't matter where people live, as long as we can, as long as we can communicate with each other in like, uh, in, in the same language. Right. Uh, then it doesn't really matter where people live. In fact, I think my belief now is that you actually restrict your growth by only saying, well, we are just going to hire people locally. Good luck. Particularly if you're in Australia, good luck trying to find good talent to come work in your agency in Australia
Speaker 0 00:12:35 And still make a profit.
Speaker 2 00:12:37 Well, not only that they're not available. Right, right. They're just not available. They're, they're entitled. They have a sense of entitlement, right. We live in a very, very, very, very, very fortunate country. Although here's a fun fact. The there's a think tank in London that do a survey every year, that rates 165 countries on a whole bunch of criteria that basically rates the quality of life in those countries. Right. Mm-hmm <affirmative> in 2008 Australia was Nu UNO. We were ranked the number one place in the world to live the number one country in the world to live in 2008, based on wealth, health, education, quality of life, uh, civil engagement, uh, employment opportunities. Right. All that kind of stuff. Yeah. All that. Yeah. In 2000. And, uh, I think it was around 2012. We had slipped to like fifth or sixth, right? This year surveys just come out. Survey says, Australia is 16th in the world. Guess where America is
Speaker 0 00:13:49 73rd,
Speaker 2 00:13:50 <laugh> 20th. You're too harsh on yourself. America is 20th. Number one, Denmark, number two, Norway, number three, Sweden, all those Scandinavian countries. You know why though, they're so heavily freaking taxed. Those countries, like you pay half, you pay 49% tax. Right. But there's amazing infrastructure. There's amazing welfare. There's amazing health and education because they're so heavily taxed. Um, and the governments can afford to be progressive, like give tax rebates to people who only ride their bike to work and don't use cars. And that's how they deal with things like pollution and congestion. Anyway, in Australia, we live in a very, you know, probably as, as, as very similar in the UK and America, but we live in a very fortunate part of the world where, uh, inherently a little bit lazy in Australia. Uh, we, we not very, we expect that we will have a job and a good job, and that we'll be well looked after and well paid.
Speaker 2 00:14:45 Right. That's an expectation. Right. And we don't want to commute an hour and a half to work. Fuck that. Why would we do that? We can just work from home in our pajamas, especially because the pandemic has now proven that. Right. So good luck trying to get someone to come and work in your office. If you're a digital agency in Australia, if you do find someone they're gonna cost you a vital organ, right. Uh, to get them to come and work for you, they might hang around six months until they, you know, find another opportunity. So the talent pool is just small. I mean, there's 26 million people live in Australia, right. Versus 350 million in America. Uh, the talent pool is small. Here we are entitled. We have massive expectations and you need to pay us a shipload of money because it's expensive to live in Australia.
Speaker 2 00:15:32 So why would you restrict the growth of your agency by just, uh, by just looking in a local talent pool? Right. Uh, so what I like, uh, you know, to think about is like where, where are the talented people, right. And the other thing is that because the opportunity exists for people in the Philippines or India or Bangladesh or Thailand or Indonesia that are, you know, still developing economies and the, and the cost of living there is cheaper than here is an opportunity that exists for those people to work for Australian or American or UK or New Zealand companies. Right. And get paid better than if they were working for a local company. And so what that's done is that's pushed up the demand, right. And, and the supply. So what I mean is that there's so many people in those parts of the world that study their ass off and learn how to become really good developers, really good designers, good copywriters, good social media managers. Good SEO. Right. And so the supply is just far greater, like Australians don't study their ass to become great engineers. Right. I mean, not, not the, like the percentage, like a small, much smaller percentage of Australians, put their head down in their BU up and become, you know, really good at something because we just have that sense of entitlement that it's gonna, we're just gonna become entrepreneurs, or we're gonna become managers. We're gonna leave university and become managers. Right. Right.
Speaker 0 00:17:03 I think, I think in, in countries like the UK and us and Australia, New Zealand, there's less of a, I absolutely have to become really good at this to survive mentality, like right. In, in the third world countries. Like they need to do that to support their entire family. Like my, my project manager literally supports her mother and her sister, so yeah.
Speaker 2 00:17:28 Yeah. And also we have, we, we have, I mean, you know, there's a whole other argument that I'm gonna get in trouble for, but we have welfare here in Australia. Right. So it's not, I mean sure. It's, it's kind of below the poverty line. Right. But our poverty line is still comparatively speaking. Yeah. To other parts of the world, our poverty line is, is, you know, is, is ridiculously high. Right. Um, uh, compared to, I'm gonna come back to that comment in a minute anonymous Facebook user. Yeah. Um, and, and tell you, uh, a new way of thinking, um, because, uh, our poverty line here is like, if you, if you, if you're unemployed in Australia, there is some basic welfare that you can get access to. Right. You are not going to go, you are not gonna go hungry. Right. Uh, I mean, this is, I know someone's gonna, someone's gonna flame me for this and bring it on. But compared to other parts of the world, we have it extremely good. We're extremely lucky and fortunate in this, in this country. Right. Yep. And what that means,
Speaker 0 00:18:29 All four of those countries.
Speaker 2 00:18:30 Yep. Right. And so what that means is that there is not a Pete's right. There's not a, a desperation to up skill and, and, and develop some new skills to then go and get a job. Because we we're really, we are very fortunate that we can kind of pick and choose what we kind of wanna do. Right. Um, now I'm not justifying anything by the way, anonymous Facebook user, who is that anonymous Facebook user who left that comment? Um, I don't need to justify shit by the way. I'm not justifying anything. Right. Let me tell you something. If I, if we hadn't built a team in the Philippines, when we first started out, there is no way, uh, Sam Crow, Hey buddy. <laugh> uh, if we hadn't built a team in the Philippines to begin with, there is no way I would now be able to hire Australian staff. Right. Right. Because they're just too expensive.
Speaker 0 00:19:17 You would never be able to afford me. I can tell you that
Speaker 2 00:19:19 That's right. I would never be able to have, you know, coaches in the us and now staff in Australia and in New Zealand. Right. I mean, new, Zealand's more expensive than Australia, right? Yes. It is live. Yes. New Zealand's more expensive than Australia. I remember the first time I went to Auckland and I got into a taxi from the airport to the hotel and I watched the meter going in, in the taxi. I'm like, holy shit, this is the most expensive taxi I've ever been in, in my life. And it's because petrol's like $48 a liter over there. Right. And Auckland is a ridiculously expensive part of the world. It's way more expensive than Sydney. Right. Property prices over there are just nuts. Uh, which was a real eyeopener when I first went to New Zealand. So the point I'm trying to make is that if you are starting out as an agency in Australia and you wanna hire Australian staff, then I hope you've got a massive runway and shitloads of cash in the bank, because you're going to need it. Not only the wages, but the cost of employment, right. Cost of employment, like superannuation and work cover, and all those extra E listening max in the green room, you listening how fricking expensive it is to just have you on the books, brother. I hope you appreciate it. I hope you appreciate it. Good now, so, so
Speaker 0 00:20:29 Can I address that question? That thing too, actually for just quick second. So we get that, we actually get that a lot here. There's certain political element over here that is really against offshoring as, as
Speaker 2 00:20:41 They are. I'm sure they are with all their smartphone in their pocket with all their smartphone in their pockets that are made in China. I'm sure they're really,
Speaker 0 00:20:47 My thing is I run a business that has Me three full-time employees and one part-time employee who lives right down the street for me. Um, the other three are all in the Philippines and I pay them a decent wage in Philippines for, for, for their economy.
Speaker 2 00:21:08 Mm-hmm,
Speaker 0 00:21:09 <affirmative> the other thing that I do. And it would not, I couldn't run this business without them. I would be just a little freelancer doing one website every couple of months and, and making 25 to 35 to $40,000 a year. And guess what? I'd only be helping five companies every year. Now I can help a lot more businesses be successful because I'm helping some people in another country mm-hmm <affirmative> and I'm helping those businesses as well. And I wouldn't be able to do that without my Filipino staff.
Speaker 2 00:21:39 Yeah. Right. Exactly. And you know, everyone, you know, oh man, I, I was at a conference in, in, in Western Australia years ago. And
Speaker 0 00:21:49 <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:21:51 This guy stood up and, and gave this, this, this presentation on why you should never on, on why, if you outsource work to India or the Philippines or Indonesia or Thailand or wherever, right. And then you charge your clients, you know, full tote odds to build a website that you are basically ripping people off. So I just, I, you know, it was a room full of people and I just let him go. And then at the end, I, I, I asked some questions cuz he'd never had staff overseas. I'm like, dude, fuck, are you talking about, you've never had staff overseas. You don't even know what you're talking about. I'll tell you what this is. This is fear. You are scared. Right. You are scared and you think it's wrong and you think it's unethical and you think it's imoral and you think people are ripping people off because you are scared because you've never done it.
Speaker 2 00:22:37 Right. So here's, here's a, here's a couple of things, uh, that I think, you know, you should consider. One is it's not just economics, it's the talent pool. There's just a far bigger talent pool in that part of the world that have the skillset that we need. Right. Right. The talent Paul in Australia is really fricking small. And it is from a source of fear that I have concerns and I've never done. There you go. Exactly. Uh, and it, when I first, when I first hired, uh, we had a team in India who were doing some work for us who were amazing. We lucked out, we found this guy Ballwin, who was just fricking incredible. And he had a team working for him so we could just throw whatever we wanted at him. And he, they would just nail it. And we were just like, holy shit.
Speaker 2 00:23:23 That was, he was incredible. I first hired my first VA in the Philippines, Norman and I got it wrong. I totally screwed it up. I had no idea what I was doing. Right. I mismanaged him. I thought he was a unicorn. I expected him to be a unicorn. I expected him to, to do like E like edit videos, build websites, design, logos, manage my calendar, do all this kind of stuff. Right. And then someone took me aside and said, listen, you've hired someone in the Philippines to do a job that it would take six people to do in Australia. Why do you think one person has all of those skills because they're a virtual assistant. Right. So I flew over to the Philippines and met Norman and we hung out and, uh, went swimming with whale sharks. And, uh, it was an amazing experience. I realized that he was in the wrong seat.
Speaker 2 00:24:11 I realized that he was a, he was, he was an awesome human being, but he, he was, there's no way he was gonna be successful in the role that I needed him to do. So we fight him <laugh> and it was totally my fault. Right. We let him go, we let him flourish and we let him go elsewhere. Uh, then I started to really get to know Michelle in the Philippines who was working, uh, with my business partner at the time. And we bought her into the company and I started to really get to know Michelle and we turned the videos on and we started to get to know, I started to get to know her as a human being. Right. Yeah. And then I went back over to the Philippines and hung out with our whole team. And then we went to Thailand and hung out on a team retreat. And I got to know them as people. And now like, I mean, I mean, you know, Michelle basically runs the place. Right.
Speaker 0 00:25:00 And not only that, but we're talking about talking to our customers, Michelle is our most beloved amongst our clients. Michelle is our most beloved employee. Like hands down, not even close.
Speaker 2 00:25:13 Yeah. You hear that max.
Speaker 2 00:25:18 I love just given Mac shit. Um, uh, and, and, and, and now, and Michelle is also a recruiting unicorn. So she now recruits for us and also recruits for our clients. And we have this great talent pool, uh, in, in the Philippines, um, that we are developing. Uh, Michelle's sister is also now working with us to do some recruiting. And she's awesome, indeed. And so here's what, I've, one of the things I've learned over the years is that if you hire people and then just leave them alone and neglect them, it's not gonna work out. No, you need to communicate with your team on a regular basis. So what I wanna do today is I wanna dive into a framework that we've built for having what we call a check in with team members now, full transparency. This is part of our team accelerator program.
Speaker 2 00:26:09 Our team accelerator program is where we recruit a team member for our clients, from our talent pool in the Philippines, whether it's a designer, a developer, an SEO, a project success manager, a client success manager, a social media manager. Uh, I think the only roles that we're not recruiting at the moment are copywriters and ad managers, uh, but we're working on it. So part of that process is not only do we find the talent and prevet them and put them through, you know, English, proficiency tests, and internet speed tests and technical tests and all that kind of stuff. But we then also coach our clients how to interview. There's a whole recruitment pipeline that we manage for them. Uh, and then we coach our clients how to, we hold their hand every step of the way and get that, that new team member hired onboarded.
Speaker 2 00:26:57 Um, you know, all the contracts signed, all that kind of stuff. And then we help our clients manage them over the first 30 days because we offer a 30 day guarantee on all of our candidates. If the candidate doesn't work out, we replace them. Okay. So part of what we do in team accelerator is we have a whole bunch of documentation and I'm just gonna share my screen. Now we have a whole bunch documentation and a recruitment pipeline that we set up and we manage it all in click up. So the recruitment pipeline looks, something like this. Uh, this is just dummy data in here. We have a whole bunch of applicants come in here. We then make a short list. We then put them through three different interviews. They either end up on the bench or we make them an offer or they get disqualified, right?
Speaker 2 00:27:37 And that all comes through an application form. Once we've prevetted the applicants we might get, I don't know, 15, 20, 25 applicants for a role. We prevet them find the top three and then get the top three to fill in an application form like this. Once they fill in that application form, they then land in the recruitment pipeline. And then we coach our client how to move them through the recruitment pipeline and make a decision. What I wanna talk about today though, is specifically part of our documentation is what we call a check in. So we have all this documentation here around job score cards and job ads and all that kind of stuff. But what I wanna talk about here today, specifically is the check in, once you hire someone, how do you check in with them over the first 28 days to make sure that you're setting them up for success?
Speaker 2 00:28:25 Okay. So why checkins matter? Well, check ins show your new team member that you care about their success in the role and allow you to mentor them and course correct early and often what I've done in the past, the mistake I've made. And what I see happening is that, uh, that you hire someone and then you kind of think, well, they're okay. They know what they're doing. They're a grown up, they'll do their job. And we don't communicate for a few days or a week or 10 days. And what happens is you kind of get away from each other, right? Your expectations, your expectations, and their expectations kind of start to get away from each other. And before you know it, you're here and it's harder to get back in alignment. It's the same with client relationships. What I like to do is kind of check in more regularly and course correct early and often so that you don't have to bridge such a big gap.
Speaker 2 00:29:13 So that's why I think check-ins are important. And just to be clear, a check-in is a 20 minute call scheduled in advance that gives you and your team member the opportunity to stay connected and make sure expectations are being met on both sides of the relationship. It's not just about them meeting your expectations. It's about you meeting their expectations. Right? One, one of the questions I like to ask new hires is, uh, do you have any buyers regret, right? You've been here a week now. Have any buyers regret? Any, any, are you still thinking this is a good decision. Let's just have that conversation. Now. This is not a huddle, by the way someone said check in every day. Yes we do. We have a daily huddle every day with our whole team. This is a one on one check in. Okay. Usually in the first month I would like to do this every week. And then after that, probably once every two weeks, depending on how big the team is, and this is a one-on-one check in, it's not a daily huddle. We do a daily huddle every day, which is a whole other conversation.
Speaker 2 00:30:14 Any questions about this so far from anyone? No. Okay. So, uh, how to run a, how to run a check in, well, here's the agenda that we use, right? So the agenda we use is we start with a win. Okay. So we always start with, let me highlight that, there we go. We always start with a win and, uh, that's just a good opportunity for us to get into a positive state of mind. And also it gives the team member an opportunity to share something that's worked well for them or, uh, something they wanna celebrate. Right. So, and I literally just start by saying, Hey, let's share some wins. What's uh, if I'm doing this every week for the first four weeks that they're in the organization, uh, you'll say something like, Hey, what's, uh, share, share a win over the last seven days. What's something that's gone really well or a win that you've had in the last seven days.
Speaker 2 00:31:05 And people might be humble about sharing this. They don't wanna brag, but this really encourage them. Yeah. Really encourage them to share something that's, uh, that's worked well, um, and celebrate it. Yeah. You know, encourage them well done. Good on you. That's excellent. Well done. And, and, and then if they haven't shared that with the team or the rest of the team, encourage them to share that win with the rest of the team to kind of pump themselves up or give them kudos right. In front of the rest of the team, praise them in front of the rest of the team.
Speaker 2 00:31:38 The second thing we do is then, uh, share any lessons. So segue into any recent lessons learned. Cool. So what have you learned over the last week? Now? These are things that can, can, can have, uh, that have been a disaster. Something that broke something that didn't go well, something that failed or was something that we've learned that is just gonna be helpful to share. Well, I learned that using bit bucket to do version control and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right. I dunno what I'm talking about, by the way, I'm just making things up. Um, or I learned that, you know, um, whatever it is they learned, right. Um, uh, if they it's a problem, if they haven't learned anything, if someone's saying, well, there are no wins and no lessons, then that's a big red flag. Like, have you been here? Have you been working?
Speaker 2 00:32:22 <laugh> right. We're learning things all the time, every day. So what are the lessons that you've learned that are good for you or that you wanna share with the rest of the team? And then I wanna get, I, I just wanna get stuck straight into focus. And a lot of this comes from the job scorecard. You should be. They should be very clear about what outcomes they're responsible for. If they've got a job scorecard for the role, if they haven't, then you need to develop a job scorecard for that role with them preferably as a collaborative thing. So once I've done wins and lessons I'll then say, cool. So what's the focus for the next seven days? What are you working on over the next or the next few days? Right? What is the focus? What projects you're working on, what are you working on?
Speaker 2 00:33:00 Uh, what I'm looking for here is I wanna make sure that what they're working on is in alignment with the outcomes on their job scorecard and that they're not off, down some rabbit hole and they're getting distracted. Right. It's very easy to get distracted when you sit on the internet all day. Okay. So what, uh, what is the focus? And we'll have a conversation about that, and then I'll say, great, what do you need to succeed? What do you need from me or the rest of the team, training resources, coaching, mentoring, software, guidance, information, like, what is it you need? Um, one example, we've got a session tomorrow morning with a click up trainer or a click up expert out of, um, uh, San Diego. Who's coming in to give us some training around, click up because we've got some I reckon. And we've got some knowledge gaps in click up.
Speaker 2 00:33:49 We're doing a pretty good job, but I know we can be doing better. So I've just found a click up expert to come in and teach us how to use, click up a little better and you know, or just look at what we're doing. And she might just go, yep, you guys are on fire. Just keep doing what you're doing. Great. That's all we need to know. Right. Um, and that's just come out of conversations that I've had with the team. The team didn't necessarily ask for it. <laugh> but I'm giving it to them anyway. And I'm gonna be a part of that training. And I just wanna know that we've got someone else outside the organization as a third party that we can send stuff to, to go, Hey, are we doing this right? Is this best practice? Is there a better, more efficient way of doing this?
Speaker 2 00:34:25 Okay. So my job and your job as an agency owner is to clear the path and make sure your team have everything they need to succeed. Right. And if you don't have a team right now, that's fine. This is just future pace and just park this stuff for, for future. Okay. The, the way, like I had a conversation with our sales team this morning, and we've had a couple of calls rescheduled this week because people are agency owners have been coming to us going, look, I really wanna have this conversation, but I'm up against a hard deadline. I need to push this back by a week. My initial response to that is great. Sounds like you need another team member, cuz here's the context you've reached out to us to have a conversation about whether or not we can help you grow your agency. And now you are pushing that call back because you're up against a hard deadline.
Speaker 2 00:35:20 So you see what's happening here. You are sacrificing working on the business because you are stuck working in the business. Sounds like you need another team member. Right? Right. Um, the, the point I'm trying to make is that I promise you, you will cap the growth of your business. If you don't build a team, if you try and do everything yourself, you are just gonna put a ceiling on how much you can grow because there is only one of you. So building a team of some description, whether it's two of you or three of you or 20 of you building a team of some description is the only way to get through that ceiling. And as you build a team, your job is to, is to clear obstacles and get out of the way and let them do their job so that you can reap the rewards and the profit as the business owner, because you are taking all of the risk.
Speaker 2 00:36:17 That's your job. As an agency owner is to take the risk, have the vision, add value, bring clients on and have the team deliver. And you take the profit as the business owner. That's your job. And that is your right as the business owner to take the profit because you are taking all the risk, reinvest some of that profit back into the business, into training, resources, tools, whatever development, right. And get outta the way and let your team do their thing. Okay. So what are that? What do you need from me? I, this always ask every call. I say, what do you guys need from me? And then I like to recap with a www. So who's gonna do what by when. And I just run this in a little Asana. Uh, so we use Asana in house. We're using click up to distribute this stuff to our clients, you guys, but we actually use Asana in house. So we just, I just have a little agenda in AANA for each team member, a one-on-one agenda. And we just run this in, in Asana. Who's gonna do what by when. And so the next time we meet, I go cool. So you were gonna do that by when how'd you go? Yep. Cool. Any wins? Great. Any lessons? Okay. What are you focused on? What do you need? Sweet 20 minutes. And we're done anyone wanna challenge me on this stuff? Or have any specific questions about this? Sean said
Speaker 0 00:37:33 There's a lot of rabbit holes, but um, I'm not sure what she means by that, which I don't know what part of the conversation she said that. So it might have been,
Speaker 2 00:37:39 There are a lot of rabbit holes, indeed. Yeah. Um, and the way to avoid rabbit holes, Joan is to have a plan. Yeah. Have a plan. If you don't have a 90 day plan, you're gonna get, you're gonna get pulled into every rabbit hole that, that exists.
Speaker 0 00:37:53 So Martin wants to, you run this as a one to one or team meeting.
Speaker 2 00:37:57 This is, this is a one on one. This is a one-on-one
Speaker 0 00:38:00 The huddle is the huddle is not a one-on-one, but this is a one-to-one.
Speaker 2 00:38:05 Yeah. The huddles are slightly different. Our huddle is kind of like the framework that you mentioned before. Yeah. Which is, um, what are you working on over the next 24 hours? What are your numbers and where are you stuck? Yep. That's our huddle framework. This is a one on one framework.
Speaker 0 00:38:18 Yeah, because we have such a distributed team. We automate that huddle in slack.
Speaker 2 00:38:22 Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:38:24 That's something that people may, may or may not know that they can do. I think you have to have pretty good communication between your team in order to do that, to just automate it like that and just have it in slack and then somebody's be somebody mainly you, the business owner has to be responsible for checking on it every day to see what they need, see what, where they are. Yeah. Or the project manager. If you have a project manager.
Speaker 2 00:38:44 Yeah. We, we use, um, we use a, uh, we use a, a bot in slack to automate it, to just ask those questions every day that people just, uh, answer daily bot daily bot that's right. Daily. Bot's amazing daily bot integrates with slack and allow you to do all sorts of cool stuff. Like give people,
Speaker 0 00:39:01 Kudos, give, give people kudos and, and all that kind of stuff. Check in on how their weekend was. Yep. I love Max's response to how was the weekend? Every Monday Max's response to how was the weekend fine.
Speaker 2 00:39:15 He's a man of many words.
Speaker 0 00:39:16 Way to elaborate way to elaborate. Max.
Speaker 2 00:39:19 He's a man of many words. Hey, uh, let me know in the comments, is this useful? Do you guys run check-ins with your team? Do you guys have a team? Uh, if you don't have a team, do you wanna build a team? Who would you hire next? Uh, if you could build a team, if you could wave a, a, a magic wand and, um, and hire someone on the team next, who would you hire? Uh, let me know. Gimme some feedback in the, in the, in the chat, uh, James says, need a team. Who do you need next, James dude, just pull the trigger. Yeah, you're in, you're in Maverick dude. So pull the trigger. If you need your team member, let us know, talk
Speaker 0 00:39:52 To your coach. Uh,
Speaker 2 00:39:53 Hey. Yeah, that's right. Get your org chart done and uh, identify who you need next. Christina Vara says I need a project manager, so hard to find. Yeah. Where have you been looking, Christina? Where have you been trying to hire? Project manager is interesting. We, um, we, uh, I, I, I, I'm a fan of the project success manager, which is kind of a hybrid between a project manager and a client success manager or a project manager and an account manager. Right. Um, it's kind of a hybrid between those two, a, a project manager and an account manager. I call it a project success manager. And, um, we are hiring project success managers right now for some of our clients. Um, Libby, Herbert need a web dev in the new year. Max just hired a growth plan manager. Well done max, um, James needs a PM, a developer and a designer. We'll talk to us dude.
Speaker 0 00:40:45 A lot of our client, a lot of our community here is a V. They, they run a very small team. So it's, it's the business owner and maybe a designer and a VA like what's is the cadence different or is, is the meeting different? Is like, is anything different if you have
Speaker 2 00:41:04 A small, no mean
Speaker 0 00:41:05 As a huge team?
Speaker 2 00:41:06 No, not for me. I mean, the, the thing is if you've got like a, like, I don't do this with every one of our team members, because there are, you know, whatever, I don't know, 17 or 18 of them and there's one of me. So I can't do it with every team member. I don't think you should do this with any more than kind of five or six or seven. Right. If you've got, if your team is bigger than that, then you know, your, it depends on like you should have people to report to other people. So if you've got a team of engineers, for example, you should have a lead developer say, got three developers. One of those should be a lead developer that lead developer should be having a one-on-one every couple of weeks with the other developers, just to make sure, Hey, what resources do you need?
Speaker 2 00:41:43 Do you want, do you need some more skills? Do you need some more training? What do you need? Right. And then feeding that back to you as the agency owner. Okay. So if you have a, if you have an SEO team and you have like four or five SEO strategists, and you've got a lead SEO strategist, then the lead SEO strategist should be having that conversation with your, with the, the other SEO team or your ops manager should be having that conversation with the team leads. Right. So I don't think you can have one on ones with any more than sort of, I don't know, maybe five to seven people, anything bigger than that. And then you should have other people run one-on-ones with other team members, and then you just so you know, if I had a one-on-one with Pete, for example, as head of coaching, Pete would have a one-on-one with the coaches and then feed that stuff back to me.
Speaker 2 00:42:27 So Nick, we, we are only hiring, uh, at the moment from our talent pool in the Philippines. So yeah, no, probably can't help you with onsite client. It support jobs at the moment, unfortunately. So if any, if you guys are looking for, if you guys are serious about looking for a team member, let us know, and we will have a conversation with you about what that looks like, and we'll save you a whole bunch of time and we'll just get a team member. It's a three month engagement. We guarantee a team member for 30 days. So if they don't work out, we just replace them. So, you know, it just saves you a whole bunch of time. Yes. There's a fee involved and we're happy to have that conversation with you, but it's gonna save you a shitload of time. And then once you've got a team member on board, you've then got more time in the agency to, you know, do what you need to do, which is grow the agency and, uh, focus on, you know, getting more clients and doing all that kind of good stuff.
Speaker 2 00:43:19 Right. Mm-hmm <affirmative> Christina, what, what have you tried? So you've tried Facebook groups, local WordPress group, and Upwork. What what's not working, like, why haven't you hired a, you are looking for a project manager, right? It's all about the process. As far as I'm concerned, like we have a, we have a really good process dialed in mm-hmm <affirmative> to, uh, to help hire Matt who's. One of our Mavericks was on a call yesterday and he said, he's, he's, uh, he's just hired. He's just actually hired two people through our process. <laugh> we gave him three candidates and he hired two of them. And, uh, he was super impressed with the process that we went through because also we only, we only hand over the three top candidates. Right. There's a whole bunch of other candidates that just aren't right. And that's just the nature of the beast, but we just eliminate those candidates. So you don't waste your time. Martin wants
Speaker 0 00:44:06 To know if we give guidance on rates for offshore team members.
Speaker 2 00:44:09 Yeah, totally. Yeah. We can definitely guide you there, by the way, you don't pay us. Yeah. To pay them. We don't cl we don't, we're not a staffing agency. It's a slightly different model. Right. So we don't manage them. We don't hire them. We don't pay them. We, you pay us a fee to find the candidates and coach you through the whole recruitment process. But then they work for you. You hire them as a contractor and you pay them direct. We don't clip the ticket on the way through, and we don't manage them.
Speaker 0 00:44:38 You manage them. We teach you how to interview them. We teach you how to hire them. We teach you how to onboard them. We teach you how to find them in the first place, but we do the finding and then that's right. The next one you can do your own. So, you know, the
Speaker 2 00:44:49 Process that's right.
Speaker 0 00:44:51 Uh, so Facebook user, I'm not sure who that is, but is that's
Speaker 2 00:44:54 Douggie That's <laugh> yes. Douggie. Yes. Douggie
Speaker 0 00:44:58 It's part of Mavericks. Yes. Yes. It is part it's it's separate, but then it is part of Mavericks. Yeah. So if you're a Mavericks club, you get everything we do.
Speaker 2 00:45:05 That's right. Yeah. So this is a separate offering called team accelerator. But, uh, that, that we offer, um, separately to clients. But if you're in Maverick's club, you get a dude. In fact, if you're in Maverick's club, you get up to four candidates, a year, four, four team members a year, you can hire through our talent pool. So if you need to hire someone, dude, uh, then let us know,
Speaker 0 00:45:25 Talk to your coach and
Speaker 2 00:45:26 We'll talk to your coach and we'll put you into team accelerator. So this has been fun. And we will see you next week on the agency hour.
Speaker 0 00:45:35 Take care, everybody.
Speaker 1 00:45:37 Thanks for listening to the agency hour podcast, subscribe at apple podcasts, Spotify pocket, audible, and wherever you like to listen, you can catch all of the agency hour episodes on our YouTube channel, youtube.com/agency Mavericks. Or you can get involved, check out our free digital Mavericks Facebook group, where we broadcast these episodes live for our community every week, along with a ton of free training. We'll see you there.
